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  • Ultima Oară Online: acuma 31 un minut
  • Sex: Femeie
  • Locație: United States
  • Contribution Points: 0 LV0
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  • Data înscrierii: ianuarie 7, 2024

Prieteni

Juelin

United States

Juelin

United States
Renunțate 9/16
Boys Over Flowers
3 oamenii au considerat această recenzie utilă
de Juelin
feb 18, 2024
9 of 16 episoade văzute
Renunțate 0
Per total 2.0
Poveste 3.0
Acting/Cast 1.0
Muzică 2.0
Valoarea Revizionării 1.0
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Nope

Honestly, I didn't expect much from this adaptation because the plot of Hana Yori Dango (HYD) is quite awful. Yes, it is a beloved classic, but it can't get away from its very horrible storylines - normalization of bullying and abuse of power, entitlement, abusive male lead, toxic relationships, betrayal, flaky female lead, absent parents, abandoned children. A re-make means recycling these terrible storylines because they make up the main plot.

One of my biggest gripes with HYD is that the F4 are portrayed as rich and popular boys who are good at everything, except they don't do anything to be good at everything. This show did a very good job at showing them wasting time not going to class, bullying their classmates, partying, and drinking alcohol all the damn time. I would think a modern adaptation would flush out this plotline to show them participating in some activities to make their talents more believable and to give them some goddamn personalities. When Domyoji /Thyme is not a psychotic bully, he obsesses over Makino/Gorya making her want to get away from him.

To make up for the lack of character development, the actors overacted the characters' feelings making the scenes look very forced. There was very little motivation behind their actions and everything looked thrown together just to move the story forward. Thyme's mother had a lot of screen time, but the writers didn't give her any personality. In the original, she was already very cold. Here, she was a female terminator in pursuit of some mythical "perfection" while treating her children as stepping stones to achieve that perfection. Some plot lines were not in chronological order, and I quit the show as soon as the fiance showed up. I hated that storyline anyway.

Gorya and Thyme spent most of their time yelling at each other and having no romantic chemistry. Watching them together quickly became a chore. The cheating kissing scene with Ren was turned into an awkward hugging scene which wasn't properly resolved. And, the acting altogether was quite terrible. I did like that Gorya's parents were tolerable and not as stupidly annoying as in the original.

Overall, this show was just another awkward attempt at resurrecting an old skeleton that should stay buried.

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Renunțate 30/38
Chen Xiang Ru Xie
2 oamenii au considerat această recenzie utilă
de Juelin
iul 12, 2024
30 of 38 episoade văzute
Renunțate 0
Per total 5.0
Poveste 5.0
Acting/Cast 6.0
Muzică 5.0
Valoarea Revizionării 4.0
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A cliche mess

This drama is a testament to everything that is wrong with the xianxia genre. It's too stylized with little to no room for imagination. A stoic ML in a position of power? Check. A childish FL with a baby voice? Check. Immortal realm - good, demons - bad? Check. Self-righteous Taoist sects? Check. Incomprehensible love rectangles? Check. Everyone under the sun falling in love with an immature FL? Check. Rebirth and amnesia? Check. B*tchy and jealous side chicks? Check. This drama follows the same tired tropes without skipping a beat, and it only gets worse with the next episode.

The first 15 or so very slow episodes were mostly about the relationship between ML and FL. FL started out as a child-like fairy and became more serious as she developed feelings for ML. It was a good character development for her because of the life-changing trauma caused by heartbreak. Unfortunately, as the story moved to the mortal realm, Yan Dan regressed back to the childish turd that she was in the immortal realm, but even more so than before. Even though she lost her memories, I thought the trauma she suffered would be a life changing experience leading to a more mature and thoughtful person who was given a second chance at life. But, that was not the case here.

The drama reminded me of Ashes of Love, which was a dumpster fire, with Yan Dan being a slightly smarter version of Jinmi. This was a stark contrast to Love and Redemption, where FL was only clueless about love, but she was sympathetic and thoughtful otherwise, and, her interactions with ML were meaningful. Similar to Jinmi, Yan Dan acted like a child continuously bickering with ML and having a multitude of braindead males falling in love with her. And, because of her over-the-top behavior, her interactions with ML lacked romantic chemistry looking more like an adult babysitting a kid rather than two adults falling in love.

