Don't know how I made it to the end
There are quite a few issues with this series unfortunately. Some massive and others subjective. I'll list them and leave it to you to decide how you feel about watching this series.1. The series drags a bit and could have been wrapped up sooner. I almost didn't feel like continuing several times. Nearly 70% of the episodes were watched in 1.25x or 1.5x speed for this reason.
2. Casting issues that feel confusing. The FL is depicted as knowing the ML as a child while he was already an adult. But later they seem to be of the same age. Similarly, an adult female character is introduced to two children and later they look like they are older than her or the same age while she hasn't aged at all.
3. The FL is initially shown as a powerful force and a strong woman but her character deteriorates significantly. She becomes unbearable, overbearing, a bully, extremely suspicious without justification at times, breaks and enters while portraying a cop, beats up the ML, her fight scenes are a joke, she ruins investigations and leads by the ML, and is the worst character in the series.
4. No chemistry between the ML and FL. I don't understand why they even like each other.
5. The humour is funny but at times cringeworthy. For example baby talk, split pants, pulling faces. Not really my style.
6. The action was ruined in the finale. Something that I had been looking forward to. Almost fell asleep at one point.
The good aspects that got me through.
1. The cafe Minamdang team has good chemistry and they are the heart of this show.
2. The male lead acting as a shaman could have easily come across as over the top but he kept it classy. He lives up to his character as a profiler and is good at catching clues.
3. The mystery element is decent.
4. When the humour is good, it's entertaining. I am glad that this was a light show considering the number of murders taking place.
5. If you enjoy strong female leads then that would be the character of the sister. Enjoyable persona.
Cafe Minamdang is not the best mystery, detective, comedy, action series so I wouldn't honesty recommend it for any of these genres. There are better shows out there. But if you like the male lead then you'll enjoy it.
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QUEEN OF K-DRAMA TROPES
Exactly how many tropes is too many tropes.... ?This drama finally defines it. Ending at an amazing rate, it has everything but a sane storyline.
The question here is will you like this drama? Of course you will. Who wouldn't like this amazing cast and the expectations were sky high even before we heard the pairing but what disappointed us is the crappy storyline that started out well but eventually became a complete tangled mess.
They probably decided they wouldn't take any chances and combined every possible trope that ever worked in the history of kdrama like dying lead, amnesia, village comedy, quirky spoiled chaebols, makjang nonsense, betrayals, foreign dates and stalking. Now i wouldn't have complained even if they stuck to the story of maintained a proper flow but there are so many plotholes that i would rather walk that go through that bumpy ride. The only reason you finish this is if you are that invested in the characters or absolutely have been missing Kim So Hyun.
Will i watch it again? Hell No. Once was enough crap.
Will i recommend it to anyone? Depends if they are a newbie being introduced to kdramaland but if you're a veteran like me, this is some recycled shit that you can skip.
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A Perfect Blend of Adventure, Friendship and Romance
The Long Ballad, adapted from a popular ongoing manga, Chang Ge Xing, by Xia Da (夏达), won over me with its inspirational characters and life lessons, strong friendships and bonds, and unique storyline. Not only did it provide me with an amazing drama watching experience, but also made me sympathize and feel for many of the characters. In case you didn’t know, the Long Ballad’s title comes from Li Changge’s name. Li is her surname, while Changge means ‘Long Ballad’. (or long song)I have to admit that I set my expectations quite high for this drama, as it has a star-studded cast, a cast filled with actors and actresses that I have watched in other dramas before, and impressed me with their acting skills. Adding on to my excitement was the director, Chu Yui Bun, who had directed 3 dramas that I exceptionally loved. But even with my bar set high, this historical Chinese drama won me over.
Something especially unique with the Long Ballad is that it provides some connections and reminders to the manhua. Quite a few war scenes and other scenes are in a cartoon-ish form. The actors may be in the scenes, but the backdrops are green screens. The transitions were a little abrupt, but I really enjoyed these scenes and they were very beautiful. I also really loved the costumes. They were absolutely gorgeous, and fit the different settings and period very well.
