Reviews

Is There Enough “ Bewitching” Charisma In ‘ The Witch’s Diner’ To Keep You Watching ?

Wish-granting storylines aren’t anything new to fiction, and certainly not to K-dramas. However, screenwriter Lee Young Sook’s adaptation of the eponymous novel (by writer Go Sang Hee )attempts to whisk away the audience to the magical diner of wish-granting witch Jo Hee -Ra ( Song Ji -Hyo) and her human business co-owner Jeong Jin ( Nam Ji -Hyun), as they deliver a dish of revenge best served cold…

There’s a lot to say and critique about ‘ The Witch’s Diner’. Appraisingly actress Song Ji Hyo was really good here. Starting off on a note which was hard to take seriously with her patchy red hair-dye job, Ji-Hyo undeniably has a charisma which allows you to easily become attached to her as the drama unfolds. This performance was equally rivalled by Chae Jong Hyeop’s sweet ambience onscreen as side character and teen high-schooler Gil-yong. Whilst the drama seemed to sometimes struggle with “ sticking out” in comparison to fantasy predecessors, it did have some surprisingly profundity scenarios in weekly episodes ( as well as tasty-looking food)- Gil Young painfully finds himself unable to help a classmate who is being mercilessly bullied , a customer at the diner makes a shocking sacrifice in order to escape his status of being a “ cowardly loser”, a young woman suffers heartbreak and throws away her own talent in order to be with him again

On a more critical note ‘ The Witch’s Diner’ doesn’t quite have the same charm in order to make it as memorable from previous fantasy drama predecessors due to the poor build-up of screenwriting at times. Ji Hyo’s onscreen persona Hee-Ra is a case and point of this problem; a character who the screenwriters want to keep you in the dark about for as long as possible, but rarely arising strong emotions for viewers with her recondite past, as there was little dramatic buildup or unseen twists which haven’t been “seen and done before” here.

Costar Nam Ji Hyun wasn’t bad per say here as Jeong Jin, but her performance didn’t quite resonate as much as it should’ve done either. Admittedly this isn’t entirely the actress’ fault. It was evident to see the goal here with her character ; a relatable and normal female lead with a mysterious past, but the ideology behind this type of FL is usually built upon emotional investment and sentimentality . Jin instead was nearly always unfazed and apathetic. Whilst it didn’t seem to be intentional, Ji Hyun’s facial expressions just seemed to radiated stoic expressions half the time , as though seeing a magical wish come to life is just another daily occurrence in the life of a mundane heroine.

If this matter couldn’t be worse, there was also Jin’s complicated co-partnership with Hee-Ra. It should’ve been interesting, but the gradual development was just poorly-tackled. Hee-Ra initially acts upon Jin’s wish for revenge in a more lethal form. Jin was seemingly disgusted to the core by the actions of the witch only to happily sign a a better business deal with Hee-Ra( who Jin now considers to effectively be a contract killer). It is understandable how the drama wanted to build this relationship up from “ resentment to solidarity” but the quick excuse that Jin was seemingly “ too emotionally inflicted by her own troubles ” only to happily going along with someone she deemed as merciless felt an odd and unsatisfactory leap in development.

Then there’s the “ potentially romantic “setup between Jin and Gil-Young onscreen. Whilst respectfully in real-life we shouldn’t forget these actors are nearly the same age and do have really good onscreen chemistry , the age gap between their onscreen personas was fairly significant . The result being that Gil-yong's obvious crush on Jin feels like it should be a more plausible romance than it really should. This might or might not relate to his “ secretive” wish, but then most of the problems of this drama seemed to manifest by tense build-ups, and then unsatisfactory results.

“ The Witch’s Diner” is a fairly mediocre fantasy drama-not bad with solid performances by most of the cast and intriguing subplots, but just lacking the grandeur and originality of its fantasy predecessors. The series could’ve easily done with more division even in this short space of time to build upon the characters ( who often felt one-dimensional), or at least have commissioned more episodes in order to divide time between storyline and character development more interchangeably.

