Be Prepared to Cry Your Eyes Out

Damn!!! I cried a lot with this drama. So many scenes that broke my heart and so many children carrying heavy burdens placed on them by their parents. Goodness!!

I liked the series overall. Really great cast but especially Oh Jung Se as Sang Tae. The man should have won all the awards the year this came out!!This drama ended up being totally different from what I thought it was going to be about. Seo Yea Ji is stunning and once again the Kdrama wardrobe and costumes department was on fire with her looks. However, her character, Ko Moon Young was not easy to like. Once we get her full story, we can see why she behaved the way she did. It was actually quite refreshing to see her development throughout the series.

Moon Gang Tae is one of the most heartbreakingly, tragic characters I have ever watched in a drama, K or otherwise. The amount of things this man had to endure was too much for me to bear and like I said, I cried a lot. The man couldn't catch a break.

One of the best things about this drama was the use of the well-known fairytales and the ones created by Moon Young that show the parallels of the characters lives.

I also really loved the animated scenes from the storytelling. Just phenomenal. OST is good too!

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Really Good JDrama Procedural

I really enjoyed this remake of an American series that I really enjoyed.

The cast here is great led by Yoshida Yoh. Great, strong, FL sans the last episode but I guess they needed to do that so she could face off with the serial killer who was played very brilliantly by Yusuke Santamaria. I don't know his other work, but I look forward to seeing more.

My main gripe with the show, however, is the song choices in every episode were questionable to say the least. Not even sure why they couldn't have chosen Japanese artist and/or songs. Probably something to do with the contract with Warner Brothers. Anyway, the songs choices at the end, at least in the American version, were typically used to evoke feelings of closure and satisfaction that the case was solved and usually tried to have some connection with the victim. In this series many of the songs seemed in opportune or outright inappropriate for some of the scenes.

I look forward to watching season 2 and 3. I hope they are just as good.

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Below Average Drama Great FL

This is a below average drama with too many makjang elements thrown in. Thanks goodness this was not one of those 120-episode makjangs as I would not have finished. The cast is really good, especially Ha Hee Ra as Kim Sun Young, playing a woman who is mentally challenged with grace and aplomb. This is the first drama I have watched her in, and she was outstanding. Young actress Ahn Seo Hyun playing the 2nd FL daughter Dat Byeol was great too. She carried her scenes and was very believable.

I actually really disliked the 2nd FL all the way up til the last few episodes. The character is extremely unlikeable even though she is supposed warrant our sympathy, but I just didn't have any for her b/c I 100% did not like the way she treated the FL. Plus her arrogance also made it hard to like her.

Shin Hyun Joon as Choi Go Man gave us the comic relief these dramas tend to love. His yelling and screaming really got on my nerves but the scenes where he was giving sage advice to the other characters and even starting to fall for the FL were really endearing and the character started to grow on me even though he was really annoying at first.

2FL husband and his mistress were trash, and I couldn't wait for them to get their comeuppance.

Park Hyung Sik really good in this even though it's a small role. Loved his character.

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Good Crime Drama

This was overall a really good series with a great and enjoyable cast however the last episode was nonsensical, stupid and unnecessary. Not sure what the hell the writers were thinking but whatever. I would still recommend watching at least once for the brilliant acting performance of Lee Joon Gi and Kim Ji Hoon. Moon Chae Won was good to and she has really great chemistry with Lee Joon Gi. There were some really great comic relief scenes with Seo Hyun Woo as Moo Jin including a scene where he is broadcasting live via a Facebook live type app. The young actress Jung Seo Yeon was really good as the daughter of the main leads.

The only other really negative mark on the show is that they should have given us more back story on Do Min Seok the father of ML character. We were given some nuggets but never enough. Plus, in an episode we learn that ML couldn't remember anything before turning 10 years old WHY?? Why bring this up if we were never going to know the answer?

This is the 2nd drama in a row that I have watched where the literal last episode is nonsense. That sucks for me but again overall a good series.

This has nothing to do with the review, but Kim Ji Hoon is hot AF and when that guy would put his hair in a ponytail/manbun I could not think straight!!

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Worst FL Ever

This drama was so Meh!! I watched b/c of Vaness Wu and he was alright here but this may have been too much for him to carry the show. Plus he couldn't deliver the gravitas needed for the characters's anger moments it all seemed so tame when the character has every right to be angry.

A lot of stuff happening in this series defies logic and usually I can suspend belief b/c I want the romantic fantasy and live for it but this did not deliver the goods AT ALL!!

