Looked promising with unconventional themes but ended ridiculous for the main couple

At first, it looked promising with many characters with their different level of maturity, with their feelings, their struggles, the different type of relationship they are in. Some of them wished their relationship were another kind of relationship. I had sympathy for them trying to move to something better, more in adequation with how they really feel. But halfway, the story becomes draggy and ends up rushed giving unsatisfactory conclusions.

In the end, the love stories are:

- uninteresting: the quiet guy and the sex freak : They get drunk, have sex, secretely date, break up because she wants to sleep with other guys, then they start dating again. Did she change her nymphomaniac ways. No idea.

- half baked : the two girls best friends trying to sort their true feelings for each other. It drags for so long then it is resolved overnight and nobody knows how.

- common : the two roomates working together and did not noticed how cute the other was. These two were cute but they amounted for so little in the screentime.

- last and the worst: our main couple. Made of a sneaky manipulative guy and a woman who falls in love with a guy she knows nothing about but she craves to bang him. Then she seems deeply struggling with the situation because he is not sincere and he is making her living an emotional mess. In the end, after dragging for 3-4 episodes, in one episode, the writer manages to force down our throat that the guy was always in love with her since the very beginning when she did not know him yet. Tada! All the games of pull and push, kiss another girl in front of you, the no string attached, friends with benefits, the planned misunderstandings, the butterflies, the going to her place to piss the rival off... suddenly have no meaning and no importance at all. He loved her. Of course.

This drama managed to lead me on and have sympathy for most of the characters. But in the end, it did not live up the expectations I had. I found the redemption of the main guy badly done with plenty of deus ex machina things to close the drama in a common nice but totally unlikely ending that I can't buy.

The drama was a real let down for me and I would not recommend it.

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Watch this at your own expense

STORY :

1 / THE QING Dynasty era:

This part of the drama has the most horrible and outrageous plotline I have seen in a while. It will present you with:

- a man who kills his godson and is never troubled because of it
- a man who uses the corpse of his victim like an accessory to frame other people
- a man who schemes plenty of plans to harm his brother but he gets away with it because he just misunderstood the situation
- a man who pays a thug to break someone's arm and he is never troubled about it even by his godson who knows the truth
- a man who knows all the crimes his godfather did against his brother but he would not do anything to help the brother out of jealousy but still call him his brother.
- a princess who is forced to marry at gunpoint on the head of her father but the husband does not sleep with her because she is not his "kind of woman". Of course. Like a pig would not eat jam.
....

Plenty of cranky farfetched unrealistic situations with iffy morals and messages like "I caused you to die but sorry for the misunderstanding and justice is not necessary as we are family".

Is this supposed to be entertaining? It is not. It is BS.

2/ THE REPUBLICAN era:

The drama becomes a lot better.

- The FL disappears as the plot is only centered on the ML
- The ML discover a new city (Shanghai), new people, new challenges. He starts to build his career and success.
- The Republican era is a time of change so the drama is richer of ideas and events
- The directing is better with nice slow mo
- The plotline is crafted with a good twist
- Then back to Beijing , back to family dumb misunderstandings
- FL appears again. Her story is quite sad.

3 / FIGHT VS JAPANESE

The usual great patriotic courageous Chinese brothers vs. the evil monstrous Japanese who kill innocent people just to bully and coerce and achieve their goal. Grotesque ending to give the bad guy his redemption when we have barely a glimpse at the main leads happy ending.

CHARACTER :
- Kang Ning : beautiful and smart and courageous, the writing of her character turned ludicrous and made her a props for 2/3rd of the drama
- Lu Yuan Zhi : idiot guy who improved himself as a great tailor but his personality is bland always trying to save his love and help his brother who constantly creates troubles for him.
- Jiang Mo Sheng : Terrible brother insecure and jealous. Does plenty of mistakes but accuses the others.
- Zhao Li Jun: Fun endearing and a fighter. I liked her.
- Su Pei Yao : Spoiled daughter
- Bai He Nian : Guy should have died sooner for the sake of his family.
- Guo Fei Yu : started a fool but had a good character development. Good guy.

OST:
Nothing special

REWATCH:
No. Packed with outrageous schemes. Nothing really enjoyable.

OVERALL : This drama is well produced with great costumes, places, props, many characters... It is too bad it drowned itself in family schemes and misunderstanding to promote usual family values and forgiveness and redemption blabla. The story is also amoral : the person who kills his Godson is never accountable but lives free. Also the endings of the master of Si He house and the bad brother are quite ridiculous.

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Nice little JP drama

I watched this because I was bored and I wanted something to fill the time. I usually never watch Japanese "costume" drama.

WHAT I LIKED:
- The main girl : I loved how her story with her own family was told. Very short, very simple, going to the essential. I also liked her character and demeanor and her dedication to her work, the family she works for, the mistress and the master, how she found the courage to go through the hardships for the kids and her master. I love her will to find a way to fight the evil guy but also how she pitied him and how she finally find the right path to follow.
- The poetic and folktale side of the story which tells about a vengeance but moreover about a girl who finds her own path after her family was destroyed and she finds people along the way to help her.
- Her feelings for the master. They are very few development regarding this side of the story (just some words) but I could see she admired her master and that the duty she took from the mistress on her death bed and all the things she went trhough made her love the kids and their father and accept in the end to stay with them.
- The secondary characters: the mistress, the swordmaster, the thug, the owner of the pawn shop, the uncle and cousin. Plenty of nice characters acting in support of our heroine. The two kids were adorable.

