Reviews

Life’s journey from birth to death.

**Worth watching? 💯 If you are a fan of slice-of-life films, then this is a double must-watch for you.**

Surprisingly, there's only one review of this masterpiece. I don’t often write reviews, which might explain my inexperienced writing. However, I’m here to share my thoughts.

This movie is a profound life experience. It begins with a wedding and ends with death, symbolizing the journey from the start of life to its inevitable end. It captures the journey from childhood innocence to youthful naivety and ultimately to the regrets of adulthood. This movie connected the unconnected individual in one knot. Highlights the various stages of life, each with its own existential crises, struggles, and perspectives from different characters. The film powerfully articulates the sense of isolation or disconnection that can linger, even in the company of many. The film teaches acceptance and helps us confront our own truths that we often ignore or fear to acknowledge.

From a storytelling viewpoint, as well as an aesthetic one, this film is a visual treat. The cinematography and camera work are exceptionally well-crafted.

Let’s end this review with one of my fav quote sections from the movie :
- "𝙇𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙖 𝙢𝙞𝙭𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙖𝙙 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨. 𝙈𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙤 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚, 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩'𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙮 𝙬𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢. 𝙈𝙮 𝙪𝙣𝙘𝙡𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙮𝙨 - '𝙬𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙚𝙚 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙨 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙣𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙢𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙨'"
- "𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘣𝘦?"
- "𝙄𝙩 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙨 𝙢𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙜𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙪𝙨 𝙩𝙬𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙚 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙙𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙮 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚”

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Romantically Intelligent drama with the most Lovable Narcissist ML ???

So I had already watched it once last Year, when I had just started watching Kdramas. And then this series felt good, but nothing exceptional. It took me an year to develop the direction,story telling and the cultural understanding to really appreciate it, when I saw it the second time. The story is good, but it's the Narration, direction and acting is what really makes this series! It's very intelligence but in a emotionally artistic way.
It's peaks at episode 8-10 into such a unreal (boss and secretary) but relatable (the dynamics of romantic relationship)way.

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WOW LIKE REALLY WOW.

I am listening to the end theme of legend of Zang Hai while writing this. Honestly this is the only series that I watched with a proper plan, an even better plan than my future. 3 days, 60 hours, 1800 minutes and 40 marvelous episodes. I have used drama as a coping mechanism and during every worst day of my life I found refugee in xiao Zhan’s dramas or revenge dramas. So that is I am a hard core xiao Zhan fan and revenge dramas are an addiction to me. This drama left me broken. I have not been this happy in quite some times. I almost cried to the last episode that I didn’t want this drama to end.
Now personal things aside, what is legend of Zang Hai. It is in short, a revenge story. A story that deals with not characters but real people. Usually in stories we tend to have people who tend to be reflection of what we want us to be and us not to be. But LOZH has real people. Here we can’t label them as good human or bad human, everyone is just human. Like you can’t really trust anyone. No one is pure nor is anyone truly rotten to core. And that right there made this drama so special to me. Now why is it a success as a revenge drama. Because most dramas fail to bring out that most revenges stem out from hatred and that hate clouds our mind and turns us into someone whom we wouldn’t even recognize. It also did a wonderful job in exploring the true expressions of love, hate doubt, duty, filial piety, joy, sorrow and hate. Then there is the acting. Honestly the people in this drama-not just xiao Zhan’s character- were well casted and even more importantly were incredibly talented. Ming Xiang an tu, Gao min, Zhao Bingwen, Zhuang Zhi Xing and at last Zang Hai were all compelling. Especially certain seances solely performed by xiao Zhan were just right. Many tell he was over expressive and others complain they were sallow, but as far as I understood, xiao Zhan put in a lot of effort to bring out authentic and relatable expression of complicated emotions. And the credit also goes to the director. In fact, the potential of actors can only be brought to light when they work with such talented directors. They made us believe what they believed and wanted us to believe. The crew also did a good job on framing, camara, editing and Ost. The screen was filled with good quality props and beautiful organization and director’s brilliance.
Now the cons. The script. It wasn’t awful. But neither was it the best. The script failed to maintain a constant pace. The first 20 episodes were rather lagging. 20-30 were rather more compelling and paced in a very orderly manner. 30-40 were simply packed with information that could have been used to develop more of a hook to the story. In my humble opinion if 50% of the details used in last 10 episodes were equally distributed in between the first 20 episodes it would have been remarkable. But the script tried to bring out beautiful representations of familial bonds and situations in most Asian household. The dynamics between Gao ming and Zang Hai were so beautifully portrayed. Another thing is romance. They are in love but it could have been more tempting if we had more instances to support their likes and dislikes.
Overall, I really enjoyed this drama. It is one in a million. If you compare it with the glory and or the double this is far far better and sticks to its ‘revenge’ plot. But if you compare it to true gems like nirvana in fire, then it could have done way better.

