Reviews

None of you who wrote a bad review are used to thai culture and lakorns

Many criticise the ML for not standing up against his mother. In Thailand its culturally wrong to disrespect the parents especially your mother. In thai culture and buddhism you have to thank your mom your whole life, when shes sick, when shes sad etc. And it was obvious how ML was fed up with her shenanigans but hes just a bit too kind. I lowkey like that because i want drama characters to have flaws. Also i heard people criticise the FL's over the top acting. Thats literally the point of traditional lakorns like this. The target audience is not teenagers, its for thai aunties. So you need to consider that this is not meant for you, so its natural you don't like it. Also if you don't know thai culture too, you are never "too much" to be cringe is to be free. Thai people are very cringe because culturally we were always told to be our unfiltered selves. Plus its a bit more dramatic because its a freaking drama. This is why most traditional lakorns usually cast 30+ year olds because its supposed to feed the dream of 40+ thai aunties with the secret mindset like "This could've been me 10 years ago" But it was very enjoyable for me because im from the thai countryside and grew up watching these shows with my mom. Im glad they got rid of some of the older lakorn style like "Rich guy come save poor girl like me, i will even lick your shoes!" Or the slap-kiss aka tsundere style.

Also makes sense they casted mid twenty year olds because that age was the peak for farm work (hence ML's abs lol) and it may attract some young people. All im saying is, see this drama from a different perspective. Thailand is still growing for het (hetero) lakhons. BL and GL are usually targeted toward international teen audiences, they lose some of the thai "cringe" personality to fit international audiences. We are not on the same level as Korea in the 2020's. I would say we are like Korea in 2014. Still needs to grow. This is one of the great examples of the growth we made, and what is still needed. I think having more traditional lakorns like this and having more international style lakorns like F4 Thailand is what makes our drama industry great.

I also think bad characters like ML's mom or Krongtong are needed for the drama effect. It makes you feel more passionate about the drama. The writers WANT TO piss you off. I think ML and FL chemistry is great, many complained about the kiss scenes, they don't have to lick each others faces, calm tf down.

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quantity > quality

Maybe I've watched too many other shows recently that have particular outstanding qualities not found here.
Maybe when I go into a drama with big expectations, I always get disappointed.
Or maybe when it's Gu Man, I see various Gu Man things that I'm not the biggest fan of (China #1: either China goes to Mars or develops leading hightech breakthroughs or whatever, patriotic Chinese researchers are leading the field in other countries but return to China to advance their homeland, the Chinese government has oh-so-many initiatives that are oh-so-perfect, and some snide remarks that white people food is inedible and inferior unless it's a sponsor in the show), or how she covers at least three industries... but that brings me to my actual complaint.

For me, Shine On Me has too much quantity over quality.

Recently I've felt a bit underwhelmed by how few songs My Page In The 90s makes do with (3-4). Meanwhile, Shine On Me has 17 songs (seventeen!!!). Of those, I like about... one and a half. Even the Liu Yu Ning song is in the bottom third of Liu Yu Ning songs. It's played exactly once, and then thrown in once more at the very end when the producers realize they paid for a lot of songs so they might as well use them all again. Chen Xue Ran this is not.

Character-wise, the quantity onslaught starts with her college roommates in the first episode. For some reason, she doesn't have the standard assignment of four girls in one room, but we instead get six. Then for an extra flimsy reason, they're 'paired' with a room of another six guys. At work, a female lead in a drama is guaranteed one best friend by law, but this one has at least three of them.

We have a mostly useless SML. After he served his purpose, he still gets a decent *quantity* of appearances. But not only that, he also gets a whole boatload of own side characters. They all have names, they all get scenes. But it's so low-effort that two girls with no differentiating features are called 'Min' and 'Mia'.

Even the (fortunately largely ineffective) villains come in groups. Typically they're delivered as a set of three. I find it a bit problematic how the show propagates the idea that the children of selfish and mean people are themselves bound to be bad human beings, but this is going too far off topic.

Other than the FL's cousin Jiang Rui, who stood out in some way in nearly all of his scenes, none of the side characters in SOM were consistently good / entertaining. A bunch had their moments, like particular small mini arcs or scenes in which they stood out, but ... I just came from rewatching another show after two years where all (!) the side characters had stayed somewhat memorable and felt much more like real people than random characters. It doesn't help that Gu Man or the other screenwriter sometimes override some random character's personality and literally just put words into their mouth to replace having a narrator.

