Reviews

My 4 Year Closure with TROP

I really like the acting on this after rewatching it for the second time after the first which was almost 4 years ago, dang. But thankfully Croton uploaded most episodes on youtube and 1080p because, back then, I watched it at 360p and I can understand why I did not fully realize that the production was lit.
First of all, the intro reminds me of the Kdrama "Empress Ki".
Second, I had to read about the characters in wikipedia especially the supporting characters because I knew they were not properly introduced, most of them, in the drama, and the dialogue centers more on Ning Yi and Feng Zi Wei's plots. I mean, first, we see Ning Yi looking like a monk in penintentiary but is actually imprisoned by his emperor dad. We learn throughout the next episodes that he is planning to go back to the palace, pretend like he's changed for the better, act sickly, and basically plot schemes while getting entangled with this woman he met on the streets who was being chased by a murderous brother. He helps the woman with the help of a mentor/professor he's close with. The woman is Feng Zhi Wei disguised as Zhi Wei, the typical trope like Mulan. My exact thoughts were: "They're gonna end up together." And then Nan Yi showed up. Change Ning to Nan and then add Yi. Handsome, Loyal, has attachment issues but grows, you see that with the ending at episode 70. With regards to Zhi Wei, I thought she was mentally and emotionally smart so the ending really strucked me, I thought she was going to show us how she've grown but the writers wrote that off instead, dang! I don't understand her story arc. With Ning Yi, he's complicated much like his parents. I believe his mentor is a healthy father figure to him if he weren't his biological father's advisor. Ning Yi managed to detain his emperor dad- now former emperor- as Ning Yi became the emperor- and avenge his mom, his younger self, his love, his 3rd brother.. I get his arc. By choosing revenge instead of loving yourself, you grow to hate yourself and lose people. Once again, the palace is a place of torment even for the head of the palace. "Scarlet Heart" vibes. They want to become commoners, and basically have equal rights. They can't when they are expected to embody imbalance (subordinate and dominate) in the palace not by themselves but by the people that surround them all the time. I mean, at first, I find the ending fitting for such a story but as I grow older, I understand the characters and their real life inspirations. I learn more of how the writing is made. The typical tropes and story arcs. How a story can be life changing, or not. For the conclusion of this story, I remember the quote, "It's the journey, not the destination." I will remember the good scenes from here and on. I find most of them comedic. I find Chen Kun's interpretation of Ning Yi endearing as he acts like how Attorney Woo Young Woo acts when amused, their expressions are strikingly similar. I like how he has a support system that also actively protects his woman for him and they all call her his cat to protect her identity. I like his bestfriend bodyguard, he seems nice, should've gave this character a love interest trope but this is a dark story (with little to no bloodshead onscreen, chinese media regulations, I have not formed a solid opinion on yet).
I know Empress Ki have a historical inspiration and I was also hoping for this one but I can't really find one on this "internet" part of the world or I have yet to.
Now that I see more clearly the costumes and aesthetics, I want more, just improve the story please. The aesthetics looks a bit similar to the animated ones and it flashes in my head everytime, like the hair buns, the women hair buns, the hemlines, the colors, even the emperors face. The new character here is the consort, I've never seen her in animation. I like how the emperor doesn't have a crown on his head too, most of the time, the younger emperor has this eunuch-like headdress but the older emperor doesn't need one, it seems. I like how the men wear down their hair, no pins, especially Ning Yi. Some of Zhi Wei's hair style were very interesting. I see why China is the fabric capital in ancient history. I like Zhi Wei's "under" dress and her almost tarmor like outer dress in Episode 70. I know it's sad but can we commemorate her journey. She's the phoenix in my opinion. From the fallen Dacheng princess to the first female Royal Inspector/Minister to being a Empress candidate but protecting her people, she has an A curve. I think the actress who portrayed her ( Ni Ni) still deserves an award for her great performance. I recently watched a "uglified" scene in YouTube and that's where I decided to rewatch this. I somehow admire the supporting characters' stories and how they somehow mystified our main characters, especially Zhi Wei, of their backgrounds that I have to remind myself to not focus too much on the supporting characters' background. It was hard. That's why I give this drama 6.5 stars.

