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LilMeggs

San Jose, CA

LilMeggs

San Jose, CA
Completed
Hellbound
0 people found this review helpful
Jan 1, 2022
6 of 6 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 10
Story 10
Acting/Cast 10
Music 10
Rewatch Value 10
This review may contain spoilers
One of the easiest 10/ 10's I have given in a while - I went into this excited, but scared that the trailer would have been overhyped, and the drama itself would have fallen flat. Instead, this exceeded all my expectations and then some. Each episode had me on the edge of my seat, but also had me stressed out that I couldn't watch another episode even though I really wanted to. Impressed and Intense was my motto.

I am not sure how to explain how much I loved this series. I loved how gruesome and gorey it was. I loved the religious "undertones" with Christianity and how the six episode series ended. I loved how it was broken up three and three episodes, the first introducing the "beginning" with characters are we thought were mains, but weren't, and the last three introducing this new world. But most of all, I LOVED how dark it kept getting - you thought that in episode one or two or even three, that a certain event would be the turning point, or the most fucked up (excuse my language) thing that has happened in the episode, and then the writer is like...no...we can top it. Especially with the premise of the last 3 episodes, I was impressed that someone would even go that far, but at the same time, was sobbing because it was extremely messed up how far everything was going.

I would recommend this over and over again if you like dark television - and not that there is a "supernatural" dark aspect, but the fact of how society would react if something happened that was outside of their understanding. And it's a scary thing.

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Completed
The Fallen Leaf
0 people found this review helpful
Dec 16, 2021
21 of 21 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.5
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 7.0
This review may contain spoilers
I feel like all my Thai drama experience has lead me to this single drama - Push being in the first Thai drama I had ever watched U-Prince, Baifern being in My Dear Warrior (the first drama I ever dropped :( ), Ton in the last Thai drama I watched Hua Jai Sila, and lastly, Saint being in my favorite remake Thai drama Let's Fight Ghost. Every time I would go research more into the actors/actresses, this film would always pop up and to be honest, I was scared to start it.

From the get go, I want to say that the main character does fall in love with her uncle, but he isn't blood related. I knew Thai dramas go harder than other dramas, so I was honestly scared to start this and have to root for a relationship that made me uncomfortable. Saying that though, there was a level of that still. Maybe it was me just coming off of Hua Jai Sila and this insane plot of revenge, that I was expecting something similar. Also, maybe it was because I was watching this on youtube, and the subtitles weren't fantastic. I wasn't sure what Nira was trying to accomplish when she decided to come back to Bangkok as a woman, when the last time she was there, she was a 10 year old boy escaping with her mom from an abusive home life. There was a lot of guess work in trying to fill in the blanks.

So here is what I came up with;

This is a story about a girl named Nira who was born in a body that did not feel like her own and was beaten and yelled at by her father who wouldn't accept her femininity. After a long battle, she finally escapes with her mother to London, where they live happily and decide to have a sex change surgery. (Still not 100% if it was her idea or her mothers?) During recovery, her mother dies in a car crash in which Nira decides to go back to Bangkok and get revenge on her father.... by becoming a starlet and beating her father and aunt at their own game(?). She also comes back to be with her aunt's husband, who was the only person apart from her mother that treater her well growing up. Through this process, she makes an enemy of her aunt Rungrong and startlet Manow, her father wants to sleep with her, and Chat falls in love with her. And this drama is basically a story about Nira's journey of coming to terms with her mental health - even if it comes at the very end.

And to be completely honest, as much as I wanted a romantic happily ever after, I believe the ending we got was necessary. There was so much unhealthy baggage being stacked on top of one another in every episode that once we got to the end... if there was a "happy ending," the drama would have been one big plot hole. That being said, we did get a happy ending for each character in some way - Chat finally stood up for himself instead of deteriorating in his marriage or needing a "real" reason to ask for divorce; Dr Ben learned to open his heart to people after his wife's death; Chom learned to be sympathetic to his son and realizing that the life he "attempted" to save him from, he had actually had a hand in creating; and Nira learned that something was seriously wrong mentally and that she needed to seek help.

& Nira was a force in everyone's life, helping them realize that they wanted more out of life. Which is also what she wanted, but didn't know how to get there. She wanted badly to be healed instantly, that she didn't put in the real work. And if there is anything I can do to convince you to watch this drama, it is for the final 10-20 minutes. That scene was super intense and heartbreaking.

For the things that I didn't understand was the ending. I didn't understand that shift in character of Chom & Rung. It was like the moment they had found out who Nira was, they all of a sudden pulled a 180 and wanted to hug and celebrate her. Given, they had found out that their son and nephew was alive... but at the same time, they never cared or reacted when they thought he had died. Shoot, the day of their funeral Chom brought other women and Rung didn't even want to be there except to promote her bar, and neither one of them helped spread their ashes. The only person who helped was Chat who throughout the drama struggled with the death of Chan - Nira's 10 year old self. Knowing this, it made the drama uncomfortable, not knowing what Nira was going to do. Willingly be okay with dating this man who didn't know he was falling in love with this boy he helped raise and thought was dead. It wasn't until the end where I knew it was going to go south, when he was trying to calm her down in the last scene when he found out who she was, and just not knowing how he felt. That was one thing I disliked about this drama was well - we didn't really know much of what people were thinking except that they were mad, where we didn't know how they would react when they inevitably found out about Nira. And it was heartbreaking because I didn't know if what Chat was saying was real to her or just to calm her down. But the moment he said that he loved her and wanted to still get married, but he also loves Chan more than he loves Nira because he saw him as his own son....I flipped out, not knowing what to think with that statement. And it ties in with my original question and confusion - was Nira's sex change apart of a plot to hide away from her father? or did she get it because she wanted to live in a body that matched the way she felt on the inside? Maybe it was the subtitles again, but during this "intervention" at the end, it really made it sound like Chom & Chat were apologizing for making her feel like she had to go through this sex change and that they loved Chan their son. There was a lot of confusion with that intervention and I would like to think it was just a confusion with the direct translation on youtube.

