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amrita828

Italy

amrita828

Italy
Dropped 22/36
Unchained Love
25 people found this review helpful
Jan 20, 2023
22 of 36 episodes seen
Dropped 9
Overall 3.0
Story 4.0
Acting/Cast 6.5
Music 1.0
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers

It is a truth universally acknowledged...

... that a single man in possession of a good plan, must give it up for a woman. *

As many others, I was fooled by the trailer and entered this with more than a few expectations. The material they had was original, intriguing, dark and thought-provoking, so how they managed to turn it into this mushy botch is beyond me.

First letdown: the tone. Episode one introduces the killing of dozens of concubines, the cold poisoning of a consort, a handsome eunuch who has clearly been the object of repeated and unwanted attentions of an older and greedy woman, ministers corruption and a good for nothing prospective emperor. The heroine is saved from a tragic fate and from then on we suddenly get a comedy that is laughable instead of being funny. The leads have both gone through hell? I want to see it on screen, and feel it! I don’t want to laugh two minutes after a poor kid is killed, or shallowly gloss over the main lead’s sense of guilt.

Second: the characters. We have a young eunuch who’s spent the last 6 years “carefully” planning revenge on his dead brother. The quotation marks are a must, because nothing of this plan is shown to the viewer: we know it because it is written in the synopsis. How he gained so much power at court is left to our imagination. He's known to be cold and unforgiving, but again, we're told rather than shown. Xiao Duo is given no real background outside the drama summary.
A narrative device? You wish! It takes a solid and nuanced script to make the viewer understand a character outside the few lines he’s given. It would have been if the character had behaved consistently with the premises, but as soon as the heroine enters the scene, Xiao Duo turns into a schmaltzy sentimental lamb and by the middle of the show the cunning revenge planner is still nowhere to be seen. Instead, we have him reading Mills & Boons, daydreaming of kites and butterflies, getting jealous over a paper lamp and generally making doe eyes at the female lead for no better reason than her being the female lead. Worst of all, he is already smitten in love by episode… 4? The revenge plan? Pft, who cares when we can have romance?

Meanwhile, Bu Yinlou (pronounced Boo In Law) is a supposedly clever woman whose mission in life is, by her own admission, be free to do nothing but lay around and play cards. Wow, I’m impressed. She’s witty all right, so much so that she turns every conversation into an attempt at cracking a joke. Her quick thinking is emoted on screen by her eyes constantly roaming around the room, moving south north east and west without ever resting anywhere, so that we intelligent viewers are made to understand that she is indeed quick thinking. She basically is an improviser, who nevertheless relies a little too much and too often on Xiao Duo’s connection and power to make her improvisation a really admirable or endearing trait.

The only character who possesses some substance and a narrative arc is the emperor, whose transformation from an innocuous court pariah to an insane tyrant is as believable as it is disquieting. The fact that he sits on the throne thanks to Xiao Duo’s cunning plan (?) would be ironic, if this script knew the meaning of irony.

Third: the chemistry. Oh, I’m fully aware of the hatred I’m going to get. Not that I care. As I said, the drama very quickly became a rom-com. If it has to be so, than I want comedy – but I’ve already said I didn’t even smile – and I want romance: intense, passionate, dreamy romance. Instead, because he falls in love for no good reason and her attitude towards him fluctuates from teasing to… well…. quick thinking how to be free to do nothing, their chemistry was that of two friends, or two siblings strolling around eating or stripping trees in bloom. The idea of them making out was kind of embarrassing to me. Awkward, even. Probably I should thank the crazy editors or the incomprehensible censure for cutting many intimate scenes. Their dialogues are totally devoid of subtlety and for the most part as shallow as a mud pool.
Also, the characters’ age. She’s older and it shows. This is normally no problem at all for me, but the script takes an inane amount of devices to let us believe that she’s younger! She calls that prince who looks like a 16-year-old “senior” and he insists she’s his “junior”. If it looks like a noona romance, why not sell it as such? Xiao Duo is called “godfather” by his clearly older eunuch attendant. Now, why would the translators come up with such a term? Did Xiao Duo hold his attendant’s head while this last was, ehm, baptized? Insert shudder. Did they go to the mattresses in the past? Another shudder.

And finally, we come to the execution of this plot. Tons of cuts, flashbacks of scenes we never saw before, unfunny jokes, a music – the music! I think I’ve heard that gling gling gingle before in an episode of Super Mario Bros – that announced the nth shift of tone every single time I thought and hoped we could linger on a serious matter, a gazillion convenient scenes with people talking with their minds or falling into tumultuous water only to wake up side by side on the river bank dry cleaned and ironed, with – oh, see, a hut! A wooden boat that darts on the water at the speed of a power cruiser, Xiao Duo suddenly fighting like Rurouni Kenshin and flying around in wuxia style, Yinlou still rolling her eyes around or faking a bravado with no apparent reason. This show is to good drama writing what McDonalds is to fine dining.

I couldn’t. Really. And I tried, for the sake of Wang He Di – who, let’s be honest, is the reason why we were and are all on this page. But a smouldering hot guy can’t stop a train from derailing; in fact, he didn’t. I honestly think he wasn’t that convinced by this character either. And while I found his costumes and make-up to glamorize his appearance for the most parts, sometimes he looked a little too much like a Jean Paul Gaultier’s mannequin – see his voile night gown for a reference. Here is hope he chooses better projects in the future, dramas or films where he can shine for his talent rather than his looks.

I know reviews should be written after watching the entire thing, but there’s only so much my neurons could take. But then again, many of the 10s are also given looooong before the drama is over.


