Details

  • Last Online: 2 hours ago
  • Gender: Male
  • Location: IZ*LAND
  • Contribution Points: 23 LV1
  • Roles:
  • Join Date: June 5, 2019

Jae Jin

IZ*LAND

Jae Jin

IZ*LAND
Completed
Believer 2
7 people found this review helpful
Nov 23, 2023
Completed 1
Overall 2.0
Story 1.0
Acting/Cast 5.0
Music 1.0
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers

CONFUSING, SHOULDN'T'VE REPLACED SOME ACTORS AND MESSY

Now I feel bad that i watched the first movie at 1.25 speed... because i got hyped when i saw on netflix new releases, i saw Han Hyo Joo in the poster.

Okay first thing, so they've replaced 3 actors, like the actor of Rak, Jin Ha Rim, and If I'm not mistaken Jin Ha Rim's Girl which was played by Han Hyo Joo. Them Replacing Rak's actor was really off putting to me because it's not the same vibes at all. The actor in this is great, he's good, but he's acting the Cold, can't be mind read character, in the first movie the reason Rak is soo good is because you got the backstory-ish of his family dying and pet getting caught as well, and the actor in the first movie portrayed the emotions really well, because you got this soulless character, with the only goal of finding the person who did it to his family and his pet, but the Rak that he's portraying here has still the same motif and that's to find Mr.Lee, but again the vibes is just not there.

Then jin ha rim also got replaced as seen in the back stories, but i don't care about that anymore since he's dead already and the girl that's played by Han Hyo Joo. Now Han Hyo Joo, my 2nd fav actress, as always she's great, she portrays the character really well. She's matched the energy of the previous actress who played the character but with an extra tinge of Han Hyo Joo.

Now, the story got me really confused. So the first few minutes or so of the movie are cliff notes of what happened in the first movie and then we pick where the movie left off, after all the seon chang and ha rim shit. Already, I'm confused because of the different rak and now, it's revealed that rak is not actually Mr. lee, so okay... and as usual won ho is still on about this case and the other characters have now band in together to get down to this mystery of who actually this Mr. Lee is, like.... just moments ago you were all on each other's throat. And speaking of throat it was revealed that Keunkal and Ha Rim were actually step siblings and i was like "weird... but okay..." and then how they revealed Mr. Lee was the most unsurprising and effortless sequence i've ever seen. Like we got a call and then boom a camera shot of Mr. Lee, no music, no tension or sound effect whatsoever, it's just there. They could've just left the first movie alone, i don't think it needed to have a sequel, like you just unveiled the curtains behind the first movie which you didn't need to. After watching this movie, i was just left confused, like what?! And the later parts of the Film were fast paced, they didn't even bother showing a few scenes of how these characters found each other.

So yeah, i think i'm just gonna forget that this existed. I'm just here for Han Hyo Joo, though i was kinda disappointed as to why this film even landed on her portfolio, but hey, as a fan I'm glad i have something to watch from her. The First film was good i would recommend it and if you wanna watch this one go ahead if you want more, but for me, i wouldn't bother, just the first one is enough.

Read More

Was this review helpful to you?
Completed
Meteor Garden
5 people found this review helpful
Nov 20, 2023
50 of 50 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 4.0
Story 4.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 3.0
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers

Clustershit Teledrama

Man... this is such a train wreck of a drama. It's soo bad, but at the same time, I can't stop clicking the next episode. This is the type of shit that my parents and grandparents would love, the story and writing is your very typical television drama.

Like the ML and FLs relationship is sooo toxic. They kept breaking up and then making up again... if not, the FL would keep bouncing back from ML to 2nd ML. I have friends in real life who had relationships like this and I just can't stand it. It's sooo annoying and toxic, like just make up your mind already and break up, don't keep coming back, but in this drama, it's so bad that it's funny. It's like you're watching this car crash that you know it's gonna be bad, but you just can't close your eyes. After the car crashed it kept tumbling over and over, and if you think it's gonna land on its own 4 wheels perfectly, it still managed to roll over and exploded in the end.

As a comedy, this is really good, because it made me laugh so hard many times, but it failed in the romance aspect. Well, not that it's not good, there are times when I find it really sweet and cute when it's just focused on the romance, but then they've added the family drama and business politics and that's when I find it really boring.

The only thing that the family drama did bring something good to this series is when they added the Fiancee or Marriage part, that's where the series for me started becoming really good, and it's really funny because the moment the fiancee got introduced, the writing became really good and the characters were well fleshed out, even the interactions and dialogues were really good. I think it turned into a Romance-Drama instead of a Romance-Comedy. They've built up the fiancee well that it made me root for her instead of the FL, I think i almost cried when they gave Mingsi and Xiaozi a closure and after that, the series returned to being a train wreck of a rom-com.

What is actually going on in that family drama?? I don't know if it's really bad or they've just written it to be toxic. There were some good points in that aspect, but there are some parts where it's really exaggerated. I think the one thing that really put me in such disbelief was when Shancai and mingsi were doing a challenge like 'We didn't eat for days to convince my mom', that was such a cap for me. I think Mingsi was on the fortunate side because he was lying in bed so at least he could sleep, but Shancai... she was just standing outside for days, did not eat or sleep, that I cannot believe, I doubt you'd be able to do that in real life, especially without sleeping?!?!?! you got to be kidding me.

