The big bro is just something else. Hes a flirt at work but his girlfriend is from hell. Shes got princess syndrome and he doesnt seem to be bothered. She gets so annoying you wanna slap both of them
The sister is a tomboy and does jiujitsu so shes though as nails but shes still a girl inside. Her mouth expression is funny
Baby brother is just pain weird. Hes a nerd and he follows aliens
Hao yang ( the boyfriend) is eye candy esp with his eyeliner and he does great with his hopeless romantic side. Hes a total playercand heart breaker.
The parents are a mess esp the dad but everything works out for all of them in the end
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The drama has gorgeous posters and interesting description, with overall wonderful themes to work with (family, the burden of royal duties, betrayal, brotherhood, forbidden love) but I guess the team of directors, writers and producers just weren't ready do right with something of this scale.
In hindsight, it would never become the chinese Game Of Thrones as everyone was expecting. Not that I like Game of Thrones that much (I dropped at the fourth season), but I really think that the hype was the worst thing that could have happened to this drama, because:
1) this is more similar to tolkien than george martin.
2) this is a drama for children/early teens
3) the huge budget spent was most for the CGI (and itsn't good)
4) it has too many episodes for the poor paced plot
Firstly, about the FANTASY aspect: it was difficult to believe in the world they were trying to portray when everything was so fake - from their pointed ears that at some camera angles you could see weren't even glued right (they were slipping!!), the scenery with bad paper-maché, the world that didn't follow its own rules except when it was convenient and the powers that didn't make sense. All in all, they could have worked on the worldbuilding more than the CGI (that failed horribly).
PLOTWISE, the story could have been great but it was just dull and childish. There were many moments when the silence was awkward, or the conversation was dumb, or the character's action almost made me cry (and not for good reasons). The events were poor paced and I had to reread the description over and over again to remember myself why I chose this drama. Their worst mistake was going for so many chapters and bad writers - I dropped at the 20th episode because the writers were still "lost" at that point!
The ACTING, well, as in every fantasy the characters are sterotyped but the director took it a little bit too far. Honestly tho, I can't fault them much because they were clearly following the director's orders, and the script they were given wasn't the best to work with. I think it's worth mentioning that the impression might have been bad because the editing was a whole new level of incompetent (I honestly thought that c-dramas had overcame this).
The OST was good!
All in all, I'm afraid I sound too disappointed but I suppose I wasn't really the audience they were aiming for (I'm 20yo). If you are younger than that, _NEW TO FANTASY_ in general or just don't care too much about... uh, pace... I hope it can be a good drama for you. The main actors, at least, are wonderful eye-candy! And it wasn't all bad, there were moments that really grab your attention.
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I watched the movie without subs. There you have it, and nope, I don't speak korean (yet)
Before you think my review is invalid because I couldn't grasp everything perfectly, let me stop you because this is the exact reason I'm writing this review: even with my extremely limited understanding of the language, the story, the actions, the whole thing seemed crystal-clear to me. I never felt like I was watching a foreign-language movie. Everything made sense and seemed logic, because the acting is top-notch. Top. Notch.
When the brothers were having a quarrel, I understood it.
When they were laughing with each other, my heart melted.
When they were teasing each other, I chuckled.
When they were talking over sad stuff, I teared up a bit.
And I cried like a baby at the end.
Their facial expressions are mostly flawless and very accurate. I mean if one tells X in X country their puppy died they'd have the same reaction as Y in Y country, we all constitute humankind.
Their tones also help to get the feel of the situation, even if they're basically talking gibberish to you, their tone makes sense.
Now if you know even like 30 really basic words like mom, eat etc. it's gonna help a LOT. And you probably do know these words and way more than 30 if you've been swept by the Hallyu long ago so you have no excuse not to watch this movie :-)
I thought I'd have to watch this a second time to understand it fully but I really don't, and actually had to write down in my notes that I watched this movie in Korean because there's zero gray area really.
I understood about 10% of the lines (literally, as in I know what they're saying right now bc I know exactly all the words), but my actual understand of the plot and what was happening was around 90%, maybe even 95% because as I said before, the few words you know, the scenes and mostly the perfect faces and the tone, of the actors makes you totally forget you're watching it without subs.
I gave this an 8. It wasn't actually that incredible of a movie, it was rather two well-spent hours and a good laugh, but 7.5 just didn't seem good enough, that's why I settled with the upper mark.
In a nutshell: a good watch !
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Was it worth it: Yes
What I liked the most: The actors did an excellent job.
What I disliked the most: Lee Jung Jin’s character. Ugh.
