Heracin

Despite a trope I love, disappointed by the writing, acting and production value...

This BL drama contains one of my favorite trope: the "master-servant" relationship, and here more specifically in a "heir-bodyguard" format. Unfortunately, it fell apart in many ways despite this very interesting premise. I was very disappointed by the series, in particular by its second half.

Story-wise, the writing is pretty bad and get more and more bonkers as the scenario unfold. The protagonists are making unlogical decisions most of the time for dramatic purposes and there are very little character's development. The dialogs are super cheesy but not swoony enough.

Acting-wise, it was such a let-down. Chemistry between the leads was okayish but I think it is the trope that carried their relationship for me (in particular in the first half). In terms of acting skills, I felt a relative disbalance: Phuwin really lacked nuances and mostly acted pouting/upset as the young heir. I enjoyed a bit more the acting of his counterpart Pond as the bodyguard...Overall, I feel that both really really need to work on their acting chops. They were not believable in the over-the-top dramatic moments. The story got very melodramatic / soap-like and it requires good skills to make a bad script appealing to the viewer...Here the acting prevented me even more to connect to the story. The side couple was not better, I love Perth but I could not get onboard with the secondary relationship portrayed in the drama.

Production value is pretty low: the sound, the fights scenes, the props, everything feels super cheap. Music did not leave a lasting impression on me at all. I think it was a bit heavy in terms of amping the dramatic elements, and it felt flat for me.

I would not recommend this to people because there are BLs out there featuring much better that kind of relationship (for example "Where Your Eyes Linger" with also "heir/bodyguard" relationship, or "Utsukushii Kare" for more a "master-servant" bond)...At first, I was full of forgiveness regarding the weaknesses in the production, the choppy editing, as well as the flaws in writing and acting...But it became so nonsensical that even a trope that I usually like very much could not save the drama.

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Pacing issue + unlikeable character made it impossible to enjoy, despite great acting of Lee Joon

I have very mixed feelings regarding this movie centered around Young Oh, a young rookie actor facing the tough reality of the entertainment industry as he rises to famedom. The story could have been interesting but I got honestly bored because of the huge pacing issues as well as the unlikability of the main character.

Lee Joon is truly impressive in the role of Young Oh, especially knowing that it is one of his first big role, and a posteriori, it feels like it was decisive in pivoting his career from idol to actor. Despite the fact that he delivers a solid and convincing performance, his character remains unlikeable all along the duration of the film. I blame the script and not the cast for preventing me to care and root for the main protagonist.

The directing of the movie had some real good ideas, there are a lot of scenes that mirror each other as well as help the viewer to see the unstable mental state in which Young Oh is. The first part of the story was interesting but it got very repetitive and slow because of the lack of suspense as it was very clear where the scenario was headed. The OST was average at best and the ending soundtrack was really an odd and bad choice.

I would not recommend this movie unless you are a big Lee Joon's fan and want to see the movie which really made him prove to the public his skills as an actor. Be aware that this movie can be pretty triggering as it is graphic, violent and with depictions of sexual assaults.

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A buddy cop movie with an atypical ghost element

This buddy cop movie is quite atypical as it features a fantastical element with this very interesting concept of "ghost marriage". It contains a lot of the usual elements of such movie with the investigation, the buddying up between 2 very different individuals as well as the comedic aspects but the LGBTQ+ topic approached in addition with the fantastical twist bring some freshness to the genre.

It is quite light and does not take itself very seriously, it has almost a parodic vibe. This makes it an overall fun watch which could have been even better with a tighter writing and a better pacing. The acting is quite good: I was more convinced by the comedic scenes than by the emotional ones...Still, I'm quite certain that it is more related to the script being a bit bonkers at times as well as the filmmaking a bit over-the-top than to the actors themselves.

The music did not leave a lasting impression on me and I'm not sure I will necessarily re-watch the movie but I had a good time watching it for sure.

I would recommend this to people that are looking for a comedy with an interesting premise and like buddy cop movies. It is not very memorable, nor very deep, gritty or dark but it is quite entertaining and fun, which is sometimes just what you need.

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Pure fluff - cute but quite redundant with the main series

This really short episode of 25 minutes takes place at the end of the parent series. It was super cute: mainly pure fluff and not a lot of plot. Cherry on the cake: it focused on the main couple with almost no intervention of the secondary couple (who is much less interesting to my eyes anyway).

Despite all the lovely scenes, I was a bit disappointed because I expected to see more of the couple life of the two main male leads. Instead it felt quite redundant as the story revisit the past already shown in the main series with some little changes. It is clearly not a sequel but rather a feverish dream with quite a bit of flashbacks of scenes already seen.

The music is still really sweet to the hear, it is catchy and romantic. Production value is similar to the main show, it was clearly filmed in the continuity of it.

I would recommend this to people that enjoyed the main series. It is totally dispensable but at the same time, it is super cute...and that can be enough for an enjoyable watch.

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Disappointing BL story. Lack of excitement and characters development.

I'm disappointed by this BL story. The romance was lackluster. It is a shame because the premise was interesting and could have led to some exciting relationship. However, I found myself utterly bored and not interested.

