Reviews

one thing loved the chemistry,and acting and they actually had love that was expressed in more than stares and those famous back hugs. this was a combination of The Glamorous Imperial Concubine and the perfect couple only these two were somewhat better,for me at least.but i still loved it and enjoyed watching it, but i mostly loved the first half of it and would rewatch it up to there,because the main leads where steaming up.
FLAWS(may contain spoilers):with wu jis character traits he fell in love too fast,perfect couple did it well.
i mean you wouldnt fall in love with someone who u believe is your enemy that fast, he also became gullible and changed too fast, even lang ling wang Gao chang gong was not this softened(he was but in a normal way) and he loved yang xia woo like hell.
it kind of went off track and became a match making drama really, i mean too many impossible love affairs.but aside from that totally recommend it

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Warning: This movie contains nudity/sex scenes.

The story might sound like it's been done before but don't let it fool you. It's actually a quite different and unique story.

For me in order to have a good soul-switch story there must be a killer cast behind it to pull it off and this movie definitely has it.
All four leads are great in their roles, especially the soul switchers.
The characters are very different from one another which obviously makes it even funnier to see them in each other's shoes.

There isn't that much music involved, only in a few scenes.

The only problem I had while watching it were the sexual scenes which took me off guard but I understand they were relevant to the story so I wasn't annoyed by them, just... surprised.

This is a great popcorn movie, to just sit back and relax while enjoying it.
I'll probably watch it again in a few months.

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Probably the cutest gory horror movie ever

I loved this! What a nice treat for those of us (me) who didn't have anyone to celebrate Valentine's Day with lol.

Now, I am someone who doesn't usually watch horror movies; I am a scaredy-cat on most levels. But I enjoyed this movie, even if I had to cover my eyes for some bits. It was pretty gory and had plenty of somethings à la jumpscares, but it was all bearable! It had a simple premise of a timeloop where the six main leads had to find body parts scattered around the school; I thought it was brilliant. As a very lovey-dovey type of person, my favorite part of the movie was the developing friendship between the six. Watching a horror movie is much easier when 1/4 of the time is spent with your heart fluttering from both platonic and romantic bonds!

Watching this movie, I realized how big an impact sound has. My heart would start pounding (both in fear and happiness) depending on the music and different noises. BIG kudos to the sound engineers! Overall, an enjoyable watch. I was very close to skipping, but I'm very glad I didn't. Stay tuned for the post-credit scene!

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To think that Japanese artistic craziness has limits is really a false belief. Stunningly fascinating, unconventionally disturbing and perfectly made; Tetsuo will either make you fall for it or evidently fall apart.

When reviewing a gory film, I usually start off with warnings so let me put this out. Tetsuo – The Iron Man is certainly not your stereotypical kind of film:
Surrealist: check; it will make you think more than once about its contents.
Bizarre: double check; if you think you saw the entire cinema craziness –think again.
Excessively violent: Triple check; this film belongs to my goriest films’ list and I sure as heck saw a wild bunch of those. It would be an extremely disturbing and trippy watch for gore-haters.
Hidden message: full score check. It’s what makes this picture special in the first place. There was a pinpointed meaning behind the whole mess.

Horror and Sci-Fi aren’t my thing. I don’t like the genres separately and I certainly don’t care for them combined. But I do have a special liking to the underground director Tsukamoto Shinya –a perfect crazily talented Japanese director to add to my favourite bunch.

Horrifically graphic, the film never ceased the use of violence and gore to highlight its events and developments. Even the introduction was brought under the wing of visual grotesque. I wouldn’t deny that brutal violence, dismemberment and bloody chases are to my liking but that’s not the main reason I highly appreciated this. As I said, I am used to gore especially the Japanese type but they rarely have a meaning behind the acts of violence unlike Tetsuo.

Tsukamoto used the incessant gore to imply its vision around deep fears of technology and how far its development can mess a man’s life. He spotlighted the transformation and the resistance in a grabbing visual ceremony of grotesque. Of course, this is an over-the-top pessimistic view of the relationship between humans and the increasing threats of technology. That aside, the surrealistic nature of the film will make you draw your own interpretations as long as you pay attention to the little details.

