If you want to watch a drama where the main couple has zero miscommunications, zero misunderstandings, where they trust each other and believe each other and have no doubts about each other, no matter what anyone says, then this is a drama for you!

At first, I wasn't so sure about the series. But once Tumi and Yaksha started actively working together and the main plot, the Mowu Pavilion arc, got going, I was blown away. And the last handful of episodes elevated this drama to 9/10 for me. Towards the ending the drama got so intense and the finale and especially the very last scene? Open ended - and we might never find out if Yaksha lives or not - but holy smokes, that was so very, very intense and so very, very exciting, the exchange between Han Wuwei and Yaksha, then between Chun Tumi and Han Wuwei, just the three of them in a room full of gauzy black curtains and candles, the setting, the acting, the music... wow. And I loved how torn Wuwei was and I loved the absolute, unbreakable trust and devotion between Tumi and Yaksha. It was just... wow.

Read More

This was my first drama with Ahn Bo Hyun and I've definitely become a fan.

My favorite thing was, I think, the message that you can mess up, even badly so, but in most cases - murder excluded, of course - you can turn your life around, make amends and become a good person in the end.

I really liked the fine balance between funny banter/kick-ass scenes and very serious issues, especially when it came to mistreatment in the military. The drama knew when to pull back, when not to try and be funny.

Another great thing was the unexpected pairing that was Doberman's boss and his cop aunt. They were hilarious. And so sweet at the same time. And the fact that Doberman was very, very happy for them was the cherry on top for me because I expected the drama to go down the usual route of the ML not wanting his aunt to be in a relationship with his boss. So, thank you for that.

I must say that the role of a soldier really fits Ahn Bo Hyun. He's just the right type to play a guy in a uniform, he has the perfect presence for that. I very much approve!

Read More

This was a sweet, quiet and calm drama, it felt almost serene. There were no big upheavals, no hidden agency, no scheming from jilted lovers or anything like that. It was your typical slice of life Jdrama.

Which made it, well, kinda boring. After several episodes, it felt to me personally that it was dragging a little, the back and forth arguments were of the lather-rinse-repeat variety and I really didn't like the secondary couple - if you could even call them that.

The whole thing was heavily carried by the two leads, Kusakawa Takuya and Nishigaki Sho, and even though Kusakawa Takuya was great, especially in moments when Akira was all flustered or almost halfway seduced already, it was Nishigaki Sho who had the biggest on me, his Shin was simply marvelous and I could really feel the depth of his love for Akira.

Still, I'm not sure I will ever re-watch this one. Except for a few truly exceptional moments, this drama was really slow. Turns out I really like some, well, drama in my drama.

Read More

This was cute. A top university swimmer and a human Pikachu fall in love. After many obstacles, of course. And after he stops being a jerk to her. It's his journey, from a big a-hole to the best boyfriend under the sun. I felt very single after the final episode 😔

But really, it's honestly quite the sweet drama. He stops pulling her pigtails rather quickly, once he realizes that he might do everything in his powers to annoy her, true, but he hates it when other people hurt her. And he even enlists his mom to help her. BTW, his mother? Quite an awesome lady, also quite enamored with her son's new lady friend. No bad parents for this main pairing.

He truly is all ride or die for her. At one point, he's even ready to drop swimming, his lifelong dream, simply to protect her. Because if push came to shove, he would always choose her. Who would not love a love like that?

And she! Quite mistrusting of his affections at first, for obvious reasons, considering her powers. But slowly, she lets him in and she lets herself believe that his feelings are genuine and then... then she simply adores him. Their love is so soft and so honest. Once they get together, there are no big fights, no misunderstandings, only love and the need to protect the other from any harm.

I liked this one a lot!

Read More

This drama hit just the right spot at the right time for me. Sweet, funny, tender, touching, sad… It had everything. And I loved all the characters, both Lu Miao’s friends and Jiang Haoyue’s friend - yes, singular - and all the family stuff that was simply heart-wrenching…

I really liked how the drama handled Jiang Haoyue’s disability. It did not make him any less and it didn’t really hinder him in his everyday life but that did not mean that it wasn’t an issue, affecting both his health and the financial situation of his family. And it wasn’t a thing that would ever go away. And I loved that Lu Miao never saw Jiang Haoyue’s disability as a problem because she’s only ever known him with it, there was no Haoyue without it in her memory and so she simply accepted that this was his reality and there was no need to debate it or pick it apart. Haoyue was Haoyue as he was for her.

