Reviews

“Some people time gives them sand, and what did they give back is pearls.” Xue Yi Ran

This series has taught many things, The importance of stay calm and relaxed, To not give up on your goals and to always be positive. And no matter how destiny comes at you, always race against it. Running like a shooting star made me get up and to continue chasing my dreams. It gave me so much positivity and made me feel the value in friendships and goals. It felt like I wasn’t watching an ordinary sport “bromance” but it was such a masterpiece to watch. I always thought that dreams and goals are just a come and go, but after watching this series it made me realise that dreams aren’t like that. Not only it does it give education in Sports like shot putting it’s not a popular sport some people might never know about, but it also teaches psychology and the golden treasure of friendship. It gave me a lot of advices, and I learned a lot.
This series is Must watch, you will feel the positivity and the comedy in it, and the bromance in it is a whole new level. I would rewatch whenever I feel like I need some “cheering up” and would most probably rewatch it when I have exams. The old wang is just a person to learn from, And it is not your typical sport drama this is way better than any sport drama.

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Cityless Behaviour

Initially, the drama was captivating with its picturesque setting, charming characters, vibrant village life, and delightful slice-of-life moments. The dynamic between the village people created a lively and heartwarming atmosphere. Each character brought something unique to the table with lots potentials and the slow burn romance between the leads was a highlight, initially. However, as the focus shifted to the romance between the leads around episode 11, the vibrancy of the village dynamics began to fade and the the drama lost some of its spark. At that point, the drama turned into a very long compilation of cheesy uneventful dates sequences while neglecting the small-town dynamics and community interactions that initially drew me in. Their interactions became more unbearable as the drama went on and the male leads supposed problems were an additional let down. Anyway, it wasn't perfect to begin with, Yeong Guk & Hwa Jeong triangle and story was the weakest link in the village and borderline ruined many scenes. The drama could've definitely used more people in the village and more stories, even if it were to add more sidekicks. Moreover, many of the stories from the village started and ended within a few scenes/episodes. I really wanted to see more investment in the Pub owner rather than Yeong Guk triangle. Eventually, the resolution turned out to be just acceptable. While the drama remained enjoyable overall, the overall decline in quality after the leads got together was a really big disappointment.

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Money, innit?

The veteran actor, Lee Sun Kyun, delivered a powerful performance that anchored the show, as expected. It's really heartbreaking to lose such a big talent. Rest in piece. The drama didn't exactly break new ground with its plot or characters, but it managed to hold one's attention through its well paced narrative, occasional power shifts and a few unexpected twists thrown in. The cast does their thing, but some of the characters feel a bit like cardboard cutouts, lacking some life in them. While the drama dipped into melodrama sometimes but it struck a balance between suspense and storytelling. Overall, it's a pretty decent drama around corruption and power struggles.

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Bloodless Behaviour

It's a decent short drama but far from perfect and too many problems held it back. Although it was meant to be on a lighter tone and considering its short format, the drama was passing through a lot of social and workplace problems too quickly despite the drama establishing depth to some of the characters. It created some disconnect and cohesion problems along the way. A possible easy fix to the problem is having it turned into a full 12-16 episodes regular drama. The characters and their archetypes were well established and fit well in their respective roles. There was a lot of potentials to be had in the first place. Another victim to its shorter runtime was the last stretch of the story, in particular the last 2 episodes. It presented the final points of tension and jumped to the resolution very quickly and abruptly. Although it's a decent watch but at the end it was a wasted potentials.

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Budget China Town

The drama had a rough start to assemble some attractive elements for the hook but everything boiled down to its nature being bilingual and bicultural. The story itself was bland through and through, and it kept playing it super extremely safe until the end. The cast was good enough given the material they had to work with. Its excessive length didn't help its case. Despite that, the romance was somewhat brief and unremarkable, the language barrier was clearly showing. The leads chemistry was quite questionable, it came off as forced more often than not, I've seen better efforts from Kim Jae Won. Han Chae Young went through a lot, her character got robbed off, playing a secondary lead didn't fit her well. All in all, the side plots were definitely the weakest link, none of them fit well, nor were they appealing and they contributed little to nothing.