*My apology to Jane Austen for quoting her in such a context. No comparison was ever intended.

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Completed
Love Like the Galaxy: Part 2
29 people found this review helpful
Dec 8, 2022
29 of 29 episodes seen
Completed 13
Overall 4.5
Story 5.5
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers

Ugh

After plumbing the depths of my brain in search of a suitable word to express my “enjoyment” – or lack thereof – of this drama, ugh is all I could come up with.
Now, before I start my very long rant, a clarification is needed: this is about the second part of the drama, that is from episode 28 to 56. I thought the first was lovely and captivating, so full of promises it made the wreck that followed so much more painful to endure.

Truth be told, a few hints of puzzling directing and editing extravaganzas were given away in the earlier episodes: perhaps I should have doubted my choice when, 5 minutes into the very first episode, our dark hero is given a cloak to wear, he puts it on with whooshing grandeur, only to mount his horse the next second without it! It gave me such a delicious Doctor Strange vibe, with a flying cloak coming and going at its own accord.
Or I should have sensed looming trouble by the 5th time our hero – yes, he again – stood there like a war totem staring in the distance with fixed gaze. Please do not go micro-expressions on me: when something moved, it was clearly from the very natural and irrepressible need of the actor to blink, now and then.

That Ling Bu Yi was in fact a Marvel character under Han dynasty disguise, became more and more evident as the show progressed, what with slow motion sequences of him swirling Niao Niao around (but still staring in the distance) or appearing out of thin air with black guards in tow to save the day and the girl, not to mention surviving the most improbable wounds/falls/cataclysm etc. His acting improves in later episodes, as though he really started to feel his character, instead of just acting it which, as I’ll mention later, didn’t help the mess this plot became.

But, as I said, the story was still to unfold and held lots of promises. Then Part 2 came.
Another reviewer here said perhaps they employed 2 teams for this script and its mise-en-scène, and I second this theory. The A-team was responsible for Part 1 and a few scenes of 2 but then went on a holiday, on strike or sick-leave and left everything else in the hands of a trainee who didn’t know what to do with it.

Let’s address the elephant in the room first: Niao Niao.
We spent 27 episodes learning that this poor girl has been abandoned at birth in the unfriendly arms of the silliest grandmother ever created and an avid aunt. She had to fend for herself all her 15 years of age and grew up to be unpolished but independent, cunning and extremely intelligent. So much so, that when we are repeatedly introduced with other daughters, all of them born and raised the “proper way” and all of them, invariably, bitchy – with two lonely exceptions – I couldn’t help but deduce that if you want a child to grow up well, you need to abandon her, neglect her, starve her and slap her. The authors spent so much energy at creating a galaxy of female villains, young and old, that any analysis on the family dynamics that made Part 1 so intriguing flew out of the window. Was it a way to make Niao Niao shine by contrast? If so, shame on the author, for that’s a dirty trick indeed.

At first she is the epitome of an emancipated and courageous free-thinker, which gives out the false impression this drama were a celebration of female spirit; alas, there are so many quacking, quarrelling, cruel and jealous women around her that she ends up being the odd one out, hence defeating the object. To make matters worse, Shao Sheng herself slowly grows to become irritating and eventually insufferable.
When we finally come to Niao Niao realizing she wants to marry Doctor Strange… sorry, I mean Ling Bu Yi, I did ask myself why. Why? Trumpets…. Because he saved her several times! We know it because her “epiphany” consists on a series of flashbacks all involving him swooping her in his arms like the macho he is to prevent her from being hurt or killed. And yet she clearly and repeatedly stated she didn’t want to be treated like a damsel in distress. We all know he fell in love at first… hand, but I honestly still don’t know why and when Niao Niao fell in love with him. If her motivation were escaping her mother’s overbearing disapproval, then she chose the wrong environment to move to, something her mother and even Yuan Shen tried repeatedly to make her understand, of course to no avail.

Possibly realizing the direction the show was (not) taking, the authors saw it fit to morph Miao Miao (no typo) into the most annoying know-it-all busybody in imperial China. I spent all the early to middle part of this Part 2 expecting her to pop up at every imperial council, palace banquet, chamber, garden gathering, private conversation to speak her mind on the subject and endlessly preach: and I was never disappointed, cause so she did! To further complicate my personal sense of propriety, nobody in the whole imperial court had anything to object to whatever she did or said – except of course the villains, whose sole scope of existence is to annoy Shao Shang and, by default, Super Ling. We know nothing of these villains’ story or upbringing, for all we know they too went through some sort of trauma, the same we are supposed to use to justify our main leads shortcomings. This dichotomy in treatment permeates the whole drama, depriving it of logic and ethic.

The whole palace part was a snoring fest for me, because at that point the format was repetitive and predictable. I am well aware this is fiction, but the idea that an Emperor of China spends all his waking hours, and some sleep I suppose, playing paranymph to his beloved Zisheng is ludicrous. Is he a nice character? No doubt, but isn’t he supposed to also lead a country in his free time? Doesn’t he have other children? Furthermore, everything about his grand schemes of having Shao Shang and Bu Yi “find each other” are comical, rendering the few heart-wrenching scenes bizarre and filled with shall I laugh or cry dilemma. He basically ruins the party by being the party’s buffoon.

And what happened to the pace? I distinctly remember often having a hard time following the subs in part one, so fast they were. Once in the Palace, dialogues became sooooo slow, at times they uttered one word a minute. The whole Empress arc was kind of painful to watch and tedious to read, and I breathed in relief whenever the Consort come into the picture. My watching became a series of: “here we go again!”, “let’s ff this”, “please come to the point”, “you already said that” and, of course, “ugh”.

