Story: Storyline is the strength of this lakorn - hands down. Perhaps this has to do with how the lakorn is based on a best selling novel; so it does come with twists and turns, plots and sub-plots and a love story between a high school girl with an IQ of a genius and a cold and calculative mafia boss. There are many shootings, killings and people running and hiding in this lakorn. The props are poorly done like in a low budget film/drama but if you can look past that, the story is quite addictive. I will not elaborate more on the story without giving it away. It's the sort that makes you stay up just to find out what is going to happen next despite the poor acting, directing and props! Serious!
Acting/Cast: The best actor in here is the main female lead - the high school girl! I find the main male lead too stiff in his acting to appeal to my taste. Sure, his role is that of a cold and calculating mafia boss, but that does not mean his body language should come across awkward as well! Add to that the fact that I have to fast forward too many unneccessary scenes where ppl pretty much just stare at each other for long periods of time, the acting and directing of this lakorn is really its downfall. The use of poor "Chinese" props and customs (such as the fist to palm greeting that no modern Chinese alive will be caught using!) and a few other boo-hoos provide either comical relief or a frown of annoyance.
Music: Obviously they did not invest much on the OSTs. Nothing worth mentioning here.
Rewatch value: This is one of those lakorns where once you had watched it and know the twists, you will not want to watch it again... at least not in the near future! The value of this lakorn lies on its interesting and addictive storyline but once that storyline is known, all the other weaknesses of this lakorn puts you off re-watching it again.
Overall: I give it a 7.5/10 thanks to the saving grace of its rather unique and addictive storyline. I can see why the novel sells well. What I would like to see is either Taiwan or China adopting this into a T or C Drama. The storyline is certainly worth investing in. Put to it the better filming technologies, use of props and funding in Taiwan and China, this story may be given the essential life for it to be a highly rated drama since most of the characters in this story are supposed to be Chinese! I would also like to see Korea adapt this storyline to apply to Korean gangsters and filmed in Korean contexts. In summary, I feel that some Chinese, Taiwanese or Korean director or producer out there should be alerted to this novel and the potential it can bring if produced properly!
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On to the story. I gave this drama a higher score, because I like the premise. Genius teenage girl saves Mafia boss that falls in love with her. Besides the huge age difference of a grown man falling in love with a teenager, I thought that was cool. Even the main female lead character was annoying, because she was down on her looks and herself too much at times. The story has some great plot twists. The problem of the story line is that Stockholm syndrome is in abundance on this show. Another problem is that you have to get around the low budget scenes and the weak action scenes.
The acting is just...I don't know...over the top at times or stiff as a board. There is no natural ability that pulled me into a character. I felt like I was watching a drama rather than getting sucked in to the point that I forget it is a drama. The only person to write about is Mint Chalida as Ruthainark. She is really cute and her acting is good. I'm not even going to go into the other actors. None of them were good in this.
The music is fine.
I won't ever rewatch this.
I don't recommend this drama to anyone. I would have given the drama a 1, but I liked the story line and the girl.
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Cubic is not a perfect drama. It has so many flaws but for me, currently used to watching flawless dramas with terrible production, I want to scream kind of directing and flabbergasting endings, Cubic was perfect!
The story of the youngest daughter having to repay her dad’s debt instead of her sister by working under a Mafia boss and both ending up falling in love with one another is far too simple and uninteresting considering Thai dramas Mafia themed action love stories mass production. Yet, Cubic has this unexplainable feeling that keeps one glued to the screen without knowing why. A smart and resourceful ugly duckling falling for a powerful Mafia swan who turns out to love her in return is a replica of Beauty and the Beast in reverse minus the talking furniture and the castle.
Cubic shows that outer appearance is not a reflex of interior beauty and that interior beauty and character make someone beautiful. It also demonstrates that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Nowadays society seems so hard bend focused on appearances, forgetting that one’s inside beauty shines through the surface but one’s outside diamond like beauty can hide a very ugly interior. Appearances can be deceiving and Cubic portrays that to perfection!
