Reviews

Read the novels, currently regretting that I did before watching the series.

I read both the novels and they might be my favourite Thai BL novels EVER.

Novel spoilers ahead————————————————-

It touches on SO many topics, like shipper culture, homophobia, the toxicity of the media, the loneliness of being a celebrity and there were conversations about being gay potentially ruining Fueang’s career, Krom being potentially pan etc etc.

I am not sure if all of the above topics will be mentioned, I’m not hopeful for very obvious reasons. But 2 episodes in, I am pretty sure I need to manage my expectations.

The acting is mid at best, they all seem like they are reciting lines. The comedic undertone and overusage of comedic sounds… The tropey accidental falls 😩

I am hoping that they get more comfortable with each other over time and that they are not going to stray TOO far away from the source.

I loved the novel, I highly recommend it to anyone who reads source material! It’s available on MEB.

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DON'T EVER MISS IT! RUSH AND WATCH

Hello, y'all.
A little confession to make ... I have seen over 3k kdramas, movies, shows, etc in addition to Cdramas, Jdramas, Tdramas and Thaidramas, and have read all kinds of novels (or should I call them webtoons?). Anyways, what am saying is that I am not a newbie to kdramas. God knows I have seen my fair share of them --- all genres.

HOWEVER, this is the first time I am moved to make a review about a drama! Listen y'all, this drama is 1 in a million drama so far released in 2024, (by jove, I have seen A LOT this year alone).

1. The STORY is unique in it's own ... though some may argue it resembles PMR (perfect marriage revenge), but to me that's rubbish. Apart from the revenge genre, it gat nothing to do with PMR.

2. The CAST are .... OMG ... What!? Their acting is top notch. Everybody interpreted their roles well.

3. The genres in the drama was well interpreted. Revenge was delivered HOT! Romance between ML and FL is out of this world. You could turn such romance to a prayer point of future marriage prospect. I mean who wouldn't want such an understanding man as a partner in real life? Jealousy/backbiting was well delivered. Narcissism and overindulgence was well delivered, etc

4. The cinematography was Ok, though not perfect, but is unique itself.

Over all folks, if you are yet to see this drama, please rush, download and watch. A lot of life lessons is thought here. Trust me, you don't want to miss it for any reason!!!

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A mixture of action, thriller, mystery, and investigation

In my opinion, this is, perhaps, the best wuxia drama throughout the world of c-drama. This is also the second Cheng Yi's project that I've ever watched after got hooked up by 'Love and Redemption'.

The plot is craved perfectly and executed well. There is no single filler in every scene. The actions are... WOW!!! If you tread the story carefully, you can see that every case intertwines with one another - from trivial small cases to important great cases. In the end of the show, there is a little twist and turn which will determine the ultimate villain and the main lead (Li Xiangyi) real identity. I'm impressed at how the main leads try to solve the cases even though each case is a bit illogical in modern times (maybe people at those times believe more in superstition). I even paused for a little while to figure out how to solve the cases, but ended up being puzzled. If you just want to enjoy the show, you can ignore those illogical stuffs and keep going on. Anyway, it won't deflect you from watching this masterpiece.

We have 3 main leads (Li Xiangyi aka Li Lianhua, Fang Duobing, and Di Feisheng) with different personalities and styles. So it's no wonder why they always bickering. Previously, Li Xiangyi was an arrogant and selfish boy with great martial arts skills, who only wanted to be the best in the martial arts world and never cared how other felt towards him which would lead his friends distrust him. However, he still had a good side of him which was being wise when making decisions. Now living in Li Lianhua's persona, he has turned into a sly old fox (as how Fang Duobing branded him) and become more deceitful. No matter how deceitful and sly he was, he just wanted to live a good life in his remainder days (this is the reason why he decided to leave the martial arts world for good). Cheng Yi once again showed off his cool acting skills and he really is a versatile one, showing ranges of emotions in every scene.

Fang Duobing was a young master of Tianji Manor. He was a typical spoiled little brat who recently ventured into the vast world. He trusted people too easily which got him into troubles many times. As the show progress, he started becoming mature and make a skillful detective in Baichuan Court. Joseph Zeng nailed his role quite well and his baby face fitted his character as well.

