The one and only interesting part of the whole drama is that a lot is explained about cleanliness and how to protect your food from bacteria. I at least felt I learned something despite how awful the plot was.
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A note about why I rated it an 8. There were some parts of the story that left me confused at the end. I felt there were still some unanaswered questions that lingered and a couple of scenes that were shown quite differently. Also, episode three was short on the creepy.
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Let me first address about the pace of the drama, since I think pacing seems to be so crucial to a successful drama, and something even many of the best dramas mess up on. The pacing of the storyline in You're Beautiful is dang near perfect. Never, in both times that I have watched the drama, have I felt the plot was either rushed or dragged out. It has the perfect balance of flow. As I said, I think that is very rare in dramas, even the best ones.
Next up, the cast. Now, I don't think I have read hardly any negative reviews for this drama, but I have, here and there, read of some people's negative opinions on a couple of the actors and their characters. I will start with them first. Park Shin Hye as Go Mi Nam brings a sweet performance. There are some people who think her acting is weak, but I think she portrays the innocence and complete naivety of the character perfectly, complete with wide eyed surprise and openly displaying her emotions.
I've also read in various places about how some people consider Jung Yong Hwa's performance of Shin Woo as weak. Again, I'd have to disagree with them there. After watching again, I have some to appreciate the character's quiet strength and silent affection. Just because a character is quiet and does not assert himself does not make that character weak, nor does it make it the actor weak in portraying them. I think he did a great job.
Now, as for the main lead, Jang Geun Suk as Tae Kyung, I think he was excellent. You're Beautiful was the first thing I ever saw him in, and since the first time I watched it, I have seen some of his other works. I've read how some people say his character in You're Beautiful is the same as the character he plays in Love Rain, but I totally disagree. Besides being arrogant, I don't see any similarities between them. I think his role as Tae Kyung is a lot different than any other he has played. His facial expressions are peculiar to that character, the tone of his voice, his whole style. When watching You're Beautiful, I don't see so much Jang Geun Suk as I see Hwang Tae Kyung. That is the mark of good acting. He truly makes the character's many personality flaws endearing and lovable, especially when he scowls.
A special mention here would be Kim In Kwon's supportive role of Mr. Ma. OMG this guy is HILARIOUS! First of all this has got to be the best written secondary character ever and the Hong Sisters deserve a special award just for coming up with him. Kim In Kwon makes every little hilarious thing Mr. Ma does so natural and does it all with a perfectly straight face. He steals the scene wherever he is, and many of his funniest moments are just doing little things, such as a little pleased congratulatory dance to himself while walking dawn the hall. The man is a comedic genius.
Finally, I want to add something that I only really noticed the second time around. There are many hidden meanings throughout the drama. This, I think, is what really makes me feel that the Hong Sisters were genius with this drama. If you pay attention, you're catch a few things and it's pretty cool. One that I noticed that many people may not....just watch how many times 'O tu Ka Jo?' ('What should I Do?') Is uttered throughout the drama. ;)
In the end, this drama is absolutely one of the best dramas I have ever seen. I certainly recommend this to anyone and everyone.
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Overall Rating=10: Reading about the plot, I did think it looked interesting. Handsome playboy type character falls for a spitfire freedom fighter in 1930's Japanese occupied Josoen. Well, the story is so much more than that. Because of a bet, our handsome playboy is forced to try and woo Miss Prim and Proper Freedom Fighter, and in the process, finds out a lot about himself. The side story about his ex best friend and current courtesan best friend is just as important as the main story, weaving itself flawlessly within the other. Everything is linked and everything fits, from the slapstick comedy moments to the cute romance to the intense emotional drama that starts to unfold.
The story does start off with a rather light hearted and comedic feel. As the drama progresses and the characters become more embroiled with the events, it takes a more serious turn, though such a transition occurs subtly and again, flawlessly. The pacing is everything here, and the whole drama is paced perfectly, even down to the numerous cliffhanger episode endings that leave you eagerly impatient to see what happens next. This is especially true in the last few episodes.
In the end, I highly, highly recommend this drama to anyone who is looking for a drama to watch because really, it has everything most people look for. Romance, comedy, action, drama, mystery and suspense. It kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat throughout, as well as had me laughing out loud and crying for real with the characters. Both funny and touching, it truly is a masterpiece.
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Now,if I enjoyed this drama as much I claim, why did I end up rating it a rather mediocre 7 you may ask? It's simple. Oguri Shun. As the main male character, I felt his acting was extremely weak. In fact, at no point in the whole drama did I actually feel he was conveying any semblance of a personality whatsoever. He seemed bored and uninterested in being there the whole time. Some may argue that is just the character of Sano, but I disagree. It never changes, even after the point where Sano is supposed to start feeling and expressing more interest. There is also no chemistry between he and the lead actress at all, either romantically or friendly. There's just no chemistry on screen at all when he is in the scene, no matter what kind of scene it is, period.
