8392225
NOT Good Enough
When you wish to fastforward during a 17-minute episode...Then that says a lot.
Though, nothing good. LOL
Okay, seriously now. The 1st episode of this "drama" still looked like they were keeping up appearances. It looked explosive, it looked like it had something serious to say. Looks are deceiving.
Speaking of looks... I don't like the main boy. He looks feminine.
After the seemingly promising beginning, this show failed to deliver any actual... well, drama. What it did deliver was showing young people, who, as one fellow MDL member was able to put aptly, were "Expressionless twenty something moving and talking slowly"... There's really no other way to put it. The process of watching them went from quite boring to almost comatose, in the end I started to feel that I would prefer even if something violent happened to them, LOL.
And who needs super-controlling mother in the age of social media where privacy is non existent anyways? The mother feels obsolete and like from another era now, when all the twenty year olds themselves post every insignificant detail of their lives (which should be boring for THEM, let alone the audience) and the kids have no privacy to begin with.
Then, we don't really deal with this "drama" even, because we have most of the episode screentime dedicated to visiting one shop or other and buying an item which is then "subtly" advertised during the end credits...
This show might be called TWENTY-TWENTY, nevertheless I did not manage to watch it TWENTY times. After 13 episodes, which were super long despite being short, I didn't feel like watching 1 single minute nore of this vague sequence of video which failed to form a proper drama to be recognized as such by me.
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'Touch Your Heart' fullfills its title's promise
Touch Your Heart? After watching it for 4 episodes or so, it already did. Touch my heart. It was Romantic & Funny:-) It was also nothing special, I overall give it 7 out of 10. BUT it was the drama you'd give like 'Miss Congeniality' award. It was simply sweet. Nothing unnecessary added to annoy you much (there's some obvious product placement and obvious fan service but nothing in the actual drama).Let's start with the cast. The leading actress, 37 years old but looking really youthful AND CUTE, is actually a good actress whose good acting gets often lost in how cute she is. But make no mistake, she IS good. Her partner in this, the 38 year old Lee Dong Wook, forever burned in my memory for his 2005 'My Girl', has changed. And he's not the same hot and sexy, oh no now after his face got all whitened and "perfected" he looks a bit like a porcelain doll. I no longer like him, and thanks to that I was not really that invested in the romantic side of this show, to say the truth. As for the rest of the cast: I immensely appreciate every single face in that law firm (though the name of that law firm was ridiculous, for korean law firm especially), their casting was SPOT ON and THEY were the ones that made this simple and not-outstanding story WORTH watching.
Apart from fromantic, this show was FUNNY. It even had funny background music! So bizarre at times (like, what was up with the ethno playing each time someone was falling flat on their face? LOL). There were court cases which were engaging enough, made you laugh or cry. Practically all the people in the law office were HILARIOUS. And the boss could not be MORE gay if he tried. I LOVED his clothes, just taking a good look at those sent me laughing each time, including his socks. And if the actress was assigned to that divorce lawyer since episode 1, the whole show could be even funnier. Shim Hyung Tak was great. Also enough good looking to be the lead. Lee Dong's fans forgive but I would not expressly miss him in this show if he wasn't there. Everybody else was cracking me up. But him, I did not really care whether the actress shall start dating him or not. Nevertheless, she started liking him pretty early and also took the first initiative. It was not very exciting for me on the romance front, though it was occasionally cute and funny, mostly how he was clueless. 1st kiss is at 1/2 of the series and it's not very exciting one to say the least.
