Reviews

The plot was actually fine but no sparks between the leads

Okay, i watched this because i liked Du Yafei acting and *cough* to be honest i am not really fond of Liu Xiyu acting style, she actually have wooden expression but her good expertise she could build some romance chemistry and decent kisses with her Male Leads but i think her attempts is failed despite they are have plenty of good kisses. The one things that annoyed me, only Du Yafei voice was not original while another characters seems to use their real voice.

The development of their relationship feels unnatural; they didn't have much of a foundation beforehand, and then they suddenly slept together on their wedding day. It make me baffled.

The good point about this drama is SML. Although unknowingly in love and unable to get the girl, SML doesn't do anything inappropriate, making him more normal than the other male supporting characters in the same script.

FL isn't a naive innocent; she's clear-headed, independent, and rational, seeking revenge on the spot and handling situations calmly. ML is a perfect character: emotionally stable, gentle and considerate, and possesses the demeanor of a leader.

Although FL sometimes doesn't speak up, she doesn't really need to, ML notices anything amiss immediately, eliminating any possibility of misunderstanding. Besides, FL has a great older brother who helps her resolve internal family conflicts and acts as her support. From FL's perspective, the world couldn't be more perfect.

I still recommended this despite lack of spark between the leads

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One of a very few I've dropped

I had to drop this as it was unbearable, for me. The tropes I can get past, but his entire demeanour and her passiveness at the sheer stupidity of their contract was so boring and overdone. Also they obviously do go back and dub missed sounds and voices (I watch in original audio, in this case Mandarin) and her breathing was so loud and just awful, sounding like she had a blocked nose and trying to breathe through it.

This is the first time I've left a review on a series that I have actually dropped as it seems unfair, but in this case it is so ridiculous that I had to warn others!!

Note - I was in the mood for a light hearted easy watch, which I read on review here, this was.

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Light transmigration drama when the leads are on good term

I watched this last year because the is not much good drama on the day this drama being released. It is one of Chen Gang rare good character since he is not become scumbag even i feel he slightly too weak to get classic good guy. He Lingyao played on her usual expertise. I don't have any complain to the leads acting. Personally, they feels like comrades more than lovers but i still enjoy their bantering since it was not really toxic compare to other Chen Gang drama. I still rewatch this few times since its quite light drama.

This is a modern transmigration romance drama where ML and FL are sweet from beginning to end. ML was not too scumbag compared to other transmigration drama.

FL is adorable. Initially, she's portrayed as a hardworking woman trying to earn her post-marital allowance, a little manipulative, manipulating ML. Having read the book, she kindly helps the original FL and eventually becomes her friend. She also pursues an acting career, gaining recognition from the director and crew.

ML is initially quite indifferent, only showing slight interest in FL's changes and enjoying teasing her, but still fully respecting her. Later, he gradually falls for her, showing her affection in various ways, and doesn't hide his feelings in front of his friends. She quickly saw through the ML's family's true colors and decisively broke off the relationship, demonstrating both skill and influence

There is no unnecessary misunderstand trop, and no angst in this drama. Both lead can communicate. The villains was not traditional villains even they are too weak compared to leads, and their screentime are limited. FLs manager and friends are also quite nice too.

Recommended if you want light transmigration drama.

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When Clout Replaces Storytelling, the Result Is a Mess.

When I read the premise, I was actually looking forward to this drama. The concept of hyper virtual reality is not new, but incorporating it with love and relationship dynamics was something that genuinely interested me. Unfortunately, the drama did not deliver on that front. It was a great opportunity for the makers to explore how humans have become increasingly detached from each other and obsessed with perfection, to the point where the only place left for them to seek emotional refuge is no longer the real world.

I understand that they wanted to make it a light-hearted romantic comedy, but even that requires a cohesive and systematic story flow. This drama suffers from several plot holes, which should have been the core of the narrative buildup. For starters, why did the female lead break up with her ex? We are told that he “changed,” but what exactly changed, and to what degree that breaking up became the only option? Instead of stretching the Seo Kang-joon arc, the drama should have used that time to explore this properly so that we could understand why Mirae is so afraid of being in a relationship. A character making such choices needs a solid emotional foundation.

Secondly, we get to know that the male lead liked Mirae from the very beginning, but that is only from his point of view. Mirae never truly learns about how he cared for her behind her back. Because of that, she never had any real reason to develop feelings or even gratitude toward him. She clearly didn’t like him and even found him somewhat obnoxious, yet weirdly and shockingly he turns out to be her “ideal image boyfriend.” Lmao. Make it make sense. At this point it became obvious that the writing was simply trying to push the lead couple into falling in love without building any narrative base for their relationship that would actually make atleast a little sense.

