Reviews

Extremely funny and sweet BL adapted drama that you will enjoy

I started this drama because it is adapted from a BL novel, seems to have a good looking cast and is enjoying some good reviews. And I was not disappointed.

Story: In order to bring peace to the country, the youngest apprentice from the righteous clan Zhao Qing Feng tries to infiltrate the evil clan by getting close to the demon lord Ji Chuan. As Zhao Qing Feng is a bit socially awkward he is learning the steps from his teacher's book "win someone's heart". However, it turns out that Zhao Qing Feng is actually the long lost brother of Ji Chuan and the two men got close.
The whole drama is just extremely cheesy, cute and funny. I almost fell from my chair from laughing after watching episode 1. There are some very sweet scenes between the two main leads - who are by the way both very good looking and have distinguished personalities that are very likable from the start. Although the drama is a comedy, characters don’t always just make fools of themselves - there is a serious plot running through this drama which makes the viewers pounder about the fate of the main leads and also for the supporting characters. Good news for all BL lovers, though there is the female lead A Fu who fell in love with Zhao Qing Feng, this does not disturb the two main leads. There are some slow moments in the middle and a bit of predictable ending, but overall I did enjoy the drama and found story convincing and sweet.

Acting: The characters are just all very loveable from the start to the end. The two main leads, despite having an idol background without professional acting school training, acted very naturally and brought the distinguished two main lead characters to life. Besides the two gorgeous leads also all other supporting roles have done great work. A Fu, played by Su Xiao Tong, is extremely strong and sweet at the same time. Then you have the cute youngster Xiao Lin who is in love with A Fu and therefore acts coquettishly all the time (there is a great scene in the drama between him and A Fu that made me cry); you also have the gorgeous Dr. Yan, played by Song Ji Yang from Untamed, but is extremely jealous of Zhao Qing Feng; you also have the beautiful Yue Qing Qing, who turns into a REAL MAN when she takes off her makeup and the masculine Wei Qi who has a Taiwanese accent. I am sure you will find one or several characters to your taste.

Production: you can see that this is a drama with a low budget: some outdoor sets can look a bit cheap, some of the props and costumes seem to be a bit off, there are not enough extras in some of the scenes; however I would say the drama did use the budget at the right areas: the most important sets (e.g. the bedroom of Ji Chuan, the kitchen, the entrance to the main hall, the main hall itself, etc.) are nicely created; the choice of colors not too bright red and green but just right, the lighting is well toned; I also very much like the fact that they are using the actual voices of the actors (though sometimes the tones are a bit difficult to hear). They add these cat and dog special sounds to the two main leads when they are fighting - this is just hilarious and brilliant.
This drama has a very funny and contagious title song and a very beautiful ending song which however only started to play by the middle of the drama - also some BGM also only started from the middle (did they suddenly have more money in the middle?).
There a few scenes which are almost good to be hung as a poster (e.g. the drunk scene at the lake, the brother scene at the entrance hall, the bamboo forest scene, the night festival scene, the fighting scenes (esp. the last one - which is very well done!). You can see the production really gave a lot of effort in making this drama and they have done this well with the budget they have - unfortunately they ended up not having enough for marketing so not many people know about this.

Summary: This is a funny, light-hearted drama full of sweet scenes and great acting that will make you smile for sure. This BL adaption has not challenged the Chinese censorship this much as Untamed as it is really only a bromance drama but has retained a lot of sugar for all the fans. I hope all future BL adaption will at least be at the level of the Birth of the Drama King.

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A total waste of time

There's a caveat to the title above: if you like stories where nothing is ever explained and nobody's motivations make any sense, you will absoluetely LOVE this series.

First of all, how is getting to live for 400 years as a beautiful 20-something a "curse"? That sounds pretty f@$&ing good to me. So if I witness a murder, I get to be young forever? Sign me up.

In the first episode, a lot of very intriguing plot threads are set up, centering on a mysterious director and his fascination for a new employee at his media firm. By the end of the episode, you're hooked and want more.