Another issue was Yan Dan's lack of motivation. In the immortal realm, she had some purpose to protect her sister. After she lost her memory, she went wherever the wind blew. First, she swore allegiance to Yu Mo and became his "concubine". Then, she ran off with Tang Zhou and did not give a second thought to Yu Mo or the fact that he could be looking for her. I also thought that the writers spent way too much time on Yu Mo's and Yan Dan's relationship. It was apparent from the start that they will never be a couple, so milking that unrequited love and giving them more screen time than necessary completely deviated from the plot and unnecessarily dragged the story.

In all honesty, I hardly have any interest in finishing part 1. So, it's unlikely I will be watching part 2.

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Renunțate 47/63
Ashes of Love
2 oamenii au considerat această recenzie utilă
de Juelin
ian 14, 2024
47 of 63 episoade văzute
Renunțate 2
Per total 3.0
Poveste 1.5
Acting/Cast 4.0
Muzică 3.0
Valoarea Revizionării 1.5
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Toxic dumpster-fire of a love story that needs to be burnt with pure glass fire

STORY AND CHARACTERS
The show just wasn't that great. The story dragged on for 60 episodes with unnecessarily long story arcs that could've been cut down to one or two episodes. It took fifteen episodes to reveal who Jin Mi was. The girl had no character development. Her one talent was to inadvertently get the two most eligible bachelors to pine after her. This is such a stupid trope because it is completely undeserved.

One of the creepiest things was everyone going along with Jinmi getting engaged to Runyu. She was a child in a woman's body who didn't know the difference between friendship and romantic love. Everyone knew she was a moron but they still went along with her agreeing to the engagement, even though they should have known she had no idea what she was agreeing to. The fact that the flower realm raised her to be a blissful idiot was extremely shortsighted too. Jinmi was supposed to be protected from any future heartbreak, but she was given no tools to be able to protect herself from it. Everything and everyone was stupid.

The mortal arc unnecessarily dragged on for 10+ episodes. The whole point of it should have been to move the character development forward and to show that no matter how much Jin Mi and Xu Feng were separated, they would always find their way back to each other. Everything else was irrelevant. We didn't need to see the drama inside the mortal lives of immortals who were going back to being immortal in just a few episodes.

The chemistry between Jinmi and Xufeng was very stale. Watching them together was as exciting as watching the paint dry. Jinmi was pretty, but she wasn't particularly bright and there was nothing special about her. She didn't even know what gender she was at the beginning. Their kisses resembled toddlers pecking each other on the lips. Everything was dry and passionless.

After the mortal arc, the only thing left to look forward to was the emperor and empress getting their comeuppance. But the cringe didn't end there. The biggest problem with the writing was that good characters did very awful things, nobody held them accountable, and the story never addressed their bad behavior. We were supposed to just ignore it and continue cheering for team Jinmi/Xufeng. A perfect example was Xufeng getting into Jinmi's pants. I didn't fault them for falling in love. But I found it reprehensible that Xufeng did not wait for Jinmi to break her engagement with Runyu before sleeping with her. She was still a moron. But he reached a whole new level of awfulness for treating his brother that way. By doing this, Xufeng showed that he was just as immoral, callous, selfish, and entitled as his crappy parents.

On the other hand, the writers went out of their way to demonize Runyu and to portray him as a villain. All of the characters who sided with Runyu and complained about how awful the heaven was suddenly decided to abandon him after he deposed the emperor. The writers never explained why. Characters just randomly decided that they wanted to go a different way. This made them look very cowardly and cynical. Meanwhile, everyone kept cheering for Xufeng, who was written as the golden boy who could do no wrong.. He also seemed to forget that he was a prince with responsibilities. Chasing after Jinmi was all he cared about.

In episode 45, Jinmi finally realized that she was in love with Xufeng. But, really, who cares at this point? I was honestly fed up with their bs. They did Runyu dirty repeatedly and nobody held either of them accountable. Instead, everyone judged Runyu and held him to some arbitrary moral standard when he did nothing wrong. Jinmi ended up marrying him for no good reason, even though she was told she didn't have to. Runyu still kept holding on to her even after she ran off to find Xufeng. "But what about our marriage?" Seriously? I sympathized with Runyu a lot but him still trying to hold on to her knowing she was fully committed to his brother was an idiotic plot development. He should've let her go as soon as he found out she slept with Xufeng.