I read that Zhang Linghe said that out of all the characters he has played so far, Jiang Haoyue was the one that affected him the most. No wonder. ZLH was just amazing here. He gave his all, especially in emotional scenes that were truly felt but never overdone. Fantastic. And when you realize that ZLH studied electrical engineering not acting, that he’s basically self-taught and has only been in the business for two-three years? Wow.

Read More

Oh, this was lovely! A sci-fi romp masquerading as a cutesy VR love story. And featuring Zhang Linghe in one of the main roles. Pleasure!

It took me some time to get into the drama because at first, it rather heavily focused on the main pairing, Lu Xie & Jiang Kele, but once the secondary pairing, Guan Qianya & Xu Nian, met, the drama really took off. Why?

Because the main pairing was the usual funny girl/bad boy pairing just, you know, with VR. But the secondary pairing was what really fascinated me: female CEO/"VR character" ordered by his boss to seduce her. I mean, wow.

And the reveals and twists! Like very sci-fi twists with a matrix-like game and androids and holograms and stuff like that. And all that wrapped up in a love story of a rich and powerful female CEO and a young man who's never left an underground facility and who loved her the way she deserved.

I must say, this drama pushed all my buttons and I couldn't get enough. I gobbled it with a spoon and I watched all 36 episodes in the span of only a few days, I just couldn't stop. Because the story was great, the CGI fantastic - and Zhang Linghe playing Xu Nian simply... *chef's kiss*

Read More

This was such a great series, one of the best Cdramas I've seen so far. The characters were great, the relationships touching, the cases they solved always interesting and the main arc so well-plotted!

What I adored was that both Su Ci and Prince Qi were smart! They were intelligent and cunning and resourceful and lovely, kind people. But mainly, they were Smart(TM)! Both of them! And it was perfectly portrayed in how they both solved the final case, the main arc case, though they approached it from different sides: Su Ci by following clues, Prince Qi by trusting and working with people, winning them over.

Another thing that I loved was that Prince Qi suffered from PTSD caused by that one disastrous battle where he lost all the men under his command for which he never forgave himself even though it was not his fault but the work of a traitor.

Another thing that I loved #2 was how how much everyone loved Prince Qi: his brother (the Emperor himself), the Empress Dowager (even though Prince Qi was the son of her husband's concubine), all the prince's men (every single one of them would've died for him)... Because he was honest to gosh good people and everyone knew it.

I also loved how the relationship between Su Ci and Prince Qi developed, that he always supported her and ever since he found out that she was a woman, he did all that was in his power to change the laws so that she could officially work as an official. That was simply amazing.

Oh, and the ending was perfect. I loved it when found families stick together!

Read More

This is a movie about Mei, a closed-off loner girl, and about Yamato, the most popular boy at her school who falls for her after she kicks him down the stairs, mistaking him for a pervert.

It's also a movie about bullying. Mei was a victim of it in elementary school and Yamato didn't stop others from bullying his best friend, also in elementary school, for which he feels guilty to this day.

It's also a movie about gossip and the damage it can easily cause. There's gossip about Mei, the ugly duckling who nabbed the most popular boy, and there's gossip about Yamato because all the girls want him and most guys hate him for it, even some of his friends, and envy turns people ugly.

Mei considers herself ugly and she doesn't understand why Yamato would date someone like her. Yamato doesn't understand why Mei would think like that when she's so cute and strong and she makes him smile.

What I love about this movie is that Yamato dated before and he kissed many girls and he slept with some of them - but he doesn't consider it something to be ashamed of. Yes, it happened and it's a part of him but it's not bad or wrong. He's always kind to everyone, even to his exes, and he treats them sweetly and cares about them and he has no regrets.

I also love that Yamato doesn't really give Mei a reason to be jealous, he doesn't cheat on her, it never even crosses his mind. Yes, he's nice to other girls but they're simply his friends and he never feels even slightly tempted to cheat. All the conflict stems from Mei feeling insecure about being his girlfriend - until she doesn't.

Overall, this is really sweet. I love the whole "Why me?" vs. "Why not you?"

Read More

This movie is up there with TLT2 (the Neo Hou/Cheng Yi outing) as my favorite DMBJ thingy. No silly het romance of an unnecessary insert (I'm looking at you, Providence), just good old tentacles and Bromance - with the B being very silent.

