All of me loves Oh Sehun… can’t say the same for the girl these two leads pine for
I came into this show expecting a light-hearted romantic comedy. A love triangle that I honestly would have a hard time watching if it weren't for Oh Sehun. Instead this drama offers much more than the above, in fact it deviates from the typical love-triangle formula to share a story more about youth and the love the young characters have to give towards each other as a whole.So I'm not going to lie. Oh Sehun is the reason I was interested in this drama in the first place, and outside of that I wasn't planning on watching. To my surprise, right away this drama proved to be interesting- and honestly a whole lot more than I expected in general. Sehun's character Go Yoo fits him so well. The smiles and fun easygoing energy that he has is just perfect. After watching him in that one pirate movie I had no idea what to expect from his acting, but with this role he really fits it so well that I'm impressed and excited to see where his character goes. I think Sehun will do well with the mellow scenes, as this drama will definitely be having more of those. Sehun's scenes with basketball are point blank amazing, peak cinematography. They straight up did a Matrix style scene like where Neo dodges the bullets. Some could say outdated, but honestly genius. Like it is set in 2006, they did the Matrix, its part of the time.
It can be argued that Sehun doesn't look like a high schooler, but come on now. Something about his confidence on the basketball court, he fits being a high school basketball player too well honestly. The guy is all in other players faces like it is the only thing he's good for. So I can see his conflicts of his identity coming to light as he mellows himself to worry about other people. Which can very much so happen considering he ends up giving a kidney to his best friend. (which I also love) Watch the scene where Go Yoo makes the game winning shot and taunts the other players and tell me that isn't a spitting image of a guy in your high school that played basketball and peaked then. (not saying he is going to peak, just getting my point across).
Seeing bullying frustrates me. That is a good thing, why would I feel good watching bullying? Joon He gets bullied and has some issue with his health right away. I can see the whole story happening infant of my eyes and pray and hope that it does it correctly. This drama has a lot of open areas to fail, so that scares me the most. Jo Joon Young plays Joon He, and he plays off of Sehun so well. Their chemistry is so fun, and I love it so much. Watching two people enjoy eachtother that much, it makes me think about them growing old and still ending up as the same stupid teens they once were.. unfortunately I have no idea at this point if that will get to happen at all. I hope this drama focuses on the two of them rather than girl tearing them apart. So far it isn't what I thought it would be, so I hope it continues that path and cuts away romance that doesn't need to happen. The focus should stay on the two best friends, and be about their hardships with realizations about Joon He's health, him opening up, confections with a girl being added to the mix, but he always ends up back to Go Yoo. There is something about the two of them that is so beautiful... as dumb as that sounds. If Joo He is in trouble, Go Yoo will have his back. I love people genuinely enjoying each other without romance being shoved in my face. It is much harder to show a friendship than a romance. Romance can't really be described as to how people fall in love, so in dramas they take advantage of that and it can end up being dumb and heartless. Friendships are earned, they give reasons to why they depend on each other, and that they chose each other to be friends.
What I am saying, is that what is set up is interesting enough that it leaves me impressed. That is because it is executed well, acted well, written well. This drama is just a job well done.
The setup of the story is really good. The cinematography feels outside of the genre I was expecting. I love getting into dramas without knowing much, but its a mixed bag. Either I could love it, or really hate it. Right now I love this drama. What I am worried about is the love triangle, but in the end I think that it will be used to develop the characters rather than make them into a shell of themselves (at least I hope for that to be the case)
Go Yoo and Joon He by far have the best chemistry. Which is so insane to me with the age gaps. Honestly I am just getting so much from this drama that it really didn't have to do. It would have been successful without it being taken in the direction it is because if I watched for Sehun, I bet you many other people have.