It's a trick.

You never find out anything. There's a curse, OK. But who cursed them, why, what the curse is, and how it's lifted are never revealed. Not even slightly. There is never an explanation for why the main pair were cursed. The only thing they did is fall in love with each other. Is the message of the story that God hates homosexuals? Because that's the only motivation you can get out of what we see. What is he purpose of Dennis other than as a plot device in the last episode? What did the director do to him? Why is he so f@$&ed up? Is he part of the curse? Who the f@$& is he?

A lot of the run time of the series has the characters running in circles in a repetitive and formulaic pattern of the uke resisting the seme, and in this case it's inexcusable, as instead of running the same tiresome plot point over and over the story could have been advanced and questions answered.

If felt like the writer came up with an idea, never bothered to flesh it out or think it through, then came up against needing an ending so just pushed the "reset" button, making the entire series totally pointless. The ending made no sense - so if they aren't around each other they'll die, and the only way to lift the curse is to die. OK. Great. If that's not the case, why doesn't Dong Baek get sick when he's away from the diretor after the reset? For that matter, how did Dong Baek get through his entire life before meeting the director without dying? Maybe there's a reason, but we sure as f@$& never get it.

The chemistry between the leads is fairly minimal and the kissing would be too chaste even if the characters were 6 years old. I've seen BLs where there's a meter between the pairs' bodies when they kiss, but the actor playing Dong Baek must have gymnastic experience because he manages TWO meters. This series represents everything that's wrong with KBL. A nonsensical story, way too much time wasted on the uke acting like a twelve-year-old Victorian-era virgin, too many cliches and tropes, bad writing, rubber kisses, and actors who obviously think it's icky to touch each other. (To be fair, that could be the directing.)

This is well-filmed, with shots that support the story - the edit when Dong Baek faints on the set and sees the director but it's actually Dennis is superbly done, and the music has it's moments - but the soundtrack indicating passion is not the same as the actors showing passion.

I liked this series a lot for the first couple of episodes, but unfortunately it devolved into a boring, pointless, lazy mess.

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angsty BL with excellent lead actors/chemistry

Overall: Although I struggled with the angst/flawed characters and especially how the series started, I think it was well done. Make sure to watch past the first credits of the final episode, more like that please! Note: this is a remake/extended version of En of Love: Love Mechanics which aired in 2020 and was about 2 hours runtime, you don't need to watch the shorter version first. Watched on WeTV.

Content Warnings: dub/non con kiss, non con sex (very drunk), briefly held against will, past suicide attempt?, manhandling, homophobia, vomiting, violence/beaten up, punch/slap, domestic violence, victim self blaming

What I Liked
- acting of Yin & War and their chemistry
- cute moments
- funny moments
- for once I didn't hate an ex (Mark's)
- they address wealth differences and homophobia
- production value

Room For Improvement
- very disappointed in the sex scene. In many places being mentally incapacitated means you cannot give consent and clearly Mark was mentally incapacitated as he thought Vee was a different person. Although we see 3 beer bottles in the garbage, Vee does not appear to be at an equal level of drunkenness. I don't care at all that Mark was the initial aggressor, Vee should not have had sex with Mark. I would say this was non con no matter what sexual position Mark was. If they wanted to go the drunk sex route then Vee should have also been totally wasted and saying that Mark was his girlfriend and both been freaked out in the morning. (this would also make me hate Vee less as he just casually cheated on his girlfriend)
- hearing vomiting sounds is not my ideal way to start a series
- Vee said something in episode 6 to Mark that I think would end many relationships, sometimes apologies are not enough
- cliche plot point in episode 7
- Vee has some bad friends, they should have at least talked to him to hear his side
- poor communication
- side couples starting out in the final episode
- lack of intro credits/OST and basic closing credits

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expected more (watch suggestions)

