Editorials 
It's cute, fun, and chill, but still short.
As a bonus for the drama, this is definitely good. I wouldn't really call it an epilogue because this is a variety show. This is just the cast bonding after filming the drama.I love how, even outside the drama, they all have such great chemistry with each other. It just felt like the characters came out of real life.
Though I wish we got more screen time for the other cast, because watching this, you can tell the main focus is Bao Shang En x Zhou Ke Yu, and the other cast are mostly getting sidelined, which is a shame. That's my little nitpick, because i wanted to know more about the other cast outside the drama, as they said they've never bonded after filming.
That gimmick of finding a compatible was a little bit lacking for me. When it started, it looked like they were going for a dating show, but they kinda forgot about it halfway because it's just the cast having fun playing games. They could've just removed that and gone for a vacation-type show, but i guess you needed some kinda spice.
Overall, really short bonus. Am I weird for wanting more? hahaha I wish this was longer so that the cast would've had some time to share personal stories.
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They had a Good Idea, but failed to present it properly
The story would've been better if this was directed properly. They definitely had some good ideas, but they weren't well tied together. I can't say i dislike it because the story wasn't written properly, but overall, everything about this drama isn't that great. It's just more like good story beats, but lacking when it comes to filling in the gaps to flesh out the story properly. Some scenes don't even make sense, like why is it happening in such a setting? It's not appropriate time and mood wise.The romance felt forced in my opinion. They could've thought of something better for the romance progression. Even the 2nd Couple, they are definitely super forced, like really? It's not even about playing hard to get. It's just a badly written couple.
The acting is super whacked out, which is very fitting for a full on comedy show, but this is supposed to be a Rom-Com, so they could've at least toned it down. Though looking back, I can see why they chose to instruct the cast in that way, so that they would be able to mask their lack of experience when it comes to acting. It didn't look bad. I was more entertained by it, seeing how wacky the interactions are. I couldn't even feel any chemistry between the characters, but i like the back and forth banters from time to time.
Like it says in the title, Sweet "Tai Chi". Though i like that they're tryna promote such old culture, I shouldn't have expected that I'm gonna be seeing more of that. Most of the Tai Chi scenes were in the later parts of the drama, and the audacity to say "Let's go train Tai Chi" during the earlier parts, but then show standard exercises, baffles me.
Music? ehh, it's just there. I did notice it, but not enough for me to fall in love with it. I'm sure I'll forget it within the following days.
Overall, everything about this drama is very fitting on its own. It's a good entry title to recommend if you haven't watched that many well-written shows yet. Y'all, I'm just here because of Sun Qian to be honest. If not for her i would've dropped this in a heartbeat.
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The Idea was good, but the execution is bad.
I just watched this randomly because the Poster gave 'The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon (2023)' vibes, and after watching, i guess there were some parts where it was like that, but i was quite disappointed after finishing it.The story was good to be honest, like the idea and the emotions behind it. It's raw. It's gritty. It's well thought out, but it was just the way they executed it that made it boring for me. I wasn't quite getting what the heck they were trying to do in the first quarter of the movie. I get that it's gonna be a mystery/crime because obviously the ML is a lawyer, but they were trying to build up 3 plot lines at the same time in the beginning, so it was kinda confusing for me whether I was watching a life drama, crime, or romance. It was all over the place.
The worst part is, the Crime that ML was trying to fight for was left open-ended. We didn't even get to the end of it.
The romance part, no! i wouldn't really call it romance, but the thing with FL reminded me of 'Old Boy' in terms of plot twist. If you watched that movie, you'll know what i mean. I was really confused about what they were going for with her. She was kinda like a distraction, but as you kept watching, more plot twists got revealed, and again, if it had been handled correctly, it would've been an amazing plotline.
If they kept going with ML's life drama/story and leaned into that more, it would've been a great movie, because that alone, the way they built it up, was already a solid story. It kinda tied to the title of the movie actually, now that I'm looking back on it. Giving it a double meaning.
The acting was solid. ML was such a good actor. His acting was such a hard carry, despite the movie being boring. His character was well written, emotional, and got a lot of depth to it.
FL, this is my second time seeing her. She's very different here, and it's amazing how she handled the character.
Overall, I don't know. This is meh for me. Sorry.
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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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Cute, but boring
There are times when you feel like stopping down from watching well-written and well-paced dramas, then watch some trashy shows, to know what's trash, so that when you go back up and watch well-produced dramas, you appreciate them even more.This drama is just plain boring. In the beginning i actually found it really cute, thinking this would be 6 or 7 at most, but nope, as i kept watching i gradually lost interest to the point that i started questioning myself, thinking if this is even worth my time, and by the end of it, it is definitely not worth it. It felt like i was torturing myself around the 2nd half, but i had to finish it so that I could properly write a review.
