Reviews

A Whole Lot of Li Jiu Lin Goin' On!

This story, confusing as I found it at times, had some potential. The writers didn't deliver. Li Jiu Lin carried this drama. He was divine in the lead role. I drank him up in every scene. There was just enough chemistry with the abrasive FL to make me want more of them and hope for a HE.

Did we get one? Well, it depends on how you think. I would have liked them to have had more time together as husband & wife OR give us some more time with them when they meet again in the present. I don't care much for those one-off meetings and then the rest is left to the viewer's imagination. That's why we watch these dramas - we want the action, not the imagining. They wasted so much time of petty kidnapping crap and fighting scenes. So, this tale isn't winning any writing awards.

BUT - I got me a good helping of watching this gorgeous ML strut his stuff in a uniform (oooh!! He carries military wear soooo well!) And enough shirtless scenes and a couple of bath scenes to make my heart skip a few beats. Shallow, I know - but these days, you take the eye candy where you can find it, and Li Jiu Lin is definitely eye candy!

Will I rewatch? Probably sometime in-between episodes of a current series I'm watching. or on a lazy weekend. Just to admire LJL!

Leia Mais

Yin & War's Acting has Improved Exponentially, Grandma is MVP, Plot & Characters Sold Separately

I will always watch Yin and War's shows or films whether they do them together or apart because I think they are great actors and that was shown in this series above all else. The improvement in the last 2 years is huge. This isn't a genre I watch and therefore have only watched their stuff and nothing else; am only a cdrama watcher. Loved grandma; she was the awesome MVP but the plot and some characters were in the twilight zone. Because this is different from what I usually watch, pros and cons will be mixed together as it's easier to explain.

As mentioned above, I can't get enough of Yin and War's improvement in their overall acting here as Jack and Joke. If it was just them two, grandma, Joke's family, the kids (especially Toi Ting, who was too cute for words), and some of the antagonists, it would have been enough. The first two episodes were the strongest and then it just spiraled out of control. The plot was a mix of too much flamboyance where serious words were spoken and actions taken, plot holes, complete nonsense, comedy that absolutely didn't land, and a bunch of actors like Prom, Bonz, Mark, and the dudes that played Hope and Save seriously need to take more acting classes. This just isn't their thing; I know Bonz is a serious singer so he should stick to that. Everyone else perhaps belong in other industries. The characters of Hope, Save, and Rose annoyed the ever living daylights out of me, but towards the end they matured and grew on me; still have a long way to go though.

You could tell right away who the mainstream actors were because they were actually serious and played their parts well; they didn't over act or be so over dramatic you just wanted to fast forward them. The comedy was slapstick and nearly shoved down your throat. Like this just isn't funny! Stop! The 4 Horseman plot with Sauron's Ring belonging back in Mt. Doom and the Ring Around the Rosie of more of the same was yawnsville. The finale episode would have been strong had there not been the obvious plot holes and dumbass humor of ok Jack has a gun, shoot boss but nope! Or the bomb activation tablet is tossed near a handcuffed Joke who can obviously get it but he just stays put. Meanwhile the martial arts were ground to slow motion and though Jack is great at going tit for tat with Carbon (both actors did well with learning basic martial arts kicks and punches), Jack periodically stops to run over to Joke and hug him; like what in the what? End it already! Make most of it make sense, someone please.

The actual ending was decent for all and the chemistry between Jack and Joke was undeniable from the get go so I'm glad we ended with them. I'm glad Joke's dad came around from an arrogant asshole to the father Joke deserved after Top and Jack's grandma talked some sense into him; it was a little too fast but given everything else, I'll take it. The opening theme of the series was great; it showcased what this show was supposed to be but ultimately fell short plot wise.

Would I recommend it? Only for Yin and War's awesome acting. It was believable and the chemistry was on point. Turn your brain off if you want a cohesive story that makes any sort of sense. It's entertaining enough and that's about it.

Leia Mais

Allover I just know this is gonna be one of my fev series as soon as the series ends.

