Reviews

I dropped the show

It takes me a while to realize I don't like a show until I'm almost finished with it, and that's excactly what happened here. I used to be excited for the next episode and then it started feeling like an obligation to keep watching😕

The issues I have with the show are:
The dialogue is bad and cringey, they baby Pat like he isn't a grown man (like the convo with his parents about their divorce was something that should have happened when they first broke up years ago), the music is bad, its WAYY too slowburn, Pat's feelings are so murky it's still even hard to see when he started liking Jeng and if he really does, the other characters stories are executed poorly, and the story overall just isn't that good.
Wouldn't reccomend unless you wanna feel like you wasted your time.

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How second chance romance should NOT be done

I never really liked second chance romance (after all, what's interesting if the characters already know they like each other?) but then The First Frost came out and I realized how good the angst could be, so I tuned into this one, thinking it would be a great melodrama.

Unfortunately, I did not click with anything here at all.

In the main leads' story in the past, the FL was just really pushy and the ML really bland; their relationship happens at the speed of light without any sort of good build-up.

And then in modern day, their reconnection just really made me angry. The FL is extremely self-righteous and rude, while the ML just sits there and takes all the snarky comments she makes about him because he's supposedly so in love with her still. It gives pathetic more than it gives yearning and I just cannot fathom a person ending up with someone who seems to have such little respect for them.

The reignition of their romance is portrayed as a "I just couldn't help loving you" type of situation, but it comes across as codependent and unhealthy instead of romantic. I ultimately just don't see any reason why these characters could, should, or would end up together and not break up again, especially since they just don't communicate at all, even until the last episode, where we're given ANOTHER separation and time jump that makes even less sense.

The plot doesn't help much. Corporate warfare is a very common trope and I found certain plotlines — the poisoning of the sister — interesting, but ultimately we end up with a hodgepodge of tropes and antagonists, none of which are really clear: the lady who is in jail, the mom who started out evil but then I guess was okay, etc.

The last episode was the nail in the coffin. They separate again and then are brought back together by a random side character death. While the side characters were just okay — they weren't memorable and lovable but also weren't annoying — it just felt very random and made it seem like there had to be an external reason for the leads to reconnect; they couldn't do it on their own. The final scene...well let me just say that excitement and big grand gestures such as an airport chase scene will never sell me on the feasibility of a relationship. It's too short-term and just doesn't provide much depth.

2/10 (instead of 1/10) because the cinematography was nice.

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Love Rain had caught my attention before because of the great trailer it has. I loved the first part of the story but hard to say I really don't liked it that much at the 2nd part. The story at first was really heart melting especially if you'll put yourself into the situation of the main characters. The next half of the story was a disappointment for me because it's a really long and I think they did the story into circles.

What I love about this drama is the music that it has. The songs were really great and it suited the scenarios in the drama. The actors and actresses also did great but for me I won't try to watch it again.

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Interesting topics but are they realistically portrayed?

Now, I'll say this show is a mess in so many ways so, I always find it funny when people make drastic comments like this is the best show on Earth or people who hate every single little detail of it.
I say this show is a mess because it is unusually long for a BL series that normally have 6, 8, 10 or 12 episodes... so reaching 20 episodes was something rare. And now, don't get me wrong, the fact that it had 20 episodes is not what makes this show a mess... it is the way the 20 episodes were handled. Having 4 stories lasting 5 episodes each would have been innovative if it was done properly. Instead, we have characters appearing in the first story that never appeared in the other stories. Can you honestly remember most of what happened on episodes 1-5 at this point? Probably not.

The plot of the whole series was to highlight or show people the worst issues, or the worst problems or the worst obstacles many actors, managers, producers and even companies have to face when doing a BL and it was a different concept from "Call It What You Want" and "Call It What You Want 2" as those series also wanted to showcase the worst issues inside the BL industry but the attempt started OK and then went to the toilet with poor directing choices in the plot and the storyline... This series wanted to bring different stories and get them their individual spotlight:

Episodes 1-5 had Billy and Seng acting as Nott and Pan almost immediately after we saw them in "Secret Crush On You". So, their previous characters were quite fresh in our memory and now each had a character that was the total opposite. That was good as we could see their acting skills, but sadly, this story was one of the weaker ones as the characters were not developed in a way I could fully understand their motivations to act the way they acted. From Pan being offered by his manager to one of the producers in order to get him commercials or a TV show or just money or him scrubbing himself quite harshly while taking a bath because he felt dirty or him not trusting Nott and his intentions of developing a real relationship, were just some of the plots that were never really fully developed. At some point I even thought this story will connect with the managers story and it kinda does but very marginally as Gus and Bew are the secondary couple in these episodes so nothing was completely handled plot-wise. This was probably the weirdest story of the 4 as Billy and Seng just appeared in these episodes and were not seen again until the final half of episode 20 despite having second credit after Lay and Muse (who also barely appeared throughout the show).

