Reviews

Charming FL

This drama started with unreasonable plot with miracle of healing of face and ability to change voice into somebody's else. If you can turn a blind eye on that, it only gets better from there.

I like the characters on the series, not just female and male lead, supporting male leads are real male with integrity, including the cute younger cousin regardless the painful life that he's gone through, he doesn't develop into a bitter man, he is such an adorable youth.

The most eligible bachelor is indeed a gentleman, really doesn't disappoint us. It's nice to watch a drama with minimal petty jealous woman and man whose main role in life is to possess the lead.

The story is not bad, very conclusive with a happy ending. One thing I can't get over is why the eldest princess so useless, the FL is second princess and then a stranger but the younger brother was accompanied by her in the war, not eldest princess???

Anyway, I will watch it again just for the good characters.

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An illogical and absurd story

An absurd story that gets on your nerves. The characters are out of place. The protagonist's passion is enough to make you scream with rage. I don't think anyone who saw it wasn't offended by the protagonist's character. You can say anything, but it's unthinkable that a woman like the mother-in-law can drive three families crazy and everyone supports it without a murmur. If she had the money, fine, but she didn't put in a cent. Korean education is fine, but good God, this is way over the top. The acting is truly excellent, but with a scenario like this, the drama becomes unbelievable and unnerving. It's a torture of human patience. I don't think any human being on this planet in any era could endure everything the protagonist endured without a murmur.
The comment above is concise and expresses everything well, but now I couldn't help but write this comment. If the intention of the authors was to infuriate the spectators, they succeeded completely: Well done 👍👍👍

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Korean Demon Hunters That Are Not Quite Korean

K-pop Demon Hunters, to me, is what people outside of Korea might perceive Korean culture and its K-pop sub-culture to be. I see this movie as more of an omage than a true reflection of what really goes on in the industry. I will go more into that later. I give them props for taking inspiration from Korean shamanism (mudang) and demonology, though. And the fact that they put real effort into hiring Koreans or people of Korean-descent for the cast, and got bonafide K-pop songwriters and producers to do the soundtrack is something that I truly appreciate even though I am not a fan of this genre of music. The animation, of course, is superb. Sony seems to have hit the jackpot with their animation team since Into the Spiderverse. The story and execution, however, didn't quite land for me.

As I've said earlier, this is more of a western creation. Yes, I know, the director is ethnically Korean, but she grew up in Canada so she's not Korean-Korean, if you know what I mean. In Korea, they'd consider her a foreigner quite honestly. But I digress. From the way these girls behave to the way the industry is portrayed, it just doesn't feel Korean (or even Asian), not in the slightest. This is more in the same vein as Kim Possible and The Winx Club with just a sprinkle of gochugaru and gochujang here and there for that Korean flair. The same formula XOXO Kitty so egregiously used.

The fact that the girls are not under a giant entertainment agency that calls all the shots, but instead they get to decide what or what not to do and even hire their own manager, is far from reality. Yes yes, I know, this is a fantasy world. But even fantasies are rooted in reality and whoever decided to write it this way, is perhaps not privy to the ins and outs of the K-pop world. Or maybe they just chose to ignore that completely and made their own interpretation. The girls indulge in ramyeon, junk food, and other fattening snacks just before a show? There's no way that would happen in a real situation, as evidenced by what takes place in many idol survival reality shows in Korea. K-pop idols are forced to maintain a certain weight and appearance. Weight gain is frowned upon and they live in constant scrutiny from the media and their own fans. I just think that they missed the opportunity to show this darker side of K-pop. It would've made this story a lot more compelling imho. But I suppose they don't want to delve into that because that would mean they have to change their target audience. This is a western animated film and not an anime, after all. This is precisely why the movie didn't impress me. I am too old and definitely not the target audience for this.

