Reviews

Art or life? Choose! Why?

NB: Thank you for the brilliant subs evasive subs!

I discovered rakugo. I never knew it existed and one episode was enough for me to spend an hour on the internet trying to find out as much as I can about this art. And I discovered many interesting things and not only on wikipedia!

First : the lesson! (LOL!)

Rakugo (落語, literally 'story with a fall')[1] is a form of Japanese verbal entertainment, traditionally performed in yose theatres.[2] The lone storyteller (落語家, rakugoka) sits on a raised platform, a kōza (高座). Using only a paper fan (扇子, sensu) and a small cloth (手拭, tenugui) as props, and without standing up from the seiza sitting position, the rakugo artist depicts a long and complicated comical (or sometimes sentimental) story. The story always involves the dialogue of two or more characters. The difference between the characters is depicted only through change in pitch, tone, and a slight turn of the head. The monologue always ends with a narrative stunt (punch line). Rakugo has been described as "a sitcom with one person playing all the parts". Around 1670 in the Edo period (1603–1867), three storytellers appeared who were regarded as the first rakugoka. (wikipedia)

Second: the plot!

This drama was gripping from the first to the last minute! It tells the story of Bou, a young boy whose dancing career had been ruined and who is sent over to a master rakugoka to learn the craft of storytelling. He meets Sukeroku the first day there and they become fast friends in spite of completely opposite characters. The drama tells the story of their lives over a period of 60 years which covers Showa era (from approximately 1933 to 1997 with the epilogue 16yrs later!). The boys change names as they grow and get promoted within the rakugo association.

I used to watch a lot of western dramas with this kind of basic plot: story of one character's life practically from cradle to grave, spanning a long period of history when major changes happened. Since I usually avoid asian historical dramas as if they were plague, I have never seen an asian version of these life stories. I loved this one, it was gripping, but it tugged at my heartstrings too much in the last episode so I shall probably never watch anything like this again. Too painful in spite of them trying to be upbeat about main character dying of old age!

The plot describes the fight, very restrained and civilized, between the holders of the tradition (masters) and those who try to bring a bit to modernity into strictly coded art (Sukeroku). Yakoumo(Bou) is torn between the safety of known rules and codes and the admiration for the freedom and originality of Sakuroku's performance. And even though for a short moment Yakoumo felt jealous of his friend, he quickly accepted that his art is different, classical not as exciting as Sakuroku's but still admirable. The bond between those two people was unbreakable, they loved and cherished each other immensely and no matter what the world thought , they were there for each other. This was a real bromance!

The problems start when Yakoumo falls for a geisha. When his master asks him to choose between her and rakugo, he breaks up with her. She consoles herself with Sukeroku who was banished from rakugo for insubordination and everything leads to a tragedy with consequences felt for a long time afterwards. This was never really a love triangle and they showed it clearly. The rules and hidden envies ruined lives of three people who starting from that moment just survived and not lived.

The plot is tightly woven and there are no plot holes. The characters are clearly presented and they are fully fleshed out: we follow their growth over a long time period.

Third: the production.

Since this drama is a life story, there are a lot of time jumps so the extraordinary actor, Okada Masaki, first and foremost, had to play the character between the ages of 17 and 70 which is a no mean treat. The way he changed voice and posture and attitude with age is impressive. The actors also had to learn all the rakugo tales and codes of performance as well. Amazing. The only problem i had was the ageing make up (which was expertly done, no details were missed- like hands or neck.): the character who is supposed to be 70 looks more like he's 95, he looks too old for his age. Maybe it has to do with the personality of the character: dry, succinct, cold, unhappy, bitter, restrained so he looks older than he should?
The music is just perfect, with enough pathos to tug at your heart. The time period was rather faithfully recreated.

Conclusion

Drama is about rakugo, an art form thought to be on the decline but still alive and kicking and the people preforming it. it is about people in doing rakugo. As I said, I'd never heard of rakugo before this drama, but it is still easy to follow since it is a human story. Beautifully told story of people trying to overcome obstacles put before them by society, rules and prejudice. Sorry, this review is a bit messy...

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Watch if you want something light with some steamy scenes.

This show has many flaws but is still worth watching for the light-heartedness and the wild scenes towards the end!

