Reviews

"Le Petit Prince" symbolism adds unique depth to a fantastical story

A story within a story within another story. It's the untold 3rd story that makes this romantic drama deeply beautiful. My initial viewing, this was at best an average cliché rom-com, confused by its attempts at action, suspense and mystery. It was not until almost the end that I learned about the too well hidden homage to the French children's classic, "Le Petit Prince". A whimsical story with profound metaphors and lessons of life. This is a spoiler for those, like myself, who aren't familiar with it, but knowing is what makes this drama unique and worth savoring.

A Little Prince lived in a far away planet with 3 little volcanoes. He fell in love with a proud, silly rose, caring for her and protecting her from the wind and cold by placing her under a globe. She flirted with him, refusing to wake until she was fully radiant. He decided to leave when he felt like she was using him. Before leaving, she apologized for not showing him her love. She told him that she will try to be strong and protect herself without him. He regretted not knowing how to love her.

On his journey, he met many colorful characters, including a fox who taught him love. Why to love, how to love and build trust, to be responsible with love, how to appreciate love, how sometimes we must part with love, and how to cherish those memories. Yes, this is a children's story. In the end, the Little Prince learned how he should have realized the tenderness underlying her silly pretensions. She perfumed his planet and lit up his life. He wishes to return to her, but the story's conclusion is bittersweet and poetic.

"One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes."

The creators put a lot of heart in paralleling the details of "The Little Prince", from design to music to characterizations and to storytelling. Song Yao, surrounded by flowers, her hair bun completes her rose bud appearance. Her power to attract men with electric eyes is vain, her silly airs, and her bravery in front of tigers symbolize the Rose. Qin Hao is the Little Prince, a lonely boy on a quest of discovery, inadvertently, learning about love. Visually, he doesn't have a scarf, but his neck is covered by turtlenecks and his coats flow like the Prince's. The drama follows their story of betrayal, dropping pretenses, learning to trust, developing love, supporting and protecting each other. Yao Yao brings life and love to Qin Hao while he nourishes and protects her.

The supporting characters also resemble those in the book. There's a vain man who only admired himself (SSL), a businessman never looking up from his counting (Jiang Nan Xuan), and one who only knows data but did not enjoy the items of their knowledge (Song Ling Ren). There are other character resemblances which I won't spoil here. People will believe you if you wear a nice suit. Even the Male Lead's disdain for mushrooms was explained. Each message was represented in the drama. It was exciting to excavate the symbolism.

The director is a big fan of Stephen Chow, some of the comedy plays on this. For me, it was witty and unexpected, but also had ridiculous slap-stick moments. I will remember "Guchi village", all the bleeps, and the silliness.

This drama is full of contrasts, which makes it interesting but may also make viewers uncomfortable with its disjointed feel. Just looking at the character posters where they are in an idyllic, bright garden compared to sleek, dark vibe of the drama poster, there is a mismatch. The story is fantastical, but the acting is grounded in realism. When Yao Yao taught Qin Hao how to act, one method is based on realism, the other breaks the 4th wall to provide political and life commentary. This is the drama's contradictory style.

The pacing feels off. Some of this was purposeful, to allow us to appreciate the unseen and see with our hearts. But the execution made parts dull, draggy, yet incomplete.

The biggest weakness is the business side, fire mystery and the villain. Plot logic may have suffered from censorship, but the motives of the villain can't be blamed on that. He is given dimensions (hello, BL), but he was predictable and not charismatic. The father's arc felt unfinished. I was not pleased by some of the later out-of-character decisions from our CP.

Ironically, the book's narrator was discouraged by "grown-ups" to continue his art to focus on more practical things. The screenwriter probably didn't intend for this part to be represented in her creative process.

Although the mystery was cursory, our characters' younger counterparts will pull at your heartstrings. Friendship, childhood sweethearts, brotherhood. These bonds were deep and moving.

