The vengeance was the best part
I really liked a lot of this drama, but it went downhill for me after around 20 episodes. I really liked the ML and I liked how he went about getting revenge and it was the best part of the show, sadly his revenge story didn't take up majority of the show as you'd think.I liked the FL and her character really suited the ML. I just hated how nice and kind she was. There is a limit to how nice you can and should be to people that don't care for you or appreciate you at all. And that's what really annoyed me about her. I was really happy that the romance aspect of this drama came in really late and that it's singular focus for the first half was the ML's revenge.
I didn't mind the ML's relationship with the FL's sister because I knew he despised the sister. But I really wish the sister got what was coming for her, because despite the fact that she hates the ML, I hate how she looks down on her sister for being with someone she had first. If the ML and FL were always going to end up together, why did the plot have to make him go so far with the sister who would always looked down on her sister and him. But this wasn't what triggered me about this drama; It was the redemption that did it for me.
I hated the redemption arc of all the surviving characters in this drama. Especially the sisters one. The one charecter I wanted dead more than anyone, survived. And it was a pathetic and unsatisfying redemption arc at that, for all the surviving characters. It also seemed very last minute. I was really hoping she'd get the karma that all the other charecters got, including the ML, but she didn't. I don't understand why a drama, entirely about vengeance, has to have a redemption arc at all. I don't even think the ML needed one, even though he was obsessed with getting revenge and hurt a lot of people unintentionally to do so.
This drama would have been a lot better of it was slightly shorter. The last 3 episodes seemed irrelevant to the overal plot, and the redemption ruined it for me. It was so satisfying to watch the characters get their karma, and the irony of how they got it was hilarious, but the ending ruined this for me.
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Very UNEXPECTED plots and twists that have you questioning EVERYTHING
This is a 13 episode Tdrama and it was the perfect length for the drama.There are several storylines in this drama, around 3-4 episodes long each and are all delved into. The first 4 episode had a somewhat expectable plot if you've watched the trailer or read the synopsis, but after that, it really goes outside of the usual fantasy box and starts delving into sci-fi, especially the last 3 episodes.
This drama really goes from a world of gods and demigods called Kawas, a whole mythology thing where the big, main God is Kakarayan (whose storyline was my favourite), to sci-fi and a Matrix like plot that really has you questioning the reality of everything that happened in the drama. This was the plot that got me really emotional, especially when the world of the ML literally comes crashing down around him.
It is full of unexpected twists, so many that the ending, though satisfying, creates more questions than answers.
Characters you think are bad or good, or real, or fake, aren't at all what they seem. Though there is one thing I will say about all the characters and that is that there aren't really any bad guys.
My favourite character was definitely Kakarayan more so than Orad and I loved how (SPOILER) Kakarayan literally created Orad to live the life he wanted for himself with the girl he loved. There is a wholesome love triangle that's never delved into, but one I absolutely ADORED.
SPOILER: I LOVED the ending of this drama, it was PERFECT and so much happier than I would have expected. It sort of went down I route I don't like, where everything is a dream. But it did it so well that I didn't care, and they also make it a point to say that it wasn't a dream, perhaps just a forgotten memory as almost the entire plot of the drama was. I would have liked to see them get married or at least engaged at the end, to wrap up the storyline and finalise it in a way.
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This review may contain spoilers
I LOVED the villain more than anyone else
Hooked since the first episode. I already knew who the villain was before starting this drama (wish I didn't), but it was such a good twist.Starting with the lead this drama is named after, Vincenzo: I love anti-hero leads, and Vincenzo is a vigilante, who classifies as an anti-hero lead, but I didn't love him half as much as I loved the villain. Vincenzo gave me the same vibes as the ML from Lawless Lawyers, but he was much more... elegant and lawless, but also kind of boring. Though he is technically not a 'hero', I thought I'd like him more than the SML, but I was wrong. I don't speak or understand Italian, I've watched few Italian dramas, and I think Song Joong Ki did an amazing job with the Italian. He really pulled off the whole Italian Mafia background storyline.
Hong Cha Young is now one of my favourite FL's in a K/Cdrama. She was a strong FL, who also pulled off being adorable, without being in the least bit annoying. It's hard finding a FL in a Kdrama, and especially Cdramas, that can pull off even one, not to mention both, without being annoying. I loved how crazy she was, not the revenge aspect, but her "acting", bad sense of direction and random skipping, singing and dancing. One of my favourite things was her friendship with Jang Jun Woo, wish they were closer at the start.
