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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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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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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The story surrounds a guy who is part of a secret government organization that employs so called ghost agents. Professional fighters/warriors (or whatever you may call it - agents) who get on secret missions around the world and are not allowed to have any deep feelings or connections with other people since that would compromise their work. These ghost agents here are the very cliché of every spy agent you can possibly think of.
The story starts to evolve in that direction. Agent K (Park Hae Jin) takes on a mission and unexpectedly starts to develop real feelings for a woman he has to con along the way.
I can stick with all kinds of dramas, even with the bad ones if they make me curious enough to want to watch the next episode, because that is one grave reason for me to either enjoy or be disappointed with a show. Even if a story makes me pull out my hair because the protagonists are acting all nonsensical. Yeah, I'm that kind of a shallow person. I can handle trashy dramas as well as cheesy ones - if they don't take it too far but entertain me.
So, the worst thing that can actually happen to a drama and that makes me lose interest throughout the whole way, is when it becomes plain boring. Sadly, Man to Man was exactly that for me. There's nothing special about it. It feels like one of the biggest cliché-heavy mainstream action spy dramas I've ever seen, and it gives off the feel that the producers wanted to reach as many viewers as possible, what is eventually the main reason why it failed to impress me at all. The (seemingly hidden) spark didn't reach me.
I didn't expect much when I began watching it, but I would have never expected it to be like that. I'm sincerely sorry to say this and I feel bad for the high-level cast but I was extremely disappointed with many things - not everything. There was also something that kept me going and therefore made me complete it, so don't be too frustrated with my opinion.
One thing that wasn't able to... touch me was the romance. Don't hit me. It was just suddenly there somewhere along the line. I never understood why K fell in love with this particular woman and not all the other ones he used for his previous missions. They had their cute moments, I admit that and I enjoyed them to a certain point. But it never made me excited.
Many people were annoyed by the female lead in the beginning but started to like her later on. For me it was the other way around. I liked her in the first episodes but as the story went further, she became a bothersome side character whose behavior annoyed me at times. Kim Min Jung had a strange way of portraying her role, especially the way she spoke. Though I admit that there were also some few scenes where I could empathize with her, for example during the more serious moments and/or when she got hurt. But the overall view of her character was plain and without any depth, and there was no character development whatsoever. And that was actually the problem with most of the characters. Superficial stereotypes who never stood out or made their appearance memorable.
The other thing and probably the biggest flaw in my eyes was the spy story, and partly at fault are eventually its characters who never made me invested enough in their circumstances to even be thrilled by their next move. The execution of the overall story, the hidden wheel in the background, the step by step revelations... everything had a choppy feel to it. It failed to build up the right amount of suspense to make me excited enough about its secretive picture.
I rarely drop dramas, seriously. I want to watch the whole thing when I start something. So, if there is even ONE thing that got my attention, I'll see it through. Man to Man does have some good parts to it, too.
First of all would be the villain. Yeon Jung Hoon. I was so happy to finally see him again after such a long time and he didn't disappoint me. His performance was great in every aspect and to the smallest details. Whenever he appeared, my attention level rose to new heights. He was calm, smart and cocky. He played one greedy bastard but he also felt human in some ways. He was playing his role with such passion that he made me root for him all the way. And his story even had a satisfying wrap up.
The other thing that I enjoyed alot was the bromance. They managed to pull off that part quite well, although I wasn't always completely pleased with it because it lacked screen-time. I would have loved to see more interactions between all those guys and the bonds they had developed over time. Of course all their hilarious moments together were priceless and filled me up with joy. So, when it comes to this I definitely need to mention Park Sung Woong. I was looking forward to his appearance in this show and he never let me down. He was the epitome of bromance and needs special appreciation next to Yeon Jung Hoon.
I was also quite attached to Jung Man Shik's and Tae In Ho's characters here, and I think I need to include this to show that I did like some things.
Park Hae Jin is a special case in this drama. I'm not saying he was bad. He definitely wasn't. His acting was good most times and I enjoyed it. His character-display was just a bit average. Honestly, I've seen way better performances of him in Cheese in the Trap and Bad Guys.
See? Not everything was bad. And I admit that they had some short-while thrilling scenes during the last episodes. I give them that.
Don't take my personal opinion to heart. I know that many people enjoyed this, so it's a controversial issue in the end. But maybe there are some others who agree with me ;) Would I recommend it? Honestly, I have no idea. I would probably prefer other dramas over this.
Btw, my rating for the music... Well, it's not very high, I know. The drama had some nice songs but those themes that were played during the spy and action scenes were getting on my nerves at some point.
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Story- Like I said before I dont like time travel but this drama make me wanna watch more of time travel. The story of it is just amazing and I wish it was longer and not only 20 episodes that 30 minutes long.
Acting/Cast- The cast is amazing and it fits the drama. The actor who plays On Dal is so charming in my opinion!! (fangirls) Also, the actress who play "Nann-yeon" is such an amazing actress, I wanna watch more dramas of them two together!!
