The Good:
1. The main actors are tremendous! I started watching because I liked Wallace, but in the end I fell in love with Cecilia. They played the main characters perfectly portraying the chemistry and forbidden romantic tension between the emperor and the doctress. Although these actors were awesome, just like in any other drama some of the supporting cast got the side-eye.
2. In a long drama like this it is difficult to tell if days, months or years are passing, I liked that the drama gave hints to the timeline of how much time had passed so we wouldn’t be confused.
3. Overall, the story line was particularly thoughtfully written and didn’t stray too much from the main story of the happenings around the doctress. At every turn she was learning something new, meeting new people and being a total bad a@#.
4. I love a strong female lead character. This drama had one of the strongest female characters I have seen in a long time. Once she learned how to bat an eyelash and flirt a little she was unstoppable!
5. The character development was remarkable and well planned. I was so happy to see so many characters developing and having “life”
The Bad: Well… There isn’t much bad to the drama but in 50 episodes you find stuff wrong.
1. I HATED their lace front wigs, they didn’t match the hair colors for women and above all I saw clothes tags. smh. I couldn’t focus on what some of the characters were saying because of bad lace-mustaches… and don’t get me started on Essen’s drawn on eyebrows!! Hair and makeup should be ashamed, but the costumer was extraordinary.
2. Plot dragging- While the story line was good; there were some plot drags after ep 25 or so. The emperors temper tantrum would last way too long, or the empress’ despicable plotting would go on for way to long and I would be forced to jump ahead.
3. The evil stepmother. There were so many evil stepmother/evil women in this story I was sick of them. These women were overly evil, cunning and had poor excuses. I understand that this is historical based but the evil women in this were almost overwhelming.
Overall- this is worth the time! This has a unique somewhat happy ending but don't get your hopes high. If you like historical dramas with strong female characters, or if you just like strong female leads this one is for you!
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Good But Not Without Its Problems
I’ll be honest here. I definitely had mixed feelings before I started writing this review with what to put. I guess that I should probably start with my overall thoughts on the show.Personally I thought that ‘ My Liberation Notes’ was definitely well done from a screenwriting perspective . ( I mean what do you expect from the same writer of ‘ My Mister’?.) There was enough angst to pluck at your heartstrings but also a few opportunities here and there to explore lighthearted respite or focus on building up the characters as the plot went on.
HOWEVER, I have to say that while I honestly adore our main cast ( especially our main heroine played by Kim Ji Won) the show didn’t always possess a necessary spark for me in initial episodes. I’m not entirely what this was down to exactly. Maybe it was the acting slightly. That’s not to say that I thought the acting was bad at all. I was really impressed by the main cast as I said before and I can’t deny that Son Seok Koo really slammed the ball out of the ball pitch with his performance. ( Not a familiar face for me but I’m glad that ‘ My Liberation Notes’ has opened up my knowledge of some impressive actors)
Although while I do have a lot of things to praise by the acting here even I must admit early performances didn’t do a lot to really elevate these characters to life. To be fair I don’t think it was entirely the acting as pacing and writing maybe also played a key.
The first few episodes of the series were really bogged down on character introductions. I don’t think this is always a bad thing but rather than really giving us a lot of insight into the characters being built up, it felt a bit repetitive in this first part of the series before the action kicked off. Did I think this affected later episodes? Slightly. If I’m honest I thought that the second half definitely picked up and took note of these early mistakes but it didn’t always offer leeway to spicing things up. This isn’t to entirely be really negative though. I honestly did like how the plot panned out and the unexpected plot twists which played out here.
I’d say the filming was pretty good here. There were maybe a few moments here and there which felt as though they could’ve had a BIT more attention to detail but alongside the OST, I didn’t think this was entirely bad. Just a little incomplete in parts.
Overall thoughts; You can definitely tell this drama is cut from the same cloth as ‘ My Mister’ and considering it’s the same writer it is no surprise. I had my issues with writing and editing here and there but aside from my complaints, I thought that this was a surprisingly well balanced series with touching moments and intriguing characters. A strong 8.0/10.
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The comedic inserts and occasional fluffs between the main casts were extremely cathartic in contrast to the violent scenes necessary in this drama genre.
I, for one, am not really knee-deep into dramas with enough suspense that kept me in jitters until the release of the next episode. I actually prefer light-hearted dramas from japanese series or cringe-worthy dramas from korean series. BUT THIS DRAMA WAS ONE HECK OF A RIDE. And yes, in caps lock for emphasis. (Btw, I'm not shouting nor am I angry. I'm just pumped because I loved it!)
But, there were three things I did not like:
1. The computer graphics were not really well-done. I'm talking about some gun scenes, and some of it looked fake af. Maybe there were budget constraints?
2. There was a slump in the flow of the storyline. As a longtime viewer of dramas (almost 2 decades now), I definitely felt and saw it. There were fillers that were unnecessary, but they still fit in nicely. My advice for those into the drama but couldn't get past the first half: PLEASE do continue watching.