Leggi di Più

The misunderstood prince

Just finished watching this drama today. I must say I'm quite surprised to see all the hate directed towards the prince by the viewers. I expected a wicked man after reading all the reviews but all I saw was a young man of twenty whose mother had been killed when he was born, who was brought up by the empress to be used as a pawn in her power games, who was used by his brother in the war against the empire's arch enemy so that he became the villain/hero of the piece depending on which way one viewed the episode, who had the misfortune to fall in love with the beloved granddaughter of the said enemy, who was hated by the girl he loved because he had killed her grandfather, who fell into the river of oblivion trying to save her, who lost his memory and had people he trusted lie to him and keep him in the dark, and above all, who fell in love with the same girl all over again having no memory of having loved her before.
Though the general tendency of the viewer is to love and sympathise with the princess, it is the prince's life that is truly tragic. She slowly recovers her memory - that is her tragedy. But he doesn't recover his - that is his tragedy. He succeeds so well in concealing his love for the princess and covertly protecting her from the machinations of the court and the threats from the inner court, that viewers are tempted to think of him as an arrogant and vile man.
I would have loved this story to have ended with some well-deserved happiness for the two of them, but it was not to be. But it was heartwarming that he kept his love for her alive in his heart, never married again, lived to be a good emperor and abdicated his throne to his nephew when the time came. The writer of this drama had never meant to show the prince in a poor light ; I wonder why the viewers did.

Leggi di Più

Best 2023 Modern Drama. Realistic, non-cliche story, slow burn romance & fantastic cinematography

This drama tells the story of a female lead who is a spoiled princess until her father dies and she loses everything, and a male lead who is a ruthless investor but despite all odds, decides to help her revive her father’s old shoe company. The drama shows the realistic side of life and starting a business, with morally grey and flawed characters who make mistakes but learn from them. Both male and female leads go through a major character development, from a spoiled princess the female lead becomes a hard-working business woman and from a ruthless investor the male lead opens up emotionally and becomes more caring and loving towards others, realising that money and making the most profitable deals is not the most important thing in life.

The drama executed fantastically many important life lessons such as never giving up, no matter how much challenges life throws at you, that money is not everything, about selfless love and sticking to your morals and promises no matter what.

POSITIVE:
- Realistic drama about the struggles of life and starting a new business
- Morally grey characters that feel like real human beings (make mistakes and are not perfect).
- Non-cliche/predictable storylines.
- Hot chemistry between the main leads.
- Platonic relationships between men and women are done well (which is very rare to see in cdramas).
- Breathtaking cinematography - the aesthetics from colours to buildings and people’s wardrobe is on point.
- Exceptionally well done directing - when characters are experiencing internal struggles, it's visually represented very well.
- Stella cast with brilliant acting (especially the female lead).
- Slow burn romance.
- Cute dog scenes.
- Great pacing, engaging plot, no filler episodes or boring parts.
- Business talks are part of the plot and meaningful compared to other dramas that feel more like filler scenes.
- Male and female lead that are both strong willed and determined.
- Happy ending for both couples.

NEGATIVE:
- The first 8-10 episodes of the drama are quite heavy on business talks. If you don’t know anything about business you might find it hard to follow. But the talks are done really well and easy to digest. I especially learned a lot from this drama so it's not a hard negative but personal preference.

OVERALL:
This is one of the best modern cdramas that I’ve watched with fantastic cast, meaningful storyline and beautiful cinematography and OST. If you want to watch a realistic drama that feels like a biography, with an engaging and non-cliche/predictable story about reviving a business and a slow burn romance with characters that are human and real, this drama is for you.

Leggi di Più

Worth a tear but worth more Laughs

Finally, a SOLID non copy paste plot drama. Title is much better in Chinese! 不讨好的勇气 "Courage not to please others"
Drama is much more enjoyable than all the other dramas currently out there right now.
Are there draggy episodes? Yes, and there are definite character scenes that I didn't care for, but it was within 80/20 (good/bad) ratio, so it remained enjoyable all the way through for me. And if you dropped it before the end, you'll miss the best growth story of the EX, whom to my surprise ended to be my favorite character.

