TL;DR - A predictable but cute story about a makeshift family and how you should take responsibility for your mistakes. If you like drama and chaos, this is not for you. But if you like minimal drama and maximum cuteness, this is a good one for that. Personally, I didn't enjoy watching this. Beware of clingy 2nd leads.

I came into this lakorn after coming off a particularly intense slap/kiss and wanted to watch something fun and easy. This lakorn had been on my radar for awhile and I've always wanted to watch something with Baifern in it, so I decided to give this a go. Needless to say, I got what I asked for although it was unfortunately to a fault and I will explain why below.

One of my biggest pet peeves are 2nd leads that are clingy/don't know when to quit. This was very pronounced in Ji and Aff; two crappy people who both didn't know how good they had it until they lost it. Both were fooling themselves into thinking that the main leads still had a thing for them and relentlessly tried going after them, even when the leads themselves told them to back off and that they didn't see them that way. I could feel more sympathy for Ji (although not very much) since he did do a lot to help Kot, but overall he was immature and I didn't see the point of him going after Kot when the end game was Kot and Kit. He could see that Kot was falling for Kit, and him to her, but still tried to butt in. I just feel in these situations, for their own dignity, that characters should just accept what they've lost and move on. Yeah that might make things less dramatic but I would admire the character more and instead of him being this player, I wish they focused on him being a better person and dad.

The romance of the main leads hit off with a bang and initially I was very invested. It was obvious that they were both very into eo even before they got married, and both have good chemistry with each other. But here's where things went wrong with me; I could see it. About halfway through the series, I could see that Kot and Kit would go through whatever trials and in the end be together no matter what. You could argue that all dramas are like this and I completely agree, but what makes it fun and engaging is the way that we get there. Their relationship got really predictable and unfortunately I wasn't very invested in their romance. When I realized this, I lost interest and just kept watching to see how it ended.

I also wanted to add that there was too much repetitiveness with the 2nd leads constantly interfering with the main leads. It took up way too much time and I felt it should've been for developing the relationship between our two leads.

I liked our leads and I liked them together. They were both honest and loyal with each other. However I didn't like how Kit would wait for Kot to make the first move after an argument, and how he kissed her when she was asleep. This was balanced by how Kit made the effort to make Moji closer to him, and how he made the effort to be a happy family. I also loved the conversation about how Kot felt she was useless like sand, but Kit would disagree and say how sand is really important. They kept each other in mind and I thought it was well done.

I also liked the 2ndary cast, and how each lead (Kit, Kot and Ji) had their own adviser in the form of secretary and friends. I liked how each gave good advice and came to help our leads when things went wrong. My favorite from the 2ndary cast was the kid character; I really liked how they didn't make her talk at all and let her do her own thing. I usually don't like kid characters and was preparing myself for this one, but they let her be and had the actors act around her.

As a side note, I really enjoyed Baifern's acting here. I've heard she's a good actress, and I'm glad I wasn't proven wrong. She's able to make you feel what she feels and can emote very well. Her expressions of sadness, devastation, happiness, being in love and many more are nuanced and not over the top. I especially loved her scenes when she met her real mom and her reaction felt very realistic and relatable to me. That's why when compared to Dan's acting, Dan did not deliver as much as she did. There were times where Dan had the gravitas of a ML, but others where he didn't. At best it was passable. I wished they'd casted an actor on a similar level as Baifern although I'm not sure if GMM could've casted anyone any better.

The music was okay here and played appropriately. I did feel weird that the main theme song wasn't played during the series, just only background music (which makes an already average lakorn not memorable). I wouldn't re-watch. If you like easy breezy, feel-good rom-coms with minimal drama and cute leads, I'd say give it a watch. If you like something more dramatic or are looking for something unique, then I don't recommend it.

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TL;DR - A pretty enjoyable slap/kiss lakorn. The last episode could've used more work as well as the romance, but it's not so bad that you can't enjoy the deliciously chaotic mess this is. If you like this genre, I'd totally recommend!

