Reviews

So Bad It's Good

PLEASE watch it!!! Its So good! I see every one giving it low ratings and saying it's so bad, but heres the thing, it's suppose to be! it's a comedy that was actually executed really well! The internal monologs KILLED me! It's ssooooo cringe though and made even me embarrassed to watch at some points! I know there are probably comments about the acting being bad but if you actually pay attention the acting is actually really good!

If you need a comparison to understand why I'm saying it's actually really good then watch Dumb and Dumber, Nepoleon Dynamite, Tropic Thunder, Zoolander, ETC. those kinda of movies are so bad, on purpose, that they are good, just like this series! It's a type of comedy that may not be for everyone but it definitely does not make them bad movies or series!

Long Lee being so full of himself and some of his internal monologs were just RIDICULOUS! Honestly it's been about 10 minutes since I finished the series and I'm still cry laughing when I think of specific scenes. I hope this brings some clarity and understanding to the "bad" series.

i here for a season 2!

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too much headache

the same story happened all over again from the very first episode until the second last of the episode. everyone went mad, insecure, absurd, crazy, and stupid. the story was childish sometimes. The ML was stupid for not helping FL about his mother, FL was insecure, shouted a lot, went mad a few times. the mother couldn't stop angry until the end of the season. the male brother went to rape her but get to justified!? absolutely mad.

suddenly, everyone were changed and reconciled in the last two episodes? after 25, 28 episodes!? I skipped a lot of episodes and went straight to ep 20 because I was bored and frustrated.

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Emotion stirring gem.

This got my emotions all worked up.
Started comedic and fun but as the story unfolds, it tugged on my heart. There is already a lot of spoilers for the ending but I wouldn't dare because so many missed watching this gem due to the spoiled ending. However, the ending completed the story being told. It is of friendship, trust, and love. The struggle for the love that wasn't accepted during the period of time in this story and another love that is unrequited. This movie will make you dig up a lot of emotion you have tucked away. You will chuckle, giggle, be amazed, feel pity, feel dejected, feel sad, and realize that words that should be said shouldn't wait to be regretted. Love this movie. it is a hidden gem.

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A rivetting love story that you should try watching!

If there ever was an unreliable MDL rating, it's for this drama. I have been stuck in a rut with being unable to enjoy dramas so had low expectations going into this and this drama just blew me away. 40 episodes were finished in no time.

What I enjoyed:
- Both characters had growth and developed with the passage of time. Unlike 80% of cdramas, the FL's actions were sensible and rational. She is very naive when it comes to business but is willing to learn and rely on herself to grow. I liked that the FL solved her own issues most of the time rather than being the damsel in distress. The ML also starts out cold and unfeeling but towards the end, he realises the value of love and sacrifice and learns how to communicate better to avoid misunderstandings.
- The wholesome and complete happy ending gave me butterflies. To find a love like that, is enviable. I thoroughly enjoyed the extra episode
- The leads had great chemistry and the plot was easy to follow and interesting that I was willing to watch 15 episodes of very little romance. I think even the SML at one point states the ML is filming a commercial drama rather than romance and that cracked me up
- The second leads were not ALL boring. Unlike most cdramas, where I skip the second and third lead stories, I enjoyed LL's storyline and how she fell for someone who was not right for her and not willing to make room for her in his life. She also learns and grows and accepts someone who has been patiently loving her all along. That was a nice cherry on top of the main leads' storyline.
[Slight spoiler below]
-Their breakup was believable and realistic. Their values, and perspectives differed quite a bit and the relationship was not ready to be tested like that. The FL did not forgive him right away and the ML had to grovel and ask for forgiveness multiple times before she returned to him. He learned to value her more and realised he couldn't be without her and she understood his actions better and reflected on how much he had done for her. Dramas that have no closure and unnecessary breakups annoy me but here it seemed like it was part of their growth and story. Without it, the drama would have lacked something and their love would have been less believable.

Did not enjoy as much:
- I skipped past the third leads story (the influencer friend and the bar owner as well as the grand aunt). It didn't add much to the story and I found it quite boring
- The ML rubbed me off the wrong way in the beginning with the way he sometimes looked down on the FL because he thinks she's clueless and will fail in her business. Ultimately I moved past it because he learned to behave better over time and it was part of his cold and business-like demeanor with everyone.
- The second male lead inserted after the breakup (in Germany) was unnecessary. They could have resolved issues without the jealousy aspect.

Overall, this drama took me along on a journey and I'm more of a fan of the main leads than before. This drama had continuity, chemistry, character development and a very satisfying ending.

