Reviews

The Plot theories could be better.

I liked the whole drama and their romantic stories, but the plot of the past was too vague that left a confusing taste.

I liked the main leads a lot, their acting, chemistry and the romance is what made me keep watching the drama. But they could have done a better work with the plot of the past.
I really liked the characters, like how strong the female lead was, how they both depended on each other and strengthened each other. I especially like the dramas where both characters are strong.

But I have a bunch if complain in the plot.
The whole plot seemed like there was 2 different writers wrote the story from 2 different theory and merged it into one which made almost no proper sense.

First theory could be soul swap. If the story was about soul swap between 2 different people with same face from past and present, then the story could make a different sense. The story could be like, Shin Seori had an accident in her childhood and swapped with a soul from past but with same face and then both of them lived their life in different body until Shin Seori in past body died drinking poison and returned to her real body of the present since she is the real owner of the body. Later, when she finally found out that she has no fear of going back they live happily ever after while solving the problems in the present life. And in that case, Se Gye had no reason to have dreams of that prince since it never really held much contribution to the plot.

Second theory could be reincarnation. If the story was about reincarnation, and the whole step up of the past and the future is almost same with similar people, that could make a different sense. The story could be like, Shin Seori for some reason lost the memory of her modern life and got back her past life's memories and mistook herself as a soul coming to a modern world. That could explain how she easily got used to the modern world since deep inside she just lost her memory. Also, while forgetting her trauma of her childhood, she suddenly could act like she used to in her childhood. Then at some point, she finally regained the memories of her modern life and realize that she doesn't need to go back to the past. This could mean that they could not reunite in the past, but they finally did in the present era which would make a lot of sense.

Even if they wanted to bring that ill fate theme into this drama, they could just write a better story. The plot was so messy and made no good sense.

There are more parts that they did not clear in the past life story. Like after the prince's death how did she just ended up as a queen and if she really loved the king or she just couldn't avoid the situation. Since the FL was a proud queen, they should have shown her as queen more than they showed her as a maid.

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worth it

I seen this 92-93 when I was around 6 or 7 years old, and I watched it again as an adult. I thought it was very good, especially the child actress.

The story begins at the FU residency, the father upsets with his son for falling in love with the maid. they were arguing. The son and the maid ran away together and got married. 1 year later, the Maid returned with a baby in hand and her husband coffin. the family was heartbroken and devastated. skip to a few years later

This story is about these two young girls, one barely 18 and a little girl that is most likely 8 or 9 years old. These girls are neighbors, Qing Qing (18 years old) and Xiao Cao, living arrangement were not the best. Qing Qing lives with her older brother and his wife while Xiao Cao is living with a foster family/ "Grandpa's family" (She calls him grandpa, but he isn't her bio grandpa). Both these family were abusive to the girls. Qing Qing has been sold off to an arrange marriage and Xiao Cao has been verbally abused and neglected. (Though, I did not think the foster father was so bad, he seemed to show some sympathy for her, it was his wife.) When Grandpa's money stop coming thats when the abuse started.
Qing Qing was stuck with this arrange marriage and Xiao Cao wanted to look for her grandpa, both girls decided on the day of the wedding, they will run away.
Qing Qing and Xiao Cao successfully ran away from her wedding by sneaking on to a carriage which there was also a man, Shih Wei, hiding because he was trying to escape an arrange marriage as well. The man gives carriage driver money for the ride.

Xiao Cao tells him about her situation and that she wants to find her grandpa, the three of them start traveling together to reach the FU residency where Xiao Cao grandpa works. The servants says her grandpa was kicked out because he was stealing money from the Fu family. Xiao Cao was heart broken and did not believe them, she ran into the house calling for her Grandpa.
Madam Fu walks came out because of all the commotions, blind, (because she cried so much she went blind) . She hears the voice of the man, she mistaken Shih Wei for her son that died at the beginning of the episode.
They ended up staying at the Fu Residency for a while for Madam FU's sake. The Fu Patriarch not happy about it but ended up allowing it to happen. The three of them were allowed to stay at the Fu residency temporarily while they track down Xiao Cao's grandpa. Xiao Cao begins to warm everybody's heart. Everyone in the FU family started to care for her and love her like she was their granddaughter. The Fu Patriarch wasn't so angry anymore.

