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Why the mind twist?
Undoubtedly, this would have worked much better as a fantasy. Instead, they tried to fool us into thinking it is and then wildly twisting the plot into making it fit into our ‘reality’ only to fail miserably on all fronts. This series is a complete mess, Painful as it is for me to say this, this story should never have been made. This relationship is based upon two individuals who live in an illusion. One created it while the other wants it. It does not mean necessarily that their love is not real or could learn to be real. But it does mean that the foundation and its development were based on false premises and no amount of ‘feel good’ bedroom scenes can make it real. The real notion is they barely KNOW each other! There is nothing normal and in fact real about this series. If only this series had been a fantasy!Was this review helpful to you?
Overall I recommend this drama if you have a lot of free time and are into makjang because the drama is filled with secrets and revenge. It was quite enjoyable to watch but I would not rewatch this again.
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Loved it first watch. Hated it the second.
*First viewing*Internal thoughts: Ok, wow, Zhang Zi Yi should not be playing a teenager but she pulls it off. Yay, so glad that the childhood love interest (simp) was discarded because, what a coward! Why does Zhou Yi Wei get to show his age but Zhang Zi Yi doesn't? And, oh wow, the chemistry between A'wu and Xiao Qi is nothing like I've seen in a Cdrama before. For the first time, I'm actually here for the romance plotline.
However! Something was nagging me throughout watching it, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Until I rewatched the series.
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*Second viewing*
So turns out the nagging feeling was that, despite the electric romantic chemistry, I hate A'wu as a character. She spends a lot of time condemning the bad deeds of characters who have been forced to make bad choices in desperate situations. Yet, at no point, is she ever forced to choose between her pride and doing 'the right thing'. She has never known real struggle and punishes those who have.
Once I started noticing her classist demeanour, I could not let it go. It just tainted the entire experience for me and I also started hating Xiao Qi for supporting it. His character, despite low class origins, does not call into question the classism of his wife nor the imperial system he helps uphold. Instead, he sees the emperor somewhat as a benefactor and himself as duty-bound to protect a system that, frankly has never protected him.
In this drama, we also have another classic Historical Cdrama example of an emperor who is protected as the 'rightful ruler' but not for any perceivable moral reasons. We have no reason to believe the emperor is a good ruler for his people and uprising is, of course, portrayed as bad and misled. Conveniently, it means that A'wu never has to worry about the legitimacy of her own privileged position.
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*A note on acting*
While I could never watch this series again, I will say the acting from the leads is superb. Obviously, that goes without saying for Zhang Zi Yi. This is the first time I've seen Zhou Yi Wei (other than a bit character in Glamorous Imperial Concubine) and he is absolutely magnificent. It's a shame ageism is so rampant in the entertainment industry because I'd love to see older actors take the stage in these kind of roles more often.
I've now seen Tony Yang in Rebel Princess as well as Light the Night and, boy, does he have range! I hated his character in this series and that was due to some great acting on his part.
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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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Surprisingly good
Okay so I usually don’t do reviews a lot, but this short drama really surprised me! I wasn’t expecting much because short dramas tend to be too dramatic, cringy and the plots have lots of holes, but this drama got me hooked on the first episode! It’s actually really well made, their budget must’ve been quite good because I really couldn’t tell it’s a short drama if not for the duration of the episodes 🤩 The kiss scenes are also insaneee😩 The plot is nothing too special, but it’s just executed well. The ending was a little rushed, I think 28 episodes would’ve suited the plot better but it was still really enjoyable! 🥰 I strongly recommend checking this drama out!Was this review helpful to you?
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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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