Reviews

funny, charismatic and a bit confusing

this is not the show if you are looking for well explained time travel concepts. it explains just enough to let you know what happened. however, the details go overlooked or not fully flashed out for the most part, especially towards a somewhat rushed end that at least ends well enough to be satisfying.

does it matter that some concepts are not flashed out? well, it depends on you. for me it didn't erase my enjoyment at all. the romcom was romcomming. the male lead was down bad the whole time. he truly said: "this woman is crazy and i want to scream at the top of my lungs how obsessed i am." shin seori didn't fall behind. a little weird but so full of hope and life, so energetic and also not a damsel in distress when it mattered. full of will and amazingly acted, too!

them together? an amazing watch, very compelling even when everything around them never reached the same level of character study (and thus, my care/appreciation). if you are here for the romance, then the dish is delicious. if you want a more complex story... well, go to another restaurant.

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Entertaining but not without flaws

Finally a kdrama without childhood connection, without annoying second lead, without unnecessary misunderstanding or breakups....its been such a long time since romcom in kdrama has actually romcomed....and yeah it was entertaining till the end. But ofcourse,not without its flaws.

The main strength behind My Royal Nemesis is of course our lead couple, Shin Seori and Cha Segye. And the actor duo that portrayed those characters, Im Ji Yeon and Heo Nam Jun deserves a huge round of applause for this. They actually revived so many dead kdrama watchers from their graves lol.
People knows Im Ji Yeon from The Glory as a villain. But I absolutely adored her in the Legend of Lady Ok as the main lead,she was fantastic. So I had no doubt about her.

The one I actually had doubt was Heo Nam Jun. I've seen him doing secondary roles before in dramas like Sweet Home,When The Phone Rings. It wasn’t anything special. But my oh my,the way he changed the game the moment he stepped up as a Cha Segye ... He was extremely attractive on the screen. He wasnt a typical sweet good looking male lead. He was bad, arrogant,cocky and he was really proud of it. His softness, his smile,his gentleness was only saved for Seori till the end. And his yearning for Seori when she fell into coma was too good to watch,he was actually devastated.Heo Nam Jun deserves more and more diveres characters,he has the range.

And these two did justice to their roles. Shin Seori as someone from Joseon who quickly adapted to the modern world,since she was originally a part of it before the soul swapping happened, but still trapped in the past cause her memory was lost....was really entertaining. She has been a part of royalty, so ofcourse her personality reflects that,always commanding and questioning everything that doesn’t please her. I also loved little detailing in her dressing in modern era,not revealing anything since she is from Joseon. And Cha Segye being absolutely amazed and unfazed by her one after another crazy to crazier activities.... At some point he was'nt even worried, he just stayed beside her and let her be. Loved that dynamics. They were bickering from the beginning till the end,their chemistry isn’t something extremely sensual,it was fun,adorable, cute,crazy.

But ofcourse, its not all sunshine rainbow. It had its fair share of flaws and unanswered questions. My first question was,where is Danshim? We know it was Seori in both eras,he got loved by both Lee Hyun and Cha Segye.... But what about Danshim? That poor Joeson girl got swapped into modern era,how did she survived here? She knew no one, how could she adapt here. Her life was as miserable as Seori,I wish we could see her story too. Yeah, we saw a little bit of her with Lee Hyun in the end... But again,Hyun loved Seori,not Danshim,how can he love again a completely different person with same face? How did Danshim knew Hyun,she was never appointed as his servant..... There should be a sequel with their story.

And why was the swapping happened anyway? What was the reason? Was it only for punishment?
And why was Seori poisoned in Joseon era as a concubine? How did she become a concubine, how was that journey?

Why was grandpa so mean towards Cha Segye? He was his own grandson,why he favoured Mun Do so much?

The amount of hospital scenes were craaaazzyyyy..... Cha segye being poisoned,grandpa seori accident,halmoni being amnesiac, Segye got stabbed,Seori in coma.....half the drama was shoot in the hospital!!!!

Another thing was the ending. It was rushed. Choi Mun Do being a powerful villain was taken down in the last episide only within five minutes. He could be used way better. And the grandma plot was very touching but somehow dragging,not gonna lie. Lots of character were underused like Mu Hee.That manager-actress relationship was so half cooked. And what about that side actress having beef with Seori? What was her issue? I guess we will never know.

