Reviews

NOT ENTIRELY DISAPPOINTING!

If you want to watch this series, please be prepare to be traumatised and your image of your favourite ship will be ruin. This series portrays real life situation in entertainment industry especially when the actors are in BL series that involves shipped couple. At first, I find it difficult to watch this series maybe because I have this mind set that all shipped couple is real but this series really shows me that the shipped couple is just doing fanservice and not real.

Overall, the first and second story is damn good and boy, what can I say about Billy Seng couple? They are DAMN GOOD. Boy, their acting skills definitely overpower the other couple. Sad that they broken up though. The 3rd story is the most BORING STORY EVER!!! Like… what the shit is this?

Fourth story is WAYYY TOO REALISTIC so I have already got the idea that this story happened in real life, real actor but I am not sure who. At the end, they did ask the audience a question; “Would you believe it if we say War Of Y series is based on real story?” And I immediately say YES. Because I can see it. CLEARLY. This series is an eye opener so if you are not ready to have a change of pov for your favourite shipped couple, please don’t watch it.


Sex scenes are damn mad broo ❤️❤️❤️❤️

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ah I cried at almost every ep

ah I cried at almost every ep (not cuz of sad things but cuz it was so relatable, it's a good kind of cry ) The amount of kindness was so touching. I grew so found of them. Also honestly who wouldn't fall for Ruji-kun he is diligent, kind and understandings. I loved both mains first cuz I could relate with Amane so much but also Ruji's kindness melted my heart. I got attached to them in just 5 Ep I honestly wish this was like 30ep long and that we could follow more along their journey.

The story is very well done, it's rlly refreshing and heartwarming I was rlly touched. They made the story so intresting without using any clichés or toxic shit. I liked how honest they were and that they communicated clearly. The scenery was beautiful. Def will rewatch this in the futire when I feel down or need some comfort.

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Not for everyone

I really wanted to like this, believe me. Five episodes in, heck, TEN episodes in, I was convinced this would be the next big cdrama that would be talked about for ages. It was still a 10/10 for me then. But now I've miraculously finished and I feel like an 8/10 is already quite generous.

The good things first.

> Acting was without question, probably the BEST thing this drama has to offer. Every actor gave it everything they got and what I couldn't understand from pure dialogue, I understood from their eyes, demeanors, and attitudes. I have to praise Hu Ge for his acting as Mr. Bao in particular, as well as Ma Yili as Ling Zi. I enjoyed their acting the most. Li Li was a frustrating one for me, but that's probably because Xin Zhilei was just doing her job! There are also many other side characters such as the waitresses from the restaurants on Huang He Road, the cigarette stand owner, Mr. Bao's friend group, etc, who are lovely to watch. Mr. Fan also gets a special shoutout for being so humorous! 10/10

> The music took me back to the bygone era of Chinese rock in the 80s. These were the songs my parents had listened to, and songs they played for me growing up. I've seen on the net that netizens felt like the music was also reminiscent of Hong Kong movies from the past and I fully agree with that. This really puts you in the right headspace of Shanghai during China's reform and opening up. But I have to admit that by the end of it, it felt like it was just the same three songs playing over and over again. I wish there was more variety. 9/10

> I wish that cinematography got its own category in the MDL ratings because this would also score highly. I'd give it a 10/10 if there weren't just a little too many scenes that were too dark. Otherwise, the saturation and COLOR bring a great nostalgic factor to this drama. It just feels like one looooong Wong Kar-wai film. 9/10

> Story: I really really really love that this drama gave the spotlight to such a unique time period of China's modern history. It's also a realistic telling of what ordinary Shanghainese were going through and what the place looked like during economic reform. I thought it was historical fiction at first (which I guess is still true). Most characters also had GREAT character development, like Mr. Fan and most of the women leads. I rooted for them the most. Shoutout to Mr. Bao's friend group - they were perfect for showing the Shanghai culture of banter and family. They carried the Shanghai social culture for this drama, 100%.

