Reviews

Cute comedy

I binge-watched all three seasons consecutively, which allowed me to sidestep the bittersweet conclusions that marked both Season 1 and Season 2. While the drama may not stand out as particularly memorable, I wouldn’t label it as terrible either. The acting struck me as commendable; it maintained a balance that avoided the pitfalls of excessive childishness and slapstick humor—two traits I often find off-putting in comedies. As for the plot, it was engaging enough and held my interest, akin to many other light-hearted comedies I enjoy. In summary, I believe this show merits a higher rating than it currently receives, as it offers more value than the numbers suggest.

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amazing acting, wasn't the biggest fan of the story

I was hoping that I would like this more. The premise is interesting enough: two people with trauma from their ex relationships forced together by an obsessed woman who gets off on controlling her ex-husband. As the headline says, the acting was absolutely remarkable, but with a cast like this, that's to be expected. So I will talk about the story, because while I see everyone here praising it, I didn't enjoy it so much.

There is a dead body, and it's connected to everybody. Honestly, I didn't really enjoy that part. It was a weird decision to add murder mystery to an already complex plot with a messy, broken marriage that has left a man reliant on drugs to sleep to a runaway groom who left without another word after being exposed as bisexual. The murder mystery didn't even feel like mystery because I literally could not give a damn about it lol. A 30-second clip of an interview isn't going to make me engrossed in a death story that has nothing to do with the main plot of the show...

Since I've mentioned the runaway groom, lets talk about that. What the hell was that? Guys like fr how is this good story telling? He appeared for a grand total of ONE episode after being made into such a big deal for the FL and then he just poof! Disappeared! Gone into thin air! An afterthought! He stabbed a man! Stabbed a man! ON THE TOPIC OF THAT MAN. He is an obsessed stalker. We don't know why he's obsessed; there is never a reason given. We don't know what's wrong with him. He literally makes NOOOO sense as a character I'm so sorry like literally none of his actions made any sense??? OPEN THE TRUNK. OPEN THE TRUNK. ONLY I CAN HAVE HER. WHAT DOES HER MISERY HAVE TO DO WITH MEEEE?? dog water writing sorry that upset me

The ex-wife. I understand she is obsessed. I don't understand why they justified her trying to kill herself while pregnant because her husband was soooo happy to have a baby. The real reason she tried to kill herself is because she couldn't bear the thought of his attention being taken away and given to their child. She's selfish. Simple as that. Not an ounce of pity for her in my mind.

I also found the music really weird sometimes. I think it was the MLs music? But they'd play it during like a serious aerial shot, and good god I could not take it seriously lol. This is ultimately a bland story, which saddens me because it had lots of potential. The trunk was irrelevant, which is funny because this drama is named The Trunk. Could have done just fine without half of the extraness they did, could have been developed better without it. I rest my case.

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Wish I'd liked it more

Oh I really wish I liked this more, but it does exactly what I don't like about the soulmate trope.

I like the idea of two people who get dreams about their past lives and feel like they've always been missing their other half, but it's much more interesting when two people fall in love with each other when they are reincarnated, rather than because of it. Dean and Pharm see each other from across the room and just know each other; from there, the romance seems to happen pretty quickly. I don't know, it all just felt...too easy? Dean/Pharm scenes overall got very repetitive to me. There are a lot of scenes where Pharm just ends up crying and I don't think any of it hit me emotionally, whether it was because of the acting or lack of development for the character himself.

Some other things about the drama also just feel like they jumped the gun, like all the students hyping up the Dean/Pharm ship when they haven't even met. The pacing of the second couple was also weird to me, and overall I think none of the acting was that immersive for me.

On the other hand, I think the past lives scenes with Intouch and Korn were the strongest scenes. I still wish there was a little more meat to how they fell in love (and not just how their story ended) but ultimately I still enjoyed their scenes the most.

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“Its’s all your fault”

This is a running theme throughout this drama - people are either blaming misfortunes on others or assuming responsibility for things they had no control over.