Not quite a slice of life drama but there are surface level adulting problems in need of some comedy relief.
I've been anticipating actor Wei Da Xun in more ML roles ever since "Fireworks in my Heart" (Let's face it, he was the highlight of that drama). Of course, if you are just into popular dramas with pretty faces with giant white light shining on their skin smoothing faces then this is not it for you.
As for Teresa Li, she's been a hit or miss for me in her prior works, but this role fits her and she's doing a great job.

The show isn't all about standup comedy so don't expect all jokes no story. Rather it's about self-discovery through their love for standup comedy. As the drama develops, 16 ep on, there are more memorable longer skits, humorous and well written.

Worth complimenting:
1. Not having any one-dimensional bad characters. Yes, there were annoying characters, but almost all of them had "redemption" moments.
2. No silly women cat fights. Wow so civilized!
3. The Ex. How he changed little by little was so loveable. It was hard to decide who to ship w/ the FL. Favorite scene, Ep 22, 15 min in the ex and her confronting each other.
4. Hint of romance with no cringy drama tropes.
5. Open ended ending. As this is about self-discovery, the journey continues. So not ending up in a ... standard finale is very fitting.

Great script! Well done writers!

Leggi di Più

Far too many toxic elements in the story

Spoiler heavy. This could have been so much better. Cinematography and technical aspects were good. The mismatched friendship had promise at the beginning and could have been a good start but only to a completely different story. Ai Di's story could have been great if he'd been allowed to stay away and rebuild a better life.

Instead we start with someone barely above the legal age limit but very inexperienced in relationships and an older mafia underling (actors' age gap is 10 years and if the novel made the characters' less it wasn't mentioned in the series) who really should know better. He gives some token resistance on age - enough to show he understands that it is wrong - and then dives in. He doesn't even do that on the risks his criminal family will bring to the kid he repeatedly calls Kiddo.

Add in (fake) amnesia, (not fake) short term memory loss (which they keep saying is temporary but show no signs of that), time jump for prison cause the kid was coerced by the mafia to take the blame for a murder he didn't commit*, another young man who gets free from the mafia but is carried back in literally kicking and screaming but it's all fantastic because the man who dicked him around for years finally decided to kiss him.

Seriously? All for an absolute kitchen sink mess of a plot which says EVERYTHING will be forgiven for a first love.
The fandom really will ignore any red flag situation or behaviour if there are cute boys kissing.


*Don't give me that BS that this was somehow ok, or it justified the character's age - he was literally too young to be given a full adult sentence. Stop and think that through.
He wasn't old enough for the rest of it either.

And going to jail in the name of "love"? That's not romantic, it's part of an abuse dynamic. Oh but cute boys kiss. Swoon.

Now add in that the murder rap will follow this kid for the ENTIRE REST OF HIS LIFE. It's not just a few years lost, or his university and career plans.

I get that many fans like a lot of Drama and Tension to heighten the effect of the resolution. And yes, abuse dynamics are an easy way of increasing drama and tension within a relationship. But are those the narratives we really want to be embracing wholeheartedly when there are so many more ways to make compelling drama?

Like I said at the beginning, both the mismatched friendship and Ai Di's story had a lot of potential. They could have taken other paths, ones without abuse dynamics, to create better story and you would have loved it just as much.

Leggi di Più

I've literally never been compelled to write a review before, but this drama called me to do so. Takane no Hana is brilliant—brilliantly shot, brilliantly acted, brilliantly paced, and, with admittedly some stumbles, beautifully written. Never has a drama pulled me in so deeply—and everything about TNH is deep. The development of its characters (particularly its female lead) over the course of a few months is the focus of the plot. And not only the development of fictional characters, but the exploration of human emotions and the way they are expressed, from person to person. The raw moments of humanity, often chillingly acted by much of the cast, but Satomi especially, are astounding. This is a drama that will stay with you after you've finished watching it.

I watched it out of sheer love for the characters (Momo in particular) and the journeys they all go on, but viewers who watch for romance will find it here. If you're looking for couple with lots of sweetness, Momo and Pooh (our leads) will give that to you. The give-and-take of the actors is tremendous, and they play their roles exceedingly well. I'm generally not one who gets attached to couples, but these two are so playful and thoughtful. You will find yourself loving every minute they spend onscreen together.

