Reviews

Saran and natasitt acting

Saran’s comedy acting in this Thai BL drama is absolutely hilarious and effortlessly charming! 😂💗 His expressions, comic timing, and natural chemistry with the cast make every scene more entertaining. He brings such a fun and refreshing energy to the story, while still delivering the emotional moments beautifully. Saran and his brother’s acting is absolutely amazing! ❤️ Their chemistry feels so natural, and both of them have such expressive and effortless performances. Their funny moments, emotions, and bonding make every scene enjoyable to watch. Definitely a duo worth watching! ✨Definitely one of the highlights of the drama! ✨

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Royal Bethrothal(2026) is a romance drama set in historical times with ML: Chen Zheyuan (as Emperor Ying Gua) and FL: Wu Jinyan (as Meng Tinghui) in the leading couple's roles. The cast did a great job bringing their characters to life but the controversial issue is that, for a romance drama, there was not much romance between the leading couple. The male lead was constantly giving into this female lead that was not written with a great ammount of love, commitment, and compassion toward people around her but lacked the capacity to understand the male lead's love and desire to be together; once accepted and welcomed by people, her choice of leaving him amd her friends behind is unreasonable and on top of that, he is the one that went to get her back. The female lead is both strong and smart, her heart was true and steadfast toward her friends and her breaking moments in the drama were beautiful and poignantly performed but, as to the romance between the leads, it truly failed to be convincing. The male lead is also strong, smart, and truly capable, he also had a strong love for the people and the utmost deep affection for his friends, but he always put her as the center of his decisions without loosing his capabilities as an Emperor. The drama had great dialogue, costumes, scenography and well done action scenes; but the push and pull of the female lead's character made it exhausting and, by the end, there are too many unexpected and unnecessary turns in the story, that the ending was rushed and lacked cohesion. What could've been a great drama was lost by, more or less, nonsense in the last 4 episodes.
Find this drama on: https://www.iq.com/play/royal-betrothal-episode-6-v5l0y54ei0?lang=en_us

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A really interesting storry but not for the weak

I loved this series. The charakter development, the storryline, and the acting were all fantasic in my opinion.

I also loved the chemistry between the couples. But some scenes are not for the weak, especially the last episode i personaly balled my eyes out the whole time🥀😭

I liked that all three of the couples had like completely different storries some more some less dramatic.

I find that the series is not very confusing witch i like becouse i usualy find supernatural or fantasy series hard to follow. I didnt have that problem with this one though. This series was also really thrillig and never got boring, i was exited for every new episode.

I really enjoyed this series and genuenly think this is a masterpiece

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Cautionary Tale of Egoic Aspirations and a Hollow, Plastic Life

I started watching this show right after several episodes of Solo Katsu Joshi no Susume (Solo life woman’s recommendations), and found the exact opposite character in this show’s protagonist. Solo Katsu was about a woman who is fiercely independent and gets to know who she is and what she likes by being alone and doing activities solo, but this character Aya is the exact opposite of that as she lives her life to follow the crowd, and follow everyone else that she completely loses herself. She keeps thinking that everything relies on where you’re born, what your family status is, and what town you were raised in. And of course, that does determine certain things in the events of one’s life, but it isn’t the defining factor of one’s happiness. There are people from Akita who lived perfectly happy and normal lives, and they don’t linger in this constant state of dissatisfaction the way Aya does. She’s constantly judging her own background as not good enough, and therefore needing to somehow compensate for her upbringing by becoming more and more modern and cosmopolitan. But this only breeds more dissatisfaction, and brings into view more character characters that confirm her own ideology that everything in life depends on where you’re born and what your family status is. She seems to encounter more men like that, and more female friends who believe the same. In that sense, even though she seems to be upwardly mobile and achieve different things in her career, she doesn’t seem to fit into those groups of “old money” where she thinks security lies. But there is no security there either, because the marriage is in those circles are also shams and riddled with affairs and insecurity. She’s constantly looking over the fence thinking the other side is greener, but it’s not.

