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This review may contain spoilers
I went in thinking its an independent story and only found out its a sequel almost half way through. Never watched Princess agent nor have I read the book. The start was really rough but I pushed through becuase the visuals look absolutely stunning. You can see they had a vision before going in. The story takes place in 4 different countries and each have a different aesthetic unique to them. The settings, the outfits and the stylings are gorgeous.The earthy toned fits of Yen bei people against those red mountains, the flowy fabrics of womens skirt in biantang palace, the black icy cliffs in ximeng.... so much beautiful scenery.
As a whole the cinematography is something to die for. I wish I could put it all into words but unfortunatly Im not that great in describing imagiry. The only thing I didnt like was that it had too many close up shots where actors were looking straight into the camera. That was weird. But outside of that, loved everything else.
The script just sucks. First few episodes is spent on re telling what went down before the ice lake incident so its basically a rundown of princess agent. So much information is being fed to us without letting any of it sit and marinate. Like some stuff needed an episode atleast not 15 secondes....
The excessive amount of flashbacks in the beggining was annoying to watch. Its so patchy it feels like a collage.
Even later on when the story finally come back to now, it just jumps rather than flow. The pacing here was real weird.
I think they were a bit too ambitious and bit to much they couldnt chew. It was supposed to be an epic story with lots of ups and downs but what came out is a free falling melo drama.
Chu qiao was never believable as a general or a lover. Her real age shows. Its not her fault. She is acting her butt off but a miscast is a miscast. They shouldnt have casted a 17 year old to play her.
I wish there was no romance included. Their feelings develop so fast it comes out of nowhere. The age gap is weird and the actors have 0 chemistry. BORING
Speaking of boring .... Chu qiao and Juge yue are not anything to write home about individualy either. Actualy they are so boring that any other character washes them out in terms of intrigue. I couldnt care any less about these two characters endeavors. It might be becuase I havent watched PA but the " lets abolish slavery " thing was never realy palpable to me.
It also sucks how much plot armor these two recieve. They know everything all the time and always manage to be at the scene of the crime to play hero no matter where it is. They infiltrate the most highly guarded places of all countries back to back to back with ease. One day they're in biantang, next day at ximeng , next yaenbei. Its just ridiculous.
Its like time and distance are nonexistent concept in this story. Chu qiao and juge yue just teleport to places I assume.
Yan xun, Helian, general Huan Huan, chen ye were more interesting characters. They got to have an actuall character arc atleast no matter how annoying they were.
Also many scenes get repeated like people constantly dying and coming back to life or Yan xun getting married. How many time this guy wore grooms outfit in this drama I lost count.... it feels like we're going in circles.
The ending wasnt the best. Wasnt the worst either. In one hand Im happy that yan xun got his head out of his ass. Long live yen bei people and all. It was time the country got saved. Loved that bittersweet wedding scene. They had to submit to fate after all.
Also war is inevitable. Its nice to see everyone let go of thier resentments to unite. The ending battle scenes was so good.
On the other hand.......
That dreaming scenes?? Hated it.
Was it really neccessary to kill so many of??
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This review may contain spoilers
a good romcom
This year wasn't great for us romcom lovers but this one actually does the job. perfect amount of drama, romance and comedy. It was entertaining from the beginning to the very end. The main couple are very interesting. they both seem kind of selfish and sketchy at first but as time went on I understood them better and my heart goes for them. Dysfunctional families is the main core in this drama so everyone was just trying their hardest to heal past wounds. There are also moment of laughter in between with 2nd couple antiques. All in all I liked it.just a few problems that I had :
Shin Min al and Kim Yong dae have 0 chemistry. I've watched both of them before in other dramas and they do good jobs but the pairing wasn't right in my opinion.
Also, the story with the pregnant sister annoyed me so much. They were so beyond selfish its mind boggling. They don't want to know who the biological father is because they don't want to shatter their own selfish delusion of having a family. Did they even consider the other man? Does he know he MIGHT have a child somewhere? what if this child gets into an accident and need help with donation and stuff? Are they going to tell the kid the truth? if yes when? And the biggest what if, WHAT IF he gets a cold feet again?
I normally dont pay attention to OSTs so I made the score up.
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Song Ha yoon and LeeYi kyung both do an incredible job playing their roles as Soomin and Min hwan. You know one is a great actor when you hate the character they play with passion. Never felt any pity for them ....like EVER.
I wanted them gone in a sense that I wanted Jiwon to succeed in her revenge plan but at the same time wanted them to stay cuz watching them was entertaining.
There are some interesting side characters and I wished we saw more of them as I think their stories were a bit rushed such as Yang Joo ran, Mr Lee, Eun ho and Yeon hee. all in all these are the strong points that made this watch enjoyable for me but now let me talk about small issues that kept me from giving it a 10. These might sound a bit childish but I couldn't ignore them while watching.
