Motivational story with excitement throughout the drama!

I decided to watch this show because of Yang Yang, but wow it really got some good storyline out there!

At first I was hesitating whether to give it a try as I wasn't that interested in gaming and knowing that it doesn't have love story (because I just wanted to watch Yang Yang XD), BUT I AM GLAD THAT I WATCH IT! Even for people who doesn't find this gaming theme interesting, you will just get hooked on by the story itself.

If you have watched Go Go Squid or Love O2O before, this is basically a combination of both (but without the loveline). It has a story similar to GGS (where a professional player left his group and started his own team) and the gaming graphics like LO2O! I love how this show has a lot of unexpected plots!! For someone like me who never read the novel before, I will always try guessing who will win the match but it always comes with a plot twist, then you just can't stop watching because you wanna know happens next! Every match was just so exciting, even though it was just an animation battle instead of physical sword-fighting. but it's real good and pretty well done!!!

I also love the friendship between the clan leaders, the team mates, teacher-students or even the opponents. It shows not only how the male lead is good in gaming but also his strategy to bring victory to the team and finding the right way to guide different kind of members. Ye Xiu is really an amazing character, a good son and grandson, a good leader, a good friend, a good teacher and a good partner! :)

You should watch it, because you will feel so motivated and touched by the characters!

Read More

So-so

Similarly to all the other youth dramas, this drama has the cliche setting of a tall cool guy with a short cute girl.

There wasn't any spectacular plots or climax but it was not too bad, too so I still manage to finish watching it. I enjoy watching the cute couple but a lot of plots were intentionally developed (like how they always misunderstand each other when they saw them with second leads). One or two is understandable but the whole series were pretty predictable and dull in such case. Plus, Aaron Deng's acting was pretty stiff and unnatural, but Ireine was good (undoubtedly since she has been in so many dramas and gotten much experiences) However, I guess Aaron's acting was tolerable to many people mainly because he is good looking? Imagine if it is the other way round, the actress will probably get so much of criticism...

Overall, a light-hearted youth drama featuring university life (within the Arts School, Sculpting Course as they were all coursemates), a lot of cliche plots but suitable for fangirls who enjoyed fantasising tall and handsome male lead.

Read More

How Love Overcomes Hatred

Oh, this genre is so not my kind but gosh it's surprising good!

I don't really fancy the dark content but I couldn't deny that it was pretty well written, especially how the two main leads bring out the inner feelings of their relationship alongside with the intense story; "when you think you hate him/her, but you actually love him/her more than anyone else do". You might not feel anything in the start as they started off to be a couple with a kid already, but the more you watch, the more their past memories being shown, and how you realised you got hooked on.

Lee Joon Ki's character, neither a villain or an innocent citizen, never understand feelings and have expression. This is a pretty uncommon yet interesting character that I've never seen before in other dramas and LJK definitely amazes me with his impressive portrayal of the role. What surprises me was when female lead wanted to separate with him, he said nothing much but his eyes were so sad and so helpless, and he never knew this was "sad" and it was because of "love". Well I would say his acting is in a whole new level that it draws me deeply into the story.

I would say the main leads were the only reason kept me watching to the very end, I enjoyed their "healing" kind of relationship. The main story of the murder case was okay, quite exciting but not my cup of tea, I believe it is suitable for people who like thrilling kind of drama!

Read More

Fairly good drama with good looking casts!

With the high ratings seen on MDL, I had a very high expectation of the show. In fact, it is good, but not super good.

In the starting, it gave me a very strong "Ashes of Love" vibes but the production wasn't as good as that, acting wise I think Ashes of Love's casts are better. BUT! I personally think Love and Redemption has a better 60-episode story, which although it was long but it wasn't boring at all! I thought it would be in the "immortal world" settings but turns out to be the "mortal" world settings but having "immortal world" as the main lead's past. It was sweet in the first half and sad in the second half of the drama. It gave me a lot of anger because the male lead is suffering so much for all the misunderstanding, distrust and judgement from his loved ones. To the extent, I don't even think all his loved ones deserve a good ending, like they should have get some karma for putting the male lead into such situation... but well, I guess love wins ?

