Reviews

A Game Show Built on Acting Challenges

This is a game show featuring performance face-offs, where teams of actors are divided under different directors, and each episode presents a series of challenges. Sometimes, team members compete against one another for seats and are graded by the lead directors. Other times, teams compete against each other, with the audience acting as the judges.

That said, I had a lot of fun watching this show, which I started primarily for Guo Jingming. Since much of it wasn’t subtitled, it was difficult to consistently gauge the commentary, and I occasionally used a translation app to understand the praise or critiques given by the directors. Even so, I found myself really immersed in the clips and short performances, which I felt were the heart of the show and where the raw talent truly stood out.

Because the episodes are almost three hours long, by the midpoint this became more of a background watch for me. I paid closer attention to the parts that interested me most—such as the challenges—and less to the judging, unless Guo Jingming was giving commentary or performers I liked were on stage. That said, I plan to continue with season two, and I’m excited to see the performers that were cast.

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A sweet romance where friendship comes first and love follows naturally.

I’ve seen many people calling Last Summer “boring,” but honestly, I felt the complete opposite.
This drama isn’t meant to be loud or thrilled, it’s soft, entertaining, light, and comforting.

What I loved most is that it’s a childhood friends–to–romance story, done in a very natural way. The relationship feels real because the leads act more like best friends than lovers, even while they’re together. There’s no forced intensity, just genuine connection, teasing, support, and a quiet kind of love with a soft touch of romance.

I also really appreciated the male lead. His determination to stay by her side, even when she keeps pushing him away, felt sincere and mature. He doesn’t try to change her or pressure he, he simply chooses her, again and again.

If you enjoy funny romances, emotional warmth, and friendships that slowly turn into love, this drama is definitely worth watching. Sometimes, simple stories are the ones that stay with you the longest.

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Chinese fantasy GL

It is rare enough to find chinese GL but to find historical/fantasy is even rarer. This not only is both of those things but also has a very interesting plot and characters. Someone put a lot of love into writing this and putting together a production for it.

The 2 real problems are:
1. The production quality is very low, bad editing and a very limited amount of footage makes this feel more like a broadstrokes gesture drawing of what would have been an amazing show
2. It is really hard to find a clean copy of this online. Most copies are either chopped up, or have had their audio tracks changed

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Turns out it's not much of a bad boy/good girl romance after all . . .

If you are hoping for quite dark, twisted soul to the bad boy, with lots of tortured twists and turns, this isn't for you. He's 'bad' in the sense that he races cars and knows martial arts, but he has good morals, ethics, and takes care of everyone the whole way through. There is no doubt that he is a good soul trying to navigate a difficult situation.

Our good girl is a heart of gold good girl but one with enough of a bite to be endearing. Sweet and naive, but competent enough in martial arts, racing cars, and not backing down from a fight to be a competent match for our bad boy.

The plot is repetitive. Car chase scenes without the huge investment of say Fast & the Furious, get boring after awhile - they can't afford to risk the cars, get the stunt drivers, or invest in the visual graphics needed to do truly cool car stunt effects.

Worst of all: the bad boy/good girl tension drops out rapidly because well . . he isn't a bad boy. There's no reason for her to stay away from him, and he spills the truth of his situation fairly easily.

The chemistry, especially the physical chemistry between the leads is amazing, and I feel like if the plotting had more tension in it it could be a rewarding watch. I kept this on the back burner for a slow period thinking I could pick it up again . . . but I can't the plot just isn't holding my interest.

I'm dropping.

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I can just tell you to watch this drama from the bottom of my heart.
It is such a comfort watch for me because it shows a mature and healthy way to tackle issues life can throw at you and teaches you to enjoy the little things.
I'm a 27 year old man and this had me giggling like my little sister at times. There also wasn't any unnecessary plot drive just to create entertainment and fill time, but it felt well constructed. I never got bored at any point and the visuals of the drama are just superb.

It came to be one of my comfort watches which otherwise mainly include "You are my Glory" and "Amidst a Snowstorm of Love"

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Okay, I will remember this series for two things:
1. It's a well made romance drama that doesn't beat around the bush and focuses on the main premise of being just that
2. It could've been so much more that I agonized about it, I kid you not I was fuming about it skimming, dropping, skipping or letting simple improvements of the plot go. I really curse that Netflic infected daramas, cause this one could've been a masterpiece in a way I haven't seen before if we would've been given at least 24, but possibly even 36 episodes. I could actually feel the pain I imagine the writers had when they couldn't expand on all their creative ideas.