The world building could've used a little more fleshing out, too. All we got is a short narration and exposition dump in the beginning introducing the hunters and the demons. No explanation on who Gwi Ma is and why he can turn humans into demons but never tried to turn any of the hunters before. No origin story of the hunters either. I mean, they have a wealth of Korean folklore to work with, why not take advantage of that?

This movie seems more like a short story than a full blown screenplay. This would've worked better as a series to be honest. While I liked the whole “I need to accept myself and not be afraid to show my true self” angle, it's not like this hasn't been done before. I've seen others do it better in fact. I guess what I'm trying to say is they could've taken a different approach, explored heavier themes, and reinvented this trope to make it a bit different from the usual fare. The only thing original about this is the inclusion of the K-pop sub-culture. The rest basically have “the power of three will set us free” vibe, nothing Charmed hadn't done three decades ago, and definitely nothing I haven't seen before.

The soundtrack is probably its strongest suit. But since I couldn't care less about this style of music, the songs didn't quite hit except for one, and that was the duet, Free. Lyrically and melodically, it has the potential to become one of those movie themes that stay with you long after you've forgotten the movie. From a technical aspect, it was also produced and performed well. I won't be surprised if the songs become chart-toppers. Judging by the rapidly growing cult following of the movie, I'm almost certain they will be.

All in all, this is not a bad movie. Sure, it's cringe and cheesy, but it also has heart. It's not groundbreakingly good, but it's good entertainment. K-pop fans will surely find this enjoyable. Normies like me might find it entertaining as well. I also salute the filmmakers' attempt at introducing Korean folklore to a more global audience. I just think it had the potential to be so much better if they had made it a little more mature. However, they chose to go the Winx Club route to cater to a younger audience. I can respect that. It is what it is. But to me, the best (and perhaps the only good) part of this movie is that adorable blue tiger demon. How I wish it got more screen time. lol

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Masterclass But Drawback

Season 1: One word outstanding. Overall production absolutely perfect. Every character drove to their high performance. besides scene production are awesome. Why because its holds you in sit to continue until the end.

Season 2: Grounded for changed overall production including scenes. Long gap for reproduction season fallback to vibe. Personally watch lost the gravity to continue the end of season 2. Although finished full season due to storyline. Most disappointment is that when characters are coming back own role lost the performance what was they gave in season 1. This is big drawback secondly story and scenes are dropped to catch the season 1.

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Romantic suspense that exceeded my expectations. Great acting, kisses and badassery

I knew of this drama when it was first released but never felt like watching it until today. I only recently watched & enjoyed Bai Xue Ru's acting. I was apprehensive with this drama at first because cop romantic suspense vertical dramas I watched were disappointing but not this one. Hunting Love exceeded my expectations.

Trigger warning: Violence

What I liked:
1. Acting - I loved the performances by both Bai Xue Ru and Ma Xiao Yu because they matched each other's acting prowess and intensity. Their emotional scenes had depth.
2. Writing - I was worried that this was going to be one of those "I can save a baddie / turn a baddie into a good person" but thankfully it wasn't. I really liked the plot twists.
3. Romance - Their kisses were passionate and fiery. Even though I knew FL shouldn't give into ML's taunts & charms, I still wanted them to kiss. There was good push & pull dynamics between them and later on, we could see that ML truly loved FL despite the betrayal.
4. Action - I had seen Ma Xiao Yu in fight scenes but damn Bai Xue Ru was fantastic in her action scenes. Definitely believable as an undercover agent. Both of them were badass!
5. Styling - I liked MXY's hairstyle & outfits for this drama. Good outfits were selected for BXR (loved the green dress) but that dress in the final scene wasn't nice.
6. Flashbacks - I usually questioned the use of many flashbacks but for this drama it was justifiable because I could see stark contrast between past and present and also felt FL's hatred for her parents' killer.

