Reviews

I enjoyed this rom-com more than I expected. Perhaps it may be because of its short run typical of Japanese drama that allows all the essence to be compact without being draggy., unlike the long and drawn out fifty-episodic offerings from other countries.

First, it shows the typical Japanese work culture where everyone is worked to the bone and doing overtime is common and even expected. Shikamori Umi is no stranger to this and continues to run around until she reaches a limit.

Second, the drama demonstrates that change is possible when Umi gets recruited as an intern at an agency, where a very different and refreshing work culture has been established.

Suzuki Airi is a natural, transitioning from a bare-faced, exhausted employee to a spritely, newly motivated worker who wants to try her best at everything, even over-extending herself sometimes. But she realizes that just fell back into the habit of over-pleasing others.

Her coworkers, her new boss and especially Kazao, and even Hina manifest ideas that shape Umi’s worldview, in that working hard is commendable, but also is taking time for yourself. The cast was supportive of Umi’s endeavors and she finally learns to be independent.

This drama was delightful and gratifying. Also neat was the trivial fact that three of the male actors in this show were in other BL dramas that I’ve watched. I did not even recognize Izuka Kenta in that whatchamacallit hairstyle.

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That was a BIG disappointment!

I gave it a go, as I loved SI1&SI2 - how could the producers put this as season three?!
Nothing worked for me.
Cast - largely boring and shallow characters - both women and men. In previous years we had a great mix of ages, professions and personalities. This time on women’s side these was team Miss Korea vs one basketball player (who were the rest of the men again?)
Location - in season 1&2 the participants had much more space - I appreciate it’s the inferno but turning it into Bog Brother is not very interesting for me. The hotel was not that nice as the ones before - had a tiny tab and they had to eat around a coffee table…something just didn’t add up..
Stories - generally very bitty; the only story I kind of liked was cafe owner&young model. The basketball player triangle was centre of all proceedings out of desperation for me - I’m sure that should there have been more interesting men characters, this would have not happened! He was portrayed as shallow, unconvincing and unreliable man - what got omitted from the edits that is SO charming about you?!
I’m not sure if the editing was bad or this season was generally just boring, but there was no much really interesting relationships. For the first time I actually rewarded forward a programme just to see key moments..and these extremely long pauses - who needs that many and that long?!
The best thing - although painful to watch sometimes - was the studio team who was commenting..
Bring them back!

What a disappointment!

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Unpopular Opinon

I like this one, I think it was very cute and enjoyable. I like a simple "fall in love at first sight" type of series. I read a few reviews saying that this series was boring and I mean, it had a few slow moments but I don't think I would classify it as boring. Then again, I like the slower-paced series and fast, quick-action-packed ones. I think it just takes a certain taste to enjoy the more calmer series. I enjoyed seeing the "Call Me By Your Name" posters around both the coffee shop and Yi's home. Maybe that was a major selling point for me because that is my favorite movie of all time and it has 3 characters from "Tin Tem Jai" and that's another one of my favorite BLs. This series had a charm to it, it reminded me of "Light On Me" from Korea, which is one of my favorite BLs, it almost gave me that innocent feel except with a little more spice.

All the characters were just adorable, I loved Jean, Chan Chao, and Pavel's character. I did like Benz and Pavel together in this series, some said that they didn't have chemistry together but I think they were sweet together. Though, after watching "Pit Babe' I can't imagine Pavel with anyone other than Pooh but for the time being, Benz and Pavel were cute. I like seeing Pavel in a cutesy role, I love him in Pit Babe but there's something about him being in a series where he's always smiling is just so good to me. I don't know why but the whole Yi & Pleng scene where they "broke up" with each other, made me all teary-eyed, I love that Tanwa was there to comfort Yi. I like Jean and Thitnuea together.