3. My goodness! William's hair and mustache! He's handsome and buff af, but his midpart brings me back to the hair of the 90s. Is that hairstyle coming back? I'm not 100% against it though.
Over-all, I liked almost everything from the main leads to the antagonist to the support cast. I also liked the music and dramas OST. I'll definitely rewatch this one soon.
P.S.1 All episodes are on Youtube now. Legally uploaded by Croton Megahit. English subtitles are also slowly added into the videos. Patience is key!
P.S.2. Please support Ma Sichun (Sandra Ma) and her future activities!
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Khun Chai Ronnapee is the fifth and the last part of the Suparburoot Juthatep’s series. And it was such a fine closure. The younger brother was honestly my favourite; he has this cheerful sneaky playful character that makes you love him. Therefore, I was looking forward to his story and I wasn’t failed. Chai Pee’s character was able to show its existence ever since the four previous parts; he was always there to cool the air and to play the role of the mischievous brother.
The last story included an actress as the female lead but the showbiz element wasn’t as glamorous as it was supposed to be. The love story was alright, it had many turns but it ended up going in circles at some point. The most important thing is: the chemistry was pretty much the best in the Suparburoot Juthatep series; it obviously tops the other four stories even if all of them had good chemistry.
In this part, Chai Pee’s character was able to develop from the playful little brother to the responsible lover-boy who wants to take care of the woman he loves and her family. His solder side that he showed in the latter episodes was also a good side of his character as well. It was nice to see his transformation even if it was pretty much predictable. The side love stories were also fun and cute to follow, they turned pretty cheesy at some point but they added a good flavour to the drama.
Something else added great colours to this part: the presence of the four other couples throughout. I swear that made me add the half to my overall rating; it felt so wonderful to watch the other couples helping Chai Pee and showing their love for each other. The moment the brothers stand in one room holding their wives was precious; I really wish this was shown in other parts as well. Also, the bromance was seriously and deliciously present in the last story, the way they worried, cared and cried for their younger brother was amazing. That’s why; this part gets more points.
The acting was fine as the usual formula of lakorns; James was a newbie in this series so he deserves encouragement for what he did here. His female lead was a little better than him only because Mint belongs to the industry more than him. As for characters, they were pretty much watchable; but of course you would’ve guessed by now that the second female lead was evil as her sister in Chai Pat’s story if not more. Most second female leads in Thai lakorns are so overdone with their evil tricks that it becomes unbearable after a while.
Watch if:
-You liked any of the previous parts.
-You’re looking for a great chemistry.
Do not watch if:
-You’re expecting something impressive.
Khun Chai Ronnapee was a good closure of the Suparburoot Juthatep’s series. It had great chemistry and yummy bromance.
I will surely miss the five Gentlemen of Juthatep.
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This has a huge group of talented young people. If they are all truly playing the instruments and singing, then they deserve props for that. I'm not a big fan of high school dramas, but I have watched a few. This puts most of them to shame in the music department. The story is pretty typical for a high school drama...bullies, childhood traumas, first love,etc. However, it was directed like a musical and I enjoyed that. I can't post about the parts I liked, because we aren't supposed to post spoilers. Bummer!!! ;-)Ha Yeon Soo as Se Yi and Da Hee as NaNa were my favorites. However, I liked all the actors and I thought they all did an excellent job.
The music is outstanding!!! You should watch this drama for that alone.
I will probably rewatch this at some point.
I recommend this drama for all ages.
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Potential but ultimately failed
This drama had potential, but ultimately failed to deliver on almost every front.📍Characters
Let’s start with the characters. Most of them were flat and one-dimensional, making it hard to stay emotionally invested. Supposedly emotional moments, like the loss of Mei Lin's parents, felt empty, because we never saw who they were or why their absence should matter to us. It was impossible to care about her journey.
Ironically, Luomei, who had very limited screen time, was far more engaging than the lead. She brought more intrigue and depth in just a few scenes than Mei Lin managed in the entire show. I honestly wish she had been the protagonist. The only other standout was the actor Liu Xue Yi. His performance was exceptional and carried several scenes that otherwise would have fallen flat.
📍Story
The drama’s concept was good in theory, but poorly executed. The pacing was all over the place. Early episodes built tension only to deflate it a couple of episodes later, robbing the story of momentum.
What made it especially frustrating was how much potential the main characters had at the beginning. We were introduced to a red flag male lead and a badass assassin out for revenge, characters that actually sparked interest. But instead of developing them further, the drama stripped them of their edge way too soon. They either turned into something completely different or simply lost their drive. It felt like the characters we were initially promised just… disappeared. That loss was noticeable and honestly kind of sad.
The middle section was particularly tedious, almost nothing happened, and we were bombarded with scenes centered on side characters like the emperor and his young concubine, or the villain and his love interest. Their stories added little to the main plot and took up far too much screen time. It was frustrating and felt like filler.
