Reviews

I have been literally blown away by this drama.
Discovered by mere chance while following Takenouchi Yutaka's work, it soon proved to be one of my best drama findings. It wasn't even listed on MDL, nor have I ever read a review or a comment about it.
Rondo is a romance thriller. The two aspects are smoothly interwoven and so well balanced that I don't know if I should say it's a romance on the background of a major criminal plot, or a thriller with an undertone of romance.
But let me go in order.

Plot: 10.
Should you decide to watch this drama, don't be deterred by the complex police investigation at the beginning. Slowly but steadily, the jigsaw pieces find their right place and everything becomes clearer and more and more gripping. Never predictable though; on the contrary, there's a twist at every turn.
The love story is simply beautiful. I love the Japanese-Korean interaction between the main leads, it adds a lot of colour to the story and create some very sweet moments. The two characters are a beauty to watch together: both intense and believable, both incredibly good-looking.

Acting: 10.
Terrific performances by all. Takenouchi proved once again to be an outstanding, very expressive actor and, I can just as well admit it, sexy as hell. The only asian man beside Takeshi Kaneshiro who looks good with a moustache. Choi Ji Woo, whom I had never seen acting before, is wonderful. I loved their first encounter and, since I'm very partial to those, I can say it marked the moment I decided I liked this drama. On screen they share the kind of chemistry which is created by tension and suspicion.
I was impressed by Hayami Mokomichi's and Shin Hyun Joon's performances too.

Cinematography: 10.
This is a dark drama. So are the colours, the screenshots, the city views. Black and gray are the predominant hues. The overall photography and direction are spot-on and there were times when I thought I was watching a long movie, instead of a drama.

Music: 11.
Wait... the option is not available. Pity, since the music is a blast, at least for my taste. There's an awesome instrumental piece in between ethnic and trip-hop which is so well used I was always longing for it to play. The music plays a major role in connection with the shooting. Very well chosen.

Re-watch value is obviously a little lower, as it always is with suspense dramas. Once the twists are known, a little of the thrill is gone. Which doesn't mean I won't rewatch this drama when a reasonable time will have passed.

There is only one sad note about this show: the quality of the streaming videos available. Subs: an atrocity. Although I marathoned through the drama, I must say it was an odyssey. The first episode, which is 90 minutes long, is impossible to find whole and in the right order. It almost made me give up the drama entirely, until I decided to find an alternative way... I'm glad I did. The rest of the 10 episodes has to be scraped together here and there. But if you have the patience, you won't regret it.

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I have just finished the best period drama I have watched. This show deserves more than a perfect 10 rating. Going in order..

The story is phenomenal, never once was I bored. The story has something for everyone, be it comedy, action, intrigue, romance. While, there were parts of the story, that bothered me, it was needed to make the drama flow better. This story was simple, yet at the same time complex, kind of paradoxical.



Acting:

Jang Hyuk as Lee Dae Gil was absolutely brilliant. At times I found myself crying with him, laughing with him, wanting to kick his behind. At the beginning he wasn't the character/actor who kept me coming back, because well I couldn't stand him, but the more I watched, perfect.



Oh Jo Ho as Song Tae Ha reminded me of what a man with honor is. While he could seriously put the hurt on someone, he wasn't greedy about having the power to hurt/control people.



Lee Da Hae as Hyewon, I can't really say anything because I don't like her, throughout the entire drama she annoyed me to no end, but the drama wouldn't have been complete without her.



Those were the "main" actors, but I feel one of the supporting actors deserves a mention...



Ahn Suk Hwan as artist Bang, he brought comic relief, that was much needed in this drama. No matter the role he plays, he performs perfectly.



The music was perfect, it wasn't all slow and boring. It mixed old music with newer styled music very well.



Overall, if period drama's are your thing, watch this drama. The only thing that kept me coming back in the beginning was all the muscle, but I am female, so that would attract me. I have a hard time picking period drama's, but once I pick one, I have to finish it, and am usually disappointed, but this one has by far surpassed any and all period drama's I have watched. So much so that I actually sat here and tried to formulate my impressions into words by typing this review.

