Reviews

DRAW! RIDER CARD!

Kamen Rider Ryuki is a fun watch. I wouldn't necessarily call it perfect - the moments of levity feel a lot like Agito before it, which is a series I do not particularly like. I found, especially early on, the moments of the characters interacting with each other were kind of making me feel secondhand embarrassment rather than humor over the situation. I'm also not big on the suit designs in this series, especially the main character's. However, Ryuki is still a very good story when analyzed as a whole. Interesting concepts and characters, a solid character-driven story, a neat gimmick in the belts and transformations of the series. It's a series I have a lot of respect towards and one that I can look back on fondly, but can also recall the many times throughout the series that I found myself sort of let down by the ways characters interacted being a bit annoying. It's not perfect, but it is definitely a huge step up compared to the story before it in the early Heisei catalogue.

Read More

"Before you start complaining, why not start practicing?"

Yu Yu Hakusho had considerable story to tell with numerous characters in a very short amount of time. For the most part, and for someone completely unfamiliar with the source material, it succeeded.

The story was streamlined and relatively cohesive. The main characters and their characteristics were fired out with the speed of a 22. Yusuke was the tough rebellious teenager who helped out those in distress but didn’t want anyone to know it. Keiko had been friends with Yusuke since childhood and knew all of his foibles and strengths. Kuwabara was Kusuke's rival who couldn’t help but respect the opponent he desperately wanted to beat. After the accident that transformed Kusuke’s life, a plethora of Yokai and supernatural beings were brought in as well as the requisite human baddies.

YYH covered enemies to friends, training sessions, coming of age, and the old end of the world ploy. I enjoyed the enemies to friends and strangers to friends storylines. There were backstories and characters given short shrift, but in a 5 episode drama they did a fairly good job of forming the characters. The hair and costume colors were bold. I have found it helpful when watching dramas or movies based on anime to think of them like Western superhero movies. The flamboyant hairstyles and costumes make much more sense to me now. At least no one was wearing yellow spandex, although Koenma’s pacifier was truly bizarre. One of those things that might work better in animation than live action. The CGI was well done for a drama and there was plenty of it. The episodes kept things moving with fights using supernatural weapons and abilities. The battles pulled double duty by covering up a basic story. If there was a drawback to the fights, a few of them went on too long. The acting was all over the place, from competent to-adequate, completely over-the-top, and barely registering a pulse.

Yu Yu Hakusho felt more like a long movie in some ways rather than a very short drama. As in a movie, characters were given just enough development to differentiate them and understand their motivations. With a myriad of characters involved, both good and evil, the writers managed to wedge in as much backstory and world building as they could. Overall, I found this supernatural fantasy to be comprehensible and entertaining with the forged friendships and creative fights being the highlights.

27 Dec 2023

Read More

Deceiving from the start..

At the beginning of the show Yoon Jae Gook says something like "let's love while we are breaking up"...the phrase should have been "let's struggle and suffer by ourselves while breaking up". They had more chemestry in the first episodes while they were not together rather then when they're a couple. They never really face their problems as a team, but they seem to leave one another out of their struggles, like they need to face everything on their own.
And the plot is so frustrating! All the world is against them and their love in a way that is unreasonably fierce. Maybe the cultural gap between Western and Eastern culture makes it hard for me to understand completely why they act like this, but only in Itaewon Class I found a similar harshness. I mean, ok, ok being mean at the beginning, but at a certain point it all becomes unbearable and unjustifiable.
Thank God we had the secondary couple lightening up the scene.
Anyway, despite many reviews stating the contrary, I found the acting of Song Hye Kyo very good and credible most of the time, above all when portraying both the happy and the sad moments of the relationship with her friends and family.

Read More

The writers didn't know what they wanted out of the story.

As the headline says, the writers either didn't know what they wanted, or decided it was okay to create a story that is very distasteful to the complexities of life and people.
They chose to portray a world that was black and white, where having incredible strength gives a person the right to judge, jury and executioner.
They decided it was okay to allow people never wronged by life to judge the fate a person who was only ever wronged.
To decide who does and does not get a second chance.
The only thing they gave depth to was Shi-oh as a character, and even that they messed up, by tossing him aside as common garbage, simply for the methods he ( had no choice but to use ) so as to avoid dying.
He was a bad person, but he was a person that wanted to live, and the dramas only message was that he should have just died to begin with, rather then become a bad person to survive.
If this character was in a different drama, i wouldn't mind, but in this drama its insulting.
The drama is a joke, in a very misguided and tasteless way, with shallow characters and an even more shallow representation of people and the struggles they go through.
In the end, the (good) characters were worse then the villain, because what good is a good heart when its conditional upon a persons actions.
They justified their own actions because it was for the good.
Many people thought that, and they were seldom right.

