Sinasina

The main conflict of the show is just too bizarre, even for kdramas. It's really hard to get over how ridiculous that is. Sure angsty melodramas have their fans & even I have enjoyed at least one before, but it's challenging to find immersion in the angst, knowing what has caused it.

As a sports drama it kind of sucks too. Badminton is not a sport that can be easily faked by professional actors & the camera work to make it kind of happen is borderline nauseating to watch. Of course the production team knew this, so not that much is shown, but that in itself is also a different problem.

As for the romance, I don't know. The golden retriver ML meets broken girl should have worked without a love triangle, right? It was ok, cute enough at times, but not amazing.

Ultimately I feel romance is not Love All Play's main focus and the other stuff is oftentimes painful to watch. I think this drama barely qualifies as entertainment.

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Here we go, it's another Thai GL. The chemistry is great, the characters are more than interesting & fun enough, but I have two big issues with this show.
Firstly the main concept related to the title dies way too soon. It feels like they are not really doing the friends with benefits thing from very very early on & also they are not even really pretending very effectively on the enemies part. Quoting "they'll do anything to keep it a secret, pretending to be enemies so that absolutely no one at work finds out"from the MDL description all I can say that this is totally false. The real issue here of course is not that they are basically dating from week 2 of their relationship, but rather that they are talking the talk & not walking the walk, meaning that the whole concept is really not working & is very forced.
Secondly the -largely- corporate plot in the final 3-4 episodes is quite weak, meaning that it's actually difficult to reach the closing credits. It feels like cutting this & aiming for 8 episodes would've been better.

Anyway Lal is pretty wonderful gl drama character carrying the entire show. The actress really did a wonderful job with her endlessly amusing facial expressions etc. So it's kind of worth watching just for Lal I suppose..

I don't have it in me to rate this above 7.5, but still it's way more watchable & less formulaic than 99% of contemporary kdramas.

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It has several big narrative failures, but oh my god it has so many brilliant scenes..

If we want to be real, then there is really a lot to criticize here. Sure this is fiction, but the prison depicted here is unreal even for a very far removed parallel universe. I guess I should be more forgiving, since it's just an unusual setting, I've seen worse in my drama history. Though I have to say it's not just that prison life is unrealistic or poorly researched, but also many aspects of it are only shown at a very surface level.

Ultimately the leads have incredible chemistry & their emotional -non fan service- scenes are incredible. The drama basically doesn't have an OST, there is only one piano melody with multiple variations, but oh man, every scene that has that track on is fantastic. Portrayed emotion wise this show matches up against some of the best Korean dramas, such as Tangerines, Goblin, Reply 88 quite well.

Some extraordinarily talented folks worked on this show. Outside of some writing woes -see below- pretty much every aspect of the show is top tier. The cinematographer is a genius. I literally cannot name an Asian drama that matches up to the photography excellence that can be seen here. Like Goblin is visually more impressive, but it's mostly set design, not photography, seriously I'm super impressed. The acting effort from everyone -including pretty much the whole supporting cast- is also super good.

So in the headline I mentioned narrative failures. The big one is that the dating starts out of nowhere, it's like a flipped switch. I understand that sometimes horny adults can hook up after just 5 minutes, but the dialog immediately shifts to implying the strongest of bonds. Then various characters in the show stop behaving like themselves from one episode to another. Dee???
Of course I cannot even shit on the writer here properly, since the dialog in some of the scenes is ridiculously good. There are so many great conversations, such as the one about aliens and or posing..

Considering the subject matter it's hard to not mention Orange is the New Black. It's clear to me that the writer has seen that shows & took inspiration from it. However everything from the plot that gives this show value is totally different from Orange & conversely the strongest points of of the American shows are either missing or muted here.

I watched the full cut version, so there were many sex scenes. This is my 3rd Thai GL so far & sex is for sure the worst here. It's not just over abundant with too long scenes, but the graphical depictions were sad. Implying and not showing or blurring out is better than whatever this was. Soft porn might be required to make a GL a financial success. I can accept that, all I'm saying is that this is really really awful at that. Not that I mind too much, I'm perfectly capable of using the FF button & I'm not the target audience for this and has not impacted my opinion of this drama much.