From the very beginning of the show, I noticed that Aya has no real vision for her life, except to be somebody that other people are envious of. This automatically puts her in a state of mind of perpetual high school pettiness regardless of her age. She’s constantly going from one stage to the next in life thinking that she’s moving up the so-called ladder of status or popularity or desirability, but there’s that underlying insecurity that she’s never enough unless she’s buying the latest brand of expensive whatever, or working some job that according to some arbitrary measurement means success by the time you’re 30, and it seems so petty and juvenile. Her state of mind hasn’t matured since middle school, and is dictated by those around her, and she seems stunted. It’s a sad existence, and her self-worth is dictated by what she buys at the mall and how expensive it is. Regardless, I find myself feeling sorry for her rather than despising this character. She doesn’t have any more self-awareness than this. Her aspirations since childhood have not been very high beyond the materialistic success of buying things and being envied. Her thought process doesn’t go beyond this level of material existence, and I find that the series itself, life itself that deals her blow after blow is wiser than her thought process. Even as she goes through challenges, I don’t see her character maturing at all. She simply transfers that same “I want to be envied by others and follow the crowd” into every stage of life. In her package of upward mobility comes one man after another, treating her to this or that, and she also regards men as a commodity for upward social mobility, but those men are also equally shallow, and so nothing in her life really provides lasting happiness. Then instead of any genuine self reflection, she’s off looking for the next rung on the ladder and to see where she belongs at what age according to what someone said. It’s all about moving to the next hottest area in Tokyo and doing the next hottest thing, ie having a baby. To give her life some sense of value. But she has no sense of her own value without anything material and that’s sad. Her life appears very hollow and meaningless, despite her convincing herself logically that she has everything that she’s supposed to have by a certain age. Her mind state is the very epitome of “dukkha” as Buddha taught- the ego’s constant state of dissatisfaction and inability to rest in the present moment, but rather chasing this or that, which makes her even more miserable in the end.

And because her only aspiration was to become someone that other people envied, most often times she ends up envying others instead. When she believes that she is “got it all” at some stage of life such as when she says to herself “I’ve finally made it. I have the perfect career and love life.” Then she overhears some coworkers in the bathroom talking about how they’re going on some group matchmaking date and then she immediately feels left out and envious of them. At another point when she moves the begins and starts working for Gucci (and apparently speaking French is important for Gucci brand, who knew? I will never understand the Japanese drama obsession with France and everything French, which is also incredibly hollow) and has an interview in a magazine, she goes to her old friend group to boast about it and celebrate her 33rd birthday with them to once again be that person that is envied by others, but instead she ends up envying them because they are all pregnant and married and exchanging baby photos. More often than not because of her aspirations, she ends up being a married man’s mistress, no more enviable than a sad Marilyn Monroe figure. Her reference point for life and what she does or wants to do is always based on other people and what they are doing. If other people are going on marriage hunting parties, she is going too. And then she follows that all the way to becoming someone’s luxury mistress and working a luxury job in a fancy part of town. But then when she sees her old social group following the motherhood path, she drops the luxury mistress gig, and goes back to the marriage parties in order to get onto the domesticated woman phase. Then gets married to some bum and ends up miserable. But ultimately, she doesn’t know what she wants because her reference point is always other people. She is not the center of her own life. Because her life aspiration is to be envied, she can reach no higher than this in life.

Eventually, after her aggressive marriage search, she finds a man who makes ¥9 million and their combined income is ¥17 million which is a pretty good income. “I’ve finally made it, my husband is one among the crowd,” she proudly says. He looks like her grandfather, and ironically is a total mismatch for her looks, but she is desperate so she’ll take whatever she can get. But the problem is spoiler alert, she cannot be happy in this marriage either. Honestly, she’s seen too much of that world. She’s been a mistress of at least two different men. It’s kind of a dead end.

