Reviews

JoongDunk chemistry never disappoints

Yes this was not perfect and the hidden agenda was not a big deal at all, I expected more. But I enjoyed this. It was a simple BL and I absolutely love JoongDunk, so I had to finish this. As always they look so good together with overflowing chemistry.

They improved a lot and the kissing scene were so much better than in star in my mind.

It was interesting the issues that were addressed with like the relationship with their families, the pressure…

I also like the second couple, wish we had seen more of them.

Don’t know why add this stupid problems in the last episode, Zo annoyed me here. Joke is such a good boyfriend, I didn’t like how Zo treated him sometimes. Also, it would have been interesting to explore more Joke story about his relationship with his family.

For me, it’s not as bad as people are saying it is, you don’t always need a big or complicated plot.

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That BL was crazy but entertaining

The acting was really good and this BL got me hooked for more each week. The eclipse was so bad to me and really boring, but I liked First and Khao pairing. This was so much better and their chemistry is so good.

All the drama in this BL, I was shocked many times and it kept me entertained. All the couples have great chemistry to me and it was spicy, which is rare for GMMTv drama.

I was rooting for Boston, but in the end he disappointed me. Happy Nick choose to love himself, I was proud of him even if I was rooting for Boston and Nick most of the drama. Happy that the other couples got their happy ending

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The show is special in many ways!

This series has a special place in my heart.

I'll start by appreciating the storyline. For me, it was an unexpected story, from what you normally see in kdramas: a countryside, village by the sea. What took my attention the most during the show was how well the stories of each villager were shown. The storyline itself wasn't only about main leads (their past, problems and feelings), but other people's lives mattered in the plot. Apart from other shows that I've watched, supporting characters weren't only "filling in" the plot with funny scenes or a quick refresh from the main leads. Each character had their own past that could be expressed during the show and their feelings were truly shown. They weren't the background of the storyline, they were the part of the life of main leads. Each villager somehow invaded decisions, feelings or their thinking. Even though that the supporting characters played a huge role, I did not feel that main leads weren't shown that much or their story was not the biggest plot. I was curious of others (besides the main leads) but did not wonder, when a love of both of them will show up.

Another matter that stroke me when watching "Hometown Cha Cha Cha" were my reflections after the last episode. I decided to leave them here, in case somebody will need it:
1. sometimes, when we struggle, we don't think about our loved ones. We don't show gratitude to them, forget about their love. Even a slight sign of love to the other person can change their decisions, even when it comes to their lives.
2. When we admire somebody that's far away from us: whether it's about the distance or interests, we are unable to see a person that is perfect for us, will give us comfort and love we need and what's the most important: it's near us.
3. Modesty and simplicity means happy life. You don't have to be rich or have a meaningful job to be happy and satisfied in life. The only thing that's needed is love.
4. Helping another person will benefit you someday.
5. We don't realize how we can loose everybody in one day. Even if it's not our fault that they left (no matter if they died or abandoned us), God will put trials on our way for us to realize that we should appreciate every single moment of our lives.

At last I'd like to talk about the actors' play. I could portret their emotions well. It was clearly seen that they're experiencing those feeling deep inside trying to do their best. The scenery and costumes were pleasant to the eye, were not too eye-catching, they were matching the style and pictured well the personality of the character.

Overall, I'd recommend show "Hometown Cha Cha Cha" for somebody who needs a rest from fast paced dramas, filled with negative emotions and enjoys a simple plot.

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Love it

The impossible to know at the end of the drama they reconnected and reconciled as a family with their daughter. This drama are full of surprises especially to those lead actresses and actor they portraying the characters very well. Indeed shoutout to those lovely couple Song YiRen and Wang YouShou well done guys. My excitement they never failed even now I am still watching the clips of their drama and BTS as well because I can’t move on yet that its already end the drama. Thank you the directions . writer for this script and staff. actors and actress amazing over all.

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Highly anticipated and had high expectations, but in the end, it's a flop.