First of all let's talk about the cast. Fkt's acting have always been a top notch. JD improved in acting too. First changing of voice and attitude for the character is just so amazing. Meanwhile if you just watch you will notice that how much rage of acting need to do the character of Style. It's just so amazing and it just amazed me how good Dunk portrayed that. Joong and Khao is great as the same time. The quick changes of impression and the almost same expression with different emotions ohh God Khao and Joong nailed that accordingly. Coming to the story line. It's just so realistic. Like being gay is just not for only school going teenager or office going pps. There are so many pps who just go for ons. And no one's doing affect their sexuality. About the nc scenes. I just am so impressed with the hard work of fly. As I don't want to give spoiler. I will just end it here. But let me say if you are a bl fan and skipping the show just cause your fev isn't a part instead of caring the story line,you are missing a lot.

Leia Mais

Baek Sa Eon is truly a captivating figure, with his history as a political figure and his challenging experiences as both a war correspondent and hostage negotiator – he's not your average male protagonist by any means! The depiction of the strain in his marriage, with Hui Ju is incredibly moving. When she is abducted; you can sense the devastation enveloping his world.

Hong Hui Ju stands out as a character, in the storys narrative; her quiet demeanor isn't merely a device but an integral aspect of her identity that resonates powerfully through the portrayal of her resilience amidst past traumas. The inclusion of her role as a sign language interpreter adds an poignant layer to her character portrayal. Her abduction doesn't just serve as a plot twist; it also delves into the depth and tension, between her and Sa Eon—a dynamic that captivates ones attention with its intensity and complexity.

The cinematography and pacing, in this film are outstandingly well done. Each scene seems purposeful. Contributes to the narrative. There is a sense of tension and mystery in every moment that is complemented by the charged soundtrack. The exploration of themes such, as communication and love resonates deeply with the audience. Despite their imperfections they are easy to empathize with and support throughout the story.

"If you're seeking a gripping drama filled with emotion and deep themes that makes you think deeply about life—look no further, than When the Phone Rings (2024). It's definitely one of the standout shows I've watched this year! Make sure you catch it!"

Leia Mais

Refreshing!!!

This series really did something innovative in the land of Thai BLs and it is a welcomed refresher as a whole. Initially after watching eps 1 & 2, you'd think that every episode would be a new adventure entirely. But then 3 & 4 come and it starts to tie together slowly. (And maybe you're half destroyed with tears in your eyes like me with the end of ep 4.) Then the last episodes in particular, are like a series within a series. To me, it was great and I honestly could watch 10+ more episodes. (Maybe we can look forward to a special episode at least?)

And not only was the series refreshing, but the actors were just as equally refreshing and wonderful to watch. I felt like they were able to carry these different stories with the different complexities and emotions very well. The chemistry between them was incredible and I truly hope it's not the last we see of them together.

Probably one of my favorite series of the whole year.

Leia Mais

From Being A Slave To Business Owner, Duan Wu Deserves All the Love!

The Story of Pearl Girl's storyline is very fascianting one, the fact that it is historically correct makes this drama even better. I love that we are following Duanwu from being a Pearl Slave to becoming one of the best Jewelry Designers in Yangzhou.

The script, the acting, the plotline, the antagonists, everything about this drama was deep and complex but was very enjoyable to watch. It's a very unique concept as well, and it definitely showcase a lot of Zhao Lusi's ability to act.

I've been watching Lusi's drama since Love Like The Galaxy and became a huge fan of her acting abilities. Her acting is always very natural-like and the emotion she displays tugs at my heartstrings . Lusi portrayed Duanwu very well, definitely one of the most strongest female characters out there. She's able learn quickly in order to adapt to her environment, she's not afraid to stand up for herself as well as others important to her.
Liu Yu Ning's portrayal of Yan Zijing was great as well. He's able to act cunningly, but also be tender and kind towards Lu Si - of course he can be strict as well.
I think both Zi Jing and Duan Wu's love was cute, it started out as crushes and it felt like watching two high school teenagers flirting with one another. Eventually it leads to true love and care for one another.
Both characters have so much in common from being alone in their childhood years to finding a family and people they love.
I like the contrast between the leads and the antagonists - Cui Shi Jiu and Zheng Wu. Both Cui Shi Jiu and Zheng Wu grew up with family around them but in the end these families only used them as pawns and lacked familial love. Shi Jiu and Zheng Wu's relationship was bittersweet, although they were not the most amazing people in this drama - which is understandable. I'm glad they found each other, but sadden Shijiu didn't get the love she had long needed.

