Reviews

I’M IN LOVE ?

An amazing drama. Park Hyung Sik does an excellent job in the role of a policeman—brave, courageous, and protective of the weak—rather than a sweet boy, as he appeared in Doctor Slump. My admiration for him keeps growing. 🩷

The romantic subplot is well-executed but isn’t the main focus. There’s a lot of action, but the most important message of this drama is how people react in moments of crisis, how they reveal their darker sides when their lives are at stake, and how material things become meaningless in the face of illness—which is the central theme here!

I highly recommend it! 🧚🏻
9.5/10⭐️

I started watching this drama solely because of tiktok edit, and I had no idea what it was about. I haven’t been this pleasantly surprised in a long time.

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Good, but not great

I'm gonna explain each of my ratings so bear with me (ill start with good then bad):

STORY
(good)
The story was somewhat interesting, there were plot twists and mysteries that we had to figure out or find out later. That made me anticipate the following episodes. I liked how well written the characters were. Sometimes in CDramas there is complete focus on the main couple and none on the others. I really liked Ji YunHe, she's a somewhat strong female lead. I also loved the side couples and their stories, specifically Li Shu. The setting was pretty enough and the outfits were nice, but not particularly outstanding. The enemy was generic but it was good and I really liked the contrast between Shunde and Ning Xi Yu and being able to learn about their story, it was really interesting.
(bad)
The beginning was a bit slow and confusing, I didn't feel as drawn into the world setting as I have in other dramas- ashes of love had a beautiful setting. While I liked how well written some of the characters were, they really messed up on Chang Yi. I'm not sure if this is because of his actor (which i'll talk about later), or just the character himself- but Chang Yi felt very 2 dimensional, not changing much through the story and not getting his backstory flushed out. Spoiler- they kill off his clan and father, but we get like a 2 second glimpse of it and then nothing else. It feels like they should've put more time into making us feel empathy and understanding for the change in Chang Yi's character after he was betrayed and his family got killed. Here's the best way I can explain my dislike of this character- no offense at all to Xiao ShunYao (Lin HaoQing actor) but if they had picked a more attractive actor for Lin HaoQing (think like Dylan Wang) I would've gotten second male lead syndrome. Objectively Lin HaoQing's character is much more flushed out and lovely than ChangYi is (or at least the portrayal). I also didn't like how everyone died at least once in the story, some dying twice. While at first I felt sad, when they kept getting revived, I stopped feeling bad. Literally when Luo Luo almost died, I anticipated it and laughed when it happened. Like seriously the deathcount and revival count is crazy.

ACTING/CAST
(good)
Dilraba did an excellent job, I liked how she was able to express her character well in all stages of her character's development. They did a great job flushing out her character and her character's change. I love strong female leads and Dilraba did a great job acting out the strength and the emotions of this character. I also LOVED Ci Sha's acting of Li Shu, he did AMAZING. I love myself a sassy man and his actor was able to portray all those emotions, as well as caring for SanYue and his dilemma of saving the world or being with her. Cristy Guo did SO GOOD, the contrast between Shunde and Ning XiYu was crazy. I was able to hate Shunde and love NingXiYu even when they shared the same "face". Playing the villian is never easy and Cristy did amazing. The other actors did a great job too, Luo Luo was great and Lin Hao Qing was amazing.
(bad)
Oh my flipping days is Allen Ren painful to watch. Chang Yi was so boring what a snooze fest, he was really 2 dimensional and I have to blame the plot a bit for it, but even portraying the character he didn't have any emotion. Allen Ren has like a track record of playing stonefaced emotionless characters, and I read a bit of the novel and Chang Yi isn't really all that stonefaced. Allen Ren didn't do a good job with ChangYi and I honestly felt nothing towards that character or when he died. Also Dilraba and Allen didn't have chemistry. I blame that mostly on Allen since I've watched some of Allen's films and some of Dilraba.

MUSIC
lovely I love everything Sa Ding Ding. I think they repeated the music a bit too much but otherwise no comment

REWATCH VALUE
Not likely rewatching, plot wasn't great enough for me to feel too attached to the characters. Sometimes after finishing shows and movies I will feel depressed because I want more and im so attached the characters it feels like something died in me, but this show felt complete.

