What trash.

I briefly considered giving this a 10 (like another review for this drama) simply because I just could not believe that the writer would, with their hand over their heart, believe this steaming pile of dog shit masquerading as a script could actually be halfway-decent enough to be shown to the world. But that would mean the rating for this drama would increase, which would be false advertising. So hence, here is my very honest and slightly disgruntled review (after all, I wasted a good day watching all 10 episodes. A day I will never get back.)

This show is low budget, but that's okay. Low budget shows can also be great (read: Go Princess Go) or at the very least, watchable (read: Master Devil Do Not Kiss Me). Here, on the other hand, it was like the producers didn't even have enough to hire actors. Hell, my aunt who stays at home and reads to her 12 cats can probably act better. For example, when the male lead was talking about his 'Paranoid Personality Disorder' (does this even exist?), he put on this facial expression that really, really wanted to be tortured, but sort of fell in the ballpark of constipated. I think that if the producers spent less on all the fancy sets and locations, they could've afforded some decent actors, but hey, who cares about actors anyway.

I still can't believe this story is what it is. It gives me hope that if crap like THIS can get produced, then anything I end up writing will have the producers queuing in front of my house.

It starts off with our bug-eyed, small faced heroine (whose face kinda creeped me out with its very apparent plasticky-ness) being kidnapped and tied to a chair with a cheap-looking alien brain-sucking device on her head- or so you'd think (muwahaha the budget strikes again!) Its actually a lie detector. We see a bunch of science-y looking scientists (because lab coats, duh) ask her where she hid the baby. Female lead gets confused and vehemently denies ever being pregnant. Lie detector says she's lying, and the scientists keep asking her where she hid the baby. The heroine faints. Fast forward a bit, and we see our hero, looking all serious and hero-like while having a face that is 3 shades lighter than his neck (good make up artists cost money). Now, even HE asks her about the baby- his baby, apparently- and absolutely refuses to accept that they never had sex in the first place, because according to him, they both were drunk at a party she was waitressing at when they had it. While a normal person would accept that an ordinary woman would know if she ever pushed out a baby, this guy was somehow convinced that our female lead birthed a human without her knowledge.

Once this idiocy got over, the male lead had no reason to keep her at his mansion, but ya' know, he still did because he is 'ohmagerd obsezzed!!!' The female lead eventually stayed because Stockholm Syndrome.

Okay, I'll stop there. Not only because I was getting more and more annoyed as I typed, but the review was also suffering (if it hasn't already suffered enough.)

Tl;dr- The actors can't act, the writer can't write, the directors can't direct and the producers can't produce.

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If someone told me that Tsuchiya Tao and Mamiya Shotaro would make such a good couple before seeing this movie, I wouldn't believe them. The characters they usually choose in dramas and movies are so different from each other, I couldn't even imagine them being in any way compatible. The description didn't hint at anything different, either; recycled, stereotypical J-love triangle with a female character that goes "ehhhhhhh~~" every 2 seconds. But what we got was so, so, so much better.

The first 15 or so minutes of the movie is nothing out the ordinary and is exactly as the synopsis says it is. Tsuchiya Tao so far, as Yukina, fits the cast of Every Japanese Shoujo Heroine™. The REAL fun of the movie starts when Yukina and Kei meet Sakaba (Mamiya Shotaro's character) and try convincing him to be a pilot in the club again. What ensues is a hilarious scream-off between Yukina and Sakaba, owing to their headstrong personalities and loud voices, which is both extremely cute and displays the incredible chemistry between the two characters that never goes away throughout the duration of the movie.

That said, don't watch this expecting a cute romance; there isn't one. One-sided, sure (I won't say who), but definitely nobody becomes a couple at the end of the movie. I was a little disappointed at first, naturally, but in figured that in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter- it didn't matter to the two people involved, anyway. Yet, I hope there is a Part 2 so that my hopeful little heart is in peace.

Tl;dr: If you're a fan of cute comedy and amazing chemistry (that is only sometimes romantic- emphasis on SOMETIMES), you will love this movie just as much as I did.