By the end, the story veered into chaos, with characters dying left and right for no real reason. It felt dramatic for the sake of being dramatic, completely unnecessary and devoid of emotional impact, especially since there had been no meaningful development leading up to it. They did wrap up the ending fairly well though.
📍Production
The OSTs were fine, but nothing memorable. The cinematography, however, was beautiful, and the casting seemed promising at first. Unfortunately, these strengths weren’t enough to make up for the lack of compelling storytelling and character depth.
✨️ Final thoughts
In the end, it was a disappointing experience that wasted a good concept and a talented cast on weak writing and direction.
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1This review may contain spoilers
Dudu & His 3 Personalities were EVERYTHING
Is our Dudu collecting generals again? Yes and no, considering one of his personalities was one himself. 😉 CL has been on a roll this year with his dramas. This one by far the most versatile. His leading lady wasn't too shabby either. They played off each other very well. Hard to have a man with three personalities who were all equally sexy in their own way.Pros: Deciding which personality to choose is very hard, though at first the vampire with LYN's OST was awesome but ultimately when all three combined into one, that was the best and the fact that how they all complimented each other and you could tell when each one peeked out a little bit. I have to command CL on doing such a wonderful job. This really makes him a versatile actor to be able to play essentially an immortal, a cold ruthless general, and a guy who has amnesia and a puppy dog in love. SML did a pretty good job too from playing someone supposedly innocent to really showing his true colors and then turning into a narcissist sociopath that's obsessed with the FL and won't let go before reality hit him hard that now as emperor he had a whole country to rule not just force a woman who didn't love him to be his empress. The dichotomy of it all was interesting to watch.
Essentially the story is as it's told in the synopsis, ML who had like 5 names so I'll just stick to ML for him, is a general from the state opposing the FL's or LS's so there's constant wars where the common people suffer. He goes out to save his bro the emperor but is tricked by the brainless wannabe empress and the evil reject with black magic essentially losing the fight and gets turned into a vampire but escapes. He needs to drink blood in order to survive and because he escapes and somehow reverts to a child, he falls down a cliff where FL just happens to be fighting his soldiers; her blood ends up on a plant and somehow drips into his mouth and from that moment on they have a blood oath where it's only her blood and he must protect her and only her. His time as a kid was cute but he becomes an adult again very quickly as her scent strengthens him. So they spend the better half of the series falling in love and doing some silly things. Meanwhile in his country; it's chaotic as the fraud with black magic essentially bound the emperor to her and chained him up for what lasted a year. She faked the deaths of the emperor and his brother the ML and stuck her toddler son on the throne appointing herself his regent or fake empress.
Back at the border there are other characters that were important like the doctor friend or LX of LS, MY who was from the mountain that vampire making artifact came from also a doctor, a few fun generals one with a crush on LS who thankfully never went for it. Other great characters were LS' brother, though spoiled at first, grew up through the help of ML and LS, her father was a good man. The emperor bro of ML, the two subordinates of ML. Also the girls in LS' mansion especially Qiao whom we lost but she will always be remembered especially by the man who came to love her. What I really loved about LS was that she gave people second chances who she didn't think were evil like the bandits because they only did what they did because of their circumstances.
The SML or CP/emperor was a narcissistic sociopath. Obviously, starting with the trauma of what his brother did to him and then everything else after a while it’s all about him does not matter who gets hurt or how as long as his bacon is out of the fire he don’t care. An example is the rage killing of his brother, the rock, and then the multiple stab wounds. Than with LS, whom he claimed to love all his life; there's no love behind that none whatsoever it’s possession, obsession and she is the trophy that he must have. The fact that he was never crippled in the first place and literally hid it from everyone, including the woman he supposedly loved was a massive red flag. She only learns this much later when he again forces the whole marriage thing once he becomes emperor. How do you do that at such a young age to be able to hide such a secret from absolutely everyone? BWJ absolutely played that portion of his character to the hilt. Also, the fact that he literally betrayed her, betrayed the ML just to get what he wanted, but ended up being betrayed himself. He trusted the evil reject after meeting him only once which was ridiculous.
We then had the other arc where evil reject removes the jade artifact from ML through force, but he was the only one to do it because originally he'd put it in him using dark magic so he had to use dark magic to take it out. Once that was taken out of him, the ML started to forget what had happened to him the entire year and start to remember his actual life. So we had the arc of him remembering, forgetting her forgetting everything; It obviously wasn't the case once he comes back to his country fake empress is very afraid of him, but she still doesn't give up power. LS fights ML gets captured tortured a little bit, but then he saves her and puts her in a safe house. Long story short he eventually remembers with the help of the second couple (who also rescued the emperor who retakes his throne) and the sociopath gets a redemption arc, that country had no other ruler so they had to make him understand that he couldn't just be tunnel obsessed with her. He had a whole country to run, and he was good at it so while unfortunately, her father died; all of SMY's hypocritical ministers wanted her dead, he faked her death to draw out ML because he finally realized ML loved her more then him and he admitted defeat plus he he admitted he couldn't love her alone, he had the country and the people to run and now they had peace as the real emperor from the other state was restored to the throne.