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"Heartwrenching and captivating"

I just finished this series and I m literally crying ...More Than Words" is a series that truly lives up to its name, delivering a narrative that goes beyond mere dialogue and action, delving deep into the hearts of its characters and its audience alike. Throughout its episodes, the series masterfully weaves together a tapestry of emotions, leaving viewers simultaneously moved and captivated by its heartwrenching storytelling.My favourite character was Makio.Makio's character is a poignant reminder of the power of storytelling to touch the soul and leave a lasting impact.I m sorry i believe not every viewer will agree with me but I really hated "meiko ejji parents and ejji the most(most hated).they didn't even try to search makki and lived a happy life with their child in that period makki was alone in his room ...I know makki ran away but ejji didn't even search or tried to contact him .....it was all perfect till episode 6 but after 7..I didn't stop crying because I felt so bad for makki ...The most cheerful character just became so ...? Ejji choose child and meiko over makki ...but I m glad makki was not alone in the last episode .I really hate Ejji or what he did to makki ? and Meiko (in my opinion she was really jealous of makki from the very first episode.
I m literally writing this review to relieve my anger and hatred towards Meiko and Ejji but its only becoming more and more hatred and anger?.. obviously I will never watch this series again ....?
❤️Makki (the most pitiful character. Get hurt by the people whom he love,care and trusted the most.I m really glad that in the end the writer decide to give us some clues that makki is trying to move on ..)
Ejji (I just hate him..I don't even. Want to write about him)
Meiko (the 2 hated character....she was just jealous of makki .makki was present in her hard time and look she payback to makki ...)Exclude the parents ther are just awful?

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Maskless Behaviour

The story started with a big 'who done it' type of plot where every single person on the screen was a suspect. It kept this momentum for a few episodes before abandoning the idea and the 'masks' plot half way through to shift to something else. There was no coherency in this mess and the writer was improvising the story as the episodes went on. Instead of working on the mystery, it took the lazy way at every corner, it pushed most of the weight onto just showing the incident. It revealed the mystery through the brief snippets of the incident at the beginning of every episode. The character Kang Hoo was in particular problematic to the narrative and was handled poorly throughout. The cast was good but that's it, and the supposed sismance came off as forced more often than not, even during its high moments. The entire drama was a really big mess.

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Sinked because of poor editing & writing, despite steamy looks of hot ML

This short Chinese web series was entertaining in its first half but fell halfway through completely apart. There were some hot and exciting scenes and I liked the enemies-to-lovers trope the script was going for at first. It took a turn that I did not dislike in the second half but there was clearly not enough time to make it make sense and to be interesting overall. I especially do not understand why they decided to come back on past elements from the timeline in the two last episodes of the series rather than to incorporate it as flashback in the main story.

In addition to those very strange storytelling choices, the editing was all over the place. It can be expected from that short format series but I still think that it could have been better. The introduction song was alright but overall the soundtrack was overpowering in most of the scenes. There were also some jarring sound issues (especially if you watched the series on YouTube where it was sensibly worse).

Acting-wise, I admit I somewhat enjoyed the performance of Richard Li but mostly because of a strong eye-candy factor. Overall I liked the steamy looks he was throwing at the FL but he was still lacking in the most emotional part. Ming Jia Jia as the FL did not impress me at all. It might be linked to her role and the script but I did not care that much about her character which is problematic as you want to be able to root for the heroine. Last but not least Patrick Quan delivered an over-the-top performance but given the scenario, he had clearly little room for nuances.

I would not recommend this to people as I feel the series fell apart mid-way through. The most exciting part of the drama can be seen in the intro generic, so honestly if you watch it, you have seen the best of what the show has to offer. I did not mind the choice they made regarding the romance, it was interesting but what was really disturbing is the way it was edited with the couple of last episodes coming back on past elements of the story.

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Joseonless Behaviour

I don't how I feel about the on-screen text. There's distinct level of absurdity and abnormality that's easily recognizable from a certain Korean writer, that is Im Sung Han. From writing the characters, constructing the narrative and story boarding, all felt quite familiar to her other shows, Apgujeong Midnight Sun (2014) & Miss Mermaid (2002) in particular. However, this drama is unfortunately one of her unsuccessful ones. I didn't like the direction she took with the drama. The women from Joseon were an interjection into the Dan's family, they were more like a support characters observing the surrounding and getting accustomed to living. The entire story was stagnant for 15 episodes after their initial introduction and only the last episode brought some change but it was too late. The story went through the bare minimum of characters exploration and made the Joseon women existence more useless. If anything, it reminded me of the bizarre storylines transitions and conclusion of Miss Mermaid (2002), really close when drawing parallels. On a second thought, although I'm a fan of the writer but I don't quite agree with how she writes the last few episodes of her projects.

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Another mini drama that stole my heart

Literally I liked this drama from very first shot...the development of the story is really good.cast is perfect...and I really liked their acting.will there are bit clumsy scences, but I didn't care about that things...I really liked second male lead yar...he is so good the backgroud music is also good...well I felt like I heard it some were...oats were also nice the only negative point is the acting of villan yar heis doing 100 ruppee for 5 ruppee acting which means overacting.thosnone of best mini drama these year after the tale of love and loyalty...I really liked this drama

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It was almost good-ish but..

