Reviews

Too preachy for my taste

I've read reviews of people who absolutely loved this drama. I can see their perspective but I hesitate to rate this drama any higher than 8 stars overall for the following reason: there were many good points about this drama, I love its realistic depictions on familial love, love between siblings, love between a grandparent and her grand child. And realistic portrayals of female friendships - young and old. I love the realistic portrayal of disabilities and the steps the protagonist took to have a balanced life despite of her disability.

I love the everyday romantic vibe between the male and female lead, although the female lead was not perfect, she clearly came across as very inconsistent in her choices. And sometimes gave a long complicated answer, when a simple answer would make more sense. This is when I feel that the script is trying to be too deep for its own good.

I do NOT like the writer's soliloquy about death, tragedy or relationships. It was too preachy for my taste. I would think that the viewer should be allowed to have their own thoughts about these subjects and come to their own conclusions without feeling like the writer is forcing them to accept their own views through the characters. Half of the time, most of the soliloquys in the drama hardly made sense! Perhaps a lot was lost during translation (I don't know as I relied heavily on English subs from Viki). But the script often struck me as trying to be too clever for its own good.

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Ugh

I am 8 episodes in and to be honest, I could’ve finished the shows time ago if the characters weren’t so frustrating.

I started watching the show because it had a promising premise: a forced cohabitation, fake dating and enemies to lovers. However, any potential that the show has is ruined by the fact that the hatred between these two is way too much. Almost every single episode is the same. They argue and yell over the smallest of things and then pretend they don’t care about each other but stay up until the night wondering where the other went which I hate in all shows tbh. I prefer when characters are straightforward with their feelings from the beginning which is obviously way too much to ask for but still.
Characters
One of my biggest issues resides within the ML. He is so unnecessarily rude for absolutely no reason. I try to like him but he doesn’t seem to have any redeeming qualities other than his face. He berates and belittles the FL at every opportunity he gets and when you think it is small teasing , he just continues. I honestly don’t understand the feelings the Fl s getting of him when he is always mean to her.
Another character I hate is the ML’s best friend (crush). She is the most entitled person I have seen. I believe she is aware of the ML’s feelings for her and uses it to her benefit. She is always calling and expecting him to be at her beck and call all the time. There is a specific scene in episode 8 where the ML says he can’t see her because he is busy and instead of accepting that she just tells him to meet her because she is waiting. And the most infuriating part is that the Ml listens every time and accepts it every time (does he not have self respect).
FL- to be honest I don’t hate or like her, I am almost indifferent towards her. I like her optimism and how she stands her ground to the ML. However, I don’t understand how she forgave her friends so easily after what they did.
The only character I like is the ML’s friend/ the guy working with FL. I like his transparency with the FL and in general. Also he seems to me to be a better fit in terms of romantic interest for the FL.

I might still continue the show due to hype around it and maybe it gets better from here because I do still have the other Hal to go.

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Another drama that it was ruined by romance...

Honestly I really liked it at first but after one point it became annoying...

We all have our most & our least favourite characters in a drama here's ny list for this drama:
MFC: Ni Tian Er Xing & Zi Yu
LFC: Bai Cai & Xin Yue Kui

Ni Tian Er Xing & Zi Yu they both were amazing characters and the actors did an excellent job playing them!!
For me these two were the only characters that they deserved to get everything that they wanted but it didn't happen. I was happy for Zi Yu at the end that he lived and watched Wu Geng defeating Hei Long and gaining the freedom for all three realms but in the process he lost the rest of his family and ppl he loved and became a lonely soul. He definitely deserved more happiness.
As for Ni Tiang Er Xing he was an amazing character! A great and caring leader and also a great and loyal friend that deserved to get everything and be happy but instead the twisted writers had him die.

Xin Yue Kui was such a twisted character!
For her greed for power and apparently because of her crush on Hei Long was willing to kill everyone even her own family!
I found the fact that she was killed by Hei Long very entertaining but I definitely wanted her to suffer alot more than she did!

I also liked Hei Long's character because he was really powerful. If he had a good heart he could have been a great leader for the Immortals.

