It was good, but...
So, I just randomly stumbled upon this, the poster and the title seemed interesting, so I watched it.The story was good and the way it was written. Despite being a short film, It's slow, and it takes time to show you things, but there's just something about it that didn't grab me. Nonetheless, I appreciated my time with it. It feels like I was dropped in the middle of a story, I'm watching and it feels like I'm missing something.
The writing is very subtle, If you pay enough attention you'll understand what's going on, but for me, I had to watch it twice because I was lost as to why are they suddenly fighting, like what the heck even happened? I blinked and their relationship suddenly started cracking, but I had a good grasp as to what the reason might be based on the way one of them is acting and the things that are happening around the couple.
In terms of the characters, there wasn't really much that was told, it seemed lacking to me, so I couldn't really get invested with them, but I was still interested. Like I said, the writing is very subtle, so you have to really get into the minds of the characters, or you'll get lost. And that's not to say that there will be no acting because of the subtleties. No, I'm not saying that. The actresses did a great job on their parts.
I was expecting a kissing scene when a particular scene came because the mood is set, the setting, and the characters are very close with each other, but nope. So, if you're expecting one, don't bother.
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Kinda forgettable not gonna lie
I didn't feel the chemistry between the characters. The acting is somewhat decent, except for the Male actor, though he only had a bit part.The whole setup of hinting at each other's feelings, like a tug of war who will slip up and confess was okay I guess, it was kinda cute.
There's not much cinematography, but that's understandable. Lastly, there's no background music at all even though music is the half of heavy lifting to make a scene more impactful.
I know it's a very short film, but I've seen some tiktoks where in a span of a minute, it'll be able to tickle your heart, so there's no excuse.
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It was nice i guess, but it could've been better
When I watched this, I thought I watched the wrong movie and baited me because it started off with a mild horror scene, and you know that white lady look in an old horror film where the iris of the eyes is like a small black dot, I find that in today's standard a very generic look, It's a good jumpscare, but it doesn't feel scary to me at all... I didn't know that scene was just used to set up the characters that we're gonna follow.The story is really heartwarming, it's about a cold-hearted girl discovering the warmth feeling and being in love for the first time, and pretty much so it was done very well, but there are some parts in the movie that I felt like it would've impacted well if they built it up properly because there are some things that just happened out of nowhere to make things happen and some things that were left unexplained or they've never expanded on it properly.
The CGI in this film is not perfect, it's a B-grade film so I tried to be open-minded about it and kudos to the editing department because it was used cleverly, around the middle of the film though, it looked like they kinda gave up because the green screen editing became really obvious and not clean, but it's only that portion. The Fighting choreography in this film is really good, it looked like that aspect got a big budget. The sets are really good looking especially the Underworld, it kinda looks familiar as well... was that the same set in the later bit part in 'The Longest Promise'???
The characters, since they can be counted with 2 hands, no one was wasted or maybe there are some because 2 of them for me were pretty much passive, the last character that they introduced/added was done really fast, they've hinted it once, but it was soo minor that I doubt you would expect it. ML and FL's dynamic is cute and has nice chemistry as well. ML wasn't really explored that much so I hardly got attached to him, the way he fell in love with FL wasn't really built up, so it kinda looked like an asspull and they pulled a fast one on that plot twist about the two at the end. FL is really cute tho, i like her acting... that's it. I watched this mainly because of Wang Xing Chen and she's pretty as always, knowing how hot she is, i noticed that the directors really like her body assets huh? because in every media that she's in, she would always be introduced in a perverted way, so i kinda feel bad to her about it.
Notice how i gave the music a very low score because, i watched this on iQIYI's youtube channel and the audio sucked ass, every now and then it would sound muffled like you're under the water, and then would return to normal.
Overall it was a nice fantasy/action/romance, i came out not thinking like I wasted my time, I would say I had a bit of a pleasant time watching the movie, but I probably wouldn't go back and watch it again.
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Poor, Unbalanced, Confusing Writing
Since this is the only work left from Nana that I haven't watched, I really tried my best to finish it even though I'm so mentally checked outI don't know what's up with the story because the way the events unfold feels like out of place, if not really fast-paced. I feel like the writer had lots of ideas, but didn't know how to tie them all together nicely and didn't even know how to build it up or leave hints throughout the show in order to show the viewers what to anticipate what the future events might be. The way they establish the beginning of the show was such a drag for me, it felt like it doesn't have any grand meaning or connection to the overall story because the first ten 10 episodes unpacked some major turns already, so I was like "eehhh... why is this happening already?" They could have replaced some of the fluffy fashion scenes with meaningful interactions with the characters to help build it up nicely if they were planning to progress the plot that fast in the first place. And then it tried to salvage the story in the 2nd half with the drama between ML and FL, and low key it kinda got me interested a little bit, but it's still wasn't enough.
