One of the best short dramas

What's Wrong With My Princess is first a revenge drama then a romance. There is very little traditional "romance" trappings within the short story but it still manages to demonstrate two people learning to trust eachother and growing closer as a married couple.

Because we are given a front row seat to exactly what happens in her previous life to have her reincarnated back 5 years in the past, it's very easy to be invested in the revenge that is plotted out slowly over the course of the series. Each time the 7th Princess tricks one of the the antagonists we get reminded that they have it coming and more. Meanwhile watching the 7th Prince is no hard task. Seeing him as he supports his wife in her quest for revenge without ever even being told what they "did" to deserve this treatment was refreshing. He came to know her and her values and as such completely trusted that they must have done something truly awful to be treated in such a manner.

The music used was repetitive but soothing and fit the show. The acting was rather good for a short drama with the 7th Princess keeping mostly a poker face but sometimes slipping to show her utter disgust of the people before her when they weren't watching.

As for the last second ending, anyone who knows anything about these types of stories knew the "it was a dream" was coming. After all, it was between that or "it was a story she was writing/reading". That said they slipped the line in so quickly and then moved on that it's truly skippable and doesn't even really change the story we watched since the only dream part was the original life if understanding the line correctly.

Overall the show is absolutely worth a watch. I could even see myself watching a longer version that gave more detail about the backstop and showed them with perhaps a bit more conflict before 100% trusting each other.

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Hilarious In First Half, Lost In Second Half

Final verdict 7/10.

This show compiled is 5 hours and 20 minutes long and yet it feels RUSHED, especially at the end where they kept throwing stuff at you in a blink and you miss something major happening way. A bunch of things happen off screen (I assume, maybe I blinked 🤣 ) near the end as well as they jump from one plot change to another.

The overall story they are TRYING to tell isn't bad, it's actually pretty good, the issue comes that there is no sense of world building or what the rules of the world are so you feel lost.

The villians.... existed. They were part of that whole "this could have been better more fleshed out" feeling as we get 3 of them in the show. The 1st and "main" one I feel like they "tried" to give us a story but I have no idea what it was other than wanting to live forever and not forget anything, I "think"? His disciple... Idk what his story was or why he didn't die when he was supposed to, maybe he did and I blinked? The last and 3rd one, the masked person, made the "most" sense but also was severely glossed over on how they were able to get away with the things they got away with 🤣.

The 2nd couple was adorable. Again, I didn't 100% understand everything with them at the end but they were still a really good side couple that was surprising fleshed out for how few scenes they had being 2nd and all.

Our main couple though.... 🤣 They were 100% where it was at during the 1st half of the show. Rolling on the floor laughing antics during one of the storylines. And a couple scenes to make you blush during that time too 🤣

Later though their story kinda goes off the rails and you start talking to the screen about things like "just write a diary!" and "where's that journal?" and "seriously???? You're just going to stand there and not at least try and run?"

For a full and complete breakdown of rating the show...

7/10 - eps 1-3
10/10 - eps 4-12
8/10 - eps 13-18(eps 14 6/10 for editing confusion)
5/10 - eps 19-25

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Excellent Start then Depressing and Left Question What and Why?

While not being EXACTLY the same in any way, it has a very similar trope and 3 act structure to Hard To Find which is makes it very difficult not to compare it itself to. No spoilers similarities have the story broken up into three acts: amnesia present, past, remembered present.

The strongest arc is "amnesia present" and could absolutely be watched as a stand-alone of people who don't remember each other falling in love. Their time together was glorious to watch, even with the knowledge that "something" more in the story happens in past and with (at that time) no knowledge of what happens after this "end scene". As a stand alone it would be unfinished but still solid enough you could fill in the blanks with what you think happened in the past /will happen in the future.

The next arc, The Past, takes you back to have more understanding. It was good but not "quite" to the degree of the first arc. It seemed as though the original romance in the past was "missing" something, mostly just time to show their feelings more slowly developing as well as lingering questions about the mythology surrounding what happens on the screen. That said, it was still GOOD overall. Part of the emotional investment comes from knowing what happens, having seen parts of it in first episode, and then watching every interaction with hidden knowledge of what's to come. It leaves you on the edge of your seat wanting to watch the screen through your fingers. The final end of this arc was rather abrupt and there was essentially NO transition between it and the final arc which was jarring. However, again, you could theoretically stop watching at this ending and fill in final blanks yourself and have a semi-satisfying ending.