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Amongst all the dramas of 2020, Birthcare Centre is a breath of fresh air. Short enough to binge in a weekend with powerful performances by every single actor in the show, its wacky enough to not take too seriously (which you already might've figured out given its setting in a plush rich people post natal recuperation centre and high school-esque social hierarchy) yet serious and heartfelt enough to genuinely convey important issues plaguing new mothers that rarely get talked about.

PROS:
-Hilarious mix of different genres: you have romance, comedy, drama, thriller, horror, historical/mythological etc. There are so many different elements of everything you love from various genres that its a treat to watch them all come together and create a mess (in a good way, for the most part...)

-Strong performances and diverse characters. You have your sanctimonious prick mothers, your 'screw authority' mothers, your 'we're not in Kansas anymore' confused as hell mothers and so much more, all played wonderfully by their respective actors. I'm dying to know how they fare!

-Relationship building: I loved how they portrayed relationships (both romantic and platonic) in this TV show in a realistic way. I especially love how they handled the 'will they, wont they' romance side plot of one of the mothers in the centre and dealt with it keeping in mind her personality and life. I hate it when dramas pull a 360 on a character's personality just to ensure a happy ending, but I think her ending turned out happy in her own way.

-Ending for the mothers- all ended very nicely and some, honestly, even abnormally. By the end, our main character got a happy ending that SHE wanted to get as a woman and didn't endlessly sacrifice herself for her child.

-And that is my final pro: the message that mothers dont have to endlessly sacrifice for their child to be a good mother.

Now...CONS (oh boy):

- Every mother shown in this drama has a significant other raising their child with them which is far from realistic. I was quite annoyed, to be honest, because this drama wanted to show "different kinds of mothers" but eventually ditched that in favor of cutesy romance (which is... fine, but done all the time).

-(I cant believe I'm writing this) Too much time spent on breastfeeding: uhh, okay, I'm not a mom (I'm in my early twenties y'all I need to graduate college) but I do understanding that the decision between breastfeeding or formula is super important. Totes, I get it. But to spend 3 episodes...oohing and ahhing over it...yeah, excessive as hell. Especially when there are other equally barely talked about topics that are addressed towards the end of the drama like post partum depression that need more screentime. Which brings me to...

-I really, REALLY wish they spent more time on post partum depression. If breastfeeding is the golden eldest child of this show, post partum depression is the neglected and pitiful stepchild that no one pays attention to. They relegated discourse about the problem to literally the last 15 minutes of one episode and then poof, almost nothing in the next.

- There was such a mish mash of genres that it was everything and nothing at the same time. It didn't know what it wanted to be and after a point became annoying.

- They barely did anything to redeem sanctimonious prick mother. She may be actually a very nice person, but I think the writer forgot that this is a very low-stakes drama about a bunch of mothers set in a birthcare centre: way she talks down and demeans any mother who doesn't go above and beyond for her child like she does, she can almost be considered an antagonist because of the direct opposition she poses to the main character. You have to actively try to get the viewers to understand her motives and see where she is coming from- you have to create a complex character without providing convenient outs and excuses like "husband bad".

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Dramas like these are tough to review. Really. It's not BAD so much as...lame. The story is lame, the acting is lame, EVERYTHING is lame. You could see that the director REALLY, REALLY wanted to paint this grandiose picture of the leads' life amidst the (admittedly beautiful) backdrop of the Shanghai skyline, but fell flat when a cold dose of reality set in: it isn't interesting enough.

Had the story fallen into the hands of a talented writer, it could have been so much more. The potential was there. I could see brief glimpses of it when they tried narrating how exactly the female lead ended up getting amnesia and forgetting our male lead (this isn't a spoiler, btw, the description is just half done.) But after the first few minutes of the first episode- poof! We have to wait for MANY, MANY more episodes of unnecessary yammering and plot fillers to get to the actual point. And when it does- it still doesn't.

52 episodes for what could essentially be condensed into a 10 episode drama is excruciatingly painful. Each scene, each event and each action is stretched like a rubber band pulled far apart by nothing but prayer. Each episode was 40 minutes. 40-freaking-minutes. At one point early on in the show, the male lead tries persuading the female to join the contest (yeah, that's another thing they don't mention in the description) for 2 EPISODES! Hell, screw the writers, I would get massively unimaginative if I had to fill 52 episodes of this thing.