Story-9.0
As I started the drama, I was introduced to a bustling Chang An, the capital of the highly successful Tang Dynasty, which lasted from 618 to 907 AD. Many historians consider the Tang Dynasty a 'Golden Age', specifically of arts and culture. During this period, people from all around the world came to China for education, traveling, business, and many other reasons. During the reign of Li Shimin, also known as Tang Taizong, civilians lived in peace and happiness, and without poverty. It truly was a beautiful time. The drama also motivated me, who already had some knowledge of the Tang Dynasty and Tang Taizong's achievements, to research more about this era. My research also resulted in the knowledge that quite a few people in the Long Ballad are real people that lived during the Tang Dynasty, including Ashina Sun's cousin, Ashina She'er, Wei Shuyu and his father, Wei Zheng, a well-known Tang Chinese politician and historian, and the crown prince of the drama, Li Chengqian.
The beginning of the Long Ballad is not set during the most famous prosperous period, though. It is actually set right before Li Shimin's successful reign. Li Changge is a Tang Dynasty princess, the daughter of the crown prince, having everything and even more that a girl during that time or even now could have. But her entire family is killed by her Second Uncle, Li Shimin, and her life is turned upside down. At first, I was worried that the drama would be centered around a normal revenge plot, but thankfully, I was very wrong. Revenge might have been something that Li Changge focused on, but this is not the main topic/theme of the drama. The Long Ballad also explores strong friendship, cute romance, loyalty, family, and so much more.
The drama is by no means centered around politics or war. Politics is almost nonexistent in this drama, which is a relief for many, although power played an important role in the Long Ballad. We are shown that power was very important for one's success in ancient times, and this can also apply to us during modern times.
The main goal of the drama is not for the characters to gain some mystical object, but rather to show their immense character growth, and the growths are shown very realistically. I was not only entertained, but was also given different perspectives of life and the many relationships in our lives. The plot was not very predictable, and the plot twists made the drama experience even more memorable.
Fortunately, the actors and actresses also did very well with the fighting scenes. We are provided with well thought-out and practiced fighting scenes that look very polished and natural. Bravo!
There were a few loopholes, though. I won’t elaborate too much on this, but there were a few spots in the drama where I felt that the characters could have done something differently for a better result. Otherwise, I wouldn’t change anything else about the drama. The plot is very propelling, and unlike some other historical Cdramas, is not very slow-paced.
Cast-9.5
The cast is one of the reasons I decided to watch the Long Ballad. What better to watch my two favorite Chinese actresses in one drama, along with the handsome and mature Wu Lei? And Liu Yuning is a plus!
I had absolutely no problems with the 7-year age gap between Dilraba and Wu Lei. In fact, they looked so compatible together that my smiles and fawning were almost always uncontrollable. It is more than evident how much Ashina Sun and Li Changge care for each other, from their actions to even just their facial expressions. The Long Ballad is not centered around romance, but it does have a good amount of it. We are given a few couples, each with their own cute scenes.
Leo Wu, at age 21, just awed me again. For those who have watched Nirvana in Fire, he is nothing like that cute and innocent Fei Liu. I mean, Ashina Sun is also handsome (amazingly handsome) and cute, but in a much more mature way. His aura spreads everywhere. Ashina Sun is a man of righteousness and kindness. Although he seems cold and perhaps a little emotionless, viewers start to see his real personality as he interacts more with the ones he cares about, including Changge. Not only does he have a great personality, but his fighting skills are also one of the best, with him being able to hit a certain point with his bow and arrow long distances away.
Li Changge is not an easy character to play. Her determined personality becomes even more prominent after the deaths of her family, as she becomes even more determined to avenge for their deaths. No, she is not that naive and bubbly little princess. She is a strong-willed, talented, and intelligent young woman who, as she leaves the place she had called home for her entire life, discovers the real world and the things that lay ahead for her. Again, Dilraba impresses me with her portrayal of this awesome Tang Dynasty princess.
