Reviews

Therapeutic dating show

I'm not a fan of dating shows, but I loved this one. I started watching it because it was compared to His Man. In my opinion, this one is much better. It may not have such a spectacular love story, but it has so much more.
The participants were surprising. They were completely different from the first impression they gave.
One who looked boring and rough, but was actually hiding so much emotion.
One who seemed confident and sociable, but actually felt inferior to the others.
One who seemed so perfect that others didn't dare enter into a relationship with him.
One who acted friendly and like a big kid, but looked after others all the time.
One who seemed to have nothing to hide from other people, but was in fact shy.
One who seemed too direct to others, but deep down was lost.
One who was still very young, but surpassed everyone else in maturity and put too much pressure on himself.
One who seemed carefree and sociable to everyone, but experienced loneliness in such a way that others did not notice.
Watching each episode, I felt like I was attending a therapy session where I was taught to love myself.
At one point in my viewing, I noticed that I stopped caring at all about who would form a couple with whom. I only cared about how the bond between the participants developed. Watching the friendship form between them was the most important part of the show.
It was therapeutic, relaxing and brought me peace of mind.

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Couldn't shine, remained mad and crazy!

Ignore the ending, the prologue itself was appalling and distasteful enough to eliminate my expectations despite the drama having Jang Hyuk on deck. Speaking of which, once again, Jang Hyuk is playing the same character from The Slave Hunters (2010), if you've seen that one then you know what's up. Characters, while initially intriguing, suffered from inconsistent development. The pacing felt uneven, with moments of rushed storytelling followed by prolonged and uneventful sequences, disrupting the overall momentum of the show. The whole poison plot was painful to tolerate and sit through. The story was so terrible it just kept getting worse with every episode. The last 4 episodes in particular were poorly planed, marking them as the worst part of the drama. Once again, Jang Hyuk wasn't enough to save this drama although he was the only highlight.

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I'm your father

It's the usually daily format so temper your expectations accordingly before proceeding any further. Both Seo Hyun Jin and her character contributed a lot to the drama to keep it decent enough. Her interactions were the most memorable. On the other hand, the writer robbed off Seo Woo from making her a decent character, writing wise. Meanwhile, Jo Hyun Jae was as static as always throughout his entire career, the man would rather die than changing his expression. There's no justification for the long runtime other than they were contractually obligated to follow the template dedicated to this time slot. At least give the high moments more time to sink in. Especially the ending, there was no need to make it this short, they had the time to take a more relaxed approach.

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Storytelling that takes risks

Exquisitely directed with sumptuous and poetic writing. Watch to the end of episode 4 to understand the real dilemma at play for these characters. This drama shows such maturity about two adults falling in love. I was left breathless by the confession scene. All the romance gently unfurls from the yearning by the FL and subsequent grovelling/ chasing by ML (he’s such a dummy over her). The one fail was early kiss scenes are clumsy (for romance reasons) but I hope it doesn’t send too many away from watching on. Although, when will cdrama writers discover that intimacy co-ordinators exist and unsolicited kisses can move the conflict forward without being semi-violent?! Nevertheless, this drama has shot to the top of my ‘best of 2023’ list with a bullet. I feel the pay off will be in last eps when we see what reaching ‘10/10 level’ love really means. Can’t wait!

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The cursed, the remake

A slightly different take on Jang Hee Bin. The drama suffers from the exact same problems any profession focused historical drama attempt. Very similar to Goddess of Fire with its storytelling, transformation, progress and conclusion. The drama didn't deserve to be longer than 16 episodes at best for the amount of material it had to offer. Quickly enough, they deviated from fashion design in favor of typical bland drama antics. They kept all the details of fashion design to minimum. Looking at the cast it seemed promising but it turned out to be quite disappointing. This drama and its other remakes were all equally as problematic and disappointing. Maybe Jang Hee Bin as a historical character is cursed to be portrayed in media.

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Kidsters

Literal kids playing mafia. Anyway, the drama was full of cardboard characters and you may expect an amateur level of performance, editing and writing to match it. The plot felt convoluted and disjointed, struggling to maintain a coherent narrative throughout the show. Characters lacked depth and development, making it challenging to emotionally invest in their arcs or connect with their journeys. Their personal relationships didn't intertwine well with the story either. I was looking forward to see Uhm Tae Goo but the drama wasn't worth it. I find this period and setting of Japan/Korea to be the worst to watch through any media. They "almost" don't know how to go on about it. I could count a few rare exceptions on one hand.

