Reviews

Style, emotion and amazing stunt choreography

An amazing binge for martial arts lovers. Always in my top ten or twenty best ever thriller/action dramas and good for a rewatch any time. Ji Chang Wook's excellent interpretation of a damaged ex-mercenary with PTSD and a murdered lover in his past, who falls for an emotionally disturbed woman imprisoned by her abusive political family, is classic international noir stuff. It is Korea, so this ML instinctively protects the elderly and seeks emotional refuge with them when wounded. He can break tempered glass with just a chisel and his work boots.

The K2 has the intense emotions and atmospherics and great editing of most k-drama thrillers. The usual brilliant kdrama humanization of villains is complete genius in this show.As always, great supporting characters with enough comic strengths to divert the intensity momentarily. It is a romance, too, but given the genre one expects some twisted perspective and it arrives with a vengeance.

On my third watch I realized how much I utterly love the villains of the piece, almost more than the sweet leads. Their ever-evolving plots involve the explosion and recreation of changing alliances like the huge schools of fish who revolve, collide and coalesce endlessly in the sea.

One of the all time worst (or do I mean best) product placement involves the lovers eating at Subways in a dream sequence within the ML's coma. There is also a marginally more tasteful and very funny naked male group battle scene in the corporate showers.

Mainly the K2 is a piece of masterful stunt artwork played out to 'Dies Irae' while black-suited corporate 'security guards' ballet about with 'body guards' from the opposing faction of an extremely corrupt Presidential election campaign. Ex army members are in cahoots with corrupt ex administration officials.

Watching JCW attack from an aerial 45 degree angle is priceless fun and for me, it doesnt ever get stale. So I call this a show perfect in itself. 2018, 16 eps of std. length. A sophisticated and classy production from Studio Dragon with the composer Kim Se Jin. Writer -- Jang Hyuk Rin.

On my top ten best ever kdramas list as of 12/24: Goblin, Hwayugi, Because This Is My First Life, Just between Lovers; the K2, Run On, Doom at Your Service; Tomorrow, Alchemy of Souls (earliest to latest) and Mr. Plankton .

ps. I salute the heroic efforts of women in kdrama and film industry to obtain more varied roles in order to develop themselves as artists, to seek better funding for those roles and more directorial support -- all in an atmosphere where part of the audience seems to need to see a lot of damaged or infantile FLs, and where creators therefore indulge them with female characters who are more symbolic than real, embodying the 'soul' psychic energy of the plot.

simultaneously posted on viki

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Must watch!

Set in the unsual setting of a Thai prison, this story tells of the love blooming between two young inmates from different worlds. Its title reminds us that darkness holds the seed of light or, like the emblematic lotus, that beauty can grow from the mud. It is told, filmed and played with talent and a deep sensitivity which almost doesn't need words. At this stage (12 episodes shown so far out of 21), there is no saying where the story is actually going and how it will end. But one thing is for certain: this series is addictive, and the airing of 4 episodes at a time avoids the frustration short formats often bring to the viewers. I strongly recommend to watch it as well as one of these new opuses which lift the so-called "BL" genre out of cliches, and make it more mature.

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Something happened, but idk what

I really wanted to love this show down bad. I just came from watching the first three episodes of The Heart Killers, and this would be my first JoongDunk BL ever after intensely watching their latest performance on said show. I'm absolutely in love with their chemistry, and it's no doubt it's there. But what in the duck was the plan? The agenda wasn't hidden, it was sitting on the coffee table with some donuts and booboo roses, there was no secret?Everything was highly predictable, and honestly so much could've happened instead nothing did. I wish the thing with Nita would've hit a little differently. Maybe Nita is still in love with Joke and kinda competes with Zo, maybe she does like Zo back but Zo realizes he doesn't actually like her and messes with Joke. Idk it could've gone so many ways but it barely stepped out the house. I definitely hope for some more JoongDunk series' because this just ain't the one that's doing it for me, y'all.

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I want back the three months of my life that I wasted on watching this series!