Against my better judgment, I enjoyed watching this. Like a lot more than I thought I would. I initially went into this thinking it was another kidnapping island slap/kiss lakorn with terrible characters and plot. Which if it was, it would've been fine by me as I only watch these as a guilty pleasure and don't expect anything deep or complicated. But this lakorn managed to subvert my expectations, and I would like to list some of the things this subverted from the typical slap/kiss clichés you'd expect:

1. a) The ML actually had a good reason and was "justified" in his kidnapping of the FL (I put this in quotations because in reality, kidnapping is never the answer. But this is a slap/kiss so I'm not gonna criticize something I know is a part of the story). I felt pretty awful at the way his sister died and there was so much shit that he was dealing with that the kidnapping felt warranted. By the way, Akkee was a complete psychopath in the lakorn, and watching him was like witnessing a car crash; it's terrible but you can't look away. He was hella entertaining and I couldn't take my eyes off him when he was being so bad (eg. lying to his gf/best friend's face about kidnapping Chabaa with a straight face). It also helps that he's surrounded by people who will call him out on his bullshit and question his cruelty. I could understand why he was pushed to that point and felt sympathy for him, which was absent for the MLs in other lakorns I've watched that are similar to this.

1. b) This is also the first lakorn with this plotline where the ML gets arrested and actually goes to jail for what he did (albeit for a short while). I was so happy when I saw that. I was also happy to see that the ML regretted his actions (and reflected on them) when he found out the truth and apologized to the FL and others he had hurt.

2. Our FL Chabaa can be too nice at times, but is not a doormat and can talk back/fight Akkee when needed. A lot of times in these types of lakorns, the FL has spunk but falters against the aggressiveness of the ML, which I get, but can be disheartening to see. However, Chabaa really stays true to herself and keeps fighting Akkee even when he's being aggressive towards her. She holds herself well against him and it makes for a better watch, especially when she's being sarcastic towards him. I also liked how she was honest with herself and took time in accepting her feelings for Akkee while also consistently rejecting Sarut, who would've been an easy way out from loving Akkee. As I'm typing this, I think I liked Chabaa a lot more than I thought haha. I credit this to the actress, who was a big part in making her character so alive and likable. 

3. Little overacting, good pacing and sensible characters with self-awareness. Oh man, it was shocking to me that there were not that many overacting/extreme reactions from our characters. When they were dealt with shocking situations, it would be me having my jaw dropped to the floor while the characters on screen just carried on like it was normal. Things were so messed up, but it was so so good. What helped me stop dwelling on the fact that things were messed up was the great pacing; scenes changed from one thing to another that felt seamless, and allowed enough time to digest what was going on, but not too long where it'd feel drawn out. Again, it was like watching a car crash. The sensibility of all the characters also added to how fun this was to watch; there wasn't a lot of convenient loss of logic or pretending that things were ok when they actually weren't (eg. 2nd ML/Chat knowing he was drugged by the villain, Adun saying to Akkee he knows he kidnapped Chabaa, Dad knows Chat is lying about knowing where Chabaa is). Things don't go on as I expect and it kept me interested enough to quickly click on to the next episode.

I honestly would've rated this higher, but there are two big things holding me back which is the romance and that last episode. I'm pretty disappointed with the romance, as it had the potential to be a good one and both leads had good chemistry with eo. The transition from hate to love was also done very well. But  they spent too much time on Chabaa accepting her feelings for Akkee and drama with the side characters instead of focusing on Akkee proving himself to Chabaa and developing their relationship (this was in the last third of the lakorn). Especially in that last episode ugh, it was so half-assed. Scenes were not in order and it felt like everything was rushed just to finish the lakorn. We see Akkee in the last half of the episode going from self pity to somehow conveniently being with Chabaa, forcing a kiss on her, saying their I love yous and then looking off in the distance. Like wtf? I was so confused. It was an anti-climatic end to a mostly fiery lakorn. 

Overall I still unexpectedly enjoyed this lakorn a lot. It's a well made slap/kiss lakorn. Music was good and appropriately played (except there was this one BGM where the chorus part sounded purposefully out of tune...). If you like slap-kiss lakorns, then I would totally recommend you watch. I wouldn't personally re-watch just because I don't tend to re-watch stuff and this doesn't have anything that would bring me back.

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TL;DR - A C-drama where the plot was overshadowed by the adorably sincere romance between our leads. Beware of character lobotomy from our FL in the latter third of the drama.

I started watching this after watching a previous drama with Rosy Zhao, and I watched it not expecting that I would like her pairing here better than in her other drama.

