Reviews

I started writing up my review of this drama a few episodes or so from the end, because I had a pretty good idea of what my overall feelings were going to be once I finished. I was disappointed with the lack of development in Bong Sun and Seon Woo's relationship compared to Sun Ae and Seon Woo. There was not an even split, and it made the viewing experience frustrating. (I took a couple of hiatuses because of it.) It's not that I didn't love every moment Sun Ae and Seon Woo were together, because I did. I love Kim Seul Gi to bits, so I'm never going to complain about seeing her more often or about her characters getting lots of delicious character development. I also enjoyed watching possessed Bong Sun chasing after Seon Woo, and thus by proxy, Sun Ae developing a relationship with him. Minus the ghost issue, she would have been a strong contender in the fight for his heart. I just wanted there to be an even playing field for our two girls, and there wasn't. Only one of them was ever going to have better than a snowballs chance of being with Seon Woo, and she wasn't the one whose romance the writers chose to focus on most of the drama.

Then I watched the next to last episode, and my frustration and disappointment didn't seem to matter anymore. Seeing what happened to Sun Ae, how horrifying it all was, experiencing this flood of gut-wrenching emotions in the pit of my stomach. I was so angry and heartbroken for her, that she had to die so young, and by the hands of someone she cared for and trusted. And then the biggest surprise of all (for me at least), discovering there was still some scrap of humanity left in Sung Jae. The entire drama, we were lead to believe that he was just pure evil, that he had been possessed by an evil spirit for so long that there was nothing good left in him. But in those last moments, what we saw was a broken young man fighting against a destiny that was unfair and recognizing the man he had become and maybe not being so happy about it. He wasn't so far gone that there wasn't still room for redemption.

Of course, then I watched the Last episode, and I was back to being disappointed. Finales are hard for even the best of dramas, and Oh My Ghostess (which I do consider to be one of the best of dramas) is no exception. So much of the last episode felt unnecessary, frustrating, a little confusing. I could have done without much of it, to be honest.

Sun Ae's final day was beautiful and moving, each goodbye a perfect send off to the people she loved, but it seemed a little unfair to me that such an important character should get her send-off at the very beginning of the episode and then be completely forgotten about afterward.

And we have to talk about the forced separation of our main couple. I'm not inherently against main couple separations in dramas. But drama writers always utilize them so poorly or just throw them in for no reason other than it's the finale and they need to fill screen time, and it Really felt unnecessary here. Bong Sun and Seon Woo are only just starting to really get to know each other as people and develop a genuine relationship. Do you really think this is the right moment to separate them? It's just not on.

I think the most confusing writing choice though was what the writer did with Sung Jae. It is hard to be sure just how much was the evil spirit and just how much was him, because the drama never made it fully clear, but at some level, whether conscious or not, Sung Jae was inviting the evil spirit into his life. Even with possession as an excuse, there was at least a part of him that wanted to do some of the things he did. I'm probably in the minority here, but I was willing to forgive him and give him an opportunity to atone for his part in all of the terrible things that were done while the demon was in his body. Just...not that way. That wasn't justice Or redemption. It was just...confusing and weird.

Now that I've finished the drama, I still think my initial feelings were correct, that Seon Woo and Bong Sun deserved more relationship development. And I think the finale did the characters and overall story a disservice in many ways. But I'm also really glad I finally sat down and finished it (and pushed through my frustration during the midway portion.) I think this is a good drama, despite its flaws.

