Reviews

1st watched in 2019 (8*) rewatched in 2026 (7*)

Pieces of this are great, but as a whole, it's too frustratingly flawed to be satisfying.
I was surprised that I disliked this alot less when I rewatched it. The parts I disliked made me want to give it less than 7*
There's ALOT to like about this drama . How you feel at the end of a drama really can overshadow & make you forget the parts that you didn't like so much. That's how this drama was for me as it sandwiches the dislikeable parts in between the first half-(which has a good bit of silly comedy) and the last half (which has a good bit of warm fuzzies leading to happy endings for the 4 main characters.)
There are honestly some very lovely moments where the leads have sweet interactions. The male lead's character brings the heart fluttering moments & the drama ends happily making it difficult to remember how much I hated the middle part of the drama .
1) The drama pretty much centers around the female lead who is sort of a surrogate mother to her boss, which makes for an odd romance. The bulk of the drama is about her taking advantage of her boss in a way that only takes a second to become completely humorless. By Episode 11 the lie has gotten old & now it feels as the female lead is using the boss. You can't "sugar coat" it- it's a lie, it's deception and it is mean. The fact that it continues almost to the end of the drama was too much.
++++That's what disappointed me & kept me from loving the drama.
Female lead also goes on to break his heart twice, but not to worry because

2) Male lead's character is an (annoyingly) endearing golden retriever puppy type ( with abandonment issues) whose up bringing does not match up with his willingness to forgive.

3) There are some very good kisses in this drama (again, the male lead shines)

5) The inconsistencies of :
the 2nd male lead knowing then somehow not knowing about what's going on with his best friend the male lead.
the male lead saying that his secretary is the only face he can see & then later he isn't able to even when she's wearing the same clothes ...it doesn't make sense

4) They present the office workers stealing from the company & thier bosses as justified & righteous when they actually made things worse for themselves by stealing. How are they not just as bad as the people they are stealing from ?

5) The female lead isn't honest which puts the male lead through alot of misery.

6) The female lead thinks that it's better to break someone's heart than let that person lose thier position at work. This noble sacrifice trope is anything but noble and is more selfish than sacrificing a she's supposed to know her boss better than anyone, so she should know what is most important to him, but she totally disregards his words & intent & unilaterally makes a life altering decision for him.

7) The male lead is confused as soon as he gets what he wants- showing just how much the female lead messed up his head! (this is-yet again, not a point in favor of the female lead).

8) Male lead's best friend is given all the clues & even explanations how does he not know about the male lead's "handicap" !? And then the female lead tells him, yet he totally seems clueless afterwards !

Quite a few :innuendo moments.

Interesting drama quote :
"Stop thinking about where your love is headed & think about where you feelings originated

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**********Spoilers***********

Specific instances in the drama that chipped away at me:

Cleaning woman goes into men's room knowing a man is in there & calls HIM a pervert (plus he is a CEO which she would recognize him as such)

Veronica Park in the bathroom stall while handcuffed-was disgusting-not comedy in my culture.

Why doesn't almost getting hit by a car raise the male lead's blood pressure ?

Female lead leaves the male lead ALONE at a funeral full of people that he is unable to tell them apart ! they've written her character So badly, as it is 3/4 of the way through the drama so how can she do that ?

the attacker caught in the office-throwing things at male lead, uses a box cutter on him & THEN the female lead defends the attacker (he's wearing a cap & mask just like he did in the previous attack PLUS he's got a box cutter!) it's just stupid that she doesn't connect the attacker to the previous attack plus she defends the attacker.AND no one mentions that the flash drive is gone from the desk drawer (eye roll!) (& we are to forget the she saw the attackers face in the first attack !)

The attacker: His motive is ????? he's willing to harm any person who would interfere with his the group that steals to support the office workers.... so he will harm even co workers (the very people his group say they support!?) and then he attempts to stab an innocent blind man who doesn't want him to steal a laptop from the blind guy's house. I'm not seeing any Righteous agenda here.

