This drama opened with a heroic act in beautiful scenic Barcelona, Spain, that attracted me to start watching it. The first few episodes are exciting since we are introduced how our sassy FL Xixi met the sweet ML Ziang and the hot-tempered Xiujie, along with other supporting roles. Ziang is ambitious to bring Aurora football club (owned by his dad's group) that used to win championships back to its glory. He hired Xixi to be the cartoonist and the agent of Aurora group in lieu letting her stay in his house to pay for the job. But the romance grow SO slow they do not get together until 2/3 of the drama. Instead there are lots of discussions on the group issues. The drama mostly shows the growth of Aurora FC from an amateur soccer group to winning matches and the championship. There are a lot of issues to tackle during the growing pains of the club, including life problems of the players and the staff have encountered in connection to being in the club. So, if you are not familiar or do not like football (soccer is the term in United States), you will not like this drama. There are growing love stories between supporting couples other than OTP, which are annoying to me cos it seems like the pairing of the OTP is left until almost the end just to built the climax. The group does eventually visit Barcelona, but unfortunately the director did not exploit the charm of this ancient city again in its cinematography, that I suspect the first scene is just to attract viewers to start watching this show. The rest of the drama seems dragging with side stories and long conversations, which is typical to Cdramas.
I will not watch it again unless the production company Mango TV continue subbing it to English until the end. They stopped at episode 6 and the rest are raw episodes.

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STORY
This short drama depicts the classic and universal problem of self esteem that rampage in modern society caused by greed of things we don't have that we don't need but those are what we want. Mo Nan-Hee has many positive traits: cute, smart, talent, college education, supportive friends, loving parents, etc etc. But when the campus flower boy Park Se-Gun poses in her art class, suddenly Nan-Hee realizes that she wants Se-Gun, although all she needs is self-esteem which not necessarily to be fulfilled by having a handsome boyfriend. After brooding for 6 months in her room looking at Se-Gun's portrays, mom came with a secret weapon: the magical ring, Here goes the sad comedy: bunch of lies Nan-Hee spills when dating See-Gun, and more lies when Nan-Hee finds out who Se-Gun's dream girl is Mi-Joo, who is none other than Nan-Hee's child hood frenemy heading over for reunion. The twists in the last scenes are quite interesting.

CAST/ACTING
The talented actress and comedian Kim Seul-Gi brilliantly brought up the female lead to live, opposite to sweet and handsome Ahn Hyo-seop as the arrogant selfish male lead. Both are experienced actor/actress and supporting characters especially Lee Tae Sun who plays as long-time friend Tae-Hyun and actor/actress who play Nan-Hee's parents did really well. I applaud the costume and make-up crew that transformed beautiful Kim Seul-Gi to plain Nan-Hee, though not so for changing Ahn Hyo-seop's hair to wavy blond (he looks better with dark hair in the last fashion show scene). The costume for fashion shows are gorgeous too watch also.

REWATCH VALUE
Not necessarily I will watch again as lighthearted drama to pass the boring nights/weekends, as I do not necessarily like the characterization of the main leads most of the drama. I think Nan-Hee should end up with Tae-Hyun instead as he always sees the real Nan-Hee, or she does not end up with either Se-Gun or Tae-Hyun but will come out as more independent mature woman.

OVERALL
Although the drama is short and bittersweet, but I it can bring up the changes of main leads characterization that can make me give a 10 but the change of the couple's flawed characters started only in the last scenes of the last episode makes me a bit disappointed with the way the drama is written/directed.

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STORY:
I watched this movie following Sho Hirano's works and since I just finished a long drama I wanted something short and sweet, as sweet as Honey it is. But I think this the movie should actually be develop to a drama that can dig out the past of Onise, Kogure, Misaki, and Yashiro. Also adding friendship development process between those four characters, more jealousy scenes and action spices. Moreover, the drama can develop 9 years of relationship from the first they started dating until they got married.

ACTING/CAST:
Sho Hirano and and Yuna Taira's great acting brought the main characters alive with Onise' red unruly hair and Kogure's short curly hair plus cute sparking chemistry. Supporting actor Yu Takahashi as Kogure's uncle is great as well.