The drama has a terrible message. Deposing callous and self-serving tyrants is bad. But, acting without honor and a sense of duty is ok. Also, blind favoritism, betraying family members, abandoning friends, and breaking promises is acceptable and even encouraged. By episode 47, I was done. I knew that Jinmi and Xufeng were going to end up together, but I couldn't fathom why. His family killed her family and she stabbed him in the back for thinking he killed her father. They crossed the point of no return so many times. Their relationship was based on betraying those closest to them, abandoning their duties, and having no faith in each other. What kind of values are these and why were we supposed to root for them?

ACTING
The acting by the two main leads was mediocre. Xufeng always had a blank look when he was pouring his heart out to Jinmi. If he was telling her what he ate for breakfast that morning, we wouldn't know the difference. His expression conveyed no emotion of love, despair, confusion, or heartbreak. It was an awful performance, just like most of his acting throughout the drama. Yang Zi's portrayal of Jinmi wasn't good either. She had no personality.

Luo Yunxi delivered a solid and sympathetic performance as Runyu. He is very good at playing tragic characters. I thought his performance in this drama was better than in Till the End of the Moon. And Kathy Chow was fire as the Queen B---ch. RIP

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Renunțate 10/16
Love According to Law
2 oamenii au considerat această recenzie utilă
de Juelin
mar 21, 2024
10 of 16 episoade văzute
Renunțate 0
Per total 4.0
Poveste 4.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Muzică 4.0
Valoarea Revizionării 3.0
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Dumb

The legal show deals with some very serious issues like sexual harassment, bullying, and child abuse, but the drama can't figure out whether it is a romantic comedy or a legal drama with romance.

As a lawyer, Yuri acted like a hysterical and unbalanced teenager who threw temper tantrums and started physical fights. She was supposed to be a strong woman, but she acted like a screeching hyena yelling every time she was faced with adversity. Every episode was filled with her yelling at something or at someone. And, OMG, her overacted crying was like watching a 5 y/o throwing a tantrum in a toy store.

The constant yelling was so annoying that it was hard to take her or the show seriously. Did the writers honestly think it was an appropriate way to portray a strong female character? And it wasn't just Yuri who behaved like that, Jeong Ho did the same. Both of them spent the majority of their time bickering about some stupid crap, yelling, and cursing. Everyone's behavior was rude and tacky, making the characters annoying and unlikable.

It wasn't only the constant screaming, the writers purposely put the characters into situations where they acted ridiculously. In episode 8, Yuri unintentionally ate a bunch of marijuana rice cakes and behaved like a clown. So now, we had characters who perpetually acted stupid in a story about lawyers. Oh boy.

Finally, the show would've been more believable if Yuri opened her own practice and got Jeong Ho to work with her, them being childhood friends at all. Running a coffee shop while doing legal work, and presumably not getting paid, was a pretty silly plot idea. A hard pass.

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While You Were Sleeping
1 oamenii au considerat această recenzie utilă
de Juelin
Acuma 4 zile
32 of 32 episoade văzute
Completat 0
Per total 5.5
Poveste 6.5
Acting/Cast 5.0
Muzică 6.0
Valoarea Revizionării 1.0
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Starts with a bang, ends with a fart

Don't be fooled by the drama's clever start - fantasy/crime thriller with a splash of romance. The first few episodes are interesting with a promise of a compelling story and characters. The dream plotline is very easy to follow, which I liked. But, then the plot devolves into a series of comedic tropes, filler characters, overused flashbacks, workplace gossip, and a very boring romance. Instead of developing interesting crime story arcs, the writers proceed to bore us with immature behavior by the main characters and recurring childhood flashbacks.

One of the biggest issues is the writers being unable to pick a genre. The plot randomly changes between drama and comedy and makes the characters act differently in every scene. One moment, Jung Jae Chan is a serious prosecutor trying to solve a murder, the next, he is a clumsy, blubbering idiot. Because of this inconsistency, it is very hard to take any of the characters seriously. Jae Chan is completely unconvincing as a prosecutor looking more like a young guy playing dress-up with his father's suit. And, the best way to describe Nam Hong Ju is "annoying". She is argumentative and full of herself while doing close to nothing as a reporter. Working at her mom's restaurant would've been more appropriate for her characterization. But, she is a professional reporter with no class and self-restraint, and, similarly to Jae Chan, looks like someone playing dress-up.

