Came for the comedy, and stayed for the life lessons (and the zombie shark)

This movie was so funny in unexpected moments and also deep when I wasn’t prepared for it. I know it isn't that deep, and that I shouldn't take it so seriously, but I am truly fond. As someone who deeply hated my previous job (which I think a lot of people relate to), it was so touching for Akira to light up with pure joy after finding out he didn’t have to go to work, and even funnier for him to act so carefree in a zombie apocalypse as a result.

Even though every other aspect of this movie only gets an 8.0, something in my soul tells me to give it an overall 9.0. And I think it's because it hits so deeply with me in some aspects.

Even though the parallel between the zombies and Akira trudging through his job was pretty obvious, it still hit very hard when the movie directly stated and confronted it. Every adult on MDL who has ever worked a full-time job has likely struggled with work-life balance and has wished they could fall sick (or worse) so they could rest for just one day, but feel guilty and eager to be productive on days when they are actually ill. And, like in the movie, it’s often the people around us to remind us that we can’t be robots all the time and need to live life for ourselves.

The entire list Akira wrote was endearing and I’m seriously considering making one of my own (I am also one of those few people who have never made a bucket list). I love a good montage, so seeing items on the list being crossed off was satisfying. I loved the cinematography and production. The zombies were great and looked realistic (as much as zombies can be). All of the acting was great as well. The OST surprised me a lot, and I have saved some songs to my playlist. This movie WILL make you smile and laugh.

Conclusion: zombie shark — you should watch it!

Citeste mai mult

Probably the cutest gory horror movie ever

I loved this! What a nice treat for those of us (me) who didn't have anyone to celebrate valentine's day with lol.

Now, I am someone who doesn't usually watch horror movies. I am a scaredy-cat on most levels. But I enjoyed this movie, even if I had to cover my eyes for some bits. It was pretty gory and had something à la jumpscares, but it was all bearable! It had a simple premise of a time loop where the six main leads had to find body parts scattered around the school; I thought it was brilliant. As a very lovey-dovey type of person, my favorite part of the movie was the developing friendship between the six. Watching a horror movie is much easier when 1/4 of the time is spent with your heart fluttering from both platonic and romantic bonds!

Watching this movie, I realized how big an impact sound has. My heart would start pounding (both in fear and happiness) depending on the music and different noises. Overall, an enjoyable watch. I was very close to skipping, but I'm very glad I didn't. Stay tuned for the post-credit scene!

Citeste mai mult

I actually enjoyed this more than the drama!

Don't get me wrong, I LOVED the drama and gave it an overall rating of 9/10. I give this 10/10 because something just felt right here. I very much enjoyed the removal of the inner dialogue. I generally don't like hearing inner dialogue in dramas, it minimizes the things I'm feeling. Some of the scenes where there normally would've been a dialogue just seemed so much more beautiful! I think it's because it was all about feelings then. YOU get to think things. The music was also changed and gave it such a more (for lack of a better word) "mature" feel. On my drama review, I put Story and Music with a score of 9, but I had to up them both to 9.5 because the movie just made it so much better.

This movie made me BUY a Viki Standard Pass so I could watch it (I have no regrets, now I can also watch so many more dramas). Please enjoy this movie, as it is the director's cut! They didn't just make a movie to make a movie.

If you're thinking of watching, please do! This movie was wonderful in so many ways. Both Han Gi Chan and Jang Eui Soo did a fantastic job at acting. Especially for Gi Chan, I can imagine it must've been hard to debut as an actor in a BL drama, not long after trying to debut as an idol. He was so good at expressing his emotions, I really couldn't tell that it was his first time acting. Every actor did a fantastic job portraying their characters! Without spoiling too much, the story is very sweet and had my emotions on a roller coaster, even though it was so short. The development between Tae Joo and Gook was amazing and I am a sucker for romances like these. (Copied from my drama review.)

Citeste mai mult

Cute movie, however, it's not different from the show

In this movie edition, there weren't any cinematic changes. All the inner dialogue was still there, the music was pretty much the same. The only difference between the show and the movie was there not being an intro and outro in every episode.

