Kate

Everyone needs a break from responsibilities.

A cute and well paced romance between actor Shibuya Taikai and kindergarten teacher Aota Aika, focused on finding happiness.

This drama is pure sweetness sprinkled with good old misunderstandings and noble idiocy. Far less infuriating than other titles with similar tropes, sadly it does make you roll your eyes with some of the plot progression.

Shibuya Taikai, even though a popular actor, is an awkward, focused on his family man who seeks little interactions with other people. Taking the role of the head of the family and to some extent a parenting role for his sister. And then he meets Aota Aika and slowly, but surely she puts a smile on his face and makes him want more from his life than just dealing with responsibilities the best he can.

What I found a bit disappointing is how we can truly see the depth of internal struggles Shibuya Taikai is facing only close to the end of the drama. One specific scene makes you understand all the previous choices that he made, but it feels a little too late.

What’s more, I actually have little to nothing to say about Aota Aika. She was cute and fun, but I don’t think she was interesting as an individual character.

The acting was great. Kyomoto Taiga presents a whole variety of different roles playing as Shibuya Taikai. The highlight of his performance was the crying scenes. He did master them, they were both heartbreaking and beautiful, because they were never exaggerated. Just well timed tears - all the expressions kept in the eyes alone.

Overall, a fun watch, probably better as a binge. Could have been a bit shorter, removing some layers of miscommunication.

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The best as the support.

I honestly fail to understand how the weakest of the actors and the most basic of the plot were picked to lead the show, instead of showcasing a great, but uncomfortable to witness story of the supporting couple… make it make sense.

Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy Tae Yi and Se Heon, but I also could not stop myself from feeling like it’s basically The Eighth Sense 2.0 with no improvement that would validate its existence in my eyes. Their story was unnecessarily complicated and too simplistically presented.

On the other hand, even though with criminally little screen time, I totally bought everything going on between Do Yoon and Joo Ha and if given more chance and focus, this could have been quite a refreshing concept to see in BL.

I’d love a story of how the one that protected becomes a bully and how it creates conflicted feelings in the leads. How it would be hard for Do Yoon to forget the warmth he felt when he first met Joo Ha - the hope that what he first saw is still in him. The internal conflict - for how long and how much he should put up with to keep that hope alive? When to give up?

How one magic kiss does not cure your internalized homophobia. I loved the locker scene. I loved how Seo Do Yoon said: I won't confess nor kiss you, let's just stay like that in a hug for a little bit. And that was as much as Joo Ha was conformable with at the moment, and it was fine. Relationships are almost never 50/50 all the time. There are times when one gives 80 and the other 20, and then other times when one gives 30 and the other 70. And I think they could have had something real good with this side couple. Would it be uncomfortable to watch? For sure, but some of the best stories are the ones that make you face some unpleasant feelings.

What’s more? Realistically speaking, Tae Yi was far more violent towards Se Heon, but somehow people don’;t really have as much issue with him. Poor boy was slammed across various surfaces quite a number of times.

Acting wise… it had its ups and downs. Ji Ho Geun and Kim Jin Kwon did great with lighter scenes, but the more emotional ones did not really reach me. Song Han Gyeom aced everything. It’s a fact. Kim Jung Ha surprised me with the more vulnerable scenes, especially since most of what the character presented was being a douche.

Visually speaking it was good. Each year we can clearly see improvement in the quality of production, filing and editing in Korean bls.

Overall, perfect for a binge watch, but made me crave a full story of the side couple and I will be forever salty if I won’t get it.

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Oversaturated plot with underdeveloped relationships.

I’m quite conflicted about how I feel right now. Honestly speaking, the things that made me curious were not explored enough or did not happen at all. The few elements I loved were just a part of the overall messy plot that tried to include too many side characters and stories.

What I enjoyed? Exploration of motherhood presented through Yu Ri, Min Jung and Eun Sook. What does it mean to be a mother? How much is a mother willing to sacrifice for her child? What makes a mother - giving birth to a child or having a bond with them? The show presented in a beautiful way the connection that moms have with their kids. That was the true heart of the show.

Going against the stereotypical depictions - in this case: stepmothers. I’m a sucker for fresh takes on the overused themes. We have seen enough evil stepmothers in the media, it’s amazing to see good examples once in a while.

The few scenes of sismance and female friendship and Oh Min Jung’s character. Min Jung was simply the best and most interesting part of the whole show, with real stakes and proper conflicts - both internal and external. Somehow, her journey was more heartbreaking, but also motivating and uplifting than anything the female lead presented.

Lee Kyu Hyung - he is an acting monster. What a performance he delivered. I rewatched quite a few of his scenes. He aced both the subtle and the exaggerated. I am even tempted to say, this was his strongest performance I have ever seen.

