Reviews

I love Yoongi so much and seem to forget sometimes how amazing he is and this documentary just reminded me of that fact again. Just like Hobi's "J-Hope in the Box", this documentary felt like an amazing insight into the process of creation and music making. Yoongi is always hard working and critical, but his music is always on point and perfect. His hard work and sleepless nights and frustration when something doesn't work out the way he wants really paid off; "D-Day" is an amazing album from start to finish! Seeing the cameos of his celeb friends like Steve Aoki and Halsey was really cool too because it's always nice to see when BTS and its members gets appreciated for who they are rather than just their brand. So, to see that they seem to have some genuine friendships in the western music market is great! I also loved seeing Jimin's two seconds of screen time, that guy is always there to support his members, i love him so much :(. My favorite part of the documentary had to be toward the end with Sakamoto Ryuichi. You could really see and feel that Yoongi was talking to an artist he deeply respected and to see him be appreciated and praised by said artist was very heartwarming; the song they worked on together ("Snooze") is one of my faves on the album anyway, so this bit made it even better. The live performances of some select songs made the documentary a little more dynamic (Hobi had clips of the festival to show, but Yoongi hadn't gone on tour yet), and I just generally love seeing this dude perform. Overall, great documentary, great artist, great music<3

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This show is such a standard for mini-dramas. The pacing of the drama was perfection and didn't feel rushed but was also substantial and managed to tell the story it aimed to tell within its 8 episode span.

The Characterisation: So wonderful. I still don't know how they managed to effectively portray and explain the motivations and personalities of the characters and develop them so well within 8 episodes. With the exception of one minor character, everyone is so beautifully captured and explained in this story.

The Plot: Amazing and really intriguing. It was a pretty crazy ride but it was completely realistic. One major credit to the drama is that it deals with some really H E A V Y topics but it is still hilarious and respectful. The way in which the drama unfolds this story is so realistic but also enjoyable without weighing you down. In this regard it is a similar watch to Sky Castle, there are really touching moments, very dark and sad moment amongst very important lessons while maintaining a fresh, light air to it. (Disclaimer: it is a very different drama from sky castle, I am referring here to the feeling of watching)

The Music: This was forgettable for me, didn't feel like I wanted to listen to the songs outside the drama. I will say that the music matched well with the show and there was never any songs that felt out of place with where the story was going at all.

Personal Fave: A lot of the script is very beautiful and poetic. This is stronger if you have a relatively good understanding of Korean but also translates into English really beautifully. Perhaps because one of the main characters was a budding poet it was a stylistic choice? The best part about it is that its poetic without ever being pretentious r feeling disingenuous to the setting of High School.

Overall: I am not a big fan of high school dramas as I am older and sometimes find the writing of teenagers quite unrealistic and overly juvenile. This drama was so wonderful in its portrayal of both teenagers, the people around them and the less flowery events that sometimes young people have to deal with. It is highly recommended to anyone that likes touching shows but also want to laugh. Great Quarantine watch!!

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EDIT (2018): The show is supposed to have English subs now available on Netflix!!!

A Touch of Green is consistently heartbreaking, heavy in its themes, yet amazingly gripping, painfully realistic and most importantly, so very human. A shining gem in the age of stagnating Taiwanese dramas, this terribly underrated show is 100% recommended for its superb subtleties in writing, excellent character developments and fantastic acting amongst other things.

Strong female characters in a feminist drama, three-dimensional yet flawed characters, a touch of romance and sheer quality in writing+dialogue intertwined with great acting - what's there not to love?

PLOT: It is hard to summarise this show into a seemingly exciting synopsis without sounding like every other historical drama. In fact, it’s because there are SO MANY THINGS happening that you are just pulled along with each episode without much time to think about what just happened. And things don’t necessarily happen in clear cut arcs either, unlike more simplistic drama plots. What are cliches even?

However, a more important reason for this is the sheer heavy nature of the show. The first third of the drama is still fairly easy to watch quickly given its relatively more lighthearted nature. The show even arguably has its fair share of unexpected comedy to balance the heartache.

