It's a bit funny how in the drama 'Touch Your Heart' Inna was basically playing actress Oh Yeon Seo, someone who has been criticized for her bad acting a lot over the years. In this drama however Inna has a very similar character that Oh Yeon Seo herself portrayed before in the same author's work 'Mad for Each Other & Oh Yeon Seo was a much better fit for this I think, so we have kind of gone full circle in a sense.. Don't misunderstand she has done a decent enough job, but it's just a bit weird and ill fitting. Of course -unlike Yoo Inna- Hwang Chan Sung was a massive weak link in the drama overall. So to summarize, the drama is AT BEST average in the acting department.

The writing & the pacing of the script are objectively bad. There is no way around this, there really are a lot of problems & some astonishingly bad lines in the earlier episodes. Although I suppose the drama's saving grace are also lines, because here and there there was some brilliant dialog that really resonated with me. (a very smart intern writer's work perhaps?) Looking at the plot delivery It's not hard to see why it's more than a little bad. The first 5 episodes are completely about FL's mental breakdown/breakup, after that we get a relatively average, but serviceable romcom & then following that there is a rushed weird mess in the final two episodes that culminate in a 15 minute long, substance-less happy ending.
The characterization is also a hit and miss. Bora and Lee Soo Hyuk's characters are okay, but there are quite a few side characters that are just horrible, weird or just extremely two dimensional. (Uri, Yu Jung etc..)
Also the obsession with confessions is a weird theme for a drama to have, I don't really know what to think about this..

Can Love Triangle haters watch this? Maybe, though the previous love interests do stick around..

People like bashing the drama for that one admittedly very insensitive Auschwitz comment. While this is fair, I think it's more of an ill researched analogy that came from ignorance rather than anything else.

Overall the drama is a weird amalgamation of multiple genres. I don't really understand who the target audience is suppose to be. Sad-melo enjoyers will like the first 5 episodes, but will probably be very disappointed with what comes after, romcom lovers might not even hold out long enough to reach the 5-7 romcom episodes & then either of those groups would be at least somewhat disappointed due to the final two episodes.
Maybe the problem is just me, since the 10/10 reviews just keep on coming..

Read More

I'm giving this a 10/10, because I loved watching this from beginning to end, perhaps with the exception of e13.
With that said objectively this is quite bad. We could give it an award for "the most cheesy lines ever", I mean really it's insane how bad the script is. I guess you could say that this is the ultimate guilty pleasure, because I know that it's bad and yet I couldn't hate it for a second. As a huge fan of Goblin I love Inna & Dong Wook, but their acting in TYH is the worst it has ever been. Inna is an amazing actress, she's been awesome in everything before, including variety TV, but I think this cheesy character was too far outside her comfort zone. Their chemistry wasn't nearly as good as in Goblin either, I don't know, it just felt off. Honestly I don't even understand myself why I liked this so much, I mean it's so cheesy at times that it causes physical pain. I guess the feeling is not entirely dissimilar, when I listen to that "We Built This City" cover that came on in Grey's Anatomy that one time. Perhaps I'm just shallow & I just enjoy everything my favorite idols appear in??? (this would be a first for me)
They had to drop the stalker ark prematurely, because of real events in Korea, but I did not mind really. I mean sure it's sad that they had to scrap the script from episode 13 onward, but it might have turned out more entertaining this way. I imagine that originally the second lead couple was meant to fight alongside JungRok vs. the stalker guy and that was the whole point of their story, to make the legal proceedings more interesting and fun in the last episodes, but I think the melodrama all of this meant to cause could have ruined the show for me, I don't know. I liked the ending a lot, the last episode was especially nice, despite the heavy product placements. (eating Subway sandwiches, while charging a Samsung phone with yet another Samsung phone!)

Read More

A new record for interrupted kisses!?

