... THE PROPHECIES
The first thing you need to know about this drama is that it's all about prophecies, and they are a big part of every episode and every plot decision. You won't ever have time to forget it, and "the storm of prophecies" is not in vain. This drama is a tapestry woven around three prophetic heroes: Muyun Sheng, the cursed prince who is going to destroy the Muyun Empire; Muru Han Jian, the abandoned son of the military heads of the Muru family, who is going to vie with Muyun for the throne of the empire and become its next emperor; and Shuefeng He Ye, the Iron Wielder who is going to unify the eight oppressed warrior clans of the northern prairie and take down the empire.
Basically, everybody knows that this generation will bring forth a great war to the world and everybody is making terrible decisions trying to stop or accelerate this fate.
... THE CHARACTERS
At the first one fourth of this drama everything is interesting, after all we are being introduced to the world: the Shuefeng clan of the northerns prairies at first. Then, we are introduced to the next big players: the harem and its bitter and calculative empress, the arrogant emperor and his regrets, the annoying court and its machinations, the inflexible Muru family and their tradition in military law and order, the jealous brother of the emperor who just can't let go of his ambitions. This is a drama full of side characters who have a lot of screen time for themselves, and they are often the ones running the show.
I must say that for me the only likable characters are the three heroes and their loved ones, but I loved to watch the first half of this drama even at the moments they weren't so present because the side characters were moving the plot along in interesting ways.
... THE CINEMATOGRAPHY AND MUSIC
The cinematography is awe inspiring on these first episodes - for real! And the plot is well paced too! There are specially wonderful scenes which are filmed really beautifully. So beautiful, in fact, that you might realize on the middle episodes the budget was blown at some point for some scenarios are badly done - specially the underground kingdoms.
And then the gorgeous cinematography makes a glorious comeback and your eyes are delighted again. :')
Now the music is a deception. They are good enough at the first third of the series, but then they become repetitive - many are used for more than one character so they become less distinctive, and at the 56th episode they are placed weirdly.
Not only that! I think that sometimes they had audio problem or something, so they rerecorded the dialogue. The problem is that the background noise is never the same, so these moments really stand out in a bad way and make the production seems cheap. I really don't know how they could let such an obvious mistake happen.
... THE PLOT
Being honest here: I love a slow paced drama. I do. And the first half of this drama is amazing, it' really really good! The scenes were wonderful in portraying the world building, the characters and the plot in a really good pace. I watched 50 episodes in three days and wasn't the least bit bored - so I strongly recommend the first 50 episodes. <( *v*)>
Now being completely honest:
We have 75 episodes. It isn't little. It's 70h of your life, and yet the series seems to be going nowhere after the 50th. There are a lot of people who complain about the pace, I agree and disagree with them.
- I disagree because I love to see the world building, I love to see my favorite hero (in my case it's Han Jian and his beloved Su Yu Ning) take things fully even if slowly. It's a big world they are building so I want to know the people and the culture - I love these fantasy elements of a novel.
- But! I agree with them that the pace is bad! AFTER THE 50TH!
If I were to elect the biggest flaw of this series is that the PLOT RETRACTS THE GROWTH OF THE CHARACTERS. The series drags a lot because one day the character realizes his stupid attitude and grows +10 points, and one week later he forgets everything because the plot demands so. -50 points!
How would it make you feel? It just makes me emotionally tired. We are 25 episodes to the end and stuff keeps going backwards???
Is the director experimenting with something? The drama is not well edited since the 10th episode but at this stage the pace can't suffer the amount that is suffering from the 50th-60th episodes. We should be walking to the climax of the story...
The drawback of the drama is that the biggest players are like this constantly, so the plot is always going back 5 steps back for every 2 going forward. You know what this means? This means that they have to spend episodes in the emotional wreck of the unlikeable character's lives because this is what the plot forces us. The director doesn't like going forward.
