This review may contain spoilers
a saga of delayed justice and shattered innocence
There are crime dramas that want to uncover who the killer is.And then there are dramas that understand that was never the most important part of the story.
This one belongs entirely to the second group.
Inspired by the real Hwaseong murders, the series uses a criminal investigation to talk about guilt, abuse of power, and the lives destroyed when a system chooses to protect itself before protecting innocent people.
The result is a dark, emotionally exhausting thriller that’s impossible to forget.
At first, it seems to follow a familiar structure:
a veteran detective, an ambitious prosecutor, and a serial murder case that comes back to haunt everyone decades later.
But it quickly becomes clear that the focus was never just about finding the culprit.
The story follows Tae joo, an investigator still trapped by the mistakes of the past as he revisits a case that ruined countless lives. Alongside him is Si young, a prosecutor willing to sacrifice anything to achieve results.What makes it interesting is that neither of them becomes a hero or a villain. Both carry guilt, frustration, and an almost desperate need to justify their own choices.
And that makes everything even heavier.
Much like Memories of Murder, the series is inspired by the Hwaseong murders that took place between 1986 and 1991.
For decades, the case became a symbol of police failure in South Korea. The real criminal was only identified in 2019, and before that, an innocent man spent years in prison after being tortured into confessing to a crime he never committed.
That tragedy becomes the emotional foundation of the entire story.
Because the drama has no interest in turning the killer into a fascinating figure. The focus is on the victims, the families, and the people destroyed by the investigation itself.Comparisons to Memories of Murder are inevitable, but the two works follow very different paths.
Bong Joon ho’s film was created while the case was still unsolved. There’s a constant feeling of helplessness and emptiness throughout it.
This story, however, takes place after the real killer has already been identified.
So the mystery stops being “who did this?” and becomes:
“How many lives were destroyed before the truth finally came out?”
The narrative trades suspense for guilt. Curiosity for pain. And it works incredibly well because of that.
⏩ Park Hae soo delivers an outstanding performance as Tae joo.
The character feels emotionally broken at all times, like someone carrying decades of regret without ever being able to move forward. It’s a quiet performance, but incredibly intense in its smallest details.
⏩ Lee Hee joon is also excellent as Cha Si young. The character could have easily become just “the corrupt politician,” but the actor portrays something far more disturbing: a man who genuinely believes the ends justify any means.
⏩ Kwak Sun young serves as the moral conscience of the story, constantly pushing the characters toward questions no one wants to answer.
The most terrifying aspect is realizing that the injustice is never treated as a simple accident.
The police wanted quick answers. The higher ups wanted stability. The media wanted someone to blame. And someone had to pay the price.
The innocent man who was imprisoned doesn’t feel like an isolated mistake. He feels like the inevitable consequence of an entire system functioning exactly the way it was designed to.
The structure jumping between 1988 and 2019 reinforces this idea constantly: the past never truly disappears. It survives through guilt, trauma, and silence.
Park Joon woo’s direction contributes enormously to the atmosphere.
Everything feels cold, exhausted, and uncomfortable. Even simple scenes carry a constant tension.
There’s also an interesting contrast between the two timelines:
1988 feels chaotic and suffocating. 2019 feels quiet, but haunted.
As if no one ever truly managed to move on.
This is not an easy drama to watch.
It’s slow at times, emotionally heavy, and completely uninterested in offering comfort to the audience.
But that’s exactly why it works so well.More than a crime thriller, the series is about collective guilt, institutional violence, and the human cost of turning justice into spectacle.
And when it ends, the feeling it leaves behind isn’t satisfaction.
It’s emptiness.
Fun fact: during the real investigation, the police placed scarecrows at the crime scenes with notes threatening the killer if he didn’t turn himself in. He never did. The scarecrows rotted away. The case remained unsolved for thirty years.
Was this review helpful to you?
The story is somewhat slow but everything is expertly tied together with great acting by the three leads & is worth watching for the stylish cinematography alone.
Warning: BL/Gay themes. Some nudity.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Funny and interesting.._
This drama may seem to be simple at the beginning, very funny, romance, arrange marriage,political..etc.. so it would seem boring and light BUT then as you you GO ON and KEEP on watching you'll find out the things that this DRAMA wants to CONVEY to the viewers, this is one of the dramas that its not merely for entertainment but also to disseminate information and message to the world or all viewers..This drama tackles the different problems that we are encountering not only on our community but all around the world as it represents this nine regions on the drama..
If you’re a woman I think that you might want to check this out because there are a lot of women characters ...One of its major topic is about showcasing women's rights, worth, and capablility... and thus also lead to the equality between men and women.. Another topics are maintaining the peace and order of every region aswell as UNITY..
I recommend this drama lot, its very Wonderful, they say that its boring but I say this drama is so interesting and funny maybe depends on your palate or preference when it comes to drama...
About the Romance this is not much of a full blown romance but a slowly progressing and burning romance that makes it even more sweeter, also this includes a lot of couples as well that are cute and funny to watch..
Likes:
□It is not centered about only one topic and person.
□First half is funny and fun.
□Has a lot of interesting stuffs on it…
□Gender Equality
□Every character is great
□I think this is one of the high budget dramas since the costumes are very pretty, and they used a lot of the palaces that we have already seen on the other Chinese Historical Dramas
□
□□□□Ending: Very much a Happy Ending!!
Was this review helpful to you?
Quite unique but seemed incomplete
I am damn sure that i watched all 16 episodes but it seems like i missed out on few episodes, they jump from one scene to the another during the end of each episode and give us a fuller version of it in the next episode but somehow for me , it was confusing , that probably led to this 7.5 . Had they maintained the same quality as the first half this would have been a 9 without a doubt.What i loved about this?