Now the thing is, female leads in k-rom-coms are often written very one-dimensionally. Not all of them, but the majority are, and Mirae is no exception to this kind of sloppy writing. However, weak writing alone does not stop good actresses from making such characters feel believable. Many actresses have managed to portray these roles beautifully and bring charm and emotional authenticity to them despite the limitations of the script. Unfortunately, Jisoo couldn’t do that here.

For me, the biggest problem with Jisoo as an actor is that she never lets go of “Jisoo the person” while acting. She probably believes she is being natural, but acting does not work that way. From Snowdrop to Newtopia to this drama, she largely comes across as "Kim Jisoo" reciting lines with weak delivery, bad diction, a flat vocal tone, and mostly monotonous facial expressions, occasionally slipping into exaggerated ones. I watched a few of her interviews and noticed that her mannerisms, habits, and overall presence are almost identical to what we see in her dramas as well. This is the reason none of her characters feel lived-in but rather cosplayed, and they never leave a lasting impression on the audience. She brings about 90 percent of her real-life persona into her characters, which is the last thing an actor should be doing. At this point she genuinely needs proper acting training. How long is she planning to rely on BLACKPINK fame alone?

In hindsight, it also feels like a disrespect to actors who are far more skilled and talented but still struggle to get opportunities. At the very least, if someone is given these opportunities, they should justify them by putting in proper effort.👀

Now to our male lead, I have watched Seo In-guk in other dramas and he usually delivers solid performances. However, with this kind of weak character writing, there was very little he could do. His character simply lacked a defined personality, although he still performed decently with what he was given.

As for the chemistry between the leads, as I already mentioned, the story never built a proper foundation for their relationship, so the connection between them already felt forced rather than genuine. But that still doesn’t completely excuse the lack of acting chemistry between Jisoo and Seo In-guk. The kiss scenes and moments that were supposed to feel heartfelt came across as rehearsed rather than lived-in. It was very obvious that they were acting as a couple instead of making the audience believe they actually were one.

Overall, the show is below average. Honestly, I doubt people would even be talking about it this much if it weren’t for Jisoo’s BLACKPINK fame, those crazy cameos and the excessive exposure from Netflix.

That said, I never recommend people to watch or avoid something solely based on my opinion. Read the synopsis—if it interests you, go ahead and watch the drama. If you enjoy it, that’s great if not that is fine too.

Also, don’t blindly praise or hate dramas or actors just because you are a fan or a hater. Blind praise never helps actors improve, and extreme negativity can break an artist’s spirit. Constructive criticism lets them know where they lack in skills, and if they truly care about their craft, they will work on improving.

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Watchable, but not as good as the donghua

I absolutely adored S1 of this donghua/anime, which is funny and sweet. While waiting for S2, I went ahead and read the novel. I found still funny but somehow a lot less charming, and I actually soured a little on the story after that.

Given this history, it’s difficult for me to rate this drama on its own merits. Not only is it hard to look past differences and comparisons- and I do think it falls significantly short of the donghua- but I also can’t un-know what I know. Maybe I would have liked this show better if I didn’t already know what would happen... or maybe, if the show had been better, I would have still liked it a lot. Who knows.

Since I can’t be objective, I’ll be brief (by my standards, hah). The FL is cute and sensible, and it’s nice that she has “modern” values- this means she dislikes death, innocent people suffering, etc just as much as we audience do. The ML is a little darker, but he’s always on her side even if keeping secrets. Their dynamic is (or is supposed to be) that of playful co-conspirators, which is cute to watch.

There are likeable side characters, and the villains are easy to hate. The humor is pretty good at the beginning but mostly fades away by about halfway. The plot is basically palace politics, but there are some clever elements like the two layers of transmigration, how the protagonist of one story can turn out to be the antagonist of the next, and the way their modern experiences are woven in. I like that the transmigration is addressed directly as being lonely and scary, which also makes you glad they have each other.

All this sounds not too bad, but in the end I couldn’t make myself care about the characters and I wasn’t really rooting for them- either with each other or against their enemies. So it was just not that interesting or captivating.

The acting is alright. I think Wang Churan could work on her expressions a bit. She seems to do a lot of gazing prettily, but I would have preferred a more down-to-earth, spunky Yu Wanyin. Cheng Lei is fine but I didn’t feel much for him or his character. I also had a big problem with the voice acting. Way too many breathy little noises- especially, but not limited to, the FL.

The music is pretty good, both songs and BGM. The costumes also look nice. Overall the show is decent, but as somebody who came in knowing the story, I was pretty bored and watched the whole thing at accelerated speed.

