Reviews

Found family in an amusing way

Now, I'm not sure if this is a based opinion, but I absolutely love this drama. I love the big twist of the whole show. Not to mention the relationship that is formed afterwards. It's slow, but it's so satisfying to watch the two come together, work together, and even though He is who He is, they care for each other in their own odd way. #selflove.

It had a great combination of romance, surprise, twists, found family, and comedy. The actors and character dynamics were all perfect and spot on. Everything fit together perfectly. I loved this drama, and I can't wait for a season 2.

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Twist after twist

Strangers From Hell was right up my alley. It was dark and unexpecting. Everything thrown at you hit you and made it almost impossible to get back before another thing was thrown at you. I'm someone who cringes when things are cliche, but this drama never made me feel that way. It was so exciting and thrilling to watch. Definitely someone I can see myself watching again to kill some time if I'm feeling like it.

There is blood and horror, be warned, but it's so good. I watched this quite a while ago from writing this review, but I can still strongly remember that this is one of the best shows that I took my time to watch. Every plot hole was cleaned up and there were no scraps left behind. The acting in this show is phenomenal. And watching it, you can feel the unease our main character felt through the screen. This drama gave me goosebumps.

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Legend of Yunze is NOT a copy of Mo Dao Zu Shi

I think a lot of people can agree that Legend of Yunze first stemmed off the idea of Mo Dao Zu Shi with the cute, funny, extroverted, and outgoing person x strict, stern, introverted person who happens to be madly in love with the other but keeping that fact behind sealed bars, however, their actions are pretty solid evidence to the fact. However, the Legend of Yunze isn't a complete copy of them. Maybe in the first season there were a lot of similarities such as the flute, but they managed to stray from them and go on their own. That's what makes this drama so good.

With Jiang Zhuoyun's secret and Lan Ze not caring about what she is but only who she is, the story is so good. I love the idea of someone of Zhuoyun's identity and her fighting with herself about it to Lan Ze trying to be friends, or more than friends. Them being in love with each other is something that you can clearly see, and it always had me kicking my feet while watching. Though the drama is incredibly short, it was definitely worth watching. It is NOT the same as Mo Dao Zu Shi, don't let others make you think so. Legend of Yunze is a story of its own with the addition of the adorable special where they're put in a modern world. Think about it hard and you can see clearly that Legend of Yunze is its own.

The pairing is absolutely adorable. The show definitely has its silly, comedy moments (based off where I watched it). And it makes the show light despite some dark things that happen in the storyline. Nothing in the drama, in my opinion, has this cliche feeling to it either.

Here is the carrd where to watch it!! https://legendofyunze.carrd.co/

Also, lesbians make everything better <33

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A Delightful Yet Annoying MESS...

When something is this all over the place, I find I have to use bullets instead of having a way to tie it all together.

1. All the cutesy cartoon sounds? Makes the series almost unwatchable for someone over 12.

2. This is a series about a 60 year old Mom finding her 'groove thing' before her weird daughters do. What 12 year old would watch such a series? I know a 15 year old that was charmed by this (she recommended to me) but she didn't get deep enough into the series to realize it has adult themes that don't gel with video game notions.

3. Although each episode was about an hour -- they were tedious. Some episodes you'd watch a big bunch of twists and then wonder, this episode is almost over, right -- ONLY TO FIND OUT -- you weren't even at the halfway point yet. The pacing was painful.

4. The cast is fantastic. You soon love the leads and boyfriends in almost no time. If it wasn't for this I'd have ditched on Episode 3. Kudos to Mom with all her crazy energy, the youngest daughter who was forever stuck in 'whatever', and the eldest daughter dancing between boring fact and fabulous fiction. Also -- Mr. Perfect with a picture of himself on his wall was the best surprise comic relief ever.

5. The show was exploding with some great ideas but failed to deliver half of them. It was like a writer/director who wanted to do 80 episodes but was forced to do 11. Both in a good and bad way. As entertaining as it is exhausting.

6. I technically haven't finished it and soon will watch the final episode -- but if it's the best thing on Planet Earth it won't fix the previous 10 Episodes, no way. The best way to consider this series is 11 episodes in between some brutally long Imperial Dramas. An odd unique pit stop. Or skip it. It depends how much you like the first two episodes.

This final note is kind of a spoiler. But since it's the oldest and dumbest trick in the book, it lacks any real surprise quality.

7. As a screenwriter myself, there's a terrible horrible relentless cliche in some stories I call WRITERS WRITING ABOUT WRITING. Once you catch onto it -- you're going to see it everywhere.

