Jae Jin
IZ*LAND
Just here for the Main Couple
After watching TTEOTM, I really liked LYX and BL. Then I discovered that they had a drama before that in a modern-day setting.The story was good, almost entirely. I'm sure you've read enough reviews and comments at this point before you landed on my review, so I'm just gonna try to make the praise as short as possible. I have no problems with the Main story, it was cute, it was fluffy, and obviously, the chemistry was off the charts. The very definition of 'Love is Sweet'. The business side of things... it was aight, I would say, I was whatever whenever the characters are blabbing about business shit that I couldn't relate/understand. The second couple is just plainly boring, I liked it in the beginning, it was cute until it wasn't and just became an annoying filler. Also, I loved the Sideplot of the 2nd ML.
When I thought it wouldn't matter to me if they dragged the hell out of this drama for how much I loved the Main couple, but nope! How naive I was for thinking that. This series could've ended at episode 30, everything was nicely wrapped up and tied in a nice little bow, but the people behind this were like "Nope! Let's do 6 more episodes as an epilogue" just to make the 2nd ML bad.
The Characters. I already said my piece with the Main Couple no need to reiterate, they are the hard carry of this drama, If not for them, I would've dropped this after episode 30. 2nd Couple didn't elicit any chemistry whatsoever, the match-up is just terrible. If you look at it on paper, you got a super bubbly girl and a dense boy, should've been good, right??? but because of their age in this drama, it fell flat. The girl is supposedly the adult in this pairing, the boy is still in college, so you'd expect the girl would be the mature one here, but nope! The way she's trying to get the attention of the boy in the beginning is cute, but as it goes on it just becomes cringy and annoying. I wasn't planning on watching this drama on 2x, but my god... I just had to because of them. It just looked childish. The Rival ML, the way he's written, was really good to me. I love how both MLs in this drama were given a fair shot at courting FL and I loved it. It was very intricate to me, though sadly, it was very obvious that he didn't stand a chance from the beginning. He's very dynamic, and I loved every aspect of him, just not in the last 6 episodes. On the other hand, the Rival FL wasn't built up that much at all, we only got tidbits of her, and then suddenly things just happened, and then she became obsolete. Every character in this drama, bounces off each other very well, from the Main down to the minor characters. Some of the side characters I thought were going to make a big impact later on because they were given a good chunk of screen time but didn't, so it felt like they were just wasted characters to me.
The acting is also great. Everyone did very well. This is the 3rd drama that I've watched where Riley wang is in it. I can see that he has improved here a little.
The Music, obviously I liked the OST. There's that one BGM that is used a lot in business scenes that I wasn't really feeling because it doesn't sound business-esque to me, it fits more in a fashion drama.
Overall, a good drama. I'm not sure if I would recommend it in general though, but if you've watched TTEOTM first and you liked the Main Couple, then go for it. It's a breath of fresh air seeing both actors in another setting.
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My Boyfriend x My Friend
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Was fun while it lasted
As someone who's been watching dramas for a long time, I would usually skip this type of short-form drama because I'd rather watch a fully-written and produced 16 episode drama. I saw this when it came out, and it looked interesting on paper, so I waited for it to finish airing.The story is your simple school romance drama, and even though it can be cliché at times, it was still good because the clichéness was used well and timed, though there were times I cringed at some scenes where I saw a trope that's being done, but the acting is 😬😬😬 you know what I mean??? The ML was set up to be a red flag, FL is dumb and fragile when it comes to him, and you have a 2nd ML who's slow and passive, very stereotypical characters, but what sold me was the kissing scene at the end of the first episode because it's not just a peck, it's actually a proper kiss, like hooohf!! When I saw that I was like "Okay, now I'm sold" and stuck to whatever trainwreck I was about to embark on.
As for the characters, I actually like the second ML, but he's just too passive. I want to root for him, but he's not doing much, although his acting is decent. As for the first ML, I couldn't really like him because he's a red flag. I don't know why I couldn't like him. This is probably what my friend felt when we were watching the Nevertheless drama. With the first ML, aside from being a red flag, there wasn't much exploration from his side, and his acting is too emotionless in serious scenes. In bright scenes it's good, but he's too sharply handsome to act all cutesy xD. It's just in the serious scenes where I'm not feeling his acting. The female lead, however, is so cute and pretty. The more I watch, the more I fall for her beauty, and she's a great actress too. It's not there yet, but she has the potential to get big. Her character here - I don't know why she would choose her red-flag ex over someone who saved her life. If it were me, I'd marry the guy straight away.
Anything else??? OSTs are great. Well timed. There was one that I really liked, so I searched it up and downloaded it. There's also that one ost that was used multiple times throughout the drama, and it had a similar sound to 'Stayc - love fool'. The side characters... good. They're there and played their role well. Oh, one thing, and I just remembered as I'm writing this, whenever there's a group shot of all the characters together, like why are they all standing straight and in formation as well?? No group of friends does that lmao hahaha they look so awkward in those shots.
So yeah, overall, nice drama. I liked it while it lasted, and I enjoyed my time with it. You should give it a watch if you're looking for something fun cliché, and quick watch.
