SILLY? YES, BUT NECESSARY...

I started watching this drama with zero expectations. Honestly, the plan was just to kill some time, since it's just another high school Asian drama, right? But then, I found myself getting drawn in. Let me explain: Is the plot cliché and cheesy? Absolutely. Are some of the performances a bit over-the-top? Definitely. But despite that, it was executed so well, and it brought some genuinely valuable life lessons for today's youth—whether they’re from the East or the West.

Special shoutout to Mikami Ai, who brought a great vibe to her lead role, and Terajima Shinobu, the veteran actress who played the principal. She gave us some tough love and real lessons about the pain and recklessness of youth.

Overall, the takeaways from this first season align with what Whitney Houston's song "Greatest Love of All" says: "Before you can love someone else, you’ve got to love yourself first. You’re your own priority." Also, getting hurt and going through tough times might suck at first, but those are rare and valuable lessons for growing up.

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How to ruin a promising drama.

I am seriously reflecting on what they did to this drama that had such a promising and interesting premise. Netflix should understand that the Western audience cares little about whether actor X or Y uses drugs or not. This kind of toxic and strange concern is something that affects Asian society. The intention to reduce Yoo Ah In's scenes harmed the flow of the drama and made the story lukewarm and even a bit boring.

It was painful to watch these episodes. I had to watch them little by little. I think I finished these 12 episodes in 60 days or more. And this open, mediocre, and senseless ending? Due to the low impact and the protagonist's situation with Korean justice, the chance of a second season is zero.

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A Korean work with Tarantino-esque signs

This is one of those dramas that were built piece by piece, a drama where there was care from the selection of the cast, as well as in the purchase of the rights to the Webcomic it is based on. The entire plot up to the final moment of the drama is well tied together, and everything that happened in the drama was developed meticulously by the screenwriter. We must note the well-directed scenes and the quality of direction and characterisation of all the characters.

Choi Woo-Sik, although surrounded by some controversies outside of his profession, is a complete actor and knows how to convey the most varied emotions in a dense drama, but at the same time with a comedic and irreverent tone. A work that mixes murders, blood, and comedic elements, in proper proportions, strongly resembles Tarantino's films Django and Kill Bill, where violent humour and blood go hand in hand.

The villain Song Chon, portrayed by the excellent Lee Heen-Jun, was literally built with seven hands, the environment and the people around him made him into this bloodthirsty and ruthless monster. My favourite character was Roh Bin, also played by the excellent Kim Yo-han, who brought life and charm to a heavy drama surrounded by violence. He was another character who life and environment made become this way, a nerdy vigilante who loved Lee Tang fraternally until the very end. His death left me saddened, but I saw it as necessary for the direction the drama took.

Although the ending was slightly open-ended, I understand that the drama fulfilled its purpose and the story does not need any continuation.

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Excellent synopsis, but poor execution.

First and foremost, it is necessary to say that Lee JunYoung and Lee JaeWook are among the pantheon of the best Korean actors in their twenties. It's even embarrassing to compare some actors of the same age group with them. That being said, let's move on to the final evaluation. So, does this mean that Tae Oh had no ulterior motive or hidden secret; he was just another one who wanted professional success and money in an honest way, and saw Kang InHa as the ladder to such goals? Confronted about why he did all that to Tae Oh, Kang InHa responded by saying: "I don't know, that's it, I guess it's because you were Tae Oh." That's what's called lazy writing and writers with little creative intelligence. The family's mother, Jang GeumSuk, was arrested for concealing a corpse. I was waiting for the episode to find out whose corpse it was. What's the story behind this? Was the butler also arrested? It was a mess and nothing was clarified. Our protagonist is beyond comments; we've already made enough comments about her during the drama.

They turned Kang InHa into a monstrous psychopath who spares not even the relatives of his enemies, and it became clear that Tae Oh was an imaginary enemy he created. Also, that toxic romance between Tae Oh and HyeWon highlighted InHa's unbalanced emotions, and he felt betrayed and isolated. I'm not justifying, I'm just saying that the creation of the monster InHa became has shared responsibility with TaeOh and HyeWon.

The positive highlight goes to the interpreter of Hee Joo, actress Choi Hee Jin, who had little screen time but was the only one who managed to connect with the audience. The moment of reflection was the suicide of now Baek InHa. I confess I was choked up.

Anyway, this drama came with high expectations and an excellent plot, but an execution to forget.

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Fan Xian será tornará um Grão-Mestre?

