Reviews

Tempering Man-Made Insanity With Calm Acceptance and A Belief of Inner Goodness

- Positives -
❤️ Visually stunning cinematography
❤️ Strong ost evoking deep emotion
❤️ FL that can admit that a past life action doesn't deserve current life punishment

- Negatives -
😮‍💨 Story plotlines are thin and often leave the audience to fill in the gaps themselves
😮‍💨 More than one of the antagonists are underdeveloped, serving as a plot device rather than a character

- Description -
With a visually stunning and emotionally graphic first episode, this show sets the stage for a tale of twisted insanity under the belief it's love. While little time is actually spent in this first life, it leaves an impression of shock upon the viewer and a lingering question of how the rebirth will play out after our female lead has experienced what she has.

If there is a true negative it may be that the opening scenes and a few minor additional flashbacks are the extent of the knowledge gained about the first life. This causes a perpetual question to be raised about whether the female lead had ANY feelings for the male lead in the original life. It is because of this lack of clarity that there becomes a disconnect in the second life towards why she would suddenly soften 'simply' because he is acting 'less' insane in this new life.

As such, when watching two emotions will be at war depending upon how you view the original events:
1) Being swept away by the romance presented on the screen as it is shown developing at surface level
- or -
2) Being annoyed or angry the female lead went 'soft' on the male lead and 'fell' for him.

Because the show is marketed as a romance, she notices differences AND similarities in him as compared to the original life and utilizes her knowledge to her advantage so that she can work towards calming his mind BEFORE it reaches the point of full insanity. Due to this, one of the more frustrating aspects ends up being that in the second act she is relegated to a more passive role. Gone is her ability to go anywhere or do anything proactive so her scenes take place when he returns to speak with her.

Ultimately, the person who will enjoy this most is one who doesn't 'mind' the brutality the male lead used against the female lead. Likewise, being able to turn off 'some' of your brain is required because of the narrative structure demanding a bit of "just go with it". Finally, being okay with a lack of details and being required to fill the dots yourself is extremely helpful.

Read More

Have you ever thought about your future? Han Seung Wan and Jung Se Jin have and they are determined to fullfil their dreams of becoming a pilot and a diplomat.
But both never thought of ending up with a comlete stranger in a hotel in Singapur. That one night changes the lives of the two!
Now Seung Wan and Se Jin have to live what other ppl do the reversed way. Falling in love, dating, marrying and than having a baby out of love.
This drama is different from the dramas I have watched before. The charcters are very nice and suit their actors very good. The girl actress is very cute and though she is definitly not a professional she gives you goosebumps at some scenes.
Throughout the drama I smiled, laughted, got angry and cried.
This drama doesn`t seem like a high scale production, but with its cute and (in my opinion) believable story it makes up for all the missing glimglim.
Ohh, and the fact that this drama is not a constante good girl/boy beats bad girl/boy or bad girl/boy beats good girl/boy makes it much better.

Read More

I love stories with Sign Language. I think it is a beautiful form of communication. I tried to find books to learn it, but there are so many  (American, British, Spanish, Mexican) so I am not sure which one to  get. Anyway, I strongly recommend this dorama to people who watched/read "Koe no Katachi" and loved it. The big difference is that this story is not in school, but the adult life of a deaf girl. How she starts to be part of the society (by working), how she meets her future husband, how other people who meet her starts to learn Sign Language. How hard for her is to become a mother, to be married, etc. The story is  simple, yet beautiful. I shed many tears while watching it, and it is not because it is a sad story. No, it is simply because there are certain scenes that were too emotional. Like when her future-mother-in-law comes to Mieko's house to ask her to please not marry her son. Like the speech Mieko's daughter gives at school, both  out loud and with signs. And all the times someone talks to her (thru  signs) for the first time: Hirofumi, his mother, the doctor, etc. It was so poignant every time someone tried their best to talk to her.Kanno Miho is the sweetest girl and best fit for this role. She cries many times throughout the 5 episodes, but they all were understandable. Since she is deaf, she has little confidence in herself, and for every mistake or hardship that brings her deafness to the people she loves, she blames  herself. Thank Godness she marries the most patient and sweetest guy on  Earth. Besides her, I loved, LOVED the mothers: her mother and  her mother-in-law. Strong women who loved Mieko, and some time later,  their granddaughter. My favorite episodes were 1, 2 and 3. I have watched Episode 1 twice (I finished this a couple of days ago, and  rewatched Ep. 1 yesterday). There are only 5 episodes, 1 hour and 30  minutes long. First episode is from 1997, 2nd from 1998, 3rd from 1999,  4th from 2000 and the last one from 2001. Like most people, I prefer to watch recent dorama, but it is for the quality of the video only. In regards to story, oldies are better: they are simpler, they are sweeter.  Romance is much better without cellphones and other technologies. For  example, in this dorama, there are no cellphones, so Mieko and Hirofumi  send each other faxes to talk at night. Isn't that cute? The song "I just called to say I love you" fit the dorama perfectly. Beautiful story, totally recommended!

