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Completed
Game Rai Game Rak
4 people found this review helpful
Sep 28, 2020
21 of 21 episodes seen
Completed 1
Overall 6.5
Story 5.0
Acting/Cast 4.5
Music 4.5
Rewatch Value 4.0
This drama features young Yaya (looking adorably innocent, they curled her hair) yet again sadly with Nadech (his gay-korean looking face turns me a bit off) whose career consists almost entirely of playing alongside Yaya. The problem he does not know how he's NEEDED in GMM or LINE TV causes us to watch him in a "macho" role like this, where he repeatedly pesters the main heroine.

The first half of the lakorn is shot on the same beach (I guess in Phuket?) where they shoot ALL the beach scenes in all lakorns, this time it's supposed to be some fictional island to where the viles of civilization haven't yet fully reached. Everyone is open and honest here and in all that naivety they attempt to create some kind of blue-lagoonish romance between the two. Then the reality strikes.

Alongside with that comes Mint Natwara in her usual nang'rai role (but wait, lately I have watched several of her earlier nang'ek roles, and she redeemed herself with me, she CAN do both:) where she can break her neck in trying to get the main guy while all the time there is Pope Thanawat (once again more decent acting/looking than the lead) devotedly waiting for her. You could say: what the...? But, you know how it is in lakorns.

After that, there's loads of drama, of course. Not working on me, of course: as I need to feel for the characters and their emotion/humor, first. Never mind, this lakorn just joined my average forgettable material.

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Completed
Touch Your Heart
1 people found this review helpful
Aug 18, 2023
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 4.0

'Touch Your Heart' fullfills its title's promise

Touch Your Heart? After watching it for 4 episodes or so, it already did. Touch my heart. It was Romantic & Funny:-) It was also nothing special, I overall give it 7 out of 10. BUT it was the drama you'd give like 'Miss Congeniality' award. It was simply sweet. Nothing unnecessary added to annoy you much (there's some obvious product placement and obvious fan service but nothing in the actual drama).

Let's start with the cast. The leading actress, 37 years old but looking really youthful AND CUTE, is actually a good actress whose good acting gets often lost in how cute she is. But make no mistake, she IS good. Her partner in this, the 38 year old Lee Dong Wook, forever burned in my memory for his 2005 'My Girl', has changed. And he's not the same hot and sexy, oh no now after his face got all whitened and "perfected" he looks a bit like a porcelain doll. I no longer like him, and thanks to that I was not really that invested in the romantic side of this show, to say the truth. As for the rest of the cast: I immensely appreciate every single face in that law firm (though the name of that law firm was ridiculous, for korean law firm especially), their casting was SPOT ON and THEY were the ones that made this simple and not-outstanding story WORTH watching.

Apart from fromantic, this show was FUNNY. It even had funny background music! So bizarre at times (like, what was up with the ethno playing each time someone was falling flat on their face? LOL). There were court cases which were engaging enough, made you laugh or cry. Practically all the people in the law office were HILARIOUS. And the boss could not be MORE gay if he tried. I LOVED his clothes, just taking a good look at those sent me laughing each time, including his socks. And if the actress was assigned to that divorce lawyer since episode 1, the whole show could be even funnier. Shim Hyung Tak was great. Also enough good looking to be the lead. Lee Dong's fans forgive but I would not expressly miss him in this show if he wasn't there. Everybody else was cracking me up. But him, I did not really care whether the actress shall start dating him or not. Nevertheless, she started liking him pretty early and also took the first initiative. It was not very exciting for me on the romance front, though it was occasionally cute and funny, mostly how he was clueless. 1st kiss is at 1/2 of the series and it's not very exciting one to say the least.

Then we have a plot with a stalker whose face is actually kinda girly... But, we ARE in Korea. Weirdly feminine men EVERYWHERE. Then it gets all dumb by episode 13/16, when the main lawyer must try and save mentally incapacitated man from being sentenced for life in prison even if we are in south korea, not north. So the lawyer (beside the obligatory noble idiocy break-up with the actress) needs to break every kind of code in his profession to take his case personally (which is not needed, he might as well get another lawyer do it) to show that he is "nice". The only thing keeping the show going by that time is the funny secondary couple. Because watching Lee Dong Wook making sad faces at bus stops - with his "new" face already distorted, so that when a huge tear is falling on his cheek I got nervous it might start actually falling apart - was more creepy than funny. But, apart from this kind of stupidity, what I appreciated most about this drama were the things which were NOT in it: clingy secondary females, loud screamers, dragging love triangles with secondary males, "funny" secondary characters which were not funny (these the hell WERE), totally skippable secondary plots (these were all organic and interested us at least a little), uneccessary "shocking surprises" (like exes coming back from the dead, etc.) and many more you can think of. Yes, I appreciated all the things that were MISSING more than those that were there. I was not really thrilled for the main couple romantically, but I had a pleasant warm feeling. All the secondary cast was adorable and eligible for some kind of 'Team Super Cute' title:-))

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Completed
Unmei ni, Nita Koi
1 people found this review helpful
May 19, 2023
8 of 8 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 5.0
Story 2.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 2.0
She's 49, he's 35. I have no problem with that, but someone felt the need to introduce their child versions to us, where she is portrayed by 15-year old actress so for that age gap to be consistent, he'd have to be 1. Anyways, I didn't feel it was necessary to justify the attraction by some childhood backstory.

At present, she has 18 years old son. He has his own viewpoint on his mother's relationship, which is probably supposed to be funny... Also, his line with the girl-stalker was totally unwatchable so I skipped the son entirely.

Saitoh Takumi is a bit hidden in his long hair in this one, at times he looks a bit funny but on the other hand, he'd be too hot for the woman otherwise:) There's the "Sexual Content" Tag... After the two meet, they get to be alone as soon as episode 2. At one point, she starts crying and he starts kissing:) Then they become lovers but it's heavily subtexted by the childhood backstory and that he lies about something which interrupted the viewing flow for me (but it's not that there are long or explicit bedscenes in this anyways). After some anticipation, it fell flat for me when they got together as I was not interested in all the past stuff. (Including the recent past, like the woman he dumped for the main heroine, but we keep watching her.)

