Reviews

An excellent "hybrid drama" with aspects of psychological thriller, mystery crime, and deep romance!

This is only my 4th MDL review. I won't review any movie or drama if it isn't enough to move me. So, the reason why you can see my review here is because "25 Years of You" could, in fact, shake my gut so bad. It was a terrifying experience, yet so gratifying and delighting at the same time!

This 10-episode serial drama was produced by Nippon Television (NTV) and first aired on their network. NTV is known for producing interesting and "out-of-the-ordinary" TV dramas (highlights including 2025 dramas "The Hot Spot" and "Chosen Home"). It also streams internationally on Netflix, so in that case I'd use a "western-styled" naming arrangement (first-name followed by surname) in mentioning the cast, like shown on the Netflix site. As with all my reviews, I will not give spoilers and hints. I'll just put my impressions on the general story, directing, acting, camerawork and post-production, as well as how we as audiences can absorb — namely, any life lessons that may arise from watching this drama. Please note, I do not use AI in writing this review, so what I'm going to share is my own personal impression. My emotions are involved, even though it includes some technical analysis. If you want to know what kind of dramas and movies I have reviewed here, feel free to check them out at: https://mydramalist.com/profile/HomeScreenAlchemist/reviews

First of all, this is actually a "hybrid drama" with balanced aspects of dark psychological thriller, Japanese-styled mystery crime, and deep, heartfelt romance. I've seen quite a number of hybrid genres being utilized lately in a number of Japanese TV dramas, especially in 2026. Maybe because "normal/typical dramas" have become way too oversaturated nowadays and could easily become snoozefest. But, ironically, most of the time, the creative team would try to pull out a brave experiment by combining these genres only to end up failing in the execution. In terms of one that has a perfect balance of the entire aspects, with a storyline that can also manage to flow naturally without being too forced, I would say "25 Years of You" is the only drama that is able to do that, so far. Hence, the reason I was compelled to write this review.

NTV outlines this drama in their synopsis as "A love-suspense story that is both the purest and the most dangerous." Wow. Sounds intriguing, right? It follows the story of two individuals since childhood. One is named Sota, and the other one is Mariko. For 25 years, Sota managed to follow and observe Mariko in the shadows (some may consider that as "stalking"), all done without them interacting with each other. This was triggered by two events: one that happened earlier to Sota, and the other one that happened to Mariko. That's the start of the story. 25 Years later, as early 30s adults, they had their first exchange of conversation. The rest can be seen as spoilers, so I will stop here in terms of explaining the background story. You can also read the drama synopsis, which doesn't have much to disclose either. 😆

What makes this drama very interesting?

Much of the credit is due to the clever screenwriting. Kudos to the screenwriter, Mako Watanabe (she wrote another hybrid psychological thriller/mystery/romantic drama, "Murderous Encounter", starring Jun Shison, that I have yet to watch). She might become my second favorite J-drama screenwriter after the genius Bakarhythm. Huge respect also goes to the two different directors, Kosuke Suzuki and Takahiro Horie, one that specializes in more romantic dramas and the other one that specializes in thriller and mystery-suspense dramas. I love how they can blend these two aspects without colliding into each other. I can name certain dramas that ended up failing at combining genres to the point of a rather embarrassing outcome, which made me raise eyebrows and even do facepalm numerous times, even with high-profile award-winning lead actors that excel in acting. "Surname Confidential" (with 3 different directors) and "Silent Truth" (2 directors) are two of such examples. Those two have some forced comedic aspects, probably to ease the tensions, but fell short in terms of storyline and overall directing. On the other hand, "25 Years of You" is, in my opinion, the first J-drama that is successful in blending thriller, mystery, and romance together beautifully and cohesively without being forced. Take note, screenwriters!

The editing is tight and wonderfully done. Sometimes they shuffle between two scenes, to make the drama become more gripping and thrilling, without losing the pace and disrupting the thread of the story. The casting selection for the female-lead role is perfect. It's my first time watching Sae Okazaki taking the lead role. I was not familiar with her acting at all, so I had zero expectations of her. But my goodness, she's fantastic! She's excellent at using subtle facial expressions, even for showing multiple emotions at once. I don't think many other talents can do that. So, that's a plus! She is perfect for her role as Mariko Nose, a daughter born into a wealthy business tycoon family. The way she's able to express her constant agitation, anxiousness, suppressed loneliness, and distrust of others is exceptional. Her acting during various types of conversations is also very natural and never forced, but yet never becomes boring because it seems she embodies the character as Mariko (becoming the character instead of just "acting/playing it" like most actors do). I can see that she may get more main role gigs in the future just from this drama alone. Directors take notice! Knock, knock, Hirokazu Koreeda, where are you?

