Reviews

Great!

I really enjoyed this series. For once their isn't a pouting male who demeans females in this. Cast is great! It has very funny scenes in it. The cake scene was GREAT! Who can't relate to trying to out wit ones rival for a girl. How about liking a girl and afraid of letting them know it?😂 The ups and downs of school life in those early years is totally relatable.

Scenery is fantastic. It is nice to know that there are concrete jungles all over the world. School life (especially early years) are unforgettable. You remember that one friend throughout ones life. This is what this series remind me of.

This is my second time watching it.👍👍👍👍👍

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Getting to the end of this show wasn't easy. The script is very uninteresting, the drama's characters are irritating and difficult to captivate, the plot is a sequence of possibilities for mistakes by young people and the perpetuation of mistakes in older ones. When a character starts to captivate, he soon does something that doesn't match his previous attitudes. The female lead is a nasty, spoiled girl with very annoying attitudes. The male protagonist has skills in the business world, but as a person he is stuck, distracted and slow in taking actions, which takes away all the charm of the character. The romance are miserable and the business part is superficial.
The acting isn't bad, but it leaves a lot to be desired.
The direction was not zealous in editing the drama and, therefore, the number of errors is quite expressive. Emotional scenes are two or three, the scenes comics are so forced that it is impossible to laugh. Some characters, like Kong Hao's parents, disappear throughout the drama. The ending isn't even the worst.
The soundtrack isn't bad.

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Initially a Winner but loses some steam

I have had this on my watchlist for a while and have been eagerly anticipating this. I binged all the episodes released so far. The history of eunuchs in the Chinese Imperial Dynasties is an intriguing if not sad part of Chinese history, there were some who were puppet masters behind the scenes. I was excited to find out the ML plays a morally grey eunuch (real or not) who has been ruthless in his struggle for power while he plots his revenge. Dylan Wang is completely perfect for this part, his acting, mannerisms, and his subtle expressions engages the viewers as a scheming eunuch. I wasn't a fanboy of Dylan Wang in Meteor Garden but he has grown so much in the roles he has picked so far. His character has a strong presence and he seems to be well matched with the Empress Rong An as a foe. The actress who plays the Empress also played the stern mother in Love Like the Galaxy and she is a terrific actress, she is well suited as a scheming power hungry Empress. The focus of the initial episodes are a set up of palace intrigue and dirty schemes that the ML has to engage in order to survive and to grow his power. The story tellers haven't made the palace politics so cumbersome and complicated that it makes it hard to follow, they have done a pretty good job in the plotting and keeping it clean so viewers don't get lost.

Unchained/Forbidden Love starts off as a darker and more serious drama compared to LBFAD; they do try to add some comedic/lighter parts in the scenes with the FL when the story progresses further. The FL seems to have more screen time in the middle part of the series and pretty much all the screen time with her is the light comedic side of the series. Those have been okay. One scene that stood out between the ML and FL developing relationship is when she used the analogy of the ML as a day lily plant, on the surface the plant's roots are superficially poisonous which it has to be to survive a threatening environment but when you look closer at it, it can be edible and has a unique sweetness to it.

This is a high budget drama so the cinematography, costumes, and production values show that level of quality.

Compelling forbidden love story or not; I am here for the story of the scheming eunuch with DW and Imperial palace power politics.

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I found this drama fascinating.

Push through the odd beginning and make allowances for some of the script meanderings and you will be rewarded.
The cinematography is first rate.
There is a twist in regarding the 2ML that is handled well with sensitivity and understated use of flash backs and vague language.

(I have not seen this topic depicted in dramas previously and it prompted me to do a little research).

The friendship of the three main characters from childhood to the present day is emphasised and their different personalities are well defined by the actors.
I love that the FL has to self reflect on her motives and her reluctant acceptance of the role she can play in this trio of friends.

The budding love relationship of the two MLs is gently depicted in their actions rather than words. It lacks any sizzle but has a solid yearning feel.

The ML is slow to comprehend his feelings of love yet when he does he unambiguously takes action and the scene of coming out to his mother shows his deep caring and love for their relationship. He comes across as brave and protective and very straightforward.
The 2ML has returned, ostensibly, to renew his friendship with the trio but quickly realises his ulterior motive is to remain close to his first love. His past experiences have made him secretive and afraid of others reactions so he guards his identity from the ML.

A truly lovely BL with many layers and some fun scenes where Ching Lung fantasizes the two ML leads in two well known K-drama scenarios.

This is a short drama and has short episodes so I recommend binging.

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What was it about? It's all over the place.

Do you know what made this hard for many? The story was all over the place. This was made obvious when the finale episode itself tried to settle the different arcs in one episode.

If one will ask what this show is about, we will probably get one of the following answers:

* About grandma
* About the South Korean family
* About the long-lost grandson
* About the actors and their “Curtain Call”
* About the hotel
* About the marriage

They even forgot to address the dying wife of the real grandson, the operation she needed, and those gangs after him. Having an open-ended ending for this arc is one thing, but not even mentioning it at least once is another.

Granted, the second grandson having promised the youngest grandson to just ask him if he requires anything, may be a hint that they'll help each other. Maybe he did after grandma passed away, since they jumped forward in time, probably by a month.

And if you think deeply about it, even during the theatrical performance, it was about the fake grandson. I was surprised the real grandson applaud after the curtain call when he was sidelined yet again.

