InspectorMegre

Totally delightful, a true treat, a true HEALING ART

This drama is one of those classic masterpieces, 10 star drama with significant impact. Super great script, acting, camera, music, messages, everything.

=====written after ep 9 =======
This drama is not about two ppl who quickly fell in love and jumped on each other

This drama is about two wounded ppl who ran into each other bc of work, and then started collaborating and helping each other, HEALING, and slowly falling in love.
SO THIS IS SLOW BURN EMOTIONAL WORKOUT
LIKE IN REAL LIFE

YOU SEE THE RELATIONSHIP PROGRESS

So.... This drama has no official dating and relationship, no steamy scenes YET
ML and FL are hanging out in a very close friendship, helping each heal, and slowly falling for each other...
and at this point they got so far that they are already known to the public as "dating" and dedicated to each other and liking each other.
He is already sure he likes her romantically and is already dreaming about it and flirting to self advertise...
She has some issues that perhaps prevent her from dedicating herself but she acts as his advocate and tells ppl she sees something in him...

But they never said I LOVE YOU or kissed yet or spent time in a private place just 2 of them.
BUT it is slowly getting there :)
THE WHOLE DRAMA IS ABOUT GETTING THERE

SO YES THIS IS A SLOW BURN ROM-COM AND PSYCH DRAMA AND EVEN THRILLER ALL ROLLED INTO ONE

====written after ep 1====
I am writing this after ep 1 because the summary writeup in MDL top page and the earlier MDL article for the drama does NOTHNG to convey what this drama is like.
This is absolutely delightful!

What a masterpiece! such a great story and acting, and filming. So creative.

Gods prevented me from bailing out on this drama by sending me an Angel user who wrote that the script writer for this drama also wrote My Mister, which is one of my top favs.

Based on the writeup in the MDL preview article long time ago, I thought this would be a gloomy psychological melodrama - no thanks!!!!!... - but heck no! There is humor, there is depression and hunger and loan sharks, and there is sunlight and fields of flowers and new experiences and love.

Totally charming and delightful. A real art piece :) Very deep, compassionate, painful, funny, such a treat!
I give Thanks to the Great Creator and drama production team that made this kdrama possible.
I trust that this will continue in all episodes :)
Helelujah baby we got a real kdrama to watch!!!!!!!
This is an event to be celebrated - we will be watching a masterpiece being born for the next 6 weeks. Also we will be watching transformation and rebirth of ML and FL, and hopefully all the commercially oriented 8 and their entourage.

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Well done!!! ML should get an award for this role. FL is great too

Ji Sung acting style is to exaggerate ... He acts the inner hidden feelings of his character, he shows what a normal person WOULD behave like if there were no limits, i.e. how they would LIKE to behave if they could, but they cannot so they restrain themselves to honor the social norms... He behaves to show the inner emotional state, so it is always amplified over the top acting and it creates comedy

for example:
I will always remember him sitting on the sofa next to his evil fatjher in law and fidgeting and rolling his eyes in fear... LMAO

====WRITTEN AFTER EP 2: ====
ML is an amazing actor and has lots of time on the screen. He should get an award for this role. FL is written very well and the actress is amazing too. I am looking forward to seeing more of her. So far she was very secondary although her influence was critical.

The script is tight and there are so many nuances, it is worth rewatching this. Let us hope it continues for 14 episodes!
====

This drama (TJR) might look similar to Again My Life (AML) or Lawless Lawyer (LL) or Devil Judge (DJ) dramas , but it is very different.

AML, LL, and DJ are about always-good MLs chasing bad guys.
TJR is about a guy who was both good and bad... He is an ordinary "good" guy who willingly became a bad guy, caused death and destruction, his conscience nagged him, he willingly turned good and went against his former accomplices.
The common thing in all 3 dramas is that a woman helps the ML.

>>>> Again My Life and Lawless Lawyer are revenge dramas about low status, righteous lawyer/prosecutor without power connections, going against high ranking officials who run crime to keep climbing up to the top government positions.
In AML, ML is naive, and he is given a chance to try it again. In LL, he is not naive LOL he was raised by thugs and uses all kinds of dirty tricks to revenge his mother.
TJR resembles AML bc an inherently good person has a chance to come back to life with all memories intact and do it right the second time around; and resembles LL bc this "good person" uses dirty tricks to win.

But:
TJR ML intentionally became a high ranking government official - a judge - who helped major evil do significant damages, so he is a deep, self-made crook. AML and LL heroes are always good guys. They use dirty tricks but never too dirty, they never were crooks, never did major bad stuff, never harmed anyone; they are just slightly mean
You can say that all three male leads somewhat resemble each other after TJR ep 2 :) But TJR hero is a LOT meaner and more criminal LOL if the running over the criminal at the end of ep 2 is not a fantasy. AML and LL heroes would never do that. They resolve everything legally.