What I disliked:
1. Antagonists - There were 2 of them: ML's father and SML. I wish there were more scenes of ML's father and his atrocious crimes instead of being told he was an evil mastermind. I am still unclear about SML's motivation for his manipulation.
2. Aggression - I didn't like ML's aggressiveness towards FL. The chokehold seemed to be MXY's signature move.

Favourite scene
When FL was challenged to kiss a grumpy ML

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El valor que le damos a las cosas

Cuando vi el anuncio de que IU y Bogum trabajarian en un proyecto juntos estuve muy emocionada, quizá porque sabía la calidad que tendría el proyecto o tal vez porque Jieun no elige cualquier producción.

Esta serie, transmitió en mi tantos sentimientos, tristeza, dolor, pérdida, alegría, felicidad y amor.
A veces creemos que el tiempo que tenemos es ilimitado pero no siempre es así.
Aprender a valorar a tus seres queridos, entender la importancia de la gente y como nos relacionamos. Esto me enseñó esta serie.

Agradezco el momento en que esta serie llego a mi vida porque de esa forma, pude ver el trabajo que mi mamá hizo al criarme y las cargas que mi abuela tenía al criar a 11 niños.

Todas como mujeres tenemos dificultades, enfrentamos problemas que nos hacen cuestionar lo poco igualitaria que es la sociedad y cómo eso afecta en nuestro trabajo.

Pero, no solo quiero hablar sobre la representación de los problemas sociales, sino sobre la apreciación de la escenografía, los panoramas que nos muestran y los diferentes contextos de las personas en su oficio.

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A Masterclass in how to make an unwatchable mess

This series is propaganda so blunt it could be considered a new form of martial arts. The story is a baffling, illogical mess, and the production is so cheap, you'd think it was made in 1993 not 2013. The culture and religious practices are so far off the mark they must have been sourced from a distributed pamphlet.
The acting was mid but I wouldn't blame the actors with such a shallow and artificial plot. While the music is good and is probably the only really nice aspect in this whole shenanigan.

In short, Anarhan is a clumsy, cynical, and deeply unfunny piece of work that is a complete waste of time.

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Skip it if you have a chance!

What a mess this drama is! I don’t even know where to begin. I liked the idea behind it, even the trailer was convincing. But, when it came to finally watching it... Such a wasted potential! Most of the time, it seems like the story is going on; however, nothing is really happening. The only reason I watched it till the end is that it’s only 8 episodes. And teasing us with the 2nd season of this chaos - they really have guts...

What pissed me off the most is why the introduction of the 12 Angels is in ep 8? Why not start the drama with this? Not to mention, the introduction wasn’t proper cause until the very end, I was still confused who represents which animal. Why make it complicated?

The cast is doing everything they can, but it’s just some dirty work to try and make them carry the whole show on their backs. Seems like the production forgot that, beside famous actors, they also have to focus on the script and production.

Also, I don’t get the point of a non-verbal character being a foreigner. The other actors having to say her lines was so annoying. It looks like Regina Lei is there just to grab some of the Taiwanese audience so that the producers earn extra cash. If you’re hiring a foreigner, at least give them the opportunity to act! Just awful, awful money grab I see here. (This is in no way hate towards Regina, but is it really worth the effort if you're just gonna say literally one word?).

I would say fight scenes were ok, but they were not. I enjoyed Ogwi vs Samin, but the rest looked very fake. Like it's really been a while since I saw fights that bad. And in Korean dramas? Where the standard is usually quite high?

And poor PHS - he was supposed to look like a real badass not like a Temu version of it. They made him look so old. The makeup was awfully unflattering, not to mention they made his face whit but forgot about the neck... It was so bad I feel like I need to avenge him.

I'm tired of writing what's wrong with this drama, but I'm struggling to find any positives... I really can't rate it more than 4/10. And this is me being nice.