Attacker breaks into same drawer & steals flash drive twice & no one notices ?
the lap top is stolen twice !!

The male lead goes through alot for the female lead and she can't just give him a straight answer to his proposal!?


when will men in dramas learn that giving a woman everything that they think that she thinks she wants will always lead to her being spoiled instead of satisfied

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Story that should've stayed simple

This had kinda lot of issue in my opinion and not that many good aspects. The premise was okayish, bit fantastical but that's would've been okay if execute correctly, which i think this didn't do.

I don't know where it went wrong with the leads but both suffer greatly from different things. FL overacts like crazy the whole drama, i don't know if that directing issue or what, i've seen her do better but this just ain't it. At times it's jarring to see.

ML is either miscasted or directing and costuming just don't know what makes believable gangster. ML didn't at any point seem like anything close to resembling one and it's really breaks my immersion. He is also good actor by all accounts so it just disappointing to see.

Rom-coms usually make or break with the leads and their performance and this just breaks totally.

Side characters are way better and in general enjoyable if not little bit silly side. They helped a lot in making this better than it otherwise would've been. I enjoyed FLs friend that little time she had, maybe she should've had more screentime instead of 2ML and 2FL, i really don't know what was up with those two character and neither did writers cause they basically forgot them in the second half.

Story had interesting premise with potential but it kinda fell flat for me. I enjoyed the start, decent rom-com action it had going on and maybe i would've enjoyed this more without the villain angle fully. The tonal whiplash the drama at had the 8 was too big and out of left field it didn't really work for me either. After that it didn't really hook me in anymore same as it did at the start. The past connection with almost every character to some other character was bit jarring too. Also what's the point even showing hospital scenes if you're going the have the characters be fine after 1 scene, like cmon. I think ending it at 10 episodes would've been good choice, the 2 extra episodes were kinda pointless imo.

Villain character was okay but i don't think he ever got to the potential he could've had. Good actor, limited writing.

Conclusion
It tried somewhat too much and didn't really nail anything that well. The start was good, but at the end it was kinda meh. Both leads failed majorly and didn't really work. Side characters and villain were the better part of this. For the good start carrying this, i'll give it 7/10, i would recommend it for cute rom-com start but anything other than that i couldn't really recommend.

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A Journey I Was Invested in From Start to Finish

Honestly, I really enjoyed this drama. Not a single episode felt boring to me. I was invested from the beginning all the way to the ending, and I always wanted to know what was going to happen next. It’s been a while since I watched a drama where I didn't feel like skipping through certain parts.

What I loved the most was the rags-to-riches storyline. Watching Zhao Ling slowly build his way up from nothing was so satisfying. I really liked seeing his journey, especially because it didn't feel like he suddenly became successful overnight. You actually get to see him struggle, make choices, and slowly get to where he wants to be.

And I have to talk about the leads. I've already watched some of the Ding Yu Xi's previous works, so I already knew he was good, but I really enjoyed him in this one too. Zhao Ling was such an interesting character to watch, and I loved seeing his growth throughout the story.

Also, Ancy Deng was such a pleasant surprise for me. I've never watched any of her dramas before, so this was my first one, and I genuinely think she's really good. I loved watching her character grow throughout the story, and she made the emotional scenes feel very natural.

Obviously, Zhao Ling and Xie Tingyun are some of my favorites. I really liked their relationship and the way they supported each other. Their chemistry worked for me, and I enjoyed watching them become closer while dealing with everything happening around them.

And I have to mention the Emperor because honestly, I really liked him. It's actually rare for me to like an emperor character this much. Usually they're either frustrating, completely unreasonable, or just there to create problems, but I genuinely enjoyed his character here.

There are also quite a few supporting characters I ended up loving. Fan Yake is probably the funniest one for me because I really disliked her at first. I was fully prepared to hate her, but by the end I didn't actually hate her that much. Her character grew on me more than I expected.

I also really liked the different relationships between the characters. It wasn't only about the main couple, and that made the whole story more enjoyable for me.