What I disliked or was disappointed about? My biggest issue was the dynamic between Yu Ri, Kang Hwa and Min Jung - or rather the fact they kept telling me what these characters feel for each other, but it was never really presented so I did not believe a word they said. You can tell me even a hundred times how much Kang Hwa loves Min Jung, but if you don’t actually show it, I see it as a big, fat lie. For me, the emotional connections were poorly presented and explained. I might understand what the writer and director wanted to depict, but it was not actually there in the final product.

Cha Yu Ri - both with how the character was written and portrayed. Is it me, or is Kim Tae Hee getting worse in acting with each new project? I did not buy the majority of her scenes. There was something really… fake about her delivery. The character itself also offered little to nothing. It’s the first time when I felt like the main character is nothing more, but a plot device…

Too many useless characters - wasted screen time. Did we need so many ghosts and their stories? No. At the end of the day, they were there to present the regret and the longing for life. Not to mention the new exorcist by the end that served exactly zero purpose. The same plot could have been told with the use of the already established characters.

The production was good. Your typical mainstream kdrama. They tried to solve a lot of storytelling problems with flashbacks and compilations of scenes, and while they looked nice, they also made the plot feel more empty, as nothing was truly established.

Overall, a decent watch, but not something I would recommend.

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Fluctuating quality…

It’s honestly hard to judge this show. I liked some parts, I was bored with others.

Starting with contestants - on one hand I appreciate how distinctive everyone’s personality and style was. It was easy to remember everyone from their first introduction and not get people mixed up. Because many of them were so drastically different, the interactions were that much more fun and interesting to watch.

At the same time, because everyone was rather far on the unique side, they truly did not feel like your everyday people, but rather high profile influencers (which some of them were, and most had some entertainment connections). The thing that is enjoyable for me in dating shows is the fact these are normal people and not celebrities… But here, the line felt blurred.

That end result was rather predictable. I was not shocked or surprised by anyone’s choices. Did it bother me? No. I know some people did not like the predictability of the show, but I honestly don’t know what they expected. These are real people, they won’t change their mind just to deliver a plot twist. It would make no sense to randomly pick someone else, and not the person you spent most time with and had some type of chemistry with.

About the hosts - while I loved the 4 main ones and Bambam fitted into that picture perfectly, I am kind of disappointed how little screen time test rest had. I questioned what was the point of even having them there, when they barely shared their opinion and just reacted to what the main panelists were saying.

For the length of the episodes - 2-3 hours long ones never felt like too much. Granted, I did skip scenes and interactions between people I did not care about, so that might be the reason why the length did not bother me much. Even with that, I still believe it’s better to show more than less with dating shows like that. The level of enjoyment depends on how much the viewers will feel like they know these people and connect to them emotionally. If you skip all the build up, and only show the highlights, it will all feel scripted and unnatural.

Overall, it was fun. I thought kdramas made me have high standards in men, but then Jung Hyun Gyu happened and he is just a walking perfection.

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To Be honest, while I hated TharnType, I didn't mind this special episode. Was it necessary? No. All the scenes I found interesting, could have easily been included in the series, if some other non important ones were cut short. That said, there wasn't anything that made me angry while watching the special. Well, maybe except for the amazingly unneeded and blood boiling scene with Lhong. Why is he not in prison? That question will remain unanswered.

With how little time they spent on developing any type of relationship between the "Korean" guy and his roommate, did we really have to get any scenes reminding us of what did not really happen? Probably not. We are still left with no closure, and one could argue, there was no true beginning either.

I did enjoy Type and his mother's relationship and the fact we got to see the serious talk Type had with his best friend. After I finished TharnType, I felt extremely not happy with how they just left it. The fact we got to see them resolve the argument did put a smile on my face. I can easily say that Khom was the best character.

We got to see some aesthetically pleasing scenes, like the beach/sea scene of Type and Tharn, that, I must admit, was shot quite well. Overall, except for maybe 2 scenes, it was quite an "empty" episode, pure fanservice. At the end of the day, they simply gave the fans what they wanted to see (except for Lhong being in prison, even though everyone would love to see that). I can easily see how someone who loved Tharntype would be extremely pleased while watching Our Final Love. Since I was not attached to the show, I sadly could not share the excitement.

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This had no business being this long.

Taking into consideration the unexpected, but extremely anticlimactic ending that made me regret ever starting this show, I’d say this should have never had more than 20 episodes.