Read More

an indie mini series done right

Overall: I enjoyed how this was centered on the main leads (no love triangles/cliche female characters/random side plots). 7 episodes about 10 minutes each. Aired on GND Studio YouTube channel https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-UjFgW8TJEcVMXRV63uoHXg7rXv7mwll&si=9uCOLI4bRiXQRyBd

Content Warning: non con touching

What I Liked
- centered on the 2 leads
- made me chuckle a few times
- good way to show time passing
- realistic way to show a character was queer
- protagonists apologized
- good kissing (that last kiss was awesome)
- production value

Room For Improvement
- started with a flash forward
- with such short episodes, they should have released at least 2 per week
- a continuity error with hand placement when the one guy was reading the comic
- the not respecting boundaries/acting a little too carefree (it made a little more sense with the revelation in the final episode but the other character didn't know that earlier)
- odd that they camera blocked the cheek kiss
- episode 6 could have been better spent instead of the jealousy stuff
- cliche end of episode 4 plot point (had plenty of time to explain)

Read More

As a person who loved the original this version did a good job adapting this drama. This drama probably has the worse second male lead syndrome. As I try to wrap my head over why the FL picked the ML still hurts. In most dramas I could always find a reason to pick the ML over the SML but in this specific drama it's hard, for both this version and the korean version. When comparing the two versions, each one had their own strong points. I think the original will always be more satisfying and chilling. Kim Sohyun really delivered. Plus the korean ost just gives goosebumps. On the other hand, I liked Gun and Krist's interpretation of the characters more. Nam Joohyuk was a rather dull and boring character, I honestly don't remember him doing much in the drama. While Krist is also quite dull I feel like in the Thai version we get a more in-depth look into Natee's character. My absolute favorite is Gun, he did so well playing a troubled kid. Sungjae and Kay's portrayal of the character were quite different. Gun made me love his character even more. It's sad that the first person he opened up to (Mild) didn't pick him. In the perfect world, Mild would pick Gun and Natee and Mean would end up together. Gun was always there for her and they went through so much together. Gun loved Mild for Mild while Natee fell for Mild thinking she was Mean. Idc what anyone says about Natee falling for the real Mild because he loved Mean first and he continued loving Mild while thinking shes's the real Mean, Natee getting a sweet and nice Mean was just a plus for him. Gun on the other hand noticed the difference and loved only Mild. In my opinion Natee should've ended up with Mean because that's who he loved and the one who helped and gave him hope in life. In the Thai version it didn't seem like Mean liked Natee but in the original you can't deny that Eunbyul did have feelings for Yian.

Overall, I still prefer the korean version but I admit the Thai isn't that bad.

Read More

Another hidden Gem. Got too many laughs in the beginning but too much sweetness in the end.

