Reviews

Excellent acting for a decent low-budget Mini drama

A remake of a classic, “Fated in the Martial World” definitely can’t compare to its predecessor, “Mission of the Warriors”, and might even disappoint fans of the original. This is a small budget production headlined by B, C, D-listers. I actually did not watch the original 2001version , and I am reviewing this drama as a low budget production.

I actually quite enjoy the plot of the story. A story of bloodbath, revenge, martial world’s selfishness and greed, love, friendship and camaraderie. It’s a typical wuxia plot and I love this genre. The acting is surprisingly good, especially when I had no expectations coming into this. The cast is actually quite experienced in mini dramas. Led by Guan Chang and Wu Chong Xuan, their performance is better than some actors in bigger productions. They not only give off the correct vibes of their characters, but also do well in subtle emotional scenes.

The foursome has great chemistry. I enjoy the romance between the leads. There’s just enough romance to keep me happy, yet doesn’t derail from the revenge plot. I love their proposal and wedding scene, and it was quite unique with how they handle the marriage letter. The love triangle/square is not annoying but quite respectful. The friendship developed between the two female characters is beautiful to witness.

My biggest disappointment of the drama is the wuxia portion, specifically the action scenes. There are too many slow motion fight scenes to my liking, and not enough actual fights. There are many ‘chi’ aka internal power fighting. I would have loved to see the actors swinging the swords more. The last battle is super disappointing and anti-climatic. Additionally, in the first half of the drama, our formidable leads get hurt or faint way too often. I also rarely see the prowess of the female lead, when she’s supposed to fight really well.

“Fated in the Martial World” is a short mini drama with episodes ranging from 12-20 minutes long. It’s not bad for what it is, but could be disappointing to fans of the original drama or novel. The acting is really good and I enjoy actors not having the white filter or white makeup treatment. Wu Chong Xuan looks like a healthy, manly warrior and is quite hot in this drama. LOL


Completed: 4/19/2026 Review #684

Leia Mais

whoever doesn't watch this show is truly missing out!

melody of secrets is actually an underrated masterpiece and i’m serious. it’s not the type of bl you can just play in the background because the story really makes you pay attention—everything connects later and the tension builds slowly each episode. the whole memory loss + investigation plot keeps you guessing, and some scenes hit harder because they don’t over-explain anything. the atmosphere is heavy and quiet most of the time, which makes the emotional moments feel more real.

and forcebook really carried this. you can tell their acting has upgraded to another level. they’re always delivering the emotions naturally, especially in the small details. it never feels forced. honestly, it deserved way more attention than it got.

Leia Mais

I had to watch this one! ?

Alright, my 2026 series list starts now. I must admit, I've been waiting for this series to finish for a long time. I just don't like waiting every single week to see the story continue. Another reason was that I haven't finished my 2025 series yet (I still owe a few series, but I just couldn't wait, I had to watch this one! 😭)

If you had asked me a couple of years ago, I would have said I felt annoyed with Duang's character. Being silly and childish while courting someone doesn't seem like it would work in real life. However, after watching the first five episodes, I realized there is something interesting about this series that pushed me to finish it on time (right during the week the season finale aired).

I don't really care about the side couple's story (Jamie and Marvis), but I truly appreciate the friendship among the group. It is so strong that it made me think of my two best friends back in college who always came to my room every time I called because there was a cockroach (yeah, I hate them 🤣)

One thing that could have been better was the last episode. I don't think they wrapped the series up properly. You know I hate lovey-dovey moments, right? The last episode had the most skipped scenes for me. Also, I really hope Pae gets a chance to have his own story, as it could provide a better view of why those three are so close.

Leia Mais

Me encantó ?