Jang Jun Woo was my FAVOURITE character in this drama, who STOLE the ENTIRE show. I also loved Ok Taec Yeon's American accent whenever he spoke English and sometimes even in his Korean. Knowing he was the bad guy prior to the reveal, and actually seeing it, was so much better then I expected. I loved him as an Cha Young's intern/only friend. Their friendship was adorable and hilarious. Ok Taec Yeon did such an amazing job portraying such different personalities, his eyes really showed the psychopath in Jun Woo. I know he's a psychopath, but it seemed like he was also bipolar. His relationship with Cha Young was so different to that with his own brother. He also seemed to enjoy being shouted at and essentially being harassed by his 'boss' and especially Cha Young. But, he will also kill you or bite off your ear if you shout at him or mock him. His reveal to his 'bosses' was really well executed, we actually got to see him flip the switch from a 'stuttering' intern who doesn't mind being ordered about, and the psychotic BOSS who will kill you, preferrably with a hockey stick, if you try to order him about:
"Nothing's a problem for me as long as I don't feel like shit".
I LOVED everything about him. He was such a GOOD, bad guy. He is why I rated this drama so high, because he was a 10/10.
This was my first drama with any of these three actors, and I LOVED them all, but mostly Ok Taec Yeon .
This drama got boring after around 15 episodes. I wanted Jun Woo's identity to be revealed to the other leads much later in the drama than when it was. It was also really anticlimactic. I was only able to finish this drama off for him, and I was rooting for him. His scenes were the most interesting, especially after the reveal.
Sadly, as expected, even a psychotic genius can't outsmart a mafia anti-hero ML.
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The ML and FL were a MOOD
The relationship between the leads can be seen through this conversation:ML: "You can either struggle and drown to death, or wait until you can kick yourself back up"
FL: "Are you telling me to drown deeper to the bottom?"
ML: "That's not what I meant. Was that not comforting either? You and I really don't mix well."
A hate to love romance between two really decent people. Both of whom, individually are really loveable but together (at least at the start) clash. They have very ironically and drastically different personalities: the idol is antisocial who seems to hate people in general (excluding fans), a mood in itself, whilst the no name reporter is a social butterfly that is hated by everyone for reporting the truth (at least from her view).
The SL couple: They were in a toxic relationship, not necessarily because it was abusive. The SML loves the SFL and she lives off of him despite the fact that she clearly doesn't love him. I felt bad for the SML for being in love with her and I hated the SFL for using him, his emotions, money and company to make it as an idol. I understood why he was always angry at the SFL when it came to the ML and I hated how the SFL always played innocent with him despite knowing that he knows her better than anyone else.
I LOVED the SML in this drama, despite him first being portrayed as a villain, he was always a really decent person that is always misunderstood by other people. I loved his relationship with the ML and FL, they all made such good friends. The friendship between the ML and SML was beautiful despite them not being friends for the majority of the drama. I hated how the SFL got in the way of the friendship between the two ML's and they both deserved better than the SFL.
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Character/ relationship development and plot twists
I really enjoyed this drama, the best thing about this drama for me was the relationship between Seungchun and Tae Yong which really doesn't developed until the second half of the drama. This drama was kind of slow because a lot of the plot twist, relationships (non-romantic) and essentially the more interesting storylines do not come in until around episode 10.I did not like the romance in this drama. There was a huge time jump in this drama and I don't understand how the romantic relationships between all of the characters remained the same during and after this period. The only good relationship this time created was the parent/son relationship between Tae Yong and Seungchun's parent's and I would even say a nice relationship between Seungchun and Tae Yong's 'father'. I loved Munki's relationship with Tae Yong and Seungchun, despite them both being the same person to Munki, their relationship with Munki was VERY different. Tae Yong and Munki had a brotherly relationship. (I don't watch BLs and usually don't randomly ship guys but) I started shipping Seungchun and Munki, heck they were the only 'couple' I shipped.
