Reviews

Zuho was the hero of this one!

Great story idea with actors who played their roles well.

I was a bit hesitant to watch this one because I am not a fan of influencers. That whole business is way too fake and insincere. It's been overdone but I guess the world needs to catch on, which may never happen at this point. This drama surprised me in how it used influencing though, so it won a lot of points for that.

I really enjoyed this one, except for the bad hair on Zuho. He's a great looking guy and seems to have a great stylist when it comes to his looks, in general, but for this movie, it didn't work. Can I add that glass skin on man who tries to look good, just doesn't work? Save the glass skin for girls or boys who don't want to look like men.

Not all pop stars should be actors, but Zuho gets a thumbs up from me. I really wish he'd get a better agent, so that he can do well in his acting career. He's got real potential to be an A-lister.

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Worth it for amazing Didi Yuan Zhi and high production value, not for the central romance

The series resolves around the encounter of nobleman Gong Zi Yu and spy Yun Wei Shan who is in an infiltration mission within the very powerful Gong family. The central romance felt very boring to me: the growth of the main male lead was not believable and not paced well enough, the main female lead felt too emotioneless (almost like a blank canvas) for me to want to root for her. Fortunately the stories from several other characters (cunning Shangguan Qian, Dark Gege Gong Shang Jue and feisty Didi Gong Yuan Zhi) kept me interested.

The acting was pretty good overall with some really striking performances (namely the ones of Ryan Cheng, Lu Yu Xiao and Tian Jia Rui) compensating for more middle-of-the road / average performances. Zhang Ling He and Yu Shu Xin (aka Esther Yu) pairing did not work at all for me...I did not feel the chemistry between them, their acting felt very blank. They were not helped by the script but still, it was pretty plain and unconvincing. Ryan Cheng and Lu Yu Xiao had amazing chemistry together which made the main romance feal even weaker just by comparison.

Tian Jia Rui, the actor playing Didi Gong Yuan Zhi made the show for me. Each of his scenes was a delight to watch and truly impressive (especially knowing that this is his first acting job in a drama). He is credited as a support role but he had much more screen time than some of the main roles, which was the right directing choice because his performance shines through even in the background. He was from far my favorite part of the series and I will be looking forward his next drama (hopefully casted as main lead).

The filmmaking and production are really awesome. The accessories, the sets and decors, everything looks so pretty and rich...I liked it a lot. It is so so pretty, I took so many screenshots while watching the series to immortalize some of the scenes. The OST was nice as well, not too overly present but delicate and melodic.

I would recommend this to people looking for a martial arts historical drama with some fantasy elements, high production value and featuring an interesting family conflict mixed with internal politics. The central romance is not the best aspect of the show but there are some storylines around more "secondary" relationships that are really well done and keep the viewer invested. This series allowed me to discover newcomer Tian Jia Rui who amazed me with his strong screen presence in the role of Didi Gong Yuan Zhi. Just for him, I think it is a really worthwhile watch despite some flaws in the pacing and in the writing, as well as an ending that felt too rushed.

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Wow! Why aren't people talking about this one more?

Initially when i saw the cast and roles, I thought that the twins would marry twins and that Chen Xing Xu was portraying both the Male leads, but thankfully that wasn't the case. This is the first time I was introduced to Luke Chen and he was amazing in the role of the third prince.

I also had a lot of assumptions before going into the shows, I thought that the ML played by Cheng XIng Xu would be pretty tame however his story arc was quite powerful compared to that of the Void third prince. His pairing with Landy Li was so fun to watch. The drama didn't have much physical intimacy or even kisses but it was plain to see the lead characters feelings for each others.

I do agree with a lot of reviewers and commenters, the drama has great beginning and ending arcs, however it drags a little in the middle with filler episodes. I like the 3 shards story arc, but it could have been better written. Once they fell in love with her, she just stashed them in places and expected them to stay there no matter how much time it would take for her to find and woo the next one.

And one thing that bothered me, the drama focused too much on forgiveness & sacrifice. Too many characters that shouldn't have been forgiven were forgiven, and unnecessary sacrifices were made for those.

