I wanna like it more but…
Blossoms in Adversity is a welcome departure from the typical disgraced family trope… Instead of the usual set up where the story starts off after a noble family has fallen, we get a show that focuses on the failing of the family in real time.This drama does so many things that I like. The music, cinematography (though it's a bit over the top at times) and action were all pretty good. The ML's action scenes were especially good. You can tell that he's been molded into a ruthless killing machine, who is perfectly capable of beating a man to death with his bare hands, then he demonstrates😆.
BIA shows how women are treated as commodities rather than people in this ancient society. Women and girls are supposed to be looked at, and used not heard. The domestic talents they cultivate are ultimately useless when it's time for them to earn money on their own. The purposeful ignorance they live in can even be a threat to their lives in dire situations.
I really enjoyed everything that had to do with this critique of the traditional family unit and expectations of women… Seeing a group of women overcome the odds over and over was amazing… but….
I don't really like anything else.
The ML’s acting was especially bad. I remember seeing a review mention someone had a “frozen face”, as soon as I saw the ML I knew it was him. Only his eyebrows move, it's hilarious.
The romance lacked chemistry, So I skipped through all their later scenes together…
There is a villian and I hate him because he is stupid. The ending seemed super rushed to me, and all their problems were solved super conveniently…
It was alright, I would recommend it, but I would never watch it again.
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Please understand what you're getting into.
This is a story about a 30-sum year old woman getting psychometric powers after touching the butt of a cow that got hit by a meteor... then using those powers (which only activate when she is touching a booty) to catch a serial killer.Of course Shenanigans ensue...
I don't understand why people are taking this drama seriously. This is a comedy, and its a damn good one.
All the jokes were funny and memorable. The cast did an excellent job. I didn't mind the lack of romance because its clear that isn't the point of the show. The goal is to make you laugh! That is what I needed and wanted!
Music and cinematography were great! Added several tracks to my OST list!
I thought the chemistry was fine... some people are complaining about their dynamic when its legit enemies to lovers. ML starts off thinking the FL is a S3x offender... I can understand him being abrasive to her touching him without consent. His reactions were totally appropriate!!! Despite that their relationship develops and deepens.
Its a fun(ny) solid drama that warmed me up!
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It's so good!
A wonderful comedy that is elevated by its cast in every way. It was such a fun experience. So glad I had the time to rewatch it.The only thing holding it back was that some of the villians are so dumb. No one dies in the show despite the fact that there are multiple assassination attempts, yeah they're that stupid.
Honestly that just adds to the humor!
The music, cast, and plot are all perfectly balanced. It's nearly perfect. I wish a little more attention was paid to the romance, but I'm glad I didn't have to sit through another love triangle.
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Great! until it isn't?
I really liked this show! Episodes 1-7 are basically perfect!At the halfway point things start to take a dip? I felt that the establish patterns of certain bus passengers were being disregarded in favor of a more dramatic presentation?
Earlier in the story our main characters are held down by the other bus passengers for attempting to leave the bus... but when the culprit is revealed and pulls a knife on the main characters all the passengers including FOUR men all stand by and watch the FL get her throat slashed AFTER STABBING ANOTHER GUY??? Not once but twice?
The main leads have to scream for help to get other people into action... even though they were happy to inconvenience the leads earlier...
I also disliked the stupidity of Mengmeng's ? death? Why would the bus stop there? why didn't she look both ways before stepping onto a busy highway? The driver doesn't have mirrors so he could see and be like "watch out!"??? and the lack of urgency towards the end?
The ML is visibly suffering after every loop after the halfway point.... The FL disreguards him and keeps pushing him.... Lady he's bleeding from the nose... yall can't take a break for one loop so the man can relax? And not be burned to death, stabbed or be chased by the cops?
Not to mention the hot potato with the bomb near the end? Eveyone was just taking their sweet time telling the truth to each other.... I know its a DRAMA... but damn.
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It made me angry.
The leads enter into a marriage contract, but I was not a fan of how condescending the ML was towards the FL. Unlike most people I didn't have an issue with him liking another woman at the start. I only hated how he treated the FL like she was stupid right from the start.Then I started to agree with him.
FL causes so many problems for the people around her... but you're still meant to like her because she tries to make up for it... Over the course of the drama most of her issues are caused by her trying to go above and beyond to please the ML or his family but she just ends up cause grief instead.
Then she sulks... she's like "I know I messed up again, but he shouldn't brush me off." Honey... I'd do the same thing.
