This review may contain spoilers
If you liked dramas like You're Beautiful, Hana Kimi or Bromance, chances are you'll probably like this one too.It is true that this one is kind of like a clickbait for BL fans. GMA is what you get when the whole girl cross-dressing as a guy theme is mixed with alot of science fiction. The FL gets turned into an actual guy by the wish-fulfilling Unicorn when she asks for her love to be fulfilled (I'm guessing that Unicorn has a dark sense of humor). She then goes to the academy where her crush studies and tries to get close to him. In general the story was not as bad as I expected. There was romance, comedy, cliches, fights, some twists and turns in the story etc. There were also some major plot holes which bothered me-
1) The whole Unicorn angle seemed a bit ridiculous to me. If unicorns existed I'm pretty sure they wouldn't go around granting wishes to teenagers. Also if you could get a wish just by finding a unicorn in a forest, all the people would be wandering around there to get it.
2) The other thing that I couldn't digest was the fact that all the people that did get to have wishes (Vier, Love & Rose) squandered their wishes on pretty stupid things. Like I can atleast take Love's wish, which was to find true love, seriously but Vier and Rose using their wishes to get over/get back together with their exes was just so moronic. They could have taken couple's counselling or read a book on dating instead of wasting wishes. (wish to end world hunger or for there to be world peace or if you are selfish, wish for wealth or a perfect life or something)
3) The technology used in the school seemed quite advanced like the digital books, uber realistic VR and AI holograms but they couldn't install a semi-decent security system to keep the kids in. All they had was a single dormitory head to monitor 5-6 floors. Even my hostel had cameras on every floor, wardens and security guards.
4) Although the Greatest competition was an interesting addition to the story, the whole thing was a bit like hunger games and all the parents, teachers and other's watching seemed pretty weird.
Apart from this the rest of the story was good. The actor playing male Love absolutely nailed it. His mannerisms were just like a girl (It was kinda freaky but very convincing). The actor playing Tangmo was also pretty good (he showcased a wide range of emotions).
Vier's character was supposed to be a greedy a-hole but he came off as just a petty jerk ( or the typical mean girl character in every drama since Rose turned out to be a good person). Rose's character development was definitely the best. I liked the fact that she moved on instead of pining for Vier or getting back together with someone who definitely didn't care enough. Same with Love's character, instead of chasing after Vier after getting used and rejected, she manned up (literally) and moved on.
The music and cinematography was good. The series could definitely have had more episodes but even with 8 it wrapped up nicely. I would definitely watch if they made a 2nd season.
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Its like the writers collected a box full of typical asian drama cliches, read alot of trashy webtoons for more inspiration and then wrote a plot that doesn't really make sense but has a lot of fluff, cheesy romance and comedy. Then they added in good actors perfect for their respective roles and voila, a good drama that will charm you and make you feel happy.
The synopsis was definitely misleading. The FL gets hired to get the ML to move on from his previous gf and fall in love with her. She accepts cause she needs the money and he accepts to let her stay so that his mother won't bother him about his love life and also cause he loves her cooking. And the rest of the story just goes from there on out.
The main couple definitely had some chemistry. Theirs was a slow burn type romance that progressed from love-hate to "sseom-ta-da" relationship to full on dating.
The 2nd couple were the FL and ML's best friends. They had a more love at first sight kinda story. The guy asked random men to "take your clothes off" so as to pretend to be a poor part-timer which was quite funny.
Also the two guys giving each other dating advice when their own relationships were unstable was like the blind leading the blind.
The ML's mother definitely stole the show. I've never seen a more cool rich mom than her in any of the dramas.
The ML's cousin was another great supporting character. Him and the FL's brother seemed to have some chemistry. It also felt to me like he was in a relationship with some other guy (could be my wishful thinking after watching so many BL shows) but his character was simply written out of the rest of the episode (probably because BLs are not really acceptable in china).
There were other cliches like the ML's ex-girlfriend, the Fl's ex-boyfriend, jealous girlfriend of said ex-boyfriend etc. who were annoying but did't really impact the story much.
The Ost was alright. The actors did a great job.
All in all this dramas is not something that you would get emotionally invested in but is great for a fun pastime watch.
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The story is quite messy (mostly because the whole series is too short for the story to actually pan out properly), the filming is more film class project and less like an actual web series (low budget ones usually are) and the music is so-so.