Another issue is there being no character development. All of the characters are bland and one-dimensional. Being able to see the future through dreams is the one interesting thing about them. The investigator is the only character who has any depth. Choi Dam Dong is thoughtful, meticulous, and takes his job seriously. He is very convincing at what he does, while the rest are goofy caricatures larping as professionals.

The pacing slows down around episode 7-8 when the plot starts to flip flop between romance and crime drama. Jae Chan and Nam Hong have no chemistry making their romance as exciting as watching the paint dry. Most of their scenes are very bland and worth skipping. Because the writers do such a half-assed job with the plot and characters, the story fizzles out into a snooze fest very quickly. Hooray to the fast-forward button.

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Doctor Slump
1 oamenii au considerat această recenzie utilă
de Juelin
apr 28, 2024
16 of 16 episoade văzute
Completat 0
Per total 5.5
Poveste 6.0
Acting/Cast 6.0
Muzică 6.0
Valoarea Revizionării 4.0
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Cringe fest

Clearly, the show didn't know whether it was a comedy or a drama. The plot had very serious elements relating to mental health, trauma, and PTSD. And, then we had Jeong Woo rolling in bed and throwing temper tantrums in every episode. If that was supposed to be comedy, it was cringey as hell.

The romance was underwhelming with very bland chemistry. I wasn't sure why because they did have some cute moments. Maybe because it took them half the show to finally kiss. Maybe because the funny scenes looked stupid and extremely overacted, mostly by Park Hyung Sik. Maybe because their trauma was undermined by immature behavior that was completely unnecessary. If a man acted like Jeong Woo in real life, no amount of good looks would make him attractive to women.

The villain who caused the medical incident was also badly written. His motivations were just so very shallow. He decided to punish Jeong Woo because his mom didn't let the villain see his dad and dad died. So, Jeong Woo, who happened to be his best friend and who did nothing wrong, had to be put through hell and back for the villain to feel vindicated. Crappy reasons, motivation, and extremely lazy writing.

I like Park Hyung Sik and I was looking forward to this drama, but it left me extremely disappointed. I am going to take a break from him and watch something else for a while.

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Jin Xin Si Yu
1 oamenii au considerat această recenzie utilă
de Juelin
mar 2, 2024
45 of 45 episoade văzute
Completat 0
Per total 7.0
Poveste 7.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Muzică 7.0
Valoarea Revizionării 7.0
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Decent drama

The drama was mostly enjoyable, although the slow-burn romance between ML and FL started to get really painful by episode 30. After being married for two years, they still had no sex, slept in separate beds, and had very PC tropey interactions where the female repelled from the male as soon as he came near her. That could've been flushed out a lot better without taking 30+ episodes for them to finally confess and consummate, when it was evident much earlier that they had feelings for each other.

Some of the story lines were very cliche but in reverse. If there was any miscommunication or a misunderstanding, it was all planned. Every cliche trope was a scheme between Shiyi and company, which wasn't very clever or original. It felt more like a cop out from making an effort to create something meaningful. The writers recycled old tropes backwards in a gotcha way with lots of flashbacks to show what really went on, instead of coming up with something original.

I did like the nature of Shiyi's and Linyi's relationship being based on mutual trust and respect, instead of following the same old cliches where someone felt wronged or betrayed due to an asinine misunderstanding, and then we were back to square one.

MIL was unbearable throughout the entire show - a pompous, shallow, narrow-minded geriatric moron who only fully started to appreciate Shiyi when she was about to get executed, which was a lazy way to completely avoid holding any character responsible for their wrongdoing. I would've much rather preferred MIL being poisoned or "accidently" falling down the stairs. She was just terrible. And, the biggest letdown was how the story treated Ou Yanxing, who was the nicest character. He was treated completely unfairly - banished forever because of the actions of his stupid relatives.

Although, the drama had a happy ending, it didn't really feel happy. ML was a terrible and negligent husband and a grown man completely unable to make his own decisions in everyday life, although he was a military hero. He was also incapable of standing up to his mother and let her get away with some very terrible schit, just because she was an elder. I didn't buy the filial piety trope. Mommy dearest wasn't just a moron, she was a cruel moron who punished Shiyi without any evidence while always reminding her that she was the "matron" of the house. A matron who had no power but all the responsibility. Because of Lingyi's callousness and negligence, a lot of women suffered, which made me wonder why we should cheer for him and Shiyi at all when their relationship was built on the backs and tears of other women. It was rather convenient to banish one concubine, poison another, and send the last one away to live with her son. The Ming dynasty was a nightmare for women.