I hate the fact that she falls for him first for the most superficial reasons.... Complaining that she's being mistreated by the guy but you're getting hurt and jealous within 3 episodes? Please.
Also the misunderstanding at the end was dumb.
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A Relic of a Bygone Era
The first thing that came to my mind when I started this drama was "dated". Everything in this show is extremely dated. The cinematography, music, story, and tone all feel like I've been blasted back to that very warm era from 2008-2012 for Asian dramas. Unfortunately It's been a decade since then and I need a lil more than what this show was able to give. Plain talk: it's really boring.Though the drama tackles some serious issues like CA, SA, dr*gs and MORE, but it has a serious tonal issue. One moment we'll see the worse thing ever happen to a person and three minutes later you'll see some of the most cheesy comedy ever. The framing device is also weird? It's like a 4th wall break thing like The Office but it doesn't contribute anything… So what's the point in having it at all?
The story is simple… boring… and linear… At times I was shocked at how mature the content could be then be pulled out immediately by the erratic tone. This drama does not know what it wants to be: A crime solving law drama, A conspiracy drama, or a tacky rom com…. in the end it split the duty unevenly…
A big issue for me is the FL and how she's obviously not like other girls…🙄 Shes built up to be a bad B who can take care of herself but the only reason she gets anything done is because she's surrounded by men… I wasn't a big fan of her silly or "cute" moments because I really never felt like I could take her seriously. Like if that chick from It's Okay to not be Okay acted like she did THEN I'd find it cute because that woman was actually a bad B…
The leads had pretty ok chemistry and had some nice moments from the beginning. The whole cast had great acting with only one person standing out.
But like JO HAN CHUL tho… dude was the bread and butter of this drama and carried the entire thing on his back. He was so ridiculous that I'd wake up everytime he was on screen. Man really felt like he was having fun writhing on the floor in his underpants.😂😂😂 It's worth watching just for him, played a great scumbag.
All in all if you like simple straightforward stories with no detours or if you're feeling nostalgic for dramas they stopped making a decade ago then this is the drama for you. You'll definitely have some fun but never rewatch…
Has a satisfying more traditional HEA too!
Hated the wedding dress tho…
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Certainly NOT a waste of time!
I was very interested in watching this drama because Gang Dongwon does NOT do TV dramas. He simply doesn't. Last time that man was in a drama was more than twenty years ago. I found the premise interesting but I wondered what exactly would bring him back to the world of TV. Short answer: he wanted to kiss Gianna Jun and I most certainly can not blame him. (I'd wanna too, but I'm not a super handsome, tall actor)Both leads are now very much Veteran actors with ranges that will astound you and this show fares no differently. I really enjoyed their chemistry and found myself rewinding a lot of their interaction. Between the actors themselves and the direction I felt like there was a lot of subtlety that really made the interpersonal interactions way more believable and I appreciated that.
This show also looks pretty good. It's not Vagabond, but it does what it does well enough. I also really liked some of the monologues, there was a particularly striking line our FL says about a church built out of the bodies of her loved ones. I don't think I will ever forget that line…
The original soundtrack was so good. I decided to watch this on the TV cause I thought it deserved it and my subwoofer was BLASTING. I haven't liked original background tracks this much since My Dearest. The use of “Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas” was so haunting in the moment. I remember getting goosebumps.
So the not so good stuff is just about everything else.
This show (like most kdrama) starts off incredibly strong and ends up devolving into half baked nonsense by the end. I once again feel that this new shorter format is kind of hurting these dramas. I feel that an extension to 12 of even the old standard of 16 would have helped this show immensely.
The main villain's plan and motivation are genuinely dumb. When you learn what exactly the plan was and how long they had been prepared… it makes you wonder what the point of all the assassination attempts was??? They try to kill people beneficial to the plan more than once and I still don't really get it.
I had no issues until the final reveals made things too dumb. Another one that couldn't stick the landing.
I love Gianna Jun tho.🩷 Her strong but vulnerable portrayal REALLY impressed me. Munju was so relatable.
7.5 but closer to a 7 than an 8.
I'm giving this a higher score just because I personally had a great time watching this. episodes 2-7 were so fun.
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Clanker's first Strike
BAYM…. is kind of a mess. Inconsistent characters, pacing and plot coherency abound.Do not watch this show if you are actually interested in watching a solid historical costume drama with great political intrigue, do watch if you're a foodie who wants to turn off their brain for a moment of pleasure.
