This review may contain spoilers
Have you lived your life to the fullest with no regrets?
One of the fews BLs that justifies good story doesn't need excessive sex appeal to market it.PLOT & GENRE DISTRIBUTION : - All the genres are well balanced in this story, you'll not feel anything is left out. Plot flow is interesting and you'll not feel bored. Nothing feels rushed and you'll feel satisfied but the filler episode could have been done in better way considering the uniqueness of concept. Climax of this drama is my favourite part when our MC learns that somethings cannot be changed, only the paths can be differed. The 3rd spin to future when Kawee becomes famous and is ignorant towards life is the peak of this drama, every possible dynamics you expect happens here.
THEME : - Living your life to fullest, second chance, knowing & loving yourself and embracing your mistakes are the concepts behind this in my eyes as this one can have various interpretations and possible messages can be drawn from it depending on your own experiences. Time-travel is not the unique concept, but given the execution and story it's logical and exciting.
ACTING & CASTING : - Dialogue delivery is really good, like you laugh when you need to and no one overacted their role. Krist as Kawee was well casted and acted, I have watched a lot of his work and he is a decent actor. I felt most of the Kawee's emotions. Confused, scared, lonely, sad, happy, goofy, you can see it all coming but except love, I can't feel his love for pisaeng but I liked their friendship more. Fluke as Pisaeng was well casted and decently performed again and he has one impactful scene with his mother that left an impression on me. I have watched him before but I can't remember much. Other actors did a good job as well.
CHARACTERS & DEVELOPMENT : - All the characters represented were realistic except Pisaeng (reasons below) apart from the fact in real life you hardly get second chance.
> Bodkawee - He is introvert, shy, reserved, had low self-esteem and struggled while approaching people. He had a negative view of world, that everyone will leave him and judge him for who he is, that's why he was scared to face his true self and became self-proclaimed loser. After helping him on his first day praemai becomes his crush and he feel in love with her then he mustered up his courage to confess it to her but things went south, so when he got a magical second chance he left no stone unturned to achieve his desired outcome even-though universe was against it. After he traveled back in time, on outside he did changed into more approachable and tried to achieve all those things he couldn't earlier but on inside he was still insecure about people accepting him and with all these piled up emotions Pisaeng became his first friend and also his emotional punchbag ^^ Unintentionally he turned mean and selfish towards Pisaeng as he was frustrated with results of his efforts. Even after he was drawn to him, he denied his feelings and got scared to show his true self as he was conscious about people around him and became dependent on alcohol. His 30-yr soul in his 20-yr old couldn't be of much help as he haven't experienced much in life previously, so he came out as goofy and sometimes childish when he tried to change. But by the end you could see him becoming more calm and understanding. His love for his father was unconditional as he tried to undo the inevitable. Embracing his mistakes and learning from them is his biggest strength. I felt he was asexual to be stopping all of Pisaeng's advances but they didn't dived into it and pulled he was not ready arc. (which is also important tho)
> Pisaeng - What a saint is he, isn't he? This boy really has the patience of a saint, as you his love for Kawee remains unwavering in every spin to future. He is always there for him. No matter how cruel and selfish Kawee became but this guy supported him at every turn. And oh boy! when he cried in climax I saw him breaking down and feeling shitty after Kawee pulled another "oh I need my friend I'm heartbroken" He was sweet, caring, loving, lonely, supportive and best friend material ever. His character has an arc development of finding yourself. They didn't pull gay for you idiocy, but he truly tried to discover his sexuality and to understand himself. His dynamics with his mother and Max were applauding. In true sense he was Kawee's angel and not the mysterious uncle. Him distancing himself from Not showed how much friendship, respect and integrity mattered to him. That being said, they made him too perfect without a flaw which is unrealistic. Also, when he was asked why he loved Kawee he would say "because you're cute" come on there is always a reason, that pretty much implied to me he was there to love Kawee and was unrealistic.
> Praemai - This woman is goddess to be forgiving everyone left, right, centre. But eventually she is most confident, level-headed, sincere, kind, caring and definition of true friend but her only flaw is she expect so much for people around her but to get disappointed and this started with her mom leaving her to make progress in her career. As she said "I'm maybe disappointed, but I'm not desperate" She owned herself, knew her own worth and could differentiate right from wrong. Her putting people in their place when they are wrong is her strength. She grew up to mend her issues with people around her in composing manner which made her stronger. In climax, during wedding scene she was complete opposite of her true self, where she compromised with her life, which justifies you don't know what future holds.
> Max - He was guide to our main characters. His radical mindset made him clear minded and he was confident in his advices. He was the best supportive Kawee could have after his father. He found his own peace in working for the cause. And his stylist need a raise. lol.
> Not - His demeanour was everything, he expressed his feelings with his body language. He was not a lost cause, he was distracted from right path and as Kwan told him off he had his positive traits and you can see that when he encouraged Kawee but he was hell bent on not acknowledging them. He mindset was still immature for love so I guess it was right for him to not end up with anyone.
