Reviews

Brave new Penthouse!!!!!

My absolute most anticipated series ever and the absolute best of the year in my opinion in all categories. However, want to warn sensitive viewers that this is absolutely not a quiet thriller. It basically has a very picaresque plot, which really feels extremely villainous and very nasty. This is a makjang in an even more extreme form, when you didn't think you could get more in The Penthouse incredibly. Builds on a revenge story in many stages that is anchored in various events. Wilder and crazier than ever, compared to what I've seen before.

These 7 different leads with different backgrounds, captured at the same time. There is a reason that is explained why over time. We find out their motives and backstory, how they are involved and what they have in common. The relationships between the characters, their lifestyles and secrets. Also their goals and life history.

Is there a common motive, what happened to the missing girl and what was the meaning of her. Since everyone is sneaky, there are no hero roles in this one. Everyone ambushes each other. Don't feel that everyone is honorable directly because of their moral choices. Romance is never in focus when it comes to this author's series, as there is more focus on family relationships instead. Family relationships are complicated when they are not united, much dividing their desires and goals. At the same time, there are a lot of families to keep an eye on. The family part is only one aspect of the plot.

A mammoth series that is extremely well made with very epic and grand soundtracks. Also has nice effects with its high production quality. Entertaining through and through and very exciting, there isn't a quiet minute before the next thing happens. Indescribable chaos from start to finish. Raw and crazy without hiding anything. The reason behind the title is revealed over time. Really like her way of writing, how she mixes family, music and thriller at a terrific pace. This year's favorite and my personal favorite along with The Penthouse. A magnificent masterpiece!!!!!!

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This drama is my no.1 favorite drama, but the first time through it was about no. 7 or something.Sometime after the first watch, I was in the mood for something with a little depth. Secret/Secret Love is a little more serious than I like but it has a really satisfying ending... so I re-watched it. And then I re-watched it again. Each time I moved it up on my favs list. I finally had to admit that this is the best drama I've ever seen.
I am not usually a fan of the more serious dramas. It was so dark in the first few episodes I almost quit watching it around the 6th episode... but I am so glad I hung with it, because it got so good after that. The story is really compelling, and I love how they reveal bits of the story as the lead characters are finding them out. I know I am not alone in hating misunderstandings in Dramas. I get so frustrated when you know character A never did what character B thinks they did, but it takes 3 episodes for character B to find out. In this one, everything everyone is doing makes sense based on what you know at the time.
The acting is amazingly good. I hated Bae Su Bin so much after this drama, I had a hard time seeing him as a sweet character after this drama. I am sure that is a compliment to his acting, although, I found him a bit over the top in a couple of scenes. I became a fan of both Ji Seong and Hwang Jung Eum after watching it the second and third time through. Seriously they deserve Oscars(or whatever the equivalent award in Korea is) for their performances. The scene where she crosses the street to get away from him is so good. I recommend this drama to everyone. Watch this when you want to be completely absorbed in the story and characters. It is not light viewing.

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Healing and Growth

I think that the focus of this drama was to follow the individual growth of Song San Chuan and Liang You An. Song San Chuan getting over the multiple traumas he had endured were definitely tear inducing moments. I think that's what carried the whole show, watching him struggle, learn, and become the best version of himself.

Because if I'm going to be honest, the romance aspect of this drama was a bust. Felt more like a sensei - student kinda bond than an actual romance. It's also kinda annoying how Song San Chuan was the one bending all over the place for Liang You An. I do get that she's more mature and more experienced in the business. But honestly, the way she acted overall regarding their relationship, especially towards the beginning was just cringey and definitely a red flag in real life.

While I did finish the drama, I couldn't really say that I fully enjoyed it or recommend. It was just okay.

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This drama can be a real tearjerker at times. The plot is actually a bit more complicated than what the synopsis says. It's more of a drama based on the conflicts between the Chinese and the Japanese and Athena gets dragged in because of the people she loves. Thus, her life was suddenly revolving around love and her desire for revenge.
I would recommend this to people just for the amazing action scenes and the love scenes between Liu Lei Zi (Athena) and Na Lan Dong!

The story line was amazing. You never know what's going to happen. There were times where things SEEM to be dragging along but it just added to the flow. The action scenes were mixed with Chinese kung fu (mainly Tai Chi) and guns. They were spectacularly filmed and even more amazing when Athena was using her special weapon! Sometimes the action scenes were a bit ridiculous though like having dozens of people shooting at one person and can't even get the target dead. Instead the dozens of men would be dead or something and the target wouldn't even be hurt.

