Reviews

if you see me getting bullied by a shortie don't bother I'm exactly where i wanna be

The name kinda made me feel this drama would be more like bullying, NCs, barely any plot kinda but nah i was wrong. This was purely an psychological emotional drama about 2 broken people finding their way in life.
Sato is someone who is kinda has red flag thoughts but he doesn't act on those red flag thoughts which makes him a green flag. Goto is the opposite he was green flag thoughts but does red flag things which sato finds adorable 🤣🤣. Their relationship is unexpectedly really sweet and i really loved them but ngl i felt they should have casted younger actors atleast for the high school roles cz they just look too old for it.

I liked the ending but I still feel Sato is still not convinced and is insecure about goto's recovery and him going into the outside world.. will have to see if they'll address this in the special episodes. Overall it's good.. not the best

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A Pure Cinematic Masterpiece of Healing Romance and Unmatched Chemistry

Discovering a drama that completely rewrites the standard for the entire BL genre is rare, but A Winter Sun Wakes the Wind in Spring Hills’ Dream did exactly that. I was completely hooked from the very first frame to the final episode, and it easily earns a top spot on my all-time favorites list.

Why I Absolutely Loved It:
Unreal Production & Atmospheric Vibe: The visual direction is mind-blowing. Trading the usual urban backdrop for lush mountain landscapes and tea fields gives the entire show a dreamy, cinematic feel. Almost every single frame feels like a painting, and the soft, moody soundtrack elevates every emotion.

The Lead Chemistry & Character Dynamics: Jingyu and Kuma delivered unbelievable performances. Their dynamic feels so raw, natural, and effortless. Changyang is easily one of the greenest flags ever written—the way he tenderly cares for Qinglang through his darkest mental health struggles and heavy trauma made my heart melt.

Poetic Scriptwriting: The dialogue is pure art. Instead of relying on generic romance tropes, the show conveys love through subtle, deeply meaningful conversations where a single line carries the weight of a massive confession. The artistic visual choices for their intimate moments—like that stunning shadow kiss scene—are plain genius.

Emotional Depth: The story handles heavy, dark real-world themes like internet harassment, grief, and industry pressure with genuine respect. It gets intensely raw and heartbreaking in the middle, but that emotional weight makes their healing and devotion to each other feel so much more earned and rewarding.

Final Thoughts:
If you appreciate slow-burn romance, top-tier acting, gorgeous cinematography, and a love story that genuinely feels deep and healing, you cannot skip this. Make sure to catch the post-credit scenes and extra clips toothe chemistry is insanely good! A mandatory 10/10 watch. ❤️

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WOW! 😍 This series really surprised me. I got hooked quickly and absolutely loved the chemistry between the main characters. The story kept me interested from beginning to end, and there were so many emotions along the way. 🤍
Definitely another Chinese series that has earned a special place on my list. ✨💕


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🌸✨🌈 Hiii~ Welcome to my kawaii corner~ ♡(≧▽≦)ﾉ✨🌸

You can find more of my reviews on Instagram~ 🌟💖

Check my homepage for my account~ (｡♥‿♥｡) 🌷

Some reviews are under 500 words, so I can’t post them here~ (≧ω≦)ﾉ💫

Thank you sooo much~ ☆:.｡.o(≧▽≦)o.｡.:☆ 💕🌸

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A good drama underrated cz ppl hated a "weak" mc

The drama is really good and the characters are layered with depth unlike the usual basic monotone characters.

Our ML Bei Lu Qing was someone who went from green flag to red to yellow flag by the end of series. I feel lack of communication from his side was the reason for all the mess that happened with Xiao Fan

As for Xiao Fan he was an unexpected bomb initially we all felt soo bad for him. Ppl hated him for being a door mat but then 1 strike brother ended up ruining every other character's life in the series🤌🤌

I really like how the choises each character and their personality were super realistic. For example, Bei Lu Qing was a gay rich man his 1st relationship ends up in the trash cz of his family so he tries to save his 2nd relationship by freeing himself from them and trying to handle things on his own which hurts xiao fan. Xiao Fan on the other hand was someone who was seen as useless by his family and was treated as such explains his timid personality but he had his breaking point too like any other human.