Read More

Short and Super Sweet ♥︎

Biggest Spoiler: it’s a happy ending.

I adore this BL for a few reasons— It’s only 5 episodes, ~23 minutes per episode, but it still feels complete. They did a terrific job in adapting a storyline to this run time without making anything feel unnatural or rushed. The 5 episode run also made it so that each episode was important and meant something to the story. With many shows (looking at you Thai BLs), they have 10+ or 20+ episodes and it feels like you could skip half of them and not miss anything important (if you get one to two important moments per episode and want to skip the rest). This show made every moment count.

The actors did a FANTASTIC job, especially the actor of “Asume”. His emotions felt real and raw, and I so enjoyed watching him throughout the 5 episodes. The actors had great chemistry, and it really felt like a sweet, innocent first love.

The setting of the show is also gorgeous with the sea, and the music choices were also great.

My only negative for the show is that I would love to see them more as a couple, as they don’t actually get together until the end of the last episode! I’ve seen some reviews that were disappointed by the kiss at the end, but I think it was fitting for the “first love” theme.

Overall, genuinely enjoyed this series and I would watch again the next time I want to watch something super sweet :)

9.5/10

Read More

Criminal Investigation with bromance

yes, i said bromance. if you are looking for lovey dovey or atleast romance in this drama you will not find in this series.

The story is truly delightful because it is well-crafted and engaging. Despite not having much exposure to Japanese criminal drama, I found this particular story to be thoroughly enjoyable. The foundation of the plot is meaningful and well-executed, and the added element of mystery adds an exciting twist to the drama, keeping the audience intrigued and invested in the storyline.

As for the production, I appreciate the variety of setups and locations used to complement the story. However, I believe there is potential for further improvement to fully satisfy my perspective. This could involve enhancing the visual elements, refining the cinematography, or exploring additional creative techniques to elevate the overall production quality.

The cast is exceptional, with each member delivering an exquisite performance. When I say the cast is exceptional, I mean that each actor brings a high level of skill and talent to their performance. Their portrayal of the characters is not only convincing but also captivating, drawing the audience into the story. The word "exquisite" emphasizes the exceptional quality of their acting, suggesting that their performances are not just good, but truly outstanding and finely crafted. This demonstrates the depth of their abilities and their dedication to their roles, which ultimately enhances the overall quality of the production.

Read More

Came pretty close to being great.

I've needed a few months to think about this series before writing a review. I feel that, with some fixing of the script, this show deserves a shot at being re-done. It came so close to being great, but the script let down the cast. As in "It's Beautiful Now", the show tended to divide the fan base here along the lines of the 3 couples (disclaimer, I liked the Son and the older woman...I thought they were a great couple, but I like Bit Na anyways, so I'm biased).

The show started off "OK" and started to gather steam, but the lack of chemistry among the leads as a couple held the show back. Then odd things started to happen: The middle couple (younger daughter/older CEO) took off like crazy, with a weird chemistry between them that really worked, in spite of their differences. I think this spiraled out of control for the production team and things got away from them. Realizing that the second couple was waaay more popular than the leads, they directed the story towards them instead. KBS even ran a special episode dedicated to their romance! All this, without a single kiss between them!

In the mean time, the leads were sort of reduced to a husband/wife team of detectives, almost. And oddly enough....THAT worked for them. The 3rd couple, that I liked had their challenges as well and I looked forward to the friction between them. The second couple stole the show all the way to the KBS awards where they got Couple of the Year award. (If you get a chance to see their red-carpet talk after the awards, it's hilarious - I think it may still be on YouTube. Their difference in ages was a factor in real-life for them - especially him).

Unfortunately, there were a lot of stumbling blocks in the plot, which could have been addressed by the aforementioned re-write above: a useless amnesia arc (which essentially was used to hide the leads lackluster chemistry). The other problem was an endless loop of paternity tests that became laughable by the end of the series. The 'bones' of a great series are there - with a revised cast that DOES have the chemistry needed and cleaned-up script, this series, which actually is about how love progresses between age-gaped couples, could have lived up to its potential.