Where everything falls apart is the last arc. Beginning with the no adequate transistion between arc 2 and arc 3 the entire editing process becomes a mess of trying to figure out what's happening on the screen and WHY. Conversations attempt to explain but feel like they refer to things you haven't watched, scenes are cut off and then the next scene begins causing you to rewind to make sure you didn't miss something, and characters start to have their "final thought transformations" so to speak (where they make up their mind to do one thing or another) but your left scratching your head on WHY they changed. As for the main leads, there are decisions that can only be said to be NOBLE IDIOCY on steroids. These decisions lead to an ending that makes you ask yourself AGAIN what just happened and fail when you try and see a bright side. It is very easy to say the last arc NEEDED at least 3-5 more episodes of scenes spread out to give every character the needed story wrap-up and follow-through to make the journey more satisfying and logical.

Aside from the editing issues with the story, I need to make note of the use of CGI and music.

While the actual music wasn't bad most of the time (pretty actually), it is VERY jarring to see someone playing a flute and HEAR a piano solo or piano/violin piece.

Secondly, the cgi was AWFUL. To the degree many scenes using it had the look that they could have been edited on one's phone using free editing software. For many scenes it was distracting but it didn't really get in the way and was good for an eye roll. There is one scene however where NO, it absolutely ruins the scene and I'm almost mad that such an emotional scene had such cheap effects slapped on top of it.

Act 1: 9/10
Act 2: 8/10
Act 3: 6/10
Final verdict 7.5/10

In the end I WILL recommend this but with a heavy warning of depressing themes and traumatic events playing out on the screen like watching a train wreck and that you WILL end the show with questions and probably not be satisfied with every characters individual arc ending.

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Red Flag FL Seeks Revenge By Pitting Brothers Against Eachother In Love.

This was quite the ride! It absolutely lived up to my expectations for YZX more than Unspeakable Longing did 😅. It kept me glued to my screen each night as midnight rolled around, having me just waiting for the SINGLE episode a day to update. Anyone watching it later now that it's done airing just won't have "quite" the same nail-biting experience.

The Negatives...
This show screams for wanting MORE. Episodes are roughly 10 minutes disregarding opening/closing ost themes and plot points are quickly moved along from one to the next. Often people end up complaining about side character development full length shows so if you are one of those you'd likely appreciate the direct approach of focusing almost strictly on the singular plot line but personally I found myself wanting to know EVERYTHING about everyone... I wanted to know how she grew up, I wanted to know more about the brother's father and the conflicts with his wives, about the grandmother (and slap her), and probably most importantly MORE about the struggle with YZX character Yeting and the Crown Prince.

That said... there aren't really any major dangling plot threads regarding any of these issues, you get told a bare bones story enough to piece together all the backstory you need for the characters and their motivations to make sense. I just KNOW there's more story there that didn't have time to be told though so it was an unfulfilled want.

The biggest reason this becomes a "negative" is because it hinders the romantic triangle to a small degree. Focus is placed on her with one character then switches them back and forth again until I had a harder time believing there were actual feeling between her and Muran than I did her and Yeting. Additional scenes of her alone, conflicted in her room perhaps hashing out her TRUE feelings with her maid might have helped sway the audience one way or another but then, perhaps that's exactly WHY those scenes don't exist?

Which leads me to, The Positives...
First, while vastly different stories, similar to L&BF this show relies on only two songs to convey the depth of varied emotions playing on screen. The majority of the ending OSTs are the female led song with only a few, impactful instances of the male led song. This change-up of the songs is actually one reason to NOT watch the final FULL VERSION whenever it comes out as they will inevitably cut out the end credits and those changes will lose their punch-to-the-gut impact.

Both songs portray a sad, lingering and emotional love full of conflict. Different portions of the songs play different lyrics over various scenes to better convey the emotions on screen at the time, milking those songs for every drop of emotion. Both have been added to my Playlist but I've especially listened to the male sung one on repeat as the despair in his voice is POWERFUL.