Leads ran off together; every character was exited out appropriately at the end. The last episode was great. I loved it and especially when we got a chance to listen to LYN OST as our ML vampire crazy train took out half of SMY's team who were fake burying LS. But that ending was great with him and her and just literally exiting everybody out; the second couple talking about marriage, the leads talk about having a kid and the final kiss. Meanwhile, everyone thought she was dead, but she gave some pastries to her brother, so her brother knew she was alive, but he had joined her army and everyone was just basically doing their thing. The fake fraud was captured, but they couldn't kill her because she had done the Black voodoo on the emperor so if she died, he would die so they just stuck her in a cage, I loved the final message that LS gave her that you used all those dirty tricks to get someone to love you who never loved you; that nobody ever loved you because of how disgusting you are and how vile.
Honestly, the only real villain that I saw that played the villain part to the hilt was SML's brother. There was something mentally wrong with him. None of these apples fall far from the tree, but SMY ended up, turning his brain around and understanding facts later on. Costumes, locations, CGI, OST's all of that was on point especially LYN's OST that was really on point. I have to say my favorite scene was of ML and LS fighting troops in the forest and she tells him that she wants to kill someone so he puts his arm to the side. She jumps on it and they just hold still for maybe a second and a half and it is the most editorial and beautiful shot with him in his vampire outfit, mask, eyes everything and she in her red and black with the cool bow and arrow, and then he catapults her into the air. It's phenomenal like that shot was my absolute favorite.
Cons: OK let's start with fake empress and evil reject like those two yes, they were part of the story, but they absolute overdid it for her and the cackling and those fake long golden nails or whatever she wore and her facial expressions and she did not carry any power whatsoever no matter what she did even when it was sadistic and cruel it just looked stupid and overdone. And the evil reject again they cast this actor to be evil; he's always been cast as a protagonist, a comedian, someone funny someone smart, but this is the 2nd time they cast him as someone evil he can't do it he just does not hit the mark and it looks really bad.
The other thing it's a small one, but someone else mentioned it in the comments, and I agree with this person, but the fact that LS literally cried in almost every scene because she happy, angry, sad, whatever the emotion was instead of actually getting angry and yelling and screaming; you are a general! Nope, she just start crying. When it was sadness, sure. However, when it's anger or some other emotion that has nothing to do with tears and that's the result, it takes the emotion out of it and it just looks wrong. I'm not blaming the actress for this. I'm sure this was all the director wanting to show, but it shouldn't have happened. When she was a general and she was fighting she was badass absolutely badass a total power couple with the vampire ML. Even when she was ML's prisoner, she spoke to him like a petulant child instead of a POW. She should've spoken to him then the way she spoke to him when he was still with her maybe that would've helped. And it showed that he started to really get his memories when he saw the sketches of the cave drawings or if in her sleep, she would say that name that she gave him when it was actually something from the past that's what made him start to question what's going on. I mean, you cannot go a whole year with missing memories and not question what the hell happened.
Would I recommend it? Yes I would; it has so many layers to uncover, especially with ML's character. His is the most complex and you really have to see how the actor does it. I think the storyline was solid and it is great for any woman who likes sexy men.
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This drama really did well at the beginning; there were romantic sparks between the main leads and there was a tantalizing mystery to be solved. I loved the back-and-forth between the CEO and his secretary, it was adorable from beginning to end. But my main problem with this drama is that, in my opinion, the conflict was resolved way too early. The mystery behind the kidnapping, and which brother was actually the victim, was wrapped up a little over half way through the drama; around episode 11 or 12. I thought that there was going to be a larger plot point involved, but once the truth was revealed, the trauma seemed to just disappear. They never dealt with it properly, it was just like "oh, everything is perfectly fine now that everybody knows what really happened".So I got bored with the last 4-5 episodes because next to nothing happened besides the main couple being cute with each other. It was somewhat enjoyable, but when there is no driving force to the story (aka "conflict") it just deflates. Sure, there were mini-issues, like getting acceptance/permission to marry from the secretary's family. But honestly, everyone knew how it was going to end by episode 12. The happy couple was going to get married, it just took them 4 episodes of not much happening besides a few couple quarrels to actually reach the wedding. I dunno, I just felt like the mystery could've had larger repercussions after the truth was out, instead of being swept under the rug.
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I liked it until it lost me
TRIGGER WARNINGS of this series: Infertility issues, illness, death.Comedy is on the thinner side and there is also melodrama.
Looking at the ratings of this drama I feel like I watched a different one than everyone else.
I really wanted to like this series because the premise and the start had potential and there are things I liked in the portrayal of flawed characters that don't do the best of things, but sadly this just progressively lost me as episodes went on and things started to annoy me.
