Reviews

Unforgettable

I liked this drama so much, I created an account just so I can write a review. This drama is not without flaws, but the flaws can be easily forgiven how great the acting and the storyline is.

Why I Like This Drama:
*The story is good. It's not boring. Read the synopsis! You can already tell it's unique storyline. It's not "together they solve a problem or figuring out a mystery".
*The moral dilemma is realistic. Sometimes when I watch other drama, I feel they just make up a problem for the sake of having a problem. It leaves me wondering why can't the character just choose another course of action? In "Kill to Love", I thought it over and over, the characters could have not chosen a different path. As a result, viewers have to accept it.
*The acting was compelling, natural and believable. The crying scene wasn't dramatic, but very heart felt. The shy look from the Shu He was perfect. The anger in Duan Ziang was believable. Sometimes I feel the actors in other drama went to the same acting school; therefore, all their anger expression, crying expression, all look the same. I genuinely feel the acting here was more natural and different. Maybe due to their low budget, they were able to cast better instead of just buying high rated actors. The casting of the 2 main characters were perfect. Duan Ziang had to go from a kind gentle lover to an angry obsessive lover, which he delivered to perfection. Meanwhile Shu He had to be a calm character through and through, yet somehow able to delivered feelings of innocence, remorse, and strength.
*The script was good. It was poetic and deep. It wasn't conversational. Kudos to the writer.
*The outfits and scenery in this drama was so beautiful. For the low budget that they had, they must have spent all the money on the 6th prince because he was stunning.

What Can Be Improved:
*Because this is a lower budget drama for such a complicated storyline, it's hard for viewers to understand since it's so fast pace. They didn't have a lot of time to explain the storyline. You have to fill in the plot holes. If you missed a word, you missed the trajectory of the storyline that can leave you to favor one character over the other. However, if you didn't miss a word and actually understand the storyline, both characters have their merits and downfall. You can't blame either or both are to blame.
*I'm not a behind the scene expert, but I think the directing can be better. It's a little choppy in the beginning. The choppiness leads to viewers to feel the actors aren't doing a good job, but it's actually the directing and the budget. They had to cover a lot of ground in the beginning.

Conclusion: I almost dropped the drama because it was hard to like the first few episodes. I think it had to do with the directing (bad scene transition/low budget). However, I felt the acting was good and the storyline was intriguing. As a result, I kept watching. By episode 8, I was hooked. When it ended, I'm not ok.

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i can excuse bad writing but i draw the line at boring me to death

i stand by what i said.

when i venture into thai bl, i don’t expect good writing most of the times. as long as i’m entertained and granted nice characters & romance i’m sold. however, this drama offered me none of those things.

the plot/setting already seemed a little ludicrous to me to begin with so i’m not even going to get into that. let’s talk about the characters though.

whats the point of having so many character that don’t really serve a purpose to the story? what is it with bls these days introducing 2-3 side couples and not giving them proper screentime? yes, they’re side couples, but it doesn’t mean they’ll get only 10 mins of screentime throughout 14 episodes lol why even have side couples for that matter.

khannin and charan both as individuals and as a couple weren’t compelling enough. their nc scenes were so absurdly long, which i wouldn’t even have problem with if they had been interesting in the first place. but no, they were merely comprised of long ass kissing takes and some rubbing here and there that got annoying to watch very fast. and i normally don’t really care for nc scenes!

don’t even get me started on the villains… lol alright whatever

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i wanted to love it but i couldn't tolerate Wen Xiao anymore too much fake crying

I only started watching because of clips from instagram. not just edits by fan pages but the official iqiyi clips made it look cool. it started off good and a catchy OST song. however Wen Xiao got on my last nerve after awhile. i can handle 1 character in a demon hunting group that can't really protect themselves but 2 of them in a small group is too much, especially since damsel in distress cries all of the time. i quit because i couldn't take her fake crying anymore. if your going to cry at least make it convincing and it would make you slightly more tolerable. honestly if your going to write a placeholder to pass the restrictions of Censorship Female lead at least make her a tolerable character with an actress with good acting skills so people didn't wish that you scraped her whole character to make the show watchable or even pretty good. and figured out from the pros how to make a bromance that passes censorship. yeah all of the people that loved her might have done reviews on this platform but there's plenty of people who think that the character is poorly written and the acting by Chen Duling is subpar.

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Calm and soothing slice-of-life drama with a found family trope

I was looking for a completed drama to binge watch and came across this one. Started with zero expectations and I was pleasantly surprised. The drama is very simple and healing, which I think is what made it stand out. The characters are all comforting in their own way and I liked how there was no villain/bad guy. I hate how some slice-of-life dramas are going particularly well and calming and suddenly there's a murder in the small town or something- they're so annoying. I'm glad this drama didn't have any situation like that.

