Reviews

Acting

The series started as I can only describe with loud
women arguing over chopping meat. It was cringey.
It takes the whole seriousness off the BL and turns it in to a comedy. I did watch it through and it did have some cute moments.. bare bottoms.. Kissing.. and intimate touching done with feeling. The MLs being a Thai production the visuals of both actors were beautiful. I find Thai men are extremely good looking.. That's just my opinion.. Only got to think of Pond and Phuwin. I enjoyed the series in the end. Don't let my first paragraph in my comment put you off.

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close to Suits it’s that good

Pro Bono (2025) is easily one of the most gripping Korean dramas I’ve seen in a long time ⚖️🔥 From the very first episode, the story pulls you in with sharp writing and emotionally real characters. The legal cases aren’t just dramatic — they’re layered with tough moral choices that make you think 🤔

Each episode raises the stakes 📈 Courtroom scenes are intense, clever, and genuinely suspenseful, while the personal lives of the lawyers add heart and depth ❤️ The performances are outstanding, making every win, loss, and sacrifice feel meaningful.

Visually, the series looks polished and cinematic 🎬 The pacing is spot on, balancing high-tension legal battles with quieter character moments that let the story breathe.

If you enjoy smart legal dramas, complex characters, and stories about justice and humanity, Pro Bono is absolutely worth watching ⭐ It’s powerful, emotional, and hard to stop once you start.

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A young food blogger was asked to bring back a wealthy son of a coffee grower who went on seclusion

Plot/Story 8.5/10
This is a unique romance drama with the backdrops of coffee and tea plantation businesses. It is about a young genius who decided to go into seclusion to follow his mom's wishes to regrow tea instead of the current family business of growing coffee.
Su Shi Yu is a struggling food blogger for Time Flies , a small company seeking prospect of work with the Haowei Coffee Company. Lin Wei is the son of the person who run the coffee company - Chairman Lin. Mr. Lin has some opposition from his brother in law - Uncle Jin. Lin Wei is a genius, a successful young scholar, who initially heading the Yuanqi Capital. But he decides to abandon it, and moves to the mountain to grow orange jasmine tea instead, following the wish of his departed mom. His dad was desperate to persuade him to go back to the family business and to fight off the competition from his Uncle Jin.
In the Wu Ming San mountain, Mr. Lin accidentally saw that his son was seen too close to Shi Yu and thought that they were kissing. He then asked Shi Yu to entice him to return to the company business for the price of a potential contract with the company if she is successful.
Shi Yu worked with his sidekick - Shu Yue, who actually the son of a big corporation where his mother is trying to get him working for her company instead. Shi Yu's best friend is Bai Ruan, who works for Uncle Jin. An old colleague of Lin Wei is Fei-fei, who has been chasing Lin Wei since school time and was helping him to regrow the tea plantation in the mountain. Fei-fei has the knowledge about agriculture, plantation and farming.
As Shi Yu tries to get Lin Wei to come back to town, they end up having to know each other and determine to continue developing the new tea plantation in the mountain, with the help of the people in the village.

Cast/Characters
Cast 8.5/10
Shi Yu was played by Tang Min, a pretty young actress and has a nice friendly smile. I think her role in this drama is perfect because of her personality. Lin Wei was played by Chen Jinke, who is tall, slender and has a rather unique beak nose. When he cut his hair short, he looks like a monk in a Shaolin temple. His flat and wide chest make him to look like an Olympic swimmer. Chairman Lin was played by Guo Zhen; Uncle Jin by Zhang Yu Chen; pretty and feisty Bai Run by Ji Tian Yu; young Shu Yue by Jerron Wu; and Fei-fei by Wang Zi Su.

Characters 8.5/10
Shi Yu appears to be a lively character, and loved by the people in the village mountain. She is determine to get what she wants, and she dresses exceptionally well. Her slim built makes her very pretty appearances with all variety of dresses.
In Episode 14, she looks very sharp in a simple short white dress with black trimmings. The red qipao dress that was recommended by Mrs. Sha from the village and worn in Episode 15 was so beautiful, that the romantic setting that she created gets Lin Wei's attention. She is just so young, cheerful and beautiful.
Her rival - Fei-fei was played very well, although she finally accepted the fact that she is not in Lin Wei's heart and moves on. It is good that she finally met her man.
In Episode 9, a dramatic view of the village during a heavy rainfall after the tea seedling was destroyed by a storm. This is when Lin Wei was siting near a pond and get drenched from the rain and Shi Yu came with an umbrella and talked to him.

Music 7.5/10
Some nice music and dance performance by the village people, but nothing spectacular. Everyone appears to enjoy them and has a good time.