Shih Wei and Qing Qing started getting a long, and they started liking each other, Shih Wei's finance came by, there was some conflict there.
The Fu family neighbor had two brothers next door, an older brother around the same age as Shih Wei and Qing Qing and the younger brother same age as Xiao Cao. They all became friends. and they traveled somewhere together.
Xiao cao and neighbor boy started going to school together.
She got hit by a car and was seriously hurt. It was a hit and run. Xiao cao recovers 5-6 episodes later.

Xiao Cao's Grandpa came back. Xiao Cao's Grandpa, felt guilty all these years and started crying and spilling the truth. He confessed that Xiao Cao is actually the Fu family grand daughter and that she is in fact, their son's and the maid's daughter and the reason for all the missing money was paying to support Xiao Cao all those years. Fu family shocked more crying. Xiao Cao was happy to reunite with grandpa.
Everyone knew the truth except Xiao Cao. When Xiao Cao finally learns the truth, she asked where her mother is and what had happened to her. Xiao Cao was brought to see her mother. Her mother was filled with so much grief when her husband died, she lost her mind, (Postpartum depression, Grief) she was trying to harm herself and there were times where she was trying to harm Xiao Cao. Xiao Cao's maternal grandma, gave Xiao cao to the servant (Xiao Cao grandpa). Xiao Cao hearing this and learning the truth about what happened to her parents was upset with the Fu family. She stays mad at them for a while.


Xiao Cao's mom started showing improvement. Qing Qing and Shih wei lectured Xiao Cao about forgiveness. Xiao Cao finds her grandparents at her father's grave to tell them, she loves them and she forgives them.

and they all live happily ever after.

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THIS CONTENT MAJOR SPOILER, BUT YOU CAN READ IT SO WE CAN HAVE THE OPINIONS TOGETHER :)

Ratings

Cinematography – 10/10
Absolutely magnificent. Every scene was beautifully shot and visually captivating.

OST – 9/10
The soundtrack fits the drama perfectly and enhances the emotional impact of each scene. While I may not listen to it every day, it definitely complements the story well.

Plot – 9/10
The storyline was engaging, and the ending was one of the best I’ve seen. The writers were even kind enough to provide an alternative ending, giving justice to the characters and satisfying viewers who had invested in their journeys. However, the middle portion felt a little draggy due to the lengthy war arc.

Overall Composition

* 85% War & Politics
* 5% Family
* 5% Comedy
* 5% Romance

One thing I really appreciated about the main couple was the lack of unnecessary misunderstandings and miscommunication. Their relationship felt mature, with the only major issue revolving around hidden identities.

I also loved the female lead’s strong and bold personality. However, towards the later episodes, both the male and female leads started to feel somewhat plain to me. I can’t quite explain why, but from around Episode 30 onwards, even though their relationship was developing, it somehow lost some of its spark and excitement.

Episode Highlights

Episode 15 onwards
The story becomes heavily focused on war and political conflicts.

Episode 30
This is where things become emotionally difficult as the drama begins revealing major truths and reaches its climax.

Episode 35
Everything starts to feel more satisfying because many of the hidden truths have finally been revealed.

Episode 36
One of my favourite episodes. Seeing Fan Chang Yu finally embrace and wield the power of Marquis Wu’An was incredibly satisfying.

Episode 40
Without a doubt, the best episode of the entire drama. It might even be one of the best final episodes I’ve ever watched. Instead of being a filler ending, every minute served a purpose. It revisited important truths, memories, and character arcs while providing an excellent alternative ending. Most importantly, every character received the justice they deserved, allowing them to find peace and happiness instead of remaining trapped in endless conflict.

Does This Drama Set the Standard?

Personally, not really.