Overall, I genuinely had a great time watching this. The story kept me interested, the characters grew on me, and I really loved the whole journey from nothing to something. And after watching Ancy Deng for the first time here, I definitely want to check out more of her dramas.
And honestly, I wasn't ready to say goodbye to this drama when it ended. I genuinely wanted a few more episodes. I was having such a good time with these characters and their story that the ending came way too quickly for me. I would've happily watched a few more episodes just to spend more time with everyone.

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Soul Mate isn't a typical BL story where everything eventually works out and the characters simply live happily ever after. What makes it stand out to me is how real and close to home it feels. It explores how difficult it can be for one person to come to terms with another person's feelings, especially when those feelings don't fit the kind of love they're used to understanding (female to male relationship, to male to male relationship). It shows how a friendship can slowly fall apart because of love, and how that love can become painfully one-sided.

I really liked Ryu's cowardice and his decision to run away to Japan because, honestly, that's something people actually do in real life. Sometimes, when we don't know how to face something, we run away from it. I also loved the scene where Ryu and Johan meet at the church. It felt incredibly symbolic to me. At that point, I think Johan already knew and accepted what he was (him being gay/bi, or accepting his torn apart life), while Ryu was still struggling to understand himself, or perhaps he was still somewhere between attraction and denial.

Yet somehow, both of them seemed to be carrying the same thought: "I did something wrong, and I need salvation." Ryu felt guilty for not being able to accept Arata's love, while Johan had practically sold his soul to the devil. And then, of all places, they meet inside a church.

I loved Johan's eventual acceptance and the way he began breaking free from the chains that had been holding him back when he saw Ryu again. It felt like he was thinking, "I need to change after being saved by this person." There's something beautiful about the idea that someone who once thought he was beyond saving could still find a reason to change because of that one specific person.

Ryu's journey also felt like a domino effect. After spending so long mourning and being trapped in the aftermath of Arata's suicide attempt, he eventually realizes that it was only his world that had stopped. Life around him had continued moving forward. While he was running away from everything, nothing in his own life was actually changing.

Then came the surprise visit, which felt like the beginning of their own little world. It was such an important turning point in their relationship. I especially loved the scene where Johan draws Ryu and Ryu keeps the drawing in his room. It's such a small thing, but it says so much about how important Johan had become to him.

And then there's the scene where Johan calls Ryu while he's in the military. That scene felt strangely comforting to me. From what I understand, military service in Korea can be extremely strict, and opportunities to make personal calls aren't exactly something you can take for granted. So, seeing Johan make that call to Ryu felt like there was something deeper behind it. I don't know how to explain it, but I definitely felt something there, and I got butterflies while watching that scene.

One of the things I loved most was Ryu eventually searching for Johan, despite knowing everything that had happened and seeing all the news. And when Ryu asks Johan to live with him in Japan, it felt like Ryu was finally opening up his most vulnerable self to him. He was allowing Johan into his personal space, into his life, in a way he had never really done before.

There was also that scene where Ryu was eating while Johan sat at the table, quietly watching him. Before the ending even revealed it, I already had a feeling that Ryu was the person Johan was drawing. It felt so intimate without either of them having to say anything.

Although, I have to admit, I wasn't a huge fan of the part where Sumiko started living with them. It felt like their lives suddenly began revolving around her. At the same time, though, I can't say I was completely surprised, considering Ryu's personality and his connection with his childhood friend.

Then we get to the final stretch of their relationship. The part where everything finally starts falling apart.

Johan accepting the job at the bar and then sleeping somewhere else felt like it carried an undercurrent of jealousy and resentment. Especially when Ryu calls and someone else answers. That small moment becomes the catalyst for everything that follows. When Johan says, "I'm sorry," and Ryu answers, "Sorry isn't what I'm asking for," it felt like they were both just waiting for the other person to say, "Come here. Sit down. Let's talk." They were both waiting, but neither of them knew how to take that first step.

