Reviews

This drama will make you miss a life you never lived.

If I had to recommend just one K-drama, it would definitely be Reply 1988 without a spec hesitation in my body. Honestly, it’s arguably the best K-drama I’ve ever seen, and maybe even one of the best "slice of life" shows ever made.It has everything.. Love, friendship, family, and all the deep, complicated emotions that come with them. What makes it truly special is the way it captures the sense of time passing. The feeling of growing up and slipping away without you even realizing they’re gone.Bro Deok-sun… she might be one of the most relatable characters I’ve ever seen. The way she struggles with feelings being overlooked, and wanting to be loved, making mistakes, and just trying her best. It just feels so real. At some point, you don’t just watch her, you see yourself in her.The acting is genuinely outstanding. Every character feels so real, like people you’ve known your whole life. With people outside of the show even referring to the actors as their characters instead of their real names at one point. The soundtrack is unforgettable & full of classics that make you love every scene. Even some being brought back to life because of this show.Every storyline feels so meaningful, and every episode leaves you with something to think about. There are so many life lessons taken from it, and I found myself reflecting after almost every episode.I didn’t want it to end, and that alone says everything. But like the show itself reminds us… all things do.Id say Reply 1988 isn’t just a drama, It’s an experience. But i could also just be extremely sentimental and emotional about it all.

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Cleaning house

These twins 🤬 The son is disgusting with his cowardice and greed but the twin sister…she is the most evil and ruthless of the two. So the mystery man from last episode is the son’s father in law. He plays hardball quick with his gifts bearing bombs. The Chairman and daughter get the codes for the slush fund so it will be a race to see who gets the cash first. The daughter is allowed to return home as long as she gives back all real estate her father gave her. This is her only inheritance but she signs it over to get access to her mother. The big sis has it all arranged to have her mom in maid clothes and service to greet her on her arrival. She also thinks she has the literal pulse on the Chairman deciding when he gets to die. Her husband is a weakling as a doc but the trusty night nurse is a good counterbalance. The gma has arrived on the scene and here the chairman needs to step up. He is at least aware of her condition and his daughter is getting a battery of tests done to see if that is all that is wrong and to what degree. The chairman’s bribe has their care and surveillance covered to counter the wicked daughter’s intentions. The sis is actually curious about events and wondering how her brother that hates pain will deal with it all. She knows to look into the sis in law’s family company. The Chairman is making waves since everybody wants to be in competition for CEO chair now. He has pitted materials and sales against each other in a winner take all scenario. We learn that the materials leader was the accountant that first discovered the book discrepancies. He was demoted and hidden to hide the fraud. The ripple effect has started but there will be serious fallout. One bigger fish is now gone. He can literally play dead and be out of the fight. Chairman was caught red handed by the daughter in the secret vault and he has to earn her trust to keep things on track. He has not convinced her, but seeing him pay out the cash to protect her dad in the hospital and to get slush fund access gets points in his favor. I wish daughter could have been successful getting her mom out rather than getting trapped inside with her. Big sis is determined to make them invisible tho her mom has lived 30 years with the dad. Little sis is definitely made the Cinderella of the group. While Chairman’s reasons for sending his daughter away is a bit clearer, it could have been done in a less brutal manner and with better understanding as to the why’s. He had already lost to the twins and had no real safeguards for his second family. I do not know if this was guilt for their mother’s loss or just seen as the necessary evil to have legacy for his company, but for all his business smarts, the Chairman leaves much to be desired as a family man. He dropped the ball and is now well aware of what he created. This will be a war of attrition. Which will hold out for the win? Experience or ruthless tag team attacks? Previews show gloves off fighting for the chair and father will be in direct fight with his firstborn twins. What did the twin sis do with chemical division that makes her feel both victim and entitled? This has damaged her to the point of justifying murder so a monster was created as a result. So far, other than youngest daughter’s potential, there is nothing to recommend about the chairman’s ‘legacy’.

