Reviews

Awesome

Wow this drama had it all,

The general was totally hot and fight scenes were absolutely fantastic. Xiao was definitely amazing and it started with a forced marriage and a domineering proposal that left puzzled but kept me intrigued as well.

The deception and lies and then plot turnaround was really what kept us hooked. Jiayu was clever and kept her wit which was really cute. Mao was difficult to read, but j am totally glad he turned out to be a good guy.

The romance was slow but you could see the attraction through trust and loyalty.

Overall it's a good drama and a political or romance its a mystery that keeps unfolding and guessing. The pace is good and there was no unnecessary filler.

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✨''Gossip Girl'' and ''Revenge'' Had a Baby and Raised It on Wine✨

The title and poster are SUCH a misdirect, bro, because tell me why I expected this to be some kind of anthology where a bunch of mysterious cases pop up and the leads solve them. But NOOOO. Turns out this is basically what happens when Gossip Girl and ABC’s Revenge have an illegitimate child, throw it into a blender, add three glasses of wine, and then let the FL go full Count of Monte Cristo on everybody. I’m crying 😭

Honestly, I feel like this drama should be watched with a cocktail and a slim cigarette while cackling at the screen, because HELL, everybody is drinking wine in this anyway. Maybe the crew was drinking too, because the mess was MESSY, y’all. Everybody is shady, rotten, dramatic and deeply unserious. Even the characters themselves kept commenting on how dramatic everyone was.

Despite the limited budget (and oh, you could TELL), the director clearly had a vision. The aesthetics and styling weirdly reminded me of the kdramas It’s Okay to Not Be Okay and Hotel Del Luna, and the ML was giving extremely K-drama-coded visuals. I could be hallucinating, but those were absolutely the vibes I was getting.

I loved the FL, though. THIS is how revenge should be served. She came in with a mission and did not spend half the drama pretending to be morally superior about it. She wanted revenge, she got revenge, and she left that family looking like a natural disaster had personally beefed with them. I’m proud. 😭 I’m here for her because I loved her in LITC and wanted to see more of her.

That being said, her character unfortunately started going a little downhill around ep.16. She seemed to snap out of whatever the hell was happening by ep.17, so I'm hoping we're back on track, but this is still an ongoing watch for me, so final judgment is pending.

The villain SFL was also GREAT. Loved her in TFJ despite that deeply unnecessary and personally offensive killing-off situation, and she absolutely rocked this role too. Give this woman more morally questionable characters immediately.

The ML, however... 💀

This man felt like a third wheel in his own drama between these two women. He was basically a decorative accessory for most of it, and a complicated one at that because WHY WAS HE WEARING THAT WIG???

Bro.

THE WIG.

The filter was working overtime, bless its soul, but there were several sequences where they clearly lost the battle, and the first time I noticed it properly I almost spit out my metaphorical wine. 😭 I have never been so personally distracted by a hairpiece in my life.

And somehow the FL's accomplice had an even more traumatizing wig. I was actually rooting for her to end up with him, only for his real colors to start showing later on. Duh. Shocker. Apparently nobody in this drama can simply exist without eventually revealing themselves to be a walking red flag.

The ML does become more prominent in the second half, but somehow I STILL never really warmed up to him. Man was fighting for screen time, relevance AND wig credibility simultaneously.

Also, I still can't get over the fact that NOBODY RECOGNIZED THE FL because girl, you literally didn't even change your face 😭😭😭 just a different styling and suddenly everyone has amnesia. I’m sorry but WHAT.

But honestly? I am having an absolute blast with the sheer absurdity of this drama. Logic has left the building, scandal and outrage have been turned up to approximately 174%, everyone is making terrible decisions, and I am sitting here with my imaginary wine glass enjoying the carnage.
My only real complaint is the length. Some episodes were watched at 2x speed plus skipping, and I STILL somehow knew exactly what was happening, which tells you everything you need to know. 😂

I still have 5 episodes left, so the final verdict is pending, but so far this has been one deliciously unhinged ride.
Now excuse me while I pour another imaginary glass of wine and investigate that wig situation. 🍷

✨Finally got around to finish this one y'all and ngl, it became such a chore 😭 I think this drama was WAY too lengthy, maybe 15–20 min per episode would've worked much better because by the end I was fighting for my life lmfaooo. We did get a happy ending for the leads tho, so there’s that 🤷‍♀️😂

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For once, a Korean take on school bullying that makes sense.