Overall: I normally really enjoy Strongberry productions because they focus on the couple, have good kissing and are well paced. Unfortunately, this series only did 1 of the 3 well. 6 episodes about 20 minutes each (there are actor interviews after the end credits). Aired on GagaOOLala & iQIYI country dependent. Later re-aired on their YouTube channel (might need channel membership) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNd7BhdAz80pqSuyHCPnq26n4IKrlXR6f

Watch Suggestions (if you want to avoid a love rival and slow pacing)
- episode 2 watch 15-16:20
- episode 3 watch the beginning to 3:50 then 16:30 to the end
- episode 4 watch the beginning to 1 minute (or could skip)
- skip episode 5
- watch episode 6 from 6:30-19:15 and then watch the beginning to 4 minutes to avoid a cliffhanger ending

What I Liked
- easy to understand premise
- visuals
- good kissing/ongoing physical affection

Room For Improvement
- presence of a love rival and too much screen time focused on it
- pacing, almost all of episode 5 was moping
- cliche miscommunication/refuse to communicate
- why did the 1 character like the other so much/aggressively pursue him? I'm not a fan of the childhood rescue trope but at least that would explain it
- comparing m/m romance to biological relative romance was odd
- cliffhanger/non ending
- the comedy sound effects did not make things funny
- explaining things briefly instead of showing them (ie why the guy was worried about a romantic relationship)
- I realize they didn't have much of a budget but setting it on campus and having zero extras took me out of the story, they could have removed the love rival and the professor and paid some extras instead

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This drama has left a big impact on me.
The storyline was well written and beautifuly interpreted. As it is based on an old Korean folk story, it started to interest me even more, beacause those kind of stories I love the most.

Actors were amazing; every one of them so alive in their roles. The three main actors did especially good job, because you could just immerse yourself in their acting, and enjoy the whole time.

Music was beautiful, and appropriate for the plot. I immediately downloaded the OST and am stuck with it, repeating it over and over again.
The funny thing is, when you watch a lot of historical dramas, you can hear that there are some melodies that repeat but are changed a bit, so you can reminiscence on other dramas too.

All in all, I give the Ballad of Seo Dong/Seo Dong Yo, a pure 10/10, because I will definitely watch it again some day, and enjoy in it like I am watching it for the first time.

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Paradise Kiss had been in my to-watch list for quite some time and it was a good movie. I have not seen the anime or anything so just as a movie, it was a good watch. I have a thing for chick flicks and this movie is just that.

With quite a simple story and even simpler characters, it was delightful to watch. This is another no-brainer, but a nice one nonetheless. I am not fond of anime humour getting injected in every Japanese film or drama, so this one was good for a change in that aspect. The actors were good and I really liked the chemistry between the two leads. Also, this movie lives upto its name 'Paradise Kiss'. It has a couple of kissing scenes which were the best I have seen in anything Japanese so far.

The film primarily focuses on fashion, so the clothes were great in this one. While it drags out longer than required, it is a relaxing movie. Just grab a bowl of popcorn and watch it when you're bored. It will surely provide you with good humour and some cute romantic moments.

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While my sis, her friend and I were waiting for the ppl coming out of the cinema salon we were shocked as how many actually came out with puffy eyes.

I personally had absolutely no expectations for the movie, but the puffy eyes frightened me as I am built near the water. However, every tear was worth it.

The story was appealing to me, because at the time of the Korean War my mother’s uncle was one of the Turkish soldiers, he returned wounded and died leaving a few weeks old daughter behind right upon return. So the story being a true story gives the whole movie an extra notch of authenticity.

The movie shows war in a more human way, not only it’s kill or be killed side. It was told in a way that everyone could see sth from themselves in the story. The Marylin Monroe sequence got me all emotional.
Usually I hate the main actor, but he did such a splendid work in this movie. Also all the other actors, especially the lil girl did a great work.

The OST was really suitable for the movie and fit the emotions. After I came out of the cinema I thought I wouldn’t watch it again, but I think I was wrong as I just watched it on TV 2 days ago.