Instead this drama serves to lead itself into a bittersweet story. Which it could've gone straight towards the love triangle, it may do that- but it also has a lot of depth beneath that with the first scene coming into play. I am so happy to see another drama that shifts its timeframe away from the present day. A lot can happen with it being set in 2006 compared to 2023. I would say more but I don't want to spoil. What they are doing with the time difference is underdeveloped. The girl character just comes over to drink several times and she’s the same character but not to me.. maybe because there was no defining traits about her to begin with. I don’t get why she comes out of the blue and what they are doing with the whole 2023 story other than to take it to the last episode to show whether Go Yoo is alive or not.
Watch this drama for Sehun, and watch it to get out of the typical love high school plot. I really want this to be great, and hope it stays to focus on the friendships. Then it will get a higher score. For what occurs over the small amount of episodes is a bit confusing. I think they are trying to do a whole jealousy thing with the girl but I can’t buy into it. The girl character isn’t really a character, I can’t find anything interesting about her other than that she is pretty.
Why do they both like her ? Especially Go Yoo? He’s so interesting .. why does he like this boring girl. It’s just oh it’s a new girl so they like her. They look good together… stupid stuff is said to make me buy into it. But I do not at all. Both the male leads like her and there is no depth outside of that, so to have Go Yoo get so jealous because of her makes no sense. It makes sense if he’s jealous she is with his best friend, but as for the latter it straight up does not. He does not know this girl, she is literally just preset and serves no other person. I swear this girl had not thoughts for and is a plot device to have this show be longer. Also she is so laughably bad at basketball .. If they both are mad at eachother for the girl and stop being friends because of it that is straight up criminal. Instead it should be that she is a gap between them and they are upset because of the rift they don’t understand them between them as friends. It does not need the romance but unfortunately that is what this drama is… so I have to live with it
I’m only so picky because they have these things to do and they are ignoring it for the girl. She takes time away but in the end serves no purpose. There is no way I feel bad for her, I don’t know her. She is just new pretty girl and is so annoying to me because I don’t understand why everyone likes her and wants to be her. God it is the worst. Her character is so so so bland… I can’t pick out any trait about her, she just stares and looks and barely talks. Female characters can be good and I don’t hate them by any means, a lot of dramas I love the gamble lead. Here though they really did my girl so bad. She just exists in this school, she’s new, pretty, but she has a secret…. But why- why do they find her interesting? Why is she supposed to be important. She is literally just a thief but why- why is that the thing that makes her not like other girls. Why is it the emotional climax for her- is her family poor? I don’t know they don’t give you that. They give you her crying and suck away anything I love about this show with her just being there. She takes away so many points for me here.
This story should have been done without her entirely.
100% just the two friends and maybe Go Yoo actually being upset he can’t play basketball and starting to blame his friend for that because of the kidney issue. They could have Go Yoo struggle with his identity and friendship and how he feels bad about what was taken away from him but he ultimately gave it away. Give the emotional climax to the friendship that was set up so well. Have it be between the leads and them reconciling and talking about their health issues- lives outside of high school- literally anything but the girl and her being a theif.
This show isn’t going beyond that in a way other than adding a girl to have tension and conflictions. I kid you not she does nothing. I don’t know why suddenly she is some main friend with them? I don’t get it.
Not bad as by any means, just not anything new. Now it’s still good though because of the main friendship, but the girl in the mix is pretty lame to me personally. .. if not aggravating.
It’s a shame. They had this story and a great setup. In the end they dragged out what didn’t need to be a part of it and lost touch of what they wanted to do in the first place. The cellular memory plot is so convoluted and only in the last two episodes.. but barely? So I’m disappointed but not surprised with this one.
