Reviews

PONDPHUWIN

I started this drama because I was pestered by my best friend, and did i love it? I absolutely adored it. This was my first Pond Phuwin Drama and I would say, they captured my heart in first episode as purely cute couple as Bookforce, firstkhao did when I saw 'A boss and a babe' and 'The eclipse' respectively.

The plot was good ngl but there could have been better development, I mean a socially awkward guy x popular guy and the awkward guy gets a crush on one other popular guy and it is doomed cause the other guy is just nice to everyone and never particularly interested.

The side story of Deuan and Meen is just so cute, the misunderstanding/deception about Deuan being a dentist student was so funny when they went on a field trip. BTW Neo can be shipped with a literal table lamp, he is so shippable (like mark but since he is not here, ignore)


The relationship are soooo healthyyyyyyyyyy......10/10 for it

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surprisingly enjoyable with loveable characters :)

this series was surprisingly good but ofc it had its pros and cons.

for the cons, I wish there were fewer nc scenes and more scenes with kenseijijapan and freyameiji cause they could've been shown a lot more. like we could've explored the way older lesbians are in a relationship as well as how a polyamorous couple are together. great and james felt very last minute and rushed as well, could've added more scenes about their relationship and dynamic.

as for the pros, the music and cinematography in the show are so good! especially scenes in the nightclub while they're performing and whatnot. khem and wela have my entire heart, I love them so much which was surprising to me as at first, I had doubts about khem but he had so much character development which was amazing. I wanted to see more of their relationship without the nc scenes though. I love wela's character, so hardworking, passionate, and lovely (and adorable ofc). I also love seijijapan's dynamic, japan is such an adorable character. love the poly representation cause I'll take whatever rep we can get and also love older queer rep that shows how different older queers think compared to younger queers. love p'dai, she had an iconic personality matched with iconic outfits. I wish they didn't just use her as a comic relief character to give us more proper trans rep.

overall, it's not exactly a masterpiece, I would say there is something that feels missing from it. Nevertheless, it's a cute show to watch just for fun with cute and complex characters. the chemistry between the actors, especially between the two male leads, was amazing. definitely worth watching if you wanna just binge a cute lil gay show.

IM SUPER EXCITED FOR DEEP LOVE THOUGH HOPEFULLY IT COMES OUT SOON CANT WAIT!

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so much wasted potential

the queen of tears started off strong. with the perfect chemistry from the main leads, brilliant acting from the whole ensemble of casts, stunning cinematography, and well-crafted soundtrack, queen of tears immediately captured my attention and got myself captivated with the story. but then, the writer had the brilliant idea of putting every trope in the latter episodes. from unnecessary car crashes, dramatic and unrealistic kidnapping and gunshots, to greedy and messy family politics, the plot that was supposed to focus on the rekindling of relationship between a married couple eventually turned into a messy and predictable korean makjang. the villians' arc has stretched on until the last episode, making the plot of the story rushed and poorly executed. if it is not due to the superb acting of kim jiwon and kim sohyun, i would have dropped this drama after episode 13. such a waste of potential.

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too many twists to hold up together

I dont wanna spoil it for the viewers, but i definitely feel like this series played with the SHOCKING factor too much. Like, did the audience rating drop? No probs, we add something new that no one expects!
It starts pretty boring and clumsy, i fast-forwarded through the 1st episode, then it all became quite clear, with a lot of remarkable graphic violent but still cinematographic scenes and a lot of interesting problematic characters... Then the tension kept building to the point of exploding... Then? The action took a weird course, like - let's give the viewers a scare so they keep watching!! For me, the screenwriter and the director pushed their luck too far, to the point it became incredulous.
Otherwise, i do appreciate the original plot, the acting skills of the cast, the detail-orientated cinematography etc.
Still i think it could've been way more rounded.