Di Feisheng is Li Xiangyi's arch nemesis. After Li Xiangyi's downfall, he began to investigate this case secretly and found out that Li Xiangyi was still alive. His purpose of living was to have another duel with him. Di Feisheng might not be your typical antagonist, although he was considered as the king of demon in Jinyuan Alliance, he still had a kind personality beneath. Xiao Shunyao did well in here and I'm impressed by his portrayal of Di Feisheng.

How about the rewatch value? Of course, it's going to be a high one. So far, I've rewatched 3 times and I still can't move on from this show. The ending is either a happy or a sad one - I don't want Li Lianhua to die just yet so let's just say he has now lived in a secluded life and is now enjoying his days (I feel sorry for his 2 friends, I wish they could be together and reunite once more).

Don't hesitate to watch this masterpiece. You won't regret your time. I guarantee you, soooner or later, you will be captivated by the engaging plot. Happy watching!!!!

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"falling in multiple disasters at one day" is what I derived from this trash script!!!

this should be rather called "my terrified end" so much dark and heavy plot, all the misfortunes irrationally falling over the head of the female lead at one time: being stalked, caught her husband cheating with her fake and abominable close friend, suspecting her step father for murdering her mother and doubting her subordinate being the one who attacked and thrown her in the river...

I was wondering before watching about a romance between the female lead and second male lead, but it is so normally to not have the slightest here as she is experiencing a storm of disasters in her life, female lead is feeling so queasy from her cheating husband who is acting so coldly and calling her "yobo/honey"so brazenly!!!! he should be a little smarter to make his cheating successful and not being caught so soon!!!! even he wants their daughter to be used to his lover while the female lead is busy all the days at work, but really the female lead doesn't deserving all this torture in her life, what the scriptwriter is feeling in his life with this complicated and repulsive script?!!?!!

I could barely continue the first 2 episodes, this is a total failure in the history of korean dramas!!!! I don't recommend it at all for anybody and I will even consider that I didn't watch cause it is hard to reach the half of it already

8 is an over rating for such a trash husband and hypocritical friend of the female lead, I wish her husband and friend end up in hell for this daring and gross impudence, if it was a thailand version they should add like popular lakorns rape/slap and kiss in the same day she is facing all these calamities, it is not like a korean style drama watched before like they are taking something from old lakorns

if they gave some space for an impossible romance between female lead and second male lead I could thinking about giving a try to continue otherwise this is A BIG NO!!!! so depressive and I feel so disgusting from such a liar husband and friend pretending to care about the female lead...

the ost is the only thing acceptable but wish if a romance blossomed between female lead and second male lead then the story will take another turn to be barely accepted regarding this waste of script!!!

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"Let's be afraid together"

A single event brings four strangers into each other's lives. They're all very different and struggling with their own concerns, which leads to friction as well as understanding.

This gentle lakorn takes on serious, heavy issues and wraps them in warmth and kindness. It's about friendship, acceptance and helping each other. It is beautifully done, from the gentle acoustic closing song to the quirky coffee shop with Mackintosh metalwork to the care that's taken with the progression of the characters' growth individually and in their friendships.

The characters feel real and believable, especially the four central ones, along with the issues they face and the changes they make in their lives. All in all, this is one of the most emotionally satisfying series I've seen.

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i like all flawed sister and other character this drama showcases

All three sister are very different from each other which doesn't mean one is right or other is wrong
all have there pro and cons

Gong Min Jung role was what impressed me the most....
Jang Ma Ri
A shameless corrupt reporter which you can't prove corrupt because she believes in her own lies very honestly.
That story was my version of the truth, you have your own version of the truth and I have my Own,
Your truth was pitted again mine, and mine ended up winning today, I love that scene ( ep 11) when our Lead protagonist left speechless by a side character because, not always you win everywhere, some people will out match you, no matter what

Oh In Joo( Kim Go Eun )
she shows hidden desires of every Average working person, they all want to become rich and live a comfortable life but are not able to, when get opportunity most of them will act just like Oh In Joo did. but viewer wanted to call her greedy, are you one who will give up 2Million USD when you found it, NO if you say yes, your Lier.

Oh In Kyung ( Nam Ji Hyun )
she has her own principle and think they are above other but she is no better then anyone else when it come to her own family her younger sister she will abandoned her own principle and will do anything to protect what she love most just like all others, but she like to blame others for there selfishness while she give her self a privilege
she believe herself of something that is one and only pure journalist but she isn't , she is same as all others.