The characters here are not "cookie-cutter" and all three display actions going against their conflicting emotional state. Each character has their own self-interests and it becomes addicting trying to unravel WHY they do something when it seemingly won't benefit them and instead will only hurt them.

Our FL is known as "Ban Meng" to the MLs. Her goal is straight and simple in theory, but when does anything simple ever actually turn out such? Her background turns her into a conniving "Green Tea B*tch" type character as she sets out to purposefully manipulate the MLs for her revenge.

Rather than ML/2ML I'm going to label the brother's ML 1 and ML 2 and strictly go off age (older brother/younger brother).

ML1 is the older brother Yeting played by Yan Zi Xian. He is initially portrayed on the screen as cold, unfeeling, and utterly ruthless. He represents overly ambitious Red Flag characters but the story does well as it moves along to paint him as more than one dimensional. He is a Lion.

ML2 is the younger brother Muran played by Zhao Huan Ran. His initial appearance has him portrayed as youthful, carefree, and innocent. The opposite of his brother, he is originally made to represent an unambitious and Laissez-faire, Green Flag character. He is "a Golden Retriever raised by Foxes" type mix.

The revenge ending was short but concluded and wrapped up completely. The loveline ending was longer, devoting 1 1/2 episodes to resolving who, if any one, she ends up with and why.

Final verdict: 9/10 personally

Majority should find it good enough it rate an 8+/10 as it keeps you guessing and the chemistry is FIRE! 🔥🔥🔥

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The Sopping Wet Cat vs Girlbosses

Premise: A modern girl wakes up in the body of a timid, sopping wet cat, bathhouse worker who longs for the princess from afar. Her mission, get the arrogant princess to marry him.

The Twist: Rather than a "simple" body switch or body take-over, this show brings forth The Chair! Whoever sits in the chair controls the body 😅. What could POSSIBLY go wrong when two heterosexual people of opposite genders BOTH control a male body?

Overall this was a very unserious show that had a lot of funny moments. The ending was both glaringly obvious AND semi-unique.

As for the cast, Wang Ze Xuan does a crazy good job imitating Chen Fang Tong's expressions and mannerisms when "she" is in control. He has to play such drastically different personalities that it really shows his skills off. As for Chen Fang Tong... She is the audience personified in many scenes. Taking advantage when she can her delight over causing mischief for him to clean up is just fun and addictive to watch.

8.5/10
(Plot holes and rushed sub plot ending nicks some points)

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Pretty Show w/ Rushed Ending

This show was definitely pretty. Pretty sets, pretty overlay / scene change screens, pretty (and varied) costumes, and of course... pretty actors 😅🤷‍♀️. One of it's positives is that it also had above average cgi for being a mini drama (I have absolutely seen worse cgi in full length shows, let alone what's normally shown in minis).

Actors/Actresses that stand out:

Zhong LiLi as Shang You will possibly make you want to slap her or strangle her for how dumb and naive she is she is at certain points of the show. Not EVERY one who says they will help you has your best interests at heart girl...

Guan Yue as Si Yuan was amazing to watch for multiple reasons. One, he CAN act and he CAN emote. This show required him to NOT do that and I swear the director told him "no, stop, too much, more stone face...." The fact he has expressions and "acts" well later in the show after he would HAVE emotions makes me convinced this is the fact. His scenes of self-punishment were 🔥 and his white-hair transformation was 🙈.
Yin Rui as Feng Shancha was a VERY complex character that had you feeling bad for her one second and wanting to kill her yourself the next. She obviously has a good ability to elicit emotions with her face. She has a trigger warning scene happen TO her.

The plot... tries. It starts out clear and focused but as it goes on it slowly begins to devolve until we get to the last couple episodes where they cram way too much plot into too little run time. This causes characters to flip suddenly, threads to drop completely, and sudden final reveals to lose their emotional impact because they come from nowhere. Warning, you will NEVER find out WHY the ML was blind and near the FL in the 1st episode 🤷‍♀️.

Honestly, the show needed to be 30 episodes at least to better develop that ending.

