Reviews

Watered down tea...

Tea that look like cocktails brighten up this otherwise bland, and I mean really bland Altdif commercial, yes I checked there is such a brand and they have a tea house you can visit and probably try all the tea you see in this show if you ever go to Seoul.

The tea house is as sterile as sterile gets feeling more like a lab than a cozy place to drink tea.

However being completely starved by lack of GL it is nice to see girls interact, and slightly awkwardly flirt in what I would not go as far as call enemies to lovers as it is more of a slightly disagreement to flirt kind of deal.

The 3 characters seem to do what they are supposed to do without much drama, as the supporting character truly is there to support the leads to get closer and does not really do much more.

There are no annoying elements here, but then again there is not much of anything here... having the highlight of the show include some foam on the lips and an indirect kiss...

It is not bad, it is not good, it truly just is a cup of water someone dipped a tea bag in for like 2 seconds leaving some colour but not much taste...

Still since it takes about 30 minutes to complete this, I will say go watch it support the little GL we get, as there is nothing wrong with it, nothing annoying and it is a pretty smooth watch. Just do not expect much of anything and all will be fine!

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So Sweet It Can Never Turn Sour!

The comment section is on point for this series - It's Crack in an oven turned to a 1000 degrees.

What ties this short series so beautifully; The Acting and definitely the Chemistry. The two leads held a 3 episode series with practically no assistance from side characters, and no actual "plot-line" to go by.

This series went all in on the concept "HaHaHa! Rolling on the Floor Laughing" type of feel;
With it's well known fourth wall breaks from the first season, the numerous parodies of romance tropes, the bonus of having us the viewer as one side of a hilariously insane love triangle, making fun of blatant product placement and using it to their advantage, and of course using current world events - In their case the I-TOW virus - as a means to a successful end.

But more than that, and under all that crack there is an absolutely heartwarming message; Be genuine, speak your truth and make sure to let the people in your life know that you undeniably love them.

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I didn’t expect to get this attached to The Rise of Ning✨

At first, I thought this would just be another “pretty average” historical drama—you know, noble family, internal conflicts, slow-burn romance. But somehow… it’s addictive?

The story itself isn’t something super groundbreaking, but the way it’s delivered is what makes it so engaging. The pacing is neat—not too rushed, but never boring either. And most importantly, every conflict actually feels like it matters, not just thrown in for the sake of drama.

And the chemistry… honestly, this is the slow-but-hits-hard type. It’s not explosive right from the start, but as the story progresses, it gets deeper and deeper. The interactions are subtle, but that’s exactly what makes it feel real. The glances, the small gestures, the quiet presence they have for each other—it hits more than just sweet dialogue. Visual-wise? Very safe. Costumes, sets, color tones—everything is pleasing without being overwhelming. It’s not overly extravagant, but it’s enough to make you believe in the world.

Of course, it’s not without flaws. Some parts feel a bit dragged, especially in the middle when conflicts start piling up. And if you’re someone who prefers fast-paced plots or big shocking twists, this might feel a bit slow. But honestly, that’s where the charm lies. This is a drama meant to be enjoyed slowly. Not something you rush through, but something that keeps pulling you back because you’re curious about the characters’ growth.

So in conclusion… this isn’t a drama that screams for attention, but one that quietly makes you fall in love with it. “okay… just one more episode” and suddenly it’s already dawn 😭

If you enjoy historical romance with family intrigue, well-developed characters, and a slow but deep chemistry… this is definitely worth watching.

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Another Xianxia drama that will bring tears so get your tissues out. The story/plot was well written. Wasn't predictable and the plot flowed smoothly. I found myself counting down the days and waking up excited for another episode. The acting. One word. Awesome! As I said in the first sentence, you need tissues. The crying scenes did their part well. The acting was a little rough on some parts but overall, the acting was amazing. I'll be honest, I didn't really pay much attention to the music, but on the parts I did notice, the music fit the scene perfectly. For the re-watch value, I give it a 10. I will definitely find myself re-watching this drama until I find another drama that's as good as this one (which is unlikely). Overall, This one was spectacular. Give it a go and I PROMISE you won't regret it.

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This is such a sweet and funny show that I felt compelled to write a review just so that I can persuade more people to watch this very delightful drama special.

First of all this is very short (only one episode!) but that does not mean that you are left confused and unsatisfied at the end (which happens very often in case of drama specials). Also it is a story set in high school and is all about Bromance (who needs romance when the bromance is this good!). And if you need another reason for watching then there is the amazing acting especially by the lead trio. Lee Ji Hoon was so good here as a high schooler that I was very surprised when I found out his age (how can he be 28?!). That man deserves to be a lead in a comedy(soon...please).