Now we come to Li Leyan, played by our lovely Zhao Lusi, and she is the daughter of Li Shimin and the cousin of Li Changge. I admit, I was hoping for a "stronger" Li Leyan in the beginning, as her personality was quite naive and perhaps a little too generous and kind, but she, like Changge, entered the real world, where there were no servants to wait on her and no jewels and crowns for her to wear. Li Leyan's growth is phenomenal and inspirational. In the end, I absolutely adored her character. She, unlike a few other characters in the Long Ballad, is not completely useless. Li Leyan's kindness spread throughout the nation, from donating food to saving civilians from natural disasters. She is almost the perfect princess, with a little more intelligence and thoughtfulness sprinkled in.
Hao Du is another favorite character in Long Ballad. Liu Yuning acts him out very well, being quite disliked by Leyan at first, he shows her that he does not have a heart made of stone. In fact, he cares for his friends and family very much. Unlike Wei Shuyu, he was not born into a very wealthy family, although he was adopted by his godfather. He was taught at a very young age to work hard for the Tang Dynasty, to even sacrifice his life for it. Along with many other characters, Hao Du’s personality slowly grew on me.
Some other characters, although minor, were also essential in this story. A few good examples include Mu Jin, Ashina She’er and Mimi Guli. There were many other characters that I both loved and hated. At first, the main antagonist was not very clear, but as the story progressed, everything was revealed, providing me the very person to despise and wish for the worst. The antagonist, which I will not say, does have a considerably good reason to do what they did, and they were a major obstacle for the protagonists of the Long Ballad to pass. Sacrifices were made, along with alliances and friends and enemies. There were many characters in the Long Ballad, and it was a little hard to remember everyone's names at first, which is the norm for Chinese historical dramas. But most characters had their own special purposes, and everyone acted very realistically and well.
Music-9.5
Amazing osts. Period. When I watched the first episode, and first heard the opening and ending songs, I already fell in love with two Long Ballad osts. If you are an avid Cdrama watcher, you probably recognize the voices, or even the names, of these singers: Zhang Bichen, Zhou Shen, Sa Dingding, Liu Yuning. They have sung osts for countless dramas, and are very well-known in China. The soundtrack for the Long Ballad is very enjoyable and unique, with wonderful melodies, voices, and lyrics. It’s very hard for a drama to have one or two good songs, let alone five or six.
Rewatch Value-8.5
The Long Ballad is a very good drama to rewatch, for both the plot and character development. I’m not high on rewatching, so my rewatch values are often pretty low for most dramas that I have watched. But this drama certainly has many scenes to rewatch and to re-enjoy. I'm also happy to say that I was more than satisfied with the ending, as it gave me an amazing closure for many characters.
Overall-9.5
The Long Ballad has creeped up to my top 10 Chinese dramas, and probably my top 5 Chinese historical dramas. As a big fan of historicals, I thoroughly enjoyed the story. It provided me with an amazing sense of what Tang Dynasty life is, and the goals and perspectives of people living different lives. It would seem impossible that a Tang Dynasty Princess would meet and fall in love with a Turkish prince, but it happened, and made many of us fall in love with the couple. I highly recommend the Long Ballad for Chinese drama watchers, especially ones that like to watch historical adventure and romance dramas.
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So let me brake down the good and bad. If you are ok with classical tropy characters and can look past some of the issues with the story elements, this will probably satisfy you if you are looking for a sweet young romance.
The story concentrates mostly on the romance that is strong from the start. Problems are thrown onto the path of the leads, but their constant trust in each other is adorable. Nothing seems to rock their faith in each other.
The setting partly in game and mostly IRL is fun and engaging. However as I am myself a game developer of triple A games, some elements of the business broke my immersion. I don't think most people will notice, and isn't it a problem in any movie and drama that features certain occupations and businesses.
As the story is a classical Harlequin like set up, with the strong, silent, mysterious, genius guy and the intelligent, good hearted and sweet girl there were moments of the really annoying "damsel in distress" trope.
Even more annoying is the "being the most beautiful is an instant win". Looks are the only thing that matters and any social issues are solved by showing up and being pretty.
Then again. I didn't know how much I would enjoy even these aspects. It was a very long time ago I consumed this kind of romance between a perfect pair who are the envy of all. Once in a while (once a decade) the feeling of squeeing like a 14 year old over a hot guy who is the perfect image of a gentleman actually was very satisfying.