The love story is the one which paid the highest price in all this, because it too became repetitive, lacklustre and now and then saccharine. How many times can we have these two standing there gazing in each other’s eyes? How many combinations of words can be used to say the same thing?
him - Trust me, I don’t want to control you
her – Don’t patronize me. I am who I am
me – Give me my 40+ hours back
It was incredibly anti-climactic from some beautiful scenes they gifted us with in Part 1. They had a deeper chemistry when they were separated than when they were together, like two positive poles that repel one another. Even their touches, kisses included, looked forced.

Then, suddenly the drama takes a U-turn and becomes gory, melo-tragic, messed up and slightly disturbing. Everyone talks about death, litres of blood are shed and the moral compass becomes so blurred I couldn’t empathize with any of the character. In fact, I started loathing them, mostly our main leads, who at this point I’ll call Brangelina, or Mr and Mrs Smith. “Let’s go save the galaxy, my love, but before that let us bite our arms and do some amusing slaying, just as long as we do it together!” Ling Bu Yi shows his true colours, and they aren’t the shades I like at all. It didn’t help that we have Miao Miao go from “I need no man” to “I can’t live without this man” passing by “You’re all bitches because you don’t respect your men” and other equally contradictory and preposterous statements.

The acting changed too in this Part 2. I’ve already mentioned Leo Wu’s improvement; ironically, his better acting came in pair with Zhao Lu Si losing spark and believability. She was marvellous as a rebel teenager, well blending insecurity and stubbornness; not so as a woman crazily in love. He aced the besotted glance, while she just looked at him as though she was reading a recipe in slow motion – granted, we were told she was a prodigy at everything except reading. I don’t even know what the heck she expected of this guy, at some point I thought she was more blood-thirsty than him and was miffed because he didn’t invite her to the murder fest. Her idea of being equal to her man consisted of becoming LIKE him and do everything together, even those things she had no knowledge, training or experience of. Equally important does not mean being the same. To put it simply, I never bought their galactic love, neither in words, nor in deeds or stance. By the end I felt something akin to aversion for them, both as individuals as well as a pair.

Re-watch? Thank you, but no thank you. The highlights of the drama to me were Shao Shang’s mother, the Emperor’s Consort and the Cheng family as a whole. I would gladly watch a spin off solely focused on them and a love story between Yuan Shen and whomever – except Miao Miao, obviously, who by now will be busy creating an efficient torture device for her deranged man to use.

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Sep 24, 2022
10 of 10 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.5
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 8.5
Yay Panda!!!
No... wait, that's another drama. A gem, by the by.

Skadoosh!!!
Still not the right one, my apologies.

Regardless of the motto, it seems that whenever a panda is involved, lots of fun is guaranteed. Granted, here the fun is quite dark. In the beginning you may even think this is a slapstick comedy/manga-like/action show that is going nowhere, but rest assured it is not and it does go to a lot of places without losing direction.
It has its frustrating moments and its plotholes, but they are easily overlooked and largely compensated by the story flow and the wonderful characters.

While Yokohama Ryusei is his usual smouldering and harrowing self, the star of this drama is without a doubt Seino Nana. She plays multiple roles and all of them are believable, extremely well acted and invariably adorable. If you're venturing into this as a fan of Ryusei, rest assured you won't be disappointed, but Nana outshines everyone here, both in acting as well as characterization.
The supporting cast is great too and I've lost count of the times I changed my opinion on Mr No Compliance and the unprincipled journalist. Miss Panda's mission is to clear the grey areas and reveal their black or white true nature, but by all odds this show is all about the grey. All the characters, including the leads, inhabit that grey area. Which is just fine: who wants to root for perfect heroes one could not in a million years identify with?

I truly loved the music. It complemented each scenes in a fantastic way, sometimes touching, often compelling.

As it often happens, this drama is seriously underrated.
Since there is a little panda-sense of justice in me too, I may have added that extra point to its rewatch value. Its "what will happen next" appraisal is clearly diminished on a second watch, but I can picture myself marathoning this a second time in the future, and enjoying it just as much.

Miss Panda!!!
It was a pleasure laughing with you.

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Completed
JIN
4 people found this review helpful
Aug 8, 2018
11 of 11 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 8.5
Among the dozens of dramas dealing with the time travel trope I've seen, this is one of the most intelligent ones, in my opinion competing only with Long Love Letter, an older Japanese drama with which it oddly shares more than it may seem.

The plot is surprisingly cohesive. I believe this is due to the fact that it doesn't linger on the technicalities of time travel itself, that is how did Jin fall into the past, why or what's the trick. By glossing over the sci-fi aspects, the drama can focus on the consequences of his jump, how his being in a place where he should not be is going to change not only his life, but the future he knows, triggering a chain of uncontrollable events.
Furthermore, it gives both the main character as well as the viewers the chance to reflect upon the ethics of the medical profession. In this sense, the drama is at the same time current and timeless.

It's strength however is in the portrayal of 19th century Japan. I grew increasingly fond of the side characters, was enthralled by the Courtesan Nokaze's story - also the most harrowing character in the drama - laughed at Sakamoto Ryoma's antics, adored Ogata sensei's wise demeanour and loved to meet all the other famous historical figures, also finding out that in choosing the cast and costumes, they tried to stay true to the physical appearance of these people as shown in ancient portraits.

All in all, scenography, photography and acting are excellent. Each episode introduces new characters and medical challenges, all of which I found extraordinarily interesting and intriguing, so much that I binge watched 11 episodes in a little more than 2 days and am now eager to start season 2.

