It’s beautifully made and performed drama with unpredictable plots and comedy twist. Exciting!
It’s refreshing, it’s different in a good way but yet an epic historical drama! Love it!Court lady is a perfect combination of a classic historical drama with amazing and vivid details setting of inspired the Tang Dynasty; with a good balance of comedy vibe and impressive natural acting from the lead cast (Xu Kai and Li Yi Tong are adorable together!) as expected; and surprisingly the main supporting cast as well (e.g. Tan Jianci; and another adorably cute couple, Kris Fan and Wu Jiayi) which are the plus plus of this drama. They are a picture perfect of young people life with their love and life trials. The comedy is hilariously fun and the love is cleverly romantic but not cheesy and not over the top. So far, it makes me smile a lots and makes make happy watching it :-). However, I also was super excited to watch the built-up conflicts which I believe that would be happening sooner or later as the story progressing in historical drama to test the in depth acting of each of the characters. Oh well, Li Yi Tong and Xu Kai are the guarantee of great acting and never disappointment. Thus, I suspected that it’s going to be a fantastic journey to watch despite of whatever the ending would be. It’s historical drama, so of course there would always be painful scenes which I couldn't wait to watch. Then, my wishes came through. Since the ending theme was started to change from ep 28, the painful scenes have started pilling up. That’s actually got much more interesting to watch and I was hooked to the sweet ending.
My final verdict, Court Lady surely is one of the most interesting historical/political drama to date. The unpredictable story line with cleverly comedy twist and amazing cast and acting have made this drama refreshingly exciting, lighter but yet epic historical drama. Many complaining about the surprising plots and deaths. Well, how many good characters in a master piece tv drama like Game of Throne were killed unexpectedly?! Court lady is beautifully made and performed drama with brilliant story line and characters development. I just hope they make more than 55 eps to make the plots flowing in perfect pace (which I’ve heard it’s not possible now based on new rule in china, hence, it’s made shorter). But, the crew and cast has done amazing job already! So yes, Court Lady is definitely a must-watch one now! The production, story, cinematography, music, cast and acting are worth your time! It is one of the most exciting drama to watch by far; not as heavy as other historical dramas but it’s still epic. Highly recommended!
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Tabe did a fantastic job as "Setsuko"/Katsu. Sometimes you would cry with her, other times laugh at her and even be angry with her. PLUS: her character had a great sense of fashion, I want to buy all of her clothes, haha.
The musics were amazing, as expected. I liked especially the last one (loved the lyrics). The OST will be a must on my ipod.
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Regarding the story, its a light mixture of melo and comedy, I would rather say it´s more melo. It problematizes the life of those less happy ones, who are imprisoned in mental institution due their illnes. Have they the right to live their own lifes behind the walls of these institutions, if they are harmless for society, despite of the resentment of their own families? May they find their happiness out there? Isn´t the society to unjust and overflown with prejudices to them? These were some of the questions which cropped up in my head, while I was watching this movie.
The cast was from the beginning guarantee of great acting, especially Kim Soo Mi and Lee Sang Woo.
I have to disappoint those seeking action in this movie. The movie is more focused on the inner lifes of the movie characters, so it seems sometimes more static or slow. Despite of this fact, it remains great and worthy to watch, cause it has got its own unique depth.
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Then, he suddenly stops and makes a funny expression. "Ah... I am hungry". Zoom out, zoom out, with a funny OST. This happens all the time, and after that, he goes looking for a restaurant/dining, which is mostly a familiar, cozy, simple one. He orders his food.. it is always different, but 99% of the time, one of his side dish would be rice. Goro-san loves rice (there is an episode where he even eats his Neapolitan spaghetti with rice!). Actually, he loves any kind of food. He is the happiest man on Earth when he is eating. While he is eating, internally he is commenting about his food. ""Ii janaika", is mostly his remark XD He loves it, he is so happy to have picked THAT place and THAT food. And how he eats! You wonder how such a skinny man can eat so much and be that thin. Sometimes he orders 2, 3 different things. And he eats so fast, even when the food is super hot.
The last 3 minutes is the author of the dorama going to the same dining and eating almost always the same food. My, how happy his author is! You can't help but be happy with him, he is 100% smiles.
I loved this, I realized I had to have my dinner first before watching an episode, since all dishes are mouthwatering.
Recommended specially to people who is going to visit Japan and are looking for places to eat. The restaurants Goro-san visits are real; the rest are all actors.
