First half was charming. the second half lost interest. dropped it by episode 10

Things I loved:
The FL. refreshing, charming, natural looking (not overly made up). She's relaxed, confident. Has a conscience. Doesn't make stupid mistakes. Is honest with herself and the characters around her. So different from all the other longsuffering, overly optimistic or taking it on the chin without defending herself FLs. I'm not detracted by her voice or mannerisms.
The 2FL. Not a cardboard jealous backstabber!! Lovely young woman who secretly likes ML. Not a doormat. Love love love her. 2FL and ML interactions are very sweet, and you can see her realizing, "Oops. I like this guy", while ML is oblivious. And once we get into later chapters she states her motivation and doesn't back down. She's not a jerk about it. Just assertive. She wants what she wants and is not afraid to fight for it.

A lot of people online are utterly trashing the FL actress for being unattractive. Small spoiler for them: her looks remain the same throughout the show, so if you can't stand looking at her in the first episode, she won't get any more good looking to you throughout the drama. To those people, I beg you to save yourself, and the rest of us, the pain of your complaints, and watch something else with a conventionally "beautiful" actress. If you can find one we all agree with, I'll eat my hat.

Things that grew on me:
ML. Until episode 4 could not get into his personality. Found him flat. But now starting to see the charm. The first three episodes of his pouty "look off camera into the distance to convey remembering sorrowful memory" got old. By the time episode 7 rolled around, he got good.

Sadly, that's where it ended for me.

I do not like the acting of the older brother actor. He uses three expressions if you count his awkward smile . Someone had said he is miscast, and I think that's exactly it. He doesn't bring the character of older brother to life. It's disappointing because it could be so much more. He stands. doesn't use his body to emote. It's disappointing. I think he might have clinched his fist once in anger.

The ML and FL - once they get together it deflates and gets boring. FL angst and torture comes through very well. and the The kiss scene was ok but in the next scene they're just walking down the street like pals. Chemistry ends. Rather than watching episode 10 when it came out, I began watching other dramas and enjoying them more.

Finally skipped the last three episodes entirely and watched the last 5 minutes of episode 12. That was enough for me. I don't miss it.

Gave it a 6 instead of a 5 because of the well-written FL, 2FL and the hopeful beginning.

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You can't get an STD from a toilet seat, or from watching this show. thankfully.

Details from above: "Park Jae Eon finds dating a waste of time but likes to flirt. Even though he is friendly and cheerful towards all, he does not pursue others. Park Jae Eon is a master of “push-and-pull” who doesn’t get swept up in emotions. Jae Eon draws firm lines between himself and other people and doesn’t reveal how he feels."

Friendly and cheerful towards all? Um. No. Park Jae Eon is a complete slut who has sex with many women a week, and probably gives them all STDs. He sets up dates with women, then ghosts them to have sex with someone else.

He finds himself "drawn" to FL. why? because her name is Butterfly and he has a butterfly tattoo on his neck. They meet for the second time at a party. He's deciding (out loud in front of everyone) whether he should stay at the party or go get laid at his prior engagement. He decides to stay, and "gets together" with the FL. More correctly, FL sees him tonguing another woman in the alley behind the restaurant, and when he sees her, he sends the other woman away and says to FL, "I really wanted to kiss you..." Oh, the romance!!! She's smitten. He doesn't even wipe his mouth before he tongues her too. She tells him he smells like cigarettes. No, not the other woman's mouth.

They get together. He proceeds to cheat on her. Over. and Over. and Over. 2ML is kind, attentive, smart, gorgeous - everything you would want in a guy. So of course: ew. Gross.

FL finally dumps him? Or he leaves her. I can't actually remember. Then poor ML suffers. Will she have mercy on this disgusting, sleazy low life? Will they get the happy ending they so desperately deserve? Can he be cured of his syphilis? Maybe. Watch to find out. I don't want to spoil it for you.

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zhao Lusi slays once again

Came for Zhao Lusi's wonderful acting.
Stayed for the romance.
It's quite a riveting story.


