Reviews

I love these series from the bottom of my heart. This series are so close to reality and so properly portrayed and put up. So many things to learn and new stuff to understand even from a Drama ! - This is what the drama tells us

LGBT matters are so well displayed showing the problems and telling the society to not turn a deaf ear to children, making society realize that some problems rather than being exaggerated, should be solved calmly. Such a lovely series and worth at least one time watch

WELL I AM RE-WATCHING THESE SERIES because it has touched my heart completely.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for the people thinking to watch or not :)

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I decided to write a review because 8.2 is not high enough for this drama. I just think that many people don't seem to get it. This is not the kind of drama that would give you a satisfying conclusion, but rather a brutal depiction of reality. Some people might say that the show has no clear vision about what it was trying to convey. It might seem like that because the whole point of the show is about the meaning or actually meaninglessness of life. I was really surprised by the direction this drama takes, especially with Song Tae Ha's character development.

Try to take a look at history. When you live in an extremely corrupt society, the idea of changing the world usually ended up like what happened in this drama. The so called revolutionists are mostly like either Song Tae Ha, who was pretty much clueless about what to do, or who fell to the temptation of power.

In my opinion, Lee Dae Gil and Song Tae Ha represent the saddest members of the privilege middle class. They are two sides of the same coin. One was idealist when it comes to life meaning, but secretly feared that his life was actually meaningless. The other was a nihilist, but secretly still desired for life meaning. The reason why they hated each other was because of envy one another. It wasn't just because they shared the same love interest. Tae Ha envied Dae Gil for being able to accept the meaninglessness of life. To Tae Ha, Dae Gil was his worst nightmare. The one who exposed his biggest fear that all his struggle was meaningless, that he should just run away and live a peaceful simple life. A conversation with Dae Gil might lead to existential angst, which is why he hated this guy. On the other hand, Dae Gil envied Tae Ha that he could still see a meaning in his life, but he was mad at Tae Ha for not being able to abandon his quest for a meaningful life in exchange for a happy life with his family. Because Tae Ha had everything Dae Gil wished to have, but he kept choosing the other option.

At the beginning, Song Tae Ha appeared as a Gary Stu perfect gentleman, but he turned out to be the real embodiment of the uber-privilege upper middle class. While Dae Gil, too, represent the middle class. Their story are sad and fascinating, but their struggle was actually nothing compared to the slaves. Changing the world had to be about them, but the story of the group of revolutionary slaves are a mere subplot compares to the story of Dae Gil and Tae Ha. Tae Ha and the gang just kept talking about changing the world while nothing they had done actually changed anything. It was only right that these slaves who actually barely had any relation to the 2 leads to bring down the bad guy.

The more corrupt the society, the more you would find people like Dae Gil and Tae Ha. I had several friends who are just like Dae Gil. They told me exactly what Dae Gil had told Tae Ha about his silly idea of changing the world in the exact same manner that Dae Gil did. But even the slave, Eop Bok, chose what could be considered a stupid decision for the sake of giving meaning to his life and the life of his compatriots, never mind someone like Song Tae Ha who was told he was destined for great things. Perhaps running away to live w/ Jakgwi's group or abroad was really the best decision, but for Tae Ha, it was a humiliation, the last resort. Unfortunately, the way he said it I really really think he couldn't stand to live in Joseon any longer. He indeed said he despised the corrupt court too much.

The acting was great. Unfortunately, imo, Oh Ji Ho was simply overshadowed by Jang Hyuk. There are times when I think he had to be more intense. This made Dae Gil way more fascinating compared to Tae Ha, which, imo, not true. Tae Ha was actually an equally fascinating character if we don't include the Jang Hyuk factor into the equation. I actually can relate with Tae Ha better than Dae Gil.

Another complaint of mine is the show spend too much time with the side characters such as the jumos and the perverted painter. Those parts are boring which is why I don't give the story a perfect score.

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I would like the preface this review with two points: I have only come to watch K-dramas the last half year or so and it is possible that some of my gripes with this drama spawn from cultural differences.