Rating this is difficult, because I know objectively the flaws are very significant, but at the same everything else is 10/10. This is surely the most interesting Thai drama I have ever seen. (and I have dropped & then not reviewed at least 10 lakorns) For sure it's been a very memorable experience & I can totally see myself coming back to it eventually.

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sugar overload in a fantasy workplace setting where everyone is unnaturally nice

To think that of all things I'll binge watch Thai GL shows. I guess this is the consequence of having discovered that in the 8epi GL format they barely have time for the usual lakorn crap & not having anything else lined up to watch.

The plot does not amaze, I'm especially annoyed how they dealt with second FL in the final episode. I dislike the social media confession trope quite a bit, it's bad even compared to other common redemption ark varieties.

Anyway despite not having amazing storytelling the drama is a lot of fun to watch. The FLs (xD) have great chemistry & their bickering is endless fun. The love triangle is bearable, yes the second (or 3rd xD) FL would be incredible annoying in any other format, but thanks to the short runtime she barely had any screen time or chances to annoy us. So I guess I can forgive the show the 3-way hand grab moment it had that one one time.

~ I wrote this review without watching the special episodes.

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I found it interesting that the production team used artificial intelligence to generate some video footage for at least one video presentation to showcase their concept.


edit: Watched the 2 special episodes. The first one is about closure for the main couple & its a decent extended fluffy happy ending for them, the second on the other hand is about the Tetris couple, but practically it feels like it's all for showing us embedded marketing, still as far as special episodes go these were okay.

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Not bad for a Thai GL comedy!

The comedy is decent, the chemistry between the leads is on point & nothing particularly annoying happens throughout the entire show. -review basically over

There is a minimum character limit on MDL, so let's talk about the story & setting a bit. Of course it's completely nonsensical aka utterly ridiculous, but the show does not take itself seriously at any point & the annoying tropes are for real kept to a minimum, and so the end result is a very unusual Thai drama that is actually worth watching.

Though I suppose personally I would have preferred less fan service. It's great that frequent sex is implied for a young couple, but it's almost softcore porn-ish here. Anyway it doesn't bother me much, I know how to use the fastforward button. If I had to choose between Korean style pre-teen romancing & this, I would go for the latter every time.

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Alice Ko is in the two all time best tdramas & Fu Meng Po is in one of them too, so "why not take a look at this" had been my motivation to check this out. In all honesty several of the themes in this show are things I tend to avoid, but managed to reach the ending credits thanks to the all around excellent production values, good acting & the occasional comedy. The short runtime helped too..

Outside of my own subjective dislikes, I feel the plot is a bit disjointed, I don't feel like I watched a coherent story with coherent characterization. Anyhow at the very least every once in a while when I get to watch a Taiwanese show I'm always shocked by how much more lifelike the acting is & how much more vibrant Taiwanese sice of life can be, or rather how they can show this much on TV, I mean compared to censored cdramas or self-censored overly glamorous kdramas. I wish they made more non-BL shows...

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It's not great!

The Good:
⌲ The high school happenings are above average not annoying.
⌲ Adding to the previous point the teachers are adorable & there is no evil teacher which is almost unheard of in the high school kdrama scene.
⌲ As far as high school romance kdrama representations go this is once again above average, the typical annoyances involving parents are not present.


The Neutral:
⌲ The triangles (considering everything these turned out slightly less annoying than usual)
⌲ The shamanism related basic fantasy setting (At the very least the various shaman characters were fun & interesting, even if it's annoying how this drama is sort of advertising a scamming culture in South Korea)
⌲ The plot in the first half (It's quite silly, but in a tolerable anime-like way.)
⌲ Second ML / friend


The Bad:
⌲ The plot fell apart in the second half (There's so many retcons & rewrites. I'm guessing this drama is another victim of the randomness that is live filming)
⌲ The evil entity
⌲ The evil shaman and her awful semi-redemption ark
⌲ The bully is not very annoying overall, but his personality shift and fast tracked redemption is pretty bad.

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The second half is weak!

