The story doesn't have anything special when it comes to its plot. But I'm glad they touched up on some issues regarding famous people and their fans. They also tried to show the life of a professional gamer and how society views them. They also addressed the gender discrimination in gaming where people think that female gamers can't be better than male gamers or on the same level as them. I'm someone who played a couple of games myself and ran across a few male gamers who would stereotype female gamers as incompetent.

In regards to the characters, I liked the relationship between the teammates(including their manager Rui and Coach Ming) of Team ZGDX. I think the story did a great job of developing their relationship as a team. I also liked the friendship between our ML and Hierophant, Jin Yang & Tong Yao.
I've seen Xu Kai in other dramas and liked his acting. I think he did a decent job here as Lu Si Cheng. At first it may seem like LSC's character is just cold and arrogant, but after watching it completely till the end you see the other sides of LSC's character.
As for the FL's character, I'm glad to see the writers did not make her an annoying or frustrating character because she is childish and has a few flaws. This is the type of flawed childish FL that won't piss me off all the time. She's not strong, but she's not completely weak either. As for Cheng Xiao's acting, she is a bit stiff. She couldn't quite bring her character into life. I also don't understand why her username was Smiling either, because she didn't smile all the time, but it didn't matter that much.
But if you're looking for a good performance from the FL, don't expect too much. I'd say the stiffness is about the same as ZS's Bei Wei Wei in Love O2O.

I think what makes up for the FL's acting is the romance. The main couple bicker a lot and LSC teases TY a lot which I found very cute. They have quite a lot of kissing scenes and good romantic moments. The kissing scenes didn't appear sloppy either (stating that for people who judge kiss scenes cause I know some people do that).

I'm glad there's no crazy love triangles in here. It's light, there is a clingy ex-bf but it doesn't matter. I pitied the ex-bf but I also know why he ended up that way. There's a bit of comedy here too and I found myself laughing over some of the lines and scenes (especially Lu Yue's scenes).

For the gaming aspect, you don't need to be a gamer to watch it or understand it. I think you can enjoy it without being knowledgeable about the game. I'm not familiar with the Onmyoji game myself, but I liked watching the action scenes of the games.

I'd say this is similar to Love O2O (if you liked that drama), but I find it better than Love O2O in most ways. I think the gaming portion is done much better here and you don't have to watch the main characters dress up in costumes for the game scenes (like it was in Love O2O). It's also less dramatic than Love O2O.
The dubbing is a bit weird but not too terrible. I've seen worse dubbing in C-dramas.

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Different than S1, but still good!

I think most people find S1 better is because it related to the personal stories of the characters so there was more aggressiveness and anger in there.
Their approach to S2 wasn't bad. Most of their stories got resolved in S1, and in S2 they do show that Do Gi still has his trauma & how Go Eun is also trying to move on (with that episode of that religious cult and how two sisters were separated ). They didn't show much, and wanted to tie majority of the cases to the Bishop's organization which is fine.
The unrealistic elements in this drama has always been there since S1, it's just for entertainment and no need to throw logic into each situation. I like how they tried to make this more comedic and lighter whereas in S1 it was slightly more dark. I also think the Prosecutor Kang Hana role in S1 was slightly annoying. The revenge never disappoints though. In each case, the villains get what they deserved.
I felt they tried to make the Black sun similar to burning sun which I'm glad they covered that.
The cameo role for KSY was interesting. But it also feels random that they threw in first taxi driver in there. It just makes me wonder how long this deluxe taxi has been going on for.
As for the cliffhangers, I really wish they wouldn't leave off a cliffhanger unless they planned for S3. They just left a case hanging in the end. I think it was a nice case too since it does happen in the military.

There was obvious product placement in this season. I didn't mind it, but wish they would cut it down a little. I think showing the coffee candy once was enough, same with the tonic.

Acting- They all act so well. LJH acting as a country bumpkin or something else. We saw so many different sides. I was skeptical about SJH's character, but he did good too. I felt some pity for him in the end with that plot twist.

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Light-hearted, not many overused clichés.

I was a bit skeptical watching this drama because I've only seen one drama of both of the ML & FL. So I wasn't sure about how the acting will be here.
I enjoyed it. It was a nice break for me because I've been seeing a lot of dramas with the same events repeating for a couple (such as breakups, misunderstandings, damsel in distress situations, parents causing problems in relationships, jealous exes trying to sabotage the relationship, etc.)

