Reviews

The Little Show that Could

To be honest, My Page in the 90s is a drama that probably would have been shelved into a corner gathering dust for the complete lack of resources that it had. Four changes in directors, such a tight production budget that they only had one song on the OST, practically little to no marketing budget.

Many will find the drama too kitschy and campy at the start but that’s PRECISELY why I got into it. It was always meant to be a send-up of worst drama tropes and it is hilarious if you watch enough dramas (it even has the truck of doom!)

But what me made truly love it was the amount of heart it had. At the core of it is a heartfelt story of female empowerment (go normalising periods and pads!), learning to love a person because he/she sees you and believes in you (and vice versa) and learning to enjoy every small ordinary moment you have with your loved ones.

Was the cinematography & direction excellent? It had some pretty moments but it definitely came off as low cost in its sets etc (which I didn’t mind since I thought it was fairly reminiscent of the era anyway). The editing was definitely choppy at certain bits but again, with the revolving door of directors, it’s amazing that it even flowed as a story. Was the story amazing? Contrary to reviewers who thought that the ending was lazy, I actually thought it was one of the more “complete” ways of ending a transmigration story instead of the abrupt did they or did they not meet again, was it a dream nonsense. At least we know for sure that it was Gao Haiming who lived through an entire lifetime of a book to finally meet Lin Huan’er again in her universe.

The acting of the entire cast was decent, but much like how the marketing promotions for the show was carried entirely by the leads, the drama is likewise hard carried by them. Both Chen Xing Xu and Wang Yu Wen more than rise to the occasion. Their acting chemistry is so natural and so fun that it puts a smile on your face just watching them together. And when the drama takes a sudden veer into angst, they are so believable as their characters that you just cry along with them. Word of warning - the last 4 episodes is just a complete sob fest, but in the best of ways.

Would I watch it again? Absolutely yes, but with a fast forwarding of the second lead storyline and much more lingering on the happy and sweet moments between the leads.

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Forced trope and lack of character development

I don't think I'm the right person to analyze the story since I dropped it after three chapters, but from what I saw, it's hard to understand how a character can be so complex.

I mean, when the protagonist spoke with that traumatized tone, as if she still didn't understand the situation she was in, you might say it was obvious because she suffered a traumatic event after seeing her father d* before her eyes, or being poisoned by her own husband or accused of betrayal. But she struck me as a weak character, lacking in backbone, or perhaps harboring deep-seated personal grudges that blinded her to what was right in front of her. The people around her praise her, portraying her as intelligent, as someone who reasons, who understands what's going on around her. But if the plot hadn't given her the chance to return to a point of no return, she might have gone down in history as the most foolish protagonist ever.

But as I said, it's not for me to judge the way something is written because I got bored very quickly. All the other characters seemed very boring to me. The protagonist caught my attention, but the excessive use of red made me nauseous. EVERYTHING, seriously, everything is red. I don't know who was in charge of the set design, but if there had been a variety of colors to express not just anger or disappointment with red, maybe I would consider continuing it.

Oh, and I'm not complaining about the acting; in fact, I liked how they portrayed the protagonist. I mean, I love his bad-boy, troubled vibe (which obviously puts him in a stereotype), but there's something that doesn't quite convince me, and maybe it's the excessive use of CGI. Perhaps they'll improve it in later episodes or change things that aren't noticeable in the first few. But it's often said that the first few episodes are essential for a story to be engaging, and I firmly believe that this is as much as I could give. Thanks, story, but I don't think you're for me.

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The Power of the Slap

This is like watching Taxi Driver operating in schools. Again, the protagonist is an ex special force who is on the road of seeking closure after the loss of a loved one. Na Hwajin lost his fiance in a stabbing at school which left him devastated. Two years later, he made an appearance as the Educational Rights Protection Bureau (ERPB) inspector who goes to schools to investigate bullying cases, the first one being the death of a schoolboy.

I am always a sucker at revenge drama especially when it involves physical fights so it is truly satisfying to see how the ML teaches school bullies - be it the student, teacher or even parents - into admitting their faults and actually paying for it in a justified manner instead of just a slap on the wrists. In his case, he carries out the slap right across the face, multiple times! And the cherry on top is the ML looked exactly like John Cena the wrestler minus bulky body with oversized muscles. 😆 No wonder he looked so dang familiar in the first episode although i am pretty sure this is the first show i ever saw of him. Took me quite a while to finally pinpoint the resemblence.

I truly commend the whole cast here. Every single one performed to their fullest regardless how small their role is. The antagonists, the protagonists, the victims, the perpetrators, you name it, I just couldnt find a flaw at all. The bullied primary school teacher did exceptionally well especially with the supposedly facial tics she suffered due to stress from the bullying by a student’s parent. It must have been hard to do the tics to look so natural whenever she’s agitated.

