Reviews

Let me off this merry-go-round

I need to take a breather so I'm sloth quitting this drama. I don't hate this show, but there are aspects that are starting to grate and I can feel myself wilting. 😞

Confession time. I'm a low-key fan of our leads. They certainly kept me entertained in the early eps. Dilraba looks beautiful. As the sovereign of the spirit realm, her pose and demeanor are haunting. My only complaint is the amount of make-up can be excessive at times. Arthur Chen looks handsome as always and that mischievous grin . . oh la la! Their chemistry is what this house of cards is build upon.

I was fully engaged for the first 10 eps or so and then my eyes starts to glaze over. There are too many subplots, too many characters and too much CGI.

The world of Duan Xu is complicated enough. All the machinations and power plays in the mortal realm. His upbringing is hardly normal. He is a general as well as a trained assassin. Probably a scholar and a lover as well. Busy boy! 😅

His story would normally sustain a period idol drama. But wait, there’s more! The writer superimposed He Si Mu's story on top of his or is it the other way around? The chick is having philosophical discussions with the egg.

Si Mu's storyline is even more complicated. It is basically two lots of palace intrigues jammed into one. Whoever thinks that is a winning formula needs professional help!

To further cascade the complexity, the spirit realm is completely fictional. It has its own lore and internal logic. This type of world building needs time to bed down. It is just not the case here. They tried, but we are bombarded with facts and details constantly. Some aspects of the lore are particularly bothersome.

To wit, spirits come into existence when human has obsessions when they die. If they give up their obsession, they can be reborn. So answer me this, dear reader . . why can't the ML die and become a spirit and spend all eternity with the FL? He is totally obsessed with her. He went through “hell” just to be by her side. Did the lore just shoot itself in the metaphysical foot?

While my feeble mind is trying to take all this in, the production doubled down on the CGI. Green screen is like oxygen for any xianxia drama. The spirit realm gave the art director carte blanche. No more boring white heavenly glow. Huzzah!

To be fair, some of the settings do look striking. It certainly has an otherworldly look . . dare I say gamified? I just wish it is consistently good. There are times when I find it lacking. Quality vs quantity, hmm?

So after watching 22 eps, I need a break. When it is good, it is entertaining. There is just too much of everything now. I appreciate the writer flexing her creative muscles, but sometimes less is more. Just saying.

I'll definitely wait for it to finish airing and check the ending before making the final call. Peace.

P.S. Are we in the era of femme fatale girl boss? There was The Art of Sarah, then Siren's Kiss and now this series. That's quite a trifecta. BTW, I'm not including Pursuit of Jade as the FL is too well grounded and she doesn't want to be a girl boss anyway. ;)

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Incredible historical show

An absolutely fantastic show. One of the most historically faithful shows I've seen and it covers a fascinating point in Chinese history. While confusing at first, if you continue watching everything comes together nicely. Fantastic cast and great story. Practically no romance but many emotional scenes. The growth of certain characters and the bonds between them is incredible. Production wise the show is strong but don't expect much high quality action scenes. There are some elements of action but this show is overwhelmingly about the plot and characters.

Really can't recommend it enough. Stylistically it feels more western in terms of substance and style in that it is darker, grittier, and less romantic than the vast majority of Chinese shows. Highly recommend it if you're looking for something more akin to a traditional drama or historical piece in the western sense

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Pursuit of Jade Review I Didn’t Expect This Level of Obsession

Pursuit of Jade / POJ / Chasing Jade / Zhu Yu… where do I start?

As someone who dreads 40 episode Cdrama historicals, this is one that was easy to watch and exactly the kind of storytelling we needed…
Lets just start with how this drama hooks you within the first few minutes of Episode 1… Most dramas need 1 to 2 episodes before you really get into it, not this one. I was hooked from the get go. The anticipation, the suspense, the storytelling, it was just the right mix.
From Episode 1 to 40, the story progresses at a very organic pace. Each character’s presence pushes the story forward. It either moves you emotionally or brings laughter, but every character plays a significant role in establishing the journey ML and FL go through…