In a sense this is one of the most frustrating dramas I have ever watched, but in another it's rather beautiful, there is a lot of very well written witty dialog in the show. I think the leads had great chemistry both as "friends" & lovers . Why the scare quotes? Well, their friendship is insanity & all the reasons why they did not take that step for so long are insanity squared. The writer really dropped the ball here romantic plot wise, all it would have taken to somewhat plausibly justify the slow burn is to just remove the 10 minutes from the first 14 episodes where they declared their eternal friendship to each other after a crazy acts of love. (or god forgive just replace those scenes with some wistful starting, whatever)
Though the show is quite repetitive from e6~ up to episode 15, since every episode has one moment of insane escalation that fizzles out & these are very similar almost every time.

From e15 onward the romance picks up & things start happening at a reasonable rate from then on. I would say that the second half of the show could have had more emotional impact, but cdramas will be cdramas, overall this was quite enjoyable to me.

As for the things outside of the leads' personal world, well the work drama part was okay-ish, mostly because more often than not the work related scenes transitioned back to ML + FL interactions, so I did not have time to become bored, let alone annoyed.
As for the usual political messaging this show is alright, there is some here and there, but it's not too egregious or immersion breaking.

The leads have a married couple for their best friends, but they don't really have a story worth mentioning, they were just a plot device to stall for even more time early on, just to annoy us viewers.

As for the most popular third couple I'm not sure what the fuss is about in the comment section. They were cute, but they only had like 15 minutes together in 30 episodes, so I'm not particularly upset about their acceptable, but admittedly less than satisfying, but still happy enough ending.

There are no love triangles, so triangle haters can safely watch this!

The OST is fantastic, so that did a lot to help me survive the first 14 episodes.

edit: I almost forgot! In other dramas I always hated the sad teary eyed `ge` or `gege` second lead characters. In this one teared eyed `ge` winning completely uncontested was a bit interesting & surreal :-)

Read More

The drama's okay, but it's not some hidden gem downrated by China haters.

The Good:
⌲ The OTP romance is relatively strong. (but this is only about 30% of the drama)
⌲ There is no triangle worth mentioning.
⌲ The format of getting into various psychological cases is nice. (almost case of the week-like)
⌲ Standing up to a toxic parent is always great to see in a cdrama(, but typically doesn't pass censorship.)
⌲ Overall the drama is a quite well made quality production.
⌲ The interesting symbolism (here and there)

The Average:
⌲ There are a lot of abrupt kisses that felt really strange & awkward.
⌲ The secondary couples are fun, but they barely had any screen time.
⌲ The individual cases are a hit or miss, there is a lot of procedural mediocrity everywhere.
⌲ The varying usage of hypnosis
⌲ Many things are over-explained, though this is the norm in this genre.
⌲ The 10 minute long breakup due to noble reasons
⌲ While the OTP romance is generally good, the writers have pulled the brakes in a very unnatural way to stall the couple's natural progress.

The Bad:
⌲ Second ML's plot is horrible + his cartoon villain persona could not be any more stereotypical.
⌲ The final episode is really underwhelming, in fact this is one of the most boring final episodes I have ever seen.
⌲ Going abroad to study is naturally a must..
⌲ Shao Ning's involvement in his love interest's treatment is a wee bit creepy.

Read More

I like mature romances & I especially like noona romances, so I had high hopes for this one. While I did enjoy the romance & what little comedy there was, I found the rest quite disappointing. For starters I really dislike the setting, more specifically the whole private school thing, it’s almost as if this drama is -despite the negative things that happen there- an advertisement for that horrible horrible industry. Also if that wasn’t enough, I think the whole mystery killer thing is kind of bad. To me XYZ’s sudden transformation into a cartoon villain is not a well planned whoah moment, but rather a sudden shift in live writing. (yes there is some seemingly clever foreshadowing, but things could have gone in multiple directions nonetheless) Also I think this drama has way too many annoying moms. Just one is too many, but here there seems to be an army of them..

To talk about some positives as well, it’s very nice that FL kind of looks her age, or rather what a hard working 40ish cook/restaurant owner could actually look like. While the chemistry with the ML is not that great, they do look great together! Also there is not really a breakup, nor a love triangle for them. I feel if I used my fastforward button more liberally, then I could have enjoyed the drama a lot more, focusing just on the romance aspect.

