Started out well, ended up dark, depressing and emotionally vacuous
By the time this ended, I disliked almost everything about the drama.Starting out incredibly well, it turned into just a vacuous cesspool of depravity, evil and narcissism, with nothing good coming from any of it.
Feng Shao Feng's performance as the iconic Di Ren Jie, and who was initially portrayed interestingly, turns into a truly arrogant, lecture-y and constantly-berating-others caricature, while Li Yu's always-shouting-at-high-volume Duan Shi Si is annoying as hell, and the other bland two might as well not even have been there, as mostly useless as they turn out to be.
There is also no chemistry between any of the leads who, IMO, did not seem like a team at any point during the entire story.
The cases themselves are dark, depressing, nasty and without much redemption.
For me, for dramas like this to work, there has to be some goodness comes out of the evil occasionally, or it ends up being just a debauched slash-fest with no substance, which this turned out to be.
Like one of the main characters said at the end about all the people in town just going about their business as if they had no part in the mess - De Ren Jie lecturing them was pointless. Just as pointless as this drama.
And it's why Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty, with its humor and its cases sometimes working out for the best, works and this one doesn't.
From the drama deliberately being titled 'Season 1', I'm presuming there will be a Season 2. I doubt I will be watching it. Not unless the plot is markedly different, as I'm not interested in something this dark with no conceivable goodness or redemption to it.
Not if it's the same self-indulgent, emotionally empty, and ultimately bland and draggy mess.
Eventually gave it a 7 out of 10 as the cinematography and set design is gorgeous, the opening animation is beautifully created, and I loved the ending theme (even if it is, apparently, AI-generated? Disappointing as well, if true.)
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Title:Yu Chun Se Mu Wan Xiang Yong (2025) aka Embrace Each Other in the Spring Evening (2025) is a romance and family miniseries with Zhang Xuan (as Ji Han Sheng) and Fan Chuqi (as Song Fu Meng) in the leading couple's roles. The drama is really about Ji Han Sheng and how his family was completely manipulated by the adopted son to constantly berate him to the point that he loses all hope and resumes a healthier life without his family and former girlfriend. The drama has a good premise but the barrage of insults, lack of trust, physical abuse, and emotional abandonment that Han Sheng suffers from the people that he loved the most, was too much to handle. The Ji family was so loud and ridiculous that I found myself fast-forwarding most of their moments on screen. The male lead did a fantastic job bringing his character to life and Song Fu Meng, his arranged fiancé, was a strong and determined character always standing up for him, the drama doesn't give the couple enough time on screen to give the audience a tantalizing romance. Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
DEFINATELY WORTH IT!!!!!!!!!
The way Ji Ling went to another world just to be with Lu Wuyi 😩❤️🩹❤️🩹And feeling sad for Li Jie. He keep finding the voice which is calling him, but we don't know if he could find him in this lifetime.
Wu wang yan and Wu Shi guang I really like them 😭💓, Idk how to describe that couple 😭💖🧿. One thing I understood that they loved eachother so deeply that they were ready give their life for their partner 😭💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
And for Yu Chi and others who died when Jiu Ying attacked them, I was too happy after seeing them alive. But a little bit sad that Ji Ling and Lu Wuyi can't stay with them specially Lu Wuyi can't stay with her favourite sister Wu Wang Yan.
Overall this drama is really really great. Definately worth of my precious time 💝.
Was this review helpful to you?
Raw and Brutal
This movie makes you feel empty. Not in a negative sense. In a way that makes you wonder 'What's the point?' Makes you realise the insignificance of the ego.Set in a countryside of Mae Hong Son, the movie captures the simple beauty of ordinary life. The lush green vegetation under sun and rain throughout the movie pleases your eye. The inclusion of local traditions like the rocket festival make it feel more realistic. The movie has kept unpolished elements throughout its length, adding to the organic feel.
The story can be described with just two words - raw and brutal. The reality of homosexual love being treated as just a fling is shown in such an unfiltered way, it hurts. Even if it has been legalised in countries today, there still remains a huge population who are ignored. This movie validated their side of the story. And then there is the potrayal of the life of people at the bottom of the society. Hardships to such great extents that you'd do anything to get out of it. Only to realise, there isn't any point. This movie's an emotional rollercoaster - anger, pain, suffering, helplessness. You want more and couldn't care less about others. You could let go but choose to go back and fight. And in the process, the genuine ones become the victims. Conscience is dead. And finally, the ending leaves you asking, 'What was all that for?'
Jeff Satur! This man is from a whole different planet, I swear! The myriad of things he can do; one of the best being acting. He blew me out of water! I honestly never knew he was this good. The emotional scenes especially. Wonderful! Engfa Waraha. Another gem. This was my first time seeing her in an ordinary look, without all the makeup and costumes. And she is still so pretty! She potrays Mo so well, it deserves a loud applause. Even if it's a small role, but I loved the character Jingna played by Harit. He was the only person who wasn't driven by an ulterior motive. Harit did a good job here. Pity his character met a tragic end. That scene was heartwrenching. Srida Puapimol as the mother was also very memorable. Huge respect for your talent.