I feel like as a drama reviewer, there comes a point where your logical and emotional opinions collide; do you rate a drama because it makes logical sense and is innovative, in a sea of irrational, poorly-written dramas? Or do you rate base on the feels it gives you and how well you can relate to its characters? Ultimately, it depends on what you think is more important, and this is why there's a such wide variety of opinions on the same drama because people's preferences are different.

I'm only bringing this up because overall, I think the story line of her other drama was better developed and had better flow, but this drama gave me more feels and I was more emotionally invested into this drama than the other one.

Previous reviews will tell you that they watched this for the main couple and I'm no exception - they were easily the best part of this show. That's not to say that the story was bad, but rather it was overshadowed by the romance. I actually think the set-up of this drama was unique from the get go, like having our male lead as a villain and having our female lead first fall in love with the second male lead. As it continued to progress, I actually think there was a decent story being unfolded and you really see the character developments in the majority of the cast. I especially enjoyed watching Chunhua develop from this love-sick, foolish girl to a more mature, cautious person who's more careful with her heart. It actually explores an interesting topic of what we consider good or bad; is a person bad for committing crimes to survive in a dog-eat-dog world? Or is a person good for thinking of the greater good at the expense of the people he loves? You will see different characters that have different views on what's important and there's truly never a "bad person" in this drama.

This dichotomy of good vs evil is effectively demonstrated in our male leads; Qiu Yue would literally destroy the world to protect Chunhua and to him, nothing else matters other than being with her. Xiao Bai does love Chunhua, but her needs are an afterthought to upholding justice and keeping the peace of the world. I loved how much Qiu Yue cared for Chunhua even when she was being unreasonable to him, and how he was the overall master manipulator behind all the events that happened (I also really liked their brother-sister dynamic - usually this sort of set-up makes me cringe but here it worked. And no, they're not real siblings lol).

Now on to some reasons why I didn't rank this higher. The biggest reason is that they took way too long to find the bad guy and the stuff revealed at the end just felt anti-climatic. I also felt that for how much they hyped up the longevity nut and how it essentially causes chaos and death everywhere, the story-line for that ended on a whimper too. The story doesn't have good flow and doesn't really start until episode 8. I also didn't appreciate the way the writers made Chunhua leave QY - I think it was granted, given how he manipulated her in the beginning, but to do so at the words of the guy who legit tried to kill QY doesn't make sense.

Overall, I really didn't expect to love the romance here the way I did, but it really grew on me and the actors were able to pull it off very well. Music was played appropriately here and I really like the theme song sung by the male lead. I will certainly re-watch for the Chunhua x Gege scenes and would recommend you check this out if you have the time.

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TL;DR - A good slap kiss with great eye candy in our leads. More or less a good one time watch, just because it's hard to suspend your belief the second time around with the hijinks that occur.

I was conflicted on whether to give this a 7.5 or 8 - ultimately I decided to score it higher because I really did enjoy watching the lakorn when it aired and it was the first one where I was watching it live (so I actually had to wait for new episodes, check for spoilers on Twitter and obsessively refresh the translator's page haha). Overall it was entertaining and the story is pretty cohesive, though there are two major things in the story/characters that threw me off and I think would throw everyone off.

1. The infamous beginning. Tbh, there was no rhyme or reason for why Prin chose to believe a stranger and do what he did to Mitra. Especially since later he does all these nice and thoughtful things that completely contradicts how he was in ep 1. Granted, he does feel guilty about it and somehow that guilt forms into love (which I don't 100% buy into bc I think love happens when you get to know someone. But it didn't deter me from believing in his love for her.). Honestly, the fact that Prin apologized, begged Mitra for forgiveness, felt guilt and had her best interests at heart makes him leaps and bounds better then some pra'eks I've seen in the past (where they do that sh*t and don't apologize or feel guilt for what they did to the FL). In retrospect, this is a pretty sad standard to have in today's day and age, but I get that slap-kiss lakorns tend to be like this. For what it's worth, I like that they showed a pra'ek that did that, and showed how he tried to redeem himself to a well earned forgiveness. So Prin gets a gold star from me.

2. Mitra forgiving Prin early on in the series. This honestly threw me off and I had seen this in the previews, but was hoping it wouldn't go down the way it did. It confused me bc Mitra was all about hating on Prin and never forgiving him for what he did, so it really surprised me that after him saving her that one time, she was willing to forgive him. Then Prin pulls a noble idiot on her and she really ramps up her anger and hatred for a long while after. I felt like this should've been switched; if Mitra had all that anger and unwillingness in the beginning, but then saw how good Prin was, it would've made more sense that she was changing her mind about him. This was just a part of the lakorn I couldn't think about too hard, otherwise it would've ruined the watching experience for me.

