To me, this is one of the best Crime-Comedy Drama that I have watched for 2019.
Cast members are absolutely fantastic. Comedy and humour are really effective. The Writer has taken time out to basically referenced Kim Nm gil's movies, which is great! As a fan of him, I have to say that this is one of the dramas that sparks his talent.
This drama brings all emotions into the audience. From Laughter to tears and to anger. It is such a unique piece of work.
I highly recommend anyone who has not watched it. Watch it and enjoy :)
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Healthy but underwhelming
First off, I just wanted to say that I did like the progression of the romance in the middle of the drama, and overall the relationship between the leads was really healthy and fun to watch. They were both busy with work but understood, trusted, and respected each other.With that being said, I did feel the same criticism I felt for Love O2O, which is that the main characters sometimes just felt too perfect and too loved by everyone. Problems resolved themselves, and overall it just made the plot a little boring sometimes.
I also wish we saw more side characters — It felt like many of them just appeared and disappeared a few episodes later, without explanation. They didn't really have roles or personality aside from their associations with the main leads or just people working in the same industry. I wasn't that interested in their careers that much, though JJ's was a little more interesting to follow than YT.
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This review may contain spoilers
In hell we’ll meet, tortured by the past.
I have such conflicting feelings about this drama. I loved and hated exactly the same aspects of the writing.This is not a fun romance with excitement and angst delivered by the war context. This is not “Descendants of the Sun” with no real stakes. People die here, painful and tragic deaths. There are real consequences the characters need to face, the traumas are not magically healed. It’s heavy, it's painful. It’s real.
As much as it is a love story, I think the central part of it is the trauma. From a psychological point of view, they did a lot of this right, starting from the diagnosis and ending on the conclusion. Traumatic experiences do not always only lead to PTSD. Sometimes you might end up with anxiety, depression, OCD. So not labeling every character with PTSD was great. Different people will react to situations differently.
Song Ran became depressed, Li Zan who was by all means no cut for the job in the military, ended up with severe PTSD. Benjamin who from a young age led a rather hard life was able to require a lot of emotional resilience and handled the emotional pain in the most healthy way. Sa Xin who lost his mother spiraled into anger and need for justice and revenge.
What's more, I do appreciate how with Li Zan case, they show psychological issues can heavily impact your recovery from physical injuries too. How scary the process of recovery is. How, while taking the first step is the key, it's not the end of it all. Even after seeing the psychiatrist he was still hesitant. He did not follow up. He claims to be better. He kept lying to himself and to others. So sometimes it's easier to convince yourself you are getting better and you can push through it by yourself. Fooling yourself you are stronger than you truly are.
Then we had Song Ran - what a great portrayal of depression and anxiety. How from the outside she might have seemed fine, but we as viewers saw how she was not, how she was honestly barely holding up at times. I love how they didn’t show depression as this 1:0 idea - you are either completely dysfunctional, or fine. With depression you can also have good days, you can be happy, smile.
What’s so tragic for me is - this is a love story that should have not happened for Song Ran’s sake. She could have healed from her depression, she could have gotten better, if it was not for Li Zan constantly re-traumatizing her with his actions. Li Zan was such a great and complex character.
I could write a whole essay just about him. A man that had skill that could save many people, but also no psychological advantages and strengths required to do the job. I love how this drama shows good intentions do not mean good results. How traits we see as good: empathy, selflessness, compassion, in extreme situations can be a person's biggest flaws. Li Zan has a savior complex and there was no good way out of the situation he was in. Not going to Easter Country would eat him alive from the grief and guilt of not helping when he can. Going back to Easter Country means getting more traumas on top of the ones he did not heal from. He hurt himself, he hurt people he loved, but he also saved so many lives. But no matter the choice, he would be feeling guilty and that feeling would slowly kill him. It’s a tragic story that could not have a happy ending.
I know there are different opinions about the ending, but for me it’s rather clear him and Song committed suicide. He understood she would never leave him alone. She understood he will never get better. They decided to be together till the end. And they decided when the end will happen. From the scene of them talking about reincarnation, to the narrated goodbye letter to the parents, not once showing them interact with anyone after it was written. Even the oversaturated editing that made them glow in the last scene - that’s the tragic ending I think the majority of us knew will happen, even if we wanted to live in denial till the end.
At the same time at some point I was getting tired with how "realistic" the drama was. Yes, the recovery from any psychological issue is a whole journey, but this is a show... it has to be presented in a way that reflects reality WHILE keeping the viewers engaged and not exhausted. We are running in circles with little to no development. The message was clear, but they still hammered it over and over again.
The repetitiveness at some point crossed the line from - that's how life works, to - well now I don;’t feel as emotionally impacted by what I’m seeing, because I saw more or less the exact same scene in this show five times already.
It kind of starts to feel like a trauma porn... no balance of anything. There are no ups and downs. It's just down, down.... and a bit more down until we are in a fucking hell of traumas and mental disorders and bad news and no happiness and no rays of hope. Especially on Zan’s part. Song at least vented her sadness to him, and he just took it all in, when he couldn’t even handle his own feelings, not to mention help others dealing with theirs. He was emotionally overworked and it's exhausting to watch.
I am aware that the drama truly showed just glimpses of how bad a real war is. This is nothing compared to reality. But this is not reality. This is not a documentary. I do think that it’s a valid criticism of how far they tried to make the audience feel sad and bad. A Perfect example was Ben’s death which was extremely unnecessary. What was the point of killing Ben? What did it bring to the story? To the message? Other than dumping more trauma onto the viewers? Especially with how they set it up with Ben’s talks about how he found a new family in his friends, how he felt more grounded and alive than ever before. Scenes of his plans to start over and get a degree in journalism. They did everything they could to make Ben’s death feel as tragic and painful as it could get, and I do not understand why. It’s just dumping trauma for the sake of trauma alone.
Moving on from the sadness into more happy/good aspects: I cannot ignore the bromance between Ben and Sa Xin. I honestly went crazy for these two. By all means they followed so many dynamics of a typical straight secondary couple. They shared such a profound connection and care for each other, it was hard not to want something more from them. The writing team did all they could to include as much of them as possible, by passing the censorship by giving Ben a “romantic interest” that got barely any screen time or depth. I will die on this hill - Dr. Pei existed just to pass the censorship.
Now, I need to talk about the performances. I want to be clear - the whole main cast did a stellar job with their portrayal, but Chen Zhe Yuan delivered probaby the best performance of his life and everyone else just faded into background. I am speechless. I knew he was good, I did not know he was this good. I don’t even know how to express how impressed I am by each and every scene he delivered. How much Li Zan changed as the character, how well Zhe Yuan was able to transition from this confident man to a shell of his past self. How you could feel the silent pain when he was trying to hold it all in, and the raging despair when he was breaking down thinking Song was hurt and dead. Be it subtle representation of extreme emotions, or completely uncontrolled misery - he did not waste one second of his screen time.
On the other hand… the way the poor dubbing and acting of the majority of foreigners often completely took me out of the scene I was watching was simply disappointing. such a high quality of drama and production, with such a low quality of casting for guest and bits parts.