Although similar plot has been explored before in multiple dramas, I had high hopes for this one seeing the production quality. The starting was pretty good, things were almost going her way. I ignored her family drama for the most part. As the story progressed Xue Ning and Yan Lin's story seemed to move towards a romantic one, but then she decides to be best friends.

Then Xue Ning was suddenly obsessed with Yan Lin and wanted to keep him safe. she clearly didn't fully know the motivations that led to Yan Lin going rogue in her first life (if i'm correct, he even SA'ed her?). She had her guard up against Xie Wei from the very start but Yan Lin got a free pass. She seems to think Xie Wei was a bad person (yeah, that's why Yan Lin worked with him, right?) but never thinks about where she stands.

I almost cried at the lame introduction of Zhang Zhe after all that buildup. Then she suddenly started obsessing over Zhang Zhe, almost going back to her previous ways to get him. It felt more like she wanted to feel like a good person by being with him, rather than actually loving him. Self-reflection was needed here and I'm glad she got it when Zhang Zhe's mother died for the second time. But her crying here didn't fit her character at all, then I realized it was all for the third entry in the reverse-harem, Xie Wei, so that they could hug and make-up. (again, super contrived, choking her would've been more into character for him :p) (good luck next time Tiger, villain gets the girl, for now).

As for the "plot", up until episode 25, Xie Wei seems to be in the palace for revenge. Queen Dowager seems to have played a part in the conflict that started it all. He has tried his best to keep Yan family safe while trying to remove the obstacles and that's where we are now, and I think it will continue for at least the next 5-6 episodes.

Anyway, it was an okay watch till here but I'm afraid I have to give up on episode 25. I came for a revenge drama but got a toxic-romance tropey soap opera where the plot wasn't a priority, runtime was. Still, it gets a 6.5/10 for at having good actors and production quality.

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Short & simple but better than nothing while in withdrawal.

Extra 1 is 2min 18sec and Extra 2 is 7min 59sec.
Honestly, there are fan made music videos on YouTube that are more fulfilling, but if you loved the series it's easy to watch these 10 minutes. It doesn't add much, but the show was a 10/10 for me so I'm giving this an 8/10.

Extra 1 is a voice over by QingCang giving a very generalized recap of the 300 years he and Orchid have been together so far. The lines are new but all of the scenes shown are clips taken from the original series. It's simplistic but still sweet.

Extra 2 is like two music videos. A montage of clips and dialogue from the series play during the first song.
During the second song, that continues and then it shows two things that weren't in Ep 36 (though they didn't have that much of an impact for me):

1) Shows Orchid writing something and sending it into the sky while a few lines of Chinese script play onscreen. Unfortunately, iQIYI didn't add translations for the text so I have no idea what it said. Does anyone else know?

2) Shows the bone moon re-materialize into QingCang, which wasn't shown in Ep36, but his line "I'm back" is left out, and he kisses her on the forehead instead of the lips (which is a visually pretty end tableau but not as satisfying as the original end).

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A very pleasant surprise

When I started watching this, I had no idea what this was about. I am also not familiar with any of the actors. I was pleasantly surprised by how good this was. All of the actors did a great job and are all super cute. I loved the whole concept about a night club with “hosts” and the performances were great. Love love love the main couple and Wela’s duality. But the only reason I deducted a half point from my rating was because of how they handled the love triangle. No one in love would share. It was just a bunch of boys fooling around. But that’s okay. Hope they have a lot more projects.

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Steve Jobs on Crack

Where would you even begin with this crazy hot mess? The first 3-4 episodes were acceptable despite moving too fast and creating many gaps. However, as the drama unfolded, it became clear that it was biting off more than it could chew. Right off from episode 5, the drama became an irrecoverable mess. The pacing was erratic, jumping between weak fabricated plot twists, jarring narrative and bloated segments with no sense of cohesion. The drama was throwing everything at the viewers to see what sticks. Action, thriller, fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, melodrama, the drama couldn't decide what it wanted to be nor it managed to mix any of them well. The characters felt like caricatures rather than fully developed individuals, and their motivations often seemed arbitrary, inconsistent and generally weak. If the drama wanted to go for stupid ridiculousness then why not raise the stakes to match? Not even the ending could measure up to its intent despite its "supposed" twist.

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So awesome

I love this drama, the acting is amazing and the story is reallly unique. I haven’t seen another kdrama like this ever. It is so well made and I am on the edge of my seat the entire time. The leads are doing a great job of playing off one another and the motives behind the character’s actions are more shown rather than told to the audience. I am really glad the writers really trust the audience to follow along with the story in this way. Most of the sci-fi kdramas I have seen in the past I have disliked because something about them feel false and it pulls me out of the story, but in this drama I have been fully immersed the entire time. The technology feels realistic and fantastical at the same time. That is not an easy thing to do.

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