Never got revenge against your trifling ex? Then you need to watch this drama.

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a “liked”.

The deets:
The story opens with a heavily pregnant Empress who has devoted her entire life to her Emperor. As a general, she has fought numerous battles for him and helped him to gain the throne, never once wavering in her devotion—even when he took her half-sister as concubine. What should be a joyous occasion turns into a tragedy as the Emperor exposes his true self during her childbirth causing to both her death and the death of her unborn baby. Now in the real world, that would be the end of it, but that’s why we love dramaland because she wakes up as herself five years before on her wedding night. This is not her wedding to the Emperor but to his younger brother (a wedding the Emperor—then just a prince—arranged for her so she could be a mole in his half-brother’s household). Instead of repeating the mistakes of her previous life, she takes advantage of this second chance to destroy her former lover by partnering with her first husband to take down both her two-faced ex and her scheming half-sister.

Things I liked:
This was really a great little drama. Once betrayed, our FL never wavered in her mission to destroy the SML. Once the ML and FL start to trust each other, they work together without fail to get revenge. In fact, they were both so heartless towards the SML/SFL, I’m kinda surprised censorship let it through.

Things I did not like:
There wasn’t much beyond the few inconsistencies that are inevitable in a mini-, low budget drama, like, for example how, as an unfavored, illegitimate daughter, our FL rose to be such a famously talented general with so much military power (or the fact that she appeared incapable of defending herself despite being such a powerful warrior; oh well, this drama was more about mind games anyways).

Final thoughts:
I just happened to stumble upon this one on YouTube. I found it in both Spanish and English. I highly recommend it if you need a short, sweet watch with a satisfactory ending.

PS. Because I saw this on YT, there's no point in rating the soundtrack b/c half the time its either absent, or they're using some '70's music of some sort because of copyright.

Read More

Love between one trope and another trope (but with some nice scenery).

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this was a “liked”.

What I liked:
I usually do not watch ‘soul switch’ dramas—just don’t like the concept in the same way I typically do not like ‘time travel’ dramas (“Lost love in times” excepted), but I gave this one a shot. If they had done more with the concept, I think I would have liked it a lot more since it was an out-of-the-box way to do both soul-switching and xianxia. Dylan Wang is developing some serious acting chops and did a really good job portraying two different personalities (the only thing they did not do a great job of was playing each other—in that it was clear they were able to play different people, but they should have paid more attention to how they played the roles and then imitated that more). He also did a good job of portraying someone increasingly experience emotions. I also liked the fact that the set and costume designers went a little bit more outside the box than usual. Design was very cohesive in the different settings.

What I did not like so much:
Okay, I’m done with the stoic, emotionally unavailable, brilliant male vs bright & bubbly but dumb female trope. Can’t we think of something else? It’s such an unhealthy way to portray relationships. For example, at one point when FL was reminiscing about her burgeoning love for ML, it included a scene when he called her stupid or foolish. *slaps forehead* And the whole “she’s mine!” nonsense. *sigh* I’m also tired of male leads and female leads sacrificing themselves for the greater good or each other while lying through their teeth to the love of their life about it. And resurrection at the end… *snore*. I get that that there are only so many ways to write a drama, but one of the things that makes a drama great is when it can be impressive all without using tropes (though, to be fair, it is also risky since tropes are comforting and often watchers are displeased when they’re discomfited). Plus, when it’s a xianxia or xuanyuan, you get so much more freedom to play around! There’s no excuse to get all tropey on us! :)

Watch it if you like xianxia & to see DW growing as an actor and for some neat costumes and scenery. Just don't expect a masterpiece.

Read More

The show was a 'good' job…not a great one, but not a terrible one, either.

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this was a “liked” borderline “meh” but said with a very cheerful tone and shrug. :D

What I liked:
I liked the idea of a CEO of a large corporation who is in reality a private detective and has this whole secret base thing. Kind of a real-life super hero concept.
The couples were cute. I liked the gradual progression of FL/ML relationship. They had a reasonably positive relationship for dramaland. Nor did the show seem to get less interesting once they did get together—which some shows seem to fall apart after the mains finally get together.
Jung Il Woo is good at both drama and comedy but in reality, all the mains did well in my opinion. Hong Woo Jin did a good job of playing two personalities—the obedient, silent assistant and the real, crazy, violent creature underneath.

