Reviews

When You Only Watch for the Male Lead

Admittedly I gave this as high a rating as I did because of Li Jiu Lin. I love this guy. He is gorgeous. He has such an expressive face; he doesn't need a lot of talk for you to know what he thinks or feels - and that body! Wow!

Didn't care much for the FL, nor the SML, or the SFL. Their characters were weak and useless. Their story arcs were sloppy at best. The story itself was vague and going nowhere fast. It had potential, but the writers do what writers seem to do best these days, made a mockery of it. There wasn't even any real sizzle between the lead couple despite such a smoking hot ML.

Talk about not tying up loose ends? The SFL got away scot-free with her shenanigans. She even wrangled the ML into her bed, which made me sick to my stomach!

The direction of the writing and quality of Chinese dramas these days is falling fast. No matter how good looking, appealing, or even talented the actors are, they can only perform the roles they are given. I stick mostly with period dramas anymore because the modern-day ones are fraught with domestic violence and abusive relationships.

Is anyone paying attention to the rapidly falling standards of these dramas? Doesn't seem so.

Leia Mais

Wandee Goodday: Take One

Well, well, WELL. What do we have here? Another BL series that got everyone talking—and by talking, I mean clutching their pearls and tweeting through the chaos. Let’s get into it, babes, because this is a ride.

—————

CHARACTERS: CTRL+C, CTRL+V, BUT MAKE IT SPICY

Okay, first off, Inn as Wandee. Am I crazy, or does he look like Tee from 2Moons Season 1? Like, I swear this is a copy-paste situation. Tell me I’m wrong—I dare you. Anyway, Wandee is a doctor with big “I believe in good vibes and coffee” energy, which is cute until it isn’t. He’s all responsible and organized until feelings hit, and then BAM—he’s spiraling like me after a 2 a.m. Taco Bell run.

Then we have Ter, played by Pod, aka Mr. “I don’t know when to quit.” This man is the embodiment of “When they play hard to get, I play harder to catch.” Pod nails the role so well that I wanted to throw my laptop every time he showed up. Bro, leave Wandee ALONE. He’s too good for your gaslighting ass!

Now let’s talk Yoryak, played by Great. First of all, this man looks like Sailub from PitBabe. I was literally squinting like, “Did I open the wrong show?” But Yoryak? ICON. He’s a fighter (or a boxer—same thing, IDC), a certified manwhore, and just living his best life until he gets tangled up with Wandee. Their chemistry? Explosive. Full-on Katy Perry fireworks. I’m obsessed.

And the side pairing? OyeCher. These two are PDA-loving, no-holds-barred icons. Cher, especially, deserves a medal for dragging Wandee and Yoryak’s clueless asses through the mud to finally get together. He’s like the group chat admin who keeps everyone from spiraling. We love to see it.

—————

PLOT: CHAOS WITH A SIDE OF SPICE

Okay, here’s the tea: Wandee confesses his crush to Ter, and this dude has the AUDACITY to call him too vanilla. Excuse me? What are you looking for, Tabasco? Wasabi? Anyway, Wandee, our petty king, decides to hook up with Yoryak to prove a point. One night turns into two, and suddenly these two are “friends with benefits” but, like, actually catching feelings.

Meanwhile, Ter realizes he messed up (DUH) and tries to crawl back, but my boy Wandee’s already moved on. Enter fake-dating Yoryak to shut down hospital rumors and rub salt in Ter’s wounds. The fake dating trope? Chef’s kiss. But girl, I wanted MORE Yoryak being the knight in shining scrubs. Ter’s jealous stares had me cackling.

Eventually, the plot slows down because apparently, we need to watch these two struggle with their internal crises. Like, babe, just talk it out. But I loved the message that crushes have expiration dates. Wandee said, “This milk went bad, but I got a whole new carton now.”

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SEX SCENES: ROOM TEMP, BUT POTENTIAL FOR HOT

The steam? It’s there. It’s giving lukewarm shower vibes—you know, where you stay in a bit longer, and suddenly it’s boiling. They tried some roleplay scenes (bless), but let’s be real: GMMTV wasn’t about to go Only Friends levels of spicy. Honestly, they could’ve leaned in harder, but eh, I’ll take what I can get.

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OST: A CERTIFIED BOP

Now THIS. The OST is a straight-up banger. When I first heard it, I was like, “HELLO, you got my attention.” Turns out, Great himself sang it, which only makes it better. It’s one of those songs that gets stuck in your head and has you humming in the shower. 10/10, no notes.

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FINAL THOUGHTS: DRAMA, CHAOS, AND CONFUSION GALORE

This series had me screaming at my screen, throwing popcorn, and clutching my chest all at once. The actors brought their A-game, even when the plot was doing the most. Is it rewatchable? Eh, probably not—I don’t have the patience to go through the drama again. But was it fun? Absolutely.