And when they finally fight and Johan asks Ryu why he brought him to Japan in the first place, I felt like Johan was waiting for Ryu to finally say something, anything along the lines of "I want you here," or "I want to be with you," or maybe even just "I like/love you." But when Ryu couldn't give him that answer, it felt like Johan finally realized that maybe this was all he was ever going to be in Ryu's life. Just a friend.

And then we get to the hospital scene. Damn. That scene felt like a love letter.

There are a few lines that have been tugging at my heart ever since.

"He was trying to come to terms with something, something I could never come to terms with."
Johan was a skilled boxer, yet he willingly to threw away his dignity as a professional by taking money to lose. And despite not fully understanding what Ryu was going through, he could see Ryu slowly coming to terms with things and preparing himself for whatever was going to happen.

Then there's:
"When I heard that voice in the ring... in all seriousness, it sounded like salvation. To me, that voice was a place of refuge."

Johan had already made a contract with the devil. He had practically danced with Satan himself. He believed he was beyond saving. But Ryu kept reaching for him. It was almost as if Ryu was saying, "You can still get out of there. You need to get out of there. Let’s get out of here."

“He thinks of himself as a weak person”.

But from Johan's perspective, Ryu is the strongest person he knows. Ryu was the person who repeatedly helped him get back on his feet. The person who gave him something to hold onto.
A salvation.
A refuge.
A haven.

And then Johan finally says:

"I wanted you to be... the last thing I saw. I wanted you to be here."

That broke me.

After spending so much of the story believing that their relationship could only ever be friendship, Johan finally lays his heart completely bare. This is his final hope. After everything he's lost, the one thing he wants is for Ryu to be there with him.

And then:

"If you really are here right now... I think I wanna live a bit longer."

This line made me realize why the title is Soul Mate. It feels like a combination of suddenly being hit with the harshness of life, a friendship that became the source of both love and pain, the loss of a career, guilt, regret, and the endless longing for someone who has always been by your side, hoping that someday, somewhere out there, they will finally look back and see you too.

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Entertaining at First but It Lost Its Spooky Spark

Spooky in Love starts with an exciting hook and plenty of charm. The initial episodes set up a fresh dynamic with a supernatural ability, lighthearted comedy, and fun mystery-solving. Park Eun-bin and Yang Se-jong deliver strong performances, and their screen chemistry carries the early part of the story very well. The soundtrack is also catchy and fits the atmosphere nicely.

However, the drama quickly loses sight of what made it special in the first place. Around the halfway point, the supernatural cases and spooky elements take a backseat. Instead of focusing on the ghost premise, the plot shifts heavily toward tired corporate politics, boardroom meetings, and repetitive family power struggles. The unique tone gets replaced by standard K-drama cliches that feel slow and uninspired.

The pacing also becomes uneven in the second half, with predictable conflicts and a rushed resolution. The villains are quite generic, and several interesting plot threads are dropped too quickly without getting enough development.

Overall, Spooky in Love is an easy and watchable drama thanks to its talented lead cast, but it suffers from messy writing and an identity crisis. It is worth checking out for the actors and the fun early episodes, but it ultimately falls short of its promising start.

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Plot summary: Damsel in distress and the hero with a traumatic past

If you like watching a damsel in distress being saved by her love interest, then you can go ahead and watch, you are going to enjoy it👍
But if you don't or only enjoy it when it's done right (like me) then you'll have a lot of problems with this series.
1. She shouldn't have gone along with the ml's plan to impersonate the doppelganger, why, just why would you meet your doppleganger, get kidnapped because of her and nearly die and then decide to start living in her place, it's like she forgot that the doppleganger was the reason she was kidnapped, got in an accident and lost her eyes in the first place. I don't care if she saved her and gave her, her eyes (what was she going to use it to do anyway, she was already dead). She shouldn't have followed a stranger to a strange house to live a strange life just because he told her to 😩
2. The male lead chokes the fl twice in the beginning and my girl didn't get angry at him, she just glossed over it and proceeded to fall in love with him which brings me to my next point
3. Why did the female lead fall in love with him? Because he was handsome? Mysterious? Or because he cried in his sleep? Bro wasn't even nice to her😩😩
4. I really really loved the 2FL, until she became obsessed with the ML 😮‍💨
5. And I couldn't tell if the 2ML liked the FL or the 2Fl 😂😂
6. The female lead's character was so irritating to watch, always shaking, whimpering and refusing to function like a normal human being without the male lead 😩 I wanted to reach into the series and smack her on the head all the time.
7. Nobody can convince me that the male lead actually loved the FL, he just loved how much she loved him and she was crazy for him, crazy enough to kiss him in front of everyone during his engagement party to the 2FL. I was cringing so hard at that scene 😭