What I did not like as much:
Seriously, if you have a secret base why not have LOCKS!? Some fingerprint readers? Retinal scanners!? Or even just a good ole padlock somewhere!? If he could afford to build the darn thing, he could have afforded some better security. That was just lazy writing, allowing people to constantly discover the secret lair.
I thought this idea was good, but they could have taken it so much further. There’s all the fun dressing up and playing different roles in the first couple of episodes and then it just stops.
I did not buy Kang Tae Joon’s sudden change of heart. He was a borderline sociopath with some clear self-control issues and a disturbing tendency of violence towards women. Suddenly he finds out he’s a dad and now he’s all remorseful? He actually tried to have the ML killed but his own dad turning out to be a killer was the turning point for him!? Yeah….no.
The ending took a little to long to wrap itself up, but I wasn’t mad about it. But they never really explained why ML’s mom died? Or did I miss that?

In conclusion, there are definitely flaws and places where it could have been so much better. But it was cute, it was interesting, it was not a waste of time.

Random question:
Are there really personal assistants out there that apparently never sleep, eat, or need to use the bathroom? That are on call 24/7, fully dressed, coiffed, and showered without actually ever needing time to dress and shower!? Much less work out to keep up their amazing martial arts skills… And with fully charged phones at all times?

Read More

I just couldn't finish it.

I dropped this with one or two episodes to go. By that point I was fast forwarding so much, I realized that there was no longer any point.

I liked the male lead's portrayal, I liked the female lead's portrayal. I like vampire genre in general. And the evil vampire--while evil, he was certainly nice to look at. However...why on earth would one spend 200 years trying to find the solution someone wrote about the vampire issue instead of just looking for a solution yourself!? And what exactly did that vampire do to secure the dynasty!? It seems like all he does is eat people and does not actually contribute in any way to the safety of the ruling family. And if that's all he does, he's clearly not that all-powerful, so just send an army down there in the day and *wipes pretend dirt of hands* problem solved. In the end, those are the two primary reasons I dropped it. I just couldn't take that level of illogic any longer.

I don't think I'll ever finish this one--and I made it all the way through Dairy of a Night Watchman...lol. I do not recommend it, even to die-hard vampire fans, but to each their own. There are also positive reviews so check those out, too, before making your decision. :D

Read More

What happened to just one season!?

Spoilers. Ahead.

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this was a “loved” up until the ending then it became a “liked”. I'm actually kind of surprised by its ratings here on MDL--I'll have to read other reviews to see why....

Things I liked:
Pretty much everything. I loved the moments of comedy, peace, and happiness mixed with the harsh realities of life in historical times. I liked the slow but steady pace of the leads’ romance. I love that our FL was brave and emotionally/mentally strong (after she was taken out of her in-law’s house). I loved the staff at the clinic and how they always fought for what was right—even the chief physician—even if sometimes it seemed like he wouldn’t. The evil characters made me cringe and our SML was a properly conflicted character (and his crush on FL was cute—I loved the scene with the flowers and him looking for her with FL right behind!). I loved the chief physician’s character—the scene of him unknowingly haranguing the king was so hilarious.

Things I did not like:
I really, truly loved the fact that Kdramas were short, sweet, and to the point. Twelve to sixteen episodes and then done (The Kingdom excepted). I’m sad that the trend of multiple seasons is starting up in Kdramaland because I rarely like a second season as much as the first (again, The Kingdom excepted). Minor point of dislike: If the FL’s father was progressive enough to allow her to solve criminal cases, why did he arrange such an unsuitable match for her? I get that it added to the drama, but it did not seem like a consistent decision from a logical point of view.

I would not have been mad with our leads riding off into the sunset together to go do some good works as a married physician couple (could FL even get remarried officially?). I hope I am not disappointed by the second season.

Read More

Dumb and Dumber’s Not-so-excellent Adventure

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a “meh/nah”.