The way they pull a twist feels like the writer didn't know where to take the story and maybe some big heads wanted to drag this drama, so they keep pulling plot twists that weren't even hinted at in the show like "Where did this come from?" and then would try to tie it by showing flashbacks or maybe some insignificant scene that a viewer wouldn't even catch, like "Oh its actually hinted but you just didn't notice" Of course I wouldn't because you did not highlight it. When ML got depressed, what's up with that? And i can't even take it seriously because the story and the characters don't take itself seriously, it felt like i was watching a Steven He Emotional Damage Parody Video. I don't have a chronic depression, but how the fuck did he got bedridden or paralyzed, like what?! Is that how it's supposed to be? Another Plot device that really annoyed me, is that when they need help or they want a person capable of something, magically one of the characters knows someone and would call them "blah blah can you help? he/she said okay", like huh?? I kinda understand it since ya'll are the big heads of the company and your families are influential, but in some sense, i don't get it, like how? how are you connected to this mysterious powerful person? and how tight are you that you can just casually call them and somehow they would say "okay"? but sometimes they would do it right when it comes to Leng Shan because she actually meets the person she's connected with and would suck up to them whenever she needs help.
When it comes to the characters, it feels like a gamble because sometimes they would act right, but then would fumble right away. The FL wasn't really as annoying as the comments make it out to be, like maybe, in the beginning, she's super annoying, especially when she says "Fighting" every time, I feel like I'm gonna hate that word just thinking about it, but her annoyingness actually got toned down as you go through the episodes and i kinda liked the development in that part, but in some parts because FL was still 16 in real life when this drama came out, it really shows in her acting. She's supposed to be an adult in this film, i don't know what age, did they even stated it in the show? Anyway, she doesn't know how to act like an adul. She is so childish for the most part and maybe sometimes would act like 18 or 19 and her styling also shows how young she is. It also creeps me out, like a red alarm would sound in the ear knowing she's a minor and her partner is 26, that's a 10 years of age gap, like maybe the hug and kiss on the forehead would be a pass, but when like there's an interaction that would really sound an alarm bell to me I'll be like "Woooaaahh! chill....". The ML tho on the other hand, really gives off jackson wang vibes, I don't know... maybe it's the hair and because this drama has fashion in it. He did a good job acting like a feminine fashionista. I like his playful acting, it lands really well when he does a joke or prank. I also like his chemistry with Wang Xing Ren, but in the later parts of the drama, it kinda gave BL vibes, so that kinda fell off for me a little bit.
The Side characters are okay, but i think they took up too much time, so i felt like they overshadowed the Leads. I really like Gao Ming, i kinda prefer him over ML, tho i wouldn't say it's because of the 2nd Lead Syndrome, it's just he's really a good character, and his dynamic and side plot with Angela was really cute, but they didn't really expand on it that much. Xue Zhen Ni really annoyed me whenever she's on the screen her jokes don't land really. It just leave a sour taste in my mouth. Victoria really amazed me. I feel like her actress really understands the assignment, from the way she walks, her body movement, and attitude screams fashion to me. Because there are a lot of side characters, like i said they took out most of the screen time and some of them were used for like 1 or 2 scenes, so many side characters are wasted.
Couldn't really say much about the music, cuz i feel like i was deaf in that aspect of the drama, but when Nana plays Cello tho... knowing what she does in real life.
So yeah, all in all... bad drama, it's very unbalanced with it comes to its core aspects and it doesn't even know what it's trying to be a times, wouldn't recommend this one, I'm just here for Nana.
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Kinda Weak Season, but still Good
I watched it without much expectation. Since the director really wants to continue this series even though there hasn't been a sequel for the manhwa in years. This Season 2 and the upcoming Season 3 are going on their own path, even though the writers aren't involved going forward, i still have a little bit of hope since the director said he consulted with them, so he was told of the general idea with where the story is going and just played around with it.The story picks up right away where season 1 left off and already, it's a jam-packed action but i noticed the CGI is still the same as Season 1 if not, sometimes worse than last season, but it is well done in scenes where Song Kang and Sang Wook are involved.
Back to the story... i was kinda confused at first because things started escalating but good thing they explained it as we move forward. The scale of the story has now expanded because our characters are now out in the wider world, so many characters got added to the story and because of that they really had to compromise with the screentime. I guess it's really tight in that aspect, so there's a different shift of focus in the characters in this season and then they killed most of the characters that we followed during s1 and it's kinda boring at times when you have to care for these new characters in the story and there's a lot of them as well and most of them died off really quick, but i couldn't care less since there wasn't much for me to care about, some of them are really well done, though they haven't really contributed that much to the story yet. This season was just a setup for what's probably gonna happen in s3 i guess... because nothing really much happened, but we're still given enough information about what's happening in the world of Sweet Home, but not enough for it to move forward.
Them killing off most of the characters from s1 was kinda useless to me because the characters they've added/replaced have similar personalities to the characters from s1, so what's the point?? and their deaths didn't even leave much impact on the mains except for one, but i'm not gonna tell. Speaking of mains, I do see some crumbs of romance build up that's going on here, though i doubt they would expand on it in the next season since it's not the main point of the story, but i would love to see if they would do it since it's a nice heart fluttering side plot to have in a world that's fucked up and full of monsters.