To be completely honest, the story was somewhat boring, even though it's painful to admit. Or maybe the story was good, only portrayed poorly? I believe that the issue is, that trying to illustrate mature themes like Sang-ha being in debt, just doesn't work when the "episodes" were only 10 minutes long. It could be portrayed in a movie form, but this movie was just a compilation of the episodes. What saved the movie for me though was the chemistry between the two leads. Both Sang-ha and Won's characters were luckily very likable and from a viewer's point of view, it makes excellent sense why they fit together. Even though the story was very all over the place, they both saved the film because they were a great match. And honestly, the climactic kiss was terrific. It seemed so much more realistic than a handful of dramas out there. It was very fitting to the mood. It's incredible how their chemistry saved the production.

Really big applause to Lee Se-jin and Cho Seung-ho for their fantastic acting. And the soundtrack was excellent, I enjoyed the different songs and have saved most of them to my playlist. If I were to rewatch, I'd watch the movie adaptation just to save myself from having to skip intros all the time. However, I wish the movie had some change compared to the drama.

Citeste mai mult

I really thought Idol Romance finally made a good show

After the first two episodes, I thought this show was going to be good. I thought "Wow, Idol Romance finally learned from their mistakes", but immediately after episodes 3 and 4, I realized that they hadn't. The only thing I liked about this show was Eun Gyu, but more on that later.

The story was just boring. Nothing happened. In the span of 8 episodes, not a single thing happened. The whole show can be boiled down to this: a new guy joins a restaurant and creates an overly dramatic love triangle that would never happen in real life. I don't understand who green-lit this script. It could've had the potential with a different storyline than just another love triangle. I do admit, Hae Won and Eun Gyu did have decent chemistry. The actors did their scenes nicely. But what seriously lacked was some development in that relationship. And the fact that Ji Soo and Eun Gyu got into such a dramatic argument about a guy they'd known for a month, despite their 15 years of friendship, seriously annoyed me as a viewer. There was so much backstory between those two friends that never got unpacked, other than maybe 5 minutes across all episodes that just dropped bombshells of information on us.

Along with the story, the characters just bothered me in so many ways. All of them. They were all poorly written. This is no hatred towards the actors, by the way. But I don't get why all the characters were so childish when they were all at least in their twenties. Why did they all start acting so fussy just because of some new handsome guy joining? Ji Soo was just a very uncomfortable character in the weird way he forced himself upon Hae Won, but Hae Won was also annoyingly naive. And I didn't understand what the real function of Ha Jin and Joo Seo Hyuk was. They were just kind of there.

I hate critiquing acting because I know I'll never be able to perform the same way, but the acting in this show was not that great. The only actor who I genuinely thought was good was the actor playing Eun Gyu. The guy playing Ji Soo was also good at times, but it was Eun Gyu who carried the show acting-wise. I hope to see him act in other shows after this because he really has talent.

Overall, no, I did not like the show. And I honestly don't recommend it to anyone. I think you'll only like this show if you swallow *anything* related to BL. But this show was just not good. I would've dropped this show if it weren't for being so short.

Citeste mai mult

Despite the popular opinion, I thought this was great!

I am so glad that I decided to give this a chance despite all the negative reviews. I was so close to not watching it because everybody said it was bad. However, after binging it all, I thought that it was great! A point often brought up in reviews is that it's edited poorly and that the story has too many holes, but I don't necessarily agree (more on that later).

I liked the story a lot. One of my most hated traits in BLs is love triangles, but it was done very well in this show. Especially because Yeong-woo and Yi-bin also knew each other previously. Way too many K-BLs are too vague in describing how their characters fall for each other, however, in Behind Cut the suddenness of their relationship made sense. It was a cute story about a model and a designer falling for each other and the hindrances they meet because of the fashion industry. Also, shout out to Yeong-woo's dad, we need more supportive parents in BLs.