> Kwan - This character was short but had an impactful presence. She didn't became lovelorn and cherished her friendship with Pear and put stop to Not's impure intentions, it was enough to make assumptions about her character.
STORY : - Story was well-structured, it wasn't creative but made sense and was enjoyable. It's pretty much straightforward and not difficult to understand. A boy who tag himself as loser gets second chance to change things and try hard to align everything from love, family, ambition to friends. One of the strongest part has to be romance, although both actors played their roles well but together their wasn't much spark.
1st Act pulls you in but was a little (ignorable) stretched. 2nd Act and Climax was interesting and engaging while 3rd Act was satisfying but not great
There were somethings I wished they had explained them more and just didn't shrug it off because it has to happen.
PACE : - Every scene was as long as it should be, it was medium paced and let the story to develop.
EXECUTION : - There were fillers in last eps which could be done in better way. They wanted to show more of their romance but it didn't landed. It has consistent tone flows well.
Direction & Cinematography : - Direction is Good, giving each scene deserving time and was without random and abrupt shots. There wasn't much to cinematography but lightings where needed were well done. Max had some great outfits, I would love to buy them. hehe.
Music & SFX : - Music was good, I loved the opening song "REDO" and "Unable". At some places I thought SFX were weird but overall they were alright.
Did I enjoyed it? Yes.
Is it the best? No.
Did I care about the character? Yes, especially Pear.
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This review may contain spoilers
Hypocritical & Lazy scriptwriting with dull chemistry
PLOT & GENRE DISTRIBUTION - This drama never had a rise arc but fell straight after introduction simply due to lazy writing. Rom-Com + Any other genre .. never works for me, because they most of the time completely overshadow the other genre. Something similar happened here, Law as a genre was slaughtered here passionately instead it was suppose to bond our leads.THEME - Feminism was the main idea behind this production but fell flat. Writers of this drama had a wishful thinking that they were doing female population a great favour by voicing their opinions through this drama. All throughout the show I never witnessed female characters stating their rights and P.O.Vs where needed. Just saying that character is strong doesn't make them one, actions speak louder than words. Here, you'll see neither actions nor words.
ACTING - Cheng Xi, Bao Rui, Tan Ying and Liang Yi Ran may be Yu Fei also, were the only well acted characters for me. No hate for actors I haven't seen their others works yet, so I refrain from strong opinion but FL had only overstretched grin and sad pout as reactions which made it difficult to read her emotions and ML was there for thirsty viewers like me 🤭 but I couldn't feel his emotions. ML and FL had no chemistry at all, it felt that they fell in love just because it was the story arc, that's it.
CHARACTERS & DEVELOPMENT - I saw no character development.
> Qian Heng - From the beginning to end he was arrogant, self-righteous, domineering, (it's not bad if done right way), rude, possessive, hypocritical and clueless I must say. As, a lawyer he was professional lawyer indeed but he needed to cut some slack on controlling behaviour. I understand it was his first relationship, yet, you shouldn't go out of the way to disrespect other's opinions. At some point he told FL to not date until 2 years and focus on career, they fell in love that's not the problem, but don't interfere in her work unnecessarily, that's rude. Clearly, he was at peak of his career so everything felt easy for him, but she was starting from the scratch yet, obviously if your partner take pride in their work they will not like your influence on it even though his intention was to help but sadly it backfired. As I said he was self-righteous, he thought actively helping her through his connections was right thing to do and clearly she minded it all. This character was hypocritical than the writing itself, his words were all support for FL, but actions weren't. Since they lacked chemistry, 180 turn on his personality after dating felt unreal. He was cute until he was not. He needed to groom his inner child better.
> Cheng Yao - Faltering, stubborn, ignorant, impulsive and extremely naive. Another clueless character who needs to them spoon-fed every info. As, a lawyer she was lacking, well definitely she was rookie but not layman🙄. She waited for ML to react on her behalf. well woman up girl you are a lawyer yourself. (Atleast you have read law books 👀). At the end of the drama she becomes successful, oh well🙃, I mean they clearly implied that when she moved firms she became a success in no less than six months ... ok .. so maybe that firm was the problem or maybe her 24hrs involvement with ML she clearly needed to breathe some alone air. She didn't handled Liang Yi Ran episode well, it was a great opportunity to show her professional side thay missed it great time. Even if she shifted firms but she should have handled that matter herself, it was about her integrity as lawyer which she kept yelling about from day 1 but no our pampered ML will come and solve issue for us .. dah dude??🤡 In their relationship she was the lacking one, I never felt any affection towards ML from this character, it seemed as if dating wasn't her pursuit and yes it was not? it clearly states she wanted to be a top lawyer in synopsis and her mind was fixated on that, all this dating stuff felt forced. She wasn't serious about being professional unless LYR called her out. I think this character was better fit with Gu Bei Qing than ML.