Things I liked:

That I had zero emotional investment in any of the characters. Like literally did not care of they lived or died—especially Dumb (our ML) and Dumber (our FL). Except for Qin Ke who was like the only decent and smart person in the entire show (except for liking Dumber for all those years, but no one’s perfect…) Then why not drop it? I’m not entirely sure except that it was loading faster than “Our Starry Love” and I didn’t really have much else to watch. Plus, it was kind of an interesting train wreck. One that just kept on wrecking, and I was interested enough to see what the next wreck—ahem—episode was all about. I liked that Si Ma Miao Yuan and Ting Xue got what was coming to them. The CGI and world building was decently done. I liked that there was a short epilogue that wrapped things up and the leads got to live happily ever after—even if I didn’t actually care whether they did or not. Jeremy Tsui does look good in this (though they really need to pair him with actresses his own age, thank you) and that was why I started watching it in the first place.

Things I did not like:

Clearly a lot since I can’t decide between “meh” and “nah” for a rating. I didn’t like how tropey this was. It was a trope wrapped within a trope wrapped within a trope. A “trope-ducken” if you will. Stoic ML and stupid but cheerful FL? Check. B@t$*** crazy jealous women? Check. Irrationally prejudiced old dudes? Check. Supposedly wise set of characters who constantly made REALLY stupid decisions? Check. ML who fell head over heals for FL without really having any reason to? Check. The only thing missing was them falling on each other and accidently kissing.

Dumber was so unlikeable during her “second” life (where she was a beggar come disciple) that I was glad when she died. I could not understand why ML fell for someone that dumb and unruly. She promised to work hard as a disciple and proceeded to be as lazy as h*** up until her death. Third-life Dumber was, actually, not quite so bad but Dumb being, well, dumb, did so many stupid things! Like naming her Chong Zi (but oh, no, she’s not the same person! Pffft!), constantly leaving her vulnerable to attack by others (I’ll just leave her alone in a PRISON for three years and not bother to check on her—surely nothing could go wrong!), giving her the same weapon as before…sheesh. He was so dumb that every time there was some ridiculous misunderstanding that kept them apart, I did not even mind. I was like ‘yep, that sounds about right that you would believe that or do that.’

The plot—what there was of one—really fell apart once she became a demon. The Demon King’s motivation was never explained—though they kept hinting he had some sort of meaningful back story. Oh—and while I was glad Councilor Sage died in the end, I really wish he would have gotten a really good @$$-kicking first! From both Dumb and Dumber!

Should you watch it? If you’re going through a dry spell or need something to keep you from sucking down a really good show all in one go, this one is a good option. Just set your brain on the shelf whenever you hit “play”.

Read More

I laughed, I cried—no, seriously, totally did. I’m not being sarcastic.

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a “loved”.

What I liked:

I loved that this was a comedy—and not just slapstick/fart-jokes comedy, but actual, laugh-out-loud comedy (omg, the scene where the SML was pretending he didn’t know how to fight and kept wounding his brother…I was rolling!). I honestly don’t think I’ve ever watched a c-drama before that made me actually laugh out loud with tears in my eyes, rewinding to watch the scene again. I loved that all the relevant characters were very three-dimensional (why did you have to do that to my Man-Man!?), the evil-knievel kings of the Void and Celestial Realm excepted. I was rarely tempted to fast forward through any of the scenes not involving the main couples. I loved that nearly every female character was strong and there was only one b@tS*** crazy jealous woman; she had a minor role (and in fact, was written out about 2/3rds of the way through). I loved that the character who caused all the trouble at the end did out of deep seated trauma and desire for revenge—not because she was hopelessly in love with an ML! Even though the drama threatened to start with the dreaded (to me, at least) stoic ML trope, he turned out to be a very emotive character—and not sure why there were complaints about his real voice, but I liked it (I’ve never understood the dubbing thing anyways…). As someone with good relationships with her own sisters, I loved the relationship between the FLs in this one—cried so hard!

What I did not like so much:

Not much, really. For a very good review of what could have been better about this drama (& all the good stuff, too), please check out AvenueX’s YouTube channel—but I have much lower standards than she does (tee hee). Okay so the ending could have been done better, but other than that, there wasn’t really anything that made me scream wtf!? at the screen.

