36
82
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Jeana
In Fucking Beast Mode
When I saw the first episode, I was immediately struck by the beauty of the main leads. In the start they gave us a few minutes of pure fan service, where Mike flaunts his abs and shows off his dance moves and I was like, dayum maybe I should have picked this drama up sooner- except all of those thoughts were completely incinerated twenty minutes in to the show. The perfect words to describe this drama would be something like: Boring. Dull. Extremely slow. Completely and utterly dead.
80% of the drama consists of filler episodes, where the characters are just staring off into space, lost in their own shit and the viewer is forced to awkwardly watch from the sidelines like an unwanted trespasser. There are so many pauses after which we just get one dead scene after another, that it felt like this was some sort of a documentary instead of an enjoyable tale.
I think they tried to fake depth by showing numerous angles of the character's "deep in thought" faces and playing shitty sentimental music in the background but it just appeared very simplistic and unnecessary. Sure, I'm shallow and I like watching pretty people but I also want to watch them actually "do" something and have a fucking character. If I wanted to ogle them pose, I'd go through a fashion catalog and save myself a lot of time in the process.
There is no character development at all and the characters lack individuality to the T. Who are Mike and Am as individuals? We don't have a fucking clue. There is no proper backstory that tells us about their personalities, they are just one of the many run of the mill knock offs that we see in every unoriginal romance story.
The rest 10% consisted of the characters having flashbacks of the same dull scenes that they showed us before. As if they really needed repetition to help make shit worse. Like, if you don't have new and good content, why waste money and time on making so many trash filled episodes in the first place?
The measly 10% left was the only mercy shown to the viewers, where they finally added some funny and cute moments but it was hardly enough to make up for the torturous 90%. A lot of people were gushing about the character's chemistry but to be honest, I don't really see it. If we cut out the hasty little pecks they pasted on each other's lips, their relationship would be perfectly like that of siblings. There are no proper, mature conversations between them, no sizzling passion, no sexual tension, no actual bond; they don't get to face and solve complications together and evolve as a couple, instead they just fight like little kids and then try to act cute. I mean, sure, they can get away with an "aww how adorable" once or twice but the whole thing becomes rather uninteresting when it's done so excessively.
I'm a sucker for romance but I want my dramas to be diverse and actually have a plot behind it. In Full House all I got was a two dimensional "love" story with no real adversities or impressive events. There's nothing memorable about this drama except that I'll always remember how much I yawned throughout. I couldn't form any sort of emotional attachment with the characters at all.
Mike was admittedly unlike the usual Alphas, he was a kind hearted boy; very caring and childish but not the sharpest tool in the shed. Besides the first shirtless scene, all of his dance moves and actions that were supposed to be "sexy" were just horribly cringey and gay. No problem with being gay at all, except when you're doing a role where you're supposed to play a guy who's straighter than a rod. Also, I wanted to punch him every time he cried because him crying didn't make sense at all. It was supposed to add emotion to the drama but it just looked force and irrelevant, considering he himself was the one doing mindless shit that was creating petty problems in the first place. Crying about it made no sense except to show what a confused and weak personality he had.
Am was a refreshing character though. She was strong, witty and she didn't let anyone boss her around, making her a refreshing change from the Asian heroines of the norm. The actress who plays her is the cutest creature I have ever seen and she did play her part (no matter how superficial) quite well. She was the only one really acting in this show and the sole reason why I even gave it a 4.5.
I literally do not know why I wasted 20 hours on this bullshit, considering it had no story-line, whatsoever. It did not live up to its glowing reputation at all except that I have to say that the widely talked about "ice-cream scene" was a little entertaining.
I recommend this for 12 year old pre-pubescent kids who blush at the thought of matching bracelets with their crush and not for viewers who actually want to see something of substance.
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This review may contain spoilers
I'm going to be completely honest here; if anyone is trying to convince you that "Love Me If You Dare" is a compelling, mysterious, cat and mouse suspenseful detective drama, that will keep you guessing- they are lying. It's as simple as that. As someone who has seen her fair share of crime/mystery/detective shows, I can testify that there was not a single unpredictable twist in LMIYD. Simon, even though he is supposed to be this genius mastermind is, frankly speaking, extremely over-hyped in the show. The clues that he finds and the mysteries that he solves could easily be the work of a rookie detective and more often than not, his discoveries would be so obvious that I'd solve the whole thing before Simon even began to work his mojo.
