Aryael
Twenty steps away from the toilet and just around the corner from the stairs.
Story: At 18 years old, Tang Yi Bai stood at the pinnacle of his career as a swimmer. He was set for the world stage and to realize his dream to be the fastest swimmer in the world. Unexpectedly, after winning the very swimming competition that will push him to the world stage, he was caught doping. Just like that, four years of his youth was lost. For four years, he trained hard and never lost sight of his original dream. The 22-year-old him returned to professional swimming - winning a college-level swimming contest. His excellent performance caught the interest of a trainee reporter, Yun Dou and together with the teammates and coach who believed in him, they faced the challenges of professional swimming and life together.
There are many often used scenes and ideas in this drama such as the infamous "Gone with the Wind" poster posture, male lead being caught showering by the female lead, memory lost, love triangles etc but they are done in such a way that it didn't feel cheesy and repetitive. The storyline and characters are the strengths of this drama. It has 36 episodes but each episode has excellent pacing. It didn't feel rushed or dragged. Total marathon material. As it is a Chinese drama, there were some flashbacks but they were used appropriately and not excessively. I actually watched this drama without fast forwarding any parts....which lead to the sleeplessness I am experiencing now! The romance is sweet and simple but I enjoyed watching the characters as they struggle through their confusions and choices as they try to balance work, life and romance.
I like the 'natural' and realistic progression of the story and characters. The drama gives off a relaxed but inspired feel. The OSTs are excellent and used appropriately throughout the drama. I downloaded all of them and will probably be listening to them on repeat for the next few days! Another praiseworthy aspect of this drama is how they didn't butcher the English language! Characters who can't speak English or claim to speak broken English did speak in broken English without thick pretentious fake accent many Chinese actors try to imitate. Characters who can speak fluent English spoke fluent English with correct accent (eg: the swimmer who trained in Singapore spoke proper Singaporean English and not fake American or British English). Inspiring quotes, motto, signs, props and ads around the characters were written in grammatically correct English. For those of you who can't understand Mandarin, the English subs are also grammatically correct. All of these gives the drama more credibility and a realistic feel to it. As an International viewer who can speak, read, write both English and Mandarin fluently, I can see the honest effort being put into the drama and I really appreciate it! Well done to the director, producer, screenplay and script writers and the casting staff!!!! This is a product you can all be proud of!
Acting/Cast: Young actors and actresses but they can act. The young bloke who acted as Tang Yi Bai has such a sweet smile and his character in this drama is a very likeable, easygoing young man - who although experienced setbacks in his swimming career and life - continued to maintain a smiling and easygoing character till the end. The female lead is also another likeable character who makes mature and ethical choices. Their love story is quite typical of young couples in their early 20s, especially when both are new to love and relationship. I can totally relate to their confusion and choices and some of the silliness or misunderstandings they had as I reflected on my first relationship in my early 20s..... it was similar. Of course, when you get to your 2nd, 3rd etc relationships, marriage, kids, grandkids and aging, your perspective on love and romance will change and mature, but for the young couple in this drama.....what they experienced and the decisions they made are appropriate, mature and realistic for their age.
I also enjoyed the stories and relationships of the side characters. There were little comedic scenes and interactions here and there which were nicely done and again realistic for men and women of the characters' age. The older actors and actresses that played the roles of parents and coaches all did well and gave appropriate and mature advices. There are no annoying or unrealistic characters in this drama. No bad or good guys. Just normal people with aspirations, behaviors, thinking, character and understanding appropriate for their age and situations.
Music: I love the OSTs - all of them! Which is so rare to find in a drama. Usually, it's just one or two OSTs that stick out as good but in this drama, all of the OSTs are worthy of a permanent spot in your playlist!
Rewatch value: I am downloading the entire drama now. That's how good it is! I think my kids will enjoy watching this - so I am saving it up for them for when they come visiting!
Overall: Enough said! If you are like me who doesn't watch sports-themed youth romance type drama and am skeptical of them, give this a try. If you are into sports-themed youth romance type drama and have been watching all those Korean ones and thinks they are fantastic, according to a friend of mine (of my age group) who watches them, this Chinese drama beats all of them hands down! This is a gem and really deserves the 9.5/10 I gave it. Highly highly recommended!
