What century are we in? This series, while modern in overall appearance and environment, is like something out of the 1800s before the women’s movement. I think women are fairly progressed in Korea, but this series leads you to believe otherwise. As a woman watching this series, I grew weary of the male leads putting down and disrespecting the female leads.
What's even more offensive to me is the characterization of the female characters in this drama. The lead female is weak and whiney. She argues momentarily, but crumbles rather quickly and is back to saying "yes chef" to everything that is barked at her. The only strong woman in this series is of course characterized as the "evil b*tch," and is also constantly disrespected and treated like crap by all the male leads.
Lastly, there are a gagle of typical gossipy, meddling women who really serve no purpose at all. Women overall are portrayed really poorly in this series.
To say something positive, if nothing else, the chefs on the Italian team serve as wonderful eye candy.
While this drama is not the worst out there, all the sexism, ignorance and stereotyping wore on me to the point where I wasn't sure what the message of this drama was. I suppose it's purpose is to be a "romantic comedy," but I don't find bigotry romantic or funny.
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This review may contain spoilers
Dramaworld is totally meta and makes fun of a lot of tropes. Tropes that you find in KDramas that is, ie, piggyback riding, karaoke scenes, getting drunk on soju, chaebol family, scheming female second lead - however the ending gave a twist, that you don't find typically in KDramas. If you've watched Dream High, you know what I mean^^The acting in this was atrocious at parts. Wooden. But it gave me a meta feel still, because there are wooden characters galore typically in KDramas, and I thought it was a faithful representation, lol. The story is ambitious and follows Claire as she enters "Dramaworld" and tries to fix it before it ceases to exist forever. She meets another facilitator, Seth, who seems like a good guy, and he appears to be helping her on the surface. But is he really? *At the risk of putting spoilers, I'm not saying anything more*
Towards the ending, the story broke the fourth wall, which requires a lot of explanation and set-up, but there was no time here. By fourth wall, I mean the characters in the drama (well Joon Park) became aware he was a character in a drama. Although good ending, one has to wonder - is Claire's life now a drama? The ending is so ambiguous and not explained properly, I don't even consider it a spoiler talking about it, because it's open to interpretation.
Also, I was cringing towards the end. SERIOUSLY cringing.
However for a web-series and a collaboration between America and Korea - I see this as a stepping stone onto something more awesome. Watch this if you love meta references and you will be swept up in nostalgia :D The reason why my re-watch score is so high (practically unheard of), is because it's short, sweet and I can see myself revisiting the bits I liked, or just watch the Seth bits^^ (Justin Chon and Liv Hewson did a good job)
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style, elegance, tension, passion, love...
First, I have to say, I can't imagine how much training the actors had to do to get to this level of dancing. Watching them dance is mesmerizing. Two humans meet through passion. Two humans contrary to each other share a bond which grows over time."Dance is neither about technique nor stamina. Love is what makes it whole" - "So close and yet so far" are the two sentences describing the story in a heartbeat.
This being a Netflix production, I don't have to tell you that the cinematography, lighting, music, atmosphere are top notch. Both MLs are just incredible. Even in the slow scenes there is not a moment I was bored... The story has a rhythm just as dancing does. And for most things you see, I can't express how it moved me. Suffice to say, it's something different, something not seen yet, something incredible and something we should be happy to experience. This movie is a "must watch" in my book!
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This review may contain spoilers
I don't care, even though lots of people say that this series isn't good because of the story plot, the characteristic/action of the character or anything else that is a negative opinion about the series because this series is actually the series that I'm the most falling in love to. Yeah I know, this series isn't the best series with the story plot but I was just fallen in love with the cast. Especially Dunk playing as Daoneua, he was the cutest person I've ever seen. Even though the story plot might not be that good, I know that it's quite boring and annoying because many people like Daoneau and sure Daoneau wouldn't like any of them other than Kluen, but the effort behind the scene that they have put to make this series are a lot, so I never would give any series a bad rating just because many people did so. And if you watch like any of the casts really much, that will make you overcome the boredness and continue watching till the end.If you haven't watch this series, I would recommend you to, don't just read negative comments and just decided not to watch. Try it first, if you don't really like it then just don't continue, but you might be one of the thousand people that really fall in love with the cuteness of P'Dunk and the handsomeness of P'Joong.
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Quantity doesn't = Quality
Positives:1. A "Watchable" Frozen Face Hu Yi Tian drama. (yes I'll probably get a lot of hate comments, but I've watched and given up enough of his dramas to conclude his frozen face syndrome)
2. Decent storyline with strong lead characters. Although not unique but it's enjoyable. The pacing of the love developing is very good.
