Reviews

Story: a girl moves to an island to get a fresh start but ends up entangled with the mafia.

In the beginning everything was great. It's rare for me to like a contemporary C-drama, but this one really drew me in. Our heroine is funny, with a personality that made me instantly like her. She's someone that seemed very real. I liked the way she handles certain situations that would make me want to die of embarrassment. I was a little misled by the poster as to who the hero was, but I have to say, I was really digging the fresh faced puppy that's really a mafia assassin (?). It was easy to believe that no one suspected him, because seriously, nobody ever would. He pretty much fell for her from the beginning, and it was a damn delight to watch him work for her attention.

The story kept me engaged up to about episode 15. After that, unfortunately, it went flat and never recovered. I was left feeling vaguely unsatisfied when the end came around. Basically I didn't think they had enough conflict to last the duration of the show and had to really reach for things. That was really sad for me; a subpar ending to a visually gorgeous drama.

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I don't know how to feel about this drama, at first I liked, it has the comedy, it has the side character good, but the relation between the main characters takes long to develop and too me it got me annoy. Even how more rival characters came in it helped but it still got boring and stagnant quickly because there is isn't a intriguing or nice love scene. The story just goes fast the last episodes with more story over the others in the series then the main itself. I can't understand why this is a romantic drama if the mains of the series were only 1/8 romance of the series. VERY DISSAPOINTED.

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Honestly, I have always been a fan of long dramas, but this drama was really frustrating to me. Since the beginning to the end, I had high hopes for it, but after a while I was getting tired of it. This drama is similar to Heaven Promise, but the revenge didn't happen until much later. To be completely honest, I don't think I am going to change my opinion on this drama at all. The acting was on point and I really hated the "villain" in this drama. There were a few that I considered to be. I really enjoyed toward the middle of the drama, but then after that I felt it was dragging on and on. I don't blame the actors, but the rather the writing. I really dislike how certain things could've been solved a long time ago but then it took a few or more episodes for it to be completely solved. There were a few things I didn't like, but I'm not going to spoil it for you.  In the end, if you are looking for good revenge drama or haven't seen any. I do think you should give it a try. However, this drama will test your patience.

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This was my first Japanese Drama, as such, I spent a lot of time going 'oh my god, did they just do that?!' because it's definitely more "mature" than what I usually see in k-dramas. :) The story is primarily about Toyama Sakura, a hair stylist who is about to turn 40, who ends up dating a much younger man (Saeki Hiroto, who is some 14 or 15 years her junior). She also works with Tachibana Rintaro, who has been her friend for a long time. The obvious triangle is set up, but the story keeps you guessing right up to the very end. The cast in this drama is very appealing and I really enjoyed watching it. At 11 episodes, it felt like a quick and light little drama. There are a couple of points where the story line was a little murky for me, but overall it was a fun watch. It has something of a Sex and the City vibe to it, though certainly way more tame than that.

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okay so i just finished this drama, I cant say that it was perfect but the cast certainly were, and the ending left a mark in me ( Usually in the last episode of every drama ends up being rated low as it didn't meet my expectations but not this one, this one hit me deep and made perfect sense to me).

the story in the beginning may seem normal to you and similar to political dramas, but its not really the cast were smart in their movements and the tricks and schemes from all sides were good which makes it very interesting to watch, it didnt drag quite the opposite the number of episodes were pretty good and keeps you attached.

The acting for me was flawless, perfect choice of cast, I mean its Nam Gong Min and he is certainly a top rated actor, nevertheless the rest of the cast was just about right.

The script lines, hidden messages, and quotes hanging on the walls were really good. I would recommend this show to anyone without a second thought.

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A really cute rom-com with predictable villains.

This is a classic case of rich boy falls in love with poor girl (but think she's a rich girl).

If they tightened the storyline and made it 12 episodes instead of 16, the story would be even better. Last few episodes could be scrapped altogether as they didn't add much to the storyline. Otherwise, the plot moved forward at a reasonable pace.

Acting between the leads was serviceable. Yang Jin Sung's acting as the doppelganger is decent. A lot of times what happens with an actor playing two roles is that one role often is more fleshed out than the other, while the other one is often more serious and emotionless. The same thing happens here so I wasn't blown away by her acting. I don't know what the ages for the actors were supposed to depict in the drama but both leads acted as if they were in their early 20s. Made me believe there is a romance, albeit more of an innocent first love kind of love rather than one that is worth risking your all for.

