KassyFan27
Nowhere, USA
"Oh my little girl..."
Damn this drama was a gut-wrenching rollercoaster. It tugs at your heart and won't let go! I cried so many times throughout, and I normally don't get that emotional. I guarantee you will shed a tear whenever Yutaka Ozaki's song "Oh my little girl" plays. The characters are so well written that you feel they are real. The two main leads played by Suzuki Honami and Mikami Hiroshi acted the hell out of their parts. Their transition and degradation of character is shown perfectly.I had never seen a female lead quite like Mariya before. She was a chain-smoking leather jacket wearing tom boy bad a** by day and a beautiful hostess by night. Tough but with a heart of gold. It wasn't easy to pull one over on her because she was also street smart. Multi-faceted like people are in real life. Shiro was a male lead I had not seen before. He was everything Mariya wasn't, weak, prideful, and easily lead by others. A self described "Robot" until he met Mariya. They were the most unlikely pair coming from different worlds joined together by fate. Two lonely, tortured souls colliding into one another like a car crash. The side characters Nana, Jun, and Kamiya are just as well written as the leads. They are all flawed. In need of love like us all. Scarred literally and figuratively by this cruel world. I won't give any of the story's plot away since there are so many twists and turns. This drama is an experience that shouldn't be told but viewed.
Symbolism throughout including Christian imagery and a bird adequately named Blue. Everything has a purpose in this layered complex masterpiece. Haunting, dark, and raw similar to the 1993 drama Kou Kou Kyoushi (written by the same screenwriter),
Kono no Hate will leave you wrecked and thinking about it long after the final credits roll. I understand what people mean when they say the 90s produced the best Japanese dramas and they don't make em' like they used to.
Rating:
10/10
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No one notices how sub-par the writing is? No one notice how confusing and similar the fl lie/truth bells are? No one noticed all the chance meetings that take place to a ridiculous degree? Leads end up in the same apartment building (apartment b. Is huge with an elevator for several floors, but ml moves right next door to fl. What are the odds? Plus their balconies happen to be side by side). Fl wishes to see ml and magically he happens to be walking right in front of her store. Ml gets out of car at the exact moment fl is leaving apartment building. Fl happens to stop by at a jazz club ml regularly plays the piano at and of course this is the night he's there. No one in a city would run into each other like this. Heck they wouldn't even run into each other like this in a small village. Leads have been in Seoul for 5 years and managed just fine to never cross paths. But suddenly to drive the plot forward in this story they by chance come across each other daily?? Wtf? Also, the cliche Kdramas refuse to let go of where ml and fl know each other in the past is beyond over the hill. This is just lazy writing plain and simple. You have to turn your brain off with a lot of these shows I swear...I mean you know it's bad when you got the female lead legit hopping like a bunny in front of the male lead.
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The Unwatchable
If you were on social media in 2019 then undoubtedly you came across fans raving about the Untamed. Seriously you would have thought it was the 2nd coming of Christ with the way some were acting. I've never seen anything like it then or even till this day. I heard praise such as "this is the best Asian drama ever!!!" Of course being a drama lover I was interested. So color me surprised when I sat down to watch this show back in 2019 and couldn't understand a damned thing. It was messy, it was campy, and oh so childish. It started with an ending scene with ZERO explanation and went straight into a mind numbingly boring flashback that lasts apparently 30+ episodes. WTF??! Plot, what's that? Character development?..the untamed does not know her. CGI?? Complete sh!t. Acting? Abysmal and amateurish. Sluggish pace with 100s of characters introduced as their names briefly flashes on the screen making the viewer, or I should say me, even more confused. I gave up and dropped the Untamed.What was going on? Was I in some polar universe? Why couldn't I see what it seemed everyone else sees in this show? I had these questions as I over the years tried to find any criticism about this show on the internet. Anyone that felt the same way that I did. And you know what, I found none. The untamed had broke another record of being the only drama that gets perfect praises no matter where you look. It has no "one star" reviews on imdb, which is unheard of. Almost all 10 star reviews on this website and is still ranked as one or the highest scored dramas on mdl. Quite a feat. And I know what this drama and it's fans reminded me of...it is comparable to a really crappy Kpop song, where the fans are so ardent and forceful with their beliefs that the song is amazing, it inevitably scares anyone from speaking their mind and giving criticism to a mediocre product. It unfortunately happens all the time in fandoms, and the untamed is no different. What I learned was that this show starred two famous pretty boys that were already idols. The untamed show comes from a massively popular spicy bl webstory. And speaking of bl, we outside the bl fandom know how gung ho followers of that genre can be. With all mentioned, it starts to make sense to me why this below average drama is so popular and overrated!
