Reviews

Was it just me, or did anyone else notice that Namneung and Noey look very similar from certain angles? Before watching the series, I honestly thought they looked like sisters or cousins, lol!

Regarding the series itself, I had been eagerly waiting for it to air. The enemies-to-lovers concept in the pilot felt so thrilling, and since this was Namneung and Noey's first official series as a lead couple, my expectations were a little high. Unfortunately, the plot wasn't very appealing. Why did the aunt treat a literal child that way? It is infuriating how selfish she was, and who did she even think she was? Despite her high status in the family, her behaviour felt incredibly small-minded and immature for her age. There is absolutely no excuse that could ever justify her misdeeds toward both Kaphrao and Fai.

Furthermore, I strongly believe that Fai's father was entirely in the wrong too. All of the elders who should have been responsible ended up misleading the children instead. I was quite annoyed by Fai in the first few episodes, but the later episodes explained her perspective and made her feelings somewhat convincing. Imagine having a distant father who brings a child home, calls her your sister, and then starts taking care of her more than you. Even though young Fai was small and unaware of the full situation, we are shown the full extent of her character flaws. I still believe she should have taken accountability for her actions and helped Kaphrao in their childhood itself, no matter what the rumors were.

I honestly wonder how the aunt managed to get such special treatment, letting everyone—Fai, her father, and even Kaphrao—bend to her will. Her manipulation and dark, timid, selfish aura completely ruined the vibe of the series for me. Why did no one realize from the very start that her behavior was toxic and uncharacteristic of a well-minded person?

I would have preferred to see more scenes of Fai and Kaphrao before they officially got together. While I don't think Fai's love for Kaphrao felt rushed or forced for her character development, it still would have been special to watch her realize her feelings and yearn for Kaphrao a little longer. Instead, I feel like Kaphrao never received the apology or the love she truly deserved, even by the final episode during their mutual apologies and the proposal. It felt like she always had to step aside and sacrifice her own needs for others. Even when Fai hated being distant from Kaphrao, she still did it just to appease her aunt.

I did enjoy some of Fai and Kaphrao's scenes together, especially their bickering and the way they tried to hide their affection for one another. However, as I mentioned, the entire series felt deeply uneven because of that one idiotic, selfish aunt, alongside the frustrating behavior of Fai and her father.

The core of their marriage at the end wasn't what I expected, and I wasn't fond of how it played out either. I was so uninterested at that point that even seeing the other main leads at the wedding couldn't highlight the moment for me. By then, I was just happy that they were finally a couple.

Out of the entire 4 Elements series, I would rank The Earth in a good place for its amazing performances, strong plot, and refreshing fashion sense. I also really liked The Water, despite its plot. And given how disappointing The Air turned out to be, The Fire was definitely a better watch than The Air.

:/

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The poster promises more than the script delivers.

I'm not the biggest fan of mixing horror with war. The war is scary enough. People kill other people skillfully enough, we don't need monster added to that mix. It only works when it's strictly soldiers focused - so then it becomes more of an action horror. If civilians are added in the mix, it ain't it. Especially when the the war set up is too grand for the weak script.

They tried to make it a cohesive story for the Japanese being the invaders on Thai territory like the main characters were invading the monsters lair, but that created a contradiction that was not explored at all in the script - how the monster that represented the attacked Thai people was the bad guy in that specific situation, and how war and attacks are often more complex if we talk about specific people on the group compared to few people who make the decisions.

So yes, the set up was solid, the plot overall was weak. The moment they end up in the cave, there is no story at all. Which overall is not a bard thing in horror movies - some we just watch to witness fun monster fighting people. But if you give me an emotional war set up, you gotta follow with something stronger.

Initially I was not crazy about the monster's design, but later they presented some fun ideas like it animating dead body by eating through them. Gross, but effective. Especially since the deformations in the bodies were different.

The acting was fine. No really outstanding performances. I liked the special effects - I feel like often in these movies they struggles to match the lighting of the CGI monster with the light in the background so it stands out too much, looking fake. They did a good job with it here.

Overall, decent watch, but not one I would be recommending to people.

I'm curious how the Japanese and Thai people feel about this movie :)

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OH! L.O.R.D.