WHAT I DID NOT LIKE:
- The master of the house she works for. I liked him as a person (a good husband and father)and as someone trying to improve his clan. Anyway at some points, he disappointed me a little because he took a position against his own values. I totally understand it as was to save the lives of his loved ones but still, I thought he was too much of a victim and his proactive part was too small.

OVERALL: A short and nice drama to watch like a folktale. 7 eps of 45 mns only. I totally recommend it.

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This drama is one of my favorite drama. I watched it a long time ago already but writing a review now to give it justice.

STORY:
I believe this is one of the most balanced and entertaining costume drama I have watched. It has a lot of themes and lots of characters and plots and sub plots which I think perfectly found their place with the right importance. Starting from the beginning, there is a lot of funny situtions and when the main girl is the target of many other people and often at risk, she is always saved in an unexpected fun manner. The last part where the action takes a new step and the evil ones must be defeated, it is a little less fun as expected but the drama kept being entertaining.

CAST/CHARACTERS:
One of the main quality of the drama is its numerous characters and their importance. What the drama managed to do is to built a nice structure of relationships between these characters to make eveything consistent and enjoyable.

- The main couple the Crown Prince/ the girl Eunuch were so great. In fact, KYJ and PBG new faces and their chemistry brought a lot of fun and freshness to this drama. Their interactions are so fun from the beginning to the end. KYJ and PBG gained a lot of fame with this drama and it was completely deserved as they were a super adorable couple. One little critic will be that the Crown Prince never looked really endangered but he is the Crown Prince after all.
- JJY as the rival and former friend of the Crown Prince was a great character too. He belonged to the family of the enemy and he was the rival in love but he managed to be subtle and faithful to himself and his principles. I really liked him.
- I liked KDY too as the bodyguard of the Crown Prince. The friendship between him and the Crown Prince and the Eunuch was great to watch. He had a major role and his situation was complex. He had a lot of activity and ended siding with the ones he cared the most for. I liked the actor. Not a first rank actor but he proved afterwards he has good acting skills.
- Chae Soo Bin was there too even if I did not know her at that time. They did not make her an awfull rival of the main girl. She was a gentle, lovely but also smart and helpful. I liked the amount of screen she had and how she was honest with the Prince and Ra On.
- Princess Myun Geun was fun changing to an obese princess in love with a stranger to a resolute princess meeting that same man in the palace. This couple was a great comic relief.
- Plenty of other interesting characters who contributed the right amont of fun or suspense: The little princess, the chief of Eunuchs, the parents, the colleagues Eunuch...

MUSIC:
I liked the OST very much specially two of three songs which made this drama memorable. I am still listening to these songs years after.

REWATCH VALUE:
I don't watch everything but when I want to rewatch the best scenes, I am surprised I watch a lot of scenes.

OVERALL:
A good drama and for me, one of the most entertaining. It does use many tropes and clichés of dramas but it is inventive and fun and the great chemistry among the main protagonists make it believable. It talks about many things: cross dressing, one sided love, gay love, bromance, obesity, freewill, sacrifice in a fluffy manner and overall the drama shows a coherent and entertaining story.

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STORY:

This drama had plenty of possibilities to be entertaining an unforgettable. But it did not lived up the expectations. It was too messy trying to handle too many characters and too many events including details some very important some completely useless. The writer spent the first part of the drama placing all these elements little by little like Lee Lim placing his pieces of chess where all this led? Nowhere. When the action arrived and the characters started to take place in the plot, the drama seemed to take its momentum but it kept being erratic and when the final had to be delivered, there was not enough time to properly wrap up. The writer just scribbled a terrible ending by sending everyone in a maelstrom of time travelling completely absurd but with happy ending for almost everyone. But everyone are not the same ones of course since everything changed. What a silly way of ending a drama. I don't even mention the romance totally forced and not natural. Them ending as time and space travelers until they get old is a joke. They are scientists? They try to correct events? The purpose is to go drink tea? Nonsense ending.

ACTING / CHARACTERS :

- Lee Gon was just too perfect to be sympathetic or credible. The guy could do every good thing (calculating, cooking, rowing, beating, shooting, riding...) or bad thing (order suicide, executing unarmed people, slaying people out of rage, beheading people) all this without being held accountable. How 2020 Lee Gon version 2 doesn't meet 2020 Lee Gon version 1 who came to save Lee Gon as kid? How he did not vanished if Nothing happened in ROK? The way LMH portrayed him was annoying, boring, usual LMH work.

- Tael Eul was interesting at first when she was a cop and she was working on cases and then she become infatuated to the King God knows how and when or where. Then it is only about them missing each other and finding each other. She is a police officer but when Lee Gon slayed people with his sword for free she did not even blink an eye. Inconsistent writing. KGE did a decent job but no sparkles with her co star.