Sometimes I’m fine with just the journey being the trip of a lifetime while watching dramas, even if the destination turns out to be a dumpster. Sadly, at some point the cases started to be boring. Visually speaking - beautiful. The innovative (yet extremely ridiculous) concept of psych gave the writer and director a free from jail pass to show the most wacky set designs and over the top representations of reality. But the plot itself? Ain’t special.

They set up this mysterious mastermind behind all the deaths in the city, told me he has some elaborate plan, and when we finally find out who he is and why he did what he did… I truly never saw a dumber plan ever. It made no sense. Did he want to fail? I just don’t understand why a good 80% of the plot happened - it was completely useless.

On the topic of useless - female lead. Why did she exist, except from getting in danger so Jiang Shuo can worry a little bit. The plot would not change even a little bit without her. And it’s not like she was awful - quite fun, loveable, energetic, enthusiastic. Does not change the fact she was there just for the sake of the romance, that was not needed anyway. What made me even more angry? She was shown to have some mad fighting scenes that she stopped using after a few episodes and literally any random person could overpower her.

The actual main duo Jiang Shuo and Qin Yi Heng were fun to watch, though I feel like most of the on screen chemistry happened on Liu Dong Qin's side. One could easily fool me, it's a censored romance type of a deal.

As I already said, visually speaking the show was amazing. I took almost 500 screen shots, I think that says it all. Especially liked a few horror elements in the earlier episodes. If only they improved the wire work and green screen - these, as basically a standard in Chinese dramas, were laughable.

The performances were solid. I don’t think any of the characters had enough depth for the actors to struggle with the delivery. Nothing seemed off.

Overall, I just get angry when I think about the ending. It hits too many things I dislike. Sadly, if one does not like this type of ending, it makes the whole drama seem pointless. that’s me - I feel like 90% of things that happened were pointless.

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At a Distance, Spring Is Green is not a bad show. It’s not exactly groundbreaking, but it could serve as a rather entertaining watch if you don’t try to pay too much attention to plotlines, or are willing to imagine half of the story that is never told to fill the gaps. Some characters’ journeys were well written, some barely existed… which leads me to one conclusion: there wasn’t a balance in the quality of writing of separate elements.

Yeo Joon is for sure the star of the show, the most interesting and well portrayed character. They did a good job with his introduction and character development. It was gradual and realistic. We witnessed him try to fight his demons alone, still learning how to open to others, even as the drama got closer to the end. Park Ji Hoon did an amazing job acting - some scenes giving me real goosebumps.

That said, it was disappointing to see just a little bit of the screen time used to explore his relationship with the family, seeing how it defined who he was and how he acted for the majority of his life... so for it to not have more importance in the healing aspect was a bit... weird?

Soo Hyun might be the main character, but he did not get enough screen time as one. With that, his character development is nowhere near as well written as Yeo Joon's. It was not as organic and natural. He was one of my favorite characters, so I was a bit sad with the fact there wasn’t more focus placed on him.

And then there is the issue of Soo Hyun being straight in the show, when he is gay in the webtoon - truly hate it. It’s infuriating. They could have not given him any love line and use that time to develop his character more. Some people can ignore that, but some people would not pick up a show that is straightwashing characters, so do with this information what you want.

Last but not least from the three leads of the show: Kim So Bin, who technically could have worked as a main character, if she would be well written and incorporated into the story. She got a good character introduction, they set up some nice conflicts - both internal and external… but then did nothing with them. Her existence revolves around Yeo Joon - she is there for him to like, to make him want to change, to save her…

She had enough screen time for an amazing development, it was just not given to her. Even almost at the end of the show... she is there to be saved by Yeo Joon after making stupid decisions and not being able to say no. By that point she should have been more than that.

Young Ran and Mi Joo showed a realistic portrayal of "love rivalry" between friends. As much as I dislike the love triangle and how unnecessary it was, I still appreciate it gave us a good representation of female friendship.
That said, as individual characters, I find it sad most of their arc is focused on unrequited love as if they don't have anything else going on in their lives. Especially with Mi Joo… girl needs a hobby or something.

For a show that is suppose to focus on healing, realistic portrayal of college life and growth, the lack of consequences characters faced is staggering. How they resolved some of the conflicts involving the seniors was simply unrealistic. Sorry, but you cannot make a character that unlikeable and then for no reason say “well… maybe they are not that bad after all” - yes, yes they are unless you give me character development which would make me believe they are not trash.

Honestly speaking, I went into the drama without reading the webtoon, and started reading it only half way through the show. Was hoping for friendship, and romance as side plot. Sadly, the romance was the center of the directing, getting the most screen time out of all plot lines. By the end, they started to pair everyone up, was it really necessary?

If you want to watch it only for bromance after reading the synopsis, don’t bother - just check fan made videos on youtube. Otherwise, there will a lot of skipping scenes ahead of you.