This is not one of those dramas that focuses on only the main couple, i loved how each charactee had their own importance and behind story. I was looking forward to knowing more about each of them and absolutely enjoyed every minute of it.
I loved how they were aware of their situation and dealt with it with dignity, in the end they embraced their insecurities and learnt how to be happy
I fell for Chang Hee, though he is often seen being frustrated and keeps venting out his anger but whatever he spoke , he stated Facts . I loved how he dint hold back when ever he was angry and upset and blurted eveything out loudly and very fast. I bet it would have still been difficult for me to understand his dialogues had i known korean. He became one of my favorite kdrama characters and i also am satisfied with how things ended with him.
The three sibling bond is well written, though we see them fighting and glaring at each other often, i could see through each of them , how they cared for each other and how strong their bond was.
They say it is "liberation notes" definetly i see liberation here but only 40%. Would have been great had they ended Mr Gu's character with more certainity . For me he was a mystery in the beggining and remained a mystery even in the end
Was this review helpful to you?
Beware of Diabetes
If you are looking for a light-hearted. sweet drama with cute couples, To Fly With You is the one for you!!To Fly With You main premise revolves around ice sports (figure skating, short track speed skating) and romance. But, it is indeed more to the romance and growing with each other. So, it is not a must for you to understand the ice sports industry, because while watching it, the drama itself also touch on it a little bit.
Produced by Linmon Pictures, I expect every production aspect of this drama to be amazing because Linmon Pictures had produced dramas with amazing production aspects, especially cinematography, such as Ancient Love Poetry, Nothing but Thirty, and more. But to my surprise, the whole production of To Fly With You from the cinematography, colour grading, sound effects differs from their usual style, and I am torn between of liking it or disliking it.
To Fly With You has the same exact cinematography as any other rom-com drama. But what probably makes To Fly With You stand out from other rom-com dramas is its comedic shots. The drama has some shots purposely intended for comedic elements, for instance, the shot where Shao Beisheng shoe was torn. In addition, the drama also adds other comedic elements such as witty lines and particularly sound effects. The sound effect used in the drama is.. difficult to comprehend. The sound effect does indeed go well with the whole drama and its comedic element but the sound effect alone is making me feel like I am watching a sitcom, particularly there's this one sound effect that sounds like a SpongeBob sound effect (not that I hate it).
Wang Anyu acted as Shao Beisheng, a talented and genius ice figure skater. Meanwhile, Song Zuer acted as Shen Zhengyi, a newbie to the world of professional short track speed skating. Both leads have an affable charm, cute and natural chemistry. If there's an award for the couple with the best chemistry this year, it would definitely go to Wang Anyu and Song Zuer. Their chemistry on and off-screen is just impeccable. You can just see the sparks they have in their eyes while looking at each other (please be together and get married).
What I especially love about the drama is that their chemistry and how their relationship progress, it is very realistic. The scriptwriter doesn't make Zhengyi fall in love with Beisheng right away just because he is a handsome guy. But there is a process in between them falling in love - both of them listens to each other, understand each other and gradually fall in love. In addition, the characters in the drama are also very realistic. Unlike other drama male lead, Shao Beisheng is a rather more realistic character to me. For instance, you can see how happy he is when he received his shoes and how sad he is when his shoes was torn.
Overall, To Fly With You may not be groundbreaking, but the drama will totally make you blush and gush and want for more.
P.s. do watch the drama's behind the scene, there are a lot more sugar on it!!
Was this review helpful to you?
On to the story. I gave this drama a higher score, because I like the premise. Genius teenage girl saves Mafia boss that falls in love with her. Besides the huge age difference of a grown man falling in love with a teenager, I thought that was cool. Even the main female lead character was annoying, because she was down on her looks and herself too much at times. The story has some great plot twists. The problem of the story line is that Stockholm syndrome is in abundance on this show. Another problem is that you have to get around the low budget scenes and the weak action scenes.
The acting is just...I don't know...over the top at times or stiff as a board. There is no natural ability that pulled me into a character. I felt like I was watching a drama rather than getting sucked in to the point that I forget it is a drama. The only person to write about is Mint Chalida as Ruthainark. She is really cute and her acting is good. I'm not even going to go into the other actors. None of them were good in this.
The music is fine.
I won't ever rewatch this.
I don't recommend this drama to anyone. I would have given the drama a 1, but I liked the story line and the girl.
Was this review helpful to you?
Im usually a fan of short series and to others, four episodes (er, actually more like three and a half) can be more than enough to tell a full narrative arc. However, this is clearly the show's weakness. There wasnt enough time for real character development and by the end of the series I wasnt really sure if the two leads are actually really inlove. Instead of getting to the point, the show is filled with too many useless fillers. After only 3 episodes they even have the audacity to show us that shi**y recap montage perfect with those rotating blue stars. Wait did i say shI**y? I meant shiny.
This is exactly how i felt when watching the director's "Make it Right" Series. He has a tendency of adding too many scenes and secondary characters that actually do nothing but waste our time.
Its such a shame because for the most part, they got a gem with their two lead cast - War and Yin are almost good and both are very HOT and charming.
Pacing could have been snappier but instead we got a collage of scenes that jump from one to another without letting us digest them. It felt like important details were left out. If only they used their time wiser, we couldve figured things out better. I think the makers forgot that not all viewers are readers of the book.
They intentionally diluted a strong sadistic affair and made it a forgettable tiny puppy love. I have to give them props for twisting and romanticizing an unsolicited sex predatorship and turning it to sunny yet full of rainbows love story. And for adding a girl character just to make her the villain, because yes, this is a BL and all girls are enemies. Yes, im being sarcastic.
Is it a good watch? Yes, if only for the eye candies. Dont put this in your priority though, just watch it when your flight is delayed for two and a half hours and youre stuck in the airport. They missed the opportunity of making this a meaningful watch.
