Reviews

I’ve never seen a priest look that sexy on screen. ??

Island is a South Korean fantasy, action, and horror series adapted from the popular webtoon of the same name. Set on the mystical Jeju Island, the drama plunges you into an epic battle between the forces of good and evil, blending Korean mythology with supernatural action.

The story follows Won Mi-ho (Lee Da-hee), the arrogant and wealthy heiress of a conglomerate who, after a scandal, is exiled to Jeju to work as an ethics teacher. There, she crosses paths with Van (Kim Nam-gil), a mysterious and immortal demon hunter, half human, half demon, whose sole purpose is to protect the reincarnation of Wonjeong, the destined savior. Joining them is Father Johan (Cha Eun-woo), a young and charismatic Vatican exorcist with a tragic past, who arrives on the island with his own mission.

Kim Nam-gil is phenomenal as Van, delivering both brooding sorrow and explosive intensity in his action sequences. Lee Da-hee brings a badass edge to Mi-ho, charting her transformation from spoiled heiress to reluctant savior. Meanwhile, Cha Eun-woo delivers a surprisingly heartfelt performance as Father Johan, serving as both a source of light and comic relief amidst the darkness, and honestly, I’ve never seen a priest look that sexy on screen. 😜🤭

While the leads are strong, some supporting characters and the world-building could have been explored in greater depth to fully capture the richness of the original webtoon.

Visually, Island shines with its dark atmosphere and thrilling action, but the CGI remains divisive, and at times, distracting. Certain effects pulled me out of the story, clashing with the otherwise serious and dramatic tone brought by the cast’s performances.

Still, if you’re looking for a K-drama packed with action, dark aesthetics, and a touch of fantastical mythology, Island is absolutely worth the watch.

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Aren't they the cutest vamp-gang ever....the best lighthearted KBL in a long time!!

I must say that I have become a tad weary of white-washed, no-plot, only cuteness, only diffused-light, perfect-skin KBLs, off late now...but this one, even though it does tick many of these boxes, appealed to me...I would say go watch, if you want a mood-lifter

BL-needle Score: 8.5 Very High BL-ness

All of the caste, and particularly the blood-sucking aspirant side characters, are way too adorable...also Jo Won's attraction to Dong Ha in the garb of a touch act is also adorable, even if cliched...also Kang Seon so reminds me of Jun from ThamePo..he's sharp, go getter, good looking and charming...but def seems headed to give up on the man he fancies....the two other vamps, Gyu Min and Yun Ho are just too cute with their 'please let us suck his blood', and 'we've never ever sucked any human blood ever in our lives'- imploring acts

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Interesting premise and characters ruined by cheesy and cringy script that is all over the place.

The ML is portrayed by Liu Xueyi, who delivers a solid performance as usual (in spite of being handed a dud of a script). He seems to have a knack for portraying powerful, cold, no-nonsense jerks with hearts of gold.

The first 15-19 episodes were okay with the ex-bf and the ML vying for the FL. Although the FL can see through her ex-bf's machinations, she is indecisive about what to do about it, which gets annoying. Regardless, she is drop-dead gorgeous and watchable for that reason.

After the main leads get together, the series starts to really drag.

The FL becomes immature and whiny. She's also a horrible cook, a fact that doesnt bother me but the script seems to like to show again and again - even the ML is a better cook! The only redeeming quality is that she's easy on the eyes. Towards the end though, even her posturing and fake, cutesy voice started grating on my nerves, and I had to ff the remainder of the series. I didn't even bother with the 2FL and 2ML side stories.

Tl;dr - Eye candy couldn't save this dog of a storyline!

Overall rating: 1.5. They should have ended it after the first arc ended.

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My Sept 2025 recommendation

Watch this for my Recommendation Challenge by 𝑵𝒐𝒊𝒓𝑹𝒐𝒔𝒆𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕.

This is the story of Masaki and Tsukasa. They first meet when they argue over using a basketball court—the facility manager had accidentally double-booked it for the same day and time. To resolve the issue, they agree to split the court in half: one side for Masaki, the other for Tsukasa.

For some reason, Masaki finds himself drawn to Tsukasa, and he quietly checks in on her from across the court. When it’s time to go home, he offers to drive her—and from that small gesture, their friendship begins to grow.

Over time, Tsukasa slowly opens up. She shares with Masaki the story of her past: a severe car accident during high school that left her with lasting injuries. She now lives with memory impairments and uses a wheelchair. But despite everything, she refuses to let her limitations define her—she’s determined to live life fully and on her own terms.

Masaki, a taxi driver and passionate basketball player, admires her strength more with each passing day. And as they spend more time together, Tsukasa begins to see him not just as a kind friend, but as someone truly special. Soon, their bond deepens into love, and they begin a relationship.