OVERALL
My rating probably sounds a bit harsh for the numbers I gave, but the show was good and I was very entertained, like i said good but not great. And I will be avoiding films with Allen Ren after this :)

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Kind of good but boring.

I've seen a lot of bad reviews on this drama; I don't think it was necessarily bad. I just think it was boring. Still, it was interesting enough to finish. And there were some things I liked about it.

I'm glad it was short; 6 episodes was a good length for it. I'm not sure if this was a good or bad thing, but I feel like a lot of the time spent in the show was flashbacks. I liked the high school flashbacks, though. I didn't really take a liking to any character, but the acting was good. I have seen Fukuhara Haruka in another show that I really liked, I think she's a good actress. I did kind of force myself to watch it at times because, like I said, it was boring. But I'm glad I finished it because I liked the ending; it was nice and inspiring.

Overall, there is nothing memorable about the show, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. But I don't think it's as bad as the reviews I saw.

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Watch this for the alphabet challenges. Turn out quite good…

Story about a goblin name Ban Sook (BS). He wants to be human, so queen goblin gives him task to kiss 10 woman to learn about their emotion.

BS can smoothly kiss every woman with hypnosis and everytime they kiss, the woman will forget about BS. So, BS easily do the task given by the queen. Until one day, BS meet Oh Yeon Ah (YA).

YA actually already sees BS kissing women since the first woman. And since YA herself just broke up with her boyfriend cause he's cheating on her. So, YA was so pissed when she saw BS kissing her friend. But YA was just so confused when her friend said she didn’t kiss BS.

They meet again later at YA workplace, when BS also shows up to work there. And by accident, YA finally learn everything about BS & she agreed to help BS. So with that, their destiny and story entangled together. How will this relationship go from hereafter…? Will BS in the end be able to become human…?

This is a really interesting short story. We learn, to gain something there's always a price we need to pay. Is it worthed or not, that's up to you to decide.

Below I'll write every emotion the goblin learns. It’s up to you want to read or not. But I don't think it's a spoiler.
1st lesson: emptiness
2nd lesson: compassion
3rd lesson: Sad
4th lesson: Angry.
5th lesson: Joy
6th lesson: desire
7th lesson: excitement
8th lesson: fear
9th lesson: happy
10th lesson: Love

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Light hearted drama with a refreshing start and a few stumbles

*Story*
As most of the comments mention, the first half was very strong and well written, despite the decline in quality, I still found the second half to be quite decent (maybe because I watched it once it was finished airing). However, I wasn't a huge fan of the last episode. I get their intention of having Ziqi talk to his younger versions in reality but it felt quite abrupt to me and a huge shift in the story. The ending itself wasn't too terrible since we know that Miaomiao and Ziqi/Fu Zhou meet up, and Cuicui and his grandfather also exist in the real life, but I wish we had a more fleshed out happy ending. Not only in terms of the main couple properly interacting, but also maybe meeting Mu Yao and Fuyi in the real world, especially since Miaomiao didn't really get to say good bye to them at the end.


*Acting and Characters*
For the main couple, I really enjoyed the writing for Miaomiao and Ziqi, and I think that Yu Shuxin and Ding Yuxi were the perfect actors to pull off those roles. That being said, I still am not the biggest fan of YSX's acting. She's so different from her peers in that she does heavy emotional scenes really well, but tends to overact in the simpler scenes. Ding Yuxi on the other hand really shone in this show, I really don't have any criticisms for him because I was really impressed by his acting. He pulled off all the heart-wrenching scenes perfectly but also did well in the ones where he was just supporting Miaomiao.
Their chemistry admittedly went down after they got together but I still liked their dynamic in most scenes, and I like the fact that after going back in time, they defeated the Resentful Woman together!

The side couple were the complete opposite for me. All of original Miaomiao's complaints of Fuyi's character still occurred in our version of the story as well. I found him incredibly bland, and I think the way the actor chose to portray him made it even worse. He was like a piece of wood to me, I can't emphasize enough how much I didn't enjoy his scenes. Mu Yao was great, though I disliked her self sacrifice at the end because we already had her go through an arc where the lesson she learned at the end was not to carry everything on her shoulders alone. Zhu Xudan was great in the role, I genuinely loved her, no notes. Their chemistry... was not great though, I blame it on the ML's woodenness lol.


