Reviews

Too many unnecessary scene

I would have given it a higher rating if they cut out all the "romance" scene altogether. It's just too much and so unnecessary. They just had to, don't they?! What a waste of screentime. Man and Woman can work together without romance, you know l, why can't writers get that!! Instead of putting those unconvincing romance, they should've focused more on the angst and internal conflicts of the characters. It's also lacking on the action scenes, it's very slow paced. Too many prolonged dialogue and blank stare. Also, I can't stand the FL, she's too stubborn and not too bright, not very convincing as a 'famous todugun". The synopsis must be wrong LOL

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Went into it for a sweet romance and it’s mostly what I’ve got. Natural development of feelings between the leads and beautiful friendships were for sure the highlights. The issue was the second half of the show and all the overdramatic plotlines added. It worked the best as a chill slice of life, why add more?

The first half of the show is everything one might want from high school romance: playful, smart, caring male lead. Smart, positive and driven female lead. Friends with good comedic timing delivering a fun side romance. Plot touching on internal struggles like not knowing what you want to do in your life, wanting to both please your family, but also do what feels right for you. The chemistry between all the cast was amazing, the innocent jealousy, the bickering - butterflies in the stomach mode on.

But then something happened in the second half that made me lose a bit of my interest. The plot surrounding Zhou Si Yue’s family and how it made him hesitate and take a step back was literally enough to fill all the remaining episodes. Why add more to it? Why focus on the 2nd male lead after such a long time? Why add the whole “crime and business” related aspects? A lot of random plotlines were introduced and concluded in 2-3 episodes, so why even bother making them happen if they did not plan to develop them in a proper manner?

All that considered, I still enjoyed Our Secret for fluffy romance, heartwarming friendships and great performance from the cast. Honestly, can we talk about Chen Zhe Yuan? Because he aced the role. I am completely in love with this man right now. He was so natural in his performance. He made me want to go back to my high school days, and that was for sure not the best and most exciting part of my life…

Meng Jie Xu also did a great job with the presentation of Ding Xian. I wish some of her emotional scenes were a bit more… emotional? I don’t think the character was written in a way she would try to restrain her feelings, but that’s the vibe I’ve got a few times.

Overall, a high end of the decent high school romances. Surprisingly not cheesy, not leaving you with second hand embarrassment.

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Why do people like it so much?

Idk if its just me but I feel like this show is so cliché? It's like every other kdrama.

Maybe it's just because I don't like predictable shows but I feel like the plot had so much potential but they used it wrong, I mean you have a literal demon ml and a strong independent fl. Yet when the fl sees the ml there's a romance song playing in the background and it's all in slowmo💀 Why do these strong characters start acting so empty in the head when they see the ml?

Not the mention in ep 1 while she was getting chased, she stopped running? had an entire monologue? had a conversation with the ml and the guy still hadn't caught up to her? how on earth does that work. I could express more things I didn't like too but I think it's just how predictable this plot is that I don't like and the fact that the characters could have had so much more potential.

I also don't watch romance much but the romance shows I've liked the most are the ones more about the plot than the romance.

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A tale of strong performances hindered by plot constraints

As the second instalment in to the VBL series, “You are Mine” stands out as an entertaining office rom-com series with a good plot supported by strong performances. But like its predecessor, falls short of being great due to lack of episodes. A couple of more episodes fleshing out the main characters would have made this one of the best series of 2023.

The series is about 2 central characters; Xia Shang Zhou, General manager of a reputed organization feared by his employees for being stern and quick to temper. Yao Shun Yu, a young and innocent man joins the organization as an Assistance Secretary to Xia. Finding him utterly useless during their first interaction, Xia learns to soften himself through daily interactions with Yao as he finds himself being attracted to this new addition to his team.

The series excels due to the strong performances by the two lead actors Parker Mao and Hsiao Hung. Parker Mao played a stoic, work-oriented individual who is above social interactions and lacks human emotions. Hsiao Hung, on the other hand brings to life the role of a young, cheerful youth who wants to work hard to help his family. Their acting prowess shines at scenes requiring extreme emotions of loss and heartbreak.

