Reviews

The Thai version was better

Before I start, I think it's important to note that I enjoyed the original special more than the original series. I liked the character dynamic more and was overall more interested in their romance. They could have made this parallel couple & their story the main series, and I would have been thrilled. It's the same with the remake.

There is no difference between the Thai version and this one, other than the runtime. For some reason, they also decided to give us less than half the 2nd episode for our parallel couple before jumping back to the original. Did we really need to see the original couple at all? We got some NC scenes we didn't need, and they could have cut less from the original version's parallel couple.

If you were satisfied with the Thai version, I don't think there's any need to watch this remake, and if, like me, you are hoping for a better series, you are most likely going to be disappointed. That being said, I don't regret watching it.

Lire la suite

Waiting for season 2!

I was not expecting this much comedy from Palace Drama. The story had a great plot with a lot of surprise plotlines. The princess of Hennian was AMAZING and I was fangirling every scene she was in. I am curious about the FL knew how to do CPR though.... I am guessing it's a transmigrator show. I wish there was more on the two leads but I guess that will be season 2 since the show ended off telling you to wait for season 2. That was almost a year ago (fall 2025) so here is to hoping it comes out soon... The funniest scene was when they were adjusting the sister, her maid, and the general (FL's ex) in bed. You could see the actresses holding back laughter when the Prince of Jing arranged their arms on General He. I want to see the BTS of those scenes!

Lire la suite

Best chemistry in dating show history

I didn't have high expectations for this show , because heart signal usually lacks drama and conflict and only relies on dopamine from new romantic connections. moreover, I have sort of lost faith that final couples actually become couples in real life. it seems that everyone is here for the clout and exposure, and are just going through the motions.
but I was absolutely blown away. the amount of dopamine and heart fluttering moments this show delivered was insane. the story, the chemistry, the visuals of the wooyeol and yukyung couple was easily the best among all the dating shows I have watched to date.
I now find myself in an interesting dilemma. on one hand i dont know if I will ever find a couple/story that will make me feel this way again. but on the flip side, this has renewed my faith in dating shows as a whole.
in conclusion, wooyeol yukyung couple for the win

Lire la suite

Not enough Consent

What is up with all the sexual assault? I guess I was expecting romance between them and consent.

I was rooting for them as a couple. I thought maybe the rumors were exaggerated. But even if he was doing bad things at least he shouldn’t get all grapey.

my review isn’t long enough….

I started out liking this. Big Jane is hot. But the forcefullness is not sexy at all. Idk I have to make this longer still not long enough. I think his out of control anger is also too much. I don’t believe the younger brother even seems like his brother and I also don’t think he would be gambling and get into debt. Especially that L Jane has to sell himself to B Jane.

Lire la suite

Sometimes the simplest stories leave the biggest impact.

ok so… i actually ended up enjoying this way more than i expected.

this isn’t the kind of drama that’s trying to constantly shock you or throw plot twists every five minutes. it’s more about the characters, the emotions, and the little moments that slowly build up over time. if you go into it expecting nonstop action or a super fast-paced story, you’ll probably think it’s slow. but if you let it do its thing, it becomes really easy to get attached.

the biggest strength is definitely the chemistry. nothing felt forced, and the leads made even the quiet scenes interesting. i liked that they actually looked comfortable around each other instead of just relying on dramatic staring contests every episode. their relationship developed naturally, which made the emotional scenes hit a lot harder.

the fantasy/supernatural elements were honestly handled better than i expected. they weren’t just there for aesthetics—they actually pushed the story forward and added emotional weight. there were a few moments where i genuinely didn’t know how things were going to turn out, which kept me invested.

that being said… the pacing isn’t perfect. there are episodes in the middle that definitely drag, and i found myself wishing certain storylines had been wrapped up sooner. a couple of side characters also had more potential than what the writers actually gave them. some conflicts felt like they existed just to delay the inevitable.

the ending is one of those where i think most people will walk away satisfied. maybe not perfect, maybe not groundbreaking, but it stays true to what the drama was trying to be from the beginning instead of pulling something ridiculous at the last second.

overall, i don’t think this is a drama that’s trying to reinvent the genre, and honestly… it doesn’t need to. it knows exactly what it wants to be and sticks with it. it’s emotional without feeling overly melodramatic, romantic without becoming cheesy every five minutes, and just genuinely easy to watch.

is it flawless? definitely not.

did i enjoy the journey anyway? absolutely.

this is one of those dramas i’ll probably remember because of how it made me feel rather than because every single plot point was perfect. and honestly, that’s worth more to me than having the most complicated storyline.

Lire la suite

Shocked by all the 10 star reviews

I have watched a lot of BL's and this doesn't even make my top 100. I was hopeful since it had a 8.9 star average rating. There was nothing new or original with this show. Duang was very childish, was whiney and screamed WAY to much. Qin was emotionless and for saying how much he liked Duang there was zero emotion or anything for that matter to show that. There was no depth to the writing so couldn't even feel the trauma that Qin was suppose to have. I was going to stop watching after Ep 6 (and wish I would have) but I thought surely it must get better with that high of a rating. Sadly it does not. I am truly baffled by the ratings and reviews on this one.