Final rating? A solid 9.5/10. Would’ve been a 10 if Ter wasn’t so annoying and they turned the steam up a notch.

Leia Mais

McSexy Feat. McHottie

That's my nickname for yinwar. They make a very cohesive and attractive pairing. Both being very good-looking with striking constrasts. If not for anything they'll continue to be successful because people genuinely enjoy watching them on screen. Good chemistry and palpable sexual tension.

Story
There are glaringly 3 main problems I've encountered watching this. The first one being ;

1. The story's writing. I could see the vision. Jack being bamboozled (big word for scammed) by Joker and forced to work as an enforcer for a criminal. Joker coming out from prison to help jack pay off his debt as restitution for destroying his life and ruining his future. The both of them growing as people and falling in love while taking down the big bad boss.

This is a good plot that would have worked with better writing. Watching the episodes singularly you don't notice the deficiencies in the plot as a lot of the situations simply made no sense but as i binged, I realised that the pacing was either too fast or too slow a lot of times with scenes being jumbled up with poor continuity as it moved from an episode to the next, with the same characters repeating the stupid mistakes they'd made and resolved 2 episodes ago .

2. Character development
I'm sure i will get pushback from this. But I didn't see any growth. Jack is the same naive fool that has been tricked 4 times in the span of 10 episodes while his love interest is still a reckless bull headed idiot that escalates situations for the worst. They never changed as people, as already since the beginning, they were portrayed as being kind, understanding and a bit misunderstood. So it made perfect sense that Joker felt guilty for his past actions and Jack would pay off people's debt for them, not being able to commit to being a heartless gangster.
I didn't see neither of them learning from their past actions and trying to move different. Joker still often times resolved to scamming and stealing to solve problems. And that's why the story felt like a loop cos they always ended up in the same situations again and again.

3. Love story
The reasons why i praised yinwar for their ship earlier, is because they're damn good ship. Better than most I've seen this year because, you actually can see them in your head sneaking off somewhere being in love or just being friends. They sell it. And they sold it. Even in the worst of moments that this show befuddled my mind (confused) me and had me fastforwarding a lot of useless scenes, I was rewarded with a cute scene or two per episode of them just being them. I wanted the satisfaction of just seeing them lock eyes and say the "i love yous" and kiss till the panties started dropping. I always looked forward to their scenes.

But that doesn't erase the obvious fact that the buildup to them falling in love was quite crappy and just too...easy. There was no real resolution of the past between them, no earth shattering realisation, or the unimaginable mental torture that would justify jack forgiving joker for fucking with him, and then later falling in love with him, after hating his guts for so long. That is what i didn't understand.Jack had a crush on him. But does puppy love justify this quick of a romance?

Then there's hope and save. Just throw those two away

Acting
It had some solid moments. Zorzo is gorgeous as always. I enjoyed scenes with her. A lot of the side characters were...underwhelming but I'd have to applaud the older actors for doing great jobs. Nice to see Mark Siwat in a new role as well.

Rewatch Value
I will as usual edit this review based on the finale. But I'd say that the gushing praise and excitement I've seen is probably attributed to my gorgeous main leads (yinwar). And the excitement people get in watching them flirt.

Leia Mais

Best show in the long list of masterpieces written by Lee Woo-jung

Such a blend of slice-of-life, medical drama, music band, romance and friendship story doesn't seem like something that could work. But yet again Writer Lee makes everything possible together with a stellar cast and amazing director.

The main strength of the drama is acting from main leads to supporting cast to all the patients that were there for an episode or two. Which is also thanks to the amazing script and carefully written stories. All of this makes it possible to emotionally connect with all the characters. That is often hard to achieve in medical dramas, since it often involves very serious moments which can get exhausting to the viewers after so many episodes. But the production team and actors managed to perfectly mix lightheartedness with serious emotional moments. The comedic timing here is impeccable both in every single conversation and episode as a whole.

Leia Mais

~DaDa &a.ND ThE Tw2 r0b0T5 ? The Power Of Irresistible Love~ °6.5°

Huh. Alright, alright. Maybe the best place to start is with the titles that kept popping into my head. It was very distracting when this stuff was flying at me:

□ One Woman's Passage Through The Center Of Her Wiring (yuck)

□ Wired For One Woman's Passage Through Her Own Circuitry (nope)

□ Total Validation Via Passage Through Da-da's Core Processor (not quite)

□ A Tale Of Total Validation (getting there)

□ The Whirring Of My Heart (not bad)

☑ The Power Of Irresistible Love (good, but is it funny enough?)

☑ Robot Love triangle Better Than It Sounds. (Like it!)

☑ Luv Terminator (yep)

☑ DaDa & ThE Tw2 r0b0T5 (Love It!)

