Trouble-chan

Oh dear, Sheng Peter.....I mean he's a lovely guy, but so painfully shy that he just can't seem to get past it in front of the cameras. It was like watching an emotionless robot when he played the male lead in Pretty Li Hui Zhen. Means I won't get my hopes up for this one....

I've added to my list of movies to watch when I want a dark movie. But thanks so much for all your replies, they really helped me decide. :)

It's on Dramanice now in case you haven't seen it. :)

Agreed about both.

Boss and Me -- the reality at the end is that Shan Shan is really NOT the girl he fell in love with any longer. She's not the innocent little cutie and she's as plastic as the sister and the 'friend' and almost as shallow. NOT what I wanted to see; actually, in all honesty, it made me sad.
I would say that I also did NOT believe the 'friend' fell for Feng Teng's old college pal. I think she was using him to keep herself close to Feng Teng. I bet if something happened between Feng Teng and Shan Shan and they split or, worse, Shan Shan died, she'd be in there faster than a rat up a drain.
To me her 'love' for the college friend was too quick after her life long obsession and stalking of Feng Teng. The 'friend' - I LOATHED her even more than the snidey sister.
I actually like Sheng Peter as a person, particularly as he's painfully shy and both me and my daughter know what that's like. But he was so DIRE in PLHZ. He just couldn't show ANY emotion. He doesn't get any better and when you compare him to his Korean version counterpart you wonder what the makers were thinking. Like you, I hoped the Second Lead (Zhang Vin) had got the girl this time, but sadly it wasn't to be.

ah that makes much more sense, I'm still a tomboy (or, because I'm 52, that should probably be 'tomwoman') and so is my daughter (19). We often wear men's t-shirts, etc because they're really roomy - we're both big busted - and so much more comfortable plus, in my case, I can get the skulls, motorcycles and wolf motifs I like, instead of the tight fitting unicorn stuff that women seem to have aimed at them. So your explanation make so much more sense.

I think it occurred to me because GN and Trans is in our news so much and I wondered if they'd be able to include it or just hint. But you're absolutely right and I should've known that because I've seen Man on High Heels.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply though, it was nice to discuss it with someone. :)

Oh cool, I'm on Viki so YAY! Thanks for the heads up! :)

First things first - I have clicked the SPOILER tag, so this WILL have SPOILERS - read further at your own risk. Oh and these dramas are ADDICTIVE.....I have watched them ALL so MANY, MANY times it's not even funny now.

Boss and Me -- the 'family friend' and the sister deserve shooting. No joke. Happy ending (well, didn't like the way Shan Shan had changed to 'fit in' with his sister and the 'family friend' but other than that it was indeed happy). If you don't want to kill at the very least the 'family friend' by the end then you're not watching it right....seriously, you're not.

Love O2O -- So, in the interest of full disclosure, this was not one of my favourite dramas. It was okay but nothing special.......at least until you get away from the main couple and look at the other stories playing out around them - anyone who has watched this, knows who I'm talking about......KO and Hao Mei. Whether it's a really tight 'Bromance' or, as many of us suspect (or at least wish), a real BL romance, it was THE reason to watch this drama. THE reason, people. The movie version's fine, but the main couple have a lot less chemistry than this version's.

My Sunshine -- the 24 episode version is MUCH better than the condensed 4 episode one, which tries to shove the 24 episode story into the VERY truncated 4 episodes. It doesn't work and you're left with a headache. The upside of the 4 episodes is the adorable Tang Tiffany and broody Chung Wallace also play their younger selves (whereas there's younger actors playing them in the longer version).
His torment over her sort of explains his later behaviour - this is a man who's love was verging on obsession and at the very least was EXTREMELY deep and rooted; he also had had a very tragic life so she was, to an extent, his only lifeline. So, because he suffered when she left, when she came back, he wanted her to suffer too. However, I am in NO way condoning his rough treatment of her, just offering an explanation for it.
Likewise the part mentioned when he finds out she's going away for a photography job and goes a little mental is because he loves her deeply and yet doesn't really trust her yet. This is overcome and they show an increasingly united front as the (longer) drama progresses. The movie version is good too - not as good as this one, but still okay. EVERYONE ends up happy - except Tang's dark secret (however, you even up feeling a bit sorry there). Oh and Tang is a Photography major, not Chemistry.