The story is definitely full of cliches and tropes that are very familiar. The writer surely knows that and tries to play into its genericness, but fails to play it well. The cute veil illusion that i was led into the beginning slowly disappeared as i started to notice the lack of chemistry between the characters, their acting feels lacking or could you even say there was acting present in the show at all? HAHAHA but yeah, they're all definitely amateurs.
Not gonna comment on the budget because the production already reflects that.
Overall, bad drama. bad acting.
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This is Boring, Don't pick this up
Since I was feeling bored, I decided to pick this one up and my god, it made my boredom even worse.At the beginning of the movie, you're introduced to these 3 characters. Okay, they're reminiscing, talking about how boring it is in the countryside, why they want to move to a city, and vice versa. Just some normal people chatting, then cut to an out of context ass backstory, and that's the moment the movie started losing me. It kept cutting to different years, with different people, and not even explaining who these people were. I get it, you expect me to understand that these are the other characters that we're gonna follow in this story, but at least someone could've pretended to call out their name and asked what's happening so that I'll know who they are and what they are talking about.
The story is ehh, or should i say, there's not much of a story here, it's more like a slice of life of adults reminiscing about the times. And it's not even interesting, hence probably they kept highlighting it in the movie that "It's okay to be boring" Yes, it is okay, but in this one, it's definitely not okay.
The acting is good, but I'm more amazed by the singing bits because these actors are really singing their hearts out. They can sing SING alright HAHAHAHAH. You can't really see so much of the acting here, because of the way it was filmed, but when it is presented, acting is again, good.
The reason why you can't see much of the acting and this is where we get to the 2nd thing that made this movie even boring, is the cinematography or could that be even called cinematography? In the beginning, i noticed it right away, it was when the first 3 characters were in the car and we have this very long ass one take shot from afar. Most of the scenes from this movie are just long ass one takes, so you couldn't really see much of the acting. The movie felt very raw or unfinished, because the whole time i was watching, it felt like there could've been some close ups that needed to be inserted here and there. But hey, props to these actors, for these one takes, they're all really good for not even breaking when delivering the lines, I'm sure some of these scenes might have been retaken a bunch of times.
Overall, what a boring movie, definitely not a recommend.
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I like how the story is very realistically practical, it's very mature, deep, and sometimes would make you cry. It's very relatable is what i would say. I thought there would be an imbalance between the focus of work scenes and the lives of characters, but good thing they managed to balance the two so one wouldn't overwhelm the other. And as expected in any kdramas, the comedy hit so well, i laughed at every comedy scene.
Character-wise, again i couldn't feel the chemistry between the main couple... maybe that's just me. Song Kang's character feels like Jae-eon (Nevertheless), but make it brighter. Miyoung, this is my first time seeing her, but i know she's a veteran actress and she's really great, she's so pretty, especially when she smiles she's so cute. The 2nd main couple is good as well, i like them, i felt their chemistry, theirs is very very practical and grounded, and that's why i like them. FLs sister and assistant director, i like their relationship, because i can relate to both characters, they both have aspects that i have, but it's just separated.
Overall, good drama, I couldn't be more wrong, you shouldn't judge it in the beginning right away, because you'll be in for a good story.
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This review may contain spoilers
Wow, thanks tiktok... I got click-baited into thinking that this was gonna be a full-on Rom-Com, but it actually wasn't all that in actuality.The story, i don't even know what to say... it starts off with business stuff, introduces the leads, both got a little wacky and it feels like romance for like the first few episodes, not until it hits you with a turn. It suddenly turned into a revenge plot of who tried to kill FL with soul switching gimmick and i was thinking "Okay... maybe this is the plot device that they're going for in order for both to develop feelings for each other" that's copium because both confessed that they don't even have an inkling of feelings for each nor they are attracted slightly. So okay, that's my romance expectation out of the window. I still kept watching because i'm interested in where this drama is even going, I mean there's a mystery crime that needs to be solved. And then around the 2nd half, it's also revealed that ML is also out to get revenge on FL because of what she did five years ago to him, at that point, i don't even know what to expect, maybe I'll sit back and enjoy this mess. I don't think i enjoyed the drama at all, it tried to mash a lot of things to not so great extent, though it somewhat managed to land on its own 2 feet in the end. The mystery was alright, aside from ML's revenge plot which came out of nowhere, FL's revenge plot pretty predictable, it's very obvious who are the enemies within the workplace and who's the puppet masters. And yes, they did have romance at the end, so i am still satisfied that the leads ended up together.
