Reviews

I’ve already watched it three times.

easily one of the most psychologically compelling and emotionally shattering drama experiences in recent memory. If you are looking for a show that will completely consume your thoughts, ruin you emotionally in the best way possible, and stay with you long after the finale, Deep In is a 10/10 masterpiece. both the stories unfolding so flawlessly was so gripping to watch. I was locked in within the first 5 minutes. and I just gotta give props to my boy Ollie. I’ve followed since boys planet, and I’ve just gotta say, he literally blew me away with this performance. being able to play such contrasting characters so flawlessly simultaneously was so impressive to witness. I’m so proud of him and I hope to see him in more and more dramas. this was perfect to me.

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50 Episodes, Yet It Skips the Story

I’m dropping Love on the Menu, and not because it has fifty episodes or because the leads lack chemistry. I’m dropping it because I simply cannot tolerate the stupidity of its narrative anymore.

Episode 2 ends with the female lead finally considering giving love a chance despite carrying the financial and emotional burden of her entire family.

Episode 3 suddenly jumps one year forward.

They are now a couple, yet he is apparently still trying to win over the twins as if he barely knows them. More importantly, their lives remain virtually unchanged. She still wakes up at 4:30 a.m., works all day and gets home around 10 p.m., while he continues living comfortably and working as a chef.

So what exactly happened during that year?

When did they see each other? How did they build a relationship? How did two people with radically different lifestyles learn to coexist? Did he never try to help her improve her working conditions?

That was precisely the interesting part of the story — and the series skipped it.

Even more absurdly, he manages to hide for an entire year that he comes from an extremely wealthy family, despite several people around them knowing both his identity and their relationship.

Then his mother forces him to choose between his privileged life and his girlfriend. He chooses his girlfriend and, almost immediately, this educated man with professional experience as a chef is suddenly working construction.

Why? Because the plot needs him to have an accident.

Meanwhile, the female lead’s sister, who previously struggled just to afford medical school, reappears after the same time jump with a successful professional career.

Time apparently moves only when the screenplay needs it to.

There is, however, an interesting gender reversal underneath all this nonsense. The women work, survive, progress and control their own lives, while several of the men depend on them financially or choose submission to preserve their comfortable lifestyles.

Most revealing is the male lead himself. As long as he has family money behind him, he appears independent. The moment that privilege disappears, he cannot function without it.

The women learned how to survive. The privileged men never had to.

I originally thought the problem with a fifty-episode drama would be how long it would take to tell its story.

Instead, Love on the Menu has fifty episodes and somehow still skips the parts of the story actually worth telling.

Dropped after Episode 4.

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Fun romance drama who's biggest villain is work-life imbalance!

This show is proof that you can have an entertaining romance drama without any stupid love-triangles. Wthout any contrived, dragged-out misunderstandings. Without anyone being killed, kidnapped, blackmailed or raped or really any criminal activity whatsoever. And without any stupid pointless scheming. Other than a brief stretch early on when the writers made the ML become really stupid just so they could contrive an early 'break up' and not settle them in as a couple too early, once that stupidity was over, this was just a nice pair of adults having a growing, positive adult relationship. And it wasn't boring. Yang Yang was overall pretty solid as the ML. Yes he is eye-candy, but he did a good job of playing a character who was super smart and capable when it came to math, science and factual matters ... but a deeply limited, severely under-developed person emotionally. His character has to undergo the most growth in order for the relationship to work because, well, he's kind of a socio-emotional idiot for the first 15+ episodes. Meanwhile, Dilraba Dilmurat is just fantastic as the quirky, clever and incredibly emotionally sensible JingJing who is the true rock of the relationship. Yes, she knows she is never going to be his intellectual equal in matters math, science and technology. But she shows again and again that she is the wise one between the two in matters of emotion and the heart. And she uses her skills to support him and guide him forward, never letting her love for him become a distraction or hindrance. Always able to make their love a strength for both their careers. The overall cast is charming and wonderful. The production values are very good - the soundtrack is especially excellent. One thing that is interesting is the social messaging in the show. A major plot theme is the struggles of people like YuTu and his colleagues, working in the aerospace industry, with balancing work pressures and family and social relationships. The picture painted in the show is that they have to sacrifice so much of their personal lives in order to support the missions. The picture painted is very stark. And matches up with what is true and known outside this show. But the show also has the various characters basically yield patriotic lip-service with "that's just the way it has to be". Clearly that's to get past the censors. Because it doesn't really have to be that way. Western aerospace institutions are able to accomplish all the same things while often working within mandated work-life balance rules that prevent the kind of overwork burnout conditions the show alludes to. So it feels like the show was having it both ways. On one hand, clearly illustrating the problem, but then safely skirting past the sensors by not having characters decry the state of things or call for changes.

