Reviews

It's a very eventful drama. I was pleasantly surprised by its storyline. From the very beginning, it was a pleasure to watch, and I laughed at every moment. Towards the middle, the plot shifted from positive to dramatic, which was expected. There were so many intrigues and their resolutions, and so many people close to Wan Yin and Xiahou Dan who couldn't be protected. You get worried about everyone and look forward to watching the episodes every day.
The acting is outstanding! Cheng Lei and Chu Ran are definitely the strongest cast match! They both bring their characters to life in a delightful way, making the drama a pleasure to watch.
I highly recommend it to everyone!

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This was the absolutely worst season EVER

I will save your time today, the first two seasons were made for people who love dance and have danced they hole life. This season is a disrespect to all dancers and viewers. The first episode they mock professional dancers from their own country to favor people who act instead of dance and vote for "energy" and "vibes" not technique and skill. The following episodes the most disrespectful and obnoxious people coming (obviously) from EUA disregard and badmouth all asian dancers. A crew from Tokyo with one of the most important choreographers of the world was absolutely discredited and they and up eliminating the crew made by the absolute most competent dancer from Korea just to favor EUA. Is not just a bad show that in nothing exult dance as an ability that exult from training and time, is a imperialist propaganda that favor EUA at all cost disguised as a dance reality. Como dizemos no meu país... Juiz ladrão...

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Easy 10 out 10

Honestly, this drama is just so solid. I really think 32 episodes was the perfect length. It didn’t feel dragged out, but it also didn’t feel rushed. Everything was paced really nicely, and every episode actually meant something.

What I love the most is how well it balances all the genres. You get comedy that genuinely makes you laugh, romance that feels sweet and natural, and then suddenly the angst hits you hard. And somehow, it never feels messy. The transitions between funny, romantic, and emotional moments are so smooth.

The acting? So good. Everyone really fits their roles, and the emotional scenes feel real, not exaggerated. When it’s funny, it’s funny. When it’s heartbreaking, you actually feel it. That’s how you know the acting is strong.

Visually, it’s beautiful too. The cinematography, the costumes, the overall vibe everything looks so well done. Some scenes honestly feel like a movie.

And the OST? So solid. Every song fits perfectly with the scenes. It really adds to the emotions instead of just being background music.

Overall, it’s just a complete package. Plot, acting, visuals, music . Everything works. Easily a 10/10 for me.

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Branding is everything!

A guide on how to leave a legacy; when legend becomes myth.

I quite enjoyed the chapter-like episodes, and how the story unfolded slowly. This was a very intriguing show, and I especially liked Shin Hae Sun’s acting, which can never be faulted to be honest. She just plays every character with nuance, and is a pure delight on my screen. The detective’s character was very shallow, and I think that Lee Jun Hyuk was let down by lack of characterization. The scriptwriter really wasted his talents as an actor in my opinion.

While I enjoyed the cinematography and acting, the show as a whole is just okay. Sarah can “read” people so well, and yet it took her half a year to realize that Mi Jeong conned her? Hm, I’m not sure about that, considering how protective Sarah is of her brand (both Boudoir and her persona). There is just something about the show that didn’t fully click; it was good for a one-time watch, but I wouldn’t watch it again, and I kind of hope the leads reunite (again) for a better drama (and maybe a romance?😁)!

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Cloudy and perfect

Love in the Clouds truly surprised me. I wasn’t familiar with the lead actor, the storyline intrigued me just enough but I also came with assumptions about how it would go… and wow, what a beautiful journey. I was hooked from beginning to end.

What initially seemed like just another battle-driven drama quickly turned into a masterpiece. Every note felt right, to the point that I was genuinely sad when it ended. I have been looking for a drama like this for a while. Perfectly sweet, perfectly heartwrenching, some fantasy and with a believable portrayal.

The two leads had exactly the right tone. Their chemistry was believable and natural, and each of them brought the necessary depth to their characters. Whether together or on their own, they fully did justice to their roles.
Not all the cast was as great and strong but it didn't drag it too mych down.

I especially appreciate shows that can evolve their storyline without losing momentum — and even more so when they add deeper layers without losing focus or compromising their essence. Love in the Clouds achieves that balance.

The story left me satisfied from beginning to end.
The soundtrack didn’t always live up to the overall quality of the show, but it’s certainly not enough to bring it down.

Overall: definitely worth watching. I mean Go for it!

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One more episode and surely…

I feel i spent all my time watching this hoping fervently to eventually like it more than i was liking it. “One more episode, and surely I’ll come to love it”

It never manifested for me. I feel this execution is uneven, tonally jarring and often undermines its dramatic moments.

I did like the relationship between the leads. Also, in particular the friendship between yu wanyin and xie yonger.