The acting is Terrible. The capital T was intentional. Is Ma Ke supposed to be attractive? I don't know. All the female supporting characters in the show seem to think so. He certainly wasn't a good (or even decent) actor. Guan Gabrielle was good as long as she didn't do anything because, in many ways, she was a worse actor than Ma Ke. The supporting characters are so utterly forgettable and recycled from other dramas they aren't even worth a mention.

Lastly, the female lead is supposed to be like, the best dancer (or something?) in the university she attended in California but SUCKS everytime we see an actual performance of hers. One of the judges instantly takes a liking to her because she reminds her of herself and (even though she ruthlessly denies it all the time) gives SO much leeway to the stupid shit our female lead does. Heck, even during this 'really important performance', she chooses the female lead's team that performed some boring shadow act with minimal dance over an actually decently choreographed, power-packed team in a DANCE COMPETITION. Why? Because the her team had actual "heart" and understood "the value of a team."

Yeah, give me a break.

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Before I "officially" start this review, I'd like to just throw this piece of appreciation out right in the beginning, lest I forget later on: I love that Misty kept the atmosphere of the drama consistent throughout all 16 years episodes. I have seen absolutely wonderful dramas suddenly change tones in the middle of the run and become horrible, something I was SURE Misty was also going to do considering how delicate and dark the show is (and hence, hard to keep a firm grip on.) I really commend the writer on this part.

Now...onto the actual review.

Plenty of other reviews all the amazing things about this drama (atmosphere, acting, relationships etc.) I won't really touch on that, not when other great reviews have already pointed them out better than I can. What I WILL touch on is the parts other reviews skim over most of the time: the not-so-amazing parts.

Let's start with Go Hye Ran's relationship with our main guy, Kang Tae Wook. Maybe I'm too basic for this stuff, but their romance made no sense, especially with that ending. 80% of the drama is spent with the two ignoring each other and barely talking. Then, all of a sudden, you want me to believe they're in...love? Lust? Because neither of them have gotten any in a long time? It's really disappointing considering all the other great relationships in the drama, with Go Hye Ran and her entire Newsroom team, Kang Tae Wook with his fellow public defender, Go Hye Ran and her reporter friend etc. It shows that the writer is capable of building credible relationships, but somehow, somewhere, fell flat on the romantic ones.

This point wouldn't have annoyed me as much if it hadn't been THE MAIN POINT OF THE DRAMA. The basic story is so fresh and new, of a love-less couple falling in love with one another while the husband defends the wife from being charged as a murderer, of eternal loyalty and blood trumping all others etc. Gosh, was it too much to expect a little more relationship development for what is essentially supposed to be a love story? I hope not.

Some side characters weren't always very likeable, in the sense that I couldn't, for the life of me, understand why they did what they did- Ha Myung Woo (...a guy with a 19 year old "crush" on Go Hye Ran?) and Go Hye Ran's boss (sorry, too lazy to search for his name on MDL). Ha Myung Woo because the way he was written was so sloppy and strange, like really, you expect me to believe he does everything he's doing because he loves Go Hye Ran? What? It logically doesn't make sense and the writer doesn't try to make it sound logical either. Maybe that's the intention. Whatever. Go Hye Ran's boss was also someone who was very inconsistently written, with his being Pro-Go Hye Ran at times and Anti-Go Hye Ran in the other. He seemed like more a minor catalyst for future events than a fully-fledged supporting character.

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Regret. That's what I felt after wasting more than 3 precious days of my life binge watching this hot mess.

But if you asked me how I felt, say, 28 episodes or so in, I would've gushed loudly and happily, rambling on about the great chemistry, suspenseful story and amazing atmosphere. Sure, I would've admitted to plot holes and glaringly obvious breaks of logic, but my love for the passionate romance would have made me gladly overlook the negatives.

What went wrong, then? What made me go from giving this show a solid 7.5 (or even an 8) to giving a measly 5 (which I have given very reluctantly, considering how I actually want to give it a 4)?

To start off, I'll say this: The female lead is utter bullcrap. I have never, in ANY of the dramas I've watched, seen such a fickle, pushy, entitled and naive female lead- she's about as frail and intelligent as a dandelion. There is a limit to how dumb you can be, but this heroine surprises me every time. I can't say anything without spoiling the show for you (if, you know, you're still adamant to watch the show), but she acts VERY immature and heartless sometimes.