For myself some of the appeal of K-dramas is the that when extremely cliche characters or moments appear, the cheese somehow charms me despite my skepticism. Unfortunately, for most of Man to Man, there were too many problems to be balanced by its few strengths.

My first complaint, which some others have addressed, is the chemistry between the leads. I don't have problem with how Cha Do Ha was acted, but how she interacted with K. I can't recall a single instance where I really bought into the relationship between the two leads. I will differ from many others' opinion here as the bromance between K and Yeo Woon Gwang also didn't jive with me. It suffered from the same problem as the lead romance in that it felt abrupt and completely forced. It just felt like there was a relationship time skip the audience wasn't privy to.

On the other hand, every secondary relationship I bought hook, line, and sinker. The acting by the cast felt solid and their work is what got me through the show. Interactions between most characters was believable with some real tension to match. I particularly enjoyed the moments between Song Mi Eun and Yeo Woon Gwang. I would also say that each actor made good use of any solo time in front of the camera. I never found myself doubting their characters, just the interactions between the leads. Their strong performances never achieve excellence for me, but I don't feel like it's the casts' fault.

It was the writing that never sat well with me. I can forgive egregious plot holes, of which there were many, if there is great character interaction or development, but with the strongest character interactions being outside the main leads, the relationships struggled to make up for the flawed story. Almost every plot device used to further the show could have been solved in much easier and less convoluted way, which is fine. I came into this somewhat expecting it since it's a k-drama, but the show also had the problem of approaching many things with the subtlety of a mallet to the face.

Which is probably my biggest problem with the show. I am unsure if this stems from cultural differences, but the show kept telling me how to think and feel and that kept breaking my immersion. Bros don't have to repeatedly tell me they're bros; I should be able to gather that watching their awesome interactions and general bro-yness. The music was much the same way. While the music themes may not have been poor in choice, their execution was god awful. I am a firm believer that music when used well, or consciously not used for that matter, greatly enhances the audience's feelings. Instead, the timing and volume of the music felt like the director was screaming at me "GET HYPE!" at occasionally silly times or worse yet, during a later scene in the show "YOU FEEL SAD NOW!". Uhm no?

This show reminded me a lot of one of my favourite shows thematically which may have contributed to my poorer opinion of this show due to the comparison. I've seen a strong romance, great character development, and a reasonable plot all wrapped in a spy action/comedy. I was more than willing to overlook that show's flaws because of its strengths. As good as this cast was, they were given some very poor material to work with and in the end, they really couldn't save it.

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Great cast muddled with subpar writing (story) and script.

I was really looking forward to watching this Kdrama. From reviews I've read, I thought it would be different than your usual Kdrama rom-com. I was even more interested when it was mentioned in other drama's comment section or in viki's timed comments.
Instead, I found this drama very typical or "run-of-the-mill". I don't know what everybody else saw differently. Other than the main male lead not being a rich heir this time around, the story/setup/premise is pretty much the same as your usual asian drama.

One very good thing I must say though is the character development. It is handled pretty well in this drama.

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Story:

Although the story can be confusing at first since it is very fast paced, it slows down as the story progresses, and makes more sense after understanding the characters. The story is heavier, and has a lot more dept than regular Shoujo live-actions, which I personally enjoyed. There are some touching scenes throughout the movie, especially at the ending.

Acting/Cast:

I was not a huge fan of Komatsu Nana's acting in her past works, but she improved so much in this movie! There are a few parts that are still a bit awkward, but her acting is overall pretty good in this movie. Suda Masaki's acting is always great, and once again, he did not disappoint me. He really embodied the character, and truly won me over by the end. I read somewhere that he lost a lot of weight for this role, and weighed around 50kg, which is crazy for his height! Overall, I really liked the chemistry between them since they have a similar aura.

Music:

I LOVED the music, and I thought that it went well with the movie. I downloaded a whole bunch of the songs after.

Overall:

I honestly love this movie so much. It is fast paced in the beginning, but everything fits together by the end. This is definitely different (in a good way) from regular Shoujo manga live-actions, but the scenes were filmed so beautifully. Overall, I loved the main characters and the chemistry between them.