Then we have the soundtrack. I am not a person that pays that much attention to the music in dramas and music unless it’s extremely good, or extremely bad. Here the extremely good fits perfectly. Some of my favorite songs were: Ignite Me On Fire, Into the Pieces, Find My Way Back to Life, Home. As a whole the OST is an easy 10/10 (except for that do re mi fa sol la song, I cannot with that chorus, it should not exist).
For the production - impressive. The fighting scenes were well choreographed and it made sense there were not that many of them - no one has hand to hand combat during wars, they use guns. The explosions were surprisingly well produced too. We know how off Chinese dramas can get with their CGI and special effects, so I’m glad they put quite a lot of effort to make it good here. What’s more? Really well done prosthetic make up for Zan’s fingers. I was curious if they would just cleverly use angles or make him hide in hand all the time, and I was surprised they actually made the effort to show us how it looks, and also make it look realistic.
Overall, this was for sure a journey. Emotional and tragic one. Maybe a bit too tragic on the delivery. At some point I felt like the tragic scenes were not even said, because they did not make much sense plot wise. Maybe if the show was a little bit shorter - 30 episodes would probably be enough to present the same story with the same impact, but less repetitiveness. As human beings we get desensitized after being exposed to the same thing over and over again, and the writers did not take that into consideration when planning how to present the plot.
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1This review may contain spoilers
Righteousness Wins Over Profit in Jianghu
A bet set in the beginning of the show had its answer at the end. I wanted to watch a Wuxia but this had a lot of elements that didn't quite align with that. I knew the majority of the cast and they did a good job with what they were given. This time I won't write pros/cons but combine them.For starters the show got the rating it got for the awesome martial arts, the fact that other then the draggy family feud like episodes, it was in fact quite entertaining and out of the 3 CY characters my favorite was LCZ because he had a quiet grace along with his wife and theirs wasn't a showy type of love but as you watched, it resonated. Even theirs deaths were beautiful and fit the characters perfectly. I liked QS as he grew from a foolish youth to a moral driven young martial artist; his issues were that they literally gave him a VERSACE sized wardrobe fit for a runway while everyone else got a few (his brothers notwithstanding). Also that he gained his strength and whatnot not always from practicing martial arts nonstop but from a monk here, an invincible pill and spirit snake there, then a total of 8 masters infused him with their energies/legacies randomly before he himself started integrating everything. He used his smarts on other things. Least useful character was XMM, in fact that entire modern world AI transmigration with a stolen copyright by some government secrets selling senior was completely out of left field. It completely took away from the real Wuxia or storytelling portion of it.
Why couldn't it just be a happy family of 5 living their lives until trouble called? Who needed the senior jumping into XKY's body a la Agent Smith from the Matrix? First we were made to believe the power gang were the bad guys and ok we could go with that until it was no longer true and there was a 3rd evil loose in the world creating chaos so he could take over the world because how innovative was that? 🙄🤦🏻♀️ The power gang with LCZ as its chief (for whom other than him being a royal, we never got a back story), were essentially double agents; appearing bad to the world but really a collection of kings and other people sending money and clothing to the border to fight the northern westerlanders which were constantly threatening Daxi where they lived. But even there, there were traitors left and right; on both sides to this third side. You didn’t know who to trust.
While this was going on, the Xiao family has to escape to their Sword Manor because someone originally thought to be the power gang had infiltrated their ranks and is trying to get to a rare artifact saved for a general. The real culprits in poisoning the water (and later massacring everyone parents included) is some whistle gang run by a masked man who we all suspected to be XKY with LN (the senior) in his body but he also had 2nd child syndrome and a lifetime of jealousy of both of his brothers who were better then him because they were proficient in different things with a major crush on his adopted sister, whom he later tried to force to marry him and then when she tried to hurt him, killed her instead. I wasn't sure after which did he plan to sleep with her corpse (eww)? She did leave vital information that saved the world for QS at the cost of her life.
Continuing, he and his siblings and their disciples plus sworn brothers and friends run away leaving their parents behind one last time alive to find help only for QS to realize their few sources of help have betrayed them but before he could convince his older brother, he was framed so badly and crippled and still his older brother didn't believe him. I have a theory on the older brother's costume; throughout the entire series he only got one but he had plenty of screen time and I feel that that was because he never evolved; he was narrow minded, he never believed his own brother but believed strangers that either humiliated him or laughed in his face. He was one of those people that was totally fine when he was surrounded by his parents who were in charge, but when the massacre happened, everything fell in his lap and he did not know how to cope. Do I excuse his actions? Absolutely not, but I feel that because he never changed and stayed exactly the same and hurt QS so much without an ounce of apology or repentance until his dying moment at the hands of his second brother did Eureka 💡 happen is why he only got one costume for the entire series.
After family feud we got the game of faces GoT style with XKY wearing a mask where he could become become whomever he chose to become to trap people in order to kill them or have them make horrendous mistakes like in the case of LSF and the huge Sect's where he pretended to be LCZ and ordered the deaths of two monks; when that was found out obviously Power Gang was screwed but LSF was determined to make amends to the man who saved his life. This was another character with a very fragmented backstory where he misplaced his rage on one person when in reality that person being QS's father saved his life. And we never quite got to solving that entire issue. LSF also never made amends with any of the other people he killed without mercy, even though power gang only killed those that betrayed them to align with the enemy.
Another character that was a waste of time was the emperor who poisoned his own half brother "to keep him in check" because he was supposedly doing something wrong and being greedy when all LCZ did was provide for the border. But yet when the border is secure, something that the emperor doesn't even know or just found out that the general was kidnapped and he ordered LCZ to save the general and is informed that the border is secure and they have a victory and that the bad guys won't invade for 50 years. He says "everyone has to be rewarded including LCZ; bring him here!" is when he finds out that LCZ died already trying to rescue the general, and the emperor is all shocked and taken aback like he doesn't even understand how it could be possible; hello moron you have been poisoning him with wine ever so often that has basically rendered him all, but an invalid and you're surprised he's dead? On top of that he actually saw the fake mask that XKY brought him with the fake promise of truce with the northern enemies that he himself was leading and the emperor bought it hook, line, and sinker. It makes you think that considering how supposedly large his country is, isn't he supposed to have a broad spectrum of intelligence to tell him what's right and what's wrong instead of him just hastily making decisions without anything actual nor factual.