Second Sister is not a great artistic achievement by any means, but it gets extra points from me for its thoughtful and humane exploration of a theme Korean entertainment is perennially fixated on but so rarely gets right: school bullying.

For the first half of the movie, I thought it would hit all the obligatory story beats of a typical Korean revenge drama; a bullying victim's bereaved family member investigates her past, figures out how her evil classmates tormented her, and torments them back from the shadows, thus restoring a sense of justice and order to other powerless bullying victims who might be watching. The problem with this kind of story is that it doesn't denounce bullying, much less analyse or critique its societal causes, but merely marshals its violence against more deserving victims. The underlying message of so many recent classics of Korean TV and cinema on this topic is that it's okay for good people to do bad things to bad people (who are bad because they do bad things—and if that's too confusing for you, you should stop overthinking and just enjoy the show).

Well, Second Sister doesn't go there. It makes you think it's going to go there, but nope. Just as the protagonist, Soeun, is about to carry out her revenge, she has a moment of moral clarity and realizes that her younger sister's bully was a victim too; that her younger sister, Jieun, was a bit of a bully herself; that she should have paid more attention to Jieun's emotional needs while the latter was alive and her thirst for revenge now is a belated attempt to make up for her own shortcomings as her sister's guardian; and that Jieun was immersed in a voyeuristic culture of surveillance and judgment in which teenagers bond and gain status through participation in cyber lynchings, which makes it almost impossible to remain innocent without becoming a victim yourself. As these truth nukes hit Soeun one after another, the movie is no longer just about Jieun; it paints a picture of Korean adolescence in the 21st century, and perhaps of Korean society itself. Most impressively, it calls out the cultural preoccupation with revenge explicitly through the tech-savvy private investigator Jungyeong, who points out to Soeun that she never asked him to help her find out what actually happened to her sister because she was too busy looking for someone to blame.

Again, I love and appreciate this perspective because it is almost entirely absent from the school bullying genre. I believe it's a necessary corrective on the reactionary, even fascistic premises of mindless power fantasies like Teach You a Lesson, Weak Hero, Brave Citizen, etc. (although I enjoyed Weak Hero and Brave Citizen).

BUT... it's just too explicit, man. The movie's position, however smart and correct it may be, is spelled out so directly that the final 30 minutes feel like a lecture from one character (Jungyeong) to another (Soeun). The didactic purpose of the movie ends up taking over the world of the story, which was already feeling bland and unreal to begin with. The tight plotting and editing others have praised leave no room for scene-setting or characterization, so when Jungyeong starts explaining Soeun's own feelings to her in the climactic scene of the movie, it completely destroys any lingering impression I might have had of them as people embedded in a story I'm following and turns them into, like, podcast co-hosts or something.

Jungyeong's character is especially untethered from reality as an all-powerful and all-knowing judge-therapist-hacker moonlighting as a shady thrill-seeking private investigator who is also a rich tech company CEO. This kind of absurd character might work as the protagonist of a 400-episode webtoon about underground MMA fights (or House MD?), but not in a fast-paced 90-minute thriller that doesn't spare even a second to justify his existence. (That said, Kim Mingue and Kang Seoha do as much as they can with what they're given and I would say they even elevate the script a little, which is the mark of an above-average acting performance in my book.)

Overall, this is a mediocre movie in terms of emotional impact and artistry, but it does exactly what it sets out to do and I commend it for its strong and mature moral message.

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Started strong, then lost the plot

This drama started really well. The first 10 episodes had a promising setup—the women-empowerment angle, the challenges and obstacles our FL had to face to establish herself as a court official, and ML as an Emperor trying to take his power back from the Chancellor so he could rule according to his own vision of a prosperous country.

