Reviews

Not as bad as other people think

First of all, I've only watched the Taiwanese version and I don't even remember the whole plot but this is definitely a spin-off rather than remake. If you expect they follow the original plot, then stay away.

I watched this solely for the hotness of Son Yuke and lowered my expectation after reading the other reviews here. However, I did really enjoyed watching the whole lakorn. Also his chemistry with Vill really shows, they acted really natural together.

I would say, actress who played Nicha was probably the worst actor in the series considering she's the 2nd lead. She's very stiff and barely has any other expression. It doesn't help that the wardrobe team gave her silly clothes. Going to the village in dresses and heels? Please be serious. Seb was better but he was a little stiff as well. I thought I would be annoyed with Thong Hansa (Ciize) but her character actually grew on me.

I actually don't mind that they lacked romantic scenes after Kin got his memories back. 10 episodes of him being Tonnam is good enough to make me squeal throughout the whole lakorn. However, Kin's a horrible boyfriend even before losing memory, let alone after.

I do think the episodes could have been shorter and they could skip the long ass flashbacks, but I guess that's just how lakorn works. Like another review mentioned, I like how they made the villain smart and not just plain evil.

Overall, I would definitely go back and rewatch the drama.

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Cinematic Perfection

I can't believe I haven't written a review for this series yet even though I've seen it at least 5 or 6 times now. (I'm honestly not exaggerating on that 10 for a rewatch value.)

This series was just so well done in every aspect, it's hard to pick where to begin.

The story was unique and *gasp* it made sense! And while there was never (spoiler #1) any explanation on how or why Joe's soul ended up in another body, honestly, it didn't matter in the end. Enough happened that made me completely forget about "how" and "why" in a trade off of emotional twists and turns that completely wrecked me.

Now, I'm not usually one for angst... but after seeing this, I realize I'm not one for immature, teenager angst that is more frustrating than entertaining and almost always easily avoidable. *This* angst had me hooked on the line from the get-go and I couldn't break free until the very end. (I mean this in a good way.) The roller coaster Joe goes through as the parallels of his past life run alongside his new life are just so well done and portrayed that we feel like we're getting all the dizzying airtime right along with him.

Speaking of.. this was a rare case of phenomenal editing and visually stunning shooting. The way they took opportunities to either show Joe's reflection in a subtle but "remember, this is what he looks like to everyone else" kind of way was so well done. It was neither in your face or "blink and you miss it." And it wasn't too often as if they thought the audience would forget or be stupid about it. It was handled very well at peak plot points to hit us right in the heart with the reminder and it was hella effective.

The acting.. honestly, if I want to be a bit picky, I could knock off half a point for some of the supporting cast (Looking at you, May, Sol and Tharn) but really, they weren't all that distracting and I think it actually helped their characters a little bit to be "less than polished" so I can forgive it. But everyone else? Such great performances by literally everyone else. (Spoilers ahead) My god, I want a guardian angel like Wut... He really was the best grounding support to Joe who really needed it. And when he found out the truth and punched Joe before hugging him, that was a full on weeping moment for me even though I don't shed tears on series that often. But the combination of his hurt, his relief, *our* relief that someone finally knew the truth, and Joe's surprise and anguish was just a combination of emotions that basically reached in through the chest and squeezed the heart.

Even Tong was such a convincing a-hole that we just love to hate on him. Really, every time he showed up on screen, everyone in the watch party was like "Go away, Tong." And Up and Poom in the lead roles were nothing short of perfection. Whenever Joe lost his sh*t, it was heartbreaking and when Ming did yet another SMH thing or said something that made you want to slap him, it was perfectly delivered, none-the-less.

