Catch as catch can!

Somewhere between a manga and reality, that's where the story can be found! Looking at the poster, I kind of expected a comedy. Not the case!

A couple of mangakas, who have been married for quite some time are quietly going through a crisis. Toshio is suffering from writer's block and currently is only half heartedly helping his wife Sawako ink her mangas and frolicking with the editor in his spare time, he apparently has a lot of. The marriage is on the rocks and they are barely speaking to each other. When Sawako receives a call about her mother being injured, they both go to the country to help her out. Sawako needs to start a new manga. When her editor refuses her fantasy themed idea and demands a reality based one, Sawako decides to take inspiration from her own life and write a manga about adultery. At the same time she starts taking driving lessons and apparently falls for her instructor. She draws everything and when her husband discovers the drawings he is lost, feeling hurt but knowing he has no right to say anything.

The movie is on the slow, dreamy side, going from reality to manga to reality, so much so we, the audience, just as much as Toshio reading the new manga drawings daily, are lost not knowing what is real. When confronted, Toshio refuses to admit to adultery and therefor Sawako insists upon her own adulterous relationship through the manga. And while he is loosing his wits, trying to figure everything out and most of all how not to lose his wife, she disappears.

The revenge for adultery through a manga is an original plot device and it is keeping us in suspense to the very last minute and the surprising ending. Unfortunately the film is very slow, and I found my attention wondering., The characters are well played and we can see their development. Sawako is surprisingly strong behind her calm and quiet demeanor, while Toshio is a talented artist but ruined by weak character, immaturity and a low esteem. The question asked is whether she will forgive him or not when he eventually comes clean! That's for me to know and for you to find out!

There are three other characters: the editor Toshio is having an affair with who is outspoken and perspicacious. Sawako's mother, quietly observing the goings on without making judgements and supporting her daughter. And the driving instructor. He is a good looking younger man and we are made to doubt if they are really having an affair or not until the end.

I was surprised to find no deeper criticism of adultery: it is just a fact of life, there and it is what the people make of it. There is no general rule. What is important, though, is honesty. Do not lie and bury yourself deeper! is the lesson that comes out of the movie. They did not insist on respecting the society rules, staying together for the sake of marriage vows or what the "people" would think. The most important is your own happiness. And Sawako found it in the end!

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Like Signal but so much better!

I must watch anything involving time: time travel, time slip, parallel universe, reincarnation (though I must admit I am not a fan of time skip the K dramas adore!). The title of the movie made me expect something with a lot of action and a rag tag kind of a hero. Nothing of the sort. Still really good but this is not an action flick! Points OFF for the title!!!

The film tells a story of two men connected by a same accident at the same place at the same time but 32 years apart. After that incident they start dreaming about each other. The man in the past is a teacher and the one in the present, a police detective. When the teacher's girlfriend gets murdered, the policeman helps him find the murdered and save other victims.

The story is very reminiscent of Kairos and Signal and being a movie, it is tightly woven and more exciting than a long drawn drama. And it is all the better for it! Time slip stories are very difficult to make believable because the logic always interferes and plot holes are usually many. They managed to avoid those traps. There is a logical answer to everything.

The characters were also well written and especially the girlfriend who, for once, is not a damsel in distress but a brave and smart woman with brains. That was refreshing. The actor playing the detective is probably one of the worst actors I have ever seen: his voice is monotonal, his acting bland and his face pretty and empty of all feeling. Points OFF for bad acting!

The ending is perfect as well: the murderer having been caught in the past, the life was put on a parallel course with the original timeline and therefore everything changed in the life of the detective. Smart and logical!

Time Renegades is an excellent film, quick, suspenseful and entertaining watch. Bad title though! lol

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Don't be afraid to speak up!

Recently, I do not seem to be able to focus on normal length K drama (16 ep!) so I keep looking for these short web dramas. The synopsys says everything about the main couple. For such a short drama they managed to find time for a second couple.