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low key and absolutely charming

2025 kdrama sageuk fantasy, 16 eps at 1hr ea. Low-key romedy, absolutely charming; the grudges of ghosts, curses from the past, basic domestic problems and several instances of spirit possession are handled matter-of-factly. The basic work of the reluctant would-not-be-shamaness rests on the compassionate resolution of whatever feelings caused these phenomena in the first place.

The setting is divided more or less equally between the homes of the leads in their native village or a humble capital city neighborhood, and the palace of the title. The palace setting is mostly domestic -- the little family of the King, the Queen, the Dowager Queen, and their children is under assault by spirits wishing to wipe out the royal bloodline due to the crimes of past royals. All of us who love Kim Ji Hoon will not be surprised that even at this kind and gentle level of energy he owns every scene he is in.

Kim Ji Yun and Sook Jung Tae start off the show as companiable enemies. She plays Yeo Ri, a craftswoman for whom shamanry is a family business and he plays both her murdered first love Yoon Gap and Kang Cheol, a wonderfully emotional nature spirit of water and wind, an imugi-proto-dragon. Their hatreds arise from the usual misunderstandings and they are companions of a sort because they both perceive the spirit world within the everyday.

The imugi wants the the lenscrafter to accept him as her in-dwelling dominant spirit so as to help him become a dragon. Impulsively possessing the body of her just-murdered first love, he is fated to become her helpmate rather than the other way around, but the road is prickly, fun and happily long (16 eps, remember).

Absolutely amazing supporting actors of the quality without which kdrama would collapse are thick on the ground in this show. My favorite supporting characters, because I adore sweet and sentimental comedy , were the fabulous Kim In Kwon as the head eunuch, "Grilled Abalone", and the great Cha Chung Hwa , as the Mom of the FL's murdered first love.

My favorite things in addition to the above:

The spirit antagonist is a creature of fire and earth, worshipped in an underground cave by a blind sorcerer (!). Water and wind vs. fire and earth!

Kang Cheol's first experience of life in a human body involves the sense of taste -- he goes ecstatic over rice porridge (which look more like hominy grits). Next he discovers the pleasure of nice warm bedsheets. Of course his first kiss as a human is silly and wonderful.

I am not sure this would be a great binge because it was so low-key. Maybe it would be better spaced out for after work and a weekend.

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Lost it's steam

In summary, the scriptwriting took a rough turn in the last parts of the story.

It lost its momentum right towards episode 27 and above during the third enemy reveal, with quite a predictable plot twist ( and a cute bait and switch reveal execution ). His reveal was predictable but when it actually turned out, his story and drive seemed just pretty half-assed while being overall uninteresting tbh. Nothing much to say about Zang Hai except I thought he was more prone to error for an intelligent man which made sense since it makes him more human since he was an amateur.

Quite a lot of off screen deaths here as well and i didnt like how they were executed. Oh well, atleast it wasnt a story rushed towards the end and they had plenty of time to set up and conclude the story which was great. Only real downside is the story took a turn and im not sure even if having 10 more episodes to wrap up could fix it.

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The drama that pleased both Korean and International Audiencies

-----------------⚠️ATTENTION!⚠️This review CONTAINS SPOILERS and its main purpose its to analise the story and character developement-------------
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What made me start the drama: The presence of Yook Sung Jae.
First Expectations: I was told that Sungjae would play 2 complete oposite characters and one of them was going to be the beddie...Sungaje? Baddie? Enough to make me click play.
Do I usually watch and love saeguks? Yes. Ofc. And when you combine a saeguk with fantasy,romance,comedy,ocult things,ghosts...there is just an implosion of wow happening here.

STORYwise it was not what I initially expected. I had In mind someting more like xianxia driven but in Joseon rather then Ming. However it was BETTER then expected.

I saw people here in comments being like FRIDAY: Its draggy...I am going to drop it. SATURDAY: I am back cause what the heck was that plot twist? 😂

The fact that I finally saw both audiencies finally on the same place about a drama made me genuinely happy.