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Family. This is what this drama is all about. The core of it, actually. Of course that I was the same like all those hard core fans of Nirvana in Fire, all scared and in hesitation and doubt whether to give a chance to sequel or not. We all know how sequels rather rare become good enough to justify all the glory of prequel. But if done right, yes it is possible. Like it’s the case with Nirvana 2. It really succeeded to give me the same vibe like Nirvana, to make me attach so much and care for the characters and their lives, to make me sit on the edge waiting what will happen next. The quality is high and you could easily see that it comes from the same director, the same production team, the same excellent writing and amazing cinematography. Whereas it’s less one character driven and concentrated on more characters and their lives, still it manages to make everything worth watching and full of greatly written characters. It’s important to not compare these two dramas because honestly they are very different, the whole story is different. So I decided to do that and found myself loving every episode, every scene spent with Xiao family.
Let me tell you something about Xiao family. They are certainly for me the best and most amazing family I have ever seen in dramaland. They way they care for each other, the way they protect and love each other, the way they talk and haven fun with each other, the way they deal with problems and the way they are loyal and honest, everything makes you admire them. And makes you love them all. I really like their interactions and how they were also close to the emperor and his son, they literally felt like one big happy family from the neighbourhood.
Drama actually has two parts, you could easily see how before one certain event things were and how they changed completely after that. I can’t say for sure which part was better but let’s say first part was more happy, blissful and joyful and the second more tragic, sad and bittersweet. I felt such huge pain, my heart hurt and I couldn’t stop sobbing while watching some scenes and if you watch the drama, I bet you’re gonna feel the same. I had to make pauses in watching until I got back being myself again.

As for the characters, I think I came to love too many of them. And hate too. If I were to pick one who stood out the most, I’d say it’s Tingsheng. His calm presence, his unwavering mind, his loyal soul, his wisdom out of this world and his unconditional love he had for his sons, everything he was and he felt and said was the core of this drama. I loved intelligent, clever tranquil Pingzhang; elegant supportive skillful Xiao Xue; impulsive, joyful smart fighter Pingjing; brave, loyal Feizhan; wise, amazing emperor, and many others but Tingsheng was the one who carried everything as he was the bond between this drama and original  he was the one who experienced everything. I found so emotional and beautiful each time they mentioned Mei Chang Su or Prince Jing or anyone from the original and it was done in such a wonderful way in many important moments.
I won’t talk about villains, there are lots of them too but sadly they didn’t leave some big effect on me, yes I hated them (specially the empress who was so stupid) but I couldn’t understand their actions and the reasons why they did everything they did. That was a bit let-down in this drama and how they ended with one of the characters- I get it was needed for the story to move on and for our lead guy to mature and take charge and grow up, but still it could have been done lot better. That was the weak part, it felt like a bit lazy writing so I couldn’t give the highest score. But everything else, from the characters, Xiao family, cinematography, music, battle and fighting scenes, I applaud for everything else. And most important, a great ending and closure of the whole story, its protagonists, antagonists and villains. I will leave it like this with my favourite sentence:

"I have seen the coldest aspects of this world. But in my life there are 3 things that I found fortunate to have experienced. First- I received teachings from my Master and that eliminated the grudges and hatred in my heart; Second- I got adopted by the former emperor and experienced two generations of wise emperors. I have never been doubted by anyone. The third thing was that I have a harmonious home- I was able to have good children like you and Pingzhang."
I will remember this for the rest of my life. Personally my favourite scene and moment where I gave all my heart to them, to that lovely and wonderful family, to that goodhearted amazing parent, who is so far, the best well written parent character ever existed in my opinion- papa Tingsheng.
So do not hesitate and give it a chance, do not think in advance how it will be bad, trust me it won’t. You will have your heart broken so many times, you will feel the characters so strong, you will cry with them, smile with them and care so much for their happiness, you will also hate some too and wanting to kill them so much, you will feel a need to grab your family so tight and wanting to protect them forever. All of this Nirvana 2 will give you. And more. Yes I say that prequel is better and nothing could ever beat that drama, that original Nirvana in Fire but if you watch this one and not compare, you’ll see that it’s also one phenomenal piece of art where family bond is everything, loyalty is real and existing, battle scenes executed in amazing way, breathtaking landscapes and where power and greed aren’t everything. Nirvana 2 definitely did become one my all time dearest dramas and I am glad that I gave it a chance and watched it while it aired. And now I don’t think I will be able to watch anything in the near future because of the amount of emotions I felt during the watch. Thank you for that, thank you drama for giving me such an amazing, heartwarming, heartbreaking, beautiful time, I will always cherish that and I am forever grateful to all the people who participated in making this drama come to life. I know I said too much and that my review is a very long one but that’s the case with Both Nirvana 1 and 2. It’s never too much. They are pure love. <3

