Solid Remake, But Not Quite Funny and Wholesome as Original
This is a lakorn remake of my all time favorite Taiwanese drama. It's hard to review this remake without comparing it to the original. After watching this version, I can say that they didn't royally screw it up. It was an okay remake that was catered toward Thai audiences. It was more of a lakorn style, which included some over the top drama and a lot more violence. They managed to keep most of the core story intact. They got rid of a lot of the dirty jokes from the original and made some characters more evil than they were. As a result, some of the humor and wholesomeness from the original was lost. They also got rid of the little girl storyline, which was one of my favorites. As a result, this eliminated two of my favorite tropes from the original. However, some of the changes they made might keep you on your toes because they also changed a few of the twists. I thought the acting was decent. If you are a lakorn watcher who hasn't seen the original, I think you'll still enjoy this drama. There are no screaming banshees, so that's a plus. Some of the story is a bit predictable for lakorn standards, while some of it is not. This is definitely a more violent remake though.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Believe it or not conspiracy dramas have their tropes too and this was a whole bunch of them thrown in together. Some parts of the plot and acting were very corny. Some of the characters were very cookie cutter villain. You only have to watch a couple of these types of dramas to figure out who the real mastermind is. If this is your first conspiracy drama, you'll probably love it. If it is not, you'll probably find the plot mediocre.
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If not friend, why friend shaped?
This film captures the joys and sorrows of parenting when it comes to raising a special needs child. The "child" in this case is in fact a wolf that was saved as a pup. Realizing the best thing for the wolf is not raising him in the city, Li Weiyi temporarily moves to a prairie/protected sanctuary in order to rehabilitate this wolf back into wildlife, something that had not been done before. There are plenty of proud mama moments, such as teaching the wolf how to hunt and seeing just how smart he is. The biggest proud mama moment is, of course, teaching him to return to the wolves. There are a few minor flaws in the form of chaotic editing (although it was mostly chaotic good). It was filmed by an amateur director. Some scenes were probably reenacted. However, it's still very impressive considering the first few months of the story were all cut from home video footage. Also, there are some gorgeous scenic shots. Occasionally, the dialogue sounded fake or scripted. It doesn't follow the usual documentary format, so I'm hesitant to call it one. Anyway, I don't know about you, but I could watch cat and dog videos all day long. This was time well spent. No one asked, but I absolutely cried.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Interesting concept, but gets draggy and cliche.
It has my girl Eleanor in it playing a badass master thief. I liked how the FL solved various gadgets and contraptions using her background as a thief. I needed more of it to be honest. This couple was pretty cute together. The theme song was also cute and the music in general was good.However, I found myself "forcing" my way through it and having to watch it at 2x playback speed. It got super political and draggy toward the middle. It wasn't even interesting politics. It was the typical cliche stuff and it brought this drama really down. They waited until the last 2 episodes to clear things up. There were many missed opportunities on pacing through spaced out revelations. Also, I'm kind of petty about the ending of some of the characters, but since this is adapted from a novel, it's understandable.
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Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Beautifully shot, but hard to follow
Hidden Blade is a Chinese espionage film that takes place around the time of World War II in Japanese occupied China. It follows the stories of two men working for the Japanese government. Although it is a propaganda film, it doesn't feel as preachy as I was expecting it to be. It had a great cast starring some big names, such as Tony Leung and Wang Yibo to name a few. In my opinion, Tony Leung really stood out in his role compared to the rest of the cast. Before going into this film, it would help to have some historical context of this time period. Otherwise, the story is hard to follow as it is. The film drops you into the story and barely bothers to explain things. The main issue I had with this movie was the flow of the plot. There were a lot of times where the movie would jump back and forth to the same few particular scenes. It made it very difficult to follow the story and the timeline.The musical score, though not bad, was a miss for me. There are some really great cinematic shots in this film. It is an art film after all. One thing I liked was the depiction of dogs in the film. There were various types of dogs featured that led very different lives. You can say their lives paralleled some of the characters in the film. If you've seen a lot of espionage films or dramas from this era, you might find the movie a bit predictable. Would I watch this film again? Probably not. Although it had some great shots and the climax was entertaining, the storytelling wasn't quite there for me since it was hard to follow. I also felt like there was a lot of subtext I might've missed. I knew a particular scene or moment was important, but couldn't quite put my finger on why. Even if I were to re-watch it, I don't think I will understand some of the hidden subtext unless someone explains it to me. It might be worth checking it out for the cast though.
Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Extraordinary Attorney Woo
14 mensen vonden deze beoordeling nuttig
Do NOT watch this show if you're expecting an accurate representation of someone on the spectrum. I feel like some things were exaggerated or misrepresented. However, the writers do get some things right. This drama brought up a lot of discussion on the subject matter, especially in countries where people don't have much knowledge about ASD. Some viewers made the extra effort to do some research and this is a big plus, but don't watch this expecting it to be accurate. The writers wanted a story to be different and they got one.
Do NOT watch this solely for the cases. I don't know how to describe them. They were a bit ridiculous, but outcomes/twists were entertaining? They seemed impossible to win, but somehow the team got lucky. Watching this law drama as a foreigner/outsider was a bit weird because I would think of a law in my country and wonder, "They don't already have a law about this?" and "How is this even legal?" But again, this is not my country so I cannot judge or make conclusions based on South Korea's laws. The cases from the first half were more interesting than the second. Then the show starts to go downhill again a bit. You can tell the writers got a bit lazy. Also, news of a 2nd season was announced so maybe they're holding out on stuff. Overall I enjoyed this as a workplace drama, where a newbie joins the workforce and makes a considerable amount growth by the end.