Then we have a plot with a stalker whose face is actually kinda girly... But, we ARE in Korea. Weirdly feminine men EVERYWHERE. Then it gets all dumb by episode 13/16, when the main lawyer must try and save mentally incapacitated man from being sentenced for life in prison even if we are in south korea, not north. So the lawyer (beside the obligatory noble idiocy break-up with the actress) needs to break every kind of code in his profession to take his case personally (which is not needed, he might as well get another lawyer do it) to show that he is "nice". The only thing keeping the show going by that time is the funny secondary couple. Because watching Lee Dong Wook making sad faces at bus stops - with his "new" face already distorted, so that when a huge tear is falling on his cheek I got nervous it might start actually falling apart - was more creepy than funny. But, apart from this kind of stupidity, what I appreciated most about this drama were the things which were NOT in it: clingy secondary females, loud screamers, dragging love triangles with secondary males, "funny" secondary characters which were not funny (these the hell WERE), totally skippable secondary plots (these were all organic and interested us at least a little), uneccessary "shocking surprises" (like exes coming back from the dead, etc.) and many more you can think of. Yes, I appreciated all the things that were MISSING more than those that were there. I was not really thrilled for the main couple romantically, but I had a pleasant warm feeling. All the secondary cast was adorable and eligible for some kind of 'Team Super Cute' title:-))
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This review may contain spoilers
There's only 9 years difference between him and her, if we speak about the cast, but well it's the cast we watch in the drama. She's pretty, womanly. His looks are a bit dry, he's very skinny, with hollow cheeks (very skeleton-ish). He kisses main heroine episode 1 and then moves next door to her with his... wife.Being in the dramaland, she does not notice the identity of the male counterpart of the new couple that moved next door, only the wife, who is the kind of overly friendly neighbor. She becomes his lover, though at first she hesitates. The phrase "second virgin" describes a woman who was not with a man for decades. Just to take off her clothes takes courage, now. She concentrated on her worklife, while having no personal life, and became very successful. So much that she now believes that if she falls for a man, her worklife would crumble (which does not make any sense, but it probably feels like that to her). Also she knows the fact that he is married, and that if she falls in love with a younger, married man, it would not put her in the best position. Still, she sleeps with him in episode 3, when abroad. Obviously the point was for her to do that before she realizes that he has moved next door.
Reviews for this drama noted it has the 90s feel and one should watch it to see the soul of jdramas:-) Comments of course inquired whether the ending is a happy one. I guess we do not need one for a drama of this kind, just be advised that SPOILER he even dies. My belief is that the Tag "Death Of Main Character" should be listed on MDL for those viewers who can not handle it. From the hot romance, through divorce drama this show descends into personal tragedy of the man.
Some of my notes... The wife was such a psycho it would be understandable (considering they did NOT have children, yet) he would plain told her he wants divorce the day he met the second virgin. Or BEFORE. Either way she was obviously SO alone in the marriage she talked all her personal life to total strangers so it would not make much a difference to actually separate. (Which they eventually do, yet we keep watching her side-character.) Then there's the big court case we go through. Sometimes, less is more. Ordinary things are more dramatic. Normal wife, normal life. At least (thanks to being a real couple also offscreen or thanks to something else) all main couple's scenes were a treat. You notice the difference immediatelly, especially after watching many dramas with all the "high-schoolers". It was getting a bit ridiculous when repeatedly there was a scene with her trying to run from him on a street, but with the far-fetched kind of plots I already mentioned, what can you expect. Last episode is more about surviving women than about anything else... I found myself to care less and less about every character the more the series progressed to the end.
I was kind of at loss as to how to rate this because overall it's good yet it's not a satisfying romance drama, nor a family drama, nor a human drama. Least of all it's "mafia genre" because all that was pretty intermediated. We just read some letter retrospectively, about what happened before. So, I don't know: a career drama, maybe?
I'm not interested in the following movie (marked as *Not Interested*), after learning what it is about.
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Seriously, what went wrong with this?
Seriously, what went wrong with this? If I DROP a show AT 18/20, because I can't no longer withstand it, if I wish to fastforward during a TWELVE MINUTE episode, then there's something seriously wrong. This must be officially the worst thing ever done by 'Playlist Global'...At first, I was still riding on the season 1 wave, without noticing that something was wrong. After a few episodes, I found myself browsing through Comments, instead of watching: Stumbled upon one, noting that DoHa was no longer the lead, but support... And realized it was true. It was KimHa who became the new lead, hence the sudden... Boredom?
I don't know how else to describe it, the emptiness. At first, I didn't understand why did DoHa drop the hot guy. He's the almost only male on the cast not looking feminine, and the only one having sexy voice. With her reason being that she "needs more time for herself"? What a cr*p. Exactly what DoHa was NOT about. At least 1st season DoHa... With this couple (more or less) gone, I started to focus on what we actually COULD watch, here. And it was... not much, to say the truth.
There were whole episodes that consisted of pretty much nothing of note. Being short was never a weakness before. This season? Despite adding new characters, somehow it all makes a material that's ENTIRELY skippable. Huh? Seriously, what went wrong with this? Aren't GiHyun & BoRam just as adorable as before? Why am I not enjoying them, at least? I kinda am, but I watch their scenes thinking: I do like these two, just this particular scene, I wouldn't specifically miss it. But I think it EVERY scene. And, in contrast to DoHa, it makes no difference whether KimHa jumps into Min's arms, or rejects Min.
Instead of stretching for 20 episodes, which proved to be unbearable to finish (after watching 12-15 of them, each new episode I literally prayed for ANY kind of ending, just as long as the episode I was currently watching would become FINAL one) this whole season could wrapped itself into one little, disposable ball. Just throw it out and start again from s01 end. Or let it end on it.