Edit: A full blown series is coming our way soon, and i cant deny Im excited. They may finally be able to give justice to the story.
Was this review helpful to you?
An Exquisite Xianxia That You Shouldn't Miss!
When I initially came upon Ancient Love Poetry, it was being slammed from all sides, but I still decided to watch it for some reason.Now, 49 episodes later, it has blown my expectations and is perhaps one of the best dramas out there in my list. The unique storyline, outstanding performances by the entire cast, numerous lovable characters, villains that make your blood boil, suspenses that leave you worried along with numerous tales of sincerity and undying love completely bewitched me. I'm so glad that I didn't pay heed to all the negative reviews and kept going. Bear with me, my review will be long and I have tried covering a few points that might put off many viewers and the things I loved about this drama. I hope that it convinces you to give it a chance:
1. Don't be fooled by the bland beginning. Ancient Love Poetry has one of the most unique storylines I've seen. And they did not kid around with the title "Ancient God". The story takes place waaay before the existence of humans. In the God Realm - where our lazy female lead, Shangu, is forcefully pushed to master the Power of Chaos in a race against time to stop the Tribulation of Chaos and also protect the Three Realms as the power that protects it begin to dissipate, something which only she had the ability to permanently solve. Her master happens to be Bai Jue, one of the True Gods, who is rather cold and strict towards her, but slowly warms upto her rather humble nature, eventually falling deeply for her. Her hardwork pays off, but the tribulation turns out to be her ultimate test which no one is able to stop. But, destiny has more in store for her....
The story is also the most strongest point of Ancient Love Poetry. It delves away from the Heavenly Realm, focussing on the life of the Ancient Gods, the most powerful beings across all Realms, which was a first for me. The events and mysteries unravel in a rather ominous and nerve wracking manner. I paused an episode and decided to spoil myself as I couldn't handle anymore surprises that were often accompanied by painful experiences. The plot purposefully takes a drastic turn after a certain point, but it did not feel disconnected and maintained the right flow. The chronological way of narration is done right in Ancient Love Poetry - it might have been shot that way to avoid unnecessary flashbacks to the past and helps us connect with their present selves better.
[The author of the novel, Xing Ling herself was involved as a screen writer. While the story does deviate from the original work at times, it stays true to the novel for several major plot points. And the script is well plotted despite having some issues at the beginning, but that was necessary for the plot.]
2. The timeline - is a MAJOR factor that no one probably notices. A single episode may consist of several days or even months, hence the romance is pretty fast paced. Right from EP1, it's implied that several days/weeks had passed. Three months and 1000 years, all pass within two episodes. Shangu's training might have taken months or years, but we see glimpses of it. This might be off putting for many, but I personally was not bothered by it. The actors played the roles really well and nothing felt rushes.
3. The characters, particularly the leads and even the supporting ones are the pillars of the whole story. Get ready for an emotional rollercoaster.
The Female lead is very unlike the ones we usually see - she is not stunningly pretty or the typical Goddess type. While she might not be everyone's cup of tea, I think she is beautiful and was the smartest choice out of the cast to be chosen to portray the young, innocent Shangu who grew up to become someone who was wise enough to hold the title of the "Chief God". I had begun watching ALP for the lead - Zhou Dong Yu is well known for her acting skills in movies, but I can tell that she brought justice to her character here just like she did for her other roles. She managed to portray the duality of Hou Chi and Shangu beautifully. I missed her smile as Shangu and I don't think anyone could have played that role and still managed to maintain a smooth balance between emotions.
I loved Xu Kai's role as Bai Jue. I think most people have seen him before in his previous works where he played lighter characters, but its good to see him in something new. As for stereotypes and how comfortable we are with the actors, its upto you, reader.
The supporting characters, I have to mention, left a deep impression on me. Particularly in EP15. Even the ones that had only a few minutes of screentime managed to convey the emotions perfectly. Characters like Gu Jun (a flood dragon who ascends to the God Realm), Tian Qi (a noteworthy, naughty True God of Demons and the one who brought Shangu up), Yuemi (Tian Qi's closest friend who spoils Shangu with him) , Zihan, Hongri... all manage to steal our attention. They were very well portrayed and I'm sure that I'll never forget any of them anytime soon and will definitely be looking forward to their future works.
4. The romance... has a more "natural" feeling, particularly for Shangu and Bai Jue. Their relationship is not forced, even if it seems rushed. Ancient Love Poetry is not heavy on physical display of affections, but their sincerity towards each other is completely driven by their actions. There are no declarations of love or confessions, but their actions are strong and silent enough to convey the depth of their devotion to each other. When the second arc begins, we see a whole new side of the "fire and ice" relation of the Gods. This change is particularly delightful as we get to see the "Ice Cube" be warm and talkative while the "Bubbly and strong" Shangu becomes the meek and powerless Hou Chi. Their story in the second arc is particularly well written with plot twists, villains and schemes that puts them against the Immortal Realm.
The romance is not just for the leads. Two supporting characters in particular, had, good solid relationships that managed to make me root for their happiness. They might have not had enough screentime, but were beautifully portrayed with such intensity that many of us wished for their happiness. The plus side was that no one imposed themselves on the one they care about, but accepted their choices and supported them, never once becoming an ill wisher. (In short, no serious love triangles.)
There are several other memorable relationships, may it be between the Gods and their Divine Beasts or just plain loyalty and friendship between each other. The God Realm arc might be a bit unsatisfying to many, but I yearned for those precious moments and missed the characters from the first arc terribly during the second one. The bromance between the Four True Gods, Yuemi and Shangu are noteworthy. While the second arc might be serious, we have several supporting characters such and Fengran, Chang Que , Jingjian and Jia Ye who lighten up the mood for Hou Chi and Qingmu as well as for us. Their banter and loyalty to their friends was constant throughout the drama. It's worth watching even if its just for them.