Past those two points, I really enjoyed the romance. I loved how Prin saw Mitra as his whole world and just adored her. I love how he went against his dad to get Mitra's dad's permission in trying to court her. I also liked how Mitra didn't make it easy for Prin - I know some viewed her actions as extreme and immature. I think that was intentional - to me it looked like Mitra was so blinded by her anger to Prin that it caused her to lose sight of what was really important and be really biased of Prin's intentions to her. But when Na calls her out her behavior and she finally allows herself to accept her feelings for Prin, it makes for a pretty sweet journey to their HEA.

My favourite characters are the 2ndry couple, and surprisingly Prin's dad. Shoutout to Pam for being a great villain. I loved Chen's actor in another lakorn, so I was a little sad that he was a playboy in the beginning. But I loved how he saw what he was doing was wrong and genuinely tried to change himself and work hard, and dumping that b Pam on her butt. Na is an amazing character as well, blunt and very wise, and just someone you want to have in your corner. I was very happy they both got together. Prin's dad was a surprise to me, because I was actually touched watching him turn from a villain to someone with regret who just wants to be a better person.

I thought the music was well done here and played appropriately. I really like the two main songs and have them in my playlist.

All in all while I certainly enjoyed watching it, I don't think I would rewatch. Maybe for the Prin +Mitra parts, but the two aforementioned problems I had with this lakorn will bother me too much. For me, it's a good one time watch lakorn. I also feel a little guilty for saying this, but as much as I like Kem and Mookda in this lakorn, I felt like an older pair would've made this lakorn a bit more believable to watch (K+M look too young to have kids). But I think they did well in their roles and if you don't mind the beginning, then I'd recommend you watch.

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TL;DR - A cute story about a girl finding her dad. A pretty easy watch, but not without some bumps in the beginning. The real draw of the show is our ML and how he gets the girl.

This is a cute story about a girl who sets off to find her dad and the surprises that come along with it. I thought the plot was pretty straight-forward and heart-warming, and definitely my favorite parts of the show was the moments when Nara was with her dad. Both clearly have trauma concerning the situation that caused him to leave her when she was young which was sad, but just made it that much better when they found each other again. The drama concerning Nara's family made a good watch, although I could've honestly done without her mother. Her mom was my least liked character in the show with how selfish she was, although she did redeem herself a little in the end. I guess I can't really blame her for how she is without mentioning the grandpa, who enabled her behavior. But still.

The baddies in this show are kind of a joke. Everybody pretty much knows how bad they are (which makes Nara's mom look even more stupid for being with the dad baddie) and their role was just to be the baddies and give the show more plot than just a girl finding her dad. Both were dumb and more or less got their just desserts at the end.

Now the star of the lakorn is obviously our ML, Singh. Singh is just soooo swoony and the ideal male lead; he's devoted to our FL, supports her in every way, is pushy but not aggressive, not afraid to tell her his feelings, mature and is just a straight up good guy. It's endearing to watch him love and care for Nara and it makes me wish I could find my own Singh in real life. That's why I feel bad when Singh pours out his heart to Nara and she just...nods. I felt like Nara was very restricted in telling her feelings to Singh, although I guess some of her actions did make me believe she cares for him. Regardless, I wish she would affirm his feelings and not look so awkward when he's affectionate to her.

I will warn you that if you plan to watch this, Nara is kinda annoying in the first three episodes. I like to think it's out of desperation for her dad, although I wish she handled that whole situation better and was less stubborn. After episode three she does mellow out more but doesn't lose her backbone. She's also super cute and small, which makes the height difference between her and Singh adorable haha.

I really liked the music here, I felt the songs fitted the theme of the lakorn very well. The song sung by the young girl and her dad was my favorite out of all of them. If you're looking for an easy-breezy show with sweet romance then I'd recommend you watch this. I don't rewatch things often, but if I were to I'd rewatch for the Singh + Nara moments. 

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TL;DR - Beginning is decent, but the ending is a bit sloppy. The ML and some supporting characters will for sure test your patience. The only thing carrying this lakorn is the chemistry and dynamic between our leads.