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Amore tossico

Ho visto questa serie quasi per caso ma gli attori principali hanno determinato la mia scelta.
La trama è avvincente e carica di suspance fin dall'inizio. Il filo conduttore della storia è la morte violenta di una giovane ma che sviluppa e approfondisce tante tematiche:
1. il bisogno estremo di giustizia che emerge nella figura della detective che dovrà destreggiargi nella ricerca della verità in ambito lavorativo e coniugale (presunto adulterio del marito)
2. L'usura causata fortuitamente da un incidente stradale a danno della famiglia natale della vittima e delle conseguenze negative sulla stessa (anni di prevaricazione e manipolazione)
3. l'accettazione dello stupro che diventa merce di scambio per una vita migliore e che trasforma la vittima, in seguito, in carnefice a scapito anche della famiglia con una giustificazia "fai da te"
4. analisi dell'emotività di amori giovanili sospesi e staticità quasi monotonia dell'amore coniugale
5. ossessione di essere performanti

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A Lot of 4 Minutes That I'll Never Be Able To Get Back

I had decent expectations for this series because of how long it had been in production and its main cast. However, it fell short. The plot ran off halfway and the end had neither rhyme nor reason.

4 Minutes can be summed up as a bunch of unnecessary deaths. At one point, I figured it was committed to karmic justice but I was wrong. The main characters getting a sort of 'happy ending' is proof that karma and justice lend little to the plot.

I admit that the near-death, psychological storyline was brilliant. I found it fun to unravel what was real and what was not. However, the plot and characters were poorly written.

Spoiler Alert ⬇️

Great was a shit person. He was in a hit-and-run, was complicit to murder, helped dispose of a dead body, was privy to the unlawful confinement of a female schoolmate, let his corrupt parents clean up his messes, and watched a girl get shot in the face when he could've stopped it. The only 'good' he ever did was saving Tyme — and he did that for himself.

Tyme was a huge red flag. He was portrayed as a victim turned vigilante but his actions show he was as cuddly with crime as his parents were. He sought 'justice' based on a few scribbles in his mom's journal, locked in on the wrong target and served their son some revenge porn to get attention. He put his patient (a victim of abuse that needed saving) in more danger just to gather evidence for his mission.

Somehow, both characters get an angelic halo over their heads after their 4-minute experience. They go on a couple of dates, play judge and jury, and make a show of taking responsibility — but it's just Great admitting his part in Dome's murder. All their other acts of delinquency are swept under the rug.

Ton Kla (played by Fuaiz) was the character I was most curious about but we only got bits and pieces of his life that didn't give much away. He was summed up as a serial killer with a kitty ghost friend and a boyfriend who only showed up when he pleased. Korn choosing to die with Ton Kla was unexpected but fitting end to a dark romance, I guess.

The actors who stood out the most in this drama were Bas and Fuaiz. Bas was brilliant as Korn and I found myself equal parts disgusted at and sorry for this character who was so obsessed with pleasing his father that he lost himself in the process. I hope Fuaiz gets more age-appropriate roles where he can show his talent beyond what we've seen in DFF and 4 Minutes.

tldr: good acting. unexpected storyline. poor character development. disjointed plots. not worth a second watch.

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Balanced & a good watch

I stayed watching after 3 episodes because I got mystified by the story that is being introduced. The females artist chosen for the lead role felt like she didn't fit the role. She seem to act well but the character didn't fit her. The male lead seems to be alright, and did well playing the character.
The production was done well, props matching the scene, wardrobes very nicely chosen, and ambiance for most scenes reached the ambiance being portrayed in the story.
Thou the story is a typical revenge and avenge with romance riding along with it, I enjoyed how it was relayed in this series. it didn't feel typical and regular. I got fascinated with how they weaved in a little bit of fantasy in the story. Not too much, just enough to add flavor to it.
❗️This review is based on my personal taste, choices and thoughts for this series only❗️

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Realistic depiction of the complexities of Love

This is not just a typical plot based romantic drama with fluff and beautiful faces. Of course it has beautiful faces (and I can’t wait to see Edward Chen, my newest crush, but I digress). I’ve watched 11 episodes so far and just felt compelled to write a review because it’s a drama that leaves you thinking after each episode ends.

Thiis is a great study/exploration on human’s need for companionship, human shortfalls, human motivation, different views on what love means; basically the complexities of relationships/ love. In a way, every character has their own selfishness & shortfall that causes failures in their relationships. It feels realistic as we can think of a few people in our own lives who have similarities. We cannot be quick to judge anyone’s actions (except maybe a couple of characters) because they are imperfect humans just like us.