The characters who suffer the most for this are the women - from interesting characters on the first half they become passive and love fools on the second. (I didn't sign up for this, dammit (# o _ o)
This results in another week of a feast of suffering for the characters because events are being milked for all they are worth. I'm sorry, we have the 75-quota, guys ¯\_( 'u' )_/¯
I mean, I like to cry watching drama: I'm a big baby like that, but even I can't summon tears when even 60 episodes aren't enough to make the characters seem eye o eye in simple matters when they could just talk honestly with each other. Like han jiang and su yu nin. Or the muru father and first son. Etc.
Have you realized how weird is that? 75 episodes is enough to do the initiation of the characters, the big conflict and the resolution, showing us the characters and their daily lives, emotions, worlds and ambitions just fine. Instead, they are giving us reheated stuff over and over again.
Pardon my french but they completely lost the direction of the show in its second half. It's a trainwreck right now, wow.
That must be why if you glued side by side all the flashbacks that we are obliged to see again and again you would see that they alone are responsible for whole 20 episodes! I just... really want to punch somebody (p ° . °)_p
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TL;DR.
This is a too long series for the poor plot. The majority of characters are frankly unlikable but we are forced to watch them 60% of the time. The heroes suffer because this is a suffering feast. The women somehow degrade themselves into love fools who just do things for the men. The writers are slower than a beached whale because they drag the story so much that somehow 75 episodes are just enough to get to the middle of the story.
The worst thing is that the first half of the show was so great that even though I'm tired and I'm going to see how this ends because somehow I still like it more that I dislike it :')
Just saying that... If Han Jian and Su Yu Ning don't end up together, healthy and happy heads will roll.
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Story: 5/10
Andante’s story was soooo boring for me. I do have to admit that it was really realistic, but it had snail speed from beginning to end so I could never sense in which direction it was headed until the last fourth of the drama. But what should I expect? The synopsis is basically: “Getting through unfamiliar experiences, he [the MC] realizes the meaning of life and love.” This synopsis accurately sums up the entire storyline of Andante, and literally screams boring boring boring. However, Andante’s strong points come from its characters, their development, and their chemistry.
Acting/Cast: 9/10
I consider Andante’s entire line of leads to be rookie actors, and they did a pretty good job overall, in my opinion.
Let’s start with our leading man, Kai. I didn’t head into this drama with big expectations for him. He is, after all, an idol-actor, and this just his second project (after Choco Bank). While acting in Andante, Kai became humble Jongin, so if you are here for dorky Jongin, you will not be disappointed:) But since the focus is not always on Kai's character, you might find yourself staying for other things. Kai, as the naughty yet kind-hearted teenager named Shi Kyung, did an okay job. His acting was a bit shallow, and he did an okay job of portraying deeper emotions. However, Kai did seem super relaxed in his role and didn’t look as stiff as a piece of cardboard the whole time. Nothing bothered me about his acting and it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the drama, but he didn’t leave a lasting impression on me either.
Lee Ye Hyun, one of the female leads, is a rookie actor. This is fact, but I could not believe it. Ye Hyun made her character, the rebel Lee Shi Young, come alive. She could convey the emotions really well and make her character carry so much depth. Sometimes Shi Young felt like a supporting character, but at other times, I felt as if she was the main character of this drama because of the way her character stood out (it seems that every time I scroll past the cast section on this drama, Shi Young’s character would get moved up a slot haha). You might think that the way her character acts is annoying, but I feel like that makes her really realistic and relatable. I would definitely watch any future projects that she is in!
Kim Jin Kyung, the other female lead, also did pretty well for her first project, but her acting was not as memorable to me.
Characters: 9/10
This drama carries the power of making the viewer love all the characters introduced to the story. Why? Because it delves into the stories of every single character (yes, even the supporting ones), which shows the me their point of view while leaving little space for plot holes and unexplained story threads. Some time was spent on every character so that they got development, but the show doesn’t deviate from the main storyline of the MCs. All the characters were really realistic, well-written, and nicely developed.