For being Sherlock, his intellect was not very impressive, and when the show climaxed, the real culprit was unmasked and it was supposed to be this "wow, wow super wow" moment, all I could do was yawn, because I had already made the seemingly mind blowing revelation about four episodes ago.
Let's not forget that the main heroine is literally there as a pretty face and nothing else. She's so irrelevant to the plot, that it's actually funny. She has no role in anything and is there just to showcase and shine a different light on Simon's personality. Her character has been used merely as a superficial prop to revolve around Simon and I find it a little bit offensive as a woman, that for someone who is supposedly smart and who showed a lot of promise in the beginning, she remained nothing but a cliched damsel in distress till the end. Like for goodness sake, as much as I love Asian dramas, I am really not a fan of the wholly patriarchal society they mostly seem to portray.
So all in all now, I'm going to tell you the real reason why LMIYD, is in all its entirety so freaking famous. Why people are giving it great ratings left and right. Why they would claim that it is probably the best drama ever written. The answer lies in One Name. Two Words. One Person: Wallace Huo.
First of all, nobody can deny the fact that Wallace Huo is the epitome of beauty. He's gorgeous; plain and simple. I can watch a thousand of brainless plot-less episodes, if it meant I could stare at his face for hours. And stare at his face I did. I ogled him so much that I was afraid my eyes would pop out and I would drown in my own drool. Because, not only does he have a very pretty face, he's also an excellent actor. His dialogue delivery is entrancing, his expressions are spot-on, his walk is elegance incarnated and everything he does, he does with utter grace. If Wallace was to spout complete gibberish, the onlookers would still be starstruck because he'd relay that gibberish in such a way that it would seem nothing short of Shakespearean. This is a one man show. He's the king here and he commands it with his charisma, allure and masterful acting skills.
In short, LMIYD would have been nothing but a superficial drama with outwardly beautiful people if Wallace didn't give it soul. And to be honest, there's this one scene towards the end, that makes watching all the "meh" typa episodes that led to it worth it.
*Spoiler*
It's that scene where Simon has to pretend to kill the woman he loves in order to best his enemy. I'm not going to lie, I watched that scene about 15 times and my nose bled every single time, so much so, that I thought there was an imminent danger of death by blood loss. You can't help but fangirl like a lunatic when you see Simon display so many different emotions. That scene is purely iconic and is the reason why I gave this show a solid 7.
So, if anyone tries to tell you otherwise and claims that they aren't shallow and are all like "oh but, it had so many other great things than the male lead", know that they are frontin' for Wallace is the only thing great about this show.
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This review may contain spoilers
* SPOILERS AHEAD. READ ONLY IF YOU'VE WATCHED THE SERIES* Things that annoyed me about Innocent Man:
1) The heroine that was used as little more than a beauty prop. The heroine is basically introduced to us as this badass, ruthless businesswoman who's the sole heir to a multi-national company. She is supposed to be a complete WOP, strutting in her high heels donning a zero-fucks-given attitude. And at first, she legit got me shouting, 'That's ma girl!' And, then ofc it all came to an end as soon as the guy walked in. From there onward, started the four-staged transition of our heroine from a boss ass bitch to just another irrelevant not-that-pretty face. Dx
Stage 1: When we realize that all the talk about her supposed badassery was just that, talk. For, when she is given a chance to actually prove her worth; she, despite being a Harvard graduate, famous child prodigy and an all-around genius, spends all her time banging her head against a desk and then, passes out in the garden. Whereas, the hero; a med school drop-out who doesn’t know the ABC of business, freaking flies from another country, learn everything about accounting and marketing on an hour-long phone call with his dumb best friend. And overnight, devises a fool-proof and practical investment plan. Like, m888 pls there's pushing it and then there is freaking bullshitting it to Hades and back. Ofc, all the while the heroine just stared at him; tongue wagging and hearty eyes shining.
