Reviews

Good melodrama about family and the support of siblings when they deal with life's curve balls.

Our Days is a melodrama about three sisters who experience difficulty in their careers and marriages and how they come together to support each other through difficult times. The drama starts with Bai Bai He (as an older sister), Li Chun (as a middle sister), and Wang Yu Wen (as the baby sister.) It was refreshing to see Wang Yu Wen plays a domestically abused wife, which is different from her other rom-com characters.

I enjoyed the drama very much, especially the acting of the three female leads. Overall, I give it a 7.5 rating.

Synopsis: Xiang Zhi Jun has three daughters living in cities: Shanghai, Kunshan, and Suzhou. His eldest daughter, Xiang Qian, is 35 years old and has made significant progress in her career. The middle daughter, Xiang Zhong, is 31 and is actively striving to build her future. The youngest daughter, Xiang Nan, is 26, with a pure and romantic personality. The marriages of all three daughters face setbacks, leading the sisters to support and encourage each other. With their parents' guidance and advice, Xiang Zhong breaks free from her unreasonable in-laws and regains her confidence in managing her marriage. Xiang Qian sees through the hypocrisy of her husband, Gao Ping, and rediscovers her direction in both her career and life. Xiang Nan also overcomes her confusion and gains a more mature and clear understanding of marriage and herself.

My Reviews:
1. Good acting and script.
2. It is refreshing to see Wang Yu Wen in a mature and weak role.
3. The male characters in this drama are useless men. This is a good 4. lesson for women to choose the right mates; otherwise, their lives will be miserable.
5. I give it a 7.5 rating.

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The acting was exceptional by main CP but the storyline went downhill at mid-point.

Kill Me Love Me is a WuXia drama that starts with Liu Xue Yi (as Jing He) and Wu Jin Yan (as Mei Lin.) The drama begins with a good story of rivalry between the crown prince, Xuan Lie, and his brother, Jing He. The Qingzhou princess (Mei Lin) tries to seek revenge on her parents, who were burned to death.

The acting was exceptional between the main CP however, the acting of the 2nd CP was awful, especially the acting of Baron Chen (the crown prince). He only has one expression and the same stoic looks for a dramatic and cold demeanor. His lover, the female general, did not act well either. After the crown prince's death, the storyline went downhill from there. It was so stupid and unbearable. I finished it quickly just to see the acting of the main CP.

Overall, I give it a 7.0 rating. Wu Jin Yan's character is much better in The Double Drama.

Synopsis: Prince Murong Jing He of the Great Yan Dynasty led his Weibei Army to reclaim Qingzhou, a lost territory. His triumphant victory should have been a moment of glory. Still, soon after his army entered the city, a devastating fire broke out. Whispers spread throughout Qingzhou, accusing Murong Jing He of harboring a grudge against the people for their alleged betrayal of Great Yan. Rumor had it that the prince, now known as the ruthless "Butcher General," ordered the city to be burned. In the flames, a young girl named Mei Lin lost her entire family. Heartbroken and consumed by vengeance, she vowed to kill the one responsible for the massacre. She joins a secret organization known as the Shadow Works, where she undergoes years of brutal training after consuming a deadly poison that turns her into an unstoppable assassin. Mei Lin's first mission is finally assigned: to assassinate her greatest enemy, Prince Murong Jing He himself. Disguised as one of a hundred Xiyan beauties sent to the Great Yan as part of a political marriage alliance, she patiently waits for her chance to strike. But Mei Lin doesn't know that the man who masterminded her entire assassination mission—setting her on this path of revenge—is none other than Murong Jing He himself.

My Reviews:
1. Good acting but a bad script.
2. The 2nd CP cannot act.
3. The storyline went downhill after the mid-point
4. I give it a 7.0 rating.

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Unrealistic storyline and so cheesey with mediocre acting, but watchable.

Go-Back-Lover is a rom-com that starts with Xu Ruo Han and Li Yun Rui as high school lovers who fell out of love during their university days. They got back together on a reality show where the ML is one of the investors, and the FL is the producer of its reality show. The story is unrealistic, and the 2nd and 3rd couples were annoying and unnecessary; their storylines were ridiculous. The acting of the entire cast was mediocre.

It is lame and cliche. If you want to kill time, engage in this drama. Else, don't do it.

Synopsis: Upon returning to her old high school, Shen Xing Ruo moved into her father's friend's home, where she met his son Lu Xing Yan. While the two didn't initially get along, they became closer as they spent more time together, eventually deciding to date. However, the relationship didn't last, and they broke up during university. Years later, now both adults with their own lives, they reunite - on a dating reality show. Despite the passage of time and their rocky past, they can't ignore the sparks that still fly between them. Will Xing Ruo and Xing Yan manage to make things work this time? Or is their romance best left behind?

