Reviews

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this bl is just not Where it's at storyline is okay but when you cut nc scenes it takes away from the story. this is the third episode that I've done seen this kind of scene cut what's going to show on the kissing or even the hugging at this point if you cut the NC scenes to the story. common sense Don't cut part of the store in any way shape our form. that makes people less interested in the series. that's just my honest opinion about this series and the writing. BLs are more interesting when they do not cut scenes. that are important the part of the story line . every peace of the story matter to the show. Nc scene cut was a big loss the the series

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I started watching the series as soon as it came out, but I only finished it today (shame on me). I have to say, though, that I don't understand why I didn't watch it right away, because the cast is legendary, the OSTs are great, and the whole drama left me with several memories, both good and bad. I'm really excited about the series. I haven't seen many historical cdramas (probably not a single ig and most of the ones I came across weren't fun), but this one is a banger. It's really well-made and has an amazing atmosphere. Overall, it looks terribly aesthetic, because there are colors everywhere (especially Ester's clothes, which are always absolutely great) as is the case in "color games" we know. Anyways, I think the series deserves a lot more attention, it has 32 episodes, so you have 32 episodes unforgettable experiences. The actors played it amazingly, so much so that I even cried a few times (of course that wouldn't be me haha) and for lovers of romance, historical cdramas and the supernatural, it's the right thing to do, I can only recommend it

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Hooked at first but didn't deliver to the end

I downloaded this drama for a flight and was hooked after two episodes (unfortunately, my third episode didn't download so I had to wait until I was at my destination before continuing on with the series). The premise was captivating, but as the plot went on, it seemed to lose itself in its intricacies. At a certain point, I couldn't tell if I was just thinking too simply and missing the hidden elements of the plot or if things just fell flat. I'm glad the series was short so I wouldn't say that I wasted a ton of time but am actually quite surprised at how high the ratings are given it was somewhat lackluster.

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A Good Cast Cannot Save You From a Bad Everything Else

I love Joong. I love Dunk. I need you to know this. I need you to know I wanted it to be so good and exciting and fun. And I had such high expectations as well. With the teaser and the trailer, which were super cool, and with them being some of my favourite actors, it had everything.
Except, of course, when I was finally able to watch the actual series, it had nothing.
The plot doesn't have a gigantic hole in it. It IS a gigantic hole. The characters are shallow and their motivations are nothing but the fact that the story needs to move forward. Their relationships are underexplored and even Joong and Dunk seem to be lost in the middle of the nothingness that is the supposedly developing relationship between their characters because they seem to be unable to make their chemistry work inside anything.
On top of that, the mystery is bland and you can figure it out most basically by episode 5, at the very least, although my friend and I had the basics of what was going on by episode 3. AND, as if that wasn't bad enough, the police force is incompetent and seems to be entirely unable to run a fucking precinct, let alone solve a serial murder case. Because, no, let us not be fooled, even if all those kids sucked massively, it is entirely Jade and Kamin's fault that they're all dead and yes, that is a bad thing. Cops aren't vigilantes and, although sometimes they seem to be trained to be just that, should not be executioners.
So this means that the core of the series sucks.
But just in case they made everything else suck too.
The sound design is non existent, I think the tech was sleeping the whole time. The places echo, the mix is bad, some people are louder than others and it's just frankly horrific.
And then the special effects suck. My personal beloved is the fake fire, it really adds to the vibe of "I don't care" that the whole last episode has got going on, fantastic. Shout-out.
Finally, even the shooting is bad bc continuity errors keep showing up and the montage just seems to be unsure what the pacing of the story should be so we just have long scenes about nothing and then rushing through major plot points.
In the end, the sum is a pile of rotten things catching fire. The absolute heartbreaking part? The rotting parts used to be premium quality salmon. Someone could've used that to make a delicious meal. And they were robbed of that opportunity so now we're all left starving.

PS: Ohm was great in the series, by far he's the best part of all of this. I don't know how he managed to make the handful of nothing they gave him work but kudos to him, he did really well.