REWATCH VALUE:
Therefore this is a movie that can be re-watch if you have a short time of sweet tooth crave.

OVERALL:
The movie came out of manga that readers reviewed as short and sweet but nothing out of ordinary. Although the manga can be potentially developed to a drama with many aspects of life full roller coaster ride scenes, but the beauty of this movie is the simplicity of youth romance that can be easily forgotten but then re-watch again in the future

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My Friends are the Center of the World, My Parents Come from Another Planet

Although I am busy writing articles reviewing dramas, but Sixteen Shoukougun has been at the back of my mind to write review about. So I'm the 3rd reviewer for this little gem. It's my favorite high school drama for 2020, and I don't usually want to watch this sub-genre. The story centers around the close-knit relationship between two girls, Ibuki and Mei, who have known each other since they were kids. So tight that they won't allow other people come in between them, that the kids at school dubbed them as the Prince (Ibuki) and the Princess (Mei). Until one day, the notorious school playboy Mutsumi, enters their small world.

I will leave the story above like that, you should watch the rest: what happened to the three of them? Just treat it like the synopsis (without spoiler), since the current synopsis sucks. It doesn't tell you the quality of this drama.

Why I recommend it?
1. It's short, 8 episodes 20 minutes each. Perfect for binge-watching and re-watching.
2. Though short, it portrays a good character and relationship developments. I'm amazed the growth can be adequately seen in such a short drama!
3. Acting of actresses Takeuchi Aisa, as the tomboy Ibuki, and Takeda Reina, as the pretty yet fragile Mei, nailed their respective characters. I have seen them in other dramas. Acting of the main actors were just fine.
4. The drama really shows the struggle experienced by teenagers. I like their reflective in forms of cellphone recordings. I 100%-ly recommend to be watched by teenagers.
5. The dialogues are pretty good. Wisdom and advises came from the mouth of our young characters.
6. No unnecessary side stories or supporting characters. You'll be surprised almost the whole drama the story just centered around Ibuki, Mei, Mutsumi, and Nao

My only complaints:
1. Actor Itagaki Mizuki looks too old as a 16 year old boy. No complaint on his acting, but I wish the production team cast a younger looking actor instead
2. I wish Nao comes into the scene earlier. His character is uniquely interesting. They should make him more ambiguous, somewhat stalkerish, with deep unrequited love. But since this drama is adapted from manga, we're just have to be satisfied with the original plot.

Oh, regarding the title. Someone in comment section questioned about the absence of parents of these kids (unless when flashback to the past). Though they experience tough times to the point of being hospitalized, no parent is seen in the scene. Oh yeah, also not any teacher role. I think this drama is definitely intended for teenage viewers. As when I was at their age, my school friends were the center of my world. And I had a youth sentiment that our parents didn't know anything about us. And I'm still have that understanding, though at my age now I can be their parents.

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"Inside Every Jerk There is a Broken Heart" (Jin Xiao Ye, English sub)

This is a feel good movie when your mood is down inside or the weather is bad outside.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THIS MOVIE
(+) The story covers multi facets of love: between lovers, parents and children, siblings, friends, even strangers
(+) There are three love stories and each scenes and characters are intertwined cleverly from good movie editing
(+) All's well that ends well, easy to re-watch
(+) Outstanding directing by Doze Niu, who also co-written, played, and sang one of the OST
(+) Witty conversation and hilarious scenes
(+) Colorful roles played very well by both main and supporting actors and actresses.
(+) Star studded with gorgeous Taiwanese actors and actresses who are not rookies in acting, all of them have won awards during their careers.
(+) Convincing acting as college students by Ivy Chen, Amber Kuo, and Eddy Peng who are 30, 27, and 30 at the time movie was produced
(+) Believable acting by Doze Niu as the aging Chao Ping (with Viagra, false tooth, and reading glasses), much older that his real age of 46 at the time movie was produced
(+) Beautiful costumes and makeup
(+) Artistic cinematography by award winner Mark Lee Ping Bin
(+) Memorable OST music, opened by singer Hebe Tien with "Love", instrumental coreography by composer Chen Chien-chi