My Reviews:
1. Mediocre acting and a bad script
2. The plot is unrealistic. All 3 CPs must be on a reality show to Go Back as lovers.
3. It was not funny, and so cheesy and cliche, and the acting of the entire ensemble was so-so.
4. I give it a 5.0 rating.

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It is not a typical Republican-Era drama. Lot of actions and good acting from two ML

Dark Night and Dawn is a Republican-era drama that starts with Chen Zhe Yuan and Nie Yuan. I liked the drama; Chen Zhe Yuan played a different character from his usual rom-com. He is mischievous, talkative, street-smart, and kind-hearted in this drama.

Xing Fei plays a minor role in this drama, and there is no romance between her and Zhe Yuan's characters. The drama focused more on the work of the two ML characters (Lin Shao Bai and Lu Zheng Yang.) The acting is good, and the plot is okay. It is a bit long, and the bad guy, Zheng Lan Ting, took too long to capture because they dragged the drama longer than it should have been. It would be a better drama if it completes in 30-32 episodes.

Synopsis: It tells the story of the first generation of public security soldiers in Shanghai around 1950, who struggle against Chiang Kai-shek's secret agents' attempt to overthrow the New China. It revolves around two men teaming up: an intelligent young cop who is unsuccessful in the old society but is reborn and matures in New China and an old and experienced Chinese Communist Party agent.

My Reviews:
1. Good acting and a decent script.
2. The story focuses on the two ML characters and their working relationship as they investigate and capture Zheng Lan Ting.
3. No romance at all between Lin Shao Bai and Jin Yan.
4. Overall, it is watchable. I give it a 7.5 rating.

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Don't waste your time. Bad acting and bad script. I can't get past 2 episodes

A Beautiful Lie is an idol melodrama with two good-looking actors and actresses who cannot act. After two episodes, the acting was so bad; the same goes for the script. I dropped this drama.

Synopsis: A disaster-stricken area in southwest China welcomed a rescue medical team and volunteers, with actress Qin Fei accompanying the team. Everyone said that Qin Fei's volunteering was merely for show. Still, Qin Fei was earnestly committed and even risked her life to save others in a critical moment. During their time together day and night, the medical team leader, Xing Zhi Zhi, saw the resilience and kindness in Qin Fei's heart, deepening their mutual understanding. Qin Fei also discovered that many years ago, Xing Zhi Zhi was the young doctor who saved her life and reignited her hope during a dance competition accident. Their fate was already intertwined long ago.

My Reviews:
1. Bad script and bad acting. I dropped after 2 episodes.
2. I give it a 4.0 rating.

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We will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory!

We will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory! This drama leaves many lessons, leaving hurts and resentments in their rightful place, which is the past. And enjoy the things that "destiny", as Hae Jo says, is providing. And that was how, before his last journey with his beloved, he realized that there was no reason to look for answers if all that mattered was the good feeling he carried, but inside him he screamed that his father was and would always be the one who had raised him until he graduated from high school. That his great love would always be her, that his true friends were always there by his side I liked the drama, a death is sad but being abandoned is very cruel and painful!

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I liked it until it lost me

TRIGGER WARNINGS of this series: Infertility issues, illness, death.
Comedy is on the thinner side and there is also melodrama.

Looking at the ratings of this drama I feel like I watched a different one than everyone else.
I really wanted to like this series because the premise and the start had potential and there are things I liked in the portrayal of flawed characters that don't do the best of things, but sadly this just progressively lost me as episodes went on and things started to annoy me.

Overall my main two issues here are:
The execution of the plot is a mess at times, it wants to do too many things at the same time but none are necessarily solved or are just there for the pure chaos of it, it got kind of boring. I certainly didn't expect to find this show boring considering its length and how much I wanted to like it because the characters are not presented as perfect like in many other dramas. At points I felt kind of disappointed in myself for not finding it engaging enough but I literally fell asleep a few times, and I never fall asleep with series or movies. Funny enough is how I didn't even bother in going back and I don't feel I missed anything even though I missed in total probably about an hour and a half or a bit more of the total series.
Until the later episodes most of it it's just going and coming from places without enough of a substance to me, felt like a lot of padding. They're just looking for the potential father while he's dragging the girl around and the other two are following them, and the scenes with SML's mother and all that I still don't know what they added to the plot.

