Reviews

one of the best of the year

I'm not surprised I loved this drama cuz I don't think Gong Jun and Elaine would deliver anything less than amazing

I don't know where to start and I don't want to this review be too long, but firstly, I think China should release more cdramas like this, where the couples' problems and the scripts are based on life decisions and setbacks, and not on outdates clichés, like, the silly "love rivals fights" or second leads/females annoying tropes, you know?

I loved every second of this drama. The entire evolution of the Fl's character and the history of her family linked to the factory, this duality between ethics and empathy related to the male protagonist, the construction of friendships in unexpected moments and the two sides of each character, which can be selfish or generous, depending on the situation

I also really liked how the chemistry between the couple was built. A true relationship between adults, with flirtation and interest, but without leaving aside goals and career. In my opinion, despite the more "open" ending between their relationship, I believe it was the fairest. In the protagonist's place, I don't know if i would be able to forgive ML.

PS: I love the fact that we didn't have annoying and controlling parents trying to ruin the main's couple relationship, thank god!

PS: 2: And I loved that chinese writers are discovering that man and woman CAN BE friends without having any romantic feelings at all. I'm a fool for the FL and the cute guy friendship

Furthermore, the negative part, at least for me, was the side couple. They just had no chemistry, and the FL's best friend had more chemistry with her than the girl he liked, which doesn't even make sense, lol. The sister's character is also boring, selfish and dull. I have nothing against the actress, I like her in "Sweet Teeth", but I didn't find her interesting.

I will definitely rewatch it at some point. I found it touching, with a good script, a good female lead and extremely catchy. It's a hidden gem in the sea of cdramas released in 2023.

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Best modern day drama of 2023 ?

This is hands down my favorite modern day drama of 2023, right behind ‘My Dearest’, the best historical for this year. I love the flip/flop between present day and 1500 years ago in ‘Moon in the Day’. The male and female leads have amazing chemistry on screen and I am loving the soundtrack. I can’t wait to see what happens next! Fingers crossed ??for a happy ending!

One of the things that’s most endearing about this show is the way the male lead protects the female lead. All throughout her life (lives) really. I really hope he doesn’t die in the end!

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going good, seems great... oh look, there's a lookalike

Disclaimer, this review is based on ep 1 - 3 only. Two episodes in and seems like the show is pretty good, but then wham, they hit you with that lookalike. The Thai bl industry is really going ham with this twin/lookalike trope, after Not Me, everyone wants to follow in Gun's footsteps and play more than one character. Maybe it's because Playboyy and Twins are also both currently airing that it feels so overdone, but I'll admit I'm not thrilled with this one.

If we take that aspect of it and just sidebar it, the show is pretty good so far. Two people trying to forget their past romances find eachother at a bar and a steamy sex buddy relationship is formed. The chemistry is great, the scenes are long too which I was not expecting, I feel like nearly half of the episodes were NSFW, and they were quite sensual. Take that as a pro or a con, whatever suits you. You can already see their attraction to eachother is strong, whether it will turn into more than just sex is TBD, but it looks like the road to that kind of relationship will not be easy. Right now they're licking eachothers wounds and we've yet to see of that will help or hurt them.

Also, daaayyumm with the side character chemistry!!!

Optimistic for the next episodes! Trying not to let the lookalike trope kill my interest. Will update review as more episodes release.

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A great family drama - you will miss them when it ends

9.5/10 is my rating. This is a 2020 South Korean family drama with 100, 35 minute episodes.


First I provide a unique synopsis then review.

Synopsis

The drama is about a family headed by Song Young-dal (Cheon Ho-jin) and Jang Ok-boon (Cha Hwa-yeon). The couple’s grown children experience all the trials and tribulations associated with being part of a close knit family and in finding their best paths for their future.

Main characters:

Song Young-Dal (Chun Ho Jin)

The father of the family. He owns and works at a chicken restaurant. He has never gotten over the loss of his younger sister.

Jang Ok Boon (Cha Hwa Yun)

The mother of the Song family. She is constantly stressed by working with her husband in their busy restaurant and by her grown kids who have not found their path.

Song Ga-hee (Oh Yoon-ah)

The eldest sister. A former Airline Stewardess, she divorced her cheating pilot husband. She has a Middle school son.

Song Na-hee (Lee Min-jung)

She is a pediatrician having marriage issues with her husband, a fellow pediatrician.

