Peridot83
In the first half, the enemies to lovers plot is extremely satisfying. Hua Zhi and Gu Yan Xi are both earnest characters trying to do their best and find some happiness despite the emperor and fate standing in their way. There's also a lot of endearing scenes as the women of the Hua family band together and become resilient and independent.
But in the second half the plot grinds to a halt. The emperor is not suited for ruling during peace time, and there is no way he will forgive Hua's family. Of course, Hua Zhi and Gu Yan Xi would never rebel, so they just . . . wait for him to change his mind ??? If you were hoping for political intrigue and machinations, there are none to be found.
The acting overall is so-so (Gu Yan Xi needs a lot of music and effects to be intimidating), but the chemistry between the primary couple and the secondary couple both is excellent. I was cheering both couples on and it's the only reason I kept watching the show. The music is fairly good nothing here to really rewatch.
In the end, there is no complexity of themes or plots, but I appreciated the emphasis on women being independent, and I enjoyed the romantic chemistry.
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What if the gender roles were reversed in a Cinderella romance? Could the relationship survive or would the man feel too emasculated? Could he find a way to be a man while being the less powerful, less wealthy half?
The initial premise becomes weighed down with large scale conspiracies, sickly sweet morals about the 'common people,' and lots of sickness/death wish fulfilment. Ultimately, the show is completely unrealistic, full on daytime soap level drama, but with extremely slow pacing.
The two actors have little chemistry, the music is just OK, and besides one scene early on where our male lead rescues the female lead, there's nothing here I would rewatch.
This is one of the most popular KDramas, with prestige actors, and so I've been trying to suffer through but I can't anymore . . . I'm dropping.
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This review may contain spoilers
An admirable effort to make the modern case for love and relationships . . .Men - they can be worth it maybe? This series following the Chu parents and their 3 children as they navigate modern love and romance. All 4 relationships are given roughly equivalent screentime. The majority of the episodes are devoted to establishing all the ways relationships in our era go wrong and all the ways we can engage (or not engage) in sex. Just as you are about to despair that all the relationships are trash, the series turns a corner; it's worth watching all the way through.
Note: The cheating, abuse etc. all turn out to be 'misunderstandings.' I though that was a cheap resolution. The abuse storyline, especially should not have been 'don't judge what you don't understand.' Surely the child of an abusive relationship has some insight on to whether or not his father treats his mother appropriately beyond walking in on them one time?
The acting is great to the point where you feel like you are watching a documentary instead of a fictional series. I also thought a lot of the sex scenes were well done. The music was excellent and set the tones/moods of each episode. Cinematically and production wise it was competent with a few sublime moments.
All in all, I'm glad I watched this. It's very different from your normal drama fare, but I wish the payoff was a bit better towards the end.
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When 'Demon' doctor Tendou Kairi is about to be too overbearing, and callous for words, he all of a sudden does or says something incredibly romantic, kind or protective. This addictive formula creates an enjoyable 10 episode series. There is a lot of screen time between the leads, creating emotional and physical chemistry. This romance was fully fleshed out compared to series double the length.
Yes, there is a large age gap (I'm guessing about 10 years), a power dynamics issue (he's one of the lead doctors in her department, and whilst she is technically managed by the head nurse, he has a lot of power over her workload), and an experience issue (he has romantic and sexual relationship experience, she does not). But, I actually never felt like a boundary was crossed in practice. He never removed her from work or put her on work based on their romantic relationship, jealousies etc., he didn't pressure her into sex.
In the end, you get to feel the vicarious thrill of your first romance being the best romance with a man you think is attractive, competent, wealthy and powerful, and willing to change and give it all up for you. It's exactly what an old-school shoujo should do, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
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(Rurouni Kenshin is one of my favorite mangas.)
A faithful, thrilling rendition of the best scenes of the manga/anime, this string of moments is awe inspiring to watch. The strong themes on life after trauma - paired with thrilling action, compelling romance, and beautiful visuals is hard to beat.
If I had one nitpick, the manga is written by a man, but the story has fully developed women characters and themes, separate and apart from the 'villain of the week.' Yet here, the women become side characters, and strangely, the villains have lots of screen time. There was no need to overload the drama with these disturbing scenes, given the series already struggles to honor the large number of characters included in the manga.
Watching the live action Kenshin reconcile his past, and take a step into a better future with Kaoru and our gang showing him the way, is a rewarding, touching, even sublime experience. When I ended this series, I was incredibly sad to say goodbye to this universe.
It's the greatest compliment I can give when I say I wish there was more . . .
