Should you watch this drama?

This drama is not for everyone. It contains blood, gore, death, sex, and a psychotic survival game with the intention of psychologically traumatising every player and causing death. DO NOT WATCH THIS IF YOU CANNOT STOMACH ANY OF THAT.

The initial plot had me hooked within the first episode. I didn't feel the need to skip any scenes and instead was so focused on what was going on in the world around the characters and whether or not they would survive. Arisu left me deeply impressed. Here you have a homebody gamer, who in the beginning did not seem like he would do anything that great with his life at that moment in time, to being thrown into an insane death trap of a world. He showcased his intelligence and his knack for surviving and proved why he is the main character, and why he needs to survive. I found myself rooting for him every step of the way.

Then you have Usagi, a mountain climber. A woman, who at first, gave off the vibe that she did not care for other players and instead valued her own survival. We only saw a glimpse of her, when she had her first game with Arisu, but a few episodes later, they become a duo. Her development with Arisu was impressive. She genuinely cared for him, and he genuinely cared for her. They both fought for survival together and mainly put each other first. This was only a glimpse at what type of character development is to come for the two of them and I am interested in seeing how their bond will grow and develop.

I have never actually read the manga before this so I had no idea of what I was getting into when I first started this drama, but I don't regret it one bit. The acting from everyone (the main and even the side characters) was superb. They all gave their A-game and did not disappoint me at all. They provided the right amount of anger, fear, fun, and psychotic traits through the way they spoke and behaved, and genuinely made the entire 'post-apocalyptic world' seem realistic to an extent. Another thing I would like to point out is that although the entire world of 'Alice in Borderland' is fiction, I can't help but notice some realistic characteristics from the scenarios of suspense, the fights of survival, the divisions amongst people, the fight for leadership and even the betrayals. Yes, there are many 'fictional' aspects of the entire plot, however, the psychological aspects of the game aren't completely fictional and it's honestly horrifying to think that there are people in the world, that are willing to make such games a reality. Thus, for me, it is interesting to see the blurring of lines between reality and fiction to create such an intense, yet interesting manga and drama.

The soundtrack of the drama, I never actually paid attention to the first time I watched it. I was so involved with what was going on in the drama, the music was always in the background. However, the second time I watched it, I noticed that the soundtrack perfectly fit the drama. Aside from like one scene in episode one and three, there wasn't really any feel-good 'instrumental' that lasted for more than two minutes, it was mostly suspenseful music, that was put there to invoke anxiety in the audience and to highlight suspense, fear, and survival in the accompanying scenes. The music didn't overpower or take away anything from the scene, instead, it perfectly blended in and slightly amplified the scenes.

Would I rewatch this again? Absolutely.

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How I view this drama (This Review Contains Spoilers)

This is such a wholesome drama.

Although the overall premise is about 'magic', I found that the initial character development and the details with Kurosawa and Adachi are extremely realistic, especially with the way they approached the romance. Rather than using the excuse of magic to force a relationship, the writer(s) instead chose to slowly develop the relationship of both characters from co-workers to friends, and finally to lovers.

Kurosawa is a humble, humane man who deserves a lot of high praise. The way his character was written was absolutely beautiful. He is a kindhearted man, who deeply cherishes Adachi for his entire being. He observes the little things when it comes to Adachi; how he shows up to work with bed hair, how he is shy but is skillfully accurate when it comes to his work, how he doesn't smile that much but when he does, he is soft, and how he always puts others first and is always willing to lend a helping hand.
Kurosawa never put his own needs and feelings above Adachi's. He never forced a friendship or a relationship on him. He always treated him with respect, supported him, he ensured that he did not overstep boundaries and made Adachi uncomfortable and he gave Adachi space when it was needed. Kurosawa not only fell in love with Adachi but he also highly respected him as a human being.

Adachi is an introverted, yet kind man, who isn't necessarily confident in the things he does, and the choices he makes. Before he received his magical abilities, he had never been in a relationship before with a man or a woman and thus never really understood the emotions of love. It wasn't until he received his magic and accidentally touched Kurosawa, that he heard the man's thoughts about him. Kurosawa was in love with him. Adachi reacted like any person who has never experienced love, let alone been in a relationship before would; he didn't believe what he heard was true and attempted to distance himself from the latter a bit.
As the show progressed, we the audience, and Adachi got to hear more of Kurosawa's thoughts and they were absolutely beautiful. His thoughts were never disrespectful, they were never sexual, instead, they were filled with love and respect. Kurosawa wholeheartedly loved Adachi and valued his entirety as a human being.