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best sports drama ever - must watch !!!

This drama will forever be one of my favourites!! it's truly one of a kind! I'll miss the whole hongjing team so much!! I honestly loved Wen ChengYe, Fu Xinshu and Qin Ao so so much!!! literally will look forward to the whole casts in new dramas, so glad that new Chinese actors had opportunity to showcase their beautiful talent!! This drama is such a brand new taste, it has everything one may look for: romance, bromance, family, friendship, mental health awareness, sportsmanship, healthy couples, suspense, comedy, romcom and everything!!!

Lin Wanxing is truly the type of human I aspire to be. She’s so smart, kind, brave, honest, and understanding. I honestly loved her so much, she truly is a sunshine in their lives!

I really loved Wang Fa’s personality. He is so kind and truly one of the best male leads I’ve ever seen! The way he reassures and trusts her!!!! ahhh, be is so smart, educated, well-mannered and such a green forest. I’m so happy that Lin Wanxing and Wang Fa are both so cool and such green flags!! I really wish we could have a Season 2 of this!! 😭

I also want to honourable mention Ju Li, she is such a nice friend!! OMGEEE having a friend like her is truly some luck!! I hope Lin WanXing appreciates her more and more day by day!!! Ju Li is so amazing and literally the bestest friend one can have!!! Yu Bo was such nice add to the drama as well, him and Wang Fa are so cute!! their bromance was such nice add on!! I loved watching their bikering, friendship, work talk, comforting and overall everything!! they both truly have such an amazing friends.

I’ll miss everyone in the cast and all the characters!! Ahhh, Lin Wanxing, Wang Fa, Wen Chengye, Fu Xinshu, Qin Ao, Lin Lu, Chen Jianghe, Yu Ming, Zhang Feiyang, Feng Suo, Zheng Ren, Yu Bo, Ju Li, and Wang Tian!!

I’m genuinely going to miss Hongjing No. 8 and all of them so much. Jiayou HongJing!!

The only downside of the drama is the Lin WanXing and her grandpa's story line as well as her senior, I feel like it was too unrealistic like everything to turn out like this but honestly cant complain much since its not a suspense/crime drama but rather sportsmanship!! I still recommend watching it and I rate it 1000/10, It's so amazing and so cool!!

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I feel like I was being conned

Into Episode 4 I felt like I, the view, was on a wild goose chase trying to solve the case of who killed the woman in the sewer. That was such an awful, sad scene, I could hardly look at her. That scene and many others just speaks to how well the production was in this drama.

I love thriller/mystery/crime/legal/medical/and similar dramas. I take notes sometimes to keep things straight because, like most likeminded people, I try to figure it out before the big reveal. I even took a picture of Prosecutor Hwang Si Mok’s whiteboard, in Stranger S1, of his collection of suspects and all their possible connections so I could follow and stay on top of the story. That made that particular drama most enjoyable.

The Art of Sarah was a straight-up thriller, with an interesting plot, and was very well acted. BUT it left me with a unsatisfied feeling in the end. The chronic deception and twisting of names and identities was almost over the top. I felt we were introduced to Kim Mi Jeong a bit late. At what point of the story was Shin Hae Sun not Sarah Kim /Kim Eun Jae? Or was she SK all along?