Unfortunately, after those first 10 episodes, the plot took a nosedive into the same tried-and-tested formula. The FL went from being smart and capable to a speech-spouting damsel-in-distress who needs the Emperor to save her almost every other episode. It genuinely feels like she left all her wits back in Shaozou. And somehow, the Emperor can travel all over the place without guards or even shadow guards. And there is so many issues happning in the empire and the only thing the court officials are concerned about is how to get the FL fired, or get the emperor married.

What is working is the acting. Almost all the actors, except the FL, have done a great job with the roles and the material they were given. The costume designer and team have done exceptionally well as well.

Unfortunately, WJY’s portrayal of the FL isn't as impressive. The first 10 episodes were good, but as the story progressed, her performance became repetitive and increasingly self-righteous. There is a thin line between defiance and disrespect, and assertiveness and arrogance". The dialogues convey the intended conflict well, but the performance of the role by the actress doesn't always convey those nuances, making the FL come across as more drama-heroic than genuinely strong, and at times even disrespectful.

It is still an enjoyable watch if you're watching it simply for the drama. For the dramatic impact and a casual watch it can be a 7/10.
For those who were drawn in by the first 10 episodes and expected the same level of intelligent plotting and storytelling, this is likely to be a disappointment.

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wild and loved

The omegaverse is kind of important to the plot, but you do not need to worry about the normal pitfalls. There are no omegas or even betas mentioned. The alphas aren't wolfy or animalistic. it seems to just be a way to explain why one has heightened senses.

The description makes this show seem simple but the plot has many winding turns and surprising twists. I cried twice. Try not to expose yourself to spoilers because this show is an amazing experience when you're hanging on every word to uncover the truth.

It was hard not to fall in love with the characters and their arcs. The actors did a pretty good job, especially our main leads.

The music did nothing good or bad for me. If you told me there was no soundtrack, I probably would believe you since I was so sucked into the story. Gotta go rewatch it right now.

No loose strings. You do not need to watch the second season if you do not want to.
-
(my only true complaint is that it feels like secretly everyone makes the same reveal for an hour mid story)

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I watched this for 3 reasons: 1) Queen Sa DingDing, 2) Queen Tia Ray, and 3) Queen Chen Lijun. But most of them were Queens by the end of the season.

I only watched Call Me By Fire S4 before, so comparing, I think the girls are more determined than the guys. I thought I wouldn't find the same camaraderie as in CMBF4 but I was pleasantly wrong. The girls (women, since they are all older than 30) showed a lovely bond and admiration between them. Take for example the first magnificent group (SDD, CLJ, Chen Haoyu and Liu Yan). They all formed different groups afterwards, but that first group was the most beloved for all 4 of them. SDD and LY formed again later on a duet where they told the other girls how they teased each other. Or you could tell how much CHY admired and looked up to CLJ (she was never too far away from CLJ, and always wanted to collaborate with her). Then there were Laure Zhang and ZhuDan, and Joyce + Han Xue. There were many girls that formed a tight bond with another, and it was very nice to see.

What is nice about this type of reality show is that you can see how someone who is excellent inspires others. And how someone who is mediocre gets better after much determination and perseverance. Like Zhang Yuxi ans ZhuDan, two very mediocre artists who couldn't sing nor dance at the beginning (whenever they sung in the first episodes, it was so embarrassing) but they persisted and both got so much better at the end.

Much admiration for Joyce, the French artist and the only Western artist that persisted till the end ( I wonder if Mai, Sasha Alex Sloan and the Russian girl felt too overwhelmed but the best reason they could give was "health issues"). Joyce (a Queen) sings many songs in Chinese, and as an Ambassador for France, she committed to learning Chinese. And she sings so well (I fell in love with her with that first very song, and the one she sings with HX is on my playlist).