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This review may contain spoilers
SHALLOW & MEANINGLESS
This dating-reality-show drama is an example of what happens when there's sensuality without romance, because the kissing is great but there's NO romantic chemistry, butterflies 🦋 or story-depth. It all just felt shallow and meaningless.True to K-drama production quality, the filmography and sound is good, especially for a vertical short. However, the script was uninteresting and the pacing was too fast. Everything felt one-dimensional. The characters didn't have scenes with sufficient self-reflection and the acting was so-so. Most of the characters seemed kind of flat, except for the FL's ex-boyfriend. He had *some* expression, but then why at the end did he seem unfazed that the girfirend he'd been pining for the whole drama, ultimately picked another guy? The FL herself didn't even seem like she was interested in ANY of the guys, and the one she decided on at the end was kind of mean.
Well, there's a first for everything. Out of the hundreds of K-dramas I've seen, this is my first GARBAGE K-drama. There was bound to be one.
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The series long awaited and we all needed
Like the title says this series is the one that made us wait a few good months, but that was not for nothing. I've already fallen in love with this series concept back in 2019 when the 1st trailer was released. Literally everything from the story through the music to the cast intrigued me. We have waited quite a long time until we got the 2nd trailer of this series. It was slightly different, but the most important was that the series was said to finally happen. Then the release day finally has come...Going into the 1st episode I was freaking excited. After it finished I was totally enchanted by every aspect of it. The plot was smooth and at the same time detailed. I felt that my expectations were met and kept my hopes up for the remaining episodes. As the plot had gone further I could feel totally involved in this story. The scenes following each other made every time sense without having any unnecessary scenes (okay maybe just one scene but that's only one out of hundreds). I don't want to spoil the ending of the series but it is was executed PERFECTLY. To see me getting emotional while watching a series is quite rare and the last episode made my tears flow quite frequently. Wonderful job P'Aof! That's why I want to give this series a perfect 10 for the story telling.
I think we all will agree that the chemistry that Earth (Chief Phupha) and Mix (Tian) had was one of the best that a Thai series ever served us. Of course the fact that they knew each other for a long time beforehand and that Earth recommended Mix for the role of Tian is the main factor for the chemistry. What matters is that they managed to get into the role despite their characters in real life. First of all, we have Mix who played Tian. No one would be able to handle Tian's role the way Mix did it. It was his debut and he nailed every single scene. He put his whole heart into acting as Tian and it totally paid of the effort. On the other hand there's Earth who portrayed Chief Phupha in an amazing way. At first cold and bossy he kept on getting warmer towards Tian. The way he kept being serious throughout most of the time and smiling once in a while in an episode made me totally feel the role he played. Such a lovely and non-toxic relationship growing episode by episode. Also shoutout to the actors who had amazing supporting roles and the kids who did great job. I have to give them all a 10 for their HUGE effort.
Music made me feel every time so good. The OST did fit very well in the trailer. I'm very glad they picked such good songs for the whole series. I'm very happy that the actors took part in it as well. Both Earth and Aye did great job covering the song. Actors should always have some cover or a song and I'm glad to see that often in Thai series. Also shoutout to Earth playing klui which was very comforting. Furthermore, the song "Lom" (Wind) in episode 10 made me cry instantly. It fits so damn well there! The only thing I regret is that they didn't use the song from the 1st trailer at all. That's why I have to cut off a half star so the music gets 9.5/10.
To be honest, it's hard for me to tell anything about rewatch value. I love this series the most of all the series, but it's just too early to elaborate on that. I'm certainly gonna rewatch it soon, but I don't know when. This series is PURE and with this word I want to end my review.
PS. I certainly want to recommend this series to everyone who want to watch something genuine, educational and beautiful to the core as an escape from our reality.
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A PLEASANT SURPRISE
Until We Meet Again is the best BL series created till date. In this 10-page essay I shall...Just kidding, I'm not going to write 10 pages even though my mind is clouded with an overbearing number of emotions right now. This review isn't even going to be coherent but it's going to act as an archive for my thoughts for when I want to convince friends to watch this.
Story - 10/10 for a great plot, amazing writing and for connecting loose ends perfectly. Every character had a part to play and helped the story progress in their own way. What started out (to me) as a cute little fluffy show with cooking interludes turned into a full fledged character development journey showcasing the healthiest relationship in BL I've ever seen.
