Reviews

This mini-series (it's only 3 eps, 30 or so minutes each) takes place half a year after the movie The Master Plan / The End of the Tiny World and you really need to watch that first or this one won't make much sense to you. From the looks of it, the mini-series was much more cheaply made, it's more like a web coda, and it tells the viewer what happened to Kida after his world came crashing down on him.

First, if you're sensitive to topics like that, you need to know that at the beginning of the mini-series, Kida is suicidal and at one point, he is honestly tempted to just end it - before he's stopped by a chance encounter with a young prostitute who, in the end, after all it's done, prods him into moving on.

But honestly, Kida's state of mind is more than understandable. He lost everyone who ever mattered to him, he even handed his best friend the proverbial loaded gun and couldn't save him in the end. So all he has left is an empty apartment and his work for the mob. That's it. He has no friends left, no family, no real connections to the human world. The only person who actually cares about him is his boss and that's it. You can feel his emptiness.

My favorite moment was when Kida decided to negotiate for the young prostitute's release and he needed 100 mil. yen for that. And he went to his boss who didn't want to let him do it, especially after he told Kida that if he wasn't careful, he could die, and Kida replied that he knew that. And then his boss said, "You're the breadwinner of our company. It'll be troublesome if you die. If you can't come back alive, I can't allow you to go." And only after Kida promised him that he had no intention to die, his boss not only let him go but gave him the 100 mil., too! I loved the way his boss tried to make it sound like he only cared about Kida because he was their "breadwinner" as he called him but he was so worried about Kida because he knew that Kida kept doing dumb stuff for other people - first Makoto in the movie, now the prostitute - and he kept getting hurt because of it. And no matter how many times he told Kida that "dangerous bridges are meant to be crossed for your own good," Kida just wouldn't listen to him!

What I also liked was the ending. It wasn't really happy. It was more realistic. Kida decided to move on, certainly, but that didn't mean he became happy overnight. He still only had his empty apartment and his mob job and no real friends so...

I honestly love this "universe" the movie and the mini-series set up. I really wish we could see more of it. But I don't think we will.

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The proper Intro to the Exciting & Thrilling world of The Lost Tomb Series~ <3

PERFECT with its IMPERFECTION~!!

Note: I'm writing this review months after I completed the drama and this is my honest take of the whole show.

First of, I must say that this is the best way to start the The Lost Tomb Series. IF you're reading this, I must inform you that TLT Series should be watch in chronological order cause you'll find yourself lost of everything IF you failed to do so. (Not to mention how confusing it is even watching it in order. Hahaha)

This show solidified the series for me. It was the fiery start who encouraged me to binge-watch the series till the very last adaptation there is.

This is definitely not the most well adapted but it is a great contender when it comes to Story, Graphics, Cinematography, Action and Acting. This show isn't lacking in one bit. There surely are few downplays to this drama and you might feel weirded out and lost most of the time but this drama is probably one of the BEST out there.

P.S. Don't wanna give so much spoilers. But watch out to my additional sentiments below.

Story - 10, This may be very confusing to others who are watching the series for the 1st time but for someone like me who have completed the entire adaptation there is, this is probably one of the most well adapted among ALL. It is jumpy & confusing but all of it is for a purpose. You might even get disapointed by the cliffhangers but thank god the continuation is already up there for people to watch compared to how I suffered back in the days since the sequel's not aired yet.

Acting/Cast - 10, Neo Hou is definitely the Best Wu Xie of all. His portrayal is impeccable and would be hard to be compared to the others as he really owned it. He gave the most coolness, confidence, chick and charm to this character and above all he knew what he's doing. He nailed it. As for the other Characters, Like Zhang Qiling & Pang Zi they also performed well and left a great impact and lasting impression to their characters. A-Ning of this drama is probably my most favorite of all.

Music - 10, I honestly forgot the Music used for this show but I remembered getting so into it watching the scenes with it's thrilling BGMs and the Mellow sound they played during Wu Xie's scene after he went out of the Under Sea Tomb, so does explain my score.