Overall my main two issues here are:
The execution of the plot is a mess at times, it wants to do too many things at the same time but none are necessarily solved or are just there for the pure chaos of it, it got kind of boring. I certainly didn't expect to find this show boring considering its length and how much I wanted to like it because the characters are not presented as perfect like in many other dramas. At points I felt kind of disappointed in myself for not finding it engaging enough but I literally fell asleep a few times, and I never fall asleep with series or movies. Funny enough is how I didn't even bother in going back and I don't feel I missed anything even though I missed in total probably about an hour and a half or a bit more of the total series.
Until the later episodes most of it it's just going and coming from places without enough of a substance to me, felt like a lot of padding. They're just looking for the potential father while he's dragging the girl around and the other two are following them, and the scenes with SML's mother and all that I still don't know what they added to the plot.
The second worst thing in this drama is once again the obsession with the bloodline. At points I thought it was presenting different ideas here because of the main characters and the plot in general, only to fall into the same silly ideas with the blood and how once you see your parents "you know" just because and unconditional love and blah blah blah. Equally silly was the expectation that some dude that might be his potential father would care about him just because he gave the sperm once, this is when they were theorising what that potential father might do or not for him as well as potential inheritance. And then only in the end to go back to a father that was a piece of s*** and abandoned him back in the time. "Oh, but he did go to the school though!!" someone might say, yeah, and after he was missing he didn't move a finger to find him, and apparently didn't care about her blood daughter either. I get ML needed the closure so to speak, but he said it more in the line of getting back some kind of relationship with him again, what falls again into this korean idea that parents don't do wrong and that at the end of the day everything needs to be forgiven because they're your parents, blood and "unconditional love" again.
The whole series revolves too much around "daddy issues" and I'm not a fan of this plot device.
I get it wanted to be comedy at some points but at times it was simply bad taste to me, like how FL wanted to take that baby in the beginning or when she takes ML from the hospital towards the end.
I also didn't appreciate much the duality of going from comedy to melodrama from one scene to another. I don't like melodrama in general either but I think that the comedy bits fell even more flat at times when straight before or after everyone was having a melodramatic moment. One second they're crying about something and the next it's like it never happened and everyone is happy to then remember and cry again.
There are quite a few side characters for such a short drama and I don't feel any of them was explored in depth what it would be fine if it wasn't because it feels they wanted me to care more about them than I did. SML is explored more but it could have been better in my opinion, his whole personality is more or less following the girl all around for most of the drama and it's progressed quickly to have his ending as it is.
I liked the ML for the mess he is, but I would have liked a tiny bit of growth, why is everyone still following him around when he's trying so hard to push everyone away? just leave him get lost then. It's funny that of all the things he did that was the worst for me, because as a viewer this dynamic got repetitive. He's a bad person but a good character, but I wish there had been some progression and that we didn't get the same dynamics of him rejecting people to then leave to then the others try and follow him, it got old quickly.
FL was ok for the most part until she started annoying me with her extremely childish tantrums, she spends half the show screaming. So she might be a good character again but in her case I didn't enjoy watching her.
Her side of the story is never explored enough anyway, we're given some pieces but there is never more exploration about it. She didn't even ask the bio mother anything either, she just spent the time screaming once again. We're also not given any other answer or even conclusion to her menopause thing, because it's not a black or white topic that it's how they presented it here, she's told, that's the end apparently. Her character in general revolves too much around ML and she's just a girl with two personality traits.
The ending was expected considering how the show starts and still was a bit anti-climactic in my opinion, even more that credits scene with the car driving, it's that FL with ML's body inside or what? It also felt a bit rushed since we got so many bits of their trip in a few scenes, I really wished this had been a good chunk of the drama instead of the thugs pursuing them in the first half for example.
Overall it's not an awful drama and it can be watched. I wouldn't rewatch it personally and I wouldn't recommend to people that wants happy endings, perfect characters nor to those that might be triggered by some of the topics.
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It didn't feel right
So I came out of this drama not too enthused, but my issues weren't with the main couple not ending up together. Because this was inspired by the song of the same name, it was pretty evident to anyone who made that connection that this would be the case and we knew from early on that BIJ and NHD wouldn't be endgame. There were a lot of other things about the ending, though, that made my feelings turn sour.At the start of the drama, I was engrossed. It had a lot of charm and magic to it that motivated me to do things after watching an episode. I looked forward to it as a sort of end-of-week comfort where I could watch these characters strive to connect and grow and find themselves. Usually, I don't like youth dramas. In fact, I almost didn't watch this drama because of the 'youth' descriptors it had when it started airing and only really gave it a shot because I had a spare hour and nothing else to watch. But I surprisingly liked it. I liked the characters and their personalities, and though I really didn't care for any of the scenes where fencing was highlighted, I had fun. The side couple was easily the best part of the series, and what I appreciated about BYJ and NHD's relationship was just how good they were for each other and how, unlike a lot of romances that have been airing in recent years, they felt like they deserved each other. They built each other up and were each other's strength and support, and you could tell how much they genuinely cared about each other. I felt that if the drama decided to derail the ending of the song, it would have been earned.