The acting as always is impeccable there is nothing much to tell, what do you want me to say? It's good, as koreans always do
Now this part is for those who've read 'Shotgun Boy' which is the prequel for Sweet Home, so it's gonna be spoilers. As someone who has read it, after watching this, I think there's no hope of adaptation for that manhwa in the future anymore. It's just my theory though because i noticed they took some aspects from 'Shotgun Boy' and added them here, the very obvious one is the girl who can turn anyone into a monster and then you have the lab as well, but props to them because the way they integrated it here was so smooth. If they ever adapt that manhwa, i doubt you'd be able to add much to the story, the only thing you're gonna bring to the table are more characters and another mc which is gonna put off some viewers.
Overall, this season was kinda weak for me and kinda fast paced, since there's a lot to unpack, plus you have a lot of new characters as well, but it's still good. Song Kang is sooo hot in here, like he got buffed, ugh!! DADDY?! Go Min Si is pretty as always and because of the new main that got introduced here, plus his character dynamic with her, i can kinda predict who's Go Min Si's next romance drama partner, they have a good chemistry xD
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A Very Pictureesque Fantasy Drama
This is the 2nd Fantasy cdrama that i've managed to finish, but also the 4th fantasy cdrama that i've looked into, and god! So far, this has the cleanest CGI. It's not perfect like the west does, but it's getting there.What really blew me away in the beginning was the sets were very very beautiful, especially when they were in the mountains or like the illusionary places, it's very picturesque looking, like you could screenshot any scene that involved with those sets and I would legit print it and hang it on my wall, that's how good the sets are. They're probably using the latest tech, where you could film in the actual set and have the CGI set to move along with the camera. That's probably why it's very clean when the characters are in those places. Not only that, the lighting is also on point, it adds so much to the aesthetic of the backgrounds. When it comes to the magic powers, the CGI although, is not perfect, it's very jank at times, but it's still very clean. And you add the graceful fighting choreographies, like you wouldn't even mind the janky magic effects because the fighting scenes are very engrossing. One thing that disappoints me at times is that some of the fight scenes are very short, if not, sometimes it's very lacking, like it's being held back by the lack of talent to fully realize the vision or maybe the budget, but that's just a minor complaint in my opinion. One thing that felt scuffed in the CGI department is the creatures in this drama. For example, the divine bird is very jank, and in some scenes, it's not even HD. It gets pixelated at times. The cgi creatures are great, but it doesn't really blend in most of the time, aside from God of Dragon, like my god when he first showed up, it was great that i think most of the budget for the cgi creatures went into him. So yeah, there are janky moments in the CGI department, but again, it's very very clean for the most part. It doesn't deteriorate your viewing experience.
The story i think it's very slog in the beginning, like the first 10-15 or so episodes because they have to establish the characters and explain the magic system and the world in the drama, but once you get past that and make it to where episode 1 left off, that story will start picking up its pace and gets very good as you progress. Though i think aside from the romance aspect and the family politics that is going on, anything else wasn't really the focus in this series. And that's what sucks because even though i wasn't really into the politics, nor the family drama, i still wanted them to keep showing the boring parts just them talking and explaining everything about the world of this drama because it's interesting. But around the 2nd half, i gave up cuz the story is already so far that i doubt they would even bother explaining the intricacies. I think the story for me is at its best when it's just the romance or the dynamics between the mains, other than that is like a snooze fest, like i would sometimes bump up the play speed to 1.25 or 1.5, cuz again, for me they didn't really go all in on explaining the world that much so that's why i think i couldn't really care that much, aside from the romance aspect. And even though I find the romance as the best part of this show, it's not really perfect. I think in the beginning you would find it annoying, but because of the character developments and the series of challenges that went through, it got really good over time. I even find it really cute for the most part.
Now, the characters in this drama, i think they are all well-written. Each has their own goals and reasonings to keep pushing. As you spend more time with these characters, you get to understand why they are the characters the way they are. And i liked that, especially in the later parts when situations got complicated and the stakes were high. It shows that these characters have been put a lot of thought into. Even the interaction between these characters is such a delight, especially around the later parts after all the boring build-up you get to appreciate the characters when it is just silent and it's just them talking.
Alright, enough with praises. Now that i'm remembering it as i'm writing this review, i think the huoto tribe or that arc was such a filler for me, now that i'm thinking about it. like they only got a few episodes or screentime and then most of the higher ups killed themselves lmao xD Aside from zhu yan getting married off to the huotu prince and discovering the location of the Sea Emperor, for me, i think that part of the show didn't really leave such an impact on me. I think that is where i thought "Man! i really wanted them to expand on this tribe, because this is such a unique looking along with the crimson clan" but nope, that part felt flat for me.
