Reviews

First episode, the only female characters : a nurse is insulted, a woman hangs herself, a technician narrowly avoids being sexually assaulted (saved by a man), a girlfriend in the middle of lovemaking is shot with a machine gun.
And it doesn't get any better after that. It's just guys, real tough guys, because we're real virile males, yeah.

Yet another series glorifying the police (and their video surveillance service, apparently ?). In fact, we are told that bureaucracy prevents brave cops from saving lives. And journalists ? they do nothing but annoy the police who protect us at the risk of their lives. If that's true, it's very serious !

There are lots of little visual effects that fuel a dynamic montage, even if the plot doesn't advance much. (The villain's motivations... a bit light, shall we say) For example : the strategy of showing the same scene from a different angle from one episode to the next, classic and effective. It's not necessarily the most subtle approach, but the extreme situations that follow one another without any downtime, the villain who is having a good time, and people's cowardice in the face of harassment make this series compelling. Simple but engaging.

To be honest, I watched it to unwind after When Life Gives You Tangerine.

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“I've finally caught the shadow that haunted you. From now on your world will only have light.” And now we understand the dream at the beginning. The subtext, children. The subtext ! Subtlety and finesse are... two words from the dictionary.

God, it's beautiful. It's constantly changing, as if someone couldn't accept that we might get bored for even five seconds. All the night scenes are colorful and bright. The light in this series ! The episodes fly by without you even noticing. The same goes for the music ; you don't even notice it. It's mean to say this, yes, but it never stops, so it loses its effect. The moments when the music stops suddenly become unsettling. However, the song whispered in silky vocals stands out.

It's so unfair to see Yifan facing so many trials alone, all those disgusting guys (ordinary ones, let's be clear). We hear about other cases of abusers around her, she has to work on this subject as a journalist, but she's never given the opportunity to talk about what she herself has been through.
We are shown how the family unit takes precedence over the suffering of the victims, which is realistic. A mother who does not come to her daughter's aid, who does not listen to her cries for help or her later requests to be left alone as an adult... Forced to cut off all means of contacting her to pretend she didn't survive the assault, since that's all her mother understands : the right victim is the one who dies. It's a very good choice not to offer redemption to the mother. But on the other hand it's a shame, though, that the series leads a little too easily to the conclusion that, fortunately, there are good guys out there to protect women. (Will we ever get over this ?)

Anyway.

Then I was shocked. What kind of teachers get involved in their students' romantic relationships ? And the family taking over ? Excuse me ? It's even more outrageous when you know the whole story.
And everyone drives a Porsche, apparently. The famous Chinese brand, so inexpensive. Quite normal for Sang Yan, who works at a video game company during the day and owns a posh bar at night. What a hard worker.
I was also surprised by the slapstick humor. Pleasantly so. I didn't expect to see that in this kind of story.

What a beautiful love story, though. I'm talking, of course, about Yifan and her adorable little cat. That brave little creature is so well-behaved, bravo to her, she's the best. The real star of this series.

Meanwhile, it's beautiful how Sang Yan sends messages indirectly and tries to understand Yifan, giving her the choice to respond or avoid the subject ; he is there for her. Without saying a word, he puts protective covers on the furniture to protect her while she sleepwalks. On the other hand, when they're young, this obsession is a bit awkward, but luckily he keeps his distance and is ready to support her.
This young adult couple tortures each other, and circles around each other, repeating over and over how impossible it is to live together, while living together. You're already a couple. Damn it !
Besides that, they are incredibly mature and give good advice about other people's relationships. It's a real running gag.
This attention and listening between the characters is one of the strengths of the show.

However, their friends and the little grandpa, even their coworkers, everyone is so kind and attentive, ready to help, and yet... Yifan suffers alone. She will want to disappear. Leaving her friends devastated, wondering if it's their fault. Far be it from me to accuse her ; this is normal behavior when you experience trauma. I'm certainly not one to judge her. There comes a time when survival becomes unbearable.

