Reviews

Will love ultimately survive the passing of years?

I was quite upset with this drama. At first, I thought both the story and the dynamics were incredible, but some decisions made by the production made me question them, especially the fact that to get rid of her ex-boyfriend, they invented the most ridiculous excuse possible (he leaves because when she was sick, allegedly he didn't love her 100%), which, in my opinion, would be perfectly normal, especially in the situation she was in. I think he took care of her as much as he could to make her feel better, but if he stayed home too long, they would be two people at rock bottom who couldn't reach out to each other when needed. And another fact: since the ex appears, we clearly see that she likes her ex much more than the protagonist, so I say that the excuse they gave to get rid of the ex was terrible because they had to find some way to make the protagonists get together. The other reason was the complete abandonment of the secondary characters in the last episodes. We viewers can't see an ending for these characters because the last scene we see is a phone call in which they agree to meet and nothing more. That's why I said I was angry due to certain decisions made by the show's production.

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Somewhat Overrated

Before I started watching, I only had a basic idea of fhe plot - an actor who goes to a hill side town and meets someone there and falls in love. The story as such wasn't interesting and frankly the only reason I started this was because of the hype surrounding it.

The direction is interesting, the location is truly beautiful but the story itself is quite slow moving. It was an interesting choice to have several, if not most, scenes with no background music. Just silence. A lot of those times nothing specific is happening with many of them just having actors be lost in thought or are silent. It felt a lot like an art film.

My biggest issue was that there were many times when I was confused as to what happened. I would wonder if I missed something but it was just suspense to be revealed later. Other times you had to draw your own conclusions with no extra clues. So I had to resort to asking others what actually happened. Many times other viewers were also guessing. This lack of understanding affected my viewing experience.

There were some interesting scenarios like how actors and their teams handle viral stories (both positive and negative). And truth and what gets depicted to the public. Or what conclusions fans draw and how they can be manipulated to believe something. This is what fascinated me the most about this story rather than the relationship between the two leads.

Overall I can't say I completely disliked it but I wasn't wowed by it either. Perhaps one can chalk it up to differences in taste.

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We are all human beings in the end.

Love to Hate You was an unbelievable surprise. In the first few episodes, I thought it would be just another series trying to demonstrate the inequalities between men and women, exaggerating reality and showing that only men are monsters in relationships. But as the episodes progressed, we see that the social criticism becomes less harsh and exaggerated, and instead uses humor without losing its critical meaning. Furthermore, thanks to the protagonist and the secondary character, the series presents several types of men who have suffered at the hands of women and who are also human in the end. All this is to say that at first it may give us the feeling of being just another sensationalist female program, but thanks to the character development we can observe from various points of view both the flaws of men and those of women, because at the end of the day, regardless of whether we are men or women, we are human beings and we all know that we are not perfect or anything like that.

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From casual friends with benefits to turning serious!

Overrated drama, entertaining novel!
Praiseworthy first half with secret skinship, office life intrigue, and boss vs employee power dynamics. CP in a Love and hate relationship loop beginning at casual friends with benefits to turning serious!

Glad to see both ml and fl have trustworthy and comforting friend circle and parents.
Appreciate the attempt at sensual over steamy, chemistry feels overdone yet undercooked at the same time. Strong portrayal of women at work!
Definitely a tingling must watch overall for those looking for ragebait love and s3xy forbidden office romance!
Would I call it fresh...hmmmm not really!

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Lacks Depth

Initially the story was intriguing where Big Jane has rumours about him and people who make deals with him. And Little Jane can't help be drawn to him out of curiosity either. Sadly, there was really no big mystery behind it and the story just shows how Big J non-consensually kisses Little J time and time again.

Frankly I forgot when these two fell in love or why they even love each other. Little Jane doesn't trust Big Jane which leads to misunderstandings. To be honest, there really isn't much to the plot to even talk about even after 9 episodes. I've decided to pause and leave the last 3 episodes to watch once the finale is out and perhaps my rating will improve.

I have mainly been watching this drama on 2x because it is too slow moving for my liking. The best thing about it is the OST. The opening theme song 'Colorblind' is really good and probably the only thing Imlovs about the drama so far.

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Best showcase of Life

This series offers more than school romance.
It shows family dynamics, teenage struggles into study, love, and growth.
I transitions to reading the novel because I'm really curious what's next.
The mls seems to be having it easy on others eyes, but really their struggles is not.
What I love most here is they're not weak. No one is saving who is who, no one is above another, they're both strong individuals who also believes in their bond.
It's really a great great BL story. I truly hope there's still a glimmer of hope for season 2. Their story is worth telling.

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This was frustrating

Trigger warnings for rape (acted out) and SA (both acted and real)

I'm going to start by talking about the things I liked.

