Reviews

A masterpiece that deserves more hype!

They got married, but at what cost??

Nah, but for real… even though I wanted a happy ending, I think a bittersweet ending was fitting for these characters. Even though Shuhe loved Ziang deeply, he couldn’t live with himself after everything that happened. It was heartbreaking to see how Ziang trusted Shuhe until the very end, only to be betrayed in the most devastating way.

The acting in the final episode was absolutely phenomenal, easily one of the highlights of the entire series.

My only gripe is that some plot points felt rushed or skipped over entirely in the last ep. For example:
How was Huoying suddenly wandering around freely in the Northern Palace with no explanation? And why was Ziang’s brother suddenly besties with them out of nowhere?

Despite these gaps, this series is incredibly underrated, especially considering the insanely low budget (confirmed by the actors. They didn't have enough money to hire extras and their screenwriter had to play the doctor Shen Song). With more funding, we could’ve had additional episodes to flesh out the story further, maybe even a reincarnation epilogue!

But alas, they still managed to make it work and deliver an absolute masterpiece. After waiting so long for a historical/wuxia-themed uncensored BL, I can confidently say it exceeded my expectations in every way.

A beautiful, emotional series that I’ll be thinking about for a long time.
10/10.

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Clingy, Forbidden, Perfect: Why I Can’t Stop Watching Duan Ziang & Shu He

When I first started Episode 1, I wasn’t impressed 😅 It felt slow and a little dry, and I wasn’t sure where it was going. But by Episode 3, everything changed! Duan Ziang and Shu He’s relationship started to shine ✨—their affection, the little gestures, the tension between them—it was all so real and captivating 🥹. I even went back and rewatched Episode 1, and suddenly it made perfect sense.

This BL actually delivers on love 💖. You can feel it in their actions, not just hear about it. The historical setting is gorgeous, the drama feels uncensored, and every moment carries genuine emotion—sweet, messy, and at times heartbreakingly real 💔. The ending was satisfying, and I would absolutely love to see Duan Ziang and Shu He cast in another BL, whether modern or historical. They are just that good 🔥.

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kill To Love

I've never cried at the end of a series the way I did with this one. The ending was profoundly moving. It felt like the show reached out and pulled me into its meaning. I wasn’t just watching. I was feeling every moment. I'm absolutely blown away by how beautifully this story was written, portrayed, and brought to life by the actors. It’s truly a masterpiece.

The only way they could finally be free, finally be together, was through death. When Duan Zi Ang held Xiao Shu He in his arms as they were both dying, and whispered, "Shu He… you deceived me. You’ve deceived me your whole life." It wasn’t anger. It was love. A love so complicated, so deep, that even betrayal became a kind of devotion. It showed just how far they were willing to go, not to hurt each other, but to protect the love they had for each other. That moment destroyed me. Because as painful as it was, it was also inevitable. In the world they lived in, this was the only ending that could bring peace.

Then came the scene with Xiao Shu's brother, waiting on the other side of the door for years. When Xiao Shu He told him, "I want to wait for someone too. When I died, I was in his arms." I was completely broken. That single line held so much meaning. In every lifetime, no matter how much pain or separation, their souls would always find a way back to each other. When Duan Zi Ang finally crossed through that door… not making Shu He wait. Not for days. Not for years. He came as soon as he could.

Their final smiles weren’t just happy smiles. All the pain, the loss, the fear… gone. In that moment, they had everything they were denied in life.
They were finally home. Finally together.

Just “you and me.”

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I thought I knew where this was going....I was dead wrong.

This drama hooked me from start to finish. While some parts felt deliberately slow, they served a purpose — inviting the viewer to reflect on the complexities of the human mind. It explores how selflessness and greed can drive people to shocking extremes, even leading them to turn a blind eye to the ones they love most.

Legally, the protagonist committed a crime — yet without his actions, the situation would have spiraled from bad to worse. He is neither purely good nor purely evil; he exists in the gray, forcing us to question morality, justice, and the choices we make when pushed to the edge.

The entire cast delivered outstanding performances — each actor fully embodied their role, adding depth and authenticity to the story. As someone who’s only recently begun watching Chinese dramas, I’m completely captivated by the level of acting talent on display.

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Lucky seat

Every student knows how stressful it is to prepare for a difficult exam. I used prayer a lot :) In this movie, we have two grown-ups who need to pass the civil service exam because so much in their lives depends on it. But instead of just focusing on studying hard, they discover a “lucky seat” and waste their precious energy trying to steal it from each other.