Some Notable Characters:

Liguang Ye Tan
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Loved her right from the beginning. I like watching characters that are open about everything and say what they want. So I pretty much enjoyed watching her every time she was on the screen. She adored Qing Kui and it showed despite her trying to be a hardass at times. What I liked about Ye Tan is that even though she was envious of the way Qing Kui was treated, she never blamed Qing Kui for it. She knew the culprit was her father and she laid the blame right at his feet. Despite being treated like a prisoner all her life, having to hear cruel words from her father, she found it in herself to forgive him because he did all that to protect her. (Nope, still don't care for her father. She almost died quite a few times because of his negligence. When he used those harsh words, he gave others in his kingdom permission to treat Ye Tan poorly. She was starved most of the time, left to be eaten by animal once. People dared to do this because they knew that her father didn't care for her. Her relationship with You Qin was beautiful to watch.

Empyrean Xuan Shang / Shao Dian You Qin
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He was so damn adorable. From the get go, we could see how affected he was by Ye Tan. Once he realized that he liked Ye Tan, he never hid his feelings. He was honest about them, even when he turned her into a walnut and sewed her mouth shut. When he found out that Ye Tan was not Qin Kui, he kick up much fuss about it. He accepted her without creating any unnecessary drama that would be out of his character. He was consistently loyal to Ye Tan (Let's not mention that one shard who was promiscuous for his own good). Qing Kui would never have been a good match for him, she would have probably just gone along with everything he wanted and not changed his life much.

Liguang Qing Kui
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In the beginning, I was a little upset with her character, not because she was favored twin, but I always felt like she could have done so much more for Ye Tan. What upset me even more was that she was a bit hypocritical with Chao Feng / Third Prince, telling him that she disliked people who treated their family badly. However, she was fine treating her father (Emperor Liguang) well when he treated Ye Tan abysmally. This highlighted her privilege, since her father so clearly loved her, she could turn a blind eye to how he treated Ye Tan majority of the time. Ye Tan never blamed her, since she was imprisoned by her own family, treated poorly, she was glad to receive what little she received from Qing Kui. There could be more to the story, maybe she helped her sister a lot more than we got to see but it wasn't depicted so clearly. I did grow to like her character, especially after watching, "Immortal Samsara: Part 1" , where we have another set of twin sisters who were borne out of same root. It just made me look at her in a different way. Throughout their interaction Qing Kui had always been kind to Ye Tan. She always thought the best of Ye Tan and her ambitions of becoming the Demon of the Void. All their interactions were genuine. Even when the whole mix-up happened and she ended up in the void realm she could have blamed Ye Tan for trying to create a mess to get her out of her wedding she wasn't really against of. However, she was quite sane and even looked out for Ye Tan in her own way. So maybe Qing Kui was one of the reasons Ye Tan didn't loose her spirit even after spending 18 years in captivity.

Chao Feng / Third Prince
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The great liar, it was fun to watch him come up with crazy but believable stories to hoodwink Qing Kui, who easily fell for it. The crazy idiot, didn't even realize that he was creating a trap for himself and when he did realize he was quite happy to fall head over heels for Qing Kui. While he appeared quite dashing in many scenes, I do wish his character would have been more imposing and not often defeated by You Qin. I wanted to see them as equals.


Shao Dian Xiao Yi [Heavenly Emperor]
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The emperor, You Qin's father, was more of glory hound, who didn't really care about You Qin as his child. He just wanted to be known as the father of the great Empyrean who achieved the perfect celestial body and saved the world. Even the fix is not permanent, only for a few hundred thousand years, after which he might as well pop out another child to sacrifice, when he himself never had the guts to step up to the plate. Qing Kui was such a decent person and he seemed very happy when she died, that was quite disgusting to see. His expression of glee was present when he found out that You Qin made progress in his cultivation, not really caring that his son was going to die. A decent parent would have been worried about his child, he seemed elated. Its a wonder his wife tolerated him for so long. We all understand sacrifices are to be made, but he could have been a supportive and understanding parent to You Qin. What's more, he was the first one to be an obstacle in bringing You Qin back to life. Even when he came back to life, he just was selfish prick to everyone included.