The Story of Pearl Girl is not truly about the romance between Duan Wu and Yan Zijing, it follows the journey of DuanWu. Despite the shocking ending, it is understandable that it ended that way. Many people may not enjoy it, but personally it makes sense as this journey was for Duanwu and she ended up being successful in life whether or not Yan Zijing stayed by her side.
Is it a happy ending? In a way, yes it is. However, it may not for those who watch it for the romance.
If you enjoy watching dramas that follows a strong, smart female lead then this definitely for you. If you expect to watch comedy, or less serious dramas then this is not for you.

In my opinion, this is what C-dramas were about in the past. Following the journey of a struggling female character and watching her climb her way up to the top. A wonderful story, amazing acting skills, and music is quite nice as well.

Definitely one of my favorites. :]

Leia Mais

The first episode of thk was very very good. I was really expecting something more serious but now I can trust that thk is a romantic comedy and I will eat it up.
So, we know for a fact that First and Khaotung always do a very good job in their series, both for acting skills and for the chemistry, like the chemistry is INSANE. For Joong and Dunk I really don’t know much about them acting and their chemistry but I really liked Fadel and Style in this episode, like I’m very interested to see their relationship. Tbh I laughed very much with Style, he seems kinda crazy lol.
The soundtrack is good, the OST… bro this OST is soooo good, Khaotung killed it. It’s probably my favorite OST. The intro is good. I really liked the first episode. One thing that I always hope to getting better in gmmtv series is audio, so it’s the same here. But ok, that’s it.
Oh, and my favorite part/scene of this episode is Bison being silly about Kant, like dude u already like him 😭😭😭
To finish, the NC scene/red room scene was good too. The Bison leg on Kant’s shoulder??? CRAZY. I can’t wait for the next episode. Let’s goooo

Leia Mais

The best kdrama in 2024 or even in the history of kdrama

The movie Lovely Runner was well written, well executed and won all other big budget drama production by a mile. The actors and actresses were all professional and executed their parts well. There were so many layers to the story that it is rich in relationships, storyline and presented a multi-dimensional yet entertaining, heart-warming and tear-inducing plot.

The love between Sunjae and ImSol, between ImSol and her mum, between ImSol and her maternal grandma, between Sunjae and his dad, between TaeSang and his dad were all so real, warm and relatable. The friendship between Sunjae and his bandmates, between ImSol and her bestie, the rivalry between Sunjae and TaeSang tucked a string in viwers heart. The hilarious boss of ImSol, the funny yet helpful driver of Sunjae, the pure kind hearted parents who hosted the gang in Tampuri, it was simply too much to take in all at once. Even the villain put up a good fight and made a deep impression on viewer.

I could not praise the supreme acting by the many good actors and actresses enough (particularly the leads, who braced freezing cold winter water for the filming), the writer, the directors, the lighting crew, the unsung heroes who made this show possible. I nearly to forget to praise the OST!!

So many memorable and catchy tunes by all the singers!!! The achievement by fiction band Eclispe and Byeon Woo Seok (who is not even a singer and yet sang Sunagi so well omg) were all highlights of 2024 and made this year so special. I think Lovely Runner deserved to be the best kdrama for 2024, and even deserved to be the best kdrama of all time. Way to go!!!

Leia Mais

YinWar

These boys, Men, did a fan-freaking-tastic job. I have given out 10s before but I've never done 10s all they way across the board. I'm so so so throughly impressed by this series.

it was heavy almost all the way through the last episode so a special episode showing a calming peaceful existence with the new boss in place and what the family atmosphere would ease up the tension I feel greatly, especially toi ting wont be their adopted child now.

I have seen their life is but a dream poster with kids though so I feel that may be a prelude to the type of special episode I'm hoping for? fingers crossed 🤞🏻

Leia Mais

most disastrous fall-off since Game of Thrones

God, where do I begin. I guess I'll say that at the start, I was enjoying myself. Sure, it was a little contrived and there were always pacing issues from the episode 1 on, but there were enough interesting elements to have me willing to go along. Over the following three months, I then experienced what the proverbial frog being boiled must have felt as around me the waters got hotter and hotter until I was being turned into rancid jelly.