I did not found the chemistry between the actors believable. There were very few sparks until the last episode and I did not understand how they fell in love with each other. I could blame it on the short episodes but honestly there are similar sized series that do a much better job in terms of developing both plot and characters' depth. So for me, it is a total miss.

I would not recommend this except if you are an aficionado of BL romances. As the drama is quite short, it might be worth to test it and make your own opinion.

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Creative and memorable metaphors

This rom-com could be described as lighthearted smut with an interesting and different dynamic. Given the topic at stake, the production team managed to keep it fun and cute. I was quite impressed by all the hilarious metaphors they made the characters plays to illustrate the sex life of the main characters. The production team was super creative, and while the drama never was very explicit, they managed to successfully make all the points come across to the viewer.

The main actress and actor were very convincing. They had chemistry and good comedic moments. The secondary casting was more forgettable but no bad acting in sight. Like mentionned the making and directing was creative with fun metaphors and I also enjoyed the cute song in the opening generic.

Why not an higher rating? Maybe because of how light it was and also because of the very low stakes overall. Once you get to a certain point of the story, it stays at the same level, without much high and lows. Still even if there is a lack of peaks and valley in the story, it remains constantly good and entertaining.

I would recommend this to people that are looking for a cute rom-com, pretty fun and exploring a different kind of dynamics between its leads.

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Unfortunately, a total miss for me

This movie is a though one to review : it is not really a romance, much more a slice-of-life and life commentary, pretty dark and bleak. If there are quite a bit I can appreciate from an intellectual point of view :
- the symbolisms spread out through the movie,
- the overall esthetics and production value,
- the purposefull soundrak,
the story in itstelf was not enjoyable to me at all. I had difficulty to be grabbed by the plot with its slow pace. It is not really a romance but it features romantic bounds that where a bit difficult to grasp my head around and connect with.

Acting was quite good for the overall cast but with a slight miss :
- Moon Sang Min did a great job but I still couldn't help to found funny how he was cast as a character aspiring to study contempory dancer because of the numerous Music Bank interview he made where his dance talent was really limited and awkward at best. I therefore had to got wit quite a bit of suspencion of disbelief in the very few scenes where a dance, even if the directing mostly filmed in static position. Other than those scenes that felt unconvincing, he did amazing in the other parts.

I would not recommend this movie as it was definitely more a painful (and even boring) watch than an enjoyable one. If you manage to connect with the story, I still think it is pretty impactful and worth giving it a shot, to make your own opinion.

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I was expecting more from the production

This survival show is quite forgettable in itself even if I'm quite happy with the outcome as my faves made it into the final group. In terms of production value, it is pretty flawed : poor editing, low budget, putting non stop the participants into traumatic events for seemingly the single purpose of making them cry, unmemorable stages... There is not a lot of grace to be found about this show if it is not the participants themselves.

It is more on the lower budget / self produced by the company itself type of survival show. Indeed, it is a lot more like the ones that led to Stray Kids, Nexz, &TEAM, TREASURE than the ones that led to ENHYPEN, ZEROBASEONE, ALPHA DRIVE ONE, CLOSE YOUR EYES, AHOF... In itself this is not an issue because some of those lower budget survival were better than some of the ones produced by TV companies. However, this is not the case here. It truly seems that Hybe Japan put less care into this one that the one that launched &TEAM.

Despite binging the show pretty quickly, it is not one I would recommend given the poor production value and overall forgettable stages. It is quite a short watch (comparatively to other survival shows) and the overall final line up made perfect sense, even if it is frustrating how they traumatized all these boys repeatedly but without ultra rewarding moments. Knowing that it is under Hybe big umbrella, you could / should expect more from the production and making.

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WTF ? Super entertaining and unhinged !!! Worth it despite a flunked ending

This drama is simply a fever dream : a lot of ideas all meshed together in an unhinged way. If the last arc was a bit a downer, with the hero becoming too tame, all the road to get there was highly entertaining, and worth the wild ride the series take you on. Maybe the writer throw a bit too much on the paper for everything to stick, but it was for sure a memorable drama !!! I truly think that trying bold choices with sometimes mixed results is much better than producing a tepid and moderate already seen middle-of-the road show.

The romance was central to the bonker plot, with some hot and gripping moments between the leads and a great secondary romance. Both had moments that took my breath away as well as brought me a lot of emotions. Overall the cast did a good job, even if the main actress could have done better at portraying some of the most emotional scenes.

Production value was a mixed bag, I wished the main roles had better haircut and makeup, and that the edit was less all over the place. The drama had seemingly quite a pretty limited budget, with some scenes that were so poorly excecuted that it was (unwantedly) funny. However, it was overall good enough to depicts most of the crazy ideas featured in the script and even impressed me at times.

I would recommend this to people that are looking for an unhinged and deeply entertaining hot romance. It is crazy and never boring, even if its last arc does not hold a candle to the remaining of the series because of the way the main relationship evolves, making it less exciting. Despite the production doing a commendable job at executing the bonker plot, I wish that they had a bigger budget because I would have love to see a more fully fleshed making of some of their ideas. I would also have loved to see the core concept of the series with the Ren / Yin relationship even more explored because of how interesting it was.

