Reviews

Not a gold mine but still find bit of gold

Seeing the legendary Tong Leung and Andy Lau - as well as other big names in HK film, you may think this will be HK's next big movie. However, this is no Infernal Affairs. On the whole, this is an average movie executed relatively well - considering the HK film industry in the past decade. The biggest negative was the script, which was held up by a stella cast (mostly Tony), stunning visuals and a good soundtrack. It's worth a watch if you are a Tony fan or a HK cinema fan.

Characters/Acting:
As expected, Tony Leung has a stella performance and holds up the entire film with his charismatic acting. Tony played an amazing "crafty villan". Disappointingly, Andy's character is incredibly dull with very little interesting points despite marketed as Tony's "rival". The supporting characters are a lot more interesting than Andy's who accomplishes very little in the movie and did not even have 1/3 of the screen time. A complete waste of Andy's skills if you ask me.

Plot/Script:
The story is inspired by real events and quite interesting enough. The flashback focusing on Tony was fun to watch especially with Ton'y charisma. There are a few points in the script that were poorly written such as a few points that were mentioned and never addressed, There are some interesting twists in the movie as well as things that needed more explanation.

Execution:
The visuals are pretty good, there are quite a few visual metaphors and the cinematography is not bad. Visually, the movie looks great. The soundtrack is also quite memorable and helps elevate the movie.

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I would like a refund of the precious hours of my life please.

Watch it if you’re in the mood for: A historical, political intrigue K-drama being peddled as a Romance. This drama's sky high MyDramaList ratings are the biggest example of why these ratings should not be trusted blindly.

What I did not like:
- Lack of Romance: I invested 20+ hours of my free time to get about 1 hour of total romance on screen. Do not watch it if Romance is what you are in for. I clearly was and was sorely disappointed.
- Mediocre acting in general: The main Female lead had 1.25 expression. The second female lead had 1 expression. The second Male lead had exactly 1.75 expression. The King's personal guard had 0.75 expression (though in all fairness his character was supposed to be expressionless, a la, stoic. So I think he gets a pass). Bleh.

What I liked: (There are silver linings to this dark cloud)
- Male Lead (Kim Soo-Hyun): He is good looking and he is a good actor. He cried very prettily throughout the show. He had to cry on so many incidents and every time he managed to cry differently. Though I did not cry with him. I was bored stiff of the show and was not emotionally invested enough in the characters, but yet, the guy did a good job crying.
- Teenage actors depicting the Male lead and the Female lead: I enjoyed their chemistry. They did a good job. I did not fast forward the first 5 episodes at all due to them. The last 10 episodes of this series I ran at 1.5x play speed in my Netflix.

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Real Love

This series was incredible. It was one of the first series that I watched and it actually depicted a real relationship, and how they can sometimes be. The concept of the show was beautiful, and all acting was amazing as well. This served as my very first Japanese series, and they absolutely killed it, I'm so excited to dive in and see more of what Japan has to offer.

Let's dive in.

This is one of the first series that I’ve seen where the couple actually grows with each other and gets older. Seeing them go through high school and college and then adulthood really added some needed flavor to this series. I think that aspect of the story was the best, and it made me fall more in love with this couple as they progressed.

This was a really beautiful story that was told. Ito Akira had me feeling so bad for him, but at the same time, I was so upset with him and society. He saw all of his other coworkers getting married and having kids, and he felt like he couldn’t do that with a man, no matter how in love he was. Raiku did an amazing job at paying Nishi. My favorite characters are always the ones that are the happiest and the bubbliest and I fell in love with him as soon as I saw his childlike ways.

My favorite part was definitely the end when they meet back up at the northern lights. It was also nice to see the little cameo of Wayne and Huang from MODC, it was definitely not expected.

The only thing I would argue about is the fact that Nishi had the exact same hairstyle for 20 years. Even though he is childlike and always bubbly, he still had a maturity growth somewhere in there, and even though this is a bit nit-picky, I just really wanted to see more of his growth throughout his adulthood, and some of that starts in his hair.

The show was real and raw, but cinematically perfect. This is definitely now one of my all-time favorite series.