Rewatch Value - 10, I would, DEFINITELY. If there's an adaptation I'm willing to watch over and over again, this would be it.

Overall - 10, Deserved! I started this Journey with the mindset "This is a series so I should expect to feel disappointed with cliffhangers and such" and that made me enjoy the whole show. It is even my most favorite Series of all dramas in general out there. It provided me so much fun & entertainment and helped me cope up with boredness and loneliness. All love and adoration for this show.

IF you find my review helpful please let me know.

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A captivating and moving movie about the modern history of the South Korean democracy movement. Difficult to comprehend that this movie is not fictional, and that most of sequenced events in this film happened in real life. I was initially told to watch this from my Korean history teacher in university, but I took interest in it myself. As an Eastern European, I have learned that the pro-democracy movements in the 1980s were based on sacrifice and the will of the people not only in Korea, but the rest of the world at specific decade as well. The actors have portrayed true emotions, and there were so many storylines of various characters intertwined with harmony. Even as someone not Korean, it was very easy to follow the storyline and to see what the good and evil were. Every minor detail, from set design to props, had mesmerised me. I did shed a few tears, but this was a great learning experience, and a very interesting movie to watch!

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The Love Of Chang Jia Han

This movie is Like one of the Best Movie That i ever watched

I liked the way jia han loved birdy its awsome
Even birdy loved him in the same way
I can see how birdy is saving jia han from trobules like if he loved him in open the both

would have been in trouble its precious
And i felt bit incomplete about the adult story line of the birdy and jia han they could have told us more

The music in this movie is perfect

I liked they way birdy is not letting go of jia han its so precious and pure

Totally this movie made me cry and rewatchable worth is 10 on 10

If you want love you must watch it

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Not good.

3/10 dropped, disappointed.

I wish the boy stayed by him........so bad......ending...i donk like that ending....it was weird.....
i would have liked to see much more of the beautiful main couple. I was very disappointed afterwards.
If the series had been implemented well then it would have been something. The potential was definitely there.

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from 8.5 to a 9.5

the plot is kinda like Kim Young Min's story in Crash Landing on You. Dae Kwon was assigned to spy on Lee Eui Shik so he moves into the house next door with fellow agents Dong Shik and Young Chul. what follows next is a funny, unexpected heartwarming journey.

the story isn't original and tbh I still wonder was it really like that? did they control the country and tortured anyone who questioned it?
it kinda feels so easy to say "those people are dictators". why do they have so much power when the public outnumbers them?

the movie was long but it was really well balanced, the 1st half was a funny bromance sequence and the 2nd half became a fight for their rights and it ended nicely too that I really enjoyed it.

the only things I didn't like was 1- the poop jokes, 2- the excessive poop sounds, and the fact that 3- even if their villain seemed to possess ultimate power, it kinda ended too fast. like the fact that they did so much and got away with it and in the end there was no closure for that..

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Great chemistry, but a silly plot

Warning, DETAILED SPOILERS!! My review is basically an essay, so the TL;DR is that the lead actor and actress have great chemistry, but there are endless problems with the plot.

This drama had great chemistry between the lead actor and actress, which largely went to waste because one can’t help but be distracted by the silliness of the plot. I’ve seen my fair share of contract marriage dramas because I’m a sucker for this cliché, but never have I seen one which so egregiously fails to justify the reason for the parties entering into the contract marriage. For the lead girl, her “reason” for entering into the marriage is that she’s just come out of a 5 year relationship, with the guy cheating on her, and she just wants to get married and doesn’t care whether or not the marriage is loveless. Uh…what?? That makes absolutely no sense. With no real incentive e.g. financial, it’s completely illogical for someone who has just come out of a long-term relationship to go, ‘oh yes, let me get married to a stranger!’ For the lead guy, his “reason” is that his mum had recurrent breast cancer and he knows she doesn’t want to see him alone. And yet, despite him supposedly marrying to please his mum, she doesn’t even meet the wife until they’re well into their marriage. Oh, and of course, isn’t it oh so convenient that the “recurrent” breast cancer resolves itself, so that his mum is now perfectly fine!

