Started decent, but got worse as it goes on

I was click-baited into thinking that I was gonna be watching an action-crime show, but that wasn't the case at all...

The story started off decent for the first 4 episodes, but when they started expanding the world and introduced lots of new characters, it slowly started going down the drain. I mostly stay within romance right, but sometimes I watch other genres for a change. When I saw this drama, I was like "Ahh, it's Ren Min. She doesn't do romance that much. It's probably action so I'm gonna get hyped". And yeah, that's what it actually was in the beginning. They went on this stealing from the rich, bringing justification to the preservation of history, and then trying to get away with it to martial arts superpowers with politics. Then suddenly they'd added romance in the mix out of nowhere, where one of the leads suddenly said "I have feelings for this person" Like, did I miss an episode or anything? or wasn't I paying attention enough? Where along the way did you fall for him? Because there was no scene that elicited romance that was highlighted at all. But yeah whatever, I'm a romance fan, so why not?

The story could've been better if it was longer, and well fleshed out, and this where it could've also benefited the 40 episodes law. There were a lot of interesting ideas that they managed to show, but because it was so fast-paced they ended up being bland. They couldn't even be consistent with the idea of having superpowers because most of the time the characters would just use martial arts, even the clan heads where they could've easily shown the power ceiling for how strong these leaders are. Although the action was pretty cool, the integration of element effects with it is jarring.

I should've known from the beginning that it's gonna get worse and they were just trying to ease me in because once in a while, there's gonna be a scene where they could've used to have a meaningful quick conversation to flesh out the characters more, but they don't, It would be just silent or would straight up ignore the character itself. For example, I don't even know that sidekick of ML in the 2nd half. Why did he want to be a sidekick? What was he doing in that village? Is he affiliated with one of the five-element families? If yes, then which? I don't know. He's just there. I guess we're not finding out.

The characters are just straight bland because there was not much characterization at all. ML and 2nd ML had that potential. They're both great actors don't get me wrong, they could've been like Naruto x Sasuke in terms of tandem and development because they brought up some interesting parts to them, but it wasn't much of a strong impact. I think I was more interested in 2nd ML towards the end because it was so amazing to see him being an upholder of justice to becoming an enemy, then realizing he's on this wrong path and trying to correct it at the end. Ren Min as FL, I loved her exaggerated playful acting, I liked her character in the beginning, but there's so much mystery to it and then suddenly they pulled this disease bullshit that wasn't built up at all. She and ML are pretty funny together when they are on screen, their characters have funny dynamic, but they don't have chemistry at all. There were some romantic moments that could've sparked it, but I just couldn't feel it. I'm sorry. And the Japanese characters in this show weren't believable at all. It's so immersion-breaking that they're speaking fluent Chinese. They could've had them speak broken Japanese, as much as they hated it, or they could've had "Translators".

Overall, this a very fast-paced show with lots of plot holes. I wouldn't recommend watching it. I was just here because of Ren Min.

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Good first half, Flat second half, Main couple was actually okay

First off, Oh my god! Finally, a good TV series from Nana. Second, I thought I was gonna be put off by the Age gap, but seeing the characters and how they were written, it wasn't that bad and it kinda checks out actually.

The story was actually good, for the most part. In the beginning, I found it hilarious because of the crying gimmick, good thing they toned it down and the characters used it cleverly to their advantage as the story went on. I didn't really understand the point of the dreams that the ML was having. In the middle of watching this, I watched Dune 2 and they have that same gimmick as well, but what differentiates the two is that in Dune they actually used it to prepare for future events, in here it was just some kind of mumbo jumbo, and did not help in the bigger picture at all. The sideplot of FLs sister is such a car crash love story and I couldn't stand the domestic violence at times, but what comes after that was more interesting than our lead couple.

The mystery was decent. It was interesting. The stake is high for our FL, but I noticed that sometimes, solving each of the mysteries behind it all is smooth sailing for our leads. It would've been better to see them fail so hard. It kinda felt like they've just hit a fence, not a wall, and then next episode they'll be able to cross it.

The action was pretty cool. I love it. It was well choreographed, paired with good cinematography. I found it funny at first because I'm pretty sure I'm not watching Wuxia, but these characters are flying around when they fight, so It made me realize they are probably going for that style of exaggerated fights.