3. Enough good supporting characters (but you'll need to weed them out) One's I actually enjoyed:
ML's sister Shao Yao & Shen Huan
ML's 2 sidekicks (could've used more screen time)
Hua's cook
Prince Xian - a worthy bad guy
Skippable
1. Quantity < Quality. Overloading on non-necessary characters (to fill in 40 episodes) is a HUGE waste of time. Lack of character development for these side characters makes the drama feel draggy.
2. Due to the characters dump, there's a lot of annoying scenes. Plenty Aunts, cousins, maids' repetitive lines make it unbearable at times. Even with the pairing on these excess characters you'll feel nothing because essentially there's no build up.
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Could It be Any Worst
I found it to be not worth it. I wanted the story to be good but the first thing that bother me was the lead female character. Like always they make this girls stupid, weak with no ideology or logic yet she had all this power. They also give her a naïve, stupid maid. Everyone can push the lead character around even other maids. She so kind that she does not hurt anyone even those who are trying to kill her. She so loyal to her sister and father even when they are mean to her. It just disgusted me. All thru the drama until the 20th episode it was the same, it did not change. The romance to me was not there. I could not see any real chemistry. The male lead is a strong brother to the royal prince but has so many secrets that he shares only with a few. The rest of the characters just turn me off. Many of the scenes was so predictable and some of the characters had terrible acting skills. The ending made it even worst. Very disappointing.Was this review helpful to you?
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A GOOD 1000 YEARS LOVE STORY
I have to admit I initially got discouraged from watching this drama just because of the low rating, but once i started it, i just binged all episodes non-stop in one night. IT IS THAT ENJOYABLE! If you liked "I will Knock You", chances are you will like this too. Pun may be the greenest flag character in almost all of BL.BL genre has fast evolved in the last few years - and so are the viewers. Nowadays, a lot of series without real substance gets good and high ratings even when the show isnt really deserving of it just by putting cutie cutie famous couples/stars in it or by putting a lot of shocking NSFW scenes . I will not put this one as one of the the best BL ever, but it certainly doesnt deserve to be in the low 6.
Just a quick recap. Yo is a university student who is fascinated by the extraordinary - thats why he became part of a gang of friends who are devoted UFO seekers, but deep inside his heart he knows something un-normal is happening in the world and he will discover that its not extraterrestrial in nature but something mystical. He was instantly drawn to Pun when he met him at a local eatery - was it love at first sight? Was it his mysterious demeanor? Then he adorably stalked him until Pun revealed to him what he is - a vampire! And you guessed it- this is how their love story began, and together with their friends and family they will prove that their love will conquer all odds. This just sounds about right, the end.
Eventhough the title of the series is '1000 Years Old' which pretty obviously tells us that one of the chracters is indeed an almost immortal, still the series managed to keep us guessing for the first half of the show if Pun is really what he says he is or just a weirdo who thinks he is something that he's not - after all he is not the familiar vampire we see from the lores - First, he is a poor vampire who lives in an old building. Second, he keeps saying he is burned by sunlight (SPOILER ALERT HE DOESNT) and always covers himself up fully and uses an umbrella . He is also not afraid of crucifixes, and he doesnt get burned by Holy Water. He aslo sleeps at night( not before the sun rises and in a coffin-like bed in a messy living room because the bedroom is his cat's room) Lastly and most importantly, he is not afraid of garlic and he also doesnt eat anything besides cooked Pork Blood Soup. He is weird but you just cant hate this guy!
One of the funny highlights for me was when he was trying to prove to Yo that he is a vampire and jumped off the building's rooftop!
Also, even if early in the series they showed a few flashback scenes from Pun's past, and even with the presence of another mysterious and scary character SoomChai - just like Yo, we as viewers still end up questioning whether he is really a true blooded bloodsucking immortal or was he just delusional?
While trying to hide the reality of Pun's true identity, the first half of the show felt like we were watching a Thai version of the Korean series "Start-up" when Pun and Yo and their newly formed gang were so focused on trying to make their food business succeed. The antics are so corny but you also cant help root for them!
It was around the later episodes when the truth was confirmed - that Pun is an alien.