Love Me if You Dare -- needs a second series; the books have Bo Ji Yan as a genius with a weird 'alter ego' style of hunting the serial killers, etc (or 'the worst of the worst' as it's put in the blurb) and they did sort of introduce that at the end - but it went a bit wrong as everyone now thinks HE'S the bad guy out here in Fan World. So a second series is needed to prove this to be false and get it back on track with the books; which are BRILLIANT.

When a Snail Falls in Love - right this is by the same author who wrote the novel behind 'Love Me if You Dare' (the third book, also a drama, is called 'Memory Lost') . Also stars a 'cold' male lead and odd little female lead that is feisty and not afraid to get her hands dirty. However the female lead in this one is adorably eccentric and her little cartoon drawings are compelling - the opening titles has them and when, a few episodes in, they disappear from the titles the outcry when those episodes aired was LOUD. The romance is a complete slow burn and yet all the more believable for it. It's also nice to see the second lead from LMiYD get the girl here. Happy Endings all round.

I've seen all these - but these are my favourites. Oh another one to give a look-see is Pretty Li Hui Zhen; mainly for the outrageous chemistry between Zhang Vin and Dilmurat Dilraba (sadly Zhang Vin was the SECOND lead.....ARGH!) But yeah, join the rest of us and scream your rage through this drama at the injustice of Vin NOT being the male lead and instead Sheng ('Robot Boy') Peter is. SO unemotional it was painful to watch and how I gave him his nickname.....*face palms* PLHZ is indeed the Chinese version of the Korean comedy romance She Was Pretty.....but the Chinese remake does come off like the poor cousin.

This looks like it might be good - got kne of the lead actors from the 'Seven Days' BL movies in it and he was pretty good in those.

Ooh this looks good despite the summary I get the feeling he's going to be a major anti-hero just by protecting his sister.....can't wait, they're my favourite kind. :)

I'm British and in my country right now there's a lot of dialogue going on about transgender and gender neutrality equality - so that's probably what got me thinking and wondering if Jo Eun is trans or GN? Her style of dress is very tomboyish and her whole attitude is not usual for Korean girls, at least from the dramas I've watched, so even though I'm only a few episodes in I do wonder if there's more to her? Could they do such a thing in a Korean drama? I know that Asia as a whole is not very accepting of the LGBT+ community, so I'm not sure if any producer and/or actor would have the confidence to play this character as trans or GN in the open or whether (as I believe) it's just hinted at.

is it as tough to watch as Snake and Earrings? That was a tough watch in places, especially as I'm really not into S&M. But it was also meaningful as it was deeply disturbing. It had it's own darkness and the tragedy (not as you'd expect) was really haunting. It stuck with me for a few hours after I'd watched it and I admit it's not one I could watch again (as it was I ended up watching it in 3 pieces with a few days between each attempt to finish it). So I'm wondering if Helter Skelter is as disturbing, intriguing and haunting as Snake and Earrings. I have to admit if it's more so I may not go there.....advice would be gratefully received. :)

tleaf - no I'll definitely won't expect too much, but so long as it's better than Death Note, Boys Before Friends (though watching paint dry is better than that) and Possession, it'll still be good.

But thanks so much for the feedback, I'm feeling more confident about watching it and not wanting to scratch my eyes out like with the others. Though, in Possession's defence, if they'd released it with the same ending as the original, which was on the dvd and was really good, the film would've been so much better.

I tend to watch the main film until the alternate ending takes over and then switch to that. :)

Thanks Nancy - I'll keep my eyes peeled for it to arrive on the various sites (fingers crossed). ????