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Good bromance, messy writing : a lot of muscles, not so much brain power

This action drama is very Netflix thriller coded : it has a gritty and dark making, some good production value, and the episode all ends in some kind of cliffhanger, in order to entice the viewer to press play on the next episode.

However, I must admit that past a quite gripping while also pretty classic introduction, featuring gangsters, slush fund and good guys with heart wanting to save scammed poor people, I was not blown away by the story. Indeed, the scenario fell apart with a messy writing, characters having a lot muscles but not a lot of brain. The poor writing might also be explained by the way the female lead was awkwardly edited out of the series, which was a downer for sure.

The cast did a great job, with the bromance between the characters of Woo Do Hwan and Lee Sang Yi being the best part of the series. Huh Joon Ho, Park Sung Woong, Kim Sae Ron and overall the whole ensemble cast did a good job. All of them were pretty convincing in all the fight scenes.

I would recommend this to people looking for a quite classic action drama or that love Woo Do Hwan and Lee Sang Yi. Seeing them fighting shirtless and skillfully at multiple times did certainly improve my watching experience, which was tempered by the overall poor writing with characters making numerous bad decisions. I am still happy to have watched it and I might even give a try to season 2 because the characters and their dynamics have a lot of potential.

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So much better than season 3 and 4 !!!

Even if Paradise feels still a bit underwhelming and Inferno could be made much tougher, I truly think the production team did an incredible job at casting this season participants as well as putting together the various storylines. There were a good variety among the cast, not just models and CEOs of their own company (with only 1 employee -aka themselves), some people providing really good TV, without those feeling over-produced. There were some production hijincks but honestly it was done quite skillfully to amp the angst and create a little bit of thrills...The challenges were overall quite exciting and fun, even if sometimes quite (maybe even a bit too much) aggressive. Once again the panelists elevated the watching experience with their relatable reactions.

I would recommend this to people looking for an exciting dating show. The production did a great job at correcting the flaws from previous seasons, and provided some memorable TV moments. I screamed and laughed at the screen, I swooned, I theorized and had many discussions on it. Even if the finale was very predictable to me, I had such fun time and I will for sure be looking forward the next season.

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Artsy, dark vibes, oozing toxicity and bad decisions...And frustrating!

This Thai BL features a trio of characters that meet in a bar and are trapped into ultra toxic relationships (professional and romantic) inspite of themselves. The series can feel highly frustrating because of the waste of potential, however, there are also quite a lot I appreciated. Do I regret spending time on it ? No, certainly not because it made me think a lot. Unfortunately the attempt at social commentary regarding Art and AI fell apart with the conclusion, which was truly disappointing.

Cast is one of the strong point of this series but also one of the downside. Indeed Gun, Off and Dew are doing a very good job at acting out those broken human beings. The tension scenes with the intimate moments or the painful moments were also very well acted. However, the way couple pairing are working in Thailand clearly removed part of the interest / turmoil of the series as the ending seemed predictable because of the CP but was not convincing because of the plot itself.

I would recommend this drama to people looking for an artsy BL featuring a fare share of angst and pain. It is for sure not without flaws because of its odd and too slow pacing, unconvincing ending and frustrating because of the waste of potential. But it is also a very different kind of story, truly thoughts provoking, with a captivating muse-artist relationship. Even if it unfortunately does not hold its promises, the actors and the very good production value with some truly impactful and memorable scenes, make it worth the watch.

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Less good than Season 1 but still a lot of mouthwatering food.

Not gonna lie, this second season is less good to me than S1. Maybe because the novelty factor is not there anymore...But also because the production team made some doubtful choices during the elimination process, they could have found a better balance between the white spoons and the black spoons chefs to make it more interesting.

Still, even despite the disparity in screentime, I got attached to a couple of candidates and there were enough variety in the casting to features a wide range of food and cooking style. The editing lacked subtlety, it was pretty obvious from one point which candidates were going to make it into the finale which felt pretty anticlimactic.

I would recommend this to people that enjoy cooking show. It features a wide range of cooking that will definitely make you hungry. Editing and production choices could have been better, as it clearly reduced the suspense and thrills of the competition, feeling overall pretty predictable.

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"Us, meeting like we did, wasn't a coincidence. It was inevitable."

This movie took me in a totally unexpected journey. I expected a cute romance featuring an artist but I got so much more than that. I grew very attached to both characters and what they were going through. The fact that their love for Art intertwined with their relationship was amazing. Visually there were some beautiful moments as flowers were an essential points for the romance : the symbolism was super powerful.

The acting was very solid and brought me a lot of feelings...It was my first time watching the leads (Nagase Ren and Deguchi Natsuki) and they really impressed me. It felt very sincere and pure, without overacting but rather appropriately measured.

I would recommend this to people looking for an impactful romance, very sweet and cathartic. It is both light and heavy, and it will take you on a very emotional journey. It broke me but at the same time was healing.

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