I'm not a fan of open endings like these so I scrolled down to the comment sections and found this link. This helped ease of the anxiety the I felt after that ending. https://x.com/YoukuOfficial/status/1750867181745688650?s=20

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This story is all over the map...

Liked the story but not the acting or directing. It has so much potential though. It just had too much going on and unrealistic reasoning in too many places. It needs a lot of work to be redone properly.

Hong-bin's wardrobe was so ugly!!! The actor should have been respected more and offered a first class stylist. Not this garbage bin style he was left with.

Shin Se-Kyung was the wrong leading lady for this one. Her overacting was horrible to watch and she didn't come off as cute, at all, in my eyes. She successfully came off as sweet and loving as well as sincere but she has zero romance or sex appeal. She really didn't sell me on her love for her leading man. Lee Dong-Wook deserved a better partner for this story because it required so many layers and she was just one dimensional, this time around. She cost this drama a lot of point losses. Some of the losses did come from the directing and writing too, though. I loved her in The Bride of Habaek, just not in this drama, but then again, the writers and directors were crap too.

The music? Like some creepy psycho movie, there were a few really childish songs playing. I know it's likely because this is a fantasy movie, but it played more like a psycho killer doll was going to show up and slash everyone to pieces.

Now, let's go over the medical issues. The character Se-dong keeps fainting and gets dizzy at ridiculous moments. I laughed out loud when the doctor told her she needed counselling for her fainting spells. Heck, I cheered! The only real world explanation for her fainting spells, based on this story would be PTSD but even that doesn't fit the bill. It was just oddly written into the story and acted out poorly.

The ex, too, has a weird medical issue. She's dying because of a bone fragment near a blood vessel, that IF operated on, COULD POTENTIALLY, kill her. She uses her maternal instincts as a reason for not opting for surgery but a real mom would go get that surgery, especially if she already gave up the kid and let him think she was dead. Knowing she could die anyway and with all that pain, surgery is the only option for her. I sure would not want to live without my kid. That was several wasted episodes in themselves.

If it ever gets a remake, I'll take a chance on it and watch it again, but this version, I was happy to be done with.

What's this story about?

Some really mean guy with a bad personality meets a girl who isn't intimidated by him.
She's an orphan
Turns out he has superpowers.
He has a kid with his dead ex girlfriend.
He, of course, falls for the sweet unabashed girl before finding out his ex isn't dead after all.
He hates his father.
His father's old mistress is his housemaid.
The exes parents are old and simple and her mom has dementia.
The medical issues appear and are confusing
The secretary steals the show IMO
The kid's OK, but really not a part of this story much.

The last 60 seconds of the movie are their only great moment in it.

There are too many issues with this one. It sure didn't need 18 episodes. I forced myself to finish watching the whole thing because I am always hopeful things will turn out well, but this one never did.

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Call it BEAUTIFUL

A slow burn romance to top most slow burn romances. You got 2 incredibly complex characters with incredibly traumatizing histories and they come together to create a beautiful love story.

It starts out with our no non-sense badass but impulsive FL. She’s got revenge on her mind and she won’t stop at anything to achieve it.. until she meets our kind hearted and greenest of the green flags ML. However, she’s supposed to wreak havoc on his life as part of her revenge. So, what is a girl supposed to do? She fell in love.

It’s not a typical girl and guy fall in love kind of rom com. It’s about growing past your trauma, pain, internal conflicts, and allowing yourself to heal. I love that we get a no bullshit FL who’s not afraid to love, not afraid to protect those she loves and not afraid to love even her supposed enemy. Then, you get an incredibly warm and kind ML who’s slumped shoulders show a man carrying the weight of the world on him. What he needs is the love of a good woman. Here, enters our FL crashing into his world and coloring his blank pages. He also helps to bring colors into her black and white world. 10/10

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Reading Reviews Will Definitely Ruin It For You

I finished watching this series yesterday. I tried binge-watching this one,and it only took me one day to finish. It's so underrated. I hoped JCW and KYJ received awards for their stellar performance in this drama.
The concept of a budding romance inside a convenience store with JCW and KYJ as the lead characters made the drama engaging. The first two episodes are slow-paced, but it's understandable because the rest of the episode compensated it for me.
Before watching this series, I also read the reviews and searched online for the controversies surrounding it. It's no big deal for me ,and it didn't stop me from trying to watch this drama.

