Reviews

I just rewatched

I love this series no doubt, I always say this but everything about it is beautiful; the story, the characters, the music, etc.

I hate to use this word but I think Hira and Kiyoi are so toxic that it makes them imperfectly perfect. During this time and the first season Hira doesn’t see Kiyoi as a person but rather someone he’s able to worship, on the other hand Kiyoi loves the attention that he gets but things get complicated when feelings are involved. He doesn’t want to be seen as a king or something out of reach, he wants to exist on the same level and that is completely normal to want. It’s selfish when you love someone and they straight up tell you that you can’t or shouldn’t when they feel the same way. I wish more people understood Kiyoi, yes he lashes out and doesn’t know how to control his emotions but he’s human. It’s not an excuse but his feelings are valid because Hira WAS weird and creepy. (Don’t worry I love him also <3) Anyways most of their issues evolved because they didn’t know how to communicate. You’ll love this series if you watch it to understand the plot AND characters!!

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From Contract to Real Love

It's been a long time since I watched a K-drama, and even longer since I found myself captivated by one. Perfect Crown delivers a captivating story of a tall, handsome prince and a rich, bold heiress. The story is set in a fictional South Korea governed by a 21st-century constitutional monarchy.

The plot includes a marriage contract that transforms into a healing romance . Grand Prince Yi An (Byeon Woo-seok) holds a royal title. Meanwhile, chaebol heiress Seong Hui-ju (IU) holds a position with immense corporate wealth but faces the societal stigma as an illegitimate child •. Artificial class boundaries trap both characters.

In a world built on public performance, the fake marriage becomes the only place where they can drop their guards •. The drama masterfully shifts their relationship into one of real love. The chemistry is captivating; Byeon Woo-seok's smile was everything. When his character gazes at Huiju, the deeply moving chemistry becomes believable. Chemistry: The gradual emotional thaw between IU and Byeon Woo-seok is deeply moving and entirely believable.
Perfect Crown is a beautiful, mature take on the classic contract-marriage trope. It proves that while two people can come together under the safety of a contract, only mutual vulnerability can truly set them free to love each other.


👑ENDING SPOILER( Do not read if yu have not finished the drama)

I loved Grand Prince Yi An's aura as royalty. It was one of the main attractions of this drama. I was disappointed when, instead of taking the position of King as was due to him, he gave it up to abolish the monarchy. I could have accepted this if only they had given him a purpose other than being Huiju's husband. I am grateful it was a happy ending, but the ending lacked depth and purpose. Why take a character who showed strong leadership qualities only to have him cooking at home and not good at it either?

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You are a Burden so Leave the One You Love

I had to stop watching this after episode 2, because I read the episode summaries and saw that this was going nowhere from a romance perspective. I then watched the last episode to see how everything wrapped up. This is very much like many Japanese romances, where the realistic and cynical nature of the story brings me down. So this is a life's lessons drama, which I wasn't up for watching. There are many two-hour movies about sad love stories, but 10 hours is too much for me.

I read the reviews by Blue_Moon and Linxminx here that give me the full plot, for which I thank them. They provided some key quotes from the show. I will add two more from the last episode: "Actually, saying goodbye over the phone isn't so bad" and "Thanks to you, I can now hope for a warm goodbye." So we know what this movie is about, but throwing a genuine love story into the mix and not allowing it to come to fruition is too cruel for me.

The theory here is that when a person is burdened, you should leave them alone and not add your burdens to their satchel. This is what I most disagree with and why I can't watch this. The idea that --giving someone love and supporting them through their burdens while also bringing your own burdens with you is NOT the way to live-- is WRONG THINKING. People need people who love them and no amount of family love can replace romantic love. While the video shows that people gain strength from various others in their lives, cruelly leaving someone "for their own good" and leaving them in the dark is never the right decision. Leaving them alone, without an equal, if flawed, partner beside them is the worst thing to do. No one is perfect and no one is without burdens that those who love them share. If the philosophy that you are only a burden were true, no one would ever get together at all.

While the idea of letting go of the past and moving on is great here in the drama, the show does NOT effectively demonstrate that the ML and FL were fundamentally not right for each other. They try to make you think so by showing a picture of the FL smiling brightly as a teenager and the, then older, FL saying she doesn't like that girl and the ML saying he does. The smiling girl was not the person the ML fell in love with. He knew the anxious, non-studious, not cautious, stressed FL all along.