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i have tried, several times, to finsih this thing off and just cant do it!



it started out promising with a likeable cast and a fairly entertaining plot.i watched the first half with great enthusiasm.



some where around episode 7 or 8 it got very contrived, almost as if the writers just said "oh, screw it!"



on top of that i am OVER k-dramas where they take a perfectly attractive girl and through awful clothes and hair make her much less attractive. the female lead is a hot mess 90% of the time also, how did tha male lead walk? his pants were so tight i was amazed by his ability to breath in them, much less deliver lines with a straigh face.

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I guess that this is one of the dramas, along with You're Beautiful and Hana Yori Dango, that got hacked in here.



Hana Kimi was one of the first dramas that I've ever saw. I've watched it complete 2 times and my favourite parts at least 10 times. It's a really must see in the drama world. It's not the best drama with the best story and the best acting, but it's really entertaining and cute. If you are in your teens, then you'll definitely enjoy it. If you are older, you'll probably won't like it because you'll think that it's way too over-the-top.



The story is not really that original in the girl-dresses-as-boy thing, the original part is how develop it and why she does it. Also the side stories are pretty funny, like the competition between the rooms and all that.



The acting is pretty good, I love Maki, she's one of my favourite actresses. The whole cast is great, you can notice that there's chemistry between them, that they really bonded and friends throughout the filming of this.



The music was good, it was funny and according to the moments, also I love the theme song, I have it as ringtone on my cell.



On the rewatch value it is definitely a 10. I've watched 2 times and will probably watch it another 20. It is a funny light drama that cheers me up when I'm down.



Overall, although it isn't extraordinary, Hana Kimi is a classic and a must see for us drama fans, it really is something.

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This movie. /THIS/ movie. If you've watched the first Gantz, then you know the general story line and you pretty much know what it's about. Usually sequels ruin my love for the first movie, but in this case, the second movie made the first movie completely irrelevant. (I was religiously in love with the first movie.) This one has a lot more depth to it and the stakes are so much higher in this movie, since they all aren't oblivious to what they're facing anymore. There's a lot of emotions thrown around in this movie, but it just makes it that much more memorable to me. This movie is easily my number one favorite movie.

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After listening to korean for such a long time, it was great to see something in jap. I really liked this movie, I've been waiting for a lot of time to watch it, and it was definitely worth it. It is a fun light movie.



The story was great, the cast too, although in some parts I regret to say that Kitagawa's acting wasn't so good. The music was very according to the movie. I'll definitely rewatch this movie sometime soon with a friend. Overall, a seven.



I enjoyed watching this movie so much that I'll watch the anime, because I've heard that the anime fans weren't happy with the outcome of the movie, so I'll watch to be able to make a good comparison

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I wanted to watch this movie because I've heard a lot of people loved the anime/manga. I haven't read the manga or seen the anime [yet] so my review is solely on the movie itself.



I liked the story - a girl who doesn't even know who she is finds love in something she never thought about before. I loved the dresses and the the world of fashion that they introduced in this movie.



The cast was good - I can't compare it with the manga/anime but I thought that they played their parts well and the acting was done just fine.



I liked the music - from "Hello" by Yui to the songs by Sweetbox. I've been a fan of Sweetbox for the past few years and I loved actually hearing her in this movie!



I will definitely rewatch this movie again. I enjoyed it, plus since I downloaded it I've just decided to keep it on my computer so it'll be right there whenever I wanna watch it again (:



Overall - it's not the best movie out there, but I found it to be an enjoyable film with a nice story and a sweet love. I also loved how they didn't use any of those cheesy special effects I've seen in other Japanese movies based off a manga [High School Debut, Lovely Complex]. Sure there were cheesy parts in the story, but in a more believable way and not totally out there.



My personal opinion is I think it's worth watching (: It's a cute story!

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Ok first, I've been dying to write this review since episode three but I promised to myself that I would wait until I finished it, so, here I am. The most important thing about this drama is that it's seriously underrated. This one of the best dramas that I've ever seen and still there are no reviews. This a drama about second chances opposed to you typical innocent love.
Story-The story is about how the drama world functions, it tries to highlight the differences and similarities between dramas and real life. In the romantic part it's completely different from any kdrama that I've ever seen. So to give you an idea, the leads are exes, so it isn't about how they fall in love, but rather how real couples relate. I loved it because it was a completely realistic story and the kind of romance that shows is completely mature, as opposed to you typical romcom. Also I love that the story isn't only about their relationship. It really shows how the drama business function, and I loved the stories of the supporting characters, specially Uhm Ki Joon and Seo Hyo Rim's. I love that throughout the drama you can see all kinds of love, and that the main idea it that sometimes reality is way better.

