Reviews

Welcome to samdal-ri, small stream to return to.

Watching this drama, full of gratitude, love, warmth and healing, was such a great experience. It really talked a lot about hidden emotions behind smiles and suffering that are rarely talked about or noticed. I liked pretty much everything about this drama: the breathtaking sights of jeju island, bonds that are so tight and ubreakable, matching traumas and hardships that are overtaken by love and support of eachother only.

As an enthusiast of poetry, movies and shows about healing, giving love and expressing emotions is my cup of tea. Samdal-ri is exactly that. Everything you search for in a heartwarming and deep drama. I even cried couple of times and experienced the hardships of main charachters like my own which i consider had a lot to do with a great acting of amazing actors.

This drama deeply reminded me of paul eluard's poem ,,the night is never comlete''

,,The night is never complete
There is always, as I say
As I stated
After grief an open window
A lighted window
There is always a dream before,
Desire to satisfy, hunger to fill,
A generous heart
A helping hand, an open hand,
An attentive eye
A life, life to share''

Isn't this poem exectly what samdal-ri has to say?
That no matter how dark and hopeless the situation is light of people who love you will become a little stream of hopes and warmth that has power to give you new breath and home to return to?

Of course i wouldn't call samdal-ri the perfect drama, there were things that i disliked, that deeply annoyed me about main charachter and some of the other support actors too. It was the way their actions and psychological background was written, that i think could have been so much better. I also disliked the way things were stretched and needed years to be resolved. I mean the little misunderstandings, that had potential to be so much less than it became becouse of miscommunication.

Still beautiful things are never prefect. I would recommend this drama to everyone who is searching for something heartwarming, peaceful and empathetic. I hope you are going to experience a lot of positive and deep emotions with choi samdal her people far away from the noices of buzzing citys and toxic people.

Love you all! with my first review i will let the silence be broken.

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It is a mid drama that feels like the best drama at first 20 or 30 eps

I just finished watching this drama and I feel a lot of emotions rn but I will try my best not to be biased
coming from an experienced drama watcher I will tell you all about this drama in a way without spoilers (if ur lazy to read just skip to the last paragraph)

okay so first of all this drama is very appealing to the eyes and has very good actors especially our girl "the princess" Zhang Zi Yi I can see a lot of people criticizing her becoz she is a 44yr old actress playing a"16" yr old princess from the start and yes I do agree when I start watching this drama I had this feeling that the female actor looked older than her parents and her uncle and aunts lol and it was very clear she does have a older appearness BUT! after completing this drama i think she was a very strong and perhaps only likable character except her mother and the ml and also becoz of her and the ml i did not drop this drama in the middle.

I actually was hooked at the first episode and I binged watched like 16 eps in a day this drama surely brings up excitement and curiosity,As an experienced drama watcher myself most of the time I was trying to guess what would happen next becoz when u watch a lot dramas u know there is always a pattern. but jeez this drama script is so weirdly good at some places and so horribly cliche and confusing at other places it was still pretty predictable towards the end but at the start I have to give them the credit for making it pretty interesting

another good thing about the drama is the ost It is pretty nice and nostalgic lmao

And i think the title really suits this drama becoz if u look at all the political drama and the 5/10 romance and the weird plot we can see that our princess is pretty rebellious becoz she is the only woman who do not want power and is always love sick for her family most of the time and try to "fix" the bad doings of almost everyone in the palace. that's why she is rebellious becoz she is different from all the women in the palace but she is way too soft-hearted and confused most of the time lmao

now for the romance, some people said it was a slow-burn romance lol full bs i think it was way too rushed and they stay in that same romance stage for the rest of the show its weirdly good and satisfying at first but let me tell you you it was so frustrating towards the end

let me tell u about the story It is all boring politics played by beautiful people with beautiful clothing and almost everyone switches from absolutely selfish power seekers to absolutely miserably apologetical,regrets everything and some characters switch between these 2 characteristics or stays in 1 and almost everyone dies that at end u don't care who dies at this point.the romance in this drama is like not there most of the time and all the characters are indulged in everything but romance
the romance showed in this drama was 35% in 100% and the other 65% was political drama and the plot the 20% was the romance between the fml and ml and the 15% of the other romance is by the side characters like emperors,second leads yeah all the side characters almost had the same amount of romance between them than the actual main leads .