Regardless, there was somewhat of an open ending and I really enjoyed reading the theories in previous reviews. I like to think that Nira went back to London to get the help that she needed in order to fully understand who she is and who she wants to be without feeling the need to hurt others or be better. Not this 10 year old boy who felt like he needed to get revenge for his mother. I also like to believe that the distance was completely necessary in order for Chat to be on his own to heal from his abusive marriage and from the death and "reresection" of a boy he loved like a son, and now needs to figure out if that love is something he is willing to accept into his heart.

The feeling that I got from the ending was that everyone had nothing but time to wait for the people they love to heal completely.

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Completed
Doom at Your Service
1 people found this review helpful
Dec 5, 2021
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.5
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 10
Rewatch Value 7.0
Despite the top liked reviews not being super positive, I very enjoyed this one.

It's been on my list for some time as I love everything Park Bo Young does, I had been putting this one off because of the context of death and Tak Dong Kyung living out the last 100 days of her life with Doom, being given the choice of making a final wish before her death or the death of her closest loved on in order to save hers. And I am not going to lie, this one was difficult for me to watch. Of course there is little things here and there with this drama, such as how Sa Ram treated Tak in the beginning with so much disgust (which reminded me of the relationship in A Korean Odyssey) and just small things were and there like how the writing was a bit confusing and the dialogue was SUPER quick that I think I missed a good chunk of what they wee talking about. But the main reason why this was was hard for me, was just the topic of death and it being a recent trigger of mine. You would have to be comfortable with the idea of death and dying in order to watch this without ugly crying because I did A LOT of that. Like every episode.

Other than that, I very much enjoyed the cinematography and the score - I think it is tied for first place with The Forest of the most beautiful dramas I have ever watched.

The ending was very obvious, but the journey getting there and seeing Sa Ram slowly gain his humanity and fall in love was extremely satisfying and always being there for Tak whenever she was going through something rough.. that is good writing. For example, I UGLY cried that whole scene when Tak went to the hair salon. But with the sad parts, there come the happy parts such as the love she receives from her aunt, brother, and best friend. Also, my favorite character, and I am sooooo happy that they included this in there, was her Canadian Uncle Kevin. I LIVED for his pep talks! Even with the language barrier, that didn't stop him from supporting Tak. Also, I loved how much her brother grew from the beginning while still being his dopey self.

Lastly, I oddly enjoyed the second leads and their romance; it also seemed like a completely different drama was happening. I loved it, but it honestly started to drag at the end, and I wanted to shake Ji Na. I totally get that this was a story about lose - Tak learning that she would lose her life and how she wanted to spend the remaining 100 days, and Ji Na learning how to move past her first love in order to live her life, but feeling like she is losing a part of herself that she's lived with since high school. Same, but different. Both emotional. But it got to a point where I am like Ji Na...we get it.

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Completed
Hua Jai Sila
0 people found this review helpful
Dec 5, 2021
27 of 27 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 8.0
This has been on my list every since I saw the preview of it when it first came out. I had honestly completely forgotten it until a few days ago when I was cleaning out some old saves instagram posts, and decided finally find where this was and watch it.

And I had a BLAST watching this! I did honestly expect something worse yet better at the same time though. The instagram review had saved with a clip from the drama (I knew how it ended so I am happy to start this "mob" drama) said so many wonderful things about it and how it was their favorite Thai drama of all time, so of course I wanted to watch it. Plus, the cast all looked GORGOUS!

I loved how it played out like one of my Grandma's "stories" I used to watch with her growing up with the usual Thai drama twist that I have a love/hate relationship with. I loved how the characters were driven by revenge and how they were willing to do insane things, such as in a soap opera, in order to hurt one another. Literally, in any other drama I have watched, the bad guy usually kills about one or two people per series tops. This one...I feel that both mains that are getting revenge killed about an average of about two to three people per episode. It blew my mind. Plus, it seemed that all the main characters were immune to bullet shots vs the henchmen who would die from a single bullet wound or getting kicked to the ground.

This drams also somehow had a large and small budget at the same time - the locations and houses were beautiful, yet the special effects were so painfully bad that it was comical.

The revenge part of the story, I very much enjoyed. I loved how if you wronged Sida (she also looked like Emily Gilmore from Gilmore Girls & Regina from Once Upon a Time so I kept calling her Emily) in anyway, she would hire someone to kidnap you so she could personally kill you...and how her son and sister were so loyal to her that they would have gone to their grave convinced that Sida had never killed anyone. I loved how Ae was easily blinded by pretty women and if you wounded his character, he would gamble anything anyway to prove you wrong...but never winning. It was very obvious and it cracked me up that everyone knew this was his weakness expect for him. I would have to say though that my two favorite characters/please don't die #1 & #2 were Mam & Plug. Mam was literally the tombraider and was immune to bullets, while Plug was just there trying this best. Lastly, loved Sila/Tor and how he was this badass who came back from the dead and just knew how to take everyone down by their weakness individually.