The romance was pretty interesting. It was slow at first and I don't know about you guys, but when it started sparking, I started grinning as well. I thought I was gonna be put off by the age gap of our leads, but watching the drama, it checks out actually because of the roles. Great job to the director because they did the romance pretty safely, knowing we have a big age gap to keep in mind, so I'd say the romance is as vanilla as you could get, but will still make you smile.

Now, I said that almost all of the story was good. I don't know if it's the same in the novel or not, but after the main story that you were introduced to in the beginning ended, the arc that comes after that feels like the people behind wanted it to keep going. Like it basically ended after the mystery of the collapsed canal concluded and our leads already fell for each other, so where are they taking the from thereon? they went and said, "Hey, there's actually someone even more powerful behind all this". I was fine with it if they managed to do it well, but for almost the entirety of that arc, everything was just too smooth sailing for our main characters. After the characters managed to learn the truth, they went on a few investigations to confirm it, but most of the time, they just kept theorizing who this big boss in the shadows might be and felt kinda bland. And then, of course, they introduced a Rival ML and FL because why not? The rival ML felt a little bit forced and annoying at first. The rival FL makes sense because we know in the first half that MLs mother is opposed to the relationship of our main couple, so it wouldn't be surprising to have one.

The characters. Well, let's start with our main couple. We know they have a big age gap and again, it checks out because of their roles. Even though their romance made me grin at times, I couldn't really get heavily invested because, in the back of my mind, I was on guard that these two were way apart in age, but they managed to form good chemistry you know and the dynamic of their characters are pretty funny. It's my first time watching Jeremy Tsui and I'd say he's a very good actor. I'm also planning on watching Legend of Chongzi because of the FL there and he is there too, so I'm looking forward to his performance. Nana, she's the reason why I'm watching this because I'm a fan. In comparison to all of her past TV series, I'd say this is the best work from her so far. In regards to her acting, Her acting here is far better than all of her past works but still needs more improvement. She's got the happy expression down, but the sad expression needs more work.

The 2nd couple was more interesting the all of the couples because they were written well and they got a good chemistry. 2nd FLs character is great, she's a great actress, I love her as a sister, she's so real when it comes to being protective of her sibling. 2nd ML is also great and a good actor. I was confused as to what his motivation might be in the beginning because he kept giving mixed signals. I loved how his friendship with ML developed, even when the world turned on him, I knew he was on his side.

The 3rd couple or more like the Rival ML and FL. It's funny how rival ML was so annoying because he kept pestering FL over some childhood marriage joke, but when she met rival FL, already they complimented each other and sparks started flying everywhere. Rival FL was at least far more understanding with our main couple and because of that he managed to make our rival ML wake up from his delusion and I loved that because his character developed afterwards.

The music didn't catch me at first, but as I kept hearing it more, I realized that it grew on me. And when a romance scene is about to come, I sometimes expect that they better play the main OST. I even cried at the end.

Overall, a good drama. The last arc kinda fumbled. Depending on your preference you'll either gonna like it or not. I'm torn about recommending this though, but if you're a fan of Nana, you'd better watch it because her acting has improved here.

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Great Concept, Poorly Executed

The idea of the story being a Mafia Game, everybody knows if you watch a lot of K-content. It was so great on paper, but if watch the show, there's so much that wasn't well explained and built up, leaving a lot of plot holes. It started fine, but you can tell right away that it's gonna be a mediocre show because they just went straight to it without easing us into what's about to come. And as you went on, it just kept dwindling, then crashed itself with the most tacky ending.

I don't know if the producer had more to show because there were some tidbits of backstory here and there, but it just wasn't delved deeper into at all, like can you at least explain how did that came about? and how would that impact the story? They could've cut down the unnecessary drama between the characters to make room for meaningful interaction and scenes. Instead, the characters were just busy being so emotional and blaming each other, just mindlessly voting because "I hate this person or that person" or "this person did that or this " without even trying to bring up a shred of conclusive evidence, NOT UNTIL episode 4, it took them four episodes!!! I don't know how many days have passed in the game, just to realize "You know? Maybe we should try and figure out who the mafias are". The bullies also realized that, so they tortured someone till they admitted they were the mafia and the bully was like "Aha! told you my hunch was right!" No! you just picked a random nerd in your list and got lucky, but what if that guy was innocent? Then you'd be basically torturing an innocent person to death. I get that you'd be emotional in that situation because I for sure would be traumatized in that situation and they are high schoolers as well, but I wouldn't just wimp around all the time knowing the killers are busy making moves all the time trying to get ahead of us.

