Reviews

Good Action, Yearning Romance, Amazing Acting

I actually didn't expect much from this movie, no hype about it or anything like that, yet it turned out to be one of my favorite watches of 2026 so far.
The story itself isn't what keeps you engaged, but rather the raw action scenes and the characters who were extremely interesting (actors are amazing omg). The Politics and other topics are not so hard to follow, but it felt like the movie was lacking more advanced plot in some areas.
Cinematography was great, I loved the whole ambience of it.
The glimpse of romance and yearning was the best part in my opinion, and it's been a while since I've watched this type of love on screen.

NOTE!!!!!! Humint is very brutal and heavy watch (I love action, thriller and crime kdramas and movies, though this one was rough, violence targeted mainly towards women)
Overall, 9/10 or even 9.5/10 for HUMINTTTT MUST WATCH

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What it means to be a human? And why do we fight...

When you dream of something there's always going to be days when it hurts, but rest of the time, it gets you going!

I really like this show, and compared to other Kamen Riders, I would put this show into one of the better Rider series out there. This series have some flaws here and there, but overall I liked it a lot. It's an amazing story about what it means to be human and why we should follow our dreams.

It's very slow at times, but I don't think this is necessarily bad. Most characters are very fleshed out. We are not just watching them follow the monster of the week, but them eating dinners, going on a date or an amusment park ride. Towards the end of the show, I really cared about these characters and I felt hurt when they were hurt. I hated Takumi at the beginning of the show, but towards the end, I understood his past behaviour and liked him alot. Acting is great too! Everyone did an amazing job I think.

There are some things I didn't like as well. I don't like the ending. It doesn't resolve some of the major plot points and leave you hanging there. I didn't like the monster suits either. Even though some of them are very cool, the monochrome design looks very bland.

Overall, I give this show a high rating. It's a must watch if you want a more character driven story and dive into personal relationships. However, I wouldn't recommend this show as someone's first toku/kamen rider show. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

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Netflix and kdramas

We are witnessing a genuine K-Drama crisis and this was the beginning for me. The shift away from the traditional 16-episode format is ruining the writing. There is no set rule that says a drama must be shorter now—writers have the free will to take the time they need. If you can't wrap up a story properly in 12 or 14 episodes, don't force it. Why cram an entire series worth of resolution into the final hour? It’s pure sabotage, and you did it yourself.

The influence of Netflix on these shows has destroyed the pacing. This left huge gaps in the story:

: It was painfully obvious to everyone except the FL that the ML wouldn't have cared about the contract. Instead of addressing it, we just watched him suffer in silence. (Though, let’s be honest, we do love to see the yearning—so we can let that slide, actually)

The Forgotten Sister: The sister was the literal catalyst for the entire plot, yet she vanished without a peep by the end. How do you ignore the person who started it all?

Unfinished Business: The second couple . Are they together? The audience shouldn't have to guess.

This is what you get when you try to act new with your 14 episodes.

It’s wild that they forgot the sister entirely. When the literal "reason for the season" gets ghosted by the writers, you know they were just checking boxes to finish the contract. Do you think this "14-episode trend" is just a way for studios to save money on production days, or are they genuinely convinced that modern audiences have no attention span?

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My fault for picking it ig

We are witnessing a genuine K-drama epidemic. As the traditional 16-episode format vanishes in favor of shorter streaming seasons, the writing is clearly suffering. While we don't always need 16 episodes, this new trend of 12 - 14 episode runs is leaving plots feeling hollow and rushed.

Wasted Potential and Shallow Themes
On paper, this drama was a goldmine. It raised heavy, classic questions: Mortality vs. Immortality, the corrosive nature of Human Greed, and the age-old debate of Money vs. Happiness. The tragedy is that the show raised these issues only to abandon them. It never truly explored the philosophy behind these themes, leaving us with a surface-level experience instead of a meaningful, coherent emotional journey.

Kim Hyeyoon Deserved Better
It is devastating to see such incredible leads, like Kim Hyeyoon, stuck in a project that doesn't do them justice. People are criticizing the acting, but the reality is that no actor can save a script that lacks character depth and logical progression. Hyeyoon is a powerhouse, and this project is a poor representation of what she can do. Since "re-pairings" are so rare in this industry, it’s a shame this was the project they were given. I will not stand for the hate against her based on just this drama.