I hate the FL and have never hated a FL more. I will never understand her motiovations after the fact just dumb. I also hated her doe eyed dumbfouned face everytime she asked to tell the truth but kept lying. Will never watch this again. Liked Xio Le but really not a fan of super precocious kids but he was likeable.

Terrible ending; Guang Xi shoud have gone to the US and taken Xio Le with him. YEP I'm a hater!!

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So Unnecessarily Melodramatic

Gosh! where do I start??? I guess I will start by saying I love this anime and I loved the 2019 version. The 2019 version is one of my favorite Cdramas period!!

However, this 2008 version, that I desperately wanted to see sucked all the fun out of the story and characters for me. Not a single character was likeable, not even the lead. Like, seriously, how does that happen? Why the hell did they make this version so damn overly dramatic? Everyone is too damn emotional.

I started reading the manga b/c I was legit confused by the choices the writers, directors, producers chose to take/make for this series. I actually thought maybe the character development was more like the manga but it wasn't.

Long Ma (Ryoma character) was whiny and miserable from the start. That was never his disposition in the source material or anime. Guo Guang (Kunimitsu character and one of my favorites) was again nothing like the source material and was not a good leader in this series. He was just as whiny as Longa Ma. They have completely changed the Kaido character (another favorite of mine) and he is super obnoxious.

That being said every character whined so much it was hard to deal with. Another weird choice director/producers made was having them constantly yelling and screaming at each other even when they were in close quarters. Total drag. Also, hardly any of the matches were exciting.

Funny enough the only person I like in this series is the Sakuno character (Coach's niece) who is quite annoying in all the other versions I've seen. The Tomoko character is a nightmare and still super annoying!!

Anyway, I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS to anyone who likes the anime, manga or even the 2019 version. It will just make you angry or if you are better than me you can push your prior knowledge aside and possibly enjoy, I guess.

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Very Enjoyable Movie

So happy I stumbled upon this movie a few months ago on dramacool. I really enjoyed it.

Tha cast was really good and I can see how and why Abe Hiroshi is/was one of the biggest stars in Japan. He's so good and a natural actor. His character here, Hikaru is very likeable and inspired/based on a real person. There's a scene in the movie where his wife ask him why he's doing all this for the kids as they are stangers and he tells her it's b/c they are strangers and people used to just do things for each others b/c that was the way. I wish we could all get back to just being kind and good to one another.

Sakuraba Nanami, plays the young FL, Higa Aya and I really liked her as well. She has a great voice.

The film is not really a tearjerker but I cried my eyes out when Hikaru dies.

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This was another series that started off good but by the 6th episode I was bored or really started to lose interest. Yanuo grew up as a boy but she constantly behaved like a girl which was actually annoying and would be uncharacteristic for someone in her position. I mean this curse she's had to live with up til now would make her more cautious not less even if she was falling in love for the 1st time.

The positives of the series is that the friends and family were accepting of Yanuo and Zi Feng's relationship from the onset even if they were uncomfortable at first. Those aspects of the series were done really well. And we did get some comedy gold out of a lot of the innuendo and compromising positions.

Another really great part of the story was the father/son dynamic between the villian, Han Sheng and his father Wan Hao. Han Sheng was unlikeabke but you understood his motivations. Surprisingly enough I found the climax to that storyline sad but meaningful and well acted.

WHAT I DIDNT LIKE:

The Na Na character was super annoying. I guess we are supposed to like her b/c she is dying but she came across as rude and obnoxious from the onset and I couldn't even care enough about that storyline. I only watched some of those scenes b/c Qing Yang was so damn cute and that was the only way for me to see him.

I also didn't like Du Zi Han sexually harrasing Yanuo or treating Guang Chao like shit just b/c he worked for her. Then they end up together. Definitely didn't like that either not b/c she treated him like shit but b/c she "saw the error of her ways" so that makes it all better but it was just a stupid couple. Not everyone in these thing have to get together.

The soundtrack was too repetitive and the same song seemed to play over almost every scene.

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Choi Min Soo is fantastic

I really wanted to love this series. Kind of reminded me of Vincenzo but more than that I was lookin for another lawyer show to watch. ML was also new to me and I'm quite fond of him now but the best part of the series ended up being the 2ml played by Choi Min Soo. To be honest I hated his character, Ahn Oh Ju and his mannerisms and voice affect were bothersome but over the course of the 16 episodes he grew on me plus his character had some of the best dialogue in the series and some legitimately funny scenes.