Well this was one hell of a roller coaster ride. For once my emotions were played with, from being very happy to almost wanting to rage quit this lakorn for giving me pain after tasting a bit of sweetness. I was also at a point where I thought most of the characters could go jump off a cliff for all I cared because they were doing just the worst stuff. Alas, I was able to continue on because I was curious to see how far Peat would take his revenge and wanted to see him change for real. I also wanted to see how the other characters developed and if the terrible trio (Peat, Chaya, + Kriss) they get their comeuppance (which spoiler alert; Peat kinda does, others don't).

So Peat. Wow this guy is quite the mess up. He actually gave me Kawee vibes from Sawan Biang in that both were mistreated by their dads and grew up with hatred of the world, not trusting anyone (I’d argue Peat had his mom at least but she used him as a pawn against his dad, so she’s not any better). Peat is always blaming his misfortune on others, and really only knows how to hate and get revenge. Usually I hate male leads like this, but you do get to see his vulnerability in that he wants to be loved and was really hurt by his dad's mistreatment of him and his mom. While it doesn’t excuse him from being a terrible son and husband (I was really pissed that he hurt Kiew over and over when things seemed to get better), I was rooting for him to move on from the past and find happiness with Kiew. I really wish he was able to move on sooner instead of dragging it out, because when he finally did change it was a little too late. I was too suspicious that Peat would just relapse again and I would be burned over it.

In regards to Chaya, for the most part I just felt sorry for her. She was completely blinded by her love for Peat and it didn’t help that he deceived and used her feelings as part of his revenge. Seriously, Peat is an a hole for doing that although Chaya should’ve known better and realize Peat had no love for her whatsoever. I’m also annoyed that she doesn’t really learn her lesson; she’s still rude and spoiled and has the gall to ask Kiew to give Peat back to her after he clearly tells her he loves Kiew and not her. She randomly gets cancer which I suppose is her retribution but it would’ve been better if she realized what she did was wrong, apologize and try to right her wrongs.
I also gotta talk about Kriss; I spent most of the lakorn conflicted on whether I liked him or not. He gave me shady vibes from the beginning and here's the thing: I get where he's coming from. Peat is a bad friend to everyone but is even more so because he uses Chaya, who Kriss likes. In the moment where it seemed like Peat chased her away, Kriss did everything he could to comfort and help her get over Peat which is why when it was all a lie, it got him raging mad. Mad to the point of revenge, though the way he did so was extreme and very low (embezzling, leaking harmful news, lying, kidnapping and shooting at people). However I can't completely hate him because he's not really a bad guy, he's just blinded by his rage. I can appreciate how he tells others how the situation really is eg telling Chaya she's being used. I just wish the show did a better job with Kriss, making him pay for his crimes and being his own person instead of sticking to Chaya. Bleh.

I have no bad things to say about Kiew; I was only really annoyed that her dad was making her patch things up with Peat. I felt like she shouldn't have responsibility to try and "fix" him, however it showed me how she deeply she was willing to work things out with Peat. She was stubborn, fought back with him and was able to understand him more than he could himself. I really admired that about her. Her bulls*** tolerance was really high, but when it reached the breaking point oh boy did she snap. I deeply relished how she ignored Peat and stopped caring for him (as a wife), and stood by it. She did it for a lot longer than I expected and I really have to give her kudos for standing her ground.
I like the dad a lot; yeah he made mistakes, but he spent a lifetime making up for it. Even when he found out Peat wasn't his son, he still treated him like one and loved him. He's an awesome dad to Kiew too. He's also a lot smarter than I gave him credit for LOL.
The biggest surprise is how much I loved the side characters, Pa and Khata. Two kick-ass friends who had the most common sense out of everyone, and prioritized their friendships over anything. Both fought for their friends and are the kind of friend that everyone should have. I'm glad they had each other when their friends were being screw-ups. Man also plays a saxophone! *swoon* Their bickering was something I looked forward to and lowkey was a little more excited about their coupling then the main couple.

Overall this was a wild ride and I'm glad I made it to the end. The story was pretty decent but got real draggy near the end, tho it was tolerable bc of the OTP. The chemistry between the leads is undeniable (so much touching! lots of kisses (and they're real lip to lip instead of the forehead or weird camera angle!)) and I'm super glad they'll be teamed up for another one. Music was great, and I'd definitely watch for the OTP moments along with Pa/Khata. Would recommend with reservations.

