A typical setup with an atypical plot and characters....

I accidentally stumbled upon this drama and I'm very glad that I did. This is my first Filipino drama so I did not have much expectations from it. As many viewers seem to mention that this is a Filipino version of Boys over flowers (BoF). The first half of the first episode I also felt like that because of the setup. A poor girl gets into an elite school where 4 rich guys basically rule it and she offends the leader landing her in trouble and making her the target of all the bullies of the school.
But as the show went on I saw the major differences between the 2 shows. He's into her (HIH) establishes a very detailed family background, atleast for the main leads. The FL is the love child of a commoner and a rich heir. She doesn't end up at the aforementioned elite school through a scholarship but is enrolled by her father who finds her after years and takes her in. She doesn't go with him because she wants to know him or wants to live a comfortable life but to pay him back for helping with the medical bills of her grandma. The FL's major struggles involves countering the bullies and trying to fit in not only in school but also with her father's family.
The ML is established as a jerk at first which is later revealed to be a defense mechanism to counter his own family issues. He hurts others to take his mind off of the problems in his life like his comatose brother or ignorant mother. Both the leads are shown to be different at first but as the series progresses they find similarities in their lives which ultimately helps in their relationship and chemistry development.
As compared to BoF, HIH is a bit more realistic. The FLs family in BoF is poor just because, despite running a small business. In HIH the FL's grandma falls sick and the hospital bills pile up while the income declines resulting in their financial crisis. The ML in BoF stopped bullying the FL because he started liking her and went back to bullying her when she rejected him. In HIH the ML realized that he was wrong to bully people without knowing them or their circumstances and was helped by the FL in stopping bullying at their school. This part is the most significant development as it shows how HIH's ML is better compared to that of BoF for realizing, accepting and rectifying his mistakes. Instead of forcing the FL to be with him and stalking and obsessing over her like the ML from BoF, the ML of HIH slowly pursued the FL and took her on dates, helped and supported her and finally won her heart.
Now I know this may seem minor differences to some and some hardcore fans of BoF might argue saying how can a short web drama even compare to kdrama romcom classic let alone be better. But trust me and just watch this and you'll know that these minor differences is what makes this drama better in story, quality and performance. To use an analogy BoF is like a dish from a 5 star restaurant, expensive, flashy and tasteless whereas HIH is a dish from your favorite restaurant, hearty, tasty and soul satisfying. You gotta try it to experience it.

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Inadequate Enough to Disappoint...

I don't know if it's a bad year or just my bad luck, but so far every single k-drama I've watched has fallen short of my expectations and this one tops that list. The trailer for lonely enough to love was pretty intriguing. The thing is I've liked Kim So Eun since I first saw her in Boys over Flowers where she played the FLs bff and I loved her pairing with one of the F4 more than the main cp. Since then she had done alot of lead roles which were not bad but were just not diverse enough (she always plays the unlucky girl role where she's either unlucky in love or work or both). So when I saw the trailer where she looked all dressed up (like an adult) and professional getting hit on by 3 guys I was really excited. By the looks of it (and the sound of the title) I assumed that her character was that of a professional woman who is successful in her career but not so much with relationships and she gets courted by 3 guys (a guy she just met, her bff/her ex and her co-worker) who she considers dating simply because she feels lonely but later ends up falling for one of them.
I could not have been more wrong. I don't know why but somehow she ended up playing the same unlucky woman role who seemed to never have had any relationship ever, and lost both her job and her house in the same day. She ends up living in her friend's room in a share house where she meets all the other characters.
The ML, Kang Woo was a psychiatrist who was one step away from being a psychopath. His behaviors were almost stalker-ish and not in a cute way. He was too nosy and got into people's businesses without caring about their feelings or the consequences and got offended when someone did that to him.
The SML Hyun Jin was better but only by a little. His sudden interest in the FL was not very believable mostly because they had been friends for years but he only noticed her as a woman after he broke up with his gf and they started living together (which didn't seem very genuine to me). I did not get Second male lead syndrome because of this and also because since ep. 1 there were so many typical k-drama clues that indicated that the FL was gonna end up with the ML.
The FL Na Eun was a pretty miserable character. She had progressively more unfortunate incidents happening to her which just prolonged her unhappy mode throughout the series. I understood why she was unsuccessful as a writer. She thought she was a good writer based on the reviews of just her friends, she lost all common sense when she was offered a deal (which is why she got conned), she asked for pointers on her work from other professionals and got all depressed when she was criticized by them or when she got hate comments on her posts (in any profession especially one where you will become famous, you'll always have haters and if you let it get to you then you won't survive). Most of her principles seemed fake to me (it was as if whatever she said, she only followed it when it suited her, like she kept saying that she wanted to be successful on her own without the MLs help but when her friend helped her she was ok with it).
Apart from these 3 most other characters just felt like fillers.
Dong Seok and Ah Reum had a pointless romance. Their characters barely had more than 5 scenes together but they somehow ended up together.
I liked Kyung Won's story and character but it just wasn't explored. Bo Ra's character was good but she had no story. Same with Ji Hoon.
Ji Ah and David's story was by far the best. I absolutely loved their chemistry and relationship development (they were better than the lead couple).
Jung Hoon was a good character with the most amount of potential. Unfortunately not only his character wasn't developed enough, his story was also pretty vague leaving me with a lot of questions (It was hinted that he might be gay but never clarified, which I would have liked since I love BLs).
The plot got progressively worse and the Finale felt like it was taken from a 12 year old teenage girl's diary.
I wouldn't recommend this to anyone and wouldn't even mistakenly re-watch it.