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Be Your Own Light
1 oamenii au considerat această recenzie utilă
de Juelin
feb 14, 2024
40 of 40 episoade văzute
Completat 1
Per total 6.0
Poveste 7.0
Acting/Cast 6.5
Muzică 7.0
Valoarea Revizionării 4.0
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An uptight snob meets a disgruntled simp

Interesting premise, lackluster execution.

Although, I love Liu Yuning, I didn't like his character in this drama. He was like a wet noodle with no personality and existed exclusively for FL's convenience. If He Huan said jump, he would ask how high. Watching their romantic development was as exciting as watching the paint dry. I didn't like her either. She was a bit snobbish and had an inflated sense of morality. She also used Jiang Junhao without giving anything in return. For some reason, she decided to take on her husband's debt, although she had no legal or moral obligation to pay it back. This required her to take on side gigs and work late nights. Jiang watched her son, cooked her meals, fixed things in her house, took care of her parents. They had an incredibly unbalanced relationship where he went out of his way to help her, and she continued doing her own thing without giving anything back. Their entire relationship was incredibly one sided. She bebopped through life pursuing her own goals while he patiently and conveniently waited for her to reciprocate his feelings. I like caring and loving characters, but there has to be equality where two people grow together and both contribute to the relationship. This wasn't the case here.

I really liked Yuanyuan's character. Although she made some questionable choices, she had a very dynamic personality and experienced the most growth. And, watching her finally dump that momma's boy was very satisfying. She wasted too much time on him.

The overall pacing of the show was very slow. It could've reached its logical conclusion in under 30 episodes. I couldn't bring myself to care about most side stories, including He Huan mom's cancer arc. It just wasn't that interesting. The other plotlines involving journalism were somewhat entertaining, but they didn't really move the plot forward. And, if you are like me and watched the show for Liu Yuning, you would be disappointed because he played more of a support role and was absent from many episodes.

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Boys Over Flowers
1 oamenii au considerat această recenzie utilă
de Juelin
ian 7, 2024
25 of 25 episoade văzute
Completat 0
Per total 3.0
Poveste 3.5
Acting/Cast 5.0
Muzică 6.5
Valoarea Revizionării 4.0

Not great

I like Hana Yori Dango even though certain plot lines are problematic. It's a little disappointing that a live-action remake has yet to show any kind of romantic chemistry between the characters, including this one.

This drama is supposed to have a great love story, except the characters have no chemistry. She is already in love with him but acts like she wants to run for the hills every time he comes near her. I understand the story is about teenagers, so the writers have to be careful about how much sexual tension they put into it. But dear god, their romance is just so dry. This is one thing I hate about Asian dramas - so many of them have very little romantic/sexual chemistry between couples who are supposed to be madly in love with each other.

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Something About 1 Percent
0 oamenii au considerat această recenzie utilă
de Juelin
Acuma 5 zi
16 of 16 episoade văzute
Completat 0
Per total 7.5
Poveste 7.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Muzică 6.0
Valoarea Revizionării 6.0
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Cute drama to kill time

The drama sucks you with a strong and assertive female lead who holds her own against money and power. Unfortunately, Kim Da Hyeon's assertiveness disappears in later episodes. Instead of being smart and level-headed, she is reduced to a hormonal teenager who fails at communication after a slew of misunderstandings. Although, the main couple resolves their issues fairy quickly, Da Da's propensity to ignore Lee Jae In's phone calls and throwing mini temper tantrums becomes quite tedious.

The writers build up Jae In to be an aggressive male lead with an explosive and rude personality. They throw in every tsundere cliche of him wanting Da Da to dress modestly and getting overly handsy, which is off-putting. However, I appreciate that his treatment of his employees changes for the better as he starts to fall in love.

I like the romance and chemistry between the main leads. But, that's all the drama has to offer. All of the secondary characters are very shallow and forgettable. Most of them exist purely to drive a wedge between Jae In and Da Da without having any other purpose or a personality. Han Joo Hee's entire existence is to serve as a romantic rival and appear in front Da Da spouting the same boring nonsense about her leaving Jae In.