The traveling in this drama is almost non existant or even the time passing because they wouldn't even spend that much time on the traveling scenes or bother showing the time passing, like couldn't they've at least put a caption 1 day later or 1 week later, like they are really strict on the screentime huh? You could have a character getting heavily injured that would take weeks or months of rest and then instantly cut to the next scene where he/she is already recovered without even telling the audience, like what?!?!
Around the later parts near the end, it started getting fast-paced, like okay there are only 4 episodes left... but they're still building up this ominous enemy that they've been hinting at since the beginning, so what are they gonna do? Then things started happening for the sake of convenience, but still props to them for at least putting up an effort for trying to explain shit in like few lines, for it to make sense.
And the show ended up with a bang, like they really went all in on that last episode, holy hell! Then landed its own two feet with a safe open ending. Watching this drama gave me hope that good fantasy cdrama does exist out there if you just keep looking. I'm glad my girl Ren Min got the FL role in this show, like i can't imagine any other actress playing Zhu Yan. At first, i see her as Ren Min, but slowly she started becoming one with the character that she was playing, so good job. I don't know if it's dubbed or not, but my girl has two voices here. I don't know why i didn't notice it immediately, but Zhu Yan was definitely not Ren Min's voice UNTIL, she appeared as yaoyi and heard her speak as a mature woman, like "Hellooo?!?!!! excuse?!?!! is this really Ren Min?!! Why does it sound so attractive?!?". So i went back to her other works and compared them and yep i think she's either using a different voice here like what zhao lusi did in 'Hidden Love' or it's dubbed.
So yeah, I would recommend this drama, if you can sit through the slow burn early part, then you'll be in for a ride.
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It was really BAAADDDD
I just watched it because i saw kanna hashimoto on the poster cover as i was scrolling on netflix to look for soemthing to watch.On the intro i thought i was gonna be a r18 show, but then they hit you with the action gore and i was like "Woah.... cool" then suddenly shoves in romance, which i felt like kinda off. It felt like they we're forcing this romance on this Action movie.
The action in this movie was okay at times, but when try to push it over the top, it becomes unnecessarily dumber. Specially that fight near the end
Characters we're cringe like all of them, they're really trying hard on that "Woohooo yeah im in manga/anime character", including kanna???? idk, i think this is one of her wost works. Out of all the characters i think Terano and Ayabe were the only good written characters as far im concerned. The actors really played well their characters, specially ayabe, i can feel he's really into his character.
Cinematography was a big step up from the usual japanese cinematography, but it was still bad. And the editing... its sooo horrible, specially when they need to transition to the next scene, they hit you with this random fast paced shots, then cuts to the next scene. CGI is very obvious, so that was bad.
Also, one thing. The music, wtf was that tropical party music that they keep playing when they travel or transition? that really throws me off, that was very unjapanese. Like, wtf was the music director thinking? couldn't they just asked the composer like "hey, can you compose a tropical party music for this section with a hint of japanese?" cuz the song that they use is very western.
Lastly SPOILER, i loved how in that section were Kanna's character Kei, was shot by nails and i saw something when they did a close up shot. I don't know if that was a prop or something, but clearly they could've hidden that well.
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Started off okay, but turned into a boring GARBAGE
My god!!! I watched this back when I was still on that Zhang Ruo Nan hype because I just discovered her on 'Cry Me a Sad River', but man... not even my hype could push me through finishing or even enjoying this drama, cuz it's just bad, like REALLY REALLY BAD... and it even took me a year and a half to realized like "You know what? Let's not even bother finishing it. I might have at least 10 episodes left, but I really just can't."Ok so, I started watching this when I was also just getting into cdramas and I didn't know that cdramas have anime-like openings. So I got hit with a lot of spoilers in the first episode because of the opening like wtf... at least in anime, they'll try to make it look like a puzzle that you have to piece together. So already starting off really bad, and I can't really remember much in the beginning, all i know is i think it's decent, but I still watched it at 1.5speed. I think it was okay in the beginning because we're just focusing on the dynamic of the FL and 2 MLs, but the moment they've returned to their homeland and started introducing this family drama and business politics and stuff to the story, that's where it started going down to shit.
Now the family drama, it was either shit or just plain boring. I think it was kinda interesting with the lost son mystery and shit, but i think they've revealed it too early, and it's kinda predictable as well, as to who the lost son is. So maybe it's probably both shit and boring. Zhang Min's dad, my god... props to the writer for writing him as the most annoying dad, but my god! The actor is soo bad; the one scene that got me laughing so hard for how bad his acting was, is when he was choking her mistress, like.... that scene was soo bad HAHAHAHAH If you look at how he's choking this actress like, i don't how to describe it, but it was bad. I don't even think i have anything to say about his character, nor his acting, other than he's BAD. Both as the character and actor.
Zhang Min's mother, i mean... she's just there.. great. Most of the time, she's just passive, though she doesn't have that much screen time. It's understandable.
