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  • Join Date: September 17, 2022
Completed
My Lethal Man
20 people found this review helpful
by Hagrid
Feb 20, 2023
24 of 24 episodes seen
Completed 4
Overall 4.0
Story 4.0
Acting/Cast 2.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 2.5
This review may contain spoilers

This drama should have been named “A Stockholm syndrome handbook“.

This drama is a showcase of dissociative identity disorder characters and a demonstration of exemplary Stockholm syndrome case.

Plot: 4
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★★★★☆ Main idea:
--> I liked the overall idea, but the idea sadly wasn’t able to save the catastrophe that followed.
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★★☆☆☆ Logic:
--> The drama started of pretty good, introduced characters were intriguing and so was the initial plot. Because of the promising start, it was watchable up to episode 13, but then all the atmosphere and logic were thrown out the window and all the drama was left with were stupidly acting characters and no plot at all.
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★★★☆☆ Pace:
--> I got bored about halfway through.
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★★☆☆☆ Impression:
--> Not much intrigued.
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★★☆☆☆ Skip rate:
--> I skipped a lot in the second half, since the plot and characters has become so chaotic and hystericall, It wasn't worth the time.
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★☆☆☆☆ Annoying factors:
--> The number of irrational twists gradually escalated as the drama progressed, in episodes 13 to 16 the number of nonsensical plots reached its peak and finally ruined the impression from the whole drama.

Characters: 2
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★★★☆☆ Lead 1:
--> The ML is introduced like a dangerous and clever man. But the cleverness of this character fades out immediately once he abducts an art student, expecting her to become an economic mastermind overnight. When she gets scared of not being able to transform to a completely different person with a completely different education, skills and hobbies, instead of I don’t know, maybe help her a little, he just intimidates and chokes her every chance he gets – gee, I wonder why would she be scared, right? But even this intimidating part of this character fades pretty quickly as he turns in a caring and protective fiancé in a matter of literally one day… Hey man, do you have a split personality disorder or something?
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★☆☆☆☆ Lead 2:
--> The FL seems clever herself, but then she gets caught up in danger because of her similarity to other person and for some reason she feels guilty for surviving, agreeing to follow a strange and abusive man, leaving her family behind… Why…? Just why? I don’t call this clever at all, just call the police next time. Things get even funnier, when this intimidated art student with zero experience in management solves an economic crisis in the company - she has a supposedly ultra-clever and powerful man by her side and an army of employees to back her up, yet it’s her idea, what get things done, hooray! Oh, and the fun part continues – this one success leads her to a Stockholm syndrome, falling in love with the very man who abducted her, claiming he is the only one she has left – girl, what about your friends and family then? Oh I get it, you fell in love with him, because he stopped choking you? Yes, that must have been it.
And the first thing after she is allowed to return to her former life and family? A hysteric scene over losing the love of her life – wow, this man abducts her, threatens her, she is forced to near death situations because of the mess he drags her into, he almost kills a man before her eyes, but she’s hysterical over the fact she can’t be with him anymore? Not even mentioning how rude was it towards her family, not explaining a single thing to them, just be hysterical over some stranger. A really serious Stockholm syndrome here, you need a psychiatrist, girl.
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☆☆☆☆☆ Overacting:
--> There was no annoying overacting in the beginning (except for that pretty stupid FL friend), but from episode 13 it was like the drama was infected by some strange overacting disease, because several characters started acting up, stepping totally out of their characters just to throw a tantrum, both FLs decreasing themselves from grow up woman into 15-year-old hysterical fan-girls, who got dumped by their idol on valentine. It has become even worse towards the end, soon every single character in that drama was acting hystericall.
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★★☆☆☆ Acting:
--> I enjoyed the acting of Fan Zhi Xin – although the character he played was a showcase of dumb and dumber, he was able to hold just the right atmosphere for a pretty long time. I considered other actors skilled at first, but as the plot progressed, they just acted more and more hystericall, including Fan Zhi Xin, such a schame.
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☆☆☆☆☆ Annoyance level:
--> The most annoying thing about this drama was the inconsistency of its characters. Many characters were introduced one way, just to flip to a completely different personality in a whim. Clever people turned into clueless, abusive into caring, strong into pitiful, shy into commanding – almost every lead character went through at least one polar opposite transformation.