I have to say that my favorite fight out of all of them, and there were quite a few was the one at thunderdome where we met crazy Yan for the first time. Now talk about knowing how to enter an arena this dude showed up, screaming some bad guy's name like Drogon entering the Colosseum roaring. It was awesome! All the fights together were spectacular there and then naming QS as the world leader of martial arts in order to rescue the general and repel the northern enemy was also great. QS' two sworn brothers (as we lost the third very early on) were there from the beginning to the back in the mortal world. Crazy Yan turned out to be Xuyue's biological brother. Even those four thugs that just seemed so out of place did work and the two that QS met while searching for the abducted TF. It seemed that after his family and the disciples were massacred, he was determined to establish a sector with a rag tag family of his own. One of those people who became my second favorite was Prince Liang; this man had enough benevolence, empathy, and sympathy for both his half brother, LCZ to even attempt to stop the emperor from poisoning him to giving both quiet and physical strength to QS when he thought he had had lost absolutely everything, including that hug that I will probably remember when thinking about this series that no one in his actual family ever thought to give him. He was there for every strategy, for every fight and the way he treated QS seemed like one would treat his own flesh and blood; a brotherly love. It made you tear up quite a lot. Even though there were a lot of problems with LSF's character and his assistant/girlfriend with his storyline overall in the end, he finally understood that QS had won their bet of righteousness over profit, and he fought with the good guys and then left the celebration scene quietly with her vowing to meet again in the future on better terms.
Now let me give my thought process overall on how I thought things ended; I think that 2 out of 3CY characters did in fact die, and that part was obvious. If you look closely, you can see XMM shedding a tear as LN information was being told to him so he can hear them and then you slowly see his blood pressure start to go down and doctors racing into the room, but because it was so badly edited, you couldn't really tell what was happening as it kept fading to black, but I do not believe that he died as well because he did not flatline nor did he go into cardiac arrest. His blood pressure just went down and it was enough to signal the doctors that he was in distress. Distress does not mean death and is very much survivable. I do have to ask what was up with those weird fireworks that turned into colorful smoke that made you think that you were in a Bollywood film in the photo? As for people discussing which character it was that walked away with the Qin and the sword in the historical clothing toward the light, I think it's QS because it wouldn't make sense for a modern day person to walk toward the light carrying all of that and wearing all of that. So I do think that, even though this was an OE, XMM survived.
Would I recommend it? Only for fans of actors and if you want to be entertained. This is not a memorable story because the storyline was all over the place and that's the fault of production. So decide for yourselves.
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The whole crew created this drama beautifully. Powerful and finishes with an "oomph!". I highly recommend this!
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2moons2 had a rough start when it was announced that the original 6 moons were out. People were upset, myself included, that the actors they had grown to love would be replaced by 6 unknowns. It was also revealed that the series would be a reboot, not a continuation of its predecessor, further upsetting old fans.
I was inititally hesitant to watch as well but as I saw that the cast and director clearly but effort into the production and they actually considered international fans by having a platform for viewing as well as subtitles on the same release date I gave the first episode a chance.
From the start of the series you can tell that every actor was on board and that every character would have some value to the story.
In the original series i did not really care for the PhaYo relationship but the actors sold me with this version.
Admittedly the weakest of the 6 moons were MingKit as they felt a little less full than the others but they were cute nonetheless.
Forthbeam was my favorite pairing from the novels and i had a hard time moving on from their original counterparts however the new actors were clearly ready to bring this pair to life and they did.
My one complaint of the show is that the music was lacking.
I really hope we recieve a third season.
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Please read this before watching (someone who actually finished this show)
You know how sometimes in competitions you have all the judges voting you off but they all have this one golden button opportunity to vote you in even when no one else believes in you?This is me giving this show my golden button.
Not because it is amazing, but because I believe in the potential of this show and everyone involved.
I just know that even with all the negative reviews, there will be someone who will absolutely love this show so I hope that that person won't let themselves be scared away by the others.
''Fish upon the sky'' was that for me, with all the negative comments and reviews I saw, I watched it nonetheless and had honestly the best time I've had with a show.
So maybe this is your Fish upon the sky ;)
Now the short break down of my rating is simply that they had the right material, the right angle, the right blue print.
But I think when it went through editing, the pacing got a little messed up which got a lot of people annoyed.
All the way up to episode 7 there isn't a whole lot that seems to happen, which is bad for a weekly viewing, but I've thought about this and if you can watch this all in one go now that it's finished airing that pacing will feel completely different.
Instead of waiting 7 weeks for something to happen, it would make a lot more sense than some other shows that have everything happen within 4 episodes and you're left wondering what the remaining 8 could even be about.
Yes it still follows the cliche misunderstandings, the theatrical smut scenes and some good old fashioned annoying face palm moments especially in those first 7 episodes. BUT I actually started loving this show when I realized how deep and psychologically real this show was. The relationships all feel super real, not like the fluffy typical bl's where people are together for the sake of both being attractive.
I honestly regret reading the comments every week as I was trying to enjoy this show because it tainted my experience. Me liking it and with full anticipation reading the comments to see who I could chat with, kept being followed with an icy cold shower when people who had stopped watching WEEKS ago were still hate commenting.
I know some people tried to defend it when I mentioned the hate hype, but as someone who has seen a lot of real time comment sections on other shows, this show definitely suffered from a hate hype.
I would see the same scene unfold (and not better may I add) in a different show and people would eat that shit up like it was dinner time and we had all been starving. But whenever I came here that exact same scene would be drilled into the ground with people making this seem like a dumpster fire. One that they enjoyed watching as it burned to the ground.
So I might re-watch this when everything has calmed down.
And last but not least, the synopsis. The synopsis got recently changed and most people who watched this show saw a completely different summary on this page. The show is pretty much about what you can now read, but mind you that most people went into this thinking it was a completely different story because the summary said something else.
This probably heavily influenced a lot of peoples opinions as well as that most people went in with high expectations on what they thought this should have been based upon episode 0.
The one thing I learned as a writer is that you can't deflect what you had in mind and rate something based upon that, watch it for what it was intended by the people who made it and you'll enjoy yourself a lot more! :)
NOW LEAVE IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS: Nine's psychology break down.
Nine. Hate him or love him, he is genuinely the best developed character in this show. And when I realized that, I enjoyed this whole show so much more. Nine isn't a good guy, he isn't a bad guy either, he is supposed to be morally grey.
The quick story line we follow goes like this: Nine meets Dao at a resort in episode 0 when he is freshly broken up and they hit it off. They have a good time, sleep together and go back to their respective lives. Both of them acknowledge that they don't necessarily want it to end and they start texting. But as Nine gets back with his ex he essentially ends up ghosting Dao until he finds Dao 3 months later. He figures out where Dao works which so happens to be the company of an old friend and decides to invest into the company to get closer to Dao again. Sounds like shitty behavior right? I mean make up your mind. Nine still really interested in Dao decides to pursue Dao even though he still has a girlfriend and Dao is semi trying to date Nine's old friend Tee. Lots of tension between Nine and Dao unfold as the 2 go through this push and pull, Dao being scared of getting hurt in a genuine connection decides to go with Tee whom he wouldn't end up heart broken by even if it didn't work out and Nine unable to leave his girlfriend is now shown to not only have no loyalty to his girlfriend, but even shown to have cheated on her with other men prior (presumably). Once Nine and his girlfriend finally do break up and when he and Dao get closer together we are left with the idea that he isn't a good love interest. If he cheats with you, who says he won't cheat on you.
As Dao and Nine get together we get to hear exactly why Nine did what he did and everything falls into place.
