Reviews

TVING is the new -more violent- OCN

After the King of Pigs, TVING released another dark-themed series with a star-studded cast and even though it didn’t disappoint, it wasn’t as thrilling as one would expect either.

From a technical aspect Monstrous is quite well done. It has a believable (enough) atmosphere, some nicely shot scenes and a dark colour palette. As a result it is better to watch it with all the lights off to be fully immersed. The CGI is not exactly the greatest CGI you will see and it does seem pretty fake at times, but at the same time it is not too bad to take you out of the story. Furthermore, the make-up wasn’t really good, especially in some horror-like scenes of the drama. Lastly, even though I do believe that the lack of censorship can make a series feel much more realistic, in this case they overdid it with the violent scenes. Sometimes it felt like they used them just for show and to fill some time.

Acting wise, people familiar with Korean series will recognize the majority of the main cast, including Koo Kyo Hwan (D.P.), Shin Hyun Bin (Hospital Playlist), Kwak Dong Yeon (Vincenzo), Park Ho San (Prison Playbook, My Mister), Nam Da Reum (Six Flying Dragons, The 8th night) and Kim Ji Young (Graceful Friends). Needless to say that the majority of the cast did a pretty good job with the roles they were assigned with. My favourite performances were undoubtedly those of Koo Kyo Hwan and Shin Hyun Bin, two of our main leads.
On the other hand, I wasn’t entirely convinced with Kwak Dong Yeon’s acting in some scenes, even though he did a pretty good job with his role. My biggest problem acting-wise was probably Park Ho San (the annoying governor). Even though I am never too bothered by his acting, almost every time I watch him on screen I feel like he is overdoing it with his expressions to a point that he seems a bit ridiculous.

The plot of the series was good enough to keep the viewer interested. There were some scenes that didn’t make sense, or to be more precise there were things that conveniently happened so that the plot could move forward. I didn’t mind it that much though, since what matters the most to me is having fun and I was pretty entertained throughout the drama. What I loved the most about the series were the backstories of the characters that I would like to watch more of.
The series was very easy to watch and I would suggest binge-watching it not only because it consists of six thirty-minute episodes, but also because it would probably feel very underwhelming otherwise.

Having said that, the characters, even though interesting, were pretty underdeveloped. Also, at some points, the series felt a bit like your typical zombie/monster drama and we have been seeing a lot of those nowadays, with All of Us Are Dead being the most recent one. There were also some particular scenes that felt a bit out of place, like those with the monks in the first three episodes. If I could point out the biggest problem of Monstrous, then it would be that I didn’t really feel for the characters. Even though we were presented with some suspenseful and sorrowful moments, most of the times I wasn’t really on the edge of my sit, neither did I feel emotionally invested.

All in all, it is obvious that TVING is trying to bring something new to the table; something more violent and raw and they pulled it off to some extent. Nevertheless, it seems like they need to do a bit more work to make some other aspects of series like this one work. Looking forward to their next project, Rose Mansion.

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Kooky lighthearted Romance Comedy

This show maintains its theme all the way through - it starts as a lighthearted ridiculously kooky comedy in the Josen period and maintains that feel till the end. It never takes itself seriously but does use comedic timing and funny characters to make social commentary on serious subjects like suicide, LBGT rights, maternity and paternity leave as well as interesting conversations about what is the role of marriage in the fiction of society.

It does a great job balancing moments of character development and growth without losing the fun silly nature of the drama which makes each scene enjoyable to watch. I particularly enjoyed the character of the female lead who is forward, perceptive and bold. She’s a breath of fresh air in a line up of FL leads that shy away from intimacy and communication. In contrast, this FL could stand perhaps not to communicate so often. Still her dynamic with both the ML and SML is very fun to watch.

The interactions of the ML and the SML also enhanced the show. They have an incredibly pure friendship that shone through and was wonderful to watch. All in all, this was a very enjoyable 12 episode drama and I would definitely recommend this show.

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very well done production leaving the standard storyarcs of BL...

We all know the tropé of love as a teenager which will come to fruition may years later on. But in this series, they have done it in a mature dramafree way. The story progresses naturally and you may need to watch it twice to get all of it, but this was a very needed change of pace to normal series. I would consider this more a gay story than a BL, it feels more real then most.