The most important point of the whole cast is the originality in acting. The natural portrayal pulls you in and before you know, you are one of the durian trees watching them in person.
I don't think there are many that outshine 'Rain Wedding', the OST for the movie by Jeff Satur. Another masterpiece of his. It's been one of favorites for so long! Loved it since day one. It's that bittersweet song, making you happy and sad at the same time. I love it so much I won't stop talking!
Finally, it's not a movie I'd go back to again and agai. Not a comfort watch; it's torture. But I'm pretty sure I'd rewatch it quite a few times more. It's a guarantee, you won't regret this watch.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
one of my favorite bls!
This is my first bl that i’ve finished and i don’t regret it! i love everything about the show and it’s so addictive i’ve been obsessed for months. it was funny and had great plot and character backstory and i genuinely felt every emotion the actors conveyed. por did an amazing job as qin. i was able to tell his emotions through the smallest changes in his body language and facial expressions for a character not very expressive. i honestly wish i could watch this again for the first time and im in love with the ost. i am upset at how little jamiemarvis we got and how quickly qin forgave his parents tho.Was this review helpful to you?
Quiet feelings, lingering emotions
This is the kind of drama that doesn’t rely on big twists or dramatic moments to leave an impression. Instead, it takes its time exploring emotions, relationships, and the small moments that slowly bring people closer together. The atmosphere is calm and reflective, with that distinctive Japanese drama style that makes even the simplest scenes feel meaningful.What I enjoyed most was how natural everything felt. The emotions weren’t exaggerated, and the characters were allowed to be vulnerable, confused, and imperfect. The pacing can feel slow at times, but for me it suited the story and gave the relationships space to develop. It’s not a drama that overwhelms you with intensity, but one that quietly grows on you episode after episode. By the end, I found myself more attached to the characters than I expected.
Was this review helpful to you?
All the pieces were there, but something never clicked
This drama left me feeling surprisingly disconnected. The story itself isn’t particularly complicated, and on paper it even has some interesting ideas, but the way everything is put together makes it hard to become emotionally invested. The episodes are very short, which already limits character development, but the bigger issue is that many scenes feel abrupt, almost as if entire sections of the story are missing between one episode and the next.I never felt fully immersed in the relationship either. The leads spend plenty of time together, yet the emotional bond never really reaches the audience. For a romance, and especially for a BL, I was missing that spark that makes you root for the couple and become attached to their journey. The actors do their best and there are moments that work individually, but the overall narrative feels fragmented and lacks the emotional weight needed to make the story memorable. By the end, I wasn’t confused about what happened, I was simply left wishing I had felt more while watching it.
Was this review helpful to you?
A fantasy but feels really possible
All the episodes were fast paced. I loved the portrayal of teachers and students.The main cast of 4 was very interesting and comedic with real feeling. Even though this was a comedy/action genre, the usual lack of feeling was absent. They somehow felt like real people with superpowers instead of comics with fighting skills.
I liked the different school visits. Every time a new school was shown, I tried to remember where(which series) I had seen it before. Was a good side quest during the series. Not going to go into that much.
The plot itself was strong mainly because of its simplicity. The loss of daughter and fiancé giving the lead cast purpose in their lives. They then try to be impartial in their investigation. That is the part that is fantasy as far as I’m concerned. No one human has that much objectivity. It’s their superpower, let’s say. This simple plot line was beautifully woven through the various activities that the ERPB undertakes.
I really enjoyed the first 4-5 episodes for the sheer novelty of beating up thugs in the guise of school children. I also liked how every case was unique in the earlier episodes. The last 2-3 episodes were somewhat repetitive if not boring exactly. I would like to have seen the killer kid end up differently…. Not sure what ending I’d give him as a story teller, but it would have surely been darker. I also have to laugh at the sheer idiocy of the opposition presidential candidate for not performing an independent background check on someone who has murdered. He could have then claimed to have better ideas for the ERPB and won the elections.
My favourite storylines in no particular order:
The online gambling
Parents harassing teacher for no reason
The med school mother
The vocational school
I guess I liked all the stories not linked to the main plot line.😅
Was this review helpful to you?
This is such a crazy show that it made me write a review for the first time.
The best quiz show I've ever seen.You should watch it to compete with the contestants and admire their intelligence. The games are so engaging and clever that the losing team is often upset not because they lost, but because they couldn't play more games.
In seasons 1 and 2, one player in particular shone brightly. Viewers could almost predict the outcome of a game when they saw this player. However, this season had very intelligent players on every team, and this balance allowed us to watch a much more competitive season.
The contestants came prepared for previous seasons.
(I felt that the contestants in this season were especially beautiful and handsome; many of them could have been idols with their faces.)
The seasons are completely independent; you can watch them in any order you want.