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Acting/Cast: Lovely cast and most of them are experienced actors and actresses, hence excellent acting. I must also mention the costumes, props and sceneries in this drama as well. They sure invested a lot on them! Definitely worth watching! I personally, fell in love with the costumes!!!
Music: Endearing, sad, beautiful, melodic, longing, love....they are all gorgeously portrayed through the OSTs. This drama boasts a wonderful array of excellent OSTs that will bring a sigh, smile and tear to your heart. A worthy collection!
Rewatch value: I am personally not a big fan of re-watching dramas as I am very time poor. However, I'd purchase the DVDs, downloaded the mp4 versions and the OSTs of this drama. This says a lot about this drama and its songs! I'd since re-watched selected episodes of my favourite scenes. Due to my time and work commitments, I have yet been able to re-watch the entire drama but the thought is very tempting.
Overall: A beautiful drama that will remain in your memories long after the last song was sung and the curtains are drawn. This is one drama that will always be at the back of my mind as recommendation for others who are looking for a good historical chinese drama. Well done to all the casts, director and writer!
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Acting/Cast: Excellent acting and cast.
Music: Love the 'aunty' feel of the music - old school and adds to the humour and charm of the drama.
Re-watch value: I can imagine myself re-watching this during the year end holiday but not immediately. It has one of those 'relax, sit back and enjoy the show' feel to it that suits a lazy holiday afternoon, though it is not in the "OMG! I gotta re-watch this ASAP!" category.
Overall: A worthy entertainment and time spent. Short, sweet and direct with a good and suitable ending. It is a concise, compact product that will suit your basic entertainment need. Give it a try and let me know what you think. :)
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The story is typical of 1930s Shanghai romance with the involvement of businessmen, gangsterism and Japanese spies. Personally, I think the entire story can be told in around 25-30 episodes. There were just too many flashbacks and insignificant scenes that distracted from the main story. The main story itself is actually not too bad. Therefore, I blame the lower rating of story and overall on the directing of this drama. If the director had cut down on the flashbacks, insignificant scenes and tightened the drama - the story of Jin Xiu and her sister Ming Zhu would have been better told and Cruel Romance 2015 would have been a better product. If you are planning to watch this, I highly recommend that you fast forward the flashbacks. It'll be less annoying this way.
Acting/Cast: I give 10/10 for the actors and actresses. They all did a superb acting job. The reason for my final lower score of 9/10 is the many obvious errors in directing and editing of the drama. There are parts that seem to drag 2-3 seconds too long - the pause causing a less smooth shifting of scenes. It is not the actors' fault as it is the director and editor's job to make sure each scenes flow nicely into each other without any obvious or awkward pauses. Again, I place this blame on the doorstep of the director.
Music: Nice OSTs:- sad, nostalgic and meaningful. I have them downloaded and am enjoying the OSTs now.
Rewatch value: Due to its' length and the many flashbacks, it is not a good candidate for re-watching. However, there are some romantic scenes between Zhuo Zhen and Jin Xiu that may warrant some re-watching for those of you romantics at heart!
Overall: Considering the directing hiccups, I give this drama 7.5/10. It is a passable drama but not great. Story-wise, it is worth your time watching but only if you are happy to be pressing the fast forward button over tonnes of flashbacks.
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Acting was good as the two main leads have great chemistry. Nice OSTs - including the sweet and cute "Love Ice-cream" song. However, it was let down by the poor storyline towards the end. Storyline before the 10th episode was 9/10, story after the 10th episode was 4/10 and the last 3 episodes were 2/10 - very disappointing.
Two short sentences summarized this drama:
You'll get ripped off. You'll get lied to.
Watch with no expectations.
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Story: A straight forward and simple story - a nation's in crisis, they need a king, but assasins have been killing off all potential candidates until there was only one possible candidate left: an exiled prince. A fighter was sent to search and protect the exiled prince. Excellent fighting scenes followed. There was a budding romance between the prince and his protector and the unrequitted love between a vassal and her lord/leader. All these come together to form a solid storyline for a movie.
