Reviews

Messed up characters in a messed up story

I've mixed feelings about this show, but I have to admit the most perplexed shows I've ever seen were Taiwanese ones, something about their storytelling makes me feel intrigued and appalled at the same time.

Story: a total mess up, you can't predict anything because it doesn't end the way it started, and weirdly enough the couple who you think will end up with are just on good terms, and the other couple with the most complicated start, ends up with an even more messed up end, you don't know what is going on and you can't just focus on characters with this much happening, for example: the Second Main FL, she started as this poor unlucky woman, and ends up the second hand for the "president"... like, you can't simply expect the story to turn that way, it's explained in the show but I mean you don't see anything coming.

Characters: I don't really agree that all characters are messed up, the only character I don't understand is the ML (the psychiatrist) I mean, how did he even become one? A lot of questions surrounding him in a way that makes it harder to come up with a personality for him!! What is he like? You don't really know, you can't expect his actions because you can't even predict them, he acts in a way that is completely random and messed up.
The main FL, is a normal woman with a traumatic past, the second FL is just too unlucky, the second ML is just a dreamer with mommy issues.
All can be understood despite the weird things happening to them throughout the story.

Music is insignificant and direction was ok, the only thing that bothered me was the unexpected everything, and I end up not knowing if I actually liked it or not, I'm just glad managed to finish it and I don't even feel good after finishing it, hence a barely acceptable rating ~~

Lire la suite

I had high expectations, considering the rating and the madness surrounding this drama. It was recommended to me but I never felt the call to watch it. Now the time has come. And a big disappointment.

I'm glad it wasn't among my first dramas, because I don't think I would have watched any of them and I would have missed other wonderful stories.

I really liked the connection of the second couple. their relationship is more meaningful than main leads had.

I liked the bromance and comedy between doctors/comrades.

I really liked ML, the actor and the character that he played.

But I continued with a lump in my throat because I couldn't stand the FL character. This actress, apart from being beautiful, didn't convey anything to me, she's dull, she doesn't have expressions, it's quite rigid, stiff. For me she is playing the same in any dramas. Is not at all my cup of tea. Her character is mean, she's acting like she owns and knows everything. I did not like at all how she treats ML, she disempower him, she plays with him, like she is in high school. She is emotionally immature, a bitch.

The OST is great.

I just continue watching for Song Joong Ki and the second couple. But It was my first when I fast foreword the moment with the FL. ups.

I cant feel to recommend this one. Sorry.

Lire la suite

Peak

First Season is the best one.
I love love love the story! They did change little things from the webtoon but I would say it was SPOT ON. Before watching this I absolutely didn’t like thrillers or horror, but, after watching I’ve come to enjoy thrillers. Not so much horror because I ain’t doing all of that. Anywho, I just really like how all the main monster all had different personality’s, even the main characters in the show having their own little story time! Season two was kinda iffy for me because I lowkey thought it was boring in some way but it did have so comedic relief and I LOOOVVEEE that! season 3 has a lot happening but it honestly so cool.

Lire la suite

ABSOLUTELY STUNNING.

When I first noticed the drama I was sure that I would not like it, but, oh boy, I truly loved it that I savored it in two days.

It was absolutely stunning.

It's not a common thing to find a Chinese drama that has such a strong plotline — the themes that the show presented are deep and happens every day to a lot of girls. Sexual harrasing at work, at home, by family and friends and, yet, only a few times justice found its target. Luckily, that show did not disappoint.

The ML was such a green flag that I could not help but feel giddy throughout the show and the chemistry between these two was unbelievable. Hands up to the actress presenting the FL for showing the despair and the agony of her past.

It is absolutely worth watching, yet, I would not re-watch it a second time. That kind of drama is best when watching for the first time.

Lire la suite

Great Start but Fell Flat

I went into this drama not knowing what the plot was but quickly found myself binging episode after episode. However, at some point (and as with many Chinese dramas), I started to feel it drag - unfortunately, I didn't really pay attention to which episode I really started feeling this, but I mostly had it playing on in the background while I did other things.

By the latter part of the drama, I was jumping around in the episodes, mostly skipping the parts related to their work. I'm certain there was a reason for all of this to be part of the plot, but it didn't catch my attention at all and I thought it could have been condensed significantly.

Aside from the main characters (+ FL extended family and coworkers), most of the side characters were pretty unlikeable and, by the end, pretty much irrelevant. Also, I do love a time-skip but it was a bit wild that they suddenly had multiple time-skips in the last episode. I thought things could have been cut out in earlier parts to perhaps spread this out a bit into two episodes. Anyway, by then, I was already watching the drama at 3x speed and just trying to complete it.

I'd be curious how the storyline compares to the book it is based off of. Song Weilong is always nice to look at on the screen, but in the end, the drama felt somewhat disappointing / lackluster.

