Just my opinion...

I know I'm going to get heat, but I REALLY disliked this drama. Kim Min Jae - I've loved him in everything I've seen him in, but what the heck? What was it for me, lack of chemistry? Bad writing? I don't know, but the secondary storyline certainly was more interesting than the ML and FL.

Add to that, in historical garb all the men look alike, and all the women look alike. I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out what was going on. I will be the first to admit that historical dramas are not my "go to" but I have watched a couple that I've really liked.

This drama had entirely too many episodes, apparently to fit in all the unnecessary ancillary storylines that they felt the need to inject into it.

In closing, even though I didn't like it, I'd say give it a try. Maybe I was in a bad mood while watching it, maybe all that satin was giving me some kind of trauma, maybe the beads on the hats made me think of abacus, which made me think of math, which sent me off the deep end. Remember, it's just my personal opinion.

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Very jumbled and rambling plot line

This show has been on my list for a while, and since I have enjoyed Bae In Hyuk in other things, I figured I'd give it a try. For me, it was torture to get through, and I've never been so happy to finish something in my life. I usually like to give all the positive aspects of a show, regardless of whether I ultimately ended up liking it, but hmmm, can't think of any here.

1) I found the Fl extremely irritating. Her bouncing around and then suddenly pouting about something, pick a mood and stick with it. This might seem like a small thing, but every time she said 안녕하세요 to someone, her voice went up about four octaves and she used this baby, breathy voice that was SO irritating!
2) STRONG triangle. It went on entirely too long and SML kissing her without consent, just no.
3) Why did ML and FL like each other? Never really saw development, they just suddenly liked each other.
4) The mystery. Why? I didn't care for it, and it went on for so long that once I got to the end I didn't care anyway.
5) The one "dance" they did throughout the whole drama. Their rehearsals revolved about that one arm-swinging movement, over and over again.
6) And can we talk about the costuming?! Oh, my gosh, the costume designer should have been forced to wear one of their own designs as punishment. It was really hard to take any of the conversations seriously while they were wearing their cheer costumes, they were so ridiculous. In real life, you would not have anyone want to be on the cheer team unless they were getting paid to wear those costumes. I can't get over how bad they were.

While I may not say run away from this show, I would suggest turning and walking away quickly, and find something better to watch.

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Main actor was captivating

There was a lot to like about this drama. There always seemed to be something going on (sometimes too much), yet I still felt the need to fast forward through a bit of it, mostly because of the storylines that bothered me.
Liked:
1) Fan Zhi Xin as the male lead. Cold, powerful, driven. I didn't like his bent toward physical abuse at the beginning, but luckily, they got rid of that. I enjoyed watching all of the changes he went through as he fell in love. I also appreciated that the ruthlessness that he portrayed didn't completely disappear when he met her. He still had that going on, just not with her.
2) Chemistry between the leads was excellent.
3) Awesome kisses. The Chinese dramas are starting to get better about this.
4) Interesting storyline with some twists and turns and something that I didn't see coming.
5) Redemption of the 2FL. Up until then, this is where I fast forwarded a lot. She was unbearable, she overacted, and she was more than just a little crazy.
6) Happy ending, though it was pretty flat.
7) Fight scenes were good.
Not so much:
1) FL. Well-acted, but I vacillated back and forth on whether I liked her or not. She wasn't your typical simpering female, which I loved. The song "Stand by Your Man" kept playing in the back of my mind. She believed in him throughout. But wow, did she make some stupid decisions!!! SPOILERS: going into her house when it's been broken into, following the bad guy. And the biggest thing that bothered me about her, she bit the ML, twice!! That was just so immature. END OF SPOILER.
2) Plot loopholes. There was a lot going on, but some things just didn't get wrapped up, explained well.
3) FL's friend. I am so tired of seeing clingy, stalkerish females. Trying to act cute, but they are just irritating.

So, overall, if someone asked if they should watch it, I'd say yes, but I don't think I'd go out of my way to recommend it.

