Reviews

beautifully made but only worthy of watching once.

content warning: mentions of several deaths and suicide.

this drama has me heavily conflicted. i have been anticipating this so strongly and for weeks. i was giddy and overwhelmed with excitement to watch this piece of work [even more than with payback, prosecutor's proposal, & deep in]. i watched the first twelve episodes as soon as i possibly could yesterday and stopped in the dead of the morning to sleep.

i loved almost all of the scenes with changyang & qinglang. their chemistry was solid. i loved when they would play around with each other. i loved the way they whispered to each other. their intimacy was fairly solid too. their early scenes felt so genuine, natural, and fluid. unfortunately for me, i had spoiled myself and watched all of their kisses before i watched the piece of work itself [unknowingly]. the former is a testament to how committed i was to this BL before i saw it. i will talk about some of the issues i observed in the following paragraphs. i wanted to end this one with saying my critiques mostly start with the story as soon as changyang departs for hunter school.

you can tell that the creator and staff that made this story come alive truly care about the delivery and execution of this work. however, the story started to fall apart when changyang left. changyang's ambition can make sense to most but it felt random. he was in the mountains for eight years then all of sudden he falls in love then needs to leave right then? we never even got to witness his time in school which felt like a bad decision. his absence was felt and it was void-feeling without him being on screen for a majority of the work. one could surmise that the homophobia and societal / familial expectations exacerbated his leave but it was wack and traumatizing to watch. if china is actually still this antiquated then i feel strongly for the victims of these prejudices alive today. it was actually sickening to see how much homophobia was made a pillar in this story.

i am bewildered by other things as well. sister lan dying was slightly questionable for me but could be more easily accepted comparatively. i was glad that she did not fully disappear from the viewer once she died. she deserved to live. she clearly was an incredible character / person. almost every speech she gave made me cry.
qingtian's death, i still cannot get over. i am beside myself about it because it was nonsensical. i think from a presumptive view one can conclude what the events surrounding and leading up to his death meant but i do not want to guess ! changyang alluded that qingtian intentionally died or commit suicide. i think suicidal ideation is a normal response to loved ones dying but the way it happened was ??? he decides to run off to find the ghost flower, heavy fog randomly appears out of nowhere, then he is lost immediately. the only thing left of him were his shoe and the tool. what??? the sequence of this event was poorly executed, in my opinion. he is then basically never mentioned again especially compared to lan. only his mother and grandmother seem to actually be grieving [i understand grief is different for everyone]. grief is probably why qingtian made the decision he made. however, who can say? did he commit suicide or did he die to the elements?
shi yuhao's death does not make any sense at all to me. not at the time he decided to commit suicide. he did it on the anniversary of lan's accident which is wild. why did he do it? why then? why at all? why did he all of sudden become decent after all the torment, blackmail, coercion, and criminal behavior prior? was it because he managed the comeback so all of a sudden he had a conscious? nonsense. his character pissed me off so his actor did well.

i nearly despise the second main leads. their presences always set me off, internally. i liked them a lot prior to hao yu flipping the script on han lu after they were caught kissing by their show's production team. after that, their relationship was nothing but sloppy, toxic, and dysfunctional garbage. they never spoke about their feelings nor addressed prior obstacles. they never even verbally committed but were somehow boyfriends? they pissed me off every time they came on screen.

wenshu and qingtian were a different story for me. i wanted more of them. i could not understand the pacing of their relationship development. it seemed clear that they were being setup to be together so why did that not happen and instead we got what we got instead? i understand qingtian was still emotionally invested in his formerly actively living partner so i do not get why we got introduced to these two instead, in that way. wenshu then is written to completely disappear from the audience after qingtian's character conclusion. i think there was huge missed opportunity with these two due to bad writing.