I don't even know where to begin with this series. I decided to give this show a watch because of two reasons. One—the synopsis sounded interesting, and I wanted to see how this story would be translated. Two—one of the main characters, Kad Ploysupa, I knew from watching him in supporting roles from shows that were produced from Star Hunter Entertainment. I liked him in those supporting roles, so I decided to support him in his first main role here. I have now come and regretted it.

I have gotten some form of emotions from other series that I have rated low (even the 1's), be it anger, disappointment, confusion, or disgust—some kind of emotion. That was not the case for this series. I felt that the first two to three episodes were okayish, with me having this series between a 6 to 6.5. I believe that was due to the fact that Kad's character was really, really carrying the show then. And then afterwards...I just felt that watching this series became a chore for me, as I just felt nothing for any of the characters, be they main or supporting. Oh, I'm supposed to feel sorry for Elyes as the reason he has become a man wh@#e is because he was cheated on by his ex-boyfriend. I'm supposed to feel sorry for Elyes' ex-boyfriend, Run, because he went with Fei Long, who is Elyes' business enemy, because he gave him an ultimatum to be with him so that Run's brother will be safe in prison?! (Why the frick on the frack didn't you ask Elyes for help with that? Is it because Fei Long has a connection to the mafia, so that made him the better choice? Oh, no, it's because you guys were sweethearts, and you still love him even though you left him due to whatever circumstances and started dating Elyes. I call bulls@#t.

And, please, from what I interpreted, Run and Fei Long's relationship to how it was presented to me—that's not love. That's Stockholm Syndrome. Hey, I'm not saying that they weren't in love before—just what I saw with my own eyes watching this series. What was presented to me was Stockholm Syndrome. Also, why in this day and age are we trying to make one person jealous of another one due to some past girlfriend coming back in the person's life? We don't need that—we are past that, and I felt that part was pointless (and yes, I know she was there to tell Pat about the other bad guy whose name is eluding me right now for him to know that that person is not a nice guy and the person who's working with them—another name that is eluding me—is having relations with said bad person). And not only this, but the evil people kind of suck and just made me not care and be invested in this series. Everyone and everything sucked. This series gave me the feelings of nothingness due to the blandness that was seen in their acting skills, as well as how the storyline was portrayed. And no amount of 'eye candy' or smexy scenes in the last episode is going to save this show for me or make me give it a higher score than one.

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I thought this would be one of those decent Noona romances the Japanese are usually adept at producing, but this isn’t the case with this drama. I would say that it was lackluster at best and uninspired at its worst.

First, there was the unconvincing romance between two leads who were more awkward with each other than being comfortable. One has that stiff upper bang, and the other with round fish-eyes who seem to be surprised that some people could be nice because she’s been dealing with lechers at her work place all day, when there’s really only one in particular. Tomoko goes along with the flow, and somehow accepts that this guy Ryohei, who did not seem so interested in getting into her pants, but actually is, but was just not so obvious about it. She could not have fathomed that this guy, who seems to be a “dumb delinquent,” could actually be harmless.

Then suddenly, Ryohei appears everywhere she is, from meeting her friends to meeting her parents. And even claiming to be so-called “friends” with the guy who had been trying to date Tomoko? That was really a stretch for me, especially when he did not even have the decency to leave when Koki was trying to have a personal conversation with his grandmother. Isn’t he just being nosy or oblivious? Then the revelation that came out of the left field, as if the writers could not come up with a convincing excuse to write him out of the love equation.  

Anyway, I thought the drama could have been better with more developed characters and conflicts, but I understand it may have been limited by time and length. They could have just focused on one or two issues instead of trying to tackle so many things in one already-short show. It’s like trying to make a salad with 10 different things but not mixing it well. I’m pretty sure 3 or 4 ingredients would have been enough, and the same applies here.

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Lovely Runner Review

Do you know a series about a girl that loves a boy so much, she goes to the past multiple times just to save the boy she loves? Well that series is called lovely runner! Its my favorite K-drama right now! This series was directed by Yoon Jong-Ho and this series came out at April 8 2024. The actors that played in this movie are Byeon woo-seok and Kim Hye-yoon, these are the actors that played as Sunjae and Im sol, they are also amazing actors! And the genre of this series is romance and fantasy.