It was the last 4-5 episodes where the magic died for me. The comedy was still fun but as the characters moved on from high school, everything felt bleak and miserable, like their lives were over. The issue with KYR's family that lasted, what, almost en entire episode? It felt unnecessary like they were wasting time and just trying to use it to form a rift between the main couple right as they were just getting together. We don't really get to see many scenes of NHD and BYJ dating happily before or after that incident. It was as though the drama only wanted to get them together in order to break them up as the song dictated, and that was one of the things that soured the experience the most for me. We spent twice as long agonizing over their breakup and how their relationship wouldn't work out as we did with them actually being together, and we spent even longer than that running around, trying to get them together in the first place. In the end, that disproportionate focus made their development just feel like a big waste of time. On top of that, the way the characters spoke made it feel like they thought their lives were already over the moment that they graduated. We had present-day NHD constantly talking about how carefree and happy she was back then and how it felt like they had forever, as though being an adult and having additional responsibilities meant that she couldn't enjoy her time anymore, which is probably the bleakest message I've seen from a drama in a long time.
By this point, the drama just wasn't fun to watch anymore. I sat on the last episode for a week before finally getting up the will to finish it, and I want my time back. I didn't enjoy it, and they just focused on the breakup itself. Wouldn't it have made more sense to dedicate some time to show how they got their lives on track and moved on? We heard about NHD getting married and retiring, but we never saw her husband and don't even know his name. We didn't see her fall in love again, or how this new guy was a better match for her than BYJ. We just saw that, hey, they had a kid together. He's apparently overseas on a business trip. Convenient. For BYJ, we just know that he took over NHD's mother's job and got his family back together, but we never see him in the present-day, either (I'll presume because they didn't want to recast him). Did he ever move on from NHD and fall in love with someone else? Does he have a new family, kids? Or is he just working and doing absolutely nothing else with his life? We don't really get to see many friends of his other than the ones he shares with NHD and that one guy from work, which is depressing, so it just feels sad to think about where he ended up.
Speaking of the present, was any of it really necessary? I don't think so. the actress who played NHD in the present, while pretty, didn't really feel like NHD. She felt a bit generic and was boring to watch on film, and I don't think it's really her fault. She just didn't have much to do. Her daughter was literally just there to introduce the diaries and barely has a unique personality, and in the present, we don't get to see any of the other characters because, again, they probably didn't want to recast them. Or they didn't put much thought into what they were doing now, so many years later. So if we don't get anything out of it, why is it there? We don't see how things have changed or what's happened over the years, which would be the only reason to add those modern-day scenes. Instead of adding those, I wish they used the time they spend on the modern scenes to instead give us some of that middle-ground of their relationship working before it collapsed, or some closure as to what happened to them after that breakup.
I'd also like to comment a bit on the breakup itself. As someone who was in a long-distance relationship for several years with someone who lived halfway across the world (and is now married to that someone), while I do understand their struggles, the scenes between them while they were apart and the slow-building frustration they had left me a bit... I don't know, exhausted? Separation like that is something that a lot of couples have to deal with, even more so now in today's day and age. I will concede that these days it's significantly easier to spend time with people across the world and long-distance relationships aren't as difficult as they would have been in 2001. But those issues being brought up in such extenuating circumstances as the aftermath of the 9/11 attack felt a bit... off, or cheap, or exploitative. Not being able to be with your SO because their work takes them all around the world is one thing, and I get being bitter about a relationship because of that, but in circumstances like that, knowing what BYJ was dealing with, I wasn't fond of the way NHD handled it the moment that he got back. I feel like relationship troubles should be put on the back burner when a tragedy like that is involved.
Do I disagree with them breaking up? No, not really. If she wasn't able to be supportive in that situation, then it's probably for the best. If he couldn't trust her with what he was going through and open up, then they weren't good for each other. But that's what feels so wrong to me. They WERE that supportive earlier on in their relationship before they ever started dating. They opened up to each other and were each other's strengths, and even when BYJ disappeared without a word to anyone, NHD still waited for him. So of all the ways for them to end their relationship, this way felt wrong. It didn't feel like them. If they realized they wanted different things out of a relationship and out of life and separated on good terms, that would suit this couple. But, I don't know... maybe it's just me. When the problems they encountered were so similar to what they overcame before, it soured the experience.
Overall, the last few episodes aren't really worth watching. They're not enjoyable and I found myself checking the clock multiple times, waiting for each one to end. They were too long and lost the spirit that the show started out with. Would I recommend the first 12 or so episodes? Yeah, definitely. But I wouldn't recommend the rest unless you don't have much else to do.
It had a lot of promise and spark, but I'm just not happy with it, and the issues I highlighted above soured the earlier episodes for me, so I don't think I'll ever pick it up for a re-watch. There are just too many good shows out there to spend time on one that didn't feel satisfying.