One thing that I hate in stories right, especially in mystery and you see it a lot in the bad ones, is that whenever they show the plot twist, but in the form of a back story and show it first sometimes before the actual twist. OH MY GOD! I hate that so much and it's so prevalent here. STOP IT! The writers must have thought that it was a good sequence, Yes, it's a good "Oh shit!" moment, but it doesn't make things interesting at all if you just hand it out to us without any merit. I want the characters to actually figure it out themselves and have them reveal it to us. The reveal of the final mafia was so obvious to me because it's always gonna be the one that's closest to you, like the saying "The most dangerous place is the Safest place" so all this time I was just waiting when she's gonna come out, but I would like to be proven wrong because clearly she and FL had a good bond, but nope! and again they revealed her plot twist through a backstory first before she could even say it herself... The only time they did it right was probably when the Police decided to reveal itself in front of everyone. That's when I was genuinely shocked by the twist.

The characters here have no characterization, just some generic stereotypes that have no depth to them at all. The acting is super great. All the actors did very well, I'll give them that, but their characters are so empty that I couldn't get attached to any of them. I was genuinely surprised that for a Death Game show there's no "The Smart One" archetype. FL has that potential because she's perceptive. They could've used her for that and then made her grow to be that archetype, but they didn't. ML also has that potential since he's observative, so he and FL could've been a great combination, but they didn't, so it's just a waste of potential characters that could've made them stand out in the show. Instead, they were busy being annoying. The couple clearly has a strong presence within the characters, but I don't know why they're not taking advantage of it. ML is a risk taker also, so I don't know why he stopped taking risks after being blamed as the mafia for the first 2 and just wimps around.

It's a shame how this drama did turn out because I really liked the Concept and Idea of everything, but it just wasn't executed properly. To be fair, It was so engaging that it made me want to finish it still till the end.

Overall, good concept and idea, but it just wasn't executed properly. It had a big potential, but they just wasted it. I don't recommend it and won't be rewatching it for sure.

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What a Fun Web Drama

The story for what I thought would be forgettable, especially for a short-form drama, was actually fun. I didn't have that many expectations since I just came here for FL because this is the shortest drama I saw from her to finish. Immediately I was sold at the end of episode 1 on how uniquely fun it was. There are times in my brain when I would try to logically analyze everything because it's one of those types of story that is heavily reliant on a plot device that's not explained at all and it's just there to create a story. I would be like "No! Shut up brain! I do not want to dig deep into things or else my experience will be ruined". I was surprised for the investors that they didn't take advantage of this because if you tell me that this drama is an advertisement for a Grocery store I wouldn't be surprised about it. This was such a gold mine for product placements and it wouldn't be annoying to look at since it's part of the story. In the end, they tried to explain the intricacies of the plot device, though I don't think they needed to, since the story was already fine without it being explained. It just unveiled the curtain behind the magic which was unnecessary in my opinion.

The characters... well, it's mostly about the main couple. They're pretty dynamic as the story goes on. I like their chemistry and the kissing scenes made me squeal every time for how good the usage was. FL is so lucky to have this in her portfolio as a young actress because her character requires a lot of faces and she managed to show the different sides of her. Even though she has that cutesy type of face, I prefer her serious side. I think I'm a fan now. I don't know about her first drama, but I would recommend this as a starter drama if you're getting into her. She did great here. For ML, he's fine. I liked how they balanced his character. He started strong, but when they revealed his plot twist, it kinda ruined it for me a little. It made sense for his character, but lacking in terms of acting. Overall he's good and a cutie as well.

Another minor critique is that the dubbing audio is pretty scuffed at times, but it didn't really deteriorate my watching experience.

So yeah, overall, a fun short drama. I highly recommend it. There's a 2 hours version of it where they stitched all the episodes to make it easy, so give it a watch.

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The story is about a mom slowly getting mentally derailed because she is physically & mentally drained as she just gave birth, so it's understandable. But the way they explained her hallucinations made it seem "Oh! This was just like the parasite (2019) all along, but horror". They could've just left it open-ended to make it seem like she was actually hallucinating because of her unstable mind.

