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This version also tells its story by frequent flash backs and moments in the past, which until you get the hang of it makes it difficult to follow. The story divulges into to the past of all its characters, thus dragging out the series and can sometimes seem to beat a already dead horse.
The quick action is left to a minimum in this version, and Il Woo just wasnt as charismatic as Jun Ki was.
-Bottom line "Return to Iljimae" seems to be a true history piece, slowly dragging you behind the main character. Can easily be fast forwarded . On the upside Il woo is cute when he smiles and this one seemed to have a larger production budget.
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I got frustrated with the character's inability to say what he felt even after all the chances. It seemed like the same situation kept happening over and over and over again. He was sent back to a point in time, he is meant to change a situation, he gets scared, makes no progress and then has to return to the current time.
i liked the ending, it was a real clifhanger. (so watch the special)
Although it doesnt engross you into the story- The acting was really good actually, the side stories were intresting and it was funny as well so it was good all around. From the first 3 episodes youll know if you like it or not.
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The good: the best thing about this drama was the very witty female lead Ye Jia Yao. She was never a damsel in distress, never waited to be saved by a man, made use of her skills and was i-n-p-e-n-d-e-n-t! (Hooray Girl power!). Honestly not many dramas have a smart, funny and non-annoying female lead.
Almost all the men in this one are HOT… in the best way possible! The majority of the male characters are learning to acquiesce to Jia Yao and her thoughts on women empowerment. In such a crossover historical drama I liked the use of modern terminology, and how the main characters would be lost while Jia Yao was explaining 21st century concepts; it just added congruity. It was cool that Jia Yao used her knowledge of historical dramas to help her through… that was cute!
The way the lead characters were written was magical, like a realistic couple, complete with quirks and trust and issues.
The Bad: The villains. Every drama can have a horrible step mother, an evil ex-girlfriend , awful sisters or in historical dramas an evil queen/king, and some really pointless self sacrifice. This drama had the worst combination of all of the above plus extra girlfriends and a troublesome kid. Delusional wickedry was the main theme in this drama and it was aggravating… to the point where I started to skip.
While I said the leads weren’t annoying with a drama this long they start to get a little aggy too … I guess to draw out the story lines? The story line was great at first but around episode 44, it started getting weird and dragging. It was almost as if they were piecing bits together to make sense. Towards the end the story that was already a fantasy became more incredulous.
Speaking of incredulous, Jia Yao was darned near in haute couture the entire show, where did you get those fabrics and those pumps sis? *side eye*. I am not even mentioning how the prince started in on 19th century inventions… *double side eye*. I guess some things are added to the fantasy part.
The verdict: There were tons of characters that were annoying, but as long as the leads are not its watchable. The lace front wigs were on point, and I loved Jia Yao’s costume changes even if they were not time period appropriate. The story line seemed to fall apart at the end and to be honest Jia Yao wasn’t really a Cinderella. A really good drama, if you like the first 3 episodes then you will like the rest certainly worth a watch.
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First let me say I waited for this drama- I mean like every week for at least the first 5 episodes, and then eventually I stopped watching it (Well I finished it months later). The drama has literally one concept, just one, and that is longing/waiting for someone. The theme is repeated over and over and over again by every character.
The good: Great acting from the lead characters and some of the supporting cast. I felt like River did a lot of fan service (but he could always do more!) and Annie did an awesome job of relaying the feelings of a cautious single mother. The supporting cast made the drama funny and enjoyable especially the cute kid who seems to take forever to turn up. Is it me or is that opening song awesome?
The bad: The heart of this story is about selfish adults who are constantly in their feelings, thus I did a ton of yelling “Just tell him/her already!” I didn’t feel that the female lead was a particularly strong character, she just pretended to be. I don’t remember watching after the 6th episode because I liked the story line; I really just wanted to know who she ended up with.
The bottom line: the drama is too long to casually watch, and not funny enough to watch for relaxation. I felt like the unwed mother concept was really good, but it could have been written better. If you like love stories that have strife and/or a push-pull to them, or you like non –syrupy sweet love stories, you may really enjoy this drama. Oh and btw there are no “hot” scenes in this drama just River getting in the shower (yea!!).
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There are no real plot surprises, there are no real twists and turns. This drama is not going to blow you away or make you cry;however it's fun it's light and its sparkly. If you've seen the other dramas like this you know what's going to happen and you know what the characters will do, but sometimes it's still fun to see the process.