Now if you have your judgement ready before this it would feel hard to back pedal, as someone did comment on my posts that they only did that to make Nine look good and manipulate the story. I don't agree. To me it all looked intentional and well thought out but the unfortunate thing is that it came too late which made people already drop this before we got our end conclusion on Nine.
First of I LOVE Nine, no I don't love his character, I love how well he was developed which you rarely get to see in bl's.
Nine truly is morally grey and extremely real in my opinion. Let's go back to the beginning and review why this all happened. When Nine meets Dao he is freshly out of a relationship, one that was extremely toxic and mentally abusive. Yes, Nine got mentally abused ladies and gentlemen. I know many that didn't finish the show wouldn't even realize that..
So he meets Dao, a guy that catches his eye. They grow closer pretty quickly which does tend to happen when both people come from toxic situations. (Dao having had his own heart break with Tee as they have dated in the past and Tee ended up hurting him. ) as they hit it off the two end up spending the night together right before they are about to leave to go back to their own lives. Both Nine and Dao liked each other enough to want to continue whatever was budding between them and they end up communicating over text until one day Nine stops texting back. When Nine got back from his trip his ex girlfriend reached out to him saying she wanted to get back together. I've seen surprisingly a lot of people that still didn't understand why he got back together with her even after it was explained, so I will give my explanation on this. When the couple were together the first time around everything was good when it was good, but oh boy was it bad when things were bad. Nine's gf Praew would throw things around and scream in his face simply for being spotted together by paparazzi. Which was supposed to indicate how bad her temper was. We see this happen a couple of times. We witness as Praew dramatically tries to open a bottle of pills that end up spilling everywhere as an attempt to manipulate Nine. Everything was his fault, he didn't want to see her succeed and he can't even support her. This is all being said by Praew because of the paparazzi photo, that in her words, could ruin her career opportunities. We see Praew's behavior a couple of times when she visits the company Nine and Dao work at when they aren't around and she ends up wrecking Dao's desk out of rage. There is even a scene where a highly intoxicated Nine is laying on his bed half asleep and Praew tries to sleep with him. Half passed out Nine obviously isn't moving until he managed to push her off and she get's really upset at his rejection, when what she was doing would constitute as sexual assault. This is the kind of relationship Nine is in and has been in for a long time. Straight up abusive. Now for those who were lucky enough to not have dealt with any form of abuse, this makes it ridiculously hard on the victim to walk away no matter how bad things get. When they were broken up, Nine genuinely thought it was finally the end for them, until Praew showed up and wanted him back. Knowing this information about Praew it doesn't come as a surprise that Candy, a friend of Nine, later in the show reveals to Dao and us that Praew threatened to hurt herself if Nine didn't get back with her. Thus bringing us to where Nine gets back together with Praew. He ends up ghosting Dao due to this, most likely because he never meant or wanted to say goodbye to Dao and couldn't face that confrontation. To have to reject the person he liked, for the person who abused him, he simply couldn't do it so instead he said nothing. Someone mentioned that he could have told Dao about the situation with Praew, but that's not very typical for a victim to do. Especially when he didn't know if this was temporary or not. Nine probably assumed being with Praew was going to be it, there was no way out unless she let him go and he knew she wasn't going to. Onto Nine's friends with benefits play buddies. The show alludes to the idea that Nine has been having male play buddies over, in the 3 months that he doesn't speak to Dao. Since Nine has been in a long term relationship with Praew, his female partner, i think this part is super interesting. To me this was purposefully done to show his desire for Dao, a man. We don't know how often Nine has dated men or has been attracted to men, but there is a likelihood that the reason he cheated on Praew with specifically men, is because they served as a substitute for Dao. The one man he couldn't get off his mind. Cheating is never okay, but we understand by now that Nine isn't in a voluntary relationship. If he leaves, Praew may or may not die or at least get seriously hurt. This is all that is on his mind as someone who still cares about her well being. This little fact brings a lot of complexity to the situation and makes you wonder if Nine is bad for cheating or if we can somehow find ourselves sympathizing with his actions. When it doesn't feel safe to leave an abusive partner, can we find ourselves rationalizing infidelity?
When Nine finds Dao after 3 months, it is obvious that he has never forgotten about Dao and that the feelings that grew once upon a trip were still there. And maybe even stronger than before. Nine can't possibly let go of Dao again, so he does everything he can to get closer to Dao again. Nine and Dao do end up sleeping together not long after their reunion, but it is quickly followed by Dao rejecting Nine and telling him he doesn't want anything to do with him again. Dao enters a situationship with Tee that same night. Still struggling between his current situation with Praew, his feelings and desires for Dao and the now newly established situation between Dao and Tee, Nine is in over his head. He tries to keep Praew happy but can't fake interest any longer, he wants to be with Dao but Dao has shut him out and now he is working at a company amid the uncomfortable love triangle between him, Dao and Tee when no one can know that Nine and Dao have a history together.
This alone would make most of us act in irrational and dumb ways, although there is never an excuse for forcing kisses onto someone else. Nine makes himself increasingly look worse because he is ill equipped to deal with such complex emotions (which is completely understandable, I would be too) and only has the support of Candy who, even though she is adorable, isn't the right person for advice on this at all. She is a pretty passive person, who hates conflict and tries to please everyone, resulting in both her and Nine never making a clear decisions and stringing others along. Candy does this in her friendships and Nine in his relationships. As Nine grows more serious about Dao everyday and less interested in Praew we finally have our climax in episode 7 when he simply can't do it any longer. Nine snaps, it is simply too much, he has to overcome his fear and break up with Praew. This scene was incredibly painful to watch for me since it hit kinda close to home. Adult relationships can be really fucking messy and so can the break ups be. As Nine breaks up with Praew he still lingers for a moment, allowing her to throw herself at him as a last attempt to convince him to stay. To prove that the love is still there. He doesn't waver since is mind is made up, but he is hurting for her which makes rejecting her still too hard. Until he finally slowly pushes her back, makes sure she is dressed and tells her he will always be there for her when she needs him. He still has nothing but love for her and truly wants the best for her. It was one of the hardest things both of them had to go through, but they went through it together and it was the healthiest option for both. Praew being shown a much healthier person post break up as well.
Now being fully single again Nine also seems different, more sure and genuine as he has nothing left to cloud his mind and distort his actions. Which brings me to my final point. Nine is a good boyfriend. Okay okay okay this one is controversial. Yes he cheated on Praew and we already discussed whether or not we can sympathize with his actions. But, we notice how, when Nine isn't being abused, he is genuine and he would do anything to be with the person he loves. Nine is happier, more calm, more understanding and less pushy. When he break up with Praew we even see him giving Dao more space and being more sincere with Dao as well. Even stepping back when he realizes Dao and Tee might seriously get together at the company get away. It isn't until Dao opens up about his feelings that Nine completely gives in and becomes Dao's and Dao's alone. Which is probably the reason why when Dao accepts him back their relationship goes from 0 to 100. With all the angst and fear of losing Dao and having to let go of Dao so many times for other peoples sake, Nine just wants to spend his time with Dao to the fullest. And that feeling alone is enough for him to promise Dao to be his forever with a ring, to bind the two together in a connection that belongs to no one else but them.