The directors made an odd choice to have the actor play Jade in the way he did as he was so loud and annoying. The actor still managed to keep the character cute and somewhat likable. The couple parings are great and omg they went crazy at the end with the NC scenes! I recon that was where most of the time filming the series went into!!

I enjoyed it for the most part but the story was weak and the directors missed the mark with Jade, they should have kept him being cute and less loud and annoying.

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Overall well- made but not without issues

I personally am of the opinion that Day shouldn’t have regained his eyesight bc, as some people have already pointed out, it not only doesn’t add anything to the story but actively takes away from it.

I was actually positively surprised when Day didn’t regain his sight when he received the first eye donation. It brought more weight and depth to the story bc before the surgery, even when he slowly started to get used to the situation with Morks help, Day still lived with the hope that one day he will become “normal” and will be able to see again.

The fact that the surgery didn’t work was an important story point and a huge milestone for Day’s character development. After that, Day needed to come to terms with the fact that his blindness will (most likely) remain permanent and that forced him to let go of the hope of regaining his previous way of living and forced him to accept a new one.
An end of something is simultaneously a beginning of something else and the story made a wonderful example of it. After the unsuccessful surgery Day slowly started actively dealing with the situation and ultimately embracing his new way of living. He started seeing himself as part of the society, albeit a bit different from most people, and he still wanted to participate in life as actively as other people do. This was a huge deal for his character development and he managed to do all that by the end of the series so why was it necessary for him to regain his sight? It wasn’t. It didn’t bring anything new to the table and actively undermined the message of the story, which I find quite sad tbh.

When it comes to the romance, I liked it overall but I wish they gave the characters a bit more time before Mork confessed. The whole relationship build-up felt a bit awkward bc at first it seemed like the both of them started to slowly like each other around the same time (kind of). We see Mork starting to become more aware of Day and the same could be said about Day ( the “goodnight” moment etc) but the show suddenly decided to blindside it’s audience with Days confession towards August. Still, till then I was still on board with it, even after Day told Mork that the latter wasn’t his type, but then they got together pretty quickly after that and it felt slightly off. The show should’ve given them about one or two more episodes to develop Days feelings more before he accepted Morks confession.

The break up felt quite forced too. It makes sense that Rungs death would weight heavily on Mork but if that was supposed to be a big deal and part of the break- up reason the story should’ve incorporated the plot point way sooner and not quite so randomly. The worst part of it all is that we don’t even get to see Mork getting to terms with the situation.
There is a 3 year time skip and suddenly we are supposed to believe that he has dealt with it now and therefore is super happy and heathy and ready for a new start. It doesn’t work like that though.
These issues need to be explained and dealt with properly - by actively showing the audience how a character gets over it. You can’t just invoke a time skip and announce that everything is in the past. It’s called “Show, don’t tell” and not the other way around for a reason. Overall the last two episodes were ridiculous but the rest was good and the topic was unique and important so I’m giving it a high rating.

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Well, that was... something. Aside from the final fight scene (the most entertaining part of this special), the rest felt simplistic and rushed. The acting is atrocious. I think that's the problem with casting pro wrestlers as lead actors. However, the actors who make up the story are equally bad. Nothing makes much sense, and the background effects are lazy rather than artistic. Watch it only if you're a die-hard GARO fan.
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I NEED MORE

Dangerous Romance was wild! The bullying in the first episodes was hard to watch but when you followed the story and the people it was so beatiful. The two friend groups went from bullys and victims to friends witch was nice to see.

Sailom And Kanghan was two diffrent yet so similar characters and to see them get to know each other and become friends and later on boyfriends was SOOO BEAUTIFUL! I loved their relationship so much and they really helped each other to become better.

PerthChimon was the foundation of this series, it was made for them. And the side couple, NawaGuy had a more realistic growth. For them it took time to grow fond of each other which I get since Nawa was one of the bullies.

This drama had everything, the plot, music and acting - everything was perfect! This is what I call a 10/10 series!!

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Ugh

The long ballad was indeed very long and very stale. If you are looking for an epic love story with a lot of romantic chemistry, an interesting plot, and meaningful character development, you won't find it here.