1. Zhen Xin's girlfriend was actually really cool, and I liked her. I thought I would hate her at first because of the way she called Zhen Xin "honey" in that tone. It grated on my ears, and she did it too much. Thankfully, that didn't last long, and she turned out to be a very cool girl boss.

2. The ending. Both the one for Zhen Xin & Zhang Zhun and the one for Gao and Fang. I'm still wondering whether Gao and Fang's story inside Zhen and Zhun's was real.

3. The acting was really good & Ollie and Shu cried really well.

4. Good cuddles. It's sad we only got a couple of them.

Now, on to the things I didn't like, of which there are many.

1. The cheating was unnecessary. They should have just been single or broken up with their girlfriends right away. Zhen and Zhun barely get any screen time as themselves already, so why fill that time with something so toxic? I already didn't feel anything for the characters & I hate cheating, so I wasn't exactly rooting for them to get their happily ever after. Did Zhun ever talk to his girlfriend & properly break up? It didn't feel like it. I knew going in there would be cheating; I just didn't expect it to be handled so poorly, especially with Zhun's girlfriend.

2. I didn't really like any of the characters very much, besides Zhen Xin's girlfriend. We aren't given enough time with them to have any good emotional buildup or to really even get to know them. I simply couldn't make myself care about them.

3. The chemistry. To put it simply, there was very little to be had. I checked out during the smut scenes, which is honestly nothing new, but even the kisses were bland and dry. The kisses weren't the worst, but I expected a lot more from these characters, considering they "love" each other. Yeah, I really didn't believe that for a second.

4. Even with the ending being what it was, we should not have spent over half the show on Gao and Fang's story. I didn't even pay attention to the first scene because I thought it was something they would show small pieces of every couple of episodes. I didn't know we would be living through their entire story! Sadly, their story, which I was bored with at first, turned out to be the more interesting one to follow.

5. Where the fudge did that proposal come from? It was the most out-of-place proposal I've ever seen, IRL & in fiction. What was he thinking? What makes it worse is that it didn't have to happen. I'm assuming it happened to get the rings to both characters so they could reunite dramatically later. Could have just made them promise rings; it would have worked just as well and made it so Zhen didn't look like an idiot who was rushing things.

6. Why did their boss change their mind about them dating? What happened in those 8 months that made them say, "Okay, if they still like each other, just let them date"? I don't mind the change of heart; what I mind is not knowing why it happened.


I really don't understand the hype or the high rating. I think I'm going to stop considering the rating before I watch a show. I normally use it as a way to pick between two shows if I'm torn, but I've been disappointed almost every time. I was really looking forward to this show as well. I thought it would be a dark, fast-paced plot that would have me excited for each new episode, but instead, each episode became a chore to get through.

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Another typical romance drama

I have mixed feelings about this drama. I enjoyed it, and even the +1-hour episodes flew by. I like Hyeri a lot because she always delivers a strong performance, even as the stereotypical romance drama FL.

But as is happening in most dramas this year, their success is based mainly on the chemistry and the performance of the main leads, passing up the opportunity to develop interesting adult stories, playing a safe game spending too much time on youth and memories, and solving a forced happy ending in the last episode, full of plot holes that are very difficult to believe, lowering the quality of the drama.

In this case, they could cut at least half of the unnecessary story of their youth, which was frequently repeated throughout the drama, and spend more time on Ju I Jae's feelings and her need to study, the expected support of her partner, how to manage a long-distance relationship, and how to support her without invading or shadowing her, especially when supossely wrote and directed a movie in Canada in less than two years, when their movie took more than one year. She was selfish, just disappeared, and made “her dream,” with no interest in Woo Su Bin’s feelings. Additionally, who would believe that a rookie director in their first movie would disappear during editing, post-production, and promotion?

Woo Su Bin’s role was plain: it didn't convey much emotion (sometimes I feel the same face happy or sad), didn't define a clear behavioral line, and relied on looks. His character could explore in depth the ups and downs of a romantic relationship with a partner who wants to be bright and stay out of your shadow. His dad was another exaggerated character, and the drama didn’t do much to expose their regrettable behavior. At the end, the bad guy keeps his fortune.

The attempt to exploit the viewers' feelings with the breakup and magic return, as if nothing ever happened, to receive an award is too much of a cheap emotional trick, the same as the sudden and unnecessary death of Sim Yu Geon’s father.

CEO An Su Hui was exaggerated, to the point of being a discordant note each time she appeared. I know the “bad guys” are necessary, but in the context of the drama, they could give the character a more realistic entertainment CEO script.

Sim Yu Geon and O Ha Na’s story was naive, not a story at all, and pretty much felt like a forced script to fill in the second leads, with no clear character definition. It tried to sell a 30-year-old rich, beautiful, famous virgin, never-kissed actress with an unknown actor, almost under the same conditions, alone in their room and only briefly kissing. Is this believable?