I cannot stress how much of an impact this drama left on me. Yes, there are some odd plot twists and unrealistic behavior that result from them, but the magnitude and quality of this drama make me overlook it all. I could say so much more to praise it, but there's little point: just know that this drama is absolutely fantastic. My specific favorite things TNH tackled: 1) the growth within people when they discover how to love themselves, 2) the representation of the intense love between sisters, 3) the bravery it takes to admit you love someone, and the understanding that it does not make you weak.

In all, I cannot recommend this drama enough.

Leggi di Più

I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS SHOW

Dude what a rollercoaster this show is. Each couple was so perfect for one another. Obviously with shows that are mafia/hitman based, some things aren’t ethical. I think that’s an important thing going into it (and any show like that). But overall, I adore this show. Everyone’s acting was amazing. I know people didn’t like Dunk’s acting, but he did absolutely amazing and played Style perfectly I cannot pick another actor that could of played him as perfectly as Dunk. Joong played Fadel so well! I fell in love with him as the episodes continued. Once you peel back the layers, theirs so much to Fadel then what meets the eye. I wanted to hate Kant at the beginning but I just couldn’t because First did such a good job playing him. Bison was just a fierce cutie patootie all the way through (I love you Khao). Getting these 4 on a show together was probably the best decision. Even the non-couples had such funny scenes with one another (especially Fadel and Kant). The storyline was so damn interesting, sometimes a little predictable, but personally I like shows that I can guess what happens. All the actors also sang for this show. All their OSTs were pretty good! I also liked the variety of songs they played during different scenes to set the mood, some made sense some didn’t but that’s fine with me because I appreciated the laugh. Will 100% be recommendeding this show to literally everyone.

Leggi di Più

Lovestory btw an extrovert & an introvert!!!!

Personally i regarded this series as a light hearted & emotional drama. Even though i felt like it doesn't have a strong start!!! But it gradually got better and I'm addicted :)

The first and last episodes are really make me emotional, with their sacrifices and closeness.

The friendship among the female besties stole my heart, i really felt like its sooo precious, the way they are supportive among them is sooo soo beautiful & i almost cried at these scenes 🙈

I hated the third wheelers but not soooo much [but they super irrtated me in some scenes🧘‍♀️] but our not so confident female lead got courage about her feelings

I think in middle episodes I almost at the edge to hate the FL, but later I realized this group of highschoolers are all have different personalities - the shy one, extroverted one , risky one, confused one, confident one..... and more ..... after all we are humans!!! WE CAN'T BE SAME AS EACH OTHER


And the real story starts when they are close to choose their career/college, all our lovey dovley couples finally at the edge to choose between their career or love,
Career and love

Maybe its funny to tell i really got afraid while watching the last three episodes ....finally at the end I can tell

ENDING IS PERFECT so as the REWATCH VALUE

Leggi di Più

Psh. I adored this movie. It was my first time watching a historical type Korean movie. I was worried I wouldn't like it but I really really did. It has to be one of my new favorites. The story is really refreshing and original. The cast was good. I love Ji Hyo, but some of her acting I found awkward. Speaking of awkward, yes there are quite a fair bit if sex scenes in this movie and I saw a lot of people saying they were 'unnecessary' but I disagree. A huge part of this story is lust! The sex scenes were very decent in this movie. It wasn't like some movies which make me feel awkward like I'm watching a porno. The emotion was there. I really felt that in the sex scenes as well as the fight scenes the actors did well with making their characters emotions come through simply my expression. Honestly if you can be mature about it and understand why the sex scenes are they aren't unnecessary the add to the whole passion of the movie. This movies amazing. If you're mature watch it. I'd recommend it ^_^

Leggi di Più

This was a pretty good series. As good as any South Korean drama is gonna get, I think. I’ll explain below what particularly worked for me and, of course, what didn’t. This review contains one minor spoiler, but it won’t spoil your enjoyment of the show. This is also going to be one of my longer reviews (I hope you'll read it, anyway :)

WHAT WORKED:

THE STORY - There are two sides to the plot. First, there’s the behind the scenes look at drama production in Korea & secondly the complicated love lives of the people who work in this industry. I was very pleased with the former, but not so much the latter.

