Reviews

Like:
+ I love fast-paced shows!
+ a little bit of humour. Had to laugh several times.
+ I didn't expect the ending being so..steamy. Kinda. :D
-> Onoes face expressions are everything. Geez. He looks goddamn hot while enjoying Kabu-Kuns attention. Those lipbites though! T_T
+ Story wasn't really original, but I definitely enjoyed watching this show. We see different cases on which they work together and for me, they were interesting.
+ A little bonus fun was seeing the ML from "The Novelist" again. I always like to see actors in different shows.
+ Mayasan was a funny support character. Definitely like this guy.

Some scenes were really weird. I was thinking like "They did not...?!" :'D but this isn't a point I dislike. I was just..surprised?

Room for improvement/Dislike:
- Kabu looks so awkward while smoking. Same with the actor from "The Novelist". As a smoker myself it's so obvious that the actors don't smoke in real life so I always cringed a bit when I saw them smoking.
- On one hand I like the way they communicate. Like..it doesn't take a long time till they talk about the things bothering them. But on the other hand it just feels like the talk past each other.. (but I definitely don't dislike it like other people wrote in their reviews. Their opinion is still valid. But it's not that bad for me :D)
- The acting could be improved. I get that Kabu is a distant and more on the cold-side type, but still his acting seemed a little off. Like not fully into character..I don't know how to explain it. Stiff? Bored? Aah, I don't know. It's like the other extreme of overacting. It was just too little...energy? People are definitely able to act cold and distant without giving me the feelings that Kabu gave me. ^^'
But I liked Onoe! And the two guys working with them. They were funny.

Overall I had fun watching this drama and don't find it that bad. It didn't give me this fully-hooked feeling, where I can't stop watching, but that's okay. It was nice to watch, but not overwhelming great. It's just that I didn't feel addicted to the show. But it also didn't frustrated or bored me.

It's nothing I would fully rewatch (but definitely would rewatch the scenes were Onoe is enjoying Kabus touches and kisses. Geez... x.x :') ) but for a one-time watch it's definitely entertaining enough.

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THE BEAUTY OF YOUTH

This drama honestly took me off guard.
I had just finished highschool and I was home for a while watching Kdramas, I remember all the rave of how good this was so I decided to watch it.
In the beginning it looked like a normal slice of life and it was but it became so much more than that, this drama shows the beauty of youth.
How it felt to have dreams, have friends, have enemies, have those enemies eventually become friends, have a crush, go on trips with friends, doing stuff for the first time, crying and laughing together, getting in trouble at school, studying for exams, having passion for the things you love, falling in love for the first time, breaking up with your first love and writing all of that in a diary and so on.

Not having these things during my time in school really made me emotional seeing the beauty of these things, every emotion was bright across the screen and the impact it had on me was amazing.

I want to give a great shout out to the cast of this drama because I truly believe non of these emotions could have been impactful without them, Kim Tae Ri especially because her portrayal of Na Hee Do, it was truly some of the best acting I've seen in my whole life, she was able to convey so much youthful energy into her character so much that you will never believe she was in her 30s during this drama, the way she laughed, cried and even her demeanor was enough to make you feel young again.

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Nice bromance and romance mixing with drama

At first I dropped because of the tag (friends to enemy )..
But I started watching due to some edits on YT

?? It is really interesting and heartwarming to see their bonds in the first few episodes
According to those ep,I even love to see romance and trio friendship although I am a fan of bromance ?
At the later episodes, there are many heartbreaking and death everywhere
Two main leads changed their acting reflecting to their survival and stories ?
But only one thing remains? It is their bond
Even if they becomes enemy like position and faking their conversation ✌️,
One is protecting the other male lead at any cost ? and the other one is forgiving and understanding for those cruel action ?
One is I will pull trigger as much as it have in order to protect you type ?
The other one is I can't pull trigger even if I hate you type ?

As for the story I think it will be more interesting if eng sub are available ?
I don't skip that much even with some unorganized eng sub from YT while watching first 5 ep??