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The circus

It's a villainess drama which we don't get to see a lot of. Knowing Kdrama, they generally give the same immature treatment for 99% of all villains ever. Even when we have a villain lead like this drama, they don't break the rule to have a better portrayal of a good villain character. Instead we get a silly dumbed down version of a baddie. You may as well add squeaky sound effects and air it on Sunday morning cartoons. To boil it down, you'll be watching 50-episodes of this king and concubine being clowns until they reach their demise because the drama ran out of episodes. I was hoping for a smart cunning play but we got a reckless uncalculated short-sighted arrogant one. Also, the drama had this habit of re-using the same evil tricks over and over instead of coming with something creative. Setting up the same traps is a case in point. On the bright side, Kim Hyun Joo was keeping the drama afloat.

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A broken pot

This drama didn't deserve to be longer than 10-12 episodes at best for the amount of material it had to offer. Quickly enough, they deviated from pottery making in favor of typical bland drama antics. Pottery making was its selling point but we barely got a slight tiny glimpse of that field. They kept all details and technicalities to minimum, how do they expect the viewer to care? I guess having a love square is more important to them. Looking at the cast it seemed promising but it turned out to be quite disappointing. Nonetheless, did we really need that awful nasty 17-years timeskip before the end credits? Massive yikes!!

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Horsing around

Why the hell do we need a love square in a horse/medical drama?! Really trying to inflate the 50-episodes runtime as much as possible for such a straightforward material. The drama itself was too vanilla and bland. I wish there was more to the drama than that, maybe exploring more interesting medical cases/areas. Speaking of medical, this is another drama with a godlike doctor and a godlike acupuncture skills that can resurrect the dead and create new life with little to no room in having reasonable stakes. Other dramas with godlike acupuncture skills that comes to mind are: Heaven's Order (2013) and Hur Jun (1999)/the Original Story (2013).

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DOA

The late-2000s/early-2010s extreme edgy vibes were too damn strong with this one, from the awful OST and soundfx to the comical acrobatics and the pretentious attitude. Moreover, an obvious poor job from the directing department worth a slap on the wrist for their empty shots, lousy compositions, hasty transitions and un-cinematic pretentious edits with no purpose trying to mimic cinema as if they were following a template. This is not how you create a slow-burn. The leads story, their entangled relationship and their journey to fall in love all were the furthest thing from being natural and smooth. If the edgy writing full of cringe was playing against them then the directing was the cherry on top to cross the point of no return.

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RUN!

The kid was pulling this drama together from the very beginning. While the chase was interesting to follow at first but soon enough it became tiring and boring and a change of scenery was due at that point which took longer than expected to get to. The drama had some nice side characters which didn't become overbearing, namely So Baek and her father which provided a little distraction from the long wait for the story to move. There were a lot of elements I didn't like in this drama but I probably will remember this drama for the kid. However, there was one particular major issue the drama suffered from and that is the godly impervious plot armor eliminating any sense of danger or stakes driving the drama in an extremely predictable bland route.

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I had a dream...

Casually confirming for nth time how unappealing Choi Soo Jong is in historical dramas as always since the start of his career. Just from reading the synopsis you may expect a big historical drama with big sets, big battles and big production, but this drama was embarrassingly scuffed with minimal efforts after the initial batch of episodes. As always with these type of shows, they blow their budget early on on flashy scenes then left wondering how to produce the rest. You may expect inconsistencies along the way, like having two or more camera angles of the same scene with different color grading and quality. I suppose an intern was editing that day. Anyway, the drama itself was underwhelming and almost nothing about it stand out, not even the cast nor their performance. All of their dramatic creative liberties proved to be unsuccessful and dull, as expected. A lot of petty fights that are always annoying to watch and lasting too long. At least the drama served as an example for how not to tell history in an entertainment medium.

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ONE OF THE BEST STORIES I EVER WATCHED