The last 3 episodes, I finished them only out of courtesy. (When on the top of everything someone is revealed to have brain tumor, I really wished to turn the show off.) It was a pitty because Harada Tomoyo was really cute and attractive in this drama in her unique way, I actually liked the more the longer I watched her. And her Kasumi had enough character charm even for younger, successful man to fall for. This did not need all the added stuff (I might even say, all the added cr*p). Unfortunatelly, that got to dominate and it whole did not prove to be as sexy as it promised to be. (Even Maho had no nice scene with Kaichi.)

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Completed
I Don't Love You Yet
1 people found this review helpful
Apr 21, 2023
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 5.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 5.0

Super-frustrating journey with super-likeable mains

It's the exact opposite of what the english title says: Main girl & main guy (they're both really hot... sorry, I just had to mention it:) obviously love each other already. But they are confused about it, because many years back, they decided to be only friends. I must say that as soon as episode 5/16, I already felt kind of sad. Something was up, there were things half hinted, but the two never really talked it out. This even reminded me of telenovelas or thai lakorns with the Arranged Marriage / Misunderstanding trope, where the main couple's "story" usually drags for 100 episodes or whatever long runtime they need the whole series to have: because the two people aren't able to talk basic things through, despite living together in 1 room the whole time! So, while this drama has all the qualities expected from j-dramas, it DOES work with an exceptionally poor quality story to begin with. This irony represents itself in this j-drama having 16 episodes instead of the usual 10. While I would jump with joy in case of practically any other j-drama to be a bit longer, because I tend to love them, unfortunatelly this is the case of super frustrating over-drag, inherited from the original, which caused the episode boost.

First, I thought: They CAN work it out, just the reason why in the past he had insisted so much that he would never, ever fall for her, had to be revealed. I felt that until the main girl learns about this, she would not be able to really proceed with him. Instead, we got the super clingy secondary female... She's like scary since episode 5. I was afraid that she will plague the whole drama, never leaving main guy's side (who was way too nice to tell her to get lost). While what happened was she actually tried to help a bit, in the end. And then instead...

Other secondary character "unexpectedly" returns to the scene. Main girl's most notable ex, in fact. He appears, has very open conversation with main guy, during which he openly speaks the truth. Including the truth about main guy's feelings for main girl. Not afraid to describe things by their name, he calls a spade a spade, and that sets FURTHER to display how much the people of concern have omitted to say. And yes, there they are right in the following scene, endlessly conversing about FOOD. The more I shipped them together, the more frustrating it was that even when the most romantic kind of situation offered itself, the two of them didn't grab on it and fully express their feelings. Instead, the secondary characters got involved even MORE.

Then, at 1/2 of the drama, we have our main guy finally ready to confess to main girl immediatelly. But any time he tries, circumstances prevent him from completing 1 single conversation (it's like in hispanic telenovelas). Plus, her ex is coming for her. Would HE be quicker to speak to her? Of course. Episode 8, the two do have their crucial conversation. The two mains DON'T. Epi 9, main guy's mother lectures him about success in love being Feeling,Timing,Happening. Well, this guy certainly has enough feeling for his girl. But his problems with timing went to the absolute extreme, in this story. Just why did he tell her years back that he will never, ever consider her as a girlfriend? Why the two were so extremely cursed with bad timing whenever one/both of them felt like expressing they actually felt more than friendship? They had countless chances during the long years. Even now, each time they meet, they don't mention the most important thing they need to say to one another, because at the current moment there is always something they can argue about. That's repeated over and over. It's like I mentioned above: the root cause is in the bad writing inherited from the taiwanese original.

Therefore, I decided I should probably just resign on what the hell was HAPPENING in the drama, and just enjoy all the other qualities it has to offer... Since I loved watching both the two mains (they both are really attractive, they have charm, ML has very captivating face, and I loved how FL dressed at work), I went from there. Just tried to enjoy their scenes without hoping they would actually make their love story satisfying. That was the best way to keep watching this drama... I remember there was nothing like that to keep me with the 2011 taiwanese original. I dropped that after 1 episode. I knew I won't drop this, but I admit my frustration. It looked like the writer REALLY wanted both the mains to date other people. There is so much of past flashbacks and follow-up development of main girl with Asaka Kodai's side character, that viewers might start doubting whose love story this is. Is it actually about THEM getting back together? Answer is simple, no, just another side-effect of the bad writing. But feel free to get frustrated, drop this drama or call this drama bad. I watched enough thai, philipino, vietnamese, some of taiwanese and chinese television to know what's BAD, lol. But! While I know this is not a bad show, it IS portraying a colossally bad story. I am repeating myself in this review... But, it does repeat in those 16 episodes.

It goes on for so long that even the viewers who did ship the main couple together might quit wishing them to succeed. I was like that, too. That is the biggest proof that romance has failed. And if romance fails, how good can romantic drama be? So, after all, I do understand the viewers calling it bad. Scenes like "him going to confess but catching the girl the exact second when she got hugged by her ex and then leaving before at least also seeing that she pulled away" exhausted my patience decades ago and long before watching them here. But, after all, who knows how old the source material for the script actually was. Soon after that failed confession they make the two mains have a Misunderstanding conversation which will put any future confession in a wrong light... It's because they both ALWAYS avoid the word love and start conversation on some side-point instead, hoping to gradually get to it. Instead of the converstation to develop the way they wanted, it of course gets stuck on something that prevents it. While the supporting character rivals never fail to say "love" right away. Thus planting the seed of romance into main's hearts. We can watch main girl getting hugged by other guy and to almost receive a kiss, despite her struggling her ex is seen to still not give up and kisses her cheek at least, giving her his "poison", again. The one who really loves her LEAVES even before attempting anything and throws flowers intended for her into garbage. It's then difficult to cheer for such "couple".