The acting and chemistry was great, you can always feel some tension between them and even it feels like a slow pacing show, it's quite fast considering 3 episodes around 8 minutes and the finale with around 14 minutes. Production quality was also much better than any shows before even when I doubt they had a big budget. They just made the most of it. Yes there are some lapses with unlit monitors and cuts/countercuts not fitting exactly, but it does not take away from the storytelling.

So for me this is a little marvel outside of the normal bounds a "BL" has. It's a slowly, meticulously told story without any drama at all, it's mellow and relaxing and everything makes sense and they do not have a kiss just to cater to the fanbase. I recommand to watch this!

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Should you watch this?

(This is my first time writing a review so sorry if it isn't that good)

To be honest, I haven't giggled this much while watching a BL in so long TT. I even got butterflies which lowkey surprised me but overall i think that this was very good and i would definitely recommend watching this.

The music was so random and made me pause so many times because it just catches you off guard.
I kind of really like this drama because the plot seemed kind of fresh in a way because i haven't really seen any other BLs like this so it was really interesting. And the acting was pretty good. And don't get me started on the NC scenes.

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Intriguing new plot, sweet & satisfying slow-burn romance

(I rate vertical dramas on their own sliding scale.) Awesome fresh story! Plot set-up explained below. Fantastic acting, very interesting plot (haven't seen the exact same set-up anywhere else yet, 7/11/25), and fully emotionally satisfying romance (slow-burn). Great to see the leads as two smart characters working together in the lawyer profession. A healthy relationship with major green flag ML, good messages throughout (some I found quite quotable with a good translation), no unnecessary plot shenanigans (like kidnappings or assaults), and even the second leads are human- they are not all bad in the end. Some good cinematography too.

This is mostly explained at the very beginning so I don’t consider it a spoiler: There's a system that gathers emotions through people in this world and picks a rare number of people to be players. The system offers the players one wish granted if they complete their objective. The FL's quest is to get the SML to fall in love with her, but if she's fully rejected, she goes through death as her current alias and her quest re-boots. I loved that when the FL died after failing her target mission, she would come back and continue where she left off in age (didn't go back in time and start from the beginning); so the same body, but with a different name. And that her previous existences weren't erased or forgotten, just that people's memory of how she looked became too blurred for recognition. It allowed for an intriguing story to be woven. The story starts at her 5th failure. The system re-boots her quest, but this time she's unlocked the option to switch her target! So she gives up on the SML and chooses the ML (his friend) instead.

The FL starts pursuing the ML for her survival and end goal, but ends up truly falling for him. The two leads had great chemistry, seemed fully comfortable with each other, and played off of each other well. There aren't that many kisses, but they are meaningful, and realistic from both actors. There is a good amount of hugs and skinship, and multiple sweet moments. A satisfying ending too.

The screenplay and editing did a good job of giving enough information to understand the basics of situations and characters and then filled in the gaps at a good pace throughout the show with flashbacks and some exposition. Full understanding of everything and everyone is achieved by the end; I so appreciated that it didn’t feel like any threads were left hanging.

I found it posted at 2 hrs 50 mins run time (I shared the link in general comments). If you come across a post that is shorter by more than a couple minutes (I saw a few), it may have snippets missing. A little difference in time can be explained by how the recorder/poster edits between episodes (either lets the 1-3 second transitions play or cuts them out).

Edit 8/16/25: Now on iQIYI, with really good subtitles and info in parentheses! Makes things so much easier to understand! :D

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A love that started, and never stopped!

Not me here screaming "no" to myself to not cry... I cannot believe I cried!.. I got teary-eyed before watching a drama, but i never cried my eyes out before, and i think it was because I have those same thoughts she did about getting old with your husband, until the end.. then what?! My husband and I have two kids around the age they showed there kids last in the special, and sometimes i think about when we get old, and that time is going to fast, it's already been 10 years, and to think we only have a few more decades and then, we say goodbye, and who knows how goodbye will come... it really hits home! To make it worse, before i watched the special i put the You are beautiful Ost as the ringtone when my husband calls me, i might change it, because now I'll be sad every time I think about it hahahaha I'm a hot mess right now hahahhahahaa

*Clears throat*

This was one of the best special episode I've seen!.. the transitions between years were well done, and the acting, and the aging looks they had, and the fact that you could still tell how much they loved each other... This was "The what happens after a happy ending!"

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Highly rated short drama

The only questionable thing here is the title "Hidden Marriage", they did not have a hidden marriage. in fact they didn't even get married.