She's beauty,
She's grace,
She's a COMPLETE waste of space.

The male lead is dense. There's no other way of saying it. He constantly pushes around the female lead, directly or indirectly dictating her life and clings like a vine. I get it, you like her (for reasons beyond my understanding), but, sheesh, get yourself under control, man. But I'd take him over her moody ass any day; he was at least likeable.

But despite the problems I had with the characters, the story was engaging. It made me stay up till 3:30 in the morning on weekdays, desperately trying to find out what happened next...

...which is probably what made the shit that went down after (maybe) the 30th episode feel almost like betrayal.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

The heroine chooses, CHOOSES, to believe some random seedy looking dude she just met over the male lead (who she, by this time, already hooked up with and has his bun in her oven) that he killed her parents. She doesn't bother to confirm what she heard or to even ASK the male lead on if it's true or not. No, she just packs up and LEAVES.

And then, through some miracle of god, somehow ends up joining a group of rebels whose aim is to drive away the Japanese from Shanghai (and possibly, China). Yes, this chick, who has never held a gun in her life, got magically chosen to train with an elite group of rebels, who just happen to have the support of high-ranking officials in Shanghai, such as our male lead. Not only her, even the pissy and spoilt second male lead who just smells of bad decisions manages to snag a top spot with the group.

But maybe she's actually good? Maybe she actually learned some moves? WRONG! In the first fight we see her participate in, she comes in an expensive coat, loose hair and heels. HEELS! Not even practical block heels, but freaking 3-4 inch pencil heels!

Alas, somehow, I'm not even surprised at this point.



Final thoughts: Skip. Escape. This should go to the dustbin of Chinese drama history, where it should never rear its pitiful head again.

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I mean...I've really never watched anything like this. It was something ENTIRELY new, so that kept me on my toes. Of course, I personally wish this was longer, not only because I liked how unpredictable and fascinating the drama was, but also because I after episode 9, I really wondered how they were going to wrap up the whole thing in a single episode (what with there being so many knots and tangles yet to be unraveled), and I was right, one episode was not nearly enough, but good enough, I suppose.


And errr, probably another selfish reason why I wanted the show to go on is because the lead actor is quite possibly one of the most talented and handsome actors out there. And his CHEMISTRY, jesus. He and Aoi literally SMOLDER while together, the pure sexual tension between them primarily springing from how insanely sensual and sexually charged his eyes and body language are. Good lord, you need a fan to cool yourself down.

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I don't think anybody goes into this expecting an amazing plot or something that'll blow them away, so the expectation is comfortably low. The drama doesn't claim to be something deep and insightful, so as long as you go with the right mindset, you should be okay.

Why you should watch this?

It's a great stress reliever and good way to spend your time while you wait for the next episode of another drama. If you want a light drama to lift some weight off your chest after a heavier one, this is absolutely it. The drama itself is only 9 episodes and pretty well paced out, so don't ever get the feeling that it's going too fast or too complicated. The length is great, too- not too long, just enough for the material in the episode. The friendship theme is adorable (as always) and makes you go 'awww' many times.

I like Takei Emi, so watching her character not much of a problem, except when she was pretty mean to her well-meaning grandfather (who rocked!) sometimes. In my strict Asian household, that wouldn't fly for a minute. The acting of the boys were pretty meh, as most of them were supporting characters anyway. I've watched Kaku Kento before, and his character was pretty awesome, so no problems there.

Why shouldn't you watch this?

MASSIVE second male lead syndrome. Like, REALLY massive. Most of the time, I didn't understand why she would go for the First Male Lead over the Second Male Lead, when he was clearly there for her more than the other guy. At one point, I even contemplated stopping the drama because it kept getting worse and worse as the show went on. Thankfully, the romance bit is very light and infrequent compared to the other themes.

Overall: Though my individual ratings are pretty average, my overall impression is largely positive. A good drama to get out of your slump- but just dont expect anything more than that.

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Ohhh how I wish I could red marker this entire drama and say "NO!" to so many scenes and plotlines. It took me an embarrassing amount of time (1 month) to get around to watching the last episode of the drama because I literally couldn't force myself to part with 45 minutes of my time to watching this boring mess of a show.