>>>>Devil Judge is a thriller about fighting and exposing a well-camouflaged evil elite who is loved by the public but runs a crime ring and has grandiose evil goals about seizing control (like the villains in Lawless Lawyer and Again My Life, who are sooo well camouflaged sociopaths/psychopaths, it is chilling to meet them on the screen. Judge Cha and assemblyman are sooo creepy, esp. Judge Cha is a villain whom you will remember... !!!!! totally horrifying yet always 100% polite).

In comparison, TJR ML is an amateur... he tries to look good but his corruption is very obvious and known by everyone for a long time...... .... You can say that TJR ML resembles LL and AML villains in ep 1 bc he pretends to be good but is doing bad :) but TJR ML has conscience and is a lot smaller scale crook that those three.

>>>>The Judge Returns drama is about cleaning up bad karma, about the redemption arc of a basically good ordinary person who succumbed to greed and INTENTIONALLY AND WILLINGLY became the slave of the corrupt power circles. His only intent was to gain a cushy life, but it came with a price he was not willing to pay.... As he climbed high and went far .... too far... .... did sooooooooooo much bad... he WILLINGLY experienced remorse and WILLINGLY started anew in good way .... but he was naive... and was given a chance to came back to fix his misdeeds and do the good stuff.

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Ah what a treat!!!! A real script with real acting!!!!

I love this!!!! so real... !!!! I give 10 to the stay-at-mom story, 5 to blunt sister and maybe 6 to the third one?
This is such an interesting script, complex characters, and such interesting ACTING by female actors embodying those COMPLEX characters
IT IS SUCH A TREAT TO WATCH THESE AMAZING ACTRESSES BRING THESE COMPLEX CHARACTERS TO LIFE!!!! FINALLY!!!! ABLE TO SEE GREAT FEMALE ACTING!!!!

such a nice RELIEF from the typical dramas esp rom coms with anxious weak snowflakey young women who are so boringly FLAT - always anxious or worried or sad, ... soooo flat... boring... the only interesting scenes are flirting with cute guys but there is practically nothing related to interesting character, good acting or interesting plot

YAY this drama is a gem!!!!

And also it is nice to see true friendship between women. That is the adult part :)

And unfortunately we also get to see women stabbing each other. That is the reality :(

I am sorry to say that their men are such doozies... from ep 1, I am 99.99999% sure one is either gay or cheating, the other one is very likely cheating, and the young one is definitely cheating - all confirmed in ep 2...

But I think it is put in here to show that men have not caught up to the female equality and it is not easy for women to find and maintain loyal husbands. So I am looking forward to see how the drama will resolve it.
All the pairs lack communication... and effort ......

The women in this drama have to change too.... . Honestly, those two married ones are not doing much to maintain their marriage and I myself would leave them if I were their husband, and the third woman is just liking a gigolo so of course she will never find a real man.

Thinking about it... A Dream Life of Mr Kim is actually a continuation of this drama.. what would happen with those married women IF they stayed with their no-good husbands.... I hope this drama resolves their issues so that Dream Life of Mr. Kim never happens to them :) THe wife in that drama wasted like 30 years on a very bad marriage...

Seems like these women are going to resolve their lives quite soon :)

So this looks like a very promising drama to address the issue of new era relationships and marraige. I totally love the scenes with lots of kids, that was soooo cute!!!! the kids of one of the women are too spoiled, seems like, it is clear their father did not help much. A woman who lies to her mother about her marriage and lets her husband skip her bday is a woman who is having a bad marriage and a bad life... Let's see how she solves it!!!!

The one with the impotent husband is so aggressive, and he plays her like a kid with his mommy.... I am not sure WHICH man could do well in bed with her, she is just scary nasty.... nothing appealing about that... and the third one loves to be in control and own her man, and wants only fun, so finding an equal man will be interesting.

All three have potential and ideas and I am sure they will work it out!!! I am looking forward to it!

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Delightful *masterpiece*

This drama is so DELIGHTFUL!!!! FL actress is one of my favs. She is a master actor for sure. R * E * S * P * E * C * T!!!! I totally hated ML in 100 Memories and I was convinced back then that he cannot act.... but here - omg he is such a great actor. A very great handsome lunatic lmao Such talent for comedy lmao

I am so much enjoying this show!!!!!!

FL actress is a chameleon, she is always THE character she is acting..... every time.... here it is so funny to see her all meek and subservient.. lmao And I love her street smarts :) XXX OOO XXX
She was the most amazing villain in The Glory.... Great in Nice to Not Meet you but her ML was acting too cheesy and kinda killed it. Here, the ML/FL pair is ***perfect**.
and ML actor and his eyes moving around, e.g. start of ep 3 holding her ... that was soooo hilarious. I am so glad I got to see him in a real role. He is great!