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Unfulfilled potential

I was pretty excited about this show, I was looking forward to something a little more original than what I've been seeing lately. Alas, disappointment followed. I enjoyed some aspects of it, but with the uneven pacing and the glaring plot holes, pretty much all I felt at the end was frustration. As with most everything, there were positives as well as negatives.
LIKED:
1) Shin Hye Sun as Ban Ji Eum - I have loved her in everything I've seen her in. She's real, she's likeable, and she has a firm grasp on her acting ability. She knows when to give us more, as well as when to reign it in, to leave us WANTING more.
2) Kim Shi Ah as the young lady that was Ji Eum in her 18th life. For me, she was the standout in this. She was lovely and poised beyond her years. As I watched her, I felt that she had the knowledge from all her past lives and was somewhat jaded. Kind of like she was forced to act like a child when she was an adult. She was so sweet with her sister and Seo Ha.
3) Cha Chung Hwa as Ji Eum's niece from her 17th life. I love this actress and she brought humor to the role that was welcome.
4) Costuming. I loved the clothes in this, especially everything they put on Ahn Bo Hyun. He must have lost weight for this role, because I've always seen him as being in a sportsman role. He looked great and he wore everything well.
5) OST. Some beautiful music.
6) Cinematography, for the most part, was very good. I especially loved all the colors and movement from her first life. I just wish I hadn't had to see her first life over and over again.
7) I liked how the FL brought all of her skills from her past lives into her current life.
NOT SO MUCH:
1) Who did hair and makeup!?! Her hair was very "Cheese in the Trap" and distracting. Most jarring was the makeup on Ahn Bo Hyun. He looked so white, actually pasty. It looked like someone had slathered on the makeup with a trowel, and the lipstick on him was entirely too obvious and dark. There were multiple times I thought that I was watching a vampire movie, he reminded me of that.
2) I didn't like the forwardness of Ji Eum at all. "let's date". I didn't find it cute or endearing at all. To a certain extent, I felt the same about the 2FL. If someone isn't interested, move on.
3) The murder plot. It started out interesting and ended in a fizzle. What a waste of time!
4) I was never clear on why the guy with the bells was so intent on her remembering her first life, especially since he was there and NOT a good guy.
5) There is a difference between not remembering your previous lives and not remembering the people in your life currently. She didn't have amnesia, for heaven's sake! If she didn't remember them, how did she remember where she used to work? For me, the whole ending was clunky, like they didn't know how to resolve it and wrap everything up.
6) Lack of chemistry between the leads.

So, if asked if I think you should watch, I wouldn't say to run away, but there is a lot of better stuff out there to watch.

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Zhang Xin Cheng surprised me!

I've seen this actor in a few shows, and he tends to play kind of an arrogant, bratty, somewhat immature character. In this movie, his acting was very understated, and I enjoyed watching him. I loved the character he played. He liked her from the beginning and was there for her, to cheer her up and to support her. Slight spoiler here only - I loved the scene of them toward the end of the movie when they hugged. You could see the love on his face, and he held on tightly and burrowed his head into her shoulder. It was lovely to watch. -End of spoiler.

The only reason I didn't rate this higher was that there was entirely too much with the terrible mother. Believe me, I got the idea, without having to see her and hear her every few minutes. My heart broke for the FL, being raised in that household.

This is a story of first love, of idealism, of dreams realized, and dreams lost. I could really feel the pain of their youth, being trapped in the fact that they were youths, so decisions weren't theirs to make. Then, when they grew up, I could feel their longing for them to get back to the way they used to be.

Sweet ending. I understand that there is an additional scene during the credits, but YouTube cut it off right there. They made the right decision in making this a movie and not an episodic drama.

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Quick show that isn't too terribly cringy

Interesting concept for a show. I don't know if it was just the way the wording was translated, but I was really bothered by him calling her a "tool" to help him.

Of course, there's the evil person in power, as well as the evil ex-GF that comes back after years. The advantage here, is that I didn't have to suffer through hours and hours of them because the series was short. The editing is often a little strange in these short dramas, but I prefer them to the extremely long dramas bloated with time-wasting filler of too many story lines or misunderstandings that go on too long.

The main couple was very cute together and after the first few awful kisses, that got better as well. We got a cute happy ending that could have been extended a little bit for viewing pleasure, but it was a better ending than a lot of dramas give us.

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Behind-the-scenes, get to know BTS better!

Here, in 2023, looking for any content I can find on BTS, this was a treat. I watched it on YouTube. It didn't show me anything I didn't already know, but I think that anyone new to BTS would get a better understanding of who they are by watching this. Each era of BTS has landmarks for them, but this movie shows them during their Wings tour (2017) - when they were just beginning to be recognized by other countries. They were huge already in terms of fandom, as evidenced by sold out concerts everywhere they went, but this was the era that brought them recognition in terms of awards, and this is when they first appeared on US tv.

This is not a movie to showcase their music, but to show how hard they work on a daily basis to be the best and to bring the best to their fans. The amount of work they do preparing for concerts is amazing, even reworking/discussing choreography up to the last minute before going on stage. When they come off stage, drenched in sweat, literally, and have to be helped into dry clothes, you can see that they have given their all on the stage. Their energy is spent, but they've only got time for a few deep breaths before going back out and giving even more of themselves.

