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Fewer semantic errors as words really do matter
For those who haven't seen the series it's a KBL, enemies to lovers trope as one student is unable to graduate when the other doesn't put his name on a group project. He seeks revenge and ...I wasn't expecting much from the movie as I'd watched the drama repeatedly but it surpassed expectations. I have to say that, similarly to 'We Best Love' Special Edition, the translation of the dialogues, additional dialogue and the slight changes made a real difference to the flow of the movie and our understanding of both the main and side characters. You actually see how they become their ending more acutely than in the drama. Translations and words really do matter! I think the series suffered from week to week translations so some weren't as accurate but to be fair to the viki volunteers, this also did have more dialogue.
There are a few new moments (I'd hardly call them scenes) as well to give the movie richness
It isn't quite the same as Life: Love on the life (Directors Cut) which had an additional scene from the Manga but as the manhwa for Semantic Error is still ongoing they haven't given us any closure which is great. we are all dying for a second season
Well worth the nearly 3 hours of watching this. Highly recommended
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Just Okay...
This series could've been better if the episodes were shorter. Having 16 episodes seemed too much when the story development is sadly just subpar. The happy ending is seriously so lackluster that it seemed like it was written just to please everyone and give everyone a somewhat happy ending. One of the saving grace of this series was the acting. Almost all of the cast did a great portrayal of their characters. Their acting is amazing- especially since I've watched most of them act in a way different manner in other dramas.BUT, I may be in the minority when I also say that I felt little to no spark between the leads. I think that one of the reasons I watched this is because I liked the story development of the FML Jamie and her 'tutor/nanny' more than the romance aspect itself. I also enjoyed the interactions that included the Senior Manager of Ji Ho and Gwang-name. They're hilarious!
One of the characters I was rooting for to have a great ending- because he deserves it, was Gwang-nam. He's seriously one of the best support characters I've watched! He also had a great potential storyline, but it was sadly overlooked because the story focused too much on the bland romance aspect. The ending given to him was such a downer. Every single character, minus the antagonist, got what they all wanted, except this cinnamon roll. UGH.
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This review may contain spoilers
it's not in the same league with Hospital Playlist.
The Good:-Seo Hyun Jin
-The show has charm.
-There is no love triangle.
-The head nurse and her ?ex-husband?
The Neutral:
-The romance is alright, but there is very little of it.
-It's not a very well researched medical drama
-The overdramatized surgeries
-I could just not warm up to Teacher Kim.
-Hospital Playlist is just a thousand times better in almost every way.
The Bad:
-There is not much plot beyond going from emergency to another emergency, but what plot there is, it is just pretty bad.
-The hospital politics
-In Bum is a somewhat poorly written character
-Surgeons do crazy non surgery related med things.
-The silly main villain
-There were way too many unreasonable BS characters.
-Yoo Yeon Seok's acting (It's crazy how much he has improved since this drama finished airing)
-The big cheating/drunk driving reveal never really happened.
-Seo Jung's PTSD faded into nothing. "It's alright, the audience won't remember!"
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This review may contain spoilers
I'd like to note that I have a harder time watching Thai dramas/lakorns because the romance does not appeal as much to me. I really enjoyed these two in their other drama (I Wanna Be a Sup'tar) so I decided to check this out. Overall story started out promising. The female lead feels relatable (to me) as a single woman getting closer to the 'marriage appropriate age' barrier and not wanting to be pushed into a relationship. She keeps her character throughout the story, just slowly learns that the male lead might just fit into her life after all. For me, it had a little too much of the side-storylines which dragged the whole thing down in timing. Although there need to be side-stories to feed the main story, not all of these side-stories need to get as much screentime as they did.
HOWEVER; I enjoyed watching this drama a lot. Would rewatch again, although I'll probably skip the side-storylines the next time. The main couple's chemistry is what makes this story shine. I really love friends to lovers dramas, and this one felt like a healthy relationship (which, in my experience is not always the case with lakorns) so I can't say I didn't enjoy this.
Also sidenote: HER OUTFITS IN THIS ARE SO FREAKING AMAZING!! The stylist here did a stellar job.
SPOILERS BELOW
What I wanted to see here was them going from:
- Strangers to good friends: Check! Even talking about what's bothering them, feelings and general chitchat without implying the romance immediately. Enjoyed the set-up a lot.
- Friends to crushes: Check! Subtle hints of them starting to like each other more and more.
- Crushes to... Married couple? This is where they lost me. I felt like; With 26 episodes we should have gotten a lot more of the romance build-up towards this inevitable marriage question. Both, if not her a bit more, are un-eager to jump into marriage at the beginning and YET with family related circumstances changing, they rush into it.