Otherwise most of the things fell flat. The conflicts and setbacks were on easy-mode, all was predictable, tension wasn’t allowed to fully build. Stakes seemed unconvincing.

And no one, not one person gave one shit about the crown prince who was just a child. Maybe Dan’s situation made it understandable, but everyone else also did the same. They more often vilified him than considered him. He was given no humanity at all. What a cruel display.

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Might contain spoilers

I really love this series (the novel, live action as well as the donghua). I have read the original novel a few years back titled "This is ridiculous" and I must say that the revelation for Xiahou Dan being transmigrated since he was young was expressed brilliantly compared to the live action where they put it as epilogue per episode. I also find the ending unsatisfactory. The novel dived deeply into their life after they went back to the modern times and Xie Yong Er's pov after going back to her original world was also seen in the novel.

I know that the series don't have much time to put all those details but if someone watching the show haven't read the og novel, then there will be a lot of questions or gaps in the story (e.g. Prince Duan having false hope inside his dungeon and his ending, Xie Yonger's fate, Wanyin and Xiahou Dan's future both in the book and in modern times)

But overall, I still give this a 9/10 rating. Cheng Lei really embodies Xiahou Dan's character. He looks so much like the animated version especially with his hair down. It was such an iconic look in the donghua and he was able replicate it. Also, the other actors and actresses gave justice to their roles. I liked their acting and portrayal. So even though the storytelling/plot is lacking, the actors still gave it justice.

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Great kissing scenes but bland acting by supporting cast

My friend thehepburn notified me of this vertical drama and the different versions back in December. I got bored on Chinese New Year so I looked up iQIYI and found this drama. I liked it but I love version 1 with Wang Chen Peng & Lin Zi Xuan.

What I liked:
1. Romance - There were plenty of intimate scenes in this drama. FL often got pushed to the bed but my favourite scene is when she took charge. I loved it when they were at ease with each other. Hand holding was adorable.
2. Acting - Xia Ning Jun & Yu Yu Tong gave a good performance. They were a gorgeous couple & had sizzling chemistry. I also liked He Lian Fei's performance - his aura was as strong as the main leads
3. FL characterisation - This version of FL teased ML a lot, great to see her flirt with hubby. She was also cool & collected.
4. ML characterisation - I liked his protectiveness over ML. He was smart & observant - his reactions towards FL's quips were adorable.
5. Styling - Both of them were elegant. Their outfits really elevated them to look like a power couple.
6. Supporting characters - It was great to see Wen ge ge given airtime. That scene when he met FL after the debacle was touching. I also liked Lu Jing Huai in this version. He seemed level-headed.

What I disliked:
1. Antagonists - Yan Zhao was pathetic for playing victim.
2. Acting - The supporting cast gave rather bland performances. In the first version, I felt strong emotions when FL's biological mother and Yan Zhao appeared on screen. In this drama, they felt insignificant.

Favourite scene
Bathtub scene

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How should one define justice?

Justice sounds simple when people say it out loud. Follow the law. Punish the guilty. Protect the innocent.

But what happens when the people deciding justice are already dirty? When the very law allows people with power to bend it at will? When the justice system itself protects the guilty and punishes the innocent?

That question kept sitting in my head while watching this drama, well, every time I watch political-legal dramas, actually lol. But this time, because the drama was honest about how messy justice becomes once power, politics, and personal agendas get involved. It does not pretend the system is fixable with one heroic move. It shows how deep the rot goes.

So, how far can one man with future knowledge really clean up this rotten system?



⁂ Hanyeong before and after time rewind

This drama starts off surprisingly dark. Hanyeong is not written as a pure idealist protagonist. He starts off compromised, yet very aware that he is helping the wrong people win. The early noir-like mood sells how dirty the system already is, and that he is part of setting that very system up. He was a judge who follows orders instead of truth, and we see his conscience eating him alive. When it did, he tries to undo his mistakes, but his single act of conscience ends up costing him his life.

When he wakes up in the past, the energy changes, and he changes with it. His chaotic judge era was easily one of my favorite stretches, and I missed it when it faded later on. His confidence, the way he plays all sides, and how he walks into danger smiling while quoting the law made the scenes very entertaining, leaving the others very confused by his change. But his change also made him very unpredictable in the eyes of others onto him, and it becomes his shield.

Because he remembers the future, many of his victories come from timing and setup. His plans come from future knowledge and careful manipulation, and it feels like a game for us just as it was for him. He knows where to push and when to wait. It also made me feel a bit complicit as a viewer because I was enjoying how he was outplaying people.