The second worst thing in this drama is once again the obsession with the bloodline. At points I thought it was presenting different ideas here because of the main characters and the plot in general, only to fall into the same silly ideas with the blood and how once you see your parents "you know" just because and unconditional love and blah blah blah. Equally silly was the expectation that some dude that might be his potential father would care about him just because he gave the sperm once, this is when they were theorising what that potential father might do or not for him as well as potential inheritance. And then only in the end to go back to a father that was a piece of s*** and abandoned him back in the time. "Oh, but he did go to the school though!!" someone might say, yeah, and after he was missing he didn't move a finger to find him, and apparently didn't care about her blood daughter either. I get ML needed the closure so to speak, but he said it more in the line of getting back some kind of relationship with him again, what falls again into this korean idea that parents don't do wrong and that at the end of the day everything needs to be forgiven because they're your parents, blood and "unconditional love" again.
The whole series revolves too much around "daddy issues" and I'm not a fan of this plot device.

I get it wanted to be comedy at some points but at times it was simply bad taste to me, like how FL wanted to take that baby in the beginning or when she takes ML from the hospital towards the end.
I also didn't appreciate much the duality of going from comedy to melodrama from one scene to another. I don't like melodrama in general either but I think that the comedy bits fell even more flat at times when straight before or after everyone was having a melodramatic moment. One second they're crying about something and the next it's like it never happened and everyone is happy to then remember and cry again.

There are quite a few side characters for such a short drama and I don't feel any of them was explored in depth what it would be fine if it wasn't because it feels they wanted me to care more about them than I did. SML is explored more but it could have been better in my opinion, his whole personality is more or less following the girl all around for most of the drama and it's progressed quickly to have his ending as it is.

I liked the ML for the mess he is, but I would have liked a tiny bit of growth, why is everyone still following him around when he's trying so hard to push everyone away? just leave him get lost then. It's funny that of all the things he did that was the worst for me, because as a viewer this dynamic got repetitive. He's a bad person but a good character, but I wish there had been some progression and that we didn't get the same dynamics of him rejecting people to then leave to then the others try and follow him, it got old quickly.
FL was ok for the most part until she started annoying me with her extremely childish tantrums, she spends half the show screaming. So she might be a good character again but in her case I didn't enjoy watching her.
Her side of the story is never explored enough anyway, we're given some pieces but there is never more exploration about it. She didn't even ask the bio mother anything either, she just spent the time screaming once again. We're also not given any other answer or even conclusion to her menopause thing, because it's not a black or white topic that it's how they presented it here, she's told, that's the end apparently. Her character in general revolves too much around ML and she's just a girl with two personality traits.

The ending was expected considering how the show starts and still was a bit anti-climactic in my opinion, even more that credits scene with the car driving, it's that FL with ML's body inside or what? It also felt a bit rushed since we got so many bits of their trip in a few scenes, I really wished this had been a good chunk of the drama instead of the thugs pursuing them in the first half for example.

Overall it's not an awful drama and it can be watched. I wouldn't rewatch it personally and I wouldn't recommend to people that wants happy endings, perfect characters nor to those that might be triggered by some of the topics.

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Cringe and Funny at the same time

Situational comedy, romance with tons of shines. The two main characters have too much patience. There is a state of contrast that marks the entire series, the good and bad moments are linked fluidly, with small hints for k-drama connoisseurs. It is not too overwhelmed even though it is about "mental illnesses", as much as it is a way of drawing attention to the fact that they are often encountered and should not be stigmatized. It's warm, the way each characters grows, accepts themselves as they are and discovers that they can be loved.

It's a series for the bad days where you laugh a lot, with the characters but also about the absurd situations.

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Too hyped up but, yall need to watch it

Moving on to season 2, I still feel the same about Teh he seriously annoyed me! He would complain about Oh-aew’s lack of commitment to certain things, but he failed to realize that Oh-aew never gave up on his love for him. Maybe Oh-aew was unsure about his life and career path, but he was always certain of who he loved and wanted to be with. I also felt like Teh didn't understand that life is about growth and change. The fact that Oh-aew repeatedly expressed his hurt since season 1, while Teh continued to act clueless, was baffling to me.

While watching, I often had to remind myself that there were two protagonists, as the focus felt heavily skewed toward Teh’s perspective, leaving the viewer mostly hearing his side of the story. However, whenever Oh-aew did speak, it was powerful and deeply moving. I loved how open and honest he was, which made it all the more heartbreaking to see him hurt repeatedly. It felt fitting that the final scene and argument were left for him to speak.