Wu Geng was a good character, but I was disappointed. Although he was strong enough to kill Hei Long at the end all that power wasn't really his, it was borrowed or given to him and without Er Xing's help, giving him his own remaining power after he had died, he would have been dead too. The thing about him was that he had a very strong will power, that's why he managed to cultivate the Qi energy that Zi Yu gave him so fast and became stronger and also managed to activate the colourless realm devine power.
He was also a very good leader and he even managed to bring together the three realms and bring peace amongst them. He is definitely could've been a great leader for the three realms but in the end he gave it all up for nothing, just because he wanted to go find that idiotic and good for nothing Bai Cai.
I still don't understand why she got to live again and not all those other great characters that died. She was so fricking annoying and weak from the beginning till the end. Such an unnecessary and good for nothing character. The only thing ahe did throughout the entire drama was to say "A Gou" like an idiot, and annoy us.
I liked her more when she was evil.
Without her character this drama could've been a 9 or 9,5 easily.
Also she didn't have any chemistry with Wu Geng.
In my opinion, this drama didn't need the romance. It would've worked better as a Friendship and Bromance drama.
If the writers wanted Romance they could have had Wu Geng end up with A Lan or Bei Er, since the ML had way more chemistry with them. But no, yet again, those twisted writers hed them both killed like Er Xing.
Those great ppl that deserved to live and be happy remaind dead and that annoying Bai Cai was brought back from the dead. I'll never forgive the writers for that.
The only good thing that they did (for me) was that they made Shi Xing and Xuan Feng Sage King, good characters. I really like these two actors so it was kinda impossible and difficult for me to see them as evil characters and hate them. I was grateful when they both turned good and didn't remain in the evil side.

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Great for bingeing or a la carte

I really liked this anthology of Taiwanese love stories between people from different walks of life. They were funny, sad, quirky, sweet, and thought provoking. What ties them together are well crafted transitions intertwined into the plot that could be anywhere from brief cameo appearances of a character, to a whole new plot surrounding the previous supporting cast in the next. The series then makes a full circle back to the situations of the first episode to tie all the episodes together. Some episodes are stronger than others, but they all deliver in the messages of love and connection during the Covid-19 pandemic as the driving force in the plot.

From dating reality show drama, to cheating, to finding love in the most unexpected places, to navigating societal constraints, this anthology has it all. These 50 minute episodes tug at your heartstrings, making you wish you had more backstory, but what you are given is just enough to make it worthwhile.

I would love a season 2 to this. It was original and creative. I love it when writers don't fall on clichéd tropes to make a good drama. This was a diamond in the rough.

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I don't get the hate

I almost didn't watch this because the hate for this show was immense, but curiosity got the best of me and I'm honestly confused.
There were issues with this series for sure, but for so many people to say it was the worst BL they've seen.. I'm just confused.
I thought the actors did a great job, I fell for JM.. he's gorgeous and what a voice. I know a lot of people have issues with Mew but I liked the way he portrayed his character, he was guarded and aloof but had a lot of love for people close to him.
I also really enjoyed the dual language aspect.
There were fun moments and sad moments and moments I wanted to scream at the producer but I really enjoyed watching it.
I didn't find it slow, I liked getting to know the characters, I do wish there was more of the two leads together though.
I seem to be in the minority that enjoyed this, but it's an easy watch and I'll probably watch it again.

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That was disappointing...

First, there is a "dog" cafe without dogs... that's strange as hell.
There is ONE dog in the whole show.
All Koreans understand Thai for some reason without translation devices or so it seems.
The story was soooo slow going in the beginning and then the ending was rushed. What did they wait for? Most of the inbetweens scenes did not much for the love story. The "traitor" was still in the final shot - I only thought WTF? There was a chance for an emotional outbreak for what he did, but nothing happend.
The production value was high, but for such a subpar story it was wasted.
The chemestry between the two leads was ok-ish, I guess a language barrier is not so easy to overcome. They still lacked passion and longing for each other.
All in all I could have skipped it and not miss a thing.

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Must watch engaging and entertaining drama

I haven't thought I am gonna enjoy this drama this much.Its has such a great ride with twists and turns.
It was a very fast ride from 1 to 30 episodes.I havnt liked the drama after it moved from Shanghai.
3 people killed me with their acting.
"Zhang tian yang" -omg what an acting!Such a ruthless Villon.Caring lover.
If we can see romance in this drama then it's because of his character only.such a good job.
Wang yang- such a great character who live just for the country and it's growth.The bond bw him and WYB was awesome.Its very nice to see them both in same screen sharing tutor and student bonding.His acting is top notch showing minute expressions in his face to express each feelings.
Finally Wang yi bo- I can see he has given his full dedication to this character.He justfied his character through his great acting.way to go bobo.

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I'm sorry but what was this?

