My high rating is for the child actress

I seldom watch movies, but I decided to watch this one because I read that it was a tearjerker. I geared myself up to be touched and to cry, but things are like that, the more you expect, the more something will not happen, in the end I cried only at the last scene, which if you read other reviews, was a climatic one indeed.

Positives:

1. My high rating of 9/10 is for the child actress, Jung Seo Yeon, who acted really well, like really, really well in this movie. She was convincing as a visually handicapped given her relatively young age of 7. And the last scene had a close-up shot of her wailing, tears running down her cheeks, etc., crying so pitifully that my heart really cried with her. The male lead, Jin Goo, also did well. I had nothing to criticize about his acting in particular.

2. This movie brought attention to people who were both blind and deaf, double handicap and how to communicate with them.

3. I liked the way the director shot some of the scenes, especially that related to the little girl, some were shot from her angle, something different.

Negatives:

1. Maybe it was a movie, so everything was fast, the development of the relationship between the little girl and the male lead was too fast for me to feel much throughout the movie, except the last scene.

2. I did not quite understand what the male lead’s job was in the movie basically, but those scenes were not important because they did not contribute much to the story of him and the little girl. Again, if they were not important, they became fillers which could have been better replaced by more scenes of him and the little girl’s interactions.

All in all, I would recommend if you are looking for a tearjerker, it was touching, but somehow, I would have liked to see more interactions of the male lead and the little girl, a somewhat more gradual development of their relationship.

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It is a well-made BL drama.

This drama was often recommended whenever I looked up Thai dramas, so I decided to watch it to see why it seemed so popular.

I was surprised by the fact that it was only 5 episodes, but because of the short number of episodes, every episode was substantial, filled with emotions yet not exaggerated, things happened fast and not draggy, I didn't feel bored a single moment.

Everyone in the drama acted very well, especially the main leads, despite being relatively young. Teh, one of the main leads, is only 22 years old. Of course, him being only 22 years old, I did not expect perfect acting, but it was good enough, really.

The chemistry between the two leads was also very good. I did not feel any awkwardness between them at all.

Basically, I do not have any negative comments to make about this drama. It was well-made. Details were well taken care of.

After completing this drama, I did not have enough of seeing the two leads' interaction (yes, it was that good), so I was pleasantly surprised to find the sequel 'I promised you the moon', which I will do a separate review on that drama review page.

I have to add, the OST of this drama gives a nostalgic vibe to this drama filmed in Phuket, fits the drama to a T.

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a simple yet touching drama

I have to say, this is the first Thai drama I ever watched and the first BL drama with intimate scenes (that is, hugging and lips-kissing), so I will base my comments bearing in mind the above.

Being the first Thai drama for me, I wanted a very simple story, preferably in the supernatural genre, not too many characters and no complicated characters because I wasn't sure about the way Thais do their dramas, wasn't sure whether there will be any cultural barriers that would hinder my understanding of the story. I didn't think much about the BL aspect, but I was generally open-minded about this aspect.

I got exactly what I wanted from this drama. However, it was the BL that made the entire drama very touching and meaningful from the two main leads' dialogues and body language. And I have to mention, the opening song did play a part in enhancing that feeling. It was a really very touching song. I recommend anyone to go listen to the song first if you are considering whether to watch this drama or not.

The chemistry between the two main leads' was very good. Perhaps the only thing if I have to comment a little negatively, was the kissing scenes. They weren't done with as much chemistry as I would have liked them to be, even to the point of being a little awkward actually, but still this did not take away my points for the drama because the chemistry in all their other interactions was perfect.

The ending, I would consider it to be happy or perhaps the best possible happy ending. Although there were reviewers who commented that the ending was too easy, because it was kind of leaving things as they are and the main leads continue in the same manner, no change, I was ok with it because they are at least together with each other, who knows for how long, but the moral of the drama did tell us to enjoy every moment of our lives and live happily every day as we don't know what tomorrow will bring.

This drama started me well for Thai BL dramas since it was a drama with minimal intimate scenes like hugging and lips-kissing without feeling put off for beginners. I feel more open and look forward to watching other dramas with BL, especially ones made by Thailand.

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good overall but repetitive after some time

As another reviewer has pointed out, the premise of this drama is refreshing. This is one of the plus points.

Other plus points are, the acting of the cast was convincing, the OST was okay, though I don't think the OST affects the plot much, the chemistry of the leads is good, each episode is a story by itself so no need to follow what happens in the last episode and the ending is wrapped up well.