All the related supporting characters identified her as SK or KEJ. Never did we see where a related supporting character identified a different female in their story telling, the girl named. Kim Mi Jeong (Lee E Dam), as SK. So when we are introduced to Kim Mi Jeong, the writer eventually wants us to believe she is actually Sarah Kim?!?! I realize this is a vain of thriller storytelling, but the story got convoluted and I gave up trying to figure out who she actually was and just let the story play out - which in the end didn’t tell me anything. Hence, the unsatisfying feeling. Even though confusing a couple times (I know, they were meant to be), the interrogation scenes between Park Mu Gyeong and ‘Sarah Kim’ were well done. He wasn’t going to be conned. But did he succeed?

It was difficult to have much empathy for the real person behind Sarah Kim. Her justifications for how she ended up where she was were beyond having to pay back a loan shark. To me they were rooted in FOMO. Coveting the very thing that brings momentary pleasure (not even happiness) blinded her and was only going to be her downfall. I think Sarah Kim knew the length of her journey was not going to be long, though.

I did get tired of all the lines of ‘wisdom’. I suppose it was the writer’s intention to show what a flawed sense of superior intellect does to a person’s psyche.

All that aside, the acting was excellent. Shin Hae Sun and Lee Jung Hyuk were great!!! They are both exceptional talents and it was a pleasure to see them together in a drama again. Shout out to Jung Jin Young and Kim Jae Won for their great performances also.

The music fit the story for the most part. It didn’t distract me. While I don’t feel the need to rewatch it, I do recommend it to those who like a thriller.

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Better than Part 1

Well, this was surprisingly more enjoyable to me than Part 1. I went into this one a little bit nervous because Part 1 was honestly too dark and slow for me, and I was worried that we would continue to be bombarded with more misery.

But it was actually not bad! Seeing the murders was simultaneously dark and really, really cathartic, which was refreshing compared to the previous part. A lot of the questions that I had were also answered in a really satisfying way. The ending left me with some mixed emotions, but I think it was a great ending and honestly I can’t imagine the story going any other way.

The acting continues to be strong, particularly the ML’s. TJH is undoubtedly the standout actor in this drama and managed to portray such a wide range of emotions.

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Good but depressing

I really like the concept here and found family + romance is one of my favorite type of relationship dynamic.

But around halfway it just got way too depressing for me — everyone other than the leads was evil, things kept going wrong, and the slower pacing felt like we were just wallowing in misery for so long, when it was fairly obvious early on where the story was going. Very convincing acting all around though, especially from the ML.

I’m still fairly intrigued by the present day mystery and if there’s an actual, non-supernatural answer (which is what I’m hoping for), but I wish we could get there just a tad faster.

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Almost perfect, just a couple of annoying flaws. Definitely worth watching.