The pacing is alright. But, because the writers do not bother developing an actual plot outside romance or any of the side characters, 16 episodes seem a lot for such a shallow story. The drama would've benefited from 12-14 episodes.

Overall, the show is enjoyable but forgettable. It was a one-time watch for me.

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Love Battle
0 oamenii au considerat această recenzie utilă
de Juelin
Acuma 7 zi
10 of 10 episoade văzute
Completat 0
Per total 9.0
Poveste 9.0
Acting/Cast 10
Muzică 8.0
Valoarea Revizionării 8.5
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Hilarious and delightful

The enemies to lovers plot is nothing new, but, the show makes it hilariously entertaining. What I love about it is that the writers manage to create comedic characters without turning them into infantile nincompoops. Mi Ran and Kang Ho are very well matched in terms of intelligence and assertiveness. She doesn't buy into his arrogance and he appreciates her unique qualities.

The show is very well rounded in terms of pacing and storytelling. Because it has only 10 episodes, there are no boring story arcs and the plot moves at a very good speed. I also appreciate that the writers don't unnecessarily drag out plotlines and resolve any misunderstanding fairly quickly. The rest of the drama is focused on the main leads' explosive chemistry. He loves her not because she is a cute and slightly childish, a female stereotype the show also makes fun of, but because she is brave and not afraid to put her well being on the line to save other people. By getting to know each other, they lose some of their cynicism and realize that there are good people in the world. Not all women are opportunists, and, not all men are cheaters. Kim Ok Bin impressed me in "Arthdal Chronicles". Here, she shows her versatility in a comedic role. And, I absolutely love Kim Ji Hoon. He can be a convincing psycho serial killer and a romantic character. We need to see more of him in main roles.

The final episode gets a little bit convoluted. The writers decide to throw a last minute curve ball for the sake of tension. I don't think it was necessary to expose Mi Ran's serial dating life style and to create drama between the main leads. It felt very forced and unnecessary compared to the drama's otherwise very fluid storytelling.

Overall, the drama is very enjoyable. All the characters are likable and the romance is very satisfying.

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Bumped Into You
0 oamenii au considerat această recenzie utilă
de Juelin
Acuma 20 zi
16 of 16 episoade văzute
Completat 0
Per total 6.0
Poveste 6.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Muzică 6.0
Valoarea Revizionării 4.0
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A lackluster attempt at a time travel murder mystery

The drama has an interesting idea that gets lost between multiple character arcs, loose ends, and a draggy plot. The main characters are likable, but everything else is longwinded and forgettable.

One of the biggest issues is too many characters to keep track of. The writers thought it was necessary to drag out the plot by giving each character a meaningless story arc. And, the characters that are actually interesting are reduced to tropey stereotypes. Go Mi Suk is built up to be a super manipulative sociopath who has a keen sense for people's weakness to be used against them. But, she is reduced to a typical troubled teenager who acts up because of family problems, and, whose only transgression is plagiarism. The murderer is supposed to be a big bad mysterious villain but he turns out to be a stupid, self-serving kid with mommy issues.

If you expect a grand love story, you won't find it here. Yun Hae Jun and Baek Yun Yeong have no romantic chemistry until the very last episode. A lot of their interactions in 1987 are filled with infantile conversations about food and going to nice places. Only towards the end do they start acting like a couple.

The ending is very sweet and satisfying. Everything returns to its rightful place and mom achieves her life-long dream.

Overall, the drama has its good moments, but for the most part it is forgettable. I ended up fast-forwarding through a lot of scenes past episode 10 because I was bored out of my mind. The murder mystery was no longer mysterious and most characters were bland.

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Arthdal Chronicles Part 3: The Prelude To All Legends
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de Juelin
Acuma 21 zi
6 of 6 episoade văzute
Completat 0
Per total 9.0
Poveste 9.0
Acting/Cast 10
Muzică 9.0
Valoarea Revizionării 8.0
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A good attempt at an epic fantasy

Part 3 delves deeper into the concept of nation building and the fact that common and personal interests often supersede blood ties. The storytelling is complex and very well written showing Wahans gradually breaking away from the tribe and joining Tagon, and, Eunseom helping the Ago tribe to destroy narrow-minded clan leaders and unite the tribe. At the end, a need for security and survival always prevails.