In my opinion lovely runner is the best and most popular K-drama this year. I also have 2 reasons and evidence for this, first, all the actors are really good and actually can act well, if you watch the series yourself you can see how they can act well as the character they are playing and all their expressions fit the scene. Second, The movie is actually very popular and the actors are popular too, one of the reasons are lovely runner was top 1 in viki for 6 weeks! That’s a long time isn’t it? In addition to this, the actors are also popular, one of the evidence for this is Byeon woo-seok became the top Korean celebrity in brand rankings and also won the Outstanding Asian Star Korea Popularity Award (Male) at the 19th Seoul Drama Award in 2024. Lovely runner also had another version, the webtoon version, however I didn’t read that version of lovely runner so I personally feel that lovely runner series is better.

Lovely runner seems like just a normal romance K-drama, but it also has something we can learn from it. Firstly from this series we can learn how God already planned our life, like how Im sol erased her and sunjaes memories together but they still ended up together, that’s how God already planned them to be together, a bible verse for this is Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future". It means how God already planned everyones life before they were born, like how Im sol and sunjae are still together after everything that happened, its fate. Second, we should trust in God for everything since he already planned our life, our future, we have to trust in God because everything he plans for us is good and is whats best for us.

To sum up, If you want to watch a romance movie with great actors you should watch lovely runner!! I would give this a 5 out of 5 stars because I really think this movie is interesting and fun to watch, I just love everything about this series and I really recommend this series, try to watch it!!

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"Courage. Love. Trust. Hope."

"Beppin-san" is my 25th asadora [Have I really watched that many of these lol]. This is a very solid asadora, though I have some issues with the plot which I will get into later on. "Beppin-san" reminds me of two other asadoras, "Ohisama" and "Carnation." Coincidentally, Nagayama Kento and Kora Kengo both appeared in "Ohisama" but in opposite roles. The lovely Charlotte Kate Fox from "Massan" also has a small role in "Beppin-san."

First, let's address the heroine, aka Bando Sumire (played by Yoshine Kyoko). She's a very understated heroine, being quiet and absent-minded. Surprisingly, the attention isn't always on her though this is still very much her story. It's interesting to me because it shows that a "normal" person is the main character of their own story. Sumire, however, can be assertive when she needs to be and becomes self-confident over time. Another interesting part of her character is that she had a relatively sheltered childhood, which makes her a bit of a naive "ojou-sama". I really enjoyed watching her grow as a character.

"Beppin-san" has some wonderful side characters, particularly Sumire's lifelong friends: Akemi (Tanimura Mitsuki), Ryoko (Momota Kanako), and Kimie (Tsuchimura Kaho). Each girl goes through their own character development and I really love the friendship between these girls and Sumire. My next favorite character is Norio-san (Nagayama Kento), Sumire's husband. Their relationship is really sweet, but also shows that marriage isn't all smooth-sailing. You have to make an effort to understand each other. And then the next best character is Eisuke-san (Matsushita Yuya). His arc is surprisingly poignant and made me cry on more than one occasion. Honorable mentions go to Sumire's father (Namase Katsuhisa) and mother (Kanno Miho, also narrator); her older sister Yuri (Renbutsu Misako), her daughter Sakura (Igashira Manami); and Kimie's son Kentaro (Furukawa Yuki). And really there's so many more~

Now on to my issues with the plot. The first three weeks of "Beppin-san" kind of rush through Sumire's childhood, marriage, and then giving birth. It's a bit of a whiplash moment, though I realize it's because they wanted to get to and then through WWII relatively quickly. I liked the pacing of the drama much better after the war. Halfway through, there's a time-skip to Sakura's teenage years. Honestly, I really hated this plot. Mostly because it dragsss on for four weeks worth of episodes. I actually understand Sakura's feelings, having a workaholic mother myself. However, it some point it just becomes too much and the plot felt like a chore to watch. Thankfully, Sakura becomes a much better character afterwards. She's assertive without being bratty. In the grand scheme of the asadora, I think these are minor complaints and overall it's very good.