As a side not, I was at the scene were Süleyman is at the train station, but of course waiting in my train. Every weekday I get through the train station and a few Turkish drama and movie scenes have been filmed at that historic station, so I wasn’t interested in the filming at the time. But in the cinema I remembered the green truck in the background.

Try the movie if you can find it with subs you won’t regret it.

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Everyone is responsible for the Result of their own actions and decisions.

The main question presented in the series is, Should one support lesser evil to achieve greater good?

This series is adapted from the Dutch author Robert van Gulik’s novel of the same name. However in my opinion it is loosely based rather than adapted as the original stories are changed quite a lot. Youku gives a disclaimer in the beginning of each episode, "It is a work of fiction. Any resemblance (to real historical figures) is purely coincidental". Judge Dee (also known as Ti Jen-chieh or Di Renjie), the hero of Robert van Gulik’s 'Judge Dee' mystery series, is purportedly based on the historical Di Renjie (630–700), chancellor of Empress Wu Zetian during the Tang Dynasty, who earlier in his career served as a district magistrate.

This series includes a total of 9 cases solved by Judge Di Renjie. Each case is resolved within the span of around 3 to 4 episodes. In the beginning of the series, Di Renjie( Zhou Yi Wei) is portrayed as a disillusioned person, uninterested in joining the court. Without a doubt, he is a brilliant person having forward thoughts, suitable to help shape a dynasty. On the other hand Empress Wu Zetian (Zhong Chu Xi) is Introducing many 'new' reforms in the country benefitting the common people. However she is facing massive opposition from the majority of courtiers who believe a woman should not be given too much authority.

Empress Wu Zetian is impressed by Di Renjie but she thinks he needs more experience before he can be of any help to her. So after passing the imperial examination, Di Renjie is appointed as a magistrate of Penglai county, a remote frontier. At the end of the 4th episode Di Renjie appoints Hong Liang (You Yong) as his inspector, Ma Rong (Zi Ling) and Qiao Tai(Ji Ta) as his attendants. This ragtag group goes to the Penglai county to start their journey. In Penglai county Di Renjie meets Cao An (Wang Li Kun) who becomes Do Renjie's confidant and lover, becoming a soundboard for Di Renjie's inner thoughts and conflicts. Throughout the series the Empress Wu transfers Di Renjie to different places where he encounters different problems, faces varied situations and resolves the plight of local people. Empress Wu wants Di Renjie to gain experience so that later he could serve as her advisor in the court.

Di Renjie is warned by Grand Secretariat Wei Wuji - "you think all the new is good and right. But the 'new' means changes, chaos, severed heads and bloodshed and saber rattling and fight. "

Di Renjie is of the opinion, "A reform means replacing the old with the new. We should examine it's purpose and means. Now, new policies have been enacted. The new laws benefited the people, allowing them to live in peace."

In ancient China, a judge's role was that of a father figure in the society. He was a link between the rulers and the common people. Di Renjie proves to be an exemplary judge because besides his great observational skill, deduction ability, attention to detail and lightning fast reflexes, he also has compassion for people and a strong drive to uncover the truth while serving justice. Even when presented with bizarre cases, he finds a rational explanation. He disbelieves in coincidence and fate and is convinced that everything is planned, dictated by logic.

There are three story arcs to the series, the major arc is the change in the system due to Empress Wu's reforms and its implications faced by officials as well as Di Renjie gaining experience in order to later aid Empress Wu in court politics. The second arc is to discover Di Renjie's father's past, to understand what circumstances led him to commit suicide. Somehow Cao An and Heiyan are connected to his father's past. The third arc consists of all the short cases that Di Renjie solves.

I feel that somehow the method of solving the cases in the beginning didn't allow room for the audiences' deductions because only after Judge Di reaches a conclusion, the audience become aware of the importance of the clue. Hence the audience becomes mere spectators to the brilliance of Di Renjie and not active participants in the case solving. The later cases were quite simple as they were mere means to drive the story of Emotions VERSUS Law forward (greed, anger, ignorance, dislike, love, desire, hatred). To be a good judge, it is a prerequisite to be sagacious and impartial in upholding law, irrespective of the people involved. This becomes the underlying theme in later part of the cases.