- Luna: what happens to her in the ROK? She just dies like that? She never happened? KGE was better in this role

- Lee Lim : He scarcely appeared, looked so mean but without clear motivations but ended up killed by his younger self in 1994 but he appears again anyway in 2020?? (terrible plot hole) . He vanishes in the twilight zone with his clothes but not his watch which turns counter clockwise because it looks nice this way... Lee Jung Jin wasted his time in this drama.

- Jo Young : No character development for him. He is just a bodyguard. If we assume he survived his travel in 1994 the Myung Seung Ah he meets back in KOC is not even the one he met at the beginning of the story. That scene in the corridor has no backstory.

- Eun Sub : a simple comic relief.

- Shin Jae: most complex and interesting character but what is the end for him? He hugs his mom and that's it? If He never happened in ROK, Lee Gon also never happened and Jo Yeoung as well. These two should have vanished like Lee Lim.

- Prime Minister: Starts a capable strong female who chases Lee Gon but she ends up a divorcee?? who falls from grace before her connections with Lee Lim are even explained.

- Nari / Myung Seung Ah : I am divided between "they were wasted" or "they were useless"

- The woman who is pregnant in KOC and gets swapped in ROK. For what? Just being beaten by her husband? Another plot hole and useless writing.

MUSIC:

I spent my time trying hard to find the logic of the events and characters so no time to notice the music. No song catched my attention.

REWATCH: Never.

OVERALL: This drama is a waste of talent and a waste of time. If you like beautiful and handsome actors showing their best side to the camera, you can try it. If you look for a good, well written and entertaining story, you shall pass. This drama tells you a draggy messy improbable story of some people and events and it ends up telling you "tricked! It never happened...". But how it never happened if it happened for it to never happen. Stupid writing. Stupid drama.

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A good drama about finding success and finding love.

STORY:

1) The journey to success:
A group of people in their twenties enter the world of start ups. They use their talent, their personality, their friendship and commitment to fight battles that they win sometimes and loose the other times. It takes them through highs and lows, helps them form or improve personal and professional bounds between them. Mishandled situations by themselves and their mentor separate them but they will be reunited again to find success together.

This business oriented plotline is instilled and developed secondary to the romance plotline. Still it was nice and enjoyable despite the fact that the business ideas developed are no innovations. They already exists in reality. Also the mentoring part was not properly done. The idea of mentoring engineers and coding specialits and CEO like yelling at a dishwasher of a restaurant who slacked is just grotesque. But if we accept that, the story stands.

2) The journey of love and lies:
A grandma schemes a plan to lie to comfort her 12yo granddaughter who is left alone. Grandma and a 19yo highschooler play fake pen friend using the name and identity of another kid her age. It has been decided by Destiny. It will be the long journey of these two of a same age finding each other despite the lies and deception.

The love story turns into a toxic situation when adult Han Ji Pyeong the writer of the letters starts to take a liking for Dal Mi and he stops at no means to undermine Do San and tries to make himself look like the real fated lover of Dal Mi. Of course she doesn't care about it but the fake love triangle lasts until ep 15. I found it was too long. But for the main couple, the love story is very natural and realistic. They looked very good together.


CHARACTERS/ACTORS:
- Dal Mi / Bae Suzy: She is the common thread. The anchor point of most of the other characters. She is a nice girl but also outspoken, rebellious, down to earth, motivated and persevering. She is fighter and a leader. I liked her personality and I liked the fact that she faced all her challenges bluntly by believing in herself and in her choices. I have seen 5 dramas with Suzy. This is her best performance for me. She was convincing all the time when she had to be professional or very emotional.

- Nam Do San / Nam Joo Hyuk : He is a bit timid, not confident, not assertive enough but he is a very nice person. He cares for others and has a lot of empathy. Maybe too much. He is people oriented. People are what makes him give his best. His growth is real but not a twist. It is even more credible. First time seeing Nam Joo Hyuk in a lead role. I found him excellent with a range of emotions larger than common actors in Kdrama. His portrayal of an over sensitive Do San but caring of others was great.

- Han Ji Pyeong / Kim Seon Ho : An orphan full of flaws that he turned as his advantage to become a self made man. He is rude, cold, inconsiderate, nagging, bullying and scheming but also knowledgeable, good natured, sometimes goofy. He has a good heart deep inside and a lot of emotions but he doesn't show it. It is his loss.

- Won In Jae / Kang Han Na: A cold older sister but a resolute an ambitious woman who will stick at her choices and prove herself by all means even if it hurts people around her. She has family values deep inside and it will help her slow path to reconciliation. First time seeing Kang Han Na. She was pretty good in that role.

- Grandmother / Kim Hae Sook : A good hearted and caring grandmother who tries her best to help and comfort her granddaughter and young Ji Pyeong but she does not always uses the best mean. Lying is not a good way. Anyway she did her best and it turned out to be effective. She is a warm and loving person. I was sad about how things turned for her with her health but she was always a positive person. Kim Hae Sook great like most usual suspects in Kdrama.