Our actors played their roles well. This is Wang Zi Qi's 3rd CEO role, yet he is able to make him distinct. Our ML is burdened with trauma, reserved, and innately cautious. He is a fake CEO, therefore, he was more down to earth. When in love, he transforms into starry eyed, boyish cutie, which may be his trademark, along with the nimble eyebrows. He's the hilarious straight man among a full cast of quirky characters. It took me longer to warm up to Zhang Yu Xi, which is likely due to the character. Song Yao, like the Rose, has over-the-top pretensions and foolish bravado. But she won me over with her sweet, playful, and vulnerable portrayal. She looks like a rose! She also is just stunning. They have great chemistry together.

The 2nd CP were adorable and surprisingly well fitting. I didn't have to fast-forward them, phew. Each of the supporting characters, including Ji Cheng An, were fun and had dimensions. I ❤ Team Yao Chuan + SSL. Friends that tease each other, save each other, and are dependable. They were our orphaned CP's family. I particularly liked He Peng's SSL and Liu Zhe Hui's Gu Zi Jun. Both stole the show with their hysterical facial expressions.

Other strengths include the cinematography and music. It was too easy to take pretty screenshots. The music fit the atmosphere. Sleek, tango opening OST. Charming French BGM. Heart-breaking, romantic, and sexy interludes. Fun, catchy, whimsical ending OST.

The Little Prince advised the narrator. "You must never listen to flowers. You must look at them and smell them." Paradoxical? Communication is more than words. The drama's dialog was common, but the depth of emotional connections was palpable through the characters' actions and gazes beyond the surface. A drama of deception, it fooled me with its simplistic premise, only for me to discover its wisdom of love and friendship.

PS. I highly recommend reading "The Little Prince". Amazon Kindle, FTW. Very short read, full of meaning. Adults will appreciate the whimsy and reminders of cherishing the unseen. It has been a blast catching how the drama references it and has enhanced my experience.

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oh the love of a mother...

the story focuses on the life of carmen and her family after the death of her ex husband.

it's a story about how far a mother is willing to go to fight for her kids and how big a mother's love can be.

the pace of the film was ok. the actors/actresses did well with their respective roles. especially ms. snooki! she was perfect as carmen.

there's not much i can say i disliked about "in the name of the mother" except maybe the ending was kinda predictable but i do have to say i was still a bit shocked as the events leading up to that moment was good at keeping me at the edge of my seat wondering if its gonna end the way i thought it would

but overall, the predictability of the ending was rather underwhelming and wished it had taken a different route. however, i do understand why it had to end like that.

all in all,

in the name of the mother is a relatable story for many moms out there. it was definitely a tear jerker and a rollercoaster of emotions.

please show some love to your mom while you still can ? and if you can't here's a reminder that you are eternally loved ?

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AMAZING? AMAZING!

When I tell you how this took over my life and left me questioning what is real and what is not around me, I'm not kidding.

I went into the show, I did not expect to be watching a masterpiece. The acting, ost, plot, characters, everything was on point. The way Ruan Nanzhu looked so lovingly at Lingling was so cute. The way Ruan Nanzhu fell first but Lingling fell harder. All the doors were so interesting to watch and especially the 11th door.

The ending left me absolutely sobbing. You are telling me Lingling waited 50 years!?!?!? 50 years to recreate The Spirealm and have all his friends in that world and live with them. With the version of them that remembered him and loved him. He chose to live in the virtual world where the people he loved remembered him and their story and not the real world where they were alive but did not remember anything. How heartbreaking that part was to watch. Everyone was around him in his life but not in the way he wanted. And the most important person, the man he loved so so much was not there. So, he created the virtual game again, the 12th door of Lingling's happiness, entered that world to live there for the rest of his life with his husband and friends. Loved how the moment he and Ruan Nanzhu's hands touched, Lingling was back to the young age he was when they had first met. Now he could live with his husband for an eternity!

The concept of choosing which one would you want to live in? The Illusion of Life or the Reality of Death? It so perfectly went well with Lingling's story. He chose the Illusion of living with Ruan Nanzhu and his friends then live with the reality that Ruan Nanzhu, the NPC created for him did not even exist.

WATCH THE SHOW NOW!!!

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Perfect, Until the End

Prefacing this by saying that I watched this with 0 subs of anykind, though I was able to understand ~70% of the words alone (intuition fills the gaps).

