Reviews

Heavily rigged show with characters with solid fanbases going

Although, we shouldn’t be surprised given that it’s a produce show, obviously it will be rigged to some extent. I honestly didn’t think they would do it so complacently. You have clear debut candidates like Midori, whose under the name K.Daiki, randomly dropped for 1st place to 10th place. You even have people like Jaeyong and Kotoro taken away during the elimination. Even though they are understandable, and you could use the excuse that people may have stopped voting them because of the number of votes available closing. You still can’t justify such a big gap.

Also, unfair benefits and them going to such large extents of 250,000 shared in one team. Shinhaeng jumping up in ranks (he deserves it but regardless still ridiculous), especially given some people whose names I still yet to recognise survived the eliminations.

I’ve never watched a rigged survival show since Fantasy Boys. Wheere you had benefits even on the final mission rigging the debut. Characters like Santa dropping significant to 29th?? And even most members have left.

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Alien acting

A veteran Korean actor, Lee Dong-hwi, plays a version of himself with the same name Lee Dong-hwi. Interestingly, I recently watched a similar movie about another actor, Jung Woo, and the acting world. This film is a self-reflective comedy about the life of an actor. It shows the main actor’s vulnerability and honesty.

I love Korean movies, but I often struggle with Korean comedies. They usually carry a good message, and this movie is no exception. However, the jokes often didn’t land well for me. I only laughed twice — once at a fart joke and once at a sandwich scene. The rest of the time, it felt overly silly, with too much yelling that was uncomfortably loud on my speakers rather than funny or entertaining. Oh, and I also laughed at the post-credit scene at the end.

The movie uses the analogy of acting as an alien character to represent feeling alien to your own life. It explores what happens when acting becomes your life and your life becomes acting. We all play certain roles in life, and we need the wisdom to stay true to ourselves.

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MORE I WANT MORE!!!!

OH MY GOD, my jaw has never dropped this much before!!
First off, amazing acting debut to those who were new in the acting industry for Shades, you're all hella good!!!
Second off, THE WAIT WAS SO WORTH IT AHHAHA, I honestly thought they forgot about the project at some point but I was wrong, let them cook bro. The plot adds up, the writing is good, and the whole story is messed up in a good way which makes everyone excited. the OST gives me chills, i got it on repeat rn! I love the acting of sophies mom, its something new in a way with the exagerrated tantrum. BelleEarn, their story hasnt gone exactly too deep in terms of romance but theres so much lore that connects, so ready to see their messy relationship. JANENANO MY BABIESSSS, ENEMIES TO LOVERS!!! Janenano are so cute, i cant believe they were originally meant to be friends. JaneNano are the reason im OBSESSED with puyfaiploy rn, their chemistry is ssooooo adorable i doomscroll them everyday :sob: overall, good story, good music, good acting, also found out from this show that mook is back into acting! cant wait for s2!

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Good start, ended up slop....

I mean it wasnt that bad, i would rewatch this in my free time (mostly bc of the cast)

The writing:
The writing was honestly slop, i could tell everything was not very organised, project was a low budget...
The Music:
-I watched it during premier BRO THE OPENING IS SO SHIT WHY GMMTV WHAT IS THIS BUDGET
-Something New (viewmim) was the best OST imo, had it on repeat in my free time
-music wasnt bad overall except goddamn girl rules opening
The Casting/Acting
-the cast was actually really good, if it wasnt them i woulda stopped watching already
-film portrayed bambis mental health REALLY good, loved her crying scenes brought me pluto flashbacks lol
-I liked milks acting, i think it was episode 8 she did a great job and bringing discomfort
Fave cp: MilkLove/shashagorya
-I actually really liked the pacing of shashagorya, it gave me nolstalgia, i really wish they put more effort nearing the end Viewmim/minpraew Awesome chem, my girls deserve the spotlight, althought as the story progressed they didnt have much lore to the show
Namtanfilm/primbambi: their acting was nice, their story was nice in the first half but then it was more like "fighting then solve it with making out"

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Best cdrama I've watched to date.