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This review may contain spoilers
Self Acceptance vs Social Acceptance
I watched this drama with little expectation. The only one that attracted me is the unique title which started with @Account Has Been Deleted (@계정을 삭제하였습니다) to User Not Found. There is a connection between the drama title with this review title I will explain in the end.STORY
There are three plots in this drama according to its genres:
Youth/School Genre: Coming of Age/Growing Up
The drama focuses on the first Female Lead who, no matter how boring her character is, represents many of viewers’ common personalities. She is quiet, introverts, shy, compares herself with others, fantasizes a lot, and mostly in desperate need of social acceptance of her new classmates. So this is shy Yoo Min Jae (played by Shin So Hyun) or we call it Pop-Min (as her friends call her later) to distinguish her from the other Yoo Min Jae. Pop-Min is transferred in the second year of highschool to a new school. On the first day she already freaked out of not being be able to find friends in any group no matter she tries, as she experienced in the past schools. Unexpectedly, some girls mistaken her for a Yoo Min Jae, who is a popular fashionista and a social influencer on Instagram. Pop-Min just accepts her ‘luck’ by saying nothing. However, since she’s not confident enough to carry out the lie, the pressure is enough to get her thinking of “disappearing from this world”.
Romance Genre: Slow Burn
And this is where Male Lead Shin Yi Joon comes in. No, he’s not a knight in the shining armor. He overhears her saying it by the bridge. No, she doesn’t try to jump and kill herself. Later, we find he had the same thought before. Thus, a friendship begins base on the same understanding and sympathy between Pop-Min and Yi Joon. Yi Joon, surprisingly, is not the typical ML in romance dramas. He is equally quiet and shy, but he doesn’t give a damn about what other people think or say about him. Something happened to him in the past.
The romance is slow burn, mostly due to Pop-Min and her secret that she’s hesitated with Yi Joon. No love triangle, no annoying second lead. There is a little misunderstanding that resolves quickly.
Drama Genre: Past trauma
The knight in the shining armor for Pop-Min is actually in the form of the other Yoo Min Jae (Han Ye Ji) or we call her Moo-Min. Something happens in the past that makes her transfer to... Pop-Min’s school, in fact, to her class. But Moo-Min disguises as a plain Jane. She just wants to go to school as quietly as possible until graduation. Of course, she’s surprised there is Pop-Min who uses her Ig identity. An agreement strikes between the two Min Jaes to swap identities, and an unlikely friendship begins.
There are other character’s past traumatic experiences that shape how they think and do in this drama.
ACTING
You can’t expect much expertise from newbies. Since the nature of Pop-Min and Yi Joon are basically quiet and shy characters, there are a lot of scenes that look draggy, showing how these two characters think and act. Audiences are mostly root over other lively characters in this drama. And that what makes me disappointed is actually the production of this drama, as explained below.
PRODUCTION
I mean, though the actors are newbies, but with good directing, a rookie actor can bring up a character no matter how hard it is. But I guess the director is a noob too. The story is not based on a novel or manhwa, where dialogues can have a powerful source from. There are a lot of monologues of what characters think, that are not as interesting as dialogues between two characters. Therefore, I’m not impressed with the scriptwriting too.
VISUAL
A bunch of characters with eye candies, nothing to complain. Even Pop-Min is pretty, in my opinion, far from an appearance of a girl who supposedly regular and has low self-esteem. The cinematography is okay too, despite of most location is their highschool. I like the costume of Moo-Min when she’s in her own fashionable self.
OST
- G=ONE & Jang Daegyeom “Lamose”
- Jo Jin Ho and Kino from Pentagon “A-HA!”
- Saula “Love Confession”. Bae Jin Young, the actor who played as the ML, covered this song for his love confession to Pop-Min.
Fortunately, the drama ends with character growth of Pop-Min. She becomes self-confident, especially when the story of what happened to the popular Yoo Min Jae (Moo-Min) comes out and the ‘undercover’ Pop-Min is affected. Many viewers are disappointed at the ending of the drama in which doesn’t really resolve Moo-Min’s problem. But since the drama actually centers of Pop-Min, not Moo-Min, it ends up well in my opinion. No, the forever strong Moo-Min has already resolved her own problems. No need to clarify the misunderstanding of what happened to her from the authority side and public. And this is what I like about this drama. The theme is growing up without having other support system than your school friends, when the other supporting system (parents, teachers, older characters) is not available. The matter brought up by this drama is learning how to choose genuine friends wisely.