I did not like the ending either. Sure the happy endings for the couples were nice, but it's extremely annoying how suddenly all these evil characters got mini redemption arks..

So yes, as of writing this review this stands on 8.6, so the drama is HUGELY overrated in my book. While the romance is good, it’s not even close to good enough to carry the show, so I decided to settle on 6/10 as my final rating.

Read More

Just watch the original T-drama instead!

As everyone probably knows this is the mainland Chinese adaptation of the Taiwanese drama Meet Me @ 1006. Compared to other Chinese adaptations that I've seen, this one is at least genuinely similar to the source material. They may have changed a great many things, but ultimately we can still recognize the story & censorship did not ruin the time travel-ish ending, not this time.

There are three major things that can be considered improved over the original. For starters the cdrama's cinematography is just gorgeous. The plot of the cdrama flows far more smoothly, the writer did a reasonable job of fixing some of the flaws the original script had. For example Jia Lan knows how to use the Internet, so that's a huge plothole dealt with too.
Da Jun's big plot has been completely cut as well, which is HUGE.

Despite the above I cannot recommend this drama at all, I suggest to just watch "Meet Me @ 1006" instead.
So what's wrong with the adaptation? Well lots of things really. It's normal for cdramas to have far less emotional impact than their Korean, or Taiwanese counterparts, but here the difference is just way too jarring. We go from really intense and lively acting to emotionless Vulcan characters, well almost. The leads had strange chemistry, they had some obviously, but the acting was not very believable so the OTP couple did not really work for me. Also FL's voiceover sounded really weird & ill fitting. She was like 18-19 when they filmed this & the makeup artist did not really do a very good job hiding her baby fat. I'm fine with age gaps, but FL's age does not fit this role, it could not have been any more out of place.
I did praise the writer a little for fixing some of the script's flaws, but there are some negative developments as well. Some people tried to imagine a love triangle involving the same person from different timelines, watching the original I thought this was super silly. In the adaptation however the writer went all in with this, there is a real love triangle between the two He Zheng Yus. This is not too bothersome or anything, but feels unnecessary.
And finally the OST of this is perhaps the worst cdrama OST I've heard thus far. It annoyed me immensely, I did find myself turning down the volume a lot, when I could not take it anymore.

So yeah, just skip this one & watch the original Taiwanese show, if you can!

Read More

A less than realistic guide to YA relationships?

Watching this show I felt that it wanted to educate me too much. It's good if teens, or young adults have access to content like this, which is probably a pretty big deal in Korea, however I cannot help but feel that shows like Dawson's Creek have all that and much more & it's done better, the educational intent is conveyed more naturally etc..
Content like this is not what western audiences watch kdramas for & if we look past all the ehm "messages" there is not a whole lot left. Four hours are not enough to warm up to the two and a half mildly fluffy relationships, despite the actors doing a pretty good job across the board. The sismance did not feel that realistic, also it's weird how in the first episode FL2 seemed to have hated FL3, but the writer did her damnedest to make the audience forget that later. (also Chlamydia is not a virus)

Still there were some entertaining moments, 6/10.

Read More

A high school sports/romance drama pretending to take place at a university campus.

The Good:
-The chemistry between the leads
-The reasonably good acting
-The good special effects (I'm assuming Wang An Yu and co. cannot skate at the level shown in the show, but the CG? sure looked believable)
-The high quality production
-The moms ended up being a lot more tolerable than what I initially thought would be possible.
-The weak love triangles
-The fluff (though there could've been much more of it)
-The race in the last episode was pretty exciting and all anime like.

The Neutral:
-It's a sports drama first & romance drama second.
-The second lead couple's problems
-The silly, but still somewhat restrained villains.
-The (happy) ending is only so so. (reasonable for a sports fan, not so much for a romance fan)

The Bad:
-The overall story is extremely juvenile. (13 year old me would've loved it)
-The sports related subplots were really really silly as well. (don't expect an authentic speed skating experience)
-The production team could've picked a taller more athletic looking FL.
-After about 10-15 episodes it started to get boring. (not the fluff, but the skating)
-It's way too long.
-The leads took forever to get together.
-Coach Ulterior Motive
-The whole assist thing (though I've seen something similar in the Olympics in a running competition)
-Redemption arks
-The unreasonable character rewrites
-Snaky Snakewoman

Read More

Why would a Goodie do-Gooder go back to the sloutherhouse?

