Instant formular of cliche storyline and artificial sentiment.

Unoriginal plot. Their story is like the instant noodles that just aims to finish things quick without creating anything worth cherish. Their story accumulates so many cliche plots that we've seen so often in other movies and make them even more cliche by not adding any new element into their own work. It's the pop star falling in love with an ordinary girl. Also a one-night falling in love in a foreign land. And Confessing love at a friend's wedding (by stealing the scene from the bride and groom -- which is very impolite in real life, I would say. And very cringey when it appears in the film.)

Things in this movie pass by in a very superficial style. Nothing deep but they try to force the audience to perceive what happen as something deep. There's almost nothing happen between the ML and FL during their time together, which is not more than 12 hours, apart from running in a spooky cemetery and baking a cake together. But ML, who is a celebrity, is so naively certain this is true forever love and ready to give up everything for FL.

So many things happen nonsensically and baselessly. The production team absolutely doesn't care to lay out any solid foundation for the leads' feelings. Until to the point that they kiss, I still don't feel they have feelings for each other. It's more like a suit-for-the-moment kiss than any deep-meaning kiss. Throughout the movie, from beginning to end, I don't feel any chemistry between ML and FL at all. And ironically, there's this dialogue of FL around the beginning saying it's funny for her that people in entertainment business can fakely love each other on a show because love can be portrayed through the eyes and when she sees the eyes, it tells whether the love is real of not. People can't fake love -- Yes, she surely can't fake it. I don't feel any feeling in her eyes towards ML at all, and to be fair, it's vice versa.

A few positive points about this movie is that they have proper production. They know how to use the camera and set the setting well. FL seems to be able to speak Italian as well. If she can't, she came prepared. Her mounth shape while speaking goes along with Italian language sound making it looks natural when she have a conversation.

#

Read More

Justifiable logic at first but inconsistent and contradictory later. Weak Acting. Quite lagging.

1. Story [~]
The story makes the ML to be a bully / prey-predator at school - not the type to fall for nowadays, but he has to be popular at school according to the plot. However, the production team did a good job with their narrative to convey how severe bullying can be and how it shouldn't be accepted. Toward the end of EP1, the majority of floating comments from the online viewers all ask when this bullying gonna stop in the sense that the bullying is now too much - which, when the FL high-kicks him, it's truly justified. The viewers are all satisfied with that kick.

In general, this kind of plot that revolves around the bad guy and cute, fighting girl who has a crush on his friend instead can go down to the cringy side easily, but as of EP3, the production team has been avoiding the clinginess quite alright. I think their clear thought on the plot's logic is a part that helps.

-----------------------------------------------------

2. Acting [-]
It's a mix. If I'd be absolutely honest and straightforward, I'd say the acting of the main cast is much lacking. There're some scenes that come out quite well and show the charisma/charms of the characters, but that's because of the skills of the production and post-production teams.

Among the three main characters - the FL, ML and ML's friend that FL has a crush on - the FL did the best job. It's seen she tried and it helps making the character's fighting spirit shine. Her character's dialogue has the potential to make things come out cringy as well, but the way she acts until EP3 has been able to avoid that case (though very narrowly in some scenes.)

The ML's acting isn't convincing when it's the scenes about being dumb or noisy or bad. It seems like he doesn't wholeheartedly want to be the character, for example, he doesn't really yell when he's supposed to threaten people with a loud voice, and a lot of time he acts awkwardly, his facial expression in intense scenes can't make me believe. If he has to be in an intense scene with the FL, his expression is not up to her. Watching him makes me feel he's not in his element.

The ML's friend that FL has a crush on also has weak acting skills. When he cries, it looks more like he's about to laugh. I think you know that kind of expression when we see through a fake cry. It's not that the person is really going to laugh, but because it's a fake one, the expression is more to the side of a laugh. When he talks, it also still feels awkward.

The other two ML's friends sound awkward when they talk in their specific way as well. There's this kind of saying in Thai language when women normally end their sentences with kha for politeness while men end theirs with krub. Sometimes when guys want girls they talk with to feel being adored or when a much adult guy talks with a little girl with a large age gap, they would end their sentences with kha instead. The way these two characters say kha is very cheesy - not natural at all. It's obvious that they're not familiar with that way of talking. It sounds very off and so separate from being real.

Umm... I'm still quite stuck with the acting of the ML here. Let me mention a bit, if you ever watch the Japanese version, the ML in that version is beyond any other versions. Matsumoto Jun set the standard of this character so high.

