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I hated the characters!
STORYLINE: I didn't buy this story. She falls in love with him why? After hearing him give a speech? He is the epitome of a cold fish, and no matter how mean he is to her, she still loves him. Can we talk about having no self-esteem? There are a number of words that came to mind watching her - stalker, dumb, crazy, silly. As for him - mean, robotic, verbally abusive, poor decision skills, self-centered. I didn't care for either one of these characters throughout the entire show. I like to watch shows that have people that I can relate to in some fashion - either in shared experiences or people that I might be friends with in real life. Add to that the fact that the male lead supposedly has a complete turnaround in the last episode. I have absolutely NO idea why he would have fallen in love with her, other than he liked the idea that she worshipped him. And I'll get a little picky here, but can someone please tell me why he always that his giant bag slung over his shoulder, yet carried his books in his other arm?ACTING: The acting is bad in this drama; however, I will say that if it was supposed to be like a live-action cartoon, they accomplished that goal. He is completely flat with no emotions whatsoever throughout the entire drama. He had no emotions in his eyes, he was wooden when he walked. The female lead what just completely over-the-top. Her constant pursing of her lips, which looked completely unnatural and forced, and her eye rolling and "comical" expressions and movements did not work. There was a lot of overacting by many others in the cast, most notably his mother and her friends. All of their reactions were so exaggerated so as not to be realistic at all.
CHEMISTRY: None. There were a couple of kisses but I was still never able to figure out why they liked each other.
REWATCH: Not on your life!
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Loved the relationships
It was like watching a Korean Marvel movie. Sure, there were some plot holes, but in general there was plenty of action and plenty of heart. For me, I liked the episodes with the adults the best. How their relationships began and progressed. I also liked the relationship between Joo Won and Doo Shik.Off of the top of my head, I can't remember the last time I totally fell in love with a character like I did Bong Seok. Just a big teddy bear of a young man, with that intrinsic sweetness always on display. His relationship with Hee Soo was so cute! They seemed like a couple that, on the surface, would never work. But they both had secrets, were loners and I think they found their kindred spirit in the other.
I have already recommended this show to someone. The only reason it doesn't have a higher score from me:
- way too much blood, violence
- terrible language. Sometimes what they were saying was not a curse word, and when it was, why did they have to print it? This is something I feel very strongly about and am really bothered by.
- the setup for a season 2. Why? I'm not liking this current trend of dividing the show in half or having a season 2.
-I would have loved to see a bit of Bong Seok and Hee Soo together at the end.
So, I'd say give it a try. You'll probably like it.
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Slow, rambling story - and not in a good way
I don't mind a story that develops slowly, giving me time to get to the know the characters and their reasoning for doing the things they do. Unfortunately, for me, this show never lived up to its potential. Multiple boring storylines. Multiple unlikeable characters. The bullying storyline was disturbing, the nightmare father was too over-the-top bad, of course they felt like they needed to include a gay storyline and then did nothing with it. As for the two main couples: I could never understand why they would have fallen in love. The main characters were SO different and they never seemed to work to get to know and respect the other's differences. Plus, I found the main actor's acting, as well as his character, problematic. Was he supposed to be on the autism spectrum? Because that's the way he was played. The actor had absolutely no facial expression and his stares were so intense it just looked like he was waiting to say his next line. The second couple had a lot of cute bickering scenes, but really, that's all they ever did.As I finished this show, I thought that the main goal of the show might have been "keep running forward, don't look back to where you've already been" but who knows, because at that point I just didn't care anymore.
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Must suspend disbelief
What I liked: DO. I don't need to say more than that, but I will. He is excellent. Intense, focused, with just a little "crazy". His hair is wild, his eyes are wild, you never know what he's going to do next. I've always appreciated his acting, and his acting in this role didn't disappoint. Lee Se Hee as Shin Ah Ra - her character was a joy. She was a hard-working, somewhat hard prosecutor, always in control, until she got involved with DO's character Jin Jung, then she was out of her element. Her facial expressions were priceless and her frustration with Jin Jung was so fun to watch. I really liked that they didn't try to make a romance here.What I didn't like: The storyline was extremely convoluted and the fact that everyone was corrupt was just too much. I felt like they were just trying to fill time. Bad guy A gets caught, then here comes bad guy B, he gets taken care of and here comes bad guy C. Then there were the situations in which they found themselves. I just found the storyline too implausible.