P.s. Karina was really good in this role, but the other actors were plain awful.
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I did like the updates to the story, some of the characters are older than they were, and some are younger. Yeoje was also way less pervy than Jotei, but the girls in Yeoje created senseless arguments. It was like the writter said, "these two are supposed to be in a conflict here". FOr the age of the girls the conflicts did not make sense like it did in Jotei where they were younger and immature. The use of technology is something that could not have been used in Jotei becasue it was so old, so it was cool to see gadgets used, in some cases i yelled "ha ha gotcha!"
I did not like the acting. It was awful, the actors were in some cases stiff, over emoting, stone faced, and in some cases looked like they came from acting 101. the main offender is the really hot male lead (who gets points for shirtless fan service), he had exactly 2 expressions and a really cute smile. I loved Matsuda in his role and I wanted Kang ji sub to bring it, but he dropped it somewhere before getting to set. The female lead wasnt really compelling either, although she had more expressions, i really hated her "i am strong" facade when she wasnt strong. Oh and her alligator tear scenes are hilarious.
Although the cast is really great looking, Yeoje didnt do something that Jotei was able to; Jotei made you feel for the characters, and even in the absurd situations they were in you rooted for them. Yeoje toyed with the main concept and in the end you didnt care whether everyone went up in flames or not.
Its not worth the work to find the drama (it was on cable tv), learn Korean to translate it, and then watch a over dramatizied version of Jotei. watch the first 3-4 episodes and then skip to the last one. If you watched the original you didnt miss anything.
p.s. the ending is the same.
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The good. Lots of interesting story lines it seems like the drama was structured to go on for a really long time. Although the story is ridiculous and interesting at the same time there was a lot of really good character development. I really liked the usage of location and special effects, not to mention the fight scenes were interesting too. It felt like a super hero- martial arts comedy at first and that was really what made me like the story. Lin Yi the main male character is hot and there were lots of good fan service shots at the beginning. The actor who plays him did really well and made the character pervy, strong, funny, kind, intelligent, complex and interesting= a.k.a. perfect boyfriend material! :)
The bad. None, and I mean none of the story lines ended with a conclusion . In the beginning our hero is given a purpose that never comes to fruition, a mission that mysteriously changes, a love interest (kinda), and a secondary charge that we never see completed. I blame the writers. Around episode 17-20 the feeling and themes seem to change to include more martial arts, vendettas and focus on supernatural powers. Around these episodes there is certainly less lighted hearted comedy, and some characters never appear again. It was almost as if the side story took over and incorporated the main lead.
The characters were all good except the main female lead Chu Meng Yao, she was one of the most annoying damsels in distress. Aside from that I was really annoyed how the stylist didn’t match her weave to her hair (personal pet peeve).
Oh the music! The ending and theme songs were equally annoying so I ALWAYS skipped them.
The verdict. This drama broke my heart. I watched it, and fell in love with the light hearted comedy, the fluffy romance, cool martial arts concepts and abundance of cute guys. Alas it was all stolen from me, and although the story was good the ending was AWFUL. No one should have to deal with an ending that bad where there is no resolution at all, so I would not recommend this drama to anyone unless you want to torture yourself or you know there is a second season.
p.s. maybe they ran out of money?
p.p.s. I probably would have given this a higher rating if LinYi was shirtless more.
p.p.p.s at the end I audibly said "wait! what?! is that the end?!!" s.m.h.
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I wont say I wasted my time watching the Naked Kitchen because Joo Ji Hoon is hot and the number of times you get to see him topless well makes up for the movie not making sense. Now on to the movie review.
I would first like to poo poo anyone who told me that this was a great watch. It’s a hot watch but the whole movie makes no sense. In the short time span of the movie they attempted to squeeze in too many concepts and did not develop any of them. There was no character growth and instead of the plot progressing forward, more issues were added. I didn’t like how there was no sense of time, you had no idea how much time was passing throughout the film. I also didn’t like how things were not implicitly stated, i.e. Mo-Rae’s final decision. To make things even more complicated, some concepts just didn’t seem too add up. (i.e. if you are going into a gallery to buy something, why would you sneak in? you cant buy anything if the gallery is closed!)