> Characters: I read in another review that they liked that these characters weren't one-dimensional. I have to agree on that point. These people were as realistic as it got. The good guys had dark sides and the bad guys had.. well, they weren't all bad. In fact I wouldn't even go as far to say that there were "good" or "bad" people. They were all just PEOPLE. Good or bad only comes from what's shown in the drama and what's relevant to the plot. Economic reform begs societal change and I loved to see these characters adapt to challenges, emotional or monetary or both. Again, I absolutely adored Ma Yili as Ling Zi. She is my spirit animal! The other female characters are all commendable as well. Character development did not escape minor characters either. I'm happy to see them struggle to find themselves in business and work for THEMSELVES. Female empowerment <3
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Now onto the reasons I say that this drama isn't for everyone...

> Romance: I feel like it's my responsibility to warn you that this drama will disappoint you in the romance department. Trust me. It's better you know this before going in because I made the same mistake. Wikipedia listed Romance and Period Drama as the genres and I got my hopes up. Don't be like me. Do not get your hopes up. You will appreciate knowing this "spoiler" before you get emotionally invested! They should not have marketed this as a romance either because now I have to dock more points. (Minor minor spoiler: Mr. Bao, literally out of NOWHERE, seems to have the most interest in X with no reason at all. Let me just say he has the worst taste in women, if we can even call it "taste"...) The little bits of romance that exists have no rhyme or reason in my opinion. Romance was done so badly.

> It is heavily business-related. In fact, it's 90% about business and Mr. Bao's clever plans to outwit his competitors. If that's your cup of tea, you'll love this. If it's not, and minimal business talk gets you woozy in other dramas, maybe don't tune into this one. While I like how clever he is, I appreciate wittiness more in the form of social consequences, like in The Story of Yanxi Palace. I don't really sympathize with the money folks - it just feels like legalized gambling to me. While there were some moments where I was on the edge of my seat, I definitely prefer romance to business.

> My bone to pick with this story nearly 100% has to do with Mr. Bao. And it's hard to find *any* bone to pick with this guy because he truly is the most righteous and "good" person in this drama. Unfortunately, as the male lead, he's also at the center of all the romance troubles and like I said, there is virtually no romance. You can see why I'm frustrated with him. Although he does right by all the women at his side, he cannot and does not satisfy them in the way they want him to, and as the audience, my heart breaks for them. You have been warned!

> PACING: Oh my lord, what the hell was this pacing. I haven't read the book and I really don't have the desire to either so I'm just at a loss at how they split the book up. What even was this ending? There was maybe a bit of a slow start but things started picking up by episode 10 and it was a pretty smooth ride to episode 20. Then it was just a SLOG with new characters and reappearances of some old ones and I just found myself losing interest. (Mostly because of the lack of romance.) One of the main characters even straight up disappeared for about five episodes! Like what is happening? I pushed myself episode by episode hoping for this person to come back (and they did, thank god) but by then, I had lost hope for them to have an ending that does them any justice because there were only a few episodes left. Then the last episode just crammed everything in, without even proper closure for my favorite character. Just a complete mess with the timing.

> Rewatch? Even if it came out again with English subs, I don't think I'd dedicate so much of my time to this again. Maybe just to fully understand the business dealings but certainly not for his relationships, or lack thereof.
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OVERALL

> Outside of my gripe with the complete mess they made with the romance, I appreciate the aesthetic quality of the drama and the story. The title makes a lot of sense by the time you finish the drama and I guess I can say it was bittersweet. This had so much more potential and because I haven't read the book, I don't know which is to blame.

> There really is much to like about this drama. The characters are interesting and multifaceted. The story is pretty strong. The aesthetics were fantastic.

> Rounded up, 8/10.

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A thoughtful and emotionally stirring meditation on what it means to love someone. This dug deep comparing and contrasting love as an uncontrollable feeling vs love as a series of deliberate choices and actions. The characters are all good people trying so hard to do the right thing, tying themselves into knots trying to honor their expectations of and obligations to each other in extremely trying circumstances. It really succeeded at making me feel for the characters and I longed for them to be able to come out of the other side of all the angst and pain with some measure of happiness or at least peace. The pacing is slow as molasses, I think it would have been better if we had seen more of the lead couple's courtship before the accident and resulting coma, but it was still a worthwhile watch for how well it wrestled with its central moral dilemma and for how strong Jung Ryeo Won and Kim So Yeon's performances were.

