Reviews

Simply one of the best

I truly appreciate survival type programmes featuring all the older idols, actors, singers, dancers etc.. Very dynamic, very funny mainly because of Jordan, Gao Hanyu with Pax Congo, all the language barrier shenanigans and more. You'll definitely cry with these grown men at times (Love Letters to Filmmakers is a strong cocktail). The last episodes featuring some contestants wives are pure gold (relationship goals sad lol). I highly recommend to watch. Just the last episode which is a whopping four hours is a little bit tiring with all the talking and stuff. Max Dance Company for the win.

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THAT SENIOR CITIZEN IS MINE

As Mrs. Beyonce would say 10, 10, 10's across the board and I do see that some people hated the second half of the show and even dropped it after episode 25 while the second half is my favorite I appreciate the little girl boss moment the princess gave us towards the end.


The romance was TOP TIER and I love a good age gap relationships so maybe that added on to it for me but I love the ML and FML they carried their show and not a single character was wasted in this show everyone served a purpose and I love that very much.

The OSTs I never skipped it was just that good, the acting was so well done and I was invested in each character's story line they are my babies and I love them.

WATCH THIS SHOW PEOPLE I BEG its really good stick it out till the end it will all be worth it.

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Nice series, to be watch as pure entertainment.

Plot: Two convoys of brides leave the city on the same day towards 2 different destinies, but following an incident, the brides are reversed and sent to the husband of the other. Then 2 improbable couples are formed : ML noble, supposedly sick + FL lively, commoner, gifted in martial arts / ML2 general in military campaign + FL2 noble, smart and cultured.
Each couple will have to face difficulties, solve mysteries & find solutions, with the help of a mysterious master and his wife.

PROS:
+ Excellent actors, including the relatively well-developed 2ary characters.
+ rapid production (sometimes even hasty in certain scenes, (notably the beginnings of romance).
+ The tone of the series is really light, comedic , with light OSTs.
+ Intelligent story with suspense and clues at the right time.
+ All the classic tricks and twists (relative evil, desire for marriage of a spoiled princess, villains of all kinds, etc.) but they are handled skillfully.
+ Short series (24 episodes of 40 min.)

CONS:
- some situations are resolved too easily
- the villains have no depth
- story a little simplistic at times.

=> Pure comedy, not to be taken seriously but enjoyable.
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Pure comédie, à ne pas prendre au sérieux mais agréable.

Plot : Deux convois de mariées partent le mm jour vers 2 destins différents, mais à la suite d'1 incident, les mariées sont inversées et envoyées vers le mari de l'autre. 2 couples improbables se forment ainsi : ML noble soit-disant malade + FL roturière vive douée en arts martiaux / ML2 général en campagne militaire + FL2 noble smart et cultivée. Chaque couple va devoir affronter des difficultés, résoudre des mystères & trouver des solutions, avec l'aide d'1 mystérieux master et de sa femme.

PROS:
+ D'excellents acteurs, y compris les personnages 2aires, relativement bien développés.
+ réalisation rapide (parfois mm hâtive sur certaines scènes, notamment les débuts de romance).
+ Ton de la série très comédie, avec OST légères
+ Story intelligente avec suspense et indices amenés au bon moment.
+ Tous les tricks et twists classiques (evil de la famille, volonté de mariage d'1 princesse gâtée, villains en tous genres, etc.) mais ils sont traités habilement.
+ Série courte (24 ép. de 40 min.)

CONS:
- certaines situations sont résolues trop facilement
- les villains n'ont aucune profondeur
- story un peu simpliste par moments.

=> Sympa, à voir comme un pur divertissement.

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Ruined By The Writers

Starts strong but became less enjoyable, then the writers completely ruined it in ep 10-12. (General spoiler on this at the bottom of the review.)
Gets more and more cheesy. It's also very heavy-handed and preachy in it's messages. After the two best friends start dating they keep having conversations about things like they're still getting to know each other, instead of having been with each other constantly for 20+ years! One of them doesn't know what the other likes to have for breakfast even though they eat together every day. But it creates a cute scene, so it's okay that it doesn't make sense, right? (Sarcasm) Ridiculous.

*It's like the writers didn't know how to continue with their own premise and so they resorted back to a generic relationship approach.* It was so disappointing. Also, the writer's style is more about 'telling' than it is about 'showing' through actions and interactions. This type of storytelling gets old fast for me.

The acting by all is good. Shi Cheng Xuan as Fu Li is especially good and I was drawn to watch him the most. Chemistry is also satisfying. I really appreciated the two fathers, they were written and acted well.

The secondary couple is cute/sweet but the fast-paced love-bombing by one of them kind of put me off. The family dynamic between them and the laundromat's kid is mostly sweet, but again, very fast-paced.