Despite this I still ranked it at an 8 because it really is well done and you can feel the love for it, but I'll never rewatch it because it hurts too much thinking about the possible 9.5-10 star drama we could've had.

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How chaotic does a show have to be to almost make you sneeze laugh and choke all at once!!!!!

Let me start this by saying had the producers given this script to a couple other than pondphuwin OH THAT WOULDVE BEEN THE WORST DOING OF THEIR LIVES!!. Not only does this show deliever its comedic points so accurately that make you want to crawl under your blanket and kick your feet as high as heaven; it also feels as though youre trying not to cry from the cringiest and CLINGIEST dialogues thrown from our male lead khun thee (Whos also the heir to one of the biggest mafia in Thailand) towards peach (whos just a dweller on earth with oh the sweetest and more gentlest voice but with more control over his hubby than the mafia boss himself). The casting: PERFECT. Oh from Moks faces that shine bright with burning cringe to Phuwins ever so iconic “get a grip khun thee”. Even the extra characters who had but two lines played it so well It was as if im being sucked into that scene being forced to watch a empty headed hopeless romantic sing a song IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET!!!! BAHAHAHHAHA. Every point of this series is portrayed so perfectly I fail to see a error in sight. OH AND LET ME TELL YOU IF THAT ENDING HADNT HIT THE LAST NOTE SO PERFECT AND SO CLOSE TO HEART I WOULD NOT BE WRITING THIS REVIEW AT THIS VERY SECOND.

So yes, unless you have a stomach situation 911 YOU NEED TO WATCH ME AND THEE RIGHT NOW!!!!

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⭐Face Value✈️ °6° °goodish°

Meet Han Se “Gye.” 🏃💨 Say ta-tah! Why did she run? She won! The 🏆 is waiting for her, 60 ft away, right on the stage. Gye looks ✨/perfect/✨. Limited edition shoes encase her feet. ✨She’s sparkling✨ head-to-toe. Just as she sets that glittering foot on the stage, she ST🛑PS as if frozen. Suddenly, she pivots & hightails it outta there. At 6 minutes and 20 seconds into ep1 we'll find out why: Gye randomly transforms into a rotund middle aged man! Once a month, she gets a few moments warning and then transforms into another person - another body. She's still /her/. She just doesn't look like her.

Seo Hyun Jin (Another Miss Oh, Black Dog-8.2, Why Her?-8, Dr. Romantic) portrays Gye. Film star Gye has lots of fans. Therefore, she has lots of haters, too. After she flees the award show, the comments start, and they won't stop. Contracts and commercials evaporate💨. The rumor that she has a son just won't go away, either! (It was her. She transformed into a boy that day).

Lee Min Ki (Because This Is My First Life-7.7, My Liberation Diary-8.9) plays our ML, Seo Do “Jae”. He's the son of a chaebol. (For a change🙄). His family holds some of Gye's contracts and he's decided to cancel most of them. BUT, there's one or two that he wants to maintain. He'll need her cooperation. He presents her with a choice: Take a business trip with him and rescue the deal or pay the price of broken contract fees + a ruined reputation. They hint at it in eps1&2, but in ep3 we find out officially that he has prosopagnosia - face blindness. Around midshow, Mr. Lee starts to look pale and unhealthy with red-rimmed eyes. He seemed to be going through something, physically. I've seen other Kdramas in which many of the actors have irritated and red looking eyes. It's probably from the fine dust pollution.

So: He can't see faces and her face changes every month for a week. Yep, it's goofy like that. TBI is a 2018 release that is rated 95 on AWiki, because Awiki users are kind and very enthusiastic. It is 1 season consisting of 16 simple-headed 70-minute episodes. Here we go again: The content is sufficient for 10, maybe 12 episodes, yet they stretched it into 16, as they are wont to do. My name for that unfortunate repeating error is Malcontent. The letters “T-B-I” can refer to “traumatic brain injury,” which is an interesting metaphor, but the show is mostly cute and fun to watch. It simply could have been better. What makes it tolerable is the leads; they’re truly darling. The secondary couple is also appealing, and that makes all the difference. Ep16 is sweet. On the fun side, the wardrobe and jewelry are spectacular - The best I've ever seen.