It’s a very good drama, but not good enough for me to consider it the benchmark for all future period dramas. I’ve seen many netizens saying that *Pursuit of Jade* has ruined other dramas for them because nothing can compare. My reaction was simply: *“You must have only started watching period dramas recently.”* There are still many historical dramas that, in my opinion, surpass this one in terms of storytelling and emotional impact.

That said, if there were an award for Best Final Episode, *Pursuit of Jade* would easily win it.

Final Rating: 9.3/10

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It's FUN!

A fun continuation of a quirky little BL series that has been such a joy to watch. The show continues poking fun at the slightly ridiculous and cliché ways the BL world operates, and once again, it absolutely nails the comedy. Every episode had me laughing, and it left me looking forward to the finale.

Let's Dive In.

Not much to say! This season sticks to the same winning formula it has for the past two seasons. It follows our beloved "NPC" protagonist as he does everything in his power to avoid ending up in a pairing, leading to plenty of hilarious situations along the way. I like how each episode focused on two BL tropes, particularly the tickling and school festival being pretty fun.

The lead does, as always, a perfect job with his acting and everyone else is fun too. Overall, as you can see from this review, this series is FUN ! so watch it!

Ratings:

Story: 8.5/10 - Still as hilarious as ever. A few draggy parts, but otherwise, good!

Acting: 9/10 - I love the hyperbolic acting out of Japan. It's so cringe, but it knows that it is, which is why it's so perfect.

Music: 6/10 - Nice little theme song.

Recommendation Values: 9/10 - Yes! it's a nice series to just sit back and relax and not really care about what's happening. Laugh, awe a little, maybe even cry, who knows.

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funny, charismatic and a bit confusing

this is not the show if you are looking for well explained time travel concepts. it explains just enough to let you know what happened. however, the details go overlooked or not fully flashed out for the most part, especially towards a somewhat rushed end that at least ends well enough to be satisfying.

does it matter that some concepts are not flashed out? well, it depends on you. for me it didn't erase my enjoyment at all. the romcom was romcomming. the male lead was down bad the whole time. he truly said: "this woman is crazy and i want to scream at the top of my lungs how obsessed i am." shin seori didn't fall behind. a little weird but so full of hope and life, so energetic and also not a damsel in distress when it mattered. full of will and amazingly acted, too!

them together? an amazing watch, very compelling even when everything around them never reached the same level of character study (and thus, my care/appreciation). if you are here for the romance, then the dish is delicious. if you want a more complex story... well, go to another restaurant.

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Entertaining but not without flaws

Finally a kdrama without childhood connection, without annoying second lead, without unnecessary misunderstanding or breakups....its been such a long time since romcom in kdrama has actually romcomed....and yeah it was entertaining till the end. But ofcourse,not without its flaws.

The main strength behind My Royal Nemesis is of course our lead couple, Shin Seori and Cha Segye. And the actor duo that portrayed those characters, Im Ji Yeon and Heo Nam Jun deserves a huge round of applause for this. They actually revived so many dead kdrama watchers from their graves lol.
People knows Im Ji Yeon from The Glory as a villain. But I absolutely adored her in the Legend of Lady Ok as the main lead,she was fantastic. So I had no doubt about her.

The one I actually had doubt was Heo Nam Jun. I've seen him doing secondary roles before in dramas like Sweet Home,When The Phone Rings. It wasn’t anything special. But my oh my,the way he changed the game the moment he stepped up as a Cha Segye ... He was extremely attractive on the screen. He wasnt a typical sweet good looking male lead. He was bad, arrogant,cocky and he was really proud of it. His softness, his smile,his gentleness was only saved for Seori till the end. And his yearning for Seori when she fell into coma was too good to watch,he was actually devastated.Heo Nam Jun deserves more and more diveres characters,he has the range.

