A sweet little drama - just 6 episodes, 24 min. each - about three old friends running a tiny little old-fashioned bar where they help people solve their problems. There's pretty much just one set so it feels very intimate since most of the stories take place inside the bar and they - well, mostly Machida Keita's Amamiya - help people simply by talking to them and nudging them in the right direction.

Machida Keita is - as usually - ah-mazing in this. Amamiya's sadness as he watches the cans with food they use to prepare dishes for their guests disappear one by one, knowing that once they use them all up, the bar will close because that was the deal, watching his friends find back to their feet while he's still floundering... My heart was breaking for him so badly. Goodness, he's a great actor!

A feel-good series for when you desperately need warm fuzzies!

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I was told that I would love this drama. But I didn't realize just how much I would love it. It truly feels like a manga come alive and it's so mesmerizing. The fights, the cinematography, the bonds among the characters - and especially Cobra, Yamato and Noboru.

And to the surprise of exactly no one, Iwata Takanori's Cobra is my favorite. There are so many characters, so many gangs and gang members, but he's certainly the lead even though he doesn't have more on-screen time than the others and even though Yamato is undoubtedly H&L's heart, Cobra is the centerpiece. The founder of Mugen first, then the leader of the Hoodlums, when he enters the scene you sit up and notice. When Cobra enters a fight, everyone starts paying attention because he doesn't do it often so when he does, it means something. And when it's then revealed at the end that he has done all this for Noboru... wah!

Also, I love the parent figures of the Hoodlum gang. Both women, Yamato's mother and the bar owner, love the boys - and especially Cobra and Yamato - so much and I love that they are not all "don't fight" or whatever but simply "do the right thing". I think that the Hoodlum gang is the one closest to living a normal life in SWORD.

Yeah, I have much, much, much love for this drama. It hit the right spot at the right time for me!

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Ooooh, this one was good. Again, very serious compared to the first movie but also so very intense! And they pretty much turned Kenshin into minced meat, the poor thing!

I think the most intense scene was Kenshin's execution on the beach. It was so well done. The set-up, the close-ups of Kenhshin's face and then the twist at the end!

The most touching moment came at the end, when Kenshin was so very badly hurt and Sanosuke had to drag him off the ship, covering Kenshin's head while everything around them was burning and going off. Sanosuke is so loyal to Kenshin, such a good friend.

And Kenshin's old master! He would sure win the tsundere award of the year. Seijuro would rather bite his tongue off than admit that he loved Kenshin like a son. Idiot, she said fondly.

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This one felt much more serious than the first movie. There was still a little humor here and there but it felt like the stakes were higher so it couldn't be funnier because then it would feel like a parody so...

I loved Kenshin's relationship with his found family at the martial arts school, especially with Sanosuke. When Sanosuke punched Kenshin after finally catching up with him in Kyoto because he was so worried when Kenshin just took off to, basically, get himself killed! Sanosuke was so pissed at him.

The action in this movie was so very, very good again. And the music! I don't think I've mentioned the score before but, boy, the OST is just top notch, so much so that it gives me goosebumps!

And the cliffhanger! Gosh, I'm so glad that I have the next movie in the franchise handy or I would be very, very... miffed, to say the least.

Also, I just really noticed it in this movie but Satoh Takeru as Kenshin looks so... tiny and slight next to every other guy in it because they're all pumped up giants and he's, well, he's not. It's cute!

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I finally watched the first Rurouni Kenshin movie, staring Satoh Takeru, and it was so good! The perfect blend of character driven movie and an action flick, just the right amount of both.

And the action was honestly breathtaking. The speed at which they fought, the elegance of it! It was incredible. And seeing Satoh Takeru swinging a sword? Holy...!

Speaking of Satoh Takeru, he was ah-mazing here! The way he could go from cute and goofy to murderous in a heartbeat? Perfection. I've seen two dramas with him so far and he was really great in both but here? Here he shined!

One Rurouni Kenshin movie down, 5 to go, yay!

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At the beginning of this drama, my favorite characters were Hwang Shi Mok and Han Yeo Jin, the leads. At the end of the drama? It was Lee Chang Joon, hands down. Why? Because even though I admired Prosecutor Hwang's and Lt. Han's integrity and adherence to the law under any circumstances, their holier than thou attitude in the last few eps rankled a bit.

I'm not saying they should've admired the ones who concocted the whole plan that involved a murder (among other things), not at all, but considering that except for a few small fish who ended up in jail everyone else got away with their freedom at the very least intact (if not with their money, too), considering that pretty much everything went back to how it was before, considering that until the murder nobody had done anything, not the cops and not the prosecution? I honestly don't blame the conspirators for doing what they did. And I didn't feel one bit sorry for the murdered guy, not after what he did. He had a mother and a son? Yeah? And? So? But then, I'm a callous person, I admit that.

