Reviews

This drama is ok, but not transcendent i saw far better !

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The CASTING is impressive, that's why i watched it ! If you are a fan of Seo In Guk, it is a drama for you, his acting is quite good in this drama and his character embodies the cuteness ^^ The other actors are good also, i discovered Im Se Mi as a beautiful and skillful actress.
The STORY is interesting at first sight about the rich guy who loses his memory and becomes a homeless man. Thus, the chemistry between the two main characters is spellbinding, it's a pleasure to see how much they are deeply in love !!
Moreover, there are a lot of funny characters such as Cha Joong Won (Yoon Sang Hyun), Baek Ma Ri (Im Se Mi), Jo in Seong (Oh Dae Hwan)... and my favorite one is Hong Jae Sook (Yoon Yoo Sun) which is a refreshing character !!

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BUT, despite all these good points, the plot bores me at the highest point... The bad guy isn't a bad guy (i don't ask a manichean drama, but even with subtlety, he isn't one and his acting is not as good as the others), there's nothing at stake in reality ! So i sadly finished this drama in fast-foward :/

It remains entertaining, but nothing very profound :)

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This is the third long drama that I’ve watch and its my favorite so far! The plot might not seem as interesting as some other dramas but you have to keep in mind that this is a family drama so the plot revolves heavily around the men of Wolgyesu tailor shop and their family.

I fell for the main males characters quickly! The drama shows us that these gentlemen have flaws and arent perfect from the very beginning and I think thats what made me love them so much. They each had their own story and we get to see how they deal with romance and daily life. The female leads (the different love interests) are a different story, although I did love each of them at the end, there were moments when I didn’t like them at all! The secondary characters (mainly the family) were your typical annoying meddling family. There are two family shown and they are completely different.  I liked the contrast between them and I like how we got to see the, grow closer.

The acting was great and very believable. One of my favorute parts of this drama is that at the end you’re happy with how everything ended. Usually dramas have super villanous people who will do anything to get want they want even killing but this show didn’t have that. There are what you would call villains but they werent really that bad. I only hated them for a couple of episodes and then they showed us a different side and in the end they all moved on. I love how this drama shows forgiveness and how people make mistakes and that people can change for th better.

The show is 50+ episodes but I watch all most of them. I only skipped around 4 or 5 episode because at the time I was watching I had college stuff to do and I wanted to finish the drama before. Those episode to me were not that important so I didn’t miss anthing major.


Overall it was very entertaining and kept me wanting to watch the next episode! I binged this drama for a day because of how addicting it was. I recommend this drama for anyhing who isnt into major major drama and likes to see peoples daily lives.

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Self Redemption turned to Self Discovery & Bromance

What will a spoil young brat with heart case did if he has 2nd chance to live?
I hardly cry in any dramas that I am watching but this drama really makes me cried so much especially from episode 8 onwards. One of the best so-called BL dramas that I have watched so far besides Taiwanese BL series under WBL & History. What I like on this drama is the flow of this story, it was not too slow or draggy and how the ML - Tian turns over a new leaf after he get a 2nd chance to live under another person heart which brings him to meet another ML - Chief Phupha. This story is so heart-warming & down to earth. Both ML & even the supporting roles e.g. Dr. Nam, Tian's best friend - Tul & the heart donor - Torfun was great. The background of this drama is magnificent & personally I like all the OST in this drama too. If you are expecting skinship in this drama then very sorry this drama has the least skinship but a lot of body language & emotional elements. If you are still considering of watching it then my advise is just give it a try since it's only total of 10 episodes but make sure you get ready a box of Kleenex with you.
Great work to all the production crews especially the director of this drama for directing such a wonderful drama. Another point that I like on this drama is every ending of the episode there will be a phrase / proverbs being extracted from the dialogue of this drama which I find it to be very meaningful & useful for us to ponder on it.

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i’m obsessed

this show isn’t for everyone but it’s definitely for me!

holy fuckkk Jang Na Ra really deserves a Baeksang for her performance, i can’t imagine the toll her character had on her- everything felt so real.
I was glued from beginning to end. yes, some characters actions are going to frustrate you to oblivion but there always another character that will relieve that. also the mental health part of the show is beautifully written if you stay till the end, the beginning not so much- coming from an american. you really have to put yourself in a korean society mindset to keep your cool in the beginning ~
again, this isn’t for everyone but give it a try if you’re looking for a mature angsty revenge thriller!

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If you're bored, go ahead and watch this series.