The drama, through the main character of a girl who cans hear other people's thoughts, tells us the story of communication and the lack thereof. The girl eventually learns that speaking up for herself will not make others hate her, that being a loner is not all that great. People often jump to conclusions, form opinions based on first impressions and are often superficially interested in others. But when people pay attention, you'd think that they can hear your thoughts.

This is a cute short drama. The main couple's story was told in 5 episodes then there was an entire episode dedicated to the second couple: a sweet naive guy who falls for a calculating girl and shows her she's not as bad as she thinks. Last two episodes are just fluffy addition as the main couple tries to find steady speed in their relationship.

The actors were ok, not the best, not the worst, just average. The ML had such smooth voice and the FL was not particularly pretty. They still managed to make her look worse with the frumpy wardrobe fit for a grandmother! The writing was alright:I liked the narration. there were a few cringy moments and the ML's explanation was so sweet.

Why do these web dramas have such awful music? No budget left so they use some free pieces found on line?
The opening credit sequence was nicely done shot of main couple throughout their developing relationship! Quite original!

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Housekeeping an actress

Service Charge is a short web series filmed in a single location starring a couple of actresses and with a very limited budget. But this series also goes to prove that the money is not what is the most important: how you tell the story and the story you tell are what make this and some other independent producers' short movies/series worth the watch and the praise! Creativity not the money!

The story is sweet: Lily comes to work as a housekeeper for Belle an actress. At first she is unpleasantly surprised with Belle's rude behaviour and harsh words until she realizes that Belle needs her to help her practice her lines and that those rude words were just a part of the script. When Belle needs to practice a kissing scene, Lily refuses at first but then changes her mind and things develop quickly from there.

Lily is a proud girl with a long family tradition of high class housekeepers. Belle is an actress with her quirks and unusual demands, a bit what we imagine a well known actress would behave and act. A match made in heaven!

The series is 15 min long and they managed to tell a full story in those 15 min! The girls have good chemistry and are sweet together. It is a short love story though some might find it confusing: where is the border between the script reading and reality. Or are they using the script reading as a means to an end: getting together, using it to help them express their feelings.

The set looks really cheap and cold: a hotel room is like that I guess. The make up on Lily is awful: that lipstick should be banned from production! The terrible elevator music helps keep the sensation of low budget present. But still, it is a cute short watch

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The clueless prince and his smart consort

You know how often in K dramas you have a strong female character at the beginning of a drama. She is smart, intelligent, sassy and beautiful. She has a brain! And then she falls in love and her every brain cell stops functioning: she can barely speak, she keeps falling over, she becomes stupid and incompetent. Luckily there is the MAN to save her and get her to hospital when she cuts her finger on a piece of a broken glass.

I do not know if it is the same in c dramas: I am a relative newcomer and all I watch are short costume dramas.

And this one did a K drama turnabout on me, with a twist! The one losing all brain power us the man in the story! Reversal of typical drama character roles! Interesting and novel choice of plot device!

So the first season ended with her finding out that he had been leading a double life. She angry about it and she leaves while he is left weeping in the middle of the road! Two years later he is still horribly missing her, he's depressed and moping about having no will to do anything. His father decides to get him married again but his brother and his mother plot against him in order to get rid of competition for the throne. The girl finds out and comes back.

The second season is her show: she's the one thinking, seeing the plots behind fake smiles, figuring out how to bring the palace plotters to light. While she is thinking, he is just following her around like a faithful dog so happy to have her back! This season is also more about the succession struggle and palace conspiracy than their love story which takes a back seat. They love each other, she is back, he is happy. That's it for him and them!

Unfortunately we do not get to see his alter ego, the white haired fan thrower, or enjoy the funny banter between them. The spark is missing from their romance and from his character! What a let down! He eventually defeats all plots and wins the throne but only after a few important people had died and with him just being completely clueless throughout! The only thing really important to him is her and even when he finds out she had been lying to him, he does not care as long as she stays with him! His behaviour is akin the usual drama FL!