I'm still not sure if I find Shine On Me a bit meh because my other recent shows just had *cuter* cute scenes of the leads being cute together, or all the other stuff in-between just wore me down.

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Compelling Start ...and then the plot lost itself.

I am gonna be honest..is it great? No! ...But is it non-watchable...Also no!
You could definitely watch this to get your BL fix when nothing else seems interesting...The lighting and cinematography were really good.
Fair warning, though, you will feel like screaming at both the leads...sometimes the miscommunication is dragged..like one instance of Toh overhearing an incriminating sentence uttered by Jimmy would have been enough (after which the next sentence is undoing the first impression, but of course Toh is long gone by then, and did not hear the second half)...we did not need multiple such 'coincidences'.
Anyways...among the things I liked, at the top is definitely Plaifah and Ter's relationship. Though it started a bit racy and red-flaggish, it actually evolved to be the healthiest one by the end. They were sexy but also sweet; they communicated well, and both seemed to respect each other for their roles in the relationship. I stan!

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Okey cute.

Devo dire che sono contenta di SurfJava. Se si considera poi che questo è stato il loro primo lavoro assieme (visto che lo hanno girato prima di H2H). Quindi come sono stati molto validi in quella devo dire che si riconfermano. That being said, mi sembra che un pelo si sia discostata dalla trama del primo trailer, ma questo come dire, non ci possiamo fare nulla. Ora al netto di tutto, anche se ho amato SurfJava, qua lo devo ammettere, non mi sarebbe dispiaciuto vedere OhmLeng in queste vesti, ma come dico sempre, non si può piangere sulle ship versate. Questo mi riporta sul seminata, cieè che non vedo veramente l'ora di vedere Roommate Chaos per vedere cosa possono fare SurfJava assieme a MarkOhm e a SaveFranc, quindi in un ruolo diciamo comprimario, visto che in questi quattro episodi sono stati molto, molto validi. E niente, mi è anche piaciuta la parte della nonna del personaggio di Java e di come la sua malattia lo abbia aiutato ad essere una persona migliore e che capisce quali sono le sue priorità, fino a spiegarlo anche al personaggio di Surf, per il quale apparire sembra alcune volte più importante che essere.

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Very emotional and sometimes, very painful too.

If you want to watch a great romance drama, I highly recommend Start-Up!
The love triangle is very original, the story is amazing because it breaks stereotypes on top of the symbolism, and most importantly you see how they rise to success together. The episodes might be long but it's super addictive! I love the female lead and the male lead too because he's the nerdy/socially awkward type. And well all the characters honestly. Truly an amazing love story but also about life, relationships and dreams. (And the setting is actually so entertaining and interesting!)

Lastly, two things:

- When she said, “I like you because of your hands,” it symbolized everything he gave her — kindness, reassurance, comfort, warmth. Through his gestures and the way he was always there for her, his hands became a metaphor for the emotional support he consistently offered. Of course, Dal-mi thought he was the Do-san from the letters, so when he asked what she liked about him other than being him that's what she answered. So at the end, she says "You're the reason."

- The “first love” argument doesn’t really hold up, because the entire letter situation was orchestrated by her grandmother and Ji-pyeong to comfort her.

FMVs: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVlEiYP-9el76ymzUch5sbXg9AoGr5gnb

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A romantic story about life beautifully told in a slow-breathed and melodic narrative.

Now, We Are Breaking Up is a melodrama with a makjang intrigue, both mature and modern, which creates an interesting contrast to the more traditional storyline. The focus on the women is really good, and the friendships along with the work scenes add dynamism to the drama.

While the drama may not be conventionally entertaining, it captivates in an impressive way. Why? Because it's poetic and relatable, because of its mature and philosophical dialogue, because of its title meaning so much more, because of its cast/OST/cinematography, because of its setting, the opening, and the leads being the first to speak French so well in dramas.

It's not a drama focused on cheesy lines, butterflies, or surface-level moments. The chemistry here reflects how professional adults with such personalities genuinely connect with each other.

Even though it's slow-paced, if you want to watch something adult, melancholic and classy, you can have a great time with this drama. And some of the tracks were so good that I still listen to them, like Tangle Destiny, Tempest and 10 Years Ago.

