Reviews

Questionable Storyline

The series actually packed with good casts that can deliver ranges of acting since I've seen most of them in another works.
As for Becky, personally, I think she's doing a good job delivering a new kind of Nanno since this is reset version. Because I never expect her to be the same as previous Nanno and I'm glad throughout the episodes I never compared her to the old Nanno.
Now the main issue for me is the storyline and the direction of the show. While I like the dynamic between Nanno and Sky, I can't say the same with the overall plots. There's no wow factors that can glued me to my seat, the stories were bland and tasteless. I now that there are lessons but I was expecting some twists or something like that.
I hope the next season the stories will be more interesting.

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It was okay

A series far from perfect with writing and execution issues, but with its own charm that manages to keep you interested. I expected it to be just a light-hearted drama, but I was actually surprised to see some heavier themes being addressed. The let down was that they didn't fully commit on exploring them and instead sacrificed the limited length of the eight episodes, by introducing sub-plots, while rushing the existing storylines. For me, it had the potential to be a great bl series, had they stayed loyal to the main plot and developed more the characters and their dynamics.

The acting was good overall and I generally enjoyed the chemistry of each pairing, but I will give a little more credit to Tee for delivering some very difficult emotional scenes.

I recommend the series to people who look for a lighter show with some depth. Despite any flaws, it was still fun and easy to watch.

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offensively bad

there's good dramas with sophisticated plots, there's good dramas with simple plots, and then there's bad dramas that try so hard to be sophisticated that it makes them 10x worse. this is one of them.

this drama is a disgrace against all women, lesbians, and queer people. the women of this drama are put through perpetual abuse, sexual assault, etc., for the sole purpose of dramatisation and/or character development for the male lead. this is a well studied phenomenon known as the 'women in refrigerators' trope, i highly recommend reading up on it.
as for the queer aspect, just because they included a lesbian character doesn't mean we should be applauding the writers for representation. this drama exploits the hardships of sexual minorities for nothing more than shock value. throughout the entire story, sangah is mentally and physically pushed to the limit, but no attempt is made to send any meaningful message with any of this.

towards the end i began to wonder, who are we even supposed to be rooting for here? taeseob is just as manipulative and power hungry as the elites he strived to take down.
they try to frame taeseob and sangah as equally evil and equally sympathetic, which is NOT the case. sangah wasn't responsible for the murder, and even if she was, it would've been justified. she can't be blamed for cheating either as she was coerced with drugs. taeseob on the other hand, as admitted by himself in the first episode, only saw sangah as a means to climb up the social ladder. sure, you could argue he fell in love with her later, and he did try to 'protect' her overall, but he wouldn't have gone to such lengths to protect her image if it wasn't crucial to his own reputation. not to mention him forcing himself onto her after their big fight which is completely irredeemable. mind you he was already irredeemable to me when he did nothing to help jisoo.

the last episode is its own disaster:
- slow motion montages were excessive and anticlimactic, whole episode could've been 40 minutes if they cut those out
- everything played out way too smoothly all of a sudden
- the focus suddenly shifts onto politics and we're expected to keep up with all these names and lore that were only mentioned in passing in previous episodes
- the "cliffhanger" they left to tease a second season felt sooo forced and rushed

overall, a low quality drama that takes itself too seriously, much to its own detriment.

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Great but the ending is rushed

If you’re looking for lots of skin from a BL then this one is not for you. If you’re looking for great chemistry and plot then this is probably right up your street.

The story follows two young neighbours who hold each other in high esteem who get separated by circumstance when Theo is shipped off to live with his grandmother in Paris leaving his best friend Akk behind.

They meet again years later when Theo’s grandmother dies and they immediately strike up a friendship with unrequited undertones of desire and love.

Theo selects a book that he’s read and makes a comment in one of the blank back pages and over time the two investigate who responds to the comment that he wrote. We meet 4 other main support characters who all profess to be Enchante, the person who responded to the comment that he left. We also find out the reasoning behind them lying and telling Theo that they are the person he is looking for.

The ending was a very frustrating as it is very rushed- we don’t really get closure for the 4 pretenders nor is the reason why Theo decides to break Akk’s heart particularly believable either (but they are reunited).