Characters go through more major changes emotionally and make tremendous steps in their quest for power. Tagon becomes the king and finally accepts that cruelty is the only way to consolidate and maintain power. Taealha starts to plot her own schemes to preserve tribal secrets and attain her own brand of power. And, Eunweom finally gets a large following. One of my favorite things about the drama is how well the writers portray the fundamental differences between Eunseom and Saya. Eunseom is kind and very straight forward. Saya is cunning and cruel. Kudos to Song Joong Ki for playing two different personalities so well.

The ending feels like a new beginning. All three parts serve as character arcs for Tagon, Eunweom, Tanya, and others to find where they are meant to be before any major events start to take place. I really enjoyed the drama. It was a very good attempt at fantasy with great world building and story telling. I hope there will be more to come in the future.

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Acuma 22 zile
6 of 6 episoade văzute
Completat 0
Per total 9.0
Poveste 8.0
Acting/Cast 10
Muzică 9.0
Valoarea Revizionării 9.0
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Action packed political fantasy

Part 2 flushes out the plot a little bit better breaking it into separate character arcs. Eunseom is still on the quest to save his tribe but gets captured. Tanya learns that being a pacifist will only get her killed and changes her strategy. Tagon still tries to dodge the machinations of Asa Ron and Hae Mihol while attempting to consolidate the Union power.

The plot starts to get more complicated with various twists and turns. The pace picks up with a lot more action and less conversations, which makes the story a lot more engaging. Characters start coming into their own and going after their goals. Tanya gets the most character development. She finally stops asking stupid questions about why bad things happen and realizes that life's not fair. The only way to have a chance is to gain power leading her to making cynical choices. Tagon makes a giant leap towards his goal with the help of now powered-up Tanya. And Eunseom goes through a cycle of deep depression.

Unfortunately, Eunseom does not get as much screen time as the other characters, which leads to choppy writing. He experiences the most suffering by witnessing his friends being reduced to animals groveling for food and committing suicide in a moment of despair. This completely breaks him down mentally leading to severe depression. But, the writers do not do a particularly good job at giving him character growth and allowing him to come out of it gradually. In the same episode where he is at his lowest, he miraculously gets his self-esteem back to plan an escape. This wasn't very well thought out character development and seemed like the writers tried to backtrack to him after leaving him out for so many episodes.

Overall, I enjoyed part 2 a lot more than part 1 because it is action packed and finally shows substantial character development. Now, off to part 3.

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Completat
Arthdal Chronicles Part 1: The Children of Prophecy
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de Juelin
Acuma 22 zile
6 of 6 episoade văzute
Completat 0
Per total 8.5
Poveste 9.0
Acting/Cast 10
Muzică 8.0
Valoarea Revizionării 8.0
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A great start to something new

There is a lot to unpack with this drama. Part 1 introduces a violent world of Arthdal with warring tribes entangled in a timeless struggle for power. People do not dream. And those who do, are unique and destined for great things. The plot explores complex themes of what it is like being part of a nation vs. a smaller community, loss of innocence, and surviving stigma and harsh realities of life. It's a coming of age story for many characters whose lives are thrown into chaos, and who have to learn to survive and pursue a bigger destiny.

Eunseom's life is disrupted when a powerful army massacres his village setting him on a quest to rescue his friends and ultimately find his identity. Tagon plays a dangerous game of cat and mouse with his father and various factions in order to survive. What I like about this drama is the complexity of each character. There is no black and white but also a lot of shades of gray. Tagon is a ruthless warlord who is extremely cunning and manipulative. But he is written as a sympathetic characters who had to deal with stigma all his life surrounding his birth. What's more, he treats his comrades and the woman he loves with care. Tanya asks naive questions about why bad things happen in life, but doesn't blink when cursing her enemies. And, Eunseom has a violent side he has to learn to control. The writers did not draw many lines between heroes and villains. Everyone has a compelling story to tell. I got a lot of Game of Thrones and Conan vibes, but the drama is unique enough to stand on its own.

Part 1 has good pace and story telling. There is not a lot of action because the plot focuses on character interactions to allow them to learn about each other in order to set certain events in motion. However, the drama would've benefited from better editing. There are some conversational scenes that are too long and draggy or completely unnecessary, especially the ones between members of the Wahan tribe. Other than that, I enjoyed the first 6 episodes and will continue on to part 2.

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