Watched in 2021

If you don't take this drama seriously then it's a lot of fun. North Koreans watching smuggled copies of this must be laughing their heads off grimly at the distorted depiction of their country. But who cares, underlying this is the Korean yearning for and terror of reunification. All the actors play over the top and there are many re-playable scenes (that's my definition of a much-enjoyed drama). The second half drags a bit, a common fault in dramas that gradually lose their sense of fun and so start dipping in the box for melodrama tropes to keep things going. The lead romance is constructed on top of a whole series of coincidences that are gradually revealed. Like I said, don't take it seriously, just sit back and enjoy yourself.

The setting is a suburban political light drama, the story line is about a young woman's growth and her romance. She's a wonderful role-model for girls and women, not worried about maintaining an image, but rather in being playful, daring, and true to herself. In that respect, a bit like Kim Sam Soon, but I much preferred this drama. The man is odd-looking, a bit obsessional, but a loyal and devoted lover, and has no insecurities about serving her and witnessing her rise.

I wanted to like this, the blurb was enticing, so many people loved it, but every episode there were numerous moments that pissed me off. It was full of stereotypes and cliches about psychiatry, masquerading as factual information. This is only going to further the ignorance of the general public about mental health. I don't think it makes any difference that it was made in Korea; the stereotypes are typical of Western popular media. Clearly the writer and director didn't do any research. The actor playing an autistic man did a passable job, it looks like he did some research, but some aspects of the story/directing such as his increasing physical affection were facile and unrealistic. Grabbing a knife by the blade might have worked the first time it was used, but it's a worn-out cliche and no sensible person would actually do it, no matter how fired up. The childhood friends who become lovers; another cliche as if it's the only way people can truly fall in love. The character playing the publishing manager was so highly strung, it's unbelievable that he could have worked effectively so that the female writer could become so wealthy. The hysterically cackling female serial killer was incredibly frustrating and is another cliche that has nothing to do with real life. She was a stereotyped wicked witch, which I suppose is in keeping with this story based on folk tales.

The story is average and predictable but the main actors are good and make it a worthwhile watch. The main character is a professional pansori singer and so of course is great in the many singing sequences in the story. The child actor has a fine voice and presence too and I would have enjoyed more singing from her. There's a lot of singing and music in the this movie, at times backing the traditional singing with modern music styles which I found a bit annoying, especially when it drowned out the singers' voices. I don't know the details of the Simcheong story and I think such knowledge would have helped enjoyment of the in plot which the father character invents the story of Simcheong episode by episode by mixing up the story of his own family (sort of like in Shakespeare in love). I presume this is the conceit of the movie rather than real history, but that's OK.

Initially Hsien-tien appears hyperactive and self-centred, despised by the strict parents of the school for her live-streaming activity, as they also look down on her mother because she is a single mother and runs a bar, but we gradually discover that Hsien-tien is a generous and loyal friend, and her mother is completely accepting and supportive of every decision of Hsien-tien's, in stark contrast to the other tyrannical and competitive parents. The stoic Toad is a steadfast and never-demanding friend to Hsien-tien, and totally deserving of her kiss and her love by the end of the series. Hsien-tien's (nearly-) always cheerful and forgiving nature inspires the whole school student community to stand up for her and for themselves.

If you're going to make a hospital drama with medical events central to the plot, GET THE FACTS RIGHT. Emergency departments have separate entrances for the ambulances; the paramedics do not have to race through the main hospital lobby and risk crashing into the public who are milling there. If a grown man put all of his weight like that into cardiac massage on a three-year old child, he'd crush the child's ribs and rupture his heart. Surely common sense would tell you that, even without any medical training. And by the way, if you don't know how to do cardiac massage, DO NOT LEARN IT FROM WATCHING DRAMAS. It is a lifesaving technique that every member of the public should learn, and the depictions in dramas are wildly inaccurate.
A medical team would not attempt resuscitation with the patient's relative amongst them, howling in their ears and interfering with their concentration. She would be taken to a separate room and supported by a staff member so as not to witness the distressing procedure. In dramas every patient has an IV line whether they would need it or not.
Evidently the director could not trust the story and the actors to move our emotions, but repeatedly resorted to medical drama cliches, which are ridiculous and necessarily lack real emotional force because we have seen them numerous times before.

I don't know if this is how things work in Korea, but given that the team were all highly skilled surgeons, professors, and heads of their department, they were all about 20 years younger than they should be where I live and work.

Yes, the amateur band practicing a song in each episode was fun, and it resonated b/c I've been there.

Working my way through Kore'eda's earlier work. This low-budget gently-paced movie is a meditation on the best moments of a life; can a life with all its moods and contradictions be summed up in a single moment?

I started watching this on a plane and after a quarter hour decided it was totally not for me - it's about zombies, no interest of mine. Then I read some reviews, including some that put it at the top movie of the year, that said there is a twist part way through, so I tried again and totally enjoyed it. It’s very entertaining (in fact it's hilarious), but I can’t tell much without spoiling it, so give it a try and stay for at least half way. 