The choice of the black and white was spot on. It only aggravated the impact of the picture without damaging the brutal gore. It added a striking darker tone to the already pitch black shadowy theme. Moreover, the leads’ acting was obviously matching the choice of colours giving it a monistic feel. However, Tsukamoto Shinya was undeniably the main performer of this picture. He was the one who wrote, directed, edited and even added his own special effects to the film. His camerawork, masterful close angles, engaging cinematography and hard-core choice of music were one of the finest I saw in gory films.

Tetsuo is one of those surrealist crazily bizarre Japanese films. Its heavy load of gore and brutally graphic content is a great mean to ensure its purpose.

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Who knew sexualities could be likened to old men's underwear?

I have to be honest, I started this show entirely because I knew Sota was playing a gay character, and the moment I found out he had a love interest, I picked the manga up right away. The manga impressed me so much already, I started to all the more look forward to the drama, and least to say, it didn't let me down.

The drama centers around Makoto-san, who's your usual old-fashioned old man. To add on to the synopsis, he's nearly ostracised by his family for always looking down on the things they enjoy and noticeably disliked by his subordinates due to that old-fashioned mindset of his. Nonetheless, it can't be more obvious that he's actually a really good father and tries his best for his family, so you can't help but root for him.

Rather than comedy, this drama focuses largely on the life aspect. It talks about gender stereotypes, the troubles older fans of idol groups have, the contemplation of whether your hobbies can translate to your career and more. Most notably since I tend to watch a lot of queer-centric shows, the issue I enjoyed watching get covered the most, was the difficulties in coming out and the horror of outing. Each issue is touched on in such depth, but in a way that makes it relatable that I believe if there's anyone like Makoto watching, it might get them to reflect and change their mindset, even if it's just by a little.

I like the realism in the character growth too. While Makoto does change his ways, he does make mistakes that he doesn't realise could hurt others around him until it's too late, and learns from it. Personally, I do see my own father in Makoto as a character, and myself in Mika, Moe and Kakeru in different parts, so I can understand some of their own actions, which makes the development from their cautiousness around Makoto and how they slowly open up all the more impactful and realistic to me. The writing's just so good, with how each character is "updated" each episode, slowly and surely, to the point you see the Okita family heal. It's simply satisfying seeing the characters and relationships develop, to the point where the characters that were updated by Daichi, end up updating others around them too.

Acting-wise, it's shockingly good. The ML, Harada Taizo, is mainly a comedian so I wasn't expecting much, but he did a relatively good job playing a character like Makoto, portraying his growth throughout the episode. And while it may be Sota's first regular role in a drama, he actually impressed me. Knowing Sota, Daichi's positivity and friendliness is very alike Sota in reality, so I wasn't shocked to see that, but he even portrayed the little complexities in Daichi's emotions well. Other actors did REALLY well too, but Higashi Keisuke especially impressed me in Episode 8 for the anger, desperation and utter love he possessed in his eyes <3

As for the music, I do think the soundtracks were used in place, especially that ochestra-ish song that plays whenever something impactful happens each episode, mostly when one of the characters is "updated". "Dancing Dreamer" by 4-CaraT as the Ending Theme is so unfairly catchy I was out playing that song all the time the moment it released. And this may be a biased opinion as a fan of the group, but "Update Life" by FANTASTICS (Sota's group) was also a nice addition in the intro! It's a nice sweet balance to the energetic ending song, and the opening sequence is also adorable.

Overall, I think this show is way too underrated and deserves to be widely known and watched by all families around the world. It's an endearing drama that manages to balance itself out well in all aspects. If you're looking for comedy, this may not be it, but it's a heartwarming show to watch, which I'd even suggest watching with your family if possible. By the way, the little 0.5 taken of the rewatch value is simply because I don't think the impact of the character and relationship developments will hit as hard on a rewatch, but still remains VERY rewatchable.