Read More

I usually don’t do reviews on documentaries/reality shows because of MDL’s Rating Breakdown. This is also more of error correction on the show description and the other linked shows.

The Review Section: This 4-episode documentary was really good and focused on various social issues in Taiwan at the time. I love learning about what the LGBTQ+ community/culture is like in different contraries. I only had two minor problems with the series. The first is the production quality is ok, but not great which is why I didn’t rate it an overall 10. The other complaint is the English subtitles. The timing was too fast at some points and missing at times.

The Full Series Description

Episode 1: Back to the Start
The description on MDL is actually about this episode.

Episode 2: My Own Stage
There are men who have jumped out of their gender boundaries and embraced "drag" all over Taiwan. However, every drag queen sees this art differently. Some are proud of being drag queens, some see drag shows as a profession, and there is a group of youngsters who do not want to be categorized. They just want to get rid of all definitions, put on makeup, and become the shiniest dancer on the stage.

Episode 3: Seeing an Angel in the Dark
“Hand Angels” was founded four years ago. Their arrival was a wake-up call making people start paying attention to the sexual needs of disabled people. More importantly, these “angels” have been long-awaited within the disable community hoping for a deeper understanding of this issue.

Episode 4: A Path to Happiness
How hard is to start a family? Whether it is a gay or straight family, people go to great lengths to achieve their dream home. The appearance of surrogacy supposed a turning point for gay couples. However, the controversial figure of the surrogate is still illegal in Taiwan and most part of Asia. In the last episode of “Queer Taiwan,” we explore the issue of surrogacy from an objective point of view.

(Source: MyDramaList, GagaOOLala)

This series is a precursor to GagaOOLala’s Queer Asia series which include Queer Asia-Japan, Queer Asia-Vietnam, Queer Asia-Philippines, and Queer Asia-Hong Kong.

Random Notes:

It would be really cool if GagaOOLala did a 10-year follow-up on all of these series.

Read More

Cheap idol drama with everything wrong

If you watched enough Xian Xia dramas, it will be hard to handle this one.
I really tried because I absolutely love Zhao Lusi but she needs to pick better scripts. Her star power is enough to get best of the best scripts.

So many things wrong with the drama:
-Cheap looking sets, cheap CGI & boring story
-Make up lighting is terrible 1/2 of the time making actors look worse.
-Casting of ML Wang An Yu. He does better in modern dramas. Here his hair doesn't flatter his face. What's more he has zero chemistry with FL. Had they used Li Yun Rui (supporting role) with Zhao Lusi, it would've been better. Previously he was a supporting character to Zhao LuSi in Love like Galaxy. At least they would've had some chemistry.
-Zhao LuSi's baby voice. I don't think the role required her voice to be so young.

Off to the next one!

Read More

Decent drama, not the best for me. Overrated

This drama was good in general and I like the gaming concept, but truly overrated. I started after many positive reviews and people saying this drama is so good and one of the best

But for me, this was slow. It took them 11 eps to actually have their first real meet face to face and after that they both acted like they didn’t know each other real identities for a few more eps. Then, the confession was in ep 20. I’m not a fan of slow burn, so for me it was to slow for my liking. I was tired of this and wanted them to finally talked, but I got a bit bored after they become a couple. I actually fast forward a lot for the last few eps, I just wanted to finish.

The second lead was bearable too, he looked a bit like a stalker always looking at them from afar, but he was mature and understanding. He looked to old for my liking, FL is in her 20s I think and he looked in is 40-50s. After his confession to FL, when she told him that she was in love with someone else, he was understanding, backed off and was happy for her, he wanted her to be happy. He wasn’t the annoying SL type who didn’t give up and still tried to pursue her when she made it clear. That the good kind of SL and one I can tolerate to watch.

I love that they both have supportive families and parents, they weren’t against their relationship at all and were good people. The first meets were funny too.