I like how this drama tried to be as realistic as possible. We have a smart ML but he has some flaws as well. They may not be the best flaws (but it's still different than Yang Yang's flawless character with no struggles in Love O2O by the same writer). They spent a decent amount of time to show his struggles and how hard it was for him to make important decisions for his life. I think that was enough to show that he's not entirely perfect. They also tried to throw in some scenes to show that he's not the only smartest character in there. They obviously didn't focus on the other smart characters because they're not the main focus of the story so I think it's understandable.

I also like how the FL's character is written. She's endearing, has a high EQ, and most importantly not obnoxious for the age depicted. I cannot watch FL characters who are shown to be in their late 20's or early 30's and they act like someone who just turned 12. Jing Jing may be playful, but she's not one of those typical childish/dumb FL. (Those childish FL's who have a crush on the ML and start to cling on them right from the start in such a cringe way. Or they use childish tricks to try to make the ML fall for them. Oh, and those FL's who fall for the man immediately when he leans against her while teaching her or they had some sort of physical contact.) Jing Jing somewhat pursues him by making him her coach but she wasn't all over him and following him everywhere.

Now for the romance. It does take awhile for our couple to get together. (I think halfway through the drama they're finally together). So for some the development of the romance will be slow. I think the pace was fine. Our leads were high school classmates, but they didn't have much interaction then. It was necessary for them to get to know one another in the beginning of this drama. Then you can see them slowly fall for each other. The main problem they faced was before their relationship started, so I'm glad about that. They were very understanding of each other. I like how both of them respected each other and they supported each other. They were also both able to pursue their dreams and have a successful career. Their chemistry was amazing! Once they got together, there were some moments where you couldn't stop smiling or getting embarrassed from watching them.

This drama mainly focused on our main leads. There wasn't much story added to secondary characters which I found okay. They didn't need a secondary couple to drive the story forward, the main couple was perfect enough. However, I just found it a tiny bit annoying, that they added some characters in there and they just suddenly disappeared or became irrelevant (like Yu Tu's friends that he played the game with.)

I'd rewatch it but I'd probably skip some parts.
Also, some people might be deterred because there is a lot of aerospace terminology and won't understand what's going on in the scientific aspect. I probably wouldn't focus too much on understanding those scenes and let it hinder the overall watching experience. There is also some gaming in the start of the show, but it's not something you have to understand much either. The gaming aspect isn't the main focus of the show.

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Slice of life type of drama, no major conflicts, less frustrating, but lacking & average story

I wouldn't say this drama has anything major to spoil since there really isn't much to this story to begin with. It’s only a watch for people who can tolerate slow-paced dramas with a story line about people's daily lives and their journey. For me, I was hooked in the first four episodes. Then, it started to slow down and get boring for me. Then, the drama started to pick up near the end and get interesting.

The story has no major conflicts either. There's minor conflicts such as relationship issues for the couples in the drama and that doesn't take long to solve for them. That's one of the good parts of the drama. You don't have to watch a couple in despair because of major misunderstandings between them. Although I do feel that some of the minor conflicts they showed for the main couple was quite childish sometimes for their age depicted.

Like most dramas, this one is also full of cliches such as:
- Poor person/rich person pair up for both main couple and secondary couple. One of the hardships that one of the couples faced, (as usual) came from the rich person’s family being opposed to the relationship.
- Parents trying to control their children’s lives, thinking of their kids as tools.
There’s more clichés, but these two were the most prominent.
I don’t mind clichés as much but here it bothered me because I was hoping to see the “Strong Female Lead” to make up for it.
The FL Oh Mijoo was developed poorly to be considered a strong female lead. We’re shown how she can be bold and say what is on her mind with no fear, but then the next second she backs down and starts apologizing when she should’ve handle it differently to not look so pathetic. I think her character would’ve had more impact if they showed her background earlier in the drama. We were just told her background without any impactful clips of her rough childhood/background that would help us with her character. If they had included the clips of her past that they showed in the last 2-3 episodes, I would’ve probably understood her character better instead of judging it based off my own assumptions with the little information we were given about her background as development for her character.
There is still a promising strong female lead which is Dan ah’s character. Some didn’t like her character, but I liked it.
For main characters, I would say I liked Seongyeom and Dan Ah’s characters the most. They were intriguing characters and their personalities were not so simple.

What I didn't like was how they tried to throw in random conflicts in the story and not properly flesh out some characters.
Main example:
They randomly throw in LGBTQ as an issue for side characters but don’t focus on them because they aren’t the main characters nor do they tackle the issue properly either. It takes near the last few episodes for them to give subtle hints about one of the characters being a part of the LGBTQ community. What that character was experiencing (and what hardships they had in society) was never went into depth with/ wasn't shown. I rather them not even include this issue since they didn’t want to address it in depth or properly tackle it. It almost seems like they’re using LGBTQ just to look good.