I'm not use to write reviews but I just have to say some things about this drama. I came to this show with high expectations because I saw that it had a certain similar vibe with Tomorrow and I loved that drama, one of the bests and I truly love this type of dramas that can make you feel everything, every single emotion at once and it really makes you think about life but I don't even know what to think about this one.
First of all, I loved the first episodes, specially the twins ones I cried so hard, I truly felt it in my soul and I was expecting more emotional storys in each episode a different one but it didnt came. I wasn't really feeling it the relationship of the FL and ML, there wasn't any chemistry in my opinion and it just felt dull and just exactly like other 20 dramas. I predict a lot of the story, not the villain but specially the ending but I was not expecting the end for the two ghost friends of the ML. And its in the ending and in their story that I got really disapointed.
For the ghost cop, I thought that we were going to get an emotional conversation with his wife. I understood what they were trying to do but for me I preferred that they had a conversation and both could feel at peace and not that he was going to turn out an evil spirit. I felt that he deserved better then that ending.
And now the one that I was flabbergasted... why does the FL friend ends up with the ghost??? It doesn't make absolutely no sense and, I know that this drama isn't supposed to be realistic but I mean I preferred that they had send him, in peace to the other side then having him end up as a professor of the ghosts and in a relatinship with a human!!!
Overall, it was an okay drama, I will not rewatch in the future but I guess it was good to pass the time and if you want to cry.

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Sweet and fun!

I paused watching the drama after three episodes, because the ML's haughtiness had driven me crazy. However, when I started watching it again, my resolve has melted, and enjoyed the story till the end. ML still remained all serious even when joking (I liked more SML's cheeky smile), but to be honest, it did fit his role as the Crown Prince. FL was absolutely gorgeous, I couldn't find any fault in her acting. Even though SML was oozing with charm, I didn't feel any SLS, because it was obvious from the start his priorities were elsewhere. Supporting cast was amazing, from the villain and the king (the all-present Jo Han Chul, he was in everything I watched so far!) to hilarious FL fellow villagers. The story wasn't complicated and inundated with heavy historical plot, the villains weren't overtly devious, and episodes were all equally strong, not dragging at all.
I recommend watching this if you are looking for something sweet and fun to entertain yourself with.

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Novel transmigration with cute romance and reverse gender roles

Don’t let the negative comments about the ending stop you from watching this! I really loved everything about this drama except the censored ending. But thankfully we have the secret clip from douyin that wraps up the story (link below).

This drama is about the female lead who is transported from the modern world to a historical novel. In the novel, the Peacock City is run by women and women have the same rights as men. The female lead drops from the sky and is appointed as the Peacock Holy Envoy. The male lead is the Minister of Rites who seemingly befriends her but has secret schemes.

POSITIVE:
- Bad boy with a good heart male lead.
- Cute romance and kiss scenes.
- Great chemistry between the leads.
- Frenemies to lovers trope (push and pull dynamic).
- Mix of political intrigue, investigations and revenge.
- Reverse gender roles.
- Smart and quirky female lead who uses her science knowledge to bypass the plot.
- Mostly light-hearted with great comedy moments + a bit of angst towards the end.
- Similar vibes (not plot) to The Romance of Tiger and Rose.
- Prophetic dreams (I loved that bit).

NEGATIVE:
- Censored ending. However there is a secret clip on douyin that wraps up the story. So the drama is still worth watching. Scroll below for spoilers and link.
- Some small parts lack logic but it’s part of the charm and comedy for me.
- Female lead is a bit of a baby sometimes (not a lot).

OVERALL:
If you want a light-hearted transmigration story with reverse gender roles and cute romance, watch this drama.
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It’s a shame that this got zero promotion. I’m going to guess and say it’s because the male lead had issues with the government and had to leave the industry. So they not only censored the drama by giving us an odd ending but also cut it to appear as a short drama (perhaps short dramas pass easier?). I’m pretty sure this was originally done as a typical full length drama (each episode is 20 minutes, that’s around 20 full episodes if it’s 40 minutes each).

SECRET CLIP:
1. Douyin (provided by @Suzette Ser):
https://www.douyin.com/user/MS4wLjABAAAA8Gft2z08CjrLcEI3BGbNk6CLkePD5pUTxQbD0haYQBF7uU0hiAy4KW651lRC_yAL?modal_id=7360304476701396239
2. Twitter:
https://x.com/Fatum____Tempus/status/1782076978369061012

BONUS: BTS of the modern world scenes
https://x.com/Fatum____Tempus/status/1786669698790367614

ENDING SPOILER:
In the finale episode, the female lead dies and is transported back to the modern world. She reads the novel, the story is now changed and doesn’t include her (which we see that play out on screen). There are ambiguous details to suggest the male lead is aware of the book change. END of drama. NOW, thanks to the secret clip uploaded on douyin, we can see the male lead (sports jacket) is reading the same novel in the modern world. The female lead calls his name and he turns around to face her. So they end up meeting each other in the modern world too.