And because I can’t help it, here’s my comparison with the donghua and the novel. I place the drama somewhere in between in terms of enjoyability. It somehow misses a lot of the charm and lightheartedness of the donghua. The drama version FL is a lot less endearing, and the ML (who’s dark side is significantly toned down) is less interesting. I went back to watch the donghua after the drama and immediately felt much more attached to both characters.

The drama of course has a longer runtime. Most of the extra material in the first half, as far as I can tell, is people speaking slowly, and drawn out scenes meant to play up the romance. I thought that was unnecessary and makes their relationship less cute; I prefer its more subtle development in the donghua. As for the novel, it explains things better, but it’s the least warm and fuzzy, and I’m glad they tempered it a bit for the visual versions.

The overall story is the same for all three. In terms of plot, from donghua to drama there are some small changes, which I mostly didn’t like but they were fairly inconsequential. I just don’t think the drama adds substantially to what I got out of the donghua. Even the music- I like the drama’s, but I still like the donghua’s better.

As a note, the donghua S2 is still airing and I do think the story naturally gets darker and less fun in this second half. But from what I’ve seen so far (~9 eps), they’re still doing a good job maintaining the cute, lighthearted tone.

Finally, an explanation of the two layers of transmigration- I didn’t pick this up for half of the donghua S1 and I don’t think the drama did much better, so this might help somebody. Xie Yong’er is a transmigrator with knowledge of one trashy novel, but herself is a character in the trashy novel that our real heroine (Yu Wanyin) has entered. Therefore. Xie Yong’er is trying to change the events that occur in the novel she read, while Yu Wanyin knows what she does and tries to change on top of that.

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS





The ending within the transmigration world is fine, I'd consider it a happy ending with sacrifices. There are several unfortunate deaths of people you probably like, but at least there is over half an episode of wrap up and people being happy together. It is choppy with no sense of time, and wastes screentime on some drawn out scene with a flamboyant costume, but still ok.

The annoying part is that they completely chop off the reunion in the modern world to a 1-minute sequence on the subway. It has no context and makes no sense. I heard they filmed something else and somehow it got edited to this.

The book version is way better, in which: they get another 10ish years happily together in the transmigration world before he dies; she lives out the rest of her life in that world (decades) and leaves the empire to her child; after dying, she comes back to the modern world, and immediately goes to look for him; in the past 10 years (he transmigrated 10 years before she did), he’s used the knowledge she gave him to build a company and bring the trashy novel back to its popularity, thus allowing her pre-migration self to see it and get the chance to transmigrate. Then they get together and have sexy time.

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After Addicted..... huh.. dissappointed

After I got to know that we are getting from the support couple from Addicted I was very excited, but it was a dissappointment, I would not say unwatchable, but not rewatchable. The chemistry of the main couple was very good which drove the show actually and second couple fell short. The second couple broke the second leads syndrome , I genuinly thought the second couple was not necessary. The stoey was rushed, due to short episode spans, But the music and chemistry hooked me till the end but the ending was a total dissappointment, it was so random and unfinished like tehy had to shoot it yesterday and release today. The ending and story were the once that stopped me from giving it any more rating, the premise was repetitive but could have worked very well if done right, but unfortunately it wasn't. If you want a short drama and liitle comedic and fluffy, yet able to make you cry at moments go for it but be ready for dissappointing ending.

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What do you want?

"Confetti" is a good example why you don't always need an external conflict to tell an engaging story with depth.
Interesting characters, a relatable premise, a screenwriter and a director who know what they want, and, of course, outstanding actors -- if you have that, then even the most mundane plot can feel new and fresh. "Confetti" has all of these in spades.

Although the life circumstance of our main protagonist Yuki -- a kid who is growing up in a 大衆演劇 "taishu engeki" or "poular theatre" troupe -- are quite unusual, the central question for him is one most teenagers ask at a time in their lives: "What do you want?" With the end of middle school (and thus the end of compulsory schooling) growing nearer, he has to make his first life-important decision.

What I loved about the film is that it combines Yuki's unusual background with everyday topics in Japan: absenteeism in schools, parental expectations, exploitation of idols, the modern vs. the traditional arts and more. And quite a few of these themes are not addressed directly, but often just in a glance, a smile or a frown, a few words that are just said as an aside. What's not being said is just as important as what is being said in this film: and this is where the quality becomes very obvious. Because for something like this to work, all creative forces need to be in alignment about what story they want to tell -- and since they decided to tell their story mostly in the glances and side remarks, I'll leave the reading of this story to the attentive viewer.

Another thing that I loved: We get to see glimpses into the world of Japanese "popular theatre". I surely had never heard of it before, and liked that the film took us to see the genre and the inner workings of a theatre troupe. I would not be surprised if the actors for the troupe were a real 大衆演劇 group and the venue and the props were actually used in real life.