The horror was okay. There was a decent number of jump scares and there was only one that fazed me because of the fast cut, like I twitch my head back a little. I watched this in 2x by the way.

The acting is good, but it could've been better, like as the mom was slowly getting cuckoo in the head they could've added some makeup to her face to show that she's really getting depressed.

The Music was okay. It did its job to elevate the horror vibes.

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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.

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trashy/throwaway film

I stumbled upon this randomly and from the poster alone, I already know that it's going to be a throwaway film. Still, I decided to give it a watch since I'm bored.

The story is pretty much bog-standard. I love watching trashy Films because I want to know what bad and good media are. The Fighting scenes are good, paired with good camera directing. Whoever the Art Director and Choreographer in this film are, props to them since I can see the vision that they want to show. It amazed me because my expectations going into this film were so low that it shocked me. It came out of nowhere.

The characters are entertaining. They didn't make me laugh, but I could see someone laughing at the things that they were doing. Both the FL and Antagonist FL stood out to me because of their emotional scenes. I felt the emotion. The ML, I wouldn't say I'm a fan, but I know him from 'Lighter & Princess' so that's a plus because I know he can do comedy. The Taoist is obviously written to be quirky. He's entertaining, loved his fighting scenes.

Overall, a trashy/throwaway film. If you're looking for a good-written story, then this is not for you. You have to turn your brain off, if you want to give this a watch or be drunk I guess. Set your expectations very low then you will find this entertaining.

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I Was Enjoying it, Until I Wasn't

Right off the bat, this drama felt mid-sized budget. I don't know, I'm not an expert, but it just kinda of gives that vibe.

Story for the first 10 episodes, I was genuinely enjoying it, BUT I did notice from time to time that there are some sketchy things in the writing that would feel very off to me. For example, its pacing is weird sometimes, and the way the dialogue exchanges is sometimes a bit off, though it wasn't deteriorating my enjoyment. It's just a minor thing that's there. Then as you go deep into the series, those small cracks that I noticed would slowly creep in and would start getting bigger and worse as you approach the ending.

The story beats feels so disjointed, there were a lot of ass-pullings everywhere, but it somehow still made sense, if you can puzzle it all together. I feel like the writer or producer, whoever is in charge in that department, must've had good(or cliche) ideas and chucked it all in without considering how to make it all flow well. Also, I feel like this drama, even though I'm thankful that it's just 24 episodes, could've benefited from the 30-40 episode runtime. You see, there are not that many fluffy scenes, they just get on with it with whatever they want to show and a lot was built up, but couldn't explore it all because of the time constraint (and maybe budget as well?). Although kudos to them, because even though it had flaws, it was still entertaining enough for me to finish it.

As for the Characters, I think they are the hard carry in this drama. Without them, I would've dropped this mid-way. The characters are not perfectly written, but they are still dynamically funny. I loved the bantering. The chemistry of the couples is good. I must say, I think the 2nd couple stood out to me, though their beginning was such a mess, the writing of their relationship gets better as the story goes on. The first couple was all right, they were cute but felt vanilla. Since they've built it up that there were seven families in the alliance, but because of the time constraint they couldn't explore them all one by one.

I thought "Is it just me?" but I looked at the comments mid-series even when I was trying my hardest not to look at it because I'm still not finished with the drama, but yeah... it wasn't only me.

Overall, it was a decent drama. You could give this a watch, but just look at it from an entertainment standpoint and you'll enjoy it, but if you use too many brain cells, then you're probably gonna end up hating it.

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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.

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Full Package Experience of a Young Boy

Lemme just say If not for Kang Hyewon, I would've dropped this halfway, not because the drama was bad, but because the bullying really went even harder in the second half, and I couldn't stomach it.

The story was a hell of a ride. I'd say it's a full-package experience of what any boy would experience during his high school days. I was about to say minus the exaggerated bullying and gang shit, but if I were to compare it here in my country, I'd say it's pretty similar or even worse, cuz you've got some who actually bring icepicks or knives in school.

Anyway, unless you were an outcast or loner then you probably won't be able to relate with anything that was presented here.

