2023

i knew not to expect much from tvb when it comes to a big ass big-named ensemble cast bc ik zero ppl at that company knows how to write a story anymore and yet i am Still somehow disappointed. which is really merit to them, all things considered.

anyway, my fc is dou man. nancy wu did sO well and her character had so much potential that was expectantly left unexplored and her fate cast aside for a ...weird catholic-esque preaching scene that went on for way too long at the end...y'all are mad cheesy.

ron ng's character sucks so much ass like literally what is he on the whole time lmfaoo bc i want whatever the fuck he's smoking. i feel like with more character work n emotional depth, he could've been rlly interesting but he just came across awfully irrational w zero original thot. i also felt like he swapped between different moods so erratically like,,, perhaps it might've been in part a presentation problem but yeah. i dont like him.

i also dont like mandy wong's character. she had zero role except to be another awfully irrational character with zero original thought but in a different visual like ?? it's the way i felt Nothing when she died. she Also had potential to be something more but doubt is my middle name.

bosco wong and sisley choi's coupling provided some easy comic relief at times but are ultimately deeply flavourless characters. vincent wong's chara also suffered from insufficient characterisation bc of the massive whooping cast and odd, unnecessary side plot threads.

the ending was anticlimactic. as expected.

lastly. what is the weird rapey implications going on btwn the couples :| vincent being paired with a character he raised since she was tEN like ?? and sisley taking advantage of her boyfriend when he was black-out drunk :| tvb will never stop being obsessed with sexual abuse as comic relief or shock value i suppose.

5 stars was generous.

so full disclosure, i never planned on watching this bc i have zero affections for the cast members much less kim eunsook the bane of my unethical hedonism but it had a viet dub and my ma and i were running out of shit to watch so...here we are.

idk what it is w kdramas and splitting their shows into two parts these days but it's borderline vexing and disruptive to how my brain processes the pacing of the story like— issa whole thing whatever anyway.

even after 8 eps i dont find myself at all attached to any of the characters and im not sure if its a me and my prejudice thing or if its bc i feel like there's a lack of emotional depth for the cast even tho it definitely isnt bc of lack of trying. i feel somewhat detached from the mc, who has gone thru a Really Fucking Shitty Horrible Rough Time and i Do feel great sympathy for her, but there's something about the way she's portrayed? or written? that feels like there's a barrier even between her and the audience as much as there is one between her and the other characters and the latter is intentional per her characterisation so...idk. i feel like idrk her at all and all of her actions are confusing to me. that could be the product of the choppy storytelling tho who's to say.

lee dohyun's character is relegated to a supporting role bc he's not part of the main group and idrk what to expect from him main-plot-wise but i do find him an interesting  study on trauma and ptsd.

shin yeeun Bodied her fucking cameo role who's doing it like her she was super creepy. everyone else is slightly forgettable, but probably bc i personally dont rlly care for them.

i liked im jiyeon in money heist but im not entirely sure how i feel about her portrayal of yeonjin here. guess we'll let part 2 do its job first.

alas. the end.

first and foremost—both yeojeong and ha doyeong were sO under-utilised; essentially they didn't have much to do except flit mysteriously around dongeun every now and then for Poignant Convos and—esP ha doyeong—they had so much potential but they were ultimately back burnered in lieu of the bully group and mc. w that said, even the bullies had little movement outside of yeonjin and Even then yeonjin was nowhere near as calculating and manipulative as i hoped she would be, especially for someone initially established so creepy and heinous. while it is poetic that her downfall is literally her own confidence in herself and reliance on the power network around her w/o anything of her own, it would've made her a much more compelling and fearful antagonist if she pushed back at dongeun more actively and, well, successfully. if there were more road blocks and setbacks that dongeun had to work around—revenge aint easy.

and perhaps i watched this wrong but it didnt rlly feel like dongeun did anything in the end—the bullies' downfalls were kinda their own doing and all she had to do was kickstart the descent.

the glory is definitely one of, if not, the only kes drama that was watchable for me and it had a lot of merits in the storytelling cinematic-wise and how certain metaphors/symbolisms were tied together pre neatly but again i lacked the emotional engagement to really...give a shit?

and i watched this translated twice so its probably more my own problem than the actual script but certain dialogue landed,, strangely? like it came off almost cartoon-villain-monologue. which is. interesting i suppose. 

overall a fairly awright watch i think i had a good time overall. i  do wish ha doyeong was fleshed out and had a more active role, esp if it involved a paradoxical love interest in dongeun, who he knows deserves her pursuit for vengeance but ultimately makes him a victim to her perpetrator this time.