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The romance here is great. Forbidden love through lifetimes, epic protectiveness, jealousy and misunderstandings. The acting also rises above - to no surprise. I'm a big fan of 3 of the main actors Zhao Lu Si, I've followed since 'The Romance of Tiger and Rose', Wang An Yu starred in one of my favorite modern romances 'Falling Into You' and I thought Li Yun Ri stole the show in 'Love Like the Galaxy. '
Why then drop? The plot is a mess with too much screen time spent on petty villains and lots of wasted time with our main characters not sharing screen time. The CGI, production and costumes are all lacklustre.
As time went on, I started not just distractedly watching, but actively skipping to scenes with the three main actors mentioned above. Once I realised I was skipping 50% of each episode I decided it was time to stop.
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Let's start with the good: 1) High production values, great costume design, attractive actors 2) Our immortal character is a more immature Puck/Peter Pan and loses his powers first episode - making this a more relationship of equals than other dramas.
Otherwise, this is just a bunch of ideas thrown into a script, with unfortunately little chemistry between the actors, little depth of character development or themes, and of course the ever-present serial killer storyline. There is no redemption to be found in the secondary characters or plots and the jokes/humor heavy handed.
This is a pitch or story concept with the director and writers desperately trying to stretch this out over 16 long episodes. At one point in the story, our main male lead gives a review 'boring all the way to the end.' I couldn't agree more.
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Everyone is a suspect in this spy thriller of a drama. The twists and turns keep it engaging. As with many dramas, it starts slowing down in the last 1/3, and gets too complicated for its own good. But, it's genuinely unique and striking and worth the watch despite this.
The romances and character development are a weak point. Love is declared not shown, plus the good guys being mostly men and the spies being mostly women is a weird decision that makes all the romances feel a bit similar. Because there is so much action, also the characters are fairly thin and not fully fleshed out.
The writers leave space for there to be a Season 2/Part 2 to this drama, but I don't know if I will stick around for it. I really like character and theme driven dramas. This is beautiful, with a lot of suspense, but ultimately does not say much . .
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This drama kicks off with a lot to recommend: the beginning love story is sweet, and our FL Park Yun Woo is endearing and funny as she navigates the modern world. But, trying to fill 12 episodes with this wears thin, and attempts to complicate the plot fall flat. On top of that, having the ML Kang Tae Ha a 30+ yr old man be even more bumbling and inept at romance than the FL from the Joseon era, just becomes frustrating and the chemistry fizzles. The secondary romance is worse: immature and condescending towards working class people.
The only real mystery that kept me watching is why the grandfather figure was so up and down: friendly and supportive one moment, and sinister and murderous the next, but I wasn't so curious to suffer through to the end of this.
One highlight!: Yoo Sun Ho as Kang Tae Min was a delightful surprise. Fun, charismatic, a bad boy with a bit of a conscience. I enjoyed his character a lot.
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This review may contain spoilers
The most toxic of romances . . . This drama's addictive qualities, and thrilling action scenes, do not matter, because the main romance is unbelievably toxic and romanticizes the most dangerous of red flags. It's as if the script writers went down the list of 'high risk factors' for murder suicide relationships :
1) Suicide threats and knives: Xie Wie takes a knife puts it into Ning'er-'s hand and invites her to stab him. This you, or I , or both of us attitude where the abuser takes a knife and points it at the other person, then at themselves, then starts screaming 'fine just do it, kill me, kill us' is usually the last step before the end. The show portrays this as showing intense love instead of an intense nihilism.
2) Strangulation and grabbing by the throat: Xie Wie repeatedly grabs Ning'er by the throat in order to force her to do something she doesn't want to do - including grabbing her by the throat and then kissing her. Strangulation and choking threats are huge red flags, mainly because it is a very vulnerable area to attack and often leads to brain injury. Strangulation/choking/non consensual breath play to initiate or coerce sex is often a sign of the same intense nihilism.
3) Drug use: Xie Wie has been using a highly damaging performance enhancing drug to make up for health issues stemming from his trauma. His friends have been trying to get him to stop, but they and Xie Wie insist that only Ning'er's love can and will get him to stop. Usually drug addiction/misuse cannot be 'solved' through a romance, and this belief causes many people to stay in toxic relationships enabled by the drug users family and friends who want someone else to bear the responsibility.
4) Untreated mental health: Xie Wie has episodes of extreme violence and paranoia due to past trauma. Ning'er and other innocent people are exposed to this dangerous behaviour repeatedly. Yet, there is no explanation on how this could be miraculously cured.
5) Romeo and Juliet sense of 'no one understands us': Xie Wie repeatedly claims to Ning'er that only they can understand each other - no one else can. That they are both meant to be forged through trauma and hardship, willing to go to lengths that other people cannot understand. Xie Wie repeatedly snears at Ning'er s love for Zhang Zhe - claiming that he's too simplistic and good for one such as her.