I loved getting a glimpse into how productions go down in Korea. Even though I work in film production rather than TV production, I recognized well every challenge the young directors face because I face them in my own career too. The huge pressure of wanting to stay true to your artistic values while trying to satisfy overbearing executives who control your career, difficult actors, bad working conditions, productions going over budget & over schedule. Yup, been there, done that. There were also significant differences that really shocked me. I won’t get into details, but let’s just say Korean production crews deserve every respect for their dedication to their jobs. They work under some very extreme conditions that would have unions shutting us down here in the West.

THE MATURE TONE & MOOD OF THE DRAMA - I loved that in this drama sex isn’t the usual pink elephant in the room that’s never acknowledged. The drama is written by adults for adults, and that mature tone and mood permeates the show. The chemistry is just popping. If only more Korean dramas are like this. Unlike so many other Asian dramas - I actually BELIEVED the couple are indeed a couple.

THE ACTING - Overall the acting isn’t bad. Most of the supporting cast are great & like other reviewers said I too really enjoyed the storyline of Hæ Jin and Gyo Ho. I never thought their relationship would play out the way it did. I had a bad first impression of Gyo Ho, but he completely redeems himself by the end.

As for the leads, since coming to dramaland some 7-8 mths ago I’ve heard an earful about Hyun Bin. This was my first opportunity to see him in action & I must say I get the hype. He is gorgeous! There were times when I really envied Song Hye Kyo, that she should be so lucky to play house with such an amazingly handsome guy.

But anyway … now that that’s out of the way, I think, acting wise, what Hyun Bin has going for him is that he’s got some of the most expressive eyes I’ve ever seen on a male Korean actor. The eyes are one of an actor’s most powerful tools. Look at the most successful, well-regarded actors and they all have these amazingly expressive eyes that can convey any variety of emotions: love, anger, sadness, indifference … I believe this is true for Hyun Bin. All he has to do is just look at his co-star and you can feel his emotions through his eyes without him having to open his mouth.

Hyun Bin certainly has the skills, the charisma and the charm to be a really powerful actor. However, he was still a relatively young man in this drama, 25-26 yrs at the time of filming. So he didn’t have much life experience that would've added an extra layer of nuance to his performance. For this reason sometimes his acting did come across a bit immature. Had nothing to do with the character he played (an immature guy in his own right, sure), but just the fact that life experience adds another dimension to how you process the world around you & thus how you interpret a role.

Lead actress Song Hye Kyo is not able to emote on the same level as Hyun Bin. The one emotion she's good at in this drama was ire. That is not to say she’s a bad actress because she isn’t, per se. One of the characters, an actress playing an actress, made an interesting observation: she said many young actors don’t know how to apply acting techniques. They try to portray emotion in a very literal, mechanical fashion, for eg if they’re supposed to be angry they scream, if they’re supposed to be sad, they weep etc … it’s an interesting observation because I think this describes both Hyun Bin & Song Hye Kyo’s performances well, but more so hers than his. This is true of Hyun Bin only when he expresses anger (his rantings & ravings were hilarious and cute, though lol), but with Song I felt like this mechanical interpretation of her character’s emotions is her default approach. I didn’t like it, but okay.

WHAT DIDN'T WORK SO WELL:

JI-OH & JOON YOUNG'S RELATIONSHIP - Their relationship is annoying & immature, probably because both characters are really just big babies that throw temper tantrums when they don't get their way or say dumb sh-- because they don’t know how to express their emotions in an adult fashion. Ji-oh and Joon Young fight over the dumbest things. The childishness grated on my nerves, and as the drama ended I didn’t feel confident that they’ll last any amount of time with this type of dynamic between them. They were together before, broke up then got back together, but neither one of them seem to have grown from this experience. This feeling took away from my enjoyment of the show because for me what makes a great romance drama is the feeling I’m left with at the end, that even though no relationship is perfect they’ll be able to overcome the trials life throws at them & live together happily.