The weak point of this show is the music. It's so repetitive, by the end I wanted to tear off my hair. Personally, I'd have appreciated the use of some traditional music, of which there are vague hints here and there, but not enough to establish a mood. I believe the ost is made of only one song and one or two instrumental pieces. A mediocre choice, in my book.

I have no doubt I'm going to re-watch this soon enough, possibly with a watching partner who's as interested as I am in the medical field. I suggest you try out this drama only if you like medical shows: that's the main focus of JIN, so if you're looking for something else you may be disappointed.

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Completed
Something in the Rain
330 people found this review helpful
May 21, 2018
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 38
Overall 6.0
Story 4.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 1.0
“Sometimes it’s hard to be a viewer… La la la, la la la, la la la…”

End of review, thanks for reading.

Indeed, I could end my review here, since the above is basically all the drama left me with. But to the precious 18 hours – or something – I’ve dedicated to this show, I owe at least a more in-depth epitaph.

"Something in the rain" would have worked wonderfully as a 2 hour movie: the plot can be easily condensed in so short a time, we would have enjoyed a lovely on-screen chemistry and there would have been still room for the artsy cinematography the drama likes so much to sport. But, alas, the writer and director opted for a long narration, taking one conflict and a half and building this repetitive and aggravating slice of “real” life around it. What in the beginning seemed like beautiful aesthetics meant to create an atmosphere and enhance the plot, turned soon enough to be a trick to hide the lack of it. Because of that, the cinematography became, in my eyes, one of the drama flaws.

Let me make this clear: I have absolutely nothing against a slow pace that helps the viewer enter the world of the characters. I love small details: a meaningful glance, a trembling hand, a quiet dialogue that says it all, but here scenes are simply overstretched, even the most mundane, irrelevant ones. I have actually timed a scene: a character gets out of a taxi and walks unobserved on the road for as much as 65 seconds (try to count in your head and you’ll realize it’s an eternity). The camera stays still and the character walks. No close-up shot of the face expression, no weird or telling gate, no encounter to be remembered later on, just a walk that bears no significance whatsoever in the plot, except perhaps that it teaches us how people walk in Korea. I could go on describing scenes like this one, there are a handful. When a 2 whole minutes hug came, I truly became restless. And bored.

All the while, most characters are extremely bi-dimentional. No explanation, flashback or insight is given to justify their motivations. They are trapped in this present bubble and immortalized with one or two character traits only. We are left to speculate about their past, future and, at times, present. This show isn’t centered around a meaty plot, but does not focus on characterization either. There’s only so much a believable on-screen chemistry and artsy aesthetics can do to keep my interest alive.

Which brings me to the love story itself. The only positive trait of this romance is it’s realism, at least in the beginning. However, because these two jump from meeting on the road to being madly in love, I was deprived of my favourite part of romance, that is the falling in love process. Worse, episode after episode I started feeling like a voyeur, peeping through the keyhole to spy on an ordinary albeit pretty married couple in its daily routine. Since voyeurism isn’t my favourite hobby, I lost interest very soon in the nth walk with or without umbrella or yet another scene with these two frolicking around with the ever-present music that should tell a story but does not. They have no heart-to-heart chat, they don’t talk about their dreams, their plans, their future together, they hide more than they tell. Why these two people who have very little in common should love each other is not for us to know. Ah, yes! They are both gorgeous, that must be it.
The tension is all built around the opposition of a mother who’s in serious need of good therapy in whatever culture we set this story. Don’t get me started on the ex boyfriend arc and the harassment on the working place: the first goes nowhere and the second takes an eternity to go… where did it go?

Not yet happy, these badly outlined characters are for the most part disagreeable. If I have to watch a slice of life drama, I want to become attached to these people, but here I grew increasingly indifferent to all of them, otp included. The heroine is possibly the one who frustrated me the most and no amount of sociological analysis on the customs of South Korea will ever make me love a grown up woman who can’t stand up for her rights and for the people she supposedly loves. The fact that the author decided to portray a female lead who never learns from her own mistakes put a huge distance between me and her and makes the ending, good or bad, senseless. If it was my fault to expect something different, than I’ll take the blame, but at least I have learned something and will try to be a wiser viewer in the future (i.e., drop the hot potato before it scorches).

Finally, the music! Two good songs repeated ad nauseam and another old-fashioned two that made seaweeds grow in my ears. That’s the ost – an inappropriate definition anyway, since ost stands for “Original Sound Track”, that is, songs or music created on purpose for the show. I doubt Carla Bruni (?), Bruce Willis (??) or even talented Rachael Yamagata met to create this meager ensemble.

It’s extremely ironic and sad that the episode I enjoyed the most is the discussed last one. If only everything had taken place much earlier on, I’d have liked this drama. Unfortunately, as it stands it makes little sense and the prospect of subjecting myself to a second watch is unthinkable.
My dear 18 hours, RIP.

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Completed
Prison Playbook
14 people found this review helpful
Apr 14, 2018
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 10
Story 10
Acting/Cast 10
Music 10
Rewatch Value 10
This review may contain spoilers
Great reviews for this rare gem have already been written, but even without having anything new or original to add, I feel the uncontrollable need to come here and share the joy with whomever wants to read.

