Reviews

I dropped this drama, for the mean time, after watching it until episode 20. For the first 15 episodes, I was hooked by how the story was going, the love and hate relationship between Yi Du and Wei Wei and the unrequited love of Huo Xiao. But soon after, I only felt like the need to finish it since I started it. I have this habit of finishing the show just because I started it, but in this drama, I just can't continue it anymore.

REASONS:
1. The love and hate relationship of the main casts, it's too much.
2. The slow paced storyline
3. Too many happenings that just make my head hurt.
4. SECOND LEAD SYNDROME, I JUST CAN'T ANYMORE WITH THIS BECAUSE HUOXIAO IS JUST TOO KIND AND HE DOESN'T DESERVE TO BE TREATED LIKE THAT.

Anyway. I still like Joe Chen.

Read More

"Always" was one of those movies that made me feel emotions that I'd rather not feel. Let me just say that from the minute I started the movie, I was immersed in the world that the writer created.

I would describe this movie as painfully beautiful. It was dark both metaphorically and literally since most of the movie was shot either during the night or in the small, poorly lit places. This was a great metaphor of the character's lives: the male lead's life was dark since he didn't have much to live for and the female lead's life was literally dark since she couldn't see.

The chemistry between the leads was off the charts. This was one of the best couples I've seen so far.
I really had no idea how amazing So Ji Sub and Han Hyo Joo's acting is. I saw them both in different Korean dramas, but I now realize that Always really let them shine as actors. I am in awe. The characters felt so real to me that I almost had a feeling that they'll jump out of the screen and appear in front of me.

The ending was very bittersweet. "Always" is ultimately a movie about sacrifice, redemption and finding hope where there seems to be none. There are some incredibly romantic moments, but even when the mood in the movie lightens up, I could feel something ominous in the air. It's a type of story that makes you hold your loved ones after you finish watching it. Some people seem to find the ending to be satisfying, but I had some mixed feelings about it. I understood the writer's message and intention; however, I'd prefer the ending to be a little more uplifting even if it wouldn't exactly match the general tone of the movie.

Read More

So here's the thing, the story is typical and the ending is predictable. But there is something in this drama that'll make you watch and crave for more. The 40 mins per episode is kind of short compared to other dramas but it would make you crave for more and that's a good thing, in my opinion.

The actors are great. I like how the story is very light, perfect when you just want to chill after a long day from school or work. There's also this tingly sensation caused by the protagonists that would make you want to go into a relationship as soon as possible.

Overall, it's a good drama to watch. Try it!

Read More

This seems like a kind of hybrid between rom-com and family drama. It's refreshing that the main romance/story line is about a couple in their forties, which is a nice break from all the 20-something and 30-something romance dramas. Kim Hee Ae plays Kang Min Joo, a successful television producer, and Ji Jin Hee plays Ko Sang Shik, a safety minded civil servant. Sparks fly when the two of them clash. The extended cast in this drama is delightful and really flesh it out. Unfortunately, the pacing is tedious. I really did like the story, but there were far too many 'if you people would just take five minutes to /talk/ to each other' frustrating moments. It took me almost a full year to watch the show, because the pacing was just so off. Which is really unfortunate, because like I said, the cast was superb.

Read More

I normaly do not write reviews but I had to now. I Just finished the serie and I am angry I watched till the end for this.
I personally think of what is the point of having an transmission of past to the future If you still going to mess up everything and people die the same. What is the point !!!.
I like it because the corruption and injustice is realistic , but come on give me Some hope ! !!!
If the world we live in is like this give me at least Just a little hope. I am glad they caught one of the bad guys at the end, but what I was hoping for the whole show is that Detective Lee would finally live His love with Cha . Man this woman been waiting for freakin 15 years, is not 5 nor 10 but 15 years ! What hurt me the most was that Park's brother still died ! What is the point of the radio !
If the show wants to show what happens in real life that is good but dont put the radio transmissions in it because it is distracting and you hope that someone Will be saved , there was little saving and alot of mess up .
I could had taken everything If at least in the end scène Park , Cha and Lee would actually see Each other but noooooooo. I was waiting for that the whole serie but noooo.
Again I was frustrated . But now that My anger is gone I Really appreaciate the values it gaves
I wachted this because I thought it would be awesome like Tunnel who is btw the best serie I wachted love love love ! but not at all.
But overall i loved the acting of the main characters was great, the story and the concept confuses me.