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It's BTS being BTS....

First of all if you have watched any BTS videos before (and I don't mean MV, just them doing things, anything), you don't need to see this review to know that this show was ah-mazing.
To those who have not seen BTS in anything other than their music (and to those who haven't even seen that just in case), I would suggest that you definitely watch this.
I get that this is just them eating, sleeping, playing and relaxing but it's just so much fun. Their chemistry is off the charts and they just have fun even when they are working because they are together. This show is basically BTS setting goals.
They are friendship goals as well as life goals. They work really hard but they also know how and when to relax (like me watching them to de-stress). Instead of watching motivational speeches on the internet to inspire yourself, you can just watch this and you'll want to do better in both your personal and professional life (I have started to cook after watching them).
Also since it's BTS, obviously their music is great. And yes I'm gonna re-watch this again and again.

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So I randomly selected sweet tai chi to watch because it was tagged as an idol drama which are fun and not too heavy. The main problem was that until recently the eng subtitles were not available for it except the first episode. But I watched it anyway to like get a sense of it (coz I have dropped quite a few dramas after just watching the 1st episode) and I was immediately hooked. (resulting in me watching the whole drama without subs
This dramas has got some very strong points to make you like it.
First and foremost the places selected for the filming are amazing. The locations were very well selected including the campus resulting in beautiful shots.
Second major point is the female lead. I have never seen her before in any drama but she is effortlessly adorable. I have seen many actors try to portray a cute character and fail miserably while the FL's acting feels like she is just being herself. Her antics are fun to watch. She is badass in a good way and unlike other dramas the leads meet with the FL saving the ML from a gang.
Third is the Ost. The songs are beautiful and perfectly suited to the scenes and even though I don't know the language after watching a couple of episode I simply started humming along.
Lastly I agree that the story takes off slowly at first but the selling point atleast for me were the action scenes. All the scenes with Tai chi were perfectly shot and edited. Best scenes of this drama is just Piao Piao fighting all different kinds of people. The romance is also a big part of it but it's very PG-13 enough to give you closure but not to make you internally scream. I just wish that the ML's character was better developed. Like I understand that he was supposed to portray a very cool, calm, perfect at everything and emotionally detached from most things kinda person but after all his interactions with the FL I kinda wanted him to show some more emotions and be less stony and I mean that literally. Apart from the ocassional smile or his signature annoyed look it's like looking at a pretty stone wall.
All in all this drama is good enough for binge watching. (especially now since everyone's quarantined due to covid-19).

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An interesting plot + Thai Lakorn logic = Average Drama