Cons:
The fourth consort's daughter's husband's nephew's wife, prince of X, and cousin on the maternal side, who is the assistant to the Marquis. That's pretty much one character out of the 50 they reference. Could NOT keep them straight. ERgo, couldn't follow the mystery and deep secret part. Like it anyway but it was exhausting trying to pay attention, stop to google the character names only to come up empty handed. Still enjoyed it.

Note;
These are not discreet war scenes. there is quite a bit of gore. Be prepared if you don't like that stuff.

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Blech - read Crime and Punishment instead. it's a fun read comparatively

Actor who plays ML has the dubious distinction of being in two of the worst Chinese dramas I have ever seen: Nevertheless, and this piece of garbage.

Utterly depressing story about how people are so dependent on apps to tell them who they like, that they don't even think for themselves. After they kiss in the alley upon meeting (gross) they have to check their love alarm app to see whether they like each other. They are relieved when the app tells them what they want to hear. More storytelling that is complete crap. Not a love story, not "feel good". You will leave feeling completely depressed, hopeless and broken hearted.

SPOILERS AHEAD
2ML "loves" FL from afar for years but never even speaks to her. He tells his ML friend/brother new on the scene that he likes her. So ML goes for it. Then the checking of the apps begins.

FL bullied and abused by her cousin for no apparent reason. Aunt hates her and abuses her and treats her so badly that she doesn't even feed her. She lives with them because her parents died in a fire. Cousin likes the ML and to break them apart, she threatens to reveal FL's "dirty little secret": that she failed to drag her parents out of the fire when she was 5 years old. And this "dirty secret" will apparently mark her as evil. Are the characters completely stupid? How is this a character flaw? The abuse is so relentless that FL feels "forced" to dump her boyfriend so that cousin will lay off her. Storytelling is complete crap.

Then there's the "love" story. She breaks off with him, resulting in us watching the ML being completely broken for years. At the end he can't love anyone else.

In the end we're supposed to have hope that maybe this broken ML can somehow love because the FL eventually found love even in this dystopian, depressing, tragic show.

END OF SPOILERS

I beg you to spare yourself. I wish I had.

Music, didn't pay any attention to it, so just gave it a 3.

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Watch if you're a diehard Luo Zheng fan, because he's good in this

Adorable romp about a mentally, emotionally and physically abusive boyfriend who sluts around with and uses other women, while she seeks to be the perfect office assistant and longsuffering girlfriend. When she finally has enough and breaks up with him, he begins stalking her with a vengeance and ramps up the abuse. After he realizes what he lost, he becomes an adorable little doormat.

But, despite how much I HATED this story, Luo Zheng delivers an amazing performance as a scary psycho narcissist changed into a remorseful man with a conscience. Luo nails the character -- esp the stalking scenes -- waaaay creepy. I've found that people either love him or hate him. In my humble opinion I think it's because he's been typecast as the stiff CEO and has been in a few BAAADDD shows. It's true he wasn't the greatest actor at the start (no formal training) and his scripts don't provide him much opportunity to do anything great. But he has grown tremendously in his acting, and there really are moments of brilliance in this show (his emotional breakdown and crying scenes. Enough about the actor, back to the show.

I was going to tank the FL actress, but then I just remember where I've seen her before: Go Ahead. She emoted beautifully there, so I can only assume the director asked her to look mournful most of the time. For me the character had little depth.

If you are a Luo Zheng fan, watch it. He's a sweet actor who becomes a scary freak. He's really good in this.
If you aren't a fan, maybe give him another chance? If you refuse to do this for me and continue to hate his acting, hate stories about abuse, the skip it.

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Terrible. No good. Bad. Gross, et al.

The only redeeming thing about this drama is the teenage scenes with Janice Wu and Luo Yun Xi. Loved them. As usual, Janice Wu creates a charming and loveable character. The ML is stoic and hard to reach, but he doesn't stand a chance with the FL. Actor played it well. The rest of it is so gross, I don't know what to say. Terrible terrible acting. I compare this show with those Chinese dramas that are two hours long with no Title, but BAD. NO continuity between the characters in the past and present. Yes, I get that she was beat down with life, but she changed into an unrecognizable character. Him too. And to blame HER when completely and utterly dumped her, the later said she was totally wrong and should have asked him about it? Nutcase. And in the present, he stalks and abuses her mentally and physically. In fact all the males are stalkerish to her. She stands there like a damp cloth soaking it all in. I don't know how many ways I can say it was revolting. And the hairstyles? What. The. Heck. And when he tells her she has a crappy haircut? I know, I'm nitpicking, but dang.