But soon, you will realise the drama is gonna take you to discover new lows. Just when you think that things cannot get worse, the drama proves you wrong time and again. It seems nearly impossible not to cry at all throughout the entirety of the show.

Hence a word of warning for all those (planning on) watching this, this drama definitely requires mental preparation. However!! This should never act as deterrent for you from watching the show! The story and characters are all so good there was no way my friend and I were planning to drop this.

CHARACTERS: In this highly character-driven plot, the characters are the backbone, flesh and the shining glory of this drama in many essences.

Again, it is hard to describe the main characters succinctly because it would do them no justice at all to create a stereotype for them to fit in. All of them are so complex and unique that the show definitely acts to shatter typecasting of the actors themselves.

In a nutshell attempt, Zhu Qing is independent and takes no BS from anyone yet beholds an unspoken innocence. Guo Zhen is also not just a charismatic and defiant pilot, but also harbours darkness in his heart only leaked through his sarcastic jabs and comments.

A great source of enjoyment from this show was simply watching the character development of all of the characters, especially across the more obvious “arcs” across time. It was also brilliantly portrayed and written how the characters kept their quirks and personality in some way or form across time. Yet all of them also grew and changed because of their respective painful experiences into new roles that the audience would never have thought to expect from the characters.

Human nature is so strongly presented in this show to our delight~. None of the characters are stereotypically “good” or “bad”. Most significantly, the wives and their seemingly demure nature is contrasted with the sacrifices and moral dilemmas that they are willing to go through for their husbands.

The relationship between the main characters are also constantly changing with new events. While they are friends and love each other, they fight, they leave snide remarks, they seek forgiveness and even betray each other.

Sometimes the characters even do seemingly inexplicable and irrational things, yet that is exactly what makes the show so human and complex. Even minor new characters are constantly introduced with almost none of them disappearing insignificantly.

STORYTELLING: Another part about this show I enjoyed very much was the narration/dialogue and many subtleties delivered in the filming direction.

Using the voice of Mo Ting, Xiao Zhou’s daughter and various objects in the show, many beautiful metaphors are delivered – the fake math equation 5×1=3, time being a drug with unknown side effects; a dove; plane 513; and the pilot’s bomber jacket next to Shi Niang’s qipao being kept.

There is simply so much depth being included into every scene whether with dialogue or not that not a single scene should be missed

OST: The main reason that I came to know of this drama was through Hebe Tien’s OST MV for this show titled "As it is" which can also be translated as “Numbed” or “Jaded”. This theme song alone epitomises much of the show’s heartbreak and complexity in its lyrics and appropos dramatism.

Clearly, the MV was enticing enough to reel me in to desperately find sources for it just to find out what this interesting-looking story was about.

REWATCH VALUE: There's probably so much more subtlety to appreciate from the script through rewatching, especially with the level of depth and complexity in the writing of characters. Hence, there should be a lot to still enjoy in the sheer quality of this drama, as long as you're prepared for the whirlwind of emotional drama to ensue.

CONS: If there is any thing to complain about this show, it’s that it can be hard to understand. The show uses specific and historically related references, so it’s somewhat easy to get lost and not catch why certain things are happening to the characters. Simultaneously, the characters themselves often use roundabout sarcastic jabs and often don’t mean what they say. So once you lose the context, it’s hard to understand what they really intended to mean.

PLEASE do give this show a try, because this show is really THAT good. I cannot do enough justice to this epitome of an underrated drama which swept accolades at the 2016 Golden Bell Awards, other than you being able to simply watch it and see it for yourself.

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I haven’t written a review in a couple of months so forgive me if it’s bad lol.

I don’t even know where to begin with this review but what a ride this has been…

Let’s start with the negatives first one of which was Kul…..It pains me to say this as I am a frequent visitor of Bua’s lakorns but this is honestly the first time I’ve ever been disappointed in one of her work. It’s not her fault at all but for someone whose supposedly a Main Character, she was given scenes like she was in a Supporting Role. She played her part perfectly fine but Kul was one of those “alright, let’s bring in the girlfriend for a few scenes here and there” characters which makes me sad because she’s a good actress and I feel the writers let her down.