:D  ???

honestly idk what to say bc one cannot be disappointed if they had no expectations to begin with. here's the thing about jazz boon's dramas: always starts with a bang and takes off running for a good kilometre or two before it hits a plateau and then starts fraying like loose thread on the oldest, raggiest pair of washed out jeans you could find, preferably gathering dust and cobwebs in the back of a storage closet at a laundromat—

supposedly, the only merit tvb has nowadays is how obsessed they are with ensemble casts and friendship groups bc they do depict that rlly sweetly even if it gets a bit Too cheesy at times. just like jazz's favourite outdated use of slowmo!! 

anyway. character-wise, no one really stuck out, we have the same ppl playing the same roles once again. i dont particularly care for any of the pairings either except plEase let tiffany lau act with more ppl, she's been stuck with joel chan for millenniums, she's too beautiful for this.

ruco chan is a guest star for like ten whole episodes and he's given a compelling villain role On Paper—because what is all this weird build up for his character only to have it amount to essentially nothing?? he's certainly very brutal which is super cool for a villain made under tvb and candice chiu also Ate her role up but they were both hyped up as this Super Villain Duo or whatever and they both just . got killed off randomly lol. the ending was not only anticlimactic but also answered zero questions like . so what's the story?? ??? at least ruco delivered i suppose.

also. amnesia? again? be serious.

its super funny tho that no one reacted to kenneth's character supposedly dying like . okay. once again pacing is not jazz's forte. you kno what Is his forte tho? using rape for shock value and contrived meaningless angst for romance. :D

what goes on in the house of commons

what is that random around the world camera angle for the longest, weirdest, most clunky kiss scene in cinema history lmfaooo let's not talk about kiss scenes my bad

anyway. i didn't go into this drama with crazy wild expectations so i had a pre fun time overall? zero thots, just vibes ykno. it's just some silly little revenge historical where no one takes anything seriously until they do but even that's super silly ??? i dont rlly wanna get into legitimate critique bc everyone else already ripped this drama to shreds but i guess,,, whoever wrote this might benefit from more exhaustive planning lmfaooo.

pacing isnt too great but i think the biggest problem was the ?? mismatched blend of genres? comedy and drama isn't new n plenty of shows have done this and pulled it off but what was done w ja:am was clunky at best and all over the place at worst lol.

with that said. full disclosure but being a wdh stan got me thru this. esp w where my priorities are lately lmao. i just have a lot of fun watching him bc hes very very good at his job and you can tell he puts a lot of work n thot n love into his craft. i enjoyed his performance and once again, even with a comedy, wdh knows what he does best: crying and sobbing. whoop.

i dont like the flak bona gets bc yall never sound normal whenever you critique women but whateves. i do agree she kinda missed the mark w her character but one might argue there was little for her to work off of to begin with. whatever. at least she played more of a role in the political manoeuvre than huijae from mctna ever did TT

everyone else was okay i guess. N didn't rlly have much to do but i feel like thats bc they only added his character bc love triangles are fun to write or something lmfao idk. i love revenge as a motive but ive never come across anything of the like that left me sated so i had no expectations here either. it is what it is! moving on.

once again, mr. woo slayed the boots down houston the fact that i have to wait for at least a year before i see him onscreen again is heartbreaking—

no  it rlly bEGS REPETITION!! wdh is just So good at his damn job he genuinely rlly enjoys acting and puts so much thought into his charas and always gives it his all like his microexpressions, his eyes—the way he conveys emotions seems to extend from the most sincerest of places, he's just so good at conveying the nuances of his charas and bringing them to life and his versatility, he tries at all sorts of charas without losing sight of what he's good at (crying, sobbing, screaming, morally ambigu—)