The male-lead role as the quiet and enigmatic Sota Yukimura, played by Hokuto Matsumura (the boy-band idol from SixTones), is also good as well, even though the characteristic of his role is very demanding to be multi-faceted and requires playing with nuance. To me, it's one of his finest in terms of acting, and his "stiff" facial expression also helps with the role. However, he could polish his expression a little bit to juggle between nerdiness and bravery, because right now it seems he had 2 separate personalities (maybe it has something to do with the specific directions of the 2 different directors). His acting in the previous Netflix drama "Sins of Kujo" is kindergarten compared to this. Also worth mentioning, he can develop a natural chemistry with Sae Okazaki even though their roles require them being mostly awkward with each other due to their supposed hidden feelings. It's really cute to watch how things develop between them (and I'm not even a romantic drama fan!). I guess their energies can click naturally, the kind of chemistry I felt to be missing in his previous romantic drama "Ensemble" (with Haruna Kawaguchi). Other supporting cast are also good, some of them are considered "veteran actors" with many years of acting experience. But I have to mention Miki Mizuno, who plays Sayuri, a rather demanding "villainy" character as Mariko's stepmother, as the one that stands out in the supporting role. She could pull out the acting very well and yet very natural at the same time. There are a couple of downsides, though. The actor that plays the police detective (I can't remember his name) terrifies me with his eyes and stares 😱, so my mental defenses were already "active" since the first minute he appeared on the first scene! It was tough for me to watch his scenes. His acting is also noticeably overplayed. The guy that plays Mariko's half-brother is visibly "inexperienced" and not that good at acting. OK, he's still relatively young, but many former child actors out there can act much, much better, so there's no excuse.

The pace of the scenes is steady, never too slow but also never too fast. There is a tendency towards the slower part because the overall atmosphere is leaning into the darker one, and this is not an action drama. It gives space for character development. The changes are more in intensity, some scenes are very relaxing and brighter, while other scenes are very gripping and full of suspense. The camera work and filtering in post-production also follow the atmosphere of the scenes. This is a dark drama that covers many aspects of human personalities, but it doesn't always focus on the darkness and negativity. There are also light and uplifting scenes that require bright atmosphere, so the cinematography needs to adapt to these scenes as well.

My only slight criticism is that the background music seems to be a bit loud in the mix. I assume the audio is already too compressed, so the loudness level seems "flat" with almost no room for dynamic range. When the mood switches from the supposedly more upbeat "romantic vibe" into the thriller and suspense vibe, the music also switches abruptly, almost to the point of telling the audience, "OK, the romantic scene is now gone, now go back to the suspense." Not that it is bad. The music itself, kinda jazzy at times, is wonderful at helping to identify the atmosphere, only that it's a bit too loud and abrupt to the point of being rather comical. Some conversations tend to be buried by the background music. If you're audibly sensitive, it could disrupt the flow because your attention to the story gets distracted by the background music. One example of the most outstanding background music used in a psychological-thriller drama is WOWOW's 2025 mini-drama "Sai" (check that out if you're a fan of thrillers). They use plenty of dynamics in the music, and the creepy part really creeps the hell out of me!

I consider myself a fan of mystery cinema, and to some degree, also psychological-thriller movies (not always, not those gore/splatter-fest, only the more realistic ones — remember, real psychos do exist and roam this world freely and unpunished. Your boss might be one of them. Ha!). I'm not into romantic dramas at all, especially those that are considered lame or timid with lots of tears and weeping, but to be honest, I found myself digging this one just because it doesn't give some cheap impression: "I like you because you look cool, so let's date or get married" type of dynamics. Love is way deeper than that. Many romantic dramas use physical sickness as the subject where true love can be displayed and tested. Nothing wrong with that, but that theme has already been way overused, especially in J-dramas, and now becoming too cliché. Even though in this drama there are specific "feats" that are typically used in romantic-comedy dramas (bumping into each other, unintentional holding hands, etc.), I assume that they use those just as puns — seemingly to "poke fun" of these over-used elements found in many of those types of dramas. There are deep underlying layers beneath the story here, most of them psychological in nature and are suppressed, like the sense of alienation, loneliness, and longing for acceptance, in which a shallow "I like you. Doki-doki. Suki desu." type of romance cannot possibly enter the picture.