The story started out strong. FL and ML met each other under interesting circumstances – playing football. Shortly thereafter, FL lost her family to a revolt and was forced to flee her home. Unfortunately, the story kind of got lost within itself after that.

Changge was like the perfect Joan of Arc warrior princess. As a young woman from a privileged background, she was great at everything, including sports, sword fighting, and military strategy. The fact that she was perfect was her one major flaw. There was no room for growth. I enjoy strong female characters, but Changge's flawlessness and acting superior with mostly everyone made her overbearing. She couldn’t be beaten, making her extremely one dimensional. It was not convincing that all of her superb skills were the result of her uncle training her as a child.

While the drama started out strong, the story later took a strange turn and lost all focus. At the beginning, Changge swore revenge against those who instigated the revolt and killed her parents, but she ended up moving around different places and doing things completely unrelated to her original goal. The fact that nobody could figure out that she was a woman was pretty comical. All it took was for her to wear men’s clothes for everyone to suddenly become blind to the fact that she had a bump on her chest and round hips. What's worse, later in the show the revenge plot was completely abandoned and now we had a brand new end boss completely unrelated to Changge.

Yueyan ended up to be my favorite character because she went through the most intense character development and overcame all the difficulties on her own. Her and Hao Du was also my favorite couple because there was so much contrast between them - he was cold and calculating and she was timid and soft. The show did a good job at showing his growing feelings for Yueyan and his inner struggle trying to deal with them.

Half-way through the show, a slew of minor characters started appearing out of nowhere and served no purpose other than existing for Changge and her interests. Then, everything got really stupid. People kept insisting that women couldn't lead, women couldn't participate in politics, women were fragile, but there was this 14 y/o princess Tujia running around signing treaties and fraternizing with grown men without anyone saying anything. She'er was the leader of the wolf division and a good fighter, but he spent a big chunk of the show crying for mommy and being absolutely useless. Many decisions were stupid and made no sense. The crown prince's friend was a traitor and participated in Changge's abduction, but for some reason that was never addressed. Sun got arrested for killing him and no explanation was given. The fact that a member of the royal family got kidnapped wasn't even mentioned. And this type of nonsense continued until the very end. Nobody communicated anything. The show also didn't do a very good job at juggling between different character arcs. Characters would disappear for several episodes at a time making us kind of forget about them.

Explanations for certain plot lines were mediocre. It was never clearly explained why the revolt happened, why Changge's mom wrote the letter, to whom, and what was in it, or why the uncle killed her dad. The only take-away was that the emperor uncle didn't kill the mom.

The romance was underwhelming. It wasn't only because Changge and Sun had no romantic chemistry, but also because watching them together was like watching two dudes interact. They were just hanging out. The one kiss they shared was blurred out and we were forced to watch birds. I don't care that the writers intended it, it looked stupid.

The acting was very mediocre. Although she is very beautiful, Dilraba does not strike me as a very good actress, and, Leo Wu needs to work on his acting skills. I haven't seen him in anything other than Love like the Galaxy and the Long Ballad, and I wasn't impressed with his portrayal of stoic brooding characters. Zhao Lusi and Liu Yuning stole the show for me.

Bottom line, the drama was too long, the plot was too convoluted, and the romance was too stale.

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The most beautiful BL ever

Last Twilight was everything you want a drama to be. I loved it so much, it made me laugh, cry, kick my feet and giggle! MhokDay were both intresting characters and to see them fall in love was beautiful. JimmySea did an amazing job showing us what true love really can be and how support means so much. All I can say about MhokDay is that they were meant to be! Then we have Night and Phojai who also were very intersting to follow, especially Phojai who went through so much.

The plot was brilliant, the music made me cry and the acting was on point - I think it's only fair to call this drama a masterpiece!

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Is this the best series ever?

YESSSS!!! I loved every second of this show and everything was perfect! The acting, the music and the storylines was GOLD, PURE GOOOLD!! After a BL break this got me right back and boy was it a ride??
The pairings was so good and all the ships were amazing, I mean FirstKhao can't go wrong ? NeoMark was a pair I didn't knew I needed and ForceBook was super cute as always! The only thing I didn't care for was how the TopMew relationship had so many struggles and it just got draged out. But overall it was PERFECT!
The whole production was amazing soooo
do yourself a favour and watch this NOW?

