Reviews

Magic mirror? Or no magic mirror?

I was ready to absolutely hate Pond. I didn’t like the way the character was introduced, he appeared arrogant and very out of touch with reality. And while the later stuck through the series, I realized that I mistook his confidence for arrogance. He was quite sweet and caring, not only to those close to him but also others. A big part of the series is spent on him doing his best to make Mawin happy.

I don’t really know what to think about Mawin, his story is not exactly thought through. It might be just two episodes, but it needed more background and a strong basis to make it all believable. What exactly does he have? Why can’t he hang out with his friends? Why doesn’t he keep in contact with them in a different way? I just don’t think the plot around him held any water.

The mirror was kind of an interesting addition to the story. I guess it was a good connecting factor between Pond and Pawin. I just wish it actually had the power we were led to believe it does. With how things are, it didn't really serve any real purpose.

I also have a little bit of a problem with the cast. I did think Pond looked much older than 29 and with Mawin looking quite young, it was a bit of a strange choice. Looking at the cast, I realized that the actor playing Pond is actually 44 years old. Which I don’t think was the best choice. I guess it would also explain that the chemistry between the two might have been better than with some other couples, but it wasn’t exactly great either.

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Character-driven with a lovely ML

A slow-paced slice-of-life drama with a little bit of mystery. I would say this drama’s main genre is slice-of-life. But we also get to see some romance, sport-related scenes, and mystery. It’s a bold choice to mix all of these genres. But it felt authentic and natural all the time. That’s because they kept it simple in the form of slice-of-life. This is a character-driven drama.

What I liked:
- The Main lead Kim Bok Doo. I just loved him. He’s a bit of a dork but emotionally intelligent and adorable. He might seem a bit dumb, but he actually observes his surroundings and is just a really nice guy. It was refreshing to see a ML like him. Innocent, naive and very kind. He grew on me.
- The characters grew on me, and I was never disappointed when the scenes changed and we saw different characters. I was interested in all of them because they felt relatable and natural. The villagers and their gossip, as annoying as gossiping and rumors are, they are very realistic. The way they showed how rumors can hurt people and how fast they spread, was very cleverly solved. You had silent characters, stubborn characters, mysterious characters, adorable ones… just a perfect mix.
- The way the romance progressed was cute.
- The actors and actresses. Jang Dong Yoon had two airing dramas at a time. My man is cupid and like flowers in sand. He can act. But for like flowers in sand he even put on some weight to fit into the ssireum-theme. I don’t really want to compare these two dramas, but I personally prefer Like Flowers in sand. All of the actors and actresses did an outstanding job, had natural chemistry and fit into the drama as a whole.
- The sport elements of this drama. I loved seeing ssireum. It was really interesting.
- I didn’t mind the murder/mystery parts of this drama. I normally dislike it if they mix it into a romance drama. But the way they constructed it and integrated it into the whole storyline was nicely done.
- I wished for romance between Hyun Wook and Mi Ran, instead we got Hyun Wook and Seok Hee bromance which was cute. I can’t even complain now. Hyun Wook was an intriguing character in general. At least for me. Seemed like he was on vacation in the town, and it was funny to see how he slowly adapted and got to know everyone. It seemed like he never wanted to leave. But the way they developed this was very subtle and clever

What I “disliked”:
There weren’t that many points, that I disliked. I would call them flaws I can live with. I love the drama and still accept that it has some flaws in my eyes. But there are very minor flaws.
- The Fl always hitting the ML. I know this is common in kdramas but It’s not something I’m fond of.
- I would have not minded a few more episode to wrap up the ending. I want to see more. Yes, they did wrap up all the storylines. But after taking so much time on building the relationships they could have gotten even further. I guess wishing for more scenes of the friends shows how much the characters grew on me.