At first, im kind of bored in its first episodes but its fine cos it gets better and better every after ep. I watched this because its romcom and its my first kim jae wook drama to watch too. I'm so glad I pushed myself to watch this. I really enjoyed watching this drama so much and very satisfied. I will never get tired watching repeatedly my fave scenes on every episodes. I can't get over Shinah's craziness, I think she got anger issues haha. Ilpum Edu CEO and the private investigator are so funny, they're my faves. Every mon-tue was exciting. They did a nice job for its story, development and character development. It's so warming to see the closure between each characters. Loving gojin & shin ah's relationship so much, they're too sweet for me. They're so cute, loving, supportive, and understanding. Their chemistry is on fire. They're gonna be one of my fave kdrama couples now. I wanna see their wedding at the end tho.

I freaking love all of the osts too. Especially Jay B's Dive into you, Baekho's Bite! and I'm crazy by two of the members of AB6IX. It was nice to see Krystal eonnie to sing too after so many years, I hope they get to released her full cover of the song she sang in the drama.

Read More

I was going through my reviews today and I suddenly realized I haven't written a review for this movie. This was actually the first Korean movie I ever watched (ok, technically The Host was the first Korean movie I ever watched, but that time when I watched it, I didn't even know it was Korean, so that barely counts. haha).

Anyways, it was truly the first movie EVER that completely bowled me over. I didn't know any actors, so there was no star power involved. It was just the power of the plot and the amazing acting. It was such a beautiful story with the right kind of direction to make the audience (that would be me) cry throughout the second half (yes I did) and make the audience (again me) come back to watch it over and over (I have watched it thrice already).

Ok, so some might be wary of watching this, thinking that it's probably a sad, sad movie that would leave you depressed for a long time. Well, I don't think so. I mean, the movie is pretty sad and the ending is very emotional, but I think you would be very satisfied with it.

And if you're still not convinced and feel that it might be boring and feel that I might be that person who cries easily during a drama/movie, well, you are certainly right (about the latter). But I made my friends watch it too and some of them are pretty tough nuts and even they broke down while watching. So yeah, it's an emotional journey of a newly married couple which I don't think anyone would hate or find boring.

And if I inspired you to watch this movie and you watched it and you loved it, don't forget to send me a message. Although, don't send me a message if I inspired you, you watched and HATED it. hehe. Hope I helped ;)

Read More

1080P story with 360P portrayal ?‍? Actors are 4K tho!

Edit/Overall: My complaint has been the same since day 1....too much story, too less time, hence skipping too much and only having canon shots. Other than that, the leads have been bomb since second 1. The supporting cast just supports like some columns to a building and do nothing more which is a little disappointing. But again it's a very big story but in 8 eps and we can't expect the writers to give big portions to the supporting cast. While I still love the manhwa more than the live adaption, I would still suggest you to watch it atleast once. It's good to watch it once.
Overall the series is OK.

Is it okay to write a review while only one episode of the show has come out?

I was very excited for this show for a long OBVIOUSLY because of the manhwa. I decided to make a weekly review if edits are allowed on reviews on MDL. If not it's still kwenchana. Go watch the series!

Ep 1: I liked the casting. Especially the mum. She looks so young man 🥲 for 49. I loved how they cut short a lotttt of scenes into just a few dialogues making the series jump to the main story right from the first episode ending. Can't wait for the second yay!

Ep 2: I was a little late with some work but here is it. There's nothing much canon in this episode, it's more like getting into the story that's it. We have two or three scenes which tell us about the pattern of the leads. So far it's all good. I personally LOVED the leads. The height difference is ✨ I think the series won't cover all life like the manhwa but would only focus till the time they get together or so. I liked the outro song. It's got really simple lyrics and simple meaning ❤️

Ep 3: This episode is quite disappointing to me. I understand they are skipping a lot of stuff just to focus on the main plot but in this episode the skipping game went overboard. There's a lot of things that missed pieces. Suddenly ML's friends knew that the MC and ML stay together? And in the camping the mom goes missing all the time and appears to deliver three dialogues? Kinda disappointing but let's see..

Ep 4: Hi besties! I'm back with ep 4 review. It is soft and goes really calm. The plot itself is really calming and the leads did right justice to it. But I still feel the lack of continuity from one scene to another. It might be because of the need to fit the whole story into 8 episodes. There could have been a better transition from one scene to another. For now that's a complaint. They got closer by ep 4, have to see how they'll tackle it here on. Also, I guess they made modifications in the story, as per the ep 5 preview. I'll be back soon!!