In conclusion, as I wrote in the beginning about the connection between the drama title and the review title. There is a scene close to the end in which Moo-Min deletes her Ig account that symbolizes her past. Hence, where the drama title @Account Has Been Deleted or User Not Found comes from. At first I wondered why she deletes the account she has worked hard to build her popular reputation. That’s when the moral of the story comes: self-acceptance is more important than social acceptance. Both Pop-Min and Moo-Min especially (other characters too but not explicit) in the end accept themselves with firm support of each other and true friends.
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Intriguing at first but becomes average
The best thing about this drama is the acting, it's very good in general and Nam Joo Hyuk does a very good job as main character. I did also enjoy some of the music, it was certainly more up my alley. That's all for me.Contrary to other people I didn't think this drama was fast paced, in fact I thought it was slow, going in circles sometimes, and I got bored at times and found myself doing other things while watching. The plot is quite cliché in my opinion and except for maybe around three characters the rest were very one-dimensional, especially the bad guys. We don't learn much about anyone anyway, so it's quite superficial and it didn't make me connect with any of them, not even the ML. I also liked Choi Mi Ryeo and Cho Kang Ok as characters but I so wish we had gotten so much more insight into them, I didn't learn much at all about them. The dynamics of ML with his classmates could have also been deeper, but because it wasn't what happened in the end of the drama made me feel nothing. It felt even the writers/director knew this though, because it's treated as very secondary, something that happened in the background.
I'm ok with anti-hero stories, I do generally prefer them over hero ones, but it's not new nor fresh, and cases of corruption at all levels have been done many times as well. I don't think this drama brings that much new to the table that wasn't there, so I was not awed by it and I thought it was average. It's still watchable, especially if you like action thrillers, but it's not a masterpiece by any means.
Echoing what another user said, the fighting choreography was not bad but the way it was filmed adds no tension and didn't do any favours to the overall fighting dynamics, at times I felt I was missing the good bits, camera in and out... quite chaotic in my opinion.
I don't think they achieve enough in terms of discourse, there isn't any depth in the corruption itself either, nor in its politics, or the police involvement. Obviously there is no real debate about the police as an institution, despite the ML being both in and out of it. I haven't read the original material and it makes me wonder if there was a lot more of that that was cut out of the story.
Recommended to those that like action thrillers, it's entertaining enough but keep your expectations low to mid level.
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This is an excellent fantasy police procedural drama with a good romance story between the lead couple. The drama offers suspense, action, romance, a great presentation of the two temporal dimensions without going back and forth that allows the viewer to understand the characters and their struggles, and great character development, especially for the male lead. The cast is fantastic and they did a phenomenal job bringing their characters to life. The leading couple has very good chemistry and their romance is realistically portrayed throughout the drama. This drama is full of raw emotions among the characters but it is greatly shown and uncannily depicted by the antagonists, especially Yoon Pil Woo, deftly enacted by Shin Jae Ha. Enjoy it!
REWATCH 0N 7/17/2023: Still a great watch! Acting is top notch! The drama incites all sorts of raw emotions; the antagonists are REALLY horrible beings and the protagonists are not without fault; but justice prevailed and lessons are learned. Enjoy it!
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Despite the porn-esk scenes, I actually enjoyed it. I have my own thoughts about certain characters & lots of ppl will prolly disagree w/ me, but I am going to share anyway. I may confuse some & a light may go off over their head for others.
So, I totally thought that the King (Joo Jin Mo) was a child-molester. He sounds like a predator of the classic kind. He gathered up a group of little boys & picked the 1 that he liked the most. He then treated him to lots of goodies, but made sure that he understood who was in charge. He tried to make it out like it was a "love" type of relationship as they got older. BUT, the way I see it; he totally had Hong Rim traumatized & too scared to try to leave. He even showed his strength by making sure Hong Rim knew he could never beat him in a fight. It is a classic fear technique. I thought Hong Rim showed Stockholm syndrome (a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy, sympathy and have positive feelings towards their captors, sometimes to the point of defending them). I totally thought Stockholm's when he showed his concern for the King after he got hurt & when he told the Queen he was afraid. This is the relationship I saw that was confirmed by the jealousy of the king along w/ the perfect ending statement from Hong Rim.