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Messy museum

What are you looking for? Unrequited love, horror, fantasy, religious fervour, intrigue, power hungry immortals? It's all here.
The unrequited love was sweet and silly. The horror was the kind of thing you would see in a nightmare. .

Khatha spent a lot of time looking fed up with everyone and irritated with the world in general. I guess that's an outcome when you're immortal : everyone must get on your nerves eventually, especially if they don't know the bigger picture. I'm not sure I really understood the bigger picture!

What I liked: most of the acting was good, but the acting by Saiparn (Anthika) was so good that I could see why anyone would join her cult! She was so believable as a disciple.
Gun's acting as 3 separate, very different characters (in the same episode!) was a nice touch. He was good too.
The guest actors in some of the episodes were great: Bright's version of an obsessed ex-lover was brilliant. Nanon played 3 (?) different characters and they were all believable. The way his face and mannerisms changed depending on who he was, was intriguing and worth watching. There was even Lee (one of my favourites) in an episode and he played a character I've never seen him play before - slightly mad.

The story was interesting: it's a pop up museum. I love the idea of things that are there, but not. It felt a bit like seeing something out of the corner of your eye.

What I didn't like: Sometimes the acting felt one dimensional. Not sure how many times I can bear to see Khatha's irritated face. How many times was Dome going to faint or fall asleep??

It felt like there was more to say and understand, so maybe there's a season 2.

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It was an adaptation only until the last few episodes, then it became screenwriter's ego.

While this is a great drama I can't rate this higher that 8.0. My main problem is deviation from source material.

Story, Acting, Cinematography, OST everything is perfect and delivers to the genre beautifully. The problem arises in the last few episodes where the writers decided to deviate from original webtoon story and forcefully push some kdrama tropes into narrative which neither were fun to watch not did they fit with characterization established earlier.

1. There was no long separation trope in original webtoon, that was a kdrama only screenwriter fantasy,
2. There was no rich family poor family drama created by grandfather in original webtoon, that was again a kdrama only screenwriter fantasy. He was, on the contrary, the most ardent supporter of their relationship in webtoon.

Thankfully overall story and ending, though adulterated, is still quite good. However, I can't excuse the fact that a portion of source material was changed into something formulaic due to unknown reasons.

When screenwriters deviate from original writer's works it feels like a disrespect towards the original source material. Its understandable the need for deviation when the source material has problems in it but when the source material is a hit in itself, its a just sad attempt by the screenwriters to establish that they know better which they definitely don't.

That's my problem and that's why I rate this kdrama which could easily have a been a 9/10 only 8/10.

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This show is like a cat, and I'm allergic

I really didn’t have high hopes for this project from the get-go. Mixing Thai with Korean BL sounds like a decent idea on paper, but the execution turned out to be incredibly clumsy. Peach Of Time did it first - it felt awkward then, and it feels awkward now. I’m not saying this concept can’t be done. Because Of You actually pulled the mixing of languages off quite well. But that’s because some of the characters in the show were actually multilingual, so it made the entire thing a whole lot more believable because they effortlessly switched between languages, depending on who they were talking to. In this show, however, Uno somehow understands Korean perfectly, but he cannot speak the langue at all. How in the world would you ever get to that point? Listening and speaking skills develop hand in hand. Of course, it is quite common to have an easier time understanding a language than actually speaking it. But I simply don’t see any way in which someone would understand everything as well as Uno does (down to words like 'euthanasia‘ which you won’t find in basic vocabulary lessons unless you attend a very odd language course) without being able to make at least simple every-day conversation. The same goes for Uno’s manager who understands Thai but doesn’t speak it, and his assistant assumably too, because he never speaks to Uno in Thai but understands him without any struggle. It makes no sense and took me out of the show completely. For everyone who isn’t magically able to understand Thai/Korean, the instant translation earpiece was a very cheap way out. I suppose I gotta praise them for at least trying to address the language barrier in some way, it just was a little bit too convenient for my liking. Especially regarding the TV show they were filming. The audience obviously does not have a fancy insta-translator, and when we saw the manager watching the show, there were never any subs. So, how are the Korean viewers supposed to get anything of what Uno was saying?