I really liked "Beppin-san", despite said minor complaints. It has a really cohesive theme of friendship and parenthood. I love the whole four leaf clover meaning "Courage. Love. Trust. Hope." Sumire and her friends each represent these traits and I think that's why their children's clothing company works so well. On the technical side, it was interesting seeing every step of the company's growth. It's also ironic that Sumire and her friends aren't ambitious and really just go with the flow. If you liked the asadoras "Ohisama," "Carnation," "Gochisosan," or "Toto Nee-chan," I think you'll really like "Beppin-san."

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A must watch drama

I don't typically write reviews, but if you're reading this, do yourself a favor and go watch Crazy Love—this underrated gem is a must-watch. Everything about it, from the storyline to the cast and even the romance, is top-notch.

The plot itself is incredibly unique, making it stand out from many other K-dramas. It's not your typical love story; the twists and turns keep you hooked from start to finish. I was genuinely invested in the characters, and I found myself eagerly waiting for each new episode. The story blends humor, drama, and romance in such a way that it feels fresh and exciting, without being predictable.

The cast truly brings the story to life. The performances are stellar, and each character is well-developed. They make you care deeply about their individual journeys, whether it's the main couple's whirlwind romance or the more secondary storylines. There’s a real emotional depth to the characters, and you’ll find yourself rooting for them from beginning to end.

The romance is one of the highlights of the show. It's heartfelt and intense, with great chemistry between the leads. What makes it even more interesting is the balance of drama and sweet moments that make you swoon. It's the kind of romance that feels both thrilling and touching, pulling you in emotionally.

All in all, Crazy Love is a K-drama that deserves way more recognition. If you're looking for something unique, with a great plot and memorable characters, give this one a chance—you won’t regret it!

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Lovely quick binge

The episodes are very short, which makes the show an easy binge. The short eps definitely let to a more brisk pace and maybe less depth to be explored along the way, but it still managed to be of a quality level only slightly below a full length drama, and still a large step above other "short ep web dramas".

The lead, Gia Ge, is absolutely fantastic in this. The camera loves her and her gaze can just hold its attention in a very powerful way. The plot has beats of romance, revenge, melancholy, beauty; and the show handles each with vividness and care and emphatic emotional impact.

The only criticisms I have are there were a few plotlines that get kind of dropped, or at least not as resolved as I would have liked. But everything still made sense in the end, so it was mostly just the short length not having a lot of room for more, and the writing decisions to be only... somewhat bloodthirsty ;)

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I can KIND OF see the effort but..

I’m convinced there‘s is a good story buried somewhere inside this garbage mess but it’s barely visible. This series made very little sense.
It‘d be too long to go through every little and big thing in detail so I’m not gonna do it but to put it bluntly: nothing made much sense, including characters’ decisions and accusations. Even the first half of the show made barely any sense but the second half was complete idiocy. This show had several scriptwriters how did nobody catch the nonsense?

The first episode was actually quite good (good enough) but onward ep 2 it got exponentially worse until in culminated in full-on ludicrousness.
Absurdity of the plot aside, the show also struggled with extreme tonal inconsistencies. It didn’t know what it wanted to be, comedic or dark. It’s possible to carefully combine both genre elements but you have to know what you’re doing and the writers here were not up to the task. The whiplash I got from the clumsy, radical tonal shifts was insane. One minute it’s a serious scene and the next minute it’s suddenly turned into badly written gag comedy. Bizarre!
Some of the scenes were painfully overdramatic and were portrayed in a way that made them unintentionally hilarious. It felt like they wanted to make certain scenes look really cool but ended up making them look ridiculous instead. The direction felt incredibly amateurish and I know that the director isn’t an amateur but he obviously didn’t know jack about directing action scenes and it shows.
Now that we’re on the topic, this is not an action drama, it’s not a romance drama either, it’s an awkward and weirdly paced family drama with some clumsily sprinkled action and romance scenes in between. Oftentimes the dialogue was painful to listen to and most of the time it was on the nose with a lot of telling (AND sometimes showing). It genuinely felt like the dialogue was taken out of a bad shonen anime word for word.