Special attention is paid to details in the Script in order to recreate the culture, customs and traditions of ancient China. The lavish sets gives a feeling of grandiose. Detailed ornate costumes provides authenticity to the characters. The colour grading gives more cinematic aesthetics, the series is suited to be watched on the big screen to truly appreciate the picturisation. Cinematography is fantastic, comparable to any high budget cinema work. Breathtaking visuals of locations accompanied by strategic upbeat background music during key moments transports the viewers to the era of splendour. I feel a resemblance of the opening score and background score to the sound track of the movie 'Dune'. The intensity and tempo are a little different but the same kind of instrumental score accompanied by similar vocal is included in this series. Especially when the background music is played during strategic points of the case, it gives a hair raising subliminal effect.

The icing on the cake is the stellar Main Cast at the helm of the project. The series has also managed to rope in some popular as well as veteran actors for the Support Cast. All the actors perform their roles zealously making it possible for the viewers to experience the splendor of the era.


Overall: It is a good series, it is like a gourmet meal to be savoured slowly because there are lots of subtle dialogues, the whodunit is not as important as experiencing the culture of the period. Those looking for quick gratification and thrill of case solving may find it a little slow paced.





I have compiled notes on Detective Dee, Dutch author Robert Van Gulik, Empress Wu Zetian. I have also written summary of each cases in the discussion section of the drama page. Don't forget to read it for more information and details of this series.

Leaving links below for the notes.

1. Basic information
https://mydramalist.com/discussions/judge-dees-mystery/122837-basic-information-about-the-cases-and-judge-dee?pid=2949011&page=1#p2949011

2. All Nine case summaries, starting from case 1.
https://mydramalist.com/discussions/judge-dees-mystery/122837-basic-information-about-the-cases-and-judge-dee?pid=2957009&page=1#p2957009

I will also leave Clickable links of the above mentioned discussion section as a comment to this review.

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Ok, so this isn't the best drama, but I just had to watch it for So Ji Sub. This drama is a time travel story where a Princess from historical Korea era travels through time to 2003. It is pretty interesting concept and somewhat different than the time travel dramas that have been currently airing.

Sung Yu Ri plays the Princess and I think she does a pretty good job of portraying a time traveler. She did as well as the boys from Rooftop Prince. So Ji Sub plays a general in the historical part and a fashion designer in 2003. He is the love interest in both time periods. I just love him and I think he did a good job acting even back then. Kim Nam Jin took me by surprise. He plays a general that is the enemy of the Princess in historical times and the heir of the lead Japanese family in 2003, Fujiwara Tatsuji. Why hasn't this guy done anything since 2008??? I thought he was good for his debut drama. I wish he was still acting.

The music is ok.

I probably won't rewatch it.

It is an older drama, so the sets and production is a little lacking, but I think that it is an interesting drama to watch.

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One of the best sports drama there is!

I was just scrolling in MDL airing calendar and saw this. I just picked it up because beacuse its was long since I had watched a nice sports drama. I didn't expect to enjoy it as the leads were not familiar to me. (I had only seen Wang An Yu in Go Go Squid 2 and The Heiress.) But, when I finished 3-4 episodes, I realised that I was just hooked. If you are looking for a sweet fluffy romance drama or a nice sports drama or a combination of both, To Fly With You is one of them.

Story : 9 stars
The story was nice. It had the right amount of sports and romance. This story also shows the hardships and challenges faced by athletes. During the whole drama, there wasn't even a dull moment that made me bored.

Acting/Cast: 9.5 stars
Though I wasn't much familiar with the cast, in the first episode itself I found that I was watching a drama with amazing actors ans actresses. The chemistry between the leads seemed so natural that I thought if they were really in a relation haha..
The side characters were also nice which made the drama more lively.

Music: 8.5 stars
There wasn't much music in the drama. But I like the starting theme and the ending song.