No hehe no haha straight to the plot and yet so enjoyable. it was almost like a "the more you bite the more sweet it is". not fast pace but not so slow. I wish it was came out as a whole show with about 45 mins per episode like other drama of Zhao Yi Qin. he is very professional and been in this industry for years yet has to act in a 5 min per episode drama, very undermining of his skills. as for the actress she had acted in a pervious drama that I watched, beautiful, graceful and talented. these are the three words enough to familiarise yourself with her.

For those who have hectic schedules or students who are busy (like me) and you just don't have time to send hours everyday to enjoy yourself on dramas. this is perfect. storyline is well thought out. one thing that got me a bit on the head scratching side was that, fl's dad is her biological dad but disowned her just like that????? as a parent you might not speak to them if they done a bad thing, but you won't be as cruel as to talk in a degrading manner to them.

This isn't just an average short drama with low budget, yes it seemed like it. however the storyline saved. in my opinion, not trying to spoil, the scriptwriter or director missed a key point when she had an accident and was in the hospital otherwise fantastic.

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This is a Fast , Funny and Sweet series unlike Korean series its very short and sweet
The casting is so good I loved each and everyone of them
They have done a great job in this drama
this is my first Japanese serial and I loved it
It's full of Fun not even a single part is boring though less romance you won't really need anything
The hidden love between the father and the son is very realistic and sweet
the only disappointing thing for me is the Drama got over so soon I couldn't get enough of it
Overall its GREAT !!
JUST WATCH IT !! ITS TOTAL FUN, U WILL LOVE IT ;)

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A film that is so my cup of tea, I want to write a 'Thank you' letter to the writers, directors, editors and Kim WooBin, who was the reason I actually payed attention to this and decided top watch it.
Speaking of Kim WooBin, I would like to start of with a few sentences to praise his acting here. The director of the movie praised him in an interview about his acting skills and how he worked in action scenes, and I would like to praise him on that as well. A role like this - tough gangster - fits him better than a forever-stuck-in-high-school ones and I am now looking forward to his next movie, in which he will be as bad ass as in this one.
Continuing about the cast - PERFECT! Even minor characters were executed perfectly and extremely believably and really made me believe in what they were doing.
As for the plot, as in what they were doing, I have not seen Friend 1 yet, but I will see it very soon, and even though I didn't know the full back story, the flashbacks and back-stories helped perfectly, drawing the full picture. The plot was not messed up with billion parallel stories and was easy to follow, if one paid attention. Plus, the story-line made me think of several rather philosophical issues.
Might seem odd, that a movie about Korean gangsters can do that, but it made me think about a lot of things. When friendship and loyalty is pushed a side to gain power and money; when a line can be drawn in mad run for the previously mentioned; what is family - blood related one's, or those who run. starve and fight with you - these were the questions I thought about and couldn't come up with an answer, as that's how philosophy works.
Maybe if YOU, will watch it, you will find the answers of these questions or ask your own, but, indeed, this movie can not leave you indifferent.

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Promising start but could have more episodes for character development

If you like Xu Kai, you can watch through all 28 episodes. You can watch how devoted he is to the female lead. His acting is still on point and he expresses his feelings quite well done! For other actors, they are good as well.

The story synopsis and first few episodes looks really promising and it is enough to make you continue with the rest of the episodes. It was through the middle of the show where the story started to get complicated with new characters introduced. and then boom, we have reached the last episode.

This drama focus on too many side characters with little explanation and until now, when I watched the last few episodes, I have so many questions I need to ask lol. Ending feels like "Wait, that's it??? Shouldn't you be giving me some explanations? I cannot guess!" "Are they just stuck in the other realm forever??!" Honestly this ending needs so much explanation!

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It's about damn time Yoon Park becomes the ML!!!!

This is the first time I watched a mini-drama because I tend to choose longer stories that I can binge watch/ follow along for a few months BUT this drama was such a highly anticipated drama for me since it was announced. The plot is absolutely right up my alley and the main couple just oozes with chemistry and visuals. Choi Sooyoung and Yoon Park is just giving me everything I needed and I'm especially so soooo happy to finally see Yoon Park as the male lead in a romance drama. He definitely deserves to get more leading roles in dramas-- he gives such a perfect boyfriend-soft boy-green flag vibes. (kind of on a tangent, but I remember thinking how even though his character cheated on PMY in Forecasting Love and Weather, when they finally became friends again later he and PMY had more chemistry than PMY and SK did). I look forward to seeing Yoon Park as a ML in more dramas in the future, and hopefully a full length romance with Sooyoung soon!!!