The last part of this series is designed to break us into little pieces. And then try to put it all back together again... by refusing to give us the glue for that.
In episode 21, the circular shot in the apartment with their lives playing out over several days in one go, the music rising in intensity... it's as if they want to make us cry. They've succeeded. But I'm not congratulating you, cruel writers.

“Yifan. You deserve the best. Stop saying sorry.”
“There is nothing shameful or humiliating about this. You did nothing wrong. You did the right thing. You protected yourself. You were brave. You should be standing tall, fearless, in the sunlight. That villain is the one who belongs in the gutter.”
“I usually cried all night. But as the pain got worse, I grew quieter, little by little. Until one day, I couldn't even cry anymore.”
I'm so sorry for what happened to you.

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I don‘t know what to think

Puhhhh
Actually, I watched it because so many people talked about it and loved it, so I was excited. For me it is really hard to say what I feel about this show. The quality was very good, actually, so the special effects at least worked good, especially if you compared them with other supernatural Thai shows.

For me the biggest problem was I couldn't connect with the main character. I think as a viewer you get not enough information about why khem is how he is, so most of the time I couldn't connect with him. That's why he felt flat and boring, and I sadly lost interest at his story. Besides him, it also felt hard to connect with the other main character, Pheem. So I sadly couldn't feel anything when I saw them both being together. I think the side couple worked so much better, and I think it is because you see them grow together.

The biggest problem was that the main story is very complex, and you need to focus so much that I think they forgot to develop the chemistry between the main characters.

I liked the villain of the story because over time you start to understand why she hates so much and where it comes from. But the ending of that so important main story was underwhelming and kind of boring. Actually, I watched the last episodes mostly at 1.5 speed because I just wanted to finish at some point.

I‘m sad that I feel how I feel because I saw the potential, but for me it just didn‘t work out.

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The Koreans still have an open wound when it comes to the adoption and so : theft of children. The Japanese and American evangelists ‘helped themselves’ and profited in an inhumane way. No reparations are planned in this regard. So it's understandable that a series like this would be released in this country.
Well, here we are swimming in eugenics, as a bonus. How horrible. Unfortunately, no one will be surprised to see this kind of thing happening soon. We are going to have eugenic laws on births, I am sure of it. We already have them on assisted suicide instead of care.

The four over-trained young people sometimes mess up and act impulsively. They avoid confrontation several times and covering for each other. I like their dynamic.
With relatively little character development, we can still distinguish different personalities, which is all we need, really. They work well together. Less is more.
Everything moves quickly, and the series flows smoothly as we move from one traumatic story to the next.

The only concern is the main villain. She changes her behavior too abruptly from one scene to another. It becomes tiring after a while. How can we trust someone so unreliable ?

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Drama! Tears! Laughter! Heart!

This show has more drama & tears than a melodrama and more laughs than a comedy! If you're not moved by it, then you've got a heart of stone!

The very cute kids, and teachers, pulled off a miracle by putting on a play in only 2 weeks. I felt so proud watching the final performance.

I was a big fan of Kim Taeri beforehand, and this show has increased my admiration even more! Her passion, hard work, sincerity, empathy and enthusiasm are inspiring.

It's a shame that the initial marketing focused on the conflict between Kim Taeri & Choi Hyun-Wook over their different attitudes to the acting classes, so that put many people off and the viewership ratings were disappointingly low. Those ratings don't reflect the quality of the show, and it's well worth watching this heartwarming project.

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Go Min-si can play both a cold-blooded killer and sociopath in The Frog, and an adorable, funny, and kind chef in Tastefully Yours. She can also paint strange but colourful pictures and cook delicious spaghetti. Don't eat it !
A very good thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat without being sleazy. It shows the consequences of events on the characters' lives. And the fact that there are two timelines without us realising it for quite a while is so clever.
The only annoying thing is those few scenes that are imagined and only take place in the mind of one of the protagonists. My time is precious, you know ? I have to look outside with a nostalgic air, and that's not going to happen on its own.

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Being short and having a bit of acne apparently makes you an ugly Chinese woman. These beauty standards are infuriating. I didn't think I could endure this young woman's humiliation throughout the entire series. And I was right.
One might think that, fortunately, this is offset by the fact that the ‘beautiful’ and ‘ugly’ versions of the character are played by the same actress. It's a bit like Ms. Doubtfire, but less problematic, in the end... no ? no, of course not.

