Reviews

One of the best for me.

OMG!!!!! Definitely worth the wait watching this drama! This is one of my favourite novels from Mo Bao Fei Bao and the novel adaptation was perfectly done. They even enhanced it and gave more depth and details to each characters and scenes.

I love that this is worry free, no unnecessary dramas/conflicts nor misunderstandings. Just simply Dr. Mo waving his "green flag" and his pursuit of happiness with Gu Sheng.

Casting was perfectly done, with Tan Jian Ci and Zhou Ye as the lead CP. I love and enjoy listening to the OST as well as the mouth watering parade of food!

I love all the characters and their relationships. It's all about friendship, family, love and their passion with their dreams.

This is just fluffy, fluffy, cuddles, sweetness overload, and you'll definitely smile the entire time you watch them.

Try reading the novel, if you already watched this drama. Definitely a 100/10 for me.

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Outdated but the casting is still great

I'm gradually making my way through all the Hana Yori Dango adaptations to compare them, and had saved this one for two slightly contradictory reasons: One, I knew it was older and it might've been more problematic, and two, I knew how much of a craze this drama started and actually had pretty high expectations.

I'm not going to talk too much about the plot — we all know what the story is and it's true that most of this doesn't age well, and this being from 2001, it's a lot less sanitized than the newer versions like China's 2018 Meteor Garden and Thailand's F4: Thailand in 2021.

However, I do think the pacing was just...sort of off. I felt like it was really slow in between plots — 29 episodes is way too much for this type of story. At the same time, when one plot moved to the next it felt kind of abrupt. I also just felt like the level of drama didn't necessarily match up what was actually happening on screen, maybe because of screentime distribution, or because side characters often came in and out without enough exposition.

Ultimately, I think the strongest part of this drama was the casting. This is maybe the only version where you really feel F4's commanding presence. Dao Ming Si is actually a good balance of intimidating/imposing and brainless loser, and Lei manages to pull off aloof and gentle but also powerful. The other two are a little less memorable, though.

I also think the casting and acting for Shan Cai was great. Compared to the other versions, she's still spunky but feels much more down to earth. There's no overacting (which the Korean FL is the ultimate culprit of), and she all around seems much more grounded and logical, and less whiny than the others.

A final comment I have is — and this might be more of a fault of the source material than the drama itself (which I haven't read) — but I just think this version had too many boys fall for Shan Cai when they could've just kept it platonic.

I haven't watched season 2 of this one yet, but so far my favorite adaptation of HYD is still the Japanese one, which seemed to hit the perfect pace with many less episodes.

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A fan serviced season.

I love how protective Kuea’s friends are of him and his and Lian’s relationship. First it was Syn in the first season now It’s Nuer. I’m enjoying seeing more of Syn and Nuer and Kondiao and Yi. I also love the way the first episode was structured.

This was a complete fan serve second season and I love that. The 4 episodes had enough drama to keep it interesting without overdoing it and making it seem unnecessary. I’ve grown to really love Kuea and Lian’s relationship.

The acting was good, I really enjoyed it and Foei continued to make me laugh. I could not stop smiling during episode 4.

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The chemistry is UNDENIABLE

It's all worth it because of Rowoon and Jo Bo-ah. They were amazing, a joy to the eyes both charming and beautiful made the story work even if the story itself was weaker in comparison.

Acting/Cast:
It's all about the amazing Rowoon and Jo Bo-ah. The end.

Music:
Great music >>>>>>> Park Won (박원) - It's You <<<<<<<<<<3

Story:
Could have been better. I dont like stalker concepts but the back story taking as through the protagonists' past life together was amazing. Never seen beaten up people look more beautiful on screen (joke) <3 No one liked the female lead's coworkers lets be honest. And why did she have to live in that neighborhood? And what is up with the psychic grandmotheer is she for them of against them. Also no reason to base have a love story on a love spell actually ended up making the audiance confused about the male lead's true feelings. Bad script indeed.

Rewatch Value: Yes. For the chemistry between Rowoon and Jo Bo-ah!

Over and out <3

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I wanted to like it

I wanted to! I did! But the story was.. nonexistent? And where did Hyunsoo go? He was gone almost half of the season.. and how did he become..not ash? The holes in this one were deeper than that pit Eunyoo and Chanyoung fell into. Was I supposed to care about any of these new characters besides Chanyoung? He’s the only likable character.. actually by the end he’s just about the only one I liked period. I even started disliking the few original characters we had left.? Also.. what’s up with 5 zillion transformer monsters? Why did they all look alike? The great thing was the monsters were so individualized in S1… in S2 they were all like the same monster… attack of the transformer junk monsters..

I gave them half a star for Song Kang’s butt ? and 2 stars for Jung Jinyoung’s face.. that’s it. That’s the only reasons to watch.

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unnecessarily slow/too many flashbacks

Overall: all of these stories could have been told in half (or less) of their time and they needed to air two episodes per week instead of spreading the series out over 6 months. Some episodes had way too many flashbacks as well. Aired on iQIYI and re-aired on YouTube.

You Are My Soul Mate eps 7 & 8, 8
A standard Thai BL. Had some stupid poor communication but decent kissing.