The characters are stereotypical indeed however, the rawness of the energy they give leaves one in complete awe. Lin Lan Ser as a character is interesting on paper, performance wise Manoonsil Taninwhich, an unquestionably handsome man depending on one’s taste with his beautiful eyes and hands and everything else, has not made the character memorable for me. He stares so much, so much and he thinks so much and he’s so stiff and he doesn’t speak enough in the drama. At times I was left wondering if the production team wanted to make Cubic a 40% silent drama as a homage to the silence movie era of the beginning of the 20th Century but in colour. Either that or the script writer might have thought, here I have a very good looking actor, he doesn’t need to talk much, he just needs to look pretty on screen and stare so that the female audience can swoon at him and Cubic can get a high viewing rating. Ruthainark was cheeky and fun and energetic and hardworking and motivated and passionate and really well portrayed by Vijitvongtong Chalida when she wasn’t on a staring contest with Lin Lan Ser. That was like mirror, mirror on the wall who’s the fairest of them all? But with mirror, mirror on the wall who stares most of all? Lin Lan Ser, Lin Lan Ser, yay.
Music wise, the OST was nice but only as memorable as the staring contest went and there was so much of it at times it felt like a metaphorical version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with their tent scenes. The movie had so many scenes with the leads in a tent it was surreal! Cubic had the same with the staring. Aw, the staring, so much, so much but good!
All in all for me Cubic is a 9.5 out of 10! I loved it! Yes, it flawed from beginning to end but we are all flawed and those flaws are what make us who we are and we should be proud of that, for that reason Cubic was special and it will continue to be special for me, perhaps because deep inside all girls/women at one point in our lives feel like Ruthainark and long for the love of a man that loves us more than any other woman that we might feel to be more beautiful than us.
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No slap/kiss
•The story was hooking. As in several other stories where actress agrees to be mistress in order to pay debt, here its totally different and crazy.For few episodes I was actually wondering why it was named as cubic and yes its explained well in the show. I wont give a spoiler you go ahead and watch it to find out. The explanation is perfect BTW.
•Lin Lan Ser Mafia leader while daytime principal of a school was giving me laughs. And the students going behind him to take snaps doesnt make sense. His cold face was sometimes really not working for me. Nark, Hardworking girl trying to payoff her dads debt was a convincing character for which she also gets involved in illegal arms. That part was amazing but I guessed that part correctly being a medical professional. She was cheerful and expressive in all the scenes she did. Danny was another character which I liked in the show. I felt bad for mei jing and her tragic life.
•I enjoyed it.It perfectly made sense that there was no romance as she was high schooler and he is a mafia. So the employer employee relationship was presented well.
•Music - was ok not something I remember.
Rewatch - not really as am not a fan of action and mafia type drama. With almost zero romance, But for a rewatch I wont prefer it
•NOTE- its a No slap/Kiss lakron so it was more watchable.
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What I liked most was the ladies in this drama. The love rival never plotted against Nark or did anything mean to her, which is almost unheard of in an Asian drama. I loved that they gave her dignity and didn't reduce her character to vindictive, unrequited love. I also loved Nark. While she didn't live up to the 'genius' label they gave her, she was plucky and determined. She didn't cry over how hard she had it and she wasn't afraid of anyone. She was not a 'Candy' despite how many jobs she was working, lol. I liked her BFF in Danny and how playful they were together. I also liked the understated bromance between Lin Lan Ser and Josing. I felt really bad for San Gui, who, despite the weird facial hair and being a gangster, wasn't actually a bad dude.
What I didn't like about this drama was the pacing and the subpar acting. I love Lakorns in part because they frequently give more time to develop things, for instance I rather like the 'remembering' scenes where it kind of puts us in the character's head about what they are thinking, especially if some of it is new footage, but that was not the case here. This is needlessly slow. Too much staring. Too much time spent zooming in on the chandelier. They could have trimmed everything and given us more time with Nark showing us how clever she could be. Also, most of the actors were not strong enough to emote anything significant in all those long pauses and stares. Some came off constipated and some just crazy.
I'm still glad I watched it (although a lot of it on 1.5x speed) though, because of the refreshing qualities I mentioned in the Likes section.