Overall: I would be lying if I said I did not enjoy even a second of At a Distance, Spring Is Green. Some aspects were great, but some were annoyingly bad. It’s a good drama for a younger audience, far less tragic and serious than the first two episodes present. As long as you don't expect a masterpiece, and are willing to forgive some underdeveloped and forgotten plot lines, you will enjoy it. The production value is obviously high, and they use the university setting well. Not to mention great summer vibes OST.

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Make it make sense, because I cannot.

Inconsistencies in writing are my pet peeve and this drama was full of them - from the characters' actions and personality traits to ever changing rules and types of games. It's a show I would enjoy far more if I did not use my brain while watching.

To be perfectly honest, I loved the first two episodes. I was ready for either clever or violent games that Arisu tries to solve. But as the drama progressed, the characters completely lost their wits and the games became painfully predictable.

Arisu ⇢ Keeping the character smart only when the plot needs it.
I'm sorry for the writers, but you cannot present your characters as this genius with an almost photographic memory in episode one, to turn him into a complete idiot in the 2nd half of the show. One episode he assesses the game based on the information he gained, taking into consideration different options and overall the type of the game that is indicated by the card's symbols, the other time he has his brain just turned off and runs. Well written and consistent character? Not this one.

Games ⇢ No one cares about the rules, not even creators.
What's the point in introducing the symbols as a game categorizations, when you just completely ignore it later on? How is the first game team battle, when it completely relies on wits? Or The Witch Hunt game, which again could be won only by using your brain and wits. Or the bus game which was a team battle, but had NOTHING to do with teamwork and again, needed a brain to solve it and understand the rules. The only game that truly fitted the category given was the wolf and the lambs game in episode three. It was pure survival based on betrayal. No double meaning, no hidden ways out.

The male lead should also be dead. When The Witch Hunt begins, his Visa is said to expire tomorrow. Since he was not part of The Witch Hunt game (he did not register before the game started by scanning his face on the phone), he did not gain additional 10 days to his Visa. They did not play any games after that. Unless they found the hiding spot of the Dealers right the next day, and he joins the new game right away, he should be dead. Or the game was just paused after the Beach event, but that makes no sense, since the events in the Beach did not affect all the players in that game world.

Predictable outcomes ⇢ The games that did not surprise me.
The games were either laughably easy to solve and I hated the characters for not understanding them, or were impossible to beat and you just knew from the start which character would come out of it alive. Because of that, there was no element of surprise or excitement. More often than not, it was just me watching idiots dying and feeling nothing about it.

Players ⇢ collective 10 points IQ
I get it, most people are not amazingly smart, but I did not expect everyone to be. I just wanted them to try to survive, but I felt like most people were working hard to die. The best example was The Witch Hunt. The rule was clear: burn the witch in the Fire of Judgement. So what do most characters start to do? Kill everyone. Which is the least logical thing to do, because it's impossible to move all the bodies to a Fire of Judgment in the limited time. They set themselves up for failure. When the two characters next to the pool said "We killed so many people and yet we still did not find the witch"... well you won't know if you found her or not, because you are just leaving the bodies here, when the rule said you need to burn the witch in the Fire of Judgment. No one cared about survival and winning the game. And while they explained that it was Aguni's plan for everyone to die and not solve the game, it did not excuse all the other people. Kill everyone, but remember, you need to burn them in the Fire of Judgement - the rules were simple.

You cannot claim this show is a commentary on how people turn into the worst version of themselves in life or death situations, and when their survival instinct kicks in, because the majority of the characters didn't even try hard to survive...

Out of place emotional elements ⇢ The lack of proper characters exposition.
I'm not gonna cry during the emotional game of hearts, where two friends are giving up their lives for the 3rd one, when the writers did nothing to make me care and connect to these characters in the first place. Each and every death in this show evokes in me this reaction: oh... ok. They gave some flashbacks about some characters' pasts, but more often than not, it was too little too late.

Still camera shots ⇢ The directing beauty
I'm honestly exhausted with all the shaky camera work and angles changing every few milliseconds style of presenting scenes that is used in many shows. I truly appreciated how calm the directing here was, especially taking into consideration the chaotic tone of the plot itself. Loved the opening shots of the empty city used in a few episodes. I took a ridiculous amount of screenshots - this show was truly an aesthetic masterpiece for me, perfectly fitting my taste.

Aguni ⇢ The one that made me care and surprised me
Taking into consideration the fact this is not a character driven drama and most of the characters don't have much depth (it's really superficial), it did not even cross my mind that there could be more to Aguni than just rivalry with his old friend. Slowly discovering his past and his role in The Beach was quite a nice side plot line, and even though him killing the Hatter was obvious, the reasoning behind it caught me off guard and I appreciate that.