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Sadly, a huge waste

Story 5.5
Acting and direction 6.5
Music and production 6.5
Rewatch Value 5

I heard about this series at the same time as ‘Me and Thee’ and so I thought: wow, two show coming with a GmmTv popular couple. Both trailers seem nice, interesting so I wanted to give both a good rating, higher than their previous series. Furthermore, the projects were going to be out during the same period. I was excited and ‘Me and Thee’ didn’t disappoint me. Sadly, ‘Dare you to Death’ did.
The plot is actually interesting: mystery and police are quite my cup of tea and guessing who’s the culprit is fun. It isn’t that unpredictable, but still enjoyable. There are a lot of characters that confuse the cards with their lies, so, at first, you don’t know where to direct your suspects.
The central theme of this story is, in my opinion, the human soul. This series show the dark side of people: the lowest level of the human beings, their feeling of revenge and violence and desire of power. If you ask me? Fascinating. Planning all of this chaos, meticulously and coldly like that is just so attractive.
Just a few things to appoint. For example, two moments in the last episode which could just be unreal. If someone gets shot in the stomach, she/he can’t be alive if the ambulance comes after one hour, right? Also, someone who is hit with an axe dies, right? Finally, are the main characters real detectives? You will doubt that at some point because the investigations are too slow.
Unfortunately, the romance part isn’t that charming. Firstly, the main relationship’s development is rushed. Definitely, from the middle until the end of the show. Also, the ‘side couple’ didn’t even kiss…so maybe they weren’t a couple this time? Then, I just didn’t like it (the main couple). I don’t know exactly why, but it’s a shame cause I’m usually so much into police couples and I believe Joong and Dunk look so aesthetically good together.
Let’s try to find out more about how the romance didn’t work, for me, here.
The actors’ performance is one part of the problem. Not only Dunk’s acting isn’t that good, but also the chemistry of the couple is almost absent. I don’t know what happened but something feels off. I saw them closer in ‘The Heart Killers’ both in and out of bed. It doesn’t make sense since the age (of the characters) is clearly the same and the environment is similar.
The second reason must be the dialogues. They’re are quite a no for me. The conversations are too silly, childish and embarrassing for adults, maybe good for high schoolers. I love the flirting at work but most of their takes alone are insufferable. Also, I don’t know what the director wanted to do but the ‘sex scene’ in the office seems difficult to shot due to the position, the output is forced and not spontaneous (if you ask me, to do things in that position you move differently).
Moreover, Dunk has the same expression the whole time and when he changes it, seems unnatural. I thought it was the character but it’s impossible to be like that 24/7. I know there is a dispute about his acting and I don’t want to be cruel, okay? I’m just saying that, in my opinion, he is still not good enough and I’m so sorry. Of course he can improve, everyone can. I’m sure he’s working hard, but I’m not seeing great changes.
On the other hand, I find Chimon, Pahn, June and Sing’s acting really great. In particular, I know Cimon’s talent and here his character is amazingly portraited from the beginning to the end. Pahn and June are good in dramatic scenes. In addition, I have to mention Joong’s work that is no less good (except for the couple’s topic from before).
Besides, what’s wrong with the action scenes? Watching other shows like ‘Good Boy’ or ‘History 3: Trapped’ or ‘Manner of Death’ you can realize this one isn’t really verisimilar somehow. Again, I don’t know what the director had in mind, but the result isn’t my taste at all.
Also, can someone explain why they decided to use the same song one hundred times? The Ost is really great, I have it in my playlist, but using the same song over and over again isn’t a good idea. Finally, a new song appears towards the end of the series, but still…
Except for the song, there aren’t much sound effects. Mostly gunshots, obviously. The production isn’t bad; the lightning is aligned with the atmosphere. The locations are good, nothing that caught my eye. The editing is overall nice, but there are one or two cuts that I don’t appreciate.
To sum up, the plot had potential but the romance part isn’t on the same level as the mystery. The acting and direction aren’t that great. The music isn’t well managed. The feeling I’m getting is the lack of cure and attention to details. This is an important matter. Before the series was out, there was an issue with its promotion. The feeling is clear: the company didn’t care much about this project. If the situation is really like that, it’s not only a real shame because the plot is nice, but it’s also unfair to the actors who work hard on their projects.
I don’t think I’m going to watch any episode again: I know who the culprit is and the romance parts aren’t worth it. I’m sorry. I really wanted to give this series a higher rating but I can’t. I’m unsure about recommending the show. Still, if you like mystery and splatter, you could watch it. Following this path, I believe I can suggest you watch ‘Secret Relationships’ a korean bl drama. This one is done a bit better and the themes are similar.

Thank you for reading,
Kisses <3

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Letterboxd review from someone in a much better position to review this than me. https://letterboxd.com/beebom/film/khun-pan/

I'm honestly not sure what to make of this.

Legend writ enormously large around a real person who may not have contributed much, if anything, aside from his name, his job and the location.

A Thai take on westerns - like it belongs in the lineage of Tears of the Black Tiger, though not as far afield. Violent, very violent and very stylised, muted browns and dirt, the use of water. Parts felt almost surreal, which is one way of making supernatural powers real within a film, like this was just normal in their world, rare but known.

It was difficult and I took a few breaks, looking this or that thing up. It's like the opposite of the two hour Thai movies I love, where they wander around exploring their wee world before revealing their poignancy and it's gentle and comforting. Only here it's the hour 38 minutes of a Thai action movie, traveling through the violence of its world. And then it shifts, surreal but grounded within the language of the film, and ends in something else. It gave some sense of meaning and closure, satisfying in the moment, but perhaps not all that deep. Exhausting to get there too. Maybe it felt worth it, in the end.

But there were clearly layers I do not have the knowledge to feel, even if I can think my way through some of them. Sometimes my sense of being an outsider is particularly sharp. This is one.