Acting/Cast: Very convincing, excellent fighting scenes and good script. What can I say: I am drawn into the world of war, assassins and martial arts by the cast.
Music: Not much to comment there. The music suited each scene but because most of them are instrumental with either sombre mood or fight mood, the music did not stand out in this movie.
Rewatch value: An excellent and quick 1 hour plus entertainment that you can rewatch whenever you feel bored. I enjoy watching the fighting scenes. They were well choreographed.
Overall: Highly recommended!! It is truly a gem that was not given its due recognition!!
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Acting/Cast: Superb cast overall but I find that FBI guy who speaks in a thick South African English accent a bit annoying coz he's the only one not speaking in American English and yet goes around in the role of an American FBI agent (a mis-cast?). The lady playing Susan was great and I hope she'll hit it big in Hollywood in the future. The other actors in the US side are passable but not great. The Chinese cast are obviously the ones shining in this drama here.
Music: Most of its OSTs are instrumental and fits the sophisticated, modern and mystery feel of the drama. The ending OST however is hauntingly beautiful and its lyrics accurately depicts the emotion part of the drama (the relationship between the main couple).
Overall: It is not always you find a gem amongst all the dramas produced throughout the years and decades of Asian entertainment. Once in a while, you find one at a place you didn't think to find. I've always followed Chinese dramas but mostly for historical and wuxia series, seldom for their modern series as I think the quality of chinese modern series are beneath that of Japan and Korea but this drama here is an exception when it comes to modern chinese investigative series made by mainland Chinese (not HK which has an excellent track record for investigative modern dramas). I am surprised and impressed and read from a blogger earlier today how there are fans of this drama who wanted more than 24 episodes and are hoping for a Season 2. Well...I sure hope to see more of Bo Jin Yan if possible but apprehensive about Season 2s as they normally do not perform as well as their predecessors. As for those of you who are hesitating, don't...just watch it and I'm sure you'll not regret this decision!
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Story: It is a vampiric love story and where storyline goes, it actually has a better storyline than the Hollywood produced Twilight saga! If only it has the budget of Twilight, the filming technologies, the directing expertise, the believable props and CGI effects - it would have beaten Twilight hands down!
Acting/Cast: This is the lakorn that added Dome into my list of men in my harem. He makes a very dashing vampire conflicted with his human sentiments and feelings for a very annoying human female. When I say annoying.. I really mean ANNOYING! The female lead's character is that of a persistent, chatty and irritating person. When she is not complaining, she is whining and when she is not whining, she is shouting! It took considerable patience to overlook such acting to buy into the story of this lakorn. In the end, the story won and I am glad I stuck with it to the end.
Music: Nothing worth mentioning here. The OSTs are appropriate to the mood of the lakorn but they are not impressive enough to find their way into your iPod and bathroom karaoke.
Rewatch value: There is something about this lakorn that made me re-watch it twice. Of course, adequate time had passed between viewing. I am not adversed to re-visit it since there are a number of pretty interesting scenes in it but I would not re-watch it entirely either. Fast fowarding it to the important scenes is the method I would recommend you to re-watch this lakorn.
Overall: Where vampiric love stories go, this one is not too bad. I give it a 7.5/10.
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Their relationship started out quite similar to a "master-dog" relationship but as Chul Soo slowly gained understanding of human language, he showed surprising intelligence and emotion. Before long, the attaction between Suni and Chul Soo was quite apparent. As usual, there will be people coming in between the relationship, and in this movie's case- it was a jealous and egoistical son of Suni's father's former business partner.
This is classified as melodrama, so expect something that will start the waterworks. It is a good movie, one worth recommending to friends and families, and one worth re-watching. However, I feel that despite the good storyline, the movie lacks an 'Umph!' factor that will push it to 10/10. It kind of leave me feeling a little flat towards the end, despite the emotional storyline. To be honest, I did not shed a single tear (gasp! how could I not??). I just felt sorry for the couple. The acting was superb, especially Song Joong Ki as the werewolf boy. It is no wonder he earned critical acclaims for his role in this movie. If you haven't watched this movie, find a time and watch it. You won't regret your decision.