-----------------------------------------------------

3. Pace [-]
Each EP is about one hour, which is quite long in my opinion, esp. if there's nothing much happening during the time interval or the acting is too boring to follow. I start to feel it gets lagging a bit in EP2 and it's real slow for me when I watch EP3.

-----------------------------------------------------

In conclusion, what caught my eyes in the first place is the looking of the cast. They are all good-looking on the same par. It's quite exciting to see them being introduced in the first EP, but their acting can't attract me longer than EP3.

Personally, among the total of 5 versions of Boys Over Flowers series (the others are from Taiwan, Japan, Korea and China), this version has the most good-looking cast. Five of them are all good-looking. None of the other 4 versions pays attention to the equality in good-lookingness of these 5 characters. In terms of the enjoyment with the series' overall, though, Season 1 of the Japanese version is the best, followed by the Chinese version. The other three are not to my taste.

By the way, I would say for the Boy Over Flowers series, the versions that get me get me from their acting. I'm not that much into the story, but it's fun to watch when they match a dumb bad ML with a fighting spirited FL. So, the score on acting weighs quite heavier than other aspects to make me enjoy this series.

Read More

Awesome plot, but FL’s acting is a bit much.

The story is seriously awesome, with a plot that keeps you hooked and subplots that add depth. It’s the kind of stuff that really grabs your attention. But let’s talk about the FL – her acting is just too over the top. Actually, she’s always like that in most series she’s in, including this one. In my opinion, she shines the most when she plays the villain role.

Now, about the FL’s character... It felt a bit off in the first couple of episodes. Like, the writer couldn’t quite figure out what to do with her. She came off more like a crazed fan club of the ML with her obsession that drives her to do quite a few embarrassing things. I almost gave up on the show at the start because of this sasaeng-borderline behavior of the FL, but it got better after that.

And I gotta mention about the ridiculous details in the first half. For example, when the house gets on fire, the FL's brother help a girl out of the house by going up to the roof of the building without extinguishing the fire. Ok, not only that he doesn't stop the fire, but when escaping the fire, who would go upstairs to trap themselves when it's possible to go downstairs out of the building?? And there's this scene where the FL and ML see a rainbow that appears on the same side as the sun – that totally goes against science. It’s like the production team has no basic knowledge and common sense.

But despite all that, the plot is solid. The ML is very charming. I ended up enjoying the series a lot.

Read More

It's boring.

It's pretty much boring for me. I almost gave up after the first 12 minutes of ep.1 but saw a lot of early comments about how great this drama is with just the first ep so I watched it till the episode end, but this is all I'd give my time for this series. It officially is a dropped project for me.

****Edited 2: Due to quite a fuss about I dropped the drama and left my opinion only after "one" episode, I changed my mind to give myself and the drama some more chance and watched the 2nd episode. Anyway I still feel the same. Following is my original opinion without any edit. I reaffirm it without change.****

Brief opinion on some aspects:

Story: The plot is cliche, ordinary, guessable. The progress is very slow. Most part of the first ep is to give the background story - this background story has nothing new for the audience, just another same old kind of plot. The drama starts with the scene in the present before going back to tell the past story, so I kinda see how the story will become, not a difficult story to guess the storyline.

Character design: Simple and plain. The bad side is bad. The protagonist side is simply straightforward. There won't be the so-called character development in this story even though the time span is almost 10 years. The kids might grow up, be stronger and start to love each other, but it's just a straight-line walk. No interesting conflict. Just some revenge.

Acting: I like both actress and actor who play the main characters, but they can't make me feel along the characters with their acting esp. Ji Soo - this isn't the best version of the character he plays. The mother role that Kim So Hyun plays isn't portrayed that well either. She may be too young for that role.

Scene: For the CG part - it's not the best CG though acceptable. The shooting location in the nature is refreshing for a nature lover like me.

Music: Just so-so. Not much comment. It's not bad to be noticeable.

---------------------------------------

Edited 1:
There're some fusses both on the comment sections of my review and of the drama itself over why some people already gave their review with the score only after 1 ep. Below is the reason on my part that I replied to one of those comments:-

I gave a review b/c this already a finished project for me. I drop it. It is done. I want to take a note to remind myself why I drop it and how much I (don't) prefer it - that's how the review comes.

In my opinion, the way Mydramalist designs the type of data to collect is quite good now, like scores from those who complete and drop the dramas. In the future when there's enough data accumulated to analyze deeper, they will surely categorize and show the result in more scrutinizing way. Just that people have to input data as detailed as possible for that to happen. You wouldn't feel much grumpy about the reviews from those who drop the drama if you understand data science.