The production values excellent even though the now famous home from Cutie Pie (as well as a couple of other BLs I have watched) appears yet again!

The chemistry between Theo and Akk is so believable and had me smiling like a loon in some of the scenes where they’re rough housing.

The other actors are also very good (and rather pleasing on the eye which is a bonus) and add depth and substance to this drama.

Would I watch again? Probably not but that doesn’t stop this from being a great little drama and one worth a higher rating than given on this platform.

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they're so adorable

if you love fluff with a touch of silliness (and just a tiny bit of tears, if you’re as sensitive as i am), this is the place for you. i once heard someone say, “love should be fun,” and this is kind of like that.

i loved watching Qinn slowly but surely warm up and literally blossom alongside him. when he started smiling, i just melted. he became so tender by the end 🙏🏻

i adore both main characters with all my heart, AND MARS AND JAMIE 💅🏻 i also really love the main characters’ friends—can i have some like that, too? Pae is my kitty

I LOVE THEM SO MUCH, they’re so sweet iaiaiaiaiaia. i’d go on and on about this to my friends every day, and everyone would unfollow me, so i just quietly screamed in my notes.

and the actors 🙏🏻—i really love their performances; i don’t even know how to describe how delighted i am with them.

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Excellent time travel story and great leads chemistry

Much better than the usual short dramas. This is a time-regression story, but with her returning to her own body, which is different within the genre. Regarding the actors, it's always a pleasure to watch Quan Yilun; his good looks and acting ability are excellent. Sebrina Chen is delightful; she's a wonderful actress, beautiful, and she makes the most of the story.

They share one of the best kisses I've ever seen in a short drama—intense, long, realistic, and passionate.
The story concludes well , which is a relief.—spoiler alert: at least in the future .
The cinematography is excellent for a short drama, with very carefully crafted costumes and details. I think you'll enjoy it a lot; it's well worth watching.

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STORY: A short drama to watch without expectations. It features the typical clichés: FL is rich, ML is unlucky with sick family members and financial difficulties, an instant crush that FL calls "destiny," and SML is mean and jealous.
The only thing that's different from the usual is the poker game. Card games bore me to death, luckily it takes up a few minutes in the last episode (skipped).

CAST: Pleasant in appearance with decent acting. I found the romantic aspect forced, not helped by a corny/cheesy script.
The FL tried to make her more enterprising than average but for fear of exaggerating they still inserted cringe moments: don't look at me, I'm blushing... So annoying!
ML who "says he feels inferior to her" but it behaves the opposite way with playboy moments. It felt like I was watching a comic for teenagers.

I found the production to be low budget, the most annoying thing I noticed was in the external shots: they removed the natural background noise when the actors spoke and immediately put it back, so that we hear this continuous difference. Embarrassing.

MUSIC: I don't even remember it.

In conclusion, I would only recommend it to fans of the protagonists, a mediocre show that I would have preferred to avoid.

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GOOD ONE

what I like
comedy
romance
chemistry
the first half really good , there's enough romance
what I don't like
the 2nd couple issue dragged too long , their story is literally nonsense when the main leads did everything to stop divorce and then death they still get divorced?
the one who was behind this was her brother,I realised he is as soon as he mentioned Money and gambling habit
after this ends there's some 10eps left focused on FML death ? both sad crying FML wanting to breakup because she is going to die and he will be alone but don't really breakup just argue
and when her death issue is there suddenly the ml issue pops up him being transferred and the reason he shifted to her house ,they find out who did that and in process of making him confess the ml from 2022 future dies ? i disliked that ? you didn't have to kill him ? still ending is better the 2021 ml falls for her too and they just get together after that happy ending , after the 2nd couple issue ended and the ml issue started I just skipped the eps since they continuously working on finding the person who did that to ml , I skipped last few eps but I still like it , it's rare for CDRAMA to have a couple like this and romance like this

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I thought I would binge it, yet savored it instead

It's been a while since I cried so much watching a drama. For me, it had the perfect balance between heartbreaking and heartwarming. There was such a juxtaposition between ML's life and FL's life, you would think that these two could never make a relationship work. ML is from a loving and happy home, and it seemed like life was just handing him everything he wanted without effort. On the flip side, FL's home life consisted of being foisted off on one relative after another. No one wanted her, and no one loved her. I think this made her emotionally stunted, always trying to protect herself from being abused/left again.