One of the early comments here on MDL mentioned this drama as having a Hitchcockian style of mystery writing (Shoutout to user @jeoneungd for bringing Alfred Hitchcock to the MDL table!). I agree. Compared to many of the mystery J-dramas, this one has that unmistakable Hitchcock signature. His classic movies like "Rear Window" and "Psycho" seem to have a significant influence on this drama's storyline.

How do we approach this drama?

From reading other early comments, there are those who seemed to expect this as a typical "lively" romantic drama, and got freaked out upon finding that the drama also has a dark psychological thriller dimension to it. My guess is perhaps because Netflix put the tag "romantic" (among other tags), it appears in the results when one enters "Japanese romantic drama" into the search box.

Worth mentioning, this is also a drama that has a very high rewatch value, because we might miss numerous subtle clues when it comes to the "mystery" aspects of the story. Those into "detective-style" mysteries can also dig this because it has elements of "guess who did that?" thrown in the picture, and they provide numerous clues all over the episodes. If you're patient enough to watch until at least halfway through the series, you'll understand why. Episode 6 reveals quite a number of things. I have watched that particular episode 3 times already (not quite 25 times, but maybe should I?), and the real thriller aspect starts from that episode onward along with the unfolding of the mysteries and the buildup of intensities. I started writing this review after finishing episode 7, and the buildup en route to the climax is still ongoing while the intensity of the scenes remains intact. I do have feelings where this drama is heading for the remaining 3 episodes, but at the same time I wanted to be surprised too. However, I hope this drama will not fall into all the crazy and unrealistic plot-twists in order to fool the audience, because the main storyline itself is already rich and more important than its "mysteries" that need to be revealed.

"25 Years of You" is a drama for adults. It's never telling us what's right or wrong, and there's also never black or white. One person's "angel" can be another person's "demon", so to speak. It presents us with elements that only each of us audiences can figure out by evaluating the characters (from moral/ethical, psychological, and legal perspectives), and then decide which one that's actually more relatable to us. It's the kind of drama that can generate healthy conversations. It may even be used in Psychology class (any psychology professor here? 🤔). Questions like "what can be defined as stalking?" or "how far is too far?" can also be brought up for discussion. A movie or drama can be a good tool for introspection and self-evaluation. This is exactly what makes some J-dramas (not all) much deeper and more rewarding to watch. If, let's say, the drama-world equals to McDonald's with many items there that are basically "junk", but in Japan they also sell the unique and good-tasting Ebi Filet-O shrimp burger!

My final verdict: "25 Years of You" is one of the best-orchestrated J-dramas in 2026 so far, up there with "Lost & Found" (co-produced with Singapore, starring Anna Yamada) and "Reborn" (starring Issey Takahashi). It's not a perfect one, so I won't rate this 10/10, but in terms of storyline and general execution, it is exceptional!

8.5/10 (after 7 episodes*)
*My rating may be adjusted by 0.5 point max (whether added or subtracted) after finishing the entire 10 episodes.

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A rat becomes human after eating someone’s fingernail clippings

Mousetrap begins with Je Mun Jae, a wildly successful novelist who has basically turned his apartment into a maximum-security prison except he is both the prisoner and the warden. He rarely goes outside, follows an extremely rigid routine, and has built his entire existence around predictability because his childhood trauma and anxiety have convinced him that if he can control enough little things, maybe nothing terrible will happen again. Which is obviously adorable, because the universe sees a man who has finally achieved a manageable level of stability and immediately decides to delete his entire life.

