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  • Join Date: April 8, 2018
Completed
Only Side by Side with You
15 people found this review helpful
Apr 18, 2018
40 of 40 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 7.5
Music 7.5
Rewatch Value 5.0
Before you get yourself started with this drama, you have to prepare yourself to go through with the endless flashbacks in every single episodes. Overall, I actually find the drama quite enjoyable to watch, given the story plot with background on business setting, which in many dramas either made redundant as supporting environment for the characters or become too boring with all the talks on business and power politic stuff. For me, the drama made the drone business sounds rather compelling and for something techie like this, it was not too complex for audience to grasp the business matter depicted in the drama. To me, this the drone business is a refreshing point in this drama.

For this drama, I see the key theme as focusing on human intertwined relationships. We all have relationships from the past that somehow stretched to present life - good or bad regardless, these past relationships made us who we are now. This drama tried to have good coverage of all kinds of relationship stories for all the characters featured in it. Other than the expected romantic relationships, there are friendships (esp on man to man buddy for life between Shiyue and Chang Jianxiong), boss with co-workers and among colleagues of Future Up, family members of Nanqiao (esp on father-daughters and even mention of mother-son between Nanqin and Zhenghao and issue on aging!), 'debtors'-'creditors (not just monetary per say but being life indebted and faithful to 'jianghu' aka the underworld sorta relationships), grief relationships with the dead person, and even trying to inject how we can be connected through animals! I though it was a nice play on the whole vet shop and relating to the 3 dogs of Shiyue (little things reinforcing faithfulness and kinships theme). As the relationship stories made progress for the characters, we get to see how people made choices in their lives, what they would do for love from their perspectives and learning to let go, and then to wrap things up mainly focusing on acceptance, which is not easy to do in real life to be honest.

So if you have patience to watch the unraveling of these relationships then you may be interested to stay on till the end of this drama even if you possibly able to predict the outcomes of these relationships but to watch them unfold quite worth the journey. Undoubtedly there were quite a number of what I perceived as unnecessary scenes towards the development of the story plot (aka fillers) and also in terms of characters development, not that smoothly illustrated but these became easily oversight for me when I chose to remember the meaningful conversations about the strong female MC, Nanqiao's dream in this drone business and always on the exchanges between Shiyue with Anning. I seriously thinks Qin Hailu's acting shone brighter than Bai Baihe in this drama. At times I even feel Bai Baihe's acting a bit stiff and I could not really feel strong chemistry between Bai Baihe and William Chan in this drama as a couple. William Chan was great in carrying out his role though, almost to the point of being himself at certain points in terms of being playful.

When talking about meaningful conversations I recalled two intertwined dialogues on Shiyue, Nanqiao and Anning. Between Shiyue and Anning: "What we have is the past but we don't have a future", which is so true because what was once lost you can never go back and even if you do, it is never the same anymore. Then followed up with conversation between Shiyue and Nanqiao on accepting Shiyue's past and stating, "I did not make it in time to be with you in your past but I will definitely be with you in your future". I believe it is the many meaningful conversations that keep me watching the drama because they made me feel connected to the drama. Also after all the flashbacks fast forwarding, for me, Ep34 was the most memorable episode as the plot gets a final strong hold to build to the finale momentum. Oh, oh and I like the opening and closing theme songs. Both songs' lyrics aptly depicting the drama itself.

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Completed
My Mister
7 people found this review helpful
May 25, 2018
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 2
Overall 9.0
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 6.0
Started watching this drama with no expectation, thinking it is just another slice of life drama. I have to say at the beginning like at least 5 episodes it did somehow feel as such, a drama that totally people in general able to relate to and even a bit slow, boring with the many conversations in between characters and with the focus on office politics. However if you stay on and immerse yourself into any of these characters as they move along with the story plot, I guarantee you will feel rewarded on the experience of what relationships between humans really are and how we are all just surviving and thriving (or failing) in the act of being in relationships with one another. This drama stays true to its theme on exploring and unfolding human relationships - love (also self love and care), belongingness, betrayal, forgiveness, acceptance, letting go, and I can go on and on because I'm amazed by the writer nim's ability to pack so many things in 16 episodes and yet it all fits accordingly and not overwhelming the story plot at all!