Moment Meter: 2/10 – Pretty tame, particularly for an action drama.
Other thoughts: As I sit here thinking about it, I’m just now realizing what an interesting story line this drama had. Usually I hate politics in dramas, but this one was interesting from beginning to end. There were a lot of characters that I loved to hate and only a few that I really sided with. The pacing was great, and there was just the right amount of action in it. I’m always grateful for the omission of constant shaky cam. It wasn’t non-stop action the entire time and it wasn’t endlessly long with nothing happening either. I’m pretty sure Ji Chang Wook had a wound on his body at any given time throughout the entire thing. The acting was solid, and I really like the choreography for the first fight, but every fight after that seemed a bit weak (especially because I can’t help but compare to Healer). The ending was good and satisfying.
Conclusion: I would classify this as a melodrama with a hint of action. It wasn’t a favorite, but it was very solid.
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Was it worth it: Not as much as I thought it would
What I liked the most: The fact that it addressed breast cancer in males.
What I disliked the most: The story line involving the older characters. Slowed it down for me.
Moment Meter: 3/10 – There were some here and there, but not many that I can recall.
Other thoughts: It was very hard to get into this drama. They drop you in the middle of it and you’re forced to figure it out as it goes along. Everyone acted a bit too “eccentric” to be truly believable, but towards the end I understood how the characters worked and it wasn’t too bad. The beginning is awkward and doesn’t move smoothly at all. The drama became a lot better towards the middle and end. Everything was little more charged and exciting and made a lot more sense. It didn’t feel like a tremendous waste of time, but it’s not my favorite.
Conclusion: You really need to hang in there for the first half of the drama before it picks up. I’m not sorry I watched it, but all of the leading actors have way better dramas out there.
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This webdrama... is awesome, easy going, the storyline we out of logic but so much acceptasble. i was wondering whether the male lead one of WINNER boys would pull this off, but he actually did it.
It was watchable and rewatchable. it was so fresh and all had equal lines to say.
over all... it rewatchable and fun.
and u r never bored watching this,
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Now coming in to this I knew it was a revenge story and that I would not find myself actually rooting for the villain (in general I hardly do) and that was fine by me. I don't have to like the villain, in fact I like not liking the villain. However, I do not enjoy watching a villain with absolutely no charm or charisma. To be frank, Sun Woo in general wasn't acted well. The actor felt completely one dimensional up until the very last scene of the show where finally I felt myself feeling something other than utter annoyance. It really frustrated me because Sun Woo is a multifaceted character who in another actor's hands might have come off brilliantly.
I was not expecting to think much of Cho In at all because of So Ji Sub. I specifically watched this show after watching So Ji Sub in Ghost and being completely unimpressed by him. His1000+ hearts on this site baffled me and I wanted to find out what so many people saw in him. He was my absolute favorite in this show. First of all he looked adorable and secondly his wounded portrayal of Cho In just murdered my heart. I swear this man conveyed so much with his eyes, I just wanted someone, anyone to hug him at all times.
As far as the female characters go, I actually really liked Seo Yeon. She was far from perfect and thank the TV gods for that, I like my characters to be as close to human as possible. What I liked most about her is despite dating two brothers she was upfront about her feelings. She stuck by her feelings and when the time came for her to prove it, she did. When Sun Woo asked her if she would stick by him even he did despicable things she meant it. A female who sticks by her guns and doesn't play with people's hearts? Yes please. Plus she was genuinely a sweet person.
Young Ji drove me up a wall majority of the time. She was adorable at times, but mostly she came off as obsessive and stalkerish. Such a shame as she and So Ji Sub had really nice chemistry.
Back Seung Hyun, who played Chi Soo, was so dedicated and he got my blood boiling, but it was such an awesome performance. In fact I found his relationship with Cho In much more interesting than Cho In and Sun Woo's because of his great performance.
The side "romance" felt random and just "there". Didn't add much to the show at all.
All in all the show was solid and if you need a reason to watch this show, So Ji Sub would be it.
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I've watched The Treacherous twice now and I loved it even more the second time. The cinematography is really great and the acting is really well done too. If you're into saeguk dramas, you'll love certain aspects of this like the inclusion of pansori by the narrator as well as some of the character, the traditional sword dancing, and of course the ever present court politics.
The King was the most interesting character, mostly because this is based off true history. My understanding and knowledge of Korean history is mainly from what I've watched in dramas (lol) so I'm not sure how much artistic license they took with the portrayal of this tryant king, but MAN was he out of his goddamn mind! It was insane! But that's what makes this movie so wild and enjoyable--there are almost no limits to the insanity...its raunchy and violent at times, but that's supposed to be the point. The film explores greed, power, lust, revenge all very dark and entrancing themes that really draw you in. The camera work really helps to add!
