Reviews

Can’t find any fault

Great drama with so much suspense and things to look forward to after every episode. I love the story line, the smaller plots as they travel across cities and how they compliment the wider bigger plot of the drama. Not a fan of mellow dramatic plot so I’m glad it has minimal of that sorta stuff. Love the unexpected twist towards the end of the drama as well, it gave me such great satisfaction in the end. I must commend, superb performance/ acting by the cast especially Cheng Yi. I wished they’d casted someone else than Chen Duling though - her character is supposed to be a strong martial arts guru/leader but she looks so pitiful /weak 80% of the time. That’s the only miscast I can think of from the entire drama otherwise it’s a really great work by the team.

Read More

It started strong but...

This is going to be just a short review.

Story: 6/10

The plot for the season 2 is not giving. Something is not right. First, the development of the story. You know that the first 3 episodes of the series was okay, but the subsequent episodes were meh, at least, for me. They felt draggy. Second, the dynamics of the plot. I appreciate that they tried to add some sub-plot to the whole plot of the S2 but it turned out not so well for it felt like its addition was rather unnecessary. For instance, Dohwi and Hana's so called love line. In addition, they know that the series will only have at most 12 episodes but some episodes weren't maximized because there were a lot of fillers despite the fact that the plot was kind of fast-paced and despite that the story covers only a certain extent of the story. Lastly, character story. What is actually the purpose of the three evil spirits and Jeok Bong? Were they added, so the plot will have, at least, a path to take? The villains weren't given some stories to tell aside from Maju Sok, so at least we would know how they went from good to evil. What are their motivation? Other villains have a crucial part, but they came out as kind of unnecessary with how they were used in the story. Further, the counters sure have changed. Character, they have improved, at least, to me. However, it's sad that there weren't much focus on their abilities. There were no clear development on their abilities. The power they have on the first episode seemed to have remained until the very last episode. Why are other counters train their psychokinesis if they aren't going to really use it? And what's going on with Jeok Bong? Why did he remain clumsy and always so afraid at the end of the season? We didn't even get to see him really fight aside from that specific episode back at his hometown.

Cast/Acting: I love their acting, especially So Mun, Ha Na, that guy that Ms. Chu cared so much, and the villains. Others were okay in their acting, but others weren't just effective in capturing my full attention; hence, they didn't leave a mark to me.

Music: I didn't remember much the song used in the series but that song that Ha Na sang was good. Music scoring was brilliant!

Rewatch Value: The series wasn't good enough to deserve a rewatch.


Overall: Although the story has some shortcomings, it was still good. Plus, they really did a good job on the editing. Also, I love the fighting scenes! They were top notch!

Read More

Anyone can say anything: I think it's a light crime-bromance work..

Well....Desire Catcher...
I'm not saying it's a flawless work... regardless, it was enjoyable to watch, although I was annoyed at some points...
The strength of the series is the well-choreographed action scenes and beautiful atmospheric shots... and the OST, I've been listening to it often since then, I love it.
And the other plus: the acting!
The side characters are neutral for me, sometimes I didn't even notice them...
Here, I was convinced by the performance of the two main characters, especially Lu Fengping, who played by Zheng Yecheng. I fell in love with him!
Although in the eyes of many this relationship is not a bromance... it wouldn't hurt to see behind the lines and notice the looks and gestures... and especially to understand... because what they do for each other tells a lot...
Quite a lot of interactions reveal how much they complement each other... you just have to notice...
Although their relationship is uncertain and more tense until episode 18, after which it goes into a state of rest, it was still enjoyable to watch them because there were still strong scenes.
The main villain was played quite well by the actor, although his reasons were a bit weak and selfish in my opinion. The nurse was better...
Overall, the plot was not bad, I liked the solutions to the crime, although the police are almost always "slow" and idiotic, but acceptable... however, the ending was a bit rushed..
Of course, there were actions in it that did not add anything to the story, and were even unnecessary, like the death of Xiu Liu....
I didn't really like the ending either, because the whole series is unfair to Lu Fengping, but it made up for it that they reunited with Luo Fei and the team at the end... at least the series didn't give an open ending.
Overall, this light hearted bromance crime drama was a pleasure to watch, I will probably watch it again.
Feel free to try it without listening to the negative comments!