The existence of the male MC, Park Dong Hoon in this story and the way it is being written really carried all the other characters so well throughout the plot - he is really just an ordinary genuine ahjussi, at some point in your life, you wish you get to meet in real life or perhaps you have even met such a person before. He has his own shares of life frustration but always chose to do things that would determine the outcome of what already happened (staying in control) and not wallow in what already happened (e.g., blame or accept his 'destiny'). His attitude of if you see it as nothing then it will become nothing and life goes on, is really a good learning point in life. Try putting yourself in the shoes of the female MC, Lee Ji An, and experience the tough life she had to go through (someone who accepted her 'destiny') and understanding her reactions and actions as well as what made her blurred the line between gratitude and romance because in the end how do we, as human beings express of our love to someone whom we see as angel sent to us and telling us life is what we made of, instead of destiny.

This drama not only developed strongly anchoring on these two characters but also the entire characters in the neighborhood detailed in the drama. I see it as every single characters revealed in this drama are as equally important to showcase how we all influence one another when we gather together in our lives. From relationships among family members (siblings, mother-sons, grandparent-grandchild) to brotherhoods who stay in same neighborhood (the extended society family) to the 'family' at work and to the point that even a monk character speak volume in this drama - all depicting the sense of belongingness in human beings that is so reflective of reality world. Their interactions in this drama are gems, teaching you the many perspectives of life.

I am just so grateful and satisfied with this drama that lived up to its title and for the writer nim who preserve the beauty of the relationship between the two MCs without tainting it with the usual reciprocating romance theme. The most memorable thing from this drama for me, apart from the awesome casts' performances, is to slowly decipher and digest the meaningful conversations between the MCs especially with the constant illustration using metaphors. Oh and the music and bgm throughout the drama are like, prefect to the core. The whole wire tapping and listening to the audio along with Lee Ji An - every single sound was crisp clear and really made it feel as if the audience is transported into it. Also up until now there are still various vivid scenes from the drama that keep appearing to me visually, such as the walk home at the neighborhood between the MCs and the subway train ride.

This is definitely one drama that will leave a big impact to you if you take a chance to watch it. It hurts a lot at certain point to come to terms with reality of life but it hurts so good because that's how you grow to be a better person.

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Completed
That Man Oh Soo
5 people found this review helpful
Apr 26, 2018
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 5.0
Story 5.0
Acting/Cast 6.0
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 3.0
This review may contain spoilers
I actually thought the story plot on the whole mysterious tree and love potion was going well (despite super slow in unraveling on background) until I don't know, the writer nim decided to be undecided and butchered the plot. I don't think I have ever watched any dramas that literally left me saying, "So that was it?" even when stories are left for open ending at your own interpretations. Depending on how you are reading into the meanings of what were said by the characters, you can decide whether it is good or bad.

So I tried to reflect back to why I started watching this drama and why I continued watching it at the beginning and I realised it has to do with the light cheesy romance (so sweet you can have toothache type) between the two MCs since this is afterall a first love experience for the male MC. The beginning was really enjoyable for me and even when the theme on mysterious tree started to get a bit heavier, it was comprehensible on what the writer nim trying to convey on curses and love. What not sitting well with me was the mysterious tree theme was not properly integrated into the drama throughout and suddenly writer nim needed to end the story and bam, words vomit and stir fried ingredients hastily for closure. IMO, final ep was a total filler (not sure if this counts as spoiler) with many random scenes compiled together. I would not rewatch or even recommend others to watch unless the person just want to watch something sweet in beginning and don't care at all about story plot. Everything else was just weak otherwise.

