Reviews

haya

An exciting series that touched every fiber of my soul, but at the same time so that you know what awaits you, I must mention that there is a lot of silence, deep sighs, serious faces and everything is so slow. Still, what is there in this series that despite all these I really liked and was able to watch without skipping ahead? More than that, I couldn't stop watching... sorrow, betrayal, revenge, friendship, loyalty alongside compassion and forgiveness, family and love, a great and touching soundtrack and one happy smile. I recommend watching with a lot of patience

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too much emotional

my favourite actor died so for me it had a sad ending but can't say it had happy ending . The main character to whom story revolved got justice at the end . Due to one incident the whole life of some characters of the drama had changed . They went to deep sadness this had been shown at the end of the story . it was very emotional and touchy story . I had cried at watching some scenes of the movie.
acting by the actors were good .
must watch it .
How bullying destroyed the life of student this was an important part of the story . Jealousy leads to destruction this also been shown in the movie.

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Good weekend binge

This started out well and the entire series has a lot of things going on from car accident, amnesia, evil stepmother, dementia, attempted murder, sibling rivalry, jealousy, corporate leadership, acquisition, bullying, etc all in 24 episodes. It got a bit overwhelming, that the onky good going for the lead characters are couplenof good friends and a great assistant.
Role portrayal by most were good. Lead male for me did not fit the character. Just didnt click for me the way he portrayed a cold CEO. His sweet face didnt jibe with the character.
The production was good. I believe it could have been directed better. Overall I am contented with it. Just didnt leave me with the feeling of excitement or anticipation.

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One of the good short drama, but the ending... I wish for a few min more to make this drama has the best ending possible...

This short drama has almost complete story, This has beginning, middle and almost the perfect ending.... Unfortunately this drama close the curtain with something hanging in the air. Yeah I know they give us preview about what the ending, but if only the actual ending where Zhang Yu Bo really meet Xiao Jiu, it's gonna be perfect...

This drama begin with Xiao Ju (XJ) keep dreaming about a boy that have accident. She doesn't know who is this boy, or why she keep dreaming about him. But one day through her professor she finally know this boy name, which Zhang Yu Bo (YB) the boy who was missing. One day XJ found a book in the library, a book about YB & one day by magic she entering the book, while her consciousness inside the book her body is sleeping in real life.

In the book XJ finally meet YB & try her way to be as close as possible to YB, cause she think that she sent to the book world to save YB from missing. She manage to be a 'crazy' girl that try to persue YB. But one day she accidentally pull back to real world. And while she come back to real life, the XJ in the book world back to herself, turn out the personality of the XJ in the book world & XJ in real life is very contradictory. And that finally what make YB pay attention to XJ.

At first YB though XJ has double personality, but the more YB become closer to real life XJ, the more attract he is with the real life XJ. And from there on they feeling keep growing to each other, and of course naturally they finally become couple. & YB since then also believe the word that real life XJ said that she come from the future.

The story become more interesting with real life XJ friend that also come along with her to the book world, Lian Jie (LJ). And his story is more interesting you can say... Because the book LJ is turn out to be a little bit sissy & quite hilarious when they transform from one to each other. & to make thing more complicate of course LJ also has to find the love in the book world.

See the story is quite unique & interested. But unfortunately the ending is kinda incomplete.... Well I write pretty much spoiler, I don't want to spoiler a little more to messed the whole experience for you. So I gonna stop writing here. Just watch by yourself to know the ending that I mean. Or you can message me to know it...

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this broke my heart and I'll never recover from it

theres two things i must say before i proceed with my review.
1) promises are made to be kept, and in this drama all promises were kept, at least the one that jang uk made with mu deok.
2)liars and soul-shifters will never have a happy ending. no matter what happens they'll always end up suffering. lies will come up to their surface and soul shifters will somehow go wild and die.

now for the review :
for the first 15 episodes, i would've given this drama 9/10. the reason is clear : it was hard for me to watch this. i sped through parts and i kept taking breaks.