there were almost no small production errors like i have noticed in other chinese BL. the cinematography was basically flawless; truly an incredible watch just from this point of view. there were only extremely questionable decisions made like with the punching sound effects, changyang / wenshu deciding to assault that random leech [whom we never see again after wenshu's visit / attack], and others i will mention throughout this review.
i personally do not care for how chinese dramas or BL are filmed. this piece of work was captured a lot more fluidly until changyang left. then it was just timeskips and random events pasted together one after the other just like in bittersweet love. i actually hate this stylistic choice. it makes tracking the story very difficult. at the end, it was said that FIVE YEARS had passed. i presume since the beginning of the show. who would know that prior to it being stated? that is unbelievably amount of time that elapsed. qinglang waited something like two years for changyang? or did he actually wait five years? that is deeply deeply deeply upsetting especially considering leads in BL are always written to be the worst communicators. real relationships cannot survive these kinds of conditions but i get this is fiction.

i have questions. why did the feng brother's mother just decide to leave the family and become a monk? why was changyang's father suddenly and randomly in prison? what happened to that random predator investor? who was the random disabled person who came back into changyang's place? i mean why him? why did changyang take an extended time to return? why did they suddenly "get married" with no proposal shown to viewers? why was their last kiss off? what even is hunter school? what was the point of that endeavor anyway? any good story would not leaving viewers with multiple questions.

in all, because of the second main leads, the storyline without changyang, and the false setup of wenshu + qingtian, i would probably never rewatch this. i find that so unfortunate because this drama was stunning and not lacking intricacies. apart from the cinematography + changyang / qinglang, this BL dropped the ball. however, i still rate it highly despite these gaps and the AI promotion, which was disgusting. objectively, the rating is probably several points lower.

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Reviews deceiving! It was an entertaining kdrama!

The reviews posted here had me hesitant to even commit to the kdrama! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!? This turned out to be an entertaining drama! What do you expect a new version of The Penthouse?!? The bodyguard interview and The chairman’s reaction and intuition drew me in. Yes tie in and trust the chairman gave to the bodyguard IMO was loosely tied in but the chairman’s intention was clear and set the objective for me to continue watching. The flow to achieve the objective sprinkled with comedy, thrills, action, corniness and suspense was there along the journey. Yes the twists towards end I reacted with WTF? how does that make sense?!? Regardless, it was an entertaining kdrama and I’d recommend it!👍👍👍

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Empalago a medida de las fans.

Prepárense para una subida de azúcar, porque Peach and Me es lo más empalagoso que se puede aguantar.
La historia sigue la serie anterior de los protagonistas, conocida y querida pareja BL tailandesa, a la que parece que le hacen series a medida de las fans. Por tanto, entiendo que hay que entender la producción en su contexto.
El personaje principal tienen unos diálogos y comportamientos tan ridículos, que se da la vuelta a lo tolerable y acaba siendo gracioso. Nada nuevo, es la base de la caricaturización. Es sin duda, quien brilla en ambas series. El resto acompaña dignamente, sin demasiado esfuerzo. Con respecto a los personajes, cabe destacar el lugar que les dan a las chicas, no tan común en estas series. Podrían haber creado incluso una trama más desarrollada para ellas.
Además tiene cameos que supongo que serán otras parejas conocidas del mundo BL y que serán también del agrado de las fans.
En definitiva, una serie a medida de las seguidoras de los protagonistas, graciosa, sin grandes pretensiones y entretenida,

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Cinematography is actually very impressive at times—not your typical j-drama. Very, very funny—some of the best comedy I've seen in a while. Really on-point depiction of the times, with the plot paralleling the changes in the bubble economy both literally and thematically in really interesting ways. Plot moves very haphazardly and skips over details in a way that makes it really hard to buy into any realism the show tries to suggest. That said, some of the twists the story takes are really surprising in a good way—this show becomes unexpectedly hard to predict at a point, and that had me hooked as hell I can't lie.

So many genuinely perfectly directed scenes. Most memorably, the bento salesman (ifykyk). I also appreciate the show for pushing the boundaries in how it depicts sensitive subject matter, though I wish it were handled a bit more tastefully at times. There's a wee bit too much SA just, brushed under the rug without consequences for my liking.