Let me say this. If you have nothing else to watch and feel bored, then I would recommend this. I wouldn't note that this series is a MUST watch but hey! If you have nothing to watch, go ahead and give it a try. The main problem with this series is that AFTER they get into a relationship, they cut down the chemistry between the characters. There is a lack of intimacy between the characters. I don't mean sex or kissing scenes (note: you don't need these aspects to showcase intimate moments between characters), but they act more like brothers than lovers.
Moreover, the side stories are okay but I did end up skipping a lot of the side stories since I was simply uninterested. Since this series is top-rated, I would like to tell the watchers to lower their expectations. Don't expect too much! Honestly, this series is just a chill watch. Nothing too extraordinary and nothing too blunt can be expected. It's ok, not bad.

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The journey of a strong FL

My thoughts on both Part 1&2 (*minor spoilers*):

This is probably the best written cdramas I have ever watched. Usually no matter the genre (except thrillers maybe) cdramas tend to follow a formula, and that's not bad- it just depends on whether the writer can pull it off or not. But this- this is so different from most other dramas with so much meaning infused into it. It's very character driven but at the same time has an overarching plot and sub plots that grab the viewers.

First of all the FL is intelligent, self reliant and witty. With these 3 traits alone she is written better than most cdrama FLs who are always tripping over themselves. But (and despite being bubbly) she is not an overly positive person- and this is truly what set her apart and also made her so relatable. Even though as an audience member you can see she's overly cynical and very bitter despite things not always being as bad as they seem . But you can still completely relate to her. And then the character development she goes through is so perfectly written you literally see her growing into this graceful intelligent but still wilful lady on screen. And honestly no one could have pulled off so many character traits and still be loveable throughout apart from Lu Si.

And then there's the ML who Leo has played so incredibly well. I mean he just was phenomenal- being both a scary (at times psycho) general to a soft spoken love fool. His character's story arc into becoming a more understanding person was also written very well. I would only complain that the kiss scenes were a little too stiff but the main leads have so much chemistry anyway that it doesn't matter too much.

The rest of the cast was incredible. I both was annoyed with and understood the mom, I could see her pov esp after the bridge incident. When the bridge incident happened even I thought this could have had someone killed all because of her recklessness. Then there was the Emperor and his two Empresses - incredibly written again. I have never seen a relationship like that portrayed between two women married to the same man. Both were so different but strong in their own way. And then the emperor himself being the biggest shipper of the main leads - comedic gold. Even the grandmother developed as a character. That's how well written the side characters were.

I would say most of the villains in the drama were a little one dimensional but there were so many there was understandably little time really to flesh each one out. Plus most of them got swift retribution so it was satisfying to watch nonetheless.

The overall plot was great and I was hooked from the beginning - I never wanted to stop watching. Until the last 5 eps there was not a single frame wasted. It was shot and directed so well. The cinematography was so great. The fights scenes were really well choreographed and actually interesting to watch because they didn't drag on for ages. Everything was so well balanced from the director and editors it was a joy to watch.

But the last 5 episodes did disappoint me and made me drop this from a perfect 10 to a 9. After all that incredible writing, and being so different from the usual drama tropes, it felt like the writers copped out. I actually felt a little betrayed by what happens to the story in the last 5 eps. Which is such a shame because the 5 episodes before that, the previous 5 eps were probably the best episodes in this drama. I wish the writers had gone a different route or just not dragged things on for so long. I went from never wanting the drama to end to skipping parts to let it end. So imo they really messed up the ending.

Overall though- this is still an incredible watch, highly recommend it. It deserves all the praise and high ratings its gotten.

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Great . . . ish

Because of the meticulousness of the social interactions and the ins and outs of court life, ritual and rites, and the various strata of society with which this complicated series was made, the total illogic of the first ep doesn't make sense. My theory is that because of the arbitrary cap on the number of episodes that the Chinese government slammed on theTV industry, the filmmakers, who knew the story backwards and forwards, took the opening two, four, even six episodes (or more) and smooshed them into one in order to launch the story like a rocket, and get that episode count down to 40. So absolutely nothing makes any sense--losing a bunch of potential watchers.

I sympathize--the arbitrary cap has to hurt when you genuinely have a complicated story, and have to get it set up. The opening of Nirvana in Fire has been talked about a lot for how the first two or three eps are tough to get through because story points come at you like bullets, leaving the viewer bewildered. It's only when you've seen more eps that that opening starts making sense.

Another example of a series suffering under the arbitrary cap, Court Lady, which actually began really well, for such a complicated storyline. But the last ten eps pretty much were munched, as if some poor editor, existing on nothing but espresso hacked and slashed madly in order to squash the story down to the mandated length. Leaving out one ep entirely (46?).