Stage 2: Now obv, no-one can resist heartless badboys, so ofc she instantly falls in love with him. He is, unsurprisingly, using her for a revenge scheme against his ex (who's coincidentally also the heroine's step mom/sugar daddy's arm piece who wants to steal all her fortune) and ends up breaking her heart. Just seconds after the breakup, she gets a call that her father is on his death bed and wants her there with him but because she is just so fucking heartbroken, instead of going to her dying father she says fuck my privileged life and deliberately crashes into an oncoming car. (Ofc the car belonged to the hero and both of them then, dab their broken bones into the ICU)
Stage 3: Then came a nice dramatic twist where she loses all her memories 'cause of the car crash -joy- and is quickly transformed into a fragile, wimpy, spineless walking talking sob story who constantly whines about how much of a fragile, wimpy, spineless walking talking sob story she is. Double joy with happy tears on top.
Stage 4: Finally after 5, hour consuming episodes, she gets her memories back. And at this point, I was all pumped up and was like "Okay girl, let's bring the swag back on. This is your time to conquer and get back the billion-dollar company that was rightfully yours and show 'em who's the boss". But alas, I just got a stuck up, self-pitying brat who, instead of bringing her best revenge game just pouted, screamed and walked around with her arms crossed. #RIP Not to mention that after she gets her memories back and she finally remembers all that shit the hero did (he basically ruined her life), all she does is show a lil attitude and even in that duration, half of her thoughts are spent on pining after the dude. #RIPx2
2) The highly unnecessary martyr syndrome:
So at the end, both of our MC's realize that they can't live without each other (shocker), and they run around the city, tryna find the other when at last, their eyes connect over a heavily trafficked road. So, the red signal comes up and while all the other obviously dumb pedestrians rush to cross the road, these two geniuses start their slo-mo jaywalk towards each other. Conveniently, the killer (who wants to stab the heroine and take over her company) arrives just when they're steps away from embracing and then outta nowhere the hero magically lights nitrous under his ass, does a fancy little twirl in the air -where he spins the heroine a full 360 degree, while simultaneously giving her a bear hug- and gets stabbed in her place. BRAVO. I mean, I get that he needed his sixty seconds of stardom but in the time he did all that shit, he coulda just pushed her to the side and saved both of their sorry asses. #AllHailGlory
3) The horribly put together ending.
Like, if you're gonna invest in producing 30 hours of screen-time, the least you could do is film a proper ending. Instead, everything is wrapped up in a measly 15 minutes. We are teleported to seven years later; where apparently, it's the hero's turn to lose all his memories. LMAO. 100% Dead-ass. It is revealed that the accident they were involved in had apparently caused him some brain damage too (just like the heroine) and his surgery caused memory loss. How divine. So, basically, he forgets everything that happened and is now starting over with the heroine in a rural town. WTF.
There is no inkling as to where the multinational company (which was the whole focus of the show) went to. The heroine, who was a billionaire in her own right and was basically built to lead the business, is reduced to a giggling girl who spends her time baking horrible goods at a cheap store (that nobody buys) and not-so-discreetly snapping pictures of the hero. They also show the fail killer walking somewhere out of his own volition (hopefully to jail) and the drama ends with a "Love trumps all" moral.
So yes, Innocent Man does come with its fair share of flaws but it still wrenched a 7.0 rating out of me because even despite all of its ludicrousness, I somehow ended up enjoying the drama. The acting is satisfactory. Not a single episode is boring and it would keep you at the edge of your seat till the end. Even though Eun Chae lost her character half way through the show, she had got me on her side with her personality in the beginning and so I was still cheering her on till the end. Kang Ma Roo also had his moments.
Moon Chae Won and Soon Joong Ki are both good actors and even though they did appear rather blank sometimes, I feel like they played their roles nicely. Won't rewatch it all but I might revisit some of the more interesting scenes in the future. Who knows?
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This is the first Asian drama that I watched that had so many episodes. I finished it in three days, where I was relentlessly stuck to my laptop screen. I laughed, I swooned, I sighed, I screamed- all in all it was a fairly enjoyable ride.
To be honest, the star of this show is Zhou Zhen. The drama would essentially be nothing without him. He's an Alpha Male to the boot. He's got the looks, the rough exterior, the charm and the golden heart to go with it all. He's possessive and controlling and yet, so tender and affectionate. He's a true badass and even though his fight scenes are awfully corny at first, they grow on you. The actor playing the role delivered his best and really there couldn't have been a more perfect Er Ye than Zhou Zhen. The loyalty his subjects have for him is endearing and his courageous personality and give no fucks attitude is so fucking attractive.