As far as Joe and Ming as characters... they really had so much going on while not being overwhelming to the audience. It was not hard to keep up even when a new development was introduced as everything boiled down to two (spoiler-y) simple concepts: Ming fell in love with Joe's back just never realized it was Joe until it was too late and; Joe was a simp for Ming from the get-go which made him powerless to stay out of Ming's orbit. Ming's personal growth and character development was so satisfying, it was one of the best I've seen in series ever. Even when he was painted as a villainous a-hole, we can't help but love the idiot. And he gets a redemption arc that feels natural and makes me forgive everything from the past after seeing it through his perspective. (Also, rewatches helped understand his actions more and more but not in a "I missed that the first time around" kind of way. More like a "Ahh, these were hints where if you know, you know" kind of way.)

Anyway, I could probably go on and on about this series but for the sake of not breaking down every scene with why I love it, I would just say do yourself a favor and watch this series. But, forewarning, it is not for the faint of heart... this will hurt but it will also heal. The payoff is definitely worth it in the end.

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Loved it, but lots of missed potential!

It started out really well, but the characters got progressively dumber. Or rather once the plot veered too far away from the original novel's plot, the screenwriters couldn't figure out how to keep things moving without forcing the characters to make really obvious mistakes which were completely inconsistent with their character settings. Plus the ending was a hot mess, but it wasn't actually any worse than the original novel, so can't complain about that.

Also I wish they had done a better job with post production. The sound editing for Ling Jiushi's dialogues sounded like it was meant for an animated series rather than live action. I know most Chinese dramas use voice actors, but somehow it just too obvious here.

But honestly, even with all the flaws, the series is definitely worth watching. It was fast paced, with no boring parts. I binged watched all the episodes within 4 days. Every character was well developed, even the cannon fodder. Ruan Lanzhu's portrayal was brilliant. I was expecting to be disappointed because it seems like such a difficult role to play in live action but the actor managed to portray the core of the character really well, even with all the changes made to make it less BL.

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Started off strong but lost me midway.

The drama gave me a good impression at first. The setting was well done and the visuals of both the FL and ML matched nicely.
There are some plot holes but I tried to overlook them since they didn’t bother me too much at the beginning. However, after a few episodes, I found myself losing interest when the story shifted more into awkward, lovey-dovey romance moments between the leads..it just didn’t click with me.
The fight scenes and overall pacing remain watchable. It might take me several days to finish this drama, but overall, I’d say it’s still okay.
The acting is solid and the drama has its good points despite some flaws.

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Shōgun (2024) is less a retelling of a familiar narrative than it is an excavation of cultural dissonance, political restraint, and existential displacement. While its premise might suggest the broad strokes of an epic—clashing civilizations, warring daimyōs, a foreigner in a strange land—the series resists such simplification at every turn. It opts instead for a sustained meditation on power as language, on identity as performance, and on the fragility of influence in a world governed by formality and silence.

What distinguishes Shōgun is not merely the scope of its production—though the meticulous attention to historical and aesthetic detail is undeniable—but the rigor with which it interrogates the spaces between characters: spaces of mistrust, of obligation, of restrained violence. In these silences, in the long, deliberate pauses between dialogue, the true stakes of the drama unfold. The series does not pursue tension through action, but through anticipation, through the omnipresent sense that any misstep—verbal, cultural, or moral—could be fatal.

Hiroyuki Sanada’s Toranaga stands as a figure of extraordinary calculation: a man who understands that power, in its purest form, is exercised not through force, but through the careful withholding of it. Sanada does not portray Toranaga so much as inhabit him, rendering his presence a study in layered intentionality. Every gesture, every word, seems to carry the weight of consequence. His performance is not emotionally demonstrative, yet it resonates with a kind of restrained intensity that is far more telling than overt displays of authority.

Opposite him, Cosmo Jarvis’s Blackthorne becomes a vessel for both narrative momentum and thematic reflection. His foreignness is not played for spectacle, but for disorientation—a man unmoored not only from his homeland but from his own frameworks of understanding. The series wisely does not allow him the comfort of a redemptive arc or the illusion of mastery. His is a story of continual misinterpretation, of learning that assimilation may not mean understanding, and that survival often requires surrender, not triumph.