Romance aspect of drama- I'm probably part of the minority who thinks the secondary couple was better than the main couple. I felt the chemistry was lacking for the main couple. It didn’t even look like they had feelings for each other till near the end. The development of the secondary couple kept my interest and I wished they had more scenes.

Acting- I think they all did a decent job. I wasn't a fan of SSK's acting in her previous dramas. This role does suit her a bit better.

With most of these negative points, why rate it 7.5? There were still good scenes in the drama that I liked. Some of them were quite inspirational. And as I stated before I liked some characters.

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I think this drama is not for everyone. I eventually lost interest around episode 8 ish. It had a nice start and I was interested initially because I haven't really watched a drama where they show a fangirl as main character. The chemistry was wonderful between PMY and KJW. It was my first time seeing KJW and I was a bit reluctant and was able to warm up to him. I've watched a few romcoms and light/fluffy dramas and usually I liked them a lot. In fact I liked What's Wrong with Secretary Kim and it was entertaining. But this drama, didn't keep me entertained till the end. Halfway through the drama, I didn't feel like watching it. It got boring.
Ahn Bo Hyun and Park Jin Joo listed as main leads doesn't make sense for me. I felt like we didn't see much of Ahn Bo Hyun's story. They were more like support role characters to me instead.
I feel like they intended to show sarcasm around the fangirl concept. But instead it felt like they were promoting obsessive fangirl behavior instead. I think they should have been more clear with that especially since you see this behavior everywhere mainly in Korea with those sasaengs.
They also start revealing a lot of things near the end which one of it I figured it out 3 episodes before they revealed it. They did add more stuff to it later on, but it wasn't anything significant. I also had to skip watch some scenes in ep 15 and 16 because it got too boring and just watched what I wanted to watch.
If you wanna watch for romance go ahead. There's comedy, but as for a story itself I feel like there's nothing much to the story to watch it for.

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*No spoilers in this part of review*
Acting-The acting was amazing, it was my first time seeing Moon Chae Won act, and I'm very surprised she did a really good job. I was already familiar with Lee Joon Gi's acting and it was no surprise seeing him being able to pull off his character so well.
Overall- I think the drama did a good job overall. The drama had me by the edge of my seat, anticipating what would happen next. It was definitely thrilling. The chemistry between the main couple was also good. The issues they had in the relationship and how it was developed, I think was realistic for the most part. Some parts in the drama were predictable though.
My one problem with this drama is that the ending is dragged out. Some episodes had a lot of things which I felt was unnecessary, and I'll explain that below in Spoiler section of review.



*Below, contains heavy SPOILERS*

The drama kept tried painting Do Hyun Su as a villain in the start and make it look like it was Do Hyun So who killed people, and after a point, I realized the drama's just using the same tactics over again and trying to mess with you which kinda got annoying.
Around Ep 13 I believe is where I got initially frustrated. I wanted them to quickly find out Baek Hee Song's identity, but then seeing how he was cunning enough to plant evidence for Park Soon Young's murder to frame Hyun So, I was like "Oh no. They're going to drag Hyun Su again and this is going to start over with him being a suspect" But I was glad that even though Ji Won & the rest suspected him, the drama went in an way where Ji Won goes with him half way to the hotel to see his innocence. Then everything till episode 15 was great.
Now Ep. 16 starts, you find out Hyun So has forgotten his memories. NOW that was unnecessary. They could have kept that out honestly. Ep 16 should have been where everything was tied up, they should have kept how they found a witness for Hae Su and everything BUT Hyun So should have his memories. They added another problem in the last episode where he's trying to figure out his feelings for Ji Won again and if he was sincere, like there's no time for that. He already realized that he loved her and cared for her before he lost his memories knowing he deceived her. There's no need for them to establish that again and have him go through a journey where he tries to figure out what he wants when he clearly realized before he lost his memories.
Ending was still happy, but that part frustrated me a bit.

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A lot of dramas have flaws and this one too has some flaws, but I wouldn't say it's anything huge. The drama didn't grab my attention immediately. It took me a few episodes to start taking interest in the drama.

The acting was wonderful. OJS did a wonderful job portraying a character with autism spectrum disorder. It's my first drama seeing SYJ in a main role so I wasn't sure about her acting and I have to say she did a great job as well. Her and KSH's chemistry was questionable at first, but later on I could feel it in their scenes. There were a few scenes near the end of the drama that teared me up a bit.
My first impression of Mun Yeong's character wasn't that great and thought I wouldn't feel anything regarding her character, but it changed later on. The supporting characters for the most part did a good job of fitting into the story and helping out the main characters to develop.
The one thing that does confuse me is MDL lists PGY as a main role character but she felt more like a support role character. Her character wasn't explored much and it seemed like the story mainly focused on KSH, OJS, and SYJ.