To be honest, the male character is very annoying. He thinks he's superior, he behaves badly, and he throws a "you're so ugly" at Su Chengcheng the first time he sees her since their teenage years, even though she is clearly in distress. He uses his position as boss to hit on a stranger by offering her a modelling job. He wants to marry her, she's the woman of his life, he never gives up and calls her constantly... yet she's not interested and he simply doesn't know her. I think there's a name for that kind of behaviour in court. And these are just the very first episodes...

No, I didn't get very far into the series. That guy annoyed me, I don't want to know what Chengcheng sees in him and how they will end up together. Then I read that it promotes generative AI. That's it, I'm done. So this is a totally arbitrary and undeserved bad rating I'm giving to this CDrama. No one should take it into account. (As with all my reviews, for that matter)

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This K-drama's good reputation is well deserved. It achieves a lot with very little. The plot isn't actually very complex, but despite that, we want to know what happens next, right now.

It's funny to see the same synopsis as a Stephen King short story but with a completely different treatment. King Stephen takes the unique perspective of the elderly wife who discovers that her husband is a serial killer and talks about the collapse of her world, her fading memories, how everything was just a mirage, a life wasted with a cruel manipulator. In this series, the focus is entirely on the investigation, and the relationship between the investigating wife and the alleged serial killer husband serves only to add suspense and tension to the main story. It's the plot that drives the show. We don't even care about the victims ; they're just pawns.
There are a few flashbacks here and there, but they only make this couple seem even more unlikely. I don't understand how she can fall in love with a guy who is so dishonest, cold and distant towards her, and who takes five seconds to feign the appropriate emotion. He is described as a master manipulator, but frankly, no, not really. The guy is more suspicious than my cat in front of a glass of water on the edge of the table. And this is coming from an autistic little guy. (me) We're asked to believe in his good intentions after all the harm he willingly caused by hiding his past from his wife. Fortunately, this criticism comes from his colleague, Choi Jae Seop, one of the most interesting characters. And the last episode touches on it again without really confirming it.

The questionable aspects : several times we are denied information so as not to move too quickly, and that really annoys me. I had understood the involvement of the doctor's son some time ago (and I'm not very smart), but they drag it out for a looong time.
The sister could help with the investigation from the start, she wants to do so, but... we don't know, she takes her time, she has other things to do. A little hypnosis session to recover her memories ? Come on, let's believe in this psychobabble.
And the couple's daughter, Eun-ha, disappears when the writers don't know what to do with her anymore, and the grandmother is kind enough to take care of her.
And the journalist with round glasses who followed the sister everywhere and watched her at home and tried to break into her house at night, he gets away with it, which makes me anxious.
Finally, the same musics comes back far too often. It becomes redundant.

Not cool : investigator Cha Ji-won threatening to kill a suspect because the police sometimes kill people who resist arrest. And this is presented as positive and proof of her professional qualities. I'm not sure I agree with this kind of discourse when we're still being led to believe in ‘suicide by cop’, a myth invented by the police and repeated in TV series.

In fact, she is infinitely more badass when she traps her husband to push him into the corner of his own inventions. He has put himself in this absurd situation and doesn't understand what is happening to him. Otherwise, he could tell her the truth right away if he really loved her. He cares too much about his own comfort. The only time he expresses regret is when she corners him and he risks losing everything : a classic strategy to avoid having to face the consequences of our actions. But that's not what the series says. It says that he loves his wife tenderly, that he is changing for the better, and that love always wins in the end... This character's behaviour is really the big weak point of this story. We save him because the real murderer is even more odious. What's more, we're supposed to feel sorry for poor Do Hyun Su, who threatens his wife with a knife and then dares to complain that she gets angry. He makes her feel guilty after the hell he puts her through ? No, stop ! The last episode tries to make up for all this, but unfortunately, it didn't work for me. I didn't buy it.