I continue to marvel at their bond with one another. Their love for each other, their respect for each other, and their support of each other can be seen here. They work hard, but they love hanging out with one another, just having a good time. You might expect this to be a natural consequence of living together as trainees and after they debuted, but I have not found another group that has this kind of connection. They are extremely humble (so many others could definitely benefit by learning this!) and strive to continue to give more and better performances.

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Great cast, but...

This show started out well. The main leads had terrific chemistry together. I loved the ML's character, the FL not so much. This was a character that seemed to feed off of drama that was going on around her, and if there wasn't drama, she would create it. Though she was the older of the two, she was so immature compared to the ML.

The FL's mother - oh my gosh, just the worst! I know that Korean culture places high importance on respect for your elders, but there has to be a line somewhere. To just let your mom walk all over you and decide your future, that's just wrong.

Costuming was good. I especially loved the cream-colored wool coat he was wearing in the rain. Why was I focused on the clothes? Apparently, I wasn't loving the direction of the writing.

Great music, but it didn't fit in with the drama at all.

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I realize it's from 2001, but this one did NOT age well

Not only is the actual look of the drama grainy and bad, the sound leaves a lot to be desired. There are big gaps in the story - we go from ep 3 where everything is fine, to episode 4 where she is getting beat up by a guy. Then, there's the acting. It's bad. The clothing, the hairstyles contribute to the aged look of this drama. And F4 is supposed to be a group of extremely attractive young men, not in this drama. I have to say, that this story works better in a high school environment like the Korean version, because there is no way these guys could control a college.

Then there's the actual story line. I'm watching all of them because they are so famous and everyone raves about them, but I've got to be honest, I just don't get it. It's a group of bullies, with the ML being the worst of them all. He bullies her mercilessly and yet she likes him? He's nice for a moment but then reverts back to his normal, terrible personality. When they are "together" they fight all the time and continuously call each other names.

This story line is the poster child for toxic relationships.

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I can appreciate the hard work put in by the contestants

What I liked:
1) Performances
2) Letters to the contestants from parents
3) The politeness and supportiveness of the contestants
4) The audience and their support of the contestants

What I didn't like:
1) Editing was REALLY bad. Repeated takes to see reactions of judges and other contestants so content is interrupted/missed. Also, things were shown out of order. They would be getting ready to show a performance, then they would throw in a competition they did outside during the day.
2) Camera work - every time they showed the entire group it was blurry
3) The purpose of the multiple star master hosts?
4) Extremely confusing voting.
5) Not putting the contestant's names, just using their current ranking number. There were so many of them that looked alike, I would have liked to have names go with the faces.
6) The elimination process. It took a whole episode for each elimination. It took forever for them to name the contestants that were going to continue on. It didn't build suspense; it was just irritating. Then to show three candidates at one time, when only one was continuing on in the competition.
7) For the second elimination, putting everyone on a team, having them do the work and eliminating half of them. The groups then had to reconfigure their groups and their dances, then got called out by the judges for not being prepared.
8) When the winners were thanking their agencies, that surprised me, which sent me to do some research. All of these guys have been trainees for up to three years!

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I thought it would never end!

Don't shoot me, this is just my personal opinion, but what did I just watch? There were a couple of things that I liked about this drama, but truthfully it irritated me no end. I don't actually think I should have rated it as high as I did, but it did have some redeeming value for me. I watched this show a couple of years ago and just watched it again after watching You Are My Glory and loving Yang Yang.

What I liked:
1)Yang Yang - he's better in YAMG because he's grown as an actor, but here he was very cute. He doesn't show a lot of emotion, but there is something so magnetic about him, I kept watching, waiting for his smiles. He knows how to do good kissing scenes. Unfortunately, it looked like he was kissing a piece of wood here. I blame the actress or the way she portrayed the character. In the kissing area, she's of the dead fish variety, until the final episode.
2)Good CGI for the gaming.
3)The Hao Mei/KO storyline.
4)Episode 30 - they turned up the heat in this episode!
5)His friends were funny.