The characters, the writer is smart for making FL this strong girl with a very bad attitude, and ML who's a very wacky dummy dumb, because when the leads swap souls, it doesn't even give much of a challenge to the actors to act like the opposite gender and that's where the writer also fails in my opinion, when they swapped souls the way the characters act it just like your normal man and woman, so what's the point of even swapping them? I hope they would at least somewhat act like the opposite to showcase the versatility of the actors, but nope. One thing i really like though, is when they swapped, whatever the characters were going through mentally will be carried over to the other body and also, the other will feel the muscle memory fear of the body that they're occupying, that minor detail i really appreciated. I don't think they've ever explained why FL has this paranoia when she's in the dark, It's just there to give her a flaw because she's such a strong woman. Whereas for ML they've explored as much as you can be curious about. Some of the side characters are very quirky, they have their own unique flare from the way written to talk and act, especially the team underdog, didn't like them almost, but when they started delving into each one of them, they started to get okay.
Overall, it's alright. Watch it if you like messy Mystery with Rom-Com in it. I'm kinda disappointed because I'm a fan of both lead actors.
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A Glimpse of what the Shop can offer
Kinda late, but i finally had the time to watch it and i must say, it was good.The story in the beginning was action-packed, as usual in these types of series where they drop you off in the middle of the action in the story to hook you and i don't mind it since it delivered, then backstory. I thought they'll gonna drop all the backstory at once, then continue where we left off, but nope. The way they did it is they'll only bring up a backstory when a present scene needed a context on how it led to that point and i don't know how, but it worked, it didn't really hurt the pacing of the story nor my experience since they took their time to explain things, though, at the last 3 episodes, it slowly got to me a little bit because they tied all the timeline together and i was just waiting when are they gonna go back to the action. This season is mostly a build and just a taste of what the story can offer because the backstory mostly ate all the screen time. In the back of my mind i kinda want this drama and 'Kill Bok Soon' to diverge, how hype would that be, both dramas are very similar, the difference is just the other is a movie.
The cinematography is cool as always and the action. The editing near the end annoyed the shit out of me because they chopped the scenes a lot, they don't stay in a certain part that long and they kept using the fade-to-black transition and it was so long as well, oh my god! So i guess that's my only minor critique of this show.
The characters are really good, they're all well written down to the side characters. The FL's backstory was really sad along with ML because they are tied and i really loved their relationship dynamic during the backstory, it's so wholesome. I like how they wrote FL because she isn't just this strong character on the outside just because she's the niece of ML, she actually had to work her way up, and overcome her trauma to at least become able to hold her ground, she isn't perfectly strong yet like her uncle, she still cries gets nervous and gets helped in some situation and that's what makes her a good character. FL's actress is so cute and pretty tho... it's my first time seeing her and she looks like Adora in some angle. ML, we didn't get to spend time with him in the present, we mostly got it in the backstory and it was still good by how he was built up. He was this mysterious uncle, like FL said she lived with him for 10 years, but it was almost like she didn't know anything aside from he was her uncle until he died and she found out her uncle was involved in some shady underground business and that how she got caught up in this mess. I must say Lee Dong Wook is so badass here, i want more of this kind of project please and i noticed how he talks here, it's so asmr coded, ugh!!! Not to spoil anything, his character was built up to be this perfect killer so it's very obvious to me that there's gonna be some twist to him somewhere along the series if not then maybe in season 2, judging how he analyzed the blackmail.
Another thing i appreciated and a bit of cleanse to my pallete because chinese dramas couldn't even do this one minor detail, is their foreign characters. Because in this drama foreign characters are actually speaking the language of the characters that they are portraying, yes oh my god!!! It reminded me again that "Oh yeah, koreans never miss every minor detail in their media". Whenever you have a foreign character in your show it should be obvious that they should be speaking their mother tongue to make it convincing, i don't care how broken it is or even if you butcher the language, just do it, because the viewers will appreciate it... some of course because some will not because of the language butchering. Obviously, the actors are korean, i don't know about the thai one because he looks convincing and from the way he speaks as well, i probably have to look it up. Anyway, i appreciate the effort they made to make the foreign characters speak a foreign language.
Overall, very good action series. Highly recommend it, can't wait for season 2.
