Reviews

Powerful and beautiful

This would make a close-to-perfect film.
It was slow in the beginning and it had some plot holes. It's not clear how or why the leads fell in love with each other. It's cold and weary and then half-way they lit a spark that we aren't sure where it came from. They were too subtle on developing such an intense love. I believe that's my biggest criticism of this drama.
I do believe this drama is worth it just for the last three episodes. It would have been great with an optimised storyline for film. I'm giving it a high score just for the last part of the drama.

I knew this could never have a happy ending but I'm still left profoundly heartbroken. It took me a long time to finish this drama because of the theme, in the current political affairs, and because I was feeling the pain of the protagonists a little too intensely.

Overall, the drama is great. It talks about important topics, the cinematography is insanely beautiful and the soundtrack matches the visual and the theme. They all work perfectly together with the acting and most of the story.

I like the way the Soul Reaper confronted his abuser. While he was talking about transcendence and deity, the Soul Reaper brought him back to earth. The ones who do evil do it because they are evil or are ok with the suffering of others and there's usually a societal and political structure which allows them to do this level of evil. He put him in his place and it was an act of justice. Those who commit these acts are people, no matter their social or political status. They need to be treated as such and need to be served the people's justice. I found this very relevant in all of society so often controlled and propagandised by religion and power.

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Gostei!!

Falling Into You ( 2022). Esse C-drama tem como protagonista Duan Yu Cheng um esportista lindo, fofo e cheio de habilidades. Seu sonho é ser um atleta de sucesso, mas ele possui algumas limitações e enfrenta algumas barreiras em busca de seus sonhos. Ele se apaixona perdidamente por Luo Na, sua treinadora, rígida e eficiente. Falling Into You é um dorama esportivo que fala sobre superação e determinação e também é um drama romântico com cenas lindas e apaixonantes. Será que esse amor com diferença de idade vai dar certo? Será que ele irá superar as limitações e terá sucesso praticando o esporte que gosta? Será que eles irão conseguir superar todas as dificuldades que surgirão pelo caminho? Surpreendi-me positivamente com esse drama e o casal tem muita química.

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Eu amei!!

Shopping King Louie (2016) – Uma comédia romântica que fala do valor que devemos dar às pequenas coisas. No mundo frenético em que vivemos, os momentos mais singelos são deixados de lado e algumas pessoas a quem deveríamos ter dado mais importância se vão num piscar de olhos. Em todos os lugares somos tomados pelo apelo ao consumo desenfreado que nos faz comprar sem pensar se precisamos realmente daquilo. Se estamos felizes, compramos. Se estamos tristes, compramos também para satisfazer nossos desejos. Nesse drama, vamos conhecer a vida de Louis ( Seo In Guk), uma pessoa rica, compulsiva por compras e com amnésia. E conheceremos Go Bok Shil ( Nam Ji Hyun), uma pessoa pobre e simples que vivia no campo no interior da Coreia. Um encontro nas ruas improvável. Esse dorama me levou às seguintes reflexões: Tudo na vida tem um preço? Existe ajuda sem querer nada em troca? Qual é o valor das nossas memórias? Os sentimentos verdadeiros podem ser comprados? Qual é o valor de um amor verdadeiro?

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Já imaginou se você lembrasse de tudo que aconteceu em suas vidas passadas?

Esse drama tem fantasia, romance, suspense e comédia. Já imaginou se você lembrasse de tudo que aconteceu em suas vidas passadas: as dores, amores, perdas, familiares, amigos e inimigos? O que você faria: se aproximaria das pessoas a quem você amava ou viveria sua vida sem procurá-los? Tentaria se vingar daqueles que te fizeram mal ou seguiria sua vida atual sem amarras ao passado? E se você ainda amasse alguém da vida passada: faria de tudo para se aproximar ou se afastaria dele (a) e observaria de longe? Esses e outros muitos dilemas permeiam a 19ª vida de Ban Ji-eun ( a Shin Hye-sun de Mr. Queen, minha comédia favorita). Eu amei esse drama e indico a todos que gostam de histórias assim.

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The boys are back!! With big muscles and even bigger hearts.

