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The main thing that makes me want to rip my hair out is...THE ENDING. UGHHHH. The ending could be definitely seen as realistic and bittersweet, but to me, it just left me upset and unsatisfied. My heart hurts because of it and it will hurt forever.
Overall, the entire vibe of this drama was so wholesome and cozy; it was refreshing to watch something a little less modern and a little softer.
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The entire aesthetic and cinematography of this drama was beautiful, from the sunsets in the background to the bird's eye views of the beach, to the city night lights. I wish SO BADLY that my college experience would be like this.
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Messy
The biggest reason I liked the second season less might just be because Han Yu, MY FAVORITE CHARACTER, has so little screentime. I also wasn't a huge fan of Jiang Chen Chuan, and the fact that he seemed to replace Han Yu as second lead seemed unnecessary and made for the purpose of one of the plot twists.Overall, the plot had some really messy parts, and this season felt like it tried to squeeze in too many cliches. I'm normally okay with cliches—and I even enjoy them, but even too much of them annoys me.
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Once you get past the confusion of the beginning, this drama isn't too bad. I liked that the main character stood up for herself, and I liked the friendships with classmates. At the same time, however, it was hard to tell what the plot actually was, and the story kind of seemed like one cliche after another.
Having watched this after Put Your Head On My Shoulder, I definitely had trouble getting used to Xing Fei's dubbed voice; the voice they gave her was honestly a bit shrilly and annoying, but I got used to it.
My favorite character was probably Han Yu, and I wish he got more screentime.
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I never really cared for Jun Pyo either—and I definitely felt second lead syndrome, though at the same time my heart didn't care THAT much. The more I think about it the more problematic it seems, and Jun-Pyo simply seems violent and abusive.
The story is honestly hard to believe — it's the very cliche kind where literally EVERYTHING happens to the main leads and it's pretty nonsensical.
With that being said, all 5/10 of my rating is for THE SECOND SHIP. I SHIP THEM SO DAMN HARD AND I AM SO HAPPY WITH THE WAY THEY GOT TOGETHER. THIS 7/10 IS FOR THEM. The second reason is the OST, which I gotta say, is pretty damn good.
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The biggest problem I have is honestly the way mental health was addressed, which, no matter how I think about it, was really problematic especially in the later episodes. While I understand that the character struggling was the antagonist, it seemed like they were just a hindrance and talk about suicide/self-harm were never sufficiently addressed as an issue.
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Not as good as its prequel
While I liked the overall vibe of these movies and how they were a mix between romance, life, and action, I just didn't connect much to this movie's plot. I wasn't a huge fan of Chungking Express but it was still better — I felt more invested in the stories and the characters had more personality to them. The stories felt more organized and I connected to what they were feeling more.Even then, however, I have to give credit once more to Kaneshiro Takeshi, who had the most intriguing part of the movie and certainly did his character justice. I wish we saw more of his character.
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A thrilling end
A really solid second season. It picks up right where the first season leaves off, provides us with more backstory and lore, and wraps up the story cleanly without overstaying its welcome. I do think I like this season a tiny bit less than the first season, but not by much.I like the focus on Keisuke (my favorite character!); he has an extremely engaging dynamic with many of the side characters, and his own story arc is extremely compelling. The downside is that we really shifted away from Daigo and his family. It doesn't hamper the movement of the story and his journey wraps up nicely, but he definitely feels more like a supporting character this time around as things happen around him.
In terms of effects and soundtrack, they're still as creepy as ever — this might be the most blood-curdling drama I've ever seen and that's a compliment.
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Heart-warming, insightful, and relatable
I'd read the webtoon a while ago and really liked it, so I was looking forward to this drama, and it definitely didn't disappoint! On the surface it's a pretty simple rom-com; we see the characters go through ups and downs in their romantic lives and career journeys. But showing how decisions were made and what their thought processes were added so much to depth to what would've otherwise been a very straightforward plot, and it's just so creative.The characters are extremely realistic — flaws and all — and we end up with a slice-of-life drama that's actually really insightful and profound in its approach to relationships and emotions. I'm absolutely delighted with this one and really looking forward to season 2.
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Unproblematic, healing drama
I was really impressed with the writing of this show. Even though it’s generally light-hearted, it actually touched on a lot of heavy topics, like mental health and anxiety after being in a stressful and unhealthy relationship.The leads are really cute together, especially when they’re just getting to know each other. It’s pretty refreshing to see a drama where there’s no random childhood connection or “first love” trope, just two adults who met each other, liked each other, and put in the effort of being together.
I will say, however, that I don’t really care about traditional Chinese medicine, so anything related to that wasn’t very interesting to me — which is a shame because the leads’ romance was so heavily dependent on it.
The side characters in the show are also just okay. The second couple is pretty cute at times but the romance is simple and fast — it is nice to see a mixed friendship group without a love triangle though, and they were great as the FL’s support system. On the ML’s side, the other doctors are also just okay and not very memorable. In terms of the FL’s parents, they were characters that really had to grow on me; they felt really overbearing and frustrating at the start, but by the ending I appreciated the growth in their relationship.
The one big plot point that was really frustrating to me was the “hiding a cancer diagnosis” plot. It’s something that I’ve definitely seen in a drama before, and the way it plays out is always the same. I’m glad that it didn’t lead to an overdramatic fight between our leads, but I also feel like the way the characters ultimately resolved it was an underreaction that didn’t feel too satisfactory — it sounds contradictory, I know.