The two lovers are gentle and considerate. Although we see them confronted with difficult choices, there isn't any backstory about the leads and we don't see their struggle with the decisions, so ultimately this film lacks depth. I watched this after tracking down the work of Son Ye Jin, after enjoying her work in Be With You and Crash Landing on You.

It's a tad too long, but the photography and scenery are extraordinarily beautiful. Amidst all that is a family saga in a provincial city, of many characters, each fascinating, each flawed and human. The camera work, inspired by the ancient scroll of the title, consists of many long panning shots, including one that goes for some 20 minutes and follows a couple along a riverside as one swims alongside the other, then they walk and talk.

One wrist-drag is more than enough for me, and this drama seems to have one in every episode. And of course it's always the man who does it. It just takes a simple twist to break a grip like that, except no female in any drama I've seen ever does it. Please help me to understand this, is there something masochistic in women that makes them actually get turned on by this physical abuse? Then there's the mother who literally slaps up her grown-up son at the drop of the hat, which is simply bizarre, especially when no-one tells her she's behaving like a toddler. But when the supporting female character is best friends with the surgeon who took out her cancerous stomach, that was the last straw for me. Apparently some people love this drama and think it's a classic.
[Further; still trying to watch this through] Both the leads have poor self-esteem. She's "in love" (?why) with a man who is too gutless to admit his feelings for her and so treats her cruelly at every step. He's such a coward he can't face up to being "in love" (?doesn't that mean caring deeply for someone) with someone who apparently ticks none of the expected boxes. The strong point of this drama is that the FL is not slim, young, or very pretty (and I can't think of any other drama with such an exception), and she bravely talks straight to all the messed-up people who surround her. But this is not a love story, it's about wounded people taking out their traumas on each other.

The best crime dramas explore deep issues and this is one of them - the clash of suicidality and living in hope. I've been watching The Light On series (because they're excellent) over the past few months and had to keep reminding myself that this time we're in Taiwan. The final two episodes were the best of all (how many dramas can boast that?) and provided a redemptive culmination. The scientist's daughter, who only appears in brief flashbacks through the series and is portrayed as a defeated and traumatized teenager, finally appears onstage in the penultimate scene with startling presence and power.

The story and acting are pretty average, but nevertheless I found this an interesting glimpse into everyday life in Taiwan (and consistent with several other movies and dramas, even when the genre is quite different) e.g. the role of temples and spirit mediums in everyday life, the discipline officer at the school. However the lead female looks ridiculous in that wig and was always whining (even if she had good reason to) and it became clear she was deeply unhappy with the burden of being a spirit medium. I lost interest after 4/6 episodes.

Four separate parts, each a conversation between two people, meeting in a cafe. The enjoyment in watching is to read between the lines and figure out the underlying story, as well as the emotional subtext.  Well-done, if you like this sort of thing (such as the monologue series Talking Heads by Alan Bennett).

He treats her like a servant, confronts her cruelly about her self-doubt, and somehow we're meant to see this as masculine, then he beats up her ex-boyfriend in case we didn't get it. Somehow this is all forgivable because he can also be caring and because he knows how to turn her on. So she falls for this man some 30 years older, which if you ask me is because she's hungry for a father figure. Presumably this reflects traditional Japanese values in how men see women and what women are supposed to put up with. The reason I stuck with this all the way through is because there's so much beautiful Japanese village scenery, and I truly miss cycling there and probably won't be able to for another couple of years.

A slice-of-life ordinary family drama in which a funeral brings to the surface longstanding resentments and grudges, and in therefore provides space for some healing and repair. Some people find this sort of thing more boring than watching paint dry, some like me find it enthralling. But is it real life in Chinese/Taiwanese society that when parents separate, the sibling group is also split and siblings are even kept secret from each other?

A chapter in the life of Japanese author Akutagawa Ryunosuke. Typically the movie blends his  actual experiences in Shanghai and the stories they apparently inspired. The street scenes are amazingly immersive; revolution is in the air and the protagonist thinks it is sorely needed; the facists had not yet taken over in Japan. Matsuda Ryuhei who is a veteran actor, seems a bit wooden here, and we don't really engage with any of the characters.

I'm not a fan of horror, but watched this b/c of my interest in Taiwan and its history. In fact the horror elements in this were cliche and silly, and the political context got confused in the dream/nightmare/flashback fragmented storytelling. Somehow every Asian school story has a teacher-student romance, another cliche.  And of course real history and the things humans do to each other is far more horrible than the ghosts and monsters of fiction.

A story about how not to do grief.

Don't be fooled by the cheery three-generation family scene in the poster. This two-part drama is almost unrelentingly bleak. The first episode is about a family in grief. They are frozen, shut-down, withdrawn, and sundered from each other. As is so often the case in Korean dramas, they are in desperate need of communication but can't. We are not shown anything of their lives together before the death, and so we can't feel any connection with them and we can only observe, and there are no lighter moments to provide some relief.
In the second episode they start to talk, but a culture of blame means that all they can express is rage and crushing guilt. The husband is also trying to care, but he is accused of not grieving because he is not evidently suffering enough. Eventually the truth behind the death emerges accidentally, not because anyone is genuinely trying to find understanding. The real culprits are not within the family, but are a narcissistic and abusive husband/father, and the contemptuous male-dominated corporate culture. This drama is apparently a story for women, and finally most of the women of the story start to care for and support each other, but it's only hurriedly depicted near the end of the second and final episode.
Far too much grief, not enough background story to engage us with this family, and not nearly enough about their repair and healing. The stars I gave this were basically because I didn't drop this one half-way, but that was mainly in hope that there would be a point to all this suffering. In the end, it wasn't worth the ride.
The acting was convincing, but it didn't require any subtlety or skill. They had to depict either shut-down or enraged.
The background music was minimal and I only noticed it near the end, when it seemed to be working to lift us out of the bleak mood, because the story was not strong enough to achieve that unaided.