but what was the reason i changed it to 10/10? the story. the characters. the plot twists. the sadness. the sorrow. the cries. the beautiful yet heart wrenching romance. everything was portrayed in such a well manner that it's quite difficult to not fall in love with it all. after ep 15 , things started getting better and better. especially episode 19 was my favorite episode and the kiss mudeok and janguk shared in that episode was probably one of the most beautiful scenes I've ever seen in my whole life. as a certified hopeless romantic i can say that jang uk is the standard.

that boy would die for mudeok. he protected her, he saved her life countless times, he risked it all for her. he didn't even seem to mind that he was killed by her but instead embraced her tightly. it was their promise after all.

the side characters, oh my god. i fell in love with every single one of them. they were so well written. no flaws. the humor, the romance, the sad parts everything was amazing. i enjoyed it all.

and i also adored how everything made sense. everything was connected. the plot twists, the sad parts all made sense. they weren't made up or completely different from the main story line no no. every one of them completed the other and trust me, details are everything. if you have an eye for the details, you'll notice them as the story progresses.

nobody can say alchemy of souls doesn't have an amazing storyline and that the characters aren't top notch. what can i say? i fell in love with all of them.

i cried, i laughed, i got mad, insanely mad. that ending. that ending made me cry so hard EVEN THOUGH I KNEW IT WOULD HAPPEN. i spoiled it for myself yet it still hit me so hard i sobbed. it screams loudly that the acting was impeccable. the anger i felt was unexplainable and while at the time i saw the ending i thought to myself that i hated it, now that i come to think about it, it was beautiful. and it made so much sense. it was ought to happen. mudeok was a soulshifter.

all in all, i had a blast watching this even if i sped up some parts, some moments will be unforgettable for me and I'll never forget them.

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Weirdly enjoyable mess

Captivated, by You is a misleading title coupled with that poster gives you all the feels of a BL. Nothing of the sort. Actually it is very difficult to pinpoint the exact genre. Why? Well, let's see....

The drama follows two high school boys, in two different towns, in two different schools, with different experiences and interests. They have absolutely nothing in common save for a moment their literal paths crossed and one boy took a photo of the other one being bizarre on the other side of the road. And they are both cute. That's it!

When you say school drama, the first item on the producers' list is bullying. So there is some of that of course! The boys' reactions to it are different; while one is immune to it and does not pay attention, the other one creates a repulsive and scary character in order not to be bothered again.

The drama has a strange structure: it keeps jumping back and forth between the characters and up and down the timeline so pay attention while watching. Everything is strange about this drama: the weird book they keep quoting (does it really exist?), side characters' stories out of nowhere when even the main characters' have not been developed correctly and of course the total absence of adults! That is often the case in school dramas and I find it fascinating; the kids are left alone to fend for themselves.

At the end of episode three, there is an amazing trailer for a fake horror movie only japanese can make and looking mighty real and convincing! I almost looked the advertised "movie" up!

And despite all this strangeness, it was a great little drama, leaving you wanting for more! The characters were likable, the actors excellent, the music was really good and the overall production was high value. And I want more!

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Still trying to watch this... (updated after completing it)

Ongoing review (See final update after completing it at the end):

It is overrated here. This does not compare to other good romcoms and definitely doesn't compare to Love Like the Galaxy or even Who Rules the World. I have watched up to ep 15 and it is below par with the top Chinese romcoms dramas. I like Lu Si and I have seen most of her dramas but her acting as a 17-year-old made me cringe, by skipping like a child in one scene, and constantly hugging a stuffed animal... Etc. which is appropriate for maybe a 12-year-old. The grade school SZ was more mature (played by Zhang Xi Wei who did absolutely wonderful, by the way). After episode 1, I was really looking forward to her character growth but it actually goes backward. Their actions and banter are still like 14 or 15-year-olds even in episode 15. It has been the same type of interaction. It is repetitive. Episodes 12 and 13 gave me hope to show some depth but it fell back to the same pattern in 14 and now 15. The best part about this drama is her interaction with her brother and their relationship but those scenes are far and few between.