One morning, Mun Jae discovers that his phone doesn't recognise him, his bank accounts don't recognise him, his house doesn't recognise him, and eventually even his identity seems to have been reassigned to somebody else. Imagine spending years being terrified of leaving your apartment because the outside world feels dangerous, only to discover that apparently your own fingerprint has also decided it doesn't know you. At least a burglar steals your television. This guy's entire existence gets repossessed.

And because apparently losing your identity wasn't enough, Mun Jae also ends up being hunted by Noja, a gangster who believes the novelist is connected to a series of financial crimes that have caused him a considerable amount of trouble. At the same time, Detective Park is investigating a series of mysterious deaths and gradually discovers that Mun Jae's bizarre situation is connected to something much larger. So now you have an agoraphobic novelist being chased by a gangster while a detective investigates dead bodies, and somehow the biggest question remains, "Who the hell is Mun Jae?"

Ryu Jun-yeol is easily one of the strongest reasons the series works because he doesn't play Mun Jae as simply a scared man running away from danger. He makes anxiety feel physical. You can see Mun Jae calculating every movement, every person, every unfamiliar environment, because the moment he leaves the carefully controlled world he has constructed, everything becomes unpredictable. What makes his situation so effective is that the danger isn't frightening only because someone might kill him. It's frightening because his entire method of surviving the world has suddenly become useless.

That makes even relatively ordinary situations horrifying from Mun Jae's perspective. His fingerprint doesn't work on his own banking application. He goes somewhere expecting to be recognised and discovers that nobody knows who he is. Systems that are supposed to confirm his identity insist that he is somebody else. The more this happens, the more terrifying the premise becomes, because Mun Jae isn't simply losing access to his money or his possessions. He is losing the ability to prove that he exists.

And then the show gives him a double, because apparently psychological stability was getting a little too comfortable. Suddenly Mun Jae isn't just asking, "Who stole my identity?" He's forced to wonder how much he actually knows about himself, his past, and the person whose existence is now interfering with his own. The mystery becomes much more interesting when it stops being about someone impersonating him and starts making him question whether his understanding of his own life can be trusted.

This is also where Noja becomes particularly important, because their partnership is one of the best things about the series precisely because it is not a friendship. These two men do not meet and immediately discover that they have complementary personalities and adorable found-family potential. Noja has every reason to hate Mun Jae, Mun Jae has every reason to be terrified of Noja, and neither one has any reason whatsoever to trust the other. Unfortunately for both of them, they need each other, which is usually how the best partnerships begin.

Mun Jae needs Noja because the man can walk into dangerous situations without looking like he is about to faint, while Noja needs Mun Jae because the mystery surrounding the novelist's identity may be connected to the problems that have already ruined his life. Their cooperation is therefore completely transactional at first, and I actually loved that the series allows it to stay uncomfortable. There is no magical moment where they suddenly become brothers because they survived one fight together. Suspicion remains, tension remains, and there is always this feeling that either one of them could decide the other has become more trouble than he is worth.

Sul Kyung-gu makes Noja particularly effective because he doesn't need to spend every scene beating somebody to establish that he's dangerous. He has the kind of presence where the atmosphere changes simply because he walked into the room. Standing next to Mun Jae, he becomes even more intimidating because the contrast between them is ridiculous: one man looks like he hasn't voluntarily spoken to another human being in six years, while the other looks like he could make an entire room reconsider its life choices. Their completely different strengths are what make the partnership work.

At the centre of everything, though, is the identity mystery, and this is where Mousetrap is both extremely clever and occasionally its own worst enemy. The premise is genuinely disturbing because it takes something we normally consider completely stable, our identity, and makes it frighteningly dependent on technology and systems. Your phone knows your face. Your bank knows your fingerprint. Your house knows your access code. Government records know your name. We spend our lives surrounded by machines constantly confirming that we are who we say we are, so imagine waking up one day and having every single one of those machines basically respond, "Sorry, who are you?"

The series also brings in the Korean folktale about a rat becoming human after consuming someone's fingernail clippings, which is a wonderfully creepy foundation for the story. Instead of simply copying the old folklore, Mousetrap turns the idea of imitation and stolen identity into a modern thriller involving technology, digital information, and systems that can be manipulated. It gives the premise a cultural and thematic layer that makes it more interesting than a standard "someone stole my identity" storyline.