Lire la suite

I really enjoyed watching Shadow Love!

I loved this show! I love that she’s a female general from the beginning. We don’t have to watch her fight for the right to be a general. We just right away get to see her Authority and power. All of those things are so physically demanding. I also love that she had like only women at her house and how kind her character was, but also fierce, intelligent and brave .

OMG Cheng is soooo hot! The way his every move is dripping with seduction. He is also a great actor, not just eye candy. I liked how it felt like real interactions between them. They weren’t afraid to have them get close before the episode half way point. Which made me think they would be separated early on but thankfully they weren’t. They have great chemistry.



I think the people obsessed with her age are weird. For 1 I haven’t watched anything with either of them before. So I didn’t know her age going into this. I thought they made a great couple. I think the age issues are when the FL is an actual minor with a grown man. How is this weird? I imagine the ppl who have a problem with this are jealous teeny boppers who think they have a shot with the ML. 2 she is playing a general who commands an entire powerful army. Do you think an 18-20 year old would be a general? 3 She doesn’t look old to me at all. She is beautiful and a good actress.

I am glad she didn’t have to act like she wasn’t attracted to him, like they make women play in most c/k dramas. Where I will be watching a show and be like how many women would resist this mans charms IRL? Not many. There will be such an attractive, sexy man and they are getting closer physically and then in most dramas she runs away. Girl IRL what woman is running away from this? So I am glad they didn’t write it that way.

There were a few things in the story I thought didn’t fit. like when they didn’t tell the PrinceSu Mu Yang their plan and he believes they abandoned him. at the very least when they returned them back to the generals mansion, they could’ve told him, but I don’t get why they returned them back to the mansion anyway cause that just ruined their whole plan and efforts.

i also don’t think the crown prince Su Mu Yang was that young he would pretend his right hand was injured to the FL or have such severe personality flaws that were so drastic to what they showed us that made his change of character unbelieveable to me.

I also think when Prince Annan returned he would have locked up the evil empress right away.

I also think that Prince Annan would have been able to find out that the man i black was loyal to her.

and that he could have written himself a long letter detailing everything he had been theough because hello he knew he was going to lose his memory for so long. he could’ve written about all exactly what happened everything that he loved about her and their experiences everything they went through all the stuff about the people that were after him like everything could’ve been detailed, and he could’ve done it in his own handwriting and written things in a way that’s so when he read it, he had to believe that it was true because it would be in his own handwriting and he could’ve even put something in it that would make him know that it was him, but instead, he does draws pictures on the wall, as if he’s illiterate so those were like things that I think were not realistic.

I thought throughout the whole story that I was impressed with how it was written. I thought it had a lot of really good elements. It was very entertaining, definitely binge worthy. I will rewatch it at some point to drool over Cheng. I just watched another of his shows and he seems like a whole different person/actie which shows what a good actor he is.

Lire la suite

A remake

As remakes go, I felt like this one wasn't needed. However, while a lot of it felt too compressed for a story about parallel worlds, I liked the ending better than the original. We actually got a resolution. I didn't like the original very much because it didn't explain the space between the parallel worlds at all, and I like to understand Sci-fi & fantasy elements of a story, not just go with the flow with no hope of understanding. The ending of the original was also, for lack of a better word, shit. By the end of that series, we should have seen the mother get everything she deserved and more, but no, let's just trade one son for the other. (This still pisses me off) At least in this one, we get to see the mother have a downfall, even though it was very quick and not nearly satisfying enough. Still, it was better than the original.

Another thing that I liked over the original is that I felt that Shoma fit the role of Sara/Cir more than Boss. Maybe that's because I'm so used to seeing Boss in more commanding and alpha man roles that it just felt wrong to see him play an obsessive stalker. Shoma kind of has that same aura, but it didn't feel like he lost it in this role; he downplayed it a bit. Maybe it's less noticeable because of the smaller cast? Not sure. To me, he just fit the role better.

I really do think the original is better in almost every way, and you can tell the budget was way higher. Honestly, if it's not a Thai series, I don't expect the budget to be very high for a BL drama. Compared to the budget for other Japanese series, I would say this runs somewhere in the middle.

On to the stalking. I think when it came up in the original, I was past the point of caring, but in this one I was suitably unsettled. If I had been in Fuu's shoes, I would have been freaked out and would have probably been scared to be alone. They make the stalking out to be a form of caring for a person you love, but can't be with & we should just look over it. We can't. Or at least I can't. At least in this version it felt like Sara wasn't as unhinged, and it really was just the only way he could think of to show he cared and to keep himself going. Sara knowing so much about Fuu was scarier than Cir, though. In the original, however, I was really scared for Phukan. Cir felt like he was a danger to Phukan and himself. The boy had mental problems. It felt like if the relationship went south, then Cir would do something completely unhinged.

