Alice
As a fan who has watched almost every medical k-drama in existence, I really liked this drama. Medical dramas usually focus on the medical aspects of the story, and rarely do they actually ever focus on romance, even for the more melodramatic ones. So it's actually refreshing that they even had romance in this drama.
I have to say this is #2 out of the top 3 medical k-dramas I have watched. Almost everything was excellent, except for the confusing plot in the middle and the presence of some unnecessary scenes that did not add to the story.
This drama focused more on romance than your regular medical drama. Medical dramas in general usually focus more on the medical aspect than the romance, which can make them seem boring at times. However, the romance in Doctor Stranger managed to make the medical aspects more accessible to a general audience.
Some events in the middle of the drama involving character motivations and actions were not resolved satisfactorily. Unnecessary relationships complicated the story, making it harder to understand the characters and their motivations.
The acting was amazing because all of the main actors in this drama were not rookies. They knew what to do and how to do it. If there were problems, it was mostly because of how the characters were written in the story, not the actors.
Overall, I would recommend this drama to those who like their melodramatic romances as the main focus of the story. Those who are new to medical k-dramas should start out with this one, which has less gore than the typical medical k-drama.
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Every time this drama hit a good climax in each episode, the resolution/ending would undo all the built-up tension and excitement. The crimes lacked good explanations, and were usually resolved with vague interpretations that had no details.
The story relied too much on the main character to drive the drama. I felt he was too calm for the events that were going around him, which made things less exciting. I wasn't sure if it was the actor or the role itself. However, throughout the drama, he actually developed a personality and emotions, which made him slightly more interesting. If the writers concentrated more on the developing the side characters, the drama might have been more interesting and the main character would not seem as boring.
I did like the uniqueness of the the villains though. They weren't the mainstream villains everyone is used to seeing in Japanese dramas. Everyone was super crazy and twisted by Japanese standards. I thought they were more interesting than the main character.
Most of the tension and excitement was due to the music. The choral music was placed at exactly the right moments, which intensified the events of the drama.
The people who would enjoy BORDER are those who like supernatural dramas, the actor Oguri Shun, and interesting villains. However, there are other dramas who did all the above a lot better than BORDER, like SPEC.
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But I was very surprised the plot was very organized and actually made sense. However, there was still plot holes. All the characters seem confusing in this series. I found the concept of KO girls mind boggling. They still get recognized under their "disguise" so it kinda makes no sense to conceal themselves. However, I would say the story is a improvement over X-Dormitory. The writers incorporated Yi Neng, which makes the story flow better. However, it also made me question if the budget for X Dormintory was the why it wasn't that good.
As always in almost every Zhong Ji series, they kill off the OTP. Somehow for this series, the writers made open ending for the OTP. I guess this was slightly better that the usual killing of the OTP.
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The female lead, Cheng Zixin, was very wishy-washy, especially on her feelings towards the two male leads, Fang and Zhang. I felt that the male leads overshadowed what was supposed to be Cheng Zixin's story. The movie tried to present both Fang and Zhang as possible love interests, but I felt only one of the men was worthy of her. (And she didn't spend much time with him in the movie). The acting was superb, even if the characters weren't developed to their fullest potential.
The story was sort of confusing, especially with the romance plot. In fact, the romance weakened the story, though it was executed very well. The other elements of the story was okay, but nothing really to talk about. The ending didn't connect with the story that had been established. The movie obviously wanted it to be a surprise, but I felt it was tacked on at the last minute just to have a resolution.
I expected more from a HK film, which is supposed to be light and humorous. This movie was not as strong as other HK films I watched. Both the story and the characters were very meh for me.
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Shawn is pretty good speaking in Mandarin.He barely has the HK accent. But the others not so much. The end of this movie was hilarious though. I heard the ending of Shawn went viral. I also just realized this movie is the sequel to Love in a Puff but I didn't bother watching the first one.
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Honestly I thought this was a pretty good drama but now I think of it, there were a some disappointments such as discovering the what happened 45 years ago. They over hyped the case of what happened 45 years ago compared to all the other cases in the episodes.It seemed that case 45 years ago was a piece of dust. In my personal opinion Kurokochi also had some flaws because in the drama he expected everything to fall in place and never did he doubt himself which made it kinda of strange especially when he has a "going with the flow" attitude half the time. He also didn't care having his plans shared out to the enemy which is also very strange because he doesn't have the cautious vibe. The people who created Kurokochi seemed to be prepared for season 2.
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The chemistry between the onscreen couple was so good that I would mistake them as a offscreen couple if that were true. I didn't notice until near the end that the female lead had skills due to years if acting. In most of the romantic scenes, she took the initiative and the male lead followed her example. The acting was pretty subtle. I could barely noticed except for this one scene where they were goofing off in her bed. The male was really awkward and it seemed like the female took the lead to make it more romantic. She kept moving around him to make the scene seem playful, which worked out pretty well. The choice of fashion also visually shows the personalities of the characters. I noticed that the female lead tends to like clothes that are more , and the male lead like to have his clothes in a simple manner.
I really enjoyed the music mainly because they used actors for the drama ost. It made it seem fresh due to the actors using their own voices instead of a professional singer like in kdramas.
Overall I really liked the drama due to the amazing acting. I would recommend it for people who like the laughs and do not mind the age gap between the lead actors. I also realized this drama is a remake of the popular Taiwanese drama "My Queen". I have not personally watched it but I have hear good things about it.
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FYI: This movie has no humor.
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I been watching Asian dramas for a long time so I know what I want . But sometime I get sucked into a hyped drama -_-" and get disappointed. I won't name any because I'll get hated on-_-".
I recommend this drama for people who likes a very emotional drama despite the cliches. Let me just say the main dude is kinda good looking sooooooo go watch it ^^
P.S. I agree which the last review that some episodes are dragged out so be prepared for that......
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