I enjoyed the first 7 or so episodes, up to that point I felt the ok chemistry & the relatively fun bickerish content carries the show, that despite the lack of a hint of originality. However after that, from epis 8 to 11 we have really hit rock bottom. Suddenly competing love interest are introduced & there is a misunderstanding fueled breakup. Sure everything gets resolved quickly enough, however the *superstrong spoiler* event in episode 11 is just plain weird & their whole relationship dynamic with the new status quo is also a bit of a joke. After e12 everything is resolved of course & we go through the motions. Though as much as love long happy endings, this one is exactly the same as in most mediocre cdramas, presented the most boring way ever, yawn.

There were times when I felt the production team has done a really sloppy job. For instance the show featured yet another $1000 adopted stray cat, gosh is it really that hard to get a perfectly fine and lovable SIC from a shelter? (especially considering the backstory & the name) If the cat is a product placement, then at least don't claim it's a stray, for the love of god this is so dumb. (This is one thing `No Gain, No Love ` did well)
Another is that when they went back to ML's childhood home & they've talked about not finding anything else of value other than a few things in a box, meanwhile the camera has shown tens of thousands of $s worth -or way more- of expensive furniture and other stuff around the house, but dad is losing the house because of gambling woes, ok sure. Also the home itself looked like $3.000.000. It's a bit like how when children put on a play without a set & it's the audience's job to look past the venue's ill fitting features & just focus on the dialog.

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It's a bit bland compared to the Korean version

The leads in this one had great chemistry & especially the ML fit the role better than his Korean counterpart. The production is great, with wonderful cinematography & some very attractive OST songs.

Ultimately why I think the Korean version is better is because outside of the main romance everything regarding the plot is better there. Sure the Japanese adaptation is similar enough, the main plot is still essentially the same, however the excitement & the vengeful plotting is largely toned down in the J. version. The kdrama is a makjang that is unusually tame and tolerable & this one is no longer in that genre. Which is not necessarily negative, but the side characters whether it's the casting or their re-characterization are strongly on the boring side and so is the corporate plot presented this way. So in my mind we went from 50% romance 50% entertaining vengeance plotting to 50% romance, 50% boring filler. Nonetheless this drama is still worth a watch for the leads..

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I regret watching..

From an adult's perspective this drama is very weak. There are lots of dashingly beautiful people on the screen & the cinematography is decent, but everything else is from mediocre to straight up bad.

The show follows the frustrating formula of 15 episodes of high school slice of life where everyone is "friends" followed by a -n awful- transition phase & then university / adult dating in the final 5. While I don't like this formula, I have seen some objectively great dramas based on it. So why is this so much worse? Well for starters the acting is on a very low level, with very little emotional impact beyond some occasional cutesy fluff. 80% of this show is not romance, but that 80% is surprisingly boring most of the time, though the startup related plotline in the final episodes is way worse than boring & it could not have been any less unoriginal. (develop a new kind of fitness bracelet, heavily woo a hermit expert to help you along etc..)
The romance itself is sub par too. It's just difficult to feel the immersion, I'm really not sold on any of it.

The love triangle is not the worst, but it's present for quite a while & all the "let's be friends" talk on the main couple's side made it oh so much worse.

The show has some jarringly blatant social engineering / propaganda messaging. For example there is that scene when the crew talks about what an idol is to them or when ML is repeatedly saying that everyone should follow their on pace, doing that completely out of context, essentially disregarding FL's top level ability & the -oh so dumb & super common- outside factors that led to her having to repeat the final year.

Don't waste your time, compared to I don't know `A Love So Beautiful ` this is not worth mentioning. Yes, censorship limits heavily what a high school slide of life cdrama can be, but here the writers did not even try to thread those limits..

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Feels like a knockoff, but it's not bad.

Another Oh Hae Yong is one of the best kdramas I have ever seen, It has minor flaws, but it's pretty much as good as it gets with some unusual elements for a kdrama.
Unlucky Ploy mostly -especially in the early episodes- is a very accurate adaptation. Most scenes are brought over verbatim, I can almost see the cast watch the relevant Korean scene before each filming session & then trying to mimic as perfectly as possible. There is no attempt at new interpretations here. (they've removed a few scenes related to poop & maybe even pee, it's been a while..)