Normally I don't watch romance-less thriller kdramas, because they almost always suck. They are often full of immersion breaking sloppy writing and have many incredibly silly scenes. I feel that Squid Game certainly has them both. The characterization of the ML and of quite a few other contestants had some major problems. Personally I always hated it, when a random moron wins against smarter, more motivated opponents in a setting like this, however the ML's actions often felt arbitrary, beyond just an idiot's actions. Then again the whole thing is FULL of plotholes on a fundamental level, so the players frequently acting out of character is not even the biggest problem here, although Cho Sang Woo's death is just ridiculously stupid. All that he has sacrificed to win, for THAT to end up happening, well done! (evilME would have just thrown the knife for W45.000.000.000) Also what's the deal with the policeman's plotline, is there really a point beyond giving mental demons to his brother in season2?

The ending is trash of course, the minor cliffhanger is so bad that it's difficult to put into words. The final post-game twist is almost intelligence insulting too, especially considering how I went back and looked at what happened before frame by frame and it just doesn't make any sense. (pink solder raised the gun > the camera moved out of sight > boom > back in sight > man seemingly down) This is a preproduced drama and all the episodes were released on the same day, so the assumption that the audience would just forget about past details is just wrong.

The base ideas behind the show are pretty good, I guess the creator took Liar Game as the main inspiration & borrowed some ideas from Hunger Games and other Battle Royale titles. Mixing all that up with Korean children's games worked a lot better than I thought it possibly could have.
It's rare that a Korean TV show has one person as the director and the screenwriter. Hwang Dong Hyuk may have done a pretty bad job as a writer, but as a director I can only praise him. It's incredible how he succeeded to make the MOST BORING GAMES EVER exciting on TV. I found the tug of war game especially impressive. I have played tug of war many times & also I have seen tug of war on Running Man countless times, I have never thought rope pulling could be this exciting..

The best things about the show are of course the incredible sets, the symbology, the OST and the incredible cinematography.
I think the art director may have contributed more to this show's success than the director/screenwriter himself. I may have disliked many things about this show, but there were moments here and there, when I felt almost astonished at what I was seeing on screen. I do understand why Squid Game has become a worldwide sensation.

People talk about this show being the big hit it is, because of the human side of it, due to all the social interactions the contestants had with each other between the games. I'm not sure if I agree, most characters could not have been more two dimensional. Though certainly the actors did an excellent job showing a wide array of authentic emotions.

-
Most English speaking characters were cringeworthy as usual. They could have done much better in that regard, considering it's a Netflix production. The silly dubbed accents were not even the worst part, but rather the whole VIP member commentary in the last 2 episodes could not have been more out of place.
--
If we consider kdrama a genre, not just "korean made TV drama", then Squid Game is not a kdrama. It breaks several kdrama taboos, such as it has a Hollywood like explicit sex scene (not counting the gay foreigner thing), a lot of blood & most importantly the main characters are not astonishingly beautiful people. Personally I don't particularly mind, I'm just a little surprised by it all. I guess this is a real Netflix production with the western audiences in mind, perhaps Korea only embraced it, because it has become a huge worldwide sensation.

Read More

Watchable, if you are REALLY bored!

This is a watchable show. There is enough cuteness to provide some decent entertainment, but there is not much else there. The admittedly talented actors were more than enthusiastic enough, but that's arguably not enough in this format. Then again it's difficult for me to understand what's the point of a 2 hours long romcom to be presented this way. If I look at it like a movie - It should be fair, since I watched the entire thing in one sitting - it does not hold up. I could pick any random Hollywood romcom, or even just a random vampire flick and Kiss Goblin would fall short. On IMDB I would rate this as 4/10. The writing is weak and jittery. The production quality is decent, so it's more than a little sad that they could not find a writer to match that. I mean it shouldn't be that difficult to fill up 2 hours with some semi creative ideas, right?

