Reviews

Cute story and Mike He and Rainie Yang are just so cute together!

I watched this drama after I watched Bull Fighting, the first Mike He drama I watched. I’m pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. This is my first Rainie Yang drama. This one is definitely better than Bill Fighting, lots more kisses here and Mike He, how could anyone resist his smile? ?

I got a little annoyed when someone unexpectedly showed up to try to break them apart but this situation is quickly resolved.

Love how Ahmo told his grandmother how label doesn’t matter and what matters is what’s already inside his heart. Then later he told Qi Yue that he’ll only her in his lifetime. Awww.

Rainie and Mike interaction as bf/gf are just so cute, especially in last episode. ???

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Tedious Journey

Cutting straight to the chase, this series is so boring to get through. One of the reasons for that is because a good junk of the story focuses more on Jungwoo's scandal than the actual romance of it all. Which would be fine if the story were engaging, but I found myself having fallen asleep twice, watching it 2x speed, and not even caring if I missed some dialogue. Hell, by the last three episodes, it was a generous skim-through until it was over.

Let's Dive In.

Happy Ending Romance is a very tedious watch. The first two episodes are dedicated to Taeyoung wandering around trying to find Jungwoo, who's too busy pouting around his over-protective boyfriend Junghyun. And whilst happening, I'm sipping my matcha latte wondering when I'll get into this shit. Some parts were engaging, but not enough to gain my interest.

On top of it being a boring watch, I caught myself coming back to MDL to read the description because half the time I had no idea what was going on. And the twist being that Jungwoo was Junghyun's ghostwriter? Was I supposed to gasp? I mean, the entire story centers around Jungwoo not being able to write under his name due to past situations, so of course he's ghostwriting.

I thought about dropping this too many times for my liking. The only reason I didn't was because it was only 30-minute episodes, so why not just finish it? But if you have to think about dropping at all, then it's probably not worth the watch.

Onto some things I did like, like Taeyoung and Woojoo's friendship, Junghyun's wardrobe -- Taeyoung's actor. I mean, that man is gorgeous, the way he smiles and the way his eyes smile too, I mean, he's perfect. Kisses weren't all that bad, of course, I've seen better, but at least they didn't shy away from giving us as many kisses as we could hope for.

Ratings:

Story: 5.5/10 - incredibly dull, incredibly boring. Some parts interesting, but most parts not. I liked Jungwoo's story up until a certain point when they drag on it too much. Taeyoung and Woojoo's friendship is fun to watch, along with watching Taeyoung cause he's beautiful.

Acting: 8/10 - Acting good. Jongwoo (Taeyoung) did the best, with Tucheol (Woojoo) second. Everyone else was decent. The acting was probably this series' strongest aspect. I wouldn't mind seeing this group of actors again.

Music: 6/10 - Wasn't distracting. Good.

Recommendation Value: 4/10 - I'd recommend this for Jongwoo (Taeyoung) only. Like damn, he really is a sight to behold. Other than that, there are other K-BL's out there (Cough cough, Love Tractor) that I would recommend more.

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You don't want to miss out on this great drama

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I finally finished it today, I can't move on from it???. This is one spectacular drama, the fighting scenes are all well done and my favourite part honestly. I want to keep rewatching it till I get tired of it which I doubt it will happen. I super love this drama and my best boy LWJ, wish we all got to see him become a sword diety as he has always wanted. Wow the blood of youth is such a good drama and I saw most of the well done drama I have watched was also by the director of this one, kudos to the director. I need more Wuxia drama like this. I'm gonna miss all my beautiful casts. 11/10 ✨

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Another crime drama uses women as voyeuristic collateral damage

I'll preface this review by saying that I don't normally watch crime dramas because they're copaganda and certain shows revel in gratuitous violence as a form of voyeuristic titillation. I made an exception for Copycat Killer because of the stellar cast.

As far as the twists and turns and pacing of the plot goes, that was all fairly enjoyable. But I was disappointed with three things.

1) The drama follows the tired old trope of unhinged men killing young women. These perpetrators of gendered violence are depicted as social anomalies – as if gendered violence were the result of just a 'few bad apples' – when we know that isn't true. And yes, while this is a work of fiction, I draw a line at gratuitous displays of gendered violence. This drama offers sadistic voyeurism and no critique.