This drama is brilliant. It's profoundly human, histerically funny, heartwarming, emotional, at times highly gratifying and - given the premises - surprisingly uplifting. Who would have thought I'd enter prison with gloomy anxiety and come out of it with a huge grin of satisfaction, almost wishing they would prolong my sentence and let me stay a little longer behind bars?
The strengh of the script is the wonderful ensamble of characters. They literally invade the viewer's life with their diverse personalities, background stories and antics. I laughed, despaired, feared, anxiously waited with them and never felt bored, even when the events taking place are paramount only for the characters and not for the script itself. It happens when the world of a drama or movie is so well outlined you forget it's fictional.

Fenomenal acting by everyone bar none. Alas, I can't fill up the page with ravings about each one of them: it would take too long, I'd end up being spoilerish somewhere and I'd bore those who haven't watched the drama yet to death. Suffice to say all the actors had the time and the means to shine, both individually as well as a group, proof of their talent but also of an awesome director's work.

Perfect score for the music too. This ost does not exist only to soundtrack the scenes, it also exists in the world of the characters, it's listened to by them, even sung by them, so that we have the weirdest blend of classical music, rap, old korean folk, opera and everything in between. There isn't the usual love ballad played at every turn, until it becomes haunting in a bad way. This soundtrack adds to the story, instead of simply working as a background to the written events. Genius.

Prison Playbook was warmly recommended to me. I'm deeply grateful to all my friends here who encouraged me to watch it and I hope this short review may have the same effect on others. Perhaps some of you are hesitating because of the setting: indeed, there's no glamour here, no super trendy clothes to show off with, no highly dramatic love story, and the goodlooking actors aren't here to simply beautify the set. This drama goes deeper than that, it will make you laugh a lot and it will make you cry, but rest assured you won't regret a single tear.
My only warning: the first episode. Now that I have completed the drama, I could rewatch it with a new perspective. The first time around however, that long pilot felt kind of hard to get through. Hang in there, please. It's worth the patience!

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Completed
While You Were Sleeping
13 people found this review helpful
Mar 29, 2018
32 of 32 episodes seen
Completed 2
Overall 9.0
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 9.0
For a change, I've decided to get straight to the core of my enjoyment of While You Were Sleeping: the collective alchemy.

This drama is a constellation of highly interesting characters who shine individually, but are amazing as a group. When talking about chemistry, we invariably think of romance, but I've come to consider this an oversimplification, since the bond between friends, relatives or even respected colleagues can be just as strong and palpable as any romantic relationship, given these characters are well written and acted out.

After watching 4 dramas by the same pen, I can affirm this is the writer's signature. Her characters are always intensely human, imperfect, goofy… unripe even. Then, they grow, they overcome obstacles and they learn but, guess what, they stay human, imperfect, goofy and incredibly relatable.
Therefore, while I fully agree with all the other reviewers here who were not convinced by the love story, I don't consider it a major problem. Hong Ju and Jae Chan are a lovely couple, one we could all meet at the bus stop; they are very real, they talk to each other and their growing affection is not dragged for ages. The only downside of a "feel-real couple" is that it doesn't pierce the screen or our heart.
Again, I didn't really care. I loved the ensemble and was truly sad to say goodbye to them all. Even the main villain had a twisted charm. And although Woo Tak must be one of the dearest, most hug-worthy and adorable character I've come across in a long while, I venture as far as to say that had he got the girl, the end result would have been the same: sweet, but not sizzling.

The way I see it, this has nothing to do with the acting, but the way each character was written. The whole cast played exceptionally well and empathy for them was always high.

I loved the soundtrack too, but not at first. I warmed up to it slowly but steadily and particularly enjoyed Suzy's "I love you boy". Songs and instrumental pieces are used with due parsimony and don't overpower the scenes.

WYWS is sure worth re-watching. I'm already planning on luring one or more of my fellow watchers into sharing the pleasure with me.

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Completed
Code Blue Season 3
4 people found this review helpful
Mar 29, 2018
10 of 10 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 4.0
As it seems, I'm destined to often swim against the current when it comes to popular dramas.

I was very excited when Code Blue 3 was announced, for I am a hardcore fan of the previous 2 seasons, but I ended up being extremely disappointed in this sequel.

Gone are the fresh feel, the modernity, the swift and yet harmonious pace that captured me in the past. This season is a never-ending sequel of people regretting something, apologizing for things they are in no way responsible for, whining patients and non-captivating medical cases. The addition to the cast – i.e. the new rookies – have all the cards to become interesting characters each in his or her own way, but the plot failed at giving us enough background to understand and empathize with them. Medical cases are chopped almost randomly: one moment we have a high tension accident and the next it's been resolved somehow.

Our dear quartet of now "senior" doctors, who after 9 years of working together should be a close-knit of friends/collegues, seem to have gone back to square one, barely talking to one another if not for a few encouragements here and there which felt kind of old, or given too late in the time of the story. My favourite Mitsui Sensei has been relegated to the role of mother/care-giver with one and only one worried expression on her face and no mention whatsoever is given to the fact that she is, in fact, a doctor herself.

I blame the writing and the editing. The change of scriptwriter is painfully clear. They tried to condense too much in the space of 10 episodes, cut some of the scenes abruptly, treated the medical procedures in a very superficial way, and reduced almost all female characters to sweet but bland things. Last but not least, there's a sad lacking of a strong chief figure that brings them all together, as it was the case of Kuroda or Tadokoro sensei in the previous 2 seasons.

Acting is kind of stony too, by almost all. The only glaring exception is Erika Toda, who acted marvelously as always and whose character's the only one with some substance, spine and development.

The music is fine.

I'm not going to re-watch this season. Luckily, I have the first 2 to enjoy again in the future.

