Reviews

Worth a watch

I am a bit in too minds on this one. I did watch it all the way through but I thought the biggest problem was that it dragged on a LOT. You could have done the plot in half the time. There are also too many characters in this drama, some of them were just filling up the time. I would have liked to see more about the "young master" and learned more about his character instead of the many maids who seem to get a lot of air time. I also would have liked more time with the "villain" of the story, I wanted to understand him more so having a couple less characters less (I didnt need the siblings, both waste of time including the bible study group...) and spend more time on the important characters would have made the drama better (for me)

Lots of things in that story did not make sense either but that was mainly because of the above issues. Not enough time to find out more about the main characters and explain their actions and how they got there.

But there is one thing that stands out to me and that are the relationships of the women in the drama. So nice to see powerful woman supporting each other. In general women supporting each other. I also really like how sensitive and beautiful the lesbian love story was shot. It broke my heart, those scenes made me cry, I rooted for them so much.

So yes, I watched it to the end and it had some beautiful moments and very good acting but its not a drama I will watch again.

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High potentials, fails to deliver!

Let's state the obvious, the comedic moments weren't good, it always felt forced. I assume they wanted to do that to lighten the mode? It took what felt like an eternity to kick start the story. Teasing the viewers constantly about the "tape" for the entire series was kinda annoying. How many times you can save Ha Ram's life became a personality trait for the male characters in the drama lol.

When you over complicate a story, things get out of hand real quick really fast. Maybe dedicate some of the budget to hire a team of skilled veteran writers instead? Many convoluted plotlines were brushed off eventually. Half of the death cases weren't interesting. The last 2 episodes in general contain some serious unsalvageable nonsense. The writer turned off her brain and started writing willy-nilly. Starting from the beginning of episode 13 there was a big disconnect with the story and the momentum.

Abysmal ending. The ending goes into my list of "I'm a special quirky little writer so I'mma pull an ending out the depths of my ass". They tried to make it "poetic" but ended up shooting themselves in the foot. The writing department was really lacking and barely functional that by the end it leaves you with nothing but pretty visuals. This is a real case of a drama that had high potentials but fails to deliver.

In conclusion, it got a visually appealing atmosphere, good enough cast, and it's entertaining enough to be passable. Definitely doesn't deserve the hype. The series was from Netflix I should have known better. This is a 5.75/10 on a good day.

P.S. Kim Won Hae is always a treat to watch.

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Disastrous codependency that limits everyone involved.

Yet somehow, it’s both just as bad, and not as bad as it sounds. Perfect case of a relationship unintentionally turning toxic, when everyone involved thinks they have good intentions.

Double is a perfect character study, with so many various meanings to all interactions, that leave the final interpretation of the events and characters’ motivations to the viewer. Depending on what you will focus on, which scenes and moments will seem more important, what actions done by the characters feel more genuine, you might see quite a different tale than other people watching. And that’s the beauty of the show.

Personally, I see it as an artistic presentation of obsession - be it over art or a person, and countless human flaws and weaknesses.

When I think of Yujin, I think about egocentrism and this may seem like a counterintuitive view at first. He is introduced as someone who was willing to sacrifice a lot for Takara to succeed, but were his intentions as pure as it might seem? There is no clear cut answer to this question, but with each episode, watching him interact with Takara made me feel more and more uncomfortable. He had quite a duality about how he carried himself and interacted with Takara that made it hard to understand his character from the get go.

On the other hand we have Takara - a guy that was completely not capable of taking care of himself, and I truly mean what I say. The phrase that quite well describes him is “lack of self” - be it in the roles he portrays, decisions he makes, relationships he forms - everything is dependent on external influences.

He got hyperfixated on things and saw acting as his only goal in life. At the same time, for the longest time I could not truly pinpoint what exactly he wanted to achieve. Technically he verbalizes his wishes, but often they do not quite fit the reality and the action he would have to take to achieve them. He might seem like the victim of the situation, but what this drama is not, is simple - so there is more to his character and how he maneuvers his daily life.

Sounds like a lot? Looks like these are some complex characters? This ain’t even a fraction of what the drama presents. Honestly speaking, it’s best to go into it knowing as little as possible - not getting influenced by other people’s analysis and thoughts. Making it your own unique experience.

Complex characters and relationships are not the only aspect this drama delivers on an impossible high standard - the directing and editing were top notch as well. I am amazed how beautiful Double is. It truly feels like every scene was a deliberate choice and not one frame was left in by an accident or to simply fill the screen time.