I enjoyed this drama very much. The way they executed the slice-of-life is definetly my taste. For now I feel like I have to give it a 9/10 which is a very good rating. In my rating system drama with 9 stars and higher belong to my all-time-favourites. But we will see if stays there or if I give it an 8.5.

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A good drama to watch for demon fights and these actors!

So I would say that this is a good drama.
It's got a night time vibe and I watch things by my mood, so I watch this when I want to see the FL get chased by demons. And CEW as a gen Z priest.

I did not know the actor that played Van, so this is my first time seeing him. And I am a fan.
All the characters are super lovable in my opinion.
(Except some of the bad guys, they make me so mad.)
And this is like you have probably heard a break out performance for Cha Eun Woo, and I think he nails it. His sword is so cool.
So like I said, if you want to see these actors tangled up in intense demon fights and backstory mystery.
I say totally watch it.
I just need to go see season 2 now....

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More of a Murder Mystery than It is Sports

The drama starts off in the world of Ssireum (traditional Korean wrestling), which led me to believe this would be more of a sports drama that would introduce me to the sport. Instead, it ended up being more of a criminal investigation drama that takes place in a small town. The investigation part of the story was incredibly boring and forgettable. I've never been so uninterested in knowing who the killer was. The wrestling part of the story was also a disappointment, but it got better in the 2nd half for the limited scenes it had. The most impressive thing about this drama was Jang Dong Yoon's weight gain transformation for his role. My favorite character was the dog. It was an odd mix of murder mystery + sports + small town drama + friendship/youth. Whatever this combination was, it did not work for me.

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Want to camp? Rent a mate!

It was slightly confusing. Pai gets dumped by his girlfriend, while Third and his girlfriend are on kind of a break. The thing is, Pai and Third’s girlfriend are travel companions while their partners are not. So, Third hires Pai to travel with him, saying he wishes to understand his profession more. The two end up at the same camp as their (ex)girlfriends. How unexpected! There was no passion between the two boys, I am not even sure if there was supposed to be. I found the girls cute though. But there are certain things that could have been done differently.

The plot is kind of lacking. Nothing much actually happens, and what does is not really well connected to other scenes. The acting was okay, but it also felt weak at times. The comedic aspect of it was not really done well either.

I don’t think we can say this is a two-part series. Why? Because the breakup scenes have been played like 3 times each! Instead of giving time for the story to develop, to maybe flow a bit more naturally without all the weird scene cuts, we get to watch the breakups (time apart) speeches and arguments again and again. With no changes. And the first few minutes of the second episode are the same as the last few minutes of the first episode. A waste of time.

Things were left pretty up in the air in the end. Certain things were hinted at, but if they actually used up their time wisely, things could have concluded a lot more nicely. And in a way that made sense with the story progression they could have included. Now, it just seems rushed and not really making much sense.

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What The F-ck, also ignore the last five minutes?

This is the most unhinged movie I have ever seen, nothing about it made sense for the first hour and still many of the interactions were weird. It felt like we were a bystander and you see 2 people that know each other talk about something between them, but for a whole movie. I dont really know how to rate this movie but I will just put some of my thoughts here.

A married school teacher gets raped by a guy in a pig mask. Three months later, he is still traumatized by the event and gets followed by 2 guys, one of them being a guy called Kai. The teacher thinks its the guys that raped him, and he gets followed and teased with more and more. Eventually, he loses his job and his wife, and his mental state is a wreck. He lives randomly just like everyone in the shit town.

SPOILERS

Turns out, the teacher was not raped by Kai, but by an older man who is the boss of the shit town. The connection and why he "protects and gives money" is confusing but whatever. It is nice that some of the questions the viewer has were answered, but it is still obvious that this movie is open to interpretation in many areas.

Kai probably kept an eye out for the teacher because Kai liked him since he was a child. He surveyed the teachers trauma responses and helped him face his trauma. Still, he ruined the life of the teacher, so it felt quite meaningless in my eyes. Kai acted mostly self-indulgent in my opinion. One thing i dont get is why did the big boss man decide to rape the teacher? I see the connection with the teacher and Kai but not the with the boss.