- Yong San and Chul San : The two others of the Three Stooges of the beginning. They are nerds but they have great interactions to bring fun to the drama. I liked Yong San personal story which was no big deal in the drama but contributed to a key moment of the story. Chul San was super annoying at times but ended quite a good guy.

- Sa Ha: Perfect woman with the perfect face and perfect body and perfect education and high standards and a prickly appearance but in fact she is just a nice girl with a romantic side. Did not know that actress Stephanie Lee before but I will be glad to see her again in another drama.

Others Characters brought their share of fun to this drama:

- Do San parents : great comic relief. They really love their kid but also are too demanding especially the father. I liked the mom and her predictions a lot.
- The cousin : Most epic moment in the drama thanks to him.
- Yoon Seon Hak CEO SH Venture Capital : Liked her 15 years earlier as a fair and professional boss and 15 years after, looking for the girl on the swing.
- Dal Mi' s mom: Super annoying at first but life teaches her a lesson. She will finally make good deeds. I liked her evolution.
- Park Dong Chun (Ji Pyung's junior): always bounced here and there by his boss but he was fun despite little screen time.
- Alex Kwon : A very competent guy and professional with his own agenda. Not a good guy. Not a bad guy. But he does his job and gives you smiles.
- Jang Yeong Shil / Yeo Jin Goo : Funny AI which can't tell the weather properly but gives tips to humans about life.

MUSIC:
It enhanced greatly the sad moments, successful moments, the nostalgic moments.. Overall it was very good.

REWATCH VALUE:
I would rewatch it to look into the details see if I missed something. Find hidden Easter eggs maybe. Too recent for me to think about rewatching but after some time yes I think it is something I would gladly rewatch.

OVERALL: Not a perfect drama because the SML was too annoying and nagging and scheming for too long without having his own arc in the narration to beef him up so that people can adhere to him. Not only to his smile and dimples and as a sad orphan . But as a real good person deep inside and a competent team leader/director. Overall it is an enjoyable drama.


ADVICES IF YOU DECIDE TO WATCH THIS DRAMA:

- Do not fall for ep1 which makes you see the SML as the most adorable person and pitiful orphan and worthy of your sympathy and he must absolutely be the ML of the drama because destiny chose him. He is not. Destiny is going to play an ugly trick on him.
- Every episode, do not focus on one character or one couple. Put yourself in the shoes of every main characters. This drama is about people. Live things like you are at their place. Do not assume what they should understand or do because you as the viewer you know.
- Pay attention to the connexions and interactions between the people. They are as important as the people themselves.
- Pay attention to the details of what is showed. What people say their words but also what emotion their face expresses .

It is demanding but it will help you understand the real intentions and story of this drama.

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Ambitious fantasy kdrama which delivers

1/ STORY: Let's be honest, this drama is more a romance drama rather than a fantasy action drama. It is the story of two persons who have opposite backgrounds and they form an alliance to reach their own respective goal but they start to develop feelings for each other while they are embroiled in a conspiracy.

1.1/ The conspiracy (SPOILERS):
200 years ago, the power of the sky materialized into a stone that brought the ability for humans to shift soul, switch bodies, absorb the energy of souls or even bring back the dead to life by summoning his soul back. These spells called "Alchemy of Souls" created chaos since one mage used them for the first time. The chaos was then solved by a Master who had the power to destroy the stone but did not.

200 years after, an elite assassin is chasing and killing mages who have banned the Alchemy of Soul. But among them, conspirators are using the forbidden spells for their own specific objective.

The conspiracy is not complex but it is not explained in the clearest way. It is unveiled bit by bit through different events and characters like the pieces of a puzzle which slowly unveils the picture. It is not easy to handle as many elements are important but they need to be understood and "digested" quickly. It needs attention and this was sometime prejudicial to how I enjoyed the story. Plus the conspiracy is unveiled and "resolved" slowly over 20 episodes.

1.2/ The romance:
The elite assassin is forced into soul shifting to save herself an ends up in the body of a weak girl and she looses her powers. She is taken as a maid in a family of mages where the rogue son is trying to become the most powerful mage. He takes her as his master to train him. But slowly romance starts to develop between a guy who is very focused and plain on what he wants and who he likes and a young woman former assassin who tries to do her part of the deal but slowly falls for her pupil as she navigates between the blurred lines of caring as a master and caring as a lover. Their story is really cute with emotions and good action when they need to protect each other. In the end ... they can finally live happily ever after. Nope. It's a joke. But the way the two of them slowly come together as an item was nice.

Beside this, there are some sub romances and plenty of love triangles. They are rather cute and not annoying. The side couples have cute scenes and cute stories. The love triangles are not too intense, not confusing for the leads or for the viewers. In fact, they mainly underline the background and personalities of the characters rather than they create angst or opposition or dirty rivalry.

All these romances and love triangles accounts for a huge part of the drama to the point it feels like a romance drama but it is not annoying because most characters involved are good people who are endearing and I could not throw stones at them.