Prolonged close ups to the actors’ faces, giving this eerie feeling, accompanied by simple yet dramatic in tone soundtrack? True perfection. The variety of different angles? Beautiful. The use of light and shadows? Could not ask for more. It’s just a perfectly crafted picture.

Onto the performances, both main actors did a phenomenal job, but I did prefer Nagayama Kento’s casting here. He embodied the gentle, caring yet strangely intimidating and unsettling character. On the other hand, while I do not have even a fraction of complaints about Chiba Yudai’s acting, it was simply hard for me to believe he was able to grab people’s attention… doing nothing, standing, walking. When he was not performing, he gave more of a lost puppy vibe, not this charismatic actor who might change the cinema. And yet, this is what they tried to tell me - that people just saw it in him.

Overall, what an uncanny watch it was. Each and every episode left me with so many thoughts to be organized, so many moments I had to analyze. One could easily write a whole book trying to decipher all the characters. More of my thoughts about them in the comment below.

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Slow Burn Romance

I just completed watching this drama. I first attracted to watch this series because I saw the ending clip in youtube. So, I thought to myself ‘wow another drama with a tragic ending. I need to watch this. This is exactly my type of drama.’ Then, I started watching it till episodes 11. At that point, I try to grab the ideas about the stories, the plots, each characters, the relationships between characters etc. I then keep watching until episodes 15, and I almost dropped the drama though. Yes, I almost did.

Imo, the first 15 episodes is a real struggle to watch because the paced is really slow. The story line focusing on the friendships that was form by respective characters especially between Zhousheng Chen and Shiyi. From how they started off as a master and disciple, and then developed feelings towards each other (although they never confessed their feelings to each other). Along with that, the story lines goes to political feuds, competition for powers, wars, etc. Up until episodes 15, there’s not much notable scenes worth mentioning.

However, the storyline started to become interesting in the middle of episodes 15. From that point, we can see the flow of the story and the tragic events that started to build up and emerges. Until the finale episodes, I do find myself enjoying the series. I able to shed some tears here and there, and my heart aches seeing all the innocence lives were taken away because of the stupidity of the emperor, the greedy empress and obsessive young guy.

Here’s some problems that I have about the drama. The storyline though is not exceeding my expectation. There’s so many loopholes and questions to ponder. There’s not much character development too. I wonder why the monk didn’t asked for help from his father when Zhousheng Chen was caught and accused for doing rebel. I expect him to do something worth mentioning because he was the closest one to Zhousheng Chen. Like, he literally did nothing tho other than being a monk. Probably, that’s how they wanted to end the story because after all, the drama only have 24 episodes.

I would like to give applause tho to the production team. I love the cinematography, it’s beautiful and spectacular to watch. They chose the dramatic cool kind of color in entire series which I find really mesmerising. I like the OSTs, it’s good and it’s nice to listen to. The acting is great esp Bai Lu. For someone who keep laughing during off set, I wonder how she can pull off such an agony and grief emotions in her acting. This is my first time tho watching these two main leads on my screen. They did amazing job in here.

All in all, this is a good drama. But, I probably won’t consider watching it again in the future except some scenes (sad scene specifically).

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Quite good in some ways, but ....

Because of the title, I thought at first that this would be a BL about vampires with some low-brow references to kinky sex. But because I had forgotten everything I had seen in a trailer I watched long before stumbling on the series, perhaps I started watching with different or no expectations than others who have found it a total disappointment.

Unlike many who complain about the slow pacing, I only started disliking the pacing in the last two episodes. The series takes its time to show the character of Aek, letting us know of his interests, background and personality. We may see that he has a certain complex about his humble background, and does not want people to do things for him out of pity--he really wants to be appreciated for his talent. We also see how close he is to his mother and his unwillingness to cause her to feel disappointed in him, even if it comes at the expense of casting aside his own interests and studying accountancy. So when he realizes that Aue is in love with him, he finds himself having to handle many issues like whether Aue has been grooming him as a chef because of a romantic interest in him rather than a true admiration of his talents and how his mother would feel seeing him caught in such a situation. This is despite his own feeling towards Aue, which he himself hasn't become conscious of.