Background: 9
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★★★★☆ Soundtrack:
--> Liked it.
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★★★★★ Visuals (camera, scenery, visual effects, ...):
--> Absolutely loved it.
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★★★★★ Wardrobe (costumes, hairstyles, makeup, ...):
--> Absolutely loved it.


Rewatch value: 2,5
I assess this value based on impression, skip rate, annoyance level and overall preference.


Final verdict: 4
Despite everything, the drama had a right atmosphere and I pretty enjoyed it up until episode 13. Episodes 13 to 16 were a total cliché catastrophe, every second choice those characters made was worthy of a Darwin award for extreme stupidity. It totally ruined the drama for me. Towards the end all those characters just became more hystericall and those plots made less and less sense. Every episode closer to the end I was lowering my rating even further.

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Completed
Love Between Fairy and Devil
5 people found this review helpful
by Hagrid
Oct 2, 2022
36 of 36 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 10
Rewatch Value 7.5

I do want to kill you very, very much, cut your limbs to feed the crocodiles. But I can’t do that.

Welcome to the hilarious plot about almighty and powerful devil being bound with a weak and dim-witted fairy, whom he wishes to kill very much, but can’t since her pain equals his pain – quite literally.


Plot: 8
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★★★★★ Main idea:
--> Intriguing, pretty original and hilariously funny. I found hilarious the contrast of a powerful devil being grounded by a little fairy and his frustration over this turn of events.
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★★★★☆ Logic:
--> Plot makes sense, there are a few dumb twists, but it can be easily forgiven.
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★★★★☆ Pace:
--> I started to get bored in the third quarter of the story. It was simply dragged for a bit too long by the end and the story lost the continuity, but it can be easily forgiven.
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★★★★☆ Impression:
--> Impressed.
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★★★★☆ Skip rate:
--> I skipped some of the side plots, but not much.
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★★★☆☆ Annoying factors:
--> I hated the love triangle with the war god – for the love triangle to work, the opponents should have at least equally strong personalities. But god of war is weak, backing down from his brother and has a mouthful of bullshit, instead of admitting, he maybe should have taken a strong stand before he had lost what he loved.


Characters: 9,5
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★★★★★ Lead 1 - Dongfang Qing Cang:
--> Loved this character. Although it’s a typical prototype of a strong male lead, who has to give up a lot of humanity to become a strong leader, I like the way he is gradually learning to love and to allow himself being loved.
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★★★★★ Lead 2 - Orchid:
--> Loved this character. She is naïve and child-like, but loyal and strong minded. She is unable of treason and once she makes a decision, she stays strong in her opinion.
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★★★★★ Overacting:
--> Kind of cute.
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★★★★★ Acting:
--> Actors are great, very talented. I particularly loved the job Dylan Wang made in playing the naïve Orchid in the body-swap parts.
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★★★★☆ Annoyance level:
--> Annoyed by some side characters, particularly the heavenly lord and his brother god of war. The heavenly lord should have been a strong and wise leader, but he has zero personality, just forcing his narrow-minded opinions on others.


Background: 10
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★★★★★ Soundtrack:
--> Absolutely loved it.
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★★★★☆ Visuals (camera, scenery, visual effects, ...):
--> Really liked it.
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★★★★★ Wardrobe (costumes, hairstyles, makeup, ...):
--> Absolutely loved it.


Rewatch value: 7,5
I assess this value based on impression, skip rate, annoyance level and overall preference.


Final verdict: 8,5
I really liked the chemistry between the leads. I loved their evolvement and the funny little plots between them. Some of the episodes by the end were a bit boring, since there was an uninteresting plot dragged for too long and the ending was a bit sheepish, but it’s still definitely a drama worth watching.

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Completed
My Dear Guardian
2 people found this review helpful
by Hagrid
Jan 20, 2023
40 of 40 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 3.0
Story 1.5
Acting/Cast 5.0
Music 4.0
Rewatch Value 1.5

One of those dramas where literally nothing is missing.