Unfortunately, this is also where the show starts developing a little too much confidence in its own ability to surprise you. There are twists, and then there are twists explaining the twists, followed by another twist standing behind the previous twist holding a clipboard. Individually, many of them work. The problem is that eventually you start wondering whether the story is revealing information because the mystery genuinely needs another layer or because somebody in the writers' room said, "But what if there's ANOTHER secret?"

The constant withholding occasionally makes the series feel more complicated than deep. Instead of allowing certain ideas or relationships to breathe, the narrative sometimes rushes toward another revelation, and that can make the emotional side of the story feel secondary to the mechanics of the mystery. You know the writers have a giant box of secrets and they are very excited to show you every single one.

The supporting characters suffer from this problem too. Mun Jae and Noja understandably dominate the story, but several of the characters surrounding them feel like they exist primarily to move the mystery from one location to another. Mun Jae's trauma is particularly interesting because it explains why control and routine are so important to him, yet there are moments when his childhood experiences seem to function more as a convenient way of making a situation scarier rather than something the series fully explores as part of his emotional development.

Detective Park has a similar problem. His investigation into the mysterious deaths is genuinely intriguing, and his personal difficulties give him the potential to become much more than the detective assigned to connect the dots, but the series doesn't always give him enough room to become that person. Sometimes he feels less like a character with his own emotional journey and more like the guy who shows up whenever the audience needs somebody to explain that the murder from three episodes ago is connected to the thing happening now. With ten episodes, the series absolutely had enough space to make its supporting cast feel more complete.

Visually, however, Mousetrap knows exactly what kind of atmosphere it wants. Kim Hong-seon's direction creates a cold, unsettling world where even familiar spaces can suddenly feel threatening. Strange camera angles, distorted imagery, and moments of visual disorientation make Mun Jae's increasingly unstable reality feel almost tangible. There is a constant sense that something is slightly wrong, even when nothing particularly frightening is happening on screen, which is exactly what a psychological thriller should be doing.

The downside is that the same deliberate style can occasionally make the series feel slower than it needs to be. There are sequences that linger long enough for the atmosphere to become effective and then linger a little longer until you're sitting there thinking, "Okay, I understand that this hallway is ominous. Can we please go to the next hallway?" The slow pacing isn't inherently a problem, but when the story is already withholding information, too much lingering can make the mystery feel frustrating rather than suspenseful.

Still, the performances carry a lot of this. Ryu Jun-yeol gives Mun Jae a vulnerability that never turns him into a helpless victim, while Sul Kyung-gu makes Noja unpredictable enough that you are never completely sure what he might do next. Their uneasy partnership gives the series its strongest emotional engine because watching these two people slowly become dependent on each other is far more interesting than watching them simply solve the mystery.

My biggest problem with Mousetrap is ultimately that it sometimes confuses complexity with depth. The show clearly has a lot to say about identity, trauma, technology, control, and what happens when the systems we rely on suddenly stop confirming who we are, but it occasionally buries those ideas under so many revelations that the emotional impact gets diluted.

But even with those flaws, Mousetrap remains a compelling psychological thriller because its central idea is genuinely unsettling, its atmosphere is consistently creepy, and its two leads have enough tension between them to keep the story moving. At its best, the series taps into a very modern fear: not simply that someone might steal your money or pretend to be you, but that every system you depend on could suddenly decide that you are nobody.

And honestly, that is a horrifying thought. Most of us are already one forgotten password away from losing our minds. Mun Jae wakes up and discovers that his entire life has basically been logged out.

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Hyun Bin finally goes berserk

The first two episodes failed to grab my attention because the story felt like a politically grey drama, which is a genre I usually know isn't my type. I was on the fence about whether to drop the series entirely or give it one more shot, but pushing through to episode three completely redeemed the show for me as the pacing picked up significantly.

Hyun Bin’s performance here appeals to me far more than his role in Crash Landing on You. In CLOY, his character felt surprisingly dull, but he shines as a villain here. It is a reminder that he should take on more complex, dynamic roles rather than playing it safe with flat characters. Beyond his performance, the casting for the Baek brothers is phenomenal; you could easily convince me they are real-life siblings based on their screen dynamic.

the part where those entitled POS higher up offered a drink to the prosecutor by taking his shoes off and pouring it there for him to drink it ?! i would've just walked out then and there this is degrading to a person.