The most important factor of this, in my opinion, is that Adachi was in no way homophobic in the slightest. He did not look down on Kurosawa for falling for a man, nor did he throw out the 'We can't date because we're both men' or 'It's wrong because we're both men'. I also respect that the writers did not flat out make Adachi think or state that he does not like Kurosawa from the beginning. Adachi's introverted nature does result in him struggling to speak his mind on many occasions, and because he is new to everything about love, he is extremely unsure of how he feels towards the latter, however, it does not stop him from wanting to learn more about Kurosawa and his thoughts. It also does not stop him from wanting to find out where he stands romantically.

Meanwhile, we have Tsugae and Minato. We never got quite an in-depth development of the two, like we did Kurosawa and Adachi, since they're side characters.

Tsugae is Adachi's best friend and is a book writer. He is a homebody, who mainly prefers to be at home with his cat, writing books. He also likes to online shop (a lot). Like Adachi, he is introverted and cannot always make up his mind on things, let alone speak his mind.
He begins to develop feelings for an attractive delivery man, Minato.

Minato, at first, seemed a little creepy to me (he slowly grew on me). Here you have this delivery man, who is observing everything in the room, along with stating things about Tsugae under his breath. For example; 'How weird he is' etc. I also found it weird that he was the main delivery person to Tsugae's house majority of the time. Probably because, where I live, it's always a different person.

Tsugae and Minato did face an initial 'plot barrier' ie. When Tsugae saw Minato's ex kiss him.
He saw the man he liked getting kissed by another man so he ran away and began to hide away in his flat, not socialising as he began to emotionally and mentally collect his thoughts. In response, Minato felt hurt and ignored, he proceeded to vent to his friend which resulted in his friend accusing of Tsugae of being homophobic.
Overall, that was realistic, but at the same time, I found the friend's accusations of homophobia quite rude.
He could have sat Tsugae down, and calmly talked to him from the beginning and find out the source of the problem, but instead, he jumped headfirst into the situation and assumed the reasoning behind Tsugae running away and not socialising was homophobia. Running away does not mean homophobia. Most people would feel uncomfortable if they walked in on two people kissing, especially if one of the people being kissed was their crush.

The quality of acting in this drama had me impressed. The way the actors spoke their dialogue, interacted and behaved was not awkward at all. In fact, they all seemed comfortable with each other, and yes, this includes the side and background characters. Nothing felt forced, and even the topic of romance seemed natural.

Music-wise, there really isn't much to comment on. I don't necessarily focus on a soundtrack when it comes to these types of dramas. However, I must say, the ending song was quite enjoyable.

Overall, the story, the characters, and the acting all compliment each other really well. The actors really brought this story to life and without them, the live-action would not have been that great. I would certainly be willing to re-watch this.

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What is going on with this drama?

Hoenstly this drama started out really strong with an amazing set up to the plot, and strong characters;

Liu Shuo being a very strong, independent woman who is capable of making decisions on her own, as well as handling herself. She isn’t as naive as some other female leads, and actually uses her intellect to try and solve the issue.

Lu Li is a cheeky, yet charming man who primarily just wants to enjoy life whilst serving his master and he ends up falling for the main lead which is a complete and utter opposite of Luo Ge the counterpart to Lu Li, whom originally is very cold, reserved and does not want to waste time in useless situations.

The story starts off in the mortal realm, when Liu Shao meets Liu Li and their stories become intertwined as they attend an academy together essentially to become immortals. Afterwards, the setting of the story changes to the Immortal Palace, where a situation arises resulting in Liu Shao and Luo Ge meeting, and continuing on the story.

Throughout the drama we meet many side characters like Demon King, He Na whom befriended Liu Shao, Li Lu and Luo Ge throughout their journeys.
His brother Fu, whom has evil intentions to try and free his people whom are imprisoned by a curse brought upon the actions of their ancestors.

Luo Ning, the little sister of Luo Ge and eventual lover of Fu. Whom gives off the personality of a “naive” young girl, when in reality she’s merely a sweet, sheltered, girl whom enjoys discovering new things and learning about the world.

