blinkable
Only Side by Side with You
15 mensen vonden deze beoordeling nuttig
For this drama, I see the key theme as focusing on human intertwined relationships. We all have relationships from the past that somehow stretched to present life - good or bad regardless, these past relationships made us who we are now. This drama tried to have good coverage of all kinds of relationship stories for all the characters featured in it. Other than the expected romantic relationships, there are friendships (esp on man to man buddy for life between Shiyue and Chang Jianxiong), boss with co-workers and among colleagues of Future Up, family members of Nanqiao (esp on father-daughters and even mention of mother-son between Nanqin and Zhenghao and issue on aging!), 'debtors'-'creditors (not just monetary per say but being life indebted and faithful to 'jianghu' aka the underworld sorta relationships), grief relationships with the dead person, and even trying to inject how we can be connected through animals! I though it was a nice play on the whole vet shop and relating to the 3 dogs of Shiyue (little things reinforcing faithfulness and kinships theme). As the relationship stories made progress for the characters, we get to see how people made choices in their lives, what they would do for love from their perspectives and learning to let go, and then to wrap things up mainly focusing on acceptance, which is not easy to do in real life to be honest.
So if you have patience to watch the unraveling of these relationships then you may be interested to stay on till the end of this drama even if you possibly able to predict the outcomes of these relationships but to watch them unfold quite worth the journey. Undoubtedly there were quite a number of what I perceived as unnecessary scenes towards the development of the story plot (aka fillers) and also in terms of characters development, not that smoothly illustrated but these became easily oversight for me when I chose to remember the meaningful conversations about the strong female MC, Nanqiao's dream in this drone business and always on the exchanges between Shiyue with Anning. I seriously thinks Qin Hailu's acting shone brighter than Bai Baihe in this drama. At times I even feel Bai Baihe's acting a bit stiff and I could not really feel strong chemistry between Bai Baihe and William Chan in this drama as a couple. William Chan was great in carrying out his role though, almost to the point of being himself at certain points in terms of being playful.
When talking about meaningful conversations I recalled two intertwined dialogues on Shiyue, Nanqiao and Anning. Between Shiyue and Anning: "What we have is the past but we don't have a future", which is so true because what was once lost you can never go back and even if you do, it is never the same anymore. Then followed up with conversation between Shiyue and Nanqiao on accepting Shiyue's past and stating, "I did not make it in time to be with you in your past but I will definitely be with you in your future". I believe it is the many meaningful conversations that keep me watching the drama because they made me feel connected to the drama. Also after all the flashbacks fast forwarding, for me, Ep34 was the most memorable episode as the plot gets a final strong hold to build to the finale momentum. Oh, oh and I like the opening and closing theme songs. Both songs' lyrics aptly depicting the drama itself.
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The existence of the male MC, Park Dong Hoon in this story and the way it is being written really carried all the other characters so well throughout the plot - he is really just an ordinary genuine ahjussi, at some point in your life, you wish you get to meet in real life or perhaps you have even met such a person before. He has his own shares of life frustration but always chose to do things that would determine the outcome of what already happened (staying in control) and not wallow in what already happened (e.g., blame or accept his 'destiny'). His attitude of if you see it as nothing then it will become nothing and life goes on, is really a good learning point in life. Try putting yourself in the shoes of the female MC, Lee Ji An, and experience the tough life she had to go through (someone who accepted her 'destiny') and understanding her reactions and actions as well as what made her blurred the line between gratitude and romance because in the end how do we, as human beings express of our love to someone whom we see as angel sent to us and telling us life is what we made of, instead of destiny.
This drama not only developed strongly anchoring on these two characters but also the entire characters in the neighborhood detailed in the drama. I see it as every single characters revealed in this drama are as equally important to showcase how we all influence one another when we gather together in our lives. From relationships among family members (siblings, mother-sons, grandparent-grandchild) to brotherhoods who stay in same neighborhood (the extended society family) to the 'family' at work and to the point that even a monk character speak volume in this drama - all depicting the sense of belongingness in human beings that is so reflective of reality world. Their interactions in this drama are gems, teaching you the many perspectives of life.
I am just so grateful and satisfied with this drama that lived up to its title and for the writer nim who preserve the beauty of the relationship between the two MCs without tainting it with the usual reciprocating romance theme. The most memorable thing from this drama for me, apart from the awesome casts' performances, is to slowly decipher and digest the meaningful conversations between the MCs especially with the constant illustration using metaphors. Oh and the music and bgm throughout the drama are like, prefect to the core. The whole wire tapping and listening to the audio along with Lee Ji An - every single sound was crisp clear and really made it feel as if the audience is transported into it. Also up until now there are still various vivid scenes from the drama that keep appearing to me visually, such as the walk home at the neighborhood between the MCs and the subway train ride.
This is definitely one drama that will leave a big impact to you if you take a chance to watch it. It hurts a lot at certain point to come to terms with reality of life but it hurts so good because that's how you grow to be a better person.