I will start by saying that the cast here is pretty commendable. Lots of veteran actors playing new roles that I've never seen from them. This is Yoona at her best (when she's not with GG) her acting is consistent and sincere, I really enjoyed every time she was on screen. Her costars range from amazing to acceptable, but I'm okay with that.
The food was amazing to see and the direction for the cooking scenes were fluid and actually made a lot of sense. It's almost like choreography for dances or fights.
I start having issues with the plot, I get that the show is only 12 episode, but I still feel that the pacing should have been a little more consistent. Now that everything has been completed, I have a hero I don't understand too well nor can be invested in because his development was way too inconsistent. The villain's motivations are unclear and very hard to understand logically. I got why everyone was doing what they were doing on a surface level… but thats all. If you stop and think about any main faction's motivation you will realize that everything is shallow and just a little dumb.
All of that is forgivable, my issue is the amount of ai in this drama. When ai started becoming more accessible it never occured to me that it would eventually make its way to dramas. There are multiple scenes and dreamy sequences where ai is used to highlight the characters reaction to food. Multiple instances in multiple episodes… I can only imagine how many liters of water were wasted to render that dumb pea scene. All of these could have been replaced with using stock photos and video and a dash of clever editing… I'm so disappointed to see that clanker made content has infiltrated a medium I have deep affection for.
Going forward I will be dropping dramas that have ai, If I can see it, it will be dropped.
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They never stick The Landing.
They never stick the landing anymore.Okay, I would like to start off with saying what I LOVED about this drama.
I really liked the main characters and their arcs. The ML does at lot of growing, the 2nd FL works through a lot of her problems and same can be said for the 2nd ML.
This show looks REALLY good. The effects and set are awesome.
The mysteries are all pretty unique and fun to watch. All the arcs had at least one good thing to offer…
The first 10-15 eps are really good. No notes.
Now the REST.
The costumes in this show are awful. They're almost as bad as Til the End of the Moon's. I know it's a web novel world but the color, cut and styles of some outfits just made me scratch my head. Also toooo many accessories on each person. They are supposed to be homeless traveling demon hunters who rely of the good will of the people they help for survival, yet they have so many dangling gold and silver bits and bobbles… It's ridiculous, but forgivable.
About 10/15 episodes in the pacing really starts to take a nosedive. Things take forever to resolve and they become predictable. It was around then that I guessed how everything would turn out…
The last arc was torture for me to get through.
The ending is also so unsatisfying. A quick tie up would have been ten times better than what we got.
This is a cute watch but don't expect it to be the most well put together.
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It's fine.
Yea we watched it for Nam Goongmin...His dedication to his roles is honestly unmatched. Honestly the real shining star for this show is the actors. The plot itself is a little predictable but seeing the actors pull it off was amazing.
Everyone brought their A game for sure! I was hoping that this would be as exciting as Vagabond but its a little more subdued... The action is brutal and realistic. NGM really drops his usual playful attitude and becomes someone else. Def gonna rewatch ep 1 for YEARS to come.
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Aut Doc Drama
This drama is a basic and slightly predictable med drama, I'm no doctor but it was kinda of disappointing to guess most of the case answers myself.The main draw of watching this drama is the autistic representation. Personally, watching a drama about a savant doctor who clearly has never had to mask a day in her life was never truly engaging for me.
Its an okay med show tho, I will probably never revisit it.
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Good Actually
Hot take: This is way more enjoyable than Prisoner of Beauty…. ( You can shoot me now)A Dream within a Dream is satire. Its entire existence is to serve one purpose. That is to criticize the drama industry and the slop we sometimes receive. It wants to spur writing that respects the characters that scripts create and the audience that watches them. It also revels in the very same tropes it seeks to critique….
Morally grey ML's with tragic backstories?
check.
FL whose IQ fluctuates wildly over the course of the show?
check.
Sudden plot twists that only exist to fill time?
check, check, check.
It does all that and even more, unabashedly… And I still had fun watching it. It just does a great job of keeping you engaged. Either you're invested or you're laughing your butt off.
You can tell they put a lot of money into this john… Soo many fancy sets I've never seen before and the costumes were pretty good, out of place…. but good.
I think this drama being satire REALLY does a lot to help you dismiss most of the flaws.
The characters are lovable and have a great amount of growth for most of them. The cast did an amazing job bringing them to life. ( I was talking mad shi about Liu Yuning…. but he ain't bad at all, hoping I can watch a costume drama of his where he doesn't purposefully hurt a woman someday… I can only watch him choke a woman soooo many times….)
Humor is the greatest highlight, this show is really freaking funny.