Anna Sawai’s Mariko is perhaps the series’ most quietly devastating presence—a character who navigates the rigid constraints of her social position with both dignity and fatalism. Her emotional restraint, like much of the series, functions as a double narrative: one of service and one of subversion. Her choices are often silent acts of resistance, her fate a commentary on the limits of agency within structures designed to suppress it.

Where many historical dramas seek to render the past legible to the present—by imposing contemporary sensibilities or moral clarity—Shōgun instead leans into the opacity of its world. It asks the viewer not to decode or judge, but to sit with the discomfort of not fully knowing. Political strategies unfold like ritual, alliances shift beneath layers of etiquette, and meaning itself becomes a negotiation. It is a series deeply concerned with language—not just spoken, but implied, withheld, misunderstood.

Critics may find its pacing deliberate, even withholding. But to demand immediacy from Shōgun is to misapprehend its design. It is not a series meant to gratify; it is a work that compels attention, that rewards patience, and that challenges the viewer to embrace narrative ambiguity as a reflection of the human condition.

In the end, Shōgun (2024) transcends the expectations of its genre, offering not just a historical epic but a meditation on cultural collision, political performance, and the impossibility of absolute understanding. It is a drama of silence and space, of ritual and rupture—a work that does not merely depict history, but engages in the act of historical thinking. For those willing to meet it on its own terms, Shōgun offers not just spectacle, but substance. Not just story, but structure.

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Enjoyable.

Aug 2025.
Overall an enjoyable watch, although I thought Seon-chaek's hair when in period costume, was weird at the front ~ it always looked messy. For some reason, once seen.... 😬

Some very irritating characters. OTY was his usual cool self, and his character was one I felt a lot of sympathy for. It felt a bit like he cruised this part though, as compared to some of his other roles, it wasn't exactly challenging. That isn't to say he wasn't good in this... I don't think I've ever seen him act badly, in any drama ~ even weakly written ones (he's often carried them).

Another character, that I'd rather have seen get some kind of punishment for their actions, again got off with no reprisals, which always irks me. Another mean character was at least a WYSIWYG ~ rarely bothering to conceal it!

Nice ending.

I doubt I'd watch this again, but I never considered dropping it. It made me laugh as well, which I like!

Worth a look.

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Of Mental Health and Empathy

I usually look at trailers before I watch a drama or check out reviews. But in this case, I started watching it because the title is quite interesting and because of Park Bo Young.

This Daily Dose of Sunshine is seen in our main character - Jung Da Eun. Someone we may think is so happy and perky each day that nothing bad can really affect her. I love how positive her character is and how much she really wants to understand each patient. I love how she finds friends among her colleagues. However, her empathy is quite at a high, that when she loses a patient, it greatly affected her. This goes to show that we can all be affected also mentally and emotionally when we care for someone who may not be emotionally or mentally stable.

This drama gives us a view of the reality of mental illness and in its many forms. We may see that mental illness is not easy to heal. It may cost a lot, but it needs more than just money - it needs carefully study, compassion, courage, strength and even wisdom.

I should say the acting is superb, especially with Bo Young. She is really good when it comes to this kind of emotional delivery. I hope all the actors are not affected by the story, as some do internalize so much their roles. It was only in this drama did I begin to learn about different kinds of mental illnesses. I think it is good for us to be aware of, and learn how we can help one who may be in such a state.

I am glad that in the end, there is a ray of hope, a ray of healing and a ray of sunshine coming back. I would not ask for a season 2. I think the 12 episodes are enough to make us aware that mental illness can be managed or even cured. Let us help contribute to the mental wellness of our society.

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This drama showcases types of love not just one

I really enjoyed the characters lives we were put into and the cases that the lawyers were taking on. I will say the plot of the law firm and the cases they took kept me interested and coming back every week.

I was disappointed with the ending, I see the directors and writers intention with the ML and FL romance. it was a slow burn, and a big emphasis on the connection the were building and emotional intimacy. By the end they were very close to each other and learned and learned from each other. I just really wish we atleast knew if they were heading in the direction of starting a romance.

None the less if it got a season 2 I would watch because I loved the story and the characters.

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