My minor critique of the story is that although it's very relatable, as it was directed in a not-very serious & comedic way, it didn't really hit harder on me. I can kinda see why it was presented as it is because it could be something you could look back on and say "Ahh, yes!! I went through all these things back in high school"

The Characters, I think are all good. They have a lot of characters here because of the gang aspect, but no one is wasted. Everybody did their part. Seeing Siwan playing a High school boy character was kinda "???" like let's be honest here, he looks young, a great actor, a top-tier one at that, and very versatile as well, but he's not young-looking enough to play a high school boy. However, as you went on, you could tell he melded with his characters like as if you were actually looking at a high school boy. My opinion is also the same with FL. She and Siwan got a good chemistry going, and their relationship dynamic is so funny. Kang Hyewon is the sole reason why I watched this drama because I'm a wiz*one myself. She's great here, hearing her curse a lot felt so weird hahaha her acting, yet improved again. She's almost there, I think her sad acting just needs a little polishing, and then she's good to go. For 2nd ML, mind you he's almost absent for almost half of the show, but when he came back, he was like nerfed af, it kinda makes sense because he just had an accident. I thought with all the things going on with him, he would get the character development later on, but I think the writer went "Nope!" and just stuck with his villain character till the end. His actor is also so, so good at pulling the bad guy role, like my god!

OST, although I'm not the type who listens to songs from that generation, I can still appreciate it, especially if it's a good one.

Overall, a good drama. Even though I couldn't stomach the bullying, I would still recommend this. I think I see the appeal of dramas about gangs because of this one, it was kinda hype you know.

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Good Start, but Fell off Slowly

I really didn't have any expectations when I went into this drama, all I know is that my sister watched this because the ML is an NCT Member.

The story, was unique enough for me to get hooked in, like from the way they set everything from the first episode in order to reel you in. It had a good start, but as I kept going, I slowly wasn't really feeling it. I kept thinking about it, it's probably because I don't know where the story is going like, I know this is a romance drama so at least give me something to get invested in for me to keep watching and thankfully that's what the 2nd FLs side-plot managed to fulfill. I think I liked the 2nd half more because of how things got complicated and developed. The way the drama ended was okay.

Characters, honestly for ML I was surprised. I think we all know MV acting is vastly different from drama acting. His acting at the beginning was decent, but as I kept going, whenever he was on screen his acting stood out because it kept getting better and better. For his character, it was good, though I don't remember him getting the growth he deserved because he's dependent on FL. For FL, even though I don't like her for ML, I loved the way her character progressed throughout the drama. I didn't really feel the chemistry with Her and ML, though I must say she's pretty and hot. 2nd FL, I don't know if I ever felt this 2nd FL syndrome before, but I prefer her over the 1st, her side-plot is so good and her character is pretty dynamic because you'll go from liking and rooting for her to hating her. Can I say she's also pretty and cute as well? I think I might check out her other dramas, cuz she made an impression on me a lot. The last ML in the last few episodes is pretty good too, I feel sorry for him, I like his character.

The OST, I don't really remember much sorry xD, I guess it's good???

Overall, it is a decent drama. I don't recommend it though, but if you're an NCTzen please watch this for Doyoung. His acting is so good. If you're not, then I hope you'll find something that will make you stick till the end, it's only 10 episodes anyway.

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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.

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Dumpster Fire

I'm actually afraid to make this review because, it might just be my ignorance towards Thai Dramas. This is my 1st Thai Series, but 4th in terms of media, so it might just be the nuance or the cultural difference that I'm not getting, but I'll do it anyway. I'll be the black sheep for this drama.

The story is like a dumpster fire. It's so wacky and garbage. It has bad writing, full of cliche plot points, shameless product placements, and is also fast-paced. I say bad writing, but there are some parts where the writer managed to hit all the points that it needs to hit story wise. It has a lot of side plots as well, like A LOT that doesn't even contribute to the main story. I appreciate the topics some of the side plots tackled, like the LGBT and family Issues regarding chasing your dreams, but for me, it was like forcing something that was not the main thing of the show. I guess it's because some of them didn't have any effect on the Main Couple as well, that's why it felt like a distraction to me. You could've either cut it down or made the runtime longer. I didn't know that you could have a Music drama, that has politics in it, it's only a little bit, but you get the point I'm trying to make. I also couldn't understand some of the character's actions or decisions like I get this is a drama, but come on... at least make it convincing. It is so bad. I say fast-paced, it's because this drama has a lot to unpack, but they had to fit it all into 10 Episodes only.

