Reviews

Not a worthy of 8.9 rating

Frankly speaking I am big fan of Rachel Park.
I am not telling this is a bad drama but it is not worthy of 9 pointer. I have seen so many silly blunders, immature direction and unrealistic decisions.
1. There are so many characters but no characters has proper ending(except ML and FL).
2. I got confused and annoyed whether the FL is really had feelings ( love ) with ML or just a gratitude for saving her number of times, because it is portrayed before ML she is in deep love with ML but she didn’t trust him in some situations, instead she keeps on avoiding him keep him away from her.
3. There were so many bad characters but it is not clear whether or what punishment they got.
4. I think the director didn’t do planned or homework well, because simply wasted time on unnecessary things or so many characters and stories but no story is properly finished or ended but simply rushed to the ending.
5. I can’t say their chemistry is ultimate because as a couple they spent very less time compared to as working partners.
6. The main positive thing in this drama is the cast, everyone’s acting skills are unbelievable, especially the FL acting was beyond my expectations, because before watching this I have watched some of her dramas I thought this is very old drama her acting skills may not be as good as the new ones but I got surprised, I can say her acting in this drama is the best one compared to city hunter and others.
I am stopping here, I can point out few more mistakes but I don’t want because I have seen much worse dramas but this is not that much bad. I can assure you that if you watch this drama you won’t get bored or disappointed but if you watch this drama seriously you will feel the same as I mentioned in the above.

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Sweet love

For a teenage love story, I find this very refreshing. It's not the typical macho-man-I’m-gonna-chase-you and you’re just gonna fall in love with me. There is a lot of character development from the struggles they go through to make them who they are.

What I like about the series:

The chemistry between the leads. Because of the relationship they developed in high school they have this support, love, and care for each other which I really like because it is different from “you’re good looking” let fall in love. I also like there a lot of gentle kissing scenes, almost like a cute peck stating "I adore you and you’re cute!" I also love how it differs from the strong passionate kiss we see often, this is a cute heart-fluttering moment I enjoy thoroughly throughout the series. Their relationship is very realistic and I love the way they handle it; with brains and hacking into systems, this is what you get when you get a brainy hot ML!!! Their relationship is so sweet, definitely on the sweet innocent cute side that you don’t see very often. It's one of those love stories where the ML doesn’t push to get it his way. He slowly and reassuringly lets her know he likes her and makes things work for her. I also like the parts where he is patient with her. He knows about the issue she faces and he can prevent it but he lets her figure it out, giving her the utmost respect, pride, and trust in her! I really like this kind of love story! It teaches you patience, kindness, respect, rightful pride, and rightful jealousy in a relationship. They communicate so well and so sweetly with each other, they try to make their relationship work and it just seems so genuine. I can say so much more about their relationship and why I absolutely adore watching it but I recommend watching it for yourself.

The side characters, some of my favorite are Boss Xie, Duan Ning, the professor, and Zhang Huai Wu. I love the bond and the chemistry male leads have with each one of them. I love how smart ML is for befriending and bonding, teasing, and get along with all of them, it was almost as if they were just like old friends.

The storyline. Even though it is a very typical love story and you know what going to happen, I still enjoy these once in a while. It is simple, ordinary, and very relatable which makes it appealing.

What I don’t like:

All these love triangles and is it worth mentioning a mistakenly love square (or is it pentagon or just a straight line??) between Chen Yi Chuan and Gu Xiao Man.

I also hate how passively senior Shi Ying handle her love life. She took advantage of a kind and naive Zhuang Fei and tried to create tension between her and FL. She also tries every opportunity to put FL at a disadvantage. For one so obsessed with a guy that won’t even look her way, I don’t know why she didn’t try harder to chase him instead of finding every opportunity to ruin FL. Just a small pet peeve of mine, I don’t get why girls hate on girls instead of trying to fix the issue between them and the guy. But I’m glad things clear up at the end.

Overall I recommend anyone looking for a cute and sweet love story. It has been on my watchlist for the longest time and I’m glad I finally made time to watch it.

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Too much

This drama felt like four separate dramas, which is just too much.