Their relationship impressed me so much. P'Dean is not your typical "top" BL lead. He respected the boundaries set by Pharm, is communicative and shows how much he cares for Pharm through his words and actions. He respected him when he said he needed a break. Same goes for Pharm. After nearly a decade of being plagued by nightmares, they became each others' safe place. I pray that I have a relationship that's as healthy as DeanPharm.
I would like to thank the writers for acknowledging the existence of homophobia and the effect it has on teenagers. All the other shows either don't focus on it at all or brush it aside after talking about it for a few minutes. But the way it was portrayed in this show was relatable to be in so many ways and as a queer person, it made me happy to see a BL drama which was more than fanservice-filled moments catering to a fujoshi/fudanshi audience. A gay relationship isn't going to be sunshine and rainbows. Thank you for showing that.
I would also like to thank the writers for not portraying female characters as a tool for making the MCs jealous or as their crazy exes or merely people who fetishise gay couples and so on. Positive light on all female characters? Who would have thought this day would come?
Pacing - 9.5/10. When I first heard that this series had flashbacks and present time scenes shown back to back, I didn't want to watch it and this is the only reason I postponed watching this for so long. I expected it to be messy and confusing but it wasn't. The time skips were shown in a very clear manner and didn't leave me bored.
Acting - 9/10. I'm not sure why I'm rating this as 9/10 instead of 10/10. Perhaps it's because Dean had three expressions most of the time - anger, shocked grief and whipped (Honestly same.) Not saying his acting was bad or anything though. Most of the scenes required him to act whipped anyway. Pharm's acting was great too. The sub cast's acting was so-so but Dean's grandma stole the show even though she didn't have that much screen time. Her acting skills were phenomenal. The emotions, the pain, the longing; it was all evident in her eyes. I cried with her every second she was on screen.
Music- 10/10. I don't have much to say expect they did a good job. Loved the OST :'0
I usually don't give high rewatch values because I'm the type of person who prefers to binge a lot of shows and never touch a series for a second time. But this one, I will make an exception for this show. I would definitely rewatch it and like the experience the emotions all over again. Forgive me for repeating myself, but this show really kept the fanservice to the minimum possible (almost negligible) level. I was seeing a gay real relationship and it's progress here.
(SPOILERS START)
A complaint most people had against this was that they didn't understand why Pharm said they needed to stay apart in the last episode. In my opinion, that was a very crucial part of the show. Until then, Pharm had trouble seeing Intouch and himself as two separate people. He wondered if the love he felt for P'Dean was only because In and Korn were in love in their past life. The nightmare he had about P'Dean cutting off the red thread of fate and moving on was a very valid and understandable fear on his part. After suggesting time apart, Pharm dreamt about In and Korn again. But this time, it was not from the perspective of In; he was watching it from the side because he was Pharm. He was a different person, not the Intouch from the past. That realisation was important for him to put aside the insecurities he had about his relationship with P'Dean and confess his feelings once again.
(SPOILERS END)
That's all I have to say. Of course, our tastes might not be similar but please give this series a chance. The chances of you regretting it are very less. And towards the beginning you might feel like dropping it but please stick till the end.
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This series is about Eda-san, a Taxi driver with a special Taxi that can bring his customer back to a time of their choosing to ''set right what went wrong'', to quote another great - and underestimated - series about time travel called Quantum Leap. So each episode is a stand-alone story about this or that customer going ''back to the futur--'' I mean... the past, till they get it right. There's a sort of continuity as well between the episodes with recurring characters (the staff at the Choice Café for example), the hilarious scenes from the impossibly confusing ''dorama'' Hanzai Deka, or the recurring no-time-slip-feeling joke, which gets more and more hilarious as time passes - even going so far as subtly referencing Doctor Who, at some point.
With the exception of the first episode, which was kind of weird, compared to the rest of the series, the stories are mostly light-hearted and funny, or bittersweet at most. Please don't let the first episode influence your viewing. It kinda sets the series to be dark and heavy, but that episode was really the odd one out.
I mentioned early in the review that this series is about the ''non-complex'' kind of time travel - that means, this is not Primer, you can watch this series without getting confused about timelines and paradoxes and stuff. That said, there are some paradoxes in the series that bothered me a lot, so, if you're like me, they're gonna bother you too. But the series doesn't address them - maybe the writers didn't even notice them - so just try and find some explanation for yourself or try to accept the matter as it is. Shouganai.