Episodes 6-10 had Gung and Korn acting as Gus and Bew... we saw this couple in "Y-Destiny" and they had good chemistry back then and they still do. That's probably their strongest point as their acting, especially Gung, remains a bit weak at times. They appeared in the first 5 episodes as the new BL couple trying to earn a spot in the industry but their main storyline focuses on their work and their managers. Now, I'm sure some managers do try to exploit or benefit from rookie actors who get poor advice from them but the way this was portrayed in these 5 episodes was quite exaggerated and 99% of the things we saw would merit some jail time for so many criminal acts. I hope that forcing one character to sleep with the other or to charm him so he could fall in love, sabotaging their own BL partner for their own benefit, hiring spies or having someone else spread rumors are things that happen in very few cases or this industry might be doomed already. I thing the plot twist of having Bew being the one who orchestrated most of the issues we saw, was good... but he is forgiven quite quickly by Gus and the two managers just go their marry way with another BL couple without really facing any type of consequences. And aside from some minor appearances in the first 5 episodes and being the main couple in these 5 episodes, Gung and Korn also disappear until the final part of episode 20.

Episodes 11-15 had Milk and Markpoom as Peak and Kla and I think if you want to really learn what happens inside an idol environment, you should just watch all the Korean singing reality shows where they train the young hopeful candidates in singing, dancing, rapping, and some physical conditioning. While that industry is also messed up in the way they value a cute face or a hot body and Korean idols have some quite insanely strict rules about their weight and their romantic life, the 5 episodes of Y-Idol were far too long. SoSatSeoulSay had a field day appearing on these episodes and having silly competitions with the trainees who then had to sing and dance in almost every episode (if we can call it that). War of Y wanted to highlight the obstacles some of the trainees (in this case, trainees for a BL series) might face like a bad or mismatched partner, a non-approving family, producers/networks who prefer a specific trainee over another, etc., but all these issues were poorly acted and not explored that much because of all the other drama they had to fabricate. Milk made his acting debut in this series and it showed because he was really one of the worst in terms of acting and I never really felt any chemistry between him and Markpoom.

Episodes 16-20 had Toru and First playing Most and Achi... we also saw this couple in "Y-Destiny" and in there they had some of the steamiest scenes on that mediocre series so everybody remembered them and anxiously waited for these episodes. They began appearing since the previous storyline as they were also part of the Y-Idol show. Once the producers manipulated the results, they were the winning couple and got their own BL series produced by Lay's character (P). In here, First had to carry most of the weight of the story as his character is involved with Toru's character for the series and also becomes romantically involved with Fern (played by Paper) a girl who is cast as an extra but who is secretly brought in to the series by P in order to spy on Most and Achi and make sure they don't break the "no dating" rule. This plot could have been the most interesting as First and Toru have a really good chemistry from their previous series and Paper's acting was quite good. The way her story was handled was quite disappointing as she is exposed as trans on episode 20 so P can save his production and Achi can keep his job... after a brief talk with Achi she doesn't appear again in the episode until the final seconds. We never got to see Achi's full background story which I think was key to establish his selfishness or his intentions. Most tells Achi in the last episode: "when you're cute, you're damn damn cute... but when you're bad, you're an evil person"... the lack of background on Achi made me wish would've gotten something more useful to understand why he acted the way he acted.

The last half of episode 20 has all the main actors returning for the Galaxy Awards and P magically wins the Greatest Y Award (using some of his scenes from "Y-Destiny") maybe related to the phone call he makes earlier in the episode to someone and to compensate the fact that the show he produced, lost (against the other 2 shows that ended up tying for the win) and his lead actor (Most) wins the Best Y Actor Award but he decides to quit acting to focus on music. Lay's character was a bit puzzling as he was supposed to be the senior Y actor looking over all the new rookies but ended up being like a leader of a mafia cartel but with zero background on his story and zero character development other than being a selfish jerk most of the time and having a Y series partner that appeared very few times and spoke even less.
The show ends with a silly montage of all the actors saying some things about the industry while holding the tiniest trophy ever given to what it's supposed to be the "Greatest Y Award".