Tenho que dizer que agora tenho um ator chinês favorito: Zhang Ruo Yun. Que carisma e que domínio de cena ele tem! Não é à toa que "Joy Of Life" teve duas temporadas de sucesso tanto em audiência quanto em crítica. O protagonista se destaca de uma forma que prende o espectador, fazendo-o embarcar nas aventuras e loucuras de Fan Xian. Em nenhum momento me senti distraído assistindo aos episódios; pelo contrário, senti que eles acabavam muito rápido, o que me deixava frustrado.

A parceria entre Wang e Fan Xian tem uma química absurda. Desde a primeira temporada, as cenas deles são ótimas e bem desenvolvidas. Senti a ausência de Lin Wan Er nesta temporada, parecendo mais uma participação especial do que um membro do elenco fixo. Os atores Wu Gang (Chen) e Chen Dao Ming (Imperador) estão em outro nível de atuação. É impressionante como declamam seus textos e como a dualidade de seus personagens é apresentada.

Sinto que ainda falta explorar mais sobre os grão-mestres. Quero entender melhor esses personagens. Nas cenas do Templo na colina, ficou evidente para mim que o Imperador é o grão-mestre que se esconde no palácio; ele deu indícios claros disso. Também acho que Fan Xian é o filho favorito dele, mas está bem claro que o Imperador permitiu que a mãe do protagonista fosse assassinada, ou talvez ele mesmo tenha orquestrado isso. Sinto que a terceira temporada não será suficiente para responder todas as questões deixadas pela primeira e segunda temporadas. Quero entender por que o imperador de Qin do Norte é uma mulher disfarçada de homem e quais são seus planos.

Enfim, a temporada terminou com Fan Xian querendo se tornar um grão-mestre e com seu QI restaurado graças a um. Ah, quase esqueci de mencionar: o príncipe da primeira temporada, que era nostálgico, sério e odioso, tem uma personalidade completamente diferente nesta temporada, mais cômica, eu diria. Estou ansioso pela terceira, quarta e quinta temporadas—este drama merece. Obrigado, China!

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FINAL ROUND AND WITHOUT GAPS...

The title "Red Swan" can be interpreted as a metaphor for the main character, Oh Wan-soo. Just like a swan, she is seen as elegant and graceful on the surface, but underneath, she is fighting intensely, represented by the color red, which is often associated with anger and revenge. Therefore, the title "Red Swan" reflects the main character's emotional journey and the central themes of the drama. Could that have been the intention? It might have been, but the execution was far from it, we had a helpless and passive heroine played by an actress with few acting skills, she made some really cheesy faces. Her reaction to her brother's death was the same as receiving a credit card bill.

As for the drama and the plot itself, I really enjoyed it, the villains and their motives were well outlined and constructed, with a standout performance by "Rain" who, as I mentioned, I only knew as a mentor and judge on reality shows for boybands, he delivered a solid performance. I had doubts if the drama would be able to wrap everything up in 10 episodes and they did, everything was nicely concluded without loose ends, overall I liked it, no major complaints.

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A Política Coreana & Conexões

Esse foi um drama político muito bom. A cada episódio, era uma guerra de cão e gato entre Dong Ho e Soo Jin; às vezes, ele vencia, e em outras, era ela. Fiquei impactado com a forma como ele decidiu resolver tudo, sacrificando sua vida pela verdade. Como ele mesmo disse, a verdade tem que vencer a mentira, pelo menos uma vez. A relação entre os dois foi autodestrutiva e recheada de rancor e ódio desde o início. Foi interessante ver Dong Ho testando os limites da inescrupulosa ex-militante estudantil que se tornou uma mulher com sede de poder e com a intenção de proteger a própria biografia, seja a dela ou da sua família.

Merecem elogios a atuação da veterana atriz Yeon Suk, como a chefe de gabinete, e, logicamente, os dois protagonistas, que mais uma vez se mostraram acima da média e do comum. O drama tem uma premissa simples e tramas bem emaranhadas e construídas. É incrível como, na Coreia, ter conexões é muitas vezes mais importante do que ter dinheiro.

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BEST WAY TO FINISH...

I don't know the history of the BL in which this drama was based, however, although I criticized in previous posts that the drama should have followed the original story to the letter, now I understand and agree with the means and ends to reach this slightly exciting and simple ending. It would be very uncomfortable to have a middle-aged man have a romance with a teenager, even with the mitigating factor that he was in the body of another teenager.

That being said, it was a very low-budget drama, but it showed a well-written script and a premise built in detail. I found the last episode to be quite slow and lukewarm, but the closure was good, where the one who had the desire to live, will live and the one who was exhausted from this life, will rest. In conclusion, I commend the performance of Yoon Chan Young, an excellent protagonist.