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Completed
Man to Man
5 people found this review helpful
Mar 18, 2018
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 4.0
Rewatch Value 8.0
I chose this drama expecting absolutely nothing except the pleasure of admiring Park Hae Jin. I now believe it was the best approach, since I got what I wanted and more.

The plot is quite ingenious, even when almost all the situations these characters are thrown into range from slightly unbelievable to surreal, all spiced up with action and laughter. I don't think the drama ever intended to be taken seriously, and if you keep this in mind, you'll enjoy the whole show very much.

Let's get rid of its faults quickly, then. No matter what country they are in, everyone speaks English. Korean seem to live under the impression that the whole of Europe were a substation of the States, where, say, Russian people speak English among each other, prisoners wear orange in Hungary, and French eat cereals for breakfast. Ingenuities like these are scattered throughout the whole drama, but as I said, to fully enjoy Man to Man one needs to overlook the incongruities and stay focused on the characters and their antics.

In fact, the characters are all likable, even the villains. There's an ever-present light undertone to the drama which I personally found charming. No trace of melodrama is to be found, so that you can watch with due expectations but without having your heart shatter in a thousand pieces at every turn or boiling for anger at the injustice of life.
Park Hae Jin is a sight to behold. He's believable and engaging in the action scenes, kind of goofy in the romantic ones, clever and quick-thinking in his job and invariably gorgeous looking in his sleek costumes and generally suave style. Therefore, if you watch M2M for the sake of him, you won't be disappointed.
I loved the female heroine too. I'd read critical comments about her being annoying and inconsistent, but I honestly agree with none of them. I even liked her hairstyle: it makes her look younger and more breezy than she actually is, but it all adds to the inevitability of K falling for her and not for any of the stylish, fashionable women he meets for his assignments.
The love story between these two is sweet, but has to be taken as a side plot, not the core of the story. If you want to be swept away by a sizzling passion, look elsewhere. I was happy with this too.
The Hallyu Star made me laugh from start to finish and the same goes with all the secret agents whose actions are so conspicuous I had to laugh hard at their preoccupation with undercover and secrecy.

The music is kind of atrocious and badly edited, at times too loud and most of the time unnecessary. Some pieces got a smile out of me, which is the best I can say about this soundtrack.

Since this story does not rely too much on high voltage suspense, it can be re-watched again and again without losing its charm.

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Completed
Love in the Moonlight
165 people found this review helpful
Mar 24, 2017
18 of 18 episodes seen
Completed 21
Overall 7.0
Story 6.5
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 6.0
So, what have I just watched?
In a nutshell, a saeguk for kids. Take a Disney film, split it into several episodes, dress the characters in hanboks and you have this drama. It mimics The Moon embracing the Sun - without ever nearing its intriguing plot or romance - in almost every aspect except for the detail of a girl dressed as a man despite the fact that she could never in a trillion years be mistaken for a man. To keep the parallel, we could say this is a fluffy rom-com dressed up as a Saeguk.

The romance is so cheesy I welcomed the politics with a sigh of relief. Everything happens too soon and... too much, depriving my otherwise romantic heart of the needed suspense and, yes, what I consider a must for romance: trepidation. I can't say I am an expert in historical dramas, but the little I know is that almost everything the two main characters do and say here is totally implausible: stroll hand in hand in the palace courts without anyone seeing them? Right. This is just one example out of dozens unlikely - no, impossible - situations. Unlike other reviewers here, I believe the second half of this drama to be a lot better than the first, with at least some plot developments, albeit rushed, at times.

The real saving grace of the show is Park Bo Goum. He clearly is talented and a pleasure to watch. His character is too good to be true, but well played out and multifaceted. On the other hand, I was a little disappointed in Kim Yoo Jung's performance. I know she's very young and has a lot of potential, but she didn't manage to make me feel a thing. By some camera angles, it was clear she wasn't looking at her partner when supposed to do so, and the result was kind of ridiculous. Her character is neither particularly brave, nor very strong or intelligent, so what's left in the end is a super nice crown prince who falls madly in love with a sweet pretty thing because she's a sweet pretty thing. I even came to prefer the appointed crown princess, she was refreshingly spunky.

The music is a collection of pop songs fit for everything and nothing. See above for the age target.

In conclusion, this drama had some real potential, even when the plot twists are predictable, but the final package is fluffy at best. Can be marathoned through for an overdose of lovey-dovey chirping.

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Completed
Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo
130 people found this review helpful
Feb 9, 2017
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 33
Overall 6.0
Story 5.5
Acting/Cast 6.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 2.0
The reason why I chose this drama among the lot, is the number of great reviews it got. I've read words like "perfect", "unforgettable" and "awesome" in regard to it, so I started with more than a little expectation. These high praises are also the reason why I'm writing a review myself; because perhaps out there there's someone like me who'd find words like "bland", "silly" or "yawn inducing" much more befitting to this particular drama.

The plot is sweet enough, but I truly fail to see its purpose. The premises, that is, a girly girl who lifts heavy weights, could have been everyone else that comes to mind – a clown, a dock worker, a truck driver or a simple student. The sport of weightlifting itself does absolutely nothing to deeply define this girl, except for 2 details: 1st, the hardship of balancing love for this sport with the basic womanly needs of being pretty; 2nd, the ridiculous choice of main actress, who is as believable as a weightlifter as I am as the first queen of Goryeo.
In Cheese in the Trap, the last drama I saw her acting in, someone called her "a giraffe", which I'd say is quite accurate a description. Lee Sung Kyung is tall, thin and beautiful, and her acting here consists of an alternation of pouts and a goofy gate that should lead us to believe she's not feminine. While watching, I spent a lot of time deciding whether I should raise one eyebrow or both.