Lire la suite

A Slow Pois0n You Can’t Resist

After watching Episode 8: first word- brilliant. This is the kind of drama where the research and authenticity are top-level; you can clearly feel the realism and the characters’ intellect, and it naturally grabs your attention. It’s a slow-burn poison, where things move carefully and deliberately. I’m loving the direction and performances, they’re truly fantastic.

The music is also very uniquely scored; it has its own identity compared to others. It deals with a wide range of emotions. Till now, for the most part, we’ve gone through struggles, harshness, and hardships, but even within that, there’s humor that prevents the drama from tipping into depression. That’s the genius of the maker.

I love how they don’t want it to be just sad and heavy, but rather about growth and resilience. So I’m enjoying it to the fullest and really loving the dynamics that have been established. I can’t wait to see how Ji Feng begins his work, the steps he takes to make it impactful and real, and how Xi Mi Yu will play a larger role in this.

Just one complaint, why only two episodes a day? It’s killing me. Joker’s part, I’ll write my other thoughts later. Till then, happy watching.

Lire la suite

So this is my review after watching this. So many people might say, " DON'T WATCH IT, IT IS SOOOOOO BAD But it really isn't. I love the story as a whole, and I also love how Uea and King seemed like a mother and father to Jade. They also kept checking in on him when they noticed he was feeling sad and distant. At the start of the series, I thought of how loud Jade is. Then I realised that he is so loud to cover up his insecurities, it's like a perfect mask that he has made himself because he has seen how no one really loves him more than a platonic way, and also from when he got rejected and "hurt" by his EX. I also didn't really like Gus, as he really made it seem that he liked Mai, which almost ruined his relationship and Mai's. Maybe he did it to make Tong jealous. I don't really know, but overall, the story is really good; it makes you laugh, and it also makes you feel sad. It might be cringy for some, but it is a sweet kind of cringy, not one that makes you wonder what the actors are really doing, one that makes you have a warm heart if you get what I mean.

Lire la suite

Sweet dreams are made of cringe

This drama has a lot to offer to the rom com lover, with a whole palette of male leads, friendships, work life blance, comics and what not. But there was just to much cringe, secound hand emberresment and bad acting/directing from the all but the male lead that I just could not rate this higher. Even though the Seos (Kang Joon and In Guk) s presence and characters could easiely be rated with a 10, they were just not enough to save this cringefest.

Jisoo, Love, sorry to say this she can not cry on screen, the way they let a top singer IRL sing badly in karaoke was just mean and so were about 90% of her mimics.

Other than that it was a fun watch, just mind the bad acting, embarrassment and cringe and you will be fine.

Lire la suite

troppo cute XD

Premetto che la mia recensione si basa solo sulla visione di questa versione tailandese del BL, perché so che prima è stata fatta quella giapponese, infatti già dall’inizio ho notato delle vibes giapponesi, devo dire che solitamente non mi piacciono molto i bl di questo tipo, ma per la Geminifourth ho fatto uno sconto ;)
La storia in sé, di scrivere il nome della persona che ti piace sulla gomma, è semplice, ma interessante, molto scema direi, ma non come cosa negativa. La recitazione è molto allegra, e i personaggi sembrano tutti così stupidì, ho riso tantissimo, perché fraintendevano sempre tutto, poi Atom si fa di quei film mentali che te lo raccomando hahaha
Mi ha fatto ridere che Gemini ha interpretato un personaggio così pacato rispetto alla sua personalità reale, ho apprezzato la sua recitazione, so anche che molti lo hanno apprezzato su moonlight chicken, quindi mi piacerebbe vederlo anche lì all’azione!
Ma vogliamo parlare del fatto che Atom voleva fare da cupido ma lo scemo si è innamorato subito di Kongthap dopo la recita?! Amore che carino!!
Tralasciando tutta la stupidaggine, una cosa che mi ha colpito è che i personaggi hanno subito un’evoluzione dall’inizio alla fine. Per esempio, prendiamo Half, all’inizio non sapeva veramente come comportarsi con Matmi, infatti è il personaggio che più di tutti mi ha fatta innervosire! faceva o diceva sempre cose che la portavano a fraintendere, o che la offendevano, però alla fine ha capito come comportarsi e si sono messi insieme. (Ps: Matmi l’ho amata come personaggio femminile, una ragazza forte e che si fa rispettare, non la solita Peek me, ragazza fragile che cerca sempre e costantemente l’attenzione del maschio)
Anche Kongthap allo stesso tempo, inizialmente non aveva idea di come fosse vivere una relazione, ha fatto i suoi errori, ha capito, ed insieme ad Atom hanno imparato dà questi errori ad amarsi e rispettarsi reciprocamente, senza mancare di rispetto l’uno all’altro! Ed il fatto che siano l’uno il primo fidanzato dell’altro mi scalda il cuore, CHE CARINI!!!
Lo consiglio come bl, molto soft, amo la Geminifourth, sono troppo carini insiemeeeeeeeee li amoooo😭😭