Definitely going to rewatch. I highly recommend if you like fantasy and/or comedy. And after suffering through Journey of Chong Zi, I’m glad there was another xianxia out there to restore our faith in them.

Read More

It was decent until it wasn't....(I watched 31 1/2 episodes)

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this was a “liked” up until the last two episodes then it became a “nah”. I actually did not even watch the last half hour of the last episode. Read on to find out why.

Things I liked:
Ji Sung did an excellent job in that role. I actually liked all the characters. I liked the slow-burn romance between the two leads. I liked that there was zero love triangle, the sisters reconciled, and the father got a dignified end. I also liked the growth of the two “antagonists” (the prosecutor and the nurse) throughout the series as they realized they were focused on the wrong thing.

Things I did not like so much:
At first, I could handle the medical inaccuracies. For example, a main characteristic of the disease that afflicts Cha Yo Han is mental disability/development delays. So, the fact that this incredibly rare disease (despite it showing up a lot in medical dramas) had two characters with the disease and neither of which had one of the key characteristics was a little much. The other thing I dislike about medical dramas in general is that apparently hospitals consist only of doctors and nurses and zero other health professionals. Having worked in the hospital setting before (as one of the health professionals never featured), hospital work is much more complex and involves not just a team of physicians but a team of a variety of different health and health-related professionals.

Minor points of dislike: The fact that Lee Se Young's character was always in tears and the fact that, apparently, her hair dresser got called away to deal with a family emergency in the middle of her hair cut (or someone was putting in extensions and only got the first piece in before suddenly dying a of a heart attack or something).

A key dislike I had was the fact that the show kept getting “physician-assisted suicide” and “euthanasia” confused. What the former minister and the attorney were trying to promote was physician-assisted suicide, what Cha Yo Han had gone to jail for was euthanasia (btw, with that severe of a disease, no way he survived prison…and is that a drama thing that a doctor who euthanizes a patient and goes to jail gets to be a doctor again or is that really possible in South Korea!?). Those two concepts from moral, legal, ethical standpoints need to be treated differently. One is a patient’s informed choice about the end of their life, the other is NOT a decision made by a patient but rather an ethics committee or family or physician.

But the big reason why I ‘dropped’ it halfway through the last episode was the jack@$$ male lead ghosting the female lead for three years, during one of which he was stalking her—all of this after she’d begged him not to keep her out of his medical problems! Then he shows up and says that if her love for him was strong enough, she would not have moved on and would take him back. Such *clap* BS *clap*. Served him right if he came back to find her happily married to someone with much less drama in his life! But no, dramaland would not let such a toxic move impede a ‘happy’ ending, she immediately forgives him because, of course, she could not live without him and kept herself loyal and single (and most likely a virgin) for three whole years despite the fact that he had his colleagues lie to her about his situation, had been in the country for a whole year and didn’t tell (plus stalked her!), and didn’t trust her to help him through his medical issues. At that point, all the little bits and pieces that hadn’t made sense came crashing back in, I could no longer ignore them, and I was done. At that point, a ‘happy ending’ of them getting together was no longer a happy ending for me.


Should you watch this? I don’t know. It wasn’t a bad drama as medical dramas go. The romance was not even that bad, but I could not handle the sudden toxicity at the end. The conflict that underlined the entire show was anti-climatic and not enough to be worthy of the mystery they tried to make it out to be. If you’re a diehard Ji Sung fan, he does look very good in this, so there’s that. :D

Read More

The Princess Frame-up

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this rates a “meh”—which is kind of surprising since I actually got all the way through it (albeit with a lot of fast-forwarding). There are way better dramas out there I have on my on-hold list, so I’m not entirely sure what the appeal was here.

Things I liked:
The leads’ interactions were cute and there was no forced chemistry between them (which I guess makes sense since this is apparently where the two actors met & fell in love?). I liked the grandmother of the Li family who always stuck by LW no matter what—and, of course, her “mother” who unconditionally loved LW even when she knew she was not her daughter. I also liked that LW’s character had a great deal of loyalty and affection towards her adopted family—she never tried to use them to get meet her goals. I also liked her cousin, his crush on her was cute, but I did FF through all his interactions with the 9th princess—yawn.