Many years ago, I stumbled upon LORD2 without any prior knowledge of its characters or lore. I was instantly mystified and awed—drawn into its mysterious world, its stories, and the aura surrounding its characters. Only after finishing it did I realize that what I had just watched was nearly the ending of the series.

Curious, I looked up LORD1 and was surprised to see many familiar faces. I saved it to watch later, but the right time or mood never came—until today, almost three or four years later. In the meantime, I had seen the drama adaptation of LORD, which offered a more drawn‑out view of the story. Yet my fascination with its universe never faded—the seven dukes, the silver priests, the four kingdoms. These elements strike a chord with me in ways I can’t quite explain.

Watching LORD1 now, I came across reviews calling the story messy. Personally, I didn’t feel that at all. Some say it’s meant for those who already know the tale, and I agree to an extent. But even setting aside my prior knowledge, LORD1 felt well‑paced, well‑written, and well‑executed. In just two hours, it managed to cover a compelling arc with the right balance of mystery and the freshness of a beginning legend.

No complaints. Next weekend I might revisit LORD2 to quench my thirst for mystery—hopefully it won’t take me another couple of years to return to it.

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Slowed part way through.

Aug 2026.
Started strong and I was hooked, but the story did lose momentum just after half-way, with a pick-up at the close.

It wasn't spooky enough for me, because as the story began to centre more on Yeo-ri's past and its impact on the present, with the usual Chaebol shenanigans, the ghosts took a real back seat.

Some of the supporting plot arcs were quite emotional, and I was brough to tears a couple of times.

Some character's reactions to certain things/events I found very odd, and Gang-uk's grandma actually drove me nuts with how intrusive and controlling she was allowed to be.

A bit slow at times, lacked 'punch', nice cast though and a neat ending. I don't regret watching thus drama, but won't revisit.

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The character Min Ji, who didn't die from blood loss and didn't freeze to death...

Overall, I enjoyed watching it. I was curious. The production, direction, and acting were very good. The action was incredibly satisfying. The excessive flashbacks were tedious. I would have been okay with one, two, or three, but a flashback in every episode was too much.
As for what I didn't like,
The events involving President Ju, in particular, were structured in a way that didn't align with reality. Instead of apologizing to a man he captured two or three times, it would have been wiser to have him surrender to the law. That would have been more realistic. But the fact that the person was left to his own devices each time, and this malicious character, taking advantage of this, constantly harassed, kidnapped, beaten, and even harmed Kim and her friends and their children, didn't work. This person was a character who didn't change his spots. He showed his bad nature every time. We see this very often in scripted games designed to extend episodes, but we also need to look at the events from a more realistic perspective.
The plot already included comedic elements, essentially laying the groundwork for the mistakes made, and it was strange that these types of state agents would behave this way. It was like trying to fix one thing and breaking another. It lacked seriousness. Of course, inserting these kinds of elements to avoid boring the viewer was a nice touch. However, the dosage needs to be carefully adjusted.

Another point is that after the girl, Ji Min, is kidnapped, injured, and bleeds, she's constantly being taken around, which means she's going to die from blood loss. She's also been put in an ice room, essentially given a death sentence. But strangely, she hasn't died, nor has she deteriorated; she's running around and fighting villains. The fact that she's supposed to freeze to death in -50 degrees, or at least be sick and bedridden, is so alive and well, and doesn't even drink a sip of water until her father rescues her, seems to have been overlooked. She should have been taken to the hospital after hitting her head. She should have been under a doctor's care. The conclusion is that if you had asked a doctor for their opinion, he should have been dead. The script was very poorly written. Some things were completely overlooked and I found it lacking in seriousness. I didn't like these things. And there were many similar things, but even this much, in my opinion, cast a shadow on the series. That's why I lowered my rating. However, since I enjoyed watching it, I would recommend it to those who want to watch it. Especially recommended for action lovers.