Star no Koi was genuinely an amazing watch, a true diamond in the rough, nearly everything about it was unique about it for the time and even now (especially the camera work, very similar to IWGP) and was on track to getting a 9.5 (10 is reserved in my rating scheme) all the way until the final ~4 episodes.

The story was genuinely interesting through and through, I REALLY liked how Sosuke's work life wasn't immedietly cast to the background in favour of the more "special" person (we see this all the time, the higher profile person gets more screen time for their profession, which in turn makes it less "special") and despite it being so average of a job, it was genuinely interesting, same can be said for his workmates who had depth.
This isn't to say Hikaruko's work lacked depth, her profession was equally televised and people like her bodyguard had good character depth.
The thing that immedietly caught my eye though was the camera work. Out of all the J-Drama and other Asian dramas I've seen, only ONE, has had a similar out of the ordinary camera work (previously mentioned IWGP) that really added life and uniqueness to the entire experience.

Now for the thing I disliked: the unexplained drama. As far as I know this could be just a discrepancy in my Japanese knowledge, but I really doubt that. First we have the mandatory love triangle, in anime I'm fine with that, not live action, partly because it's more unrealistic, but mainly because it's hardly done right, and this is no exception. Tsubomi all of a sudden fears competition and decides to really pursuit Sosuke after being in the company for x amount of years, yeah ok, and naturally of course she has to state the obvious that suddenly makes the ML reconsider and allow the way for more drama to ensue. Because I'm so used to this trope by now it alone doesn't bother me, but this time it did because of the fact that Sosuke SITS on that fact and misses signals that are more blinding than staring at a solar eclipse, and when practically confronted with it, he somehow manages to gaslight himself into believing otherwise. Doing this made it so painfully obvious they had to pad for time, especially considering this all occurred 2 episodes before the finale. Update after finishing the show: Yeah got even more annoying in the final 2 episodes, because both reasons are related to the climax I won't spoil it, but this one more happening alone dropped its score even more.

Regardless of that, I still think this is a 8.5, the technical aspects of the show saved it (music, top tier acting, camera work, etc.) Along with my general interest in it prior to the final arc and the genuinely funny comedic moments throughout.
If you can understand Japanese then I 100% recommend this show to you.

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Trying to tell too many stories, but a VERY lovely main romance & First experience

Subjective Gut Rating: 8.25

Stumbled upon “Ripe for the Picking” on Netflix as it silently shows up without much fanfare. As I read the synopsis, I was expecting another over-the-top rom-com about a 30-year-old virgin and a socially awkward guy. But I was pleasantly surprised that this is lovely and heartfelt love story between two vastly different individuals.

This is a very short drama, only 9 episodes and less than 30 minutes each. I would say my biggest complaint would be too many side stories. As much as I enjoy learning each co-worker’s individual journey to love and finding themselves, they are too short and take away screen time from the leads. The leads’ love story has become an afterthought in the first few episodes, while the drama spends its precious limited time on:

A working mom trying to find work/life balance, and her own identity.
A career woman whose sole focus on work jeopardizes her personal relationships
A girl with low-esteem struggling to find love in all the wrong places and being shallow as hell.
A asexual co-worker whose story was mentioned in passing without much depth

These are all interesting stories individually, but with such limited time, they just seem to be stories that hit all the checkboxes. They are not given the proper time and effort in developing them into meaningful ones.

Having said all that, the main romance is lovely. The leads are both awkward but sweet individuals. Their encounters and subsequent development are lovely to see. Oh, and there are quite a few frustrating moments with communication, but I’ve learned to forgive them because they tug my heartstrings.

Female lead is pretty and quite successful at work, yet she hasn’t had a boyfriend since high school (hard to believe!). She’s embarrassed to be a virgin at 32 and is on a mission to sleep with someone. That drive and desire propelled her to take the initiative in approaching our socially awkward ML. I have to applaud FL’s shy forwardness because she is the one making all the moves and trying to clear all misunderstanding/miscommunication. My heart breaks for her when she was ‘rejected’ and was so confused about what happened.

But what I love best about this drama is how it gives us a sweet, awkward but very realistic portrayal of a first sexual experience. I’m glad so much care and thought are put into writing their intimate time together. It was beautiful to witness (and quite embarrassing as I feel like a voyeur). When they do open up to each other, no matter how weird and awkwardly frustrating it is, it feels honest and intimate. And special brownie points to great kisses that feel romantic, tender and a lot of desire.