IN ALL HONESTY, this drama is fr a 7/10 only becoz of its good main leads and really good acting and the costumes are 10/10 everyone was eye candy to watch but is it worth a watch in one word NO but it does depend, big no for students, hard-working busy lads who likes to watch drama in free time, people who rarely get time to watch dramas but wanted to give this drama a chance, if u belong here in anyway if ur okay to spend ur time and really wants to give it a try go ahead its ur choice at the end of the day.If u are a starter in watching dramas, if u have a lot time in ur hand like if ur young then yeah/MAYBE .i deff wasted my time in this drama, especially becoz its so long there are much much better dramas to watch in the industry so yeah . its a good drama to understand whether u like this type of palace political stuff and drama. the main problems about this drama is the bad plot and a lot of characters turn unrealistically evil and horrible characters, there is not even a single character in this drama with character development its annoying, frustrating . almost too cliche and too many unneeded killings of every good characters

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my comfort drama

One of my favorite comfort drama of all it's one of the underrated drama when in fact t its all good. I like this drama because they focus on friendship, relationship and family. They talk about different kinds of grief and how to continue life with someone we loss whom we love so much The message of this drama is very deep and it directs in our hearts.
Yong Pil and Sam Dal known each other since their childhood days they were inseparable that's why they developed their feelings beyond lovers. However when unfortunate thins happen they separate ways to never hurt the feelings of Yong Pils father who are against them to be together but they never give up infact they fight for they feelings and later on his father gave they blessing. But I got this second lead syndrome wherein I kinda love the pairing of Sam Dal and Sang Do hehehe. But I like that he gave his way for them.
I also like to have Hae Dal and MIN Chul longer moments together hoping they will have separate drama together that they are the lead stars.
Overall this drama is good.

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slice of life mini series

Overall: this is a 20 minute short movie that was originally released in 2022 and was broken up into 3 mini episodes (first episode was 5 minutes without the credits). Aired on Strongberry's YouTube channel over 3 weeks (1 episode per week)

What I Liked
- fighting over the diary
- realistic vibe
- production value

Room For Improvement
- beginning didn't hook me, and how I couldn't see the main character's face
- released such short episodes at 1 episode per week instead of all together
- the ending was open to interpretation with contradictory clues/evidence for each ending
- the title (just do an internet search on "happy ending slang" if you don't know what it means) but I didn't take off points
- the subtitles needed to stay a little longer on the screen as people read slower than when they are just listening (didn't take off points)

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balas dendam sempurna tapi...

buat akting udah pasti keren semua dari mulai kim dongwook si peran utama sampai choi hyunjin si pahlawan kecil. alur ceritanya oke, untuk 12 episode semuanya memuaskan.

pembullyannya digambarin jahat banget bahkan sampai ke guru gurunya luar biasa ngeselin sampai aku mikir apa di dunia nyata juga ada yang kayak gitu? kejam banget dunia ya bahkan ke anak smp sekalipun. padahal kyungmin cuma pengen bisa sekolah dengan tenang, main sama jongsuk setiap hari tanpa diganggu sama geng bully.

emosi kyungmin sangat nyampe sih ke aku dan aku salut sama dia karena dia mau loh buat move on, mau coba berobat demi istri sama ibunya. seandainya pas itu istrinya ga buka album foto kyungmin, seandainya mereka ga ke rumah kyungmin hari itu gimana ya..

kyungmin ngelakuin balas dendam secara perlahan dia kasih makan dulu sampe kenyang si geng bully, baru dia bantai mereka tapi apa hukuman yang kyungmin kasih ke geng bully itu sepadan? menurut aku sih gak, kyungmin masih baik langsung ngebunuh mereka atau cuma bikin mereka ketakutan sampai gila dalam waktu singkat sedangkan rasa sakit kyungmin terus dia rasain seumur hidup.

di sini menurutku orang selain di geng bully yang harusnya tanggung jawab itu jongsuk sih. dulu karena adanya cheol, kyungmin udah mau loh berdamai sama ketakutannya, dia mau nahan diri di sekolah itu demi cheol sama jongsuk. tapi jongsuk nih sinting, cheol curhat mau bertahan hidup demi ibunya malah dia dorong beneran dari atap cuma buat menuhin ego dia, udah gitu dia lepas tangan ngerasa ga bersalah. sedangkan kyungmin? dia ngerasa bersalah seumur hidup dan dihantuin sama cheol.

bahkan sampe ending pun aku kecewa sih karena kejahatan jongsuk ga pernah kepublish, dia tetep dianggep sebagai pahlawan dan kyungmin dianggep sebagai pembunuh berantai padahal pembunuh sebenernya jongsuk (di luar geng bully) dan yang mentalnya terbunuh kyungmin.

greget sama jina, dia nih polisi senior dan udah nemuin bukti jongsuk ngebunuh cheol kenapa ga bisa langsung ditangkep? terlalu bertele-tele, bahkan udah di tempat yang sama pun (pas di sekolah) dia tetep telat nyelamatin jongsuk sama cheol.