Overall, the first two episodes were too good, which ruined the rest of the series for me. They got me excited for some smart games that will make my brain cells do some workout, but the show never delivered after that. Each episode was more disappointing than the previous one. I wanted to immerse myself in the show, try to solve the games with the characters, and wonder if I would survive... but I guess "the game master" was not clever enough to create truly challenging tasks. There were many rules introduced, but when you truly try to digest and understand them, you find out, nothing made any sense.

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180 on personality tropes, but was it enough?

By all means, objectively speaking I do not think it’s as low as 6.5 drama, but with how I personally did not enjoy the majority of it in the second half, that’s the rating it gets from me.

The only fresh thing this title presents is the flip on well known personality tropes - professional and cold male lead turns into a female lead, and empathic, well organized female lead is a dude. That’s honestly it, and it’s not enough for me.

Now that I finished the show it’s hard for me to pinpoint what it was exactly.

It’s not really a business show, since a lot of the business aspects were underdeveloped, especially in the larger scene and the relations between different companies and management. Out of all the cases I think only one was truly well executed.

The life and drama aspect of it was more of highlights of events, rather than a well paced story. Drama here, trauma there, some healing happening behind the scenes, some happening last minute, right before we roll the credits.

It leaves us with romance, and romance only. And that’s probably why I could not enjoy the show to its full potential - it did not sell itself as just romance, and it did not set up the story as just romance in the first two episodes. By the end of the day, the only well produced and written aspect of it was in fact… just the romance.

It tried to make many people from many different angles, and at the end everything was just: meh. I don’t want to even talk about the antagonists, because that was a failure of its own. Shallow, with little to no background, with basic schemes that should be obvious to the smart leads, and yet they were often not. The quick wrap up to give a resemblance of a closure. Was any of that even necessary? The story could easily exist and be improved without it all.

I honestly feel like they simply targeted the general audience, which means they did not really have a target audience in mind. They added a little bit of this and that, mixed genres, made it all mild and easy to consume and hoped people would like it. It’s generic.

I definitely liked the performances. Han Ji Min was the center of it all, giving a strong portal of Kang Ji Yun - be it at her highs, or lows, confident or insecure, brave or scared. Complex yet cohesive presentation.

For the directing, filming and editing - I was in love with how they used reflections, glass and forefront objects to frame the scenes. What’s more - great use of light. Love Scout wins in terms of visuals.

Overall, while it is a drama that focuses on healing, creating your own space, finding new priorities, learning and discovering yourself as a person, it almost never truly hits hard on any of these themes. Everything is overshadowed by the romance, a good romance, but not strong enough to carry 12 episodes.

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I was promised angst, what I’ve got was clownery... kind of.

But I still enjoyed it quite a lot. The core of the show were the relationships and these in most cases they aced. For such perfect writing of the main characters, how come it did not move me on any deep level? The answer is easy - failed villains and unnecessarily complicated politics.

One and Only is a love story that was created and led by tragedies. The stepping stones for the relationship development were in most cases linked to bad events happening to the main couple. The tragedy led to sweetness, which led to more tragedy. Honestly speaking, Ren Jia Lun and Bai Lu had more on screen chemistry just looking at each other, than many other couples with full on romance going on from other dramas. The tension, love and care was so intense, I did not even need anything more than stole glances, a few hugs and not straightforward poetic love confessions. Their bond was so meaningful, it needed no reassurance .

As individual characters, I failed not to love them, even though they both possess the traits that for me is a big sin - they were too good, too trusting and too naive. Usually, this would make my blood boil, here - I completely did not mind. The fact that everyone told me to be really for the angst might have been the reason I was not annoyed too. I knew they would have a tragic ending one way or another, and it was obvious that their good nature would be the reason for their demise, so I just accepted that fact and watched in peace.

This was especially evident with Zhou Sheng Chen. He had a really bad habit of giving people chances to redeem themselves, when it was obvious some of them were unredeemable. He took too many chances with too many people, and some of these encounters and good deeds literally led to his death. Still, it’s impossible not to love the guy. He had a personality of a warm smashed potato, yet… he was perfect. How loyal he was to his people and the country was commendable.

Then we have Cui Shi Yi - the adorable angel. I don’t think I have ever seen a character more pure than her. I found strength in her innocence? She was for sure a passive character - she went with the flow of the things happening around her, barely ever taking any active steps herself. Sounds awful right? Somehow it was not. Somehow it was perfect and I loved her as a character a lot. Yes, we all love our badass warrior princesses, but sometimes a more realistic approach is much needed and just as charming.