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I'm so happy watching this drama. B'cos after watching so many drama, finally can see a complete drama about a childhood friendship until marriage and ending having a baby. So amazing about this drama is only 24 episodes, it can produce a story about 2 persons (Ireine Song as Lin Xi Chi and Gala Zhang as Xu Fang) friendship from childhood story and about their high school time together. Also after teenage story, then go to university life where they start their love relationship and after that go to their adult working life story. So, finally ending part is about their marriage.
This drama story is not only about this 2 persons, of course there is story about their parents relationship, Lin Xi Chi brother story and theirs friends story.
For this drama 24 episodes only is not enough. If can complete the drama by 36 episodes, that will be great. There is few missing part or no finishing story like what happen to Ding Yi, Liu Xiao Jiang, Zheng Fang Fang, Lin Xi Chi part-time job and etc.
Ireine Song actions with strong character and natural acting make me want to watch all her drama. She is a very good actress.

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SHOI WOO SHIK

Even though he was a victim of school bullying, his life after military service was nothing much, living alone pitifully and has nothing to do just reaching for money, But with 2 murder he was terrified therefore he wasn't a suspect and no evidence this will awake the psychopath in him.
THAT'S FREAKING CREATIVE AS THE START OF HIS JOURNEY BEGAN.
as for the acting both woo shik and the officer have done a great jobs hhh
sara7a rah fchkl kifach bdat l journey diyalo ga3 had zhar li makhalahch itchad flwl rah nadi hhhhh
LET'S WATCH IT TOGETHER
STILL WATCHING IT BUT IT'S REALLY A GOOD ONE TO WATCH

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The first episode will already hit you hard. You will be introduced to a very blinding start (trigger warning: flashing colors) and a wacky plot. The series can be a bit overwhelming for some audience. But if you manage to watch the first episode or the first part of the first episode, you should watch the whole series! It is worth it! I looked forward every Tuesday just to watch the new episodes. YYY never fails to cheer me up when I have a bad week.

YYY is 80% filled with crack moments. If you have a weird sense of humor like me, you would most likely enjoy the series. Not only crack, there are some angsty moments too. YYY proves that a series does not always need to have intimate scenes and too much angsty moments. A series can also be enjoyable by having funny scenes. I applaud the directors for including life lessons that most BL series would not include (e.g. consensual sexual acts). This very reason supports why one should try to watch YYY.

Initially, I watched this because of Pun (the actor is also in My Engineer!). However, the other casts are interesting and lovable and they definitely caught my eye. I don't think there is a character that is annoying or leaves a bad impression, in my opinion. If you have some bad thoughts about certain characters, just watch till the end. Your bad opinions of the characters would most likely change.

Would I rewatch YYY? Definitely, without a doubt. The series is not too long and draggy. Hence it is perfect if you have free time and you feel like watching something that is light-hearted. Can't wait for the second season!

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Beautiful!!!

I've seen multiple BL's recently and this one has taken a special place in my heart. Reasons why I love this show so much:
1. It's not your usual university/school story line
2. It's a story about self-growth and this drama shows us how much the main character 'Tian' grows throughout the whole story.
3. Does not contain non-consentual scenes (has mutual respect and it's frankly adorable)
4. Shows that a BL drama doesn't have to have sexual scenes in order to make a beautiful story.
5. No jealous ex, crazy fangirls or homophobia.
6. The acting was really good with both the characters (even though it's Mix's first time acting).
7. The whole story doesn't just revolve around romance. It's about self-growth, forgiveness and a learning journey.
To me this show was PERFECT! And I would definitely rewatch it again.

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Intriguing but slow and boring

I waited every week eagerly for a new episode of My Liberation Notes and I watched it till very end...The characters were definitely intriguing and unique and were played really well by the actors especially Lee Min Ki and Lee El. Btw Lee Min Ki's character had one of the best character arcs I've seen in kdramas. And that's a win for the writer to create such interesting and realistic characters. Yet overall I found the show to be boring and slow and pretentious at times. MLN has been compared a lot to My Mister, the writer's other show and My Mister was a slower show too, but it was sharper and more engaging. I actually thought some episodes were more similar to Be Melo, in the way the characters talked and random situations occurred. The other common thing with My Mister is that MLN teases the audience when it comes to the romantic relationships. In My Mister there was the age gap issue but here I'm not sure why the director and writer choose to stay away from any romantic scenes. How I think about it is don't show all this tension between the actors if it's not ending up in anything and it also seemed very unnatural and stark for them to have feelings for each other but hardly show any intimacy on screen.
The dialogues though random are well written and thoughtful. But the show overall is very dialogue heavy which can be a disadvantage for non-Korean speakers, but I enjoyed that part to some extent. MLN was going for something interesting but the writer doesn’t do as good of a job to tie things together and make it engaging enough. You may like the show if you like deep philosophical conversations and if you're an introvert you may relate to the FL atleast in the first few episodes. But the show leaves with too many loose ends and the reveals or mystery the show builds on and creates anticipation on are not as interesting in the end.