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They had time for flashbacks but not an ending

I feel bamboozled.

In fairness, some of this is on me. I knew this was a political drama. I saw the scheming, the sacrifices, the increasingly ominous music and thought: yes, but surely after putting everyone through hell, the writers will give us some emotional payoff.

Reader, they did not.

What annoys me isn't even that the ending is sad. I can take sad when sad means something. But Di Nian dies leaving a pregnant Zhili behind, Yin Qing dies, Situ Xue follows him… and I am still trying to understand what any of this added to the story besides making sure no couple escaped unscathed. At some point it stopped feeling tragic and started feeling like the screenwriter had developed a personal grudge against companionship.

Fine. At least give me Meng Tinghui and Ying Gua.

These two spend the entire drama putting duty, country, politics and everyone else's problems before themselves. The obvious emotional payoff is finally allowing them to choose each other.

Instead, three years later, they meet again and… that's basically it.

An open ending.

And this is where I lost whatever grace I had left, because THEY HAD TIME FOR FLASHBACKS.

I am sitting there waiting to find out what happens to these people and the drama is showing me things I ALREADY SAW. Yes, thank you, I remember. I was there. FOR 32 EPISODES.

Maybe I'm unsophisticated, but I don't subscribe to the idea that ambiguity automatically equals depth. Sometimes an unfinished sentence is just an unfinished sentence.

I didn't need a wedding, six children and a 20-minute montage of domestic bliss. Five minutes would have done it. Give these people some closure. Give ME some closure. I have also suffered.

I enjoyed so much of Royal Betrothal, which frankly makes this worse.

Anyway, apparently my reward for emotional investment was character deaths, flashbacks and homework.

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Relacionamento estranho

"Eu realmente gosto de você. Quando perdi todo o meu orgulho, minha autoestima e a minha posição social, você foi o único que permaneceu ao meu lado. Ter que abrir mão de você doeu mais do que qualquer outra coisa."

The Servant Prince parte de uma premissa um pouco complicada: um relacionamento tóxico arrastado por longos anos.

Confesso que, para mim, foi bem difícil engolir esse enredo de início. Até tentei procurar o mangá que retrata a história original para tirar dali algum contexto a mais, mas infelizmente não o achei, o que acabou fazendo com que minha primeira impressão sobre a série se perpetuasse até o final.

Algo de que gostei bastante foi a forma mais óbvia — e impossível de ignorar — com que a série aborda o tema da depressão sem citá-la uma única vez. Goto Naoya passou anos sem ter vontade sequer de levantar da cama, de se cuidar, sair de casa ou trabalhar, dependendo completamente de Sato Takaaki para qualquer coisa. O mesmo Takaaki que ele destratava na adolescência, o mesmo Takaaki que agora era seu parceiro e o mesmo Takaaki que amava seguir suas ordens, mesmo as mais ridículas.

The Servant Prince realmente tenta sair de um enredo pobre para uma história mais “complexa” sobre superação, recomeços, autodescobertas e dramas familiares. Pois bem: ele não faz isso bem.

É difícil falar sobre esse drama quando o Japão finalmente larga a mão das — em sua grande maioria — histórias rasas, fáceis e clichês, porém continua grudado na ideia de “vamos contar histórias profundas, mas da forma mais porca e corrida possível”.

O drama não é ruim, mas também não é bom. Falha em entregar contexto, relações mais trabalhadas e personagens complexos. Entretanto, acerta na retratação de uma das piores doenças da humanidade e em tentar desenvolver a premissa da obra e seus cernes, que, se bem feitos, poderiam ter sido genuinamente bons.

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At first, the show started great.. made it look appealing. Later, it started to drift away and away.
I dropped this show mostly because of its direction.
Acting was good, puns and usual Kdrama humour was also doing its work, but the repeated on and off of past and present didn't work well for this drama. It slowly started getting irritating and then at some point it felt drifting too away, so away that I completely forgot what was even the main point- saving his daughter or just plainly aura farming!?
Well it ain't even that good. Fights too were subpar considering the actors who work so hard.