Didn't pay attention to the music, so gave it mid range.

I'm told there is a director's cut out there with the adult actors doing the childhood scenes. Why take out the only redeeming feature of the show? It would have been better for the young actors to play the adult parts in the entire show. I don't even remember the support cast.

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Proving Zhao Lu Si's acting genius, once again

This show has set the bar for Asian dramas for me.
Realistic, sweet, funny, heartbreaking, bittersweet and romantic.
The actors who play the FL and ML are brilliant. The connection between the two is amazing. The interactions are so natural and charming that it looks like entire scenes were ad-libbed by the actors. I wouldn't be surprised. The scenes between the FL and her brother are the same -- completely natural and adorable. The subtle physical comedy that Zhao is able to do, playing off her costars into those scenes is amazing. Just a few tiny examples: the wedding scene with her brother when they're at the table - the look they give each other while they're clapping; her expressions with the missed kiss at the skating rink. Whenever she watches the ML do something, her expressions of confusion are hilarious. I haven't mentioned the actor playing the ML yet, but he did beautifully in this drama too. The ML is roguish, loveable, heartbreaking. Will watch this again.
Special mention to the actor that plays the brother. He made his character hilarious.

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Well...I liked Jerry Yan...

Late to the game here in 2024. Was going to write a long diatribe, but if you read Manivnajfan's review, she pretty much nailed it. So I'll be brief
FL actor is is not believably hysterical. I agree one would be hysterical if a man succeeded in taking full custody of your kid and treating you like crap, but she was terrible at crying, her acting was pretty bad.

ML, yeah. total douche and treated women like dirt. But given what a psycho his mother was and how she treated him, and his father abandoning him, you can see why. I can actually see why he fell for FL. He is fascinated by how she mothers their son. That's how he falls for her. I get that he doesn't know what love is, so seeing it for the first time he is understandably drawn to it. The way he treats his kid is lovely, but handing her over to his horrible mother and letting her treat the son like sh*t is inexcusable. Also, the guilt the FL puts on him to forgive all these a*holes? First, NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!!! The mom guilting him into giving his liver?? "He's your father!" She's unbelievable. I won't go into his forgiving his half brother for possibly drugging and raping his wife to make him leave her. Others have commented.

2ML: predator. stalker. not only won't take no for an answer but full on workplace harasser. Disgusting piece of scum. Already discussed the drugging and sexual abuse. The fact that FL constantly lies to ML CONSTANTLY saying she wasn't with him when she was. Let's him paw all over her, but still doesn't learn her lesson and stay away from him. Hurts the ML over and over and makes him cry even, after he begs her to stop hurting him.

Mother: come on. Is there really a mother who would treat a child like that? I mean, I know there are. But I don't see her motivation. She is enraged with the man who impregnated her then left her, and spends her time pushing her kid to take revenge but hten when he does she slaps him? She said, "Are you seriously hurting him because you were upset about being called an illegitimate child all your life? " Um. Yeah, lady. that's what he's upset about. Then she tells him, "He hurt me, but I'm over it. Now do your duty and give him your liver." The level of manipulation by EVERYONE in this story against the ML is inexcusable.

And her grandson....um, "Give me my grandson! Leave him here! His mom doesn't get to see him anymore! We'll enroll him in a school and beat the snot out of him until he's excellent!" Why the heck does he live with the grandmother? She hates him. She doesn't know how to take care of him. Does no one see this? And the FL sees the abuse of her son by this woman and tells the son, "Tongtong, your grandmother loves you. Obey her. " This is after she yells at him and breaks his toys. I can't even with this. The son, Tongtong, is the only honest person in the show. Except....

3ML, the hero of the show.!!!!! The only one who really shows true kindness to the ML and care about the him. is honest with the FL, tells it like it is to 3FL. He watches over both the FL and the 3FL. I loved him.