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What a great show. The high quality and brutal intensity of the action scenes, the production design, the colorful and compelling supporting characters and flashily demented villains were reminiscent of John Wick in the best way. They did a great job building tension and suspense in each episode, I was on the edge of my seat no matter what timeline I was in, equally captivated by the flashbacks and the present day scenes.

The centerpiece of the show, the devoted yet unconventional uncle/niece relationship, was beautifully done. In addition to all the high octane spectacle this show had a lot of emotional weight to it. I simp so hard for Lee Dong Wook his own mother would tell me to take it down a notch so I really enjoyed watching him play a character that was so simultaneously reserved yet charismatic and he did a great job being deadpan yet still expressive and dryly funny. The acting was excellent across the board.

I do wish the show had shown us what Uncle Jin Man was up to while Ji An was battling for her life. I can intuit how/why he faked his death and that he was fighting Bale (who was MIA from the protracted showdown at the house) but I would have actually liked to see some of it. Since it felt like they recycled some previously seen footage in episode 7 I think they could have used that time to wrap that subplot up more definitively.

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Disappointing, tries to do too much in too little time / do not convey a convincing BL story

This BL drama is centred around the encounter of Toki, delinquent highschooler and Sahara, his homeroom teacher for which he develops a one-sided love...The premise of the series was super interesting and there were quite a few good ideas in terms of characters background and even regarding a storyline for secondary characters that was super promising (another rather taboo romance that went regrettably nowwhere).

Unfortunately, the overall scenario is a deception at several levels. First, they really embraced a comedical tone for the first part of the drama instead of really deep-diving into the more taboo aspects of the various relationships...The writing and directing wanted to keep things light and relatively surface level which is clearly not the direction I wanted the show to take. Secondly, the series tried to do too much in too little time. We get a lot of background story on some side characters or on the past but in fact it is to the detriment of the build up of the relationship of the main couple.

I was utterly unconvinced by the relationship between both main male leads. They had no romantic chemistry. Separately they were a bit better (especially Hachimura Rintaro who managed to make his character rather endearing when he could have been very annoying) but sadly it was very difficult to feel engaged into their relationship...The others actors playing secondary roles were quite okay overall, nothing really remarkable but nothing bad neither.

The production value was rather poor, you can feel the limits in the budget with the repetition of the sets and decors, as well as the limits in the directing (fight scenes were just cringe). The music was forgettable but I enjoyed listening to the opening and ending generic.

I would not recommend this to people as there are better school BL out there. This series had some really nice tropes but completly failed to exploit them. I wish they would take the two same storylines (teacher/ student as well as the other side romance) and make it very gritty and dark...I wish they focus solely on those two relationships and give them enough room to develop and be believable. Anyway, too many wishes...It could have been really special but was rather plain instead.

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What an Irony: Someone Messes Up the Crime! [No Spoiler on Who Killed the Victim]

This is probably the one of best crime dramas I watched. It's only 8 episodes, with a good sub, so it's easy to binge. Not draggy, and the plot flows nicely with red herrings and a big twist at the end. Can't guess who killed the victim until the last episode. My review will not spoil you who killed the victim, but will only spoil you what happened to the one who messed up the crime: the Male Lead Chang Tse Tung.

STORY:

The story follows the antics of Tung, who had waited for a breakthrough in his acting career to land a main role. It happened that the day he made a stupid mistake, as mentioned in the synopsis, was also the day he got a call for an audition for a main role. I wrote his "antics" because, for the sake of his career, he did foolish things to cover the mistake. The drama wants to make us believe that Tung is not the killer, so the plot flows with him trying to find out who the real killer is. He investigated people and pieces of evidence by himself and didn't let anyone know, including the police and his longtime girlfriend Chiang Yi Lu. That made Tung land in murky situations, besides the murder, because he lied here and there.

The thing I really like about this drama is that it doesn't tell you who really killed Lin Meng, the victim, until the last episode. As usual crime drama, there are plenty of red herrings. Making us believe that someone kills the victim but turns out not. Even the ones cleared are still suspicious. Once I was even suspicious that the detective might be involved, because he was so casual about the homicide, brushed off his teammate's suspicions, and regarded the homicide as an incident, like a burglary gone wrong.

