Completed
Butterflied Lover
4 people found this review helpful
Oct 4, 2023
22 of 22 episodes seen
Completed 1
Overall 7.5
Story 7.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 1.0

Quite disappointing. A sweet story to pass the time but nothing more.

This will be the shortest review I've ever written. I won't even write positive or negative points like I usually do. Maybe I had high expectations but I was quite disappointed by this drama especially as I loved the other two similar mini-dramas "A Familiar Stranger" and "Provoke". The drama starts with a banging first episode. Intense and eye-catching fight scenes, suspense and beautiful romantic feel of the main leads. But it's all a lie as the majority of the episodes are about watching the daily lives of the main leads - sleeping, eating, cooking, going to the market etc.

I really enjoyed the first half of the drama as we got to see how the main leads fell in love. However the second half of the drama felt very underwhelming as virtually nothing big happened. I was really struggling not to fall asleep. The plot didn't intrigue me even one bit and the fact that the biggest conflict in the whole drama was resolved in the final episodes in two seconds by a random side character.

Overall I still may recommend this drama as everyone has different tastes and what I didn't like someone else might enjoy. But personally for me this was a huge disappointment plot wise which is a shame since the cinematography and cast were great.

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Completed
Have a Crush on You
0 people found this review helpful
Oct 4, 2023
36 of 36 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 1.0
Story 1.0
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 9.5
Rewatch Value 1.0

Ending sucked

It was totally unnecessary the way they ended it. I was so disappointed when two of my favorite actors were in this drama and the writers had to end it the worst way. They should have made it better to where people want to keep watching it. I have no desire to watch it anymore. I thought that this was going to be one of the best dramas I’ve ever watched to date but boy was I disappointed. They need a second season to see how they rekindle, and if he gets his memory back because that was a bunch of crap, and totally unnecessary for them to go to Africa, which made no sense. It was stupid. I’m really disappointed in the actors and directors. I will never watch another one from the Writer again. I am just baffled by what they did. And the extra ending made no sense. They need to have a second season to see how it rekindles and what happens. at least do a mini series of 10 or 12 something to give the viewers a happy ending that they should’ve had to begin with. I regret watching this when I was watching the first 30 episodes I loved it and then from episodes 31 through 38. Totally disappointed me that I regretted ever watching this. That Writer needs to redo the ending and do another season. That is my opinion in my review I would not recommend this to nobody do not watch it.
DO NOT WATCH IT WORDT ENDING EVER ON A DRAMA!

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Completed
Miss the Dragon
2 people found this review helpful
Oct 4, 2023
36 of 36 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.5
Story 7.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 10
Rewatch Value 7.5

Emotional & romantic love story that could have been great

The drama tells the love story of the dragon male lead who falls in love with the mortal female girl and spends four lifetimes protecting her silently with the hope that one day he will be together with her. The story starts beautifully, like a fairytale. The first 10 episodes focus on the main couple falling in love, and if you are a hopeless romantic you will definitely love this part. Then we have a separation as the mortal girl is reincarnated which is fine at first. Until she reincarnates again, and again. What could have been a sweet and romantic love story turns into a repetitive plot with zero development between the main leads after episode 10.

THE SECOND COUPLE IS WORTH TO SEE:
The love story of the second couple was perfect. "I-love-you-for-a-thousand-years" vibe. They have the perfect organic development and steal the spotlight especially in the second half of the drama. We see them bickering, we see them becoming friendly, we see them falling in love. We see them as the perfect star-crossed lovers. They had the sweetness, the angst, the fire chemistry, the grumpy/sunshine trope, cold man with bubbly woman.

HOW I RECOMMEND TO WATCH THIS:
I'd recommend watching episodes 1-10, then only watch the second couple while skipping the rest, and then finish the story with episodes 29-36. You won't miss anything plot wise because nothing happens in the 2nd and 3rd life. Honestly, if this drama was only 24 episodes with only the 1st and 4th life it would have been perfect for sure. Not that the 2nd and 3rd life are bad, if you watch them as 4 mini dramas they are interesting but the fact that for 17 episodes there is zero relationship development for the 1st couple is just horrible writing.

