A Painful Drag

I was really excited for this one and I know it had gotten huge but goddamn. This was insanely painful to watch.

The main plot of the story is comprised of characters never communicating with each other, whether it's between family members or between the main leads. The family members don't treat each other with respect or talk through arguments — it's just yelling.

As for the romance, I've seen my fair share of nosy second leads but good god, the main leads just made it so EASY. The second leads barely had to do anything before the leads made assumptions, got jealous, and stopped talking to each other. Even after they got together, the relationship was comprised of keeping secrets or "not having the chance to tell each other" things until they found out through other means. It just all got really repetitive and was even more annoying because everything felt self-inflicted.

I also just hate the way they wrote the female characters in this drama — it was like the writers kept forcing their male characters to "take care" of them by making them immensely illogical and childish. Whether it was just being angry at the idea that two people in a relationship need their own space, or just trying to play hard-to-get to the point of messing with the other person's feelings, I just really despised how the women were portrayed. The main lead was really childish and overreactive, and the side characters were the same. TLDR: Nobody communicated. Ever.

Overall, this was an irritating watch and it took a long time for me to get through it — I know Xiao Zhan and Yang Zi are A-Listers but the chemistry was mediocre and the plot really dragged everything else down.

Leia Mais

Nuance and Cinematography

This is hands down the most nuanced and most fleshed out version of Hana Yori Dango (that I've watched), and for a drama that seems so chock full of cliches and out-of-the-blue plot developments and cliches, it felt like F4 Thailand was the most cohesive of them all too — I never once felt like things were underdeveloped or came out of nowhere. Side character arcs were all given their time and space.

I really love how modernized this is in terms of all the tropes; HYD is basically a hodgepodge of all the tropes but F4 Thailand managed to pull them off without making them seem tired and annoying. The bullying, insecurity, economic class, familial pressure themes were kept really consistent throughout the entire show even as different characters come in and out.

I do think the vibe of the show was pretty modernized as well — older versions of HYD added a really dramatic layer to some of the scenes and I was glad that everything just felt a little more realistic (as realistic as HYD could be, at least). Gorya was a really likable protagonist who used her brain a lot and didn't rush into things without thinking. Thyme's character development was done really well. The downside, and I don't know if this has to do with the fact that I know the story, but it's that I never felt as though the stakes were very high.

I have to admit that HYD was never my favorite drama so there are some arcs that I wish weren't included but of course they were, and there were other arcs like Kavin/Kaning that I wish had gotten more time to be developed.

I also think that for the most part, the actors did a great job — but you could definitely tell who was experienced and who was a rookie; I felt as though I could feel Bright and Win's emotions with my entire soul, but when other characters were crying or breaking down, it sort of just felt like acting.

Overall, definitely the best version of HYD out there; I think a bigger HYD fan might enjoy it but I admit it was never one of my favorite stories anyways. Even then, I felt like cinematography throughout the entire show was beautiful and I really liked that there were even mini tropes that were gently subverted in small scenes. The OST is beautiful and these are pieces of artistry that anyone can enjoy.

Leia Mais

Thought-provoking and masterful storytelling

This is the type of movie that starts out quiet and funny, but spirals down into something more scary and dramatic, all without being jarring. The subtlety was one of Parasite's best traits, and it's why I couldn't stop thinking about the symbolism, the theories afterwards. I've found so many small hints that I missed while watching it and now it just blows my mind more

The cinematography was beautiful. My favorite was the montage of the family carrying out their grand plan for the housekeeper, but throughout the movie you could tell that every scene was thought-out and its message about the distribution of wealth and elitism was depicted brilliantly in the cinematography alone.

Overall, Parasite was so cleverly made, and all the characters were very realistic, and the movie sets up people on both sides without vilifying anyone. The music was also edited in really well — when things were about to happen, the music got sinister and I felt nervousness. In the moment, though, there was nothing that really made me feel surprised. The epilogue and ambiguity of many plot points are things that you grow to appreciate, but it's a movie that you have to think about afterwards.

Leia Mais

A slowwwwwww burn

So this drama requires one big thing from its audience: patience.

It starts out slow; a lot of the early episodes are focused on establishing setting — the competitiveness of and within academies, how it clashes with public schools, etc. We see our main female lead, a star academy teacher, get caught up right in the middle of it, and its only after all of this do we get a little glimpse of an interaction between her and the male lead. It looks like a lot of people had already dropped the drama by then, and those people missed out — the chemistry between them is FANTASTIC.

But I don't blame them. The unfortunate truth is that the academy setting and plot just...isn't that interesting, despite how well-written it is. We've seen similar themes in other dramas — pressure on students, overbearing parenting, backstabbing coworkers — and honestly, those dramas were right to do it with more flair and flamboyance. While I appreciate how down-to-earth and realistic the conversations and lessons are (There are some that are truly heartwarming, like seeing a teacher rediscover her passion), there's really only one A-plot, and it really does start to drag. There's only one thing going on; we're spending too much time on it when I'd rather be with the main leads, or even getting more depth for our second leads, who end up really underdeveloped.