There is some annoying character sometimes, like the roommates or the assistant or Taro, Ma,…

Also, the second and third couple didn’t catch my attention, I didn’t really care about them and fast forward sometimes. I also wasn’t really touch or neither cared about Mrs. Ma story. But it was good that she got better and that her friends and Taro helped her overcome her problems. They become a couple at the end too, so again, slow burn…

To finish, the pairing for the leads wasn’t the best for me. Yes I saw their chemistry and they were a cute couple, but I didn’t like them this much together. But, I can say that their kissing scenes were really good and passionate. To be honest, in my opinion ML wasn’t really attractive or handsome. It was the first drama I saw of this actor, but not for FL. I actually like FL better with her costars in « Sunshine of my life » or « Hello I’m at your service » for exemples. I think the chemistry was better and they looked more good together. Maybe I’m biased, but I absolutely love her with the ML in « Sunshine of my life », that was her best pairing for me from the dramas I saw of her.

So, since I didn’t really enjoyed the secondary couples, a bit slow and long, boring at time and the main couple wasn’t my favorite to watch, I can’t give this drama a 10/10. But, still an enjoyable drama and easy watch with a sweet couple, friendship and funny moments. So, I would recommend, this would probably be to many people taste

Read More

Good drama, wrong pairing

I must say that the first C-drama I ever watched had me hooked on this genre, and it still holds a soft spot in my heart. However, on a recent rewatch, I couldn't help but notice the flaws that I was oblivious to earlier.

The actors did a great job portraying their characters, but I couldn't help but compare Song Er to Rosy Zhao, who is way above her league. Ethan was believable until the romance part, which lacked any romantic chemistry despite the age gap not being an issue. While they played the roles of mentor and disciple well, the romantic part was a total miss.

The plot was interesting, but it dragged on for too long. The doctor breaking all the ethics and getting rewarded with another offshore job wasn't credible. The ex who was jealous and wanted to destroy the protagonist made me annoyed.

The only credible pair was the spoiled kid and Song Er. The song was enjoyable, even though it was a thousand repeats of the same sentence. The close-up shots of food were excellent, even though I saw a man's hand instead of hers in one scene.

Overall, it's still a solid and enjoyable contemporary drama, but it's not without its flaws



I always make it a point to check the bio and sometimes the news out of curiosity. It's unfortunate that Song Er's wrongdoings have caused so much harm and even led to some dramas being canceled. This is truly unacceptable.

Read More

Don’t miss out on this drama

In this society, day and age online criticizm became a norm. People are looking for “plot holes”, for “predictability score”, nitpick on insignificant details and forget to get the true essence of the story. Sometimes there is a comfort in predictable and simple. Not everything needs to be done in over-the-top manner.
I don’t understand such negative reviews and low ratings. If I paid too much attention to them I would have missed out on this wonderful piece. This is such a wholesome drama. It’s ominous but also entertaining, clever, offbeat, hilarious at times and also sweet. It has many layers. It’s a mystery, fantasy, comedy and romance. It’s a thriller. It’s a story of a friendship that naturally blossomed into love. It does not have even a drop of cheesiness. Park Bo Young and Ahn Hyo Seop did amazing job portraying their characters. And the music is so, so darn good. See for yourselves.

Read More

It was amazing mess up ?

Even though there were so many things that didn't make sense at all and writters probably forgot what was the point of all this. I enjoyed it. It was a pretty quick ride with many questions along that will never answer and most likely don't have answers. All the absurdities aside there was actually something about this concept that i find fascinating. Our brain pick ups all the things that doesn't make sense here and still believes. We get no reason for the personal attachment to the main leads and we still cheer for them. I don't know if the production team made an amazing job or if they mess it up definitely not something in middle. The progression of this drama is fascinating. You go from the 3 bullies are the worst to actually the guy with victim syndrome is even worst to every kid out there is sinner to parents are the worst evil out there.

Read More

"You’re all empty inside. You’re just loud. Like an empty can.”

There has never been a drama where I wouldn't change a single thing. Until this.

That is why this is my all time favourite drama.

If you can see my ratings for every other drama, you know I'm pretty picky when it comes to perfect ratings. I'm also very picky when it comes to high ratings (8.5+). But this one takes the cake.