THIS DRAMA IS A MASTERPIECE CLASSIC
and the rating should be a lot higher
i am so grateful we get to watch this. Bravo to the MRN team!!!!

As for rewatch: I think it would be great to rewatch as there are so many nuances in acting

That scene on the roof top at the start of ep 3 was so hilarious and so showing their acting skillZ
and then all the other scenes ... too many to mention... it is totally totally HILARIOUS and deep ... such great acting... and is getting scary as we get to meet the SML/King more and more.. bc he is ... a PSYCHO SOCIOPATHIC MONSTER and seems like harmed FL/ML in the past and now is the chance for them to self defend. I am sure they can, FL can certainly take care of anything lmao Fighting!!!!!

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Great plot, very realistic, minus the soul swap lmao Great acting

The plot here is fantastic and something that every business owner dreams of - auditing his own company.
The actors are all great actors and have amazing great scripts, but they are so creative in their roles and really make it fantastically fun to watch. The villains are great. The daughter and the Chairman in young body are great.

The young actor who does the Chairman in young body is SO HILARIOUS, he really nailed down his role, acting like an old geezer.

The actress doing his youngest daughter is also an amazing actress and it is totally refreshing to see a more balanced and complete female role, complex and smart capable female, and an actress who is given a red light to ACT and to be complex and creative in her acting. That is one of the great accomplishments of this drama.

The nasty boy twin actor is an amazing actor, he really nailed down the role of a rather dumb greedy entitled brat - that actor is a master actor

And the villain girl twin actress is convincing too....

The only criticism of this drama is that by ep 6, there is not much character growth of the Chairman in the young body, he is pretty much the same old callous geezer. The drama is about business deals and Chairman and his daughter working together to outdo the evil twins and grab the company.

The Chairman is a brilliant business wheeler and dealer, but he is cold and cruel to people, and by ep 6 does not get much more compassionate while in the young body. At least he paid medical bills of the young guy's grandma.

Hopefully in later episodes, the Chairman becomes a better human being.

FYI for all those sillies who are making up romance accusations:
*** There is NO romance. in this drama. NOWHERE in sight. ****

The young lady sees in front of her a young handsome guy winking at her and taking care of her, so she is smitten, but the young handsome guy is her father and he has NO romantic interests whatsoever, he is 10000% behaving like a good father to his daughter, taking care of his daughter.
And the Chairman and his secretary are just two men who closely work together and are great friends too.

THERE IS NO ROMANCE ANYWHERE

So let's see how it gets resolved at the end. Maybe the young guy will wake up and the Chairman's daughter can then go after him, or maybe the Chairman in young body will have to tell her who he is.

In any case, this drama is fun.

Music is good too.

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Societal jail made "interesting" by erotic packaging

@Nelly recommended that this review be called JAILBIRDS as the drama is about three societal jailbirds - two powerless people, essentially slaves, and their slave master, all limited by societal jail. This is just a political move from the start - a powerful person (king) picks a boy toy and forces him to serve as a s.x slave, and forces an essentially enslaved woman to comply as a s.x slave.
,
and then King and Queen just used s.x to produce kids to help them get ahead in the power ranks, And this boy toy slave had to do his slave job, and the woman had to do her slave job, and the two also tried to have some fun while they were free for 10 mins to be free and themselves. That is all
.
The sentimentality happens when jailbirds Quieen and BoyToySlave start having fantasies of actually living their little free-of-jail time as their life. They are JAILED and there is no escape. The society is essentially JAILING AND TORTURING ppl of "lesser status" e.g. women and poor. The evil elite king and his kind are just using BoyToy and the Queen as inseminating bull and cow.

PATHETIC SOCIETAL JAIL packaged as "interesting" by shocking and/or erotic scenes

The main thing to think about is - why do elites still exist and essentially enslave people, and why slaves CONSENT to live under the elite ruling - in this case, Queen and BoyToy were enticed to live a luxury life at the expense of selling their soul

So I aint' wasting time to watch this pathetic jail bs,


=====
this is just a political move from the start - a powerful person (king) picks a boy toy and forces him to serve as a slave, including being a s.x slave - everything for the King as the center of the universe - that by definition is JAIL,
and then King and Queen just used s.x to produce kids to help them get ahead in the power ranks, And this boy toy slave had to do his slave job, and he and the Queen also tried to have some fun while they were free for 10 mins to be themselves, AS IF there was no jail. That is all..
The sentimentality happens when Quieen and BoyToySlave start having fantasies of actually living their little free-of-jail time as their life. But they are JAILED by social norms and there is no escape. Someone - the male power King - is just using them as inseminating bull and cow, and they are consenting bc in that society there are nothing more than just SLAVES, they are handled in the same way as domestic animals. .

