Not that bad

I agree with a lot of points that the other reviewer (Ariel) made and I think her review is really well reasoned out, however I tend to grade a little more favorably when it comes to mini-dramas. I usually drop it or like it enough to watch to the end and this one I finished.

The plot is pretty is a little different from the typical stuck in a video game dramas, because the FL and SML are fully aware that it's a game and he is constantly trying to keep her for falling for a character and to safely return to the real world. Most versions of this plot don't have one character who can pop in and out of the game safely and help the FL. A lot of SML's NPC character jumps were funny and cute, I really appreciated the comedy it added.

There is some ambiguity on the ending, which some have interpreted to mean that the soul of the game character could actually have been another player but I disbelieve that because though they do look similar (the ML and the Investor), the code that the FL injected into the character is what made him different enough to base an entire other game around. This wouldn't be possible if he was actually another human who snuck into the game during development...so I believe he is just a character and they are forever separated by real vs game world.

I most probably wouldn't rewatch this or go out of my way to recommend this as "one the best things you'll ever watch", but if you're a fan of short format dramas and want something to watch on your morning train commute, this is a quick little watch that you could finish in one or two round trips and it's engaging enough to keep watching to the end.

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Pretty good for a mini show

If you look around on youtube you can find the entire series compiled into one 2 hour movie length video.
It's actually pretty good for a short format drama even if it isn't a blockbuster, it's still worth the watch.
The plot is a pretty common idea: What if you could go back to a pivotal moment in your life and make completely different choices? Don't we all think about that from time to time?
What I like about this is that our FL decides from the moment she arrives to change things and goes from being meek and put upon, to being strong and fiery AF. She's seen what her future looks like, she doesn't like it, and she's going to make sure it changes for the better!!

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When your boss literally is a pig

There's a difference between Western and Eastern ideas of what it means to call someone a pig. I believe over there it just in general means being lazy and maybe a bit of a glutton, over here well it's a lot meaner an insult.

So the basic premise of the story is that due to a curse on the family, their newborn son becomes a pig every night forever unless he gets a true love's kiss.

The story starts with our FL finding an abandoned tea cup pig in a bathroom and thinks someone was going to take it home and eat it, so she saves it and takes it home. The pov of her giving a bath to the pig and cuddling with it, is show again from the person trapped insides pov and omg that's too funny. The following morning, he returns to human form, in her bed...without clothing....oooops!

Their attempt to break the curse is met with some misunderstandings, but of course they overcome those eventually.

It's really a cute and short drama, easy to watch in an afternoon. It's not too deep because it's 12 little episodes, but I found it funny and enjoyable overall. The plot could have been a little better developed but then the show would have had to been longer format and I'm not sure they could have stretched that long enough for 30 minute episodes.

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Not as good as it could have been

I don't understand why this drama has glowing reviews. There was a serious lack of romance, after a soft kind of breakup between the leads, he never really explains or asks forgiveness and somehow they just forget and forgive and are magically back together in the last bit of the last episode.

The toxic people barely get punished. An attempted sexual assault is pretty much glossed over, that bad guy doesn't go to jail, he just disappears from the show. The jealous and manipulative Qiao Xin who destroys the FL's life and work multiple times, suddenly has a change of heart after getting caught and just decides to be a better person. wtf? Barely any consequences for the bad people, but the good people suffered HUGE losses, financially, career wise, as well as personally.

Over all I found myself losing interest in the last 1/3 of the series and had to force myself to keep going to just see if it got any better. I wouldn't give this show any higher than a 6.5 maybe a 7 and I definitely won't be rewatching this. There are a lot better shows in this same genre.

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Really silly but enjoyable

This drama starts out with a poor overworked author who ends up dying and getting sucked into her own novel.
Got to love the recent flurry of similar dramas, but what I like about this one is the ML is almost a parody of similar types...the cold, arrogant, overbearing CEO is actually quite silly and a bit insecure. His handy dandy assistant is always having to reassure him that FL is for sure in love with him. ?
I don't want to give away too much of the plot but the original FL of the novel, ends up being a bit of SFL since the author has fallen into the novel and become the new FL, but then suddenly a secret is revealed about the original. Their interactions all fall into place, it makes the rest of the drama a lot funnier and unpredictable after the reveal.
I found this a bit cheesy but still very enjoyable. The FL author has a mission, she has to fall in love in 3 months time or she can't go back into the real world...but in the novel, she's rich and has parents to take care of her...so why would she want to go back to being a poor and overworked author in the real world? She spends a lot of time and effort avoiding love at all costs!