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I don't watch a lot of Japanese Dramas to be honest and I had watched the Taiwanese version of this story before landing on this one to watch. I loved both in their own way. I felt that there is something that the Japanese drama can do when transferring a manga into a live action drama that other places just can't. There was this sweetness and certain cultural aspects was just different when it's done in Japan and doesn't really translate to a different country.
I loved the interaction between the main characters and the family. Even though it was a drama it still maintained the cuteness and sweetness of a manga series.

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I started watching this series because of Nicky Wu and Cecilia Liu. And they made such a great couple onscreen and off screen of course. This was a hilarious show to be watching. I love the historical setting that the story was set in and the supporting characters were hilarious as well. It was a well thought out plot line and even though there was some seriousness in there, but it was mostly a comedy show. Nicky Wu's performance was always fantastic, I did feel that sometimes Cecilia's character was a bit too whiney for me at times and I didn't see real character growth either.  But I did enjoy them both together though.

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This has been my first crime show from Taiwan and I did enjoy it. I had been watching this on Netflix and even though the storyline of each of the cases was quite predictable I felt that I still loved watching it. Each of the characters was quite interesting.  But I felt that they should have made the series longer so that we could have gotten to know the characters a little more. I was very interested in knowing a few of the main characters back story a little more so that I could understand some of the decisions they made during some of the cases.
I think is something worth your time to watch and highly recommend this.

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I loved this one much more than the first season. This is super rare for me I usually love the original so much more than the second season. This was very different I felt that there was more going on in this series than the first and there was more about the characters that you could learn about. There is a lot of rewatch value in this series, I always felt different about the characters each time that I had watched them. I loved how they went through with this second series where there was a deeper dive into the story for each of the characters and it still kept my interest.  

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This drama is a gem and a rarity in Kdramaland. The level of sensibility in this show goes above and beyond anything I’ve seen in my 70+ Asian drama repertoire. This show is incredibly impressive when it comes to relationships and maturity. The characters are so functional together.

I watched this with the family. We did plenty of marathoning. It’s an easy show to watch with great little arcs that are quickly completed so annoying people/events aren’t dragged out unnecessarily. I do feel like that is one of the killers in Korean dramas, especially if you’re watching it with others and can’t press the fast forward button as liberally. The plotlines and the setups were intriguing, thought-provoking and feasible.

I enjoyed the pacing in this show with all the neat and tidy arcs. And the show maintains its consistency and quality all the way through. That’s noteworthy. At first, the comedy felt forced, but in general, the drama was everything – funny, sad, meaningful and intelligent. All the characters are fun and don’t waste their screen time.

The start is a little shaky as most Korean dramas are. But it settles in nicely. The characters are smart, funny, quirky and loveable.

One of the main things that stands out to me with this show is their problem solving, friendship and communication. Because they all dream about each other’s lives, it’s hard to keep secrets and they all talk about their problems together. This is awesome.

Jae Chan – male lead
This is probably one of the first LJS dramas where he’s not this perfect upstanding guy. I liked his flaws. His character development is wonderful and his backstory fits in nicely with his philosophy and attitude.

Hong Joo – female lead
I loved how respected she is in this show. She is well positioned in her workplace and she gets to play a significant role in problem solving. At times, I’m annoyed that she just thinks she’s helpless in the face of her nightmares.

Woo Tak – aka Batman
This guy was hands down the most favourite character. He is so good-natured, handsome, and strategic. His involvement in the show made everything better. I loved him so much from beginning to end.

Yoo Beom – bad guy
This guy is handsome too but he can also be hella annoying. Still, I liked his character and how he contributed to the troubles of our team.