She even says that she doesn’t feel like she’s the protagonist of her own life, and feels like she’s an extra. She feels like an extra in her own life because she’s making everyone else the protagonist, and making everyone else the centerpiece of her life. Even her original aspiration of wanting to be envied by others, is an effect of this. She tries to be smug about living on the higher floors of the high rise as a status thing, but can you really live off of this ego boost? She looks at other housewives or friends, chatting with each other and perceives them to be happy every day of their lives. Once again, it’s the hollow dissatisfaction and meaninglessness that she lives in. If she couldn’t be happy before marriage, then there’s no way that she could be happy after marriage either. After hearing other moms talk about kids wanting to get on the pregnant bandwagon, she is meanwhile headed for a divorce or an affair in her marriage. She can’t be present in anything.

How could she be happy when she only found a man because everyone else had one? Then her husband has the predictable old affair with some coworker and gets her pregnant, so Aya has to get a divorce. As she’s filling out the divorce application, she starts crying and remembering her childhood when she was crying that she didn’t get the same dolls as her friends. Then when her dad asks if her friends want to die will she die too, and then her mother says women always want what other people want. What a stupid lesson. I don’t even know why she’s actually crying. Is she crying because she genuinely feels something? Or because her entire life has been about wanting something hollow? Then she ends up sleeping with this random waiter at the café who invited her to a club. She’s so empty and seem so dead inside. Ah.. what a sad woman. No one could possibly look at her life and envy it.

It’s funny how in the very last episode her old teacher and career counselor spots her as she has come back to her hometown to visit in Akita. She talks about how Aya is an inspiration to all the new students and how they say they want to be just like her when they see her magazine article. The funny thing is her magazine article came out of a time when she was having an affair with a rich married man who offered her many luxuries and upward mobility, but nothing of substance. And to think that upcoming new students expired to Aya and her hollow vision of living a plastic materialistic life being envied by others, it just shows the cycle of meaningless lives that are lived in this world. The blind following the blind. Devoid of any real happiness or meaning. The one who should be on the magazine cover is not Aya. It should be Saotome Megumi- the Solo Katsu Joshi from the previous series I watched- now she is a real trailblazer and a hero for following her own inner truth and heart in solitude, for being true to herself. She is one that people should gather inspiration from, not a follower like Aya.

From the first to the last shot, where she is walking with a new (old friend) man as her new house companion so that she “doesn’t die alone,” Aya remains the same, fundamentally motivated by envy, jealousy, greed, and materialistic desires. She is shallow from beginning to end, and doesn’t lean into the true ordinary happiness, but keeps giving into the next thing that she wants that other people have. As she is walking with this man, she notices a couple with a woman who looks like herself wearing some high fashion yeti costume, and ogling at her like she’s got the best life. And the cycle of suffering (samsara-Dukkha) continues. If this is “the good life,” it is hell on earth.

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Don’t let the detours of life hold you down...And ofc love prevails.

I tried to watch this when it first came out but I just wasnt in the brain space BUT ALSO I will say the first like 3 episodes of this show are the weakest. I get that they wanted to go in chronological order, but this is one of those rare times where only flashbacks would have made sense. I think seeing the crash and then watching her finish school just slowed down the plot tremendously. I know we are supposed to see her at school with the love triangle situation but even that felt chaotic and unsatisfying enough to need to watch her college experience the way we do. Its not like they *never* flashback in the show, so for me I think they could have just stuck to well placed flashbacks and the show would have been a lot easier to get hooked into. I don’t know that I would have been patient enough to keep watching if I wasn’t stuck on a plane with limited options because the show really only picks up *for me* when Nie Xi Guang starts her job (and Lin Yu Sen becomes her boss ofc).

That complaint aside…I loved the show! I think Lin Yu Sen and Nie Xi Guang were not just a cute couple but pretty healthy too. Once all the confusion of the past is resolved, I love that they *stick* together. There is no silly last minute misunderstanding for the sake of a second act break up. Instead, its them against the world (her dad, his trauma, etc). I liked them as a couple but I also enjoyed them as individuals. You really see Lin Yu Sen struggle with his new reality and question everything he thought he knew. You see him conflicted about his persistent feelings for a woman that he thought ghosted him after the accident. You see Nie Xi Guang go from “uncaring/laid back” to passionate and determined. You see Nie Xi Guang learn how to heal from the wounds of her own messy romantic past and her “daddy issues”. I was sooo happy when she popped off on her dad lol.