It is really good. Not too toxic as compared to other cbls when it comes to the leads but yes they are twisted for sure. But literally every character in this drama is a red flag not 1 likeable support character and everyone pays for their mistakes. I loved it. I do feel they could have shown a bit more of their life after their marriage... cz i wanted to see some sweet moments

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Watchable but temper your expectations

I was hoping the reviews for this special were being harsh but alas, they are fairly accurate. While the short episode was amusing, it would have been much better buried within the actual series (or better, just skipped as the poisoning plotline really makes no sense – if they'd just gone with the aphrodisac intention, it might have been OK). For an epilog short, I wanted to see some sort of 'happily ever after' story about their family. The children actors they had were adorable and I would have loved to actually see them more than in the few second scene they were given.

Other than the opportunity to see a few more minutes of Zhao Jinmai and Zhang Linghe together on screen, this short is certainly skippable.

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Cuteness continues

You can watch it on GagaOOLala: https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/5924/school-trip-joined-a-group-im-not-close-to-2025

A sweet and funny continuation of an already great series.
Watching it made me super excited for the second season. At the same time I'm not so sure what the second season could be about since I think the story is pretty much completed.
My hope is that season two will be as good as the first season and not just a money grab since the first season did so well.
Back to the special episodes, though, It was good to see Watarai and Hioki spend time together at home during the typhoon.
Since in the series itself we only saw them at the school settings, it was a nice change.

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Movie that scretches into a drama with complexity mistaken for depth

The drama is directed by a movie director who is directing his first drama and it is telling.

The whole drama is excruciating slow, with incessant repeated scenes and multiple flashbacks and backstories. It is filmed in a movie style, and not in a good way.

Although that adds to the good camerawork and cinematography, the way the drama is structured makes the movie styles intense moments unexciting because the story is told backwards and we already can antixpant the ending.

The worst is that to the middle of the show, we already are shown the end, but it took two whole episodes just to deliberately show flashback dialogues from three different character perspectives or imagined scenarios just to keep the audience in suspense.

The saving grace is the acting of the cast, but everything else falls apart.

The drama tries to portray Samsik as a political genius and power broker, but the script decides when he is able to pull things off - when the script decides he cannot, he is powerless. When the script decides he is able, he pulls off a political masterpiece.

There are so many glaring plot holes to the point that Samsik ends up being very incoherent. He anticipates at least 3 steps ahead of his enemies, yet falls into all of them. He was able to anticipate the coup failing, but did nothing - he had Hanmin and his troops at disposal to stop general Jang, and Kim San and general Choi were offered US troops if they needed to quell the coup. His end feels like one determined by the writer, so that there can be some sort of sacrifice, or sort of to illustrate the helplessness in that period where Kore is turbulent.

It should have been a movie instead of a drama, and it could have been done with 8-10 episodes. There are way too much repeated and unnecessary scenes - there is even a few seconds of just soldiers standing outside a bunker, which is repeated every time the bunker flashback airs, so scenes just showing characters doing a slow walk into a building.

Backstories which aim to show the character arc are also way too many and repetive - all the characters have bad childhoods. Even support characters who do not add depth or meaning have backstories. They even showed the same school girl chanting a demonstration twice.

Complexity does not mean depth. Backward storytelling only works if it creates suspense and anticipating. It does not work if it creates confusion, and falls flat when it reveals too much to point we know who dies and who does not.

Uncle Samsik really does sound like a show where the characters have all the pieces necessary to solve the plot, but the writer keeps putting the pieces back in the box whenever they’re about to succeed.

It is overall a painful watch for me. I finished it with the help of a lot of fast forwarding just so to know the ending.

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I cannot see the word Salty and Shrimpie the same way again

This is the first time I have the urge to write a review for a drama. BECAUSE THIS IS SOOOO GOOOOODDDDD!! Dare I say the best drama I watched for this year!
I lost count on how many times I cried. I REALLY REALLY LOVE the cast and their acting, especially ZHANG XINCHENG!!! WHY SO HANDSOME??

To put it simply, the chemistry is pure gold. The humour gave me good laughs. Their bond totally warms my heart.

The only complain I have is..... WHYYYY THEY TORTURE US LIKE THIIIISSSSS??? JUSTICE FOR SALTY AND SHRIMPIE!!! They're such the best duo!! I love seeing them work together, they really compliment each other! They shouldn't be separated!! Ever!!!!

On serious note, one thing I want to complain is whyyy they cut many good scenes??? Damn you censorship! How could you not allow men hug each other after a life and death situation???!! They're humans, not robot! The cut (and alternate action) on that specific scene (ykwim) is sooo awkward. It literally ruined their characters. First of all, they're family ffs!!! It's so anticlimactic, esp. after Hailou's struggle to get the medicine.

