Reviews

Growth in youth is often painful, and while love makes it bearable, sometimes it isn't enough

I took one look at the cover photo and synopsis for this show and knew I would love it. I went in pretty much blind and rewatched it twice as it was airing, solely because I couldn't get enough of what I would describe as an immaculately done piece of art. This show carried so much potential and executed it at every point possible.

First, I want to emphasize how much of my heart and soul this drama took. From beginning to end, I could not truly predict anything regarding Minase and Hirukawa's relationship, even down to if they were going to be together at the end of the show. On so many different levels this show represented pure craftsmanship to me. From the cinematography to the storyline, everything I would personally say was done with so much intention, detail, and care that I truly hope it is appreciated by others for the beautiful tale it walks its audience through.

Secondly, the only honest criticism I have is that there were a couple of scenes (literally only twice) where I struggled to believe the "sad" vibe due to the acting appearing a little too strong or inauthentic. Please note that it was very minimal and did not change my view of the show at all because, in the grand scheme of the plotline, I still think it was written with great skill and purpose.

Similar to the series "My Beautiful Man", we get to view both the pureness of a first love and the uncertainty that is often felt by those trying to identify if who they love is "right" because it's "different." Yet, in an important difference to the aforementioned show, this series takes the depth of this love and shoves it into a container carrying much more serious trauma, and then proceeds to shake it up with a whole lot of "I have no way to know how to express love because I've never seen a proper example." There are scenes in here that may be triggering for some. It's not dark like "Happy of the End" dark, but any audience member should be aware this series is not here to waltz you through a peaceful and easy-on-the-stomach love story. It's real, imperfect, and at times, depressing to witness.

On a lighter note, if you're into the trope of "He fell first, but he fell harder," you'll get just as much of a sucker punch to the gut as I did, because my God, the yearning will just yank on your heartstrings. Bonus points too if you get to see episode 11 that I had no clue was coming. The tension in that was WILD and some scenes threw me for a serious loop because of how unprepared I was to see grown Haruki and Jin who were fully aware of their feelings now acting on them impulsively and without reservation. It was more spicy than I was expecting lol.

Overall, a show I'd highly recommend, and a series that I think even the more experienced watcher will appreciate.

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Fun Watch, Bad Writing

Was this series easy to watch and have great chemistry? Yes. Was the writing good and did I like the characters? No.

This series was really entertaining if you just turn off your brain and watch without thinking much but the second you sit down with it, you realize how toxic many parts of this was.

I hate most of the time when people say stuff like this, but if Pat was a man she would have been the villain of the story because she was SOOO TOXIC and OBSESSIVE to an unhealthy level. Her character was one of the main flaws of this series but somehow I still rooted for her? So maybe that's an issue on my part lmao.

Pat was also horrible with boundaries and some of her advances came off very creepy and bordered on SA. I also don't understand why GL series still have characters kissing the other when the other is almost black-out drunk, it's 2025, we can do better.

You also couldn't pay me to care about any of the side characters, especially Nam. I was so close to dropping this series at one point because Nam wouldn't leave Pat & Prem alone and it was just getting repetitive and annoying.

However, I would recommend watching this series to most GL watchers just because of how entertaining it was. Despite my complaints, I was sat every week for this mess and I feel like this would be a very easy binge. Also the leads had great chemistry and I hope to see them in a future series with better writing.

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The charm lies in the unique characters.

How I would describe the show: an unusual take on a typical romantic comedy. For starters, this show does not really have any leading plot line - there is no mystery to solve, as it often happens in rom-coms. It’s all about the characters, their relationships and them dealing with their current situation.

I do believe the characters are the best part of the show. They all have unique personalities with individual outlooks in life, personal dreams, motivations and values. Each and every one of them reacts differently to the given situations. That said, while watching their current self is fun, by the end of the show... I didn't really know that much about some of the main ones. All of the main characters have a really complex and deep set up, with many struggles happening in the past. Even the majority of the supporting roles are written in that way - they are supposed to convey some kind of serious issues and dilemmas. And while said setups, as the concepts, are as deep as the Mariana Trench, practically speaking, they were never fully explored and I didn't even get my head underwater while watching.

The show shines with the cast and their interactions. We've got a whole set of puppy-like male characters that are nice, polite, cute and understanding. On the other hand, we have strong, driven and outspoken female characters. The synergy was pure perfection. This led to many unexpected and extremely hilarious scenes. I just could not predict how the characters would react and behave. The comedy in this show has been just so fresh and fun, I could not stop laughing while watching some scenes.

While I honestly thought the main couple was amazingly adorable and enjoyed basically everything they presented, I didn't get as excited for the second one. Mostly I just felt bad for Young Hwa while watching his interactions with Dan Ah (especially at the beginning). Later, the lines delivered for their scenes became painfully corny and cliche...

