Reviews

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

A butterfly returns when the flower blooms

Sometimes we need to stop asking why, it is just is. The Chinese makes some of the best BL shows and this is one of them from Hong Kong. It’s gritty and grungy, and very real. When a show is beautifully scripted and craftily edited it can really tell a story and in 5 short episodes. Some are left to the audience imagination. The show talks about relationships that are painful to go through, specially those we regret for not even fighting for. The what ifs! This is not a Thai feel good BL and that’s what makes it so great. It touch me deep and invited some of the pain I went through growing up, and reminded me my life now is what it is based on the choices I made and that happiness continues with knowing we become because we chose it. Is is just is.

Read More

You May like it or may not

To be honest half the story of this drama is so good because evry character is done so well and acting is also done very well but i had major problem with writing of the drama because half of the drama have story until there college years and during that we connect with every character and see that no one is wrong it is just situation and most imortant there is no hint od any three way feelings or love triangle by the end of there college scene in drama it is very well shown that sang yeon is over it even though eun jung and sang hak relationship is not same but it was still not some type of rival thing between female leads but after that i dont know why the writer added this unwanted villian arc for sang yeon because she was clearly good in there college life everyhting was ending on simple note but than writers complicated the things when they enter there work life which i didnt like. but yeah last ten minutes of last episode made me cry because it wa so real, they way eun jung pats sang yeon head and says " you did well" iw ould say great job whoever directed that scene because i ahve personally countless witnessed deaths of including family members this is exactly what most of peole do in those last moments, and yeah rewatch value im giving 1 because of two reason 1st the after mid story of drama which is unwanted and too much emotional ending.

Read More