Lire la suite

Inesperadamente preciosa

La empecé a ver sin expectativas porque pensé que sería un desfile de guapos coreanos y algo parecido a que ella no sabría decidirse ....
Nada que ver, lo calificaría como romance de oficina. Los protagonistas son compañeros, productores de webton y el está secretamente enamorado de ella y ella.... Parece que también ya que el personaje final del novio virtual hecho a medida después de analizar sus gustos y preferencias resulta ser identico a su compañero de oficina.
Ella tuvo una ruptura que la ha dejado con miedo a otra relación y ve en la aplicación de novio una forma de llenar ese vacío con un novio virtual sin miedo a la ruptura.
Las imágenes son muy bonitas y los personajes de 10. Más guapos en una serie, madre mía, no he visto jamás.
Pero el protagonista es encantador y ella también.
No hay grandes problemas y todo se desarrolla con naturalidad en la vida real.
Me ha encantado.

Lire la suite

Manual to Greatness used as toilet paper #LameWriting (though everything else worked perfectly)

Yet again, another Korean writer who did not fail to disappoint me with painfully weak writing. The overall sketch of the story was so captivating that it could have been an easy 10/10 banger. Instead, like many promising plots before it, this one got sacrificed to the writers’ strange obsession with a two-cents-worth stalker who somehow gets treated like a national-level threat yet arrested after 10 attempts.Honestly, it was tiring to watch the characters waste hours chasing this bargain-bin villain as if he were some multiverse mastermind.
And then comes the female lead. Possibly one of the most clueless heroines to grace the screen. She keeps walking straight into this stalker again and again. At some point you start wondering whether she secretly enjoys these encounters. If she is that fascinated with the stalker, maybe the writers should have just paired them together and saved everyone the trouble. And What makes it more frustrating is that she literally possesses a manual to greatness 'the-holy-book-of-spells' , yet.. still.. ends up getting slapped around by the vamp cause apparantly love and beauty spells are useless in this situation. She didn't use a single useful spell out that book .. oh sorry she did i think the one that saved the ML ..but no he had to die to over come his curse so that one attempt also goes to bin.
Thank goodness she was never entrusted with something like a death note. She might have turned it into a gratitude journal and ll writing daily affirmations for the villain. Damn it !
Now, credit where it is due. The cast was genuinely one of the best parts of this drama. Rowoon and Bo-ah did a solid job, and their chemistry carried many scenes that the script itself struggled to support. Even with an annoying role, Bo-ah’s charm managed to shine through. The side cast also added depth and personality, making the world feel more alive than the plot deserved. So, Majority stars in my rating goes to this lovely effort put together by the great cast of this drama.

The background music and OST were absolute bangers. The kind that linger in your head long after the episode ends.
The ending was satisfying as well. Not perfect, but decent enough to close the curtain without throwing tomatoes at the screen.
So yes, it was a good drama…
if you can simply fast-forward through the endless “catch-me-if-you-can” circus starring the stalker. This one is absolutely a must-watch for you.

Lire la suite

Úprimne? Asi prvá recenzia, kde dráme v podstate nemám moc čo vytknúť. A som z toho dosť nervózna :) Ale nie, žartujem, znášam to celkom dobre................. The Legend of Shen Li je skvost medzi xianxia drámami.

SPOILER
Už minimálne tým, že jedna celá epizóda je venovaná šťastnému koncu. To je priam nevídané a naozaj som si to užila. Posledná epizóda je krásna, a točí sa hlavne okolo Shen Li a Xing Zhi. Máme tu pekne zobrazené akým smerom ich vzťah pokročil a ako sa vyvinul charakter ich postáv po tom, ako zavládol relatívny mier. A  vzťah týchto dvoch ľudí bol tak svieži, čistý, veselý a hlavne skutočný, že som si v duchu vravela, presne takto by som to chcela mať aj ja :) 
KONIEC SPOILERU

Táto dráma je od začiatku do konca krásne vyvážená, bez nejakých vážnejších dejových výpadkov, sledovanie vám nesťažujú ani zbytočné dejové oblúky. Konanie všetkých postáv dávalo vždy zmysel, aj keď nie vždy som ho schvaľovala. Vlastne som si pri sledovaní uvedomila, že by som nemohla byť Boh ani žiadny hrdina, ktorý obetuje všetko pre dobro iných. Bola by som proste moc sebecká, a pozerala hlavne na seba. Preto som ,,obyčajný smrteľník,,. Samozrejme som si aj poplakala, bolo na to dosť príležitostí, tak prečo ich nevyužiť? Ale najviac ma dojal osud jednej osoby, a tu budem mať aj jednu výčitku..