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Strong start with a weak ending

loved this one quite a lot.

i try to watch whatever meng ziyi is in because i love the characters she is kind of typecast in, and this was a hit for me (for the most part).
the first 10-15 episodes were the strongest part, and we go slowly but surely into shallow waters after a certain point, mainly after their marriage, and yet it was ok enough to keep me hooked until the end.

he yu needs to do more characters like this; his physical comedy is great, and he looks insanely good as hua yong; i would audibly swoon whenever he was on screen.
the princes were definitely there, very annoying and boring, with little to almost no life beyond liking xi he-trying to win her hand-being in a terrible relationship with someone else. lai wei ming probably sensed how tired i was of his character, and he became less and less present in the story; i hated to see him go but was glad for not having to deal with chang ying.
the fifth prince got into my nerves, and i wish they hadn't given him that redemption arc. honestly, they shouldn't even let the "my wife died and i think xi he is her reincarnated" plotline go as far as it did.

the second couple was everything; i saw right through the cross-dressing when bu shu lin first appeared, but it was super convincing and well done. the forbidden love between her and cui jin bai was incredible and helped a lot with the romance aspect of the drama since the main couple were stuck pretending they wouldn't get together for quite a while.

after the main couple's marriage, it got boring. they were sickly sweet with each other, and it got to the point where i was wondering when hua yong was going to die so we could get the story moving forward. don't get me wrong, i love romance, but it was way too much.

the ending was ok; the coup was resolved, and the heir was guaranteed, but unless i missed something, they never explained how hua yong was alive? oh well, i was happy for them regardless.

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It succeeds where Hollywood failed

In the past 10 years, Hollywood is all about "girl bosses", but all they do is creating female characters that end up being the embodiment of toxic masculinity in a woman.
But, where they failed, Dance of the Phoenix succeed.
The lead is witty, funny, expressive, creative, logical, caring, charismatic and strong, without losing her femininity. The antagonist is ambitious, charming, also charismatic but in a different way, more appealing to the public, goal oriented and very elegant. Even the female side characters are multidimensional and strong in their own personal way, while each being unique. They have strengths and weaknesses, they strive and fail, they need and accept help but also help and save themselves or others. They are not flawless, but that makes them perfect. The portrayal of women and the different kinds of love they feel and express is outstanding. Friendship, motherly love, the need to protect but also having someone to rely on and be accepted... the sense of duty or unwillingness to give up and fight for the best, and the willingness to selflessly make a sacrifice out of loyalty... this Drama has it all.

Dance of the Phoenix is quite underrated and even faced hate for, in my opinion, surface reasons.
If you only watch it to focus on the romance, or the SFX, then you may be disappointed. But there are so much more in it to love.

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I Stayed for Deng Kai… and Got Almost No Romance

They had a really good foundation, but unfortunately, they didn’t know how to properly develop the love story between Yun Ting and Qi Yuan.

I endured it until the very end because, after Pursuit of Jade, the fate and ending of Deng Kai’s character were absolutely devastating. I really needed something to refresh my memories of him and give me some sweet, comforting moments with his character. So, despite everything, I pushed myself to finish this drama.

Unfortunately, though, the directors didn’t even give me a single proper kiss scene! 😭 After everything I went through, I deserved at least that much!

I really hope to see Deng Kai again in something much better, with a well-written romance and a character who actually gets the happy ending he deserves. But for now, I’m at least grateful that we got one piece of content where he actually gets the girl. 😂❤️

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I Didn't Just Watch TTEOTM, I Trusted Tantai Jin. ??

Till the End of the Moon is officially one of my all-time favourite dramas, alongside Untamed. And I don't think another drama is going to take its place anytime soon.

I started watching it for the story, the fantasy, the romance… but somewhere along the way, I became completely attached to Tantai Jin.

And I think that's what made this drama so special for me.

Tantai Jin is one of those characters where I didn't just want to know what he would do, I wanted to understand why he was doing it. He is complicated, morally grey, sometimes frightening, sometimes cruel, sometimes manipulative, but underneath all of it is a person who has spent his entire life being betrayed, rejected and treated as if he was destined to become a monster.

And despite everything, he still knows how to love.

What affected me the most was how much Luo Yunxi communicated without saying anything. His voice modulation, his eyes, his expressions, even the way he looked at Ye Xiwu could completely change the meaning of a scene.