Below I leave a link to another opinion about the way to collect data on the site and how to make use of them in case you're interested:
https://mydramalist.com/discussions/suggestions/28529-make-impossible-to-rate-uncompleted-dramas?pid=962745&page=6#p962745

---------------------------------------

Interesting link about dropping a drama:
https://mydramalist.com/article/dropping-asian-dramas-is-ok-054182455

Read More

Extremely boring. Nothing moves forward. Characters are superficial.

>> Plot:
It's the typical problem of Chinese rom-com series set in the contemporary era. The plot lacks substance. I've watched 5 episodes, and there's no significant progression. If you're considering starting this series, you can save yourself time by beginning at ep.6. Maybe you can start at ep.10 with no problem, but I'm not gonna be here to prove it as it wasted too much of my time already.

>> Character Design:
The main characters are superficial, lacking depth in their minds. For example, the FL is cheated by her bf, but after being caught and FL already prepared to break up with him, it's apparently him who suggests breaking up with the reason that he wants a rich gf instead of her. And FL is just whatever.

The issue here is twofold:
1) The boyfriend serves merely as a plot device for the FL. He's there just to portray one point of FL as a popular girl with a cool personality. This bf is a character that lacks meaning and is unnecessary to exist.
2) The FL character itself has no grasp of emotions. She just cooly sits and stands >> this point applies to the ML and 2nd ML characters as well. There's no depth of feeling in any of these characters. They just sit, stand, and act cool.

The lack of emotional depth and character analysis is the perilous point of no return for all of these characters. These characters are uninteresting and fail to evoke any genuine emotion. It's become even more problematic when these characters are not just random extras but the main roles.

>> Dialogue:
The dialogue is also unhelpful. What they talk are not interesting at all. They just say whatever without any meaningful contribution, and what is said does not help moving the plot forward.

----------------------------------------------

Added note: After being disappointed with this series and deciding to drop it, I consecutively started 'Twinkling Watermelon.' Wow... it grabbed my attention within 2 minutes. The dialogue moves the plot, and the opening scene introduces an interesting point in the story. The characters aren't ordinary, and even the way extras play feels like they actually have meaningful roles. Everyone feels real.

Read More

Lots of things go the wrong way, esp. those about medical details.

I'm not quite sure how to start with this, but I need to rant it out at least a bit. Most parts in this series seem to be touched by the wrong hands.

Let's not talk about the medical details which are the main and biggest problem here anymore, but the main character like Linlada. It's so annoying to watch this character. She looks pretentious both because of her kind-of-WOKE's selfish attitude and her acting skills.

What is WOKE kind of selfish attitude here, let me clarify a bit - she acts like she's a good person/philanthropist/good Samaritan in spite of being actually opposite to being helpful at all. For example, she's very slow in examining the patients - too slow with unneccesary examining procedure such as checking the eyes of the patient who comes in with the symptom of coughing.... You get how irrelevant this is? And you get my meaning when I mentioned that let's not talk about medical details anymore? There're too many profession-related mistakes to the point that let's not talk about it because wherever you touch it, it's all wrong. So, let's go back to examining too slow - after she finishes her shift and meets her friend who finishes his work before her at the break room, she initiates to reprimand that friend that he examines too fast it can't be thorough which can be disadvantageous to the patients...... Hellow? It's you, Linlada, who is the problem, not your friend.

If you watch this series for an episode, I think you can get what kind of self-centered viewpoint I say that Linlada has. And if you watch it for an episode, I think you can also get how annoyingly pretentious kind of WOKE attitude I say Linlada has. And the actress's acting skills don't help the character at all. Her acting makes Linlada look like a jealous loser, not a FL. Due to her annoying character design, I wasn't sure she was really a FL until I come here and see she pops up on the 1st order on the cast list.

By the way, not only this actress who is amateur. I actually disatisfy with the acting skills of all main characters except one who is acceptable (Best). Just that Lindala's the 1st in the order so I talk about her first and foremost, and then I don't think I would talk about other aspects/actors/actresses anymore. After ranting out a bit, I feel that talking about this is also a time waster. Let's sum up that it's another Thai drama that disappoints me.

Read More

Tempo super slow. Vague characters esp. in support roles. Selling point is just the scenery.

The story progresses super slow. I could watch it with full attention for only 10 minutes then I had to go with 2x speed, but that's still too slow. In the end, I had to go faster or else I wouldn't be able to get myself to the end of the episode. And at the end of EP.1, I didn't feel like I missed anything at all.