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I kept skipping basically all the support characters. They all tried to be attractive and funny, but only the mains were. As for the "story", there wasn't much of it in this one, not that I did miss all the usual "drama" devices such as love triangles or money plots or semi-criminal themes.
So, on one hand I immensely liked the main couple cast & characters. On the other hand, I fastforwarded at least 80% of the series. I never cared whatever happened with any side characters. And sometimes even with the main ones.
It was like a day-time show that runs every single day and each episode contains "daily drama". Like a case at work. Going shopping. Visiting doctor's. Etc. Oh! Looking at the airtime information, that's what this actually was (it aired Monday-Sunday, lol) I don't know why is this called 'Across The Ocean To See You', mostly it's about 2 people working at the same office and living in the same building, lol.
I gotta admit, there were SO many times I considered dropping this. Like, almost every episode:) Not that I would dislike it, but honestly I didn't feel compelled to keep watching it. But then, what would I watch as my next c-drama? It's all mystical wings and long-haired dudes. So, I sticked with this one:D After a looong time of boredom, occasionally I was blessed with super-cute /+ funny scene. Then, another looong time of boredom, lol. Apart from the clothes people wear (well, it's China:) there's not that much fun. Just the main couple. Seriously, this couple did some goofy couple stuff, lolz. Nevertheless, it takes 31 episodes for them to speak about being a couple openly (if you wait for kiss scene, it's the same number: 31 episodes of waiting, then first kiss is epi 32).
It sure was a LONG watch. Like, when I felt like I was watching this for ages, I was still at 1/2 of it, lol. I don't binge, and I don't watch the same shows every day. Like, even if this aired daily all 7 days a week, how they managed to air 44 episodes within 19 days is beyond me ("Aired: Apr 2, 2017 - Apr 21, 2017"). LOL. After completing 44 episodes of this, I was immensely exhausted. And I needed time to decide the next c-drama to watch, if ANY.
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Okay, first episode, I was still willing to accept it. Episode 2, things got more irritating (the side-cast really "outdid" themselves) than funny (fecal "humour" comes in literally as dog poop) PLUS main heroine keeps getting uncomfortably close (mostly unwillingly hugging him) to Pae Arak, who is really not a looker. Aom Sushar looks only the more ridiculous surrounded by all the clowns and idiotic situations. By episode 3, I already established that the choice here was either to try and suffer through all the "hilarious" antics of all the numerous b-grade side "actors" (with the honorable exception of Namfon Sueangsuda, but what use is having her here?), or try to skip through it, only to feast my eyes on Pae Arak's glistening hair. As for the "story", I would understand if the teacher would not wish to work in such school. From my point of view, it could end after 2 episodes already.
After mere 3 episodes, I had enough of this.
(Actually way sooner than episode 3 ended.)
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At present, she has 18 years old son. He has his own viewpoint on his mother's relationship, which is probably supposed to be funny... Also, his line with the girl-stalker was totally unwatchable so I skipped the son entirely.
Saitoh Takumi is a bit hidden in his long hair in this one, at times he looks a bit funny but on the other hand, he'd be too hot for the woman otherwise:) There's the "Sexual Content" Tag... After the two meet, they get to be alone as soon as episode 2. At one point, she starts crying and he starts kissing:) Then they become lovers but it's heavily subtexted by the childhood backstory and that he lies about something which interrupted the viewing flow for me (but it's not that there are long or explicit bedscenes in this anyways). After some anticipation, it fell flat for me when they got together as I was not interested in all the past stuff. (Including the recent past, like the woman he dumped for the main heroine, but we keep watching her.)
The last 3 episodes, I finished them only out of courtesy. (When on the top of everything someone is revealed to have brain tumor, I really wished to turn the show off.) It was a pitty because Harada Tomoyo was really cute and attractive in this drama in her unique way, I actually liked the more the longer I watched her. And her Kasumi had enough character charm even for younger, successful man to fall for. This did not need all the added stuff (I might even say, all the added cr*p). Unfortunatelly, that got to dominate and it whole did not prove to be as sexy as it promised to be. (Even Maho had no nice scene with Kaichi.)
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A catalogue to illustrate all the wrong reasons for having BL just for the sake of it?
Okay, 1st episode introduces a trio of main guys, who then walk in front of the camera in slow motion. And I don't like any of the 3? This never happened to me before while watching HIStory!:)I didn't like 'Make Our Days Count', but it was GREAT in compare to this. This is really bad... There are two guys who should be friends, there's no real spark between them, only a lots of stupid "humour", then we have two guys who should be family, one of them acts super meek though he should be the confident type as shown in his work life, one of them acts like a psycho stalker. There's stupid fujoshi girl who's all giddy to see boy on boy couples forming, not caring if they're clowns & creeps.