☑ PinocchiB0T, a REAL BOyT
(also love it)

□ Yeahhh! Heyyy! OYY! - He's ah-DROIDttt!!! (Yet again, love it. Dang. Dilemma.)

Watchlist roulette landed on AB. I'm thinking: "Just look at that premise! Here's my chance to trash a show, so I can avoid being so skewed positive in my reviews!" It shows balance to have a healthy critical side, afterall.

Yet, the film craft in AB is pretty good. The biggest problem is the plot itself, along with the dialogue. They weigh down some otherwise solid elements. Don't misunderstand, it's not a bad watch. It's worth charging up on AB as what they do well, they do really well. They adeptly utilized juxtaposition to make connections. There's also metaphors, irony, & laughs. No matter how bad it is, the satisfaction they give Da-da by having BF show-up her XBF, while in a Hanbok, is precious.

So, let's meet Da-da. She is creative, driven & earnest. She works in showbiz as she inherited her father's special effects studio. And she's been secretly dating mega star Ma Wang Joon (XBF) for 7 years.

Boy oh boy, do they chest slam us. Da-da & XBF's dating rituals have drained her. We see the pains they must go through (not really /they/,' it's all on her) to maintain his public heartthrob persona. She becomes emotionless. Robotic.

One night, XBF brings home some corporate dweebs & she's caught! Panicked, XBF calls her a stalker! Her night rounded out w/ a trip to the police station & then the ER. While there, she hears her jerk-soon-to-be-XBF talking, & thinks that he's there for her. Sadly, as she excitedly rounds the corner, it's just him on TV. We're not stuntman. Why do they jab us? Seven years of this, well, let's be honest, emotional abuse, has rewired her confidence- it's been bypassed. She's not robotic anymore. She's a phantom. #Done, she breaks up w/ him.

Cut to her workshop. The dummy she ordered arrived. When she opens the trunk she sees: That is no dummy! As she's staring, he falls forward. They end up on the floor, face2face, & lips2lips. What IS this? It's an engineer's effort to help his friend, the AI robot he's been developing, escape a twisted & sadistic customer who has bought him. This robot's on the lam.

Whether Da-da likes it or not, she's got a robot boyfriend. When their lips met, his mode was activated. She can't shake this Luv Terminator! She's not going to spend $ on him, though. She brings home a box of random, leftover clothes from the set, so he can cover up his loincloth. The beginning of their relationship finds him in some far out threads.

Then it starts. BF is chasing GF (Da-da) XBF is jealous. The fans are dangerous & rabid. The corporate dudes are even more rapacious. There's even a psycho hovering round. The plot will thicken like congealed fake blood.

While watching, a bunch of 'Wouldas' popped into my brain. The top one is: Can you go get a job? #2 is: Clean the house. Make my fantasies come true! Da-da isn't thinking about taking advantage of the situation, though. She's focused on escape. She tries to ignore him. She tells him to stay put until she gets home from work, but he always finds an excuse to go see her. He misses her, after all.

One day, an actor on set loses his temper w/ Da-da & berates her. BF walks up to him, flat-hands a blow to the actor's chest & dude flies across the set. BF was wearing that Hanbok (a woman's historical dress) at the time. He inquires: Are you alright, GF? And XBF sees it all. Oh, Yeah.

Yeo Jin-gu, as BF, hardly uses his cheek/facial muscles for the entire show. His body language shows a touch of rigidity. His performance is genius. I had to remind myself, HEY! That's an actor there. BF just wants to show love... & go on dates. They sneak into a closed amusement park one night. As BF generates power, they amble from ride to ride among the soft glow of the lights. OkOkOk... It's killin me to say this, but that amusement park jaunt is: The BEST Date ehverrrRrRRrRRR! (Sing it like an aria). ((The Best Date Ever!))

There's 2 BFs in Da-da's life. 2s factor weightily in the show. Post Hanbok incident, XBF wonders to himself: Who is that guy? Rain falls. He looks outside, & there's Da-da, face-to-face w/ her new BF, an umbrella overheard providing private shelter. XBF's head lowers as his gaze drifts to a pair of umbrellas on the floor. (Is she really going out w/him?) He grabs one & heads to the parking lot, where there are now a pair of umbrellas: One w/him alone, the other w/ his XGF, & her new BF, walking away. The rain pours. XBF begins to see double... & 2's & twos & pairs & couples & duets & deuces & snake eyes & duos

DAEBEK! That's Hemingwayian!

We also learn that XBF's nickname is Mazinger, meaning, Robot! He later says to his CEO: "Do you think you can treat me like a robot? Whoa. We even have 2 robots!

They are currently working on a show, here's the signage:

Actor: Ma Wang-joon.

Project: Traitor.