So we’ve already got this ridiculous setup, but to make the plot even more egregious, we’re meant to believe that these strangers married without knowing anything about each other, not even where they work. Simply out of concern for your safety, as if you’d do that! But again, conveniently for the plot, they work at the same company and run into each other regularly at work once they’re married. Funny that, given they never ran into each other before marrying.

Now to dissect the idiocy in some serious detail…the pacing of this drama is ridiculous. We’re only half-way through Episode 1 (24 minute episodes mind you), and the lead girl's already fallen for the guy, with no time jump or anything involved. Also within the first episode, they’re flirting and kissing. The flirting and kissing was so ridiculous in its suddenness, that at first I thought the lead girl was fantasising but alas, despite them not even really knowing each other, I was wrong! There’s also straight-up plot holes, like the fact that in Episode 2 they both say ‘I love you’ (again, they hardly know each other), but then when the lead guy says ‘I love you’ again to the girl in Episode 3, she’s really surprised by it. Another plot hole in my opinion is that in Episode 6 we find out that the lead guy wants kids, even though we also found out that before his contract marriage, he never even wanted to get married. That hardly adds up.

There’s so many more examples of lazy writing. The girl repeatedly calls the guy a sadist, and he repeatedly calls her crafty and says she’s cute. Like, could you vary the dialogue a bit please? Then there’s the whole silly justification for keeping the marriage secret (he “missed the timing” to tell people, and “when my wife is trying to keep it a secret her reactions are cute” - Episode 4) which doesn't add up because it's so nonsensical and childish.

I also can’t help but be disappointed by the female lead. I’m not sure whether this is worth mentioning since it’s omnipresent in jdramas and films and it’s pretty scathing commentary, but we yet again have on our hands a boring, one-dimensional female lead. While the lead guy is (only naturally) a leader in his field, being at the top of sales every month, our main girl is thoroughly mediocre at work and at the end of the day, like all good Japanese women in jdramas, is above all else happy when she can please her man by acting like a good housewife. You know, despite her also working full-time…While she’s super-duper impressed by her husband cooking one meal (that apparently makes him the perfect husband), we see her frequently cooking up impressive meals for him. But not only that, when her husband’s friend comes over to their place, she’s over the moon about being able to impress him (and thereby her husband) with her cooking skills. As she says, ‘I’ve always longed for this’. Wow, isn’t that just fabulous, a woman longing to impress her future husband by feeding his friend. And if you think I’m being too harsh, think about how ridiculous you would find this scenario if the genders were reversed.

I’ve honed in on all of the bad things with this show deliberately, because I think it has an inflated rating on MDL and others have covered the good things already. However, I should briefly mention the good things. I absolutely love the chemistry and sensuality in the relationship, and love that they regularly have sex, like a normal couple does! I also love that the girl wants it just as much as the guy, even if he’s the initiator. I think it's great that their relationship is healthy, even with all of the plot holes. The show is sweet, with no over-the-top conflict. It's also the perfect length, great for a binge watch. While I was frustrated the whole time I was watching it, there’s something addictive about it (I’d say because of the leads’ chemistry).

So if you’re someone who just wants good chemistry between the leads and don’t care too much about a well-constructed plot, I’d say go ahead and watch! Otherwise, I’d say go into it without any serious expectations.

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Great crime drama

The Reborn is an excellent quality Chinese crime drama. The show has one main crime case as the main plot, but also side stories with smaller cases are interesting on their own. The acting is serious and minimal compared to many dramas I watch, which I enjoyed a lot. There are some great, multidimensional characters and some nice character growth.

There are some issues with the pacing, but the series also requires careful watching - not everything about the cases is spelled out loud. I personally like this style as it gives the viewer the credit of being smart enough to understand the hints, but for some it might seem like things are left hanging in the air.

The series has gorgeous cinematography. The music didn't really stay with me, and there are some audio issues, but less bad dubbing than I often find in Chinese series. The rewatch value really depends on how much you want to catch all the nuances about the side cases. The series is a bit slow and serious, almost sad, so it's not a huge thrill to rewatch. But the quality is there.