Just look at the positive reviews fans give of this show. A popular mention is how pretty the two leads are. The leads eye staring contest had their heart in a flutter. How cute one of the leads are with rabbits?? Tell me this doesn't sound like a vapid teenager talking about her fav boyband. I'm too old for that sh!t. "Cute" boys glancing at each other does not a good drama make lol. And after three attempts of trying to give the untamed a chance, I'm done. No more. I've been told to hold on and that it gets really good at episode 33. Episode 33!!!? B!tch I could have watched 3 masterpiece jdramas in that time and had room to spare. If a show takes 33/50 episodes to get interesting then maybe just maybe the show is hot garbage. Just a thought...
Rating: 1/10
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I rate this a
8.5/10
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A Slice of Life done right!
If you're like me, you think the slice of life genre is generally overrated and boring. However, there is something very special about this drama that sets it apart from the others. It has become one of my favorites and I can see myself re-watching this gem and never growing tired of it. In two words: It's real. From the natural dialogue to the way romance is portrayed, everything in this drama feels real. You feel like an additional friend sitting with this diverse group of characters in the back yard of a dying sweets shop. It doesn't feel like the actors are acting. It's that natural! I've never seen a drama encapsulate "life" so well...all the ups and downs, joy and pain. This show has zero melodrama or pretentiousness, just the way I like it. The ending song is amazing too and perfectly fits. As a fan of Odagiri Joe, I decided to check this drama out and I'm so glad I did.Rating:
10/10
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THE END.
I just saved you the trouble of watching this senseless meandering drama........
Rating:
4/10
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This review may contain spoilers
More mature and darker than show..
I just finished Cheese in the Trap the series a day ago, and I wrote a very positive review (please check it out lol) and now I'm back with the movie version. You could say I'm hooked with this story. Cheese in the Trap the Movie is more dark, disturbing, and violent than it's predecessor. It focuses on the psychological side of the story and the crimes against women by men, such as stalking and assault. Like I warned with my review of the series, if you are looking for a fluffy cotton candy romance, Cheese in the trap is probably not for you. There is however far more cute romantic scenes in the series than in the movie. In fact, there is hardly any romantic scenes in the film. I recall only one kiss scene between the two leads and it was filmed from a distance.Park Hae Jin reprises his role as the deceptively charming sociopath, Yoo Jung. This time around he plays Jung creepier with more edge. He gives a bone chilling performance and there were times I was actually scared. Was I watching a horror? There were two scenes that were my favorite in the whole movie. The first scene is when Yoo Jung is walking Seol back to her dorm. He smiles as she turns and walks into her building. When she is out of view, Jung's whole face changes and his mask comes off to reveal the eerie apathetic person he really is. It's all in the eyes with this scene. Park's eyes go from warm and loving to soulless like a shark, equal parts calculating, and cold. It's amazing acting. The other part of the film that was my favorite was when Jung was at a shooting range and another scene is shown simultaneously of one of his cat and mouse revenge games being played out as he had planned. His victim doesn't know what hit them and when Jung gets his target back at the shooting range it shows that every gunshot he made was a bulleye to the chest. This was an artful clever way to show Jung's brutality and that he never loses. He shoots to kill and never waivers. This scene was brilliantly accompanied by classical music. So it is safe to say Park Hae Jin nailed this character yet again. This is what you call perfect casting. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for any of the other characters in this film including the actress that played the female lead Hong Seol. She gives a very weak performance and I partially blame the script. It doesn't even seem like the same Seol from the series. Weak, pathetic, and not all there. It was like the lights were on but no one was home. Absolutely awful. I also really hated how they styled the female lead's hair. Seol is called "dog fur" by In Ho (2nd ml) because she's supposed to have wild frizzy curly red hair. This movie version Seol basically has straight hair with a slight wave at the ends so In Ho's endearing nickname doesn't even make sense here. Anyway, there are way too many issues I have with this movie to list them all, but I'll name a few...too many characters and not enough time to flesh them out, a non cohesive storyline, poor casting, rushed underdeveloped romantic relationship with the two leads etc.