And these two did justice to their roles. Shin Seori as someone from Joseon who quickly adapted to the modern world,since she was originally a part of it before the soul swapping happened, but still trapped in the past cause her memory was lost....was really entertaining. She has been a part of royalty, so ofcourse her personality reflects that,always commanding and questioning everything that doesn’t please her. I also loved little detailing in her dressing in modern era,not revealing anything since she is from Joseon. And Cha Segye being absolutely amazed and unfazed by her one after another crazy to crazier activities.... At some point he was'nt even worried, he just stayed beside her and let her be. Loved that dynamics. They were bickering from the beginning till the end,their chemistry isn’t something extremely sensual,it was fun,adorable, cute,crazy.

But ofcourse, its not all sunshine rainbow. It had its fair share of flaws and unanswered questions. My first question was,where is Danshim? We know it was Seori in both eras,he got loved by both Lee Hyun and Cha Segye.... But what about Danshim? That poor Joeson girl got swapped into modern era,how did she survived here? She knew no one, how could she adapt here. Her life was as miserable as Seori,I wish we could see her story too. Yeah, we saw a little bit of her with Lee Hyun in the end... But again,Hyun loved Seori,not Danshim,how can he love again a completely different person with same face? How did Danshim knew Hyun,she was never appointed as his servant..... There should be a sequel with their story.

And why was the swapping happened anyway? What was the reason? Was it only for punishment?
And why was Seori poisoned in Joseon era as a concubine? How did she become a concubine, how was that journey?

Why was grandpa so mean towards Cha Segye? He was his own grandson,why he favoured Mun Do so much?

The amount of hospital scenes were craaaazzyyyy..... Cha segye being poisoned,grandpa seori accident,halmoni being amnesiac, Segye got stabbed,Seori in coma.....half the drama was shoot in the hospital!!!!

Another thing was the ending. It was rushed. Choi Mun Do being a powerful villain was taken down in the last episide only within five minutes. He could be used way better. And the grandma plot was very touching but somehow dragging,not gonna lie. Lots of character were underused like Mu Hee.That manager-actress relationship was so half cooked. And what about that side actress having beef with Seori? What was her issue? I guess we will never know.

If it was a proper 16 episodes drama,many more factors could be explored....it just felt like it ended so early.

However, it was a good watch. God knows when will there be another kdrama where everyone would gather and discuss theories like this. This one really brought back so many memories.

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So much and yet so little

Ok I finished this drama... finally. And I'll keep this breif cause I usually do not write reviews. First the good parts:

-The acting: Steelar! Chen Du Ling just carried the whole show and Zhou Yi Ran, well that face speaks for itself. The supporting caste did a great job too. (The best thing of the drama ngl)

-The chemistry: The chemistry wasn't overly hot or sweet but still enough you could push through the whole drama for them and it makes sense since they both had their struggles. Noice.

-The ost: I know I did not rate the ost that high but it was genuinely good. Especially the intro.

-Sets and costumes: Do I even need
to say anything about it? Fire 🔥🔥

Now the bad things:

- The plot: I don't know why but this drama suffered a chronic case of bad writing and bad pacing. The pacing was too fast that you didn't really absorb anything and still too slow because nothing really happened. Things that were supposed to be given time were not guven any and things that could be just skipped was stretched. (Like the literary gatherings. Be honest, did we really need that?)

-The story: The story started out great with all these lines of revege and saving her father and all but at one point... it just dragged. The side charaters (Xie gongzi and Deng Yi) kept schemeing but nothing seemed to happen.

-A jiu: Sure the actor was steller but that does not mean the character was too. The character to me (personal opinion here) seemed to bland. He only had two degrees, i.e, A zhao and gloomy. No personal thoughts, wishes, alliances. He revolved around A zhao and I think (again personally) he could be given a bit more time.

Conclusion: So overall it is really not a bad drama. It just missed some marks but honestly you could definitely watch it and maybe you might enjoy it too! (I personally skipped whole of almost every episode after like ep10)

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Perfect starter drama.

Starts great, but my interest started to wane around episode 7.

They somehow believably made this ridiculous bet work, and I think a lot of that had to do with how obvious it was that Ryo was down bad from the very beginning.

