Started as a comedy it turned into pure melo. This is slow-paced yet beautifully done. Son Mu Han really grew on me.
Coming to the acting this is my first drama of Kam Woo Sung. He did exceptionally well. I'm going to check out his other works. Kim Sun Ah as always she nailed it. (I'm a fan of her.) Their chemistry is no joke. All portrayed their roles well.
Music is so good. No matter how good the drama is if there's no good music it won't be remembered well. This drama has many beautiful tracks. Totally loved the music.
Whenever I feel down will re-watch this for sure. It made me feel optimistic about life.
Beautiful story, beautiful acting, beautiful music and beautiful cinematography. That's what Should We Kiss First? is.
P. S: Loved the 'City Hall' references. The city hall station and the beauty pageant.
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The main reason for this is the character of Daimon Michiko played by Yonekura Ryoko. She makes the wide-eyed, constantly calm, mysterious and confident character (she goes dancing every night!!) so captivating that u just want to know more about her. The story seems extremely realistic but different at the same time.
The other actors too have done a pretty good job in playing their parts. This drama mainly shows us how Daimon Michiko does her job as a doctor without being hindered by the bureaucratic nature of the hospital.
This drama is a MUST watch because trust me it will always keep you interested. (She is kinda like a super hero :P)
I'm eagerly waiting for the next episodes!!
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Soulful and at the same time ruthless KMovie at its finest
Wonderful actors are showing us their full range in "My 11th Mother" / "11th Mom." It's a shame that we haven't seen much from the young talent Kim Young-chan since then... Together with Kim Hye-soo, he offers chamber theater at its finest, going under the skin for long stretches. Here, action takes place inside sort of. So even though without much (seemingly) happening on the outside, time flies by just like that.In this KMovie with deliberate realistic appeal, South Korea shows one of its rather bleak living environments at the lower end of the social pyramid. "11th Mom" offers space for a twisted, basic, yet truthful love amidst a fundamentally desolate setting in this rundown neighborhood of Seoul, where there seems to be no place for the sun to shine. Thus, eventually the faces of the hopeless nevertheless start to shine, too. All of a sudden, their everyday life is no longer just dull, as there is actually some happiness for the protagonists coming along their path. True enough, there is still plenty of sad stuff going on, however there is this joy all around the awareness of being loved, too.
The bonding between the eleven-year-old Jae-su and his 11th stepmother-against-her-will is giving both their lives direction, is offering warmth, and is even healing their wounded hearts. Actually that much so that the tormented Jae-su can somehow forgive his blustering, abusive, gambling-addicted, screwed and irresponsible father in the end.
Soulful and at the same time ruthless KMovie at its finest! Despite plenty of makeup, we are presented with unadorned, bruised, yet amazingly still intact human hearts. Fantastic: the finely nuanced, rough, and at the same time frail rapprochement between Jae-su and his stepmother against expectation.
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Heartwarming Family Drama
The drama with the highest rating of the season. And it deserved it. Not only because Ayase Haruka is and will be forever Japan's favorite girl, but because this was funny and sweet and with zero drama and a real representative of a Japanese Slice of Life Drama.The story is divided in two parts, so it was like Season 1 and Season 2 together. From ep01 to ep05 is one timeline, and from ep06 to 10 is another, 9 years later (that was a total surprise for me!). I adored "Season 1" and it was my favorite. Akiko-san trying, first, to be accepted as a stepmom to Miyuki, and then, her first duties as a mother. I love the little girl who played Miyuki (Yokomizo Naho), awesome actress! She behaved like a little girl behaves, not like a smart-ass girl who talks like an adult. My favorite episodes were 2 and 3: ep2 because I loved the little "game" Akiko-san and Miyuki played at the supermarket, and ep3, because of the "battle" of Akiko against the Parents Association.
Ep 06 was a total shock to me because of the time-slip and because of... well, change of actors. Still, the actress who played older Miyuki was really good and likeable (Hiroki-kun too. Both boy and older boy are so cute!), and some of her expressions resembled her younger-self (both girls have big eyes). I liked how Akiko-san starts working again; her role in the bakery was amazing, totally plausible. I love how everything she does, it is because she is thinking in her daughter. And everything Miyuki does, she always has her stepmom in mind. They may not be blood-related, but their love for each other was as strong as a blood-related mother and daughter have.
If there has to be a minus it would be that Akiko-san looks the same after the time-slip. Same as Shimoyama-san (even the highlights in her hair...)