Story wise, I think the writer did a good job in showing these three characters develop their characters. They were able to heal and evolve. The relationship of the two brothers was fun to watch and how they both make better changes in their relationship. I'm glad that this drama focused on mental health as well and tried to give various messages to the audience with this story. However, this drama does become predictable eventually with the major events involving the main three characters. There was no anticipation left for me regarding these characters. The drama introduced the problems they were individually struggling with along with an unsolved mystery and near the end they revealed everything about that mystery. If you paid close attention to the details before the revelation, then you would have been able to solve the big mystery before they revealed it. So, I was not surprised at all. I was hoping they would answer the other minor questions people had while watching the drama. But I guess they didn't consider it important enough. They also left out a few things from some of the supporting characters which I wish I could know more about.
Overall, it's not a bad watch, interesting and funny as well.

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I was actually hesitant if I would be able to finish this drama without dropping after watching Ep 1. On Ep 1, I didn't feel it was interesting. But I kept watching and it got entertaining later on. Ended up binge watching. I like how it isn't frustrating and can be funny at times.
I would say the drama is divided into 4-5 sections/arcs
In each arc, you see how each of the characters grow and develop.
I love how Zhao Jian's character is written. She's independent and strong till the very end. They may have involved her in a tiny bit of romance, but it still didn't affect the strength of her character.
I also love Yuan Zhong Xin's character as well. Both the FL & ML are intelligent in their own ways. If someone were to deceive them, they will figure it out soon. It doesn't take them a bunch of episodes to figure out something and their intelligence can't be questioned.
What I didn't like is how they handled the ending. It does look like a setup for a season 2 which I saw might happen (but not anytime soon?). But at the same time, you can imagine how the second season would play out even if there's no S2. But by itself without expecting a S2, I would expect them to tie up the ending better since the drama's direction in the start leads to the end.
Also kinda wish their production team did better with the drama. When I watched it there were so many odd cuts it looked like sloppy editing sometimes. Even if the site I used had the fan sub version, I don't think the fan would cut the episodes in that way.


*Spoilers below*
- The start of the drama was the Qi Chuan battle and then we see Yuan Bo Qi captured and being privately interrogated by Liang Zhu.
- Yuan Bo Qi disappears from the drama. Then we see 7th squad on their first mission at the prison camp where we encounter Ding Er/Miqin Mubei, who is from Xia.
- Then the 7th chamber has missions unrelated to Miqin Mubei & Yuan Bo Qi and then after Han Dan Zhuang is killed, the secret chamber is closed.
- Then the part where they're in the Bin Province connects to the start. We see Miqin Mubei and Yuan Bo Qi back into the story. You see the connection and truth behind Qi Chuan battle.
However, they left Miqin Mubei alive in the end. I feel that didn't add closure to the drama.
If the problem of Qi Chuan battle was because of Miqin Mubei, then they should've resolved it. He should've stayed arrested or killed or something. But they took another twist, where he's left alive and Zhao Jian is captured along with her father.
It's a weird cliffhanger that I usually see in animes or some dramas expecting a S2 (but it's rare for dramas to have S2).
A good section of the middle of the drama was about Liao. Han Duan Zhang's + Headmaster's scheme against Liao took majority of the drama and Xia was just brought up in the end again.
The missions showed each of the 6 characters growth and development. I feel as if they should've had the missions more focused on Xia and lead it to Miqin and handle Miqin. Then if they wanted a S2 they could've used the Liaos then or another plot based off an issue of S1.
Cause right now, we aren't even sure how long S2 will take and when it will be released. We don't even know if they filmed yet either. It would be disappointing if there's no S2.
My hope is that they don't turn majority of S2 a damsel in distress type of thing where most of it is them trying to rescue Zhao Jian and she can't do anything.

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After watching the drama, I wanted to see how the movie was and I see why a lot of people don't like it.

The only thing I can watch it for is Yang Yang's face and any scene with Yang Yang. His character as Ye Hua is decent (though I prefer Mark's portrayal more). But the rest of the characters are a no from me.

Even if I were to try to look at it differently from the drama, the movie made me cringe ESPECIALLY the cooking scene. That cooking scene could have been reduced and the time could be used in something else. The drama itself had a few questions unresolved. But it wasn't as bad as the movie. If you were to watch this movie without the drama, you would not understand the story much. Watching the drama before the movie helps in filling in the holes. With a roughly two hour time frame, they should have arranged the story better to make it less confusing for the audience and less plot holes.