I came for the Body Swap as well as Krating but to my dismay, I liked Namtarn and Alek scenes even more - partly due to the fact that Krating’s character post swap, Wat was somewhat of a trigger for me, one who gave me a bit of a headache at times but I was still able to enjoy his acting. There is an Attempted Assault which is supposedly “the norm” in lakorns but as I was aware of it due to the trailer, I was able to skip such scenes but unfortunately the people behind the scenes love this little thing called flashbacks so I was quite annoyed by this. Because of this, I am not accepting of Wat and Kul pairing but I do appreciate his Character Development and background.

Story had many twists and turns which I guessed some but not all.
Romance between Tet and Ginny were really nice and they provided some comedy which I really appreciated in between all the endless danger. I didn’t know until this lakorn that Alek and Namtarn were a pairing that I needed, they were such a pleasure to watch. I think they were possibly the most selfless characters I’ve ever watched in the 4 years I’ve been watching lakorns.

Acting all round was really good, I think it was a team effort and they worked really well together but Alek really impressed me. Some scenes were rather difficult to watch without crying which honestly doesn’t happen a lot when I watch Lakorns but this one just hit a sore spot for me. There are some inconsistencies and logical stuff like when Tet and Ginny claimed to have no more money but they were still able to drive their car everywhere lol, bad casting “high school” flashback of Tet’s parents etc. Probably best to just ignore stuff like that to get full enjoyment.

Music - whether dramatic or soft - were quite fitting. No romantic music during assaults like they usually do.

Overall, I truly enjoyed this lakorn. I can easily say it’s my second fave lakorn of 2021 which probably isn’t saying much cos this year has been really bad but you still get to see some really nice ones along the way. I would recommend this if you like Body Swap plots, lead’s who do whatever to help and protect each other, no damsels in distress.

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It’s the baddies that perhaps make this show

Si Jin for most of its run was a consistent story that had much to offer viewers. The OTP were very good together. In fact, so much so, the ML never doubting the FL was refreshing.

The Royal Princess is hard to beat as the pick of the characters. Her performance was fabulous. It’s always pleasing to see such actors give it their all from beginning to end - a ver professional performance. Her daughter, was a mini me and one that even frustrated her mother.

The emperor’s character was criticised by many as he wasn’t the same as in the novel. However, I thought his character was flawed, as it should be, with a solid performance. Forgiving his sister continuously, the Royal Princess was a tiny bit frustrating but it seemed to keep the story moving.

The friendship between the ML, FL’s brother and the upright magistrate was delightful. The latter two also had very nice relationships with their partners.

As for the OST, I enjoyed the song that played over the closing credits of each episode. It very much is a subtle composition that has an ear wig melody going on.

The costuming was also very good.

However, the final four episodes were, although good, too condensed and over very quickly and perhaps diminished one of the key elements regarding the Saintess.

Si Jin is worth your time 😊

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When I first tried to watch this film, I was on my way home riding a plane and was 6,000 feet off the ground. 10 minutes through the film, I started to realize that it was rather a sexually explicit movie. My seatmates by the way were a bunch of old people. I was so embarrassed to find out that the movie I was watching was something not appropriate for the public eye. Ack!

Setting aside my embarrassment, I watched it at home again without any kids or grannies around.

To be honest, this was the first film that I have appreciated Ando Masunobu in. I've first seen him in "Synesthezia" with Aoi Miyazaki, but I didn't like his character there too much. Here in Sakuran I loved the way he acted as Seiji who was the "keeper" or "care-taker" of the Oiran, (the highest ranking female prostitute in the house) which was eventually transferred to Kiyoha (Anna Tsuchiya). I loved the way she played the hot headed TOP Woman. Even though she wasn't the Oiran yet, she already had the attitude of one. She was spunky and feisty for a woman who lives and breathes the life in a brothel. Though this was her role, her life as an Oiran in the making was bitter and sad, she's witty and beautiful but was kept in a container, thus her life is compared to a goldfish in a bowl.