In spite of the many comedic scenes, there were also some touching scenes :( I am still not sure of the ending, only because I did not fully understand it. I know that it was a "miracle" too, but why? What does the train ticket mean??
All actors were excellent, except for Takeru Sato. I think goofy roles don't suit him. I noticed that some "cool" actors, like him, do wonderfully in action and cool roles, but when it comes to goofy roles... nah. And too bad he had to go and fall in love. I mean, it provided many funny scenes XD but Akiko-san and Ryuchi forever <3 And I was disappointed since I truly thought he was going to be some kind of angel, the one who was going to bring a miracle into Akiko-san's and Miyuki's lives. I guess he sort of did, but not the way I wanted. And at the end, it was really Akiko who was like a miracle to him.
The little touches, like the miracles (I thought it was going to have a bigger role, like **coughcoughthefathercoughcough**), and minor characters, like Taguchi-kun, were very nice. I actually laughed out loud several times with Taguchi-kun, he was a silly sweetheart :)
The OST was excellent, I want it. And the funny one made the scene even funnier XD I did not pay attention to the ED song tbh.
So overall, first part is a 10 and second part is a 9 for me. I love this kind of "non-drama" drama :D
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When it comes to J-dramas, I would fall into the 'beginner' category. So while I won't be able to tell you how good or bad it was as compared to other typical J-dramas, I'll try my best to tell you what I enjoyed in this drama.
THE STORY:
The plot-line of the drama is certainly a unique one. It's not everyday you see a drama where God Himself appears to help two people fall in love.
The drama follows Makoto who seemingly has the worst luck when it comes to women. It's not until a person claiming to be God appears before him that he finds out why. According to God, Makoto's bad luck in women is because he hasn't met his 'soul-mate' yet. Imagine his surprise when he finds out that his destined person works in the same office building as him, and they have met several times before, even without both of them knowing. Now, when it comes to making her fall in love with him, well, that's no easy feat, giving the fact that she cringes at the word 'destiny' alone.
THE CHARACTERS:
There are 3 main characters for this- Makoto (male lead), Haruko (female lead) and God.
-Makoto's character was a dedicated one. He was ready to do just about anything to make Haruko fall in love. And not just with her, his efforts to win over Haruko's dad as well as her best friend, were really commendable.
-Haruko's character may seem a bit annoying, at first, given that she pushes away our main lead repeatedly, when we know that he's such a good person. But try to imagine the situations from her perspective. A stranger comes along, and says stuff about them being 'destiny', her reaction was completely logical. Ofcourse, the circumstances in which her previous relationship ended, sure didn't help the situation, either. Despite of it all, she came to know him as a person and finally
-God's character was....awesome. He was my favorite character in the drama. And that's all I can say without spoiling anything.
-The supporting characters like Sadaoka, Sekihara, Mitsue etc, were also really interesting to watch. Specially their comedy parts.
THE PACING:
-The drama consisted of only 10 episodes. And the pacing was good.
-The twist they pulled out in the last few ep...Did not see it coming. It was perfect.
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THE CON(s):
- Even though I understood the decisions the female lead male, her character was still somewhat frustrating. It just felt like her indecisive phase stretched for a bit too long.
-Unfortunately, for me, the bromance eclipsed the romance part of the drama. Although, that's not to say that the romance part was not interesting. But more like, I loved the bromance way more than the romance.
-This one is not really a con, but I wish they'd shown more of Ichirou in the last ep.
All in all, this was an enjoyable watch. I hope you give this a try.
Happy Watching!
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I understand that the drama is special because it is collaboration between Japan and Korea, and it shows that the relationship between these two countries is complicated, which makes the relationship between the two main characters complicated as well. That’s why I felt that I learned a few things from it, but I wish the conflict had been explored more; that the story had been deeper. I won’t go as far as calling it plot holes, but near enough…
The basic plot is good – two young people from different countries meet and fall in love, only to discover that being in a relationship isn’t always easy. Especially not a long distance relationship, since that is another complication in and of itself. However, I feel that the story was too rushed. Sometimes, the characters did and said things that didn’t quite make sense, and many of the expected misunderstandings and conflicts seemed stupid and plain ridiculous, because it was hard to understand the character’s motivations. If the characters had talked more with each other, and explained their ways of thinking (and not to mention the differences in their respective cultures) it would have been easier to relate to them and that would in turn have made the drama more interesting to watch. I feel that we are expected to understand everything without any explanations, but just like Tomoko, I found myself confused a lot of the time.