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Beautiful story with badass FL

Really really happy to watch this drama. Really sad when it's over, I just want to keep watching them, not ready yet to say goodbye... Really hope what in the final scene is really happening.... :(

In this drama we get friendships, brotherhood, maturity of a character & yet the perfect examples of people foolish & selfishness and every character imperfection.

In here we got very badass FL that not often we see in dramaland. Ren Ru Yi (RY) is one ruthless killing machine that usually move by herself, trust no one but once she trust someone she's willing to risk everything for that person.

Ning Yuan Zhou (YZ) as ML on the other hand is a perfect spy & leader that everyone looked up to.

Together with the task on hand, to save the King of Wu Kingdom that's been capture by An Kingdom, start their journey. And in this journey also come YZ's brothers / companion & Princess Yang Ying, who disguised herself as a man / prince.

What i really like about this drama:
+ How RY shamelessly tease & seduce YZ at first. At first, her goal only to have baby with YZ, not make YZ be her husband. Haha... She got a 'task' from Empress Wu to have baby instead husband, so yeah she's try to complete that 'task'.
+ But of course with given time both RY & YZ start really falling in love & have trust with each other. Really like the growth of their relationship.
+ The badass Princess Yang Ying (YY). Oh this maybe one of my most beloved support character. Really like the growth in YY's character. She's really grown from scaredy & childish princess into amazing prince & in the end amazing princess & woman. The aura when she must act as the prince is really something. And I really like how in the end, when she get back home to be with the 'family' she still became herself, a little chilish & spoiled.
+ All the brother of YZ's group. From playboy Yu Shi San, to the stoik Qian Zhao, to the youngest Yuan Lu & the foolish Sun Lang. I really like to see how they interact with each other. How they sometimes act like a woman who like gossip to how they act like boys when they decide to make fun of Li Tong Guang jealousy.
+ The growth of Wu Di [Emperor Wu]. He also grow from selfish brat that doesn't care about everyone else except himself to someone that have remorse & decided to do better.
+ Xiao Yan [Empress of Wu State] & Chu Yue (CY). 2 strong & interesting woman. I really like to see the relationship between CY & Shi San.
+ Alen Fang... I really like Alen Fang as Yu Shi San here... I think this is the best role for him
+ This drama had one of the best sword dance... Haha... Seeing them fighting really like watching sword dance....

The stupid selfish human:
* Li Tong Guang. OMG i don't know what the heck inside his head. He's over and over can't overcome his own feeling for RY. But this is also i feel is the minus in writing his character. He's such fickle human being. One minute he so determined to make RY as his own, but the other minute, after RY or YZ talk sense into him, he just change his mind so instantly. And that's just continue the pattern till the end... UGH!!!
* Li Zhun [Emperor of An State] & his prince. This is the perfect example of apple fall not far from its tree. Like father like son, both are very selfish till the end of the stage they don't care about their country & just about themselves.
* The third prince of Wu (I don't know his name, nor I found in the cast). I know he's been wrongly treated for his entire life. But when ur Kingdom in state of war & yet u still think of urself is really something...

Overall this really good drama to open this year....

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Unique surprising beautiful story..highly recommended

Like Love of Replica, you really love the story and the ending always made you surprise and that can make you smile and love more the stories. The ML & FL played their roles at best..all casts truly played their roles so well.

With Love of Replica and Mysterious Love this makes me look forward more movies/series of Tsao Yu Ning.

Unlike others C-drama, the story has its own essence and uniqueness, intellectually written, and as story unfolds, the unpredictable series of events surely kept you on hook to watch . Full of suspense, and unpredictable series of events but you fall in love in between.

The timing of the theme songs are perfect.

Very highly recommended..it never waste your time..i

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Enforces the stereotypes it claims to oppose

What's the use in showing a woman fighting the oppression she faces by society if she'll eventually submit to them?

It annoys me that the portrayal of women in korean society is so accurate. the show does a painfully good job at this, you sympathize with dr Cha, who's working hard and has the brains, only for sexism to hold her back. It annoys me cause they do nothing with this! you don't get a medal for simply adressing the unfairness, the story must fight it. and it doesn't, the shitty cheater doesn't pay, neither his enabling mother. nothing changes, at the core.

About her "happy ending" I have mixed feelings. Loved that she became more confident and independent, but that wouldn't be erased if she gained a love interest. Koreans have a problem with middle aged women having a life beyond being a mother and wife. people in their 50s have sex, as they should. sometimes with younger men. as long as he treated her well, I don't see why she didn't give him a chance. you can be strong and independent while in a relationship with the right person.