Use of the music was effective for this drama.

Overall, not bad for a rewatch, as it was one for me!

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I will be honest, I was going into this with a lot of skeptical as always because you know I don’t like to fall for the hype train, but to be honest it really was a great drama. Now was it perfect? No way. But it was a drama that really made me feel a wide range of emotions while watching it that is for sure. There were a lot of heart touching moments in the drama that had me either on the verge of tears or completely sobbing over my keyboard. There were also moments that had me laughing very loudly so it evened itself out a lot of the time. I felt as the drama could have ended at episode 12 and it would have been a pretty fantastic drama. After that, there were moments in this drama where I was very confused and wondering why things were happening. Now there was a scene where someone got shot then and died and got brought back to life in the hospital then just casually strolled out after being shot several times that really confused me. Now there are some things in this drama that are unrealistic of course and we just brush those off, but that was pretty much where I was like Okay well that’s some bullshit haha.

I watched this drama on Viki and had the comments on for the first time in many many drama viewings and I remembered why I did not watch with comments on any longer. I think these were some of the most ignorant and down right childish comments I had seen in a drama. A lot of name calling and basically people bitching about our main female, which I happened to enjoy. I think it was a lot of teenage girls who had an intense crush on Song Joong Ki and didn’t understand the female characters choices, and I assumed many of them have never been in a real relationship to understand the choices someone has to make that may change their lives, so for that I would warn anyone who has never seen this drama to watch it on another site or without the comments on.

The acting in this drama was great, from the four leads to the small characters, the Korean cast of this drama were off the charts. Now I am not here to judge the foreign (non-Korean) actors and actresses in this drama because I know that even though they may be speaking English in their scenes that may not mean they are native English speakers, and many Non-Korean actors (non-Asian) have really weak lines and don’t seem to be well-trained actors and actresses in the first place, along with that I wouldn’t even begin to critique our Koreans for speaking English or another language along with them so to keep it fair I would only ever talk about our Korean or Asian actors Song Joong Ki has been a love of mine for many years and when he left to go to the military I was heart broken, and it is lovely to see him back in the drama scene once again. He definitely did not let down either, the boy is back and man his acting has upgraded some as well. I don’t know where they have acting lessons in the military or the fact that it has made him more of man (though he has always been rather manly to me) I am proud of him in this drama. He sweeps you away with his charm and when he takes charge and when he is cute and funny it is even more endearing. I have not seen Song Hye Kyo since That Winter The Wind Blows which is one of my favorite dramas, and she didn’t disappoint me here either. I thought she did a fantastic job of portraying a woman who is confused and has a lot of things she has to consider when going into a relationship with a man such as Yoo Shi Jin.

Now I know many people did not like her character but I found her realistic and had so much depth and I think she is the type of woman more dramas should portray. A hardworking female who has to consider her options and not just jump head first into a relationship that may cause her emotional harm, unlike many dramas where the female just jumps in head first. Jin Goo was also very good in this drama and his relationship with Kim Ji Won may have even out-shined our leading male and female. Both these actors did a fantastic job in portraying their characters and their story was very heartwarming and breaking. The rest of the cast from the soldiers to the nurses and doctors were all well put and we got to see so many side stories that one may think it would have taken away from the main focus of the show, but without them, there were would be so much less to this drama. Each character had a role that really felt needed for the drama. They all portrayed emotions and their characters to a T and I loved this cast so much, even our bad guy was great.

The music and cinematography for this drama were outstanding. So many good angles and transitions throughout this drama that really need to be praised. I found myself even more fixated due to that. The songs in this drama were also very good, they would get stuck in your head and you had to sing along. The songs brought more emotions to the drama as well, and I was happy to hear some great music in dramas after such a long hiatus from dramas.

Overall I thought that this drama was pretty freaking great, that I can see why it had so much hype for it. Now it was perfect, at all, but it was something that kept you on an emotional roller coaster ride to where you were emotionally attached to all of its characters and wanted the best for them and their lives and family and friends. For those who are in doubt about watching, the probably 3 of you out there by now, I would say hey give it a shot, its worth it.

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STORY (No spoilers)
I wasn't too keen to watch this initially because it appears to be a food/cooking-centered show. This sort of setting normally does not appeal to me because I find that most shows with a chef don't tend to do realistic portrayals of proper chefs and their difficult and highly-skilled work in the kitchen. Unfortunately, I can't really say that this show made the cut in this aspect, so for those who are a bit more picky in terms of accuracy of portrayals of people in a professional capacity, you might want to close one eye and shut the other on this show when it comes to such scenes.

