Reviews

What we always wanted in life

I remember watching this because of Lomon, i was a HUGE fan of him even though he was not in many drama. Super excited when this was first released. I still do rewatched it at some point. It’s good, it’s really unique with the revenge note which allows you to take revenge on the people that harm you or your friends/family. It’s what we always wanted therefore it keeps me going but it does lack in terms of the story.

For a teenage drama, it is still good but if you look at the overall rating as a drama then it does lack especially the story after episode 13/14? Do give this a watch if you want something light and unique.

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One of the best of 2023

There are so many dramas that get made with the intention of communicating some grand message about some societal problem or depict something particularly provoking in the hopes of making ground breaking commentary that sticks in viewers minds for years. I feel that in the hopes of achieving this goal a lot of dramas fail to tell a good story. I think that writers and directors often forget that in telling a great, entertaining and memorable story they will usually end up fulfilling the goal of sending a message that sticks in people's memories for years to come. Twinkling Watermelon is one of those dramas. This drama and My Dearest were the only two truly great Korean dramas I watched in 2023.

I HATE teen and music dramas. This was amazing enough to make me sit through a combo of both.

TW is a typical supernatural time travel, music drama that revels in many of the drama tropes that we are used to. At the same time it has a new and fresh energy from mixing genres, inspiring nostalgia, and introducing less well known actors to us. I usually can not stand to sit through music/band dramas but TW just grips you and does not let go. It's funny and heart breaking and joy inducing all at once. It does all of this while bringing awareness to the plight and strength of the hearing impaired, while tastefully depicting the ignorance and lack of consideration that they have to endure.

I think that the drama does a great job of showing a viewer how they can better themselves and their relationship with other people and easily be more considerate of the hearing impaired.

I love the ending. It's such an amazing surprise.

It's honestly almost perfect. That's it.

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My very first memorable c-drama

My adventure in the world of c-drama couldn't have happened if it wasn't for Love and Redemption. Looking from the synopsis, I have been hyped by this show and always wanted to watch it until I got the courage to.

In the first few episodes, everything was great especially the Hairpin Conference in which they had to catch a legendary monster in the wilderness. This conference also contributed to the first encounter of the ML and FL. Later, after 4 years old separation, they bumped into each other again, but ML seemed to stay away from the FL many, many times. As the story progressed, FL found out shocking evidences and the real identity of the ML. Then, they tried to heal each other and began spending more time together.

In my opinion, it could've been shorter, though. I skipped nearly all the scenes of the 'so-called self-righteous' sect leaders and the evil sect's scheme, crafted by the second lord of Lize Palace.

The friendship between Yu Sifeng, Chu Xuanji, Chu Linglong, Zhong Minyan, Xiao Yinhua, and Ruo Yu is one of the great aspects of the show. Their cute banter in the beginning is very funny before the show got angsty.

I become a hardcore fan of the ML because of this drama, but not for the FL (who is banned for tax evasion).

I've rewatched this, perhaps, 4 times already. Yeah, it's a very amazing drama and I love it very much. But, I do remind you to only look for the couple's scenes and skipped those unnecessary stuffs.

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An honorable watch

At first I though this show would be a decent watch but WOW to say I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement. This show resonated with me so much because I saw myself through the actions of the Fl. Not only that, but the life she created for herself in the end is one I have always strived for and could only dream of. I was just so so so happy for them that my emotions just took over. I also want to say that I learned so much about myself from this. I finally found my type. I hope my person shares the same characteristics as the ML, and treasures me the way he does her. To the one who gifted me this, thank you.

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Beautiful! Rewatch Worthy!

Beautifully done. When I first went into the show, I wondered why there were so many episodes (Part 1 & Part 2 included). I was also vary because with Cdramas, the higher the number of episodes, the higher the number of misunderstandings. And the endings usually are very rushed and done poorly. Immortal Samsara was a refreshening change from those dramas. The best part about the drama is the story between the main leads, it has everything that you want to see, romance, angst, bickering, devastation, death, and more so.

This was my second time watching the drama and it was better this time around. During my first watch, I was too blinded by everything Yan Dan suffered to give some credit to Ying Yuan and his sacrifices. What's more, he was man enough to admit that he was wrong to have abandoned her. I have seen a lot of dramas where when the ML abandons the FL for their own good, they seldom admit that they messed up. They even double down and claim that they would do it all over again. But that's not Ying Yuan. What little grudge I held against Ying Yuan for abandoning Yan Dan, I happily let go after completing the second part. I am so glad they finally got the happy ending and peace they deserved. (As much peace Ying Yuan can have with Yan Dan's lively personality in their life)

In this part, Zhi Xi's character was much better portrayed, much more expressive, her feelings for Yan Dan much purer, something that I though lacked in the first part. Even before she sacrificed her life, she had redeemed herself and I was glad to see the sisters enjoy a good relationship. I would have liked to see Yan Dan get married to Ying Yuan in the wedding gown left to her by Zhi Xi.