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good series but only 4 episodes

Watched this series only because Plan was in it as the lead. There are no subtitles. The basic plot was fairly clear, but some of it was hard to understand. Ten's (Plan) father dies, he goes to stay with an uncle (?) who has a daughter. The daughter treats Ten horribly and her parents do not scold her. She deserves a whupped ass. Then for no apparent reason the daughter has a complete change of attitude and becomes friendly to Ten. Then Ten moves back to his own house (his father's house). Between 1 and 4 men in their thirties (uncles or friends of his father) move into Ten's house at different times and cause trouble for Ten. One in particular is a nuisance, then suddenly he too has a change of attitude and becomes serious about his responsibility to Ten. At the end Ten treats him as a substitute father. There are only 4 episodes, not 10. Or at least ony 4 are on YT and the end of the 4th episode looked like a happy ending for the whole series.

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If the audience is used to short dramas, it will find that, although A Love Journal is a SUPER fast miniseries, it is really entertaining. It is even surprising that, in such a short time, the drama resolves the business aspects in a satisfactorily way and the lead couple has very good romantic chemistry. The leading lady works for a rival company and keeps that fact from her husband which gives way to the appearance of an antagonist from her company. The leads have met before in their high school days and seemed to have developed a nice friendship on that time. Even though the second leading couple doesn’t have the best romantic development, it is cute to see them together as the drama nears its ending. The drama starts as a marriage of convenience but, during the cohabitation, they gradually fell in love with each other. It also has a very nice ending, enjoy it!

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A Drama that Leaves the Viewer with a sense of Fulfillment

Extraordinary Attorney Woo has been a drama that I have been putting off watching for a long time and I am incredibly disappointed in myself for not watching this wonderful drama much sooner! The drama immediately establishes itself perfectly by introducing all the characters and their wide arrange of personalities. The story itself revolves around the titular character Woo Young Woo, Korea's first Autistic Attorney, who immediately became one of my favorite female lead characters with her cute, charming, shy personality. Each episode revolved around a "Case of the Week" style story telling with the attorneys of Hanbada Law Firm taking on various cases involving different situations and different character interactions with a wide arrange of conflicts and new friendships being formed. The drama also has a main overarching story revolving around Woo Young Woo being the secret child of the head of Hanbada's rival lawfirm Taesan and Minister of Justice candidate, Tae Soo Mi. The secondary overarching story was Woo Young Woo's relationship with Lee Jun Ho, a charming and kind litigator who works at Hanbada. He quickly establishes himself as the kind and caring male lead who genuinely cares for Woo Young Woo and who loves Woo Young Woo for who she, even despite his judgmental friends. The story itself is consistent throughout and it never once disappointed me, I was always thoroughly entertained however two things disappointed me was that it feel into the one episode break up trope which many K-Drama's fall into and that some cases' outcomes aren't directly mentioned so you have to judge based around how the closing arguments were for those cases. Although that wasn't enough for me to minus points off.

The cast itself was perfect with Woo Young Woo being played by the talented Park Eun Bin who nobody else could have played that role better and her counterpart Lee Jun Ho was played by Kang Tae Oh who was a big fan of in My First First Love. Kang Tae Oh really shined in the male lead role, I hope he gets more roles in the future as the male lead, this performance alone was perfect. It was interesting to see Kang Ki Young play a nice, caring, mentor role with his role of Jung Myung Seok especially after watching him play the lead villain in the second season of Uncanny Counter. The first episode was odd, but he immediately showed his ability to play two totally different roles. The wide arrange of supporting casting was fantastic, specifically Choi Soo Yeon who was played by Ha Yoon Kyung.

The quality of the production was perfect with the cinematography being extremely high quality and the locations for the drama were lively. The OST was great and complimented the drama well. Overall I loved every second of watching Extraordinary Attorney Woo, I really can't wait for the second season!

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I started and dropped this drama three times before finishing it. The biggest problem I had with it was the Orchid fairy character. I rarely enjoy dramas where the female lead character is artless, naive, and not too bright. There was also something about Esther Yu's wide-eyed delivery that exacerbated all of those characteristics. But I kept hearing such glowing reviews about the drama that I pushed through to the end. I think I understand why people like it. Both the Esther Yu and Dylan Wang characters do evolve over time. There is some welcome humor to leaven the plot. Plus the costumes and sets are alternately beautiful and over-the-top campy, which made it fun. I also liked the Dan Yin and Jie Li characters.