I have to say that excluding the ML, FL, 2nd FL and Old Gao, most of the other characters were not a major contribution to the story. instead they were all pretty annoying characters. The overly exaggerated and dragged out scenes with many of the characters were almost a turn off.

I love Zhang Han’s acting, and the chemistry between him and Janine Chang was palpable. There story could have been all that was needed to give this drama a better rating without any of the side stories which took up more screen time than the leads. And I noticed the repeat jewelry placement of the same pieces to multiple characters.

I watched this previously about 5 years ago, and had the same impression then. Even though I skipped a lot of the side stories this time, and was annoyed with the attempted nobility to take responsibility of every wrong in everyone else’s life and hide to avoid difficult situations, I still enjoyed the story between the ML and FL

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Style, emotion and amazing stunt choreography

An amazing binge for martial arts lovers. Always in my top ten or twenty best ever thriller/action dramas and good for a rewatch any time. Ji Chang Wook's excellent interpretation of a damaged ex-mercenary with PTSD and a murdered lover in his past, who falls for an emotionally disturbed woman imprisoned by her abusive political family, is classic international noir stuff. It is Korea, so this ML instinctively protects the elderly and seeks emotional refuge with them when wounded. He can break tempered glass with just a chisel and his work boots.

The K2 has the intense emotions and atmospherics and great editing of most k-drama thrillers. The usual brilliant kdrama humanization of villains is complete genius in this show.As always, great supporting characters with enough comic strengths to divert the intensity momentarily. It is a romance, too, but given the genre one expects some twisted perspective and it arrives with a vengeance.

On my third watch I realized how much I utterly love the villains of the piece, almost more than the sweet leads. Their ever-evolving plots involve the explosion and recreation of changing alliances like the huge schools of fish who revolve, collide and coalesce endlessly in the sea.

One of the all time worst (or do I mean best) product placement involves the lovers eating at Subways in a dream sequence within the ML's coma. There is also a marginally more tasteful and very funny naked male group battle scene in the corporate showers.

Mainly the K2 is a piece of masterful stunt artwork played out to 'Dies Irae' while black-suited corporate 'security guards' ballet about with 'body guards' from the opposing faction of an extremely corrupt Presidential election campaign. Ex army members are in cahoots with corrupt ex administration officials.

Watching JCW attack from an aerial 45 degree angle is priceless fun and for me, it doesnt ever get stale. So I call this a show perfect in itself. 2018, 16 eps of std. length. A sophisticated and classy production from Studio Dragon with the composer Kim Se Jin. Writer -- Jang Hyuk Rin.

On my top ten best ever kdramas list as of 12/24: Goblin, Hwayugi, Because This Is My First Life, Just between Lovers; the K2, Run On, Doom at Your Service; Tomorrow, Alchemy of Souls (earliest to latest) and Mr. Plankton .

ps. I salute the heroic efforts of women in kdrama and film industry to obtain more varied roles in order to develop themselves as artists, to seek better funding for those roles and more directorial support -- all in an atmosphere where part of the audience seems to need to see a lot of damaged or infantile FLs, and where creators therefore indulge them with female characters who are more symbolic than real, embodying the 'soul' psychic energy of the plot.

simultaneously posted on viki

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Must watch!

Set in the unsual setting of a Thai prison, this story tells of the love blooming between two young inmates from different worlds. Its title reminds us that darkness holds the seed of light or, like the emblematic lotus, that beauty can grow from the mud. It is told, filmed and played with talent and a deep sensitivity which almost doesn't need words. At this stage (12 episodes shown so far out of 21), there is no saying where the story is actually going and how it will end. But one thing is for certain: this series is addictive, and the airing of 4 episodes at a time avoids the frustration short formats often bring to the viewers. I strongly recommend to watch it as well as one of these new opuses which lift the so-called "BL" genre out of cliches, and make it more mature.