The only negative I have to say is though the premise of the drama is refreshing, it is repeated in every episode, the little girl sees a prophetic dream after she sees the person's sub-conscious mind through his/her eyes. This happens in every episode, only the person involved is different, hence the story and the actions required are different. At first it was exciting and I wanted to find out whether this person was bad or good, etc. but I became a little bored halfway through the drama because actions were kind of predictable. Even if the persons and stories are different, there is not much excitement after a while. There was a little climax at the end, to tie the loose knots, though and then everything ended well.

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A light-hearted and heartwarming drama

This is a drama about a mother who died during her job, but remained on earth for 100 days as she was worried about leaving her young 7-year-old son. It was understood that she would leave for heaven after her son became more courageous and more independent. No one could see or hear her except her son who could see and hear her only if he wore her glasses. Thereafter it was 9 episodes of adventures of the family (plus her husband and step-daughter) with the main focus on her and the son.
Each episode is a different story, so there is no need to recall what the last episode was if you don't watch for a few days.
The last episode, as expected, was sad, when the mother had to leave upon her son becoming stronger and more independent.
All the actors and actresses acted well, including the young boy.
The entire drama is very light-hearted and many times heartwarming. The stories are very easy to follow, nothing complicated, mostly happenings around the neighborhood. There is no need to focus too much on the dialogues to understand what's happening either, because everything is rather simple, so you can easily watch this drama while eating or simply when you want to relax or even feeling tired and sleepy when you don't have to concentrate on the movements and conversations of the characters but still able to understand what's going on. I enjoyed this drama!

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The cute and sweet interactions between the main leads, the ML's innocence, they were good to watch.

This was about a modern young girl, that is, the FL, who time-travelled to the Immortal World accidentally through a water puddle in an amusement park while looking for her brother. She met the ML who was supposed to be the next leader in the Immortal Alliance and also her own brother who had became the Devil Lord in that world. The entire drama revolved around these 3 people in the Immortal World.

The ratings in MDL was initially 8.0, but eventually went down to 7.7 in the last 5 episodes. I guess that was because some happenings became illogical towards the end of the drama. I do agree with that, hence my rating for story is not high either.

Nevertheless, what I enjoyed about this drama were the main leads' chemistry, the ML's innocence, because he had been training to be the next alliance leader hence never really interacted much with the opposite gender, so when the FL time-travelled and landed in the hot spring? of his garden, I found the building of the relationship of both leads interesting and refreshing, albeit some scenes were cliched.
The ML learning from the FL mostly and sometimes other people, about what love is, what kissing is, what a boy-girl relationship is, how the feeling is different from a brother-sister relationship, all of these were interesting to watch, so much so that I looked forward to every episode and every scene with the ML and FL. The scenes were portrayed well. They acted well. The ML was also cute and good-looking.
The acting of the rest of the cast was acceptable, but nothing really impressive. The second ML, who was the FL's brother, was comical, and did add some comedy to the drama.

The ML's house and surroundings also had an immortal vibe, like misty clouds, location out of nowhere, making the scenes at the ML's house always enjoyable to watch.

My verdict - watch it for the main leads' interaction, enjoy the ML's innocence and naivety!
I would re-watch for that.
Other than that, the story was simple, nothing impressive with some parts illogical at the end.

The music was good though, accompanied the scenes well, especially the emotional ones. hence my high rating for music.

I recommend watching the additional episode after episode 35. The additional episode gave a good closure to the drama. The ending at episode 35 would leave the audience hanging in mid-air, but with the additional episode, it gave closure to the lives and thereafter of the main leads, which was honestly what really matters actually in this entire drama, at least to me.

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A tormented love between the main leads

First thing, the synopsis in MDL is not quite accurate. Haishi did not have conflicting feelings between her shifu (Fang Jian Ming) and the Emperor (Di Xu). This did not happen in the drama at least and Haishi did not vow revenge towards the imperial court after her father was killed by sharks in a fishing trip to gather pearls.

Having read the synopsis, I went watching the drama thinking that it would be the usual revenge plot and love triangle, but it actually wasn't the case in the drama at all.

Haishi is a young girl who grew up in a costal village where fishermen used the ruse of killing their children to make mermaids cry and gather the shed tears which turn into luminous pearls to pay for taxes.
Fang Jian Ming saved her from the village and together with another disciple (Zhuo Ying), raised and taught them from academics to martial arts, archery, etc. from then on.

As the years went by, Haishi fell in love with her shifu and shifu also grew to love her, but due to the fact that he was a baixi for the Emperor, meaning he was bonded to the Emperor in blood, he felt all the pain and physical injuries on behalf of the Emperor, he knew he had no future with Haishi as he was someone who would die anytime, he chose to hide his love for Haishi.