Till this movie, Heihua did nothing for me. It didn't ring any bells, it left me cold and shrugging on the outskirts of this fandom. But Ji Chen and Ji Xiaobing as Hei Xiazi and Xiao Hua, respectively, did A Thing(TM) to my perception of this pairing. Like... wow.

This movie was everything I hoped for. Yeah, yeah, grave robbing (sorta), tentacled Cthulhu wannabe, that was all nice and whatnot. But the relationship between Hei Xiazi and Xiao Hua? That was perfection pure.

Like...

- when Xiao Hua first came to Hei Xiazi and Hei Xiazi learned why Xiao Hua was headed into the jungle - and then he stole Xiao Hua's ugly statuette and threw it into the pond to protect him.
- when Hei Xiazi paid the armed wannabe bandits to let Xiao Hua's expedition pass but he placed himself right next to Xiao Hua, just in case, to protect him from bullets.
- when Hei Xiazi was told that the cops found a dead body and he feared that it was Xiao Hua, remembering his words, "Are you not afraid that we will all die?"
- when Hei Xiazi immediately packed his things and ran to Xiao Hua's rescue.
- when Hei Xiazi realized that Xiao Hua was poisoned - well, the rest of the expedition too but them folks could just keel over and die for all he cared - and kept on checking on Xiao Hua for the rest of the movie every time Xiao Hua was sick or dizzy - Hei Xiazi's Look(TM) when he saw the insect sores on Xiao Hua's arm!
- when Hei Xiazi decided to open the sarcophagus, not really caring what was inside, just so Wannabe Cthulhu would stop killing Xiao Hua.
- when Wannabe Cthulhu smacked Xiao Hua off the platform and Hei Xiazi screamed with rage!
- when it looked like they might die after all and Hei Xiazi simply lay down next to Xiao Hua, fully intending to just expire together with him right then and there.
- when they escaped through the river and at some point, Hei Xiazi let his young fellow of a friend go, despite the boy being knocked out, to drag Xiao Hua up.
- when Hei Xiazi's young friend told him, "Why don't you go with [Xiao Hua]? He obviously cares about you a lot."
- when they then ran off together, doing unseemly things in Russia.

This movie just pushed all the right buttons when it came to whump. There wasn't just a lot of hurt, there was so much care on both sides. It's the most lasting impression of mine after watching this movie: they CARED for each other. They cared so much. You could truly feel the depth of affection they had for each other. Smitten, I was smitten!

Read More

If I had to compare it to regular dramas, I would, of course, find it very lacking. But for a shorty short web series? Not bad, not bad at all.

Jing Yuan was so devilishly mischievous and so in love with Fusheng. Fusheng was all, "Oh, pretty men, gimme!" And Qing Chen was... well, a Victorian virgin ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This was pretty much a drama about a devil and an angel in love with a goddess but the devil actually had balls and the angel was a wishy-washy dude who wanted the cake and eat it, too.

It honestly felt like a fanfic where the writer couldn't be bothered with things like world building and broader storytelling and simply picked the "good" scenes they actually wanted to write about and bounced from one to another. Too bad. It could have been a great real drama.

PS: Li Fei suffers very nicely - and a lot in this drama. Also, his eyes sparkle so wonderfully when Jing Yuan goes around, spreading mayhem.

PSS: My favorite line? When Fusheng pummeled the girl who bullied her, actually pummeled her with her fists. Jing Yuan's reaction! "Tsk, so bloody... I like it!"

For what it's worth - and though it wasn't as good as The Killer Is Also Romantic, the best short web series I've seen so far - it was a actually good one.

Read More

I picked this drama because of Zheng Yecheng as Fu Jiuyun - and he didn't disappoint in the slightest. There's something about his acting that makes everything he does on-screen feel natural. And as much as I'm usually not into alpha males, there's just something so very... sensual about him asserting his dominance that it makes my heart go all doki-doki.

I wasn't always on board with what Qin Chuan was doing, oftentimes I didn't like it, but I understood where she was coming from and I did appreciate her tenacity, her determination to avenge her people and then her helplessness when she realized that her people didn't want any revenge, they just wanted to move on and live peacefully if at all possible, that her efforts weren't really needed/appreciated because her people needed her to help them rebuild, not run around, playing avengers.

My favorite relationship in this drama was the friendship between Fu Jiuyun and his immortal friend Mei Shanjun. He was Fu Jiuyun's best friend, his confidante, his healer, his ride-or-die. And it was glorious.