MUSIC:
I have to specifically mention that I loved the OST and I played the ending song on repeat non-stop. If you drop the drama, at least listen to the ending song as it's perfect.

THE FOUR LIVES:

1st life: ep 1-10 (10 eps)
- FL is an orphan, working as a maid. She is soft hearted and helps animals. This is where the main leads fall in love and it's done really well.

2nd life: ep 11-17 (7 eps)
- FL is hard-working, independent and head-strong. She is bullied by the village’s annoying girl. Honestly nothing much happens and you can totally skip this life (but watch the second couple scenes).

3rd life: ep 18-28 (10 eps)
- FL is a general and the strongest in the army, she is giving Mulan vibes.
- The best villain of the drama is here.
- Great war and fight scenes.
- Feels super draggy with boring side characters. The plot doesn't move forward. Zero development for the main leads. You can totally skip this (but watch the second couple scenes as they are amazing here).

4th life: ep 29-36 (7 eps)
- FL is born into a wuxia sect that fights demons. Everything is revealed here and we have a great final battle (it's low budget but still done well).

OVERALL:
I did enjoy watching this but I'm disappointed because the plot had great potential for the main leads but didn't deliver. I still recommend people to watch this but skip the parts I mentioned above. In terms of acting, I was very pleasantly surprised by the FL. She was phenomenal in playing 4 different characters. ML was a bit stiff but somehow it fitted his character. The second couple were perfect in every way.

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Completed
Hello, I'm at Your Service
1 people found this review helpful
Oct 4, 2023
24 of 24 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.5
Story 7.5
Acting/Cast 10
Music 5.5
Rewatch Value 5.0
This review may contain spoilers

Nothing new

Drama was same like any other drama which was based on Boss and his secretary or Boss and his employee. In starting of such dramas the boss gets irritate with his secretary's work or by her behaviour and slowly slowly starting care her . Here little change in the story she was neither his employee not secretary in starting , circumstances made her work for him . She has her advertisement company so she had tie up with male lead's company . In starting their views never matched but he had a past story with her so sometimes he had soft corner towards her and then gradually he fell in love. Then some problem had been created in their life so there was turn in their love story but he gradually solve the issues and there after happy ending.
Though I enjoy watching love stories but this drama bored me a lot .

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Completed
My Lovely Liar
1 people found this review helpful
Oct 4, 2023
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 7.0

There were good and not so great elements of the show.

This was a drama where I was very excited for the cast, Kim So Hyun has some hit or miss dramas, but she always acts well beyond her years and I still can’t believe she’s only 24. Hwang Min Hyun was pretty good in Alchemy of Souls and let’s face it, he has a very nice face to look at.

The premise of the story is interesting, the FL, can hear lies and she happens to meet someone who basically doesn’t lie (even though the title is called My Lovely Liar, but when you watch the drama, I guess that is kind of explained).

I like the cast and the secondary cast was pretty good. Very entertaining and everyone has their quirks. I like that I mostly didn’t recognize anyone else and so it was nice to see fresh faces (to me that is).

The drama basically has low angst which could be considered good or bad. I found some parts a little slow and boring, but I rather have that then silly angst.

The villains of the show were really annoying. You know that villain who is just “crazy” and never seems to listen to anyone even when everyone is saying he or she is wrong, but they will not simply listen. Yeah, that was fairly frustrating to watch. To have the bad guy pursue the ML for so long and for one solid reason was very annoying to watch.

The FL’s mom was very annoying too. I loved her in Dr. Romantic but I will not want to watch her in a “bad” role anymore. I couldn’t take the mom character at all. I truly wanted to fast forward her scenes because they made her so over the top and kind of ridiculous

As much as I love the leads, there is ZERO chemistry between the two. I truly felt like I was watching two pretty actors recite lines to each other and maybe that has to do something with post production. There are a lot of moments of dialogue without background music and I found that really odd.