Two things where CMBF4 was better: 1) the first half of this show the performances were MEH.. the songs the show gave to the girls were, 40%, of the "cute" type, and the other 40% of the "slutty" type and only 20% of the good type. We had to wait a bit for the "cool" performances, and even then, the actresses didn't have stages where their skills as an actress were shined. Unlike CMBF4 that had many stages that mixed dance, singing and acting. And 2) CMFB4 had 17 winners, RWTW5 had only 15, and they were:

1) Liu Xin: the rocker who cried a lot XD She is very cool, can sing, dance, arrange, and be an awesome leader. Her voice is great.
2) CLJ: one of the most consistent artists. Everyone wanted her on her team, but her greatest fan was without a doubt, CHY XD Not only she is beautiful but also handsome and amazingly talented in Yue Opera (the representative of this type of Opera). She was the Wang ZhengLiang of this season.
3) Qi Wei: I wouldn't say she was the best at dancing nor at singing, but she was a Winner right from the start. Her personality, her determination. She was the Hacken Lee of the season.
4) CHY: from a somewhat shy actress that was self-taught in musicals to a more confident leader. She was the Azora of this season.
5) He Jie: she could do everything: dance, sing, lead... very extrovert.
6) Tia Ray: who doesn't know her singing skills? And she can dance too! And even if her voice stood out over everyone's, she wasn't overwhelming and knew that it was fair that she shouldn't sing all the high notes.
7) Shang Wen Jie (or Laure Zhang): I knew her from "Super Vocal" as a judge. And she continues to be a good judge here. And mentor. And she could easily speak in Chinese or French or English. Starts as an introvert artist who can't dance... but then she is a very good dancer :)
8) SDD: our weird Queen, she was a bit crazy but so funny. And we see her dance! And she danced very well too. I love her and I am going to miss her.
9) Joyce Jonathan: what more can I say about her? a French Queen.
10) Cai Wen Jing (or Elvira): a very outgoing girl, she could talk! Impossible not to like her specially at the beginning where she "adopted" the two oldest contestants (that were over 50). She can sing and dance, not like WOW but she was good.
11) Liu Yan: the sweetest actress, I am so glad she made it to the end! I was sure she would bc she had been in the top3 once, and bc she was part of that 1st Top Group. She teased SDD and wasn't in awe about anything.
12) Han Xue: a very regal Lady. Sings like a Queen, but can't dance :D Her English is very, very good, and she formed a tight duo with Joyce.

Anyway, I liked all the girls that got it till the final episode. I was sorry for all of them having to wear those super high heels + long dresses + that terrible stair though XD Like it happened after I finished CMBF4, I have withdrawal symptoms, I am going to miss them all <3

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Our Sticky Love starts a bit Cliché but turns out pretty wholesome

When I started this show, it was definitely giving a cliché, generic vibe. But as the show moved on I was again and again proven wrong.

First of all, Ahn Ha Young is damn gorgeous. Like she definitely has one of the unique faces you're gonna witness in this industry. Her beauty almost distracts you from the story at times.

Also, just got to learn that this is her first lead role as a female, and I can say she knocks it out of the park with her charming personality, perfect for the rom-com energy this drama needed.

She can act. Such a precious smile. But boy, was it hard watching her cry in monumental scenes. I Loved her work in "Teach You a Lesson" and was very eagerly looking forward to this project. And I can attest that the wait was worth it.

Secondly, coming to the male leads. I have loved Jung Hae-In's work in D.P. and Love Next Door. He's got the acting chops and manages to balance the nuances of the character from Gangster to Shy Boyfriend pretty effortlessly.

The bigger but a welcomed surprise was the villain here. Baek Sang-gil is not the usual antagonist provided with a tragic backstory just for the sake of the story, rather his character serves as a good example to the phrase "a product of the environment".

I also find it amusing that his character and Tae-Ha have almost the same line of events yet the path they choose draws a huge contrast between them, even though they are bound together through a cruel twist of fate.

Additional characters were so enjoyable. S.E.S Ladies especially have my heart. And his subordinate who joins the village later was also surprisingly funny. Glad that the doc and nurse made up at the end, haha.