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I usually do not like movie/drama with a plot where the female lead chases the male lead first, therefore Itzaura No Kiss and all its franchise never attract me. However, while watching trailers in this site, Gasohug trailer caught my eyes. It attracts me to watch for some reasons: the female lead is smart and a bit crazy in chasing her dream guy, the actress plays it is down-to-earth pretty, not the typical rich guy-poor girl drama plot, and it is short. So I started watching my first Thai drama, and I got hooked for more reasons:

STORY
It is so simple yet entertaining, because the female lead has an ability to dream about aspects of her future and all come true, therefore her life is devoted to materialize those dreams outlined on the board: including kidnapping her dream guy and changing her life style from big-city into back-of-the-woods. The male role is not a typical dramatic cold guy with bad past that freeze him or an arrogant guy who thinks he is all that, but simply a quite, shy country guy who thinks he is not worth it for the girl. So is what the female lead thinks when she dreamed about him.
The immigrant life style is portrayed quite accurate and interestingly have similarities everywhere in the world the immigrants move to.
The back country setting and the introduction of Lahu people are very beautifully portrayed.
The plot twist in the last episode is very interesting: as we then see things happened that are not in her dreams. Also, she is hit by the reality that she cannot be with him because of her other aspect of dream she needs to pursue. We suddenly see her dream board is no longer there, and how she moves on thru the hard reality.

ACTING/CAST
Preechaya Pongthananikorn portrayed the quirky funny female lead character Eve superbly, makes me follow her works where I came across her other drama that is also very good. Nattarat Noprattayakorn did a good job as a the quite shy male lead Pun, as usually it's not easy to play the lead male character that doesn't express things verbally or emotionally yet has to be good. The male and female characters have a cute chemistry with his shyness and her boldness to make their romance happens. I also like Mit, Eve's best friend character, the first time he opens his mouth and says: "Eve... Eve"... so lovable.

MUSIC
Usually I don't pay attention much of the music, but this drama has upbeat soundtrack.

REWATCH VALUE
Definitely, bring you smile and laugh all along, and it's a short drama you can watch in one sit.

OVERALL
A perfect one if you are looking for a romantic comedy that is not boring from the start till the end, but has a good moral of the story. The drama makes you think of creating your future does not matter if they are from real dreams (in Eve's case) or just a hope/wish (in Pun's case), and how you navigate your dream/hope/wish thru the realities of life.

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Female Empowerment in a Humble Countryside of Thailand

Gone is the era of old-school lakorns with macho guys/doormat girls, slap-kiss, etc. Thai lakorns, especially from their traditional Channel 3, have gone so far as to empower their female leads, to the point that the female characters are pretty much in control in this drama. Aside from that, this is an exhausting comedy with a steadfast romance of a cute couple with sizzling chemistry.

STORY:

Saisamorn wants to be a top actress following the step of her belated father who was a famous actor. She aims her career progress with the upcoming blockbuster movie project "Love Floods the Field" (รักท่วมทุ่ง = Rak Thuam Thung), which is actually a novel source written by Suriyatis (สุริยาทิศ). Because she is a big city girl who graduated overseas, the director sends her to learn about rural living in the countryside where his relatives live who run a palm sugar factory. Off she goes and pretends to be Mayom, and meets two prominent families: the Phanphlai and the Khokkhongcharoen. Long story short, Saisamorn successfully gets the role and an award, but not without so many difficulties, including her navigating her love with the son of Phanphlai: Mana (Ma).

Saisamorn/Mayom and Ma's romance is steadfast from beginning to end.

ACTING/CHARACTER:

This is where I will talk about female empowerment because the female characters here are the bosses over the male characters.

