Reviews

Is this a bl?

This is a very intense show. Very well written and the actors are pretty good. I just finished episode 4 and moving on to episode 5. I’m having a hard time believing that this is a bl. I see nothing other than one character saying they like the other in the first episode. There’s been no real hugging or kissing or even any longing. The characters are not really thinking about each other when they are not together. I just don’t see it. (Maybe love will happen in the last episode) This is super good as a suspense. It really keeps you on your toes and guessing. But a love story, nah!

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Clever cute, funny and sweet

Clever, cute, funny and sweet. Every fan has a favorite light romedy and Run On is mine, my 'Paris' drama -- the romantic and sentimentalized view of Paris in light midcentury comedy is so like the image of Seoul now, a city made solely for lovers....4 lovers wander in and out of one of those great cafe settings where artists could meet patrons and lovers can eavesdrop jealously; no one suddenly develops a fatal illness and lovers' misunderstandings are honest mistakes, not willful blundering.

All 4 have intense and very different professional lives -- when love calls them out into each other's worlds, all four are clueless for awhile. Bridges have to be built, concepts have to be translated, lovers struggle to understand. A grown-ups' world where lovers can be childish with each other and men weep when they are sad instead of going all morose. Wonderful and fully developed supporting characters fill out the main leads' narratives.

Siwan's character, Ki Seon Gyeom (SG) at first seems very slow on the uptake. A sprinter on the national team, a compliant child of an actress mother and an awful hypocrite of a father, we see him through the eyes of Shin Se Kyung's xcharacter, Oh MiJoo (MJ). MJ is the heart of this piece, the real POV, a film translator and subtitler who sometimes does some live interpreting. Shin Se Kyung's voice is so wonderful, both warm and sarcastic with a wide range of emotional expression, and her portrayal of MJ is of an active, hardworking intelligent woman. She always keeps on running metaphorically forward towards a life she has chosen, with a great mane of auburn hair rippling like a flag behind her.

MJ's changing descriptions of SG inform our own view of him, at first 'odd' (seen. even by his teamates as distant/arrogant), then bafflingly restricted verbally, (she of course is very verbal with her friends). Suddenly in civilian clothes a real beauty, and slowly more expressive as bit by bit as he and she work their way to understanding the close tie they feel almost from the beginning. She and the viewer finally see him as adorable and his constant steady attention to her as the faithfulness of a true romantic lead.

Luckily so, because the second couple generates enough steam and smoke for a whole other drama. Written in classic point/counter point with the more realistic and careful OTP, Kang Tae Oh as Yonghwa (YW) and Choi Soo Young as Seo Danah (DA) are nearly equal to them in screen time, action and arc. This is a deliberate move because the underlying theme is an exploration of the poisonous remnants of a once rigid, systematic ,and highly detailed mostly male social hierarchy.

The longest arc in the story are the individual results of a scandal involving really violent bullying in the national team, where one member turns his anger and jealousy of SG upon a more vulnerable teammate. SG's life is changed by his solid moral compass and refusal to hide the scandal. MJ serves as interpreter for an interview the victim gives to the international press and she translates the subsequent English article for online publication. SG embarks on a journey of self-discovery with MJ, while his real personal strengths and abilities become clearer to the viewer.

The script contains many funny gender reversals and commentaries on the concept of hierarchy and power, some subtle, some played more broadly for laughs. A JTBC show with Kim Se Jin as composer. Writer -- Park Shi Hyun.

On a first watch I recommend looking forward to a real debacle of a birthday party, SG and NJ's first two meetings, and Dan-ah's and Younghwa's last fight.

Hope y'all enjoy Run On as much as I do!

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 .

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Light & cute family drama with corporate espionage thrown in

I love the pairing of Wen Mo Yan and Shen Hao Nan in Your Trap. Thus that led me to this series. I'm delighted that Shen Hao Nan used the same hairstyle as the one in Your Trap. With this hairstyle, he resembled Mark Tuan of kpop group GOT7.

What I liked:
1) Romance - This series displayed better falling in love scenes than Your Trap. I like the montage clip of younger Mun Yunge and Si Qingye because they had fun and looked like a real couple in love. That morning after conversation was funny. The kisses were hot but in one scene I am not sure whether it's right to proceed.
2) Kids - They are adorable but hhhmm quite mature and observant for six year olds. I have seen the child actor who played Xingxing in a vertical drama about a triplets. His character was similar too - he was an intelligent boy who is leader amongst his siblings.
3) Styling - I really like the outfits for Qingye and the kids because they wear bright colours. Yunge's clothes were pretty too but I don't like the shoe choices. Maryjane with socks on a mum is not my style. Yunge also wore a pair of heels that were strapped to her ankle for her business meeting at a club. She should have worn slip on heels so that shoes fell on the floor during the makeout scene (more dramatic effect).
4) Zhao Dong Hao - He was memorable despite the lack of screentime. He had six-pack abs but damn that scene was too short.