Oh In Hye
Most of people disliked her but i don't dislike her neither i like her fondly, she is there to make people see that not all rich are bad and all poor are victim which she said
that is just poor mentality to blame rich people for all there problems,
she was not great as sister, she doesn't care about those sister who she never choose, but she was loyal to her only friend she choose herself, she was rude to her sister but there was love even in her, which she was not able to show toward her sisters but was able to love her only friend,

i hated Oh In Kyung and Ha Jong Ho couple it was really wrong of them to make those two ending up together and leave
Oh In joo and choi do Il just at flirting, at least a kiss to conform there feelings toward each other

Choi Do Il ( Wi Ha Joon )
Good this man was so nice here and the unspoken chemistry between him and In Jo was amazing to watch
sub-- flirting between those two between that tens situation was a reliving wind
at airport i was waiting for them to KISS but no director did not have budget to include kissing scene.......

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Fast forward ⏩

At first, the story was fine and funny as I got to know the cast. However, around episode 18, it became harder for me to continue, so I put it on hold for a month😬

I decided to pick it up again because I found out Leon Lai was in 'The King’s Avatar,' and I didn't want to see him in both dramas. I ended up fast-forwarding through the remaining episodes🤭

One thing that saddened me was Alen Fang’s death; in my mind, there was no happy ending for him.
(The fact that I watched two of his dramas, and he died in both of them)

The ending was good, with the characters living their happy afterlife, accompanied by Zi Lu and Pei Shan.
Oh and I loved one OST as usual😆

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My thoughts on the show

I think the show started off well with a lot of promise at the beginning, but sadly, it lost its steam somewhere in the middle for me when they dragged out the 'revenge' plot for as long as they could, and it probably got even worse towards the end when they unnecessarily introduced a last-minute villain in the form of Yura. The acting was great, though, especially the main antagonists, Park Minhwan and Jung Soomin. To be honest, in some ways, I felt like I continued watching just for them. The romance was so-so. It's a situation where, on paper, it would've been cute, but watching it, it just felt bland. It's the type of romance where I wouldn't care if they get together or not. But it could just be due to poor execution. They do have some chemistry, but I find Jihyuk (the male lead) to be a pretty bland character overall. But at least it has a satisfactory ending, with all ends tied up nicely for the main leads.

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29 episodes of a dream

*Spoiler alert*

Loved Zhou ye from back from the brink and scent of time didn’t disappoint. While the whole story of it being a dream was interestingly written, I found the ending less than satisfying though.

Summary:
FL (Hua Qian) was misguided while growing up and slowly became somebody that was hateful and would do anything to achieve her objectives. This has led her to all her wrongdoings which eventually led to the downfall of her entire family, including herself. She lost what she had while trying to pursue what she wasn’t meant to have. While growing up, she has always loved ML (Zhong Ye Lan) who didn’t love her back. It was instead the second ML (Zhong Xing Wu) who has loved her since young and has been there silently protecting her. Despite all her misdeeds, he wanted to be with her. She fell into a coma while being pursued by the authorities and in her 26 months of coma, she was having a long dream which is what the 29 episodes are about. The dream shows what she would have done differently if given a second chance as she realises how wrong she has been and regrets all that she has done.

My thoughts:
This drama truly resonates with most as it tells you exactly what life is - that you cannot turn back time to undo what has been done but you can however, keep going forward and change for the better. The drama is more of a growth process for the FL, less of the romance. In fact, I wouldn’t say there’s much romance in it. Just some scenes that imply that and shows the silent love/protection from ZXW. Perhaps, the FL has always knew that ZXW has feelings for her but was clouded by the unrequited love towards ZYL to not “see” it but she must have felt it as seen in her long dream. Through the episodes you can always hear the FL talking about a weird scent which were hints that she did not travel back in time to re-live her life but was in a coma instead. The scent were from a concoction ZXW made to help her wake up. This was interesting and kept me going to want to find out what’s up with this. In all, this drama is worth a watch if you’re not looking for intense swoon worthy romance but more of well paced drama on personal growth and realisation.