What is actually worth seeing is the acting. It's amazing. The emotions and angst and the passion. Some characters were surprising, some were as expected but still did the job very well. I just wish that Mu Bai and the senior he was with had their own storyline but I won't hold my breath.
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It may not be as funny as Season 1 but it is definitely more emotional
Ok my initial thoughts on season 2 was that I did not like it much. I had absolutely loved season 1 and had actually binge watched it in 2 days (I started watching when 11 of the episodes had already been released) and then re-watched it several times later. In season 1 I had zero expectations while in season 2 I was expecting many things like the winter garden couple getting married, Ik-jun and Song-hwa getting together, Seok-hyeong reciprocating Min-ha's feelings, Jun-wan and Ik-sun to also get married or atleast engaged, and many more antics from the 2 best duos - Rosa and Jong su and the twins Yun-bok and Hong-do.While some of these things did come true, some did not. And many loose ends were left without giving us proper closure. Regardless this season got better with each passing episodes. I liked the music in this season much better than season 1. The emotional development of many characters was very good. There were many heart wrenching moments as well especially that last episode which made me almost tear up.
The writers definitely tried to keep the magic of the previous season. This failed in some instances like the first fight scene between Ik-jun and Jun wan or when Ik jun was reciting the exam hall announcement after listening to classical music. It was funny but it seemed like the writers were just repackaging the same old content and giving it to us.
But despite that many scenes were genuinely funny. I'll just list down my most favorite moments -
1. Kim Jun-wan and Do Jae-hak duo (if they weren't both straight and in relationships, I would have shipped them)
2. Chu-Bear couple (Seok-Hyeong and Min-ha were hands down my most anticipated couple this season)
3. Ik-Jun and Song-hwa (unlike many I did not ship them very hard. They were good either way, whether they stay friends or become lovers. But I did like them together in the end)
4. Winter garden couple connecting emotionally (while in season 1 their relationship was highly anticipated, in season 2 it became very evident that while they liked each other for their personalities, they actually did not know much about each other. In this season their personal issues were brought to light especially Gyeo-ul's background and I loved how they tackled the issues together and became even closer)
So yes you should definitely watch this season. While it is not as good as season 1, it is 10 times better than any of the other series currently airing.
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A typical Netflix drama
I've been putting this drama on the back burner for awhile now and I finally decided to binge watch it.I had seen it's trailer before and did not expect anything more than a light fluffy drama with a little bit of excitement to make the story interesting and this is the main reason for a high rating.
My expectations were perfectly met by this drama. It was interesting enough to keep me seated in front of the screen without skipping forward but not so much that I got emotionally invested in it (like the main lead characters could have had a tragic ending and I wouldn't have even cared). There were many asian drama cliches used in this one as well - childhood friends that got separated and met years later and fell in love without realizing who the other person was, tragic backstories, childhood traumas, etc.
There was one issue that I found with this drama as soon as I finished watching episode 1. That is it was unnecessarily long. I'll be honest, when I finished watching, it didn't feel like any of the episodes were a waste or anything but there was a bit too much drama at one point. It's pretty easy to figure out the story halfway through the episodes eliminating the suspense (I knew what happened to nando's mother by about ep 8 as it was quite obvious) . The FL gets the holo glasses and meets the ML in the first 2 episodes itself. In my opinion this could have been easily made into a movie if all the mystery was removed. The FL could have found the glasses, fell for the AI, then meet it's maker who was the one the AI was modelled after, make him fall in love with her and the end. That was all the story was for me stretched over 12 episodes.
Also for some reason this felt like the beginning of Terminator or Avengers age of ultron. I mean it showed that an AI caused a citywide blackout to save a girl and it was explained as the AI being in love with her. No matter how prettily it is wrapped, the point is that the tech was highly dangerous and therefore this drama is highly unrealistic.
So while I'll recommend this drama for binge watching when you are bored and can't find any better drama, I'll also ask you not to get too invested or have high expectations.
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One of the best thai lakorns you'll get to see...
Oh my god...there are so many emotions running through my brain I can't even begin to explain but I'll still try.First of all the story of this lakorn is pretty good but a total mind f*ck because initially all the different characters are introduced and there are a lot of characters with 50 shades of personalities. After awhile I understood who was who and their inter-relationships (cause that's hella messy). It's got some elements of the lakorns like kidnapping the FL, plotting love rivals and evil family members but also lacks some aspects (for a period drama this does not have as much manhandling of the FL by the ML as usually happens which I appreciate).