JCW and KYJ's chemistry is excellent. There are times when I laughed so hard ,and I also cried. The characters are relatable in some way, and this drama gave me the slice-of-life blues even though this drama is a rom-com genre.I just caught myself engaged and enjoying this series, and I felt like an hour per episode was just 10 minutes per episode.

All I can say is, don't hesitate to try watching this drama. It is refreshing and can give you a good time. You can drop it if you want to if it doesn't fit your standards.
I didn't want it to end,but all things must come to a close for it to leave a mark. This show did it for me. I became a fan of KYJ and JCW from their dramas Love in the Moonlight and The K2,and I'm glad I tried this one.

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A bad spinoff

I really liked their gradual introduction to the theme and the zombies but this kind of introduction felt too long and lasted for several episodes without any pieces moving in the story. It was a bit obvious this was done on purpose to delay progress for Season 2. Meanwhile, Season 2 took a step back and tried to develop its characters even though there was no room for that. Although Kingdom as a whole is relatively short but it needed a more precise cut to suit what we've been presented. Maybe cutting it down to 8 episodes in total would be ideal. The slow atmospheric shots with eerie background music were pleasant at first, but they quickly became overused to death and an abrupt change was needed but never happened.

The movie Ashin of the North was an unnecessary addition that felt empty, out of place and was missing something to make us care. In traditional Netflix fashion, always make sure to lay the groundwork for endless possible future seasons/iterations at the end of every turn. Despicable greed!

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Joseon of The Dead

I really liked their gradual introduction to the theme and the zombies but this kind of introduction felt too long and lasted for several episodes without any pieces moving in the story. It was a bit obvious this was done on purpose to delay progress for Season 2. Meanwhile, Season 2 took a step back and tried to develop its characters even though there was no room for that. Although Kingdom as a whole is relatively short but it needed a more precise cut to suit what we've been presented. Maybe cutting it down to 8 episodes in total would be ideal. The slow atmospheric shots with eerie background music were pleasant at first, but they quickly became overused to death and an abrupt change was needed but never happened. The movie Ashin of the North was an unnecessary addition that felt empty, out of place and was missing something to make us care. In traditional Netflix fashion, always make sure to lay the groundwork for endless possible future seasons/iterations at the end of every turn. Despicable greed!

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Joseon of The Dead

I really liked their gradual introduction to the theme and the zombies but this kind of introduction felt too long and lasted for several episodes without any pieces moving in the story. It was a bit obvious this was done on purpose to delay progress for Season 2. Meanwhile, Season 2 took a step back and tried to develop its characters even though there was no room for that. Although Kingdom as a whole is relatively short but it needed a more precise cut to suit what we've been presented. Maybe cutting it down to 8 episodes in total would be ideal. The slow atmospheric shots with eerie background music were pleasant at first, but they quickly became overused to death and an abrupt change was needed but never happened. The movie Ashin of the North was an unnecessary addition that felt empty, out of place and was missing something to make us care. In traditional Netflix fashion, always make sure to lay the groundwork for endless possible future seasons/iterations at the end of every turn. Despicable greed!

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The Queenless Queen

While the series set out to explore the comedic possibilities of a modern soul trapped in a historical queen's body, the formula turned out to be very limited to spin it for a very long 20 episodes. I enjoyed its earlier episodes but it kept repeating the exact same gags with every single episode. How many times they repeated the same kitchen/cooking gags? I don't understand how they thought that would work. The cast size was limited as well, it could've definitely helped in coming up with new material. However, its biggest flaw was trying to add plot to its bare-bone formula. It's one of the rarest sights to see this level of shameless attempts. They didn't even know how to include it so they dedicated separate episodes for it in the middle parts while reallocating the comedy to different episodes separately, again. Cutting and editing it down into an 8 episodes package could've solved most of its issues. I wouldn't have rated it this high if it weren't for its set up, characters, and some of the gags.

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As women, we're forced to make choices, sacrifices... And one of the biggest sacrifices we make is being a mother.