But anyhow, the language nonsense was the least of the show’s problems.

The even bigger issue is that the world of this show feels completely empty. You know those stories where the places actually come to live and you feel the vibe of the coffee shop, office, house, or whatever through the screen, or even through pages of a book? Well, this was the opposite of that. It never feels like you’re watching people going about their lives, moving naturally around the world they live in. It feels like you’re watching actors on a set. A set that refused to cast any extras. The main place of the show is a dog cafe. But somehow, we see a grand total of ONE dog at the entire cafe, and we never get to see a single customer who isn’t part of the main cast. The same goes for the vet clinic, although, there we actually get to see one other client (I believe), which didn’t add much realism, but at least it was something. It was incredibly strange to watch and ruined the immersion.

But the most glaring issue, by far, is the romance.

You see, the two love interests don’t actually interact (apart from a brief encounter) until half way through the show. I absolutely don’t mind if you take a while to establish the characters on their own first, before you introduce the romance. If well done, that in itself would not be an issue. The issue is that in this show, those first episodes felt incredibly wasted. It didn’t really feel like I was getting to know the characters well. Somehow we spent 6 episodes introducing them, and I still couldn’t connect to either of them. At no point did I feel like I actually know these characters. Uno just felt like a caricature of an aloof, stand-off-ish celebrity. I have no idea how he even got famous in the first place, because that generally requires charisma, and Uno has none of that. Dae Byeol loves animals. That’s all I could take away from his character. And that he struggles financially, maybe. Both of them felt like empty shells who weren’t appealing to watch at all. Much like with the set feeling just like that, a set, the characters also felt just like characters rather than actual people.

When the two main leads finally do get to interact, the romance feels as empty as the characters do. There was no romantic chemistry there whatsoever, and the build-up is clunky as hell. This is yet another show that feels like it should’ve been a bromance, and on the day of filming, someone decided to add some romance into the mix. So, they came up with very few moments that were supposed to be cute, but they come so out of the blue and feel so awkward that I went 'Wtf is going on?‘ Instead of 'Awww!‘ which is definitely not the reaction you want when watching a romance series. It’s not even that they established a friendship that felt believable. They just went from not really liking each other to loving each other without putting in any effort of making the two actually bond for more than a total of five minutes. It was completely wasted, and I was honestly shipping Dae Byeol with the vet and Uno with his assistant more than I was rooting for the two of them. Dae Byeol had more chemistry with the damn dog than he did with Uno.

This series might go down as the show with the most awkward hug scene in BL history. It was actually painful to watch. Uno hurt his foot while they were out looking for their dog. They sit down and Uno goes on an incredibly forced monologue about how his dog trauma came to be (their conversations in general feel clunky and forced, but this one was the worst instance). Then, Dae Byeol proceeds to wrap his arm around him in the most unnatural way anyone has ever hugged anyone ever. It felt like he was forced to hug that one relative he doesn’t like, because his parents told him to be polite, not like he was getting close to someone he apparently has feelings for. It was supposed to be cute, but I had to pause the show because I was laughing so hard at how bad it was. The scene of him applying ointment for Uno wasn’t much better, but it wasn’t quite as horrendous.

Speaking of Uno’s trauma with dogs… He got over that way too quickly. How nice would it have been if the show actually depicted him slowly overcoming his fear with the help of Dae Byeol? But we cannot have nice things, apparently, so instead, he basically healed himself by the power of nothing. If getting over trauma/fears was that easy, it would leave therapists everywhere jobless.

The ending feels unearned and plot lines get resolved way too quickly and without any meaningful resolution. They're just wrapped up because it's episode 12, and we need a happy end now.

In terms of acting, the side characters were actually doing really well and were a lot more likeable than the main characters. Especially Uno’s assistant and manager were both hilarious and nailing their roles, so that was honestly the best part about this whole thing. Mew is a very charismatic person, usually, but somehow, he failed to add any charisma to Uno which made watching him incredibly boring.

If you’re debating whether you should watch this, I suggest you don’t. There really isn’t anything here to get attached to or fawn over. It's genuinely one of the most unenjoyable BLs I've ever watched. It's bad, but not even funny-bad, just plain bad. If you’re looking for a show with cute animals in it, you won’t find it here, and you’re honestly better off just watching dog or cat videos on Youtube. At least those are cute and not as awkward as whatever the hell this was.

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