The humour is off, at least for my taste. I didn't laugh once. There's too much screaming and wrestling, and most of all, there's too much eating. When I enter the realm of Korean drama, I'm psychologically prepared to see people eat at every opportunity, but here they really don't do much more. The quantity of food – and junk food – shoved into everyone's mouth is such that I got nauseous.

Acting is average. None of the actors shine in his or her performance, possibly because the script has no room for deep characterization. This isn't even a coming of age kind of story, since all characters end up being basically the same they were in the beginning, but with a partner. All the interesting cues, those that somehow delved deeper into the emotions of some characters, are conveniently skimmed and resolved in the space of a few minutes. Everyone lies to everyone else and calls it either friendship or protection. Bah.

There is some music… I think.

Never to be rewatched. Once was enough to establish this is not my kind of drama and simply forget about it. My 6 is due to the fact that I completed it.

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Completed
Kindaichi Kosuke vs. Akechi Kogoro
2 people found this review helpful
May 29, 2016
1 of 1 episodes seen
Completed 2
Overall 8.0
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 6.0
If you're looking for a mind-blowing movie with high production values, look elsewhere.
This is a Tenpatsu, literally a 'one-shot' drama made for tv, not for the cinema big screen. It feels a lot like a theatrical piece, with a stage-like set and clear-cut, almost cartoonish characters.

Once forewarned, you can approach this movie and actually enjoy it. Kindaichi Kosuke and Akechi Kogoro are two famous detectives created by the pens of two equally famous writers. You'll immediately recognize all the elements of a 'whodunit' thriller, with an overly complicated crime, a lot of hints given to the public, oblivious police inspectors and an amateur detective who complicates things before gathering all the possible culprits for the final revelation.
The plot is intriguing and the solution of the case is at the same time unpredictable and deducible if you pay attention to the hints. There's also a funny twist which I thought elevated the story by half a point.

If you like the genre, you'll like this little movie, which comes with the bonus of a pleasing cast and quite a lot of humour. Both Yamashita and Ito Hideaki play their respective roles very well, with easy flippancy and a good dose of self-irony. We are also introduced to the future recurring characters, among which an adorable little girl who serves as improbable governess and secretary of Kindaichi.

The music - extremely forgettable - adds to the comic... I hope intentionally so.

The movie can be rewatched, provided one has forgotten the plot. So, depending on the strength of your memory, in 5 to 10 years.

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Completed
Algernon ni Hanataba wo
29 people found this review helpful
May 17, 2016
10 of 10 episodes seen
Completed 8
Overall 10
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 9.0
This is the kind of drama whose review needs to be written as soon as the viewing is over, emotions still raw and somehow sore.

Ironically, it had been sitting in my ptw list for a good year, waiting - so I thought - for me to be in the right mood for its somehow heavy subject. It came as a big surprise that this was the perfect moment and Algernon ni Hanataba wo is the show that finally reminded me why I fell in love with Asian dramas in the first place and became an addict so many years ago.
It enchanted me and pulled me into its world five minutes in. I hadn't even realized I was marathoning with bated breath until I exhaled.

The show is built on two different levels: the plot itself with its events and the story told by the characters. These two levels aren't of equal importance, that is, if you watch for the events it may disappoint you, as it suffers from the typical Japanese brevity and sudden, unexpected turns. However, this drama is meant to be valued for the thoughts it provokes and the way it does so, hence my perfect mark.

I won't lie, it made me cry. A lot.
This is a beautifully heart-wrenching story of diversity and the need to conform, be 'equal'. While most of us aim at being smart enough to earn more, have success in life and even wallow in our self-esteem, Sakuto dreams of becoming intelligent for the people around him to love him. This makes his journey all the more tragic, since it inevitably raises the question whether he was happier when only half cognizant of his surrounding or when he fully grasped the meaning of everyone's motivations and finds out that being a genius can be a sentence to loneliness. It also heavily probes on the benefits of intelligence when it's attained at the cost of humanity, empathy, compassion and even love.

I believe each single character in this drama has a precise purpose in terms of typecasting the different approaches to what is generally considered 'normal'. Here's a word I hate when referred to human beings, but it is the core of this tale, in its literal meaning of 'conforming to the norm'. This means that all the characters revolving around Sakuto find their justification only in connection with him, they represent the wide range of 'normality' as opposed to the extremes Sakuto's going to experience.

Which is not to say that they didn't act well. Quite the opposite: what fascinated me here is the fact that each actor played its part in a different way, according to his/her role in Sakuto's life. The same can be said about the direction, which plays a precise role too with its use of symbolism, archetypes, flowers, colours, camera focalization. Even Algernon is a great character. Tiny details are everything but irrelevant, a trait I always, highly appreciate.
And at the risk of being called biased, I maintain Yamashita's acting is impressive here. I was deeply moved by the sheer movement of his hand, the subtle, slow changes in stance, walk, gaze. I loved Sakuto as a viewer, as a woman, as a mother, as a sister, as a friend, to the point I desperately wanted to hug him and never let go. I could go on, but I'm becoming verbose and perhaps a little too emotional too.

The music is the only trait of the drama that gets a mere passing grade. I wish Japanese shows in general would put on their Osts the same amount of effort they spend on photography and characterization. The only song played here is very suitable to the story, but repetitive to the point of losing all its impact.

I've already rewatched many scenes soon after completing an episode. I simply couldn't help it. There's no doubt in my mind I'm going to re-watch the whole drama soon enough, certain it will lose none of its emotional impact on further viewing.

