The first Chinese drama ever that I forced my Mandarin fluent friend to read the book and watched all episodes and summarize it for me. And mind you he wasn't a fan of Yaoi.

The trailer was in my Youtube's recommendation and I was glad I clicked it. The first episode captured my heart; the moment Shen Wei (Zhu Yi Long) saw Zhao Yun Lan (Bai Yu) at the university. The look alone was a testament that there was something more about their relationship. With China's ban on certain things, what should have been a reunion between soul-mates had to be tone down to soul-brothers. But, Zhu Yi Long and Bai Yu managed to convey the gist of the book (which is Yaoi) with subtle things via facial expression and the way they look at each other. The plot was there but with limited budget, not much can be done. There were some part which made no sense because of the editing, like there should be something more but was cut short. If you cannot stand flaw in small details, then there's plenty in it. Just focus on Zhao Yun Lan and his lollipop and you'll know. One moment it was in his mouth, then his hand and the next thing it's back in his mouth.

The two main lead (Zhu Yi Long and Bai Yu) saved the drama from going down the drain; and to think the initial cast was supposed to be Bai Yu and an un-named actor. Bai Yu in fact mentioned he was uncomfortable taking the part once he read the book. I don't think it's because it was Yaoi but Zhao Yun Lan in the book was flirtier and reminded me of Sun Wukong. The supporting cast were brilliant as well. The entire SID team seemed like they walked out of the book; of course with minor changes to some characters to fit the ban. Some extra characters left an impact with the way they carried their role, for example, the guy who play the new king and the guy who have the fire ability.

The opening theme was epic. It promised of a grand scale drama even though the drama did not deliver much. And it was in English which was rare for China to have for an opening theme; maybe for interlude, but definitely not opening or ending theme.

Heck yeah you'll wanted to rewatch it. Maybe skipped most part and just stick with the main lead. In fact, someone should edit the entire 40 episodes and make it a movie just with the two of them.

Overall, it was the best Chinese drama I watched so far for 2018. Do not watch it for the logic, watch it for the main lead.

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Annoying characters

Five BJ decided to check out a haunted building after one fellow BJ disappeared there. All five of them streamed different materials with one about ghost hunting and another one about debunking them. Truthfully, the characters were annoying with constant prank and shouting. It took away the mysterious feeling from a similar movie, Ghonjiam. At one point, I wanted them all dead to be done with it.

The place was supposed to be a place for healing. However, everyone either end up dead or missing.

The scene that annoyed me the most was when a police arrived and instead of saving them, he questioned their integrity. I don't know about other places but, in my country, police usually comes in pair.

I probably watch it again and fast forward to when the ghosts appear. At least they're not annoying.

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VJ Glow and PD Park are a duo that make a living by broadcasting their thoughts on supernatural and paranormal stuff via their channel Glow World on AfreecaTV. Think Bigo Live. Usually, they got their input from their fans. What they did was showed a clip (if any) surrounding the mystery and gave a comment about it. And if they received enough balloons, the currency in AfreecaTV, then they will visit the 'haunted' place. However, once they broadcasted a mystery, they knew they have to outdo it. They were in a stumped after their last mystery, as input from their fans were not helping as it wasn't 'haunting' enough until VJ Glow received a clip from WalkAlone about the infamous Japanese game Hitori Kakurenbo or Hide and Seek Alone. Apparently, a student went missing because of the game and her friend went crazy. The movie was played as if the viewers was watching it live complete with a chat scrolling on the right. I was on edge most of the movie 'hoping' for a jump scare.

The acting by the two main lead was superb because they managed to make it seemed real. Applause also to the girl who played the crazy student.

There's not much music involved as what the movie wanted was the sense that it was broadcasted live.

You'll probably want to watch it again to make sense of the ending. Yes, this is that movie where you need to use your brain cell to understand the ending.

Overall, this movie will stick with you for a period of time.

