This drama shows us the power of friendship even when things get rough. At times, watching the characters got frustrating but this reminded me that each of us are different, and we come to different decisions based on our own experiences. I would never defend some of the questionable things the characters did, but hey that's drama for you. I couldn't stop watching to see what would happen next. Also, I love the fact that each of the main girls had careers they were proud to be in. Japan has seen an increase in young women working instead of quickly getting married and staying at home, so this is a positive example of such.
The cinematography is modern and fitting for the times (they mention the 2020 Olympics so it felt 'in the now' haha). The characters are usually in the Harajuku/Omotensando area for those who have been to Tokyo and love to see characters in places they have visited. The acting is good too, Rinko's character is the main protagonist and I liked how driven she was. Can't especially say the same for almost all male characters though. The chemistry between the 3 friends was A+. The music is also fun; the theme song is "Tokyo Girl" by Perfume. The CG effects are also pretty funny!
Finally, the title of the show is a fun play on words. 'Tara' and 'reba' are the grammatical endings used for conditional statements in Japanese, basically "what if". So, if you are looking for an enjoyable drama, don't ask 'what if', and just go for it! :)
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I honestly don't know what the writers were thinking because the characters were interesting, but not developed enough to be interesting or matter and the acting wasn't that bad, Go-Ara is a brilliant actress but her character was written so badly she couldn't show her skills. Park Seo-Joon did a brilliant job with what he was given, although he wasn't as badly written.
The worst character was by far Han-sung. His character was so interesting - A fun-loving young man who loved his peasant brother dearly, opposed his families views, and had the burden of being the sole heir. THE POTENTIAL FOR DEVELOPMENT WAS IMMENSE. But he got no development and was shown perhaps once every other episode. He was a big part of the shift in direction towards the end but his dynamic with various characters wasn't explored so it was more of a fact stated than actors showing this - again, writers fault, not the actors.
Some characters had interesting histories but weren't explored at all - mainly the Hwarang who didn't know who his father was.
The romance was just thrown in their for the sake of showing some kissing. Park Seo-Joon and Go-Ara did well enough to show that their characters cared for each other, but story wise, the romance wasn't needed. I cared much more for the dynamic between Hyung-Sik and Seo-Joon.
The plot had potential, but showrunners focused more on Go-Ara walking around depressed than moving the plot forward.
Overall, the acting wasn't bad at all but the showrunners left no room for the actors to, well, act. The characters were so 2D that it was like asking an actor to act as a lifeless corpse.
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I'm a fan of Seo Inguk so I made sure to watch all of his dramas, and he never disappoints.
The story starts a little bit boring to me. But before the first episode ends, it got me hooked. The writer is genius. I enjoyed the twist and turns, and how they work things out as a Con-group. The thing is, I only know Inguk, Sooyoung, and Sunbin. The other cast is more like supporting role on the dramas that we've watched before.
Until the final episode, they keep on giving me goosebump.
When I thought that was it, I'm wrong again.
Kudos to the writer for the epic ending scene, although I didn't get it that much coz I haven't see the said drama yet.
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To those who likes fluffy romance, then you might like this.
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However the story was boring, nothing new and always really predictable, I was unconfortable with the actuation of actress in my opinion she was so exaggerated and unnatural. Also after some episode the situation becoma si stupid all charathers know what happen but continues pretending and lying and all i the the same direction "experiment" and repeat the same thing.
The others couples were nonsense just the las part in a magic way they solvet all. The only interesting part is some coments relative to psychology but I,m no sure is real or not.
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This review may contain spoilers
Going into this movie my initial impression was that it would be a comedy with some heartwarming moments, but boy I was not expecting being taken on an emotional roller-coaster ride.I watched this movie for Jo Jung Suk and it was totally worth it. He is entertaining as always. D.O. is also a good actor and this is not my first time watching him act. (No I am not an EXO fan.) Jo Jung Suk and D.O. have great chemistry which is essential to the success of the movie. Park Shin Hye did a decent job; frankly she didn’t have much to do in the movie anyway. Initially I felt she was miscast, but upon reflection, I think she was suitable for the role.