There's powerful emotions - performed by one of the best cast I've ever seen.
There's traumatic memories - making you hold your heart in pain.
There's an abundance of tears - forcing you to cry alongside every time. It's not diluted but perfectly timed and required.
There's beautiful smiles - willing the corners of your lips to curl and join in.
There's comedy injected with perfect timing - never pulling you out of the story.

I love this drama with all my heart and even every single character. A number of quotes I even debated to make my senior quote. If you're ready and willing to laugh, smile, cry and fall in love... this drama will always be waiting for you.

Read More

lento, più lento, lentissimo

Avrebbe potuto essere veramente qualcosa di splendido. Gli attori principali, e specialmente quello che interpreta lo scrittore, sono stati molto bravi. Sono state molto brave anche le spalle, e l'unico che veramente non mi è piaciuto è l'attore che ha fatto il terzo incomodo: non mi è piaciuto di viso e soprattutto non mi è piaciuto alla sua recitazione. La musica non ha brillato ma costumi e ambientazione hanno fatto il loro dovere.
il problema vero di questo drama deriva dal fatto che si tratta di 12 lunghissimi episodi, che sono stati spesso riempiti da gran minuti di niente. La musica scorre e il personaggio di turno guarda sconsolato o pensieroso o innamorato nel vuoto. Mai come qui mi è capitato spesso di mandare avanti di 10 secondi e poi di altri 10 e poi di 10 ancora e la scena non era ancora cambiata... Non so perché abbiano voluto rendere le cose così lunghe e noiose, quando 10 episodi sarebbero stati forse la lunghezza ideale. Alla fine sono stata tentata di abbandonare tutto e sono riuscita ad arrivare alla fine solo mandando avanti le scene senza pietà.
il pre finale è decisamente fuori di testa, ma apprezzabile, il finale vero e proprio molto carino e simpatico.
un titolo su cui difficilmente ritornerò perché bisognerebbe guardarlo in versione riassunto.

Read More

The plot was nothing new, but good enough.

This was the first C-Drama I ever watched. It wasn't "amazing", but it was good enough to keep me hooked.
By the end of the show, I felt like something was missing. It didn't fit as great as it should, mostly because of two things:
1. Hou Zi was WAY TOO GOOD for Xiao Yi, in every single sense. By the last third of the series you can't help it but feel bad for the guy... and kinda dislike Xiao Yi because all of her poor choices.
2. The ending feels rushed, not because viewers don't wanted Hou Zi and Xiao Yi to be together, but because writters wasted two whole episodes on Tian Fei and his CRAZY-OVERACTED mother. She was the worst part of the series, by far.
Tian Fei should have instantly died. We didn't need her mother's circus. I did't care for Lu's happy ending either, because neither her or Tain Fei had any redeeming qualities.

In general, the plot was nothing new, but good enough. The real problem was in the last few episodes.

Read More

Tempted was alright... but I think I've seen better dramas than this

Apart from seeing a few reviews from viewers and thoughts on the drama from friends, I went into this drama with no high expectations whatsoever, I mainly started the series out of boredom and for something to watch while I sat back and relaxed. There were parts where I found the plot confusing yet interesting such as the whole bet with Eun Tae Hee who was apparently Ki Young's "first love" although we didn't see much of their chemistry and looked like friends to me. And other times, when they included things I found unnecessary like the drama with Sooji's Mom and Si Hyun's Dad and this Tieuzen drug (I mainly skipped through it cause I didn't find it interesting enough to watch through) I mainly was interested in their kids (Sooji and Sihyun + Eun Tae Hee and Sejoo) and the other bits of drama that the writer randomly threw in to make things engrossing.
The acting was alright, I think out of all the kids I think Moon Ga Young had the best acting you could see all the emotion on her face, and something I forgot she was acting and felt sorry for her. When it came to Sejoo and Si Hyun's acting, I can't lie I laughed at their crying scenes, I've never seen two people cry and howl so ugly before. Joy's acting was okay, she did better on the crying scenes than Sejoo and Si Hyun's actors in my opinion. OSTS were nice, I found myself bopping my head to some of them while watching the drama. Definitely gonna add a few to listen to in my KDrama playlist! Don't think I'd watch this again, maybe some scenes if I find it on Social Media for a video edit but other than that I don't think I see myself rewatching it again.

Read More