La verdad, dejando de lado que no es igual a la novela (porque sí, es una adaptación y eso siempre implica cambios), puedo decir que me encantó muchísimo. Desde el inicio me atrapó y no pude soltarla.
El PoohPavel es simplemente ETERNO 😭✨, su química se siente real, natural y te hace conectar con cada escena. Hay momentos que de verdad se te quedan en el corazón.
No voy a hacer una crítica súper profunda porque, sinceramente, la disfruté de principio a fin. Sí, entiendo perfectamente las críticas sobre que no es fiel a la novela, y es totalmente válido… pero eso no quita que la serie tenga su propio encanto.
Los actores hicieron un trabajo increíble, lograron transmitir emociones de una forma que te envuelve completamente. En lo personal, yo terminé completamente enamorada de la historia ❤️‍🔥✨

Leia Mais

Perfect package!!!

Loved everything about this drama💯
The story, sets, costumes, locations, performances, music, screenplay, emotions, and even villains, everything was perfect about this drama👌
Jiang Si and Yu Qi-a very understanding couple🤗
Zhang Wanyi and Jing Tian were perfect in their roles.
A special mention of actress Huang Yi, who played Rong Yang, the main antagonist. Her performance was outstanding.
Everything about this drama is fabulous.
Justice and law always triumph., is the moral of thus drama.
On a final note, A WORTH WATCHING ONE👍👏

Leia Mais

What a Cliche!

It's really good to begin with, the nice and slick storyline, the new and great that something are so much better than it's doesn't last long. In the mid, the good one turning into boring and classic GMMTV that it's not what I hope for. It's crushing down, boring, too standart, from funny to became boring, feels like old gmmtv series wrapped into one. I feel like it's waste of time to watch this is.... Like they can make it to different storyline not like regular one ? It's really waste of everything, the actor, the acting or whatever it's included. This is not what i wish for. Really disappointed over here. Can't give more than 6.5

Leia Mais

Somewhat Silly Scammers

After Perfect10Liners, I was super excited to see Junior and Mark as leads again. Plus, I was excited to see Ohm and Poon act together for the first time! Both pairings did not disappoint! The story definitely centers more on Junior and Mark, but frankly, their characters have a better/more complex storyline anyway, so I was pretty happy with the split. I do think there were a few points in the show where the conflict seemed a little too easily resolved compared to the weight it should have had, but I think that's the kinda thing you're bound to run into when you're doing a romcom with betrayal in it. Still, this was a great watch with a good balance of humor and seriousness.

Tim (Junior) is a scammer and his current plan is to scam the CEO of a large mall, Pai (Mark), by making Pai fall in love with him so he can marry him and take his money. Of course, the one rule that every scammer should follow is not to fall in love with the target. Tim spends months and months winning Pai over, pretending to be the perfect boyfriend, etc. until he can finally propose to Pai. Just when everything seems perfect, Pai's younger cousin North (Poon) elopes with U (Ohm), who he randomly met on a hiking trip and has known less than a week. The sudden marriage makes Pai concerned that U might be a scammer, and makes Pai nervous about weddings in general. Tim, realizing Pai is right about U being a scammer, has to try to not blow his own cover by outing U and manage to convince Pai they should still get married. But, all truths will eventually have to be revealed, and at this point it seems Tim has already majorly failed the most important rule of scamming.

I think this show was really fun overall. Honestly, the idea of Tim and U being scammers would have been much more intriguing to me if this wasn't a romcom, but was more of an intense and serious drama. I found that sometimes the comedy took away from the intensity of the whole getting betrayed by the person you love thing. Still, if you like a more balanced show, this one definitely has its ups and downs with serious portions broken up by the more comedic sections. Some of the conflicts and plot points are lost a little too fast (I feel like we totally forgot about the debt collectors??), but the acting from Mark especially really made me enjoy this one. Worth watching if you need something with some depth, but don't want something too intense.

Leia Mais

Permita-se!

