Reviews

One of the best enemies to lovers!!

There’s a certain kind of love that doesn’t arrive loudly. It lingers in pauses, in glances, in everything left unsaid. Love in the Clouds is exactly that kind of story. This drama doesn’t rush love rather it lets it ache.
This drama is basically two people trying to outsmart each other and accidentally falling in love in the most painfully beautiful way possible.

Like imagine plotting revenge but then oops you caught feelings and now you’re emotionally unstable.
The tension??? ILLEGAL.
The yearning??? CRIMINAL.
The eye contact??? I need compensation.

They really said: “I will use you.”
“No, I will use you.”
And then both of them uses each other for emotional devastation.

Also why is everyone in this drama suffering so elegantly??? If I was going through half of that, I would not look that good doing it. Meanwhile they’re out here being heartbroken in HD slow motion with wind blowing dramatically.

The slow burn is so slow I aged, healed, and got hurt again while watching it. But the MOMENTS?? The glances?? The almost-confessions?? I was screaming internally like a Victorian woman with no rights.

And don’t even get me started on the whole
“I don’t trust you but I would die for you” dynamic.
That trope alone deserves a national award. Plot? Deception, poison, revenge, hidden identities basically chaos but make it romantic. By the end, I wasn’t even watching, I was emotionally participating.

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A Soft, Warm Feel-Good Drama

I watched Soundtrack #1 and this was honestly such a lovely, easy series to watch. It’s one of those dramas that you watch when you just want something warm, emotional, and comforting.

The main actors, Park Hyung-sik and Han So-hee, have really nice chemistry together. Their dynamic feels very natural and comfortable, which fits the story perfectly because it’s about friendship, love, and feelings that slowly grow. Nothing feels forced or overly dramatic.

I always enjoy watching Park Hyung-sik in dramas, and here again he was very good. He plays these quiet, loyal, caring characters very well, and this role really suits him. He brings a calm and warm feeling to the series.
What I liked most about this drama is that it feels very realistic and recognizable. The conversations, the awkward moments, the small emotional scenes — it all feels very real and relatable. It’s not a big dramatic story, but a small, personal one.

It’s also just a perfect series to watch when you want a feel-good moment. I actually watched it on the couch with a blanket and a cup of tea and finished it in one go. It’s short, easy to watch, and just very cozy and comforting.

The music is also very beautiful and of course very important in this series. The songs fit perfectly with the story and really help create the emotional atmosphere. The music and the story really work together very nicely.

I honestly think the overall review score for this drama could have been higher, because it’s a very well-made, soft, emotional series that does exactly what it’s supposed to do: make you feel warm and a little emotional.
It’s a sweet, calm, romantic drama that is perfect to watch in between heavier series. Just relaxing, emotional, and very enjoyable.

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What the... cringe

This was quite a disappointment and hard to get through.
The review will be a bit short, because there is not much to say.

The premise is decent, but the execution is too cringe. It felt like a gag webtoon was put on a screen. Everything was dialed to the max. No subtlety in sight.
The female lead is at times normal, but at times she gets over the top with things. The ML is over the top like with reactions and everything like 95% of the time. Spouting "fitness" advice, thats wrong half the time. And all the side characters are pretty cringe too.
The sideplot of the ex girlfriend was kinda meh, and her story didnt feel relevant or impactful at all.

If you want a kdrama about unfit woman getting fit and falling in love with her trainer then check out Oh my Venus. I have some issues with that one too, especially the male lead being kinda stiff, but honestly thats better then being cringe for the whole show.

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Mediocre

gawd ill be real with you, this series bored me out of my mind. Everything was lackluster from the plot to the acting. The time traveling plot made zero sense to me. I already hated it when he managed to go to the past and future easily. Basically there was no medium for this time travel, he managed to go back to the present cuz he ripped a drawing and then to the past when he drew again and then went back again when he interrupted a death? and supposed to accident was so stupid and anti climatic. bro literally wasn't paying attention to the road at all. He is stupid. Also the force villainization of the best friend for some reason?? made absolutely zero sense, why was U Jin treating his own friend like a gum stuck on his shoe? It literally came from no where. Now the acting, lacked alot of emotions. I expect that when you meet the love of your life again after he died it would be more emotional but he had the same face the entire time. Even the kiss was pretty meh by today standards. Didn't even see anything, was either too dark or too bright or was just a peck kiss. So meh from the beginning to the end.