What I didn't like:
1)Zheng Shuang as Wei Wei (both the actress and the character). She had the wide-eyed look down to a science. She is a stunning woman, but she didn't display much range in this role. He facial expression pretty much stayed the same the whole time. She was treated unfairly (a lot) but her expression never changed. Very poorly done kissing scenes. And her character? She was supposed to be this brilliant computer science girl, but once she got with Xiao Nai, she was just an accessory hanging on his arm. Up until they met in person, she was this cool young woman, the type that other women admire and aspire to be. They met and it was as if her IQ immediately took a nosedive. She couldn't look at him, she was doing all this stupid internal dialog, she was behaving in a silly manner (was it supposed to be cute? It wasn't).
2)The dubbing. This is always a problem for me in Chinese shows, but it seemed especially bad here. I swear, the FL and at least three of the other females were dubbed by the same person with the same high, squeaky, breathy, irritating voice.
3)Too much gaming. I get it, it's a show about gaming, but come on!
4)Her friend group, especially Er Xi. They behaved in a juvenile matter all the time, chasing each other around, tickling each other, etc.
5)The character of Er Xi. She gets special mention because of how much she irritated me. The high dubbed voice, the overacting, the yelling, the immaturity. Ugh!
6)I didn't come into this show expecting realism, but the way that everyone fawned over Xiao Nai all the time was absolutely ridiculous. Women running toward him and standing around him talking about how handsome he was. He comes into a room and everyone takes out their phones to take pictures of him in all his handsomeness. Conversations cease, staring begins, and the thesaurus comes out to come up with new words to describe how handsome he is. There is one scene in particular that stands out. They are trying to take graduation pictures when he shows up. No one can pay attention to what they are supposed to be doing because they are all enthralled by him. The photographer says, "Handsome guy, go stand behind that tree." That pretty much sums it up, If he's in the vicinity, he must be fawned over.
7)Mean girls. A plethora of them, each one more mean and scheming than the other. They were portrayed as "the popular girls", but with the way they badmouthed Wei Wei to her face and to everyone around them, there was NO ONE to stand up for Wei Wei and tell them to shut up? It was verbal bullying at a very high level.
8) ASMR. We were privy to EVERY indrawn breath, surprised breath, and sigh of Wei Wei.

I would love, love, LOVE to find a Chinese romance that I didn't have to use the fast forward button so much. The concept of the romance was cute, but not executed that well, and there was SO MUCH boring stuff to get through!

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This is what a reality show should be

Other than the very poorly-handled elimination of a group in Episode 10 (I think, and it was absolutely terrible. Public shaming at its worst), I loved this show. I'll be honest, the things that these guys that want to be idols have to go through is amazing, and it speaks to their passion, talent, and belief in themselves. There are so many idol groups out there, I can't even begin to keep them straight, and it's got to be so hard for them to progress if they are working for a smaller company.

Judges: Awesome. I loved that they were constructive with their criticism and effusive with their praise. Also, they had judges that actually work in the business and know what they are talking about.

Music: For me, there were only a couple of memorable songs, but I loved what each team did with even the most difficult or mediocre song.

Behind-the-scenes: Sometimes I like this more than the actual performances. I like seeing the members interacting with one another and trying to learn the choreography or music.

Voting: The voting by the fans and the "benefits" that the teams received in the early rounds was very confusing. I'm math phobic, but it seemed very complicated to me. I did appreciate that the public was the deciding factor in the final winner, rather than the professionals.

The groups: Judging a two-person team against a team with nine members seems like comparing apples and oranges, but they did the best with what they had, I think. I have such admiration for each and every contestant that went on this show. They worked like crazy to get where they are. Every single team was so talented, and each team had different strengths, which was enjoyable to watch. I appreciated when each team got a song that was out of their comfort zone. Every time, without fail, they stepped up and made the song their own. When one of the judges said he wanted to know how to get one of the songs that day, that shows how good these guys are. I would have liked to have more background on how the groups formed, but I guess the couldn't do too much of that until the final six, when they told the teams' real names (and is it just a language barrier for me, but I thought the real group names were terrible!)

One of the groups was told by their CEO if they won they would get the prize money and he'd match it, and move them into a better dorm. Unfortunately they didn't win, but I hope the CEO does something for them, they did a great job.

I can't even imagine how stressful this whole process was for each contestant, all the new songs/dances to learn, injuries, plus the fear of being eliminated every week...I would have had a heart attack if it was me. I cried a lot watching this show, I was touched by their stories, I hurt for them when they got eliminated, and I was so happy for the winners. Plus, I always cry when I see others cry, and it happened a lot in this show.

It would be great if they could do a follow-up with the winning team (even the top six and their Korean tour), showing us how their lives change and I'd love to be able to watch them continue on this journey.

Being from the US, one thing I appreciated most about this show was the support that all the guys gave, not only to their own team members, but the other teams as well. They were always very positive about their performances, and respectful of one another. You don't see that in the US. Here, it's all about watching how people can stab each other in the back to get ahead. It's very refreshing to see respect in this day and age.