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full of humanity in all it's forms

some films that give a gloss over feelings, but White Night brings you along into a whirlwind of chaos revolving one person's struggles, humanity, and an internal battles. it's the good with a lot of the bad, and the feeling of watching self-destruction take the wheel.

the story focuses on one person, wongyu, his pain and journey through processing the trauma he has gone through. though there is no sugarcoating to any of this, his one night stand brings him the grace he had not been given by anyone else. you can see the recognition of kindness, how it's foreign to him after going completely numb to the world, and how he holds back from any kind of expectations. yet, this person, a virtual stranger, keeps coming back to him and keeps being the one to support him in exacting some pain onto the people that have destroyed a part of him that he won't ever get back.

he had hoped things would be the same, at least that is my guess, so when he returns and taejoon has moved on, wongyu's tears are what i interpret as regret. regret that he didn't call taejoon when he left or afterwards as years went by. even as he's grown, the trauma and pain still haunts wongyu and i think that also reflects the untold and unacknowledged discrimination and hate that the lgbtq+ community in south korea goes through even up to this day as not much has changed to help protect victims of discrimination, attacks, and homophobia. (and yes, this continues to be a worlwide issue)

this film is a journey from beginning to end. we get the fear, pain, and helplessness from wongyu but we also get the desperation from taejoon and his anger as well. anger at the world for it's cruelness, frustration with himself for not being able to just walk away, that he is not what the other needs and he's already too emotionally invested, and the feeling helplessness while watching someone struggle to open up again once he learns what wongyu is really doing with the constant back and forth they have going on that night.

the cast is phenomenal and truly gave life to the feelings of these characters to a degree that it makes you go through the rawness of their struggles just within that single night.

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read the novel!

highly recommend reading the novel after watching this drama. it contains extra insight on xiexiang’s thoughts and feelings, especially how she develops feelings towards guyanzhen. here is where all the tenderness and happy feelings are.

I feel that this is lacking in the drama, where I couldn’t grasp whether she actually liked guyanzhen or why she was always annoyed / refusing to accept him.

fortunately the novel answers all these questions and more! \o/ if you can’t read Chinese, the machine translated English version isn’t too bad, still quite understandable.

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It's a waste of time!

I started watching this drama because I liked the FL in 'provoke' drama, but this felt like a downgrade! could be this one was filmed earlier but aired later? idk..

The cast were okay. the leads were good looking, and I think they did their best with what they were given to work with.
The chemistry was lacking. The romance faded away in the background while they tried focusing on FL's friendship, her mom and workplace!

The comedy in the first few episodes was so on point and it was funny, but then after few episodes, the comedy was gone.
I felt like they didn't know what they were gonna be! romantic comedy? just romance? slice of life? workplace drama?
the problem was that everything felt so disjoint!
I think they tried to do too much with the time they had and in the end all aspects of it were lacking...

The dubbing is horrendous in this drama but I think it suffered mostly from the editing! it was way too sloppy!

I only finished it because of short duration and handsome leads..
if you are here for either of the leads go ahead and watch it otherwise it's not worth the time.

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When you mix an illogical story and a cliffhanger into one mess

Okay, I have to admit that I stumbled upon this show weeks ago just to kill time while waiting for Amidst A Snowstorm of Love's new episode.

The plot is nothing new for a xianxia drama and some scenes are rushed pretty quickly. I used fast forward and finished watching it under 2 hours.

The story focuses more on the FL and I feel that the ML got minimum screentime. There's no logic in the story and it follows typical xianxia tropes such as reincarnation, battle between immortals VS demons, and etc. The ending is a bit of cliffhanger and I wonder when will they start the second season.

The sets look quite nice plus the costumes and the headgears can be considered as decent (love the ML's hairstyle. It fits him so well). It's obviously a low-budget mini series, so don't expect too much of it.

It is an one-time watch so I don't think I will rewatch again soon.

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Successful series

Only Friends the series is a completely different kind of bl series. This series is wild, spicy, interesting, but towards the end it is also a bit romantic and cute. The series starts very wild and exciting right at the beginning and I think that is why the series has aroused the interest of the viewers. The series itself is perfect, but I would have liked to see a different ending, for example that Boston and Mew are friends again or that Boston and Nick get together. I would have hoped and wished that the ending would have been different, but that's just the way it is. I would still give this series a 10/10 because it is still a successful series and I think the story is perfect. The series has also one of the best OST. theme songs.

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