odetodramas
The reason I watched this entire drama was Luo Jin, who plays the main character. I really like Luo Jin but I've never been interested in any of his dramas (the closest I got was The Princess Wei Young and I didn't like it). I thought he played his character really well and was very likable, and he had great chemistry with Pan Zhi Lin. I was 100% rooting for them. Despite many of Tan Dou Dou's reckless actions, I liked her character a lot as well. She wasn't afraid to speak her mind and she made her own choices. The college flashbacks were so cute.
I've already forgotten the music, so no memorable songs.
I would recommend this if you enjoy crime dramas or like the leads, or if you're going to skim through it.
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The theme song and Liu Tao's "Aging of a Beauty" are both spectacular songs.
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Somewhere around episode 20, it started to feel like nothing was happening (and the episodes, at least on Viki, were noticeably shorter). The political scenes bored me, but I did love Pei Zhao and the two princesses, as they added some much-needed lightheartedness. Gu Jian's character seemed pretty unnecessary.
I almost dropped the drama but I was actually looking forward to the tragic ending so I made myself pick it back up. I wish that the final storyline had began sooner in the drama, as it was a really interesting turn of events that could have been developed more. The tragic moment... I'm saddened that it ended that way. Did it have to? I'm still torn about it.
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Having read some reviews/recaps, I half-heartedly watched episodes 1-16. I find what happens in episode 16 very bizarre and I don't like how the story barely connects before and after what happens. There were some characters that I wanted to see more of and I was disappointed that some did not return. At times, I wished Chu Yu would be more understanding and less naive, but then again, that's why Rong Zhi falls in love with her so I guess I can't complain too much. I just didn't like that she seemed so powerless all the time - it was an endless cycle of her being set up by others. Aside from the main couple, I loved Shen Yu and Qing Yue. The scenes with Chu Yu and Qing Yue were so funny and endearing.
I generally love the theme of destiny in dramas, but it felt underwhelming in Untouchable Lovers. Tian Rujing could have had a more powerful purpose in the show, but his scenes towards the end felt unnecessary...
Lastly, I don't know if it was deliberate or not, but after episode 16 Song Wei Long (Rong Zhi) looked really thin... maybe partly due to the character being in poor health but it was very distracting.
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However, there are so many different people involved in the conspiracy that it can be overwhelming. It was sometimes difficult to track how much time had passed. Sometimes events were occurring concurrently, but sometimes we'd be going back in time, flashbacks came into play every once in a while, and then other times days had passed? Towards the end, I especially felt more aware of plot holes, recklessness, and ridiculousness. I would have also liked to see more depth and layers for many characters. Overall though, very entertaining. I hope there's a second season to complete the story. The last episode didn't feel like a final episode at all but more like an American mid-season/winter finale.
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This review may contain spoilers
*There are minor spoilers when discussing the tropes in this drama.*I really wanted to like this, and even after it became difficult watch at around episode 16, I still continued for three more episodes. There are just too many frustrating storylines and a bunch of tropes that I don't care for.
I loved Xin Yun Lai in the movie Cry Me a Sad River and last year's drama Dreaming Back to the Qing Dynasty. Here he plays Fang Zhi You, the CEO of a small architecture company who hates lying. There's nothing wrong with refusing to lie, but Fang Zhi You is really direct to the point of being condescending and disregarding the feelings of others. I mean, you can be honest without sharing your every opinion, right? Meanwhile, Xu Yi Ren, played by Liang Jie, is the opposite, always resorting to little white lies - sometimes it's understandable, especially in business situations where you need to maintain good relationships, but sometimes her small lies cause more trouble than they're worth. It feels unrealistic how unprofessional their boss-assistant relationship is, but even after they become romantically involved, their "cute" interactions feel over-the-top. I mean, I felt like the dinosaur onesies scene came out of nowhere???
Anyhow, onto the tropes:
1. The supported-him-for-years second female lead. I get it, in an alternate universe, He Yu Wen could've gotten a friends-to-lovers result that she wanted. But in this universe, she becomes angry and spiteful, which is unfortunate because she seemed like a smart and charming person initially.