Overall, this isn't my last time rewatching the show. Another great thing about this drama, the poetry series about agarwood, it was so emotionally charged. Wow! And let's not forget the beautiful music that accompanied each and every moment.

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I was pulled into the drama of the show and was touched by the participants willingness to allow us, the audience, to witness their emotional journeys.The 4 hosts of this show were terrific in their heartfelt reactions often mirroring my own responses.

The 10 participants had their own unique personalities and watching them adapt, struggle, confront and accept their emotional responses to their past relationships and the potentially new relationships was mesmerising.

Season 2 outshone season 1. Some of the tasks were the same, however, the addition interviews gave more depth to the individuals POV. The ex's room was a roller-coaster of heavy feels and it was as interesting to note those who were willing to face this and those who avoided it. The locations were excellent and Jeju island looked amazing.
The support and friendship offered by all the participants demonstrated their maturity. The banter and careful one on ones helped when the emotional struggles threatened to derail them.
As an audience member I got to review my own actions in past relationships so some therapeutic insights were a bonus to me.
A superbly produced show with attractive participants and hosts all willing to open their hearts to us the audience.

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Interesting story not so much cast.

The story: This is the story of a girl (Cho Yeo Hwa) who was in an arranged marriage, and you could say a somewhat forced marriage as she did not have any family to support her. As luck would have it her husband to be dies on the wedding day before they even get a chance to meet. Thus, she becomes a virgin widow destined to a life of solitude and repentance with her not so nice in-laws ultimately leading to following her husband to the grave. (The entire time watching I just cannot believe that this type of thing would ever happen in the world. It made my heart hurt for her.) Her brother who is now missing taught her martial art skills at an early age so she is somewhat restless and does not sit still waiting to die. She becomes a masked vigilante at night helping the poor find what they need and during the day praying to a shrine of her late husband. During this time, she has a run in with a Captain of the Guard (Park Soo Ho) who is somewhat fascinated by the masked person.
This all happens early in the drama so it should not be a spoiler. I found this story interesting and different from other dramas of this nature. It has a comedic flare and will make you laugh out loud at some of the antics of the characters. This is where the charm starts to end because some of the things are somewhat hard to believe and the pace is a little choppy and slow.
The Acting: So, the acting is fairly good, with a host of characters which all play their part well. The exception to this is the casting. The cast of characters is a little off in my opinion. The FL (Honey Lee) which I do like seems too old for this part and throughout the entire drama I find the pairing with the ML weird. They have a chemistry of brother and sister more so than realistic couple. The older brother (Lee Ki Woo, 42) who is paired with her best friend (Park Se Hyun, 25) and the casting seems off there too. So, to me the characters never fit to make the drama more enjoyable.
If you can look past the obvious and not be bothered by the slow pace you may find this a good watch but not a re-watch.

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A little weak compared to part 1

This was a big budget drama that borrowed a lot from Wuxia dramas and it's super obvious when you start watching. Personally I loved the effect and was immediately pulled into the story. The costumes, sets, effects and music were all on point and amazing. The amount of care and effort is so visible in every frame. This drama has a very typical underdog story that is also propped up by an underlying mystery which takes 30 episodes to fully unravel. I feel that the first season was fine for the most part and had a lot of satisfying “anime-like” moments that pulled you deeper and deeper into the world. The problems start becoming more apparent when you consider the romantic aspects of this show and it falls a little flat. The acting in this show is phenomenal from everyone involved when you set aside the romantic parts. In the first season I couldn’t help feel a distinct lack of chemistry from the leads… The secondary couples are not not even worth mentioning at all. The chemistry between the main couple does manage to improve in the second part due a major change in the depiction of the characters. Despite the fact that the romance manages to improve in the second part, the characters all get REALLY dumb. They also start saying and doing the dumbest stuff to move the plot along and some of the retcons (pertaining to reincarnation) were too much to be acceptable. All in all its a pretty good show but it wasn’t tied up well enough to be truly great, memorable or rewatchable.

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Give it a try!

This was a big budget drama that borrowed a lot from Wuxia dramas and it's super obvious when you start watching. Personally I loved the effect and was immediately pulled into the story. The costumes, sets, effects and music were all on point and amazing. The amount of care and effort is so visible in every frame. This drama has a very typical underdog story that is also propped up by an underlying mystery which takes 30 episodes to fully unravel. I feel that the first season was fine for the most part and had a lot of satisfying “anime-like” moments that pulled you deeper and deeper into the world. The problems start becoming more apparent when you consider the romantic aspects of this show and it falls a little flat. The acting in this show is phenomenal from everyone involved when you set aside the romantic parts. In the first season I couldn’t help feel a distinct lack of chemistry from the leads… The secondary couples are not not even worth mentioning at all. The chemistry between the main couple does manage to improve in the second part due a major change in the depiction of the characters. Despite the fact that the romance manages to improve in the second part, the characters all get REALLY dumb. They also start saying and doing the dumbest stuff to move the plot along and some of the retcons (pertaining to reincarnation) were too much to be acceptable. All in all its a pretty good show but it wasn’t tied up well enough to be truly great, memorable or rewatchable.