Give this drama chance, it's about 3 and 1/2 hours long total. It never takes itself too seriously overall I found it entertaining enough for an evening.

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Just awful

Be aware that in the first episode the ML forces himself on the FL after murdering her whole family. She then revenges him and offs herself. Then they both restart three years in the past.
From that point we're supposed to root for them to have a redemption in their time loop second life?

I tried to give this the benefit of the doubt, but even several episodes in, he's trying to act like he's drawn to her and can't help himself and she tries to keep a distance but somehow still gets tangled with him?

The acting is awful, the script is nonsense, the makeup is horrible.
0/10 do not waste your time on this.

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Need to kill time?

Considering the short length of the series, I won't go into too much detail or I'll give the entire plot away.

The ML did a decent job with acting though his character wasn't fleshed out very well. He seemed to be in deeply in love with the FL but still had his other concubines, so there's that. It is a palace based drama so it is what it is.

Unlike most timeslip/novel transfer dramas, this FL wasn't written to be a prude or all virginal. When it was her turn to be with the Emperor, she didn't hesitate and sealed the deal without being all shy about it, most of which is left to the imagination of course.

I do have to say though the actress they had to play the FL was miscast or the character was just written poorly in my opinion. The actress's acting, facial expressions, and even her character's choices, all painted her as not really a heroine but more of a mild villain who just happened to be the main character. She wasn't evil but she did do some questionable things along the way.

The ending was about 30 seconds of wtf'er and I'm not exactly sure what happened. but I think it's supposed to leave it open for a second season.

Anyway, I give this show about a 7 and it's a quick little time killer. It doesn't stand out but it's not horrible.

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Just the endings

Did you watch 7 First Kisses and love it? Such a silly but fun mini drama that was basically an ad for Lotte Duty Free stores, but who cares with 7 gorgeous MLs and 7 ridiculous, hilarious, and lovely mini stories?? Anyway, this is a set of 1-2 minute endings for what happens after the scene was cut at the almost kiss moments. It's a good little wrap up and gives us some more cute and funny moments with our actors. Search for it on Ytube and you'll be able to watch them all.
Apparently I need to write a few more words to finish off this review, but if I write too much more, it will be longer than the series was!

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Let's Transmigrate again

This is a short format drama which thankfully has been compiled into a single 3 hour 20 minute video if you search for it on Youtube under the name The Magic Pen .

The story was cute, had a little bit of suspense, a little bit of danger, a little bit of love. Overall not bad. The FL is an overworked artist who faints and ends up in a comic world. She doesn't seem to take over the personality/body of an existing person as she has no identity there that she has to pretend to be, so she just presents herself with her own name. The main leads have decent enough chemistry but that doesn't really get explored until a little too close to the end.

The ending kind of fizzled. They did leave enough room that there's a possibility of a second season but we rarely get those on short format dramas. The way it's currently set though does not make this a happy ending. It's not a bad one, but it's not a happy ever after ending either. I won't say more without spoiling.

The costumes were acceptable especially considering the budget restraints.

The wigs though, oh god the wigs. The hair and makeup team was obviously an area that they skimped on and it showed. Often you could see the lace on the wigs and the makeup on any close up was caked on and distracting.

Overall, I'd recommend this as a good timewaster, but I definitely wouldn't rewatch it. Somewhere between a 7 and a 7.5

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Quickly becoming a contender for one of the best historical dramas of the year!

When I first started watching this I thought it was a middle of the road drama with predictable characters and storyline, but as it draws you in, you very quickly begin to see and appreciate new depths and new expectations.

Our FL starts out pretty meek and forced into a marriage because of a "joke" that the ML made. However once she is in the family, she has the BEST in-laws ever and within a short period of time she begins to change and grow. She finds herself and what her ambition is.

