Weird plot development

In the middle of the drama, the writers decided to throw everything in, including the kitchen sink. Romance? Check. A hint of a love triangle? Check? Multiple side characters with multiple romance side stories? Check? Anti-fandom villains? Check. Parental abandonment? Check. Crazy obsessive fans? Check. Bromance? Check. A dead friend trauma? Check. I ended up skipping through most of the scenes because this was too much!

The first half was very light hearted, filled with silliness and comedy. ML and FL were figuring out their feelings for each other and then became a couple. There wasn't any real conflict outside of the romantic development. After that, the writers suddenly decided to introduce a conflict - the anti-fandom, the crazy rich lady, ML's estranged mother and his childhood trauma, the dead best friend. The only downside was that the writers forgot to actually develop the plot and make these storylines interesting.

I did like ML's and FL's relationship, the love and support she gave him, with no cliche tropes involving misunderstandings and silly love triangles. However, it was very one sided. She was always taking care and supporting him because he was the celebrity and the center of all the controversy. But, he didn't do anything for her. She had virtually no personality and purpose outside of her role as his PR manager. The writers should've developed her character separately from his with her own story to allow reciprocity in their relationship where he could be there for her equally as much during hard times and trauma.

I ended up skipping most of the scenes with the side characters because it felt like filler. They were not developed enough to be interesting and the show gave them too much screen time.

Another cringey thing was the characterization of women and how they responded to romantic situations. These were not high school girls, or even young adults. These were adult women well into their careers, and they spent too much time running away and screaming when faced with awkward romantic situations. A little bit of awkwardness is ok, but this was a totally immature and childish response from grown-ass adults.

Overall, the romance was very sweet and cute, but there were too many filler scenes with forgettable side characters and a convoluted plot. The kissing was hot!

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I gave this drama another chance, and I still think it's overrated

I originally dropped this drama because the plot started to get slow and repetitive, but I decided to give it another try.

The premise about the curse and immortality was interesting. Unfortunately, the first half up to about episode seven didn't have much of a plot. The Goblin was an ancient being with centuries of life experience, but he acted pretty silly quite a lot. The Grim Reaper wasn't much better with his obsession over business cards. These characters should've been portrayed as more mysterious and dangerous. Instead, they often acted like dorks.

The pacing was kind of inconsistent. The plot tended to drag with prolonged angsty moments of reminiscing, crying, and filler scenes. Then, the story would suddenly pick up. The show should've been done in 12 episodes if all the filler was taken out. The last few episodes after he came back were unnecessary. Since the villain was already defeated and the sword taken out, there was no longer a plot that needed to be resolved. What could've been concluded in one episode unnecessarily stretched into multiple episodes.

The romance was also kind of underwhelming. ML and FL acted more like a niece and an uncle, than a couple. This was probably because the girl was barely an adult and still in high school. Only after the story went forward nine years did we see adult romantic chemistry with kissing, hugging, and acting like a couple.

The villain and the final resolution was a bit anti-climactic. The flashbacks made him look more dangerous than he actually was, even though he looked pretty darn creepy. He appeared in the present timeline for just a few episodes with nefarious intentions to kill everyone, but didn't do much except threaten some people. Then FL pulled the sword out of ML, ML killed the villain and disappeared. The end. I really expected there to either be a plot twist, a battle, tension, more struggle to defeat the final boss.

The one thing the show excelled at was acting. Gong Yoo, Kim Go Eun and everyone else delivered really good performances. No complaints there.

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Great chemistry between ML and FL

I don't have a lot to say about this drama aside from that it should be watched just for ML and FL. They had amazing chemistry, romance, kissing, you name it. This was also because Park Hyung Sik had a crush on Park Bo Young while filming, so his real life feelings spilled into his acting. Amazing job.

Everything else was pretty much forgettable. I ended up skipping through the scenes with the parents, gangsters, high school kids. They were not interesting and felt more like fillers than part of the actual story. Even the villain was kind of disappointing because the writers did not really develop him. He had no backstory and his motivations were kind of just doing bad things for the sake of doing bad things, kidnapping just to see his victims suffer, and that's it. He was a one dimensional personality with no substance. However, the actor who played the kidnapper was very handsome and I wish he was cast as a hero in main roles.

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Not as good as part 1

While I absolutely loved part 1, part 2 felt disjointed. ML and FL had a lot more interactions but before they did, but the story had way too many useless characters and frustrating plotlines.

