Reviews

Envigorating!

If you're looking for a good fight and lots of blood, you're in the right place! I am a huge fan of this series and as the name suggests...this is the beginning. This is how our hero came to his "No Kill" rule. The fight scenes and throat slits had me pumped the whole movie. The romance and 'genuine' love had me in my feels and I loved every minute of it. Tomoe's actress is so beautiful and of course she goes perfectly with Himura (for now) lol Obviously, I'd actually suggest starting with this movie before the rest, but either way you won't be lost. I'd definitely recommend to samurai related theme junkie
Enjoy...

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The real comic story much more interesting

The real plot of the story actually quite nice. It's just the movie talk too much, and getting more & more nonsense talk. Example, everyone before die keep asking wugeng to promise abc, and wugeng promised alot things already to many people. Rather than talking about the war situation/warning, before die they rather talk nonsense, like how long i have loved you, promise me this and that, etc. And the talk DAMN LONG. Finished talk, he/she suddenly died, fanished. ?
The drama getting too much & make it lame story.
The comic can show how wugeng get his power and his sacrifies, but in the movie..... he just brave, friendly and lucky. The wars, wugeng doesnt look like doing alot, only abit here & there.
Too bad, it can be much better.

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I recall starting this drama a couple years ago and dropping it after the first episode that I was puzzled over the many praises from other viewers I'd come across since then. And then I watched Game Rai Game Rak recently and as I was trying to get into it (ultimately couldn't), I came across Pope Thanawat Wattanaputi and was immediately charmed by his infectious smile that I paused that drama and looked for one with him as the leading man. That's what led me to give Love Destiny a second look and this time, I finished it in a couple days. What I thought the show excelled in was in the portrayal of the two leads and the progression of their romance, as well as how the drama showcases the historical setting that is wonderfully integrated into the story. I truly felt transported to Ayutthaya in the 1680s as I watched.

The heroine, Karakade, is exceedingly likable. As a woman from modern times, she is unrestrained, extroverted, adventurous. But it was clear through flashbacks of her life in the present world that her behavior in Ayutthaya is largely due to her personality. The way Bella Ranee Campen played her, she was so charming. And she is gorgeous. It's rare to find an actress who is both talented and beautiful and she has the complete package.

Karakade would often get scolded or put down or treated with contempt, and yet, she never lashes out at anyone. She handles it with humor and a positive attitude. And this is what made what could have been heavy situations filled with laughter. She would shock folks into silence with her unconventional, quirky behavior. They really don't know what to do with her. Also, I thought it was ironic that it was the men who warms up to her first. I mean, she transmigrates to a conservative, patriarchal society where rules are made by men and women are taught to be obedient, prim and proper. Any behavior outside of that is reprimanded for it. Her cheerful, outspoken, inquisitive behavior is admired and praised by the men but not the women. I especially loathed the head servant, and to a lesser degree, Khun Pi's mother for their persistent refusal to acknowledge that Karakade is a very different and better person than she used to be. It is one of the central conflicts in the drama and too repetitive for my liking. They eventually see her in a positive light. However, that progression from hate to love wasn't satisfying. I didn't really feel the change, only that I was told a change of heart had taken place.

On the other hand, our wonderful Khun Pi’s journey from hate to curiosity to love and devotion was clearly and thrillingly illustrated. It was quite amusing seeing him crane his neck to try to catch a glimpse of whatever it is that the mischievous Karakade was up to. I'm still laughing thinking about the scene where she is doing morning yoga and she becomes aware he is watching her but promptly ignores him and continues on, as if she doesn't care how strange it would look to someone from 300 years ago. Meanwhile, he is so bemused by her activities and the way she speaks in modern tongue. And he is so serious at times that Karakade teases him often; she is adorably playful around him.