Yes, it's difficult to watch a "story" where the love rivals are so apt in taking every opportunity and make the most of it, while the mains fail every time at the basics. How do you fight against such script? So, soon the rival brings his own flowers. And THOSE get accepted. Other reviews commented on how the couple-moments between main girl and her ex were the kind of moments they would wish for the main couple to have. That says it all. Episode 10 is perfect example of what happens when the writer goes too far on this kind of sub-plot. It's in every under/average romance plot dating back decades. LONG before "Team Jacob" T-shirts. And the dated drama prop of "leaving a letter/note/sms/voice-message to convey the most precious information" cements it. We're back to stone-age way of writing dramas. Are we enjoying ourselves?

Next episodes, there's many real kiss scenes with FL & Asaka Kodai... WHO were the producers cheering for, here? Why these two look so adorable together? This really got out of hand. LOL. Episode 13, they're still at it. How long will this go on? Out of everything, FL learns about ML's feelings the worst possible way & the worst possible timing (aw, this show's main theme:) Then, even as late as the last 2-3 episodes, we let the mains tell each other the most important things only through (unlistened) voicemails or (unsent) postards...

While this review sure does list all the complaints about the frustrating "storytelling" and writing, it should also be noted that the main couple had their qualities. They were both likeable and perfect for each other, I loved their relationship (their badly written fighting excluded) and honestly believed that they should marry. It was well portrayed that despite Asaka Kodai's side character seeming to be the more romantic kind of boyfriend, he wasn't the true love and the right one and I appreciated that. Any other drama would let his guy be the lead. On the other hand, when the mains do finally get together, it's a bit anticlimax. There's just 1 kiss scene, I loved it, but it was a very brief thing in long sea of screentime. They should have shown more of them having attraction, than being good friends, we watched them being good friends for 16 episodes already. Still, I watched this to the end. I loved the final episode, where we could watch the main girl having her life journey symbolized by her love for shoes. It really was more than just an occupation for her and the final scene with her family was precious. I loved the main leads of this. Now the Thai remake is ahead of me, "starring" Pae Arak whom I cannot stand, so I guess I'll be done with that one very quickly, LOL. In the end, I rated this drama higher than I first expected, for the message it left in me.

Note: The ending credits song is WAY better (Enon Kawatani!;-) than the (crappy) opening song. They should have used it on opening credits, too... Or the other one by same artist.

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Completed
Hajimete Koi wo Shita Hi ni Yomu Hanashi
1 people found this review helpful
Apr 19, 2023
10 of 10 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 5.0
Harumi Junko is a woman "past her prime", yet still she didn't manage to have career. She failed to marry. The most important is what she says to her friend Masashi: She still doesn't even know what she wants to do. She would just like to be excited about life, just once. She has been searching for it her whole life, but didn't find it. Wow! Personally, I found this very relatable. That's precisely why I love watching dramas, preferably about people who know exactly what they want, I even enjoy work dramas about people who are passionate about their job:)

Okay, about the romance drama:) Despite her friend (cousin?) Masashi being hot and trying to tell her that he would in fact like to date her (she's a funny one to court, her character is oblivious, also some scenes her back is acting out and she needs to use a cane to walk:) that's more or less swept under a rug and she repeatedly keeps running into a bunch of high-schoolers, which is presented as a major plot. Indeed there is one high-schooler in particular. He has a cute, attractive face, somehow that is even magnified by the ridiculous pink hair. For his age, he is also rather observant and his personality is not uninteresting. His life is currently at crossroads, similar to which the main heroine once passed. So, she kind of finds her fulfilment now in helping him. And he, kind of starts liking her as a woman...? There's quite an age gap.

I continued watching on and I did like. I liked the characters, the cast (the main actress looks great of course, and she doesn't seem too old) and the relaxed slice-of-life kind of vibe it all had. By the way, Nagayama Kento looks gaunt and tired on this show (though still very handsome), it looked really convincing when his character fainted from being overly exhausted. Junko indeed is in a reverse-harem situation, as apart from Masashi she has yet one more suitor to choose from. While I thought both the other guys were more suitable for her than her student, I was definitely drawn in the small story about whether he suceeds in his studying. It also meant whether she succeeds in teaching him.

Things turn quite dramatic at one point (8/10), the lives are seriously affected and it turns out, all 3 suitors our main heroine has are not only exceptionally handsome, also exceptional people. She's almost ordinary in compare, but she is likeable. Then we continue like almost nothing happened, only the boy improved his relationship with his father and one of the suitors got definitely side-lined. Then it's only between the guy who's like a brother to her and the one too young for her.

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Completed
Dark Blue and Moonlight
1 people found this review helpful
Mar 16, 2023
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 10
Rewatch Value 9.5

They are both cheaters

Got your attention, right? Anyways, that's just a black and white version of this story. But this drama is not called 'BlackAndWhite And Moonlight', it's 'Dark Blue And Moonlight'...

So, first off, to deal with the moral issue some viewers would definitely have. When I first watched the 1st episode, I openly laughed and made a comment right below here. But, it DID get my attention;-) So I continued on, of course I do understand people's reservations. But, people are not computers, human feelings and emotions are not limited like memory or disk space. If it was like that, then if you'd have 10 children then what, you would no longer be able to love some of them? Truth is there is absolutely no limit to how many people we are able to love, each in their unique way. So, we all know this that we can love more than one person at the same time yet most of us wish to maintain good relationship so we need a strong moral compass to navigate in the huge ocean of relationships. That's life. That's why there are so many wisdom advice about how we must control our emotions, how relationships needs work, how we can't follow our every impulse. It's nothing new. This little drama just tries to depict the reality of how the right person might not always be the one available. How we are incredibly lucky to even meet. How it's possible the right one might not be the one we were able to firmly lock in our life, how it might be the one we only briefly held for a few moments. Though the way it was shown in episode 1 it did come across as ridiculous (there is even a follow-up scene when the characters themselves mock it a bit:), I think the intention here was to honestly potray how the right one, though not necessarilly the morally right one (the one who did stay and did take care of us) just slips out and both Hai Qing & Yan Fei were not just able to turn into stone and wait for the next super coincidence to meet again, no they would have to be immensely weird actually, to just live alone and wait, to not interact with a great person who was right there, to not feel for them. Yes, they lived with somebody else, I was able to understand that, and I think the drama portrayed all this in very humane way.