Ha!

The biggest irony is that Da-da, in an attempt to keep the relationship secret, is awful at first. She's doing to BF what jerk-XBF did to her. Secrets pile up. Out of frustration, one day, she tells BF: "Do whatever you want." Uh-oh...

There's plenty of laughs. XBF learns that Da-da gave BF an "A++ Korean Beef" sticker (He wants recognition. It's a reward). Aigoo, they fed us the low hanging fruit. In Korea, that's a wicked pun. They play the bionic man theme once when BF jumps - Nice! BF picks up a floppy disk & examines it. That's juxtaposition. From a Hanbok, to prison issue clothes, his outfits are hilari-aladojus (say it Mary Poppins-like). In Ep8 He picks her up & she cries she's not ready /YET/? She's that far gone?

Then IT happens.

He got a job! Now I'M falling for him a little...

WAIT! He wants to support her!

Uhh/pay my automo-Bill, unh,uh,Unh, ah ah Ahhh! Sing it:

Can you pay my bills?

Can you pay my telephone bills?

Do you pay my automo' bills?

If you did then maybe we could chill.

~Whoo Hoo, tell it, Destiny's Child. WHOO!~

Ahem. Okay.

Now, about love...The selfless love shown in AB is definitely irresistible. {Btw, it would be arrogant & disrespectful of me to comment on anything except my personal journey w/ male/female relationships, which follows.} Most women don't want to be w/ some feckless fop, but it's in a woman's embedded code to want to be loved completely. Adoring (yet masculine) love is one of our fantasies, whether consciously so, or not. Masculine, here, means the whole merry-go-round: a strong protector/provider, who is unafraid of feelings, & for whom his woman is the center of his world. Think: BF+Prince Charming+Rhett Butler's love child: Adoration w/ swagger. This is AB's exhibit #1. Love trumps all else. It's the preservative, the glue, that keeps it all together running smoothly. Without it, the entire product is defective.

Finally, to the best product AB is selling: Standards. AB should raise women's standards when it comes to men. Obviously, no person can be BF-level perfect. We all have viruses in our processors, but women should demand a man that unabashedly loves, protects & provides. (No spongers). Inversely, men want respect & to be, quite frankly, my dear, admired for their manliness - in sincerity. Even Mr. Robot asked of recognition for his efforts. The truth of it is that men (in general!) have operating systems that run on ego-fuel. I used to roll my eyes at it, refusing to enable or contribute to it. Thirty-two years of marriage taught me that if I want two people in our union to be fulfilled, then I'd better make my husband feel like 100,000,000,000 won, as he loved me completely (and that does make it easy). I loved our time together, until death did us part. Sharing this is only meant to be motivational; all the rage & discontent out there has made us miserable. To be happy, which is life's bonus option, one has to let it go, forget about oneself to focus on others once in a while, & to also be content.

Not everything is hardware. Select the best software to avoid meltdowns, as we have choices. A woman can choose a quality partner (or wait for one to drop on top of her), but she shouldn't settle. Strong women hold out for something complete. Forget strong. Smart women (that is, women that have decided to respect themselves) do that. You, reading this, have dignity as a human being, & you deserve respect. Every woman does.

As for ?? -> Can we have a ♥️relationship w/an AI? I'm in love w/ my robot vacuum, so I refuse to comment.

There's a long list of issues w/ AB. Let's skip it. The plo,t& dialogue are substandard & at times, awful. AB wanders, forgets where it was, & gets lost. The ending is blah - all around. Given the positives, login to AB if so inclined.

QUOTE:
{This, I could never understand: If you love someone you must let them go.} Now, I think I understand a little. That, more than my own feelings, it's about wanting to prevent the other person from getting hurt... Because, it'll be more difficult for me, to watch the person I love, go through struggles.

IMHO〰
RATINGS
Directing 7
Acting 8
Romance 5
Flutters 6.5
Ending 4

LEVELS
Warmth 7
Thought provocation 6

Re-watch? Notta priority

Age 16+

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A Witch's Love 7.8, 99 days with the Superstar-7,
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Crash Landing On You 9.1,
Oh My Ghost 10,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
Love Struck in the City 7.3,
Be Melodramatic-8.7,
Familiar Wife-8.5
Hotel del Luna-8.4

Leia Mais

I wanted to like it but unfortunately, it is a miss for me...

I like the premise of the series: a revenge storyline with a travel back to time to make things better is a set up I find particularly enjoyable. Overall, it is the revenge part of the drama that I liked the most, with all the manipulation of the villains. However, the romance could have been better.

I also feel that the pace was not good. There were too much storylines that I did not care at all about. It could have been much tighter with less episodes. I would have liked less office-heavy storylines. The ending felt dragging with a lot of repetition. I know that the script is doing a mirror between some situations and put in parallel past events, but I would have preferred the story to really be more tight. There were some entertaining moments when the heroine is super badass but it is in between a lot of filler, even more so towards the end.