I liked the acting a lot, especially from the main cast. The guests were all good with some exceptions, but the fact that they were there for just the one episode makes it so it doesn't ruin your viewing. The Henzai Deka cast was delusional and over the top, so they were brilliant as well.
Fun fact: the creator of the series is actually one of the main cast's actors. I was a little surprised when I found out.
The music, especially the instrumental OP was great! I didn't like the ''time-slip sound effect'' very much, though - it became annoying after a while.
You can easily rewatch this series whenever you want, and you don't even have to watch it altogether because of its stand-alone episodes.
So then, I guess you have a general idea of the fact that life has many turning points, right? What kind of job will you land? What kind of house will you live in? What will you have for dinner? Will you watch this dorama or not?
Well?
What kind of choice will you make?
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Story
While not perfect, the pacing of this drama is excellent. Not too slow, not too fast. Many dramas start off well, but eventually lose track of their momentum around the latter half, but this does not happen with Money Game. Each episode plays an important part in driving the drama towards its finality. Attention is paid well to the details of each scene and the dialogue of each character so that everything is well connected to the story as a whole. I do think the drama could've gone more into depth on the rationale behind why some characters believe that capitalism and neoliberalism is bad and vice versa.
There technically is no romance in this story, but there is a very subtle “romance” that was unexpectedly very engrossing despite not being the central part of the drama.
Acting/Cast
The acting in this drama is phenomenal, especially by the main four leads (technically, main three leads and a side character who doesn’t feel as if he is a side character).
As always, Lee Sung Min did a great job portraying Heo Jae as a multi-layered character who is very driven and willing to compromise his moral beliefs to achieve what he think is for the better good. Throughout the drama, it is difficult to easily say whether he is “good” or “bad” because he has very believable, although maybe not justifiable, reasons for his actions. His frustrations with the 1997 IMF Crisis and South Korea’s current economy are understandable as they are debatable.
Go Soo portrayed Chae Yi Hun very well as probably the most human character in the drama for me. He is intelligent and ambitious, but also gets lost along the way, becomes unsure of what he’s working towards, and sometimes lets his emotions affect how he treats the people around him. However, he is a character that truly cares for other people and is able to reflect on his actions and even apologize to his subordinates when he knows he’s in the wrong.
Shim Eun Kyung did such an excellent job in portraying Lee Hye Joon that I can’t imagine anyone, but her as Hye Joon. Lee Hye Joon is probably the most level-headed and reasonable female character I’ve ever seen in a drama. She in incredibly ordinary, but she isn’t at the same time. Even in her most vulnerable moments, she still stays true to her beliefs while being able to be empathetic, even sometimes being the one to make her male counterparts open their eyes to the big picture. She is hands down my favorite character not only in Money Game, but out of all of the dramas I’ve watched.
As for Yoo Teo, I also can’t imagine anyone, but him for the role of Eugene Han. Despite being a side character, he was a scene-stealer in every scene he was in as the Korean American “bad guy” from Wall Street. Eugene could have easily been portrayed as more of a one-dimensional antagonist who only cares about money, but Yoo Teo added depth to his character that made him easy to empathize with even when many of his actions would be considered morally wrong. I do have to mention that he does have an accent when speaking English, as in it doesn't sound like an American accent even though his character grew up in the United States. This didn't bother me, but some people seemed to be put off by it.
Music/OST
The OST is mellow and fits the drama very well. I like all of the songs, but I think Elaine’s “Fallin’” is amazing. The line “I wish it was a dream” gives each episode quite a dream-like quality and when I think about, don’t we all wish all our economical and money problems were all a dream?
I don’t rewatch dramas, but I’d consider Money Game as one of the more rewatchable ones as it’s quite informative on economical and social issues.
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Beautiful Drama "Perfect Her"
Please don't go by the review listed. I'm glad that i did not take heed to the review I read. I would have never watched it but I'm so happy I did. This drama "Perfect Her" has a great storyline, and the cast was great in their roles. I'm not going to include any spoilers because I want the audience to watch for themselves. The ML and FL were awesome in their roles. At first, I was not going to watch due to the switching of the souls but what a surprise. It is great in my opinion. When you get upset or mad at actors on screen that meant they played the part as he/ she played that character well. Just saying!!👌🏽My suggestion, watch the drama and judge for yourself.Was this review helpful to you?
This was my first time watching these two actors and I will definitely be looking forward to more of their dramas. Lets go searching, searching, searching!