What I disliked:
1) Ning Wu Hui's arc - Instead of cramming Ning Wu Hui's part in 1 episode, the series should expand this arc into 3 episodes. First episode could be about Ning Wu Hui meeting & seducing Si Qing Ye, second episode could be her mission and third episode could be about her accident that led to memory loss.
2) Mu family arc - I feel like Yunge's identity as a member of Mu family wasn't explained clearly. Why did she do to earn her grandpa's assets? What did she do for a living after giving birth? Why did she work at Qingye's company instead of her own family company? The cousin rivalry felt empty because the cousin character was two dimensional.
3) Dubbed voice - Why were the voices dubbed? I love Wen Mo Yan's voice but her dubbed voice had this "cute" sound to it.
4) Villains - I feel like they were too many villains that ultimately were underdeveloped. Had Lu Xiao had more depth to his character.

Favourite scene
The kids birthday party. I didn't expect raw performances by both leads.

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Pei Jiao Shou Ni Bu Dui Jin (2024) is a very nice adaptation from the web novel "Sheng Wen You Wen". The leading man Chen Zheng Yang (as Pei Zhi He and) and the leading lady Wu Yi Qiao (as Jiang Qiao) are both smart, quick-witted strong characters, and are ganuine with each other, and have very good chemistry. The leading man is earnest in his desire to be with her and has, for a long time, been protecting and helping her from a distance. There is no manipulation, he simply saw an opportunity and, once they got married, he would not let anyone get in his way in order to have her by his side. Overall, this drama is very entertaining; enjoy it!
You can find it on YouTube under the caption: Marrying the Perfect Idol by Agreement: From Marriage to Love, They Redeem Each Other, I Have a Fiancé Who Doesn’t Love Me, and I Finally Made Up My Mind to Break Up..., and “After being cheated on, she married her ex’s older brother, who spoiled her.”, among others.

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Sexy business rivalry drama that could use more kick

I am big fan of Wen Mo Yan because of her work in 'The Only Girl You Haven't Seen'. Oh boy, this drama is something alright.

What I liked:
1) Kisses - Damn the kissing scenes were very hot. Episode 1 was already spicy and episode 16 gave me a shock! Both Wen Mo Yan and Shen Hao Nan had great chemistry that they were able to portray lust and passion in their makeout scenes.
2) Han Qing characterisation - Kudos to Wen Mo Yan for taking this role. She's got the acting chops to play a sexy siren (her voice and legs are sexy). I like that Han Qing stuck to her principles - she's not into framing innocenet people.
3) Shen Hao Nan - Damn, he is handsome and kinda resemble Mark Tuan of kpop group GOT7 (go watch Crash & Burn or You Calling My Name video to see the resemblance). This is my first time watching his drama and he played the role well. I'm keen to check out his other work.
4) Styling - I like outfits and styling for female and male leads. Stylist must work hard on Shen Hao Nan's hair because the way it's coiffed seemed intricate.

What I disliked:
1) Writing - ML Feng Si Qian is trapped by stipulations made by his father in law but I don't "feel" that much suffocation from him. If the writer had made it clear that his selfworth is tied to the company then his character would be more compelling. I think the villain could be more complex too instead of a straight cut greedy character.
2) Certain scenes - I don't like the scene of Han Qing playing violin in episode 1. The camera angle wasn't good so she looked possessed. Plus that scene doesn't add value to the series.
3) Romance - I wish we were given more "at work" scenes because I think that's how Feng Si Qian fell for Han Qing. I'd like to see them slowly falling in love instead of being told that they were in love.

Favourite scene
Han Qing tended to Feng Si Qian wound then they made out.

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Best part: Romance

I'd seen clips of the three couples of this drama before going into it and I knew I'd love it just from that alone. And I was absolutely right — I really enjoyed the dynamic of all the pairings. The main couple in particular felt like such a return to form to classic kdramas, from the very first meet-ugly, to the clashes along the way where they gradually get to know each other. I really liked how they communicated through all their struggles and how we saw bumps in their relationship because of the bigger plot, but it never turned into one of those annoying "break-up" or "noble idiocy" moments. The rom-com was just really fun and cute, with some of the best jealousy and kiss scenes I've seen. The secondary couples have less screen-time but they're really lovable too.