The story was boring: plot upon conspiracy upon lies in order to win the throne. The main couple really took the back seat here: I guess they did not have anything more to say about them so they expanded upon the side characters.

The actors were charming and had good chemistry. The kissing scenes were bad, yucky to tell the truth: it looked like they did not really know what to do! The guy playing the third prince was rather amazing going from sweet to scary to mean to polite quickly.

You can watch this if you want to see how they end up together but they could have done it in twe episodes instead of 18 mercifully very short episodes.

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A Fairy tale...

Or a tale about a fairy on his(because it is a handsome guy!) way to grant his first wish and it goes awfully wrong! But he realizes that only ten years later! When two baseball playing best friends make a wish to stay together forever, this is not how they imagined it would be: one of them became a girl overnight and the other moved to USA. When he comes back he meets and falls for the girl version of his friend.

While watching this I could not really focus on the plot: I was constantly thinking of trans people and recent scandals and cancellations of suspicious celebrities! If all those articles about transphobia had not been on my mind, I would have probably enjoyed this much much more.

The story is sweet and nice, not an evil ex in sight, minimum toxicity and a lot of fluff! The actors could have been better: the ML was wooden and monotonal, looked depressed and generally unhappy most of the times. The FL was supposed to be a boy iso she is a bit rougher and tougher than the usual FL, speaking with a deeper voice and a bravado of a boy. The cutst of the lot was the Fairy who had the best chemistry with the FL.

This is a tale of friendship, love gender and baseball! It is a cute short watch with nice music and solid story! What else can you ask for or need one Sunday night?

I don't care if what you are; I like you as a person! Awwwww, so cute and PC!

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Buffy in Korea

The story follows a teen shaman exorcist who transfers to the school where her grandma died in order to finally get rid of an evil spirit who is killing the last ranked students! The girl meets a boy a,-nd wakes him to ghost seeing.

It reminded me a lot of Buffy with it's school setting, martial arts postures, mostly oblivious adults and of course the evil principal, Kids sort things out (i.e. getting rid of evil!) while adults act important. Just like Buffy, this short drama is telling us about teens and their growing pains stuck between the parents and the school and wanting to be free to learn about life on their own terms. For once in a school set drama, there is not one side story about bullying which was refreshing!

I picked this up because of the fantasy element but also because of Nam Da Reum, a former kid actor with a brightest of the futures waiting for him. He is immensely talented and handsome young man.

The pacing of the drama was brisk, without a dead moment: the advantage of short web dramas done well. They did not waste precious minutes on unimportant filler characters: everyone who shows up is essential to the plot. There were, of course, a few minor plot holes but I managed not to dwell too much upon them telling my self that it was fantasy first and foremost and the strict obeissance of the rules of logic can be forfeited!

The highlight of this drama was the deadliest of all dead fish kisses. Immobile actors lips locked together while the camera pans around them was not romantic just awful! Fine! I get it! It is a teen drama, the actors are young and innocent and everything should be PG. Even the ghosts and evil spirits and shamans were not that scary!

Frankly, it is a nice short watch, amusing, cute and interesting really worth your time!

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Just being alive is the greatest thing!

What an amazing drama! Highly predictable, full of clichés and yet gripping and thought provoking and it concerns each and every one of us!

The main topic is depression and teens and how the parental and/or societal expectations can ruin someone's self-esteem and ultimately the will to live. This is a story of Boo, who faced with his own shortcomings compared to his brilliant father thinks seriously about suicide. But a chance encounter with a group of skateboarders, make him fine a new will to live. His father, still completely oblivious to his sons misery, tries to steer him in the direction he wants him to go, whether Boo is happy about it or not. The penny drops for the father when he realizes he has no recent photos of his son: the latest one being from primary school.

