Intriguing drama until almost the end.

It started as a very enjoyable take on what money and greed does to people, the first episodes were full of mystery.
The sister family were little fishes swimming in a tank full of sharks, and you just knew something was off with the Parks, in that feeling of weariness every time they appeared.

Once the drama starts having multiple twists and turns, you just wait for the unavoidable "they are not going to close this perfectly." It's impossible, because there was a lot of stuff that stopped making sense a long time ago.

But I have to say, the drama did try to accommodate almost all the plot points, to write and continue and finish off a somehow believable plot. But I won't lie, a bit of suspension of disbelief is heavily needed, specially towards the end.

I didn't like they used the old "SHE WAS NOT DEAD" soap opera main plot, I think they lost me a little there. I was expecting a final showdown between Hwa Young and Sang A, but it never happened. Furthermore, I was expecting a final showdown between In Kyung and Park JaeSang, but it also never happened. But oh well. It's not as bad as I expected.

That to say, this drama was perfect up until the Singapore episodes, delivering what it is one of the most engaging episodes I've seen lately in any K-drama. To the point at times I was sad it ended, and I am not made for the 1 hour, or 1 hour 20 minutes dramas last.

The downfall of Park Jaesang was perhaps my last favorite moment. The moment Jaesang is out of the pictures, for pretty unclear motives, but still (probably shock value), the drama initiates a total downfall, but still manages to survive.

The acting is impeccable, specially Kim Go Eun and Uhm Ji won deliver an engaging mouse and cat chase. I also enjoyed, to a lesser degree, Ji hyun and Ji hoo performances. And I think they didn't give much chance for other characters to shine more, except maybe Ki Joon.

So, apart from that ending, which I understood at some point, was impossible to be perfect, I will say this has been one of my most enjoyed K-dramas of 2022.

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What's the worst thing that can happen if you write a romantic/melodramatic drama? That the main cast has absolutely no chemistry.
This is what happened here. Unfortunately the main characters were not interesting as separate persons and their relationship had the stupidest problems. To the point in which, there isn't any conflict as to why they can't be together.
So she had an affair with an about to be married man, that turns out was a step-brother of our leading man. Too bad, the affair lasted a summer, and she, unknowingly of his demise, decides she is never going to love again.
But honestly ,her past relationship...like I don't see how it could have haunted her to the point of making her deny any present happiness.

The rest of the characters are no better, the other relationships go from totally toxic, to downright sad, to goofy. But I never got any real interest in any of them.

The only part that made me go back to watch was the fashion related plot, but this was ,at best, 5 mins per episode. Until the last episode. And it was presented as if someone, who was never heard of the fashion world, did a fashion drama. It doesn't really feel real.

If anyone else is here for Sehun, as an EXO-L, I am satisfied by his participation, but it was kept to the minimum. Which is sad because I feel his relationship with the company intern was one of the funniest. But maybe this was because the writers didn't get time to ruin it like most of the drama's relationships

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Simple story, good acting, perfect for a free hour.

The story cannot be more simple, a couple of students want to produce a movie, think they won a grant, are mislead by their college (Honestly, very relatable), and then they proceed to get a famous actress who dated our main character to act in their movie.

No, you will never see the actual movie. This is the process to get to there. In the span of 10 minutes so everything is very concentrated. One could call it a collection of small gags, trying to form a semi coherent story. The story doesn't get more complicated than that, and it's mostly a romantic comedy that tries bits and pieces of different genres.

So what makes me rate it so high? The acting.

The story relies on Do Kyungsoo delivering, and he does. The story relies on his back and forth with Chae Seo Jin, and they do this perfectly, they have one of the best chemistry I've seen Kyungsoo have with a lead lady, apart from, funnily enough, Exo Next door.

While Kyungsoo often gets dramatic roles, I somehow enjoy his comedic acting more. There's something funny in the way he delivers his one - lines and the way he acts during it. Kyungsoo makes 60% of this and Seo Jin the other 40%, their relationship is really enjoyable.

It never gets cringe, or corny, it's always fun and engaging.

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The equivalent of a summer thriller novel.

It's summer, it's hot, you are on holidays on the beach, you got a cheap book at the kiosk, it's a thriller you sit down and read it. You know it's not high literature, but damn is it a page turner? This is exactly what the Frog was to me.

As a short thriller it works, it very well filmed, the locations are beautiful, it keeps the tension and the acting is excellent.

It has its own flaws and some parts of the plot don't work out well, but in general it's very enjoyable. And since it's so short, it's free of filler content that would have maybe dragged the plot too much.

My favorite story was in fact the 2000s murder case, I feel it was better set, the story was darker, and the delivery of the revenge was better. Episode 6 stands as my favorite episode, it's pure action, like almost a spy movie and the build-up, learning that Giho did see HyangCheol, and pay-out, when he calls himself the ghost and Hyangcheol recognizes him, to that small smile on Giho's lips, it's great. That and the conclusion of Giho crying, finally or somehow free of that burden. I don't know, to me, it worked better than the main storyline.