In the end I liked the acting, I liked Ji Hoon topless, I liked Ji Hoon singing (awesome!!), and I thought they had pretty colors and great scenery. I really felt like I was watching a poorly constructed indy film with a great budget. There were so many loose ends left in the story at the end but I really don’t care. I couldn’t feel invested in the characters because they were not written to follow logical or common behavioral patterns, meaning I couldn’t even fathom relating to them. Still to be honest I cant blame Mo-Rae for cheating because if I haven’t mentioned it yet Ji Hoon is hot!!
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Most criticize the story line for the movie, and yes if you have seen the anime it is a watered down version of the original story. Look people they have to sell it to a general audience, so of course instead of seeing an awesome neon color, you are getting pastels. The ending was changed, parts are left out and a lot of it felt rushed. The characters are a watered down version from the original story as well, which kind of made me upset but I understand I guess. Miwako is not as colorful and child-like, Arashi is not as punk rockish or ecchi, and Isabella really looks like a dude playing a woman. They did get George's suave essence, but they missed how much of a jerk he was. Well I understand that you have to sell it, so it was ok.
They did leave out characters and story lines, so the story centered on George and Yukari, and her dreams which is cool, I would have wanted to see Miwako's sister though.
The only parts I really didn't like was the fashion (Where did they go to get all the clothes in the movie the 1980s?) and Yukari's model poses (she literally uses all the same ones!). Other than those, I loved seeing another interpretation of a great story that never quite felt completed. I loved the ending and seeing that many cute guys didn't hurt either.
p.s. Keiko can NOT cry. it was awful.
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This was more of a peek into someone's life living with this illness. Matsujun was cute in this and so was the little girl. I literally cried because that little girl acted so well and it was so sad to me. I didn't like how many dramatic pauses this special seemed to take and how cut- up the drama seemed with the flash backs and such, but overall it was good. You really see a struggle of a family trying to keep it together. There is no glamour, no comedy, just the tragic realities of what some people live through. I may be biased saying I didnt like it becasue it kept getting even more depressing as it trodded on, but it was played well.
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First are the comparisions. They have the same concept, but in kimi wa petto I still feel that matsumoto jun was way cuter, like puppy dog cute, but JGs was the kind of puppy you could see as a man. The chemistry between Ha Neul and JGS was like brother sister and she didn’t start off as cold as the lady from kimi wa petto- maybe because a drama has more time. Still, the movie brought out some points that the drama didn’t touch on, and although they are very similar, it almost feels like a different story.
I really like how they pretty much let JGS get manish from day one, so when the transition from pet to man came it didn’t seem so awkward. I didn’t like that there were some holes in the plot (I filled them in myself from kimi wa petto), and I also didn’t like how JGS’s goal was so sketchy and undefined. ballet to musicals? really?? his dancing seemed a bit stiff, and a bit much, but singing was heavenly. (but they did show off his singing, so yea! i missed it after YAB.)
All in all I would definitely watch again I liked all the eye candy, and the concept from the drama. If it can convert an Arashi, matsujun fan girl like me, it will be fun for all.
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The Good: Fake couple has an awesome cast. The acting was totally believable, and it felt like the actors were lost in their characters.
-The character development is second to none with the lead characters going through numerous transformations (thought process changes, style changes, ideal changes, partner changes).
-The story takes twists and turns
-The supporting cast storylines are not a distraction, but teach the lead characters important lessons
-There are many “end of the day” lessons of accepting each other’s differences, loving your self, understanding you are not alone, speaking from your heart and being open to receive love.
The Bad: The story has many interesting parts, but I found it to be boring. The plot moves slow, the character development takes a long time to happen, and there are few little moments to rejoice in the lead character’s (Hiro’s) triumphs. I do not like family dramas and this had the "family drama" feeling.
Even though the ending is bittersweet, the constant losses the Hiro character takes throughout the whole series make the ending feel sour.
I love a strong female lead, I like a story that has a different angle or perspective, but I felt the ending pandered to a more conventional audience while the purpose of the series was to be less conventional. Again, I had a really hard time making it through this one, the whole series was devoid of eye candy and romance (the things I thrive on!). The series seemed to show and compare aspects of heterosexual versus homosexual relationships....but it felt like a family drama. Unless you like family dramas, I don’t know if I can honestly recommend it.
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