Overall:
Liked:
*3ML
*ML actor. I show how shallow I am here, but I loved watching Jerry Yan. His acting was really natural. He displays a realm of emotions. His annoyance, heartbreak and tears, jealousy, love for his son, playfulness and attraction to and chemistry with the FL -- even attraction to and chemistry with his ex , all very believable and natural. . Also, he's nice to watch. Does that make me shallow? Yes. Definitely. Am I ashamed?. Yeah. A little bit. But I stand by my statement.

Hated:
*Others have said this is dubbed. All I know is that using a grown female to imitate a child like they did with Tongtong is creepy and went out of fashion in the US in the late 70s.
*everything else.

I guess that wasn't very brief after all.

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Will be rewatching it at least once a year

WOW!!!!!
I've dropped every "i became a character in a novel" rom com because they were so stupid. This one is crazy good. If you only work and sleep, and ignore your family for a few days, you can get it done in 2 days. I did it in 3, because I'm not completely irresponsible.

I stumbled into this one while waiting anxiously for the next weekly installment of "Wedding Impossible." By the second episode, I'd forgotten all about WI and really couldn't care less about it anymore. I'll probably just watch this one over again.

What I LOVED:
FL - every adjective would not do her justice., but to name a few: spunky, entertaining, delightful, able to convey silly, adorable, funny as heck and heartbreak. Actress hit it out of the park. Her comedic timing is amazing.
ML - I want to be as respectful as I can about Marcus Chung and not treat him like an object here. He's probably one of the most handsome men I've ever seen. And he is soo good in this role. ML he plays is standoffish but with an electric gaze and sensual vibes sparking off his skin. But he conveys loneliness, heart break and fear beautifully.
ML/FL chemistry: off the charts. Real love scenes here. Not pecks on the cheek and lip kisses the don't even move after they've made contact. In the one scene I felt like I was intruding and should quit being a voyeur. It's that steamy.
Story: Refreshing, well done, beautiful. For the most part GREAT story. and bonus, we get two chances to see them meet and fall hard for each other - once in the novel and once in real life. It doesn't feel repetitive.
2M: I rooted for him and adored him. The twist in the middle was out of the blue.
2FL: gooooood. She made for some amazing jealous scenes.
The pacing: 20 episodes was perfect, and the story moved along nicely.

What I didn't like:
agree with everyone who said the "real life" parts involving the family characters are out and out boring and tedious. I got the gist of things by episode 3 and started fast forwarding about half the scenes they were in. I liked every one of the other side characters.

The villains were way too cookie cutter and one dimensional. And, dang! the evil things they did were brutal. I guess I've seen that in other dramas too, pretty graphically, and these aren't graphic. But the hatred they exude requires a little more basis for me. As in, (you find this out in the first episode) my dad cheated on my mom with your mom and now I want to kill you. Really? This happens to plenty of people and they don't resort to attempted murder. The sister has so much hate. The mother is so terrible to her daughter. Why? Just not believable. Really lazy writing. That said the actors and actresses playing those roles did very well given the one-dimensional characters they had to work with. The actress playing the sister was great. Again, the character, not believable.

I took off 1 1/2 stars for these reasons, but the fact that it still got an 8.5 shows you how much I loved the story and the fl/ml together.

OST, good songs, but two played constantly. It got boring. Some really good ones only played once. A variety and more even play time among the songs would have been better.. Also didn't know ML Actor Marcus Chang sang and wrote the theme song. Dang. I just can't with this guy. Is he even human?

Watch it.

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I'll be brief.