Ok, he isnt an alien, but a real Vampire. The limited screentime of SoomChai is both annoying and effective - I would have loved to be bitten by that actor just like Shin. And as much as i hate it and just like a lot of other BL shows that create an annoying female character to be a villain, Janja's (she does look like a vampire seductress even without the fangs) presence is important in establishing the connection between Pun and Yo and the truth about their long history and past lives to make their love story seem more epic in scale and not just spur of the moment.
Let me also say that despite the many things that I enjoyed about the series it is not without shortcomings. First, for almost the entirety of the series nothing physical happens between the Pun and Yo (only a mild hint of a kiss) which is almost unbelievable. Second, I hate that the YOU.F.O and the gang were sidelined as if they never existed entirely when they were the group that opened the show. Third, the cluelessness of Pun's character to the current technologies is just unbearable and incredibly stupid (even if it was intentional to misdirect us about his true identity) like walking to mall, no idea how to get to point 1 to point 2, really? Fourth, Yo's contninuous denial about his feelings and Pun's intention to him is eyerolling.
Id like to end by saying that the final scene of Pun and Yo is genius but also both tragic and conflicting. While it was implied that they had a happy ending and they get to at least spend a really long time together in this lifetime, Yo's passing under the sunset is just so heartbreaking and it made me cry.
Overall its a 8.5 for me. Great leads and support with good direction , very rewatchable too.
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Overrated
While the story itself was strong, the execution left much to be desired.First, the editing felt quite messy,scenes often cut off at odd points, and some episodes felt more like random segments pieced together rather than full, coherent episodes. Episode 27, for example, gave most of the screen time to side characters, which disrupted the pacing of the main storyline.
Another issue for me was He Yan’s disguise. I honestly don’t understand how she managed to fool everyone, her mannerisms, compared to the other Yezhou garrison soldiers, were distinctly feminine and almost childish, making her cover less believable.
I was also disappointed with Yan He’s death. It seemed included only for shock value, but it didn’t really land emotionally or add much to the storyit felt unnecessary.
That being said, I’ll give credit where it’s due: the fighting scenes were very well executed and definitely a highlight of the series.
Overall, this drama had potential and an interesting story, but the poor editing, questionable writing choices, and overhype online made it fall short for me.
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Even if winter feels endless, a spring breeze might blow someday once you keep fighting through it.
I'm in my lowest of low lately and this drama found me. It's the type of drama that also heals the viewers with them while watching. The storyline is not full of twists, but this made this drama unique than the others. And I believe, this drama will find its way to your hearts when you needed them.That's all I can say about the storyline, full of lessons and just about life. Some people may focus on the AI like drawings of the animators in the drama, but I hope you realize that isn't just it. This drama is more than just the AI looking drawings, it's about life and how did they fight through it. Like as the season changes, what am I going to do about it and such.
I'd like to commend especially the halmeonis and harabeoji actors, I think they made me stay for this drama. I mean don't get me wrong; the other actors are amazing too but growing up with my grandmother as a child made me focus more on the grannies, they have a soft spot in my heart. And Hayeong (middle sister), I love her through and through, no words can explain how I felt while watching her.
The music didn't stick out to me honestly, but I will probably watch some tt edits of them.
I HOPE THIS DRAMA WILL FIND ITS WAY TO YOUR HEARTS WHEN YOU NEEDED THEM ~ I hope whatever season y'all are in, you'll get through it and stand-up fighting again! tomorrow is another day yeorubun <3
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Beautiful romance with great chemistry
PROS:◇The romance (There is an age gap and they are both adults)
◇The chemistry
◇The writing very slice of life
◇The main couple
◇The friendships
◇The realistic characters.
◇The married couple that own the restaurant. What lovely green flags 💚
CONS:
◇The Meolodrama work senses dragged a little in the 2nd half.
Overall glad I watched it. Honestly a really nice watch when it was on.
If your a fan of slice of life's with a side of Meolodrama and 100% a happy endings? Then I recommend checking this one out. ♡
CONTENT WARNING:
◇Same language
♡ Romance ♡
◇A fade to black scene and kissing
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full of romantic situations ✨
this is one of the most romantic dramas with huge romantic tension and many romantic/sexy scenes!it seems perfectly cast, and strong fast paced start getting the leads together to create the dynamic we are all looking forward to see developing!
these actors arent among the best at their craft but when perfectly cast that becomes undetectable and i think this is such a case. the female lead ive not seen in a lead performance before so im pleased she’s balancing the aspects of her character so well. shes a good actress overall having seen her before in Blossom In Adversity.
Now thats its over i can say its a great series, but with some minor flaws. its still fave of 2025!
