Reviews

Nearly Great

MoD was a very enjoyable show to watch IF you're more invested in the storyline than the romance. There were so many scenes where the relationship should have developed more, but then there's a cut to the next scene! Max and Tul have such great chemistry together, and I honestly wish we could have seen a more gradual development of their relationship instead of kiss scenes that seem out of place and a lack of romance in the scenes that should have it.

The plot was really interesting and I enjoyed the crime aspect of the show a lot. I think things could have been sped up just a bit, but overall it was fairly well paced. The characters outside of the MaxTul were still super interesting to watch, and the viewer is kept on their toes trying to figure out what actually happened in the murder case. I think that this is a great watch, but the writing of the romance scenes was a little rough. Max and Tul were able to pull it off, but it could have been executed a lot better. Intertwining the romance and the crime plotlines in a way that didn't make either seem out of place would have made this show flow much better.

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Draggy towards a happy ending

Title should've been Love of Irrational Beings. Spent almost half the show watching draggy scenes of irrational people go through the motion of falling in love.

Starting with the FL's bestie; what's with her attitude towards relationships? Like it's should come with expiration date, end it before it expires...

Or the FL's irrational choice to choose to work for the ML's nemesis over and over again. Or the ML's decision to push the FL towards her dreams, even if it meant pushing her to work for his nemesis, it's sweet but a little to much..

Anyway actors were ok, OST too. And it has a happy ending so it's all good. Rewatch, not likely though.

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Seriously, what did I just watch!?!?

Normally I wouldn't rate a show that I had to drop, but this show irritated me on so many levels. I watched a couple of the first episodes and then skipped to the last couple of episodes, so take this for what it's worth.

Female lead was tremendously irritating. Was it a self-esteem problem? An entitlement problem? I found it hard to like anything about her. She didn't appear to be very bright, and I just kept wondering what her deal was. Then there was the male lead. He had an interesting job, I'll give him that, but BOY was he boring. He had no on-screen presence and his performance was bland.

Oh, so very much drinking, and the FL even said that getting drunk is the only way to have fun.

This was filmed in 2016 but it seemed older than that. The clothing and the colors in the clothing were more like the 1970's and the male lead's hair reminded me of a football helmet.

So, if you are a tolerant person, you might want to give this a try. But for me, there was just too much wrong with it.

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A Story of Perseverance Despite Setbacks

The Days is an 8 Episode drama series based on true events on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Disaster in March 2011. If you’re interested in disaster dramas, then this drama is for you.

The drama follows Yoshida, the station manager, during his struggle with trying to keep the station stable. He has to balance out the lives of his colleagues and subordinates, and also his commands from senior TOEPCO management and the Japanese government. He has many ethical dilemmas that we as a viewer, feel the struggles of making these difficult decisions. The time following Yoshida, is also interspersed with time following various teams working on the effort to restore the station to safety.

It has many incredibly tense and emotional moments - that really put yourself in the situation. Especially if you watch the episodes back to back, it makes you feel the stress the teams must have felt during the days after the tsunami.

By the end of the last episode, the drama places most of the blame between the Japanese government and TOEPCO - which after researching the incident in more detail, I would very much agree.

There were some points where there is some technical jargon which is not necessarily explained, so you may feel slightly confused, but often the jargon that isn’t explained isn’t necessary for the story. However, one thing that can be slightly confusing is when they discuss the pressures for the various units, and as we move from one unit to another it can be confusing onto what the status of the various units and which one is in danger for example.

If you like apocalyptic or disaster dramas, then do watch this show! I was gripped each episode, and wanted to know how things evolve. And even if you know the ending with the real life situation, it is still incredibly gripping and is a must watch.

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Lusi again executed the wonderful character

If you are looking for her typical romance drama, this only has about 10% of love scene in it. That’s why the low rate reviews are mostly disappointed reviews due to luck of romance.

This drama is more like family drama who continue to practice Traditional Chinese Medicine. Lusi will be chosen as the future successor, however she is a typical free spirited orphan who doesn’t like to be told what to do. And she meets son of family and romance will develop. You must see with your eyes what will happen between them. It’s not an easy love with so many ups and downs.

If you are fan of Lusi, then I’m positive you will like this drama even there are little romance. First of all, the chemistry with ML, it became quite good towards the middle. This new comer ML, he was amazing to play the son and love interest of Lusi as spoiled yet struggling to find his position in his family. It’s so surprised to know this drama is his 1st drama!! There are two more side couple stories. Their characters represents ‘ Yin and Yang ‘ thru the episodes.

I usual like to give 10 stars due to bias fan of Lusi, but there were few frustrating episodes towards the end and some of the stories weren’t necessary to be included in the drama. Sudden change of story lines and nuance were really not my favorite in this drama. So I deducted 0.5. If they wrapped up the last 5-6 episodes with more romance between FL and ML, it would have been 10.