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BEWARE of SPOILER

Ruja' was on the verge of a breakdown, trying to gather money for her daughter's eye surgery. She got a visit from her estranged father's friend, telling her that he passed away and she was the sole heiress. Both Ruja and her daughter returned to Thailand. The most valuable thing in the things she inherited was two paintings by her father. However, it needed some restoration before it could be put on auction. Ruja deemed both paintings as evil and forbid her daughter to even look at them. A man saved her daughter and coincidentally was also an artist. She hired him for the restoration job. After that quarter of introduction, what we got was of course the spooky things. That alone, took almost half the movie. If you skipped to the last quarter, trust me, you won't miss a thing.

So, here are the bits with spoilers. Stop here if you do not want to know what is up with the movie. And do forgive me because I do not know how to hide them.

As mentioned above, Ruja's father was an artist. He had a muse and they form an adultery relationship. Both the muse and her son; were hidden in a house deep in the jungle behind Ruja's home. Ruja's mother knew it and told Ruja to ignore them as they were evil. So, Ruja kind of chanted herself into not seeing them.

Ruja's father lost his inspiration and the muse told him, she would do anything as long as he continue to love her. And so, when she haunted the house, I was flabbergasted. She said she would do anything. Why would her spirit be angry when the tragedy happened? She was just like Kayako Saeki that unleashed her rage on anyone that enter the house.

Truthfully speaking, the movie was assembled of plots from other horror movies. You got a bit of Shutter, a bit of The Grudge, the few I remember. Not even the acting from the three main cast can save this movie.

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May contain some spoiler. Beware.

Basically the story is about a curse at the train station. A junior reporter and her best friend who worked at the train station decided to investigate the story. During the investigation, the best friend got the curse. Now, it's a race against time or the best friend will die. Had some similiraty with The Ring right? Once they break the case, the best friend found a way to break the curse. Here is where I'm so angry.
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Spoiler
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The best friend transferred the curse to the junior reporter. Yes, his best friend.

That one bit of plot, override the entire story because I'm waiting for the reporter to go bat-shit crazy and take some revenge on him. And it did not happend. Instead, she transfer the curse to someone else who deserve it. The end.

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An investigation team decided to pursue a murder case that happened in 1992. A video recording of the murder was said to be kept underground for the brutality of it. Snippets of the video were shown to us viewers. A reflection in the video led the team to another murder case.

In the Marui Case, a boyfriend murdered his girlfriend and claimed not to remember anything. The video recording of the tragic event was said to be haunted ala The Ring and whoever watches it will suffer tragedy. In the Ami Case, a boy was said to murder his mother and younger sister.

Reviews and comments promised that the movie was scary, chilly and there I was, bored to death. Nowadays, most scary movies depended on jump scares and there's none of that. The movie sometimes lingers on something and I was thinking something's going to jump on the screen only for it to move to another shot. I do have to applaud the director for sticking to the documentary style. It had the feel of Cannibal Holocaust in which viewers may believe that it's from a real event. For me, Marui Video took inspiration from lots of other movies. There's The Ring, The Grudge, The Cannibal Holocaust, and so on.

I was waiting for the "a video evidence of a very brutal and graphic murder" which was said to be shown in the last 20 minutes of the movie and the story was built up towards it and yet, I wasn't impressed. Why? Because we had seen snippets of the videos. So, there's nothing much to show after it.

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Ning had a condo that she rented for extra income to help Kawin who was the sole breadwinner for the family. Their real estate agent advised them to live in the condo and rented their house instead as it can bring in more cash. Kawin was against it. However, he agreed to show the house to a retired doctor and her daughter, after Ning pleaded. When they asked when can they move in, Kawin said next month which shocked both Ning and I.

Ning started getting suspicious with the new tenants and a video sent by her old neighbor, enhanced those suspicious. And then Kawin started acting strange. With the help from her friend, Ning found out that the retired doctor was not as what she portrayed.

I watched it with zero clue on everything. I didn't know the cast or plot. I was a bit disappointed. I mean, I was hoping for something along the line with the title. It's not much about the home but, more towards the obsession of the occupants.