2/ CHARACTERS - ACTORS:
- Jang Uk: a lout with a sad background story but he is a fun person, a good and loyal friend, He keeps his cool demeanor and manages to develop his powers but he also has to face difficult choices. I liked the character. Lee Jae Wook perfect.
- Mudeok : Naksu in the body of a maid. I liked her evolution from cold blooded assassin to smart maid doing her best to improve her pupil and fighting her own feelings. She is scheming and strong but also really fun to watch. Jung So Min nailed the role.
- Supporting leads: Yul, Dong Gu, Cho Yeon : All form a nice company of friends with their qualities and flaws. Underused at times but important in the build up of the story especially towards the end.
- Supporting characters: Park Jin, Master Lee, Maidservant Kim, Master Heo: Good hearted and caring for the leads and friends. I like their personality, actions and the funny moments they delivered.
- Other likeable characters: Crown Prince, a man of his duty and position, benevolent but can be ruthless. Heo Yoon Ok, nice niece, helpful and understanding. Joo Wol intelligence service, a good friend and helpful hand
- Annoying character: The big evil guy. His schemes are bigger than he is impressing himself. At times he looked lost and funny but overall does the job as the villain. Mama Jin weak mum who redeems herself. Papa Jin also in a different way. Jang Kang unworthy father who goes wandering around the world and comes back home not wiser. So-i, terrible person but necessary evil.

3/ OST: Very good.

4/ REWACH VALUE: 20 eps is very long and the story unfolds slowly due to many cute fun moments of humor. Rewatchable it you have time.

5/ OVERALL: Honestly I expected more action and fantasy and I was served more romance and love triangles. Still I am not disappointed. I enjoyed the story the conspiration and the romances and the characters that I found interesting and endearing and fun. Of course, it is no secret this is a part I. I thought the ending was very good with great pace to build-up the climax and deliver the intense final. It sets up perfectly the part II which will probably have a different tone. Very enjoyable drama if you take time to assimilate the details of the plot and if you like cute fun characters. 10/10.

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This is dog poo

Never watched the original story so I thought this was an engaging plot with lot of potential. In the end, there is a few good thing and huge bad bad things.

1/ STORY
Romance part: The cause of the pregnancy is convoluted but the evolution of the story is interesting. It was a good and understandable progression considering the personalities of the three characters involved. The story of the original couple SML and FL drifting apart and breaking up was well presented. The part of the FL and ML getting closer was badly told and even totally unbelievable. And the end is.. omg... You would have wanted to mock your audience you would not have done anything different.

Thriller part: Very convoluted from start to ending. Chasing after a drug dealer, SML and the other cops go through events and clues which appears out of the blue. At the end, the writer gave the nice role to Kang Jae when he did wrong all that time... lol... of course.

2/ CHARACTERS / ACTORS:

Woori : Interesting character with a quiet personality and not confident. She is not assertive and let others take the lead professionally and in her couple. But pregnancy makes her take decisions and evolve to become confident about her baby, her life and happiness and her job. And suddenly in the end .. taddah!!! I owned you.

Raphael : Allegedly grew without loving parents and cured from a cancer so he is a very human guy who cares about family and wants to build his own. There was a wrong characterization of him as the writer put most of the goofy and silly tone on him when he was the ML. He appeared very inconsistent, not likeable and the actor was too wooden face to make him endearing.

Kang Jae: Not the right guy for Woori but strangely the most wholesome guy of the drama. From start to finish, he is himself: selfish, self-centered, workaholic, reckless … he does plenty of bs but in the end taddah! He is now the greatest guy ever because suddenly the writer gave him a great Deus Ex Machina background story out of the blue.. Poor guy was raised by not his father... OF COURSE!!!.

Ma Ri: Silly daughter who is an accomplice of a bigger schemer to con other people but finally has a conscience and saves herself. The most interesting character in the end who ultimately did right. I love her.

Woori’s mom : super annoying
Woori’s dad : useless character
Woori’s colleague: She is fun and supportive.

3/ OST
OK, nothing specially out of place

4/ Rewatch value:
Zero.

5/ OVERALL:
A very good idea in the beginning but spoiled and wasted by terrible directing with bad editing, scenes badly cut, convoluted situations, uncontrolled misplaced goofy cartoonesque moments. ML’s actor was a bad choice of leading actor, or they asked from him what he could not do. SML was the worst and then in the end it is a miracle of the writer, he is the cream of crop because these stupid idiot writers understood how lame they turned the ML to be so they gave the big prize to the SML...

Seriously? This drama just mocked the audience. 1/10 because I could not give 0/10. Fck them.

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A good remake

WHAT I LIKE:

- The cute story : Two childhood lovers finding each other again in a complicated confused situation.
- The FL: She is not beautiful. She is not ugly. I liked that she was just neglecting herself as she had low confidence and she improved her looks to be committed to her work. It is not an ugly duckling turned into a swan. I like her hardworking personality which helps her become better in many aspects.
- The ML: He is cold but he is also nice and caring and funny at times. And he can smile.
- The SFL: She was a bit annoying in the confusion but I found her very human in how she did not managed well the situation.
- The pace of the drama: Everything happens quite fast. It is not draggy.
- The fun: There is quite a goofy tone to it. Mostly done by the acting. I am not sure it is intentional but in the company, they were all over reacting to echo to Sato Ai's goofy side. Even the ML .