In terms of the thriller/"case of the week" portion of the drama, I think they were overall done well. I really liked how we started out with an internal case — how standing up against unfair treatment in police training brought everyone together, and then I liked seeing our main group work together to solve different cases until we gradually made our way to the big one.

I thought the big case was really interesting too, and I actually think the drama did a great job giving it tension and weight in contrast to the more light-hearted scenes of the show. This is the part of the show where you really have to suspend disbelief though; the final plan feels a bit juvenile. Yes, the characters are rookies (it's in the title, after all) but I felt like the main antagonist had been built up to take more precautions that they seemed to really easily get around for plot purposes.

There's also a main character death that I think we needed more time with, giving the other characters more time to grieve and recover. I loved how tight-knit the group was before this, and after the character died, it felt like we were sad for a few minutes and then everyone just moved on and started to focus on the case again. The drama just needed some more quieter scenes of grief and introspection, so that the characters and the viewers could sit with what just happened, because it really should've felt much more earth-shattering.

Other than that, though, I really enjoyed this drama overall, and the main OST (Because of You) is SO catchy.

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the toxic we deserve

THIS IS SO UNAPOLOGETIC TOXIC AND I LOVE IT. If youre looking for a show thats gonna suck you in and make you addicted this is it. As a latina I wasnt supposed to be surprised with the amout of toxiness or the drama but somehow I was. There were a lot of times where I found myself at the edge of my seat not knowing whats next. But the one thing I liked as I said was their unapologetic toxic relationship, like sometimes the writers put toxic elements in a couple but never acknowledge it, in this show the writers made the couple sometimes toxic but always made sure that the viwers knew it was wrong and always reminded us that that was not okay. ANYWAYS onto the bad things unfortunately this show has soooo many boring subplots, that if u are okay with skipping as I am are not gonna affect u that much but still its very annoying. Overall chemistry is 10/10 and the show as a whole is 7/10 but the story of the couple makes it a 8/10

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It's just a little very very little drama

So, I gave the story a ten because, in fact, from the first chapter it already gives the intention of saying that it won't be a huge series, but rather a very small one. Well, the series is very brief but with a concept that I had not seen until then, unlike a series that for example contains multiple personalities as central, it came to a different point. What I liked most was exactly this difference that was a little creative, besides that I thought the acting was good, my favorite was the actor on Saturday, he really is a great actor. Well, there's not much to say. It's a very small and cute series with a different concept. That's it, very cute.

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My Stand-In? More like My Stand-6-Feet-Away-From-Me-Please....

Okay, so I actually kind of enjoyed it, but I also found myself feeling immensely unsatisfied at the end. I like doing pros and cons lists, so I'll start with that.

Pros:
1. The acting. I especially though Ming's actor really gave this snarky and condescending, yet desperate attitude to Ming.
2. There were no overbearing advertisement placements that are unfortunately abundant in Thai BL series.
3. It wasn't a show that had overbearing comedy or goofy sound effects.
4. The show looked pretty nice. I mean, some of the fashion choices were not it, but the lighting and directing looked enchanting at times.
5. Did not take place in a generic high school or college.
6. Some of the characters worked for me (I'll go into more depth about this later).
7. Some of the fluff scenes were actually extremely cute, but I had to turn my memory of the previous episodes off in order to enjoy them fully.
8. The nsfw scenes were pretty good ngl.
9. That catfight between Ming and Sol was pretty funny and just made so much sense character-wise lmao.

Cons:
1. Joe.
2. The fact that they end up together. It has been a MINUTE since I found a main couple nearly equally intolerable (the last time was probably Clary and Jace from Shadow Hunters.
3. Sol's existence.
4. The semi-rushed last like two episodes.
5. The random old blind guy that can astral project or something for some reason???
6. Joe's death was entirely unintentional. Call me basic but I actually wanted there to have been some bigger conspiracy or something idek.
7. His family suddenly became accepting???
8. The side pairing of Mike and Jim was barely explored in the slightest. Truly unfortunate because I hadn't seen Inntouch in a role since My Engineer and I was looking forward to more scenes from him.
9. It felt like acting and stunt doubling became lost in the plot already by the halfway point.

Sound:
Pretty forgettable, but not the worst I've ever heard in a drama. Sometimes I liked it, sometimes I actually wondered what a song had to do with the scene it was playing in (maybe because I can't understand Thai I couldn't tell why it was playing during certain scenes).