I will say that I really like that Shoma & Takuto have done 2 BossNoeul remakes. Normally in dramas from countries outside Thailand, I don't see many actors reappearing in a series together. It was honestly a little weird in a good way. I would like to see these two in their own series together, not just a remake.

If you were satisfied with the Thai version, I don't think there's any need to watch this remake, and if, like me, you are hoping for a better series, you are most likely going to be disappointed. That being said, I don't regret watching it.

Lire la suite

“my love is heavy”

the story focuses on a friendly rivalry, both of the leads having this dynamic since high school. the premise of this was nice, but i think the way the “rivalry” falls flat really helped highlight how much of an excuse it was for these two to get closer and spend so much time together.

zen is aloof, reserved from both the world itself and ryo to a degree. though they reunite at work, it’s pretty evident they don’t really know much about each other beyond work related subjects and the past that they shared.

it doesn’t take long to notice how devastatingly in love ryo has been this whole time, but seeing the pure anguish, the tormenting emotions in his eyes when he misunderstands zen, it really drives home how real his love has been for the one person that had been there for him.

the only thing that felt stunted in the storytelling was how little we see into their early friendship, but overall this was a genuinely good surprise from japan lately. it’s been a stagnant market for bl and i loved seeing yusuke come back to bl in a very different art form compared to his previous work. you could see his comfort in a whole different way with kaito and none of this felt as awkward as i had feared it would.

Lire la suite

Un campo y un sueño

Lloré como una magdalena con lo que me conmovieron múltiples escenas de circunstancias tristes, difíciles, molestas, pero finalmente el coraje de cada personaje en sobreponerse a ello. Un grupo de chicos que aman el futbol pero que se sienten abandonados y fracasados, un coach que ya no encuentra el significado del fútbol, y una mujer que tuvo que huir y buscar la paz: quién diría que serían la cura los unos para los otros.

Amistad, compromiso, lealtad, fe y amor; todo esto se puede encontrar a lo largo de una historia que nos permite ver un pedacito de la vida de maravillosos personajes que encontraron luz en sus vidas que parecían dadas por perdidas, y además a disfrutar del proceso de las cosas aun con la posibilidad de que no resulten como se quisiera.

Una hermosa historia que te mantiene atento de principio a fin.

Lire la suite

Hope, growth and football

Some dramas entertain you. Some quietly become part of your story. Road to Success was the latter.

I almost didn't start this drama because I wasn't ready to move on from Speed and Love. Ironically, another Esther Yu drama was exactly what I needed. What I expected was a football romance. What I got was a heartfelt story about growth.

As a football mom whose daughter recently made varsity, this drama arrived at the perfect time. Or maybe that's why I started it in the first place. I never imagined I'd be enjoying the football matches and learning about tactics.

Another unexpected highlight for me was the psychology woven throughout the story. This drama sparked a curiosity in me that made me reflect on human behavior, resilience, relationships, and personal growth. It added a layer of depth that made the story even more meaningful.

The romance was sweet, natural and mature. Esther Yu and Chen Jingke had wonderful chemistry. I've seen Chen Jingke in Amidst a Snowstorm of Love and loved his character there too. My only wish was for just one more episode of them simply being together after everything they went through. But I understand why the story ended the way it did. The last episode was heartwarming, well written and full of sincerity.

Esther Yu once again reminded me why she's becoming one of my favorite actresses. After loving her in Speed and Love and Love Between Fairy and Devil, I was surprised that I connected with a completely different character just as much. She brings warmth, sincerity, and an effortless charm that makes her characters feel real. How the bestfriend described Wanxing was spot on.

More than the romance, what stayed with me was the message. This drama isn't about becoming perfect. It's about becoming better, through teammates, family, mentors, friendship, and love. It celebrates resilience, trust, teamwork, and believing in people even when they struggle to believe in themselves.

I also realized something about my own taste in C-dramas. I thought my favorite genre was romance.
It isn't. My favorite stories are about capable, warm people growing together.. and Road to Success was exactly that.

Lire la suite

ABOUT YUMI AND UNG

I absolutely loved Yumi's Cells Season 1. The highlight of the drama was definitely the cells. They're such a unique and creative concept, and they made every episode so much more enjoyable. They were funny, adorable, and brought so much life to Yumi's emotions and inner thoughts.
As for Yumi and Woong, I really wanted them to end up together. Their relationship felt genuine, and you could tell they truly loved each other. However, love alone wasn't enough. Woong never established clear boundaries with Sae Yi, even though he knew she had feelings for him, and that slowly created trust issues. On top of that, both Yumi and Woong struggled with communication. They avoided difficult conversations, especially when it came to marriage and their future together.
Yumi's insecurities and tendency to overthink only made the misunderstandings worse. Watching them fall apart was heartbreaking, but at the same time, I think their breakup was the right choice. Sometimes two people can love each other deeply and still not be right for each other.
Even though they didn't get the ending I hoped for, they'll always be one of my favorite couples because they represent that unforgettable first love—the kind that changes you forever, even if it doesn't last.

Lire la suite