The acting in this drama was SO GOOD compared to the limited acting experience of the cast. Especially Eom Se Ung and Choo Suk Young, god were they amazing. You could tell occasionally that Bum Jun is a rookie, but the way he was able to handle the emotional scenes was awesome. And THE KISSES! This has to be the most natural-looking kiss that has ever been filmed in a Korean BL drama.

Production-wise, it didn't look cheap either. The filming was generally great and the locations were varied. The only thing I occasionally disliked was the sound mixing, but it was only really when they filmed outdoor scenes (because of cars, the wind, etc.) I also really liked the OST, but the theme song was a little overplayed. The reason most people disliked this drama was because of the editing. I admit that it should have been edited better, but it wasn't that bad and there weren't nearly as many plot holes as people made it seem like there were. Even though (very) few things you had to piece together yourself, it wasn't very hard to understand what was going on.

For the first time in a long while, I want to watch the Director's Cut for this drama. I enjoyed this show a lot, and I hope you won't get too scared by all the negative reviews.

Citeste mai mult

One word: simple

Idol Romance finally did it. They finally made a drama that I could genuinely bear to watch in its entirety. (I liked the first half of Wish You, but with Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding + Tasty Florida, I could barely finish it.) It’s such a relief that I even finished this show!

There is honestly not much of a story. In episode 1 you find out he’s trapped in a painting, and from then on not a lot happens. Only around episode 6 does the actual plot come back. Nevertheless, I did appreciate the cute moments between the two main characters.

However, I admit the only actor I thought was enjoyable was Jun (Eun-ho). He was also the primary reason I watched the show, so I’m glad that he was good. Sadly I wasn’t fond of Heon or Geum’s acting. I don’t know if it was the fact that they were speaking old/formal Korean, but they seemed pretty stiff and sometimes awkward. Thankfully, Jun efficiently relieved the tension because his character was just so funny! He was by far my favorite part of the show.

Music-wise, it was very so-so, as well as the editing and filming. But I wasn’t very bothered by that. I always consider that these production companies don’t have the biggest budget, but sometimes the music or scenes just felt so out of place that it made me laugh. So at least I didn’t dislike it.

Overall, I’m just ecstatic that I didn’t hate this. It was a cute show, but it wasn’t so good that I’ll also watch the movie version. However, it was easy and simple. If you want to watch it, I’d recommend the movie, save yourself the intros and outros.

Citeste mai mult

So goddamn fluffy it’ll make you puke rainbows

Cherry Blossoms After Winter is an incredibly fitting title for this show, yet not at all seemingly relevant. It was so colorful and so soft. I can’t describe this show as anything other than mind-numbingly gentle. Objectively, I see this show as incredibly mediocre, but subjectively I was entranced.

Looking back, the story wasn’t jampacked, but that’s okay. The first 5 episodes followed their life in high school and how they slowly transitioned into something more than friends. The last 3 followed their university life with some bigger (but not *that* big) problems. I think the 25-minute episodes were a great length, and it felt neither rushed nor dragged in my opinion. However, one big thing about the story that I wish they explored, was the fact that the two of them grew up as brothers. It’s no secret that Tae-seong had like Hae-bom ever since they were kids, but they didn't explore their past relation-dynamic enough. Since they barely talked as they grew older, and they practically grew up as brothers, shouldn’t there have been a little more conflict from that regarding their feelings for each other? It's not often you end up falling in love with someone who was raised as your brother, you know. This is coming from a non-Webtoon reader, so I’m sure there are a bunch of time skips and holes that only people who have read the Webtoon understand.

As for acting, it was alright. I wouldn’t necessarily say that the acting was great as much as the leads’ chemistry was great. There were quite a few moments where the acting felt awkward when the characters were shy or flustered, but it didn’t make the show worse. Nevertheless, THEIR CHEMISTRY!!! I loved that it didn’t just have one or two fish kisses and one deep kiss like most K-BLs do. They did what people in relationships do: hold hands, give small and quick pecks on the lips, and give random hugs. It was nice.