Wasn't going to review this but doing it in response to some other reviews that I totally disagree with.
1) Agree this is not a rom com. But it is not a tragedy either (for those of you who hate crying bitterly at the end, like me, don't worry, you won't.)
2) I didn't watch the Manga beforehand, and so I will take others' word for it that f you read it you'll be disappointed in this version.
3) saw that a reviewer wrote that Shin se kyung can't act. This floors me. I think she's one of the most amazing Korean actors I've ever seen. (See Run On.) The woman kills it in every roll! Her silliness is beautiful. But more importantly, she can express raw heartbreak better than almost anyone I've seen. as well as holding emotion in and it dripping off her eyelashes.
4) agree the ost is gorgeous.
5) Had no problem with ML coming off as arrogant and narcissistic. He's a god.
6) Agree that it's slow. But I've seen far worse.
7) 2ML actor is wonderful.
8) no opinion as to whether ML actor would have been better played by someone else. I think they had chemistry. He acts cold and distant, and at first acts like the FL/"god servant" is beneath him, and falls despite his will power.
9) Agree that some aspects were slow to take shape, and agree wholeheartedly that they should have had more scenes of the god world. That was a disappointment.

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Wait....what?

OK, so. I'm not a rocket surgeon or anything but I'm pretty intelligent, and I had to watch it twice to figure out that no, I didn't miss anything. Let me assist so you don't have to waste time figuring it out (maybe this is a spoiler, but trust me, it will help you) : it was three separate stories with the ML and FL playing each character, and the three stories smashed together.. Oops, that's not right -- within one of those stories there is a time travel element (oops, spoiler), with two sets of ML and FL -- played by the same characters. So, in all four sets of FL and ML, and they all look identical. Look for a change in hair styles and dress to tell which characters you're looking at.

Storyline? Pay a kid down the street to make up a story. it will be better than this convoluted mess. The story just sucks. The ML tells these two stories to the FL. I am reminded maybe of tales of the Arabian Nights (where a virgin bride tells the king a story every night and successfully distracts him from executing her the next day after the wedding. Sounds awesome, right? Go read that. Cuz this isn't anything like that.) At first, I thought the point of the first stories was linked with the main couple. Maybe a reason for his curse and his dying everyday at 2pm or his bracelet? Maybe the stories are his earlier lives? Reincarnation? But no? I think it's not related at all? Or maybe it is. Maybe the talking cats know. (No, I'm not joking.) But they aren't telling. If you figure it out, PLEASE let me know!

Cute FL? check. as always. I've begrudgingly come to adore the actress playing the FL
because she's in three Luo Zheng movies. She grew on me. I know she does C-movies (as opposed to B and A, not C meaning "Chinese"), but this low budget mess is more of a D movie. she's adorable, and acted her part well, as she always does.

ML? Meh. Considering what the actor had to work with I will make no judgments on him.

Romance? Hmmm. let me think. They hug at the end. If you're looking for romance, skip it.

Fantasy? Fantasy buffs should run from this story.

Disclaimer: This isn't the worst story I've ever seen. Taken separately, the short stories that he tells are kind of sweet, but the main one -- with the curses, cats, glowy-wrist things, is all pretty dumb. In comparison with the reviews that I gave "1s" to -- that I detested with every fiber of my being -- this one isn't offensive or horrifying.... so that's something. It's just not good.

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I will even watch a BAD drama if Luo Zheng is in it

He was (in it). and this was (BAD.)
Where to start:

The story I guess....bottom line and you don't find this out until later: FL is not very bright because she had a high fever when she was a child, so she forgets things, acts like a child and is easily manipulated. This explains a lot about why she is the way she is.
ML recognizes her as a girl he met as a child and never forgot. Why does he like her now? If you can explain this to me, I'd appreciate it.
Enter twin-in-coma-in- hospital-and-other- twin-has-to-act-like- her- to- save-a-contract plot device, and let the antics ensue.
Every single moment he is with her, he is manipulating her. Cuz he likes her, apparently.... Could he have done this entire thing differently and wooed her without manipulating every situation? Sure. But would the writers have been paid? No. This is supposed to be a comedy. Is it funny? Is it gross? I don't know. I mean, obviously it's gross. But there are funny elements to it. Harmless because she loves him? I dunno. He doesn't actually HARM her. Unless you think manipulation is inherently harmful. But that's more philosophy and I don't have time to ponder that.

Bottom line, If you leave your brain and sense of judgment at the door, if you're looking for a very fluffy romance that is somewhat amusing, and you're wondering if you can find another Luo Zheng drama that has twins in it, (or really anything with Luo Zheng) watch it.

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