Reviews

So cute!

This was a really nice drama. The main couple was very cute, and they had a lot of chemistry between them. Seeing them together put a smile on my lips. I loved them.
Overall, I found the story a bit slow at times, but I liked how the plot developed. It had no major conflicts beyond the romantic story and the personal growth of the protagonists, mainly the ML, who had to overcome some problems from the past.
The only thing I didn't like was that it seemed like she was always dodging his kisses, even though they had a long, solid relationship. That frustrated me a little. I don't know if this was because of the age rating of the series or because the actors are too young. Anyway, I think that "turning the lips away" so many times was unnecessary; showing the tender interaction between the two of them was enough.
I liked the other characters as well and I enjoyed learning about snooker in Asia.

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Mixed Feelings

I was super into this series at first but it really lost its spark. I love a good exes to lovers trope so that really pulled me in and when that was the main focus I found the story amazing. It started losing that spark after Itsuki and Fuyu got together and I blame this all on the writers, specifically their gender. You can tell they are missing women writers. The only good part of the latter half of the show was the chemistry between the main actresses. I didn't care about anything that happened in their work problems and some "humor" was just horribly done, especially with that old man, it really didn't hit for me and I saw a lot of people having the same opinion. If we were to get a season 2 I would need it to be fully focused on Itsuki and Fuyu, take out every male character, and have women writers.

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A sleeper hit! Female Lead is a badass!

I love this series. I thought it was going to be boring but I was surprised by the acting and the storyline.

The script was well written and the flow of the drama is surprisingly smooth. No silly or cutie acts from the female casts.

The story is about A Mai who searched for her adoptive brother/ fiance, Chen Qi, so that she could find out from him why he killed her parents and let her live. During this journey, she encountered the love of her life, Shang Yi Zhi and her battleground enemy, from the Beimo State, General Chang Yu Qing.

She joined the army after she had found out CQ had become the Marshall of the Beimo State so that she could kill him in the battle. She won admiration from her brothers in the army. She also helped SYZ to become an emperor.

This story is about a female's fearless determination to defend her country even though she had to sacrifice her love and her life.

An entertaining drama to watch. I don't know why some netizens prefer to see silly romantic dramas. This is the one for audience who enjoy good C-dramas.

Acting wise: Zhang Tian Ai as A Mai was a good choice. She was able to deliver the emotions that A Mai encountered throughout her search for Chen Qi and her romance and disappointment in Shang Yi Zhi.

Zhang Hao Wei as Shang Yi Zhi? Many commentators find this actor lack of experience playing the role but I personally think he was a good choice. I love SYZ's response to his ministers in Episode 34 where they threatened to boycott his court. He executed the ministers without hesitation to install fear in his court. A good emperor knows when and how to exert his authority.

Other supporting casts also deserve my praises especially the actress who played SYZ's mother/ aunt and the actor playing Chen Qi. The emotional flashbacks by Chen Qi hit the audience all the time.

I enjoyed this series. Therefore, it deserves a perfect 10.

Watch and rate it yourself.

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Disappointing

OK, so I stuck this out as long as I could but I stopped watching before episode 15 ended. This series was already grating my nerves because of how slow each episode went but by the time the 15th episode came around, it made me feel like I wasted my time!
So the writer decides to pinpoint several people as killers to throw off the viewers which in point almost worked. I sort of figured it out around the 12the episode but my suspicion was confirmed by episode 14. I just wanted to know the reason for the killings and episode 15 let me know...it was just for fun...There was no reason behind the killings!!!

The MML and MFL were already annoying to begin with. The stupid things they did just made my eyes roll. It was already absurd by being able to see people's past by touching their butt because that's how the FML came into her powers. A meteor storm happened while she was examining a pregnant cow and was touching the cow's butt when the meteor hit. That cow gave three people powers but the doctor was the dumbest but I stuck it out because the first few episodes were cute and quirky sans the bully MML cop. How can you body slam a female and not get into trouble over that??

Anyway, when the protagonists starts dying before the end of the series it lets me know the very last episode will be a true waste so I seriously doubt I'll be missing anything. Each episode dragged on and on and I found myself pausing each episode about 2-3 times because I couldn't bring myself to finish the episodes all at once. This series did not lead me to binge watching.

I don't know what's going on with these Korean dramas. The last good Korean drama that led me to binge watching was First Responders season 2 and that was back in September...Haven't seen a good Korean drama since and I'm starting to lose my faith with these so-called Korean dramas. It's already hard enough as it is to find something worthy to watch without all that so-called swoon worthy romance crapola.

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I Fell in Love with Zhu Yilong

I fell in love with Zhu Yilong because of this drama.