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Something happened, but idk what

I really wanted to love this show down bad. I just came from watching the first three episodes of The Heart Killers, and this would be my first JoongDunk BL ever after intensely watching their latest performance on said show. I'm absolutely in love with their chemistry, and it's no doubt it's there. But what in the duck was the plan? The agenda wasn't hidden, it was sitting on the coffee table with some donuts and booboo roses, there was no secret?Everything was highly predictable, and honestly so much could've happened instead nothing did. I wish the thing with Nita would've hit a little differently. Maybe Nita is still in love with Joke and kinda competes with Zo, maybe she does like Zo back but Zo realizes he doesn't actually like her and messes with Joke. Idk it could've gone so many ways but it barely stepped out the house. I definitely hope for some more JoongDunk series' because this just ain't the one that's doing it for me, y'all.

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I want back the three months of my life that I wasted on watching this series!

I don't even know where to begin with this series. I decided to give this show a watch because of two reasons. One—the synopsis sounded interesting, and I wanted to see how this story would be translated. Two—one of the main characters, Kad Ploysupa, I knew from watching him in supporting roles from shows that were produced from Star Hunter Entertainment. I liked him in those supporting roles, so I decided to support him in his first main role here. I have now come and regretted it.

I have gotten some form of emotions from other series that I have rated low (even the 1's), be it anger, disappointment, confusion, or disgust—some kind of emotion. That was not the case for this series. I felt that the first two to three episodes were okayish, with me having this series between a 6 to 6.5. I believe that was due to the fact that Kad's character was really, really carrying the show then. And then afterwards...I just felt that watching this series became a chore for me, as I just felt nothing for any of the characters, be they main or supporting. Oh, I'm supposed to feel sorry for Elyes as the reason he has become a man wh@#e is because he was cheated on by his ex-boyfriend. I'm supposed to feel sorry for Elyes' ex-boyfriend, Run, because he went with Fei Long, who is Elyes' business enemy, because he gave him an ultimatum to be with him so that Run's brother will be safe in prison?! (Why the frick on the frack didn't you ask Elyes for help with that? Is it because Fei Long has a connection to the mafia, so that made him the better choice? Oh, no, it's because you guys were sweethearts, and you still love him even though you left him due to whatever circumstances and started dating Elyes. I call bulls@#t.

And, please, from what I interpreted, Run and Fei Long's relationship to how it was presented to me—that's not love. That's Stockholm Syndrome. Hey, I'm not saying that they weren't in love before—just what I saw with my own eyes watching this series. What was presented to me was Stockholm Syndrome. Also, why in this day and age are we trying to make one person jealous of another one due to some past girlfriend coming back in the person's life? We don't need that—we are past that, and I felt that part was pointless (and yes, I know she was there to tell Pat about the other bad guy whose name is eluding me right now for him to know that that person is not a nice guy and the person who's working with them—another name that is eluding me—is having relations with said bad person). And not only this, but the evil people kind of suck and just made me not care and be invested in this series. Everyone and everything sucked. This series gave me the feelings of nothingness due to the blandness that was seen in their acting skills, as well as how the storyline was portrayed. And no amount of 'eye candy' or smexy scenes in the last episode is going to save this show for me or make me give it a higher score than one.

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I thought this would be one of those decent Noona romances the Japanese are usually adept at producing, but this isn’t the case with this drama. I would say that it was lackluster at best and uninspired at its worst.

First, there was the unconvincing romance between two leads who were more awkward with each other than being comfortable. One has that stiff upper bang, and the other with round fish-eyes who seem to be surprised that some people could be nice because she’s been dealing with lechers at her work place all day, when there’s really only one in particular. Tomoko goes along with the flow, and somehow accepts that this guy Ryohei, who did not seem so interested in getting into her pants, but actually is, but was just not so obvious about it. She could not have fathomed that this guy, who seems to be a “dumb delinquent,” could actually be harmless.