P.S. whoever styled Kakeru every episode deserves a raise and MadoDai (Madoka x Daichi) I love you so much please be happy together forever

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The ending felt... unfinished, but that's okay

I just watched the last episode of this series and wow. I didn't expect it to feel this way. After last episode I did question how episode 14 would wrap up the entire series, and it felt kind of wrong and kind of right. I have questions to things that didn't get answered and it was just left there to be seen. How did the crowd against Tawi know their friends were in the van? Not like it didn't look suspicious enough, but still. How did no one catch Black as he was leaving the hospital? There were more than 3 policemen. I don't know.
But I felt like an open ending is kind of what this needed. Many might disagree, but we don't know what might happen to them in the future. Anyone of them could die, and that was the whole point of the ending I believe. The whole goal was to make people aware of what Tawi does and will continue to do.
What happened to Todd felt a little right. He got what he deserved in the end. Was I expecting him to die? Yes. But it almost ties into how Black isn't that person. He isn't a murderer. That's what I found to be great about his short character arc. First he's an ass, then he's all secretive, then finally he becomes honest with others and himself.
The happy endings I felt needed to be there almost to wrap up that longing feeling, especially for Yok and Dan. It felt too sad if Yok continued to stare at his drawing of Dan for the rest of his life. Sean and White's happy ending was already a given, I think everyone knew that was gonna happen.
Some open endings are great, this one was okay.

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Daily dose of laughter

If you're looking for a regular drama and would be disappointed with a sitcom, please give this a pass. Don't say you weren't warned, giving this a sucky rating because it's not in the format you wanted. But if you're the open, adventurous type, give yourself a treat and tune in.

The series is packaged in 30-minute sitcom-style episodes. It revolves around Planning Department 3 of Gaofa Electronics Group that is responsible for coming up with new products for the company. While the prevailing theme is comedy, there are also heart-tugging moments. As with any other sitcom, some episodes might not be your cup of tea, but there are many that I consider masterpieces, like the costume/historical segment in episodes 33 and 34. And even episodes that are not spectacular are useful in getting to know the characters better.

Here are the flawed but endearing members of Planning Department 3 who can tickle your funny bone and warm your heart if you let them:

Li Tianran (Zheng Kai) - wishy-washy but cool guy whose ambition is to be a team leader

Fan Si Si (Chen Yu Qi) - competent worker who has had enough of being duped into working overtime thus gets herself transferred to Planning Department 3 after noticing that the team area is usually dark after 5 pm indicating nobody works overtime there

Bai Ma Shuai (Dylan Wang) - incredibly rich intern who does not want to depend on his dad's money to get ahead in the world

Ji Wa Wa (Liang Chao) - devoted family man who sometimes has to choose between home and work

Yu Qi Miao (Zhang Shao Gang) - the department head with a fiery temper

Jiang Mei (Zhong Li Li) - pretty, earnest and pleasant but turns wild after a few sips of alcohol

Yao Si Wen (Wu Ya Heng) - lonely bachelor who forces his officemates to have dinner with him

Wu Yi Mei (Cheng Zi) - beauty-obsessed professional whose face has been rendered expressionless by too much plastic surgery

Wu Ming Shi (Zhang Yue Chi) - introvert who oftentimes feels invisible but is the team's unsung hero

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I enjoyed this drama and learn too. Why should you watch this drama?
The music is excellent, the acting is superb, surpassing Japanese drama normal acting standards, the story topic addresses a needed outreach. The whole show was carried out very well, props to the director.

I highly recommend this drama to everyone. There were many good lessons, and episodes, but what really struck me is how well the drama did to show how not to be judgmental. Its really hard not to judge people and let that show, but this drama does well to illustrate how its done. Its such a powerful lesson to the rest of the world, especially japan, since embedded in the culture is to judge others.

I hope this drama gets a chance, its powerful, yet soothing, a real gem.

Thank you for reading.

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Through Sick and Sin

Vanished Name is a suspenseful story about women who have had their identities stolen or hidden for reasons not entirely within their control. The story opens with an infuriated and vengeful Ren Xiaoming, whose husband—acclaimed novelist Liu Xiaoran—has stolen and published her diary as his new coming-of-age novel. She is not amused by this gross violation of not only her privacy but also that of everyone she grew up with. Her cold fury, the way her eyes scrunch up vindictively, is more chilling than any tears or yelling. But this very foolish man thinks that the royalties from book sales will heal all wounds. The diary, along with the discovery of a long-hidden corpse, pulls Xiaoming back into old relationships and a past she long left behind.