And Lee Chang Joon! Gosh, as the story unfolded and I started suspecting where it was going, holy smokes! He was so awesome and so smart and conniving and... wow. This part made me fall for the actor, Yoo Jae Myung, so hard. Goodness he was good!

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I laughed and I cried buckets. What a fantastic, fantastic movie. The action was great, the CGI top notch and the story... wow, so touching and with so many twists and turns. Loved it.

Also, Hae Won Maek must be Joo Ji Hoon's funniest part yet, hands down. His endless complains and acerbic mutterings were a hoot!

Who really stole the show, despite having "only" a supporting part, was Kim Dong Wook as Kim Soo Hong. The scene where Soo Hong talked to his mom and explained to her all that happened, Kim Dong Wook was absolutely marvelous in it. It was his performance that moved me to tears.

I truly, honestly loved this movie. It's available on Netflix.

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This drama pushed so many of my buttons: Older Woman/Younger Man, Cold Woman/Warm Man, Kick-Ass Woman/Soft Man... Gosh!

I loved the relationship between an exorcist and a psychic this drama featured. The psychic had to have absolute trust in the exorcist and the exorcist kept the psychic safe under all and any circumstances.

It took a while for Hong Ji Ah to warm up to Oh In Beom but he just wore her down with his warmth and good humor and general kind-heartedness and he reminded her what it meant to care. And when she then started to care... gosh!

My favorite moment/arc was Oh In Beom got possessed by the egg ghost again. Hong Ji Ah was so scared - mainly for him because she what it meant to exorcise an egg ghost! - that she used the necklace on him and simply drove the ghost out without exercising it first. She preferred it out there, even doing bad things, rather than possessing Oh In Beom because she didn't want him to die. And when the ghost got him again, the way she started crying...

Loved the drama. So much!

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Yet another Sherlock Holmes incarnation, this time with slightly different relationship dynamics between Holmes (Shishio) and Watson (Wakamiya) than what I'm used to.

In this version, Shishio is the grounded one, he's less manic than Holmes usually is. Sure, he still has a flair for the dramatic but he's less insulting, less acerbic - and he certainly isn't into drugs of any kind. For Wakamiya who doesn't really know what to do with his life at this point, having given up being a psychiatrist, he serves as an anchor, even though Shishio's adventures are sometimes a bit too much for him.

It's an interesting setting and Shishio is definitely the one in control of their relationship and when he deems something too dangerous, he has no qualms to have Wakamiya arrested to keep him out of harms way - much to Wakamiya's anger, of course.

The cases are interesting - and what's also interesting is that we never actually get to really, truly meet and interact with Moriya, the man remains a shadow, someone passed in the hallway, a glimpsed smirk...

I finished the main series I still have yet to see the movie-length special, though - and the film sequel that should come out next year, of course. I'm curious how they will handle the post-"Reichenbach" period because Wakamiya seemed very wistful after Shishio's disappearance. Will he get angry when Shishio returns? Let's wait and see!

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Sweet. But also heartbreaking. It was so interesting to follow Akira and Yuuki through the years, from high school till their late thirties and see what happens when... well, life happens. When the honeymoon phase is over and your old baggage starts getting in the way. It felt like watching a slow-burn fanfic where the main hero has to learn his lesson the hard way before earning his happy ending.

The drama has angst in spades, especially in the latter half, and my heart broke for Yuuki who didn't do anything wrong but had to pay for Akira's insecurities, instilled in him bit by bit by his mother since he was a kid, and Akira really had to live - and suffer - through what he thought he wanted and truly experience what loneliness felt like before finally realizing where his true happiness lay and deciding to fight for it. The happy ending is then the cherry on top!

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12 eps in and I'm honestly having a blast. It's such a silly drama. Very, very, very silly. But then, it does take place inside a PC game so, you know... There are huge (!) leaps in logic, maddening shortcuts in story-telling, whenever the FML is stuck in a situation she can't get out of, the deus ex machina System appears and helps her out - all the things you actually expect from a PC game so is it a bad writing or actually a great writing? Who knows, not me.

But I still love it. Yes, the FML is very, very, very silly - I seem to keep saying that - but she is a gamer playing a game, it's not real for her, any of it, she's just having a blast and going on adventures with no consequences to her actions because she can reload the game any time she wants - exactly 5 times, that is. And it takes time for her to actually start caring about the characters in the game as if they were real people who could die - and they can. Because even though they come back to life once she reloads the game, their memories from the last save to the reset are gone so are they still the same people?

And because the FL behaves like a nut - at least in the eyes of the NPCs - it explains why the ML (played by Gong Jun) treats her the way he does. Sure, he's a tsundere - for very good reasons - but she pushes all his buttons - and he hers - so it's not your usual situation with a poor, oppressed woman and an arrogant guy, it's a push and pull of misunderstandings and mull-headed stubbornness on both sides.