Lets start off with the things I liked:

- visually beautiful
- the cast is not too bad
- the dragon king was fun to watch
- the second couple was the saving grace of this drama. Their story was coherent and the way they gradually and naturally fell in love was fun to watch
- the first life is fun to watch
- the third life was also interesting

Things I didn't like:

- the female lead was four completely different people in all her lives, so there was a disconnect. She looked like the same person, but her personality was completely different, making it hard to make a connection between the original girl that met and fell in love with the dragon.

- lots of cliches and previously done storylines

- the chemistry between the main leads was almost non existant. Not sure if it's the writing, making the female fall in love with the male lead over and over again in 4 lives or just the fact that the actors didn't have any chemistry to begin with

- repetitive and predictable storyline

All in all, it's not too bad, but there are many dramas out there that are much better.

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OBSESSED WITH THIS DRAMA

As a longtime TVB fan, I, unfortunately, keep seeing disappointing scripts or things that start off so good but does not end up delivering but this drama DIDN'T WASTE A SECOND. Very well written and the characters are all complex.

You really fall for the main cast of characters because they are so fleshed out, this is a bit different from the police procedural HK cop drama, there are episodic cases, but for the most part, there was a lot of care and set up in the script that. When I think about describing this drama in one word I would say "CHARACTERS" because each one has a very solid story and isn't just there for the sake of convenience which is something that bothers me a lot about dramas. It all ties together because the female lead of the brother-sister duo is a social worker, the brother is a slow learner in social and interpersonal relationships, but is incredibly gifted in other areas like math and tech. I like that the entire cast is accepting of the fact and doesn't baby him or look down on him. The other male lead probably with the most screen time is Kenneth's character as a psychologist and I really felt for him unable to move on from his wife's death.

MUSIC: the one track that plays every time Kenneth imagines his wife is SO CATCHY someone DM ME THE TITLE IF YOU KNOW PLEASE and thank you!

All the logic, the endings or stories of the characters all make sense, the dynamic of the main cast works as well. The brother/sister duo feels legit, and the romance and side plots do too. No one stands out as awkward in terms of acting or chemistry. Definitely underrated, but deserves as much praise as other dramas in the genre.

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Fun and lovely

I watched all 30 episodes in a matter of days and I couldn't stop. When it was over, I was very sad to let it go.

There are so many things I liked about this drama:

- Female lead is funny, independent, brave and intelligent. She's very mischievous and a little childish sometimes, but you will definitely love her

- The male lead is PERFECT. Handsome, brave, smart, gentle and affectionate.

- the interactions between the couple are gold. Whether they're fighting, teasing or being affectionate, you won't be able to tear your eyes off of them.

- the misunderstandings are resolved quickly. You don't have to watch in pain for episodes on end

- The royal family is actually fair and good. The emperor is a capable ruler

- all the couples (there are a lot) are adorable

- the cast (main leads and supporting characters) did an amazing job portraying their characters.

- there were sooooo many funny moments. This is a drama that has made me laugh the most recently

- you don't see too much of the villains. There weren't that many to begin with, but at least you don't have to see them all that much

All in all, this drama is very easy to watch and you will definitely enjoy it. If you haven't watched it yet, give it a go. You'll fall in love with it during the first episode.

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Beautiful and Heartbreaking

As a rule I always keep my reviews as short as possible and try not to include many spoilers.

First if all, I recommend this to anyone who hasn't watched it yet, but be prepared for some heartbreak.

Visually this drama is stunning.

The music is absolutely beautiful.

The cast is impeccably chosen.

The female lead is a very interesting character. The difference between the innocent Xuan Ji and her powerful alter ego is so well acted that you don't even doubt it.

The eternally self sacrificing male lead whose name is mentioned so many times in the drama that you'll never forget it is an absolute delight to watch. The actor did such an amazing job that even a slight change in his gaze portrayed so much emotion it was hard to look away.

I absolutely loved all the secrets and twists. All the characters were interesting to follow. Even the villains were fun to watch. You keep wanting to see more. You keep wanting to know more and unravel all the mysteries.

All in all, this is a very entertaining watch.

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Just a sweet lovely love story

OMG!! I kept seeing tons of YouTubbers recommending "Cherry Magic" for almost 6 months, but I was hesitant to watch, since it seemed like BL saga with 30 year olds, but I was proven wrong and I freely admit it.