Lee Da Hee (Search: WWW Harmony) is the breathtakingly beautiful Kang SaRa, Jae's stepsister and rival. Not only is she utterly stunning, but her wardrobe is gorgeous. It's truly one of the highlights of the show. She sports eclectic, non-matching earrings with stack necklaces and it looks fantastic. She's one of the most beautiful women Korea has to offer. Ahn Jae Hyun (Love with Flaws, Cinderella and the Four Knights-5.6) plays Ryu Eun Ho. He has the round face of a cherub, so the women go nuts for him. That isn't necessarily making his life easier. He has about a dozen odd jobs: Fawning just women get in the way, and they do not bring in the dough. Lately, he runs into SaRa at every odd job: Deliveries, coffee creations, laundering, and housecleaning are examples.

Lee Chul Min plays Director Kim, an executive at Jae’s company. His first credit is from 1991 and he has over 💯 credits. He started out as comic relief but has been getting more serious roles lately. He was really funny in the excellent comedies My Only Love Song-8.7 and Mr. Queen-9. I also enjoyed him in Black-9, the K2-8, and others. The director is Song Hyun Wook (Another Miss Oh-7.5, The King's Affection-8.3, The Golden Spoon-8.1, Introverted Boss-6.5, Revolutionary Love-5.7). He's been around. Screenwriter, Im Me A Ri, also penned the popular Doom at Your Service.

There's not a whole lot to say. The positives are the eye candy and the leads. The primary couple's interactions are quite cute, therefore, the acting and the romance are not the problem. The plot is. The writing is bog-standard average and the director stretched that lackluster writing too thin. As a result, this show requires little mental or emotional investment, so some might find it their perfect wind-down poison.

The vanilla script leads to discordant scenes like Gye's weird interactions with a director. The way they arrive at a contract doesn't seem plausible, either. Early on it caused me to have serious doubts about the writing, and possibly the directing and those doubts only deepened. Then there's the “mandatory” break-up, which is less than convincing (though it's understandable that the truth is a tough pill). The breakup only compounds their misery rather than alleviating it, which makes it frustrating for the viewer. Emotions often make no sense, I suppose. It's another example of MSS, or mandatory separation syndrome, an overdone Kdrama device where they separate a couple for a time. Here, wasn't necessary and it didn't enhance the show. Another unfortunate habit of Kdramas is “going rogue,” in which they abandon all the fantasy rules and templates they laid down early on, usually with zero justification. TBI is guilty of some mild rogue violations, which doesn't bother everyone, but such unforced errors bother me.

TBI does manage to be humorous. The obsessed public never has her relationship status correct. The internet gets ahead of the game: They are spotted out together and the viewing public assumes they're an item, but they've only just met. Later, they date in secret, so the public assumes they've broken up. The pattern repeats, and it's pretty funny.

TBI is the type of show that forces me to ask myself: Was this worth watching once? The fact that I ask says enough, perhaps. The answer for me is ☑yes, because the fashion show is insanely good, and the couple is adorable together, as is the secondary couple. There's a comfy warmth to it. I came out of this not being very impressed with the show but liking the leads even more. Now /that's/ some trick! For those of you who aren't romance junkies, don't bother. It will be The Boredom Inside.