> Wu Jun - Persistent, carefree, cheery, supportive and little bit Selfish😆. As a lawyer we didn't get to how he was, there wasn't much shown, but he has kind heart and has better personality than ML. In short, all he did was follow his love and support her unconditionally and clean up after ML's mess🤭. But chemistry between 2nd couple was good and reason I continued so let's cut him some slack. This character was true to it's origin till end.
> Cheng Xi - Wu jun's love interest, Deng Ming's ex, Cheng Yao's sister that's what she describe her not cheng xi, still the actress portrayed her role well. This character at least I expected to turn out strong if not FL, but no she was again overshadowed. I loved the scenes she was in, but I wished a lot for this character to develop but to no avail
> Bao Rui - He was funny until he was not, initially I enjoyed his scenes where he portrayed self-obsessed, boss stalker (in good way), conceited and I am centre of world personality, but in later episodes it became annoying. I had few laughs because of the office trio.
> Tan Ying & Yu Fei - Sweet and endearing, their love story was far more interesting than main couple.
> Liang Yi Ran - Yes, we needed THAT one girl, so here she is, actress played well. It was indeed a filler, but ignited something in FL to become more serious about her profession.
STORY - Two words - Paper thin. Full of fillers and was parody of well known troupes and cliches. So many false claims on feminism, which were never brought to action. Cases weren't dealt properly.. maybe execution problem. Many story arcs were cut short or weren't dealt with carefully, everything was stuffed in last episode. I don't think intimacy is deemed necessary for romance but please give us some tension or believable couple. After living under the same roof, FL doesn't changed a bit.🙄 She acted the same as his assistant and as his girlfriend. 🤡 They literally made the mess out of law, if you can't balance then don't mention it at all, just let it be a rom-com .. just don't add another genre. She aspired to be top lawyer, but her passion is nowhere to be seen. She literally shirked away her responsibility and ran off when scolded by her boss, I know she is sulking since it's a rom-com but girl she is not your BF yet. Just for the sake of humour they did 360 with parents, indeed it was a filler.
PACE - Slow-paced but should come with warning that you could get frustrated. I have no problem with slow-pace, have watched some awesome shows with slow pace. But there has to be some development to keep us engaging, pacing was not true rom-com genre. It was painstakingly annoying.
EXECUTION - They gave an already weak story another shock with execution. It made story even more pathetic.
DIRECTION/CINEMATOGRAPHY - There were some random unneeded shots and there weren't much aesthetics to point out otherwise it was good.
Music/SFX - I won't be listening on repeat that's for sure, but went well with moods they tried hard to present. 😆 Opening OST and one I don't remember ep no. , but the one when she was sad over the celebrity case, I liked them.
One last thing, they needed a better stylist, only Tan Ying and Cheng Xi stood out it terms of fashion.
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Doomed or not ...
Well, as the show itself quotes "Luck and Misery comes with the same face". The same happened to me while watching this drama or maybe some others may agree on this.Things I got Lucky with:
1. CAST & ACTING - Cast of the show was really amazing to begin with and all the actors did justice to their respective parts. On second note, this show made into my PTW list because of Seo In guk and Park Bo young.
2. OSTs - The music for the show was heartwarming and definitely could heal bleeding wounds.
3. Chemistry between all the cast members was great, of course, overwhelming among leads.
4. Wardrobe - You will surely get to see eye-catching set of clothes.
5. Cinematography - It surely does make the best connect with the outlined storyline
6. Last, thing that got right in this drama was the screen-time of characters. Everyone got enough time to express themselves.
7. Philosophical outcomes of unpredictable life...
Things that bought misery:
1. It became draggy after 7th episode, I skipped through a lot of scenes though I didn't wanted to .. 😔
2. I think the Story lost its essence as it evolved. I think so, because at time I couldn't feel that "Myeol Mang" was really a "Doom" and was someone who could cause disaster. Because of that it happens to be another one of rom-com by the end of the drama, at least for me.
3. Unnecessary repetitive scenes, because of them I almost dozed off.😁
4. Ji Na's story - It could have evolved in better way, as it was one of those things I was looking forward to.
From someone who is about to die, to someone who is death himself story could have developed in way more better than it does now. The characters were really well written, but hoped they could have done same with their stories. I did understand deity's part, because that was all she could do without breaking rules of time.
Story was definitely intriguing and it's presentation from paper to screens was also good but It lost it's lustre half-way down and failed to express itself as it wanted to maybe. ..
If you would ask me is it a completely doomed drama? .... No, definitely not. At least way more better than shows that showcase abusive relationships. NO OFFENCE. Surely, not perfect one but not doomed one either.
Would I rewatch it?...... It is a bit draggy, for 16 eps. Maybe I would rewatch it someday, for Sa Ram and Dong Kyung .
Recommended to those who love to explore different genres and themes like me.😊
P.S.: I'm here to just share my experience, like most of us does. If you want to watch it, .... Do read what others think about it, but surely experience it yourself maybe your opinion contradicts mine.... THAT's LIFE.
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