In the earlier parts of the show, there are also some side plots that I think are just fillers to stretch out the runtime, especially where shancai got kidnapped, like what on earth was that, I think you could actually remove the part from the show or maybe even skip it, cuz that did not do anything in the later parts. There are a select few where it actually contributed something in the later parts, like caina, I think her and meizuo's romance was really interesting, it really helped meizuo's character development, though it was also annoying at times when caina couldn't make up her mind and kept making ye come back to his house, i think the dude is too forceful of a character, it's creeping me out.

One thing that i was really annoyed with in this drama is, why they kept using those western songs?!?!?! Especially the 'River' song i don't know what that sound designer was smoking or whoever is in charge in that department, but seriously??? you kept putting that song in scenes where it shouldn't be.. who knows maybe the director is a fan of that song.

Also, in this drama, they are sooo shameless at doing product placements. They put it and the characters would use it and would do an ad read as if they are actually doing an ad. At least in kdramas when they do a product placement, it is just there and they wouldn't highlight it, if you notice it and you think you wanna buy it, then good. For how expensive to pull off this drama was, considering you have rich characters, i think it's understandable that the people behind this drama were a suck-up to the sponsors, that's why they were really highlighting those products.

And then in the later parts, i got super bored, because they had to resolve the issue with the mother, and my god... i can watch dramas at 1.5 speed when i'm not invested, but this drama made me surpass my limit and taught me that you CAN watch a drama at 2X speed if you put your mind to it. This was a good training arc for my reading speed skills and brain processing skills, which i can thank in this drama because i came out leveled up.

I don't know what was i expecting in this drama. Maybe it's because it is a remake of the old classic meteor garden that i've watched as a toddler. Regardless, i think if you like the old clustershit stories that you see on old TV back in the day, i think you would like this, but not for me. I had a rollercoaster of a ride and now my brain has rotted for how dumb-fun this drama was.

Read More

Was this review helpful to you?
Completed
I Miss You
3 people found this review helpful
12 days ago
Completed 0
Overall 9.5
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 10
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 10

A Very Great Movie

I waited for this and Thank god it delivered. The moment I saw this uploaded on *cough* sketchy sites *cough*. I immediately stopped everything that I was doing and sat down to watch it.

The story is predictable and formulaic, but hold on! Let me explain. I don't really read the synopsis. None at all. I like going in blind whenever I watch something and just let the story do its job. Now, what I mean by "predictable and formulaic" is that the way the story is structured already follows a blueprint that I'm familiar with because when I watched it just 5-10 minutes in, I was like "Ahh, so the movie is gonna about the struggles and the challenges that they have to face, like this and that" just from how they are speed running the build-up on how they become a couple in the beginning. And I didn't mind that just because I've seen it being similarly done before a thousand times doesn't mean I'm not going to enjoy it. I still kept watching because I was curious how they gonna do it. Even though I already called it what the movie is going to be about, I was still wrong when it came to the story beats because how they did it is pretty unpredictable. I even cried at some scenes for how impactful it was.

When it comes to the characters, I felt the same. It's heavily focused on the main couple. They're readable, but I love their chemistry. Even though the movie doesn't tell, it is more about just showing you what it can do. And that's how you know that the actors did a great job of conveying the thoughts and emotions of the characters through their acting. I was so engrossed by the character writing that my attention is sucked in and the main couple are Writer and Artist, basically my 2 aspirations. Also, oh my god!!! Zhang Jing Yi's hair😭😭😭 The stylist has to go to jail for that!!! Thank god it got fixed after the time skip. ML is handsome and cute, I wish they'd added some extra details to his illness to make it more relatable and scary.

While watching this, I kept pausing every time just to commentate and analyze what just happened, as if I had someone beside me, I might as well have made a reaction video at that point and posted it online.

Overall, a very great movie, despite the story structure being familiar to me. I highly recommend it.

Read More

Was this review helpful to you?
Completed
Till the End of the Moon
3 people found this review helpful
Dec 24, 2023
40 of 40 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 10
Rewatch Value 7.5

Probably My Love & Hate Chinese Fantasy Drama

Honestly, i watched this because it just wouldn't leave my netflix front page, it would always show up. So bet, watched it and i did not expect how good this show was going to be.

First off, I'm very much that guy who's really eagle eyed when it comes to CGI and cinematography as well since i studied animation for a year. Immediately, i noticed the CGI Effects, i really like the vision that the people behind this wanna show to us viewers, it's fire and that's the thing that will always draw me in in these types of shows, is the VISION, but i can't really help but judge the effects since sometimes it's very jank and it doesn't blend in sometimes. You see, i just watched 'The Longest Promise' before this and that drama had the cleanest cgi that i've ever seen from a Chinese Fantasy drama, it's not perfect it had some flaws, but it's not jarring for the most part, but mind you that dramas doesn't have a grand vision unlike this one. And it's very EPIC as well, like the opening episode of this drama, so epic, again it's the OVERALL VISION URGGHHH!!!

The story honestly, what sold me in this like around episode 3 is the Romance Aspect and the Dynamic of ML and FL as well. The Romance aspect is so so good. In the beginning, the romance is non-existent cuz i thought this was something like a revenge drama, i mean it is, but i actually did not expect it to turn out the way it did, though it's kinda very obvious as well that there's a chance that it might happen, but what really carried it in the early parts of the show is the dynamic of the Main Couple plus the off the charts chemistry from their actors, that's what i kept clicking the next episode for and the way it developed later on, is soo good! Literally every turning moment in the later parts i kept saying "ugh! i can see why it's till the end of the moon, shit! literally till the end of the moon!". I hate it in dramas where the characters are playing tug of war with each other's feelings like the break up-make up cycle, i find that really toxic, especially in real life, but here, i don't know how the writers did it, but it's done really well, it's not annoying at all. I haven't mentioned the other plot of this show, which is the fighting/magic aspect, that's because i find it just okay, again mostly because of the jarring effects, but i like the vision that they're trying to portray, i don't think i have much to say about it, i mean it's there, it's okay, but i think if you set that all aside and look at only the Romance aspect this is more than just a 10/10 because they really nailed the part, but in my heart, i know it's a 10. Also, that dream arc, really surprised for how well written that arc was, they actually invested a lot of time and effort for that arc, but i just couldn't really get invested in that arc, because this is just a dream, why else would i care about it? and it was such a long arc as well, i almost got checked out in this series by the end of that arc, i know it had a contribution to the overall story, but i think they could've made it shorter.