Since we now get almost one season every year, I hope a fourth one will come as well.
Was this review helpful to you?
Two people pulling each other out — quietly, messily, and believably
This feels less like a BL series and more like a small, intimate stage play with two characters and one apartment. Almost everything happens in the same cramped space, which forces the story to live entirely in the dynamic between Haoyu and Chenxi — and that turns out to be exactly the right call.The setup has a certain toxicity to it on paper: a debt collector effectively trapped with the person he's supposed to be pressuring. But the series earns its way past that by taking both characters seriously. Chenxi's sarcasm and provocation are a surface over something much heavier — grief, guilt, the particular exhaustion of someone still living in the aftermath of loss. And Haoyu, for all that his arrival is coercive by circumstance, actually listens. Two damaged people finding each other in a situation that shouldn't work — and it does.
The melancholic tone is consistent and handled with care. This isn't a series that rushes toward warmth; it lets the darkness sit and earns the connection slowly. Not a light watch, but a genuinely affecting one.
Subtly toxic is probably the most accurate summary — and you'd only fully understand why once you know the circumstances. Sometimes that's exactly where the most interesting stories live.
Was this review helpful to you?
I just wanted more time with them
This drama completely pulled me in with its emotions, characters, and the way it balanced heartfelt moments with genuine warmth. What I loved most was watching the relationship develop and seeing how naturally the connection between the leads grew over time. Their chemistry made it easy to root for them from the very beginning, and every moment they shared felt meaningful. That’s also why my biggest complaint is that the actual dating period was way too short. After spending so much time getting invested in their journey, I really wanted more episodes of them simply being together and enjoying the relationship they had worked so hard to build. The emotional payoff was there, I just wish we had been allowed to stay in it a little longer. Even with that frustration, the drama delivered everything I was hoping for and left me smiling by the end.Was this review helpful to you?
The steppe is the story — and that's more than enough
I'll be honest: the plot itself is simple to the point of being almost secondary. A young doctor finds an injured stranger on the steppe, takes him in, and something slow and warm develops between them. That's more or less it. And yet I found myself genuinely absorbed, which tells you something about where the real substance of this series lives.What I had no reference point for before watching this was the world it puts on screen. Mongolian grasslands, open skies, traditional nomadic culture, the particular stillness of a life lived far from any city — BL as a genre almost never goes here, and the series seems to know that its setting is its most original asset. It leans into that fully. The landscape isn't backdrop, it's atmosphere, and the slow burn romance feels completely native to it. You couldn't tell this story in a Seoul apartment or a Bangkok university and have it mean the same thing.
It left me a little turned around in places — the storytelling isn't always as clear as it could be — but cinematically and culturally it gave me something genuinely new. Sometimes that's reason enough.
Was this review helpful to you?
Growing up, even when life gives you a second chance
What I liked most about this drama is its message. The idea of getting a second chance at life and being able to face regrets, unfinished dreams, and old wounds from a completely different perspective is something that immediately caught my attention. The series mixes comedy, friendship, family, romance, and self-discovery in a way that feels both heartwarming and reflective. Some storylines worked better for me than others, and there were moments where the pacing felt uneven, but I was always curious to see how each character’s journey would unfold. More than anything, it’s a story about realizing that it’s never too late to change, forgive, dream again, or become the person you wanted to be. It may not have hit every emotional beat perfectly, but it left me with a warm feeling and a reminder that life doesn’t always stop when we think it does.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
The whole plot point is riddiculous
This show should've ended in 10 episodes. It's just repeating itself. And I reject to keep watching it. How come the king is this garbage. How come no one comes and kills the left state councillor? How come he gets his way everytime? It just doesn't makes sense. Just poison him or kill him. Several people had the opportunity many times. Kill him and the whole thing finşishes come on. Just stab a sword to him and deal with the consequences later. It's just nonsense to keep this plot.Loved the ML he played so well. their chemistry with the FL is great. Though I'm tired of hearing her dialect. even though they're great to watch, it's just unbearable to keep watching this plot anymore.
Was this review helpful to you?
Sold out on this couple
This was such a cozy and easy watch. The story never tries to reinvent the romcom genre, but it knows exactly what it wants to be and delivers it well. I loved the contrast between the two leads and how their relationship slowly develops through everyday moments rather than grand gestures. The countryside setting, the small village atmosphere, and the overall warmth of the drama made it feel incredibly comforting. What really worked for me was the chemistry between the leads. Their bickering, awkward moments, and growing affection felt natural and fun to watch. Sometimes the plot plays it very safe and a few conflicts are resolved a little too conveniently, but honestly I didn’t mind that much because I was enjoying the journey. The drama also balances humor and emotional moments quite well, especially when dealing with loneliness, personal insecurities, and the idea of finding someone who understands you when life feels exhausting.More than anything, this felt like one of those dramas you watch to relax and smile. Not perfect, not groundbreaking, but genuinely charming.
Was this review helpful to you?