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Promising Start that lead to a disaster

THINGS I LIKE
(+) Strong starting hook
(+) Relatively strong to decent acting
(+) Diverse and inclusive cast
(+) Plot is somewhat inspiring
(+) 1-2 memorable OSTs

THING I DIDN'T LIKE
(-) Story quality decreases half way through
(-) Unnatural and misplaced romance throughout
(-) Flat antagonists that becomes more illogical as the plot progress
(-) Major plot scenes felt forced
(-) the main character Park SaeRoYi only accomplish his goals through luck

REVIEW
The opening episodes did an exceptional job to draw you in with a very unjust conflict that reliably foreshadowed the themes of revenge. The first 3-4 episodes was executed in a very unpredictable manner that was great at making you second guess on where the plot was going and made it effortless to binge watch. However, I can't give the same compliment to the rest of this drama as the scenes begin to drag soon after and this got worse later on.

(Spoilers) By far the biggest issues I have with this drama are the characters and their character development. Firstly, our main protagonist Park SaeRoYi really wasn't all that intelligent as a businessman. Had he not luckily got YiSeo to fall in love with him, he would have not even come close to his success in the end as he did. In fact, both of the women that loved him were far more competent than he was. It only took a numerous amount of second chances where he'd almost completely run his company to the ground due to his stubbornness before he was able to learn from his mistakes. And technically, Soo Ah was actually the one who destroyed Jangga, not SaeRoYi. Secondly, I also just cannot relate to YiSeo's character. It made no sense to me that she would love SaeRoYi so much just after learning about his past whereas before she was a girl who did not give a f*** about anything. Her character is quite controversial among all the reviews I've seen - people either find her creepy and overly obsessive or admire her dedication. Either way, her character as a whole is just a huge stretch especially if you consider how little she knew of Park SaeRoYi before deciding to dedicate her entire life around him. I also want to comment on HyunYi (the chef of DanBam). She came from a background with zero education and experience of cooking and somehow she is able to be beat Jangga just by some trial and error style learning with YiSeo's taste-testing? Like, I wish the world was that easy. The last comment I want to make are for the villains - both Jang Geun Won (the son) and Jang Dae Hee (father)'s character just feel really flat and one-directional. The son being reckless is something I can see but Dae Hee is the CEO of a massive corporation. Yet, his way of thinking is just way too immature for anyone close to being as successful as he is supposed to be.

Overall, I think this drama had good ideas and meaningful intentions but tried way too hard to make a grand finale for this story resulting in poor and disconnected execution.

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Watching this, I was angry at almost everyone in it!

What I liked:
1)The actors playing the younger Ri Hwan and Haeng Ah. Their story lines were interesting, and they did a good job. Episode 11 was good, we got to see the leads as their younger selves.
2)I suppose all of the actors did a good job with what they had to work with. It wasn't the actors themselves, but the characters that I had a hard time with.
3)Episode 15. Nice tie up and it would have been a good ending here.
Things that made me want to scream:
Let's start with the characters.
1) Ri Hwan appears to have cared for Haeng Ah forever. He was always there to pick up the pieces when her life fell apart, but never put himself out there. Then there's the fact that he was TOO nice. There was a girl that liked him (why?), she was basically a stalker, she knew that he liked someone else, but he kept meeting her and then he apologized to her?!?!
2) Haeng Ah - puts up with (and lives with) a man that completely ignores her, shows no emotion toward her, and can't even really have any kind of a deep conversation with her. She decides that she's had enough, breaks up with him, yet keeps meeting with him. Apparently, I was so irritated I started micro-watching, because her rings were driving me up the wall. Why do you need one on every finger?
3) Seok Joon - aforementioned boyfriend of Haeng Ah. This character had no personality at all. Completely flat affect throughout the entire drama, until one slight movement toward a grin in the last episode. She breaks up with him, he knows why, you know he has no intention of changing, yet still keeps coming around. Stalker much? Watching him was creepy and depressing.
4) Ye Seul - the girl that likes Ri Hwan. Again, this character had no emotion, other than depression, throughout the entire show. She even says that people "say I'm like misery". True words. She knows he doesn't like her, that he likes someone else, yet uses emotional blackmail to be with him "I'll get the best care for your mom if you'll be with me."
5) Haeng Ah's mother - she was terrible at the beginning of the story line wanted us to feel bad for her, but in some ways, it was too little, too late.
Those were my main issues. Then, you add to the fact that there were entirely too many story lines going on. Multiple couples, used-to-be couples, almost couples. Not enough time was spent developing a really good story for any of them.
Story:
At about episode 5, Haen Ah and Ri Hwan finally admit their feeling for each other. But by episode 7 she is waffling. They break up in episode 8 and there is abject misery all around until the very end of episode 13. The reasons for the breakups are weak, and there are numerous opportunities for the 2ML and 2FL to try to inveigle their way into the leads' hearts/lives. It was so irritating and unnecessary. I really disliked both second leads, and the fact that the leads kept meeting up with them made me dislike the leads as well. So, the leads were actually apart more than they were together, and I didn't feel chemistry between any of the characters. Episode 16 was just filler.
Music:
There was some song that was repeated multiple times and the beginning of it sounds like Jingle Bells, which totally took me out of the story.