GENERAL SPOILERS:
The EXTREMELY CONTRIVED and NONSENSICAL plot twist in ep 10, PURELY for the sake of angst, was inexcusable. It was completely unnecessary angst that could only be achieved by making Fu Li act out of character and in the complete opposite to everything he had expressed previously. And then the end of ep 11 resolved it in a cliche manner and in a way that just swept it all under the rug. The whole thing was so inane it made me quite mad with frustration!

In contrast, the sweetness in ep 12 was so over-the-top it made me roll my eyes and cringe. So much so that I actually had to fast-forward through a lot of it.

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Hidden Plot

I wasn't expecting fireworks from Hidden Agenda, but I also didn't expect it to be as bad as it was. I anticipated the name to play a far larger role in the story than it did. It was barely a blip in the bigger picture. The acting, bless Dunk and Joong's hearts, is subpar and it definitely brought the quality down. The OST is kind of fun, but severely overused and it got old very fast. It ended up being a complete train wreck.

The plot was nearly non-existent. There's a bit of an over arcing focus on the debate competition, but it's pretty thin. Besides the romance between Zo and Joke which was underdeveloped, the drama, beyond Episode 5 or so, is mostly made up of various filler story lines that get wrapped up far too quickly to have any kind of meaning. Aspects like Zo's past with Puen, the whole stalker scenario, Zo's and Joke's conflicts with their parents, etc. all were introduced fairly quickly with very little meaningful background and then the issue was typically resolved within an episode or two. The sad part is that several of those story lines could have been interesting. The stalker part had potential, I actually thought it was going to play a much larger role than it did, but it ended up being incredibly lame in part due to how quickly everything was worked out but also because of foolish decisions characters made. The issue with Zo's and Joke's parents could have been introduced much earlier and played a bigger role in the characters' actions and behaviour. Instead they fell flat because of how late in the drama they came in. And then there's the whole "hidden agenda" which was just very poorly planned out. It felt forced and while Zo had every right to be upset, his reaction seemed excessive. In general, it felt very scatter brained and incohesive. The pacing while initially relatively smooth if slow, quickly became inconsistent. The filler episodes were tedious to get through and it felt like the story was going nowhere.

The characters were fairly lackluster. The few that actually breathed some life into the story were unfortunately underutilized. It was disappointing that they weren't given the chance to shine as removing a lot of the filler and giving them more screen time would have significantly improved the drama. Joke and Zo, despite being the main couple, lacked a lot of development in their relationship. There were moments where they seemed to be on the same page, but then there would be conflict out of nowhere. Joke in particular seemed to lack a sense of self. Everything about him was focused on Zo and yet it's never clear exactly why he's so in love with him. Zo's emotions were hard to read which I think was mostly an acting issue, but it made it difficult to identify with and care about the character. There were also some awkward moments between the characters. One that stood out to me was the scene where Joke and Zo have sex for the first time. Zo says he doesn't think he's ready, then apparently changes his mind two seconds later and then looks absolutely terrified when Joke goes to take off his shirt. Joke's actions also felt out of character. Considering how caring and attentive he had been towards Zo up to that point, he felt too assertive in that moment. I imagined him taking things much slower to make sure Zo was comfortable. The energy and emotions just felt very off for an intimate scene. Characters like Jeng, Pok, Kot and Pat added a necessary level of dimension to the story, but were never given full rein to develop into fully realized characters. Jeng and Pok in particular were a great addition as an established couple and frankly I found them to be far more compelling than Joke and Zo. They faced legitimate issues in their relationship that unfortunately were rushed but did provide a nice reprieve from the monotony. Kot and Pat were filtered in mostly as a source of humor, but I generally liked their characters and I think with better planning, they could have served as more than that. I found Nita to be fairly boring. She had some good lines, I did think she deserved to win the scholarship as her answer was the best thought out and compelling, but otherwise she didn't impress me. She felt like the token female character that needed to be present for the lead to crush on before realizing he was actually into guys. As a side note, the whole conflict between Wave and Trin was incredibly contrived and unnecessary. Why they couldn't have just had Wave not like the guy because their personalities clashed or something less convoluted is beyond me. The ending between them felt cliche and unresolved.