The story centres around a mother and her daughter's relationship. They have lots of arguments, misunderstandings, and make ups and this is captured in the first couple of episodes. It was very hectic, emotions running high, and just overall messy with a lot of things going on. But as the drama and plot progressed, it became a more calming, slow paced, and a bit melodramatic (which I enjoyed).

The small town setting of the drama gave amazing cinematography. It not only was well captured, it also added a healing atmosphere to the calmness of the drama.

I particularly liked Lee Ji An's character- it was crafted very well. Her personality and nature was well written, and Yeom Jung Ah executed it perfectly. I've never seen any of her work, but after this, I'll definitely watch some!

The drama also has two couples (as there are two female leads), so romance is also a big theme in this series. Hyori and Bo Hyeon's romance was... alright. I liked the idea of it but I think the execution was lacking a tiny bit. Don't get me wrong, Choi Yun Ji's acting was great. But Kim Min Kyu was pretty stiff throughout the whole show... I've watched a few dramas of his and I think he's just usually like this, but its just not my cup of tea. On the other hand, I really enjoyed Ryu Jeong Seok and Lee Ji An's romance. They were so cute and I loved how they were each others' first love. There were so many heart-fluttering and nostalgic scenes- in particular, when they were in high school.

I loved how they crafted every character in this drama. They all had so much depth to them and all of the actors/actresses executed them very well. I loved how we got to find out everyone's backstory as the drama progressed.

One downside of the plot would be the one year time skip. I feel like they could've done a lot better with that but the drama overall was great 9/10.

p.s. I really like Choi Yun Ji. She's so pretty and great at acting! I've only had a tiny glimpse of her in Resident Playbook so I hope to see more of her work!! Oh and Yeom Jung Ah too!

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For those who love excessive romance

I don't disdain romantic dramas if done well and for Cheng Lei (Ryan Cheng) I can stand the romance genre.
But here we went to the extreme. From ep. 12 to 22 is a succession of images between the two protagonists who play doves. Very few advances in the plot and I was about to drop it from frustration, fortunately then the action resumes after ep. 22.
This is the classic case of a writer who wants to try her hands at something she doesn't know.
Hong Wan Ling is an accomplished web novelist with lot of her works adapted into dramas, all of her novels are Xanxia genre but here she wanted to try her hand at Wuxia genre with little elements of Xuanhuan failing miserably.
The plot revolves around the war between two states and the Palace intrigues with the addition of the romantic part between the female general and the OP ML (Xuanhuan element) ..... too bad that the part relating to the warfare is utterly superficial and ridiculous. Little fighting, no scouts, a military camp in the middle of the forest exposed to easy ambushes with a general who is more often at home than in the field.
The palace intrigues are childish. A Crown Prince who is publicly humiliated by his Prince brother is an absolutely inconceivable thing for the time. But everything is fine as long as there is romance.
The actors had to adapt to all this and did it in a very good way despite the drag of 10 episodes full of honestly boring dialogues (I don't know how they resisted). The last episodes she cry and cry and cry and ....cry.
The actress Song Yi is not suited to the image of a general, too skinny and her voice when she gives orders is shrill. Unfortunately, she failed to convey to me the image of a strong woman who grew up in battle
Ryan Cheng has proven once again that he is a great actor who manages to go from a cold and imposing character to a kind and smiling one in a second. I've always said that his eyes speak volumes.
ZYY Empress Dowager Qin She was exceptional in her role, she perfectly conveyed the weakness and madness of a woman consumed by her obsession.
In the end, if there hadn't been endless moments of geekery and repetitive dialogues about how good, strong and perfect she is (but how many times does she have to hear it to be satisfied?) it would have been a much deeper and more apt drama

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Sometimes we dont get the closure that we crave for

I felt the need to write something under this piece, maybe just to remind myself why I gave it a 10.