I was quite disappointed in this movie, especially since the legendary Kim In-kwon is in it. As a comedy, the film didn’t make me laugh at all, and there weren’t many original ideas with the lucky seat or the overall plot. This is just a generic B-movie that is only barely watchable thanks to its short runtime. But hey, I added another Korean movie to my “watched” list.

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I will start this review with saying that I have watched a fair amount of BL dramas in my life. This is the first time I am deeply impressed with one of them though. My expectations were not that high to begin with. When I saw the trailer for this series, I knew I had to watch it as it combines two of my favourite genres, wuxia and boys love. However, I am not a big fan of any of the BL dramas China has released in recent times. 'Kill to Love' really suprised me with its quality and turned out to be an amazing watch. First of all, the acting. You can really see that the actors were professionally trained. Male leads graduated from China's most prestigious acting schols: the Central Academy of Drama and the Beijing Film Academy. They are really spectacular on screen. The emotions they present to the viewers are raw, they truly embody their characters and the most important thing: their chemistry is off the charts. I also have to praise the scriptwriter, the actor playing Shen Song, for giving us magical and one of the most poetic dialogues I have ever heard in a Chinese drama. If you know the language, they get even better. The cinematography is also really good. I love the colour palette they used as it perfectly mirrors the general feeling of the drama. Male leads have mentioned countless times how limited the budget for this drama was, they even got kicked out of the set on the last day of shooting, but they definitely made the best out of it. I am really in love with the series and if you are still hestitating whether to watch it or not, please just dive straight into it. I think you will enjoy it as much as I did.

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Become like God

Surprisingly fun superhero movie with a strong focus on action, comedy, and some science fiction. The science fiction part is the one I probably liked the most, although it wasn’t developed as much as I would have wanted. The main story follows a group of people who suddenly receive different superpowers and become superheroes. The powers are reminiscent of earthly elements like wind, water, and fire, but here they are connected to human organs. I wish that had been explained a little better.

This is the first real superhero movie in Korean cinema, and I appreciate that. I mean, we’ve had movies where people have superpowers, like Jeon Woo-chi: The Taoist Wizard (2009), Haunters (2010), Psychokinesis (2018), The Witch: Part 1 and 2 (2018, 2022), and oh, there’s also Lightning Man (2016). But this is the first time I felt a true superhero vibe, similar to Marvel or DC, in a Korean movie.

The name of the movie and the superhero group is Hi-Five. The name sounds catchy, but the way it was introduced in the movie felt a bit cringy, I must say. Picking the superhero names for each character, though, was done comically well. One scene in particular showed how superheroes might appear to other people as gods. So imagine becoming a god that others look up to—how would you use your godly status and treat other people?

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One of the best law dramas I watched in the last years

So I didn't wanna write a review until I saw all the bad reviews that were posted after the last episode just because a lot of people wanted the leads to be in a relationship (and the romance tag misleaded a lot of them into thinking this was a romance drama).

Actually I didn't want to watch this drama initially because as we all know there are a lot of bad shows with lawyers out there, but my mom watched the trailer and said that I would like it so I gave it a try and after the first episode I was very intrigued! The cases are so interesting and in every episode we have something new and entertaining, they were kinda realistic and the lawyers were giving pertinent arguments for solving them. And I am saying that as a law university student, the dialogue, the ethical and legal matters were really good.

Of course the legal procedure wasn't realistic and it was a typical legal drama from that point of view and by that I mean that they were having an "enemy law firm" who represented the opposition in the main cases and also the matters were resolved quickly (not like in months or years like in everyday life), but after all this is fiction and we need entertainment and "Beyond the Bar" offers that in many ways.

The relationship between all the characters is so nicely written, starting from the friendship of the main leads with the side characters and how they were so loyal to each other and ready to help one another. I liked that they also portrayed the competition between some of professional colleagues of the lawyer profession or from the same firm, but also the support and the idea that you can get really close to some people even in the adult life, and how you don't know what difficulties everyone has. This drama also portrays family life in such a relatable way sometimes and I love how it discussed some issues. And we also have a good representation of diverse disabilities and hardships the characters go through, which makes this drama very sensible and emotional sometimes.

As like other people said, this legal drama is about a lot of genres: thriller, psychological, social realism, melodrama, even romance (between the second leads tho!) and from my perspective, the production had success in making them work together. Like I said, every episode is different and it explores several issues of the guest characters, but their problems were really tied to the secondary and main characters' lives in profound ways. Everyone has a complicated life and they don't exist only to make the plot work, but to present life in different ways.