If it was a proper 16 episodes drama,many more factors could be explored....it just felt like it ended so early.

However, it was a good watch. God knows when will there be another kdrama where everyone would gather and discuss theories like this. This one really brought back so many memories.

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So much and yet so little

Ok I finished this drama... finally. And I'll keep this breif cause I usually do not write reviews. First the good parts:

-The acting: Steelar! Chen Du Ling just carried the whole show and Zhou Yi Ran, well that face speaks for itself. The supporting caste did a great job too. (The best thing of the drama ngl)

-The chemistry: The chemistry wasn't overly hot or sweet but still enough you could push through the whole drama for them and it makes sense since they both had their struggles. Noice.

-The ost: I know I did not rate the ost that high but it was genuinely good. Especially the intro.

-Sets and costumes: Do I even need
to say anything about it? Fire 🔥🔥

Now the bad things:

- The plot: I don't know why but this drama suffered a chronic case of bad writing and bad pacing. The pacing was too fast that you didn't really absorb anything and still too slow because nothing really happened. Things that were supposed to be given time were not guven any and things that could be just skipped was stretched. (Like the literary gatherings. Be honest, did we really need that?)

-The story: The story started out great with all these lines of revege and saving her father and all but at one point... it just dragged. The side charaters (Xie gongzi and Deng Yi) kept schemeing but nothing seemed to happen.

-A jiu: Sure the actor was steller but that does not mean the character was too. The character to me (personal opinion here) seemed to bland. He only had two degrees, i.e, A zhao and gloomy. No personal thoughts, wishes, alliances. He revolved around A zhao and I think (again personally) he could be given a bit more time.

Conclusion: So overall it is really not a bad drama. It just missed some marks but honestly you could definitely watch it and maybe you might enjoy it too! (I personally skipped whole of almost every episode after like ep10)

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Perfect starter drama.

Starts great, but my interest started to wane around episode 7.

They somehow believably made this ridiculous bet work, and I think a lot of that had to do with how obvious it was that Ryo was down bad from the very beginning.

Acting was good, and they really embodied their characters. They also don't act over the top like in a lot of Japanese dramas I've seen, which is a major plus. Our leads also had good chemistry, and the cuddles were good. I love a good cuddle.

The stress relief scene in episode 2 is what made me want to watch the series. It's so cute! Zen also looks small and adorable in that moment. Sad to say, but besides this part, I'm probably not going to remember anything from this drama in a couple of months.

I love a good rivals-to-lovers trope, and this one was done really well; however, It's not memorable. I'm not going to be thinking of it at all now that I've finished it. I don't really care if we get more, even though if we get more, I do feel it's deserved.

Futami's actor was done dirty with that bowl haircut. I've heard he is really good-looking in the manga.

This is an easy drama to recommend to anyone, especially beginners, because it has good acting, production value, the chemistry between the actors is good, and it isn't too in your face with the NC scenes. It also has just the right amount of drama for someone who wants to watch a drama, but not be stressed out.

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Great for Family Theme, Mediocre for Action

Kwon Dohoon tries hard to be a good father and husband but his line of work constantly drives a wedge between him and his family, despite him being the family’s major breadwinner. An expert sniper for the National Intelligence Service who is often away from home during important events like his father’s knee surgery and their 10y wedding anniversary, Kwon Dohoon found himself driven into an even tighter spot when his wife Kang Yura misunderstands his relationship with his Chief, the beautiful Oh Chunryun upon her return from their supposedly anniversary vacation turned solo trip. And just as they manage to straighten things out between them, a man named Taegu turned up at their doorstep. Yura introduced him as her cousin but Taegu turned out to be the key to a bigger and darker secret of the nation, threatening to rip apart this second family that she cherished and pushing her to do whatever means necessary to protect them at all cost.

I took up this title expecting Mr & Mrs Smith or The Incredibles kind of show, but it turned out to be a lot like Modern Family instead. The pacing is very slow as theyre more focused on portraying how tight-knit the family is, with Kang Yura acting like a glue to keep the family in order with her husband being constantly out of the picture when important things come up. It took 5 episodes for FL’s backstory to emerge, and the pace only picked up on the action at Episode 7 when FL’s real face resurfaced and bullets and punches flew all over the place.