THIS IS A TRUE SPY WAR DRAMA. In this drama, you really get to see the intricacies of how spies keep their identities a secret, how information is passed among the party members, and the amount of vetting to become a party member. In other Republican Era dramas with a spy aspect to them, a lot of times I see characters telling other characters their identity, which is unrealistic. The character development throughout the drama was done quite well.

This drama is really good at depicting why people were drawn towards the communist side. Even if people think it's wrong they should at least be open to understanding why and how people were drawn to this ideology. I've seen other dramas with a similar nature and nationalistic sense in terms of communism receive heavy criticism because of CCP propaganda. In all honesty, you read the synopsis, so you should know it's a part of the package. If you can't handle any mention of communism or an ounce of CCP propaganda (all the while ingesting your own country's propaganda) then I suggest you watch a different genre than the Republican Era. But, for those of you who are interested in or love the calamity, history, heartbreak, and raw human emotion of this genre you will not be disappointed. It's a little lengthy, but it's high-budget with beautiful cinematography, good storytelling, and an amazing cast.

The Cast:
Hands down an amazing cast! I had seen Tong Yao in Like A Flowing River before so she was familiar to me. Seeing Mickey Yuan was a pleasant surprise since I saw him in Rookie Agent Rogue. Over the years I've seen Wang Yang in a variety of different roles and honestly, I'm always impressed by him. Wang Yang and Zhu Yilong have the ability to play a variety of different characters in dramas with varying intensity levels. I feel like that ability proves how good their acting is because they're not being type-casted.

This drama had some really intense moments and I think Zhu Yilong nailed them. Another review said that you could tell Zhu Yilong really poured his heart into this role and honestly they're 100% correct. The vein in Zhu Yilong's forehead that pops out whenever Lin Nansheng is concentrating, enraged, stressed, etc. is captivating and phenomenal. His execution of Lin Nansheng's character made me fall in love with him.

I felt that Tong Yao didn't have much chemistry with Zhu Yilong. I think Zhu Yilong and Zhu Zhu (Lan Jie) had better chemistry. They are very cute and sweet together and what he does for her gives Lin Nansheng the "all-around nice guy" title. But ehh, this isn't a romance drama so I rest my case. BUT, we are blessed with Zhu Yizhen and Lin Nansheng confirming their feelings for each other!

The Story:
Overall, it was good. I think the beginning was a little slow, especially the scenes with the senior KMT leaders, but I get why those were part of the drama. The audience needed to see and understand the internal conflicts and suspicions amongst the characters as well as understand each character's character.

I think the drama paints a marvelous picture of how people get to where they are based on ideologies and personal strength in beliefs. At the very beginning, we see how strong Chen Moqun's (Wang Yang) loyalty to the Nationalists is. But after he's set up and made to look like a traitor, he actually becomes one. At first, for both the audience and characters it's hard to believe he'd do such a thing. But we later learn that what Chen Moqun values most is his own life. We see this when he sets himself up to still have a foothold amongst the Nationalists when the Japanese are defeated. This is the difference between Chen Moqun and Lin Nansheng. Chen Moqun is ultimately a coward and cares more about saving his own skin than his own country. This is devastatingly disappointing for Lin Nansheng. I think this drama perfectly depicts why and how the people were pushed towards communism. We see this through the eyes of Lin Nansheng. As he continues to grow he starts losing faith in the Nationalists due to various events. He loses his brothers due to poor leadership and witnesses the corruption of Nationalist party members. Slowly, he realizes that his ideas of what a nation should look like no longer align with the Nationalists, so he switches sides. I think that Zhu Yizhen's character was pertinent in opening the door for him to switch sides.

Sometimes I felt that Zhu Yizhen's character was almost too perfect and if Lin Nansheng had really worked side by side with her for a long period of time his view of her in that way might have been disrupted. The question is whether he'd still like her. Part of the reason why he likes her is possibly because he sees her as perfect.

Other:
The cinematography was amazing. The scene in which the main leads have been shot in the alleyway and we get a close-up of Lin Nansheng's fingers inching their way toward Zhu Yizhen's is beautiful and heart-wrenching. The camera then pans out and gives us a shot of them from above sprawled out and injured on the ground amongst the snow…truly beautiful and insane. Oh, and the scene where Lin Nansheng imagines seeing Zhu Yizhen in her school uniform was also really beautiful. The angles, the colors, and the costumes were all wonderful. I enjoyed how the costumes were pretty period-accurate. The colors are sort of dark and subdued which matches the events and happenings around the characters. I also loved how there was limited use (if at all) of blurring filters. Close-up shots of actors' faces showed pores and five O'clock shadows. This really contributed to the realness and rawness that is felt when watching this drama.

