Reviews

Supernatural thriller x emotional rollercoaster

(Reviewing the entire show here)
When I started death's game, I was fairly intrigued. The idea of a character being forced to live 12 lives that are destined to end quickly was an exciting plot idea, and I was curios to see where they could take it. As the show progresses, it gets more and more interesting.

Yee-jae's life seems to be clouded by misfortune. Without ever being able to catch a break, he decides to take his own life, only to be confronted by Death herself with a punishment that she sees fit: he must live as (and attempt to prevent the imminent death of ) 12 different people. But no matter how hard he tries to prevent them, the deaths seem completely unavoidable. Slowly, he realizes that the deaths he's facing seem to be related, and so he attempts to figure out this common denominator using the knowledge of all the lives he's lived. Naturally, Death doesn't want him messing around in her punishment, and is sure to make each death more painful than the last.

This show was much more emotional than I thought it would be, and I really enjoyed it. I thought that the way the episodes led into the next was well done, and it didn't feel like the tone shifted abruptly, but rather throughout each life Yee-jae lived, he seemed to learn more and become more empathetic. The cast was AMAZING and did an excellent job portraying these very different characters, while still conveying the same emotions that Yee-jae would have felt in every new situation. The ending was very well done, and wrapped up the show very nicely. It's a fairly short watch, and definitely worth taking a look at!

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Too Much Silliness

I'm right there with every other review I read.

The whole show is silly and BORING!!! If you liked bed friends ... this is as far away from that series as you can get.

It's cringy, there is nothing of substance, the acting is not very good and the characters are nothing like they were in Bed Friends. Even the main characters from Bed Friends have almost totally different personalities. I was kind of sad how so much changed. Some scenes didn't even make much sense.

If you must watch speed it up, you won't miss anything. Honestly, I think the industry should stop making spin off shows.

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Alex and Yeon ah are not the same

Its a very nice drama but sadly its short but I like it Its a very nice drama but sadly its short but I like it
Its a very nice drama but sadly its short but I like it
Its a very nice drama but sadly its short but I like it
Its a very nice drama but sadly its short but I like it
Its a very nice drama but sadly its short but I like it
Its a very nice drama but sadly its short but I like it Its a very nice drama but sadly its short but I like it Its a very nice drama but sadly its short but I like it Its a very nice drama but sadly its short but I like it

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“NO SPRING IN THIS NIGHT”

I dislike criticizing artists work, after they have given their all. BUT, this fell quite short to its sister Kdrama, “One Spring Night.” Hard as I tried, it was impossible to not compare scenes, because I’ve rewatched the original at least 10 times! I liked the attempt to fill in those areas where seemingly, something was missing in the original. It was okay for roles to be different, to make it their own, but I found the acting to be very mediocre. I felt the FL lead was much better than her counterpart. He just seemed so immature and over his head! It just didn’t play well for me, but to be just, I saw it through, to the end. Of honorable mention, is the sister’s budding relationship. Would loved to have seen that developed differently.

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An interesting, thought-provoking, but somewhat unsatisfying love story

The writer tries to show us the stages of a relationship, but doesn't go far enough. The first half is beautiful, how it shows the development of the relationship between the two leads. The way their communication is portrayed is relaxing and nice to watch. When signing to each other or writing messages through their phones, it felt like they were completely attentive to what the other was thinking and saying. Those scenes were the most romantic to me. As the FL says, "it feels like we're having a silent conversation that never ends in a quiet world of our own".

But part-way through, that conversation seemed to end, and the relationship unravels. Of course, it's realistic for relationships to change after an initial honeymoon stage. The FL has anxieties that come from a reasonable place, her position is understandable. But the sensible thing to do is to talk those anxieties out, to confront each other, to demand explanations and get everything off of your chest. It feels like the FL unilaterally decides to stop communicating, and that's the death knell for any relationship. There are moments where it feels like she has fallen out of love, although you could see it instead as her being overly melancholic or prone to insecurity.

In other words, we see the honeymoon and uncertainty stages of a relationship, but nothing else. There's no sense of recommitment, or really any solution to the problems raised in this relationship. The leads reunite at the end, but it doesn't feel satisfying, it's unearned because none of the problems were resolved. For a drama that dedicates so much time early on to idealizing communication, this is a big misstep.

Character-wise, I think the FL is the most fascinating character in the show. I think people can debate her motivations, the changes in her feelings, whether she's 'realistic' or not for a long time.