The acting/cast was a 9 for me because I didn't really like Dean Wu's acting and Michelle Ye was meh. Her initial "crying" scenes made me want to just stop watching because all she did was whine and there were no tears. Her laughing seemed so forced sometimes, it made me cringe. What I really loved was Liu En You's acting (as Na Lan Dong)! This is the first drama I've seen him in and he's amazing at his role (and well I don't think this is a spoiler but he's acting out as a player who falls for this one girl, etcetc). It's really cute watching the scenes between him and Michelle.

I didn't really pay much attention to the music but when the sad scenes came, the music felt just right. Also, the music when Liu Lei Zi is dancing captures the essence of her dancing!

I would definitely rewatch this maybe in another few weeks-months. The chemistry between Liu Lei Zi and Na Lan Dong can sometimes be tiring to watch but most of the time, it's so exciting to see where they're going to head towards!

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Amazing cast, poor plot

This cast is honestly amazing! Both the main leads portrayed their characters very well and everything was very well acted. The flaws about this drama would most definitely be the plot and character developments. It seems very choppy and some scenes may be hard to understand. The male lead had very poor character development 95% of the drama. But the last 10-20 mins of the drama is very touching and the male leads character development was good but at the same time, it felt kind of rushed. I would only recommend u watch if you have a lot of free time on ur hands or a stable heart because this drama is quite angsty lol

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Good start but disappointing second half! Total waste of time!

I started watching coz I really like ZhouYiRan but this drama is a total flop. It starts off really well. I liked that both lead characters were strong minded people who had their own ideas and were interesting. After high school, the entire university section crashed totally. Zero chemistry between them, they felt more like good friends and nothing else. Romance nonexistent, feelings were meh! Story became too much about his sport and also about his uncle’s shop and legacy. Please don’t waste your time watching this. Watch until episode 15-16 and then drop it.
Highly disappointing!

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Pff, Missing you made me really sad, not because of the melodrama, or the plot, or the acting, or the situations, but because of what this drama COULD have been, and what it was in the end... If you want me to describe this drama in 1 word, that would definately be: DISSAPOINTING!

STORY
The description of the show tries to get you in the mood of the plot without spoiling anything, i won't try to make it more accurate in fear of spoiling something. Firstly, the drama's main concept is revenge, and how noone should live his life trying to take revenge. The 2nd lesson i got was that people shouldn't just care for money that much, money destroys you, money is just a means to an end and nothing more, it shouldn't be your life's goal. Apart from these, the show adresses other everyday social issues, like domestic abuse, bullying at school among other things, but (spoiler ahead) most importantly, rape. This issue gets explored several times during the show. These notions are basically one of the best (if not the best) things that this show has to offer.

Talking about the plot, the base idea/plot/story is amazing in every way, the writers had an amazing idea in their heads, but they never made it work, it never worked out, they never thought it through, so we got a very, VERY bad development. I am gonna start by saying the first 4 episodes are flashbacks basically, they are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Words aren't enough, one of the best things i have seen, ever, in kdramas, it is very obvious that the show will have a difficult time living up to THESE expectations. After episode 5 we go to the future to see what our characters are doing today, and thats when the story gets bad a little by little. The writers tried to keep up the drama and they succeeded for merely 3-4 episodes, but it wasn't possible after that....

The main problems i had with the show are just 2:
Problem 1: TOO MUCH CRYING. I understand this is a melodrama, and i understand the actors are expected to cry. But, give me some reasons to cry for them. I feel for the characters, i understand what they have gone through, i get their problems, their thoughts, everything. BUT OH GAWD, PUHLEASE, LETS CONTINUE THE STORY! The actors were literally forced to cry in every episode, the lead actress had red eyes constantly, it started being ridiculous at some point. I swear to god, they must had a problem with dehydration!

Problem 2: The show focuses too much on the love story hence there isn't enough time for the backround story to develop. Don't get me wrong, i loved the couple, i shiped them since moment 1, i felt for them, i cried for them; but, at some point, their love became the same repetitive shit over and over again. Enough is enough. They could have resolved everything that needed to be resolved faster, or at least, at the same time as the backround story develops.