With that, there were somethings as well that I didn't like so much. Beginning with Sila/Tor and his romance with Min. I honestly...felt very conflicted about it. Both characters were on complete ends of the revenge scale - Tor/Sila wanted to get absolute revenge for the death of his mother and the attempted murder of him, while Min "accepted" the abuse of her step mother and half sister in hopes that they would see that she wasn't a "stray dog." They grew up together and fell in love as kids, but were separated by the supposed death of Tor, until ep one when Min recognizes him. Tor does everything in his power to make Min leave him alone (as she kept getting in his business trying to prove that he was Tor, and siding with the people he was trying to get revenge on to prove her point), which include making her try to hate him, by being very aggressive and forcing himself onto her. It made me feel very uncomfortable, as Min kept coming back trying to prove she was right and realizing that her was trying to hurt her family, and trying to protect the people who abused her. It made me feel uncomfortable, and tried to validate that he was doing it to protect her, but it went on for so long that I started to think Tor/Sila as a person was honestly... terrifying. I saw it as him abusing her... even though he was he did it so she wouldn't get hurt in his revenge plot, but instead Min started getting abused by the two sides she was fighting to stop and protect.

Besides Tor/Sila and his aggressive love life...I liked him as a character. He was a perfect example of a tragic hero, who needed to lose everything in order to realize he was wrong. Don't get me wrong, every time he challenged Ae or Sida (like when he went full on Kakeguri on Ae) I rooted for him! He had all the necessary pieces to get his revenge and win, except for the fact that he had people he loved who were easy targets.

Min, on the other hand, was a broken record. From the beginning she needed to prove that Sila was Tor so she but into his business whenever she has the chance. That was her first goal. When she finally got the truth, her second and main main goal was to try and convince Sila that forgiveness is better than revenge. Which is great... but she kept saying it to him and trying to convince him in the same way over and over and over again...where I am like...dude... try to do it in another way. Clearly, the way you are doing it is not getting through to him.

It literally took Sila loosing everything for him to realize what his aunt had been telling him for years and then randomly in the final two or three episodes...he was this 180 reborn guy who needed to spread the new word of forgiveness. Which honestly made me dislike this drama and the way things ended with Sida & Sila. It was necessary and I am happy for everyone at the end, but it just didn't make sense to me and maybe it is just because of the dialogue.

Even though I didn't like Tor/Sila and Min's relationship as well as the ending, I had a great time watching this. At some point, I called in work sick so I could spend a whole day watching this drama.

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Completed
The Great Shaman Ga Doo Shim
1 people found this review helpful
Oct 21, 2021
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 8.0
This review may contain spoilers
I originally saw this and couldn't wait to binge watch this -

It was a very quick and quirky coming to age story of Ga Doo Shim understanding her family's special gift with them help of Woo So, and ultimately deciding if she wanted to live as a normal girl after the age of 18 or continue in her family's footsteps. It was simple and quick and straight to the point where I enjoyed to story as well as all the characters.

I loved Ga Doo Shim cause she was a badass whenever she wanted to try and save people;
I loved Woo So and the passion he had for others as well as his cute little embarrassed run whenever he confessed anything to Doom Shim;
I loved Hyun Soo and his 10 year friendship with Ga Doo Shim;
& I loved Kim Il Nam and his comedic relief

This was very cookie cutter in all the things I enjoy from a spooky drama, but I couldn't go over a 9 due to the ending. It was a good ending, don't get me wrong - it was very classic, but when it seemed that the "world was saved" and everyone got to live normal lives, these characters who took on adult roles, eased into their high school lives quickly and it reminded me that I was watching a show about probably 15 or 16 year olds. Plus I guess I am so used to the ending being straight forward about certain things, while others could be open ended, but this drama didn't really answer anything... or maybe, I just missed it. It made me go back to previous episodes as I wasn't 100% sure what Doo Shim meant in her final words to Woo So. I also didn't understand what position Doo Shim chose about her life moving forward as this was the big question in the beginning of the drama.

Everything else seemed to happen and all our questions were answered, except for the two big Doo Shim questions.

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Completed
Love in Sadness
2 people found this review helpful
Oct 9, 2021
40 of 40 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 9.5
Rewatch Value 9.0

Unexpected, Instant Favorite

This isn't my usual drama genre, but I am super happy that I came across this recommendation randomly a few days ago on tik tok. Coming into this, I knew I was getting myself into a melodrama about a woman trying to escape from her marriage due to domestic violence, and convinces a plastic surgeon to reconstruct her face in order to hide. What she later realizes is that she is given the face of the surgeon's dead wife. I thought I was going to watch a dark and but classic soapy drama due to the fact that homie gave her his dead wife's face and thought it was going to be brushed over by all his friends and family.

Instead, the writer and director gave us a very twisted and dark story and turned it very light and full of flowers (and flower metaphors). They made this drama very enjoyable and easy to watch as the director paired every character with their own "theme song" to light classical music.

One of the things that I loved about this as well was how simple the characters were, but also complex. They were complex because they all were battling something within themselves - Dr Seo and his love for his wife Ha Hyung; Ma Ri and her internal battle of standing up to her abusive husband and learning who to trust; In Wook with his obsession with Ma Ri and his other's death; Hae Ra and her obsessions with Dr Seo; and Sung Ho and fighting a dark secrets. But regardless of their internal battles and these things being HUGE motivators for these characters, they were simple people who grew throughout the drama. The writer and director did an amazing job where we knew these people inside and out and whenever they were faced with a specific situation, the audience knew exactly how each out them would react. And this is to a t until the very end, when everything started to explode, and everyone was tested - but oddly, I just sat there happily watching because I knew that Ma Ri and Dr Seo wanted to help and fight for love and freedom the right way on their own terms. If they were given a shortcut, they wouldn't take it, knowing that it would come with strings attached and would help them get to their goal quicker, but turning them into someone they were not. And it was very refreshing to watch these characters grow as people, but also never stray from their morals.