The series however fails in using the plot that it introduced in the early episodes. Xia Shang Zhou, is shown to be suffering from headaches and insomnia due to a childhood trauma and his mother’s strict upbringing. It’s this treatment from his mother along with multiple other factors that make him emotionless. That is a strong character building but is not capitalized further. There is no arc for Xia to break free from his mother’s control and grow as a character. Hsiao Hung, goes through an inner turmoil caused by his own feelings and his misunderstanding of Xia’s feelings towards him. A couple of more episodes to go through Xia’s past and his ultimate growth would have made this truly exceptional

In conclusion, “You are mine” is a series wherein the acting and chemistry between our two main leads, a plot with underlying themes of trauma, parental control and power dynamics makes it a must watch albeit a stronger plot could have made it a masterpiece

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A great drama, best one in 2023 in my opinion

When I heard Charmaine Sheh was returning to TVB for this one drama I was excited because she was one of my favorite actors to watch on TVB in the past. And here for this drama she does not disappoint. She is a strong independent woman who is called the Queen of News and you can tell from all her interactions and actions that she clearly is the Queen, and had worked hard to get to that position. The other members of the cast really compliment her well as we have great acting such as from Kenneth Ma as her rival at the SNK news station really driving up the tension between the two.

This drama really had the feel of the period drama piece Beyond the Realm of Conscience and its sequel also by TVB, but put into a modern setting. There is a lot of shadowy underhanded work and backstabbing with people constantly switching sides so it just had you second guessing everything that was going on. We have Samantha Ko who started out working for Kenneth and using her sex appeal to draw in the viewers, but she switches sides to Charmaine the moment she felt Kenneth was losing, and we have Regina Ho who was being trained to take over from Charmaine by Charmaine herself, but it turned out she was actually undercover for Kenneth and was secretly dating him. And you have the Director of the station played by Eric Tang who appears to foster calm and friendly competition but was secretly plotting against Charmaine with Kenneth, yet he can’t do much as Charmaine has the support of his boss, Mrs Fong played by Mimi Kung. Their relationships are confusingly intertwined, so you really do not know what is going to happen at any moment. The reveals just kept having me going “whoa what?”

The person with the most interesting character arc was played by Selena Lee. She started out as the neutral party and was vehemently against siding with Charmaine or Kenneth, instead focusing on delivering the truth to viewers. But as the drama went on, she found her beliefs tested and ended up in a real dark place. She came out of it with a massive heel turn, switching from righteous reporter to selfish Selena. As we watch her progress, we understand her thinking and sympathise with her decisions.

The only actor I found annoying was Regina Ho. Man, she is portrayed as this really easily manipulated idiot who is ashamed of her humble beginnings and cannot even handle her younger sister being this brat that needed to be disciplined. Later she started to hallucinate as she started to have a mental breakdown. She was annoying enough already, but she had to commit the biggest sin in the drama by cheating on Kenneth Ma with her uber driver. Like wtf?

The final episodes were not as tense and dramatic as the earlier ones, but it does end with Charmaine’s past catching up with her and a hostage situation to resolve, but I am hopeful for the future because Bosco Wong made a cameo appearance at the end as a possible new rival for Charmaine. That had me very excited, season 2 hurry up and come!

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Better than Gone With The Wind

Tumultuous story that is strung together by the once in a lifetime chemistry of the leading couple. The entire cast is more mature than you would usually see and it pays off. The gravitas brought to each role is a feast for the audience. Every squint of the eye, flip of a ribbon, or glance to the side carries intention and depth of character. I found myself loving and hating each character in turn, including our main couple. The ships passed in the night one too many times, and I found myself frustrated constantly; but this made the moments of true connection so blissful that all was soon forgiven.

I’ve been a fan of Gone With The Wind since I was young, for its grand scale, frustratingly unresolved love story, and cinematic impact. I found myself carried along with the plot, adoring the homage to my beloved story, but worried it would ultimately end without our leads’ redemption. I feared I’d have to watch Rhett tell Scarlett he doesn’t give a damn and storm out. I was so relieved to find the story developed into a much richer and more meaningful tale of true love, sacrifice, fate, and forgiveness.

This film used color so well. The early scenes before war breaks out are presented in almost glowing hues, as if the saturation was turned up a bit past believable and really drives home the fact the our FL is living in a rosy version of reality that doesn’t quite exist, yet she is desperate to hold onto. Seeing the beauty of her transformation into muted colors as she truly matures, and we suddenly realize that glow is now coming from within her.

There’s so much I could say about this drama. I don’t rate 10’s often, and never across the board. But this one deserves it. I rarely write reviews, but here I am, still with tears in my eyes after episode 21, typing a review I can only hope will be coherent.