Overall,a well made drama with happy ending

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Repeative, nonsense

Honestly the show seems to be one of those shows where the worst aspect is the writing and lack of story telling. It seems like it will be a decent plot until you realize that by episode 11, all of the characters but 1 has any type of intelligence. Honestly this show could have been a better show if they stick to: travel back in time, switch places, destroy the evil. But unfortunately since the writers seem to not know how to write character and the evil bone is just a plot device that is mute, the man draw are the people, but none of the characters are written in a way to be like able. If they didn't add in the part of ice toothpicks, and wrote better dialogue. The actors honestly were not paid enough because when they don't have dialogue and just acting out a scene they feel as if they could really have feelings for each other, even if the male lead isn't supposed to have emotions he still shows enough interest that you can believe he at least like the female lead like a person can like their favorite celebrity, genuine interest. While the female lead is all over the place writing wise. Honestly the fact she was given instructions to end the male lead was the biggest mistake, it should have been that there was another way and the ice was for final straw of was to be murder before defeating the evil bone. Honestly I would say I would love to see it longer but honestly I am glad it's only 40 episodes. None of these characters are worth even thinking the world should be saved. I'm more curious to see what would happen after the world is destroyed, what does the bad guy do after does he die also or does he try to restore it in his own image and what would that world look like? I honestly would love to see it but the writer of this show deserves to never try again until they get better at writing dialogue and characters.

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Watch for the cast

The overall story was fun and interesting. The cast did a wonderful job especially with portraying their animal characteristics without being over the top or distractingly silly. The main couple and side characters were all very cute and likeable. Even though it was obviously a lower budget show, without much cgi or flashy props/sets, the cast somehow made it convincing. The biggest flaw is the writing. It is supposed to be a rom-com. For those who can't stand the fish peck, don't worry, there were only two in the entire show... the writer made it obvious that true love does not need physical intimacy, only emotional intimacy is important as NONE of the couples kiss or hug or even hold hands, except the main couple a few times in the last episodes. They even went as far as to have one couple be entirely unable to ever have physical intimacy, due to his animal side being a fatally toxic viper. Really curious how that line didn't die out since any contact kills. ?
As far as the main couple goes, it is sadly true that the FL only has feeling for the ML's beast identity after finding out he's also the hot bodyguard. They literally have her acting physically repulsed at his touch and appearance until then, despite the many touching things he does for her. Weird message for a writer that seems to be stressing emotional intimacy.
I truely don't mind slow-burn shows with little skinship, but in a silly rom-com, with the main theme being about true love, there really should be some sweet moments between the ML in his beast form and the FL before she finds out, if they want the love on her side to seem real. Even a few instances where she didn't physically recoil, but actually touched or held his hand in beast form without thinking, would have been enough to show it really didn't bother her. Without it, all the show's romances just felt sad, mostly believable thanks to the great acting, but sad and hollow in the end.

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An excellent premise

Drama premise is very good and against all my beliefs I was binge to it since the first episode and excited to know more. The cast did an excellent job and the chemistry of the "extra" couple (main couple ig) was great. OST was also excellent, the soundtrack in the background of each scene was well chosen.

Now, even though I liked the drama a lot, I felt plot had some ups and downs. Sometimes it was a bit tedious, just in the middle of the drama I feel like story lost it course a few times and then resumed up again. Despite that, I enjoyed the drama and its performances.

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A really good romcom

When I went into this I had no expectations at all but there's rowoon so how can I resist haha
I watched the first episode like a month ago and wasn't able to finish it cause it didn't really vibe with me.
Bur after watching all those cutesy scenes and the chemistry on youtube I decided to give this a go.
So here's what I feel:
This had soooo much potential....could have literally been one of the best in this year. Like look at the cast jo bo ah and rowoon are such a headstart.
I really don't like how they didn't bother to expand on the fantasy line like that could have literally been the main plot instead of the romcom. I hate that they didn't use any spells or delve into the whole thing.
That aside THE CHEMISTRY ohmygoddddd it's amazingggg like you could watch the show for the romance it's that good.
As I said i went into this with zero expectations but I was pleasantly surprised finding myself smiling at literally all of their scenes. And love how the director didn't shy away from putting in loads of kisses hehe.
I feel like the actors did a great job but the plot was a bit lacking.
Anyways good for a one time watch if you're here for the chemistry.....

PS: They really dragged this one....would've absolutely loved it if it were 12 episodes or less

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Disappointing

As this was a Youku joint production with TVB, I knew to expect the typical Youku grim-dark grey sombre tone they love to slather all over their dramas, and yes, it's here. As soon as episode 1 started, it was just full of pure grim-dark seedy Hong Kong undertones.