This is not your usual saeguk drama. Yes it revolves around a palace, a haunted one...yes it has a king but not a normal one. A king that loves his family and puts them first. And then his duties as a king. A king that by the end even though he was not directly gulity kneeled in front of all thoes souls that perrieshed for him to even be born. A king kneeling in front of his people seeking forgivness for his ancestors, from his wife whom he could not protect and from his people promising a brighter future full of FORGIVNESS. Where profund hate will no more create aquis (evil spirits) who in turn will create a vicious cicle of crimes. A king that ruled as a human not as an almighty diety. And a king that has grown to respect the diety that create him and aknowledge he is not top of the top...a king that befriended a diety that was at the begining insufarable but at the end become his closest person. I even believe he ended up suffering more for Changchul rather then his wife.

Because Chagchul was also not a normal diety. He was a clumpsy and braggy and full of himself one. He was a diety that needed to live as a human, feel love and pain and hunger and desperation of loesing everything from a human's perspective in order to understand them. A diety that had the destiny to peace the souls he couldn't save. He embraced his destiny and save them all, and saved his all, which was Yeori. He also lost his brother Bibi in the way but It was his Karma for not hearing the prayers of the needed when he was send back to Earth. Because he freed everybody from Palcheokwi he was given a choice: to ascend as he always wished or to go back on earth...and he once again embraced his imperfactions and choose to go back to his half human life and this time use his powers when needed. And the most beautifull gift he recieved in the end was his ABSOLUTE MINI MATCH. 😂 Ga Eon is 100% HIS daughter. I wish we had one more special episode at least to see his family finally happy.

This story followed closely the "en eye for en eye" premise seeking the ultimate forgivess and the braking of the bad cicle. Everybody recieved more or less what they deserved. I DESAGREE with some people saying that the finale was draggy and rushed and boaring...it was the most entrateining part. I even heared they had a problem with the fighting scenes. BUT this is not your usaul saeguk in which you see only ninja kind of fights. This is also fantasy. The actual fighting scenes might have been laking in movement and expression but it was because the primary focus were the ocult rituals and how Pung Sang, The Monk and Yeori played a game of amulets. It was also the training of the not so almighty god that got trapped in a human body and could not use his powers at its fullest until the very end after consuming the Gargona flowers tea. The more he suffered as a human the more he has grown as a diety. Also who would they phisically battled against? The king of the country that was possesed...the Prince, a child that was possesed... they could not have just gone creazy in swords battles and risk wounding the innocents that were not themselves.
However the Queen death scene left me speechless...they did not even have response time. It was just a pure evil impulse. But the most cruel thing was to see everything from Palcheokwi's eyes...how his entire family was murdered in the name of the former king and nobody cared even for the inocent baby. They were reaped and born to ashes. The queen's Dearh was painfull as she was also pregnant but it felt like some kind of karma for the kids that were sacrificed back then.

The haunted palace really had no boring scene. A bit repetitive in the middle but then it came to its senses.

ACTING: Each and evry character was EXCELLENT. The kids were magnific. We do not get to see children involved in heavy possesion scenes yet the young Prince was fenomenal. I watched the behind the scenes and everybody was just so careing about him. Constantly asking him if he is not scared, If he could do that...and he just played along the adults sometimes as if he was a little adult himself. He had way more scene then expected for a child actor. His character understood not only that he and people around him got possesed. Not only that he needed magical objects to stay safe, but that he needed to cooperate with the adults to save himself and his father. He even had to be present while his mother and sibling were killed. Its very brutal for a child but in the behid the adults were always around him reassuring him its just drama, nothing real. And were very supportive of his developement. Very impressive. Also the little ghost girl stealing shoes to try to go back to her mother...she had an amazing angry ghost kind of scene while being practically tighted to the ceilling yet from the behind I could see she actually enjoyed her time. And the one playing Ga Eon only had 2 scenes in the whole show yet she stoled her fathers spotlight and made a funny ending to rewtach and remember.

The adults were all above expectations. With that much possesions almost every single actor had to shift between personalities. Sungjae had the unforgetable fight between Youn Gap and Gangcheol over the body, Bona was posseed twice or trice and the first time she was allowed to appear as her new personality as well. The king top notch. Constantly shifting between his self and Palcheokwi. And even had some kind of face to face scene with himself. You would believe its a peace of cake to do all that but oh it takes skills. Pung Sang the blind shaman also had to do shifts between his blind self and his shaman and it was a scarry delight to watch. He also had constant shifts between inner personalities. One moment he was sure of himself and of his Commander, one time he felt momentum defeats, one time he felt evely happy for the death of the queen...and his ending almost poetic.
The dowger queen although not possesed had a full range of personalities portreid as well. First she believed herself a justitiary. Then she was a bad mother that lost her only child to the Evil Commander behind Palcheokwi. Then she became like a scared kid for her own life. Then she wanted to make up for her scenes so she has grown up a tone....from confronting the king, the king possesed, Gangcheol the diety , Yeori the shaman. She had no real powers yet she endagered her life to finally save the little prince from the palace. Exqusite.

