Reviews

infuriating writing, hope to see the actors with a better plot (watch suggestions)

Overall: the refusal of a character to communicate with the other character was infuriating and I cannot believe what they did in episode 8. 10 episodes about 50 minutes each. Aired on iQIYI https://www.iq.com/play/reloved-episode-1-1p5zs0832d8?lang=en_us

Content Warnings: vomiting (ep 2 around 47 min), non con kissing turned consensual, blackmail/coercion, manipulation, non con kiss, death, grief

Watch Suggestions (to focus on sweet relationship parts)
- episode 1 watch 4:25-7, 25:45-27, 42:25-45:10
- episode 2 watch beginning-5:20, 18:15-24, 28:15-30:30, 39:35-42, 48-50:45
- episode 3 watch 4:15-9, 14-17:20, 50-51:20
- episode 4 watch 24-40
- episode 5 watch beginning-10:50
- episode 6 watch 9:30-13:05, 15-19, 28:40-34:15, 38:30-52
- episode 7 is skippable
- episode 8 watch beginning-3:30 and 48:50-end
- episode 9 watch beginning-6:15, 12-16:05, 37:30-53
- episode 10 watch beginning-3:30, 17:30-end

What I Liked
- adults who were taking care of kids
- past intimacy and sweet moments
- visuals
- supportive parents

Room For Improvement
- terrible communication in the past (a 5 min conversation would have fixed everything) as well as the present, the other guy repeatedly ignored boundaries/looked so desperate/had no self respect
- the blackmail/coercion with the side couple was not appealing though they grew on me, but then episode 7 made no sense since their relationship was casual up to that point and then 8 came out of absolutely nowhere and was awful
- nonsense, who goes to the scene of an accident instead of a hospital???!!!!
- I wanted to throw my computer with the writing in episode 8, one "I'm sorry" and everything was fine, 5 YEARS!!!!
- tonal shift in episode 8 from grief to fun gym photo shoot
- love rival (and I felt bad for him, they should have given him a love interest)
- the sound effects didn't make things funny
- they dragged the bad communication way too long and then rushed the finale with an alternate timeline and a ton of time skips

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Great Acting, Good Storyline, Lego the main highlight

Many things to say about this show. Firstly, the actors are truly shining in this one. Lego, Neo, Fluke and Yacth all did a fantastic job. They were so amazing that it was actually the best of the show to me. Their characters were very well done, entertaining and also had clear bonds between them. It was fun to see such characterisation and all the actors were phenomenal.

Coming to the story, the story is good. There are a few points where the audience feels confused as hell, but they do clear things up in due time. You might be left with a few questions even after it ends, though I think that's cause of lack of time, but none of them are major enough to spoil the show or its story.

The friendship between the 4 airdolls is definitely a highlight. I loved seeing Fluke and Neo's rapport as well as Yacht and Lego's. The 4 of them together also have a cute friendship. The whole part of Ingky rejecting Pat also seemed so interesting to me, it really showed a lot about her character.

I have to add a separate comment about Lego, my baby. I have been following him as Lego LYKN as well as Nano from ThamePo, and I'm so so happy to see him shine in his own show and role. He is a wonderful actor who can grasp different personalities really easily. He also has natural chemistry with everyone and it doesn't seem forced at all. What I love about him is how much effort and dedication he has clearly put into this role. He is truly, truly magnificent, and has the potential to become a bigger actor in Thai media, if he so chooses. I hope he does get more opportunities!

Overall, good show. Has rewatch value as well. Do give it a try!

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Underwhelming

Unpopular opinion, but I think I’m one of the few who found The Manipulated to be pretty average. For me, the biggest issue comes down to structure. Watching this show felt like reading the last page of a book first and then flipping back to page one, there’s simply no thrill left. The weekly-release format drained its momentum completely, especially since the villain and motive were revealed so early on. With all the suspense deflated upfront, waiting a full week for the next episode felt unnecessary
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Ji Chang Wook’s role didn’t help either. His performance was fine, but the character felt like a familiar echo of K2, Healer, and The Worst of Evil. The ML seemed stuck in repetitive, bland character beats.

Surprisingly, the villains had far more personality and depth than the protagonists. And as strong as the antagonists were, villains shouldn’t be the best part of a great show. When they outshine the heroes, the emotional weight weakens.

The cinematography also fell into tired patterns, endless nighttime scenes, repetitive chase sequences, and writing that lacked sharpness. The mini “prison break” attempt bordered on unintentionally comedic, and the addition of a one-sided romance in a thriller felt out of place. By the time the revenge was finally revenging, the buildup had me rooting for the villain. And the worst thing is that the final revenge wasn’t even satisfying.

But I’ll give the show this, it does have genuine strengths. The cast delivers across the board. Ji Chang Wook remains solid in action-heavy roles. And Kyungsoo? He absolutely devoured the screen as An Yo-han. I loved how completely unhinged he was, killing without hesitation, framing people and covering up murders purely for the thrill of it. He didn’t gain anything from these acts. He did it out of the pure love for the game. He was terrifying and fascinating in equal measure.