And I also loved the relationship between the main leads, which started from tension, respect and disagreement in work life to a deep friendship, solidarity and loialty. Even if there were little scenes which could have leaded people to think of a romantic relationship between them (I was also confused in some bit parts), I think we don't know what the future will hold for them and also you can love someone dearly at some point in your life and don't want a romantic relationship with them.

And yes, I wasn't satisfied by the end either, but that's because it ended to abruptly (even the last line, that wasn't nice, dear writer) and I would have liked to see even a 30-minutes finale only about our main and second characters.

This show was about all types of love and I think that's what more people should understand. Not only romance is important, but every other way of loving someone is just as important.

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Heart wrenchingly beautiful

Amazing acting. Amazing storyline. Amazing costumes. This story was so heart-wrenchingly beautiful, I just wish there were more episodes. I wanted them to have a happy ending, but it's okay not every love story ends on a happy note, sometimes fate is twisted, dark and ends in tragedy. There are only few bls which you can count on fingers, that touched my heart and I can definitely tell that "Kill to Love" is one of them and in my top list. But when Xiao Shu met Duan Ziang at the gates of the afterlife, it was so surreal and I cried both tears of joy but also sadness. Thank you so much to this BL directors and actors and everyone who was involved in this top-quality production. I appreciate you and thank you for giving us this bittersweet masterpiece. <3

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"Sweet like honey, and sharp like mint"

First and foremost, let me kowtow to our mighty prince-general couple, whom I so adore and respect. 🙇‍♀✨ [Shadow Love] will be remembered as one of the most unique Chinese dramas of the historical romance-fantasy genre. The WHOLE drama really lived up to its name, which can literally be translated to "With Jin Chang'an". If we look back to the earlier episodes, when the leads first met, Shuang gave our ML the name "Jin An" in the hopes of establishing "perpetual peace and stability for the Jin dynasty", the era they live in. Their main goals were to "resolve the crisis and help people live in peace and prosperity" all along, and by episode 38, they brought peace to both Taijin and Da Yao kingdoms, their citizens, and also to themselves..
These references can be found in this article ➡ (https://news.mydramalist.com/article/ryan-cheng-stars-alongside-another-female-general-in-shadow-love)

Now, let me tell y'all what impressed me the most. ʕ⁠っ⁠•⁠ᴥ⁠•⁠ʔ⁠っ💓

One, is the unique character designs (obviously, ain't it? X3). We get to see a lovable and obedient Jin An; the mysterious and wild Xuan Yi Ke; and lastly, the dignified Prince Annan of the Yao kingdom, Duan Ao Deng~ Cheng Lei delivered ALL of these roles with brilliance! 'Dislike' is not even an option here. The role was custom-made for him. The same goes for our FL, Li Shuang, portrayed by Song Yi. Despite the harsh criticisms aimed towards her, 'Li Shuang' wouldn't be perfect if it weren't for our actress. Next is Lu Xin and Mo Yin, our beloved secondary couple, who brought extra smiles to the viewers. I love how sarcastic Lu Xin can be, and how she can handle her man well~😝 No less than our great general Li! Then we have our Qiao'er and Ouyang Jun, the couple we failed to protect😿. Lastly, the person who had the most character development imo would be Li Ting (Shuang's younger brother). He started as a bratty younger sibling who'd always bring trouble to a determined individual who is worthy of respect, and Wu Yu Heng made it convincing~ This link here is proof that they nailed their roles with precision ➡ [ https://youtu.be/rprG6F82cqI?si=dU9_d_EERQaTaLMS ]

Second, there are the tight-knit bonds of various relationships, both platonic and romantic. Li Shuang's love for Jin An (ML) and the male lead's devotion towards her know no bounds, despite the outside influences and his inner turmoil. Their journey was not futile, and every moment was valuable for them to face off the looming angst. Apart from these lovebirds, the most heartwarming bonds can be found in the brotherhood of ML and his Emperor brother, Papa Li and his tiger cubs (Shuang'er and Ting'er), as well as the friendship between Lu Xin, Shuang and Jin An.

Lastly, we can't forget the magnificence of the beautiful settings and CGI, elegant wardrobe choices, hairdo, and makeup, as well as the pleasing OST music from start to finish. Some of my favourite OSTs are Sole Love by Liu Yu Ning, Beyond Fate by Jane Zhang, and Bringing Peace by Huang Xiao Yun~ All the intricate details the editing department has added bring life to not only the characters, but also to the world they live in~✨ It's a fantasy world, but nothing is overdone~ ^^

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Beyond nonsense

Messy!
These days it feels like every time I decide to delve into a K-drama I am just left with regret. This drama was just another one to add to a list of the ever crumbling state of K-drama writing.