There's three I'm fuming about - the most is Meryem (based on 'Secret' with the always wonderful duo of Ji Sung and Hwang Jung Eum. Who are surely South Korea's Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn?)

This was a really good drama and one I've re-watched often. I sincerely doubt, looking at the cast and having a google of them on the world wide interweb, that they will be able to recreate the wonderfulness of this drama. I'm usually a HUGE fan of Ji Sung, but in the early episodes I wanted to kill him such was his skill and the same goes for Bae Soo Bin - I have NEVER anyone to suffer a slow lingering and extraordinarily painful death as the character he portrayed.

Another one I'm annoyed about is Maral (based on Panda and Hedgehog) . The South Korean version was a diamond in the rough and I was surprised at how good it was (the poster and synopsis didn't really give too much away). I laughed and cried, gasped and booed and followed the cute couple and their complicated lives closely, right to the end. I sincerely doubt the chemistry between the lead couple will be here as it was in the original.

Finally and the one that makes me almost as annoyed as Meryem (Secret') is No: 309 (using 'Fated to Love You' as it's based). Now both the originals - South Korean and Taiwanese - kept to the story which was....poor, UGLY girl has one night stand with rich, handsome douche - subsequent hilarity, tears and romance ensue. Though I loved them both, the laugh of Jang Hyuk in the Korean one drove me NUTS. I would literally mute the sound as soon as he started in the end because otherwise my eye would start to twitch and I'd involuntarily snarl....scary, right? However, the ending was happy, despite me crying buckets of tears in the run up to it.

The ONE message I adored the most with both versions was that LOOKS do NOT matter - in both cases the lead fell for her even though she was originally dowdy and plain and even later on isn't as stunning as his ex fiancee. She was pretty, had a warm heart, kind and thoughtful and it was the LATTER two attributes that he really fell for.

However the Turkish version (No:309) has a clearly stunning woman from the get go playing the island girl from the original - which immediately REMOVES the MOST important part of the story.

There's one I WILL watch (if I can - thankfully Netflix UK has Turkish dramas as well as South Korean, Chinese and other Asian ones so they might turn up there), Seviyor Sevmiyor (based on 'She was Pretty' - I can't believe they'll screw it up worse than the Chinese version did by casting Sheng Peter as the lead love interest 'Bai Hao Yu').

But I'll probably watch the ones that annoy me most - I want to say it's because I'm fair minded and want to give them a chance to prove me wrong. But, if my honest, it's more that then I can feel justified in my rage. lol!

amourexdile -- you didn't just dodge a bullet, you dodged a whole machine gun magazine! Yup agreed, I tend to watch each Asian countries version of dramas, not least Itazura na Kiss, as it really gives you an insight into the country's attitudes to couples, love, romance and family life. :) But I often avoid western versions, still hearing others say how good the Good Doctor US version is means I will probably watch this one.

tleaf -->Watch this review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl6btU2QgHI < -
I am definitely going to watch that review. Hopefully they can invent words for the badness of Netflix's Death Note. I usually ADORE Netflix UK because they put so many East Asian dramas on for us - but that crime against anime and manga could NOT be forgiven....lol!

>Good Doctor<
We won't be getting the US version here in the UK until 18th October, but seeing the comments here gives me faith this is one drama they won't wreck. :)

>1% dramas<
I agree that the music for the remake was out of context a lot - which is a shame as the East Asian dramas have some really good ORIGINAL music in them. Most notably (for me anyway) was Goblin....just wonderful music.
I liked the original as I felt the actors just made their portrayals that bit more believable than the remake actors did. Just my opinion though. :)

I REALLY want to watch this - it looks very cute and although I haven't seen it yet I already want a second season!❤️

So sounds like it's similar to Outlander...hope it will better than that confused borefest though.

I cannot WAIT - I LOVED the first series.....❤️

This looks adorable!❤️