The core themes of the narrative are women's struggles and friendships spanning two generations over 36 years (1987–2023). It mostly alternates between Xiaoming's coming-of-age years around 2004 and the present (2023). Xiaoming was a difficult child—brilliant, prickly, selfish, and judgmental. Her mother, Ren Meiyan, whose life's mission seemed to be marrying her way down the list of 100 surnames, was my favorite character. Her ability to smile through her many struggles as if "the sky falls down to be used as her blanket" (天跌落嚟当被冚) moved me unaccountably. It baffled me how such a ditzy, optimistic, and joyful character could have produced such a pompous and narrow-minded daughter. The number of times I itched to smack Xiaoming for judging her and giving her such a hard time!

The narrative alternates between two timelines that reveal the ties binding two generations of women and their complex entanglements. This is one of those dramas I couldn't stop watching because so many questions popped up from the get-go. What on earth possessed Xiaoming to marry such a turd as Liu Xiaoran? How did the bright, mischievous sparkle in Bai Shu's eyes fade into such a dull, cold, and colorless person? I don't particularly like Liu Yase's acting, but her appearance as the grown-up Bai Shu screams that something soul-destroying must have happened to her—and it broke me. I needed to know what happened to her, to all of them.

The young actors got a huge amount of screen time, and they carried this drama. Wang Shengdi, of The Bad Kids fame (Pu Pu), is riveting as the adolescent Ren Xiaoming lashing out at the world (mostly her mom) with her frustration. Her natural and unique chemistry with Bai Shu, and how they came to understand and change each other's worlds for the better, made me smile. Na Yi is another young actor to watch—her transitions from careless joie de vivre to off-the-charts tension in her quiet, passive-aggressive rebellion against Ge Wenjun are flawless. The young He Yuqiong is the unsung hero of the group: generous to a fault and always there for Xiaoming.

The drama's biggest problem is that it was difficult to really see the child in the adults. Even though it's hard to find fault with Ni Ni or Zhou You's performances, I just couldn't see the young Xiaoming or Yuqiong in either of them. As for Zhang Fang, this role was completely miscast and took me out of the drama. I am usually a huge fan of Liu Mintao, but I found her acting a bit over the top here. Among the adult roles, Yan Ni (Ren Meiyan) and Dong Jie (Zhou Yun) delivered the most convincing performances. But by the time the adults took over the narrative, the kids had already gotten me too invested in the story.

The most laughable part of this drama is the suspense plot—it is a giant nothing burger. So if you are here for the mystery, best give it a skip. From the nameless corpse that remains genderless for the longest time to the dumb cop who refuses to read the book, this is far from a fast-paced crime thriller. Instead, it is a sober coming-of-age story about friendships that survive through sick and sin—the kind that get you through all the things you can't change in life. Yes, there is closure at the end, but twenty years later is just too late. So late that all the unlimited potential of youth had passed them all by.

I rate the main plot arc about women's struggles and friendship an 8.5/10, but the mystery and ending barely a 6.0/10—for an overall 7.5/10.

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This is a drama that I did not expect to like based on the synopsis. The story seems extremely cliché on paper... an unhappy married couple gets to unexpectedly go back in time to when they met. I expected a cheesy RomCom with a retro time travel twist preaching against divorce, but instead was tricked into an emotional story about the realities of growing up, regrets, and appreciating what you have. This is a drama with a lot of laughter, but I also shed a lot of tears. The amazing cast also makes the story really hit home.