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Kinda forgettable not gonna lie
I didn't feel the chemistry between the characters. The acting is somewhat decent, except for the Male actor, though he only had a bit part.The whole setup of hinting at each other's feelings, like a tug of war who will slip up and confess was okay I guess, it was kinda cute.
There's not much cinematography, but that's understandable. Lastly, there's no background music at all even though music is the half of heavy lifting to make a scene more impactful.
I know it's a very short film, but I've seen some tiktoks where in a span of a minute, it'll be able to tickle your heart, so there's no excuse.
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Decent Trashy Car Crash Romance
I can't believe I went out of that thinking it was decentThe story is about a woman who was able to predict the future through her dreams and she dreamt about her husband killing her in the future. So now, she has to figure out how to change the course of fate, and that's not the only thing, more things will get revealed as you watch more of the drama. I don't wanna spoil much, the drama is 5-10 minutes long per episode so just give it a watch if you're interested, you can easily finish it in 1-2 hours. For me, it was pretty interesting, but I just could not stand the domestic violence at times, for any woman out there you might not like this. Again, the story is pretty interesting for how did it, though they just went overboard with the violence (or maybe it's just me) and there are some disappointments as well for how they resolved things in the end.
**SPOILER**
What disappointed me, is that when FL got out of the relationship, she didn't like revenge on his ex-husband or anything, she just mindbroken him, like... for all the things that he did to you, that's your counterattack? I wish they just went above and beyond for FL's revenge because this man deserved to be beaten more, not just mentally, That's why I probably find the story pretty interesting because they tried to be grounded and used the law instead of violence against violence, not like in any revenge dramas. And then after that's finished, the story still continued because they still went through the trouble of explaining some more confusing stuff and kept bringing up more plot twists like "Oh... this character actually got played by this character since the beginning. NO! This character actually got doubled played this character and then this character went in between and controlled everything behind the scenes", like okay..??? you didn't have to do that, the show was decent, but you just set it ablaze in the end.
For the characters. FL really amazed me, because she knew what's gonna happen in the future, she just hung on for her dear life and just took all the beating every time like "Girrllll you are so strong" and when I thought she was such a good person, all the revelations in the later episodes made her a bad person, but I was still on her side because she had to do it or else she will die. ML really got it coming for him, he was such a possessive and abusive husband, but they tried to redeem his character by showing a back story of his childhood revealing that he was just a victim of his past, like pffft! I get it, if I were to see that as a child I would be traumatized too, but you know what I would do? I would do the opposite and try to be a good person, and learn from the mistakes of my parents. Ruyue, I'm kinda clouded with a bias towards your actress Wang Xing Chen because I mainly watched this because of her, she had it coming as well for ruining FL's life and it was satisfying, I know she was a victim of the past as well, but that doesn't say she's a good character because we didn't have much character exploration with her side. Yibai, they didn't really show much of his side in the drama, which is why he didn't really stand out to me, not until in the end because of the plot twist.
So yeah, overall it's pretty decent, could've been better in my opinion, but I'll take it.
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It was okay. Nothing More, Nothing Less
First off, I wouldn't say I wasted my time since I watched this mainly because of Lee Siwoo, so I came out like "Yep, I'm satisfied" since I got to see another work from her.The story is okay, though it didn't really click with me. The initial hook was a very cute romance so I thought it was going to be that way all the way through, but after that, it hits you with a story about a disease that has spread in Korea that will dumb your brain and make every person only speak a limited amount of words which I thought it was going to be like a "The Flu" esc but minus the death which used brilliantly to coincide with the romance, a family drama which was okay to some extent since it made me feel something and a little bit of politics and throughout the end it left me with a wholesome feeling for how it ended.
The world of this movie is set in 2031 and it was shown a little bit as this very futuristic civilization, but since it's not really the main attention of this film, it hardly got highlighted, we just had 1 scene of what the city looks with a flying car passing by and maybe some scenes where some characters are interacting with a hologram screen and this high-tech wristband.
Characters are okay, though not much of them really stuck with me because, since this is an Hour & 7mins film there's not much character depth that they could do, so I hardly got attached to any of the characters, though I would give them props because even with the tight runtime, the pacing didn't become an issue, though it would feel like it's slow because it had a lot of talking.
Acting is good, especially because of how the disease works, so they really have to nail the body language, facial expression, and tonality of what they are saying, which they did, especially the mother of ML. The dynamic of ML and FL is really cute, though how I wish they could've shown us more since I was really invested in the romance aspect of this movie. The brother really annoyed the fuck out of me when he first appeared because he was introduced as this goofy playful brother who's always not there and rarely comes home, but if he does he's just there to goof around and do nothing, but it turns out he was actually doing some political works behind the scenes, sacrificing for the freedom of language and for ML to be able to end up with FL.