The Characters, I only came here because of the Main Actress, she's a great actress, but that alone wasn't enough. I almost dropped this show, but what kept me going was the wacky dynamic between these characters after episode 4. I'm not even watching this because of the romance aspect, but purely for shits and giggles. I couldn't really feel any of the characters, but Chalarm though... he was annoying, but because of his dynamic with ML and how it evolved later on, that I appreciate, though it kinda gave off BL vibes, which is fine because that means they got good chemistry going on. And I love how the writer stood firm and went above 100 with these characters, great job on that. Like Chalarm as an example, again he was annoying and they explored all the avenues that he could do to make him a hateable character and in the end, he realized, then he changed. So I guess you could say, he was the one that stood out to me.

The music in this drama amazed me, not because it's good, but because you can tell they got the budget or I don't know, maybe music production in Thailand is not cheap because they had a lot of singing segments here and that's also one of the annoying things. I know it's a music drama, but they got a lot of random ass singing scenes that don't even connect. I already get how the character felt, you don't have to double it down, by having him dance and sing, it's sooo random. The bgm and sfx are soo exaggerated as well, I laugh every time a character makes an expression and you have this super exaggerated sound in the background, I think the only thing left is the on-the-top editing and you have those Indian edits that you see online.

Overall, I like how it ended and how it was resolved. I think despite being a dumpster fire it somehow managed to land its own two feet at the end. How I ended up in this show is that I saw a reel of FL and I was like "Ohh... She's Pretty!" Then I found out she's an actress.

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Great First 10 Episodes, but fell off after

I guess to compare, it's basically squid game but a watered-down version. No, I think it would be more similar to Alice in Borderland.

The story at the beginning was really, really good. It's hype, it's intense, and the stakes are high. But after you get past episode 10, that's where it goes downhill. I'm not the type who reads comments when I'm currently watching the show, just to avoid poisoning my own judgment and enjoyment of the media, but when I was still probably in the first 5 episodes, I couldn't help but read a few just to see what's up because I'm liking it! It had a strong start! And some people said, "Ohh, fell off in 2nd half, fell off after the 3rd death game," and yeah, I can kinda see why. I didn't fall off after episode 10 like other people. I fell off around 17-18, and that's when I started watching this show at 2x speed just so I could move on to the next show.

Here's why: I think the main problem is that the writer has overwritten the side characters too much. I get that they want to make the viewers get invested with the side characters too, and it worked, but they did too much, to the point that it made the show draggy. The writers know that, of course, ML and FL are going to stand out; they're strong and smart, people are gonna like them, but they didn't want them to be the only main stars of the show; they didn't want them to overshadow the others. So to offset that, they tried to give more screentime to the side characters by giving them a lot of exploration, but I didn't like it sometimes, especially when it comes to 'Zhang Tian Qiang' This guy is introduced clearly to be the asshole of the show, but they showed some vulnerable moments of him too. At first, I liked it because it gave balance to his character, but when they kept repeating it over and over, is where it starts to get annoying. Like we barely got any exploration for ML; we did, but personally, I feel like that was just the tip of the iceberg. I had a lot of curiosity towards him. With FL it was fine since we got some, but it got confusing a little bit because of the twists and turns. I can also see why the romance aspect got in the way of the show; at first, I liked the subtleness of it, and I wished for it to develop even further, but when it did become obvious, I don't know... there's just something about it that made me feel like "Naaah... can we just go back to making it open for interpretation?"

The games in this show were good; they gave each character a chance to shine and show their strengths. The CGI was alright, nothing to complain about, but I couldn't wrap my head around that dungeon space that they've introduced, where the people who died in-game are just trapped there and can still live normally like in real life. Like "Yeah sure, while your real-life body is barely living off of dextrose." And I feel like there could've been other sci-fi ways to realize the vision for that part. I don't know if it's culturally rooted or not, but I liked the 2nd game, where they listen to a song and guess which symbol they're gonna insert through the door. And I don't know about you guys, but I was so annoyed that they kept being mysterious about how these people were entering a VR game without a helmet (I'm so dumb!!! That's why it's a mystery!!). But when they did explain it, I was still dissatisfied because the one thing that made me question it was, how did these people not feel the sting when the chip was injected into their head? Because it was revealed that it was injected in real time when they were testing out the helmet. So you're telling me, you can feel the mosquito biting into you, but you can't feel a chip being injected deep into your brain? That sounds like crap.