Things I did not like:
To be fair, this is a classic telenovela-type drama where characters make decisions to further the drama of the plot and logic never really comes into play. So to criticize its lack of logic is like criticizing rain for being wet. ;P

I (personally) do not like inaccurate historical settings/stories. If you’re going to go so far off the reality that you’re basically only using the names of real historical figures then just make up a fake dynasty, country, world, whatever, if you need to instead. That’s just a personal preference.

Like any good telenovela, most of the characters were two-dimensional. And one bat-$*** crazy jealous woman trope per drama, please, it was a bit exhausting to have two of them in this one. All the ‘bad’/’evil’ characters’ obsession with LW was tiring after a while. She’s literally ONE woman, a minor member of a noble family with ZERO power and yet everyone thought that killing her was the solution to all the world’s problems. The cycle of crime, frame LW, LW exonerated was so boring. Once or twice, sure, but constantly!? And each time, everyone took the frame-up seriously until LW proved her innocence. Seriously, if she’s innocent EVERY TIME, surely we should start believing her!? That or acknowledge that she’s just a really clever serial killer and have her executed.

This probably says something about my personality, but my favorite character was Tuoba Yu, the main antagonist. He was probably the most “three-dimensional” of the characters, but he was also written to make decisions based on drama and letting the good guys win, rather than what someone with his planning and scheming ability was actually capable of—in real life, I’m sure he would have won if he was as clever as he was initially portrayed. Though, SERIOUSLY, wtf with the hair style!?

And it was a toss-up as to who would make the better emperor. To the common people of the day, as long as there was no war—or if they were at least winning any wars they fought—I doubt they particularly cared. And corruption and incompetence was such a foundational part of the government systems, that not even a ‘good’ emperor would be able to do much about it. I would have been equally satisfied with an ending not based on historical events (however loosely) where TY gets to be emperor and TJ & LW elope to go live as commoners somewhere.

Read More

Not exactly “legendary” but not bad, either.

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this is a “liked”/ cheerful “meh”.

The deets*:

Noble family gets framed and betrayed, tons of folks die leaving only a daughter to avenge them. The only thing that saved the daughter was her engagement to the crown prince who, despite being an preteen, apparently had already met the love of his life and couldn’t bear to see her killed. Daughter gets banished to a temple, crown prince grows up and declares he won’t marry anyone but our female lead (the daughter of the framed/destroyed family). Jump forward many years and a brash, outspoken pirate shows up on the scene and declares her undying love for the crown prince. Crown prince tries desperately to be faithful to his lost love, but finds himself falling for the pirate instead. A woman claiming to be the long-lost daughter of the framed family shows up, but she is so incredibly different from what our male lead remembers that he mourns the fact that he must marry her (due to his promise) and not the pirate who reminds him so much of his childhood sweetheart. Hijinks ensue…

*I know it says not to do this, but how else is someone who doesn’t know if they want to watch this understand the rest of the review?—those descriptions on the main page aren’t always accurate.

What I liked:
At first, I was put off by the trailers. I’ll freely admit that I have some implicit bias against pushy female leads (for example, the female lead in “The Legends”) but I force myself to put it aside because I realize that just that: implicit bias. But in reality, the story is much more complex, and the female lead is far less shallow than she seems. There is some decent depth to the plot, the leads are all nice to look at (I think our SML is actually 6’2” if my metric-to-imperial conversion is correct!?), and there were some impactful scenes (like when the FL exposes the royal family’s treachery against her own family). The leads’ chemistry was believable, and their relationship did not set of any red flags of toxicity. It has a happy ending which, if I’m wasting all those hours of my life on a drama instead of what I should be doing (my dissertation), a happy ending alleviates my guilt somewhat. Lol.