So why is it a 7? Well it's worse than the original in every single way. The acting is much worse, It's not bad exactly, but it's like amazing acting and chemistry of at least two couples vs. just alright. The music, cinematography, the production & everything else is similar to the original, but clearly worse. Also the second couple's happy ending is mostly missing from this one.
I'm confident that even in a vacuum, where I would only know this show I wouldn't rate it above 7.5..
Oh I'm almost forgot it's not just the meh acting, but also the casting of the FL & second FL are not great. FL is just too radiant for this concept to be anywhere near believable. Second FL is pretty, but the somewhat quirky pretty that the main FL should've been.

Most lakorns are awful, at least in that space this has to be amazing, right?

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It's kind of a Chinese take on La La land with a tremendous amount of filler..

Sure this one is not at all a musical, but the mood, the ambiance and the circumstances felt quite similar to me. Instead of one couple there are two main couples here, but this comparison still fits alright for either of them. What they've shown of Macau is absolutely magical -and probably not all that realistic, but who cares- and in the first half of the show the romance is also mostly excellent.

So why is it only a 7.5? Well the second half of the drama only had like 30-40 mins of what I wanted to watch & there were all kinds of miscellaneous plots. While I knew very early on that we're faced with sort of an omnibus style storytelling & but there was so much there that I found incredibly boring. (Casey + kid | Older Brother + wedding | divorcee parents) The ending here is better than La La Land's, which is honestly not very difficult, however I expected way way more from a show this long & one that had so much filler and I mean SO EFFIN MUCH filler.

The OST & cinematography are top, about as good as it gets in this genre, It's almost worth it just for that.

People compare this to `Fake It Till You Make It`, other than Elvis Han acting in both there are not all that many commonalities I think. Even if we approach this topic with the "mature love" angle, I think everything is just too different..

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It's ok.

This is -contrary to the premise- a very simple feelgood story with very few annoyances. Though at the same time it's super shallow & despite the format it feels too slow as well. Also everything that is typically wrong with Japanese romance content is also present in this show. I watched Shanai Marriage Honey just the other day & that was a lot better, that's what gave me the courage to try another similar Japanese drama after years of avoiding them, but this is super cringe compared to your average c/k drama, which is saying something.

So yes, in a vacuum this okay -not great-, but partly due to my personal biases & jculture fatigue I think I'll continue avoiding these in the future.

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There is nothing new or unexpected here, but the format makes this very entertaining. There is no time for love triangles, or filler, since the whole thing is only like 140 minutes long. The characters are plenty cute looking great together with acceptable chemistry, what else is there to wish for in a show so short?

If you are the kind of drama watcher that is always complaining about not seeing a couple's married life at the end of various shows, this is for you. That's pretty much what these 2+ hours are about and there is also the hide relationship at work trope, which I happen to like.

If I really wanted to deeply criticize this show, I could since there are lots of annoying things in all Japanese dramas that I've seen thus far, but this is certainly one of the good ones.

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If I had to rate the first 15 or so episodes this would be as close to a perfect romcom as it gets in China, i'm not even sure if content like this could even get past the censors these days, there is really just too much emotion and some other things here. Though I do have to mention there are some love shapes around & I'm not a fan of FL's personality 1 & personality 2 loving a different person for so long. Though admittedly if a love square ever made sense, then it's in this drama & I really think they could have made this far more annoying, perhaps the fact that it's only 24 episodes helped a lot too in this regard.

As for episodes after 15, we had the finale of the kingdom arc & it was quite strange & then we quickly transitioned to the immortal world / spirit realm, whatever it's called in this show & that part kind of felt as if I were playing Chrono Trigger, but went to the last dungeon while skipping 2/3rds of the story and game content. However since this is a trilogy & there is a chance it will make more sense in the future. Sure the Demon King is a pretty boring cartoon villain-ish enemy, but very little time is wasted on him & the rest of this arc (4-5 episodes) is not really that bad, well not bad not great, but more often than not xuanhuan show endings or rather the final batch of episodes tend to be worse than what we've gotten here. So I decided to rate the show at 8- just barely - and so onto the next one, so long friends..

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