The characterization of Aek is rather interesting, and I think Mark Siwat has done a fine job in this role. Rudklao Amratisha, the actress acting as Aek's mother helped a lot by being very good with her role in the scenes she appears with Mark Siwat. I've seen him in a number of shows, and he seems to be able to take on a good range of roles. It's not an easy role for him in Bite Me, for he has to bring out the character's personality (sweet and innocent but also somewhat headstrong and assertive) without much dialogue to help show it. His growing affection for Aue can be seen, but in ways that don't make it clear whether he is aware of it. Some of the scenes of mutual gazing between Aue and Aek are overdone (they don't even do that so much when they are finally together), but there's little the actor can do about it.

On the other hand, the characterization of Aue isn't half as good. We can tell that he likes Aek quite early on, but the back story about his apparent feuds/tensions with Eve, Moo and Chef Viphob suffer from an utter lack of elaboration. I suspect there is a lot more going on in the book that the series is based on, but somehow the scenes are deleted or not filmed for the series. (Given that the series is 11 instead of the more common 12 episodes, I wonder if there are scenes that have been sacrificed due to budget constrains or some other reason). In a flashback, he is shown clearly telling Eve that he only regards her as a friend, but since he has made it clear to her and not dumped her or anything, it doesn't explain her animosity towards him. Chef Moo is another character whom Aue has worked with in the past, but it is not clear why Moo would suddenly appear to taunt Aue. Viphob is yet another character who seems to have a huge back story that has largely been left out: when Aue tells Aek what Viphon's character is like, I was surprised that he even knows this guy. I do like the way Aue is established as the boss and chef of a restaurant where the workers seem to be working quite happily, especially with Aue's support for Nuna when she faces relationship problems. (I was really glad that the toxic-but-somehow-charming CEO trope wasn't used.) Unfortunately, this ability of bring out aspects of the character and his past is largely lost when it comes to the Aue's relationship with those who seem hostile towards him.

In short, I loved how the story took its time to develop the aspects of the story related to Aek and his background and didn't mind the slow pacing at all. But if the same development had been done for Aue, the story would have made a lot more sense. Even Aue's longstanding friendship with Prem, the chef who makes desserts in his restaurant, leaves one wondering what is going on between them because Aue is obviously closer to him than to other colleagues. The fact that they are old friends is eventually revealed in Episode 11, when it doesn't quite matter anymore.

What weakens the series is also the strangeness of the pacing in the last two episodes. I wish it had some of the maligned (IMO) slowness of the earlier episodes. The part of the story about the chefs' competition, which is like the climax that the earlier episodes have been building up to, is confusing and rushed. (Why is Aue suddenly able to take part in the competition? Are there two different competitions? Huh? Aek has recovered from his injury to take part in the competition when he earlier on seemed to be saying that he could no longer go on with the competition because of his injury? What affected his performance?) Aek realizes that he likes Aue and comes out to his mother, but before we know it he is hugging Aue in the kitchen (huh?). And yet, after rushing through things in Episode 10, someone decided to make Episode 11 one consisting almost entirely of filler scenes. The part of the story about Aek's talent for cooking, so integral to the story, could have been followed up on but wasn't.

My complaints about the series may differ from those who dislike it from the start. I liked it quite a lot and was hoping that Episode 10 and 11 would help to reveal the right back stories and end the story well. It was possible but somehow not done. (And can you believe that the only kiss between Aue and Aek is a forced kiss, with Aue acting very much out of character after Aek has just said that they cannot be lovers? I don't need them to even kiss at all throughout the series, but tis is rather awkward.)

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Very cute & light! I was watching a couple of heavy dramas so this one was very wholesome to lighten up a bit my currently watching list. Aoki is a sweetheart, a ball of insecurities but honest & loyal, and Ida is just the most patient teenage boy I've seen lately in a school drama.

The award for cutest character, for me , is nonetheless Hashimoto. It is so refreshing that both here & in Cherry Magic we fans love her & Fujisaki-san. Both girls are the sweetest & most supportive friend the MC can have, and both being so cute-looking is just the cherry-on-top.

This live action is very loyal to the manga, so for anyone who is doubting whether to watch this or not, read the manga first. If you like the story & characters, you will definitely love this short drama.

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No complaints

Beautifully crafted and impeccable acting. The story develops smoothly without dragging on in useless situations that lead to nowhere. The female lead is not rebellious like someone already pointed out but intelligent, determined and assertive, which is a good representation of the softer gender which otherwise is normally portrayed as being long-suffering women in a lot of dramas. The male lead is a dream of a husband without compromising valour and courage as a warrior.

Overall, I do think this drama is great, it has a modern approach, good acting and the wardrobe design is absolutely mind-blowing. Would I re-watch it? Most certainly!