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Good Palate Cleanser Drama!

STORY: I felt like there were parts of the plot that were kind of all over the place. Like the mystery that the ML is trying to solve about the 8th Prince kind of gets left in the dust until the end of the drama. For a good portion of the middle of the drama, it's not really talked about. Another instance is when they visited the Falcon Tribe. I thought that the characters they met there would resurface later, but that didn't really happen. There's a girl and her brother that they meet and the girl likes the SML Chu Xiuyan, but nothing comes of it so I'm not sure the reason it was added.

ACTING/CAST: Overall, it was pretty decent. I felt at times the acting was overdone. Especially, with the SFL, Rou Rou. I read in the comments that people thought she was annoying (this was before watching the drama) and I thought people were just overreacting. After watching the drama I completely see what they mean. I thought her character was overdone. For example, the FL and ML's romance was halted because the FL didn't want to make the SFL sad since the SFL couldn't be with her love at the time. So the FL and ML basically couldn't spend time together. I thought this was unnecessary and dumb.

As for the FL, her character was sometimes childish and she sometimes lacked the grace and etiquette of a general's wife/ a lady from her time at times. For example, when the princess of the Falcon Tribe comes to stay at her manor. Despite being childish at times, I feel her character was very brave, quick-witted, and emotionally and socially intelligent. Firstly, the love for her mother is very strong. She volunteers to marry the general in place of her sister to protect her mother. Secondly, we see her stall an attack on her manor, holding off the enemy for long enough for the general to come back and help out. She is creative and quick-witted, by putting the general's armor on and telling the others to make it appear as if more people are there protecting the manor. Although it's the general who technically comes to the rescue, she states to his right-hand man that without the general they are all dead. We also see her social and emotional intelligence when dealing with her sisters. She knows exactly what they're up to and the words to say to shut them down.

In terms of the ML, I felt his character was meant to seem too perfect, when in fact he was far from it. In the middle of the drama, the two end up in an argument over the future of the general's aide (SML). This eventually leads to the FL returning to stay with her mother for a bit. His character becomes overbearing, controlling, and rude, and not in a sexy way. When it's found out that the FL is pregnant, the ML says to the physician, "I'm not asking how she's doing, I'm asking how the baby is." I felt this line deviated from how the audience is supposed to view his character....loving and warm. I think he has a few of those moments where he deviates in that way, where you expect him to console his wife or be more loving, but he just isn't. When the FL lead returns home because of the argument between her and the general, the general comes to her home and says to her mother that it's his fault. But to me, I felt he was just sort of saving face and he wasn't 100% sincere. Otherwise, he cares for the FL and loves her. Perhaps he's a bit socially awkward in terms of confrontation in his relationship.

There are definitely misunderstandings between the main couple due to lack of communication, but nothing that really really irritated me. In general, I felt the drama could be slow at times, but I think this is a good drama if you need something light to cleanse your palate between intense dramas.

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It Really was just OK!

The Sign wasn't nearly as good as its MDL rating would suggest. I've seen many other BLs from different countries that were far better in the plot, cinematography, direction and action that didn't receive the rating that The Sign received (8.6). For example (and these are merely examples): My School President 8.5, KinnPorsche 8.1, Last Twilight 8.5, The Eclipse 8.3, and HIStory3: Trapped 8.4. All of these BLs were just as good or even better than The Sign in many aspects, which further makes me believe that probably much of a poster's rating is based on their personal likes and dislikes, which is still ok.

What i like about the series:

1. The first episode was interesting and had a good premise.
2. I thought it was good that the producers brought in other aspects of Thai culture, such as their belief system in past lives (reincarnation) and the various gods and deities that play part of their beliefs.
3. There was good attempt to make this series a cinematic masterpiece, and the addition of CGI.
4. The actors were ALL gorgeous and definitely great "eye candy," especially Babe! He's certainly got the appropriate nickname.
5. I thought it was interesting that the story would have almost a complete unit of police officers who were lgbtq+ AND lovers! Again, I know it's fantasy. I guess there's no one who could protect your back better than someone you have sex with.

Now, what I thought was a little much (at least for me):

1. I though that Tharn (Babe) went from being a badass early on in ther series to a crybaby wimp near the end of the series. But, Likewise, so did Phaya (Billy). I guess their love made them "weak."

2. The doctor's story as the villain wasn't really hashed as well as it could've been, especially in the ending episodes. We never really got to see the real connection between he and Tharn.

3. I know they were trying to look like a big budget production. But the CGI scenes really needed some work. At times, it looked more like a saturday morning kids show than adult production.