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This review may contain spoilers
TL;DR - The gangster mafia male lead gets the high schooler female lead to negotiate with an arms dealer on his behalf while she's still in her school uniform. If this sentence makes you cringe, then I advise you don't watch but if you find humor in that, I'd say to give it a go. You gotta suspend your disbelief a lot on this one plus the romance is not too hot, but the unintentional humor this show gives and the kick-ass actions of the FL make it worth a watch.I honestly wasn't sure what to rate this lakorn, as I had many things that I enjoyed but also many things that I disliked. I kinda figured I would average it out to an average score even though subjectively, I'd probably add a 0.5-1 extra for the laughs and comfort it gave me (as I was stressed when I started watching this). However I can't deny the subpar aspects of this lakorn and will actually start with the potholes first.
To sum it up: the editing, directing, production and story/plotline. All of these were done dirty to the point where it was actually funny how bad it was. You get the sense that the directors meant for this to be a serious and dark drama about the mafia, but with the stylistic choices made, it's very hard to take it seriously. Regarding the story; it's quite illogical and you have to suspend your disbelief heavily in order to watch. The way they depict the mafia and gang relations is unrealistic and the things that they get certain characters (esp Nark) to do just doesn't make sense. Important secondary characters also drop like flies with little to no remorse. The pacing is also pretty bad as there's a lot of filler, and I'd say about half the drama is the actors just staring at each other for long periods of time. As I was watching this, the editing reminded me of a PowerPoint presentation where each slide had the same special effect; you effectively had multiple sequences of scenes where the camera cut to one person and then zoomed in on their face; then it would cut to another and do the same thing. The music was also very overplayed (although I did like it), and some of the outfits looked like they were styled by someone with absolutely no fashion sense.
Of course I have to mention the fantastic acting from Bomb, who played the male lead (and by fantastic I mean terrible lol). I knew Bomb was stiff as hell from seeing him in Khun Chai Rachanon, but here he seemed even more flat. There were times throughout the lakorn where it seemed like he was mentally not there; something I found amusing, but it was also frustrating in scenes where he was supposed to emote. It didn't help that with all the zoomed-in staring scenes this lakorn had, that he was the one who had the most close-ups (ofc since he's the ML) where he just gave nothing. At most I felt he was serviceable here. I don't hate Bomb, but it just sucks when you know a different actor could've elevated the character of Lin Lan Ser (LLS) even more and make him more watchable.
And yet. Despite all these issues I had, I still enjoyed watching this. I found some of the bad things (PowerPoint editing, Bomb's flat expressions) to be amusing in a way and would giggle uncontrollably when it came about. What I found funny was that this was intended to be a serious mafia drama, but then when presented with the unrealistic depictions and some small things (like trying to pass off Taipei as Hong Kong, the bad guy talking to the villain on the phone while literally getting a bullet taken out of him, Nark passing out with her eyes open and crossed like a cartoon character), it's just begging to be made fun of. I just wonder how they thought the audience could take it seriously with all that and if anything, this could've been a satire on mafia dramas.
This show was also greatly helped by a good secondary cast and the star of the show, Ruthainark. Mint's back must've hurt from pretty much carrying the show on her shoulders with her wonderful depiction of her character, Nark. I love that Nark is fearless, very independent and solves problems on her own. She talks back to LLS in an audacious manner that is funny and admirable. She's also crucial for the story progression as it is her plans and meddling that allows the plot to move forward. It did drive me a little crazy at how dense she was to LLS's feelings, although LLS deserved it haha. When comparing Mint's lively portrayal of Nark to Bomb's flat one, it strangely complements each other and generates this weird chemistry (more on that later). I do want to mention some fave secondary characters in Jongsing (who's pretty much the reason why LLS is at the top), Danny (who always knew what was up) and Mei Jin. Mei Jin was a surprise for me as her actress usually plays the bitchy, possessive types but here she was just a sad lady looking for love. I was sad at her ending and she definitely deserved better.
Now for the romance, I'd say in general it was lacking. However I don't think that's to a fault, as the leads had a huge age gap (and the FL was still underage) so it helped to not make the pairing feel so icky. I did think that both characters complemented each other, and had this interesting chemistry where I couldn't help but think they were cute together. It's not the healthiest relationship by any means, but if I'm just looking at this as a drama-made relationship and not a realistic depiction of one, then I don't mind.