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I would like to reiterate that this Korean version was not written by the original Bu Bu Jing Xing writer. This is entirely a Korean written drama. The biggest difference are the characters. The main male lead in this drama is a bit of a ruffian and pariah with tendencies towards brutality. The female lead of this drama is a weak character who is always the victim and never a success of her own (which is so unlike the female lead in BBJX!). Maybe the idea of a strong, arrogant, cold male with tendencies towards brutality and a weak, simpering, without backbone and a blur-bordering-on-being-stupid heroine appeals to the Korean audience as per the rich, arrogant, powerful, abusive chaebol guy and the poor, happy, innocent woman formula. In any case, the lack of strong lead characters (including that of the second male lead) totally spoiled this drama for me.
The charm and success of BBJX relied heavily on its unforgettable characters. The storyline of time-traveling and involvement in palace politics itself is not new and pretty 'standard' in the Chinese drama scene. Popular examples include Palace: Lock Heart, The Myth and the recent web-drama comedic hit Go Princess Go. The Chinese have been making such time-traveling dramas for decades now. What made BBJX achieved such a big success was mainly because of its unforgettable characters and not necessarily the storyline itself. The Koreans went and adapt the main idea of the story and the open ended ending but pretty much made a mess of all of its characters.
Do not get me wrong here. I am not comparing the Korean version with the Chinese version. To do so, will be like comparing chicken to duck. Both are two very different products although from the same story idea! I am merely stating that if the Koreans had decided to do a drama based on time-traveling, palace politics and romance - they could learn much from their Chinese counterparts about writing characters that create lasting and strong impacts instead of following the usual mold of what constitutes a successful Korean romance pairing (rich abusive guy with poor weak woman). I believe if they had dared to break away from this mold and give the audience a strong female character with a strong, upright and strategist of a male character against a kind but ambitious second male lead, the drama would have been a much bigger hit. The only characters that this drama did well are the characters of the 10th prince and his wife. To this day, I cannot decide if I like BBJX's 10th prince and wife better or this Korean version's 10th prince and wife. In both versions, the characters of the 10th prince and wife were given good justice although both had different stories and endings for the 10th prince and wife.
Acting/Cast: Most of the male casts did well, as did the supporting actresses. The female lead, however, was a total let down. She only had three expressions: shy smile, expressionless and shocked. Her body language was a bit stiff too - making it hard for me to be convinced that there's even chemistry between her and the male leads; hence making this so-called 'great romance that caused brothers to fight against each other for the throne' less convincing. Even the shocked look looked rather unconvincing. In cases like these, there are 3 possibilities: 1- This was how the character was depicted in the script, or 2- The actress is bad in acting and shouldn't be acting, or 3- Both 1 and 2. I do not know much about the female lead as I do not follow news of Korean young idols and since this is the first drama of hers that I'd watched, I cannot make a concrete judgment of her acting skills. The jury is out on this matter. What I can say for absolute certain was the lead female character was the reason why I dropped this drama after 6 episodes and only caught up after it has finished airing (with fingers firmly on the fast forward button!).
Music: Nothing that stuck in my head.
Rewatch value: I will not be re-watching this.
Overall: Enough said. I recommend that you go watch Bu Bu Jing Xing instead if you haven't watch it.
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- Good introduction that drew in audience's interest but story got dragged around meaninglessly after the first few episodes.
- Good bromance, love-hate and witty interactions between the two main male leads
- An ending that makes sense and wasn't forced
- The side stories and pairings, eg: General Frost and his sister, PK and Bu Ja etc, is more interesting than the development of the OTP's romance
- Could benefit from a shorter version, eg: 13 episodes, instead of the draggy 20 eps.