In Your Radiant Season / Na sua melhor fase (2026). Na vida, algumas feridas deixam marcas profundas em nosso jeito de pensar, sentir e agir. Às vezes, em meio a dor, pensamos que não há mais saída, que tudo acabou ou que é o fim para sempre... então surge aquela pessoa que muda tudo e nos faz ter esperança novamente. Esse dorama é daqueles que chegam de mansinho, despretensiosos, simples, mas que deixam marcas significativas em quem assiste. Não esperava que por baixo de sua superfície houvesse tanta emoção e sentimento. O roteiro é modesto, mas é tão profundo que te faz repensar a vida. Muitas vezes, você pode ser o mundo de outra pessoa e nem sabe disso. Se dê uma chance de amar e ser amada como você merece ser.

Leia Mais

When Friendship Should’ve Stayed Friendship

I went into this for two of my all-time favourite actors, half-expecting to be let down, and sadly, I was. It’s one of those shows that proves not every long time friendship needs to turn romantic. Seok-ryu and Seung-hyu were much better off as friends.

What worked (for me):
The second leads easily outshined the main couple. I was far more invested in them. Seok-ryu is a strong, resilient character (as much as the script allows), and her journey had real weight. Her friendship with Mo-eum was a highlight - warm, supportive, and believable. Performances across the board were solid, with Hyun-jun’s quiet loyalty standing out. I also appreciated that the show at least attempted to touch on mental health and its impact on relationships, even if it didn’t go deep. Mo-eum and Yeon-du were adorable together.

What didn’t (for me):
The romance just didn’t land. Once they got together, it became a string of cheesy, overused tropes. Character consistency went out the window. Stoic, grounded characters suddenly started behaving out of character for convenience. The writing also took shortcuts: years of resentment and misunderstanding resolved in a single conversation felt unearned.

The male lead, in particular, was frustrating - emotionally immature, avoidant, and prone to making everything about himself. His reaction to her trauma was especially off-putting, and unfortunately, her mother wasn’t much better in that regard. The contrast with the best friend’s simple, empathetic response made it even more glaring.

Pacing didn’t help either. The story dragged unnecessarily. This would’ve been far stronger as a 12-episode drama instead of 16. And the casual use of outdated tropes (like the “it’s okay if he’s gay” logic) felt jarringly regressive.

Overall:
Started strong, then steadily went downhill after the first third. A frustrating watch by the end. The performances are the only reason it holds up as much as it does.

Leia Mais

show is lacking chemistry

I love all the main characters on here and really want to love this show but the lack of chemistry from Esther Yu and Zhang Ling He is making it really hard to enjoy the show. I am pushing myself to watch the show because of the bond between Cheng Le and Tian Jia Ru's characters. The rating is high and I am sure the show overall is good and worth finishing but not binge worthy, in my opinion. I will finish this show...one day... just not today nor tomorrow...maybe not by May, possibly June 2026. I love watching C dramas because I love that I can binge watch and immerse myself into their world so it is disappointing when a show isn't binge worthy.

Leia Mais

WASTED POTENTIAL!

Enemies to lovers is probably one of my favorites tropes. So, when I saw this drama title I was super excited... The excitement though didn't last that long.
Was there an enemy to lovers tropes? Yes.
Was is it any good? Absolutely not.

Plot👉🏻
Our doormat FL works as a journalist. She is not appreciated and everyone treats her like shit. One day she is forced to part take in an event and get an interview with our famous ml. Things don't go as planned and the ml mistakes our girl for a paparazzi. Mad at her, he smashed her belongings. Our FL sees red and throws a shoe at him. This moment goes viral and she gets fired. Mad at the idol she accept to partecipe in a reality show with him for the purpose of taking revenge.

I think that the premise was really good but the execution was horrible.
Let's start by saying that the first episodes are really boring, the middle part feels really repetitive and surprisingly, the last episode are the best.

When our protagonists start filming their reality show, I expected an endless list of attemps by the FL to sabotage the ml. After all, she was there to dig dirt on him. Let me tell you that barely anything happens. She is supposed to be a journalist but her investigating skills are non existing, I expected her to secretly tape their private conversations when the cameras are not rolling to really capture how rude he is towards her at the very beginning. The only thing she does is typing out her thoughts about him. Girl, what kind of evidence is that? How can you write something merely based on your words?