The biggest surprise for me is that though the ML is a bit of a spoiled twit in the beginning, you quickly see that he isn't a horrible person, he's mostly lazy and been born with a silver spoon. Once he falls for his wife, he becomes motivated and energized. He's a diamond in the rough that really starts out as a lump of coal....his transformation is awesome. His duo of good for playing best buddies are annoying at first, but when it comes to the real stuff, they will make you proud.

We've only gotten to the half way mark on this drama but I'll tell you, I laughed, I cried for two entire episodes, I fell in love with their love story, I connected with the characters, and I'm cheering for them to overcome their latest crisis. (I'll come back and update this review when it's all released)

I had seen someone compare this to some of the other grand epics of the genre in a comment section, I said this will be good for sure but no way can it compare to Story of Minglan or other sweeping and majestic sagas, but this drama is building steam rapidly and I can quickly see this one getting on to my top 10 favorites with multiple rewatches.

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If you're looking for a RomCom, this is more comedic than it is romantic

The focus of this drama is not on the romance, it's more about the comics, the aliens, and the adventure. They smooshed in the leads exploring romance literally in the last few episodes just so we'd all be crying at the parting.

The ending was really a what the heck moment . I'm not sorry I watched it. I gave it a generous 7.5 just because I happen to like sci-fi and I don't think there are enough of that in c-dramas. I'd love to see this more fleshed out and to see a second season but I'm not holding my breath.

The music was really what works for this drama and I'm surprised that it got so many touching song moments in one series.

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Save your time and skip this one, there are a lot better dramas out there

I ended dropping it before I hit the half way mark.


Minor Spoilers ahead:


The ML is a coward, the SML would have began dating FL who was willing AND interested in him except the ML kept interfering and ruining it.

The only reason ML never dated her before was about a dozen missed confessions that he wimped out on waiting for the "perfect" timing, and by the time he was ready to go for it for real then his father stepped in and said "You can't date FL because your mother left us and she also was in the entertainment industry. Obviously I did nothing wrong and your Mom was at fault therefore ALL women in that career must be awful human beings so you can't date her despite knowing her for TEN YEARS and knowing all about her...obviously now that she's a successful singer she's going to end up leaving you like your Mom left me". AND the ML agreed to that logic?!?!? He promises his dad that he'll never ever ever date the FL and then just acts all wounded puppy when she moves on from what she thinks is a one sided crush on him that he refuses to return the love. Just a weak script and the ML character as written is ugh, pathetic.

The actors on the other hand did as good as they could with a poor script. I still gave this a 5 out of 10 just for their efforts.

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Missed this when first released, glad I came around to it now

I really enjoyed this drama, there's a ton of other reviews and loads of people have already said why it's such an amazing drama so I'll just take this opportunity to say there were a few problematic issues but they really didn't overshadow the good vibe that was the overall tone of the story.
Things I wish were different:

The FL actress lacked kissing experience and it showed, her kisses never got any better. Her first kiss looked like a real first kiss, but by the third or fourth one she should have been responding and moving her lips too or at least puckering them a little ffs.

There were WAY too many mentions of weight, eating too much, being fat ect. NONE of the characters had a spare ounce on their bodies.

The overwhelming attention paid to people's physical beauty. Our FL and ML both had good personalities that would have made them wonderful partners even if they looked average or unattractive, but somehow because they were both the MOST beautiful people in the world apparently, everyone would stop to tell them how good looking they were. That's a little weird.

Several times various characters would belittle someone for not being pretty "enough" though who gets to determine that is random consensus?

There were several problematic mean girl characters who never really faced any consequences for their behavior, they were promptly ignored and forgotten by the leads (as they should be) but they also should have paid the price for their bad behaviors and they never really got called to account for that.

Despite these 4-5 things, EVERYTHING else was amazing about this drama. Relationship free of drama, best friends that stick through thick and thin, intelligent and fun? Check, check, check, and CHECK! Amazing show. Absolutely watch it if you haven't yet.

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Could have been better but not unwatchable

This drama could have been done better with a more rapid growth of relationship and emotional maturity on the part of the ML character, he really had to have things explained to him repeatedly before he understood and changed. I blame the writers for repeatedly making male characters soooo out of touch with their feelings that it takes a brick to the head sometimes to break their shell open. (the first half of the drama especially!)