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Poor, Unbalanced, Confusing Writing
Since this is the only work left from Nana that I haven't watched, I really tried my best to finish it even though I'm so mentally checked outI don't know what's up with the story because the way the events unfold feels like out of place, if not really fast-paced. I feel like the writer had lots of ideas, but didn't know how to tie them all together nicely and didn't even know how to build it up or leave hints throughout the show in order to show the viewers what to anticipate what the future events might be. The way they establish the beginning of the show was such a drag for me, it felt like it doesn't have any grand meaning or connection to the overall story because the first ten 10 episodes unpacked some major turns already, so I was like "eehhh... why is this happening already?" They could have replaced some of the fluffy fashion scenes with meaningful interactions with the characters to help build it up nicely if they were planning to progress the plot that fast in the first place. And then it tried to salvage the story in the 2nd half with the drama between ML and FL, and low key it kinda got me interested a little bit, but it's still wasn't enough.
The way they pull a twist feels like the writer didn't know where to take the story and maybe some big heads wanted to drag this drama, so they keep pulling plot twists that weren't even hinted at in the show like "Where did this come from?" and then would try to tie it by showing flashbacks or maybe some insignificant scene that a viewer wouldn't even catch, like "Oh its actually hinted but you just didn't notice" Of course I wouldn't because you did not highlight it. When ML got depressed, what's up with that? And i can't even take it seriously because the story and the characters don't take itself seriously, it felt like i was watching a Steven He Emotional Damage Parody Video. I don't have a chronic depression, but how the fuck did he got bedridden or paralyzed, like what?! Is that how it's supposed to be? Another Plot device that really annoyed me, is that when they need help or they want a person capable of something, magically one of the characters knows someone and would call them "blah blah can you help? he/she said okay", like huh?? I kinda understand it since ya'll are the big heads of the company and your families are influential, but in some sense, i don't get it, like how? how are you connected to this mysterious powerful person? and how tight are you that you can just casually call them and somehow they would say "okay"? but sometimes they would do it right when it comes to Leng Shan because she actually meets the person she's connected with and would suck up to them whenever she needs help.
When it comes to the characters, it feels like a gamble because sometimes they would act right, but then would fumble right away. The FL wasn't really as annoying as the comments make it out to be, like maybe, in the beginning, she's super annoying, especially when she says "Fighting" every time, I feel like I'm gonna hate that word just thinking about it, but her annoyingness actually got toned down as you go through the episodes and i kinda liked the development in that part, but in some parts because FL was still 16 in real life when this drama came out, it really shows in her acting. She's supposed to be an adult in this film, i don't know what age, did they even stated it in the show? Anyway, she doesn't know how to act like an adul. She is so childish for the most part and maybe sometimes would act like 18 or 19 and her styling also shows how young she is. It also creeps me out, like a red alarm would sound in the ear knowing she's a minor and her partner is 26, that's a 10 years of age gap, like maybe the hug and kiss on the forehead would be a pass, but when like there's an interaction that would really sound an alarm bell to me I'll be like "Woooaaahh! chill....". The ML tho on the other hand, really gives off jackson wang vibes, I don't know... maybe it's the hair and because this drama has fashion in it. He did a good job acting like a feminine fashionista. I like his playful acting, it lands really well when he does a joke or prank. I also like his chemistry with Wang Xing Ren, but in the later parts of the drama, it kinda gave BL vibes, so that kinda fell off for me a little bit.
The Side characters are okay, but i think they took up too much time, so i felt like they overshadowed the Leads. I really like Gao Ming, i kinda prefer him over ML, tho i wouldn't say it's because of the 2nd Lead Syndrome, it's just he's really a good character, and his dynamic and side plot with Angela was really cute, but they didn't really expand on it that much. Xue Zhen Ni really annoyed me whenever she's on the screen her jokes don't land really. It just leave a sour taste in my mouth. Victoria really amazed me. I feel like her actress really understands the assignment, from the way she walks, her body movement, and attitude screams fashion to me. Because there are a lot of side characters, like i said they took out most of the screen time and some of them were used for like 1 or 2 scenes, so many side characters are wasted.
Couldn't really say much about the music, cuz i feel like i was deaf in that aspect of the drama, but when Nana plays Cello tho... knowing what she does in real life.
So yeah, all in all... bad drama, it's very unbalanced with it comes to its core aspects and it doesn't even know what it's trying to be a times, wouldn't recommend this one, I'm just here for Nana.
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Kinda Weak Season, but still Good
I watched it without much expectation. Since the director really wants to continue this series even though there hasn't been a sequel for the manhwa in years. This Season 2 and the upcoming Season 3 are going on their own path, even though the writers aren't involved going forward, i still have a little bit of hope since the director said he consulted with them, so he was told of the general idea with where the story is going and just played around with it.The story picks up right away where season 1 left off and already, it's a jam-packed action but i noticed the CGI is still the same as Season 1 if not, sometimes worse than last season, but it is well done in scenes where Song Kang and Sang Wook are involved.
Back to the story... i was kinda confused at first because things started escalating but good thing they explained it as we move forward. The scale of the story has now expanded because our characters are now out in the wider world, so many characters got added to the story and because of that they really had to compromise with the screentime. I guess it's really tight in that aspect, so there's a different shift of focus in the characters in this season and then they killed most of the characters that we followed during s1 and it's kinda boring at times when you have to care for these new characters in the story and there's a lot of them as well and most of them died off really quick, but i couldn't care less since there wasn't much for me to care about, some of them are really well done, though they haven't really contributed that much to the story yet. This season was just a setup for what's probably gonna happen in s3 i guess... because nothing really much happened, but we're still given enough information about what's happening in the world of Sweet Home, but not enough for it to move forward.