1. Yura . I understand the point of her characters existence and her roll in the "fate" aspect of the story but god she's hard to watch . I was not enjoying the chaotic evilness she brought to the story at all. we already had strong antagonists. competing with them cant be easy but Yura is in no way an interesting character at all. she's a cliche of all stuck up, rich brats from kdramas ever. the actress doesn't help the situation eighter. She is pretty awkward on screen. Also the addition of this character gave it a Makjang feeling ( search the term if you don't know the meaning) but everything became extreme all of sudden.
2. Music. OSTs are something I normally don't pay attention to. Here they use some bts songs to reveal a plot twist ( trying to not give out spoilers ) but the way they went about it was ..... something. Cuz why they decided to play spring day and dynamite SO LOUDLY?? them talking about it was enough. Im an Army so of course I was giggling and kicking my feet but that was just weird.
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This review may contain spoilers
I binged this in 3 days and if I was to give an overall score only based of my enjoyment while watching then It would be a 9.5/10 but there are some glaring issues ( or red flags maybe) in the story that effected my scoring here. Here is a list of all the goods and bads;THE BAD :
1. a very irresponsible portrayal of sexual assault. In an attempt to run from a loveless marriage Yi Ting drugs and tries to r*pe our male lead and she suffers no consequences. My jaw was on the floor. Shame on writers. This specific plot line is enough for me to not recommend watching this to anyone regardless of how much I loved the rest. There is so many things wrong with this I dont even know what to say... She was a very problematic character as whole. Pathetic ,pretentious and predatory. All the Ps. Viewer discretion is advised
2. Yi Meng, our female lead, is not nearly enough intentional in her decisions given the fact that she had read the script beforehand and knows all the important plot points. First few episodes were fine because she was just learning how this world functions and it was funny but as the story progressed she refused to learn to use the story mechanisms in her advantage. She is so dumb it hurts to watch. At some point a whole new character is added to the story that wasn't even in the original script but she still foolishly refuses to accept that she can try and change her ending insisting that iconic parts will happen regardless whereas Nan Heng, where he uses one of story mechanisms to change an iconic scene in the plot barely a few hours after learning it. Which takes me to my next problem,
3. Nan Heng overpowers Yi Meng in every way possible. He has great martial art skills, ,he is strong and quick thinker, knows politics really well but he is also sympathetic and very heroic. He get so much more done even without reading the script. All while the female lead who has all the cheat codes and prior knowledge is running around like a headless chicken. Oh did I mention that he has great photographic memory?
Funny thing is before Fl gets transported into the script, the drama makers were in a meeting discussing the production where our female lead side have to fight for her right. This scene shows us that we are going to watch a parody of sorts where all common repeated issues of c drama land will be made fun of . Someone in the meeting mentions the fact that the female leads in c dramas are always used as a tool to make the male lead shine . Later, our female lead is reading the script and she is raging at how bad it is because her role is a tragic doormat while all the glory goes to Nan Heng. Although I haven't watched enough C dramas to know the tropes, misogyny is universal and I can see what they're trying to critic. Then They actually go on and repeat the same mistake. All Yi Meng does is making Nan Heng shine.
THE GOOD:
1,Production
I have never seen a historical drama, kdrama or cdrama or anything else, with such a grand production. The set, the outfits. the camera work, the editing, the fighting choreographies etc., were all great. They had huge budget and it was obviously very well spent. Its a feast to the eyes.
2, Music
beautiful and well placed
3, Comedy
Most of time the comedy hashtag in genre section just means cringe but Here I actually busted out laughing which doesn't happen to me alot.
4, Angst and slow burn
It takes alot for the main lead to finally confess their feelings both to themselves and then to each other so when it finally happens its satisfying. After they get together there are many obstacles and set backs and I was surprised how well the angst suited the story when we started with such a light and fun mood. Kudos to both actors playing the main lead they cried and wailed.
5, Layered story telling.
this premise is not anything unique. There are countless dramas where the lead is thrown inside a fictional world and had to fight the plot/writer but for some reason A dream within a dream is a quite fresh story.
As I said before there is hilarious comedy and there is heart wrenching angst but also there is political intrigue, dysfunctional families, unique and powerful friend ships and philosophical themes. There was a few thought provoking ideas there and some memorable dialogues that made me pause and keep replaying it,
Also it has the best ending of dramas with this premise or any drama that I've seen. Very satisfying
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Camp
“Can this love be translated” is a campy piece that you’re going to enjoy for reasons beyond its story. It has brilliant cinematography indicating a ridiculously expensive budget. They have managed to capture the most visually pleasing shots in Korea, Japan, Italy and Canada, showing us some overly edited, almost perfect imagery from these countries natural scenery, historical architecture, food and touristy charms and sites. Everyone has a very unique (read expensive) taste in fashion and female lead is basically a walking talking billboard.“There are as many languages as there is human in the world”
The story has a good start by introducing two rather peculiar characters in an uncomfortable situation. Ju Ho jin is a translator fluent in Japanese, English and Italian. Despite knowing all these languages he is incapable of expressing his own feelings. He is avoidant person with a broken family background wishing for a drama free life (oh only if he knew). He makes a one day trip to Japan every year in a specific day hoping for something he knows wont happen because he will never try to do it. while our Fl, Cha Mu hui, is the anxious air headed D-list actor who acts first, blabbers second and talks third. She has a tendency to dance around what she is trying to say, just to suddenly close up right at the moment the conversation gets real. Her Japanese boyfriend ghosted her and she is determined to find him and demand explanations. Problem is she doesn’t speak Japanese and you can’t learn a language by stalking someone on instagram. Luckily she meets a translator kind enough to help her. These two speak completely different languages even if they both speak Korean.