The mental health representation in this drama is perfect. The kid's unhappiness, the reasons for it, how to deal with it and what the depression is, are excellently explained and shown. The most important fact here ,that they stressed repeatedly, is that the path to well being is long and difficult, the patients need to be surrounded by well meaning and caring family and friends who need to be vigilant because of possible setbacks! The actor playing Boo is incredible: he manages to show Boo's deep feelings of unhappiness by subtle mannerisms, posture and facial microexpressions. Perfect!

Other characters are the usual suspects!
The father too busy to notice anything is wrong and quick to criticize and demand excellence and blind obeissance.
A young shrink projecting onto Boo her own family trauma in order to help him but getting into it too deep.
An older youth, a skateboarding master who becomes Boo's idol and who takes no nonsense from anyone and talks like that as well.
The youth's sister who plays with Boo's heart and unwittingly provokes a life changing accident.

All of the characters change, learn and mature during the drama and by the end of it, they all have learned important life lessons. The ending is a bit sappy and too fluffy for my taste but it is feelgood and just what the doctor ordered.

Cinematography is excellent, especially in episodes 6 & 7 when certain scenes are monochrome: pink, green, red etc. to go with the moods of suffering characters. Music is just the right amount of rock to go with skateboarding and ominous background score for the depression.

This is an amazing drama which, in spite of its serious subject matter and the cliché characters, grabs your attention from the get go and keeps it until the last moment of the last short episode! The length of the drama is perfect: 8 short episodes are just enough to tell a comprehensive story without it losing momentum by introducing secondary characters' stories!

I am surprised that it is not watched more! It should be! It gives us all a valuable lesson about life which we often seem to forget!

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Weirdly enjoyable mess

Captivated, by You is a misleading title coupled with that poster gives you all the feels of a BL. Nothing of the sort. Actually it is very difficult to pinpoint the exact genre. Why? Well, let's see....

The drama follows two high school boys, in two different towns, in two different schools, with different experiences and interests. They have absolutely nothing in common save for a moment their literal paths crossed and one boy took a photo of the other one being bizarre on the other side of the road. And they are both cute. That's it!

When you say school drama, the first item on the producers' list is bullying. So there is some of that of course! The boys' reactions to it are different; while one is immune to it and does not pay attention, the other one creates a repulsive and scary character in order not to be bothered again.

The drama has a strange structure: it keeps jumping back and forth between the characters and up and down the timeline so pay attention while watching. Everything is strange about this drama: the weird book they keep quoting (does it really exist?), side characters' stories out of nowhere when even the main characters' have not been developed correctly and of course the total absence of adults! That is often the case in school dramas and I find it fascinating; the kids are left alone to fend for themselves.

At the end of episode three, there is an amazing trailer for a fake horror movie only japanese can make and looking mighty real and convincing! I almost looked the advertised "movie" up!

And despite all this strangeness, it was a great little drama, leaving you wanting for more! The characters were likable, the actors excellent, the music was really good and the overall production was high value. And I want more!

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Before they were famous....

I would not call it a knee slapping comedy but it is a nice simple movie to watch especially if you want to see the huge stars of today in one of their first roles, when they were young and innocent! LOL

The story follows three high school best friends as they navigate the sensitive time between adolescence and adulthood doing every silly thing boys that age do as they mature. Talking about girls, trying to get laid, choosing a profession, gaining independence from family...

The actors are all exceptional, the banter and their chemistry is worth the watch. The girl gravitating around them is a welcome addition with her deadpan expression and no nonsense attitude.

And of course, the cherry on the cake is the slow motion fistfight with the loan sharks. That was really funny! The film is worth the watch for this scene! But not only, rest assured!

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Miss Kawai & Mr Prickly

To my great surprise, this drama manages to tread the fine line between cute and annoying, finding the perfect amount of sugar without it becoming diabetes inducing.

Well, I thought this was a fairly recent drama. I picked it up on the feeds and never really bothered to notice the year. I also think there is a drama with a similar poster actually released this year. Towards the end of the drama, I decided to look up the actors and while reading their bios, i realized that it was six years old.