Fun, classic period-c-drama. Features a very strong female lead performance by Zoey Meng. ML (played by He Yu)is also just as capable so isn't diminished by the FL in any way. He's just, unfortunately, hindered by poison through nearly all the story., which is frustrating because you can feel that holding him back from his full potential The romance-factor is important but develops slowly as, while ML is absolutely smitten by the FL from the moment he sees her and has his heart locked on her with laser precision that never wavers, the FL starts out the story having 'survived' pretty heavy trauma (a forced loveless marriage, the extermination of her entire family, driven to suicide in order to get revenge before being reincarnated within the body of a woman who was, herself, just murdered! So she is quite understandably extremely guarded emotionally. She has her shields up at maximum constantly and so it takes a looooong time before she has finally healed enough from her trauma to let them down and allow the ML to touch her heart. Her apparent coldness turns some fans off but just keep her history in perspective and be patient. Once she finally falls for him, she falls hard so it's all worth it. The only real negative in this show (other than some occasional clumsy edits and frequent reliance on 'off screen' events getting added to the narrative only by talking about them, is the way it handled the Prince Xin character. Xin's character is basically the all-too-familiar 'psychopathic-obsessive-unrequitted love interest' drama trope. Played brilliantly and creepily by Jeremy Xu. This character, like in too many c-dramas, is given too much screen time, beyond what is needed for the storyline, Very popular in a lot of c-dramas to try to mislead the audience into having sympathy or empathy with this sort of creepy based on 'sad backstory'. And this show does too much of that as well. Fine. We just have to accept he's a psycho and endure all his creepy weirdness and eventually this builds up to him doing awful psycho things that the FL needs to overcome. Where it gets weird though is in the end, the show decides to tuck in a one-on-one conversation between the Xin character and the FL, Xi He, where he explains that he did all these bad rebellious things just so she would gain legitimacy through stopping him. So with this revelation, the show gets to portray Xin to the audience as just a misunderstood 'good guy'. A martyr, in fact. But the fact is, to the larger plot, if he was simply a psychopath who rebelled, as we thought anyway, the FL still would have been legitimized because she stopped him. In other words, this bizarre 'reveal' at the end made absolutely ZERO difference to the plot. And this 'twist' doesn't exist in the storyline anywhere outside of that private conversation and then a brief mention later between Xi He and Xin's brother. So it just feels weird and contrived and pointless. The whole conversation scene was totally bizarre - she had NO reason to grant that conversation to him and ultimately just became some 10 minutes of wasted screen time. If they simply left him as a psychopath who rebelled, then the entire rest of the story remains the same. That screen time could have been put to better use on maybe building more interesting foreshadowing of Hua Yong's fate. Make it so that a lot of viewers have a better understanding of what happens at the end without thinking it is magic.

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Nothing new and weak female characters

It was okay, overly dramatic in parts - with so many people screaming. There are some nice stories of the people living in an island community but the central story overall was flat. Unfortunately, it was the lack of anything new, the same empty shells where one is not entitled to happy, they must feel guilty and sorry for something. Always the same entitled politicians who want kudos but are incompetent and corrupt and sexual encounters gone wrong. We live in the 21 Century and censorship of sexual content especially contraception has done a real disservice in this drama.

However the worse part of the drama (for-me) is the way women characters, particularly the female lead, is written. The character is a cliche that is they are educated, paragons of virtue, well liked, kind, but at their core selfish and self centred and righteous. They are usually consciously or unconsciously desperate for love, hiding hurt and loss, wanting their own way without compromising but expect the men in their lives to treat them as no 1 priority. Even at the drama’s end, there is little change or growth just a realisation that they have a great green flag of a boyfriend and maybe he’s the one.

At least our ML - Dr Do stuck to his principles and believed he was a doctor first even if others thought he should put his girlfriend first. 🤨 his character gradually heals, learns heaps, becomes more competent and grows and like and good ML he becomes a hero. The other ML are too good to be true (no faults). They might be young but mature and reliable and even understanding when treated badly.

All actors did a reasonable job. Given the script and direction. The scenery was beautiful.

Not enough good points in this story to raise this story above okay. The k drama romance cliches are just too overwhelming and so annoying for any lasting enjoyment to be had.

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Eyes don't lie

What if I told you that the thing that affected me the most, the thing that completely added another layer of depth and understanding to this drama, was hidden in the characters' eyes?

I think I should start by talking about Pond's performance as Palm.

I cried so much. I was moved to tears over and over again because I've genuinely never seen a character transcend me quite like this one did. Pond portrays Palm's loneliness and vulnerability with almost painful accuracy. In absolutely everything: his deep, painfully sincere eyes, the tone of his voice, his subtle and attentive gestures.

And I want to hold on to the strong belief that there is a lot of Pond in Palm.

Actually, I deeply believe there is a little bit of Palm in all of us (even if none of us could ever embody it with quite the same accuracy).

Palm is a character shaped by an overwhelming loneliness. First, by the absence of people/family around him, and then by his complete lack of ambition, born from an absolute absence of purpose. In a way, he simply endures his loneliness because his existence has become absurd, lived almost entirely through passivity.

And yet, when love finds its way into his life, it's as if his entire existence suddenly takes on a new meaning.