5. The Antagonist: That's one major question. From my perspective, it has two. An intangible entity that can not be stopped and an actual vile villain.
What sets this drama apart for me is that the 'villain' is not introduced as such. Rather, the seeds of what lies ahead are already planted in the earlier episodes and we see the gradual transition to the current state. Driven by covetous intentions, the disgusting actions and motives sets them aside from the ones I've seen. And the absolutely stunning portrayal by the actor alleviated the character to such a level that we are beyond disgusted whenever the person appears on screen. Not to mention, the character was an actual crook, who was cunning and clever. Never have I wished for a character to stop breathing as much as I did for this one. Whenever the abode of the 'evil one' appeared, I wished that the episode would move faster and go back to the locations where I feel calm enough to watch.
As for the former antagonist I mentioned... watching the drama might give you a better idea about why I mentioned it.
6. The CGI is hands down the best one I've seen to date in a major xianxia drama. It doesn't lack in intense action scenes too. One thing I noted was that most of the Gods and Immortals used a mixture of both magic and weapons in a combat, which is the first time I saw such excessive use of CGI. I was impressed with the God Realm in particular. As I mentioned in my earlier review: The make up and costumes compliment the scenery so well that each shot seems to have been spun from dreams.
While the costumes may lack in colour (something minor, but that may put off a lot of viewers), the production team went so far as to visit historical sites and attempt to weave the details into them.
7. The OST: I suck at evaluating music, but the song "Perseverance" is heartbreaking, even without the scene. I get goosebumps whenever I listen to it. Many of the BGMs were my favorite. The lighter fun music during the initial arc were really memorable, but turned to nostalgia inducing everytime I heard it in the second arc.
8. The Finale: As a hint, the drama ends exactly like the novel. I loved how the writers managed to provide closure to two storylines in 49 episodes. I, for one, am left with a bittersweet feeling of parting with my favorite characters. I grew to care for many of them, both major and minor ones. (Special mention to Sen Yu, Chang Qin, Chang Que and Jia Ye, Hongri, the Gods of God Realm, Puhua.)
All in all, I'm glad I picked up this drama while it was being avalanched by negative reviews. (There were some with valid criticism, but 80% of the CNets slammed it just for the actress's looks and the ratings and general reviews almost made it seem like an unwatchable atrocity.) I have to warn though, it might not be your cup of tea. In the end, it depends on preference. I usually drop dramas within the first five episodes, but this one being a Xianxia, I had to give it a go for some more.
Does it deserve a 10? Maybe not. (I knocked off a .5 from the Rewatch value cause the pain is real. But, this is the second CDrama that I did not drop this year and one of the best in terms of cast and story as a whole. And based on it's quality and storyline, it deserves a better rating albeit its faults. Watching it was a truly delightful experience. It made me go through a roller coaster of emotions. We see multiple hardships and sacrifices being made by people for the ones they care about. Almost every character was memorable in their own ways, even the bad guys.
And I certainly will not be forgetting the Legend of ShangGu and Bai Jue anytime soon.
‐---‐-----------------------------------------------------
I left my first impression/review below as a memory. :)
June 20, 2021: The major drawback of Chinese Dramaland is the predictability of storylines and the numerous over used tropes that pop up as a result of it, particularly for Xianxia and Wuxia genres. Which is why it is hard to find something that captures my attention.
One of 2021's highly anticipated xianxia dramas, Ancient Love Poetry follows the progress and growth of our Goddess of Chaos - Shangu. I have to admit, I needed three episodes for the drama to finally pique my interest. The rather slow and uninteresting first episode, coupled with the carefree attitude of the female lead who is still unaware of what lies ahead is jarring for viewers looking for a fast paced drama. I have to note, the MDL synopsis seems to spoil the furure of the plot, but gives enough hint to know what trials the happy-go-lucky Shangu is yet to face. I have not seen anything yet and I'm on EP6 at the time of writing this review.
Zhou Dongyu nails her role... if the character Shangu is whom I perceive her to be - she is not dumb or stupid, but had been pampered for too long and shielded from evil by Zhiyang and Tianqu (two amusing Gods) until they are left with no choice but to ask their fellow God Bai Jue, who had retired to the lower real, to return to train Shangu as she would soon have to bear the task of protecting the dangerously thinning barrier between the Nether world and the other realms.
Xu Kai fits his role as Bai Jue, the cold God of War and his performance is convincing enough to know the power and grace he wields.
The slow moving tale (as of EP6) has scattered several hints of what lay ahead and I am curious to know how the legend of Shangu and Bai Jue come to conclusion.
The romance is... 'natural'. I have no other words to describe it. It's not mushy or cringeworthy, but there's something real about their interactions which are the highlights of the first few episodes.
Another strong point: usually the VFX of CDramas make me frown. This drama exceeds expectations. Taking place completely in the God Realm, the CGI is top notch and can be on par with many Hollywood productions. The make up and costumes compliment the scenery so well that each shot seems to have been spun from dreams.
Rather light colored without being flamboyant, the costumes are surprisingly stunning. The make up doesn't look too bright, but just good enough without being overbearing. Most of the "supernatural aura" is carried by the actors' performance. None of them disappointed me as of now.
I will rate this an 8/10 as of now. I recommend that you check it out for atleast three episodes before deciding to drop this. Long Chinese dramas often have a slow start. So far, this is one of the better hyped up fantasy dramas Tencent rolled out this year for me. Now, I'll wait to see if this one can leave a remarkable impression in Xianxia land to stand the test of time...
Was this review helpful to you?
