Reviews

Not the best, but not the worst

Honestly, there is just so many bad reviews out there for this drama. "My Strange Friend" did not make it to my list of favourite C-Dramas, that's true, but it's far from the worst.

I can understand that the bar is higher for a series with the ML of Yibo's caliber, but one must admit that good plot is not among the strongest points of most C-Dramas. Given the budget, I think the production already did the best they could with what they had, and I was quite surprise that they managed to pull off this much out of the limited resources that they had.

There were lots of plot holes and the series was dubbed over in the original Chinese version to make up for the inconsistency, but some part of the story and dialogue were still very interesting. I especially liked the first few episodes, the following not so much, but still passable. My favourite character in the entire series was Afu. I think he got the best story line, and the actor really nailed it portraying his character.

To summarize, do not expect another "Untamed", but "My Strange Friend" is not so bad as a story.

Leia Mais

A superb blend of action, suspense, and romance combined with terrific acting performances and a plot so thorough, I wish more Kdramas were like this. Who knew Lee Joon Ki was more than just a pretty face? This is the drama of a lifetime for me. To classify this as a simple spy/revenge tale would be an outrage to this nuanced and near-perfect drama. Borrowing a few familiar and almost standard Kdrama tropes , TBDW takes them beyond the conventions of just about any other drama. The characters feel real, not pre-written hollow shells, throw on the emotional angst. The levels of character development and moral ambiguity here are so prevalent, I get chills. Did I mention that you get to see LJK play both good guy and extra hot baddie?? Such a fantastic watch!

Leia Mais

I Can Still Hear Ai going... P'YUUU...

Peoples, we got a rapping confession, followed by a guitar scene confession. It was a two-in-one double kill. I almost didn't make it out alive. It was brutal. Also, did anyone want to reach into the screen and shake P-Yu when he was treating his ex-girlfriend like precious cargo right in front of Ai's salad?

Well, that ending was super anticlimactic, after all that dreaming that was it? A pull out knife, and a neck brace? Arite then. It was also very criminal how we didn't get a last moment between Yo and Ing, we were robbed and I wanna have words with whoever was in charge of the script.

Anyway, can we talk about how dirty they did Wan. Sure, the dude just couldn't take a hint that Ai wasn't interested, and Yo misguided way to help backfired, but damn, did they have to do my man like that? Screaming on top of your lungs that you don't like him was just wild. Poor dude, he better than me though, still helping Ai, me, I'd have never shown my face to him again.

This show is one of those that grows on you. When it started I was like, meh, really? But along the way it became my comfort show, it was wholesome and I enjoyed watching it. The two pairs had good chemistry, the plot, when the writers remembers their main objective wasn't bad, and I had a few chuckles. Oh, and the parents were really kind, which was refreshing to see.

Listen, the writers had a good plot, however, they did not execute it to its full potential. At some point it felt like they forgot the main plot-line, so they had all those floating dreams to fill the gap. They even forgot how Ai was playing some investigator or another with that closet wall full of drawings and stuff. They could have done so much more with this plot, instead they tiptoed around it to show us a whole episode with Yu's ex, Pan.

No, cuz what in the random arse was them dedicating a whole episode to Yu's ex for? When she returned I was like, 'oh, you still in this show?' then they gave her a whole episode as a result of things that didn't happen on screen. Who even cared about that character? Sure they needed that side-story for that Ice fellow to play a part in the finale, but a whole arse episode for characters no one cares about is wild.

And she only added to my anger. Yes, I felt bad for her, was even rolling my eyes at that annoying Ice and going 'how about you go melt somewhere creep.' but at the same time, let's be honest, she put herself in that situation. She had a good boyfriend, living in a big arse mansion (how they pay for that house? or did their parents leave them stack of paper in the bank?) who loved her, and she broke up with him, so she could go fake date someone and became famous. I felt bad for her, but the whole time when she was there and Yu was treating her like a newborn baby, feeding her and making my blood pressure go up, I was like, yeah, Sharon, you walked into that one yourself.

YU AND AI
These two were cute when they were bickering in the beginning of the show. And their little church scenes. P'Yu always somehow managed to make Ai angry. I did like their friendship, and when they got together as well. I assumed Ai was gonna be passive in the relationship, but he wasn't, episode 10 ending had me going... ooo... so this is where we are at? okaii. I liked how protective of each other they were. I also really love how it seemed like they lived in two houses, just going from one to the other, and the parents were so chill about the whole thing.