Well, maybe just except one of the leads going missing for at least a year, otherwise nothing is missing: damsel in distress, special forces, a whole 4 minute long shootout between the car and the chopper, ugly Ex, natural disaster, an epidemic, damsel clinging onto a bad guy, hostage situation, hysterical side character, mafia business, cute animals, near death situations, thousand times repeated hand grabbing, when one tries to leave, and 39 unnecessary episodes, because the main plot is not even enough for a movie, let alone whole drama.

Plot: 1,5
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★☆☆☆☆ Main idea:
--> It was boring and uninteresting.
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★★☆☆☆ Logic:
--> Plot doesn't make much sense. It’s not because the story would have lacked logic, but there’s really not much happening, so there has to be tons of nonsense twists and side plots to keep the leads occupied with something the whole 40 episodes. The main storyline itself is so unoriginal, that even those little nonsense side plots are more interesting than that.
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☆☆☆☆☆ Pace:
--> I was bored right from the start.
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☆☆☆☆☆ Impression:
--> What was it about again?
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☆☆☆☆☆ Skip rate:
--> I skipped most of the story, even main plot wasn't interesting enough to watch it without skipping.
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★☆☆☆☆ Annoying factors:
--> The whole story was extremely annoying because of the fact, that it was weak. It lacked a leading thought, so the story bumped from one twist to another with just a vague direction. It wasn’t thrilling, nor dramatic, nor romantic… Simply uninspired to the point of extreme annoyance.


Characters: 5,5
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★★★☆☆ Leads:
--> While I pretty liked the temperaments of both main leads, I must also say, they had no chemistry at all and their interactions were pretty boring as well.
The second leads (FL Ex and her friend) were the embodiment of what I don't like about any character and I was pretty annoyed with them.
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★★★☆☆ Side characters:
--> On the contrary, I quite liked some of the side characters around main leads – the hospital personal and army comrades. There were also extremely annoying side characters. But what I liked about all of them, they weren’t existing just to complicate things for leads, but they had their own storylines and backgrounds, their own goals to pursue and their own relationships.
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★★☆☆☆ Overacting:
--> Annoying. Any intense emotion was expressed either with crying or screaming, or both, backed up with an emotional music theme, that was just about all.
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★★☆☆☆ Acting:
--> Didn’t like it. Also (and now I know I am being extremely materialistic), except for the FL I didn’t like any of the other actors looks. Looks aside, what’s more important, they lacked something like a charisma. Maybe it was just my coax from the bad storyline, but all of those actors seemed boring and bad at acting. They weren’t stirring any emotion. They were either crudely pragmatic, or switching into hysteric behavior – I couldn’t feel happiness, nor excitement, nor fear, nor sadness, nor admiration… They were all just flat.
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★★★☆☆ Annoyance level:
--> As mentioned, I was annoyed with a secondary couple. Female clinging onto a male, who not just had zero interest in her, but was also using her to his advantage. Male clinging onto FL, who not only had zero interest in him, but also wasn’t in contact with him for several years and had a new life already, but for some funny reason he was still convinced she has to fall for him eventually. On top of that he was constantly interfering with her life in a very inappropriate way, and I couldn’t see any logic for his obsession with her other than being the annoying character in the drama existing just to make things difficult for the leads.


Background: 7
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★★☆☆☆ Soundtrack:
--> Didn't notice any particular song, it was neutral. I only noticed the music when there was a moment, that was supposed to be intense, because there was nothing else about the scene to catch my attention except for the music (pretty sad, in a good drama, when an intense moment is happening, I am usually so immersed at the scene I don’t even notice, there is some supporting music, because the scene and acting are too interesting to pay attention to anything else… can’t happen in this drama though).
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★★★★☆ Visuals (camera, scenery, visual effects, ...):
--> Liked it.
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★★★☆☆ Wardrobe (costumes, hairstyles, makeup, ...):
--> Average.