Saisamorn/Mayom versus Mana (Ma)
Saisamorn is a perfect Female Lead in dramaland imo. She is beautiful, rich, smart, independent, and determined. She is also funny, kind-hearted, gentle, humble, and patient. Even though she ends up falling in love with Ma, Saisamorn still doesn't deter herself from her dream of becoming an actress. She even endures hardship because of the abusive treatment by Ma's mother and sister, and the Khokkhongcharoen family.
Ma, although his character is nice, he's quite weak imo when it comes to protecting his beloved versus obeying his mother. Especially since he falls in love at first sight with Saisamorn in the first episode (when she filmed a guest role) and finds out quite early that Mayom is Saisamorn. Only toward the end, he stands up against his mean mother.
Namfah and August have such sizzling chemistry since they collaborated before in Mae Krua Kon Mai.

Phongphaew versus Kusol
These are Ma's parents. The mother is SO mean towards Mayom, not because Mayom is a country girl not worthy to be her son's wife, but because Phongphaew and Jaem (Mrs. Khokkhongcharoen) are besties and they made a pact to marry their sons and daughters together. Not only that, Phongphaew is the most selfish woman in dramaland, because of her gambling addiction she's ready to sell her own family!
Kusol, her husband, is supposed to be the head village. He's nice but he's overpowered by his wife and doesn't stand up as a family man and a head village

The actress who played Phongphaew (Namfon) is a veteran actress who is very good as a villain. As much as I hated the mother, I praised the actress's acting!

Other strong female characters: Sri, Chujai, Krongthong, Phisamae, and Nath
Sri is Ma's younger sister. The drama synopsis says that Sri is a sharp-mouthed woman. She is meanie alright, but still bearable in comparison to her mother. Little Chujai, the youngest in the family, is also a strong female character. In fact, in comparison to her father and brother, Chujai often who sometimes stands up against her mother.

Krongthong, the daughter of Khokkhongcharoen is also annoying with her ambition to get Ma, to the point of making a big lie! I feel like she shouldn't get redemption in the end!

Phisamae is Saisamorn's mom. I love this character! She is a single mother who brought up her daughter. She also built her own company, which became the top publishing industry. Nath is her sister, a film producer.

Other weak characters: Temorn, Saisamorn's father, the director
Temorn is the son Khokkhongcharoen. He's weak at first but Temorn gets a good character growth.
Saisamorn's father, after he became a famous actor was also a womanizer and a gambler until he died.
The director Chat. He actually doesn't want to give the role to Saisamorn but he's afraid she's the niece of the producer and the heiress of the top publishing company. So he lies to Saisamorn that she needs to learn to be a country girl to be accepted to the role.

OST: Main Theme "Love Floods in the Field", an upbeat duo by August Vachiravit and Pearwah Nichaphat (who played brother and sister in the drama).

ENDING (Scroll down belong if you want to be spoiled about the ending of the characters):





















Happy endings for the couples: Saisamorn and Ma, Sri and Temorn, and even Krongthong with her lover! Finally, Ma's mother accepts Saisamorn (not because she's a rich girl). The villains got their punishments.

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Intriguing and suspenful business drama

Not a fan of the business genre, I looked forward to this drama every week when it was aired. Not boring or draggy, the drama is intriguing and suspenseful enough as the main and supporting characters must survive office politics by any means. Amid work pressure, teamwork, friendship, family bonds, and slight romance.

STORY (according to IMDB)
Alice and Mes, driven by ideals of a stable career path, face life challenges. They must survive the treacherous world of financial sales, cutthroat office politics, and corruption. United, they aims for success amid adversity.

Subplots: Besides the business plot, we also delve into the private life of some characters, notably Alice's relationship with her sickly mom and her good-for-nothing brother, Mes' relationship with his career-oriented girlfriend, and Non's single parenting of a teenage daughter. There are also other subplots I won't spoil you as they are closely connected to the main plot.

If you want to know about the ending, I posted in the end of the review (below the OST)

CHARACTER AND ACTING
The main plot revolves around the protagonist Alice (Mint Chalida Vijitvongthong) who is a new worker at Infinity Wealth Center, a mutual fund company. Shouldering the financial burden as the only breadwinner of her family, she aims to reach the highest sales for a good bonus. Holding a degree in Business Administration, I think Mint Chalida did a good job as Alice who initially is ambitious, arrogant, and work-oriented. Alice goes through character development to become more compassionate, humble, and people-oriented.