2) I think there was an attempt at some kind of commentary on the spectacularisation of media. It was superficial at best – possibly a very confused take on Baudrillard's Simulacrum – and was ultimately undermined by the drama's own spectacularisation of violence at the meta level anyway (see above).

3) Despite an amazing cast, the actors weren't given a lot to work with. The characters were written in such a way that they were all easily identifiable crime drama 'types' that had each been customised slightly to fit the storyline. I'm not just talking about the unhinged misogynist trope. Male lead as man-turned-judicial-warrior because his family was murdered is a tired old trope. Journalist struggling for justice is a tired old trope. Woman psychologist who serves as a love interest and to give emotional substance to the male lead is a tired old trope. I was even hoping they might do something with Ruby Lin's anchor character but, alas, no.

This very much sucks because these are incredible actors we're talking about. This is the 4th drama I've seen with Chris Wu, 3rd with Ruby Lin, 2nd with Ko Chia Yen, and 2nd with Cammy Chiang. I know they're all excellent actors but because of how their characters were written, they just didn't have room to show off their full ability. That said, they did wonderfully with what they'd been given.

Just to end on a positive note – special mention to the lighting crew and director of photography. There were some beautifully lit and coloured scenes as well as a couple of choice angles used in shots. Nice work.

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Thoughts left the room, all that is left is me simping for the oppa.

Not gonna lie, this show made me feel pathetic - reminded of my young teen self getting obsessed over the rich entitled oppas. It’s been ages since an oppa oppaing so hard evoked so many emotions in me. He served us nothing, but served so much. The never changing face, monotone line delivery, 2-dimensional writing spiced up with all the possible cliches - all that to deliver the truest oppa ever. How shallow of me to open the review with that statement.

Surprisingly enough, no matter how ridiculous, unrealistic and over the top the drama might have been (which, by the way, were all the reasons I loved it so much), it actually had some thought-provoking scenes and moments. Social commentary dressed as fancy makjang? That might be an overstatement, but I’d be lying if I said it did not present even one aspect worth reflecting on. Basing your worth on your popularity, addiction to attention, seeing people around you as tools to be used and discarded when they stop being useful, how far can one go to achieve success, differences in how people perceive reality depending on their socioeconomic status and more. Bits and pieces of potential, all overshadowed by the entertainment.

And I’m not even mad about it. This is such a stress-reliever brainless entertainment I’m actually grateful it exists. Once you start watching, it’s hard to stop. There are awful and selfish characters to bitch about, a female lead that’s worth rooting for, a few characters you end up loving (even if the reasons are painfully shallow), twists and turns that come out of nowhere and make you question the reality that already makes no sense. And then there is the glamor and fashion that’s just so pretty you can’t turn your eyes away from it.

How’s the acting? On average mediocre. Some performances were good (looking at you Lee Chung Ah), some were fine (I love you Park Gyu Young, but not all of your scenes were to my liking), some were either barely existing or yet again typecasted (Kang Min Hyuk serving nothing but hot looks and Lee Dong Jeon playing the same character he did for the past few projects). Did it bother me? No. I have no idea why. I have no idea why all the things that usually make my blood boil just did not bother me here at all.

Overall, I finished the online exam in 15 minutes just so I can continue watching this drama as soon as possible - that will tell you how addicting it is. The pacing was fast, there was no time for chill and breaks, the characters were either unrealistically great or comically awful. Han Joon Kyung was the most oppa of all oppas. Whoever the casting director was - they need a raise.

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very gentle BL/BL adjacent

Overall: I believe this was put on by a BL fan group to promote their store. If they had made things a bit more clear, I would have rated this higher. I would almost call this BL adjacent. Three short episodes on YouTube https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiXQTcPRrd9SmsXxJ7-8AIwMI3PPKzQNW

Content Warnings: none

What I Liked
- sweet and cute moments
- working in a BL store is a different setting than we've seen in live action series
- it was interesting that the store owners wanted workers to call customers non gendered pronouns though I think it could have been integrated in a bit better

Room For Improvement
- I wanted the mutual attraction to be made more clear, the one guy might have just looked up to him and not in a romantic way, the plot felt incomplete

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Bad Buddy, The Hate of My Life

I watched Bad Buddy trend on Twitter every single day while it was airing and heard people praise it like it was crafted by the hands of God.