(On the unrelated matter pertaining to the private: why is the main actress not working any more? Ever since she started dating & married one of the actors from this drama, she disappeared from the public view. I wonder why? It sounds odd!)

Back to the drama! The story is rather simple: a girl who makes cakes is offered a job in a restaurant run by three brothers. Initially she accepts it since she's had a crush on the eldest brother since forever but clashes from the first minute with the second brother. Basically it is enemies to lovers story.

The FL is a cute idiot on the surface, jumping around like a 3 yr old, squealing and generally behaving like a silly girl) but surprisingly has bouts of lucidity when her good sense and courage come out and she faces her problems directly. And though often she behaves as if she is completely unaware of other people's feelings (confiding in a brother who obviously likes her, that she has a crush on another brother - that seems very insensitive!) she is quick to mend the damages she causes! She is a perfect balance between cute and annoying, never too much of either which makes her highly likable and watchable! You just have to be brave and watch the first episode without dropping the drama. It is worth it.

The three brothers are clichés: the eldest is the responsible one, the middle a talented one and the youngest a rebellious one. In contact with the girl, they change. The responsible brother finds a bit of joie de vivre. The talented one loses some of his thorns and the rebellious one grows up.

The main couple spends a lot of time literally running from one place to another. Apparently there are no means of transportation in this town! LOL

There are some interesting side characters: the best friend who is always surrounded by crowds when she talks to FL (running gag!), the stunning ex and the weird gangster looking guy trying to buy (?) the restaurant. There are no negative characters: on the outside they might seem evil and bad but they are just life weary!

It is a very wholesome cute and kind drama, fluffy and easy to watch, full of tropes sprinkled judiciously throughout. But then they let all caution out the window and went for the most annoying tropes ever in the lest episode: noble idiocy and an airport reunion.

So if you are looking for some limited cute and a little annoying fluffy drama, look no more!

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Cute ?!?!?

If this were a straight romance, the comments would be: so boring, seen so many times, looks like a high school project. But since it is a lgbtqabcdefg whatever, it is necessarily amazing, great, cute, brave. Shouldn't be saying anything critical about it, it is not right to do so!

But, I was so bored by a 15min film. I multitasked while watching so.....

The actresses have no talent or chemistry. They are so awkward with each other. And I know: it is their first meeting so it is natural to be uncomfortable but these two seemed to be in two different movies. The overuse of social media is tiring. Today, before getting to know anyone, you have to ask your social media followers for their opinion...we do live in crazy times!

The sets are cold and empty, the music is non existent. I wish it were longer and better developed. The story is not original but it does not mean it has to be boring! I know it was probably made with a very little money but. Still that is not an excuse! I mean just look at Confidential Coffee Break: two people talking in an empty set: gripping!

Could have and should have been better!

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Failed british black comedy

Too many cooks spoil the soup! Well, here we can say, too many plotlines, spoil the drama.

The original idea is good: a kind of black comedy crime drama. It had a nice british feel to it. And I love all things Agatha Christie. But here you have Poirot, Miss Marple and Tommy & Tuppence all in one drama. And that turned out to be too much for me. Everything started with the unlikable main couple! And went downhill from there.

She is a cold famous borderline psycho crime writer. Her husband is a sleazy lawyer, simpering around her and at the same time cheating on her. Do not misunderstand me, I do not mind the cheating plot lines since they give a bit of a drama to a drama.

So there is adultery, murders, corruption, chaebol heir and heiress, quirky policemen, NIS agents, politicians, secret room mystery, drug trafficking, domestic abuse...too many not to lose interest! It was really all over the place which is a disappointment because on the paper it looked promising.