Read More

Tedious

Had I not watched the excellent CGI and special effects in 'Till The End of the Moon' I might have given this one a pass but knowing better has raised the stakes and so the first thing of note is the awful cinema. Things that are fake look fake and even those that are real have no sense of proportion (like Hong Yi's red/pink/white furry robes and outfits which were a tad too small around the shoulders). On another note, we also have a scriptwriter who didn't understand how normal conversations or interactions work. The plot, the set design, the atmosphere, the costumes, and the dialogue...all were in a constant state of disconnect; likewise we have characters who do nothing but fly around in the clouds being deliberately oblivious while the villains are left to plot unimpeded. Huh.

Xianxia is never about intelligence cos we all know the god's are 'good' while the 'devils' are bad but only cos the 'gods' wear white <------------ otherwise if we went by their actions we might have to invert that belief. The core of XX is being sold a belief system that allows the audience to empathize with the laborious gatekeeping of the Whites while reviling the monstrous deeds of the Blacks. But what if the audience is indifferent and not easily led by the nose mainly because your character-driven plot failed to give us anyone to root for?!!!
Sigh.

In addition, how is it that the goddess that is Zhao Lusi was cast with this Wang An Yu guy who, by the way, has done some sort of teeth capping which makes it difficult for him to close his lips and in turn is detracting from his main job. Then there's Lusi's reversion to pre-2020 talking voice. Like, this woman has given us so many iconic performances in the last three yrs that we have just barely healed from the assault that was the baby voice, and now they plopped us right back???? Can we say trauma??

Finally, and most importantly, THE PLOT HAS BEEN DONE A DOZEN TIMES AND IT OUGHT TO BE RETIRED. Please, we beg directors and screenwriters to stop giving us 'scattered souls that need to be collected' or 'chickens who turn out to be phoenixes' plotlines. It's been done and we're tired

Read More

Okay but lacks follow-through on some aftermaths.

Okay for 1 watch but lacks details in general and follow-through on some aftermaths. The idea of the story is better than it's written/directed execution. 6 episodes.

The two spoilers that I discuss below and the complete lack of follow-up on them REALLY sours my feelings about this series. The flow of the story and editing were consistently choppy, but it raises some good issues and the acting is good (Kiko especially was very natural).

I don’t know if I would recommend this. It's a more realistic, adult story, which I appreciate. However, while it raises some good issues to think/talk about, it also doesn't properly address some of the things it brings up. It just doesn't quite feel finished or complete.

Other reviewers list the positives of the series well, so I won't reiterate. Because the story sensitively handles some other complex issues, it is especially disappointing that the two assaults get swept under the rug.

Spoilers on Trigger Warnings below.

Ep 1 & 2 uncut makes a little difference because there's more of Kiko and Mark's initial interactions during massages that show their growing attraction to each other. But the uncut versions of Ep 4-6 don't add much, except for a few more lines about getting tested and more shots of the rape scene in Ep 6.

Some of Kiko's distress about it is shown when he has flashbacks in Ep 6 but the rape issue is never addressed beyond that. It's not talked about, the perpetrator has no reprocussions (apart from feeling guilty), and Mark never comforts him despite Kiko's line that 'what happened was nothing I wanted' (approximate line, I don't remember the exact wording).

Instead, Mark aggressively goes after Kiko with a hand on his throat in a jealous rage. His scary physical abuse is also not addressed beyond Mark saying sorry for that day in general.

That scene also played up the imbalance in their relationship in an unsettling way; Mark holds all the power in and outside of work and is physically much stronger. At that time, the surest way for Kiko to have a good job and better way of life is to forgive Mark, at least to the extent where Kiko can continue working for him. Even if Kiko wants to forgive because of love, the fact that he doesn't have many options really casts a shadow over that decision.

A decent low-budget production. Apart from the editing, the only technical thing that was distracting was the lighting/coloring. Sometimes one angle would have a blue hue while another angle looked orange (of the same scene). Or the tint/filter on a shot would flicker.