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Cool premise but lost the plot

Around halfway through it becomes clear that the writers have no idea what they want to do with this show, so every two episodes is a useless conflict that creates unnecessary angst before the male lead resolves it with... plot armour? All intrigue built in the first few episodes slowly goes away as the plot becomes more and more ridiculous. All of the characters lose all of their interesting characterizations in favour of a trope-filled plot. And while I love a good trope, this show is all tropes no substance. The stakes don't feel real, and no matter how well the characters act, the writing is too bad for me to buy into the story.

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SHEER COMEDY, PURE ENJOYMENT

What an unselfish bunch of folks, to give of themselves for the enjoyment of fans. I didn’t know what to expect from this show. First of all, I’m late arriving, but it is never too late to laugh and to discover the personalities and foibles of those you hold in high regards. This show is thoroughly enjoyable! It was fun to see actors embrace each other, respect each other, and even be in awe of one another. All came with a willingness to humble themselves to be teammates; to veer outside of comfort zones, to accomplish a mission. These missions caused gut-wrenching laughter for me! Especially Hwang In-Yeop. I grew to love him, and awaited his screen time. I’ve seen some of his works, but have now, discovered others. The person who truly, truly impressed me, was Park Seo-Joon. I found him quite capable, and his ability to remain task oriented, while assessing the needs of others and providing
comfort, was absolutely outstanding! He has a heightened sense of awareness, and just a great human being! I found the last task seemingly exhausting; so much, that I was ready to elevate my feet, when they were done! Looking forward to Season 2. BTW, Park Bo Gum was also hilarious! The only drawback was, attempting to extract the English print of the cast’s conversation, amongst Vicki’s written clarifications and the Korean print. It was distracting, but that’s about process.

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Cute but too long

Finally finish and… it’s ok drama to watch.
feels like there was a lot of unrealized potential. The reviews are a bit over the top… yes it is nice but not the best.
I watch it for the romance… which Han Sanyang delivers quite nicely. You notice the difference in him and how he cares abiut her… but Tian Nian, well… she remains as childish as it can be.
While it is a good mix to be feminine and playful vs the cold/hard attitude of ML…. I found her too childish and with very little emotional intelligence. In compare to her friends..
also… at a certain point, Han Sangyan was really mean to her… to a point of no return…. And Tian Nian just takes it and forgives him…. Come on! No consequence for him….
Yes he redeems a bit later on but still…. Again FL that are underdeveloped with cero character…
the gaming part was cut short and dragged constantly the story… a lot of flashbacks and Very nationalistic….
Yes, it is their dream to win for China…. We heard it every episode for like 10 mins…

for the first time ever.. I started to fwd in order to advance the story….
Yes, story was nice.
Yes, he is great! She is blah
No, i would not watch it again

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Nice warm drama just wanted more

Countryside dramas are hit or miss with me, the only one I've seemed to enjoy thoroughly is Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha. I did go into this drama with the expectation it would be like HCCC, which was my mistake because this drama is its own story just like HCCC. I enjoyed the mother, the younger sister, and her daughter a lot in the drama. I think the storyline is consistent however I wish the FL wouldn't give up so easily and run away when defeated. This is something that her character grew out of by the end thanks to the ML. The reason I'm only rating this drama a 7.5 is because the romance was very quiet. Yes, the leads loved each other. Yes, the male lead was consistent and sweet but the romance was lackluster I wanted more heart-fluttering moments. I wish we could've got more of a story for the younger sister and her daughter I loved them. Overall this is an ok drama with little to no rewatch value for me due to the romance not catching my attention that much.

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Gonna complain & spoiled big time.....

Watch this cause part of our sky. One of the bad apple with many2 plot holes... Let's discuss drama...