If the lead story is a writer -- think of who came up with this idea: a writer. Now, what does that tell you about this person's creativity level? Nothing, right? The best they could manage is sticking themselves into the story? It's as sad as it is common.

But what's the harm in that, you ask? Writers, especially young writers, are unsuccessful and insecure. But the writer in their story? SPOILER: confident and successful. Never fails. It's annoying to watch a writer tribute their story to themselves. The point of a story is engage all of us, not to force people to like your character (which is you) as a writer. Painful.

When writing about writing gets really bad -- the story you are watching becomes the lead character's novel or screenplay at the end of it. Did you catch what that trick does? Again: it's the writer saying the story you just watched is SO good that some talented writer in a movie would write a novel about it.

I originally gave this thing a 6. But when these cliches sunk in I changed it to a 5.

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Meaningful Drama Series

I had finished the Lost Track of Time series and I noticed that Zhai Zi Lu was also in this My Calorie Boy series. I had no expectation of this series and had no clue what the story was about. I figured it was one of those silly teenager school rom-com show. The first episode got me laughing hysterically. After watching the first 5 episodes, it got me hooked. It's such a sweet series that has a lot of meaning. The series does show these parents having certain expectations from their kids, seeing the students having hopes and dreams at that age, and showing the students how they overcome failure and accomplishing their goals. Just letting you know that I had to get a box of tissue on the last three episodes of this series. Zhai Zi Lu played as Kang Jai Wei was perfect for him. I thought he brought Kang Jai Wei to life. Both him and Xu Jing Jing (Dai Lu Wa) characters compliments each other. I found this series was very well script written. Will definitely watch this again!

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I'll keep it brief. Any show that tries to redeem a rapist is unworthy of being watched. Period.

The headline pretty much says it all. I feel so bad for the male and female leads. Despite crappy writing, there is something special between them. From what I understand, the writing team went through a transition halfway through filming. What we ended up getting was an even bigger mess. As an American, I can understand that the redemption process is different in every culture. However, rape and rapists, are universal subjects that aren't allowed legroom to overlook. The writing team tries its best to redeem the second male lead, which might be the worse written character I've seen in a decade. If you're an anti-feminist who believes in redemption no matter the sin, this might just be right up your alley though. Otherwise, avoid like the plague.

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Stunning Visually Beautiful Drama with a Great Story. A Tale of Parallel Universes.

I absolutely loved this drama. An incredibly Creative Masterpiece from South Korea. Set in 2 Parallel Universes. Such a Great Storyline. The Main lead Character is every woman's fantasy come true. A Stunningly Beautiful Knight in Shining Armour. The Female lead was excellent. It is a Visually Exquisite Drama. Set In a Police Station and a Palace. The story moves across The Kingdom of Korea and the Republic of Korea. An amazing Clever Story of Treachery that Crosses 2 Universes. I have watched so many Korean Dramas and am amazed at the Creativity of the Script Writers and Production Teams, I have yet to come across any bad acting. Incredible talent that is well nurtured. There are also many stunning Chinese Dramas too but I prefer the 16 episode Korean set up above the 50-60 episode Chinese ones. This is in my Top 3 Favourites. I loved it.

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An unfortunate victim of weak and indecisivs plotting

This is essentially a romance drama, the other more prominent parts of the story reach their conclusion midway. The past timeline is given a larger share of screen time except the last two episodes.

Throughout there was only SML around the FL. This puts all plots into disarray as the viewer mistakes them to become a couple. The ML has infinitesimal screen time, popping here and there. The SML and FL are cute together, the chemistry was explosive.

And then in the ending things take turn for the worse. We have rapid fire conclusions that come out of little substance and then the romance drama annihilating fail turns its head:

The ML becomes the boyfriend because of the butterfly effect...

Yeah, you read that right, there is ZERO COURTSHIP and it is just like ZAP they are a couple!!! No kiss, no confession, nothing at all!

The ultimate conclusion is that the screenwriter was confused and did not know what to do and when to do it.

Alas! It had so much potential!

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A stunningly beautiful Drama. Amazing story set in a Psychiatric hospital and a Fairy Tale Castle.

This is an absolute masterpiece of a Drama. A Fabulous Story set in a Psychiatric Hospital and a Fairy Tale Castle. What an atmosphere. A Beautiful Romance for a Very Deserving Traumatised Couple of outstandingly amazing leads. The autistic brother's acting was unbelievable. I hope he got an award for his performance. Loved the Characters in the Hospital. This is in my Favourite Top 3 Dramas and I have seen scores of them. It is difficult to give this enough praise. The main leads were both exquisitely Beautiful and Stunning Actors. Lots of fun and fights from Great Supporting actors. Loved the Psychiatrist and the Crazy Publisher. Great Creepy Witch of a mother. I loved this so much and watch it as a treat again and again.