I think the music was a tad overbearing… but it wasn't the worst.
Chemistry between the couple could have been better, but it wasn't bad, they were cute af, I just wasn't feeling any passion in most couple scenes.
Loved the details you pay attention to, ultimately do pay off and satisfy your expectations.
There were also genuine moments of deep insight into a character's mind and issues… that was nice.
I can't bully something that was never serious… It's fun and it never really takes itself seriously and it doesn't expect you to either. I'm definitely gonna rewatch someday.
PS. Liu Yuning is now on the same level as Cheng Yi is the beautiful suffering club. Bro spends the entire show getting blasted and he takes it like a champ. Hilarious
7.5 - 8 /10 no drama
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Baby's first costume C-drama
Okay so like most dramas, I would say this show is able to just barely pass on most of the basic criteria.
The costumes were okay, the music was okay, the plot was okay. Everything was JUST FINE for the most part. Truly MID at times.
I really liked the 2nd lead couple out of the three, they were the only ones who I was really invested in. The main leads were too dumb for me and the 3rd couple was boring to watch.
I also liked the action direction, the fights were very well thought out and creative for what the drama had to work with.
The things that bothered me:
This drama employs forced marriage to further the plot and once the main leads do get married, they both get REALLY DUMB. ( like mess up plans that are of NATIONAL importance because of stupid jealousy tropes.)
Bro we get it, you love your wife, put the fries in the bag.
Too many comedic scenes that were unfunny and out of place.
Lack of communication which leads to dumb misunderstandings that are resolved basically immediately. This show will look you in the eye and WASTE YOUR TIME.
The arcs are too long and take forever to resolve.
FL is supposed to be important but they forget about her having a brain until basically the final arc. (it disappears whenever her husband is in the room.)
The plot relies on the villains being incompetent.
Everything is tied up so abruptly, and it's REALLY predictable.
The editing is abysmal, too many cuts and strange decisions. You'll be watching the most serious reveal and the editing looks like a YTP meme. Insane.
It was better than I expected, and I remember having some very deep thoughts about the plot and the characters… but I've forgotten everything now. I think that sums up my feelings on the entire show. It could have been great with some deeper, more creative writing, a bigger budget and a longer runtime.
Good watch to fill time, but don't expect a diamond in the rough.
This show watches like it was made for babies, it's not offensive though.
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I liked it?
This show tries to tackle the academic hardships of Korean teens.... but then it gets bogged up in a crazy plot that involves drug deals, pedophilia, smuggling contraband in your guts and MORE.The longer it went on the more focus it lost. also it was supposed to be GL but I would have liked it to be a little more gay???
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Here's the good stuff.
Here's the good stuff.I'm writing two separate reviews for both parts and this will be just for the second half In the name of Blossom.
Before we get into anything negative, I want to praise this show for many aspects that I wholeheartedly enjoyed. The cinematography was amazing, there was never a single scene in this show that looked ugly. So many shots from both parts that actually gave me goosebumps on multiple occasions. I really liked the production value, hardly ever did the show have cheap, disposable looking sets or props. You could tell a lot of money and effort went into how this show looks and feels, the production team was most certainly on point. The music was great as well! So many memorable tracks that fit the scenes perfectly. Another positive call out was for the cast. This is the best I have ever seen from Yang Zi! It's so refreshing to see her break out of the comedic scamp role. She's very mature and arresting in this drama. Our ML is played by Li Xian who proves to you once again that he has range, his character hides a double identity for certain reasons. It's amusing to see him flip that switch over the course of this series. The main leads had excellent chemistry, and were so amazing to watch together. The first half of this show really sold me on this couple and I really wanted to see them make it work. I also enjoyed the depiction of the women in this show. In a patriarchal society, it can be very difficult for a woman to find her way in life, even in modern days… Seeing such varied women with their own problems to overcome was also satisfying. In most dramas women are pitted against each other and barely ever understand how one another might be feeling. This show has a female lead who recognizes the difficulties any woman faces regardless of class or social status.
My main issue with FP (part 1) was how repetitive and boring a lot of the scenes are. It was frustrating to be halfway through the drama and our leads are dealing with some really basic issues.
ITNOB completely turns that on its head, it's romantic, exciting and heartbreaking from beginning to end! The conflicts really get turned up and its so satisfying to see our female lead FINALLY operating on a higher level. Yang Zi was the MVP of this story and I loved it. Great watch!
I would only rewatch SOME of part 1 but I would absolutely demolish a rewatch of part 2.
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