Overall it was quite good, as long as you don't compare it with other Xianxia dramas, it is fairly good as a standalone piece and it's worth watching! Oh, especially if you enjoy watching good looking casts, this drama almost all of them (even the villians) are as good looking as the main leads which is quite eye-pleasing!

Read More

Cute couples chemistry!

I watched Legend of Yun Xi first and fall in love with the couple, so when I knew this drama I know I gonna watch it no matter how good it is!

Overall it was okay, it wasn't fantastic but not too bad too. Although I prefer Legend of Yun Xi more but I think if you enjoyed watching the couple this could be just nice for you to watch it too! :) Besides slightly weaker storyline, other such as production, acting and chemistry are on the point! :)

Favourable part about this drama:
- Cute second lead couple
- Good looking side roles (even the villain of the show XD)
- Better ending than Legend of Yun Xi and also the Spinoff additional 3 mini episodes! I love it! It was such a well done piece that is made specially for the viewers! :)

Not so favourable part about this drama:
- Some argument and misunderstanding in the show are done quite "deliberately". (E.g. main couple supposed to love each other as they gone through A LOT but ended up getting into big argument for a very small issue).
- Useless emperor that makes weird decision (E.g. He should be wise and decisive but instead listening to all sorts of nonsense by nobody and acting like a dumb butt)
- The main lead's character and how the couple fall in love (I prefer their personality in Legend of Yun Xi's, also the story on how they established the relationships are better there)

Read More

LOVE IT because of the Main Leads!!!!

I was having quite a low expectation as I wasn't really keen of watching investigating kind of drama as it burns up my brain cells hahaha
BUT! This is really an exception of an investigating kind of drama that I LOVE!!
Wasn't giving it a full 10/10 just mainly because I think some parts of the production could have been better, such as:
1. Their water scenes filming
2. Some parts of the investigation got logical problem which doesn't make sense
3. Second main lead storyline was quite awkward and draggy

However, the 9.5 for this show GOES TO THE BOTH MAIN LEADS + THE BIG VILLAIN of the show!!!
Their acting just made the whole show up to the point, which makes the rest of the show SHINES :)
The main leads are pretty cute together and their interaction are very natural with very detailed expression! The big villain, I had never ever once felt so fuming when I saw the villain because I know they are acting, but WOW this actor just made me feel like smashing my phone when I was watching hahaha! Such an impressive acting and also a great character development!

For this drama, don't be too serious on the investigation parts, it definitely not flawless but in my opinion, it was not too bad too. But of course, if you also enjoy romance story, you will definitely enjoy this!

Read More

As compared to all the top dramas - Eternal Love, Untamed etc, Ashes of Love might not have the best storyline but they definitely got the BEST production!! Costumes, CGIs, Soundtracks, backdrop, it is just amazing how a Cdrama can produce such quality of fantasy drama!

Next let's talk about storyline, I personally wouldn't recommend this to people who is looking for a comedy piece, because the entire series is just very saddening throughout, many twists and turns going on and on... I don't really like how the male lead fall madly in love to her so quickly when the female lead hardly done anything, it would have been better if they had more stories before the male lead is willing to sacrifice so much for her (which the second half of the show got better) That's why I think the show wasn't that appealing to me until the last 25 episodes where the climax of the story begins (If you have watched the series before you will definitely know which part I meant XD) I love those parts!

Besides that, I personally felt female lead's innocent acting in the front part wasn't that ideal, no doubt she was pretty good in crying scenes but not the very front part where she was a grape sprite, I know she was supposed to not have any love feelings, but her acting was a bit off TBH, not so natural. But she really pull off the heartbreaking scenes though, that part needs to give her a huge credit.

I wouldn't want to rewatch probably because the main leads are just too miserable haha, but it was a good piece overall, worth watching!