Birthcare Center focuses on new mothers' postpartum lives who come from different family and professional backgrounds. It caught my attention from the beginning because it's not like cliché k-dramas that make me cringe and are unbearable to watch.

In Birthcare Center, new moms can rest and recover freely and get treatment both for themselves and for their babies. It's basically like a hotel, but just for postpartum mothers. The main character of this drama is a strong senior from a skincare company. All her life, she focused on her professional life, and this was her (almost) only identity. By becoming a mom, she discovers a new identity. Like every mother, she starts being too harsh on herself: should she go back to work or should she be a full-time stay-at-home mother for a year? Even though being a mom is not in my agenda soon, I want to be a mom in the future. And I believe that many of you have thought about being a mom and the choices we have to make.
I recommend this mini-drama.

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The Taiwanese version is old and outdated, but this one is more dynamic and funnier.

Well rated remake, but with a very lakorn touch (long breaks on stares, lots of violence, twisted villains, etc.).

PLOT: Meeting between a jewelry forger (the FL) and the heir of a jewelry group, the ML. He discovers that his fiancée is cheating on him with a family rival (the same villain actor as usual :(
The ML sends the FL to prison. When she comes back out, they meet again and survive a few adventures, which bind them strongly. But the ML's uncle separates them...

PROS:
+ Good actors
+ correct OST
+ dynamic production

CONS:
- Low quality audio,
- twists too obvious,
- story poorly written.

=> Only to pass the time, with lots of skipping.
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Remake bien noté, mais très très lakorn (longs arrêts sur regards, bcp de violence, evils tordus, etc.).

PLOT : Rencontre entre une faussaire en bijoux (la FL) et l'héritier d'un groupe de joaillerie, le ML. Celui-ci découvre que sa fiancée le trompe avec un rival familial (le même villain que d'habitude :(
Le ML envoie la FL en prison. A sa sortie, ils se retrouvent et survivent à qq aventures, qui les lient fortement. Mais l'oncle du ML les séparent ...

PROS:
+ Bons acteurs
+ OST correctes
+ réalis° rapide.

CONS:
- Audio low quality,
- twists too obvious,
- story poorly written.

=> pr passer le temps, avec bcp de zapping.

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As a reader, Im so disappointed but As a fan need to continue.

I read this webtoon because of PJH but I never thought that this will make me happy and sad.
To me , this webtoon is perfect example of Character development I want to see in protagonist of a story. This webtoon has many layers that make u hooked and amazing every new chapter arrived. I love how character made, especially sajo hyun from being distrustful man to a man with full of love because of gyera. The webtoon's plot is masterpiece but in this drama the plot is OVERSIMPLIFIED. I felt they rushing too much the story. Adding King participation in plot didn't help to build a strong impact in plot of the drama but make it worst. It only add some dead atmosphere in drama. Some character are poor written. I dont have problem in acting but I think the plot is a big hinderance to the actor's potentials to make this a good series. This drama didn't get the vibe of webtoon not because they make it like rom-com but plot is just messy.

NO HATE TO THE ACTOR, They are great especially PJH. Hong Yeji some your great also but there some needs to improve but I see how you act, someday you will be one of most finest herione actor in K-drama

BUT FOR PLOT I HATE. I know writer did your best but the story you made failed to impress me and made me realized that I wish never read the webtoon to not see the flaws you made.

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MHOK IS THE STANDARD

GO WATCH IT that's what imma say. YOU ARE ABT TO FALL IN LOOOOVE WITH THE GREENEST FLAG EVER AKA MHOK (my man jimmy ATE this role and left no crumbs).he is EVERYTHING. LOVE LOVE LOVE.i started this series not expecting much but ended up loving it.LAST TWILIGHT is now one of my favvv BLs ever.if you are wondering if you should watch it or not this is YOUR sign to WATCH IT RNNNNNNNNNNN.it has love,reality,sadness,good plot and FINE ASS ACTORS ugh so gooood. the only thing that pissed me off was DAY's attitude towards mhok like bruh my man mhok is always the one initiating,reassuring and everything like my boi day PUT SOME EFFORT plzzzzz

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