So I aint' wasting time to watch this pathetic jail bs, This drama makes me salute to 21st century and personal freedom and independence of women and all people to choose paths in life they want, and the blessings we have that these dictator Kings are not AS prevalent as before. They are still there, the psychopaths, the power hungry, the takers. Sure they are. Luckily it is not as bad as back then - well for some of us. For some, this movie is still a reality

So,,,, enough high ranking power sexual predators and psychopaths who use ppl as slaves, and any little act of disobedience is met with rage, hatred, and retaliation

This story is ... meaningless.... the same old egoistical bs, there is nothing learned here, just a shocking bloody power struggle real life story .

THE KING NEVER LOVED THIS DUDE AND WAS NOT EVEN HIS FRIEND, if he really cared for him as a friend and/or lover, he would let him go and be happy. First of all he would not force him into being gay lovers. THe dude didnt like that.
And THE DUDE NEVER LOVED THE KING - he wa just a low slave servant to a powerful man.
The king was maybe a fun and imposing, flattering company - wow he picked me out of all ppl to share all this wealth and fun - BUT THAT IS NOT LOVE .

So with the king - a flattering life of luxury and seeming "friendship" of a powerful man, and no lust and with the woman, no deeper connection, only lust? on his side - and love on hers? - but - if they COULD spend real time together, ... would that love grow bigger and more real, beyond lust? We dont know since the King rained on that party.

THE KING IS NOT A MAN IN LOVE, HE IS AN EGOISTICAL TYRANT AND MURDERER
AND THE DUDE IS A MAN IN LOVE WITH THAT WOMAN

The essence of this story is not about being gay, or "a man can have true love only with a woman"/ The essence of this story is that there are lovers A and B, and then B falls for C, and A hatefully retaliates.
By definition, when we love someone, we do NOT retaliate and hurt them.
By definition, when we are in a real relationship. we are free to say NO, to leave, etc and our loved one has to take it.
The King never left space for his lover, never gave him equal treatment and freedom, so really, King never had any real love.
And the dude never had any real love. He was just following orders

Was his love for the Queen "real love"? We do not know until we see them in some deeper scenes. I would say he loved her since he was happy she escaped to safety

So really this drama is all about what love is NOT.

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Unfortunately, this is real :) the drama is frilly but ep 8 from min 31 has THE message

This is so ... well... I dont know how to say it - so revealing of Chinese culture, this very strong belief that this is real. And in fact... it is :)

The filming and topic totally reminds me of Stephen Chow movies, such as Kung Fu Hustle and its dark poor and/or underground hoods. And It has this wickedly twisted dark humor, such as Third Crown Prince looking like a hippie-biker with a lollypop...

The movie has all this glitz special effects
but the value of the movie is the very rare but powerful dialogue, such as Buffy's dying message towards the end of ep 8, starting at min 31.

She asked him to love the world for her, whether it is messy and even the gods cannot do anything about it.
She said: "I that the ones who might really change the world for the better are just ordinary people like us. "

She asked him to wish for world peace. Bc -
An old man told her once:

magic cannot defeat spiritual power,
spiritual power cannot defeat karma,
and karma cannot defeat a wish.
So a person with a wish is strongest of all.

So actually the drama should be rated 10 for the messages
I gave it 8 bc of all the frills :) I watched ep 1,2 and then fast forwarded through all the special effects etc
and watched ep 8

Buffy Chen is an amazing actress, really.
ML actor is ... meh...

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Flashy catchy bombastic story but mostly without meaning

I watched ep 1-7, 14 of Judge from hell and it was mostly a waste of time, I had to fast forward through most of it, it is not a masterpiece drama in my opinion. It is a little too ... cheesy and gory. It lacks good dialogues. It is flashy catchy stuff but not so ... meaningful. It raises some good questions but the way is too bombastic and sensationalistic. Yeah, FL and ML nailed their roles, but still, ML role does not show him off as well. The drama is made for FL to have fun acting LOL

When I watch something, I ask myself: what am I learning?
and for this drama, I cannot say that I learned anything

It is "fun story" drama without much if any meaning

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AMAZING! so well done.... until ... ep 6... then you realize this was a collywood delusion

It is really a horror movie in disguise. It is scary and has quite some gory parts. Luckily not tooooo toooooo gory, you can easily skip the gory parts. It is hard though bc they are shown quite fast. Be ready with the fast forward button.

I really like use of makjang acting to act scenes about topics that do not matter, and "acting like in real life" to show topics that DO matter. It makes the drama go fast.

The movie plays on some Chinese / Taiwanese stereotypes that I am not familiar with. Clearly, it is a culture steeped in superstition. There must be some delulu in this drama based on some play on what is true, but I am not familiar to say exactly what.

