Reviews

Hits close to home in a good way.

Today's the last day of showing in our local cinemas. I tried so hard to stop myself from rewatching, yet in the end, I rewatched it today because this movie has been on my mind ever since my first watch last month.

I thought I wasn't gonna cry because I know the whole trajectory of the film, but boy was I wrong. It still hits close to home. The storyline is simple, but it's so damn relatable. Despite some nuances, I know that we Asians have some similarities in our family cultures. I'm not Thai nor Chinese, but I still related to M's family problems and complex relationship towards his family.

P'Billkin and P'Taew's acting is amazing. Honestly, all of them acted realistically. It just feels like you're watching a family live their lives.

The cinematography and color grading has a nostalgic feel to it. And the music scores too!!! One of my main reasons for rewatching this film is the score. Kudos to Jairaroeng Studio for making these magical scores. Huge thanks to P'Pat too for directing this film! His works are phenomenal.

This is the type of movie that you'll be thinking and remembering for a long, long time. I just wish that they put this on Netflix soon so that more people watch this masterpiece.

Please hug your grandmas for me. Love them while they're still alive.

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Excellent Cast But Something Is Soooo Off

I first of all am so tired of doing bad or mediocre reviews and I adore so many GMMTV Series from BL to others but one thing I can't get behind is GMMTV Adaptations. In my opinion all of them suck so bad. Yet so many fans love and adore them (Im thrilled for those fans, I really am)
I thought the streak of me hating GMMTV ADAPTATIONS would finally end with Cherry Magic and then the whole copyright issue happened and I chose not to VPN it so I never watched it and really don't want to anymore.

So A Love So Beautiful is a wonderful story and China and Korea did amazing at it in my opinion. And so I actually thought A Love So Beautiful would take the place of Cherry Magic as a GMMTV ADAPTATION I could stand. Plus it has DEW the only person I could stand in F4: THAILAND. And yet this version falls so flat for me. The story is just blah and it so hard to watch that I had to drop it.

I don't find fault with the ML or FL but I find fault with the story itself and the support cast seems so off yet I like the actors but their characters are just off.

As a rule I love different countries take on one another's material. I loved every version of Hana Yori Dango aka BOYS OVER FLOWERS/METEOR GARDEN except F4: THAILAND. And I cant wait for Thailand's Adaptation of ADDICTED HEROIN so it's gotta be GMMTV. Because yet another Adaptation they are currently doing is not doing it for me.


Disclaimer: These opinions are mine and mine alone. No one need to agree with me this is my review and my personal opinion. Disagree if you want everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

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Belle Epoque... A beautiful time of my teens.

I watched this drama Summer 2021 with a big bowl of salad next to me and the sun shining outside. The cold breeze of the late afternoon felt nice as I watched this show for the first time. Now, 3 years later, Belle Epoque is one of my favorite summer memories of my teens - a breath of fresh air and a series which feels like home.

I loved and love everything about the show. The girls, storyline, OST, cinematography... EVERYTHING. It's a unique work of art, where you can find quite the variety. You don't really get bored and the girls are really relatable, all going through different normal problems of the early twenties, or late twenties as it was for our lovely Jin Myung.

I liked how well the characters were individualised - a similar feel like in Hospital Playlist, another favorite of mine.
It's just one of those shows you don't know why it holds such a big place in your heart... or maybe you know. ;)
Now yes,

Thank you "Hello, My Twenties!" for being summer 2021 to me! For being home and for being the place I come back to every single summer. <3

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Disappointment to a big fan of season 1.

After watching season 1 in summer 2021 I became a huge fan of the show. I loved everything about it: the plot, the acting, the ost, the cast... you name it! So of course I was waiting for season 2. I read the webtoon and constantly looked for updates about the production.
November 2022 we get some of the first news I think about the filming starting, 29th of July 2023 the show starts. How was it?

A little disappointment to be honest. From the usual plotline full of emotions from season 1, season 2 felt like a try hard comedy. No hate towards that, but that's what it gave the show its distinct spark. The acting was good, on point, the ost as well, but there were many things that annoyed to be honest. Let me name them!

- The romance between So Mun and Hana. After they've hinted at it the whole season 1, they just forgot about it and added a random love interest for Hana. All the potential she had with Mun... WASTED. They had the chemistry, the storyline, but decided to randomly forget about them. Really? And I am sure that's what most of us were waiting for.
- The villains. In season 1 we had villains with deep backgrounds, especially Ji Cheongshin (Amazing portrayal of the character). This season it felt like all demons were superficial. All they wanted to show through them was that they were cool. Dumb move in my opinion.
- Yoo Insoo's character, cute guy, a little annoying, quite useless I'd say - could have made his character way better. I don't know why they added him...
The list can go on, but I'll stop here.