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Semua orang kena tipu

Banyak yg bilang kalo nonton drama ini harus punya IQ tinggi. Iya bener karena nontonnya bikin pusing dan mikir sebenernya siapa yg asli dan palsu? Tipikal drama yg bikin binge-watching karena ceritanya yg bikin kepo tingkat max di tiap akhir episodenya. Kebetulan karena ini drama Netflix yg semua episodenya langsung ada bikin penonton bisa namatin satu kali duduk. Akting Shin Hye sun dan semua aktor aktris drama ini ga usah diraguin lagi. Bener2 ga ada yg failed. Apalagi scene di ruang interogasi yg mainin facial expression, wah gila keren bgt. Ini drama kedua Shin Hye sun yg aku tonton yg ceritanya agak plot twist (sebelumnya di film yg sm Byun Yohan) dan emang cocok bgt mainin karakter cerdas manipulatif kyk gini. Overall drama ini bagus bgt ditonton apalagi kalo lg cari yg bikin mikir. Meskipun masih ada beberapa hal yg mungkin terkesan gantung, tapi kyk kalimat terakhir drama ini, mungkin emang tujuannya kyk gitu : bikin penonton bertanya2 dan meragukan setiap pemikiran mereka

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A breathtaking jade i'll cherish eternally

I was a sobbing mess during the last episode. 😭 As someone who doesn't usually watch historical cdramas, I never expected this to leave such a lasting impact on me, but Pursuit of Jade completely captured my heart. Everything from the story, conversations, and character relationships to political schemes and fight sequences was so well-written and well-executed.

Of course, none of this would work without the brilliant cast! All of them portrayed their characters with so much intentional detail in every stare and every movement. Even the villains or complex characters like Qimin were so fascinating to watch.

Huge credit goes to the author, screenwriters, and director for their vision. They managed to convey themes that are so relevant to our generation today. You can tell they worked incredibly hard to make the story's message resonate with us.

I was constantly in awe of the symbolism and foreshadowing in every frame and even the lighting choice felt vital to each and every character and their story.

Only a few shows have ever made me feel this alive. Reply 1988 for its warmth, Lovely Runner for its strength, and The First Frost for its hope, and now Pursuit of Jade has earned its spot. I’ve loved watching Changyu’s journey and seeing her version of feminism and love unfold. There's so much grace and courage with the way she carries herself. Whether she’s loving fiercely or standing her ground for what’s right, she does it with a kind of bravery that leaves everyone around her inspired.

I’m going to miss this world so much but I’m so happy I got to experience it in real-time. This is definitely my drama of the year!

P.S. I also deeply loved the parallel world shown at the end. Seeing a version of their lives where those tragic events never happened felt so healing. I find myself doing that in real life too, imagining how, if things had gone differently, we might be living a life full of love, happiness, and warmth we deserve, staying with our loved ones for as long as possible. It felt so deeply personal i just couldn't help but to cry and appreciate everything. 💕

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why do i still keep watching this series??!

In the fifth installment of the University Series, where you'd expect the screenwriters would get better at adapting a wattpad novel for screen, somehow they keep getting worse with each season. Via as a character never truly stood out to me in the previous adaptations, but I am nothing if not a *sucker* for best friends to lovers trope - so I was genuinely looking forward to this (even when MDL ratings told me not to). Unfortunately, the other reviews and ratings are correct.

Before expressing my disappointment, let me point out the few things i LOVE about the series, and the reason why i *will* watch the 6th season too.
1. The Group - I think the OG writer has done a great job creating this friend group. Their banter and moments are my favourite part of this compilation series.
2. Social Media - while a lot of other modern stories dont fully include just how much we are online in today's reality, I think this series does a great job at capturing the online world and language.
3. Obsessive fan culture - Though we didn't dive deep but I liked the commentary on fan culture and the death of private life for celebrities - i also liked the critique of love team contracts where the "couple" needs to maintain the relationship even when off-cam.
4. That one episode that was just full of easter eggs and everyone's actual first-meets.

Now for the letdowns,
Acting has never been a great sell for this series, but MAN this season was especially bad. i felt NO chemistry between the leads, particularly from the FL side. they just *always* felt like friends to me instead of a couple. The dialogues were cringey (but thats true for every season), and the kiss scenes were SO AWKWARD. the "sex" scenes even worse. I feel like it would have been better if the director had decided to just insinuate those scenes than whatever they did in the show. I FELT SECOND HAND EMBARASSMENT IT WAS SO BAD.
And while we are talking about the director, why was the handheld camerawork SO JARRING? i genuinely felt dizzy while watching the show, i was convinced i'm having a vertigo episode. To make matters worse, the screenwriters didn't do well either - the couple kept having the same fights, the characters were so inconsistent going from “i was selfish i need to apologise” to “we shouldn’t have ever met” to “i need to apologise” in the same damn episode; it was truly tiring to watch.
Also, this one's petty but, WHY SO MANY DAMN FLASHBACKS AND MONTAGES?? EVERY DAMN TIME HE SINGS.