The Characters, i think all of them got overshadowed for how good the Main Couple were and their actors as well, ugh!! Like this is my first time with these actors/actresses and My gawd... ML and FL didn't have to go this hard, you can really feel that they are being pushed to the limit. Like the director on the set was probably like "Come on! I know you can do more!" they are so goated actors that i don't know why i feel bad because there's a lot of blood spitting scenes here, especially with ML. And FL, was trying to stop myself from liking her as an actress because i still have a lot of drama from other actresses that i want to watch. I don't want to add more on my plate, i don't wanna get invested, but oh my god! she's just such a good actress you know? and i really like her playful/bubbly acting, she's really really cute when she does it. The writing of their characters itself is also good, i really like how it started and how it developed along the way, though there are some few ass pulling plot convenience, but that's just a minor complaint of mine. And i say overshadowed by ML and FL, i joke, there are other side characters that i really like as well. For example Ye Qing Yu, i love him as a brother character, he is done really well, especially in the later parts when he's standing before ML not as his General, but as a brother of FL, the scripting is so so good and I love her dynamic with Pianran, their side plot romance is really cute and really tragic as the same time. I also like Nian baiyu as well, he's such a goated side character because he has a big contribution to ML's characterization. Xiao Lin, i think he's a decent character, he was ok written, and when he's on screen he's hitting all the points to make his character standout. During the dream arc as Sang You, he was mostly passive, and as Gongye Jiwu he's also great, but i wish they spend a little bit more on him questioning his own existence you know, that was really good and at the end as well though he kinda became annoying a little. I really don't like Ye bingchang, she was written to be that weak minded character and i don't get how she didn't even develop that much at all, all of her incarnations are annoying as well, though her devil incarnation was really good because its the culmination of all her incarnations combined into one. The rest of the side characters, most of them are okay, there are a lot of them and most of them we didn't even have the time to explore so it ended up most of them getting wasted

The music, oh my god! it's so good, i love all of the OST here, they know how to do it and when to put it in which moments, combine that with the top tier acting and well written scenes, it's soo good. The music really did a good job at elevating this drama, though i would minus a point for it since sometimes it's loud, like louder than the dialogue of the character.

Other than that, i don't think i have any more critiques or complaints for this drama, it is really good, though i hate to rate it higher, but i just can't deny how good it is. Go watch it if you like these kinds of drama and the chemistry of Main Couple Actors here is so good too.

Read More

Was this review helpful to you?
Completed
The Legend of Ba Yi's Grandpa
2 people found this review helpful
Feb 10, 2024
Completed 0
Overall 6.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 2.5

EXCUSE ME?!?!?????

What the heck?! I did not expect myself to come out at the end of this film thinking "You know what? I somehow enjoyed my time with it". I went into it like "I'm feeling mindless right now, I only have 2 brain cells working left, so I wanna consume something shitty, something that I can forget" so I opened up a fresh incognito tab and clicked a random movie that would pop up on youtube. I even watched it on 2x speed as well, but here I am making a review.

First 5 minutes of the film, I was already regretting my decision, I thought "Oh my god! Why am I here? What have I done to myself?...". The first half of the film is like a shitty comedy-horror. The horror aspect didn't even scare the living shit out of me, I'm like stone-faced during the horror moments, but the comedy parts are somehow landing though, so that's good I guess. And then around the middle, it somehow turned into a life drama with mild romance in it and like "Wait?! It's actually cooking something" because the writing became somewhat good, it was wholesome, I'm loving the character development, the dynamic, the chemistry is tickling my heart and I thought "Ah! I know where this romance is going, I've seen a lot of scumbag MLs, I can see what their tryna pull from a mile away" but then they went into a direction that I did not expect and then resumed the shitty comedy-horror from there, then turned the film to action-comedy, with life lessons at the end.

That's the whole film. It was such of a mess, but they still somehow tied everything well and it made sense, I don't know why.

The acting in this film was good as well. In the beginning, since this was a throwaway film, I was expecting the actors/actresses would just deliver a bog standard job and call it a day, but no, it wasn't the case, or maybe some of the side characters. The main actor did a great job, he's funny, even though his character was such a scumbag, I liked the development, but how it ended was dumb fun. The main female though, did a great job acting as a blind poor person, she didn't stand out in the beginning that much, but when the romance part came in, it gave her character the time to shine. Side characters, they're all good, but there's that one side character that really stood out to me. And it's that old lady who's overseeing this ghost marriage during the ghost wedding part, I don't know. It's just the way her voice acting really caught my attention and I was like "Woah! I like her. she's doing a great job for a minor character."

I don't know if is this my true opinion or if it's the coffee because I'm making this review with 2 coffee bullets of americano in. So yeah... again I can't believe I somehow enjoyed that film, but I wouldn't rewatch it again though, that's for sure.