I think that might be the case here, because the first ep was jaw droppingly stupid, from the assassination attempt in which everyone, including the Evil Emperor just stood around, to the whole prison escapade. But once we got to the second ep, things started gradually making more sense. And when Jiuling started meeting her guys, the emotional sense locked into place.

I could quibble with the logic along the way, but the emotional arcs were so compelling that I was very soon hooked and stayed that way to the last. Some of that was the beautiful cinematography,b ut mostly it was the impeccable performances of the cast.

I thought Jin Han was an interesting, and then a terrific, choice for a hero. His looks are not idol-pretty-boy (which I do appreciate!); he's got one of the most high-voltage sneers of any actor in C-Dramaland, when he plays a villain. He just electrifies the screen. But in this role, he got to really demonstrate his acting talent--sneers there were, but laughter, tears, intensity, suffering, exalting happiness--sometimes all in one shot. He moves really well; his fight scenes are terrific. The two actors who played his brothers complemented him perfectly--when they are joshing around you can believe they are brothers, and when they get serious, they are as tough as their legendary father.

The love scenes, the kisses, the banter, were absolutely delectable.

Ditto the acting of the other guys in love with her. Du Ya Fei especially, in his role as the obsessive, borderline-mad Lu Yun Qi, was utterly riveting whenever he walked on screen. His micro expressions were amazing. His was one of the most interesting arcs in the entire show. I really want to see more from him, with meatier roles.

Contrasting, Wang You Shuo as Ning Yunzhao was quietly astonishing. Beautiful to look at, benevolent in character, he was a perfect contrast to Lu Yunqi's crazy, and their scenes together at the end were pure magic. Young Zhou Zhang, playing Fang Cheng Yu, was also fabulous.

I was so glad to see Liu Jun playing the evil emperor. I fell in love with that actor watching his range as the dad in Story of Minglan. He gave what could have been a boring cardboard character some interesting in this series. Likewise I was glad to see Zhang Yan Yan, who was so marvelous in Nirvana in Fire 1 and 2, and so marvelously evil in Minglan, playing the general's wife here.

Then there is Peng Xiao Ran, who did a wonderful job as Jun Jiu Ling. She was utterly convincing, especially when fighting tears. I loved the range she demonstrated here, especially once she and Jin Han got together. Their scenes together were sheer delight.

Everybody was good. The actress playing the grandmother, the snotty sister who had a change of heart--everyone was terrific.

To wrap this up, it seems to me that the makers did the opposite of Court Lady, who trashed the ending of the series in order to make it fit the mandate, and munched the beginning of this one. So I suggest that anyone wanting to give it a try stick it out for a few eps, to see if things smooth out enough for you.

I do know already that I will rewatch this, but i'll probably skip that first ep altogether.

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#Let's Get Drunk

Started with no expectations at all. The sudden "I'll try this" becomes "I like this!", that's what Work Later, Drink Now is.

A fun, and addicting drama. It was nice witnessing ji yeon, so hee, and ji goo with their adventures alone and together. A story of amazing friendship with an ensemble of comedy, romance in it. These three are totally different in terms of personalities. But when they are together, they compliment each other.

The last episodes lack because I wanted more of but it was announced that there was a Season 2, so we will see our girls once again. There are still more that we wanted to see of them.

I seriously love this drama!

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Not what I expected

Likes:
1. Jung Ilwoo playing a chef. He looked so good during all the cooking scenes that i can watch him cook for the entire 12 episodes even without a plot.
2. The food looked so good. The advices and lessons spoken by Jinsung and the 2 seniors were really comforting, even to me.
3. The wonderful performance of Lee Hakjoo as Kang Taewan. I loved his longing stares, cried for him when his heart broke, and cheered him on when he finally took courage to come out, to JS and to his father.
4. The electric chemistry between Kang Taewan and Jinsung from the very first episode when they bumped into each other all the way to their bittersweet ending.
5. The ending didnt go too extreme and kept the mellow pace. Not everyone came out happy but thats the point of the story. When something bad happens, we can cry, but we also get back up, and move forward. and there's always a new beginning and a chance to be better.

Dislikes:
1. That i actually liked the Taewan-Jinsung couple more than the Ajin-Jinsung is why i feel the show failed for me. I liked Ajin as friend of Jinsung but not as a girlfriend.
2. The whole premise of the show was pretty bad. A guy pretending to be gay on tv was good start, but then he kept on lying and everyone was dumb enough not to notice was unbelieveable. Even people not realizing Taewan is gay is also unbelieveable to me.
3. That Ajin was bullied by that annoying Gyu Jang, and the lady head director was so evil at the start, forcing Ajin to find a gay chef within a day, and even dangling a permanent position just to get ahead. Her only saving factor was taking responsibility for her actions and for the team.
3. I was expecting a show within a show type of drama where we get to see a lot of cooking and episodic guests but the story mostly happened offcam.
4. That Jinwoo and his dad had very few scenes esp towards the end. We didnt even get to see Jinsung talk to his family after he did the interview!