I noticed his voice from the very beginning. The cold, almost empty voice of the Devil God was so different from Tantai Jin that I genuinely couldn't connect the two at first.

And then, when Tantai Jin started falling in love, that same voice began carrying completely different emotions.

Fear.

Love.

Jealousy.

Hurt.

Desperation.

Especially when he was afraid of losing Susu, I could hear the fear underneath his words even when he was trying to remain composed.

I think that was the moment I stopped simply watching him and started trusting him.

Even when Ye Xiwu misunderstood him, even when other characters believed he was becoming the Devil God, even when people hated him and called him a villain, I never really felt afraid that Tantai Jin would disappoint me.

I knew him.

And that's such a strange but wonderful feeling to get from a fictional character.

The romance was another huge reason I loved this drama.

Tantai Jin and Ye Xiwu/Susu didn't just have romance happening alongside the plot. Their relationship was part of the plot.

Their love changed their decisions. Their misunderstandings had consequences. Their choices affected each other. They hurt each other, protected each other, misunderstood each other, trusted each other, lost each other and found their way back emotionally.

I especially loved that their relationship wasn't perfectly smooth.

I don't want a couple to simply fall in love and spend the rest of the drama being happy together. I want love to be tested. I want jealousy, fear, misunderstandings, self-respect, regret, realization and growth, but I want all of it to make sense for the characters.

And TTEOTM gave me that emotional journey.

There were moments when I was frustrated with Susu. There were moments when I wanted her to understand him better. But even then, I could understand why she was afraid and why she made the choices she did.

And ultimately, I loved where their journey took them.

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER ⬇️

The ending made me emotional, but I wasn't disappointed.

I actually loved the bittersweet feeling of it.

Especially the daughter.

There was something strangely comforting about seeing that after everything, there was still something that belonged to Tantai Jin and Susu together. It gave me the feeling that Susu's heart had never simply moved on to someone else. Their story remained theirs.

I know people have different opinions about the ending, the pacing, the characters and various parts of the story. And that's completely fine.

For me, none of those discussions change what this drama became.

Because I wasn't watching it only for whether the plot was perfect.

I was watching Tantai Jin's journey.

A man who was treated like a monster before he even had the chance to become anything else, who desperately wanted to be loved, who was terrified of losing the one person he loved, and who ultimately made choices that proved he was more than the fate everyone had assigned to him.

That's what I'll remember.

Not just the fantasy.

Not just the costumes.

Not just the romance.

Tantai Jin.

His voice.

His eyes.

His loneliness.

His love.

His jealousy.

His pain.

His transformation.

And the feeling of sitting there thinking, "I know you. I trust you. Even if nobody else does." 😭

I finished this drama, but I don't feel like I'm completely done with it.

I'll probably come back to favourite scenes someday. I'll watch fan edits. I'll hear that voice again and immediately remember exactly how I felt watching him.

Some dramas are enjoyable while you're watching them.

Some become favourites.

And then there are a few that become a memory.

For me, Till the End of the Moon is one of those. 🌙💗

Tantai Jin × Ye Xiwu/Susu — forever one of my favourite fictional couples. 💞

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Overdue for Quality Control!

Overdue — such a frustrating disappointment.

There are dramas where you can immediately see that the casting department understood the assignment — and Overdue is one of them. The FL, the ML, and the supporting cast were, in my opinion, excellent choices. On paper, this had almost everything going for it.

Unfortunately, that is precisely what makes the final result so disappointing.

The hype surrounding this drama was enormous, particularly on social media. And following Zhang Ling He's stellar performance in The Pursuit of Jade, expectations were understandably through the roof. Many of us were eagerly waiting to see what he would do next, and I genuinely never thought I would be the person to drop a drama with Shanling Ha as the male lead.
But Overdue managed to achieve exactly that.

I went into this expecting to be completely hooked. Instead, I found myself increasingly frustrated until eventually I had to admit defeat. I TRIED REALLY HARD TO WATCH....

Dropped.

And honestly, that hurts more than dropping an average drama, because Overdue had the ingredients to be something genuinely memorable. The talent was there. The potential was there. The anticipation was certainly there.
You even have an actor coming off an exceptional performance in The Pursuit of Jade.
That is what makes Overdue such a shame.

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