Ultimately, despite his role as a "bodyguard" and his physical presence, Palm is incredibly fragile. Because when he gives his heart to Nuengdiao, he isn't only giving him the entirety of his most sincere feelings. Loving him also gives him a reason to exist.

A reason to keep going. (God, love is fucking beautiful. T^T)

But Palm and Nuengdiao are both characters defined by loneliness. And I personally think that Palm is alone, while Nuengdiao is lonely.

The two protagonists resemble each other, and yet they are completely different.

They both place an enormous importance on love, but they don't express it the same way. They both experience an overwhelming sense of loneliness, but that loneliness comes from completely different places.

And it's precisely in that difference that their relationship becomes so complex, and yet incredibly intense.

Because the things they don't say protect them just as much as they destroy them. The moments they share seem to exist forever in their thoughts, yet only for a fleeting second in the present.

Shout-out to Episode 9, which personally made me cry the most. I've genuinely never seen an episode manage to immerse us so deeply in both love and sadness at the same time.

I also absolutely loved the entire arc on their little paradise island. AAAHHDSHS. I feel like I could talk forever about their chemistry. Just please tell me I'm not the only insane person who was way too affected by all that sincerity, by the way they look at each other, by every little glance they share.

Pond and Phuwin honestly left me speechless. They're both so incredibly talented that I almost feel grateful I got to witness something like this with my own eyes, for free.

As for the story itself, I think it sometimes had a tendency to fade into the background. And honestly, I didn't mind that. But whenever they were on the run, it was almost as if the plot suddenly remembered it had a job to do and started throwing problems at them again.

Maybe this drama does have a bit of a drama queen tendency every now and then. Seriously, all those shootings, all that chaos, and then when everything finally gets resolved... we don't even learn anything new. (what happened next ?)

But honestly, the setting was idyllic, the face cards never declined, and the cinematography was absolutely breathtaking. The shots were gorgeous.

And the dialogues... Majestic.

The words were chosen so beautifully that every now and then I had to pause just to stare at my screen and wonder whether my own existence had any meaning.

And honestly, now that I've finished this drama, I realize just how much the title resonates with Palm and Nuengdiao.

Because Never Let Me Go isn't really an order driven by the fear of losing someone.

I think the real question is:

When will I be enough to realize that I don't want to let you go?

That hit me hard.

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Sad but doesn't use its full potential

This one is a pretty difficult one to rate because it obviously deals with a really heavy topic, and it does it pretty well. The acting is convincing, and the internal conflicts are realistic.

The best parts of the story were when it was focused on the family dynamics, both parental and sibling, but other than that, plot-wise, I found this a little frustrating. I didn't really care that much about the romance, particularly when it came to the annoying second lead. Most of the plot beats, while pretty typical, manage to not feel cliche, but I feel like other relationships and experiences (like work, for example) could've been explored a lot more.

Ultimately, I think this was a good watch but I don't think it hit me in my core the way I expected it to, the way One Liter of Tears (a similar drama but about SCA) did.

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Just a nice end for Tonfah & Typhoon...

Mr. hospital owner Tonfah & mr. photographer Typhoon have a nice time at home & work when Typhoons aunt (his dads ex) needs a medical procedure to determine if she has cancer or not. So both of them are babysitting aunts daugther and of course it's a bliss because while already older she behaves impeccable.

So everything is mostly fluffy between them, they didn't do any nc-scenes, so not fanservice at all, which I appreciate. We also see an other side of Tonfah and due to the time-jump we also see a much mature Typhoon. Production quality was of course top notch and this is a nice end for their story arc. Of course it's not as deep as I wished it to be but on the other hand I can't complain too much.

When you have seen their series, there is no reason to skip this. All ends well.

Note: Why does this page exist twice? https://kisskh.at/803506-fourever-you-part-2-special-ep-beside-the-sky
Does nobody check it? I don't get it, besides mixing the titles... Ah they mean a BTS aka episode 0 is a "special"... it's too confusing...

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