To me this drama was a wonderful expression of psychological disorders. I enjoyed interpreting the behavior of all parties involved. I thought the actors expression of their characters were realistic and believable. I also thought that the ending confirmed all my deductions of each characters psychological state that was expressed through their behavior.
Not every1 is going to enjoy this drama like I did. Or at least not in the same way I did. It may make you feel uncomfortable, b/c it is very graphic during the sex scenes (my face totally turned red). Once u get past all that the story becomes a very, very tragic love story.
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Wasted potential!! Watch at your own risk
Honestly, I was so excited for this drama, because I heard it was really good. Unfortunately....I did not like it at all.It had so much potential , but just fell short. The story plot sounded really good so I was excited about it but it wasn't executed to its full potential. I was excited for the fighting scenes but ended up severely disappointed, because I never got any of it. The setup was perfect for each fighting scene, but the actual fighting was ripped away from us. I felt ripped off. The battle scenes are a big part of the plot for the actual drama. The only positive of this drama was the ML. He was so good!! The actor was perfect for this role and played his character perfectly. He's actually one of the reasons why I started watching it. Him and the FL. Although I am a fan of the MFL actress I did not like her character at all. I get hoping I would like her later on in the drama but I did not. One of the main things that bothered me about the leads, was the lack of chemistry. The actors tried, but it was not giving the chemistry that the story needed. I think that's the main reason why I didn't really like this drama...The lack of chemistry between the 2 leads....You can't feel the emotions towards each other as you're supposed to in the story. I feel like I wasted hours of my life hoping that this drama would get better. Which it didn't...sadly.
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The drama as a whole:
I really loved how the relationship between the leads progressed. Though there were some really annoying characters whom I wanted to strangle, looking at James smiling face made me forget about everything. Honestly, I wasn't really a fan of the setting or the costumes because chinese and korean historicals really made me have very high expectations but the story was amazing.
The story:
This is a typical revenge historical drama... NOT! First of all, the male lead doesn't play with the female lead's heart, then breaks her, just for revenge or anything like that. Though essentially, some parts of the drama were similar to that of a typical revenge drama where the male lead lies to everyone and disguises himself, which cannot be helped since the setting was in the palace but the male lead acting as an eunuch was a first for me. I really liked the progression of the story where they slowly revealed things to us in every episode instead of just dropping the bomb on us in a single episode.
The romance:
Though the beginning of the drama suggested a love hate relationship between the leads, it wasn't over the top like most love hate dramas. They only disliked each other in the first episode and slowly began to fall for each other as the story progressed. I loved their chemistry.
Characters:
I didn't really like how some of the males were portrayed in this drama, but well I guess its a historical so I was expecting a lot of gender inequality. I really loved the character of the female lead in this drama, she was strong in her own way and I loved her for it. I loved her wits and her psychological strength as she experienced a lot of challenges along the way and never gave up on what she believed in. I also liked the main lead, but didn't really appreciate the compassion he showed for the slave because that girl was so irritating that I desperately wanted to strangle her. I liked the female lead's father, even though he appears to be angry whenever she skips out on her match making dates, he never really hit her or scold her harshly like other parents would have.
Is it worth watching?
Definitely! If you don't mind hearing Thai, love James, and love watching Thai dramas, give this one a try.
Don't like the first episode? Then just drop it, no one's forcing you to watch it anyway.
Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed watching this drama like me :D
P.S For those curious as to how to watch this drama english subbed, PM me and I'll send you the details. (EDIT: I received a few replies that the leader of the group who subbed this drama hasn't accepted any invites in the past few months so sadly, the only subs available are those you can find on dailymotion).
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This is a movie about opposites attracting. Both parties jump into the relationship with gusto and are more than happy with their arrangement initially. As time goes by, though, the true natures and motives of the characters are revealed, and they begin to realize they might have bitten off more than they bargained for in starting this relationship.