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Mild spoilers ahead

Everything the show did well:
>Excellent acting, easily some of the franchise's best
>Really great visual direction, atmosphere setpieces and shot composition
>The ability to warp the scenery of dreams remains a constant throughout the show making fights and scenes feel unique
>Great soundtrack aside from the insert songs
>Most monsters of the week are pretty entertaining, the detective work the cast does in the first half of the show too
>Baku is a really great protagonist, he's both endearing and stylish while not feeling absurdly overpowered despite his dream abilities, his gadgets and use of capsems outside of fights also make him feel resourceful
>All of the main villains feel menacing
>Most individual stories of the 2-parters are fun on their own even though the second half is fully serialized

Everything the show did poorly:
>The show's main rival Nox is a really frustrating character throughout the whole show
>The big plot-twist in the middle makes the female lead Nem considerably less useful in the second half in spite of her massive relevance to the story
>Another thing that doesn't help these two and the other characters that aren't Baku is the pacing on the second half, despite every 2-parter case in the second half being intrinsically tied to the plot they are placed in a way that works against the story/cast, it makes so that some characters don't have enough downtime to deal with tragedies, similar plot-twists happen back to back and most of the progress the show's cop duo Fujimi and Nasuka do in the second half be continously erased making them feel useless despite being likeable characters, this also leads to certain scenes with Sieg to feel awkwardly placed
>Most CODE agents are too underexplored
>The world-building behind the Nightmares feel really wonky
>The action direction feels weaker than other Reiwa Rider shows, but this is just a nitpick since the strong visual direction compensates for it allowing for most fights in the show still be really entertaining

Reasons for the show's strengths:
The show's lead director Kamihoriuchi is one of the best in the tokusatsu industry, the team of episode directors for the show were also really solid, despite most dreams taking place in urban areas this team managed to do a lot with the dream setting.
The chief producer Yanaka dividing his responsibilities among the other two vice producers and Kamihoriuchi allowed for certain aspects of the show like direction, bike scenes, fashion and casting to be enhanced.
Yanaka wanting to have more bike scenes and both him and VP Minato being hardcore fans of early Heisei Rider allowed for the show to have more bike scenes than usual.
VP Sota already has a lot of experience with casting due to having already handle multiple dramas so him being asked to handle it helped the acting being solid throughout.
Head writer Takahashi is good at creating stories with an exciting fast pacing, despite the story progressing kinda slowly in the first quarter of the show most cases retain this sort of pace allowing for the 2-parter stories to be exciting.

Reasons for the show's problems:
Takahashi likes to lots of villains acting simultaneously which results in them not getting the development they needed.
Yanaka's style of the 2-parter structure being more focused on creating an exciting story on the short term rather than a continuous story doesn't mesh well Takahashi's fast paced storytelling style making the pacing of the show's second half to feel off, this also leads to big twist in the middle being done for the sake of it rather than for an actual story reason.
Due to being assigned to make the first show with an international release Yanaka wanted to make this show as distinct from Power Rangers as possible, so he decided that every hero of the show should be continously against Baku throughout most of the story with to make him feel lonely. This feels as a conflict of interests with Takahashi who usually opts for the villains to be extremely evil, this leads to multiple characters feeling inconsistent since their moral conflict usually aren't enough of a justification for their nefarious actions, with the most egregious case of this being Nox.
The staff decided to not tell Nox' actor about his character so some scenes early on feel off once information later gets revealed.
For the enemies known as Lords the staff only made 2 suits, 1 male and 1 female. This seriously limited what they could do with these characters since it meant they couldn't transform together or that one character would suddenly stop transforming because the suit had already been cannibalized.

Overall:
Zeztz is a continuously entertaining ride but it's a show that feels bumpy the more you look back to. The small cases and certain plot beats work on a vacuum but the story as a whole isn't up to par. While most of the characters of the show are not only likable but well acted they feel severely underutilized aside from the protagonist Baku. Overall the show ends up being pretty good but not so standout, I at least feel that the staff succeeded in their goal of making a season that's good for beginners to toku to start with, I'd definitely recommend it as starting point for anyone interested in Rider or toku in general.

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A phoenix who never rise.

When i started this drama i already know it's not a big one and a top Xianxia but i like story with a FL who hide a power so i said to myself "why not giving it a chance".

The first 10 episodes are very good, i very like the academy part but after it's going down very fast. Each episode is more boring than the previous one, the support characters are very bad written, Bad played, we keep waiting for the famous phoenix and even when it's come it's with a poor plot. The lack if expérience is very visible.