Read More

If you love super dramatic story, this is for you

I'm not a big fan of family drama, so I pretty much skipped the entire family drama especially all scenes involving the 2 crazy women lol...I only watched some part of the drama towards the ending, and i can tell you, its super thrilling, so if you love this kind of show, this lakorn is for ya

Althou I'm here for different reason. I am here to mainly watch Film Jam lol..I also love Yang over here. I only watched scenes where it involves them

I love the chemistry, sparks and the love between the gay couple. It's also beautiful watching the how Thian and Yang, really love each other despite the family feud. It's very rare scene to watch and I appreciate this healthy brotherhood

Overall, happy ending. Its a super tense thrilling dramatic drama.

Not my kind, but might be yours.

Read More

Good Things Come in Threes

Cheng Yi, Joseph Zeng and Xiao Shun Yao is the hilarious trio that you get to watch in MLC. At first, Di Fei Sheng's character may come off cold, but when you really get into the story he is a softie, especially for LianHua. The one thing that DuoBing and Fei Sheng have in common is that they both care for LianHua, and they have different reasons. Di Fei Sheng is the soulmate, who wants LianHua to get better so that they can have another fight, while DuoBing just wants to spend his whole life with LianHua solving cases and traveling the martial arts world.
The storyline captivates you, but more than that it is Cheng Yi's acting that grabs your heart. Jiao Li Qiao is a character who is obsessed with Di Fei Sheng, but also know what she wants in the end. This was my first time watching her in any show, and she is a really good actress. The plot twists in different episodes are so good, even if you might have guessed some of them, they still leave you intrigued about what's to come.
A MUST MUST MUST WATCH SHOW.

Read More

If you have read the novel…

Manage your expectations.

I have seen the unsubbed eps and I wanted to wait til Viki finished subbing all episodes. I kept reading about the ending and i couldn’t help but watch with the awful subs. If they wanted an open ending like that, they could at least have LYJ and SJ communicate with eo about her working far away and not leave it unsaid. Open ending does not mean unfinished, it felt that way. Like they didn’t know how to end it. I have read the novel in anticipation of this drama and that had my expectations really high. I’m not even talking about the intimacy between main couple as I was okay with that seeing they were very emotionally intimate and could show their love even without a lot of kissing scenes. I know a lot are saying the plot was all over the place because they went from silver shop to shooting to silver shop problems etc, but the shooting part was really part of the novel although they could have cut down screen time for this. Considering there were a lot of problems in the drama that they were able to solve well, you would think they would know how to show a better ending.

There were parts of the novel that they could have used in that would set this drama apart, like:
- sj’s uncle attempting suicide and not a car accident as in the drama
- lyj being super badass with the bullies and was able to play basketball with the men
- sj being jealous with lyj’s male bestfriends and asking he songnan how does one not fall in love with good looking friends
- during senior hs when they were apart, LYJ realizing something was wrong with her and she needed professional help (i was really looking forward to this part and how sj knew about her needing psych help)
- the conflict of lyj not knowing Sj was super rich (how she knew about it from her gege and the way she was trying to make sj confess about it was funny in the novel)
- lyj and nxh confrontation that had lujing hurt but made sj realize how much lyj loves him.
- them piercing each other’s ear on lyj’s birthday

Things i appreciate in the drama:
- the cast, their acting. ZYR’s nuanced acting. Sabrina’s talent.
- supportive friends and how they showed it
- step sibling relationship and how they communicate
- main couple non toxic relationship and communication, except the ending.
- SJ conversation with lyj’s mom, i really appreciate the dialogue in this scene, and zhou yiran’s delivery of his lines made it feel real.
- soothing music

Overall, i’m still glad i watched the drama. It could have been better.

Woah this review was long.

Read More

stick with it, it's definitely worth it!

at first i struggled to get into this drama, i really wanted to like it because i saw so many good things about it and i wanted to see for myself how good it was. i won't lie, i only really got into it around episode 6 or 7 but once i got to that point i was hooked!

all the main characters are amazing and each bring something different to the table.. i started off hating madam li but towards the end i quite liked her and was happy to see that she had done so much for tian due to her love for him, it was heartwarming even if it wasn't what would be seen as the right thing to do..

the chemistry between tian and jiu was perfect, this drama had me crying hard multiple times and thats what makes a drama so good, it makes the people watching it emotional and thats when you know the actors and story line are worth watching

the OST for this drama is wonderful, i love the songs so much they make me a bit emotional even just hearing them and remind me fondly of this drama whenever i hear them :')

Overall: if you're not sure if this drama is for you based on the first few episodes i urge you to stick with it because you may find yourself hooked on it like i was, all the actors in this drama deserve any and all praise they are getting because this drama truly is great, i would definitely recommend it!

only downside is that the first few episodes are a little slow and were not instantly gripping me, plus each episode is about 1:12 hours long (the length of some movies) so if you are not into that it may be quite heavy and difficult to watch so please do keep that in mind!