The production of this show was good compared to what they had. The budget was higher than the average K-BL, but it’s obvious we’re not so far in the game that we have big companies as sponsors. But it was nice that the sets were varied. And OH MY, Tae-sung’s family must be so goddamn rich for them to have that house. Occasionally throughout the drama, I suspect the audio was ADR'ed. Probably because it was too windy sometimes so they had to re-record some lines. But it was fine.

Random small things that I enjoyed:
- I love it when BLs use the word gay. I feel like most of them shy away from the actual topic of homosexuality.
- The blatant product placement in episode 6 was so funny to me, like the three scenes in a row where the characters used that weird jumbo lipstick. I usually dislike obvious product placement, but it was just SO apparent that I enjoyed it.
- HAE-BOM AND TAE-SEONG HAVE A LITTLE RAINBOW IN THEIR APARTMENT!!
- Their friends were surprised but supportive of their relationship.
- I laughed every single time they were like "Ugh, I can't sleep" and all of the lights around them were turned on.

Overall, this show was great. More than great. Even though it was so average. This is what I call a simple watch, not because of the length but because of the content. A lot of K-BLs try to pack in way too much story into 120 minutes of TV. Cherry Blossoms After Winter nailed the story-duration ratio. If you’re interested, give it a try!

Citeste mai mult

This show had the potential to be so much more

I feel like the story was cute but it was honestly... kind of boring. Though, it was nice to see In-soo's and Sang-yi's relationship develop over time. A problem with the show is that it had the signature 10-minute-long episodes like all other Korean BL dramas (or at least high-production ones). It made the show feel too rushed. There wasn't enough time for the plot or proper development. I have to admit I feel like the episodes got a little worse over time and the ending was quite underwhelming.

The acting was okay for a short drama. I have to admit I kind of fell for Lee Sang's acting. He did an amazing role portraying Sang-yi and was great at expressing his emotions. Even though I don't know much about acting, I was touched by his ability to act like this, especially when it's his first main role. Admittedly though, the general acting level in the show was kind of subpar. Lee Sang did a better job acting than Kang In Soo (but, to be fair, it was his first acting role).

Music-wise, it's evident that music had a big impact on the storyline. The songs were good and I have all the songs from the OST on my playlist. But (as mentioned before) when the episodes are so short, the music just fills up too much of the story. At least 3 out of every 10-minute episode would be a song, which only gave time for 7 minutes of plot. And that honestly just isn't enough when there are only 8 episodes. As much as I love the song "Wish You" it also got overplayed a great deal.

Overall, the show was okay. I just wish it had been more... complete? If you are interested, go for it since it's so short. You could binge it all in one evening (or wait for the movie version to come out).

Citeste mai mult

People are way too pessimistic compared to how lighthearted this show was

I LOVED this show. In all honestly, I tried to stay away from the School series as I thought it would be too repetitive with high school romance storylines. The main reason I saw this was that I’m a fan of Kim Yohan (also the surprise replacement with Choo Young Woo was pleasant for me since I’d seen him in You Make Me Dance). So keep in mind I’ve only seen this School installment when I say that this drama was extremely good. It even made me want to see the previous School dramas.

The plot in this show was great in my opinion. Sure, they might’ve used some overused tropes, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. One of my absolute favorite things is that the SML (Seo-young) had no interest in ML (Ki-joon), which is very rare in high school romances. I also liked some of the more “non-high school” topics like the lawsuit. But even the very typical “high school first love” and the “two best friends from the past who hate each other now” traits I enjoyed.

Despite the popular opinion, I loved the acting. It’s such a bummer that people are criticizing Jo Yi Hyun’s acting when she was the one I feel performed the best. She perfectly pulled off the “bubbly” main character trope without being annoying, something a lot of female leads fail to do. Kim Yohan’s acting was also extraordinary compared to his previous drama, it’s incredible how much he improved! Despite the limited filmography of our young leads, they all performed wonderfully.