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Unfortunately, totally missed the mark on friends-to-lovers trope I adore...
Friends-to-lovers might be one of my all time favorite trope in fiction. On paper, this BL had everything to seduce me but it failed miserably in doing so.Why ? Simply because it failed in its execution of one of the most important part of friends-to-lovers series : the set up and build up of the relationship. It flied so fast that there were not enough angst to make the romance compelling, not enough time to establish the stakes...The deal was done much too quick. The story should have been constructed very differently in my opinion and the repetitive flashback with very average kids acting did not help at all...
Once I mourned the fact the relationship in the drama was not going to be as I wanted it to be, I must admit that I enjoyed the series more in its second half, it was quite average and expected in terms of storyline but I still wanted to watch the conclusion.
I would not recommend this drama as I have very lukewarm feelings about the series. Chemistry was good overall and some of the NSFW scenes were hot. However, the writing failed at establishing properly the stakes of the romance and the acting was a mixed bag without any memorable outstanding emotional moments. On paper : it had everything to hit me right...In reality : I had to mourn what could have been...
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Nothing is resolved
This story starts with a challenge, to make a believable love line between a man (Nai) and his younger sister-in-law (Pa) after the suspicious death of the wife (Da). And this lakorn chose to meet that challenge by... not really addressing it? We saw all kinds of strange and what seemed like uncharacteristic behavior from Da in the flashbacks to the day she died and we really got no explanation for any of it. [Why was she considering adding something to Lita's drink? What caused her to faint in the pantry? Did she really push Lita and cause Lita's injury?] All of that just got buried amid the one-upping between Pa and Nai's mother, and even there, there were hardly any truly satisfying moments where you felt Pa had gotten some revenge.Then while more and more people began to see what Nai's mother was willing to do to 'protect' her kids, Pa somehow became more and more sympathetic? The idea that all of these people would put their differences aside after what happened is too hard to swallow, especially with such little repentance on the mother's end.
Thom and Lita were fine as a side couple, but I never really felt anything about Nade and Trai together.
All in all, not worth the time.
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I'll just go unconventionally.. and talk about the points I mentioned above.
Mild makjang- Yes it's over the top... in many ways, unbelievable things happening here and there. But why mild, coz it's not frustrating or blood boiling, though having many annoying, hatable characters I wasn't desperate to slap or punch anyone. It's more like, 'Oh I hate this character, he/she's just so insane.' but that's it no overflowing emotions.
Intense comedy- The worth only thing is a comedy, though it doesn't offer the peak comedy moments, a good laugh, and quality humor. It's not consistent till the end... as you know how 'revenge' dramas turn in the last episodes, even if it's comedy.
Slight romance- Honestly the most boring part of the show and unnecessary, firstly I don't feel the romantic chemistry between leads, they are good as friends but nothing more than that. She has more chemistry with Yoo Jun. Romance feels forced and out of context... and some part is just sooo cliche.
Slight action- I just love when FLs can fight... and here she definitely can, as I said it's slight action so there aren't many action scenes but I did enjoy little action, and seeing FL kicking the ass of everyone.
Coincidences: Why I felt to make a different section of it... This is just too much. Coincidences start from the very first episode till the end... as if everything is in the circle. 1,2,3,4,5... okay fine I can endure that but when it's way beyond it's annoying.
Lee Ha Nee was just awesome, she did a splendid job... But I would have loved it if Cho Yeon Joo's character was consistent till the end, Cho Yeon Joo kinda lost her charm later. Han Seung Wook is bland.. he's lead but I just can't see him as ML maybe I end up comparing him with Yeon Joo which ends up Seung Wook having no spice, is Lee Sang Yoon aging backward? he looks so young than last time I saw him. Yoo Jun I love this guy yes more than Seung Wook... he's just so adorable and such a sweetheart. Though it's not SLS as I wasn't rooting for any romance. Our Ahjusshi aka HG's legal head.. has his charm, he comes 2nd after Ha Nee of whom I enjoyed screentime most. Villains are just so stereotyped... even their motives are the same.
Being revenge drama.. it revolves around comedy more, it's not surprising at all... as all the 'twists' I saw coming miles away, so nothing gonna blow up your mind. And it's forgettable... I even forget I was even watching this... I stumbled upon a review and learned oh it ended, I've to catch up with the last episodes lol.
'One the Woman' is watchable but not out of the box just have... watch it for entertainment and Lee He Nee.
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