Like in Western movies, where families are broken and everyone is separate and single and lonely, isolated, depressed; and it is a consumer society where everlasting personal satisfaction happens super fast without any effort, there is this delulu idea of getting all happy bc you found the right person who loves you - and then INSTANTLY AND FOREVER your life becomes supper happy and everything is great for you. This delulu consumerism plot manipulates the true, genuine human need to love and be loved by others.

A good movie might showcase true things that are now considered mystical, like the kung fu powers etc.

So what Chinese delulu AND / OR truth card(s) is this drama playing....?. I dont know. It seems to emphasize the magical power of caligraphy. Which... is true :) and I am not sure about delulus. Perhaps - the power of beer to unite ppl... ? the "masters" are all grumpy... ?

For the first 5 episodes, I thought it was a great drama. Then ep 6 was super cheesy copy of kdramas - going to an amusement park and playing on the claw machine (to claw out a prize out of a glass box full of prizes). I ALSO NOTICED THEY ADVERTISED THE BEER... the dad and son and mother and son drink beer together...

And the story got pretty cheesy... All "help me cases" were obsessions of live people...

Soooo at the end of ep 6, I fast forwarded to ep 12 and found the (dead) dad encouraging the son to drink beer... THAT was a sure sign this drama was totally a trap...

And then I quit. I got tired of ML actor ONLY grumpy face, of drinking beer by manipulation, etc and I quit this as Collywood.

Written after ep 1: this drama uses makjang exaggerated acting to show things that are not important, and "like real life" acting to show what is important. It saves so much time!!!!
Only one half of episode 1 was enough to totally set the background story of ML's life.

The story is well done and the acting is well done for the first 5 episodes. ML is young but that actor is excellent.

But he never smiles and stays super grumpy or the entire drama. One time he smiles, it is visible he has bad teeth. Too bad. He is a handsome guy and a phenomenal actor, he needs to fix his teeth so that he act roles with smiling too. And of course, for his own health.

I got tired of watching his grumpy face all the time. He needs to change facial expressions... imo.

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An easy comfortable watch, i.e. good script, good filming, good family drama, lots of good actors

This drama is a breath of fresh air, showing relatively "ordinary" people doing relatively "ordinary" things, it FLOWS easily and effortlessly.... it is an enjoyable watch. The quality of this drama is on par with any miniseries. THE SCRIPT IS WELL PLANNED AND ORGANIZED, SO THE PACING IS CONSISTENT, THE PLOT KEEPS MOVING FORWARD IN MEANINGFUL AND INTERESTING WAYS.

In the Discussion section, ppl say this is an easy watch, bc there are no snags, sufferings, dragging, gore killings, gore scheming, really nasty smart capable villains just mauling stupid naive "good ppl", etc. The script is masterful, keeping consistent pace, with great cliffhangers and twists, and great dialogues and great meaningful scenes. FL is an independent woman with brains and common sense, so the plot just flows forward without snags.

The drama just flows naturally and easily as "ordinary" life in families. Well, some plots involve some major traumas, but nothing in this drama is ridiculous or crazy. That means - good script, good filming, and good acting.

THE RICHNESS OF THE PLOT IS CREATED BY **** MASTERFULLY ACTED **** "SMALL SCENES" from daily life.

There are plenty seasoned great actors in the drama, which makes it interesting to watch. They make the drama seem real, like we are watching real life.
There are many interesting side stories...
The camera and production are great too, visually it is seamless and interesting.
And the music is really fun, really matches the plot
Last but not least, i love the styling in this drama, each character has unique and consistent styling that makes the character more believable.

Overall, highly recommended so far
This is a classy drama on par with any 12 -r 16 ep drama out there.

THE FLOW
==========
This drama is normal and pleasant and comfortable and VERY WELL PACED. There is no dragging whatsoever. There is no filler plot. There is no whiny female characters or overly controlling cold male characters. This drama is NOT sexist and actually provides some excellent role modeling for real life.
This drama is rather EGALITARIAN and very fit for modern life.

The start of the drama is cringe bc it starts "as usual" sexist plot - FL is a naive clutz, ML is poker faced snotty.
However, by ep 9, he becomes alive, and that is when I really got into this drama. meanwhile SML and SFL were really interesting quirky characters and it was fun watching them. The villains too :)

Then we have a period of ML-FL flirting and growing - and SML trying with SFL - which is all HILARIOUS
The scenes ML-FL and SML-SFL and any combo are totally hilarious and well done.

Around the middle of the drama, the leads got together, the blush fell of the rose, "the honeymoon was over", and we got deeper into the dirt of the families. The comedy used to introduce the characters and ML-FL flirting wore off and we got into some major traumas and conflicts that the characters had to resolve. So the drama became more melodramatic and serious, resolving those issues. ML is a snowflake and a weak person and FL helps him.