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What a Fun Web Drama
The story for what I thought would be forgettable, especially for a short-form drama, was actually fun. I didn't have that many expectations since I just came here for FL because this is the shortest drama I saw from her to finish. Immediately I was sold at the end of episode 1 on how uniquely fun it was. There are times in my brain when I would try to logically analyze everything because it's one of those types of story that is heavily reliant on a plot device that's not explained at all and it's just there to create a story. I would be like "No! Shut up brain! I do not want to dig deep into things or else my experience will be ruined". I was surprised for the investors that they didn't take advantage of this because if you tell me that this drama is an advertisement for a Grocery store I wouldn't be surprised about it. This was such a gold mine for product placements and it wouldn't be annoying to look at since it's part of the story. In the end, they tried to explain the intricacies of the plot device, though I don't think they needed to, since the story was already fine without it being explained. It just unveiled the curtain behind the magic which was unnecessary in my opinion.The characters... well, it's mostly about the main couple. They're pretty dynamic as the story goes on. I like their chemistry and the kissing scenes made me squeal every time for how good the usage was. FL is so lucky to have this in her portfolio as a young actress because her character requires a lot of faces and she managed to show the different sides of her. Even though she has that cutesy type of face, I prefer her serious side. I think I'm a fan now. I don't know about her first drama, but I would recommend this as a starter drama if you're getting into her. She did great here. For ML, he's fine. I liked how they balanced his character. He started strong, but when they revealed his plot twist, it kinda ruined it for me a little. It made sense for his character, but lacking in terms of acting. Overall he's good and a cutie as well.
Another minor critique is that the dubbing audio is pretty scuffed at times, but it didn't really deteriorate my watching experience.
So yeah, overall, a fun short drama. I highly recommend it. There's a 2 hours version of it where they stitched all the episodes to make it easy, so give it a watch.
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The horror was okay. There was a decent number of jump scares and there was only one that fazed me because of the fast cut, like I twitch my head back a little. I watched this in 2x by the way.
The acting is good, but it could've been better, like as the mom was slowly getting cuckoo in the head they could've added some makeup to her face to show that she's really getting depressed.
The Music was okay. It did its job to elevate the horror vibes.
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trashy/throwaway film
I stumbled upon this randomly and from the poster alone, I already know that it's going to be a throwaway film. Still, I decided to give it a watch since I'm bored.The story is pretty much bog-standard. I love watching trashy Films because I want to know what bad and good media are. The Fighting scenes are good, paired with good camera directing. Whoever the Art Director and Choreographer in this film are, props to them since I can see the vision that they want to show. It amazed me because my expectations going into this film were so low that it shocked me. It came out of nowhere.
The characters are entertaining. They didn't make me laugh, but I could see someone laughing at the things that they were doing. Both the FL and Antagonist FL stood out to me because of their emotional scenes. I felt the emotion. The ML, I wouldn't say I'm a fan, but I know him from 'Lighter & Princess' so that's a plus because I know he can do comedy. The Taoist is obviously written to be quirky. He's entertaining, loved his fighting scenes.
Overall, a trashy/throwaway film. If you're looking for a good-written story, then this is not for you. You have to turn your brain off, if you want to give this a watch or be drunk I guess. Set your expectations very low then you will find this entertaining.
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Good Start, but Fell off Slowly
I really didn't have any expectations when I went into this drama, all I know is that my sister watched this because the ML is an NCT Member.The story, was unique enough for me to get hooked in, like from the way they set everything from the first episode in order to reel you in. It had a good start, but as I kept going, I slowly wasn't really feeling it. I kept thinking about it, it's probably because I don't know where the story is going like, I know this is a romance drama so at least give me something to get invested in for me to keep watching and thankfully that's what the 2nd FLs side-plot managed to fulfill. I think I liked the 2nd half more because of how things got complicated and developed. The way the drama ended was okay.
Characters, honestly for ML I was surprised. I think we all know MV acting is vastly different from drama acting. His acting at the beginning was decent, but as I kept going, whenever he was on screen his acting stood out because it kept getting better and better. For his character, it was good, though I don't remember him getting the growth he deserved because he's dependent on FL. For FL, even though I don't like her for ML, I loved the way her character progressed throughout the drama. I didn't really feel the chemistry with Her and ML, though I must say she's pretty and hot. 2nd FL, I don't know if I ever felt this 2nd FL syndrome before, but I prefer her over the 1st, her side-plot is so good and her character is pretty dynamic because you'll go from liking and rooting for her to hating her. Can I say she's also pretty and cute as well? I think I might check out her other dramas, cuz she made an impression on me a lot. The last ML in the last few episodes is pretty good too, I feel sorry for him, I like his character.
The OST, I don't really remember much sorry xD, I guess it's good???
Overall, it is a decent drama. I don't recommend it though, but if you're an NCTzen please watch this for Doyoung. His acting is so good. If you're not, then I hope you'll find something that will make you stick till the end, it's only 10 episodes anyway.
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