Either way, I think this was a light-hearted watch, similar to dramas like Love Me, Love My Voice, Amidst a Snowstorm of Love, and You Are My Glory, where the romance is very mature and calm.
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They got me so invested in all the characters and fleshed out the character development for pretty much everyone, which is really hard to do in a simple two hour movie. I was really emotionally connected to all the characters and yes, there was a lot of crying.
Essentially, this is so much more than a zombie movie. Yes, there are zombies and they freaked me out, but the story was so much more about human nature. There's a lot of social commentary about how the homeless is treated, about selfishness, about how easily distrust is sewn between one another...I felt a lot of references to Macbeth and Lord of the Flies when I was watching this — but with ten times the emotional impact.
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Stunning chemistry and a well thought-out plot
I tuned into this one about halfway and it quickly became something I looked forward to every morning.Individually, the leads perfectly embodied their roles, but together, the chemistry simply jumped off the screen. They were just so good together in every single scene they were in, whether it was a steamy one, an action one, or a funny one.
I really liked how much of the world we got to see as the characters journeyed from place to place, starting from Lin'an Village, to the military, and then to the royal court and all the politics that came with it.
This is a minor gripe but I do think the pacing was a little off at times. I really liked the slower, slice-of-life feeling in Lin'an, but after we left and went to the military camp, there were just so many close calls and fake-outs with the identity reveal that it got quite frustrating. The final arc where the backstory is revealed also felt a little rushed to me? While I think it got a lot of screentime (and our leads got less), I'm not sure the way everything played out had quite the climax I was expecting, especially with some of the antagonists scheming for 30+ episodes just to fall in less than 15 minutes.
I'm also pretty mixed on the "second pairing" — in quotes because the show seemed to contradict itself about how they wanted to portray them. It was definitely not a romance and was toxic and abusive, but they also had a lot of those slow motion steamy scenes, and a sort of(?) redemption. kind of Other than that, there are hints of family and friendship that are nice to see but it's really not significant — which was kind of a double-edged sword because it meant that I didn't care that much for the side characters. But on the other hand, the main leads were what I really cared about and I was happy to get as much as I could of them.
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Good stakes but tonal whiplash
I know this entire series is highly regarded and there are moments where I can completely see why — it’s probably one of the most high-stakes historical dramas I’ve ever seen, and the acting and production value are all great. In this first batch of 10 episodes though, I found the tonal inconsistencies to be really difficult to keep up with.The first episodes are really light-hearted, and we have a really spoiled main female character; this definitely makes for good character development later on as layers get peeled back and we start seeing that there’s much more to her, but those first few episodes were really hard to sit through. That combined with a similar obnoxious personality for our male lead meant that I didn’t really root for our leads to be together — not until later. It doesn’t help that the show uses a lot of tropes that I don’t really buy into or that I find frustrating, like dream symbolism or miscommunications.
About halfway, the heavy stuff starts, and that’s when I start to care about it. The political strategy stuff is not always the most interesting to watch, but seeing the FL become stronger and try to protect her friends was great, and probably the highlight of the season. Which is why it kind of jarring weird when the tone suddenly reverted back to being bright again when the previous conflict was resolved. And then it went back to being dark again when another conflict was introduced. I’m not against moments of humor in shows with life-or-death stakes, but I think it wasn’t balanced very well between scenes or episodes.
I’m a little sad that I didn’t like this as much as the rest, but I still have high hopes for Part 2.
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A Painful Drag
I was really excited for this one and I know it had gotten huge but goddamn. This was insanely painful to watch.The main plot of the story is comprised of characters never communicating with each other, whether it's between family members or between the main leads. The family members don't treat each other with respect or talk through arguments — it's just yelling.
As for the romance, I've seen my fair share of nosy second leads but good god, the main leads just made it so EASY. The second leads barely had to do anything before the leads made assumptions, got jealous, and stopped talking to each other. Even after they got together, the relationship was comprised of keeping secrets or "not having the chance to tell each other" things until they found out through other means. It just all got really repetitive and was even more annoying because everything felt self-inflicted.
I also just hate the way they wrote the female characters in this drama — it was like the writers kept forcing their male characters to "take care" of them by making them immensely illogical and childish. Whether it was just being angry at the idea that two people in a relationship need their own space, or just trying to play hard-to-get to the point of messing with the other person's feelings, I just really despised how the women were portrayed. The main lead was really childish and overreactive, and the side characters were the same. TLDR: Nobody communicated. Ever.
Overall, this was an irritating watch and it took a long time for me to get through it — I know Xiao Zhan and Yang Zi are A-Listers but the chemistry was mediocre and the plot really dragged everything else down.
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A slow burn
It took me a long time to get into this — I rarely watch historical dramas, much less something so heavy, so I had a lot of trouble with the character tree and not really understanding what the backstory was.About 25 episodes in, however, I really started to hit my stride. I was really interested in how the different plots would unfold, and especially in the tension between the main characters Mei Changsu and Jingyan as we gradually got a few identity reveals — none of them disappointed.
Overall, I ended up really enjoying this one and would probably enjoy it a little more had it not been for the ending, which I understand thematically but still feels tacked on. It always feels kind of underwhelming when a drama adds a mini plot after the main one is over. It feels unexplained and rushed, and I really will just…pretend it doesn’t exist, to be honest.
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