So I would to recommend this adorable drama special to everyone because this is a very very funny show which manages to be cute and warming at the same time.

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This movie has actually a really great story. When I read the synopsis i really wanted to watch this. Especially since it is very hard to get an english version of the webcomic this movie is based on. But after I did see the movie I came to the conclusion that I kind of liked this movie with its heroes and the villain and their interaction but on the other side I kind of didn't. Maybe because I expected more. This more isn't about the story here, don't get me wrong. I kind of feel cheated in a way I don't feel that often. I feel like I didn't see all, like I just stand in front of a dark window desperately pressing my face on the glass with my hands trying to not let any light in so that I can see better, see more. I have a feeling that this story had very much more to tell.


This movie concentrated on the heroine who wanted to get revenge for the murder of her family. The portrayal of her desperation to get the murderer was well done by Kim Sun Ah. I liked her really much and understood her desperation. I could identify with her. On the other hand there was the villain who was a real creep. He gave me the shivers and I certainly hope I will never ever meet someone like that (actually I hope such a guy will never ever exist).
To get the villain the heroine needs help because she is sitting in a wheelchair and that makes it difficult to chase after a perfectly healthy young man. That is when the Five are formed. 3 men and 1 women who help the heroine to get the murderer in exchange for the heroines organs. Each team member does have someone who urgently needs an organ transplant. It is a situation where you will get a live if you offer another. The movie gives us to every character an introduction. So that you can actually see their loved ones and understand their desperation.
In this situation obviously their must be some conflicts and the movie shows us glimpses of those. But overall it is mainly about the chase.

And I think that is actually the point that made this movie for me not a great movie. it is still good. Thrilling and entertaining. But I actually would have wanted to see more of the conflicts in the group. I would have liked it if the process of bonding between the heroine and the 4 team members who only want her organs was shown in more detail. I know what you will say: to show that in a 2 hour movie is just wishfull thinking. The time girl, look at the time. And you're right. That is why i hereby declare that I will root for more screen time in form of a drama series. Where all of the characters can shine and enter our heart on an emotionally level. I really do hope this takes place because I really want to know more about The Five.

Considering my wanting of getting more of the story maybe you shoud give this movie a try. It may not be perfect but it is certainly a good movie.

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This movie is pretty basic BL nothing special. The main leads are very good-looking and the acting is okay but my major problem is the plot. It's pretty choppy and moves way to fast. I am like barely into the movie before they are already kissing and are in love. It's like you literally blink and it happens so sudden. I wish things would have slowed down some. I didn't have a chance to get an attachment to the characters so when anything bad happened to them I didn't care. There are some cute moments like a ton. If you're the type of person who just wants to see hot guys together doing cute stuff and don't want to be boggled down by a plot then this is for you but as for me this isn't my cup of tea. I enjoyed the cute moments and will probably watch a video with these moments complied together but I won't sit through this movie again.

It's super duper average and cliche it gets a 5.5 for me.

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Really fun to watch

Not only is the acting really well done -- we really get the sense that Amano Yashiro is in Tendou Kagura's body and vice versa -- but the storyline is pretty creative. I love Kami-sama and Ukon and the comedic relief they provide (I also loved Kami-sama's backstory).

I also really enjoyed the questions this show poses. If Amano took over Tendou's body, what does that mean for Tendou? Can Nanahara really fall in love with Amano if he is now a girl, or is it just that he sees his friend as just his friend? Does a person like someone for just their personality or does their body play a part in that? Super interesting stuff. I don't think there's a clear answer. It's different for everybody, just like it is in real life.

There's only eight episodes total so the pace moves quickly (which I actually like, it means that misunderstandings don't last very long), and it's a refreshing and fun story.

Also big thanks to Furritsu for the subs <3

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I watched this drama with my mom and we cried together.. I just have to warn the people who are going to watch this drama to prepare a couple pack of tissue, this drama will bring you to tears. But it doesn't mean that you're going to cry over the whole episodes, this drama also has a funny side that will bring you to laugh.

And it also great to see the handsome Lee Dong Wook, although i didn't think that he acted well but who cares, he got the face hehehe and the character that will melt you down..

The story is not like any other drama i had watched, the woman was older than the man so maybe that's what make it interesting but other than that the story is quite the same that a rich man in love with poor woman who grateful for her life. I love the ending it is quite unexpected but so happy about it.