Read More

Jin is an 11 episode Japanese drama that some viewers might find familiar as the Korean drama re-make might be better known to a lot of drama fans. As of this time, I have only watched Jin (part 1) and not the sequel.

I really enjoyed Jin as the writer managed to do a very good job of interweaving the emotional situations involving the characters with the medical scenarios and meshing it with the political world of Edo. One or two things that didn't quite come together are as follows:

Time Travel: I've said it in other reviews, and I'll say it again: it never makes sense. Just don't expect some serious explanation for that fetus tumor...yeah, I know. It sounds and is weird. Just go with it and perhaps part 2 will answer that question. But probably not.

Truly that is the only issue I have with the drama. Things I liked:

Actors: I truly thought they all did a good job. There are not many reviews here of Jin, and I took the time to read the "6" rating review because I was interested what the issue was. Drama watching is such an individual thing and what bothers one person another doesn't care about etc. It appears it was the acting style of some of the actors. I think perhaps if this had been my first Japanese drama, I would understand that because there is a certain earnestness sometimes in the way scripts are written and acted out that I have taken this to be a cultural difference especially coming from the K-dramas. All I can say is it's subjective, and I didn't have any issues here. With a few exceptions, it's pretty much what I see in most Japanese dramas.

Writing: This is the key as many genres are rolled into one and blended beautifully. This did not get bogged down in politics even though it's made clear that Japan is in a very tenuous time. I enjoyed how the medical scenarios were addressed and how we learn so much of the time simply by bringing forth what the people needed help addressing. (The time frame is in the 1860s.) Also, all the characters grew as the drama proceeded and the pacing of the story was good. The perk of 11 episodes is no filler.

History: I seem to have learned a lot about what was going on in Japan without even knowing it. That's the sign of a good drama; it is enjoyable while educating me at the same time. Now the choice a viewer will have to make is whether to look up who Ryoma is. Sometimes I do not want to know about history during a drama, but it was very apparent that this was a famous person in Japan, and I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much while our main character is very aware of who he is, what he does, and how he dies. So I did look him up, and I recommend it if you, like me, are unaware of Japanese history. I feel it helped my enjoyment of the drama.

Direction/Music etc: It is beautifully filmed and well done. Costumes are amazing. I liked the song well enough but thought it was a bit over the top sometimes for the times they were playing it. There were no behind the scene issues that hindered my enjoyment of the drama.

Bonus: No psycho women trying to do each other in and actually a bit of a friendship develops between two unlikely gals. Also bromance galore.

So, overall, if you want a quick drama (all episodes 45ish minutes except the first and last), I highly recommend Jin. I plan on starting the sequel shortly though this drama really stands alone. Both are currently on Viki.

Read More

After binge-watching the TV series and reading the english translation of the book, I thought my 3L3W experience could only come to an end after watching the movie. I have been anxiously waiting for an opportunity to watch it (even after reading so many bad reviews) with the hope that fans were being a little too critic after watching the beautifully executed tv drama. Unfortunately, I have to agree with the majority of them: I didn't enjoy the movie.

STORY
After watching the movie, I could only conclude the 3L3W complex and intricate story cannot be told in a simple movie. There are too many important plot-points and the character's relationships are too complicated. I think that the movie writers would have to make too many changes to the story for it to be able to fit in a movie format. While I think they had some good ideas in terms of plot changes, which were able to simplify the story to a certain extent, I still think they tried to cover too much of the original plot. I was actually relatively satisfied with the first part of the movie, but when it got to the Mo Yuan/Si Yin part of the story, I couldn't help but think: It would be impossible for anyone who didn't know the story already to understand this. Maybe they should have made a narration in the beginning to give the viewer a bit more context instead of letting us get familiar with the plot through the character's lines... To me, that was the biggest mistake: to tell the whole context + Mo Yuan/Si Yin story through the character's conversations. Too much information, way too fast.
Sometimes it was even hard to understand why certain characters were behaving like this and that. It seemed all out of nowhere...
As for the ending, I now understand why other fans were saying it was confusing. Again, the viewer wasn't elucidated enough about what was happening. And yes, I think they made a big plot change in the very end. But to be completely honest, at least they cut down one character that would only add to the confusion (not really happy about it, but oh well).