The actor and actress can only do as good as the script lets them do, and you can see the potential that XZL has an actor if he can just break out of these roles that don't suit his range. When he's paired with a good leading lady he can make it work, but this isn't his strong suit and when he's paired with a mediocre one it shows.

Thankfully the kisses were on fire because Bai Lu can match the energy of her co-stars intuitively and it makes them both give a better performance. Their chemistry towards the second half of the series picked up steam but kept getting knocked back down by the writers putting up ridiculous roadblocks.

Hey writers, we don't want to just see them get together and that is the end, we want to go on the first dates, we want to see them hold hands, we want to see them struggle to juggle work and romance balance...ie sometimes he is the boss and has the final say and sometimes he's your boyfriend and you are equals and how to make that work for you both happily. We want the mushy 15 minute dates you have to cram in to keep the romance going in between important business issues, staying up late together to finish one last big project before launch ect.

Give us the life that happens in between the "we are finally a couple" and the "I want to marry this person and have my happy ever after" finale.

My finale opinion is that this is a 6/10 that could have been a solid 8 or 8.5 if the first half hadn't had the FL start with zero experience and just jump into a random "relationship" because of nonsensical reasons that only made any sense if you thought about it from a plot point instead of "this is something real humans would do" point.

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It's not just about the game of Go or the Romance

This was an amazing show and I'm sorry I didn't give a try earlier. I was vaguely familiar with some scenes in the first few episodes so I must have seen clips when it first aired but for some reason never put it on my watchlist, maybe because I didn't know literally anything about the game of Go and I didn't think a 41 episode drama that centered around that would interest me?

Now I have actually watched it I have to say this is one of my favorite recent Cdramas in its genre. It really brings all the emotions out, there are times you are laughing, sometimes you're rooting enthusiastically, you find yourself immersed in their world effortlessly, when they suffer a loss, or a setback you feel it too.

Without posting a spoiler, there's the final 2-3 episodes that resonated with my personal experiences in life and I was expecting the final few episodes to be pure fluff but this dealt with something we will all to differing degrees deal with and I felt it elevated the show quite a bit to be realistic and not just fairies and pixie dust lalala happy ending for everyone....don't get me wrong, I love a good fluff drama, but this one, I felt, kept the spirit of the original intent from the first episode all the way to the very end. A great, realistic, and sweet romance between our leads dealing with life as it's thrown at them even if it's setting was heavy handed with some common c-drama tropes, somehow those never overshadowed the story and the real emotions.

To address the concerns about the drama focusing heavily on the game of Go, even if you know nothing about this game (like me), you will find the drama very interesting. There are times where the games are very important to the plot, but you aren't just watching two people put a white or black stone on the board...in the most intense moments, you are transported into a visual metaphor for the actions of the game. Sometimes it's an old style video game, sometimes it's two assassins battling it out, sometimes it's magical warriors fighting in a bamboo forest...each time is unique and manages to capture the essence of the emotions and the meanings behind the moves on the board. I really enjoyed that part and I love the writers for creating an opportunity to bring the game of Go to life in an interesting and new way.

There were several times where the sismance and bromance was strong in this drama. One thing that really stuck out for me was a few moments of real conversations between men about life, love, loss, and emotions. I like to see that expressed and shown more in dramas. Men have emotions just as much as women do, and it's healthy and good to show normal interactions...men don't always have to be smashed drunk out of their minds to open up to each other, sometimes you can sit across from each other and play a game of Go/chess or whatever and just talk to each other about life. It was amazing and I hope more dramas show men like that.

I would have given this show a perfect score except that I wish the writers would have dealt with Kao Ye a little differently, I felt his actions were undetected for too long and his very deep and overwhelming suffering wasn't seen by either his Shifu or his fellow apprentices or at least they didn't see it as something they need to make an effort to interfere or intercede with like they did when the ML had issues. The show wasn't about Kao Ye, so maybe that's why he was allowed to go into an inescapable spiral of obsession but his actions really had far reaching consequences and I wish someone had noticed him a little sooner. He was the root cause of his problems but still, I wish the writers had given him a little of a break once in a while.

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