The melodrama-style editing doesn't help the slowness; while the melo vibes of the show really work towards the drama's favor when we're just spending time with our leads and watching fall in love and be in love, it also means we linger on the other academy-centric moments, and I find myself zoning out when an academy lecture scene about the history of Korea (or something) goes on for ten minutes, or even if the antagonists are having some really long, drawn-out conversation.

By the end, it feels like the main plot is a little underwhelming for how much time we spent on it, and I wish we'd spent more time just seeing our main leads happy or even just doing something different, something that's not lecturing or eating dinner (lol).

Honestly though, the main leads are absolutely golden. The chemistry is amazing, I love love love the communication and the tension between them, and their little flashbacks were so cute. It's crazy that they're the the main leads and it still feels like they didn't get enough screentime together. We just needed this drama to be a little more romance and a little less everything else.

Leia Mais

Great, but not as great as S1

This was still really great and captivating — I couldn't wait to see how the mystery would turn out now that we were getting into who was behind the killer, and it definitely felt like the villains and the good guys were going head-to-head and you didn't know who would have the upper hand and where. There was a lot of great tension whenever they had to sneak into places or were trying to work undercover.

I think the way the story plays out is just okay though; it doesn't quite feel as fleshed out, and there are reveals that I was looking forwards to that ended up being sort of underwhelming.

The best part of this season, however, is absolutely the trio of Ren Fei/Lian Yan Dong/Ji Si Qi. They hit this perfect balance of being in law enforcement and working outside of it, while giving off this "found family" feeling. I REALLY wish we got more of them, whether they were plotting or having an awkward meal together.

Leia Mais

Inferior to the prequel

On a surface level, I don't think either this film nor the first film were that unique — the premise and plot development is all relatively expected. But while Part 1 had a really powerful screen presence from its main characters, Part 2 opts for a more cliche, unspeaking "fish-out-of-water" superpowered lead, who doesn't really stand out from the overwhelming number of side characters (there like like four different antagonist groups) who all have the same "badass bad guy" personality.

The plot itself does feel less directed. Whereas there was a clear goal in the first one, this one felt much more passive; we spent basically the entire movie waiting for the bad guys to catch up to where our main characters were, siting still.

With that being said, as someone who understands both English and Mandarin, I did not really enjoy either of those groups. The English sounded fine, but the acting was not good, and it was very annoying to hear "Chief! Chief!" every other line. The Mandarin just did not sound good.

I think the final thing that just made this film feel more unserious was the special effects. There was something very nerve-wracking about all the Part 1 fights being up close and personal, even though everyone had super strength. It made everything scarier and bloodier. In this one, they opt for something in the vein of what the kdramas Strong Woman Bong-soon and Strong Girl Nam-soon went for — people getting punched and flying back 500 feet. It feels more comedic and doesn't at all match the serious tone the film seems to want to go for.

While I didn't dislike the main character, she was just...fine, especially in contrast to the main character from Part 1. In fact, it was amazing how much screen presence Ko Ja-yoon had when she finally appeared, and I realized I'd rather have gotten a story about her journey to getting where she is now, rather than time jumping to her return.

Leia Mais

Captivating...but too much girl-on-girl hate

So I didn't realize, before going into this, that there was a supernatural element to it. It definitely added a lot to the show's intrigue and made Nanno a very (satisfyingly) overpowered character, though I found I had to suspend disbelief several times. The anthology aspect of the drama also added a lot to that, knowing that she would win and everything would start over in the next episode.

The downside of an anthology, however, is that there are always stronger and weaker episodes — and in this case I think the show front-loaded its stronger ones. My favorites were The Ugly Truth, and Social Love, with maybe Lost & Found as an honorable mention. The weaker ones were the three at the end before the finale: Trap, Thank You Teacher, and Rank.

I'm also a little mixed on the themes. While I enjoyed the variety in the stories and they do cover several different topics, from class/wealth disparities, to social media, to beauty standards, there's one running theme that's very frustrating to see, and that's girl-on-girl hate. 90% of the episodes have girls attempt murder to set up SA situations with either Nanno or other girls over a boy's affections, and it's a little frustrating that so many plots resorted to this instead of finding new character motivations and exploring other aspects of dark human nature — of which there is much to explore.

Leia Mais

Slow burn of everything

It took me a while to really understand the world-building of it all, but once you do it's so rich I wish I could live in this world and just explore it on my own. The characters are by far the best part of the entire drama. The chemistry between the leads is great and the development of their relationship is gradual and believable.

I enjoyed the balance between funny moments and darker plotlines, but the pacing did feel really slow. I don't have a problem with the romantic pacing — after all, slow burn romance is my favorite — but plot-wise I noticed that it took multiple episodes to just get to the next thing. My interest in the secondary and tertiary characters went up and down but for the most part I enjoyed the romantic subplots and how it intertwined with the main story.