Zhang Min, my god, can you get even more annoying?? like he's really obsessing over the FL, pushing himself to be the FL's boyfriend, when the FL doesn't even wanna associate herself with him, and i feel for wenna, like why even bother considering marrying her? When it's very obvious that the girl that you really like is Luo Xi?
Luo Xi on the other hand is also annoying and is such a pushover, like just make up your mind for god's sake. I feel really bad for the 2nd ML for getting up his hopes because she's such a pushover, that's why ML keeps coming back and trying to convince her to be his boyfriend.
Tao Lun... ugh!! I'm getting 2nd Lead Syndrome. At first, I felt really bad for him, and i really really like his character, clearly written to be a good likable boy, and I've been rooting for him, but the more you watch, the more you get annoyed, like come on just stop, the girl clearly doesn't wanna be with you and only see you as a childhood friend. I skimmed through the remaining episodes that i have, and from what i saw, he ended up with wenna, and it was kinda cute. You can already tell since they've been building up to it. Of course, the revelation that he was the real son, is really meh, like okay... what else??
Wenna, when she got introduced, it was okay, but she started getting on my nerves. She got progressively annoying as you watch, but I'm glad she got that character development. Then she realized that ML doesn't love her, so that's when i started giving a shit about her character and her dynamic with the 2nd ML.
Now, I'm just gonna sum up the rest of the side characters, like you could've actually cut down most of them and given the screen time to Yang Lin and Secretary Zheng like you didn't even have to bother creating this many side characters. They're just distractions or fillers to stretch out the runtime of this drama because most of the time when it's just these side characters on screen, it's just a snooze fest for me. Like can we just get on the main topic, please?
Couldn't really care much about the business side plot. You could've just kept this on the sidelines and toned it down because of the Family and Business side plot that this became like a shit Teledrama instead of a romance-drama. At least, I'm done. I'm finally free from the shackles of wanting to finish this show, like I'M OUT! It's so garbage. This is the 2nd Drama that I've watched where Riley Wang is in it, and i feel really concerned about his Portfolio because the other one that I'm also currently watching right now is also shit, but I hope he gets a well written drama in the future because i think he's a great actor and he's cute with cute dimples.
Overall, again shit garbage drama. Don't even bother watching it if you're looking for a good story and acting, but if you're a fan of any of the actors/actresses, then go ahead if it can help you go through the atrocity that this drama is, i really wanna rate it 0.5 or even 0, but the website doesn't allow it xD. This is something that my mother or grandmother would watch, i think this is aimed for that demographic and not for my age.
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Drama with realist emotions that hits you fast and hard
I was really excited about this because I read the webtoon and I even watched the chinese animation adaption.First off, my expectation as a reader was really thrown out of the window because this drama is soo different from its source. Which what made me even more excited watching this drama, because you don't know what's gonna happen. Though it's very different from its webtoon and anime counterparts, there are still some same scenes and lines that I recognized. Thankfully they haven't changed it fully, but it's just not a 1 to 1 adaptation like the anime did.
Now since it's not a 1 to 1 adaptation... one thing that I was surprised about is that the director really made use of the side characters. In the webtoon, the side characters weren't really contributing that much, like the main leads just figured out things on their own, but here oh my god, they are really contributing something. And I guess that's the trade-off because one thing they did wrong is that they took out all of the in-depth characterizations of the side characters. well... not really all of it, but it was just a few lines and a few scenes like it hit you fast and hard, but that wasn't really enough for you to get invested in these characters.
I must say, I really like the way they portrayed Ira here, like she's soooo bubbly to a 100, but inside she's broken af, but WTF was the point of making her and joon childhood friends??!?!? like that.... really contributed nothing, if they weren't gonna follow the original ending what was the point of that? The only thing I can think of is that made it the reason as to why she won't be the endgame, just like with Jinju "It's all in the past" so the main lead feelings for those two weren't there anymore.
also, another thing that they took out... Since the webtoon was fairly long right, like it's 130+ chapters. They could've easily made this a standard 16 kdrama episodes, but no, they took out most of the boring flirting scenes and interactions of the characters and that's how this show ended up as a 9 episodes show and that's great because I was a little bored trying to finish reading the webtoon. I think they did the right thing, the show hits fast and hard and you have to really pay attention to piece things together since they only took the important moments and focused only there. I really loved it, and it's great, but after finishing this show, though it was great, I think that really backfired itself, because it leaves you wanting more about the characters, the interactions, and the backstory. After watching this, it made me appreciate the webtoon's boring moments. So I might have to re-read it again.
And I love how they adapted this, and changed most of the things, whilst still following the path of the final destination, ensuring that the male lead will still end up with the female lead, like how they managed to make it more sensible. I'm sure if you're not paying attention to the details you might miss a lot because it still makes sense even after cutting a lot of the plots. The drama is like the realistic emotions that you could feel... I even almost cried twice towards the last 2 episodes.