CHARACTER/ACTING:

The Male Lead Tung is a flawed character, an antihero. He is desperate, and borderline depressed, since for 10 years he has waited for a breakthrough in his acting career to land a main role. Actor Liu Guan Ting did a great job portraying this messed-up character. Even from Tung's look, he looks suspicious, lol.

The Female Lead Chiang Yi Lu (Gingle Wang), I thought at first she was like a supporting character. Yi Lu is supportive indeed, she always does something for her long-time boyfriend's sake. They live together in the apartment complex where the homicide happened. Of course, that makes Yi Lu also a suspect. In the beginning of the drama, we see their relationship is strained, not only because of the murder case, but also because of the poverty, despair, and unfulfilled dreams.

Although Tung and Yi Lu are an established couple, we barely see a romance. However, towards the end, when the couple breaks up we see how deep their relationship used to be. In the end, I actually teared up during their heart-to-heart conversations. Although their sweet moments as lovers are limited, great chemistry is shown between Liu Guan Ting and Gingle Wang.

The other Female Lead Lin Meng (Sonia Sui) is the victim. Since she's dead in Episode 1, we only see the flashbacks of her interactions with the apartment residents. This character is really interesting. Shown as a super attractive woman and flirty towards men (the apartment rumors said that she has affairs), Meng is not what she looks like outwardly. Meng also becomes either the angel or the devil's voice that provokes Tung.

Since this is a murder, we also have other supporting characters who become suspects, eyewitnesses, and detectives. Since this is only an 8-episode drama, although there is no in-depth character development on the supporting characters, each actor and actress did a great job portraying their respective roles.

VISUAL (CINEMATOGRAPHY, COSTUME, MAKEUP, SETTING):

Everything screams realism with artistry in the opening scene. We see the opening scene with an eerie instrumental song and a slide of portraits of each family who lives in the apartment complex, with happy faces that turn upset when the portrait glass cracks. It symbolizes that the family/characters are not what they look outwardly, smile happily for photo shoots, but cover their secrets when they're cracked.

Realism is in everything in the drama. The cinematography is dimmed and bleak because it's a crime drama. The costume is realistic. The makeup (especially on the dead and dying characters) is believable. The home setting is like what we see in real households, messy and doesn't appear staged. Since I watch dramas from different countries other than Taiwan, I know that visuals in Kdramas are usually fancy, Cdramas are squeaky clean, Jdramas are minimalistic, and Thai dramas are over-the-top. Only Taiwanese dramas (and probably HK dramas) stage their visuals as what appears in real life or the audiences.

ENDING (Scroll below, only to what happened to the main characters, no spoiler on who killed Lin Meng)



















Chang Tse Tung is in prison. Not for the crime, thus the title fits "Not a Murder Story" since he didn't kill Ling Meng, but for other offenses (aka stupid mistakes) he made.
Chiang Yi Lu soars high in her theatrical acting career. The last scene shows her international stage play with the leading role of Lady Macbeth, an irony that symbolizes her character.
Lin Meng, obviously she's dead.
Justice is done, the police arrested who killed her.

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this is garbage so stay away from this Crime turn love

Sheng Shi has been in love with Gu Lan Shan since high school, but Gu Lan Shan is in love with Han Cheng Chi. The proud Sheng Shi could not accept this and finds a way to turn Gu Lan Shan into his woman.

Gu Lan Shan feels that Sheng Shi has betrayed their friendship. On the day of the wedding, Gu Lan Shan tries to run through the help of her younger brother who unfortunately gets into an accident. Faced with high medical expenses, Gu Lan Shan turns to Sheng Shi for help, but he uses the situation as a bargaining chip to ask her to marry him. At that time, he believed that love was possession. Two people who don't know how to love enter into a marriage that is doomed from the start. One wants to get closer while the other wants to escape, always leaving the other scarred
in this drama ML is villain who try his ass of to force FL and her lover should never meet
and took advantage of her forcefully

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Dramatic, Gorey, Enthralling

From start to finish, the presentation and story-telling of the show were gripping and exciting! Both the leads - the uncle and the niece play a fantastic part in this entire series - both together and separately! It definitely makes it a MUST WATCH.