The show never misses on its comedic beats, and always finds a way to deliver humor unexpectedly. The gentle taps on the back, whenever the characters hug are so cute. I have no idea if this was a thing for this show, or if it's a K-Drama thing, but I love it.

After the 10th episode, I was unsure of the ending and felt this might become another case of dragging the story which usually happens in various K-Dramas. Because by that episode, the story had reached a perfect closure.

But to my surprise the last two episodes were not just an extension of romantic leads having cute moments. Rather the story of the villain was simply not finished, and as we found out in the finale, he had a lot of baggage.

The show manages to wrap up the story in 12 episodes even with a deserved wedding scene by the end.

Tae-Ha doesn't hate rains now, as they don't remind him of his sorrowful days anymore rather he embraces it prioritizing his happiness for the first time.

Eun-Sae has a family now and no longer wishes for materialistic things to bring her happiness.

Wholesome ending. Long live the people of Taffy village.

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“The Unexpected Drama I Didn’t Know I’d Love” ❤️

A Hidden Gem That Deserves More Love ⭐️

I honestly don’t understand why this drama received such low ratings. For me, the story was perfect. I loved how it combined thriller, romance, comedy, and drama so well. The unexpected plot twists and even the unexpected cameos made it even more fun to watch!

I finished this drama in just 2 days while crocheting!🙂‍↔️
There were so many scenes that were so interesting that I literally had to stop crocheting just to watch because I needed to know what would happen next. That’s how hooked I was!

I also loved the three ajummas! They were hilarious and brought so much charm to the story. And honestly, the casting was perfect. Everyone fit their characters so well.

I’ve also seen some people say that 12 episodes felt too long, but honestly, 12 episodes were perfect for me. There wasn’t a single episode where I felt bored or thought the story was dragging. In some dramas, there are boring scenes where I end up skipping ahead, but with this one, I didn’t skip a single scene. Every episode kept me interested.

I’m actually glad I didn’t see the low ratings and reviews before watching it, because if I had, I probably would have doubted whether I should watch it at all. And that would have been such a shame because I ended up really loving this drama. 🥹❤️

Definitely a 10/10 for me!

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A Love Triangle Done Right. (Why Did You Ruin the Last Episode?)

I went into Roller Coaster with fairly low expectations after the last few GLs I watched hadn't really impressed me. I ended up being pleasantly surprised. This was genuinely good.

What I liked most was the relationship writing. The love triangle actually made sense, and the characters' choices felt understandable rather than being created just to manufacture drama. The relationships felt mature and, importantly, realistic. I could actually imagine real people reacting and making decisions in similar situations. The characters' actions also had consequences, which made the story much more satisfying to watch.

I liked how much history was given to Pure and Air through the flashbacks. It made their past relationship feel real and helped explain why Pure held on for so long. At the same time, Pure's eventual relationship with Loft made sense to me. Loft gave Pure the happiness and security she had been missing, and I really liked Loft as a character. She was probably my favorite part of the drama.

The chemistry between Pure and Loft was also very good. Their relationship felt natural, and the intimate scenes were handled particularly well. I appreciated the attention to safe intimacy and realistic details, too. The inclusion of a dental dam was a nice touch, and it's something I don't often see acknowledged in GL dramas.

The production was another strong point. The drama looked polished, the wardrobe was great, and the direction had some really nice touches.

The acting was good overall. All thee main lead's acting was good, I especially enjoyed Shelly's performance as Loft. Some of the emotional scenes worked better for me than others, particularly the more restrained crying scenes.

My main problem was the last episode. I actually thought the story was developing well enough that I didn't feel it needed additional episodes, but the final episode changed my mind. The conflict felt somewhat forced, and the resolution was rushed. After everything that happened, the time skip and reunion felt a little too convenient and didn't give the emotional resolution as much weight as it could have. The finale fumbled what was otherwise a really good drama.

Despite that, Roller Coaster was one of the few recent Thai GLs that made me genuinely think, "Wow, this is actually really good." It had believable relationships, strong chemistry, good production, and characters whose actions had consequences.

I would have given it 8.5/10 if the final episode had been handled better.