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class of lies was lit

Honestly, this entire drama felt like a good fever dream. That probably doesn't make any sense, but it was complete and it was interesting the whole way through. I have to applaud Yoo Beom Jin's actor because his acting was so amazing. In general, the crime aspect was well done and the watchers are able to guess along with the characters. There are a lot of details and the direction of the drama is unpredictable. This made it exciting, but you have to pay attention or you might miss something. This problem could only be for me, but the subtitles in this drama were so bad. I watched this on Dramacool, so it might be different for you. The subtitles were inconsistent and even some of the nicknames the characters were given changes between episodes which gets confusing. Another thing is that the episode lapping is quite large (the end of the previous episode as the beginning of the new episode). I would say almost 5 minutes is lapped. Sure, you could skip it, but in some cases, new details and clues are brought up. This was a small issue though, and it's useful if you space out your episodes (I binged, so it got a little annoying).

I will say it's hard for the characters to grow on you or to develop a favourite character. This factor is important for me when watching a drama, so that's one of the reasons why I only gave it an 8.5. The only character that grew on me was Lee Gi Hoon and he didn't have many scenes....

This drama's music will always be superior. A lot of the music they used was rap. I thought that this was fun since normally the OSTs would be soft singing or something along those lines. Plus, the BGM they used when the attorneys and rich people were talking made it feel like they were gonna square up.

add Class of Lies to your watchlist right now!

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The best C-drama probably until the end of time

I've written a review for my other favorite, TTEOTM, and decided I should write one about this one (I watched it years ago).
If TTEOTM was a culmination of arcs and ideas that were exploited satisfyingly (albeit with some plot problems), this one seemed to start at a single point and expand outward relentlessly from there. The pacing is intense and substantive, the story is complex and masterful, and the acting is nothing short of wonderful. Very rarely do elements come together to form what could be an alternate universe or a chapter in history... Nirvana in Fire manages this, and is probably thus one of the best dramas I've personally ever watched.

Where to even start? Probably the story, the most wonderful thing about this drama. Although this meets the eye as the typical revenge plot with an ambitious strategist as the protagonist, there's so much nuance and many dynamics under the surface level that truly connect the dots together. How Lin Shu's history is intertwined with the present for many characters including Jingyan is beautiful, and the little twists and schemes involved (completely impossible but riveting) from how Mei Chang Su deals with Nihuang's suitor contest to how his aid towards Prince Yu helps Prince Jing is magnificent. Not only are the details critical and brilliant, they play a tremendous role in how the drama ultimately develops. Despite the numerous arcs, etc. that are present in the drama, they still fit into the narrative on how Lin Shu achieves his revenge goal. The writing in between, including the dialogue and script, excellently achieves this effect (not sure how the countless translated captions fare in corroborating the intent of the original script... watched this in Mandarin). Cleverness and wit are woven into every aspect of this drama and its characters' motivations (they all make sense given the time, personality, etc.). How the drama doesn't seem forced (besides its pacing at times) as well as the plot's fluidity is really impressive storytelling; it's also what separates this from similarly good Wuxia/Xianxia that doesn't reach its heights.

That being said, its complexity makes elements of the plot sometimes difficult to remember beyond the initial watching. That makes it satisfying to rewatch, and every rewatch I still find myself astounded by the numerous twists and ideas present. Given this, know that I watch a drama for the ideas and cleverness more so than the execution/logical sense (this one for the most part fulfills both, but there are some plot holes you find if you think carefully enough), and therefore I'd probably enjoy gripping stories much more than most/prioritize them over other things to make/break a drama.

I guess that's enough time spent on the story. I think the second thing to note here is the acting.

To be fair, there isn't much character development in most of the characters more than a change of motivations/desires, etc. I do think the characters fit perfectly with the setting and situation, but for those looking for those coming-of-age/character development arc dramas, this one is probably less so your thing... I'd push you to TTEOTM to see Tantai Jin if you wanted to see character development. The characters are mostly well developed already in this drama, and because of the abundance of motivations and schematics, it's hard to follow individual characters throughout (even the protagonist).