And yet I rate this a 7.5. With all its faults, I still think Cheese in the Trap (movie) is worth watching. It's missing a lot and might be hard to follow if one hasn't watched the series first though. It has glimpses of genius and is a notable addition to the original webtoon story.
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This review may contain spoilers
When a sociopath falls in love...
I normally don't like Kdramas, I'll just throw that out there. Most are too melodramatic and Disney level cheesy for my taste. So, there are very few that I can finish, but I couldn't stop watching this one. Maybe I was a cheese in a trap, because I found the male lead, Yoo Jung, one of the most interesting characters I've seen in a Kdrama. He wasn't there as just some good-looking hood ornament that has blinders on for no one else but the fl. No, this male lead had depth and was sinister. There was clearly something wrong with him from the beginning, an inner anger bubbling just beneath the surface, and only the fl, Hong Seol, could see it. How intriguing...If you're like me and usually root for the villian in a movie and find them far more entertaining than the vanilla hero, than "Cheese in the trap" might be for you. It had a psychological aspect that I loved, where the show could have easily been a thriller. It's dark in various places and really explores why we as humans act/react to certain situations and the people around us. I got a kick at the mind games Yoo Jung would play on various characters and the ultimate chaos that would ensue. This dude fought with his cunning mind and not his fists. (Actually, he did get in a physical fight once lol). Now I know you're probably saying, but there are several male leads in dramas that are cold, insufferable douches, so what makes Yoo Jung's character any different? Well, in short, Yoo Jung I strongly believe is a sociopath and it's more or less implied several times in the show. He isn't a misogynist jerk like we've seen time and again in other romance dramas, he's actually quite a gentleman to Hong Seol and treats her well. But lord help you if you try to get between these two love birds. I believe Jung's flawed character worked in Cheese in the trap because he never intentionally tried to hurt Seol while they were dating, and the characters he did try to harm let's be honest had it coming.
I also really liked the female lead in this drama. Hong Seol is not the typical wimpy, weak, dumb fl that is so often found in romance shows. She's smart and hard working. She doesn't need saving, hallelujah for that! How many dramas have I seen now that had cringy soapy situations happen for the sole reason to have a fl need saving by a man. I've even seen several shows where the fl can't seem to walk upright without tripping every 5 seconds. It's tiring! So seeing a capable lead like Seol is refreshing. She commutes for hours on train, she works, she studies, and she can walk in a straight line without crashing into the ml like some kind of cartoon character. Aaahhh..and best of all she's likable and real! Her character did seem to dissapear a bit though toward the middle of this show, but no biggie. I also, had little issue with 2nd ml. He was a good guy but not boring and was given enough screen time for viewers to care about him. He seemed to be a real contender to win over the fl. I also loved his off the rails gold digging sister. She provided a lot of comedic moments and was a pretty good villain in her own right. Even with all the crap she pulled, I still wanted her to have a good ending and I'm glad she did.
Now I love lists, so here I will list the things I normally hate in Kdramas and how "Cheese in the Trap" measures up:
1.) Horrific sound effects used way too often. Usually barn yard animal sounds like a goat etc. Very distracting..
(Cheese in the trap): None. Happily there are no annoying sound effects.
2.)Toilet humor
(Cheese in trap): None
3.)Repeated too often songs from OST that are below average and by the end of 16 episodes make you want to pull your hair out.
(Cheese in the Trap): Great diverse OST. Each song fits scenes well and wasn't repeated too much.
4.) Too much yelling. Most Kdramas I've watched had every character barking/shouting out their lines.
(Cheese in the trap): Some yelling by side characters including elders but not too much to give you a headache.
5.) Love triangle
(Cheese In the trap): Yes, however it didn't bother me for some reason maybe this is due to good writing..
6.) Hiding/over hearing convos a character wasn't supppose to know about.
(Cheese in the Trap): This happens a lot and no one ever notices the person eavesdropping.
7.) Annoying side characters.