Music- I love the music in this drama so much!! I sing along with it whenever it plays!! It;s one of my favourite soundtracks!!
Rewatch Value- I actually rewatched this after I first finished it because I loved it so much!!
Overall- I recommend this to everyone who loves a historical romance!!!
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Story:
We get to see the five neighbors' stories continue - basically picking up where we left off in the first season, with the five women continuing on their respective journeys. Whereas the first season focused a lot on careers and finding yourself in a city as big as Shanghai, the second season (imo) focuses a lot more on romantic and family relationships, and I think that was kind of where I just started losing interest.
Seeing romantic interests blossom is fun and all, but a lot of what came after was the manufactured drama that I was so happy to see the first season avoid. And I get it - romantic relationships in China can be crazy because it's not just a relationship between the couple - it's a potential marriage between families, but the issues just were neverending (and sometimes it really didn't make any sense - a character would get randomly angry and you don't even know why). Relationships are at its best when it makes you grow as a person - not when it makes you more irrational and immature.
Ying Ying (and pretty much everyone in that particular story thread) drove me batty. I was so happy that she had gotten over her bad experience in Season 1 and learned more about herself, but it's like she had forgotten about all the self discovery that she had done. Fan Sheng Mei, who I thought had finally accepted life on her terms, also had a really frustrating arc, though I still kind of understood her struggle.
And An Di's entire thread was just ludicrous and nonsense - I read online that a lot of Chinese viewers were basically skipping over her scenes (this isn't Liu Tao's fault at all - it's because they gave her a super frustrating storyline).
Speaking of An Di, I appreciate beautiful fashion in dramas as much as anyone does, but it becomes borderline distracting when a character changes five outfits in "one" day, especially when the outfits are a little overdone and leaning on the high fashion side versus what someone would actually wear in real life. I think that was also the problem with An Di's storyline - it felt very shallow.
Qu Xiao Xiao saved the show for me, because she was just as splendidly outrageous and compassionate as she was in Season 1, and it was nice to see Guan Guan come out of her shell and blossom (but she really needs to use that backbone on Ying Ying once in a while, I'm just saying).
But we still got a great dose of friendship (and the love-hate that goes into it) between the five women, which is really the saving grace for the show. And the script, despite its obvious flaws, still did provide some great social commentary (with one specific issue really taking off). I think they tried to go a little too flashy and polished for parts of this drama, and it made me miss the slice of life style that we got in the first season. Sure, the pace was slower, but it felt organic.
Acting/Cast:
The actresses were pretty good, per usual, with Liu Tao flexing a bit more of her acting muscle than she did in the first season. Yang Zi was frustrating and adorable simultaneously, and Wang Zi Wen killed it even more than she did in Season 1. Jiang Xin is an amazing actress and I will continue to beat this drum forever and ever until everyone in the world realizes this. And major props to Qiao Xin, who has grown a lot as an actress (does anyone else remember her stint in Nirvana In Fire? She was so noticeably awful in that role and so, so green).
I was disappointed by Yang Shuo, who was so charismatic in his limited scenes in Season 1. He got a lot more screentime this season, but it actually turned out to be a bad thing, because the charm kind of turned smarmy and I think he overacted quite a bit in some scenes (I was paying a lot of attention to his acting because of the rumors that he may be the leading man in Zhao Li Ying's upcoming drama - as of now I'm really hoping this isn't true).
The other actors were just okay - but Wang Kai was by far (well, duh) the best actor among the romantic interests - in part because his character was a lot more "normal" than the other guys, but also because Wang Kai sells his characters well. Newcomer to the show Deng Lun was cute if a little too stoic.
Music:
There's basically a song that plays every other scene and it got distracting after a while. I get that Ying Ying has her theme song but do they really have to play it every single time? I think they went a little overboard with everyone having "their" song. Because some of the lyrics were really specific and explained the situation and feelings in a really detailed way, it kind of killed any semblance of emotional subtlety. I feel like the audience should get the chance to figure out they feel about a scene instead of being told how they should feel.
I honestly don't find this all that rewatchable, because I know how angry I get at some of the scenes and characters. There are some cute parts that I would fish out, but I definitely wouldn't marathon it again.
This isn't a bad drama - but it just doesn't live up to the first one, and I'm assuming that Season 3 is just going to be even more drama (because they need something to fill the story with).
With all of that said - there are still a lot of things that it does well compared to your average drama, so I still recommend giving it a shot, especially if you've watched the first season already.
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I was supposed to give it a 10 as an overall score, but the ending just had me crying my eyes out so I decided to give it an over all score of 9. I can't believe it, this is the third series that it happened.
The music was just superb. Desperado was definitely on point for this series. I was also glad to hear Sukiyaki on Episode 10, even for just a bit.
Again, you should watch this, definitely worth watching. Definitely.
Longer review here: https://elijahmaliksmom.wordpress.com/2017/06/08/karei-naru-ichizoku/
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Maybe it's a cultural thing. I don't know.