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Truth is slowly revealed... and Heartbreaks are unavoidable

The mystery surrounding the real Klao's disappearance is slowing coming to light. In between flashes shown in his dreams, in the end, the whole incident was brought to light. But, Klao's actions prove to be quite careless without caring about his own safety as he continues to uncover the truth. He has to know the bad guys are on him by now and he probably shouldn't act alone.But what I want to talk about is the romance. There's so much to unpack here. From the start of the opposite, we have the tender loving care from Mr. Green Flag Phop, wanting to shower Klao with love and alcohol (for Klao's benefit, of course). The romantic feel was strong with a gentle nose kiss. I thought the nose kiss was cut short, it's not until towards the latter half of other episode did I found out Phop considered that a kiss! It's not even lips to cheek, it's nose to cheek! That totally doesn't count as a kiss! I'm glad he's shown what a real kiss is supposed to be like later on.But that heartbreaking conversation under the moonlight and lanterns really broke my heart. Right after a beautiful and romantic confession, Klao must bring them back to earth with reality. Even if they could ignore society's gossips, they cannot ignore the importance of responsibility to the family and the arranged marriage can't be avoided for much longer. It was excellent acting by both Net and JJ in this episode. Let's not forget about Kaew and Jom as well. They had limited scenes but they are no less important and impactful.This episode really reminded me of my favorite Thai period BL, "I Feel You Linger in the Air". I've been searching for a similar drama that gives me that same feeling... romantic, sensual, heartbreaking. I might have found it in "Love Upon a Time", at least in episode 7.**this is my first episode review after writing hundreds of drama reviews**

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What I like from ep 3

- this drama never prolongs unnecessary scene. From the start of ep I thought they would focused on junhyeon breaking into the meeting room but they just gloss over it. I’m really pleased with the director style of things- Damn chairman kang is out here controlling people with his words! Just calming down kang jaeseong is already impressive (I mean that’s his son and bit stupid but still impressive). He knows what kind of trap jaeseong would fall into. I really like this kind of plot argggh- Banggeul is so pitiful… I think chairman wants her to live comfortable life away from the company power struggle, but this is not it. He took his twin side too much, I know they will resent him if he takes banggeul side but sending her abroad is too much. Especially since she is abroad for 15 years, she went away at around 10 years old(?) I hope he redeems himself and become good dad to banggeul this time- And the way he makes banggeul finally cooperate with him is so cathartic. Lee junyoung and lee jumyoung acting in this scene is so impressive, so cathartic. I love how he corners her with his words and banggeul finally realizing he could only work together with hwang.- And lmao all his calculation afterwards is so exciting lol, from his manager and team members to the managing director, he made people move exactly as he wants. I love the business and company politics insight in this.- In the webtoon, hwang is behind the scene rather than directly manipulating managing director kwon so it’s great to see the changes!- There are some funny bits like when the material team members prepare for their raids lol, why would you put on lipbalm or chew on bottle of pills ahahahha- Btw now I understand a bit people fixation of explosives. Explosion is art lol- The preview seems exciting too, him lying he is chairman youngest son is so funny and I wonder what’s on that phone to make him mad. This is why I love junyoung, from his expression you know it’s comedic kind of mad, so I’m excited to see what happens lol