As opposed to the dramatic hollywood spy/secret agent shows, this drama instead showcased the couple of differing sides to be very calm and collected, diffusing any strain that could ever emerged had this been an american production. Just like how Kwon Dohoon try to be understanding about Oh Chunryun’s background, he did the same with his wife, never mentioning it openly but went directly to be her support by his actions instead. Although I love how maturely understanding their bond is, i do feel quite disappointed that he never talked about it onscreen and they never showed how his team reacted to the new Kang Yura they discovered during an intense shootout at their supposedly covert office.

I totally love the portrayal of Kwon Dohoon although he does act quite like a prick in the early episodes, and Jang Nara is so gorgeous here I didnt want for her to be off the screen at all. Love it even more when she rips her typical gentle wife mask and went Black Widow in last quarter of the show.

I loved how they portrayed the family, but it turned me off when the writer decided that it’s fine to sexualize 7year-old children’s friendship and turn it into an obsession. It’s like seeing a kid beauty pageant that dolls up a bunch of little girls as mature sexy women. It’s gross. I fastforwarded whatever scenes that have Minseo and Boseok cuz it just doesnt bode well with my moral conscience.

Other than that, this is like the usual family drama with a pinch of action.

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Makes you think

I liked this a lot at the start but I think it sort of fizzled out a bit.

Some things that happen feel a little convenient, and there some other plot points that are set up but don't have the pay-off I expected. While I understand that this is more of a quiet and contemplative slow burn, the final episode left me feeling a bit unsatisfied.

With that being said, however, there were a lot of interesting themes introduced here — it addresses depression and envy in extremely creative ways, and I appreciate the drama even more for being brave enough to make its main character unlikable.

I think My Mister is still my top Park Hae Young drama by far, but anyone who enjoyed that and My Liberation Notes will like this one too.

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I'M OBSESSED WITH WU

Omg I’m obsessed with Wu! Niran and Pete’s story is so heart-fluttering, it really feels like they’re meant to be together no matter what. Even with all the obstacles and misunderstandings, their chemistry is insane—every fight scene and even just a glance hits so hard.
The visuals are gorgeous too, the way they use light and silence to show longing and regret is just chef’s kiss. It starts a bit slow, but once you hit the final episodes it’s totally worth it.
For me, Wu really shows how love can heal you but also break you. Highly recommend if you’re into slow-burn dramas that actually hit you in the feels!

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I've never watched any other version of Boys Over Flowers, but I just know that this is definitely the least problematic one lol.

They took a terrible story and managed to get blood from a stone. They made the characters likeable, even the male lead, who is an abomination of nature in all other versions.

For me, the best thing about this version compared to the others is that they finally take bullying seriously. The protagonist has character development, but here he doesn't simply become a good person and face no consequences for the things he's done. I loved it.

And the female lead... God, what a goddess. Easily one of the most stunning women I've ever seen, I was completely distracted when she was on screen.

Anyway, it's a story that's a bit dated, but they managed to get the best out of it.

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I just didn't get what they were trying to do here lol.

My main problem with the series is that it manages to turn a story that should be interesting into something surprisingly monotonous. The pacing is slow, but not the kind of slowness that deepens the characters or builds emotional tension. At many points, it feels like nothing really happens, and the episodes drag on without a clear sense of progress.

The main couple didn't work for me either. Although I liked the actors individually, I never felt a strong enough chemistry to make me root for the relationship.

It had a different premise, a talented cast, and the opportunity to explore adult relationships in an interesting way, but it ended up being an excessively slow drama, emotionally lukewarm, and far less engaging than it could have been.