Don’t pass on this drama. It is a feast for the viewer and you won’t soon forget it.

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Unexpectedly Good

I honestly have to give it up for Unlock My Boss...I genuinely didn't think this series would turn out to be good because I thought the story sounded silly, like you can't blame me on that part. But I gave it a go and it had me captivated, the storyline was unexpectedly good and it was actually interesting.

The only bad side about this entire series is the ending, it was rather abrupt and tho the ending was satisfying I wanted to see a little more(?) like you barely saw what happened with Min-a after Hyun-Ho got arrested and her dad returned in a PVA state and she's left only with Soojin at home — or are Insung and Seyeon still living with her? That's something I wanted to see more of and not to mention Inseong and Soyeon's romance. But I guess since the romance is just a side story it's not necessary.

Overall it's a good fantasy/thriller series and I do recommend it.

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Ancient custom drama making reference to the Cold War !

This drama is a feast for those who like world history for it took titbits especially from the pages of the Cold War. New interest must had arose in the scriptwriter when in 2017, secret JFK records (US President John F. Kennedy, 1960–1963, assassinated on November 22, 1963—drama specifically aired few days later as remembrance of his 60th death anniversary) were made public by the National Archive.This gave fresh information to make historical conjectures about the past that precisely corresponded to the facts to expound on and comprehend why particular events transpired as they did. A captivating and illuminating drama results from combining some Cold War events with some of its colorful and charismatic characters, a masterful script, and the superb acting of all the protagonists and supporting cast members.
Spoiler Alert.
The ML, Ning Yuan Zhou, was a smart and visionary espionage chief who was demoted and sent to safeguard the Wu emperor in the war. He was the composite of 2 historical figures: JFK and the powerful Director of FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, whose 48-year tenure saw the assassinations of JFK and then his brother, Robert F. Kennedy (RFK), who ran for the presidency in 1968.
The FL,Ren Ru Yin, a cool and relentless vice section head of An female assassin espionage group who was frame for killing her benefactor, the An empress. She had to defect to Wu with state secrets, seeked asylum and assumed a fake identity as a Wu princess She was also a combination of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, a benchmark for style and class among wives of presidents, and RFK, who, as Attorney-General in his brother's cabinet was known for his ruthlessness and toughness in combating organized crime.
The opening of episode 1, "The Central Plains was thrown into a century of chaos when the last emperor of the previous dynasty was killed, split into many countries; among them 2 were the most powerful, Wu and An."(The Cold War, which lasted 45 years, began with the competition and antagonism between the US and Russia after World War II.)
The An emperor seized 3 cities from Wu and the war with Wu started. ( Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were invaded under Russian leader.Stalin and incorporated into the Soviet Union)
The Wu emperor listened to ill advisers to lead the war and got captured by An, leading Wu to a state of turmoil.( JFK did not listened to security advisers not to ride in an open-air motorcar in Dallas,Texas and got assassinated which shocked and stunned the nation into national mourning.)
The Wu emperor was captured by an An general with a modern revolutionary principle of fighting to end all wars. ( Che Guevara, with his romantically Latin good looks and long, wavy hair , was a legend for freedom fighters and a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla leader, 2nd in command after Fidel Castro of Cuba in the Cuban Revolution.)
The standoff between Wu and An occurred when Wu emperor was taken hostage by An who wanted ransom for his released.( The Cuban Missiles Crisis ,the standoff when US demanded that Russian removed Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba )
The FL, as White Sparrow, and her friend LingLong were to seduce Wu officials for state secrets in a banquet.LL was betrayed by her secret An lover and killed. (John Profumo,  the U.K. secretary of state for war met a model at a party. Unknown to him , she has a secret KGB lover. When the affair was exposed, he resigned but the Conservative Party lost the general election the following year)