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Deze recentie kan spoilers bevatten
I actually thought the story plot on the whole mysterious tree and love potion was going well (despite super slow in unraveling on background) until I don't know, the writer nim decided to be undecided and butchered the plot. I don't think I have ever watched any dramas that literally left me saying, "So that was it?" even when stories are left for open ending at your own interpretations. Depending on how you are reading into the meanings of what were said by the characters, you can decide whether it is good or bad.So I tried to reflect back to why I started watching this drama and why I continued watching it at the beginning and I realised it has to do with the light cheesy romance (so sweet you can have toothache type) between the two MCs since this is afterall a first love experience for the male MC. The beginning was really enjoyable for me and even when the theme on mysterious tree started to get a bit heavier, it was comprehensible on what the writer nim trying to convey on curses and love. What not sitting well with me was the mysterious tree theme was not properly integrated into the drama throughout and suddenly writer nim needed to end the story and bam, words vomit and stir fried ingredients hastily for closure. IMO, final ep was a total filler (not sure if this counts as spoiler) with many random scenes compiled together. I would not rewatch or even recommend others to watch unless the person just want to watch something sweet in beginning and don't care at all about story plot. Everything else was just weak otherwise.
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The Devotion Of Suspect X
4 mensen vonden deze beoordeling nuttig
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Seriously though my first thought after 10mins into this movie was whether I want to continue watching it since I felt as if I was being thrown into a messed up, weirded out plot not knowing what to expect especially when the male MC appeared dressed up in bikinis, carrying a cabbage and on roller skate. I am glad I stayed put as I really enjoyed the simple romance journey between the MCs on learning what is love and crushes and having the courage to love and wishing happiness for the one you love. This movie is silly, weird, candid but tells the story of simple, pure love. I especially like how the romance story of the cafe owner being revealed and the relation with the MCs.
Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
To me, the most crucial point of this movie fell on the good chemistry among the quite star-studded casts. They matched each other so well in their rhythms and one can really feel their comrades and brotherhood, which at times really what made their actions/sayings funny. There were many times that I was really laughing my heads off and I knew this movie is such feel-good humor movie worth watching. I like how Jackie Chan was not a one-man show in this movie and helped to bring out the acting skills of others casted in this movie through their interactions. In fact, it was an eye opening for me to see Wang Kai with his supposedly 'cool-I-know-what-I'm-doing-in-war' Fan Chuan character turned out to be a hilarious character with his constant 'rational' thinking. Another hilarious character akin to Fan Chuan was the Japanese Captain played by Ikeuchi Hiroyuki, which I see in the movie as to now wonder why he and Fan Chuan 'battling' it out the most.
I got to admit that my initial thought before I started to watch this movie was half expecting it to be typical China-produced war era movie, focusing much on patriotism. However, despite this movie having its patriotic moment, it wasn't shove down the audience throat like the usual ones. The feeling of "patriotism" (wanting for the freedom fighters to win despite their average tricks and fighting skills) was somewhat built into me as I watched the progress of how desperate this group of average men, dreaming of doing big things as they kept putting it in the movie, wanted to help the army to blow up the bridge.
I am not the type who rewatch but if I ever do catch this movie on TV or something, I won't mind rewatching just for the laughters.
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Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
The only thing really saving this drama is the acting. The casts overall did pretty good job in their respective roles, especially the two MCs, with good chemistry when together, whether to solve another misunderstandings or to dwell in the past or being cheeky with one another. If you go and watch the MV for one of the drama's OST sung by Tank, titled, The Positive and Negative of Love, then you will see what I meant here. The bgm throughout the drama was quite appealing to me and so does the outfits worn by the characters and the pretty scenes from London to even Nan Xian's condo with balcony of great view while exercising lol. I think perhaps it was hard at times to digest some nonsensical convos or the story progress that I somewhat turned to other parts in he drama worth noticing.
The other thing I would like to highlight about this drama is that you really get to see the development of characters. This is especially on the female MC, Wen Nuan and how the male MC, Nan Xian tried his best to get her to step out, although sometimes backfired. There was also a part on how the writer tried to illustrate the friendship/bromance of the 3 guys who built their own 'empire' together in which we get to see how true friends are the ones who let you grow with them.
Nonetheless, this is a drama about how true love has its ups and downs and over time, you grow together by bringing out the best of each other, that runs deep, not even time can stop it as long as you preserve.
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Children of a Lesser God
1 mensen vonden deze beoordeling nuttig
Deze recentie kan spoilers bevatten
My first thought before watching this drama - based on the title only - was that it's going to have to do with some politics power and religion stuff, which turned out to be true. This theme has been used countless times when related back to children especially at those children who at disadvantages and as such, the story plot for this drama became boring to me. Initially I was also thinking not to watch because it may have something to do with children abuse as well (hard to stomach for me) but this theme was not heavily explored/described in this drama (except some physical abuses explicitly displayed and mostly on perusing mental abuse instead) so I was able to continue to watch. Another reason for the boringness was that I felt as if I am watching another continuation of Black (which also an OCN drama on criminal investigation and female MC having supernatural power). The only reason I rated the story as higher than 5 was because the last few episodes towards ending picked up really well although the overall forgiveness theme was overly used in my opinion. There were also things that did not make sense to me but to explore here would be spoilers. Also the way the drama tried to inject quick brief cases to showcase criminal investigations theme was like half a joke styles. In terms of acting, for main casts I find them so-so but the actor who played Joo Hamin (Shim Heesub) was really good in his protrayal. Also this character was well written in the sense it did not really go the conventional way of pushing away responsibilities and being blameful but knowing full well understanding of his own situation and choosing what to do next to determine his own life. Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