Song Da-hee (Lee Cho-hee).

The youngest daughter who was working in an office. She left her husband on her wedding night after finding him in an intimate situation with another woman. After that event she completely changes her life.

Doctor Yoon Gyu-jin (Lee Sang-yeob)

Na-hee's husband. His mother lost her husband after her boys were born and she treats her eldest son like a fill in companion. Her demands on his time have strained his marriage.

Song Joon-sun (Oh Dae-hwan)

The oldest child and big brother to the three girls. He is a stunt man whose wife divorced him for giving too much to friends and because of his dangerous career.

Kang Cho Yoon/Song Young Sook (Lee Jung Eun)

The lost sister. Yong-dal thought she died of fever when they were children. They were orphaned then later separated and he thought she died. She grew up with monks and went on to be a bar owner.

Jang Ok Ja (Baek Ji Won)

She is mother Song's little sister and works at the chicken restaurant with her sister and brother-in-law. She loves to gossip.

Yoon Jae Suk (Lee Sang Yi)

He is a medical doctor focusing in dentistry. He loves his sister-in-law Na Hee amd tries to stay neutral in his brother and sister-in-law's issues.

Choi Yoon Jung (Kim Bo Yun)

She is the mother to the Song family son-in-law. Her and Na-hee do not get along as both of them are jealous of each other over Gyu-jin's attention.

Kim Ji-Hoon (Moon Woo Jin)

Ga Hee's middle school son. He is sad his father cannot find time for him now that his parents divorced. Mature beyond his years he is his mom's biggest fan.

Park Hyo Shin (Ki Do Hoon)

Originally a delivery driver for the family chicken restaurant, his outstanding physique leads him to work for Joon Sun's new stunt company. He is a judo athlete who left the sport after a tragedy.

Review

This was a great family drama. There were multiple romances, lots of family events, and even some mystery. If you like family dramas I highly recommend this one. I would watch it again in the future.

Spoilers*

I still struggle with the cultural difference between American and South Korean culture. Here all their children are fully grown and the parents are still controlling their lives, Not just acting as advice and council but actually demanding the children do this and forbidding them to do that. I thought the mother was often overbearing and mean.

Ok Boon, the Song family mother, annoyed me a lot. She was so angry at the least slight that the kids hid things from her. I did understand feeling judged over what your kids do or do not do. That happens in Americqn society too. But she took it all overboard. I was just admiring her for staying out of the market gossip then she let them suck her right in. In that event she became gossipy and mean just like her sister.

I loved the oldest sister Ga Hee. She was kind and understanding with her younger sisters. She was firm with her slime of an ex husband. She was nice to her big brother's friends. Her son and her relationship was goal. They were so cute with each other. I loved we got to see her be successfull.

Na hee was unreasonable with her husband in the beginning. I understood she went through a miscarriage but she was so unwilling to work through the issues. I was disappointed she dated the hospital director as it was such a slap in the face for her ex whi worked with them and had to watch it.

Joon Sun was the perfect older brother. He watched out for his sisters and was a great dad. I understood why his ex divorced him but I thought she was unreasonable when they were co parenting and would withdraw the kids to punish him. I was glad when she finally came around and supported his dream.

Hyo Shin was so sweet with Ga Hee and her son. They became a couple yet we never got to see them kiss. I liked the three of them together and would have liked to see them become a family.

Yoon Jung was very misunderstood. She was actually a very kind person just had no filter in terms of her interactions. I was glad everyone got to know her better and she no longer had to be so lonely.

Ok Boon drove me crazy in the beginning she was a mean, selfish gossip. I was particularly angry with her for the way she treated Cho Yoon. Stealing the guy Cho Yoon was flirting with, who had already expressed his feelings for her, was low. She was just out to get Cho Yoon out of jealousy. She changed a bit later and even became friends with Cho Yoon but it felt like she did that after she got what she wanted and after finding out Cho Yoon was the lost sister.

I loved Cho Yoon from the minute she came on scene. She was tough but kind and lively and vivacious. The market people were all so mean to them in the beginning it made me mad. That younger friend of hers she was always loaning money to made me so mad. What a leech! She was just a psycho for what she did pretending to be the lost sister.