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The stomach of Japanese politics.

The premise of the drama is very good and it is exactly how I think Japan and its politics and society are, where everything is appearance and the true war occurs behind the scenes in a fierce, discreet, and camouflaged way.

As for the performance, Min Tanaka was masterful and managed to convince us that the power of the "owl" lies more in meticulousness than in the imposition of forces. On the other hand, his co-star, Mackenyu, had little screen time throughout the drama, but his performance was quite mediocre. I have said several times that it seems like he feels uncomfortable acting and speaking in Japanese.

Now, we wait for a hypothetical second season. The Japanese have a habit of leaving open endings and simply forgetting about the drama.

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FINAL WORTHY, BUT DULL...

The last episode was out of sync with the others, it was a dull, slow episode with no great depth to the story. I think episodes 9 and 10 could have been combined, the makeup of the old and bedridden Anjin made me laugh, which is a shame because it was the only technical slip-up in this remarkable drama, and it didn't even impact the logical experience of the drama, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

The story, development, and pace were well done and detailed, we had competent art direction that accurately studied Japanese culture at the time. As for the story, I was a little frustrated because I thought we would have the war in the last episode, but instead, we had an excessive amount of dialogue and the closure of some character arcs. I still want to reflect on whether we had an open or semi-open ending because we now know that he managed to return to England and took memories with him, but Toranaga said he would never leave Japan, yet as we observed, he did leave.

The highlight of the acting and deserving of award nominations for best actress goes to Anna Sawai, who played the unforgettable and masterful Mariko.

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IN SEARCH OF THE WONDERFUL WORLD...

I think the best way to praise this drama is to say that it was a competent and well-built drama. None of the episodes were irrelevant or unimportant; all episodes were complementary to each other. In other words, we had an excellent execution here.

The conclusion was very conclusive and without loopholes. My last doubt was regarding the gate video and what an irony of fate, it was the controversial Soo Ho protecting his wife from the certainty that he had closed the gate. I found this explanation excellent and very consistent.

I will praise Cha EunWoo for accepting to play a character completely outside of his comfort zone and I confess that I saw positive acting points in the last episodes. I hope he continues on this path and challenges himself as an actor.

In a final analysis, the drama taught that the WONDERFUL WORLD is built daily and with small achievements. After all, life is not built only of victories and happiness.

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Uchikawa Reo was the biggest highlight.

It's necessary to say that Uchikawa Reo's acting level (Satoru - child) is much, but much higher and better than the performance of his adult version, which isn't exactly hammy, but falls quite short. Uchikawa managed to show us a protective Satoru, someone who seeks to fill others' voids without worrying about his own life and setbacks, someone who from the initial episode dominated the drama from start to finish. It was a pleasure to get to know this actor; it's a shame he hasn't acted for years, but he is fantastic. Also deserving of praise is the actress who played Kayo in the childhood phase, she managed to convey sensitivity in all her scenes and scenic care in her lines, it was another pleasant surprise. From the adult cast, although he had very little screen time, we have to praise the Kenya played by Shirasu Jin who did very well and in his few scenes gave an emotional and sincere tone to his character.

A well-rounded and flawless drama, I liked it a lot. I watched it because of a friend's recommendation and it was a beautiful suggestion.

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A FORGETTABLE DRAMA.

Before anything else, it is necessary to say and repeat a thousand times that Park Ji Hoon is a beast of acting. At just 24 years old, he dominates the scene and has a striking voice when he acts, unlike colleagues of the same age or similar, whose ham acting is totally evident. I only watched this drama because of him. After this brief preface, let's talk about the drama itself. It's very easy to talk about this drama because it has an excellent synopsis, but the execution was terrible, with quite lazy narrative resources, to say the least. The use of the memory loss trope by the protagonist was quite anything, and the screenwriters did not use creativity to create more innovative situations in Korean drama. Another fact that bothered me a lot and was quite exaggerated were the excessive screams and shouts of the protagonist. In episode 14, for example, it was 60 minutes of just him screaming and writhing. The villains were all well below criticism. Personally, I can't see Hwang Hee playing villains. His comic and charismatic character in "Tale of the Nine-Tailed" mentally marked me, but that's just me. What annoyed me the most was that in the initial episodes, the screenwriters treated us to a cunning, intelligent, witty, comic, and fighting Ak Hee. However, to maximise Sajo Hyun's protagonism, they turned Ak Hee into a greedy and childish idiot. Anyway, it's a drama I'll forget after typing this review.

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