Now onto the romance:
There was so little attempt at romance that I didn’t even care if Jack and Joker ended up together. The romantic chemistry and interactions were nurtured so little that I didn’t care to be invested in their supposed romantic attachment.
I don’t mean that we need to see them confess and/or make out with each other every other episode bc romantic chemistry and build up can be shown in a lot of different ways that don’t have to include sexual intimacy but you gotta have at least some build up, no?
Where are the stares, the slight flirtation? Sometimes it’s briefly there but then it abruptly stops, removing any possibility of a smooth romantic build up. It’s really awkward and at the end doesn’t amount to much. I’ve seen many types of bromances (Western and Asian) that have so much more romantic and sexual tension between characters where they barely even touch each other and this is supposed to be a BL but the romantic tension barely exists here. You can’t just haphazardly throw in a couple of romantic scenes in between all the plot and call it a romance. There’s an art to properly weaving romantic subplot into the main plot of a different genre. Talking about other BLs, Manner of Death did it right, Kinnporsche did it right, even Triage did it right and that one had barely any romance in it.

War is a good actor and Yin def. has improved but in this drama their acting felt slightly off kilter for a lot of the time. I might be wrong but it seems to me that the people heavily involved in this project, YinWar included, didn’t know what exactly they wanted it to be, weren’t sure enough in the direction of this story/plot/theme and that’s why almost everything felt wonky about it and the project itself felt unstable on its legs.

One last thing I want to mention about the plot is that it wanted to showcase how poor people were being taken advatage of by rich people but the poor people didn’t make the greatest decisions either. One example that really jumped out at me was the bit about Jack‘s parents.
They committed suicide bc they thought that their life insurance would be able to pay off their debt but bc they didn’t care to properly read the contract it didn’t work the way they expected it to (bc insurance doesn’t pay in cases of suicide, which was written in the contract!).
Why did they make Jack‘s parents seem foolish by making them not read the full contract? Why not make it a legal loop or make it some other type of refusal to pay out the insurance? Why not lean into the obvious unfairness and scam of the society that openly prefers and protects rich over poor? This was a missed opportunity and made Jack’s parents seem rather stupid instead.
Anyway, my criticism notwithstanding I do appreciate the idea and the grind. I see the effort behind the show and I respect the effort. I know that I’m in the minority in my dislike of the show and I think it’s a good thing that many other people liked it. I do wish for Yin and War to succeed in the entertainment business and I’m sure Jack and Joker will contribute to their future success, I just hope that their next project will be more to my liking.

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IT WAS OKAY

Let me just break down the couples :
1. The main couple ML (Kim Ji Uk/Kim Young Dae) and FL (Shin Min Ah/Son Hae Yeong)
2. The second couple (Lee Sang Yi/Bok Gyu Hyun)and (Han Ji Hyun/Nam Ja Yeon / Yeon Bo Ra)
3. The third couple that shouldn't have existed (Joo Min Kyung/Cha Hui Seong [Hae Yeong's friend]) and (Heo Jung Min/Yun Tae Hyung)
4. I don't know if they are a ship or not but they are married so 4 couple (Jeon Hye Won/Kwon I Rin [U Jae’s wife]) and (Go Wook/An U Jae)

Let me start with the MC first I had one problem it's the fraud marriage I felt like they were trying to brainwash women into doing marriage fraud to get the advantages that come with becoming married such as a paid honeymoon/ hotel furthermore trying to make it seem like its a good idea to do a fraud marriage which is not

I have no problem with the 2nd couple it was actually the one ship that I don't mind.

I have a lot of problems with the 3rd couple like really what were the scriptwriters thinking paring up Cha Hui Seong and Yun Tae Hyung back up together it was one of the worst couple. 1st off I don't have any problem with the actor or actress of the characters I just hate the characters that they acted. One minute they in a relationship next break up and then they are in an idk what phase like honestly the character Cha Hui Seong should have stayed the single mom instead of giving a chance to Yun Tae Hyung again. IDK if they are trying to brainwash women into thinking that they need a man/father to raise a child in Korea or some shit; lets be real there is nothing wrong with a single mother can creators normalize single mother troupe it's not that hard to do. Like bruh normalize breaking up with wishy-washy guys.