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Worst drama with no story

This is one of the worst drama I have seen till now, I did not even know how it gets this much higher ratings...
It feels more like a dream of a teenage girl where he gets a perfect boyfriend who is good looking, Best at cooking, popular, gentle, ...

We all know these types of things are nothing but imagination and I really do not like these types of dramas.. I always prefer dramas who are at least realistic...

In this drama everyone's life is so easy, cool but I prefer drama where we can see how to endure hardships..

Worst drama ever...

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An extremely slow burn--perhaps too slow toward the end--but worth a watch nonetheless

By the folks who brought us Our Beloved Summer, Goblin, and a few other top dramas. The ML's dialog is communicated entirely in sign language, which makes his interaction with the FL at times touching and at other times a bit awkward--so much so that it sometimes felt like their chemistry was lacking. The rest of the cast is quite good, but two in particular stand out: Park Jin Joo is an absolute delight as the FL's goofball sidekick. It's a role she's played several times before, but I can't think of anyone that does it better. And Heo Jun Seok plays the ML's bartender sidekick to perfections. His character is both the perfect bro and perfect husband to his adorable (deaf) wife. This drama is an extremely slow burn--much more so than even Our Beloved Summer. The slow pace feels comfortable in the beginning as the two leads learn to navigate the communication barrier, but the drama dragged in the final quarter before recovering to wrap things up elegantly in the final episode. I watched this as it was released, two episodes per week, on a sketchy, lo-fi streaming service which may have contributed to the feeling the story dragged. It may show better in a binge watch on Viki or Netflix.

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This was so close to You Are My Glory, so I knew I was going to love this!

Instead of an actress and aerospace engineer, we have a corporate girlie, whose grandpa is the CEO of the company, and a GPS engineer who is a prodigy in his field. The ML and FL are technically grade school sweethearts, who keep running into one another at different points in their lives, but seeming to miss one another.

I would sum this up as a sweethearts to strangers to friends to strangers to online lovers to strangers to coworks to lovers, romance. When I say they keep missing one another, I mean it!

I loved Janice Wu in this, a quirky yet mature businesswoman who wants to help her grandpa's sub-company not go bankrupt while correcting all the internal fraud that is being committed by the VP. I loved seeing Vin Zhang finally in a lead role, and not being a side character to a Dilraba drama... which is funny because I just said that this drama reminded me of a Dilraba drama.

In the 30-40 something episode drama, the writer and director took their time letting us get to know all the characters and their roles in the company as well as follow them throughout different projects - I felt like I was a part of the team! And I appreciate a drama that is well written and shot, not feeling like it is dragging... because I know these longer Chinese dramas and feel scary and boring when seeing how many one-hour episodes there are.

The romance was very cute, and honestly a bit sexy ... more than I have seen in a Cdrama before. I fell for both characters and wanted them to find love so badly with one another, and once they were together, it was sweet.

But going along with that point, I had to knock a point off because there were times throughout that I had no idea what was going on, and why the FL was crying or why the ML was comforting her or why the ML thought it was cool to start making out with the FL during an argument. There were also times when either one of them would be in a sales meeting and I had no idea what was going on... especially when the company seemed to be a huge factor or when the meeting ended up being fake? It is hard to explain even now because I feel like I was... on drugs and a part just flew over my head.

Other than that, loved this.

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Short, Sweet, Very Real and Very Wholesome

Compared to the Korean original of this show, the Japanese version is a lot shorter so there's less time to really get to know the cast and couples inside out, but I found that I was still able to enjoy it all the same. I loved all the participants. As individuals, they were all great people and throughout the show you are able to see all of them learn and grow in some way, whether that be learning about themselves, their partners, or their relationships and expressing themselves. Due to the short amount of episodes, some couples were left in the dark compared to the others (as it is with almost every dating show tbh) but there was still plenty of drama and plot twists to watch. I could also tell that the problems each one of the couples had were very real and relatable which made watching how they went about them during their stay together very enjoyable to watch. And as a last bonus, both the intro and ending are sung by eill (one of the best j-singers of this generation). Anyways, if you're looking for a japanese dating show to watch, this is one of the good ones I would definitely recommend!

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Terrible. No good. Bad. Gross, et al.