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Completed
The Devotion of Suspect X
4 people found this review helpful
Apr 30, 2018
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 6.0
There is this saying in Chinese entitled, Ren Suan Bu Ru Tian Suan (Man proposes but God disposes) that came to my mind as soon as I finished watching this movie. Throughout the movie, we see how a man could calculate all he wants and yet there are things or aspects in life that one could not be able to calculate to the dot and in this case especially a person's heart as well as what a person views as valuable/meaningful. I think the story plot was well laid out from beginning, slowly but surely building up to the few possibilities the audience might be able to grasp and catch if they pay enough attention. To me, it would be one of the reason why this movie would worth a rewatching - i.e., to retrace the steps and clues while putting yourself in their shoes. I really like the conversations and interactions between the two main characters, both as genius trying to calculate each other moves. The metaphorical conversations between them were insightful and beautiful for me. In terms of acting, both WangKai and Edward Zhang shine in their respective roles especially Edward in expressing Shi Hong's nonverbals - for someone who appeared emotionless but yet trapped in seas of emotions when fall in too deep in the maze of mind and end goal. I must say though that it did appear somewhat the truth was told in a rush manner - a sudden pick up contrast from the slow laid out from the beginning, which if would have been made more engaging (to match with the tempo set so far between the two MCs) then would be a more digestible solution out of the many solutions up the mountain.

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Completed
Café. Waiting. Love.
2 people found this review helpful
Jun 28, 2018
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 5.0
First time watching a movie with no whatsoever expectations as the casts are all unfamiliar to me except Vivian Chow. Turned out had so much fun watching the story unraveled despite the nonsensical plot involving fantasy-like angel theme. The actings of the casts were great and the chemistry among them was natural that even Boss Bao the so-called "gangster wannabe" ex-director character managed to provide numerous funny scenes along side the MCs.

Seriously though my first thought after 10mins into this movie was whether I want to continue watching it since I felt as if I was being thrown into a messed up, weirded out plot not knowing what to expect especially when the male MC appeared dressed up in bikinis, carrying a cabbage and on roller skate. I am glad I stayed put as I really enjoyed the simple romance journey between the MCs on learning what is love and crushes and having the courage to love and wishing happiness for the one you love. This movie is silly, weird, candid but tells the story of simple, pure love. I especially like how the romance story of the cafe owner being revealed and the relation with the MCs.

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Completed
You Drive Me Crazy
2 people found this review helpful
May 18, 2018
4 of 4 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 5.0
I don't ever recall seeing such short Korean drama before and I'm happy I took a chance on this drama after seeing short clips of the MCs' interactions. The story plot is simple and can be close to heart for those who have the opposite sex as best/close friends - the one person you always know never to cross the line or not dare to do so in the event you lost the friendship. It's a matter of whether you treasure romance or friendship more and if you are up to taking the dive and find out the outcome of a relationship. It was as if while watching the drama you will also start to hesitate just like them and wonder whether to take the plunge. The pacing of the drama was smoothly done as we go along with the MCs in their discoveries. I really enjoy the performances of both MCs and their on-screen chemistry is just right for the kind of relationship they are having in the drama. The music was just nice and the attraction of perusing French language also quite a sell to this drama. In a way the male character is in the expression of art of love through unique visual representation while the female character is in the expression of art of love through beauty of language. In my opinion the writer-nim weaving these aspects quite perfectly as the background setting. The only reason rewatch value is not high is I am just not a person who really rewatch anything even no matter how much I love it.

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Completed
Suddenly Seventeen
1 people found this review helpful
May 18, 2018
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 5.0
Don't we all wish to turn back the clock? This movie is about rediscovering self and what was once lost is found again. Technically not really time travel back to past for me as it only involves changes of memories and mentality since the female MC would become her younger self of 17 years old whenever she ate the special chocolate. However it is about this technicality that really made the plot interesting because it somewhat reminds us that in reality even without these special chocolates, we get to choose what mentality we want to project if we really look into ourselves. Whether we want to choose to believe in ourselves and revisit our lost dreams and passion, knowing in life it is never too late. At one point during the argument between the female MC and her long-time boyfriend whereby the female MC (the young, unafraid version of herself after taken the chocolate) blamed her boyfriend for getting in her way towards her dream and passion while the boyfriend retaliated on this blame, I thought to myself how true it is this scene - we all want to choose to be able to blame another for what has failed in our life when in reality all we can do instead is to pick up the mess ourselves and work towards getting things right. In the movie, it was shown how the female MC took the long route towards picking up herself but the journey was necessary for her to come to this realization - that whether it was her 17 years old self of her 28 years old self, she, alone can make it happen as long as she never give up and get lost in herself. I think this was truly the most meaningful drive home point for me from this movie. To be honest, I was not too keen on the ending except I guess to go along with the theme on 'what was lost found again'.