What I did not like so much:
It kinda bogged down in the middle. I think the “truth” was revealed a bit too early and the show kind of lost steam afterwards. The CGI was wretched, especially during the sea battles. There were some pretty unbelievable parts like, for example, a female lead who has the unswerving loyalty of 40,000 troops yet never actually spends any time with them and the trope of falling off a cliff and surviving (seriously, if someone falls off a cliff in ANY Chinese or Korean drama its almost a guarantee of survival. Note: if you ever find yourself in a fictional universe and your life is threatened, go jump off a cliff. You’ll be fine). The whole enemy prince and princess ark turned about to be pointless because they didn’t exploit it like they could have and in the end the prince just sort of turned himself in (dude, if you’ve just been threatened with being heinously tortured to death, don’t just walk off calmly with the guards, fight to the death!—at least that would be a better end!). That could have been a great cruel romance, but they failed to take advantage of that plot line.

Should you watch this?
I started this at the same time I started season 1 of “Lost You Forever” and it kept me from gobbling down all of those episodes at once. It never pissed me off so badly that I had to stay away or drop it. I guess it depends on your level of tolerance—my standards are relatively low for period/costume dramas that are not placed in any historical reality.

Read More

Strong woman Kim Jo Yi

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this rates a “liked” and quite possibly a “loved” but for some inconsistencies.

After re-watching Vincenzo I had to rewatch this one because of Ok Taec Yeon. When I first watched Secret Royal Inspector and Joy, I would have rated it a “liked” but upon rewatching it, it…almost became a “loved”.

Things I liked:
As the title implies, I found this drama to be all about strong women. Women who defied the conservatism of their times; women who went to hell and back only to be victim-blamed and ostracized by the very people who should have welcomed them back; and even women who did bad things but did them because they were human, not due to some cop-out trope like irrational jealousy over a male lead. I liked that this drama showed the harm and hypocrisy inherent in patriarchal societies. I liked the FL and ML’s relationship. It was gradual, strong, and mutually supportive. I like that she was defiant in front of his grandmother nor was she interested in marrying again because it, once more, made her the property of someone else. I liked the FL’s friends and the ML’s servants. I liked the strong friendship they all formed. I liked that the ML and FL were pretty consistent throughout the drama. She stayed strong and intelligent and did not suddenly get weak and stupid so the ML could rescue her.

Things I did not like so much:
Not really sure what they were trying to do with Park Tae Seo’s character. He seemed a little inconsistent like they could not decide if he should be a sociopath, a conflicted and abused child, or a criminal genius. I don't really see how one person could be all three. And they kept taking his plot nowhere in particular. For example, he plans to kill the monarch but then nothing came of it—don't write a scene that predicts something that goes nowhere and never even remotely happens! And his poor, anti-climatic ending! If we were supposed to sympathize with him then at least give him an ending where his father realizes who he is while PTS is still alive and able to give him the bird.

The ending. Took way too long and departed a little too much from what seemed to have been relatively faithful to
historical reality (though the food influencer scene was funny!). They never seemed to explain why the crown prince died (as in why the king did that) and, for that matter, who replaced him. The “triumph” over the evil guys felt incomplete and a bit hollow. Why did Ra Yi Eon wait until the last episode to free his slaves? Couldn’t he have done that at any time then? (I did however like the very end with [a seemingly pregnant] Joy. Based on her hair they either got married or she was fine being a concubine…?)

Questions remaining:
Hair. Why did Joy wear her hair down after divorce if her friend always wore hers up? Of the two, Joy was the only one who had been married before. What was with the braid guy’s hair? Is that some sort of tribal dress/costume? I’ve never seen that style before in a KDrama.
Mothers. Why, if in patriarchal societies like Joseon, women are denigrated and considered to have no role in society, does it f****** matter who your mother was!? Why were the children of concubines reviled? 99.9% of the time, I bet the concubine had zero choice about her status. If being a man was all that matters, then how does who your mother was make a difference? (Those are rhetorical questions.)

I would recommend watching this despite inconsistencies. It gave me “joy”. :D

Read More

One of my favorites

Of course, you should be warned that it is virtually impossible to write a review without some level of spoiler, so here we go:

This is one of my favorites. It was an unexpected favorite since I generally despise time travel plots. That being said, this one did it in a way that was not annoying: rather than the time paradox (which is why I don't like TT plots), they used the 'split universe concept' as when, time changes, a new timeline is created. Even though neither the paradox nor alternate timelines is realistic, for some reason, the latter is way more tolerable.