The only redeeming thing about this drama is the teenage scenes with Janice Wu and Luo Yun Xi. Loved them. As usual, Janice Wu creates a charming and loveable character. The ML is stoic and hard to reach, but he doesn't stand a chance with the FL. Actor played it well. The rest of it is so gross, I don't know what to say. Terrible terrible acting. I compare this show with those Chinese dramas that are two hours long with no Title, but BAD. NO continuity between the characters in the past and present. Yes, I get that she was beat down with life, but she changed into an unrecognizable character. Him too. And to blame HER when completely and utterly dumped her, the later said she was totally wrong and should have asked him about it? Nutcase. And in the present, he stalks and abuses her mentally and physically. In fact all the males are stalkerish to her. She stands there like a damp cloth soaking it all in. I don't know how many ways I can say it was revolting. And the hairstyles? What. The. Heck. And when he tells her she has a crappy haircut? I know, I'm nitpicking, but dang.

Didn't pay attention to the music, so gave it mid range.

I'm told there is a director's cut out there with the adult actors doing the childhood scenes. Why take out the only redeeming feature of the show? It would have been better for the young actors to play the adult parts in the entire show. I don't even remember the support cast.

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A hidden gem of 2024!

The story is so fast-paced and the moment you anticipate it to follow a certain trajectory that most sageuk dramas would, it defies your expectations. The acting is so precise, especially from the ML who has a very expressive face and portrays multiple emotions and two personalities distinctively. The fight scenes are quite well-executed too, love the FL's parkour!

The entire ordeal of the ML having two identities approaches very close to discussions around dissociative identity disorder. Although portraying it as an evil spirit entails misrepresenting a stigmatized mental health disorder, I think in the historical context it is still very accurate since medical research had not expanded on it back then and many disorders were confused with spiritual possessions. I like that the drama could express this type of narrative so well.

Watch this drama, if you like:
- Main leads defying gender roles
- Good fight scenes
- Witty dialogues and communication between characters
- Fast-paced stories with cliffhangers in every episode

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Basically a huge advertisement for HKIA

You know… I knew this would be somewhat of a program informing viewers of how Hong Kong International Airport functions, but I was not prepared for episode 1. We get introduced to the main characters and how they worked together, but suddenly, out of the blue, JW’s Wish started to play. This was the love theme for Kenneth Ma and Natalie Tong in Big White Duel, which represented their connection despite being divorced, so why was it playing here? Because Kenneth Ma here is divorced from Sisley Choi. I found that so lazy, like the only thing that could make it lazier would be Sisley Choi divorcing him because of a miscarriage that was her fault and Kenneth not knowing about it. In any case, episode 1 ends in a spectacularly cheesy way with the main cast all staring off into the sun in the distance. Was it meant to be inspirational? Dude, it’s just an airport!

Episode 2 introduces some other supporting cast members and more BAU airport activities, but what I noticed that was not normal was how everybody - and I mean EVERYBODY - brought up Kenneth and Sisley’s divorce so casually as if it was a minor thing and even tries to get them back together. I don’t know if the writers have been around real divorced people who work together but nobody brings it up out of respect as it would make for some real awkward moments if done so. Even if they do it would be every now and then as required, here it is constant “I’m a divorcee” or “hey sis-in-law opps lol not really”… just no.

Do you know what I found really wrong? Some of the depictions of the staff and commuters at the airport. Man, the staff at the check-in desk were really patient and talked to this old gentleman as he couldn’t find his passport, and after some time he found it made some small talk with the check-in staff. Do you know what would happen in real life? He would be asked to stand aside to allow other passengers to check-in while he looked for it as the other passengers in the queue all start asking, “Yo, what’s the hold up?”

And man, the theme song sucks. It is so forgettable it is like why even bother. They could have saved the money and just do an ICAC musical thing and boom done it would have made no difference.

As this is just 10 episodes long in total, there are not many more episodes to see if things improve, but I am not holding my breath. A completely quick cash grab HKIA sponsored load of nonsense so far.

Episode 3: BAU, but Sisley Choi is really annoying in this episode as we see her and Kenneth dancing awkwardly around the fact they are divorced but still have to work together. You can tell Kenneth wants to get back with her but she’s all evasive.

Episode 4: man this episode… like what were the cameramen thinking. Rosita Kwok was wearing a really short skirt to show off her legs, but in one scene the camera was almost an upskirt shot. That had me thinking “what the he…” What made it worse was how unflattering the shot was as you could see all sorts of blemishes on her legs.

Episode 5: this episode had more things that had me call BS. As the episode starts, the airport staff started looking for somebody because they were going to miss their flight and going out of their way to look for them. It turned out the passenger was just shopping and even asked for a few more minutes when they find her. In real-life you know that airport personnel would just let her keep shopping as it isn’t their problem if she missed her flight. I also found Rosita extra annoying this episode as she had dropped her ID card and it was found by Ricco. Ricco tries to return it but she is unbelievably rude to him, even later snatching the card from his hand at lost and found. No normal person would act like this in a professional setting especially to someone they just met when Ricco did not even do anything inappropriate.