WHAT I DID NOT LIKE:

- The SML: I found him too much of a rich spoiled kid working to kill the time and do pranks. He tried to woo a woman who is older than him in a very "teen" way. I found the final twist with him not very credible. He put a mask on and expected a woman to love him for who he is? Weird.
- The colleagues are support roles only. They don't have any depth. Only a few ones have a quick development in the last ep.
- The ending: too many use of time jump. It made the ending look rushed. Cute happy ending but kind of flat.

OST:
I liked it. It gave a punchy and fun vibe to the drama.

REWATCH VALUE: 8.

OVERALL: 8.5/10. It is a good drama to watch. The story is cute. The main leads are endearing as kids and adults. And it is fast paced. I watched and dropped the corean and chinese version. So I can only recommend this one.

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This drama is a very peculiar drama but it is satisfactory on every level

1/ What I liked:
- The peculiar narration of the drama. It felt very like a comic book or a manhwa with different chapters. Each one dedicated to a specific character or group of character and them all of them in the final.
- The characters: I loved the good guys but I also some of the bad guys. It is not about good ones and bad ones, but it is about humanity.
- The dual timeline between the story of the parents and the children and how they meet in the end.
- The action which is 50% of the time made of brutality but it is a very enjoyable brutality as it is not human but superhuman. Some scene are bloody and sometime gory bit still I enjoyed them as they were like fantasy and fun.
- The story overall is really interesting from the parents ‘one to the kids ‘one told in an unconventional manner.
- The fun. Some very good fun even in the saddest or most brutal moments. It is like not intented but still fun.


2/ What I liked less:
- ML's characterization to make him innocent was pushed too far. Made him look retarded and silly. I am glad in the end he progressed fast.
- Confusing timeline with flashbacks in the flashback.

3/ OST: Appropriate. Very gripping at times.

4/ Rewatch value
So fun. I will surely rewatch it or scenes of it.

5/OVERALL
Best drama I have watched in 2023 so far. 10/10. This drama has a really great story told in a very special and nice way with endearing and complex characters, very emotional moments involving love, friendship, family love, partnership, rivalry... insisting on the human side of people facing the brutality of the real evil ones. A MUST WATCH.

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Another disappointing drama from JCW and KYJ

STORY:

This is the story of a 19y.o girl who kisses a 26 y.o guy and 3 years later she goes to work at his convenience store to chase after him and finally he falls for her and they kiss... no they don't. It does not happen. In fact nothing really happens. There is no story. They just meet again, work together, have fun, support each other and in the last episode, she disappears for some dumb reason and he notices he misses her. Lucky him his friend found her by chance and he goes to fetch her but she asks for time and finally she comes back to the convenience store to work with him. Et voilà. The End. The story is as thin as a paper of cigarette.

CHARACTERS/CAST:

If not for the main cast, this drama would not even be noticed. The two main leads carry this drama on their shoulders and they are doing their best but it does not help if there is no story. There is no character development either. He is a simple naive kind guy working as a manager in a convenience store and in the end he stays the same. She is a reckless girl infatuated with her childhood crush who uses her fists and she stays the same. No professional evolution, no dream achieved, no success found, no change in their personality to be more mature or less naïve. Also there is no real romance between the two. They have fun and some cute moments but I never felt like they are a couple until the draggy ending then they accept each other but still... no couple's chemistry.

The interesting characters are the other ones:
- Fire Volcano a Rasta korean who draws webtoons and reveals himself to be a reliable friend, a cute lover and the son of a rich farmer.
- Cinderella, the friend of SB who admires Fire Volcano but doesn't know he is the guy she loathes.
These two are funny and their story is the cute and fun part of the drama. They live the real romance that never happens between DH And SB.
- The mother of DH: she is a great mother with the shortcomings of a mother who wants the best for her son.

Other characters are introduced but never developped properly:
- YJ is DH's gf and she cheats on him and they break up. Then she notices he is a nice guy. She spends the drama dithering about her feelings for DH and finally she flies abraod. A useless and annoying character on which the drama focuses for more than 10 episodes.
- JSJ the director of GS25 and love rival of DH for YJ, Eun Byul SB's sister, Puppy,.. at some point they just disappear and you never hear from them anymore.

MUSIC:
The music was decent and appropriate for the style of the drama butI am not fan of the OST.

REWATCH VALUE:
If I rewatch this, I will just rewatch the story of Fire Vocano and Cinderella : 30 minutes of the whole drama.

OVERALL:

The drama is a vehicle for JCW and KYJ to show their acting skills. Watching this drama I felt like watching the two actors portraying two characters in front of a camera and having fun doing it. I really wanted to like these two characters but they failed to be interesting and compelling because they didn't do and didn't say things that create the magic between them. In the end, the drama even broke the fourth wall by mentioning their own show as a show in the show and it showed the crew and filming set. It totally blew the credibility of the drama which did not need that.

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Entertaining enough

This is not the melodrama or the tragic love story I was expecting but it was entertaining.

STORY:

- First part : How ShiYi ends up the "student" of Zhou Sheng Chen and the time they spend together or far from each other. How they grow fond of each other. The part is cute and fun. They obviously have a huge age gap and different levels of maturity but it made it even more credible.