Finally, the original title is 3 Lives Without Sorrow and it's "obviously" supposed to be a 3 lives show but don't bother trying to scratch your head trying to count which "life" they're on; it won't make sense. We'll, maybe it will... another user said this show is "basically" a mini-drama version of TTEOTM but I've yet to see that yet so can't say what the parallels are.

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There are better and worse minis out there

Reasons to watch this show:
You are a fan of any of the actors/actresses
You feel a need to watch ALL transported into a comic minis
You want a transmigration HEA show

Reasons to pass on this one:
The logic makes NO sense
They cast a kissing king in a show where they CAN'T kiss 🤣🤡
The 2nd ML storyline will make you roll your eyes
The "main" villian is easily guessed once you realize logic has flown out the window

Overall, if you're bored and looking to watch this on 2x speed it won't take long; but if you're one of those who has to watch on regular speed, good luck.

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Mediocre Beginning That Actually Only Gets Better

The beginning of this show feels a little odd at first. The pacing is odd, the editing is odd, the weird comedic aphrodisiac play is odd, and more. But then something interesting happens... Where for a lot of shows this sets the mood and you drop or suffer, this one actually DOES get better with each episode.

Now this isn't to say there are no plotholes or logic gaps. There are logic gaps large enough to drive a truck through... But all the over the top craziness does start to grow on you, the main leads relationship starts to settle and strengthen, and before you know it you're over halfway through without blinking.

As long as you can check your logic at the door this should be a good ride. Also, this might be the first show where I'm honestly confused if they ACTUALLY kissed at all.

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Mindless Timeloop Fluff With Some Angst

At just under 20 minutes an episode, this short drama packs a lot into each of into its plot. Running at a break-neck speed, especially at the beginning, 5 or 6 episodes go by and suddenly you're wondering what's going to happen next as the tale twists and turns. Most of the story is told through the eyes of the FL so seeing her emotional journey of ups and downs is quite nerve-racking, making you want to hit the NEXT button immediately to see what happens next.

While the show itself isn't "spicy" there are a surprising amount of kisses and general romantic scenes. This makes the required "angst" section of the show even more nail biting as you want to have everything "normal" and sweet again.

The biggest weakness of the show is probably the main villian. This person was telegraphed with bright lights VERY early and yet despite clues mounting up around them the characters appeared to be oblivious to their meaning. Then the final showdown leaves a bit of a "really, that's it" feeling despite not being able to put into words HOW it might have been able to be different or better.

On the large though, this was a VERY satisfying show to watch and should absolutely be seen by more people looking for something "shorter" but long enough to be fully fleshed out with all characters motivations.

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This Short OTT Angsty Trope-packed Melodrama Won't Be For Everyone

This series will absolutely stand as either a love it or hate it type series for most viewers. The synopsis is just detailed enough to entice a viewer but honestly if only going off the official synopsis you'll be blindsided by the truly toxic relationship Gu Yi (Luo Zheng) and Qiao Jing (He Rui Xian) have developed over their three year time together.

From the first episode tropes are thrown at the screen in record numbers. It would not suprise me in the slightest if the writer began this project with a sheet of paper detailing a list of tropes and put a check mark next to each one each time one was used. This makes for an over the top and highly dramatic show that has the viewer wondering if they even want any of the characters to even survive the shows ending, let alone have a Happy Ending.

Tonal shifts among episodes zigzag back and forth to the point of whiplash, especially in the first half of the series. Reality is thrown out the window as we have a front row seat to a ML who defies logic of having had a heart transplant as he eats and drinks whatever he wants and even runs miles after being hospitalized so he can see the FL. By the last four episodes though, even with the dramatic events still occurring and needing to be uncovered, the tone definitely shifts to being more easy-going and uplifting instead of leaving you with heart-pounding anxiety.

Characters:

Gu Yi - Beginning the show he starts as a stereotype of a possessive, self-entitled, mentally ill male lead and descends into stalking and emotionally blackmailing QJ to force her return to his side. He goes through several trials in his effort to redeem himself, failing in his sincerity until his ultimate fall allows him to prove he is capable of more.