Anyway, I definitely think the drama could have used a couple more episodes just to give us more cute/romantic scenes and to wrap everything up smoother BUT even with just 4 episodes, this drama was giving SO MUCH. I was surprised at the amount of story the cast were able to tell in just the 4 hours of the show because when it ended, it definitely felt complete. I also love that this wasn't just pure fluff and that they tackled serious life issues.

Like what everybody in the comments are saying, this show also has some really good OST and because it's just 4 hours worth of jam packed drama, it's going to be so easy to re-watch.

Just wanted to share one of my fav scenes in the show-- Its when they visited their high school, in the beginning of the scene, JungSeok was asking KangHee if she had something she wanted to tell him. KangHee was shook and asked how he knew she wanted to tell him something and JungSeok just walked straight towards her and whispered and laughed his response. I thought that was such an intimate moment for them.

Anyway, I hope you give this a try and enjoy it!!

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Spy is really boring. The entire drama is a build up to anticlimactic finale. The story has a great premise and sometimes I was really curious as to what was going to happen next, but for the most part I felt like I was just waiting for something to happen, Anything to happen. It went around in circles...Who has the hard drive? Who will get the hard drive? Who is going to betray who next? If it weren't for the characters and the actors portraying those characters then this entire drama would be a flop. I have watched dramas that are character driven, but I don't believe that was this writers intentions. Maybe if there had been more action during the drama then it would have been better. Anyway, I thought the actual directing and gritty feel to the drama was well done, but not enough to make this drama interesting.

All the actors did a really good job and I will admit that for the most part the dialog was good. The stand outs though are Yoo Oh Sung as Hwang Ki Chul the bad ass spy from North Korea that had no problem doing whatever is necessary to get what he wanted, He is an excellent actor. Bae Jong Ok was also brilliant as Hye Rim. She portrayed this strong character really well. I think I enjoyed her character the most. Then there is Kim Jae Joong as Seon Woo. He really is getting better with each drama that he takes on. His character was smart and fun to watch.

I like the music in this drama fine.

I won't rewatch this.

I don't necessarily recommend this drama, but it isn't a waste of time.

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The BEST Remake Hands down! Unique

I don't know where to start with this review, this is the best Hana Yori Dango remake of all times. The characters all the way to the plot was amazing including the production.

Storyline/Plot: I loved the plot because it stayed true to the original source material, however I liked that they added their own uniqueness to it to make it more interesting. I enjoyed that they added symbolisms from what the characters were wearing from the colors down to the jewelry's, locations, and props. Furthermore, the characters had something meaning full about them despite how we are introduced to them. Also, they did a really great a good job by adding on to the message that Kamio was making when she wrote Hana Yori Dango. Moreover, I liked the way that they portrayed the relationship each of the characters. Even though, this version had a darker take, it was far more the most realistic. On the other hand, the one issue I had was that I didn't like how they portrayed Hana's character as she was more of a badass in the Japanese version.

Acting/Cast: This was my first time seeing Bright and Win, which I did go back to watch 2together while watching this so I could have more information on them both seeing how popular they are. Brights acting was good in here, he did a better job playing Thyme than Lee Min Ho did playing Jun Pyo. Even though Bright was 23-24 at the time, he could pass as a teenager/ highschooler. Furthermore, bright was really submerged in his role that you can't even tell that he is acting. The only issue that I had with Bright acting wise was that he needed to work on his more emotional scenes because he comes off as cringe or rather weird along with Tu. As for Win, I was skeptical with his portrayal of Kavin because I was used to him playing a character like Tine Teepakorn from 2gether, so I didn't know what to think about him playing Kavin. Yet, I was taking a back as I kept watching because he did so well that I couldn't imagine anyone playing Kavin but him. I like how he focuses on the character's emotions. As for the other actors, Dew and Nani they did an amazing job as well and I look forward to seeing their future work.

Music/Ost: I love all the Ost since everyone such as Bright, Dew, Nani, and Win all had they are part in the Ost. I love how all the actors had their Ost based off of their characters all the issues that they were struggling with. My favorite was Gavin, Bright's, and Win's song including Shooting star and Who am I?

In conclusion, I don't think in the near future that we would get another remake as good as this one since the Thai version has raised the bar TOO high. I am looking forward to all the actor's future works.

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