ANYWAY— okay but like even my mom sang praises about his acting when she highkey took the piss out of the perfs in the glory so,,,,,

...wdh word vomit aside. i had a good time overall! i think the action/choreography is super impressive but then again kdramas do tend to excel in this area so it is what it is! the plot was awright, i dont think i have any real emotional attachment to this drama ngl, i considered it easy brain food lol.

i expected wdh and lsy's chemistry seeing their irl friendship but it was still a joy to watch them have each other's backs thru thicc and thin despite only having just met? super cute. i also really enjoyed their rls w ksr's character—it is a shame that her scandal affected the fate of her character bc her abrupt departure did throw off the show a little.

i did cry in ep 6. unsurprisingly. 

duyeong and his wife...was esp hard to watch. im saddened that he was forced to gamble his friend's life for his wife's but ended up losing both of them. 

anyway pacing is still clunky esp with the last two eps, idk if it has anything to do w saeron but regardless, the way our boxer duo recovered the money only to hand it off to some sleazy chaebol is...i s'pose very in character for the pair's naivety TT. hope that goes well for them lol

that was actually...a really good movie ö

ah the downfall of a woman,,

y'know what i think this drama was pre solid w its story-telling. it's a story about family and parenthood and what generational trauma can do to someone. i think a lot of merit is deserved for the parallels between the parents in this show (hugo & mandy, mandy & her daughter, her husband & MIL). i  truly felt awful watching this loving mother slowly become like the father she hated most.

this is mandy's story hands down, and it's refreshing to see a drama centre around a female character and her story once in a while? sam yuet is a truly pitiable woman. she thot she could start anew after her father was jailed but married a selfish chauvinistic bastard and when you see his mom, you'd know exactly why he is who he is. there's a running theme of the apple doesnt fall far from the tree, which i liked.

regardless of what sam yuet does, i find myself unable to condemn her and i genuinely have a lot of sympathy for her.

i do feel like mandy's performance was a little,, lacking? there's some level of emotional depth and nuance that wasnt fully realised. but her final scene, w hugo, was rlly rlly good! i rlly liked the line "i dont want your blood you can have it back" while smearing her blood all over her dad's face. its good symbolism! her final monologue was well-written and well-delivered too.

ruco was...an assist for mandy here lol he was definitely a foil (and in that way, he didnt have a lot to do). his character is supposed to show how you could be in the same situation as sam yuet and not choose the path she did—w that said tho, it's not quite fair a comparison bc he, in no way, experienced the same degree of shit she did nor was he bogged down by the sort of burdens she was. his sanctity was too...male-perspective lol. him calling mandy evil when her husband was right there is wild is to me.

i have nothing to say about roxanne she was . she just was <3.

they did this for the lesbians actually

i have no words for how fucking well they did this drama like from the storytelling to the cinematography to the narrating to the aCTING they doNT MAKE drAMAS liKE THIS anyMORe!! it was just done so spectacularly and wonderfully and with So much heart.

one of the running themes in moving is the inter-generational relationships, especially between parents and their children, and yall know i am a suCKER for that shit like!! platonic, familial love—this was written for ME. while i have donated my fair share of tears for every parent in the show, i think juwon definitely gets the bag for how much emOTION i've invested in him and his story. ryu seungryong acted his heart out as the partially immortal low spatial intelligence kindhearted buffbro softie. i would Always remember sobbing my eyes out through episodes 13-14. there is something so intimately relatable about juwon, perhaps that he wears his emotions on his sleeves and his face and how Greatly and Intensely he feels his emotions. i love these types of characters. i like that he is so physically strong but emotionally vulnerable. juwon is super loveable—a great dad, a great partner, a fantastic friend, leader.

honestly everyone in this show did exceptionally well in their roles, not a siNGLE black sheep, the entire cast bodied their roles, even those who only got a little bit of their story told. ALSO. the parallels the flashbacks the callbacks????? idc if it was happening in the middle of a fight scene, that shit ate doWN. God Tier who is doing writing like them?

the only villains of this story are the higher-ups, the bosses, the delegators. im 100% happy with how this show ended. from the beginning to the end, it was one of the best experiences ive had with tv in a long time.

any qualms i have are so minimal they're not even worth mentioning. if i could wax poetic about this show forever, i would.

also super glad frank survived <3 go live your life bb girl!