At episode 6, it gets even depressing... I felt so sorry for one of the guys. He was such a good big brother and he had to find out that in that respect, he was nursing a viper. The kid step-brother makes a move on him when he is drunk, just because his attraction to him is "love" in his warped mind, not caring that he actually broke his heart. Had he really loved him, he would not do that to him. I will not argue here whether brotherly love is more than lovers love, apparently to please the BL audience the lovers love took priority so that we could watch that bedscene.
Looks like this show was made with the purpose to serve as a catalogue to illustrate all the wrong reasons for having BL just for the sake of it.
If this is the way HIStory has progressed, then perhaps it would be better if it ended. Oh, wait. Next time (HIStory5), it's Sci-Fi, even? "Great".
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But, I loved the episode 4 ending! This is how I would love to see the female lead act sometimes, and we never get to see it!:) Also, there was the hilarious moment when Viwa looks for Faigun and asks around saying that he looks like Kao Jirayu, lol.
It was funny when beginning the 5th epi, she had to kiss him like 16x times in a row for him to finally ask her to be his gf, but I agreed with it, that precisely showed how much it takes and why people are slow and waste so many years or their whole lives sometimes. Plus, it was funny:) Next thing she done was she forbid him to break up with her because it was clear there will be people lining up to separate them.
In the final episode, it's got another twist that is incomparable with any other of the "Girl Next Room" stories. Which is why the rating is higher this time. The main character girl conveyed herself well and better than the usual type of heroines. Even the side roles like the dorm lady or Viwa's manager proved more than one depth.
Overall it's great what all this managed to convey in the short screentime, quite a success considering it whole probably took a few days to shoot (judging from Gigi's clothes) still it delivered some entertainment industry references and nice cameo.
What I liked on the entire preceding "Richy Rich" story the most was Neo Trai's rap* as the post-ending of last episode, introducing this story. Though I honestly did not expect it to be better (previously, I even dropped one story), in the end it was.
Then... We get it again!* :-)
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Axed with all the usual possible fillers & road-blocks
Finally! There is not Ken Phongpanu. There is not Alek Teeradetch. There is Ken Theeradeth!:)) No matter that he's 40 (to cast Noom Santisuk though, who is 14 years older, as his dad, is a bit an insult, LOL) I still prefer him over any of the other "Cupids"... As for the two main characters: this is NOT the beginning of their story, actually. That was inserted in between the previous 7. Episode 1 of this, the guy already wants to confess. I gotta say that what we watched in those time-limited portions here and there during the stories of someone else, was brilliant. The exact moment we get to watch this couple as the mains though, the brilliant writers no longer know what to do. Therefore, the man is suddenly unable to finish 1 sentence. There's everything they were able to think of to prevent him: first, a cell phone rings (a classic), then something happens to disrupt the conversation altogether, and when there's no longer anything else, Tor Thanapob's bratty "blogger" swings by & steals the guys's line on a day 1. I admit that him saying that he's got no problem with the age gap was funny, especially after Tor's previous role on Club Friday, but it was aggravating, too. These two were working SO well together. They were the rare ones who did NOT need a third wheel.Sadly, now that we finally have all the time for our main couple, it's clear the writers did not trust on it and decided to ax it with all the usual possible fillers & road-blocks. When they were pressed by the limited space within the stories 1-7, they were forced to be creative. Now, no longer. And so the story to which I kept looking forward as the best watch to come, showed me disappointment right in the first episode. Even when we start at the top, so to speak, with two already developed characters, who no longer have any stupid "Misunderstanding" and/or Love-triangle going and the female is already close with the guy for it to be believable (though she keeps calling him "boss", despite them being far from office, or english-speaking country) and the male DOES know what he wants, we're suddenly sent back to square one. Where the guy gives up on his confession and throws flowers intended for the girl into trash. Ugh. This is not a high-school drama. This was supposed to be different.
So, this is the first letdown, and then Sara Legge & Louis Scott step in, to add even more triangle-ing. They both are tiring to watch. It becomes rather rare to have the two mains alone for one second. Episode 4 the "boss" announces to Waralee and also to everyone else that he is pursuing Waralee. But, we have to deal with the third (or fourth, or whatever) party, first. LOADS of screentime is dedicated to THEM. Instead of watching the funny ways he would pursue her, finally. Both the main leads use their ex in a stupid "high-school way" to make each other "jealous", while in reality they give a kind of second chance to the people who deserve NONE. Not a single minute of their time. Not only that was a thing I didn't approve of, also it meant secondary characters got too entangled into main story, which is a failure itself.