This drama might not be for all, especially if you usually get upset with a lack of communication. We have some of those frustrating moments, but they get cleared up pretty fast. I had a lovely time watching this and shed some tears of (seemingly) heartbreaks for the leads.



Completed: 4/21/2024 - Review #431

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First Impression: Blue Boys

Overall: was impressed by this indie production's first 8 minute episode. Airing on SUKFILM YouTube channel https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYfaogVGCvwTczUW4K1YELu_cWQfUQ21a&si=XHU_5KTTd0CELjmS

What I Liked
- tension/chemistry
- indirect way at first to say he didn't have money, used context clues instead of exposition dumps
- the production increased episode count from 2 to 4 based on positive feedback about the series

Room For Improvement
- a text message wasn't translated
- didn't love that they were doing something before what happened at the end
- $10USD seems a bit high for 1 month of channel membership (so far to see 1 uncut scene that is 2 and half minutes long)
- this is obviously an indie production, but I think they could have collaborated with a coffee shop to get a free location in exchange for naming them as a sponsor/publicity

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I love lead pairing and their chemistry

This isn’t really the only drama I enjoyed the pairing but perhaps I haven’t come across one lately in my watching that these two awakened my interest. I haven’t seen the works of either so it was quite refreshing as if watching my first cdrama. These two compliment each other matching their arduous feelings. There’s a scene in the office that was embarrassingly lit.

I liked how the male lead decided his feelings for the female lead is more important than his supposedly revenge. It doesn’t drag out which is a relief. There’s plenty of couple moments of sweetness instead of often last episode get together. Yes there’s an annoying character who tries to make trouble but lead guy is never swayed. Those things is what I often want to see and this drama has it. Sure it’s not perfect but overall, I highly enjoyed this for its simplicity, and overboard cuteness of leads.

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Fun, but shallow and requires heavier suspension of disbelief than one might think

Why I watched:
I am a big fan of Chen Fangtong, and probably have more than a bit of bias. I think she is adorable and have been consistently impressed with her acting. When I saw this show was available, I had to jump right in.

What I liked:
- As expected, Chen Fangtong was a treat. I think she sells comedy well and there were a number of good laugh out loud moments in the show. Her expressions are on point and I love her sass.
- The premise is a little different and somewhat novel because of it. Instead of transmigrating and staying in the new world, the FL transmigrates when she falls asleep and is back in the real world when she wakes up. This created an interesting duality and it was interesting to see the scenes set in the real world, with other characters who are aware of what she was going through.
- It definitely doesn't take itself too seriously and there were some great light-hearted comedy moment.
- It is an easy watch/binge. Events move at a good pace that makes sense in the context of the story. It does wrap up instead of being a cliffhanger.

What fell flat:
- The chemistry was massively disappointing. Chen Fangtong has shown in other shows that she can create amazing chemistry with her co-stars but there was so very little of it here. The kisses, though there were many, were the stoic pecks that I would not have expected from Chen Fangtong.
- I have seen the male lead in one other show and I have not been very impressed. I thought he was very wooden in this show for one of his roles and was not especially stand-out for his other one.
- The story started strong but quickly started feeling nonsensical. The villains' motives made almost no sense and the main characters' decision-making seemed lacking at best. The entire conflict feels like it could have been avoided with one call to the authorities and at no point did it feel like there was a good explanation as to why it had to unfold the way it did.
- The backstories felt forced and shallow.
- The CGI for some scenes were pretty bad. The rooftop heart-to-hearts with blossoms falling in the background looked like it was done by some amateur VFX artists.
- The costumes/hair/make-up were questionable. I give it a bit of slack because within the context of the story, it could make sense. But at the same time, it sometimes just looked bad.

In summary:
I thought this show was underrated (currently a 7.4) when I first started because I found the beginning to be very charming and hilarious. It was an easy watch, but it quickly became an exercise in suspending my disbelief because none of the characters' motivations were that deep or even made much sense. I wanted to like this more because of the lead actress, but I have to admit that overall this short form falls on the side of mediocre and around a 7.5 is where I would rate it as well.