Yes, the story says move on and love again, but love is not that easy to find. Throwing love away because of flawed logic is pitiful. What you need to love someone is FAITH, not just sacrifice. Here, we have all sacrifice and no faith. I can't watch the unfolding of something with which I so fundamentally disagree.

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Stars are for season 1, not season 2

I've rated this JUST based on season 1 because Season 2 doesn't have its own page but I HAVE to write about it because it pissed me off.

Season 1 was delightful, quite good for a vertical with minimal budget. My beef is only with season 2.

WHY ARE WE PRETENDING HINATA DID SOMETHING WRONG???

Was this written by someone in college who feels really bitter about not seeing their boyfriend enough? Because he works? Everything Mizuki did pissed me off. Bro is just bored and wants to start a fight about it based off of conversation he heard from two random girls in a cafe. Meanwhile, Hinata is apparently working at a black company in the big year 2026 and just trying to survive the new job. I'll agree that the "must be nice" comments aren't great from Hinata but that's nothing compared to "you're never too tired to take out the trash". Hopefully Hinata doesn't develop a disability because Mizuki will LEAVE HIS ASS. Has the guy never been tired? In his life? And look, I enjoy my alone time more than anyone (like, a lot, like, I NEED IT) but the timing and conversation they had about Mizuki going camping was ridiculous. They even end the season with what was supposed to be(?) a cute, heart-warming moment that just feels like another slap to the face when Mizuki says this is the view he wanted to show Hinata. Cool. BUT HE WAS WORKING.

Also, this is not what college is like? I've never worked a job as demanding as college, and maybe Mizuki doesn't have to work a job while going to school like a lot of people, but he should still be a bit exhausted from the course load and social obligations (they happen even if you don't have friends or a social life and I don't know how but they just happen). It would make more sense if it was a more mutual conflict where they couldn't make their schedules work rather than this WHOLE THING being about how Mizuki DOESN'T LIKE THE WAITING but then he says at the end that hE ACTUALLY DOES....SO WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING ABOUT?????

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Sweet & Innocent

This is such an adorable "coming of age" BL ... it's innocent and gives you a really good feeling in watching it.
The two protagonists eventually blend well together. At first, you don't get a vibe for anything between them, whether as friends or anything else ... but that changes in a big way. By episode 6, which is the pinnacle episode of the series, all the chemistry starts to work, not just between them, but for the supporting cast as well.
The series shows the powerful importance in family and in friendship. We see a strong bond between brother and sister, as well as parents and children. It shows us that not everything is a simple explanation when it comes to feelings toward two people, and how difficult it can be in figuring it out for everyone involved.
Ryusei Fukada always seems to be starring in a series that's underrated. That was the case in "My Strawberry Film" and this one is no different. The numbers don't reflect how enjoyable this series was to watch.
I think if I had to come up with a negative about it, the finale was rushed a little bit, giving us a quick ending ... but as it does conclude, we're given a few subtle hints there will be a season 2 somewhere in the near future. Hopefully that's the case. Looking forward to it!!!

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Incredibly Mixed Emotions

The Early Spring leaves me with incredibly mixed emotions. On one hand, the messy secret office romance feels authentic if we don’t count the fact that the lead couple doesn’t even talk. On the other hand, the show is a structural mess with a male lead who is deeply unsatisfying for 95% of the drama.

I want to start with the positive. While the acting isn't mind-blowing, it delivers exactly when it counts during the story's high-stakes emotional peaks. The scenes with Flora and Luke breaking up and trying to divide their dog or the episode with the suicide scene are extremely realistic and honestly had me crying. All actors did fantastic. Additionally, the lead couple has genuinely great chemistry that kept me hooked, which is wild because I’ve never seen either of these actors before. Sun Qian as Flora easily outshone the Jing Bo Ran, holding down the emotional weight of the show. Perhaps it’s also because the show concentrated on her story mostly. But she was very natural and you could actually see the change in her character. Jing Bo Ran as Luke was a great, but I thought that there were some moments where he seemed stilted. And I don’t think they were even the emotional moments.