The main concept here is miscommunications, forcing them to go back; reconsider their thoughts, see a different perspective and try again. Its an interesting concept and goes well for a while but unfortunately the story soon turns to a convoluted mess introducing many different concepts and ideas in a very sudden and confusing manner. What ruined the story for me was Do Ra mi. At first she was a TV character that shot Mu hui into stardom but later turned to Mu huis manifestation of her insecurities and anxiety. It was clear that Mu hui has some sort of mental illness causing her hallucinations and until now I had no problem with it. It was one the elements that gave this series its campy feeling. Then she seeks doctors help just to be told that nothing can be done medically which for me was the first red flag. Later on they turn this hallucination to an obvious case of DID where Do Ra mi turns to an alter ego of Mu hui, capable of taking control of her body without Mu huis knowledge. Now we are out of camp territory. This type of problem calls for some serious interventions which she never gets because everyone surrounding her is complete idiot. There are some responsibilities you would wish the writers take or some lines they wont cross. They cross many which I don’t have the energy to go back and recall all but just to mention some: They never use the name of the illness. The only reason I know this is DID is because I've seen it in another drama.
She finally seeks some professional help after Do Ra mi is gone. How did she get cured you ask?
Jo Ho jin takes on various jobs through out this drama that he has no business taking but the job of a psychiatrist was a step too far. And Mu huis mental disorder vanishes just by the power of a translators love and his relentless quest of translating all of Mu hui/ Ra mi incoherent blabbers? Without any professional help? How lucky. Some crazy stuff has been written here.
The main problem in this story is the fact that writers want us to believe it’s a deep psychological romance story with thought provoking ideas but cant even decide what Mu hui alter ego , Do ra mi, is supposed to be. Is Do ra mi a self-sabotaging alter ego trying to stop her from happiness and puts Mu hui in a safe path where there is no risk of losing? Or it’s the alter ego that says and does what Mu hui is too scared to do but makes her happy?
By this series logic, both are true. Do Ra mi explicitly tells Jo Ho jin to reject Mu hui when she come back and goes out of her way to flirt with Hiro. Later on she uses Hiro to make a situation where Mu hui and Ho jin can talk to clear some misunderstandings. One minute she pushes them apart, the next pulls them together.
So this woman is crazy enough to give herself a split personality but the split personality also has a split personality.
Beside its insensitive approach to mental illness, the romantic aspect of the story is quite problematic too. We are out to believe these two have finally found the way to translate each others languages but I find that hard to believe. The more the story progresses the worse their communication becomes. In earlier episodes they were trying ( to some extent ) to communicate. They were clear in their talks. Their different personalities was the cause of misunderstandings. “the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object” sort of problem. Somewhere along the middle they started to talk in riddles. You can’t tell me some dialogues couldn’t have been better written.
The main couple were the reason I kept watching in the beginning as I found every other character boring but found myself detesting their scenes in the middle. There is no actual positive progress ( I know many viewer will disagree ) and then BOOM they’re together. They are cute as a couple but the relationship is all based on nilly willy.
Hiro was a pleasant surprise. I like the character growth quite a lot.
Everyone else were annoying. Did not care about the second couple whatsoever.
Do not get me wrong. I enjoyed watching it while simultaneously questioning myself on why am I even enjoying it hence the big gap between the story score and overall score. If you are considering it, shut your brain off and take everything at face value. Know that its gonna be a feast for your eye.
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I saw this word on the internet a while ago and instantly thought of reply1988. I was born in 2000 and never lived in korea but watching this always makes me feel nostalgic. Simpler times, simpler problems, the sweet innocence of youth, joyful shared experiences, warm families and honest friendships. I've watched way too many kdramas in my life time to be considered healthy and I consider this one as my all time favorite for its insane re-watchability. the story telling is incredible and the actors do amazing job playing their characters. there is no filler character as they all add something to the story and it has great pacing
watched the other 2 of reply trilogies after this one and that was kind of a mistake. if you want to watch all of them I suggest to watch 1988 one the last as its the best one out of the three. reply1988 is the only one which take the "who could be the husband' mystery seriously and the actors are way better. I'm not gonna lie I was suffering with a huge 2nd lead syndrome first time around but made peace with it real quick.
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Kim Hye Yoon ( as Im Sol ) , Byun Woo Seok ( as Ryu Sung Jae ) and Song Geon Hee ( as Tae Sung ) have found themselves a new fan. I will be paying close attention to their projects from now on.
Kudos to writer Lee Shi Eun and all the people in production. Its just perfect.
The OSTs are beautiful too
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