When I look at Pope as Khun Pi, all I could think is how handsome, kind, gentlemanly, refine he is; with a smile that could melt your heart. As a noble man in ancient times, Khun Pi grew up in the confines of such environment and understandably hold narrow views, which made him a bit of a douche in the beginning. He would often scold Karakade, stating that as a woman, she should behave herself. I liked how Karakade calls him out on that double standard. Fortunately, he more than made up for it. He chooses to be open-minded while fulfilling her wishes and protecting her as best he could in the position he is in. There isn't much skinship between the two and I would say theirs is a slow burn romance, but that didn't make it any less romantic. Most of the time, all they do is smile at each other or the heroine accidentally trips and falls into his arms (or lap, heh) or he gets thisclose, whispering into her ears but never touching; and all the while, I'm grinning like an idiot watching them. They are so sweet together. Also, the OST Aojaow (You) by Pete Pol perfectly captures the classy feel of their romance.

As mentioned, the ancient setting is one of the best features of this show. I would often pause the video to admire the aesthetically pleasing set designs. From the lush costumes, to the interior design, the wooden houses, the boat rides, the cuisine, even to the placement of vases and the arrangement of the ubiquitous but beautiful, bountiful lotus flowers throughout the grounds of the leads’ sprawling residence; all contributed to an authentic, elegant atmosphere. Aside from the backdrop elevating the story, the supporting cast breathed life into it as well; especially Khun Pi's father, Khun Pi's friend/second lead, and the two personal servants of Karakade. There are also many other real life historical figures interwoven into the story. When Karakade runs into one of them and gets super excited, I thought that’s what it must be like to run into people’s favorite Kpop idols nowadays. I'll be honest that I did skip around when the drama spent time on these figures. What’s strange is that I was interested enough to look them up and read about them on Wikipedia but I didn’t want to watch them in the drama. Learning of their fate via Wikipedia was enough for me and the drama did not deviate from history. I especially skipped scenes involving Constantine Phaulkon. I don't particular like the actor, and the rise and fall of his character even less.

In conclusion, I don't think this drama was as perfect as many reviews made it out to be. However, that doesn't mean it wasn't enjoyable throughout. I think the glowing reviews were due to how positively the watchers personally felt about the drama than an objective assessment of it. And I completely understand them now after giving it another chance. There was so much to appreciate, flaws and all. I left feeling happier than I did going into it.

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A Thoughtful Light Mystery

I found the story somewhat different from the synopsis - not much of a thriller (though it has a couple of eerie moments like a premonition of something sinister) and there's not really any substantial romance. Set in a typical ordinary Chinese coastal village life, it has a certain feeling of hopelessness and nothingness. A touch of longing in the mystery it atempts to unravel makes the series feel contemplative. By the end of it you'll feel like having just watched an engaging movie, one that just happened to be packaged into bite-sized-20-minute-ish episodes. The series manages to capture your attention nicely with a cast that act well. It presents things with easy hints, so the whodunit can also be easily inferred. Ending with a somewhat hopeful lament, the show is an easily digestible watch, leaving the audience with a lingering thoughtfulness.

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In heaven love comes last.... or will have you killed

In a world where love not only does not come first but is is completely prohibited and punishable by death (annihilation of ones soul) , we are taken on a journey that proves that you can forbid love all you want but it won't stop people from falling in love and obsession... As open or not people will scheme, betray, sacrifice and what not in the name of obsession and love... oh and some power too.. I can not help but draw parallels to other loves who are forbidden in certain parts of the world and wonder how this drama passed the Chinese censorship... Still I am glad it did as I found it pretty interesting to see what happens when mr. upright, self righteous, by the book, bully iceberg is unavoidably drawn to ms, smart but naive cheerful, justice seeking sweetheart... Did I mention they lived in a world where love is forbidden.. yet they inevitably do fall in love... Which leads to a lot of cranberry, blueberry, strawberry and black current syrup splatter (different shades of blood), a bunch of misunderstandings, and one disaster after the other.

As mr self righteous seems to think he knows best... when he obviously is just a control freak... But I still love him... So basically what I got was a drama that is frustrating, interesting and at times a bit draggy...