Now, about the actual drama. One of the reasons this might feel slightly shallow is the short runtime. Things seem to happen one right after another due the short screen time, though it might not be that short time for the characters. The cast is attractive, with the type of looks that fits the role, they make a good contrast, and share decent onscreen chemistry. There are enough side characters who are likeable, though their backstories are only hinted, again with the short runtime. The drama works well with colors, music score, visual poetry (it does follow the moon theme, etc.) and the songs are just beautiful. Some scenes had obviously lower budget, used wherever location was available (though they managed to find a few that looked interesting), there is background noise clearly to be heard along with the dialogue, sometimes dog barks during important conversation, etc:)

As for the climax and ending, I love skinship scenes, clearly episode 1 & 7 I was the most happy, then there's the beach trip in episode 8, which in my personal taste would suffice for cute happy ending, then more human drama follows and sort of an open ending (did not appeal to me that much).

Overall this is a small canape, not a full-course meal;) Still, it has a nice re-watch quality and none of the characters has a happy-go-lucky mentality (they all have issues, actually) so it's not really that shallow.

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Completed
Oh My Boss
1 people found this review helpful
Mar 7, 2023
14 of 14 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 5.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 4.0
I noticed Chap Suppacheep in 'Lovely Writer'. He was more attractive than any of the leads there! He was hot, AND he had a great kiss scene. (A BL kiss at that! It was his first role! How talented is this guy?) I was like: Why the HELL is HE not the lead? And now, turns out he is the lead ten times in the row. But only in shows like this. I DO understand, and support, the ingeniously cheap way to film a show using a simple phone. But YOU CAN FILM HORIZONTALLY ON THE PHONE, TOO!! lol

Also, while I like short & funny, with Chap Suppacheep, I want more than just a funny 1 minute thingy... It is a disappointment that this guy got sidelined from doing dramas to do just this. There are guys I WOULD like to get rid of and just send them do funny shorts. But Chap Suppacheep, I'd give him big role.

While this is funny & cute, and there's the funny use of songs, in the end it's not much more fullfilling than watching Chap Suppacheep in some side-role, like 'Lovely Writer'... What of it? Basically, we get to watch him and the girl in some completely unrelated bits, where mostly we can see that he is hot as hell, also totally cute... Yeah, but we knew it already after 'Lovely Writer' or 'Y-Destiny'. Here, we did NOT get to watch a satisfying romance story with him once again. But it WAS sweet. And short, and hot;-) So, I won't rate it badly.

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Completed
High-end Crush
1 people found this review helpful
Jan 29, 2023
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 10
Story 5.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 10
Rewatch Value 10

This is FUN. All the 1 HOUR long k-dramas, LEARN.

I just finished watching this and couldn't resist giving it a 10 rating:)

While I did discover short-length web dramas already, and have been watching more than 1 in parallel, like 'Noble, My Love' or 'Hot And Sweet', so at first I did not actually give that much attention to this one, in the end I must rate it even higher than 'Noble, My Love'.

This was a show in which I LOVED the funny side-characters EVEN MORE than the lead romance! Which is NOT typical for me at all. I laughed SO hard at times. Loved the music (잉키, 전세진), too.

The only stumble was the characters said directly on the camera that they'd "meet in season 2", which never happened. But I think this was perfect already.

This show is SUPER hilarious & SUPER romantic AT THE SAME TIME. Which is precisely what I seem to love the most... I'll definitely re-watch this and keep it in my k-drama collection.

EDiT: Just re-watched this for the 3rd time... I LOVE this:)))

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Completed
2gether
1 people found this review helpful
Dec 19, 2022
13 of 13 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 2.5
Acting/Cast 5.0
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 2.5
This review may contain spoilers

You might discard first 9 episodes. Then, listen to nice music:)

Besides Win & Bright, there are Frank & Drake, too. I remember these two VERY well. Drake's hair now got longer (too long) and he looks slimey. He was actually more hot in 'My Tee' where he was only 18 lol. I seriously think thai tv (and not only thai) should improve on male hair. Nobody seems to have a proper haircut. Why not cut the short male hair actually short, so it doesn't need to be combed into slimy 'do, using I don't know how much of hair-product? That's so eighties. Can we finally move from that, even in Thailand? I'm afraid I can't take not only a gay guy, but even "manly guy" seriously, if I can clearly see exactly which direction he combed his hair so vigorously lol. Drake needs the scissors desperately: he has such wild eye-brows he doesn't need to have also a ponytail sticking out of his head lol. Frank also looked better in his debut drama. It's not such a big difference like with Drake, but even his hair looks worse plus he's got sideburns now, so it's not what it was. I watched 'My Tee' ('Cause You're My Boy') and found out these two had astonishing chemistry together. The series itself was complete failure, it looked it was all done by amateur volunteers, but boy do I remember the cast. They are not the main ones here, though...

No, we watch Win Metawin's character's story, here. This boy, ordinary but with full lips totally like a girl so I suppose he's the gay holy grail, is shown as someone who has plentiful options & offers on the dating field. However, most of his female dates proved annoying and after all that he gets pursued by a "toot", meaning openly gay guy. The gay is very persistent & takes no for an answer. First, Win Metawin's character asks his friends to help him to get rid of him. They suggest one idea more stupid than another, just anything but telling the guy openly the truth. Of course Win's main guy gets more and more entangled as a result, instead of losing his interest. Then him and all his friends figure that the only logical solution is for Win's character to find a fake date who would finally firmly tell the gay to leave him alone.