The situation of two men, Adachi and Tsuge that have focused on the development of their individual careers over their love lives to they finally hit the age of 30 seems like something that can happen to anyone, especially folks that do not have the best self-image of themselves.

How they are able to see beyond what they believe and think are their "limitations" is wonderful to see in this love story.

The supporting characters are ALL wonderful, I even loved the full of himself Urabe. Adachi's sweet co-workers Rokkaku and Fujisaki are absolutely wonderful and help Adachi see himself in a clearer, sharper, and better eye.

Their love interests Kurasowa and Minato are both dishy in wonderfully different ways and I loved how they were written and how their characters were fleshed out, so that we ALL wanted everything to work out for Adachi and Tsuge.

It also doesn't hurt that Machida Keita reminds me of the Hollywood Classic Leading Male Actor, Gregory Peck when he was very young!! My word, Machida is a gorgeous man.

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Expectation and Disappointment

The drama had a very strong start. I was very excited after watching the first couple of episodes and hoping for a great drama. Then it nose dived.
The drama had all the elements and potential needed to be a great drama. It had great quality, great casts, a cliché but good plot and a great start. But it all got ruined by bad storytelling and flashbacks. I understand that to make a drama interesting or make crucial parts stand out sometimes flashbacks are inevitable. But when they use the flashbacks because they have to somehow fill up the empty time slots and expand the drama it becomes boring. This is one of those dramas where you can skip several minutes at a time and you wouldn't really miss anything substantial.
The there comes the baits. The concept of "So close yet so far" to keep the viewers on edge was used heavily. They used so much baits in this drama that it became somewhat predictable.
The drama was almost always on the extreme spectrums of either very happy situations or very heavy situations. There were no in-betweens. It created a situation where you really couldn't enjoy a happy moment because you knew something was going to happen very soon which will ruin the mood. It was very repetitive to the point that this too became very predictable.
As one of the MCs was a musician I expected some good music from the drama but unexpectedly I was disappointed in this aspect also. They used some famous classical music but those too were very far and few. The OST was forgettable.
The story was not bad as it had some "twists" to it. But the repetitive pattern of the drama ruined the story and made it too boring to really care about those "twists".
The overall acting was good. But the chemistry between the two MCs was very awkward. But the other character developments and their relationships was nicely done.

Overall this drama was not as good as it could've been. It's not a bad drama if you really have nothing to watch and just want to pass the time. But I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone who hates baits and flashbacks.

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Happy Mitan Review

Happy Mitan is sort of an unofficial prequel to The Deer and the Cauldron / The Duke of Mount Deer / Royal Tramp.

In Happy Mitan, viewers meet many familiar characters that appear in The Deer and the Cauldron / The Duke of Mount Deer / Royal Tramp like Chun Hua (Who is Wei Xiao Bao's mother), Hai Da Fu, Chen Jin Nan (Who still goes by Chen Wang Ren in Happy Mitan before changing his name to Chen Jin Nan), Feng Xi Fan (Who goes by Fan Xi Feng before he changed his name), Hong Er Niu (Who is Su Quan's mother), and many others.

The positive is that Happy Mitan is very funny. It is very slap sticks in its humour and it has many forth wall breaking moments. You will laugh out loud in many of the different scenes.

The negative is that it focuses on a lot of side characters that drags the whole series. Another negative is that the mix of slap stick comedy and the serious dramatic bits feels weird when it is mixed together in the same scenes. Like am I supposed to laugh or cry? It also suffers from being good for the first half of the series to being boring and a drag for the last half of the series.

I recommend those who are fans of the The Deer and the Cauldron / The Duke of Mount Deer / Royal Tramp to give this series a watch. While it is not an official prequel, it is done well enough that it feels like a real prequel.

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Waiting for the next episode is really killing meeeeee !!!!!!!!!

Lately, all the K- dramas are based on dark comedy, thrillers...I was looking for rom-com, something refreshing and then I found this....I thought I will binge-watch this after its release...But after watching the first episode I couldn't resist myself...the story is simple but the director made it so interesting... I can co-relate with all the characters...all the characters are beautifully written...I think I don't have to talk about their chemistry...it's 10/10 for me...they literally give me butterflies in their every interaction... the cinematography is superb...