If you like medical drama, family drama, funny/serious/crying moments/romances, and of course, Lusi fan, don’t miss it!

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Best R-rated content with no toxicity

By toxicity I mean sexualized rape and abuse but Payu and Prapai, even though they were portrayed as playboys, they both turned into amazing boyfriends who take care of their loved ones better than anyone. I really enjoyed the story and the development between the characters. Rain became more responsible with his life and well mannered. Just the stupidity didn't leave him. 😂
Payu became much less aggressive, more calm and very caring. Hubby material.
Prapai became faithful to one person and learnt to treat his lover with respect and stayed by his side in his darkest times. I really loved how he stayed with Sky all day and night when he was seriously sick from overworking himself. The worry in his eyes was everything and gosh his smile.
Sky learnt to trust people again and learnt to love. He became my favorite character with his dark story he was able to hide with his smile and overworking himself but it hurt him. He needed someone to start new story with so he can stop thinking about his trauma. I don't know if he ever visited therapist and was taking pills but it hurt me every time seeing him suffering in his own dreams. It kept hunting him for so long and there's no way he can ever forget about something like this.

All I wanted was worse ending for Gun because in the end he got the same punishment as Stop but it's completely incomparable. Stop kidnapped Rain and was threatening Payu with hurting Rain but in the it were just words and all he did was give Payu few hits till Chai came for him. While Gun... physically and mentally abused Sky for a long time and when he got bored he really.... I don't even want to mention it but it made me so freaking angry like how can you give him to your friends for rape?? And when he was finally happy with Pai, it made him want to rape him again and brainwash him about Pai hating him like wtf??? How can someone have this kind of mindset??? He reminds me of those psycho murderers who became legend for their craziness

Overall, I really enjoyed those love stories and they made it well with dividing their parts. Not like UWMA and Between Us which should be in my opinion mixed together.

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Absolute fluff and no stakes for a xianxia

Fell in love with Luo Yunxi after Till the End of the Moon, and I heard this drama is where his popularity exploded. And the masses are right; his character, Runyu, is the only interesting thing about this drama. I honestly NEVER get 2nd lead syndrome (the kdrama Startup is the rare exception), and Runyu takes the cake here.

ML (Xufeng/Deng Lun):
He is just a spoiled mama's boy. He has no character development at all. His only character trait is "I want Jinmi", yet witnesses his mother attempting to KILL HER, and he still protects her. He ignores all the abuse that Runyu gets from his stepmother, and does nothing to rebel against his parents even though they all want him to marry Suihe. Where are his motivations? What does he actually do to get what he wants? He just kinda sits there and reacts to whatever is happening around him. It really makes it hard to root for him, because he really doesn't deserve Jinmi.

FL (Jinmi/Yang Zi):
I'll give her a pass for her childishness, since I guess that part of the plot but she is absolutely useless. Why two people fall in love with her baffles me. Really nothing else to say, just a really bland girl. I liked her mortal arc character because she actually had some skill and spunk.

Runyu:
The screenwriters really were like "What are all the things a main character can suffer?" and gave them all to Runyu. His infamous scene where his mother dies gave me LITERAL CHILLS as I watching his transformation from begging on the ground to finally rebelling against his unfair life. I found myself rooting for him, even though I knew he was inevitably going to be doomed. I never cried over the main CP because I really didn't see any stakes in their love, but I cried at Runyu's unrequited love all the time.

Music:
I love the opening and ending songs, and by themselves, and they are wonderful to listen to. But because there are literally only 4 songs total on the soundtrack, they are all heavily overused in a 63 episode show and it is very easy to get tired of them. The music editing is also VERY awkward, and instrumental tracks will suddenly start or stop, and it really takes you out of the atmosphere of a scene.

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Dans le pays des Bisounours....

In the land of Care Bears everyone is pretty, cute and nice, they care for each other and help each other, there are no conflicts and no bad bears.

Well, this drama is a live version of that cartoon series! That is the only comparison that works actually! I wanted to compare it to a fairy tale but in every fairy tale there is a conflict, there is an evil character (usually a witch of a sort!). So that does not work!

This is a story about two people who meet through the dating app on Monday, get married on Tuesday, fall in love on Wednesday, meet mothers on Thursday, promise to stay together for the next 50 years on Friday and get married again on Saturday! On Sunday, I guess, they rest gazing into each other's eyes with a huge smile while the sparkly hearts and flowers keep popping around them . Well that is what I saw (except for the last thing, which I imagines while I was dying from a sugar overdose induced diabetes coma!)