Them killing off most of the characters from s1 was kinda useless to me because the characters they've added/replaced have similar personalities to the characters from s1, so what's the point?? and their deaths didn't even leave much impact on the mains except for one, but i'm not gonna tell. Speaking of mains, I do see some crumbs of romance build up that's going on here, though i doubt they would expand on it in the next season since it's not the main point of the story, but i would love to see if they would do it since it's a nice heart fluttering side plot to have in a world that's fucked up and full of monsters.
The acting as always is impeccable there is nothing much to tell, what do you want me to say? It's good, as koreans always do
Now this part is for those who've read 'Shotgun Boy' which is the prequel for Sweet Home, so it's gonna be spoilers. As someone who has read it, after watching this, I think there's no hope of adaptation for that manhwa in the future anymore. It's just my theory though because i noticed they took some aspects from 'Shotgun Boy' and added them here, the very obvious one is the girl who can turn anyone into a monster and then you have the lab as well, but props to them because the way they integrated it here was so smooth. If they ever adapt that manhwa, i doubt you'd be able to add much to the story, the only thing you're gonna bring to the table are more characters and another mc which is gonna put off some viewers.
Overall, this season was kinda weak for me and kinda fast paced, since there's a lot to unpack, plus you have a lot of new characters as well, but it's still good. Song Kang is sooo hot in here, like he got buffed, ugh!! DADDY?! Go Min Si is pretty as always and because of the new main that got introduced here, plus his character dynamic with her, i can kinda predict who's Go Min Si's next romance drama partner, they have a good chemistry xD
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A Very Pictureesque Fantasy Drama
This is the 2nd Fantasy cdrama that i've managed to finish, but also the 4th fantasy cdrama that i've looked into, and god! So far, this has the cleanest CGI. It's not perfect like the west does, but it's getting there.What really blew me away in the beginning was the sets were very very beautiful, especially when they were in the mountains or like the illusionary places, it's very picturesque looking, like you could screenshot any scene that involved with those sets and I would legit print it and hang it on my wall, that's how good the sets are. They're probably using the latest tech, where you could film in the actual set and have the CGI set to move along with the camera. That's probably why it's very clean when the characters are in those places. Not only that, the lighting is also on point, it adds so much to the aesthetic of the backgrounds. When it comes to the magic powers, the CGI although, is not perfect, it's very jank at times, but it's still very clean. And you add the graceful fighting choreographies, like you wouldn't even mind the janky magic effects because the fighting scenes are very engrossing. One thing that disappoints me at times is that some of the fight scenes are very short, if not, sometimes it's very lacking, like it's being held back by the lack of talent to fully realize the vision or maybe the budget, but that's just a minor complaint in my opinion. One thing that felt scuffed in the CGI department is the creatures in this drama. For example, the divine bird is very jank, and in some scenes, it's not even HD. It gets pixelated at times. The cgi creatures are great, but it doesn't really blend in most of the time, aside from God of Dragon, like my god when he first showed up, it was great that i think most of the budget for the cgi creatures went into him. So yeah, there are janky moments in the CGI department, but again, it's very very clean for the most part. It doesn't deteriorate your viewing experience.
The story i think it's very slog in the beginning, like the first 10-15 or so episodes because they have to establish the characters and explain the magic system and the world in the drama, but once you get past that and make it to where episode 1 left off, that story will start picking up its pace and gets very good as you progress. Though i think aside from the romance aspect and the family politics that is going on, anything else wasn't really the focus in this series. And that's what sucks because even though i wasn't really into the politics, nor the family drama, i still wanted them to keep showing the boring parts just them talking and explaining everything about the world of this drama because it's interesting. But around the 2nd half, i gave up cuz the story is already so far that i doubt they would even bother explaining the intricacies. I think the story for me is at its best when it's just the romance or the dynamics between the mains, other than that is like a snooze fest, like i would sometimes bump up the play speed to 1.25 or 1.5, cuz again, for me they didn't really go all in on explaining the world that much so that's why i think i couldn't really care that much, aside from the romance aspect. And even though I find the romance as the best part of this show, it's not really perfect. I think in the beginning you would find it annoying, but because of the character developments and the series of challenges that went through, it got really good over time. I even find it really cute for the most part.
Now, the characters in this drama, i think they are all well-written. Each has their own goals and reasonings to keep pushing. As you spend more time with these characters, you get to understand why they are the characters the way they are. And i liked that, especially in the later parts when situations got complicated and the stakes were high. It shows that these characters have been put a lot of thought into. Even the interaction between these characters is such a delight, especially around the later parts after all the boring build-up you get to appreciate the characters when it is just silent and it's just them talking.