Re-watch value 8/10
I enjoyed watching this light drama, and re-watch some of the episodes. I like the interactions between the female and male characters - between Lin Wei and Shi Yu, uncle Jin and Bai Run, and Shu Yue and Fei-fei.

Scenery/Filmography 8/10
Some beautiful scenery of the country sites, the main building at the mountain, and the cheerfulness of the country's girls during dancing and festivities. These all add to the story of the drama.

Additional Personal Comments
- A beautiful set up of the Wu Ming San mountain, nice landscape of the tea plantation
- A cute moment when Shi Yu's foot kicked Lin Wei's chin while he was attending the wound in her foot. At that moment, they were getting too close and looked at each others intensely. At that moment, his dad came in the rain and thought that they were kissing. He then abruptly retreated, happy and said "there is still hope now".
- I like the ending of the drama, as well as the romantic outcomes for Bai Ruan, Shu Yue and Fei-fei.
- The pink, unique car that she was driving for her work is quite interesting, unusual and funny.

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A flawless, inspiring, lighthearted drama with accomplished storytelling, based on a true story

"If the people who create miracles can be called extraordinary individuals, then Longgang´s extraordinary people are not just one or two, but a whole group of them" by Zhu Xiaojun from his book "China´s Farmers City".

The Dream Maker is an uplifting, vibrant drama told in a lighthearted way full of humor and humanity that manages to tell an apparently boring and complex subject such as building a city in an engaging way. The pace is fantastic, the music is inspiring, the ensemble cast is on point and the feeling of that era - the 80s - is nicely done. The overall cinematography is modern but still has a touch of nostalgia. Last but not least, the ending is epic. Perfect from start to finish.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see this drama’s name during awards season, especially for direction and adapted screenplay - it's been a long, long time since I’ve seen such a flawless story and such accomplished storytelling. In the acting department, Huang Xiaoming, Chen Minghao, and Zhu Yuan Yuan are my favourites among the very solid lineup.

But what really sets it apart is that it´s based on a real story: Longgang in Wenzhou county, Zhejiang province, is the only city built by farmers in terms of efforts and funding during the era of Reform and Opening-Up.

The source of the script is a reportage research book called China´s Farmers City, written by Zhu Xiaojun, a winner of the Lu Xun Literary Award. In words of its author:

"I believe the most remarkable thing about Longgang is that, without being included in the national capital construction plan, it relied on the Reform and Opening-up policy of 1984 to blaze a new trail. It created a miracle in the history of urban construction in China and even the world - a city built by peasants with their own funds. This city also changed the destiny of hundreds of thousands of peasants, enabling them to achieve common prosperity."

The Reform and Opening-Up is a part of modern Chinese history that few people in this western part of the globe understand in its scale, impact and magnitude not just for China but for the world we are living now and in the years to come. Since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976 and the leadership of Deng Xiaoping during the 80s - and his influential power in the next decade -, and the following presidents, the country transformed from a pure communist society to the modern superpower we see today. A shift the world has never witnessed, as we are talking about merely of 45 years.

The Dream Maker is set against this backdrop, and at the begining of this era. As we saw, a rare case within China but in the world: a city built with the funding and efforts of its own residents, and by the leadership of one extraordinary man: the real Chen Dingmo.

The script took many years to adapt, and of course it took its liberties. While some characters have their counterparts in real life, others are a blend of two real people or were added to enhance the storytelling. But this is a real powerhouse cast that brings these fictional people to life: they´re not perfect or blunt, but just as real as people are.

The character of Li Qiuping, played by Zhao Liying, doesn´t actually exist in the book. She combines the traits of two other characters: the cultural depth and professional drafting skills of the university graduate Xie Fangming (in the book) and the forward-looking vision of Chen Dingmo. On the contrary, Secretary Zheng Da Cheng, played by the fantastic Huang Xiao Ming, is based on the real Chen Dingmo. You can tell the actor captured his vibe perfectly.

Finally, a special shout-out to the character Gao Xuemei, and the original protagonist: Chen Zhihui, the pioneer of Longgang´s Printing Industry. The power of women in Longgang, full of entrepreneurial spirit, is not only embodied by Chen Zhihui in real life, but also by actress Zhu Yuan Yuan. Her portrayal of the character Gao Xuemei is terrific, full of life, wit and will - all while suffering from cancer that nobody in the crew knew about. She died just sixteen days after the drama wrapped up filming.

I´m a strong believer in these stories, because although fictionalized, they´re based on real people. They might be less popular than real tragedies and fantasy romances, but by no means less important, entertaining or impactful to the heart and mind. The world is full of dream makers whose stories are worth telling and knowing.

If you like these types of stories or are looking for a positive view of the world, you can give this drama a try. It might not be for everyone, but it surely will become a classic in cdramaland, in my cdrama library and perhaps, in yours too. It´s a drama worth watching and rewatching.