Characters: Oh boy, where do I even start?
Joe: I cannot stand how he was written. I do not understand how he could continuously be the biggest loser to the point that I didn't even feel bad for him anymore after the 100th time of me yelling "BREAK UP WITH HIM!!!" at the screen whenever he forgave Ming for being the absolute worst lover. Also, I know calling yourself "paramour" makes you feel a little better about the situation, but let's be honest here; you're a hoe-for-hire. And don't get me wrong, I love a good hoe character, but Joe was not a fun or relatable hoe character he was just a pathetic one. I actually sympathized with him at first but then I lost all sympathy by the end when he forgave Ming completely after LITERALLY DYING TWICE BECAUSE OF MING AND TONG'S ANTICS and had the audacity to say "you should forgive yourself as well" like okay man, just admit you are a complete pushover that has a hero complex enough to sacrifice yourself for this guy Tong that literally ruined your life. Also, why did he choose to lose his virginity to the incredibly intoxicated Ming? Like, that was dubious consent (and stupid) right????

Ming: He was a walking red flag. Bro was clearly selfish and narcissistic and it makes me sick that he got to be with the guy he treated terribly in the end. Also, why did he have such a fetish on male backs? You're telling me that he fell head over heels for someone solely based on their back in dim lighting that he saw on a mall screen? Yeah, okay. I also have no idea why he kept putting so much faith into some random blind old guy that set up like Mickey Mouse tea tables and chairs in the MIDDLE OF A FOREST. But, whatever.

Tong: Okay so I might lose some people here, but I actually liked Tong. I mean that I liked how he was as an antagonist, not his personality because FUCK THAT GUY. It was honestly refreshing to see an antagonist that seemed realistic rather than cartoon-villainy in a Thai series. He felt like someone you might actually meet in real life and that made me more invested in his character. The way he was mostly chill, yet still felt the need to put his name on things to secure his position made sense and the way he got cocky and took a gamble that backfired so he secretly abused his in-laws' trust to attempt to cover it up messily also felt kind of believable. Then the way he was using his own future baby as leverage as a last-ditch effort just sealed the deal for me. Though I do agree with other reviews mentioning how he didn't deserve a semi-redemption arc and happy ending, I think it made sense for his character. He never struck me as fully morally black, so while that redemption arc felt rushed, it also didn't feel impossible to me. His happy ending made sense because a lot of the time people like him get away with the things they've done because of status, reputation, family ties, wealth. etc. So while I find him detestable, I get why he got his happy ending in the end.

The rest of Ming's family:
1. Mike was cool. He's played by Inntouch so I automatically felt a little (a lottle actually) endeared to him as a character. I liked how you could tell he did care for his brother, yet wasn't just going to give him everything off the bat without verifying things for himself first. One of the few characters I sensed true maturity from. Too bad him and Secretary Jim were so neglected because I was kind of getting interested in them by the end.
2. May: poor girl was as forgettable as Secretary Jim. She had such a lack of relevance that I genuinely started to wonder if they forgot to include her in the family drama or what. Literally just served to be Tong's walking leverage.
3. The mom: I did like her by the end. When she called Joe a gold-digger I kind of laughed.....but then I thought that was probably was too because her and the husband look like they are at least 20 years apart and they already have three adult kids so I have no idea what that was about. The way she was avoided being seen by Ming made her seem a lot scarier than she actually was, which I felt was a bit anti-climactic. I could tell from her reactions that breaking Ming and Joe up actually hurt her deep down, but she thought was doing the best thing for Ming and her family by keeping someone like Joe out. Also, that final scene where she had dinner with them was adorable. Loved that.
4. The dad: This man just screamed domestic abuser to me. The way everyone in the family was scared of him (except for that ballsy loser Tong it seemed) and even his wife had no power to sway his mind honestly irked me. Though, there are actual families out there like this, so I didn't think it impossible. But, like, then they tried to push him just wanting the best for Ming and not being homophobic at all and I was just like "Huh?" They really tried to give him a Fighter's dad from Why R U? treatment I swear. I MEAN HE LITERALLY PULLED OUT A GUN TO THREATEN JOE AND THEY SAY HE IS ACTUALLY A PRETTY UPSTANDING GUY? YEAH MAYBE PULL THAT ISH IN A UNIVERSE LIKE LOVE SYNDROME, BUT NOT HERE MATE.

Other Joe's mom:
She annoyed me. I have no idea why Joe was SO attached to her. I understand feeling the need to repay her for her efforts, but this man called her "mom" like it was natural like one month into being her impersonator son. OH R.I.P. original Joe btw. He was so irrelevant and his weirdo ex too like anything linked to him lost relevancy by episode 5 or 6. Also this mother made me so mad when got mad at Joe for being a "paramour" and lying about taking out a big loan, but bitch didn't you also take out loans and sacrifice your livelihood to help your son live well? Stop acting like he sold his soul to the devil or something. You know I bet she wouldn't have acted NEARLY as hypocritically like that if he agreed to the hoe to a rich WOMAN instead. Just admit you are still mega homophobic and be on with it sis.