Read More

Was this review helpful to you?
Completed
Wedding
2 people found this review helpful
Feb 4, 2024
Completed 0
Overall 6.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 1.0
Rewatch Value 1.0

It was aight

Okay, so picture this: you're settling in to watch this short film called 'Wedding', and at first, you're like, 'Wait, is this a documentary or what?' That's exactly what went through my head halfway through. The way the actresses were looking straight at the camera and interacting with it had me questioning reality for a second. But then I figured, hey, maybe they're going for that whole documentary vibe.

Let me tell you, the acting in this thing is solid. The dynamic between the characters is on point. I mean, I wouldn't be shocked if someone told me they were a real-life couple because the chemistry feels authentic... for the most part. Sure, I didn't feel the sparks flying as much as I'd hoped, but hey, you win some, you lose some.

One thing that caught me off guard though – there's no background music. It's just pure dialogue and ambient noise, which, I guess, adds to the whole 'documentary' feel they were going for, but personally, I missed having a soundtrack to set the mood.

Overall, 'Wedding' is an interesting watch. It might throw you for a loop with its documentary-style filming, but stick with it for the performances. Just don't expect any romantic symphonies in the background.

Read More

Was this review helpful to you?
Completed
Love Will Tear Us Apart
2 people found this review helpful
Nov 21, 2023
Completed 0
Overall 8.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 10
Rewatch Value 9.0

Didn't tear my heart enough, but still left feeling sad

After watching Lighter & Princess, I wanted to watch zhang jing yi's other works and this one caught my attention. Just from the title that has 'Tear' in it already giving me that "Ok, My heart is gonna be ripped into shreds in this one" plus the poster is already looking so sad.

The beginning of the movie might be fast paced in some sense, they've only shown how they met and this is how they've developed for feelings for each other, but the way they've written and filmed it feels so pure and innocent. Then as we jump to them as young adults facing the challenges of the wider world, that's when it starts "tearing" your heart out, because it's so grounded, it may not look like it, but you could actually see this happening in real life, especially in this day and age where it's already hard to buy your own place that you could call "Home" because of the housing prices.

The movie for me was predictable since i've already watched similar films like the choices that both leads make, i can already sense what's gonna happen next and the only thing I'm gonna look forward to is how are they gonna do it and each choice that leads to bad consequences is where the characters love for each other really shines. I love the way they did the silent moments in this film because that's where the actor/actress acting really shines, it doesn't have dialogues at all like the characters don't talk, but you can feel it through the actions and the emotions that they portray, like ughh!!! sooo good!!

On a side note, the moment i saw Sun Ning here i was like "What the hell? you're here too???" because, i've watched 'A love so beautiful' recently and i hated his character there and i probably still must have that hate in my heart which carried on in this film, so immediately, didn't like his character and actually deserved it for how he'd done wronged the male lead which led to an even bigger and hardest choice that he had to make.

Although i came to this film knowing that i would be sad at the end, i actually did not cry and that's probably my fault because my expectations are off the roof, cuz i've watched 'More than blue: the series' recently and that's sadder than any media that i've ever watched in my entire life, so i expected this film to actually destroy my heart leaving nothing but this film still made me sad deep inside. I would still highly recommend this, even though i didn't come out crying like a motherfucker at the end and this actually confirms that i'm actually into dramas that end on a sad note and it's fine if it's that way, because it's the same in real life as well, not all love stories have a happy ending.

Read More

Was this review helpful to you?
Completed
When I Fly Towards You
2 people found this review helpful
Sep 19, 2023
24 of 24 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.5
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 8.0

VERY GOOD HIGHSCHOOL DRAMA

I watched this since it is the talk of the internet along with Hidden Love

Immediately after episode 1 I was hooked and my god the FL was soooo cute. At first, it's all about FL wanting the attention of his crush and trying to get him, but as you progress through the story they slowly expand to the other cast and deep dive into their lives, while maintaining the dynamic of FL and ML, and I like it since the other characters are really interesting.

Slowly you see the development of each character little by little, you'll notice it from the way they act and their facial expressions, then the moment you realize it you're already in love with all the characters.

The way they do the interactions of FL and ML tho, ITS SOOO GOOD. it's sooo five head since they make sure, it's not for the sake of "they need to interact" like they always build it and you won't notice it building up to an interaction

I love how good the writer is at limiting the characters to a certain number, so you won't get overwhelmed by who is who, like why don't we explore this person and this person, there's none of that. Like the intention is very clear, they only want you to focus on the main characters and their friends. The way they did it was so tasteful like they only give the small parts to the extra side characters that don't ruin the flow of the dynamic and story.

Something took me off of my immersion with this drama though and that was when I thought "will this get dragged on?" because around ep 18-19 they're still in the high school side, but you can already see they're trying to build it up to the pay off that you've been waiting, and yeah long and behold it was worth it, nothing grand, nothing special, but still great♥

After all of the high school shenanigans, now we're finally on to the college side of things and this is where the story gets fast paced, like a little fast paced. I was kinda amazed how they are rushing the story, while also maintaining the key points that they want to show on the college side and even on the adult side of things. I get it, I think the story already ended in the payoff, but I guess they still wanna show the audience, what's beyond.. and I realized that this is the closest to real life couple, like how a couple would act that I've ever seen. you look at 1st Couple and they're so grounded. Like the adult side of the story, I watched it and they're so similar to couples that I've seen in real life.

Very good cdrama i love it♥

Read More

Was this review helpful to you?
Completed
One Piece
2 people found this review helpful
Sep 4, 2023
8 of 8 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 6.0
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 7.0
This review may contain spoilers

Was expecting it to be shit, but boy oh boy it blew me away

Since the live action felt mature, i really felt the family drama between garp and luffy, that was really good that it almost made me cry.