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This series was indeed very intriguing. the plot from the beginning to the end keeps you watching until you have finished. It makes you want to keep watching until you have sovled everything. Just finding the criminal in this is not enough. So even if you guess right, it is more than that o the story. It's about a mystery writer whose boyfriend was killed and ever since she has been trying to find out why and who did it because the police said he commited suicide. After that more murders happen and she has to connect them as well to one place. I do not wish to disclose more about the plot because I do not want to spoil it.

The acting was great. there is no mistake that Hiromi and Mari made a good combi. The rest of the cast as well played their roles very well and same goes for the younger girl who was a blind. This special was played out very well and everyone could definitely make you sympathize with their story.

The music is just about right for a mystery special.

Rewatchign this has no meaning unless you have forgotten most of the things about it. It is a suspence and mystery drama special, once the suspence ends and the mystery is solved, you cannot rewatch with the same feelings as before.

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This is one of those dramas that keep you interested even though it's weird. Comedy, lots of unique boys, fights, pranks & maturatity ensues.

Story is very weird & the first episode kind of proves that, but it gets better and better as the episodes go by. But don't let the first episode or the story put you off, it's really funny, heartwarming & there are some serious issues in this drama.

The characters are so unique and different that I got to like all the boys and the main female lead's friends. There are a couple of life lessons along the way & I love the way the boys interact with not only the female lead, but also each other. I love how they all start to mature by the end of the drama. The characters are pretty fleshed out(the main ones of course).

music was okay, but not memerable. But some of the bgms are great to set the mood of the scene.

I would re-watch this when I want some laughs through out my day.

Overall, I recommend this drama to who like some or most of the cast( because it's a star cast), pranks, coming-of-age, comedy, their a little romance, eye-candy, heartfelt moments, some life lessons & some Japanese uniqueness, then you'll like this drama.

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I stepped out of my usual "comfort zone" rom-com dramas to watch this show, and I am extremely happy with that decision. You're All Surrounded is a little bit of everything. There is action, comedy, mystery, intrigue, and a touch of romance. Although the first episode, as usual, sets up the story, it was done very well and drew me in immediately.

Story - I thought the story was handled very well. There were lots of twists and turns that turned me into a "tv detective". You know - where you are sitting in your comfortable spot, watching your show and making guesses as to the "real" culprits and motives. :)
The only criticisms I have for this is that the cases handled by the detectives were too neatly intertwined (but it's a drama - not real life. We all know coincidences like this are not reality!), but they had to do this to move the story along. And also the Chief's backstory arc could have been stronger -I thought the concept was a little weak. Other than that, this show kept me very entertained and kept me intrigued about the mystery. The writers did a good job at drawing out the suspense and keeping you on your toes. I don't want to give away too much and spoil the enjoyment. I don't feel like there were any lagging or boring episodes and that every episode moved the story forward. There was a little bit of romance, but it was not the main focus of the story in any way.

Acting - The acting by the main cast was well done. Cha Seung Won did a wonderful job in this, as did Lee Seung Gi and Go Ara. I thought that the characters of Ji Gook and Tae Il were a little on the weak side, but I understand why their roles were not stronger stories. I think they did an okay job of acting out their roles as they were given. Tae Il was given a little bit of a backstory - but just enough to explain why he became a detective. Ji Gook wasn't given much of anything at all. They were just mainly there to help along the plot, so very much supporting roles and nothing else. The other side characters were well used and played their parts well.

Music - The music was not standout, but it served its purpose as a backdrop to what was happening on screen.

Re-watch value - I didn't mark the re-watch value very high because of the nature of the drama. Once the mystery and suspense are given away, then the second round doesn't have the same punch. However, it was very enjoyable and may be worth the RW regardless.

Overall - This is a fun and suspenseful show, and I think it's a worthy recommendation for drama lovers or even new kdrama watchers.

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review from a manhwa reader (includes a manhwa spoiler! but it happens at the first few chapters)

ok let me be honest. i LOVEDDDD the way the actors portrayed jaewoo! and yuna! i didn't like how they changed a lot from the manhwa tho, and how they didn't include that part where sangwoo totally didn't recognize jaeyoung three? or four times and even called him by the wrong name bc i think that played a big part in showing his character. their first meeting after the freeloading fiasco was also a bit disappointing bc,,, okay i'm not going to spoil this as the experience will be so much better if you read the manhwa without knowing. also, is it just me or did they really change ryu jihye's characterization a bit? it wasn't a good change, and i frankly got pissed when she and jaeyoung talked like that at the cafeteria bc that's not how she is in the manhwa, but i still liked what she did in the last episode. i just hoped they stayed a bit more loyal to the manhwa but oh well.