Acting was good, and they really embodied their characters. They also don't act over the top like in a lot of Japanese dramas I've seen, which is a major plus. Our leads also had good chemistry, and the cuddles were good. I love a good cuddle.

The stress relief scene in episode 2 is what made me want to watch the series. It's so cute! Zen also looks small and adorable in that moment. Sad to say, but besides this part, I'm probably not going to remember anything from this drama in a couple of months.

I love a good rivals-to-lovers trope, and this one was done really well; however, It's not memorable. I'm not going to be thinking of it at all now that I've finished it. I don't really care if we get more, even though if we get more, I do feel it's deserved.

Futami's actor was done dirty with that bowl haircut. I've heard he is really good-looking in the manga.

This is an easy drama to recommend to anyone, especially beginners, because it has good acting, production value, the chemistry between the actors is good, and it isn't too in your face with the NC scenes. It also has just the right amount of drama for someone who wants to watch a drama, but not be stressed out.

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Great for Family Theme, Mediocre for Action

Kwon Dohoon tries hard to be a good father and husband but his line of work constantly drives a wedge between him and his family, despite him being the family’s major breadwinner. An expert sniper for the National Intelligence Service who is often away from home during important events like his father’s knee surgery and their 10y wedding anniversary, Kwon Dohoon found himself driven into an even tighter spot when his wife Kang Yura misunderstands his relationship with his Chief, the beautiful Oh Chunryun upon her return from their supposedly anniversary vacation turned solo trip. And just as they manage to straighten things out between them, a man named Taegu turned up at their doorstep. Yura introduced him as her cousin but Taegu turned out to be the key to a bigger and darker secret of the nation, threatening to rip apart this second family that she cherished and pushing her to do whatever means necessary to protect them at all cost.

I took up this title expecting Mr & Mrs Smith or The Incredibles kind of show, but it turned out to be a lot like Modern Family instead. The pacing is very slow as theyre more focused on portraying how tight-knit the family is, with Kang Yura acting like a glue to keep the family in order with her husband being constantly out of the picture when important things come up. It took 5 episodes for FL’s backstory to emerge, and the pace only picked up on the action at Episode 7 when FL’s real face resurfaced and bullets and punches flew all over the place.

As opposed to the dramatic hollywood spy/secret agent shows, this drama instead showcased the couple of differing sides to be very calm and collected, diffusing any strain that could ever emerged had this been an american production. Just like how Kwon Dohoon try to be understanding about Oh Chunryun’s background, he did the same with his wife, never mentioning it openly but went directly to be her support by his actions instead. Although I love how maturely understanding their bond is, i do feel quite disappointed that he never talked about it onscreen and they never showed how his team reacted to the new Kang Yura they discovered during an intense shootout at their supposedly covert office.

I totally love the portrayal of Kwon Dohoon although he does act quite like a prick in the early episodes, and Jang Nara is so gorgeous here I didnt want for her to be off the screen at all. Love it even more when she rips her typical gentle wife mask and went Black Widow in last quarter of the show.

I loved how they portrayed the family, but it turned me off when the writer decided that it’s fine to sexualize 7year-old children’s friendship and turn it into an obsession. It’s like seeing a kid beauty pageant that dolls up a bunch of little girls as mature sexy women. It’s gross. I fastforwarded whatever scenes that have Minseo and Boseok cuz it just doesnt bode well with my moral conscience.

Other than that, this is like the usual family drama with a pinch of action.

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Makes you think

I liked this a lot at the start but I think it sort of fizzled out a bit.

Some things that happen feel a little convenient, and there some other plot points that are set up but don't have the pay-off I expected. While I understand that this is more of a quiet and contemplative slow burn, the final episode left me feeling a bit unsatisfied.

With that being said, however, there were a lot of interesting themes introduced here — it addresses depression and envy in extremely creative ways, and I appreciate the drama even more for being brave enough to make its main character unlikable.

I think My Mister is still my top Park Hae Young drama by far, but anyone who enjoyed that and My Liberation Notes will like this one too.

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