1Glorious Disaster
You might notice that I have the story a 3 and the acting a 4, yet an overall score of 7. I have a true story to relate to help explain. In high school, my chemistry teacher was a PE teacher who I'm guessing was filling in for someone who died or something. One day the subject was potassium. He was trying to get a small piece of it to react with water, but dropped a big chunk of it, caught it with his bare hand, realized what he had done, and thew it into the sink, where it exploded, blew a hole in the ceiling, and set off all the fire spinklers, which of course caused a huge amount of damage and forced the evacuation of the entire school.So that's a "1" in "story", a "1" in "acting", but a 10 in ultimate result. This is similar. It's a total catastrophe, but I haven't cackled with laughter like that in a while.
If you're worried about a lot of graphic BDSM, you can stop worrying about that right now. The BDSM is what you would expect a junior high school girl to imagine - a very, very sheltered junior high school girl.
The story is about Kim, a young man who ends up having a one-nighter with a gangster who immediately falls in love with him. The casting is disastrous, with the young and baby-faced Yoon playing the most unconvincing crime lord since... well, ever. In the finale he says he's 36 years old, which made me spit up the food I was eating. He has the most ridiculous tatoo I've ever seen. I think it might have been CGI, or maybe somone spray-painted his back over a stencil of a tiger or something.
Kamol is domineering and horrendously overprotective, locking Kim up in his house and not allowing him to do anything unsupervised. Except play with his pet tiger. You are not misreading that. He's not allowed to pee unaccompanied, but frolic with a tiger, no problem. Not that the tiger is in any state to frolic. The thing is stoned out of its mind - in its head it may be flying through pink clouds with castles atop them inhabited by penguins in Ayutthaya attire, but its body on earth won't be doing much of anything. It does't even react to, or appear to have any awareness of, its head being stroked.
If you are sensitive about water being wasted, you might want to avoid this series, or take a beta blocker first. People take baths wrong. Most people, I think, would fill the tub and then turn the water off - but here, the water is left running throughout the entire bath. I'm not sure where all the water is going - I guess the drain is open. People also turn on the sink for no apparent reason and then have long conversations while the water is running. I'm from California, and I can't sleep if I can hear water intermittently dripping somewhere, so my entire attention was focused on the water and controlling an incipient panic attack during scenes like that. Also, and this seems particularly odd in an Asian drama, people are fine with climbing across beds with shoes on. Not slipper shoes, sandals, even Birkenstocks, but dress shoes they've been walking around in all day.
Managing a criminal empire apparently entails sitting at an implausibly and unncessarily large desk and holding out your hand (without looking) to accept folders from subordinates coming in and out and then glancing at things before signing them. I have a job that entails a lot of paperwork, and I haven't seen an actual physical document in a decade. I don't even have my computer hooked up to a printer. I guess crimelords have never heard of Adobe or Docusign.
The plot is so ridiculous and random that it's better to just go on the ride and stop trying to understand why anyone does anything, because trying to make sense of it will only make you feel sad inside.
People have bodyguards. They should really save their money, because the bodyguard labor pool seems not to have attracted the best and brightest. I don't think there's even one single incidence of successful bodyguarding in the entire series. Besides letting your charge enter a tiger cage alone, guards who have been ordered to defend people with their lives are very easy for villains to convince to go get something out the car, allowing kidnappings right out of your walled mansion.
Speaking of bodyguards, there is a scene I really, really appreciated that gave us some insight at what bodyguards do while off-duty. If you see a scene where guards are discussing who should go shower first, prepare yourself.
The music is awful in the best way. Whenever someone grabs someone's wrist, there's an instrumental flourish more appropriate to someone impaling an opponent with a lightsaber than a gentle wrist grab, and any very slighly elevated moment of drama or activity inevitably leads to the ridiculously overwrought piano theme being fired up.
The leads have no chemistry, and Kim is so withholding that a crimelord Dom is reduced to meekly asking permission to administer a peck on the cheek and is usually admonished for being some sort of demented pervert for even asking. Kamol is the worst dom ever. Strangely, the chief bodyguard, who you will probably not notice at first but by the end will be panting over (especially after his sleeveless striped shirt at the resort) has really intense chemistry with the maid's underage son. Pretty much everyone in the audience was only suffering through this travesty of a series for them, even though we all knew nothing would happen between a 30-something and a high school kid.
I'm not sure I can recommend this - if you're looking for something serious, or are excited at the prospect of actual BDSM in a BL, this will not make you happy. If you appreciate it when something is so bad that it's unintenionally hillarious, this is worth your time.
Was this review helpful to you?
A FAIRYTALE ABOUT A FALLEN MILKY WAY :CRUSH + BUTTERFLIES!
A drama that counters on the POV of a young girl with a head full of love. the sweet feel of going back to the moment of that crush, reliving those feelings of doing those little crazy things for love. Stalking them?👀 Smiling at every little details you got of or with me, blushs and heart flutters at the simple sight or action of them. ah, That feeling of first love is always one that lingers forever. And that is what we view here from Sang zhi pov.Call her weird, call her Silly but she's just a realistic portray of us at such age and it's rather refreshing to see.
And what if your crush is not your classmate..not the typical popular tsudere guy in school? not your typical Bad boy in school? but rather your Elders brother's friend who is 5 years older..
Of course things are about to get interesting!
This drama is one ready to give all those feels of a naive first love and won't forget to load It with endless BUTTERFLIES, sweetness overloaded I say and I mean it.
The acting? Gosh! it's on another level of real! I can't help but believe that this is what these casts are in real life. I can't stop praising lusi acting enough because she is bagging in this time.
if you watched Gen Z( I highly recommend you do) then you'll understand me when I say, This is literally the opposite of whom she is there! the switch up! wow!