I loved the mix of high school and current times. The writer did a good job of slowly revealing more and more of the ML and FL history. When their high school breakup is initially shown, it didn't make much sense to me, and I thought the FL was unnecessarily cold. However, as the drama went on, we saw how she was trying to protect herself when she had no one else to protect her.

I absolutely loved discovering how he loved her, in the many ways he tried to protect her, and all the efforts he took to just see her in her world, a world that he was not a part of. I thought initially he was being awfully cocky toward her, making it sound like he thought she was chasing him, but I think he thought (and rightly so) that she was very skittish and he didn't want to scare her off by coming on too strong. He always seemed to be looking only at her, yet she had difficulty making eye contact with him. It felt like self-protection.

I thought the writer making her leave him seemed out of place, but again, we saw the difference between her being in the sunlight with him and being in the dark alone.

Her entire family was a complete nightmare. It made sense that her character was emotionally withdrawn. She just wanted to keep her head down, remain unnoticed, and get through life the best way she could. Kudos to the writers for not putting in a redemption arc for her family, that would have made me mad.

I loved their scenes together, as teens and as adults. They made each other better versions of themselves. I thought their chemistry was on point. Some very good kisses.

For me, C-dramas tend to be too long and drawn out. My fast forward button got a complete rest while watching this. A lot of people might find this drama to be unrealistic in the romance department. But for the romantic in me, it ticked all the boxes.

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Dedication of love: Love bonded in sacrifices.

When the main criteria is love.
Love devotion, was the main theme of this spectacular series. It tells you love don't bloom from nothingness or constant glances, It builds on actual substance before it blooms to those valley of flowers.

The main characters tale of love differ from their own building, but each of them were interesting had their serious likes and some dislikes, not all have to like the love between a particular character, because love is what causes you to defy the world.

Many seem no to like their stay in the void, but not for me, their stay in the void was about the building of their love, not really about the demonstration of their fight scenes, when they had their stay in the void, their love was constantly building on hopelessness despair, raising a child, old age, flirtness and more.
The void depicts the main origin of the story where the story gives us a highlight of what happened in the past and is affecting lives in reality, the void was the building essence of the story.

The OST was fantastic, it wasn't underwhelm scenes, it's uplifts all those romantic, fight, emotional scenes.
The fight scenes was an excellent masterpiece of all ages it was raw, well defined, and real

All the characters of the show played a significance, their wasn't one playing an insignificant role.
The guest stars was stunning, Chang Hau Sen as Han Ba was interesting an fun. We also hot Gong Zi Shang form My Journey to you and she literally brought her character of MJTY, to the show.
We also saw Xia Shi Guang as a powerful fox and his portrayal as that love driven character was touching and heartbreaking, but he played it in an amusing stance.

The villain of the story was well written but has flaws, bother he villain and the dragons.
How did the villain and the dragons exist in the thrive by and small mortal world, no reason on why the villain wants the mortal world destroyed, we had an overpowered villain which is interesting but it felt really undying and sophisticated, when the villain falls the scripts actually comes up with something that brings him back to being alive, It was great, cuz our main character has to be that exhausted fighting a villain.

Overall the drama was a well written love story, where love literally occurs with our main characters, side characters and guest roles, and the execution was nothing void of phenomenal. The beautiful fight scenes, OST, romance, supernatural elements, where converging to a common points and it was killing a typical undying villain.

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Very good drama

Love Story in the 70s is pretty good. The main leads are engaging and endearing, the second leads have an intriguing dynamic, but the third leads who had an incredibly irritating arc with wife’s parents and brother are given more screen time than the second leads. Parents of both the female lead and male lead are memorable but it was entertaining to watch the female lead’s father. Everyone has acted very well. The real scene stealer is the textile mills director Xu Hong Qi and that cup of hers that breaks into pieces on the floor. It also is Chen Feiyu’s best performance to date. Like most Asian series, everyone in this drama has a job and they have struggles related to work, ambitions, families and senior colleagues as well as love. In fact, it’s the work life of each individual that moves the story forward. Locations are realistic, as are the events. It is set in a particularly difficult time period in Chinese cultural and educational history and may feel like a propaganda piece in some instances. The only person I felt bad for is Ling Yi, the way her journey was concluded was unfair. You’ll hate Feng Lin, universally disliked individual, and good riddance.