I have said this multiple times in multiple other reviews, but I actually don't mind TV shows without a lot of drama. Sometimes, that's exactly what I need. But my god, I need SOMETHING to happen. There was NOTHING interesting about this drama. Eventually, the second couple's romance line came to fruition and good lord, if the only thing that a viewer looks forward to is 5 minutes of screentime with a cute second couple who come like, twice an episode, then your drama is literally the pits (or atleast, very, very close). I'm not saying my expectations were high, but I did love the writer's other two shows, which is what makes this one such a bummer.

The chemistry was...awkward, to say the least. They seemed like they were mildly interested in each other, but would still do decently well without one another. Which is...alright (obligatory "yas our independent kween" moment, I guess)...but this is literally a romance drama with the romance BEING the drama. Will they? Won't they? Do we even care anymore? Because by the end, I surely didn't.

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I dont even know why I tried.
I've watched the Korean and Japanese versions (both seasons) completely, attempted to watch the Thai and first Taiwanese version (gave up because of the lack of HD videos) and was extremely dissatisfied with the ending EVERY SINGLE TIME. After watching this, I realise that I should've just skipped it and not wasted my time.

After every version of the show, I always got this very, very strong feeling that the main girl (Ha Ni/ Kotoko/Yue Qin/whatever) ended up with the wrong guy. Anybody who has spent even an iota of their time watching the trailers and clips know what I'm talking about. I mean, WHY would you wait years and years for a guy who doesn't even bother to look your way? Even the most dedicated of girls would shrug and give up after a year of non response.

Yes, the second male lead (in this case, Ah Jin) gets very annoying sometimes, but he's so, well, awesome the rest of the time. He's always there when she needs him, talented and cute, and most importantly, actually gives a crap about her.

The casting was probably the worst I've seen in any adaptation (yes, even worse than the Japanese one). Lee Dino is cute, but NOT in a cold genius sort of way. Most of the time, he just came off as indifferent and uncaring, not cold and mean. Dino's acting range is pretty limited, but he was WAY out of depth here.
The female lead was irritating, more so than ANY of the other versions. I don't even know how that's possible- do they have an award for that? They should. On the plus side, she has one of the best crying faces I've seen; her face gets all red and splotchy, which is much more realistic than the delicate crying most actresses employ.

Overall: Skip, skip, skip. If you can handle the non-HD quality of the first Taiwanese adaption, watch that instead. The Korean one isn't that bad, but beware of the bad acting. The Japanese one is annoying (with, yes, bad acting) but 2 seasons, so a longer story. In short, ANYTHING is better than this.

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Is this movie worth a solid 10? Let's go with a checklist.

-Great acting? Check.
-Great story? Check.
-Great writing? Check.
- Humour? Check.
-Craziness (it's in my criteria, ok?) ? Check.
-Brutal honestly? Check.
-Unexpected ending? CHECK.

So this drama had it all. So why no 10, you ask? Because that ending was VERY unexpected. A little too real for sentimental, silly me. I mean, I rightly should give it a 10, but after the emotional shitstorm I faced inside me after I finished it, I'm reducing 1 point just because I can.

This movie starts off very light and stereotypically. Pretty, nerdy girl and Slacker boy fall in love after Nerdy Girl decides to tutor Slacker Boy. They start going out and have a long distance relationship. Their relationship survives due to the power of their love and they live happily ever after. Well, that was what WOULD have happened if it went the regular route. Instead, this movie decided to show the other side- the more REAL side.

We see that love is not enough to save a relationship, that two people can love each other to death and yet not be able to stay together. We see that you can have all the dreams and fantasies in the world, but only a lucky few will actually see them come true. We see that every single action, whether it's a small "sorry" or a loud "I miss you", can greatly affect the future.

As the characters grow in age, the movie gets more and more complex. It stops being all flowery and hopeful and brings in a darker and much more honest scenario of a high school relationship. I have to say, Michelle Chen is an INCREDIBLE actress; her presence stole every scene from every character. Her expressions, her mannerisms, her acting overall was marvellous. She made her character into a real person, which is extremely hard to do.