Nobody prepared me for this intense almost real life storyline. I mean you get acting but these actors were so insync that it made it impossible to differentiate acting from reality, not just the leads but even the support. The music just added to the intensity. My only disappointment is that the app i used did not allow me to turn off audio subtitles so i missed quite a bit of the lead actors dialog because the music played mostly through their scenes. Overall, one of the best I've watched and I only watch Cdramas, Jdramas and Kdramas eventhough English is my home language. ❣️❣️❣️

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Product placement in the form of mermaid drama. Compact & fun!

I am writing two-series reddit posts about mini dramas and vertical dramas with mermaid & merman trope. This drama is one of them. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this very short drama.

What I liked:
1. Plot - Compact and well-written for a product placement. I was amazed.
2. Acting - Good performances by the four leads and this is a mobile phone ad. The two leading ladies were very charming.
3. Fantasy - I loved the elements presented here as they were refreshing. No tears that turn to pearls.
4. Dynamics - I enjoyed the contrasting dynamics between Shi Yue and Bai Yu (sismance), between Bai Yu and An Xu Guang and between him and Shi Yue. The latter involved cute rivalry & banter.
5. Styling - I really liked the green highlights worn by Qin Xie Xie. Yang Yang looked handsome ethereal in white / silver wig. Overall the outfits worn by the cast were visually appealing.
6. FLs - Wonderfully written. They were smart & compassionate.
7. Length - This was perfect for a short video promoting a mobile phone. No complaints.
8. ML - There was more focus on his crush on Bai Yue than on his work but hey I enjoyed his arc.

What I disliked:
1. Antagonist - He was evil & power hungry.

Favourite scene
When ML found out that Bai Yu was visiting him

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Star stunning cast, wattpad fiction plotting!

As one of, if not the most anticipated romance drama with a star studded cast and a promising summary, let's rip the bandaid off with my honest opinion of finishing Perfect Crown.

With a wattpad-esque premise of a rich business woman and the charming bachelor prince, it was right up my alley. IU and Byeon Woo Seok was an interesting pairing, and I will actually point towards the pacing and plot as two of the issues for the show.

The visuals are very much stunning and grand, but the pacing is sacrificed for long montages or clips that do nothing to evolve the storyline. K-dramas are known for long scenes where the charaters just stare at each other, so it felt somewhat nostalgic to have a feeling of watching a drama from ten years ago. Long montages of walking, dressing up or walking into parties are part of showing the worldbuilding, but it suffers when the characters, nor the plot, haven't been built up to stand on their own.

It was actually all fine until the last couple episodes of the show. Multiple attempted murder-plots, a super villain rising under the original "villain" as well as the political tension regarding the main couples romance just snowballed into an absurd mess. All of the actors did a splendid job with what they had, the camera team as well! It felt absurd, and especially IUs character that was supposed to be a badass, cold-hearted business woman failed to assure me of the character the writers had started the show with.

Whilst I enjoyed the wardrobe of the Queen Mother and the Prince, our main lead IU had a somewhat turbulent fashion that made me question their mood board for her characters fashion sense. Whilst it felt like a fashion take made to withstand the era of 2026, it felt somewhat outdated in certain choices.

Is this a bad show? Not by any means (if you count anything except the beige press on nails IU had on for the entirety of the show that did not even fit her nails). You can see how much effort they put into the production, visuals and the outcome. Did it somewhat feel like a story of a k-drama from 2016? Absolutely. I was here for a good time, which ended with a lukewarm fanfic-esque ending (and a rage regarding ill-fitting press on nails on lead actors!)

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Better spend your 2 hours for something else

Suffer the same plot holes and idiotic moments as every other zombie themed shows that predate it.

Zero story and very weak characters. It's just a fast pace of events showing a small group of people running from the zombies, while occassionally getting into heated arguments and do stupid shit that get them killed.

Film maker told us that she's supposed to be a reknown bio-tech professor, but they failed miserably to deliver that premise at all. It's a shame really.

Having Jun Ji-Hyun and Ji Chang-Wook as the main casts ain't gonna save this garbage.

1 star rating from me.