"should gays have rights? should women own their own bodies?"

the real referendum should be Should We Take Rapists Out To A Beach And Scorch Them. 

kinda wished mc went berserk on evil dudebro for a bit but she didnt LOL

eventually, it got exhausting watching them trying to navigate between a wall and a hard place lmfaooooooo

1. this did Not need to be as long as it was, nothing is Ever that deep.

2. i cannot stress enough how much i did not care about her parents' romance as well as any of the side characters' romance. cannon fodder begone.

3. they rlly got The anh naesang playing some mountain dweller who's rlly good at making spicy noodles, astounding

4. i love hwang minhyun as a person but i am not sold that kim doha is a man in love. he does look like he found a biffle though, good for him. kim sohyun carried

5. cant believe they pulled the closeted evil gay killer trope i dont even want to begin dissecting all that but deukchan as a character still ate so whatever the fuck.

6. kassandra is the only supporting character that slayed but i do like syaon's actor. pretty pretty women

7. became a seo jihoon stan. he had like 4 scenes.

8. choi eomji's actress looks so much like le sserafim's kazuha thats so wild

9. the moral was cheesy but tbh when you centre an entire story about being able to hear lies, the whole plot kinda writes itself.

10. no but why the fuck was this so long like that's Crazy. every ep was over 1 hour—excuse me?? some of yall never had a casually racist hs english teacher who hounded you about writing concisely and it shows

11. all the mothers in this show sucked LMAO. solhee's mother had zero character growth for her dad to randomly change his mind like that lol. crazily enough it's doha's mom that annoyed me Most like ms ma'am. be serious.

overall, i am Not willingly picking up a 16ep murder-romance kdrama ever again i shouldve learned from strong woman but clearly my wits are beyond me. jesus damn christ.

1. that was really bad. dont recommend

2. if i wanted do-gooder rhetorics shoved down my throat i would've just gone to sunday church

3. we always knew liang xi was alive this whole time so i guess we'll give tvb Some credit for the foreshadowing but randomly plot-twisting it two eps from the ending was horrible horrible writing. which is also somn we always knew

3. once again, zero ppl at this fuckin company knows how to fucking write OR pace their fucking scenes

4. the villains were so cheesy and performative like name one thing they actually accomplished. they died as quickly as the average man finishes.

5. i thot we were gonna get some good m/f friendships which we kinda did but feifei also liked liang xi the whole time before she (pretended to) bit the dust?? lmao we can never win

6. btw who the fuck was the fake liang xi's body then?? lmfao??

7. literally just a bunch of characters going around doing NOTHING

8. the evil VS good twin trope has been done to duST and it never comes across well ESP written by tvb bc how tf are you trying to convince me liang xi had the autonomy to pick a better path when she was being used and abused and coerced into a bunch of weird shit like ?? i wouldve done worse lmao

9. the absolute lack of emotion when everyone found out liang xi was alive is so foul LOL ik they were running out of time but once again if i was liang xi i WoulDVE DONE WORSE

10. final showdown embarrassing as fuck all it took was a few shots

11. kevin chu...........is not a good actor but his chara was likeable so i guess we'll deal

12. chrissy kinda ate up her role tbh good for her btw what the fuck was raymond wong's character for except to be sickly and an obnoxious addition to the unneeded love shape he did nothing but wear suits

13. can yall stop making the exact same dramas i watched a boy-version of this in 2015

maybe the dead girl's body parts were just the friends we made along the way