This is a very entertaining Chinese period drama about a lot of very beautiful people with anger management issues. The general treatment of women is pretty dreadful, although I assume it is more or less historically accurate. I love the strong and fierce heroine. Some people may not. When anybody, no matter how powerful, lies, cheats, and manipulates others to hurt her or those she loved, she, um, lies, cheats and manipulates to thwart them or exact revenge. There are two parallel love stories, both involving her. I liked the way one of them developed and was resolved. The other, well, let’s just say that repeatedly threatening to kill you is an interesting courtship technique. The costumes and sets are breathtaking and the music was well done.

I did have issues with a couple of things. In a drama full of great villains, the two biggest villains were too over the top for me. The only thing Consort Gao lacked was a mustache to twirl while hissing, “Curses, foiled again!,” and I got very very tired of the other major villain’s narrow-eyed plotting look, until he started overdoing the pop-eyed crazy look. I also thought that the way the teflon heroine keeps sliding free of consequences (even when others are on to her) sometimes stretches credulity. But I neverthless found myself cheering her on every time she won and had an adversary dragged away to be caned or executed. Because good people are shoved aside or die forlorn deaths in this drama, it's much better to be bad instead.

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It’s a bad sign when I’m laughing at the wrong things, like the leading lady running duck-footed in her nightie through the streets of Barcelona demented Wee Willie Winkie-style, past a score of oblivious Spaniards. And WHERE do they find all of those non-Korean actors? Is there a special bad acting school for foreigners that rents actors out for free? Ji Chang Wook’s character is a shade too similar to his role in the Healer to make me think that I’m watching something new and interesting. I might continue to watch if there were a chance that Mr. Healer 2.0 character and Evil Witch might end up falling for each other, which would at least be fun to see. But I assume that he and Wee Willie Winkie are destined for each other. My primary beef with most Korean dramas is that the romance is too conventional and predictable and I’m afraid that this drama will follow the same trajectory. I wonder whether better actors could have redeemed the show. But then I remember inane scenes such as Dancing With Ramen and realize that there is no excuse for this drama.

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I found this drama to be predictable and formulaic and not as funny as it tries to be. The female lead character played by Park Ju Hyun is unlikeable, although I wonder whether a more skilled actor could have done a better job bringing more depth and nuance to the role. I think that the second lead actor, Kim Woo Seok steals every scene from the male lead, played by Kim Young Dae, so much so that I began rooting for the second male lead to end up with the female lead (as over the top as she was). But I had no reason to believe that this drama would do anything but follow the standard Korean romcom formula, so there was no reason really to continue watching.

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Our Beloved Summer is a nice, light, and sweet romance with opposite-attracts leads who show believable personal development throughout the drama. I like watching Choi Woo Shik's acting, which is always on point. And even though one can anticipate what is going to happen, the whole drama is so feel good that it doesn't seem to matter too much. Scenes are filmed in an ethereal light (outside) or cozy warmth (inside), which contributes to the fuzzy feelings.

I was not a fan of the manager/bar owner story line at all but the second leads and other assorted characters grew on me, especially NJ.

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I admit that I had a hard time making it through the first two episodes because Lee Ji-An seemed like such a terrible, amoral character. But I kept watching because the reviews were good and I’m very glad that I did. It kept getting better and better. The drama is a heartrending but ultimately inspirational and moving story about a damaged, emotionally numb girl and an equally emotionally distant man. I thought that Lee Sun-Kyun and IU were fantastic but all of the actors were also great (including Kim Young-Min, who made me actually feel sympathy for the antagonist). Some of the story lines ended messily and unhappily, just like in real life, but somehow that was fine because they all showed that what matters more than money or prestige or even romance, is the connections we make with those around us. As I said, the drama gets better and better with every episode.

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This drama is rather lurid and violent. The violence includes not only far too many people turned into pincushions but also sexual assaults, which are only alluded to, not depicted, but, I think, is handled poorly, particularly the aftermath. I also found the various storylines to be confusing and inconsistent. Sometimes one side complains about the lack of troops but the next minute they have enough to attack. Other times one side has a CGI army of thousands, only to withdraw for flimsy reasons, followed by scenes of only a few dozen fighting on each side or galloping all over the place (distances seemed to magically expand and contract, too). People sneak in and out of each other’s territories or houses or super-secret sect tunnels too easily or fail to notice somebody hiding in plain sight. The politics seem to consist mostly of everybody screaming revenge. As for the heroine, although she kicks butt, she's a little too sanctimonious for me. The hero is supposed to be the strong, silent type but he seems wooden, blank and awkward instead. I winced more from the shots of all of the horses falling down on their heads (does anybody know whether horses are trained to do that for movies?) than the hero getting attacked. I kept hoping that the heroine would ditch him and go for his bodyguard, who had much more presence. Or the second lead, who had a lot more charisma, especially after he discovered eyeliner and went bad.

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I watched the first two episodes of Abyss but I became tired of the almost constant harping about the leads’ physical attractiveness or lack thereof. It makes them, as well as the people around them, seem boringly shallow. Yes, I know that it’s supposed to be funny: They died and got another chance at life and instead of being in awe of their second chance, they dwell on their looks. But that joke gets tiresome and I don’t think it works as a satire of Korea’s obsession with physical attractiveness. Because neither leads’ personality seems particularly winning up to this point (Park Bo Young’s character is smug while Ahn Hyo Seop’s character is just stupid), it makes this a hard watch despite the interesting setup

This doesn’t always bother me; I like watching pretty people as much as everybody else. But I wish the leads in Abyss could just get over themselves and move on. I probably will stop following this and watch the last episode just to see who the killer is. If I can drum up enough interest.