The acting of the main actors are good, but since i watched it in jp dub, there will be times where the voice acting is top tier, but the facial expressions of the actors doesn't match at all, but i didn't mind it nonetheless... but some of the side characters acting are shit.

The story felt rush sometimes, but it would slow down on important moments, but i guess that's the result of the time constraints. Like every crew gets introduced every 2 episodes and would get resolve within the span of 2 episodes as well... i don't know, but somehow it still works.

CGI is decent as well, it's honestly not bad, like it's kinda similar to dc

Lastly, a minor critique is that i cannot get used to the western cinematography. as someone who watch mostly asian shows, you know how they love trying out different kinds of camera angles, but here you can tell they love the camera angle where the subject is in the center and it's very up close as well... it's like they're filming a horror movie. And I'm kinda getting disney beauty and the beast vibes..

And of yeah, I'm kind of disappointed that they didn't show arlong's other power that he could do with his teeth's here....

All in all it's still good, would recommend it to others and I'm hype for season 2, I'm really curious how

Read More

Was this review helpful to you?
Completed
Love Life Light
1 people found this review helpful
17 days ago
Completed 0
Overall 7.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 6.5

Great blend of Horror to Heavy Drama, but too short

Man! They had me in the first half. I came in thinking I was gonna be watching horror, It's going to be great, but I ended up getting sad at the end.

I didn't know this was the Chinese version of the upcoming Korean version as well and also, I didn't know it had a manhwa source to it. I wanted to read the original source at first, but I chickened out because I didn't wanna be that person who's like "No!!! It's not faithful to the original source TTTT". So, I watched this first to avoid being biased towards the manhwa.

The story for the first half was like sloooow burn light horror and mystery. I'm thinking... man, my TikTok brain rot attention span is slowly kicking in, when are they gonna start showing something scary? Because everything that has been shown so far has been vanilla af. I feel the eeriness, the color grading is very dark, the sound design is on point, and everything aside from FL is sus, I thought that, but she was sus as well, and then plot twist! things started happening and I'm like woah?!?!

In the Second half of the story, the genre started shifting, and honestly? They did a pretty good job transitioning the story and who to focus on. Like what is this that I'm feeling right now? And then I understood "Ahh, that's why they took their time to build up everything in the first half". There was like twist after twist, and they tried their best to tie everything, though not perfect, but good enough to make sense.

The characters, I must say, since it was a movie runtime, there wasn't enough for me to care, but they've shown enough story-wise for me to get invested and stick till the end. For FL, it's been a while since I've watched Zhang Ruo Nan. She became even prettier (ughhh!!!), like flowers around me every time she showed up on the screen. I was basically in love with this girl. Her acting? even great, she did a good job. ML, mostly about him was shown in the last minutes of the movie, but imo he's aight. The LGBT couple is what really tickled my heart because the moment Sun Qian's character showed up, I felt the feels man and they had a good chemistry. It's my first time seeing Sun Qian take on an LGBT role/pairing and honestly, you could take those two, have them do a GL drama and it'll probably work. The mother and daughter were also very sad, like goddamn. I went from hating the mother to understanding why she was presented the way she is and the child actress was so good, she didn't have to go that hard on her acting delivery. The old man was aight. His side plot was like another extra variety.

Overall, a good movie, would recommend you check it out. The upcoming Korean version is a series, so it'll probably fix what this movie couldn't show in the 98-minute runtime it had.

Read More

Was this review helpful to you?
Completed
Love Is Sweet
1 people found this review helpful
28 days ago
36 of 36 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 7.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 3.0

Just here for the Main Couple

After watching TTEOTM, I really liked LYX and BL. Then I discovered that they had a drama before that in a modern-day setting.

The story was good, almost entirely. I'm sure you've read enough reviews and comments at this point before you landed on my review, so I'm just gonna try to make the praise as short as possible. I have no problems with the Main story, it was cute, it was fluffy, and obviously, the chemistry was off the charts. The very definition of 'Love is Sweet'. The business side of things... it was aight, I would say, I was whatever whenever the characters are blabbing about business shit that I couldn't relate/understand. The second couple is just plainly boring, I liked it in the beginning, it was cute until it wasn't and just became an annoying filler. Also, I loved the Sideplot of the 2nd ML.

When I thought it wouldn't matter to me if they dragged the hell out of this drama for how much I loved the Main couple, but nope! How naive I was for thinking that. This series could've ended at episode 30, everything was nicely wrapped up and tied in a nice little bow, but the people behind this were like "Nope! Let's do 6 more episodes as an epilogue" just to make the 2nd ML bad.

The Characters. I already said my piece with the Main Couple no need to reiterate, they are the hard carry of this drama, If not for them, I would've dropped this after episode 30. 2nd Couple didn't elicit any chemistry whatsoever, the match-up is just terrible. If you look at it on paper, you got a super bubbly girl and a dense boy, should've been good, right??? but because of their age in this drama, it fell flat. The girl is supposedly the adult in this pairing, the boy is still in college, so you'd expect the girl would be the mature one here, but nope! The way she's trying to get the attention of the boy in the beginning is cute, but as it goes on it just becomes cringy and annoying. I wasn't planning on watching this drama on 2x, but my god... I just had to because of them. It just looked childish. The Rival ML, the way he's written, was really good to me. I love how both MLs in this drama were given a fair shot at courting FL and I loved it. It was very intricate to me, though sadly, it was very obvious that he didn't stand a chance from the beginning. He's very dynamic, and I loved every aspect of him, just not in the last 6 episodes. On the other hand, the Rival FL wasn't built up that much at all, we only got tidbits of her, and then suddenly things just happened, and then she became obsolete. Every character in this drama, bounces off each other very well, from the Main down to the minor characters. Some of the side characters I thought were going to make a big impact later on because they were given a good chunk of screen time but didn't, so it felt like they were just wasted characters to me.