There were some commic characters amoung all this black mass. Like the Head Eunuch best known as Grilled Abalone. Or Gap's mama. This 2 actors have played togheter in countless dramas trying to put up with the main leads and their own blood pressure simultaneously and this time was not an exception. Grilled Abalone was skeptikal of the imoogi but wanted to be loyal to the king. His loyality was tested when he had to choose not to respind to the kings body being possesed by Palcheokwi and help Yeori perform the mortal ritual instead.

Gap's mama was not a stupid women. She noticed the change in her son and was not completely fooled by Gangcheol. She just like the Queen Dauger had to send her son off the After life and pray for him. Yet she somehow adopted Gangcheol as her son afterwards. And not just because he had her real sons body. But because one of the things the imoogi learned from his human experience is how to have, love and cherish a mother. He took a body that was not his. And even though he was brazen to her, he never let her alone. He saved her when she was kidnapped. He gave her Gap's payments from the palace...with one exception when he bought her a hair pin cause hers was too old...and to Yeori new shoes.

And then there is Yeori...not your usual beautyfull,poorely dressed and usless fl...on the countrary...she was dressed properly throughout the entire show. She was involved in the fantasy part of it, doing all the rituals. She is also a glasses crafter so she can make a living for herself. She was brazen enough to put both Gangheol, and Bibi (dieties) and the King in their places. Throughout the whole show it looked like she was the Commander of the good side. Stop fighting. Start thinking. Lets make a ritual to ask for forgivness, lets find ways to protect the queen, the kind and the price...eather she or the monk came with the most usefull ideas. Her visions were also helpfull in the mission. Even though she could not change the outcome of any of them. And besides the big fight agenst the big fat ghost, she also took responsability for all the other minor ghots lost in the palace. A baby girl that wanted to go back to her mother but could not cause she died. A girl in a fountaine that was raped and killed, the one feet ghost which kept returning precisely to her rival in love...whoever sais Bona's acting was flat should put some glasses on and watch again.

The romance part as it was not a main part of the plot was obviously lacking. They had exactley 2 kisses and I am not even sure we can actually call those proper kisses. In the secound one initiated by her she almost did not glued her lips to his. (Question for the mens here... is it THAT weird to kiss a long time friend? A 16 year old long time friend? Is it more frightening then kissing a random strager? ) This is the thing that pissed me off on this drama. However from her side she just confessed her feeling to a diety that was gelous of the body he was possesing. So almost kissing the air insted of him might be to some extend explicable. 😅 "I want so bad to kiss you but you know I would somehow kiss him so I am doing my best".

And he was just so loovey doovey in the clouds afterwards I really could not. 😂
But they did have some serious romantic tension here and there. It could have been more but again the primary focus was the ocult not the romantic.

I liked the music. Very suitable for each and every moment. I am yet to start listen to the OST properly. But really made the action more enjoyable and not at all boring.

There were some scenes I wish I had scene here and there such as: The conversation between Cangcheol (in his real form) and GOD when he gave him the choice to decide his fate, Yeori actually doing the mortal ritual. In the finale she was already possesed by the death diety so we have seen nothing...also her actual training with the monk. All the time she was with the monk we were given scenes of Changcheol complaining about life as a human them eating a feast to feel better. Like he was funny and all but we had like 15 scenes with him eating. Her training would have been also important in the economy of the story. And perhaps a label saying how long the time leap was in the end. Ga Eon looked around 8 but the transition was too quick. Btw I heared a lot of people complaining about the ending when the ending was shown in ep 1 through Yeori's vision. Back then it was just a matter of is it going to be Gap or Gangcheol? Gap made the choice to leave to the afterlife episodes before the finale so it was obvious. But I would have gotten angry had I not seen Yeori's vision in the end. All her visions good and bad ended up ocuring. Why would her dream not come true?


Well that being said...I absolutely LOVED IT. And recomand it if you like ocult and ghosty kind of stories. Comedy, romance, bromance, good female leads and EXCEPTIONAL young cast.

I do wish to rewatch one day this. It was shokingly fabulous. And both Korean and International public seemed to have loved it.