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Fabulous Drama, Great Story, Superb leads.

This was one of the best ever South Korean Dramas I have watched. It is stand out superb.
The story is great . the acting wonderful. Both Leads were brilliant. Loved all of the North Korean Characters. The Soldiers were especially heart warming but the women were also wonderful characters. IN my top 3 favourites. I watch it regularly as a treat. Hyun Bin is gorgeous and a great lead romantic actor. The Bad Guy Gang was a monster but his acting was superb. This was a truly heart warming drama with lots of excitement and humour. Seri was wonderful . Her family were Revolting. And Captains Fiancee was awful. The settings were Superb. I so preferred the North koreans and their lifestyle to those in South Korea. The Sout Korean members of the NIS were the most charming. I loved this Drama so much.

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Bromance overload, with a side of "what?"

Story
As a DMBJ fan its not the best-woven tale, but it does a good job of setting up the lore for the consequential DMBJ shows. Now, I went into this show knowing none of the actors and frankly confused most of the time. The DMBJ universe is known for poorly written females and this show went along with this trope. I also believe that if you are to watch a DMBJ show you must understand that the plot will not normally make sense. I have come to terms with tht, and have not thought much about the plot holes. It will hurt your head more.

I really enjoyed the character of XinYue in the hotel arc but really was upset with her after she joined them back in Changsha. She was shown to be witty, not caring about how people viewed her, wore men's clothes, gambled. But once she saw Zhang Qishan she changed into wearing very frilly dresses, and her hair is always done. She changed who she was for a man she barely knew. And a man who rejected her over and over again. He essentially was bullied into allowing her to stay in his house, and she disobeyed him over and over. I felt no chemistry between the two, even though they have acted with one another before. It was disappointing to say the least that she become a tool for him to be “humanized” when he didn't need that. He already was a human without her. I dont think she aided much in the story, nor did their romance. I did not see much development in their romance and he was always eager to push her away. UNTIL the arc where he kind of loses it and he only is kind to her, but assaults his literal best friend. I will not go into that, but I do not think their relationship was healthy to begin with. As the "main romance' in the show I was annoyed that they tried to push it on us, while Zhang Qishan literally didn't need a wife.

Yatou and Er Ye were such a tragic couple. While Yatou was a weak woman who did need her man to protect her, I did like her. I was upset at her death and I just wanted all women to leave him alone. I think it was rude of XY to push her cousin onto him when he was very much still in mourning. Er Ye was also terribly written. I know he could have been a stronger and snarkier character, but they dulled him down after the death of Yatou. I did really like his fighting scenes though because he had a very fluid way of fighting. He got better as the show went on, but most of the time I wanted to yell at him. The writers making him see images of Yatou wherever he went was...a choice. But I wish we had more time to understand the couple and why they loved one another so strongly.

The story in a way was straight forward. The Japanese and Americans are working together to do experiments, and bring down Mystic Nine and Changsha. There are delusional big bads who can't think for themselves. And the merry band of brothers will die for one another and for the safety of Changsha. I think the story leaned TOO MUCH on showing us what the villains were doing. I could care less about their whereabouts. Chen Pi was a character that made me audibly groan every time he appeared on the screen because of my disdain for him. Cox Hendry was someone that I have never liked anyway, but his snark made me laugh at times. Miss Huo was an interesting character.

For me the best part of the plot was actually Zhang Qishan and his right hand men. There is no secret the bond that ZQS shares a bond with Er Ye, Qi Tiezui and Zhang Rishan. They were the trope, “through love and trust, we will defeat the villain”. Since episode two we know the relationship between ZQS and QTZ runs deep. And while we never get the full explanation of their friendship there is enough scenes and actions to know that these two would die for one another without a second thought. QTZ is the force behind ZQS, and Cox Hendry even suspected that QTZ was the reason why the Buddha statue was moved. Engraving Fo Ye into the history of Changsha forever. I yearned for more backstory behind Er Ye and Fo Ye and was upset we did not have more. They fight well together and seem to always be in a tumultuous relationship, always at one another throats. But that is it. They seemed to always be tense around one another, but in the end they worked with one another and had the same goal. Zhang Rishan was essentially Zhang Qishan’s witty lap dog, but he grew in the story. He was someone else who would do anything for Fo ye, and in the end he would do anything for Ba Ye.