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Heartmelting

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE true love stories.
I hate stories where couples break up because of lack of communication, mere misunderstandings and so on...
And then there are stories like this...
Where love is poured in to their souls, where there would die for each other, unconditionally, and for ever...
Whitout overacting nor drama they show in every word they say, every action they take, how they choose to interact, that this is true love, be it between brothers, between family, bromance or between lovers.
I'm telling you.. taiwanese BL are on another level completely.

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This will make you Cry but in a good way

This drama have everything i didn't expect I will watch this drama and fell in love with it
the last 3 episodes made me cry the most that my parents asked me the reason because my eyes were swelled extraordinary, the drama is spectacular and the best love story I have ever scene.
Just because they were couple during this drama I feel like that's why chemistry was great.
I wish Second ML and FL had more scenes together but still they were great too.
I have watched 150+ kdramas in past 8 years (these are less because of parents restrictions) now if someone asks me what is your favourite drama definitely its this drama.
LOVE CLOY ?

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If you are looking for a longer, family oriented, love story this would fit the bill

8/10 is my rating. This is a 2012/2013 Taiwanese romantic drama with 72, 47 minute episodes.

First I provide a Unique Synopsis then review.

Synopsis

Yang Yi Ru’s (Annie Chen) family convinces her she has terminal cancer to get her to take a break from work. Their plan to notify her that she is not really dying fails when she doesn’t check in to her pre assigned hotel room. As fate would have it, she runs across a former college class mate who fell in love, almost at first sight, with her. Lan Shi di (George Hu) lost track of the girl of his dreams before he could pursue his interest. On the island, Yi Ru accepts Shidi’s proposal and they get married but do not register so the marriage is not official. He is happy to have the chance with the girl he could not forget and she thinks she is fulfilling her dream of being married before she dies. When Yi Ru’s family is finally able to get in touch with her to tell her the truth, her and Shidi have already spent a night together. Yiru rushes back home to Taiwan without a word thinking they will never see each other again so she will never have to tell Shidi about the deception, Their fates are even more twisted when the company Yiru co-found lands a contract with Shidi’s company. At first Shidi is happy to see the wife that ran off without a word but happiness quickly turns to anger when Shidi believes Yiru tricked him to get him to drop a lawsuit against her company. Will they be able to sort out their misunderstandings and realize a lasting love with each other?

Review

If you take this for exactly what it is, a romance with all the social norms that are a decade and counting aged, you would like it. It’s very predictable but that can be a good thing if you want something that proceeds as expected. It ends happy with most major plot points resolved. I would recommend it to anyone who is fans of either of these actors. As a straight forward love story, slice of family life, love triangle romance it is a solid addition to all those types of series. It is on the longer side and there are some slow parts and even parts where the characters are shown from many angles just thinking about something. So watch it when you are in the mood for something you want to be engaged with for some time. Sort of like you might watch a daily soap opera. It was good for one watch to me. With so many option s out there, I do not think I will rewatch it. I would recommend it for those looking for a longer, family centered, romantic drama.

Spoilers

I thought the beginning, where they both thought she was terminally ill and he married her as a last wish, would carry and they would be in a contract type relationship. But that really only lasted through a few episodes then she found out she had been lied to about her illness and he was angry with her for deceiving him. I found his anger at her over all that really annoying. She was his dream girl, the one he wanted to find so bad he kept her picture around and then he is just going to act like that over what was obviously a misunderstanding? I was annoyed enough by that I almost quit watching. He was really being unkind to her and I thought it was a bit excessive.

Shi de’s grandmother (Shen Hai jung) was almost creepy in her desire to have him get married and start making babies. It seemed like she just saw him and his partners strictly as a baby conduit. I felt irritated by her over the top attitude on him getting married and having children. I know that was probably something that older women did back in the day but I have never seen anything where it was that extreme. And Shi de’s mother, Fang Xiu qing (Yang Chieh mei) spent her time only pleasing her mother in law. I know it wasn’t the way back in the older days but I wanted to see her assert herself at least a little. Part of the grandmother’s behavior was fed, unintentionally by Xiu qing. I loved her character she was so sweet and positive and just such a great support for her family. But I thought she had her hands to full with a mother in law that behaved like a grown child. The grandmother did change a little after Yi Ru moved in and she got close to her, but I still felt like she was overbearing. I thought one of the most abuse of power things the grandmother did was have the young couple get married in the jail just so she could have the date and time that made her comfortable. If it was really important to marry on an auspicious day, they could have delayed it for another time. It was her stubbornness that had them getting married in such a rush in such a horrible location.