Honestly, the rating is probably so low because you have viewers who are used to watched sappy, romcom movies and dramas and this is definitely no where near that sort of story. If you're looking for something gritty, explicit, exciting, sexy, and just insane you will not regret watching!
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This review may contain spoilers
OMG...PWY is both annoying and wonderful. I wasn't sure how to rate it so I gave it a middle score. Some of it was so monotonous that I almost quit watching it. The characters are good though...well, good at the beginning. The main female lead is smart and for once not so righteous as to not take revenge against her enemies. Her character stayed mostly true except some points of weakness that I thought were out of character. The love stories of even the secondary characters are nice. Also, there was plenty of great martial arts action. The problem is that the same scenario with slight variations was used over and over. Oh, and the fact that they constantly blamed everything on Wei Young as a reason to be hateful bitches. It was just too much sometimes. But as all Chinese historical dramas, the costumes, sets and cinematography was excellent. I might have given it a higher score if the ending had been different. No spoilers...so if you wanna know what i'm talking about, then pm me.I don't know much about Chinese actors, but I have seen Tiffany Tang in several dramas now and she doesn't disappoint as Wei Young. Luo Jin is also excellent as Tuo Ba Jun with the right mix of strength and vulnerability. I enjoyed his character very much. I also thought they had great chemistry together. Vanness Wu played the villainous Tuo Ba Yu with gusto. I liked him in this better than anything else I have seen him in. The other actors ranged from great to blah.
The music is good.
i will never rewatch this.
As Chinese historical dramas go, this one is just so so. There are better ones out there.
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This review may contain spoilers
If you watch the previous lanling, its completely diff with the exception of character names. This is more a love story of the females past self with lanling and her new romance as her present amnesiac self with Yu wen yong. This adaptation only inserts more of fantasy elements and looking for 2 magical items linked to Qing Shuo.
I first started watching due to many who praise the chemistry between Qing Shuo and Yu Wen Yong with the later wonderfully potrayed by Peng Guan Ying. His character seems to fill the screen more than Lanlingwang.
I find the title of this drama misleading. Thats the greatest hint/spoiler i can give you.
I would have dropped the rating to 7/10 because i did not like the ending. But for all the sweet moments of the show i maintained a 7.5. Also i fastforwarded many scene of other characters that i do not like. I always do that with long C dramas- this too doesnt escape from the need to be self edited.
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Each of the cases that were shown in the drama were self contained stories that never less featured multiple problems that were affecting the patient in addition to the illness itself. While Kishi is usually the one that deals with the illness itself Chihiro will be the one that listens and tries to understand the problems that are causing the patients harm. This combo i felt was a interesting as it made use of both characters differing personalities to their fullest. I actually enjoyed the cases that were featured in as each case is usually not what it appears to be and in some cases the circumstances of the illness and the characters situation can be rather surprising. Each of the cases i felt was well designed and thought out.
characters
Emi's character is Chihiro Miyazaki a doctor that works in the hospital and a
somewhat kind and compassionate doctor that cares about the well being of her patients.
Emi's portrayal of the kind hearted and compassionate Chihiro was as flawless as ever. Her character provides a great foil to Kishi and seeing her try and understand the feelings of a patient is really heartwarming.
Tomoya Nagase plays Keiichiro Kishi a pathologist that works alongside
Emi's character. He is excellent at his job but self centered and not sociable
to others.
His character though not sociable and not given to being nice to people
is straight to the point and is not afraid of speaking his mind to others
especially when their diagnosis are incorrect. And of course he doesn't like to meet people because of his personality quirks. His methods are not always by the rules but always aim to save the patient. However when Kishi does notice a peculiarity in a patients diagnosis he will try his hardest to determine what it is in an effort to save the patient. And its this determination that i respect.
This is the first time i seen Tomoyo Nagase in a lead role and in this i thought that he did a fantastic job of portraying the stubborn but steadfast Kishi who aims to get his diagnosis 100% correct and therefore treating the patient correctly. Seeing the bond that the Chihiro and Kishi develops over the series is one of the highlights of the show.
support characters
Kishi's assistant tech Mori though is an interesting character as he is the only one person in the department beside Kishi and the often absent department head. Mori without spoiling the review is pretty smart and often works in conjunction with Hosoki and Chihiro to get Kishi to get serious about a case. Mori's insights though are often useful to the cast.
The show has plenty of support characters some good while others villainous
for doctors.