However, these two needed to communicate. Ai putting himself in constant danger was not it, all of those could have been avoided if he'd communicated with Yu. Sure he didn't want him to worry by keeping his dreams a secret, still, feels like trusting the one you love is better than keeping secrets that are putting you in harms way.

Yu had me until he decided to be a good guy and help his ex-girlfriend. Yes, yes, I understand, and in reality if an ex needed help, I'd have done the same, but damnnnn that episode made me glare at him over my popcorn and wine. Another place I was glaring was when Ai took all those pills. Child, you cannot be this stupid, sure your friend gave you a bad advice, but surely, Ai knew how dangerous it was, no? And to think nothing happened to him. They shook him a bit and he woke up. #facepalm.

But all in all, cute couple, wholesome-ish, it was nice seeing their friendship grow into love. They did well as leads and had me invested in their story. I really liked how they felt like a happy family with the rest of the cast, all those eating together scene was very heart-warming.

YO AND ING
Now, we were all rooting for them, seeing as anyone with eyes could see that Yo liked Ing back. What I didn't like was Ing's attitude when he confessed and more-or-less got rejected. Yes, it was frustrating to see Yo pretend, but when all was said and done, it felt like Ing somehow forced Yo to accept his feelings? I don't know, he deserved to be angry, but stopping to be his friend, and all that anger was not it. Still I was happy when Yo finally accepted his feelings and they got together. I cringed so hard during that rapping scene, was it cute, perhaps, but I watched it between my fingers out of secondhand embarrassment so...but anyway, glad they figured out their stuff and got together. Cute and whatnot.

All-in-all a nice show. It wasn't the greatest, but it grew on me, and it had its moment. I'll recommend it to anyone looking for something a bit different other than school setting as a main focus. I'll definitely be checking out the future work of the cast.

Leia Mais

Watch for special effect

Wow wow wow just watched the movie in theatre and must say worth all the time and money I had no expectations just wanted to watch Mark chao and Deng Lan didn’t knew Wang Dou is in this
I am surprise they have written him as supporting role but he is the main character he looks so handsome and his acting is good too
All actors are good Good looking and fitting to the role
Cinematography is just awesome you can just watch it for that
Only one complaint there is no element of mystery some questions are raised but immediately answer is displayed
Go and watch in theatre

Leia Mais

This movie is about love triangle, friendship put to the test and fulling hidden dreams.

Story is about choices we need to made in our life to be truly to ourselves. Just like Sang-ina decides to become chef and leaves corporation office to start everything anew. Like Mo-rae needs to decide is she ready to leave her safe place and stop being little girl all the time. She meets Him and every touch is natural and passionate. Young stranger brigs with him salvation and degradation to both Sang-ina and Mo-rae.

Joo Ji Hoon acting is adorable, he seduces Mo-rae in most delicate way. But in every step his closer to Mo-rae and further form Sang-ina. I enjoyed Shin Min Ah acting, maybe she was a little to greedy and that made both men miserable but in the end she was fair.

Sometimes movie was a little unclear, ending was good I like unsaid and open endings. Music just great, all instrumental parts of the Ost were so warm and calm. Joo Ji Hoon even sings in french ^^

Leia Mais

This is my very first review so bear with me.
Long Love Letter was one of the most unique dramas I've come across. Not only did it cure me of a vicious drama slump, but it also made me debate whether to choose sleep or the next episode. And, I chose the next episode even when it was 4 A.M.

Just like other reviewers have stated, don't let the synopsis trick you! It definitely wouldn't prepare you for the nail-biting and the nerve-wracking. Just when you think you've seen it all, Long Love Letter hits you with another shock! The plot literally takes you to the most unexpected places and it doesn't shy away from posing some serious questions about the dark nature of human beings. For me, Long Love Letter's brilliance was in its heart, its ability to create a 'home' amongst the insanity and the chaos, and its optimism in the direst situation. I liked how the young cast grew in front of my eyes from kids to mature grown-ups who learned to fully accept responsibilities in the end.

That's not to say that Long Love Letter doesn't have its flaws. Admittedly, it had its inconsistencies but I'm willing to forgive it because we're already thinking outside the box from the start. Also, it felt a tad too preachy at the end. However, what bugged me the most was the so-called Sekiya-Sensei. This character felt like a plot device in the sense that the writer brought her up whenever s/he needed conflict and had her completely disappear when she wasn't needed. Also, her conclusion at the end was laughable not to mention unbelievable.

The acting was superb! The most profound and touching scenes were done in the simplest ways. And, the romance was so sweet.

The cinematography wasn't exactly great. Some scenes felt randomly glued into each other. Whether intentional or not, the sloppy direction helped to reflect the mood of utter chaos and insanity.