In summary, it's not a bad watch, the first half of the series was okay, everything just went downhill from there😣

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Excellent Start. Good Middle... Rocky Finish.

this drama has everything I like in a drama. Excellent plot, great acting, fabulous chemistry, character growth for at least the leads, and a journey I'm invested in as a watcher. With all that said... why not 10 stars? Let me sum it up real quick...

The beginning was excellent, the pacing was on point, and I was invested in the journey the leads were on and loving the storyline/character development.

The only gripe I have about this drama is after the 5-year time skip. And it isn't because of the change in personality of the ML... that actually made sense. He'd been through hell and back. No one at 25 is who they were at 15. No one at 35 is who they were at 25. I get it.

The real issue for me is it seemed like the leads (both FL & ML) seemed to have regressed in the things that had gotten them that far in the first place. Thinking fast on their feet, being able to get the upper hand, and also the ability to have a straightforward conversation with one another. They spent a LOT of the last 1/3 of the drama not sitting down and talking about ANYTHING. They were always 1-2 steps behind the villains and were blind-sided ALL the time. They played defense (and not well) the entire last 1/3 of the drama or more until finally the last 2-3 episodes where they finally had epiphanies about how the game should be played and how to get the upper hand.

IDK. I guess when you go on a tough journey like this in a drama where the FL/ML suffer a lot and work hard to climb from the bottom... you expect them to... be smarter? More scheming? More "on their toes" or at the very least not working at a LOSS for 12+ episodes? This made it a bit of a struggle to watch but I did still enjoy it. If the 2nd half of the drama hadn't done this, it would have been an auto-rewatch for me and an auto-9.5-10 stars. But instead it firmly sits at 8-8.5 for me and likely not something I'll rewatch in the future.

fyi... another gripe is the main villain's ending. not good enough for me. not only that but how magnanimous and forgiving the FL was towards a few people. Just STOP already. It's OK to not forgive and to be glad some of these folks got their comeuppance! Why did she have to go literally out of her way at the end. The FL was already well established as forgiving, kind, generous, etc. We didn't need to make her go this far in the end.

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Revenge can be so Satisfying

In an era when school bullying remains a serious problem, The Glory feels particularly relevant. The drama is highly emotional, especially for someone like me with a strong sense of justice. The bullies are so vicious and cruel - almost psychopathic - that I absolutely hated them. Then there is Dong-eun's useless, drunken mother, who should protect her daughter but is more interested in money, and the teachers who turn a blind eye because the bullies come from wealthy and influential families. They are all equally infuriating.

This review covers the complete series — both Part 1 and Part 2 — rather than looking at them separately as they are streamed continuously.

Perhaps this is why the drama is so satisfying. Moon Dong-eun grows from a helpless victim into an intelligent and calculating woman capable of matching her wits against the people who destroyed her childhood and dashed her dream of becoming an architect. Of course, someone carrying that much pain is unlikely to emerge completely unscathed. Dong-eun is damaged, obsessive and consumed by revenge.

This is where The Glory becomes more than a simple revenge story. When a country's legal and policing systems fail to protect the innocent and deliver justice — especially when the perpetrators are too powerful to be held accountable — people may feel driven to seek justice through dark and personal revenge. Dong-eun's revenge is helped by others who have also experienced pain and suffering and can understand her.