I know that a lot of people really liked this drama, lauding it as having an Indie feel about it. In layman's terms, that just means that the story was slow. Which isn't a bad thing in itself, provided the drama is well-written and that you like and root for the characters. I was just counting down the episodes until I could be finished.

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Strong plot and cast let it stand on its own, even if you haven't seen "Kiss Me Again"

NO-SPOILER REVIEW

This series is a spin off that focuses on two characters that were first introduced in other titles in the "Kiss" series. I did not watch Kiss or Kiss Me Again before watching Dark Blue Kiss because I heard they weren't necessary, and I now regret that decision. It is possible to jump straight into Dark Blue Kiss and enjoy it for what it is, but take it from me and others that you'll be craving more of these characters and you'll end up wanting to go back and watch anything else featuring them afterward anyway.

Because so many people were watching Kiss Me Again purely for the Pete and Kao BL moments, GMMTV made a three-part series compilation of all of the Pete-Kao scenes on YouTube. While this is disjointed to watch because it cuts out so many other parts, I recommend at least watching this compilation first to get a sense of where this couple came from before starting Dark Blue Kiss.

Pros
- Strong plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat and coming back for more
- Great characters with great chemistry. As this series doesn't focus on how they met, the overall vibe is more mature, but you do get to scratch the blossoming relationship itch with another side couple.

Cons
- The series feels off if you immediately jump in with Dark Blue Kiss itself as you don't get an introduction to any of the characters or their pre-existing histories or relationships.

Overall
- With a strong cast and plot, this series takes you on a wonderfully dramatic ride that lives up to its overly-dramatic opening theme. For the best experience, either watch Kiss Me Again first or at least watch the officially uploaded Kiss Me Again Pete-Kao Scenes compilation to get a better understanding of the journey this couple went through before getting to where they are in Dark Blue Kiss. If you don't, you'll probably end up wanting more and you'll end up going back and watching it all out of order like so many of us did anyway.

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Fantastic start but failed to establish good plots and romantic outcome

Japanese BLs are the home of fluffiness and cuteness since they always put a good execution and approach to playing with these elements. The show offers happy vibes during the first half of the whole episode. Especially seeing the ethereal visuals of the characters. Yanase-senpai is soothingly pleasing to be seen with the mixture of his hotness and kawainess. It is also obvious that the cinematography is nice and clean. They also offer a fresh working professional setting that revolves around the designers in the field of 3D and CG. But…

Unfortunately, the last few episodes are below-average ones with such an uninteresting flow of events. The 1-year gap seems too boring for someone who misses the other person so much. They tried to explain the reason for each character but it is still less than what I expected it to be. Somehow, they wasted the chance to give a much more effective reconciliation of feelings from having been away from each other for a year. Nevertheless, it is still good as it is but as someone who loves the first half, they should do better than this. The ending scene was cute though.

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Excusing the unexcusable

This episode, which relies heavily on flashbacks to preceding episodes of 'TharnType: The Series', does not merely attempt to provide context for Lhong's appalling behavior. It is essentially a bid to render Lhong sympathetic, and his horrible misdeeds, excusable.

It might be plausible for someone suffering from deep loneliness to over-invest in their bond with the one person who has been kind to them, as Lhong does with Tharn. To move from a less-than-healthy attachment to a good friend to the orchestration of a gang rape, blackmail, relationship sabotage, and attempted murder, however, should be too extreme a pivot to elicit pity. And yet eliciting pity is what this "special" tries to do, especially given how it unfolds toward the ending: Lhong's sister comes to learn of his psychological wounds and, completely unaware of the evils that he has done, asks him to forgive her and embraces him.

Kaownah Kittipat does what he can with the character, but Lhong is utterly beyond defense, and at no point do his victims get justice. Why this episode was made at all is beyond me.

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