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This review may contain spoilers
Volcano meets a Tornado !
Oh boy I have a lot to say about this drama, and I invested my time worth of 59 episodes to watch this so I really do have A LOT to say on this.First and foremost, the basic story is nice. Actually it is really good. Although I was tad creeped out by Xianji suddenly turning to a man and I was swept into a world of BL (which I totally like, only creeped out because I was not expecting it), the drama have a strong backstory. One could almost feel the pain the FL character went through in her past, (mainly because the star of mosha done a better job in acting than the god of war). And although I did feel sympathy for Si Feng, in the later episodes, the more he felt pain the more I found myself rolling my eyes, honestly is there any episode where he did not fell pain or was acting like a fool in love sacrificing himself, or comically jumping in front of the blade?
Summarized review (SPOILERS)
i) Slow and gradual process of love story. We can relate to the love story and it feels quite natural (as compared to Ashes of Love where everything seemed forced). However I personally find myself more moved by the 'sacrificing' part, probably because the ML sacrificed himself way too much that it lost the gravity, or perhaps the deliverance way not upto the mark. (or maybe I am still caught in the aftermath of Ashes of Love)
ii) The secondary characters were interesting in a way, and perhaps not so interesting in another. Honestly I did not care too much about Linglongs storyline, and her trauma really did not make any sense to me. I mean, it was the flower demon who did all that, and sure they are sharing same memories and all but why was she so affected by it? I found it rather bother than being sympathetic to be honest. Same goes for the Lize palace lords love story which rather feel stretched to be honest. But I think it might have contributed to the storyline and perhaps it was necessary but I found myself bored to the core. Now the storyline I found more interesting was of the fox and monkey, the fluff was just amazing. That reminded me, I really do not like silver snake and her death did not move me to tears sorry.
iii) The villains were... confusing. The deputy palace lord who never seems to die, dijun, who disappeared easily without any sort of punishment for all the things he done, and wu tong, for a mere mortal, dang, he did made the mighty demons run for their lives.
iv) The righteous sec leaders were just a no-no. They were harshly accusing someone with no evidence. Also arent they supposed to be kinda strong? But honestly the sec leaders felt really weak.
v) The final arch of the flask or torch or whatever that thing was tipping over to destroy the world??? Dear lord where did that come from???
Xuanji - At first she seems so childish, to an annoying level. Sure, its her naivety, so it can be pardoned. Her character development was steady, and it was sort of nice to see. However, the might of god of war was not that satisfying, in a way it made no sense? Sure she is the god of war but even the immortals cant stop her? Even when she is just a mortal? Now why is that just weird? Even with the misunderstandings, she stayed (or tried to) stay loyal to Si Feng, now that was satisfying (I am looking at you, Ashes of Love). Although she tried her best to portray the emotions, I rather felt it was fake when she did most of the time.
Sifeng - Apart from him spitting out blood all the time, and jumping in front of the blades to protect xuanji (probably because that god awful god of war armour was as useless as it seems), and sacrificing himself for love which he seems to be doing from the very beginning to the end, I really cannot understand his character. To say honestly, he really seems to lack a character outside the 'lost in love' thing. I was waiting for him to flutter his wings and show everyone that he was the son of the heavenly emperor and make everyone fall to their knees, but it never really came. It was like I waited all for nothing. Till the very end, his only character was to sacrifice and dot on Xuanji in a very toxic relationship which everything seems one sided if we look at it this way (but lucky for us its not because we know she was loyal to him) But I must say, him as the lord of Lize palace had me drooling. I mean im always drooling over him whenever he is not there spitting blood (which is like 90% of the time)
Linglong - Idk she annoys me.
Sixth senior - There was nothing much to say about him, although I found him and linglon lack chemistry and perhaps that was why the whole storyline felt dull.
I am lazy to go on about other characters.
It was a nice drama, although the story felt lacking in the later episodes, I dont regret watching it. The costumes were amazing, so was the setting. The CG was worthy to be praised. The supporting casts were amazing with their work. The OST was not that great, I expected something more. (lets blame Ashes of Love again). And the fluff was just heart eyes. but would I go back and watch it all over again? No.
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The Icing On Top Of The Cake With Yeri, But Not Quite Having That Extra Cherry On Top…
Unravelling time- travel where our frantic heroine finds herself rescuing her lost love or crush from moral peril, isn’t new ground for K-dramas. Yet the immediate status around idol actress Yeri ( Red Velvet) being cast as lovelorn female lead Oh Ha Rin, has undeniably attracted the web series to receiving hype .
On a strong note Yeri’s acting is pretty solid here. She has a vibrant ambience around her character, immediately dragging viewers into sitting up and paying attention to the storyline. As it has been said beforehand, there is no beating around the bush that ‘ Blue Birthday’ is a fairly “ seen and done concept”, but this doesn’t mean that the director isn’t willing to try something new either. Park Dhan Hee’s cinematography was really mesmerising in a lot of shots. You could tell by the array of palettes, the pathetic fallacies that the director was trying to convey. Light hues of daylight could animate Ha Rin’s jovial mood , whilst darker, moody blues of the sky, a room or the rain brought the scenes surrounding Seo Jun ( Hong Seok)’s death or Ha Rin’s bereavement into a more hard-hitting and colder reality.
Yet ‘ Blue Birthday’ can truly be defined as a mixed party bag of flaws also. Whilst Yeri’s acting was decent, her fellow costars often struggled to pertain the same level of solidity over the course of sixteen episodes. Not unwatchable, just certainly not bringing these characters to life either. Admittedly this wasn’t entirely the fault of the cast as character writing could also be a cataclysmic problem with the mini series also . This is mainly because none of the characters ( including our mains) really seem like everyday people. Now it is arguable that this is the point of the series; it is a fantasy-romance mini series about two teens in high school and so nothing regarding their personal lives outside of this main plot is that important . On the other hand what makes a character feel relatable and real is drawing parallels and similarities with our own lives by their interactions and relationships with other characters which whilst it did exist, was only really shown to make the storyline move or crack into some “ comic relief” moments.
Again it’s wrong to entirely condemn the series here. There was some surprising twists and revelations with Seo Jun’s familial background which played a major part in unravelling the enigma of his death, as well as adding angst-ridden chemistry to Seo Jun and Ha Rin’s onscreen potential relationship.
On the other hand whilst Seo Jun was a useful plot device to keep the mini-series’ storyline on its feet, it’s hard to truly define Seo Jun’s greater calling as a character by his build-up, typically revolving around school ( rather than the series gradually building this up through small revelations of his family life) and his potential romance with Ha Rin. Sadly similar to Seo Jun was Ha Rin. Whilst it’s understandable that her main goal was to save Seo Jun through her “Groundhog Day” setup, it was baffling that Ha Rin seemed to have little interaction or revelations about her relationship with family or a personal past problem during this period that she wanted to focus on as an individual. To explain this further it’s fair to say that we’ve all made personal mistakes in the past and most likely often wish we could change them. Arguably part of Ha Rin’s “great mistake” is the feeling of letting down Seo Jun by being unable to prevent his death. That’s understandable and what made her grief resonate with audiences, but that’s also only necessary to the major plot line. Rarely do we see or delve into Ha Rin diverged subjective regrets on a personal level either with friends or others also.