Read More

Could be Better

To be honest, this second season is disappointing for me, and this is coming from a TUC S1 die-hard fan who went around telling everyone to watch TUC 2 years ago.

A lot of things could be removed/added/improved to make the sequel a lot better, but well, it already happened. It’s useless to say anything contradictory to this drama at this point.

I finished this only for the original counters (they carried the show).

Things I’m not satisfied about:
1. The new counter, Jeokbong’s character showing no significant development.
2. The story focused too much on the evil spirits’ plot.
3. The piano guy made appearance in the finale - no significant reason, IMO. Closure? He already had his closure after what Hana did to save him.
4. The writers deciding not to develop Hana-Somun relationship dynamics further, after they started it first in S1 - a big loss. As more than half of TUC fandoms are their shippers.

Overall, 7/10 from me (10/10 for season 1)

Read More

Hidden Truth

Originally, Yi wanted to shoot the film in the PRC. In mainland China, homosexuality is not forbidden, but it is treated as taboo. However, after the temporary disappearance of actress Fan Bingbing, there was an appeal from the film bureau not to make certain films. For this reason, Yi rescheduled seven months before shooting began and decided to move to Taipei, Taiwan. A two-year casting process in China had preceded, but actors had dropped out after accepting commitments. According to Yi, it would not have been possible to engage Taiwanese actors because the audience would have noticed the language difference immediately. So for pragmatic reasons, among others, the Chinese actress Zeng Meihuizi took on three roles in Yi's film.

Filming took place over 39 shooting days from May to July 2019 in Taiwan. The production was supported by the Austrian Film Institute, the Vienna Film Fund, Eurimages, Creative Europe MEDIA, Aides aux cinémas du monde, Taipei Film Commission, Belgian Tax Shelter, the Ministry of Culture of Taiwan and Totem. The Austrian Broadcasting Corporation and Arte were also involved.

The film is about the tension between traditional life with children and starting a family and free life in the anonymity of a city. He found a beautiful, unobtrusive aesthetic form for this tension. In the film, one can clearly see how quickly progress in China has torn the generations apart.

The film is visually appealing and cleverly deals critically with the issues of prostitution and homosexuality. However, a few lengths and many plot lines that go nowhere ensure that the hoped-for social criticism and tragedy of the film fizzle out.

The film's clever use of colour should be emphasised. Different spaces and places (e.g. the village, the hip spaces of the big city) are characterised by colours in the film, which also mix again and again in individual scenes. The director is particularly interested in the colour gradients, the "movements" between the different spaces. The complexity of the film saves it from obvious genre formulas, the "sense of images" protects it from narrative conventions. In the process, the director's visual interest in the cinematic world creates a film that is as consistently ordered as it is emotionally stirring, penetrating the rigid structures of world cinema.

Read More

I fell in love with all the clichés

This serie has a *happy ending*

The acting still needs tweaking especially with regards to Jiang Chi. I guess it was his face that has that type of smiley look or he just dont have any other expressions other than poker and the smirk.
Bu xia is uber cute. I really like his round eyes.

For the plot, I find it very confusing how the enemies to lovers trope started. Its like before I know it, Bu xia is already mad at Jiang Chi for whatever reasons.
The clichés that taiwanese dramas and chinese dramas often portrayed, i.e, uber rich, arrogant seme x clumsy but cute uke is sooo hilariously portrayed that I loved it. A lot of scenes are also too cliché that even the most serious scenes kept me laughing.

The lovey dovey scenes are a chef's kiss. Much like My tooth your love. I am sufficiently satisfied in this matter.

Overall, I will still rewatch this gem but not for the plot. I hope that the looming second season gives us a more oomph.

Read More

Review after first episode

Love the actors , I didn't expect it to be that much of a comedy tho... As Cutie pie was more of a rom-com style, this one is looking like a comedy telenovela where you can predict most of the plot....
Cringe comedy drama but enjoyable as a light watch especially if you watched Cutie pie before.
Definitely going to watch the whole thing.
Sound effects are making me cry half of the time.... From laughing so hard XD
Max is catching me off guard with his expressions as Hia Yi every time , and his jealousy of Nong is just hilarious. Also the way Diao trained the dog to understand him basically? Impressive XD (although they could have find a dog with similar color at least if they had to change it... I noticed the change immediately and it was confusing)
Waiting for the next episode now to see where it goes :)

Read More