I really liked the main couple. I'm not familiar with Son Ho Jun's acting, but I'm a fan of Jang Na Ra (Hello Monster, and Fated to Love You), and I think they were a good match. The script calls for a lot more melodrama than cuteness between the two of them, but I definitely believed them as a couple, and got invested in their relationship pretty quickly. There's a sense of intimacy between the two of them that is really believable. Jang Ki Yong however brings on some major second lead feels, and really pulls off being the "older" member of the group, while actually being one of the youngest in the cast. I was very impressed by him, and loved his scenes with Na Ra. I hope to see a lot more from him. I also gained some new appreciation for Jang Na Ra's range, so I want to see a lot more of her dramas too.

The rest of the cast was solid as well. The friendships are awesome! Sometimes they go a little overboard with the immaturity, but it was fun to watch. The retro vibe also makes it fun, especially if you remember the last century well, even if a few of the references went over my head. I cared about every character, and they all had such memorable personalities. The MVP of this drama however is Kim Mi Kyung as Jin Joo's mom, which isn't so surprising based on her awesome career, but her character's storyline ends up being the drama that drives most of the show, and immediately sets the tone that this is more than a silly retro drama. Any fan of hers won't be disappointed, not that she's doing anything particularly new, but she's just so great to watch in general that you get to really appreciate her in this. I was also impressed by her moonwalking skills.

I got hooked on "Go Back Couple" pretty quickly, so I was shocked to see that it only had 12 episodes. Initially I was disappointed by that, but it honestly felt like the perfect length at the end. Although I did think some parts of the ending were a little rushed and contrived,  they did do a good job of satisfyingly wrapping up everything. I like the message overall, and I suspect that making it longer would have just dragged things on unnecessarily.  The episodes are over an hour long, so that does make a difference.  I was never bored, and looked forward to watching each week. It also makes me more likely to rewatch it, and makes it much easier to binge watch.

Maybe I'm biased towards stories about gaining a new perspective on a life, or a relationship, that you wish never happened, or have regrets about, but I highly recommend this one. I will warn anyone that has lost a parent that this may be really tough to watch at times, but there is also a great balance of comedy, and insightfulness, that keeps it from being too depressing. I cried hard, I laughed out loud, I got in my feelings about life, so I consider this a drama success.  This is the kind of well rounded drama that I don't think you will have any regrets watching.

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What was my experience of this drama? Incredible!!! Yes! Incredibly ridiculous, annoying and unbelievable! So many incidents occurred where I thought..."for real?" "seriously?" "you got to be kidding!" and "HELL NO!”

This drama had the makings of a really good watch. The cast was gorgeous, the acting was really good and the chemistry between the two leads was the best I have seen in a while. The leads were adorable, and you really believed their love story.

BUT….even with all that going for it this drama could not be saved. The writer seemed like a teenager going through anx and the producers must have been desperate to even produce such rubbish. Yes I am being vitriolic because I am so disappointed that the potential was not realized.

This drama is ‘cliche heaven’ because every cliche in drama land that was created and died came here. The Queen of 'Noble Idiots' was the leading female character, and though I loved her to bits I could not stand her overly kind, self-sacrificing and forgiving nature, especially given that she really wasn’t a push over, she was just too nice.

The balance between obstacles and triumphs which the lead couple go through was way out of balance in the negative therefore you got tired of seeing them go through problem after problem with no decent solution.

Too farcical and nonsensical.

This drama started dragging early and you knew this when you saw the same mess repeating itself early on probably around episode 10. I kept thinking how many times can you play the same trick on the same people and they still not catch on they are being used and abused and used and abused again!!!!

The chickens started coming home to roost around episode 37, however even that was a disappointment because those chickens came home but the eggs never cracked until the final episode 41!!! Any revelations was only partial and just a tease so it dragged to the final episode!! I could not believe it! So here is my advice…..DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME AND ENERGY ON THIS DRAMA or else you will be knocked out by twin brothers FRUSTRATION AND VEXATION. As you can see I still have not blown off enough steam from my anger and frustration as I am writing this review to help this cause.

How come I kept watching and how did I make it through to the end? Through sheer disbelief that I was watching such stupidness and pride would not allow me to accept that the drama was not going to improve. WHY? Because while the storyline was like a used up hag, with some creativity and a bit of ingenuity they could have pulled it off, after all it had a great cast, so I was hopeful.