If you like being drag with tears then here is the one for you! Totally recommended :)

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This is the first drama I'd ever had second female lead syndrome, and the first time I found an antagonist so powerful. CYJ's relationship with K2 was utterly intriguing, and honestly it would've made for such an interesting romance line, even if it started out so messed up. The two had so much chemistry.

With that being said, Anna felt like an afterthought. She barely showed up in the first few episodes and never really had an active role in the plot (No, K2 watching her cook ramen badly through the CCTV doesn't count). All that fashion show stuff and the Barcelona Angel stuff...it felt unnecessary.

A lot of the political terminology went over my head (STONKS?) and I honestly felt like the reason for "revenge" really wasn't strong enough. I never felt connected or cared about the girlfriend that was killed, and I think all the Kumar-gate talk was confusing. It probably could've been stronger it had been connected with CYJ/Anna's backstory.

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So, we already know that it's about two couples. You've got the older guy Kong (played by Bie) with the younger girl Khaiwan (played by Pearwah), and the younger guy Dao (March) with the older woman Kook (Namcha). The show is VERY self-aware about the age difference and about how creepy it is that a 17/18 year old boy fell in love with a 10 year old girl. The characters in the show fully acknowledge that it's strange. You have to accept that and move on otherwise you'll never get through the first episode.

There are some very very cute scenes and some great kisses. The younger guy/older girl couple are frustrating a lot of the time (well, it's mostly her) but when they're not being frustrating, they are so watchable, so adorable, so natural, so giffable. The other couple have some sweet scenes but they have a very different type of chemistry than the other pair do, namely due to her age.

The editing could be a bit choppy; sometimes I felt like a whole bunch of scenes had ended up on the cutting room floor but that was mostly in the first 6 or so episodes. It felt smoother after that.

I think the cast did a great job for the most part. Again, it was March and Namcha that carried the show, and then the others came in behind them. Bie has room for improvement but he has the ability to make you forget that with his smile. Pearwah is freaking adorable. I really liked Dao's friend Dew (Tay), he was a really lovely secondary character, necessary but not, at the same time.

It's rewatchable but I think in a rewatch, you'd fast forward all of the non-cute scenes. Skip the PPL, skip the school scenes, skip the 'Kook being annoying or stupid' scenes, skip the ex-girlfriend. If I was rewatching, I'd probably just watch all of March's scenes plus some of Bie's when he's smiling.

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I'll be honest, I watched this because of Yeon Jung Hoon, since he's an incredible actor and I thought that he'd make any drama worth watching. Was I right? Let's see...

The story is nothing unusual, although it's not taken in typical naivety of hurdling obvious scenes in a linear row, just to latch the main pairing to one another. In fact, the order is jumbled so it mostly wasn't annoying to watch.

Acting was really good, it felt very realistic to watch, but the crying scenes were done too excessively at times, though nothing too terrible.

Music isn't anything memorable for me here, but I have to admit that the opening song is damn good. I've enjoyed it every episode, so it felt weird not to skip the opening sequences like usually.

I don't think I would rewatch this, because there's but a few moments I might find interesting, and a mmv would suffice enough.

Why a seven? Despite the great acting, good atmosphere and somewhat comical scenes in the second half, it was just too long. The beginning took a lot from the rating of this drama, because first few episodes you'll drag through and when it finally becomes interesting enough, most of it will be done and you'll be left with a couple of episodes to watch. And that makes me angry, because this is a good drama and it should've been planned out a bit more carefully.

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I still have mixed feelings about this drama. The truth is I started watching this for Sadao, for some reason the idea of a comedian playing a serious role of a mental health patient made me interested. But, after just two episodes I stoped watching. I just couldn’t see where they were going with the story, the 4 main characters seemed so weirdly related and so dam unrelatable that there was nothing that made me want to watch. Then, for some reason, recently I just felt like picking up where I stopped and I ended up loving it.

The characters eventually grew up on me. The fact that they are no one specifically but could be anyone else. It shows that you can always change and grow, no matter how old you are and the setbacks you’ve had, and that change is not just made of you but also are greatly influenced by those around you, even if you try to get away from them.

Now, apart from this philosophical message, I blame mostly the writing for this, the dialogues were just superb. The quirky and fast pace ones, the silly and random ones, the ones that were actually monologues… all of those were the soul of this drama. There is not a main goal that sets the pace of the story, there is not really a chain of events, it is all about this strange group of people that manage to make abnormal into what we all wanted to be.