Overall it was good and ended well I just wish we would have seen Ga Hee and Hyo Shin tell the family and get married or at least engaged and I wanted to see the lost Auntie,Young Sook, have something happy and permanent with the director, I did not feel they wrapped those stories up well.

#ChunHoJin

#ChaHwaYun

#LeeJungEun

#OhDaeHwan

#LeeMinJung

#OhYoonAh

#LeeSangYeob

#LeeChoHee

#BaekJiWon

#KiDoHoon

#LeeSangYi

#MoonWooJin

#KimBoYun

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This is such a good movie. Donnie Yen is top notch as usually. I may be biased as he is one of my favorite Hong Kong actions stars of his or any other generation honestly. Just love this man. He's great here as a man who accidently kills a rival who challenged him. He then goes to jail (I assume manslaughter). He's never forgiven himself for the killing and works hard to not engage in fighting. A martial arts fanatic decides he wants to fight all the best martial artist in their given expertise and kill them in a fight to the death and has he eyes set on Wu Xia Hou, Donnie Yen's character.

Excellent fight choreography, great cast and nice throwbacks to some of Hong Kong's greatest martial arts collaborators.

12/9/23

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აუცილებლად უყურეთ ))))

თავიდან წაუქრინჯა მაგრამ მაგარი სასაცილო იყო და თან პატარა დებილურ ზღაპარზე ისეთი დეტექტივი დააშენეს შოკში ვიყავი უფტო და უფრო იხლართება ყველაფერი თუ შეყევით შანსი არ გაქვთ გაჩერების ბოლო წუთამდე დაინტრიგებული ვიყავი

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An entertaining movie with a very predictive storyline.

An entertaining movie with a very predictive storyline.

I think it's a nice and calm movie to watch in December however, the storylines were very predictive since the beginning. For example, you knew the So-Jin was going to end up with the guy that had been rejected 20 times on the dates haha

Lee Sang-Wook character although it was a stereotype of a CEO I liked that he had a soft side and he's so cute with the maid woman.

I really liked the fact that we had a storyline with two older people; they were each other first love. She's a sweet and career woman who even if she made her life and married someone else she knew deep in her heart that she and her first love were going to get together eventually.

As for the guy who tried to ? himself I didn't like his story but happy that he got a good ending though.

Oh, btw. This movie remind me a lot of Christmas Eve, a Yankee movie from 2011/2012.

So yeah, these are my thoughts.

Have you seen this movie?

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Disappointment and Back Steps in Character Development

I wanted to like this series, considering that the cinematography, angles, sounds, and overall many technical aspects, as well as the acting, were good.
It started confusingly. However, as the story continued to progress quickly, I thought I would witness an interesting character development story.

Kuea should have learned not to embrace and hide her true self from her excessively seeking approval and dependent personality.
Lian, on the other hand, should have realized that he needed to be more relaxed and that love was actually what he needed most.

But what happened? Kuea was making progress, but when Lian showed interest in her, her progress stopped and she continued with the same personality. Clingy, boring, approval-seeking.
Lian suddenly metamorphoses into a personality that she is not and says that she loves Kuea, bla bla bla and then returns to that controlling personality again.
I liked Lian's acting, but her character is particularly badly written. Obviously the author doesn't know how to develop such a character because he doesn't know such a character.

The side pair Yi and the khondion started well, but then it became very empty, didn't move forward, didn't progress and in the end didn't give any feeling at all.
The third side pair was definitely better. I felt something and I liked it.


There seems to be more of a father problem in the story than a love relationship.
Lian and Yi are responsible fathers who take care of their children, control them, try to make them conform to the rules and do not care about their personalities, are callous and unloving.
Kuea and khondion, on the other hand, are approval-seeking, resentful sons who are afraid of their fathers, do things they secretly like, are rebellious and lie to keep their fathers from getting angry.
It's funny because
Yi and khondion live together, but they've never even been close.
Lian and Kuea are engaged, but they've never been close.
I thought we came to watch BL.


Anyway, the series was still fluent despite everything. There were not as many filler scenes as I expected. I watched until the 8th episode without interruption (each episode is 1 hour), which means really successful for me.

The character development could have made this series unforgettable. I'm crying.,,,,

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As of today, Ai is my favorite BL friend. He has all the qualities that I love.