What I like about the drama is that it has me wanting to choke a whole bunch of people, making Homer Simpson hands to the screen over and over again, without being overly annoyed by any character, nope just pure anger and hate from me.I also like a lot of the scenery but will admit that they could have paid a bit more attention to detail as the CGI is less than perfect and at times I got to see parts of the wing I should not have seen...

I am also happy that I waited to watch this part till after part 2 was released and am now looking forward to part 2...

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Haha predictable but entertaining, shame the ending sucks!

Man this is another run-of-the-mill rich family with typical rich family problems of siblings fighting over inheritance with the typical plot twists that are involved. This has the same formula except that it is still a very entertaining watch. We have a star studded cast led by Charmaine Sheh as the eldest grand daughter of the Yo family (or Qiu if you’re Mando) and we watch how her younger male cousin played by none other than Him Law trying to get in her way and usurp the title of hier. If you wanted to watch a drama to really hate Him Law then this is the perfect one to watch. He is a huge massive anus of a person and I spend most of my time watching the drama imagining him on fire.

Some of the plot reveals were so predictable and came about so rapidly that I found myself laughing at it all. The 2nd eldest son played by Gallen Lo has a great business sense but got into so much mischief in the past that it affected his wives (yes that’s correct, wives) and kids. Oh man, watch it to see what I mean. Let’s just say the 2nd wife has some loose lips.

In any case, I am enjoying how ridiculous everything in this drama is. As always, Raymond Lam is the coolest guy in the drama and has the best scenes. Can’t wait for the final episodes!

Update: I completed watching this ages ago but I had to watch it again to make sure before I complete this review and yes... it is terrible. It had such a good start, but the story and characters became so ridiculous that I stopped caring.

Let's start with the worst person in the show, and no it is not the character played by Him Law. It is actually the Gallen's 2nd wife played by Betsy Cheung. We spent the start of the drama thinking she was so nice and was a victim of constant bullying from Gallen's 1st wife , but later we discovered she was the biggest piece of human trash in the drama. In the past while Gallen only had one wife played by Candice Yu, he had an affair with Betsy Cheung. Later, Candice gave birth to a daughter and realised that her husband could not become the Yo family successor due to the traditional views of her father-in-law. At the same time, Betsy became pregnant with twins, and coincidentally one of the twins was a boy (Him Law). So, Gallen and Candice made a deal with Betsy to allow her to join the Yo family, but in return Betsy would have to surrender her son to Candice and take Candice's daughter as her own, officially making Betsy twins girls while Candice had a son, all this so Gallen could lay claim as successor to the family business. How convenient they became pregnant can gave birth at the same time.

You would think Betsy, as the third-party, agreeing to giving up her son for money and status would already making her a shitty mother, but it gets worse. She was afraid her daughter from the twin birth would be treated poorly by the 1st wife, so she swapped her daughter with Candice's just in case. This led to Candice treating Betsy's daughter as if it was her own and spoiling her. So in essence, she gave up BOTH her children.

And it gets even worse. Those twins are later found out to not even be Gallen's kids. In the past, while she was having an affair with Gallen, she was also sleeping with Raymond Lam's father played by Hugo Ng, making the twins half-siblings to Raymond. When I discovered all of those things, it just showed how awful Betsy was as a person, so the show trying to show her in sympathetic light just annoyed me so much. Candice is loud and obnoxious for sure, throwing her Princess tantrums when she cannot get what she wanted, but she was at least not a scheming anus like Betsy. I hated Betsy so much and was disappointed her ending did not result in her death.

Him Law here was a textbook psychopath. Everything he ever did was driven by intense selfishness and to serve his own ego. When he later discovered he was not Gallen's son, he got over it really quickly and then did everything in his power to not let this information leak out to Gallen because he did not want to lose everything. He also purposely did not share a fire hazard report to Charmaine so that she would get into trouble and have to spend time in prison. He also kept making stupid mistakes that most rational people would not do, like return to a crime scene. When Gallen found out Him was not his son, they gotinto a struggle , which led to Him murdering his father with a glass ornament in Gallen's office. Later, Him returns to the office at night to find the ornament, but he is caught by the police. Dumbass. His ending was too good for him as he got hit by a van while trying to make a getaway and entered a coma, with the drama ending with him still comatose. Just kill him already!