Character development
We all love a strong FL especially in a historical Chinese drama, but what I loved about this FL is that she stayed true to herself. She was a pig butcher and was never embarrassed or shy about her background.
I also love that she can handle herself, beating a bunch of guys with ease and rising to the rank of general purely on her own merit. She did such a good job that I completely forgot I had seen her in First Love. Kudos to her, her acting was so good that you forget who she is and only remember the character she is playing…

Now lets talk about our ML…
Where do I even begin? Obviously he has the looks for days, but his acting, expressing complex emotions, humor, action, was just next level.
I love that he doesn’t throw his rank around or act arrogant even when he is stuck in the village. And he always humors the FL when she says “I will butcher pigs for you”
Some folks are complaining that he is too pretty to be a foundational general, to them I say get a life. This aint a documentary, its a fantasy drama.

Also is it normal to continue dreaming about the Marquis everyday…?

Costumes / Production
The costumes and production reminded me of other historical dramas like Love Like the Galaxy. Every action scene was well crafted and it was honestly impressive to watch the BTS training of the ML and FL practicing their martial arts scenes.

Director Director Director…
I cannot believe this is the same director who worked on Provoke, a very cheesy short drama that we were all swooning over in 2023. Hats off to the director.
I just love how he brought the novel to life, building the right amount of chemistry and tension to leave a lasting impression. I am in love with what he did here and I will be watching over excitedly any future projects he has…

Wishing the cast of Pursuit of Jade all the glory, awards and continued success!

PS: I dont promote watching leaked episodes but thank you to whoever shared the bed crawling scene… the entire cdrama fandom loves you 😌

Note: This review is written by me, edited by AI for readability.

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Warm Moments with a High Possibility of a Bloodbath

Gentle viewers, heed my warning. There was blood—not the sanitized blood spitting of Chinese wuxias, but buckets of the stuff from every gaping wound imaginable. There was violence: horrific tortures and murders. The body count was high. I will admit I had to stop watching some brutal fight scenes, and I had to leave the series at times when my favorite characters were in peril or the situation was too intense. But, I was never bored. If you can stomach that, Moving has memorable characters, ride or die loyalty, and a compelling story.

The Good:
• The cast was stellar, the relationships were warm and wonderful, and I loved the heroes and despised the villains.
• The characters were fleshed out (except when their flesh was removed, yikes), their motives were clear, and the actors depicted them wonderfully. No one was cookie cutter, and the series did a competent job of explaining the past in flashbacks to establish the characters, then merging it with the present.
• The tropes were subverted enough that I was never quite sure how things would turn out.
• I treasured the underlying themes of familial love, acceptance of the different, forgiveness to the repentant, and loyalty beyond one's family.
• Unlike so many K-dramas that excuse, overlook, or forgive evil, this one suppled some catharsis to the viewer.
• I appreciated that the writer didn't dumb down his script. He left some things unexplained, and I fully expect to see those integrated into season 2.

The Bad:
• The violence was graphic, and the fight scenes were overly long for me. I understand a fight for survival won't abide by the Marquess of Queensberry rules, and I understand the drama requiring the violence. I'm simply uncomfortable with it.
• I adored Kim Bong Seok, the human equivalent of a Golden Labrador puppy. It's disappointing that the actor, Lee Jung Ha, is in the military and won't be able to continue the role. I will miss his sweet face, and I can't help but think the second season will feel his absence keenly. I suppose this bullet point item technically should be a part of The Good, but I'm so bummed he won't be in season 2. I'd love to see him as a more mature person. The actor gained 66 pounds (!) for the role, and it would be amazing to see him slimmed down and taking after his character's father.

I'm conflicted on the rating, but I have to add a half star for the actors' performances.

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Pursuit of the forever kind of love

This was so good, genuinely fantastic.

Tian Xiwei did so well in her role as Fan Changyu, bringing to life the character in all the best ways. Zhang Linghe was amazing as Marquis of Wu'an.

The writers did such a commendable job, a story so touching but not too heavy to digest, the directors filmed it so beautifully. The supporting cast were written well, directed well, and acted even better. The villains got their just end (one of them got off too easy honestly but I knew that would happen), the happy ending was so beautifully written and shown, in depth.