I recommend this drama, but with precautions- if you are a huge fan of happy endings, this might not be it, unless you're willing to try something different. The ending is very well crafted and if you pay attention, you'll notice some parallel endings to some of the events that made a huge impact on the relationship of the leads. These parallel endings lead to a completely different outcome of the relationship.

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Yeah, this show was somehow at once a great disappointment but also a very pleasant surprise. I was dreading watching this because literally everyone and their mothers seem to be comparing it to Sweet Home, a K-drama with a similar apocalyptic concept that I ended up loving to bits. What if its similar and I hate it because I've already seen it? Thank goodness the similarity is exaggerated, because Imawa no Kuni no Alice is completely its own drama. The more I watched it, the less and less it was like Sweet Home. That doesn't necessarily mean I still totally liked it.

To start off, I'm really surprised at how good an actor Sakurada Dori is. Admittedly, I've only ever seen him do boring shoujo male lead roles like in Good Morning Call and Coffee and Vanilla, and never really gave him a second glance. Here, it took me a solid 2 episodes to squint and twist my head whenever his character appeared on screen to finally figure out who was, and I was s-h-o-c-k-e-d! Man's brilliant. A quick run through of his theatre experience and its clear that the Japanese drama industry is short changing him, 'cuz this man can ACT!

Tsuchiya Tao, my queen, great as always. Yamazaki Kento surprisingly was decent as well, one of the rare times he's not a cold shoujo love interest or whatever, though Yamazaki Kento is Yamazaki Kento in all his roles, which can be a great thing if you're a fan of the dude himself, but ultimately makes his acting style kinda boring.

My main gripe with this drama, and the reason I rated it a 7, is how the viewers eventually stop caring about characters because literally everyone except the leads die before we can form any serious bond with them. I know certain deaths were supposed to be really gut wrenching, but because we got so little time to get acquainted with the characters, I literally felt nothing. Whenever the main character agonised, I fast forwarded. I want a little bit of unpredictability in my deaths, and honestly I don't want the good guys to live and bad guys to die in a world where fair is fowl and fowl is fair. I want to be angry and outraged. This was just eh.

Plus, the extremities in this show are almost comical: Mr. Evil Evilini is super Evil, Ms. Good Goodman is super Good and Evil People do Evil Things because they are Evil. Yeah, alright, TV show. The brief attempts at making them complex falls flat because its not sustained or explored deeply. By the end, I grew kinda tired over how Good the main characters were because...BOOORING.

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Mild Spoilers ahoy

I really do want to preface this by saying 7 isn't a *bad* score. If Crash Landing wasn't such a hyped show, I might've bumped it up by a 0.5 star, but considering how everyone and their mothers have told me its the best thing to happen to K-drama since Lee Min Ho and Park Shin Hye, it's exactly that: a personal opinion that some very, very strongly believe and the rest...not so much.

To start of, I will say that the first few episodes of this drama? Innovative. Brilliant. Iconic. Never-been-done-before. I jest (sort of), but I truly loved the pacing and character-driven arcs of the first few episodes- yes, there was drama. Yes, it was a little unrealistic.

Scratch that, the whole drama was extremely unrealistic, as one would expect from a plot like this. Unlike many other viewers, though, I didn't really care about how...um...gentle...the writer was about North Korea and North Korean life. At the end of the day, I'm willing to suspend a bit of my disbelief because its a K-drama and I want a happy ending for everyone involved. The writer was very gentle in their portrayal of, well, everything- from North Korean politics, to military, to imprisonment, to daily village and city life, and hell, even made the South Korean NIS (National Intelligence Services) be kindly government employees who treat their North Korean inmates (special forces and probably SPY inmates) well and send them back to North Korea with a pat on the back and a lollipop to suck on. Realistic, this drama is not. But yeah, I really didn't give a rat's ass.

What I *did* give a rat's ass about, though, was how terribly they dealt with Gu Seung Jun (SML?). Can't say much or it'd be a spoiler, but my god, they NEVER gave him a goddamn break. Seo Dan, too. Though I admit, I can't say I cared much for the either of the romance lines (the main one or the secondary one), which is incredibly annoying in what is literally a romance drama first and comedy/action second, but I still became very, very reasonably pissed when the writer made very out of pocket writing decisions for the SML. I mean, to put him through all that and give him THAT ending? Damn.

