Reviews

The plot is common yet quite complicated

Overall, I like the enemies-to-lovers plot, and I think both actors play their roles nicely. Though there is no tension between these two leads, the romance overall is quite innocent, I personally think that's the good point of this drama.

​I love how the ML is very considerate to the FL. The FL starts off as having a partner, but slowly they drifted apart. Though the shift between the ML and the second lead is quite fast, she seems to be sure about her choice.

​Other than the romance, the family affairs and their twists are what hooked me to watch all of the episodes. Highly recommended to watch if you're looking for a lightweight drama with multiple twists! Love it very much.

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Unexpectedly Hooked

It’s been a very long time since I last watched a Hong Kong BL series. Honestly, I don’t even remember what the last one was. 🤔

It took me about two episodes to really get into this one, but once it pulled me in, it pulled me in hard. I ended up getting really invested in both characters and especially loved their interactions. There’s just something about the chemistry between them that kept me watching, even when I wasn’t completely sure where the story was going.

And let me talk about the soundtrack for a second. At the very beginning, I honestly hated it. I was like, “Why does this sound like this?” But then, I don’t even remember which episode it was, one of the songs suddenly got stuck in my head and would not leave. Next thing I knew, I was looking for it on Spotify and adding it to my playlist. So I guess the soundtrack won in the end. 😭

The one thing that kept me from giving this more stars, though, was the ending. I was actually prepared for a sad ending. Like, emotionally prepared. I could’ve accepted it. But the way they wrapped everything up just wasn’t really my cup of tea. It felt like they were trying to give us something satisfying, but for me, it didn’t completely land.

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Falling in love, falling apart

I really liked this. It portrays reality well—how a relationship can fade over time. The story captures the growing distance between them, along with her struggles at work, in a subtle and believable way. That one confrontation between them is particularly well written, with sharp dialogue, strong performances, and a palpable sense of tension.

The female lead comes across as almost sociopathic—not in a purely villainous sense, but in her detached curiosity about human nature, which makes her fascinating to watch. The second male lead is genuinely endearing, and the drama weaves in understated societal themes, as you’d expect from a J-drama.

In the end, the characters reflect on their mistakes, revisit how they met, and remember why they fell in love in the first place. The climax, underscored by classical music, is especially striking. The final scene then settles into a quieter note, as they exchange a simple “good morning” and look at each other with a mixture of regret and affection. It all comes together for a deeply satisfying conclusion.

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This might be my favorite reality tv dating show ever.

From the premise alone, this is such an interesting idea. Putting a bunch of people in a small town across the world and taking away their cellphones is such a cool show premise, but THE EXECUTION is AMAZING. The producers of this show really gave thought to every detail and created an amazing show. From the guidebook design to allow them to find each other, to the wish dates and their locations, to the Maison Margeaux venue, the letter sending, the cinematography, everything felt so well done and intentional.

What I also thought was really well-done was the emphasis on same-sex friendships in the show. Usually, with reality dating shows, we have "interviews" or sections where people get to tell their true feelings to the audience. This is a great way for the audience to understand the contestants better, and give us better insight into their feelings. This show doesn't have that, which actually allows for the conversations the contestants have with their friends to be our way of understanding their true feelings. Many dating shows forgo any platonic friendships because they aren't as "interesting", but this show has a great amount of platonic relationship development, and I loved that.

Although I think the lack of interviews allowed for the featuring of platonic relationship developments, I sometimes wished we could get more about the inner thoughts of the contestants in the show. We can only learn so much about someone's thoughts and feelings when we get them from a conversation with someone else, so sometimes I yearned for a short interview to hear what the contestants were truly feeling.

Oh my, and the artistic direction was so expertfully done. I never expected such amazing cinematography from a dating show, but they truly captured the beauty of France and the contestants in such a unique way.

Overall, I think this was my favorite dating show I've watched. The fated meetings, the unique and diverse cast, the panelists who were quite funny and added a lot to the show, the production, and the CONFESSION SCENES!! What a show.

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So...what was this series about again?