It is extremely slow and uneventful for the majority of the episodes with most of the drama just interactions between the two leads. I am still sticking with it but I find myself struggling to keep interested because the script is way too simplistic with no wit, no humor, and no memorable lines... Etc. and pretty unrealistic for college-level romance. It feels tedious. I will update this review if I change my mind.
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Final Update: Even at Ep 17 there was still the same type of dialog "Do you really have no feelings for me?" "Maybe just a little bit." >.< There are countless scenes throughout this drama of making a big deal about this age gap of him being "old". Not sure why the director/writer emphasized it as much as they did. Again, I think the show should've had far more scenes with the brother and their relationship instead of the slowing moving repetitive interaction between the leads. It's cute and all but 25 episodes of that was just far too slow and tedious for me. I think most people would be far better off spending time watching the modern drama Reset, or if you are into romcoms Meet Yourself, The Love You Give Me, The Day of Becoming You, Skate to Love, and more. If you like costume dramas, then there are plenty that are worth your time.

Final words: Having said that, If you like this type of drama then try it. Everyone is different. For me, I just didn't care for it. Too simplistic for my taste. As I said, the best part is episode 1 with the child actress and the rare parts with the older brother. But then it goes downhill. I favor Wuxia like Nirvana in Fire, The Untamed, and Joy of Life (so I may not be the best judge for this type of drama) but I do enjoy romcoms from time to time but there has to be some comedy, and memorable lines, or wit, and more depth for me to really embrace it.

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This is a show that I know it's probably better than what I'm giving it credit for. But this is a personal review so it is entirely my preference.

Honestly it was a very hard to watch show because of the subject matter. The twisted religious aspect is pretty uncomfortable to watch. Add bullying, suicide and child molestation and you got yourself a realistic horror on screen. The situations that are presented on screen are terrifying and it is just not an enjoyable experience. But if you have no problems with this sort of content I think you might enjoy this drama more than I did.

I do have to say, the acting is brilliant. Everyone did such an amazing job to bring their characters to life. I think that's why I had such a hard time watching this show. The villain characters are sick and scary in a realistic way. They are twisted, disgusting and frustrating to see on screen. That is a job well done by the actors but I'm not sure it's a very enjoyable experience for the viewer. The hero characters are somewhat frustrating to watch for a lot of the drama. With the exception of Dong Cheol, I wanted to slap almost everyone on screen. When you have quite a few threatening villains but only one competent hero accompanied by a group of useless stupid boys who are terrible friends, it's a combination for a very frustrating experience.

The pacing of the drama is really slow for a lot of the first half. Once the set up is done and we get to the cult part I hard to watch at fast speed because they drag these uncomfortable scenes so much until we finally get to the active ML part. For a lot of the drama Sang Hwan (ML) is a reactive character and when he pursues a more proactive role, he is quite frankly useless and stupid. This is a ML that I found it very hard to root for for a lot of the drama. I think he is a well written character, the actor does a great job, but I just don't think he's a very likeable character. And so whenever a scene with him popped up I was hoping it would end and give me another Dong Cheol scene (the actual good boy we need).

FL plays the role of a victim for a lot of the drama. Her character has a strong personality though and you can see she is actively trying to fight back but she's just not strong enough to really accomplish much. In the first half her scenes are pretty hard to watch because of this. But it gets more bearable after the midpoint. The actress portraying her is haunting and brilliant.

From episode 9 onwards things become easier to watch and I had a more enjoyable time. The drama picks up speed and becomes better. But the path to get there is really draggy in a torture porn kind of way. The ending was a bit rushed but nothing I can't forgive. I wished they had given us more time to enjoy the karma part of the drama when it came to the villains. A lot of them do terrible things and we don't see them suffer enough at the end so I felt a bit disappointed that so much screen time was dedicated to torture FL but we only got to see some of the worst people getting arrested and nothing more. It was a bit of a let down and it made it feel like all that time we had to watch them make FL suffer was for nothing.

All in all I think this is a solid drama if you are into dark, horrific, twisted stuff. The story is frustrating and scary and it accomplishes what it's set itself to. If you can stand a lot of screen time with that you will probably have a better time than I did. I personally am not going to rewatch this one. The acting is extremely solid but most of the characters are frustrating so it is not a very enjoyable time.