IMHO〰🖍


RATINGS 🎬6.2 🖊6 🎭8 💓7 🦋5 🎨8.8 🎶7.6 🔚8 🤗5

LEVELS 🌞5.5 ⚡3.5 😅3 😭3 😱2 😬1 🤢2 🤔4 💤3

Shazams: Beautiful Moment, by K.Will

Age 13+

Re-📺? Naw



Fateful Magic Brought Us Together~~>>>

My Only Love Song 8.7 ~ excellent comedy,
Love Between Fairy and Devil 8.9,
Mad For Each Other-7.7 ~ silly fun,
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8,
My Secret Romance-7 (if you ff thru overdone flashbacks),
Playful kiss-7.3,
Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo 7.8,
The Legend of the Blue Sea-7.2 (But for eps 20 &21 it's an 8+)
Boys Over Flowers-8 ~ melodrama to the max,
My Roommate Is a Gumiho-7.9,
Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha-8.2,
Live Up To Your Name-7.6;
Crash Landing On You 9.1,
Why Raeliana Ended up at the Duke's Mansion-8.4,
Link: Eat, Love, Kill-6.7,
Love Struck in the City 7.3,
Because This Is My First Life-7.7,
7th Time Loop-7.9,
Kiss Sixth Sense-6.8,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
While you were sleeping-7.3,
Marry My Husband-7.5,
Hotel del Luna-8.4,
A Korean Odyssey-7.2,
Tomorrow with you-7,
My Liberation Diary-8.9,
The Bride of Habaek-7,
The King: Eternal Monarch-8.3,
Love and Redemption 10

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An Enjoyable Journey Towards Love

“Can This Love Be Translated?” is the latest K-drama to hit the Netflix catalog, presenting us with a pleasantly surprising show. The story follows a very guarded and reserved interpreter who becomes intertwined with a rising actress who wears her heart on her sleeve. Their polar opposite personalities draw them to each other, but they soon learn that, just as the title suggests, love isn’t so easy to translate. This is one of the central themes of the show: learning to understand ourselves and making an effort to understand the people we love. Much can be said about this show, but I will keep it short: for me, this was an enjoyable watch with wonderful performances from the cast and beautiful cinematography that elevated it even more.

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Stunning production, decent storytelling

I've finally wrapped up this series, I'm honestly glad to enjoy another FreenBecky's series.

I might be too harsh but the problem is the pace of the storytelling? I know it has good and strong messages but I feel like it still miss something that I could love more. It's not bad yet not perfect.. or maybe I was not in the mood?

This is actually weird because, in fact it got a really beautifful story, the princesses fairy tale!

It was indeed really pleasant to watch, the acting was great, the production was really good, everything seems perfect and gorgeous. But at the same time, some moment ended up as a background noise.

I don't understand myself but it's still a good watch and it's a win for GL industry!

OST are also nice to listen!

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An ambitious drama--with logic problems

Many reviewers call this drama: “incredible,” “superb,” “top notch,” “amazing,” “masterful,” “flawless,” and every other superlative you can think of.

A different group says that this drama is: “confusing,” “mediocre,” “over-hyped,” “terrible,” “pretentious,” “tedious,” “disappointing,” and “a disaster.”

So which is it? I feel a like an alien from Mars trying to mediate between two warring tribes of humans. Truthfully, the praise seems waay over the top. On the other hand, a lot of the criticism seems...let’s just say –- a bit mean-spirited.

THE LENGEND OF ZANG HAI, like most dramas, has its strengths and its weaknesses.

What I liked:

1. The plot held my interest. Occasionally, I had to stop and backtrack to figure out who was doing what and for what reason. But the writers kept the complications in hand so that I never lost the overall thread.

2. And how refreshing it was to have the main guy fight with his frontal lobes and not with his fists. I loved that!

3. Some very satisfying twists and turns. For example, I liked the fact that the second son of the Marquis is introduced as a lightweight party-boy. And then, in a totally delightful scene, he turns out to be someone else entirely. Well done, writers.

4. The production quality, sets, and cinematography were outstanding. The artifacts and furnishings looked like the real deal--not like cheap schlock bought in a secondhand junk store (which has sometimes been the case with other dramas).

What could have been improved:

1. Why did everyone keep risking their lives to get their hands on the Gui Seal without any real inkling of what it was all about? Or what its drawbacks might be?

2. The FL’s role in this drama confused me. In the beginning, she was coy and childish–keeping the ML waiting for hours while she primped and fussed with her clothes and hair. Later, she arbitrarily tried to retrieve a coin she’d just given him, although this impulsive behavior endangered his life. It’s true she eventually turned into a serious partner and valuable ally. But by then, I was more than a little put off by her.

In addition, she did some unbelievable things. Would a bright, capable, well-established business woman really agree to kill a powerful, high-ranking leader in the community, even one she didn’t like, just to please some dude she’d met once or twice? She hardly knew the ML at the time. Was she already that smitten? It didn’t make sense.