I know it was out of the question for Lin Yu Sen to become a surgeon again but I was wishing for a miracle lol. I will say I was sooo happy he does go back into the science field rather than business.

Rong and Zhuang Xu were honestly typical blegh antagonists. I wish we saw less of them to be honest. I was expecting more of an arc from Zhuang Xu with how much screen time we have with him at his office but we don’t. In fact, we see Rong less but her arc is more obvious. I was thinking maybe Zhuang Xu would move on and be with that one co-worker but no. Instead he finally realizes how toxic all the gossiping in college was for Nie Xi Guang and even then I’m surprised how long it took for him to really *get* it. I was gobsmacked when it turned out he GOT HER TEXT BACK THEN. All his pining and whining as if he were the victim. Sickening lol. While I hated them, their characters fit the overall show’s plot and goals. I do wish we saw less of Zhuang Xu but I don’t think they were “bad” characters in terms of experience of the show, they were solid annoying love antagonists.

Yin Jie and Nie Xi Guang’s other friends after school were great. I thought they were a lot more supportive than her college friends (minus the one that defended her) and it was great to see that juxtaposition of friends that truly support and believe in your rather than that are “nice” to you.

I also LOVED Jiang Rui. He was such a cutie and his relationship with Nie Xi Guang was peak siblingship (even though they are technically cousins).

Last but not least, I think the themes and messaging were super clear and poignant. Sometimes we can spend our much of/whole lives on a goal, but life will demand we take a detour. It sucks and it can hurt, but it’s just part of the journey. Don’t let those detours hold you down/back.

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miscommunication galore

While I really enjoyed this drama, it was SO frustrating at times. The inability for either ba wu or ji hun to really say what they are feeling is FRUSTRATING. I loved jung ha min's character though and how ba wu changed his outlook on love.

** spoilers
In the beginning I think ha min was confused about unrequited love and why people couldn't just confess and then if it didn't work, move on. By the end of the show we see that ha min understands its not as simple as that. The feelings you have are yours and yours alone, and what you decide to do with those feelings is also up to you. One, ha min knows that confessing wouldn't go anywhere because of how strong the love is between ba wu and ji hun. Two, I think he also knows how much ba wu regretted confessing because maybe it would have been better to just be friends and suffer in silence than to lose that person altogether. I just want ha min to find his person T^T he was a character I really came to love at the end of the show

On to frustrationsss~
I don't get how if ji hun liked ba wu first, why didn't he take it more seriously when ba wu confessed? idk i think bc of what he heard about ba wu not wanting to date but UGHHHHH its been too long for all the miscommunication.
Even after reading the notebook he doesn't take action.. I love them but I also feel like I wanted to shout at the screen a lot >_<

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I don't think i will ever get over this drama.

I adore this series with everything in my soul. The characters, the plot and the emotions are so well developed and nuanced, creating such an interesting and riveting watch. The characters and relationships within this drama are so incredibly complex and well thought out with almost all of the main characters being brilliantly fleshed out and developed. The characters are so lovable and complex, creating interesting and new dynamics which are incredible to watch. Even the villains are incredibly developed and nuanced, creating a deep and emotional watch. The amount of emotions i felt whilst watching this show (all 6 times) are astounding, with the ability to draw such profound emotions from the characters. The actors are phenomenal and play these characters with such passion and vigour they felt more real than the actors themselves. They create such incredible relationships and show the more real and brutal side of teenage life. The only reason this series is not a 10 is because i felt that, unlike season 1, whc2 plays too into the webtoony and dramatised side of this show, taking away from some of the depth and more gritty aspects of the show through unrealistic and over dramatic plots, making it seem almost cartoonish at times, as cool as it may be. An example of this being Baku punching the bully off a fast moving motorcycle, something that just seems over the top, however the aura he gained from it may make it up for some people.
The relationships between characters, such as baku and beakjin or sieun and suho, are so profound and emotional that it is a goldmine for shippers and non shippers the like, exploring bonds and friendship and the struggles that come with them in a (imo) more deep and emotional way than season 1, which mainly focused on sieun and suho as a pair, and the other characters more individually. Which isn't to say that whc1 doesnt create deep and meaningful relationships, i just think that whc 2 explores more and different kinds of friendships and relationships.
One thing i will say is that i wish it had more developed female characters, as the only one who is actually mentioned in season 2 is sieuns mother, who is throughout the show depicted as neglectful of her sons emotions and needs and overall not a very enjoyable character.
Apart from that this show is one of the greatest shows of all time. I genuinely think it is a must watch for everyone on the whole planet and that more people need to tap into whc and the actors other works, as they are genuinely such an incredible cast. No notes.