Another thing I loved was how devoted a lot of these characters were - I believe my favorite character(s) in this drama were Dr Seo and In Wook's lackies due to their devotion to their people. And that is why Dr Seo and Hae Ra wouldn't have worked - Dr Seo is a romantic and would give up everything he has worked for in order to help get Ma Ri out of an abusive situation, where as when Hae Ra was put in the same situation between helping someone else who was in a bad situation and her gallery, she would chose her gallery and her hard work. And there is nothing wrong with this, they are just driven by different things. I honestly think that Hae Ra would feel suffocated at a certain point if she did marry Dr Seo. But I think the MVP award would have to go to In Wook's lackies; they were devoted to him and his wild goose chase and not by the business. There were many times when In Wook's father would try to override a command and they would not budge. Even to the very end, his main guard genuinely seemed to care about In Wook - I got the vibe that he was worried about him and hopefully by being on his side, he could protect him and hopefully persuade him to not do anything crazy.

I would have loved to give this drama 10 stars, but ultimately, it came down to the ending. I LOVED everything about this drama except for the very end. It just seemed like it ended like any other episode, even after the "final battle," where there was a huge after event... it just ended. We didn't get anything else and ended on yet another flower metaphor. I feel that I needed another episode - there were 40 25 minute episodes where we would spend an ep or two trying to fix something after an event happened which I enjoyed every minute episode, so it was very out of character for this character to just sum everything up in the last 5 minutes.

Other than that, I enjoyed the journey and the story of all the characters. There was a lot of "melodrama" to this, but there was also a lot of depth and a story about a woman learning how to tap into her courage to fight as well as her learning what true love actually is. It was also a story about a man who wanted to pretend like everything was okay and masked his hurt with fake love for wife who seemed like two different people, but learned how to accept and heal from it. And it was a story about a man who was traumatized by an abusive father and the death suicide of his mother, who turned into a monster, and refused help.

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Completed
Man in Love
1 people found this review helpful
Sep 8, 2021
Completed 0
Overall 10
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 10
Music 10
Rewatch Value 5.0
This review may contain spoilers

Watch Once, Hold In You Heart Forever

This had no business being so good, but also had no business being so sad. If you want to watch a movie where the first half is quirky and cute, while the second half will make you ugly cry, this one is a great one!

I knew what I was getting myself into with a "mob"-esq story, but Netflix recommended this to me and I didn't really feel strongly about watching something else so here I was in the same cycle. Probably going to watch a beautiful love story between a "school girl innocent" type and a "mobster with a heart of gold," and have it destroyed in the last few minutes due to "the mob life."

And this drama did have that element and storyline, but it was done in such a cute and quirky and sad way, that I was glued to the screen even though I knew something bad was going to happen. BUT unlike other "mob" stories, we got a happy ending or as much of a happy ending that we could have gotten with this tragic story.

I fell in love with A Cheng - we learn right from the beginning that he had a heart of gold, but for some reason was a debt collecting leader. He would go to collect debt from people and business owners, but instead of collecting money, he would help out in any way, and add their debt to his debt. In the beginning, we see him as a hero and maybe working on the inside to help out others who owe debt, but then we realize that he wants to help people, he just doesn't know how to do it any other way. He had a heart of gold, but didn't know how to handle every situation in another way - undercover, he was a hero and a caregiver, but to everyone else, he looked like the scum of the earth.

My favorite part of this film would have to be when he started pursuing Hao Ting - I loved the music score that they choose as if there was some kind of training montage that was taking place in the 80's but in reality, A Cheng was just convincing Hao Ting to date him romantically. I loved the funeral scene when A Cheng starts to realize that she was falling for A Cheng, and then when they go bowling and A Cheng decides to break out in song and dance. It was quirky! It was cute! It was cheesy!

But of course, there has to be a low cause not everything can be sunshine and rainbows. A Cheng falls back into old ways, and ends up in a dark place, which is when we find out some terrible news that changes A Cheng's life and makes him decide what is worth fighting for. I believe the reason why I ugly cried so much is because A Cheng was genuinely a great person who had his character and integrity put into question on multiple occasions by the same people who happened to be the ones closest to him. He had his bad days, which seemed to always be when everyone was around and he didn't always know how to express his words. And at those times when he needed someone there for him, it seemed as if those people would give up. A Cheng didn't take care of people because he wanted to be taken care of in return, and he didn't put his good deeds on a loud speaker for everyone to know. He did good things without thinking about it. He wasn't a perfect person, but he wanted to put more good out into the world than all the bad that was happening. And even til the end of the movie, even after the movie's climax settled, he took care of the people around him and made sure everyone was happy and taken care of.

Just remembering this film while writing this review gets me very emotional as A Cheng deserved a better life, but he was happy with what he had, and made everyone around him smile.

I hope Roy Chiu who played A Cheng won an aware for this movie, because it was amazing. It is definitely one of those films that you only watch once , but you hold in your heart for a while.

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Completed
Oh My Boss
0 people found this review helpful
Aug 18, 2021
14 of 14 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 5.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 6.0
This review may contain spoilers
I was excited about this one - I knew what I was getting myself into when I saw clips of this drama on Instagram, knowing the only thing that would get me out of my drama funk was something light that didn't take itself too seriously. And I am not too familiar with Thai dramas, so it is always a safe bet for myself to try something different when I can't figure out what other genre/region I want to watch next.