So the basic storyline is the Rattanamahasaan house (I'm gonna refer it to as the Ratt house/family) is like this wealthy and prestigious household. The Madam Ratt adopted this kid Saan who was an orphan of their close family friend and raises him with her own 2 kids. Now when he grows up he falls in love with a girl not accepted by Madam Ratt and gets kicked out. Now years later she has 8 grandkids- 2 from her deceased son named Lak and Nit and 6 from her daughter Sajee named Pong, Pin, Pan and 3 other little kids who are not really relevant to the story. Madam Ratt send all 5 of her grown up grandkids and her daughter-in-law Ying (Lak & Nit's mom) to bring home Massaya, her adopted son Saan's daughter. The rest of the story revolves around Massaya and Lak as they get familiar and later fall in love.
I mainly watched this drama because I love both Mik and Mookda. Most of the other actors were relatively new to me but they all nailed their performances.
Massaya was well portrayed as the innocent, sometimes naive but kinda headstrong girl. Some of her decisions were very frustrating like her rebelling everytime she was asked to do something or even when she was being abused by her grandmother she wouldn't leave instead of endure it (even when she left it was because of Lak).
Lak's character was okay. I don't think I would have had a problem if he actually ended up with Chom (since she was a good person at the start) but as the episodes went by it became obvious that the main reason he was dating her was more because he was initially attracted to her good personality, unlike with Mas for whom he had fallen for at first sight.
Chom's character was going steadily nice until people started poising her and she literally devolved. You can see her nosedive into a cliff despite various other people trying to save her. She misplaced her anger (like half of the other characters in the show) and instead of going after Lak she tried harming Mas. I liked that she went back to how she was before during the end of the series.
Pong and Pan were similar characters. Both of the siblings got incited by their mother to behave badly. In Pan's case as soon as she distanced herself from her sister and mother she improved whereas with Pong he gradually realized that the hate had made his family go as far as committing crimes and he kinda sobered up. The final point in his redemption was when he got acknowledged by Madam Ratt. I didn't really like him pairing up with Chom because while he wasn't the best person at first and Chom was pretty good initially, Chom treated him like sh*t (she literally told him that him and her was impossible so he might as well help her destroy Lak & Mas's relationship to get Lak back). I feel he could have done better but whatever.
Pin was also a conflicting character but among all her siblings she was the most like her mother and also the most influenced by her.
Khun Ying's character was basically Madam Ratt's puppet. Whatever she was told to do she simply did it even if it conflicted with what she wanted.
Tan Chai is probably the best wingman in Thai lakorn history ever. Whatever problem Lak had Tan Chai's immediate response was "I think I can help you". Seriously the best character in the series.
Nop was basically collateral damage. I mean I agree that he and Mas were not a good fit (they both seemed very childlike to be together) but they didn't have to play him like a fiddle.
Madam Ratt was the worst character followed by her own daughter Sajee. I wondered as to how Sajee turned out to be so b*tchy and entitled but later realised she was just like her mother. The only difference between the two was that Madam Ratt had the power and money. Other then that they were both classist, selfish and highly manipulative. Sajee was definitely better because she told her enemies that she hated them and then attacked whereas Madam Ratt maintained a sweet facade and then manipulated others to do her bidding.
I was a bit unsatisfied with the ending cause they offed the grandma (which seemed unnecessary), put Pong and Chom together (as stated I didn't like that), did not put Nop with anybody (I felt like he Pan gelled together) and showed 5 years of separation between Lak and Mas which ended with just a lousy reunion instead of like a wedding or something.
Anyway it's still a good drama so I would definitely recommend it.