And well that's about all this drama has, to be honest. The supporting characters all lie on various scales on the spectrum of annoying and dumb. The main heroine is a horrendously stupid and weak af damsel disguised as a smart female lead. It's convenient how she's apparently good at almost everything except, things that matter.
Like, literally the only time she took out her claws was is in front of the man who loved her with his all. Which was hilarious because for all her bark, she's so irrelevant and legit has no bite. She's always saved by the hero and even when she apparently becomes this badass later, she does nothing except create problems for the guy. Like, there was no scene in the entire show where I was like "Go Girl, that's some mojo".
Nope, she's useless.
Plus, towards the end she commits one of the most brainless acts ever committed in the history of dumb acts committed by brainless heroines and has to pay heavily for it, just because she thought trusting a shady ass man who she met a coupla times was better than trusting someone who was there for her through thick and thin. I really don't understand what Zhou Zhen saw in her and how he was capable of loving such an ungrateful TSTL so unconditionally that he forgave her for her selfishness time and time again.
Then comes Ming Zhu. This girl is even more dumb than our heroine. (Which is quite a feat to achieve in itself, to be honest) She let's herself be manipulated time and time again by the bad guy and has to face so much shit in her life. She suffers horribly throughout and at the end always asks God, why it had to be her.
Well, the answer is because she buried all her intelligence under a rock somewhere and went on her merry way. Like, all the messy things she gets herself in could've been easily avoided but nope, she was hell-bent on making irrationality her best friend. Like really, let me ask you, if somebody who tortured, hit, raped you and was emotionally blackmailing you to do hideous things offered you a gift, would you fucking take it with a big smile or would you throw it in the nearest trash can and be 'oh shit I'm outta here'.
Like, how dumb can you be to trust a guy, you hate? Who's inflicted horrible things on you countless of times. How can you be brain-dead enough to later wonder why he lied to you and deceived you? Like bitch, you thought? You really thought the guy who made your life hell was gonna turn into a boy scout in sixty seconds? I can't.
However, the women are not the only epitome of stupidity here, because we always have the second male lead Ying Dong to fulfill the quota on the men's side. He's simply a selfish, childish brat who always creates troubles for others. Like, he literally does not have a single redeeming quality and frankly, his existence is a waste.
Atleast, throughout the drama he gets rightfully taunted about how he is trash (which he is) and in the end admits that he can only love himself. I literally wanted to punch him in the face. Throughout the show, he gives these fierce and angry looks where he pretends that he's all that but like, he just needs to sit tf down cause he isn't shit. He's a worse damsel in distress than our heroine and his ass constantly needs saving. It's a pity that at the end he still does get almost everything (while even in the last episode he creates shit for other people). His brother, Han Chuan on the other hand was so respectable and a clever and true businessman who I really liked from the start.
Also, one thing that nobody seems to notice is that Cruel Romance plagiarized an entire scene from the Korean Drama Innocent Man, where Ming Zhu asks YingDong to meet her and jumps in the pool in order to show that she is willing to end her life for him. Tsk tsk. However, where it was an impactful scene in Innocent Man, here it was just further evidence of Mingzhu's lack of intellect.
A perk of this drama though, is the Bad Guy. Qian Tian is a good villain. His psychotic and bloodthirsty character was very interesting and he had his wits till the end. The back and forth between the hero and the villain was so entertaining to witness. Qi Ji and Huang Xiao Ming portrayed excellent acting skills and really, they were the only thing that made this drama worth watching.
Even though the heroine independently wasn't much, her chemistry with Zhou Zhen was amazing. The romance aspect of this drama is brilliant and it's filled with iconic, swoon worthy moments. Despite the fact that the drama lost its soul towards the end and just kind of wandered aimlessly with unnecessary sub plot lines and repetition (Literally, the second last episode is filled with characters having flashbacks of things that happened before again and again- I skipped almost all of it because of the sheer redundancy of it ) and the ending wasn't executed well at all but if you're a romance lover and like your guys to be Alphas and bad boys, you'll ignore all of its shortcomings and still get extremely entertained.
For Zhou Zhen's swagger is enough to overcome all that this drama lacked.
I wouldn't say I'd rewatch all of its 40 episodes but there are some scenes that I'd definitely like to revisit.
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