My only issue? Fan Changyu was a bit of a Mary Sue, her plot armor too thick. But who cares? I loved it, you will love it, we all will love it and more such perfect cdramas will be made <3

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This film was very obviously made with a shoestring budget. The most obvious is the audio quality. It seems they had issues with the original sound and had to dub most scenes later, and some of those dubs have a slight echo to them. Cuts between scenes are often hard and jarring, some supporting actors seem to have taken on the job just for the fun of it.

However, despite all of these technical issues, the film is worth a watch. Both main leads do a good job of portraying their characters -- I wish some of the newer BL productions had this high of acting quality -- and since this is a character driven story, that is the most important part for me.

Tum's story, who is the character we mostly follow in the beginning, is a classic coming-of-age story: He leaves the familiar shores of home and sets out into the wide world, where he meets people whose life is unusual for him, goes through rites of passage, falls in love, makes peace with his father, and finds what he wants in life.
Personally, I find Kim's story much more interesting -- he is a boy who is very lonely, who drifts over the island like a ghost. He is the one who embodies the feeling of "other" that makes us feel Not Seen. A supporting character puts it like this "มันคงจะดีนะ ถ้าใครสักคนเห็นเราอยู่ในสายตา" -- "It's probably good, right? When someone has us in their view." This desire to be seen, to be understood, is a very human trait, I think.

This could have been maybe made a little bit more obvious for the casual viewer; instead the writer tried to insert another metaphor into the story -- a metaphor which is related to wate: Pivotal scenes are often either in the rain or at the sea shore, and the girl who ties two storylines together is called น้ำ /náam/ "Water"), so I suppose this is intentional but I'm not sure what it means.
Together with the aspect that there were some scenes that didn't add much to the story, I think that the script could have been tightened slightly to make the theme clearer.

One last thing: The film is tagged with "BL", "gay", "young love" and "sexual awakening" on GagaOOLala, but it isn't, not really. In my view, it's less queer than "Confetti", and that one went over the head of many viewers, according to reactions on letterboxd. It's perfectly possible to view "Summer to Winter" as a film about a strong friendship between two young people.

As it is, it's a fine low-budget film, with some beautiful shots of Koh Tao, decent acting by the main leads, and a good, though not great, screenplay.


Was it good?
Overall, I think this was actually quite nice for an indie low-budget film.

Did I like it?
I would have liked it sightly better if the editing had been a bit gentler, but yes, I did.

Who would I recommend it to?
Not to people who only want to watch BLs. To those who love coming-of-age stories, and who like metaphors.

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was it worth it? yes

I wasn’t interested in this drama for a long time. the graphics of the cast for the title picture said to me ‘this one isn’t my cup of tea’. BUT one day Itaewon Class OST #6 came up on my Apple Music feed and I fell in love with that song. I don’t speak Korean but without knowing the words, that song grabbed me like few other songs have. I sensed it wasn’t love song but couldn’t find the words anywhere because I don’t know the actual song’s title. this is what made me watch it, to find out if it was a love song or not.
I liked the first 2 episodes but the vibe didn’t grab me - just as I had suspected. I stopped watching around episode 11. A couple months later I decided to finish it and am glad I did.
PSJ as PSY was great.
I know this sounds silly, but the ML and FL hairstyles were a turnoff for me. I was okay with PSJ’s hair cut as a youth and early years out of prison, but I think it would have been more realistic if his character’s aging arc to 2020 included a change of hair style. I’ll just leave it at that.
I was touched throughout the drama by PSY’s sensitive but determined spirit. the chemistry between PSY and JYS was realistic to their characters. PSY had zero romantic skills and PSJ played that well.
the music was excellent, especially #6 which I found out is entitled Someday Boy / with great lyrics - and no, it is not a love song. the ‘boy’ is yearning for something better for his life. it seems he is pleading for time and hope. Kim Feel sings this song so beautifully, he is one my favorite Korean singers.
I probably will watch select scenes again but not the entire drama again.

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misunderstandings and revenge

Overall, the drama was just… okay. The ML and FL are actually solid actors—you can tell they’ve got talent—but they were working with a weak script that didn’t do them any favors.

