Reviews

"Follow Your Heart."

Despite the ratings, I think this is one of my favorite short dramas from Japan. I can see why it appeals to only a limited audience -- the leading characters are definitely not the conventional ones. While I'm pretty much accustomed to seeing the 'popular smarty pants' and an introverted silent/chaotic mess, its the first time I'm coming across characters who are both calm and composed. And the overall aura of this series is surprisingly dark/unhappy.

Takizawa Kazuma has just returned from overseas and landed a job in the HR department of an advertising firm. To his surprise, he runs into his former best friend and first love Ishihara Ren, whom he had lost connection with when Kazuma had fallen ill in high school. However, the Ren he knows now refuses to indulge about his past and has changed his surname. They fall back into their old habits and Kazuma keeps his feelings for Ren a secret, even resorting to a friend-with-benefit arrangement, to keep it hidden. But, Ren seems to be hiding something much more bigger than he imagined.

The story has a plot, particularly dealing with workplace harassment. But, the entire journey is worth only for the characters alone -- if they grow on you, per se.
Saotome Ren/Ishihara Ren is one character whom I respect. Not because of how loyal he was to everyone he came across, but how pure he was in his intentions. I can practically hear my parents telling me why I should never fall in love at a young age because that's exactly what happens to Ren.
I enjoyed Kazuma's sunshine like personality; but, I do think that he a bit too naïve when he was young.
[It's lucky that Ren's instincts were correct, otherwise this would be a certain tragedy. ]
I have to say, I was satisfied with both the actors' portrayal of their roles, even if Ren's crying scenes did not have actual tears. But, then again, was it intentional?

The supporting characters such as Ryunosoke and Hide weren't just there to exist, but provided insights about the remaining characters. I liked how we were shown how both Ren and Kazuma saw each other through their own lens'.
The pacing was surprisingly good. The flashbacks from childhood that were interspersed with the current timeline managed to capture my attention and pique my curiosity. Both the child actors were excellent and well casted. I hope to see both of them in bigger roles in the future. [Loved the ending song, One Day, which seems to be more suitable for the darker theme rather than the sunny opening.]

I'm writing this review after quite a long break, so it's already a win that I'm able to recall both the characters' names and their stories. It might not be for everyone, but this was just an almost perfect watch for me.

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Surprising

UMG was a really nice and easy watching series. I thought it was something really really serious about aliens and all the fiction thing, but it was a nice surprise to see it was more a comedy thing and heartwarming. The story was really interesting, credible with some plot twists. The characters are really cute and funny at the same time. Their friendship was so cute to follow

The casting was PERFECT, Sing and Drake were really fun, Milk is such a good actress and the duo Nanon  × Namtan was so good I love them together. Of course, as a Namtan fan I loved her so much in this character, she was fun and so cute and so beautiful ♡♡♡
The music was also nice, very energetic, but It's a detail.

To finish I would rewatch the series is a need to watch something fun and if I don't want to think too much.

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Unexpectedly very very good

This is not a light hearted romance comedy but a mature romance drama dealing with the topic of adultery (unknowingly by the female protagonist, who stops the relationship once she knows he has someone else), it is dealt in a very very interesting, tasteful and smart way.
So it is not actually about adultery, but about love..

For the FL, it is about healing and moving on after a 2-year relationship to the 2nd ML, who secretly gets committed to someone else (sick) during the course of their relationship , not because of love but because of greed…
it makes sense that both relationships of the second ML remain secret to the world, the one with the FL because they are coworkers, and the other because the GrandFather is opposed to it, and owns the Company they work at. Also, he doesn’t love her… We are told that he kind of had not choice in agreeing to marry the CEO’s grand daughter, but plans to keep the FL, who he really loves, as his mistress after marriage, hence the drama tittle, he hoped « she would never know »…because he knows she loves him deeply and he counts on it when she will learn the truth not to break up.

The best part of the story for me is about the male protagonist, played by Rowoon,: his story arc and genuine personality in the drama makes it one of a kind, extremely well written, directed, insightful, interesting, and … swoon worthy. As rowoon says in the drama, he wants to make the FL live the most beautiful love there is… and that’s exactly what he does throughout. He offers her an unconditional pure mature love, which not everybody is able to receive , especially someone with scars and who hasn’t been loved by her parents…
,.
We also understand that without the support of Rowoon, who told her the truth about her boyfriend, she might have compromised her integrity and accepted the situation once known to her, that’s how much she loved him in the beginning.
But ultimately, she has a strong character and manages to overcome her feelings for her ex boyfriend. And that is quite interesting, because usually, the mistress would keep hoping and waiting for her lover to choose her…

On a lighter side, Rowoon character in the drama is the perfect boyfriend material, absolutely kind, caring, charming, He brings light to the drama, like the second leads arcs., the ones of his two great sisters. What a treat to watch them interact with each other.