Rating: 6/10

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Mental Health and Disorders in Well-Performed Nuanced Characters

I can’t really speak to the bipolar representation in this series. It seemed fairly decent and more nuanced compared to other portrayals i’ve seen. But i do wonder if we should have seen more of her depressed state of the disorder. For a little bit there, it seemed like we were gonna get it, but then it came off kind of like the character was acting being depressed/upset. Instead, off medication, we seem to only see her either manic or angry. But she does nod back to the depression in her dialogue at points. But she also asks the ML what it’s like to have depression. So i don’t know.

But the depression portrayal was great. Especially when the ML was narrating through it. My heart ached for him and i connected to him deeply. His story seems to have a tad bit of the “love heals you” tone, but since his depression is rooted in grief and guilt, it rather makes sense in this case.

The performances by the actors were quite spectacular. You couldnt tell this was a web series imo. I was that sold on what they were feeling and saying. I caught on to the nuances of their performances even before the script confirmed my conclusions. And I was reacting right alongside them at key moments - cheering them on and begging for their happiness.

A gem of a short series.

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Reset-ing YOUR EXPECTATIONS *chef kiss*

Hi there! Here's another disorganized review!
Why did I decide to watch it? Because well, I saw lots and lots of posts about it in the feeds and I love the cast!! Yeah, my first c-drama was Whirlwind girl, and well, maybe third or fourth was a little thing called first love!

Anyways, coming to the story,
the story was as disorganized at times as my review but still, it was lovable and understandable and of course, mesmerizing! (Is my review the same though?)
It was basically all the repetition of "I go back, I come back" and just like any other time-travel drama but then, what makes it special? The back-story and character development!!
I've always loved Chinese Wuxia and Xinxia dramas but I never actually "loved" the modern ones, but this one really reset-ed my opinions about such dramas!
The characters were all so annoying and suspicious at the start but the way they're portrayed, the way they make us understand them so deeply and of course, the slight romance in the dramas make this one a true masterpiece. So, I DON'T FOR A SECOND, REGRET BINGE-WATCHING THIS DRAMA A DAY BEFORE MY EXAM IN ABOUT 12 hours or so?

So, I'm sure you won't as well.
Though what I think is that this drama would've been really short if they decided to start investigating from the right person but bad luck is to blame sometimes.
Of course, all the characters were really special and great [except the murderer(s)]. I totally and fully loved Lu, the apostle of the cats, conquerer of Asthma, the chosen one of the light, Di and his sweet cat, look at her/him - https://mydramalist.com/profile/XieLalisa/feeds/ZwyRAsx

And of course,
how can we ever forget all the sweetness and lovely families of all the people on the bus?

Though I still don't understand why they entered the time loop (don't tell me the ghost/spirit/ or whatever of a person has the power to create a loop in the timeline and make two people enter it as well), it's still alright! I loved it regardless! So, I'm recommending it!
Go binge it right away!!

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Keep in mind, this review is solely focus on the first season

I have never seen a drama with so many evil people and that really ruins the drama for me. We got the greedy controlling mom, the evil stepsister, the wicked granny witch, the ugly supermodel, and even a stupid snobby co-worker who thankfully we got rid of early. This all spells for ingredients of me wanting to punch everybody. I have never seen so many ugly characters being against the female lead. This is just way too much toxicity in a drama.

Speaking of the female lead, she was quite annoying at first. I hated all of her lies that she keeps telling but eventually I grew to like her later on (once her lies eventually ended) with her strong female lead backbone and not letting any of the evil witches take her down. She got splashed by so many liquids a lot in this drama. That's ridiculous. The male lead is so weak. He can't even stand up to that evil hoe of a granny. I get so frustrated with him not using his authoritative voice to that stupid witch.

Can you say flashback central? GOSH! This drama is really focus on flashbacks. WTH? Seriously you could skip so many episodes and then catch up because of the amount of flashbacks they show in this drama. No need to even start from the beginning.

Even though it is funny, the toxicity of the evil characters really brings this drama into ruins. I wish I could say you don't need to watch this part of the drama and could just skip into the second season but unfortunately, this one doesn't work like that.