The drama is fairly predictable and I figured out everything by the 4th episode, that doesn’t really hinder my experience because to me that wasn’t really the main part of the show for me. I was just interested in the leads getting to know each other, so suffice it to say, I enjoy the first half better.

The show could have easily been cut down to 12 episodes, but I didn’t fast forward anything so it’s an easy show to watch, or to have something on the background. I started to read webcomics as I was watching the show towards the second half and I was completely fine in following the storyline (I don’t know Korean, just FYI).

Overall, watch it for the leads, but the storyline / over plot is fairly lackluster.

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Completed
Hansan: Rising Dragon
0 people found this review helpful
Oct 4, 2023
Completed 0
Overall 10
Story 10
Acting/Cast 10
Music 10
Rewatch Value 10

A fantastic epic ‘War at Sea’ movie

Hansan: Rising Dragon is a thriller movie and is near perfect all around.

There have been great historic war battles which have been fought throughout history. One such war battle took place near Hansan Island in Korea, during the Joseon era in 1592 CE. Two great tacticians of War went up against each other in a chess game of wits. They were Admiral Yi Sun Sin of Korea (Played by Park Hae-il from Decision to Leave) and Admiral Wakisaka Yasuharu of Japan (Played by Byun Yo-han from Six Flying Dragons). While the Great Battle at Hansan Island was replayed out on the big screen, a great acting battle was wonderfully delivered by these two great actors playing their prospective Admirals. Those looking for the quintessential offerings of Korean Film and Drama do well to follow the movies and dramas of these two gentlemen. (Fans of Ok Taec-yeon from Vincenzo, see if you can spot him in this movie)

This decisive Battle at Hansan Isalnd took place during the invasion of Korea by Japan, and it was a Naval battle. Of course, liberties were taken with history to produce this nail-biting cinematic experience. However, from the imaginations of writers Kim Han-min and Yun Hong-gi and direction of Kim Han-min, the viewers see a perfect chess match played out at sea, accompanied by a great movie score. The movie is written from the prospective of both men and it imagines the challenges they might have faced to try to obtain a victory at sea. Hansan : Rising Dragon was a movie that took my breath away as I observed the chess match depicted in this strategic battle. It’s beautifully recreated miniature sets, cinematography through the roof, and gorgeously loud sound effects added greatly to this high quality movie. With any war victory, one pauses to recognize the loss of life as grunts are sacrificed for glory, however, this movie takes a behind the scenes look at the cost of victory.

An important quote paraphrased from the movie is “They prepared themselves for offense, but they neglected to account for defense too”.

‘Hansan: Rising Dragon’ is another movie from 2022 staring Korea actor Park Hae-il which garnered many post production accolades and awards, as did his second film ‘Decision To Leave’, which won the Baeksang Arts Awards (Korean Oscars) for Best Film for 2023 (Competing against Hansan: Rising Dragon). In addition, Byun Yo-han (Mr Sunshine) won the Baeksang for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Admiral Wakisaka Yasuharu. Much of the movie was delivered in the Korean language and the rest of the movie was delivered in Old Japanese. Byun Yo-han had to deliver all his lines in Old Japanese and he did an award winning job.


Admiral Yi Sun Sin of Korean from Bansan: Rising Dragon (Played by Park Hae-il from Decision to Leave)


Admiral Wakisaka Yasuharu of Japan from Bansan: Rising Dragon (Played by Byun Yo-han from Mr Sunshine).

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Completed
What Happens to My Family?
0 people found this review helpful
Oct 4, 2023
53 of 53 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 7.5
Rewatch Value 7.0

Real Family Drama

Last episode was an emotional roller coaster. "If you don't tell someone you love them, they won't know" even if it's your own family. So TALK, COMMUNICATE & OPEN YOUR HEARTS.


THIS IS A WHOLESOME DRAMA THAT feels like being in one's own home. The story unfolds like everyday happenings in a real family and you're being part of them.

50+ episode long, 2014 drama about a chaotic family's daily struggles, generation gap, class difference. Lots of wholesome moments & comic relief. Many relatable, few loud characters.

It's the #Baghban of #Kdramas

? ? ? ?