It's soooo good...you should watch it if you haven't watched it yet...

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Kept me on my toes with all the right tropes

This drama was slightly torture to watch and made me wonder at times if this drama will end up being renamed unrequited love, friendzoned or most men suck... Yet still had me guessing (pretty predictable guesses), laughing and enjoying some seemingly endless bickering and teasing between the main couple. Some of the characters are just to "good" to be human and that can get to be a bit to much but otherwise all the character serve their purpose well and are a delight for both the eye and mind.

To be honest it is hard to put my finger on exactly what made me give this 9,5 stars seeing it did torture me at times and make me want to tell the characters come on get your act together.Maybe just maybe the lack of having ones act together made it a bit more real in between all the perfect people in the drama. The female leads mom and brother top my list of people who bring out my inner anger. ​I must also say that allot of "bad behaviour" did get called out and even if it could be interpreted as romantic it did not just pass by like in many other c-dramas. It could also just be that this drama has high entertainment value and high emotional value making you feel a whole lot of anger, love, hate and happienesss all in one drama.


All in all a very enjoyable drama to watch that I recommend to any C-drama lover out there

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Conflicting Like/Dislike

There are many things I liked about this drama and a few that I was disappointed in. I liked the main characters. The lead female was strong minded, witty and intelligent. She did not let things that was going against her put her down. I liked the lead male who took things slowly and thought things out before reacting. I liked there relationship. It started slowly, but quickly emerge. No hate for half the episode and then realized they liked each other. We did not have to wait 15 or 20 episodes before it was admitted they like each other. I like how they worked together to solve their problems that was facing each and getting to know each other better and they were very supported of each other. Even family issues they came together to help one another. The second lead couple was more complex and I did not get that chemistry that the first couple had. I do think that this drama was to long and the writers extended some issues just to make the drama last longer were it could have been solve much quicker. in this area it left the episodes boring and not interesting. The problem with the 3rd couple did not interest me at all. She seem immature, selfish and whinny. While he, as a psychiatrist who had treated her and married her, should have known how to handle her problem and treat it. It stead he was quite all the time and shy. Just made no sense. The actors performance was great. Give it a chance.

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A wlw anthology series with some cuteness, some smooth moves, and some realistic women

This series is an anthology series produced by Chinese dating app for wlw Rela (which has since changed name to "The L"). I don't know what it is with queer dating apps and short dramas, but I love it (there are also a few Filipino dramas I have watched produced by mlm dating apps). As it is an anthology series, each episode is independent and follows two different women. There are 14 different stories (one of the stories is divided between two episodes), each following one or two women that happen to have the Rela app on their phone.

There is a wide variety of women and a wide variety of stories that encompass a lot of different types of wlw couples and stories. There are meeting up stories, long distance relationships, the "I am in love with my straight best friend" story, a "my girlfriend had an accident and lost all memory of me" story, etc. A lot of different types of stories, each between 2 an 6 minutes. Some are more well-done that others, but all are enjoyable. Some are extremely cute and made me feel all fluffy inside. There are also a wide range of women presented from the most femme ones to the most butch ones (which you really don't see as much in wlw stories, I'd never seen women that butch in stories before), some students, some white collar workers, some bartenders, some musicians, etc. It's really thrilling to see such a wide range of experiences being represented on screen. There's also no homophobia. There can some heartache sometimes, but no story is fully sad and the majority have a full very cute happy ending.
Some of those women have some smooth, smooth moves. Like dang, teach me your ways jiejie because I need that level of skills. Shoot your shot and dare to dream!

You can see that there's not a lot of budget, but that's to be expected from those kinds of shows and it is really nicely filmed still. The audio quality is also good most of the time (there are section where it is hard to hear, but they are not that many and the subs are there) and the production values are quite good. I wouldn't necessarily rewatch the whole series, but some of those short films are nice enough that I could see myself rewatching them if I need some soft content and some smooth moves.

In conclusion, this anthology series only takes around 1h15 to watch and I would highly recommend you do if you need that sweet, sweet wlw content because there is something for everyone and it feels So Very Nice to see such a diversity of women, of gender expressions, and of relationships being shown on screen.

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