The basic plot of season 2 is that Rain's Im Baek-Jung goes on an unhinged crime spree to get Woo Do Hwan's Kim Gun-Woo to join his underground fight club. On the one hand, this doesn't make a ton of sense because surely there are lots of other boxers who would be happy to participate willingly and it seems like a pretty bad business model to host fights when you keep killing your opponents?? On the other hand, Gun-Woo is THE babygirl himbo, so honestly it's kind of understandable for Baek-Jung to be so obsessed with him.

Gun-Woo spends most of the season on the verge of tears and Woo-Jin gets his ass kicked multiple times and together, they are truly one of my favorite dumb and dumber duos. They are big of heart, dumb of ass, and they share one single braincell that is devoted entirely to boxing. They still can't agree on how long it should take to properly grill meat. I love them so much.

The villains are legitimately terrifying while lacking all subtlety and they are so fun to watch and root against. Rain's performance is electrifying - he's an absolute psycho and ruthlessly violent and it's impossible to look away when he's on screen. Tae Won Seok also returns as Kang In-Beom and he matches Rain's crazy toe for toe.

The fights scenes are excellent with great choreography and there are some really fun cameos as well. And shoutout to Chansung and Choi Siwon for completing the trio of idol turned actors and giving great performances. Honestly the amount of charisma and star power on display in this show is almost criminal. This is my Avengers.

The final episode is pretty rushed and the ending feels more like setup for a future season than a conclusion of this story, but the season as a whole is entertaining nonetheless. I am shocked but pleasantly surprised that Gun-Woo's mom survived and I hope they send her abroad so she can no longer be used as leverage against the boys.

I'm not the biggest fan of the recent trend of kdramas having multiple seasons but I will happily watch 20 more seasons of Gun-Woo and Woo-Jin teaming up to take down bad guys armed only with their fists and the kindness in their hearts. ACK!

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A bit disappointing

Before I go negative on this, I gotta say Jin Young was great as always. This role of Tae Seo was made for him and he did an outstanding job playing it.
It seemed like this drama started out strong, giving us a good story that was going to take off ... but it really had trouble getting off the ground. I really couldn't tolerate the two characters of Eun A & Seong Chan for so many reasons. She had a good thing waiting for her in Tae Seo, but for some reason she really had no idea what she wanted in a relationship. I never saw a character keep showing up and then leaving ... and showing up again and leaving. It became so frustrating and exhausting to follow. Why Tae Seo kept trying to make this work without any success, it was just a complete mystery to me.
The character I had so much empathy for was A Sol. She when out of her way so many times for the chance of a relationship with Tae Seo, but he just couldn't give it a try. Instead he kept ending up in front of Eun A saying "goodbye" ... and goodbye, and goodbye. They said goodbye to each other so many times you lose count.
Again, thumbs up to Jin Young. He made a bad script work well enough to keep me watching till the end ... but there was only so much he could do.

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Série interessante!

Solteiros Nunca Mais (2025). É uma série muito interessante que mostra o quanto é difícil ter um relacionamento amoroso hoje em dia. Principalmente para coreanos que nunca namoraram e que estão na casa dos 26 aos 31 anos de idade. As pressões familiares, o mundo do trabalho, as expectativas pessoais de alguém ideal, o poder aquisitivo e os padrões de beleza bem rígidos fazem com que a cada dia vejamos menos casamentos e poucas relações duradouras na Coreia e no mundo. A timidez também é um grande empecilho fazendo com que algumas cenas sejam bastante engraçadas e outras bem tristes. Mas indico a todos essa série. Me diverti bastante e são apenas 10 episódios.

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Dylan Wang nailed it

What I liked:

1. Dylan Wang as Dongfang Qingcang completely nailed it. In the beginning he's robotic and unfeeling. Later he's depressed and angry. Finally he's loving and self-sacrificing. Wang delivers the many comic scenes with impeccable timing-and even plays a woman in a man's body without missing a beat. Added later: I just found out that a “line actor” dubbed Dylan’s voice in this series, so maybe not as great an acting job as I thought. But his visuals and expressions are still quite good.

2. Other actors also do a stellar job: Yu Shuxin as Orchid was warm, loving and believable as Dongfang's love interest. Although I agree that her nasal, whining voice almost made me change the channel in the beginning. Another great performance was that of Charles Lin who played ShangQue, Dongfang's faithful servant who is sometimes a man and sometimes a dragon-mobile. His facial expressions and general cluelessness were a wonder. Also Hong Xiao added feminine guile and energy along with a good dollop of humor. And I have to mention Zhang Linghe who goes from earnest to dissipated and back again--and is as charming as they come.