It's a fairly good story, but not excellent. In acting, both Perth and Chimon did a very good job. But it would have been better if the writers had done their job well. Since school and youth are the most common topics in BLs, they would have to change the scenes, like when the best friend is being bullied, the protagonist is going to save the BF and become the hero, and the bully has fallen in love with the protagonist because no one has ever meddled with him like that before.
Another reason is that character development is somewhat complicated. Specifically with Kanghan. At the very beginning, he is bullying Sailom, but then he's head over heels for Sailom. But in the open house, Kanghan is in love with Pimfah. And when Sailom confessed his love again, Kanghan fell in love with him. It feels like Kanghan has acute amnesia or something. Then, when his father was shot, he gave Sailom a cold shoulder. And yes, that is understandable, but then he confesses that it's the only way that he can protect him. And it feels like Kanghan has bipolar disorder. The other thing was these stupid primary-level shooting scenes. When Kanghan was shot in the final episode, it was like a firecracker exploded. Is that the danger that they mentioned in the title? When you read the title, it was about toxic relationships or similar concepts. But where is the danger in the story? I couldn't find any danger.

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Forgettable BL with a HE

- Genre –
Entertainment Industry/Romance/TV Star/BL

- Brief Synopsis –
Protagonist A is a die-hard fan of B and dreams of meeting him. One day, he secures an internship on B’s set and ends up given the duty of taking care of B. As they start spending more time with each other, B start falling for A and they end up in a secret relationship. The rest of the episodes focuses on the development of their relationship. Towards the end, their relationship is temporarily broken when A finds out B has done an intimate scene with another actor without telling him. The shows ends with them getting together and A leaving his fan persona behind to properly become B’s lover.

- Plot and Storyline –
This plot does not contain any plot twists that would make the story memorable in any way. The pacing is notably swift, particularly in the development of the romance, which can feel abrupt and lacks a gradual buildup. While the story introduces elements of angst, the emotional impact is diminished, primarily because the source of conflict revolves around one of the main characters doing an intimate scene with another actor without the knowledge of their partner. As a viewer, the lack of investment in this particular couple undermines the potency of the angst, failing to evoke a meaningful response. All in all, it's a good story but badly executed.

- Character Development –
The only development is that both characters learn to become more mature over time.

- Acting -
The overall sweetness of the relationship between the main characters is apparent, but the absence of a gradual buildup makes their coming together feel somewhat plain. The kisses and small touches, while present, lack a significant impact due to this rushed development. Despite all that, the actors do a good job in building chemistry. Another thing to note is that in this show, the actors offer a more mature portrayal of intimate scenes, pushing the boundaries by depicting sexual content to the extent permissible without revealing everything.

However, the acting from supporting characters occasionally falls into the realm of exaggeration, making it challenging for the audience to fully engage. Furthermore, the portrayal of acting within the fictional show in the series is deemed subpar, to the extent that skipping those scenes becomes a necessity.

- Production Quality -
Decent production quality with somewhat realistic sets and props.

- Writing and Dialogue -
Writing can sometimes be a little cringey.

- Pacing -
Pacing is good.

- Themes and Message –
In order to have a long-lasting relationship with your idol, you need to stop looking at him as your idol but as a person.

- Audience Appeal -
Anyone who likes the concept of idol dating a fan will probably like it. But it should be noted that A’s personality can be a little too childish which is a turnoff for some.

- Standout Moments -
The onsen scene really stood out to me because I have never seen an intimate scene so sexual. This scene was leaning closer to porn rather than what we typically see in BL.

- Criticisms -
x A's character is way too childish, to the point it's almost a little cringey at times.
x Acting from other characters can sometimes get way too exagerrated. The writing also suffers the same problem, which takes away realism.
x Both A and B's characters aren't very likable for me so rooting for them and getting invested in their relationship is a little difficult.

- Conclusion -
I won’t be rewatching this show but I will be revisiting the onsen scene…probably.

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No one of us is immune against mental diseases