This felt like it was a last hurdle created to have some sort of conflict at the end. But in reality, the fact that he wants to marry her and she's unsure is conflict in and of itself. I feel like the writers could have built on that premise and then shown her opening up to the idea over the course of a few episodes.
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TRUE DEFINITION OF SLICE OF LIFE DRAMA!!!
Tried watching multiple realistic/ slice of life dramas but honestly nothing has or will ever compare to Northwards!!! The story follows a beautiful and unique story about 5 families, with each family’s history being soooo unique each with their own stories and spotlight!!!Special mention to Bai Lu!!! Bai Lu absolutely devoured her role as Xia FengHua/ HuaZi, it’s not only the way she delivers the uniqueness of the character through her voice but her eyes!!! The way her eyes just make you travel into the story is indescribable!!! She’s also so committed to playing the character from wearing braces, cutting her hair short, applying a tan everyday to work just proves her hardwork and her love for this character!! Ever drama Bai Lu proves herself, proves that she is an actress who dares to push the boundaries trying different genres everytime and just serving it as always!!! Bai Lu will truly accomplish much greater success in the future!!!
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Then it started lagging, and I ended up fast forwarding a bit. Lots of fillers which got boring at times.
There is romance, but it gets overweighed by the father son relationship. That seemed the most interesting part of the drama. It transitioned from hatred to pure love, and the process was really heartwarming.
Overall: Not bad, but not great either. It was a good watch especially as I was in the process of waiting for all the other dramas to finish, as I usually watch when they finish airing.
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Beautifully made
Let's start with the story, right from the beginning we know who our bad guy is although our main leads still don't know. We also have our young emperor who is basically a puppet king but lets say thats due to his young age Something I liked about this story was the fact that even though our main female lead was disguising as a guy the main male lead didn't take ages to figure it out, which is very refreshing. Throughout the story there where no misunderstandings that dragged on between our main leads. They were pretty much attached to the hip and trusted each other. Then we have our second couple which were so sweet and of course our little feiyuan. I love how prince qi treated him as a friend rather than his servant. The dynamics all five of them was spectacular and they all had a solid friendship were they all trusted each other. Something I really liked was that the relationship between prince qi and the emperor was so healthy. In no moment did the king ever think his brother was trying to take the throne. Which unlike other historical dramas where there's always a toxic relationship between the brothers, it was very refreshing to see. Also we got our main leads fighting hand-in-hand, i liked how he never tried to hide anything from her or make decisions for her which is often seen in dramas. Overall the story was very relaxing and that twist at the end was really unexpected.We also get a smart female lead that doesn't become a damsel in distress once she meets the male lead. Like I've mentioned they are both equally as smart.
Now the acting:
Sebrina Chen(Su ci/Bai Yi An)- This was the second time i see her as a main lead and from what I see she is a great actress. She portrayed Su ci very well.
Zhang Ling He(Pei Zhao / Prince Qi / Pei Yan Zhi)- I was really but really impressed in his first performance here as Prince Qi and I will definitely keep an eye our for his future dramas.
Zhang Jia Ding(Xie Bei Ming) and Wang Yi Zhe(Dong Ru Shuang)- This is the first project I see from both of them and I was very impressed with their acting.
Huang Yi(Fei Yuan)- I fell in love with his character. Despite only being 17 he was able to portray all emotions clearly and it made us the viewers fall in love with him
Andy Huang(Emperor)- Although he wasn't one of the leads I do have to comment on his incredible acting. Despite his really young age(16) he was able to portray the role of king very well.
The ost was very memorable at least for me.
Now is it worth watching? HECK YES. Like I mentioned before this story was very relaxing, you don't have to worry about big misunderstandings, or evil parents and not even second love interest for our main leads. From begging to end both prince qi and su ci were very loyal and trusted each other. They fought hand in hand along with our other 3 leads.
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Confusing, artsy, beautiful that makes you ponder away...
I am going to be honest, I just finished watching this movie and I am deeply confused, but somehow I think that is part of the point of this movie (or I´m not that smart and missed something) .The reason why I am so confused is because the line between the imagination and reality is constantly crossed to the point where it is impossible to know what is real and what is not. This is done beautifully. The acting is superb and the artistic elements are constantly near.
I liked the way they showed different aspects of life with a disability in a not so very understanding society while not turning the person in to hero just for breathing, but a letting her be a human being with emotions, desire and fear.
I guess I can say this is one of those movies that will have you ponder over what you just saw, its not really a tear jarker and defiantly not a feel good but more of a feel something and ponder away analyzing things kind of movie maybe even one you will have to see again to understand what you just saw.
Edit: after thinking some more I have changed the ratings to a 9 because:
1. It kept my mind going.
2. I found 2 interpertations for the movie that I'm ok with one sad, and one happy. So why choose when you can have both.