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a literal masterpiece
i’m not really sure if i can even put into words of how beautiful this show is because i’m honestly still speechless lol.i think this is the first time a show has had me hooked from the first episode. it has such a unique storyline and seeing the progression of tian and phu’s relationship was so heartwarming. this show is able to depict the purest forms of love which include patience and the fact that both of tian and phupha’s love languages are physical touch made me tear up. literally everything was perfect.
the chemistry was also fucking insane like the fact that they were able to show how much they care and love eachother without indirectly saying it is so beautiful :( the amount of symbolism too ugh theyre perfect
earthmix did an incredible job, i had no idea this was mix’s first acting role and he was seriously amazing. and earth was literally the perfect person to play phupha :’) i’m really glad he got to shine with a lead role he’s incredible!! i noticed that both earth and mix are always so hard on themselves, but i hope they know that all of their hard work payed off. their 7 years of friendship really reflected on how good they were in the show, and i love how they have such a strong bond in real life too. i’m getting to know both of them more through stuff on twitter and wow i adore them
the cinematography is something i could go on and on about but i loved it so much like there were so many pretty still shots of just the sky in the village and pretty shots of phupha and tian and i think the cinematography is the thing that makes this show even more emotional. i loved the ost’s too
also just seeing how much effort they put into making this show just makes me appreciate atots in a different way
all in all i recommend this show to everyone. we got to see a mature progression of their relationship that not many shows have. i don’t think i’ll get over this show LOL but yeah, i’m very happy :)
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1This review may contain spoilers
The story had your typical marriage-contract trope - which I'm a big fan of.^^ It was cute and really funny but later took a drastical turn and got really emotional. And because the acting -and the portraying of some situations in general- were pretty realistic, it was sometimes really hard to bear for my poor heart. xD There were even lot's of twists in the story! :) But the story is somehow better explained through the characters, since they were the strongest part of the drama._______________________
CHARACTERS
▸Moei (FL): At first she seemed like those naive, love-driven, standard-FL's. Even a little crazy/delusional. Her behaviour at the beginning even resembled those crazy SFL's. But actually underneath, she was aware the whole time that ML didn't like her. She had a pretty serious side and just swallowed everything what ML said to her. And she was intelligent and strong. Sometimes I couldn't understand some of her decisions tho. She was super interesting for me. She gave, without actually expecting something in return. Such a beautiful person. <3 And she started flirting first. hehe.
▸P'Thien (ML): He was the kinda mean ML, at least he seemed like that. He was turning down the FL. On the one hand you could feel exactly when he fell in love. And especially in the later ep's he had his character development.
▸The friend trio of the ML was hella funny! xD
▸ The evil SL's were sometimes hard to watch but bearable.
▸ AND we got a lesbian couple! :)
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CAST/ACTING
As I already mentioned the acting was pretty realistic, especially towards the end. But it was great in general! The cast was amazing. Mark sure is hot and omg, Mew is such a beautiful woman! ^0^ Their styles here really matched them well! They looked so good and natural. :3
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MUSIC
Oh my lord. Amazing! They used Slot Machine's "Yesterday" and Mark even covered it. And I love this song soo much! If anyone asks, what kind of music I like - it's this. But the other OST's were great too. Specially the opening. :)
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ALL IN ALL
Great drama! Sure it had it's flaws. A few things even didn't make sense to me (only few). But I could overlook them all since I was amazed by the overall. For me it was unique in it's ways :) Loved it. I wish we could see more dramas like that. I enjoyed watching it. And we got a very beautiful ending. (*^▽^*)
Watch it! Enjoy! ^-^
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This review may contain spoilers
I Still Like This Drama Despite The Annoying Things
I've seen my fair share of firefighting theme dramas and while this one isn't perfect and has a lot of annoying and frustrating moments for me, this is probably the better one I've seen compared to the others. To summarize my ratings, the story was good for about 25 episodes. Then fell flat the rest of the 11 episodes. Main characters were great but it's the FL's childhood best friend, the jealous reporter, & the good to bad intern were the reason the acting/cast category lost points. Lots of pointless characters or lack of character growth/progression. The music osts were pretty good overall. A lot of rescue/firefighter theme dramas tend to have good songs. Not a guarantee rewatch but I may come back to certain episodes that I enjoyed.What I like about this drama:
* The ML's character Jin Shi Chuan & the FL's character Xu Lai both have a story that was focus on and both had a conclusion. It was a healing process for both of them.
* Main couple relationship was adorable and cute once they got together. Girl chases guy for a while but there was also a small moment where the guy had to chase the girl.
* Secondary couple also had a story (more of the SFL than the SML and I also enjoy the screen time of them together. Guy chases girl which also heals her and for a small moment, girl chases guy to help heal him.
* Love the brotherhood of the firefighters. I like how they are so relaxing with each other and love to talk among each other when it came to Capitan Jin.
* I enjoy the episodes when they introduce the dogs to the firefighters and trained with them
* The music osts were great. I enjoyed listen to every intro and ending ost when watching an episode.