Edit: After thinking about it for awhile, I have to admit that the story of this lakorn was worse than I gave it credit for. If I hadn't spoiled it for myself about halfway through, I definitely would hate Peat more because he continuously hurts Kiew and can't grow up for shit till the end. Also while the beginning and midway point of the lakorn was decent, the endpoint was quite sloppy and not very cohesive. Overall I still say you should watch this tho mainly for the coupling of the leads.

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I wasn't expecting to be wowed by this lakorn (especially since it's the end of the year) but To Sir, With Love proved me wrong. It's probably the best I've seen this year and exceeded my expectations. I got into it because I saw that Film, who only starred in boy/girl dramas before, was actually going to be in a BL and was curious to see how it would go. I'm very glad I took that chance, otherwise I would've missed out on a very well acted and well produced show.

1. Story
The story was complex, engaging, and had great pacing. It was very obvious that a lot of care went into how it was edited and delivered. Having this sort of LGBT+ plotline set in a historical time could've easily gone wrong, but it wasn't the case here. The historical aspect greatly enriched the story and provided much of the character's justification for their actions. It was also quite unpredictable, and major actions actually had major consequences. I think what really made this stand out was how it was really a lakorn made for a modern audience; even though this is set in an older time, there are modern ideals that are cleverly interwoven where it didn't feel out of place and greatly appealed to me as a viewer of today. 

2. Leads 
Before I get into Tian and Yang, I just want to say that I consider Li (T's mom), Jao Sua Song (T's dad) and Chan (Y's mom) to also be the main leads, and would actually put Jiu and Ying Pin as 2ndary leads. Because without them, there would be no richness in this drama and no believable way to move the plot forward. When I saw that P'Pok would play Li, I knew she would kill it and boy she didn't disappoint. She is an amazing actress, able to pull off so many emotions and make me simultaneously empathize and hate her. Her look when she found Tian and Jiu together made me laugh for days. I adore her and she looked so fab in her Chinese outfits. Jao Sua Song was a surprise since I didn't expect much but his voice is so enchanting and he is surprisingly level-headed, intelligent and can admit he's wrong (can we pleaseee have more dads like this in Thai dramaland). I didn't like Chan as much as the first two but she was a convincing antagonist and it was enough for me.

I thought that this was Film's finest acting to date; previous dramas I've seen him in were just okay. Here he conveyed Tian's sensitive and gentlemanly manner so flawlessly and pretty much acted his pants off as Tian. Yang's actor was also good, although his role was written so well that it would've been hard for him to mess up. The brotherly relationship between Yang and Tian was a major highlight and mood booster for me while watching this, and I'm glad they both stayed loyal to each other till the end.

3. Secondary Cast
I don't have any complaints about the 2ndary cast; all acted well and added to the plot. I liked that Ying Pin wasn't your typical flower girl, but was sassy and intelligent. I also like that Jiu wasn't just a cold assassin, but was willing to open his heart and be desperate in his love for Tian. The rest of the cast, from the house servants to the members of the Five Dragons Association were fun to watch and really lit up the world inside the lakorn.

4. Romance
I wasn't sure if the drama could carry out a convincing BL love story, but I was wrong and the romance hit me in all the feels. This is the kind of love story I love where the two leads meet and there's a spark, but it's not until they get to know each other that the spark becomes a firework. Although this was a love story between two men, I liked how the focus was more on how they were just two people who fell in love, irrespective of their gender. This couldn't have gone so well without the two actor's commitment to the roles, from how you could see Tian light up when Jiu was around, to Jiu doing things for Tian that suggested that his love for Tian was deeper than we thought. I think my only gripe with this is that I felt like there was some missing info for how Jiu accepted being with Tian despite both being men; there wasn't an internal struggle shown that I'd expect men of this time to have, especially when being gay was unheard of.  Regardless, well done to Film and Jam for maturely and beautifully carry out a convincing love story. 

5. Overall
This was a visually appealing drama, from the vibrant colours and patterns in the background, to the clothes that everyone was wearing. The music was amazing (I have Ice and NuNew's songs on my playlist) and played appropriately. This was a wonderful watch with great storytelling, acting, romance and much more. I highly recommend you give it a go and I will certainly re-watch this on my own time.

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I pretty much started watching this because of the YouTube fan vids and overall, I really enjoyed what I watched. However there were quite a fews bumps, especially with the story, that prevented me from savoring it as much as I wanted to.