As the story developed throughout the episodes, the plot began to drag and showed repitition. Whether it was the constant mentioning of “power clashes” between the cultivation levels of the main leads, the unstable three realms of the world, the constant back and forth of the main leads romance and even the side romance which resulted constant moments of each party hurting each other without proper communication, and thought as they constantly repeated actions over and over again.

It got to the point I was getting frustrated and yelling at the characters through the screen, or running scenes forward.

With such strong actors, characters and even a storyline and they let it all go to constantly repeat tropes to try and make it as dramatic as possible. In all honesty, the story could be completed in 16-26 episodes at most, without the unnecessary need to drag the plot on, stretching it to the point it loses its original creative intent.

Six more episodes to go and I already want the drama to end. I am unsure as to how they are going to end it, but we shall see how my review changes after the drama is completed.

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How I view this drama (Updated)

How I viewed this drama before I completed it and had only watched 8 episodes:
Original ranking:
Acting 8.5
Music 7.5
Rewatch 9.0
Overall 9.0

This drama is slow and medium-hearted. It depicts the life of the two main leads, who are fighting to make a name for themselves in a job they are passionate about. It is a drama that focuses on the real-life struggles of the leads, and the people that surround them. As a result of this, not everyone will find this drama interesting or enjoyable and that's okay.
Secondly, the acting by the cast is enjoyable and helped make the plot stand out a little bit more. As I watched the currently aired eight episodes, I did not feel uncomfortable by the way the actors chose to represent the characters, nor did I feel like one actor was outshining another, so I applaud the actors not only for their chemistry but for their ability to provide such a comfortable performance for myself as a viewer.

Thirdly, the script and plot so far, is it unique? 50/50. There are a few other dramas out there that depicted the struggles and life of someone in the entertainment industry, and the struggles of their female counterpart, however, the parts of this drama that do make this plot unique in my opinion, is the approach the writers have taken to touch upon the human aspects of some of these characters. In these types of shows, it isn't unrealistic to see the 'mean, rude, obnoxious' character(s) that constantly appear over and over and that constantly make the plot more generic. This drama does have obnoxious, rude characters, but thankfully it isn't the initial focus of the drama. Because the writer chose to focus on the humane aspects of the characters, we get a broader glimpse into the struggles these characters are going through, and rather than having them build up a facade for the public, they choose to continue to be as true to themselves as they possibly can.
Lastly. The way the overall plot is executed and the speed of the drama is slow but not too slow for my liking. Rather, I find it at just the right pace of not too fast nor too slow, to properly dive into the stories of the characters. Take note that as I stated, this is a humane drama about the struggles of the leads in their desired workplace, if the pace was too fast we would lose a majority of the plot and barely understand the key aspects of the overall story, let alone the relationships between characters wouldn't seem as genuine as they are at this moment in time. To sum it all up, I believe this drama is great for those who want to watch a nicely paced and humane drama, either as background noise or as something to just relax to.

How I viewed this drama after I completed it (UPDATED REVIEW):

I'm sorry but what the absolute hell was the writer(s) thinking? They completely lost their way the second half of the drama. The at first humble leads, who communicated quite thoroughly in the beginning, then changed and struggled to communicate and treated each other appallingly.
The various plot barriers (conflicts) thrown at them were quite lackluster as well, and the majority, if not all of them weren't needed!

I am absolutely astounded at how the writer(s) who had a perfectly somewhat realistic, and humane drama, in the beginning, could completely throw it all under a bus story-wise, and instead focus their resources in an attempt to 'cause drama and keep it entertaining' for views. As a result of their decision, the characters became really bland very quickly. Did the writer(s) even care for their characters?! As a writer myself (ie. Fanfiction and some original) I genuinely care about my characters and where they are going to end up, even if it's all fictional. Meanwhile, these writer(s) seemed to write willy nilly and destroy the original intent of the story. To summarise it all: I am severely disappointed.

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This love action is a masterpiece and that is not an understatement. It has stayed true to the book (aside from leaving out a few details considering the book is BL while the show is bromance), however, it did not deviate and provided just enough detail that even us (who have read the book first) are familiar with.
Unlike the book, the live-action went into a flashback scene towards the end of episode 2 to showcase what happened 16 years ago before Wei Ying's death and returned to the 'present' time 16 years later around the 32nd episode. - I've seen a few comments where people have disliked that arrangement since "it wasn't done in the book". The live action's sole target audience isn't just for those who have read the book but THOSE WHO HAVE NOT which is why the flashback was necessary. If you push away the book entirely, and simply view the drama as it's own stand-alone, you will realise that they have done justice to the story with this live-action.