I think this series had potential but the 4 stories felt quite disjointed despite having the main couple of episodes 6-10 appear in episodes 1-5 or the couples in episodes 11-15 also appear in episodes 16-20. I think Lay could have been the connecting factor in all stories but his role was quite narrow from being an "experienced" BL actor dealing with potential newcomers, to being a producer of a reality show, to being a producer of a BL series, to suddenly winning another acting award to remain relevant and also announcing that he wouldn't accept any more nominations so others can get the chance (hmmm... how generous of him!). Aside from that, each could have been a separate BL series on its own as most fit the current trend of just airing whatever mediocre product they can find as long as they cast good looking actors. One last annoying thing were all the social media posts that appeared on screen during the episodes as some were translated and some were not and the translations were placed alongside whatever the actors were saying, so it got very confusing and hard to follow all the text without having to pause the episode just to read half of the screen full of text.

The show ends with another of their polls asking if all the "War of Y" stories were true, would you believe it? I'll say that I would believe it but I hope the reality is not as exaggerated or as bleak as it looked in this series.

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I finally finished this excruciatingly long and boring drama that has more holes in the story than a sieve. From around episode 6 it is basically the same episode with slight variations until episode 15. I really don't want to take the time to go into all the problems with this drama. The reason I gave it a 4 instead of a 1 is the few funny, cute and sweet moments. At least the ending didn't suck.

I like the main actors, but even the best actors could not have saved this drama. I usually hate dramas with a lot of bi-stories and unnecessary actors, but this time they were actually the entertainment to me. The detective running around winking at people and the "other" girls chasing the male leads are too funny.

The music is fine.

I will never rewatch this.

I don't recommend this drama, but if you insist on watching it, then I suggest watching to episode 6 skipping to episode 15.

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Feel-good romance lacks distinctive voice and a real heart

I don't have much to say about this film except that it's cute, adorable and wholesome. Conversations are mostly backed up with whimsical music. I don't have a problem with this as the dialogues felt authentic and genuine at first. However, by the time we arrived in the second half the story became dragged and lacked the specifities I was hoping for.

The shots and cinematography could have been more creative to make it memorable. The story does not try to be groundbreaking either. This is just supposed to be a feel-good movie although I would have loved if there were more touching moments to evoke emotions considering the story revolves around deaf people.

The story starts with Yong Jun unsure of what he wants to do in life. He's surrounded with philosophy books but he doesn't know what job to apply for. By the time we get to the end, nothing has changed. He's the main character but we didn't get to know much about his thoughts and background except that he instantly fell for Yeo Reum when he saw her in the swimming pool. This is the moment where the puppy love story starts to unfold. The film also noticeably shifts it focus to Yeo Reum's point of view after this part. More or less, Yeo Reum is a more developed character than Yong Jun. We digged into Yeo Reum's background and personality but only to a certain extent and here is where my main issue lies. Her character lacks a distinctive voice and is not fleshed out as I want her to be.

The storyline is fairly simple and is quite the epitome of young love. Although, one would really expect that the film could have had more earnest and compelling scenes just to fully give us that warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

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Kinda actually a really good series!

I truly do not understand all the hate that this series got. The only thing that I saw that was unrealistic in the show was the support that the two ML's got from their friends and family, because that doesn't happen to the extent that was portrayed in the show. Support is often there, but rarely do people go to such lengths for someone else's happiness. At one point, Fah was talking about a side couple and (to paraphrase) he basically said --I know how they feel but it's not my business. They'll figure it out.-- That caught me completely off guard. I mean, it's a drama and you're not going to get involved?? But it worked with the character's personality. (Heh, my example may not sound like support, but in my opinion it was.)

The cast is all new actors, and honestly, they did a great job. The director kept the show moving and the writers didn't let us sit with scenes upon scenes of slow dialogue, as is often the case. Occasionally there were some pauses when the characters were talking, but it was more like natural conversation than a lot of BL's I've seen. The plot included the necessary drama, emotional growth of the characters, varying locations, and several different types of relationships. I've seen comments about the toxicity of the MLs relationship, but it seems to me that the toxicity was more self-induced than anything else.

I think the fact that they had to fight themselves as well as each other in order to find a happy middle ground for a relationship made this so much more realistic. Trust, love, jealousy, lust, passion, hope, disappointment, pain....it was all within these 12 episodes. It's nice when people can have a perfect relationship, but often it's a facade, hiding the truths and deceptions of one or more parties within that relationship. Having to work together towards an understanding of each other, through trials and tribulations, makes for a better bond than taking everything at face value. This leads to my favorite line of the whole series: "I'm trying."