The story and some of the characters are what I have major issues with. Here are some of the problems I had:
1. Pacing. In the first 20 or so episodes, I was really impressed with the pacing. Events unfolded much faster than I anticipated and it made for a very engaging watch. They pretty much finished the entire synopsis of the story within that time frame and it made me think there was much more to come. Unfortunately that's where I was wrong; the pacing slowed down noticeably during the mortal arc (about halfway through the drama), and there was (IMO) way too much time spent here. I also felt some conflicts were drawn out much longer than they should've and some just became so predictable that I ended up fast-forwarding until the arc was over. I also didn't care much for the Shang Ling storyline after the mortal arc. The ending also seemed rushed and left a lot of unanswered questions. The pacing didn't get back on track for me until the last 10 episodes or so, by which at that point I was relying on the OTP and 2ndary OTP to carry that last section so I wouldn't get bored.

2. The villains. Specifically Yuan Tong and Zhong Hao (more on Jing Xiu later). I felt like these characters lived too long and were milked out as the bad guys through the entire show. I almost felt bad for YT being the punching bag of the whole drama, but she really was a bad person. Her clan must've really saved the world or something for her to continuously get pardoned when she really should've died early on. We don't even get to see her die; she kills herself off camera, which is so cheap (I was hoping to see Jiu Chen kill her ugh). Zhong Hao was also someone who should've died early on but again got stretched out to carry on being the villain until Jing Xiu took over.

3. Fake-outs. What I mean by this is that a character would say something is impossible and the leads shouldn't do that thing, but inevitably the leads do that impossible thing and conveniently gets out ok. I can't count how many times Si Ming would constantly warn Jiu Chen not to interfere with Ling Xi's trials or bad things will happen to her but he still can't leave her alone (once or twice was ok, but more than that was pushing it) and still makes it out fine. These types of situations happen a lot in the last half of the drama that made me take situations less seriously and I just couldn't think too much about it or I'd go crazy.

But I still finished this drama and I really liked it. Here are the things that kept me going:
1. Our leads, obviously. Their love story was pure and beautiful and I was doubtful at first because of how much older and colder Jiu Chen was. But wooow we really see how Ling Xi melts his hearts and how they would both do anything to protect and be together. I was quite moved by their love story, although I was quite miffed when Ling Xi pushed Jiu Chen away after the mortal arc; while her reasoning was valid, I wish it was executed better. I also wish their ending was better; it wasn't bad per se, but as someone commented it was like getting a snack when I was really craving a meal. They had a happy ending but it was kinda anti-climatic. I also wanted more OTP scenes when they reunited (I also felt cheated out of seeing them get married lol).

2. 2ndary OTP and side characters; most were amazing and kept me watching. I loved Qing Yao and Yun Feng's love story although again, I wish we had more OTP scenes from them. I also really liked Si Ming and Shi San, and wished we could've seen them grow to love each other. I also really appreciated that the Heavenly King here was a wise leader with sympathy, and had the best interests of our leads at heart. 

3. Jing Xiu. He really is an enigma, in the sense that he's not a completely bad or good person. I went through a wave watching him; I liked him in the beginning as a morally grey advisor, then hated him when he was pining over Ling Mo, then I felt pity for him in the end. He was really dealt with a bad hand in life and did what he could to survive. I agree with him being the main villain, although this should've happened much earlier and with better conviction; at that point, he became the demon king because he saw no other way out. I wanted to see his redemption and wished the writers gave him some sort of an ending because we don't even know what happens to him after he gets sealed up. 

I loved the music in this show, no question. It was beautiful and guided the mood very well. I pretty much have most of the songs in my playlist.

If they had cut some episodes, and refocused on our main leads, this would've made a better watch. But I'm still happy with what I got because I was ultimately here for the OTP and got a wonderful, heart-wrenching love story from them. I will certainly re-watch for them and would recommend you watch too, although with caution regarding the story pacing.

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TL;DR - I really wouldn't recommend you watch this unless you like the lead actors. In my opinion this was a terrible remake and the 2002 version was much better.  

Alright, so off the bat this was a very difficult and strenuous lakorn for me to get through. I usually start off the review with things I liked or appreciated, but for this lakorn I truly cannot think of any good thing I enjoyed. I do have some honourable mentions, one being Tor (2nd ML) and Neung's mom. Both were the most sensible characters out of everyone in the show and I could connect with them. Everything else just did not work for me. So with that being said, let's go on to the things I didn't like.