I criticise, it's wrong, what a shame, I feel guilty ! I'm a disgrace to this universe. But I liked this series. Nevertheless, I think it's ranked too high, and 16 episodes ? Too long for what it ultimately offers us.

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Palace intrigues, Zang Hai's revenge, power struggles, diabolical plots, convoluted mysteries that we always manage to unravel... it's all very well done. It's a joy to watch each episode. It's a long and beautiful play about the corruption of power and revenge. The plot keeps us in suspense, wondering what schemes Zang Hai has been plotting right under our noses without us noticing, and suddenly he extricates himself from the trap he has fallen into, that mischievous little raccoon. I think it's brilliant that the main character doesn't know how to fight with weapons, but with his mind, his rhetoric, and his knowledge of the mysteries of power. Following him has been fascinating.

The music in this series is simply wonderful. It varies greatly, doesn't repeat itself too much, and adds so much to the atmosphere and elegant grace of the staging. The musical composition is exemplary, making you feel respected, with the main theme returning tirelessly without becoming boring. The sets and costumes are equally impressive. It's incredibly beautiful. A feast for the eyes and ears. Episode 27, the putsch episode with percussion and soldiers' choirs throughout, was masterful.

There are sword fights in the rain, of course. How could there not be ?

All this is very good, but... what a beautiful couple Zang Hai and Zhuang Zixing make. They gaze at each other intently and tenderly, take hot baths together (‘It's not a coincidence. You came here for me, didn't you ?’), and meet secretly at night. Just like Princess Antu and her good childhood friend, Eight. Very very close friends and affectionate, of course. No double meanings, naturally. What do you think... *turns the table upside down* Stop the queerbaiting ! you're not Disney, are you ? Kiss each other, for God's sake ! I've put incense everywhere, sorry.

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"I love the moon, yet the moon doesn't know"

Yet another series where a female warrior fights with a whip.

Yeah, not to brag, but I also saw Mulan when I was a kid, and it wasn't too bad. (no memory) And then, I'm all for inclusivity but against the army, which causes a terrible dilemma when watching this great series.

The feminist message is always welcome, but unfortunately it doesn't fly very high (a french expression) ; I imagine it's difficult to be more “offensive” in a series set in historical costume. Despite this, He Yan remains incredibly strong and independent, she is afraid of no one and teaches her male counterparts some valuable life lessons. She even inspires one of them in his quest for revenge. However, the message can be interpreted as follows : women can also become military leaders if they work ten times harder than men, come from the aristocracy and survive assassination attempts. Not sure that's very positive !

Nevertheless, unfortunately, everyone eventually discovers that this talented soldier is actually a woman in disguise. I didn't know that heart rates differed between men and women. It's like in some Indian films where nurses can tell if a woman is pregnant by taking her pulse. All of this is extremely credible, of course. The science of the pulse.

‘I'm here to tell you that regardless of my name or gender, I would always become General Fei Hong.’

By the way. Speaking of gender. Did you know that there are countless examples of people changing gender until the end of the medieval period ? Especially from female to male, to be honest. The historian Clovis Maillet discusses this in his book 'Les genres fluides' (in French only, I'm afraid) and Patrick Boucheron in his lectures 'Le sexe du Pouvoir'. (french too, sorry)
A character like He Yan could very well have lived and been recognized as a man in the West, if he had wanted to. This fluidity, which lasted until the emergence of hetero-patriarchy around the 14th century, poses a problem for research because for people of those times it was not an issue, it was just the way things were, so it is sometimes mentioned, but not always, and we can only guess at it. A person is a man because they live that way and are recognised as such, period. When they die, it is quickly noted that an abbot was buried in women's clothing, because they return to the gender assigned to them at birth on the day of their death. And then we move on. Sometimes it is really just the pronoun that changes on the death certificate.
In a Confucian society like China, I have no idea if it's comparable. Not sure.
Anyway, trans rights are human rights. No matter where or when.

‘I killed you once, and I can kill you again.’