Choice: The Subverted Trope
To give credit for a "first," the show subverted the standard Gumiho trope. Usually, the immortal sacrifices their divinity to grow old with their human partner. In a controversial twist, the FL chose to remain immortal. While this is "new," it ultimately feels shallow. By refusing to make that sacrifice, it makes the central romance feel surface-level—as if their love wasn't worth the weight of a human life and the difficulties it brings. I dont understand what message they were trying to send with that.

When a drama feels more like a collection of "cool ideas" but there is no follow-through on the themes, it just becomes a frustrating waste of time.

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Horror App

I am not a real horror fan, but I am still interested in watching horror stories from time to time. In this movie, the horror comes through a phone app that reveals or invokes bloodthirsty ghosts. The movie has six standalone segments tied together thematically, as they all relate to the ghosts and the scary app, which mostly serves as a warning that we are about to see a ghost.

To me, the stories are too short — each could easily be an intro to a fuller feature-length story. The connection between them feels too vague, and the end product is just an omnibus of six very short and not particularly original horror stories. At least they give us some mystery to think about, because they don’t explain plainly why and how the ghosts appear and do what they do.

1. Unlocking (잠금해제) – This is the prologue. Some students test the app and things don’t go according to plan. It got me excited for the movie, but it has no real substance.

2. Night Shift (새벽출근) – I was still quite interested in the story here, but the end result was too common to be memorable.

3. Bus to Goseong (고성행) – This one was strange. Nothing happens until it suddenly does, and I liked that.

4. The Collector (콜렉터) – The premise is interesting: repairing phones and secretly copying their files for your own purposes. But what if the phone “remembered” a ghost?

5. Oneself (자신) – This was weird and gory. I didn’t get it at all. The male actor was very good, though.

6. Ghost Gate (귀문방) – A bland story but quite atmospheric. The appearance of the ghosts made for a strong finale for the entire movie.

Verdict: The movie had my interest at first, but as one famous reviewer would say, I will forget it in T-minus one day. Yeah… already have.

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Cliche and Boring

It wasn't the worst but it wasn't the best. I mainly stuck around for the casting I enjoyed the regular scenes were they were living normally.

There's lots of things they dont really do well in this show.

FEMALE LEAD:
- She views humans as weak, so it would’ve been a powerful moment to show her strength as a human. Instead, it felt frustrating to see her become helpless and fearful when attacked by them. While that role reversal is interesting in theory, given how she treats humans, it becomes repetitive when she continues to fall into a damsel role that constantly requires the human male lead to step in. For example, the male lead getting shot to protect her could have been a defining moment for her to fight back and prove her capability to be powerful as a human. Considering she’s lived for over 1,000 years and mastered countless skills, it feels unrealistic that she never found an interest in learning basic combat/martial arts? Even if she didn't, you don't need strength to be strong, so it would've at least been better if she was more smarter to assess dangerous situations and be able to figure out how to safe herself or help others. In the end, it feels she's only most powerful with her fox powers which helps her feel protected, and act cocky because she knows she's stronger than humans. But is weak as a human, and rely on a human for protection.

ENDING:
- I don’t get why writers assume every story needs a happy ending. Sure, audiences say they want one, but that doesn’t mean it should be taken so literally every time. There’s a reason sad or bittersweet endings tend to be more memorable, they leave a stronger emotional impact and stay with you longer. Happy endings can still be powerful, but only when they feel earned and not like the typical “they all lived happily ever after” cliche. When that trope is overused, it becomes predictable, repetitive, and ultimately less meaningful.

- I honestly think she should’ve died, especially since the story makes such a big deal about fate being unchangeable, with the heavens and deities enforcing consequences for anyone who tries to alter it. Yet somehow, those rules don’t apply to her. Because she sacrificed herself for the one she loved, she’s suddenly exempt, allowed to live on and even keep her powers. It feels inconsistent and undermines the very stakes the story tried to establish.

- The villains were built up to feel intense and threatening, they drove the entire climax, but the payoff went nowhere. After all the buildup around soul-eating, killings, and the shaman’s power, everything gets resolved in an incredibly anticlimactic way. It doesn’t feel earned, and it weakens the stakes the story spent so long establishing. On top of that, the moment meant to push the female lead toward her “death” falls flat. Instead of a powerful or meaningful turning point, it comes down to a weak human with a rifle missing the shot, only for the male lead to step in and take it for her. It turns what should’ve been a high-impact, character-defining moment into something predictable and underwhelming like bruh.