On the other hand, the other secondary couple, Seo In Uk and Chae Sa Rang, is a man-predator woman, with almost the same on the man's side, who started a relationship on a fake, ridiculous reality show. After the only smart quote from that couple, when she said it was too difficult for her to keep a serious relationship, then, out of the blue, she appeared as a writer selling books, and he was buying the books. The last scene between them was dumb. Once again, they could explore the challenges of being a couple with no commitment, only enjoying the moment, who suddenly find someone who makes them change their minds.

The drama served to entertain, evoke emotions, trigger dopamine release, and function as another romance drama, missing the opportunity to do something better.

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Great casting, great chemistry, a misses here and there, but overall a WIN

I have journaled my feelings episode by episode in the comments, so this is not so much a nitpicky review, but more of an overall review of the show.

I enjoyed it, even though at times the conversations got a big draggy and scenes relied too much on oft repeated flashbacks to drive a point (the audience is not thaaat forgetful). The chemistry between Phob and Tinn is out of this world, though Tinn's character and presence peaked from episodes 8 through 10, but became a lot less substantial after that. Both Inn and Ongsa did justice to their roles, and I wish them all the more for the future.

The general plot is alright, but we are left with quite a bit of loose ends. We know about the main characters, but the side characters and the background just fades away. I can't be too critical of this, because this is a BL first, then only a historical fiction.

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Great acting wasted on a script with amnesia.

This drama isn’t a trainwreck—it’s just keeps wandering off its own path until you stop expecting it to find the way back. The pseudo‑incest angle didn’t faze me; after enough Japanese dramas, that trope barely registers. What actually chipped away at my patience was how the plot behaved as if it had commitment issues.

We begin with a missing brother mystery and a ghostly snowman kidnapper, only for the narrative to abruptly abandon that thread and chase the painter lore, Hongrang's mythology, and whatever else caught its attention that day. It’s not offensive, just scattered—like someone painting three rooms at once and finishing none.

The characters get dragged along for the ride. The ML’s unlikeability isn’t fatal, but it does make you wonder whether episode two will redeem him or simply shrug. The FL’s emotional logic swings so abruptly—doubt, belief, sudden non‑sisterly feelings—that you start questioning whether the writers shuffled her motivations like a deck of cards. And then there’s the “good” brother, who gets pulled into villainy purely because he’s obsessed with a fake sister. It’s a tropey slide, but here it feels more convenient than tragic.

Production quirks don’t help: a girl with a sprained ankle scaling rooftops twice, a stepmother villain so textbook she might as well have been photocopied from a fairy tale, and factions multiplying until every fight scene becomes a “Who are you and why are you here?” guessing game. Not even Lee Jae Wook’s intensity or Jo Bo Ah’s grounded delivery can fully elevate that confusion.

Intriguing in flashes, but ultimately too unfocused to rise above mediocrity.

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Not for me

I tried to watch this drama two times, once when it aired and now, many years later.
I couldn't remember why I had to drop it, and it's clear for me now.
I usually love fantasy / folk storylines, and the synopsis for Tale of the Nine-Tailed initially checked all my boxes, so did the cast. So it was a surprise to me that I couldn't go past episode 6.
My main problem - and it's hard for me to say it - is Lee Dong Wook. You'll never find me saying he is not a good actor, but particularly in this drama his character doesn't come through. Starting with the lack of chemistry with the FL, there wasn't any part of his performance that moved me or kept me engaged.
Needless to say, I couldn’t get past it.

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Spoilers saved me more than the plot ever could.

I only made it through two episodes of A Shop for Killers before the lukewarm feeling settled in—the kind that tells you the drama isn’t going to give what the posters promised. Jinman barely showed up, which was already disappointing because his presence is the only thing that seemed capable of grounding the chaos.

The production itself is sleek, polished, clearly made by people who know how to stage a fight and light a room, so I gave it a decent rating out of respect for that. But the writing? Not so much. The whole premise becomes implausible the moment you realize it expects one man—and his niece, who wants nothing to do with his world—to somehow dismantle a massive organization.

I even skimmed ahead hoping for resolution, only to find more complications and an open ending that feels like bait for season three. Nothing in the spoilers convinced me to continue, and honestly, I’m relieved I stopped. Some dramas reward patience; this one just asks for it without earning it.

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This was a delight. This is my second watch.

It is light and funny. It has a great premise/plot line and is an easy, cute watch.

Actors ... Fantastic.
Characters ... Loveable.
OST ... Sweet.
Storyline/plot ... Different and as I say, different is good.

This show is not that deep, but it is light and enjoyable. The characters showed growth and were interesting enough to make you feel and empathize with them.

The side characters were also entertaining, and each storyline was compelling albeit a little shallow, but that suited this type of series.

As someone who has experience with Aspergers Syndrome (now called high Functioning Autism) ... I felt the FLs’ portrayal was accurate for her character, so it was not frustrating. The MLs’ character was beautiful although he seemed to have little screen time.

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