The writer goes from being an interesting character with her cold and uncaring attitude to a scary and freaky (literally EVERYONE shakes in fear in front of her!) one to a normal human with her history shaping her. But in spite of all her intelligence and perspicacity, she does not see what is right in front of her. Her husband had developed a sophisticated system in order to erase all trace of his adulterous behaviour.
The music is there, loud screeching strings underlying the "dramatic but not too serious though maybe yes!" plot. I have a feeling it is going to give me nightmares.

It had taken me a long time to complete it but I gave it a chance and by the time I decided to drop it, I realized I had two episodes left. So I finished it. They managed to wrap everything up nicely with a bow on top but it felt really rushed! Well they did introduce too many plotlines involving too many characters we never really cared about!

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Lamps, roses and foam

The novelty of these short c dramas hasn't worn off yet, so I might be a bit too generous with ratings but, man, aren't they so much fun to watch? I am a sucker for butterflies inducing chemistry and time slip (groundhog day and fall into a novel/drama ) tropes and here I was served! Basically, I want more!

The plot is same as in many other dramas (a girl falls into a novel as a secondary character and falls for the main lead) but the execution is perfect: you can see that the budget was not limited too much since the sets and costumes were imposing!

There is nothing much to say about the plot itself since it had been done before many many time so we get to see again the same old tropes of palace battles for power, evil step mother and concubine, a second brother in love with the queen and the queen herself melting the king's cold and cruel heart with her joy and quirkiness. See, already seen!

I only wished the ending were a bit longer and that they explained it better though it was fairly obvious but I needed a few more scenes in the present. It needed one more episode! Maybe it was explained in the second season!

The chemistry was nice but apart from a couple of steamy kisses it was really tame. The main leads' banter and interactions were fun to watch and sparkly.

The high production value was very much obvious but for one thing: foam used for snow did not look like snow at all so the actors covered in foam looked like someone who came out of the bath when the water suddenly stopped running! The music was the usual violins and flutes and zither but I liked it since it is very earwormy....I cannot get it out of my head. But that happens with every short historical c drama (the only kind of c drama I watch!).

I watched it on viki: fortunately they have it because on youtube there are so many soundless parts (I gather it has to do with music rights!).

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Surprising

Very rarely I get to change my mind: when a drama is on my dropped list, it stays there and I usually do not give it a second chance. I was challenged into watching this so I gave it a go. And frankly, it was not as bad as I thought it would be.

Star In My Mind is a drama about Dao and Kleun and their imagined unrequited love for each other. When Dao confesses before leaving for a trip, Kleun is flabbergasted and just utters a banality. They meet again a few years later at the University where they share a dorm. After a few wrong moves, they eventually find common ground and love.

I had dropped this after the first episode, the cringe factor (the confession) was just too much for me to bear. But surprisingly, that cringiness disappears and we get a straight forward rom com together with all the usual tropes, misunderstandings, another love interest, helpful friends. Another surprising absence is the adults (parents, teachers etc.) since none of the characters work, they must be financed somehow in order to study. But we do not know really how (most of them apparently come from well off families!).

As somebody pointed out already, there are no side couples in this drama: there are friends in their group flirting but nothing is mentioned let alone fleshed out. This drama is only about Kleun and Dao. I found this a refreshing change from the usual thai bl formula where there are usually two more couples adding nothing to the plot but wasting time.

The actors had a surprisingly good chemistry probably because the characters they played were the complete opposites: Kleun a taciturn popular guy and Dao an expressive artist. Joong is an awful actor: he has a single facial expression: brooding. He might be handsome but he is like a doll. Dunk was surprisingly good. He has an interesting voice and managed to be slightly better than Joong. They appeared to be at ease with each other and did not shy from contact.

The rest of the cast were just there not to have the stage empty. They were there as support for the main leads and we never did get to know them. Which is ok since it made the series shorter and more compact and therefore easier to watch. The only character that gets a bit more time is Fah, Dao's older brother who is the star of the second series. ??

This series was a surprisingly decent watch and I ended up liking it more than the second part Sky In Your Heart. To be watched while doing something else....

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