Overall, the show spends too much time on the love story, and at first you bare with it, then it gets boring, then it gets dragged, then it gets ridiculous, and at some point you will get angry, and in the end when the show tries to wrap up but leaves like 10 plot holes you will be furious for the 21 hours of your life you spent watching it. I've watched dramas that wrap up everything, even characters that noone cared about in 16 episodes, and they had 21 and they couldn't make it? COME ON! This is just lazy writing. The main mystery/backstory doesn't even get explained, like it didn't matter. The reason that all this happened, never gets explored, not to mention that towards the end they introduce such stupid new things while not adressing the older ones.

All in all, the writers had an idea in their minds, but they lost it on the way, i guess. The show had a direction a reason and an end game that was obvious from the beginning, but towards the end they stray away from their end game, they change everything for no reason, and you just feel betrayed. Dissapointment in the one word that can describe my feeling right at this moment.

ACTING
Best part of the show. Amazing acting from pretty much everyone, including the supporting cast.
Firstly, i seriously need to congratulate the kid actors. They were better than the grown actors to be honest!

Kim So Hyun, i read she won a best young actress award for her role here, yes she deserved it 100%. She was flawless, amazing, charismatic, dramatic, pretty, sentimental, emotional. Flawless in every way, girl you got a bright future! A revealation of an actress!

Yeo Jin Goo. He was extremely good as well, especially when he was playing opposed to KSH, he kept up well with her, amazing acting.

As for the grown actors, Park Yoo Chun was amazing, he was loveable, cute, nice, polite, kind, and tough when he needed to be. I really liked all his emotional scenes, they were touching, he was great in every way, especially when you think he is originally an idol.

Yoo Seung Ho, even if i didn't like his character, his acting was no joke, best actor out of the main cast. He was literally scary. He was twisted, and at the same time, in need of love, he was scary and at the same time kindhearted, h was everything. His acting was amazing and he was like 19 here. Another young actor with a great future.

The only reason i didn't give the acting part a 10 was because of Yoon Eun Hye's acting. I mean yes, she was ok, but for a leading lady, and especially after Kim So Hyun and her flawless acting, YEH couldn't possibly fill in those shoes. The kid was flawless and emotional in ways YEH wasn't.

RECOMMEND/REWATCH
Guys, i never thought i'd say that, but no, avoid this drama, it is a tear-jerker, and not a good one. As i said the show forces you to cry for the same things over and over again. Plus it focuses too much on the love story it loses its way, and all these combined with the plot holes and unexplained plot lines and backstory at the end, make this a huge no.
I won't rewatch it, ever, but i'd definately rewatch the first 4 episodes because they were mind blowing.

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At first while watching this drama, i keep focusing on whether Ye Zi and Ze Yi will end up together or not. I really like the way they make us anticipate as they didn’t really tell us why did Ze Yi left her. This drama sometimes jumps a lot from one scene to another but its not hard at all for us to understand it. Overall this drama is really beautiful, the soundtrack makes you feel something inside your heart hahaha, like the pain they are going thru, and it suits the cinematography really well.

After around episode 15, I realised that this drama is trying to make us feel the beauty of youth and how we can change in the future as we grow up, especially how we feel on something. You can see in this drama that during college they could do anything for love but as we are growing up, there’s a lot of things that we need to think and work on, and love seems to be not as important as it is. That what makes us missed our youth moments. We dont have a lot of things to think of.

There’s a lot of nice quotes in this drama that makes me reflect on myself. This drama is beautiful, i can see that they didn’t intend to focus on the main character only. They put up some scenes about family too, where our parents are growing old and they might leave us. They put a scene abt what will we do when we know that we might leave a person that we love behind because of our disease. There’s a lot of things that this drama tried to show to us, and i really love it.

In every episode i can feel the pain of it. I cant really describe it well but I truly think that this drama deserves much love!

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From episode one, i was completely hooked. This Drama is ridiculously funny. Yea, Yea, its the typical "rich Chaebol son meets poor girl" love story.. but its soo much more then that. Being a huge Cassie for many year, I began watching this Drama for the simple fact that Jaejoong played an important role.. but soon enough i was rooting for the other actor who i had never even seen before and didn't care at all if Jaejoong's character jumped in a hole and just stayed there for the remaining episodes. was that harsh? forgive me. just go watch this drama. The acting is great. The story is Great. You will laugh until you pee.

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The only reason I took half a rating off is because I'm an avid novel reader, and having read this in its original form, I feel that there are some aspects missing.

In saying that, taking this drama at face value as an amazing small screen production, I would give it a 10/10.