We also have some extremely fun and memorable side characters, and few… existing with little to no personality. My ultimate favorite, the one and only mr. Sexy Monk, aka Xiao Yan. He was truly perfect - and by perfect I mean he had some interesting personality, he was good and moral, but not completely selfless and overall smoking hot. I also loved Feng Qiao with her badass fluff. That’s kind of it? I feel like many side characters were rather one dimensional. There were “the good guys” and “the bad guys”, but in many cases, they presented little if anything as individual characters.

Talking about presenting little to nothing - what a joke the villains were. The clownery was amazing. They be killing all the good guys, all the skilled people, and then being surprised the country is falling apart. What did you think will happen when you made THE ARMY your enemy? What did you think would happen after killing the only dude that was able to defend the border for years? It’s not like Liu Zi Xing had any plan formed on what to do next, after getting power. What a joke. I am truly curious how his brain works and how he perceives reality, because the level of denial he presented was truly something I struggle to understand.

Still, he was the best of all the clowns we’ve got. There was also Queen Dowager who showed up here and there to cause the issue for the main couple, but had nothing going on for herself and was just boring. There was one Prince that got involved because “power”, but he was also painfully stupid. Not to mention Yang Shao… this guy. What did he even want? What was his goal? Why was he on that side? What motivated him? We don’t know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

As I said at the beginning, the villains were the reason the emotional impact the show showed has just felt flat for me. The ending of Zhou Sheng Chen and Cui Shi Yi was tragic - truly it would be hard to make it more sad. But, since it was a result of constant extremely dumb decision making on everyone’s side (both the good and the bad guys), I could not make myself care. Last episode, I truly hoped everyone would just die (except for the monk), some side evil dude would win, and the whole country would burn and collapse. It was that ridiculous. I mean… 24 episodes and they changed the emperor 4 times - what the heck. It was never needed to go this nuts in the last few episodes. Having one, well written and presented villain would do the trick. You can get the same angsty result with less shit happening on screen.

Plot wise, not that much happened in the show - the main couple got to know each other, the main couple fought the evil guys, and the main couple died. Seems like nothing, yet because of the presentation, it was not boring. Sure, I skipped some scenes in the second half, simply because some characters felt extremely empty, but overall, I enjoyed the watch.

The amazing cinematography and some great directing choices had a lot to do with it. An aspect that I loved about One and Only was the fact, the director let some scenes breathe for a while. Lingering a little bit during some emotionally impactful scenes, with nothing but visuals and music was a great idea. Grounding the emotions, instead of skipping between the scenes as soon as the narrative was done. The show had this poetic quality to it. Not to mention, it was beautiful. Cui Shi Yi suicide was a whole ass cinematic experience.

The acting, ladies and gentlemen - Ren Jia Lun and Bai Lu are a class of their own. To be able to present so many emotions and so many raw scenes, with the plot barely happening, and most of the interactions being so tamed - they deserve an award for it. Saying I am amazed would be an understatement.

Overall, the first half was perfect. Middle dropped in the quality, but was still fairly enjoyable, but the mess that we’ve got by the end just took all the emotional impact away and left me crying from laughing so hard. Am I evil? Heartless? Soulless? Or were the events poorly established because of the weak writing of the villains?

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When the mains deliver, but the setup is underwhelming…

I’m not gonna pretend like I started this drama with hopes of getting a high quality inspirational tale of overcoming your struggles, finding support in people around you, dealing with your trauma and fears, but I am glad the drama delivered in that area. Why did I start it though? For Lee Yang Seob’s face, and his face only. And here I also got what I asked for - damn he looks fine.

Here’s the thing, My Lovely Boxer is just a drama that completely lacks balance. It switches between a heartwarming slice of life focused on the character development and makjang mafia and I’m just confused why. The whole rigged bets set up was so underdeveloped, overdramatic and distracting, I’m here asking - was there really no better way to force Tae Young and Gwon Sook into working together? Every time the focus shifted towards Kim Oh Bok I wanted to scream “NO ONE CARES!”.

If only we’ve got more information about him, if they actually tried to develop the main villain into a complex and interesting character. But no, he was there as the most cliche and empty plot device and I’m not happy. And he is not the only bad character that sucked writing wise - same goes for Gwon Sook’s father. I am sorry, but his crimes were too severe for an off-screen character development. I’m not buying it. You cannot give a character off screen development and then act as if it’s all good, it’s not.

That said, I did enjoy most of the plots not related to the bets and the father in any meaningful way. The development of trust and support between Tae Young and Gwon Sook was amazing. Her dealing with her past and being strong enough to face it - great. Every friendship she makes - loved it. Wish we'd seen more Han Ah Reum, since for me she was one of the more relatable and interesting characters.