The acting was on the top level. Im Shi Wan did an outstanding job portraying Seon Gyeom. The socially awkward and at times distant characters that mostly keep to themselves are extremely hard to present well - bad acting leads to the character looking robotic, boring and empty. Shi Wan, though, delivered the best performance I could imagine for this role. I cannot think of any actor or actress that was awkward or unpolished in their roles and portrayals. Top notch casting for sure.

The production value was good. The scenes were shot in an amazing way, as I would say: aesthetics on point. The unexpected turns in how the scenes were written were perfectly reflected by how they were filmed. I just felt a harmony between what the writer wanted to tell and the director wanted to show.

The OST was fine, fitting the show and scenes, but not that memorable? Only two songs truly caught my attention - “I Wish It Was You” and “Sorry”, taking the crowns as the best songs from the drama for me.

Overall, I enjoyed the show for its entertainment value, unique characters, funny twists and fresh, out of the box directing of certain scenes and plot lines. I wish they introduced less serious and complex backgrounds for the characters, focused on just a few and truly dive deeper into them. For me, having just 4 or 5 scenes in the whole show to address something is not enough.

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It was overall a cute drama, but I can't say neither I loved it or I hated it, and I think this is worse, because it's ought to be forgotten (by me at least). I'm not an exo fan (please don't kill me xD) so it was a little more difficult to watch, because I didn't have the fangirl motivation here xD
Someone said is a shopping king Louis in joseon and...well that's where the problem lies. Everything, like every trope of this drama it's already seen and already done. The similarities with skl are many, but also with like every period drama I have seen. (Speaking of which: there is a saeguk not focused on the royal family? Or at least not only, like there's nothing else to write about that period??) There's no suspance, no really twists in the story or mysteries - we all knew that the assassin brother was the father of the queen's baby. Even the death of the evil vice minister was unsatisfying...well the whole plotting against the crown was too bland and boring.
Also! There was the "solution agency" which was an interesting thing, but they drop it pretty soon only to bring it back at the end just to feign ignorance about the fact they forgot about it lol

Ps. My extremely unpopular opinion: I had the second lead syndrome... I felt much more chemistry between Hong Shim and the magistrate...maybe because I liked more his characterization or to me he has better acting skills (not saying the ml sucked...I just preferred the sm) when he almost proposed at the end I hoped they would've take the "realism" route and have the prince marry a noblewoman (ugh bitter isn't it?) and let them become a couple.

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Mixed emotions on this one

I had high expectations but the length (at least 1/3 too much) and the biological/physical nonsense heavily damaged watching this series.
I liked the idea of discussing the future of water, which covers most of the world today, makes up most of the human body, and was even understood as a principle in the formation of the universe in early Greek philosophy, and is threatened by human activities. I liked the experiment on the goldfish. I liked the clashes of interests regarding the mission on the Moon.
In my eyes, showing how lunar water had been identified, then mined, leading to the establishment of the base, would have improved the production.
The problems now.
The plot is meaningless as - even accepting the biological impossibilities presented - the company interested in putting its paws on the resources in the base could have just sent its own craft and crew. There was no need to infiltrate the space agency mission.
The plot is - separately - meaningless because of the many impossibilities presented:
1. One can't see a virus using the microscope used,
2. and can't even see a bacterium unless one prepares the bacterium by first staining it.
3. Genetic modifications in one biosystem cannot become antibodies in another one.
4. The girl would have died of starvation,
5. and if she had exited the base, would have immediately frozen to death and be without breath.
6. Water cannot replicate as reported.
Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
The writer(s) should have consulted KAIST and/or some other group/institute to mitigate the nonsense in the series. Bae Doona could have done chromatography on the water, investigated the plants, worked under hoods, irradiated/autoclaved stuff, and she would have realized if liquid water exists inside the base, parts thereof would exist as water vapor and thus cause the same effects as the liquid, ...
Now "The Silent Sea" will negatively affect me watching "Stranger 3" (if it comes out), since Bae Doona would have the leading female role (like in "Stranger" and "Stranger 2").

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Not the best, not the worst

The setting was what drew me in, i'll always love the seaside small village stories and this one was no different. Story was okayish, MLs story was bit over dramatic probably to play up the tension in the short episode count, FLs story was pretty much the same as every other story like this, ie. need to get away from everything. Nothing groundbreaking and it doesn't have to be, it works just fine and i enjoyed the story for what it was.

Visually this surprised me the most, this has great visuals which are usually absent in short dramas due to lower budgets. You could've told me that it was full drama on this aspect and i would've believed you.

Acting all over the board was kinda meh, but that's expected in short dramas at this point. Sometimes it feels like actors are just here for pay check and here is no different expect the village singer girl was the worst actor i've seen, she was pretty jarring. So acting left a lot to be desired.

Whole skin tone speak left me kinda disappointed how it is still a thing in 2026, FL is kinda racist, lol

Ending was meh, good conclusion for our characters but bit silly how we got to it. The ''villain'' of this drama was bit laughable.