Anywho, I was initially impressed with his character He Bu Fan, a marketing genius who brings much-needed structure and discipline to his brother's fledgling business, which requires him to be a dick at times when he's at work. But then I realized as I watched more episodes that he's no different than any other male lead, treading familiar territory as an emotionally distant asshole with mommy issues. Needless to say, I was disappointed watching him treat his love interest like a child.
Pheobe Yuan's character Xu Man Man started off independent and strong-willed after recovering from a painful breakup with her fiance Shi Bo Hai (Ken Hsieh). Then in later episodes, it all went to shit. I don't know why the writers felt the need to dumb her character down so much.
Oh yeah, Bo Zheng Chen's character was that of some sort of deity or god but his hearing aid was visible. Just Sayin'.
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Story: Lots of clitches and sometimes plot holes, historical inconsistency etc, but hey what the heck, it is a web drama so you have to over look it if you really want to enjoy it, at least I did and it worked out for me.
Acting/Cast: Superb, they cast all 5 main leads and supporting cast perfectly, specially the main couple I heard they were in WGM top couples and definitely the director made a great choice casting people with great chemistry because everything looked so natural, skin ship, falling in love and kisses looked real. I have to point out the flower boy villain, this guy acting was superb over the top at times but that's what it made this show stand out for me.
Music: It was ok not memorable but ok.
Rewatch Value: I had cancelled my subscription to Netflix but I just renewed it so I could go back and for to watch what I missed.
If you guys have netflix please try to watch it there as much as you can, I have had problems with drama sites it takes forever.
Overall: A very well done, dorky, odd rom-com historical drama. Highly recommend it. It had a feeling like Go Princess Go (TDrama)
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Jung So-Min is my girl, though with those scene-stealing lips! The fact that she has an extensive emotional range is just icing on the wedding cake, baby! Truthfully, I was jealous of Sung Joon. If it was me I would've gone off-script every episode. We would've gone over budget having to do numerous takes or I would've gotten fired. It would've been worth it though! But I don't think Jung So-Min is into black men. She will be in my Jung So-Min inspired fanfiction story titled Soul to Seoul about an African-American exchange student who travels to South Korea to study abroad (no pun intended). Of course, the host family will be living in near poverty, which is the real reason they sent their son to the States in exchange for who they believe is a wealthy white American. They've also arranged for their free-spirited daughter to marry a wealthy autocrat's womanizing son. They're soon shocked to find out that not only is Malik not wealthy but that he is black, as he arrives wearing a #blacklivesmatter t-shirt. All sorts of mayhem ensue as Malik attempts to get to know his host family while confronting relevant issues of race and class in South Korea's cultural underbelly.
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At first I wasn't warmed up to the idea that is this drama, for mostly the exact same reasons why everybody was looking forward to it and dying to watch it.
To rely on a popular drama and sell another one that's neither a sequel/prequel, remake or either a spin-off, by advertising it has a similar feel and story to it + share the same director and main female lead, hmmm to me that doesn't make any sense.
But I put all that aside and gave the first episode a try. Good thing I only did that after the drama had finished airing completely, for boy! was I hooked.
I loved the bad boy lead! loved the quirky comedy, the past & present story lines intermingling, but above all simply enjoyed watching the characters interactions to pieces. I found Lee MIn Ho (strangely) delivering a very strong performance, and (as expected) Jun Ji-Hyun who was just perfect as a cute, curious & lovable mermaid. I liked the story too and how it unfolded, especially appreciated that the method used to build and maintain a connection between the two leads was believable and not so reeking of drama-script-made-up encounters and unbelievable coincidences like many Kdramas fall prey of.
I also loved the overall pace of the drama, and rarely felt bored with the story (though sometimes I was bored with some characters portrayal or interactions esp. the villains). Also appreciated that the Joseon story unfolded early on, leaving well-deserved space to focus on the present seoul story.
I have to admit that certain characters' past actions portrayal felt a bit rushed and insufficiently accounted for, in a way that really didn't help flesh them out and invest me in their drama (the father). Some other characters' actions were a bit ill-written, and seemed a bit contradicting with the eventual portrayal of their strong and independent personality that it was difficult to relate to them let alone sympathize with (the mother). But still, the drama somehow succeeded in getting me invested in not only the fantasy and romance which are the main two lines of the drama, but also the family drama and friendship, I was crying in scenes involving both the two above mentioned characters so I can't say that my deeper considerations of their not-free-of-flaws script, or the gripes I have against how they were written, prevented me from enjoying the angst and drama intended overall.
Liked the music, the camerawork and direction. And LOVED the scenario.
Just admitting that after I had completed the drama that I was compelled to rewatch the thing over again (though of course with a lot of fast-forwarding and skipping all the scenes that don't involve the leads) is enough proof how I enjoyed it.
I totally recommend this drama to anyone who enjoys a bit of fantasy mixed up with comedy, and a little spice of drama and thriller.
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