2. A revenge subplot. Li Zhe (played by Liu Hai Kuan, who The Untamed fans will recognize!) has a vendetta against his childhood best friend Fang Zhi You. However, it feels like a stretch to blame it all on Fang Zhi You, and Li Zhe using Xu Yi Ren as part of his revenge plans is off-putting.
3. Xu Yi Ren's awful aunt and cousin!!! These two are hands down the most intolerable characters in this show and I wanted to throw things every time they appeared on screen. I understand that Xu Yi Ren is grateful that they took her in as a child, but they're rude and demanding. The cousin is manipulative and a worse liar than Xu Yi Ren ever was and I really hope Xu Yi Ren doesn't passively go along with it.
4. The whole 'searching for person I shared a meaningful moment with' plot and repeated flashbacks to said moment. This isn't the worst trope in this drama but I just feel like I keep seeing it constantly and I'm tired of it. It's really adding to the drama here though so I guess if you like a complicated mess of feelings/somewhat of a love triangle then please enjoy!
5. Moving in together for reasons that don't make sense. I have nothing against dramas with cohabitation plots, but an assistant moving in with her boss (before they have a romantic relationship)??? It's not your responsibility as someone's boss to house your employee, especially for a prolonged time. It would've been more believable if she'd moved in after becoming his girlfriend, but maybe she'll move out after the point at which I dropped this drama in some kind of dramatic breakup storyline.
Also, I love Xia Di, the strong-willed, energetic best friend but wasn't invested in her relationship with Gu Bo, but maybe I should blame it on the similar older-woman-younger-man best friend storyline I just watched in Love Designer, which was really frustrating and drawn-out.
I hope in the episodes I didn't watch that Xu Yi Ren pursues her own dream and finally tells off her aunt and cousin, Fang Zhi You and Li Zhe finally talk out the issues between them, and He Yu Wen lets go and finds her own happiness.
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This review may contain spoilers
The part of this review with spoilers will be at the very bottom and clearly marked.I was initially very excited for this drama because I liked Jeremy Xu in The Autumn Ballad last year, and the description of star-crossed lovers caught my eye. Unfortunately, after watching 17 episodes, I do not see this as a romance, and found it too repetitive, frustrating, and uninteresting to proceed with.
This is a story about a teenage girl who is destined to suffer from prejudice, at the hands of those who claim to be righteous. Born with "evil breath" (this is how the Viki subtitles translate it), Chong Zi constantly faces suspicion from immortals. While Chong Zi is sometimes a bit rash, she is straightforward and speaks her mind, and stands up against injustice. Luo Yin Fan, a powerful immortal of the Nanhua sect, accepts her as his disciple to try to prevent her from becoming a demon. Some have an issue with Yang Chao Yue's acting but I thought her emotional immaturity was true to the character, who was isolated and sheltered by Luo Yin Fan.
As Luo Yin Fan's only disciple, Chong Zi inevitably grows close with him, but I never saw it as romantic nor did I want it to be. Luo Yin Fan's role is a teacher and parent/guardian figure. Even without romance, I would've been fine with continuing this drama had it not been for Luo Yin Fan making several choices that I couldn't forgive. I can't bear to see the same conflicts occurring again and causing Chong Zi to be on the defensive and suffer again. If Chong Zi becomes a demon later on, I would consider watching from that episode because that'd be a more interesting turn of events.
What I did enjoy was the heartwrenching and captivating story of Chu Bu Fu (and I'm happy to see Gao Han here after last year's LLTG). His interactions with Chong Zi were always my favorite scenes. Qin Ke is a potentially interesting character, but he didn't get enough screentime in the episodes I watched. Instead, we get Miao Yuan vehemently hating Chong Zi from the start and Zhuo Hao repeatedly bothering Chong Zi, which made me cringe. This supporting cast full of familiar faces had much potential but is really underutilized.