Watching BB was actually one of the worst experiences of my life. The first few eps were corny but okay, and I thought I might genuinely enjoy the show until the randomly rushed angst that served no purpose other than a vehicle for the first kiss and avoidance phase between the 2 leads. I don't know how you manage to simultaneously delay a kiss while also making it feel unnaturally rushed and set up. The writing only fell apart from there, and the plot between the first kiss up until the reconciliation with the stupid xylophone scene actually changed my life for the worst. Every plot line and tonal shift in this show was written by an AI generator. The editing makes it even worse. I thought I was going crazy.

Pat is supposed to be a typical himbo character but he's so pushy that you can't believe he, or any of these characters, are college-aged students. His pushiness after the initial kiss is borderline uncomfortable. Pran is characterized as reasonable, orderly, and not an idiot, so he should be the most likeable character on screen at any given moment, but for some reason Nanon is always a hair's width from fully integrated into the character. Every new role I see him in is less convincing than the last, and he seems to have fleeting moments where he embodies a character perfectly before the performance turns towards entirely unconvincing. I wonder how many other people came to BB after watching My Dear Loser because they were impressed with his performance, just to be left scratching their heads by the end.

For a romcom, there was plenty of romance and comedy, yet somehow ticking all the boxes doesn't stop this show from being a disaster. I can't tell if the abrupt whiplash-inducing tonal shifts and ridiculous plots were crazier than the product placement scenes, but you could argue that the product placement scenes were so crazy that they were camp enough to temporarily distract from the rest of the show. Over-the-top product placements aside, BB could almost pass for fetish content with the amount of times Pat's stench was mentioned, how often he was shirtless or sleeveless, and the entire framing of the "first person to confess loses" arc. What the fuck is ever going on in this show.

The conflict-resolution in every part of the show serves no real purpose other than as a direct shift into the next conflict. The whole show can be broken up into three distinct parts, and the problem isn't that every part is so entirely different from the rest -- real people in real life experience distinct chapters in their lives -- but there is absolutely no fluidity between parts A B and C. The scene where Pat shows up like fucking Superman and saves the day with the power of xylophone while heartwarming music plays in the bg and we're given a montage of scenes that somehow transport us to Pat and Pran as an established couple is a scene that will infuriate me for years to come. I hate you Bad Buddy. You make no fucking sense.

I watched this show with two other people and I think I was the last person still standing by the time the final episode ended. I grinded the ending of the show by staring blankly at the screen or scrolling through Twitter when it was too painful to keep watching. When the episode was over I think I felt the heavens open up and an angel come down to touch me on my shoulders. I almost cried. I almost cheered. I laughed and smiled. It was over.

There aren't enough words to describe the psychological effects that bad writing, useless side characters, and terrible pacing can have on the human brain. Not to mention the lingering reminder of who the actors are playing in the back of my head whispering "he's homophobic" every once in a while. Sometimes these elements aren't detrimental on their own, but altogether Bad Buddy is shit-in-a-blender, a cocktail of disappointment and confusion. I hope God can transport me back to the universe everyone lives in where Bad Buddy is allegedly a good show.

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Interesting

The story is really interesting and really drew me in. Yes, it is a bit naive in places, but at least it is engaging. The characters are also interesting personalities. I'm not a fan of Lee Joon Gi, but for me this was his best role, really played brilliantly. I come back to this drama every year on average, and I usually have the same interesting time with it.
The criteria for rating given on MDL suggest that I give a rating of 9/10, but the criteria not included bring my rating down. FL is woefully stupid. She doesn't understand basic truths. Her selfish "I'm FL so I'm allowed" behavior with which she endangers the safety and lives of other people is outrageously stupid. FL gets 0/10 from me, which lowers the value of the whole series.
I recommend the series. This is the good old school of drama making, where caring about entertaining the viewer without making him a total idiot. Good action scenes - car chases, fights, even shootouts, which may not be very realistic, but are entertaining. It's worth spending time for this drama, as each episode is quite good

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Xianxia (costume) drama that's based on a popular novel

Xianxia dramas are often mystical and magical. This drama is no exception and has all the right elements to make a fan of a costume drama to get hooked and fall for the superb casts, outstanding cinematography, breathtaking sceneries, solid storyline, and it has all the right combinations of romance, mystic, humour and angst. Watch Xiao Zhan the talented lead actor who plays ShiYing to sweep you off your feet with his visuals and top notch acting. A must watch indeed!
The OST is magical, and the plot stays true to the novel. It has all the blockbuster recipe of good vs evil and the casts are all talented and put on a very convincing portrayals of their character. A good and unforgettable xianxia dramas are rare indeed, but this one is a keeper. Just perfect!