What on earth was up with the writing of this drama? It was so poor and the continuation of the plot lines were just non existent. The cases tried to be different and diverse, but each one was so easily handled with no real depth despite the subject matters that it brought up.

1. The case with the genius special needs artist
- Her mother refusing to register as a person with a disability was ridiculous. This should have been a commentary on how South Korea views disability and call awareness to it. Did they do that? Nope. Did they discuss how the girl's father left her and her mother but she still misses him even though we are left to understand that he never bothered to ever contact his daughter again? Nope. Did this make sense? NO!

2. The case with the contract marriage without love
- This one was had so much potential to explore marriage as something that has evolved as a concept and an actual contract that can work outside of the context of romantic love. Instead we are left with a judge on her high horse talking about how marriage can only exist in society if it's based on romantic love. It was so outdated and completely biased.

My issue is not that a drama can't stick to traditional values, my issue is that if you choose to do so then don't be daring enough to bring these topics up. You're bringing nothing but half-baked writing to your audiences and telling us that sure things can change and evolve but here in South Korea we remain in the dark ages happily.
Oh, and no K-drama is complete without violence right? You have the male lead lawyer assaulting anyone he wants, you have the managing partner of the law firm slapping a lawyer, and you have the rookie female lawyer conveniently forgetting that she witnessed school violence and walked away from it. Violence should never be the way forward, except in the case of the news anchor who was physically abused for over 10 years by her husband and then found a wonder drug combo that turned her into the hulk and she beat up her abuser. However, when she's divorcing him and he says "I'm sorry" like it was no big deal what he did and she just gives him a smirk smile? What was that??

The romance or lack of it between the main leads was a non issue for me. Of course they liked each other, I didn't need them to hold hands or kiss to know that. Their actions spoke more than those gestures ever could. The second couple was a nice touch, but again where is the continuity with the writing? Jin Woo clearly liked Min Jeong and I loved that she was 10 years older than him. However, I have questions...
1. After their "mistake" Min Jeong was avoiding Jin Woo, but suddenly by the next episode they are dating? Where was that conversation?
2. The fat suit?? Are we still here K-drama writers???? Must we always be thin to achieve our goals in life? What are you actually telling us in your most irresponsible messaging clunky way?
3. Has Min Jeong not seen her daughter in years? Why would she be ok with not seeing her own kid all this time?
4. Jin Woo's sister obviously would not be on board with him and an older woman and I'm assuming she speaks for the family, so where was this conversation or confrontation between Jin Woo and his large family before his proposal?

Kang Hyo Min's parents and their decision to give away their deaf child????? Okay first of all, what is with the twin/hearing impaired trend of K-dramas? Hyo Ju served zero purpose in this drama. I have questions...
1. How did Hyo Min's mother communicate with her own sister who is hearing impaired if she only learned sign language later so she could one day speak with Hyo Ju? Didn't you grow up with your sister? How did anyone in your family communicate with her if she was deaf?
2. If you gave your child away to your sister, why would you never visit that child? You didn't give her away to a stranger and she wasn't living outside of South Korea. So what is this??
3. The double acting of Jung Chae Yeon was also a waste and utterly ridiculous because Hyo Ju was born deaf so how could she know how words would sound to be able to speak out so clearly? Again, what gives? You could have just had her speak in sign language right? Why are you portraying disabilities like this?

So many aspects of the writing remain in the air, but let's circle the drain with Seok Hoon and his ex-wife and her petty ass new husband (why Lee Sang Yeob, why???) Your ex-wife was not for you, please move on. She did.
Lastly, the writing that was clearly written to either stay in the safe zone with Korean society or to fill the void of the nonsense plot. Seok Hoon's ex wife suddenly claiming she terminated her pregnancy because the ultrasound showed an abnormality? That's some rubbish convenient writing. Her then telling him that she'll only let him keep the dog if he gets a roommate or a wife? Say what now? This of course was to get him to sign up for that AI matchmaking service, but oh hang on do we ever find out why Hyo Min also signed up for it? Nope. So the point of this was to drive home the fact that they are suited for each other or that they are not? Wow the writers couldn't even decide on that.

K-dramas have been nothing but utter nonsense lately. It will take a lot for me to ever watch another one again.

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