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This review may contain spoilers
This drama is good...."re-watch it" level good
I don't how or where I found this drama, I guess I just stumbled upon it while browsing for something new and I've never been more glad. Pin to kona is different than most YA J-dramas. Now I know that you must be wondering that how can any asian drama not have cliches and you would be absolutely right. There are certain cliches in this drama as well like school romance, love at first sight, childhood first loves, love triangles, scheming girls, etc. But the core storyline is quite unique.Pin to kona is basically about young adults who are in some way connected to this classical japanese theatre called Kabuki. The two male leads are Kabuki performers and the female lead is fan of kabuki. The male lead (Kawamura) is from a noble family that has been performing kabuki for generations. The female lead (Ayame) is a down on her luck girl who is the ML's schoolmate and an avid kabuki fan. The 2nd male lead (Ichiya/Hiroki) is the FL's childhood friend with a passion and talent for kabuki (but since he's not from a noble family he struggles to make his name).
Kawamura is by far my favorite J-drama male lead character. In the beginning he comes off as a privileged and spoiled brat but as the series continues you can see him evolve. I loved the way he switches from a lovesick idiot (in front of his friends, family & Ayame) to a serious hardworker (when doing Kabuki). Another point in his favour was that he treated Ayame very well without expecting anything in return. Even when he found out she liked Ichiya, he helped her instead of sabotaging them for his own benefit. He also evolved from whining about being forced into Kabuki to actually finding his passion for the art.
Ayame was also a good character. I liked her perseverance and the fact that she became more practical as the series progressed. Although I did dislike the part when she got pushed around by people and didn't fight back (in one of the episodes she rescues one of the scheming girls from bullies but later when she herself gets bullied by her she just takes it).
Ichiya was a good performer but a bad person. He didn't deserve Ayame for even the short while that they were together. Instead of two timing her (who he claimed to actually love) he could have simply explained the situation or even told her to wait awhile before they dated. He was just as bad as the scheming girls.
I loved both Kawamura's Father (whose "baka/idiot son" got me everytime) and his housekeeper (she was just funny as hell). I did feel pretty bad for Yuna. She was intially a good person but became twisted due to her obsession in getting Ichiya. She got used & she herself used other people. You can see her devolve with every passing episode. At the end she did regain some sense but the damage was done.
All in all Pin to kona was definitely worth it.
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Kurosaki-kun no Iinari ni Nante Naranai
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Classic Asian YA Drama...
I'll keep this review short just like this drama...This drama is first of all a prequel drama to a movie, which is pretty common in Japanese film industry for some reason (eg.- Gokusen, Are you ready? Hey you girl and L DK)
Secondly, it's pretty cliched. Girl sees someone getting bullied. Girl stands up to said bully. Bully turns out to be the most popular guy on campus. Bully starts harassing the girl as revenge. Bully's Bff saves the girl. Girl develops crush on Bff. Bff is in love with someone else. Girl gets dejected. Bully shows a little sympathy. Girl starts liking Bully (Masochist). Bully still harasses the girl but also starts liking her (Sadist). Bff gets rejected and realises he might actually like Girl. Bff starts chasing girl. Bully starts chasing Girl. Girl gets conflicted. Ends on a cliffhanger. (starting point for the sequel)
If you are wondering why this plot seems so familiar, it's because this is almost the same exact plot as Boys Over Flowers/Hana Yori Dango/Meteor Garden (even the color theme is similar. The main lead has dark hair and mostly wears black clothes, the 2nd lead has bleached hair and predominantly wears white attire).
So yeah the story is not unique. But the overall character development achieved is pretty good. Unlike Boys Over Flowers where the FL always helps the ML with his character development but the vice-versa never happens, here both the leads as well as the other side characters help with each others improvement.
In conclusion if you wanna watch a great Japanese drama I would suggest you keep looking but if you wanna watch something for passing the time this drama is a fun watch.
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A surprisingly good drama....
I seriously and sincerely do not know what happened. One minute I was watching a drama that from it's synopsis itself sounded cliched and the next minute I was hooked. It was like watching one of those classic movies like The Mask or Home Alone, I'll always know what's gonna happen next but I still enjoy the comedy and the sense of nostalgia.This drama was kinda like that. The stone cold ML is looking for a girl who helped him in the past who is obviously the FL but he mistakes her someone else to be the one (I have seen a couple other dramas with similar settings like About is love, Girlfriend). He helps that girls and kinda screws over the FL. Situation pushes them to live together which you'll know, if have seen enough asian dramas, always leads to love. There are many other cliches such as-
- The ML is sick & the FL helps him through it
- the bff second couple (both the ML's and the FL's best friends fall for each other becoming the dramas secondary couple)
- The ML bailing out/ helping the FL whenever she's in a bind (Personally I don't appreciate the whole damsel in distress cliche cause it's kinda sexist but it's not like the producers of the show care about that)
- The love square ( the 2 MCs and their love rivals/second leads) ending up working for the same company or the same project even though they are different professions (this really bothered me especially when the 2 female characters were both rookies in their respective fields, one of the guys was semi famous in his field and the ML was one of the most successful people in his career, their levels were so different but still they ended up working together).