- Story and plot too simple with many potholes
- A weak female lead character that does not shine as well as her co-stars
- Poor chemistry between the OTP
- Questionable script with 'dodgy' conversations of kindergarten level in poor attempt to make the characters sound witty
- Use of poor quality CGI
- A final showdown that was a disappointment after spending 18 episodes to build up towards it
Therefore, DO NOT watch this drama if you are looking for:
- Good and sizzling chemistry between the OTP
- A tight good story with complex characters and addictive plots
- Clever and witty conversations that does not belittle the characters' (and the audience's) intelligence
- A drama with good quality CGI that does not stick out like a sore thumb
- A conclusive ending that may defy logic and the laws of nature itself
- A drama with fresh new ideas
- Trying to find a drama that will restore your interest and faith in Asian dramas again
Watch this drama if you are:
- A fan of Lee Seung Gi, Cha Seung Won and Lee Hong Ki regardless of how bad the story is
- Like the sort of love-hate witty bromance interactions similarly found in Goblin
- Not into strict happy endings
- Doesn't mind a non-outstanding female lead who's just there as long as the main lead's handsome and charismatic enough to attract your attention
- Looking for a drama that recycles old ideas previously used by the same writers such as having the OTPs wrapped around in a big comforter as they exchange sweet nothings while staring out of the window (eg: Secret Garden) or use of Asian drama "must-haves" such as memory lost or as this drama termed it as "fragmented memories"
My conclusion:
- It's an okay drama but I won't be re-watching it soon.
- It's time the Korean entertainment industry consider employing new writers with new ideas and styles coz recycling the same old ideas using same old writers who most likely have given us their very best and can no longer offer anymore better is frankly getting....well, OLD. Time to consider retirement, Hong sisters. Make way for new bloods.
- Sad waste of great names and talents. It's like placing a Lamborghini engine in an old Toyota car! What sad waste of resources!
- If I want to be lenient and consider the star-studded cast much loved by many (despite the disaster of the story), it can get away with an 8.0 but if you have a list of things to assess this drama on like in a Quality Assurance assessment, as you tick things off without consideration for the big names, you'll realize that the best rating you could give this drama is 7.0
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Once again, I am treated to a wonderful (but simple) story of a male lead who is relentless in his pursue of the female lead. After Yi Hua found out about Zong You's nature and his distorted view of 'love', her opinion of him soured and she became uninterested in him. In fact, she started to get interested in Zhang Shao Qian (the second male lead) who is a responsible man with very practical views on love and marriage (the exact opposite of Zong You). This presented a problem to Zong You who is determined to woo Yi Hua to prove his point on 'love'. What I like about this drama is how there is character growth for both Yi Hua and Zong You. I liked the parts where they both spoke to their ex-es and learned how wrong they were on their respective views on 'love'. They both eventually learn 'What is Love'. Be warned though! This drama is an emotional roller-coaster ride! You'll laugh yourself silly in one moment and the next going through your tissue box like there's no tomorrow!
Acting/Cast: All of the cast are seasoned actors and actresses. Even the supporting actors and actresses did really well. The reason for my 1 mark short of perfect score for acting is because of the second male lead. His acting is the worst of the lot. His facial expressions looked fake and forced. There is no emotion conveyed in his eyes and body language at all. It is obvious that he should not be an actor. Period. A better choice for second male lead would have increased the quality and enjoyment of this drama.
Music: I love the OSTs in this drama, especially Bii's "You Give Me Love".
Rewatch value: There are many cute and funny moments between the leads as well as emotional moments that tear at your heart that you may want to re-watch again and again. The leads have a very good chemistry. Noticeably, Chris Wu shone in his role as Bai Zong You. I only wish they make romantic TDramas like these now. In my opinion, the years 2008 to 2012 are the best years for romantic TDramas. Post-2012, things started to go downhill.
Overall: Good enjoyment and highly recommended to all you romantics at heart! I scored this drama an overall 8.5/10.
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Story: A straight, dummy-tested and proven formula:- heir to some wealthy business family pretends to be penniless to be with the woman he loves while his half brother plots to take over the family business. Throw in cakes and pastries and you get Fondant Garden. Personally, I am not adversed to recycling of storylines, especially when it appeals to the psyche and expectations of the audience it aims to attract (in this case - young fangirls of Park Jung Min's). Most successful dramas do not come from new and exciting storylines, but they come from the characters, the setting, the chemistry and the dialogues. This drama is no exception to this rule.
