Musical without the music

I fell in love with Lee Bong Geun's voice when watching Six Flying Dragons (which I recommend, BTW), and started researching him. When I found out that he was cast in a movie about a travelling singer, I HAD TO watch it!
How huge my disappointment was when this fascinating, unique traditional singing was covered up with generic "film music" of the type you can hear in cheap productions from around the world. Why would you do that? If I watch a movie about traditional music, I want to hear traditional music, not some stock musac.
The travelling singer is performing in front of the crowds? You can barely hear his voice from beneath a western style orchestra playing a romantic tune. A girl is about to sing a song for a granny? No way, you cannot listen to that song a'cappella, they need to play some cringy strings as an accompaniment.
You hate traditional music so you make a movie about traditional music? That's just plain stupid. Playing background music while the character is singing is in itself quite weird, if you ask me. In case of a movie that was supposed to showcase that very singing, it's absurd.
I was let down and irritated. As I wanted to watch this movie because of music, I dropped it in the middle.

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Emotional roller-coster

I watched this show with my hubby. When the character we hated the most was dying, we both cried. Yes, that's what this show did to us. Captivating!
The way it portrays family relationships is moving, but careful, this is not a romance - at least not in the way one might expect it to be at the beginning. If you aren't interested in history and politics, this show might not be that interesting to you, because it shows lots of real events, including political struggle, travel, and war.
Acting is top notch, costumes and interior design is beautiful (I am not a specialist, so I don't know it this is historically accurate), fictional story is smartly intertwined into the texture of real events. If anyone can recommend more series like this to me, I would be grateful.

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Love in the Time of... COVID

A completely non-toxic BL. I know, this should be a given, but still isn't, so I guess it's worth emphasising. At first, the characters seem rather flat and predictable, maybe even shallow, but when we get to know them better, we discover their depth. Acting is great. It's a real pleasure to watch the characters' faces, how Cairo opens up and starts to smile, and how Gav shows something more that that charming playboy-smile - still remaining charming, of course. Pear is my personal favourite: I dream to have somebody like this around. A person with positivity, kind heart and a truthful word to share, when needed. The idea of hyper-realistic camera work, where we remain in the world of social-media all the time, together with the characters, who are in the lockdown, is not new, but it represents accurately the experience shared by people around the world during the pandemic. This show is heartwarming and brings sunshine to your day, regardless of the weather. Strongly recommended, if you want to improve your mood and get sentimental. <3

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Simply the Best

Zombie apocalypse in ancient Korea. Sounds absurd, right? Yet another, stupid zombie movie, right? No such thing! This drama has a well thought-out, smart plot - if not for the paranormal aspect, it would be totally plausible. Add to this great cast, interesting characters, who you really don't want to be eaten by the zombies, ;) power struggle, political schemes, and captivating cinematography... Well, I really cannot imagine a drama better than this one. Strongly recommended.

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What an adventure!

This is the first Chinese show that I have watched and since then it still remains my favourite. It is not only entertaining, but also educational: the characters depicted are historic figures and after watching their adventures, as presented in this partly fictitious show, you cannot stop yourself from learning more about their real lives. This series inspired me to find out more about Chinese culture and learn Mandarin. "Three Kingdoms" has it all: witty dialogues, loveable / hateable characters, political scheming, cruel warfare, brotherhood. OK, not much in terms of romance, but other shows tend to place romance in the focus, so it might be refreshing to see a show, which focuses on history and politics more.

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Toxic tale, cute cast

The way issues of homophobia, pedophilia, and sexual abuse are treated in this show is simply toxic. I have already seen toxic motives in BL, but this one tops them all... I've still watched the whole show, because ML is totally hot: he has a good looking face and knows how to act sexy. Watching cute boys make out is kinda the main point of BL and there are many squeee moments to please my fujoshi heart, so I probably should not complain? Nevertheless, I hope to see this actor in other shows/movies, with just as much cute content, but a little bit less toxic plot.

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Illogical plot and overwhelming cringe

The initial idea seemed brilliant. Fake it till you make it, right? I was really curious how they will present a transformation from a fake to a real relationship. I instantly liked the actors too. But the loopholes in the plot killed me. ML has the other guy's email address and writes to him... That he wants to meet up? Just that? Instead of describing his intentions, he causes a totally cringy misunderstanding. OK, he made a mistake. Instead of correcting that mistake and explaining the whole matter in another email message, he starts following the other guy, again, in a super cringy way. I like a comedy of errors, but these errors here were simply too easy to avoid. It's a pity, because the premise was interesting.

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