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A Loose Adaptation That's Kind of Okay
This drama is a loose adaptation of Rich Man, Poor Woman. They made a lot of changes so if you're watching it as a remake, you might not be as impressed. However, they made 2 or 3 major changes to the story that I actually kind of liked. They also made it a bit more romance focused. It was a decent adaptation for Thai audiences. That being said, one of the changes they made is that they simplified the business drama to something Thai audiences are more familiar with: a family business succession drama. Therefore, the business part of this drama is highly boring. All the startup stuff that appealed to me in the original was lost here. Neither leads appear as intelligent as they were in the original either. If you're watching this without seeing any other adaptations, this will seem like your average Thai business romance drama, expect there's an unusual face prosopagnosia twist and less catfights.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
A Taiwanese Tale of Two Cities
8 mensen vonden deze beoordeling nuttig
Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
If You're Well It's A Fine Day
11 mensen vonden deze beoordeling nuttig
Cute couple, but unoriginal and uninspiring.
This is one of those typical cliché fashion designer dramas and it's full of tropes that are not even the entertaining kind. It's like a copy and paste with such unoriginal writing. The only difference is that, unlike the usual talented and naive female lead, the female lead here is strong and confident. She is also not your typical poor or orphan lead. She does not let people walk all over her. Other than than that, it's got your typical jealous characters trying to sabotage things for the main lead. A good portion of this drama takes place in France. Some of the scenic stuff was nice, but I'm not sure why so many episodes were spent on this abroad portion. Also, there's a second lead who's super annoying and clingy. In fact, 90% of the characters are annoying, spoiled, and unprofessional. It was all just bad writing.The main thing this drama has going for it is Zhang Han. I'm not even a fan, but you can't deny his popularity pulled in an audience. He is also one of the better actors in this drama. The male lead is very possessive and a touchy feely kind of guy in this drama. He gives the female lead lots of hugs and is constantly touching her, but the way he does it so casually looks so natural. When he touches her, there is none of that slow motion nonsense or dramatic romantic music playing in the background. It's this factor that makes the couple seem more realistic and like they have natural chemistry. There's also some really cute cheesy stuff toward the end of the drama.
Overall, I would not recommend unless you are a fan of Zhang Han...Even then, I'd only recommend watching the first episode and then the last 5 episodes for the cute romance stuff. Let the flashbacks explain the rest of the story. The fashion storyline was absolute crap. All you need to know is that the main character is good at needlework and wants to showcase traditional Chinese embroidery in her work.
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Good Morning, Forbidden City
5 mensen vonden deze beoordeling nuttig
Part Drama, Part Documentary
This drama was a relaxing and refreshing watch. I would call it a hidden gem. It's an experimental drama in the form of part drama and part documentary. Due to the documentary factor, it might not be for everyone. However, I would highly recommend it to art history nerds, documentary fans, and people who appreciate art (both tangible and non tangible forms). Sorry, romance fans. This is not a romance. However, there are a few people in love and they hint at a few ships. The female lead is adorably evil. It makes for some great comedy and entertainment. I loved the rivalry between FL and the competition. The guest cameos were stellar. And last but not least, the art is beautiful.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Fake Sports Drama
If you're watching for the Go part of this drama, you will most likely be disappointed. It's really just a fluffy romance drama targeting a middle schooler's romantic fantasy (or at least what the writer thinks is one anyway). The only difference is they use Go as a backdrop to make the story unique. 75% of the matches were depicted as CGI action fighting scenes. It really felt like an insult cuz they were like "no one is going to be watching for the actual Go stuff so let's just dumb it down and show fighting scenes instead." One or two animated battles would have been nice to add humor or be dramatic, but they overdid it. Most of these fight scenes were lame and absolutely unnecessary.This drama is extremely cliché. Of course there are some cute moments, but a lot of times I was cringing cuz of the corniness. Let's just say it felt like it was artificially sweetened. The Female Lead is also kind of dumb and ditzy so that was a disappointment for me. I didn't really care about the main couple. My favorite character was the 4th Dan girl. Most of her scenes were amusing. As for the pacing of the drama, the 2nd half is very draggy, especially the last quarter of the drama. It really was a struggle to finish. Overall, this lands under so bad it's good territory. I would recommend it as a good hate watch or something to watch with friends so you can make fun of it. Maybe skip the last 10 episodes though.
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A Light and Fun Introduction to the Sport
"It's not a loincloth, it's a mawashi!" This drama is a lighter more fun take as an introduction to the sport. It covers a more modern version of the sport on a collegiate level. It has female wrestlers, which I was happy to see because they are less covered when it comes to the traditionally men's only sport. The main character ends up joining the sumo team in order to graduate. He clearly doesn't care for the sport and is only there for the credits. The captain of the team is a girl who is super passionate about the sport and a strong wrestler. Unfortunately, she doesn't get many opportunities to compete and is often ignored by the team's alumni, who often only want to focus on the poorly performing men's team. Both of them have their own challenges that they need to learn how to face. Together they work together to first build a men's team and then bring the sumo club back to its glory days. Sumo is a strange world full of traditions, but I liked how this drama covered it from a modern sport perspective. It is a pretty wholesome drama. The club members absolutely suck in the beginning when they join the team but work really hard just to get one win and make their captain proud. I absolutely loved everyone's character growth by the end.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?