The acting is also great. Everyone did very well. This is the 3rd drama that I've watched where Riley wang is in it. I can see that he has improved here a little.

The Music, obviously I liked the OST. There's that one BGM that is used a lot in business scenes that I wasn't really feeling because it doesn't sound business-esque to me, it fits more in a fashion drama.

Overall, a good drama. I'm not sure if I would recommend it in general though, but if you've watched TTEOTM first and you liked the Main Couple, then go for it. It's a breath of fresh air seeing both actors in another setting.

Read More

Was this review helpful to you?
Completed
The Fatal Letter
1 people found this review helpful
Feb 1, 2024
24 of 24 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 6.5
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 3.0
This review may contain spoilers

Decent Trashy Car Crash Romance

I can't believe I went out of that thinking it was decent

The story is about a woman who was able to predict the future through her dreams and she dreamt about her husband killing her in the future. So now, she has to figure out how to change the course of fate, and that's not the only thing, more things will get revealed as you watch more of the drama. I don't wanna spoil much, the drama is 5-10 minutes long per episode so just give it a watch if you're interested, you can easily finish it in 1-2 hours. For me, it was pretty interesting, but I just could not stand the domestic violence at times, for any woman out there you might not like this. Again, the story is pretty interesting for how did it, though they just went overboard with the violence (or maybe it's just me) and there are some disappointments as well for how they resolved things in the end.

**SPOILER**
What disappointed me, is that when FL got out of the relationship, she didn't like revenge on his ex-husband or anything, she just mindbroken him, like... for all the things that he did to you, that's your counterattack? I wish they just went above and beyond for FL's revenge because this man deserved to be beaten more, not just mentally, That's why I probably find the story pretty interesting because they tried to be grounded and used the law instead of violence against violence, not like in any revenge dramas. And then after that's finished, the story still continued because they still went through the trouble of explaining some more confusing stuff and kept bringing up more plot twists like "Oh... this character actually got played by this character since the beginning. NO! This character actually got doubled played this character and then this character went in between and controlled everything behind the scenes", like okay..??? you didn't have to do that, the show was decent, but you just set it ablaze in the end.

For the characters. FL really amazed me, because she knew what's gonna happen in the future, she just hung on for her dear life and just took all the beating every time like "Girrllll you are so strong" and when I thought she was such a good person, all the revelations in the later episodes made her a bad person, but I was still on her side because she had to do it or else she will die. ML really got it coming for him, he was such a possessive and abusive husband, but they tried to redeem his character by showing a back story of his childhood revealing that he was just a victim of his past, like pffft! I get it, if I were to see that as a child I would be traumatized too, but you know what I would do? I would do the opposite and try to be a good person, and learn from the mistakes of my parents. Ruyue, I'm kinda clouded with a bias towards your actress Wang Xing Chen because I mainly watched this because of her, she had it coming as well for ruining FL's life and it was satisfying, I know she was a victim of the past as well, but that doesn't say she's a good character because we didn't have much character exploration with her side. Yibai, they didn't really show much of his side in the drama, which is why he didn't really stand out to me, not until in the end because of the plot twist.

So yeah, overall it's pretty decent, could've been better in my opinion, but I'll take it.

Read More

Was this review helpful to you?
Completed
Yes! Mr. Fashion
1 people found this review helpful
Jan 16, 2024
28 of 28 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 3.5
Story 3.0
Acting/Cast 2.5
Music 4.0
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers

Poor, Unbalanced, Confusing Writing

Since this is the only work left from Nana that I haven't watched, I really tried my best to finish it even though I'm so mentally checked out

I don't know what's up with the story because the way the events unfold feels like out of place, if not really fast-paced. I feel like the writer had lots of ideas, but didn't know how to tie them all together nicely and didn't even know how to build it up or leave hints throughout the show in order to show the viewers what to anticipate what the future events might be. The way they establish the beginning of the show was such a drag for me, it felt like it doesn't have any grand meaning or connection to the overall story because the first ten 10 episodes unpacked some major turns already, so I was like "eehhh... why is this happening already?" They could have replaced some of the fluffy fashion scenes with meaningful interactions with the characters to help build it up nicely if they were planning to progress the plot that fast in the first place. And then it tried to salvage the story in the 2nd half with the drama between ML and FL, and low key it kinda got me interested a little bit, but it's still wasn't enough.

The way they pull a twist feels like the writer didn't know where to take the story and maybe some big heads wanted to drag this drama, so they keep pulling plot twists that weren't even hinted at in the show like "Where did this come from?" and then would try to tie it by showing flashbacks or maybe some insignificant scene that a viewer wouldn't even catch, like "Oh its actually hinted but you just didn't notice" Of course I wouldn't because you did not highlight it. When ML got depressed, what's up with that? And i can't even take it seriously because the story and the characters don't take itself seriously, it felt like i was watching a Steven He Emotional Damage Parody Video. I don't have a chronic depression, but how the fuck did he got bedridden or paralyzed, like what?! Is that how it's supposed to be? Another Plot device that really annoyed me, is that when they need help or they want a person capable of something, magically one of the characters knows someone and would call them "blah blah can you help? he/she said okay", like huh?? I kinda understand it since ya'll are the big heads of the company and your families are influential, but in some sense, i don't get it, like how? how are you connected to this mysterious powerful person? and how tight are you that you can just casually call them and somehow they would say "okay"? but sometimes they would do it right when it comes to Leng Shan because she actually meets the person she's connected with and would suck up to them whenever she needs help.