Quick premise recap: Through a series of contrivances, Jack and Joke meet as youths (Joke is somewhere around 20, Jack is 18) and bond. Jack runs into Joke while Joke is robbing a bank, Joke approves a loan for him, then Jack gets accused of participating in the robbery, Joke turns himself in and goes to prison for 5 years while Jack ends up working for a loan shark referred to as Boss. Time skip forward, Jack is out of prison and wants to go apologize and is upset to find out that Jack is no longer the sweet kid he remembers but instead a (seemingly) brutal debt collector. He teams up with two of Jack's friends to steal Jack's parents' ring from Boss, which he's been using as leverage to keep Jack working for him, and free Jack from this life.

Okay. That seems fine, right? Except from there the plot proceeds to introduce more and more elements, getting increasingly out of control as it goes. I should have known it was doomed the moment they introduced The Evil Crime Boss monopoly game in a scene that must have taken a solid 10-15 minutes but felt more like an hour. I doubly should have known when in, like, the next episode they did an almost identical scene but with a digital game of Chutes and Ladders. In case you didn't get it, these rich people see the poor as their playthings. Do I understand what any of these people actually do? Nope!

From there, it just gets more comic book before reaching absurdist heights with a final episode that includes three characters handcuffed to video game consoles with bomb collars on while for some reason they're forced to play hangman in one of the most excruciating sequences of television I've been subjected to. And then it's revealed that all the danger the characters were allegedly in didn't actually matter, because the escalating events of the past three episodes were actually all just the Four Horsemen screwing with Boss. Which thematically, yes, makes sense, but also negated 90% of the character decisions that had come before.

It's hard to describe what a letdown this show was. It started with a promising premise and themes of the cycle of poverty and self-interest versus self-sacrifice, all to abandon that for a poor knock-off of Squid Game. Character arcs are introduced and dropped at the speed of light, interpersonal conflicts that should be a major problem are resolved in a few lines, and plot points that seem incredibly important just disappear into the wind.

Things that were good:
- War is still a great actor and manages to pull genuine pathos out of an insane script.
- Yin and War have the chemistry and heat to convince you of Jack and Joke's attraction even if their romance arc felt pretty anemic towards the end.
- For the most part, it looks great, and the early fight scenes especially are fun.
- Victor, perhaps the only actor who truly understood what genre he was in, chewed the scenery to bits and left no crumbs.
- The first heist involving the fashion show was pretty fun.

Things that were bad:
- Almost everyone was hopelessly incompetent. If you were looking for a fun, slick heist show, this is not it because no one is good at anything, including Joke who is allegedly a master thief even though we are given absolutely no reason to believe this.
- Wildly inconsistent pacing and tone. Perhaps the Saw traps at the end would have felt more fun and camp to me if the first couple episodes hadn't been relatively grounded.
- Character motivations bounced all over the place, especially for the antagonists. We're told in a two line exchange in episode 10 that Boss is actually doing his hostile takeover of the Four Horsemen as revenge for his parents, which is given no further explanation or depth aside from another single line in the finale that has no relevance and is never mentioned again.
- Characters and plot threads were dropped for multiple episodes. Side characters Save and Hope, who have a lot of bearing on the plot as minions for Boss, straight up disappear for like three episodes straight. Tattoo, Arun, and Hoy, who all seem really important at the beginning, also have arcs that are completely dropped.
- People/the show seems to conveniently forget there are guns for long stretches of time, or just forget how basic physics work.
- One of the most poorly executed twists of all time because we have no information about the people involved in said twist. You have time to make Jack bark like a dog for like five solid minutes but can't give us a Mean Girls-style rundown of the Four Horsemen? Please.

I think the most frustrating thing is that there were absolutely seeds of a good, fun show, but it was buried beneath ten layers of nonsense that should have been cut in the first round of edits. Like, not even. It should have been cut at the outline stage and then thrown into a fire never to be contemplated again. I am willing to accept a lot of nonsense in my media, I am able to suspend disbelief, and I have watched a lot of objectively bad television, but this manged to hit my threshhold on everything. Even watching it with friends didn't help; we ended up setting the finale on 2x when we realized there was still half an hour left after watching people mess with an ipad in a cheap-looking warehouse set for an hour. I guess I'm glad other people enjoyed it, because I like Yin and War, but kings, this one should have gone back to the drawing board.

Leia Mais