I preferred Yu Jin over Joo Hee. Unlike every other charecter in this drama Joo Hee was the only one who stayed persistently the SAME, no character development, nothing, she is so self-righteous to the point that it was annoying. Yu Jin made mistakes, but she changed a lot throughout this drama from being selfish and cold, to someone who actually cared about Seungchun. Joo Hee was the only character I did not like and I wish we got to see a lot more of the brotherly bond between Seungchun and Tae Yong instead of the romantic storyline between Seungchun and Joo Hee. (SPOILERS) I would have been fine with her had she just stopped after discovering how Seungchun swappeed places with Tae Yong, but then she spent the rest of the drama begging him to switch back, to be himself etc, despite the fact that Tae Yong was happy being Seungchun and Seungchun had already been Tae Yong for over 10 years, at this point he had no right to switch back.
I wish it was Yu Jin and Seungchun at the end and Tae Yong and Joo Hee, both pairs would have been perfect for each other.
I will not go into detail about the plot twists, but I feel like it was quite predictable. You see, every single person who has used the golden spoon, for some reason in this drama, have the exact same view on poverty, on how "being poor is a crime".
I liked the ending of this drama, but I wish we got Tae Ying and Seungchun's bromance instead of Yun Ji and Seungchun.
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Exceeded my expectations for a Thai drama
I don't have high expectations for Thai dramas, I usually expect to find at least:- one really annoying side character that creates all the drama and gets in the way of the leads,
- a bunch of misunderstanding dragging the drama, and/or
- an annoying FL who takes all the s*** the ML throws at her and never fights back.
- as well as a hateful SFL.
This drama exceeded my expectations when it had NONE of the above.
I really enjoyed this drama. It had me hooked from beginning to end that it took me literally just a day to finish this drama.
The FL was feisty and strong. She was a genius and can hold her own and survive in whatever circumstance. She did not take any s*** from the ML and he didn't really give her any, ever. Her capability is what everyone admired about her and I love that she got respect from EVERYONE for it. One of my favourite Thai FL's so far.
Despite how the plot sounds, the ML being a member and powerful figure of the Hong Kong mafia and essentially being obsessed with the FL's sister (simply because her sister was really pretty and nothing else). He was not what I expected at all, he was very respectful of the FL before he even cared for her, In fact he wasn't 'bad' to anyone, he had a lot of admirers as well as a really close friend (perhaps more) in the SFL (Mei Jin) who I thought I would dislike, but in fact grew to love.
There was also the FL's sister who I thought would be the annoying side character that gets in the way of the leads, but she was not problematic at all, and in fact had very little screen time I didn't care for as it didn't do anything to the plot.
The ML's right hand man Jongsing was a very loyal friend to the ML and despite his romantic feelings for the SFL who liked the ML, it did not get in the way of Jongsing's loyalty to Lan See.
Side couples:
The only genuine side couple were Meena and Puey In who had a rough start. I feel like their story would have been similar to the story the ML and the FL's sister would have had, had the FL not taken her sisters place. To me it was like a "what if" storyline. Puey In starts off as a jerk who kidnaps Mean because he likes her, he also assaults her, but then he grows on Meena.
No love triangles:
There were no love triangles in this drama, not real ones.
The SFL likes the ML but is okay just being his friend and sharing a platonic relationship. She also has an adorable admirer in Jongsing.
If there is a SML, it would be Danny Tapia, who surprisingly had no love triangle storyline with the FL despite how close they were. He and the FL were platonic soulmates if anything.
No dragged story:
Pure romance and action, no melodrama, no dragged storyline and fast paced. So much happens in all the episodes, there is no time for misunderstandings, unnecessary plot lines etc. There are a lot of unexpected twists alongside the expected storyline in the synopsis that makes the drama so much better and perfect for the 16 (1 hour 50 minute) episodes (though I did skip quite a lot of the drama after episode 11 when the romance became more ...real).
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LGBTQ+ with no real romance
I LOVED everything about this drama. It is not the type of drama I would typically watch and the main romance storyline is EXTREMELY toxic. It wasn't even romance, it was OBSESSION on the ML's part.I loved the ML, in the sense that I loved HATING him. Nishikido Ryo acting was amazing, he played the role of such a hateful character in a way that mad me feel sad for Sosuke. He somehow made me, as an audience understand and empathise with Michiru's love for Sosuke, and he had the supporting characters fooled as well. Usually when it comes to toxic couples, I would be annoyed at the FL for staying with such a toxic ML, but the script and acting for this drama was so well done, that not once was I annoyed at the FL for believing the ML and staying with him whilst he abused her.
This was my first LGBTQ drama, one where the main characters were LGBTQ, though there wasn't't really any romance between them, the love triangle was perfect: Ruka was in love with Michiru who later fell in love with Takeru who was in love with Ruka.