Mes (Nonkul Chanon Santinatornkul) is also a new worker at Infinity Wealth Center. Unlike Alice, he comes from a wealthy background and is a civil engineer. There was a legal allegation on a collapsed building he designed, so he had to leave the construction job. With a connection help, Mes landed a job at the same place. Mes and Alice's office relationship started on the wrong foot. Together with the other members of the sales team, the two become good colleagues, best friends, and later lovers. The romance blooms naturally, it is light and slow burn.

Besides the main protagonists, we also have colleagues, sales team leaders, the big boss, and family members of some characters. Because the focus is business politics, in the beginning, I suspected everyone could be the bad guy(s), so I won't introduce you to any of them or I may spoil you.

PRODUCTION
I need to note that this drama is produced by BEC Studio, a subsidiary of BEC World Public Company Limited, with its purpose also "to upgrade Thai Contents to be able to proudly go globally." So, watching this drama doesn't feel like watching classic lakorn. Besides airing on BEC's flagship media Channel 3, the drama also aired in Prime Thailand with English sub, with timely and proper translation. I also want to commend that although there is a group of screenwriters, the main plot is not draggy and the subplots are not all over the place and serve the main plot.

VISUAL
Nothing special, because of the office setting. But I'm surprised there is no character with excessive makeup or over-the-top costumes that are common in classic lakorn. Everyone is dressed in business attire or regular streetwear.

OST
As usual Thai dramas don't have many OST. The opening theme is an upbeat instrumental. The closing theme is "Cry Baby" by Khanom Jeen Kulmat. The song fits with the emotional state during the difficult situations the characters face. Read the chorus lyrics:

"Are you tired? I often ask myself.
Is there anyone who can let me lean? To sleep in on weak days, Cry baby."

ENDING (scroll below)





Happy ending. The good guys get rewarded and the bad guys are in jail. Alice is promoted to deputy sales director. Mes works as an engineer again. They're together.

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Rare Hongkong Drama Gem, Fun to Binge Watch!

Since there is no review, I guess I will take my limited time to be the first to write about what I think is a great show. This is my second Hong Kong drama to watch. Someone mentioned it's similar to Madam Cutie on Duty which I dropped, just because the English subtitle is right on top of the Chinese subtitle makes it hard to read. Anyways, I am not familiar at all with the cast, so seeing new faces is refreshing to me. The Female Lead Samantha Ko is so pretty, either she is in the agent mode or the housewife mode.

WARNING: MILD SPOILERS AHEAD!!! THOUGH NOT THE MAIN PLOT AND ENDING

So the story is about Samantha Ko playing as the secret agent C9, whose private organization she worked at is to protect VIP people both native and foreigners while they are in Hong Kong. Alas, the organization is annihilated by a terrorist group Black Hole and everyone dies but her. An orphaned who was adopted by the organization since little, of course she was lost without any family member until she met a market veggie seller King (played by Kenneth Ma) and his family. So she started a new life as a housewife with nickname Cute Mom.
At first, I was really pissed that she took a role as a doormat. So different than her badass role as C9. She basically devotes her life helping her husband selling veggies in the market AND also taking care of her in-laws. Everyone seems depend on her, and she doesn't even complain and stays cheerful. I personally am annoyed with her looser brother-in-law and annoying sister-in-law.
Thankfully, the story soon becomes interesting when apparently there is another survivor of the secret organization: agent B3, who was a partner of C9. Upon knowing that C9 is alive, B3 contacted her and asked her to team up with him again to avenge the death of their brothers and sisters. C9 agreed, and soon we watch several episodes of some hilarious some heartbreaking scenes of C9 juggling between her secret mission and her household chores. The story becomes more interesting when we find out there are a few more ex members who are actually still alive.
By the middle of the drama, the story becomes somewhat melo when King finds out that Cute Mom is actually a secret agent, thanks to B3 who purposely makes it so. King was pissed because his wife has lied all way through since the beginning, and Cute Mom cannot bear seeing the family may become a target by Black Hole. So they are separated, and others only know the couple had a huge fight and Cute Mom left. The funny thing for me that now the family members scramble trying to do house chores Cute Mom did all in the past.
We then see the Female Lead being badass again as C9, although the drama is realistic enough showing her worrying and missing family make her did a few physical and mental mistakes during re-entry as an agent. I will not spoil you how the drama ends, but the plot twists are actually surprising and interesting, makes this rare Hong Kong gem fun to watch.
In conclusion, the story is great, especially the action scenes, cute romantic scenes, and family-get-together scenes. You can skip the side stories/couples, I think they're just fillers. The acting is also great, especially the fighting actions and the great chemistry between Samantha Ko and Kenneth Ma, and I also like the father in law and the step son. The OST is good, "Learning to Love" by Kayee Tam, you can get the OST link in my custom 2020 Completed Drama list if you want. Great re-watch value since it was only 20 episodes with 45 minutes duration, just skipped the draggy side stories parts.