Also, I really like the ML's bodyguard - he's so amused by his lord's endless fisticuffs with his lady - and the ML's best friend. I love how the leads draw everyone in their mansion into their petty fights, it's much fun.

That's pretty much it, in general, fun. You can't take anything about this drama seriously. It's not meant to be taken seriously, really. It's a drama about a love story set in a PC game, for cryin' out loud. And it shows!

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Oh, this was a good one! The cases were so smart and nothing was said or done without a reason, everything was connected and every single thing was a clue, nothing was simply forgotten - if something happened in ep 4 and then was never mentioned again, it suddenly popped up again in ep 19 and it was connected to the overall arc! What a marvel!

And the twist at the end! That twist! I suspected it ever since ep 3 or 4 or so but... boy! That was so awesome. And now I'm miffed that S2 never happened because if our ragtag band found out about that ah-mazing twist? Now that would be something! Gosh!

I can honestly highly recommend this drama. If you liked The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty, you will like this. It's smart, it's oh so very whumpy and the twists just keep coming but they're never deus ex machina, the clues are cleverly placed and you just have to pay attention.

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If you liked Inception, you will like Psych Hunter.

What I loved about this drama was that the whole drama long, you think it's about one thing and then comes the twist in the second to last episode and suddenly, it's about something else completely. And I loved. that. so. much! It was so smart, such a fantastic twist, and looking back, you can see all the hints pointing towards what was really going on dropped throughout. I planned on giving the drama 8/10 but this elevated my rating to 9/10!

I admit I found the female lead quite annoying from time to time, it felt like the writers couldn't decide if they wanted a cute teenybopper or a tough police woman. But that can also be attributed to the twist because whereas Qin Er had a very consistent personality for reasons that were revealed at the end, Muqing felt all over the place. When you think about it, no wonder, really.

And speaking of Qin Er. Jiang Shuo's friendship with Qin Er, their devotion to each other - inexplicable at first but explained at the end - made the drama so good. The way they helped and protected each other was a thing to behold, really.

Bromance, mystery, an ending that's so out there it leaves you gaping... Awesome!

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A sweet story about an introverted science sophomore and an outgoing - and slightly out of her mind - literature freshman and a wannabe author who stumble through various mishaps and miscommunications to finally truly finding each other.

It took me a while to get into the drama, mainly because I couldn't get the fact out of my head that Gong Jun was whole 9 years (!!!) older than Liu Renyu even though in the drama itself, they played characters just a year in age apart. Don't get me wrong, Gong Jun truly did look the part, like a 19-year-old student, but I just couldn't get the reality of their actual age gap out of my head.

But, gosh, were they cute. Zhao Fanzhou was so in love with Zhou Xiao, it was precious to watch. And he had the patience of a saint, really. Their story was wonderful to watch - until the moment they got back together after their break-up. Just like in the writer's other drama - Put Your Head on My Shoulder - the conclusion was a miss. It was like she knew very well how to build them up as a couple and then break them apart again but she had no idea how to get them eventually back together and in the last two eps or so she kind of failed to capture their previous cuteness, even though the actors tried really hard with the material they were given. Oh well...

My favorite storyline was Zhao Fanzhou's family arc. His mother's bipolar disorder, his fear that, since it's a hereditary illness, he might fall ill too, his fear of hurting Zhou Xiao, both mentally and physically, if he ever ended up behaving like his mom... Gong Jun absolutely excelled in those scenes! It was amazing to watch and if for no other reason than for this it's a drama worth watching.

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What a good drama it was. I picked it up for Gong Jun and he didn't disappoint. His Ling Rui was so warm, sweet and wonderful, such a good egg, so grounded and lovely, the way he took care of everyone. No wonder that Lu Fangning decided that he would be the man she would marry and then did everything she could to put a ring on him.

Interesting was how different and yet the same Ling Rui & Fangning were each time they met throughout the years: first as kids, then at the very beginning of their career lives and finally as 30 something adults. Theirs was not an easy love. They made several big blunders each - though mostly Fangning, that's true, since she carried more baggage - but in the end they managed to overcome it all and that was just precious.

I admit that I kept skipping the other couples' arcs since especially the character of Simon was rather... problematic. As much as I hate that term, it really fit him considering he was in love with Fangning, his step-niece, whom he watched grow up so... yikes. Sure, he was adopted so they were not blood related but she always saw him as her uncle since she was a little kid. So, no, just no.

But overall, it was a sweet drama. And Ling Rui and Fangning's child, Youyou, was a hoot. Where the casting found such a precocious five-year-old is beyond me. Amazing. For me, though, the main draw was Gong Jun and he was just so good in this part! Loved it!

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