This might seem like a short series as it's 9 episodes only, but the single episode runtime is KILLING the viewer, LOL. After the unlucky beginning, episodes 5-6 are full of antics involving the side-characters, the relationship of the mains only suffers for it. By episode 7-8, it's hateful to see how the things have "progressed"... We then spend another huge chunk of screentime deditacted to a "detective plot" about bad guys trying to destroy the dating company, which is yet another idiocy (and not romantic, either). Yes, this really got lost and strayed far from Romance, just as the other Cupid series (sadly) did. The one I rated the highest so far got 5.5 stars from me, and I did hope this one to BE better. Instead, it felt like dropping the show. It looked like UFO landing was more likely to happen than the two romantic leads to start dating. After everything, I could understand why Waralee was with another guy. It's somehow typical of thai production: while you open any imdb movie page and you'll find the cast is listed according the amount of screentime they had, in thai lakorn the audience gets exhausted from all the side-cr*p and bewildered where did the original mood and couple's chemistry go to.
I didn't care much for the final, half of which was dedicated to the side characters still, half of it to final union (she keeps calling him "boss" even if speaking a thai sentence, including her love confession), which was perhaps supposed to be romantic, perhaps funny, who knows.
Apart from the failed 8th romance, we should at least see the conclusion of all the 8 Cupid stories here. Yet we don't get to see all the 8 cupid girls together, again.
Note: Waralee's house looks really pirotesque.
Btw.: Pitty it did not occure to them to pair Ken Theeradeth & Cris Horwang️. Neither the generic beauty Chompoo Araya, nor the vampire-stylized Sara Legge (super white makeup & super red lips) does match his kind of sexy.
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Good airport drama/ Bad fantasy melodrama
'Where Stars Land' centers around Incheon Airport. Unfortunatelly, set in some alternative reality.At the airport, we are introduced to many people. They are all professionals (except the main girl, who does not behave professionally), plus even their characters are all really interesting and/or funny. Except the main couple (more about that later). The "ordinary" airport dramatic situations were handled well. It all had good standard until we had to solve the supernatural problem. Then it dropped.
Yes: the airport-drama side of this was actually good. I was NOT enjoying the melodrama-fantasy. Romance was working only for the secondary couple/s of just ordinary humans. As for the characters, the more interesting they actually were, the less screentime they had, and vice versa. Typical episode was like: The main guy is possibly dying and I only find it corny and boring. The completely secondary guy is solving an airport problem and he ROCKS. So, while I do cheer for Chae Soo Bin, who got well noticed by producers in 'Sassy Go Go' and deservedly got main role, as for her 10 years older partner in this, I definitely preferred him crying over unsolved murders through time-travel radio, than being/not being wheelchaired. I'm sorry, but thumps down for the main couple. Girl might as well tried dating her friend Eun Seob, for all I cared.
The added fantasy melodrama actually made the drama less good, not better. Less is more, I say it always. But drama producers never say this to themselves.
It's a pitty because what we can see more and more clearly when dealing with all the "normal" airport problems, is that the whole huge machinery just tries to ensure that all the people get on with their travels peacefully and smoothly. No matter what human emotion rises at the moment, it always follows logic. But then, when dealing with the supernatural, all logic is thrown out of the window, for the sake of the "drama". It's actually a step backwards to dated drama. What's refreshing is to show just how much effort is needed only to maintain peace. No corny villains are actually needed, it's always the simple human recklessness, laziness and folly which is enough to create danger. That would be a modern drama. That could be this drama. Just if the producers deemed it ENOUGH without the "fantasy duo" put in.
I actually cared about many of the airport side-characters and would welcome seeing more glimpse of their fate, but obviously the writer wanted me just to be thrilled whether the main guy does return as the "superhuman" or not. As for the "action final" epi & final scene, I would rate it 3 stars, tops.
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First episodes had potential. Then only 1 solid character got swarmed in a huge sea of garbage...
'Prom Mai Dai Likit'... The last show with Bie Sukrit left on my watchlist, and FINALLY one I liked:) Same goes for Esther Supreeleela. I have watched her in approx. 10 roles already, but this was the first one I liked her in.While I liked the main couple and thought the way they met well thought of (the rich spoilt playboy was in very vulnerable position as a patient:) I honestly anticipated the romantic drama to stretch more, before they started dating. Instead, she affirms that she loves him back in episode 12/27 already (first kiss is episode 10, be careful to not watch the censored version, lol) and instead of more romance progress, we have to watch other things, from Ak Akarat's fellow doctor/suitor's sideline (unnecesary), through more weak side characters portrayed by questionable "actors" (Puifai Natapat & Chin Chinawut), to plain weird/tacky side-storylines (Lily Pansirithanachote & Tack Pharunyoo). I'd think putting Esther's nurse into the high-society mix would suffice enough drama. She is an enjoyable character to watch at any circumstance, because she is firm. But, no.