Alright, enough with praises. Now that i'm remembering it as i'm writing this review, i think the huoto tribe or that arc was such a filler for me, now that i'm thinking about it. like they only got a few episodes or screentime and then most of the higher ups killed themselves lmao xD Aside from zhu yan getting married off to the huotu prince and discovering the location of the Sea Emperor, for me, i think that part of the show didn't really leave such an impact on me. I think that is where i thought "Man! i really wanted them to expand on this tribe, because this is such a unique looking along with the crimson clan" but nope, that part felt flat for me.
The traveling in this drama is almost non existant or even the time passing because they wouldn't even spend that much time on the traveling scenes or bother showing the time passing, like couldn't they've at least put a caption 1 day later or 1 week later, like they are really strict on the screentime huh? You could have a character getting heavily injured that would take weeks or months of rest and then instantly cut to the next scene where he/she is already recovered without even telling the audience, like what?!?!
Around the later parts near the end, it started getting fast-paced, like okay there are only 4 episodes left... but they're still building up this ominous enemy that they've been hinting at since the beginning, so what are they gonna do? Then things started happening for the sake of convenience, but still props to them for at least putting up an effort for trying to explain shit in like few lines, for it to make sense.
And the show ended up with a bang, like they really went all in on that last episode, holy hell! Then landed its own two feet with a safe open ending. Watching this drama gave me hope that good fantasy cdrama does exist out there if you just keep looking. I'm glad my girl Ren Min got the FL role in this show, like i can't imagine any other actress playing Zhu Yan. At first, i see her as Ren Min, but slowly she started becoming one with the character that she was playing, so good job. I don't know if it's dubbed or not, but my girl has two voices here. I don't know why i didn't notice it immediately, but Zhu Yan was definitely not Ren Min's voice UNTIL, she appeared as yaoyi and heard her speak as a mature woman, like "Hellooo?!?!!! excuse?!?!! is this really Ren Min?!! Why does it sound so attractive?!?". So i went back to her other works and compared them and yep i think she's either using a different voice here like what zhao lusi did in 'Hidden Love' or it's dubbed.
So yeah, I would recommend this drama, if you can sit through the slow burn early part, then you'll be in for a ride.
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Too dragged out, good popcorn movie
I just scrolled through netflix and just clicked this without thinking too much after watching the preview.First off it was veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery slow paced, but i didn't mind since i was watching it with my cousin so i was very determined to finish it.
I find it really boring in the beginning, but not boring enough to make me click off and find another movie.
There were a lot of unnecessary parts in the movie and by "a lot", i mean like A LOT. I get it you're trying to show that this and this character is like this, but you don't need to keep rubbing it in to the viewers like "here's a another very dragged out one long shot of this character doing this just to show how crazy this person is", like come on. This movie could've been chopped down to like 1hr 30mins or lower if they didn't put those unnecessary parts. They're weren't adding anything to the story at all anymore, they're just there to bore people out.
Once the movie started picking up, like an hour later (finally thank god) then i became interested, but it also started becoming predictable... I think they gave out the hints too early, or maybe im just good at picking up crumbs?
The villain was not well written for imo, i think he's to sloppy for someone who does villain stuff and he was not interesting at all, he's too boring as a villain.
The main characters was okay, specially the male lead, i think the writer did an okay job, but the way the male and female leads relationship developed, was kinda half assed for me, i think its TOO fast considering how it took forever to build up the story. I think the time of those unnecessary parts could've been invested to build up other characters or maybe paced the relationship of the male and female leads right.
I find it weird how they filmed this like an early 2000s film, considering this was a 2018 movie. Like the cinematography was like... i don't know how to described it.
The ending was an okay ending, it's like they took a safe route ending if this was a video game, they were some plot points that were left unanswered, but i guess ill take it.
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It was really BAAADDDD
I just watched it because i saw kanna hashimoto on the poster cover as i was scrolling on netflix to look for soemthing to watch.On the intro i thought i was gonna be a r18 show, but then they hit you with the action gore and i was like "Woah.... cool" then suddenly shoves in romance, which i felt like kinda off. It felt like they we're forcing this romance on this Action movie.
The action in this movie was okay at times, but when try to push it over the top, it becomes unnecessarily dumber. Specially that fight near the end
Characters we're cringe like all of them, they're really trying hard on that "Woohooo yeah im in manga/anime character", including kanna???? idk, i think this is one of her wost works. Out of all the characters i think Terano and Ayabe were the only good written characters as far im concerned. The actors really played well their characters, specially ayabe, i can feel he's really into his character.
Cinematography was a big step up from the usual japanese cinematography, but it was still bad. And the editing... its sooo horrible, specially when they need to transition to the next scene, they hit you with this random fast paced shots, then cuts to the next scene. CGI is very obvious, so that was bad.
Also, one thing. The music, wtf was that tropical party music that they keep playing when they travel or transition? that really throws me off, that was very unjapanese. Like, wtf was the music director thinking? couldn't they just asked the composer like "hey, can you compose a tropical party music for this section with a hint of japanese?" cuz the song that they use is very western.
Lastly SPOILER, i loved how in that section were Kanna's character Kei, was shot by nails and i saw something when they did a close up shot. I don't know if that was a prop or something, but clearly they could've hidden that well.