To end on a good note, I will share my opinion on the ending in the comments. What I can say is that even though it's a melodrama, it leaves you with a warm feeling.

Favorite scene: https://www.reddit.com/user/_sunoh/comments/1ph4gcy/now_we_are_breaking_up_episode_12/

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More Than Friends, a melancholic and memorable rom-com.

Lee Soo is one of the best male leads ever written, overall great and unique drama. Fairy tale metaphors, landscapes, discovery of Seoul through teamwork and different jobs (photography and calligraphy), stages of life and love (school, adults), beautiful quotes, timing, coincidences and missed opportunities, family relationships, FL's own issues (in the end it was more about her, but Soo stayed patient and worked on himself, but that never means he has to change his whole personality and I hate when people think that way - he is not bad, and they are also just ignoring the lonely cocoon he's created for himself - what he lacked was self love and the vision he had of relationships was from his divorced parents), complex SFL, great contrast with the SML (simple, kind CEO character, his job had to do with literature), his own backstory and his relationship with FL being sort of a contract, creating new opportunities despite being too late, both halves of the drama divided by a turn of tables, fresh take on tropes, 3rd couple and overall "group of friends" story. The best part was the ML's story because of how real it is. I got insanely attached to him, the way he cared about Woo Yeon (her name literally means destiny) for her dreams and I loved how The Little Mermaid was referenced through him. Ong Seong Wu is also my favorite actor since then, I love the OST titles here and he did a song for his character that's so sentimental, the OSTs were always perfectly placed in the drama.

"I don't take photos of people and myself", this was the beginning of his story. He actually gave me inspiration to take photos on my trip at the time I started watching it, haha. Overall, this drama is a slow-burn character study so it's important to be patient.

The moment I fell in love with this drama was the end of Ep 6, where my disappointment turned into fascination and crying my heart out because of Lee Soo. Afterwards, he really became the star of the drama. What I thought was a ridiculous cliché was just so beautifully done and thought-out. I was literally still on my trip, and I barely slept that night. I also remember I watched his short movie "Seong Wu is Alright" and loved it.

P.S. Ong Seong Wu actually likes photography, so of course he took the role.

Quotes:

"But life is a series of exchanges. No one can control them. The only thing that should have been different is not what happened. It's this feeling that I became aware of far too late."
"A missed opportunity turns into regret. If there are no more opportunities to miss, I will make sure to create them myself."
"In a world of misunderstandings, it's dangerous to make assumptions about others. So you should ask the question yourself. You should hear the answer directly."
"Love must touch someone's inner confidence. Then, love will not be dragged away by the other person, but will draw the other person towards you." - from a book's quote at the end

Lee Soo's father to him: "(When couples break up) A man becomes friends when feelings remain, but a woman becomes friends when they have no feelings left."

When Lee Soo asked his divorced mother to consider getting back together with his dad: "Son, do you know what is the most important thing in a long-term relationship? The memories. Your dad and I had good memories, but we have more painful ones. I have no confidence in overcoming those bad memories."

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Love Alarm, a metaphor beyond a concept.

Short version, spoiler-free: (I'll post the full review later)

It’s quite well known that Love Alarm is disliked by many people because of the final choice in the love triangle. But I saw something much more human in it (and yes, I happened to be on the “winning side,” but honestly by season 2 I had a huge soft spot for the characters anyway).

Of course, the girl receives backlash for her personality and her choices, but people too often ignore what she went through and what she endured. Her character is crucial to the drama — the symbolism of the story as a parallel to our own reality, its development, the psychology, the relationships between the characters, the quotes… and how could I not mention the cinematography? The whole thing feels like a living painting (in addition to the way the story unfolds through the seasons, starting in autumn), then completely surreal scenes, even metaphorical or animated drawings.

To be honest, I loved this drama so much that I even made an edit of it. I also posted this music on YouTube: https://youtu.be/HiyN85Nly7A?is=PHxrHng7yxqgRLTy (and another one from season 1).

All of that to say: Love Alarm isn’t a bad drama at all. It’s a masterpiece of the sublime, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. Out of all the romances I’ve watched, it’s my favorite — and it will remain so.

Extras -
Favorite shot: https://kisskh.at/photos/Lw0qJL_3
FMVs: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVlEiYP-9el7fLSOUhOR0tJRwsHOY00wQ
My edit: https://www.tiktok.com/@suwunoh/video/7539722457960221974

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