THE SHOW'S ATTEMPT TO BE PHILOSOPHICAL - the show’s attempt to philosophize about how life imitates art fell flat for me. All the introspective commentary just felt like they were trying too hard to be 'different', for the lack of a better term. Contrived.

THE FEMALE LEADS - But by far what provoked me the most about this show ... some of the female characters, in particular two of the 3 female leads. The main female character Joo Joon Young, played by Song Hye Kyo is, when all is said and done, not a very likable person.

Joon Young is a driven, ambitious, career-minded young woman. She works in a male dominated environment where she deals with a lot of sexism & has to hold her own. I loved all this about her because when it comes to work, I related to her character so well. She lives my life & with great panache (as I would like to think I approach my work as well).

On a personal level though Joon Young is rude, selfish, spiteful and cruel, sometimes for no good reason whatsoever. I think the deficiency in the characters is both as a result of how she’s written and how she’s played by Song Hye Kyo. There’s not one perfect character in this drama, but it’s one thing to have a character who is human and isn’t always cookie cutter perfect & another to have complete jerks & bitches with NO redeeming qualities.

Take for example Ji - Oh, played by Hyun Bin. He verbally and physically abuses his staff on set, and loses his temper left, right and centre. But once the production is wrapped & the stress of the situation tones down he’ll humbly apologize and take everyone out for soju. In his love relationship he has a mean streak that rears its ugly head when he feels cornered by emotions he can’t process, but again once he comes to his senses he’ll humbly apologize and ask for forgiveness. So just when you’re convinced he’s a jerk, he turns around and convinces you otherwise. This made him very human & very sympathetic because even though he makes mistakes that sometimes hurt people, he accepts responsibility & expresses remorse.

Joon Young, on the other hand, never takes responsibility for anything even when she’s blatantly in the wrong. Here’s one example (out of many) of what I mean:

There’s a particular scene in which she agrees to meet another character at a restaurant. She sent a text saying that she is going to be late. She doesn’t say how late, but naturally the other person is not expecting her to turn up 2.5 hrs late. But that's exactly what she does. And when the character expresses annoyance, instead of apologizing, she gets all huffy and argues that she did send a text and blah blah. As if she’s so great that anyone should wait around 2.5 hrs for her. That type of arrogance. That type of rudeness. Ugh. This is just 1 of MANY such scenarios. She’s missing a real sensitivity chip and that made it difficult to like her.

I initially rated this drama a 7, but decided to raise it to an 8 because in the end it became somewhat of a masterclass for me. It made me think about how I develop my own work, esp female characters that I may write in the future. TWTTLI also has other good things going for it, so I’d still highly recommend it to anyone who likes a nice, adult drama. Moreover this was the best introduction ever to the lovely mr. Hyun Bin. Not sure if I’m a fan yet, but yeah he’s got me all hot n bothered alright! Haha! :-)

Leggi di Più

A tempting movie

"One of one hundred movies there's one that is fair, one that's good and ninety eight that are very bad. Most movies start badly and steadily get worse”, said Charles Bukowski once.
Well, I'm not a movie expert but as far as I'm concerned, this movie is "one of those hundred movie" that is "good".
The lead actress acted pretty well. From falling down through to bossing her boyfriend around she did everything in a convincing and cute way. There wasn't any moment when one realized that she was acting. She really lived out her character, cried, smiled and got angry.
The female lead even spoke English( but only sometimes). And by the way: Her accent is pretty cute.
Concerning the male lead...charming and hot as always and his acting was way better than you might expect ( after seeing him in Kim Sam Soon).
Apart from that, this movie used a new method to overcome the language barrier between the main actors( Daniel Henney doesn't speak Korean).
Nowadays, this language barrier isn't even a "barrier" anymore. Directors are able to make use of dubbing.
Integrating the language in the plot was something new to me when I watched this movie back then. ( Now I know that there are other dramas that used the same method: Kim Sam Soon, Sweet Spy).
At first, it felt somehow strange to listen to this Korean&English; mix of both actors. But I must admit that the explanation for this mix was very comprehensible: The male lead stated that he understands Korean pretty well. But for him it is difficult to speak Korean.
While watching this scene, I accepted it right away.
However, the only thing I couldn't accept right away was the plot.
Of course, I know that in movies everything works differently. It might be rushed as there is no time to show more of it.
But I wished that there had been more time to show the characters' and relationships' changes/ developments.
Nevertheless, the plot was unpredictable. Moreover, Korean drama clichés were used in a different and funny way.
“When everything gets answered, it's fake.” ( by Sean Penn)
Actually, I'm not a supporter of this opinion but this time I agree.