And yeah... drama is great, but it leaves you wanting more. OST is great, barely noticed it since I'm so immersed in the direction of the series. The cinematography is beautiful, but the kissing scenes thooo.... like my ghad! I think this is the first time I've seen a kissing scene where they kept the audio, like ugh! it's soooo asmr coded HAHAHAAHA.
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Liar! Summer was supposed to Never End!
I wasn't expecting the day would come when I would finally have my first romance cdrama that i can confidently rate 10/10 and highlight all the answers in the "What do you like most about it?" question. Trust me, I really tried my best to find aspects of this drama to dislike, but there are none.The story, i wouldn't really say it's true to life, because i later realized it's the typical Rich Guy & Poor Girl type scenario, but there are some aspects that way it was written and handled that make it grounded to some extent, so that it wouldn't come off as some fetish delulu like some other Rich Guy & Poor Girl type story out there.
Looking back, it is very tropey and I'm hella nervous when it's being presented on screen like "I hope it's not this and that just for the sake of it" because i wanted this to be either 9/10. If you also look at it objectively, the family drama and romance are very messy. It knows it's messy. It leans into that, but handles everything so well together, all of that in the drama, and it still made sense, because the way each of the characters impacts the other defines what's going to happen next. It has a chain reaction effect. You're not just sitting there thinking, "What was that for?"
When it comes to the Pacing, it's smooth for the most part. Still, there are times when I definitely thought it was fast, because sometimes info or an event that is revealed or introduced in an episode is unfolded to the target character later on in the same episode. It's just a nitpick. It didn't ruin the show for me whatsoever.
I watched this because I saw a clip of Bao Shang En getting too immersed with her character that she forgot to snap back even after the director said "Cut!". I'm sure you know what i mean. That tells me that her acting has definitely improved if she can get into that state of mind. Because i watched her first 2 cdramas back in 2024, and for a rookie actress she was definitely decent back then, but i stopped watching because she's not on my priority list. After watching this drama? Definitely can say she has gotten really good. She knows how to put emotions across the screen, and the tone and mood switch. The deep voice- can we talk about her deep talking voice here, because i definitely don't remember her having that kind of voice back then. I'm so in love. Though there are times when she's in a scene with an older actor/actress, you can't help but notice that skill gap. She would get overwhelmed in terms of stage presence, but I'm sure as she gets older and takes on more projects, she's definitely gonna become a great actress.
Zhou Wan as a character, when you think she's perfect, but she's not. She can be frustrating or hateable, but it's hard because every decision she makes is because of the people around her. You can't really blame her if you were in her position, and as she's stated, "I'm just 18." You can't expect a person at that age to make the right decision every time. Sometimes it will be dumb, but i loved how she was written as a realist, so at least she's very calculating when making decisions. Also, my gosh, i love her fits during her high school arc. It's simple, but layered so that it won't look bare.
The same goes for Lu Xixiao. I'm amazed by the progression of his character, from being a tough/rebel boy to a softie/yearner guy. He's a smart character, but he too makes dumb decisions, and then i remember, "Oh, yeah, he's 18, so you probably wouldn't be thinking like this." I'm always amazed how he's able to pick up hints from his day to day life to be able to piece things together when trying to figure out something, I guess that's where the observation skill from being an artist comes in, because he's able to figure out what Zhou Wan's intentions is whenever she doesn't want to talk, not all of them, but for the most part.
It's my first time seeing Daniel Zhou as an actor. Before this i saw him in a variety show, but I wasn't focusing on him. My eyes were on Bai Lu, because she was in it as well. Anyway, going back. He's such a really good actor and so freaking tall, my god. Also, can we talk about how he and Shang En got such explosive chemistry going on, like i got hooked episode 1 right away because of their chemistry. Now i want them to star in a Fantasy drama, because they reminded me of Luo Yun Xi and Bai Lu so much in terms of chemistry.
Among all the hateable characters, Luo He takes the crown for me. He's the first thug character that i actually thoroughly enjoyed watching, because he's actually written well for me. I think it's because it's got to do with the actor. He's so good at playing the role. You can tell he's really into it.
The music in this drama bangs! I don't think there's a song here that i don't like. I watched this drama on the Mango TV YouTube channel, and they always mute some music scenes to avoid copyright issues. So i would pause and watch the parts with music on a pirate site, then go back to their channel when it's done. That's how dedicated I am to not skip any scenes with music.
Overall, such a top tier drama. Sure, it may have its flaws, but i eat that all up because it's good. Highly recommend watching it. Give it a go!
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Full Package Experience of a Young Boy
Lemme just say If not for Kang Hyewon, I would've dropped this halfway, not because the drama was bad, but because the bullying really went even harder in the second half, and I couldn't stomach it.The story was a hell of a ride. I'd say it's a full-package experience of what any boy would experience during his high school days. I was about to say minus the exaggerated bullying and gang shit, but if I were to compare it here in my country, I'd say it's pretty similar or even worse, cuz you've got some who actually bring icepicks or knives in school.
Anyway, unless you were an outcast or loner then you probably won't be able to relate with anything that was presented here.
