Reviews

Watching the second series was so good when I've just finished the first one. I remembered when this first came out I had to wait for ages to be able to see the second series. It was a different feeling when I could watch this right after the first series. I loved how the story took off where it finished in the first series just like no time had passed. With the second series, I've found that the acting has improved but they still stayed true to the characters. I felt that it had only made the characters better the longer that they had played them. But it also showed that the characters had grown through time and life lessons.  

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The first time that I had watched this I absolutely loved it! Both Zhi Wei and Xiao Ye Zi were so well done. I just loved their innocence and loyalty to each other. They were so bubbly, happy and witty. The story was really moving but that's what Qiong Yao's stories are like. I've never read any of her books but have watched a lot of her series made into Tv shows. I was so surprised at how well the cast had done. As they were all very new to this sort of drama but they had done so well in portraying each of the characters and bringing them together. The music was very moving as well and listening to the music makes me think of the show.
The pairings were brilliantly done as well and I felt that the director did very well in putting in cliff-hangers at the right places that had my wanting for more.

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If you've ever seen the Thai movie, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, and you enjoyed it, you will absolutely enjoy this movie. (If you haven't seen Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Get On That!!!) Crazy Little Thing Called Love had a bit of an indie film feel to me, which Our Times doesn't, and both movies are slightly different in theme (although mostly due to having male leads with very different personalities), but the feelings they manage to express are very much universal and keenly felt in both stories. They manage to capture much of what it's like to be young and insecure and confused and hopeful and in love.

This isn't a joint review of Crazy Little Thing and Our Times though, so let me talk about what you're actually here for.

Our Times is a ten-star movie.  Wonderful acting, wonderful story-telling, wonderful heart, wonderful soul, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. (Not to mention Wang Darren is very good looking and cheeky and has a smirk for days, and I now want to watch as many of his movies and TV shows and bath soap commercials as I can. Hell, sell me dishtowels! I use paper plates almost exclusively, but by golly, if he sells it to me, I will find a use for it!)

I don't really know what else to say other than this movie just ticked all my boxes.

I do have to bring back the joint review for just a second though to say that while I didn't like the teen actors in Crazy Little Thing playing their characters as adults at all and felt like it took me out of the movie at a crucial moment, I strangely had the entirely opposite feeling with Our Times. I found myself alternating between wishing that the actors who played the leads as teens had played them as adults as well or wishing they had resolved the story while they were still teens and never shown them all grown up. I was just so Attached to their teen selves, their personalities, their mannerisms, their facial expressions. They were so affecting in their performances that I felt like I was being dragged out of the story while watching the adults. The adults were also on screen for so little that it almost seemed pointless for them to even be there. I'm not saying this makes it bad a movie, or it will keep you from enjoying it. I think most people probably wouldn't have any issues with it. I'm just saying I was way too invested in these teens to want to be away from them, and this is why I've given the story a 9.0 instead of a ten.

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A series that makes you keep reliving the different aspects of the drama over and over again while listening to the songs. After watching this series like a good book I didn't know what to do with myself, just kept on thinking of everything that I've just watched. I loved the characters and fell in love with the 4th prince immediately. Loved 13th Prince's attitude and 14th Prince's loyalty. I did for a little while like 8th Prince and how he was but the longer that I watched the more annoying he became. I felt that towards the end some of the things that he did really was quite cruel. This series really tugged on the heartstrings and made me cry for most of it.  

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"Ima wo ikiru"

I love this drama for the important life lessons it teaches us...to live for the moment so that you have no regrets and to stop taking our Earth resources for granted and wasting them without thinking about the future.

The cinematography wasn't good but I didn't mind it much either..and anyway the great acting and dialogues make up for it. :)

The only thing I didn't like in the drama was that weird woman Sekiya sensei. She was so irritating and unnecessary..-.-  There were many other irritating selfish characters in the drama..but as annoying as they were, I didn't mind them cause they were important in the story, to show how selfish people become at a time of crisis. Sekiya sensei kept just bothering everyone till the end in a very unnecessary way. -.-

The ending was good, got a tad bit confused at some point but anyway I still like it. :)

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After watching this I liked it but it didn't live up to my expectations though. I felt that the acting wasn't the best and I just didn't really enjoy the chemistry between the two main characters. I felt that they could have done a lot better with the casting and done a better job at the plot. I've watched the other revisions from Japan and Taiwan and they were both pretty amazing in their own ways. They adapted but this was really just a lovesick girl. I thought that this adaptation could have done a lot better. With all that said I still watched it to the end and it was a good filler show to watch when I didn't have anything good to watch.  