Prince Danyang sending his army to ambush and killed the Wu delegation, going to ransom back his brother the Wu emperor. Countrymen fighting against each other. ( The Bay of Pigs incident, when Cuban exiles funded by CIA, landed and attempted to overthrow PM Fidel Castro)
The stunning announcement of unlikely marriage between Li Tong Guan and Chuyue by the An emperor shocked them and everyone else. He was an illegitimate son of a princess, while she was a princess from a powerful tribe. (Jackie Kennedy shocked and stunned the world when she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, just months after the assassination of her brother-in-law, RFK. She was from the upper-class society of New York while he worked his way from telephone operator to tycoon.They lived separate lives, she lived months in America with her children, while he was in Greece with his children. She remarried for a variety of reasons, one of which was probably PTSD following another shooting death. She had sat beside her husband when he was shot,stood beside vice president Lyndon B Johnson, when he was sworn in to replace her husband and endured a two-hour trip back to Washington with her husband in a casket and her dress still smeared with his blood. The princess, depicted as a picture of forced composure with an interior full of agony and suffering, sat waiting for an audience with the emperor for hours on end in that scene, which was brilliantly enacted in epi. 22. )
The princess left the sheltered life of the palace as part of a delegation to An, where she witnessed the hardships and impoverishment her people had endured during the conflict.She was even occasionally thrown stones and rotten vegetables to help her comprehend the animosity and wrath, and she responded by promising to restore peace.(The involvement of US in the Vietnam War with actual landing of troops resulting in heavy casualties, contributed to a great deal of animosity and outrage that its leaders failed to anticipate. The scene where Qian Zhao held his mates' badges and forced the emperor to show respect for them was a poignant way for drama to honor the troops who lost their lives fighting in foreign soil. When Saigon fell in 1975, the Vietnam War came to an end. A few days before, there was a dramatic and massive airlift to rescue US citizens, South Vietnamese government officials,their families, and thousands of others by helicopters to the waiting US Seventh Fleet in the South China Sea.Depicted in the rescue of Wu emperor by aerial lift of cables from his island prison)
The drama dragged many episodes to rescue the emperor.From the tightly guarded pagoda prison with its many booby traps to an Alcatraz like island prison. (A parody of sharp contrast from the ridiculously easy fatal shooting of the lone assassin of JFK, Lee Harvey Oswald, to killing him at close range from another lone shooter, Jack Ruby, when he was being transferred from jail to court in police custody! Done in 2 days after the assassination and live on national TV! Real life is much weirder than friction! )
Betrayal was the drama's theme. The motive of the ML was to clear the bad reputation that his espionage organisation had betrayed the emperor in the war. While the Fl was to clear her name that she betrayed and killed her empress.The Wu and An emperors exploited and betrayed their people for their own greed and ego trips. The An Empress who experienced treachery from her father, son, and husband. The crown prince divulging his father's collaboration with the enemy country.There were innumerable such betrayals in the drama. ( In ancient times the punishment for betrayal was to pull out the roots.The writer put forth brilliant deductive speculation coupled with rumors of a connection to Marilyn Monroe, as both brothers did died of gunshots and JFK's only son died childless with his wife in a plane crash. The 2017 files also established that the Russians was not involved in JFK assassination, as they awkwardly put their defence on high security alert for attacks. The files also indicated that there was more than one shooter, as bullet holes demonstrated that the gunfire originated from multiple directions, confirming the conspiracy theorists' long-held belief. Writer theories were presented regarding the conspirators who ordered extermination with extreme caution in the ML statements of “gains and losses” and Zhong Sang ,Wu PM .This historical whodunit murder mystery can be solved upon all releases of secret files once FBI and CIA lift their blocks.).