I really liked the bromance between Shi de and Qi ming and wish they would have shown that more. They were very good for each other and their interactions made for a lot of humorous scenes. They could have filled some of those dragged out scenes of this one or that one just remembering or gazing around sadly, and filled that with more of the friendship between the two men

Yi Ru’s father, Yang Hao (Shen Meng sheng) was one of my favorite characters in the way he took Sun Qi Ming (Bobby Dou) in as a son even though he and his daughter were exes. It was very heart warming that he saw that need in a young man and was willing to take on that role of father. I was disappointed in him later on though when he continued the ice wall against Shi de’s aunt, Lan Yi ping (Yen Chia le) because she was so sweet to him all the time and they would have made a good couple. I felt they let that story line drop without good reason.

Yang Hao played a character that was like everyone’s favorite aunt. She was bubbly and always there for her family and friends.

I thought Shi de’s sister, Lan Shi yun (Vivi Lee) was a bit full of herself in the beginning for only having a semi successful self help author type career. As a person that wrote about relationships, she did not seem uniquely qualified to offer such advice. There was never an explanation of how she came to pick that topic. Had she been a successful psychologist or therapist who did that on the side it would have made more sense. Her wardrobe choice with the really long skirts was confusing and I wish they would have explained why she wore a fashion more fitting for a much older person.

He Tsai jung (Mandy wei) was a favorite character early on when she was a play no games hottie on the scene. She was even sweet when she decided she liked Qi ming. But she went through this period where she wanted to punish him and I thought she was just being mean spirited. Qi ming was still recovering from some major heart break with Yu ri and had all the emotional damage, which she was well aware, from his mom. Stringing him along and playing cat and mouse with him I thought was unjust as I thought she was a more understanding person.

I thought the cancer trope and the accident that leads to coma tropes were both unnecessary. It felt like that was added to appease those that don’t think you can have a slice of life, or family centered drama, without sad moments. I watch dramas to escape the sadness of modern life so I am never a fan of the sad story lines. It was tricky too because I look up how things end because I will skip a drama if it has a sad ending but this was buried in the middle and toward the end. I thought the family was very unfair to Yu ri expecting her to abort her baby to get treatment. Even Shi de was being harsh to her. Many women would understand how it would feel to end your babies’ life just to give yourself a better chance. Most mother’s would put themselves in front of a bullet for their child. Just because the child is not yet born doesn’t mean a woman does not feel responsible for the precious fragile life she has developing in her womb. I was glad Shi de finally came around. If the show had followed the trajectory of either her aborting or being seriously ill or dying for her choice to protect her baby, I would have been likely to have quit watching. The “live comments” were super surprising to me. A lot of the commenters were saying how selfish she was not to get the abortion because it delayed her treatment. They said how selfish of her to make her family worry. I guess, having had children myself, I understand how she felt about that little life she was carrying. To me her decision to delay was the opposite of selfish. I have read where a baby has actually cured a mother or improved conditions because of the presence of all the T cells in fetal development. And, even in the show they indicated the cancer had not spread. She actually learned of the cancer at such an early stage because she was pregnant. As that child grows I would think everyone would feel a little guilt for trying to pressure Yu ri to give up the baby.

The music became really annoying. It just wasn’t my favorite song and had a very repetitive beat.

#LoveNow #AnnieChen #GeorgeHu #BobbieDou #Harry Chang #ViviLee #EstherYang #ShenMengSheng #YenChiaLe #ShenHaiJung #YangChiehMei #MandyWei #KaoChengPeng #LiuHsiangChun #TieKe #HankWu #HuangChienHao #AlbeeLiu #WuRuiZhen #ShaunChen#HongChenYing #KellyKo

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