One of the points that made me feel really sick was Toby Leung declaring her love for Raymond. We later discovered that she was Raymond's half-sister when she did DNA analysis, and we found her throwing up after discovering she was in love with her own brother. That really made my stomach turn when I found out, like the writers were out of their minds when they wrote that into the drama. She later ends up getting killed by Him Law when she threatened to reveal their true parentage and mess up Him's plans, so he smacked her into the water and watched her slowly drown.

I am most disappointed with the character of the eldest brother played Benz Hui. He was divorced from his first wife, Charmaine's mother, and managed to bag himself a younger wife played by Dada Chan. He mentioned many times that he did not want to take over the family business and would not fight for it, but I thought this was a ruse and he was quietly plotting behind the scenes to take over, like Benz is known to do in other dramas, but NO! He is just useless! He later discovered that his daughter was made go to prison by the machinations of Him Law, but it required Charmaine saying, "You know this and you won't sit on the board to help me fight them?", so he reluctantly became Vice-Chairman on the board. And just when I thought maybe he would stand up and protect Charmaine in his new position, his new wife ends up having a miscarriage and nearly gets herself and Candice killed, so he decided to step down as Vice-Chairman to spend time looking after his wife, leaving Charmaine to fend for herself. Father of the f'ing year here. His ending was that his wife ran away because of the guilt she felt for the miscarriage and it ended with Benz still looking for her. WTF?

And don't think Charmaine was any better. Her role in this is almost only as eye candy as she does almost nothing significant and was basically this person that got shoved around and had thing happening around her or to her with not much she could do about it. She doesn't scheme, she doesn't make plan A and plan B or contingencies to deal with stuff, all she does is "I will do this and that's it" and then when the crap hits the fan oh no, she has no plan to get out of it. Raymond had to save her a few times, but she inevitably still had to go to prison for a few weeks thanks to the fire hazard incident. She only did a few things near the end of the drama, but only because Raymond armed her with knowledge she could use to attack with. Her character was just fodder for the plot to progress, and that makes me sad because she is a great actor completely wasted.

The best character is played by Raymond Lam. He played a lawyer and former boyfriend of Charmaine. They broke up because he was caught making out with another woman in his car but lied to Charmaine about it when she caught him in the act. She could not forgive his cheating so broke up with him, but there were many opportunities they could have gotten back together but never would because of this thorn in Charmaine's mind. He still deeply cares about her and would do everything in his power to help her whenever she got into trouble. I felt so bad for him when he discovered from Hugo Ng that Him Law was his half-brother, because Raymond really despised Him especially after finding out Charmaine went to prison because Him withheld information. However, despite being my favourite character in the drama, I still believe he doesn't deserve to be with Charmaine, and this is because of Raymond Wong. Raymond Wong plays a rich guy who had helped Charmaine a lot and also had feelings for her. He did nothing but support her in the drama and was an overall great guy. At the end when the van hit Him Law that left him comatose, it should have also hit Charmaine but Wong pulled her out of the way and took the van hit in her place. He survived it and so more than deserves to be with Charmaine. Plus with all the history between Raymond Lam's family and her, this would be for the best.

As for the other characters, they were just there, just like Jeannie Chan who played Candice's actual daughter. She just existed and left no lasting impression at all. Her performance here was akin to her performance The Beauty of War, except less annoying because she was not a massive push over. Even the legendary Lau Kong never had a chance to shine as he only had a few episodes to act in before he died in the drama. The worst use of a "cameo" was with Wilson Tsui, who played a crazy homeless guy and spoke to Him Law while Him was having his bouts of depression in his Lamborghini. Wilson appeared more than once so it was not really a cameo, but he served NOOO purpose at all. Why bring him in if it served no purpose?