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K-drama is back with this one!

Perfect Crown is not based on any novel but since its been a while since a K-drama has worked in the romance department, especially an old-fashioned rom-com, the kind that K-drama was so good at at one point, I thought I’d talk a bit about it. I've also posted a video review about it on my youtube channel.

FL / HEEJOO:

Centering around a constitutional monarchy system that exists within a democracy with an elected prime minister, cabinet etc. this has the right mix of everything. IU is sensational as SONG HEE-JOO, she heads a K-beauty brand and is one of the richest people in the country. She’s the ultimate no-nonsense hustler who knows how to generate buzz and sell products. The company is successful because of her but her father never liked her and favors his incompetent son because he was born from his legal wife, while Heejoo is the illegitimate daughter from a mistress who was forced on her father at 10. She has had to work really hard to get everything in life, was a brilliant student and is used to people ridiculing her or talking badly about her because of her background. She feels that she needs to marry up or someone from a noble background to fatten her chances of becoming heir to her father’s business empire, she lacks social status, and that’s how she proposes the prince, current regent of the royal family.

ML/PRINCE YI-AHN:

Prince YiAhn is regent because the current majesty, his nephew, is 8 years old. Prince’s job in this drama is to look dreamy eye-candy and if you go past the fillers on his face, he does a commendable job of looking dreamy eye-candy. And he is carrying himself with enough aloofness to look like unattainable royalty. He has a far more complicated backstory than heejoo. He suffers from his own daddy issues - I don’t know why his father was so disapproving of hi other than the fact that he was not crown prince and was no.2 and his job was to support his father and brother and that’s it. He has status but has no money of his own - being taxpayer funded and all, and has to follow rigid royal rules with no personal freedom - but he does act out every now and then. There’s a huge responsibility on his shoulders. All of the members of his immediate family have died under strange circumstances. His mom, then-queen, died in a car accident. His father, a middle-aged man died of a heart attack. His brother crown prince didn’t want to marry the woman who became his wife but felt compelled or duty-bound to do so. His wife is a real piece of work, born in a family that has produced 4 generations of queens, she believes in blue-bloodedness, pedigree, and lineage, what her manner and dialogues reveal is racism, not elitism. She believes in hereditary rights of ascent, hard work makes no difference to her, a person’s accident of birth is more important. The drama has set up an eventual showdown between her and heejoo by this comical dialogue by prince’s aide who wonders out loud ‘who will win between the two’?

BASIC MYSTERY:

The brother died in a mysterious fire (he also wanted to abdicate and was stopped by his wife/Queen). His wife is now Queen Mother and her son 8 year old cutie is His Majesty but male lead prince is the one tasked to represent monarchy and government for e.g. charity or diplomatic functions, meeting dignitaries etc. and the poor king is happier around him than around his own mother.

Queen Mother is always afraid that Prince YiAhn is going to overshadow or overtake her son. I think her father is behind all the killings in the royal family, but maybe it could be someone who wants to abolish the monarchy? At the end of Ep. 4 there was even an attempt on heejoo’s life (someone had tinkered with her car’s brakes) - there’s even a princess diana reference who of course died in a car crash- so maybe someone does not want Prince Yi-Ahn’s side of the family to have any power, other than Queen Mother?

But Queen mother’s father is extremely suspicious. And Queen mother does herself no favors by being a mean overbearing byotch. As a young widow, she is planning an arranged marriage for Prince Yi-Ahn, and I was like, why isn’t someone thinking of getting her married again? There’s also a bit of a hint of maybe she’s over-obsessed with who he ends up with, as if she at one point liked him or rejected him.

As for the royal rules, they are not that bad considering that there is a threat to monarchy, especially after that car scene where brakes failed, in which the poor 8-year old king was not supposed to be in an unsanctioned car.
Btw, this is the prime minister, who is best friends with both heejoo and Prince yi-ahn. So light-hearted fare.