I was pulled in instantly, wanting to know how the whole story was going to process and how Koji was going to go about teasing out main Noom about not calling him back after the night they spent together. And it was cute and quirky, and I remember texting my friends saying that I recommended this drama. Noom was a very independent woman who worked hard for what she got which landed her a role as a translator in a big company. And upon arrival, she continuously proved to everyone that she was great at what she did. And then we had Koji, the CEO of ViperX who was also the best at what he did and would protect his employees and business at any cost - even if it meant dealing with Mr Mark, our first villain.

And as their romance started to blossom, we got to see a quirky side to Koji who just LOVED to tease Noom. And it was cute. Until you get into the middle of the drama, and we see a lot of gender differences. I am not sure if this is a normal thing in Thai dramas as I do not know the gender roles, but I do remember making a comment in the first few Thai dramas I watched - it seems that men can get away with doing a lot more than women can. We see this first when Koji sees Mr Mark flirting with Noom and gets extremely jealous that he gives Noom a hard time, making her uncomfortable in their relationship as well as at work. He never talked with her to find out what was going on and why she was going out and meeting with him On the other hand, whenever Noom would get jealous about Koji & Rena, our big villain, Koji would just tell her not to worry about it and just laugh at her for being cute and jealous, even though homegirl was having this internal crisis. As we get more into their relationship, we see Noom become very dependent and we see her loose her voice. And not because it was taken away, but because she was too in her head. Given, Koji became an extremely sus character and I am not sure if it was because of the writing or because the actor wasn't the best (but I still love you, Luke!) He got away with a lot - the more we got the know him, the more he seemed to act like a "host" where he used his charm and sex appeal to win over clients which obviously did not sit well with Noom.

But what I will say about this drama - they did build up trust within their relationship where they were confident in one another and their feelings for one another, so when the villains tried to ruin their relationship on multiple occasions, they never doubted their feelings for one another, but instead would get angry over hoe the other reacted in the situation. And because of that, when they made up, it was a lot smoother. But don't get me wrong, Koji made some WEIRD choices and put Noom in a lot of uncomfortable positions which was hell to get through in the middle of the drama, but near the end, our girl finds her voice again and I was so proud at her for basically telling Koji that he was being a wack ass and he needed to check himself if he wanted to be with her because she is a queen. She also found her voice and told off all her bullies and the villains.

If you want to watch something light what makes you roll your eyes at all the cliche scenes (ex Noom tripping over everything and falling into KOji's arms 11 out of 10 times) because there is a lot of them, this is a good drama. A lot of the side characters were meh, but luckily we don't see a lot of them.

I feel weird for saying this and with the rating I gave this drama - but for the amount of bad in the drama, I very much enjoyed it. I saw commonalities with this Taiwanese drama (Just You) that is also not the best, but it is one of the few dramas I rewatch time to time. Just You definitely had more of a story and more character growth than this drama, but it did have the classic secret relationship with the boss and his ex girlfriend who is also his boss coming into the picture because they want to see the world burn before their ex can find happiness with someone else. I believe I am very much into this whole troupe, but with that...will always come the hierarchy of their job positions which always seem to reflect in their relationship as well.

A love hate type of thing that I always get pulled into.

I believe I bumped this up from a 7.5 to and 8 because I did watch a lot of Luke's youtube videos in-between episodes and even though I didn't like their characters, I really liked the main actors outside of the drama. And ultimately, it turned a lot of the bad scenes into quirky ones.

ALSO, I was obsessed with Hazobe who should have been given a bigger role. Also shame that he didn't develop a relationship with Noom's best friend from ep 1, but I wasn't a fan of any of Noom's friends who just seemed to play up the bad in situations in different ways. Hazobe deserved better

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Completed
Mad for Each Other
1 people found this review helpful
Aug 4, 2021
13 of 13 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.5
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 7.5
Rewatch Value 8.0
This review may contain spoilers
I know I am not supposed to do this, but this drama was simply,

"About two people with their own painful stories who go through a complicated process of hurting and healing while falling in love with each other."

When I originally saw the sneak peak for this drama, I thought that this was going to be a short, quirky drama (maybe based on a webtoon - I got those vibes) about two people who suffered from different "illnesses" (anger management & paranoia) who met one another and after a rocky meeting, started build this cooky kdrama relationship that was new from anything the viewer has every seen as each person would add their own different personality (as this drama seems very over the top).

And that is what we got... in the first few episodes. After a certain point though, we started to get to know the characters and learning their backstories and the drama suddenly turned heavy and not loopy as it once was. After this point, this drama became a story about a woman who suffered PTSD from an abusive relationship she couldn't leave and a story about a cop who exploded with anger after a few BIG events in his life happened around the same time and no one seemed to be on his side or believed him. After a rocky meeting, the two (neighbors) develop this relationship that helped one another heal that eventually turned into love.

I really enjoyed this drama as the two mains always put one another's mental health before any romantic relationship and truly wanted to know the other person before starting anything. Plus, there was a really nice balance of the cookiness of their relationship being almost as comedic relief to a now heavy plot of both mains trying to learn what it is like to be normal, but hitting all these roadblocks from their past. The last episode was a bit rocky for me with all the back and forth especially when nothing was really explained of what was going on in Min Kyung's head, when the writer had been really good about doing that throughout this story. I felt like the last episode was trying to wrap everything up quickly and a lot started to happen with not a lot of explanation which is not like any of the other episodes. Other than the ending, I enjoyed most of this drama. It was a good combination of cute, quirky and heavy.