I'm glad I watched this for DO and Lee Se Hee.
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My personal opinion only
Acting: Seo Kang Joon as Jin Ho was excellent. He didn't say much, but then he doesn't have to. He just has to BE. What he said in the voice overs was beautiful, but I kept wondering why he never verbalized any of his thoughts. Park Min Young as Hae Won - in my opinion, she can do no wrong, she's that good in everything she does. However -Characters: Jin Ho kept everything bottled up inside. Hae Won reminded me of Eeyore, she was so morose all the time. There were some other interesting characters in this show as well. I loved the scenes with the book club meetings.
Music: The music was wonderful and went perfectly with the show.
Cinematography: There is no question that this show was beautifully filmed. The camera angles, the scenes in nature, the close ups.
Story: Here's where it goes wrong for me. The story itself might have been really good, but this was one of the slowest shows I've ever seen. I like a good story as much as the next person, but when you show scenes again and again of making coffee and tea (are we in a Folger's commercial?) or take five minutes showing the female lead walking up a road dragging her suitcase behind her, that's just too tedious for me. There was so much quietness in this that I felt like no one was talking to each other.
I would, however, say to give it a try for yourself, since I am definitely in the minority on this one.
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Sweet story
This was a cute show without too much angst. However, it took them FOREVER to tell each other they liked each other!(ep 18 when there are only 24 episodes!) Once they admitted their feelings, it was fun to watch them, because they are such a cute couple. And his dimples!! I really like watching shows where the friends are loyal to one another and this show had good examples of that. I felt that, at times, the male lead was too wishy washy about whether he liked her. I would have liked to have had a more visible conclusion for the photographer - I believe he got his happily ever after, but they didn't really show it.Was this review helpful to you?
I didn't think this would EVER end!
I fell asleep numerous times watching this, it was so drawn out, with SO MUCH unnecessary stuff. Every episode I was like, "Get to the point already!" So much of what happened was for the sole purpose of making this drama longer. Why, I have no idea. The story was a typical Chinese school story. Girl likes boy, boy might like girl but absolutely nothing happens between them until 3/4 of the way through the show,I loved the male lead character. Aside from being gorgeous, he was a very nice guy and his smile was lovely. The female lead was actually scary looking at the beginning, but you got the impression that he might like her regardless of the hair and the braces, which was nice. During the short period of time they were actually together, they were cute, but they had the typical breakup storyline, and I felt it was more stupid than most. As usual, the ending was rushed.
Now, concerning the second couple, they were extremely irritating. He was a complete jerk to everyone, especially her. She was a stalker, in essence. I don't know in how many different ways he told her to go away, but no, she just kept coming back for more abuse. I think this sends a bad message. Stalking is never okay (so, it might not technically be stalking, but she was certainly following him around). This makes me think that her self-esteem is so low she has no business being in a relationship anyway. Then, once he decided her liked her (for what reason remains a mystery), she blows him off. Again, to make the show longer.
As far as the positives go, I did appreciate that the costume designers didn't put them in ridiculous clothes and that she actually wore jeans, which is a nice change to see.
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I must have been watching a completely different show than everyone else
Please remember, this is just my personal opinion. I'm not telling anyone else what they should think about this show, only putting my thoughts down (mostly because my memory is so bad that I have to have reminders of what I thought of shows, so I don't waste my time on something I've already watched).1) I thought this show was PAINFULLY draggy. Do they not have editors in China? Are they trying to get an award for the greatest number of episodes with the least amount happening? Do they get paid by how long the show is? It's a mystery to me. Unfortunately, I find this to be true in most of the C-dramas I've watched, even more so than K-dramas. I was keeping track of what episode I was on, and I felt like I was watching paint dry. There was so much time when there was actually nothing going on. Lots of time spent walking from one place to another, sitting at computers, staring at each other while trying not to be seen staring at each other.