The prison scenes were another highlight. They were some of the best-crafted portions of the show, driving real character development. Watching the ML evolve from an innocent, overwhelmed man who could barely adapt, into someone hardened, determined, and fueled by survival and revenge, was genuinely compelling.

And the nanny deserves her own spotlight. Layered, chilling, charismatic, and utterly ruthless, every time she appeared, the screen sharpened. One of the standout presences of the entire series.

In the end, The Manipulated is a watchable thriller elevated by strong performances. I’m sure it’ll sweep award shows. But for me, it wasn’t an enjoyable watch. Maybe I’m especially underwhelmed because this was one of my most anticipated releases of the year, but it simply didn’t live up to its potential.

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Gimmicks and chronological shenanigans ruin the show completely

This show is big on useless and complicated chronological gimmicks which only ruin and destroy the focus and impact of the story

The wife finds out her husband is not capable of making her pregnant, so she has sex with his office worker and becomes pregnant with him in episode 31 and 32 (chronology is bad). Then she realizes that her husband previously has a child with another girl, so she tries to commit suicide in EPISODE 1 (just unjustified, random, stupid decision by screenwriter/director). Then the husband finds out that wife is pregnant and he thinking the child is his promises to take care of them.

The explanation for why she cheated is in Episodes 42 and 43 (stupid chronological order). Why does it take 10 episodes after the event in episodes 31, 32 and 33? That is why this show is childish and made by idiots who think gimmicks like this make them look like famous Hollywood directors. There is no obvious chronological order that one can find. Scenes are randomly taken from one place and inserted in another completely unrelated place. The director/editors should have kept it simple and just focused on telling the story, instead they completely destroyed the show.

But wife knows the baby is actually the co-workers even though the husband thinks it is his baby. She goes to co-worker to break up but has sex with him again. The co-worker texts the husband to come to his room where he sees his wife in shower naked and realizes that she had been cheating on him. And because of this shame, he then gives his company to his co-worker - this is totally unbelievable and stupid scenario. No businessman will ever give up his company just because his wife fucked an employee. He would have kicked both his wife and the employee out of his life instead. But the screenwriters/directors are that stupid in China. This story is clearly written by a left-over women who have infected the Chinese TV and movie industry like parasites.

So, then the wife kills herself and the husband gets drunk and becomes homeless. This is also unbelievable.

The characters in this show are generally implausible and unbelievable. Businessmen are Type-A alpha personalities. They don't tolerate their wives running around all day and all night outside and not telling them what they did. But all the lead men in this show are supposedly alpha personalities but behave like simps and cuckolds instead. Simps/cuckolds don't become CEOs and successful businessman. And wives always know that they cannot behave like that, which is why when they cheat they don't make it obvious and take care to hide their tracks.

Yet, in this show the wife openly disappears in the day and night and the husband doesn't even ask a single question about it. NOBODY loves a woman like that....absolutely nobody. A wife who is so out of control would not be tolerated by ANY CEO/businessman. And even if they are humiliated by their wives cheating, they take decisive actions to terminate the relationship and kick such sluts out of the house immediately. That is what a CEO personality does. Instead, the businessmen in this show act like lovesick puppies, constant crying in tears and chasing the tails of their slutty wives begging for their forgiveness, when they should have behaved like decisive strong men that they are actually supposed to be.

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THIS IS NOT A TYPHOON, ITS NOT EVEN A DRIZZLE

A show trying too hard at becoming a heartwarming series that falls short on tugging your emotions.

Lee Jun Ho has proven himself as an actor, here he does so much of the heavy lifting. Unfortunately, he can only do so much as this show is just lacking. I didnt feel any empathy for his character, i didnt even feel his chemistry with the FL. Definitely not his best work.

Its pretty obvious that the show relied so heavily with LJH. In fact, there were parts when the series wanted to s how how charming he is and you'll notice the cinematography changes and the screen is filled with this glowy sunshine-y filter common with Korean romcoms - the difference in tone is so jarring and just doesnt work with the 90's vibe.

Episodes are long, and sad to say, boring. They want you to feel sorry and relate to the plights of the characters but almost everyone is just so bland and unlikeable. There is no real character development and no transformation for everyone except maybe for Tae Pung's mother. The story arcs and the challenges are so staged and are mostly resolved so conveniently and unrealistically.

To create depth and layers to a family drama there are 2 ways a series can go - First is the no-villain route (a la the Reply Series), create "natural" , emotional, interesting scenarios for the characters to go through and overcome, and the second route is to create a villain so strong, disgusting, scary and/or powerful that youd be afraid for the protagonist. The problem with this series is the annoying villains totally ruined this show. I didnt say effective, i said annoying. Probably one of the worst written villains in a Korean drama. Pyo Hyeon Jun's endless obsession with Tae Pung, his character was a joke and is shallow, repetitive and so uverused during the entire series, -he is not scary, not even entertaining, just annoying.