I also want to give a shout out to "Samantha" - I was so happy that one of the minor characters, who had a great friendship Hwi Oh (he was one of the nicest people too, he didn't have any prejudices and wanted to take care of everyone), was LGBTQ+, but in a way I haven't seen in a drama before. Sang Yeop was another neighbor living in the same apartment complex who didn't identify as male or female, but knew that he enjoyed dressing up as Samantha, and buying things that were "pretty." He himself addressed that he doesn't know what it all means, but he just wants to do and wear what he enjoys and that's it. I also loved his character as acted as an older sibling to minor character Soo Hyun (who was playing someone with her same name?) and had a sibling relationship with Hwi Oh where they looked out for one another.

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Completed
Dark Hole
1 people found this review helpful
Jul 14, 2021
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.5
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 9.0
This review may contain spoilers

An Instant Favorite Zombie Virus Drama

Out of all the zombie dramas/movies that I have watched, I believe this one raises to the top. It was dark and had the classic "what would you do when the world ends" troupe and seeing the darkness of human nature; seeing what they'll do to survive. We see a lot of religion or believing in a higher power to save them in the life or to welcome them into the next - which had to be my favorite parts of this drama.

Just overall, this drama was visually gorgeous as well as gruesome, which ultimately attracted me to watching this. I saw a clip of Hwa Sun in the tunnel, seeing visions of her husband's murder dressed as how she dressed her victims, and a Tae Han coming to the rescue, saving a woman that he had just met. Which was another thing I loved about the drama as well - I loved the weaknesses and the strengths of both Hwa Sun and Tae Han. Even right in the beginning, both come off as closed off (Hwa Sun due to her husband's murder and devoting her life to track her down) and purposeless (Tae Han motivated by nothing as he lost his brother in a hit and run and losing his job with a false accusation, but even with their lone wolf personas, they just at the chance to help and save someone they have never met. Which ultimately brings them together to create the dream team! They both struggled with their own internal dilemma, but what ultimately pushes and saves both of them is the support from one another and the support of people they meat along the way.

I like to say that this drama was a journey both Hwa Sun and Tae Han needed to take in order to face their problems head on and ultimately learn to accept help and heal in order to move on and start their lives again.

Going off that though, I wanted to give this drama a 10/10, but after reading some of the other reviews, I would have to agree with some comments. I didn't binge this drama like I would have with others, so it took me a month or two to complete this one, but I was very content in my speed as I felt that I was satisfied if I needed to leave off in the middle of an episode or even at the end. But because of the non-binge, I forgot a few things. Overall, I really liked this drama and was pulled in from the beginning! But there were some plot holes that were present, that I choice to disregard because I was sucked in by everything else. For one - maybe it is just me and my passion for watching playthroughs for shooting games, where you need to find ammo to reload or supplies to craft items, but I was very aware of the "infinite bullets" plot hole. In the beginning at least, maybe they just didn't show Hwa Sun reloading her gun, but homegirl was firing round after round. There was also the whole plot where Hwa Sun was introduced as this detective trying to find her her husband's murder and we got a lot of background information about the murder and it being her only motivator even though there is this whole virus killing people. It was soon forgotten about as there were "bigger" issues happening around her, but it still remained a huge trigger between Hwa Sun staying human or being a zombie. Eventually in the middle of the drama, by pure coincidence, her husband's murderer happened to be one of the random survivors and was quickly resolved as it wasn't this HUGE trigger for the main character. Then for Tae Han, we don't get his back story until the middle to end, which seemed a but random, as he didn't really seem to have a trigger. But he did, and he got his "revenge" or "closure"... it didn't really make sense to me, but I was happy he didn't hold grudges against third parties. The only backstory that seemed to make sense throughout the drama was Dong Rim's, as it played a huge part in this "evilness" that the black fog was thriving off of.

But even with these small plot holes, it didn't affect me as it might have with other dramas. I very much enjoyed the calm and nurturing nature of both the mains, as well as with the survivors. There wasn't that many, so be prepared in ep 11 to maybe lose a few favorites like I did.

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Completed
Gatao: The Last Stray
2 people found this review helpful
Jun 2, 2021
Completed 3
Overall 9.0
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 8.0
This review may contain spoilers

Great Chemistry, Classic Mob Ending

This is my first time watching anything mob-related. It really isn't my genre as there aren't many "happy" endings because of the "mob life." But Netflix recommended it to me, and it looked interesting enough AND I was extremely happy when one of my favorite Taiwanese actresses was the love interest of Lin Yu Qing.

I was instantly pulled in by the chemistry that Qi and Yu Qing had, regardless if it was a bit insta love on her part, but once they started their romance, they genuinely loved one another and wanted to give each other the world. Unfortunately, due to Lin Yu Qing's upbringing and his "family life," their relationship suffered in other ways.

But there was this one intense scene where Qi and Yu Qing were arguing about opening up and being there for one another in every way, even if they didn't support what they were doing, and it was raw and authentic and it showed love.

The ending broke my heart and it made it hard for me to fall asleep as I watched it before bed and was trying to wrap my head around "why" even though I knew why.

Overall, really good! The story was very interesting, and I loved the family aspect of why people did what they did, but I was heartbroken - if the South City's son-in-law decided he didn't want to cause problems for everyone, we would have gotten a completely different ending. Which overall kind of turns me off about mob dramas as one guy can mess everything up for everyone else and change their happy story to a sad one.