The drama becomes a fascinating game of psychological warfare as the two sides counter each other's moves, while Dong-eun cleverly uses people on the fringes of her enemies' lives to get closer to her main target. There are morally questionable moments, and revenge sometimes takes dark and disturbing turns, but there is still an undeniable satisfaction in seeing the perpetrators finally face the consequences of their actions.

I did have a few minor quibbles about realism. Can someone really learn Go and become that proficient so quickly? And could a teacher realistically accumulate enough money to finance such an elaborate revenge plan, including a car and a separate apartment used mainly for surveillance? I also wondered whether chauffeurs and personal assistants would really go to such extraordinary lengths to cover up their employers' crimes rather than expose them.

These, however, are minor issues. The emotional tension kept me thoroughly invested — so much so that when Dong-eun appeared to be contemplating suicide towards the end, I was thinking, if she dies after everything she has been through, I am going to 'curse' the screenwriter and director!

The cast delivers excellent performances, with Im Ji-yeon particularly outstanding as the main villain. It is interesting to see her in such a different role from her leading role in Royal Nemesis.

Overall, I found The Glory highly entertaining, dark and immensely satisfying. The bullies will make your blood boil, but watching Dong-eun cunningly turn the tables on them makes the journey worthwhile. It is a gripping revenge drama about what happens when justice fails — and the victim decides to take matters into her own hands.

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Good beginner KDrama

This was my first introduction to romance KDrama. That being the case it was a fairly new experience and one I will not soon forget. The drama centering around the workplace is something that I do not have experience with but the drama brings together the sticky situations that can arise if you were to play with romantic relationships in the workplace. The overall theme of love conquering all is placed in full view when it comes to the settling of the shows most toughest conflict. I will be taking some things that the show touched upon such as finding yourself and being true to it. Overall I would recommend it!

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amazing series

this series I had expectations and it met them. the actors chosen are perfect for this series, the female leads acting dont get me started. she acted pretty well, the male lead acted so well. He also acted in dream to you and the second couple in the series and from then I wanted him to be the male lead in some other series bcz he acted so well. so when I got to know abt my bias my boss I had expectations and it met them and I was actually watching a shop for killer s2 so this was a total 180 degree from her character in a shop for killers. I was pleasantly happy with the love triangle. the female character knows what she wants and rejected the second male lead. so far now neither the series nor the love triangle has disappointed me. So I am really excited for the upcoming episodes. And it is a good rom com. So I suggest whoever has not watched it yet to watch it.

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True character development

When this show was announced, I wasn’t sure on what to expect because the leads have acted before and I didn’t really like it. However considering it’s been directed by the same director who has directed several shows which have all been phenomenal, I decided to give it a try.
The setting— spectacular. From the costumes to the makeup to everything, it was really impressive.

The acting is what has blown my mind. Ancy Deng has improved so quite a lot. She looks matured and her acting shows drastic change from her previous roles. Ding Yuxi has always been a promising actor to me but again he too looks mature now.

The small details played an important role in this show. I love how they showed how the couple have matured, not just by their dressing but also the body language. Zhao Lings walk when he was still working with salt was entirely different. He was young and carefree and his body language spoke for his personality and now that he’s actually an official, his walk is refined, and it actually feels like the military has changed him. The same goes with Tingyun, her open hair and girlish personality changes rapidly as she grows into a woman of nobility and respect. Her hair style changes from one of a young woman to of a respectable capital lady with that bun. Huge respect to whoever has actually put in so much effort in these details.

My personal favorite- Wen Zheng Rongs acting is phenomenal. I’ve admired her for so long over her acting bcz she doesn’t get a lot of screen time or lead shows but whatever she plays– she’s actually seen as that character. In The Glory I actually hated her in the start (the character), but I ended up crying at the end bcz SHE IS such a good actress that the emotions are actually seen in her acting.

Though a great show, I felt like it wasn’t balanced. The starting was good, the middle not boring but it was light so by the time the ending episodes came, it got really heavy, it gave me a headache.

Also a side observation— almost all the side characters have been played by actors who’ve worked in some or the other popular show 😂

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