While filming there are also tepid attempts at inconvenience him, but they are so tame it is laughable. Most of the time the camera crew is basically pulling her leg and making her look stupid as hell,.

What was that reality show even supposed to be? They literally do nothing and most of the time the producers have no plans at all about their schedule. They are basically being fake nice in front of the cameras.

It was so disappointing because when the FL threw her shoe at the idol, it looked like she had enough about being mistreated by everyone and wanted to be more fierce full. Well, that didn't happen. Throughout the whole drama she keeps being her old "doormat" self.

I don't have much too say about the ml character because overall he made sense as a character. The only thing is that he was so incredibly nice to everyone it was kind of irritating, the drama really wanted to picture him as a saint.

Love story👉🏻
I find the romance to be the weakest part of the show.
Let's start by saying that it doesn't make sense when the ml leads starts liking the FL.
Sure, while filming the reality they start talking and understanding each other more but they didn't get along that much to justify a romance. They barely talked and the ml was still rude to the FL.

The manager said that the idol mistreating the FL was a sign that he liked her. What a stupid thing. It makes even less sense because when the drama progresses we see that the ml is a sweetheart to every human on this earth... His character just did a 180.

At one point he even gets "kidnapped" by a fan but he ends up helping this guy out and not even suing him. But somehow he is rude to the FL and therefore "in love".😑

The fact that the main leads had no chemistry made this love story even less believable.
There were "cute" sometimes but I never felt the sparkle between them. They looked more like friends and I think it would have been better if they build a friendship. They open up to each other and are a good support, love wasn't really needed.
The ml looked more attracted to the FL than viceversa.

The middle part 👉🏻
The middle episode is were some stuff happens but it's the same stuff over and over again.
We explore the idol's past and the unresolved tensions between him and his two ex best friends. I wish they did a better job because, to me, this was the actual core of the drama and the most emotional part. There is betrayal, first love, one sided love, jealousy, revenge, sadness, regret. A whole plethora of emotions good enough to create a good drama. Unfortunately the screen writers wasted all this potential and left us with the same scenes repeating over and over again.
The other guy mistreating his girl, the girl going back to the idol, the idol trying to mediate between them. It happened so many times I lost count.


The last episodes👉🏻
Frankly speaking? This was the most enjoyable part of the drama. Really emotional and engaging.

Things I didn't like❌

The comedy just never hits. Never.

Cliche of the female lead falling into the ml armato create "romantic tension"

The ml parents. Why even include that?

The female lead constantly forgetting to charge her phone just to create drama

Senseless plots: The villain is rich as fuck. His father did buy him a whole company but couldn't buy his son' way into stardom? Never hear of nepotism?

The way the other girl was treated. The villain basically treats her like a toy gatekeeping her from debuting.


Things I liked✅

The FL parents were hilarious. The home visit was my favourite part of the drama.

The two Pds. Their story was cute and I was more enthusiastic for their proposal than that of the main leads.

The fact that the female pd was unable to lie was a cute addition.

Conclusions:
Should you watch this? Hard to say. If you are not as judgemental as me I think you might still enjoy this drama. It is not a masterpiece by any stretch if the imagination, but if you like the actors and idol stories I think this could work.
Just lower your expectations.

Leia Mais

this is peak bl

genuinely one of the - if not the most - peak bl i have ever watched. from the gripping soundtrack to the lovely cinematography, everything about this drama was a masterpiece. i especially loved the romance between peem and khemjira - it was a master slowburn full of deep longing stares and repressed feelings. don't even get me started on peem and his eyes and how unreasonably fine that man is. he had me swooning every time he was on screen. if you want yearning and pining then this show is for you - because the way those 2 yearned for each other needs to be studied.

also, the actual plot had me hooked - i loved the flashbacks to their previous lives and how it all connected to the present. it was so refreshingly original and just beautifully crafted . jin and da were especially cute. anyways i'm going to miss this show it's become a part of my routine. i've genuinely entered a state of depression because i already miss this show - 12 episodes is not enough!!!

Leia Mais