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Completed
A Better Tomorrow 2018
1 people found this review helpful
May 1, 2018
Completed 0
Overall 8.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 7.0
Just like how the original movie turned out to highlight the best of Chow Yun Fatt's acting as Mark, the same goes for this 2018 version in which Darren Wang's acting as Ma Ke was a show stealer. I watched the original movie super long time ago so hard to be making much comparisons although I did notice certain differences on how the story plot being played out despite maintaining the definitive themes on friendship, brotherhood and crime gang. The action scenes were so-so in my opinion (the legendary shooting scenes by John Woo were classic memorables)but it did try to showcase its own flair when Ma Ke went solo to the Japanese triad. As such I feel this movie relies more on the casts' actings, from the main characters to the special guesting including the short scenes with Eric Tsang while in the prison. True enough, for me the chemistry between Wang Kai and Darren Wang was superb as they interacted throughout the movie. Although there were still that few moments I could not help but to feel if only they added in more of the "oomph" on brotherlihood with proper build up instead of just glazing over some difficulties faced by Zhou Kai in his failed attempts to rebuild his life the proper way as stepping stone to reconnect with Ma Ke again. I did not feel an equivalent level of chemistry between Wang Kai and Ma Tian Yu despite recalling this movie's key point is on these two brothers and how the blames, shames and guilts threatened their kinship. Nonetheless it was enjoyable still and definitely worth watching. I'd rewatch for the good 'ol feeling. And intermittently throughout the movie, you get to be reminded/reminisced of the original OST sung by the late Leslie Cheung.

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Completed
Railroad Tigers
0 people found this review helpful
May 31, 2018
Completed 0
Overall 8.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 6.5
One is never too late for a Jackie Chan's movie, especially a comedy action movie of his. First of all, the way the story plot being presented is very straight forward like, literally doing a presentation with sub-titles of what to expect in the scenes as we go along. It's clean cut in such a way and you won't feel any interruptions. And with the theme on, 'let's do something big in this lifetime' coming out from average railroad workers, you know you are going to be in for rides filled with laughters. The bgm matched well with the scenes and helped to raise the dramatic-ness from the comedic aspects.

To me, the most crucial point of this movie fell on the good chemistry among the quite star-studded casts. They matched each other so well in their rhythms and one can really feel their comrades and brotherhood, which at times really what made their actions/sayings funny. There were many times that I was really laughing my heads off and I knew this movie is such feel-good humor movie worth watching. I like how Jackie Chan was not a one-man show in this movie and helped to bring out the acting skills of others casted in this movie through their interactions. In fact, it was an eye opening for me to see Wang Kai with his supposedly 'cool-I-know-what-I'm-doing-in-war' Fan Chuan character turned out to be a hilarious character with his constant 'rational' thinking. Another hilarious character akin to Fan Chuan was the Japanese Captain played by Ikeuchi Hiroyuki, which I see in the movie as to now wonder why he and Fan Chuan 'battling' it out the most.

I got to admit that my initial thought before I started to watch this movie was half expecting it to be typical China-produced war era movie, focusing much on patriotism. However, despite this movie having its patriotic moment, it wasn't shove down the audience throat like the usual ones. The feeling of "patriotism" (wanting for the freedom fighters to win despite their average tricks and fighting skills) was somewhat built into me as I watched the progress of how desperate this group of average men, dreaming of doing big things as they kept putting it in the movie, wanted to help the army to blow up the bridge.

I am not the type who rewatch but if I ever do catch this movie on TV or something, I won't mind rewatching just for the laughters.