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Storyline is too bland

Tbh the storyline is too bland
Too much school scenes where by it’s a story about five grown up women how they suffer and deal with lives but to be honest all I see is just keep on flash back to school scenes
It’s kinda annoying
And not much sparkles between the pairs
So if you ask me will I pay subscription fees or will I purposely watch it ?
The Answer is no
Because this kind of story is too. Common in bg series
And furthermore the storyline is quite childish to adults viewers but too old fashioned for younger audiences
In term of the script so even with good acting actors and actresses it did not really get good viewerships on official platforms
And another thing is that why people watch TikTok videos because it is focus of their favourite
And actually hundreds thousands or millions views on TikTok is not a very big deal for normal videos unless it’s YouTube it’s considered as good because now it’s hard to get views on YouTube
So marketing can’t base on TikTok views as a end convention for the overall ratings for this series because it is not really accurate
And instead of complaining on public I think the production team should try to find out what’s wrong with this series and improve on next project and not complain on public
Every production team does series also face a lot of pressure not only you
And

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Such a disappointment

I just finished the drama yesterday and I was super frustrated and disappointed because after all I had high expectations because of the writer Park Hae Young with her Masterpiece drama (My Mister) but I was totally wrong. This drama had few amazing written scenes but most of it was a fail.

First of all, Mr. Gu I never understood him… and I found his character very poor written. even thoughI personally like the actor but this character was a big no. Always looking bored, lost and tired with a mystery past that was not exciting at all nor well explained. Also, his relationship with the FL oh my god… I have never ever hated main couple romance as I hated it in this drama. I almost skipped all of there scenes as I found it very boring, uncomfortable and very weird and not charming at all. I didn’t get their relationship at all and I don’t understand when the love bloomed? I hated watching nonsense so I just skipped it.
Chang hee was my favourite character. His scenes and dialogues were amazing and the actor excellently delivered his emotions, but I unfortunately skipped most of his scenes at the last couple episodes right after the stupid THIME SKIP. I the time skip thing was it necessary? Because actually the last three episodes were a total fail and the writer missed up. Ki Jung was also my favourite character as I found her very relatable outspoken and true to her self… but again why she super unconfident after being with tae hoon? Why all of a sudden would she accept mistreatment from his crazy sister and spoiled daughter? What happneed to the outspoken strong confident woman? I was really angry with how the writer ruined her character and even did not give her a clear proper ending. And tae hoon ahhh don’t even get me started. he promised to marry her when his daughter becomes 20??? and the way he ignores all the stupid things that his sister does to his girlfriend and yet pretending that he is the one who is having a hard time?


I would never watch this drama again and I just gave it 5 for the acting and couple of scenes.

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Incredible Music and Eye Candy

This is another extremely biased review of a movie that I absolutely adore!

The first thing I fell in love with is the music. The soundtrack is fantastic. The movie (and series) starts out with wonderful cello and violins playing a variation of the title song Wish You. Now, I'm not a strings person at all but something about this song and the sound the cello makes is completely magical!

Then one of the male leads hears the other singing on the street, stops dead in his tracks, starts watching and listening, and falls instantly in love. You can see it and feel it at the same time. Seriously, pure magic. That's what makes this a complete 10 for me, just the feel of the story. I mean, just listen and watch! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4opvypXJQ30

When you watch this be prepared to fall in love with a couple of really really adorable guys who are lucky enough to have found their soulmates and who want to make beautiful music together. Yes, the story isn't deep or complex, there are a lot of leaps and assumptions, but I don't care. The music and these 2 guys make it all perfect in my eyes.

The only disappointment is that not all of the songs are part of the soundtrack album and there are some songs that till this day I can't find anything about. Neither Shazam nor googling finds anything about these songs. One in particular has moved into my brain rent-free and has been living there for 4 years now. If anyone reading this knows please share! The song starts with "If it all comes crashing down we'll be just fine." Damn I love that song!