As for the ending, it was cool that the teacher ended up burning the boss man alive, and then made love with Kai. It was a fcked up story, but at least there is some sort of happy ending. Until the boss man (i think? his face was covered probably from the hospital but idk) kllled the teacher and he lies dead naked in the forest. Bruh. What even is this story. Kai manages to escape and god knows what he is thinking and plans to do with his life.

I dont know how to recommend this movie. Its somewhat of an interesting watch but super confusing and does not deserve a re watch in my opinion. Still, the acting was great and I recommend it if you like darker themes in general. Respectfully, I prefer soft and fluffy BLs (this one is not even a BL), and will be enjoying them instead.

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A mindless entertaining popcorn action movie

Set in a post-apocalyptic world, this dystopian tale is as predictable and bland as it comes, but the action is entertaining and serves it's purpose of being a popcorn movie to pass the time. Ma Dong Seok is again typecasted into the heavy fisted fighter role and savior that he always plays. Lee Hee Joon plays the mad scientist. Ahn Ji Hye plays the rogue special forces soldier who teams up with Ma Dong Seok. I think you can pretty much predict how the story will unfold from there.

None of the characters have depth and you don't really get much explanation for the plot. This is a simple movie to just show action scenes which for the most part was entertaining. Ma Dong Seok's role was a bit cliche (his one punch wonder schtick is a bit corny & old, but if you're new to his roles then it'll probably be fine). I do admit I laughed a lot at his comedic one liners. The whole crazy dragon lady scenes were funny as well.

Ahn Ji Hye is the one that stood out to me. I specifically remembered her from the movie Slate where she impressed me with all her action scenes and the fact she did it all herself with no stunt double. She continues to impress here although I'm not sure if she did all the stunt work again, but it sure looked believable. I like when women can kick some ass so I may be a little bias here. I think if she and Lee Si Young did an action movie together, I'd probably die from excitement.

If you like popcorn action movies and don't mind a shallow plot, then I would suggest giving this movie a try. You probably won't remember it in a week, but I thought it was a good enough escape for an hr or so.

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I got tired of nothing actually happening

I liked the leads together, I think they really fit for each other. But it was a little disappointing that when they finally become a couple it lacked emotion and... idk... catarsis is the word maybe. They just talk and that's it. Maybe that's a lot like them and how it should've been anyways, but I missed smth more wow yk. And now that they're a couple I don't see any change in them. They just look like friends that hold hands sometimes. I think as a romance story this drama has failed a little. It lacked, at least in my opinion, those swoony-butterflies-in-the-stomach-romantic moments. Maybe it was just me, maybe it was a chemistry thing, maybe not, I really saw potential in the couple, but they just didn't happen for me. I think they focused too much on the running and translating thing that they forgot that this should be a romance drama above all. Both leads are boring. I think it was a narrative thing, but it had to do with their personalities as well. I didn't hate them, they were just meh.

Yeong-hwa was the highlight of this drama. The best character. He carried the whole thing by himself. He was funny and he might've seemed silly and easy to be laid over by Dan-ah, but when it was too much for him he just walked away. He didn't let her do whatever she wanted with him, which I thought would kinda be their dynamic, but it wasn't and that was good. Way to go man. I actually think they were a better couple than the leads. Both of them are more interesting characters than the leads. Maybe because their relationship has those aspects we are used to see in dramas, which the leads don't. In summary, the second couple was more engaging to watch than the main couple.

Seriously, what was that sort of break up in the 12th ep?! I mean, why would his father getting in the way of their relationship be a problem if he never really gave a damn for what his father thinks?! He broke up with his father way before dating her, right when he decided not to run in that competition. I couldn't bring myself to watch the drama after that. I got tired of nothing actually happening.