Then suddenly, Ryohei appears everywhere she is, from meeting her friends to meeting her parents. And even claiming to be so-called “friends” with the guy who had been trying to date Tomoko? That was really a stretch for me, especially when he did not even have the decency to leave when Koki was trying to have a personal conversation with his grandmother. Isn’t he just being nosy or oblivious? Then the revelation that came out of the left field, as if the writers could not come up with a convincing excuse to write him out of the love equation.  

Anyway, I thought the drama could have been better with more developed characters and conflicts, but I understand it may have been limited by time and length. They could have just focused on one or two issues instead of trying to tackle so many things in one already-short show. It’s like trying to make a salad with 10 different things but not mixing it well. I’m pretty sure 3 or 4 ingredients would have been enough, and the same applies here.

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Lovely Runner Review

Do you know a series about a girl that loves a boy so much, she goes to the past multiple times just to save the boy she loves? Well that series is called lovely runner! Its my favorite K-drama right now! This series was directed by Yoon Jong-Ho and this series came out at April 8 2024. The actors that played in this movie are Byeon woo-seok and Kim Hye-yoon, these are the actors that played as Sunjae and Im sol, they are also amazing actors! And the genre of this series is romance and fantasy.

In my opinion lovely runner is the best and most popular K-drama this year. I also have 2 reasons and evidence for this, first, all the actors are really good and actually can act well, if you watch the series yourself you can see how they can act well as the character they are playing and all their expressions fit the scene. Second, The movie is actually very popular and the actors are popular too, one of the reasons are lovely runner was top 1 in viki for 6 weeks! That’s a long time isn’t it? In addition to this, the actors are also popular, one of the evidence for this is Byeon woo-seok became the top Korean celebrity in brand rankings and also won the Outstanding Asian Star Korea Popularity Award (Male) at the 19th Seoul Drama Award in 2024. Lovely runner also had another version, the webtoon version, however I didn’t read that version of lovely runner so I personally feel that lovely runner series is better.

Lovely runner seems like just a normal romance K-drama, but it also has something we can learn from it. Firstly from this series we can learn how God already planned our life, like how Im sol erased her and sunjaes memories together but they still ended up together, that’s how God already planned them to be together, a bible verse for this is Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future". It means how God already planned everyones life before they were born, like how Im sol and sunjae are still together after everything that happened, its fate. Second, we should trust in God for everything since he already planned our life, our future, we have to trust in God because everything he plans for us is good and is whats best for us.

To sum up, If you want to watch a romance movie with great actors you should watch lovely runner!! I would give this a 5 out of 5 stars because I really think this movie is interesting and fun to watch, I just love everything about this series and I really recommend this series, try to watch it!!

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"Courage. Love. Trust. Hope."

"Beppin-san" is my 25th asadora [Have I really watched that many of these lol]. This is a very solid asadora, though I have some issues with the plot which I will get into later on. "Beppin-san" reminds me of two other asadoras, "Ohisama" and "Carnation." Coincidentally, Nagayama Kento and Kora Kengo both appeared in "Ohisama" but in opposite roles. The lovely Charlotte Kate Fox from "Massan" also has a small role in "Beppin-san."

First, let's address the heroine, aka Bando Sumire (played by Yoshine Kyoko). She's a very understated heroine, being quiet and absent-minded. Surprisingly, the attention isn't always on her though this is still very much her story. It's interesting to me because it shows that a "normal" person is the main character of their own story. Sumire, however, can be assertive when she needs to be and becomes self-confident over time. Another interesting part of her character is that she had a relatively sheltered childhood, which makes her a bit of a naive "ojou-sama". I really enjoyed watching her grow as a character.