Beside the acting, I also really enjoy the story. The mystery kept me intrigued. Not to mention how cool Hailou and Haixia are throughout the missions.
Yeah, Hailou did stupid things (for the plot), but so far they're acceptable. Zhang Xincheng is just really good in portraying Hailou and making him likeable despite his reckless actions. He's even look adorable and you just can't really be angry at his antics.
Ngl I couldn't finish any other film from this series because the characters' actions are often too stupid to comprehend. This one was done well.

In conclusion, I was just smitten by Zhang Xincheng. He is the best! (and such a pretty crier, tragic plot suits him well).

I WILL definitely rewatch this!!

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Unfortunately, this is one of the worst dramas featuring Lan Lan and Cha Ron that I have watched. The biggest problem is the story itself, but the male lead's characterization makes everything even more frustrating. He is written as an incredibly weak and indecisive man. From his manner of speaking to his actions, there is almost nothing convincing about him as a male lead. He constantly speaks in a low, whisper-like voice, which only makes his already passive personality feel even weaker.

If he truly had feelings for the female lead, why was he so incapable of defending her? He agreed to the divorce far too easily at the beginning and could not even stand up to his own parents for her. He rarely showed his affection openly, yet he remained obsessed with his childhood girlfriend. Of course, the female lead eventually turns out to be the real one, because this is another typical short-drama cliché.

But honestly, what woman would not be disgusted by a man who constantly connects everything to another woman, cannot let go of his childhood memories, and remains obsessed with someone he believes to be his childhood love? The drama tries to create jealousy and rivalry through its second male characters, but after the beginning, they contribute almost nothing to the story and simply become decorations.

The female lead is not much better when it comes to consistency. She clearly still loves the male lead, but she decides to separate from him for the sake of both of them, especially because she no longer wants to suffer under the constant pressure and mistreatment from his parents. However, once she supposedly makes that decision, she easily accepts ML kisses and barely resists being with him again. So what was the point of all that determination? It feels completely contradictory. What a joke.

As if the story was not messy enough, the drama later adds a sudden accident that gives the FL amnesia, only for her to recover rather quickly afterward. The plot keeps throwing in one cliché after another without developing any of them properly. And, of course, we also get the inevitable short-drama trope where the villain eventually stabs main leads.

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A beautiful mix of romance and emotional drama. The story had its bittersweet moments, but the chemistry between the leads really stood out. I enjoyed their relationship and the emotional journey they went through.

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🌸✨🌈 Hiii~ Welcome to my kawaii corner~ ♡(≧▽≦)ﾉ✨🌸

You can find more of my reviews on Instagram~ 🌟💖

Check my homepage for my account~ (｡♥‿♥｡) 🌷

Some reviews are under 500 words, so I can’t post them here~ (≧ω≦)ﾉ💫

Thank you sooo much~ ☆:.｡.o(≧▽≦)o.｡.:☆ 💕🌸

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Cute

You can watch it on GagaOOLala: https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/5924/school-trip-joined-a-group-im-not-close-to-2025

Unfortunately for me, school JBLs are my biggest guilty pleasure. They keep making them, and I keep watching them.
I know some people are tired of the school BLs, but I feel like Japan is just way too good at making these, so I'd rather they keep doing what they're doing best.
Now that I'm done with the rant, I can definitely say I enjoyed this series a lot.
It's a pretty easy watch, I personally binge-watched it in one sitting. It is a great school, BL, with a lot of cute and funny moments, good friends, and first love. Definitely a comfort series.

Things I liked:
1. Humor.
2. Friends. It is always nice to see when the friends are so nice and supportive.
3. Cinematography.
4. All of the cute and caring moments.
5. Good communication.

Things I disliked:
1. Some inconsistencies. Like getting drunk from one sip of alchohol, being dry after running through the rain, etc.

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My heart is somehow fleeting, and even sorrow is dyed in blue.

Stepping back into the dusty, atmospheric world of early 1990s Japanese television once again because apparently I enjoy digging through old dramas nobody talks about anymore. This time it's Tenjo no Ao (天上の青 / Heavenly Blue), a 1992 Fuji TV psychological suspense drama based on Ayako Sono's novel.

The premise alone is already unsettling. Fujio Uno is introduced as this perfectly polite, seemingly harmless man who wanders around the Shonan coast and eventually strikes up a conversation with Yukiko, a quiet Christian dressmaker who spends her days tending to her morning glories. It's such a peaceful, almost mundane encounter that you wouldn't immediately expect anything sinister from it.

Except Fujio is a serial killer.