Bright's character then gets introduced. I don't find Bright that much more attractive than Win (gee, is this going to be "new Domyouji"?) but at least, his character here is tiny bit more likeable for not having any social media account, lol. Despite that, he's got even more fangirls than the main boy (though he doesn't look that special), so he's supposed to be the one who is credible enough to stop his persistent gay suitor. If you got lost in the logic, then I wasn't alone.

Since episode 3, the unexplicably super-popular boy agrees (also unexplicably) to date/fake date (who cares) the main boy. Seemingly without reason. The only explanation could be this boy IS gay, too. Only doesn't show it so openly as the other suitor he's supposed to block. Also, he must like main boy already. Else it all makes ZERO sense. The synopsis describes this story like it's about them both realize their feelings slowly, but it could not work that way. Had he already not have some, then at such early stage Bright's character would not do all this.

To be fair, it's not that straight dramas are different, as their romance leads also tend to invest plenty of their time and effort into each other from the start, even though they claim that they don't like each other. But, with them we know that even 180-degree turn would not mean changing/questioning/revealing their sexual orientation.

I found it best watching this "drama" as it goes, just "enjoying" each single scene within itself. And pay no mind to however it does/not fit into the whole picture. The best example is the music club (they spell it "musical club", but they don't really do musicals, so I think they just don't know proper english) the main boy enters. On the scale of only 3 episodes, the club is desperate to find new members, evaluating and expelling members, recruiting new members (again)... I simply ceased to pay attention.

Nevertheless, both the boys like music, which means we get to listen to them play guitar and sing (it sounds like a toddler whining). After just 5 episodes, the two sleep at each other's lap, and Bright's character, who is literally besieged by girls wherever he goes, says to main boy that he never had a girlfriend, and when main boy asks him what is his type, he stares at him intently and says he actually likes... There he gets interrupted, but like I said, it all looks like the falling in love began since day 1 and not like "slow realization". I think during episode 5 Bright's character does little things that show he's already in love. Either way, at the end of that episode he even kisses main boy.

Now, as for Frank & Drake's characters, they began interacting in episode 6. It's nothing very exciting at first, I found even Mike Chinnarat's side-line more fun...

Episode 9, the two main boys are already close. They get into situations which could be viewed as romantic, but now they no longer kiss, they tease each other in friendly manner, instead. So, did the show really hit the brake and now tries to turn this into bromance? I don't have any problem if the two boys just like to be friends. But, just what was all the stuff before about? Lol. Then, in the end of this episode, he also asks him to be his boyfriend. There you go. Try and make sense of it!

Episode 10 out of 13 opens with the main boy sitting with his friends with them asking: "So, was he asking you to be his boyfriend for real, or it was just a part of the show?" So ironic that this dialogue actually tackled this show's, this series' main problem. To be this far in the story and to still not be able to tell what the heck the main relationships are, then I'd say the show has a problem, lol.

Not that this was UTTERLY without humour. The only running gag I was able to perceive was one of the boys being obsessed with touching the other boy's "boobs". Considering he did not have any, it was probably meta-humour. Silly me. Aww... Alright, the two boys MOVE IN together and THEN they become really cute! I admit their moving-in, living-together montage WAS funny and finally what I should expect. So, okay, they are boyfriends. I would not be sure from the previous 9 episodes hapennings but now I know, and I like:) Perhaps the series should start at THIS point and not earlier.

Wow, did the writer AND director change again when things are suddenly SO much better after the two mains moved in together? Amazing. Now even I want to ship Tai & Sarawat, lol. Then, Tai's stuck-up brother also moves in with them for a while, to terrorize the couple:) And Mike Chinnarat's side-line blooms now:) Hilarious. Frank & Drake have a first good scene! We got the flutter and laughter... Overall, we got to the stage where "the party got started", like they say. But, we have only 3 episodes left.

Well, better than nothing... Episode 11 starts rather boring. But then, there are many flashbacks, showing us the first lame 9 episodes in new light. Again, it's about one of the boys liking the other from the start. Just like I wondered in episode 3. Then episode 12 the fun stops and instead of the two guys ENJOYING living together we give importance to some side-girl and having one of the boys secretly jealous. I say when there are only 2 last epis left we should be over these games... But like I mentioned, this show's script was always rather empty... So, we have the girl hugging one of the guys and the other crying jealous just before the final. It was more intriguing to watch Mike Chinnarat's line even, which also only barely started, basically after being obsessed with a boy he randomly met and searched for the whole time, he discovered the boy is stuck-up and serious kind of a person way too different from him, and all his friends look down on him.

Overall, what is most fascinating about this show is the music. Like the band that's there with so many songs you really wonder why for this kind of "series" they did bother. And it's not just the songs, also the electric guitar background music, I absolutely loved it. Else, it's been rather primitive in terms of storytelling... if there WAS a story, really. I didn't catch anything between Frank & Drake's characters that could be called that:) In the end, we just watch another concert of the band and that's it lol. But, perhaps it was wrong of me to concentrate on the story here. Actually when we no longer care about how the three couples got "2gether" and just enjoy that they are cute and listen to the nice music at leisure, it's the best watch since beginning:)

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Completed
Kiss Me Again
1 people found this review helpful
Nov 23, 2022
14 of 14 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 4.5
Story 3.0
Acting/Cast 5.5
Music 2.0
Rewatch Value 2.0

This is one class better than the previous 'Kiss' series, meaning it's still 0.5 lower than average.

"Music" is EXTREMELY repetitive, pieces of it going on and on in loops, without it being suited to given scenes. Editing is choppy. Casting is questionable, though not so much as in the first season. Any "romance" there is here is kind of lukewarm...