When it comes to the characters, it feels like a gamble because sometimes they would act right, but then would fumble right away. The FL wasn't really as annoying as the comments make it out to be, like maybe, in the beginning, she's super annoying, especially when she says "Fighting" every time, I feel like I'm gonna hate that word just thinking about it, but her annoyingness actually got toned down as you go through the episodes and i kinda liked the development in that part, but in some parts because FL was still 16 in real life when this drama came out, it really shows in her acting. She's supposed to be an adult in this film, i don't know what age, did they even stated it in the show? Anyway, she doesn't know how to act like an adul. She is so childish for the most part and maybe sometimes would act like 18 or 19 and her styling also shows how young she is. It also creeps me out, like a red alarm would sound in the ear knowing she's a minor and her partner is 26, that's a 10 years of age gap, like maybe the hug and kiss on the forehead would be a pass, but when like there's an interaction that would really sound an alarm bell to me I'll be like "Woooaaahh! chill....". The ML tho on the other hand, really gives off jackson wang vibes, I don't know... maybe it's the hair and because this drama has fashion in it. He did a good job acting like a feminine fashionista. I like his playful acting, it lands really well when he does a joke or prank. I also like his chemistry with Wang Xing Ren, but in the later parts of the drama, it kinda gave BL vibes, so that kinda fell off for me a little bit.

The Side characters are okay, but i think they took up too much time, so i felt like they overshadowed the Leads. I really like Gao Ming, i kinda prefer him over ML, tho i wouldn't say it's because of the 2nd Lead Syndrome, it's just he's really a good character, and his dynamic and side plot with Angela was really cute, but they didn't really expand on it that much. Xue Zhen Ni really annoyed me whenever she's on the screen her jokes don't land really. It just leave a sour taste in my mouth. Victoria really amazed me. I feel like her actress really understands the assignment, from the way she walks, her body movement, and attitude screams fashion to me. Because there are a lot of side characters, like i said they took out most of the screen time and some of them were used for like 1 or 2 scenes, so many side characters are wasted.

Couldn't really say much about the music, cuz i feel like i was deaf in that aspect of the drama, but when Nana plays Cello tho... knowing what she does in real life.

So yeah, all in all... bad drama, it's very unbalanced with it comes to its core aspects and it doesn't even know what it's trying to be a times, wouldn't recommend this one, I'm just here for Nana.

Read More

Was this review helpful to you?
Completed
Sweet Home Season 2
1 people found this review helpful
Dec 23, 2023
8 of 8 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 7.0
This review may contain spoilers

Kinda Weak Season, but still Good

I watched it without much expectation. Since the director really wants to continue this series even though there hasn't been a sequel for the manhwa in years. This Season 2 and the upcoming Season 3 are going on their own path, even though the writers aren't involved going forward, i still have a little bit of hope since the director said he consulted with them, so he was told of the general idea with where the story is going and just played around with it.

The story picks up right away where season 1 left off and already, it's a jam-packed action but i noticed the CGI is still the same as Season 1 if not, sometimes worse than last season, but it is well done in scenes where Song Kang and Sang Wook are involved.

Back to the story... i was kinda confused at first because things started escalating but good thing they explained it as we move forward. The scale of the story has now expanded because our characters are now out in the wider world, so many characters got added to the story and because of that they really had to compromise with the screentime. I guess it's really tight in that aspect, so there's a different shift of focus in the characters in this season and then they killed most of the characters that we followed during s1 and it's kinda boring at times when you have to care for these new characters in the story and there's a lot of them as well and most of them died off really quick, but i couldn't care less since there wasn't much for me to care about, some of them are really well done, though they haven't really contributed that much to the story yet. This season was just a setup for what's probably gonna happen in s3 i guess... because nothing really much happened, but we're still given enough information about what's happening in the world of Sweet Home, but not enough for it to move forward.

Them killing off most of the characters from s1 was kinda useless to me because the characters they've added/replaced have similar personalities to the characters from s1, so what's the point?? and their deaths didn't even leave much impact on the mains except for one, but i'm not gonna tell. Speaking of mains, I do see some crumbs of romance build up that's going on here, though i doubt they would expand on it in the next season since it's not the main point of the story, but i would love to see if they would do it since it's a nice heart fluttering side plot to have in a world that's fucked up and full of monsters.

The acting as always is impeccable there is nothing much to tell, what do you want me to say? It's good, as koreans always do

Now this part is for those who've read 'Shotgun Boy' which is the prequel for Sweet Home, so it's gonna be spoilers. As someone who has read it, after watching this, I think there's no hope of adaptation for that manhwa in the future anymore. It's just my theory though because i noticed they took some aspects from 'Shotgun Boy' and added them here, the very obvious one is the girl who can turn anyone into a monster and then you have the lab as well, but props to them because the way they integrated it here was so smooth. If they ever adapt that manhwa, i doubt you'd be able to add much to the story, the only thing you're gonna bring to the table are more characters and another mc which is gonna put off some viewers.