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Bonded In Purpose

Imagine yourself as woman, if you will, having your cousin pawned to the sworn enemy of your family who has made it clear far and wide that they are out for vengeance into a marriage alliance. She’s in love with someone and they want to get married. You want her to be happy with the man she loves, so you arrange for her and he live to escape the marriage so you can take her place.

You dress in wedding clothes and take off to meet him. But, from the moment you meet him, he is rude, degrading and even physically threatening. Staying leaves you vulnerable to harm, leaving means your entire family will be wiped out.

From your childhood to present age you have sat at the feet of your grandfather and learning subjects normally reserved for men. You are a quick thinker, intelligent and good at looking past outward appearances into the heart of people, and are skilled in communication. You take nothing at face value and dig deep to learn the truth.

Eventually, you are able to gain this man’s trust and you develop a strong bond that cannot be shaken, because you both want the same thing. No matter who, or what comes your way you remain steadfast in your commitment to each other and your shared goal.

This is what this drama is about.

It shows how some people placed in places of leadership should not be leaders, how some who manipulate and contort the needs of the people entrusted to them are exploited and endangered in order to increase their power. How some blame everyone else for their ruthlessness and greed on everyone and their obsessions for their own failures. How lies you create can twist you into believing they are true. And, how putting the wellbeing of others above yours is how you make a real impact.

Every single cast member, the scriptwriter, the production, scenery, props, editing, location and music all combine into an epic and spectacular production.

This drama is a must watch. Liu Yuning and Song Zuer shine brilliantly in their individual roles and especially together. The chemistry between them that pulls their roles together is beautifully developed. They both deserve accolades for their stellar performances.

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Got Me Out of My K-Drama Slump

It's been a while since a K-drama truly hooked me, and honestly, I’ve been in a bit of a slump when it comes to watching new shows. But Good Boy completely broke that streak and I’m so glad it did. It’s refreshing in every sense of the word. At first, I’ll admit I was mainly there for Park Bo-gum (who wouldn’t be?), but I quickly found myself getting pulled into the story itself.
What surprised me the most is how well-rounded this drama is. It’s not just about one thing it’s a blend of genres: action, comedy, mystery, sports, and even some heartfelt emotional moments. It somehow manages to be intense and touching, thrilling and warm, all at once. The storyline is genuinely solid, with characters that feel layered and real. Each episode leaves you curious about what’s coming next, without feeling too heavy or overly dramatic.
Good Boy feels like a K-drama made for everyone. Whether you’re into action, character development, or simply good storytelling, it has a little something for all types of viewers. It’s been a really good watch so far, and I’m excited to see how the rest of the series unfolds.
If you've been stuck in a K-drama slump like me, Good Boy might be exactly what you need to fall in love with the genre all over again.

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A hidden cute gem

Disclaimer

What I am writing here are my views and thoughts about this series. Some of you may not like it. That does not give you the right to try to come at me with your opinions on why this series should get a higher or lower score and why it is better/worse than I think it is. You have your own opinions, and I have mine. Kindly respect that.

This was a cute and unique series that I was shocked by and enjoyed. Although the concept sounded weird, they somehow made it work- a penguin turned human to experience human life and wound up in a school where a black panther (who also turned human) was. Their relationship was cute, especially since Sun, in the beginning, really just wanted to eat Junior, the penguin. But, in the end, it turned into love.

Of course, in the beginning, there was some form of bullying, but they were able to solve that. What got to me was the zookeeper looking for Junior throughout the whole series as he wanted to sell him (with some other animals) to earn money for his ailing mother. It was indeed a weird series, but they were able to pull it off, even getting me emotional sometimes.

There were parts where, of course, I did not understand or just did not make sense to me, but I still rolled with it as the storyline still had me invested, and I genuinely wanted to know how they were going to end this series. I like watching series like this that can surprise me, and that's why I give these series a chance and watch them, because they can either be good or bad- this one was good!

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my top 1 cdrama <3

honestly didn’t expect much going into this but BOY WAS I WRONG. the friendship, the cinematography? the soundtrack? CHEFS KISSS 💋 this gave me nostalgic vibes and made me long for a friend group like theirs, where u can share everything, and be vulnerable. i loved how the story showed their growth over the years. it made me think about the kind of people i want to surround myself with.

zhang lurang ILYYYYY, you are more than enough. just like su zaizai said, you’re 101 marks over 100, because that extra +1 will always be hers, and that’s what makes you even more special.

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