The story was very dry, repetitive and had a lot of filler. The same cycle of events kept repeating throughout the lakorn (eg. Kong's aunt and Fah scheme something and they mess up every time, but still get away with it and scheme again) and the same conflict between Kong/Neung kept re-hashing itself to the point where I just wanted them to go their separate ways and never see each other again. You better believe I had my FF button for the majority of this. I also felt that there was a major inappropriate use of music here; scenes that were supposed to be serious or foreboding would mainly have this upbeat music that irritated me a lot. An example I'll give is when happy, upbeat music played over the r*** scene between Kong and Neung and romanticized it, which made me feel disgusted. Simply put, I felt this was a poorly executed story and the editing was very substandard.

I honestly didn't like either of our leads, Kong and Neung. Kong was a deceptive, selfish manipulator and his love for Neung came out of nowhere; sure there were moments that he looked guilty for what he was doing, but then why does he feel guilty? There isn't any meaningful interaction between them that would make me believe that he changed his mind. This was the same issue I had in the 2002 ver, but I could ignore it there whereas here it bothered me. He couldn't take no for an answer, and forced himself numerous times on Neung which made me dislike him a lot. As for Neung, I did initially sympathize with her but after the reveal, she couldn't decide whether she still loved Kong or not. She hated him but then would get emotional and teary when he was with other women. A big part of why I didn't like her is also due to Lily's portrayal (I didn't like Push's either), which I will discuss later. 

The romance was pretty much dead on arrival after the big plot point was revealed. Again, I didn't understand where Kong's love for Neung came from, and him desperately trying to get her back would've been touching if it weren't for the fact that she showed no love for him at all. There was very little romance, no chemistry and no scenes of them being truly happy together and understanding eo; it was buried by continuous misunderstandings and schemes. So Kong being desperate and shedding his pride while Neung just wanted to get away as far as possible made him look like a loser to me. The betrayal was something that ruined their relationship and nothing happened that could make me believe it was something they could get over. They were better off not together, and it was really telling to me when I started to ship Neung with Tor, which I never considered when I watched the 2002 version. 

I was surprised I had such a tough time watching this version because I remember enjoying the 2002 version a lot. I went back to watch the 2002 ver and I've made my own conclusions below on why this 2015 remake didn't work for me, but the 2002 one did.

1. 2015: "Can I copy your homework?"
2002: "Sure but change it so it's not obvious."
If you know this meme then you understand where I'm going with the above statements. The 2015 show was an almost exact repeat of 2002, which is not what a remake is supposed to do. You're supposed to change certain things to fit in the time period it's airing because the audience and the times have changed. The few things they chose to change didn't make sense (they made Kong r*** Neung a 2nd time. Why??? They changed the flower ring scene which is one of the most pivotal moments for Kong and Neung's relationship. Why???), and the things they kept didn't make even more sense (eg. Kong is peeping at Neung and the r*** scene). I don't know why they didn't modernize this script and I honestly feel like anyone watching this for the first time would've been turned off by how old-fashioned it was. They made a somewhat questionable story even worse, and another big part of why is because of the leads.

2. Push vs Tik, Lily vs Aom. I didn't like Push's portrayal of Kong, or Lily's portrayal of Neung. Some of this is not totally on the actors, as the script was crappy and I'm sure they did the best they could. But the biggest reason why I enjoyed the 2002 ver was because Tik was very convincing and charismatic as Kong, and his charm swept me away; I could completely see why Neung would fall for him despite not knowing him for long. As for Push, I just felt like he was aggressive and creepy and his charm didn't work on me at all. But Tik would've also looked aggressive and creepy if Aom was not as strong/fiery as she was and actually had a backbone. Lily just seemed soft and weak, and it didn't help that she had a slow line delivery, to the point where it sounded like she was trying to remember her lines in between sentences. It made her look foolish. All you have to do is compare the 2002 and 2015 wedding scene where Neung reacts to the betrayal, and you will see why I think Aom portrayed Neung better than Lily did.

Overall in my opinion, this was a terrible remake of Roy Leh Sanae Rai. I would not re-watch. I honestly would not recommend anyone watch this, and would 100% recommend the 2002 version.

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