The quality of the production is top notch in my book. You feel the vibe of these cities they live in. The actors are fantastic. The way it’s directed is interesting and creative. It interjects skits that summarizes the theme of each episode.I appreciate how it uses symbolism (in stead of just narrating peoples thoughts) to depict a person’s character, or the MFL’s internal battle/thoughts with her conscience which is supposed to guide her but doesn’t always succeed nor is it always right. Each episode you learn a little more about each character and boy…..it changes how you view them. All the complexities make this drama a fun, interesting, and worthwhile watch.

I look forward to soak up my one episode a day.

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One of the better dramas of the year.

This year has been pretty dry for TVB. With the terrible, forgettable ones coming out, this drama was the saving grace for the year. It has a good story, interesting cases and best acting shown possible. More emotions from Ruco Chan in this drama rather than the first installment as it was more personal to him especially from breaking up with Rosina Lin in the first. Action has greatly improved, with more realistic depiction of wounds being shown instead of the characters still looking clean after every fist fight, although it still faces with the intense editing issue from the first, with multiple camera cuts making it feel uncomfortable to watch, and the atrocious low frame slow mo they used. Luckily it wasn't a big deal as there were less action related cases in this drama replaced with much more interesting cases showcased, so it didn't make this drama boring to watch at all. The only complain I have is the way Jonathan Cheung was handled in this drama. He suffered brain damage from carbon dioxide from the first drama, and instead of having terrorists hired by his partner, Alex Fung, who posed as a professor to gather information from the police while trying to find a way to cure Jonathan to initiate their plan to take over Hong Kong, to break Jonathan out of prison when he was being escorted to the hospital after getting into a fight with an inmate (who should have been a hitman in disguise that was hired to be part of the operation of breaking him out), the thing that had the ambulance get into a crash and Jonathan breaking out, was a dog standing in the middle of the road. Really, TVB? Could have been a good opportunity to have some action in it and make it much more interesting but nope, a damn dog helped Jonathan escaped. He didn't even do anything at the end too, it was mostly a comedic gag with Moon Lau where in the end, he managed to escape.

They still used the same theme from the first, with a different singer doing the vocals and a more remixed version, which I much preferred as it feels much more action paced and faster than the original (no offence to Hubert Wu as his voice is still good). The new song which was sung by Ruco Chan, was the love theme for this drama and his voice still outshines the most. TVB please let him sing more songs! He has the voice for them.

Overall, it was a good drama, they should cut down on the multiple camera cuts and let us actually see the action in motion with a few tweaks to the script to make it better. If they were to make a third one, hopefully the writing would be a tad bit better with a satisfying conclusion as well.

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No Training Needed

The Trainee was marketed as an OffGun drama and, in general, as a BL. It became clear quite early on that this was false advertising and it was actually more of an ensemble rom-com in an office setting. Personally, I loved it, but I also don't solely watch BLs and I didn't really have any expectations of this drama. I think if you go in with that mindset, you'll find there's a lot to enjoy.

While The Trainee is a rom-com and romance does play a role in it's story, what I loved most was the secondary focus on the interns and Jane looking for their paths in life. We're expected to know what we want to do with our lives as soon as we graduate high school and I appreciated the realism that they didn't have everything figured out, particularly with Jane who was even older and was still figuring things out. I think that's something that really needs to be normalized far more than it is. And even those who did know what they wanted to do like Pie quickly found that there was still a lot to learn. There were also elements like the importance of learning from your mistakes and not being too proud to apologize, all little things that just added to the atmosphere and camaraderie of the office setting and that theme of growing up and finding your way in life.

I hate time jumps, I really do. They're lazy and annoying. We suddenly have a much more mature Ryan which is so unsatisfying because we didn't get the journey of how he got to that point. And he and Jane are reunited with the impression that they haven't really had any communication in the last 5 years which makes absolutely no sense because they have phones, they can call, text, Facetime, whatever. Are they both just completely dramatic masochists? On the one hand, I do understand the need for time to have passed. Neither of them was at a good point to pursue a relationship previously and when they meet again, they are both more mature as people and in their careers. There is the hope that they can truly build something solid now. I just hate the way they did it.

I really loved seeing the friendship that developed between the interns from basically ignoring each other at the beginning to besties at the end, they were just adorable and it felt real. I liked that they were friends as a whole, but they also paired off and had their individual friends like Ryan and Pie, Pie and Ba-Mhee, and Pah and Tae. Their support for each other was really beautiful to see and the way they learned from each other.