Rewatch value: 1,5
I assess this value based on impression, skip rate, annoyance level and overall preference.


Final verdict: 3
Garbage. Do not watch it, not worth it.

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Completed
Stand by Me
2 people found this review helpful
by Hagrid
Oct 2, 2022
49 of 49 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.5
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 10
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 8.5

When all the hopes are gone, but you still keep going

I can’t tell exactly why, but while with other dramas I soon forget what they actually were about, this drama left very long-lasting and strong impression even after a long period of time.


Plot: 9,5
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★★★★★ Main idea:
--> Very strong, intriguing and well thought out.
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★★★★★ Logic:
--> Whole plot has logical continuity and doesn't contain much irrational twists. It tells the story of powerless emperor struggling to survive in palace where many parties supposed to protect and support him follow each their different agendas to seize power, while the nation suffers.
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★★★★★ Pace:
--> It was interesting till the end.
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★★★★★ Impression:
--> Still can't stop thinking about it. There was a strong feeling of heaviness through the most of the story, since there was everyone at war with everyone, even allies couldn’t trust each other completely, and one couldn’t simply believe this could end well.
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★★★★☆ Skip rate:
--> I skipped some of the side plots, but not much.
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★★★★★ Annoying factors:
--> If that count’s, I hated the main antagonist beyond any rational level, however that shouldn’t be a reason to criticism, quite the contrary, for me it’s an indicator the story pulled me in completely.


Characters: 10
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★★★★★ Lead 1 - Emperor Qi Yan:
--> Loved this character. It's a man sacrificing everything, his happiness, reputation, love and whole life, in order to return the empire to its original order. He’s not complaining about this role, not pursuing his own happiness, he silently bears the responsibility of his position, looking for ways to win an impossible fight.
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★★★★★ Lead 2 - Swordbearer Cheng Ruo Yu:
--> Loved this character. I really liked her evolvement – she started as a naïve and a bit dim-witted child, but she has grown up by the emperor’s side and learnt all about scheming and plotting, but never turned out this way herself.
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★★★★★ Overacting:
--> There is no annoying exaggerating.
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★★★★★ Acting:
--> Actors are great, very talented.
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★★★★★ Annoyance level:
--> Not annoyed at all.


Background: 8
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★★★☆☆ Soundtrack:
--> Liked a song or two.
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★★★★☆ Visuals (camera, scenery, visual effects, ...):
--> Really liked it.
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★★★★★ Wardrobe (costumes, hairstyles, makeup, ...):
--> Absolutely loved it.


Rewatch value: 8,5
I assess this value based on impression, skip rate, annoyance level and overall preference.


Final verdict: 9,5
If I were to be objective, I would have to admit, there are some weird plots and behaviors in this story, that should probably lower my rating. Reason I am overlooking this, is that I usually move on from one drama to another with no difficulty, at most I replay the drama twice, then I move on. This drama however made me feel heavy and I couldn’t emotionally move on for a pretty long time. Since it left impression this strong, I can’t help but to rate high.

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Completed
Detective Husband I've Never Met
1 people found this review helpful
by Hagrid
Oct 17, 2022
28 of 28 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.5
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 4.0
Rewatch Value 7.0

Simple and relaxing romance with a logical and a bit detective plot

One of the dramas with really short episodes, which however did pretty good job in telling a more or less meaningful story in a very short time.


Plot: 8,5
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★★★★☆ Main idea:
--> Nothing extraordinary, but I still really enjoyed it.
_______________________________
★★★★★ Logic:
--> Whole plot has logical continuity and doesn't contain much irrational twists.
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★★★★★ Pace:
--> It was interesting till the end. Since every episode has something about 4 minutes, the story pace is really fast. It was quite refreshing, no complicated plots or fights that dragged on for too long.
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★★★☆☆ Impression:
--> Quite nice.
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★★★★★ Skip rate:
--> Didn't skip anything.
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★★★★☆ Annoying factors:
--> Besides a romance, it’s also a detective story and sometimes it felt a bit funny, how they caught a criminal with a few vague guesses and no proof and the criminal didn’t try to resist in the smallest and just willingly told the whole story behind his crime… But well we really can’t expect the plot to be ultra-realistic, when there are only 4 minutes per episode.