- The very much avoidable misunderstandings between the couples (always remember communication is key to a good relationship)
- The evil 2nd female lead (who was toxic) with whom the FL should have cut ties a long time ago but didn't because she's forgiving. Most of the people around the FL were similarly selfish jackasses and she still continued her relationships with them resulting in her getting blindsided all the time which was avoidable (it's not that hard to cut ties with such people you know).
Despite the very many cliches and certain plot holes, this drama was surprisingly enjoyable. The FL's character, despite it's many flaws, was well portrayed by the actress. Her personality and reactions to situations was interesting to watch. The ML's character was alright. He wasn't the most fun character but he wasn't completely dull either. The secondary/bff couple had a mostly separate storyline which added a bit of spice to the drama.
With regards to grudge settlement I was quite disappointed. I personally believe in karma and the fact that at the end of any drama all parties must get what they deserve especially the people who did something wrong which did not happen here (I appreciate the fact that it was more realistic since in real life people who do bad thing often do not get punished but then again this is a drama so as an audience I would have liked to see payback).
The ost was good, so was the cinematography. The extra scenes at the end of every episode were really funny.
Overall this drama was a fun watch and I would totally recommend it.
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"Are You Ready? Hey You Girl!" drama does not even introduce the main FL of the movie. It simply focuses on the ML, his group of friends and their interactions with their classmates. This series is a great foundation for a movie. The chemistry between the ML and his 3 friends is great and very relatable (the ML doesn't ditch his friends to hang out with girls, his friends don't get jealous or treat him differently just because he's popular and they call him out on his sh*t when he gets too full of himself). The episodes also have a deeper underlying lessons embedded in them like true friendship above love, trying even if you know you'll fail, inner beauty above outer appearances, etc. etc.
The actors were also pretty good. The ost was pleasing.
This was a great series to watch and even if they wouldn't have made a movie I would still be satisfied with where this series ended (Although the movie will give me more of their antics so I'm glad).
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This review may contain spoilers
So I started watching this drama a few days ago after 11 of the total 12 episodes of season 1 had already been released. BIG MISTAKE. Each episode of this drama is almost 1 and a half hour long. And it's worth every second so I couldn't help but binge watch. I was sleep deprived and exhilarated at the same time.Hospital Playlist has a little of everything. It will literally cheer you up. The inter-relationship shown between different characters is perfect. Every actor no matter how minor their role was, portrayed their characters perfectly. Even though I didn't understand half the medical talk in the series I still enjoyed it.
The chemistry between the 5 main characters was off the charts.
Song-Hwa was like the fairy god-mother of the group. All the others seem to come to her for advice. She could do everything perfectly. All the mothers also loved her (Seok Hyeong and Jeong won's mothers trying to set them up with her was very funny). She was described as the emotional pillar of the group which was spot on but she herself, at times, seemed to require some emotional support. (which is why I shipped her with Ik-jun rather than with Chi-hong. While she took care and guided Chi-hong like she did with others, Ik-jun seemed to take care of her instead. He was just as much her support as she was his)
Ik-Jun was the comedian of the group. When things got too serious he would break the tension with some humor. He also had a sociable and likable personality and got along well with everybody. He could also be responsible and serious at times which showed mainly during his interactions with U-ju, Ik-sun and the other 4. He poked his nose in everyone's business and would help them out.
Jun-Wan was the moody and silent helper type of the group. He was a great doctor although with a prickly personality. He also didn't explain his actions to others. He would do good and endearing things but never take credit. He and Song-hwa had a sibling type relationship (If the writers would have suddenly said that they were siblings I would have totally believed it). His and Ik-jun's friendship was the most entertaining to watch (since one was secretive and the other nosy). His relationship with Ik-sun was surprising but turned out good. His character had the most development in the series (from playboy to committed man and from insensitive to understanding) .