But the main storyline was also great, specially because of the acting between Go Min Si and Kim Yoon Seok,.

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Beautiful drama about friendship and youth.

First of all, the plot can be simple if you think about it in terms of 7 different individuals being friends.

It was beautiful watching them become friends and how the friendships evolved with time. All of their stories are engaging in their own ways, and when the story cannot advance more they just let it go, like it happened with Jeha's and Hwan's backstories.

Acting is extremely on point, I am amazed by how well the 7 boys actors played their roles. Specially Jung Woojin, the boy is extremely unlucky with his acting projects, first of all this one is released in an obscure website that probably has many people not watching, and second, his Aquaman drama is in the limbo due to financial issues. I hope the future is bright for Woojin, the guy made me cry with his backstory.

What I really made me go sad it's the fact that due to the mess this drama has become with the constant reshoots, I heavily doubt we will see season 2, and I think it was calling for a season 2 badly. I know the whole time travelling plot is really complicated in the original story, but I feel we got so many loose ends towards the end, to be completely satisfied. And while I get Hwan manages to time-travel and go back to when they were all friends, and still keeps his memories, I don't know I feel it would have been interesting to watch him try to save his friends. I still don't get why he decided to kill Ceein's mom all the same.

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One thing this drama sets up to do is that it's story is quite simple, it never tries to fall into other drama's gimmicks, like amnesia, moving the plot forward by years, really complicated plots that go nowhere.

In that sense you won't get any BIG reveal, but you will get satisfaction of watching the story unfold.

The acting from all the character is pretty solid, and our main character gets really well treated, and she always delivers.

Apart from that, the story does suffer some twists and turns and it ends up being really confusing. But I applaud them for their simplicity.

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A tour-de-force to end this.

For some unknown reason I forced myself to watch this, and I think I should have dropped it at some point, but I love Soo Young, so I tried to finish it just to watch her acting.

While I feel the Chinese movie has it's own faults, I somehow ended up enjoyed the really silly plot, and I always thought, that even if it wasn't the best acting by all the main actors, Chanyeol and Mabel managed to develop a believable chemistry during it.

Let me tell you, not only there was no need for this to be 16 episodes, the plot was also washed down to make everybody less unsympathetic than in the movie, and in the middle of it, they ended up drawing characters without a personality.

The positives: While I don't like Hoo Joon, the main character, AT ALL, and I didn't even like it when he starts to become less rough, his chemistry with Geun Young is good, their couple was probably the only reason this drama was semi-watchable.
In the beginning, it's fun, it starts as a nice comedy, and the characters are fun.

The negatives: Don't even get me started on the second leads. How Chan Sung managed to say yes to this abusive character is out of my understanding completely.
Their relationship plays a bit like that awful 50 Shades, this is the textbook of "don't have this relationship" for kids, they are two awful people making each other miserable.
All their tries to make the plot longer, and deeper, failed to me. Nothing made sense, they jumped from one thing to the other. Honestly, stick with simple, simple is best.

I am going to hope this is an old drama, and it just had a lot of production problems, and it ended being shown at the wrong time.

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Interesting takes on what could happen in the future,.

Story wise it was pretty strong until the last episodes, where it started ot add too many stuff and became a bit erratic.

Oguri Shun is far from being my favourite J-drama actor, but it has Kagawa Teruyuki and I will never miss a drama or a movie in which he acts.
As always he brings all his kabuki learnt experience, although in a less obvious way that in Hanzawa Naoki.

My favourite story line was the beef between both scientists and it feels it never went anywhere.

I would say until the middle episode it was really interesting.

The final is too nice for my liking, but I am glad they included some kind of warning for what could happen

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This is after all, my own take after watching the drama.

Basically the first part of this drama is excellent.
The actor are amazing and the action is well mixed with other moments so you never get bored.

Now the second part, I dislike how they throw away in 5 minutes at least 2 plot points that were really interesting.

But Ok, maybe they needed more episodes to solve the final plot point which is, after refusing to become the royal concubine for ages, why did Duk Im say yes?

The second part is not as good, as it turns grimmer and grimmer. But it presents a very modern idea that I did not expect to find in a historical drama: power imbalance will never lead to love.
Duk Im has to let go of who she is, and what she believes, and therefore she becomes unhappy. So for almost all of the last part, Duk Im as a character is a melancholic, except for a few happy moments, queen.

The drama takes a really brave moment deciding not to give them a happy ever after, but a "I loved you, but I should have loved myself more". The writers didn't let Duk Im relent, she, until the end, was clear. She may have loved San, but she wasn't happy.

And then we arrive to one thing I really didn't like, what I want to call "The producers ending". The ending for me kind of contradicts the whole tone the drama took.
I would have loved it more if at the end we are transported to the first time they both meet in the palace grounds or somewhere else, but when San is about to call her, he remembers her last words, and she lets her walk away. I think this would have shown a better character evolution of San that the ending of this drama.

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