Somewhere in between gazing lovingly and being lovey dovey, they pretended to work which was just an excuse to be cute and smile and cup one's face with hands. Those poor actors must have suffered severe facial cramps from all that wide smiling!

I cannot stand the grown women in j dramas acting cute! It definitely is a cultural difference for me. Being cute is for kids: when I see kids acting all cute, it is so adorable and endearing. Adults acting that way is distracting, cringy, immature . Why do you think that Japan has a problem with birth rates? When you have adults behaving like children, why make real kids? Just my theory!

Anyway, this was just awful, definitely not my cup of tea! It is a live action manga: and again, for me the plot that works in a comic form, does not necessarily works as a live drama! Just my 2 cents!

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"나는 도망 대신 사랑을 선택할 거다."

🔸️The debut mini-drama of the director Lim Hyeon Hee is an incredibly lovely piece that made me smile all the way through it. It definitely doesn't fall into the category of "Competition for the most cringey skinship" but it feels that a lot of thought has been put into the making of the drama.

The metaphor and the premise - video game format to reimagine one's relationship + learning to not run away from your problems - make the drama stand out. But the viewers' love it earns thanks to the good chemistry between the actors and the gentle directing.

🔸️Originally, it was planned to be longer, and the director says in her interview that she has regrets about not being able to tell more about Wan and Ki Tae's past due to the nature of the short form. I personally think that the background could still be successfully incorporated, e.g. showing more by telling less, but what has been done is pretty solid already. Fun fact: Ki Tae only wears shorts because it matched the character so well.

I hope Lim Hyeon Hee will join Hwang Da Seul and other famous BL directors in this Korean BL Renaissance and bring more joy to the viewers, especially considering that her favorite genre is melodrama. 응원합니다, 감독님!

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The comment section gives the real rating.

As much as I love ZLS, as much as the ML’s acting impressed me and as much as I don’t want to undermine a writer’s efforts as I’m sure writing a script cannot be easy, this drama was a complete miss for me. The characters had extremely problematic personality traits that could not be overlooked, no matter how much they tried to redeem them at one point or another. Some relationships made no sense, the doctor-patient relationship we had to watch for 30 episodes is the main example of this! Serious issues were portrayed so carelessly, like the psychiatric patient’s (her diagnosis vs the symptoms she portrayed and her final video did not correlate at all). Serious issues were also glossed over, ignored and not concluded. There was never any real retribution for anyone’s bad actions. There was so much “side issues” going on that at one point I really didn’t know what the actual story was. I can understand fans wanting to give this a good rating because of their favourite actors but one look at the comment section will tell you everything you need to know about this drama.

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Gripping and unsettling revenge story with some interesting narrative and production choices

This extremely dark movie is a revenge story centred around a crime committed in a middle school background. The plot is unsettling as the viewer witnesses a patchwork of criminal acts, toxic behaviours, mental health issues and disturbing scenes. I found the pace of the story really good as the film progresses and the motivations of some of the characters unveil. It might feel a bit over-the-top at some point but it succeed in being frighteningly believable somewhat. I appreciated the ambivalence of the ending and the fact that there is a greyish morale to it...

Acting-wise, the cast was overall pretty good. Matsu Takako is good as this distraught, cold and relentless character seeking revenge. She is a bit over-shadowed by the performances of the three teens actors: given their young ages and the darkness of their scenes, I found them pretty impressive and convincing, even though sometimes their acting might have been a bit too "over-the-top" or uneven.

Production-wise, it manages to showcase the different perspective of the stakeholders in a gripping way. Even the more narrated parts (which are "telling" more than "showing") are captivating to follow due to some inspired mise-en-scene. There was some elements that I felt a bit too exaggerated (in terms of visual effects or for example with the blood spattering...) to the detriment of the poignancy of some of the scenes but it was still super impactful overall. The soundtrack was suitable for the film but not memorable to me.

I would recommend this to people looking for a gripping revenge story, quite different in its narrative style. If you loved manga such as "Teseusu no fune", you might love this as it gives some similar vibe. Given the crime committed as well as the various topics approached in the film, it features heavily (a lot) of really triggering components. I would strongly suggest to look at the tags before watching this if you have any triggers. If you don't, this could be better to go watch it blind in order to not spoil yourself of course.

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Why is the rating so high?

I was super excited about another Jerry Yan series. I haven't watched anything recent of his so I was excited when this show was airing. Sadly, my excitement died down and I could not digest what I was watching. It's slow...like super slow. A story about a young girl falling in love with a mysterious man. I'm in 6 episodes and I'm sick of the long scenes of Jerry Yan looking hot. In my head, I'm playing behind the scenes of him crackling up as they film these.