I saw some comments about how bad the kissing was, and I can only assume that those people don't realize that not everyone kisses the same, and oftentimes you have to adapt to the kisses and physical touches of your partner. Personally I think it's refreshing to see people portray the intimate actions differently. And different moods call for different actions. For instance, being thrown into a wall and kissed hard can be thrilling and passionate at times. Other times, it can just hurt. LOL. I'm not trying to make excuses for the acting or directing. I actually liked the kisses. They were reactive, and not just dead fish lips.

There are very few dramas that I will rewatch, but I can guarantee that I will be revisiting this one. I let the comments sway me and waited, but I'm glad that I finally watched it. Although it does still have the effeminate 'I'm going to break them up' characters (which is a trope in itself) as well as the oh so recognizable fujoshi-type character, for the most part I enjoyed the side characters as much as the main leads. This show didn't leave me all in my feels and hugging myself in comfort or happiness; rather it left me more contemplative... but satisfied.

I do wish Tar would have had his happy ending though...

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Almost lost my mind with the annoying dragging of the lie till the last ep

Was this a good BL series? - No
Was the script good? -No
Was it entertaining? - Not really
Did I like it? - Not really
Did I keep watching it? - well hell yes!!!
Do I know why? - I have absolutely no idea.

Still I don't know what i feel about this series. Like I said it was not the best one and probably I will never re-watch it. But something made me keep watching it every week and to my surprise enjoying it as well.

I think it is the acting of the leads. They are good and have great chemistry. The side characters acting was also good. Otherwise I was absolutely frustrated with the script.

1.First off all the pilot trailer seemed really thrilling, but the series itself was nothing similar to that. There was nothing new rather then the general troupe of twin swap and love story in confusion.
2. Omg!!! I can't even complain about the writing of the series, what could have been a really great plot.. they just ruined it by dragging the lie to the very last episode.
3. The plot of the spy seemed to be completely unnecessary. It did add some jealousy element but that could have been easily done without the spy plot as well.
4. Never fully explored the backstory of both the twins. Why is Zee so rude to his teammates. I really don't like him.

Anyway, In conclusion I absolutely loved Frame and Ryan together. I support them and hope they get better projects in future would love to see them again.

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BLACK FLAG

My favourite novels out of the all novels are those with a possessive male lead that will do everything for their lover , i'm a big fan of the husky and his white cat shizun and i love moran who is the main character of the novel and the drama version which is called immortality , many people have immortality in their watchlist yet the come here and complain about how possessive hua yong is ,like how they don't know how fiction works and how most chinese novels are full of tragic and black flag characters .
some of the most popular danmei's have black flag mls including (svsss,case file compendum , ERHA, the film emperor ....)
so if you are not interested in those characters this series isn't for you like the most chinese novels .

10/10 for me with no doubt and it's a masterpiece .

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Good Romance Drama

This is just idol romance drama.
I am smiling while I am watching this drama.
Although it is old typical idol romance drama, some of plot lines and characters are quite okay. Both main lead actor and actress are quite fine in acting skills and good in chemistry and their chemistry is so lovely and sweet!!

The main reason I watched this drama is because of main lead actor, who I know actor from goodbye princess drama.

Although he looks older than his age, he is good at acting and quite confident on screen.
It may be due to he started acting on drama since 3 years old.
I enjoyed and keep smiling while watching this!!
At the last 5 episodes, the plots are shown different perspectives of female and male characters which is good!! They show independent women character who is working as professional career, is quite well and respectfully..

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A visually satisfying excellent production

This is a gem for cinematography lovers. The Camera-work is just genius, rarely seen such talented and unique work. The sceneries top, just beautiful. Even the bloody fight scenes well directed and originally choregraphed.

Yeah, the story is simple, very, very simple, but it's well made. I guess people complain a lot because for an action movie its pretty slow paced, there were many long scenes in the beginning and the dialogues are filled with many empty lines.

It's an action movie to enjoy for the action, dry humor, and amazing actors but in between there is nothing exceptional. The plot also non-existent, but if you have a knack for beautiful directed movies, this is something to enjoy because the visuals serve. Don't have any expectations for an unexpected plot development , it's a slow paced linear bloody movie.

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I watched this movie years ago but I still remember its events clearly.
I was mostly attracted by the story : there was Action combined with romance (which is one of the favorite genres that I like to watch).
The story was like a moving painting with all the bright and dark sides of it just like other chinese Fantasy-Wuxia films that manages to keep you interested especially when there are fighting scenes on the screen.
The ending wasn't what we all want it to be but it's sort of expected for this genre of film.
If you're action-romance lover then this film's for you.