The interpersonal friction between Flora and Luke isn't just cheap drama tropes—it is an extremely realistic reflection of real-world relationship struggles for a couple with such power dynamics as them. He is the boss. She is an employee. They are both in a very vulnerable situation if they get caught. Show the insecurity was extremely on point. This realism is elevated by exceptionally high production value and stunning cinematography, which beautifully frames the couple's tension during their many intimate moments. Side note: if you want to see C-drama with a lot of skinship. And by a lot, I mean A LOT ( you don’t even have to wait for it cuz first episode delivers), then The Early Spring is it.

However, the male lead was truly despicable for the most part of the drama. I actually understood the creator's vision for the romance, but I basically had to guess what they were trying to say. The biggest issue is that Luke is incredibly unappealing because he has the emotional intelligence of a chair. We never got to learn why he was so arrogant and couldn’t express his feelings properly. Yes, his dad is cold, but his mom is very warm, and the drama gives us a mere two-minute explanation of his childhood in the beginning and literally never returns to it. There were also some other events in his past, that were just dangling threads that never got fully explained or resolved like his unsuccessful business. It seemed like it was supposed to lead to something, but it never really did. On top of that, Flora never even meets his parents.

Luke’s entire storyline revolves around being an immature a$$hole and pining after a woman he genuinely likes but can’t say a single nice word to. The breakup was entirely his fault. All he had to do is to tell Florida that he loved her. Who tied his tongue? I couldn’t figure out the reason behind him being such a coward, except that he was just a jerk. The fact that he knew in advance that Flora wasn’t going to receive an award because of the inner company politics and didn’t tell her wasn’t absolute dick move. I do blame her for the fact that she did not confide in him because of her insecurities about her friend’s suicide, So he went off on her, not truly understanding why she was so emotional. She was still probably coming to terms with the fact that her close friend killed himself. This seems to be the pattern with his character. He will do something nice for her, but when it counts, he becomes emotionally unavailable and extremely selfish. By that point, it’s hard to blame her because she has never experienced any kindness from him at the moment when it actually counted.

And honestly, this drama wouldn’t even exist if these two just took a moment to talk about their insecurities and issues upfront. Luke only redeems himself in the final episode because he finally grows a backbone, confesses his true feelings, and treats her right. I think this is one of the reasons why I couldn’t give this drama a higher score. Some people score dramas as low as one or two, but I know how hard the actors and the producers work, so I usually try not to drop below seven and even then for me, that’s barely possible.

The writing choices outside the romance are just as baffling. The drama is set against a strict "no office romance" policy, yet they date secretly for six whole years and we don’t get a single subplot about them dodging coworkers or getting caught. It only comes to fruition at the very end of the drama when the writers need to set up the breakup. Even then, Flora never finds out about Luke’s choice that was aimed to save her place in the company. There is also almost zero humor, making the drag feel even heavier. It falls into that classic, frustrating C-drama format where the backstory consumes three-quarters of the runtime, forcing the creators to wrap up the actual resolution in the final two episodes, which ruins the pacing and makes the ending feel completely unearned. This pacing nightmare makes sense knowing the show was cut by eight episodes, but it severely harmed the romantic payoff. I usually binge dramas, but the execution here was such an exhausting rollercoaster that it took me a whole week to get through 24 episodes that are only 35 minutes each.

Ultimately, despite the solid chemistry between the leads, I still wasn't all that impressed overall. It really made me appreciate masterclasses like Hidden Love or The First Frost so much more. Those two Chinese dramas truly left me impressed because the flawless pacing and the storytelling support each other perfectly, using just enough humor to break down the heavy, sad, and dramatic moments. Unfortunately, The Early Spring missed so many great opportunities to strike that balance. The only saving graces that actually carried me to the finish line were the absolutely amazing soundtrack—without it, I probably wouldn’t have even finished—and Luke the dog, who was easily the best highlight of the entire show and definitely had more emotional intelligence than Luke the male lead. The music and that dog single-handedly saved this from being a total drop.

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Made me laugh more than a lot of comedies

Honestly? I watched for fun and giggles since I'm someone who enjoys omegaverse, but honestly, it was shittier than I expected.