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the fog that never lifts

there's a difference between disappearing and dissolving. when someone dies of old age, illness, accident they disappear. they vanish from the world all at once and leave a hole in the exact shape of the person they were. but when someone is executed for having the wrong thoughts, for dreaming of a different world, for daring to imagine that person doesn't disappear. they dissolve. they become fog. they become the air other people breathe without knowing where it came from.


the film follows one impossible week in the life of a girl who traveled to taipei to retrieve her brother's body. but what chen yu-hsun understands and this is what separates a good film from a film that stays with you is that the body was never the point. the body is just the reason yue leaves home. what she finds along the way is something else entirely: a world that punishes memory, that charges you for the right to grieve, that turns mourning into bureaucracy and pain into a fee. taipei isn't a city in this film. it's a system. and the system has no interest in letting you hold onto who you lost.

but people find a way. they always do. chao kung-tao is proof of that a broken man who still extends his hand, not out of pure kindness but for the most human reason possible: he's been in the hole before and he knows what it feels like. the connection between the two of them isn't pretty or clean. it's necessary. and necessity, in this film, is worth more than anything.

fifty years later yue is still looking. not for her brother she knows where he is. she's looking for the week she survived, the man who helped her survive it, the version of herself that held the watch with both hands and kept walking even without knowing where she was going. trauma doesn't go away. it just learns to live inside you quietly.

the fog never lifts. but with time you learn to see through it.

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The First Frost: A Healing Drama That Made Sang Yan My Standard

It's been quite a long time since I last watched Chinese dramas. I've mostly been watching K-dramas, but lately many of them have started to feel repetitive, so I decided to switch to Chinese dramas for a change. Also, there haven't been many new dramas from the actors I usually like.

I ended up watching The First Frost because I was drawn to the visuals of the lead actor and actress on the poster. Before this, I didn't know either Bai Jingting or Zhang Ruonan, so I watched it with no bias or expectations at all. Since this was the first drama I'd seen featuring them, I could judge it purely on its own merits.

Their acting was truly amazing.I was so captivated by Bai Jingting's detailed and nuanced acting that I can't even imagine anyone else playing Sang Yan. His performance was incredibly convincing and brought the character to life in such a natural way.

The way he portrayed Sang Yan was so good that Sang Yan has become my ideal standard. I genuinely feel that the acting was exceptional, and he delivered one of the best performances I've seen.

I also think the story is an excellent healing drama. It delivers comfort and emotional healing in a very meaningful way.

I believe that if someone had a person who loved them the way Sang Yan loves Wen Yifan, they could eventually overcome all the difficulties and trauma they had experienced in life, just as Wen Yifan did. The drama made me feel that genuine love, support, and understanding can help a person heal and move forward from even their deepest emotional wounds.

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This drama is definitely worth watching and I highly recommend it.

It's refreshing to watch another drama where the female lead really acts and fights like a true villain. Chen Duling is such a great actress, and she really gives me goosebumps every time I see her on screen. The plot is quite unique and new to me. It is not your typical romance and every episode keeps me on the edge of my seat. I am so invested in the story that I just want to keep watching until the very end. The chemistry between Chen Duling and Zhou Yiran is undeniable. Their dynamic is intense, electric, and so addictive to watch. I really can’t wait to see how this amazing drama unfolds.

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SO UNHINGED LIKEE

okay so this movie had me absolutely LOSING it the whole time. the ml was giving such unhinged autistic energy like bro has never had a normal conversation in his life and i was EATING it up. Their whole vibe was 2 'smart' idiots learning to communicate for their life. IT WAS MESSY BUT I LOVED IT. The studying scenes where she tryna be normal and he's just existing loudly, following her like a little puppy and the way he pulls a Spider-Man to jump anywhere had me on the floor. but the FINAL SCENE?? girl really said "i cant hit ball to save my life but i CAN and WILL launch myself at this man's mouth with sniper precision" like PLS the physics were not physicsing the way she literally FLEW to kiss him it had me cracking ONGG. she was out here doing olympic-level mouth targeting while failing basic P.E.
The side characters were also unginged like no one literally NO ONE was normal in this movie except for the cousin - a bit ig. I'd rewatch it anyday if I just wanna have a disastrous laugh

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