I was not much interested in William Chan until this show. He's not conventionally handsome, but I definitely became a fan of his after this one. Dimples get me every time.

The plot has a few holes here and there, of course (for example, how exactly did the emperor destroy the MAGICAL sect!? Aren't they magical and powerful!? Also, she tried to change the time to save her love, but then ended up killing tons of innocent mages when the timeline changed...so what exactly was accomplished there?).

The relationship between the leads is solid. Misunderstandings do not last long, they clarify things quickly, and you don't get frustrated. The SFL, despite being in love with the ML, does not do all sorts of bat $**** crazy things to get the ML, she ends up accepting that he loves someone else and even becomes friends with the FL. Same with the SML (you will end up with a bit of SMLS, but the ML is worthy so it won't be that bad). He does not try all sorts of manipulative things to keep the FL by his side and ends up supporting her happiness no matter what--even if it does not include him.

Costuming and set design was very well done. I liked the costumes of male actors especially. It was all very consistent and even with a few appreciated details such as the FL's earrings were always in the french hook style that would have been common in an ancient period (not the clearly store bought hooks, though you could see those on the other actresses). The males' wigs very rarely came off in the back (common in lower-budget productions, it must be hard to get the back to stick down, which is why they should use the braid option a la "I Will Never Let You Go" [even if its not historically accurate, in my opinion its better than the clear indication of an improperly secured wig]). Now, the actual hairstyles of the males especially left much to be desired as the ornaments over the top knots were almost always hideous (and why did the Chief Mage have a beehive for several episodes!?), but that's a minor objection. And the accessories designer was clearly in love with baskets and spikes as that was a common theme in headgear. And the FLs costume designer was clearly in love with knife pleats, but we can let that slide.

The soundtrack was good, it was used appropriately, I was not annoyed with any of it. The fight scenes were pretty bad @$$, but they could have done a better job of faking full-size armies during the battle scenes--or just skipped battles scenes altogether.

Rewatch: I've only watched the entire thing once. I've gone back and rewatched all the FL/ML scenes, but in reality will find myself watching the next scene because it is well done altogether and then will realize what I'm doing and fast forward to the next romantic scene. ;P

All in all, I recommend it--especially to those skeptical of time travel plots. There are those, of course, who would disagree, but that is the beauty of Asian Drama Land. There's something for everyone.. :D

PS. I wanted to add that I disagree with her giving up all her magic in the end and the ML is all happy because he can now protect her instead of the other way around. Pffft.

Read More

The first rule of watching a makjang/telenovela/melodrama is…

…to keep telling yourself that it’s a makjang whenever you find yourself yelling at the screen. The second rule of watching a makjang is not to forget rule #1.

Oh jeez, I don’t even know how to rate this one. It really should be a “nah” (my personal rating system is "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah”), but to be angry at a melodrama for being completely illogical is like being angry at the sky for being blue. I’m not even sure why I kept watching it, but I did. I even finished it despite the temptation to drop it halfway through the last episode (seriously, is it a thing in melodramas for the ML to ghost the FL for YEARS in the last episode only to have her lovingly forgive him at the last minute!?).

I liked the original premise of this drama. Plastic surgeon and gangster, what an interesting combination. Except that the entire drama was based upon the completely illogical premise that they could not be together. There was absolutely. no. logical. reason. for this. So what if he had a baby mamma!? He was not into her—and had never been. Plenty of people co-parent without being in an intimate-partner relationship. So what if he was a gangster!? He barely deserved the term--their business did not include human trafficking, prostitution, and drugs. Nightclubs, liquor businesses, and loan sharking is more like the mob than gangs, isn’t it?