Revenge huh? The main plot is revenge yet what revenge did he accomplish? Lost the lives of all good people and the villains who deserve death are living to see another day. What a great revenge! So let's not even talk about the plot.
The remaining aspects are not good either.

Eun-nam, literally one of the worst written characters in history. She left her "love of life" and married another dude for stocks, without even telling him. And the fact that she has the audacity to squiggle back into Dong Ju's life after doing all that is infuriating. But as usual, FLs in kdramas face ZERO consequences for their actions regarding romance.

And Dong Ju...doormat of the century. After everything she did, he's still obviously head over heels for her...because she's the FL...how surprising. And not to mention, the fact that he forgave his 'father', who has NEVER been in his life, tried to kill him multiple times, shot him twice, and killed his mom. And yet as soon as they learn about being son and father it's all shits and giggles like who cares if you killed my mom or shot me twice it's all good because you're my biological daddy, let's go have dinner and make up immediately.

Two reasons this is getting a rating above 4/10. One, an open ending which is the best imo for this one. Two, the acting, especially Park Hyung Sik. I forgot I was watching a crappy series when I saw his intense acting. They were good actresses/actors, but you can only do so much with a sh!tty scrip.

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Wow, before going into this I did not expect it to be such a poignant show. I'd been seeing the trailers and snippets of it, plus as a fan of Ae! group, I was going to watch the show either way.

I have to say I had my judgements all ready: vertical drama, previous Esudora with Ryosuke Hashimoto with a completely different tone...

However, Chat Boy turned out to be very well made and managed to cover so many important issues we'e facing in the modern world. From AI to burnout, loneliness and mental health issues (definitely a trigger warning should come with it- feel free to reach out to me if you would like more info/spoilers before watching).

The only thing I would say this show lacked, is that it shed light on so many big societal issues in Japan, but it didn't really give a call to action or leave the viewer wondering what they could do to help/improve these issues. In fact, the ending was where it fell a little short, I feel like we are left with a lot of questions and not really any kind of support system.

I was really happy to see Massan back acting, the last drama I saw him in was Musashino Rondo which I actually really enjoyed. Glad that his acting skills have levelled up, he really nailed some of those emotional scenes.

I think Noel also did an amazing job, great casting because he has that big eyed look which I feel he harnessed really well to give it more a "non human" effect.

I watched the version with all eps edited together like a film and found that really easy to watch, curious to hear about the experience of those who watched episode to episode.

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Should be titled as "Never-Ending Sadness"

Come to the end of what could have been a better journey. Daniel Zhou and Bao Shang En are great actors and had enough chemistry, but not even that could save the plot which was simply not plotting. Whilst the drama did have a few saving graces, it was still a disappointment overall.

On the surface this can look like a happy romance drama showcasing youth and coming of age. The title and poster portray it as a bright, happy go lucky drama. The OST is very light and charming. Episode 1 also starts out to be fun, bright and happy. But the drama *as a whole* is anything but that.

The main problem stems from the 2016 timeline (which takes up 90% of the drama) being full of misery, lies and misunderstandings for the leads. There is no break from it. Leading to the plot, there is very little of any plot existing either. The ENTIRE plotline is literally just both the lead's parents being emotionally and mentally abusive towards the ML/FL. Credit to the actress who played Zhou Wan's mother in particular, she managed fantastically to get the viewer to hate her with a passion.

There is nothing wrong with break up dramas where the leads reunite years later. This drama has been compared to Lighter & Princess and also The First Frost, but those dramas had much stronger plotlines as well as less of the consistent misery before the main break up. This drama does not do that - Zhou Wan and Lu Xixiao do not get much time to be happy together in the past timeline. The first 20 episodes mostly consists of back and forth between Zhou Wan, Lu Xixiao and their parents who blackmail or emotionally abuse them. There were a few moments in between that felt nice like when the leads along with the second leads went to the amusement park, and in the lead up to Ep 20 when Zhou Wan and Lu Xixiao ran away together to another part of the country. But that felt fleeting in comparison to the rest of the unnecessary, badly written sadness.