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Drama with realist emotions that hits you fast and hard
I was really excited about this because I read the webtoon and I even watched the chinese animation adaption.First off, my expectation as a reader was really thrown out of the window because this drama is soo different from its source. Which what made me even more excited watching this drama, because you don't know what's gonna happen. Though it's very different from its webtoon and anime counterparts, there are still some same scenes and lines that I recognized. Thankfully they haven't changed it fully, but it's just not a 1 to 1 adaptation like the anime did.
Now since it's not a 1 to 1 adaptation... one thing that I was surprised about is that the director really made use of the side characters. In the webtoon, the side characters weren't really contributing that much, like the main leads just figured out things on their own, but here oh my god, they are really contributing something. And I guess that's the trade-off because one thing they did wrong is that they took out all of the in-depth characterizations of the side characters. well... not really all of it, but it was just a few lines and a few scenes like it hit you fast and hard, but that wasn't really enough for you to get invested in these characters.
I must say, I really like the way they portrayed Ira here, like she's soooo bubbly to a 100, but inside she's broken af, but WTF was the point of making her and joon childhood friends??!?!? like that.... really contributed nothing, if they weren't gonna follow the original ending what was the point of that? The only thing I can think of is that made it the reason as to why she won't be the endgame, just like with Jinju "It's all in the past" so the main lead feelings for those two weren't there anymore.
also, another thing that they took out... Since the webtoon was fairly long right, like it's 130+ chapters. They could've easily made this a standard 16 kdrama episodes, but no, they took out most of the boring flirting scenes and interactions of the characters and that's how this show ended up as a 9 episodes show and that's great because I was a little bored trying to finish reading the webtoon. I think they did the right thing, the show hits fast and hard and you have to really pay attention to piece things together since they only took the important moments and focused only there. I really loved it, and it's great, but after finishing this show, though it was great, I think that really backfired itself, because it leaves you wanting more about the characters, the interactions, and the backstory. After watching this, it made me appreciate the webtoon's boring moments. So I might have to re-read it again.
And I love how they adapted this, and changed most of the things, whilst still following the path of the final destination, ensuring that the male lead will still end up with the female lead, like how they managed to make it more sensible. I'm sure if you're not paying attention to the details you might miss a lot because it still makes sense even after cutting a lot of the plots. The drama is like the realistic emotions that you could feel... I even almost cried twice towards the last 2 episodes.
And yeah... drama is great, but it leaves you wanting more. OST is great, barely noticed it since I'm so immersed in the direction of the series. The cinematography is beautiful, but the kissing scenes thooo.... like my ghad! I think this is the first time I've seen a kissing scene where they kept the audio, like ugh! it's soooo asmr coded HAHAHAAHA.
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Started decent, but got worse as it goes on
I was click-baited into thinking that I was gonna be watching an action-crime show, but that wasn't the case at all...The story started off decent for the first 4 episodes, but when they started expanding the world and introduced lots of new characters, it slowly started going down the drain. I mostly stay within romance right, but sometimes I watch other genres for a change. When I saw this drama, I was like "Ahh, it's Ren Min. She doesn't do romance that much. It's probably action so I'm gonna get hyped". And yeah, that's what it actually was in the beginning. They went on this stealing from the rich, bringing justification to the preservation of history, and then trying to get away with it to martial arts superpowers with politics. Then suddenly they'd added romance in the mix out of nowhere, where one of the leads suddenly said "I have feelings for this person" Like, did I miss an episode or anything? or wasn't I paying attention enough? Where along the way did you fall for him? Because there was no scene that elicited romance that was highlighted at all. But yeah whatever, I'm a romance fan, so why not?
The story could've been better if it was longer, and well fleshed out, and this where it could've also benefited the 40 episodes law. There were a lot of interesting ideas that they managed to show, but because it was so fast-paced they ended up being bland. They couldn't even be consistent with the idea of having superpowers because most of the time the characters would just use martial arts, even the clan heads where they could've easily shown the power ceiling for how strong these leaders are. Although the action was pretty cool, the integration of element effects with it is jarring.
I should've known from the beginning that it's gonna get worse and they were just trying to ease me in because once in a while, there's gonna be a scene where they could've used to have a meaningful quick conversation to flesh out the characters more, but they don't, It would be just silent or would straight up ignore the character itself. For example, I don't even know that sidekick of ML in the 2nd half. Why did he want to be a sidekick? What was he doing in that village? Is he affiliated with one of the five-element families? If yes, then which? I don't know. He's just there. I guess we're not finding out.
The characters are just straight bland because there was not much characterization at all. ML and 2nd ML had that potential. They're both great actors don't get me wrong, they could've been like Naruto x Sasuke in terms of tandem and development because they brought up some interesting parts to them, but it wasn't much of a strong impact. I think I was more interested in 2nd ML towards the end because it was so amazing to see him being an upholder of justice to becoming an enemy, then realizing he's on this wrong path and trying to correct it at the end. Ren Min as FL, I loved her exaggerated playful acting, I liked her character in the beginning, but there's so much mystery to it and then suddenly they pulled this disease bullshit that wasn't built up at all. She and ML are pretty funny together when they are on screen, their characters have funny dynamic, but they don't have chemistry at all. There were some romantic moments that could've sparked it, but I just couldn't feel it. I'm sorry. And the Japanese characters in this show weren't believable at all. It's so immersion-breaking that they're speaking fluent Chinese. They could've had them speak broken Japanese, as much as they hated it, or they could've had "Translators".