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A good comedy trying to be an unsuccessful tearjerker…

This drama started off AMAZINGLY!!!! I was literally obsessed with the first episodes! It was soooo hilarious!!!! I kept recording the funny scenes and sending it to friends and telling everyone to watch this 😂😂😂
I loved the drama when it was just about Seo-ri trying to get used to the new world. I never realized it but the fish out of water trope really is one of my faves 😂😂😂 The way she was talking was soooo hilarious I was laughing soooo hard I couldn’t breathe 🤣🤣😆 This actress has done such an amazing job!!! One of my highlights of the year so far! I wanna see her in more comedies!!! 😂😂😂
That scene of hers when someone made a youtube edit of her saying this one sentence over and ovet again was the death of me! I was cryingggg soooo harddddd!!!! 😂😂😂
In general in the first few episodes there were a lot footages of Seoul’s famous sights so it almost felt like a promotional travel video for Korea but in a good way. Fun to watch if you miss Korea like I do. Also her addiction to sweets and how she kept on running out of money bcs all she did was spend it on food was hilarious 😂 And the dogggg ommggg!!! 🥹🥹🥹 It was sooo cuteeee!!!! I hoped the drama had stayed in this slice of life world until the end without the numerous time travels, and past life snippets and family intrigue and murder 😕😕😕

I also really liked her next-door neighbor ☺️ That male actor has been one of my favorite second male leads. I always love the roles he plays in dramas and I really wanna see him as a male lead one day. I liked him much more than Cha Se-Gye. Not as a romantic partner for Seo-ri but just as a character in general. I would have likes to see more scenes of him and her and how their friendship evolved 😂 I also really liked how he became her manager 🤣🤣🤣 That was one of the good things of the middle part of the drama…

I would say after the Jeju episodes things went downhill for me…

When Mo Tae-hee shows up things get quite boring… There was also this one episode (8 or 9) when everything takes place in the press… scene after scene there is another news article! It all felt like I was reading twitter rather than watching a k-Drama… that was the point when I lost interest and got sleepy and bored at EVERY episode… I seriously had to force myself to finish one episode / night 🥺🥺🥺

Also I found the male lead to be VERY toxic! The way he treated FL was unacceptable for me. I would have never dated him. He only liked her when he felt loved but as soon as she did something that shattered is ego he became all aggressive… RED FLAG!!! 🚩 nope!
The kiss scenes were indeed amazing tho! And luckily he softens up in the last like 3 episodes or sth 😂😂😂
But the switch from perfect comedy to half-asses romance and family/company intrigues left me quite cold 😕 I wished the first 5 episodes back…

Another thing I didn’t like is how the FL changed from being this badass woman who took no one’s shit and always fought back (she literally beat up a dozen men to save her grandma in the first episodes), to suddenly being this weak, whiny woman who needed to be saved by the ML really rubbed me the wrong way… didn’t like it at all… And it made absolutely no sense…

The past life / reincarnation thing was interesting but a bit sloppy and confusing at times, to the point that it got boring… I feel like they wanted to do sth similar to Hotel Del Luna but they failed…

Then some things towards the end that I didn’t quite understand / had questions about:

1. What was the point of having halmoni have dementia and losing her memory?? Did it contribute to the plot? to the character development? Why? Why did it have to happen? And why did she have to die? I feel like they were trying really hard to make the audience cry but sorry it was not convincing… They should have sticked to the comedy. They did that the best tbh…

2. Why was the grandfather so mean to Se-Gye and favored Mun-Do all his life just to make a 180 turn and call Mun-Do inhumane and start prioritizing Se-Gye?? Just because he finally found a gurl? I didn’t understand that and it never got clarified…

3. The last scene of Dan-sim and the Prince running away? what was that all about? I didn’t understand…

4. Also the way she had to save him in the past but couldn’t be with him again all didn’t matter in the end anyway and they could easily bend the rules again seemed very sloppy to me… I didn’t like it that the rules were so easy to change…

5. Why did Seo-ri’s drama set bestie turn on her???? What happened that she started to hate Seo-ri? I feel like the motive here was not clear. Was it because the second FL aka the actress suddenly turned good that they needed another evil, jealous side girl??? I don’t like that approach! Why cant they all just become friends??? 🙄🙄🙄

Also the amount of hospital scenes was just insane!!! 1. he gets poisoned 2. she gets hit by a truck 3. grandpa is still in the hospital 4. halmoni has to go to the hospital too 5. Seo-ri gets drugges 6. Se-Gye gets stabbed 7. Seo-ri is in a coma … did I forget sth??? 🙄🙄🙄
Tis drama should have been just 10 episodes… then maybe it would have not become such a shipwreck in the end…

All in all, just watch the first 4 episodes for a good laugh and then drop it…

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