A complex love triangle between a girl who loves a guy who loves another guy who loves the girl, played over a decade or so of the progression of Taiwan from military rule to liberal democracy, and framed by students energetically uniting in protest again authority. Kwai Lun Mei previously seen in Blue Gate Crossing; she has a strong and physical presence.

Set of interlinked stories of various people, who suffering the cruelty and selfishness of the people in their lives, are given support and redemption by strangers they meet on the local suburban train, and then in turn give acts of kindness. Maybe these are too good to be true, but we need to be inspired.

Two lead female characters, one who is strong from the outset but needs to grow in wisdom, and one who needs to grow in both. I have many minor criticisms of this drama, but the story and the characters pulled me in from the outset and kept me hooked to the end. The lively discussion here on MyDramaList attests to the quality of this drama. There are many aspects of this story to discuss and debate, including the roles of women and men, and what makes good government. How much is this an entertaining escapist story, and how much is it relevant to the times in which we live?

This drama is amoral, bizarre, and one of the most unpleasant dramas I've ever seen. I thought from the blurb it might be about vigilante justice, but it's not even about revenge as other reviewers are saying. Since each episode is set in a different school, the only ongoing character is the titular Nanno. She actually lures the characters into their misdeeds and therefore is partly responsible. She's not just exacting revenge on the behalf of others, she's a predator. This drama seems to be saying that there is no difference between thoughts and deeds, and if you think something evil then you deserve to be punished (I'm thinking of ep 2 & 3 here, not the first ep when the teacher had already been up to no good). Nanno has superhuman powers, we are given no background understanding of her, and she delights in her cruelty, laughing her gloating and mocking laugh at the climax of each episode. Put that together and one could say she's demonic. And therefore we can't identify nor sympathize with any character. This drama has no interest in showing the best of human nature,  but rather how to solve problems in the most selfish and destructive way. Three episodes were enough for me and I don't see from reading reviews that it's going to get any better or be worthwhile seeing through.

You can see where the plot will go from the outset: impulsive young man decides to pioneer growing organically-farmed apples for the sake of his allergy-prone wife. Things go from bad to worse and then even more worse, and then in a miraculous moment the problem is solved, the orchestral accompaniment surges, all is forgiven and everyone lives happily ever after. Watch the Biggest Little Farm for a factual and detailed account of how organic farming actually works.

Gangster finds himself taking care of his spunky estranged daughter after her mother suddenly dies. He tries to distance her from his dangerous lifestyle, but she idolises him, partly because of his absence in her life, partly because she has inherited some of his toughness and she identifies with him. She fits in well with his associates who welcome her into their largely masculine world. But this is a tragedy of sorts and things can't end well. I prefer believable happy endings (i.e. they have to be earned by hard work) and so this one loses some stars from me.

Chen Yu showed her strong acting skills in The World Between Us,  but this one is a standard love-triangle movie in which the drama relies on the usual cliche miscommunications and misunderstandings, and only requires competent acting.

Ancient military epic full of fiendishly sadistic maimings, abundant explosions, and soldiers forming picturesque formations in robotic precision, with a bit of politicking, romance, sex, and light humour for the occasional palate cleanser. Spectacular photography, and astounding analogue special effects. One of the two (only) female characters protests a woman's restricted domestic role and uses it to her advantage, the other makes a good fist of beating men at their own game, along with a secret romance that bridges the otherwise unbridgeable gulf between the masculine enemies. 

The theme of this enjoyable drama is that persistence, steadfast friendship, and integrity will eventually triumph over ruthless corporate greed. The lead couple each suffered childhood hardship. He copes by being "good" and never settling down; she copes by hardening her heart and planning her escape. The secondary couple are both chaebol scions who reject their ruthless parents and find self-esteem and fulfillment in learning to stand on their own two feet. All four grow in the course of this story and that for me, makes a satisfying drama series. But there weren't any of those memorable scenes we love to replay, and there were a lot of plot thread questions left hanging that would have made a more satisfying final episode.

Yet another romantic comedy, stands out by its Icelandic setting and its running theme of fertility and food/frozen foods and frozen eggs, including a parallel dream/fantasy subplot amongst the cells in the freezers of the fertility clinic. Made in Taiwan, so of course it's sexier than films from the mainland.

A bright and studious woman trapped in a stifling marriage with a lazy farmer, escapes to love with a small-town car washer, pushes on with her studies with his support, but nearly loses it all to an unforeseen major setback.  Movie ends on a hopeful note for a better future. Movies like this show the real China, the hardscrabble rural life amidst stunning scenery, the downtrodden role of women in society. The characters are all too gloomy and taciturn for us to develop much sympathy for them.