What I liked about this drama was this tormented, forbidden love between the two leads. Haishi was very forthright with her feelings throughout, but shifu would always act nonchalant in front of her, most times pushing her away, but actually deep down in his heart, loved and cared for her as much as she did for him, always making sure that she was safe and always the first to save her in the event of dangers. I was touched when he once said to himself, "how can I not like you (=Haishi)? Nobody knows, how much I cherish and love you." I was really touched by the way he said it. So tormented, so heartbreaking, so painful yet so beautiful.

As some viewers have pointed out, the Emperor's acting was a little over in the first few episodes and I didn't enjoy watching him.
He acted like crazy mainly due to the sorrow he was suffering from the death of his loved one. I do agree there was overacting on the part of the actor. However, he became much better later, more toned down. As many others have agreed, I also liked the strong friendship between shifu and Emperor. I thought that Tilan, his concubine, would have some hidden agenda when she married the Emperor, but turned out she was just a kind girl.

I also liked the third couple, Zhuo Ying and Zheliu, a girl in the embroidery department. In the initial stages, when Zhuo Ying was still secretly in love with her, I thought it was kind of sweet that he always hid on the rooftop to watch her and secretly did things for her like gifting her a bracelet or a rabbit, etc. As they were just the third couple in the drama, I guess their ending was kind of not fully shown to audience, just showing them on a horseback together to show that they had a happy ending, which was still okay to me, though I would have liked to see a little more of their reunion at the end.

I have mixed feelings for the ending on the main leads. I am totally glad that shifu didn't die and together with Haishi, they ended up teaching and raising the crown prince (son of the Emperor and Tilan who both died in the end). However, shifu became the baixi again for the crown prince and again they were bonded and again he and Haishi could not be together. I would not consider this a sad ending, at least shifu didn't die, but it is like country above all else and all love, not a happily ever after live together, but perhaps in the very far future, this may be possible when the crown prince grew up.

The cinematography was very good. I especially liked the Ji feng tree, the Ji feng pavilion and Zhao Ming palace where shifu, zhuo ying and haishi and the secret force lived. The place was dreamy especially when the leaves from the Ji feng tree fell.

The OST was good overall, I especially liked the songs sang by Zhou Shen, Kiss without distraction, it was just so heartbreaking and the other song was Li Qi, Revel in Flower Room.

Overall, the acting was good for all the cast, with the exception of the Emperor's acting in the beginning, but as mentioned, he toned down a lot and was much better later. I have seen William Chan in 'lost love in times' drama, I think he's a rather professional and diligent actor, basically an actor who really uses his heart to think through about the role and act out, from all the BTS and previous interviews I watched about him and personally, I think he's rather good in doing kiss scenes. Therefore, based on his off-screen personality which is supposedly quite bubbly, cheerful and a little playful?, I think he did well in his role in this drama. Yang Mi, of course, did well as usual, though I did agree a little with others that her own voice was a little on the high side in the drama. I wonder would it really have been better if she had someone to dub her in the drama? I also thought that the actor Wang Sen who acted Zhuo Ying, Duo Han and Duo Luo, was really good. There was contrast in the personalities between Duo Han and his twin brother Duo Luo. It was not easy feat, but he did well.

I enjoyed this drama very much, so much that this was one of those dramas that I really listened hard to all the dialogues and of course especially the ones between the main leads.

Never regretted watching this drama and I would re-watch the parts by the main leads in future too.

Fully vested in such tormented and forbidden love, yes, it is painful to watch, but precisely because it is painful to watch, all the more you want to watch whether shifu will slowly open up, for how long he is going to torment himself and haishi, how long more the leads will confess their love for each other, every step towards confession, towards getting closer to each other and finally whether they will abandon all cares and worries to be together.

Thoroughly enjoyed it!

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Great start, but underwhelming towards the end

I decided to watch this because other than revenge, I thought the storyline about the male lead, Yoon Hyun Woo (Song Joong Ki) being ‘reborn’ as the youngest grandson of the family, was intriguing.

The good

. The pace of the drama was fast, especially the first half and no episode was boring in the first half or at least up till the passing of Lee Sung Min’s character.
. Some references to real incidents that happened in Korean modern history, like the Korean Financial Crisis 1997 and Korean soccer team getting into the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup 2002, etc. This made the story realistic and viewers had glimpses of the effects these incidents had on Korea at that time.
. I totally enjoyed the acting of Lee Sung Min as Jin Yang Cheol. He was convincing as the patriarch of the family. Powerful and fearless. His acting was so exceptional that there was always something to look forward to in every scene of his. For me, the drama went downhill after his character passed away, I can say that his passing left a huge void in the story and it was not as enjoyable for me after that.