(Sort of a SPOILER)
I had a very ominous felling about the end of this drama after the opening it had. But I loved the ending. By "no real romance" I mean that none of the leads officially end up together romantically, though I can see them thriving as throuple after the end, as everyone was in love with everyone but not each other. It doesn't really go in depth with this part of the storyline but focuses more on the amazing friendship that develops between the leads who are only trying to protect each other from people like Sosuke and as well as homophobia and transphobia against Ruka.
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Not once did this drama bore me
I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed this drama especially because I did not think I would enjoy Xing Xu's drama after the last drama I saw of his. He's an amazing actor, amazing at making me hate whatever role he's playing so I was surprised by his "good guy" role here, though there were times I hated him. I actually started this drama for Evan Lin after his role in Crush and I have never seen any of Jing Yi's dramas before, not that she's in many. But the casting for this drama was perfect and I LOVED all the characters, at least the ones that lived. I also loved that everyone got what they deserved. This is my first historical, non-fantasy drama where the villains get what they deserve and the "good guys" actually live to have their happy ending. At least most of them did.This is literally the only drama where I was able to remember everyones names and it is really important to the plot that you know everyones names since it is HIGHLY political (and action-packed), the powerful families being: Mu (FL's family with all the money), Tan (ML's family that's power was taken), Xu (SML's family who killed and stole everyone's power) and the Pei and Su family (best friends of the SML and at some point rivals in war). The children of all these families stood by each other, became really god friends and even family with each other.
I hated almost all of the FL's family, including her father and I was so happy to see them get what they deserved. I also didn't want the SML so suffer any losses and I was happy that his loss was very brief and that he didn't seem to suffer as much as all the other characters did.
I really thought this drama will have a tragic ending, but it didn't. The one thing I was rooting for most was that Xu Guangyao lives to the very end of the drama and doesn't go bad. He was the most wholesome person in this entire drama, everything about him was good. Despite this drama being a lot about children paying for their parents sins, Guangyao was so beloved by everyone that no one truly blamed him for his fathers wrong doings and no one had him pay for it. I was so happy that he didn't get punished for his fathers crimes. His father was the biggest villain in this drama, but he was a really good father to his son, a better father than Mu Wanqing's father ever was to her and that was Xu Bojun's only redemption.
I loved the relationship between all our leads and the AMAZING chemistry between Xing Xu and Jing Yi. I was surprised by how quickly I shipped their characters especially because I came into this drama expecting to ship the FL and SML. Wanqing and Guanyao had a very sibling like relationship despite Guanyao being in love with Wanqing (the way he looked at her spoke so much), which I loved. I never shipped them romantically until I hated the ML for a few episodes for treating the FL really badly, I was so happy to know that it was all an act on the ML's part, I was terrified that he'd become the villain and that the FL would die. I also loved how the ML felt about the SML, he always found Guanyao to be "too good for this world" and he seemed to genuinely love the SML as a family since Guanyao was the Wanqing's "brother" and so his brother in law.
This drama really had me anticipating EVERYONE's death, I was terrified that someone I liked would die and literally the one person I didn't even think about (but liked), was the one person that died.
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This drama is about trauma and a lot of it.
This drama had me hooked from the very first episode. I loved the leads in the first episode and I understood the FL.The FL had very low expectations of men in general after all her traumatic experiences. It was obvious what she went through after just watching her reaction to people, especially men in general and it's surprising that no one else clocked why she became the way she was. It was so surprising how defensive the ML was of the FL after seeing her the second time and how quickly he clocked what was going on. I loved how defensive he was of her, despite being the playboy and womaniser (who didn't really respect woman) he was introduced as, he was the nicest and sweetest person ever to the FL. He was a good guy in general who just liked to play dumb.
I also loved the FL. Started this drama for Barbie Hsu after watching her on Summer's Desire and I loved her character here. Though she was younger, her acting was still really good here. You could really see the FL's trauma through her eyes.
My favourite thing about this drama was all the friendships. The second leads, as any typical second leads, were in love with the main leads at the beginning. The SML was the ML's best friend and the SFL was someone the ML would sometimes hook up with. The SFL, despite first bullying the FL because of her relationship with the ML, she almost immediately became best friends with the FL. No one shipped the main leads together more than the second leads, and that, I think, is the best type of second lead.