Set in a Taiwanese army brothel on an island near the mainland, but the central story is the harsh coming of age of a young soldier assigned there to mind the women, because he couldn't handle the physical discipine of the combat unit. Needless to say, the women have led tragic lives, at least the little that of their stories that are revealed to us. 

Totally different than the movie (a cheap horror movie), this is a drama of multi-generational trauma and the long struggle to repair. At the heart of the story are a pair of male teacher-female student relationships, one clearly exploitative and abusive, the other presented as noble, and I have a problem with that. The setting is the period in Taiwanese history of the harshly repressive Kuomintang dictatorship, and within that the patriarchal corruption of teachers, and the irresponsibility and selfishness of parents. You could take either as a metaphor for the other. The two female students help each other to find freedom and empowerment, but that this happens in the context of a ghost story, and that justice and revenge are obtained through horror-story acts of violence, suggests that true redemption is not possible in reality.

Half of the third episode hinges on three separate and extremely unlikely plot coincidences. Fourth episode, the ML promises to the dominating and possessive father that he will never reveal his feelings for the daughter, and later overhears her guiltily pretending to deny her feelings. I don't know if I'm going to be able to stay for much longer. Is this how relationships work in Korea, or just tired drama cliches?

10 out of 20 episodes watched and I'm going to drop it; I've given it a fair chance. The newspaper office feels like a bunch of teenagers running around on a treasure hunt run by capricious teachers. The LF and LM both act like teenagers, in fact most of the characters do, despite being adults. The plot is driven by extraordinary coincidences and unbelievable miscommunications explained by improbable events. The scriptwriter doesn't know how to write a believable story with real character development.

The FL is so confident in dealing with every person and situation, it's hard to believe she hasn't already confessed to her crush. The actor playing Zhang Ming Rui has a natural style (my favorite actor in the drama and I'd watch him again) playing a very likeable character. The dialogue in this drama is more sophisticated and interesting than most other university/school idol dramas (that I've watched, anyway).

The final couple of episodes were fragmented and unsatisfying, after a rather enjoyable series.  Huainan behaved like a total dick, making a unilateral decision to cut off their relationship without respecting Luo Zhi's right to make her own decision, and then stealing her diary. He deserved more than a light thump from her. In the last episode, a lot of happy endings thrown in that had nothing to do with the story and were like those incredibly sweet Indian sweets after a curry meal, especially the wedding costumes at the end.

Don't be fooled by all the smiling faces in the posters. This is a dark story about a love triangle, and one of the women has a series flashbacks of being physically abused as a child. The story seemed muddled and unfocussed. The vertiginous views from a Shanghai skyscraper kept me clutching my armchair, and waiting for one of them to fall or jump off (they didn't). Gloomy ending, and several hospital visits along the way. Lots of Shanghainese, some Japanese.

Two episodes was enough.  The two leads are mannered actors and none of the comedy worked for me. At least I presume there was comedy.

First the movie, later to the anime and series. Sister discovers while in an alternate reality, that her brother's relentless teasing is actually a set of distractions to protect her from their parents' impending divorce. As the movie progresses the brother is revealed more and more to be totally selfless, to an almost unbelievable degree in comparison with his behaviour at the beginning. And so of course a tearful finale ensues.

Nothing like any other Chinese movie I've ever seen, and apparently it was made in Hong Kong, which may explain that, although it's all spoken in Northern Mandarin. The story appears surreal; four quirky young women working in a cafe which is visited by various bizarre customers, but gradually the jigsaw pieces coalesce into a meaningful story about regaining memory. Unfortunately the background piano music is far too foreground and often drowns out the speaking. The location is mostly in the picturesque cafe, festooned with all manner of objets d'art and pop-culture pieces. Some of the food sequences reminded me of the surreal films of Svankmejer.

Prepare to suffer alternating outrage, anguish, and despair at this story of cyclic endemic sexual and physical violence in a school for the deaf, in which the teachers are ineffective or complicit, and the parents are overwhelmed. At least the Korean movie "Silenced" sees justice done in the end. As for the Ukrainian movie "The Tribe", also about a deaf school, it was so traumatizing I couldn't finish it. Lots of stars for the quality of the movie making and acting, few stars because the story is so bleak.

Jung Eun Ji plays an exuberant character just like in Reply 1994, while Chae Soo Bin shows her range by playing a villain. The plot line is not original but is done so well, with plentiful tension, romance, humour, and joy. The brightest kids gradually bond with the dumbest kids, become the underdogs against toxic parents and a corrupt school administration, and gradually conquer all, each overcoming their personal demons along the way. No wasted moments in just twelve episodes.

I had already read that DramaBeans gave a "Worst Forgiveness Award" (i.e. lamest) for the bad character, and was on edge while watching this drama that there would be an unsatisfying ending, but I disagree, IMHO the character was sufficiently contrite and apologetic, and anyway by then the team was so bonded that it seemed almost inevitable that they would forgive. The disgraced character in hospital gets sent friendly forgiving videos from the rest of the group scene is similar to the one in the Korean version Queen's Classroom.