6) Obsessed with revenge, excellent at power games, petty to a fault: If Xie Wie only had this capacity of revenge for political wrongs, this wouldn't be such a red flag, but Xie Wie also shows a pettiness and jealousy towards the other family and friends in Ning'er's life and an inappropriate level of condescension towards Ning'er 's father.
7) Power imbalance in the relationship: Xie Wie is Ning'er's teacher and mentor at various points, and Ning'er s father and others treat him as one generation senior to Ning'er. Xie Wie often orders Ning'er around whether or not she is 'officially' his teacher at various points. Ning'er for various reasons begs him or kneels to him about various things throughout the show, but Xie Wie never puts himself in the humble position. Even when he's backed into a corner, he dramatically and violently seizes the power back.
There's probably a lot more. This is all to say in this modern age, there's no reason to teach people that these red flags are evidence of intense love - they are not. If you ever encounter anyone like this in real life - beware. That intensity is often simply a stalker like obsession and a strong desire for power and control over you.
It's one thing to portray a toxic individual who is NOT toxic towards the main love interest and is inspired by her to change (as unrealistic and problematic as that storyline is), but it's a whole 'nother thing to be directly harmful and toxic towards the main love interest.
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Frustratingly, the political plot is full of flaws: tedious, goes around in circles, cartoon villains, and full of nonsensical story. Just lots of evil, greedy one note characters that pop up again and again. But, the romance plot is so good, that I finished this drama anyways. In some ways, the political plot is so clearly bad that it's easy to skip through the political parts and just watch the romantic scenes.
This has everything you could want in a romance: a Romeo and Juliet forbidden romance, a man head over heals for a woman who is his equal, tons of rescuing and protectiveness, and putting each other first. It will go down as one of my favorite romantic couples, and this drama reminded me of Xu Kai's excellent acting and romance in Story of Yanxi Palace.
The production values and direction are also extremely good. The costumes are very original and beautifully designed. There's a lot of excellent choices with camera angles, and music. The action scenes are thrilling and don't use much CGI.
This drama is so uneven it's hard to recommend. But, I must say I was deeply touched, and the romance will stick with me. It may be worth a try to see if this love story sticks with you.
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Now this is how you tell a modern cinderella story! Jung Yoo Min as Han Yi Joo excels as she seizes her chance to grow some strength against her maddeningly selfish family. Sung Hoon as Seo Do Guk is the perfect partner, truly supportive, protective and considerate. Together, through all the ridiculous twists and turns of the plot they stay true to themselves. This keeps the plot from getting frustrating, you are never mad at the main characters, just the circumstances they find themselves in.
There's lots of protectiveness and rescuing, and it's just all around good fun. A couple points off for 1) incorporating prejudices in about adoption/step family (over and over 'true blood' relatives support each other in the way that not 'true blood' relatives do not) 2) there was a not sex-positive, dubious consent sex scene that was thrown in for no good reason.
Music, cinematography, are all competent and typical of this style of drama. If you like dramatic over the top plots and a strong side of romance this is for you.
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What else is there to say that hasn't been said already about the primary romance? Male lead takes no action or initiative, Female lead bounces around the edges hoping he will take notice. Doesn't make for great chemistry or interesting watching.
HOWEVER, the secondary romance between Guan Ji and Bi Ruo Shan, is sexy, mature and intriguing. I really liked the intrigue there between two sophisticated people who have dated around. I also bought into the conflict! Two people used to being slick and superficial having trouble being vulnerable makes sense to me. But, in the end, this relationship wasn't given enough screen time to keep me watching . .
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This review may contain spoilers
While retaining the poetic beauty of the original, this second half is a painful epilogue . . . At this point, I'm convinced the writers are sadists, and I can't stand to watch anymore just to see it all come to a bad end one last time. In sum, the random twists and turns that started cropping up in the last episodes of the first season, multiply in the second half. Hurdle, after hurdle, after hurdle. Just nonsensically raising hopes and dashing them. Will there be scenes that stick with me? Yes. Did I vow to stop watch multiple times? Also yes.
The acting, production values, cinematography, and some key pieces of dialogue are excellent. There are some powerful scenes that will linger on - but we're talking all of 10-15 minutes in 8 hrs of viewing. The key theme of the show is to always persist and survive as there could be the best moments of your life just around the corner.
I feel vaguely guilty, therefore, of not persisting to the end of this one, but frustration and dread was growing with every episode, and life is too short. I ended it at a high point, and I don't have strength to see if things fall apart once again. I would still highly recommend watching the first half/season 1 - it stands on its own and is a true gem of a K -Drama.
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The only reason to watch is that this Overbearing CEO characterization is somewhat unique - very earnest, and almost accidentally and apologetically overbearing, plus the chemistry between the leads is fairly good.
Everything else is mediocre from the plot, costuming, production values etc. and there's an especially toxic ex that is given so much screen time that I eventually couldn't continue watching . . .
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