In conclusion, I think this entire series would've benefited A LOT if the creators had continued to keep each season only 10 episodes long.

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Amazing acting couldn't save this series from the trashy script

I feel it started off pretty good. Kept me engaged. I did have a lot of questions from the start but then i thought it'd be answered later in the show but then that never happened. The show ended with 0 context or pretext to a lot of things.

The show starts with Hye Seong missing his first love I jin and ends up drawing him resulting in a time travel (Ok makes sense although they were hinting it was a breakup i felt he was dead so i watched from that pov). Everything was okay till here but then instead of saving his first love bro literally avoids him like a pest🙄 for 50% of the drama and even goes back to the original timeline.

During this time they also bring in a color blindness troupe which was totally left unaddressed till the end.
He goes back and there they show that he had actually vanished from the present (i was guessing a time pause or soul switch with the younger self but nah he vanished for hours)

Now his sis tells him U Jin died looking for him and she lied and all of a sudden bro wants to go back in time and save him🙄 he goes back. Now i get U jin was happy to see him back after days and didnt push him on the vanishing part but bro didnt doubt the sudden personality change or ask about his confession🙄. They again bring up the color blindness thing and brush it off🙃 like why?? Then finally he and Tae Jun decide to protect U jin which is okay but then he tells Tae Jun about the fact that hes a time traveler at the absolute end so when did he give him letter tae jun gave u jin?

Also how did TJ and UJ lose contact when HS was the one who went abroad to study? Also when he "time travelled" his body would literally vanish from the other universe so how tf is this time travel?? Which means young HS never existed??

There were a lot of things that were just half done. Although i initially did rate this an 8 i bring it to 6 cz the story was really trash. It was literally overrated cz the actors were really good. I watched it but I'd not recommend this to anyone.

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A touchy love story

After a long time, I was completely obsessed with the story of the drama Pursuit of Jade.
Except for the ending, I liked everything about the drama. I had expected more from the ending, though it was a happy one.
I liked the chemistry between the leads: the bitter love story between Yu Qian Qian and Qi Man, the cute love story between Gongsun Yin and Qi Shu, and last but not least, the adorable pairing of the child artist.
I liked the supporting characters as well.
There were so many scenes that gave me goosebumps. One of the scenes was when he ran after her on horseback, caught her with one hand, pulled her up, and made her sit on the horse. That scene—oh my God! I had no words to describe it; it was an excellent direction.
Overall, the drama was very good.

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the missed opportunities made me pause and rethink all of my life choices

GOD , am not someone who enjoys the historical/war aspects of a kdramas especially if it contains elements of abuse,grape , violence...i mean DUH its war😂but despite my reluctance, i found myself enjoying the story in some parts even if i couldn't get why they did half of the actions nd only supported jung hyung's actions cause that man is SMARTTTT like damnnn.

-what made this kdrama the best experience for me is the romance parts nd let me tell u something,the angst , the yearning, the freaking crying , the light touches , the HUGS omgggg and their expressions? they only acted with their faces half the time with no touching involved and it got me on my knees.

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Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained; I’m Glad I Took the Shot

It is a wrap! What a wholesome journey it has been. I will definitely miss this series a lot. It will probably takes some time to move on so I am going to rewatch it especially the Xigu Lane arc. A disclaimer; I am just a casual drama watcher, I’m no expert and I am watching for entertainment. This is just my two cents for the drama and I won’t put any spoilers here because I personally do not like getting spoiled.

THE CAST

To whoever did the casting, give him/her an extra bonus, because they did such a great job. I love all the castings, from main leads to all supporting characters, man even the eunuch was a great actor for me. They all fit their characters so well that now I’m reading the novels, it is like another drama adaptation for me in my head.

I follow both TXW and ZLH and imo, this is the best I’ve seen them in roles. I understand the hype of their pairing. Their chemistry is really worth a second drama, or third and fourth.

I don’t think anyone else can carry FCY role as well as TXW; that gap of adorable features and boyish is very hard to pull off. I think it’s refreshing to see FL that does not always have this demure vibe or a crafty mastermind; just a straightforward simple FL but not weak enough to be a damsel in distress. I wish TXW can get a lot more different characters especially action ones, because I think she can pull that off. I also love the fact that she is allergic to romance; you should watch the BTS, they are very fun on their own fr.

ZLH also ate this role; maybe because he doesn’t have many action scenes, I focused more on his acting instead. Someone mentioned that ZLH nailed nuance acting in this and after researching about it, I wholeheartedly agree. You can see how far his acting has grown and I can’t wait to see more. And among all of his dramas, XZ looks the best; he really pull off both masculine and soft looks.