My minor critique of the story is that although it's very relatable, as it was directed in a not-very serious & comedic way, it didn't really hit harder on me. I can kinda see why it was presented as it is because it could be something you could look back on and say "Ahh, yes!! I went through all these things back in high school"
The Characters, I think are all good. They have a lot of characters here because of the gang aspect, but no one is wasted. Everybody did their part. Seeing Siwan playing a High school boy character was kinda "???" like let's be honest here, he looks young, a great actor, a top-tier one at that, and very versatile as well, but he's not young-looking enough to play a high school boy. However, as you went on, you could tell he melded with his characters like as if you were actually looking at a high school boy. My opinion is also the same with FL. She and Siwan got a good chemistry going, and their relationship dynamic is so funny. Kang Hyewon is the sole reason why I watched this drama because I'm a wiz*one myself. She's great here, hearing her curse a lot felt so weird hahaha her acting, yet improved again. She's almost there, I think her sad acting just needs a little polishing, and then she's good to go. For 2nd ML, mind you he's almost absent for almost half of the show, but when he came back, he was like nerfed af, it kinda makes sense because he just had an accident. I thought with all the things going on with him, he would get the character development later on, but I think the writer went "Nope!" and just stuck with his villain character till the end. His actor is also so, so good at pulling the bad guy role, like my god!
OST, although I'm not the type who listens to songs from that generation, I can still appreciate it, especially if it's a good one.
Overall, a good drama. Even though I couldn't stomach the bullying, I would still recommend this. I think I see the appeal of dramas about gangs because of this one, it was kinda hype you know.
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Masterclass Visuals, But Confusing and Messy story.
You had me at the first. I thought i set my bar too low, because the first couple of episodes made it seem like by the end of this drama, i'm gonna be coming out amazed, but nope.The story, even though confusing and messy in general, was pretty manageable to follow with its mystery/comedy setup at first. It was really serious and dark at the beginning, but comedy kept throwing me out of it. I know comedy serves as the balance to the dark vibes, but here i roll my eyes out every time. Most of the characters are very serious, then suddenly one of the characters would try to be funny. Then halfway through the story, they toned down the comedy, and it started leaning more into Romance/Drama, which is actually good, if only they managed to do it cleanly so that it wasn't such a mess of a story. This is probably the first fantasy cdrama for me where the time-travel was handled decently, because time-travel can be very tricky. Here it made sense to me because it's the consequences of their actions. It wasn't just time-travel for the sake of it.
The only romance plot I probably appreciated was Wu Shi Guang and Wu Wang Yan, where their romance was handled well. The intention and execution were clear the moment they started going into their pairing. They got good chemistry as well. It's just disappointing that Shi Guang went from Main Lead vibes to becoming sidelined.
Ji Ling and Lu Wuyi, although their romance was cute and innocent, it just wasn't for me. I started getting into their romance once they got out of the time-travel arc, when it started getting dramatic. Ji Ling was the character i'm talking about in the beginning, who's breaking my immersion because of his comedy parts. Like, sorry, it just wasn't hitting me. You literally have You Chi, which is a good example of a funny character without trying to overdo it.
The last time i probably saw clean VFX in a cdrama was probably 'The Longest Promise', but this one takes the crown now, because its VFX is really good. It's probably one of the best fantasy shows where the visuals had a lot of care and attention. One thing that's disappointing though, is the scaling presentation of its powers. At the beginning, it was good because it matched the level of the characters, but when they started introducing literal high-level characters with lots of hype behind them, you see them fight, all you get are fart-level attacks. I don't wanna spoil, but if you're someone who watches anime, you'll know what i mean when it comes to the presentation of powers. Like, come on, i can see you have a high budget just from the visuals, but you can't seem to match that when it comes to the VFX.
The acting is good. I have no qualms about that. In the beginning, it didn't quite pique me, but when it started leaning into the more dramatic side, that's where the acting started shining. Chemistry between the characters started to flow as well. I don't know if it's just me, but the talking is dubbed, right? Because some of these characters, whenever they talk, i would notice their mouths are not even that open, but their voices are loud. I am very amazed by Tian Jia Rui's duality though, it's my first time seeing him, but he already showed how good his acting can be. Ju Jing Yi is probably one of the actresses I kept hearing everywhere. It's my first time seeing her. She's a good actress, like she has a very doll-like acting style which sometimes can be very uncanny. I might check out Joseph Zeng more in the future, because he caught my attention. Chen Du Ling, i already saw her in a few dramas, but i'm not really a fan. She's a good actress though.