Let me take note of some technical aspects:
The screenplay is written concisely and every scene and every line has its own value. When Yuki speaks a few lines while sitting alone in his new classroom in the beginning -- and it's picked up again by a theatrical actor in the last minutes. When themes are gently introduced, and their importance is only revealed bit by bit.
The directing and the acting support the screenplay: A gentle nod, a crips bow, someone leaving and another standing by the door. None of this seems obviously out of the norm. Fit together, it makes for a cohesive whole where nothing is forced but everything can potentially be important.
And where these decisions would make another film feel slow-paced, this is strangely not the case for "Confetti".
I have to mention Yuki's actor, Matsufuji Shion, who has one of these round faces that don't naturally lend themselves to expressive acting -- but he does it anyway. His emotions are always very easy to read, his confusion, his melancholy, his joy. Very, very impressive for a 15-year-old!



Was it good?
I my view, this film is a little gem among Japanese films -- it's not pretentious at all, or flashy, but neither is it boring. But it tells a beautiful story about growing up and trying to find the answer to "What do you want?"

Did I like it?
A lot! Really, this is one of the films I'll definitely watch again.

Who would I recommend it to?
To those who like coming-of-age stories, definitely. To those who like to watch a film with their eyes and hearts as much as with their ears.

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OMG!!!!!!

This was one of my first BLs, but still no bias, this is one the best BLs, GMMTV ever peoduced, and looking at that the actors in it mostly were rookies, they handled it so well, I especially adore Gemini and Fourth, they are and forever will be in my top 3 CPs. Every aspect of this series was just shouting....... "cute..... cute........ cute......" and I could not stop giggling or laughing or blushing at thier sweet moments. Always ever excited for anything GeminiFourth related, watched all their series and definitely waiting for TTH. This series also introduced me to Mark Pakin and, unpopular opinion MarkOhm were great in Sweet Tooth Good Dentist, always like MarkOhm and thanks to MSP I was introduced to Mark

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Where can I find a He Su Ye?

March 10, 2026

The Best Thing I have ever watched with the greenest leads. I love this Cdrama, I just docked 0.5 off since it felt just a teeny bit draggy at the end. However, I do love this series overall.

First of all, He Su Ye, the man that you are, you are such a green flag down bad yearning plotting man. He really did all of that, call him the real mastermind of this love story. Never back down, never what?? NEVER MOTHER FUCKING GIVE UP.

Also, Ms. Shen Xi Fan, be a green flag herself too. I love how she processed her own break up and moving on from her ex first before jumping the gun with He Su Ye. I really think that this is a vital thing when to be addressed especially if it is a long-term relationship too.

The chemistry is oozing, for a fluffy drama this has some pretty tease-able spice either way.

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missed opportunity with the leads

The premise really started out nicely. But as the series progressed, the main point or storyline got lost.

The series is quite long with 35 episodes, but it felt like the main couple just started their real journey towards the last two episodes. May I also add that they stopped acting like teenagers around the last episode only?! Truly, what a missed opportunity this show was. The main couple really had chemistry and it was a pleasure to see them interact on screen. But their interactions are always so limited and felt lacking towards the end.

It was sad that the secondary couple got more exposure and more couple development than the main leads. While their story wasn’t as exhausted as the main leads, it was still a better told story than the leads…

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Great drama - skip second half of episode 40

HEED MY WARNING!!!

I reaaaaally never leave reviews but will just add a warning for this one, in general I loved it, acting, the story, even the evil guys had a reason and some even got character growth, even though the main couple was so slow burn it didn’t bother me…
I loved so very much Duke Su’s sidekicks

But seriously if you see other comments saying to skip everything after minute 31 of episode 40, DO IT

It was so unnecessary, we already had a happy ending, why kill off my 3 favorite characters all at once and in the last 10 minutes of the show

I had read somewhere this had a happy ending so wasn’t expecting this, I got surprised when Liu Ju was killed, caught me totally off guard, I loved him, so then I tried to make peace with it like okay, well Xiao Heng and Wen Ji will take him home… 30 seconds later Wen Ji is massacred with arrows, I literally screamed!! My funny and adorable Wen Ji!!! I wish I had a brother or best friend like him.

Then there was no question what was going to happen to our dearest Xiao Heng… outnumbered … not going back to A’Li after all. The last moments where he met her at the tree were definitely his last delusion before meeting his end, even in a white horse, he never rode white horses, only in the after life it seems.

And seriously that woman deserved happiness with her man after everything she went through, and finally chose the right man…

This will definitely leave me with traumas or either gonna try pretend I never saw those 25 minutes

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