Other reviews have said it better, but I'm saying it again: it's not her that had to change, it's the society!

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Don't be cynical about love

Overall, I rate this drama very well. An interesting story, a good cast, excellent chemistry between leads, lovely backdrop , beautiful costumes and melodious music.

The story centred around Ren RuYi and Ning YuanZhou. The former was the leader of the female spy ring of the Kingdom of An, who was presumed dead. The latter was the newly reinstated head of the LiuDaoTang, the spy ring of the rival Kingdom of Wu. King of Wu lost the battle with An and was captured and imprisoned. The King of An demanded ten thousand ingots of gold for his release, to be delivered by a Wu prince.

RuYi was running away from being captured in the Wu kingdom and ended up hiding in YuanZhou's residence. Meantime, Yuan Zhou was appointed the leader of the delegation to deliver the the gold to An. The only prince capable of travelling to An was also the Regent ruling in the absence of the King of Wu and it was deemed too risky to lose him. Motivated by promise of rewards, Princess YangYing volunteered to be the 'Prince'. YuanZhou engaged the help of RuYi to coach YangYing on the ways of the An. So this delegation of people oddly thrown together had to make their way to An and rescue the King. How many would return safely?

What I like about this drama?

1. In a way, this story was along the similar theme as A Journey to You, a theme of a spy in the opposite camp who developed a Stockholm Syndrome. But the story development was a lot more interesting and the ending was a lot more appealing.

2. It was sad and cheerful at the same time - it spiced up your senses. Who could say that the world is perfect. Therefore we don't expect a perfect ending for everyone. Many did not make it back to the Wu Kingdom. But we rejoice that some found their own happiness eventually.

3. The story was interesting and original in its own ways. No plagiarism observed. and certainly different from 'A Journey to You'.

4. There were a lot of philosophical lessons in the drama. Many were very in tuned into human nature. I laughed at the lessons in relationship that ShiSan was teaching Chu Yue - somewhat crappy, somewhat wise. And in episodes 18 and 19, the lead characters were trying to sort out where they would eventually settle after their missions. This is so apt even in contemporary real life settings.

5. Chemistry between YuanZhou and RuYi was very well played out by Liu ShiShi and Liu YuNing. When RuYi insisted that YuanZhou was her choice of the father of her child and insisted on only a physical relation with him with no emotional attachment, it was hilarious.

6. The second male lead, Allen Fang, YiLun also brightened the drama a lot, acting as ShiSan. He was hilarious. It is the first time i saw him as a comic character, a departure from his usual stony face character. Hope to see him as first lead in a good drama.

6. All the hygiene factors were there: a good cast, excellent chemistry between leads, lovely backdrop , beautiful costumes and melodious music. And the opening and ending theme songs were beautiful.

What I do not like about this drama?

1. While there were some wise lessons to be taught in the drama, there were also some crap. RuYi was name calling her disciple as the illegitimate child when this was his Achilles' heels. Yet he accepted her ill-treatment and fell in love with her - I could not understand this. So one was masochistic and the other sadistic? And they complement each other? No compliments and encouragements - no wonder there are so much anger in some people. Imagine being criticised, beaten and name called all the time.

2. The final pretence was not convincing. How did someone surrounded and stabbed by the enemy soldiers survive?

For the last two points, I took half a point away from a perfect 10 but highly recommend this drama.

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complete waste of time

TLDR; not worth watching if u came to watch it after hearing about its mature content, just look up the content itself and skip watching the series to save your time.

Having recently gotten into the world of BLs, i didn't have a very high standard since i was just getting a gauge of the acting and whatnots. This series lowered the bar by at least tenfold. There were good scenes that kept me watching in the first 1 or 2 episodes but after that it went down so fast. I did finish the series but i skipped through a lot of plots simply because it was so unnecessary.
Those Wattpad mafia stories u read written by those twelve-year-old kids is written better than this sorry excuse of a script. I also have no problem with the mature content but this drama was inputting the mature content because sex sells and not because it provided some context or to show intimacy between the actors. It was just very off putting in general. If u r looking only to view the mature content u can easily search it up on youtube and just watch that part and save a LOT of your time.

Not a lot to say for the story it was very cliche but also poorly written so while i could tell what was going to happen next the scenes itself did not have an element of wow in them that would have made the series a treat to watch actually. Actors were good, relatively hot and good-looking cast who are able to showcase various expressions but emotions were not grasped wth the conviction that could have been reached in this story for me personally.