Overall, the series was good, even if I expected a bit more, probably because of the hype. The ending could have offered a bit more closure, but I liked how they brought everyone together. In short, it's a story of great value that showcases real people and real struggles. At times, I was getting fed up with Oh-aew too, thinking, "Just leave him!" But then I remembered moments in my own life when I didn’t leave either, and that really resonated with me as a viewer.

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Get a piña colada to watch this.

The series was honestly long overdue for me to watch, but I kept avoiding it because of the "alleged trauma" it brings—I never wanted to start! The first thing that caught my attention was that they used different actors to portray the characters as children, which helped emphasize the growth of the characters. Teh and Oh-aew are a realistic portrayal of the teenage experience. Episode 3 was such a beautiful journey of self-discovery mixed with trauma. Oh-aew is my hero. I feel like he already knew that his feelings for Bas were just fleeting lust. He was so honest and brave about his emotions; he didn’t express these feelings openly, but he knew they weren't as deep as what he felt for Teh.

I tried not to be too frustrated with Teh, because I felt he was the one struggling the most with understanding and accepting his sexuality. But he was definitely playing too much with both Oh-aew’s and Tarn’s feelings. Despite this, both characters were relatable, and the actors did an extraordinary job. However, I have to say they both cry in a way that isn’t exactly pretty!

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Great Horror Series

This was a great horror series and also one of the best series of 2024 for cdramas. Even though this show was only allowed to be aired on international platforms due to source material being a BL, I hope that cdramas are able to make more horror style shows such as this in this future. This is a highly recommended.

The Good

Strong plot! The show executed the horror theme very well and kept things engaging throughout. It didn't have any boring plots or stories in the doors throughout for me. Production was decent for a modern drama and the OST was nice. The highlight of the show were definitely the relationships between each character and the connections they formed with each other. The acting was also decent and everybody played their character well. Each of the characters were also interesting throughout the series. I appreciated that romance wasn't the main focus of this story as it is with most cdramas. It's nice to watch something different sometimes. I loved that focus of the story was on the doors. They rarely deviated from the main plot of the story with subplots which kept our attention on what mattered most in this show.

The Bad

A couple of loose ends that never was handled such as Ling Jiushi's friend still being shrouded in mystery. The last 20 minutes of the last episode fell a little flat for me but I assume it was to pass censorship. Wish ed it could have wrapped it up stronger. Would have liked to see a little more world building and character backstory for some of the other characters but was satisfied with the overall focus being on what was happening in the doors.

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Certified Immortality Clowns

Gather around, weary fans of The Husky and His White Cat Shizun, for the tale of a drama that was promised… and then promptly vanished into the void. Yes, I’m talking about Immortality, the show so mysterious that waiting for it has become an official fandom kink. At this point, it’s like that toxic crush who keeps sending you mixed signals: "Soon, babe. I’ll be there soon." Next thing you know, you’re on year three, checking the internet like a hopeless simp, holding out for a release date that’s probably gaslighting us all.

In the beginning, we had hope. The cast was and is EVERYTHING. Luo Yunxi as the elegant, stone-faced Shizun? Perfect. Chen Feiyu as his chaotic disaster disciple? Chef’s kiss. They even gave us promo photos and character shots, enough to fuel entire Pinterest boards and fan edits. For a while, we were convinced that Immortality would air any day now. Any day. Soon-ish. Probably next month. Maybe next year?

Then came… well, the wait. And we are talking waiting longer than a text back from your ex. Every few months, we would get a teaser, a leaked photo, maybe a random Weibo post and we would get excited again, thinking, “This is it! It’s really happening!” But nope. By now, I think the Immortality team might just be gaslighting us into thinking this drama actually exists. I mean, do we even know if it was filmed at this point? Or is it just an elaborate prank to drive us all a little bit insane?

But don't worry we have got our coping tactics down. Every day, fans are out here on Twitter and Weibo posting cursed memes, sassy comments and conspiracy theories about when or if this show will ever actually air. We are basically in the five stages of grief over this damn thing. We have gone from hopeful and cute to existential crisis level insane. Some fans are out here writing 100k-word fanfics to get through the pain (no judgment, I’m right there with you),while others have turned to making dark humor memes about how we are all just waiting for a drama that may never come. “Still waiting for Immortality,” one meme says, with a picture of a wrinkled old person on their deathbed. That’s us now. Old. Sad hags. Still thirsting.

If Immortality ever does air, it may just crash the internet from sheer collective disbelief. Until then, it remains the Schrödinger’s Cat of dramas: both alive and not, both real and just a cruelly pixelated illusion.

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