I know people would ship Phit & Kao, but honestly their scenes are nothing special (there's still 'Dark Blue Kiss', perhaps it shall work out on the third attempt), and that's still the best this show has to offer. Fon Sananthachat, whose body looks disturbingly more like a middleschooler's than twenty-something girl's, looks uncomfortable with March Chutavuth more than anything else. Thanaerng Kanyawee doesn't seem attractive or girly enough (she's got her trademark boyish look) to pull Mond Tanutchai's character firmly in straight waters, and as for Pango Jintanutda with Earth Pirapat, they might as well be invisible, and I ended up skipping their scenes entirely.

Despite the show's title, kissing is not something that could be enjoyed here frequently or clearly. What does happen clearly are people smacking each other's mouths, hitting each other's head with a stick, guys trying to rape girls, girls calling other girls at places where they would be raped with them watching, and similar small episodes during the character's broad daylight routines. It all reminds you... Eh, other thai series, or the first 'Kiss' series, where the "romance" was dying in agony for 16 episodes but we did have a clinical psycho there walking among normal people alright.

I'm not even writing a proper romance drama review as this show is neither really a romance, nor a drama.

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Completed
My Name Is Busaba
1 people found this review helpful
Nov 9, 2022
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 5.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 5.0

Okay, the main couple is supposed to be 38 year old Bee Namthip & 27 year old Film Thanapat?

Not only that, in 'My Name Is Busaba', Bee Namthip is often purposely made to look ugly. As for Film Thanapat, he is hot. So, I enjoyed watching him, for the first time in a lakorn blissfully lacking any criminal plots or plastic surgery identity swaps. Moreover, this had comedy and very cute moments not hiding the age gap. Like when she was crying in front of him about a betrayal of a guy she dated for SEVENTEEN YEARS, lolz. Be it age, work or dating issues, most of their scenes were precious. I often laughed aloud watching. It was clear Bee & Film got in sync by working together previously, their onscreen rapport was spot on. The comedy tremendously helped. As a blessing, no stupid crime themes were present.

Episode 6, there comes Utt Uttsada. According to his year of birth, he should be 47. He does look well preserved, lol. And he's all over Bee Namthip's main heroine. The two look good together and she doesn's have to be "aunt" with him. They start flirting soon and Film Thanapat's facial expressions while watching this are priceless. Still, I couldn't help but cheer for the Utt-Bee couple. They had cute dynamics and Film was seriously too young for Bee.

Nevertheless, I accepted Film gradually as her heart's choice, who wouldn't fall for him?:) But then we literally spend whole EPISODES watching our main heroine participating in 'SuperChef Thailand', which is bit like turning on a tv to watch someone turning on a tv, but as a result we got the screentime filler which could otherwise undoubtedly consist of classic lakorn "plots" which thankfully didn't have a place here. Rest of the time, we were focused on what's there in romance most to enjoy (another adorable couple in this one was Chef Pao & Noei), though it WAS a bit questionable to keep Bee Namthip's beauty SO toned down (though I did understand it was for a good cause) that she practically looked like a dude. (Last few episodes she started wearing obvious, thick mascara, which looked like a child applied it for the first time.)

There are plots involving family living and bussiness, but emphasis is put on human relationships like friendship, even with "annoying" or bit villain-ish side characters. There are parent-child scenes which are simple, but powerful and very well delivered. Busaba has colorful family. Nang'rai has her father. Film's praek has a couple of great scenes with his mother. It's actually more enjoyable than the romance in later stages, where Bee keeps wearing the obviously fake hair and fake eyelashes and Film's character, who had such a good rapport with her being friends is suddenly all over her, it seems rather forced and the kisses look awkward. We then have "plots" like the noble-idiocy separation or writing someone a letter that does not get delivered and misunderstandings and meddling third parties which was precisely what I previously appreciated we did not. The ending is corny but kinda sweet.

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Completed
You're All Surrounded
1 people found this review helpful
Oct 28, 2022
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 10
Story 10
Acting/Cast 10
Music 10
Rewatch Value 8.0
First, I felt uneasy looking at Cha Seung Won, he was such a repulsive bad in Athena, LOL. Seriously, the main problem was that the 1st episode cast (the mother, the son, the girl) was hundred times more likeable than the cast we got to watch for the next 19 episodes. And that cast had Lee Seung Gi. Enough said...

As for the "police procedural" side of this. You'll forgive me if once I again I'll focus strictly on the fun element in the series, as there is no basic logic in either episode 1 (how was the single woman supposed to be protected if no one protected her?) or episodes 2-20 (what good is to have whole group of rookies who equally know nothing?) so this NEEDED to have a LOT of good scenes to make up for it.

Episode 1 was excellent. Simple and powerful story, great characters, superb acting. It was funny, thrilling and emotionally engaging even though one could smell the ending from a mile off (as mentioned in the paragraph above). It was like a fresh run, with no stopping and waiting, or skipping a single 1 minute with an annoying side-character or side-scene you wanted to pass.

Episode 2 starts limping. Not only is the purpose of several rookies joining 1 station nonexistent, all of them are annoying. Usually I like Lee Seung Gi, but he's trying to be all hardass here and I would prefer to keep watching the 14-year old actor. Scenes you partially want to skip begin. Scenes you generally want to skip begin. I haven't watched korean drama for a while now, so everybody shouting loud enough to shatter glass approx. 50% of all conversation and general over-acting was something I had to get myself atuned to again, since the second episode...

Though I had to abandon the high standard expectation set by episode 1 to stay with the series further, I did at least appreciate the basic premise. The story of a new rookie - joining in hope to get revenge on a person whose mistake cost his mother dearly, only to discover himself how easy mistake is made even with the best intentions - IS enjoyable. There is a price to pay for each rookie to become a really good cop. The price is paid by an innocent civilian. The debt is then re-paid by the cop giving back to society by doing their job better next time, and the next time, and the next (this often becomes the true motivation to stay in the job, not the promotion, not the salary). That's the cruel truth each rookie should be aware upon joining. They should never join lightheartedly. But, of course this cruel truth isn't something that can be openly said to them on recruitment...