Spoiler On The Ending:

The ending is abrupt; right after a pivitol decision is made by a character, all of a sudden the story jumps years ahead. The characters are in a good place and happy, but it didn't really feel satisfying because it didn't quite feel earned, if that makes sense. It feels like a fairytale ending slapped onto what was a more realistically-approached story. Kiko deserves it certainly, it's just that we aren't shown any of the couple working together to get to that point.

Read More

A one hour plot stretched to a four hour snooze fest.

As Thai BL goes, the production values are good. And a nice set of attractive actors.

But the BL is only skin-deep.

It suffers from unimaginative writing with a minimum of plot. There is an hour's worth of plot stretched to four hours, hardly the first time this has happened in Thai BL, but still.... As usual, the first few episodes are somewhat engaging, and then they just keep stretching and stretching until you beg for it to PLEASE BE OVER.

Second, I had trouble figuring out who the target audience would be. The portrayal of human relationships seems really limited. Idealized grandmother-ness. Jealousy. Friends are forever. Even most tweens would want more than that.

Third, as the time is stretched, I found myself paying attention to extraneous details. As an example, anyone who has ever visited a bakery or coffee shop know that they are fairly busy places. But in this world, the kitchen has a few listless pretty boys on their smart phones while one takes forever to twiddle with one cake. And then they all meet up to take a chunk out of the ONE cake they've spent hours making for tasting purposes. I totally get the need to build a fantasy world, but when hardly anything happens the ancillary things start becoming more interesting than whatever counts for plot/character development and it becomes harder to suspend disbelief to live in the fantasy world.

Finally, they've managed to take a BL and remove any sense of LGBTQ, queerness, freedom or even gender. Many fans of BL / Yaoi come because this genre offers an escape from a reality in which everyone / everything is stuck in some cultural role / expectation. This offers none of it.

I'm definitely going to watch some Japanese, Korean or Taiwanese BL next. I need something with some life to it.

Read More

The worldbuilding is a mess. The action scenes are lame.

This drama is such a disappointment because the quality is below expectation. Usually, viewers are able to overlook imperfection regarding CGI, editing, dubbing, and other technical aspects if the story has quality. But, the story is this drama greatest weakness.

Setting/ Worldbuilding
Xianxia typically revolves the story around three realms: the Heaven of immortals and deities, the Earth of the mortals/ human-being, and the Underworld of the demons, spirits, and devils. Each realm has its own creatures, rules, limitations, and boundaries.

The immortals and deities can live for thousands years, They are born asexually from the ascension of lower beings as the results of their good deeds in previous life. They have superhuman ability and not usually died so easy (the only method is through the destruction of their primordial spirit so they cannot reincarnate). They live in the vast and unlimited heaven so usually, they are flying and teleporting. Immortals cannot intervene with lower realm affairs or use their ability in mortal realm. They can go to mortal world for tribulation or penance, and during this trip, they will forget their past.

Human being, animal, and plant are earthly creatures, have short life-span. They are relatively weaker, but can learn cultivation and martial arts. They live with family, in a sect, or a city. They have political entity to govern their affairs. They are crawling in the Earth on foot, horse, or carriage. Their culture and ways of living are richer. Their lives are bound to reincarnation circle. If they are good, they can ascend to godhood. If they are evil, they descend to be lower being.

Meanwhile, the demons, spirits, and devils are usually bad and on the lowest hierarchy of beings. After cultivating for years, they can have human form. They usually live as a nuisance to human, sometimes they eat human to get stronger. That is why they are hunted and killed. However, some of them are kind and not disturb human. They live in clan, so we have bird demon clan, fox spirit clan, etc. in the forest, river, lake, or sea.