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Completed
My Lovely Sam Soon
2 people found this review helpful
Oct 4, 2023
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 8.0

People continue living knowing they'll die

"People continue living...knowing that we're all going to die" - #MyLovelySamSoon (2005)

This is so melancholic yet endearing. Reminds me of John Elia's poetry.

کتنی دلکش ہو تم کتنا دل جُو ہوں میں
کیا ستم ہے کہ ہم لوگ مر جائیں گے

.

If you're into Kdramas & under cultural shock, watch MyLovelySamSoon (2005) to see how it debunks everything we find problematic like Cinderella syndrome, body shaming, age gap, class difference etc that too 18 yrs ago.

#HyunBin #KimSunHa #JungReyoWon ?

Imdb 8.1
? ? ? ?

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Dropped 6/12
Dangerous Romance
14 people found this review helpful
Oct 4, 2023
6 of 12 episodes seen
Dropped 0
Overall 5.0
Story 4.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers

Went downhill after the first episodes

I really enjoyed the first 3-4 episodes and I was expecting Dangerous Romance to become one of my favorites. I usually enjoy enemy-to-lovers-tropes a lot, even if they are a bit basic, however I'm really disappointed with how this storyline is progressing.
First of all, the plot feels really rushed. The guys became friends in almost no time, even after some (almost) unforgivable actions from Kanghan. What bothers me the most though, is the unnecessary drama between Ploy, Kanghan and Silom. Ploy confessed her feelings for Silom out of nowhere and Kanghan's feelings for Ploy felt really forced. The entire love triangle is just too messy.
Episode 6 was super boring and the kiss felt rushed.
I was really looking forward to a cute romance between Ploy and the teacher but making Ploy like Silom kind of ruined that for me as well and I don't want to keep watching at this point.

All in all: It's hard to enjoy Dangerous Romance because it doesn't give you enough time to explore the depths of each character and feels very superficial.

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Completed
Forever Love
1 people found this review helpful
by Azet
Oct 4, 2023
30 of 30 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 8.0

Watch this one for the main-leads!

Chen Fang Tong & Dai Gao Zheng totally fired up the screen in "Maid`s Revenge" so i have been unable to forget these two for a long while. I was so excited when i got to know they would star in a new drama together. "Forever Love" is a contemporary romance with business intrigues and politics. We have investigations going on, combat scenes and betrayals. But the fiery chemistry between the main-leads totally made this worth the watch, i binge watched it in one day. Dai Gao Zheng is absolutely gorgeous as the bodyguard Qin Mo Yao and i loved how absolutely besotted he is with Tong. Their love-scenes made me absolutely warm all over. Ahhhh how i hope for more dramas with both of them steaming up the screen again!!

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Unique Lady
0 people found this review helpful
Oct 4, 2023
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 10
Story 10
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 8.5
Rewatch Value 9.5

Uniquely satisfying Fantasy Chinese drama with a huge twist (a twist which I won’t reveal)

Costume & Period, Romance, Time Travel Fusion, Gaming Drama

Unique Lady is about a young lady whose life amounts to only playing video games and studying. She is distraught over her pathetic love life, and gets trapped in a video game about “finding your person” in the Sheng-Yuan Dynasty. She has to cosplay play this video game all the way through, before she can exist. She is surrounded by gorgeous men all over the place, falling in love with her. So I thought that this would be a perfect brainless down-time Chinese Drama, with the emphasis on brainless. However, surprise! Unique Lady actual has an extremely engaging and intelligent storyline, which is well written and acted. I should have known that this drama was not run-of-the-mill when I saw the Chinese actors’ firepower lined up for this drama. To add to this viewing pleasure, Unique Lady also has a Season 2. In the 24 episodes for seasons one and two, there is a fan viewing commitment time of less than 18 hours. The same goes for season 2. Therefore, the Chinese Drama Unique Lady is Korean Drama Fan Friendly.

This Drama is taken from Lascivious Lady by Orange Light Game: Adapted from the novel Haose Qianjin by Qing Lanlan

You will get massive Dual Lead Syndrome with these main suitors. I could not choose.