The story was manga based, so it had a bit of a shoujou-ish plot line going on. Nonetheless, it was a great movie. The ending was just my taste, the setting was perfect and beautiful, as well was the over all cinematography. Everything was vibrant with hues such as red... red... and more red. I think that color has so much significance for this movie. It makes sense that the bright colors used for the film was very appropriate for its theme. The sound track was fit for the whole movie and it has caught my attention so much that I researched about the singer Shiina Ringo and discovered the band Tokyo Jihen, hence I now have the collection of their songs.

I have already re-watched this Movie several times and would re-watch it again in the future.

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I was so excited to watch this drama only for it to be a huge disappointment.

Why are ML's in all the Thai dramas I've watched, so ANNOYING. I thought this would be better, considering the fact that this show finished recently. But, every enemy to lover Thai show I've seen, or tried to watch, has the same kind of ML who assumes everything is the FL's fault, that it was her "plan". I am SICK of the word "plan".

I think "flirty female lead" TAG is really not the right phrase to describe the FL. If being confident of yourself and being nice to someone, including men is considered "flirty", than she is flirty.

The best part of this drama was the friendship between the ML and SML. They didn't even have to fake it for people to think they were gay, it was hilarious. The friendship between the SML and FL was also really nice, I'm definitely watching their next drama together where they play a couple.

I get why the prophecy or whatever said the ML needed the FL or he'd die. His stupidity and ignorance would have been the cause of his death. He is so easily manipulated and always trusts the wrong people.

I didn't hate a charecter more than I hated the FL's sister. That is why I couldn't be invested in her "romance" even though I LOVED the SML. She was hypocritical, self-righteous and outright useless especially when it came to her own family matters. I get that she's suppose to be young, but how is she so immature. I found out she was under 18 in episode 10 and couldn't believe it, how does she have the job she has at her age. It also made her pursuit of the SML both annoying and disturbing.

The FL isn't that great either. She should have walked away from the ML a long time ago, and never looked back. Who willingy marries a person that hates them and will openly cheat on them, without hesitation. I just wish she loved and ended up with the SML. I did not want a happy ending for any of the couples on this drama. The only good thing about this drama was the comedy.

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A mix of fantasy and romance that actually worked!

Story: It's complicated but it's also quite straightforward. In a nutshell, this is a fantasy story about a guy who could travel between "dimensions" - which were essentially stories from many different novels. His mission when travelling to the different stories was to collect "spiritual energy" by completing missions given to him by the "system". Once he had collected enough "spiritual energy", he would be able to return to his own world. The female lead was a college student who may seemed at first, un-connected to whatever the male lead's doing - but by accident, found herself in a story where the male lead had just completed. In order to bring her back to her own world, the male lead decided to enter the story again to help her complete her mission. Hence, begun a fantasy joyride of jumping from one story to another - from sci-fi to ancient to modern. The romance between the male lead and female lead developed as they completed missions together. My personal favourite was the ancient story part. :) There was also the underlying sarcasm about how many of these stories featured predictable romance between a female lead (who's always given the character of a victim and requiring help) and despicable male characters who took advantage of the female lead. There were also scenes and things the book characters did that were "standard" that provided some comedic relief.

Acting/Cast: Mostly new actors. The female lead acted well. The male lead's a bit stiff but his character will slowly grow on you. Side characters all acted well.

Music: Standard music.

Re-watch value: With only 12 episodes and with each episode adding to the progression of the story with no boring bits, it has excellent re-watch value for when you run out of good dramas to watch. You can very easily marathon this in one day.

Overall: If you want to be really picky and question things like, "What was the identity of the male lead and why could he travel between dimensions? The Book Spirit merely mentioned that "Master is different"- what did that mean? Was he even human? Which world did he came from? What was the logic of collecting "spiritual energy" to send the male lead home? How did that work? Which world did the female lead belong to? Was "the real world" where she came from actually part of a story as well? etc etc etc - then you will struggle to understand and enjoy this drama. Personally, I think the answers to these questions are not important for the enjoyment of this drama. The fantasy bits were merely settings. What this drama did really well was merging the idea of a fantasy story with a smooth progression of romance. It's really a weirdly successful formula despite the many potholes in story and acting. Overall, this was a worthy watch -much to my dumbfounded surprise!