As for the characters, since I've said my piece regarding the side characters being overwritten, no one really stood out to me like he/she is my favorite character, so I'm just gonna try to comment on each one.

For FL, it's more about her actress Sun Qian, and probably an unpopular opinion, but this is what I've been meaning for her. I've watched 3 works of hers at this point with 'All These Years' and 'A Robot in the Orange Orchard' being the others. From what I can gather, I think her strength lies in characters where she's not required to act cutesy. Now, I still need to watch her other cutesy character dramas to confirm it, but that's how I feel currently. She's rocking this tomboy concept by the way.

For ML, This is my first drama of him, and I love it when he speaks very low, ghaaad!! I can feel it deep in my eardrums, and he's a great actor. If Sun Qian and Wei Zhe Ming get paired again, I hope it's a romance drama because I liked the spark of chemistry that I felt from them.

For Yang Ba Wan, my ghad! I hate him so much; he's such a cringe character. He's the type of person who would get bullied a lot in real life for being such a dork and cringe, but because of his development throughout the show, he's become somewhat okay, like whatever.

Nan Xiao Qing, I think she's okay, but I didn't liked her romantic development with Bawan. I was like "No, No, No! I do not approve this relationship!" But they have a good dynamic together later on. As for the actress Rachel Wang, I was amazed by her look. At first, I was shocked, but I think she rocked it.

Zhang Tian Qiang, bro, it would've been fine for me after the scene of you caring for your bros who are in a coma, but after it kept repeating like it became annoying to me because they would show a scene, then he would fumble the next episode. And you pair him with Bawan, It's like a match made in heaven of Annoying and Cringe. I can also feel his actor being 200% into this character.

Qing You, girl, I feel what it's like when your bff is being stolen by other people, but there was something about it to me that didn't look smooth as it was being built up.

For the rest, they are all okay. I laughed when the CEO antagonist chased after FL after some sad family drama happened to her and just casually asked "Please help us finish this death game project." like what????... Yeah, sure Mr. CEO even though it will cost us our lives. lmao.

Overall, it's alright. started strong, but slowly dwindled because of the over-written side characters. This could've been shorter if you cut all the draggy scenes. I wouldn't recommend it personally.

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Very Disney esque

I wouldn't say I liked it, but I wouldn't say I hated it also. It's just "eehh... it's aight" because I rarely watch Disney-esque movies anymore unless I'm forced by my sister or cousin.

The story was fine, but they really took their time on the childhood part, I was like "They are carefully setting up the story, huh?" it's not like fast-paced random flashes of scenes and then time skip to teenager. Once you get past that, it'll start rolling, but then again, once it got to the witch part, they kinda got stuck, In my opinion, the writer kinda overwritten that part, because they spent so much time in there, by the time that finished, the ML was like "Oh yeah, I forgot what my true goal was" and then resumed rolling the story. To be fair it kinda helped with ML's growth, but again that part was just too long for me because by the time we got to FL, she barely had any screentime for exploration, It was just like *snap* *snap* *snap* things started happening.

As for the characters, I don't know... no one really stood out to me, but they are all funny, I'll give them that. I guess, just to pick someone, probably the most memorable would be 'Yu yu' because of the things that she kept doing in order to satisfy her own desires, it looked horrible on paper, but they came out as funny moments on the movie, and to be honest, I was just here because of her actress 'Zhou Ye'. ML, 2nd FL, and the Witch had good dynamic; as for ML and FL, I didn't really feel the chemistry between them. That child actor for ML at the beginning was good despite his age. I was amazed.

The acting. I didn't really notice it until I got in deep, but it felt like I was watching a theatrical play, add some singing scenes, and then you got a western-like fairy tale movie. Like I said, this film is like Disney-esque. When I realized it, I was like "Yeah, I'm noticing it now, it feels like they are acting like they are in a theater" Now, I'm not implying that as bad, but it just felt like a change of pace for me.

So yeah... overall, it's aight. I would probably enjoy this when I was still into fairytale stuff.

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