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"When it Comes to Loving You, I Have No Plan B" (Chi Xin, English sub)

If you are looking for a romcom drama that can captivates you to keep watching the next episode, then this is not for you. The romance is a slow burn, and the main couple do not get together until the last episode! It's not that there is no romance development, but because of their business contract prohibits them so. I keep watching until the end because of the humor and the cute stuff I will mention below.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THIS DRAMA
(+) It seems like the drama emphasizes more about the comedy feature than the romance one, There are plenty of hilarious scenes and dialogues.
(+) Cute cartoon that probably from the original writer Wei Xiao Bao
(+) Love the BTS cuts and mini stories in every end of the episode
(+) Remarkable camera angle and cute side-by-side screen when they're doing the same activities. Great directing. Director Yu Zhong Zhong directed tons of Chinese romance or romantic comedy dramas. I will check out his other works.
(+) Great acting of Timmy Xu as the main lead Chi Xin. He has sexy lips too.
(+) Lovely Sasa
(+) Beautiful cinematography
(+) Gorgeous costume, especially for Sasa
(+) Lots of cute OST songs in each episode. Check out the OST in Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eZXlRVKn-A

WHAT I DON'T LIKE ABOUT THIS DRAMA
(-) As usual, draggy scenes and dialogues. I skipped a lot of them.
(-) Lots of unrealistic scenes, especially meeting by chance between Chi Xin and Xiao Rou
(-) Product placements
(-) The female character Xiao Rou is a pathetic looser IMO. Pretty, independent, employed, and only 25 years old, Xiao Rou suffers from severe lack of self esteem just because unability finding a boyfriend because of self-belief curse. Instead of working on her strength and trying to control her narcolepsy by yoga, exercise, anger/stress management, joining social clubs etc
(-) The chemistry between Chi Xin and Xiao Rou is weak IMO, due to the story line. Although there are some great kisses, and both Timmy Xu and Bridgette Qiao are comfortable in BTS cuts.
(-) You may get a Second Lead Syndrome because of the sweet caring Zheng Ze.

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This show has a very unique story line I have not seen in other dramas, with curse and ghost blend altogether with not one but two villains. I am surprised the rating is not higher. Possibly because the mediocre acting of the leads, although actress Yan Jin Sung did a spectacular doppelganger roles as the bad Yi Kyung and the good Doo Rim. Unfortunately actor Lee Hong Ki could not deliver a natural tsundere, although ML supposedly falls for the FL at the first meeting. They don't have a strong chemistry despite of numerous kissing scenes. The beautiful, scary but hilarious ghost really spices up the drama.

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The storyline is exciting, a tomboy works hard to make ends meet due to her irresponsible mom and clingy sister, including disguising as a man to be able to work in a male-only coffee shop. Yoon Eun Hye did an excellent job impersonating a tomboy although too cute to be guy. Her chemistry with her annoying boss played by Gong Yoo is natural in every phase of their relationship. However, the second couple relationship is uninteresting, IMO just a filler to add love triangle spice in the drama. They should instead add deeper side stories about the life of the cafe's employees.

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