Rowoon wins the FL over in the end thanks to his pure personality. dedication and unwavering supporting unconditional love,

All in all, not the classic rom com,
Extremely well treated difficult topic
Very smart and well directed
With meaningful dialogs that make you reflect
Doesn’t fall into adultery unpleasant pitfalls, excusing an unhealthy / amoral relationship under the pretence of love…

And a great positive ending lasting a full episode
A beautiful love story
Rowoon is decidedly a promising actor

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Simple and realistic drama yet emotionally engaging

Story:
The plot is simply slice of life and slow burn romance, around the ups and downs of advertising worker, with addition of their family relationship. Instead, it is the main interest, the realistic side of the story. Made me feel extremely connected and can't stop binge watched it.

Acting:
Gosh, I can't say a lot but imho, every actor give a top notch performance. Can't count how many times I laughed and sobbed when watching those 36 episodes. I have never thought that this drama can be tremendously emotional despite the non melodramatic story. The only negative side of this drama is Jian Bing's sister side story, it felt bland.

Overall:
Not recommended if you want to watch a passionate and sweet romantic drama. But if you like coming of age, light hearted story and spiritual lifting romance, you must watch this. And feel Sheng Yang hangover after that :)

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Good but could be much better.

4/10

-Neg:

1. Chadok Behaviour was too much.
2. The Sidecouple KhanThua was boring. There was not much showing.
3. The Kissing of the Maincouple AyanxAkk was very low and boring at the End of the Episodes. Only a few kisses were shown in the whole series of them.
4. The Rules.
5. The Teacher Dika died because of the stupid Rules. ( As far as I have understood correctly).
6. Sad that DikaChadok could not show their gay relationship in school.
7. There weren't really any Lovescenes.
8. I didn't like that the main couple kissed underwater. I imagined this in other places.
9. The Series was not implemented so well.


+Pos:

1. The Maincouple AyanxAkk
2. The Kissing of the Maincouple was in the middle of the Episodes very good.
3. Story.
4. Acting was fine.
5. It was a surprise that Teacher Dika and Chadok were a gay couple and fell in love at school.

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Hilarious and Terrifying

The story is about a woman who gets a superpower after getting hit by a meteor. She can see someone's memories by touching their butt whether it's an animal or a human. Luckily she's a vet, which means this power can help her to observe the animal memories and give an explanation or solution to her patient. In the journey, she meets with a detective. This detective has a mission to find a drug dealer. Later on, there is a serious case where there is a murderer in that village.

I like how they make the stories because it's so hilarious at first but later on it's become much more serious and intense to watch. There a several battle scenes that involve blood. So make sure you aren't afraid of blood if you want to watch this K-drama series. It's quite a plot-twist in the end when you know the culprit.

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Somber. Mature. Realistic.

"Be careful when you're alone in a crowd. It's obvious."

"What do you mean? What's obvious?"

"Your loneliness."

Doona! Wasn't what I expected it to be, instead, it was much better. It was somber, mature, and it featured realistic dialogues.

"Your desperation to be loved, to try to compensate for never having it. You're afraid of losing people's interest."

I think Suzy did a good job portraying a female character as complex as Doona; a compulsive, miserable, and highly irresistible washed-up popstar desperate for love and attention driven by her abandonment issues.

"I wanna know what goes on in that mind of yours."

If you're looking for the usual fluffy Korean drama with feel good romance, skip this one. But if you want a more subtle and slow burn story with heartfelt confrontation scenes, go watch Doona.

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I was disappointed at the ending but..wait that’s not it!

After finished episode 9, I was disappointed at the ending. Then I realized something more into it and that make this series is even cooler. The beginning of every episodes, I saw everyone went out at the beach and they look happy. Doona met Wong jun at the pink field. He was smiling and he wore the same outfit in the ending when they walked opposite way. So I assume that they are in some kind of relationship. It is a happy ending. I would not believe it if he keeps waiting without hearing anything from her nor they come back to be together and she announce their relationship. This is a realistic ending.