The osts are actually good, not so memorable, but the drama isn't as well. The photography is good too. The vibes overall were good It is a beautiful drama apart from its story. Liked the film references. The production work was really good.

Overall, this was purely a median, neutral, wishy-washy drama. It wasn't a bad watch but not good either. I didn't get irritated by anything but it didn't give me the feels yk. It was boring and dull.

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Terribly Flawed Last Minute Revenge Plan

Eighteen years of planning a revenge just for it to be executed so badly, and exposed so early on.

For 4/5 of the bullies, Moon Dongeun really had zero leverage over them from the beginning. She was only able to come up with a plan AFTER Son Myeongoh provided her their dirty little secrets. What made the show really hard to watch is the lack of backstory for Moon Dongeun's planning of the revenge. Things just happen and you have no idea whether it's by her own hands or somebody else. Her so called "planning" is flawed and unstable. How can she confront the antagonists boldly when she doesn't have concrete evidence on their crimes yet? She sets up traps for the antagonists and it's up to them to go against each other. In other words, she relies purely on luck.

The ending is unsatisfying with so many unaddressed loose ends. The bullies got their revenge, but the emotional damage done to them is nowhere equal to what scarred their victims. There are so many terrible crimes revealed throughout the story that were never brought to justice, or even brought to attention to the public. For example, the sex trafficking at the shaman shrine.

It's a shame that the drama doesn't expand more on school bullying, SA, and domestic violence. All the director wants to do is put focus on romance, and useless side characters. Anyone could have taught Moon Dongeun chess. The ML barely contributed. Also, what was the purpose of having Kim Kyungran stick around during adulthood if she's going to be completely useless to the plot? That woman had so much potential. Either give us a proper development, or cut off their characters completely.

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A good university series, relatively realistic

Romance between 1 foreign language student and 1 doctoral student / replacement teacher. The series deals with the university life of a group of 4 friends from the same dormitory, in a fairly realistic way.

PROS:
+ slice-of-life where everything doesn't go well: lover of a married man, ex-lovers who can't be together, good reasons for a break-up, etc.
+ the characters are complex, tortured, endearing, and the actors bring them to life with great talent.
+ Fairly well-written story (except the last part which contains quite a few inconsistencies).

CONS:
- Friends of the ML don't know the rule "no drop of alcohol for an alcoholic in withdrawal"? The relationship with alcohol seems complex in China...
- The last episodes are too long (3-4 episodes without the ML)
=> skip 21->23
- Ending which leaves a taste of unfinished business...
+ Fortunately there are 3 special episodes because the ending of the drama is too abrupt!!

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Romance entre 1 étudiante en langues et 1 doctorant / prof remplaçant. La série traite de la vie universitaire d'un groupe de 4 amies du même dortoir, de façon assez réaliste.

PROS:
+ slice-of-life où tout ne se passe pas bien : lover d'un homme marié, ex-lovers qui ne peuvent pas être ensemble, bonnes raisons de break-up, etc.
+ les personnages sont complexes, torturés, attachants, et les acteurs leur donnent vie avec beaucoup de talent.
+ Story assez bien écrite (sauf la dernière partie qui comporte pas mal d'incohérences).

CONS:
- Les amis du ML ne connaissent pas la règle "aucune goutte d'alcool pour un alcoolique en sevrage" ? Le rapport à l'alcool semble complexe en Chine ...
- Les derniers épisodes sont trop logs (3-4 épisodes sans le ML)
=> skip 21->23
- Ending qui laisse un gout d'inachevé...
+ Heureusement qu'il y a les 3 épisodes spéciaux car la ending du drama est trop abrupte !!

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Innovative C Drama

Having watched numerous CDramas this one breaks the formulaic mould. Great writing with just the right amount of twists. The casting is perfect with Cheng Yi, Zeng Shunxi work brilliantly together at the start and are joined by Xiao Shunyao, he adds another dimension to the mix. The supporting cast members are just as good. The protagonist’s characters are well developed and the intertwined storyline works very well.