In terms of our antagonist ( and without spoilers), it is fair to say that the storyline indicates subtly but early on through portraying this character in a negative light towards the true villain. Are they well-written? This character really just serves one purpose and that is to be a plot device to add tension and drama to the series. Whilst they do have some motives, they’re mainly disregarded and rarely fleshed-out in order to paint this character as “ being evil for the sake of evil”. Not entirely terrible for the pragmatic purpose of the drama, but certainly fitting more into the “ moustache twirling villain” category than complex.
On more nuanced note, there are also some seriously questionable moments within the drama’s writing logic that made little sense realistically in the drama such as Ha Rin ( despite being a fairly witty character when she wants to be) talking in a public place about a key plot revelation which could’ve easily put her in further danger ( and refuses to acknowledge further risks) or liability for her previous fatal mistakes , the main villain’s classic mistakes which could’ve been easily picked up upon earlier, the incompetency of the police ( including lack of DNA testing) and of course the shift between the present and a decade ago for Ha Rin not feeling that significant for viewers. It is arguable that perhaps the screenwriter was trying to show this from Ha Rin’s perspective by this suddenly becoming part of her normal everyday life. However for Ha Rin this is also a nostalgia trip down memory lane of her teens. It would have been understandable if small passing popular cultural references, slang, technology or fashion had brought it home for Ha Rin ( and viewers) towards being in the past. Instead it was hardly to truly grasp when we were stepping back in time. Aside from a quick wardrobe and makeup styling change for Yeri which was meant to indicate; “ Oh, Yeri had on a school uniform, and schoolgirl bangs. We must be in the past again.”
In conclusion ‘Blue Birthday’ wasn’t an unwatchable mini-series. The ending was decent enough and in between aesthetic cinematography shots, Yeri’s performance and the plot premise as well as the mysterious events surrounding Seo Jun’s demise in the storyline remained enticing factors for watchers. On the other hand, the screenwriting with characters, mismatched dialogue and logic as well as the acting and pacing remained the mini series’ greatest downfalls. This was certainly not a terrible with an easy amount of fluff and darker themes to keep you watching , but not without its evident inconsistencies either.
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Story 10/10: The story is extremely interesting and has you on the edge of your seat. At first you hate a character, then you're not so sure, and by the end your view has flipped every which way.
Acting/Cast 10/10 : The cast did an extremely great job. They were absolutely flawless and I loved watching them act together.
Music 6/10: I don't really remember much about the music. It fulfilled its part but it didn't stand out and I wont' really listen to the ost.
Rewatch Value 4/10 : I don't rewatch movies or dramas. But if a friend wants to watch this I would watch it with them for sure. The greatest thing about this movie is the plot twists and already knowing them does kind of put a damper on the film.
Overall 9/10: It's definitely a must watch. Especially if you're fans of action/heist movies. If you love films with lots of plot twists, then this is the perfect film for you.
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This review may contain spoilers
Disclaimer: I did not like this drama. It will be a harsh rant review so if you don't think you can handle it, don't read it. If you do read it, don't write to me that I'm hurting people's feelings with it.What’s more: I do NOT care about the novel. I do not care how well everything was explained and shown in the novel. I’m reviewing the drama. If the show cannot be consumed without my prior knowledge about the plot of the novel, it speaks volumes about the quality of the drama itself.
At first I refused to rate this drama. I had truly no idea what rating would do it justice. For how they handled certain topics it should get -100, but the acting was decent, at times even good, the set design, audio editing, lighting and other technical aspects were good too, and these definitely do not deserve such a low rating. That said, since MDL forces me to state my stars, I will go with my feelings, be as subjective as possible and give it “well deserved” 2.5 stars.
DIRECTING/WRITING
Sadly, the lack of experience in directing is quite obvious. While there was a lot of thought put into „steamy” scenes and how to show them in the most attractive, sensual way, not the same amount of work had been put into directing and showing the overall plot. The biggest problem I had was the confusing time progression and weird time jumps without proper explanation.
Another aspect of directing that caught me off guard was a random and rushed beginning. Why we did not see how the friendship of Type and Tharn was established? All we've got was one line of Type saying Tharn is good looking, nice and most likely will help him get a girl and exactly 1 minute and 17 seconds of them meeting for the first time three weeks ago.
The fact we did not see these two establishing the relationship and spending time together as friends was one of the reasons Tharn's big love seemed so out of place. After seeing the whole drama, it's safe to assume he fell for Type before Type found out he is gay. But we did not see that, so with how badly Type was treating him, it was given I would question Tharn's sanity and reasons behind his feelings. When did he fall for Type? That's the question the drama does not really answer.
Unanswered questions, scenes that seem to have no reason for existing, loose ends - all of them happened at some point. I kept seeing people asking questions about certain plot points and plotlines and the only way to understand the reasoning behind them was to hear from someone who read the novel which was usually followed by continuous excuses of time restriction.
If you know you cannot possibly fit all the plotlines in the time framework set for your drama, you should rewrite it. As much as I liked the “Korean” guy and his roommate, they should not be part of the plot. Not only were their characters not developed, they brought close to nothing to the show, but instead have taken away the precious time that could be used to develop the main plot and explain all the unanswered questions. You need to be smart with how you write and be realistic about it. If you know you only have 12 episodes and a lot of work to be done on the main characters and their relationship, don't waste your time on side characters and plotlines.
THARN'S CHARACTER
I know he has a lot of supporters and many people were extremely protective over him and hated Type quite a lot with how he treated Tharn. That said, while Tharn was quite a nice and sweet guy in the second half of the drama, the first few episodes showed him as a creep who disregards any type of personal space and is willing to sexually harass someone just to get back for the name calling.
Many people may claim that giving someone hickeys without a consent or rather being fully aware the person would not agree to it, is not a big deal, but it is. They were not friends back then, not a couple. Type was asleep after getting drunk. Imagine that you woke up one day and it turned out that some guy you knew, but did not have a good relationship with, gave you hickeys all over your neck and upper torso. Do you find it cute? Romantic? Innocent? I would either call the police or inform my professors about it.
Also, what kind of sane person instead of punching a homophobic asshole says they will screw him? What's in the brain of that man? I would not want to touch a guy like Type with a stick. Kissing him as revenge, giving him hickeys. It's so amazingly illogical I cannot even try to grasp what was going on. All the touching of Type's face and giving him forehead kisses when he was asleep (before they were a couple, back at the beginning when Type hated Tharn) were not romantic. It was gross and weird and inappropriate.