Yes, it is not your usual romance comedy drama, but you can definitely laugh, you can cry, tears of joy and sadness, you get mad and you get sad and you get happy and you want to punch and hug someone… (You get the idea)

The OST has two memorable songs: Hoshino Gen’s SUN, the opening theme, which I think was really well chosen, and Florencia Ruiz’s Susurro. I totally loved that they used this Spanish singer, I had never heard of her, but I loved her music in this drama.

The acting was superb from most characters, specially Sadao and Tomoko. I had never watched anything from her and though some people say she was exaggerating and could truly feel her and I think she added great humanity into Shizuka. Was not really fond of Mizuhara’s acting, though I understand she was just playing her character, but still…

There were however some points I didn’t like. First, like I’ve said they failed to catch the viewers in the beginning (but don’t lose faith, you won’t regret it). And they they just added characters they were completely unnecessary and forced them into the story. You’ll see who I am talking about. :p

Overall, if you are looking from some smart drama, out of the routine we are already tired of, this is it. You won’t regret this!

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When it rains, it pours.

At first glance, this is a tribute drama with low audience appeal. The topic of gaokao 高考 or national college entrance exams is already stress inducing. Throw in the pandemic and the average viewer would head for the hills. I snuck a peek because I like to keep an eye on Rong Zishan's growth as an actor. To my surprise, I was hooked from the first episode of this uplifting story about the resilience of youth in the face of great challenges.

This drama is not about China's urban elite. It is set in Jinhe County, where most of the households are among the two thirds of Chinese households that are not part of the middle class. The pandemic disproportionately affected high school seniors from this class of Chinese society. Gaokao is a life changing rite of passage for them. All the hopes and dreams of their families are staked on their gaokao performance. With less resources and uneven access to the internet, online learning is less effective for many of them. The pandemic exacerbated the economic and social pressures these families were already experiencing. This drama offers some insight into why the Chinese leadership has clung to an extreme zero tolerance covid policy so different from the rest of the world.

The narrative focuses on five students of Jinhe County No 1 Middle School (Pan Xianxuan and Gao Mingyu) and Jinhe County No 4 Middle School (Zhou Bowen, Wu Jiajun and Tian Wenwen) and their principals Wang Benzhong and Shi Aihua. Because it is a small county, there are about three degrees of separation between the students, teachers, their families and the broader community. Bowen, Wenwen and Jiajun are fast friends at No 4 Middle School, where Bowen is the star pupil. He intensely disapproves of his deadbeat dad Zhao Meiren, who is charismatically portrayed by Wang Xiao. Wenwen is left to fend for herself after her grandmother passes away as her absentee parents run a business in Wuhan. And aspiring artist Jiajun suffers from the nightmare oversight of the ultimate tiger mom. They are part of an online student chat group with Pan Xianxuan and Gao Mingyu, students at the No 1 Middle School, which is a boarding school. My favorite character, Pan Xianxuan is a savvy and commercial doer who is not academic oriented. Despite his father's wealth, his is practically homeless as both his divorced parents have long moved on. And finally Gao Mingyu, the most impoverished and driven of them all whose only family is an ailing grandfather. They form a fast friendship and benefit from the care and affection of their principal Wang Benzhong, who is more like a surrogate parent to them both.

Every time I watch a drama with young actors matched up with veterans like Chen Baoguo, Wang Quanyuan and Wang Xiao,I am floored by the seamless and natural the performances all around. I feel fear for the current generation of popular actors whose flaws only become more obvious when they act across veterans because the next generation is growing up fast and there are lots of them. This cast made me invested in their stories from the get go and sharked me into enthusiastically watching a flag waving, sappy, inspirational story, the kind that I have a very small yearly quota for. The message of the story is very clear - often in life, when it rains, it pours but it is in times of hardship that we find our best selves.

While this story does carry some powerful and moving coming of age messages beyond surviving a pandemic, what I didn't like is it is a bit too good to be true. The pandemic turns every flawed character into a better version of themselves. The strong sense of community and the dedication and fighting spirit of parents and teachers can prevail over an amorphous enemy and natural disasters alike. Most of all, the pandemic didn't seem as isolating and as disruptive as it probably was and the government's pandemic control measures are portrayed as very mild. To be fair, this is not set in a densely populated community and it is during the first 200 days of 2020, during which China had effectively contained the outbreak to Wuhan. Nonetheless,, I feel there is a bit too much sugar coating and white washing in this drama that avoids the uglier, more realistic aspects of the pandemic and China's response to it. It also loses focus at times as a result of trying to acknowledge too many every day heroes from educators to health workers.

For a flag waving drama, this is a surprisingly good watch and the propaganda aspects are non intrusive. The youth aspects are well written and wonderfully portrayed. I am happy to rate this a very solid 7.5.

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