I don't hate this drama at all, don't get me wrong. It has Moses Chan as a terminal cancer sufferer who was locked up for drug dealing, and after over a decade in prison,wants to spend his last remaining time alive dealing even more drugs. Then we have Nancy Wu being this strange shades-of-grey character that has us guessing if she is helping Moses or not. Then we have the police officer played by Edwin Siu, who has mild brain damage so is unable to feel emotions properly, which really frustrates his ex-girlfriend played by Kelly Cheung, who still has feelings for him. It is all great acting and I enjoyed it a lot. What ruins the entire drama is Matthew Ho's character and how some of the writing just makes no darn sense.

Oh yeah, there will be spoilers, so just warning you.

Matthew Ho plays this mute food delivery guy that communicates using Hong Kong sign language. This was great, I thought, because we wouldn't have to hear Matthew speaking, because I do find his acting rather terrible. He always plays the same role of "oblivious idiot is oblivious", but they added voiceovers spoken by him to let us know what he is saying anyway. That's pretty normal for mute characters on TVB though, so that is not my complaint. My complaint is that it seems every single person, for reasons unknown, cares a lot about him a lot for NO REASON. It makes no sense why they all care about him so much as there were no events that had Matthew do stuff to make them indebted to him. Instead, they just somehow slowly grew protective of him over the course of the drama, and I kept wondering if I had missed any episodes where these people owed him... but no!

For example, Rosita Kwok's character grew up with him so her caring about him I understand, but later we see the reporter Bowie Cheung suddenly caring a lot about him. Why? And then we had Moses Chan's Man Wah who meets him once after Nancy Wu introduced them, and then suddenly - out of the blue - Moses claims he treats Matthew like family and wants to give him all this stuff to help him. Why did that happen and when? And everybody learns sign language in record time to be able to read his hand signs.

And the thing that broke the character for me was when his kid sister was kidnapped and is later accidentally killed due to a plan gone wrong. The cause is related to Moses and yet somehow Matthew - who knew Moses was involved - is completely okay with the guy and even speaks to him soon after while calling him a friend. Dude... your sister died because of that man, what is wrong with you?

One great thing about the drama though is the great main theme song. Dang, that is one cool canto metal track, but it can't make me put the score higher than a 6 out of 10 overall. Matthew Ho ruins it.

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Such a good J-Drama

Let's start with the negative aspects:
The music didn't always quite fit, in my opinion. Sounds way too happy, although the story is rather sad.
Second, the character Mio Sanjo was too annoying and her acting was too much at the beginning. Once she showed up, I didn't quite like the scenes in this drama. Towards the end, however, she got better.

Positive aspects:
All the other characters were great. Well acted. I especially liked Kakeru Osagami. He had the coolest scene in this drama. his facial expressions were real and you believed everything he was doing.
The fight scenes were so good and nicely directed. It was so exciting to see those scenes. Definitely one of the coolest scenes in this drama. The friendship of the main characters has been great. And how the story tied up towards the end was really nice.

One of the J-dramas I would recommend at any time. The story is top. the acting seems realistic.

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Characters Needed Work

I had to drop this drama, after many attempts at picking it back up. Mainly because I couldn't bring myself to care about the characters enough to try to properly identify the different clans and their kin.

Maybe I don't have what it takes to be a Wuxia watcher. Maybe you need to care about the Martial Arts World to watch Martial Arts centered dramas. I couldn't believe that the FL was played by the same dough-faced actress I hated so much in "Love Between Fairy and Demon". Could her role have been played better by a much better actress? Absolutely. But, she wasn't bad. She just doesn't have depth to her, naturally. She looked absolutely ridiculous in her wig, which was too large for her head. In scenes where she was supposed to outshine the other potential brides, she looked remarkably plain in comparison. Now, I am a huge fan of the moral story of a prince that chooses not the most beautiful, but the most innocent bride as his, but true goodness of character has to be expressed by the bride for us to fall in love with her.

The SFL is one that I fell in love with. They showed her vulnerability in flashbacks. They really fleshed her out. Not to mention that her beauty outshone the FL many times over.

The FL kept being saved by the SFL, the ML, and others, and without beauty, or character (like the SFL), I needed a reason to root for her, yet I found myself unable to come up with any except that she was the FL. I hated seeing the other female characters being harmed. I cared for them more than the FL, even though I knew less about them than I did about her. Without being able to care what happens to the FL, there was no tention left for me to care what happens next.

The cinematography was above and beyond the standard. It was big-budget cinematography, and bursts of colours were used sparingly and to good effect in high-drama moments.