Is he not the main plot? Grandma finding her real grandson?

Oh wait, it was just about “grandson”, it doesn't matter if he was fake or real. Then why bother bringing in the real grandson into the picture, if it was about grandma finding her long-lost grandson and make her happy?

Did you see what I did?

The story is good, don't get me wrong. It's just that they focused on too many arcs, and then they tried to close those arcs in one episode. In the end, it is not clear what the entire TV series is all about.

I've said it before, the last two episodes of a TV series is as important as the first two episodes, be it Korean or Western or Japanese or even Martian (if those even exist). The first two episodes set the tone and expectation, the overreaching arc. The last two episodes concludes the main arc, not side arcs, and refocuses the audience that hey, this is what the series is all about. The first two episodes should start strong, and the last two episodes must be stronger than the first two.

To quote Mr. I-Want-To-Marry-You in episode 16:

“Was there a reason why you wanted to sell the hotel? You had a reason when you started, but as you kept chasing after it, you started focusing on the chase regardless of the reason.”

It is a common pitfall for many writers. Not just screenwriters, but novel authors. A writer had a great idea for a story. They started with that idea at the core of their story, but as they kept writing, they started to focus on their writing regardless of the story.

My rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

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Just bad directing and bad story-line and treatment.

I watched this because of Peng Xiaoran. Glad that I discovered Zhu Zhengting. My star goes to the costume, OST, and good looking cast.
However story and directing wise not much of an impact. The story lack of emotional grasp on audience. Story-line can be draggy and repeating the same cycle and here and there it's tiring. Lack of intuitive detail in the drama but too much boasting ego of ML it's eye rolling. and then emotion sprung from out of nowhere for supporting characters who we didn't even have the chance to get close before or have emotional empathy how are we going to feel for that character.
2nd half of the drama is just trash. Weak personality from characters and they are hard to relate to. Not to mention the lack of chemistry between actors. The age gap between the ML and FL he could be her father it is so cringe to watch their romance.
I'm glad it's only 25 episodes.
Just bad directing and bad story-line and treatment.

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Short and sweet

It was pretty good. The episodes were short, yet entertaining. The show itself was a light-hearted take on marriage in korean culture, with some comedic relief mixed in. Cast and story were also decent.

A lot of other reviews seem to have a problem with the dynamic between the ML and FL, and how the core issues in their relationship were never resolved, but that was never the point. The sad reality is, that a lot of real life relationships are like that. Sure it's easy to see the glaring issues from a third-person POV, but let's not pretend we're better than that. None of us have the right to critique their actions. On a side note, one thing I've learned watching kdramas, is not to expect the characters to behave reasonably. I mean, you're watching a drama ffs.

But yeah, overall a nice and fast watch, with a lot of wholesome moments.

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Stone cold ML meets quirky FL and their story about restoring art pieces!

Didnt know what to expect when i got into this drama, but this was soooo good! Finally a good drama to end 2022 lol .

Female lead dreams to one day become an art restoration person. Her hobby and side jobs includes recreating the old art pieces and drawings. The male lead personality is stone cold, and is good at restoring the ancient art drawings/pieces. Their paths cross because of a fake painting . The male lead is also really famous online for doing live streams of restoring art pieces., but he has never shown his face only his hands. After their "fake" art piece, the female lead wants to become the apprentice of the male lead but the male lead initially was hesitant. They grow through a lot of things together and this bond makes them closer and fall in love.

This is my first drama of this type of genre. I found it refreshing and interesting, getting to learn some history too.

The leads actually had a really cute relationship, totally full of chemistry. I find it quite surprising because in real life the male lead is 14 years older than the female lead. I thought they wouldn't have any kissing scenes, but they did. Even though its not much but I really liked their cute and genuine relationship. ( wish there was more lol)

I watched it without subs

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Workplace drama that is really ticking all the boxes

Love a character that has to overcome prejudice and setbacks in the workplace. She faces those on several fronts but there are people routing for her too. The FL character feels better fleshed out than many other FLs in similar workplace dramas. She is a bit hot headed and unorthodox in her methods. She is also talented, hardworking and an all round decent person. She feels so relatable and I really want her to succeed.
I have really been engrossed by the writing and acting of the story so far. The injustice in certain situations have made my blood boil. I cannot wait to see how she will doggedly carry on working towards her dream job. She’s too talented and exceptional to be held back for long.

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Worth the watch even if you didn't like their en of love series!

I did not enjoy their En of Love series, but I thought I'd give this a shot because YinWar do chemistry so well, and I'm glad I did. The time allowed in a full length series is much better suited to the story, and allowed for a much better plot, more natural pacing, and better resolution to plot points. I don't care for cheating plots in general, and I still stand by that, but I think this series did a decent job of working through it with more realistic and compelling resolutions. The chemistry is, of course, phenomenal, and both Yin and War acted very well in this series. In the time between the En of Love special and this series they both really matured as actors and it came through in this. There's lots of tears, but the full length series also gave us a chance to see them happy together which I really appreciate. It's a true drama though, so be prepared for some tense moments, crying, and broken hears. If you haven't seen the original, I would honestly recommend skipping it and just watching this one. I encourage anybody to give this series a shot, regardless of whether you've seen (even if you didn't like) the original!

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