10GoodMemories

Disappointment

I don’t normally write reviews. But there were so many things on my mind about this one that I had to write it down.

Pie’s acting was good. The changes in his expression from being a friend to slowly falling hard for Nao gradually were visible and delightful to watch.

That’s pretty much the only positive thing about this show that I can mention.

The parts that didn’t work so well:
1. The story was such a jumbled mess. The whole mafia plotline was a very underdeveloped mess. So Tiger goes from not liking his family and their mafia ways to being not only okay, but also very much a part of it. Except that all the major parts of it was kind of not shown much. So there was no angst and no retribution regarding the mafia/stealing/killing parts. Even the father, who was this supposed villain was kind of offed in the end without any drama whatsoever. Conveniently so.

2. The mother. I get that they wanted to portray Nao and Nue’s mother as supportive, but it just gave weird vibes instead. All she does is cook or talk about how her school life was difficult and she understands what they (students) must be going through. I understand what they were trying to convey. But the execution was lacking.

3. Pie-Golf chemistry in the series. The thing is, Pie’s acting as Suer who has been secretly in love with Nao is nice and believable. But till the end, I could only feel a friendly, buddy vibe from Nao. I just couldn’t see Nao falling for Suer - nothing more than a friend, honestly.

4. Now for the more problematic parts:

Suer acts like a red flag. He doesn’t confess his feelings. And then get hurt, throws tantrum, and chases off everybody who Nao likes or who likes Nao. And then runs away and gets out of contact with Nao whenever Nao likes someone or someone likes Nao. This leaves Nao confused and wondering what he did wrong. If Tiger hasn’t confessed, what right does he have to act out like that?

And then the gaslighting all of Nao’s friends do. When Nao goes out with Linn and Suer sulks and stops contacting Nao, all his friends repeatedly gaslight him mentioning how he doesn’t like Linn really and he should rethink his relationship with Linn. Repeated gaslighting. Awful. I get that they were rooting for Suer and Nao to get together. But that doesn’t give them the right to gaslight Nao’s thoughts or feelings.

Nue, North, and all of Nao and Suer’s friends keep saying repeatedly how Nao has been clueless and couldn’t see how obviously in love with him Suer has been for a long time. Almost as if it was Nao’s fault, when Suer is the one who hadn’t confessed yet. How is Nao supposed to magically deduce Suer’s feelings toward him if nothing is said to him? Duh. And then Suer has the audacity to tell Nao how it has been awful for him to be in love with him for six years and waiting for Nao to realize how he felt. Dude. Seriously. Communication, ya know.

I could keep going with all the issues I had with this drama. I do feel bad for Pie ‘cause he acted well. Too bad the story itself and the screenwriting was so awful.

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Excellent acting

I enjoyed this so much. Both main leads did a fantastic job in their respective roles. Ryoma absolutely slayed his role as the passionate dancer in every scene. His expressions and movements portrayed Suzuki perfectly. And Keita Machida as the restrained and disciplined ballroom dancer portrayed his character well too. The dances were fantastic in themselves too.

But something that struck me while watching this and made me pause is where Ryoma describes what it takes to participate in these 10Dance competitions- it may look glamorous on the surface but it takes tremendous discipline and endurance to dance in 40 dances of different types and styles during the competition day. And when Machida describes how the lady dancing the ballroom dancing has to dance elegantly while wearing her high heels. Somehow these two points left a tremendous impression on me. In fact, this very well describes what all artist, dancers, actors, and so on must truly be experiencing - everything might look glamorous on the surface, but level of practice and discipline needed for it….

Takeuchi Ryoma and Keita Machida also do a phenomenal job of dancing. It must surely have taken them many days and hours of practice to be this good! And of course, the chemistry between these two was very visible every moment of the movie.

The time flew by so quickly as I was watching this. I can imagine that we would likely get a sequel for this (here’s me trying to manifest this🤣). I mean, I would like to see them participating in the actual 10Dance competition! And there is so much potential for further expanding this story anyway, that it would be such a waste to not explore this further in a sequel.

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Amazing!

I don’t normally like red/black flag type MLs in stories and won’t watch those types of dramas. But this one… this one I could help watching. I can give this nothing less than a full 10 star rating, and it is not even for the story itself!

The director has done an amazing work with this series. The cinematography, the transitions between the ‘reality’ and the ‘movie’ were just beautifully done. Superb acting from the leads. They portrayed the multilayered roles within the series so well, that it was clear who were Fang Chi/Gao Zhun and Zhen Xin/Zhang Zhun at all times

While the characters were distinctive, the emotions were not. The way the emotions and scenes between ‘reality’ and the ‘movie’ being made just blended into/mirrored each other and fed each other was just sooo well done. The actors were indeed too ‘deep in’ to it. And so was I. Every time the director within this drama said ‘cut,’ it felt like my attention, which had gone deep into the movie within, was being viserally pulled out. So well were both stories done. Both the plots were equally engaging.

In the initial episodes, the ‘movie being filmed’ mirrored the ‘real life’ so much. Then in the later episodes, it was the opposite. When the plot with Fang Chi/ Gao Zhun was filled with heartaches, we got sweetness from Zhen Xin/Zhang Zhun. And when things got intense with the Zhen Xin/Zhang Zhun, things were improving for Fang Chi/Gao Zhun. It has the right dose of angst and sweetness mixed. The director truly played with our feelings. And like a person under thrall, I went through all the emotions the director meant to convey. So many emotions within the short span of each episode, that by the time I was finished with each episode, no matter the actual story, I was left in awe at the masterfulness the director.

And the OSTs. They were just amazing! As someone who doesn’t listen to music much, even my attention was thoroughly pulled and hooked by these OSTs. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve listened to them!

This drama is not just a story. It is truly an amazing art. And I loved every aspect of it.

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Feel-good vibes

This was such a nice feel-good drama. There are some hilarious moments in it which really stood out to me as well - Master Labubu/Delulu and his “rituals”, so many moments with Poppy as Butler Francois and his funny antics, to name a few. Poppy always manages to make his characters stand out and shine with his acting!

This is the kind of drama where the misunderstandings/conflicts gets resolved quickly without being dragged out for too long. Both the main couple as well as the second couple are easy to root for.

I am giving it 10 stars for the sheer feel-good aspect of this. Does that mean this drama is perfect? Certainly not. But it is definitely going on my comfort watch list. High rewatch value for me as well.

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