The acting, particularly the leads', was underwhelming. Dunk is a sweetheart, he seems like a genuinely nice and good guy, but when it comes to his acting, he really struggles. It felt like he was playing a very slightly different version of Daonuea from SIMM. He either under acts or over acts depending on the scene, emotional scenes are painful to watch, he fails to emote, and he does this weird thing with his head sometimes that I don't even know how to describe. Frankly, I don't know as he's so much acting as just being himself. It's just no bueno. Joong felt like he was portraying a less closed off Khabkluen from SIMM. His performance wasn't bad, just not great either. And the thing is, he can act. He had a small role in Home School recently and I really liked his performance. Here though, he was a bit boring. I do think some of that was the way the character was written though. Joke doesn't have much to him. The chemistry between Joong and Dunk wasn't great which is both surprising and disappointing because off screen, their chemistry is fantastic. But in this instance it felt forced and unnatural at times. Aou was one of the bright spots in the cast. I've seen every drama he's been in and he has yet to disappoint me. I don't think this was one of his stronger roles, but I'm chalking that up to the writing because he didn't have a whole lot to work with. Boom was another bright spot. His chemistry with Aou is great. They seem comfortable with each other and it shows. I love Louis. He's such a versatile actor and I found him entertaining in this role though I wish we'd had more of him. I like AJ, but I feel like he typically plays the same kind of characters. I'd like to see him in a different role. Jamie is a gorgeous young woman, I liked her in Home School, but here I just found her to be wooden. She lacked expression a lot of the time or seemed to only use one expression. Her performance was just bland. I felt she could have done a lot more with the character.

My biggest problem with the production was the sheer number of inconsistencies. Every drama is going to have them, but this one stands out in terms of how blatant they were. In the scene where Zo almost falls twice and Joke catches him, arms were in different places between takes. Same with the scene where they cuddle in bed. In one take, Zo's arm is under the cover, in the next it's on top of the cover. In the scene where Joke takes his roadside shower which was weird to begin with, there was a smear of grease on his arm that kept appearing and disappearing. And probably the most glaring instance was, in the shot right before Zo finds the smashed ceramics, as he's closing the door, you can clearly see them, still intact, on the shelf behind him. There were a few others, but those ones really stood out to me and to me it just showed a lack of attention to detail.

This is not a drama that I can in good faith recommend. It was too inconsistent and too poorly acted to make it worth the time to get through. There are some sweet scenes, but they're not enough to make up for all that's lacking. Unless you are a die hard JoongDunk fan, steer clear of this one.

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Nawin stole the show

If Charn and Nawin were leads, Laws of Attraction would easily be a 10/10.

I originally dropped this show halfway through episode one for a number of reasons but a friend strongly suggested that I finish it as it gets better, thank goodness she wasn't lying. I immediately adore Charn in episode two; Charn being unserious in serious situations is a lot more pleasant to watch than Film trying to be serious in poorly edited/executed scenes.

In all 8 episodes, there wasn't one time where I was charmed by Tinn. If Charn was Mr. Smirky then Tinn was Mr. Smiley. I don't understand why Tinn was so merry about his second meeting with Charn when his niece had just passed; I expected him to be more mopey given the situation. Jam is a good-looking actor, but Tinn has no personality other than being overly jealous and obsessive over Charn. Speaking of personalities, Charn's smiles and horror-like grins don't make sense sometimes but I can't hate them since they do add to his 'devil'/'evil' character.

Story-wise, I thought it was alright overall. Not exactly mind-blowing or impressive but not bad. A lot of the conflicts were quickly resolved (understandable given its shorter length than most) and a lot of it was predictable. That wedding came at a left field, though, and can't say I love it. I don't mind the second couple but I wished Thaenthai had more scenes with Tinn and the grandmother just to apologize and atone for not telling the truth earlier on. As for musicality, I really don't remember much of it and whether or not I enjoyed or hated it. I did skip Tinn's singing moments but it's mainly because I'm sort of fed up with them singing in these series xD

Finally, Nawin! This man was the highlight of the show and I'm sure he's just about everyone's favorite character. I'm always laughing whenever he's on screen. I love his immoral craziness, his humor, his 180 in everything from attitude to expression and to voice volume when engaging with Charn and Tinn, and his reactions to everyone around him including his minions. Nat really stole the show and made episodes 7 and 8 tolerable. I swear he's had more expressions in two episodes than Tinn, Thaenthai, and Thee combined in eight. If I ever rewatch "Laws of Attraction" it'll only be for Nawin's parts in ep 7 and 8.

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It could have been so good!

After season one, I was expecting season two to have some progress, and of course a happy ending. Instead, we have 10 episodes of the same torture of inability by Minato to act on his emotions. Please! What does shin see in him? I understand he has an obsession due to his early experiences, however, after all the rejection, he really should reevaluate. I completely understand that the whole point of the series is to show how broken Minato’s compass is. But 11 episodes?? So the 12th episode is not believable and not even as cathartic as it should be. If there is a third season, I hope it’s about Shin finding a normal guy who shows some appreciation for his love. And Minato goes back to the laundromat where he belongs!!
I must underline that the acting is great from all the actors. The settings are wonderful, and in all aspects other than the story this is an amazing series. that’s the only reason I finished watching it.