On a more positive note, it's nice that the writer had no time to further ruin things by focusing on the love triangle, or Sageuk flashbacks..

Read More

I have two minor gripes about this one. Firstly the first two episodes were not only boring, but also the premise is a bit difficult to digest. (Math/statistics major in her final year keeps making REALLY and I mean REALLY stupid life decisions) The second issue is that there is a love triangle around episode 13-15 with the minor love interest acting like a blood hound, still at least they wrapped that up rather quickly. ~

I could nitpick about other things, but ultimately they are not important. This was almost precisely the drama I wanted to watch. It's a very sweet romcom, that is very unusual in how all the problems are solved very quickly in a satisfactory, wholesome manner. It's true that this drama has been heavily inspired by Because This is my First Life. Even though that one has quite a few stronger episodes & objectively way more interesting, more three dimensional characters, I think I prefer Perfect and Casual, because it doesn't have a really really frustrating separation plot and we get a lot more fluffy romance too, with many kisses that still remain meaningful in ways that other dramas with dragged out happy endings can almost never compete with. Other reviewers mentioned that they didn't very much like the side characters & their romances. Personally I think that both of their stories were okay-ish..

I mentioned earlier that this show is very unusual in how all the problems are solved very quickly in a satisfactory, wholesome manner. I have to note though, that there are quite a few heavily teased disastrous plot directions. The creators always dodged these bullets, but binge watching is recommended, because most of the teased bullshit gets resolved in like the first minute of the next episode ^_^

The OST is pretty good, normally I have a hard time enjoying Chinese music, but there were some catchy tunes in this one. The cinematography is very decent too..

TLDR: If you like sugar, just watch this one! If you are easily bored, then just start directly with episode 3.

Read More

After watching the first 4-5 double episodes I was thinking that Angel's Last Mission: Love is just a cheap imitation of Goblin. Many of the major themes in the show are essentially the same (reapers & angels are kind of the same too), which isn't bad, but the execution is worlds apart. I mean sure Shin Hye Sun's acting performance was out of this world good, but that was it. I was skipping scenes featuring sponsor board meetings(?) and I did not like all the stupid scheming and the asshole second lead character. I felt that L had the same acting teacher as Jinyoung and I don't mean that as a compliment. Many reviewers did not like the second part of the show, but to me the second half saved it. They've dialed down on the stupid Chaebol corporate bullshit and instead of meaningless scheming we proceeded with murder attempts that were a lot more interesting really. Also the second lead had much less screen time, which was a huge bonus. Even L's acting has improved, I felt genuinely touched at certain scenes. It was good romance, not much of a comedy though in the second half. At times I was even sitting at the edge of my seat.

Sure the last 5 minutes did not make any sense, it is the same ending as Goblin's, but the context is different. "The Deity is cruel" should've been the main theme of the show, it makes very little sense that the Deity would change his mind like that, then again I'm a sucker for happy endings & a sloppy happy ending like this is still better than tragedy with the conclusion that love is not eternal, the person that survived should move on & forget everything.
(If I were the writer I would have went with exAngel asshole guy sacrificing himself to keep the balance for a more reasonable happy ending.. :P)

The OST does not have too many tracks, but 2-3 of them were really memorable. It's way way above average.
The cinematography was good, though the cinematographer really likes the composition form called "the tilt".

TLDR: Out of all the 50+ kdramas I've watched this is the most similar to Goblin, it's nowhere near on the same level, but it's well deserving of a watch & perhaps a rewatch .. (Shin Hye Sun should get an award..)