(Cheese in the Trap): Most of the characters are likable.
8.)Great start..draggy middle..wtf ending!
(Cheese In the trap): Great start, a bit draggy middle, pretty realistic ending. Many romantics would probably hate the kinda open ended ending this show had, but I didn't. Jung really hurt a lot of people. The man destroyed lives, he couldn't simply walk hand in hand into the sunset with Seol lol. There relationship was far more complicated than that.
Overall 9.5/10.
It cracks me up that this show's been labeled "the worst drama in history" and it's the one Kdrama I really loved. Haha go figure.
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This show was really cheesy and corny, which a lot of Kdramas are unfortunately guilty of. Always trying too hard to pull at the viewers heartstrings and be funny. Very low brow. I said what I said!
Attorney Woo is an unrealistic portrayal of autism. With horribly exaggerated stereotypes and you could feel the main lead actress struggle to portray this character, with her forced looks and cutesy quirks. Fl seemed more slow and child-like than an actual genius. One wonders how on earth did she graduate from a top law school if she can't even walk through a revolving door smdh. Utterly ridiculous! I have noticed this same ignorant portrayal of autism in other Korean dramas. "It's okay to not be okay" anyone?? But the difference is this drama has this "autistic" character as the main lead and not a background character. And in Kdrama land that means a cringy potrayal of an over grown person acting like a 5 year old that just dropped their lolly pop for 16 excruciating episodes. Some are stronger than I, because I could not do it, and dropped this drama.
I did however skim future episodes and it looks like this show is your typical procedural law show with new cases and clients each episode. Boring! I get enough of that at home with American dramas lol. And you can tell the creators of Attorney Woo thought they were doing something different and groundbreaking. I imagine the writers meeting going something like this.
Writer A: "Let's do a procedural law show "
Writer B: "But that's typical and been done to death!"
Writer A: "But this would be a procedural with a twist. The main character is a young female lawyer, but...dunn..dunn...dunn..she's autistic!"
Writer C: "My God man, you're a genius!"
Writer A: "hehe I know." *devilish grin*
Oh and we all know a Kdrama wouldn't be a Kdrama without you guessed it ROMaNcE!! Who cares if it's thrown in as an afterthought, adding nothing to the plot. It will be forced down the viewers throat every damn time whether they like it or not, and Att. Woo is no exception. I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a second couple that no one gives 2 fcks about included in this show too. But alas, I will never know...
Dropped
Rating: 1/10.
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Drowning Love is pretentious (geez, even the title is) yet has a beauty to it. The cinematography and tone will take your breath away. Very dreamy and atmospheric. If a teen girl's Pinterest board could be captured on film this would be it, with a hodge podge of moody dreamscape palletes to feast the eyes on. Suda and Nana have never looked better than they do here, equal parts alluring and mysterious. I'd say Drowning Love is the more palpable version of Hot Gimmick. It's a hot mess and trash but beautiful trash.
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Meh...
Just my opinion: season 1 was far better than this season 2. However, I even felt season 1 became weaker with the "beach" plot. Everything before the beach was perfection. It still was an amazing 1st season though and kept you on your toes. This season however, had new characters I didn't care about and way too much dialogue. It sidetracked into back stories so often that it became a drag. The suspense of the 1st season was gone. There were whole episodes where the main character, Arisu, isn't even in them. The story was just all over the place, with some characters never seeming to die no matter how many bullets hit them or how much they bled out. The best games were with Chishiya especially the prison one. The rest of the games were meh and it seemed like there were less than previous season. Also there's a fare bit of male gaze moments that weren't needed such as a cheap crotch shot of a character in a school girl uniform. Then again the whole 1st game could be seen as one long female gaze moment. So I guess it balances out? As for acting it was average to below average. I know Kento has a lot of fans who would probably want to wring my neck after saying this, but I find his acting hammy. Very handsome guy no doubt, but he's not the best actor amongst the ikemen actors of his generation, not by a long shot. The fl that plays Usagi and has starred with Kento in many projects isn't much better. Lastly, I found the ending in this season very underwhelming.This gets a 6/10 from me.
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An epic romance fantasy done right!