We watch Lee Seung Gi's character gradually understanding this. Now he's becoming a detective himself, he senses how the cruel circle works. That without committing a mistake that WOULD seriously harm someone really innocent, the detective will NOT go through the necessary personality change, after which he/she becomes really good detective. Then, realizing the price which was paid for them to become good, they are obliged to dedicate their skills in risky job, helping as many other victims as they will be able. They know that crying and committing suicide won't help anyone. Money and resources were spent in their training and they did learn hell of a lesson on a top of that. What they now have to do is give back for the rest of their lives: that is, if they are moderately decent/moral people. Unmoral people are NOT uncommon so naturally police forces don't solely consist of members thus depicted, there ARE those just seeking career and power:) Not all people go through the same story or the same magnitude. But he now realizes such people ARE indeed present in the force's backbone.

Cha Seung Won's character is an example of such a backbone member of the police force. So, his dislike of naive, greedy & incompetent rookies has reasons deeper than just annoyance. As I've previously pointed out, him handling a whole bunch of rookies at the same time has not much sense. Just for the dramaturgy purpose of this drama, where we get to watch him as a mentor figure of the contrasting members and their difficulty/camaraderie, I accept it.

Knowing this background of the story, Lee Seung Gi & Cha Seung Won's scenes are way more intriguing.

No matter the silly side-characters, their conflict IS dramatic. And if there is something I enjoy about k-drama despite the annoyances I mentioned, then it is DRAMA:) Luckilly, there were both dramatic and funny moments in this series.

I was glad we got something more squeezed out of the - at first really unimpressive - characters of the rookies. I must praise the music, too (it's amazing, and the track called "Justice For All" turns your blood cold). And I enjoyed the bits of romance, the more they were set into something meaningful.

In the end, I really enjoyed this and grew to like all the characters. And I did NOT like any at the beginning (except Lee Eung Do, perhaps:) Not even the lead girl. It was great that no one was just one-dimensional good guy/bad guy here and we were able to move past the initial conclusions about the characters. At 3/4 of the series it was all nicely settled in and I was enjoying all the funny group-scenes with them all together. Despite - or maybe even because - each of the characters knew great pain, loss or heartbreak. Then we shifted from the "case of the week" more to the main story final drama, and it was VERY enjoyable.

Everything and everyone had more than just one layer and there were many moral questions. Which is what a good drama should have. On the other hand, it was tight on one central case and did not try being hundred things at once, that's why it was so good (that's why most of "procedural" crime series are). Music was stunning (I mentioned:) The characters went through so much. Like Cha Seung Won's character. The actor has my respect. He completely transformed before my eyes. His character (and not only his character, there were others who had quite poignant fate) went through so much pain in many levels, and in the end there was still a funny side to him. This was admirable. Perfectly represents the whole 'You're All Surrounded' show, which by the look at title or the the poster (or the synopsis) might not look like much. This was SO dramatic, yet no one overplayed it to melodrama, and it was perfectly balanced by humour. It was ENJOYABLE.

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Completed
Friend Zone
1 people found this review helpful
Sep 30, 2022
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 5.0
Story 5.0
Acting/Cast 7.5
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 3.0

Good cure for romance junkies

This show delivers what it advertises in it's title, you really won't find romance here. Watch it for 11 episodes or less and you won't even wish anyone's romance to succeed: I'd say it's a good cure for romance junkies lol. It's a funny watch because girls are SO beautiful here yet no one yearns for them romantically and all the hot hookups lead nowhere and the adorable Best Nathasit is no longer cute here and even sweet Singto who got assigned gay love of course (:-) goes around most of the screentime wearing a face that's nasty as f**k and nobody gets a happy ending. Funny.

Oops: Edit! Someone decided IN LAST EPISODE, that we should after all somehow make all the characters "happy". So, everyone kind of gets a... good ending? Something like that. It's pretty rushed and apart from the doctor, who I believed sincerely cried in remorse, nothing looked believable and things in the last episode didn't happen organically with the previous parts of this series. So, forgive me but maybe I'd have more respect for this show if it at least did STICK with what it was?

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Completed
Nee Kiattiyot
1 people found this review helpful
Jun 15, 2022
30 of 30 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 5.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 4.0
Good title song. Main couple confessed to each other and decided to date in episode 7 out of 30, so it looked like there won't be much romantic tension in this one... Luckilly, things got interesting again. Second couple shared way more feisty interactions but it was bordering on the line as she acted batsh*t crazy and he looked bit more like her uncle than her lover. I was annoyed with the early dynamics, based on that some characters were poised and calm in ANY situation, while other characters were over-the-top aggresive/hysterical in ANY situation. Even the characters dialogue mentioned that they need to update their behavior, lol.

The main couple reunited in episode 15 out of 30, but again we could see only hug a hand kiss, tops. If we progressed to as much as kiss on the cheek, it got interrupted. Also, praek's rich family was fighting the girl by allowing her to marry pra'ek under the condition that she won't register her marriage, and thus prove she's not with him for his money. Both pra'ek and nang'ek happily agreed to this as a "proof" of their true love. While in fact they could just exclude her person from all the wills, if pra'ek really loves nang'ek he WOULD register their marriage to give her the right status, if nothing else then for the sake of their future children. It was clear the family just wanted to keep the chance for other woman to step in. Of course the stupid moron sister didn't quit it, either... The number of people lining up to break-up the main couple started getting ridiculous.

As a wedding gift, pra'ek gives some property to nang'ek, which nang'ek's father previously owned and lost. Pra'ek's father is furious. At nang'ek place, I would say I'll return the property but I want the marriage registered. But no. Nang'ek can't speak for herself. It's actually her who should be bloodthirsty after her dad committed suicide because of financial distress caused by pra'ek's dad. But no, it's the pra'ek's dad who shall make a life hell for his new daughter-in-law...