Given this, I don't think this drama would be a rave review for any individual actor. Instead, the entire cast does a great job portraying their parts to really make this story work. From Xia Jiang to Xie Yu (antagonists along the way), the antagonists of this drama are played amazingly. Their micro expressions, desperation, and different emotions are played realistically and believably for the plights they find themselves in. I do think a special shoutout has to go to Victor Huang who plays Prince Yu; his scenes are done beautifully to portray a pompous and crafty prince who eventually devolves into resignation. Additionally, the characters really do interact with the story and plot's purposes, something that I find often missing from a drama. The protagonists are played similarly well, with Mei Chang Su (Hu Ge) displaying the depth needed for a sick strategist who needs to finish one final task. He did remind me of Tantai Jin (Til the End of the Moon), but this one is significantly less dramatic of a portrayal (I think it's fair for the role Mei Chang Su plays) and therefore also less memorable. It's great acting nonetheless, and other protagonists like Consort Jing do really come alive with the acting of a splendid (and very expensive) cast.

Finally, I'll talk about the OST a little. I personally quite enjoyed the song 红颜旧 sung by Liu Tao (plays Mu Nihuang) and think the majority of the songs are quite pleasant. I did enjoy their melodies although I oftentimes found the singing subpar (that's okay, I do think it's more representative of the cast when sung by the cast). It's one of the great OSTs I've heard, despite having few songs. I wouldn't watch it for the OST (like I would Love Between Fairy and Devil), but it's kind of a bonus :)

Definitely the best drama I've ever watched and will be coming back to it over and over again.

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WOW

THE BEST !!!!
that's all I can say.
The best drama I have ever watched and nothing else can take it's nr1 spot for me ever!!!!
One day I just saw a random picture about Wei Wuxian on a site not knowing a tiny bit about who he is. I just saw a beautiful picture of a beautiful character. I was like, who this Wei Wuxian is? What drama is he a character in? Checked and got the title: The Untamed. I read the synopsis of the story and at first it was confusing. Watched a little trailer of it and I was like "Ah, it looks a bit hard to understand and follow". So I just didn't care about it at all any more, then one day --still to this very second- I have no idea why but watched the first episode, really still don't know why I decided to watch it, no clue at all. Absolutely cannot remember.
And I thought after the first episode that I was right, it's hard to follow, don't understand when this whole story is happening, it was full of flashbacks and made it so confusing. But after reading a few comments saying that after the first three episodes it gets way much better, I gave it a try. And .... I just can't imagine what I would have missed if I hadn't seen it. I knew I found it ... my favourite drama ever.
Many fans' favourites are the main characters Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. I love them, too, but for me there is only one character who means everything, he is: Xue Yang. I never cried that much when he died. On the OST, out of all the character songs, his song is my absolute favourite. It is such a heartbreaking beautiful song, cannot help but cry whenever I hear it.
I don't want to add a life-long list of character analysis, instead I would say that every actor chosen for this drama was perfection.
This is the drama that never let's you go, stays in your mind and heart forever. I am sure that after 10,20,30 ... years later this drama will still be loved by many and will be rewatched forever.
A Must-See !!!!

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How can a time-loop drama be this good?

You would think this drama gets boring after a couple of episodes because we see the same bus drive and explosion over and over again, instead every new loop brings the MLs new information and they slowly unravel how to stop the loop.
It never gets boring, there are so many great twists, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.
Even though this is a fast paced plot driven drama we really get to know some of the characters and their backstory too, which really helped to make them more three dimensional and actually made me pretty emotional a couple of times.
The acting is excellent, especially of the police officer and the mother.
What I loved so so much, was that no stupid decisions were made by the MLs just for plot reasons. Both MLs are really smart regular people that have common sense (which a lot of dramas are lacking sadly). There are no clichés, no cheesy romance, just a bonding of two people who go through insanely traumatic events over and over again.
I wasn't aware of any plot holes which is great too, some things are implied and not explained! (like the reason for the loop)
The script of this drama was simply perfect, thrilling, exciting and one of the best of the genre I'm sure.
I really hope we will see more c-dramas like this!

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