The actors are very stiff. The main male lead has a stick driven through his body making it almost impossible for him to move his neck and he is constantly looking at something far away instead of seeking eye contact with the female lead. I understand he is supposed to be elusive, stoic and mysterious, however it's too much. He is very good at kissing, so it makes up for his stone face statue like aura.
The female lead is directed to talk with a squeaky baby voice and act all super cutesy. She is also directed to not respond to the kisses besides wide eyed look like she is almost being assaulted and is prepared to flee. I must say, for some reason I actually got into the whole innocent act and it does pay of in the final episode. The build up of a certain scene was kind of hot...
My favourite character is the support actress who played the room mate Er Xi. She is supposed to be an average looking nerdy type, but is the most beautiful one out of the large cast of females. This annoyed the hell out of me, when they constantly referred to her as ugly and stupid. Her role was to play over cutesy, a bit stupid and clowny. But her story line really engaged me and I loved her development (what little there was). I thought she was the one that had the hardest problems and felt much more sympathy for her than the main female lead. I really hurt for her once the situation blew up.
As someone who always does queer reading the relationship between two of the guys was very sweet. There is really no room to misunderstand their relationship... ^^ Also a checkbox checked in the satisfaction column. I could wish for more, but was surprised over how clear they dared to show the gay couples relationship.
The special effects suited an ingame environment. And the music was partly game inspired or nice romantic. Pretty ok production value and the directing clearly worked for this type of genre.
Over all I am giving it a much higher value than I "personally" usually assign by my standards and requirements. I would probably then land on a 7. But I'm going to look past the issues and just go with my gut feeling. By my gut feeling, emotions and satisfaction that this drama gave me I should actually give it a perfect 9... I'll compromise and we land on an 7.5.
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An Excellent drama with strong writing direction, and acting hopefully season 2 will follow. 9/10.
Where to start? Fine, let's begin from the beginning.By seeing the cast, you might feel that the drama will be the usual idol period drama with tons of martial arts. But no, this is a unique, dark, and emotional story of two assassins from Wufeng who secretly go to another sect, Gong, to accomplish a secret mission. But not everything is Calm in Gong's residence. Brothers hate each other; the father does not even like his own son. Son wants to know the reason behind his mother's death, among many other things. But this is where you go wrong. Everything is done for a reason. By the end of this drama, you will understand why this happened in the first place. The characters are beautifully presented, and the relationships between them are shown so well that you can understand the characters very well.
An Excellent drama with strong writing, direction, and acting... Production-wise, all is well, and hopefully season 2 will follow. According to the last episode, it was clearly shown that the creators wanted to produce a sequel or franchise. 9/10... ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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Simply Enjoyable
How do I start describing this story to give it justice…The story. Writers did a great job weaving this tale of greed. Sometimes you lose something to realize you had it good but it’s too late. Sometimes it takes one event to change your destiny that you didn’t look for. This is a well woven drama of a well orchestrated revenge by a strong female. It’s unlike other revenge dramas so it kept viewers very interested.
Twist. There’s a formidable sisterhood that develops that may shock you. Two women with different struggles met on the premise of betrayal. What’s endearing is that behind the layers of the initial conflict, is the discovery that even enemies can be the greatest of foes. You will see it when you watch. This friendship is undeniably cool.
Cast. ML (Huang Xiao/Gu Xu) doesn’t really come into play until later episodes. In fact, the female lead’s husband (Li Feng/Wei Ming)is just as well the main lead as he’s the focus pretty much. About that husband. The actor does a good job. His character is so shady though he’ll have you seething. FL ( Zhang Xiao/Lin Shuang) is new to me so I can’t say much about her acting. Her character is the kind that if you’re impatient, you wanna say, “let’s go, move it”. It’s about the best way I can describe her. It can frustrate you (as me) but I think she’s playing well to her character (meek, quiet, low key). The close friend to female lead (Jenny Zhang/Jiang Xi) could very well be 2nd female lead as her story becomes unexpectedly entangled with the other yet, her involvement without doubt adds to the strength of the story.