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A Teen Body-Swap J-Drama

SWITCHED is a Japanese drama. Although rated M for mature, it did seem more aimed at teenaged audiences. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and I didn't mind the silliness amid the darker subject matter. However, I tend to agree with many reviewers about the offputting techno dance music feeling jarring and out of place in this drama. The sound director really botched this one up. I understand anime's usually fly with this kind of music and this series was inspired by webtoon/manga, not sure if there's an anime yet, so that kind of explains the vibe they we're going for. Even still, it was kind of obnoxious, even for a teen series. It just didn't fit.

Overall, this was a good series, not the greatest due to some predictable, and slightly problematic writing and the aforementioned music choices. Was worth a watch and had some good messages about living in another shoes and what not. It was entertaining, but had a lot of wasted potential, I felt. It only scratched the surface of what it might have achieved, and I'm not sure why it didn't go deeper. Still, it was worth a view. Definitely a well made series.

[NOTE: Kaga rocked!]

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Blockbuster season with decent follow through from S1

Season 1 provided the depth , ruminations on civilization and tribalism with stellar commentary on how civilisations spin spiritual doctrines to suit their greed and ambition whilst season 2 ups the stakes in a very do and die manner with stellar action scenes and INTENSITY.

This season is a definite must watch for those who watched s1.The world building continues to be compelling and the commentary is stunning as ever . I have always appreciated Arthdal Chronicles for its commentary on religion and beliefs. And how both keep order and peace but ironically can cause conflicts and war.

The music was great and I never skipped the theme song , acting was stellar too with stand out performances from Jang Dong Gun who finished Tagon with such pomp and emotive flair. His portrayal is truly a best actor contender of the year for me along with the leads in My Dearest, Worst of Evil and Moving in 2023.

Overall- objectively speaking , there were some weak points but when Arthdal shines? It really shines. Some of the best tv episodes of the year and just in the fantasy genre are housed in ep 9 and 10 of season 2 alone hence why I score this a more than decent 8/10.

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A beautifully-depicted drama

First of all, i should say that i haven't watched the Taiwanese version and don't have the intention to do so. Even though i love Cdramas very much, i don't think juggling between the two versions and comparing them is ok. I loved how this version depicted a time travel story.

Story:

Time travel at the core with a very heart-warming romance. It can get a bit complicated, especially for binge-watchers, but if you pay attention to the years mentioned in each episode, you will get how the relationships are. I personally didn't find it confusing and we got to figure out who the main protagonists were and who were their counterparts.

Acting:

AHS, He is such a fine actor. have seen him in the past few dramas and i dare say he is getting better and better.
JYB, First time seeing her. She is very talented and presents a very true and believable character. The rest of the cast was also proper too. There are no voids here overall.

Writing:

The story is indeed complicated, but the writers didn't make it extra complicated. You have to pay attention to names and dates shown and there wouldn't be issues.

OST:

beautiful choice of songs. Each song matches the mood and scenery shown in each episode.

Overall, a very beautiful and romantic fantasy drama. Def a muct-watch!

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Gimme a Morio in my life!

The first episode got me ROFL, so funny that I just want to watch this cute couple more.

Despite the all the fluff, this show is more educational and inspiring than one might expect

I learnt a lot about what it means to be visually impaired and it also raises social awareness, so people are more mindful about braille blocks, for example. Sometimes, people don't mean it, but can simply be ignorant, which is why a show like this is helpful to raise social awareness, making the world a better place for all.

Yet, it's done in a cute, fluffy, funny, loving and inspiring way. Who says inspiring show has to be heavy all the time right?!

I love how Morio and Yukiko helps each other to see the best in themselves, showing a different perspective of the world to one another. I also love how they encourage and uplift one another. It's honestly really heartwarming until....

The unnecessary twists and turns, which makes this show 9 instead of 10! This is why:

Minus another 0.5 point for making the show more complicated than needed. It started out as really plain and sweet show, and then suddenly lots of rollercoaster. It feels almost like "Did we change genre halfway?" Lol

Minus 0.5 point for the ending between Shishio and Izumi! If he doesn't like woman, why propose to stay with her? and worse..why did she accept?! This is really frustrating. The show could have ended so perfectly, if it's not for this bit

But, I'm glad that the ending is good for the main leads at least! Overall, it's a great show.

I feel very positively uplifted, especially by Morio's spirit of "Following your dreams and make it fun and work for it!"