It's not a boring drama, exactly. Just.... you have to really care about the main characters to keep your interest, as their lives are the "stake" of the entire drama. Without the two main characters, there wouldn't be a story, so if you can't care about the main characters, then you're really out of luck.

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Initially Disjointed but Becomes Likeable!

This is a triumvirate story that in the beginning is unnecessarily confusing, obtuse, and almost misleading. Little explanation is given as to who these characters are or what is happening, and the story becomes awkward and needlessly opaque. So many characters are introduced all at once, especially in the first two episodes, that fatuity tends to confuse the audience. The flow of the story becomes disjointed, particularly when you are trying to grasp the nuances not only of the story but the familiarity of the culture and customs that is not fully appreciated. It does settle down in the third episode and from then on, the sagas of each couple become unique and interesting and understandable. I loved two of the three couples; the third couple was a bit more disconcerting for me. It felt darker and more brooding than the other two. This is a likeable series, entertaining with humor and cheekiness to make just about anyone smile.

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'Destined with You' review: a spellbinding romcom falls flat with a lackluster story

With the number of psychopaths in this kdrama, its title should have been "Obsessed with You" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Destined with You revolves around Hong Jo, a civil servant, whose life unexpectedly got tangled up with Shin Yu, a renown corporate lawyer. A mysterious box and several encounters later, they find themselves stuck with one another and they discover their unbreakable connection.

For starters, the plot was messy, loaded with uninteresting supporting characters and subplots. The series can't even create two episodes which tackles the same thing. Every episode is unrelated to one another. It is very important for a fantasy k-drama to steadily build the mystery and keep the thrill. Adding more confusion and questions to the bunch is certainly not one of the ways to do that.

Most of the episodes were merely fillers and keeps poking around the central conflict of the show. I'm not even sure if the main characters only have one main problem since they, too, are not searching for answers. The antagonists mostly did the work to keep the momentum going.

At the very beginning, the story is about spells and a century-old curse. Then, halfway through the show it became a secret office romance. Once again it changed course, the story became a thriller and that's the moment I knew the writers screwed up big time. It tries to have all genres at once. Honestly, the kdrama's only saving grace is Rowoon's visuals and his striking suits. At least the fashion department knew how to get the right work done.

Anyways, Rowoon and Jo Bo Ah had an undeniable chemistry here. Rowoon throwing funny puns while keeping a straight and handsome face certainly deserves a daesang. As for Jo Bo Ah, I kind of wished her character were more smart and strong. Hong Joo falls under the weak female lead stereotype category and I find damsels in distress intolerable. Her struggles of working and living alone definitely pulled some heartstrings. She also had some character development at the end but it felt too formulaic for my liking. Maybe it's just me who saw this issue. Perhaps I simply prefer smart female leads over the ones who needs saving and longs for a hero to realize her true worth.

On the other hand, I wish it had gone the same route as 'Extraordinary You' where the leads had one goal in mind and then conflicts appeared and the answers unfold one after another. We are solving the puzzle together with the main characters. That's the most simple structure of a fantasy drama.

In Destined with You's case, we don't even know what Shin Yu and Hong Jo want to do with their lives. They're simply flirting and encountering lunatics, that's it. The plot had so much potential. If only they stayed picked a lane, this fantasy k-drama could have been interesting and gripping.

This series could have also been way more short if it solely focused on Shin Yu and Hong Jo's past lives and their unbreakable connection. Up to now, I still can't figure if the spells were real or not. Shin Yu got better so the spell transcends through time? But why was Hong Jo never able to cast a spell if she were a direct descendant or even the reincarnation of Aeng Cho? We'll never know the answers to these questions because the show didn't even bother to acknowledge and answer them.

Episode 14 was not the resolution I was expecting. They could have given us glimpses of their past lives bit by bit throughout the series. However, they decided to dump the whole Joseon period in one go. I got emotionally invested in that episode but the sudden return to the present day only left me hanging. Aside from the talisman box, the show could have given more reasons why ML and FL were bound together by fate and how they gravitate towards one another even if they stay out of each other's lives.

Overall, 'Destined with You' both had its highs and lows. It was fun and swoon-worthy. However, the lackluster script made this show messy and incoherent. If only this story were written right, it could have been at par with What's Wrong with Secretary Kim and Business Proposal and will go down in the record books as one of the inventive and spellbinding office rom-com. The series is entertaining but doesn't quite put you under its spell.

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