- Second part : ShiYi leaves for the Capital of the Center State to marry. The plots and schemes for power intensify and they are caught in the middle. That part looked the usual historical palace cdrama with its numerous characters and schemes. It was enjoyable as it was clear and fast paced, not too convoluted.

- Love story : It is not a Love story. These two were no lovers. Master and protégée, teacher and pupil, fatherly figure and god daughter maybe, friends and confidants... Instead, it is a story of untold feelings. I liked how their fidelity to their duty and their love for their people led them to their demise.

CHARACTERS / ACTORS:

- Zhou Sheng Chen : I liked the character. He is a great general but also very human and caring for people. He has a nice personality despite the fact that he almost never smile. He is a man of his word. His priority was always his duty even before ShiYi. He had affection and feelings for her but he keeps them buried inside as he must do. It is his role and his fate. Allen Ren is a good actor and I liked his portrayal of Zhou Sheng Chen

- Cui Shi Yi . At first I thought she was someone smart and a fighter but no. She is just a little bookworm smitten by a great hero's figure. She slowly develops feelings for him. But she is also a filial daughter and she agrees to marry for the sake of her family. I always had the feeling that her love was more made of admiration than real love as she was always calling him her master. Bai Lu is great as a strong female or as a nice weak protégée.

- Other characters were interesting. I liked General Hong and General Cui's story. This was the real love story. General Feng and the monk were cute together.

MUSIC:

It was good but one thing really annoyed me. Why they used so many songs to create a mood and atmosphere but the lyrics were louder than the dialogue at very important moments? That totally spoiled these moments for me.

REWATCH VALUE:

Maybe not but it does not mean it is not good.

OVERALL: 9. It is a good story. Not Romeo and Juliet but the two leads are cute and endearing. Both from their own side, they were really torn between their duty and their affection and feelings. Their ending is tragic as expected but it is well made for both of them to the point you will shed a tear for sure. The ending is well done and the story is nicely wrapped.

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Unbalanced and ending really not satisfactory

WHAT I LIKED:
- The main female lead Han Shi Yi. It takes some times to like her as for the first episodes her bahavior is quite questionnable as he is pretty rude. But you grow on liking her as she has a real backstory, she is intelligent and fun and behind the appearances, there is depth and complexity in her character.
- The main lead 5th prince: I really did not like his frozen smile on his face he has for the whole drama. Anyway his interactions with the FL were good and they had good chemistry. And the way he dealt with his rival/enemies showed him as a smart thoughtful and caring person for his girl anf for the people.
- The story: Another gender bender but this one is well made. The girl as a man looks like a man and as a woman she is beautiful. It gives credibility to the story and to the journey she lives from her arrival to the capital to the ending. It is fast paced and enjoyable.
- Wang Xi Yuan: she was annoying, funny, strong, dumb, genuine, pitiful sometimes. Overall she was a nice character.

WHAT I DID NOT LIKE:
- The rival in Love Wang Zhong Yu : basically he is a mom's son who can't oppose anything to his rotten father because he is a coward and too busy to be obssessed by his crush and writing plays while his dad is having people killed for his family's greatness.
- The quatuor of evil : The Empress/The Wang AnLi/the 5th prince's bother/The cousin : They have plenty of schemes but overall they were not very smart. They just shared the evilness.
- The ending : Han Shi Yi : towards the end when the final conflict it set in place, Han Shi Yi becomes a very weak and dumb charcater who looses all her guts, genius, intelligence, ability to question, her confidence in herself and in the one who helped her and who went through so much with her. Disappointing from her part.
- The endig: open ending. The drama ends in a way that cannot be called an open ending. Open ending means it announces rather good events to come. Here they just missed each other in the street and that's it. Very disappointing.

MUSIC: OK

REWATCH VALUE: No, although I liked the main couple and their adventures, the ending makes me unable to rewatch that.

OVERALL.
Could have been good. A 9/10 if not for these last very crappy episodes where the FL turns against the ML. I would have excused that if the final was good and it just left me thinking "what the ffffc ?".

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Such a long wait for such a poor result

STORY:

1) Business part: 7/10
Lei Yu Zheng deals with people who want to remove him of his position as CEO and take over his company. Their inside man manages to do the job and Lei Yu Zheng falls into disgrace. After some times in limbo, he recovers and find a way to fight back. The part is quite entertaining with good protagonists and schemes coherent with the world of business investment, without being too complicated. Fun A-team concept to fight the bad guys.

2) Romance part: 3/10
Nice part between Xiao Su, Zen Rong. Their meeting and their dating as a couple is cute. Yu Zheng appears caring and unbiased. Then Yu Zheng deals with Xiao Su after the tragedy. Their past together is unclear and don't justify their antagonism. Their confrontation is short lived for no reason. Yu Zheng just suddenly changes his attitude towards her in the most unexpected manner and it makes no sense. Them getting close seems forced with the usual tropes (bet, drunk, old story, I misunderstood you, using kids of course... ). Their relationship is made of push and pull and lack of communication that make no sense compared to what they do for each other. They have few moments together for a long time. Only in the end there is a little bit of spark between them.