Would I recommend this drama this drama to others? Yes, but with the strong warning about how terrible Oguri Shun's acting is. Everything else is actually really good, but one will have to be willing to overlook the lead male's shortcomings I think.
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Despite all that, though, I couldn't, in the end, rate this drama above an 8. There are a few reasons for this. Number one, it is almost exactly like the Korean version. And I mean, exactly. Usually in remakes, they add their own flavor to mix up the story a bit. They did end up doing that here with Fabulous Boys, but until the middle of the drama. The whole beginning was pretty much word for word You're Beautiful, but in Chinese. Number two, the music is also pretty much identical. There are a few new songs, but a lot of the background music is the exact same as was used in You're Beautiful and two of the main songs were the same, as well, just sung in Chinese. The last song was original, but nowhere near as good as 'What should I Do?' Still, overall, the music, while not all of it original, was good, just not as awesome as was in The Korean version. Plus, Jiro Wang, who has an awesome voice, still doesn't quote deliver the same impact as JKS.
Speaking of Jiro Wang, this brings me to my third reason for not being able to rate this version higher. I was, all through the drama, extremely conflicted on this last point, and I still am. That is...the drama is Fabulous BOYS. Jiro, as hot and sexy as he is, is a fabulous MAN, acting alongside BOYS and a GIRL. He was wonderful in the role, don't get me wrong, but he was obviously a few years older than everyone else. I think the time for him to be playing flower boy roles is over now and in the future, I hope to see him in more mature roles.
Finally, the ending scene was a letdown. It wasn't as emotionally powerful as the same scene in You're Beautiful. The dialog was strained and not delivered as poignantly as in the original, plus, my issue with the last song, as I stated previously.
Besides those issues, it was a great drama to watch. I liked it a lot better than the Japanese remake, that's for sure. Nothing beats the original, though.
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I started this drama because of No Min Woo but the way his character was written, especially in the beginning, was horrible! I could not, at any point, see him as a romantic contender for the lead girl. In fact, I just could not see the character as a romantic partner for anyone. He came across as a child. One who has never reached puberty and likely never will. What made it so much worse was how, in the first few episodes, the writers did all they could to creep the viewer out by adding such obvious sexual inneuendo and outright blatant sexual situations meant to be comical but instead come across as cheesy and inappropriate. With the character written to behave emotionally like a 10 year old, I found myself feeling almost dirty while watching. Thank goodness the writers eventually got a clue and stopped including it. It made the rest of the drama watchable and even cute.
I still would have given this drama a lower score, though, thanks to the godawful beginning episodes, the cheesy writing and the simplistic, nothing special plot. However, what made me rate it as high as a 7 was because: 1. It did become rather cute and ended very heartwarming and 2. Jung Yoon Hak. Seriously. This guy needs a lead role now! As much as I love No Min Woo, JYH stole the show for me. I was having some major second lead syndrome going on here. His character was much more interesting and complex.
Not to mention sexy!
Bottom line. Not the best drama ever made. Mostly mindless entertainment, but is cute towards the second half. However, I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone.
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The ONLY good part of the whole drama was the old lady that Aya befriends. She was sweet and was the only likeable character in the whole drama. I still can't believe I watched the whole thing through. I wouldn't recommend this drama to anyone. There's supposedly a sequel but I don't plan to watch it.
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My biggest complaints about this movie, besides most everything, are as follows:
First off, Godzilla is supposed to be the star of the show, so to say. Unfortunately, I felt like he was more of a side character. The movie was more about the humans and the human-like xians rather than Godzilla or all the other monsters. They are there, yes, but spend only a measly amount of time in the movie blowing stuff up and fighting with Godzilla. In fact, the monster fight scenes are less than two minutes at a time. They are over quickly after a lick or two from Godzilla, and on to the next scene with the humans and xians. It's a big let down. The only exception to this is the final monster fight with Godzilla vs. King Gidorah. That one is appropriately longer and is actually rather cool, though I don't remember King Gidorah being a vampire. :\
Next is the special effects. Now, everyone knows going into a Godzilla movie not to expect anything fancy. The lack of good special effects, in my opinion, has always enhanced the greatness of the movies. Here, though. Oh lordy. >_< They seem to have wanted to go for the CGI stuff except...not with most of the monsters. So here you have some really obviously expensive special effects, all devoted to the human-mutant-xians combat stuff and the alien space ship. Some of it did look kind of cool. But then you have.....all the monsters old school. And what I mean by old school is that they are either mechanical or people in rubber suits. >_< I kid you not. It is that obvious. There is one monster that is CGI and that is Manda in the beginning, though King Gidorah at the end seems to be at least partially CGI in his introduction scene, as well. It's like they spent their budget on the special effects already and when it got time to create the monsters all they had left to use was fifty cents. >_< Also, as an added bonus, some of the enemy monsters liked to strike a dramatic pose ala Mighty Morphin Power Rangers right before they attacked Godzilla. Smh.