BTW, the drama has OE like the JFK files. Is the writer venting on the viewers, or is it an act of betrayal?!!

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It's my fav drama in 2023.

It has everything I have ever loved. Slight bit of romance, friendship, action, drama and comedy! I love the end too it's just so wholesome. This drama makes me laugh, cry and it even melts my heart! It also kinda made me more interested in martial arts too.! I have always been interested in martial arts but it made me more interested in it. I like the aesthetics of this drama too. Even the bad guys are fashionable. Every single outfit can inspire your wardrobe! Well about the male lead, even though you get annoyed with the male lead sometimes, he is a really lovable character. He kinda reminds me of nobuta from doraemon it's just that nobita is way weaker (well at the beginning he was just like him) though he is a separate character of his own. He gets stronger at the end but he still remains the same. I JUST love this drama!

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Waste of Time & Potential!

I did it. I finally watched every single episode without skipping. I was miserable, but I did it because I really love Bai Lu & Dylan Wang. I wanted to give them my full attention until the very end.

This drama had so much wasted potential. I even took down some notes on my phone while I watched. How could a drama with such an amazing cast be so terrible! Okay it's time to let it all out.

Negatives:
- Unnecessarily long staring/pondering scenes. LIKE SUPER unnecessarily long.
- Yi Yang was a useless character. He added nothing to this show. Pure annoyance. This guy couldn't and wouldn't take no for a damn answer.
- Lack of communication within all of the characters. Everyone pretty much knew each other but didn't know that they all knew each other mutually. Does that make sense? Like with Guan Ji and ShanShan... why didn't ShanShan tell her best friend ShuYi that she knew who he was? And even towards the end when GJ and SS got together, she didn't even tell ShuYi until she found out for herself. I actually liked this couple in the beginning, but boy oh boy were they so damn annoying later on!
- Speaking of ShanShan - she gave the WORST relationship advice to ShuYi. And it doesn't help that ShuYi is so dumb. They're basically dumb and dumber, except dumber is giving dumb advice. HAHA.
- Nobody is straightforward with their feelings except the niece, ShiYue.
- So much hesitation with talking & texting. I can't tell you how many times they typed out a decent message but decided to delete it and not send it.
- Many many missed opportunities to clear up misunderstandings. MANY!!!!
- ShuYi's Mom meeting ShiYan was SOOOOO disappointing. We didn't get to see her true reaction to him really being ShuYi's boyfriend. That scene was so boring and the Mom just left right after? What the heck was that all about?! They could have made it so much better. I wanted to see her surprised, but instead she just looked bored and annoyed the whole entire time she was at the house.
- The wedding scene with Tang Yi and her hubby was so awkward. They didn't even kiss... they just hugged it out?! LOL.
- Ending was disappointing and felt empty.

Okay that's enough negatives, now onto the positives:

- I really enjoyed ShiYue's character. She seemed to be the only one giving decent advice, had her head screwed on, spoke her mind most of the time, straightforward about her feelings, great friend and so fun!! Loved her character.
- Great kiss scenes between ShuYi and ShiYan.
- Aesthetically pleasing actors & actresses.

Overall, this was not worth the watch. 36 episodes was way too long. This definitely could have been 20 episodes or less. What a frustrating drama with wasted potential. Disappointing!

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The overall performance was mind blowing

I must confess, I developed a keen attraction to each and every one of them, the acting and directing was a 10/10, the ending was overly rushed I had to take a break. The Fl almost made me a lesbian lol , the male lead was something else he mad me straight again haha.. he is the love of my life
The princess growth is a thing of fancy I hope the actress gets good deals she’s really an item.
And to the producers thanks for breaking our hearts and making us fall deeply in love.
I think I should be employed to give this dramas a better name, cause the drama name wasn’t just it cause I am about to go Jeffery dhamer

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Boring Zombie Series, full of Cute Girls

This show is just boring. The gist of the story is not something new, but props for trying something creative. As a zombie show, this is just trash, but it's full of kawaii girls so I get the appeal of it.

Some of the mains had okay acting, as for the rest they're very meh, from what i can see i think everybody here are newbies, the teacher had decent acting, and the news reporter is just a bad actor.

The effects were really clean especially when the zombies transform, but the fire explosions in the last episodes were really horrendous, but honestly? wtf is up with that not so scary jumpscare ad break? there are 3 in every episode, at first it caught me off guard, but since you'd be expecting it every episode, it not even scaring me anymore.

The music is almost nonexistent in this series i think that's what lacking to at least make this really eerie, but that upbeat J-pop song really annoyed the fuck out of me, wtf??? this film is supposed to be horror, why the upbeat jpop? but at least they have okay sound effects that's one point.

Nothing else to say, just skip this if you're looking for a good japanese horror, but if you like your cute girls in jdramas then go for it.

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Sadly I'm not impressed by Park Eun Bin this time.

I gave 1 star for acting, only because of Park Eun Bin. Although I love her as an actress and she is great at what she does, this time I'm not impressed by her. Everyone else in the cast did a great job with their given role.
While Park Eun Bin delivered a commendable performance as an attorney with Asperger's syndrome in "Extraordinary Attorney Woo," her portrayal in "Castaway Diva" seems to reflect a lack of versatility. Despite the distinct premise of the new drama, her character appears to carry over the traits of her previous role, making it challenging for viewers to connect with the intended narrative of a woman stuck in time on a deserted island. The persistent portrayal of Asperger's syndrome in a completely different context may hinder the authenticity of the character and impact the overall viewing experience. It would be interesting to see Park Eun Bin explore a broader range of emotions and character dynamics in future projects.

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