I quite enjoyed it and I like MeenPing here even more than in My Dear Gangster Oppa, which made me watch Ai long Nhai for MeenPing. :D

I love their communication and how they handle certain topics in the show. (Overcoming internalized homophobia, coming out, the question about "is it necessary to announce a relationship?" (I love Nhais opinion to this!)) Ai is so caring and I like that he really stops when Nhai doesn't want anything . Consens. c: Also the fact, that both show their love verbally for each other made me really happen. It's often just the "top" who speaks about his adoration for his partner, but here, Nhai also tell Ai what he feels for him and how strong these feelings are. But I wish he would do it more often. The same with skinship and kisses. Nhai is often defensive and distant. After some time it's a bit annoying, tbh. But I also like that Ai doesn't push Nhai, but gives him the time Nhai needs.

It's really not as bad as people say. I dislike their nicknames (wife&husband) for each other (because of obvious reasons) but this problem is a Thai-Problem. We see it in multiple shows.

I liked the acting, the flirting, the humour and how light everything was. I don't need heavy plots and I like some good fluff. Nhai, for me, wasn't as annoying as some people think. Sure, some things were overdone, but that's the style of the show and I don't think it's horrible. Ping is able to act whiny and annoying characters in a way where it's still comfortable and entertaining to watch. I see, that Nhai is supposed to be annoying and exhausting, but he doesn't annoy me, you know? :D

The side characters don't add too much to the show, but they are quite funny. Jida is a refreshing female sidecharacter. Finally not an annoying female obstacle. I love the support from the boys! They made me laugh multiple times and Nine is such a cutie. Also Ai's Dads were so much fun to watch! They are so precious together. T_T

I hesitated a long time to watch this show. I even deleted it multiple times from my watchlist, because some reviews were just soo bad. But than I gave it a try and I was really surprised. It was really fun to watch! After episode 6 I had a mildly hard time to get back to it and the last episodes were a bit boring. Some scenes were still funny and made me giggle, but overall it's a bit too long for a character-driven show. But I made it through it, wuhu. *Clap clap*

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Good sports drama

I rarely watch sports dramas but I decided to watch this and I was not disappointed. I binged the whole show in 2 days and was actually sad that they did not make it longer. I normally hate long dramas but if this one had a few more episodes I would not have minded. The sports were so good and had me on the edge of my seat at times. I loved all the side characters, they were all super cute with their own stories. The romance was good too, I was apprehensive at first because of the age gap but it's not a big deal and they play it out very nicely. The filming of this drama was also very nice, especially with the romance scenes. The romance was so sweet and just overall it's a very good drama. I do have one thing I wished they did more of which was the sports which I know is confusing because there are sports stuff in each episode but I loved watching his progress. That being said if someone is on the fence about it and doesn't know if they should watch then I recommend watching it.

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Surprisingly AMAZING!!!!

I am usually attracted to dramas where the main character goes through some sort of transformative journey. Pale Moon is very far from being one of those, but it is still amazing.

The main female character is a rarity in these type of stories, she goes from being a good friend and a trophy wife to embezzling money and cheating on her husband with a handsome young guy without losing her essence throughout. I find that aspect of the drama very fascinating.

She does horrible things for the right reasons, or so it seems, which is very strange because you’ll have people saying that stealing money is a crime and cheating on your spouse is morally wrong, but somehow here is totally justified and to some extent needed. So is she a bad or a good person? I guess that’s up to the viewer to decide.


In my book Pale Moon is a master piece!!!!

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drama gets better as story progresses. Got dark vibe.

Story of Kunning Palace - 9/10 -historical cdrama

after quite long time watched historical cdrama. Sadly this drama is just type I hate ful of intrigue alike to korean historical dramas.
Firstly I didnt really like this drama it was dark and even though first eisode made me remember :The Romance of Tiger and Rose: the vibe couldnt be more far away.
Vibe is very alike to :My Journey to You:, but that drama managed to catch mine interest from get go, guess mainly cause Esther Yu and Lu Yu Xiao where both of them are mine favs and their roles was very different from usual ones they plan and they managed to slay it.
Bai Lu and other characters in Kunning palace ... lets say it wanted at least 10 eps from me to grow fond of them to continue watch.

ok shortly first 10 eps I planned to rate 8/10. Till 30ep I planned 8.5/10. And last 8eps + special managed to perusade me for 9/10. Must say I practically binge watched it in one day.

Ok review was too long. For plot and genre just check out MDL.

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