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Sweetest and most natural romance between two people

If you don't mind the fact that there is no real kissing in this, then I would say this would be one of the best romance drama I have seen.
I was mislead by a lot of reviews here and I thought that this was going to be another series where the ML puts in all the effort while the FL just received his love. Most of the reviews here have been critizing the female lead, but for me she was one of the main reasons I loved this drama, of course along with the ML (Most reviews already talk about how good he is so I'm not delving into that here).
There is such natural progression and genuinly fun bickering between the leads that the romance progression feels soo natural. The FL may seem to be a bit oblivious to feelings and not take things seriously at first, but she naturally starts caring for the male lead and shows this in her own way how much she does. The show itself addresses the character and behavior if the FL and why she is how she is and shows her growth as well. Don't get me wrong it was visibly obvious to me how she started falling and there was no doubt about how much she loved him as well.
I was expecting a series where ML does all these grand gestures for the FL, but in this show it actually goes both ways. Although the ML might have more gestures shown, she trusts him completely and relies on him. That something I rarely see in dramas, where usually the FL only talks about her inner issue with friends or other SML. But in this, for her the ML is the first one she thinks of in times if trouble and fortune.
I hope with his more people can watch this drama inspite of some of the negative reviews. Sure if you don't know that there won't be actually kisses shown it may be frustrating for a drama of this genre, but for me going into it knowing how it's going to be , I really enjoyed each and every episode and could not skip any parts of it .

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not the way I expected

I haven’t finished the drama, I stopped it at 22 but still wanted to give it all the credits that it deserves

note : this is not enemies to lovers story

first, the story is interesting.., that “romeo and juliet” vibes
and the actors did great job in it

why I dropped it? because I lost interest too fast.., here’s the things that kept uninterested episodes after episodes
the series started promising with its political turbulent times especially with the wei and qiao families and how they were enemies for years

then the marriage alliance comes to pacify this tension between the families

just for us to see the growing romance between the leads.., even their tension didn’t last long only a couple of episodes

then what after all that? because I want to see a good political plot line but all i see is characters personal development and their lifes

even the villains wasn’t interesting enough to keep me going on

in my opinion the premise of this story and that shakespearan vibes of it would be good on historical kdrama.., i have seen historical kdramas with a closer plot and they were very good at focusing on the politics, romance, acting, action etc

but I definitely understand why people loved it tho

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Epic costume drama

What a great surprise
I was in a drama slump waiting for some dramas to end before starting them,
From reading the critics, I wasn’t sure what to expect …

This is a fairly short drama : 6 hours / 25 ep of 15 mm… Like a very good long/3-part movie, and it is nice like that- no unnecessary lengthy angst.

The script / storyline/plot is really of high quality, consistent, very engaging and entertaining, and the production as well on the contrary to what some wrote, I couldn’t fault it … that is after the first episode (and yes the ML wears a crazy wig sometimes, but it suits his state at that moment in the story very well)
Costumes and decors are fine,
Pictures sometimes really beautiful,
The music is perfect for the drama,

And of course, the cast is overall great in their characters, especially the main leads,
Their dubbing is also very good
If a third character is not so good, it really doesn’t matter and affect the overall quality.

And cherry on the cake,
The 3-lifetime love story between the leads is among the best of the genre,
with an epic chemistry between the leads

Very happy to have come across this one
The iqiyi rating is 9.7 and I find it well deserved

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A JOSEON ROBIN HOOD WITH A TWIST.

The story follows Hong Eun-jo, an illegitimate daughter of a nobleman and a slave. By day, she is a skilled physician, but by night, she is the legendary righteous thief 'Gil-dong', stealing from corrupt officials to feed the starving commoners. Things get complicated when she crosses paths with Grand Prince Yi Yeol, a brilliant investigator who is obsessed with catching the thief. After a mysterious encounter involving a mystical bracelet, the two swap souls. They must navigate each other's lives, Eun-jo as a high-ranking prince and Yi Yeol as a cross-dressing physician/thief, while uncovering a conspiracy within the palace.

Furthermore, despite a real-life age gap, Nam Ji-hyun and Moon Sang-min have been dubbed the 'Dodo Couple' by fans, and their chemistry is the heart of the show. Moon Sang-min perfectly captures the flustered energy of a prince trapped in a commoner's body, while Nam Ji-hyun shines when she has to act 'princely' and stoic. Many dramas use body-swapping for cheap laughs, but To My Beloved Thief uses it to build empathy. As Yi Yeol lives Eun-jo's life, he truly understands the suffering of the lower class for the first time. Conversely, Eun-jo learns that the 'lazy' prince is actually carrying a heavy burden of responsibility. Additionally, the cinematography is stunning, especially during the nighttime heist scenes and the viral 'cherry blossom kiss' early in the series.

However, in between the episodes focused a bit too much on palace politics, slowing down the romantic momentum. But the final episodes are widely considered some of the best in recent K-drama history, choosing an intimate, emotional ending over a typical 'happily ever after'.

In conclusion, To My Beloved Thief is a must-watch for anyone who liked 100 Days My Prince or The King's Affection. It balances humor, social commentary, and a very poignant 'fate-driven' romance.

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