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This story was very much like Scarlet Heart which I absolutely loved. But I felt that this was basically a similar story but there was another take on it. Although I wasn't the hugest fan of the 4th Prince and loved 8th Prince and really felt sorry for him. The story itself was pretty well thought out and intriguing to follow. And the main female was fabulous in her acting and loved her. The story did pull at your heart strings and at time I felt that it was hard to follow sometimes but from the beginning the director understood how to use cliffhangers so it wasn't too hard to watch.

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This was fun to watch for me. I stumbled on this while watching Netflix and it was one of my suggestions. I do love Korean dramas and they're always pretty good at making me cry. This was fun in a sense that it wasn't as long as the usual Korean dramas that's on the market now. But it still had all the great bits that make a good korean drama. The story was sweet and the romance was good. I don't really remember the music that came with this show but I felt that the acting was pretty good and the setting was fantastic and I would watch it again.
 

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This was a phenomenon drama, really one of a kind. The casting was out of this world, the acting was just at another level, the soundtrack was amazing and it paired well with each of the scenes. This would be one of those dramas that I can watch over and over again. The storyline was epic and it was intriguing to follow through. There were so many parts of it that I couldn't help but cry for the main character and Hu Ge was just amazing in his performance. I fell in love with this series immediately and with each passing episode, I fell more in love each time.

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First things first do not compare this to the old one! I can promise you that you won't enjoy it as much! I've seen and loved the old one and it's given me so many memories. However, I approached this series with a new set of eyes and I loved it! I loved all the acting and the new take on the books. I loved the cast, they were energetic and played the characters well. The series was a bit long in my opinion and my interest did start to wane a bit toward the end but the story and the things that happened in the series didn't get old at all. There was always something new to focus on for me to continue to watch. I would highly recommend watching this.  

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I absolutely love Jimmy Lin, he always looks so happy and I've been following him since I was quite young. This series was well done in it's acting, plot and music. I felt that this series borderlined realistic and unrealistic very well. Not a lot of drama do that well. A lot of the details that had happened during the series were quite realistic but they also used some of the unrealistic ideas to make dreams come true.
I also loved the music, I think what makes a good drama is the good balance between the music, acting and plot. And this series has all 3 in spades.  

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There is so much rewatch value in this series, even though one of the main characters was a Korean actress. She was so amazing, didn't let the language barrier be an issue at all. I applaud her performance.  And of course one of the reasons why I picked this series up was because of Alec Su's performance. This series was witty, funny and highly entertaining to watch. The storyline had been done before but I loved the lightheartedness that they went with rather than it being all serious and doom and gloom. There was a little bit seriousness towards the end of the series but they were still able to come back to the comedy which was amazing.  

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To start off, I would like to point out that this drama went completely off of my expectations. When I first heard of this drama, I didn't think that it would create such a beautiful story of young, high school love through 24 episodes. I'll admit, the beginning was slightly short paced for me personally, but the development of all the characters is what makes you want to keep watching this drama. The story doesn't dabble too much on the side characters but it also gives just enough for you to keep your interest in the world of With You. Yu Huai is surely one of my favorite main leads, one that doesn't make you want to punch his lights out. Geng Geng is also a refreshing character that makes you want to keep watching her story and her blossoming love towards her desk buddy. Their relationship, how it starts and how the drama ends, it's all one big masterpiece that I applaud. With You is a drama that's hard to find for me, it's about this bright spark between two high schoolers and how that spark just never truly fades after all. If you're gonna watch this drama, I suggest you strap yourself down because I personally couldn't stop watching it. With You is an investment drama in my terms, a drama that is worth watching and sitting through, it's also a drama that you would watch again even if you're not one to usually do that (which I am not) yet you can't help but follow this story once more. My only bad thing against this story? There isn't more.

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Just finished this movie and I can say for sure: I was not disappointed!!
It's been a while since I've seen the Anime, so I kind of forgot what happened in detail. The story is fascinating and beautifully shown though!
At some points I thought things were happening a little bit too fast but as I can recall, so did in the Anime.
Sometimes I had the feeling that the feelings weren't as emotional as in the anime but maybe that's because I KNOW the anime already so I wasn't really surprised about anything.
Still - you understand the story well because everything is explained.

The acting and the cast were perfect - well maybe I would've imagines Prof. Tucker a little bit differently but other than that they really did an amazing job in choosing the actors! I recognized so much from the anime and I  really really hope there will be a second movie. I was really curious about who they would choose for Roy and at first glance at the trailer I was worried about the cast for Edward but I after I've seen this movie I'm glad they chose those two.
Also: I was very happy about the animation and the effort they put into the settings and the costumes!

The music -  that's the only thing that I was a little bit sad about because I remember the music from the anime which I couldn't stop listening to for a while. Maybe that's also why some scenes didn't seem as emotional for me as they originally were.

Overall I think this anime adaption is really well done and I would recommend it to everyone - also to those who haven't seen the anime :)

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