Basic rules above are among common characteristics of xianxia worldbuilding. But, this drama breaks some important "rule". For example: Immortals are still immortals even when they go to mortal worlds (2 ML, 2 FL). They are very intervening, and without consequences. Human-being can have superhuman ability that makes them immune to injury and death even after severely wounded (ML). The spirit is not different to immortals as they can go anywhere i.e. the heaven without limitation (FL, the little flower spirit). What is more, the immortals act like human. They bleed when injured, they walk and run to reach certain place, and they are weak in fighting. They love and are jealous to each other. They are full of revenge and ill intention. Their living places are just like human palaces. Nothing wonderful and otherworldly. And, they can live, die, and revive as their wishes, not following the cycle of samsara/ reincarnation (just use a certain artifact to live again). Therefore, the time sequence of the story is messy. Everything seems happen in the present time. The past, present, and future are blurry. No good working timeframe.

I think, this mess is the risk for a too grand story (involving three realms), but no attention to details of each realm. This drama is weaker in the worldbuilding in comparison to xianxia like Love and Redemption (2020) which focus most of its story on the mortal realm. When they abuse the rules of the realms, the conflicts is resolved in lame manner. This drama uses deus ex machina, like when ML suddenly kills himself with unknown swords to stop himself going berserk, or when FL's heart weirdly has so much magical power, or when ML suddenly have magical pool to cure him, or when ML revives the Heavenly Emperor. There is not internal mechanism to solve their problems, like the use brain, analytical thinking, strategic talks, hard works, logical sacrifices, and risk taking for benefit. All depends on external power, weapon and artifact.

Story/ Plot
Immortal Samsara doesn't follow its premise. From the title, viewers may keep asking, what is samsara here? I don't know its meaning until the last episodes when ML confronts his father and learns about his parents story. His father is the demon king who loves and marries a goddess (his enemy), but ends up killing her in the end. So, he turns the time back from the beginning again for a different story and ending. Alas, the ending is repeatedly still the same, because his ambition never change and he never regret doing sins. It is the "immortal samsara". This is the more suitable back story (and the birth of an exquisite god as the result of their love), IMO, rather than the story of twin lotuses which has no significance for the realm, making this like the story of the prince and pauper. The story should use the ML's point of view.

Storywise, this drama lacks good story structuring. It can be more interesting and suspenseful, if the story progresses back and forth to reveal the mystery of the past and hidden identity of ML, and the reason behind why love is forbidden in Heavenly Realm sooner. Alas, this drama put too much emphasize on the ill fated relationship and the romance between ML and FL which is not important to the overall story and conflict. It will be a better story if in the end he becomes the Heavenly Emperor and takes the FL (a mere spirit) as his queen to reward her love, loyalty, and sacrifice, as the result of him learning about his parents, his identity, his enemy, the long conflict between immortals and demon, and the mistakes of the strict rule. This drama wastes an interesting plot where the enemy successfully kills the former Heavenly Emperor and impersonate him. It is never seen in previous xianxia. This drama could have interesting revenge and justice story rather than a mere romance and stupid double suicide in the end.

Characterization
Cheng Yi and Yang Zi are very good actor and actress. But, their potential are wasted because of the problematic story. ML and FL are very two dimensional. Their personalities are predictable, their behaviors are predictable. The writer should dig more on the psychology of a lowly ang young little fairy in the front of the greatest deity. They fall in love too easily, which is illogical considering their statuses. FL should be more selfish (think more about her self) because she is still too young, weak, and needs protection, and wishing for a future and pride. She shouldn't prefer death than life so easily and work harder to maintain her position in the heaven. But, they write her to be a lazy woman and have no aspiration better than a play writer. They can create her to be more interesting with describing what kind of story she would like to write and it will show us her life values, idealism, and personal difficulties as a person, and how it connects to the ML's aspirations and values. The way they introduce ML to FL is so not romantic (as a turtle flipper), downgrade him to a level of child, while he should maintain his dignity as a responsible and wise thousand years old deity. How could he fall in love so easily to a "baby"?

Other supporting characters are generally useless, like a decoration in the background when they are just standing and watching. Supporting deities do more talking than doing something to help, going here and there in a crowd, screaming, and being angry/ sad. They act like ministers in the mortal court rather than deity with specific duty and certain ability. They solve problem through debating, rather than doing something magical. The demons in the valley are also just cute, but useless. The heavenly soldiers are so small in number, like 20s. They should use CGI to multiply them and create a majestic war battalion with good fighting skills to counter demons.