Cast-Hyun Bin and Song Hye Kyo are like the bomb together, they have so much chemistry that at some scenes I thought the whole thing was gonna explode. I wasn't surprised at all when I found out they announced they were a couple in real life two months after the drama, I mean, you could totally see it through the screen. I loved Son Hye Kyo's evolution from Full House to Worlds Within, it shows she really grew as an actress and left behind her innocent self. The supporting actors where all really great, and each really had a chance to shine at least in an episode.

Music-The olnly thing that wasn't perfect in here. It wasn't bad but it wasn't anything special. Actually, it resembles a lot to My Girl's OST.

Rewatch Value-Definitely will rewatch it soon, I loved it, specially the cute scenes that make your heart melt.

Overall-This is a great drama, I recommend it for anyone, it has everything from romance (a lot), to comedy, family, friendship, drama and simply life.

I really loved this drama and I hope that through this review I can encourage at least a person to watch it. If you ever read this and because of this start watchingt this drama, please send me a message or leave a comment on my profile, it would mean a lot to me.

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Overall this drama was decent. It was very dramatic, but in a way that wasn't very predictable. In the end, I found that the character's decisions were very unexpected despite how realistic their decisions were. Usually in dramas like this, there is some unexpected twist that is completely unrealistic, but the realism in this drama was very well done. The characters in this drama all have a major flaw, or more than one, but this is developed to show how they improve on their flaw later on in life. If you like slice of life dramas with no real substance then I would recommend this as a mere entertainment rather than something to obsess over.

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After watching the first season I wasn't sure how I'd like this one. But I was surprised and found myself actually enjoying this one just as much if not more. One this is for sure - you don't have to watch this series in order. While the story is quite similar to the first season - it's a whole new group of students and therefore new stories, new problems.



While the original Gokusen had popular names such as Matsumoto Jun and Oguri Shun, Gokusen 2 has Kamenashi Kazuya, Akanishi Jin, Hayami Mokomichi, and Koike Teppei. For those who've seen the first Gokusen you'll find familiar faces also among the cast - and a return of Kuma! One of my favorites from the first season, I was happy to see him return in Gokusen 2!



The acting was great, I loved the entire cast!



The music wasn't anything special - the theme song changed from "Feel Your Breeze" to "No More Cry" at the end which wasn't a bad song. I loved Kamenashi Kazuya's "Kizuna" that was played during the drama, though (:



I can see myself rewatching this drama sometime, but probably not for a long time.



Overall - I enjoyed it just as much as the first season. For those of you who have seen the first season - you won't be disappointed with this one. For those who haven't seen any of the seasons yet but are curious because you like the cast - watch it! (:

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I dont even know why I started watching this show because I dont like sports. I mean the only person I knew from the cast is UEE but I didnt even like her character in Your Beautiful. But for some reason I wanted to see if her acting was any different...

Story- UNPREDICTABLE. The story starts off slow (not to the point of being bored) and is too focused on the character of Hae Ryung (not UEE's character)but by episode 10 things start to pick up and become super interesting because it focuses on UEE's character. The last episode made me want to rip my hair out. The ending kept in line with the unpredictable theme. Its probably the worst ending Ive ever seen in my life! Seriously if it werent for the first 23 eps having solid writing i would have rated the story lower just because of the sorry ending.

Acting- UEE can act her butt off! She changed my opinion of her (hated her in YB). The rest of the cast all made thier characters believable. I really despised the character of Hae Ryung though (very pathetic and no character development until the last ep.)

Music- Nice enough music that was memorable but nothing that i would be obsessed with.

Rewatch- If it werent for the ending Id probably would have rewatched it in 2 yrs or so but i have no wish to rewatch this drama, although it is at least rewatchable.

Overall this drama had huge potential but the lack of a believable romance and the nonsensical ending really ruined the good feelings i had about this show throughout its run. I'd still recommend this drama though because the writing is good and the acting is very good.

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