I was angry on behalf of Ning. She and her daughter, were the collateral damage for this obsession.

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Our ML woke up one day amidst chaos. The news reported of an outbreak that turned human into basically, zombies. It will probably take the government about 60 days or so to contain the problem and all our ML had to do was survive.

Nothing new on zombies. They're practically blind with good hearing. And they moved fast unlike some theory that zombies moved at snail pace.

Our ML had limited food supplies and no sense of survival. However, as days past and one after another problems arises, he realised the gruesome matters.

The 2nd half of the movie was the turning point for our ML when he found out he wasn't the only survivor in that area. His survival sense kick in albeit a bit clumsy.

With no food, water, electricity, wifi or connection from the outside world, both ML and FL decided to move to the 8th floor of the apartment complex.

I was rooting for them. The 8th floor indeed look untouchable. It was clean with no zombies. However, another problem arose. And the movie could do without that problem. I was rolling my eyes and thank God our FL was not a damsel in distress.

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It had potential

We were introduced to a policeman, Jin Kyeong-hoon, as the team leader was updating them on a new cult, New Truth. I was rooting for him to defeat the cult and whatever monsters that had been shredding and burning people. Amidst the chaos, a vigilante group called The Arrowhead appeared and decided to take matters into their own hands.

Basically, the monsters, according to New Truth, were Angels sent by God to punish the sinful one. And The Arrowheads job was to expose their sin and also punish anyone that was in the Angels way.

Jin Kyeong-hoon team up with Min Hye-jin to help a family when a single-mother got a message that she will be next to die.

Episode 4 continues 5 years later as Bae Young-jae became the next main character. I lost interest here because I was invested with Jin Kyeong-hoon. But, I wanted to know the conclusion of the series.

The New Truth had a new leader who gained profit by broadcasting live the moment the Angels punish someone. Another group emerged to help anyone who got the death message to avoid the live broadcast. The New Truth decided to team up with The Arrowhead to track this group and eliminate them.

The ending foreshadowed a 2nd season. I don't have any theory to share to avoid touching on sensitive topic. I mean each religion have their own believe. What do the atheist and Scientologist think about it? I love to know their opinion.

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This was my second time watching it. Please note that I never watch My Love From Another Star (MLFAS) the Korean drama except for the first episode.

The story itself was interesting. I don't know any of the cast and decided to watch it after I read the summary. "A romance story between a 500 year old superhuman and a B-list actress". The series is an adaptation of a popular Chinese novel by Shui Qianmo. And it does baffle me when others compare it with MLFAS and said it was inspired by it. The only similarities that I've known of, again I only watch the first episode of MLAS, was that both male lead have super power. My Amazing Boyfriend wasn't a fantasy drama because both main lead are human; only the male lead's genetic was altered and thus making him immortal. And because he can control certain elements, he have the power of speed, strength, super hearing and floating/flying.

For a debut, Kim Tae Hwan did a good job. He didn't portray much emotion because his character was mostly aloof but, when he did show them, it was subtle and yet, as a viewer, I saw the change. Janice Wu however, did a brilliant job portraying her character. She managed not to make it annoying or else, I've drop it after the first episode like I did with MLFAS. The female lead relationship with everyone around her was the highlight of the show. There were scenes where she was whiny and slightly annoying but, Janice Wu managed to salvage it by making the female lead cute and strong with her resolve. I particularly like when the female lead declared that she would take all responsibility towards the male lead and somehow she managed to do in her way. Apart from both leads, the supporting cast also did well in their role especially Yang Aro as Feng Dong Dong.

The opening and closing soundtrack suit the drama but, to be honest, I usually skipped it.

Well, I did mentioned this was my second time watching it. Of course, I wasn't sitting on edge anymore after knowing who was the villain. But, the rewatch value was there.

Overall, I truly like it and will wait for the second season. There wasn't much left in the book unless the author added new chapter to it.

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