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Not the masterpiece that everyone is talking about...

After PitBabe the Series, I've been had once again by the rating and the praise that I've read about the series. However, once again, I'm feeling disconnected with all the people praising those two series because I don't find them really enjoyable to watch (but to be fair to The Sign, PitBabe was way worse!).

I'll be totally honest, this was not a bad series. But it is far from the masterpiece that everyone on the net is saying it is. There are a lot of flaws that I can't ignore as they were pretty big to fully enjoy the story.

So, I'm going to talk about the things that I liked first:
- the CGI (and the mythology plot). I was really impressed with the shot in episode 1 where Phaya is almost drowning and he sees the Naga and the woman trying to save him. It was really impressive and I was hopeful about the quality of the show. Unfortunately, the mythology part of the story was put aside very rapidly but everytime Phaya was stuck in his "dreams", the CGI was very good. Apart for the fights between the Naga and Garuda and sometimes the image was too blured that my eyes started to hurt but I'll still put that as a like.
- Billy. I'm not really a fan of his work (I hated and dropped Secret Crush on You and have only seen War of Y that I liked) but I'm not denying that he's a good actor and he knows how to deliver emotions (contrary to his partner...) - even though, it was sometimes too much but it's undeniably the director's fault and not his because he was asked to act that way.
- Doctor Chalothon. The best thing in this series (with maybe Lieutenant Akk). I wanted to punch him in the face so many times but, because he was supposed to be the villain (or one of them), he did it perfectly.

I can't thing of any other things that I liked so I'm going to move on with the things that I didn't like (and there are more!):
- Tharn / Babe. I don't hate the actor as I disliked Charlie's actor in PitBabe but we have to admit that he only has one expression throughout the series (except when he tries to cry). I wasn't moved by his delivery and I'm pretty sure that it's also because his character was badly written. Despite being the hero of the story, Tharn is not a good character: he is dumb and, even though, I could believe he loved Phaya at the beginning of the series, I was not so sure about it from the middle until the end. The guy believes in his fate and in the dreams that Phaya is experiencing (he also has visions of the future). He believes Phaya when he tells him about their past lives and that there's a man that wants to separate them (and he's actually dumb not to immediately think about the doc when the guy is mentionned but not named - but I can excuse him for not thinking about him). However, I can't excuse him for not believing Phaya when he finally tells him that the guy he was talking about earlier was the doc and that he even accuse him to just be jealous of him. I'll be honest, if I was Phaya at this very moment, I would have told him to f**k off. Especially because, at the beginning of the series, when Phaya is angry at him because he thinks Tharn told the doc about his dreams, Tharn says that he would talk to the doc about it but he never does!! Also - I was so shocked about that -, he didn't even react when the doc openly confronted Phaya in front of everybody and openly said that his behaviour and traits were those of a mentally ill person (or something like that). And the very end of the series confirmed my suspicions about him not loving Phaya as he came back ONE YEAR LATER and the only excuse he had was that he felt bad for Chalothon, like WTF!!! The guy prefers to stay with the guy that almost killed his supposed lover several times and that blackmailed him to kill his loved ones instead of trying to flee and go back to the one he's supposed to love. That was ridiculous...
- the fight scenes and the whole Montree plot. For a seven-month special training, I found that the guys were sometimes easily at a disadvantage in a fight against someone sometimes not specially trained and not even that muscular... You're not going to tell me that the forensic guy that were working with them at the beginning can fight both Tharn and Phaya and make them difficult to catch him, I won't believe it. And yet, it happened... Also, the scriptwriters decided to leave the mythology plot aside to focus on Tharn's father's death and I couldn't care less. I thought at the beginning that it was linked to his past life as the characters around him and even himself constantly repeated that he was cursed and every person that he loved was condemned but it had nothing to do with that. They are two different stories that they tried to link without success... Also, I'm curious to know who is the person that Yai was talking about and that supposedly died because Tharn loved them because I don't think he was talking about Tharn's parents at this moment so I'm still waiting for an answer...
- the abbot and Tharn's grandmother. A lot of people on YT wrote in the comments that the abbot deserved his own series because he was protecting Tharn so much and so on. But... if the abbot wasn't there, it would have been the same... He did nothing the whole time while he knew who was after Tharn! He even asked Phaya to bring Tharn to him on the day this whole mess was supposed to end but he did nothing to protect Tharn at all!!! And I would even blame the grandmother as she knew that the doc was preying on her own grandson and was not even human... I know that if they told him the truth earlier, there wouldn't be a story but make it make sense if you want your audience not to be disturb as the fact that the closest persons to Tharn were the ones that let him be in danger his whole life.
- the NC scenes. I don't really mind s*x scenes in general but I felt like they were making them just for the sake of it and I hate that kind of thinking. Phaya just woke up after almost being dead, he's not even recovered, and the only thing that he does is to go to Tharn's flat and sleep with him. What a great mind... Also, the "good bye" s*x scene they have before Tharn disappears was so freaking long that I had to skip most of it. It lasted more than 6 minutes and I wouldn't have complained that much if it was animated but nothing happened, it was boring!! They were simply kissing gently for 1 or 2 minutes before changing position... Also, I know they have to censor some of the scenes but instead of blurring the a**es of the actors, they could've just not shot below the waist because the blur was a bit disturbing...
- the second part of the series. The first part was mostly watchable for me to be kept interested but from episode 7 or 8, I started watching it with my phone on the side which is a good indication that the series is not entertaining enough.
- the delay of the last episode. The last episode was supposed to be out on the 11th and it was really annoying to wait another two weeks to watch the series...