Dr Hosoki played by Koyuki is a interesting support character in that she and Kishi are old friends and as such knew each other pretty well. Her character provides a lot of good advice to the main cast when they need advice on their cases or their lives. Despite being a support character Hosoki plays a part in nearly every case that Chihiro and Kishi tackle usually acting as the moral heart of the case.
Former SKE48 idol Rena Matsui plays the mysterious and shrewd Naomi Hibako who works for a pharmaceutical company that both helps and hinders the main cast. Though i only seen Rena act in a few dramas her performance here is a vast improvement of her past roles and i thought that she portrayed her character pretty well.
conclusion
Fragile i felt was a pretty good medical drama that had a solid cast of both veterans and newbees. As with all medical dramas it adapts a case by case format as its story along with a emphasis on the developing bonds between Kishi and Chihiro. Each of these cases were interesting and are all self contained story-lines. As the series progresses and you see Kishi, Chihiro and co work
to save the patients its nice seeing them develop bonds of friendship and respect for each other.
The acting ability of the cast i felt was excellent especially Kishi's actor Nagase Tomoya who portrayed the cool and brooding Kishi and Emi Takei who portrayed the new but honorable and determined Chihiro pretty well.
Normura Shuhei, Koyuki and Kitaoji Kinya who portrays the characters of
Morii, Hosoki and Kishi's mentor Nakaguma also deserve some praise for their
performance.
One aspect that i liked about this show was that how Kishi and Chihiro consistently deals with arrogant doctors that care only about maintaining the status quo and reminding them that they should do their very best for every one of their patients and ensure that their illnesses are correctly identified and treated correctly. This i felt was pretty hearwarming
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NOW the proTAGoNIST (yes, the wonderfully played protagonist) seems dainty... but she's clever, she's charming and she's a strong woman! Although she has an innately childish personality and voice, it's strangely full of maturity and soul as you watch on. Great voice acting on the main actress' part ^^
OK let's get right into it!
BACKGROUND HISTORY:
When watching this drama, I kept in mind that in Chinese history, Lanling general/king (not emperor) is a respected hero. It is commonly perceived that his courageous but tragic story cannot be told without its raging war and the political struggle for power, which is a central theme to the patriarchy society at the time. YET it's also been said that the tale of Lanling king is about his regret, for being too late to realise and appreciate his wife's affection, and thus his infamous love/longing. (Ambition & fighting wars had his undivided attention.)
STORYLINE/CHARACTERS:
The plot is well written and revealed in successive surprises as the story goes on; subtle moments reveal every character's vulnerable side at completely unexpected moments, moulding interesting personalities. The character relationships are quite in-depth, but at times low-key to pick up on and read into. (May I say that the chemistry between all the characters, not just love interests, are really well done!) Often there are correlations made when a character replied using the exact same words/meaning, said by another character earlier on, and thus there would be a twist in the meaning in the character's relationship with another. And I really dig that technique, XD.
*QS- female protagonist, LL- Lanling male lead, YY- YuwenYong male lead*
1. On Appreciation/Regret:
This strong theme of appreciating the person who loves and cares unconditionally for you, is not limited to the female protagonist, QS, but almost all the main characters. (I would call this, characters chasing after each other's hearts in a cycle, to death; "like moth to fire" (from ED lyrics.) Obviously from the outset, QS learns to accept the love YY keeps proving to her- it is a difficult journey when she already had LL in her heart. (Reminds me of Empress Ki, where Seung Nyang admits she loved both Ta Hwan and Wang Yoo, in the last scene of the drama.)
The story directly conveys to the audience, when QS even herself, advised one of the leaders of the Dragon sect, to "value and not be blind to the one in front of your line of view, who loves you" after that person died by his mistake, but her last wish was for QS to look after him. (Yup, there are as many selfless characters as there are selfish.) Although his higher cause to help build a prosperous kingdom, overode personal desires, his unspoken regret to be unable to accept her (not QS) feelings every time he rescues her, is evident as he keeps on him, her ornament.
There are charming women, just as compatible with YY and LL, but their love were only felt after they died for them; a powerless lady, who was meant to be LL's wife but never managed to, has such a kind and resilient heart, but being constantly un-reciprocated by LL, definitely evokes a bitter emotion from you. Her story may even be on par with QS's legend.
Not all unappreciated love are romantic, such as when LL's mother who was a mother figure to QS, attempted to deny she cared for QS, in order to chase a higher cause, which resulted in initially forcing apart LL and QS, "replacing love's thirst [for QS] with hate" on LL's part (from ED lyrics). This triggers into play the escalation of war by LL's and YY's part in, really, a fight against fate.