The music was very decent, possibly a tad repetitive for a bit, but nothing that made the show worse for me. None of the songs were so memorable that I listen to them outside the show though.

Overall, I loved this show. I tend to judge shows on how entertained they kept me, and I was very rarely bored with this show. If you like high school romances, I would argue that this is one of the best. I probably wouldn’t rewatch it, but I doubt I’ll ever forget it.

Citeste mai mult

Idol Romance NEEDS to stop making love triangles

Kissable Lips had the potential to be great. I did like it, but from a critical perspective, I also agree with other people's opinions that it isn't necessarily amazing. The biggest issue with the show was that it followed the typical Idol Romance model: bad plot and unnecessary love triangles. But for whatever reason, I still liked the show.

The story was criminally undeveloped. And now that I think about it, I barely even remember what the main storyline was despite finishing the show 7 minutes ago. And to add Hae-soo (the other vampire) was essentially useless to the storyline. It even made it worse. What saved the show was the chemistry between Jun-ho and Min-hyun, I was genuinely surprised by how good it was.

The acting was good (or primarily Kim Ji Woong at least) so luckily that aspect of the show wasn't lacking. Yoon Seo Bin was quite good at acting despite my expectations, however, he did overdo the goofy aspect of his character sometimes. Whenever he did so I would die a little inside, but luckily it was only a couple of times in the first few episodes. They were very good in the second half of the show. The music was also great so I have no critiques there.

Overall, it was an OK show, but it was mostly because of the leads and their chemistry. The barely existent storyline and the super underdeveloped love triangle were the downfalls of this web drama. However, if you need to kill time or just can't find a web drama to watch, go for it! I'm sure it'll make your heart flutter.

Citeste mai mult

This movie adaptation was WAY better than the show

I have to admit, I very much hesitated to watch the movie because I honestly didn't care for the drama. I gave the show 5/10 stars overall because I honestly found it boring. But I saw that it was available on Netflix in my region, which I found quite impressive as my region is often short of Korean movies, so I thought I might as well rewatch the story.

Needless to say, I honestly think the movie was way better in literally every aspect.

The story felt more whole than it did in the drama. There were even so many new clips and sequences added that it made me wonder if I accidentally skipped some show episodes. I don't want to mention specifics that could spoil anything, but there was so much more to unpack and it honestly made the story make way more sense. Some lines and moments weren't featured in the drama that just made sense to the storyline. They portrayed the story so much better in the movie.

Acting-wise, yes, it was a little basic. But because the editing in this movie was better than in the show, it somehow made the acting seem better and more complete. I mentioned in my review of the drama that I enjoyed Lee Sang (Yoon Sang-Yi)'s acting, and that is still true.

The background music also varied which made the movie seem more emotional in a sense. One thing I didn't like about the drama was how much time the music took up. Like yes, obviously it was a show about music, but each 10-minute episode spent at least 3 minutes playing a song, not to mention that "Wish You" got replayed too many times. But this movie did a good job of varying the music. "Wish You" was played not that many times, and when it was, it was different parts of the song.

If you want to watch Wish You, I recommend watching the movie rather than the drama. It was a nice watch, even though I did get a little distracted. If you like the trailer, you should watch it. But if it doesn't interest you, then don't, since it's not that~ great of a watch. But I still enjoyed it!

Citeste mai mult

Perfect feel-good binge-worthy drama

If you're thinking of watching, please do! This show was wonderful in so many ways. Both Han Gi Chan and Jang Eui Soo did a fantastic job at acting. Especially for Gi Chan, I can imagine it must've been hard to debut as an actor in a BL drama, not long after trying to debut as an idol. He was so good at expressing his emotions, I really couldn't tell that it was his first time acting. Every actor did a fantastic job portraying their characters!

Without spoiling too much, the story is very sweet and had my emotions on a roller coaster, even though it was so short. The development between Tae Joo and Gook was amazing and I am a sucker for romances like these.