*Music*
The main OSTs were amazing, especially the ballad for the emotional scene and the fast paced one for the action scenes. I can't remember very accurately so don't quote me on this, but I think there were a few music arrangements that I found a bit out of place (not OSTs but background songs). No huge complaints though, especially since I adored the ballad so much.


*Overall*
If you're looking for a light-hearted drama with really good production and beautiful costumes, I recommend that you watch this show. Keep your expectations tempered since it's far from perfect but I found it a very enjoyable watch overall!

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An excellent series despite a lot of wrinkles

Historical series with an excellent cast, well written

PLOT: The young FL witnesses the execution of her father and her family, falsely accused. She is saved by her "older brother", the ML2. 6 years later, she joined the Palace music troupe to investigate. She becomes friends with the king (unnamed, then identified), becomes an investigator, but makes an enemy of the ambitious Royal Consort and her powerful family.

+++ Excellent actors
+++ Story more and less consistent with historical reality

### Production outdated, slow, excessively melodramatic, with long presses on facial expressions (each emotional scene lasts 1 minute too long), (comic) actors who overact, OSTs like we don't do anymore, etc. .
### Even the supposedly intelligent characters (as well as the FL) are at times shockingly stupid... The endless unspoken misunderstandings, the "I am the only one responsible, I deserve to die, but I don’t explain anything”!!
It's very frustrating щ(ಠ益ಠщ)

I am surprised to realize that production has changed so much in 15 years!!

=> A series that could be considered emblematic in 2010, but which has taken on serious wrinkles :(
***************************************************************
Série historique avec un excellent cast, bien écrite

PLOT : La jeune FL assiste à l’exécution de son père et de sa famille, faussement accusés. Elle est sauvée par son "frère aîné", le ML2. 6 ans + tard, elle intègre la troupe de musique du Palais pour enquêter. Elle devient amie avec le roi (anonyme, puis identifié), devient enquêtrice, mais se fait une ennemie de la Consort royale ambitieuse et de sa puissante famille.

+++ Excellents acteurs
+++ Story +/- conforme à la réalité historique

### Réalis° datée, lente, excessivement mélodramatique, avec de longs appuis sur les expressions faciales (chaque scène émotionnelle dure 1 min de trop) , des acteurs (comiques) qui surjouent, des OST comme on n'en fait plus, etc.
### Même les personnages supposés intelligents ( ainsi que la FL) sont par moments d'une stupidité à pleurer ... Les malentendus et non-dits interminables, les "je suis le/la seule responsable, je mérite de mourir, mais je n'explique rien" !! C'est très frustrant щ(ಠ益ಠщ)

Je suis surprise de m'apercevoir que la réalisation a tant changé en 15 ans !!

=> Une série qui pouvait être considérée comme emblématique en 2010, mais qui a pris de sérieuses rides :(

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Beautiful Melancholy

Let’s face it, there’s so much loss and sadness in this drama. Yet it’s balanced by the effective use of light humour so it is never a heavy watch. Even with so much pain and darkness in this drama’s world, light still pierces through giving us viewers relief, powered by unselfish love and loyal brotherhood and heroes who fight for what is right for those who cannot. Some scenes were painful to watch, (spoiler alert), like the final moments of Ah Heng, and Bai Jiu’s final courageous act and Zhao Yuan Zhou fighting himself walking away from his love to his destiny.

Beautifully acted, with a seriously gorgeous cast, and the makeup/ costume department needs to be given an award. How can a forehead accessory on a man look so good (aka Zhuo Yi Chen)?!

This drama felt whole, even without the special episode although the special episode helped ease the pain somewhat. The ending that was hinted at right from the start didn’t fall short of expectations. I’m looking at Neo Hou with new eyes. He was the standout actor for me.

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Sweetttttttttt!!!!