Lucky Love eps 9 & 10, 7.5
Standard enemies to lovers. Wanted the new partner to be less aggressive with someone who just got out of an abusive relationship. Content warnings: intimate partner violence, sexual assault, punches/fight, vomiting

Fake Love eps 15 & 16, 7.5
Start at 38:30 in episode 15 and then watch all of episode 16. Standard aggressive pursuer/reluctant pursuee with some nonsense plot things. Content warnings: blackmail, stalking, vomiting, manhandling, non con touching, fight off screen, blood

Marry Go Round eps 3 & 4, 7.5
Nice to have an established couple but we needed more of them and less of the invasive fujoshi character. This is a crack comedy that didn't make me laugh. Note there is an ending scene after the initial credits. Content warnings: homophobia

The Camp Fire eps 11 & 12, 7.5
Slow pacing with some jump scares throughout (you could start at 30 minutes in episode 11 and miss basically nothing). I'm not sure how to feel about the end. Same actors as Love Stage (Thai version). Content warnings: brief scary images/jump scares, death off screen/death/blood (it's complicated)

Right Time, Right Love eps 5 & 6, 7
Bad that his friend asked him to talk it out with his abuser. They really needed a time skip to give some healing time between starting a new relationship. Content warnings: past intimate partner violence, manhandling, mental health struggles

Pisces of Me eps 17 & 18, 7
The incorrect subtitles made this more confusing than it needed to be (ie should have been "our mom" instead of "my mom"). The two guys are fraternal twins, I didn't get incest from the plot. Start ep 17 at 47 minutes and then start ep 18 at 35 minutes. Content warnings: non con kissing, blackmail, fight, a little blood/small injury

1626 eps 19 & 20, 6.5
Way too many flashbacks/forwards. Not a BL unless they were saying "I love you" in morse code.

I Wish You Love eps 23 & 24, 6.5
A guy gets a magical mirror and tracks down the guy who he sees in it, start ep 23 at 25 minutes. No idea why 2 people can't contact each other for years (social media, common friends, going to old addresses, etc) but I set that aside. Confusing way to start the second part. Wish they had made the ending more clear but I can guess what happened. Content warnings: illness, death (implied)

Refund Love eps 21 & 22, 6.5
Flashbacks made up 75% of the plot. Skip all of ep 21 and just watch ep 22. Did like that there was some GL but needed to have more sweet moments/relationship development and less constant flashbacks.

Casanova Begins eps 1 & 2, 6.5
Very confused with who was who and their relationships. Good attempt to try something different but the exposition dump and some nonsense things didn't hook me. Content warnings: death, attempted suicide, manhandling

Friends Forever eps 13 & 14, 6
This is not a romance story but a morality tale. I would have rated this higher if they had tightened the story up and removed the never-ending flashbacks. For the good, a character got actual consequences for his terrible actions. Content warnings: murder, intimate partner violence, coach/university student, drugging, manhandling

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Amazing storytelling, i sobbed

The whole thing was so heartwarming and beautiful. It was aggressive when needed, and extremely realistic in every way except for the magic time travelling part. Everyone's lives, experiences and feelings were explained and well represented, and i felt that nobody was left behind.
The four main actors did an amazing job, they're so good. I loved that they were completely different and unique in their own way. The way it's written! Omg, i loved that we can see the parents in many different scenarios, how they are there for each other when things were tough in adulthood, how they met and fell in love, and how they continued to love each other when their lives were better financially and socially in the end. We don't usually get to see these many dimensions in a couple's relationships in series. I loved seeing them grow up together.
The only thing is that i wish the ending was a bit longer, and we could see how On Eun Yu's life changed too, and how her's and eun gyeol's relationship was now that they got back, her dinamic with his family and all.

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Sweet romance

This was a very short series, but it packed so much heart into it. I was able to believe every word and they did this without any of the tropes being over done or even present. The little details of each interaction sold the story.

The story is nothing special, as friends fall in love all the time, but the execution of it in this series was well done. The small details that made the other wonder but could never quite figure out why made it seem natural. They are supposed to be best friends and that seemed to be the main driving force behind everything. It was really well paced with the romance building without being outright, the glances the unexplained annoyances when the other spent too much time with someone else. It was all great and the fact that they had great friends was a nice touch. This complimented everything about the story, as the advice from the secondary friends were always spot on. It was a perfect example of how friends should be with each other in real life.

The acting was spot on from both leads and their chemistry was undeniable. They played well off of each other and really conveyed that jealous boyfriend energy well. This also worked well for their best friend dynamic and the supporting cast was also on point.

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An underrated gem

I’ve had this series on my list since it finished airing. The plot seemed interesting, but honestly the ML pairing didn’t convince me so much, so I’ve been holding off on seeing it. And now that I decided to give it a go, I’m so mad I didn’t watch it before. I finished this in less than 2 days, that’s how good it is. It’s one of the few series that do the time travel concept right. I feel a lot of the series or movies that do the time travel concept fail by making it to complicated to understand or having production mistakes in the time travel back and forth. But in this series it’s well done. And I also loved that they included more of the LGBTQ community, and they showed a little bit of the real struggles of coming to accept sexuality. Not that much, but still an advancement from other bl’s that don’t even mention it. The only thing is that I love this for the plot, the production and the story. I wasn’t convinced of the chemistry between the ML. They’re both amazing actors, but I feel they don’t work as a on-screen pair. Sometimes it felt more like a bromance than a romance. But since I wasn’t convinced of this pairing since the beginning, I expected it. So it didn’t ruin it for me, because the rest was so good. Overall, this really underrated, it deserves more than the 8.0 rating and it will definitely go on my favorite bl’s list.

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Not enough love

Sigh. Where do I start? The amount of potential wasted on this series..

The casting is stellar. You got 3 handsome and ridiculously great male leads. You got 3 great actresses for the female leads. And then you get possibly the most immature and dumb female lead.

- Constant misunderstanding
- ZERO communication, only texting or thought bubbles but nothing exchanged between the leads
- FL is written as an idiot, constantly running from kisses or any potential intimate scenes
-ML has no dimension, none, just the typical cold and emotionless

If you want to watch a series that’s about 2 good looking people in their 30s, who only text each other, but never actually communicating, good luck.

I skipped skipped so many scenes. Such a waste of talent.

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