What also amazes me about Tharn, is how not observant and ignorant he is about the feelings of people around him. How he failed to see Lhong was sabotaging all of his relationships? How could he not see the frantic behaviour of Tar when he came to see him, which obviously would lead to the conclusion something is not right? How he ignored Type’s mental struggles and instead of educating himself about the symptoms of his mental health issues, he ignored them.
TYPE'S CHARACTER
Since I'm planning to write in more detail later on about all the mental health issues, I'll just focus on how his character was written. From the beginning there was not much thought put into developing the characters and showing their gradual change and how it happened - as a result, Type’s character is extremely inconsistent. They bring up his trauma and homophobia when it fits the storyline, forget about it when they want to progress the sexy scenes and at the end of the day, nothing makes sense. Even not taking into consideration his hatred for gays, he was not a nice, lovely and a good guy that I would root for. He was an asshole, way too impulsive and had close to zero redeeming qualities. I failed to see why I should cheer for him and his happiness when I simply did not like him as a human being.
MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES
Total disregard of any mental health topics in this drama frustrates me so bad it's exhausting to watch. Let's start with Type being sexually assaulted as a child by a pedophile, in the present times, having phobia and generalized hatred towards gays and PTSD that was miraculously cured by the power of love and blowjobs. No mention of him going to a psychologist or psychiatrist. No previous treatments as a child.
This leads to Tharn's inappropriate behaviour towards Type when he had panic attacks. If you are the clear reason for someone's panic attack and they tell you to let them go in a hysterical manner, you don't hug them closer to you, you let them go and bring help. There is a reason why rape victims are treated by medical staff of the opposite gender than the person who attacked them, why the police officer are not of the same sex as the attacker. The scenes with Tharn being the cause for the panic attack AND the one that calms Type’s down (sometimes with quite sensual touches) just shows how not willing to do any type of research on the topic the writer was.
Episode two, the scene where Tharn almost sits on top of Type, being angry about Type insulting his father - first Tharn is trying to annoy and make Type angry, when Type starts to have panic attack and begs him to let him go, Tharn says “I just want to help you relax. Calm down” as he caresses his face and tight in a clearly sensual manner, Type gets even more anxious still begging for Tharn to let him go and not hurt him. At some point, finally Type is able to move and he kicks Tharn away from himself to which Tharn says “What the hell is wrong with you, Type?” and I want to ask: What the hell is wrong with the person who wrote this scene? If you fail to see how disturbing and wrong and weirdly written this scene is, I have nothing to tell you.
That said, not all of Tharn’s reactions to Type’s attacks were wrong. When Type woke up in the middle of the night and he himself grabbed Tharn and hugged him, it was a good decision to hug him back and with a calm voice make him feel more at ease. This was one of the instances when I was nodding my head thinking - the boy is slowly learning what is appropriate and what is not. The joy was usually short lived though.
The whole PTSD, panic attacks and all the mental health related issues Type had are gone by the time he and Tharn are together. Why? Because they have no purpose to the main romantic plot anymore. They were just tools to make the romance more angsty, be a good excuse for Type’s hatred towards gays and make “steamy scenes” more “steamy”. After all that, without any professional help, by some random miracle, Type was cured. Why exactly do we need mental health professionals when you can just cure your problems with one good blowjob?
The writers also make Tharn look like an extremely self centered person who is not willing to learn and research about the serious topic concerning the person he claims to love. While his lack of proper reaction could be partially an excuse before he knew about Type’s past, after he found out, the fact there was not even one proper serious talk about it amazes me. Not even once Tharn asked if Type often has the panic attacks, how he should act when it happens, if he tried to get professional help. Nothing. The topic is gone and not mentioned again.
Tar’s depression, suicide thoughts and how the heck no one noticed it for so long? I refuse to believe that his brother did not even once come to his room before that one accidental time in the middle of the drama. It’s close to impossible for him not to know how bad his brother’s mental health is, seeing how he wasn’t truly trying to hide it well. Tar was also the only character that was mentioned to receive mental health help from a psychiatrist, how good the help was is a totally different issue. His character is still better “treated” by the writers than Type. They at least tried to show different symptoms of depression and all the more realistic implications it might have.
Lhong’s story is another way of explaining bad behavior by giving a character a tragic past. While I kind of appreciate the additional episode and the background info on Lhong, I’d say it was an amazing waste of time. Good 70% of the time in the episode was just flashbacks to what happened in the previous episode and just a few new scenes showing Lhong’s past. Why not use that time to truly develop and dive deep into this character’s motivation? He obviously had huge mental health issues, yet again, they are not being addressed by anyone.
Both Lhong and Tar should be in observation in the hospital for some time, since they are either a danger to themselves or to others. I guess, mental health help is a concept that does not exist in the universe created by the writer.
San’s love for Tharn when they were younger was quite disturbing too. The idea that he wanted to take Tharn’s virginity because he was young, cute and innocent just sounds wrong for me. Those are the adjectives you use to describe a child. I have no idea how old Sad was when their relationship happened, but it did sound alarming to me.
WHAT I LIKED
I must say, I kind of enjoyed some fluffy scenes of Tharn and Type. I had to force myself to ignore and try not to remember all the stuff that happened in the first half of the show, but when I was able to do that, the scenes were quite cute. I liked the domestic scenes when Type was playing with Tharn hair. I guess I enjoyed their interactions the most in episode 10. Truth to be told, I would not mind this drama that much, or even like it, if the writer did not introduce the topic of sexual assault on the minor and mental health issues that follow. It was just so poorly written, I cannot ignore it.
My favorite character was for sure Techno. He was one of the best written and most realistic ones. Also, probably the only one without huge trauma and mental health issues. I enjoyed most of his scenes and Mild acting was quite good.
One scene that stood out for me was when Type was confronted by his friend after that friend confessed he is gay. It was a well written and well filmed scene. I just wished there was a follow up, since it was an amazing opportunity for Type’s character growth.
It’s important to add: the last episode was a MESS. Like… “how is Lhong not in prison” was the only thing on my mind when I was watching it. I could not focus on anything else.
Overall, the quality of the production was not bad, the acting was good, the chemistry between characters was nice, the music was fine, the technical aspects were well thought through… The writing… was tragic. Did I over-analyze it? Probably. Some might say I should not try to dig deep into this drama since it’s just a romance BL and they are not supposed to be taken this seriously. I would like to say though, the author themselves introduced those deep, tragic and thought provoking themes in it, so I cannot be blamed for taking it too seriously. I cannot ignore such a bad representation. It would make me feel guilty.