There were several moments that made me cry really hard:

- When Xiao Bai, Fu Jiuyun's mirror, sacrificed himself to save him and Qin Chuan and Fu Jiuyun kept it from Qin Chuan, telling her instead that Xiao Bai was just sleeping, sleeping peacefully, and they shouldn't wake him up.
- When Xuan Zhu sacrificed herself. I didn't like her. Actually, I pretty much hated her throughout the drama but I did understand her feeling inadequate, always not good enough, always lost in Qin Chuan's shadow. Her death was really sad.
- When the Spirit Lamp was lit and Mei Shanjun realized that it meant that Fu Jiuyun was about to die. The way he turned away from the lamp and so very slowly looked at Fu Jiuyun who was already starting to disappear, turning into ash as he was burning up. And then, when the lamp was extinguished, the way Mei Shanjun screamed Fu Jiuyun's name.
- When Fu Jiuyun died, turning into these motes of light bit by bit while ignoring the pain of burning alive to watch Qin Chuan sleep for the last time.
- When Qin Chuan realized that Mei Shanjun lied to her and Fu Jiuyun wasn't coming back, that Mei Shanjun only relegated Fu Jiuyun's "dying message" to her, asking her to wait for Fu Jiuyun's return, to force her to live because it was what Fu Jiuyun would've wanted, for her to live.

What I really loved was that Qin Chuan's and Mei Shanjun's grief for Fu Jiuyun was treated as equal. Mei Shanjun cried as much and was devastated as much by Fu Jiuyun's death as Qin Chuan. A friend's grief wasn't treated here as something less.

The ending though was rather confusing and I had to look up what it actually meant in the explanation of someone who read the book. It was rather... head-tilting. I guess they counted on everyone knowing the book?

Read More

Gosh, I loved Cho Yeon Joo. The way she ranted to herself when she got upset - and she got upset a lot. The way she could turn so angry so fast and explode like nobody's business, after which fisticuffs usually followed. The way she didn't let anyone walk all over her...

And, gosh, how much I loved Han Seung Wook. He was the softest. So kind and sweet and loving, despite everything that happened to him. For 14 years he'd been in love with a girl he's met exactly once and on the night his father died, too. And when he found her again, he was heart-eyes all the way. Patient, loyal, supporting, loving...

And Mr. Noh! He loved and supported Han Seung Wook as if Seung Wook was his own child. And Cho Yeon Joo then too. He looked after her and gave her his loyalty and... it was wonderful!

And I also loved Kang Mi Na, who was so very brave and smart and cunning!

This was a fantastic drama. Though I must admit that it suffered from the usual second-half slump. I think it would've benefited from having just ten or twelve episodes and not sixteen. When everybody started figuring out what was going on, it started to get a bit... well, convoluted.

Read More

Well, that was very... Japanese. And as much as I looked forward to this movie - I own the manga in its entirety and I watched and loved the anime - I simply didn't like it. Why?

For one, the music was very jarring. Terribly loud, electronic, very... 2001: A Space Odyssey like with the whole droning thing etc. After a while, it made my eye twitch. I really hated it.

Also, I felt like I was actually watching a theater performance. It was mostly filmed in a studio, among very obvious set pieces - the shop didn't even look like a real place - and the performances themselves were so overwrought, especially by the villains. It felt very "even the viewers in the last row need to see I'm batcrap insane, watch me cackle." Yeah.

The only saving grace? Watanuki and Doumeki. This kind of a relationship was what I wanted from the manga and the anime and the movie actually delivered. So brownie points for that.

But... yeah. This? Not my cuppa. Maybe someone who is really into artsy stuff will love it but not me.

Read More

I really liked this series, it wasn't until the last two eps that I kinda got bored a little. Turns out that I need some... drama... in my drama, not just pure fluff. I prefer it when my dramas end with a bang and not a soft plop.

I mean, there was a bang, literally, just not for the main couple, it was a set-up for Sky in Your Heart. Definitely an interesting set-up, that's for sure, the main couple just sort of fluffily fizzled out into cuteness, though. And I'm more of a give me angst or give me death kinda gal.

But regarding the drama itself and its characters, I ended up loving Kluen which I didn't expect at first because I thought he was leading Nuea on out of pure... whatever. But when I got to know him, how hard it was for Kluen to express himself, he become my favorite!

What I adored were the relationships the main characters had with others, mainly Nuea's relationship with his older brother Fah, it was so touching, and Kluen's friendship with Noel who truly understood Kluen and his issues and tried to help him in any way he could.

Overall, a very sweet story and I will definitely watch the follow-up!

Read More