Overall, this season was kinda weak for me and kinda fast paced, since there's a lot to unpack, plus you have a lot of new characters as well, but it's still good. Song Kang is sooo hot in here, like he got buffed, ugh!! DADDY?! Go Min Si is pretty as always and because of the new main that got introduced here, plus his character dynamic with her, i can kinda predict who's Go Min Si's next romance drama partner, they have a good chemistry xD

Read More

Was this review helpful to you?
Completed
The Longest Promise
1 people found this review helpful
Nov 27, 2023
40 of 40 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 9.5
Rewatch Value 7.0
This review may contain spoilers

A Very Pictureesque Fantasy Drama

This is the 2nd Fantasy cdrama that i've managed to finish, but also the 4th fantasy cdrama that i've looked into, and god! So far, this has the cleanest CGI. It's not perfect like the west does, but it's getting there.

What really blew me away in the beginning was the sets were very very beautiful, especially when they were in the mountains or like the illusionary places, it's very picturesque looking, like you could screenshot any scene that involved with those sets and I would legit print it and hang it on my wall, that's how good the sets are. They're probably using the latest tech, where you could film in the actual set and have the CGI set to move along with the camera. That's probably why it's very clean when the characters are in those places. Not only that, the lighting is also on point, it adds so much to the aesthetic of the backgrounds. When it comes to the magic powers, the CGI although, is not perfect, it's very jank at times, but it's still very clean. And you add the graceful fighting choreographies, like you wouldn't even mind the janky magic effects because the fighting scenes are very engrossing. One thing that disappoints me at times is that some of the fight scenes are very short, if not, sometimes it's very lacking, like it's being held back by the lack of talent to fully realize the vision or maybe the budget, but that's just a minor complaint in my opinion. One thing that felt scuffed in the CGI department is the creatures in this drama. For example, the divine bird is very jank, and in some scenes, it's not even HD. It gets pixelated at times. The cgi creatures are great, but it doesn't really blend in most of the time, aside from God of Dragon, like my god when he first showed up, it was great that i think most of the budget for the cgi creatures went into him. So yeah, there are janky moments in the CGI department, but again, it's very very clean for the most part. It doesn't deteriorate your viewing experience.

The story i think it's very slog in the beginning, like the first 10-15 or so episodes because they have to establish the characters and explain the magic system and the world in the drama, but once you get past that and make it to where episode 1 left off, that story will start picking up its pace and gets very good as you progress. Though i think aside from the romance aspect and the family politics that is going on, anything else wasn't really the focus in this series. And that's what sucks because even though i wasn't really into the politics, nor the family drama, i still wanted them to keep showing the boring parts just them talking and explaining everything about the world of this drama because it's interesting. But around the 2nd half, i gave up cuz the story is already so far that i doubt they would even bother explaining the intricacies. I think the story for me is at its best when it's just the romance or the dynamics between the mains, other than that is like a snooze fest, like i would sometimes bump up the play speed to 1.25 or 1.5, cuz again, for me they didn't really go all in on explaining the world that much so that's why i think i couldn't really care that much, aside from the romance aspect. And even though I find the romance as the best part of this show, it's not really perfect. I think in the beginning you would find it annoying, but because of the character developments and the series of challenges that went through, it got really good over time. I even find it really cute for the most part.

Now, the characters in this drama, i think they are all well-written. Each has their own goals and reasonings to keep pushing. As you spend more time with these characters, you get to understand why they are the characters the way they are. And i liked that, especially in the later parts when situations got complicated and the stakes were high. It shows that these characters have been put a lot of thought into. Even the interaction between these characters is such a delight, especially around the later parts after all the boring build-up you get to appreciate the characters when it is just silent and it's just them talking.

Alright, enough with praises. Now that i'm remembering it as i'm writing this review, i think the huoto tribe or that arc was such a filler for me, now that i'm thinking about it. like they only got a few episodes or screentime and then most of the higher ups killed themselves lmao xD Aside from zhu yan getting married off to the huotu prince and discovering the location of the Sea Emperor, for me, i think that part of the show didn't really leave such an impact on me. I think that is where i thought "Man! i really wanted them to expand on this tribe, because this is such a unique looking along with the crimson clan" but nope, that part felt flat for me.

The traveling in this drama is almost non existant or even the time passing because they wouldn't even spend that much time on the traveling scenes or bother showing the time passing, like couldn't they've at least put a caption 1 day later or 1 week later, like they are really strict on the screentime huh? You could have a character getting heavily injured that would take weeks or months of rest and then instantly cut to the next scene where he/she is already recovered without even telling the audience, like what?!?!

Around the later parts near the end, it started getting fast-paced, like okay there are only 4 episodes left... but they're still building up this ominous enemy that they've been hinting at since the beginning, so what are they gonna do? Then things started happening for the sake of convenience, but still props to them for at least putting up an effort for trying to explain shit in like few lines, for it to make sense.

And the show ended up with a bang, like they really went all in on that last episode, holy hell! Then landed its own two feet with a safe open ending. Watching this drama gave me hope that good fantasy cdrama does exist out there if you just keep looking. I'm glad my girl Ren Min got the FL role in this show, like i can't imagine any other actress playing Zhu Yan. At first, i see her as Ren Min, but slowly she started becoming one with the character that she was playing, so good job. I don't know if it's dubbed or not, but my girl has two voices here. I don't know why i didn't notice it immediately, but Zhu Yan was definitely not Ren Min's voice UNTIL, she appeared as yaoyi and heard her speak as a mature woman, like "Hellooo?!?!!! excuse?!?!! is this really Ren Min?!! Why does it sound so attractive?!?". So i went back to her other works and compared them and yep i think she's either using a different voice here like what zhao lusi did in 'Hidden Love' or it's dubbed.

So yeah, I would recommend this drama, if you can sit through the slow burn early part, then you'll be in for a ride.

Read More

Was this review helpful to you?