Acting truly varied depending on the actor. Both Lee Sang Yeob and Kim So Hye did an amazing job portraying the main characters. On the other hand, Kim Jin Woo did not impress me with his delivery. Random observation, but there were also two extra actors in the last episode playing members of the rigged bets ring, and let me tell you, that was some high level of wooden acting and robot delivery.

Production value was fine. There were some editing issues - hands positions not matching between cuts, but nothing too in your face. Pretty much a standard Korean drama quality.

Overall, it was a fine watch I don’t regret finishing, but you would also not catch me recommending it to others.

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Emotional ride with a bit of a flat progression.

Saying I am not completely invested in this slow burn romance (it’s so slow one could think it literally backtracks a few times) would be a lie. They got me on their first shared screen time and I did not even mind the fact they barely interact in the first half of part 1 of the show.

Love Like the Galaxy in its part 1 feels a lot like a family slice of life rather than a typical historical romance. The focus is on the main characters as individuals rather than them as a pair and future couple. Especially with Shao Shang, we can observe in detail how she interacts with all members of her family. On the other hand, while we don’t see Bu Yi interact with many people in his circle (except from his 2 loyal companions, who sadly had less and less screen time as drama progressed), the plot focused on the past mystery surrounding his family and tragedy that befell on it.

Here’s the deal though: while I believe they did a close to perfect job with Shao Shang and her side of the story, Bu Yi just felt underdeveloped - both as a character and his storyline. Any questions I might have had regarding the female lead were addressed one way or another, while many times I got so little information about male lead, I was not even sure what to ask - so I slowly completely lost interest in his solo quest for justice.

As for the romance - the sweet agony I felt because of Bu Yi’s pinning was amazing. I love how we didn't really get to see leads interact a lot. That said, just because they didn’t share the screen, does not mean there was no chemistry. They were able to sell the connection even when they were not together. How amazing is that! They influenced each other and slowly depended on each other, even without many interactions.

At some point though it started to feel frustrating. While we saw and understood how Bu Yi’s feelings changed, Shao Shang was an uninterested romantic mystery for way too long. So by the end of part 1, how her feelings and understanding of herself changed felt a little bit rushed. I’m sorry, but if you deliver romance at 0.25x speed, you cannot speed it up with quick 30 seconds flashbacks later on.

Another thing that bothered me pacing wise was the Lou Yao part of the plot. This story was unnecessarily long, when in fact it had little impact on characters. With how little it mattered, how long it took to resolve was surprising and… well, annoying.

On the bright side - I love a lot of the supporting characters. Wan Qi Qi and the emperor are definitely some of the best. Especially with the emperor, he delivers some great humor and comedy bits.

Acting wise - amazing. Not one performance felt flat. Zhao Lu Si can deliver both the carefree and charming, and serious and defeated. Leo Wu was probably born to play in historical romance shows. Huge shoutout to Xu Di - her dramatic performance as Madam Cheng is to die for.

Another good aspect is obviously the scenography, set design, camera work, lighting and all the rest production related things. The show is simply beautiful. Not taking screenshots while watching is a crime.

Overall, a really solid first half, but the true quality and value it has will be known after watching the rest of the show.

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La Ri Ma’s supremacy.

What could have been an interesting take on the reality of idols, turned into a cliché rom-com with important issues as background noise. Pure escapism without much logic.

The show opens with the mysterious disappearance of Eunjo and the tragic end of Annie. One would think this is going to be an important element of the plot - it’s not. They bring it up a few times for a few seconds, and then solve it by the end, without any solving actually happening.

For the majority of the show, we follow Tea Party as they struggle trying to make their debut work for the 2nd time, but…. There is not much of a struggle going on. Every problem and conflict they face is solved right away without many lasting consequences.

They hint some problems idols might face like not getting paid for the training period, or even after debut (because of the training debt), how rookie idols can be used to bury bigger scandals, even if it ruins their careers, how idols might be viewed as products that can be easily replaced and not as individual people, obsessed and possessive fans, and many more… but all of them are just mentioned with one or two lines and not properly explored.

The main focus is the relationship between Maha and Ryok, which is so lukewarm and boring, I had to watch it at 1.5x speed. They hit too many cliches that are not well executed, it’s sad to watch at times, especially since both Jeong Ji So and Jun are rather talented actors that can do more than this.

Of course, how it always is with teen/young adult romance stories - no one can be single, hence every Tae Party member gets their own love interest.

Even the main love triangle is there… and then one day it’s not. There is no tension, no conflict between interested parties… no nothing.