Although most of the scenes look very far-fetched in the real world, like how the inspectors could survive a 4-storey fall like they’re robots, it didnt stop me from cheering the ERPB at every turn. The awkward other members of ERPB only made the show even more fun to watch, the nerdy deputy director Bong and the eccentric borderline crazy Inspector Im. This is an extremely satisfying watch as the evil ones never go scot free despite being minors. I am looking forward to season 2.

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he’s just way cooler than she is….

OK we wait for episode 29 for a little rom. Typically the fl stays bitchy till the last possible moment. ML character is stellar and almost non-existent in the real world—an absolute jewel. She kicks him to the curb pretty much all the time. He’s too good for her, period. He should be a big time CEO and at least she pushes him back to school which he probably doesn’t need as school doesnt give leadership and Common Sense and humility which he Already Has. I will follow this actor. He really grew on me. She can act but just miscast in this role. it’s a win for me because of Li Yun Rui.

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Music Holds Memories?

Music carries memories of a time that has already passed.... it holds the pieces of time and fragments of a a certain version of us which we used to be... Perhaps that's why we listen to songs and sometimes get lost in the plethora of memories which suddenly floats up the hippocampus... the smell of a person from the past evaporates as the notes rise and fall... Han Jun Hee felt the same maybe after her loss... The star crossed love story is a musical journey through different timelines that's what makes it adorable. And the actors played really well specially Han Jun Hee and Kwon Min Ju was played by the same actress yet I could tell when it was Han jun hee and when it was kwon min ju! Watch it! A strange serenity comes to your heart when you watch good drama atleast for me! And this drama is a 100 in that field!! 💕

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When the Comedy Hits Hard… and the Finale Hits Harder

The last two episodes changed the scale of the whole drama. Initially thought it was an usual wuxia, but it turned out to be so much more - the story, politics, mystery, and the comedy were all brilliant. Can't agree with the romance part - it felt totally unnecessary and there was zero chemistry. I was waiting for everything to unfold, but it just ended, and with what? a BANG! What in the world was that? I have never come across such impactful endings lately!

Let me take a moment to appreciate the Grand Princess - incredibly wise, secretly protects her sister, and even boldly told the Supervisor not to involve Lin An unless absolutely necessary! I thought she was the main lead and maybe has more to her character which was never showed.
As for Lin’an, I don’t mind a female lead who is naïve, or isn't strong, but her character was just so hard to like. The moment she impersonated her sister, I almost dropped the drama out of pure frustration. It seemed like she had no real role to play and couldn't comprehend how she and Qi An fell in love at all. They should have skipped the romance entirely, or paired him with the Grand Princess or the Duchess instead.

On the brighter side, the comedy never failed, especially the family forgetting a person each time lol. I enjoyed the most when they forgot Xinnian as they moved to new house, a series of his embarrassments, and Qi An’s face whenever the lovers kept missing each other on different bridges? Comedy gold.

But my god, those final episodes - what a massive shift in dynamics! Even though Commissioner Zheng and Qi An barely spent any time together, the emotional impact was huge. Dylan's acting was on another level , made the loss feel so raw and deeply personal. Bro, I literally cried non-stop. Its's like he was made for this role. I was cheering and so proud when Qi An sliced their legs - I couldn’t skip a single second.

I have SO many questions left, but you're telling me there's a Season 2?! If I had known this wasn't a standalone show, I wouldn't have started it yet! 😭

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a hidden gem, when viewed with the right lens

What got me the most about this show is the arc we got for our main character Baek-ho. The story is as much about him and his struggles and development as it is about the romance that is central to his journey. It's beautiful and honestly, it's more than worth the watch for him and Yoo Seung Ho's perfomance alone. The other actors were brilliant too. Just a really good drama overall.

spoiler:

The scene in Ep15, where he meets the 'conductor' again after finding out that the man had been his father all along.. my heart, omg. There were a lot of emotionally charged moments in the show, but none tugged at my heart the way this one did— father and son reunited beyond the absolute separation of death. Beautifully bittersweet.

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Can finally check it off my list, Mission Accomplished!

For Goblin fans, no need to read the review below.

I tried watching Goblin back when it was the latest hit, but dropped it midway, and never looked back. But since then the internet world has been raving non-stop and making it out to be the greatest K-drama of all time, but only when my scant memory of the reasons why I dropped it at ep12 faded, was I able to give it another go, more than anything just to check the rite of passage that is this drama off my list. Unfortunately as I expected, completing it felt like a mission, nothing more.