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A fantasic drama that is truly one of a kind

Recently in some of my online groups I’ve seen people bashing on It’s Okay to Not be Okay, so here we are, because I will defend this show until my dying breath. It’s been months since I’ve finished it, I’m definitely not over it and it remains one of if not my favorite K-Drama I’ve ever watched.

It’s Okay to Not be Okay is truly a one-of-a-kind show. I only started watching K-Dramas in early 2023 and I’ve watched twenty or so since, and for every other show there’s at least one other that I can compare it to. But there’s not a single piece of media that I have ever consumed that I could compare to this.

The story of It’s Okay to Not be Okay mainly follows three characters, Ko Mun-Yeong, Moon Sang-Tae, and Moon Gang-Tae. And as the title of the show would suggest, none of them are in any sense of the word, okay.

One of the things I’ve seen most people complaining about is Ko Mun-Yeong’s character. Particularly the fact that both herself and her relationship with Gang-Tae are toxic. I won’t refute that. She is, it is. But that’s kind of the point.

Mun-Yeong doesn’t care about anyone else, and Gang-Tae doesn’t care about himself. Throughout the course of the show, they both grow individually and together, allowing them to go from some of the reddest flags I’ve seen in a K-drama, to green flags for each other.

And while I loved the romance portion of the show between Gang-Tae and Mun-Yeong, I may have enjoyed the friendship between Sang-Tae and Mun-Yeong even more. They go through many phases, from Sang-Tae idolizing Mun-Yeong, to being friends with her, to hating her, to developing a relationship reminiscent of siblings. And it was an absolute delight to watch.

The pseudo family formed between Sang-Tae, Gang-Tae and Mun-Yeong was incredibly wholesome and pretty much made the entire drama for me.

None of that would have been possible through without the phenomenal cast. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a better cast show. I can’t imagine any other actor or actress taking these roles, it was like they were made for them.

The child actors that play the main trios childhood counterparts for flashbacks were also perfectly cast. I don’t know how they managed to find kids that not only looked like the adult character, but were also able to capture the character.

Some of the flashback scenes and the parallels to modern day were my favorite scenes in the show. And they get bonus points for the stunning cinematography in those scenes, which by the way is a constant throughout the show.

The best episodes though were the ones where one of Mun-Yeong’s books is read over a scene. The books are all well written and are always a beautiful metaphor for whatever is going on at the time.

The OST is also amazing. The songs always fit the tone perfectly, and Janet Suhh who does some of the tracks ended up being my top artist on Spotify because of how often I got back to listen to the soundtrack.

In addition to all that, the set design is amazing, as well as the costuming. Every single one of Mun-Yeong’s outfits were on point.

I could write a ten page essay detailing everything in the show that I love, but I wanted to leave this review mostly spoiler free and not too absurdly long, so I'll end it here.

It's Okay to Not Be Okay is a phenomenal show that covers a wide array of topics, mostly involving mental health. It’s funny, sad, serious, beautiful, wholesome and thought provoking all in the best ways.

If you haven't watched it, I would highly encourage giving it a shot.

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Boring af!

So boring! Man like wtf were the producers thinking? A young Justice Bao is all good but come on, a 10 year old kid as Zhan Zhao running around with a sword and doing dangerous stuff? No! What were they smoking?

The worst part is that it all takes place at an Inn and I could tell it would not deviate from that inn because I am 10 episodes in and they are still there investigating the same single case. I know this is a young Bao Zheng who has yet to become an official, but they make him look incompetent as he is stuck in this inn trying to unravel a murder mystery while being unable to leave due to the outside being too dangerous, all the while being protected by a 10-year-old. Geez.

It started off looking really promising but hot dang the mystery has no pulling power and I got so bored so I am going to drop it. The whole point of Justice Bao is that he solves multiple cases - one after the other - using his wit and intelligence to showcase his abilities, but this drama is clearly focused on one case and one location. This could have worked but only if it wasn’t associated to Justice Bao. Why do this?