The main leads relationship also remained consistent. There was no break up (not one I considered to be a real one at least). And they always stuck by each other through all their drama. Nothing could stop them being together, not even family. I was surprised by how there was no family drama breaking up the main leads.
(Sort of a spoiler) What I found really sad and kinda funny was the fact that the FL's personality is exactly like that of what people perceived the ML's late twin brother to be like. They even shared the same lines. It was as if the ML loved his brother so much he ended up with a girl that was exactly like him.
This show is mainly about trauma and a lot of misunderstandings at least in the ML's part. Had there not been any misunderstandings of the ML's past, he wouldn't have had any of the trauma he had in the present and I don't think his brother would have done what he did.
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I Love My President Though He's A Psycho
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The most RANDOM and MESSY plot I have ever seen.
This was one CRAZY drama. I have never seen a drama with as many plot twists as this. Every time I think the drama is getting to the end, based on the plot of the episode, I realise there's 8, 7, 6 ..... more episodes to go. It is so unbelievably unpredictable which I actually enjoyed, only because I have NEVER seen a drama with a plot as random as this (more like multiple plots). There is no one way I can describe the plot because it changes EVERY episode.This drama is 10+ HOURS long and so much happened. A LOT of unnecessary drama as well as drama that I genuinely lost the plot off, which rarely happens. It's also really CRINGE, the amount of times I paused this drama to take a break from the cringe was annoying. The acting was okay, but sometimes even the acting had me cringing, usually it was the lines.
The only normal person on this drama is Butler Feng who I actually shipped with the Xiao Nian even though they had no romantic anything together. I liked Xiao Nian, it's rare for me to find an FL that doesn't annoy me, and she didn't for most of the drama. Both the ML (Gong Ou) and SML (Qian Chu) were psychotic, not necessarily in a bad way and both were the FL's love interests:
Gong Ou was violent (an outright bully) to everyone but the people he loved and he was also really WEIRD and gets even weirder by the end of the drama. He is the kind of ML that treats everyone badly but the FL. If you want a sweet and obsessive ML who only cares for the FL, then watch this.
I thought Qian Chu was normal and sane, but instead he turned out to be like the SML in Memory lost, but I loved Ai Qi from Memory Lost from beginning to end, but I didn't like Qian Chu so much at the end. He also had the same vibe, personality and similar looks as Ai Qi from Memory Lost. And there was definitely something off with him. But unlike the typical SML's, it was COMPLETELY understandable why the FL would never choose Qian Chu over Gong Ou despite how "sweet" Qian Chu was, even from the first episode, especially at the end.
I would recommend this drama if you want to watch a somewhat short CRAZY AF, drama with a LOT of drama and CRINGE. Also, I hated the music, it did not give the vibe of a Cdrama, maybe the vibe of a Telenovela.
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My FIRST EVER Kdrama that got me into Kdrama's
This was my first EVER Kdrama and Asian drama in general. It was the Kdrama that got me into Kdramas and later C/J/Tdramas. I watched this almost exactly a year ago (October 2020) whilst it was ongoing and ironiclly enough, it is the only non-romantic Asian drama I've watched and I only watch dramas with at least some romance.I'm surprised no one talks about this drama and a lot of people don't even know about it. It is extremely underrated.
I watched this drama whilst it was on going and it had me anxiously anticipating the next episodes every week. It had me theorisng the ending from the very beginning and every episode had me shook. I still remember it very clearly. This drama had no romance, and would have been truly disturbing if it did. But, it had hints of it, hints that the FL may have liked the ML in a non platonic or familial way.
This is the ONLY time travel drama I've seen that actually looks at the science of time travel whilst timetraveling, and actually focuses on how timetravel came to exist. It is a very real world detective drama mixed with outright sci-fi, completely different genres that clashed in the best way possible. It also had me obsessing over time travel dramas for months.
My favourite part of this drama was the story of the ML's parents. I LOVED his parents and they had the most interesting as well as heartbreaking storyline, one we see at the very start of the drama. I would have been happy just to see a drama of their story. I wish we got to see more of the ML's dad, he was the most badass character in this drama and with the best character development, not to mention, handsome as hell.
The ONLY thing I HATED about this drama was the ending. After spending weeks theorising just about every ending I could think off, they somehow came up with the worst ending for this drama that I couldn't even contemplate. Considering how this drama focused a lot on the science of time travel, a science that made sense especially with the chronological order of events, they somehow made the ending make absolutely no sense whatsoever. The last episode made a 180 and completely deviated from the plotline of the previous 15 episodes.