THE OST & CONCEPT USED

I love all the OSTs especially once I read the lyrics. It added so much depth and flavors to the whole series. I also love that from the title and characters’ names, the costumes and the characters themselves stem from historical and cultural inspirations. It teaches me something new which I really appreciate. It makes the series more endearing when I learnt the meaning behind each of them.

THE DRAMA & DRAMA

I have to say the drama surely had tanked a lot of issues. From the rumors the leads had beef with each other, to apparently their agents that actually beefing, fandom billing war, the amount of trolls account they got, data manipulation allegations, pacing issues that was said to butcher the drama up, and the leaks of whole 10 episodes; regardless, look how far the series have gotten. This drama is definitely a breakthrough for CDrama and I’m here for it.

For plot holes and pacing issues, I do not think it is as bad as some people put it. Its main plot is romance and it delivers it very well. (yes, I swoon a lot watching). It is the typical issue for dramas, either flop at the beginning or it drops in the end. I think the most affected arc for me is during Lord Chang Xin arc, too many things happened but too compressed, it feels kind of choppy and they had to cut corners to fit everything in. If only the episode-limit ban was lifted much early on, we could get 50 or 60 episodes at a better pace. But the drama does pick up again towards the end, not as good as Xigu Lane, but it did recover to an extent. I have to say I'm very sad about the cut scene in Ep 38, i don't think it is something that need to be censored. I was looking forward to it real bad too.

All in all, there is no perfect fiction. Fiction in itself meant something of the not real world; it’s a manifestation of someone’s imagination. For any illogical plot or the inconsistencies that exist, the rule of cool applies. The main purpose is for our enjoyment anyways, so I am willing to overlook small plot holes because the vibes and emotions were solid. For any changes from the novel, that is up to the creator’s creative liberty on their own works. Of course, there are few things I love and dislike about the addition in the drama or parts that I prefer to follow the novel, but its quite overboard to discredit the whole drama for the small portion of the issues. And too much analytical and critical judgement sort of take away part of the fun, if I have to do all that, I might as well go to work.

TO SUM UP

In the end, it is whether YOU like it or not that matters. Preference is subjective after all. Give it a shot and see; if you like it then that’s good, we can simp together, if you don’t, also okay, maybe in the next drama we see each other. My suggestion would be to watch the drama first, and then read the novel for the best experience. As writing materials would have more details and elaboration for plot and characters, reading the novel first would create certain expectation for the adaptations; which for me lessen the experience of the drama because I can’t help but compare them together.

Thank you for reading and happy watching guys!

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Dissapointed, Would not recommend

dude I never imagined Teh would ever be a cheater, the whole season pissed me off, the whole time all oh-aew did was try to show Teh love, Oh aew needed love and stayed loyal, even in the moment when a guy tried to ask for Oh aew's number and oh-aew said no meanwhile Teh didn't stay loyal, Then there was this scene where Oh-aew brought Teh flowers and how did the scene end? Teh being neglectful again. Oh-aew always showed Teh love but Teh somehow wasn't able to give it back. Then the tattoo situation pissed me off, dude come on. Then Teh cheated on Oh-Aew and Oh-Aew saw, dude was crushed meanwhile. Oh-aew was being such a good boyfriend, While Teh was off cheating on him. As if the bra scene from I told sunset about you wasn't enough dude. Then the scene where Teh and Oh-aew were singing on the stage and Teh forgot Oh-aew was there because he was too busy staring at Jai, and then Oh-aew was standing there with Tears in his eyes and when Teh ran after him Oh-aew kept asking Teh if he thinks he's stupid then he threw the flowers at him, and Teh starts crying? Like dude you have no right to cry? You were out cheating on him and being neglectful. Dude you're only crying because you got caught. then at the end they get back together? They are better off as friends because how could you go back to a guy like Teh, Should have left when you had the chance. But instead you got back together. It also annoyed me how everyone was happy when they should be mad after everything Teh did to him. Dude I will never rewatch this again

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Absolute gold. Highly unexpected and underrated

This drama is beautiful. From cinematography to plot to story to characters, this drama has everything. It's perfectly paced and every role is well written. I loved the character building of both the lead couple and the second couple.

The lead couple showcased resilience, soft and quiet love, not the momentary infatuation that strikes and fades, but commitment that respects, nurtures, and stays. Fang muyang and Fei Ni are both dedicated to each other, giving each other time and space to grow.

The second couple was so unexpected!! I loved the progression of their storyline... from mutual distrust to supporting each other, they really stood out.

There is not a single boring episode, even the side characters are well portrayed.
Overall, this drama is a 10/10. The type of show that stays in one's heart and makes you rewatch.

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