But the worst sin of this drama? None of the female actors in it are memorable. They are all just a mush and nobody stands out at all. Wait I take that back, there is one girl Zi Fu Er who played Bai Ruan Ruan who clearly had a main role but was… sadly… ugly. They somehow managed to make a pretty girl look ugly, and that in of itself takes effort.

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Death’s Game has an interesting and thought-provoking premise. There is also fun to be had from spotting famous Korean actors in cameos or supporting roles. The amount of blood is not too surprising since death is the main topic but it gets very very gory several episodes in -- the type that curls your toes and feels gratuitous after awhile. On the plus side Seo In Guk does a great acting job, as do most of the other actors. But I wish that Park So Dam as Death had showed a little more nuance or range towards the end. Her acting seemed monotonous after awhile. There are also some logic gaps in the story that one has to ignore.

Mild spoiler: This is a drama where nothing changes but at the same time everything changes. And it is pretty powerful as an anti-suicide argument. I give it points for that.

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3rd class drama

This is a 3rd class drama ..i watch my entire life ... after divorce marriage another. I can understand.
But the female lead represents basically complete slut . Like public wife . She want both male lead .
Like pron related. For entertainment trisome .
I recommended not to watch this type of drama . Fu_king priority here .
I also love female lead drama .. like legend of fuyo.. legend of white snake .... who rules the world .. last immortal... etc ... but ever drama .. misunderstanding presents. But not they become fu_king slut .. or fu_king with other ..
I don't understand why such talented actor actress play such thpe of nonsense drama ......
2nd marriage ok ... but i want to eat both ... this represents dirty mentally..
I recommend noble writers should think about that ......
Fucker must be killed.. in drama or real life that only accepted......
I think this type of drama .. can uproot a .. well healthy family or society completely..
Watching decision depends on .. the public..
My intention to warn....
Please don't ruin your life

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It's surprisingly easy to bange for the amount of episodes it has.

At first I thought I wouldn't like Vincenzo because it just didn't appeal to me. But after a few episodes, it became very addictive. It has a good plot, the actors play their roles amazingly well and the story behind each character is well thought out.
It has the perfect balance of action, comedy and romance.
The balance between the mafia plot and the lawyer plot was perfectly executed.
I also really liked the character development of the main characters.
The side characters were also very entertaining and were actually found to be important in the story.
I think the cinematography was very nicely done.

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The most satisfying ending EVER for a historical chinese drama!!!!!

I have watched a lot of historical chinese drama. Almost in all of them, they will closure the drama in like 1 min or so leaving us with so many questions. But ladies and gentleman, this drama has the perfect ending. We got all the characters ending and of course our Main Leads happy ending in DETAILS !!! *chef kiss* PERFECT ENDING. I give this drama a solid 9/10 i would have given it a 10/10 if only they gave us more details of the past life, like her affairs with the MLs, her emotions like why she was so pbssessed with having power and the empress position but most importantly i wanted to know badly the outcome of all the characters in the past life.

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Easily the most toxic relationship in all the kdrama I've watched.

Another one to add to the "pretty good early episodes but that's it" pile. Except this time, the 1st episode is actually hot garbage, then the next few episodes become surprisingly great once the script is flipped on its head, and after that, we're back to bad again.

Amazing to me how typical kdrama have had the same format of 16 episodes of 1 hour each for decades at this point…

And yet, most writers continuously can't manage to hit the 16 episodes count without adding pointless bloat. It's really not that complicated, just add side story elements that are relevant to the main narrative instead of boring slapstick that has nothing to do with it.

This one also has the additional problem of wanting to delay the main romance so much (because they hate each other) that eventually it becomes entirely impossible that they'd ever fall for each other. Their mutual dislike has been a central part of their character for too long, which is also an undesirable side effect of my point above on bloat. If they had properly mapped the story, this wouldn't have happened.

But it was doomed to fail anyway because they made the male lead way too toxic, like irreparably so. Somehow even worse than in Secret Garden and that's saying quite something.

It's a bit of a shame because the lead actors Kim Jae-wook and Krystal Jung were great, but their characters sucked. Unless your thing is emotionally and psychologically abusive men (I'm not judging)... don't watch this.

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