Characters: 9,5
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★★★★★ Leads - Qin Mo and Gong Yi Yin:
--> Both leads are clever and reasonable, the interaction between them are quite cute and although there was no space for any deep feelings evolvement, both protagonist managed to get some chemistry between them – I actually admire that.
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★★★★★ Supporting characters:
--> There is no time in this drama for supporting characters, so all of them are pretty simple and single-minded. But in spite of having so little screen time, all of them gave the right vibes that supported the whole story and their personalities made sense (not like in other dramas, where some characters seemed to fall from sky, just for one of the leads to stumble over them).
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★★★★★ Overacting:
--> Kind of cute or absent.
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★★★★☆ Acting:
--> Liked the acting.
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★★★★★ Annoyance level:
--> Not annoyed at all.


Background: 7
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★★☆☆☆ Soundtrack:
--> Didn't notice any particular song, it was decent and neutral.
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★★★☆☆ Visuals (camera, scenery, visual effects, ...):
--> Average.
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★★★★☆ Wardrobe (costumes, hairstyles, makeup, ...):
--> Really liked it.


Rewatch value: 7
I assess this value based on impression, skip rate, annoyance level and overall preference.


Final verdict: 8,5
Whole drama is light-weighted and relaxing. There were no annoying factors, that would make me dislike the plot or some of the characters. It’s one of the simple bed-time romances, that makes one relax, not worrying about anything.

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Completed
The Red Sleeve
1 people found this review helpful
by Hagrid
Oct 4, 2022
17 of 17 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 7.5
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 7.0

I thought of dropping it so many times...

I put this drama off for a long time and when I finally started watching it, I almost dropped it several times, but in the end, the characters and the plot of the story won me over.


Plot: 9
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★★★★☆ Main idea:
--> I enjoyed the story.
_______________________________
★★★★★ Logic:
--> Whole plot has logical continuity and doesn't contain much irrational twists.
_______________________________
★★★★★ Pace:
--> It was interesting till the end.
_______________________________
★★★★☆ Impression:
--> Impressed.
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★★★★☆ Skip rate:
--> I skipped some of the side plots, but not much.
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★★★★★ Annoying factors:
--> I loved some of the relationships defined between characters. For example the friendship between the maids. I appreciated their loyalty towards each other and that they despite all the scheming around managed to keep their friendship intact.


Characters: 7,5
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★★★★☆ Lead 1 – crown prince Yi San
--> Although I liked Jun Ho in some other dramas, I couldn’t get used to him here. Besides the feeling the role doesn’t really fit the actor, the character got jealous quite often, which annoyed me a lot. I sort of got to like the character as well as the actor (because the acting was without the doubt really good), but it took quite too long.
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★★★★★ Lead 2 – palace maid Sung Deok Im:
--> The character itself I liked very much. I liked the fact, despite being “a lowly maid”, she always kept her head up and her morals and goals intact.
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★★★★★ Overacting:
--> Absent.
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★★★★★ Acting:
--> I liked the acting. At first I didn’t like the appearance of the actress Lee Se Young (playing Sung Deok Im), but she managed to won me over with excellent acting and bringing the character to life. It was probably because of her acting, that I didn't drop the drama and persevered until the end. Only after I completed the drama I looked her over and realized I know her from two other dramas, where I loved her very much. Yet I couldn’t recognize her here and her appearance disturbed me. It was probably the costume and hairstyle I wasn’t used to.
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★★☆☆☆ Annoyance level:
--> Some of the characters made me roll my eyes so many times, I cannot count it. Super annoying was the emperor having extremely low self-confidence and constantly blaming everyone for disrespecting him.
--> I was a bit annoyed by those stereotype side characters, who – having no personality of their own – were just constantly jealous of one of the lead, trying hard to get rid of them.
--> Also, as mentioned above, I didn’t like the fact, that the normally extremely rational and calm crown prince lost his pace every time he saw his maid with other man. I mean, with his resources and intelligence it wouldn’t get him much work to uncover the truth, or he could have at least asked before getting mad. This behavior really didn’t match the character outline.