The screenwriting feels like it was AI, bcs the structure was all over the place. There were scenes where my first impression was "Wait, this was supposed to happen before, no?"… It's really a big ass mess.

And they're such bad actors… everyone is overacting. And don't get me started about the weird blur effect in the corners.

It's a cheap production but everything that I hate about it is not about the budget… it lacks proper care and commitment with what they are doing.

But I laughed a lot. Not a good thing exactly bcs it's not a comedy, but yeah, it was fun.

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What the hell did I just watch?!

This is some crazy sh*t!

So crazy that this must be a one of a kind drama.

It had everything from crazy parent, aliens, dragons, huge octopus , virus, needy ML, confused FL, likeable SML, good second leads chemistry XD

Leads had such fire chemistry that it was mind-blowing. Their kisses were really too good. XD

Story was okay, it had its good and bad parts. But overall a good watch. Episodes are 20 min or less, so that's make it a quick watch. And they tried to tie all loose ends by the end of it.

Recommend to check this out if not done yet! This is one hell of an experience.

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rival swimmer vertical series

Overall: wish there had been more sweet moments with the leads. 51 episodes about 2 minutes each. First 11 episodes free. Aired on Shortime app (my referral link is https://playground.shortime.en/invite/NKNIWI (all letters) and it should get you a bonus)) and iQIYI app.

Content Warnings: punches (both between the leads and between other characters), bullying, non con kisses, drugging, non con picture taking/sharing/outing

What I Liked
- swimming setting
- visuals
- at least the water injury had a better reason
- a character reported the coach
- the dad got punched

Room For Improvement
- too much bullying, could start at episode 5, I would have rated it higher except for the punches multiple times
- noble idiot trope
- the dad needed more consequences

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Han...

There was a scene after the Japanese dismantled the Joseon army that was full of oppressive brutality and people (soldiers and innocent civilians) dying on the streets. That scene affected me emotionally in a way that was really sudden and unexpected.

Not that long ago, I learned about the word Han 한, a feeling of collective and generational grief that is relevant exclusively to Korea and its people. I'm not Korean but I am from a country that experienced brutal occupation and colonization for more than a century, and when I was watching that scene (specifically that one, for some reason) I had this moment as if time went still and an overwhelming feeling of empathy and grief for my own ancestors went through me. I probably will never understand how Han feels but that was the closest I believe I'd ever get to truly comprehending it.

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Decent for 1 of like 3 Omegaverse BL's we got

I wanna start off by saying we are all forgetting that this is based off of the NOVEL and the direction of the series is going by said novel. A lot of the critiques I have read are things that the originally writer put it. Was it weird that Phatsa knew nothing about the secondary genders? Of course it was, but it was written that way.

There are cringey moments, lets be real, but there are a LOT of cringey shit in the thai bl's I have watched, I always chalk it up to it being a culture thing.
I do agree that it could have been better, but we have almost zero omegaverse bl's to compare to. I will say the chinese one hit the ball out of the park with everything I wanted from an omegaverse series.
I enjoyed it, had the novel been written better then I believe they could have done better in the production.

I saw an argument that Nakhun doesnt change and I completely disagree, he went from insufferable to a big softie that knows he is not the boss at the end of the day no matter how much he tries to play one--Phatsa wears the pants of their relationship.
I think my BIGGEST complaint is I wanted to see more from Sangnuea and Naphitch--but I also haven't finished the novel yet so there might be more with them there.

Finally, I love Boat and Oat , I love seeing them on the screen and I look forward to their future projects! I love the two other couples as well, excited to see what they bring to the table next.

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mnet sucks, contestants carried the show

Another mess by mnet! In terms of how the system and things were structured. I was smiling a lot at the end but geonu’s team definitely made me smile way more lol. I love so many of the ballad performances and i get to know more faces and so many people are former contestants of survival shows or kpop groups like kim min seo which i didn’t know and i didn’t know jeup was apart of imfact.
There are many complaints i can say but i dont want to be too miserable but it does seem like mnet changed the format half way and i still feel like mnet is hiding a lot from us about how this show was structure. I feel bad for the non idol singers or korean singers, idk what theyre called because it felt like this show was mostly idol or former idol heavily leaned.
A confusing thing to note from what i read, the judges had zero say in the final round which is confusing lol

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