As for the chemistry between the two leads, I didn't feel it much. Again, for something to be of 2 hours length, the romance didn't build enough for me. It felt fake for me. It's also partially because of the plotholes. They also didn't give a proper development between the two characters.

I didn't like Crystal's Bai Qian either. She did a nice job in acting. But I liked the character of Bai Qian depicted in the drama by Yang Mi.

And I personally felt the CGI effects in some scenes looked more unrealistic than the drama itself (it felt some of them were coming from a Disney movie). In some scenes the CGI was better than the drama but for the most part, I felt like I was watching an animated background with real people in it and it just looked weird.

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This is a very good drama to watch and very entertaining.
It starts off really well with the parents story that immediately hooks you in and then holds slight plot twists but some of them become predictable and some parts you can figure out before it's explicitly shown.
Acting wise, I think Choi Jin Hyuk's character was done the best. You almost fell in love with his character and started to pity him. Suzy and Seung gi did well too.
Story wise, for the most part they did a good job of wrapping things up, although there would be 1-2 things that I felt like they never explained clearly, but it's fine really.

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Satisfying revenge. "Villains can deal with villains"

A drama with a "bad guy" protagonist isn't something new, but it's still refreshing to watch than watching a lot of dramas with a typical "moral, righteous, persistent, strong hero". Vincenzo makes it very clear throughout the drama that he doesn't care about virtues or justice.

I think all the actors/actresses did a great job in their roles. In the start I did find HCY's (the FL) character a bit unusual. It sometimes did feel cringe at the start. However, it didn't take much time for me to get used to her character and like her. She isn't one of those annoying FL characters. In the end, her weird expressions & gestures didn't even bother me. I personally liked the supporting characters (the people of Geumga Plaza). I know some didn't like them, but I felt without them the drama wouldn't be the same. I do wish the supporting characters had a little bit of more background story added into them. We were given subtle hints about most of them but some of them were unexpected. It would also make sense why they were behaving in a certain way in the present as well if we knew their story in the past.
The same I would say for Vincenzo. I wish his background with the Italian Mafia would be expanded on. It's not really important but it would clear up the minor questions I had about his character. (For example, I thought he had PTSD with those flashbacks in the start, but I turned out to be wrong. Then I took another meaning out of those nightmares.)

As for the writing/story, I'd say there are a few flaws in there. There are some things that I felt logically wouldn't make sense, but I didn't really mind it that much as it wasn't something significant to keep me away from enjoying the drama overall. l did feel towards the end it may have been slightly rushed. I also think that certain actions& decisions by the characters went out of character. But I will say the writer did a great job of not having me bored at all throughout the drama. Some dramas tend to drag out and become boring, but it wasn't the case here. They did a decent job of leaving majority of the episodes in a cliffhanger.

As for the comedy, I didn't really find the drama to be that funny. I did laugh but it was a few times. There were some scenes I understood that it was intended to be funny, but they didn't make me laugh.

This drama did have me question my morality at some times. I was rooting for the ML with his way of taking revenge and thinking the villains deserve what they get. It felt satisfying to watch the villains suffer for the crimes they committed against innocent people. It's the satisfaction that you don't always get in a typical drama with a hero with morals where justice is eventually delivered.

The only reason I decided not to give it a 10, is because I felt it was less impactful. I won't be thinking about this drama for hours/days (even if I was satisfied and enjoyed watching it). I can easily move onto another drama without thinking about this drama and its end. (Plus a little disappointed cause I couldn't really enjoy the comedy aspect)

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This drama did not leave the same impact on me as KES's work Mr. Sunshine . The story was all over the place, full of cliches, and felt unorganized. For the most part, if a drama has a bunch of cliches, cringe scenes, not so great story, as long as it has something to keep my interest, I won't complain much about the flaws. It felt like I was forcing myself to watch this drama and it took me a long time to finish this drama cause good dramas I usually finish in 3 days but this one took me 10 days. I was hoping that maybe that the start of the drama is slow and boring and it will get better in the middle but it wasn't till the last 4 episodes that actually brought back some of my interest.