Background: 8
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★★★☆☆ Soundtrack:
--> Liked a song or two.
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★★★★☆ Visuals (camera, scenery, visual effects, ...):
--> Really liked it.
_______________________________
★★★★☆ Wardrobe (costumes, hairstyles, makeup, ...):
--> Really liked it.


Rewatch value: 7
I assess this value based on impression, skip rate, annoyance level and overall preference.


Final verdict: 8
In general, the story is excellent, however up until end I was a bit disillusioned and was many time thinking of dropping the drama. It was only after the episode 15 and those that followed, that I appreciated the whole story in general and was able to enjoy the bigger picture. Its only shame it got impressive so late.

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Completed
The Blue Whisper: Part 2
1 people found this review helpful
by Hagrid
Oct 2, 2022
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.5
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 6.5

A relaxing bedtime story

I have a problem to differ part 1 and part 2 as two separate dramas, so I review them together as one.


Plot: 7
_______________________________
★★★★☆ Main idea:
--> Nothing extraordinary, but I still really enjoyed it.
_______________________________
★★★☆☆ Logic:
--> Plot sort of makes sense, but there are many unreasonable and annoying twists that disturb the overall impression from the story.
_______________________________
★★★★★ Pace:
--> It was interesting till the end.
_______________________________
★★☆☆☆ Impression:
--> Not much intrigued. It was an average plot.
_______________________________
★★★★☆ Skip rate:
--> I skipped some of the side plots, but not much.
_______________________________
★★★★☆ Annoying factors:
--> I generally don’t much like evil characters, that are evil just for sake of being evil, with no personality of their own. A lot of the antagonists here were these kind of characters.
--> I was also a bit disappointed by the ending – it felt like they wanted it to be a happy ending, but didn’t really know how to lead the plot there, so it felt like “tragedy, another tragedy, more tragedy – boom, an unexplainable happy ending!”


Characters: 8
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★★★★☆ Lead 1 - Merman:
--> He wasn’t the best lead I’ve ever seen, yet I pretty liked his evolvement from a child-like naïve to a grown leader.
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★★★☆☆ Lead 2 - Ji Yun He:
--> I pretty liked this character in the first part of the series. I was a bit disappointed by her in the second part thou. She was presented as very clever and inventive character, yet in part 2 she became a martyr, unwilling to explain herself and unable to guess the merman’s feelings – simply playing dumb just to drag the plot to a few more episodes.
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★★★★★ Overacting:
--> The are some side characters with a melodramatic personality, however this had no bad impact on the show, since it was simply the part of the plot.
_______________________________
★★★★☆ Acting:
--> Liked the acting.
_______________________________
★★★★☆ Annoyance level:
--> Annoyed by some side characters, with no personality of their own, which existed just to make things difficult for one of the leads.


Background: 9
_______________________________
★★★★☆ Soundtrack:
--> Really liked it.
_______________________________
★★★★☆ Visuals (camera, scenery, visual effects, ...):
--> Really liked it.
_______________________________
★★★★★ Wardrobe (costumes, hairstyles, makeup, ...):
--> Absolutely loved it.


Rewatch value: 6,5
I assess this value based on impression, skip rate, annoyance level and overall preference.


Final verdict: 7,5
In general, I liked this show. I really liked the visuals and costumes, and the story, though not one of the best, was still a beautiful tale I enjoyed very much.

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Completed
The Long Ballad
0 people found this review helpful
by Hagrid
Oct 3, 2022
49 of 49 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.5
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 10
Rewatch Value 10

More action and growing, than romance – loved it for that.

Given the fact, it's a story based on manhua, it has its own rights on how to tell the story. On top of that, compared to the original manhua I really loved the job crew did on giving the characters more depth and explaining the story in more logic way.