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An insult to women and men at the same time
This is surely the worst drama that I have ever watched and it's not because of the production value (which is very impressive sometimes), it's because of its awful writing. This drama is an instant drop in the first two episodes. I dropped it when it came out in 2017, but I made myself a promise to finish it one day, so here we go.Let's start with the bad (there's a lot – I should have made notes while watching):
- Do Bong Soon's character is the typical fake strong female character. We start with Do Bong Soon helping an elderly man and saving a bus, which are very heroic feats, but the character goes downhill very quickly. Do Bong Soon eventually becomes CEO Ahn Min Hyuk's bodyguard. She completely fails at being a bodyguard. She lets the CEO get hurt because of her, she lets a cop get hurt and she also lets the villain escape multiple times. The writers completely failed to recognize that she heard the main villain's voice at a pharmacy. When girls start getting kidnapped in her neighbourhood, she does nothing. When her friend almost gets kidnapped, she lets the kidnapper go even though she could knock him down in one hit. Why? After some time, Do Bong Soon is an intern at her own personal Planning & Development department with the CEO. Once again, we see her doing nothing all day. If she is shown doing anything, it's working on the same character model and drag and dropping things into a presentation. This was a missed opportunity to show women working in game engines and programming, but instead they showed us a pathetic character who thinks she deserves to be in the actual Planning & Development department without any actual skills... After Kyung Shim gets kidnapped, she goes to beg Min Hyuk for help and then completely invalidates his feelings. After Do Bong Soon rescues kidnapped women (at a location which only took everyone ages to figure out), she goes on to confront the main villain in a dramatic way that makes her lose her strength (even though she basically abused her power all throughout the drama and even hurt innocent people). After losing her strength, she is absolutely useless. She goes unconscious from two blows to the chest and she doesn't even try to free herself from her restrains at the brink of death. She does nothing but cry even though she received training in combat from the CEO. After escaping from her death, the three leads formulate a plan to catch the killer by exposing her out in the open to a sniper rifle while only she wears a bulletproof vest. I suppose headshots don't exist in her universe because that was so stupid.
- Do Bong Soon is not a strong character. She couldn't even tell the man she liked that she liked him. She is very childish and doesn't have much personality outside her powers.
- Na Kyung Shim (Do Bong Soon's friend) only cares about her face and looking pretty after being beaten up by the serial kidnapper / killer.
-Do Bong Soon's grandmother enters the scene at some point and beats up some goons. Which is fine and all, but the first thing she does when she visits her grandchild's home? She verbally abuses Do Bong Soon's father.
-It's inconsistent powers-wise. Do Bong Soon can't run, but she can jump high and basically fly as shown in the last episodes?
-Bomb designed to kill Do Bong Soon explodes into fireworks... What??
-Domestic violence. Do Bong Soon's mother is seen regularly abusing her husband, both verbally and physically. This abuse is sweeped under the rug with comical music played in the background. Even though the writers seemingly tried to redeem the mother in the last episode as having pushed him only once, it's just not believable. She was also physically and verbally abusive towards Bong Soon.
-Extreme homophobia, awful representation of LGBT community and queer-baiting in almost all of the episodes. It's so toxic that it took every ounce of my willpower to get through the scenes.
- Bong Soon and her mother and basically all the female characters are obsessed with Do Bong Soon snatching away Min Hyuk and having sex with him and basically raping him. These are not strong women.
-Min Hyuk goes to convince Do Bong Soo's father Do Chil Goo to return to his abusive wife because he cannot marry Do Bong Soon in such a situation. What a sad moment.
- All three leads are very misogynistic in some scenes. Do Bong Soon's character is misogynistic in itself. She is the opposite of strong and actually serves as a bad example for women.
-It has Kim Ji Soo, who is a known bully, but that's not really the drama's fault, so I would be willing to let that pass.
-Do Bong Soon has her own gang of high school kids.
-The characters are absolutely brain dead most of the time with no logical sense.
-Poop jokes.
-Racist representation of Indians with random Buddhist monk a.k.a. the scammer.
-There is no natural comedy in the situations, only poor writing. The romance was just pure fluff, nothing more.
-Min Hyuk and Bong Soon were extremely possesive.
-Useless police as always.
The good:
-Hee Ji's character was the only normal female character in the entire drama. I wanted to see more of her, but we got very little of her.
-Excellent villain who deserved so much better. He was the only consistent character and the reason I kept watching, but sadly writers didn't allow him more time to shine. The actor's performance was absolutely amazing.