Actors’ Corner


The heroine of Unique Lady is Lin Lou Jing (Played by Zheng Qiu Hong or Jade from Fairyland Lovers). She has four suitors in this dating video game, all four with totally different personalities. There is a digital System Conductor, which helps guide her through her game choices. Lin Lou Jing has only five attempts at finding Mr. Right and she must find someone whom she loves and who loves her, before she can exist the game.

The main suitors for Lin Lou Jing are Zhong Wu Mei (Played by Gong Jun or Simon from Begin Again) and Liu Xiu Wen/[Prince of Qiyu] (Played by Fang Yilun or Alen, who is dead ringer for Hyun Bin and appeared in The Long Ballard).

Gong Jun has an interesting backstory. His first day at University, his teachers took one look at him and told him he should be in Chinese dramas, because of his look. He was able to change majors and was sent to acting school. And the rest is history.

You can include in the mix of people with whom to fall in love, the Third and Fourth Leads.

Jiang Xuan Yu (Played by Yu Kai Ning from Cute Programer) and Hua Ying Chi (Played by Li Hao from Douluo Continent)

Have fun.

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Completed
United Win
0 people found this review helpful
Oct 4, 2023
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 10
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 10
Rewatch Value 10
This review may contain spoilers

Best Friendship-themed Drama I think I've ever watched

United Win is the greatest friendship-themed drama I think I've ever watched. Sometimes, it's the small imperfections that make things perfect, which I think is applicable for this drama. What I mean by this is that, sure, there were a couple of things I would have liked: slightly longer episodes for greater character development (for the supporting cast), perhaps more 'sports' scenes in the first half of episodes, a slightly slower pace. But when I think about these things I desire, and then I think about the tone of the story, I think United Win did something very clever here.

The characters were perfect. They were acted amazingly, and despite the short episodes, you could really feel the emotions they wanted to garner from the audience. Another thing was the story. The friendship was absolutely unreal in this one. It really felt like I was part of the team. Whether you call it bromance or more than that, that's up to you to decide. But yeah, this drama made me feel really happy at the end of it all. On a side note, the supporting character Tian Xin (played by actor Kang Qi Xuan) is perhaps my favourite comedy character in dramaland of all time. Yes. He was that funny. I'm not saying he's definitely my top spot, but my goodness, he's definitely in contention. While I did say I would have liked longer episodes for greater character development for the supporting cast, this doesn't mean I didn't like them. On the contrary, I loved all the characters. If we were given more, I would have perhaps loved them even more!

Music reminded me of a throwback playlist I would listen to back on the Xbox 360 days in the years of 2007-10, when social media was less dominant and good times were more likely. Re-watch value is very high here, just because of how much I loved the friendship in this one, but also due to the short episode length, and the easy accessibility.

I highly recommend everyone to watch United Win!

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When You Be Me
0 people found this review helpful
Oct 4, 2023
26 of 26 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 10
Story 10
Acting/Cast 10
Music 9.5
Rewatch Value 9.5

Finding yourself through another person’s eyes.

Shorter Chinese dramas are becoming a stable. Also, some of these shorter dramas give new comers, who are not yet proven, a chance to act in dramas before they are called up to the Epic Dramas. What makes the Chinese Drama ‘When You Be Me’ a special gem is the writing. The writing of Pei Li and Hua Qian Ci nail this double body swap of a girl transferred to a male body and a boy transferred to a female body and the learning experiences they get because of it (This writing team also wrote A League of Nobleman). How do men relate to women? How do women relate to men? What are their differences? The drama When You Be Me has unpredictable outcomes that should keep you engaged, unpredictable to the very end. Unlike some Chinese dramas where the writers lose their way towards the end of the drama, this storyline is consistent and has logical order all the way through. Explore unique possibilities in this new Chinese double body swap drama ‘When You Be Me’.