Let me start off by saying that I did not know what I was getting into when I started the serie. At first I was attracted by the title, which I love. The comparassion between the proverb and the action in this is simply good.
We have two complex characters with their own complex relationships.
Let me talk about both:
-Hagiwara and Kaori, your normal couple at first, two people who undeniably love each other, no matter what everyone says. A sexless relationship that is but they still love each other. Its interesting to see how Hagiwara changes throughout the serie in his relationship and also his mindset. I wanted to hate Kaori so bad, I thought I would, like in any BL ever but I just couldnt. Let me explain her, Throughout the plot, we dont know the reason Kaori doesnt want to have sex with Hagiwara but it still makes sense. I dont think it was ever a problem that she doesnt want to have sex, it was just that it was not communicated good enough. I didnt blame her one second, seeing how she actually cares for him, if you dont want to have sex, you dont have to, but you should also communicate why. I tried to portray their relationship as something else and look at them maybe like a mom-son or a brother-sister relationship but they didnt fit. I thought -maybe she just sees him as her brother- but it was not that. I feel like the author also had a hard time with her character, making her look bad when saying that she doesnt like it -when he gets masculine- or whatever was the translation, but at the same time, her giving her reasons at the end, making her look like she cared for him all of this time. She also was really offput by the fact that Hagiwara cheated on her with a man which I feel like it can come from either internalized homophobia, her pride or the fact that she realized that its not just sex Hagiwara is dissatisfied with (seeing how he could just hook up with another woman if he wanted sex but he was actually unhappy in general). I fear I cannot dislike her. She feels very human. Lets not forget tho that Hagiwara cheated on Kaori at the end of the day, when he couldve talked with her about all these things before.
-Sei and Kazuaki, an even more complex couple, who could, in my opinion, be even more developed. I was actually shocked to see that Kazuaki (from what I understood) actually liked Sei but he refrained from his feelings, afraid he might damage him even more. Kazuaki was the one who stayed by Seis side the whole time and while this doesnt justify his actions later, its true that he actually cared for Sei and was afraid of feeling more, in case Sei only attached to him because of his trauma. It seems to be revealed that Kazuaki sees Sei as someone very fragile and thats why he is so taken aback and reluctant everytime Sei mentions something sexual around him. I find his reactions to be exagerated of course, and I think the actor build such impecable temper for the role, because we see this side of him from the begginning until the end, so we shouldnt be shocked when he reacts like that in bed. Same as Kaori goes for Kazuaki too. In the beggining I didnt know what was the reason he didnt want to have sex with Sei but at the same time I didnt blame him. If you dont want to have sex, you dont want. Its good that its communicated but you should also say why. But again, I didnt blame him. He really said all of his intentions from the start and I appreciated that. I actually wanted a real flashback of how they met or how they interacted before, like the first couple had. Their relationship developes into something controling and toxic and it is not to forget that Sei was RAPED by Kazuaki. That is unforgettable, and is not justified by anything.

I saw some people saying that its not really adressed the fact that Sei got raped or the fact that Kaori didnt take responsability and I have one hard truth to share. That is how life is. That doesnt mean that thats how it should be. I assumed everything is intentional. Especially since Sei didnt want to put a bad light over Kazuaki. He respected him, he liked him. Maybe it really never got adressed (and maybe this will develope into a trauma for him and a problem in the relationship with Hagiwara, that is, if this was real). And especially since Hagiwara also respected Kaori and liked her for a long time. I imagined that it happened just like in real life=you get in a fight with someone close and you want to tell them so many things and make them feel bad but when you actually see them you just want to get it over with because of the history you have together.

I liked the interactions between Hagiwara and Sei. The actors did a fantastic job making me love or hate them. They all seemed very genuine and normal. Also the conversations felt very real and the characters were made very mature. This show portraits perfectly the importance of compability and especially sexual compability. Even if you love each other, you have to be on the same wave on each level. Also this perception of sex as being dirty and disgusting is so real. I dont need to elaborate on that.

Dont forget that a huge stepping stone, which might not seem, was the interaction with the couple friends with the pregnant lady that actually revealed a side of reality that not many can handle. I believe it was put there to give an isolated example of the same situation so that we can look at it more objectively.

I could talk about this more and Im sure I forgot a lot of things but for myself, this is my hectic review.

For a good series to be good, the characters shouldnt be visualized as perfect, each with their own complexity. We dont always get the closure we want like talking about the scars that Sei was left with and how are those going to affect his next relationship. We shouldnt see this as a romance but more as a piece of life.

I gave this series a rating for how it made me feel.

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MASTERPIECE !!!

I STARTED WATCHING THIS DRAMA ONLY FOR THE ML & SERIOUSLY WAS EVEN POSTPONING WATCHING IT SINCE SONGYI WAS THE FL ( I hadn't seen any of Song Yi dramas before ),
BUT ONCE I FINISHED WATCHING SL,

SHE REALLY BECAME MY NO:1 FAVOURITE CHINESE ACTRESS ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
HER ACTING FOR THE PLOT & HER CHEMISTRY WITH THE MALE LEAD GAVE AN EXHILARATING FEELING ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

IT'S REALLY TOOOO PAINFUL SEEING SO MANY HATE COMMENTS EVERYWHERE ON SONGYI (DON'T KNOW WHOSE FANS ARE MAKING THOSE COMMENTS ) -> ABOUT HER APPEARANCE , ACTING AND COMPARING IT WITH LOTFG ACTRESS & SAYING THIS DRAMA GOT SAVED ONLY DUE TO MALE LEAD !!!