I have mixed feelings regarding the cast performance. I think Lee Yi Kyung and Song Ha Yoon had the best performances in the drama but their characters were also the most interesting (and with potentially as much screen time than the main leads). Sadly, I never got onboard on the main romance. I found Nam In Woo a bit too stern and bland in the role, lacking emotions...He has some swoony lines but I did not feel it. Not sure if it is the script, a directing choice, or simply the acting. I usually like Park Min Young and here she had some badass and emotional moments, but on the chemistry side for the romance, it also felt lacking. Other than them, the support cast did an okay job but no side characters felt really interesting to me.

Regarding production, I did find it pretty standard for nowadays South Korean dramas. I did not find any scenes particularly striking and the OST is for me forgettable as well. I also must acknowledge an obvious challenge in the directing / filming of the interactions between the leads. Na In Woo and Park Min Young huge height difference, which I found cute, did prevent sometimes camera work to film them on the same frame (and when it was the case, I felt it was a bit strange at point).

I would not recommend this to people as at the end it took me so much time to complete it because of the draggy pacing. There are for sure some elements of the story I found exciting regarding the overall revenge plot but the romance did not really work for me unfortunately. I'm left to ponder if I would have enjoyed more the series if it had been shorter (and therefore with less repetition on the storylines and the office/corporation hijinks).

Leia Mais

MUST WATCH or You Will Regret Not Watching This.

This is absolutely one of my Favourite Cdrama Ever .This is something anyone can and should watch no matter what genre they prefer .This is a warm heart touching ,slow burn romance drama And let me just say the actors /supporting actors , director are all phenomenal, and they're all done a fabulous job ,when i start watching this series at one point i think iam going to dropped this drama cause i feel first 3 episode is kinda slow but when i completed 4th ep &start watching 5th &after that i became obsessed with this drama
I loved the acting of each character because they portrayed everything so well ,the actors are very good at playing the characters in this drama. They Makes us feel the emotions of each character as if we really are in their position as characters in this drama ,I don't think anyone could've done better. Also, every OST is really good too so another plus. I HIGHLY recommend people to give this a chance.
Please watch this, you won't regret it?

Leia Mais

A masterfully done coming-of-age story

I would like focus this review on addressing common complaints about the show.

1. Main love story and ending. Countless posts and reels/shorts list this show as an example of sad ending. That is understandable since it is rare for main characters to fall out of love and end their relationship. However, it is not so rare in real life, and people do overcome breakups and can still be happy in life. And due to the nature of this show, we knew that they do not end up together right from the beginning. This is a coming-of-age story rather than a classic romance, it is about young people achieving their goals and dreams, which they definitely did.

2. Characters of Yu-rim and Hee-do's mother. Since the show doesn't have antogonists/villains, these characters are sometimes seen as antogonists for different reasons. Yu-rim did say some hurtful things often time unnecessarily and unprovoked. She is immature, prideful and insecure in first half, but she is also a teenager. Many of those things can be explained by her situation and she was just too stubborn and prideful to acknowledge Hee-do, which is also realistic. On the other hand, mom is sometimes portrayed as a bad parent, especially in comparison to Yu-rim's parents. But we have to remember that most of the story is Hee-do's POV through her diary, a classic case of a biased narrator. As a single mother in SK of 90s she did an exceptional job of raising Hee-do (money, comfort and ability to pursue her dreams). And many of their fights were due to lack of communication, stubbornness and avoidance, not because she was a bad mother. Both Yu-rim and Hee-Do's mother are complex characters that do have their flaws, but they are also sometimes misunderstood by viewers.

From friendship dynamics to personal growth this show masterfully captures both youthful optimism and harsh reality of adulthood. Like the lyrics of the song "I thought it would last forever, twenty five twenty one", but here it is filled with nostalgia and warm memories.

Leia Mais

WHY DO THEY HATE LONGLEEFRANK????

Alright, bestie, let’s talk about Long Lee x Frank and their latest flop.

sigh First of all, let me just say this: I wanted this to work. I really did. But why, oh why, do they keep giving these two dumpster fire plots? First Love Syndrome (Frank’s cursed wig still haunts me), and now this? Directors, come to the front of the class—I need answers, and I need them now. Anyway, let’s break this down.

——————

CHARACTERS: CUTE, BUT MAKE IT CRINGE

Let’s start with Frank as Phum (or should I say, “male bimbo extraordinaire”). He’s giving us that rebellious “IDGAF, let me love who I wanna love” energy, and honestly? We stan. Frank plays it well—like, he doesn’t look too awkward pretending to be adorable, but some moments had me full-on secondhand embarrassed. “Sir, how old are you? This ‘uwu’ act expired two birthdays ago.”