Just finished it and trying to give it a proper rating now:
_Story&Plot: 2/3
it's a calm slice of life drama, with many stories about different mental diseases and the obstacles the patients and their families encounter and the daily challenges that face the medical team (specially nurses since the FL is one of them) in the mental section, it starts weak but it grows on you, you get connected to the FL's life and start picking your favorite characters. It has romance, light love triangle and second couple but romance still not the main focus. I cried several times and felt so depressed at times. The title gives the wrong idea about the drama, I thought I'll be smiling and feel the "sunshine" with each episode but it got much dark than I expected.
A random change of course for one of the characters at the end felt so out of place and so "Netflix's touch" to send their usual message: "no to racism" (so we bring a bunch of people from different races with a random black person and let them dance), then you go overseas to chase a dream.
_Acting&Cast&chemistry: 1.5/2
PBY is perfect for her role, she is the "daily dose of sunshine", she delivered the change of her character correctly
We didn't really have a ML as important as the FL, instead we had 2MLs who are a support characters to the FL, UWJ's character suffered from the short screentime, I guess they were afraid to increase the romance focus, JDY was a great friend but that's it. Nothing special about the chemistry but it wasn't bad
All the support characters were great, 2 actresses I felt like they could profit from them more than they did, Lee Jung Eun as the Head Nurse, they kept mentioning at the beginning how much she is a scarry person but we only saw a kind mother to the rest of nurses, wished if we saw both sides more to give her more presence in the first half of the show, I felt like she was a guest role.
FL's mother played by Hwang Young Hee, seeing her in WYWS as suzy's mother can tell how much she can give to her role. We barely saw her in most of the drama.
_Directing&Camerawork 2/2:
The illustration for each disease was beautiful and odd at the same time, I liked it, same goes for the intro it was illustrating the title and the combination of sunshine and mental disease, at first I thought I heard wrong or some voice technic problem.
_OST 0/1: Netflix originals lacks when it comes to ost, Kdrama is known for giving the best ost that deliver the emotion of the scene, but this drama had NOTHING. Play a random song with the credit at the end means nothing for me.
_Style&view&colors 0.5/1:
The color of the nurse's uniform is perfect, nothing special about the character's style in clothes, but the colors at the hospital were beautiful
My problem was with the FL's house the colors were depressing and you could barely see with the lightings, what it was so depressing for no reason.
_Ending 0.5/1:
It was good when it comes to the FL but not much as I mentioned in the plot part, when it comes to another character.

Total is 6.5 but I'll add my bonus point because the drama touched me deep and cried many times, it had some medical accuracy and realistic touch instead of magical recovery of diseases, and with a great message that No one of us is immune against mental diseases

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Had to watch at x2 speed because of the script

This show was very hard to get through, even at x2 speed. The acting isn't bad and the cast did good in their roles, it's just the script that is so lacking. When it comes down to it, the show is basically just three guys simping after the girls the entire show, while the girls just keep them wrapped around their fingers with the help from the clearly biased writers. 95% of the show consists of some form of misunderstanding or unnecessary drama that causes the female characters to become upset with the male characters, only to have the male characters try and chase after them and win them over for the next 3 episodes, and then it just repeats. You get maybe a few minutes of brief happiness and cute moments in their relationships, only to have another misunderstanding and lack of communication happen that causes the girls to become upset again. If you can get past the 95% of conflict in every relationship in this show (especially the two leads), then I guess the remaining 5% is somewhat enjoyable. Unfortunately, the conflict and drama lasts up until the very last few episodes, so at that point you basically have to suffer through the FL being mad at the ML for the entire show.

I think part of it is that the show is definitely catered more towards a specific audience that just enjoys seeing handsome guys chase after the girls in a show, and care less about a good script or balanced characters. Most of the male characters in this show are written so poorly, while others are just evil, corrupt, sexist, or harassers. The ML, Xin Qi, was especially done dirty by the writers. His character had barely any character outside of his heart condition and simping for the FL. Even his heart condition was put on the backburner in order to focus more on the "jealous" boyfriend moments and making him act like a child for the majority of the show in order to win over the FL. I swear I barely ever saw him actually working, he was just pursuing the FL the entire time, whether it was to get with her or to see his child. I can't even count how many times the writers pulled the "jealous" boyfriend card and had Xin Qi following the FL as she met up with countless guys that were only written in to create these jealous BF moments. And yet there is no 2FL or love rival to Min Hui (unless you count the childhood friend who died, but she's only in the show through flashbacks). I wish they had given Xin Qi more to his role besides pursuing Min Hui.

The side characters aren't much better either. Some of the conflicts were written so poorly that I cringed. Cao Mu wanting to break up with Jia Jun just because he was planning on proposing to her made very little sense. If she truly cared for him, why wouldn't she try talking it out first and working things out? Why immediately try breaking things off? At one point, Min Hui got so upset with Xin Qi because he "didn't trust her", even though he told her that he just wanted to find out the truth about what happened to his childhood friend. This happened literally in the same scene where he finally confessed to her and it looked like they were going to finally get together, all because of the cliche "plot-twist" connecting all the leads together (I'm trying not to spoil too much, so forgive the generalizations). Min Hui then proceeds to stay mad at Xin Qi for multiple episodes, all while Xin Qi spends the entire time trying to apologize and make it up to her, even though he's not entirely in the wrong either. If anything, Min Hui also didn't trust Xin Qi enough to tell him about his child or the events that happened in the past, and she also lied to him about pretending to be his dead childhood friend. She also treats him like dirt for the majority of the show, and the writers also seem to use Xin Qi as sort of a "punching bag" when it came to embarrassing himself, acting like a child, being constantly rejected but still pursuing, and always being in the wrong even when he wasn't.