There were a lot of scenes where ML and FL almost met but missed each other by a hair. At first, it was ok, but later became very frustrating because the writers overdid it. Some characters and storylines were pointless. What was the deal with the Chinese princess and her unrequited love for Jang Hyun? It didn't move the plot forward, but created unnecessary conflict that was more frustrating than meaningful. The princess got no character development and her arc ended in a very underwhelming way. She was cruel and selfish, and I expected Jang Hyun to deal with her in a smart way. But he told her he was leaving and she accepted it, the end. Gil Chae getting abducted to Qing also felt off. It was a tool for her to meet Jan Hyun, but the plotline felt like a forced cop out, rather than a natural story progression.

It also felt like the writers changed their mind with the direction of the story. They made a big deal about women being abused in one household because of a jealous wife. But Gil Chae spent very little time there, then left, and that was it. The arc with Gil Chae marrying the sergeant was also completely pointless. It was another tool to keep ML and FL apart for a bit longer without serving any other purpose.

The entire part 2 felt like a forced attempt to continue with the story post war, except there was not as much conflict and action. A lot of story arcs felt uninspired and forced. I wish the war plotline wouldn't have ended in part 1. This was when the story was at its best.

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An uptight snob meets a disgruntled simp

Interesting premise, lackluster execution.

Although, I love Liu Yuning, I didn't like his character in this drama. He was like a wet noodle with no personality and existed exclusively for FL's convenience. If He Huan said jump, he would ask how high. Watching their romantic development was as exciting as watching the paint dry. I didn't like her either. She was a bit snobbish and had an inflated sense of morality. She also used Jiang Junhao without giving anything in return. For some reason, she decided to take on her husband's debt, although she had no legal or moral obligation to pay it back. This required her to take on side gigs and work late nights. Jiang watched her son, cooked her meals, fixed things in her house, took care of her parents. They had an incredibly unbalanced relationship where he went out of his way to help her, and she continued doing her own thing without giving anything back. Their entire relationship was incredibly one sided. She bebopped through life pursuing her own goals while he patiently and conveniently waited for her to reciprocate his feelings. I like caring and loving characters, but there has to be equality where two people grow together and both contribute to the relationship. This wasn't the case here.

I really liked Yuanyuan's character. Although she made some questionable choices, she had a very dynamic personality and experienced the most growth. And, watching her finally dump that momma's boy was very satisfying. She wasted too much time on him.

The overall pacing of the show was very slow. It could've reached its logical conclusion in under 30 episodes. I couldn't bring myself to care about most side stories, including He Huan mom's cancer arc. It just wasn't that interesting. The other plotlines involving journalism were somewhat entertaining, but they didn't really move the plot forward. And, if you are like me and watched the show for Liu Yuning, you would be disappointed because he played more of a support role and was absent from many episodes.

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Dumpster fire

Season 1 left off on a positive note with a promise of a lot of future character development. Unfortunately, season 2 did not develop said development.

Niao Niao (NN) was portrayed as an abused and neglected teenager who learned how to navigate life with her intelligence and ingenuity. Unfortunately, this intelligence and ingenuity was left in season 1. In season 2, we didn't actually see the thought process behind her ingenuity. She liked to build things. But we never saw her build anything. We only saw the finished product. On look, she built a small cross bow. Oh look, she can do a deep tissue massage. Oh look, she can improve farming equipment. What? How? We never saw her learn how to do anything. For someone who did not actually enjoy learning, it remains a mystery how NN achieved these tremendous heights.

When it came to character development, there was no character development moving forward. We knew NN was an intelligent and independent free thinker. But, there was nothing intelligent about her in this season. She was actually quite self-absorbed. Ling Buyi was a total package. He had the power and influence. He was a warrior general in charge of an army. And he was head over heels in love with her. She was previously concerned about missing out on a good husband, yet her bitching about him supposedly "oppressing" her because he cared too much was legendary. He was a bit too over-protective but he did nothing in bad faith. She agreed to marry him and then told him to his face that she wanted him out because he kept giving her unsolicited advice. Apparently, for someone who cared about boundaries, having a conversation about setting boundaries was out of the question. I didn't even know why he was in love with her at that point. In season 1 she was intelligent, courageous, quick-thinking. In this season, she was stubborn, unreasonable, and self-absorbed. All the qualities that made her interesting were gone.