Any way ALL IS WELL because its well ENDED! OVER AND DONE! HALLELUJAH!! Not to be repeated this watch BUT I will watch the lead couple again in anything. They were particularly adoring and endearing to me in this drama, so if you like good chemistry, beautiful cast and can sit through the rubbish story and plot then you can enjoy this.

So in summary my ratings are: Story 5, Acting 9, Music 5, Re-watch 0. My overall rating is 6 but I am giving an extra point to the actors so an overall 7.

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Story- Touching story of a brother who would do anything to save his sister. This includes marrying a girl for her liver. The romance is subtle but sweet. There is a bit of sadness in there. Everyone gets a happy ending though. I liked that this wasnt a romance where it was twisted and had a tragic ending.

Acting/Cast- The leads had great chemistry. Everyone acted in their roles well. I didn\''\''t like Aya in Attention Please but she proved me wrong in this drama. I liked that the male lead was so sweet and nice. The brother was a jerk throughout as the villian but he redeems himself in the end.

Music- Very nice score that went along with the mood of the drama.

Rewatch- Its one to rewatch but not right away.

Overall- This is a touching drama that the actors carry with thier wonderful acting.

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Happy End, I Want More, Feminism is there!

(Happy Ending)

Tbh, I was shocked when he died in ep 32, thoughI predicted it, but I still cried and then was again happy as he reappeared in the end.


They gave us a cute ending with that special, but I would have loved to see how they pretended he was dead, even making a fake funeral and grave! Like only he and his medic knew? Really? He even hid it from his closest aid.


My theory is that the medic saw his body and took it and still saw chances of life, hid him away and tried to heal him these past 4 years, with even taking measures of experimenting on himself. As, as we saw, the medic's hair was almost fully gray and his face showed signs of aging which came from the experiments and Hua Yong only had a few strands of his hair turned grey. Like- he deserves more praise!



I also would loved to see the second couple's twin children and it would have been cool to see them grow up with the mainleads son.



I also reallly loved the second couple, like I was kinda more invested in their story.



I have never seen a woman cross-dressing as a man so accurately in a drama. Like if not for the voice, I would have believed her! She is on par with Seol In Ah who will act in that upcoming series as a man!



Also, I was soo surprised to finding out the actor of Tian Yuan's (ml's closest aide) real age. Like you are telling me that boy is 15?!! He is a great actor but I feel bad for simping him (though mind you, I am 17, so it should be okay). I usually fawn for elder actors like Lee Sang Yi but this is new. But when I look at his MDL picture, he looks completely for his age. I think due to the heavy make-up in the drama he looks elder, which was probably also intentionally. I thougt he was around 22-24.




Summary, this was really a hella good drama and this is not only my first historical Chinese drama but this is also the first C-drama I watched till the end!!! (besides C-bl)

Bcz usually I never get to finish a C-drama as it's too long and get's boring over time, but in this drama, literally EVERY fricking episode is a dopamine shot into my soul! I loved every ep and I even wish for a second season!


I also loved how women supportive they were! My absolute favourite line from Hua Yong which literally made me watch this entire series:

"Women are poor, they have always been used, .... So I'd rather make use of men *giant smirk* "


10/10 reccommend

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Soulmate Review - ZyKuu

"The story of two soulmates" - This movie takes you along the timeline from when the two main leads Ko Ha-eun and Ahn Mi-so first met till the very end. The story did get confusing at some points, and you will be questioning things afterwards, but I believe that the premise of the film was delivered clearly. Both Ha-eun and Mi-so were amazing as you could feel the emotion and pain these characters were experiencing through the screen. Ham Jin-woo was a key character in this film and he was superb at his role. Jin-woo's presence does cause a rift in the relationship between Ha-eun and Mi-so which leads to the story to become more interesting. I loved the relationship between Ha-eun and Mi-so as they displayed what true friendship means. The character development in this film is beautiful and I loved the concept of death and life shown through both characters. The OST was ineffective as I did not acknowledge it at all, and the colours in this film were more gloomy and dark which fit the sorrow theme. This movie is a must watch for an adult audience, as I think it will resonate with them on a deeper level.

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