To sum it all up, Xin Qi was too childish and there was no push and pull to the lead relationship because he was just simping the entire time, Min Hui was too angry the majority of the show and didn't let anyone explain themselves (only leading to further misunderstandings). There were so many moments when she would eavesdrop on others talking about her and would only hear the negative things said, and then walk away right when they start talking about the positive things about her, leading to yet another misunderstanding that isn't even resolved well. Cao Mu and Chen Jia Jun were admittingly cute together despite the age gap, and it was refreshing to see them together when there was so much conflict between the ML & FL, however Cao Mu did not treat Jia Jun very nicely at times, and Jia Jun was just another Xin Qi in that his whole world revolved around his love and nothing else mattered. The love triangle with Zhou Ru Ji was unnecessary and just made misunderstandings even more painful to watch, and his relationship with Zi Zhu was not very interesting or cute. Of course, the "evil" characters are obviously evil, so I don't need to talk about disliking them because they were meant to be disliked (just obvious sexists and harassers). I did really like the kid who played the son (Quan Quan). He was a good actor for his age and did well in his role, although he was that stereotypical kid role that you see in many of these dramas, where he's just way too smart for his age. I will say that the character Cindy was one of the only characters that I didn't really have a problem with. She was just fun and had a good personality.

Started off watching at normal speed, then bumped it up to 1.5x, and then found myself watching at x2 speed nearing the end because it was so repetitive. Maybe if you don't care for well thought out scripts or balanced characters, then you'll enjoy the show. Maybe if you just want to watch handsome guys simp after the girls for 28 episodes then you'll like it. I guess it just wasn't my cup of tea. Thanks for reading to the end if you made it this far!

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Not So Ordinary Love Story

What is love? Different people has different opinion on what is love.

This short drama did give us a variety of love stories. Let it be from normal couples, married couple, BL & GL couples and even singles. Why I said single because loving yourself is also a form of love.

Although every episodes have their own story line, there's some updates on the next episodes from the couple/people on the earlier episodes. This is what I love from this short drama.
I've always been a fan of Taiwanese dramas and its hard to find good ones lately. Although there wasn't a lot of happy endings in this drama but every episodes ending did give me a good conclusion. But the last episodes ending was the best one as it gave closure to the whole drama.

Not forgetting the casts, if you're an avid fan of T-dramas, you'll find lots of veteran actresses and actor in this drama as well as the new ones and each of them did shined in their own way. Loving the casts and their acting.

The 3 best episodes for me were episodes 7,8 and 10. These 3 stories were different yet very interesting on its own.
But overall the 10 episodes were all good.
There were some cute lovey dovey scenes, there was sorrow, happiness and betrayal all mixed together in all the episodes.
I would say its a roller coaster of emotion yet fluttering.

Do watch this drama without any expectation and you're bound to enjoy it like I did. Give it a try. I hope this short review helps to convince you to watch it. Enjoy ^^

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Comedic Melodrama Odd Mix, Worth 1 Watch For Leads.

General Spoilers only. The interactions of the two lead actors make this worth one watch. They are endearing even when their characters are written frustratingly. Without them I would not have enjoyed this series much. It starts as a romantic comedy, then spins into a melodrama, then whip-lashes back.
Story: Ep 1-7 are 7.5/10 but Ep 8-10 are 5/10. Acting 9, Chemistry 10. Nothing great or distracting about cinematography or music.

The story itself is trope heavy but mostly cute, though the character Shang Zhou is rather pushy (the cliche excuse is that he's never learned how to communicate feelings). There's a lot of tension with physical (and mental) attraction between the leads.

The storytelling starts to fall apart in episode 8. Up until then it's very obviously a comedy with an over-the-top feel. It's not my favorite type of humor, but Hsiao Hung as Shun Yu has very dynamic facial expressions with a good sense of comedic timing and did make me laugh.