If you enjoy action, thrillers, suspense - this show has all of that. You might have to put up with a bit of gruesome gorey killing sprees along with it so "Listen Well" - watch at your own risk depending on what you are able to handle. It did get a bit much for me. Though they try to spare you a bit with the camera panning to the killer rather than the victim. The story is actually not very complicated which is a plus point. There is a bit of back and forth with episodes 5 and 6 giving important background information but never for a moment did this show lose it's pace or get boring so don't let that make you hesitant.

The show is unrealistically realistic. It doesn't make superheroes out of nobodies. People are what you expect them to be and rely on their wits and other skills. Of course there are still unrealistic aspects to the show but the series completely draws you into the world despite that.

Just FYI, the story isn't complete and although there is no confirmation as of now but there probably should be a season 2. That is the only thing I wish wasn't the case. I would have liked an extra 2 episodes and the series to be concluded. Not sure what new season 2 could hold as expectations will now be through the roof.

The OST fits the series perfectly. The actors did a good job and I'm especially happy that Lee Dong Wook took up this project. He's just the icing and cherry on top of the cake!

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Strong beginning that fizzled out along the way

The series started out interesting, if not very original, but then devolved into merely a love story featuring a wishy washy FL easily manipulated by the fate of her father's company. The ML honestly deserved better. And surprisingly my favourite character in the whole thing was the evil ex-fiance. He was really funny.

Given the short format of this drama, I'm surprised that it could've been even shorter. There must've been many episodes that were 25% dreamy recaps of the MCs' interactions with each other. I'm glad that this doesn't romanticize abuse or anything like that, but it all became one note after a while.

As for the music I enjoyed the English songs that served as the soundtrack. It was nice not having to read weird translations of Chinese songs since my Chinese isn't good enough when the tones disappear. LOL.

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So refreshing!! ?

first of all, i never felt so comfortable watching a k-drama. like, every episode that i watched i felt like I was having a popsicle on a refreshing, sunny day. the fun, chaotic, youthful energy made me feel good, made me want to be friends with the characters.

speaking of the main song, wow what a good song!! I've never heard an OST so enjoyable to listen to!

and of course, I can't forget sign language, it was a great plot! it was also cool to see some of the korean sign language.
I also can't deny that I was moved in many parts, not only in the sad ones but in the happy ones too!

The only criticisms I have are:

1° they could have shown how On Eun Yu's life turned out after their return to 2023. What happened? What has changed?

2° There could be a part where Ha Yi Chan asks Ha Eun Gyeol how he found the cassette tape of his old song.

3° They could show in detail how Yoon Cheong Ah and Ha Yi Chan's lives changed. We can see it, but not much.

ah, anyways, this k-drama will stay in my thoughts for a long time. I've never seen a drama like this! it was a refreshing experience ?

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beautiful, tough and historical

first of all even tho im not interested in history i was very invested in the plot. the historical part was quite important, but it didnt feel like a history class!!
secondly i love this 'creature' idea, its really fascinating to me how it will work on a little baby....
what's next, it might be my problem, but it was difficult for me to get attached to the characters, so i couldnt bring myself to cry. despite that i love the was main actors showed their emotions (seo joon and so hee are truly the best)
the acting was good but what was making this series hard to watch for me, is the fact that they were almost all the time at one place. but i got through this
and the ending!!! that was really something. didnt expect that the 'mother-creature' would pass its parasite(?) to chae ok....
after that ending i really cant wait for a next season ;)

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My first Chinese BL/bromance

At this point, I have seen a lot of thai and korean BLs but when clips from Stay with Me started coming onto my tiktok I knew I had to check it out. It was nice that this show had good length episodes and also a lot more episodes in a season than I'm used to! This was my first Chinese bl/bromance. I say "BL/Bromance" because I learned that there are much more strict regulations for chinese shows such as this one but even though it didnt have much physicality in the relationship, I didnt feel like it was lacking anything for the show. The chemistry between the main characters and their relationship was more than enough to keep me very interested. My only complaint is that I'm used to everything wrapping up within one season as a lot of these shows dont get second seasons.... So without saying much about the ending, I was not prepared for the show to leave us with that accident. But other than that, it was a really amazing show, the side characters and their new-found family themes were sooo well done by the acting, scripts, producing, just everything was so well done. Would definitely recommend this to my friends that dont watch BLs because its just a good show.

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