Overall, this a very fast-paced show with lots of plot holes. I wouldn't recommend watching it. I was just here because of Ren Min.
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Full Package Experience of a Young Boy
Lemme just say If not for Kang Hyewon, I would've dropped this halfway, not because the drama was bad, but because the bullying really went even harder in the second half, and I couldn't stomach it.The story was a hell of a ride. I'd say it's a full-package experience of what any boy would experience during his high school days. I was about to say minus the exaggerated bullying and gang shit, but if I were to compare it here in my country, I'd say it's pretty similar or even worse, cuz you've got some who actually bring icepicks or knives in school.
Anyway, unless you were an outcast or loner then you probably won't be able to relate with anything that was presented here.
My minor critique of the story is that although it's very relatable, as it was directed in a not-very serious & comedic way, it didn't really hit harder on me. I can kinda see why it was presented as it is because it could be something you could look back on and say "Ahh, yes!! I went through all these things back in high school"
The Characters, I think are all good. They have a lot of characters here because of the gang aspect, but no one is wasted. Everybody did their part. Seeing Siwan playing a High school boy character was kinda "???" like let's be honest here, he looks young, a great actor, a top-tier one at that, and very versatile as well, but he's not young-looking enough to play a high school boy. However, as you went on, you could tell he melded with his characters like as if you were actually looking at a high school boy. My opinion is also the same with FL. She and Siwan got a good chemistry going, and their relationship dynamic is so funny. Kang Hyewon is the sole reason why I watched this drama because I'm a wiz*one myself. She's great here, hearing her curse a lot felt so weird hahaha her acting, yet improved again. She's almost there, I think her sad acting just needs a little polishing, and then she's good to go. For 2nd ML, mind you he's almost absent for almost half of the show, but when he came back, he was like nerfed af, it kinda makes sense because he just had an accident. I thought with all the things going on with him, he would get the character development later on, but I think the writer went "Nope!" and just stuck with his villain character till the end. His actor is also so, so good at pulling the bad guy role, like my god!
OST, although I'm not the type who listens to songs from that generation, I can still appreciate it, especially if it's a good one.
Overall, a good drama. Even though I couldn't stomach the bullying, I would still recommend this. I think I see the appeal of dramas about gangs because of this one, it was kinda hype you know.
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A Glimpse of what the Shop can offer
Kinda late, but i finally had the time to watch it and i must say, it was good.The story in the beginning was action-packed, as usual in these types of series where they drop you off in the middle of the action in the story to hook you and i don't mind it since it delivered, then backstory. I thought they'll gonna drop all the backstory at once, then continue where we left off, but nope. The way they did it is they'll only bring up a backstory when a present scene needed a context on how it led to that point and i don't know how, but it worked, it didn't really hurt the pacing of the story nor my experience since they took their time to explain things, though, at the last 3 episodes, it slowly got to me a little bit because they tied all the timeline together and i was just waiting when are they gonna go back to the action. This season is mostly a build and just a taste of what the story can offer because the backstory mostly ate all the screen time. In the back of my mind i kinda want this drama and 'Kill Bok Soon' to diverge, how hype would that be, both dramas are very similar, the difference is just the other is a movie.
The cinematography is cool as always and the action. The editing near the end annoyed the shit out of me because they chopped the scenes a lot, they don't stay in a certain part that long and they kept using the fade-to-black transition and it was so long as well, oh my god! So i guess that's my only minor critique of this show.
The characters are really good, they're all well written down to the side characters. The FL's backstory was really sad along with ML because they are tied and i really loved their relationship dynamic during the backstory, it's so wholesome. I like how they wrote FL because she isn't just this strong character on the outside just because she's the niece of ML, she actually had to work her way up, and overcome her trauma to at least become able to hold her ground, she isn't perfectly strong yet like her uncle, she still cries gets nervous and gets helped in some situation and that's what makes her a good character. FL's actress is so cute and pretty tho... it's my first time seeing her and she looks like Adora in some angle. ML, we didn't get to spend time with him in the present, we mostly got it in the backstory and it was still good by how he was built up. He was this mysterious uncle, like FL said she lived with him for 10 years, but it was almost like she didn't know anything aside from he was her uncle until he died and she found out her uncle was involved in some shady underground business and that how she got caught up in this mess. I must say Lee Dong Wook is so badass here, i want more of this kind of project please and i noticed how he talks here, it's so asmr coded, ugh!!! Not to spoil anything, his character was built up to be this perfect killer so it's very obvious to me that there's gonna be some twist to him somewhere along the series if not then maybe in season 2, judging how he analyzed the blackmail.