Lusi had me impressed when she was portraying the 17 year old version! it was so convincing! Like I believed she was that age! and when she switched up much Older.. Gosh, give her an award already 😂😂
The ML, this should be my 3rd drama from him (our secret, Mr bad and this) and believe me when I say this is the best from him. His acting here had me smiling each time. he did it so well that I'm forced to believe he was actually the GEGE or an older brother to Lusi! The scenes of him helping her with studies when she was 17..their conversation. it was basically older brother younger one coded. Kudos
The other support roles are currently doing just fine for their forte and roles and especially the one playing Sang yan role. Gosh, why is this my first time seeing him?? he's amazing! And he has the best dynamic for me here with sangzhi. Their brother sister duo is on another level of BEAUTIFULLY REALISTIC ( I can relate lol)
The ost of this show is just benefiting and suitings the lyrics really are speaking the storyline and it's interesting to see. my fav song from this has to be FOREVER LOVE ( too bad they barely sing it😭)
And for the plot? do I need to say much? it's simple yet beautiful.
I basically didn't expect much from it since the plot was not grand. Your typical Crush tale with a pinch of age gap. So I won't call the plot a masterpiece. But what I shall call NICE Is the way the story is being told. the pacing is remarkable. and the storytelling is Ok.
I've seen people ( Annoying people) call this The Pedophilia word or so . Just because FL liked ML from her 14 year old and when he was 19...Like. Excuse me?
Setting Things straight, This is not IT! You can't judge the drama from literally 10 min into ep1. Or from synopsis. This drama ( Compared to the novel of 7 year old gap) reduced it to 5 year old. And not only that, made remarkable detailed efforts to make the narrative suitable and comfortable to view.
Firstly, A fourteen year old having a crush is not a crime! And on someone older is not a crime. unless this so called older person reciprocates the love...The red flag!
But the narrative of this drama was so careful to not do that! Even when the child actor was introduced. There was no Romantic sparks AT ALL. I for one watching only got the stare of the kid as a sisterly stare for ML. Lol. so stop complaining about the child actor there. it was clear with the kid's Arc that nothing Romance was on. She didn't even stare at him romantically 💀
and even when lusi stepped in, the ML didn't like her at her young age. so stop with the false rumours. It's caused by your lack of understanding of the storyline and narrative.
Because basically this drama did a good job to keep a legal Greenflag Romance drama and they nailed it. Just wanted to clear it up.
If I say I waited 1 year for this drama, Then You heard that right 🥹. Basically knew when the drama was announced and when the leads were being picked (I prayed for Zheyuan to be lead because I feared Lin Yin couldn't execute the characters as I wanted 😅) And waited till end of shooting to see this and I have to say..I'm not disappointed!
although I haven't read the Novel or comic because I'm a lazy reader. I still think the drama did a good job it it's aspects and still waxing strong. Highly recommended
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
So... I just finished this drama and I have a LOT to say. Note: there will be some minor spoilers in here! And, many typos! Because I was very passionate about how I felt about this drama! I have a lot to say! Bear with me!
Before diving into this review, I want to make clear that I'm so happy so many people enjoy this drama! Chinese wuxia dramas go highly unappreciated and are rarely praised to the extent of this drama. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. If you love this drama, that's great!
With that being said... I've pulled my hair out trying to figure out what all the fuss has been about for this drama.
First things first, the story of this drama feels incredibly odd. There really is no major "conflict" throughout the entire drama, instead many small ones that sporadically occur and get resolved quickly and get all muddled together. And any conflicts that DO occur happen not because they should. What I mean by this is how the plot fails to connect together, the resulting effect of one scenario loosely ties in to the next. For instance, the beginning involves Mo Yuan... and then he just isn't in the drama for 30 episodes. This causes the drama to feel laggy and have zero suspense, because the audience is just constantly expecting what's inevitably going to occur. Further, when something does happen, or a character triggers something to occur, their motivations should align; that's how a story can make sense. I was expecting a big twist or revelation or SOMETHING for everything to all of a sudden make sense, but that never happened.
Now let's talk about characters. As there's no clear conflict that drives the story, you'd expect the characters to be a major reason you'd want to keep watching... but NOPE.
Let's start with Si Yin/Su Su/Bai Qian. I didn't really have a problem with Si Yin other than the fact that she was pretty boring. Honestly, the entire first "world" the drama takes place in is pretty dull, so it's pretty hard for her to make me care. Then, we move on to Su Su. I probably like her the most out of the three, as she's the only one I really felt emotion for. I truly felt pity for her because of the treatment she got as a mortal. As for Bai Qian, she's probably the biggest disappointment of all. She's promised to be an older, wise, witty, strong goddess who kicks ass and drinks all the time. Unfortunately, we get an immature and feeble character who isn't strong to anyone unless she's bullying other women. Legitimately, she only turns "hard" and "strong" when it comes time to use her power against other women (not that some of them don't deserve it, but we'll talk about the "villains" in a bit). She acts rude to what feels like 3/4 of the female cast. If you don't believe me, look at the fact that she immediately becomes timid, soft, and loses all her characteristics when she's around Mo Yuan, Ye Hua, any of her disciple brothers, the king, her brothers, Li Jing, etc.
What's worse than Bai Qian's character, is the relationship between her and Ye Hua. This is probably my biggest problem with this drama, and I've bumped the rating low to a 6 because of this. I haven't seen any reviews really addressing this, so I'm scratching my head wondering if I watched the same drama. Ye Hua borderline sexually harasses her in nearly the ENTIRE third "world" portion of the drama (in the episodes from when Bai Qian reawakens to near the damn end). Ye Hua will jump on top of her, hug her, kiss her, and flirt while she's literally PUSHING him away, exhibiting uncomfortable body language, or telling him to STOP. Is this some kind of unfulfilled fantasy for some people? Is this just a young demographic? Am I in a simulation? Anyways... it's not until near the last ten episodes this changes, and Bai Qian begins to reciprocate affection. Even though her feelings changes that doesn't excuse Ye Hua's behavior prior, and the type of message this sends makes me disgusted. This easily could've been changed by toning own Ye Hua's actions to stop when Bai Qian says no, or just directing Bai Qian's character completely differently. This may seem like an exaggeration, but with such a large audience, dramas need to be aware of the kind of behavior characters act in, even if this medium is only fiction.