And then there’s Patrick, played by Long Lee, aka the hottest bartender in BL history. The man is out here flipping bottles and serving smoldering stares like it’s happy hour. Plus, he’s immune to Phum’s vampire powers because, duh, he’s got a dark past to reveal. MUAHAHA. (Side note: when Long Lee’s on screen, I forget about plot holes, dialogue, everything. He’s THAT hot.)

The side characters? Meh, except Mix, who’s out here carrying the entire series on his back. He’s hilarious, and honestly, without him, this show would be dryer than my inbox after a bad meme.

——————

THE PLOT: WHAT EVEN IS THIS?

Okay, buckle up, because this story is… A LOT. So, vampires have rules (obviously), and the current generation can’t fall in love because… reasons? Phum, being the rebel icon he is, says, “Screw this!” and escapes to the human world using a ritual book so he can love freely. Girl. What?

The plot could’ve slayed. Imagine Patrick as a vampire hunter trying to sniff out Phum, who’s all, “Oops, I dropped my bloodlust,” while secretly hiding his identity. But noooo, instead, we get Phum vs. the Vampire Government fighting for the right to love. This is giving Twilight fanfic written at 3 a.m. in 2011, and I’m not mad—just disappointed.

——————

ACTION SCENES: WHERE’S THE PUNCH?

Look, we all know Long Lee’s a Muay Thai king, so when the final showdown popped off, I was ready for art. Instead, we got basic punches and kicks. The whole thing felt like a group project where only one person did the work. I mean, even Love Syndrome (yes, THAT mess) had a snooker fight scene that slayed harder than this. Honestly, they could’ve just let Long Lee choreograph the entire thing himself.

——————

CHEMISTRY: I’VE SEEN MORE SPARKS IN A MICROWAVE

Let’s be real: Frank and Long Lee are gorgeous humans, but their chemistry? Missing. From episode one, it felt like two coworkers forced to attend a trust fall exercise. (Spoiler: they dropped each other.) Thank the BL gods they’re getting new pairings—Long Lee with Boom, and Frank likely back with Drake. Maybe those ships will finally serve the Starbucks-level chemistry we deserve.

——————

OST AND FINAL VIBES

The OST? A slow love song for a vampire story? No. Miss ma’am, we needed something edgy and iconic, not a sad ballad that belongs on a “Songs To Cry To” playlist.

——————

FINAL RATING: A COMEDIC FLOP WITH HOT PEOPLE

In conclusion, Long Lee x Frank deserved better, but this was still… watchable? Barely? The comedy saved it, and Long Lee’s hotness carried me through, but the plot and chemistry were DOA. BL directors, please go read Wattpad for better ideas.

Final score: 7/10. Would I rewatch? Only if someone paid me in Starbucks and therapy.

Leia Mais

When abuse is romanticized

I found Mr. Plankton to be one of the most toxic shows I have watched in a long time, which is why I decided to write this review. Maybe someone out there can find this review helpful when deciding to watch a show that frankly does not deserve the high rating it has received on this site. Some might even find a lot of the elements from this show to be triggering and disturbing, I know I did. I will list to the best of my ability the many things I came across after only watching 3 episodes of this series.

The Female Lead:
She is horribly written as a simpleton. She has no agency of her own. The two men on the show control her decisions, her actions. She is shown most of the time to be hysterical/ screaming, kicking, and flailing her arms about. Having tantrums like a small child. One of her first scenes is a ridiculously over the top one where she has a hysterical fit in what looks like a funeral parlor after finding out she's going through menopause early. I was about to stop watching the show right there. She has this tantrum because she is set to marry her fiance, who happens to be from an elite family. She cannot bear his child and so the world has ended for her. Her whole purpose in life, therefore, is reduced to a man continuing his bloodline. Her ex, the ml, kidnaps her on her wedding day and she again has no purpose or motivation of her own. She is at the whim of her captor and what he wants. We the viewer, never get any insight on her character. She is very much a 2D prop for the male lead and 2nd male lead of the show.

The Male Lead:
This male lead is one of the most despicable character's I've come across in recent years. He reminds me of toxic male leads found in some of the worst 90s/00s dramas...Boys over Flowers, anyone? I thought we had gotten past the abusive/sexist stories of yesteryear, where the fl is grabbed by force into a car and it's considered romantic. Judging by the comment section of Mr. Plankton and the many positive reviews, I guess not. What a pity. Anyway, back to this particular male lead. He is abusive, cunning, and overall unlikable. I couldn't find one redeeming quality about him, which is a problem when the show makes it out that we should care about him dying.