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pemeran utama oke, tapi alur ceritanya kurang

dari awal udah bingung seongki lebih ke semi pengangguran karena kerjanya jadi mak comblang tapi bisa dibayar gede, bahkan bisa keluar masuk lokasi syuting dengan alasan dia investor drama, masa sih staffnya ga ada yg curiga. dilanjut sama subin yang udah punya kerjaan jurnalis tapi tiba-tiba bisa jadi aktris tanpa training dan langsung bisa debut drama. taeil juga diceritain song-writer yang baru terjun ke dunia akting tapi dia bisa langsung jd peran utama.

di pertengahan episode aku bingung lagi karena subin yang makin terkenal malah disuruh jadi full aktris sama kantornya dan dia masih bisa masuk kantor sebagai jurnalis padahal dia kan lagi populer kok ga ada yg sadar.

taeil yang pengen punya skandal sama sunmi tapi selalu ragu-ragu buat pendekatan sama sunmi dan malah mepet ke subin. kelakuannya sama kayak seongki, dia suka sama subin tapi mepet ke sunmi bahkan setelah nolak sunmi dia masih bisa ngajak sunmi ke apartnya buat main games bareng.

subin jg aneh, dia ga mau foto seongki sama sumin disebar tp dia juga keliatan ga nyegah temen jurnalisnya buat ngeberitain foto itu tapi pas fotonya udah ke ekspose dia langsung datangin seongki ngerasa bersalah, ya kalau gitu dari awal ga usah disebar.

pilihan seongki pun aku rasa terlalu gegabah karena di hari pertama beritanya nyebar, malemnya dia langsung milih buat loncat ke sungai dan ga ada yang bener-bener berusaha nyariin dia atau tanya keadaan dia.

tapi semua emosi dan keharanan gue selama nonton harus ditelen lagi karena semua cuma mimpi seongki yg abis ditonjok ??

menurutku sangat disayangkan drama ini udah punya heechul sama moon gayoung yang aktingnya bagus, tapi alur ceritanya kurang menarik.

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they should be sued.

It starts bad and goes downhill fast. if you like a strong FL with lots of character, then maybe this is your movie if you squint hard. We are introduced to the ML and given little information why he is a flawed character, who is in need of redemption. You can see a mile away he is being setup. The payoff he supposedly falls for the FL and just can't seem to recover. A grown man is repeatedly told she is not interested, she is not sincere, and he loses all perspective to cope with this information. You keep waiting for him to make a stand of some kind or simply move on.
The FL is portrayed so badly, she is in it for the money and he was just collateral damage along the way. By the time her backstory is revealed, I found myself not really caring. In fact, I could relate more to the actual villain of the show.
This flawed story is covered up by continually introducing more characters, whose sole purpose is cover up for the weak story of the two leads. After all the viewer is being punished enough by this dysfunctional relationship. The bones of a story are there, and more is the pity for that. Don't watch this mess, there are better courtroom dramas.

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The dimple couple

I first found this drama on TikTok and let's say this drama ATE, like it's a high school drama with a girl sitting next to the school bully. Most people would say this flopped but instead this drama ATE and left no crumbs. I honestly was surprised to see Zhou Yi Ran because When I fly towards you was an absolute flop this one was sooooo good I've been rewatching it so many times and their dimples are like so cute. Zhou Yi Ran is so comfortable with Sabrina Zhuang. Plus if you like K-pop idols Sabrina Zhuang in this drama reminded me of Jisoo from blackpink and Winter from aespa. Both of their visuals are on top and when I saw Sabrina playing the electric guitar in this drama I was like damn this girl hella talented. Honestly I totally recommend this drama and couple they're so cute with their dimples. I absolutely love this and the behind the scenes are sooo cute. Zhou Yi Ran said Sabrina was a pretty girl and she is indeed, There chemistry is sooooo good. I definitely recommend.

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Love this drama so much

Exclusive fairytale is soo good I've rewatched soo many times. I love how they put Jun from seventeen and Zhang Miao Yi together and it's soooo good. It about 2 friends growing up together and slowly developing feeling for each other and getting married. This drama was so funny to watch cuz of how Xiao Tu found Ling Chaos secret box with CDs inside of it. Their friend ship is so cute and funny because of how Xiao Tu thought Ling Chao got kidnapped and looked for him. Xiao Tu has a very energetic, positive and nice heart, sometimes she can get jealous but Ling Chao is mostly jealous and he has a cold face but is a straight A student. Ling Chao and Xiao Tu have amazing chemistry. I was so shocked on how there were 127 kiss scenes before watching it and I was prepared for all of them. I honestly love this couple and this drama reminds me Hidden Love. I definitely recommend this and if you want to watch something similar you can watch Hidden Love.

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