The romance is slow slow burn and in this drama, it fits in very nicely to the story. It’s very matured, and I like that a lot. There’s no obvious chasing, or silly tropes. These are very grown adults who are patient and allow their feelings to come naturally.
From beginning to end it kept me piqued to know the next and next. I am very happy with ending.
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This review may contain spoilers
Average
The drama was not so extraordinary or somewhat different but ya it was good for one time watch i was expecting it to be like police University but it was quite good than PU the first episodes were quite good but later it become somewhat like other dramas and tbh daeil death was not so necessary the starting was good later become foggy the end was average..The best thing about this drama is the cast the cast chemistry was on point it was Daniel's first drama but he didn't disappoint leads chemistry was also good but i like personally the second leads their story was more natural to me and kim tak and Ari should definitely have their separate drama...
The music was not so memorable
You can watch this if you don't have some extraordinary dramas to watch
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I really liked this one, and I'm glad that I summoned up the courage to watch it. Since it has the theme of Shounen Ai.
But it was so delicately put in it's story and the actors were superb. I had watched the first one and that was good but since then I think I have matured more to appreciate this kind of stories.
As I said, the actors did a great job. Actually all kinds of first-love experience's makes me happy to watch. And I was happy to see that they brought back one of the mains from the first movie.
I can highly recommend this movie to someone with an open mind cause this made me so calm and moved by the sweet story. Good job scriptwriters and I salute to the ountstanding actors.
Thank you for taking time to read my review, do watch it!
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Sakristan (2020): All Bark But Not Much Bite
I can understand why a number of my My Drama List (MDL) and Twitter contacts wanted me to stop watching “Sakristan.” Their opinions about the controversial director Darryl Yap [accused of sexual exploitation of children, perpetuating misconceptions about rape, and shading other Filipino (Pinoy) boys’ love (BL) series, among others] are valid and I respect their principled position to boycott this series. But I really felt bad for the efforts given by the actors, so I wanted to judge this series based on its artistic merits. It wouldn’t be fair if I dismiss the series outright without even watching it.Unfortunately, in terms of artistry, “Sakristan” was found wanting. While I admired Sakristan's efforts to confront the Philippine Catholic Church’s bigotry and hypocrisy on the issue of gays within its community, such plot/storyline did not really move forward on this series. Indeed, it was all bark but not much bite. The entire series was also replete with gender and sexual stereotypes that don’t advance lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-queer+ (LGBTQ+) representation. Not even the introduction of Christian's gay father and the tokenistic opening reminder (LGBT) can hide the series’ superficial understanding of the day-to-day issues confronted by the LGBTQ+ community in the Philippines.
A lot of times, screenplay was corny and cringy. It was also soapy (akin to soap operas) for most of the series. There were awkward dialogues intended as jokes that weren't really funny. There were also lines that were a bit long and preachy. I would argue that the best scenes from this series were those without dialogues and with only the soundtracks and the sceneries. By and large, cinematography blended pretty well with the soundtracks.
While the acting performance of both lead actors and the chemistry between them improved throughout the series, Clifford and Henry, fell victims to the lack of proper acting direction. The VinCentiments style of acting failed to grasp the difference between stage and screen acting. Because of the perspective and proximity of the audience, acting on stage on the whole is bigger and exaggerated to be able to reach the people at the very back of the theatre. This means making vocal, physical, and emotional choices in acting that are oftentimes unnatural and unrealistic. The problem with the VinCentiments style of acting, it's as if the actors were still on stage! The lead actors and especially the support actors were overacting most of the time. It’s not as though the actors don’t have potential, they do, but since they weren’t given suitable acting direction, their style of acting always looked bad on screen. It's a pity because I really liked Clifford and Henry on this series. They may not be as good-looking compared to the lead actors of other Pinoy BL series but they have Pinoy features and vibes that I genuinely appreciate. Clifford was sexy and a sight for sore eyes and his intimate scenes with Henry, mostly without dialogues, were generally done tastefully.