Read More

I was sufficiently entertained so I would feel bad for giving it less than 8 stars, however the story is pretty bad at times. As a romantic comedy it's pretty great really, even the second pair has a good chemistry. There was no real love triangle, which I always appreciate. The actors were great for the most part too. Personally I didn't mind the casting changes, if I look at the entire series as a whole (with the novel as the basis) perhaps the ML in the second series was more fitting for the role. With My Amazing Boyfriend 1 the chinese wanted to copy the success of My Love from the Star and they've picked a lead that's extremely similar to Kim Soohyon both in looks and mannerisms & I don't think that would have worked for the story in the second season. I prefer Janice Wu over Yu Esther for the female lead role, but thanks to the long time between the two shows the change did not bother me too much. For a replacement Yu Esther was quite outstanding.
I hated how the first show has ended & I'm grateful that they've given me a satisfying conclusion, at last.

So I mentioned above that I had problems with the story. First and foremost the show is really long, the 38 episodes translate into the length of a 19 episodes long kdrama, which I'm normally fine with, but there was a lot of time wasted with the (really stupid, a normal person would have seen it from a mile away) child kidnapping plot, followed by a second kidnapping plot, so yep that wasn't great. Tian Jing Zhi's character is also written in a weird, inconsistent way. In the first show she practically threw herself at Xue Ling Qiao, but in the second show even after they've gotten engaged the woman decided to practice abstinence for quite a whole for ehm reasons and once all the major troubles were resolved she decided to develop a marriage phobia, I mean come on webnovel writer you could have done better..

Read More

Considering the makjang premise this show turned out to be a huge surprise. The typical tropes did not really come into play. The secondary love interests didn't cause too many problems & their existence was a meaningful part of the show, which almost never happens with these triangles & squares. I loved the main love line, it was awesome from beginning to end, although at its core it's quite similar to the love story in Goblin. There was an unusual amount of honesty at unexpected times! The 2 secondary couples were also fun to watch, especially the noona + lawyer pairing. The supernatural element was okay too( not great), it did make the show more interesting, especially early on. The pacing of the story was surprisingly good, almost every episode had some melodramatic parts with a good amount of comedic relief in between. The OST was perfect at creating the mood for almost every scene. I usually don't comment on sound quality, when it comes to kdramas, but generally they use budget microphones and there are a lot of pops & clicks that I can clearly hear with my higher end headphone gear. It's nice that in a drama that touches upon sound engineering I can enjoy the sound & music without those usual annoyances.

Naturally this drama isn't perfect. The plot has some weaker points, such as the way our MC accepted death, or how pulling the investment has led to jail time, I mean that is pretty outlandish if you think about it. The sound engineering procedural parts looked awesome, but this is not how they do it in real life, they do make the sounds in a similar way with all kinds of props, but the scenes aren't reenacted in real time, but rather if there are 20 seperate sound sources they record those 20 sounds separately & then merge/edit them in post, plus the step sounds are looped, there is no need for sound engineers to run for minutes on end during recording.

Read More

Having watched Memories of Alhambra first, I did not expect much from this. Here the writer does a much better job in every way, but ultimately at its core this drama suffers from similar problems. The setting is obviously much better, instead of a super boring MMO world we have a manhwa world, with some interesting spaghetti western elements, a subtle noir vibe is also present. With the premise that magic is real, sometimes nonsense stuff kind of makes sense in W, it's not like Alhambra where everything is a jumbled mess. With that said W is a mediocre drama at best, yes the cast had some amazing actors, the OST was mostly great at setting the right atmosphere and the cinematography was very pretty & the darker lighting was also very fitting most of the time, but all these don't make up for the fact that I just wasn't that interested in the villains & their deeds. The romance was fine, but this is probably the worst chemistry that I've seen Lee Jong-suk have with anyone, it's by no means below average in kdramaland, but I've expected more. A nicely wrapped up happy ending would have improved my opinion of the drama a lot, it's a shame that it did not happen, it's nice that they got together for the last 5? minutes of the drama, but for all we know Kang Chol would just end up in prison again for not having a legitimate identity... (in the fantasy genre normally I wouldn't care much about this, but in W the plot device of not having a proper identity is brought up again & again...)

This writer really shouldn't work alone, if she could just be responsible for the world building & maybe the characters, while pairing up with someone that knows how to keep the audience interested.
I think she also wrote Queen InHyon's Man, I like that drama quite a bit, but the writing is not very good there either.

Read More