ROMANCE:

As for the romance, they don’t need to 'speed it up' - a reference you’ll understand if you are watching the show [4 episodes have been aired so far]. The drama has found the nice balance of modern monarchy which still has rigid internal rules and mystic.

WHAT KIND OF ENDING WOULD BE PERFECT FOR BOTH FL & ML:

And apart from the mystery of the fire and other deaths, the drama has to come up with the right kind of ending - heejoo will never leave her company / girl boss position to be just a royal - the only reason she wanted to marry a royal is to get control of the company and prince yi-ahn needs to figure out whether he wants to remain a royal or what kind of modern royal he can be within the dyanstic system. The first 4 episodes reminded me of good old-fashioned kdramas which used to have the right mix of the main leads relationship, over-the-top family drama, a bit of comedy, a bit of tragedy, a bit of fashion and a bit of high-stakes life and death mystery and decision. Visually everything is pretty and fluff but it does have repeat value. Basically who doesN’t want to see heejoo win?

Since this has 12 episodes, it will be over before you know it. Should’ve been 16 episode drama like the good old days or broken down to 2 seasons considering all the production budget? Because it's a good fun drama. Do check out my review on youtube too.

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The most memorable line from this drama occurs in Ep. 2 or 3 early on, when Chen Feiyu’s Duan Xu says ‘I was sand, I will be sand, but for this moment I’m a sandcastle.’ Beautiful line.
Love Beyond the Grave is based on novel ‘Carrying A Lantern In Daylight,’ a 107-chapter Chinese fantasy xinxia romance written by Li Qing Ran. It is available in Chinese and English languages online. It’s actually a well-written novel with a solid story and a good epic star-crossed romance with a happy ending. [https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=5458205 ] [https://www.novellist.co/novels/love-beyond-the-grave ] [https://www.readthedrama.com/novels/love-beyond-the-grave-bai-ri-ti-deng ] [https://nomad-translations.com/carrying-a-lantern-in-daylight-calid/ ]
The 40-episode English-subtitled adaptation stars Dilraba as the spirit queen and it’s her show all the way, she has the difficult and meatier role, a character she was probably born to play. She and Chen Feiyu are perfect for their roles. An immortal, 400-year old spirit queen Simu and a mortal 20-year old general Duan Xu have an on-off relationship which is tested across mortal and spirit realms over the span of a year. The spirit queen wants to experience life as a human by feeling the sensations of the five senses, since she has none - i.e. she can see, but cannot feel what she sees. Both realms are colorless, bland and joyless to her. The general can give her the ability. Both have their own ambitions and struggles in spirit and mortal worlds and have their work cut out for them. The story will end with the life-changing decision by the spirit queen abdicating her throne and immortal life and becoming a mortal to live with Duan Xu [in the drama, she doesn't make the decision, the decision is made for her by some fairy of Lord of Fate because DX has been killed] and though there are effective scenes, the grand romance is a hard sell. I think it is due to the way in which the drama is filmed, the way in which connection or lack-of between both leads is filmed. The spirit queen has had 22 lovers in 400 years, forgetting them all, because she couldn’t feel them with any of her senses (you know touch, taste, etc.). This is precisely why Duan Xu is memorable to her, because she can experience the totality of it all with him. And he tells her in Chapter 65 that he likes her because: ‘[Duan Xui] spoke softly, as if accusing and joking at the same time, “You lure me in.” He Simu raised her eyebrows. “With your gentleness beneath your cold exterior, the loneliness above all ghosts, and the love for the world, you lure me in. And I willingly took the bait.”’ Of course, her being a larger than life indestructible figure is part of the appeal.

Duan Xu knows her more than any entity and gambles and schemes to make her accept him, but in the drama she’s mothering his spoilt kid demeanor and the story loses its appeal around Ep. 23 or 24 - too much time is spent in the spirit world and the general’s heart is broken in more ways than one. You’ll find yourself skipping scenes and episodes.

The soundtrack’s best number is ‘Above All Spirits / Souls’ sung by Huang Xiaoyun. It's epic and enhances every scene its in.

This could have been a very sensual and romantic saga of 2 people fighting their own battles in spirit and mortal world and getting together at the end, but it is one of the coldest 'love stories' as in, there's no heat, no sizzle, no chemistry here. I've spoken more about it in my video review posted on youtube.

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