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This series is a must watch!!! I absolutely loved it. I have seen the one that was made in 1996 when I was much younger but I felt that the cast here was so much better. Especially Fei Yun Fan, I felt that Alex was the better choice, he seemed older but not looking that old which is a hard cast to cast in this case and he hasn't had much experience in making this type of romance series but I felt that he played the character so well! I was absolutely mesmerized by his performance. The two sisters were also well casted and it was obvious that Zhi Ling had grown up towards the end of the series even though at times I felt that she needed to stand up for herself for her dreams and what she wants and actually live for herself.
The first time that I had watched this series I had felt much like Zhi Ling and how she felt trapped all the time. I felt that I had needed someone to take me away from all the troubles that I had. This series was my kind of way to disappear and have some time to myself.
The music was fantastic, it was catchy and matched well with the series. I highly recommend watching this. Let me know how you like it!

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So good!! I had some minor complaints, but I really loved Dongman's character and Seo Joon's acting. Everyone else was good, too, but he really stood out to me. The characters were very realistic. There were some good funny moments, too, although it's not one that I'd recommend for its humor alone.

My main issues were:
1. Aera was so selfish about Dongman. I wish she would have communicated more and tried to compromise. That's how relationships work. I felt like she didn't even learn that in the end.
2. The two main stories never felt like they overlapped. I wish the best friend group had more substance to it. I felt like I was watching two separate dramas until the very last episode.

However, overall it was a lovely drama and I recommend it!

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First time, when my friend suggested me this movie, I was just like "nyah okay I will think about it... but I will not watch it". But one day when I went travel with her,  she just opened the laptop and told me "watch". It was the best thing she could have done and this way I am saying big "thank you" to her <3

As you could see from previous reviews it's movie for adults, but I will be honest, a lot of today's teenagers saw much worse things, so just take care where are you watching and if someone is not secretly looking what are you doing :P and majority of those scenes are at the beginning of the movie, so don't worry XD.

Okay, but to the movie.
Honestly I hate rom-coms because of their boring story (this was the reason why I did not want to watch this) but this one was so realistic and really well made (I will call this movie an exception which is confirming the rule). Probably the best one rom-com I have ever seen (and I will ever see). Also I have never seen in Asian dramas, that people in movies/dramas are talking about topics like here (but let's be honest, (at least me) we know what kind of people Asians are in real life if you know them really close ;) )... this surprised me a little but I did not mind it at all.
Even though I have never heard about any of those actors (expect one but about that later) (I know, my bad), I loved them here. You can to see, that each actor (also supporting roles) are doing their best.
When it comes to music, after I saw 3/4 of the movie I wanted to rate the music  0/10 (because I did not even recognised any music), but then it came .... SHIN HAE CHUL at his best was there <3 (for those who do not know: probably the most famous Korean hard rock / metal singer... No idea why he is not written in the cast ... If I had known that he is there I'd have watched this immediately just because if him :D And the song from the main character at the end almost killed me :D ... anyway, I give to music 10/10, because Shin Hae Chul :D

So I said nothing  wrong. Why is the overall rating 9/10?
- I did not like the ending (I don't mind those kind of endings but even that I didn't like it)
(7/10 as rematch value is really high for me because I have no time for rewatch, but I guess I'll try to watch this again :D)

Anyway if you think about watching this, please give it a try ;)

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Honestly , I do not recommend this drama to anyone looking for something fun/new to watch. I personally watched it because it had high ratings so I had many expectations from it but I ended up highly disappointed. Prison Playbook was very hard to get into for me. The beginning was extremely stretched out and I was really close to dropping it many times but the characters  were so lovable that I couldn't drop it even though I wanted to.
This drama's strongest point is the relationship between the characters and how it evolved. Seeing the characters bonding was very touching. Unfortunately, that's about it. There are no interesting events happening , no surprises , nothing else to keep the person watching interested. I know for a fact that if I watched this drama while it was still ongoing , I would have dropped it as it's merely a narration of events. The ending was very disappointing for me as there was no closure, just a typical korean drama ending. I still gave it a 6/10 because the acting was just so brilliant and touching that by the end , I felt connected to characters of the show.