Plot holes:
* It's weird for Nuengdiao as the biggest donor at school or you can say rich boy doesn't have any friend, even get bullied at school. Make no sense at all... Usually at least there's 1 'friend' or follower that try to get closer to get the benefit from being friend with rich guy. For this to be the fact we need background story, maybe someone ever take advantage of Nuengdiao so he trust no one or what.... Unfortunately no background story at all.... So yeah just makes no sense....
* Where the hell is security or bodyguard....?? Hello... Nuengdiao's dad just get murdered, not even made to look like an accident accident, it just MURDERED & the Perpetrator haven't been caught & yet so damn easy to get to Kiattrakulmethee's house to shot the wife & son. OH MY GOD!!! How stupid you are... Oh and after his mom get shot still no security to secure the house... The proof? Nuengdiao easily just enter his house. Yeah I know2 that's his house, but isn't his uncle supposed to be looking for him. Even he didn't monitor the house it just plainly stupid & weird all together....
* Why must hide the fact Palm work for Nuengdiao, to protect Nuengdiao. Make no sense. His dad just get MURDERED & he as the only heir to Kiattrakulmethee's family makes sense to have bodyguard lurking around.... So what if the bodyguard is the same age with Nuengdiao, it's not weird. It's maybe even better cause Palm can be near Nuengdiao as much as possible. Like in the class, cause it's weird to have bodyguard in the classroom, but if u're the same age as Nuengdiao u can join the school. Palm called to be bodyguard but can't be in the same car with Nuengdiao, what if something did happen, will Palm's dad only enough to protect Nuengdiao? Isn't gonna be better if Palm in 1 car with Nuengdiao. Overall it just so so weird... I run out word to describe it....
* Nuengdiao too easy adapt from rich lifestyle to run away & do all the job or housework. Never see someone that easy to switch lifestyle....
* The weird relationship between Kiattrakulmethee's family. The uncle-dad-mother-Nuengdiao-Chopper. It just they try to make family relationships but everything feels wrong... Like how Chopper try to friend with Nuengdiao, but never really friend too...
* Where the heck is the board member. Company that big have no shareholder or board member is so weird... After Nuengdiao's dad gor killed his mother just automatically become the CEO & after that his uncle & Nuengdiao himself in the end, usually there's drama with board member... Haha...

What i don't like apart from the plot holes:
- The forced relationship that Palm's dad try to make Palm does to Nuengdiao. He really see himself as lower class & kinda forced Palm to act like it.
- The cringey relationship between Palm & Nuengdiao. I don’t know how to describe it. Maybe just like Shiro wrote: "there are some sweet well preformed moments here and there but neither of the leads are very good with facial expressions and emotions. That said both are pretty good at delivering physical scenes as well as action and tension. However the moment they are supposed to feel something it just becomes cringey be it sadness, love (not lust though), anger... It just feels off...." Yeah i agreed. It just feels off....
- Mom always baby-ing Nuengdiao. She always said want Nuengdiao to be strong & grow... But u still baby-ing him, how can he be strong & grow... Ugh....

The only thing that I like from this maybe how in the end Nuengdiao grow up & learn to take his responsibility in family business....

Overall maybe just like jpny01 wrote: "It wants badly to be a PG-rated KinnPorche" but failed in general... Everything just feels off....

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It's very cute

I had just read the webtoon and I really liked it, so I went for the series. First I'm gonna do some comparison then I'm gonna talk about the story itself.
I loved what they did with this adaptation because the female intern doesn't exist in the webtoon, neither does the women in power of the company. The only girl in the webtoon is Jiyeon, his friend from college, so I liked that they added more important female characters. I really missed something from the manhwa which was the fact Jiyeon had her own drama going on. When Seung Hyun was sad because of the pen, he and Jiyeon cried together because she was also suffering because of a girl. She even found herself a girlfriend later and this girlfriend was very present, so I missed her plot. I'm not sure I liked Ji Yong's acting. I get that the character was supposed to give puppy vibes and he totally got that puppy eyes, but that man smiles way too much. It's kinda creepy tbh. Overall, I really liked how it turned out and the things they added, like the art, visual effects, a reference to the webtoon itself etc.
About the story: I really liked how the drama was about their success in the company and not that cliché "boss/employee can't be together" thing. I love how quickly things went, but still in a natural way. I think their relationship was so good and I admired how Mr. Kim was already trying to change because he knew he had been a terrible partner before, so he was willing to communicate. Even when he didn't understand his partner's side, he talked. He said "I don't understand, but I want to" and I think this is beautiful. I also liked that he got him a permanent job fairly. It was cute and warm.

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