This is where FL's role was kinda ruined bc she became more or less just a support for the ML to handle his trauma... And SML role was kinda ruined, bc he became a victim of SFL's abuse...

But now it is ep 97 and we are entering into the third phase of the drama, when the dirt is exposed, character flaws are exposed, ... and it is time to clean up.... ....
FL was so "protective" of ML that she turned into a slimey liar :) and is starting to pay for it :)
and SML is turning into a guy who questions the truth of what is told to him... SO HOPEFULLY THERE WILL BE INTERESTING GROWTHS FROM THIS

PROFILING OF CHARACTERS:
============================
There are lots of really amazing actors in this drama, who make the drama seem real. Like we are watching real people living their real lives.
There is melodrama, thriller and comedy. My fav is Grandma from the restaurant :) bc she nicely combines all of it :)

The two main villains are just HILARIOUS. Yes they are disgusting but they acted so well, they are comical relief. And - they love each other and are a perfect couple. Those two veteran actors are AMAZING actors.

There was some cringe with FL in early episodes, she was .. hm.. immature... and ML was poker faced snotty snub and that was just boring and ugly...
and luckily, FL dropped the cringe, she turned a very capable woman, and ML starts to be more than just a pokerface around ep 10, and that enlivened the drama a lot.
How those two play off each other is just HILARIOUS. They are a very endearing and fun couple.

ML-FL and SML-SFL and any combo of those 4 interacting is very fun to watch.

SML role was kinda ruined for a while... Seems like the role might recover... ... SML starts as a rather selfish and cruel person at work but in blind love with stone-wall porcelain doll SFL, And that is really fun to watch. She is so stuck and so beautiful and so uptight, she is endearing and comical.
HOWEVER...

Eventually, the SFL shows her fragility and selfishness more and more, and SML keeps pathetically and desperately chasing her.... but... SFL takes him for granted too much and eventually goes overboard, and ... SML starts questioning her!!!!!! I AM HOPING HE GROWS A SPINE

ML actor has a knack for acting friendly scenes, he is very charming and endearing, and FL bounces off him in most hilarious ways' and SML and SFL are acted perfectly. So it is fun to watch

After ML woke up and ditched his poker face around ep 9, FL can act more. FL actress has many facial expressions and really has fun acting off ML, and is great for comedy. I am enjoying watching her bc she is so lively and energetic.

There was soooo much comedy in earlier episodes.... I loved the senior home, bike ride home and the restaurant 4-some scene. The arrows were HILARIOUS :) The bike ride home was HILARIOUS :) (That's why I want to feed ML and send him surfing, he gotta keep up with that strong lady.)

I loved grandma and grandpa in bed. It is nice that Uncle and Aunt also love each other, and have a good bed life too. I like how the drama is showing love in many different ways.

ML is excellent in "friendly" and "cuddly" scenes, that is where he really shines and is super cute and charming. The serious snotty poker face scenes just are NOT for him. Then he is just a scrawny little nothing. The drama should let him go free with displaying good times and affection and humor.

ML is a masterful actor also for very melodramatic scenes, like confrontations in ep 94 were absolutely AMAZING acting. His eyes were flaring fire. The change in the eyes was WOW acting.

I love watching the Grandma next door :) she is fun

THIS DRAMA PROVES THAT RIDICULOUS COMPLICATED PLOT IS NOT NEEDED - SIMPLE IS GOOD
==============================================
This drama is nowhere near Crazyville of dramas with ridiculous actions and plots like First Man or Pearl in Red.
THIS DRAMA USES MASTERFUL ACTING TO SHOW SMALL BUT MEANINGFUL AND FUN SCENES FROM DAILY LIFE.

For example, female villain goes snooping in a room in her friend's house. Friend's son - who is a young and trendy urban fashionista - walks in - and the villain has to somehow excuse herself and leave... The villain is not very smart nor sophisticated ... but is a very colorful character... so she offers a bribe and comments on what he is wearing, shares her passion for French fashion - in broken wrong French - and flirts with him on her way out, while he is totally flabbergasted yet happy to accept the bribe. That ONE SCENE takes maybe ... 5 minutes? But is super highly memorable and made me laugh. Acted so well. With precision.

FASHION NOTES:
===============
In terms of looks, this is a well done drama, everyone is styled perfectly, so it is a PLEASURE to look at them. I love the "perfection" look of SML and her classy outfits, hair and jewelry, and I love the vibrant energetic look, smile and white teeth of SML who just exudes good health, and I love his clothes, looks really good on him,

and today I was studying fashion, ML looks good in light blue shirt and shiny leather jacket.

FL is actually cute and her clothes fit her character. Well some of FL clothing is really grungy enginnering style... But she had some scenes in dresses, or better clothing, esp the living funeral slinky top with a fake collar was AMAZING on her.