Music
Nothing memorable. No banger. No heart punching beats. Too flat. Too cheesy.

I hope future xianxia learns something from this failure.

Read More

This is a nice miniseries to watch while waiting for a great one to come and there is another miniseries (Forever Love-2023) with almost the same plot that is absolutely great so, watch this one first and savor “Forever Love” next. The plot in this revenge drama can’t be taken seriously because the male antagonist (Ma Cheng Jun played by Denny Deng) was a guy with an evil buffoon aura that didn’t play well with the grand scheme. The leading couple was okay but the leading guy didn’t have enough instances to display his bodyguard fighting skills and the leading lady is not great at playing a woman in love. Still, the drama is watchable and entertaining.

Read More

Best drama for women, understanding couple, forgiving nature.

I am very pleased after watching this drama, It doesn't show emotion of 1 character. it tells collective stories of all the characters and in a very raw, unfiltered, and natural way.

I also doesn't show super powerful villain or hero but rather show how they use their brains and even lie and trick to win the battles. The plots were not like alien attacks or supernatural infact they were exactly what you would expect from a historical drama like war, politics, society, and all these small social issues.

My only thing that i wanted to see was the highschool reunion of drinking wine of jisung that they promised in early episodes. Every Time jisung visit his hometown i was expecting the reunion from his best buddy but it never happened i was expecting it at the last episode too. His friends sacrificed so much for him i really wanted them to see each other again sometime.

But it was so good it has sorrow but still understandable. i cried alot but also enjoyed every single episode. There wasn't a single episode i ever wanted to skip. Thank you to actors, producers and writers for bringing this to light.

No crazy or sad ending thank god. Jisung and ye acting was good according to roles. Yuru was also good.

Read More

another crack comedy in the Ossan's Love franchise

Overall: there is a lot of ridiculousness with the plot and characters but it's obviously intentional and I did laugh several times during the movie which is about 2 hours long (make sure to watch the very cute post credits scene at the end). Aired officially internationally on GagaOOLala in December 2023 when the platform picked up almost the entire Ossan's Love franchise https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/2118/ossans-love-the-movie Note: the movie should be watched directly after the 2018 series, the Love in the Sky takes place in an alternate universe/totally different plot and is not a continuation of the 2018 series

Content Warnings: past death, threatened violence, kidnapping/held against will

What I Liked
- how the movie started with that chase/action scene and then another action scene towards the end
- fun comedy moments
- the actors made me cry towards the end with talking about marriage equality, the challenge of having a family and their love for each other

Room For Improvement
- how Maki wouldn't let him explain
- could have used a few more sweet moments before the conflict started
- how a character asked a certain person for permission to marry before asking her

Read More

Never seen a show that made me cry so much

This show in one of the episode made me cry so much that it's unlike before. To add on this show when you watch it you can't stop watching; be ready to binge watch this over nights and days. In some of the episodes you might feel it's uninteresting but then it's what builds to the next part that would get you eeking like a screaming baby. Unlike most other historical dramas which i have seen this one contains wording which express what the characters extremely clear. Some people might not like this show cause of so many scenes that get you worked up over nothing but it's what makes the story have a spontaneous essence.

Read More

Cute filler show

Umm , this show is strange but in a unique way , it’s also cringe but it in a charming way . I really enjoyed dutifully putting it on everyday after a couple tasks . It’s a really cute filler series as well for when you need a nice fluffy inbetweener or a break from a heavy drama you may have on rotation . Or just a good ole binge . It won’t take long .

The leads have great chemistry and deliver cute performances that make you root for their characters' budding romance. Their on-screen dynamic is filled with charm, and their interactions are both funny and endearing.
This show doesn’t even make sense like how they fell in love sooo unrealistically quickly but I rolled with it unabashedly and SKINSHIP helped too. wink wink

Side bar : sometimes shows are good for the charisma even though they have zero plot and Shanai is such an example.

Read More