I'm not going to write much about it, its a random Xianxia, with good CGI, poor writing.The side story with the cooking princess part is the only thing who keep me watching till the end.

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Good to pass the time

I was never really a fan of TayNew to start with, as much as I personally love New as an actor. But I admit this might be the worst BL both of them have ever played in. Don't get me wrong, the drama is not that bad, it's quite funny, and you might have a good laugh, but the plot is very weak and the characters' development too.

We follow the journey of a first responder who actually does everything but his job, and a flight attendant who sets foot on a plane once a year, but seems to have a lot of time on his hand to scheme about his cheating boyfriend. What's even the point of giving them a job at this point ? The series title "A Dog and a Plane" might confuse you about the importance of their status, but really, they will do anything but go to work.

The story is more focused on how they come to be a couple after what happened to Kanit. And even there, it didn't seem like much of a challenge for Toto, who probably just had to say "hi" to convince Kanit to date him. In fact, even the beginning where they are supposed to hate each other feels like a ten-year-old school fight. The story is lacking in every way, but it's not the worst BL I've watched. Just good enough, so it passes the time while not being that bored.

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Came for Byeon Woo Seok - stayed for Yoo Soo Bin

Tale as old as time, but nicely done. The chemistry was chemiing. IU was great as always, and Byeon Woo Seok was as handsome as ever.

But I didn’t stay for the romance — I stayed for the comedy, and that’s all thanks to Yoo Soo Bin. I’ve loved this guy since *Crash Landing on You*, so I was thrilled when I first saw him in this. His scenes actually made me laugh and that is rare.

The plot is very predictable, but I guess it’s not really supposed to be innovative. It’s cute, sweet and funny. Not something I’ll rewatch, but definitely a nice, cozy show for late evenings.

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likely has lots of LLM-generated parts in it

story is good and promising, but:

- intro seems to be LLM-generated, which results in me not being able to rate it more than 5 stars. If there's one thing artificially generated, it's very likely other parts are too. How can I be sure human musicians created the music, when they can't even pay human creatives to animate the intro? Gmmtv is more than rich, more than able to pay even the most expensive artists needed for a production like that.

- chatgpt was mentioned

- actresses often look forced and stiff. though that can also be due to camera choice and directing.

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Fun drama with a twist

I really enjoyed this one, the story was interesting, the setting was beautiful, the production was great.
But omg, I haven't seen a female character faint more in a drama than this one. At least once per episode, bam, lights out.
In addition to fainting, her other talent was preaching - so much preaching. I had to skip her parts more than once, it was so boring and self-righteous.
But the male lead more than makes up for the weakness of the female lead. He was brilliant, both well written and excellently executed by the actor. This is the first drama I watched with him, his performance was very good so I'll go check out his other dramas.

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Excellent Horror Mystery, ok romance

The production value on this is wild. The make up and special effects departement did an awesome job when it comes to the horror element.
The main story about the ritual killings is really not for the faint of heart and I don't quite see how this is 13+. Scared the hell out of me at times, it was so well done.
The romance was a bit meh and out of nowhere. Also, maybe I'm biased here, because the actor playing Thup has a super annoying voice and his acting skills are not en par with the rest of the cast.
Singha actor was good, but the actor playing King and the one playing Darin stole the show for me, as did creepy ghost lady.
All in all, I think this might have actually been better as horror mystery alone or with a romance between King and Singha.

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You Maniac is worth the wait

OMG!!! This first episode was SO GOOD! 😭🔥 WilliamEst!!!! The chemistry is OFF THE CHARTS! 👀🔥 Est’s cold persona is absolutely top-tier and william's acting is so good.—l’m obsessed! And I’m so excited to see Barcode and Kinn too! I already can’t wait for next week! 😭💙

Dean and Moth feels natural rather than forced. Even their smaller interactions have this underlying energy that makes you want to see what happens next.
I also like that the episode established the other relationships and gave the story somewhere to go instead of making everything revolve around the main couple. There is clearly going to be A LOT of messiness once everyone's feelings start colliding.
Visually, the series looks great, the pacing was solid, and the first episode did exactly what it needed to do: introduce the characters, establish the dynamics, and leave me wanting Episode 2 immediately.

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