Actually I am not a big fan of only Melo or Romance where I wait for every episode but I really Waited for every week for this drama and really enjoyed It .
First I just came for Kim se Jeong but I really liked Lee Jong won in this drama , I really Liked their chemistry a lot and The second Couple were very sweet and I Liked there chemistry too.
Story - The story was not common but not that different but I liked it , The village set up and small connections between Leads and also each character has their own story
Actors - I really liked all the 6 members in the squad and Individual character is also very good and I am really Impressed with Lee Jong Won in this drama . The mains have a healthy relationship and I am satisfied with this part a lot.
Over all The drama is very good and I really recommend this drama to watch .

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Perfect acting. Be open to see the shadow love and the true love.

This one, is not for everybody. Is for mature, selectiv people, or ones that wants to overcome the toxic relatioships, who wants to go deeper into human psychology, into the complex characters. I liked it, the acting was great. I love Gong Yoo natural acting but also the acting of his collegues. I enjoyed the slow and the time to contemplate the characters and the subtle communication, this was great. Even if all relationships are toxic, with narciccistic and psychopathic characters, it gives you the opportunity to understand the dynamics and to seek healing, love that inspire you, autenthic connection. For me all the movies inspire me to go beyond to surch the meanings of life. And I learn a lot. You will not lost your time. What I want for future kdramas... to introduce the mental education, that is total absent, to help people identify easily the toxic and the healty behavior.

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Mr Plankton - The Emperor's new clothes

The writer of Mr Plankton (Jo-yong) has thrown away the rule book. Whatever you were expecting, it isn't. At first I saw noise, chaos, swearing, fighting. By the end I saw romance, caring, concern and love.
The actors chose this project and decided to leave their outer shells at the door. They trusted the writer, director and crew to undress them metaphorically and to wear strange and dangerous personalities. If you wanted predictable, nice and twee, it isn't. From the lead actors down to to the smallest parts, they have all worked hard to bring this caustic fairytale to us. If we hurt actors and production crews, we will only get the k-drama we deserve.
I recommend that you watch 100%.
Stay safe everyone.

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True Power °8.3° °Excellent°

“You're retired.”

When powered people are “retired,” it's meant to be permanent. Someone is making sure they are gone for good. He has a list. He's checked it more than twice.

M is a 2023 release that is rated 91 on AWiki. It is 1 season consisting of 20 38-58 minute episodes. I've never seen a KDrama open like this… with astral vision, a hard landing, and a harder awakening. The ample budget is showing. It starts in HS. We follow kids with mysterious powers. Before long, we are in the backstory of their parents.

The backstories are /rough/ - Like pull-your-fist-back-and-take-a-moment-to extract-your-opponent’s-teeth-that-got-embedded-under-your-skin-after-a-powered-punch rough. Next, there's a HALL FIGHT!!! Fists of Flame!!! Dooooooood, it's awesome!!! And that episode is titled “The Romanticist”. Then it gets even more violent. It is alittle much- among the most intense I've seen. Clearly, they broke the budget on ep11.

Lee Jung Ha (Nevertheless-7.6, The Auditors, Rookie Historian-7.6) opens the show as the lightweight, Kim Bong “Seok”. Lightweight? More like weightless, at times. He has to wear a weighted backpack to keep himself from floating away like a lost party balloon. This town, that town, new school: To avoid predators, his mother has kept them moving constantly. He's sweet, likable, winsome, and pretty much adorable. Han Hyo Joo (Happiness, W, Blood Free-8.5) is his mother, Lee Mi Hyeon and Zo In Sung (Escape from Mogadishu, That Winter, the Wind Blows-7, It's Okay, That's Love) is his father, Kim Du Sik - He's just killer in the role.

Go Youn Jung (Alchemy of Souls-8.3, Sweet Home-8.4, The School Nurse Files-7.6) is his brand new schoolmate, Jang “Hui” Su. She's a transfer student, and she's pretty, yet she strangely befriends Bong Seok. I just finished watching AoS-2, in which this actress takes over as the FL. M follows a year later, yet she looks 5 years younger. I wouldn't have recognized her if I hadn't checked the credits. The funniest scene, early on, is when he brings her home. His mother's reaction is precious. At first, she's nonplussed. “You're a girl…” is what haltingly comes out. “A girl who's a /friend/…” Hui adds, trying to aid with the processing. “But you're pretty…” Mom is still working on it. When it finally clicks with Mom that her son has brought a pretty girl home, she gets too happy. Too friendly, too. The whole thing is really cute. Ryu Seung Ryong (Portrait of a Family, The Painter of the Wind, Kingdom-8.3) is Hui's father, strongman Jang Ju Won. He is marvelous as well.