I will start with the positives:
This drama boasts awesome cinematography, Great Production and Overall good performances by all. It can be watched at any time in the future and I believe in terms of production quality it will never feel old. As for Kim Go Eun, having enjoyed her later works and appreciated her great performance, although I was annoyed at the beginning by her over-the-top childish behavior, I cannot be sure if that was her own acting that was to blame. The more the story progressed that more I could feel her acting improve midway through the drama and resemble her performance in later works.

Now moving to the negatives, after having managed to push myself past all the blasphemous storylines, I will try to mention some of the main things that annoyed me with this drama.

1- Drama Length: Whoever decided to produce a drama with 16 episodes each running an average of 1 hour 15~20 minutes made a mistake. Even the writers of an epic Sageuk drama with a complicated saga for a story would still choose to extend the episode count keeping the running time of each episode at a normal length. And honestly speaking, the story here by no means required such a long running time, yes it had its lore and it had two romantic couples with a story each worthy of a separate drama, but I feel the drama could have easily fit into 12 or 14 episodes with normal 1 hour runtime, there were a lot of unnecessary scenes or needlessly long shots of people brooding that could have been edited out of cut short, half way through the drama I was watching with 1.25 or 1.5 playback speed for crying out loud. The ironic thing with such a long-run is that for me their romance somehow felt it was never given enough time to properly mature, because she was so young, overly immature and trusting to cohabitate with two fantastical being, and he was so oddly head-over-heels with a 19 year old just by suspecting she was his destined bride.

2- The Comedy: I generally love mix genre dramas, and the comedic parts I believe were needed in this drama to keep things from feeling too heavy or angsty, but sometimes said comedic parts were so over the top and full of eye-roll and cringe-inducing moments, also the characters were acting so unbelievably immature and childlike for their fantastically long age span. I mean I can understand that he lived for 900+ years and had zero romantic involvement but still that doesn't mean that he acts like a mid-school boy going through his first crush, and the grim reaper would sometimes be acting like a 12 year old and other times be all wise and know-it-all. Sometimes the shift mid scene between heavy angst or thriller to comedy was made nicely, but sometimes the shift was too sudden and extreme it felt like being struck in the face with a bucket of icy cold water.

3- The Romance: I know it is an unpopular opinion, but I thought the romance between the main couple felt off from start to finish.

Even if as a viewer we are able to look past the age gap between a mortal human and a 900+ year-old goblin, it was totally unnecessary to choose to make said human a high-school girl, they could have easily made her an adult since the beginning with the exact same circumstances (he having saved her life as an unborn child thus having created his own bride), so even if she was in her twenties and his physical appearance was mid-40s it would have been less icky to watch. And then we would have been spared from watching a high-schooler acting all clingy blurting out “I love you” to a middle age ajusshi she barely even knew, just cause she sees in him her card-out of a difficult life and having been told my numerous ghosts that she was the goblin-bride.

I always thought watching her act more like a 12 year old all giddy and childlike around him, and him giving her swoony eyes or patting her hair, that it all just felt rather predatory, and I believe the writers opted to tone down their romantic scenes early on in fear of giving off pedophilia-like vibes (there was this scene where they were playing in the arcade and he was all dressed up and she was in her school uniforms and as she was calling him ajusshi as usual, I just thought to myself how on earth any onlooker would not be rightfully thinking that he must be her sugar daddy). I wasn’t blaming her classmate who was spreading rumors that she was dating a middle-aged dude because factually speaking she was.

4- The ending (the most frustrating) ####MAJOR DETAILED SPOILER AHEAD###

So, he chose to perish in order to save her, good……He was finally free of his eternal punishment but still chose to remain in a limbo-like existence to keep a promise he made to her, fine……She has forgotten about him but still suffer from strong feelings of depression and bouts of melancholic emotions which she has no explanation for. Then thanks to her heartfelt wishes and their previous contract, we see that he has been given the opportunity to return to the living world once more, okeeeeeey (reluctantly accept the hard to swallow premise). Also bear in mind, he is still back as an undying Goblin in love with a mortal; in other words the main issue with the story is still unresolved. Then in order to sort out the issue with her being a missing soul who was never meant to be born, the writers chose to make her die an honorable death where she sacrificed herself to save others which I thought was very noble and heartfelt.

Now at this point I would say the writers had the opportunity to choose 1 of two options; make her return as a different un-dying entity such as an angel or whatever (may sound a bit laughable I know but bear with me), and then they both would have had their HEA living a human-like life with just the inconveniency of having to constantly move and change identity to hide their immortality.