As a whole, I don't particularly recommend the series, but I'm not saying you shouldn't watch it either. You probably will like it like 99% of the people who watched it, I feel... It is simply not my cup of tea.

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Came For Meen Stayed For Series

As a fan of Meen from Love By Chance 2, I have sat through the torture of AiLongNhai and My Dear Gangster Oppa with Ping. I know I only made it through AiLongNhai because of the comment section comparing it to Between Us. How Nhai would need ICU for just bumping into something while Team had the whole bottom of his food sliced open and he said he would just walk it off.

Ping has the same acting chops of Dunk. Every time he comes on screen, I want to gauge my eyes out and put on noise canceling headphones on. How has he not gotten any better when he’s being paired with Meen? Meen can act.

First off, I have read the webtoon so I have some sort of expectation of it being decent if not great because Meen is in it so I thought Ping must’ve leveled up. The webtoon was fluffy and had less showing of the Oppa’s gang life unlike the series. In a way I am glad they had the gangster parts in the series because then you can see Meen can really act in those scenes.

Ok with all that said. I came here for Meen and Meen only. But then I really loved Saisimom and Mana story. They really made this larkorn enjoyable because they really had chemistry. It was a fun watch without being too exaggerated like most larkorns.

Given that this is a slice of life Thailand series. People shouldn’t come at it with a western slant on it. Otherwise, you have to call out all the faults of American shows which has a lot more shit to show. Some said this series was in the 1960’s or 1970s. So no cell phones and iPads and talentless social media famous people

I love Chujai she’s the most adorable little munchkin in the series.. Mana’s other sister Sri is so entertaining to watch especially who she whips a thug like Te into shape with a glance of a slap in the are. The Chief was so passive that he allowed his wife to be a shrewd and not out control.

That Krong got a taste of bitter pills. The parent got what they deserved in the end. No bail and time serve.

There weren’t any plot holes which is a rarity in Thai series. It’s an enjoyable series to watch. You might lose a few brain cells from both moms screaming at each other or just Mana’s mom altogether.

Meen did a good job acting like the bumbling thug Te.

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So booooring!

Buon cast, buona colonna sonora e anche idea di fondo ottima. Peccato che tutta la serie, praticamente in tutti e 16 gli episodi, ruoti solo nel dormitorio con pochissimo romance... noioso e poco originale, colpi di scena prevedibili, personaggi spesso odiosi e al limite della caricatura. Il conflitto "freddo" tra le due nazioni è praticamente messo tanto per, caricaturizzato ed esasperato. Politici inetti e inutili che non capiscono nemmeno quello che fanno. Morti senza senso, brodo allungato fino all'inverosimile. Bastava un film di un paio di ore e tanti cari saluti!

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SVT was treated so poorly

Gosh, where to start? MBC sucks for this one. They used Seventeen's rookie status to bully them for entertainment. Some of the challenges were really degrading, and the whole thing with them taking away their food, because they didn't earn it through suffering (or whatever their standards were), was hard to watch. Most of their interactions with the staff were kind of awkward.
Seventeen, though, rose up to the challenge. They did better than anyone on that production team thought, and really stayed together as a strong team. They even handled their mistreatment with a grace that I don't posess. This show would never happen today with Seventeen being so successful. Carats would have a fit.
I'd only rewatch this to see baby Seventeen have fun together, trying to ignore all the BS they put them through.

End of rant.

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