1
Sinasina
This review may contain spoilers
Not exactly flawless, but the drama transcends the term "masterpiece" in mutiple ways.
I just finished watching this & I'm still in shock. I kinda sorta hate how the plot got wrapped up, but the last episode was not only objectively perfect & extremely touching, but I even lost the war against the onion ninja nation, I never had a chance.
If I really wanted to, it wouldn't be very hard to pick the story apart. (Chicken and Egg Paradox & other potentially not so minor plotholes come to mind) However ultimately this show is beyond cleverly written. In fact I'm yet to see an Asian drama with writing this good. There are some dramas that I consider as good as Someday or One Day, but in terms of writing none of them can compare. What I find especially shocking how the drama barely features any repetition. Whenever you expect something to happen, such as travel back in time to attempt to change something, to relive a scene, the end result is completely different than our expectations, with unique unexpected perspectives & no repetition. I cannot emphasize enough how brilliant the storytelling is. Mind blown!
Also it's worth mentioning that despite the relative complexity of the plot, it's still easy to understand what's going on & yet the "explanations" never feel forced, masterful..
(I barely remember the plot of Steins;Gate, but I think this one is easily superior)
So okay, we have established that the story is brilliant, but what about the romance? Well, it's one of the best, most touching romantic stories I have ever encountered and the OTP romance could not have resonated with me any more. (and naturally the romantic plots are also super cleverly written, paced & sequenced) There is some fluff, but this is hard romance for the sentimental soul.
As for love triangles? I'm not going to spoil that, but triangle haters can safely watch this.
The three lead actors did a phenomenal job. They had good chemistry with each other & they were pretty much perfectly cast for their roles.
The cinematography is low key perfection. It's not as exaggeratedly beautiful as modern kdramas, cdramas usually are, however it's the perfect fit for this show.
And finally we arrived at the OST. Objectively speaking the OST is just as repetitive as in Something in the Rain, but I guess Wu Bai's Last Dance is ehm a WEE BIT better than "Stand by Your Man". I think I've heard it like 40-50 times before the end credits rolled, but I still felt goosebumps even in the final episode. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AqfOhesl5U piano cover on Youtube, if someone is interested, though it's not as good when FL plays it on the Piano in the show) Devoted by X-Ray Dog is also a very impressive piece, though I think I've heard it before, still it worked great in this drama.
Of course the other songs are supremely good as well, though Goblin is certainly a bit better overall in this regard. (Goblin has like 10 top tier songs and the OST Album is a very coherent listening experience, versus the 3 in Some day or One Day)
Taiwanese dramas are typically horrible. I tried to watch quite a few actually, but I just couldn't get past the first 2-3 episodes trying to pick the ones recommended by community here on MDL. Some Day or One Day is the second one I managed to finish. (the other one is Last Romance & I'll probably try Rainless Love in a Godless Land soon) I'm strongly suspecting that this drama is by far the best one the Taiwanese entertainment industry has ever produced. Comparing it to Goblin, which I think is the best kdrama ever made, it holds up extremely well. It's incredible how the people that typically make 2005 kdrama era garbage could make something like this. It's like going from using aqueducts to colonizing Mars.
Just to say some negatives too. Some of the supporting actors are a hit or miss, Xie Zhi Qi?! Also there is only one thing in the drama that could've used some CG, namely the dream prison. It felt a bit immersion breaking to see the big pixels projected onto FL's face and the whole construction reminded me of a cheap hobo shack. It would have taken very little effort to fix this & admittedly in the final episodes they've improved on this a little. (by little effort, I mean that I could have personally fixed this at the cost of $2 while being physically present on set, or alternatively I could have edited the footage myself in an afternoon, applying some selective blur here and there)
15/10. Will I just keep rewatching this until the end of my days? How do I move on from this?
Watch https://mydramalist.com/61297-someday-or-one-day-extra-scene for that little extra closure. I wanted way more than this, but it's still more than nothing.
edit:
The rewatch value is FAR lower than expected.
If I really wanted to, it wouldn't be very hard to pick the story apart. (Chicken and Egg Paradox & other potentially not so minor plotholes come to mind) However ultimately this show is beyond cleverly written. In fact I'm yet to see an Asian drama with writing this good. There are some dramas that I consider as good as Someday or One Day, but in terms of writing none of them can compare. What I find especially shocking how the drama barely features any repetition. Whenever you expect something to happen, such as travel back in time to attempt to change something, to relive a scene, the end result is completely different than our expectations, with unique unexpected perspectives & no repetition. I cannot emphasize enough how brilliant the storytelling is. Mind blown!
Also it's worth mentioning that despite the relative complexity of the plot, it's still easy to understand what's going on & yet the "explanations" never feel forced, masterful..
(I barely remember the plot of Steins;Gate, but I think this one is easily superior)
So okay, we have established that the story is brilliant, but what about the romance? Well, it's one of the best, most touching romantic stories I have ever encountered and the OTP romance could not have resonated with me any more. (and naturally the romantic plots are also super cleverly written, paced & sequenced) There is some fluff, but this is hard romance for the sentimental soul.
As for love triangles? I'm not going to spoil that, but triangle haters can safely watch this.
The three lead actors did a phenomenal job. They had good chemistry with each other & they were pretty much perfectly cast for their roles.
The cinematography is low key perfection. It's not as exaggeratedly beautiful as modern kdramas, cdramas usually are, however it's the perfect fit for this show.
And finally we arrived at the OST. Objectively speaking the OST is just as repetitive as in Something in the Rain, but I guess Wu Bai's Last Dance is ehm a WEE BIT better than "Stand by Your Man". I think I've heard it like 40-50 times before the end credits rolled, but I still felt goosebumps even in the final episode. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AqfOhesl5U piano cover on Youtube, if someone is interested, though it's not as good when FL plays it on the Piano in the show) Devoted by X-Ray Dog is also a very impressive piece, though I think I've heard it before, still it worked great in this drama.
Of course the other songs are supremely good as well, though Goblin is certainly a bit better overall in this regard. (Goblin has like 10 top tier songs and the OST Album is a very coherent listening experience, versus the 3 in Some day or One Day)
Taiwanese dramas are typically horrible. I tried to watch quite a few actually, but I just couldn't get past the first 2-3 episodes trying to pick the ones recommended by community here on MDL. Some Day or One Day is the second one I managed to finish. (the other one is Last Romance & I'll probably try Rainless Love in a Godless Land soon) I'm strongly suspecting that this drama is by far the best one the Taiwanese entertainment industry has ever produced. Comparing it to Goblin, which I think is the best kdrama ever made, it holds up extremely well. It's incredible how the people that typically make 2005 kdrama era garbage could make something like this. It's like going from using aqueducts to colonizing Mars.
Just to say some negatives too. Some of the supporting actors are a hit or miss, Xie Zhi Qi?! Also there is only one thing in the drama that could've used some CG, namely the dream prison. It felt a bit immersion breaking to see the big pixels projected onto FL's face and the whole construction reminded me of a cheap hobo shack. It would have taken very little effort to fix this & admittedly in the final episodes they've improved on this a little. (by little effort, I mean that I could have personally fixed this at the cost of $2 while being physically present on set, or alternatively I could have edited the footage myself in an afternoon, applying some selective blur here and there)
15/10. Will I just keep rewatching this until the end of my days? How do I move on from this?
Watch https://mydramalist.com/61297-someday-or-one-day-extra-scene for that little extra closure. I wanted way more than this, but it's still more than nothing.
edit:
The rewatch value is FAR lower than expected.
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