Some of the things ML does in only the first 3 ep:
*Broke up with Female lead in the past in a cruel manner saying she's "No fun."
*Kidnaps FL on her wedding day. Picks her up like a rag doll when she says no. Her head hits something and she is knocked out unconscious. FL is in her captor's car still unconscious as he drives away. Her head repeatedly bumps the window and it's shown as comical when it's anything but.
*FL tries to escape several times in the second episode and ML won't let her. He controls when and where she eats. What clothes she will wear etc.
*In 3rd episode, ML ties FL to a table with a cord so she can't escape. This scene again is shown in a light comical way.
*Took one of female lead's shoes and tossed it on a roof. Gave her slippers to wear, making her vulnerable and harder for her to escape.
*ML starts a fight with a restaurant family after they gave them food and a place to sleep.
*ML constantly teases and mocks FL and s*xually harasses FL with taunts
*ML grabs FL and forces her in a car after he sees fiance has found them
*Fiance points taser gun at ML and ML grabs FL and puts her in front of himself as a shield.
*Episode 3 ends with ML grabbing FL's wrist once again and saying he will never let her go.

Object vs. Subject:
Male lead at the end of episode 3 claims to the FL, "You're mine." Now remember this is after he kidnapped this woman, dragged her into his mess of a life, and repeatedly manhandled her. He clearly see's the FL as an object he must possess and not a human being. The problem is that the show sees the female lead in the same way and even encourages it. This scene at the end of the episode is made to seem like this kind of behavior is romantic and not the horror sh!t show it actually is. The writing and tone for this show is so problematic that it's hard to put into words. To sum it up, the male lead is always the subject and the female lead is merely the object...This is the story of an unlikable abusive a$$hole that kidnaps an ex and forces her on a road trip to find his real father. I guess we viewers are like the FL, where we are just along for the ride and should feel compassion for the ML because he happens to be dying. Fck that!

Dropped
Rating: 1/10

Leia Mais

A great entry in the Rosy Business series

I have seen all 3 previous Rosy Business dramas, and I was so disappointed with the 3rd entry. It lacked Sheren Tang, but if the replacement female lead was good it would still shine. We had Myolie Wu who did her best but yeah... it was still a very disappointing drama. The twin brother story and the lack of any real romance was a real turn off for me.

This 4th entry still did not bring back Sheren Teng, instead it brought back Nancy Wu as the female lead when she only had supporting roles in the previous entries but dang... I really liked her in the role. The comparisons with Sheren Tang are unavoidable - as expected because she was playing a strong female leader type role - but I found myself actually really enjoying myself watching her in this drama. I know, this would be blasphemy for some people, but I found Nancy's scenes of vulnerability more convincing as she openly admits her feelings to the male lead and it doesn't wait until near the end of the drama, something that Sheren Tang never really did. I also loved how Nancy had so many outfits in the drama, even if some of them made her look like a Christmas tree, but I loved that she had such a varied collection of clothes to wear as it reflected her status on the show and what lady doesn't like to have many dresses? I know I love to have many! She plays a General Manager at a bank during 1920s Shanghai and is nicknamed the 7th Elder because her financial power ranks at number7 in the whole of Shanghai. Of course, in this position she has many enemies that want her to fail, especially her brothers. Oh yes, most of the plot is driven by one of her brothers as I will explain later.

Wayne Lai is - as always - amazing here. His character Chai Sup Chat was great to watch as he played a really stubborn businessman who kept failing at business because of his bad people skills. However, as an advisor in investment opportunities, he will always give excellent advice to return a profit to those willing to listen. He spends the start of the drama butting heads with Nancy Wu, but their interactions throughout the drama made their growing romantic feelings for each other very believable to me. I know many would say Wayne looks way too old for Nancy, but I disagree because love comes in many different strange forms, and how they drag each other out of dire situations they themselves could not have survived alone was a convincing reason for them to develop feelings for each other.

Spoiler warning: A great scene that was unexpected and quite refreshing was when Nancy took Wayne out for a trip to a beautiful dock and then she outright tells Wayne that she wanted to be with him. A woman declaring her love for a man and wanting to be with them was a big deal in the past because it was nearly always the man to make the first move. Wayne's shock and subsequent rejection, because he felt he was not up to her level and therefore felt he didn't qualify, led to one of the most dramatic scenes in the drama. Nancy was very rich and very beautiful, and she put aside her pride to do it, so the rejection was a huge humiliation for her. Gosh, I really felt bad her and I was screaming at Wayne, like wtf were you doing man? He clearly liked her as well, but his low self-esteem held him back from making that step.

Next we have to talk about Joey Law. I never liked his acting in previous dramas but he has improved a lot in this one, being this retired mercenary who would kill for money. His acting is still a little wooden, but it matched the role he played as a guy trying to escape his mercenary past and trying to live a normal life so that he could be with the girl who he had loved since they were kids. The action scenes with him fighting and showing off his physical prowess more than made up for his wooden acting, and he clearly bulked up for the role.