Read More

Couldn't Stand Watching at Normal Speed

Not sure if it was because I'm holding a high expectation from Go Go Squid (GGS) or the story is really that boring, but I really couldn't watch this without fast forwarding. Even when I'm watching in 1.5 speed, it is still so slow.

Sorry that I have to disappoint GGS fans, but this isn't the Season 2 you are anticipating. It is basically same story but focusing solely on the other couple (DT and Appledog). TBH, I enjoyed the songs, the casts, the interaction between K&K and how they tweaked the game into the robotic race, but besides the mentioned; the love story, the reenact of the Solo Team story was just boring, not just a little, but quite. I intend to finish the series until it all came out at once and I learnt that the main couple of GGS is only appearing on the last episode, I watched it and thereafter decided to not finish the rest.

GGS was a pretty successful series as they don't only have the story of the main couple but also the story of Solo Team, the kiddo of Solo with the mother, Xiao Mi couple, with a few of the K&K kids' side stories; the whole series became very comprehensive and lots of different chemistry within. BUT for this one, they had similar Solo Team story but a simplified version (plus all the flashback scenes are without Han Shang Yan, looks like a pretty dried out Solo Team story), also have Grunt's and a few opponent stories but still make it up to 38 episodes, turns out to be very draggy. Because they wanted to keep the main cast but they are not featured in most of the scenes, everything look so empty. When they were in competition, no boss, no tutor (captain), smaller team and most of the time only few of them, everything is just weird for me. Anyway, I would say the only good thing was the robot housekeeper which is super cute!

Talking about love story, I had totally no issues with Li Yi Tong, I love her and find her pretty matching with Hu Yi Tian but their story doesn't seem to be appealing. Similar to GGS, they both started with one of the lead in love with the other one; but this series, they had a lot slow-motion scenes in the start featuring both looking into each other's eyes, also a lightbulb room to summarize their relationship in the epilogue, I find it pretty unnecessary, especially when you haven't even build up a deep relationship. Those came so random, to the extent I don't find it relatable and it doesn't touch the bottom of my heart.

But again, I believe some people still enjoy watching Hu Yi Tian and Li Yi Tong together on screen or maybe the K&K team as well (But I miss DEMO), you can still go ahead and try. But please don't have your hopes to high or else you will be as disappointed as I am...

Read More

This is probably my first ever Cdrama that I dropped.

I had a huge expectation at the start as I like the main actor and actress but I decided to drop it simply because I couldn't find a reason to continue.

First, the production was pretty bad whereby the whole series are surrounded with only that few actors and actress. They supposed to be some leader and the young owner of that village which is quite a high-ranked people, but they got hardly any guards or servants where anyone can simply enter their house without people noticing lol

Secondly, like what was mentioned above, the main guy always enter second male lead's house out of nowhere and talk to the female lead, and once he finished talking, he just disappeared like nobody's businesses LOL. The main storyline was okay where the female lead mistaken the other guy as her prince charming but the detailed plot was ridiculous. The guy wanted the girl to steal something in Episode 1 but in Episode 5 they are still in their discussion, like seriously? How draggy can it be...

Thirdly, the choice of actor and actress could be better. I don't deny their acting were okay, but probably get some older actor and actress to act since their roles are like clan's leader but they look like kiddos in the show, I don't know if the makeup and dressing is the problem or just that their faces don't suit the roles.

Fourthly, the characteristic of the main leads weren't attractive as well. Female lead was so desperate and hopeless romantic to the extent that it became a bit annoying, male lead was too cringey and the second lead was not charming too. Lee Hong Yi was hunching all the way that makes him look so weird, I don't know why.

I heard from my friends that the story became better till the end but I still can't get past the first few episodes, but I can roughly guess what will happen after (by watching the closing credits). But since after watching, I still do not anticipate any of the scenes so I think it's time to drop it.

It got a nice ending song sung by Lee Hong Yi though :) That's probably the only thing I love about this show.

Read More