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excellent chemistry in a fantasy/soap opera-y plot
Overall: Daou and Offroad did a great job with a more soap opera type aka lakorn plot. 10 episodes 1 hour each. Aired 2 episodes per week on YouTube except SE Asia with delayed English subtitles https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXopbKxiivxq9qaU0XyhJiHY5za79C2ev&si=qAIRIqP0gomWPMe2 ; GagaOOLala everywhere except SE Asia, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong and Macau https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/4563/century-of-love-2024 ; Netflix for SE Asian countries. Later aired on iQIYI https://www.iq.com/album/century-of-love-2025-18jnrov7xy9?lang=en_usContent Warnings: please see my comment with a spoiler tag as there were several in the first episode, theft, attempted kidnapping, attempted murder, blood
What I Liked
- clear set up
- a character said she could dress how she wanted to
- supportive group, supportive grandma
- that one character was a bit flirty/mischievous and was not a pushover
- the scene at the end of episode 1
- child actor did an excellent job
- need a whole series of that demon fox scene
- a character clearly stated that he was bisexual
- two complex characters and not just stereotypical villains
- non cliched female characters
Room For Improvement
- the sound effects during the fight scene
- too many flashbacks of recent scenes
- too many catch & falls
- some cartoony villains that were extremely obvious
- low budget CGI
- nonsense stuff: a character was smart about hiding something and then none of them were smart about it later
- they kind of kid a cop out with the world building at the end but I guess it goes with the "live in the present"
- the angst/pain stuff went on for too long
- (neutral) there were comedy sound effects
Note: I was not bothered by a character's reaction to learning something in episode 1, he had a very long time to build up in his mind what that person would be
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The director of this drama really knows his stuff. The cinematography, set design and costumes were stellar. I wish MDL had a ratings section for the technical aspects of dramas because I would have given that a 10 plus. This drama was nothing if not beautiful to look at, both technically and aesthetically.
I really enjoyed Jang Geun Suk in this role. He has improved as an actor and really seemed mature. His acting wasn't as stiff or forced as I have felt from him in other dramas/movies I have watched. I adored Joon during so many moments of this drama. I enjoyed Yoona too. Their characters and their love story was in many ways adorable!
But somehow the writing of this drama fell flat for me...grew redundant and boring. It was likable but I am still confused as to where it went wrong for me. I think somewhere around episode 16 I began to struggle to keep my interest unless the main pairing was on screen together. The plot just didn't grab me and follow through in an exciting way. The final episode was cute but also at the same time, a bit choppy and didn't flow smoothly.
The Older Couple just made me kind of sad and I wish I could have felt the passion carry over in the adult version of the pair that I felt from them during the scenes from the past. It seemed that in every conversation they said the same thing over and over.
I liked the music but nothing really grabbed me, made me groove or move me emotionally.
Ultimately I would have to say that if I could condense this drama down to 16 episodes and keep the main (modern day) pairing on screen I could have given this a higher score. Gah! I wanted to LOVE Love Rain!
And because I was fond of this drama and because of the main leads...I am bumping this up to an 8 when realistically in my head, I think it probably deserves lower.
My re-watch value is set at 5...middle of the scale. I know I probably won't watch again.
But I say this...I have much more respect for Jang Geun Suk as an actor. He was also extremely adorable... And the director really did a great job. If only I could say the same about the writing and plot.
*sigh*
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Horrendous, nauseating, and yet still boring as f.
That was awful. I'll start with the positives:- Mos is supernaturally attractive. Every bit of him is stunning - hot body, porcelain skin, handsome face, those eyes, sexy voice, all of him.
End of positives.
This feels like it was written by a very sheltered 13-year old girl who inserted herself into the story as Bank's character. I'm not sure how else to describe his total lack of agency and relentlessly female wardrobe. You might think he has agency, but think about it - he's just a plot device, not a person. Even the one ability he has, designing jewelry (and the necklace is hideous), only exists when it's needed to move the "plot" "forward", and it's usually inspired by the supernatural elements of the story that are totally pointless and have no effect on anything.
I feel zero chemistry between Mos and Bank except insofar as Mos is so hot that he has some with anything that's in the same room with him. Partly because Bank's character is so vacuous and unrealized that there's nothing to be attracted to. Think about it. Describe his character: he... uh,... well,... he dresses like a girl. And wears so much makeup that if he actually were a girl, he'd look like a sex worker. That's really it. Oh wait, he faints a lot. A LOT.
This was the worst example of the worst kind of uke, who is incapable of surviving an average day without a seme to save him from drowning in 1 inch of water (this actually happens). Lin wants to use lovey-dovey nickhames, so he decides to call Sun "Dad". Not "daddy", which is at least an accepted slang term for an older (and generally wealthy) man, but "dad", which is only ever used in reference to your biological father (or occassionally a father-in-law) - is it possible for something to be more cringe? It's the ultimate infantilization, and it's frankly misogynist and homophobic, equating femininity with weakness.
The vaunted NC-17 scenes are so bad it's unintentionally funny. You get to see Mos's ass in the paint scene, so there is that, but that they didn't take off their high-fashion clothing first took me right out of the story. You could feed an entire village in Bangladesh for a year with what those outfits cost (in story). There's a BJ scene with slurping sound so loud that it would disturb Japanese people at a ramen bar. I guess Sun must have a micropenis, because otherwise there shouldn't be enough room in Lin's mouth to slurp that much.
One of the secondary couples has bird sex in a toilet stall while one of their fathers is watching while bent over backwards in a disturbing pose.
The only couple that's vaguely engaging also goes full uke-seme, the absence of which dynamic was what actually made them appealing - Yo behaved like a man, until he had a boyfriend, when he reverted to acting like a very sheltered 13-year old girl.
The production seems to think that loud = funny. All you need to do is have your characters scream their lines, and it's all very ha. (Or I guess it's "all very 5" for our Thai viewers.)
But worst of all, this was just dull. It wasn't fun to hate-watch, like Unforgotten Night - it just made me cringe almost continuously - and thank God for the +10 seconds button on iQiyi.
I can't recommend this - the only thing in it with appeal is Mos, and you can get anything you want of him and more on his instagram.
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This had all the recipe that I look for in a drama. it is dark, moody, raw and sad.I got hyped when I found out that it was the same director as MISAENG and SIGNAL and especially when I checked that it beat SIGNAL as the top rated drama here in MDL. But it wasn't depressing enough for me. Yes there were scenes that made me tear up but it was just like a scratch, I want it to be skin deep just like what MISAENG, DEAR MY FRIENDS and LIVE did where scene after scene it kept piercing my heart all the way through. Although that wake scene at the last episode made me cried buckets of tears, that's what I've been missing throughout the drama, give me more of that emotional-punch-to-your-soul scenes.
The major hold back in this drama for me is the love story of his brother and that actress, to me it was lackluster and took too much screen time, it was like my tears are about to fall from the leads'scenes and then it gets cut by their lousy romance story. it was well acted though but TBH it was unnecessary to highlight their story in which I wished that they could've put the spotlight more on Jang Ki Yong's story.
Jang Ki Yong's character's story was the big miss. To me his story is much more interesting than the two brothers honestly. his inner conflicts within himself is so captivating to watch. The way his character developed and gradually finding out why he is living that way was not stretched enough. I wanted more from him.
But man what a departure this is for IU from her previous roles. I think this type of character suits her personality more that's why she was able to pull off a stunning performance. And can we talk about Mr. ahjussi for a moment, why does he always get cheated on by his wives? first on MY WIFE IS HAVING AN AFFAIR THIS WEEK and now this, poor thing.
p.s. that OST is golden! I would recommend y'all to listen to every song, it just breaks my heart.
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