Whilst I did hugely appreciate Daniel Zhou and Bao Shang En, I did have some problem with getting invested and loving the characters themsleves in particular. Zhou Wan is indecisive for way too long. I understand she was young but she spends over 10 episodes emotionally hurting Lu Xixiao (we as the viewer know why, but he did not). She listens to her mother too many times and makes unnecessary sacrifices that work for no one. She seemed more likeable in the 2026 timeline being an assertive woman who held her own. We have to assume she went through great character development during the 10 year break up.

As for Lu Xixiao, he is convincing as a romantic, yearning die-for-you male lead, and thankfully there is very little of the drama where he seems angry against her for the break up. (Probably one of the more illogical things here was that he immediately associated himself with her again)

The second leads felt like they were written in as filler? They seemed cute at first in the High School/2016 arc. But later contributed nothing and their storyline was badly written. They only had a romantic moment near the end, but it was too late in the drama to care if you weren't invested in them in the first place.

The last episode, 29, was made to be as romantically beautiful as possible. I honestly loved that SHE PROPOSES TO HIM FIRST! 💍 It was such a surprise being totally unexpected, as it's usually always the male lead who proposes. This time it proved Zhou Wan was the green flag 💚 especially considering their past - she did not wait for him to propose or make any moves first. She knew what she wanted and went for it.

Overall a 6.5/10 because I still appreciated some scenes, the leads acting and chemistry, as well as the other cast. Could have had potential in another universe, could have been in the 7 or 8 range if it had better plot.

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nostalgia for us who had a messy college friendship group

I've never been so locked in watching a thai bl before. this is the level of mess and tomfoolery i want in my romantic dramas. right up into the last episode the mess continued which I'm so glad about because a lot of these shows tend to slow down but only friends didnt pull punches. as someone who had chaotic friends in college ive never seen it so realistically portrayed in bl before.

i really hope they make more shows like this where we mix up couples and everyones fighting. its fun to see them outside of their regular pairings cause we never know whats next and whos gonna go for who 😭

also they will never again make a character as amazingly messy as boston. please lord someone introduce that man to polyamoury 💀. hes so terrible but so so entertaining whenever he entered a room you just know some shit is brewing.

in terms of production i also think that was amazing. it was visually great and the way they shot scenes was good too. i also like the way they shot nc scenes and the music choice. it felt more relatable and believable cause a lot of the time thesr nc scenes have slow mo and "sexy" music that make it feel like we suddenly cut to a music video 😭.

overall 10/10 i really "bought" the characters they felt realistic to me and it was so entertaining.

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Ghosts, Chemistry, and One Very Emotionally Constipated CEO

Review
(WARNING: Potential Spoilers — I'm Not Saving You from Any Emotional Damage)
We've all seen dramas where one of the main characters is a ghost, or where somebody can communicate with the dead, but The Master's Sun takes that idea and gives us a protagonist who absolutely did not ask for any of this. Tae Gong Shil can see ghosts, and unfortunately for her, they don't exactly understand the concept of personal space.

Instead of being some cool supernatural ability that she gets to use whenever she wants, it's basically ruined her ability to have a normal life. She's constantly exhausted, constantly frightened, and constantly trying to get away from the dead long enough to have a little peace and quiet.

Then she meets Joo Joong Won.

And suddenly she discovers that when she touches him, the ghosts disappear.

Temporarily, anyway.

Which obviously means Gong Shil now has a very good reason to stay as physically close to this man as humanly possible, whether he likes it or not. And considering Joong Won's personality at the beginning, he most definitely does not like it.

The funny part is watching these two slowly figure each other out because they couldn't be more different. Gong Shil is desperate, emotionally open, and just trying to survive her bizarre existence, while Joong Won is guarded, arrogant, selfish, and very much convinced that his money and his ability to control everything around him should be enough to keep his life exactly the way he wants it.

Naturally, that goes beautifully.

By the time these two start developing real feelings for each other, the chemistry is doing a lot of the heavy lifting, and thankfully the chemistry is GOOD. Gong Hyo Jin and So Ji Sub worked really well together, and I also enjoyed the dynamic between the main four because it never felt like the second leads were simply there to create a generic love triangle and disappear.