Seok-Hyeong was the anti-social/introvert of the group (The ones who don't make friends but are adopted into the group). Despite his problems with inter-personal relationships, he was a great doctor, responsible, thoughful and generally nice. I had really wish that he had atleast given Min-ah a chance instead of flat out rejecting her (I was rooting for her since her feelings for him went from dislike to respect to resentment to finally liking him which was great development).
Jeong-Won was the adorable baby of the group. He was empathetic, sensitive and friendly. His character also developed so much. I feel like every person that watched this series was rooting for him and Gyeo-wool to get together. ( I literally hid behind a pillow when she confessed her feelings and then pumped my fists in the air when they kissed. Most.Satisfying.Kiss.Ever.)
Gyeo-wool's character also went from robot doctor to become more understanding towards others feelings.
Rosa and Jong-su's friendship and banter was hilarious and just perfect.
Seok-min and Sun-bin's pairing was also very sweet.
Jae-hak's growth from fumbling amateur to a responsible doctor was good to see. His and Jun-wan's relationship as mentor-mentee helped .oth of them grow.
The twins Hong-doo and Yun-bok as well as U-ju added so much cuteness and fun to the show.
The music was great. It didn't really hit the same for me since I am not korean but it was still fun (since most of the songs were old I feel like they were supposed to induce the feeling of nostalgia). The concept of the band was also good and unique.
In conclusion I would recommend this drama to everybody whether you like the genre or not .
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This review may contain spoilers
I finished this show a couple of days ago and waited for my warring emotions to calm down before I could write a mostly unbiased review. So You know how when you are eating a dish that's absolutely delicious and then you reach the bottom and it's kinda burnt, not too much to actually ruin the whole dish but enough to leave a bitter aftertaste. Well 2gether the series was exactly like that for me.
The story started out strong. Tine asking Sarawat to fake date him so as to get rid of a semi-stalker guy named Green who won't take no for an answer was mostly believable (It's hard to accept that someone as good looking as Tine couldn't get an actual girlfriend but had to hire someone to pretend that ultimately failed, after which he decided to pursue the most unattainable guy on campus for help, but for the sake of the story I'll let it pass).
After playing hard to get, Sarawat gives in and the fake dating begins. This part was probably the best in the whole series. If you have seen other asian dramas you'll know that the typical unattainable guys are generally bad at dating which results in hilarious situations. Adding to these situations are the group of friends for each ML. Where Sarawat's friends are ever too eager with helping him (going as far as to get Tine drunk), Tine's friends are equally unhelpful and almost always help make the situation worse (they'll either give him bad advice or will simply bail if he is in a bind which is extremely funny btw).
Green was another character who turned from kinda irritating to sort of endearing so much so that I believe he now has his own fandom. His relationship with P'Dim wasn't explored too much and they definitely deserved more screen time.
I believe the main problem to the storyline started when the two MLs got into an actual relationship. The so called relationship development seemed to have stopped and the chemistry just faded away. The issue of familial acceptance (which is a big deal in real life) was trivialized and the problem with Sarawat's school friend/first love was shown as the 'make it or break it' type situation (which in my opinion still remains kinda unresolved).
P'Mil was another character that had a very positive development in the series but his and Phukong's relationship wasn't explored much either (their ending was more 'close friendship' and less 'hope for new relationship').
P'Type and Man was the couple that seemed to carry the Finale on their shoulders and making fans wish for their own spin-off series.
Music was a big part of the whole series therefore there's no surprise that the Ost was good.
The cast was great. All the character's were portrayed very well. The actor Win did a great job for his first series. Gun was fabulous as always. And even though Bright's character profile was kinda confusing at the end, he did a good job as well.
In conclusion this series is one of the better BLs that's definitely recommended but just watch it with lower expectations.
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Not every webtoon is meant to be adapted
So yes this series was adapted from a webtoon and yes the webtoon itself was quite popular. But just because the manhua was good doesn't mean you have to make into a series. Webtoon have much more episodes and are in general pretty detailed. A lot of adaptation fail to meet the expectations (like cheese in the trap, mystic pop up bar), some are average (like extraordinary you, love alarm) and a few turn out pretty great (like what's wrong with secretary kim or my ID is gangnam beauty). The failure of this series is evident in the fact that despite having stars like Yeo Jin Goo and Lee Jong Hyun in the main roles, most people disliked the series.I started this series because the vampire concept is mostly only adapted in hollywood mainly due to 2 facts-
-most countries have mythical creatures different than vampires in their folklore (the reason everyone knows about vampires and werewolves is because they are more publicized) & hollywood's has romanticized them even though in reality they are more related to horror and less to romance
So this was definitely something interesting especially since in the show the humans are said to be aware of the vampires and living together in an integrated society.