I do, however, think that we didn't have to see so much of the villains and their schemes. It started to get a little repetitive and not only was there really no need to follow every tidbit of it, but I also felt like I craved the feeling of suddenly seeing that our protagonists had been outwitted by worthy villains, and it was impossible to get that if we already saw it coming.

Nevertheless, this was a great watch; if I ever rewatch any part of it it'll 100% be Janguk/Mudeok scenes.

Leia Mais

Second half dragfest, but a satisfying conclusion

The drama kind of lost its way in the second half and got draggy — I loved the first few eps and “alternate universes” we got but then it became just about chasing down this single package and a character who was just wayyy too tight-lipped for all the wrong reasons. But what an excellent way to end.

In a way it was a lot more simple than I expected; there were no redemption arcs, no being forced to work with a bad guy against a bigger, common enemy. The heroes just did their thing, the bad guys did their thing and that was just kinda it. I’m actually okay with it because redemption arcs are hard to pull off and in the end we got a satisfying “heroes win, bad guys lose,” clean-cut conclusion.

My favorite element is probably the hints of "found family" that we got especially at the end where we saw the leads come together — I really wish they had shown more of it throughout the drama but either way it was really satisfying character growth for both the lead characters.

Leia Mais

Everything a youth revenge drama should be

This is exactly what I wanted from a youth revenge drama — the story was nerve-wracking, the cliffhangers were intense, and the chemistry was top-notch. There is the perfect balance between intense scenes and quiet moments you would expect from two teenagers who were lucky enough to find each other despite all the tension and uncertainty in their lives.

I watched each week's episodes with bated breath and I think the pacing was fantastic as well, with bits and pieces of the story being unveiled each episode. The communication between the characters was both intriguing and satisfying and there's even very subtle layers of social commentary around law enforcement if you squint.

Would definitely recommend.

NOTE: I think it's also necessary to say that this drama is not at all an accurate depiction of DID and there are problems with the "evil alter ego" trope — this is still a great watch but everyone should keep that in mind.

Leia Mais

Strong start but gets muddy

After 2-3 episodes, I had the thought — this could potentially go atop my list of favorite dramas. I haven't watched many of the thriller/crime genre, but the set-up was insane, the acting was amazing, and I was just really invested in both parts of the story: Miho's hospital conspiracy and Changho's prison identity. There were already amazing twists and I also loved the balance we got with Miho and Changho's flashbacks — the tone bounced seamlessly between tension and light-hearted nostalgia.

I felt like about halfway, the pace of the drama started to drop off and repetitive — many of the episodes had the "you thought the bad guys got the upper hand but actually we knew all along and played them" and after using this trope so much it really felt just like plot armor.

I think the vibes of the show continued to be really thrilling, but I definitely feel like the plot itself wasn't tied up too neatly. Even with the nice parts that came full circle, it was like there was one twist after another or just always more to the mystery the drama preferred to spend time on action and confrontations that would take place without actually clarifying what was going on in the backstory.

I also think that the main female lead didn't click so well with me; I think Yoona's acting has improved a lot since K2 but I still don't feel the same amount of immersion that I did with Lee Jongsuk's acting, which was really just top notch, as expected. But I don't blame the actress completely for this either — I honestly think that the FL's character was written very thinly. Yes, she is quote-endquote the typical "strong female character," but it really feels like that was all she was. Her entire character was standing by her husband and not giving up on solving the mystery, but there was never any personal character development outside of that.

Now, that doesn't necessarily bother me if I think about this drama this way: the only main character in this drama is Changho and the plot is the way he is harshly thrown into a situation where the disparity between the privileged and the unprivileged is extreme. If you watch this drama expecting to find a really twisted conspiracy theory — which is how the first few episodes present it — I think the story will end up feeling a little meh, with underwhelming reveals and confusing plot holes.

Overall, the ending is rushed but I'm pretty satisfied with it.

Leia Mais

Harrowing and heartwrenching

This was a really really heavy watch, but in the best way; I really felt emotionally invested in the main characters — both the adults who were doing the right thing against all odds, and for the children who we were watching learn to trust people again and actually act (and laugh) like kids should — and in the outcome of the legal process. In the end, it was a really bittersweet and realistic sort of ending, but it was the best I hoped for and I thought it was perfect.

The acting was so good for all the characters, but especially the three kids. I could feel their fear, their pain, and their hope in every single one of their scenes.

There were some parts of the story — more side aspects of complacency — that I wanted to see more of because of the moral greyness, but I understand why it wasn't the focus of the movie and I think the movie did just fine without it.

Leia Mais

Boring and not thrilling

This movie was marketed as a thriller but upon watching it, I did not feel thrilled at all.

The story was just really meh — nothing really stood out to me, and it was kind of predictable. The characters didn't have much depth outside of their stories and the pacing of the movie just felt really slow and boring. I didn't feel the stakes in anything, mostly because a lot of the decision-making was questionable; it just felt as if the characters were going through the motions in order to make the plot play out tragically the way it was supposed to.

I'll still watch the next few movies but hopefully they make me feel more emotions; I didn't feel any while watching this one.

Leia Mais