The supernatural cases are actually one of my favorite parts of the drama because the ghosts aren't just there for cheap scares. Gong Shil ends up helping them resolve whatever is keeping them attached to the living world, and a lot of those stories are surprisingly emotional.

Some are funny, some are creepy, some are heartbreaking, and then there was the dog.

The dog got me.

I was not prepared for that one, and apparently the writers looked at my emotional stability and decided it needed to be removed from the premises immediately.

That's one thing I really liked about the show. Even though the overarching romance and mystery are important, the individual ghost stories give the drama these little emotional detours that make Gong Shil's ability feel like more than just a convenient plot device.

She's not simply seeing ghosts because the writers needed her to see ghosts. She's actually helping them, and through helping them, she's slowly learning how to live with the thing that once made her feel completely isolated.

Of course, because this is a K-drama, we eventually have to encounter the dreaded amnesia trope.

And I hate it.

I don't think I've ever encountered an amnesia plot where I'm sitting there thinking, “Wow, this was absolutely necessary and improved everything.” Usually I'm sitting there thinking, “Really? This is what we're doing now?”

That was pretty much my reaction here too.

Thankfully, it didn't completely derail the drama for me because by that point I was already invested in these characters and their relationships, but it was definitely the part where I started side-eyeing the writers.

The chemistry between Gong Shil and Joong Won is what kept me fully invested, but I also really enjoyed the chemistry between the main four. Everyone had their own relationships and dynamics, and the story didn't feel like it was forcing every single interaction into a romance just because it could.

And then there's Joong Won himself, who is exactly the kind of male lead that could've become incredibly irritating if the actor hadn't been able to pull off the character.

Thankfully, So Ji Sub knows exactly how to play that kind of emotionally guarded, arrogant man without making him completely unbearable. You get to watch him slowly soften without losing the personality that made him Joong Won in the first place, and that's something I always appreciate.

The story kept me engrossed right through to the end, and even though I would've preferred a slightly more satisfying ending, I can't say I hated what we got. It still gives you enough to understand where everyone ends up, and emotionally it lands close enough to a true happily-ever-after that I'm willing to accept it.

My brain: “Okay, this ghost mystery is actually pretty good.”

My emotions: “WHY DID YOU MAKE ME CARE ABOUT THE DOG?”

My snacks: “We survived another ghost.”

In the end, I finished The Master's Sun feeling like I'd just spent seventeen episodes watching one very traumatized woman discover that the thing she hated most about herself could actually become the thing that connected her to other people.

And somehow, between the ghosts, the romance, the comedy, the mystery, and the occasional emotional gut punch, it all worked.

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Fun series with an ensemble cast

I found this to be a fun romantic comedy about a family of a mother and 5 daughters (plus 1 adoptive daughter) working to find husbands for all of the young women. The series spends 5 or so episodes centered on each of the daughters in turn and does a great job of giving them a different plot-line in finding their 'perfect match'.

I found the first few episodes enjoyable but a bit hard to follow. Part of the issue is that there are a lot of main characters to introduce and considering half of them are the Li family and thus couldn't be rolled out over time, the first few episodes throw a lot at you. But then it settles into a good pace of finding a husband for each of the unmarried daughters.

The series does a great job of keeping the stories interesting as the match making for each daughter is different and presents its own set of challenges for the rotating set of protagonists to solve. It also does a good job of keeping the entire family relevant throughout the series. Even after a particular daughter finds her match, she continually returns into the story to assist the next in line in solving the challenges that arise.

Overall, a fun series that excels at mixing light comedy, suspense and action into an enjoyable watch.

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Love, Betrayal, and Approximately Seventeen Lifetimes of Suffering

Review
(WARNING: Potential Spoilers — I'm Not Saving You from Any Emotional Damage)
When I first started Ashes of Love, I knew it was going to take a little while to get going because there is a LOT of world-building that needs to happen before this story can really take off. We're talking immortal realms, different deities, complicated family relationships, hidden identities, mythology, rules, and enough titles to make you need a spreadsheet just to keep track of who everyone is to everyone else.

And yes, it starts slow.

But here's the thing: it isn't boring.