What annoyed me about this drama:
* Xu Lai seemed a bit stalkerish in the beginning and made the first several episodes hard to watch. She wasn't much different from her childhood best friend who had a crush on her.
* The love rival for Shi Chuan aka Xu Lai's childhood best friend Huo being delusional thinking he has a chance with her despite Xu Lai specifically stating she doesn't seem him as someone she could fall in love with but just as a bro. Bad writing on this character since the writers stalled his progression until around Ep 29.
* Breakup of the main couple that lasted 3 episodes. The old, I don't want to be a burden to you so that's why I'm breaking up with you cliche.
* The failure of the 3rd couple featuring Huo due to the lack of growth and progression in his character and not moving on from the crush he had on Xu Lai after being rejected.
* Stupid jealous witch reporter: A minor villain who served no purpose in this drama other than to annoy the viewers. You can easily take her out of the drama and this drama wouldn't be affected. A case of bad writing and adding nonsense to a drama that wasn't needed.
* The anger from the camera man intern: What was the point of this? He all of the sudden gets bad at Xu Lai, who he was interning under, for something that's beyond her control? This is another case of stupid writing because his character wasn't even significant enough to be shown he had a problem.
* Another case of wedding not fully being complete because of a sudden call for an emergency. Seriously? Why do Chinese writers keep putting this scenario towards the end of the drama?
* Story plot stalled. Repetitive things happening once the main issues for Shin Chuan & Xu Lai were resolved. It almost seemed like the writers ran out of ideas and started to repeat things towards the last several episodes. Examples: Stupid jealous reporter returning to cause trouble, Huo not giving up on Xu Lai, etc.
The problem I have with rescue or firefighter themes drama is there's seemed to never be enough rescue missions. The writers did a good job showing it in the beginning only to rarely show it in the middle and towards the end. I did like the episodes where the firefighter rescue squad met and train with their dogs, but even then, there wasn't much mission with the dogs as well. That's a bit disappointing considering there's a dog on the drama poster. I kind of wanted more involvement with the dogs but it is what it is.
Despite all of that, I still enjoyed it, mostly because of the main couple, secondary couple, and the firefighters. Their cute & silly moments are the reason why I manage to continue this drama despite all of the other frustrations. The ending could've been better but at least it's a good ending.
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This review may contain spoilers
Even if it’s hard, you have to push through
First and foremost, I’ll started this review by summarise this movie as a “brilliant work”. One of the best movies I’ve encountered so far in 2022. Discover this movie while scrolling my tiktok, and it appears on my fyp with quite number of views. I attracted to watch this one because it gave me Miracle In Cell No.7 vibes. Instantly, I searched it in the available streaming and begin to watch.From the moment it started, you instantly know that this movie will take a different turn, one that will begin in tragedy and possibly end with a tragedy too. I’ve watched countless of sad endings drama and movies, therefore, I expect nothing out of this ‘inmate’ background story. “It might be so cliché..” that’s what I thought at the first. But the moment, I saw the female lead got involved in the tragedy, I started to panicking and it feels like I’m at the edge of my seat; curious and anxious of what to happen next.
Imo, this movie successfully conveyed its messages. The reality of our life, how law usually works regardless and based of the circumstances, and how difficult it is for the victims to continue their life haunted by the tragedy that happened to them. Also, the life inside of the prison, that every characters in this movie managed to execute really well and bring the story come to alive. I would like to give a huge applause to actress Hong Ye Ji, read somewhere that this is her first debut in film, and I couldn’t believed it that she could nailed this heavy role in her first project. Tell ya, the moment she started crying, without realising, I cried along with her. Also, Kim Ji Young bring a role as a mom who’s deaf, deserved the same credit. Both characters without a doubt will give you some trauma. I’m not joking though.
Other than that, the side characters are equally important in this movie, the whole squad of room 10 totally warmth my heart. Even though, they always bickering and throwing curse to one another, I love the way the keep protecting each other especially the maknae. They all have their own story to tell, but I totally understand why this movie didn’t highlight much of the side characters’ background stories. After all this movie focusing about inmate 2307. I love watching the interaction between the inmates of room 10 but seeing Jeon Somin bringing a character close to depict herself make me burst out loud.
Overall, what I can say, you should experience yourself to know what this movie will make you feel. The production team really put enormous efforts to produce this brilliant work that offers a great storyline with an amazing line up. The ending even though quite confusing for some, but I would say it gives us, the audiences, the choice to interpret it, how we would like to see the ending based on our interpretations. Last but not least, there’s always a rainbow in the sky, after a gloomy weather and the rainbow can be seen even from the darkest place. Even if it’s hard, you have to push through. You should live well.
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I liked the motion capture, the faces and gestures are just great. And the characters are presented and developed without over explaining, anything BUT the classic Hollywood style.
There are several plot twist and, depending on the translation project you're watching, you'll understand more or less so I would recommend you to pay attention to the subtitles.
The ending comes with several revelations, and a closing that suggests a second movie. I hope it comes soon because I had a great time with the characters and I'd love to know what happens next.
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