"Beppin-san" has some wonderful side characters, particularly Sumire's lifelong friends: Akemi (Tanimura Mitsuki), Ryoko (Momota Kanako), and Kimie (Tsuchimura Kaho). Each girl goes through their own character development and I really love the friendship between these girls and Sumire. My next favorite character is Norio-san (Nagayama Kento), Sumire's husband. Their relationship is really sweet, but also shows that marriage isn't all smooth-sailing. You have to make an effort to understand each other. And then the next best character is Eisuke-san (Matsushita Yuya). His arc is surprisingly poignant and made me cry on more than one occasion. Honorable mentions go to Sumire's father (Namase Katsuhisa) and mother (Kanno Miho, also narrator); her older sister Yuri (Renbutsu Misako), her daughter Sakura (Igashira Manami); and Kimie's son Kentaro (Furukawa Yuki). And really there's so many more~

Now on to my issues with the plot. The first three weeks of "Beppin-san" kind of rush through Sumire's childhood, marriage, and then giving birth. It's a bit of a whiplash moment, though I realize it's because they wanted to get to and then through WWII relatively quickly. I liked the pacing of the drama much better after the war. Halfway through, there's a time-skip to Sakura's teenage years. Honestly, I really hated this plot. Mostly because it dragsss on for four weeks worth of episodes. I actually understand Sakura's feelings, having a workaholic mother myself. However, it some point it just becomes too much and the plot felt like a chore to watch. Thankfully, Sakura becomes a much better character afterwards. She's assertive without being bratty. In the grand scheme of the asadora, I think these are minor complaints and overall it's very good.

I really liked "Beppin-san", despite said minor complaints. It has a really cohesive theme of friendship and parenthood. I love the whole four leaf clover meaning "Courage. Love. Trust. Hope." Sumire and her friends each represent these traits and I think that's why their children's clothing company works so well. On the technical side, it was interesting seeing every step of the company's growth. It's also ironic that Sumire and her friends aren't ambitious and really just go with the flow. If you liked the asadoras "Ohisama," "Carnation," "Gochisosan," or "Toto Nee-chan," I think you'll really like "Beppin-san."

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A must watch drama

I don't typically write reviews, but if you're reading this, do yourself a favor and go watch Crazy Love—this underrated gem is a must-watch. Everything about it, from the storyline to the cast and even the romance, is top-notch.

The plot itself is incredibly unique, making it stand out from many other K-dramas. It's not your typical love story; the twists and turns keep you hooked from start to finish. I was genuinely invested in the characters, and I found myself eagerly waiting for each new episode. The story blends humor, drama, and romance in such a way that it feels fresh and exciting, without being predictable.

The cast truly brings the story to life. The performances are stellar, and each character is well-developed. They make you care deeply about their individual journeys, whether it's the main couple's whirlwind romance or the more secondary storylines. There’s a real emotional depth to the characters, and you’ll find yourself rooting for them from beginning to end.

The romance is one of the highlights of the show. It's heartfelt and intense, with great chemistry between the leads. What makes it even more interesting is the balance of drama and sweet moments that make you swoon. It's the kind of romance that feels both thrilling and touching, pulling you in emotionally.

All in all, Crazy Love is a K-drama that deserves way more recognition. If you're looking for something unique, with a great plot and memorable characters, give this one a chance—you won’t regret it!

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Lovely quick binge

The episodes are very short, which makes the show an easy binge. The short eps definitely let to a more brisk pace and maybe less depth to be explored along the way, but it still managed to be of a quality level only slightly below a full length drama, and still a large step above other "short ep web dramas".

The lead, Gia Ge, is absolutely fantastic in this. The camera loves her and her gaze can just hold its attention in a very powerful way. The plot has beats of romance, revenge, melancholy, beauty; and the show handles each with vividness and care and emphatic emotional impact.

The only criticisms I have are there were a few plotlines that get kind of dropped, or at least not as resolved as I would have liked. But everything still made sense in the end, so it was mostly just the short length not having a lot of room for more, and the writing decisions to be only... somewhat bloodthirsty ;)

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I can KIND OF see the effort but..