Cheng Yi laconic performance as Li Lianhua reminded me at times of Johnny Depp

There is enough here to keep the viewer watching and interested in the next mystery to be resolved with the main mystery running throughout. The comedic elements are refreshing.

I would watch this drama again in a few months time and hoping there is a second season.

In conclusion a drama that is worth the watch…

I would love the blueprint for the Lotus House.

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A RomCom with too much Com and not enough Rom

This is pretty much the tale of how two stalkers fell in love with each other. Pi stalked Mork's best friend and Mork stalked him back, so basically a kids' version of Lost in the Cloud (if you know you know lol).

I feel like this series had a few plot hooks that went nowhere, like that whole thing about Nan having problems at home or in the very last episode where he talks about having an impossible love. I saw in the comments on youtube that's a reference to the novel where Nan is in love with his step-brother or something... but if they weren't gonna develop into it, this should've never made it into the script in the first place. I guess they just didn't have enough budget for Mix to appear in every episode lol.

Now about Mork... this dude pissed me off so bad, he stepped all over Pi's boundaries over and over again. At some point he just found Pi's adress and started showing up at his door uninvited???? By the end of the series it was getting harder and harder to root for him. "You shouldn't care about what people say about you, just get off the internet for a while" idk man how about YOU stand up for the guy you promised to care for and protect??? GO KEEP YOUR CRAZY FANS IN CHECK!!!! he was so bold all the time, but bc he took pleasure in people calling them boyfriends, he allowed them to keep on with the craziness. I liked him way better at the beggining of the series bc i really enjoy the rivals to lovers trope where just one of them is the rival and the other is already a lover lol his teasing at the first few episodes was top tier.

Moving on... the secondary couple did the secondary couple's job PERFECTLY: distract the audience when the main couple was being insufferable (and in this show, that happened WAAAAY too often). I got so excited everytime i saw those two black bars showing up at the top/bottom of the screen bc it meant Dueanmeen moments were coming up!!! And btw Duean was a TOTAL SCENE STEALER in this series. He had the funniest lines and moments and his Duean vs. Narrator segments were HILARIOUS. Pi being in denial about liking Mork for 10 episodes meanwhile Duean quickly realizing he likes Meen bc Meen smiled so cutely it gave him a b0ner was PEAK secondary couple behavior LMAO. They always know how to get the show on the road and i don't think i'd be able to get through this whole series without them.

Even though this show relied a bit TOO MUCH on cringe humor and second-hand embarassment, it was really funny and it made me cackle more often than not. It's a solid watch if you want something you can just relax and enjoy mindlessly (and if you ignore the fact that Mork was only able to get together with Pi bc he wore him down like a 2010's sitcom protagonist. Ted Mosby and Leonard Hofstadter style lol.)

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Intense but also comedic

This had the perfect balance. It was an intense story of revenge and some gruesome things happened. Without the added comedy it would have been too much.

Song Joong Ki played the part perfectly. I have only ever seen him in The Arthdal Chronicles so to see him in a modern role was completely different. He is a great actor. Although he really only looked cold on the outside, this role demanded many different emotions from him. I especially loved the episode where he had to pretend to be gay to stop an investment from happening. That was just hilarious.

Jeon Yeo Been was fantastic. She was great in A Time Called You but I think this role was far superior. I loved how free she was to speak her mind and dance around and even skip.

Let me say this Taecyeon is an amazing actor. We all know he’s a nice guy but he used none of his real personality for this role. He was either goofy or a monster. This was the first time seeing him act and I plan to watch more. I need to wash this monster character from my mind.

I was super sad and cried for Kwak Dong Yeon. When he asked Vincenzo if he did good, I lost it. This is the second time I’ve seen him die: Vincenzo and Love in the Moonlight.

This was a great series and I rated it 10 but I just don’t think I could watch it again.

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