Ye Hua doesn't really have a personality, his sole purpose is really to be in love with Bai Qian/Su Su. He used to have somewhat a personality before he meets Su Su, but this pretty much dissolves. Instead of character progression, this character only reverses backwards.
As for Feng Jiu and Dong Hua, they're... fine? They didn't do much harm, but I don't think they added much to the drama either. It's just a stone-faced Dong Hua being chase by a whiny Feng Jiu.
Now we have the villains. I'll be damned if I ever find a drama where the villains aren't some petty jealous women who are jealous of the main lead because they're not as pretty or they don't have the main lead's man or god knows what other stupid reason. Nonetheless, these villains are dumb as hell, they have a stupid motivation, and they are not menacing at all. A villain should be providing a threat, a conflict, an obstacle that stops the hero. Instead, these villains just fill up screen time and provide a major eye roll.
Despite being nearly 60 episodes long, none of the side characters get very fleshed out. Instead, they remain very one-dimensional and forgettable. They're there for the purpose of providing "plot" to the main characters. Albeit, there are MANY, MANY, MANY side characters, so it's kind of hard to make all of them memorable anyways.
Now, on to acting. I've seen Yang Mi in countless dramas, and her acting isn't really anything spectacular or worth major praise, and here's no exception. I think her performance here is adequate, she pulls off the three different characters and cries when she needs to. Mark Chao was pretty decent as well. He can pull off a large variety of expressions convincingly and you can clearly see him acting two different characters. Honestly, I wasn't really blown away by Yang Mi and Mark Chao's chemistry. I don't think it's bad, but I feel pretty underwhelmed after hearing endless comments over how amazing their chemistry was.
However, one thing that bugged me throughout the drama is how awkward the dialogue was delivered. Particularly with the side characters, they literally feel like they are just flat out reading the script in front of you. This isn't really to the fault of the drama, as these character's voices are dubbed so there's no avoiding of this problem.
For cinematography, this drama looks pretty good some scenes but then looks like completely crap in others. The costumes can be overdramatic and look incredibly silly. The CGI is god awful, I'll just put it out there, but when has CGI in Chinese dramas really ever looked good?
But yes, this concludes my rant review of Eternal Love that probably nobody's reading!
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
The Hunger Games Without Substance...like eating a cake shaped piece of cardboard.
I struggle to rate this drama highly. On one hand, it was well done with beautiful cinematography....on the other hand it is a pretty overdone genre across all countries. Sick, demented, rich people playing a game with less fortunate people's lives. I didn't really see anything new or innovative in this tale, it's the same old story dredged up again with blood spouts sprinkled in for effect. It's one of the single most overdone themes in horror. And, while the backstories and human character development made it tolerable, I still struggle to understand why this sort of show still draws viewers.Recently, I watched Alice in Borderland, which is a similarly themed violent games survival drama. Alice in Borderland was much more effectively done, however, and added in the mystery element of who was controlling the game much more effectively along multiple other story arcs. Squid Game, on the other hand, focused more on trying to force parallels between the players' poverty lifestyles and the lifestyles of the game creators/betters. Simultaneously trying to convince you that all people are vile while also fighting to convince you of the opposite through various redemption arcs. The main theme that a select few characters seem to be fighting against is that all human beings are morally depraved monsters when their life/money is on the line.
In the end, I think the drama tried to be deeper than it was. It spent too much time forcing the viewer's opinions of people/situations into trite knotholes and ended up limiting itself with its inane rhetoric, especially at the end. Usually, I'm a fan of dramas with dark themes and ambiguous, unhappy endings...but this one I didn't like much. It's just another regurgitation of depraved humanity with nothing new or insightful to add to the existing backlog of dialog from exactly the same story.
That said, the lead actor was great in this drama. He did an incredible job realistically depicting a wide variety of emotional states. His reactions were on point in almost every case. Unfortunately, he was pretty much the only one who produced that range of emotions, so the viewer is forced to interpret situations based almost entirely on his reactions.
One of the best elements of a good Kdrama is how intensely they develop even minor characters. This drama had only 5 or so developed characters out of hundreds, the rest were just fodder for the blood cannon. Even characters that seemed initially well developed, actually end up being just cheap tools to reiterate the drama's main theme. Like the police officer looking for his brother, you eventually realize his only purpose in the drama is to get a peek at behind the scenes horror. His story didn't matter, all that mattered was that the audience had another set of disposable eyes to look through. The North Korean defector's story ended up being the same, pointless and just tossed in to provide a single tear jerk moment and a generic plot device for the lead to rebound off of. The characters, apart from the lead, had zero depth, the entire thing was intensely superficial.
Overall, I wouldn't watch this show again. A season 2 where the lead (minus that horrible red hair) fights against the game creators would be interesting, but a season 2 with the same exact show and a different cast I wouldn't go near. It was vile, but vile without the usual Kdrama depth of philosophy/morality exploration. I can't see myself ever recommending it. Out of every Kdrama I've ever watched I can only think of a small handful that I gained nothing from watching, this is down there in the heap with those few. Challenge my ideas, make me think about the world in a different way, or at the very least entertain me...if you can't do any of that, gtfo.
Was this review helpful to you?