I’m convinced there‘s is a good story buried somewhere inside this garbage mess but it’s barely visible. This series made very little sense.
It‘d be too long to go through every little and big thing in detail so I’m not gonna do it but to put it bluntly: nothing made much sense, including characters’ decisions and accusations. Even the first half of the show made barely any sense but the second half was complete idiocy. This show had several scriptwriters how did nobody catch the nonsense?

The first episode was actually quite good (good enough) but onward ep 2 it got exponentially worse until in culminated in full-on ludicrousness.
Absurdity of the plot aside, the show also struggled with extreme tonal inconsistencies. It didn’t know what it wanted to be, comedic or dark. It’s possible to carefully combine both genre elements but you have to know what you’re doing and the writers here were not up to the task. The whiplash I got from the clumsy, radical tonal shifts was insane. One minute it’s a serious scene and the next minute it’s suddenly turned into badly written gag comedy. Bizarre!
Some of the scenes were painfully overdramatic and were portrayed in a way that made them unintentionally hilarious. It felt like they wanted to make certain scenes look really cool but ended up making them look ridiculous instead. The direction felt incredibly amateurish and I know that the director isn’t an amateur but he obviously didn’t know jack about directing action scenes and it shows.
Now that we’re on the topic, this is not an action drama, it’s not a romance drama either, it’s an awkward and weirdly paced family drama with some clumsily sprinkled action and romance scenes in between. Oftentimes the dialogue was painful to listen to and most of the time it was on the nose with a lot of telling (AND sometimes showing). It genuinely felt like the dialogue was taken out of a bad shonen anime word for word.

Now onto the romance:
There was so little attempt at romance that I didn’t even care if Jack and Joker ended up together. The romantic chemistry and interactions were nurtured so little that I didn’t care to be invested in their supposed romantic attachment.
I don’t mean that we need to see them confess and/or make out with each other every other episode bc romantic chemistry and build up can be shown in a lot of different ways that don’t have to include sexual intimacy but you gotta have at least some build up, no?
Where are the stares, the slight flirtation? Sometimes it’s briefly there but then it abruptly stops, removing any possibility of a smooth romantic build up. It’s really awkward and at the end doesn’t amount to much. I’ve seen many types of bromances (Western and Asian) that have so much more romantic and sexual tension between characters where they barely even touch each other and this is supposed to be a BL but the romantic tension barely exists here. You can’t just haphazardly throw in a couple of romantic scenes in between all the plot and call it a romance. There’s an art to properly weaving romantic subplot into the main plot of a different genre. Talking about other BLs, Manner of Death did it right, Kinnporsche did it right, even Triage did it right and that one had barely any romance in it.

War is a good actor and Yin def. has improved but in this drama their acting felt slightly off kilter for a lot of the time. I might be wrong but it seems to me that the people heavily involved in this project, YinWar included, didn’t know what exactly they wanted it to be, weren’t sure enough in the direction of this story/plot/theme and that’s why almost everything felt wonky about it and the project itself felt unstable on its legs.

One last thing I want to mention about the plot is that it wanted to showcase how poor people were being taken advatage of by rich people but the poor people didn’t make the greatest decisions either. One example that really jumped out at me was the bit about Jack‘s parents.
They committed suicide bc they thought that their life insurance would be able to pay off their debt but bc they didn’t care to properly read the contract it didn’t work the way they expected it to (bc insurance doesn’t pay in cases of suicide, which was written in the contract!).
Why did they make Jack‘s parents seem foolish by making them not read the full contract? Why not make it a legal loop or make it some other type of refusal to pay out the insurance? Why not lean into the obvious unfairness and scam of the society that openly prefers and protects rich over poor? This was a missed opportunity and made Jack’s parents seem rather stupid instead.
Anyway, my criticism notwithstanding I do appreciate the idea and the grind. I see the effort behind the show and I respect the effort. I know that I’m in the minority in my dislike of the show and I think it’s a good thing that many other people liked it. I do wish for Yin and War to succeed in the entertainment business and I’m sure Jack and Joker will contribute to their future success, I just hope that their next project will be more to my liking.

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