Music: 6/10
Andante’s OST was okay. It did add a lot to the mood of the drama, but none of them were really memorable for me.
Enjoyment Level: 7/10
From episode 1 to episode 5, nothing really happened and I was about to drop this drama. But after I got past that point, the characters started developing and I enjoyed and appreciated this drama a lot more. The plot did bring down my enjoyment level by a lot since it was really slow the whole way through, and the only thing that convinced me to stay was the characters. Also, the comedy was pretty good. There was just the right amount of comedy, which helped balance out the sadder parts of this drama.
Rewatch value: 2/10
I wouldn’t really want to watch Andante again because how boring its story is, but I might come back to it one day to fall in love with all the characters again.
Conclusion: Great characters, slow plot, but not a must watch.
There were some small things that I didn’t like about this drama, but there were also other things that left a lasting impression on me. If you dig great characters, you should consider checking this out! Just get past the 5th episode and you will find yourself loving every character that you see in this drama. But if you can’t deal with a plot moving at 0.0001 miles per hour no matter how lovable the characters are, then it might be best for you to skip on this one:)
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After being raised in India, Seira returns to Japan to attend a boarding school. However, when her rich father dies, the school's headmistress forces her to work as a maid. In this version, the headmistress at least has reasons for hating Seira, though it is still appalling to watch her treat Seira horribly. Becky is changed to a male love interest named Kaito Miura. Their love story was sweet, but I felt the episode where they visit his hometown was a bit out-of-place. Masami (Ermengarde in the novel) kind of annoyed me, while I thought Maria (Lavinia) was probably the most interesting.
SS was a sweet story but unremarkable story. I think some might find the series frustrating, because the bullying scenes were a bit over-the-top. However, I still think most people will enjoy this drama. I also recommend the 1986 (find it on YouTube) and 1995 versions, though the latter does not really follow the book.
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"Meteor Shower" takes places at a college (like MG), where Yunhai (Dao Ming Si) and Yuxun (Shan Cai) have a fateful encounter. Hans Zhang and Zheng Shuang's chemistry is hands down the best part of the show. I was bored during scenes without them, though their romance did drag a bit towards the end. Unlike previous versions, MS has several romance side plots for the supporting characters, including Lei and Yu Xin (Jing), Shangguan (Xi Men) and Xiao You, and a love triangle between Ye Shuo (Mei Zuo), Yunduo (Yunhai's sister), and her ex-boyfriend. Interesting at first, these side plots eventually became played out and only served to fill out the series' thirty-six episodes.
Overall, MS was fun to watch, despite being draggy at times and the last three episodes were almost agonizing. You'll probably enjoy this series as long as you don't expect too much from it.
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This is a story about a group of friends who have grown up together, and eventually move onto the next chapter of their lives. It focuses on the nature of life and how it is not as exciting or smooth sailing as we predict it to be. Life is not a math problem that has a formula with steps for us to follow through, there will always be unexpected variables thrown our way and most of the time we will not be prepared to handle it. The drama reveals how true friendship can help people through difficult times, but it also shows how some friendships are not as pure as people think. The world is filled with those that want to help others, but it is also filled with people who want to hurt others. There will always be people with hidden agendas and dark secrets.
Although this drama has "main characters", their status seems to fade towards the end, with the supporting characters having more prominent scenes that practically started overshadowing the leads. The relationship of the lead couple started to get bland and uninteresting, but nevertheless not all love stories in life are as exciting as we imagine it to be. I found this to be a very real reflection of life rather than an unrealistic message to the audience that life and relationships are perfect. On the other end though, I found Lu Zhiang and Yan Mo, and Duan Qiao and Yu Jian's love stories to be so cute and romantic! Their love stories really spiced up the rest of the drama.
This was a long watch, and I admit it was not one I binged watched either. I had to stop for a while after watching about half of it, and picked it back up a few months later. I think having a break halfway through may have changed my opinion of the drama, and lead me to watch it with a different perspective. Overall, I think it is a pretty great drama to watch. It is about youth, life, and love but more so about the love shared in relationships with friends and family.