Without giving away any spoilers, I must say there’s a big twist in the movie that I did not expect at all and I applaud the cast and marketing team 2 times over for NOT giving it away while the movie was being promoted. Unfortunately this twist seems to have been revealed by other reviews of this movie on this site.
I wish I could say more about the movie but there would be major spoilers. I highly recommend this movie.
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"I just want people to 'like' me. Is that so wrong?"
Based on the view count, fan-made music videos that followed, and the number of 'Following' on the actress' Instagram that seemingly skyrocketed (I read that from the comments on youtube), this short film definitely succeeded in going viral. Production-wise, you can see that they put a lot of thoughts and effort into making this one. They flew to Japan to film this, and the cinematography and illustration proved its production value. It's nice to look at, and the music is very good as well.
Everyone (in the comments on youtube) agrees to the same idea that the story contains a good message about how you should value your beauty and self-worth from within – that is, if you totally disregard the fact that it's a commercial for a skin care clinic. One of the top comments on the official video said that the skin care clinic logo at the end was like a "slap in the face". "You fell for it, sucker. Now come on down and get your meteorite face fixed."
I'm disagreeing with that point completely. The main message as I see it is to actually care about your beauty "in real life" as opposed to wanting to be "liked" online by using apps to fix your face. If you look at it that way, and maybe watch it again, you'll see that the message is really there, but somehow the majority is not getting it. Either way, both points are still solid. Besides that brand logo at the end, they didn't cooperate the brand into this short film at all.
For me, it's doing well as a short film. The fact that this lacks the quality of being a "Thai" production, though, is a bit too bad.
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This lighthearted drama had so many good intentions within that its difficult to find a fault in the execution. The acting was great. LSK has shown great range in the roles she's taken so far. The OST is very good and the story is very much like a fairy tale which may lead back to its name choice, Weightlifting Fairy.
The theme of self-worth is present. Some have too much and others don't have enough but it's a very good message to get across because you give as much as you get. All these characters understand that and in the ever-hectic world of kdramas, it's very rare for that to happen. There's a sense of empathy and compassion throughout and it's very infectious.
Even if you're not the biggest sports fanatic, I'd recommend a viewing or two.
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The description is a little off, but the trailer shows more of the plot. Li Yu Ran is a cold-hearted attorney that believes she can be happy and take care of herself without anyone's help. But after an accident, she is sent to a station that sends people to the afterlife. But, they made a mistake. Li Yu Ran has a LONG time before she is supposed to die, and the afterlife's Director needs time to correct the mistake and send her back. Apparently, it takes a lot of paperwork xD. But in the meantime, they also made another mistake. A housewife was admitted too early to the afterlife. The Director then asks Li Yu Ran to fill in for this housewife to take care of the family until they can send her back to her own life.
Plot holes, plot holes galore. While I was interested in this story, I'm not sure if some of the mechanics of body switching/ memory retention was explained well. But at the same time, this is a fantasy movie, so I guess I could let those things slide. Besides that, Kwai Lun Mei's acting was great. She was a little slapsticky in the beginning, but it toned way down from then onward. It was great to see how she was able to adapt to her new familiy and yet also keep her attorney badass version of herself. The story deals with how she warms up to each one of the family members.
The only real issues I had was some pacing issues. Sometimes, things would happen all of a sudden (eg. her son.... you'll see), just to bring in some conflict. I didn't understand how her memories worked and also the ending didn't really make sense, based on the rules that the Afterlife's Director had set. That may be another plot hole issue (alternate universes???). There's a chance that my issues could have been caused by translation issues (I watched this movie in an AMC theater with subtitles). Maybe my issues could be cleared up in a second viewing.
But the whole movie was heartwarming and cute. While not laugh out loud funny, it was able to keep a smile on my face. When the pacing was right, you really understood how each of the characters cared for each other. Kwai Lun Mei carried this movie. The parts with her and Chen Kun's character were also good. It is light on the romance, as only the later scenes with Chen Kun and Lun Mei involved any. If you have time for a movie to leave you feeling warm, fuzzy, and slightly confused, you should probably check out this movie.
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Meh.