TO BE FRANK, SONGYI WAS MUCH MORE CONVINCING AS A FEMALE GENERAL & THE BEST PAIR FOR (THE ML IN THIS DRAMA ) !
&
REALLY I HAVE NEVER BEEN THISSSSSS INVESTED IN ANY DRAMA BEFORE ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️ ITS GIVING WORST EVER WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS & WILL ALWAYS REMAIN MY ALL TIME MOST FAVOURITE DRAMA ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
&
EQUAL CREDITS GOES TO ( CHENGLEI & SONGYI ) AND THEIR CHEMISTRY 🔥🔥🔥 🔥🔥FOR THIS DRAMA'S SUCCESS !!!

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Good and bad at the same time

If I could give two separate votes I would do it.
Being a Donghua lover I found myself conflicted in watching the drama.
The first 15 episodes are a mess. Parts of the story cut out or modified, focus on useless points leaving out the basics of Han Li's growth and character development.
Women inserted all at the same time not respecting the timing and only creating confusion. I literally dropped the drama while loving the story and the actor Yang Yang.
Then I decided to insist and I took him back. I did well!
From episode 16 everything is back on track and flows smoothly without the hitches created by senseless cuts and plot changes.
The acting is good, CGI is good and the fighting are stellar.
So, to avoid low rating, if you like the donghua version, start from episode 14 and you won't be disappointed

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TW: Domestic Violence

Here's my list of pros and cons:

Pros: the relationship between Kyoko and Reiko, the way they walked this fine line of enemies, friends and acquaintances, and never truly felt close as sisters theoretically should. But above all, the relationship between Kyoko and Moriyama, in every corner when I thought he'd disappoint me, he always managed to surprise me, meaning the writers did a great job with his character development despite him not being one of the leads. The ending in particular was my favorite part of their relationship, it's not always that we see men be supportive of their girlfriends not only being great at what they do, but being better than them, and it's also not every day that we see a couple decide to follow an alternative way of being together and it be successful, and I'm a firm believer that if more people decided to not stick to the norm of living together, sleeping in the same bed, having kids, etc., they'd be much happier.

Pros and cons: The world of Shogi, which is something I didn't know about and loved to learn, and how Kyoko broke into its patriarchal system. However, I wish we had seen her open the doors not only to her, but to other women too, the teen Shogi player we see near the end of the story could've been a girl, or one of her nieces could have followed her path, especially the one who resembled Reiko so that it wasn't too obvious, or maybe we could have seen her start training female Shogi hopefuls.

Cons: the relationship between Reiko and Masao. I was already weirded out by the fact that Masao had feelings for Reiko since she was a child, then add that to the fact that he hit her across the face and the whole thing completely lost me. I didn't feel any comradery or understanding or any love between them, it all felt from beginning to end like she settled for him. And speaking of settling for a man who doesn't deserve you: the story between the girls parents Chiaki and Kyoichi. I was livid that after all the abuse she endured by him, not only did the story brough them back together, but it was all heavily supported by their daughters, who themselves were also victims of his behavior, who were also abandoned by him, ignored by him, mistreated by him. And when I put that plot together with the rest of the drama, the respect Moriyama had for Kyoko's ambitions and decisions for their relationship, the way women's participation in professional Shogi was at the forefront of the story, it just doesn't add up to the writer purposely advocating for a woman to allow a man who played in her face to return to her life. It was embarrassing and disgusting to watch, and that's the reason why my rating, which initially was a 9, ended in an 8.

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Slowly losing patience with the FL

This drama started out great. I love the acting of all the characters. The main couple are adorable. I can understand why the FL initially hated the ML. But 25 episodes in and the hatred just doesn't seem to go away!!!
Her misunderstanding the ML started getting old real fast. I've been feeling so bad for him. Poor guy has been mistreated and misunderstood his whole life. The FL is supposed to see the real him and help him. Instead she just adds to his heartbreak and troubles. Even when she finds out the truth, she still hates him for deceiving her. Hello?!?!?! What about you trying to kill him and ruin him at every turn?

This drama is starting to feel like a marvelous lesson in gaslighting. Even after the truth comes put, its the ML apologizing to the FL. Are you kidding me. This breaks my heart because this is a bad script. The acting, the costume, the fight scenes and everything else has been superb. I honestly don't know if I can finish watching this. But I hope the script improves fast.

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