The music was serviceable, average at its best. Sometimes, it played at awkward times.

I wouldn't rewatch this one soon because its scenes are still haunting my memory at the moment. Honestly, I don't know if I want to re-live this magnificent experience twice.

I would recommend this work to anyone because I think it truly had something for everyone.

Leia Mais

A STORY THAT MADE THE EP 11 CURSE BREAK.

So this is my honest review, i was so into ohmfluke and lately their series are like confused plot lines. So i believe this will be a better as it from the same people who did ECLIPSE THE SERIES then i started watching it in hope that from each and every episode my hope was like the budget drop line.. It was hitting the bottom upto the 10th episode, i lost all hope.. Then just today i watched the climax episode, can you believe a budget like can rise to the top in 1 episode, but they did it without much vulgarity! I loved the climax most and it was satisfying and understanding!! And the sister character mint she did such a great act in this episode even her role was something that must be appreciated!!
And other than that what i wanna mention more about this series will be of course its OST & BGM!
Especially the opening track and bgm played in the episode they're one of my favorite! Lke favorite about this series, something that actually make me to not lose hope!!
Wish they'll get more and more good storyline!!

Normally ep 11 is considered as the cursed episode in all BL but here episode 11 dod did a good magic maybe because it's the final😅.

Leia Mais

I really enjoyed this drama. I've seen a few medical dramas, and I thought this was an excellent one. I liked the plot when I first read the synopsis, and generally, this was the same throughout the show but I thought the plot in the last 3-4 episodes was a bit slow. The side plots added really well to the show- but one of them was left unfinished, I felt.

All of the cast were excellent- I loved the chemistry between the leads, and I thought the secondary characters were great also. The cameo in episode 3 made me laugh SO MUCH :D

I really liked the music throughout the show- especially Choi Jin Hyuk's song :3

I'm giving it a re-watch value of six, only because I'm not likely to re-watch this drama, anytime soon.

Overall, I really liked this drama- it was definitely one of the best so far this year~!

Leia Mais

Starts strong but falls apart midway

I had high hopes for this one but despite an engaging start it kind of petered out and I started to get bored in the final stretch. Others have already mentioned the use of cliche tropes, which was clearly intentional and not necessarily a bad thing when deployed well. But in this show I don’t think they pulled it off.

The drama started strong, with the past timeline with the teen versions of the characters a particular bright spot. I found their story utterly charming and the actors were great.

Unfortunately the adult story line was a mess, despite strong performances. The pacing was off, with plot points dragged out unreasonably long and side stories that added little to the main narrative. There were multiple points in the story when I didn’t understand why the leads were behaving a certain way - and it was clear that the only real answer was the plot demanded it. Worst of all, despite being about 3 hours longer than it should have been, the show didn’t even provide satisfying resolutions to many of the conflicts and questions it introduced (I felt this most keenly wrt the FL’s mother, who was never taken to account for her interference that resulted in years of misery for everyone involved). And the choice to drag out the reunion until the last 15 minutes of the final episode meant we saw precious little of our couple actually together.

Lastly, I’ll just say that I thought the overall tone of the drama was a mismatch for the story. The main narrative was about a couple who were deeply in love losing 25 years together mostly because of outside interference, but the characters never seemed to get angry or feel any resentment about it. They were actually pretty chill most of the time despite the absolute tragedy of the story, and the tone of the whole drama was curiously light. A second pass on the script to tighten up the writing all around would have served this drama well.

Leia Mais

If you are here to watch this show, then it will be 90% bcoz of Cha Eun-woo. Yes me too. I want to make you all know how you can watch something short and sweet while fangirling over the handsome Mr. Cha.

This show shows us how Dream can be true in drama. She wants a handsome boyfriend and she gets Mr. Cha from the ad cutoff. He comes out of the cutoff and he helps her to date. But he falls for her instead.

And the ending makes you realize how it can be true that her dream comes true. Lucky she.

Can be rewatched for Mr. Cha’s handsome smile and face. Loved it.
Overall 8/10.

Leia Mais

I dropped this drama after 20 episodes, and several weeks later decided to give it another chance and finish it. Some people did love this drama so I just want to offer my differing opinion. I've also added a comment using the spoiler tag that specifies many of the moments that drove me crazy in this drama.