Shopping King Louis is one of those dramas that I just don't understand where the high ratings are coming from. It frustrates me because although it wasn't a terrible drama, there just wasn't much to it either. Everything you'd expect the characters to do they do. Louis is a cute character but little to no growth was made with his character. I understand that he was spoiled but he more resembled a 10 year old boy with his mannerisms and choices. Honestly it was kind of weird. I think this was partly responsible for the lack of chemistry I felt between the main leads. It was a little unbelievable that Bok Sil fell in love with him. I liked Bok Sil's character for the most part, but she got kind of annoying in the later episodes. The supporting characters were almost interesting but not quite. The roles that they were given they played well but they really had nothing to them and I feel that the writers could have at least given Cha Joong Won or Baek Ma Ri some substance. Then again the drama as a whole doesn't really have any substance or depth to it. The "bad guys" were not threatening or realistic at all and I felt like the writers did a poor job integrating them into the plot which shouldn't have been hard to do. Also, I found the random animations to be super distracting rather than useful. The music was okay but there were a few scenes where the songs didn't fit the situation. All in all, not a bad drama, but not anything special either. Wouldn't watch again.Was this review helpful to you?
But I have to say after I settled into the right frame of mind to enjoy the tongue in cheek parody of all the different stereotypical kdrama storylines, I actually found myself laughing out loud at the ridiculousness and found episodes 5-8 pretty funny - especially episode 6 which pokes fun at the chaebol storylines.
It's an ad for the duty free shop that features some very handsome actors and pokes fun at kdramas. So don't expect too much. It's a silly way to pass some time.
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Totally mainstream horror movie if you ask me. Nothing new, predictable story with typical horror tropes and characters. Something you can watch with your friends for fun. Even watching it alone wouldn't get you a heart attack.
Slow and calm start but it sped up in the second half. The finale was actually quite entertaining. And sometimes even a bit scarily disgusting to a point where I had to cover half of my face X'D Ah, I'm such a loser... Nevertheless, it didn't give me any lasting goosebumps after the movie ended.
Cinematography was pretty good and I liked the blue overlay onto the scenes. CGI was... completely obvious and almost comical.
Shocking moments relied on the 3D effect. But since I didn't watch the movie in 3D, it failed completely. I'm not even sure if it would scare me that much IF I had watched it in 3D. Everything that was meant to be 3D looked like plastic.
I can't compare this to other Sadako stories, since I only watched the American version of The Ring. This movie was only average and definitely no "must watch".
Sigh... I might even lower the rating although I liked the cast, actually. Ishihara Satomi and Seto Koji did a good job with their roles although there was not much to work with.
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Peter Ho and Janine Chang has an amazing chemistry but this drama is full of abuse, both physical-domestic abuse, rape.
Here we have another narcissist sadomasochist male, who does not only torture his love, he also tortures himself, he lets love of his life to suffer and let his kid suffer, time to time they have got barely food to eat, she sacrifices and let's her son eat.
He lets his wife and his son to live in poverty...
Ah the ending, wish the ending was different. I was expecting not to be like this but what do I do.. wishing for a remake sequel, etc
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the drama covers Heo Jun's entire life from childhood till his death. But they only casted 2 actors, one as a child, then the other (Kim Ju Hyuk) as a teen until his old age. i dont know how young KJH was when he did this but he was not convincing as a teen. Nam Gung Min, who is supposed to be the same age (might be older in the story) as KJH is also not believable as an old person. No amount of facial hair can make them look any older. The most funny thing is Park Eun Bin, 24yo IRL (wife of Heo Jun) plays as the mother of Lee Hae Woo (29yo IRL). It just look ridiculous seeing the son looks very much older than her mother lol.
Focusing on Heo Jun's life story, it's very depressing. I dont know if its how Heo Jun character supposed to be, he doesnt show much emotion in here. Heo Jun doesnt seems human at all. He doesnt throw jokes, doesnt show romantic affection, dont throw rage, - it feels like he has no soul. Some of his life decision will put jesus to shame. His righteousness will make you feel a really bad person.
Good thing that the side characters add flavors to the drama. If not for the side characters, this is one depressing drama.
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