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WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

I DID'T EXPECT THIS! I started season 2 with a broken heart from season one, and honestly, I thought it was gonna be a sad ending. BUT IT WASN'T! I am so happyyy! So, let's start. This drama wasn't just a drama, it was my comfort, my sadness and my happiness. Jang uk is the literally definition of true love and it just set my standarts so high. I couldn't explain the happiness I felt when he expressed the love and when I would seenthem happy together. As I said, I was mentally prepared for a sad ending, so I was a little taken back by the happy one, but it was so worth it. The actors looked so good and not to start with the acting and the CGI! (or how it's the name) . The whole serie was a big plot twist. I honestly hated the crown prince bcs I thought it was on Jin Mu's side, but I'm grateful I was wrong. What more can I say then just GO WATCH IT NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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This review contains spoilers

Never Let me Go was kind of a mess for a character-driven viewer like me.

Its cinematography, camera language, colour grading, editing and choice of music were all really good. The drama was a sight to behold most of the times.

But I personally found the drama lacking when it comes the writing and the acting which are - to me - the backbone of a show.

Writing-wise, I lost count of the plotholes and the number of times the story made no sense - there are many examples of such occurrences in the comments.

Worse in my book (because I'm unfortunately used to suspending my rational thinking when watching dramas), the characters were sometimes inconsistently written, Nuengdiao particularly, who was at times shown as someone who knew how to easily navigate the dark side of being from a wealthy/influential family (when he used his influence and connections to get Palm's mom and dad released for example) and at times being completely incompetent or unknowledgeable at it (when he did nothing at all to prepare for his uncle's attack in the second part of the show, though he knew it was coming).

Some actions also made no sense from a character's point of view (such as Nuengdiao enjoying himself on an island with Palm while not knowing his shot-to-death mother's condition, or the way Palm announced his mom's death to his father, not even taking him apart to tell him the news, not even taking any caution while doing so).

Acting-wise, I know Phuwin and Pond didn't have a lot to work with, given the way their characters are written, but I still think their acting needs improving, especially Pond's in highly emotional scenes. Nonetheless, their chemistry is great.

Relationship-wise, I could never quite truly engage with Palm and Nuengdiao's relationship. There's being boyfriends and there's being actually willing to sacrifice your life for one another, and I never quite understood how we got from one to the other. I also constantly felt like the show was telling me one thing (how their relationship was epic, one of kind, unbreakable despite the challenges etc.) and showing me another (Nuengdiao and Palm breaking up two times instead of working through their difficulties, or failing to work as a team in high-pressure circumstances). I also would have loved the show to work its romance more within the plot because some romantic scenes of the last eps (the restaurant scene for example) felt really tonally jarring to me in the context of an imminent attack from Nuengdiao's uncle. All in all, I never felt Nuengdiao and Palm were the mythical OTP they advertised.

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As expected Xu Kai never disappoints and I'm also impressed by Guli Nezha, she is very talented, beautiful and a great actress. This series is getting interesting episode by episode with lots of excitements, some might say the production lacks polish or the novel wasn't followed but for me it's the uniqueness of the series and acting that makes one watch a drama and in my own opinion this is the best series that has been released this year. Xu Kai has once again proven himself as a great actor with snow eagle lord and I can't wait for the remaining episodes to be released in the coming days.

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Going into this show one needs to understand this is not really a dating show. It definitely focuses on the hardships of existing couples and any “dates” seem more like a distraction from what’s going on. You won’t really get butterflies watching it, there is no “hot tea” of who likes whom and why. It’s more frustration, pain and a lot of sadness and this is kind of why I liked it.

Quite quickly you can figure out no new couples will form here. While the dates provide a new perspective for the couples to view their own relationship, it would be painfully ridiculous and unrealistic for any of these people to fall in love with a new person in just two weeks. And that’s one of the aspects I did not like - short duration. I honestly don’t think 2 weeks is enough of a time for a show with a premise like that. It probably would be better if the filming took a month - just keep them all in Seoul and let them go to work, so they don’t take a full 2 weeks off.

Because the duration was so short, a lot of things felt rushed and we kind of got bombarded with new developments, constant arguments and unresolved issues. I cannot even imagine how exhausting it must have been for the participants.

That said, it’s still a surprisingly great show. Somehow, no matter how flawed the relationships might have been, I rooted for most of them to stay together. It was nice to watch them learn how to communicate with each other and appreciate the bond they have.

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