Cha Tae Hyun (Team Bulldog: Off-duty Investigation, Brain Works) is the electric Jeon Gye Do. Ryu Seung Beom (No Mercy, Solitude) portrays a very creepy hitman named Frank. Kim Hee Won (Pawn, Han River Police-7.4) is one of the teachers, Choi Il Hwan. Moon Sung Geun (Falsify, Vagabond-8) is the vile governmental department head, Min Yong Jun. The director is Park In Je of Kingdom S2, and the screenwriter is Kang Full from Pain, Love Never Ends.

This production has it all: Love, laughter, warmth, sadness, pain, action, and excitement.
The fight scenes are exceptional and put quite a few Hollywood features to shame. The hitman/hunter is Steven Segal; H2K; Hard to Kill. They do a great job in speeding up the action in places in a way that multiplies the excitement. They are really showing off. The soundtrack is mostly average but not bad. Alone again Naturally, by Gilbert O'Sullivan circa 1972, unexpectedly showed up.

To be different is to be alone. To be normal is to accept the compromise of conformity which can be difficult to distinguish phoniness. That is the theme as well as the nature of power and what is most important.

“Hero? …What do you think power is? Empathy is what real power looks like. Having the ability to care and understand the emotions of others. What kind of hero breaks other people's hearts? …You acted like you were better than him. What you did wasn't admirable at all… a hero has compassion towards others.” Seok had showed off at school and his classmate was hurt when trying to imitate him. His mother is not impressed. Seok has never fit in. He watched a kid jump off the jungle-gym, claiming he could fly. All the kids cheered. Seok couldn't help but go and show them what he could do. But later, the first kid was badly hurt in a fall. His mother is right, but he's just a kid and he wants to fit in. It's a bitter lesson, and it underscores how isolated Seok is. The NK fighters are so sad. They were tortured into what they are. The human brain is terrifying. They are powered, yet still powerless.

M is powerful. It isn't the typical sweet and tame Kdrama. The language is rough (is that Hulu's influence, I wonder? Regardless, it isn't unrealistic) and the violence is jarring at times. This isn't for kids. They are keeping the story moving: S2 is in the works! No early retirement here.

〰QUOTE〰

Crying becomes a habit. A habit becomes a weakness.

〰IMHO〰

RATINGS
Directing 8.3
Writing 8.3
Acting 8.3
Romance 6
Flutters 5
Art 8
Sound & music 7.3
Ending ?
My personal EQ 6.5

LEVELS
Warmth 5
Action/ Excitement 7
Laughs 2
Tears 2
Fright 4
Tension/Anxiety 3
Gore 8
Thought provocation 5.5
Snores 0

Age 15+ Violence - an episode on bullying is very emotional and difficult, gore
Language: R-rated w/ many F💣s

Rated TV-MA: Mature Audience Only.

Re-watch? WOULD

In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:

The Legend of the Blue Sea-7.2
Racket Boys-8.3,
Reply 1988-8.6,
The school nurse files-7.6,
Crash Landing On You 9.1,
Oh My Ghost 10,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
Descendants Of The Sun-8.3,
Law School -8,

Period
My Only Love Song 8.7 ~ excellent comedy,
Mr. Queen 8.5,
My Sassy Girl 8.5,

Sci-fi / Action
Glitch-8,
Missing: The Other Side-8.3,
Mystic Pop-up Bar-8.2,
K2 8,
Inspector Koo-8.4,
Private Lives 8.1, When the Camellia Blooms-8,
Sisyphus 8,
The Golden Spoon-8.1,
Uncanny counter season-1 only °S1-8.4 S2-4,
Vagabond-8,
Tunnel 8.5,
Signal 8.6, Iris-8,
The Cursed 8.3,
Flower of Evil 8.9,
The Man from Nowhere 8.9, The Wailing-8.8,
Black 9,
Squid Game 8.4,
Kingdom 8.3,
Sweet Home 8.4

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