Another thing i appreciated and a bit of cleanse to my pallete because chinese dramas couldn't even do this one minor detail, is their foreign characters. Because in this drama foreign characters are actually speaking the language of the characters that they are portraying, yes oh my god!!! It reminded me again that "Oh yeah, koreans never miss every minor detail in their media". Whenever you have a foreign character in your show it should be obvious that they should be speaking their mother tongue to make it convincing, i don't care how broken it is or even if you butcher the language, just do it, because the viewers will appreciate it... some of course because some will not because of the language butchering. Obviously, the actors are korean, i don't know about the thai one because he looks convincing and from the way he speaks as well, i probably have to look it up. Anyway, i appreciate the effort they made to make the foreign characters speak a foreign language.
Overall, very good action series. Highly recommend it, can't wait for season 2.
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Good first half, Flat second half, Main couple was actually okay
First off, Oh my god! Finally, a good TV series from Nana. Second, I thought I was gonna be put off by the Age gap, but seeing the characters and how they were written, it wasn't that bad and it kinda checks out actually.The story was actually good, for the most part. In the beginning, I found it hilarious because of the crying gimmick, good thing they toned it down and the characters used it cleverly to their advantage as the story went on. I didn't really understand the point of the dreams that the ML was having. In the middle of watching this, I watched Dune 2 and they have that same gimmick as well, but what differentiates the two is that in Dune they actually used it to prepare for future events, in here it was just some kind of mumbo jumbo, and did not help in the bigger picture at all. The sideplot of FLs sister is such a car crash love story and I couldn't stand the domestic violence at times, but what comes after that was more interesting than our lead couple.
The mystery was decent. It was interesting. The stake is high for our FL, but I noticed that sometimes, solving each of the mysteries behind it all is smooth sailing for our leads. It would've been better to see them fail so hard. It kinda felt like they've just hit a fence, not a wall, and then next episode they'll be able to cross it.
The action was pretty cool. I love it. It was well choreographed, paired with good cinematography. I found it funny at first because I'm pretty sure I'm not watching Wuxia, but these characters are flying around when they fight, so It made me realize they are probably going for that style of exaggerated fights.
The romance was pretty interesting. It was slow at first and I don't know about you guys, but when it started sparking, I started grinning as well. I thought I was gonna be put off by the age gap of our leads, but watching the drama, it checks out actually because of the roles. Great job to the director because they did the romance pretty safely, knowing we have a big age gap to keep in mind, so I'd say the romance is as vanilla as you could get, but will still make you smile.
Now, I said that almost all of the story was good. I don't know if it's the same in the novel or not, but after the main story that you were introduced to in the beginning ended, the arc that comes after that feels like the people behind wanted it to keep going. Like it basically ended after the mystery of the collapsed canal concluded and our leads already fell for each other, so where are they taking the from thereon? they went and said, "Hey, there's actually someone even more powerful behind all this". I was fine with it if they managed to do it well, but for almost the entirety of that arc, everything was just too smooth sailing for our main characters. After the characters managed to learn the truth, they went on a few investigations to confirm it, but most of the time, they just kept theorizing who this big boss in the shadows might be and felt kinda bland. And then, of course, they introduced a Rival ML and FL because why not? The rival ML felt a little bit forced and annoying at first. The rival FL makes sense because we know in the first half that MLs mother is opposed to the relationship of our main couple, so it wouldn't be surprising to have one.
The characters. Well, let's start with our main couple. We know they have a big age gap and again, it checks out because of their roles. Even though their romance made me grin at times, I couldn't really get heavily invested because, in the back of my mind, I was on guard that these two were way apart in age, but they managed to form good chemistry you know and the dynamic of their characters are pretty funny. It's my first time watching Jeremy Tsui and I'd say he's a very good actor. I'm also planning on watching Legend of Chongzi because of the FL there and he is there too, so I'm looking forward to his performance. Nana, she's the reason why I'm watching this because I'm a fan. In comparison to all of her past TV series, I'd say this is the best work from her so far. In regards to her acting, Her acting here is far better than all of her past works but still needs more improvement. She's got the happy expression down, but the sad expression needs more work.
The 2nd couple was more interesting the all of the couples because they were written well and they got a good chemistry. 2nd FLs character is great, she's a great actress, I love her as a sister, she's so real when it comes to being protective of her sibling. 2nd ML is also great and a good actor. I was confused as to what his motivation might be in the beginning because he kept giving mixed signals. I loved how his friendship with ML developed, even when the world turned on him, I knew he was on his side.
The 3rd couple or more like the Rival ML and FL. It's funny how rival ML was so annoying because he kept pestering FL over some childhood marriage joke, but when she met rival FL, already they complimented each other and sparks started flying everywhere. Rival FL was at least far more understanding with our main couple and because of that he managed to make our rival ML wake up from his delusion and I loved that because his character developed afterwards.
The music didn't catch me at first, but as I kept hearing it more, I realized that it grew on me. And when a romance scene is about to come, I sometimes expect that they better play the main OST. I even cried at the end.
Overall, a good drama. The last arc kinda fumbled. Depending on your preference you'll either gonna like it or not. I'm torn about recommending this though, but if you're a fan of Nana, you'd better watch it because her acting has improved here.
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