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Boring/Low-budget film
This is a movie about making the perfect AI that has human emotional intelligence, where, during that time we still didn't have that much understanding of it, and the way it was told here is very fictional, since again, this is a decade ago. It's very boring, some theories are unbelievable, so don't take this movie too seriously. The one who wrote this is probably an AI bro who wants a Virtual Girlfriend, and this is what he came up with, because you could summarize the entire movie with that sentence. It's very low budget, and it really shows in the production. I guess that's the reason why some side actors look like they don't care at all, and they are just here for the pay.And for a movie which is already relatively short with an hour and 16 minutes of runtime, i can't believe they have the balls to even insert a filler scene. Spoilers by the way, in the 2nd half of the movie, there's this scene where ML is contemplating his life decision, then meets a grandpa who tries to give him a premonition, and then goes on blabbering about his life. That part doesn't add weight to the film. It's a waste of time.
Apart from the core Characters, the rest of the side characters are unnecessary, and aside from 2 ML, the rest of the actors are very boring. It's like they are operating in their own world. Cathy, played by Jiang Pei Yao, who is the reason why i'm watching this in the first place, her acting here is still amateur, and it doesn't level when she's on screen with ML, which is understandable for an early work. Coming from watching her recent works, the improvement is immeasurable.
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Mulan Type Shit
If you love Mulan, you'll definitely enjoy this one. I was surprised when I dived deep into this, because the title was very intriguing.The story is very epic and badass. I hope you don't mind the over the top action scenes, as i was taken aback at first, because I thought it would be a well-grounded action. Nevertheless, it was good. The scale of the story is very big, there's a lot to explore, even after i finished it i feel like there was a lot to cover still. Like barely scratching the surface, because they've dropped a lot of info, but those are mostly some side plots that I'm curious about. e.g., FL's 8 generals, because we are only introduced to one, and the others were never explored/introduced. I'm not sure how long the source for this is, but you can tell they're definitely trying to cram it all in this adaptation, because there are some parts of the story where it's really fast paced, but then some parts where it slows, but overall story-wise, I fairly enjoyed what i saw.
As for the characters, it's refreshing to see Zhou Ye (He Yan) take on this kind of role. I'm pretty sure a lot of other actresses could've taken on the role and done better, but for me, she still nailed it. I kept saying "Mulan type shit" whenever she's in an action scene, because it is!!!
I can't really say i was totally invested in the romance because i was paying attention more to the Female General aspect of the story, like i'm very much enjoying it. Well, i guess for the romance it was cute, but it felt frustrating in the later parts. In contrast, the 2nd couple was funny at first, but as the story unfolded, they became cuter.
The king here i like, i was pleasantly surprised to see a king that's finally making sense, not too cruel, not blind, and also very generous because that helped establish a fairly enjoyable politics for me, but later near the end, for some reason, he started getting dumber like a quick 180.
Last thing i wanna say is that why did they have to ruin Chu Zhao?! From character to story, he was packaged beautifully, but they had to do him dirty like that. When he was introduced, I didn't pay much attention to him, but the way he was developed, the journey to get him to such heights made me appreciate his character so much. I hate it when cdramas ruin 2nd leads just to drag the show for a few more episodes.
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Women's Empowerment
I was expecting this to be just Historical Romance with politics in it, I mean, we can't really avoid politics in these types of settings, but lo and behold, it was actually more than that as you dive deep into it.
The main selling point of this drama is mostly about women's empowerment, as we see our main FL go through a lot of challenges, hard carrying her entire clan without the help of men. Mind you, i'm not the perfect target audience for this drama as i am a man, and when i caught onto what they were trying to sell me on, i find it really annoying at first, as I thought that it was too in your face that yes, women can actually work hard to provide for their family, especially for that era where it would be frowned upon, but as i kept watching because really i'm here because of Zhang Jing Yi, slowly my feelings towards this show changed. I would say it was actually handled or written well, because it's not women's empowerment for the sake of being woke or making a statement. They are uplifting women without trying to bash the other side, and it was told in a good way by showing you the journey.
As for the romance, i can't really say that i loved it, because i couldn't really feel that much chemistry from the Main couple, though there are times when it would make me smile, but not enough to make me giggle. I'm not a fan of ML's acting at all. It's too robotic for me, especially in here, where a lot of women experience a lot of bad experiences, so there will be a lot of emotional scenes, and you compare that to ML, it would really pale in comparison. His own sideplot is actually badass, and it was nice to see how it tied up at the end.
And speaking of acting, the best acting award goes to Lu Yu Xiao, my god, she couldn't be more impeccable here. I've seen her in other dramas before, but her performance here definitely deserves an award. Her character was surely a challenge as she's playing someone who has a mental illness/impairment, but she nailed it.
I am by no means an expert in politics, i'm not even in touch with my own country's politics, but based on what was shown to me here, I fairly enjoyed it. It was a clown fest at first, as politics always is. I like how they kept pulling twists and turns leading up to the resolution of it. I wouldn't say it was bad, but it could've been a lot worse. Probably the best decent ending we can get. I love the last arc by the way, that was definitely a switch up to me, i think that was one of my favorite parts of the drama, and how that ties everything up together neatly.
Overall, this drama is decent in my opinion, again not the right target audience for this, but i can see this being popular amongst women as it was written well. Some parts can be improved, but ehh, that's just me.
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