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Subtle Horror

Kwaidan, directed by Masaki Kobayashi and released in 1964 is a gorgeous, stylized, film anthology consisting of four horror stories. It is based on stories from complications of Japanese folk tales by Lafcadio Hearn. The four stories in the film are:

1. “The Black Hair,” about a faithless Samurai who receives a kind of eerie retribution,
2. “The Woman of the Snow,” my favorite, about a young laborer and his unusual marriage,
3. “Hoichi the Earless,” about a young blind musician at a Buddhist temple who performs for a group of ghosts, and
4. “In a Cup of Tea,” a story framed very interestingly — there is a story within the story that ends up creeping into reality.
All of the stories successfully convey a gentle, subtle, sense of dread that blooms into horror, though with the exception of the first story, it is subtle.

The sets are incredible. For the middle two stories they have almost a surreal quality to them: incredibly vivid colors, unnatural elements to the landscapes, such as a giant eye on the horizon, and a frozen forest. The film sets definitely have a staged appearance which adds to the atmosphere. They were very meticulously designed. They evoke some of the aesthetics of Japanese woodblock prints from the 19th century. This is especially obvious in the 3rd story, when a famous battle is recreated, the battle of Dan-no-ura. The faces of the Samurai warriors vividly recall these prints, with wild hair and exaggerated expressions. The acting is superb as well. I was especially impressed with Tatsuya Nakadai and Keiko Kishi of “The Woman of the Snow.” As the woman in the snow, Keiko Kishi had a smooth, unnatural way of moving across space that enhanced the eeriness of her performance. The film is, of course, a classic, winning the Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 1965.

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NOUR … I Paid $1.99 for Answers!!!

I paid $1.99 for this finale and somehow the writers gave me feelings instead of answers. I was promised a supernatural mystery. I got immortality, murder, trauma, blood, sex, doomed romance and enough emotional damage to ruin my evening. Fine. I accepted all of that. I was invested. I was theorizing. I was ready for the big reveal.

And then the finale basically said, “Here are three more questions. Good luck.” EXCUSE BUT FUCK ME?

James is dying, and Ken respect his previous wishes (you’d be stupidity you didn’t see that coming), and James survives somehow. Chita killed James’ father. Ken and James apparently have some deeper connection. Ji and Chita are emotionally destroying me. And what do I actually know?

FUCKING Nothing. I paid TENCENT $1.99 for two episodes and got ripped off.

The worst part is that I can’t even say the series was bad because the acting was good, the chemistry eventually worked and the emotional scenes actually hurt. Boss, Tongtong and Phoom gave me everything. I was laughing, crying, screaming and staring at the screen like I personally had to solve the mythology.

But I shouldn’t need a ouiji board, three red strings and a second degree in Nour history to understand what happpened in the finale. Mystery is supposed to make me curious. This made me feel like the writers forgot to upload the final explanation.

I cared about James and Ken. I cared about Ji and Chita. I cared about Chita’s suspicious limp, Ken’s immortality and every emotionally damaged man making terrible decisions because he was in love.

And this is how you repay me? With vibes? I want my $1.99 back!

Or just give me the missing episodes, the mythology explanation and a PowerPoint presentation titled:

“What the Hell Was Going On in NOUR?” Because I didn’t stop caring. I cared so much that I noticedd the story forgot to answer its own questions.

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