Ep 5: A big complaint I have is on Tae Sung who doesn't do/put his dishes away after finishing them. This episode felt extremely rushed to me. Extremely. As I already have the basic outline of manhwa (outline cause I forgot the details of it too, I read it a long back) I could comprehend the story pretty well. But if I were someone to watch it without knowing about the manhwa NGL I'll be pretty annoyed and drop the title. What does the mother do? Why does she always run away from here to there? Very accepting friends who can just get everything in an instant and get accustomed to the new changes? The noona from hae boms part time, she knows what he is going through with no single dialogue???? And Hae Bom changes his mind/answer within a few minutes of screen time??? SHOW US SOME GODDAMN BACKSTORY!! Sorry for yelling (caps mean yells). I mean yeah, I understand the time/episode limitation. But too much skippage (Idk if it's a word XD) is something that is taking away the essence of the story. There's no angst, I feel. It's just too much of 'having a question/problem', & 'finding it's answer/solution within the same episode'. But despite all this rush, they STILL managed to picture Tae Sung as the guy who reflects on his actions and apologizes. I really liked it when he said sorry for what he did. That's some green flag nature. We love green flag people. So yeah, if we exclude the extremely rushed plot or the ornamental support roles, the series even at ep 5 is still worth it to watch; Atleast once. And putting it here again, the leads are wonderful. They're not only attractive but are acting real real good. How is Hae Bom such a pretty cry-er? 🥺😭

Ep 6: It felt extremely sped up. The series is just jumping from one canon scene to another. I am not liking it much now. But I guess I'll still complete it

Ep 7: Why are they so cute? Actors and story are a 10/10 it's the time skippage and only filming canon scenes took away the whole flavour 😔

Read More

I don’t know how I survived this

Poor, poor writing. Like, worse than TharnType when it came to trying to do anything shocking with a potential villain character. I didn’t think anything could be worse than TharnType. And the sound design! What in the name of Christ were they drinking when they put that together?! It felt like an American soap opera from the 70s with the bad attempts at dramatic background music. The editing was pretty bad, too.

The whole story in general was confusing as hell (and the terrible subs didn’t help). So, both mains were actually just terrible people who somehow changed but didn’t change each other? And everyone around them basically bows to their every wish and agrees with them? Like, I get the whole “I need to help my boyfriend remember” but, Itt, mate, the relationship wasn’t good at any point from the looks of things? Also, the whole flashback thing can work in some shows, but because of how bad the editing (and hair styling) was, it really just got a bit annoying and confusing.

Also, wayyyyy too many characters were comfortable with sexual assault in this; Nan literally kept Mac as a sex slave against his will and no one but Itt seemed upset by it. (Yes? I know Mac tried to assault Itt but I feel like there are better ways to punish someone.) Then to pull the whole ‘but they’re actually in love’ thing? Sorry, I hated it in KinnPorsche and I hate it now.
Also, whilst I don’t think the series shows too much, Day very obviously assaulted Itt when they first met - that’s physical and sexual assault, plus kidnapping to an extent.

Other than Night, Nick and Neil, I feel like every character in this show is just a horrible person.

I normally love Frank, but for the love of all that is sacred, if I have to hear about cake once more, or hear the whiny way he says ‘Day’…it’s like this show took a bunch of pretty good actors and said, “let’s make the worst thing ever!” To top it off, Nick is reading a Fifty Shades book, which is the epitome of bad, non-consensual BDSM. It’s like the series writers did no research.

In all honesty, I don’t know why I kept up with this and didn’t just quit. I felt like I owed it to Frank and Long to watch it, I guess? I mean, there were some funny bits, but I honestly think this may be one of the worst Thai dramas I have ever seen. It really tried to be TharnType, KinnPorsche and Love in the Air and failed at it all. With each scene I could feel my soul draining away. Shout out to my brother for dealing with me constantly sending him voice notes of laughter at how terrible this was.