I liked the acting, though. The actors did a good job, and this was the first time I watched anything Korean (MDL has labelled this as “Japanese”, but they do speak Korean about half the time) so it was interesting because of that, too.
So, to sum it up: the drama had its good points, the ending was satisfactory and the first episode was excellent. Overall, though, I found it to be a bit disappointing, and I wouldn't want to re-watch it because I would only be annoyed by the same things all over again.
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Highly entertaining
Very likeable characters portrayed by skillful actors. Especially Park Ji-Hoon who was amazing as usual. The humor was right up my alley, and the pace was good enough. But most of all I enjoyed the interactions between the characters. I haven't served in the military, but I like to imagine the friendships and bonds shown in this series might be similar to those in real life. I felt like I was included in that dynamic a bit while watching.Was this review helpful to you?
Unique plot for a historical drama about getting the throne
Acting:I LOVED this drama, Park Ji Hoon's acting was amazing, I thought I wouldn't like Hong Ye Ji's acting because I've only heard bad stuff about it, but her acting was good. Her character is an assassin, it makes sense why she wouldn't really be very expressive. The ML is either possessed or has another personality (I am not sure, but I think historically they'd say a person is possessed if they had another personality), he went through a rollercoaster of emotions throughout the drama and expressed them amazingly well, I especially loved his portrayal of Ak Hee.
Plot:
The plot was really unique for a historical drama focusing on 2 'brothers' trying to get the throne. A lot of historical dramas about Kings/Prince's have this type of plot, but this one was unique mostly because it had a very soft ML.
Sajo Hyun did not like violence at all and hated how horrible of a King his father was, and I don't think he ever changed, he just stopped being meek. He also did not want the throne, neither of his personalities did, one wanted to make clothes and the other just hated politics (though he was very good at it). Honestly, there wouldn't have even been a fight for the throne had the Grand Prince (the brother) just been a decent person.
I loved Ak Hee, I had SLS for Ak Hee, but Sajo Hyun grew on me later on in the drama when he started to develop a lot of the attributes I like about Ak Hee. Ak Hee was such a hilarious (and adorable) character. I loved his sarcasm and his attitude, he was a mood. He truly did not care about anyone but Kyera/ Yeon Wol, I hated that she never saw his feelings as sincere. Ak Hee is treated as though he is the human embodiment of greed, and nothing else despite the fact that he is able to feel love and pain. He was only treated like a human at the begining of the drama, but later on he is treated as though he is just an evil spirit, and not part of Sajo Hyun.
There were a lot of plot twists in this drama, you don't really know whether Ak Hee is good or bad , if anything he was just greedy, which made him anxious, which made him do stupid things.
I also did not hate the Princess Consort, I didn't like her at all at the start, but then you get to see that even though she is selfish, she is not a bad person and she is also not really the MLs love interest. She had a lot of character development despite not having much on screen time.
I think the only thing I did not like about this drama was how Sajo Hyun and Ak Hee did not even try to understand Yeon Wol's hate of Sajo Hyun's father. Her hate and revenge were completely justified, though the vengeance itself was not very satisfying.
SPOILER - Ending:
I loved the ending of this drama. I never expected a satisfying happy ending for this type of drama, but this one had one.
Though Ak Hee is sort of killed of (I interpreted it as Sajo Hyun becoming mentally strong enough to no longer need Ak Hee), by the end of the drama Sajo Hyun becomes a lot like Ak Hee, and the pathological lying and greed aside, Ak Hee also becomes somewhat like Sajo Hyun.
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Royal Feast is a good drama
After watching this drama for a while, I must admit it is a good drama. I didn't like it that much in the beginning but continued watching it because of Xu Kai. Over time as I watched more and more, I got the theme of the drama and I started really liking it. This drama gets better and better. In the middle it was kind of frustrating on the interaction between the leads; but after episode 32 or so, things smoothed up. I think it's because the drama is supposed to follow a history line and one must have some background on what went on behind the characters or real people portrayed by the FL and ML. Now, it does requires a good understanding of Chinese, I felt it uses a very highly complicated language in the beginning of the drama. I think not having a good translation may have had added the frustration of some audiences. On my own, I'll give it a 9.9 :DWas this review helpful to you?
STORY: It details the lives of the two main characters and their group of friends through roughly ten episodes set in high school, ten in college, and the last ten as they start their careers. I really love how this was split because it really feels like you are with the characters as they grow and mature throughout the story. (Not sure if this will be fixed later, but the synopsis on this site is slightly incorrect). There's really no villain, rather the story is driven by time and the changes in the characters as they mature.