Despite facing challenges—and resistance from their families—they fall deeply in love, supporting each other through every obstacle.

So what will be the next challenge life has in store for them?

That's pretty much the story without giving anymore spoilers. Now what I like and don't.

What I like:
+ Both Masaki & Tsukasa are really facing real life problems, but despite all it’s one of the greatest love stories that doesn't only show us the sweet side of love but also the bitter side.
+ How both parents' concerns are truthful. Both parents love their kids, and the way they show it is raw…

What I don't like:
- Unfortunately I find the story quite boring… And the type of story I'll forget what this about if I'm not write the review
- I can't quite make a different between past stories & the future... It's confusing sometimes

Overall, despite having a meaningful love story, if not for the challenge, it’s one of the movies that I’ll stop watching after 30 min.

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As usual, the most exciting part of Alice in Borderland is the games they play, with the high risk of death making it more thrilling and brutal. The mix of logic and sometimes just straight luck is always fun to watch. How they managed to solve that maths equation so quickly is beyond me LOL

The returning characters, along with the new characters, provide a fun experience and interesting dynamics. However, I did find it much harder to get used to 80% of the characters being new. It was much harder to connect with them. And unfortunately, for most of the returning characters, their appearance was minimal (aside from Alice and Usagi). In fact, I kept forgetting about some of the returning characters until they randomly popped up on my screen again after episodes away.

As someone who has been a fan of Alice in Borderland since just after its live action release, my feelings about the show are intense, and part of my opinion is wrapped up in nostalgia for the very first time I watched season 1 as a teenager. So I did my best to lower my expectations coming into this, and I'm glad I did as I feel like I was able to enjoy it a lot more. However, the further in we got, the more confused I got, and the need to make this season became less justifiable. So whilst I enjoyed most of it, I was slightly disappointed by the end of it and wonder why another favourite series of mine had to be tainted by the need to expand it for monetary gain. The more I think about this season, the more I dislike it, to be honest...

The most redeeming part was the bit of fan service we got right at the end.

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Games Thrill, Story Fails to Deliver"

The main purpose of Alice in Borderland Season 3 seemed to be clearing up all the mysteries – why the Borderland exists, who controls it, and why the world became so lifeless. But instead of giving answers, the season only added more confusion.

Yes, the games were exciting, the visuals were great, and the thrill was there. But when it came to the story, the season lacked logic and direction. It felt like the creators had a chance to wrap everything up clearly, yet they chose to make it unnecessarily complex.

In the end, the season entertained with action but failed to satisfy with clarity. It left more questions than answers, which makes you wonder – what was really the point?

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AMO ESTA SERIE, ES INCREÍBLE

I always read this type of content from fanfics or novels, I never thought to see it in a series and it's like everything comes to life, every episode I can put a real face to the story, you get excited and suffer with them, I hope this series has a second part, it's the first time you see this type of content and I really like it.
It doesn't matter if you change some details, the project of putting it into a script and seeing it on screen is already wonderful ✨️ Thanks to everyone who took part in carrying out this project, esprro will pave the way for other omegaverse projects, thanks, I love it.

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This hit the spot

It’s rare for me to watch a C-Drama without cringing at least once at the attempted comedy - but Guardians of Dafeng had me genuinely belly laughing more than a few times.

What began as what I thought would be a light-hearted, casual watch quickly turned into something much deeper. As the episodes went on, I found myself increasingly invested in the main character’s journey. The writing is sharp and purposeful, the scenes feel natural rather than forced, and the characters are well-rounded, distinctive, and memorable. To top it off, the soundtrack is catchy and fun—I don’t speak a word of Chinese, yet months later I can still hum the main theme.

I knew this was a standout series when I accidentally binged six episodes in a single sitting without even realising it. By the time it ended, I was left wanting more—and to me, that’s the hallmark of great storytelling.

The world-building is rich and immersive, the performances from the entire cast are top quality, and even the side characters bring their own meaningful impact to the storyline. Well, all except for one faceless mage - you’ll just have to discover that one for yourself.

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Good for a light hearted watch into a world of Wuxia

The Journey of Legend is yet another drama that showed immense potential but ultimately failed to leave a meaningful or lasting impression.

While it offers moments of entertainment, the storytelling feels weak and relies heavily on contrived coincidences and glaring plot holes to move the narrative forward. Too often, I found myself laughing- not at intended humour, but at the absurdity of the situations and the illogical decisions characters made. Their behaviour is frequently inconsistent, undermining the believability of the story and creating a sense of forced progression rather than natural development.