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The only thing I didn’t like was at the end there was an amnesia scene which is just like why do directors/screenwriters like to add amnesia so much, seriously not all gets amnesia that easily. Literally if you fall or something you’ll most likely get a concussion than forget everything.
What I enjoyed the most was the chemistry like damn GHJ literally has chemistry with all of her leading man, my girl over here is amazing literally.
The horror scenes tho. My heart literally almost popped out watching it which is great because sometimes when shows try to make a horror scene and I’m just sitting there like wth are they doing. So props to the MS team on making scenes scary af.
The characters are all played well there’s really no dull moment or like wth is going on thing.
I also loved how Joong won was like he’s an expensive radar i could not stop laughing whenever he said that to gong shil.
Oh and some scenes are just tear jerkers like my eyes became Niagara Falls watching it. This show is such an emotional roller coaster in a good way.
And some scenery like damnnn it’s nice af, the director knows what they are filming.10/10
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- Story (10/10):Defendant have a very good story. Each episode makes you more anxious to know what happened. Why did the main lead lose his memory? Did he kill his wife and daughter? The story is so well done that there is no holes (not that I have realized of course).
- Acting/Cast (10/10):The acting was PERFECT. Everyone who accompanies Jisung knows that he's a great actor so we all knew he would act well. But the surprise comes with the villain and the other characters, they were VERY GOOD. The cast was handpicked and everyone played a great role and acted super good. For a drama with a story as intense as that, the actors needed to keep up with the intensity of the characters, and they did it very well.
- Music (8.0/10):The drama doesn't have an addictive OST but the songs went well with the scenes, particularly with action and suspense scenes, the soundtrack guided them very well.
Rewatch Value (8.5/10):Although you already discover the secrets of the drama, I think he wouldn't lose the grace if you watched more than once because everything is very intense. You will suffer a lot but the story is so good, the actors acted so well that everything will still shock you.
- Overall (10/10):Overall, it was a wonderful story and drama. For those who haven't watched it yet, I SUPER recommend it. Even if you aren't a fan of melodramas like me, take a chance, I guarantee this drama will surprise!
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If you boring and thinking if you watch it you can try it but dont except great story or something like that.
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I just watched it because it's Christmas, I wanted something easy to watch and to see Lee Min Ho in a better shape than Boys over flowers.
My review:
Story: don't lose your time. "The heirs" is "Boys over flowers" with a better hairstyle (and sometimes, but only sometimes, better clothes...).
The acting: I didn't like Park Shin Hye. She is supposed to be a strong woman, although all the adversities, but she was always crying. Lee Min Ho...pse... but, I liked the evolution of Kim Woo Bin in this show.
Music: I don't get why they put Love is the moment ALL the time... horrible.
Rewatch value: no, no, no.
Overall: if you have free time, nothing to do, and you want to see something catchy knowing it's not good... this is for you!
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I never watched a drama where I would get murderous feelings towards roles in the drama, but I'll give those people a grand applause for their acting for actually making me feel that way!
I mean it's an interesting story and somehow everyone is somehow related to someone else and it's a huge scandal if anyone would find out about it.
Somewhere in the middle I felt like the story was rushing away somewhere else but it got back on track very soon after.
The cast was good, everyone played their role fantastic. It surprises me though that Ithe relationship I was most interested in was between Ye Yi Xuan and Li Yu Xi. Probably because their relationship was the most innocent and without (almost without) any scandal or bad backround thoughts or actions.
I like the main couple - no questions there and I like the actress Mao Xiao Tong, she's so adorable and pure, I think she did a great job!
I wouldn't rewatch the drama again, there was so much scandal and I don't want to get more and more upset although it has a good ending but no...no no...too much scheme.
Overall I still think it's a good drama to watch because you never have the feeling of relaxation because something is happening all the time.
But serioulsy folks, this drama shows us that it is SOO important to communicate and we still won't do it xD
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