The Characters /Acting & Story (spoilers start here)- Let me start this off by saying that in the main cast I have only seen LMH previous dramas & KGE's Goblin. I'm unfamiliar with the other actors.
This drama had the potential to be better, the idea of the story of a parallel world was a great start. There were just too many things that confused or angered the audience.
For example, the blatant advertising angered a lot, I found some of them funny but annoying at the same time. Most kdramas I watch always show the actors going to Subway or something and I know that it pretty much looks like Subway's sponsoring the drama, but at least time and dialogue are not wasted while trying to advertise the place. This drama had LINES promoting products. I saw LMH mention about 3-4 times about bbq chicken's being the best or another product being the same as his country blah blah. That is so unnecessary & unrelated to the story in a way. That time could have been used to explain more about the plot or have lines relating to the drama.
Now for the confusing part:
This whole parallel universe then third dimension with everything frozen along with time traveling could have been kept straightforward but the way they decided to deliver it throughout the drama was confusing. You get to know this parallel universe exists and it takes a few episodes to find out how it works and why time stops and for how long and then its meaning behind it a few episodes later. And then even more episodes later you find out sorta about why some of them have burning scars on thunder-storming nights. Then near the end you find out they can go back in time and multiple universes. I get they're trying to use the common method of slowly giving you answers which in most dramas I don't mind but it made me bored and only interested in the end to see how it ends. Another thing is they start off the first episode in a scene and in the last episode we're back in that same scene. I didn't mind that either. But then to do the same within episodes is triggering. I would start the next episode wondering if I skipped an episode cause it was not in order. They would randomly start somewhere and go back to connecting to that scene later on in the episode or next episode. And some scenes were never gone back to clarify.

WDH made his parts enjoyable to watch whether he's Eun Sup or Yeong. He was able to perfectly act out two different characters of the parallel world. I wished the directors/writers gave him more scenes/screen time. He's one of the reasons why I gave this drama a higher rating than most average reviews. He pretty much carried the drama by bringing "life" into his characters so I overlooked the fact that not much is known about these two characters. I wished they'd show some romance between him and KYJ instead. I'm sure they would have a better story and pull it off than the main couple.
As for JEC, I can't even say anything about her acting. She had minimal scenes with almost no impact. We know so little about her character in the drama as well. All we know is she's an ambitious person with a hunger for power and she's willing to do anything to reach her goals. The writers make us assume that she's like this because she wants to climb up in the social status ranking because she has this inferiority complex that she started out at the bottom with nothing. That's a very typical reason and at first she's shown out to be a strong female character but turns out its the men in the story (her husband, advisor, etc) that helped her to get that far in the social ladder. Then they show how Lee Lim also wanted to use her and it seems like she just gets outsmarted by every guy in the story. They imply that she cares for her mother, but there were no scenes to feel that mother-daughter relationship to begin with. And we know nothing about her doppelganger character at all.
KKN's character was somewhat better. I could feel his affection with his mother & Tae eul. Although there are some things I do question about the writing of his character. The villain was a flat character. Not going to go into depth in the review it will be too many spoilers already.
As for the main couple everyone had this criticism regarding their chemistry. I feel like they would have better chemistry but because of the crappy writing and the flow of things it wasn't pulled off well. I think this couple would have been better if the writing/story was adjusted a bit. But my critique is regarding their characters. I will admit watching KGE in Goblin made me question if it was her acting that's bad or the role given to her. In this drama, she did a lot better. It's true she didn't pull off the two characters differently in the way WDH did. Luna's way of talking and Tae eul was pretty much the same. One just had different tastes in clothing and hair than the other. I also hate how this drama portray its women (complete opposite from Mr. Sunshine in that sense at well). It's already tiring to see every media whether Western or Eastern portray women like this. They show Tae eul as a police detective with a black belt. She's admitted at times to be scared, but have to be brave and she wasn't afraid to get to the bottom of something or hunt/run into somewhat dangerous criminals. But in that one scene where she gets stabbed, they show her not using her skills as an officer and black belt user. As an officer, I'm sure you will be aware of what dangerous situation you're in and you have to be on watch. They just went from showing a strong female to a weak female in a situation like that. I would get if she's outnumbered. But in another scene she was strong enough to get herself away in an outnumbered situation as well. I also felt like she would play a major role in the drama and contribute to helping Lee Gon out, but they even take that away from her. She's basically shown in investigations and as the love interest of the male lead. I don't mind seeing a FL in love with the ML but at least showcase her strengths often and make her more useful in the story.

Overall, the production was high quality and music/OST's were amazing, but there were countless flaws in the story. If you can overlook these flaws in the story, and watch for minimal entertainment and some action then you'll be fine. Although for me this only got interesting near the end when things were going to be tied up and supposedly explained clearly. This drama makes you end up crafting theories for multiple things.