THE ENDING WAS EVERYTHING! it was beautiful, i legit teared up at sangwoo's confession and at jaeyoung teasing him for his ppt making skills. overall the drama is worth watching! and hello??? even though the plot and setting is something cliche, HOW IS THIS STILL SO ADDICTING???

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A Drama That Had Good Ideas But Writer Failed To Deliver

This is one of those dramas where I question myself, what did I just watch? While I did enjoy the moments of our leads from the moment they started to have feelings for each other, the jealously scenes the ML had, & the happy ending overall, the writer just missed out on so many things that could've made this drama a whole lot better.

The story plot focus could've been about the e-sports competition for the ML's character & the journey of being a hanfu designer for the FL's character, but instead, we just get the ML's character searching for his eternal star childhood love, which the writer didn't deliver well anyways because the FL's character didn't remember at all. She didn't get into an accident or anything so if it was that important to her, why did she forget about it? At least show some hints of the FL's character of a childhood memory throughout the drama so the ML's character could start wondering if she was the one he's looking for. Instead, we just got subtle scenes of him on the phone with who knows who, searching for his childhood love and I would say 70% of the drama revolved around the apartment life of Yu Heng & Xiao Di. Again, some great story ideas but the writers just failed to act on it. Most episodes just didn't feel significant enough to be consider as worth watching.

The characters in this drama could've been written better. SML's character was poorly written until almost towards the end with his one sided love, no matter how many times FL's character told him she only sees him as a friend. ML's character Yu Heng just didn't have any good character qualities for most of the drama. It wasn't until he realizes his feelings that he starts to be a little better and likable. FL's character Xiao Di was childish overall. Though she does have some good moments, there were a lot more scenes where she was frustrating with the way she thinks or acts to situations. Even Xiao Di's friend and Yu Heng's friend didn't really serve much of purpose to me other than just being there and being a complicated 2nd couple. Then you have this game enemy of Yu Heng, who you don't even know why he hates Yu Heng so much. This guy finds out Yu Heng's weakness but doesn't really do much with it and he's only in a few episodes throughout the drama and then the writers showed a somewhat ending for this guy. What kind of writing, for this bad guy character, is this? It just doesn't make sense to me the importance of his role. Don't even get me started on that annoying girl who was Yu Heng past teammate but also has a crush on him.

There are dramas where I could watch the intro & ending credit because of the music ost but this one I couldn't. I just didn't like the music personally. The drama does have some good ost in the drama itself but I wish those songs would've been the intro & ending osts instead of what they chosen.

Though there are a few scenes I do enjoy seeing and may come back to, definitely won't rewatch the whole thing.

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1st of all this is a political drama and no lovey dovey thing. The fact that it was a drama on a female president, which is quite unuasl drew my attention. It was a very good drama and i really like it especially when she was flexing her power as president. Ko Hyun Jung has been my girl since Queen Seon Duk where she played a leadership role (Evil Misil!) drenched in political play also (excellent actress). The drama gives you a real punch on political play with currupt and righteous politians fighting for the ppl vote. I think the story was written well and the acting was excellent especially with the main leads.The story was mainly fixed on Seo Hye Rim as it shows her rise to power in a heavly men dominated career. This showed me also no matter what country you are form politics has its dirty side.

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♥ 卒業タイムリミット ♥

This drama is about a high school called Keyakidai High School there'll be a graduation ceremony in 3 days, have encountered a kidnapping incident in which their popular English teacher, Risako Mizuguchi has been abducted. Yoshiki Kurokawa receives a challenge letter from an unknown sender. The letter says "Solve the mystery of the kidnapping. Only you can understand the truth." The same letter have received to Junpei Ogita, who is a sports enthusiast in the soccer club. Mio Komatsu a beautiful girl at the school's beauty pageant grand Prix, and Kurokawa's childhood friend. One of the best talents, Ayane Takahata who is very beautiful and has a crush on her teacher. The 4 students go on this mission to find Risako san, they suspect so many people. The 4 of them gathered every night at this pub and talked about their problems . The youth mystery of young people who are sprinting and tied together with bonds. This drama was very scary but I really like Inoue yuki, he is such a talented and young actor, and he is from my hometown in Hiroshima ♥ ♥ ♥

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