So, toss accuracy of the chef profession aside and use the cooking theme as the main storyboard on which the whole show rests on. Or rather, use the cooking theme as a main storyboard on which the character of Alin rests on, because this show is really about her.

Alin is an interesting, quirky and rather funny main character on which the whole show revolves around. But what, I think, makes her character pop and stand-out for me (and probably a lot of viewers too), is that she is surprisingly headstrong, assertive and quite marvellously able to stand on her own two feet throughout the entire show. She fights her own cat-fights, and is practically fearless in action whether it be facing down a sea of reporters in press conferences, or facing off against her potential mother-in-law, or in making demands and throwing a tantrum at the point of a gun. She's such a Diva, but yet we can't really hate her, even in her most manipulative, exploitative moments. For crafting a memorable leading lady, this show is pure gold.

The pacing of this show is steady and solid, with side characters and story-arcs being given more than enough air-time to establish personalities, character motivations, back-stories, and forward-movement of plots. I also thought that the script and the way the show evolved was very well-written and I was actually so absorbed in watching the first two-thirds of the show that I hardly used the fast-forward button (which is normally in action for stock character appearances). I personally thought that the show lost some of its amazing momentum in the later one-third, and I wished they could have fleshed out the ending a bit better so that we could sit back and sigh in bliss as we watched our main leads together, but these are minor gripes in the whole scheme of things.

Overall, this is a solid romantic-comedy with a scintillating main character who brings lots of sparkle and pop to this show.


ACTING/CAST
Most of the supporting cast of characters are great. You do have your villains in this show and they can be pretty one-note in terms of character and rather over-exaggerated in terms of portrayal - typical of Thai lakorns - but the main characters are all well-rounded and well-done.

KEN THEERADETH - as Kru Cook/ Pasu/ Din. Ken won another acting award for his role here, and while I can appreciate why because Ken is as good as ever with his ability to emote on-screen, I personally enjoyed his earlier character portrayals in his earlier dramas ('Oum Rak' and 'Sawan Biang') more. His character here is less of a stand-out compared to the main female lead, so I think he was a little over-shadowed here. But still, over-shadowed or not, Ken is as good as ever in being able to bring to life his characters to the screen and make them as different and as distinguishable from other characters he has played in the past. His versatility in the acting department is truly outstanding.

ANNE THONGPRASOM - as Alin. This is Anne's show, without a doubt, and she deserved her best actress acting award in spades. Alin is such a multi-faceted and mercurial character, with mood changes and temperaments as changeable as the wind, but yet Anne is able to hold it all together and knit the various clashing colours of the character into one amazing garment. She is somehow able to make the character of Alin winsome despite all that diva temper-throwing and self-entitled arrogant huffs. We can see why Kru Cook fell in love with Alin despite her crazy character flaws, and in the hands of a lesser actress, this show could have gone completely off the rails and self-destructed. Anne was brilliant here, just absolutely brilliant from start to finish. Standing ovation from the floor.

Chemistry-wise, both Ken and Anne had them in spades, which I've come to expect as par for the course for this pairing. This on-screen couple is incredible at generating that kind of gravitational force that pulls you into their orbit and every single one of their scenes together, regardless of which drama, is just mesmerising.


MUSIC
I admit that the music did not really catch my attention in this show. There was not a lot of over-playing of character theme songs or repetitive soundtracks here which is also a nice change from some of the dramas which bludgeon you over the head with their music score. I guess it must have been sufficiently subtle and good enough to have passed unnoticed and yet not jarring the show or the scenes.


RE-WATCH VALUE
I confess that among the 3 Ken/Anne dramas I've seen, this one currently stands lowest on my re-watch list. Don't get me wrong, this is a fantastic romantic-comedy show, and Anne is just outstanding here, but the relationship dynamic and the emotional feels this show and this coupling incites was not as mesmerising nor as emotionally-provoking as 'Oum Rak' and 'Sawan Biang', for me. But as a stand-alone Thai lakorn, this is still one of the best out there, because really, the Ken/Anne coupling is just head-and-shoulders above their compatriots.

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The show has a nice set up. It’s way too violent for me so lots of skips. Towards the end it gets a bit silly and repetitive and I didn’t like the fighting between the men.