Production design and editing were up and down throughout the series while the music (especially the soundtracks) was consistently good.
All in all, I would only recommend “Sakristan” for posterity, for those who are interested in watching one of the pioneers of Pinoy BL series, mindful of course of the fact that there are much better representations of the genre, namely, “Gameboys” and “Hello Stranger.”
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Hook ups, throw ups, fuck ups, hiccups...
Only friends does not really have much of a story at least not the first few episodes as there will be people touching each others genitals in pretty much every single scene making me wonder 1. did they use protection and 2. how durable are the skin and muscles of youth down below...Pretty much every single one of the men in this is despicable at one point or another with the exception of the bartender who just had to little screen time to be so...
Only friends can apparently do a whole lot of shit making me wonder if these people really are friends forget the only, I would settle for acquaintances at some point, s this is probably the loneliest bunch of friends I have seen in all of Dramalad.
The main characters;
Sand- Smile to die for is shown to be this kind of saint but deep down we kind of know this guy is disloyal and can easiely throw his friend under a buss... He is however a good influence on some and has the best t-shirts.
Ray- Boy is crying for help so loudly... he does give up some psychopath vibes and I keep on going between wanna hug the guy and wanting to put him behind bars...
Top- Man is good looking, the ultimate bad boy you want to tame and make go good... but for the life of me I do not get what he sees in Mew... badboy desrservs better
Mew- I really do not get the guy, selfish annoying, fake... Psychopath... yes he has a nice smile but that is where the guys character ends. Why can't this actor get better parts?
Boston- Dude is crying for help... I hate him I love him I hate him again... I have had issues with Neos acting but honestly this time he nailed his character and did a great job.
Nick- One pretty huge mistake but after that I think Mark finally made my crush-list the most charming of the bunch...
Bowing- I have no words... dude needs to get some help...
Actually the whole bunch could use some help....
That said it was an entertaining watch, it completely lacked substance (unless you count saliva as substance), but it was indeed entertaining and filled a whole yers quota of watching people hook up!
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it will take not much of your time watching because this is just a mini series. other than the intriguing story you also have handsome cast.. how about that.
heartwarming stories of people and how this handsome angels manage to solve it. it might not have too much romantic scenes but the stories are good. you can rest assure that this guys can act. one thing is that it might get a bit draggy but it's fine.
nothing much to say but see for yourself. lessons and cute story with handsome actors. :)
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SILLY AND NONSENSICAL [SIDE NOTE- what the hell happened???]
The saddest thing about this is that it actually started of really good and i had high expectations for it!!!
After all i am sure i want the only one excited to see out 'MR-SEXY-TAKE-MY-SPECKS-OFF-BEFORE-KISSING" from business proposal!
But unfortunately this kdrama did him and us DIRTY!!! I am seeing this and not DNFing this just for him and cuz of him. Kim Mingue has been fantastic though. He’s doing his thing and carrying this drama on his back for sure.
Everything IS JUST CRINGE. As the episodes pass the little cringe and embarrassing things just increase. The story like is getting cheesier, the characters more brat like and intolerable. The so called "HUMOUR" nothing but cringe moments. Plus the group members were corny. I love with grim reaper though.
The acting is well done by the side charters. BUT i feel the FL acing it lacking as well as that of the devil [he doesn't give off devil vibes to me] and our ML [the priest] honestly i am frustrated, don't get me wrong he acts very well but so many times i just want him to fully open his eyes wile speaking, i mean sometimes when he speaks he kind half closes his eyes and it just so frustrating and creepy!!!
AND I see NO, absolutely NO chemistry between the ML and FL!! And the FL lead being literally a stalker and obsessed fan of a kpop ideal makes it even a big NO-NO for me. The female lead's character is boring. She has no aura of authority and always appears insecure and scared, like a victim. Their romantic scenes don't give me bubbles or butterflies or flowers as they should but make me wanna skip them.
The chemistry of WYW with his members and when he makes a mistakes and how overcomes, those parts are interesting to watch though. The casting is great but something still doesn't sit well with me.
Seeing the CGI makes me want to cry, I mean whattttt??? those CGI monsters make me wanna laugh, i swear what were they thinking while making them!