The script is tried and true and now its fifth iteration (Korean, Japanese, Philipino, Vietnamese, now Chinese). This version is as exuberant and sentimental as the others (except I haven't seen the Philipino version) and just as good.

The story is a simple episodic tale of the gradual rise of a female cook in Edo, forever prevented from reuniting with her childhood friend due to the strictures of the Yoshiwara milieu, and it's hard to see why it has attracted at least three versions (the two-part movie in 2012, the series in 2017, and now this single movie, which has the shortest total time and is thus most simplified version of the story). This version is as enjoyable as the others, and distinguished by its stills of dishes in the story (like all good TV cookery shows). Apart from the sundered friends, the potential romantic pairing also never resolves. This movie seems to be saying that you can't have friends or partners and so must deal with this by cooking good food for everyone.

I haven't watched any "contract marriage" dramas before (and straight-out romance dramas are not my usual fare). Given that it has taken external pressures and a fake marriage to force these two people into the same place, clearly they're both so inhibited that the best we can hope for is a slow burn rather than fireworks. The fun and games, and the expressive moods, come from the two supporting cast couples (who are all more interesting than the lead couple).
This would be the first Asian drama I've watched (and I've watched quite a few Japanese /Korean /Chinese /Taiwanese dramas) where people have grown-up attitudes and feelings about non-marital sex, casual sex, contraception, women's sexuality etc etc. Many dramas show women suffering sexual harrassment, while this is one of the few showing women addressing this assertively and powerfully. This restores my faith in the possibilities for those cultures. I suspect that such attitudes are prevalent, but that there are forces censoring what can be depicted on television. I've seen a few Korean and Japanese movies with more open sexuality, but alas there are often bad consequences, indicating an underlying conservative morality.

Watching four hours of a husband treating his wife and children abominably, and her silently submitting, is not my idea of entertainment. This is based on her memoir, so maybe that was her revenge at the end. Or perhaps in an indirect way, this is a feminist text for Japan. Behind every great man there is a woman, but that's slim comfort for the woman.

I always find the acting of Hasegawa Hiroki exaggerated and unnatural, but that seems to be a common style in Japan.

The story is flawed with some extremely traditional Japanese values: that an older man protects the younger girl who comes into the couple relationship naive and inexperienced, marriage is the only worthwhile relationship etc. These traditional values are unwittingly echoed in the scenery: the school and home interiors are gorgeous pre-war timber buildings, not at all like the modern structures we're used to seeing in Japanese movies.

In Korea this would be called a fusion drama i.e. historical setting, but with anachronistic modern features (the scientific detection, medical autopsies, abdominal surgery, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, etc). It's a thoroughly enjoyable yarn that celebrates the intellect of its two leads (rather than looks, fighting prowess, etc).

An enjoyable TV movie that lightly dramatizes Japanese xenophobia and exploitation of immigrants, on the other side two young troubled/tramatized Japanese youths who are each healed by the welcoming and caring of same immigrants.

A rip-roaring rollicking space flick packed too full of multiple languages, confusing spaceship dogfights, and the Korean obsessions with contacting the dead, bloody fistfights, crazed villains, and cute children.

The colours were too bright, the sounds too loud, the action too fast, the characters and the plot not engaging. If religion is the opiate of the masses, and soma what kept the populace docile in Brave New World, does cinema play the same role in China these days?

Slice of life movies, in which ordinary people do ordinary things, can be paradoxically engrossing, but not this one for me. I didn't care about any of the characters, probably a factor was that most of the camera work was long shots, especially in the intimate scenes, so that the viewer never felt involved. And the message of this movie? Life is hard, most if not all of the time.

Yet another chinese fantasy movie, presumably aimed at teenage boys and whoever is forced to accompany them, the plot relying solely on the magical, the bizarre and the downright grotesque rendered in photorealist CGI, and frequent fight scenes, preferably all together. Not enough to keep me even to half way through.

The usual cliches of sports movies: we know they'll win by the end (in drama series, they can lose b/c they need to progress in further episodes); the stern unrelenting male coach, the forging of team spirit; the kind female teacher supporting; the supportive grandparents, the unsupportive emotionally cut-off father; the snobby studious classmates, etc. This one relies overmuch on loud music to intensify the competition scenes, but then what can you do otherwise? The story skimmed quickly over other adolescent girls' issues, such as dating, the pressure to be slim etc.
Add points for most of the actors being actual tug-of-war athletes in past or current competition, built for strength and weight rather than anorexic slimness. And it was good the way the male team and their coach  were friendly with the female team and coach after their competition.
I feel a bit petty commenting that Guo Shu Yao is just as pouty as she was in The Teenage Psychic. Not quite sure how she gets these lead roles.

Frenetic song-and-dance musical all with a comic mood. Couldn't stand it for very long.

A high school romance story; lots of enjoyable music, mostly classical piano (since it's a specialist music school). The first half plays like a sweet teen romance, Kwai Lun Mei smiling most of the time (which I for one, enjoyed), with the added joy of two clever minds sharing the thrill of their love of playing and listening to music, and then in the middle a sudden mystery twist, the second half full of sadness and longing. The main actors are both fine pianists; no silly miming in their many performances. The early twentieth-century school building and the similar homes, along with the European classical music, gave this setting a strangely European aura.