3) Family part: 0/10
During the second half, the drama becomes dripping with good values, good morals, good people who behave nice with the parents, the elders, the friends, the wife, the sick one, the family.... bla bla bla... It is like the writer decided to lecture the audience with BS good moralization. And the worst in this, it is that to convince the audience, he is going to change some key characters' nature in a complete U-turn. Meh.

CHARACTERS:

- Lei Yu Zheng : the guy cold and business oriented who suddenly starts to woo his ex future sister in Law. Makes her his gf, then he hides everything to her in the name of Love. That tortures her but he comes to say sorry. Cool. Shawn Dou did quite well. Just that the character sucked as a boyfriend. He showed good comedic sense in the last part. Should do comedy drama.

- Du Xiao Su : I liked her evolution from daring girl totally in love to fighting and persevering working girl to independent business woman. The story with the younger brother (two best friends in fact) is credible as she idealized him too much and they got together too fast. Her story with the older bro would have been credible if it was not farfetched, out of the blue and became a torture for her and for the viewers. Li Qin did well portraying a kindhearted and hardworking character.

- Shao Zen Rong : Poor bad guy.
- Jiang Fan Lu : Poor spoiled daughter becomes the perfect wife.
- Zou Si Qi: Terrible friend and a gold digger who left her boyfriend to date a playboy in the face of her ex to be awarded with 1500 USD handbags.
- He Qun Fei: Poor guy who took back his gold digger gf because she is the only woman he ever had in his bed.
- Lin Xiang Yuan: super playboy and great buddy and sidekick for Lei Yu Zheng . My favorite.
- Liu Si Yang: One cool guy from the A-team.

In short, most of the secondary characters were either uninteresting or just annoying because they took a huge screen time when I could not care less about their life, their story or their moralizing speeches.

MUSIC:
OK overall but terribly bad during the long speeches about behaving to be nice with the parents, the elders, the friends, the wife, the sick one, the family.... bla bla bla.

REWATCH VALUE:
- 6/10 but it means : No.

OVERALL
- Waste of talent of Shawn Dou and Li Qin who looked a very cute couple on screen and they showed good acting skills for me. The romance was too poorly written full of clichés and usual tropes. No surprise. No sparks. I don't recommend with drama.

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An unexpectedly funny drama between romance, action and supernatural.

STORY:
The story is about a young woman who wants to escape an arranged marriage. She gets caught by a thief and gangster who is forced to marry her. It is very cliché and the reasons why he is forced is even worse: it is because the leader of the gangsters and dad of our thief wants to take revenge on the fiancé of our main girl. He is the cop who chases their band of thieves and looks for their hideout. Pretty unrealistic but who cares in a drama also full of supernatural? The truth is the drama is very funny and entertaining most of the time.

CHARACTERS / CAST:
- Pupa / Suer Pa (Pa) : I liked him as a gangster who is adopted by the leader of a gang of thieves who uses him to do dirty work and forces him to do anything but doesn't really care about him. He likes his other son better who is a moron but his real son. The main guy his a thief but he has principles and tries always to avoid harming innocents for some reasons. He was fun and caring for the girl and he also managed to develop complicity with her despite their unusual situation by using his charm, patience, humor... I thought the actor was excellent. Lots of presence and charm.
- Petch Nampeung: She is not the usual damzel in distres. A wild rebellious girl who dares to flee to escape a marriage with a police officer who likes her. She has a bright personality and she is a fighter. She is a bit dumb and reckless at times but she is also lovely. She is courageous too. I liked her because despite the problems she encounters, she keeps her bright attitude, her caring behavior for the people around her. Despite being lied by her so called thief husband, she gradually started to care for him and to fall for him. I liked the actress. She did a great job portraying this young but tenacious and sincere bright woman.
- Thep / Ploy Namkang: I did not like him at first because he was to often on the other side facing the main guy. Towards the end, they starts to understand each other and he becomes a bit better. The secondary romance he has with the FL's sister is nicely told. They meet and gradually start to like each other via events and dangers they meet.
- Suer Phan: The main bad guy. He was a really horrible person. Hitting and hurting and killing people for nothing and then talking about family and duty. I thought he was too vilain to the point of grotesque. When the supernatural part happens, he turn into some kind of crazy maleficent demon and dies. Too bad he escapes justice but ok, he had his kharma which punished him for the ones who believe in kharma. I don't
- The real son/ second evil: He was so stupidly mean. I hate his evil deeds killing innocents and raping people. He was a villain too dumb to survive.

MUSIC: I liked it even if I don't keep any song of the OST.

REWATCH: I would gladly rewatch some scenes. Specially the ones between the two leads who had a lot of chemistry together and they were so fun. Many scene where he is naked in front of her and the one when she dreams of looking for a gun and holding one when in reality she has her hand in the pants of our hero. I have never seen such a thing in a drama. lol. Lakorn are sure daring on this subject.

OVERALL:
A very fun and entertaining drama. Totally recomment this lakorn. I watched it as a newbie to thai dramaland I really liked it.

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