He is also not clean in how he fights back. He runs scams, threats, staged situations, and intimidation with help from the team he builds along the way: Nayeon the journalist, Cheolwu and Jinah the prosecutors, Jeongho the thug-like angel and his best friend (also aka Hanyeong's personal Doraemon), and even makes use of Sehee, his past-life wife. Were their actions morally clean? Not really. Morally justifiable? I guess. Entertaining to watch? Very.

Then the bigger corruption layer shows up, and things stop being so easy. As Hanyeong discovers newer things he didn't know in the past, his mission also becomes dangerous.

From the get-go, we know Kang Shinjin as the central villain, or at least Hanyeong's main target. But even with his cheat-code, aka Hanyeong's future knowledge, he knows he cannot just go straight to him. It will just backfire on him just as it did in his past life. So, he plays on all sides, jumping between factions: Baek Yiseok, The Haenal Law Firm (basically Seoncheol), Shinjin, and the Suojae. He keeps inserting himself everywhere just enough to matter but not enough to get cut off early. It's beyond me how none of these sides even noticed right away, but entertaining to watch, anyway.



⁂ Kang Shinjin

Kang Shinjin is not just evil for the sake of it. He is convinced he is right. He believes in his version of justice and thinks he alone has the right to decide who deserves punishment. In his head, he is not corrupt. He is necessary. Thus, he distrusts everyone, even the very people who have been with him since. That kind of self-righteous villain makes it clear that there's no changing his mindset. It's either he goes down or everyone else against him goes. And that's why all the other corrupt politicians and people in power, even the power behind him, the former President Kwangto, was underwhelming when compared to him.

But how was Hanyeong able to "join" his side, knowing how guarded Shinjin is? That's because Hanyeong was able to condition Shinjin to see him as someone who grew up like Shinjin did: poor, failed by justice, and an outsider navigating a corrupt system. Shinjin is paranoid and investigative by nature. And this was something Shinjin himself investigated to be true.

He never blindly trusts nor distrusts Hanyeong. Shinjin sees Hanyeong’s intelligence, strategic thinking, and resilience as proof that he could be an ally in reshaping the justice system the way Shinjin imagines it, but also that he could be the worst enemy. His distrust is why he constantly tests Hanyeong, pushes him, and to do favors for him. When Shinjin leaned in to trust more than distrust, he then tries to recruit Hanyeong. He recognizes Hanyeong's potential to understand and execute his vision.



⁂ The other powers Hanyeong had aside from his future knowledge: Plot armor & Convenient writing

I will admit that I felt that the writing gets very convenient at times.

Exhibit 1 is Jeongho basically being a one-man logistics department. Need money fast? He has it. Need a car, a hideout, a random building, a group of people willing to act in a staged scenario, or someone to scare a target? He can arrange it right away. Everything is possible, and available on demand. It almost turns into a running gag where I stopped asking "how did they pull that off" and just accepted that if Hanyeong needs it, Jeongho will spawn it. It is ridiculous if you think about it logically even if he got the money, but their tandem is so fun and loyal that I did not mind it much while watching.

Exhibit 2 is the lack of real leverage against Hanyeong. The villains in this drama are shown to be ruthless. They blackmail witnesses, threaten families, kidnap people, dig up dirt, and weaponize personal connections. We see this happen to multiple side characters, even those that were present just for 1-2 episodes. Even Jinah gets blackmailed and even her already in coma father gets dragged into danger.

But when it comes to Hanyeong, that pattern is gone. Yes, they investigate him. Yes, they look into his background and family. But nothing serious ever comes out of it. No direct threats, no kidnapping attempts, no real pressure placed on his loved ones, especially considering that he is the one actively dismantling their power. I did not need extreme suffering for shock value, but the imbalance was noticeable. It makes Hanyeong feel unusually protected compared to everyone else on the board.



⁂ Mini ramble on the other main side characters

One of the things I enjoyed most episode to episode was Han Young’s chemistry with the people around him.

His dynamic with Prosecutor Cheolwu was consistently funny. He keeps saying he does not want to get dragged into Han Young’s dangerous and questionable tactics, then still shows up and helps anyway. Nayeon and Jeongho also felt essential to the team’s energy. Nayeon brings momentum through information and media pressure, while Jeongho is the operational backbone. These are characters who were barely present or not present at all in Han Young’s first timeline, so seeing them become central in the new one made the rewind was a nice addition. It is like his second life gave him better allies, not just better timing.

Jinah is where my mixed feelings sit. She was introduced strongly in the past life, and the drama framed her like a major pillar next to Hanyeong and Shinjin. Because of that, I expected her to drive more of the plot after the rewind. Instead, she often felt like she was reacting and just somehow got dragged, instead of being actively involved. There are good moments, but overall, her presence feels lighter than what was originally advertised. Other supporting characters felt more influential in moving events forward.