Annoyingly tone-deaf at times, frequently choosing comic value over emotional impact (e.g., how Muranishi's family was handled). The tone will occasionally make it seem as if the show is trying to portray Muranishi as a sort of honorable rebel, while the literal events depicted, viewed on their own, unambiguously reveal him as a self-obsessed coward. That disconnect colors the show all the way to the end, which specifically left a really sour taste in my mouth. I was so relieved when the last act made it seem like all this tone-deafness had been intentional setup for his eventual fall. It really seemed that way, until the final episode threw all of that out the window and awkwardly tried to redeem him, all while keeping him a totally static character. That's by far what irked me the most about this show—despite how much potential he has as a character, and despite numerous setups, Muranishi does not once, at any point, complete a character arc.

The side characters have a lot of problems too, especially around moral consistency. A character like Junko, for example, who's shown to be more skeptical than the others, would absolutely not be onboard with the Hawaii plan, or really anything Muranishi does past her first few episodes with the crew.

That said, the acting was absolutely phenomenal. That goes for the entire main cast, but Misato Morita in particular deserves infinite praise for this—I have no idea how she managed to mimic Kuroki Kaoru so well, down to her tiniest mannerisms and idiosyncrasies.

There's an interesting discussion around how faithful the show is in both its depiction of the porn industry and of Muranishi and Kuroki. With Muranishi, unsurprisingly, many take issue with how positively he's depicted, particularly in his relationships with his staff. The show strips him of nearly any indicators of misogyny, rather having him be the one to champion women's autonomy and agency against his rivals, which apparently deviates significantly from his actual reputation. Controversy around Kuroki's depiction seems to be much less about her interpretation and more about the fact that she's depicted at all, given that her last move before leaving the public eye was a massive infringement-of-privacy lawsuit. There's something odd about seeing someone so adamant about keeping her life private have her likeness imitated for a drama—especially one where that character attempts suic*de...

All-in-all, this was a phenominally enjoyable show, though not without its share of contrivance and controversy. Personally, I would feel much, much more comfortable praising this show if it ended after S2 E7. Everything about that final episode had me genuinely writhing in my seat. Not only was it a stylistic farcry from the show I'd come to love, with shitty covers of "What a Wonderful World" and "Friday" replacing the iconic score during what were seemingly intended to be impactful scenes, but it also just took everything meaningful I took from the story and threw it in the bin in service of reaching some sort of happy ending for Muranishi, which he, as depicted, absolutely did not deserve. It would be one thing if he showed some like actual character development at any point, but he doesn't. He stays exactly as he always was, feigning ignorance and skirting around consequences through to the end. The montage at the end with the credits had me genuinely gagging. I really, really wish this show committed to taking its plot and characters seriously, but alas.

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Glad i kept watching

I didn't like the first episode and the in the later episodes re-appearing foot scene slightly grossed me out. But i am glad i always finish what i start, because this turned out a good drama. I was cheering and clapping at the end of episode 7, that moment felt so good!
A good drama about being comfortable with who you are, and doing what you love, those are the most important things in the world.
The handsome prince Goto Naoya didn't look very attractive to me. I saw pictures of him on Pinterest and he is actually quite good looking, so i don't understand why they chose to give him this look in this drama. He was quite adorable when he smile though.
Good acting, the chemistry and the kisses were ok.
The visuals and music were ok.

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Awful plot, decent comedy!

The plot is really really bad, but at least for the first 9 epis it stays out of the way & since the drama does not at any point take itself seriously this is almost fine. Potato Lab is one of those rare gag romantic comedies that are quite fun to watch despite the low quality storytelling. Unfortunately from the end of e9 onward the enjoyment drops off quite a bit. FL going to that funeral is intelligence insultingly bad, furthermore the usual conflict & conflict resolution that so often happens late in kdramas is as anti fun as always. Up to e9 I would have rated this at around 8.5 but they just had to ruin it, still don't feel like I wasted my time, so 7 it is.