ACTING/CAST
I have to say I quite liked Liu Crystal as Bai Qian. I particularly liked the way she delivered Bai Qian's prideful personality, even if the emotional scenes failed to impress me. Overall, I think she did a fairly good job.
I can't say the same about Yang Yang as Ye Hua. Still, I have to admit that after Mark Chao's Ye Hua, it would probably be impossible for me to be pleased about a new Ye Hua. In the movie, I could never feel Ye Hua's despair, the longing, the bittersweetness he was supposed to feel about Bai Qian remembering the past... It felt like he was just a prince trying to conquer the heart of his princess.
But to me, the biggest issue was the script. I wasn't expecting to live the character's reunion as I lived it in the TV series. After all, the movie begins with the reunion, so it wasn't supposed to be a huge deal to the viewer. In the TV series the story was told in chronological order, so it was only natural for us to vibrate with their reunion. This was't the case here, and I don't think that's necessarily bad. It just different. However, we were supposed to feel something as their love story proceeds. And honestly, I don't really blame the acting. I blame the script. Bai Qian's and Ye Hua's relationship was poorly developed. Some scenes didn't even make sense to me when I felt they were basically strangers to each other. And that's why I gave the highest score to the acting: the problem was the terrible, TERRIBLE script.
As for the other actors & supporting characters, I think they were given too little time to show any acting. And if some of their actions felt a bit out of nowhere and their motives hard to comprehend, I would have to blame (once again), the script.

MUSIC
Honestly I didn't care much about the soundtrack when I was watching the movie. But I have to say the official ost (by Na Ying) is reeeeally good. I've been listening to it non-stop lately.

REWATCH VALUE
I don't really rewatch movies or dramas, but I don't think I'll even rewatch the main scenes.

Read More

Friendly neighbour

This is a K-drama done right, at his best.
Everything, from the script, the cast, and the way the show was directed was bordeline perfect. I can't say this show will please everyone - well it probably won't since it's mostly a suspense/detective investigation of sort - but as for what the show was aiming for, this drama close the deal and provides the viewers with a brillant, modern filming and scenario, (mostly) avoiding the useless and the usual fancy stuff. Which is already brillant in its own way (and I don't care if I'm repeating myself).
Well, here you have it : I'm not going to explain myself why this is a very good drama, since I'm quite confident that watching it will give you a lot to think about it, and besides, people here with a much better prose than your servitor have already work to give you enough reasons to jump on the show and appreciate it with your own open mind, so you can stop reading this review now, and enjoy watching "Stranger" right now.
ASAP. Lucky you.

Read More

I chose to watch this movie needing something light-hearted and quick. Reply 1997 has been my most recent drama watch and Lee Jong Suk has always been one of my favourite actors - so why not?

The storyline is predictable and simple but the characters worked well to keep the story entertaining. Lee Jong Suk plays, as usual (but no complaining), an angst ridden talented teenager. His character develops a lot through this movie and my only complaint is that we see it a little bit more. Some moments confused me because it was like what - shouldn't be see a little more build up before he's nice to someone he hated a few scenes ago?

I absolutely loved Seo In Guk's character. Blown away, actually. His over the top character was super entertaining and funny and his emotional more serious scenes were done brilliantly. The bromance in this drama was nice too - reminded me slightly of School 2013 with less angst.

I haven't seen Yuri act before but I didn't have high expectations and I'm glad I didn't. I can see she was trying her best but her scenes felt awkward. The writers really didn't do enough to make her a likeable character and it was difficult to see why two boys are so helplessly in love with her. It was like they just needed an idol and thought her prettiness would excuse the flat character. The soft pop rock also didn't work for me but that could be a personal preference.

Overall I did enjoy this movie as it was light and fun. If you're looking for a feel good movie I'd recommend this.

Read More

I selected a rewatch value of 1 as I do not like to watch any series again if I have watched it as I already know what's going to happen.

Tong: Memories is a 12 episode series of 15 min. about a group of friends involved in street fighting. The series is outstanding when it comes to their fighting scenes as they are very realistic and pretty much little to no special effects in it. The acting of the actors was up to standard and the music scenes fitted, unfortunately it lacks a bit of a story in it as to me it is very basic.

So if you have spare time or just want to watch it during a short ride in a bus/train or whatever, I would recommend you to watch it.

Read More