- I understand that she chooses not to give up being a fox just to be with a human, but the story doesn’t clearly define what that choice means for her in the end. It lacks proper closure and skips over the emotional weight behind it. Before, being a fox had a clear meaning, it represented her freedom, her independence, and her defiance against the deities and the fate her older sister accepted. That identity was strong and intentional. But by the end, that meaning becomes unclear. Being a fox is her idenity and she doesn't want to sacarfice her idenity for love, but the story never explains what about it matters so deeply to her now. What does her fox identity truly mean in this new context? Why does it hold enough value that she’s willing to outlive her lover and accept her immortality? What does immortality mean to her?

Her acceptance feels surface-level, without showing the emotional consequences or growth that should come with such a heavy realization, making her character arc feel incomplete. Does the story provide enough depth for us to truly understand and appreciate the female lead’s decision to remain a fox?

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Not perfect but entertaining and a strong finish over the last few episodes.

Not perfect. The characterization of the ML was almost cartoonish (cold, emotionless stoic-to-a-fault CEO) at times and often not really believable as someone anyone would like. And the SML & SFL characters and romance was often very annoying and fueled with tropes. The script writing was very good up to episode 20 and then took a nose-dive over episodes 21-24. But then it bounced back and was pretty solid through the final 9 episodes and especially the last 3-4.

In particular, Xue Shanshan's steady growth as a character carried the show even through the low points of the story. She has very visible and realistic growth from the bubbly naive young girl at the start to the mature woman she is at the end. Yet even as a mature woman she still retains the charm that entranced the ML (and the viewers) from the beginning. Ziao Li Ying delivers a fantastic performance in a role that is very, very different from say, the grumpy overly-serious swordswoman of Legend of Fei, or the clever, revenge-motivated assassin of Princess Agents.

The rest of the cast is solid. I do think that Zhang Han was given a rather tough role to play as the near emotionless Feng Teng. The script writers made him so extremely tightly wound at times that it was painful to watch Zhang struggle to make him seem like a human and not a cartoon character. I don't blame the actor. You can tell that the script that was given defined him this way. It's (as mentioned at the start) probably the biggest drama trope weakness of this series. But fortunately it was more than balanced by the fun of watching FL's counter point character. And even the ML character finally showed a lot of growth over the last few episodes to make sense.

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Great watch.

Loved this series start to finish. Love both
leads Male and female. The acting was first
class The script was fab. Welldone to the writers. Kim Jae-young ML looked like an idol.
The Korean visuals I like. Not like some actors
who lose their asian features and look westernised... I did look at his age and couldn't
believe how young he looks. My other bias was
Jung jae kwang.. Loved the female lead. All round... great series.. Didn't want it to end..
These series are what makes bl dramas super to watch.. We need more like this.. ❤️

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I was honestly afraid that I wouldn't enjoy it at all, but I was extremely hooked from the beginning (which is surprising). At the beginning, it was so interesting, mysterious and breathtaking that I didn't need to lower the rating (plus my Boun appeared there, my love). But after a while, when the mysteries started to unravel, we came to solutions and new mysteries appeared, it seemed so overly complicated and secretive that I simply had to take one star off the rating. At the same time, it could have ended so beautifully if it hadn't gotten so unnecessarily complicated. But that's just my personal opinion, otherwise I think that the mood of the story itself was original and it was brilliantly crafted. Even the characters were each original (which I was happy about) and each had an important role in the series, so they weren't completely unnecessary.

I recommend the series to all lovers of detective stories and thrillers. It's the perfect one for you, even if it gets a little more confusing towards the end.

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Entertaining

I am going to try and keep this short.

I love this drama. This is my first time watching Tian Xi Wei. Girl did amazing.
Love ZLH. Liked the secondary couple too especially Deng Kai. The entire cast have amazing talent.

Backdrop:
Aesthetically pleasing. Loved the snowy scenery in the first quarter of the drama. It really set the tone of fl's life and then seeing battle and politics in the other half ... you can see the 180 and how drastically her life changed.