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The writing was really bad.

It started out pretty well, but then it slowly lost its direction. The story felt boring at times, and a lot of things could have been handled much better.

The part I hated the most was how quickly the FL forgave the ML. After everything she went through because of him, I really wished her forgiveness had been slower and more emotionally justified.

Her backstory was literally dumped into one episode, while the ML’s backstory was explored across so many episodes. Because of that, we never really got to feel the FL’s pain to the same extent. The audience was given much more time to understand and sympathize with the ML than with her.

I also wished the FL had remained more independent. She was actually quite independent in the beginning, but after she got the movie, she started feeling more like the ML’s shadow. Everything began revolving around him, and her own character development and ambitions took a backseat.

The second couple was honestly the best part of the show. Their chemistry and storyline had so much potential, but the writers never explored them properly. They could have had a really interesting and meaningful storyline if they had been given more screen time.

And honestly, why did the third couple even exist? Their story had very little to do with the actual plot. They didn’t even have a proper storyline, and their screen time was too limited to develop their relationship properly anyway. I would have much rather seen the writers use that time to develop the second couple.

Overall, the story had so much potential, but the writing was extremely sloppy. There were some really good ideas and interesting characters, but the execution just wasn't there.

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Taking a Step Toward Something New

I always adore when Asian dramas step outside their usual cliché comfort zone, so when I read the description of this series, I was already intrigued. Writing-wise, this drama does quite a few interesting things. Not only with its semi-educational themes, but also by breaking away from the stereotypical tropes found in other Asian series as well. Without spoiling too much, the writer handles the second male lead in a particularly fresh and unique way. Another thing I’d like to highlight is the amazing casting overall, from the leads all the way down to the extras.

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The Pursuit of Jade — Spoiler Review

💚 The Pursuit of Jade — Spoiler Review

⚠️ FULL SPOILERS — INCLUDING THE ENDING

If you're watching The Pursuit of Jade primarily for the romance, yes, I recommend it—but know going in that there is a LOT of political and military storyline between the romantic moments.

The romance starts with a marriage of convenience and slowly develops into genuine love. The male lead falls hard, but because of his identity and political situation, he spends a lot of time trying to protect her by keeping his distance. Eventually, the roles reverse, and he becomes the one chasing her and trying desperately to win her back.

There are plenty of the romance tropes I love in these dramas: secret identity, protective ML, protective FL, wound-tending, jealousy, separation, misunderstandings, drunk FL, secret relationship, reunion, kisses, and lots of "I'll protect you no matter what" moments. The couple repeatedly saves and protects each other, which I really enjoyed because it isn't just the male lead rescuing the female lead.

The romance does go through a LONG separation period, and there are times when the political storyline takes over almost completely. But when the romance comes back, it gives you some really good payoff. The identity reveal, his attempts to win her back, their reconciliation, and eventually making their marriage public all felt earned.

And once they're finally together, they actually stay together. We get the marriage consummation, established-couple scenes, and then Episodes 39–40 focus on wrapping up the story rather than throwing another unnecessary breakup at them. 🙌

I also really liked the ending because it doesn't just stop after the final conflict. We get glimpses of months later, years later, and even a "what if the original event had never happened?" scenario, which gives the ending a little something extra.

If you're willing to sit through the political/military storyline to get to the romance, the payoff is worth it.


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💕 Biggest Romance Milestones

💋 First kiss: Episode 9
💔 Major separation: Episodes 17–23
❤️ Reunion: Episode 24
💋 Post-reunion kiss: Episode 25
🎭 Secret identity revealed: Episode 26
💍 Second proposal: Episode 27
❤️ Reconciliation begins: Episodes 32–34
💍 Marriage publicly acknowledged: Episode 35
😭 108-lash sacrifice: Episode 36
🔥 Passionate carriage kissing: Episode 37
🛁 Marriage consummated: Episode 38
🥰 Established happily-ever-after couple: Episodes 39–40

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