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Ever wondered whether what happens in our life is already predestined?
That is the underlying theme running behind the events in this drama.
There is CCS, a young man destined to die by the age of 20.
There is XYR, a saintess whose ‘match made from Heaven’ is a disciple with the blood of a dragon.
There is Nanke, a demon princess who no one cared about.
There is Guojiao Academy, which has been closed due to traitorous acts of its members.
It might seem that the events will follow its natural path, but the characters remain persistent in their endeavours… Who knows what the final result will be?

PACE
This is an epic drama, which sustains its quality throughout the series. It seems to me that there are three main types of dramas: ones which are slow to begin and escalate to a massive havoc/excitement towards the end, ones which begin very well and dwindle towards the end and, finally, ones which keep you interested from the beginning and keep getting better. This drama falls into the last category – I felt that this drama had a ‘period’ of a few episodes: every 3-5 episodes there will be a major event to which all previous events led – that event/difficulty will disappear/be resolved and soon another one will appear. Having said that, I must say that the first dozen or so episodes was the most interesting to me – but that is because most of main character development took place then. Exciting events keep happening until the very end though.

PLOT, CHARACTERS AND ACTING
The plot itself is very interesting. CCS, a boy who grew up in a remote settlement sets off to the capital to change his destiny. He meets a group of talented, devoted and influential friends, as well as some formidable enemies.
All the characters are very interesting and have a story of their own and many of them change during the journey – we get to experience things like betrayal, following temptations vs upright attitude, responsibility of bringing glory to one’s family, striving for the best in spite of no one believing in the possibility of success, and a fair dose of unrequited love.
This drama has to offer a lot of different flavours: bittersweet mixture of a little silliness (Luoluo is great! Same goes for 36…) and some very serious struggles and moral dilemmas. All the main actors were great. Some were slightly caricatural (like Janice Wu, who, as I said, was adorable), but it all fit the purpose.
There were few annoying(ly evil) characters, but they had minor roles which mostly only lasted a few episodes. Some accuse the main female lead of too few facial expressions, but I think that her acting was not unnatural and suited her role as a saintess. I think that Luhan did a great job – he was pensive and sharp at the same time. Final note - whilst romance was present (and there were a few other potential/existing pairings), it was not the main focus of the drama (as opposed to friendship, wisdom and power), so I do not recommend FotD if you were to only watch it for the romance.

ESTHETICS
Most costumes were really impressive (though there are scenes when their shoes appear slightly funny). The filming locations/landscapes are worth to become tourist attractions (if they truly exist in real world…) – some of them were absolutely breathtaking! The animations were fairly simple (I think that most of the flying was done with wires), but it all remained relatively natural.

MUSIC
The soundtrack was great – I was a little sceptical of the opening song, but grew to like it over the 52 episodes. A really nice aspect of the soundtrack was that it used the same tune every time when some grand spiritual practice events took place – it added grandeur to the moment…

LANGUAGE
A note on language: probably quite typically of xianxia dramas, this drama uses quite archaic/formal language and has a lot of drama-world-specific vocabulary. But it is not terribly varied, so if you have an intermediate grasp of Mandarin, you can give it a go (though the conversations in the royal court might prove difficult). But I would hope the outstanding few episodes will get subtitled soon! Overall, a very nice, well-rounded drama. It might not be a masterpiece, but it shows solid effort from all aspects – from plot and acting through costumes and sets until music.

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I had high hopes for Season 2, but it's just not doing it for me. The acting did improve with some of the characters, but I can definitely tell that there is a lot of Pandering to the BL obsessed fans to the point that the story lines aren't developed quite well. Add to this that the one dimensional characters are getting more screen time than the more complex characters for the sake of creating "drama" takes away from what Season 1 had going for itself. Honestly, this series could have touched on so many topics concerning young men but chose to ignore real serious ones from Season 1. Overall, it's not a bad series, but it definitely lost the charm it had, at least for me.

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