At least after the "wedding", nang'ek starts being healthy possesive of her pra'ek. Finally she speaks out. Seeing this, pra'ek smiles from ear to ear. Second couple line starts to be cute too, after the younger sister starts being more sensible. It's good to see her personality got better due her stay at the second pra'ek's house and good people in it. So despite the mismatched cast, I started to cheer for this couple. Sometimes people grossly incompatible with each other can actually be right for each other. I am for true love no matter what;)

Meanwhile, pra'ek's dad employs nang'ek in his office, where he lets her be as harrassed and bullied as possible. Luckilly she is shot in some stupid "crime action" sub-plot and gets a sick leave. Things get interesting again after nang'ek learns about the measure of pra'ek's dad evil doings towards her dad. She finally starts feeling vengeful towards him, this colouring even her relationship to pra'ek sour.

Her character, which kept resilient against bitterness, finally touches the dark side. Since then, the crazy secondary female is no longer needed, lol. Yeah, immediatelly Mo Amena's scenes felt surplus... But now, nang'ek starts being offensive even dealing with HER. I just hoped this won't turn into usual henhouse fight. Nevertheless, it's good that nang'ek finally speaks for herself, after she got abused, almost raped & killed, all for a guy who didn't as much as register marriage with her (now she simply makes him do that, when not thinking of their love anymore). Kinda sad she had to turn "mean" to get her basic human justice. But yeah, we are in a lakorn world, lol.

So, at least this is not boring for all the 30 episodes. In the end, the boredom of this show got only prevented by one sister to quit being mean, and the other sister to quit being nice;) Now that she hates her pra'ek, she discovers she's pregnant with him, of course... Circle thus closes.

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Completed
Notification
1 people found this review helpful
May 20, 2022
8 of 8 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 5.0
Story 5.0
Acting/Cast 5.0
Music 3.0
Rewatch Value 3.0
This review may contain spoilers

Isn't Eye Kamolned kinda old for this?

I found it maybe a bit awkward pairing Eye with August Vachiravit, even though she kept wearing her girlie hairstyle and backpack.

Then there's this complicated sci-fi time-travel plot involving simple dating. That is never good sign. This can hardly be a romance, because it all gets turned into some kind of "project" in the hands of main girls's best friend Sonia (31-year old actress portraying a student), who basically handles her love life for her. Also, as one other review here pointed out: If the messages from the future shows things are perfect, why should be there a need to try and do something about it? Just sit back and let it happen, eh? And that's just one of hundred reasons why I don't like anything supernatural.

I love watching relationship naturally developing (well, as naturally as it is possible in scripted drama... the better the script, the more natural the relationship development seems to viewers, of course). Which is precisely the thing we are denied here. It's one of those attempts to be original by making a weak script actually an asset. Yeah, good scriptwriters were always scarse. Drama producers WOULD try any kind of experiment. In the end, it's actually rare to see simple good romance...

First episodes, the notifications showing things being ideal and ROMANTIC alternate with actual events being clumsy, mishap and far from developing a relationship. The heroine tries hard each time to make the "prediction" come true and it either doesn't or does in non-romantic way. Then her friend even goes as far as telling the heroine that she has to make sure the thing in notification happens on the given day, else "the future will change". Huh? All I can say the "magic phone" gets broken at one point and I just thought: Great, let's leave it that way.

Also, there is "Best" Nathasit in his "best friend" role. Suddenly, there are also notifications about the main girl ending up with HIM. While I honestly think Eye more compatible with Best than with August Vachiravit, his character shows ZERO signs of feelings beyond friendship at first. Then the script suddenly changes. Then, the script plays with a possible death of his character, which is too dark a theme for a girlie romance thing, making it actually a worse script once again. The author of this really doesn't seem skilled in writing romance. Someone on the production team could draw cute drawings, that's one thing for sure, else...

At 1/2 of the series, there is a scene in which the best friend Sonia pushes the main girl so hard towards the boy portrayed by August Vachiravit, that she bumps into him violently and his nose starts bleeding. I thought this little scene very symbolical. It depicts the kind of annoying meddling characters, the level of humour, and the "romance" best.

The relationship development is forced and laborious, the two main actresses Eye Kamolned & Meen Chayanee clumsily stylized into someone 10+ years younger look like bad cartoons, and it is all underlined with sequences of actual cartoons. Jomjam Suphitcha brings something bit more into this, and so does Best Nathasit. The ending of each episode belongs to Best and it's... best, LOLz. Cuter than any drawings!:)

Episode 5/8 is another revealing moment to note. When the notification keeps changing from one boy to the other each 2 minutes, it only underlines how credible such "romance" was from the start. Whom does the girl actually want to date, obviously that doesn't really matter to makers of this series, who set the whole episode in manga con, un/conspicuously pushing gay culture. The scene with both boys in gay-looking get-ups, who hug each other or hopefully even kiss gets the most screams.

I say the last episode is the worst. We jump from the fluffy silly romance comedy to something like 'The Lake House' with Sandra Bullock. But, here I didn't believe the main girl WOULD choose her FRIEND (no matter the hidden deep feelings) over the ROMANTIC looking boy BEFORE living through the experience of having a relationship with him and LOSING forever the one who'd really make her happy. She would have to travel back in time with her OLDER mind. Therefore, the only scene that can be counted is AGAIN the post-credits ending one. "Did you break my model?" "How do you know?" "I am watching your live video.":DD

So, the only thing I must praise the authors for is SEEING that the character portrayed by Best Nathasit was so adorable there's no way girl would not actually love him more than August the pretty boy. On the other hand, I didn't see the need for him to have to die so the girl would regret. Or us, the audience to suffer the "mobile notification" plot for the whole story. We learned in the end that if was for a good cause, but the form it took was just silly. Logically, you cannot win with time-travel stories no matter what. As entertainment, I think I already described it above. ALL the five rating stars I give this are for the video-makings scenes.

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