And who was he in love with in the drama? Why, Hera Chan of course! She was okay I guess, and this time the producers knew her long neck was something quite distracting so her outfits all had collars to help reduce the appearance of that neck. Thank you so much for that! She was pretty average overall with no real captivating scenes, but earlier in the drama she got on my nerves a bit for being this girl who would run off on her own because she wanted to see Joey. Luckily, this improved later on after her family accepted Joey and his past.

But boy, the person I really wanted to talk about was Edwin Siu. He had so many roles in this drama that I lost count. He played the half brother of Nancy Wu's character and he was trying to get his revenge on her, but there are so many plot twists involving him that it made my head spin, and yet it led to him being one of the most memorable villains in TVB history. When you first meet him in the drama, you'd notice how he kept "dying" and yet somehow managed to return with the same appearance but with a different name and a completely different personality. Edwin really had me intrigued as to what on Earth was going on and every time he was onscreen you had no idea what he was going to do next, and that type of chaos was what made him such a scary villain. He nearly managed to win as well, which I found quite a nice change, but it came down to a last minute save that was a little disappointing. I'll explain why later.

Although I really liked this drama, I still had a few scenes that had me going what? for example, Wayne Lai later started working for Nancy because he helped her deal with a huge issue previously, and as part of his condition to join he wanted to fire a group of women who were bad for the company. Nancy agreed to this numerous times and yet somehow, these people who were fired all came back or never left in the first place even when all evidence proved Wayne correct. And then later, they all get along as if this never happened in the first place. That was such lazy writing like what were they thinking?

Spoiler warning: And then we have the main villain played by Edwin Siu. He was such a great bad guy to watch from beginning to end, knowing how to fight and how to manipulate people so well, however he ended up revealing everything in episode 23, and just as he was about to win he gets shot to death by his "mother" for everything he had done up to that point. What I hated about this was that we were told how poor his "mother's" eyesight was, barely being able to see 1 foot in front of herself, and yet from 20 meters away she managed to shoot Edwin accurately with her handgun. And to top it off, the drama was 25 episodes long, so we had 2 episodes after where the Director had to force something else in to keep things interesting for the viewers, so - predictably - he shoved in a Japanese invasion to raise the stakes before the end. To be honest, the 4th entry could have ended at episode 23 because despite both main protagonist hard-headedness, Nancy decided to travel to Hong Kong (watch the drama to find out why) to meet with Wayne Lai and they had a great reunion where she sang to him while he was missing her. That would have been a good ending there.

Spoiler warning: So, the last 2 episodes did drag it out a bit with Nancy suffering poor memory due to a bullet injury slowly causing memory loss, but I got to admit the ending was great and I did like it a lot. Nancy gets lost in Hong Kong later and could not remember how to get back home, so she ends up in Kowloon. Wayne spends 3 years looking for her, and finally finds her during a Japanese bombing run. He finally managed to take her home where many other plot threads are also tied up. Wayne got to spend the next 28 years with Nancy proposing to her every year, with her telling him each time she would think about it when they were clearly already together. The final scene had them really old and together, which was a very romantic scene that was very touching. It made me forgive the dragging out of the final two episodes.

I loved this latest entry of Rosy Business and I personally recommend it, and I can see myself rewatching this in future because the ending was just great. Unlike the endings from the other entries where there was no romance at all or it was very short-lived, this showed them being together happily for many years. I know many would compare it to the ones with Sheren Tang and voice their disappointment, but my opinion is that the torch has been handed over from Sheren to Nancy, and Nancy did a great job!

Leia Mais

"Same Old Love After Marriage Troupe with a Spicy Twist

When the Phone Rings' tells the intriguing story of a presidential spokesperson and a sign language interpreter who enter into an arranged marriage of convenience. Three years into their marriage, things are far from normal; their relationship is distant and strained, with him refusing to publicly acknowledge her as his wife.

The plot takes an exciting turn when she gets kidnapped. At first, he brushes off the call about her kidnapping as a prank, but she manages to escape and takes the kidnapper's phone with her. With this phone, she starts making threatening calls to him about her life, adding a thrilling twist to the narrative.

The show gives off strong Wattpad vibes—there's something about it that feels like a captivating story I might have read on that platform. Even though I've only seen two episodes, I rarely write reviews this early, but I felt compelled to share my thoughts because the start has been fantastic. The storyline is engaging, and I can't wait to see how it unfolds.

The casting is spot on, the acting is amazing, and the direction is brilliant. I'm hooked and eagerly awaiting more episodes. I’ll be updating my review weekly, so fingers crossed it continues to deliver!"

Leia Mais