Even while the drama is taking its sweet time establishing the world and explaining exactly what kind of mess everyone has gotten themselves into, I was still interested enough to keep watching because there was always something underneath the surface that made me want to know where it was going.

Jin Mi is probably one of the biggest reasons for that. Because of the Unfeeling Pill, she genuinely doesn't understand romantic emotions the way everyone around her does, which makes her interactions with the other characters both funny and incredibly frustrating at times. She can be completely oblivious to things that seem painfully obvious to everyone watching, but that's also the point of her character. She's not simply pretending not to understand love; she literally doesn't understand it.

And then there is the fact that for a good portion of the beginning, people actually think Jin Mi is a man.

That alone creates some pretty entertaining situations, especially once you realize how differently everyone is interpreting her relationships with Xu Feng and the people around her. But once the truth comes out and everyone finally realizes Jin Mi is, in fact, a woman, things start getting a little more interesting.

Still, for me, the drama doesn't truly kick into another gear until the wedding.

That's when I went from “Okay, I'm enjoying this” to “Ohhhh, NOW we're getting somewhere.”

From that point forward, the story becomes one long chain of trials, betrayals, revelations, emotional destruction, and characters slowly becoming either better versions of themselves or significantly worse ones. There is a constant sense that every decision somebody makes is going to come back around eventually, and watching those consequences unfold is one of the strongest parts of the drama.

What I really enjoyed was watching the characters grow throughout all of this. Nobody walks away from these experiences exactly the same person they were when they started, and that applies to both the good and the bad characters. Some grow because they learn from what they've been through, while others allow their pain, jealousy, or ambition to consume them.

And that's really what Ashes of Love feels like at its core: a story about people being put through one trial after another and seeing what those trials eventually turn them into.

The romance obviously sits right in the middle of all of this, but it isn't the only thing holding the story together. The relationships between parents and children, siblings, immortals, enemies, friends, and people who probably should have stayed far away from each other all add another layer to the story.

There are plenty of moments where I wanted to yell at the screen because someone could have prevented an entire catastrophe simply by opening their mouth and telling the truth, but apparently communication is forbidden across all immortal realms.

Because of course it is.

The production itself also holds up really well. You can see why this drama became such a recognizable xianxia title, particularly in the way it builds its different realms and creates that larger-than-life fantasy world. It has that classic xianxia feeling where everybody is beautiful, everybody has a tragic backstory, everybody has some kind of divine title, and absolutely nobody is allowed to simply live happily ever after without first suffering through approximately seventeen lifetimes of emotional trauma.

By the time I reached the end, I had been through so many trials and tribulations with these characters that I understood exactly why people have such strong feelings about this drama.

Is it one of my favorite xianxia dramas?

No.

But that doesn't mean I don't think it's good, because I absolutely do.

It's one of those dramas that I can appreciate for what it brings to the genre, even if it doesn't quite land in my personal top tier. There is enough story, enough character development, enough mythology, and enough emotional chaos that I can absolutely see myself coming back to it when I'm in the mood for a classic xianxia binge.

My brain: “Okay, I think I finally understand everybody's relationships.”

My emotions: “You absolutely do not.”

My snacks: Somehow survived 63 episodes. Miracles do happen.

In the end, I finished Ashes of Love feeling like I'd just completed an extremely long emotional obstacle course through several immortal realms.

And honestly?

It was worth the trip.

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Your Mind will be blown!!

This is so interesting thriller. Not clicked next episode faster. Each epiosde will brings so many new twists and turns. In the starting, the bond frormed between the Professor and Lee Kang was starting to form the eventually it took a suprising turn. The professor was a vile human being a...ole to his wife, she was so kind and genuinely in love with him but he never respected and loved her. He was living in delusion and still obsessed with his first love and that writer.
Le Kang was no saint either and when he disclosed why he did what he did it did not seem fitted to me. The revenge was not fit for that reason, it shoul have been something big of a reason to destro someone"s life. Yes, I can agree to the fact that the professor was so selfish that he cold not see other people's pain and was not trying also. he was so so bad to hhis wife.
All in all this was a thriller with correct pacing and good storyline. The acting was brilliant.

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