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This is not a fluffy BL story that is for sure. The relationship between the main leads is twisted and intense and S/M abusive. Having said that I didn't regret watching it ... it was sort of interesting thinking about the 'whys' of this strange relationship and some of the unexpected twists that occurred.

In short:
For me this movie is about love ... what is it ... who can have it ... and under what circumstances can it be ‘had’. It is a kind of fascinating melding of greek philosophy and S&M. The reason for my thinking this was the reference to Plato’s feast (the TV documentary they were watching on the TV). Maybe I read too much into that TV documentary, but for me it seemed relevant to the story.

In detail:
Plato’s Feast was kind of symposium or talk fest, where all these philosophers ate, drank and talked a whole lot of philosophical shit. In respect of the TV documentary, it particularly referred to the feast held at Agathon’s (a poet) house. At that feast, the topic of discussion was “eros” or “love”. Quite a few philosophers had their say about what they thought “love” was ... in particular:

Pausanias believed that loving attraction was not always sublime, that it could sometimes be ‘base’ because there were two kinds of love from the goddesses Aphrodite (Aphrodite was the Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion and procreation). One kind of love was Aphrodite Heavenly and the other kind was Aphrodite the Vulgar so therefore it must follow that there were two kinds of love - heavenly love and vulgar love.

Aristophanes, on the other hand, spoke about the myth that original inhabitants of the land were androgynous i.e. they were both male and female at the same time aka the Androgyns. The Androgyns had 4 legs, 4 arms and 2 faces that looked in opposite directions. When they wanted to move, they moved on their 8 limbs like a wheel. The god Zeus didn’t like the Androgyns so he ordered Apollo to cut them into half. Afterwards, even though the Androgyns were now separated, the memory of the connection with their former half gave rise to a desire to search for their other ‘half’ in order to restore their original nature and integrity. However, this was not as easy as it seems as if they were 'wicked' the gods would 'cut' people into even smaller parts.

Anyway, given the above as a kind of background to the story, it is not surprising that the two male leads have the same sounding name Ichikawa Mitsuo … the only difference between the two is how they spell their family name "Ichikawa". One spelt it with the kanji for the number "one" i.e. "Ichikawa" / "一川" (one river). The other spelt it with the kanji for 'city' - "Ichikawa" / "市川" (city river). Is having the same name symbolic of them being each other's other half ... they are the same but different ... same coin, different sides 🤔. This is interesting as when both Mitsuo’s meet in high school … right from the beginning, you can see their two very distinct and seemingly different personalities but there was a hidden S&M kind of connection / attraction between them none the less. Since their first meeting they have 'danced' around each other ... like a pair of orbiting neutron stars that spiral ever closer together. One receives from the other, one gives to the other … one receives abuse, the other gives it … one masochistic, the other sadistic … one gets a girlfriend, the other takes her for himself ... “No. 1” Ichikawa is “City” Ichikawa’s dog and will come to his 'call'.

After high school the two Ichikawa's go their seemingly separate ways. “City” Ichikawa comes from a Yakuza (gangster) world and is a low level ‘dog’ for the Yakuza Boss. “No. 1” Ichikawa is a Systems Analysist and true to his "number" name, is brilliant on coding. They had no contact with each other until that phone call.

When “City” Ichikawa "murders" his girlfriend … the only way he can keep it secret from his Yakuza brothers, is to call his own “dog” from high school. That "City" Ichikawa still has "No. 1" Ichikawa's phone number after all these years is interesting. The rest of the story is really about the “dance” they have with each other against the backdrop of murder and the brutal gangster life … and in doing so, how they slowly grow in awareness that despite how their lives have gone, despite the predicaments they get into, they are best together ... live together, die together. They are two sides of the same coin … each is the "mint" (as in stamping) to one side of the same coin ... one has no meaning without the other ... hence "Double Mints" ... not the peppermint kind but the coin minting kind (well imo).