You know, really I could go on listing stuff, like how bad the cast was, the really horrible and corny one liners they liked to throw out there, like "Sorry I'm a vegetarian" right before impaling Ebirah, but there are just too many horribly bad things to list. There was one good thing, I will say. Mothra makes an appearance. That's about the only good thing I can say for Final Wars. Oh wait. Minilla was there too and was pretty cute. There. Two things. Wish I could say there were more positives but I can't. It's just embarrassing. After watching, I just want to hug Godzilla and tell him it's not his fault.
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The plot, while not entirely orignal, did do a pretty decent job of showing us the online world complete with hackers, trolls and cyber bullying. It felt fresh and was a lot of fun to watch. I could see myself watching this movie more than once for sure.
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This review may contain spoilers
Sucks You In
I was told this drama was disappointing and almost didn't pick it up. However, I'm glad I did! Yes, it's complicated and there isn't much romance. I still liked it! The acting was superior, especially by Joo Won and Kwak Shi Wang. It was very addicting, as I binged watched to catch up. I couldn't wait to find out what happened next.Now, the downside. There is a kind of creepy, not so subtle romantic vibe going on throuhout the drama. That bothered me. In fact, that is the reason I only rated it an 8.5. In fact, I was all set to rate it a 9 up until the end. I was expecting something different. Rather, I was *hoping* for something different. Instead, it ended on that creepy romantic vibe thing. That was disappointing. I honestly would have written the ending differently. Plus, where is Min Hyuk?! Seriously. :(
I would like to end this by saying that after watching this, Kwak Shi Wang needs a main role! I fell in love with this guy!
Anyway. I can recommend it if you like a good, mature story and have an open mind. It is really good. Just could have been awesome, had they veered in another direction at the end.
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One Wild Ride!
This was a crazy drama! The most absolute insanely addicting Thai drama I have watched! The villian, Prang, is a complete narcissistic sociopath, a master manipulator. Yes, her personality could be seen as over the top, but having actually dealt with diagnosed narcissistic sociopaths in real life, she was spot on, though much more violent than anyone I have personally known. lol She was, at the same time, both infuriating and extremely interesting to watch. Aff Taksaorn Paksukcharoen was brilliant in this role. You could see her put her mask on to decieve and then, when in private, let it fall off. This character earned a spot on my favorite villians list!Prae was a great character, too. She was a victim that grew up and comes back to seek revenge and justice for the wrongs done to her and her family. She grows to become strong and confident. However, there were times that I got annoyed she let Prang beat her up and didn't fight back.
Pi became one of my favorite characters. This is what a male lead should be! Mature, loyal and steadfast, never wavering in his love, support and respect for the woman he loves. He has always loved Prae and quietly, without her knowing, taken care of her. His protectiveness was so sexy! lol Plus the actor, Nine Naphat Siangsomboon, was remarkable. Gentle and caring, yet firm and resolute. He made the character seem real. Natural, like you are watching a real person, not an actor in a role. Little facial expressions to enhance that. I was extremely impressed.
I was disappointed with Push in this. He is the reason I started this, but his role was small. Usually, I love how he acts, but he seemed very stiff and uncomfortable in his role here.
I don't want to give anything away, but this definitely a lakhorn. It is extremely dramatic with over the top events and scenarios, but despite that, done so well! I highly reccommend giving it a try.
Also want to add:
Thank you to KatAttack and team for subbing this! No one else was and you all took the time and effort all these months. Your work is greatly appreciated!
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Made Me Nostalgic About My Own Childhood
Just as the headline says, this movie made me nostalgic about my own childhood. I was reminded of my own adventures and misadventures when young while watching this. I, too, did many of the same things, especially during summers at my grandparents' mountain house. I guess all kids are similar! Haha!Keeping it brief this time, I rate this 10/10. So cute, funny and nostalgic. You will laugh out loud and remember when you were little and did the same things! It doesn't matter that it was made in 1984. Trust me. Besides some of the kids' fashion and cars, you really don't notice at all. The movie itself felt timeless. I highly, highly reccommend!
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