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It was my first time watching a lakorn and I was a little hesitant about continuing this drama after watching a few minutes of Episode 1.
I'm glad I stayed till the end since it wasn't a bad watch.
The story is quite average and some of the scenarios were very similar to many other dramas I watched .
But surprisingly enough, I was hooked into the drama. The story seemed to be mostly based off misunderstandings. And these misunderstandings keep blowing up bigger, causing problems in relationships and creating a distance between people.
I usually HATE stories like these where misunderstandings are dragged out too long. It becomes incredibly frustrating since I've seen so many of those dramas, but I was surprised that I was able to bear with it in this drama. I was rarely pissed while watching this.
I think one of the best parts is the chemistry between the main couple. Yaya and Mark did a great job portraying that. They didn't have much kissing scenes but you could feel their attraction towards each other.
The next best part was the character of Jee. The recent dramas I finished with a Strong Female Lead tag ended up being a disappointment, but not here. Jee was definitely a strong female lead. She had her own weaknesses, but she was not a disappointment. She fought for what she wanted to protect and she protected herself in so many situations that I was rooting for her. Yaya did an excellent job in acting the character, though I did feel some of the crying scenes were overboard but it happens in most dramas so it's fine.
Her friend, Dao, was my next favorite character. She is an example of a good friend. She may not know everything about Jee's heart, but at least she never had misunderstandings about Jee because she knew her friend's character.
Also Suki, Jee's manager. He has this sassy type of personality and I liked it. He was ready to slap bitches and fight for Jee and it was satisfying.
The characters that I neither loved or hated was : Jane, Jate, and sometimes Thit.
Few things that I didn't like was those molest scenes. Any drama with those scenes just make me uncomfortable and irritated and I had to skip those in this drama and just read the dialogue if there was any and not watch the scene.
I didn't like how it felt that we had a short time seeing good moments between the main couple. Their chemistry is really great and would've wanted a tiny bit more than what they showed in the end.
The misunderstandings can be something tilting, but for me the good parts were able to overshadow them.

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A small warning - Don't watch the opening/ending songs unless you want to be spoiled for the drama. I'm glad I skipped through them and watched it in the last episode to see what it had, otherwise I would have known too much.

I thought the story would be typical same as any other story where a female disguises herself as a male and runs into romance with someone who she is around as a man. But there's so much more to the story than that.
While there is romance, the main story revolves around the military, politics, and history (Japan vs. China). So if you feel as if it is "Anti-Japanese" as some claim for historical dramas like this, then don't watch it. There's also some funny moments that you laugh to.

Regarding the romance in this drama, I'll warn there's a lot of love triangles in this drama. I wouldn't even call it triangles, it's more like a love tree or some sort of diagram. There is no gushy type of romance here either. You might get disappointed because you don't see kiss scenes between the main couple, but I think because the main story revolves around the military and historical issues, the romance had to be limited. However, I think the romance between the main couple is sweet. In the beginning of the drama, you see a lot of cute, fluffy moments between the main couple, but the story starts to get more intense and you start seeing less of those moments. The relationship between the main couple was built nicely too. The show does try to throw you off with the love triangles. It makes you feel bad seeing one of them in an unrequited love. There was one person who was in a love triangle whose persistence did piss me off slightly, but thankfully, even though it took the last section of the drama, the person gives up and moves on to someone that was there for them which I'm happy about.
I will also add there is tragedy even if it isn't labeled as one. The fact that it revolves around military and battles is a sign that people will die. And these deaths are quite upsetting to see. It didn't make me cry or anything, but it was just sad for a moment because some of those characters, you grow a liking to.

One of the strong points in the drama is the friendship. The academy shows the growth of characters who become a group of friends (along with the FL). Some of them may not get along in the beginning, but over time and with what circumstances they had to go through together, they grow closer together and develop a deep understanding of one another. You also see redemption of one student in the Academy which was nice to see that they did that for him.

As for how the women are portrayed, I think they tried for a realistic approach for them. You're not going to see weak women and then women with supernatural strength. You see most of the women trying to break barriers and being independent for the most part(since in most situations they do receive a man's help). One woman tries to change traditional society's views. Another breaks academy rules and disguises as a man. You slowly see her get stronger to the point that she can handle some situations by herself or be able to fight some men. Another woman is a boss. The nice part is that our FL isn't shown to be dumb. She is smart when it comes to crucial situations.

Overall, I would say they did a good job of showing the growth of many characters in the drama including the ML(he develops nicely and you start rooting for him throughout the drama). Some characters were just forgotten about and held almost no significance. Some things they didn't explain properly regarding some minor characters. There's also so many characters and you have to try to know their names, but some of them end up dead or not shown later on.