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Completed
The Battleship Island
0 people found this review helpful
May 1, 2018
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 6.0
Emotionally gripping for me to watch this because I tend to be overwhelmed by what happened to the characters in war-plot movie. The casts were all great and wonderful in their roles, each bringing out one another's best aspects and molded their chemistry throughout the journey in this movie. There were various themes on humanity being touched and carried on as the key to this movie while you are brought into an existential reflection of what if you are part of it in that war-era period, what would you have done to stay alive and what would you have chose to do. Watch this movie without getting too hung up on the political facts but more on being in the shoes of those who had to plough their way for survival. I also like the cinematography of the scenes when everyone trying to escape and working together towards it although I must say the ways certain gun shots shown just a bit hard to comprehend how certain people so easily died while certain just survived.

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Ongoing 46/48
Here to Heart
0 people found this review helpful
Jun 5, 2018
46 of 48 episodes seen
Ongoing 0
Overall 7.0
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 5.0
So this drama is adapated from novel. I don't know whether the drama sticks close to the novel but if it did then I can only imagine the torture of reading the novel with the endless repeating misunderstandings over minor stuff in the characters' interactions throughout the story plot. At many a times, the conversations between the characters also quite mundane and waste of scenes. And be prepared to be bombarded by many scenes filled with side romance stories that somehow almost overshadowing the main love story in this drama. At one point you may even be like me, asking self whose love stories am I watching here - yeap to that point. The story plot also barely made sense to me because up until more than half of the drama was focusing on how everyone is just being selfish and then suddenly everyone like receiving enlightenment to be forgiving and accepting after 7 years of everything.

The only thing really saving this drama is the acting. The casts overall did pretty good job in their respective roles, especially the two MCs, with good chemistry when together, whether to solve another misunderstandings or to dwell in the past or being cheeky with one another. If you go and watch the MV for one of the drama's OST sung by Tank, titled, The Positive and Negative of Love, then you will see what I meant here. The bgm throughout the drama was quite appealing to me and so does the outfits worn by the characters and the pretty scenes from London to even Nan Xian's condo with balcony of great view while exercising lol. I think perhaps it was hard at times to digest some nonsensical convos or the story progress that I somewhat turned to other parts in he drama worth noticing.

The other thing I would like to highlight about this drama is that you really get to see the development of characters. This is especially on the female MC, Wen Nuan and how the male MC, Nan Xian tried his best to get her to step out, although sometimes backfired. There was also a part on how the writer tried to illustrate the friendship/bromance of the 3 guys who built their own 'empire' together in which we get to see how true friends are the ones who let you grow with them.

Nonetheless, this is a drama about how true love has its ups and downs and over time, you grow together by bringing out the best of each other, that runs deep, not even time can stop it as long as you preserve.

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Completed
Children of a Lesser God
1 people found this review helpful
Apr 26, 2018
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 5.5
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 6.0
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 4.0
This review may contain spoilers
My first thought before watching this drama - based on the title only - was that it's going to have to do with some politics power and religion stuff, which turned out to be true. This theme has been used countless times when related back to children especially at those children who at disadvantages and as such, the story plot for this drama became boring to me. Initially I was also thinking not to watch because it may have something to do with children abuse as well (hard to stomach for me) but this theme was not heavily explored/described in this drama (except some physical abuses explicitly displayed and mostly on perusing mental abuse instead) so I was able to continue to watch. Another reason for the boringness was that I felt as if I am watching another continuation of Black (which also an OCN drama on criminal investigation and female MC having supernatural power). The only reason I rated the story as higher than 5 was because the last few episodes towards ending picked up really well although the overall forgiveness theme was overly used in my opinion. There were also things that did not make sense to me but to explore here would be spoilers. Also the way the drama tried to inject quick brief cases to showcase criminal investigations theme was like half a joke styles. In terms of acting, for main casts I find them so-so but the actor who played Joo Hamin (Shim Heesub) was really good in his protrayal. Also this character was well written in the sense it did not really go the conventional way of pushing away responsibilities and being blameful but knowing full well understanding of his own situation and choosing what to do next to determine his own life.

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