Much like how YY tells QS "if you don't believe in the heavens, you can believe in me", when YY tries to win over QS, who is actually, as the title suggests, "Lanling King's princess".
As for LL and QS, there is a constant motif of the attraction between the firefly and higanbana flower, respective of themselves. Although the firefly can never touch the petals of the flower, or else it dies from its poison, QS says to LL "the firefly and flower can be together", and makes a handkerchief for herself and LL, which when overlapped, exhibits a scenery where the firefly rests on the flower. But the ED song lyrics also states the "moth [rushes] to fire (the flower)".
There are many other underlying similar stories of regret in failure to appreciate loved ones.
2. On 'Masks' worn by characters:
Clearly LL's war mask is the icon. His mother, who became the wife of the enemy nation's regent, wore a mask and many other alias'. Dragon sect leader#2 wore three different faces by makeup (what he actually looks like will astonish you). YY wore a frivolous, debauched front. And many other characters wear 'masks'. But everyone wears masks for different reasons, which I won't disclose because I know I have SAID QUITE ENOUGH ABOUT THE STORY ALREADY XD. Yet the most subtle mask, is actually that of QS's- the bridal mask representing the alias identity that she took on without remembering who she was. But at the same time it could be said that memory loss revealed her true self.
There are no bad guys in the characters. Dragon sect leaders desire the powerful artifacts, but for different reasons. The existence of dragon sect is condemned by leader#2, for it's ability to develop a sense of entitled power to the identity, seen to lead leaders #1, and #3 to death. Parallel to the royal family problem, YY's uncle was led to his death, because of his same sense of entitlement.
MUSIC:
The music! In fact I really love every piece of soundtrack music, esp the lyrics. For one, obviously the timing of a particular soundtrack is ejected so well into the beginning of scenes, that it really creates meaning and quickly becomes nostalgic.
Another point, which is how the OP and ED is utilised in a way I haven't seen in other dramas before. Just as any other OP and ED of other dramas, the lyrics are intangible to the story line and its motifs. But, the motif representing QS and LL's legendary love as a higanbana flower and firefly, is directly made into the OP and ED respectively. Much like how the OP 'serenades' the ED, and the ED to the OP; the flower sings a love song to the firefly in the OP and vice versa.
The reuse of the ED with only scenes of QS and LL, is an attempt, for one to make up for the lack of scenes LL appears in, but more importantly to remind us this story is actually a tale of the tragic longing between LL and his LL princess aka QS, we all know. Literally the theme of longing is objectified throughout the OP&ED, being hyperbolised to the point of reaching the state of where gazing at "higanbanas warms up the longing for a lifetime" (duh, historical genres).
As they continuously "let slip past the face that I'm familiar with" (cue changing masks) and the plot moves from one stage to the next, the meaning of the ED with its scenes of the couple's relationship, evolves. Moving from initially loving in "times spent in a dream-like manner" to being "awakened" to a tragic longing, stained with "tears of the higanbana" where "like a dream, be its love or hate, only hurt remains" at how "our hair whitens as we missed our opportunity to be together once again". Eventually, their relationship becomes one of which they will "wait for [each other] at the ending point" as long as the "tears of the higanbana [continue to] pound [their] heart" and "recall the pain" because there is "happiness in waiting for [the other] silently" or "a vow to wait for forever".
So "let [their glorified] longing for each other prevent [them] from forgetting the other in [their] lifetime".
And that's basically what makes this drama feel melancholic fraught with nostalgia.
Ehh, that's about it, I'll stop talking/spoiling and you get the meaning... they sure are sadists, right? #poetic-emo-love
*The above paragraph quotes are from OP lyrics
CLOTHING/SET APPEARANCE:
The production cost was reported to be huge- you can imagine the rest. The cinematography! The quality! The breathtaking scenery of riding on horses, galloping across grass fields that stretch across all that the eye can see; capturing well the edge of dream-like moments with LL. Fawn over his dreamy beauty will ya?
PS. If you didn't know, in reality Lanling king's infamous beauty forced him to wear a ferocious mask in war, although the mask's symbolism is much more emphasised than his beauty in this drama. Sorry for such a long review, (usually I'm really reluctant to go as far as to review but this is my first review as I HAD to go make an account because I wanted to tell people about it) but seriously please go and experience it for yourself right now! Sorry if I sound like I'm glorifying this legend.
Link to actual LanLing king dance preserved in Japan till this day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-1zec5xJjQ
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(honestly, if i were to tell someone to watch it, I would tell them to skip over the middle because it would make the movie better).
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