I would divide my reviews in things that came to me after watching it ; one is EXCELLENT STORY. The story is about Love that proves in every time, Khun Yai's love is to make Jom experience it in every time, whether it is in the past, present or future, or even past of pasts ! I would say that this drama has an excellent story ! How good is the mind of the writter of this story ! I would never be able to create a story like this, it is out of this world. When I watch a show, one of the things that I look into is the story, if the story is something that I can get a lessons from, if the story is something that touches my heart and will blow my mind, I would say this show checks all the boxes ! And the execution of the story is DAEBAK ! to be honest, I kinda lost my trust to DeeHup House coz I did not like the Step by Step ( I am sorry to those who liked it ) but here they got back my trust to them. So going back, the story is remarkable, and phenomenal, Like I am obsessed, It is nice that I realized the true message of the show or the story at the end, and that kept me from being curious about like what is it going to be, what's gonna happen? And I was answered, I am satisfied with it as a whole.
Second thing is ROMANTIC. The way Khun Yai and Jom making love is literally EVERYTHING ! about the kiss, it blew my mind ! Nothing awkward about it, it looked so real, it was not dry, it was not too wet, just enough ! And okay I am talking about this right now, usually some of us feels enticed of kissing scene in a BL, I admit I do! But here whenever they make love and kiss I felt their love to each other, it was everything I am obsessed ! This will be one of the reasons why it will be hard for me to move on on this drama! Khun Yai and Jom was like they just love one another so much, it was not about if they were both guys anymore, not about the gender anymore, but the love itself, the romance I am looking for is this one and will definitely be this one. Joms character was not too weak, but I would say he is strong ! and nothing I don't like about his character, and Yai ? OMG the greenest green flag ever, he is literally a prince ! Third is ONE OF THE BEST ACTINGS/ ACTORS. leading by experienced actors completed this show, Nonkul's acting here was phenomenal ! How he did the softy cute guy , and his everything here is literally everything ! Let me just say that Kim Goodburn is my favorite here ! I loved it when they casted him, I hope he would accept one day a BL genre, so yeah I like also his character here, and I liked everyone! I liked Ming ! The acting of good actors here are not wasted because such a promising story and show. Lastly, HEARTFELT. I am someone who looks for a drama that touches my heart, as what I mentioned in every episode reviews I made, I cried most of every episode ! Adding the song ? OMG it is everything ! My favorite part was when Khun Yai showed Jom the fireflies , so so romantic, also the night before Jom will be gone, their making love, I cried so much coz I know the feeling of someone you really miss! Also when Jom pushed Khun to follow his parents when Khun Yai's parents want him to be engaged to a woman, and the scene where Khun Yai and Jom danced outside and it rained ! Well almost everything is my favorite part ! I love the song every time I hear the song it makes me wanna cry too ! I felt everything, the sincerity, the love, the message ! I had a blast with this drama.
Lastly I wanna say that this drama exceeded my expectations, definitely one of the promising dramas of 2023 for me from now on ! , I hope it would be recognized internationally as ATOTS, and yeah this is now my top favorite ! Coz who doesn't ? Unless they did not understood the whole show or not into this kind of genre. Surely will re watch this many times in the future, coz who knows maybe I may also be able to go back to the past coz maybe like Jom there is someone who has been loving me for so so long ! HAHAHA just kidding ! ❤️

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Does not deliver its promising premise and instead digresses into the utmost bonkerness...

When a PD makes a variety show about a cryogenics experiments, Ma Dong Chan and Go Mi Ran, a part-timer struggling with family debts, participates in the "24-Hour Frozen Human Project.", but they are accidentally frozen for 20 years. To survive, they must maintain a body temperature below 33°C, while seeing all of their loved ones aged 20 years!

The premise about two people being the sole survivors of a truly unique traumatic incident, is a creative premise, but I can’t enjoy my drama if I can’t get on board with the story and the characters. To me, Melting Me Softly does not deliver its’ potential and instead digresses into the utmost bonkerness... I got really bored when the show becomes more of an office romcom with a jarring murder mystery in the latter part. Of course, it can make an interesting subplot, but shouldn’t they focuses mainly on the characters and their love developing firsthand?

Ji Chang Wook, being our male lead Dong Chan. Honestly, his character doesn't leave very much of an impression, and my liking for his character is truly driven by the actor. Even though he is so cute, act so well and have good chemistry with Won Jin Ah, their romance feels forced since they both have no relationship outside of colleagues, I am not seeing any buildup towards them as a couple. I feel the true love story would be between Dong Chan and his previous love Na Yeong, rekindling a true love story that transcends age differences and experiences. I would love to see them finding each other again after time apart and forgiving each other. To not end this on a negative note, I got to give a shout-out to one kiss scene, which is pure brilliance–in order to keep their temperatures and heart rates at a safe level–Dong Chan turns on the shower and kisses Mi Ran, with both fully-clothed. Talk about one of the most steamiest kdrama kisses out there.

-Dec 2023, Yovita
Find me on Instagram: @kdramajudge

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Power down!

Reminds me of some cheap fantasy anime. Executed as a one and equally as garbage. Terrible writing from the get go. Poor storytelling and structure. Painfully underutilizing the generous long runtime. Filled with irrelevant nonsense that doesn't contribute to anything, not even for a side gag or filler. While the cast may not have been terrible, but they were definitely careless and under-performing. It's not like that had much to work with in the first place. The director doesn't seem to be helping in that regard either. I don't think this drama would have worked even if it was just a 2-hours movie.

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