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it's a fine line between unique, weird and confusing

It's refreshing in a way, as it lacks not only many typical tropes but also the overall set up (road trip / being always on the go/ no fixed workplace) leaves you with little room for getting accustomed to certain surroundings, nor does it have many supporting roles as the story goes on. It's very much the story of the FL and her life's story turned into a manuscript, while the ML is a too-good-for-his-own-good new on the job guy, that is tasked with getting said manuscript but Wang Pu Tao instead asks him to take a road trip and so the story unfolds.

The first 10 episodes contain stories that come to life, the later part of the drama is focused on the leads (mostly the FL) and figuring out the meaning behind the stories of her new manuscript as well as confronting your past and seeing the present for what it is.

Review/Characters/Romance:

Now, while it certainly is unique and given the short duration of each episode, an easy watch, it's also a little undercooked. Maybe that's on purpose as the drama wants to remain slightly mysterious and give it that vibe, but for me it was a bit confusing at times. There is also a definitive cut between the storytelling part of the drama and the present reality, which contains the romantic aspect of the drama. I liked the ML, he was cute and his good heart but very realistic, utter confusion at the FL sometimes was funny. But I do think he deserved better communication, most of the time he was was trying to figure out what she's thinking or what she wants.
Many of the listed supporting roles only appear in select episodes and you don't get to know them all too well but everyone has their purpose and I felt like it was quite a realistic approach, since IRL most interactions are only fleeting conversations and you don't have to always know about everyone's business.

Circling back tho, the drama is like the FL, a little weird, unique but deep down her story is not that different from other dramas leads, it's just that they took a very different approach in telling the story - I can appreciate that.

Worth the watch if you want something quirky but not bubbly (at all), an imperfect and seemingly mysterious FL that is wrapped up in her creative mind and a ML that tries to get his job done but in the process gets more and more curious about who the FL really is.
Although it's about publishing a book/getting a new manuscript there are actually almost no office scenes, it's a very summer-y beach vibey drama. And it's not cringy or fluffly. The acting and production is above average, I also liked the music. Like everything in this drama it's a bit different than the usual OST.

To end this review: I'm still unsure if I like the drama or if I am confused since it's different in all aspects not just one, BUT it has many unique selling points and it's not like anything I watched before. The ending was like a movie ending, it fitted the drama very well and won't leave you hanging.
It's a fine line between unique, weird and confusing and this drama manages to balance on that line.

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For once, I'll jump to the conclusion: this is a M-A-S-T-E-R-P-I-E-C-E !!!
First of all, the message is so deep that it simply humbles at least 90% of other dramas (and basically every Western series ever - but well, that's easier).
The script works like a Swiss clockwork, seriously; and seeing how this drama consists of 40 episodes of around 45' each, that alone is quite a feat! You laugh, you cry, you learn, etc....the whole nine yards! Or rather, Yin & Yang and all 24 solar terms!
The characters are so well-written and tridimensional that when you finish watching the series, you feel like you're saying goodbye to a group of friends!
The acting is simply superb. At this point I usually give three "honorable mentions" but here it's hard to name just three, one would want to praise *all* of them with a virtual standing ovation! Anyway, traditions must be kept, so let's say I'll stand a little longer for Jiang Shan, Zhao Lu Si and my beloved Dai Lu Wa.
The music is just lovely and adds greatly to the viewing pleasure.
As for the "packaging" (direction, editing, photography, etc.), that's top-notch too.
What's not to like? Perfect 10! Goes instantly into my top-5 of all times! ^_____^

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love Xiao Zhan visual

I don't know about dramas, I think they are pretty good and their visuals spoil audiences like me who are not used to watching Chinese dramas..
but this drama presents quite an interesting visual, for the storyline the plot is quite fast but what makes it interesting is the good acting of Xiao zhan and ren min, even though their chemistry hasn't built much, hopefully as the story develops their chemistry will get stronger, regardless of the blasphemy the visual ren min who was slammed by xiao zhan is quite concerning, hopefully ren min can silence the haters with his good acting and can keep up with xiao zhan who has also developed a lot

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