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Twelve Letters Later: Pass Me the Tissues and Some Ice Cream

OMG this drama totally wrecked me. I went from aww, that’s sweet 💕 … to oh no, please no 😭 … to full-on ugly crying with hiccups and puffy eyes. Honestly, I had to fast-forward some scenes because the abuse and pain were unbearable, but then their tender moments made me pause and rewind like a fool.
It’s not your typical romance. It’s raw, tragic, and somehow still breathtakingly beautiful. The leads? Their chemistry is like soul-mates who can’t catch a break but still shine through the darkness. The ending -brace yourself -both of them die 😱💔… but weirdly, they also get their happy ending together. Don’t ask me how, just watch and you’ll understand. It’s devastating yet strangely comforting.
And the side message? Family isn’t always about blood -it’s about who chooses to stand by you. That hit me harder than I expected.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️4.5/5 — half a star deducted for the emotional trauma, but hey, totally worth it. Bring tissues. And chocolate. Lots of chocolate. 🍫😭

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When 2 Vengeful People Fall In Love

Apparently this was low budget, but I didn't really notice honestly.

They wore the outfits and sets were beautiful. It didnt bother me that they didnt have 20 places to use. What was seen suited the plot. That condensed feeling to a mansion and a few palace places was suitable for the characters and their desires to escape.

We start off with Shuan having the upper hand. He helps Ziang escape from a failed assassination of his brother, the Crown Prince, only for Ziang to be told to go back and get close to him, as another way to kill the CP. This backfires tremendously as Shuan already recognises him, and strings him a lot for his own plans to avenge his mother.

But all this quickly falls away as soon as the two begin to fall in love. It is fast and tense, and before I knew it, all revenge plans had been scattered to the wind, and the two were just trying to escape the CP. This all leads to a desperate rebellion and the inevitable scene on the bridge. After there, the ending was the only way it could end.

Shuan couldn't forgive Ziang, and Ziang lost his mind in an attempt to be with him again.

The Crown Prince and Shuan loved each deeply growing up, and they had plans to support each other when the CP became emperor. But for some reason Shuan gave CP the cold shoulder, and distanced himself from CP, making him suspicious of him. I interpreted it as he was ready to begin his vengeance plan and didnt want him getting involved. His plan was never made clear. I imagined it was just simply to take down the ministers in court who were responsible for his mother's death. But the Cp felt he was being betrayed and losing his position. Spurred on by Minister Gu, he descends into a paranoid desperation to get rid of his own brother, and finally leading to the rebellion when all his plans fail.

I believe Shuan took CP's side in the end, simply because he loved his brother. He knew what he had become but couldn't let go of the version he knew. When all is destroy, Ziang takes all the blame. His revenge plan was forgotten because Ziang wanted to get close to him.

And the hate just got worse. Shuan refused to co operate with Ziang, pushing him over the edge, and leading to his own fall, where all he could hope for was death.

It's like two people, who were dynamite to those around them. Wanting revenge for the people they love, fall in love with each other. When trust is broken, all that anger and pain, is naturally directed to each other.
Dying in each other's arms feels like the most natural end when you have to lead characters like this. One proud, dedicated and spoiled, the other a highly trained soldier ready to risk everything for what he wants, these two in their setting, I dont think could have a happy ever after.

I think, did the writer add in Ziang's failing health because she knew that Shuan could never live peacefully with him? What would hurt more, Shuan dying and leaving Ziang to his grief, or giving them both peace in their passing?

Nothing felt forced. One decision was the result of the one before.

For the leads, it was Shakespearean. For the others though, I felt information had been edited out. Towards the end, the editing did get quite jumpy. I wanted to know what happened to Minister Gu, did Huo travel the world with Shen? I would have liked more info on the side characters.

I also would have liked to have seen a shot of the two meeting in another life, as their hair was tied together. Since it was mentioned, I feel like the final scene should have been that, just to lift the mood a little.

It wasn't perfect but has left deep impression on me and I now feel a little haunted. I dont normally like sad endings but since this is a rare chinese bl, with a historical setting, I had to give it a shot and dont regret my decision.

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