Acting/Cast: My biggest beef with the cast is the lead female actress. The woman cannot act to save her life! She was probably given the role because of her petite form and cute face. Other than that, a blown up doll could do a better job to excite the audience! The savior of this drama comes in the form of the two blokes - Park Jung Min and Kingone, especially Kingone! Jung Min's acting was a little shaky and inexperienced in the beginning but as the drama progresses, his acting improves a lot, to the point that he outshone the female lead by leaps and bounds in the final episode! I also like the fact that Jung Min is putting in serious effort into his Mandarin and his Mandarin is amongst one of the best for a Korean artist. Kingone is an experienced actor and I have been following his acting career for a while now. The bloke never acts in a leading role, preferring to be a supporting actor instead, but I reckon it is high time that he be offered a leading role in his own drama soon! Kudos to the supporting cast. They become the pillar in which this drama derives its successes from.
Music: Sweet sweet melody that reminds you of sweet young love. I particularly like Kimberley's "Ai Ni" (Love You) and Park Jung Min's "Bad Person".
Rewatch value: This is one drama that does not require much IQ power to watch. It is good entertainment for escaping the stress and realities of life. It brings out the closet Cinderellas in all of us.
Overall: Minus the poor acting of the lead actress and the mediocre storyline, I am giving this a 8/10 simply because of Kingone, the sweet music and rewatch value.
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Story: It has a solid story with no obvious gaps. Every action, thought and deed were well thought through. The only part I would like to see more progression on is the (important) part where Shunji turned from a loving and caring person into a monster. The death of his brother (whom he is not very close to to begin with) is not a very solid reason for turning a man into a monster - neither is unrequitted love. If Kangto turned evil - now, THAT, is more believable. The anguish Kangto has to go through with the lost of his family (whom he loves and cherish) is 100 times more than what Shunji went through. But the irony is, we see Kangto going from evil to good and Shunji from good to super evil. Somehow, I feel there is a 'missing link' there for Shunji. Unless the story depicts him as someone who only shows kindness to others when it suits him, I fail to see how a genuinely kind person can turn into a monster almost overnight because of a death of a relative he is not very close with. Not even the pressure to conform from his father was good enough to break him. So, what broke Shunji? Where was the breaking point? I did not see that clearly in the drama. Therefore, I feel that Shunji's story need a little bit of polishing.
I must also admit that while others rushed through this drama and got addicted to it, I did not. It took me 3 weeks to watch it - at a relaxing 2-3 eps per night pace. There were even a couple of days when I did not watch it, preferring to bake instead. To me, this drama did not cost me any sleep. I was not addicted. Why? I do not know. Personal preference, I guess. I would say it has a solid storyline but is it a good and addictive storyline, to me, that is debatable. I suppose if you are following it as it is airing, you might have that urgency to want to watch the next episode, but for me, who is watching it when all the episodes are already out, I simply do not have that urgency to "chase" after the episodes. Perhaps, I'm still in my 'drama blues' period? Who knows. But at this stage, storyline wise, K2H has a much addictive storyline. That's just my opinion.
For those of you who have not watched this and plan to watch this, be warned - the episodes after episode 12 are the more "addictive" ones with the main plot developing to its climax. So, if you have anything you have to do which is more important than drama watching such as eating, bathing, homework, exams, assignments etc - you can take a break before and at episode 12, because after that, you may find it hard to stop between episodes.
Acting/Cast: Superb acting! There is nothing I could critique regarding the acting and the cast. I must credit the success of this drama to its cast. I did shed a tear or two in a few emo scenes. This is the pinnacle of acting - making the audience feel with you. What more can I say? Nothing. Absolutely perfect!
Music: Nothing worth gushing over. Decent and appropriate to the scenes and mood.
Rewatch value: Because the drama had failed to "net" me in, I rank the rewatch value lower. I do not plan to rewatch this anytime soon.
Overall: It is a decent watch. Worth your time, but not worth losing sleep over.