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Starts With a Sizzle and Just Fizzled
This drama starts out sizzling hot. We have the ML (Li Zhuo Yang aka Chu Ze Jia/Chu Ze An) walking into the house as we see the FL (Meng Xi aka Yan Zhen) coming barefoot down the stairs. As Chu Ze Jia walks further Yan Zhen comes up behind him using her hand as a gun, she presses it into his back and says, "Stay still." Chu Ze Jia puts his hands up as Yan Zhen tells him to remove his glasses. Still holding his glasses and arms up, Yan Zhen puts a blindfold over his eyes. Chu Ze Jia tells her that her perfume gives her away and turns around. He starts to remove his blindfold only to have Yan Zhen say, "You want a surprise, don't you? " He smiles as Yan Zhen turns him around again and takes off the blindfold to show him the room decorated for their anniversary.Chu Ze Jia gives her a diamond necklace which he places around her neck. He then asks her where is his present to which she begins to take off her negligee and seductively let's it fall to the floor. Thus begins the most sexy and sensual make out session every. The chemistry between these two was off the charts. They could just look at each other and you could feel the electricity coming from both of them.
They were leading such a happy life until Yan Zhen's husband dies in a boat explosion after their anniversary. She then takes over the Anshi group as the general manager of her husband's company. But we knew something would happen when she was about to declare her husband legally dead. He comes back or does he.
Thus begins the question is he or isn't he her husband due to the fact we find out he had a twin brother, Chu Ze An.
We are lead on a good "cat and mouse" chase. There were moments when you suspected the SML (Wang Yi Lei aka Gu Cheng) of not being her friend but someone to be leery of. Then you had the SFL (Qiu Jia Qi aka Chu Ze Zin) who was the sister to Chu Ze Jia/Chu Ze An which was an utter waste because she served no purpose. Her voice and nonsense whining just took the drama down.
But the surprise comes in the very last episode. Yan Zhen, after everything has been settled decides to leave Chu Ze Jia. I was so shocked by this move. Her reason was: For the past four years, she was waiting for her loved one to come home. She was exhausted physically and mentally. She needed time for adjustments. She just said she was sorry. He tries calling her and gets the message: The number you have dialed cannot be reached. She further tells him not to try and find her. If they are destined to be together, they will meet. Even without her, she wanted him to believe that there would be someone in the world that would love him unconditionally.
I honestly was shaking my head in disbelieve. What was that. I was thoroughly put out by what she had just stated. They had solved the issues of what happened within the company and when they finally can be happy, she leaves him.
There is hope, if you can call it that, we do not know how much time transpired but we have Chu Ze Jia go back to where they first met still hoping that he will find her. As he looks away, you hear a camera click. Chu Ze Jia turns around and we assume it is Yan Zhen because he is smiling.
I had high hopes for this drama because of the casting of Li Zhuo Yang. I have seen him in all of his short dramas such as: The Princess New Clothes and Mutual Redemption Love. These are both good watches by the way. Each drama so far, he is in, the man is fire.
Unfortunately, for me with all the good intrigue and coming back together, it fizzled at the end because we were left empty handed with just a smile for comfort.
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This review may contain spoilers
My faith in Japanese movie is back!Actually I'm kinda lost interest in watching movies from japan
I know there are many great movies from them especially classic ones but just recently or these several years it was just a hit or miss or just acceptably great.
Okay, I think "Key of Life" was the most enjoyable Japanese film that made from the last 3 years that I encountered as for now and i will see some more and hopefully just as satisfying.
The movie itself is a combination of comedy/crime/slice of life.
The comedy isn't exaggerated and relies on coincidence circumstances that really works well and funny. The story is minimalistic and easy to relate. No overly complicated plot but simply complex enough and i find it smart w/ smile on my face.
The two main characters are very good actors (you are familiar with them and you often see them in dramas). The interaction is the strongest point. There were not much talk unlike other comedy but shows more character action for situations.
I will not say anything about the music since there was only few in certain scenes but sometime silence is effective.
Try this movie and I think it's not that hard to like and very relatable regardless of taste. You may find it not groundbreaking but I'm sure its impossible to hate.
100% spoiler free and I didn't say much but see it for yourself.
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KBS Drama Special 2014: Middle School Student A
12 people found this review helpful
I think that this should have been made in to a long drama with a few episodes so it could have elaborate the story more. Well it was nice to watch and you'll enjoy it ;)
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A level headed female lead
The main thing I liked about this show was our female lead HZ and her rationality. She always thought things through and kept a level head on her shoulders. She also behaved exactly how I would expect someone who is the "eldest girl" or "head of the family" to act. I also really enjoyed the bonds of the Hua family, especially between the women. If you like strong female leads this is a great drama for you. The male lead is also nice too. I loved his action scenes, they were shot very beautifully.Was this review helpful to you?