In a telenovela, trapping a man into a loveless marriage with an unwanted pregnancy is a classic trope. I shouldn’t be angry at the b@t$***t crazy jealous girlfriend because it was just a trope, but I was. She demanded to marry him even though she knew that, not only did he not love her, but that he loved someone else. If someone is with you for eight years, never says that they love you, never discusses marriage, and never even moves in with you (or vis versa), then they’re just not that into you. You’re nothing more than a glorified booty call. And then when he finally got the b@**$ to break up with her, she couldn’t understand why anyone would NOT want to be in a loveless marriage (a marriage based upon the sole reason that he’d treated her like crap during their eight-year relationship and felt like he owed her something). Much less getting married to someone who, every time he saw the woman he was actually in love with, the world stopped and the two stared at each other so longingly it was the equivalent of neon signs over their heads flashing “we love each other!” (which was super annoying because the staring was just long enough to get annoying that I’d hit the 10-second ahead button only to miss something important and have to back track). I do appreciate the SML for giving up early--thought I thought it was a bit annoying the way the FL kept chasing after him. I think she was trying to just be a supportive friend but the way they portrayed it, it was more like she was keeping him around as Plan B.

Edit: I totally forgot to rant about the FL's bestie! She made me so mad in the beginning that I had to fast forward any time she was on screen. Holy toxic friendship, batman! "Oh! You're rich and like my friend? Here's her phone number, her address, her birth sign, her SSN, her GPS location, and whatever else you might need..." "If he was rich, I'd let him hit me," was an actual line from her. She got better towards the end, but in the beginning that character was being used solely to push the FL into romance and it was done in such a way that any person with self-esteem would have cut that person out of their life--and probably sued them, too, for violation of privacy. Sheesh!

Anyways, if you’d like to take a trip back to early 2K melodramaland, go for it. I would say to just remember my two rules above, but as you can see from my ranting, I clearly didn’t follow them, either. :D

Read More

Finished it, but not sure why

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this was a definite “meh”.

Usually, I divide out my reviews into ‘things I liked’ versus ‘things I did not like so much’, but since I really didn’t like much about it (except for a Seo In Guk in his early twenties...) this review will not have a liked section. Which is weird, since I finished it anyway—though with some serious fast forwarding starting at around episode 14/15.

I had several issues with the script/character portrayal. The way FL was portrayed/written, it was as if she’d just started seeing ghosts the day before, not five years ago. Her constant screaming, startling, etc. would have made sense if she’d only been living like that for a few weeks or months, but not for years. Humans adapt, even in high stress environments. The other thing I don’t get is why she didn’t just turn it into a business. Granted, this is my understanding from KDramaland only, but it appears that she could have gone into business as a shaman or medium and made some legit cash instead of becoming a hermit. She had the support of her sister who believed her, so why didn’t they just go into business? And why did the dude who supposedly was able to help her out not show up until five years later!? That was never really well explained. Because the female lead was such a hot mess all the time, it was difficult for me to believe that ML fell for her. Their chemistry/connection felt forced.

And why was Auntie so against the FL? The dude was clearly not interested in any of the women she constantly threw at him, so what was the tragedy when he finally picked someone for himself!? So much of the drama felt forced/cliché in a lazy-writing way. Once the mystery about the ML’s past got solved, then the drama really fell apart. I hate it when a lead disappears without a trace for a couple of years and then comes back to find the other lead still pining. And their separation really didn’t make sense. The whole thing just didn’t make a whole lot of sense—hence my “meh” rating.

Read More

A little bit unexpected.

Using my personal rating system of "loved," "liked," "meh," & "nah," this was a cheerful “meh”.

Started out as a comedy, ended a tragedy/cliffhanger. Not sure why the ML sacrificed his one chance at life for the SML—never quite explained that well. I also don’t understand the trope of poisoned weapons. The point of a poisoned weapon is to instantly disable your prey/target, not let them linger on in mortal agony for months on end. Otherwise what’s the point of poisoning a weapon!? Just use the weapon then to do the killing! Bit of lazy plot, but then it’s a mini episode series so its not like you can expect grand things. The leads were nice to look at, they were cute together.

If you’re bored on a Friday or Saturday night and need a movie to watch that won’t make you work too hard, check this out. I would imagine another season is in the works to wrap up the unresolved issues of this one?

Read More