The title seems unsuitable for this harrowing drama which depicts the lives of several people some seven years after a shopping mall collapse disaster. He copes by suffering in silence and exploding into anger and violence whenever he feels this facade threatened, she copes by suppressing her own needs and instead devoting herself to caring for others, especially her parents who are both stuck in pathological grief. Slowly the various characters heal the only way they can, by connecting with each other, sort of exchanging coping methods and therefore developing a more functional range of strategies and some choice. It's a slow process and barely gets there by the final episode.
Almost all of the characters express affection paradoxically by angrily accusing and shouting at each other. Sometimes it's amusing, but other times it becomes a drag. It's probably intentional by the scriptwriter to represent how damaged all the main characters are, but some more range would have been acceptable. An exception was the fascinating and likeable Sang Man character. So childish at times that he seemed to be intellectually disabled, and yet sometimes wise and complex. He spoke Mandarin at one point, which suggests he had a backstory that wasn't explained in the drama (or maybe I missed it).
The main flaw, which fortunately doesn't ruin this fine drama, but intrudes on the final two episodes, is a regrettably all-too-often trope of korean dramas, in which a doctor treats a close family member.
Tae In Ho always seems to get roles playing narcissistic petulant childish bad guys. I wonder if he enjoys it, or yearns to play a more honourable and likeable character?

One-hour TV comedy about a young woman who enters a Go competition in the hopes of winning enough money to pay the rent. The game itself is hardly mentioned. It mostly consists of gags featuring the various weird competitors, and the lead character's cynical responses.

Woman with past romantic troubles (which are gradually revealed during the movie) places an ad looking for a husband. In the movie someone comments that all the decent men are settled in relationships e.g. the sympathetic male friend she occasionally meets with and discusses her liaisons. The movie is a therefore a catalogue of the worst of Taiwan's single males that she meets, with plenty of laughs and cringeworthy moments .

Not so much a coming of age story as a slice of coming of age story. Filmed by an ethnic-Japanese Hokkaido native, but otherwise the actors are Ainu and the setting a well-known Ainu village. The story is thin, and padded out with many outdoor seasonal scenes, and scenes of Ainu cultural activity that are not directly relevant to the plot. It follows a mid-teen boy, wanting to escape his Ainu heritage, while the elders gently try to attract him into their traditions. Their mistake is involving him in the secret traditional bear-sacrificing ritual, although the ending was ambiguous. The marginalization of the Ainu and the ignorance of the majority Japanese is satirized.

Feel-good/feel-sad movie that plays out as you'd expect from the beginning premiss: terminally-ill mother writes birthday cards for her daughter's future birthdays up to age 20.  The only mini-surprises are the the episodes along the way, but everything goes in conventional G-rated directions, none of the minor stories and characters are explored in any detail, and the mother's final card and bowing out, occurs when - you guess.

Unique? to see a Japanese movie addressing Japanese wartime atrocities. This movie is suspenseful with unexpected twists in the first half. and then becomes fragmented, almost dream-like in the second half, and the story seems full of gaps. It feels like a biopic, sticking to the facts at the expense of an engrossing narrative and losing its thrust in the second half, but apparently it's fictional.

Bittersweet love story, teaching us to make the most of the moment, to treasure first love but not hold on to it desperately, punctuated by Greg Hsu's cheeky grin. Tends to be episodic, and our lead pair pass 15 years from teens into adulthood without visible ageing. Evidently is a Chinese production, set in some vaguely unspecified Chinese location, and Hsu speaks Mandarin with his Taiwanese accent. Is this the sort of thing that we can expect if the CCP invades Taiwan?

This mostly episodic gallimaufry has a mix of ingredients to please every palate: medical dramas involving threats to life and limb and tortuously challenging decisions; several playful romances mostly free of angst; the joy of making music with friends (but why don't they have an audience, even their various partners? they're good enough); hilarious rivalries and teasing amongst the males; an elderly couple growing old gracefully and still full of joie de vie; and no dastardly villains other than the relentless work schedule.

Looks like some people with an extremely limited budget made a little drama series, and had a lot of fun, and I wish them well. I think with such production restraints, the story has to be strong, and unfortunately too much of this happened in the human's narration, not in actual action. I found the story confusing anyway, which is a problem given that the limited time meant there wasn't much to keep track of. The GL part was implied more than actually happened, but of course any more diversity in relationship types like this is welcomed.

This drama is seriously messed up in matters of consent. She repeatedly, clearly and emphatically says "No", but we're supposed to believe that actually she wants him. He repeatedly, clearly and emphatically is told "No" but he keeps harrassing her, even forcing himself on her physically, and maybe we're supposed to admire his persistence as masculine. "Lust' is definitely no excuse for this despicable behaviour, but actually I don't think he lusts for her. He gets a kick out of manipulating her, over and over again, and that's classic narcissism (notice how even when he seems to be praising her, he's actually talking about his own needs). Watch and learn: if anyone is treating you like he does, then get as far away as you can and absolutely cease all contact. If you are treating someone like that, then be warned you have no real friends, only the ones you manipulated, and you will eventually die lonely.
Maybe I'm taking this too seriously, but reading other reviews here indicates that watching this through is not going to provide any kind of satisfying conclusion to this sorry story.