Plot: 9
_______________________________
★★★★★ Main idea:
--> Very strong, intriguing and well thought out.
_______________________________
★★★☆☆ Logic:
--> Plot sort of makes sense, but especially in the second half there are many unreasonable and annoying twists that disturb the overall impression from the story. It lost the continuity, the original plot was somewhat forgotten and there started to be too many other new short plots and characters, which made me lose my focus and get a bit bored.
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★★★★★ Pace:
--> Although I would personally end the story somewhere halfway through and considered it perfect, the story has so many great characters, one simply seeks to stay with them a little longer, even if the plot loses its pace.
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★★★★★ Impression:
--> Still can't stop thinking about it.
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★★★★★ Skip rate:
--> Didn't skip anything, on the contrary, it made me watch it twice in a row.
_______________________________
★★★★★ Annoying factors:
--> The annoyance is well balanced with fascination, so it’s fair and square not to reduce any points.


Characters: 9,5
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★★★★★ Lead 1 - Ashile Sun:
--> Ashile Sun is a textbook example of a typical hero – clever, patient, loyal, cunning, great fighter, always survives, always outsmarts the opponent, lenient, strong and protective… He is so annoyingly flawless it would make one sick. And yet, precisely this type of non-existent perfection is why we watch romance dramas.
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★★★☆☆ Lead 2 - Li Changge:
--> I loved this strong-minded, brave and cunning girl in the first half of the series. And yet I got a bit annoyed by her in the second half, hating her constantly running around doing whatever she liked with zero consideration of the aftermath.
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★★★★★ Overacting:
--> Kind of cute or absent.
_______________________________
★★★★★ Acting:
--> Actors are great, very talented.
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★★★★★ Annoyance level:
--> Not annoyed at all. There are plenty of excellently profiled characters, even some minor side characters have well thought out personalities, which completes the overall atmosphere.


Background: 10
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★★★★★ Soundtrack:
--> Absolutely loved it.
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★★★★★ Visuals (camera, scenery, visual effects, ...):
--> Absolutely loved it. Some scenes are drawn and presented as the actual manhua, and it was splendid. Other than that, there were many impressive fighting scenes, completing the great impression.
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★★★★★ Wardrobe (costumes, hairstyles, makeup, ...):
--> Absolutely loved it.


Rewatch value: 10
I assess this value based on impression, skip rate, annoyance level and overall preference.


Final verdict: 9,5
I actually think the drama is way too much better than the original and I was really impressed. I am willing to forgive all queerness and imperfections, since there were many other factors making up for it.

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Completed
The Romance of Tiger and Rose
0 people found this review helpful
by Hagrid
Oct 2, 2022
24 of 24 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 4.0
Rewatch Value 7.5

Want to see men humiliated? This drama is exactly what you are looking for.

Initially when I first approached this drama and saw the beginning of the first episode, I dropped it immediately. However, since I like Zhao Lusi, I gave it a second chance and it actually began to be pretty fun.


Plot: 8,5
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★★★★★ Main idea:
--> Very strong, intriguing and well thought out. Except for the main plot, there is a very interesting world created within the script, where two cities are coexisting in absolute separation because of their opposite laws – one is absolutely domineered by females, the other by males. In the city ruled by females - important positions belong to women, women are making money, going hunting, spending time and money for entertainment and carrying out all decisions. Men are the source of entertainment, they have to be obedient to their wives, and are killed if they don't know their place. Oh man, this drama is really sticking it to all men for the humiliation women usually have to bear!
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★★★★☆ Logic:
--> Plot makes sense, there are a few dumb twists, but it can be easily forgiven.
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★★★★★ Pace:
--> It was interesting till the end.
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★★★★☆ Impression:
--> Impressed.
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★★★★☆ Skip rate:
--> I skipped some of the side plots, but not much.
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★★★★☆ Annoying factors:
--> Sometimes annoying, but nothing serious.


Characters: 8,5
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★★★★★ First leads - Prince Han Shuo and third princess Chen Qian Qian:
--> Loved those characters. I was really enjoying the whole kill-dodge bickering.
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★★★★☆ Other leads - Second princes Chen Chu Chu and Pei Heng:
--> The other leads were I bit uninteresting. But I loved the way second princess character changed because the story diverged from the original script.
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★★★☆☆ Overacting:
--> There were certain characters who overreacted to the turn of events without trying to think too much and this kind of behavior is not much to my taste, but it was bearable.
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★★★★☆ Acting:
--> Liked the acting.
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★★★★★ Annoyance level:
--> Not annoyed at all.