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Let me offer a bit more detail than the synopsis up there does before I go further. I don't think it'll be very spoiler-y since it's pretty obvious to the viewers what happened, even if it's not obvious to the lead girl. So, the two leads are co-workers who are dating (secretly). One day, he disappears in such a way that we know he's probably dead, barring some miracle. The problem is that the woman starts getting text messages from him, which leads her (and us) to question whether he's still alive somewhere. I won't say more than that, but that might give a better idea of the setup of this special.

So onto some sort of review...the acting is good; the music is serviceable; there's not too much to say about that. The story is very simple, but executed well.

This drama special almost feels like a metaphor for the confusion and disbelief that we all feel when someone we are close to dies suddenly. Don't go into this expecting a fluffy rom-com based on the cute title and the "romance" genre. It feels very small and quiet and melancholic - and pretty real. This is also not melodrama, despite the sad theme. This is a window into someone's personal tragedy. For that reason, it might not be the most compelling hour of TV you ever watch, nor the happiest, but it's definitely a change of pace.

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Disappointed but not surprised

Starting this drama you should know clearly to not put high hope and to know the character that will get hurt the most.. story simply about chif who lie and say he is gay to get money from appearing in TV show. but they took this and go down hell, it start well with how they met and why he have to lie this big lie and the met between Jin sung and tae won aka best character) and i loved loved the way the focus on food and film the dishes beautifully but then as the story go they even stop doing that. and the drama go on big boring mess like love triangle while the lead still lying to everyone.

Acting was okay from male leads but the female was lost some times can find the right expression but not bad her hair annoy me.
music was good level

i usually didn't spoil but this one get me angry so i want to talk freely

in the start i liked JinSung character i can see his charm but as time go it turned to big fake character i hated it , he is so selfish, coward and stupid.. you lied to everyone just for one girl to be happy how childish is this, my crash will cry if she didn't make her program so okay lets lie and end her career, he don't have brain?!! how can you be stupid like that?? coward >> i waited him to say the truth all the show but he was so coward to say one word when he have 100 chance. selfish >> he try to stop his brother from starting his career because he was afraid to be caught. and if he didn't get caught he would still lie or run away he want to run away in the end.
I don't have a feeling to Ah Jin from the start she was like side character i don't see her charm and think she is stupid like how you believe he is gay after he kiss you? and the final make me see she have no character too lmao. He end her career but she go to him to see 'OMG you did that for me' what the F and don't want him to face any backlash and then the drama show people who comment badly as the bad people while they are in fault if that happen in real i would totally swear on them... should i see that as happy ending and what company will took someone like her again lets be real.
Tae Won was the best thing in this drama i think everyone watch will love him the most. and it angry me that JinSung use him until the end... he is so lovely from the start to the end

i don't give 6.5 to any drama in 2020 i think !! maybe 1? i hope Jung Il Woo come back with better drama because i love him, same go to Lee HakJoo.

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The worst HIStory so far

There are things about this that I didn't hate, but the awful parts are sooooo incredibly awful that the entire series becomes irredeemable.

I could accept a step brothers who fell in love premise, but what I can't accept is a premise about a stalker and rapist where everyone is aware of him being a stalker and rapist and it's not a big deal and there are no consequences for his actions besides a happy ending where he and his "lover" live with their parents. Every scene with the family made me uncomfortable and no amount of back story could redeem Yong Jie. While watching all 20 episodes, I wanted to save Xing Si not see him end up with the very man who assaulted him in a home with parents who raised the monster that fell in love with him. The father was the only rational person in the family, but in the end, he submitted to the will of the others just to maintain peace within the family. This was a tragedy.

Li Cheng and Mu Ren were fine but their story felt outdated. I thought we'd moved past the "I'm only gay for you" BLs a few years ago. And the obsession with top/bottom that resulted in the most predictable outcome felt stale. Also, the attack by the vice president and then him being exposed only after he went after Li Cheng months later felt odd and very wrong. It was clear that the vice president was a preditor, but it was only a concern for the company after he lied about Li Cheng. I have so many questions about the way that company was run but in the end this story was still better than the one with Xing Si and Yong Jie and that's sad.

I liked Mei Fang. Most fujoshis are portrayed in BLs as loud, obsessed, delusional stalkers, but she was a normal person who liked BL and I appreciated that. Rarely are the female side characters the best characters in a BL, but she was one of the few good aspects of this series.

All in all, this was very bad. The writers should be ashamed because they had solid actors and 2 good premises but used outdated harmful clichés to tell their story instead of creating something compelling and interesting. Stepbrothers who fall in love and co-workers/roommates who fall in love could both be strong stories, but that didn't happen in HIStory 4.

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