So this for me is a love story with a twist ... and it is fascinating. Who is it that deserves love … what kind of love do they deserve … ''heavenly love vs 'vulgar love' … if the love is consensual, is one kind of love necessarily 'worse' than another kind of love 🤔 … I am not into S&M but who am I to judge what other people need in their lives so long as it is informed and consensual ... “love is love” be it ‘heavenly love’ or ‘vulgar love’. Interestingly, regardless of the type of love had between people, when it is informed and consensual, there seems to come with it a potential degree of personal 'evolution' … so in that sense can all kinds of love be 'good' love 🤔.

The ending of the movie had an air of bitter sweetness … I think they were both going to Korea knowing they would meet their deaths there … but in so doing, they would meet it together as "one". The movie is a bit of a mind f*ck ... but that is the way I see it at this point in time ... maybe if I watch it again in another year or two I might see things differently ... who knows.

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beautiful drama

everything is well done in this drama, the acting, the plot, the music !
2 Korea, one kingdom, one republic, and a way to go from one to another world.
The story is very well built, when you re-watch it you see how thorough it is.
The OST is one of the best i know for a series, always a pleasure to hear.
The casting is great, the 6 main roles are absolutely perfect. The chemistry between the FL and ML is good, but also the Bromance between Lee Min-Ho and Woo Do Hwan, and the "more than friendship" relationship between Kim Kyung Nam and the FL. The prime minister is very well played as well.

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very enjoyable K-BL

Overall: there was sweetness, angst, realism and non-realism. I waffled between an 8.5 and 9 but I'm feeling generous so 9 it is. Aired on Viki and GagaOOLala (varied by country).

Content Warnings: violence off screen, punch, manipulation

What I Liked
- the premise
- acting
- sweet and cute moments
- mostly realistic relationship trajectory
- the supportive female friend
- physical affection once they were officially together
- was happy with how Ji Ho Joon handled his dad in episode 8
- production value

Room For Improvement
- wish they had told the story in linear fashion as the flash forwards and flashbacks made things unnecessarily confusing, was also kind of choppy, we'd jump from one scene to the next
- unrealistic elements (dad said to sell all the cars but he still has one? no hotel rooms in what looks like a large city?)
- was sad about the cliched lying at the end of ep 7/beginning of 8, there would have still been drama if the character had been honest

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Cute short story

It's a short novel about demons and humans, the couple is very much in tune, they're cute and had good times together, the story is often funny, light, and good for passing the time. ML is that typical, more reserved protagonist, but with that fierceness that knows how to press her buttons, I got irritated with her on several occasions because she didn't see what was in her face, and she made stupid decisions, but I forgive her because she I felt like I couldn't trust anyone, I was worried about the ending, but it was satisfactory! In short, a good mini drama and a couple with a lot of chemistry.

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The premises: this is a war movie through and through.
There are no romance, no cuteness, no funny moments to draw a breath. There are no gorgeous sceneries to admire, or beautiful faces to ogle.
This movie is a punch directed at your very stomach. And yet it's so full of heart and intensity it left an indelible trace in my memory.
It's the story of a handful of Japanese soldiers left on guard of the rocky, desolate, deserted but of outmost strategic importance island of Iwo Jima. They are basically left to rotten there and eventually being slaughtered, if not by the Americans, by the obtuseness of high rank Japanese officials.

It's based on a true story, so I have no fear to spoil the plot. Many of you may already know of Iwo Jima, if only for the über-famous picture of the American soldiers planting the stars and stripe flag on a little mountain of dirt. This movie tells the same story, but from the other side of the barricade, in the literal sense of the word.
Western films tend to depict Japanese soldiers during WWII like war machines, ready to die for their country no matter what, cold and determined. Here we see the human side of them, the ultimate meaning of the film being the universality of fear, loneliness, anguish and friendship.

Outstanding acting performances by all the cast, entirely Japanese and terrific direction by acclaimed Clint Eastwood.

This is the kind of film one re-watches sooner or later. A film-library movie. You have been warned as to its content, so I recommend it with a clear conscience.

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