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Poor execution of a good story

When I watched the first episodes I thought I would love this series. If this series was only about confronting relationship problems and the healing of a broken family, the series would be at least a 9/10, since it confronts a serious topic, however still adds a funny note every now and then. The actors are great and I surprisingly liked the side couples. However, what could have been a deep story about marriage was turned into the most stereotipical and superficial story. Every episode was filled with unnecessary car accidents and sacrifices. Everyone somehow had a childhood connection with the other, which made no sense as it is very often showns hiw everyone has such a different status and family background. The hate of the main character of his wife just suddenly turns into him giving his life every three seconds for her. Instead of escaping the unhappy life he lives, it somehow gets more miserable. I think less episodes and less "tipical kdrama plottwists" could've made this show into something very special. Instead it got turned into a whole a** mess.

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Defying time

Brilliant idea but lacklustre execution, unfortunately! I was hooked after two episodes, so much so, I subscribed to Gagaoolala in order to finish it. It did not keep its promise, sadly!

There are two different time periods that suddenly due to supermoon, get in touch and two sad men start talking to each other across time! Something happens between them but of course, there are so many obstacles in their way that nothing can come out of their love story. Just more regret and sadness.
The characters are very real and I loved the Wade's mother: open, helpful, optimistic, friendly an ideal mother in short!

The cinematography is stunning. It gives the whole series an out of the world, hazy and dreamy feeling, as befitting a fantasy! Beside interesting camera angles, the two time periods are filmed differently. Wade in 2020, pandemic and isolation, is all white, overexposed and too bright. Jose Manuel in 1974 is just like the Marcos dictatorship historical period: hopeless, dark and sad. The only bright points are JM's T-shirts. Wade's T-shirts also carry a message connected to the story
.
The music is moody and ominous announcing from the first seconds that this is not going to be a happy story! The huge problem is the sound recording: very bad!

The writing is original though a bit draggy and it is not very clear at which speed the time moves. They start communicating through letters: I love that concept. Their ability to communicate is due to the full moon. But that full moon usually lasts no more than three night every four weeks. Here it seems that they talk to each other every day and that there is the full moon in the clear sky every day as well (the shots of the moon are too frequent to correspond to reality!). They talk through the mirrors but sometimes they seem to see each other and sometimes they seem to be talking to themselves in the mirror: so it is not really clear how the whole communication thing works. They can talk to each other every day but they can see each other only when it is the full moon. Maybe I missed something? Another issue I found strange is that Wade thinks of finding the contemporary JM only after he definitely looses contact with him. While they were talking to each other Wade was never curious to find him in 2020?
The writers used the legend of Sidapa and Libulan which is tale of a controversial love affaire of two male deities in precolonial Filipino myth showing how impossible can become possible if you don't give up.

But the most interesting part were the episodes' titles which are the most romantic untranslatable words from a variety of languages:

1. YUAN FEN: (mandarin) fate or chance that brings people together predestined affinity or relationship (Budd.) destiny. Being able to provide explanations in a positive way, Yuanfen has always functioned as an attribution, the psychological process of seeking reasons for particular events.
2. FORELSKET is a Danish word that means in love, enamoured, or in love with. Forelsket is also a Norwegian word for the magical state of falling in love: it is exhilarating partially because it’s so impossible to control. It’s that fluttery, heart-pounding, palms-sweating, complete bliss that you feel when you’re first falling in love.
3. SAUDADE is a Portugese word for the emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for a beloved yet absent something or someone. It derives from the Latin word for solitude. It is often associated with a repressed understanding that one might never encounter the object of longing ever again. It is a recollection of feelings, experiences, places, or events, often elusive, that cause a sense of separation from the exciting, pleasant, or joyous sensations they once caused.
4. VIRAAG is a hindi word meaning the anguish you experience when you’re physically separated from the person you love. This could mean a wide range of things. Perhaps your crush is in a relationship with someone else, so you’re forced to love them from afar. Perhaps you and your partner are in a long-distance relationship counting down the days until you’re reunited. Or maybe (unfortunately) you’re enduring a breakup and struggling to cope with the idea of losing someone forever. That pain you feel? It’s viraag.
5. MAMIHLAPINATAPEI: derived from the Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego, listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as the "most succinct word", and is considered one of the hardest words to translate.This word is all too familiar for those out there who are a bit on the shy side. You like someone, and you think (maybe!) (hopefully!) that they like you too. You’re sitting across from each other, hands almost touching, but not quite. Your breath catches in your throat and you’re sure they can hear your heartbeat slamming in your ears. You look shyly at them. They look shyly back. But neither of you makes the first move. This moment--one of joy and anguish, fear and excitement--is summed up by the word “mamihlapinatapei.”
6. ONSRA comes from Boro language of India and means loving for the last time; that bittersweet feeling you get when you know a love won’t last.
7. KARA SEVDE They talk about kara sevda, an untranslatable Turkish concept that literally means “black love” or blind love and alludes to how uncontrollable desire and unrequited love can render someone hopeless and broken. It also means tragic love. It used for a strong, unrelenting and unhealthy crush in tragedies and folk stories.
8. ICHIGO ICHIE "one time, one meeting" is a Japanese idiom that describes a cultural concept of treasuring the unrepeatable nature of a moment, the practice of making the most of every encounter and understanding how important the “now” is.
9. HAPPENSTANCE means something happened because of certain circumstances, although it was not planned by anyone.