The exceptional beauty of most of the cast members were at times distracting. But for the most part, I think everyone did a good job. There was good chemistry between the main characters as well Moo Ra and Bi Ryum. Also a special mention for Im Joo Hwan who is always such a consistent performer. The rest of the supporting actors didn't have much to do because of the weak script.
Music was one of the best parts of the show. This soundtrack will stay on my playlist for a long while.
So to sum it up, you'll enjoy the show if you go in with little expectations. Give it a try, the romance and awesome music might just win you over.
Edit:
2 years and dozens of dramas later, I stand by my initial review. I think rewatching it helped me understand it better. Forget about the comparisons with the manhwa. On its own, it was great and doesn’t deserve nearly as much criticism it gets. The story was well planned and tied together in the end. The fact that all the answers came in the final episode made it feel a bit too artificial but other than that I have no major complaints. My only gripe is that they sort of abandoned Shin Hoo Ye’s storyline. I would have loved it if they’d have elaborated on his ending, perhaps showing some hope of gaining acceptance from the other gods that he so desired. All in all I’ll say that it was a great watch the second time around. So everyone please give it a chance and decide on your own rather than relying on the reviews.
Edit #2:
I’m coming back here 8 years later in 2025. After watching nearly 350 k-dramas since this one first released, I can confidently say that this drama is still in my overall top 5. By no means is it perfect. They could have easily done away with all of the human side characters and limited the series to 12 episodes like what we see today. That aside, I now retract statement in my first review. This isn’t a messy drama. It was actually very well thought out. When you rewatch it, you’ll see there were many things that were foreshadowed and the building blocks were there right from the beginning. The Bride of Habaek is like a well worn novel. You keep being drawn to it and upon each rewatch you discover things you hadn’t noticed before and you fall in love with it all over again. To sum it up, if you’re here for a fantasy/mystery story you might be disappointed. If you’re here for a tale of star-crossed lovers, the love story of Habaek and So Ah will stay in your memory for a very long time. It has everything I could want in a drama: beautiful romance, well thought out story, and outstanding music 10/10.
Was this review helpful to you?
Till the end… Thank God… there's an end…
Till the end of the moon is a romantic tale that kicks off nice, goes on flat for a while but bumps down when it couldn't handle its own complications. High budget, star cast, beautiful costumes and what not but what we get served is a repitative story that makes you annoyed once every episode. Oh yeah I yawned and finally skipped a few parts too.
The narrative revolves around the to-be Devil God Tantai Jin (Luo Yunxi) and Li Susu (Bai Lu) who was determined to stop him by hook or by crook. The story wasn't as bad in the starting it was great until it was reasonable but when characters don't communicate and go awry by the concept of "lied for his own good"… its disappointing.
Even if they wanted to make TTEOTM angsty, there must have been a limit to misunderstandings and then reconciliation again and again. The story is pretty much predictable especially in the later half because you basically know that you can't expect anything better with these reckless, moody, jealousy driven characters.
TTEOTM isn't all bad and there were factors that I did enjoy like the second leads Ye Qingyu and Pian Ran's story, Tantai Jin and Xiao Lin's unsung bond… and since I'm questioning the logic of the plot at many places, maybe many things would make sense if the drama was not abruptly cut short by 16 episodes. Because 16 is sure A LOT!… …but if we were going to get this same thing for those 16 episodes too, I'm happy Chinese censorship exists.
For a Xianxia cum Wuxia the story isn't much special but the acting was phenomenal! Especially Luo Yunxi won me with his devilish role. I swear no one could play TTJ or the Devil God like him! TTJ's loneliness, trust issues, obsession all came out so much because it was Luo. Even his Ming Ye who is on the positive end was acted awesome! Hat's off to whoever casted him… although Bai Lu's all three characters were kinda similar but she was successful in making most of the emotional scenes impactful.
Their chemistry doesn't need words. They look so much good together that even with this lackluster plot I stayed and finished this drama. I don't mind if the producers bring a season 2, don't give us any story, anything, just send these two on a date on the day of Chinese New Year, let the emotionless TTJ feel warmth with Ye Xiwu and let them hang out (let the world or three realms be kept aside) and I'll watch that too lol xDDDD. But "no saving people and three realms plot please, I insist"
I was quite impressed by the acting of Sun Zhen Ni (as Pian Ran), Deng Wei (Xiao Lin) and Chen Du Ling (Ye Bingchang). While the first two made me love their characters, Chen duling's roles were so despicable that we need to agree she's such a good actress. After all playing a beautiful bitch who is both hateful and pitiable isn't an easy task.
Acting sure made this drama little entertaining for me till the end. Or I would've dropped this somewhere in the middle when things changed abruptly in the drama…. OST… hmm… There were a dozen songs that went well with the shots but none were that special to be heard again.
CGI was very pretty in some scenes, almost top notch and the costumes often took my attention. I think the makers focused more on their outer beauty and making it mesmerizing like all those snow shots. Wish they invested more on the script rather than all this eye-catchy stuff.
So we get impressive acting, complex three characters for every actor, a failed plot and satisfying CGI. That's how I define Till the end of the moon.
Was this review helpful to you?
big problems in story progression (characters, especially evil/expendable characters keep making insane choices to escalate things and keep the story going), and standard characterization flaws (villains keep doing unreasonable things, side characters are one dimensional; only used as a lever progress the story and then forgotten/kept in limbo the rest of the time.
I think Yoon Se Jun and Do Hye Ji (eldest son and wife) were among the more interesting characters in this drama. They had their own goals, and pursued them seemingly relentlessly but without being "too evil". They were a unit, always supporting each other, and I was interested to see more of them but in the end they are left alone just be used as comic relief and not much else. This my be one of my biggest disappointment with this drama.
Was this review helpful to you?