The bad

. I didn’t understand how and why Yoon Hyun Woo was reborn as the youngest grandson of the family or was he even reborn and did Yoon Hyun Woo even die? I thought I understood initially but when the ending came and then the somewhat vague explanations, I didn’t get the logic.
. There were some business terms or concepts in the drama that I didn’t quite understand, for example buying the company subsidiary’s bank card at an exorbitantly high price will lead to a drastic decrease in one’s share ownership of the company…or was it like that? In any case, I didn’t quite get it fully.

My Verdict

The writing was typical of many Korean revenge dramas that involve conglomerate companies. It was dramatic and fast-paced with schemes and plots one after another, one side seemingly out-winning the other side, but actually not because there was another even more intelligent plot planned by the latter, etc. Basically to sum up the story in a sentence, viewers were just pressing on to watch how the revenge by Yoon Hyun Woo/Jin Do Jun (his name when he was the youngest grandson) would gradually and eventually have the conglomerate land in his hands.

For me, I enjoyed watching the acting of Lee Sung Min. Not one scene was boring with him. As for Song Joong Ki, I didn’t think his acting was exceptional, it was just passable, same for the rest of the cast. However, I liked that Song Joong Ki’s character was not just thinking about revenge throughout the entire drama, he had his soft side, towards his grandpa, Jin Yang Cheol and the woman he loved. I also liked the OST that was played every time he showed his soft side. It was a melodious but melancholic Korean song.

Towards the last few episodes, especially after Jin Yang Cheol passed away, the writing was boring to me, worsened by my difficulty in comprehending some of the business logic and then what with the confusing last episode, my overall enjoyment of the drama was reduced. I would say that this drama captured my imagination in the beginning, hence a 8.5/10, but towards the end, it dropped to 7.5/10 for me.

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unexpectedly good

I was looking for a Chinese historical drama to watch at that time, not necessary to be a big budget one. So while searching through, I came across Chinesedramafan's review. She had very good comments on this drama which I had never even heard of. Initially, I was not sure because there were so few reviews which probably mean also few people watched, but I trusted Chinesedramafan, so I tried out.

And the conclusion was, as my headline says, unexpectedly good. In fact, I do not have negative comments to make about this drama.

The first few episodes were just small cases whereby Wu Xin simply solved them quickly most of the time with the help of the female lead, Qing Luan. Those few episodes were also where they got to know each other and where their liking for each other gradually started. At first I was not impressed with those first few episodes, I kept wondering, oh my god, is the story going to just continue like that with small cases and insignificant side characters, Wu Xin solved them with Qing Luan, then moved on? There was nothing significant happening at all. But no, I would say the story really began and made for a turn when Qing Luan and her twin brother decided to go home upon hearing their mother passed away. It really became good from there and that was when I wanted to continue watching more. That was about episode 20ish if I remember correctly.

The acting of the entire cast was good, no complains about any of them. I will just specially comment only on the main leads. Elvis Han's acting was spot on. I think no other person can replace him to be Wu Xin. I liked his character. I did not watch the previous two parts, just based on this part 3. Kudos to Sebrina Chen as well. Her acting as both Qing Luan and her twin brother was convincing and good. Not easy to act two different characters, what's more one female and one male.

I want to mention especially the ending. I was moved to tears when Qing Luan passed away in the arms of Wu Xin in her old age. I think the whole premise here was that Wu Xin was an immortal, so he had to witness the death of many of his loved ones centuries after centuries. I felt touched and sorry for him, it was that hard when you could live forever. Humans usually try to live for as long as they can, but to him it was a torture it seems in the drama. And this ending was especially touching with the OST, I have to mention this OST, the longest journey sung by Li Qi. It is one of those songs which I continue to listen even after I finished watching the drama. Not all dramas have OSTs like that, at least for me, I usually do not listen to the OSTs of the drama after I have finished watching the drama, unless the songs are really touching and meaningful to me and this is one of them. The lyrics and the vibe of this entire song are good. That feeling this song give really aptly describe Wu Xin's feelings in his 'long journey'.

Overall, I absolutely do not regret picking this drama.

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A good break from historical palace dramas

I picked this drama because I wanted to watch the main leads and to take a break from historical palace dramas.

I would say the chemistry of the main leads was good, though I did think the FL was a little on the heavier side for xiao long nu, I didn't think she was pretty either, but overall she grew on me, as time went by, I thought she was acceptable.
The ML was good, nothing negative to say about him.

It was a good break from historical palace dramas because the drama was all about the pugilist world. Nothing about palaces, emperors, scheming, wars, etc. Good to watch such dramas once in a while. I enjoyed it!

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