-Some scenes were shot in a beautiful manner, but this got overshadowed by how despicable the characters were.
I need to cleanse my brain from this drama.
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1
1Give it a Chance.. it's worth
Writing this after watching 8 episodes...I found this drama accidentally while watching some YT videos. So I just watched.. literally binged watched.
I don't know why some people have given low rating to this drama. Normally its happen after 20+ episodes because of fillers. But this one so far interesting. Maybe because they don't like genre. Anyway usually I don't write reviews but I am writing this because I don't want some drama enthusiastic to miss this drama because of a bad reviews. So give this a chance.
The cinematography is absolutely stunning. The creators took great care in introducing each character through well-choreographed fight scenes. These scenes aren't just background noise – they're beautifully filmed and truly set the stage for each character. The fight choreography itself is top-notch, and the CGI seamlessly blends into the action.
The acting is on point as well, and the plot has me hooked so far.
If you're looking for a drama with impressive visuals, engaging characters, and a captivating story, don't be discouraged by the bad reviews. Give this one a try – you might be surprised!
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If it is SWEET THEN IT deserves a 10!!!
I am someone who only writes a review if I want to give it a 10 other than that I will not write a review. I watch dramas purely for entertainment purposes and I feel that this drama has made my day and warms my heart. It has the nice fluffy and soft feeling that I get watching some of my favorite actors whom I have been watching and following since that debut so I do recommend watching it again and again especially when you are in between shows and waiting on episodes to drop and this doesn’t make you feel disappointed or distracted by skipping and fast forward to just to finish watching it.Was this review helpful to you?
Story- To be honest, the summary really caught my attention since it was somehow similar to the anime, Fushigi Yuugi. Wherein the female lead will journey to find her apprentices that would help her battle the bad guys and she will fall in love with one of them. But I think it was much more different and interesting than that. I think that the CGI was not overly done and it was really pretty decent. I loved the parts when they were fighting and the red and blue effects were there. It really made every action sequence very cool. The costumes were great! Especially the wardrobe of Xin Yue Hu. He carried it so well. I binged watch this for 2 days and every episode got me hooked. I usually fast forward some scenes when it comes to Wuxia dramas but in my surprise, I did not fast forward at all. This shows that this drama really succeeded in making every scene worth a watch.
Some may think that the story started to roll downhill as the end is becoming near but I actually oppose that. Every decision that the characters made was understandable and the ending was actually one of the best part of the series. It made my heartache and at the same time it made me very happy and I fell in love. The ending was the perfect ending and there's nothing that can change that. It was really really good to be honest. It will give you a lot of feels, I promise you.
Acting/Cast- Oh man, where will I start? Zhang Han was flawless. He was able to convince me that Chi Yu and Xin Yue Hu has a total different personality. Every actors portrayed their characters very well and they really gave justice to them. It really fits them perfectly. The main leads chemistry was just so great. They became one of my favorite pairs. Even though they are just doing simple gestures, they will still make me blush and feel butterflies in my stomach. Cheesy right? They are just that great. The connection between all the characters are superb. I hated the villains but at some point I fell in love with them. You will really feel the connection with the characters. It was a roller coaster ride for me, sometimes I hate them but sometimes I love them. You will really understand how their mind works and why they did that kinds of things. Every character was interesting for me. As in, every single one of them. I loved how the characters developed a lot through out the whole series. You will really see them grow and become mature, and this is why this drama is one of my absolute favorites.
Music- I only gave this a 8 since there was not really anything special about the music but it was pretty decent. This is not like Korean Dramas where the OSTs are spectacular. But, the music really did fit in the drama but there's really nothing more to it.
Rewatch Value- In my personal opinion, I would like to only re-watch the sweet moments of the main leads and some of the funny scenes of the lead characters. My absolute favorite scene was when all of them was gathered together, all complete, and they are just having genuine fun. I might have said this already but the ending was my favorite. It will hit you right in the feels.
Overall- As I've said, this drama will truly be one of my favorite wuxia dramas. There may be some ups and downs about this drama but overall watching this is really worth it. You will grow to love every single characters and understand how they think. I was not able to watch some of the drama's episode for a whole day and I actually missed them. Yes, I missed the fictional characters. This shows the strong effect of the characters to me.
I would recommend this to all the wuxia lovers since I believe that this drama will grow to you as well. This is actually just a light drama compared to all the other wuxia dramas out there. This is definitely a must watch. But if you are not a wuxia lover, then just don't watch this at all.
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