There is an unsuspected depth in this story which is unfortunately bogged down with sadness and hopelessness.

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I stumbled upon this through reels and realized how much I missed Lee Jong Suk. Plus, I've never seen him act alongside Park Bo Young, so I thought, why not give it a shot?😏

The plot unfolded pretty much as expected: Joong Gil, the school's "playboy," trying to charm every beautiful girl in sight, while Young Sook, the leader of a gang😮, was a surprising twist.
It's the first time I've seen her in such a role, but she pulled it off well. You could see from her expression that she was a broken soul, beyond repair. Surprisingly, she harbored a not-so-secret crush on Joong Gil.
But it wasn’t that superficial, the story line showed us detailed informations about their routines, their environnement, and the silliness of Lee Jong Suk trying his tricks on girls.

I didn't expect anything WOOW, so I wasn't disappointed. It was silly, funny, lively, and gave off a nostalgic vibe. I particularly enjoyed the old-school feel, with scenes of them traveling by train, and Kim Young Kwang's portrayal of the gangster reminded me of Darren Wang🤭🤭.

The romantic plot could have been better; I wished to see more depth in terms of emotions and feelings. But overall, it fit my mood perfectly.

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Don't watch if you want a cohesive story

CW: HEAVY PLOT SPOILERS, sa, abuse, r*pe, harrasement, violence in general

I finished this like over a month ago so my bad if i get some details wrong.

As the title says, don't watch this if you want an interesting story about a twin dissapearing and the different aspects of sex and the sex industry. The show did have all those elements, but the end result was a mess, there were so many characters that by the last episode there were still people whose names I didn't know (eg the 2 football guys).

If you're interested in a lot of badly shot and awkward nc scenes, maybe give it a shot.

I understand that most people watched this for the nc scenes and to those people I ask: why? There were a lot of nc scenes but that doesn't mean they were good. The acting in those scenes was fine but the way it was shot left much to be desired, how am i supposed to believe two people are getting it on when i can see their bright pink "RICH" underwear in every shot. Comfort for the actors is always the most important part with nc scenes, and i hope they felt safe and protected during, but that doesn't mean you can't make it look real with some clever camera angles.

the story starts of interesting with the storyline of Zoey and Teena but by the time they get together in the middle of the show they get sidelined and forgotten until the last 10 minutes. Their conflicts were interesting with their dynamic of virgin x former-sex worker but they did have some strange out of character moments (eg Teena going through with sex when Zoey clearly stated he wasn't ready, this didn't feel like Teena at all). Zoey's character twist at the end could've been great, a r*pe victim taking back his sexuality on his own terms with someone he loves, but the fact it gets reveals in the last 5 seconds in a voice-over and that's it is really underwhelming, especially since we don't know if he told Teena or not.