Background: 4,5
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★★☆☆☆ Soundtrack:
--> Didn't notice any particular song, it was decent and neutral.
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★☆☆☆☆ Visuals (camera, scenery, visual effects, ...):
--> I didn’t much appreciate the visual. I actually initially nearly dropped the drama because of that, when both leads started to flying around like two pieces of cotton candy. It was really disturbing.
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★★★☆☆ Wardrobe (costumes, hairstyles, makeup, ...):
--> Average.


Rewatch value: 7,5
I assess this value based on impression, skip rate, annoyance level and overall preference.


Final verdict: 8
What I love about this drama is the way it deals with the problem of two opposite worlds, searching for some kind of balance working for both sides. The second strong message from this drama is, what can happen to a person, who loses his purpose in life. This drama made me burst out laughing, but also impressed me with the behind-story thoughts.

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Dropped 8/30
Maid's Revenge
4 people found this review helpful
by Hagrid
Oct 2, 2022
8 of 30 episodes seen
Dropped 0
Overall 1.5
Story 1.5
Acting/Cast 1.0
Music 2.0
Rewatch Value 1.0

Wait... what???

This was my 148. drama and I haven't seen anything this bad yet. By episode 8 I was already skipping about 90% of the story, that's how boring it was.


Plot: 1,5
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★★☆☆☆ Main idea:
--> It was pretty weak, not well executed either.
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★☆☆☆☆ Logic:
--> The plot is pretty dumb, it resembles an anthill without a queen.
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☆☆☆☆☆ Pace:
--> I was bored right from the start.
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☆☆☆☆☆ Impression:
--> What was it about again?
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☆☆☆☆☆ Skip rate:
--> I skipped most of the story, even main plot wasn't interesting enough to watch it without skipping.
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★★☆☆☆ Annoying factors:
--> I found the story pretty annoying. I didn’t like the plot, neither the interactions between characters, or dialogs. Whole story was shallow and didn’t intrigued me in any way.

Characters: 0
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☆☆☆☆☆ Lead 1 - Uncle:
--> Strongly dissatisfied with this character. I guess he was supposed to be really attractive, however he acted so irrational, I simply couldn’t like him - like attempting to seduce a girl which suspected him from her family massacre. I don't know, but shouldn’t he rather explain the situation to her, instead of trying to rape her? Gosh, so stupid…
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☆☆☆☆☆ Lead 2 - Maid:
--> Strongly dissatisfied with this character. I was strongly biased towards this character right from the start, where I nearly burst out laughing because of the bad acting. Later I tried hard to like her, but in my eyes she has no personality or intelligence, only irrational urge to revenge, that hasn’t any solid grounds (she accused first person she saw and didn’t much try to collect evidence).
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☆☆☆☆☆ Overacting:
--> Too much hysteria.
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☆☆☆☆☆ Acting:
--> This can't be even called bad acting anymore. It was totally inappropriate.
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☆☆☆☆☆ Annoyance level:
--> Super annoyed with many characters. Actually, there really wasn't a single character I liked.


Background: 6
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★☆☆☆☆ Soundtrack:
--> Didn't noticed any music for most of the time and when I noticed it, it was more because it was bad, rather than intriguing.
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★★★★☆ Visuals (camera, scenery, visual effects, ...):
--> It felt OK, I liked it.
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★★★☆☆ Wardrobe (costumes, hairstyles, makeup, ...):
--> Average.


Rewatch value: 0
I assess this value based on impression, skip rate, annoyance level and overall preference.


Final verdict: 1,5
I didn't find anything to like about this drama. Actors were really bad at acting, the plot was uninteresting and lacked any logic, characters were shallow and their intelligence could be compared to those after lobotomy. There were too many annoying factors, that prevented me from enjoying this drama.

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