Rewatch value: 9 stars
I don't usually rewatch dramas even if its my favourite. I don't have time to reawtch any dramas at the moment. But, If I will rewatch some dramas at any point of time, this will surely be one of them!

Overall: 8.5 stars
One of the must watch sports C-drama. This drama has everything a light-hearted drama should have: romance, comedy, sports and youth

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Soldier vs. RoboCop

Story:
The Good -
The military aspect of this drama was interesting especially in the way they showcased how the military advanced through the years. The technological advancement being the most intriguing while the training portion was appropriate as well. Generally, I think the hierarchy and the flaws they showcased about the military with their higher ups and how it could impact soldiers really gave great insight to how things were ran. That maybe it isn't as perfect as it seemed but as time progressed those issues were slowly getting resolved to maybe make it harder to accomplish but not completely absent.

My favorite part of the story had to be Gu Yiye’s story arc. I felt he was very consistent with the way they wrote him – he started off being this proud, arrogant, and smart soldier and they continued to sort of write him that way but slowly try to evolve him but kept his original characteristics. Gu Yiye embodied the ideal soldier where he thrives to work towards a goal but combat and grief alters his plans and provides him other opportunities to continue to sacrifice not just for his country but also for his fallen brothers who he trained alongside. His story really made u feel sympathetic towards his choices and wanted to root for his happiness along the way and just wanted him to succeed.

The Bad –
The romance portion of this drama really dragged the plot of this story down in my opinion. It felt as if they removed the avoidable love triangle, they could have saved the main character Gao Liang from being so annoying in the beginning. The main character, Gao Liang, being the other main issue that I had with this drama. He was written very inconsistent with 1 moment he is this typical soldier that is a strong fighter to just out of nowhere being super smart AND a strong solder. It seemed like they didn’t know how to make him great and just constantly kept on adding on to him to make him seem more perfect without ever trying to really evolve him. In a way, I feel the screenwriter was trying really hard to make him into a Goku character, from Dragon Ball Z, but failed miserably along the way. U know the typical comical, strong character that his friends love and constantly root for. But the screenwriter just sort of dragged it out where it just felt forced rather than organic with the way Goku was written. Overall, I just feel his character was very flawed, writing wise, and just inconsistent with who he was from his actions in the previous episodes to how he was towards the middle. Just felt like 2 completely different people that showed no signs of how one got to the other.

Acting:
This is probably the main reason why I continued to watch this drama. I felt the acting that Xiao Zhan, who played Gu Yiye, was just breathtaking. He really was able to portray his character in a perfect manner where it seemed like he was that character. While watching, I constantly kept feeling that he showed signs of being a method actor where he completely immersed himself into his character and brought out those emotions that Gu Yiye would be feeling at that exact moment. The way he showed signs of aging by simply changing parts of his face and not just relying on makeup to make him look older – just amazing. Just the overall performance by Xiao Zhan was brilliant. The other actors also did a remarkable job with their roles and being able to bring those characters to life even with the certain flaws the plot had. I think a lot of the supporting cast such as A Xiu, Niu Mancang, Zhang Fei, Chunyu, and of course Hu Yang did an absolutely amazing job with their characters and really made me invest myself into them and wanting to know what became of them.

Music:
The OSTs were absolutely amazing. Both the beginning and ending songs that were sung by Johnny Huang and Xiao Zhan, respectively, were just beautiful and were able to enhance the plot and give the appropriate emotion for the type of drama it is.

Rewatch Value:
Overall, yes, I would rewatch because I felt there are some scenes that were just done stunningly; especially episodes 18 – 21 when the war had occurred. I even enjoyed parts of the training portion in the beginning episodes. But some parts I would just fast forward since I was not a huge fan of the overexaggerated compliments a certain character was getting and just inconsistencies.

To sum it up, I think this drama is quite good for a military drama and allowed a lot of room for discussion which I feel is the main task for a lot of shows/movies. To allow people to discuss and see what they like or dislike about something just so it could be engaging amongst the audience.

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