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Mr. Sunshine clearly takes itself VERY seriously. It tries to be a grand, sweeping drama dealing with Life and Death, Revenge, and Loyalty to the Cause. I use capitals because I feel like the Drama uses capitals to pound those issues into one’s head, having no subtlety and nuance. The cinematography employs every overplayed melodramatic stereotype in the book, including slow motion Epic Battle Scenes and dramatically backlit heroes staring far far away into the distance. The distant stare is an attempt to inject profound meaning and gravitas into the scene but it comes across as affected and pretentious. To make sure that we know there is a Very Important Moment to be had the music swells portentously to end in a dramatic crash or, during scenes filled with bathos, wails mournfully in the background. To make matters worse, the writing is simply horrible. The characters are your by-the-dozen stock, sterotyped figures. Beautiful heroine who is a kind, much loved and sheltered aristocrat by day and a crackshot rebel warrior by night? Check. Her loyal jolly sidekick servant? Check. Steely but sensitive hero with a tragic past? Check. Seemingly cold-blooded, but really just hurting inside, leader of a ruthless group? Check. Sharp and hardened woman who cooly plays both sides but falls in love with the hero? Check. One-dimensional and physically unattractive villains? Check. And on and on. The dialogue plods along leadenly and predictably, the plot does likewise. Finally, the acting, or, rather, lack thereof is cringe worthy. Please, someone, hire a bunch of competent English-speaking actors to move to Korea for a year and act in all movies and dramas requiring their presence. I don’t know whether Koreans simply hire English-speaking people off the streets because they look the part but I am tired of watching these “actors” woodenly standing while woodenly delivering their wooden lines. And the writer makes matters worse (if possible) by making them stock, stereotyped characters. That not only makes the foreign actors look stupid but it also unfortunately makes Koreans look stupid by implying that Koreans are not smart enough to see beyond stereotypes. I know that that's not true. I’m not as sure about this writer.

One example (of many) of Mr. Sunshine’s writer's cringe-worthy attempts to be clever is the plot point around the meaning of the word “love." I mean, come on, the heroine is soooo interested in the word that she brings it up with Mr. Lead Guy yet when she starts to learn English she somehow fails to find out first thing what it means? As a device to score cute couples points it was hilariously bad. Nope. I watched four episodes (which were three too many) then skipped around trying to figure out why people raved about this drama. It's a mystery to me.

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I watched the first few episodes. I thought that the drama might be a keeper for me due to the relatively strong women characters and despite my ambivalence about the Chang Ki Yong character, who seemed always to be filmed in a misty light. But then Episode 4 came along and he did that thing with her pantyhose and that made me cringe. Was it meant to be cute and sexy? Were we all supposed to say, “Awwww, he’s sweet,” not “Ewwww, he’s weird?” It was the latter for me and now I can’t continue with this show because under Korean drama law, she’s going to end up with him.

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Let’s just say that for me, at least, the title was prophetic. I found the dynamics between the two leads to be soporific and I started skipping around and fast forwarding before deciding that life (and time to watch dramas) is too short. Maybe Suzy is a bad actor after all. I kept picturing thought bubbles above her head whenever she tried to express an emotion: "Now I will widen my eyes to look surprised," "Now I will narrow my eyes to express Deep Thought." argh. I could not get into the story because all I could see was her acting, which leaned self-conscious and unnatural.

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Our Blooming Youth is a strange title for a clunky drama. The purpose of this drama, despite ghostly flourishes and dramatic Dum Dum DUM music, seems to be to throw two people together and make it look like an epic love story. So we have the crown prince meeting the FL, a suspected murderer, who appears to have shot an arrow at him. He ends up dragging her to his tent for questioning. By the wrist, naturally. That’s after she performs the usual fall off a cliff into water trope and sneaking into town disguised as one of a group-of-(VERY unobservant) soldiers thing. Sigh. When the Female Lead later pulls out a big dagger, cuts herself free of her bonds, and attacks a guard I think we’re supposed to be impressed by how badass she is. But all I could think of was that the guard must have flunked Introduction to Bodyguarding where they teach you to search somebody for weapons BEFORE you tie them up. It all feels contrived and formulaic and Park Hyung Sik seems to be sleepwalking through his role looking as bored as I feel. There are the usual scheming old ministers, including Jung Woon-In playing the baddie as always. Nothing new to see here.

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I struggled with this one because I really can’t stand the lead female character. I think she’s supposed to seem daring and confident but she’s actually pretty stupid, arrogant, and smug. When she charges straight towards trouble we’re supposed to swoon (like the male lead) over how straightforward and brave she is but it’s actually more like overconfidence and conceit. She does not stop to think about how much she endangers others and her confidence is sadly misplaced, given how often the male lead needs to rescue her.
p.s. It’s frustrating when a drama ostensibly about a strong woman actually undercuts the strong woman argument by having the male lead save her over and over again. Are we supposed to find that romantic? Adorable? ugh.

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