Qiao Jing - This is definitely a complicated woman and if anything I wish the show could have been longer to have explored her emotional turmoil more. When she walks out on GY the first time you want to cheer after what she's gone through. When she drags her suitcase back each time something happens and she gives in it hurts. The criticism though comes from the drama being as short as it is and not allowing enough time to fully showcase her feelings of turmoil between Gu Yi/Su Juan/Bai Yun.

Bai Yun - The first third 2nd ML, BY is the foil to GY. His strength is his kindness and patience and he is willing to take a punch and go toe to toe to protect QJ from GY. Unfortunately, once he defeated as a rival he literally disappears from the drama never to be seen or mentioned again. This leads the viewer to unintentionally wonder if he will pop up again in the plot but this doesn't occur.

Bai Yan - The 2nd FL, BY is the childhood friend of GY and is a renown pianist. Returning home their families arrange the marriage of the two and she is over joyed. Her actions within the show have severe consequences and she is sent to prison just before the 2/3 mark. Both ML and FL refuse to forgive her to the very end but FL does accept her apology letter in last episode which may infuriate the viewer.

Su Juan - The catalyst for QJ seeking out GY originally is the mistaken thought he carried Su Juan's heart inside him. Overall most plot holes within the series have to due with this character. Again, more episodes could have allowed for him to develop further. He has a very minor arc with Bai Yan due to time restrictions on episode count that I wanted to see more of, especially in conflict with QJ. Because of the lack of time to develop scenes the viewer is sometimes left with doubt as to what his actual emotion is or if he is acting in a particular situation.

Fang Pei (GY mother) - Stereotyped and needed more time to truly showcase a change of heart, especially towards QJ. However, at the very least with this character the writers were able to find a way to express her true feelings during a scene with both GY and QJ mother's getting drunk together. Here we finally see that her opinions on the relationship haven't truly 100% changed, she just loves her son enough that she's given up fighting. Especially after the "other option" of BY is no longer socially or morally acceptable to her. In the penultimate scene of the series she tells her side of the events surrounding Su Juan and it will probably have you rolling your eyes in disbelief.

Zhou Yue - As a supporting character always by Gu Yi's side his relationships to and with everyone appear to almost be made deliberately vague. Bai Yan refers to him as her brother despite having differing last names and he refers to Bai mom as Auntie. His story development at the end of the last couple episodes makes for one of the least punished characters as his lawsuit had been dropped and Gu Yi is seen having a beer with him and calling him brother even as ZY is letting him know he's turning himself in. Honestly, he needed at least a minute or twos worth of time within the show to have focused more on his facial expressions. That or have switched the actor to someone more nuanced with microexpressions. Then maybe every thing would be slightly more believable from a viewers point of view.

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Starts As One Type of Show, Morphs Into Another

Four Immortals descend from the Heavenly realm at different times in order to collect a series of artifacts and stop the Heavenly Tribulation once and for all.

The show itself is a glaringly low budget Xanxia all the way through. Bright stage lights, bad make-up, awful wigs and costumes, flat cgi backgrounds, and MUCH more. The beginning of the show though treats all of these aspects as a comedy, having you watch the show knowing just how bad it looks and knowing it is deliberately making light of all these aspects. In this way the show falls into a very niche category of so deliberately bad it's amazingly good.

But then the show continues and with each episode there seems to be less and less deliberate comedy infused until suddenly you're watching a "serious" Xanxia but it's still just as low budget and bad looking. By this point you might find yourself wondering whether it is worth it to continue the show; after all, it still is lacking the emotional depth of the beginning and yet the scenes are calling for an emotional response that doesn't seem to want to come.

I finished the show liking it "okay" enough but with an absolute lack of the enthusiasm I'd had during the initial episodes. Instead, it left me frustrated with how to rate the show as a whole production and wondering if there were multiple writers and/or directors attached to the project.

In the end I would recommend this show for anyone who likes "so bad it's good" productions, light-handed absurdist comedy, BUT ALSO, "generic" angsty Xanxia without comedy. If you go into the show KNOWING that the comedy ends and the generic begins around the halfway/three-quarters point and like both types of shows then this will still be an okay show for you.

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Started Out Strong, Becomes Unintentional Comedy

I knew going in there was no way this was going to be a full red flag drama and also had an "idea" about "a" possible ending so I was essentially going in to this with eyes wide open.