I have a short attention span and am very critical. I usually watch jdramas that run max 10 episodes at 24 min. each. So very quick dramas. It takes an exceptional show to keep my attention beyond that. I have, however, watched some really great cdramas that were so addicting I didn't even realize I had watched 30-50 1hr. long episodes.This is where Love between Fairy and devil come in. This show was my first xianxia drama and the bar has been set very high. I binged all 36 episodes in a few days and finished today. I couldn't stop watching, it was perfection, and I didn't want it to end. I could actually watch another thirty plus episodes about Orchid and Dongfang Qing Cang. It was hands down the best drama I've watched in 2022!
I loved everything about this drama. From the character development, forbidden slow burn love story, to the costumes, and amazing CGI. Also, this show's OST was one of the most beautiful I've heard and fit scenes so well. Every character comes to life here and I found myself growing attached to all of them.
The acting in this drama was amazing as well. Everyone did a phenomenal job with their roles. I had never seen the fl actress that plays Orchid in anything before this, but she really blew me away with her performance. She had several character shifts in this story and she acted them out flawlessly. Plus, she had great chemistry with the ml and 2nd ml. I also want to give mention to the actor that played Dongfang Qing Cang's brother. He was awesome as the semi-villain character. Lastly, a stand out of course was Dylan Wang as Dongfang Qing Cang. He never dissapoints. I, like a lot of others have been a fan of his since his debut in Meteor Garden. I thought back then although he was so young that he had a lot of potential and then I later saw him in the drama The Rational Life (which I highly recommend btw) and it just solidified how talented and versatile of an actor he is. I think he is the king of facial expressions and he really outdid himself in Love between Fairy and Devil. And since as I write this review it's Dec. 20th, I want to wish Dylan a happy 24th birthday. Its been great seeing him grow as an actor :D
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I've watched dramas and movies with this taboo teacher/student plot before so it's nothing new to me, but this one was overhyped and just not good.
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Barbie and Ken dolls on a beach zzz....
What is this show and why did it get a 2nd season? Why the too high rating? I just finished the 1st episode and the numerous colorist remarks left a bad taste in my mouth. One dude said something to the effect that he liked one of the girls because she had white skin that made her seem pure as the driven snow. Ick! Everybody is dolled up to the max just sitting pretty in Chanel wearing cc cream 10 shades lighter than their natural skin tone. Major pass. This was worse than Love Island U.S.A. and that's saying something! Fake plastic people trying to look pretty for the camera, that's it. Imagine the most interesting thing contestants have to say about themselves is that they workout. You can't get more superficial than this!Was this review helpful to you?
A snoozefest about a Mary Sue and her two wet blanket suitors.
This was a chore to get through. I'll list this as the worst drama of 2022. It felt more like a bad kdrama. All the unique creative dialogue/storylines usually found in jdramas were replaced with gloss and superficiality in Animals. I was nodding off at times out of boredom. Aside from the promising first episode, nothing interesting or engaging happens. Minute by minute details about developing projects within a cheesy beauty company is not what I would consider entertainment.Some things I hated:
One dimensional characters:
They were happy and smiling all the time to the point that I was surprised they didn't break out in song. Female lead is the quintessential Mary Sue character where she is always nice, always pleasant, good at everything except keeping herself upright and walking in a straight line, average in the looks department but men flock to her anyway. She annoyed the hell out of me! The two male leads that vie for her attention are no better. Both have zero personality and could literally be replaced with cardboard cut outs and none would be the wiser. And how creepy was it that the fl leaves one company where her boss overworked her to the point of collapse and then gets hired by another company where the boss is hitting on her and trying to get a date. Eww. It's seen in this show as romantic when it is anything but..
Also, the styling in this drama is some of the worst I've seen. It's ironic when this show is made out to be hip, sleek, and cool. Women and men look like they haven't washed their hair in weeks due to too many products weighing it down. As a result, every character had greasy lifeless styled hair. Make up was nothing to write home about either and often characters looked sickly and washed out. Wardrobe was atrocious as well especially the clothes for the female lead. She rather as well had been in a potato sack and high heels.
Lastly, the cover poster for this drama is misleading as all get out. Anyone looking at it would think this will be a spicy enjoyable romp of a show for mature audiences and not another run of the mill saccharine sweet office drama. I feel like I've been punked lol.
I rate this a 1.5.
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