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Lacks balance

1. I already knew they were going to mess up because the way the orders were placed on the kitchen was random.Always remember: FIFO. First In, First Out. That principle applies in almost all aspects of life.So for orders, always move the first to the right-most side, and you place the new ones to the left. Everytime an order slip is done, you move every pending slips to the right.You also always mark which items were served so you are not guessing. And in case the next order is similar, you can move to that already, while still cooking the other items from the long order.It's fine if you're new. No issue there. But it is a lesson to take heart. FIFO. First In, First Out.2. The episode focused too much on the big group. That's fine, it's the episode title after all! I just wished they showed more of the kitchen and how they handled the sudden influx of orders, group orders at that.It could've added more context as to what exactly happened. I have a suspicion it isn't just because they didn't follow FIFO principle.But yes, maybe they'll show it in Episode 5.3. All I'm saying is that E04 left the audience, or just me, in a bad mood. It was like the episode was edited in a way to emphasize the error and how bad it was to make Koreans wait. Which isn't about Koreans or Korean culture at all, making customers wait is bad no matter which country you are at, so there was no need to emphasized it in this episode.They made mistakes. We know that. They're newbies to this type of work. It isn't an excuse and I am not defending them because they're Filipinos, but again, E04 tipped too much on emphasizing their mistakes. It lacked balance. You don't do this in competition/survival type variety shows, there's always a balance in each episode.They could've titled Episode 04 as "Chaotic Filipino Restaurant Made Koreans Wait Forever". 🤪🤣😝😜😆 That's what I got from E04.Likely too late to update the future episodes, but at least, the editing team and directors might discovere this feedback so they can improve their style in their future projects.

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A masterpiece

Spoilers ahead. Episode 2 is just so beautiful. To see Tanrak's journey from believing lust is not being able to control your desires, to openly embracing that desire was so incredible. Tanrak and Barth's hands touching, such an innocent thing to happen between two friends, becoming so much more than that just felt so real. And the religious iconography that he thought of as he walked towards the bathroom - and he still went in? Such a huge statement. And I loved it. I really like that this episode wasn't about love, but desire. There was of course the song - which is stunning - but ultimately, these are teenage boys. Lust comes before love and you never see that in GMMTV BL's! "If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal." At the end of this episode, Tanrak made a choice. He chose love. Like we all should. I know that some will complain about how fast the eps are moving and believe me, nobody wishes there were 16 episodes of this more than me, but I think it's understandable that GMMTV were nervous about this release and so made it a short series. But I'm also saddened by it - this series is so insanely important that I wish they had got behind it a little more. Still, let's just be grateful that it got made at all.

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they said they're bringing back every romcom trope ever

wow it's been a while since i've seen the white truck of doomi will have to say that props to this episode for making me want to keep watching just to find out what the hell is going to happen next!!!! nothing about this episode really comes as a surprise because we as the audience KNOW that mun-do was going to do something to keep his position at the company. but there was a half-second where i wondered if he would after we had that moment with him and his son. but of course he can have that soft moment and then turn around and attempt to kill his uncle. i figured that he would attack the grandmother first but then again he really doesn't have to because shin seori and her grandma pose absolutely no threat to him whatsoever.i felt that the scene with the grandfather and dan-shim was very poignant. him saying that he doesn't want two lonely people together because he thinks segye deserves more hurt, especially for danshim to hear. once again she was confronted with the reality of her situation. and not only that but who she is as a person. her fight with segye was so good in that it showed that both of them have problems! segye for blowing his top and danshim for her pride! the way she can't bend to him and apologize to him because her first reaction is to always defend herself is very realistic and shows how flawed she is a person! love may have softened her and segye, but it did not change them as people, which i like about their romance.of course i was frustrated at some parts of this episode. like wdym segye doesn't think mundo would kill him for real after the two attempts on his life? listen you can be grateful that your cousin saved your grandfather and also believe that he would still absolutely shank you in a back alley somewhere. and this may be the crux of why mundo has such a big problem with segye: in that he thinks he's immature and incapable of handling the business the way mundo can. obvs segye CAN handle it WITHOUT resorting to killing people but to mundo that's just weakness.we had a lot of callbacks to the comet hanging in the air as a reminder that this entire scenario IS a fantasy. segye mentioning how ridiculous it feels to him is the narrative yet again reminding us that our sweet romcom moments of the past 9 episodes were based on a miracle. and now it's time for both our protagonists and us as the audience to wake up. i do prefer this over a neatly bow-wrapped ending of segye and danshim triumphing off to their happy ending. i mean i do want them to get their happy ending but i don't mind if they have to work a little bit more at it tbh

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