Sweet Sex and Love is truly a well executed case study of how disastrous a relationship between a man and a woman can be when there's no communication of expectation on either side. When one, Sweet Sex ... or Love, is given full reign to dominate, to the neglect of the other.
I really enjoyed how the plot unfolded in this story. It's one of the better 'opposites attract' movies that I've seen in a long time. The script, the direction and the editing are all cleverly done. For once the pacing isn't slow and as grating as fingernails on chalkboard. The director deftly controls what you see, feel and experience until just the right moments. Nothing is revealed prematurely. No dialogue or sequence squandered. The narrative is very nuanced, leaving the audience to decipher much of the characters' actions and behaviour. At the same time you're taken on a journey where you're inundated with one truth for almost the entire film, until just like the characters you get the rug pulled out from under you. HARD. (No pun intended).
Certain themes that you never thought to associate with this type of film begin to surface with stark clarity and force; valuable lessons, on sweet sex ... and love, emerge. Sweet Sex represents one character & love the other, can they really coexist beyond the initial intoxicating stage of a new relationship? Everything falls into place. The title begins to make sense, the explicit internal dialogues, what you may have dismissed previously as a repetitive sex manual ... all begin to take on a whole new meaning.
Very nicely done indeed.
Certainly a good movie for audiences who enjoy a more mature exploration of the complex relationship between men and women. If there's any kind of sexy movie I love, this would be it.
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A Japanese movie about volunteer doctors in Kenya sent from Japan teaching hospital, after reaching Kenya he encounters a lot of desperate situations that lead him to stay there and not what to go back to Japan, the movie shows you how real doctors act once they have to choose between helping their patients or making big money back in their country.
The movie is shot in Kenya for few months, it's so genuine and inspirational.
A Japanese classic that makes you think, what the hell am I doing with my life.
Ishihara was so pretty as a nurse and she as always has her perfect English I was in love.
The movie covers how war is done in Kenya with a lot of scary guerilla tactics and using children as human shields and the struggle of doctors that go to help.
The main lead encountered a boy who was a soldier and this changed his fate in life.
Highly recommended
Shampoo gives easy 10 for this
Movie quotes:
"Do we need law at this moment? The hell with the law"
"How cruel humans can be"
"They are using the children as mine sweepers throwing them in front of the soldiers so land mines would trigger"
"Not everyone can find happiness"
http://hdfree.se/watch-online/the-lion-standing-in-the-wind
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Khun Chai Puttipat is the third part of the Suparburoot Juthatep’s series. Unlike the previous two brothers; Chai Pat’s story was more exciting to follow; there wasn’t the traditional Thai love story’s telling or the unbearable indecisiveness and rejection from the male lead part. Okay, the female lead contributed in the rejection part but it wasn’t as serious as Chai Yai’s indecisiveness and Chai Ruj’s rejection. This story started fun and ended cute.
Unlike the other two female leads, Kaew wasn’t nobility or royalty; she was a country pumpkin who won the beauty pageant and stole Chai Pat’s heart. Moreover, our male lead’s transformation from a serious workaholic doctor to a lover-boy was such an entertaining watch; Chai Pat’s character caught my eyes in Chai Ruj’s story where he was highlighted as the closest brother to him; of course, that was a way to introduce the following part’s male lead and it succeeded. I found the doctor’s character less interesting than his brothers to be frank but he got the type of personality that makes you want to see him in action. Therefore, his love story was anticipated and somehow it didn’t disappoint.
I think the part that ruined the drama partially was the evil guys’ persistence and deviation to illogical acts. Of course, the second female lead was enormously annoying - as expected. Plus, the overall absence of Chai Yai and Chai Ruj from the story bothered me; I know they wanted to pay extra attention to Chai Lek and Chai Pee’s characters since their stories are coming up and I really like them the best amongst the rest but I wished they would show the harmony, the bromance and the brotherhood once again in this part.