Sol:
Dear god he made no sense to me whatsoever. You could take him out of the story and virtually nothing would change. Why was he even here? His reason for leaving Joe was already dumb and rooted in homophobia to begin with, but then he suddenly, what, became gay and missed Joe so he no longer felt like Joe had bad intentions? Wtf. Okay, guy. Also, this man could NOT TAKE A HINT! Joe was so CLEARLY NOT INTO HIM.....yet he still kept pushing that fact that he liked him onto Joe...like, I'm pretty sure Joe knows you like him after the fifth time you told him so you don't have to reiterate it again mate......him leaving for South Korea was so refreshing because if he decided to stick around and be an eternal third wheel I think I might start feeling sympathy for Joe again. Oh wait, how come Sol could keep coming to Thailand for extended periods of time? Isn't the Kpop industry quite demanding on its actors? I figured he was a solo actor, but even that didn't make up for the times I questioned how he could spend so much unfiltered time in Thailand. Also, he filmed a BL music video....but isn't South Korea pretty homophobic? I wonder how that went over for him when he returned......


In conclusion; this series gave me a semi-headache. By the halfway mark I was already counting down the episodes until the finish mark because the characters (JOEEE) were tiring me out so much. Joe will now go down in my TierListMaker BL Protagonists list as near-bottom tier. Let's make a more tolerable main couple next time please. <3

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cringey characters/plot with some sweetness and spice

Overall: (after a couple of days knowing each other) "Why don't you stay and complete this place. Complete me. Give me a new life." There is some truly cringey dialogue, but it's a fast watch and had some enjoyable moments. Two episodes about 1 hour each. Airing on WeTV https://wetv.vip/en/play/lvdxvdkso18fdfe-The%20Renovation

What I Liked
- sweet moments
- good intimacy
- resort setting
- the last few minutes of episode 1 came out of nowhere but it was fun (also a couple scenes in ep 2, one after the first end credits)

Room For Improvement
- character dumps and the voice overs (it made a little more sense once we discovered his job but I still didn't enjoy it)
- didn't care about the characters or want them to be together in episode 1
- tropey, 2 sponge baths in 1 hour
- nonsense dialogue, the flowers in the bathtub
- not a fan of characters who play games like towards the ending of episode 2

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very cute spin off (want that historical series asap)

Overall: this 4 episode spin off (eps 9-12 in the YouTube playlist, about 44 minutes in total) was cute. I'm happy that SUKFILM made a series without love triangles/cheating/cliche evil women which are prevalent in their other series. This is my review of eps 1-8 https://mydramalist.com/profile/blcompilations/review/385435 Aired on SUKFILM's YouTube channel https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYfaogVGCvwQ_32A8H9oWjdEtXVTWcrja&si=sMchCmQ6G6zL8HKY (I watched as a non-member, normally the membership includes videos with longer kissing scenes).

What I Liked
- sweet/caring moments
- different stories/characters (that historical one definitely needs to be a full series)
- this kissing/intimacy/chemistry, good consent

Room For Improvement
- the constant background music with vocals which were also too loud

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Light hearted and easy to binge watch

As a huge fan of the original C-Drama, I was really looking forward to the Korean remake. Knowing that the kdrama would have to fit in the entire story into 16 episodes, I was quite intrigued as to how the producers and writers would do so whilst still keeping the main themes of the story.

This was in general a good watch and I would recommend to anyone who wants a light drama. I won't go too much into the differences between the two dramas, but if you want to watch the one with more emotional scenes, then watch the CDrama. FBC was lighthearted and easy, every episode had a pivotal moment and there wasn't anything that I felt I had to skip.

I sympathised slightly more with the "bad guys" in this adaptation than the other which shows that the writers did a great job in making the characters human with flaws. The acting of the main 5 characters was good, nothing felt too awkward. The second lead couple were very cute and I personally would have liked to see more of them.

Overall, FBC was a nice watch, it wasn't heavy and I didn't cry while watching this in compared to the other adaptation. I liked how the big theme of family was the central point in this and that it was evident throughout the show. I also like the chemistry between the ML and FL way better in this drama than the other so in the romance side of things, FBC wins. But this was definitely a "watered down" version of the original. If you want a drama that has emotional impact, this one doesnt have it. Like stated before, this was an easy watch.

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