The only negative I have is the length of the episodes because let's be real, eight 10-minute episodes isn't exactly a lot. Yet, I noticed after contemplating a lot that it was fitting that the episodes were short, as a lot of k-dramas have the same plot of a 10-minute episode but stretch it out into 50 minutes. This drama got to the point instead of adding too many unnecessary elements to stretch out the time, which is a plus. Though it would've been nice with maybe 20-minute episodes. But it just got released as a movie on Korean Netflix, and I am excited for the day it gets released onto other international Netflix services because I could watch this again and again!

So if you're thinking of watching, you definitely should!

Citeste mai mult

This is not for you if you don't like Jo Yi-seo

I did like the concept of the drama. I was absolutely in love with the story of Saeroyi vs. Jangga. I was wholly involved in the story about Saeroyi's path for revenge. And I especially loved Soo-ah! You got to see a lot of character depth in her, and her inner conflicts about right and wrong.

Here's the thing though. I did not like Jo Yi-seo in the slightest. It was such a pity because I like Kim Da Mi! But I did not enjoy her character one bit. She was rude toward everyone. She was the type that would use people as long as they could do something that would benefit her. She was the "cool" girl that everyone adored with her huge social media following and extravagant lifestyle.

I think this show appeals to people who strive to be like Yi-seo. A lot of people liked her because she was hardworking and "badass". But honestly, she was not a nice person at all. Badass Female Lead doesn't need to mean Mean Female Lead. In the end, she didn't care about anyone except Saeroyi. I don't wanna spoil too much, but she had been largely offensive towards almost ALL of the characters. She willingly belittled most of the show's characters, just to get closer to Saeroyi. Her apologies were so lousy, yet all the characters ended up loving her anyway, which I didn't understand. Everyone I have talked to about this issue says that I just don't properly understand her character, but I really cannot see what I am missing. I wanted to like her but, sadly, I just couldn't. And it ruined the show for me.

The show had some good themes, even though I might have found the ending incredibly unsatisfying. I would not rewatch it though. At all. It was the kind of drama that once I was watching it I would enjoy, yet when I wasn't watching it, it would be hard for me to even press play. It took me a very long to finish it because I had to force myself to watch it. I honestly wouldn't recommend it, but if you like Yi-seo, this is for you.

Citeste mai mult

It was nowhere near as bad as people made it sound

Unpopular opinion here: I enjoyed Love Alarm 2. I rarely do reviews for popular shows but I see no reviews expressing the same opinions as me. Before I started watching the second season I already knew who the endgame was because of countless spoilers on the internet, but I still wanted to experience the story for myself. And, boy, am I glad I did! Despite everyone saying that they didn't like the show, I binged it as fast as possible because I found it so interesting.

Storywise, I thought the continuation was brilliant. I don't understand why people disliked it so much. I got a little confused at first because it kind of just skipped what happened at the end of season one. But I was so invested in the story from the very second I started. Even though I rooted for the other couple, I did not mind this at all and ended up falling for them anyway.

This is where it might get hard to express my opinions without spoiling the ending, but I will seriously try my best not to ruin the endgame. A lot of people are angry at Jojo this season. A lot of the time, I found it unnecessary. People were mad at her for starting a relationship with Hye-yeong at the beginning of the show instead of with Sun-oh. Of course, Sun-oh went through difficult times, which also made me as a viewer sympathize a lot with him. And of course, he deserves happiness. But he was quite selfish; he didn't care about Jojo's or Hye-yeong's feelings at certain moments, all he wanted was Jojo for himself. However, I understand what emotions can do to a person. Sun-oh and Jojo loved each other very dearly in high school, but Sun-oh was hanging on too much to how they used to be. Of course, Jojo definitely should've been more honest with Sun-oh, but most people who disliked the show blame her for being honest with her feelings about the two male leads. Was she supposed to lie to herself to make someone else happy?

Overall I liked the show. It was enjoyable and the plot was great. Don't let too many negative reviews shield you from watching. If you saw season one and enjoyed it, of course, you should watch season 2.

Citeste mai mult