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Completed
Run On
1 people found this review helpful
Jun 1, 2021
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.5
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 8.0
It is a story about "a nut job, a loser, a psychopath, a piece of trash or someone's first love"

I've always wanted to watch this one but was scared off when my roommate told me she was bored, disliked the characters, and dropped it around episode 10. Then I remembered that she and I enjoy different things when it comes to entertainment with music, shows, and movies - and ultimately decided to pick this up. I have been recently learning that things she isn't into, are usually things I really enjoy. And this drama was one of those examples. I completely loved everything about this. It played out very casually that not only was it easy to watch, but it felt like it was written like an independent movie, which is ironic as Mi Joo was a translator for mostly independent movies.

I loved how no one was "perfect" and it wasn't a traditional story about these "crap" people who needed to learn from one another to change and be better people. Nope. This was a story about imperfect people who went on a journey to find self-love with who they were already and who they wanted to be and finding a group of friends that love them for who they were.

Mi Joo was so full of wisdom and great at giving advice and sticking up for everyone, as everyone was her people. She lived a life as an orphan and decided to be her own superhero and be the person that she needed when she was growing up. She was an inspiring person to be around even though she wasn't there for herself sometimes and had a hard time forming deep relationships as she had a history of people leaving her. But she wasn't perfect, and it made me love her more as she always owned up to her mistakes and faults... eventually. There were so many different quotes about life that I took from this drama, including,

"Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up." - Oh Mi Joo

&

Mi Joo-"We will probably never fully understand each other, right?"
Seon Gyeom- "Yes... We're different after all."
Mi Joo- "You have your world and I have mine, but we could align our worlds next to each other, couldn't we? So let's not be disappointed in each other. That's impossible to do. Instead, we'll stick to whatever is possible."

I also enjoyed the "bromance" and the "womance" between the 4 mains. It got to a point where I was like, protect Seon Gyeom & Young Hwa at all costs - you make my boys cry, I will fight you.

I loved Seon Gyeom because even though he lacked certain social cues and how to act in certain situations, he did what he thought was right, even if it meant throwing himself off a bridge to save someone else. I loved watching his growth and feeling more comfortable in his own skin. He was empathetic from the beginning, but it was nice seeing him feel comfortable and still helping his people while learning to take care of himself and standing up for what he believes is right.

Dan Ah & Young Hwa are a little tricky. I believe both of them taught one another how to be mature as well as how to let loose. But, the relationship was super back and forth that I started resenting Dan Ah, when it was also Young Hwa'sfault. But like I said, their relationship was tricky as Dan Ah was his "boss bitch" and was also inspirational, and I enjoyed Dan Ah & Mi Joo bicker back and forth, but I personally have a hard time with people who lack empathy. I wanted to like her, but I didn't see how someone can treat others like "vending machines" and what they have to go through to turn off that emotion. But Young Hwa also wasn't innocent and I still loved him. I wanted to understand the morale of this drama and accept and love people's "flaws" as it is not what defines them.

I was also pleasantly surprised that after all the "sexual" jokes that this drama kept throwing out there, there was actually a story with one of the minor characters about self-acceptance about their sexuality. It was the ONLY time I cried during this drama, was when this character confessed their one-sided feelings, so they could move on from them, and then that person comforting them knowing how hard it was for the other person to have to hide who they were.

Overall, my favorite part of the drama would still have to be the beginning when Mi Joo worked as a translator for Seon Gyeom. I loved her stepping into this world that she wasn't familiar with and even though she and Seon Gyeom weren't close, she did what she thought was right and became a guardian for him and standing up for him when he felt that he couldn't. I like how Seon Gyeom was inspired by Mi Joo to be his authentic self. I also LOVED whenever Mi Joo was "in action," either with Seon Gyeom's first interview or when they were at the filming site, Seon Gyeom, sat back and watched her in awe and was like, "she is so cool" and gave her a look like, "that's my girl." The dialog itself was super sassy and very enjoyable to watch. I found myself laughing more than I have in a while, watching a drama.

I can see why my roommate didn't enjoy this drama, but I can completely say, that I fully enjoyed this. The only thing that I didn't enjoy was that the plot itself fell off a little in the middle and ending, but I enjoyed it as well because I loved the conversations and the overall dialog. I definitely feel like I came out on the other side a better person.

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Completed
Let's Fight Ghost
1 people found this review helpful
Jun 1, 2021
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 9.0
This review may contain spoilers

Better than the Original

I had no idea going into this, that this was a Thai remake of "Bring It On Ghost," which was one of my favorite watches last year - but oddly enough, I actually agree with a lot of the comments -

I liked this remake a lot better than the Korean version, which is a HUGE compliment.

I enjoyed how it followed the plot of the Korean original, but it also added originality and tied in a lot of Thai culture and folklore.

I very much enjoyed all the characters - I felt that this drama dove into each character. We learned about a temperamental Off who was also empathetic and liked taking care of people. We got to know Jeen who had been a ghost for five years and just wanted to know about her human life and to not be left alone in a world that couldn't see or hear her. We got to see the growth of Leng & Junior and their ghost-fighting business. We got more of an inside look at Numwan & Dr. Jade and a relationship that actually formed, and not a one-sided crush. And that's what I enjoyed the most about this drama - it focused on relationships as well as ghost fighting, but they really took the time for the audience to get to know everyone and build relationships and friendships. I genuinely loved the friendship that Off formed with Leng & Junior and it didn't seem forced whatsoever like the Korean version. I loved that they showed more of Dr Jade and made him more "human" and seeing him struggle actually was heartbreaking.