I was really digging the show until around the 7/8the episode and at the point all credibiity plotwise went out the window. I was so effing annoyed by the plot changes that while I continued to watch inquiring minds wanted to know WTF were the writer's thinking when they came up with the drastic changes to series in episodes 7 and 8??

I also, need to find shows without a romantic element for some reason lately these romantic entaglements between the ML and FL almost always make a show go down hill.

Overall something to watch once but nothing to write home about!

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Unexpected Tears

OK the ending shocked the hell out of me and maybe I should have seen it coming but I thought someone else was the mastermind behind all of the drama. At any rate, the death of one of the characters crushed me and I bawled my eyes out on this stupid thing.

That being said this was another drama that started off really well and then went downhill fast knocking massive amounts of sense out of the way!!

I really like the actress who plays Detective Yukihira and had not seen her in anything except a romcom and a movie about friendship that I adore. So I figured this would be fairly good too. I liked the idea of a badass female detective showing the boys hows it's done. We get that for the most part especially in the first 5-6 episodes. The series differs from the standard perp of the week formula that a lot of cop/detective shows have. (Well here in the US anyway, haven't watched many Japanese shows like this so bear with me).

The first few episodes were about a serial killer, then a kidnapping and then a finalized revenge plot thrown in for good measure. It all ends up tying together at the end so it was one long full circle story; which thematically went from good to bad to worse.

The acting is really good from Shinohara Ryoko and Nagayama Eita. In fact the best thing about the series is Nagayama. He was great as Ando the young detective who has our heroine's back from all the other testoterone filled cops who don't like her or her methods and I can't wait to see him in other things.

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Sunday Matinee Vibes

I love this story of girlfriends, friendships losing it and yourself and finding both again. Another great cast and both leads are great I love Shinohara Ryoko and I look forward to see the rest of her tv shows and movies. I loved Yuka Itaya as well and the young actresses who played their counter parts. Loved the scene where they got revenge for Yuko and I LMAO at the scene where Nami has beer for the first time.

There are a few slight changes from the Korean version and I like the Korean version better but all in all a really good movie. I cried at the ending like I did at the end of the Korean version.

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The Young Leads are Awesome!

This is a really good movie. It was fun, light and quite charming. I immensely enjoyed, mainly due to the leads, Vivian Sung as Lin Truly and Darren Wang as Tai Yu. Very beliveable in their roles and excellent chemistry. What I also really liked was that it didn't become some love/hate nonsense. They really becomes friends who enjoy each others company. The supporting cast is really good to and it was a nice surprise to see Jerry Yan at the end as the adult Taiyu (I didn't look ast the cast before I watched).

Of course what I didn't like was the new Director of the school. I am never a fan of an educator saying people don't have a right to learn or judging students based on negative perceptions. So glad that wans't the focus.

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Another Disappointing Action Thriller

I really wanted to love this drama. This was my second action thriller (City Hunter was the first) and the first show I've watched with Ji Chang Wook (really enjoyed him first few episodes then his character becomes super annoying too).

I was really excited after watching the first 4 episodes. By the 7th episode everything became cliche and boring and the romance aspects started to kick in which I hated. (that was 10 months ago, I just came back to finish the series). At any rate, the main reason I continued to watch is for Song Yoon Ah. Brilliant and beautiful actress and she was a great villian, as believably sympathetic as she is ruthless. She carried the show. Makes me want to see everthing else she has played in.

Overall I would not recommend.

Can someone recommend a really good action thriller without a stupid romance element that inevitably gets the ML doing stupid shit and ruining the show? I really would like to see one.

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Not What I Expected or Wanted

Whenever I pick a movie I go into it expecting to love it otherwise why pick it?

The plot was my type; jerk rich guy who ultimatey falls for the girl he's treating like crap. The cast was ok but I actually didn't find the ML that attractive and the FL was actually too good for him IMO. That being said, I also feel like there was no real development for the 2 of them to actually fall in love. It seemed like the FL was in love with him from the get go and I did't like that. When she found out he was scamming her she challenged him and then immdiately backed down. I didn't like that either!! The ending was rushed and still didn't lead me to believe the relationship was real.

The disappointment ultimately falls on me. I thought the movie was going to be way cuter and I was going to root for the 2 leads but I really didn't like either one of them.

There are also, way too many gross out scenes 2 of the most agregious were the teacher and the booger and the girl who spit in 2 peoples face. That girl would have been dead where I come from!!!

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