Now on to the 4th couple oh dear god I don't know why the creators made the character Kwon I Rin forgive An U Jae; HOnestly, An U Jae should have never been forgiven because he cheated on both Kwon I Rin and FL (Shin Min Ah/Son Hae Yeong) IDK know why they gloss over that. Also once again felt like they were trying to brainwash women to stay with trash like really; feels like Kwon I Rin had to forgive that cheater because he was her husband or some shit like that.

I will repeat this once again I have no hate towards any actors or actresses I just hate some of the characters that is all. I really wish the 3rd and 4th couple had never existed because they don't even feel like couple feel like the woman characters were forced to be in a relationship with the male characters in both the 3rd and 4th couple. I hate how they ended the 3rd and 4th couple honestly the 3rd couple should have broken up and Cha Hui Seong never forgive Yun Tae Hyung as for the 4th couple they should have been fucking divorce . I don't understand why the character Kwon I Rin was still married to that trash An U Jae also Kwon I Rin had the upper hand because she is more financially stable than that trash husband she has,

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BROMANCE or ROMANCE?! Absolutely loved it!

If you’re thinking whether to watch this series or not. PLEASE DO WATCH IT! This is by far the best drama from GMMTV this year. It felt like I was watching censored chinese bl drama lol with the amount of 'friend' love confessions and proposals that we got from Shin and Saint. The guys even say 'I love yous' at the end before cringing together lmao! Honestly love this new couple!

I do admit I had to be patient for the first two episodes but later the plot and story picked up really well and I was hooked on the series!
The casting was perfect! Both teachers Miss Jan and Mr Sung were great! Thats how all teachers should be tbh!
I can't think of anybody else playing Shin and Saint apart from Nani and Sky. These guys were fantastic with their roles. And our adorable Chedjan played by Mark Pukin was the best side character/angel boy anyone could ask for!
What I LOVED about this series was that all characters, MLs, side characters, everyone had good screentime and a lovely growth arc. We have Ken turning into a good boy, we have Shin finally being close to forgiving Saint for hurting him and abandoning him, we have Saint learning to take responsibility for his actions, we have Chadjen breaking out of his shell and making new friends, we have Peeta and Eve growing closer after their fights, we have the teachers getting better at understanding their students and not trying to judge them from first meetings. We have Saint's dad being the best parent, the principal and Ken's dad turning over a new leaf.

For me this series had everything, from love, bromance, friendship, hate, revenge, fights, drugs, gang war and more! And the directors and writers did a wonderful job with bringing on complex emotions and dialogues into the play.
And I have to say that Nani and Sky have become my new fav couple. Nani with his 'eye-acting' was fabulous. I don’t know how this guy can look so pretty while crying and being in pain. I only knew Nani as MJ from F4 and now Nani as Shin was something totally different! This guy CAN act and act he did!
Saint our cute big puppy with a gummy smile trying to make up to his friend for betraying him! Sky was very good with his role, and I'm so happy these guys are getting more recognition.
Waiting on the new 'WU' series! I'm sure it's gonna be wonderful!

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Seo Dong-jae's long con

Dong-jae, the Good or the Bastard is an outstanding first chapter about the journey of redemption of one of tvN’s favourite and most loveable, crafty characters.

Spinoffs can be a tricky business, especially when it’s centred around one character and all the others that you got to know and love don’t appear in the new show. But this kdrama it’s not only a great continuation but also an excellent stand alone, thanks a smart and dynamic script. The script writer also makes it a point to expand the world we all got to know in the first season of tvN’s Stranger, build conflicts and opportunities for character development, all with incredible resolution.

On the technical aspect, the score is fun and dark. A mix of genres with a milonga as Dong-jae’s life soundtrack: dramatic, hilarious, uplifting.

The cinematography it’s one of the best and most beautiful I have seen all year. From the choice of lenses to camera work, lighting and framing. Top notch from beginning to end.

Overall, I am incredibly happy with the quality production of this kdrama and, if you have the chance, I would absolutely recommend you watch it.

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