But my favorite thing about this drama was where I was annoyed with the Korean drama for not connecting the dots and left me with a lot of questions, this drama explained everything. For example, wherein the Korean version, I was not sure if Jeen's character ever regained her memories. In this version though, not only did we get to see if she ever regained her memories, but we got to see her actually recover and go through recovery. Some of the cutest scenes in this drama were of Off taking care of her and helping her heal.

I would say the only thing that I didn't enjoy about this drama was Off's uncle being overly protective when he should have helped train Off physically and mentally. Off was not mentally prepared for that mess of the last episode and last fight, and luckily his love for Jean saved him. Other than that, I enjoyed all the missions, all the feels, and even the excess amount of gruesome deaths. This drama knew exactly what it wanted to be, and I enjoyed every second of it, including all the chessy scenes that weren't neccesary.

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Completed
The Sweet Blood
0 people found this review helpful
May 14, 2021
15 of 15 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 6.0
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 6.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 3.0
This review may contain spoilers
When I found out this drama was actually 15 eps, 10 minutes each, I got scared. Happy that this would be a simple and quick watch, but also scared because short dramas are a hit or miss. I saw the trailers and previews for this all over instagram and youtube and was excited to see this main character Yoon Chi Woo as this suspicious attractive vampire that was good and bad ready to find some romance. Instead, we got this drama about 3 boys who fell for half vampire/half human Son Yeon Seo. There was nothing about her that was spectacular except that she wanted to be a human and not vampire, but had this special ability to smell blood and find attributes about the human it belonged to. As for the boys, I felt that the fortune teller did a great job at explaining their "love square" : Do Hyun Je was connected to animals (hence the werewolf), Yoon Chi Woo related to blood - but also related to bad, and Song Meo Ru who had a great fate, but a tad dumb. I am not sure if it was Viki's subtitles, but I laughed so hard because this was basically everything we needed to know about these guys and all we were going to get.

Also, for a drama that "revolved" around "love" and Yeon Seo figuring out which of the boys she wanted to be with, even though there was only really one guy she wanted to be with since the beginning, I didn't believe that she was actually "in love" with Meo Ru. If anything, I feel like she was attracted to his blandness and mundaneness. All she ever wanted was to live a bland and normal life and what better to do that with, with the blandest boy ever who was maybe anemic... or maybe he was just being dramatic but he was super sweet so he got some points. But, I still think that she had better chemistry with the two other boys, especially with Hyun Je, which was super random.

If anything, my favorite character who was the ONLY one who went through any character development which is wild in these short episodes, was Chi Woo. He came in as this bad boy who was hired to track down the blood of "the one" and who was the ex-fiance of Yeon Seo. Along the way, he learned to act sincerely on his feelings and also redeemed himself as everyone thought that he was this terrible vampire causing trouble when he was just chilling at home. I also enjoyed that they hinted that he was bisexual and I LOVED his banter with Hyun Je.

But with everything I did like, there was so much more I didn't like and was disappointed.

I know with such a short drama, we weren't able to get background information, but ANYTHING would have been nice. I feel like whenever there was an intense moment something random and huge was brought up like we were supposed to know their motivations for doing things. It just made emotional scenes empty and it was hard to connect with all the characters. We did get a little but of background with why Yeon Seo wanted a normal life, but it was brought up so casually as everyone talks about their mother being drained of her life force by their vampire husband.

This drama had SO much potential if the episodes were longer and we were given more information. I felt like the watcher was pushed into the middle of a story without context, to witness a single minor plot, and then pulled out of it.

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Completed
Intense Love Special
5 people found this review helpful
May 1, 2021
1 of 1 episodes seen
Completed 3
Overall 7.5
Story 7.5
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 6.0
This review may contain spoilers

No English Subs

I don't know if this is considered a "true" review since I was only able to find this 30-minute movie online with Thai subtitles and had no idea what they were saying, but I still wanted to write something.

This definitely seemed a lot more natural and easy-going and low budget, which is a 180 from the original drama. I loved the calmness of both mains carried with these roles. Bei Bei's voice wasn't as modified in this special as it was in the original, and her voice was a tad deeper which had this calming and easygoing effect. Zhou's character also had this outgoing coolness, but still also came off like a soft boy from the original drama. Also, I don't know why I also loved his long shaggy-ish hair in this.

This movie/drama was also mainly 15-20 minutes worth of flashbacks from the original drama - no idea if they were "past-lives" memories or just filler for the audience to remember what happened in the original drama.

The remaining 10-15 minutes was a cute little story about (this is me assuming based on the footage and not dialog) about two strangers (Zhou Shi Yun was an actor as he kept referencing names of movies; not sure what Bei Bei was - it is assumed she is a doctor, but all she did was perform a mediocre first aid job) who met by chance at a little street market where they were both were pulled in by a snow globe. Bei Bei let's the little girl that is with Zhou have the snow globe and asks them to come to her house to perform first aid when the little girl get hurts. There, Bei Bei and Zhou get to know one another by fixing a barbie lego castle thats gets knocked down and some midnight "power-outage & candle lit" ramen dinner. From there, they add one another on we chat and they, we assume, start their relationship.

Very simple, very sweet.

Not sure if they remember a possible past life since this snow globe seems to have some kind of power. But without the English subtitles, we will never know. Overall, I will give it a 7.5/10 just because I didn't know what was being said. If someone finds a version that has English subtitles, please let me know and I will write another review :)

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