***SPOILERS BELOW***
As the person who was closest to Chong Zi, Luo Yin Fan should've known the kind of person Chong Zi was, trusted her and stood by her. But I understand, that's the whole point of the first arc, so I was expecting it to end like that. I felt that he truly regretted it when he secretly allowed her to be reborn--but then what does he do? He barely hesitates before accepting her as his disciple again, and despite hiding her appearance from others, decides to give her the name "Chong Zi." Instead of an ordinary, peaceful life, he is the one who throws her in the path of suspicion and suffering once again. Instead of choosing to give her a second chance, he is choosing to give HIMSELF a second chance, to prove that he can prevent her from becoming evil this time. I had no interest in seeing history repeat itself, without Chu Bu Fu this time, and with Luo Yin Fan more overbearing and controlling than ever.
By the way, Wang Yue tells Chong Zi "I'm a good person" so many times I thought my eyes would roll out of my head. He looked good in the role though.
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As for the drama itself, I loved it up to episode 24, at which point a turn of events annoyed me so much that it took me a while to finish the series. Wang Kai and Tan Song Yun had really great chemistry and I loved all their scenes together. I gained so much insight into pilots, flight attendants, and how airlines operate. For the most part, I liked the supporting characters (and disliked the ones that you're supposed to dislike) and my only gripe is Xia Zhi remaining angry for too long when she was clearly in the wrong.
Overall, a good watch but could have been better.
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I've never seen Oh Yeon Seo in anything before, but the casting choice is a bit baffling due to the supposed age gap between her and Seo In Guk's characters. Her character was so frustrating in the beginning with her stubbornness and tunnel vision, and it just feels like she remained flat throughout. Soo Cheol's character was too over the top and really got on my nerves. Lee I was surprised when Min Kyung and Park Jin Sang kept showing up in the end in such a slapstick way. I would've liked them more if their characters had been a bit darker instead.
Anyhow, plenty of people loved this so it just may depend on if you like this type of humor!
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I loved how thought-provoking Are You Human Too? I had so many conflicting thoughts throughout the drama about robots, AI, and humanity. My main issues were that the last few episodes disappointed me and there was a lot of wasted potential with several characters. Yeong Hoon was my favorite character, and I would have liked to see more of his relationship with Nam Shin. Ye Na had the potential to be different than the cliched obsessed-with-male-lead character. Even So Bong's character towards the end seemed a vast departure from her character in the beginning.
I confess, I was more interested in and loyal to human Nam Shin's storyline. I feel like his character had the potential for so much depth, and we saw a bit of it through flashbacks but he deserved so much more because all that he had to endure for 20 years. The final episode felt too rushed to me.
Also, I loved the OST song by VIXX.
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This review may contain spoilers
I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed this despite its (many) flaws! Despite all the nonsensical and frustrating aspects, I was still eagerly awaiting each new episode.I wouldn't consider myself a Bai Lu fan, but she was just so playful and charming when her character Shu Yi was flirting shamelessly with Dylan Wang's Shi Yan. Dylan Wang felt miscast because he didn't pull off the CEO aura and his expressions were sometimes lacking, but he does have a pretty face and he looked good with Bai Lu.
But I had too many issues with the plot and characters. Shu Yi was (supposedly) an intelligent, insightful, and hardworking journalist, but it seemed like 100% of her work was focused on Shi Yan and his company, and when it was time to get serious about her relationship with Shi Yan, she totally failed at communicating. Even after her friend Yu You explained how her actions were coming across, she still didn't change her behavior! It was like she was too used to being the center of attention and spoiled by others to understand how to communicate and apologize.
It was delightful when Shi Yue came into the picture and I cackled every time she was trying to help Shi Yan or be his spy. It was nice to see a lovable rich girl for once, but my one complaint is that I didn't like how her romantic storyline was developed. She became a relentless, obsessed stalker after one extremely brief encounter?! I wish she'd been given room to grow and mature before a romance developed and I didn't like her love interest's sudden 360-degree turn either. I'm not saying they weren't cute together, I'm just saying I didn't like how the progression was written.