Esther & Bie make surprisingly good fit. Actually, they make a perfect fit. Unfortunatelly, once again, the drama is not theirs. The greatest importance is given to side-characters. Looks like the writers will never learn. First, Ak Akarat's rejected suitor is pouting, the grown-up man makes such faces I wanted to slap him. He then sacrifices himself for Esther's nang'ek so that it inspires a massive guilt trip which now won't leave our main couple in peace... Apart from that, there's Esther's character's conviction. She sees the relationship with pra'ek quite realistically, pointing out their differences. Her character sure is something else, she tells him to call it quits right after a sweet couple of bedscenes, lol. It's cemented by her marrying the other guy out of pitty (epi 16/27). I said I liked Esther in this role? I ceased to enjoy it.
Ak Akarat's pitiful blind husband starts to exert passive agressive behavior with his wife right away. I was dismayed, because so many episodes were still awaiting. This each-marries-someone-else plot is so tiring when running for 100 episodes within hispanic telenovelas. Did they also have to put it here? I didn't want to watch it even for 10. Basically, Esther's character tries to be more "rational" than just giving into feelings, so she discards love from her decision process, which results in her actually making stupid decision. Nobody is happy. Nobody will be. And it's going to be painful to watch, like ever before. And I mean painful, because episode 18 she sleeps with the other guy out of pitty. Perhaps this lakorn was supposed to be a cautionary tale about how this is wrong (it's GMM, they love to preach) but it's hardly anything new in 2018 this was filmed: actually the source material for this can be dated back to 1980's. So, this is what you get thanks to thai tv continuing to do remakes of remakes... Everybody gets a smartphone in their pocket, else their behaviour is like before, LOL.
Here, I can comment about the quality of skinship scenes:) Esther & Bie's scenes are decent, thanks to them being able to "train" once before ('You're My Destiny'), Esther & Ak Akarat's scenes are plain awful. Also, by this point, I was skipping all scenes of all the side-cast completely. They were all unwatchable in this lakorn. And I was considering skipping ALL the rest, it was not like one would need to keep watching the main line, either. Obviously the big plot is nang'ek still got pregnant with pra'ek, despite each of them being married to someone grossly incompatible. It doesn't really matter whether you watch the 1982, 1986, 1995, or 2018 version. If you like Esther, or Bie Sukrit, HD quality image, and generic soundtrack from the (by now large) tv music library, watch this version. LOL.
It's a painful watch because we get to watch 2 dysfunctional marriages. That's why usually the romance drama has romance most of the screentime and then it ends with the wedding. This is similar to what you can see if you have married neighbours and you can hear them arguing through the wall. Nobody needs to turn on a drama for that, lol. So, it's a dated approach, nevertheless it suits the GMM channell which seem to always prefer teaching the viewers "life lessons" to presenting them with something enjoyable to watch. Mostly, we watch Esther with her child, always potrayed by an onscreen child visibly at least 6 months, or 1-2 years older than the supposed age (we do know we can hardly expect a real newborn on camera, but the child is huge, LOL), acting hateful towards the man who's supposed to be her romantic love interest.
This is what you get with this kind of story. Episode 22/27, I was so wishing it was over already, and there was still 5 more. This is probably the only show I would welcome if there was amnesia, because had the blind husband forget Esther's main girl after his surgery, then he'd finally let her go and we could have the happy ending sooner, LOL. Instead, he just gets his eye sight back. 1st thing he can see, "his" child is looks just like his wife's ex, LOL. Yeah, I wouldn't mind skipping all this kitsch. Ak Akarat's level of acting "skills" was enough to make this a real skip fest. Like, there's LOADS of screentime filled with the unwatchable side-cast scenes as it is. Then he adds to it. I wished Esther would kill him in this drama, LOL. Or Bie, or someone. Anything but more listening to his whines (when the scene requires of him to yell at someone, it's REALLY unwatchable). I would laugh but sadly this was not my 1st experience watching bad acting.