I feel the plot is going astray in between and sometimes everything feels like a mess. i mean i liked the first 2 episodes but then BAAM!!! My expectations go down the drain with each passing episode.
I'll give you my honest opinion. I think the plot had the potential but the writing seems to be sloppy and the dialogues sometimes overexaggerated as well.
OVERALL, don't really recommend this drama if you want something of substance, but if you want a good laugh and don’t get second hand embarrassment then this drama is for you.
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Complete waste of time
This actually started out fairly well, despite the usual BL setting - it had a bit more grit, like people actually took public transportation instead of driving an obscene luxury car. It did a decent job of portraying unrequited longing.But then a confession happened and the whole thing fell to pieces. There is nothing lazier and less satifying to watch than a story based on implausible misunderstanding. This silliness took me out of the slice-of-like atmosphere that had been set up and plopped me into a terribly written and edited slice of Swiss cheese. Once the manufactured drama is resolved, we skip around for 100 days into a relationship totally devoid of any hint of romantic chemistry or romance at all, other than a 100-day anniversary dinner which was going to go wrong in a totally predictable way.
The acting is uneven. Kim In Sung has some charm as Han Joon, but Zuho... well, he tried.
This would have worked much better if it weren't a BL - Han Joon could still be in love with Yoo Jae, but it would have been interesting if it really were unrequited love - but given Yoo Jae's family issues, he might have really needed Han Joon and found a way to make their friendship work - because they did have decent friend chemistry.
The first 4 eps were good, the next two got me a bit worried, and the final two were a real chore to get through. I really can't recomment this - it's forgetable and I doubt I'll even remember it in a few months, except for the lingering feeling of frustration.
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1This review may contain spoilers
Fluffy and cute
I started watching this drama because I needed a break from all the crime and drama shows I was watching. If you want something that's just pure fluff, then this is for you. However, if you're expecting an intense or interesting plot line, you should probably look for something else. This is just 100% fluff with barely any storyline.PROS
-Great music
- Does not require you do focus too much - As said earlier, this show has barely any plotline, so you can easily watch this if you just want to relax and chill.
-Full of fluff and happiness
-Good side characters - I really love how both the main side characters were written in this show.
I would be so happy if I had a friend like Katori. He's kind, supportive, protective, and not judgemental. I also liked Tanaka, who is quite different compared to Katori. I initially disliked Tanaka's character and wished he would go away, but as the episodes progressed I could see that he has a much deeper character compared to the rest and I loved that his character had development within the amount of screen time he was given. I honestly wish I could see Tanaka as a main character.
CONS
-Awkward acting from the main characters. The acting was quite stiff and awkward throughout the show (though it got better in the second half). To be honest, I liked the actors who played Tanaka and Katori better. They felt more natural to watch.
-Same problem in almost every episode. I don't know why, but BL's love having miscommunication tropes and unfortunately this show is no different. I'm okay with seeing that trope once or twice, but this show kept bringing it up so often that I got irritated.
-Face filters - This isn't a really big con, but the filters applied on Amagi's face really bothered me. I don't understand the purpose of the filter, but for me it just makes the actor 's face look weird and distracting.
Overall, this is still a good watch because it's stress-free and happy. This is a good option if you're tired of watching drama or intense storylines.
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This review may contain spoilers
this drama should be the reason to stop reading the reviews and expecting alot cause of high rates and personal opinionsi appreciate they talked about imp. issue like bulling in work and cancer breast for both genders
but in general i felt mess in the story and the events during the end
it was really frustrating when the third person in the love triangle is extremely good even more than the main ML but the FL refused him for the other selfish guy
what bothered me much the part when the FL suggest they live together to choose between them
this was a real pain and made me angry
and towards the end even it's 24ep
many many things they didn't explain and totally ignore as if we should figure it out by ourselves
although it was many times boring in such a worthless events
i dislike ... although i'm a huge fan for hyo jin & jung suk i really dislike and frustrated
but i should admit it has many very touchy and fluffy moments
good luck for those who want to give this mess a chance
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