There are so many little things that are great about When You Be Me, besides the two leads (Zhou Yi Ran as Mu Xiang Xiang and Kido Ma as Qiao Nan). It depicts teens in leadership roles, camaraderie among peers, bullying, good parental guidance, good and bad family dynamics, a slew of talking points that will keep your mind occupied for days. You can tell that these young inexperienced actors had a great director (Chen Chang) with great ideas on how to interpret their characters. The writing was believable and inventive, but so in tune with the possibilities of an actual body swap. Both young actors locked in on their character and neither one abandoned it during the body swap scenes, which added to believability and escapism. The male and female characters are polar opposites. Qiao Nan is a brash athletic spoiled second generation rich Plutocrat (Chaebol) boy and Mu Xiang Xiang is a top student who is a timid and introverted girl, and comes from a poor family. This swap makes for hilarious antics, nonetheless.

Ladies, what would be one of the first things you would give into, if you inherited a male body with little fat? I could have just died with laughter when the first thing the girl in the boy’s body did was to go buy a really expensive fancy decadent desert and eat the whole thing, not having to worry about calories. Men are so fortunate to burn calories so quickly. Even as funny was that the boy (in the girl’s body) learns how to use emotional guilt, utilizing the emotional cry to get his way. Nothing beats a try, but a cry.

When You Be Me is a great fantasy body swap drama to add to your binge-watch list.





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A Robot in the Orange Orchard
0 people found this review helpful
Oct 4, 2023
30 of 30 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 8.0

Sometimes a remake drama can reach new heights.

Sometimes dramas and their remakes are just different and not better or worse. I am a supper fan of Yoo Seung Ho and Chae Soo Bin who starred in the original Korean Drama RomCom ‘I Am Not A Robot’. This RomCom had lots of laughter and comedic moments and was well acted by these two leads. The Chinese remake of this drama (with Connor Leong from Meteor Garden and Sun Qian from Take My Brother Away) was very faithful to the material, but had significant plot changes to the storyline with certain characters, however. This did not take away from the story, but some choices actually made more sense. In addition, while I Am Not A Robot played more to the comedic side of the story, Robot In The Orange Orchard played more to the SyFy Fantasy of this story.

Connor Leong and Sun Qian vs Chae Soo Bin and Yoo Seung Ho

The story is about a boy (Lu Sen) who is allergic to humans (haphenphobia), an allergy brought on in part by the death of his parents at a very young age. This caused this second generation Monopoly Capitalist (Chaebol) to live in seclusion for 15 years, from the time he was 10 years old, even cooking his own meals. This meant that he had little to no contact with the outside world. Now a genius with an IQ of 159 and lots of money to burn, Lu Sen buys into an AI company which makes realistic looking Robots that he wants to test as a live-in. When test day comes, the robot breaks and the makers of the robot asks the life model of the robot to substitute in for a time as a Robot, until the real robot is fixed.

You have to buy into the fantasy fact that this isolated child-like man would not be able to tell the difference between a robot and a human and here is where for me Connor Leong shined the most. His performance was truly sincere as someone so lonely and disassociated from the world that he does not know a robot from a real human. I cried way more with ‘Robot In The Orange Orchard’ than I did with ‘I Am Not A Robot’. I do think that Chae Soo Bin was a better robot/human than Sun Qian as Yang Shan Shan, but Sun Qian did a good job with the rest of the script.

I would say to put both of these dramas on your ‘To Watch’ List and maybe do a back to back binge and let me know what you thought.

NOTES
I am a fan of the original Korean actor Yoo Seung Ho, and extremely prejudiced.

Chinese

He did a masterful job in handling this character. It looked like he didn’t even watch the original. His own take is evident in the way he approach the character in his own original way.

Orange Orchard was way more sentimental and touching, bringing me to tears often.

Connor Leong gave a very sincere performance. His approach to the character made me more readily accept that he believed she was a robot, but that he was falling in love.

Tweaks to the storylines were realistic and natural. Not prone towards comedy.

She was not a convincing robot, but was stellar in the back half when she was not pretending to be a robot.

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Moonshine and Valentine
1 people found this review helpful
Oct 4, 2023
25 of 25 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.5
Story 10
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 9.5
Rewatch Value 9.0

Chinese drama version of My Love From The Stars/Legend of the Blue Sea and supersized.