4. Someone else commented there were too many subplots. YES THERE WERE!!!

Now, that I've stated these points, I will say that I did like the series. I didn't particularly like the ending with the way Tharne left and Phaya was so broken hearted that he would become a broken down bum. But, it was interesting. Is it worthy of an 8.6. IMO, if all were talking about is whether you personally liked it not, then probably so. However, if you really wanted to apply equal merit to its scenery, cinematography, direction. and plot, then probably not. One other Thai BL received a MDL rating of 8.6 was Night of a Thousand Stars. Hmmm! Think about it.

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Goofball cuties - BLOCKBUSTER show

Will it be just another contract marriage drama? We have to wait & watch. For the time being first episode was good. Introduced characters & story quite effectively and the ML & FL will be enemy to lovers kinda trope so I'm in for sure. The main leads are looking FAB already. Let the rom-com begin.

I hope there's no murder & mystery plot here coz chaebol is already very busy plot. I'm seated for this show.

Fighting!!! Marriage related titles in dramas are the trend for Monday, Tuesday in Korea I guess.

The brothers are so sibling coded and the chemistry between leads is off the charts. It's a blockbuster in making.

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COCKLOARD , ML mission is killing his brother by suffocating him

ML doesn't know his old brother had a friend for 15 years but he found out right away when his brother enter Korea,,,
where was ML for last 15 years in his mothers womb ?

ML here is acting what grandpa and old fathers do ,, forcing people to marry for benefit and our ML think that is good for his older brother but he will self will marry the one he like,, GREAT
how will his brother will trust a jerk like him who do illegal crimes as it is normal to hire people to follow others and invade there Privacy
even the woman isn't interest in marriage neither the brother , WHY does ML getting erection every time he here about marriage
FL even call him mother in law, that's how ML act like a OLD ROTTEN mother in law,,,
he was called a stalker and he was stalking her for real.
no one can hang up on Almighty ML because he is most talkative shit ever born
Girlfriend/wife of older brother is called ( Hyungsonim )

We are introduce to over Fl and ML together and ML is a man child 5 year old boy in a Adult body

ML was walking/running backward and collide with FL and then he was expecting and asking her to apologize to her
i know your born by mistake but that doesn't mean all your mistake should be ignored
WHY KOREAN MAN CAN NOT ACCEPT THERE MISTAKE AND APOLOGIZE TO A LADY LIKE A GENTLEMAN
does it make you look cool acting like a Low Life when you meet an Stanger

but director added an old lady to show how kind is OUR ML that he will buy all those fruits so old lady can go home
but he isn't allowed to eat those fruits because we need malnutrition ML ______

they show him act like a jerk with a Stanger lady he collided but kind with a old lady he know.....
what you want me to think of this FAke nice guy ?

Most of people when collide with other person says sorry even without thinking but ML can't say that because his already lost pride will be gone forever if he say sorry to a WOMAN, how can a man suffering from malnutrition ask forgiveness

ML is a MOTHER FATHER GENTLEMAN

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I hope you're hungry for nothing

It's like you put every food that you ever loved into a one bowl and eat all of it at one sitting, you would think that it would taste good but no you puke at the end because mixing that amount of food is abviously gonna make you sick. This drama is like a mix of every fantasy romance drama that has ever been made so cliche, so predictable, so boring... If you're gonna make this psychopath murderer thing a big part of the storyline maybe not make it too on the nose, leave a little bit place for viewers to wonder this makes watching experience so boring beacause you can clearly figure out what's gonna happen next. Why would I wanna watch a show where I already know what's going to happen in it. No plot twist no nothing.
The chemistry between the main leads was undeniable I'll give you that but I kept expecting him to turn into a real human again when he comes back, so they can finish their love story with a proper ending at least in this lifetime but no that didn't happen. I almost thought he was going to have a breakthrough or something while talking to that man he had a deal with at the subway about being a real human but no that didn't happen either

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I initially enjoyed this drama once I stopped trying to really understand the plot and let some of it go. I liked the premise and both leads. The story, at least for me moved at a good pace and I liked the leads chemistry.

Halfway through is when it became hard for me to root for the FL She clearly hurt ML and devastated him with her words and actions. She had her reasons but drama didn’t spend time showing us if she was really that sad over Ml. IMO, she didn’t seem sad. When FL was trying to win him back… she lacked a complete sense of sincerity. Chasing after him with her big eyes, giant cheesy smile, prancing around him, and using the cutesy voice when this guy is still in pain was so superficial. I wish there was a heart to heart… a genuine apology for lying and deceiving him. Something…. cuz I really wanted to like her.

The OST and sound effects didn’t help either … while funny in the beginning it minimized ML’s emotions and made FL seem flighty and ingenious. I didn’t care if they got together and that was a big bummer for a romantic drama.

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