The acting was superb; from the dialogue, the emotions and even to the stares Lan Zhan and Wei Ying share, and their character development.
The way the drama was laid out, makes it easier for the audience to understand the story and obtain all the information, without getting confused or lost as it progressed. I was also impressed with how Lan Zhan and Wei Ying didn't overpower the side characters. Although they are the main characters, there was still plenty of room for the other characters to shine and thus, allowed the drama to come together as a whole without any gaps.

The soundtrack that accompanied the scenes (on multiple occasions) amplified the impact of the acting. dialogue and emotions. The emotions invoked in the audience was brought up by the influence of the soundtrack that amplified scenes. Although the acting was superb, without the soundtrack, the scenes would feel extremely lack-lustre and would not be able to invoke large enough emotions from the audience

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Like in the Movies, Good or Bad?

THIS REVIEW DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS.

This drama started off slow, however, the topics discussed in it are very important; sibling surrogation, LGBT, and coming out.

At the beginning of the drama, Karl seems like a typical man who lives by himself and is undergoing an architecture degree of some sort. A degree that was forced upon him by his parent's expectations. Meanwhile, Karl himself is interested in the film world. He wants to change his degree to film but is scared of disappointing his parents because it was revealed that he is a surrogate for his deceased brother. He has his brothers name, his clothes, and even his assumed dream.
On the other hand, you have Vlad. An outgoing, extroverted person. A complete opposite of the introverted Karl. He is someone who is comfortable in his own body, his own skin and with who he is as a person. He is openly gay and is willing to openly talk about it. He originally used to live next door to Vlad but due to some circumstances, he begins to live with Vlad and they even pretend to date to fool his sister. In return for such a favour, Karl has asked Vlad to help him prepare for changing his degree to film since Vlad is a film student. I was thoroughly impressed with both characters in the beginning and their slow development. Vlad has some amazing one-liners such as "I refuse to be a plot device that triggers somebody else's identity crisis". Welp bad news Vlad, you were.

There was only one thing that disappointed me with this drama.
It was the fact that Vlad, Vlad's sister, the neighbour and even his uncle who expected Karl to confidently say he was gay and in love with Vlad when Karl had no idea who he truly was. The development was all new to him, especially when he and Vlad kissed.
I completely understand that Vlad previously dated someone who wasn't ready to come out, and I understand where he was coming from, but Karl is different from Vlad's ex. His ex already knew he was gay, just didn't want to come out of the closet.
Karl, on the other hand, was completely different. He didn't know if he was gay, bisexual, pansexual etc. All he knew was that he had something inside him that started to genuinely like Vlad. Something inside him that liked kissing the latter, and something inside him that yearned for the latter. Karl was never trying to 'hide in the closet'.
He was trying to understand the new sexual awakening that occurred. What he needed support to understand it all, but instead, he was pressured into putting a label on something he had no idea how to process or comprehend.

Since the beginning of the drama, Karl has slowly been trying to gain the courage to live for himself, rather than for the original Karl and his parents. Then there he is flooded with newfound, confusing emotions. His world, emotionally wise, was completely flipped around because of Vlad and his influence.

Meanwhile, the acting was superb. The actors really got into their roles, and genuinely made me smile. laugh, cry and angry. They all seemed so comfortable with each other and genuinely gave off vibes that they enjoyed filming this drama.
Paolo was a good choice to cast as Karl. He gave the perfect amount of introverted awkwardness that most individuals have when they are unfamiliar with a social situation. It perfectly fits the essence of Karl. Meanwhile, Ian was the perfect choice to cast as Vlad. He portrayed Vlad with confidence, snark and cheekiness. You can't help but just love his entire personality and presence as a whole. He really brought Vlad to life.

The soundtrack for this drama, made my jaw drop. It was absolutely perfect and you can tell that it was thoroughly thought out because each track complemented each scene perfectly. It didn't take away anything, nor did it overpower the work of the actors.

Would I rewatch this drama? It depends. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the plot, the acting and the entire work overall. However, as I said, there was a part that left me disappointed and thus, resulted in me lowering my rating for the story content itself. However, I am deeply impressed that regardless of that slightly disappointing approach they took, to the situation, they still maintained authenticity. They kept it all realistic and took into consideration real-life scenarios, real-life stories, and real-life topics.

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