Set in the brothels of Shanghai in the late 19th C, this claustrophobic movie - every scene is set indoors in lamplit rooms without windows - consists of a series of chapter vignettes, each named after one of the "flower women", who only have their rivalries for customer's favour (i.e. money) and opium to while away the tedium until their few short good years have been used up. I had neither, and couldn't make it past 40minutes. What else could you expect in such a patriarchal society?

This is a grim and violent movie about an ordinary family trying to survive extreme circumstances, and they barely succeed, and not by honorable means. Don't watch this if you're wanting an evening of light-hearted escapism.

Quiet, understated slice-of-life movie that begins in the Osaka suburbs, about a young woman who after her loving husband inexplicably commits suicide, moves to a seaside fishing village for a second marriage. Love develops between them, her son and his daughter bond, but she still needs to try to understand her first husband's death. The camera is often distanced, accompanied by close-up sound, and interspersed with many still-life scenes. Working through Kore'eda's oeuvre, this being his first feature film.

Took me two years to get to this one. An almost-winning combination of con story, farce, social satire (sometimes the symbolism overpowered the story and characters), often hilarious until marred by an ultra-violent climax that showed a failure of imagination (so many ingredients were in place for a brilliant denoument).

Bad behaviour that nobody confronts (a physician who literally shoves the pharmacist around the room, a patient yelling impatiently in the pharmacy waiting area) by the antagonists to the titular heroine, renders the script more like a children's story than a realistic adult drama. Is it coincidence that the baddies are males in authority, who are subtly resisted by the wily females with less or no power, showing up the males to be cowards under their bullying facade?
Apparently we're supposed to admire the dedication of the pharmacists who work at a frenetic pace, while packing pills or running around the hospital, when in reality such behaviour would inevitably lead to an accident, physical or pharmaceutical, and staff burnout. If we saw that on a factory production line we'd call it exploitation. Nobody confronts this either, instead they all feel proud of their submission. There's a subtle message in so many Asian dramas that you just have to put up with oppression, or if you try to resist, few people will support you.
The climax of the first episode consists of a long platitudinous speech by the heroine. The director evidently realised this would bore the viewers, so tried the ramp up the emotion by swelling music, and throwing in a sakura-snowing avenue for good measure.
Dropped this after three episodes. Too much contrived sentimentality.

Nothing much new here. This Taiwanese romantic comedy does have a lot of comedy, but the romance is fairly pedestrian.

The off-the-wall humour of this series cracks me up numerous times each episode (six so far). The young actors appear to be having loads of fun hamming it up.
Ep12 would be craziest 45 mins I've ever seen on television. Everybody from the scriptwriter, director, camera, to all the actors were evidently drunk or on drugs.
I reckon this show subtly subverts the Chinese censors. This set of episodes at the school military cadet camp is making fun of the whole military patriotic thing. And I think there are several subtle homoerotic references. The series remains inventive to the last. Every time things are about to becoming maudlin, there is an off-the-wall LOL comedic moment; and every time it seems like it's just going to be laughs, Sun Qian puts her heart totally into it and makes us cry. Is there any other Chinese comedy series anywhere near as good as this?

"You can find many colors being used in many ways in this world, but purple has never been used for political purpose."
This superb drama is about how humanity is expressed in art (in the drama, painting and acting), how politics and violence so often try to ruin the freedoms of artistic expression. Bonds of friendship, family, and true romantic love give people the strength to resist and remain hopeful. It appears to be based on the lives of real-life Taiwanese artists who are named and their works shown in the course of the story.
It's about how the native Taiwanese Hakka were persecuted by the Japanese, then the Kuomintang, and of course now we all fear their persecution even further by the CCP.
Every actor plays their role well. There is no melodrama nor over-the-top villains. The Japanese occupiers are at times represented as ineffectual, and other times even as nurturing of Taiwanese culture (in marked contrast to the brutal occupations of Korea and China). This engrossing drama includes aspects of the occupation of Taiwan by Japan, a set of passionate artistic characters initially straining against the strictures of parents and family business and later against political repression, vivid locations (the tea manufacturer, the Beijing opera troup, the artists' kissaten), Alice Ke who despite not being conventionally beautiful is fascinating to watch (she was great in Someday or One Day and so I searched for more of her work and found this drama). The two Peking opera singers are evidently authentically trained, and their scenes skilfully enhance the dramatic moods.
The final two episodes are suddenly dominated by the political events of immediate post-war Taiwan, and the three families/groups of characters were have come to know enjoy heartfelt reunions and painful partings.