The acting and music are commendable and, at times, elevate the experience. Unfortunately, even strong performances and a solid soundtrack cannot compensate for the shortcomings of a poorly written script. The writing simply does not do justice to the talent involved.

Like The Immortal Ascension, I will finish this series- but more for its light-hearted value than any real narrative quality. In the end, The Journey of Legend stands as a reminder that no matter how strong the cast or production values, weak storytelling will always hold a drama back.

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Meh

Now I understand why this is rated so low.

Story sounds interesting, but the actual drama isn't.

Second leads story was soo boring, which is weird since it's the simplest story ever best friends to lovers, it's a classic for all romantic dramas even straight couple, how can you mess that up?????

The two leads has acceptable chemistry, Du Zhi was slightly robotic, barely showing any emotions, which is fine because of his character and past, but it did put me off a little while watching, the only thing I enjoyed was Wang Zhan, he was adorable, a little childish and silly.

I watched the whole thing with a straight face, even the comedic scenes were not funny, the drama had good premise but terrible execution ~~

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just watch At 25:00 in Akasaka instead

Before I get into my many complaints, let me be nice and say the few things I did like:
- good acting esp from the two leads, some nice cinematography
- Su Yi and Su Bai as characters and their dynamic
- the way the show got kind of meta in its critique of censorship
- the show exploring what it's like to become disabled
- the press conference comeuppance for Fang Runzhi was kinda awesome ngl

Okay, now that I've said that time to be a hater!

Things fell apart for me by the second episode with Su Yi mentioning he is only 19. We are never told Pei Jia's age, but as he's been acting for a while and he was in the public eye even before that, I imagine he's got to be mid-late 20s. And then a few episodes later we learn that Su Yi sent Pei Jia a piece of fanmail a year prior that he really values so like....... we've got Su Yi who is still a TEENAGER who has very much looked up to Pei Jia and idolized him for years and I'm supposed to find this dynamic cute and not think that Pei Jia is taking advantage of someone very young who doesn't have a solid sense of self yet?????????????? BONKERS.

I kept watching bc I'm apparently a masochist and this is popular, so I wanted to see just how bad the rest of it is and honestly even ignoring that the power imbalance was creepy as hell, I do not see the appeal of this one. Pei Jia's feelings come out of nowhere -- he clearly finds Su Yi super aggravating in the first episode but then in the second episode he's giving Su Yi pointers on a shared scene but outside of that he's still extremely rude to Su Yi and the vibe is that he doesn't like him at all and then in the third episode Yi Wei forces them to do that game where they ask each other questions and one of Pei Jia's questions is "if you could have dinner with anyone who would it be?" and Su Yi is like "you" and then suddenly Pei Jia has a gigantic crush on Su Yi and is obsessed with him?????? What????? The vibes are self-absorbed and egotistical.

When we first meet Fang Runzhi and he cornered Su Yi at that dinner, there are no words to express the relief I felt that he didn't assault Su Yi... but then he does at a party a few episodes later and then the show becomes primarily about trying to expose Fang Runzhi as a predator. Pei Jia (rightfully!!!!) blames himself for Su Yi's assault as he knew Fang Runzhi sexually harassed other actors he managed and didn't say anything to warn Su Yi beyond vague pleas for Su Yi not to sign a contract with him. I get not being able to talk about your experiences with sexual harassment/sexual assault as someone who has experienced those things as well, but come on, you can't just be like "hey, I don't want you to sign with this guy, you don't know what he's truly like" and leave it at that when he is a literal abuser! Thank God the press conference exposing Fang Runzhi was as satisfying as it was bc otherwise my rating would be even lower. But even the press conference doesn't completely escape my criticism bc it's insane to me that Pei Jia was going to play the recording of Fang Runzhi admitting to assaulting Su Yi when Su Yi wanted to back out bc he didn't want to publicly disclose being assaulted and if Su Bai didn't talk some sense into him, Pei Jia would've still played the tape even against his wishes??????? Like..... no???? The abuse survivor is the one who makes decisions about disclosing their own assault, violating their consent on disclosing that for a public takedown is so shitty and a terrible thing to do to someone you claim to care about????????

And as for the secondary romance -- Su Bai / Yi Wei was so annoying!!!! Yi Wei never valued Su Bai as a partner and then wouldn't accept their breakup! And I typically hate when people use the "they have no chemistry" complaint bc chemistry is subjective but.... they truly had no chemistry. They're seemingly back together by the end given we see them holding hands before the press conference, but I couldn't feel anything but exhaustion about it. I'll admit that Yi Wei did win some points for his part in exposing Fang Runzhi, but god I just found him insufferable overall.

Yeah, I just didn't enjoy this. Like... at all.

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