Sehee, though, was more interesting this time around. Her personality shift in the new timeline made her feel fresher. She is still flawed and sometimes frustrating, but more emotionally readable. Her guilt, hesitation, and attempt to finally do the right thing gave her scenes more weight. I found her easier to understand here than in the past timeline.



⁂ Justice is ...served?

Yes, the target corrupt figures fall. Yes, Han Young protects the people he cares about and wins the battles he set out to win. But the bigger structure behind the corruption never truly disappears.

Suojae is still standing by the end. It gets exposed and shaken up, but not erased. It just changes hands. New leadership steps in, and the show does not give a clear answer on whether this new version is cleaner or just a reshuffle of the past. Seeing Baek Yiseok end up inside that circle raised a big question mark for me. I couldn’t tell if that was meant to be reassuring or worrying. Did he turn into another power player chasing influence? Was this his goal all along? Or is he trying to reform it from the inside? Unfortunately, the drama leaves that deliberately unclear.

Another detail that stuck with me is the prison connection. Even after everything, Shinjin is still able to maintain lines of contact with the outside world. That suggests the network is still alive enough to reach in and out of the system.

So yes, the main villains are taken down. The headline crimes are punished. But the ecosystem that allowed them to grow is still breathing.

Hanyeong and his team won the cases they were chasing, sure. And that was Hanyeong's happy ending. But did they really win the war, or was that just to reset the board again, giving the others a chance to power?

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Life at the foot of the Altai Mountains

It was a beautiful series. I watched it with pleasure and curiosity. It affected me. Because I am Turkish. I live in Türkiye. This series takes place in the foothills of the Altai Mountains, I think in the autonomous Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. It's adapted from, or inspired by, the lifestyle of the Uyghur Turks. It depicts snippets from the life of a girl whose mother runs a shop in this rural area. This girl, Wen Xiu, wants to be a writer. She keeps a diary of her days there. She falls in love with Batay, a Kazakh Turk living in the region. That's the story told. The narrative is simple and straightforward. The rural landscape of the region is depicted with poster-like beauty; the cinematography was extraordinary. The lifestyle of the region is also portrayed; I found it similar to our own customs and traditions. We still have some of these customs. I think the families living there are Muslim and they celebrate Eid al-Adha. They go up to the highlands. They have horse races. They have fair-like celebrations. It's considered an old Turkish custom, but the tradition of a brother marrying his sister-in-law when his older brother dies is reflected here. Such customs no longer exist. There are no coercions, but they did until about 80 years ago. I don't know if anyone still practices it, but there's no obligation. The laws don't allow it. It's not a widely accepted practice.

Besides depicting environmental factors and the lifestyle there, the scene shows a lonely woman needing a man and perceiving this need as love, resisting her daughter's objections and pointing out her flaws, but siding with her daughter when she's in a difficult situation. Also, the scene of a man forced to shoot his horse because it dragged and injured his beloved daughter was impactful. These were dramatic scenes. However, because they weren't explored in depth or sensationalized, they were handled simply and plainly. I think that was a good thing. Otherwise, the series wouldn't have ended in 8 episodes; it would have been much longer. I understood the aim to show the life and customs there from an outsider's perspective. And that was well done.

A thief, a scoundrel, was portrayed, perhaps even a traitor, because bad things happen there sometimes. It was a good example of how they exploit the good intentions of innocent people by deceiving them, and also their emotions. The actor was portrayed as repulsive because of this. I really saw the repulsiveness, but I didn't understand how a woman could be so desperate to love this man. That's the kind of role Jing Qing Mi played. She did the role well. She was very repulsive. The acting was also simple and understated. No one was overly dramatic; everyone acted comfortably. They didn't struggle with their acting. Ma Yi Li stood out in this simplicity. I liked her unpretentious but heartfelt performance. I think she was the best.

I recommend it to those who like this type of drama.

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Long frost

A beautiful story… but with the wrong ingredients that’s how I would sum up what I think of The First Frost.
I started watching it with high hopes. I was expecting a slow progression, a soft and comforting vibe. But the storyline eventually kept moving in the same direction, over and over again.
The male lead seems to exist solely for the female lead. As for her, she feels trapped in an emotional ice tower, barely capable of feeling and expressing anything at all. Her portrayal was so detached that even when she stood up for herself, there was no real range or depth in her performance. It felt flat.
The flashbacks at the beginning were cute and provided meaningful context for the two leads’ story. But after the fifth flashback, watching the male lead repeatedly prove his devotion started to feel exhausting.
By episode ten, seeing him continuously pit himself out there for her with a falsely nonchalant attitude was no longer heartwarming or heart melting. Instead, it became disheartening.

I eventually stopped watching because the show felt heavy to sit through, despite its beautiful soundtrack and truly stunning cinematography.

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