It started off strong and pulled you in, but by around episode 10, it began to drag. The story fell into a frustrating cycle: him treating her poorly, her quietly planning her escape, and neither of them actually communicating. The entire plot leans heavily on misunderstandings and revenge, and after a while, it feels more exhausting than engaging.

That said, I’ll give credit where it’s due—the last two episodes finally delivered. It’s rare to see a drama wrap things up in a way that feels somewhat complete, and those final moments gave the story the closure it had been missing all along.

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Short review

I love this season more than the previous one. It is more intense and has amazing boxing choreography. However, I do not like the dialogue. It feels awkward and overused, and some of the crying scenes feel unnecessary.

To be honest, I really do not like that they brought Kang In Beom back. I think it would have been better to introduce a new villain. Also, putting Lee Du Yeong’s character at the end felt kind of pointless. While the others use boxing, he uses weapons, which feels unnecessary and does not fit well.

I thought in the last episode Gun Woo’s friend or team would fight the villain team in a chaotic battle, but it ended up being just a fight in the ring between the four of them.

The post credit scene left me speechless. Oh my God. Hopefully, there will be a season 3.

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captivated by captivating the king

i am currently addicted to Korean Period Drama's, .... and Captivating the king...is fantastic..... i can not praise it enough, from the lavish costumes, sceanery, serttings .... and mostly the emotional roller coaster we travel as the story unfolds ... the leading roll , jo jung suk, who plays the king .... his portrayol of his emotions is just sublime.... i have watched it several times and never cease to be moved... i am hypnotised by his character, simply because you believe what he is going through.... all the actors are wonderful ... i can not believe that this has not been given the credit it was and is truly due.
i am from the UK, and these period dramas have enlightened me to Koreas history, and beauty. I wish i had been ... enlightened .... sooner... i will have to purchase the dvd, as i am sure it will nor stay on netflix forever,.
When i read negative comments, i get anoyed, as they are truely not reflective of the series at all.....
well done, superb directing, producing and delivery. i have never enjoyed something so much in a long time.
I am extremely greatful.

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A shamble of good and the not so good

The only reason to watch this is for the lore and light entertainment. The actors do a decent job and there are plenty of likeable characters but the plot is all over the place. The pacing is incredibly slow at times and I most sped through it all. The story itself is high-level interesting but has too many huge plot holes, unnecessary deaths, and love obsessions. It also has a tendency to build up a moment for that moment's sake and then it just dissipates with pretty much no impact to the overarching main story. Some of the actions scenes were pretty good but there's not much of it across a 40-episode series. The lore itself is pretty entertaining but they don't explain it much either other than to just indicate that its just part of the demon world. So with this, even the "rules" of the demon world contradicts with different events.

Nevertheless, it's a good time-consumer if you are in the mood for this type of setting. It's also one where you can walk away from the screen and do some chores while listening, and still get the gist of what's happening. And at least it does have its sweet moments and funny moments to make up for its many flaw.

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Misunderstanding

The Ultimate Vow, Unknown to You is one of those short Chinese dramas that pulls you in fast and doesn’t let go. With only short episodes, it wastes no time diving straight into heartbreak, revenge, and the kind of love that hurts before it heals.

What makes this drama stand out is the emotional push and pull between the leads. Their relationship is not soft or easy—it’s sharp, filled with suspicion, sacrifice, and unspoken truth. You can feel the tension in every scene, like a storm that refuses to break until the very end.

The pacing is quick, as expected from a short drama, but it still manages to deliver heavy emotional moments. Some scenes feel rushed, but the intensity makes up for it. The male lead carries that quiet, restrained pain, while the female lead brings a strong but wounded presence—together, they create a story that feels both tragic and beautiful.

If there’s one thing this drama does well, it’s showing how love can exist even in the middle of betrayal and misunderstanding. And when the truth finally comes out… it hits hard.

⭐ Final Thoughts:

This isn’t a light, sweet romance. It’s a story about love born from revenge, tested by sacrifice, and revealed too late. If you enjoy dramas where emotions run deep and the characters suffer before finding peace, this one is worth the watch.

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