3. Costuming, CGI, and set design were gorgeous and magical. While the story got a little tedious with all the misunderstandings and downright deceit, plus the breakups and reconciliations between Dongfang and Orchid--the pace never slowed.

4. This is the first Chinese series I've seen that was genuinely both touching and funny. The humor worked seamlessly, which is rare with international dramas. Yes, it got a little sentimental in places, but otherwise-- not many missteps.

Things that could have been better:

1. A few blunders. I love the mournful flute solo that Rong Hao plays intermittently throughout the series. There's one scene where he's playing his song and then puts the instrument down-and the flute melody (at least on my screen) keeps playing. What happened to the spikes in Dongfang's body? They're supposed to cause him excruciating agony every night. We see them once, and then suddenly they're gone. Also some plot devices got recycled a bit too often. Repetitive ordeals of pain and suffering start losing their impact after the third time.

2. The music, in general, was OK, although some of the songs got a little tiresome by the end.

3. Speaking of the ending--there were a few dangling threads. For example, what happened with the romance between ShangQue and JieLi? They seemed happy, but were they dating? Were they married? Get with it, guys. It's been 500 years. Also, one of the main characters is supposedly gone forever, but then abruptly comes back. Why? How? Enquiring minds want to know.

Overall very enjoyable.

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Era pra ser e não foi

A história se inicia e te prende de uma maneira única, no primeiro episódio eu já me sentia apegada aos personagens, pelas suas histórias e objetivos de vida. Além disso, gosto muito desse tipo de salto de tempo, mostrando eles jovens cheios de incertezas e sonhos e então, eles adultos vivendo a vida real. Infelizmente, o drama se perde no meio do caminho ao colocar impencilhos que poderiam ser facilmente resolvidos com uma conversa rs. O primeiro término é até compreensível pois eles ainda são jovens e imaturos para lidar com algumas emoções, responsabilidades e a distância, até mesmo porque senti uma certa dependência emocional um pelo outro (apesar de não ter curtido a forma repentina que ela terminou com ele). Após a volta 10 anos depois, acredito que a minha expectativa estava em ver um casal com problemas sendo resolvidos com comunicação. Mas não, novamente um término pelo exato mesmo motivo e por telefone novamente. O tanto que esse homem sofreu mds. Entendi que quiseram mostrar um "amadurecimento" dos personagens colocando eles para se despedirem e terminarem de vez cara a cara no último episódio, mas não sei se isso me convenceu. Na minha opinião, foi um grande desperdício de química e atuação, pois isso eles tinham de sobra, e julgo dizer que eles tinham muito para ser um dos melhores do ano, mas não rolou. A trilha sonora não me prendeu, na real não lembro de nenhuma de fato, teria que pegar para escutar novamente.

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A Touching Drama

All in all, this was a very solid series.

What I didn't like:

1. The music was intrusive and sometimes schmaltzy and sentimental.

2. The plot had touches of Hallmark hokiness.

3. At times, the writers pounded the message home with a lack of subtlety.

But what I did like far outweighs the negatives:

1. Convincing acting featuring likeable characters. The secondary characters were appealing and had interesting stories of their own, more than just placeholders.

2. This series showcased different kinds of human love-not just romantic or parental love-but love between friends, love between student and teacher, or siblings-and even love of craft.

3. In spite of a few false notes, this story was extremely effective. No easy answers to life's problems here. Just flawed human beings doing their best in an indifferent world. Touching but realistic

4. Unusual subject matter-how many ballet movies or series focus on male dancers? And the theme was an important one and worthy of the lengthy treatment it got here.

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OK...but not my favorite

The actors and characters are appealing, and I like that they feature a strong middle-aged woman as one of the leads. She even occasionally gets a few good lines, although basically she's there to play den mother to the rest of them. This series started as an interesting fantasy that turned into (yet another) variation on a police procedural. Too much school bullying and endless fighting scenes. The vision of the afterlife is unimaginative and ludicrous. Everything is white, including the file cabinets and there are some crazy rules: "We want you to catch the evil spirits who are embedded in bad, bad human beings, but, hey, don't get involved in human affairs." And what is all this stuff about the "territory" boundaries moving around. Nonsensical twaddle. I know the tousled, disheveled look is in, but it's not working for Ga Mo Tak. He needs a better hairdo.

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