The best character with the most interesting story, charming personality and depth was La Ri Ma. She could easily become the main character, coz even as a supporting role, she overshadowed everyone. Without lying, I survived this show mostly for her (and one of the side couples, that overall, throughout the 12 episodes, had not more than 6 minutes of screen time together).

Production wise… I do have my complaints. The budget could not have been high, looking at the Award Show at the beginning. If you can’t make it look realistic (whenever the reason is lack of money, or the pandemic), don’t do it. There were other ways to show who is the top idol and respected performer. Another thing was the distracting, poorly done make up. Ma Ha looked like her lips kept bleeding, and Jun at times could play a 30+ years old guy.

With all that, I somehow got attached and the last episode made me slightly emotional, especially the scenes of the few characters I liked.

Overall: Honestly speaking - waste of time. I was initially interested because of the mystery element and more realistic portrayal of the idol's life, but it was all gone by episode 3. I don’t even want to talk about acting. Some of the idols did better than others, but damn, the majority of supporting roles of the two boy groups were not great.

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Not bad, but also not good enough to validate its existence.

There are two reasons to make a remake - different time period/culture (cultural changes between countries that are vital for the plot, or modernizing older titles), or significant changes to the content that explain the reason for retelling (changing genres, changing the pov of the story etc.). Sadly, Tanin wa Jigokuda is just retelling exactly the same story, without additional nuance, stripping a lot of depth from the characters and their relationship to fit the plot into a movie format. Basically, all the changes made it actually worse.

Yes, I do understand it's unfair to judge a movie by comparing it to the original drama, but when the movie is so similar and fails to stand alone, it's hard to ignore existing bias.

One of the things that made me disappointed is how this movie was just a horror, while the original story was clearly a psychological horror. Yu was not this guy who from the start we can see has some issue, and we are just waiting for him to finally snap. Yu was just a normal guy that was driven mad by the environment.

Because there was far less focus on Kirishima compared to his character in the Korean version, he never had this unnerving presence. He did not feel like a psychopathic wolf in sheep clothing, he was just full on psycho. Him and Yu also barely shared the screen, so the movie more or less completely skipped the depth of their relationship, dynamics and how they affected each other.

I also feel like the ending was less vague - here some people might like it, depends on the preference. One plot twist got me giggling though, I did not think it made that much sense.

On the bright side - if someone prefers less of a tension, and more of the actual creeps, the Japanese version for sure presents more of a horror style. Less subtle, more weird. The acting was also solid. Even if I was not completely sold on Kirishima as a character, Yanagi Shuntaro's portrayal was dreadful and dire, which was exactly the point.

Directing wise - they knew how to make you uncomfortable. Close up to chewing, quick cuts between the shots. sometimes showing more than I might have wanted to see.

Overall, it's the type of movie you kind of enjoy, but there is nothing really unique about it so you will forget it in a week.

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“We don’t discriminate”.

The thing I got the most from this movie is the complete lack of education about trans issues we have, honestly globally. The lack of education leads to insensitive comments and questions. The intent might have been just a normal curiocity, some might even think they are being playful or joking, some that it's just teasing, but the effect on the person being asked? Rather negative. “We don’t discriminate”, but we also do not care enough to take a second and reevaluate if the comment we are about to make might be insensitive or worded in the worst way possible.

Do I think it is a tricky situation for people who fall into the “norm”? Sure. Everyone has their own limits, boundaries, expectations. Things they feel comfortable about, and things they hate. There is no guideline “how to treat a transgender person”, because they are all different, just like literally every human being is different. The same question can be viewed as rude to one, and completely fine for another. Still, some comments and questions are objectively a big no-no. Sadly, most people don’t know what they are and don’t care enough to find out.

As for our heroine - Hikari. What a strong character. I am not one with any type of anxiety, especially none that involves social interactions, but the way the movie was shot and structured, I was feeling anxious for her. I was also getting annoyed, angry and frustrated watching her interactions with strangers and how… inconsiderate they were. “I am curious, so I am asking, because I am an egocentric asshole who only thinks about their own needs, and not about other’s feelings” - this is how I viewed the majority of them.

On one had it was great to see her move forward even when she felt hurt. On the other hand I wanted her to just start hell and say a few “rude” words to a couple of people. Easier said than done though. Still, seeing her walk with a smile on her face in that red dress (amazing look if you ask me) was to some extend liberating.

I’m sure there are a lot of hidden meanings and symbolism going on, sadly my brain is not quite wired to catch the hidden meanings and the poetic, less straightforward messages. Someone with a more abstract mind would for sure appreciate the movie even more.

I feel like the review is more me just ranting about society, and less how the movie was. For that I'm sorry...

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