I don't think I'll rewatch season 2. I watched it as it aired and never felt the need to do so even now, almost a year later. I rewatched season 1 many times before, but after season 2 I was left overall with a bitter taste. Well, I guess season 1 will remain as a nice memory of my teens. I appreciate all the cast working hard on making s2 happen. I don't know what made the show go this bad direction, a theory of mine is the change of writers during season1. But I guess we'll never know the truth.
And for those wondering why my rating is so high... I don't really give low ratings... ever. And it would hurt if I gave such a low rating to a show that I loved so much.

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A Boss and a babe is a rockstar

The series is excellent! This is the fifth time I've seen this series and it still kills me with laughter every time. The combination of Cher and Gun is perfect one is super animated and outgoing while the other is serious and totally introverted. So their personalities clash which makes all their interactions at first hilarious. But later they learn to treat and appreciate each other and their relationship becomes preciously special.

To me this series is amazing, from start to finish. But what I really find unique about A Boss and a Babe are the simple but so meaningful moments. How their relationship evolves and becomes so important. How they support each other. I really feel like every interaction of theirs warms my heart.

I also love that it's such a comedic series but its dramatic scenes are so intense. Book and Force's performance in their fights makes my skin crawl.

I have nothing more to add, I think people who don't like this series is because they are not used to the kind of cartoonish humor of Asian series.

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Nothing much going on but maybe that was the point?

Living With Him comes across as chaste and unspectacular at certain points, but overall, it’s a feel-good watch that you’re bound to breeze through without too much difficulty.

Unlike some BLs that cram a lot of (unnecessary) conflict in the plot, Living With Him is the total opposite. Largely, Natsukawa spends his time wading in confusion while Kazuhito patiently waits for Natsukawa to realise his feelings. That’s the only real tension of the show.

Perhaps best described as a “slice of life BL” – a common hallmark of Japanese series – this is best watched if you aren’t in the mood for much stimuli and just want a chill show.

I personally would have preferred it if they had zoomed in more on the tension between the characters and their micro-interactions. A slower pacing, with long-drawn-out scenes showing their daily life as they navigate an ambiguous relationship, might have made this show a little more interesting.

Full review: https://asianblreviews.wordpress.com/2024/07/02/living-with-him-2024-bl-review/

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Great pacing and chemistry

If you are debating whether you should watch this drama or not, it's better to just start watching the first episode, then decide whether you'd like to continue or not. And just a piece of advice, if you don't like the actress/actor playing the main characters, then you might wanna double or even triple think about watching this drama. Because if you already dislike the actor/actress, you'll just find everything that they do (including their acting) annoying.

Now here's to everything that I love about this drama:

OST - Honestly there's no skip with this one. Everything's great - the lyrics and the melody. One of reasons why I fell in love with this drama.

Cast - We're not going to fight who carried the show here. They all did! No one really fell short in terms of acting. The chemistry between Hyeyoon and Wooseok - amazing. The chemistry between their friends and families - amazing. They're all funny!

Plot - Well, I wouldn't really call it a masterpiece. So if you are looking for something with an award-winning masterpiece, it's not here. Also, if you are someone who overanalyzes everything in a story, I don't think this drama is for you.

But the plot is decent, okay? Cliche? Yes. But here's the thing about cliche, it still takes great writing in order for it to be enjoyable up until the last episode. As for the storyline, I promise you'll understand it if you don't overthink it so much.

Just one thing that I'd really like to commend the writer and director for is the pacing of the story. It has great pacing. Usual kdrama would get boring around episode 8, it'll pick up the pace around episode 13 and 14, and then that's it. The ending is either meh or good.

But Lovely Runner has no boring episode. I don't even think that there are filler scenes in this drama. 60 mins for one episode wasn't even enough. The ending was so LOVELY. I even want more of it, but you know too much of everything is really bad.

Anyway, the success of Lovely Runner is well-deserved. It's one of the best romcom I've ever watched. No wonder why this drama helped a lot of people from their slump.

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What I liked the most was that they didn't portray as much how aggressive Yano was towards Takahashi in the first part as he was in the manga. I really hated him for so many things and I still hate him, I'm sorry lol I completely understand what he was dealing with but he made a mistake and hurt Takahashi so much that I always dreamed that he won't stay with her.

Likewise, Takahashi, young and adult, was a strong character. She is not the typical silly protagonist who allows everything, she is intelligent, she says what she feels and does not dwell on the lies she tells Yano, she goes deeper making Yano recognize everything she really did and happened.

Sincerely Nana's sister (Yano's dead girlfriend). She's... a crazy bitch. She is so crazy and bad that she has no limits. She really wanted her to suffer for her entire life for being so bad, the worst thing is that people like her exist and it's scary.

I really enjoyed the movie, it goes from an innocent love to something that becomes a very twisted story.