Can't say I cared much about the acting either by the main leads. For some reason, I found the main actors (minus Kim Jung Hyun (SML), who I have seen and enjoyed before) really wooden in some scenes and wish they emoted more- especially Hyun Bin (ML). It's not my first drama of his, so I'm really disappointed- he can do so much better. Did he just not connect with this character? Because his chemistry with Se-Ri (FML) was so forced. Son Ye Jin did pretty okay around everyone except Hyun Bin, too, and then her acting seemed to become so monotonic I found myself skipping all the scenes where they just gaze lovingly at each other with tears in their eyes and talk about how much they care about each other (which happened a lot...).

You know, not to be crass (much), but for 30-something year olds who obviously love each other and see each other for only 2 weeks once a year, they act more G-rated around each than I did with my crush from kindergarten. You're telling me they go to damn picnics when they meet once a year? Yeah, I have two words for you: bull and shit. Also, that's such a weird HFN (happy for now) ending to me, because I'm sure its all magical for like, another 2 years, but imagine meeting your SO once a year for a few days for the rest of your life and not even getting to talk to them every now and then. They live happily ever after? 3 words. Bull, freaking, and shit.

This drama isn't without its redemption, though, because if there is one thing I never skipped and watched gleefully is the the ML's bromantic group of hilarious North Korean soldiers who singlehandedly save this drama from boredom. Watching their antics and their obvious camaraderie is such a good break from watching Mr. and Mrs. Tortured Love kill themselves (and the audience) over their mutual inability to so much as hold hands.

Also, I have a genuine question: did we EVER get any insight about Se Ri's past? It's implied and redeemed SO many times in the drama, but its literally like the author forgot to explain why Se Ri has such a terrible childhood at all. Every character has hint-hint-nudge-nudged at it to death and yet, NO ONE has bothered giving any explanation to the viewers what exactly happened. Is this a writing oversight? Or an editing mistake? Because these episodes are 1.5 hours long, so there was more than enough time to explain.

All in all, I would pass, unless you're a huge Hyun Bin or Son Ye Jin fan.

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Ah, mediocre shows are so much harder to review than bad ones.

The best thing I can say about Meloholic is that it wasnt bad...
...that's about it.

There is nothing to write home about, yet there is nothing particularly annoying about the show. TVXQ's Yunho was pretty forgettable as a lead, even though his character was supposed to be charismatic and sexy. Kyung Soo Jin was fine as well, though I have to say, her portrayal of Han Ju Ri is probably the best part of this show. Individually, I liked both Yunho's and Soo Jin's characters. Together? That's a different story. There was very, very little romance development. He literally meets her and decides to date her in the same episode. Soo Jin's character Han Ye Ri was supposed to be closed off towards any and all romantic advances, but pretty readily accepts Yunho's Eunho (gawd, he even used a similar name.)

To call this a psychological show would be stretching it- there is BARELY any deep, psycho-analysis of Ye Ri and her dual personality. It was just like "Hey, heres a heroine with multiple personality disorder and her alter-ego is the total opposite of her. Done." One can't help but draw comparisons to Kill Me, Heal Me, another show that deals with the same issue, but executes it much better. I wish they used the disorder more effectively into the plotline and delved a little deeper into it instead of keeping it superficial.

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Everything You Wanted Marry My Husband To Be

Or atleast, everything *I* wanted Marry My Husband to be.

The revenge was beautiful, the romance was exquisite and do you hear that? No? That's the silence of an FMC who feels zero regret while screwing over family.

After the pitiful nonsense that was MMH, I had few expectations for PMR. I watched it for a gag, after all, inspired by one too many Tiktoks I came across from the show. Little did I know I was the palate cleanser I needed to restore my faith in rebirth revenge dramas.

Yeah, it wasn't perfect. The absentee father got off a little too scot free and it (technically) wasn't the spoiled sister's fault that she was such a desperate clown. Nonetheless, their fall from grace was glorious and satisfying, with no tears shed and no love lost.

If you're looking for a romance drama with great chemistry, solid writing, pitch-perfect revenge, and some genuine male lead devotion, run, don't walk, to watch PMR!

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