This interest lasted about 2 episodes. You would think that a show with vampires cohabiting with humans would concentrate more on their struggles but no, the writers had to add in-
-a complicated teen romance,
-b*tchy highschool girls hellbent on ruining the new girl because the queen bee's crush seems to like her ( if the guy didn't give you the time of day even before the new girl came to school, you think he'll do so after you bully her),
-the vampire girl joining the school band because she wants to be a musician (seriously that's her plan? dude just become a trainee in an agency or join an art school or something that'll actually help),etc.
The worst part of this drama was probably when they switched time periods. Look I like period dramas as much as the next person but there is a time and place for that. I guess the writers wanted to show a reincarnation story or maybe a "history repeating itself" kinda plot but it seriously failed. There were way too many things happening and the structuring of the episodes was a mess. Not to mention that Ma-ri's character was way too dull and Jae-min's character was uninteresting (Shi-hoo was a more intersting character).
If you wanna watch a korean vampire drama I suggest you go for Blood or the Scholar who walks the night.
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Watch it for the eye candy and 2nd lead couple....
So there were 3 reasons why I started to watch this series -1) The trailer looked good
2) It is a BL adaptation of a drama called "Just You" which I liked
3) The cast looked really great especially the 2 MLs
There were also 3 reasons why this series failed to meet my expectations -
1) Although the series looked good initially, as the episodes progressed the story started to become both messy and stagnant. For the last 4-5 episodes there was no development between the 2 main leads with only the 2nd lead couple keeping the ship afloat.
2) While this drama did share many of the plot points with the parent story like the singlehood rule, workplace romance, cohabitation between the main leads and the ever disliked blast from the past i.e. the MLs ex, the original drama "Just You" had 20+ episodes which were 1:30 hrs long whereas "Be loved In house" only had 12 episodes of 25 mins each. This meant that cover everything the story became too rushed especially with the bad structuring of the episodes (late introduction of the ex in the story resulting in unwanted drama and late resolution).
3) Both the lead actors Aaron Lai and Hank Wang are individually very good looking. Together as the main CP they literally looked very good. They are one of the top 3 best looking BL couples (the other 2 being Tharn-Type and Fighter-Tutor). And regardless of their visuals their initial chemistry was very good. But as the series progressed and the story regressed, their interactions became a bit awkward and forced. The 2nd lead couple managed to maintain their nice chemistry but because theirs was a more sweet and low-key romance it failed to add that extra "oomph" needed to make the drama really good. The biggest error in the series came from the dream sequences that both the main leads had of each other with the ex-boyfriend. These sequences were explicit instead of being suggestive which was very off-putting since neither of them were the main CP nor did I have the 2nd lead syndrome for the ex-bf character.
Although this drama was not the best BL I have seen, it was definitely not the worst and since it's short it is good for binge watching on a weekend.
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This review may contain spoilers
So I was very skeptical when starting this drama because I had seen it's trailer and although it wasn't bad, it also didn't leave much to the imagination. At last I watched it since it has like 6 episodes of 40 mins. each (which seemed reasonable since I had watched other 50 eps long series before). So I picked it up and was surprised to find it quiet entertaining.This is the first drama of Jasper Liu that I have watched. I had browsed his other dramas before but none of the plotlines seemed interesting enough. Regardless his acting is on point and his chemistry with Eugenie is perfect. I have seen Eugenie's previous drama behind your smile where she plays a naive, rich girl that fell from grace which is the complete opposite of her role here. I loved her portrayal of a Triad princess. The fight sequences were awesome and her whole persona stole the show.
The only disappointment was that there were no action sequences with the two MLs together which seemed essential to me somehow (they had long talks and she was mostly fangirling which took away from her badass gangster vibe).
The side stories were not overly engaging but I didn't really mind it either. Some of the side characters were actually very funny.
All in all it was a good enough series to watch. Also based on that ending I think there will be a season 2. Lets see....
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