This drama ends with Charmaine and Raymond Wong at a church getting married when suddenly somebody opened the church doors and a silhouette of somebody - I am assuming Raymond Lam - was there to stop it. It ends there but I can tell you now we do not need a direct sequel to this drama. It was overall terrible and just average at best. Raymond Lam's star power really can pull things back from the abyss but it cannot elevate this pile of vomit above average, so much so that this is not worth a rewatch like I did as I was speechless the first time and needed to make sure I didn't hallucinate the entire thing. The first drama with Tavia Yeung and Julian Cheung was vastly superior.

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Wow, it’s been 2 years since I watched this drama.

When I dived into this drama the only reason for me was Odagiri Joe. What I was left with after completing the drama in one sitting was a bunch of feelings.

This drama is like life itself, you don’t have a clear ongoing storyline, but still the story flows by slowly like the lil water in the backyard of the shop.

The characters were nearly all as insecure about life, love, money and employment as my real life friends are at their age.
You can find yourself very clearly in their struggles.
They were just lovely, hateful, funny and merciless as all of us.

The OST was perfect for the drama and reflected the emotions in a good way.

I’m sure one day I’ll watch it again.

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Simply a masterpiece!

I would definitely give ratings more than 10 if it was possible. This is my first ever c-drama and I absolutely loved it! The beautiful depiction of the friendship of Wei Ying? and Lan Zhan? is just on the next level. Their friendship makes me feel that even though the whole world stands against you, one true friend is enough to face the challenges of the world. Wei Ying's naughtiness and ways of making Lan Zhan smile will surely warm your heart and bring a smile on your face. Lan Zhan's cute and short smile☺ is just endearing!! The plot twists and the whole plot of the story is just unimaginable. In short, this drama is a masterpiece!!!✨✨

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This is a hidden gem! No insipid FL for you!!

People this is kind of the unicorn of dramas.

You know when we always complain about cliches and "dumb, clumsy, insipid " female leads? Well here is the answer to your prayers!!

OMG Goo Sera is one of the most awesomely weird female leads I've ever encountered (and I have seen A LOT of dramas). She is this weird mix of cuteness, smarts and stubbornness. I love her, and if she existed I would love to be her BFF.

So the plot revolves around her (a commoner with no political background) getting into politics just to get a nice paycheck. The catch is, she hates injustices and so she gets embroiled in political disputes and really funny situations because of this trait.

I gotta be honest some of the disputes may be a tad boring, but Goo Sera makes your time worth, because she has the best reactions, the best replies and the best sidekicks (the male lead is really cool, also her family and friends are so funny).

Also the bad guys are really relatable, not because you agree with what they do, but because you see this kind of people all the time ir real life (I mean a politician putting his/hers interests before the people's is not the far-fetched).

I confidently recommend this drama, give it a chance, you'll like it!

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Truly a modernized retelling of Cinderella. What a pleasant surprise.

From the beginning and almost all the way to the end, I thought this was the typical Thai drama toned down to fit a younger demographic and with the formulaic Cinderella story. Rich guy falls for poor girl, and his mom is disapproving b/c she's poor. You know the drill. Nothing new. But I stuck with it, because I wanted something light to watch.

Let me tell you they MISLED me, and that makes me happy lol.

The ending totally surprised me. Never would I have thought a Thai drama would go with the ending Glass Slippers did and especially for a teen drama. What a wonderful message they are sending to today's youth. I won't say what that message is. You'll have to watch this to find out.

Although the ending is different from the typical Thai romance dramas, I think most people will still approve and be fairly happy with it.

Looking forward to seeing what they do with the rest of the stories.

Bravo to One31. They are on a roll with how much more progressive their dramas are.

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A drama that doesn't take itself seriously - and neither should you

Okay, if you rate this by "serious 50-episode drama" standards, obviously it's not going to be that high. But from the start, I could tell this was the light-hearted show I needed.

I enjoyed Sheng Xia's personality a lot, especially since she seemed somewhat knowledgeable with drama tropes. You would think that's a given due to her profession, but the amount of shows with leads that are supposed to know what they're doing but actually don't are way too many. Sheng Xia was realistic in the sense that she acted like a normal person and not like a damsel in distress. She had a mission and she was going to complete it one way or another.