In Ep 8-9 the melodrama starts to build and gets really heavy. It does pull at heartstrings thanks to the acting, but it’s also annoyingly unnecessary. The angst requires a lot of plot contrivances in addition to miscommunication. The dialogue doesn't sound natural or realistic because the plot obviously needs certain things to remain un-said.

In Ep 10 it's like a switch is flipped and all of a sudden we're back to romantic comedy without a care in the world for realistic technicalities. The bits with Shang Zhou's mother were weirdly contrived/written and completely awkward. The only thing I liked was that we got a good amount of screen time with the leads being happy together, though I had to just throw up my hands to roll with it.

I would easily watch the lead actors if they were in another show together, but I probably won't re-watch this one.

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For me there was no boring scene in this drama

The OST "it's you" made me watch this like when how the first episode ended and it started playing I had literally goosebumps but yeah the drama itself was worth my time like it was so good seeing them both on screen Im sad that it ended but yeah all good things have to end if you want to watch it then go for it Im sure you won't regret it

The OST "it's you" made me watch this like when how the first episode ended and it started playing I had literally goosebumps but yeah the drama itself was worth my time like it was so good seeing them both on screen Im sad that it ended but yeah all good things have to end if you want to watch it then go for it Im sure you won't regret it

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Very good, stops short of great

There is lot to recommend this series - foremost the acting, which is uniformly excellent. I'm not sure I've ever seen couples behave more realistically and without reserve - you really felt like these were people with feelings for each other. The physical affection in this is natural and convincing, with lovers sleeping cuddled up and not wearing enough clothing to survive arctic exposure with a minimum of one meter between them at all times like is typical in BL.

There's clearly a lot of passion that went into this production, from direction, to wardrobe, to all aspects of the production, and it makes a huge difference.

The dialog is better than normal, and most of the characterization is steady and consistent.

There are a few issues, however. This is a classic enemies-to-lovers story, and it's at its best - as usual - in the enemies portion, with an interesting and fairly equal dynamic that's unusual and entertaining, with the enigmatic and non-maliciously manipulative Zherui showing up in bizarre and unexpected ways, and the frustrated and grumpy Zong Yi trying to get rid of him while missing him when he's gone. There is no particular seme-uke dynamic at first, which is refreshing, and when they do fall into those roles it's in an unexpected way.

The secondary couple is more clearly seme-uke, but the uke is not useless and without agency. He's crazy and mercurial, and would benefit from a steady-handed partner, but I liked that he's to be reckoned with, not a helpless damsel.

There are, however, a few issues which prevent this from reachingthe top tier. One is the convoluted plot with many holes in it and contrived relationships and coincidences, greatly exacerbated by numerous very large time jumps which plaster over organic resolution of dramatic tension, i.e. the important things tend to happen off-screen.

There is also a silly cliffhanger at the end of every episode and in the middle of them as well. For example. a character is shot, but it turns out with a rubber bullet as part of a life lesson someone was trying to teach which was totally ridiculous. Someone is stabbed, and in the next scene his friends are standing at a bridge with white flowers. To give to him because it was only a flesh wound (to the intestines) - never mind that white flowers are for the dead, and that was just cheap misdirection for 10 seconds of angst. The cliffhangers required a lot of time to be burned on backtracking to fill us in on what happened, and made it very difficult to follow the series if you watched it weekly - so I would recommend binge-watching. As it was, I usually had to review the previous episode because the beginning of each episode is unconnected to the end of the last.

Finally, the dynamic between the main pair descends into stereotypical BL roles, with the formerly grumpy and irritated Zong Yi transmogrifying into a sweet romantic lead, which is frankly boring and inconsistent with the character as originally drawn. He was bound to soften a bit, but he didn't need to become a different person. Clearly the writer wanted lovey-dovey interaction, but it could have been done with some of the edge left in. Due to what happens along the way, he suffers from a short-term memory problem - for about 5 minutes after a huge time jump, then it more or less goes away and has no further impact on anything.

There is a fake memory loss plot that is resolved so quickly that it's pointless and probably should have been left out. The story arc of the mafia boss was very well-acted, but had so little impact that it essentially wasted time. Too much was attempted for the run-time available, when it would have been better to just cut out elements that weren't necessary to the story.

Would I recommend this series? Definitely. Despite the criticisms above, it has so much going for it that the problems are overbalanced by it's good qualities, not least of which the unbelievable attractiveness of the cast - they are all smokin', and even better are all talented and skilled actors.

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