Conclusion
Decent short drama, if you like the setting this isn't the worst 3 hours of your life but you aren't missing anything by skipping this though acting might be bit tough if you aren't use to short dramas, visually great. I'll give it 5/10.

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It's difficult to rate this "movie" because it's not really a movie in the traditional sense of the word. Rather it's a compilation of short films which explore the theme of erotic love. Two of the stories are very loosely related whilst the other 3 are independent of each other.

Some stories were better than others in both content and acting ability. The first two were quite enjoyable and philosophical. They asked deep, thought-provoking questions that I pondered appreciatively.

My favourite of all 5 was the 2nd story. Very poignant, but also a very sweet manifestation of (erotic) love.

The 3rd and 4th stories were a bit bizarre. Think murderous wives, blood sucking vampires and lesbian loving. I liked the 3rd story the least. Though darkly comedic in parts, I found it boring and uninspired in others. The theme of Eros was not very well conveyed, in my opinion, and the acting was off.

The 5th and final story about partner swapping could have been interesting, but the narrative was somewhat nonlinear, making it difficult to keep track of who was really boyfriend/girlfriend with who.

If I had to rate each story individually:

Story 1: 9
Story 2: 10
Story 3: 3
Story 4: 5
Story 5: 6

The average comes out to about 7 so that's my overall score for this anthology. I enjoyed it while it lasted. This movie is suitable for mature audiences, but nothing about it felt gratuitous. In fact a lot of the sexual encounters were pretty PG. I'd say it's a good date movie to watch with your long term partner, if you have one.

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Don't get fooled by +ve YT comments/reviews

Read at your own risk because I am about to be rude and realistic :
This series is a waste of time no matter how much you try to defend it. No this is not a mature BL drama. This is not how slow-burn works. Some fujoshis have quite a low bar ughh. Also, please DO NOT compare this to Eclipse which was a MASTERPIECE.
Don't get fooled by reading positive reviews. Skip it if you are not fond of the plain plot.
The only positive things are : Chot's dialogues and Jaab's charismatic looks. Apart from that, Khun jeng was pretty hot.
Nothing happens in the first 7/8 episodes and suddenly everything happens in the last few ones.
Very boring side characters and the main character with basic storylines.
What was more frustrating was Pat. His weird lip movements were straight-up irritating. His indecisiveness and drama weren't cute or mature. He bored me to death.

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This drama is great. Go and watch it.



That's pretty much all you need to know

(But that would be a lame ass review ^.^)



I read about this drama and how fast it won on popularity.

And I just wondered how could a 30 episode-story about bread-making be interesting?

But I started it anyway. Even though the first couple episodes are set in the past

and were meant for information build-up,

I think those were needed to give depth to the following episodes.

This drama made me laugh. cry. angry, then laugh again and most of all: It kept me interested. Love and intrigues. The story moves along and progresses constantly. The actors are all very good (AND very good-looking.) ^.^

You can feel the struggle the characters have in the story and feel with them.

Also the music was good.

I even caught myself humming the tunes to it at work.

(Unfortunately I dont understand/speak korean. YET ^_^) haha.

Hoped that helped, and you are now convinced to go and watch it.

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Comedy over Romance

It's kooky in a good way. I agree with other MDLers in that this reminded me of A Man Who Defies the World of BL. It's got a similar style.

I had some laughs and it's fun and all . . . But the build to a romance wasn't done very well, in my opinion.

I would say you will enjoy this more if going into it you view it as a slice-of-life-ish-comedy rather than a romance.

Side Thoughts: I thought it was neat and unique of this drama to reverse the trope of BL writers being women who just have some obsession with writing about Gay guys in a stereotypical/unrealistic fashion and make it be an actual Gay man doing it.

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I will never forget you FADELSTYLE

I absolutely love this series — it has become my new comfort BL show. I'm a big fan of FirstKhao and JoongDunk, but in this series, JoongDunk as Fadel and Style totally stole the spotlight. The chemistry, the kisses — Fadel is incredibly romantic, and although Style seemed like a clown at first, he's actually a really sweet guy with a strong sense of emotional responsibility.

I adore the love scenes — they're not overly sexualized, just natural moments you'd expect from any couple.
And the soundtrack! The use of Western songs is truly a gem.

Thank you so much — I’ll definitely be looking forward to more for Joong and Dunk.

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If you want to watch a romance comedy drama with some thrills then this is a must. The storyline doesn't get boring in the middle or you won't have to worry about the acting quality since everyone that showed up nailed it. It has great OST that match with the story and the ending is what you'd expect that is not disappointing.

Each episodes contains Goo Chan Sung trying to help the ghost go in peace while Man Weol unexpectedly ending up helping him through his persistent. The chemistry between the two grows as Chan Sung persistently work his way through Man Weol's heart. There is a lot of special guest coming in throughout many episodes, but even the surprises will make your heart go wild.

Overall, I give it a 10 star (not for exaggeration) but it had a great flow of story, great actors/actresses, and also OST!

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