You wouldn’t think that a story like this would be heart warming. But it is as its base because selfish, and cold people start caring about others and I think that’s rather awesome. They lay down their pride, their ambition, their lives, for the greater good. It’s also nice to see some helpful people that they meet along the way. But it’s a bit weird that they try and be moralistic to their old colleagues about living a better life.
There is also this contrast, that these criminals learned so quickly to become good people, given the right support and context and then there were the corrupt authorities messing things up.
Another thing I liked was how when it was a personal moment for anyone of them, they all looked a little flat and sort of unable to deal with it because they aren’t into emotions haha.

It’s nice when a rag tag bunch get together and learn to get along. There’s a lot of ego and they try and see who can be the most sinister. But it gets old fast. Basically, they’ve all been through a lot and each one thinks he’s the biggest baddest wolf in the room.
Every little attempt at getting along made me smile.
It was amazing actually to see how they stopped fighting amongst each other and began to look out for one another.

There are gangsta politics but there was a nice spin to it. And some surprise loyalties and disloyalties as they explore the hyeong and dongsaeng relationships within the hierarchy of the underworld.

Gu Tak
Our Squad Leader Oh is a surprisingly moralistic guy considering the darkness he portrays. He is also very compassionate and sees the heart and the pain of these hardened guys. I never care much for characters who are already dead, but his flashbacks with his daughter were so sweet and painful.

Jeong Mun
This guy always has his hair in his face. In a way he is the most pathetic out of all of them. The other guys get friendly pretty soon but he’s a hard egg to crack. He’s the psycho pet at the youngest, quietest and most reserved. He’s very nonchalant. Nothing ruffles his feather. He always walks.

Tae Su – contract killer
I loved this character the best. He just gets better and better as the show goes on and the actor is amazing the way he portrays everything so beautifully. He had the best arc and he was always a winner despite the crap things he did and the tragedy that hit him. I like the dignity of this character. He’s very polished and civilised. He is indeed like a wolf. I don’t know if he got in touch with humanity, or he was always quietly human as a contract killer.

“You might be an ass, but your brain works pretty well.”

“We’ll have to find him so he can explain it, right?”

“That’s enough. Should I lose my temper too? Who do you think I’d kill first?”

“Don’t always choose death. First find a way to stay alive.”

“Once we’ve found how to stay alive and have uncovered the truth, there will be plenty of time left to kill each other.”

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I decided to watch this despite of all negative reviews and comments I've read here at MDL and from different sites. I decided to watch and give it a chance because of one major reason-NAM JOO HYUK!!!!. At the first two episodes I'm kinda (ok.. ok .. give it a chance.. maybe the next episode will be better..)..Then even the next episodes were not good at all I decided to continue watching and patiently waited and hope for the next episodes to give me even the smallest gut feeling that this one isn't that bad as the reviews were saying.. But Until now I'm at Episode 8 and nothing happened.. As in nothing.. Actually beside from bad acting of Shin Se Kyung, The story was terrible!!.. I hated the fact that they made a God(To-be King of The God's) that dumb and powerless, And his main reason actually for being in the human worlds was to find that God Stones and the other Goddesses but I'm very disappointed that until episodes 8 there's nothing special happened in finding that God Stones and in their love story as well, And most of all the tittle was THE BRIDE OF HABAEK.. but until episode 8 what I'm watching is THE SERVANT OF HABAEK!!!. Nam Joo Hyuk's acting was good but it's such a waste because of the terrible storyline and his terrible partner!!.. I Decided to drop this.. Maybe.. just maybe 2 monts from now I'll continue watching it.. but now I'm going to watch different drama just to forget how terrible this one..

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Tbh I only watched for Jisoo and the pre debut Jisoo stans did too, even if she was a small character I enjoyed her part most, I had such high expectations. When blackpink debuted cuts came out for her, she increased the views, if blackpink would of debuted earlier than it would up really increased the views.

Her acting was really good, and so was the main cast.

IU did really good too, and so did the others, but I'm a bit disappointed :( I saw the cast and thought " woah must be a good drama " but thats what it all was, good, not amazing or great, just ok, and if my internet went out I would watch it, but if I had a choice, id must likely just watch Jisoo's few liner parts... But its not total disaster the first two episodes pull you in, its you it went down heel from then out... They could've fixed it, but then they rushed the ending... :(

but if you do plan on watching it, don't let me get in your way, its what you think that matters most.

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