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Heart Pulling

I cried during this series. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea but I loved it and I will definitely rewatch it again. The acting was 10/10, loved the story as well. The only two things I wish would be fixed was a couple of scenes where you see an object but it’s gone in the next, like where did it go? The second was the “side couple” we didn’t get much of, wish they had more time on screen and see their relationship develop. Other then those, I still give it a 10/10 would recommend. I’m glad I stumbled upon this series overall. Thank you to the actors and production team for making this.

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it got so extra

i liked the story in the start but as the story progressed it started to get kinda confusing coz of poor arrangement of the plots and all the actors are amazing but the story became a bit too much as it proceeded like too much parting and stuff they tried to make it like very very emotional but it kinda became annoying for me at lease at one point
and i liked the funny scenes which weren't many but were still there i don't remember most of the drama coz I watched it a long long time ago like almost 4-5 years ago I think but I remember the feeling when I watched it

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An appreciation for volunteer rescue workers

Being honest, I watched this because of Luo Yunxi, as I quite enjoy his modern dramas since Love is Panacea in 2023.

Light Chaser is beyond that of depicting that not all heroes wear capes. It's beyond about rescuing others in dire circumstances, but a story that delves deeply into the themes of love, forgiveness, prejudice and what relationships mean.

It's not by any means new, but it offers a fresh perspective (sometimes, painfully) that love means choosing to let the other person go. Not completely unrelated, but around the time of watching a certain episode, I happened to also discover that Yuzuru Hanyu was forced to seperate from his wife (but this had happened in 2023).

Letting go is motivated by the desire to not hurt the other person anymore. Not because it's challenging. And this was portrayed so strongly in multiple relationships in this drama, which I won't go into here.

Some of the character choices were a little on the ridiciculous/illogical side, hence I couldn't wholeheartedly give a 10 stars despite the value and messages this drama had brilliantly offered throughout the 40 episodes. Teamwork, support, bonding, communication and above all perseverance - in all of its aspects (to prove oneself, to survive) - the highlights of the drama is dependant on the eyes of the viewer and where their values lie.

Sometimes we find the meaning of life in the most unexpected ways - for Luo Ben, he was thriving in his career as a lawyer and loves his sister - but the fulfilment came from his time spent with equally dedicated teammates and saving lives.

The depiction of romantic relations is a mirror to real life - but it's a reminder that while it's hard to be honest, sometimes the honesty hurts less for the other than hiding it and delaying the confrontation.

Overall this drama suprisingly had a philosophical side to it, as at some point you wonder "how can these people be so dedicated to intense training just to save lives of strangers?" - and it was never about being a hero, but unspoken stories of regret, redemption, guilt, simply because they can give, and maybe it's the people around them that ended up becoming lifelong friends.

This is definitely one of the dramas not to be missed, and now that it's over, I will surely miss it :)

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the bromance between eun woo and in yeop ?

😭😭😭 this drama was the first highschool drama i ever watched it was so cute and funny
i binge watched it and i remember laughing and crying and giggling it made me so happy
no one can deny the chemistry between seo jun and ju gyeong but I still belong to team su ho even tho ik seo jun deserved her
i loved the okey dokey yo scene 🤣 it was so funny and also I hated that they broke up when he went abroad and made up again like why tf did he needs to break up with her and also please I don't want in yeop to be the second lead anymore I feel so bad for him he deserves so much love 😭

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Love in a Theatre

The foremost thought I had - all 10 minutes I watched - was Sʜᴜsʜ﹗﹗﹗﹗﹗﹗﹗
You are in a movie theatre, why are you talking? They did not stop talking, I don't care if it was during the ads or the movie - don't talk!

Second, what happened? You met during the ads and you're already talking about dating? The deepest conversation they had was about popcorn!

Third - that must have been a terrible movie because all they did was talk, eat and sleep.

Finally, I know movies essentially show us two people falling in love within two hours, but these guys actually fell in love in two hours, half of which they spent asleep!

This was silly lol.
But kind of cute.

And also, don't stick around after the end credits, those theatres need to be cleaned - go out and have a conversation!

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hyungsik asked bo young out but she declined ?

THE CHEMISTRY!!!!
i loved the chemistry
park hyung sik is such an amazing actor and so is park bo young I loved how they called each other bong bong and min min 😭😭😭 it was so cute and that one good night scene in which hyung sik is giggling and kicking his legs in the air like a highschool girl with a crush shakdgke it's so cute omg 😭 aftrer watching the drama I found out that while they were shooting the drama hyung sik was actually in love with bo young and it made the drama so much more special for me 😭 i wish bo young accepted him they would've made the cutest couple ever

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