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There were times I wanted to gouge out my eyes!

Positives:
Kim Jung Hyun as Kokdu: I love him as an actor. He's got a somewhat rugged look about him. He's not a "pretty boy", and he's very expressive. He's an actor that is able to do broad comedy with flair and believability and then cut your heart out in his serious scenes, with tears running down his cheeks. It gets me every time.

Cha Chung Hwa as Gak Shin: She's a very interesting actress. She has the ability to look totally different, based on the part she is playing. She can appear older sometimes, younger at others. Her character was funny, quirky, and I loved how she took Gye Jeol under her wing, walking the line between here and the afterlife.

Kim In Kwon as Ok Shin: This might sound strange, but I love his face, it's big and round with lots of surface area for the great expressions he conveys. Ok Shin was a good character, and I really enjoyed his story line with Gak Shin.

Cinematography and locales: Beautiful! The church was lovely, Kokdu's house was awesome, and the lighthouse area was just beautiful. I loved the color palette they used for filming and the soft filtering they did with the camera work.

There was a happy ending, which kept me from throwing something at my tv after wasting my time watching this.

That's pretty much it. Now, on the other side of the coin, the negatives for me were:

Im Soo Hyang: I don't care for her AT ALL. Personally, I don't think she could act her way out of a paper bag. She has a totally flat affect, and her eyes are always open really wide like she's wandering around in a constant state of surprise. I've seen her in other things and haven't cared for her. Remember, just my opinion, but I had to fast forward through a lot of it, especially her, because it was so bad. Add her bad acting to the awful character she was portraying, and it was a train wreck. She was supposedly a doctor, but every time anyone had a medical emergency, she did absolutely nothing. I didn't buy her as a doctor for that reason, as well as the fact that she was whiny, immature, clingy and spent most of the drama sobbing. Was that so it looked like she was displaying some emotion? I don't know, but her character was awful, from beginning to end.

The storylines: Too many! There was so much going on. They could have cut back on the multiplicity of story lines and given us some more depth of character. I fast forwarded, a lot, and I still felt like it would never be over.

Chemistry: The brother and his girlfriend - The brother was so cute, and I enjoyed his story line, and I liked the wedding, but not much chemistry between him and his girlfriend. But you will never go amiss with a man that can cook. Which brings me to the ML and FL - I wasn't feeling ANY chemistry between these two. The kisses were not the typical open-eyed, arms at the sides kisses, which I appreciated, but I just didn't buy them as a couple. Wait, I could buy them as a friend couple, but not as a romantic couple.

So, I would say that I you have a lot of patience/tolerance and are wondering if you should watch this, you could give it a try. These opinions are just mine, but there is no way I would recommend that anyone watch this.

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Lived on the couch the day it dropped on Netflix!

I have to say, I didn't like it QUITE as much as the movie, but I still liked it. This series had more filler than the movie, and there were a lot of storylines going on. There were also multiple instances of misunderstandings, and I wondered if the main couple would EVER get together! The FL seemed more docile here than in the movie, always apologizing. I was concerned about the ML, but I thought he was perfect. Baby face, his eyes really expressed his feelings for her, and he was a pleasure to watch. There were a couple of instances of over-the-top acting, which I have come to expect in J-dramas, but it was from people that had relatively small parts.

I loved the graphics at the beginning of every episode, and the village they lived in was lovely. I really liked the scenes where they were walking the neighborhoods, talking.

I appreciated the music as well, not for the songs, necessarily, but they used tinkling bells in quiet scenes, that for some reason I found very effective.

The storyline was great. There were multiple couples, and I liked the story of each of them, because they were so different. First love; long-lasting hidden love; forbidden love. Each had their strengths.

But I have to say that the friendships really shone. Getting acquainted, developing friendships, overcoming difficulties, and then the uncertainty and fear associated with leaving your insulated life and heading out into the big world. Would these friendships stand the test of time? I teared up a number of times with the goodbyes. I would have liked to have seen where they all ended up, but other than that, it was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon.

***After re-watching this, I had to lower my rating slightly. FL had too little self-esteem and couldn't believe that anyone could like her. She was too quick to believe lies, but couldn't believe when the ML was telling her how he felt about her. This resulted in multiple episodes of me talking to the TV, telling her to get over herself and listen up! She still felt this way after the friendships that she had developed and even THEY were telling her how the ML felt. I felt like it wasted a lot of time, and made me worried for their ability to communicate with one another in the future, if she was always going to go to the worst-case scenario.

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