Nont was definitely my favorite character since he was so passionate about finding his brother, which made his story extra sad when we find out what happened, but even that wasn't handled well. The perpetrator of what happened to his brother being revealed after the credits with no motive and no one who knows makes it obvious they were hoping for a season 2, but with the mid reception I don't know if that's possible. Nont deserved to know what happened to his brother, and the audience being the only one who knows is a bit depressing. Sadly I was really invested in this plot, but they had to make way for more nonsense plot with characters I don't care about.

Honestly I don't really have much to say about the other characters except 2 things: 1. it was extremely out of character the way the friends kept switching up on each other, first being mad at Zoey and then at Nont. This is an extremely toxic friend group but I had hope that Nont and Zoey would've stuck by each other. 2. It took me so much willpower to not skip through every scene with First and Soong because they were done so dirty with their dialogue and it was extremely hard to watch. all their random english lines and then some conversations being in english with the worst Thai dubbing i've ever seen was rough, but their story was at least kinda interesting.

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still adorable little penguins

this is not a traditional special episode so keep that in mind when going to watch this.

okay, so l'm a little biased because I truly love these characters and I feel like they brought a fresh new style to BL. when I heard there was a special episode I was over the moon.

I will say I LOVE that we got a different perspective of their love story told through Wela’s eyes. I enjoyed seeing things for Wela's side. to be honest, that actually made the story stronger in my opinion.

do I wish we got more new scenes? yes. yes I do. am I upset we got this kinda retelling? no not at all. this isn't a special episode in the sense of a traditional special episode, instead I feel like this made the overall plot of Deep Night stronger and kinda tied up SOME loose ends.

I will say reshowing all the NCs scenes made me chuckle. what can they say? they know their audience well. plus they pretty much made their own edit, so others don't have to 🤣🤣

I still wish we got more for the truple, it still feels like all the other side couples more or less got pushed aside.

that all being said I still really enjoyed this surprise special episode for what it is: which is the story of deep night told in Wela’s perspective.

I will still give huge props to the fact they learned all the aerial skills for this show. plus to me these two have the energy of two adorable little penguins that I want to keep in my pocket. I really hope we will see them in another series together. ❤️

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Like it!

In fact, even the first episode was enough to capture my attention. There are only a few things I dislike in this drama, but it's not to the point of deep hatred, I guess? It kind of bothered me when the FL chose to date another guy while being in love with Sena, but I kind of emphasized with her. She was unsure of how their relationship would turn out as she was afraid of ruining their friendship, and also, they didn't talk about their feelings. They were both going back and forth, and hence, took them a long time to finally be together. So, that's okay and understandable. Still, the main issue is that she continues to go out with Mr. Sugisaki, who is making an effort to slowly introduce his life to her, even though at some point, her relationship (from friendship) with Sena shifted and took a turn. Now, there are some unresolved feelings that she first needs to solve with Sena. It was unfair for Mr. Sugisaki actually, who seems to be her rebound. In the end, they did it, which technically means she cheated. I am grateful that she broke up with him after that, but still, I feel heartbroken for Mr. Sugisaki.

On the other hand, I was surprised by how fast the ML suddenly fell in love with the FL. It took one kiss HAHAHAAA. Also, it's ironic that her junior seems to know her thoughts really well and was the one pushing them (all of them) to confess their feelings and advising them about it (though she seems insensitive sometimes).

But despite that, there are a lot of things I like, such as their acting and chemistry. The way they express their character and deliver the lines really impressed me. It all seemed natural, you know? The storyline and pacing are also well done! The side characters were given some screen time and equally highlighted their part without being too much. It's hard to explain, but overall, the stories of the main couple and the side couple were portrayed in a natural way. There was no conflict between the two. It's like what it is. Anyway, I really like it. The comedy and drama also do not look forced.

So, it was a good watch! Really enjoyed the drama!

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