2) Too much programming/code talk. I get it, that's what they were doing, but we could understand that without having to watch the process.
3) ML. When you have a tsundere character, you need to be able to see him changing over time. There was some at the end, but even then, there wasn't much expression change. And I think if we hadn't been shown the prison stuff at the beginning, his behavior might have made a little more sense. But I just kept wondering why he was so mad all the time, especially before prison.
4) FL. To me, she was extremely irritating. Why did she keep following him? There was something so "I'm better than you are" about her, I just couldn't like her. She was always just around him. Was that supposed to show that she would support him regardless? Which brings me to...
5) Chemistry. This was a relationship that I just couldn't get behind. He was mean to everyone, and he was the same with her. She didn't like him at all and made no bones about the fact that she didn't like him. This was supposed to be enemies to lovers, apparently, but I never saw a moment that made sense for them to start liking one another. Why would you like someone that treats you so badly? Granted, for my own sanity, I had to fast forward through a lot of it, maybe I missed it. They were somewhat cute at the end, but I still couldn't really feel the chemistry, maybe because I didn't like either character.
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Short show that really got me in all the feels
Can I just start by saying that the kissing scenes in this were awesome?! Unfortunately, there are a lot of shows with fish kisses/touching lip-not really a kiss, but these were wonderful, the first one especially. That's when I really got sucked into the show, I must say. Superficial I know, but there it is.Short, lovely show to watch between the more dramatic shows that ratchet up the angst and drama.
Premise: A goblin (Bae In Hyuk as Ban Sook) must kiss 10 girls to become human. He befriends a human woman (Jeon Hye Won as Yeon Ah).
Characters: Ban Sook started out as a flat, emotionless goblin, and with every kiss he gained a human emotion. Bae In Hyuk did an excellent job of not portraying him with over-the-top emotions. You really did see more on his face after every kiss, like he was learning a new emotion and learning how to handle the emotion. Jeon Hye Won was terrific as Yeon Ah. She had so much anger at the beginning of the show, but that was quickly overshadowed by the love and compassion she felt for others.
Story: Addresses the issue of fate. Yeon Ah stating that she didn't believe in fate was an example of not being able to see what's right in front of you. Fate brought her and Ban Sook together from the beginning. The story also addressed love and loss - is it better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all? Would you want to remember an incomplete love for the rest of your life, knowing you would never see that person again?
Writing: I thought the writing was very good, and I really appreciated the abbreviated episodes. If the writing is good, you can pull the audience in without resorting to many long, drawn-out episodes.
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Not for me
I need to care about the characters in the shows that I watch. Here, the only ones I cared about were the grandmas and the second lead couple. I felt like it took me weeks to get through this one (I think I've only dropped one drama - I'm no quitter, even when continuing is as irritating as this was.)STORY/WRITING - It was okay, but nothing extraordinary. Him being younger than her was mentioned a few times - why? It was two years! I absolutely hated the way the FL was written - too forward, kind of stalker-ish, wouldn't take no for an answer, extremely immature, pouting, making ML "pay" for mistakes that she thinks he's made, posting pictures online to make him jealous, emotional game playing, and she always wanted him to do the apologizing, then would pout some more. ML was okay. I didn't find the plot itself interesting, it seemed to repeat a lot and the episodes seemed bloated. I would much rather have had more time spent on the 2nd couple. Now them I loved! There were some amusing things happening with them. However, her abusive husband was a nightmare and then suddenly disappeared, never to be mentioned again. I did like the friendship between the women, the relationship between the ML and his grandmother, and the secretary/aide of the guy that kept trying to get with the FL. He was very funny. I loved the wedding scenes, and the family scenes - they were loud and chaotic, but you could feel the love.
ACTING - for the most part the acting was good. As is usual with Chinese dramas, a lot of the acting for the ancillary characters was really bad. FL - absolutely stunning to look at. The chemistry between the leads was good, but I still didn't buy their relationship, she played too many games. As I mentioned, I loved the second couple. The 2ML was a "tough guy" but I loved how he stuttered every time he was near the 2FL. I also loved his relationship with her son.