And then there's Guan Ji and Bi Ruo Shan, who had a setup I loved and so much chemistry! Friends with benefits who fall in love! I even understand why initially they would be hesitant to take a chance and open up their hearts, but they just looked depressed separately for far too long. Especially while Bi Ruo Shan was giving Shu Yi the worst advice on the planet. There were too other minor couples that were very pleasant though, which showed the writers WERE capable of writing mature relationships with good communication!
My last complaint is Yi Yang, whose entire character was unnecessary, or at least the romantic aspect was completely unnecessary. He literally came out of nowhere just to create opportunities for Shi Yan to get jealous??? The actor who plays him was great though and I'll be keeping an eye out for him.
It's been too long since I watched this so I probably had other complaints but this is what I remembered most clearly. But like I said, I still found this immensely entertaining and have no regrets about watching it.
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By the way, don't miss the three scenes within the credits.
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Janice Wu's Xiang Yuan makes a bet with her grandfather and takes a job in a struggling branch of his company, where she unexpectedly finds herself working alongside her childhood crush, Vin Zhang's Xu Yan Shi. It's nice to see that although Xiang Yuan has grown up spoiled and getting her way, she's kind and hardworking and does take her job seriously. I liked how the events of the past between Xiang Yuan and Xu Yan Shi were gradually revealed through flashbacks. I was really glad that they cast actual teens as the younger versions of their characters--the teens did a fantastic job.
Xu Yan Shi has really faced a lot of hardship in his life; your heart will hurt for him. He's unaccustomed to sharing his burdens with others, and that's the biggest obstacle between Xu Yan Shi and Xiang Yuan: communication. They really needed to be better at talking things out, although on the plus side they did usually resolve their issues quickly. The last six episodes really disappointed me though, because they stopped communicating entirely. They should've worked to find a solution together! And, Feng Jun gets thrown back in the story and his actions and motives made so sense. What was the point?!
I enjoyed the storylines about the company's struggles; it's unsurprising for there to be office politics and rival factions, and there were some surprises I didn't expect. I loved the team that Xiang Yuan and Xu Yan Shi worked with and the friendship that they formed. Gao Leng was a bit over the top but still brought a lot of humor to the story. However his relationship with Chen Shu did become annoying later on and I wish it had developed differently. It felt like everyone just pressured Chen Shu just because Gao Leng was a caring person--but just because someone is caring towards you doesn't mean you have to be in a relationship with them! It would've been fun if there had been more of Xiang Yuan's brother instead of the Chen Shu/Gao Leng storyline. Also, I can't forget Lao Qing, who was probably my favorite character besides the leads! His humor was on point every single time.
I enjoyed the OST, especially Chen Xue Ran's opening song and 心里的流星 (Meteor In My Heart) by 周蕙 (Zhou Hui).
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Why did I keep watching, you ask? The show did a good job of building suspense, and the cast was excellent. Lomon's acting really stood out, and Ji Soo Heon is a character you won't want to give up on.
Some of the events in the last two episodes felt like they came out of nowhere and just didn't make sense. But it was only 12 episodes so I have no regrets.
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Shen Yue is really charming as Nan Xing; she manages to make some cringey moments funny instead of unbearable to watch. The drama's premise is that Xiao Wu Di is a character that Nan Xing created who comes to life, and I loved the way that this drama resolves this in the last 3-4 episodes. I felt so moved by the back story, and the way that Nan Xing's trauma and guilt were addressed. It really exceeded my expectations. I also appreciated that Nan Xing doesn't have a crush on her boss, a writer who she's a big fan of. As for Chen Zhe Yuan, he was fine here but I didn't find him particularly memorable. (I loved his previous drama Our Secret though.)
The reason for my lower rating is that I found myself bored in the middle of the drama and had to force myself to continue. Obviously, I'm glad I did because I loved those episodes at the end. Part of my boredom was due to the second leads' relationship feeling very lukewarm, and Lu Zi Chen taking too long to get his act together. Him asking Nan Xing for help was supposed to be funny but it just made me feel like he was way too immature. I loved Ye Qing though! So intelligent and graceful.
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