And as his crimes become increasingly violent, he keeps returning to Yukiko's little world. There's something about her calmness and the fact that she doesn't immediately judge or fear him that makes her become his only real psychological refuge. She doesn't even fully understand what he's looking for from her, yet he keeps coming back anyway. The whole relationship becomes this incredibly uncomfortable contrast between compassion and violence, innocence and guilt, and whether someone's kindness can actually reach a person who has done terrible things.

Karin Yamaguchi is wonderful as Yukiko. Her performance is very restrained, which works perfectly for the character. She's gentle without feeling completely passive, and there's this quiet loneliness to her that makes it believable why she would become attached to someone society has already completely rejected.

But honestly, Hakuryu absolutely steals this drama. 🫠

His performance as Fujio is probably my favourite thing about the entire series. He could've easily played the character as a stereotypical “crazy serial killer” and called it a day, but instead there's this strange vulnerability underneath everything. He's obviously capable of horrifying violence, but when he's around Yukiko, you get to see this completely different side of him—the awkward, lonely and almost childlike part of Fujio that desperately wants to be accepted somewhere.

And that's what makes him so unsettling. The drama doesn't ask you to excuse what he does, but it does make you understand why Yukiko becomes so important to him. He's not suddenly a good person because someone shows him kindness. He's still responsible for what he's done. There's just this uncomfortable realization that even someone capable of terrible things can still crave affection, companionship and somewhere they feel safe.

The final stretch gets even darker once the law finally catches up with him. Fujio ends up on death row, writing desperate letters to Yukiko while she herself becomes increasingly isolated because of her attempts to help him. And I really appreciate that the drama doesn't try to turn everything into some neat redemption story. There isn't a convenient “love saved him” ending. Fujio still faces the consequences of his crimes, while Yukiko has to live with the complicated reality of having cared about someone everyone else sees as a monster.

The ending is bleak as hell, but in a strangely quiet way. There's no huge Hollywood-style emotional payoff. Instead, it leaves you sitting with all these uncomfortable questions about empathy, morality, loneliness, punishment and whether understanding someone necessarily means forgiving them.

Tenjo no Ao is definitely not the kind of drama I'd recommend if you're looking for something lighthearted, but if you like old Japanese psychological dramas with slow pacing, uncomfortable character studies and that very specific early-90s atmosphere, this is absolutely worth digging up.

And of course, Hakuryu's performance alone makes it worth watching for me.

I genuinely couldn't find much discussion about this drama while watching it, which is kind of a shame because there's so much to unpack here. It's one of those obscure pieces of 90s television that feels like it deserves to be remembered instead of disappearing into the archives.

Definitely something I'd rewatch someday.

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Love can be bought by Oranges

One of the most realistic portrayals of a relationship I have seen in a series. The later episodes totally crushed me about how we weigh love and career. Indeed, our high school life was one of the most memorable years we had; we were too carefree and had too much time on ouur hads, until we didn't.

The confrontation scene was so hard to watch. Both gave their points, and it's just so hard to watch knowing that you have felt the same dilemma both of the characters had. And both of them had their valid reasons. How do you expect the love of your life to adjust to you, just because you ARE the love of their life? You get to question how important you are to them. You get to see the reality about being practical. One of them even mentioned that they can't just stay rooted in their province.

It was a hard watch, honestly. I hated how realistic they depicted real life is because, indeed, that is how reality works. It is not a fairytale, where you get to wish upon a star. It is not some fictional story; you both get to live a happy ending. It's reality that you are facing.

With that, there were also 2 points raised between the 2 couples. The Ko Couple barely fought, but one of them was harboring feelings deep inside, but living together. While the A Couple was always fighting, but they were in an LDR relationship. I love how the show showed us how both couples addressed this. The Ko Couple was always reassuring and understanding, even to the point that it was "for the sake" of them not fighting. But it was indeed toxic, because if you keep bottling up all those feelings, there will surely be an outburst. On the other hand, the A Couple were always bickering, but they used that bickering as a way of showing communication, that both are always communicating. There was also a scene where Augar said that fighting made him realize how much he loved Achi, and that's when Ko opened his eyes.

It was such a feeling that even to the end, Ko said to Orange that it's okay to fight, to not hold on even if it means he "understands" his partner. It's just so realistic, because couples do indeed fall into this category, where many do fail at this level of relationship. Even I got something to learn from this series.

I also love and think that it's appropriate that this series didn't have any x scenes in it. It's a proof that intimacy, the person beside you, will always be enough and would be there for you.

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