Shen Shi Yi's character is one of my favorite types of characters: the "I'm stone cold to everyone except for my beloved" type. Immediately when he showed up I knew I was going to like him. I also liked that he wasn't kept in the dark about everything, and was smart enough to figure stuff out.

The fourth prince was hilarious, and Sheng Lian Hua was so cute while she was fangirling over her OTP. Their romance was far less convincing than our leads', but they're secondary characters in a short-length series, what can you expect?

I enjoyed the plot a lot, especially the conflicts that Sheng Xia's deviation of the plot caused. I also enjoyed the fact that due to the nature of her character, she shared a lot of kisses with the male lead. Most of the time C-Dramas tend to be really shy about skinship, so this was great to see.

The ending was a bit neatly wrapped up, but since this was twenty-two 10-minute episodes (or six 30-minute episodes if you're on Viki), it makes sense that they couldn't expand on it too much. Still, I would have liked a bit more explanation on the ending bit.

Go into this expecting a light-hearted show that doesn't take itself seriously, and you'll enjoy it just like I did.

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A story on fighting for your dream

This gave me a very bad first impression that I almost dropped it. The second hand embarrassment I felt for Tong Nian as she kind of stalked Han Shangyan in the first few episodes was just too much. After Episode 4, it got better. I did not really like the main romance because I felt that Tong Nian was too submissive. It's good thing that he never really took advantage of her. Grandpa was their matchmaker, without him they would not get together or get back with each other. The second CP of Mi and Yaya made up for the sweetness I was looking for in this show.

More than the romance, the journey of team solo as they fight for country pride either as individuals or as a group was the main essence of this show.

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Absolutely LOVED it, this is my second favorite historical Chinese drama after bu bu jing xin. I don't watch a lot of Chinese dramas but this one captured me from episode 1. The plot, the dialogues, the characters, and the beautiful period costumes were EXCELLENT. The intrigue, mystery, drama and romance was superb. I'd have to give it to the female cast, they were all absolutely brilliant. The male cast was okay but felt short to the female's. Maybe because their roles were much more complex, that's why I loved them all from evil to good. I loved how they were able to change faces and allegiances from one side to the other so fast. I especially loved the two main actresses who portrayed Wei Yingluo and Empress Rouyang. I really loved the relationship between the empress and yingluo, I never saw such loyalty and dedication to someone. Yingluo was phenomenon and her character was just my type. Strong-headed, cunning, ruthless but at the same time brave, loyal, caring and mostly doesn't take BS from anybody. I absolutely recommend this drama to anybody who likes historical drama. 10/10

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How Well Goverment Take Responsibility on Disaster?

Nihon Chinbotsu Kibo no Hito is a modern day take on the original novel Japan Sinks by Sakyo Komatsu. Just like in the novel, tectonic shifts in the Eastern hemisphere are attributed to a series of earthquakes that sinks Japan into the ocean. Through this adaptation, we get to see the perspective of the big disaster from government, scientist, media and large companies. This drama is about how big figures will overcome the obstacles and protect their dearest country Japan from collapsing. The earthquake isn't the main focus of this drama and if you come expecting for "natural disaster", you will probably be disappointed.

The acting aren't top notch but for me they are good enough for the plot. I must say I love how the characters are written as dedicated person to their job. I watched a lot of articles & documentaries resolving the great Tohoku Earthquake and that is how I see Japanese people, take responsibility of their actions in work and life despite having a big disaster. Furthermore, we can see the main character's different back stories and how they protect their loved ones while on their job position, plus points from me!

I just hope they invest more in the story from the earthquake victim pov, so the viewer can feel the tense of being in the big disaster. Anyway, I find this drama interesting every episode and I never get bored. This story is a real eye open to appreciate whats happening in the moment because you never know what the future brings or who and what you will gain and lose in life. Also a story to respect scientist and their knowledge in disaster science predictions. Will I recommend it for you to watch? Yes, give it a try!

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