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I really don't get how people say the writing was good, especially toward the end.

What was the point of poisoning Li Le Jun, besides making it so that when Wuyi kills her, it doesn't feel as bad because she was going to die anyway? It seemed like the only reason was to make it easier for Li Mao to forgive him later.

And since when was Xie Jia Yu okay with using her weapon to kill people from the Beifu Army and even Xiao family?

What happened to Xie Jia Yu's secret guard?

And let's not even talk about the mysterious healer, whose identity we were never told, or the name of the person Li Mao saved. And then he made a promise to save three people. Quite convenient, isn't it?

The writing really falls off in the last four episodes. Personally, I never thought it was a masterpiece, but it was a good watch. However, the writing in the last four episodes was really disappointing

1-24 - 8.5
24-28 - 6

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Watch It For What It Is & You'll Likely Enjoy It

Aka, manage your expectations.

The best advice I got before starting this drama was (and I'm paraphrasing here) 'This drama does not care about politics. Do not expect a story that cares about political intrigue or machinations. The story knows that its idol drama audience is here to simply look at good-looking people being good-looking and falling in love.'

That helped me better manage my expectations. I knew that:

1. We had a smart ML and FL. They would win against their adverserives but we would not see the process. A bad guy appears, the FL and ML quickly find out about it, and 3 days later, the bad guy has been apprehended, exposed, and confessed. They win, and we move. No long explanations on what happened. We don't even see the bad guy getting apprehended or investigations happening. Everything just falls into place as needed, and the main characters come out of it unscathed and victorious. Overpowered final bosses, these ones.

2. A cold FL, a harem of sorts, and a puppy ML - Everybody wants her, and she couldn't care less. The ML *really* wants her; they are best suited for each other, but she would make him WORK for it. This is my favourite trope, so I had a lot of fun with it. It reminded me of the drama 'Glory' that I watched earlier this year. That too had a harem, a cold FL, and a puppy ML. Gimme 15 dramas with this trope and I'll eat them all up.

Knowing these two factors, especially point number 1, allowed me to enjoy the drama a lot more than I would have otherwise.

Side note: I know we are supposed to love Hua Yong and Xi He the most. They are our main characters after all. However, I will say that the couple that stole the show for me was Cui Jin Bai and Bu Shu Lin. I found myself smiling every time they were on my screen. Their dynamic was so good (and hilarious) that they overshadowed the main couple. I wish we had had more time with them.

Ps. The fact that they did it once and ended up with twins?!?!?! What kind of fertility rates are these? Bu Shu Lin needs to make her man wrap it up, or she'll end up with a litter, and then her civil service dreams will be dashed. Now that I think of it, what did they use for condoms way back when🤔? Lemme go google

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Loved the villagers

Things I liked:
1-the villagers. They were fun to watch, and I loved seeing them work together to kick butt.
2-We got a wedding!!!! Thankfully this wasn't rushed past, as K-dramas tend to do. The whole thing was beautiful and was only made more beautiful by Jung Hae In's glorious smile.
3-Jung Hae In wearing a suit.

Not so much:
1-Jung Hae In as a gangster. Completely unbelievable.
2-The actor they used for the ML teen years. I don't know if it was the way it was filmed, but all I could think of was how much taller he was as a teen.
3-The FL. She seemed uncomfortable. She wasn't portraying vulnerable, like you'd imagine someone with amnesia would. I couldn't figure out if it was her or the writing, but I didn't care for her. And she seemed too worldly against his innocence.
4-Writing issues. Things that always bug me. 1) FL is in danger, you take her to a small town but don't even tell her she's in danger, so she's running around to Seoul and back. 2) People are absolutely attached to their phones, but whenever you need to contact someone, the phone is either not with them or the battery has died. 3) He's sending you to Japan to save your life, but you're going to do what you want. 4) Amazing how she knew how to ride a motorcycle.
5-The romance just seemed too uneven to me.
6-The length of the drama could have been shorter; there were long periods of nothing going on.

So, my search for a satisfying rom-com continues.

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