I read an article that the directors were fans of his since Meteor Garden. I felt this was just a fan girl directing a fan service show. I had the impression that this was meant for them to reminisce about him during those years, especially his headband...he wore a lot of headbands during MG. And those slow supposedly sexy scenes of him... I was laughing the entire time. I think they were trying to make him look good but I couldn't help but shake my head.

The FL was very disappointing. For someone young and daring and wanting to fall in love I didn't sense that. Instead, I felt she was like a little girl just curious about a mysterious man. Also, another disappointment that I was rolling my eyes at half the time was the foreshadowing of her having cancer or some sort of sickness and was going to die soon. It is SLOW and BORING. I wouldn't recommend it even if you like Jerry. Dropping this series.

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Gen Z Review

**This is my first time writing a review, usually I just make a comment on my overall thoughts**
(per recommendation, I am posting my comment/synopsis in a review...so if you have read my comment, it is basically the same, with a bit edited)

I ended up giving this an overall 9 and the reason being is the acting. The acting alone is what sold the whole story.

To begin with Zhao Lu Si's was basically born to play this part and she did it so well, as she does with almost every single character she acts. She knows how to embrace her characters and basically becomes them and you root right along with her or cry with her or laugh with her. Overall, she was exceptional.

Luo Yi Zhou, this kid was amazing. For being an idol turned actor, he has such a bright future. I can only see great things and wish him many huge roles in his career. What a talent and I am looking so forward to what he will do.

The rest of the cast all amazing, although there were one or two I didn't particularly care for, but they grew on me as the story progressed. Rebecca character being one. I really did not like her character at the beginning, but with every character I think she had some amazing growth in this story. So kudos to Alina Zhang for creating a wonderful hate to love character.

Another character, I want to point, whom I thought would have so much more protentional, but was so disappointed in how the writer took their story, but he played the character so well that we all ended up hating him toward the end, was Li Quan. Zhu Jun Lin, is another great talent and I was quite impressed with his acting, even though he was dealt a horrible story in my opinion. He excelled at his character.

And finally, all the veteran actors, amazing as always. I do want to point out, Wu Gang's character, Ren Xin Zheng was a very complicated character. A lot of people will look at him and see a mysoginist, a person who didn't care about his family, only medicine and helping the less fortunate, etc. I see a dedicated, caring TCM doctor. Yes he didn't always convey his feelings toward his family, yes he would do things without consulting his wife and yes he took in an abandoned girl and spent more time on making her his apprentice and with her than his own son, but as the story progresses you understand why he did a lot of that. If you really watch and listen to him, with his conversation in episode 39, you will understand why he did all that he did. I liked his character and he had the best relationship with ZLS's character in this drama. They were really great together. Looking forward to seeing Wu Gang in JOL 2.

Now for my thoughts on the story in general:

I will start off by saying, I think this could have easily been only 24 episodes. I will go on further to explain why below. The focus on TCM was great (could have been a bit better) and that is what the drama was suppose to be about. I loved all the lessons and the use on patients. Actually I even learned a few tidbits. It was really refreshing. I came to watch because of that and of course ZLS. The Covid arc did not bother me, because I liked seeing how they integrated TCM along with Western Medicine. I wish actually there was more of that and less of say the Meng Meng storyline and the LQ storyline. It was okay to have some side situations, but there was to much focus on some of these.

There were definitely some episodes/arcs that could have completely been left out and/or more added and it still would have been an amazing story. The relationship between master/apprentice and TCM as the just the main focus of the drama and it would still have been an amazing story. It was okay for a side story maybe half an episode or not at all, because a lot of those side stories made the drama look bad. No doctor in their right mind would have treated Meng Meng the way that RTZ did, she would probably have lived, if she had gotten the right treatment; LQ's story was just way to extreme for this slice of life drama; TT spending that many episodes looking after WSD; the lie about TT's parentage; all these are examples of wasted time that could have been used for more TCM or even more of master/student bonding and learning.

The last episode was also a bit of a disappointment. There were a few cute scenes, but the dancing (not that it was bad, was a bit out of place, imo, I mean it came out of no where). I really enjoyed how they interated all the Solar Terms, but I preferred them in each episode vs spending what 5-10 mins in one segment in the final episode. I wish they had given TT and RTZ a bit more bonding/screen/reconciliation time. Rebecca and PSY's proposal was a bit cute, perfect for them. The final scene was perfect, the master passing the baton so to speak to his designated successor.

Overall, there was way to much drag, the writing was lacking and needed less unnecessary stories and more stories dedicated to the main focus of the story, it definitely would have shortened the series and still made it good. The acting was the best part of the drama, the casting was on point. The OSTs were absolutely wonderful too. I don't usually pay much attention to that, but the ones in this dramas were amazing and very memorable. So thank the actors for the score, because otherwise, I probably would have dropped this a long time ago.

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