3. The ML wasn’t totally logical either. For example, everything depended on his ability to keep his mouth shut regarding his true identity and motivation. Yet he blurted out the truth to one person or another. At one point, he persuaded himself that the FL was involved in the murder of his family, in spite of the fact that she was only 10 years old at the time! He explained this suspicion by declaring that “children are sometimes underestimated” by adults!

And how is it that our 20-year-old ML was an expert in so many areas: plants, astronomy, architecture, feng shui, weather, woodworking, joinery, etc.?

Things always seemed to work out for ZH. Whenever there was a person to be manipulated or a plan to be carried out, ZH showed an extraordinary ability to predict everyone’s behavior. Even Superman couldn’t have performed so well.

His incredible luck made his successes seem unearned. Too many times, some arbitrary person or event would come along and solve ZH’s problems for him–that is, keep him from being poisoned or murdered, or exposed.

I could forgive the writers using this device once or twice. But “deus ex machina” came to the rescue over and over. It was a bit much.

A few picky things:
1. Too many devastating fires in this series–or threats thereof.
2. Anachronistic subtitles. Nobody in ancient China would use the phrase “throw him under the bus.”

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good drama...but a bit disappointed.

sure, im a pretty late to the party😅 but here we are.
i Ve heard a lor of good things abouts this drama for ages but never picked up. finally I decided to watch this incredible drama and..... I am a bit disappointed.
is it a good drama ? yeah. is it extraordinary ad people said? not really.

this show is basically split in two partsv the first one is more light hearted while the second one is where the real juice is.

the first half felt like one of those drama of the early 2000's. I felt like I was watching full house and not a drama from 2016.
it was so goofy and frankly badly put together.
I still don't know why they needed a sort of "reversed harem" to make this thing work.
the first half was so silly I was abouts to drop it.
everyone is in love with this girl for almost no reason and they all live like happy puppies.
we get some drama moments but they are completely ruined by the music choice.
you get people dying, suffering, crying and in the background they play a silly pop song abouts love confessions?
this ruined the pathos in many scenes.

the second half is frankly speaking the best part and the only interesting one.
I wished they just focused on this kind of storytelling. they should have made an historical drama all the way through.
the political intrigues, the love stories overlapping, betrayals etc were really interesting even though they felt a bit repetitive at times (I skipped some scenes I have to admit).

the Performance from the actors is amazing. they all played wonderfully especially in the emotional scenes. I cried at different points and fortunately no silly music was playing in the background.

overall it feels like a disjointed drama made of 2 parts that don't really feel coesive.

the fact the iu was from the future played a small role and the final scenes felt..meh.

is it worth watching? it depends.
can you stomach a boring first half?

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Started watching for Dai Xu Ending up Loving the story

Surprisingly hooked on this drama! Usually I drop most of Chen Xing Xu's work—The Starry Love being the only exception. Honestly I wasn't looking forward to watching this as ML looks and acts the same in ALL his modern romance dramas. Dai Xu on the other hand is whom I absolutely love. He's practically the professional 2nd lead in many dramas without ever being that traffic actor so I try to watch his works big or small.

Is this another typical stone cold CEO rescue the "傻白甜" with a boring nice spare tire ML2? NO it's NOT! I won't go into the synopsis but I'll highlight the things that makes this drama so refreshing!

1. Virtual reality game world with great concept. Excellently done on how the leads met.
2. Dai Xu - a 2nd lead who is a little bad (I am 100% biased but I always love his acting!)
3. FL - imperfect but smart. There's none of that obvious over 5 seconds blank stares of recent K drama slump. Can we just have more of smart cute types?
4. ML - Fine balance of being cold/warm right from the start where it's understandable why he is appealing.
5. Well done tropes. For example, there is the classic piggyback scene but she legit jumped out a window and hurt her ankle, limping for days after. None of the ridiculous simple walk & fall on flat ground therefore guy gives the girl piggyback ride cringe.
6. Slow burn romance done right. Love in ep 8-9 the meaning behind the lines in the game setting pulling them closer. "Love between the lines" title really suits.

Not so great:
A bit OTP skin smoothing
Scenes with Dai Xu is far and few
ML did a decent job but scenes that demands more emotional depth, he's far from ML2.

I feel a little lost now that the drama is over .... going to have to rewatch Dai Xu's favorite scenes from all his past works...

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