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So I don't seem to have loved this drama as much as so many other viewers have appeared to. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it a lot, with the tale end (last 4-5 episodes) being the best for me, but I wasn't too impressed or enthralled with the story in the beginning.

I didn't find Se Ri to be particularly interesting in her normal South Korean lifestyle. Things got interesting when she finally got to North Korea. Unfortunately, I am one of those people that was a bit bothered by how romanticized North Korea was portrayed. I've exposed myself to a number of resources on what N. Korea is like, including autobiographies in video and literature formats as well as documentaries...I'm no expert at all, but I can assure you, North Korea is not nearly so care free and/or "normal" in regards to overall mentality and lifestyle. If an individual were to read the autobiographies, one would realize how twisted, tragic, and dangerous living in North Korea truly is. Due to having some knowledge in this area, I did have some trouble swallowing the picture painted of N. Korea initially. Once I got over my initial shock (I simply wasn't expecting N. Korea to be portrayed this way), I was able to enjoy the drama for what it was, a fictitious piece of entertainment, loosely based on real places.

I did not begin to really get sucked into the drama until probably episode 12. The drama at this point is more focused on South Korea, as by this point, Se Ri is now back home, and the action picks up significantly with Chul Kang out to kill her. There were some awesome fight sequences as well as some entertaining comedy, especially between Captain Ri's men/platoon and the drama at the NIS. I also find a better balance of screen-time between characters by this point in the drama.

The reason the last couple of episodes were my favorite in the entire drama was because you got to see people being kind to others, even when it put themselves at risk. It was the generosity and selflessness that was beautiful to witness now that the characters were thoroughly established. For example, I seriously started crying when all the wives came to help the colonel's wife after he was arrested - it was incredibly touching. Also when the homeless orphan hides Seung Jun in the village so the Chinese thugs don't find him - and then Seung Jun starts crying because their song hit's him. *sob* That was POWERFUL. The way Chi Su saved Man Bok from being shot in the final gang shoot-out was impressive and selfless too! Honestly, while I enjoyed the main couple, the smaller, discreet, overlooked touches were what really made this drama so good for me.

Additionally, I personally adored Seung Jun and Dan together as the secondary couple. But, I can't get over their tragedy.
With all the rule-bending this drama took liberty with, why was it okay to kill of Seung Jun?? Why wasn't there a way to save him? Anndddd with all the other characters so neatly and thoroughly wrapped up, why leave it ambiguous? Why not come out and clearly state what happened and if he's truly dead or not? And no, I'm not satisfied with the answer, "it's for them to pick up there for a season 2." If there's no season 2 guaranteed, I'm not okay with the ambiguity, because it might never happen!

Speaking of rule bending - if they were able to take creative liberties to create a new and improved N. Korea for the sake of drama plot, why not work things out between Captain Ri and Se Ri a bit more smoothly? There were so many time jumps in the end with their struggle spanning years. Why couldn't they get a simpler/neater happily-ever-after with all the other plot conveniences devised? Yes, I know that Captain Ri didn't want to jeopardize his parent's safety if he pissed off the N. Korean government, but seriously, come on, with all the other plot conveniences, it wasn't possible for Se Ri and him to live more happily-ever-after?

"Picture of My Heart" by Song Ga In and "Longing Hill" by April 2nd were my favorite vocal OST in the soundtrack. All the instrumental pieces were great too. I especially loved "Time of Jung Hyuk for Se Ri" and "Same Sky, Different World" instrumental pieces. Although, not to be a jerk, but I really didn't like the piano piece that Captain Ri wrote for his brother that Se Ri loved so much...Please don't hate me over that! It's just with such great OST's and instrumental accompaniments, that piano piece didn't fit well.

I would also like to state a super unpopular opinion. I'm not at all attracted nor do I swoon when Hyun Bin comes in the picture. His character as a human being is attractive, but his physical appearance, not so much. So that, I do not understand very much.
I also do not find Son Ye Jin particularly remarkable. In everything I've seen her in, I've been unimpressed. She's not a bad actress, I'm just not blown away by her...

Anyways, I know I've been long winded in stating my unpopular opinions, but I don't actually hate the drama. I simply would like to point out some of it's imperfections for those of you out there that might not have held Crash Landing On You in such high regard, or are on the fence as to whether or not you want to watch this. Hopefully this will help in figuring out what to expect.

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