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Completed
5-ji Kara 9-ji Made
71 people found this review helpful
May 13, 2016
10 of 10 episodes seen
Completed 9
Overall 8.0
Story 7.5
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 7.0
From 5 to 9 is surprisingly funny and - at times - just as surprisingly moving.

I had my reservations before beginning this show, since I'm no fan of religiously oriented stories. Should you hesistate for the same reason, rest assured that, aside from the beautiful temple that plays as a setting and a few sutras read in the background, the monk hero is less religious than me - if possible.
In fact, here's one of those rare examples in rom-coms where the leads have physical desires. That a monk has to take more icy showers than your average CEO to suppress his wordly lust is an entertaining concept. Not to mention that, if you're a fan of Yamapi you may find this habit of his very pleasing.

As I said, there's a lot to laugh about while watching. Indeed, I'd say this is a rom-COM, where the comedic aspect wins over the romance. The romantic aspect, on the other hand, is seesawing, and I found myself laughing at the couple, hating the couple, loving the couple, re-hating it and re-loving it. There are in all respect more couples to enjoy here, even though I personally loved the side characters as a whole, not paired, if that makes any sense.

Don't expect some deep characterization because, in perfect from-manga-to-live-action style, the stress is on the characters' present actions, rather than how they came to this point. Hints, however, are given now and again, and I personally found those touching and well played out.

Out of the lot, I found the best acting performance to be that of Satomi Ishihara, solid, elegant and believable. A pity her character undergoes a few unwatchable tests that made me cringe on my womanly seat, but that's the plot and the actress won the challenge whether she had to be spunky or sad.
Yamashita's character requires him to be hilariously robotic, something he does very well, since he manages to convey quite a lot through his eyes. I appreciate this trait of him and loved it here. This monk can stretch your patience to its limits, but it turns out he's truly endearing and I'm very happy at his decision by the end - and I'm not referring to the very end.

Music? Nothing to talk about.

I think I'll rewatch this one day, either because I'm a rewatcher by nature or simply because it managed to draw me out of a slump with some welcomed laugh and a deserved (?) Yamapi fix.

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Completed
Falling for Innocence
18 people found this review helpful
May 25, 2015
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 5
Overall 8.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 9.0
It so happens that I have found myself discussing this drama a lot more than much more serious, thought-provoking and cleverer shows I've watched lately. Falling for Innocence is, after all, a romantic comedy, with neither the pretense, nor the substance of anything more. It is cute, romantic, funny and even goofy. Certainly not groundbreaking. So, the reason for my need to talk about it is easily explained in three words: Jung Kyung Ho.



His character here is so endearing, this drama could have just as well been entitled "Falling for Min Ho" and it would have mirrored my sentiments exactly – though I realize the pun with Sung Jung meaning Innocence would have gone lost. The way Min Ho's character is written is clever enough, but it's the actor's rendition that makes him so darn adorable. I can easily picture a director instruct his actors to show surprise, anger, sadness, joy, but in the end it is always the actors who decide how to bring these emotions to life. Min Ho's reactions are almost never what one would expect, his movements and even the intonation of the voice took me by surprise more than once, never failing to express what it was meant to, though.

What I personally found irresistible, is the way he would think things over, make his own personal connections and deductions and blurt out the conclusion with the utmost candor, leaving the poor people around him totally confused. Not to mention his appearance, a mixture between a kid with temper tantrums and a pale man who's either just got out of bed or is in dire need to go back to it. Not exactly the general idea of a romantic hero, on paper. And yet, he's the kind of man I would fall in love with in real life… wait, I atone: he's the kind of man I HAVE fallen in love with in real life and even married (minus the heart condition, the whole revenge/business stuff and the Korean language. Details). So you may now understand and perhaps forgive my passionate bias.



Since this is a drama review and not Jung Kyung Ho's – wait, did I tell you I love this actor? – I suppose I should address the rest of the cast too. Kim So Yeon is a talented actress I've known and liked before. Her role here is very well acted, very believable; possibly, a little too… by the book. It's as though in an attempt at staying as true as possible to her character, she forgot to be that character. Sung Jung is lovable, loyal and intelligent and if only this script had given her the opportunity to be a little more lively, we could have enjoyed a sizzling love story, instead of a very cute one. But I suppose that was the original intent, so I won't complain.



If chemistry has to be, then I thought there was quite a lot between Jung Kyung Ho and his nemesis Yoon Hyun Min. Since these two have worked together before as best friends in Cruel City, it was great fun to see them stand one opposite the other as enemies. Their steady, verbal arm wrestling made up for some of my favourite scenes. The character of Lee Jun Hee is like a dog in the manger, who doesn't eat vegetables, but doesn't want anyone else to eat it either. While I hated him for his actions, his motivations made him into a pathetic man. To quote Min Ho's words: "You do not live to be able to gain something..., you live to take things from other people. Is there any happiness in this?". Really, how measly is that?



The most touching moments in the drama are those involving fathers, Ma Tae Seok in primis, and the funniest the ones with Detective Ok Hyun and Secretary Woo Shik, aka Wendy and Tinkerbell. What an improbable, hilarious pairing!



The music is like the rest of the drama: very cute. Not something which would stand alone, but rightly chosen for the feel of the drama.



All in all, I laughed a lot, I fell in love with the male lead, I was highly entertained, grew very fond of all the characters, was sad to say goodbye to them and had a lot to talk about for the reasons mentioned above. I don't ask a rom-com for anything more.

Recommended to everyone, I'm definitely going to watch it again in the future.

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