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Worth it

Loved the drama. Acting of the leads is really good. The only one whose acting never convinced me is Long zhi ( Meng zi yi). Story is good despite little flaws. It is rewatchable for me.
In romance department I can tell why leads fell for each other...they both are great in their own way. Main leads - Chang Dong is really intelligent and with a quick mind and wit. He is calmn, have logical thinking, bit reserved, compassionate , kind and merciful. Ye Liu xi is such a badass character, fearless, smart, bit shameless lol, funny, powerful. When they met I can tell they are compatible. The romance went naturally. They both are brave, decisive, love their bickering and have very comedic wit. Both are the definition of powerful together and felt equal in relationship. For me the relationship is healthy enough and mature. What I liked about them is the communication between them and the way they respect each other, mutual understanding, have good rapport and felt equal.

There are few people in comments said "romance isn't necessary because it doesn't do anything to the story " like seriously !? I respect their opinion but I strongly disagree with this. Romance is significant in main leads. It really helped their development... for chang dong- ye liuxi helped him break his shell and made him better person, as for ye liuxi - Chang dong is the first one to made her soft heartened and because of her love for him made her understand the caring and loving, its only afterwards she began to care about other people in the team because she already understanding love because of chang dong. You can try to say staying with team she would have same result but it is never same, she would have cared but she would never be this soft heartened. The first crack of soft heartened happened only because of her love for chang dong and then she came to realise love and started to become soft heartened and started to care for others in team. All the interactions between the leads is necessary because it shows that how she soft heartened and how she broke his shell. The comfortness and confiding with each other is necessary and it felt natural. There isn't much romance to begin with except for few kisses and in most of the interactions they discuss serious things but through romance and comfortness. It also helped their conflict about the big reveal because they already fell for each other. You can argue it can be platonic ..why it have to be romantic. Every platonic love cannot be romantic love. Maybe because they were already like this even before official relationship except for intimate things, maybe that's why people felt why it need to be romantic, but because of this you can clearly see the difference between how Yu liuxi treats others and how she treats chang dong, this is the difference between platonic and romantic love even before official dating...you can clearly see which one is going to be romantic and how different they treat each other compare to others even before relationship, it really went naturally. For the main lead it really helped and felt natural because it is romantic love, some things cannot be platonic love you know like the love between main leads, there is so much between them and because of the romantic love they became better person. They can be together simply because they love each other. It terms of leads they loved each other, learned so much because of love and they both grew with love and also significant to each other too.

The gang of the leads is good, they all have good rapport and comedy....don't forget the roaster lol. The way they solve the mystery is good. The plot have some flaws but the drama is so enjoyable.

Most pitiful characters are Jiang zhan and Gao shen. I know Jiang zhan character is not gonna end well but I really wished he atleast have reunion with female lead. Despite his painful past and suffering, the character lacked depth. From what I got from the past Jiang zhan is innocent, hardworking, loves female lead, later had brutal strength but that's it. I know even in their past that they were only friends. From what I felt even in friendship female lead overpowered Jiang zhan, they never felt equal. Of course they cared for each other but I can understand why she (female lead ) never fell for Jiang zhan despite years of friendship. Because they are not compatible and not well matched. For me they never had any love potential but have friendship potential.

Second female lead ( Long zhi) loves Jiang zhan and it seems jiang zhan have feelings for her and are in the relationship in the past. But their relationship is really hard, toxic and I never felt connected with them mainly because of Meng yi zhi's (long zhi)acting. Long zhi is interesting and very smart. I really wished they showed Long zhi time in jail and jiang zhan reunion with his friend. I know he is feeling guilty and I always felt he has weak mentality from the beginning, so it felt less surprising for me when he ended his life.

Gao shen life is really pitiful, I wished they showed his life after he became puppet, atleast they have sort of have happy ending.

Fantasy- The mystery and fantasy is good and they balanced very well with pace of the story. The mystery and romance is very balanced to the plot. I'm satisfied. But CGI is not that great.

Story- For me it felt like both leads is starting a new life slowly letting go of their past as the story goes while solving mystery and becoming better person. It is a journey for them. They both made new resolutions as the story goes.

Another thing is - For me it has satisfying ending but if the negotiation happens after the built up fight then it would be great. The Ye liuxi present is changed person , she wanted freedom of her people but not in the cost of so many lives. In the past Ye liu xi is ruthless but in present she really is calm and soft heartened after she met chong dong and their friends. If there is way out of this for a peaceful negotiation then its understandable and I agree with. The fight happened but the fight is not so great. But it have very satisfying ending for me. Another thing is female lead really looked badass and very convincing acting
Totally for me it's a worth of watch. I'm gonna re-watch again

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