Will i recommend? Im honestly not sure, maybe if you are a LJH fan. Will i rewatch? Are you kidding me, big NO.

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One positive…I LOVE Ja

The Love HAS Set!

I’m giving up on this one because the story is lacking, entertainment value is nil, and it doesn’t feel very fresh.

Sad, though, because I DO Like Ja Phachara, but he’s completely wasted here.

I’m sure there are people, out there, who are probably loving this, but different strokes for different folks. It just feels like waste of time & energy to watch any longer.

Once the setting went back to 1997, with the two male leads as other characters—they lost me, completely.

There was ZERO chemistry between Tae and Ja. Tae didn’t even look like he was kissing in the kissing scenes when they were dating, before all the trouble began. Either he doesn’t like kissing or he doesn’t know how.

The back story of the sexual assault and abuse was not believable or logical. They went from very dark matter to a complete black hole of a storyline. It was all over the place and nowhere, and none of it was very interesting. I abandoned it, after giving it an overly generous chance.

I try to see the positive in every BL series, but there wasn’t much in this. Even Ja couldn’t save it. I don’t think the direction was very good, nor was the story, nor was Tae.

It was pretty terrible.

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its good but its missing the wow factor...

The drama is about a man who is wrongfully accused and has to spend life in prison. As usual the police are the most useless characters in these kind of shows and most of them are bribed. Basically other than the leads everyone else in the show is bribed by the villain and just makes life difficult for our ML just cause the villain finds it fun.

So yea...thats basically the basis of the entire plot and is something common we can see in these kind of rich villain dramas.

What I enjoyed from the drama was the first half where they showed his growth and how he started adapting to his prison life. At first he wanted to give up but afterwards he was highly motivated to live well and improve himself. The only part I didnt like was that they made him escape the prison instead of him leaving in a legal way....cause technically the minute he escapes he now has a valid record...but okay I could close my eyes to this.

I appreciated the effort put into the fight scenes but personally it wasnt my style. He had numerous numbers of intense fights but he still survives makes a recovery then fights again. I feel like the fights scenes could have been more satisfying and not just everyone charging at him all the time.

Regarding the villain, I feel like DO's acting was really good but the aura of a villain was missing...he was acting inhumane but you dont really get the scary vibes from him but more like what our ML said in the 2nd last eps "you are just a kid...". So i felt like there was a imbalance there with Taejung and Yohan's characters...

The plot itself is very straightforward without any major twists.

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Good show, but wow… wasted potential.

Felt like the writer had a whole galaxy of ideas but only 12 eps to cram everything in.
1. The prison-inmates-entering-the-game arc? That alone could’ve been a full series.
2. Low-key feels like anyone can get resurrected… death has zero stakes.
3. Way too desperate for a happy ending.
4. The villain is built insanely strong, but by the end all the random luck just bends toward the hero for no good reason. An Yo Han deserved better.
5. Every plotline starts with infinite potential and then suddenly turns into instant noodles — fast, convenient, no depth.

Overall: fun ride, but you can see all the greatness it almost had. 🍜✨

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Avoid this screenwriter at all cost !

I love Ren Jia Lun so much as an actor that I actually sat through all 35 chaotic episodes of Love and Crown… only to end up with yet another sad ending added to his drama list. And honestly, for about 30 of those episodes I had zero clue where the story was even trying to go. The characters kept doing things that made no sense, random events kept popping up out of nowhere—at some point I started wondering if I missed something, or if the plot just had so many holes that following it became impossible. The frustrating part is, with the right scriptwriter and director, Ren Jia Lun can bring a character to life so expressively. I can’t help thinking that if Love and Crown had been handled by a stronger team, his chemistry with the female lead would’ve hit way harder.

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A Confession That Changes Everything

The Price of Confession is prestige pulp polished to a high gloss - serious in appearance and tone, yet unafraid to indulge in moments of moral excess that are all the more compelling for their restraint.

Jeon Do-yeon leads as An Yun-su, a widow accused of murdering her husband. The series makes little effort to manufacture doubt about her innocence; instead, its tension arises from watching her ethical resolve erode under sustained pressure, particularly when her child is used as leverage. Jeon’s performance is characteristically formidable; she's measured, wounded, and quietly ferocious, grounding the narrative even as it veers toward heightened drama.

Kim Go-eun commands attention as Mo-eun, the enigmatic inmate known as the “Witch,” who offers to confess to Yun-su’s alleged crime in exchange for a favor that functions less as a request than as a moral pact. Her portrayal is precise and unsettling, injecting the series with a volatile ambiguity that keeps the central relationship taut.

Park Hae-soo’s obsessive prosecutor contributes mounting pressure rather than narrative mystery, while the surrounding media frenzy and legal maneuvering expand the show’s thematic scope without diluting its focus.

The drama proceeds deliberately in its first half before pivoting into a second act dense with psychological twists and reversals.

In the end, The Price of Confession is a dark, intricately plotted duel between two exceptional actresses, executed with confidence and control. Slick, unsettling, and eminently binge-worthy.

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