Even watching the main couple alone and blissfully without others, Esther's nang'ek acts real hostile towards her pra'ek. The two are at war. Is that Romance? I admired when she was stern with him in early episodes. But that was about her being nurse and him being irresponsible and spoilt. A bad patient. Her making stone-y face expressions with him (rightfully) demanding what she owed to him as her loved one and her child's father, I could not admire. She wronged 4 people, including her kid. And herself. And then, watching Bie & Esther's scene of them physically fighting for the child (seriously) left me gobsmacked even after Ak Akarat's departure, because I thought we reached the level of garbage for this show already. Nevertheless, after all this passed, I was equally astonished by how well Bie & Esther worked as onscreen couple... They were magic. I didn't care whichever corny way the script would take them to their happyend, as long it finally did.
It's probably the best to watch just a MV of them in this drama to enjoy the watch: because the drama itself CEASED to be enjoyable.
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Even Japan has bad, shallow shows about "high schoolers"
The cast is an eye candy. Kumi is pretty, Kanna even more, and the same can be said about the boys. Hyo is handsome, Tatsuki even more, only poor Chihaya is ugly.Else, this is really bland and absolutely incomparable to any of the shows listed here in "Recommendations". Perhaps except 'Hana ni Keda Mono Season 2'.
Might be the combination of weird "acting", unfitting music and too short a runtime, but you don't get to really tune into any of the "lovestories" presented in this one... What's more, you don't really get to find out what's the story supposed to be about, even after you watched it. It's pretty unclear, the characters unfathomable. If this is an adaptation of a manga, it must be either poor adaptation or poor manga, possibly both.
Can one enjoy this one at least in a shallow way? The two mains have such a ridiculous looking onscreen kisses. 1st one would be exciting if it actually happened. It's delayed and happens when it's dark, in weird angle. The height gap makes it even more awkward. Another time, when the guy wants to plant an exciting surprise kiss, it's like he needs to do a super quick limbo dance move first, LOL. She looks like a startled fish. Goodness me.
Last episode kiss looks pitiful and it's preceded by a shot of Hyo looking like he's going to fall on the ground asleep, lol. After it, the camera offers a detail of the girl's clenched hand.
The whole final has 25 minutes, meaning it has about 2 minutes on each element presented in there, the main couple's relationships problems also get solved in 2 minutes.
Weird to see Japan also has shallow & bad shows about "high schoolers"... LOL.
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A funny and heartwarming melodrama
Okay, first we see both main girl & main boy as 17-year olds. Despite the infamous common practice, they were not portrayed by 30 year old actors. Yoon Chan Young and Park Si Eun were both really 17. Actually, they were both so talented and likeable that at first I worried I will not be able to like the grown-up versions as much, in compare.As for the story: Main girl got robbed of 13 years of her life. Suddenly waking up in a body of a 30-year old, her mind was still 17, without the time to allow her grow up and evolve, develop her personality, adjust to her body change... Or completing her education and gaining working skill, to mention the practical. First thing I thought was that along with physiotherapy she'll require a psychologist, and some support. But her family was nowhere to be seen. As for main guy, at the tender age of 17, when he liked a certain pretty girl and first tried to approach her, she obeyed his advice to get off on a different bus stop, which (in his mind) caused her to die in following accident. After this, he decided to live alone in woods. Okay, maybe not so extreme. Basically, he keeps a long beard and a dog:) That way he maintains his distance from females, while pouring all emotional attachment onto the small creature.
Shin Hye Sun had interesting acting task, here. Her 30 year old face was now supposed to wear expressions a 17 would make. Same with her manner of speech, and general behavior...
First episodes, the girl struggles with physio for a while and with seeing her own face and hearing her own voice for long. We don't see her getting any visits, the facility staff keeps avoiding her questions. The guy maintains slightly antisocial behavior. I had to smile. I personally could relate, it's the same whenever I attempt to act like that. In our society, you practically cannot get through 1 day, if you'd just purely attempt to not interact with any people around you. You unavoidably end up perceived as rude, mean even. Nobody would ever understand you'd like 1 single day of social "cleanse" from all the communicating. You really need to lock yourself alone for that:) Main girl and guy mirror each other when she seeks after company while he tries to avoid it.
Episode 2 ends up in crazy confusing situation where I was equally confused while I was the audience, lol. But actually, it was kind of tragic... Main girl was still recognized by her old dog, else, her house got new owner and her family members were gone. She was told to go to the police. Yeah, I indeed thought the story of a young girl having woken up in a strange adult body, in a strange world where she had no one, was not very cheerful. I would understand if she started to cry. The scene where even police refuses to help her is especially weird. Apparently before the accident, she was not legal age enough to receive ID card, but her appearance was older now, so the police just refused to help her. I was confused, why nobody in the facility having her medical record didn't provide her assistance with such matters, or why did all of her family members disappeared. But, perhaps the writer needed to create situation where she'd have only the main guy to provide help to her.