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Story: The synopsis of this drama pretty much summed up what it is - a story about a grim reaper who eventually disappeared from everyone's memories. This drama is more investigative thriller than paranormal romance. Therefore, do not watch this drama with an expectation of paranormal romance. The grim reaper part is the only paranormal part of this drama. It is not used for action or cool effects. The drama is primarily focused on revealing the many twists and plots that led to the deaths of key characters who coincidentally were linked to each other. The reason why I said this is a 'controversial' drama is because you'll either love it or hate it. Unfortunately, I belong to the later group. Hence, in this review, you will read about the other side of opinion as opposed to the many praises others have given to this drama. Hopefully, after reading this review alongside all the positive reviews of this drama, you will get a more balanced view.
The drama started out well with a scene from the final episode - laying the foundation for the mysteries it plan to address. Then, we are introduced to a series of murders which were inevitably linked to mysteries from the past. One by one, skeletons in the closets (literal and figurative) were exposed. And just when you think you've figured out who's the big baddie, the drama deals you another twist. I love twists and plots and sub-plots. But I dislike HOW they were presented in this drama. Sure, they got the 'lay the foundation' part right with many twists being explained with earlier scenes. However, how it was presented lacked the finesse of a true master! The pace of the drama requires re-thinking. You get a good start, then a sluggish middle and a sudden and fast-forwarded end. The last 2 episodes felt like a dump. You get every character in the drama running around trying to solve mysteries, getting killed and missing chances and clues for the better part of the drama and suddenly in the last 2 episodes, they have a sudden IQ increase and knew exactly what to do! Better yet - as soon as they knew what to do, everything fell into place just right for them to do it when the bulk of the drama showed how they kept on missing clues and chances! For example, Moo Gang can be thinking about a certain person and lo and behold!...the tv reports about that person just as he was wondering about him....and lo and behold!....he found that person in the next scene and knew he's the brains behind it all! Same case with the lady doctor... she's been going around trying to locate a certain person, even almost died because of that.....and suddenly in the final episode, she only need to pick up the phone to call him and he answered! Not only did he answered after evading capture for so long.... he even invited her to his place instead of meeting up at some random public but hidden place as any intelligent person evading capture would do! *face palm!* You can see now what I meant by re-thinking the pace. If clues were solved bit by bit and revealed randomly in the course of the drama while leading towards the eventual and logical capture of the big baddie at the end, this drama would have been a much better drama. As it is, the drama was a huge dump fest with all revelations revealed in the last 2 episodes in a whirlwind of past scenes meshed with current scenes in an attempt to give the storyline creditability.
The second main reason why this drama was a disappointment for me is the lack of chemistry between the female lead and the male lead. Let me start by saying that Kang Ha Ram is not a love-able character. She is meddlesome, bumbling, loud, prone to misconception and always stepping into situation without fully assessing it which led to the many mistakes she made leading to loss of lives. To make matters worst, she was supposed to form a love relationship with Moo Gang/Black. At best, the chemistry that came through was that of a comrade or older brother-younger sister. Hence, my earlier warning that this drama is NOT a paranormal romance. Romance was just an afterthought and the development of chemistry was lacking. In fact, it boggled my mind how Moo Gang/Black who was tauted to be the coldest and most unfeeling reaper could fall for Kang Ha Ram. It defied logic. It even defied logic how he could love her so much that he was willing to undertake the worst punishment ever! If the ending was about this great sacrifice the reaper did for his love, then the story should focus on developing a strong love line so the viewers could empathize on the reaper's decision. Instead, the bulk of the story was about the many twists and turns signature of an investigative thriller.
Acting/Cast: Despite my critique of the story, the acting in this drama is good. Although I dislike Kang Ha Ram's character, the actress portraying her did a good job as she had successfully made me dislike Kang Ha Ram! However, she failed to manufacture the necessary chemistry with her male lead that would convince me that they were indeed very much in love with each other. It takes two to tango - hence the lack of chemistry was also a fault of the male lead. Other than that, acting was spot on.
Music: Not worth mentioning and not the focus of the drama.
Rewatch value: I do not possess a sadistic bone in my body. Hence, I will not torture myself by re-watching this drama. What's done is done! And I am relieved that it's over!
Overall: Considering the sentiments of many who seemed to love this drama, this is my most lenient rating of this drama: 7.5/10. Truthfully, I would rate it closer to 7/10.
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