If you had a rough day and don't know what to watch, you should try this movie!

Leggi di Più

Freedom is the oxygen of the soul

Not me has to be one of the best Thai BLs I’ve ever watched. I’ve seen the praise for it for months, so I came in with high expectations and I can tell you I was NOT disappointed.

STORY/PLOT : 7.5/10
The premise of this show was interesting from start to end, you could really tell the writers/directors put a lot of thought and purpose into it. The balance between action, mystery, social commentary, and romance was handled well for the most part and you don’t see that in a lot of BLs. The only gripe I have with this would be the pacing and a few plot holes. The first few episodes were pretty slow and more than once it felt a little too convoluted, but after I’d say, episode 6 or so, the pace really picked up and things definitely got a lot more interesting. Also, the ending.. I was happy with it because who doesn’t like a hopeful ending? But it was bit too quick or..easy for me, I guess. It really just left things to be desired.

CHARACTERS: 9.5/10
Each character was charming in their own way. I don’t think there was a character on screen that I wasn’t completely engaged in. Really liked how the female characters had goals and passions and were just overall PEOPLE and not one dimensional objects to help push the m/m romance along. Not only romance, but the friendships in this show were so refreshing, I will always love a good found family trope. Some characters weren’t as developed as I’d liked by the end, but I’d blame that on just not having enough time to flesh everyone out.

ROMANCE: 10/10
Sean and White’s build up to romance was refreshingly gradual and very cute to see. Seeing a couple just exist unapologetically queer, clear consent, and healthily developed was such a breath of fresh air and I loved every second of it. My favorite couple of this series though, has to go to Yok and Dan. The scene where they first arrived at Dan’s hide out and Yok was sketching him honestly made me tear up a little and solidified their chemistry and romance for me. The inevitable betrayal hurt so good and the forgiveness in the end, a promise to help pick up the pieces lost and hopefully build them back stronger, was beautiful to watch.

ACTING/CAST: 10/10
Gun (White/Black) has done it again. Absolutely phenomenal acting especially with such a difficult task of playing 2 different characters. The way you could clearly see the contrast between White and Black just goes to show how much work and effort he put into this role. I loved Off (Sean) in this role, I’m telling you, it felt like it came so naturally to him. Every facial expression and longing glance, you could tell he really embodied this character. First (Yok), Mond (Gram), Papang (Gumpa), and Fluke (Dan), all deserve their flowers too, not one character felt one dimensional or awkward, they all each had their own personality, faults, and goals, and it was really great to see.

MUSIC: 10/10
Loved it. Music can make or break a scene and ruin immersion but the way this team utilized it had me hooked and really did add to the tone of the episodes. Also appreciated the fact that they didn’t use any comedic sound effects in this show, definitely helped with the mature angle they went for.

PRODUCTION/CINEMATOGRAPHY: 10/10
Holy. Shit. I can say this with 100% certainty, I have never seen a BL look this good. I don’t know how many times I was just staring at my screen in awe, replaying a scene over and over because of how damn good it looked. Everything from the camera work, to the locations, to the clothing, to the lighting had a purpose to help tell this story and god damn did it work. The details they put into this production was absolutely jaw dropping.

OVERALL/TLDR: 9.5/10
This show is more than a BL. It’s a story of pain, heartbreak, social justice, corruption, but most of all hope. I will never stop recommending this. The shots were breathtaking, the characters felt real, the story was engaging, and it definitely surpassed any expectations I had going into it! ♡

Leggi di Più