Episode 6: not bad.

Episode 7: finally something somewhat juicy is happening with Tiffany and Sisley meeting for the first time, the ex-girlfriend and ex-wife of our charismatic main Kenneth, and only Tiffany knows their status. See this is what I am talking about, but this is introduced too late so I know it is not going to escalate much.

Episode 8: another run-of-the-mill episode. Man, it ends with Rosita in a flight simulator and she’s all wide-eyed and full of wonder. The machine isn’t flying anywhere nor did it have any actuators to simulate movement. It is a stationary cockpit with computer generated imagery. This is like being amazed that the popcorn button of your microwave burns your popcorn.

Episode 9: okay this episode really annoyed me. We finally get the scene where Kenneth and Sisley discuss their divorce and I thought we would get some startling revelation about why they were divorced because they were clearly still in love. And the reason? Sisley: I forgot the reason. Kenneth: same here, must have been trivial. Like wtf, you cannot remember why you guys got divorced? You separated, you signed the papers, and you cannot remember why? I thought maybe it was something traumatic they didn’t wanna discuss and TVB would give us a flashback but no, no flashback no nothing. This show treats marriage and divorce like minor things, and us the audience as idiots if they think we would just roll with that. As this is episode 9 it is clear this will be the only time the subject is approached and the next and final episode they will get back together. Man….

Episode 10: the last episode wraps up the show and pretty much tries to wrap up all loose ends. However, Kenneth and Sisley’s getting back together really annoyed me. Kenneth finally remembered why they got divorced, but Sisley says he doesn’t have to remind her as they shouldn’t dwell of the past and only on the future. So basically we never find out why they were divorced and Sisley really doesn’t want to discuss where they went wrong in the past to improve their relationship going forward. What lesson was this trying to teach its viewers? What was that nonsense?

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Short and sweet, I really liked this drama. It was one that has been on my list ever since I saw the trailer pop up on Netflix, and I would say it exceeded my expectations far beyond what I thought.

I thought this was going to be a cute romance between a mother and her daughter's tutor, but instead ended up being about finding first and true love in your mid to late 30's (I assumed that is their age), about the high expectations that society and parents put on students to be the top of the class, and about chosen family (one of the only times I have seen a non-traditional family in a korean drama).

We need to normalize/have more dramas with mature adults who have their shit figured out (even if they don't have everything figured out, they are confident in the basics). There have been so many instances where I have watched a drama about two 20-somethings, and they make dumb decisions because of dumber reasons. Whereas in this drama, the ML and FL have a set of personal morals and stick with them throughout. Their morals are challenged, but as the characters evolve and begin to understand what is most important to them in life and what they want to fight out, only then do their morals change, for the better.

I was also surprised that this drama hit me as much as it did - me being a single female with no kids, but still trying to put myself in our FL's shoes, trying to understand what it would be like if I had a child and they were going through everything her daughter was. How frustrated I would get whenever the "mom squad" would show up on screen and gossip and plot how to get their child to the top, even if it meant starting scandals about their child's classmates/friends.

This drama definitely hit the feels.

I would say the only thing that made me not give this a perfect 10, was because of the whole serial killer side plot. They did a good job of blending it into the main storyline and plot, but I feel like it didn't hold any weight. The only person who seemed to be stressing about it was the lawyer because she had to deal with it directly, but even when her part in the murders is "resolved" she moves on to her next controversy. I felt like everyone and their mom was fine with this serial killer going around and murdering students and teachers who were linked to Pride Academy like it was a normal Tuesday. And the way the serial killer was ultimately caught and how that whole side plot was "solved" was so anticlimactic... that it was never mentioned again and everyone moved on like there wasn't some person going around murdering people and was in the middle of kidnapping one of the mains. There was only one person who seemed to grieve, but even that was a short minute or two until a whole different subplot was introduced.

The last episode was super random as well, with the introduction of a separate last-minute plot. I would have rather watched an episode or two of the main characters grieving and healing from this serial killer who targeted them and kidnapped one of them, with the intent of killing them. Instead, we get a random subplot that made the daughter act super out of character and was honestly not needed. I understand it was a way to introduce what the FL wanted to do after her daughter got into college, but that could have been introduced in a completely different way.

Other than that, I liked it. Everything else was great and I binged watched the whole thing in 2 days.

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