Main guy looses his long hair episode 3, unfortunatelly he gets that weird helmet-shaped haircut they sometimes do to guys in Korea so I actually did not find it that much of an improvement. Who needed his hair shorter was the main girl (well, woman). Anyways. The following episodes, she continues staying in main guy's house, who grudgingly allowed it for 1 month. I couldn't help but thinking she'd be better off had he not. She was a grown-up looking woman acting like a 17-year old, which was not always looked kindly upon. She kept going around for job interviews with completely empty resume, as she haven't even finished high school. She was not able to play violin with her new hands. She actually needed lot of help, unfortunatelly the writer's plot made it so that she left the only place where she could be found to receive it. It was frustrating to watch. The main guy needed to learn about her identity to start treating her better and also to start healing. But that was obviously also something the writer wanted to happen way later...
I kept watching, because I agreed it was more important for the girl to meet her right guy, after all:) She was stuck in being seventeen, he was also stuck in the past, so that way they suited each other. It was right for them to meet (again). They started to develop a connection, to realize and address important things, just everything but him realizing who she was. That was always conveniently swept under a rug. Apart from these obvious flaws, soon it all comes together, even with such characters like too noisy friends or too weird a housekeeper, it somehow clicks and the drama works: it's enjoyable, funny and heartwarming.
ML knows about FL's identity since epi 14/16. Better late than later. By that point, FL's got 3 suitors (counting ML in). There is still yet the Mystery about her family & about the housekeeper, and mysterious man in a baseball cap. Despite all these corny elements, I liked the humble quality the main girl had. She knew grattitude, not just attitude, like all them leading ladies:) It's actually easier for people of this kind to find happiness, and I liked the drama did mention that. Romance is very satisfying, the romantic conclusion comes earlier than the final and really is quite romantic. Then there's more heavy drama about the family stuff. I didn't enjoy watching main girl going through even more pain, but at least by then she had her guy by her side. Luckilly, some more cute moments follow.
And questions about their future. But the girl was younger than her age, so I didn't see why she should not study if she wanted to. And the guy was used to being uprooted. The way I saw it, nothing prevented the guys from getting married and going to Germany together for one or two years, even with the dog:) Then they could return to their korean home and she could complete her degree. I didn't see a problem, no matter how many years it all should take (so what if you get your degree at 38 or 40 years old? if it's the craft you long to practice till you're whitehaired:) Life is long. No need to rush your journey WHEN you already have the right person to walk hand in hand with. The writer tried a to make bit of final drama out of it and we had a couple of separations and reunions of the characters, so the ending was a bit zigzagging but the emphasis was on friendship and love.
Overall, it was a good melodrama.
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A lukewarm "charm"...
She is a resolute hairdresser with versatile looks who can look both attractive or not, depending (ironically enough) on the haircut, and make-up... He is an average guy with average looks (he looks especially horrendous with the perm she makes him wear early on) who has his first kiss with her, which she iniciates, after which he falls DESPERATELY in love with her and cannot forget her even after 10 years or so. When they reunite, they clear the old misunderstandings and she lets the guy know that she really liked him back, too. Which makes him totally happy and they start dating (or dating again), with him acting like a desperate dog most of the time (he is a cop now, so he's only cool in the moments when he's arresting bad guys, etc.) and with her alternating between being annoyed/moved by it.During their "second charm", whenever the hairdresser crosses paths with an attractive guy, it puts a strain on her relationship, because her cop boyfriend gets easily jealous and insecure. She breaks it off with him at one point. When there is nothing, the focus shifts on the secondary characters, but I never cared and skipped all of them.
Basically, nothing major really happens in this drama for more than ten long episodes (as far as I watched), only loads of super sweet romantic song/s keep playing. The drama uses summarizing montages of the previous scenes since early in the story, they come after each minor conclusion, and sometimes before conclusion is reached. It's like someone wanted us to watch MVs of the drama DURING the drama. Often I opened an episode and after watching like six or seven minutes of it, I lost my (mild) interest. I progressed only very slowly.
After the break-up in episode 10, episode 11 consists of us watching mainly the guy alone, and he is not very charismatic. Scenes of him traveling, sleeping, eating, learning to cook (gee, is this going to be a cooking show on the top of everything else I "like"?) create such a lukewarm atmosphere I did not even care that somewhere in the middle of it he got another girlfriend. Episode ends up on a cliffhanger with the hairdresser's return. But I had enough.
I'm not staying for the third charm.
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