The performances were very good and I sincerely recommend it. But you really won't stop hating Yano, sorry lol

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Why ?

If you are aware on Hotel de Luna plot, it’s kind of the same. This drama didnt start good but it ended well. I was not able to follow the story on the 1st few episodes but I understand it as I watch the succeeding ones. My suggestion is for you to prepare a box of tissue and dont watch this if you are too emotional and even when you have colds! you won’t be able to breathe. lol. ML is so good looking and I love his acting. FL is so-so, not that good, not that bad also. Cant feel any spark for both leads. The supporting characters were good. Great choice of casts. Definitely worth to watch but I wont rewatch this anytime soon. It’s too painful for me.

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STOP COMPARING THIS TO SEASON 1

You need to understand that every drama has it's own place....I know, we all have our own opinions on what we like or not, but one thing we can all do is, not compare stuff...
I don't have a lot to say besides this,

but I wanna talk about the MOST AMAZING cameos this drama is offering...Every single episode had me like "😲Them too!!!!!????"....

The cases in this drama are interesting in a sense that, they're not about money now, they're about REVENGE...and that makes all the cases interconnected... I find that super interesting but I've read comments of people not liking this concept....


Overall, if you wanna see our fantastic cast of Player get revenge from the bad guys, this drama is for you....

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Only Cheng Yi can pull off a carefree character like Li Lian Hua.

I mostly stick to romantic dramas, a little bit of romance is like a salt in food for me. However, I watched this drama solely because of Cheng Yi & it was worth it. This drama also helped to rediscovered Joseph Zheng. Last year, I had watched his Hi Venus and thought he was dashing but Fang Duo Bing was such a good character for him. Wish that we had more of Di Fei Sheng working along with them, however his screen time was very short.

Some of the cases were interesting while others were not, I mostly skipped some scenes and focused on those where the main trio were interacting. The main story was kinda weird with the bugs, bugs just remind me of starship troopers. Having seen Chen Duling in Till the End of the Moon, it was hard for me to think of her as the good guy, her character was so insecure and devious in it, especially since I had rewatched the drama a week ago. There wasn't much for her to do in this drama, she had but a small role to play and she did it well. Her fiancé was an immature idiot in this drama.

But anyways it was fun watching the main trio go on adventures together. At one point in time, I wondered how 4 horses managed to drag that big ass lotus tower all over the place. But then again, architecture is a marvel. It sure was so good to look at and would be such a great place to live in.

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Well, since I had already read the manga a long time ago, I didn't really find Kou's actions irritating because I had already insulted him so much in the manga that I took it out quite a bit on him at the time.

Now that I've grown up and look at it from Kou's perspective. I can understand Kou, let's not forget that he is a teenager so at his age very stupid things are said. Since he was the one who took care of his mother the most in the hospital, it was obvious that her death will cause him trauma. The same thing happened to my father when my grandmother died and he was a 56-year-old person. He was locked in my house for a year so that no neighbor would ask him anything and to this day, every time it is her birthday he brings her flowers and talks to her. Since my grandmother my family has never been the same. We no longer celebrate any celebrations, like Christmas and things like that. Imagine on a teenager what a big impact that must have been.

So he felt obligated to be with Narumi, out of a feeling of guilt because she said she had no friends (that in the manga is a lie, Narumi did have friends) and he used a lot of emotional tack to keep him as long as she could.

But to his surprise, this ended when he realized that he was really losing Futaba, the only one who made him happy. So he himself decided to cut off relations with Narumi. I really liked him when Narumi asks him if he ever liked him and he gives a resounding "no."Ouch, that must have hurt hahaha but she deserved it for being manipulative.

I also really liked Futaba's attitude, with Kou it was always "you rejected me, so don't think about seeing my stupid face again." It was really difficult for Kou to get Futaba back because she was quite reticent towards him.

Futaba tried really hard to make things work out with Kikuchi, she felt guilty and tried not to make Kikuchi feel insecure. But here I want to say that Kikuchi was quite manipulative too, he practically forced Futaba to give him an answer, even though she reiterated that she still had feelings for Kou but he still forced Futaba, to the point that her friends, especially one, he couldn't stop treating herlike a slut, making Futaba feel worse. You know, she was clear to you from the beginning and she never guaranteed anything, what the hell did you expect? lol That's why I didn't feel bad at all when Futaba broke up with him, since he brought this on himself by wanting to force things.

Teenagers are just that, teenagers. They can make mistakes a thousand times and still learn. Meeting new friends that make your life more bearable and a lot of crazy things we do when we are in love, especially if you are a teenager.

Don't expect very mature attitudes, when they are that. Teenagers.

I really enjoyed it, everyone acted well and I really felt like I was watching the manga in real people because they even tried hard to make the actors look as physically similar as possible.

I really enjoyed this drama! I think it gave a good adaptation to the manga compared to the movie.

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