The structure of this unique drama is what literary critic Northrop Frye called the "anatomy" i.e. the drama's main intention is to provide information, usually directly as speeches by the characters, commenting on the action which was previously dramatized.
In this case it's about sex in relationships, and amongst social attitudes, all the important stuff that is so often left out of school sex education. I was pleasantly astounded to find this drama was made in Japan, which alas so often portrays conservative male-dominated values regarding sexuality.
As such, the characters each have a role to facilitate this exposition, but they work together well to create some engrossing drama that inevitably leads to a tearful denouement in each episode in which characters typically admit to their simplistic and prejudiced thinking giving way to enlightenment and tolerance.  If only every teenager had a fairy godmother in the form of the formidable Sensei Shiroyama, or a boyfriend like Asahi Yu. One theme is how teenagers and their parents both unwittingly contribute the communication gulf between them, when young people are so anxious about their sexuality and parents are so worried about them, and how courage is needed to bridge that gap.
In this information-providing function it's similar to all those Japanese food dramas, except the ideas are not just about how to make and eat food, but deeper matters,  psychological and social.
I'll give this a very high score, not because it's the best drama ever, nor even my favorite drama, but I think it succeeds in its intention, and how many dramas fulfill the promises they make and the expectations they create? And as everyone is saying here, it should be seen by every young person and their parents. And I think by every drama scriptwriter. Should dramas only depict the worst of human nature, or should they also show role models of the best?

A romantic comedy traces the path to fallen in love, and if that path starts at feelings of terror or rage, then the journey of the transformation of the emotions is the longest possible and affords us plenty of the pleasures of this genre. One mark of a good relationship is that it brings out the best in each partner, or even further, that it heals each partner. They protect each other, and also support each other's growth and learning to achieve self-protection. This drama represents these themes well.

The portrayal of PTSD, anger management and psychiatry was reasonably realistic. Do psychiatrists wear white coats in Korea? Certainly none do where I live, and also it seems to me that most police avoid psychological treatment.

The side story of the transgender woman and the female student part-timer was slight and didn't add much to this drama. The best secondary couple stories play variations on the theme of the primary couple.

Mostly gloomy tale of a middle class Singaporean Chinese family who hires a philipina maid to help the pregnant wife, while the family struggles to keep up, what with the husband's failed investments, the wife duped by a self-help scammer, and their delinquent primary school son. The maid, despite pining for the one year old infant she had to leave behind, and the demeaning treatment she is given by her employers, is only one who has any love to give amongst this unhappy family. But in the end, it's not enough.

The only way this drama passess the Bechdel test is when they're repeatedly exclaiming 美味しい over their breakfast. Life is about sleazy bosses, incompetent husbands and boyfriends, and the only respite is in taking the morning meal in a variety of named locations (in Tokyo?). They talk about sex but don't seem to get much satisfaction in that area. To their credit, these women maintain their mutually supportive friendship despite having quite diverse lifestyles.

In this musical set on Valentine's Day in which various couples converge on a mass outdoor wedding, if you hadn't noticed the Taipei Tower in the background, you'd know we're in Taiwan because one of the couples are two women dressed white dress/suit, wanting their union blessed even though it's not yet legal. The production and singing are done enthusiastically, but there wasn't enough character or story to keep my interest for long.

This movie suffers from weird swings in tone. It starts off with a whole lot of attention-deficit frenetic adolescent humour, veers into a serious middle section with a lot of romantic angst, revisits the adolescent humour with a crazy backyard all-in fight scene, and then ends with a soppy reunion.The lead character is a cowardly sap, whose only redeeming feature is supposedly his persistence, which alas he expends and wastes on an equally spineless woman.

These woman are not in glamorous city jobs, but more mundane kinds of occupation. They're frustrated about sex, and not much happens in that department. Their only pleasure in life is their sismance, and exclaiming ecstatically over breakfasts which, let's face it, are not all that spectacular, just the usual cafe staples.

Low-budget minimalist movie (one main set, a few actors, sparse musical soundtrack) about a young woman who decides to enact her new-found taste for minimalism and Marie Kondo-style decluttering on the family home, including the hoards of her brother and mother, and discovers that everything interconnects;  to attempt to dispose of even one item can have huge and unexpected consequences.

This long movie chronicles the life of writer Xiao Hong in chronological detail, during the time of huge upheaval in mid-twentieth century China, including the Japanese occupation and the communist revolution. The script is largely constructed from letters and memoirs, and their various authors often speak directly to the camera, as if it in a stage play. However, despite much of it set in freezing winter and dingy urban backstreets, the scenery and camera work is often astounding. There is little action, and the drama is mostly interior, and in the relationship of Xiao Hong and Xiao Jun (reminded me of another long movie about a couple of intellectuals in revolutionary times: Reds). These are the times early revolutions, when intellect is valued, in contrast to later when the dictators take over and free thought is persecuted. In the movie it's the brutal Japanese occupation, but we know that will be followed by civil war and then the respective dictatorships of the mainland communists and the Kuomintang in Taiwan.

Only watched 3 episodes. Serious problems in this drama about consent. Classic seduction strategies as in "Dangerous Liaisons". Evidently, men shouldn't admit to tender feelings, but instead dominate and manipulate the woman's feelings. He intrudes into the woman's personal space, and when her body responds instinctively, suddenly withdraws and alleges that it's all in HER mind. Apparently, women shouldn't admit to having sexual feelings, but instead be passive and placatory. The FL is mocked and feels a failure because she has had no romantic or sexual experience whatsoever by 25, rather than respecting her right to do things at her pace and to be in control of herself. Who is this drama supposed to appeal to?