Hu Ge as the titular character expresses and exceptional range of emotions and portrays his characters in wonderful detail. Every minute action adds to the storyline and makes his character all the more alive.

Watching this drama, you can see why Liu Tao, Wang Kai, Chen Long, Jin Dong and Hu Ge are so popular these days.

Mei Chang Su is an amazing blend of intellect, restraint and emotions that draws you in not for his amazing martial arts prowess but his considerable ability to remain calm in the face of any eventuality. He has a plan for a plan for a plan.

Some will say that Liu Tao is not strong enough as the female heroine, or that she spends too much time pining after her Lin Shu gege, but I say that she is just the right blend of longing and inner strength for a woman who knows not the fate of her love.

The one thing I would say that I dislike about this drama, is the amount of time Wang Kai spends crying. Based on his character, one would hope for a more resilient and emotionally strong individual (which he normally is unless you start to mention Lin Shu...which considering the drama is about Lin Shu...well...).

Definitely give this drama a go. It's one of the best that I've seen in a long time and the production value ensures that if you're not satisfied with the story, at least you'll be satisfied with it's visuals.

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As always "Perfect"

As always "perfect"
I will always miss this drama.
This 3rd season managed to fulfill all my wishes. And that's more than enough for me, but I would gladly accept a fourth season too.

There are so many things I like about this drama.
The first thing is character development.
From the first episode of the first season , upto this point each and every character had their stories and now all of them are developed than we first saw them. Heroes turned into greater heroes, some villains became heroes while some realized their mistakes, and others found the answers for their problems.

I can see some characters are recieving hate in the comment section, but to me all the characters were written perfectly, everything was on the spot.
For and example I can see not many people like Cha Eun Jae, but given her family background and how she grew up, she could have become worse, but she turned out to be just fine, selfless nice doctor and an adorable lovely lover.

As of my POV this season gave a good ending to every character in the drama, and to be honest the second season did the exact same thing too, I didn't even expect a 3rd season because the second season was a perfect finale too, and the same goes for the 3rd season.

And I was really happy to see Kang Dong Ju in the drama again, and in the final moment my long awaited wish was granted too, It would have been nice to see her face and hear her voice, but it can wait , I don't mind a special episode like always.

I really like this Dr. Romantic drama series. I should check the writers other works too.
This is the only drama with multiple seasons that doesn't leave a heavy heart with a cliff-hanger. So this will be my top drama series forever.

After typing a whole essay in the comment section I feel like I should add this as a review, sorry for the long comment. Bye. Lovely drama.

"Don't give up on the question why we live and what we live for, the moment we give up on that question, our romance is over "

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This was not one of my favorites. There are too many cliche situations and I didn't feel there was much chemistry between the leads. Nai, the male lead, is very introverted but comes off emotionless and disinterested. He is also very handsome and one of the most sought after campus hunks. He spends the first half of the series never smiling and gives off some negative vibes. Bei Weiwei, is a tiny, skinny little girl with great gaming capabilities. She is supposed to be a campus belle and, though she is pretty, the campus belle angle is not something I buy. Nai notices Weiwei in the game and seems to seek her out almost immediately, so there is no build up to this relationship. Once the two become a couple, their is no conflict between them. They never fight, they are always happy, and she is a dutiful girlfriend who never challenges him outside of the game. There was a patriarchal vibe between the two that didn't do much for me. The biggest flaw is that this drama has absolutely no plot. Nothing is going one except that envious classmates scheme to break them up, but because our MLs are perfect in every way, those individuals are always thwarted. Long boring conversations about coding, and game development slows down this already draggy show. There are some sweet moments between the leads but I feel that Weiwei is stiff and doesn't seem to enjoy kissing Nai. She stands there with a closed, dry mouth. He, at least, is better at kissing and makes it look realistic. It detracted from the romance. Didn't care for the OST, played the same song over and over. The only character I really liked was Erxi. She was fun, bubbly and cute! I would have loved a best friend like that in school. She is also the only character that is human with flaws.

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Not worth my time

I was excited for this drama since the first season came out, but after watching it felt like a waste of time. If you shipped JoJo and Sunoh you shouldn’t watch it...
The acting and cast was good, but the storyline was not like most people expected or wanted. Most people wanted JoJo to end up with Sunoh, so why in the world did they choose to do the exact opposite?
It honestly didn’t even feel like they continued from season 1, but made a new drama with the same people... I feel like I just wasted six hours of my life that I could spend to watch a different k-drama that didn’t disappoint me

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