In EP1, it's the story of FL and her best friend - which is boring - really. They try to make it touching, but nothing in the girls' relationship moved me. The story between them is very loose. I don't feel attached to her friend or believe they're best friends at all. The script writer team did very less in building the foundation for the girls' relationship - I don't see where their strong bond comes from nor believe the bond exists or is even real. And with nothing to convey, the team still forces their way to drag the girls' story into a full EP. This sets a too lagging tempo for the series from the start - which is hardly a wise opening strategy for any series, I would say, as this means they imprint their 1st impression in the audience's eyes as a boring story.

Since the ML doesn't show up in EP1, I gave myself and the series another go with EP2. Here, the setting changes from the city to the pretty village in small town. The set is very relaxing. The atmosphere totally contrasts with EP1 (in a good way). The cinematography is decent and does justice to the location.

However, the same problem isn't solved. The story hardly goes forward. Nothing much happens along the way. I don't feel life in other characters apart from the main characters though they're close relative, colleagues or has long dialogue in their own scene. They're very puppet-like. The team has done a bad job in introducing their characters. And the huge problem is - I don't feel that any character (even FL or ML) is interesting. Until the end of EP2, they still can't make me feel engaged to their characters or story.

And when I glance to see the number of total episodes.... my gosh 40 is to many for this level of story. I imagine it's gonna get more dragging. They're going to squeeze all kinds of their bodily liquids into dragging it to 40. No matter those liquids are blood or tears, it's gonna turn into plain water half way.

So with that glance, I decide to drop this series.

Read More

I've already tried hard to watch this, but really. really. can't bear to proceed on.

There're something really wrong with this drama for sure. I have tried to watch it for 3 times in the time span of approximately 2 years. For the first two times, I couldn't finish even a full episode. For the 3rd time, I determined to watch ep1 to the end and be done with it, forever!

I didn't know until just before watching for the 3rd time that this drama is an adaptation of a famous novel by Tong Hua, the author who wrote Scarlet Heart and Ballad of the Desert that I like pretty much. I enjoyed watching the drama adaptation of those two novels without even reading the original books.

So... whatever is wrong with this drama I don't think it's the fault of the original works at all. The production team just fails everyone.

(1) Starting from the bad plot and script - super draggy, lots of unnecessary scenes. There're 54 episodes in total to waste people's time, but I don't want to waste my life with it even with the 2x speed. If I had to invest my time watching this, I think it'd be more worthwhile and leave me a better impression of the story if I spent it with the book instead. The total time would be the same or even shorter.

(2) Apart from the plot... the acting of the main leads is so out of place. Victoria never improves her acting skills up to the bar, I would say. Her latest work I had a glance on is Find Yourself, which is the drama that introduces and makes me like Song Wei Long - I had to drop it after finishing ep11, though. Let me say it once more, I had really tried with that one as well. The FL's brother and her admirer in Find Yourself also acted really well. But the good acting of all these actors (at least three) surrounding her couldn't make me stick to the drama. She is so annoying to watch. She tries to act cute all the time in all dramas I've watched her, and she can't make it look natural. So instead, she looks awkward and pretentious. Here, in A Life Time Love, has the same problem - acting cute, unnatural and awkward - but for this one, it's not just one person but both the FL and ML do that. My, gosh... Especially the ML, I think he's about 10 years older than Victoria. So, when Victoria acts cute and doesn't work, think about him acts cute - anyone can imagine it would work?? He already looks quite advanced on his age and his physique is very muscular, yet he pretends to be a little cutie pie!?? They look so silly together and this silliness isn't a compliment.

(3) The production in general looks low-budget. The sets are not convincing, thus can't get me absorbed at all. The forest is fake. The rock mountain is fake. The fire is fake. The FL's jump into the ML's embrace due to the explosion of the volcano look fake for both the set and the acting.

I'm done with this drama, will not ever try to watch it again. And I'm done with Victoria as well. There're quite a few dramas of hers coming up with prominent MLs like Luo Yi, Xu Kai, Wang Yi Bo and even Rain! But the experience teaches me to not waste my time with her works anymore. Her acting truly isn't my cup of tea. I think I have to admit that I can't bear with her.

P.S. I've watched an impressive work of the ML before this. If anyone watches him for the first time and feels along with me here, maybe you might want to give him another chance with Nirvana in Fire 2 (you don't need to watch season 1 before watching season 2). That one is a work well done in all aspects.

Read More