I highly recomend this drama to anyone despite the ending, because the first 15 episodes are definitely worth the watch. It is still one of the most UNIQUE Kdrama's (and Asian drama) I've seen or heard of and the plot was very detailed and every episode was unexpected. You will not be able to anticipate what will happen the next episode, forget anticipating the ending. There are so many twists in this drama and I LOVED almost all of them.
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Better than I expected especially after reading all the bad reviews and comments.
I dropped this drama after 1 episode because of all the bad reviews and comments I read on MDL and YouTube, and the fact that I thought Aaron was the ML but wasn't. But then I immediately picked it up again and actually enjoyed the drama knowing the ending. I LOVED the fact that Calvin was the ML. I did not like Ah Yi and even hated him sometimes, but Da Ye was so LOVEABLE and perfect.A lot of the bad reviews and comments for this drama are about how Xia Feng keeps going back and forth between the two guys, as if she's indecisive about who to be with, but it really wasn't like that. If anything, Ah Yi was the most indecisive character in this drama, which is why he was the SL. Xiao Feng liked Da Ye from the very beginning and spends SEVERAL episodes pursuing him, until he rejects her in the nicest way possible because he simply didn't understand romantic relationships and how to love someone in that way. I feel like Xiao Feng only starts to go out with Ah Yi only because he liked her, and she liked the idea of liking someone who reciprocated her feelings. She later grew to genuinely like him. But, Ah Yi only pursued Xiao Feng because she reminded him of his first love, which was unrequited. This is why I loved that Aaron was the second lead, Ah Yi didn't put Xiao Feng first over his unrequited love, and when he did, it was too late. When Da Ye first rejected Xiao Feng, it wasn't because he didn't like her, in fact I'm certain he had romantic feelings for her but just didn't know it. It was because he didn't want to lead her on in any way, the way Ah Yi did.
There were a LOT of things I didn't like about the FL as well as Reen Yu's acting. Her acting was WAY over the top, reminded me of the FL from Skip Beat!, but in this drama it felt really out of place considering the fact that all the other charecters were more down to earth with less exaggerated acting. It could partly be blamed on the Reen Yu's script, but I also think it was her acting in general. I loved Calvin and Aaron's acting. Despite Calvin's character being somewhat of a bubble head, unlike Reen Yu's character, who too was a bubble head, Da Ye didn't seem as stupid and unrealistic as Xiao Feng was. Xiao Feng seemed like a character that walked right out of an anime, like the FL from Skip Beat!.
Da Ye was a character that could do no wrong and I love that he broke the fourth wall multiple times.
Xiao Feng did start to get annoying towards the end of the drama, especially in the last few episodes, at this point I started skipping through the drama. Ah Yi wasn't that great either but Da Ye started to get a lot of character development in the sense that his character started to show a more serious side. Sometimes he'd go from a carefree and bubble headed person to a dead serious and sometimes out right mean person. But this didn't really go anywhere and wasn't really developed into. The ending was definitely rushed. Unnecessary rushed considering how slow the last few episodes were.
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The last 4 episodes RUINED this drama
I loved the three main leads in this drama and their relationships, they all had really good chemistry. I was hoping, throughout this drama that none of their relationships would get ruined by the politics:- the sibling like relationship between Shyi (FL) and Wang Er (SML),
- the frenemy relationship between Yanyi (ML) and Wang Er (SML) and,
- the comedic bromance to romance between Yanyi (ML) and Shiyi (FL).
I love how none of the leads cared about politics though it influenced their lives more than anyone else's due to the power of their family (FL), their own status (ML) and their families strong political alliance (SML).
Yanyi (ML):
At first Yanyi seemed like the the typical cold (frankly a bit boring) ML, but after several episodes he became much warmer and comedic. His relationship with the Shiyi also made his character more interesting.
Wang Er (SML)
Wang Er was always hilarious, he was a bully in the first episode but was surprisingly a sweetheart in every other. He was the most intuitive character and was spot on about Shiyi from the start. The guy who sleeps in all his classes turned out to be the poet and writer of the group.
Shiyi (FL)
Shiyi made a quite handsome man, the makeup and posture was perfect. Her character was physically strong, calculative, street and book smart, but also very oblivious to the admiration of Yanyi and Wang Er, which made me love her more. She wasn't annoying or stupid in any way and she always had a plan before doing anything. I usually don't like plots where a the FL pretends to be a man, but I felt that there was a good enough reason for that to be the case here, and the FL pulled it off really well as a pretty boy. She had both men and women alike, falling head over heels for her and seriously considering their sexuality.