ACTING/CAST: I'm sure the male lead is pretty recognizable from the very popular dramas Love O2O and Guardian. The female lead, however, is relatively new to acting and she's VERY good. In fact, most if not all of the acting in this drama is really natural. Granted, they look a little too old to be playing in the first arc as high schoolers, but ignoring that fact, they really make you believe in these characters.
MUSIC: It was quite good actually. If I remember correctly, they had the leads each do a song. There was nothing I particularly loved but the songs fit well into the drama.
Overall, I think this drama is very well made and pretty underappreciated. Sure, it's a simple story, but it was definitely a good quality production.
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Many plot twists.
Like this is one of the best drama's I've seen but I wouldn't say that it meets up to my expectations. it is pretty good and as a person who hates sad endings I would recommend you guys to watch this. but I wouldn't say that this is a highly recommended drama. it is kinda hard to explain but no hate. it is 😬. yeah. but I would say I like the acting and the song in this. the story is good but I would suggest that if some changes would have been there, I would love it. this is just a viewer's opinion. it is quite funny like when Lee dong wook shii and gong yoo shii being funny and it feels like if they're in love. I actually like it but not love it. just my opinion. no hate. this drama is actually pretty good but I wouldn't recommend it for newbies to kdrama.~no hate. a goblin lover
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The synopsis is misleading!
This isn't a rich people struggle drama. In fact, the male lead is an orphan homeless man who works multiple jobs to support his younger brother and repay his dead parents loan shark debt. While he was studying abroad, his parents were scammed by a large company that introduced a new financial scheme. They ended up borrowing money from loan shark and committed suicide when they can't pay them back. ML came back to china to take care of his brother, while on the run from the loan shark. He then joins the company that now focus on big data tech but its also the same company that scammed his parents back then, and started plotting his revenge.FL came from a privileged background but not really a super rich person like the synopsis made it to be. Her dad is a professor and her mother is a piano teacher. She studied in America, came back to china the same time as ML and sorta fell in love from the first sight when they're at the airport.
The second male lead is your typical ceo's son. His story is full of cliches. He likes the FL but knows he has no chance to be with her. So there's no evil third party in this relationship.
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Now onto the review.. Like any other 40 episodes drama, there were so much going on. So many side characters and side stories, on top of being a majorly work/business focused drama. I skipped through parts I'm not interested in, and by episode 25+ I don't even know what's going on whenever they're in work mode. At ep 30+ I thought the story is getting better but the writers then ruined it again few episodes before the finale (I'm already tired of this drama by then and only played it for background noise).
Out of the business/work setting, what made the drama watchable for me is their little friends crew, the ML story development, and the FL fun character.
I will give the story a solid 8.5 if its only based on the ML background story, his revenge plan, and the final twist revelation. Those are truly high quality writing that's sadly ruined by a lot of filler scenes.
In the romance department: the main couple liked each other since early on, the girl's parents acknowledged them as a couple, their friends all called them a couple but they aren't actually together. The ML has some issues to resolve so he can't commit to a relationship. They only somewhat got together on the last scene of the final episode, and it's just the ML giving her a rose. No kisses or I love yous being said.
tldr: it's worth watching if you're interested in tech data business drama, or if you're a fan of the actors (I'm watching for lulu xu, she's the main reason I didn't drop this). Don't watch if you're expecting some romance.
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Let's not forget about the actors in the show. Tenchou who barely speaks in this drama was so hilarious! His narrations and his thoughts were so entertaining to listen to. The other characters like Nobuko and Chikura Sensei were really funny also. My favorite lines were "Waaaafffers!" and "I say this from my experience, my life, and my soul."
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Blue Lightning?
I really love military dramas and this is one of the best. I admire the acting of Blue Lightning members. Even though they have different personalities and views. The captain manage to do many strategies to be comrade-in-arms. I really love their determination and on how they cheer up each other to be better and strong armies. It really touch me, there are many scenes that I really cried. You won't feel bored when you watch it. I hope there will be Season 2 for the love story of Ning Meng and Gin Quan😉Salute to all casts, writers and director👮
Very recommended Chinese Drama
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This is not a drama with big misunderstandings or big build-ups. It's mostly mundane things like workplace woes, or petty fights between friends. But it's through these mundane things that the show can help you learn how to handle relationship between coworkers, friends and lovers. As Yiyi was learning how to navigate through her life, I was learning alongside with her.
There's a type of food called comfort food, easy to digest and never lets you down. To me, Go Yiyi Go is like a comfort food perfect for a rainy day.
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