I will say the last 9-10 episodes, is where you just get the most hooked. You're stuck with anticipation since that's where it becomes most intense. Everything before that was just building to this last bit. I think they could have cut down on some of flashbacks though. There was a situation where the same flashback was repeated.

I forgot to add, if you want to see some of the deleted scenes of the drama, you can find some of them on YouTube. Apparently 60 minutes were deleted, and some of the scenes had kissing scenes (and comical ones too).

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Interesting drama but messy at the same time

I'm glad I watched this drama despite all the negative comments/reviews that I read through.
This is a lengthy review addressing each concern so it does have a lot of spoilers after #3 so don't read past #3 if you plan on watching without spoilers.

#1- This is a HISTORICAL drama. So keep that in mind before you say it's Anti-Japan or Japanese bashing.

You cannot deny the fact that Japan colonized Korea and had done terrible things in the past. Sure, everything is better now but doesn't change the fact that China and Korea were victims of Japan's brutality in the past. They tried to create a story line during that time period so yes, Japanese people will be painted as villains and it's inevitable.

#2- The drama was released in 2012? So keep that in mind when it comes to production.

If you're expecting to watch a high quality movie-like or dramas that you see currently, then don't watch it. It's a bit old and I think the quality is the same as any other drama that was released in 2012. I have seen about 2 other dramas around 2013/2014 and it's similar quality. That being said, some felt there were cheap scenes/production and I think it's because back then their budget was like that as well. The action scenes remind me of another k-drama I watched from 2013 and it's similar so I have no problem. I can't say the action scenes were terrible or cringe-worthy either. I've compared it to recent historical drama action scenes as well. There's slight differences but it's nothing major.

#3- The repetition of arrest, torture, interrogation scenes.

A lot of people had issues about the repetition of these scenes. Arrest & interrogation scenes are repeated because two of the main characters are Imperial Policemen so most of the time will be in the station. I think the interrogation scenes where the person eventually spoke while being interrogated were necessary. Interrogation was necessary for them to find answers. And even if some of them didn't give the answers to the investigator, they still spoke about their national pride and that was to probably show their bravery of enduring torture and not giving up or betraying their comrades. But there were some of them that didn't have the bravery nor could they endure the torture and spoke after a few minutes of torture. They could have probably limited the torture scenes where much wasn't going on. And for some who cannot handle torture scenes should probably skip it. The torture they actually gave back then was much worse than what was shown.

(Spoilers Below)
#4- They added too many characters into the drama and most of them weren't developed characters. Only the ML characters felt complete in a way to me. There were also decisions made by the characters that I questioned. A lot of the stuff could be cut down. The drama could have ended in 20 episodes, but they added too much to the story and dragged to 28 episodes.

I feel like they focused too much on Lee Kang To and Kimura Shunji's characters. There were so little scenes of Oh Mok Dan & Ueno Rie and it felt like they contributed very little to the story and drama itself. That's why I can't say much about JSY's & HCA's acting cause I think it's their poorly written characters. Not much about their background is known. And there's still a few mysteries about them. I wish they gave MD a stronger female role. I felt no attachment to either FL characters so it didn't even tear me up when she died. The only time I teared up were actually KT scene with his brother's death.

They did a really good job of developing Kang To's character who is in an identity crisis situation. He justifies why he must be a Jap's dog but when he loses his family and discovers his first love is alive, he starts to question his efforts and becomes a hero. From someone hated by both Japanese and Koreans to someone loved by the Koreans by being the Bridal Mask.
The same applies for Shunji. They developed him from a nice Japanese (which isn't so common) to someone slowly becoming monstrous. KT& Shunji's characters are so complex.
Things that I didn't like:
- How slow they made the characters appear. And how sometimes they don't think which just drags the story further.
Example 1: KT told MD there's a spy when MD learns of KT being Bridal Mask, they didn't think about dealing with Gye Soon as a spy?? A lot of the stuff could be avoided and not happen if they dealt with it later.
Example 2: It takes KT quite awhile to realize Shunji knows his identity. Till MD tells him. He doesn't assume or question why he was left alive after being wounded.
Example 3: Reporter Song knew the soldiers spotted him come out of Angel club. Shouldn't he have suspected the soldiers to interrogate why Angel Club let a man who is on a wanted list enter their club and not report to police? He should've sent someone to check the status and he would've known by Tasha that it's leaked and they should proceed with caution.
Also it's not first time Roh (waiter) blabbed his mouth to Police and try to cover up with a lame excuse. Why did Tasha still trust him with info?
Throughout entire drama Japanese police plants spies on Koreans but why don't they ever learn?

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