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It's one of the few love story dramas that I really enjoyed. I received electro-acupuncture treatment for a year so I am interested in this topic of Traditional Chinese Medicine. I really hope this drama inspires more young people to learn about it too. One of the best things I like is Ren Xin Zheng and his wife, they are so cute. The grandparents are also cute too. They are respectful elders with both wisdom and wittiness.
The drama has a good balance between reality and the usual perfection in the C-drama world. Each character has his/her own problem that is common in life and has a realistic ending, some are sad but overall are happy ones.

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The only thing hidden in this show was the plot

How should I start... let's say that the couple with the most potential here was actually WaveTrin (PodGuy) which was included completely out of blue at the end and wasn't even properly solved. I stayed mainly for AouBoom because the lack of their scenes in Vice Versa made me want more but it wasn't actually any better... And the main couple JokeZo... it was hell watching them at the start cuz I could not even imagine how could they get together with Zo's personality but it got better when they started dating.
And wtf was that debate club?? I would expect they'd talk about serious and controversial themes with lots of opinions and trying to find solution to it but those topics were completely random and the contest is also pretty unfair when you are on the side where you can't say much about it.
And the hidden agenda?? Was it just that Joke did not want to help Zo get Nita but to date him?? That ended in like ep 3 or 4 and then it was pretty random.
I'm actually glad they added a serious theme like stalking into it but making it a cover for Nita's and Joke's relationship was pretty lame I'd say. And poor Nita... she was so plain and treated like a doll there. At first she was Zo's prey without even knowing, then a victim of stalking and sexual harassment and in the end she felt bad for winning scholarship which wanted Zo but his speech was so poor he did not even deserve it. I'd say wasted potential on side characters.

I also wonder why JoongDunk has much more chemistry irl and iconic moment on LOL fanfest but their characters' chemistry is below zero. Idk what show could make JoongDunk shine but SIMM and HA are not the ones.

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Would you like a side of class commentary with that?

The social criticism of this film is about as subtle as, well... plonking a massive rack of meat on a table and calling it a "sacrificial feast" for your wealthy onlookers.

On the one hand, Hunger bangs you over the head with a wok while screaming, "rich people are evil" (facts) and asks you to maybe go touch some grass. On the other hand, it undercuts its own attempts at class commentary by erasing nuance and thereby failing to really contribute anything insightful.

I think if you want to watch something that leans more into the power dynamics and social criticism but still centres on food, I'd recommend The Platform (2019, Spanish).

That said, the production quality of the Hunger is top tier. It's worth watching purely for some of the cinematographic moments. The soundtrack is strong as well. Though I would've liked more of those jazz elements from the opening scenes to have been used later in the film too.

It may look like a long run time but it goes fast. Terrific pacing means this one is an easy watch for a Friday or Saturday night. Best served with the cheapest cook-up or takeaway you can muster.

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Damn best Chinese bl

Omgg this series was total damn worth watching nd waiting. Even thoo there was no nc scene , lip kiss etc... They chemistry was insane thier little little interactions made me BLUSH SO HARDDD i swear ,but dude fUCK THE ENDING!!! ?writer please pay for my s1 ending trauma im glad that they renewed for season 2 im waiting... Total worth rewatching, thier relationship development was tooo good its one of my most favorite bl now?So gooodddd and omggg please i neee a boyfriend like wubi..that little girl (duo) acting was to good..ikik i never trusted WU BI's brother from the starting.. Dude if i catch ill surely ??(Wubi's brother)but please ending made me to cryyy so hardd... I'll miss suyu nd wubi 's acting until we get S2 okay letme just describe this whole series in one word this series an ?GEM

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I don't care if this is biased, it broke me

I cannot stress enough how beautifully painful these two episodes were in my eyes. I've read reviews claiming it's slow but... isn't life like that?
especially after breaking up with who you thought was meant to stay forever
especially when you're trying so hard not to ruin everything
especially when you're trying to let go and let heal

this story felt like a lonely night
like a slow summer evening
like doubt
like expectations
like smiling through tears

it's directed beautifully

I actually do not want to analyze it. I just want to let it was over me with is mundanity in a way I'll never recover from.

"it could be extraordinary"

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Oh my the car chase

I got a whole new appreciation for Gong Yoo after watching Suspect. The car chases have to be the best I can remember ever watching. My whole body was tense. I had to take a break here and there during some of the scenes.

When I saw that Jo Sung Ha was portrayed Kim Suk Ho, I just knew he had to be a bad guy. Loved it when the formula was for growing buckwheat. Joke on him.

Appreciated the Captain (Jo Jae Yoon) who provided some light moments of laughter.

I just wanted to sob when Dong Chul found his daughter.

I usually don’t watch KMovies. I’m glad I watched this one.

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