I liked much of the first part for what it was, including the jaunt into the village.

Where it broke down for ME was the seeming plothole 2nd cpl love story (maybe scenes were cut idk) and then the brain melting episodes 24-27. I had to literally force myself NOT to rate the entire show lower than a 5 JUST based on those few episodes alone.

But then they gave us episode 28 and it was hilarious to me. I don't think I was supposed to find it funny but I did...

The final episodes made a run for giving me the title of most inappropriate laughter during a show but whatever, at least I didn't want to actively turn the show off during them.

So what is this show? Who is this show for?

This is a baseline popcorn drams you can watch without paying attention to half of what's going on and still understand. It has a deep message it wants to convey and for those it resonates with it will hit hard... but for the most part everyone else will roll their eyes.

I'm not going to say it's not worth your time to watch it... just be aware of what you're getting before jumping in so you're not disappointed.

Full Episode Rating Breakdown:
Initial Set-up - first 5 eps 10/10
Repairing the screen, the hunt, the village - 6-18 8.5/10
Return and Downfall - 19-23 7.5/10 (mostly for plothole reasons with 2nd Cpl)
Qingzhou 1 - 24-27 2/10 Burn these episodes with fire specifically - I could have sworn this lasted more episodes based on how slow they felt, but nope.
🤣 - 28 8.5/10
Qingzhou 2 - 29-31 7/10 People are introduced JUST to die 🤡 FUN!
Final Episode - 32 8.5/10

Final Rating 7/10

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Short and Bare Bones But A Thrilling Ride

A Jade pendant, Revenge and Rebirth may be a bit cliché but this Mini drama definitely takes those elements and weaves them together rather well. What first glance seems like a open-and-shut case get unraveled deeper and deeper then further down the spiral the leads go within the story.

Where the show excels is with its fight scenes, wire work, and morally grey characters. Almost everyone has a reason for their actions, whether it is a "good" reason or not is beside the point.

As for the plot, everything is bare bones told, nothing extra added which honestly does sometimes mean things you would like to have further explained are dropped and not discussed or shown on screen. But as for the MAIN story, everything important is shown and discussed.

One thing I found interesting was that the ending was expanded upon as much as it was. Without spoiling anything, the main conflict is resolved and then there is a final bit of romance in the last bit of the show. There are MULTIPLE times I could have seen the show ending earlier with a "lesser" ending but the one we got was VERY satisfying in my personal opinion.

8/10

(If it had had the budget to delve a "little" deeper it probably would have been higher but there's only so much when some episodes are 7 minutes cutting out the credits).

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He Falls First AND Harder

Built upon the idea that marriages don't last and love is a lie, the ML tries a lot of antics to sabotage the FLs matchmaking efforts. This of course leads to funny little "clip worthy" moments between the two characters.

That's honestly really it thought there isn't anything really "special" about this show, it's just cute and quirky, a nice diversion that can be quickly ran through without much brain power.

Story is full of loopholes and plotholes that are dropped or unexplained or waved away as "coincidence" by the characters. But it's not super plot heavy so even these issues don't leave a truly lasting impression.

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Healing Anthology Stories with a Side of Star-Crossed Lovers

The highlight of this one is absolutely the gorgeous cinematography. You can debate if the cgi is good or not, personally I really enjoyed the look of it in this show. It didn't feel cheap or rushed at all in my opinion.

While a romance, this one is definitely on the more tragic end of the spectrum. It's theme of helping people through their dreams is present throughout the show, as is the underlying tale of the innkeeper FL who is cursed to the inn in exchange for the bargain she made in a past life.

This whole thing with the past is actually where is loses most of its points as it is very convoluted and never FULLY explained, rather, a lot it left up for you to get the "gist" of what happened.

There's parts of the original love story, parts when she was a child, parts when she was already the innkeeper all woven together as one sort of past time line for her.

Despite the slightly unsatisfactory past timeline the show as a WHOLE is very well done and is something that should be experienced, especially if you are looking for a short with star-crossed lovers type angst in addition to anthology-type stories of the FL helping people in the inn.

8/10

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