If that was too much or too tragic from Ji-Eun-Tak’s perspective, then the second option would have been to have both of their “Lives” end in one way or the another and then to reincarnate in their exact same form and preferably have both of them be in the same age group this time around. If they thought writing a script where he was reborn as a human wouldn’t make sense, did anything else make much sense in this heavy-on-the-fantasy story to begin with? And why was it so simple to write it in that exact same way for the second lead couple and not the main lead couple? Considering the fact that a grim reaper; who is supposed to be a dead soul of a sinner, can get to finish his atonement term and cease to exist, then by the same rule shouldn’t Kim Shin who had been spared of his eternal punishment as a Goblin after having his sword removed be given the same chance?

Honestly just want to rant, but what was the writers insistence to keep him as an undying goblin right till the end, and even worse to have his bride be reincarnated and reunited with him while she is still a highschooler! Is there some reason why the writers were so fixated on keeping the starting point of their star-crossed romance between an almost 1-millennium-old undying being and a 19 year old mortal human?

The Bromance was nice and cute, but many times it was too corny for my taste, and still cannot salvage the show for me.

The OST, had some memorable tracks, but there were annoying instrumental tracks that sounded like old SAGA game BGM, and also a couple of tracks had corny English lyrics that tempted me always to fast forward the scenes they played in.

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Flower boy: A poorly thought out story

The concept of flower boy was quite promising. I was greatly intrigued by the plot and posters before I decided to give it a try. From the very first episode, I realised that not much thought out writing went into this.

The story reads like a first draft with space for tons of improvement. The villain story was too weak, the main leads together did absolutely nothing.

It doesn't really make sense why gaysorn immediately started releasing his fragrance the moment he saw Scent because how was he in love the moment he first laid his eyes on Scent? Also, how did you let the heir of your tribe just leave for the city with a strange man? The very strange man you were suspicious from the beginning, at that. Scent's ex—whys he helping gaysorn out for no reason whatsoever? Gaysorn also seems to adapt living in the city way too fast for my liking. These are few of the reasons why I think the writers didn't really spend much time editing this one.

The fact that the whole series is just 8 eps long doesn't work in their favour either, however, many 8 eps series have performed really great so I wouldn't really blame the poor writing on less showtime.

Overall, I feel like I wasted my time watching this. I don't recommend unless you like the couple or just prefer mindless series to watch in your free time.

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Great plot, very realistic, minus the soul swap lmao Great acting

The plot here is fantastic and something that every business owner dreams of - auditing his own company.
The actors are all great actors and have amazing great scripts, but they are so creative in their roles and really make it fantastically fun to watch. The villains are great. The daughter and the Chairman in young body are great.

The young actor who does the Chairman in young body is SO HILARIOUS, he really nailed down his role, acting like an old geezer.

The actress doing his youngest daughter is also an amazing actress and it is totally refreshing to see a more balanced and complete female role, complex and smart capable female, and an actress who is given a red light to ACT and to be complex and creative in her acting. That is one of the great accomplishments of this drama.

The nasty boy twin actor is an amazing actor, he really nailed down the role of a rather dumb greedy entitled brat - that actor is a master actor

And the villain girl twin actress is convincing too....

The only criticism of this drama is that by ep 6, there is not much character growth of the Chairman in the young body, he is pretty much the same old callous geezer. The drama is about business deals and Chairman and his daughter working together to outdo the evil twins and grab the company.

The Chairman is a brilliant business wheeler and dealer, but he is cold and cruel to people, and by ep 6 does not get much more compassionate while in the young body. At least he paid medical bills of the young guy's grandma.

Hopefully in later episodes, the Chairman becomes a better human being.

FYI for all those sillies who are making up romance accusations:
*** There is NO romance. in this drama. NOWHERE in sight. ****

The young lady sees in front of her a young handsome guy winking at her and taking care of her, so she is smitten, but the young handsome guy is her father and he has NO romantic interests whatsoever, he is 10000% behaving like a good father to his daughter, taking care of his daughter.
And the Chairman and his secretary are just two men who closely work together and are great friends too.

THERE IS NO ROMANCE ANYWHERE

So let's see how it gets resolved at the end. Maybe the young guy will wake up and the Chairman's daughter can then go after him, or maybe the Chairman in young body will have to tell her who he is.

In any case, this drama is fun.

Music is good too.

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Generic drama and hated FL characterization.

I watched this since i was curious about Zhang Junya after watching his drama with Lin Qiting and his acting was quite okay despite being typecast for Mafia-CEO like with tend of loving his wife. The plot was generic acceptable and the chemistry seems too forced. I quite like He Tian Tian's wardobe in here her red dress is beautiful. Personally i really don't like FL characterization in this drama she is supposed to be strong and smart but somehow He Tian Tian acting was kind of subpar and have no charm. They dragged the mistaken identity until 57 episode and somehow ML has no dignity while FL mocks him.

Only stays for Zhang Junya though and his secretary was quite interesting character.

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