COSTUMING - what the heck!?!?! Most of the clothes the ML wore were too big for him, like he was playing dress up. The FL wore things that stuck out like a sore thumb in a small town. Shorts and Boots, too-large blazers. She seemed like she should have been working in a large city, not a small town. And the blue sweater with the bunnies pinned on it? Absolutely ridiculous!
REWATCH VALUE - there is no way!
I realize that I am in the minority here, so you decide for yourself whether to try it.
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Wow, thank goodness it was short!
This show was actually painful to watch. It reminded me of a poorly written and executed high school production. The dialogue was clunky and none of the actors seemed at ease in either what they were directed to say or do.The actors were, undeniably, attractive. However, that doesn't mean they should be actors. I didn't read the bios on any of the actors. They may be new to the field; in which case I can only hope that they get some acting classes under their belts before they venture out again.
Not only were their lines delivered in wooden and unnatural ways, their movements reflected the same problems. You could actually see the blocking of the scenes, there wasn't a natural flow. For example, one person walks across the room to sit down, the other actor stands woodenly until the actor has finished walking and sits down, then the second actor starts walking across the room as well.
This will definitely be going on my "That's time I'll never get back" list.
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Slow, and did they get a standin for the ML in the last episode!?!!
The concept was good, the acting was good, but it was just too slow for me. The main actor was awesome, kind of expressionless, but the first time you see him crack a small smile, you are hooked. She was a complete mess at the very beginning, and I was concerned about that, but she finally got a clue. But the ending?!?!?! Did they change the ending and had the actor moved on to another project, so they had to use a stand in? I can't believe how much that bothered me. And WHY do they separate totally? If a man just basically fell off the face of the earth, I'd probably have to think about moving on.Was this review helpful to you?
Alchemy of Souls Season 2: Light and Shadow
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I'm angry that they made a second season!
I loved AOS #1 up through episode 19. Then they had to go the historic tragedy cliffhanger route to justify another season. So, I'll admit my review is based upon my feelings. PLUS, I felt the script really diminished Uk's love to "love the one you're with" and that irritated me no end.As with #1, AOS#2 was well-filmed, though granted, a lot darker than the first one. Great CGI, beautiful music.
STORY: Repetitive, with more of the same from #1. How the evil guy, that everyone KNEW was evil, continued to get away with his evilness was just frustrating. My biggest beef was the way the romance was written. Uk fell in love with Cho Yeong before knowing that she was Naksu. That might have been fine if we had some sense that he was struggling with his feelings, considering that he was supposedly so in love with Naksu. I didn't get that impression at all, though. Also, I didn't particularly care for the way that Cho Yeong/Naksu was written. Her personality was just so completely different than Naksu, I didn't get a feeling for Naksu's strength at all. She just seemed clingy to me, coming up with excuses to be with and touch Uk.
ACTING: So good.
Lee Jae Wook as Uk. I was believing his mourning until he met Cho Yeong and then that went out the window. I don't know if he lost weight since the first season or if it was makeup, but his jawline was so sharp it could have cut glass. It was a good look for him. I also liked him wearing black throughout the drama. It was like he had "graduated" from colors to being serious in black.
Go Youn Jung as Naksu/Cho Yeong. She did a good job with the writing that she was given. She is absolutely gorgeous. I've not seen her in anything else I don't think, I'm going to need to check her filmography and watch her in something else.
Hwang Min as Seol Yul. He, again, was my favorite character in this show. He figured out she was Naksu pretty early on, and you really got the sense that he could just FEEL that it was her. He did such a wonderful job with his longing for her.
Shin Seung Ho as Go Won. We got to see a little more understated comedy from him this time around.
CHEMISTRY: The kisses were so good, but I didn't feel the chemistry between them. How is that possible?
I have to say, I'm not particularly caring for the current trend of making multiple seasons of a show, unless it's an exceptional show like Hospital Playlist. Otherwise, it feels like they are just milking the drama, causing a lot of draggy parts to extend the drama length.
Bottom line: If you like darkly filmed dramas with multiple good fight scenes, good CGI, and you really don't care about the romance anyway, give it a try.