Read More

New comfort show perhaps?

This is honestly the first time I'm writing a review for a kdrama because I feel like this show needs more people to see it. I know because of whatever reasons it didn't air anymore and you can only watch it on prime video (or by other more orthodox means like I have cause I don't wanna put money in amazon's pocket lmao), but if you can find a way to watch it I highly recommend it!!

I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I have, but the overall vibe of it is so heartwarming and comforting and feels like such a warm hug that I can honestly say it's gonna become one of my comfort shows <3 It's generally a very fun and positive series, and while it does tackle some pretty heavy topics (although not all of them in the best way imo), I never felt drained of energy like I usually tend to feel when such subjects are depicted in other dramas.

[SPOILERS AHEAD LOL] My biggest issues with it would be the whole fatphobia surrounding Suri's character cause I'm still not quite sure if the writers were trying to criticize it or not (since none of the characters who fatshamed her ever apologized or acknowledged their behaviour). Another would be them casting a cis man to play a trans character (not that I was expecting much from a kdrama, the fact that they even touched on this subject would be considered impressive enough on its own), and the whole sexual abuse storyline that imho concluded (?) a little too hastily. [END OF SPOILERS LOL]

Other than that, most of the main and supporting characters were all very likeable (or became likeable pretty quickly), the format of having each episode focus on a certain theme was really interesting, and the very soothing voice of the lady doing the narration gave me a sense of comfort that I find really hard to describe. One particular episode that reflected that the best for me was episode 10, "How would you like your hair done?", where there was a heavy rainstorm happening outside, but it felt like the salon was a safe haven where you felt protected and cared for no matter the dangers that awaited when you stepped outside.

This got very long, but my general point is: watch this if you're looking for a sweet, fun and (mostly) lighthearted series that you can come back to on sad rainy days. And if you wanna fall in love with an OST and then curse the powers that be at JTBC for never properly airing this drama and, as a consequence, never releasing the soundtrack :)) Please I beg someone tell me there's a way for me to get my hands on this OST or I will cry :))

Read More

Where can I begin with this movie. I loved it! The story was so beautiful and tragic, I was crying into my blanket about half the time! I'm not sure how to review this movie without giving away spoilers so I'll just say that it is a must see!

Kazuya Kamenashi as Yuuki is amazing. One of his best acting roles I think I've ever watched him in. He is such and optimistic character, and thinks of others before himself even though he is very ill.

If you don't cry at least one single tear before this movie is over, then you have no soul. It's a really, really great movie!

Read More

HPL was the first drama I watched on air and it gave me something to look forward to each week. Especially since it airs during the middle of the week, for the weeks I followed this drama my Wednesdays and Thursdays got ten folds better. This drama made me excited and happy for the most part, especially during the first ~3/4 of the show. The relationship between DM and RG is so wholesome and so beautiful to watch, and that’s what really made the show. There are also many aspects of the show that try to incorporate some more family scenes and themes, however I found them lacking compared to the main romance and also a little odd. Just seemed a bit out of place and I skipped through a lot of it. Especially towards the end when the focus of the story became less romance more drama, I didn’t particularly enjoy it.

That being said, while the story was not the greatest the acting and every scene between the main couple was sooooo good. I literally fell in love with their love. Their relationship is so honest and so sweet, and it can be seen that they genuinely always care about each other. I loved their interactions sm to the point where I really really hope they are a real couple, they act so naturally. I have watched every single bts released so far and they just look so goddamn natural and happy together and that’s what made this show great. This is what made me happy watching this show.

The cast for this show was phenomenal and while I didn’t like some characters and maybe they weren’t needed the actors/actresses that played them played them relatively well. I don’t particularly like any other character besides the main leads and perhaps Cha Shi An and the child. The music was also wonderful and matched very well, my two favorite songs in the OST are maybe (a must listen) and smile again. The rewatch value is a bit low because while I loved watching their romance, since the story isn’t really there I feel that it doesn’t really make me want to rewatch the drama. Totally recommend this show for those that love love romance !

Read More