What I liked:
•Fl's gradual progression to becoming what she did
•Fl's love for Ml didn't make her forget herself and her town, her people and others she cared for. Everyone had a place and importance for her.
•Fl's fighting skills
•ZLH's acting was awesome. One moment he was full of tender looks for her and then the next when there's danger or someone was interrupting, they got 'the shooting daggers look'.
•Loved Deng Kai here. Dude looked smoking hot. He was a total red flag character due to his past trauma and there is absolutely no excuses for what his character did because it was wrong but the chemistry he had with Kong Xue Er was awesome.

What I didn't like:
I definitely did struggle on the political side of the story. No lies. I might still not be understanding everything but I got the gist of it.

I felt like there were a tad bit too many characters being spoken about without actually seeing them first or getting much of a chance to get familiar with them at the beginning. I found myself may be guessing or rewinding at times but gradually understood who was who.

What could have been better:

I did find some inconsistency like Fl saying she participated in many battles etc but all in all it was 2 and she was still technically a newbie. I feel like a lot of scenes were cut so may be they did shoot more battle scenes. Some fight scenes were good but the entire final battle scene was a bit lacking. I feel like may be there should have been atleast a few epic ones with the Marquis tbh.

Well, if I feel like that then why did I rate it a 10?

Because no matter what, I still found myself glued to the screen, anticipating episode after episode and actually finished the drama which is quite a feat in my eyes. I didn't realise time was flying when watching the episodes because like what do you mean I watched 40 mins? It felt like 5 mins.

Yes, there were bits lacking but there were also bits that really made me enjoy this show. It's fictional and I reminded myself to not get stressed over these things. I'm watching it for entertainment - not for homework. However, with that being said, I don't want to watch something that's terribly made. This wasn't terrible. It was great. Not perfect but great.

Everyone has their own journey and experience and likings. You may or may not like it. You won't find out until you try it so give it a go.

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Are we serious

I’m actually livid that I wasted my time on this. The ending was incredibly rushed, cliché, and predictable. JUSTICE FOR YUZU. He was yearning exactly the way a lead should; he showed up, offered comfort, and stayed present while the ML was nowhere to be found.

I loved the ML from Mysterious Love, but he was so jarring here. He lacked any real personality compared to Yuzu, who was funny and was in a band. THE CRAZY PART, he never told her she was his childhood friend, which was the entire point. They spent so much time on the grandparents and the grandmother’s dementia, yet never used it to address the forgotten memories of the FL —what a waste of screen time. Why would you even raise this point if you weren't going to develop it.

There was zero communication. He never explained why he called her "easy,"no communication clearly and his move to America felt like a self-inflicted "crash out" rather than his mother forcing him. SHE NEVER forced him to pick between his grandparents' happiness and his. The fact that their long-distance relationship just "faded" made their entire bond feel surface-level and worthless. Then, after years of ghosting each other, he just reappears, they kiss, and everything is fine? It’s nonsensical. What kind of message is that even sending? Its not ok they were in a toxic relationship.

Overall, it wasn't sad at all, just very annoying. It would have been more emotional if they had done something similar to '20th Century Girl,' where he and the dog were both ill and died in america and she found out years later why they lost contact. Also, the dog storyline fell very flat; it wasn't even that sad that it died, to be honest.

Anyways they really pieced it together to get that ending. It's almost like they had decided the ending before the plot. This would have been way better if they changed the genre to a sad one because that's where it was heading for realistically. It did not have to be cliche they should have just faded out of their lives. He could never have shown up to that wedding, which also sends across an important message of moving on.

Yuzu was robbed 😔😔😔

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A promising drama that lost its way

What a pleasant surprise this drama turned out to be. I was hooked from the very first episode, largely thanks to the wonderful dynamic between the in-laws. The storyline is compelling, and I loved how each episode peeled back another layer of the family's secrets.

The first half of the series was excellent, but unfortunately, the momentum stalled in the final four episodes. I found myself getting bored and even skipping through certain scenes—which is a shame, because this had the potential to be a truly great drama.

One standout aspect worth mentioning is the relationship between the wife and her mother-in-law. I believe this is the first drama I've watched where they form an alliance rather than a rivalry, and I absolutely loved their friendship. If the series had been trimmed to fewer episodes, it might have maintained its grip and kept the story more engaging throughout.

Overall, this is a strong drama that ultimately loses its spark toward the end.

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