SPOILER
Mo Fang, môj milovaný Mo Fang, prečo mu dopriali takýto skľučujúci osud? On ju mal tak rád, a ona sa naňho ani len nepozrela keď zomieral. Toto ma naozaj dostalo a ťažko som to predychávala. Mohla mu aspoň povedať niečo pekné. Áno viem bol to zradca a mal na svedomí smrť veľa ľudí, ale na druhej strane to bol dlhé roky jej najbližší človek a na konci sa pre ňu obetoval. No zas mi idú slzy do očí, asi starnem. Tak aspoň jeden pohľad mu mohla venovať. Popravde niekedy som podľahla pokušeniu, že by som možno bola radšej keby bola s ním ako s božským pánom. No potom som si to v hlave poupratovala a uvedomila som si že je to dobre tak, ako to je. Takže toto je taká malá výčitka z mojej strany.
KONIEC SPOILERU

Postavy našich dvoch hlavných hrdinov sa mi tak páčili až môžem s pokojným srdcom povedať, že som doslova nadšená! Hlavne Xing Zhi a teraz nehovorím o fyzickom vzhľade ale o jeho charaktere. Pokojný, vyrovnaný, inteligentný, uštipačný a popri tom tak citlivý.... Proste Boh. Dokonca tentokrát som spokojná aj s jeho dabingom. Hlas, ktorý mu prepožičal Bian Jiang je nádherný a presne sa hodil k jeho postave. Dopĺňal jeho božskú auru a aj vďaka tomuto hlasu som si jeho postavu zamilovala. Herec Lin Geng Xin bol v úlohe Boha Xing Zhi proste božský a jeho obsadenie do tejto role bol ten najlepší krok ku skvelej dráme.

Shen Li je ďalšia silná postava, ktorá bola síce úplným protikladom Xing Zhi, ale tu platilo pravidlo, že protiklady sa proste priťahujú. Naša generálka je impulzívna, hrdá, inteligentná a nezávislá žena. No takisto ako Xing Zhi, v hĺbke duše veľmi citlivá a oddaná. Títo dvaja ,,nesmrteľní,, mali krásny, vyrovnaný vzťah, bez zbytočných nedorozumení v ktorom sa navzájom dopĺňali.  Navyše chémia medzi nimi bola naozaj hmatateľná.

Chcem vidieť viac xianxia drám v tomto duchu, pretože po dlhom čase som mala nádherný pokoj v duši po tom, ako som dosledovala poslednú epizódu. Všetko tu dávalo zmysel. Páčilo sa mi, že celá dráma sa točí hlavne okolo vzťahu hlavných hrdinov, nenájdete tu žiadne zbytočné vedľajšie páry, ktoré zaberajú čas na obrazovke. To je tiež dosť nezvyčajné, ale zároveň osviežujúce. Každú scénu perfektne dopĺňa krásne OST, ktoré dokonale podčiarkuje dramatickosť deja, tam kde je to potrebné.

Čo sa týka CGI povedala by som že tak 50 na 50. Niekedy je naozaj krásne, až oku lahodiace a inokedy sa zas chytáte za hlavu, a myslíte si, že asi pozeráte úplne inú drámu. Čiže v tomto ohľade je to ako horská dráha, raz si hore potom zas dole.... No keď si to spriemerujem, tak CGI je dobré, pozerateľné. Čo mi najviac vadilo boli kulisy v Nebeskej ríši, toto pôsobilo naozaj až okato umelo. Ale na druhej strane, človek, ktorý má zopár xianxia drám za sebou je na to v podstate zvyknutý, pretože je to úplne bežné.
Kostýmy a vizáž perfektné, nemám čo vytknúť.

ZHRNUTIE
Jedna z najlepších xianxia drám, ktoré som videla. Už teraz môžem povedať, že je v mojom zozname drám, ktoré si časom určite pozriem znova. Pretože príbeh a atmosféra ktoré vám ponúkne The Legend of Shen Li je tak čarovný, že ho proste budete chcieť prežiť znova. A aj keď sú miesta kde cítite úplnú beznádej a frustráciu, hneď tým sa obloha vyjasní a opäť sa objaví svetielko nádeje, ktoré vám vyčarí úsmev na tvári. Až dôjdete k nádhernému, neuponáhľanému koncu, ktorý dá vzťahu našich hrdinov ešte hlbší zmysel a posledné minúty sú tá najsladšia bodka akú si viete predstaviť. Výraz Xing Zhi keď mu ,,TO,, Shen Li povie, je na nezaplatenie :))

Lire la suite