Instead of giving her the transformation she needed, the writers arbitrarily decided to give NN unearned princess treatment. She quickly became the new palace darling who could do no wrong. Everything she said was gold. Everything she cooked was delicious. Everything she made was awesome. Everything was handed to her without her making any effort to earn it. The most ridiculous thing was that her teenage wisdom was completely unquestioned. Basically NN: I am only 15, but let me teach you about life.

She stuck her nose into everything and always had something to say, which quickly became very annoying. When Ling Buyi asked her not to interfere in palace politics because it was literally bad for her health, she made it all about him trying to control her for the Nth time. The emperor and empress seemed to have replaced her parents, which was a stupid plot development because her entire character rested on the premise of her parents abandoning her. There were so many scenes where NN could reconcile with her parents, particularly her mother. For example, mom bringing her a blanket could've led to an honest heart-to-heart conversation. Instead, we got the usual scene where NN asked mom an uncomfortable question, mom looked away, NN walked off. Later on, the writers made her parents virtually non-existent. Her entire time at the palace was spent cozying up to the empress as her new mom, instead of receiving lessons and moving on with her life. Even the lessons were just a pretext to create more drama for the sake of drama, which contributed nothing to NN's character development. It would've been way more interesting to have her learn to navigate through conflict using her intelligence to outsmart her enemies, making friends and allies, and then winning using her brain. Instead, she either went to the emperor to complain or poured dirt on someone because she was "vindictive". Her vindictiveness made her look just as bitchy as those spoiled brats who bullied her in the first place.

NN's relationship with Ling Buyi was also very confusing. There was a very sweet moment at the empress' birthday party where she drank from the same cup as him because the wine tasted "better" that way, and then she gave him a kiss. They looked very much in love. But, as soon as he found out she was pushed into a lake, we were back to square one how he was oppressing her and how she was "afraid" of him ... because he wanted her to confide in him? The writers never made it clear why NN was afraid of him. He was always nice to her. And now apparently every bad thing that happened to her in the palace was his fault. Huh? "I've always been like this! Why must you force me to change?" How dare he ask her questions about being bullied. Seriously, who decided this was good character development? She was absolutely insufferable.

Yet, everyone loved her and she could do no wrong. The writers couldn't have made her more mary sue level boring together with her perpetually constipated looking fiancé with no personality. (And there was still no wedding date!) Even the freaken canning of Ling Buyi was instigated by the emperor to make NN finally act on her feelings for him. *barf* Everyone literally became an NN simp. Speaking of Ling Buyi, he had a whole of two expressions in the entire drama - constipated and more constipated. This was some of the worst acting I've seen in a c-drama. Even for a stoic, no nonsense character, there should've been times for him to inadvertently show emotion for a person he cared about.

This show had such tremendous potential, and it was completely wasted on martyrization of the main character, turning her into a perfect princess, while making everyone else continuously kiss her princessey arse without her actually deserving it. What a waste of time.

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nope

I am not sure if it was a good idea to remake Hana Yori Dango into another live-action. Cliche plot and ridiculous storylines about bullying made this story hard to follow. Fortunately, the writers toned down the bullying in this version, but it did not improve the plot.

One of the major issues that plagues all of the live-action version of this drama is the fact that none of them show genuine romantic chemistry between the two main characters. There may be justification for it because the story is set in high school, so it can't be too mature. However, this version is set in college so the characters older. Yet, romantic interactions are still dry and uninteresting. The female lead acts like the male has the plague every time he comes near her. There is nothing to look forward to in their scenes together.

If there is another live-action remake of this manga, I hope the writers show real chemistry between the main couple or stay completely away. We don't need another live-action cringe with more of the same.

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Dumb cliché tropey mess

This review is only for the first 4 episodes because I couldn't handle more.

For the life of me I don't understand all of the positive reviews. This is a relatively recent show being released in 2013, but it looks like it was made in the 90s. I felt like I was watching Xena the Warrior Princess because the show was filled with so many cliche tropes and looked outdated.

Moreover, the gender bender trope is utterly suspect. Two grown man are having a crush on a boy, who is actually a girl, but think that she is a boy, all the while trying to convince themselves they are not gay after having erotic dreams about the "boy". Then, they actively compete with each other in a jealous rage for the "boy". The whole "I'm not gay" thing would've been more convincing if they secretly knew that the "boy" was a girl. Please, lets burn the gender bender trope with fire.

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