Some parts of the love story didn’t connect but I give the chemistry a high score; Chai Pat and Kaew were a great fit to each other. Although he was only a newbie in this drama, Jame did a nice job with the character. The female lead on the other hand was a little better than him when it comes to acting. The second male lead was a nice one too, as a character I mean, I just love heartwarming second male lead who understand their limits without anyone telling them to.
Watch if:
-You like love stories between different classes.
-You’re looking for good chemistry.
Do not watch if:
-You’re looking for a different type of love stories.
-You dislike slow development.
Khun Chai Puttipat is by far my favorite amongst the three parts I saw. Even though it’s not perfect or impressive by any mean but it was better executed than the other two parts. Of course this is only a temporary judgment until I see my two favorite brothers Chai Lek and Chai Pee.
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I don't understand how anyone can start it thinking it's going to be a heavy, drama-filled series, which requires an important emotional involvement from the viewer. It's not; if that isn't clear by the plot summary, then it should be by the end of the first episode.
This show is full of imperfections that make it perfect. In fact, I completely disregarded those multiple small flaws because they naturally flowed with the story. There were no "wait - what ?" moments. Unlike many viewers, I never thought of banging my head on my keyboard because of incomprehension. I think those people think too much. There are dramas that simply don't require you to think about anything while watching them. "Master Devil Do Not Kiss Me" is one of those dramas.
It IS cliché-filled, but you can get that from the summary. Basically yet another Itazura na Kiss x Boys over Flowers adaptation.
The mood here however is different. First, because it's Chinese: it's a whole other culture. Second, because the episodes are short. A lot of things are bound to happen in a short span of time; we might leave an episode with X event and resume with an event Y, while only just lightly bushing the precedent subject.
Some cuts are really unprofessional and too obvious. But it takes nothing from the enjoyment away. The female lead is super cute, and, believe it or not, refreshing. She's not easily swayed by her lovers or feelings, she's cute without being over the top or too girly, and stands up for her values.
As for the so-called "chauvinism" and "sexism" in this drama.. I don't know what the people who said that are doing on this site ?? Violent hand grabbing, "you're mine" lines and such are an entire aspect of most Korean dramas and many other asian dramas. There IS a traditional conservative view of women. It's China after all. Personally, I've been more shocked throughout my life here in the West with the treatment of women, who are constantly over-sexualized in the media and society, than in China (from my limited view in dramas) At least they don't resort to stripping down a woman to get high audience rates ;-))
To conclude, an excellent (and by excellent, again, I don't mean it's perfect or flawless, just really good for what it is -) light drama, that I will most likely rewatch because it's fun and not too complicated to help with my learning and understanding of Chinese, along with the likes of dramas like Shopping King Louis or Sassy Go Go.
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I loved the chemistry between the leads. Even though the backdrop of this drama is political, it is the chemistry between the leads that makes it flow smoothly. The character played by Cheng XingXu isn't your typical ML. He has his own dark secrets and is ruthless at times, but his unyielding and almost selfish love for the FL makes him so realistic and attractive that even though you come to hate him for some of his actions, you still can't move over him and continue loving him. As per the depth of his character, I think this is one of the few dramas where the development of the ML's character astounds the viewers. From a guileless pawn like position, he slowly climbs his way to become the most powerful person in his kingdom. Every ruthless action of his has a reasoning behind it and in the end you kind of feel pity for him.
Peng Xioaran's character is more predictable. She plays a bubbly character initially but she amazes the viewers in emotional scenes. She is on point with her emotional acts and I can only say that this girl is a gem of an actor and I would want to see her act more. Her chemistry with Cheng XingXu is so sweet, even in the scenes where they are fighting each other, you can still feel a warmth between them.
This story has a few flaws but they can be simply overlooked because, in itself, this drama is brilliant. By the time, you reach 40ish episodes, you wish this drama was longer. It has a sad ending though, but I feel that the sad ending justifies this story than a forcefully done happy ending. The sad ending seems to give closure to all characters. Everyone gets what they deserve in the end and even though you are internally broken because of the ending, you can convince yourself that no other ending can justify the story than the one it already has.