The episodes move quickly. Don't blink too soon, or you might miss a scene. I challenge anyone to get bored watching this. It never stops. The plot moves at such a pace that I didn't really follow the conspiracy that is discussed so eagerly throughout much of the series. Sorry, fellow scriptwriters. But sometimes we jump a little abruptly from a night-time festival to the headquarters of a distant city. (Very entertaining episodes, though.) And we don't really know what Chu Zhao is doing for quite a while, whether he's an ally or an enemy. Oh well, never mind, do your thing if you want. In the last few episodes, he was becoming a pain, it has to be said.

The humour works really well despite the tragic events at the beginning. The heroine has fun when she decides to take control of her life and flirt with the commander, Huaijin. The two play cat and mouse. It's extremely cute and funny, and often brings a smile to your face. Zhou He/He Yan is hilarious when she strains her voice to annoy Ryan Cheng/Huaijin, pushing him to his limits as he tries to remain impassive.

"Commander, I just want to feel your sword." Everyone calm down. It's his sword, actually. Um. Not like this.

The fights are beautifully choreographed. Sometimes defying the laws of physics. Well done, cables ! We get to see all the settings, all the weapons, all the clashes, everything, night and day, in the rain, in the snow, on top of a mountain, in alleyways, on a battleground. What a treat !

"I'm the ghost of the one you murdered." I'll make a note of that. I'll have to use it again.

As for the music, it's certainly beautiful, especially the string quartet, but it's too present. We need to breathe, after all. Unfortunately, that's how Cdramas are made. I'll have to get used to it.

"Once upon a time, only the moon could see my face." Same here. What a coincidence.

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If you like lighthearted stories with cute couples and awesome chemistry, this one if for you!

I really enjoyed this one! Main leads relationship is soooo cute and they really feel like a couple. They were always kissing, hugging...their intimacy level was high. We had cute AND hot scenes of them and it didn’t feel forced at all, their chemistry is just natural. The main story is nothing new tho, just like any college rom-com, but I believe the couple can carry everything with their chemistry.

Duang is sooo cute!! A little over the top, yes, and maybe you’ll find him annoying but it wasn’t my case. To me he was easily likeable. Teetee did a great job here because Duang has some really cringe scenes but it felt naturally with Teetee’s acting. He matched the character vibes perfectly. Qin is more reserved and introverted but he opens up more later and becomes a cute character as well. In general DuangQin couple the definition of a cat and dog relationship. I enjoyed Duang’s friends too, their friendship was really cute!

One thing I didn’t like that much was the secondary couple. I felt their dynamics was a little weird and they had potential to bring more to the table. They almost didn’t have screentime too and it looked like they were only there to fill the gap.

In general it’s a lighthearted drama with cute characters, awesome chemistry and very few problems to get in the way of the couple. When the couple gets together, they're REALLY together, and everything is resolved through dialogue. Definitely a good start for the year!

PS: I’m already excited for the next projects of TeeteePor couple! I’m seeing some clips of them on Twitter and they’re so lovely 😭

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These two detectives have no concept of personal space or privacy. They should have lived together from the start.

“Can I trust you ? To the point that even if the truth comes out, your trust will remain ?”

A thriller that starts off very strong but runs out of steam two-thirds of the way through. We have everything we need to solve the mystery, and we get lost in confirmations of what we already know, and we wait a little too long for the solution. Twelve episodes would have been enough instead of sixteen. The beginning offers dynamic staging, nighttime rain, and landscapes like fields of reeds. But it quickly becomes shot-reverse shot and close-ups on faces. It's curious because the same thing happens in Good Boy by the same director, Sim Na-yeon. But they're still quality series !

I saw Kim Shin-rock in two good series this year, where she played completely different characters. So much so that I wasn't sure it was the same actress. I find her here, again in a radically different role. I love this kind of professional who knows how to reinvent herself and deliver demanding performances.

On the other hand, the series presents journalists as disrespectful and stupid troublemakers. And the police as a big, supportive family in the positive sense of the term, sticking together against the bad apples. Whereas, well... the police are mostly a mafia that covers for each other so they never have to answer for their actions.