The main villans have amazing flashy wardrobe. THe male villain wore pink suits that made him appropriately look like a mafia boss from 1930s from the richest parts of Los Angeles... his lady has amazing luxury sleepware....

Grandpa looks amazing in pale pink traditional clothing.. He also has indigo-color traditional clothing ... which... imo.. needs to be worn by someone younger to really show its beauty.

love the navy vest and blue-gold tie of SML's dad.

YoungerBrother of SFL has amazing trendy urban wardrobe. But out of his multitude of amazing sleek metrosexual clothing... what looks the best on him, a guy with very dark shiny black hair and black eyes - is black and white. He had some amazing "modern version of traditional Asian clothing" open short collar-less pitch black jacket, with baggy pitch black pants, and very white soft t-shirt underneath, showing in the front and peeking from under the jacket for about 20 cm. WOW astonishingly good look! Also, he looked great in a black suit and white shirt and ... some kind of black tie. WOW. So simple but looks the best. Now I understand why Asians like to wear black.

Grandma from the restaurant next door and her boyfriend totally demonstrated the power of clothing... When they get dressed in red and pink, and very youthful outfits, they look so young, they look great!

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Has so much potential but is ruined by bad directing and script

The "core" of the script plot is great and the actors are very capable - and then all that was just thrown out.... , Some moron made the capable actors act cringe.
ML is made to act poker-faced, 99% limited in his acting and extremely boring cardboard character;
FL is made into a stupid petty damsel in distress in ep 2 in the village /with ML - but she was confident and smart in ep 1 in the city;
and SML is made into a very ... simple fangirl/idol type character. And Ep 2 is filmed in a super simplistic and rather choppy way, and nothing is funny.

To save the drama, ML actor has to be allowed to express as much as possible - make him human!, FL has to STILL have those creative, confident, smart qualities she had in ep 1, and SML needs to be more than just a pretty boy.

To me, ep 1 was so enjoyable bc ML had only comedic scenes in the village, FL had amazing professional success scenes, informative personal scenes, and the villagers provided the energetic, warm scenes.

Then it all fell apart in ep 2.... FL came to the village and behaved like a total loser moron - ah so CRINGE,
ML was grumpy poker faced the entire time - ah so ugly and BORING -
and SML was used as a decorative object for most part. Ep 2 was filmed in a very choppy way and there was nothing funny about it. Even chickens flying around was not funny.

Someone said FL actress was in Doubt. That is a top notch drama. Whoever just turned off her acting capabilities in this drama and made her act the classic sexist "stupid FL" cringe, is a total and complete moron.

I have never seen ML actor before but I highly suspect he can act and wants to act, bc he looks so bored and forced in his overly simplistic poker-faced role, and his only good scene is 1 second of him being a gangster and smiling.

This drama is just throwing great actors to trash. The director is the most at fault, I think, then the script writer.

So I dropped. it is too bad, I wanted to watch this, but life is too short to waste on trash dramas

Even shorter:
Bon Appetit Your Majesty was a super hit bc the open-minded director let ML actor act as much as he wanted, with enthusiasm and energy. That Director was a genius who saw talent and let it shine.

Unlike the director here who is either a caked old geezer without any creativity OR playing it safe and staying commercial mainstream OR totally out of touch with the drama and the actors OR someone with $$$$ told him to make a cliche trash to sell -
in any case;

SOME MORON DIRECTOR IS KILLING THIS DRAMA BY FORCING ACTORS INTO CRINGE ACTING

And the audience is guilty bc Ep 1 was all about strong FL and the audience found it boring - bc audience is sexist as usual -

and audience was shallow as usual, finding villagers boring, finding old people boring, wanting young pretty faces as rich characters in a sleek urban setting - basically their own fantasy about themselves -

and the audience LIKED Ep 2, ML as cold and shut down and FL as stupidly dumb loser who keeps making mistakes and ML saves her - the cliche plot of all trash dramas - and it WORKS - Dynamite Kiss, etc are all such dinosaur cliche sexist trash dramas with huge following -

the Director served in ep 2 what he is sure will work and turned ep 2 into a cliche sexist obsolete trash-drama

the FL is an accomplished actress from a top drama Doubt and her performance in ep 1 of this drama is STELLAR. Whoever throws that talent away is a moron to the max

But the AUDIENCE is driving this drama into mediocrity at best
So the audience needs to cajole the director to let this drama go the way of Bon Appettit Your Majesty
ML actor is energetic, dynamic and I suspect he CAN act, FL actress is a masterful actress, and SML i am sure can act. SO IT IS POSSIBLE TO MAKE A GREAT DRAMA

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"Organic junk food" - Meaningful script and plot, just filmed in a slow motion and LOTS of soap

Watching this drama is like eating organic junk food, like eating organic blue corn tortilla chips instead of eating trashy cheap chips. It is junk, but it is not all bad for you. There are even some nutrients.