I can't stand how the male lead, Wei Qing, continuously manipulates the female lead. His actions are indefensible and go too far, again and again, but I continued on because the female lead, Zhou Shi, has a backbone. She calls him out on it and those scenes were very satisfying. She is gullible and not the brightest, but she stands up for herself and sticks to her principles. But then he toys with her again. I find him to be very condescending, and as their relationship changes throughout the drama, including an employer-employee relationship, there is always a power imbalance with him having the upper hand. She even says this at one point - but waaay too late in the drama for it to be developed upon. Even near the end, he has his assistant lie to her! Also, she is an art student but for most of the drama I felt like I didn't know what her own goals were.

The conflict with the male lead's mother felt too contrived. Her words were so harsh and every time they show the flashbacks I cringed. It's not that I don't believe a mother can hate her own son, but I just never felt like I understood it. There are also scenes that are completely nonsensical - for example, when the Wei Qing's uncle invites all his ex-girlfriends to the fancy business event. And it seemed like they didn't know how to fill the episodes at the end and decided to totally change Zhang Shuai's character to add an obstacle?? There were also certain storylines that were underdeveloped or just abruptly ended.

On a positive note, I liked the friendship between Zhou Shi, Fei Fei, and Qiu Jing. They are very different individuals but genuinely supportive of each other. Fei Fei and Qiu Jing gave Zhou Shi good advice and were honest with their concerns. Ming Cheng was also rather condescending to Zhou Shi (or maybe just treated her like a little sister), but I do like Qiu Jing and Ming Cheng's pairing. I didn't really care for the Fei Fei and Ning Fei pairing because, either because of his casting or wardrobe, he came across as a helpless, sheltered child too much.

Regarding the OST, upon further consideration, I do like the songs, it's just that I didn't like the drama so I don't think of the songs particularly fondly.

Leia Mais

totally wrecked Zeke/Fifth (watch ep 1, 2 and 13)

Overall: I liked Zeke and Fifth in My Story because they were flirty and sweet. In this season the writer totally ruined their characters and relationship. I was actively rooting for them to NOT end up together. Our Story is the third in the trilogy (season 1 is My Day which is not needed to watch to understand Our Story, season 2 is My Story which shows the beginning of Zeke/Fifth as a couple and is helpful to watch but not totally necessary) 13 episodes about 37 minutes each (taking out the built in commercials at the end). Aired on Oxin Films YouTube channel.

Notes: I watched most episodes but skipped a few because I wanted to poke my eyeballs out, I kept up with comments/what happened overall though. I suggest watching episode 1, 2, episode 9 part 3 at 7 minutes (nsfw scene), episode 10 part 3 at 10 minutes (nsfw scene) and episode 13

Content Warnings: attempted suicide, past suicide, parental abuse, intimate partner abuse, homophobia, non con picture taking/sharing, alcoholism, depression, sexism, gaslighting, manhandling

What I Liked
- Zeke and Fifth were cute/sweet/flirty (ep 1 and 2)
- GL rep (though the pacing was odd/not enough screentime)
- it was too frequent but the innuendo jokes were fun
- Xion Lim (director) played an assistant as Easy Ferrer (writer) as the other assistant
- Zeke's supportive mom (though she was a bit too involved at times)
- opening song and ending credit song

Room For Improvement
- the writing destroyed Zeke & Fifth both as individual characters and as a couple, Zeke said how he was hurt that he was called toxic while he screamed at his boyfriend was terrible writing, Fifth's actions make zero sense to me, so many characters did total nonsense things
- abuse was handled really poorly, Fifth said "he {dad] beat us" and the response was "that means you still matter to him", like WTF?!? and then later Jelai says his ex-boyfriend who was abusing him is awesome and Jelai apologizes to his abuser?!? what year are we in?!? akldfjkslajkdljaidla!!!!!!!
- way too many couples (6 couples/love triangles) and I somehow didn't like any of them
- exposition dump/voice over to start the series
- so many nonsense/unrealistic plot things (I'm not even going to try to write them all out) example 1: that a significant other didn't know of a life threatening food allergy until 6 months of dating, example 2: that a hospital didn't have any A+ (30% of the population has this blood type) or O negative (universal donor) blood?!? they should have had Zeke have AB negative blood because a 5 second internet search showed that number of people with: O positive: 35%, O negative (universal donor): 13%, A positive: 30%, A negative: 8%, B positive: 8%, B negative: 2%, AB positive (universal recipient): 2%, AB negative: 1%
- the comedy sound effects
- toilet humor
- super dramatic thing happened at the end of episode 11 and then the majority of episode 12 we have no idea what is going on, just random side character plots happening?!?
- in the final episode, did Zeke ever apologize for all the awful things he did?!? why was just Fifth apologizing?!?!!!!!!

Leia Mais