Ps : In episode 1, it is explained that you can only report someone missing if they are a minor, autistic, mentally disabled, or suffering from dementia. In Korea, if I, a responsible and independent adult, cut ties with my dangerous family, someone can report me missing and send the cops after me ? What a nightmare ! People disappear for their own legitimate reasons. The police are there to continue harassing them.

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It's impressive to advance investigations across multiple time frames like that. They intertwine from one case to the next to paint a complete picture at the end. What a feat of writing by Kim Eun-hee.
These multi-layered plots are always fun, as witnesses are needed to provide new clues, so we revisit previous scenes and discover each time that someone else was there and saw everything. All those prying eyes !
It really is the excellent suspense series it promised to be. Each episode ends with mounting tension and a new element to the investigation. It takes several minutes to get there, not just painful cliffhangers. And thankfully so, given the traumas that are addressed. It's emotionally heavy going. The walkie-talkie scene: "I've waited 15 years for you. Say something, please !"...

That said, body language is complete bullshit. Only charlatans sell their expertise in this field, which has absolutely no scientific basis. It's on a par with psychological assessments for the courts. Complete rubbish. And profiling isn't based on anything either. (We can attribute all sorts of intentions to murderers since their opinions don't count. And we will never be inside their heads) At least it makes for good plot devices. And we even get the hypnosis sequence to recover memories, the whole shebang ! (Memory isn't a hard drive where you can retrieve a file of memories.)

Accidentally, a series that denounces the police. Welcome to this conference.

From the second episode onwards, we see that the police lie to extract confessions. They lie and intimidate the suspect. It's scandalous, but tragically, these people have the right to do so, and even if they didn't, they would never refrain from doing it. They also have no right to kill people or deprive them of medication and sleep in their cells, but that has never stopped them.
Later, the young inspector threatens an old gangster with charging him with illegal gambling if he doesn't give him the answers he wants, and this is presented in a positive light because it advances the investigation. It's just threats and abuse of power, even corruption, since he's turning a blind eye to a crime in exchange for something...
In fact, these police series always put us in the shoes of police officers who do unacceptable things, but because we want to know who is guilty, we end up validating them. Instead of rebelling. What right do they have to ruin other people's lives ? Their curiosity and ability to destroy us should be questioned, but never is.

At one point, a police officer lectures during an interrogation, saying that the victims had families who loved them. It really annoys me to hear that. What if the people who were murdered were alone, isolated, without families ? Would it be okay to kill them then ? Great message.
Another lecture from a policewoman to a colleague : he should shut up and obey instead of trying to "impose his opinions"... he was just trying to help with the investigation and the chief wasn't listening to him. And then she adds : "I don't know why you hate the police so much." I have a few ideas, if you want to hear them. But don't change a thing, you stupid police officers ! Keep up the good work with your 6 out of 10 unsolved cases. It has never been the goal of the police, anyway, contrary to what the copaganda would have us believe. And it's not a question of rules or laws preventing them from doing so, they already don't respect the law.

Throughout, the section chief is portrayed as a poor cop tortured by his choices, and he is offered redemption when he searches for a scarf, evidence that he could have shared instead of keeping it to himself. He wanted to ease his conscience, selfishly, after lying and destroying. The guy is a scumbag, period. I hate the way crime series redeem bastards who have done nothing to earn forgiveness. He's suffering in his little heart ? That's the least he deserves. It's like asking me to mourn the murder of a Nazi by another Nazi (a totally hypothetical situation). No, no, no, my eyes are dry.

In this series, with all their little speeches about being good police officers, I started to wonder if it wasn't all tongue-in-cheek. They spend their time pissing people off with their haughty, moralising attitudes without ever arresting the right people. Those losers. And then they're all miserable, the poor things.

No, but I liked the series, eh ! It's great. It's just that I can't stand stories about nice detectives devoted to truth and justice. It's so far from reality.

PS: In episode 7, the woman in the café is reading a huge tome by Walter Benjamin. Good for her. I love that philosopher, but I don't know if I could read that to relax in a crowded place.
PS2: Saying that you become a serial killer because you were abused as a child is very silly given the prevalence of adultism against children.
PS3: Either talk or eat, but don't do both, you bunch of slobs ! What is this mixing ?

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