I do think Jane and Ryan's relationship needed more attention than it got. I liked them as a couple, but Ryan, especially initially was made far too helpless and it made it hard to see what Jane saw in him. There needed to be more time and focus on what exactly drew them together and how and why they clicked. They did get to a point where you could see it, but it was that initial that just seemed glossed over. Their relationship there at the end also felt unsatisfying in the last couple episodes. Jane disappeared with no explanation, popped back up announcing that he was going to get his Masters and that was it? It felt too abrupt. We needed more of the two of them actually sitting down and having adult conversations. In general, I do think there needed to be a little more of a focus on their relationship so we could see all that and they could be more cohesive as a couple.

On the other hand, I would have liked less focus on the mess that was the love triangle of Ba-Mhee, Tae, and Judy. That was a lot. Ba-Mhee was my least favorite of the interns for a myriad of reasons, but the biggest one was how she handled everything with Tae and Judy. Beyond the fact that she cheated on Tae, she lead on Judy when she had to know she was still in love with Tae and in no condition to pursue another relationship and when Judy did things she didn't like, rather than communicate, she just went along with it and then whined to her friends. That's not to say that Judy wasn't at fault. Jane at least was aware of appearances in getting involved with an intern while Judy didn't seem to care and was very blasé about the whole thing so to an extent it felt like she brought it on herself. Tae too really failed in the whole communication department which didn't help matters in the slightest. To be honest, I did like Ba-Mhee and Judy together. They had a lot of chemistry and they just worked. Not a fan of the cheating at all and I'm not justifying it. I think they could have eliminated that, had Ba-Mhee realize that she and Tae weren't compatible and had her get together with Judy and her and Tae just be friends. Honestly, Tae always seemed just kind of mildly irritated by her or unsure of what to do with her; I wasn't feeling romance between them.

This was a very talented cast and it shows. Off and Gun dominated every scene they were in as one would expect of them. I love View and I thought she did a great job with her character's development and gradual softening. Sea is such a talented actor and while I really didn't notice any chemistry between him and Piploy, he was fantastic as Tae otherwise. Kudos to Pompam for an entertaining turn as Baimon and Bobby as the wise and insightful Jo.

The production was great. There was so much attention to detail on the sets and the cinematography was just really beautiful. The after credit scenes were a fun way to explain film terminology and I applaud their creativity with that.

Though not at all what it was marketed as, that does not mean this drama is not worth the watch. It proved to be unexpectedly wholesome and sweet and while romance is certainly in the air and plays its part, it's the friendships that bring it all together. I would highly recommend that you put all preconceived notions aside and just enjoy this drama as it is. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

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Boring Subplot

This has to be one of the best HK police dramas of this year (emphasis on this year as there are way better police dramas before this with a better story) with intense action scenes, more violence (TVB is finally letting loose after the reduction of violence, hated the black and white filter they used to censor it) new locations instead of using the same places over and over again (I'm tired of seeing the same abandoned oil refinery building that is used several times in many dramas). But, the most obvious problem in this drama, is that they center mostly around the supporting characters, making them feel more like the main characters instead of the actual leads as they got more screentime than them. The fact that there were more problems surrounding Jonathan Cheung more than Joel Chan is absurd, there were even episodes where Joel doesn't even appear in it at all! The chemistry between Owen Cheung and Elaine Yiu were the saving grace of this drama, and their love theme was the best of the drama. However, the chemistry between Adrian Yau and Michelle Tsang was too lackluster and took up most of the episodes. Would've been better if they made it shorter, hired better actors to play them as Adrian didn't have the enthusiasm and Michelle was new to the industry. The rivalry between Benjamin Yuen and Hugo Wong's character was the best part of the drama, and should have been the main focus instead.

OST was pretty good, wasn't the traditional TVB theme song for the intro, but it still sounded cool and catchy. Ending theme was really good, an English song sung by JW who's voice is great as usual, and the love theme for Owen and Elaine was the best part of the drama, which was sung by Jinny Ng who also sung the Line Walker love theme.

Overall, it was a pretty good drama, better action scenes than Sinister Beings 2. If they had a better script writer and actual good gun muzzle flashes (they were too small when viewed on screen which did not have an impact during the gun fights) it would have been the best drama of the year. Competition for this year is pretty small, so this could win best drama of the year, unless No Return can beat it as the trailer impressed me a lot.

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