While Ba Ye is listed as comic relief for many people, I think people tend to ignore that without him, Fo ye would be dead multiple times over. He is very cunning and extremely manipulating. Where the goofiness in him seems more like a facade at times so people's guard will be down. He is very serious at times and is known for basically convincing people to do things with very little work. He is also extremely smart and knows a lot a knowledge, aka they need in order to survive most of the time.

Acting/Cast
Honestly, a good cast. For me, the stand out was Ying Haoming (Hanson Ying) as Qi Tiezui. He was honestly the one who held the tone of the show and was the most human. I believe that without out then Zhang Qishan would not have landed as well. ZQS is an arrogant man who acts with a large ego that not many people actually seem to enjoy his company. While QTZ is someone who doesn't seem to enjoy being around people and prefers the company of a few. And yet they work with one another, and bounce off each other well. I think this was because of the friendship between William and Ying Haoming and they were able to work well in these roles. (they have been friends since 2013, and behind-the-scenes shows they were close even sharing friends). The touches, glances, and looks they shard with one another helped solidify the "they were each others, first friend".

With this show, Zhang Mingen (zhang rishan), LAY (Er Yuehong) both debuted. While William Chan earned a wax statue for this role as Zhang Qishan. And Ying Haoming (Qi Tiezui) was given an award for this role, and this was considered his stand-out role. I do not think I would enjoyed this show as much if it wasn't for the four of these actors and what they brought to the characters. I always laugh that Ying Haoming is literally became Qi Tiezui. He was able to become small and cowardly when he needed. But then also stood tall and acted as Zhang Qishan’s guard dog. I can talk for hours about his success in the role.

I had no qualms with anyone acting per se. I just think better writing with the females would have made the acting stronger. But they frankly didn't have much to work with compared to the other people. I know Zhao Liying and Crystal Yuan are better actors and I have seen them in roles that I enjoy. I just blame the poor writing for the most part.

I think all the actors pulled their weight and are the reason for the success of that show.

Music
I love this OST. It was funky at the right times, and it fit the show. I do love the theme song that Wiliam Chan.

Rewatch Value
I have rewatched it multiple times, so I guess it is good. I do not think the entire show is rewatchable. I skip a lot of scenes and focus more on the tombs and high-action moments. Sorry, XinYue but I skip all of her scenes.

Overall
It is not the best show and not my favorite show. But it is one of the shows that keeps me thinking. Not because of the lore but because of the characterizations. The show introduced us to so many people that of course, it is easy to get lost into who these people are and their backstories. But because of this, we get lost in this and do not get to actually see more of the main characters growing. Even though the people who were main characters, Xinyue and Yatou, were not present a lot. I think if the story focused on the actual main characters it would have been more streamlined and easier to get behind at times. But i should not go almost an entire episode of just the Japanese and their backers before I even get a smidge of Fo Ye.

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They made me look stupid

So where do I even begin? This drama was something unexpected to me since I thought that I would get bored 2 episodes in but I didn't. I am happy I took a little break from investigation dramas because that would probably affect this review. I came into this thinking it would be like an eight-star watch, something I would get over fast but it turned out to be master peace with a lot of shocking moments. I even enjoy some of the OSTs because even the music caught my interest. Maybe in like a year I will watch it again and think about every happy moment, and what my reactions were when some shocking stuff happened. Also, this review has a headline " They made me stupid". It's because there were multiple moments where I acted smart and started insulting the characters for being stupid but they were one step ahead of me, as always. To wrap this up I am just surprised how I can watch 16 episodes in 4 days.

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A lovely story

So, I am seeing so many reviews saying there is little plot/storyline. I am not sure what exactly people mean by that because it definitely had a plot/storyline. This story did drag a little but not enough to make it a poor/bad show. The character growth and development was slow in the main couple, as a couple but there were so many other relationships, especially for the younger character, that were highlighted that it’s hard to complain. The storyline was really something that could happen (minus arranged marriage) to anyone…loving someone (from childhood) but hiding your true self for fear of rejection is a very common reaction, especially in young adults. Many young ones will act according to what they think someone wants rather than their true desires because they want to meet expectations and fear rejection and like in this series, it takes time to really convince them that it’s okay to be themselves rather than who they think people want them to be. The lack of communication between main characters did drag longer than necessary but I assume it was to create “drama” for the show.

NuNew did a fantastic job for a first time role and the others did well in their roles. My favorite character was Syn, the boy trying to steer his friends in a moral direction. However, all of the cast delivered their role’s convincingly so I say good job, well done.

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