Moonshine and Valentine or another name is The Love Knot: His Excellency’s First Love

I am having a Chinese blast with Moonshine and Valentine (2018 and PG13), which is a modern fantasy love story with story arcs rooted in the historic past. If the Korean Dramas My Love From The Stars (MLFTS) and Legend From The Blue Sea (LOTBS) had a baby drama together, it would be this fusion Chinese drama. I am surprised at how the storyline so perfectly incorporates the premises of both Korean Dramas. However, Moonshine and Valentine creates a fantasy world which exists alongside the world of humans. You quickly will buy into this world within a world. Throw in a perfect drama music score, then lean to the side and accept this ride.

This is a story about aliens from Another Star Far Far Away, escaping the eminent explosion of their world by settling on earth, which is a sister-like planet. These sentient beings are part of the Fox Clan of beings with higher powers. While being dissimilar to earthlings, these Shape-shifters have learned to mesh into the world of humans and live among them, being unnoticed for millennia (like My Love From The Stars). The second in charge of the Fox Clan on earth is 900 years old and is now an antique dealer in present times. He is He Lan Jing Ting (Johnny Huang). Because of he physical nature, He Lan Jing Ting is blind during the daylight hours, but has super senses at nighttime (Hemeralopia), when he can live less restricted. He Lan Jing Ting has had but one love throughout the millennia (Legend of the Blue Sea). She reoccurs through time and is at present a reporter Guan PiPi (Victoria Song). Guan PiPi has been assigned to cover He Lan Jing Ting for a story, not knowing their past historic romantic connections. As in both Korean Dramas MLFTS and LOTBS, the past historic storyline is served up in delicately and precisely introduced flashbacks. After actor introduction, the flashbacks mostly are introduced at the start of each new episode and will be pertinent to the new episode to follow. I loved how this was done.

Similar to the Korean Drama Arthdal Chronicles, this fantasy world created in the Chinese drama Moonshine and Valentine/The Love Knot: His Excellency’s First Love is totally inventive, highly imagined, and well written and acted. At 25 episodes of 45 minutes each, the time commitment is only 19 hours to binge. The story does detour a bit towards the end, but tries to get back on track by the end.

Moonshine and Valentine/The Love Knot: His Excellency’s First Love stars Chinese Actress Victoria Song as the Female Lead, an actress whom I have noted in the past as having the acting aurora of the Korean actress Jun Ji Hyun from both Korean dramas MLFTS and LOTBS. Therefore, it is fitting that Victoria Song gets the part of the Female Lead in this Chinese Drama. Also, staring as Male Lead is Chinese Drama heartthrob Johnny Huang, and I must say, in all his glory.

The chemistry created between the two leads can only be termed magnetically sensual. Throw in some rocking minions, brothers who are the total opposites. One (Li Jun Xian/Shen as Xiu Xian) has tried to keep up with the changing trends through time and is a loosey goosey rocker. The other is a sophisticated but antiquated ‘stick in the mud’ (Li Jia Ming Leo as Kuan Yong), stuck in the classical past eras. It will be your privilege to try to imagine for which one you would fall first. Of course, there is the usual handsome Second Lead and boyfriend (Xu Kai Cheng as Tao Jialin) to stand in the way of love and the handsome villain (Jiang Qi Lin as Zhao Song [Left High Priest]) to stir up things. For The Ladies: there is lots of eye candy, the whole cast deep. I am going to be shallow here. A lot of times I forgot to read the subtitles, because of gazing, and had to rewind.

Chinese Dramas are known for their second couples. You should enjoy these two Fox Clan supermodel brothers competing for this human chick (Liu Yongxi). Although Liu Yongxi had a difficult choice between brothers in this drama, apparently “stick in the mud” stood out in real life. They are now engaged to be married.

Disclosure: Some of the alien habits of some Fox Clan group members might be disturbing to some.

In addition, Fox Clan might become a phrase synonymous with the word gorgeous .

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