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Please, for the love of all that is holy, pick a genre and stick with it!
I'll start with what I liked:-the kisses. Let's call them for what they were, "fire"! After watching multiple shows with open-eyed, slack arms, dead fish kisses, these were exactly on point. These are the scenes that I rewatched, and the only reason I actually gave this a rating of 5.
-the acting was good, for what it was. I loved Park Gu Young in Dali and the Cocky Prince, and I liked her in this as well, though I didn't really love her character that much. When she kept trying to get him drunk (I'm so tired of drunk scenes), I found her to be irritating. Cha Eun Woo was basically like he's been in everything I've seen him in. Quiet whispery voice, serious. You could play this show and True Beauty side by side and get what I mean. Everyone else did an okay job.
-family and friendships
-happy ending
Then the stuff that I didn't like.
-Thankfully, I waited for all the episodes to be released before I tried watching this. If I hadn't, I would have given up early on. I think the programmers did a disservice to this show by making it so long to be finished, between an episode once a week, to pre-empted episodes. That being said, this show was entirely TOOOOO long and very repetitive. My Viki showed it as having episodes 0-15. Episode 0 and episode 15 were the same, basically a recap of what the show was about. After watching episode 0, I kept having feelings of Deja vu while watching episodes 1-4. Then there was the recap at the beginning of every episode, and the mini recaps throughout to remind us of what has been going on.
-This show shifted and lost its footing halfway through. Started out as a comedy, with the potential to be cute and quirky. Then it shifted to bullying and its effects, then it went to revenge melodrama with the mountain god. It should have been either a comedy or a melodrama but should not have tried to mix the two. I don't think it was successful.
-The whole mountain god storyline was completely unnecessary. It seemed so over the top melo after watching funny scenes. This storyline took up a lot of screen time, and I didn't enjoy it, especially since he had cursed this family and done terrible things and there were no consequences for him. That REALLY irritated me!
-This scene really stuck out to me, and I had a hard time getting past it - whenever the woman turns into a dog, her clothes drop and she has to have friends get her clothes to her because she's naked when she turns human again. In the scene where he kisses her and lifts the curse, she turns human and is completely dressed. Why?! This would have been a great opportunity to throw in some comedy by having her be naked as usual.
Normally, if I like a show less than others, I'm usually in the minority and say give it a try, you might like it. I have reservations here, unless you make the FF button your friend. I can't remember the last time I watched a show that was so repetitive.
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Too much emotional baggage
I felt that the actors did a good job with what they were given. The concept of the "cells" was cute, but as we move further into the drama they are used more and more, and I felt it got very repetitive as a means to make more episodes.My biggest problem with the show was the characters. Yumi - we are told that this is her third relationship. I must say I can see why. She was immature and needy, and wanted a relationship just because she was lonely. I know that this is unrealistic of me, but part of the reason I watch romances is to see love develop, and I like to feel like the person has found their perfect love. This was a case of "love the one you're with". I also have a problem with people having a physical relationship when ultimately the relationship doesn't work out. That just takes away the "specialness" in showing physical intimacy as part of a love relationship. Ku Woong - why they made him so scraggly looking is beyond me. He was emotionally stunted and wasn't willing to stand up for the relationship. Seo Sae Yi - Ku Woong's "friend" that wanted to be more. She was manipulative and worked hard to destroy Yumi and Woong's relationship, and Woong let her. Ruby - just overall irritating throughout, with the high voice, trying to be cute.
We were led to believe that the couple fell in love basically by looking into one another's eyes. I didn't feel that they had a strong emotional connection, and I didn't feel any chemistry between them. Throughout so much of this show I wanted to yell at the tv "just say something!". There was an inordinate amount of time of staring into space, or staring at one another, to the point that I felt like they just forgot their lines.
Big spoiler here - oh my gosh, the ending! I sat through hours of a relationship that I didn't really believe or care about (because I'm not a quitter!) to just have them look at each other, unemotionally, and agree to break up, and then go their separate ways. Needless to say, I won't be watching the follow-up to this show.
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