I would recommend everyone to see "GoodBye My Princess". It's a once in a lifetime experience. It will make you laugh, cry, make you feel sad, betrayed, loved all at the same time. One of the C-Dramas I have ever seen in my whole lifetime. This will always have a special spot in my heart.
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1Disaster
There was absolutely no romance or chemistry between the BL couple. Their scenes were extremely limited, and when they did appear together, it felt awkward and forced. The entire story was overly stretched and mostly focused on the straight couple's endless drama. It felt like the BL characters were just there to support the straight couple's story. I honestly got a headache watching it and ended up skipping most of the scenes. Only the title matches the manga; the story itself is completely different.Was this review helpful to you?
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The first thing that I want to mention from the list of pros for this show is the fact that the two main leads enter into a relationship fairly early in the episodes. Which was an oddity, at least to me when I watched this show seeing as I’d only seen four dramas before Heartstrings. It was a breath of fresh air for me, I loved that the drama was about maintaining that relationship instead of fighting against having a relationship at all. They had to overcome a whole different slew of obstacles compared to the other dramas that I’d watched. I enjoyed that journey and thought it was very well done.
However, the chemistry between Shin Hye and Yong Hwa felt completely different than it did in You’re Beautiful. I’m not sure what it was, but it sure didn’t feel as passionate as it had in the previous drama. In You’re Beautiful they had some truly amazing interplay. You could see the connection between the characters and it really had me rooting for them, even though I knew already that I would be crushed since Yong Hwa was the second male lead. I just wish that the relationship didn’t feel as wooden in Heartstrings. For me there was definitely something missing.
The music for this drama was amazing. I had the songs stuck in my head for weeks even after I completed watching the drama. I’m sure it helped that the band members were actually playing their instruments. Not to mention Yong Hwa and Kang Min Hyuk are in CN Blue together. For me the music really stood out and I even bought the OST because I wanted to be able to listen to it whenever I wanted.
In my limited experience with drama-land the supporting cast has to really gel and standout on their own for a drama to work. The only two characters outside of the leads that really captured my heart was Min Hyuk’s portrayal of Yeo Joon Hee and Shin Hye’s grandfather. I cannot even properly convey how utterly adorable Joon Hee was throughout the entire show. I loved him, probably more than I liked Yong Hwa’s character. The grandfather cracked me up, he was hilarious. I also really enjoyed how he lived-breathed-ate traditional music and a traditional lifestyle. I found him wonderfully interesting. Beyond Joon Hee and the grandfather, the rest of the cast just didn’t really shine for me and that hurt the drama overall. I wanted to be pulling for the side stories, but more often than not I found myself plodding through all of that to get back to Joon Hee, the grandfather, or the two leads.
Towards the end of the drama I really felt that we finally got to see some character growth. For the majority of the show the characters were static in their maturity and personalities as they dealt with the obstacles which were put in their way. However, the last fifth of the series I enjoyed the way the story moved. Shin Hye’s character showed amazing maturity with how she handled the play and the drama surrounding being the lead actress. Both Yong Hwa and Shin Hye’s characters moved towards a natural progression of fulfilling their dreams. Even the supporting cast seemed to finally bloom and I enjoyed seeing how they evolved towards the end.
However, the ending of the show felt rushed. I’m not sure if it was cut down in the number of episodes, or that was how it was originally planned. But, things just felt a little choppy in the last two episodes. It made the character growth that had been occurring seem as if it weren’t important. I wish that they would have taken more time with the ending, perhaps another episode to have made it feel a little smoother.
Overall, I enjoyed the show. It was a feel good journey with some nice happy messages within it. I am glad that I watched it, but it just never quite captured me in the feels. Still it is a cute watch and a pretty story.
Noona's Rating
Overall: 7.6 (I rated this 4 stars on DramaFever.com)
Story/Writing: 8
Cast/Actors: 8
OST: 9
Sets/Costumes: 6
Feels: 7
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