Lin Baozi
The doctor is introduced several episodes in. An anti-imperialistic doctor who doesn't care for power, status or the gender of Shiyi. He was a really funny and enduring character who seemed like the third wheel to Yanyi and Shiyi.
Wang Xiyuan (SFL)
Wang Xiyuan was also surprisingly a sweetheart and EXACTLY like her brother which made her such a loveable character. (SPOILER) I mean, she got married to the Shiyi, the woman her brother was in love with ???.
Ending (SPOILERS)
Everything was going great until about the last 4 episodes, especially the last 2.
I have NEVER seen a Kdrama or Cdrama where the ML is the Crown Prince/Emperor and gets a happy ending with the FL. I've seen open and outright sad endings, but not a single happy ending. And this drama, though comedic and mostly light throughout, it got really sad and HEAVY in the last 4 episodes. The three relationships I was afraid would be ruined, did in fact get ruined, the only reason it was surprising was because it happened very late in the drama. Character development, relationships and even the plot went down the drain in those last episodes.
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Unique story, great friendships and atypical romances
I started this drama for Jang Ki Yong after seeing him on Born Again and Come and Hug Me. I love the roles he usually plays, characters that are warm but would come off as a psychopath, which is sort of how he is here. Woo Yeo is a Gumiho whose goal is to be a human, and litterally the only thing stopping him is his lack of human emotion. I also loved Hyeri in Reply 1988, her role here was just as lovable and maybe even funnier.I LOVED the second lead. I had such bad second lead syndrome in this drama. The first half of Sun Woo's story was like any other American drama/move where the "player"/"badboy" makes a bet to make a girl go out with him and/or fall for him, and then ends up being the one to fall for her. Though, here, it's far less cringe. This being a Kdrama and all, where he is the second lead, it's predictable where his storyline would go. He's not ending up with the lead, no matter how much I shipped them, especially after the red string of fate connected them. Sun Woo and Lee Dam's story was great on it's own, and so damn sweet in an atypical way that I couldn't help but ship them, maybe even more than I shipped Lee Dam and Woo Yeo (the ML).
My favourite thing about this drama was all the friendships. Lee Dam and Jae Jin had a sibling like relationship, absolutely no one would consider their relationship to be anything more. The same goes for Woo Yeo and Hye Sun's (the SFL) relationship. This made the friendship and relationships of all the main characters very uncomplicated and made them more of a family then they already were.
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This review may contain spoilers
This was definitely better than I expected.
The cover of this drama is very misleading. It looks like a sweet and BORING romance when it's NOT.This is a drama where the ML chases the FL, but unlike the usual Cdramas where the FL is being annoying and pushing the ML away when he's being nice and sweet, here, it's the opposite. The FL does try to push the ML away, and with good reason. He chases her in the worst possible ways, which I loved. Everything he does to keep her close, does the exact opposite. Since he's rich and she's poor, you know money is the leverage he uses, which thankfully doesn't attract the FL.
I loved the FL in this drama, usually in these types of dramas I wouldn't really like the FL. Here, the FL is a practical person, she has good reason to do the things she does. Even her crush on her childhood friend made sense because he was really good to her, just not boyfriend material. I found it hilarious and ironic that her crushes role model was the ML.
I also LOVED the ML. Despite the fact that he does go overboard in trying to "own" the FL, I understood why he went to such lengths to do so. I loved his charecter development and his backstory really does explain why he became such a cold person who only cares about money and I loved how his backstory is never hidden, we know it from the very begining. His charecter is the definition of "money can't buy you happiness". He is a very lonely person who grew up with parents that didn't seem to love him and instead dotted on his adopted brother. He was an outsider to his own family. I think that's why he grew to have a phobia of touching people, because those who were meant to be the closes to him, abandoned him. What's worse is that he was replaced by his parents with the SML (Ning Fei).
This is a slow burn romance. Maybe a bit too slow, when it came to the romance. But, even when the leads where just "friends", their relationship was more like that of a couple rather than friends. I also loved the second lead couple, though they were more like siblings throughout the drama.
The story can definitely continue as the ending is open and I'm so happy that there's going to be a season 2 with the same cast.
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