This drama is super cheesy soapy cliche BUT at least the characters are decent people, emotionally and otherwise functional people, honest with each other, communicate, work well as a team, the plot keeps moving forward, some script is masterfully deep and most script is NOT useless cheap dialogue. So... if you are in a mood for junk food, this could be ok

This drama is not a bad thing to watch. The plot and script are quite healthy except the FL promoting self-starving for the sake of "beauty".. Otherwise, the drama is NOT toxic.
There ARE meaningful problems addressed. The drama is not overly sexist. The leads communicate and work well as a team. There are meaningful deep dialogues and lines, they are just spread thin. The acting is not bad although there are lots of young actors in here. For a nice change, esp FL actress has a decent level of acting skillZ and that is great. It is just how it is filmed, rather simplified and slow, the script is "thin".
So the drama has potential, it is just how it is filmed is nothing spectacular though. It is not trashy, but it is not ... too memorable. Bc it lacks a certain depth of warmth and humor. This is not a 10 star masterpiece.

.Imo the script here has a lot of potential, bc - although the story is cliche as all stories eventually are the same - life does not have too much variations lol this is still a unique story.... and the plot, at its core, is meaningful. This is not some ridiculous Crazyville or Boreville town. It is just ... simple and a little bland.
I DO appreciate using the kdrama trick to liven the scenes with Nature, every scene has plants, flowers, Nature in it.

The drama addresses some deep and meaningful social issues i.e. therre are meaningful problems to be resolved - both ML and FL were overly loyal to really bad relatives and have lived all their life in suffering.

ML should not be catering anymore to his sister, bc he is just an ENABLER in a co-dependent relationship, making his sister more and more entitled and bitter and never healing from alcoholism. ML ought to help her break through that, not help her stay stuck.
FL was smart to realize what her mother is like, and distanced herself, but FL just ran away without resolving anything..
Both ML and FL's problem is that they shut themselves self down by the orders of their family members very close to them, i.e. ML and FL were abused under the name of love.

The drama is about them now reclaiming themselves. FL is ahead of ML in this process.

The drama is just filmed in a super slow motion and simplified, rather bland... Trying to avoid any contraversy, confusion, and pissing off the audience... . LIke... a low budget film for the masses. Well it is what it is, and perhaps this makes it more watchable by more audience esp western audience canNOT handle complexity and depth, so the dramas and movies tend to get "predigested" to not leave anyone confused. Also, bc of popularity of kdramas, they get produced in mass quantities so there is that "run of the mill" reality...

THE SIMPLICITY
==============
Wow I paused this drama and as I was tryng to figure out where I left off..... I discovered that I watched ep 3 already - but the filming is so ... bland ... that I did not remember any of it, until I encountered the little bit of dialogue that I recognized bc I remembered it bc it IS meaningful. Esp FL has some really good lines, but not often enough :)

The drama is super slow, ie super simplified. The dialogue, the actions, the scenes... are just ... in slow motion simplified. The content is spread wide and thin. It is like 1 spoon of butter spread over one huge 2lb loaf of bread. There ARE some meaningful lines, but spread thin.

ML actor acting is rather simplified. FL actress gets to act a lot bc her script is better, she has the meaningful lines and more complexity and expressivity in her script - bc she has more acting skillZ. I just wish she were not a skinny plasticized barbie doll.

To see a drama with TONS of meaningful dialogue, It is Ok That's Love from 2014 is my recommended romcom, Or, KimChi Family from 2011

THE BAD STUFF: THE DRAMA ADVERTISES SELF-STARVING "BEAUTY"
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ah FL thinks not eating makes her look good? Nope. Makes her look like a tired pale ghost
THE DRAMAS SHOULD NOT BE ADVERTISING UNHEALTHY EATING HABITS AND SELF STARVATION, NO EATING, SKIPPING MEALS

FL is so weak, she keeps falling every 4 minutes she cannot even walk properly

and the "pretty face" is just plastic surgery, no muscles bc of dieting, and botox? thick lips, so that she looks like a goldfish with puckered lips. Also for some reason when Asians get rid of "slanted eyes" to make their eyes look bigger, the eyes look BULGING

It is not cute, it just looks unnatural and dangerous, UNHEALTHY ARTIFICIAL
No wonder AI will replace actors and just use their face - but bc of plastic surgery, they cannot even move their facial muscles

Also this is SUPER RACIST, to pay huge money and effort to have African thick lips yet the world despises Africans as lesser. THIS IS HYPOCRITICAL RACISM. This is not specifically for kdramas, this is kinda global

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