Overall, I'm still not quite sure what to make of this lakorn. The bad and the good balance each other out. But what I will say is that this came at a time when I wanted to watch something mindless and funny, and this achieved that. If you come into this lakorn with the expectation that this is a fantastical/unintentionally humorous portrayal of the mafia, with a somewhat acceptable love story between a gang leader and a high schooler, then I think you'd have a good time. For re-watch value, I would probably re-watch some select scenes I found funny, but not more than that.
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Story - This got the highest marks and the main reason why i watched it. I love the idea and i'm a sucker for age gap relationships especially if it is older male younger female. This is the sole reason for watching it and now i wish i read the review before wasting 3 days of my time on it.
Acting/Cast - Well where do i start. I don't want to copy what others had said about the acting, which, is all true. Lin Lan Ser character is the most stiff person to watch, he almost resembles a broom. No idea if its because i'm watching it on my laptop but his shoulders look as if they are a foot long. As he is suppose to play a handsome character, the casting did a poor job ( i know this is down to personal preference so this is just my opinion).
Ruthainark was much better but just by a bit.
P'Nan - Extremely annoying acting like some spoiled brat. Found myself frustrated watching her scenes.
Don't get me started on the forehead kisses!!! We are in the 21st century now people ... who forehead kisses anymore! It showed lack of emotion, no urgency on important scenes, the computer graphics were shocking, the props were terrible (if your going to shoot someone .. at least make the gun look as if it isn't plastic and also make them spill wet blood rather than a red powder!)
The other characters are so so. I actually thought the Yong Wen was well cast. He had that evil aura when he acted. All the way threw though, i kept seeing Joo Won .. he's like his thai double lol.
Music - very low budget, played the same song over and over and it wasn't all that pleasing to the ears.
Overall - I wouldn't waste your time watching this unless you want to be frustrated. No skinship, poor acting and looks a very low budget. Sometimes, the scenes are cheesy that you can't help but smile particularly the ending;
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Hot stuff!
A surprising, endearing show! Was not expecting such heart to be displayed! Had the usual Lakorn tropes, but the ML and the FL were so darn cute together! And the respect he showed her did not denigrate the age difference. This is what I love about Lakorns. Say what you will about the exaggerated story lines that would never really happen in real life, they can sure pull out some heart where you get emotionally invested. And the side characters were easy to watch too. The FL was perfect for her part and the ML was HOT!! Kind of like a hard ass yet boyishly starving for love. It has become one of my favorite lakorns that I have watched now. Even though the "stares" were rather lengthy (maybe that's why some say the acting wasn't good). But I think the acting was great, it was the director who drew out the lengthy stares in the scenes. But after a while you didn't even mind because there was an emotional pull with them. And a great ending! Of course, everyone would have really liked to see them kiss, but I think because of the age difference they respectfully removed that.Was this review helpful to you?
Good story but poor acting.
Well - drama has a good storyline but the actors have no skills to pull it through. Both the leads are bad actors - FL is so OTP in most of the scenes that it is almost cringe-worthy instead of funny or amusing. She also makes all sorts of facial expressions that I absolutely detested. Long story short - I did not like FL. ML is supposed to be cold and serious but the actor playing the role has no strong scene presence and as such comes across as someone who has been given too much power but does not know what to do with it. Other actors playing mafia roles are also laughable and therefore not believable.Hope some other producer in Korea or China picks up the story and remakes it with better actors and preferably with a better Director.
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This review may contain spoilers
I'm dissapointed...
Main lead didn't kiss at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!There wasn't a single kiss between them!!!!!!!!!
If you watch dramas for good kissing scenes like me then DO NOT WATCH THIS ONE!!!!!!!!
??????????
My plan is not to criticize these actors, because it's not their fault of course, but i'm just very disappointed that they didn't kiss even once!!!!!!
I'm sorry If I offended anyone here that was not my intention. I'm just trying to warn those who don't want to waste their time on a drama they don't want to watch
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