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let me tell u..something guys
for those who drop or missed this drama..
they really made bad decision..cause first
i was like those people to but then i thought its keep watch it cause i like k-drama kill me heal me..sO when i keep watching damn they made me believe that i was wrong that they cant act..like Korean version did but man that Zhang Yi Shan he really pole the role very well haha..the way he pole  Mo Xiao Na (the naouty girl personality) was very very funny and i was dieing laughing lol. i cried/laughed very much believe this remake give more vibe then Korean version and also Cai Wen Jing she really did great job..which is she was better then Korean version female lead..and there is some things thats r better then Korean version..and don't get me worng i really like Korean version to and i give it 9.5/10 but to this i give it 10/10 sO thats mean i like it then Korean version..and do u know why this remake of Korean version became high..well thats because of viewer/members who notice drama right..then this drama is not at fault if it didn't get hit like Korean version cause this drama have 8.2 and have 833 members but have score from 137..while Korean version have 8.9 and have 32,950 members but have score from 18,707..so thats why the remake didn't hit like Korean version..i highly recommended for u..to watch it..?????

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I had a lot of mix feelings while watching this show. Going in, I was totally unaware of what I was getting into. I hadn’t read its synopsis, reviews, related comments and mostly flicked past the screencaps in the feeds. So in the first half as I realized what the drama was about, it hit me personally because of multiple reasons. I wanted it to be more raw and painful at times and at others, it got so real that I had to press pause and take a break from my own thoughts.

Then, somewhere in between Just Between Lovers took a turn down the typical K-Drama alley. It became overly melodramatic and sappy. In order to create a tragic hero, they piled every problem possible in the world on his beautiful shoulders and there was only so much I could buy before I started giving it the side-eye. Physical health  problems gave precedence to mental. I won’t say that it romanticized mental illness but it did gloss over it all. PTSD does not randomly vanish like this.

However, despite all this, one thing that was very clear to me at the end of it all was how much I enjoyed this show throughout. I was even more relieved than disappointed because of all the tropes it chose to follow because they provided the much needed escapism we look for in dramas. Even though, it dealt with heavy issues it didn’t drown in it. There was always a comedic gesture, a heartwarming moment and a swoon-worthy interaction between the leads to balance things out.

I think this drama had one of the best K-Drama romances ever. This was exactly the kind of relationship I fall for. It was a beautiful slow burn, where two people grow individually and together. They go through obstacles, they have their highs and lows and they become stronger through them- both in harmony and independently. And, it was all absolutely beautiful to watch. I’ve never been this starved for skinship between the leads and when it finally happened, it was so sweet and intimate that it was worth the wait.

Both the main leads were very dear to me. Gang Doo was simply an angel. I don’t think people like him exist in this world anymore but it would be a huge relief if they did. Moon Soo, even though some of her actions at the end were questionable was undeniably a sweetheart. There were some side characters I was lowkey annoyed with (Think: Second Male Lead, Second Female lead (though she had her moments) and the female lead’s parents) because of how much they victimized themselves even when other people had it far worse. But at the same time, I also adored a lot of other characters. Like basically everyone related to Gang Doo; his grandmother, his Doona, his brother figure and his team leader. You know what they say, good people are surrounded by good people.

As far as the acting goes, I won’t say it was exceptionally outstanding or that I was floored by it. Their inexperience and freshness shined through however, this worked out in their favor. Because the way the two portrayed their characters was so sincere and natural that it didn’t fail to capture the audience and touch hearts.

One of the best things about the show is the OST. I really recommend watching this show in a print that has the songs subbed while they play in the background. The lyrics are so meaningful to the plot and the play timing is perfect. So when you know what the songs are saying at a particular moment, it gives all the more depth and insight to the story. And it’s simply gorgeous.

So ultimately, Just Between Lovers is a show about healing, friendship, love, serenity and brilliant dialogues. Even though it develops slowly and maximizes emotion, it’s never boring. There are some tears here and there but with that comes so much more hope and so much more warmth.

Definitely recommend.
Enjoy!

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