Yes the plot of Mia Archeep was kinda interesting. Honestly I thought this was gonna be more like The Cupid Series, because of the synopsis but it wasn't.
The ML ,Dit, gets an offer by a business associate, Robert, who apart from his cosmetics company also runs a matchmaking project called the Plan. What Robert actually does is that he takes desperate girls like the FL, Dao, and makes them sign contracts so that they are forced to participate in the Plan. He falsifies their backgrounds and makes them marry these rich CEOs and later blackmails them into spying for him on their husbands (basically corporate espionage) to make money. Dit gets catfished by Dao (on Robert's orders) and joins the Plan. He later falls for her but doesn't know whether she really loves him or not.
The drama started off pretty good with the leads being wary but flirty with each other (The leads had pretty good chemistry, so did Phupha and Kot). But the later episodes started to drag quite a lot. There were a lot of scenes which could have been cut to give more time to resolve all the issues and misunderstanding. Apart from this there were 2 things that really bugged me-
1) Most of the female characters in this drama were either pretty bad or greatly flawed. Dao regardless of her situation was deceitful, Jarunee was greedy and scheming, Walai wasn't particularly bad but she wasn't likable either, Ann was downright obsessive and annoying, Kot was haughty and unnecessarily insulting and Maeta was a bootlicker, rude and disloyal. I don't know what's with Thai Lakorns but they will either show the female characters as naive and innocent who get manhandled or as complete b*tches who are jealous, greedy or vengeful. Fortunately most male characters were pretty good and the ML, although a bit obsessive/possessive, was not full of toxic masculinity.
2) I got a serious case of second male-lead syndrome. The second lead, Nam, was an exceptionally great guy till the end and the writers of the show did him dirty. I guess many fans are saying that he deserved the FL more than the ML. I disagree. In my opinion the FL did not deserve a great guy like him (she kept stringing him along and gave him false hope) and they should have totally gotten a great female character in the show just for him. I wish for the producers to make a spin-off with him as the ML (Nam deserves his own lakorn).
Overall, Mia Archeep, although a bit draggy (and I kind of might have fast forwarded certain scenes), is a pretty good show to watch in your downtime.

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A star-studded cast present an exceedingly average drama...

I wasn't particularly interested in watching this drama because the trailer didn't seem as interesting for a Fantasy drama as it should but since there wasn't really anything to watch and I couldn't go anywhere (lockdown due to covid-19), I decided to give this a chance. And you know what, this drama did disappoint me as much as I had thought it would.
I'll be honest here, I might have gotten more emotionally invested in this drama than I should have, but in my defense this drama had a great cast. I had really liked Hwang Jung-eum in Kill me Heal me, Yook Sung-jae in Goblin and Choi Won Young in almost every drama he's been in.
Despite having the three of them at the center of the story, I felt like the side characters were the ones to actually watch.
Jung Da-eun as Kang Yeo-rin was pretty good. I loved every one of her fight sequences and the fact that she could rock a pant suit just as well as a dress.
Yook Sung-jae's Han Kang-bae was a depressing character. He had a tragic backstory and just as miserable daily life. His character was sad, bumbly and pretty unimpressive.
Hwang Jung-eum's character Wool-joo was loud. She seemed to only have 2 expressions- prickly sad (when she was reminiscing about old times) and prickly irritated (all the rest of the time).
Choi Won-young's character Gwibanjang was alright. He had his moments, like when he was fighting evil spirits or trying to give advice but his character was not used to it's full potential.
Park Si-eun and Song Geon-hee were the two actors to really watch. They played the younger versions of Wool joo and Gwibanjang respectively and were shown in the flashback clips. Their characters were good and so was their story. I would have loved it if instead of doing the whole pop-up bar thing in modern day the producers would have simply made a historical drama. Everytime a flashback was shown I was riveted and when it ended I was left wanting more.
The drama was alright and would have actually been good if the writers hadn't screwed up the finale. I don't know what's with this year but everywhere you look there are great dramas with disappointing final episodes (like extraordinary you, 2gether, my engineer, girlfriend etc). This drama's finale was so cringey with all the unconvincing affection towards each other, obvious set ups and the stretched out pointless goodbyes. Watching it made me disappointed and frustrated and wanting to break the screen (I'm over it now).
Anyway I would only recommend this drama if you are in desperate need to watch some ligh hearted asian drama and couldn't find a better one than this.

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Choi Woo Shik's "Lab Manufactured Psychopath" vs. Kim Da Mi's "High-Functioning but not completely a Sociopath"

Before the whole world realized that South Korea can make a great movie after "Parasite" crushed it at the Oscars, S. Korea's film industry was already making good movies (that would have won awards already if those award shows weren't so biased). The Witch: Part 1 is one of these movies. It's a pure thriller with loads of action. I personally loved the movie but I'll still objectively review it.
Before watching this most of the korean movies I had watched were either rom-coms, mystery or action-comedies. The Witch was definitely a happy surprise. It was definitely not as dark as I had anticipated after watching the trailer but that didn't really disappoint me. The one thing that the producers could have improved was definitely the plot.

If you read the synopsis "10 years ago, Ja Yoon escaped from a government facility in the midst of an inexplicable incident by herself and lost all her memory.....blah blah blah.....A man named ‘Nobleman’ constantly roams around her, in addition to ‘Dr. Baek’ and ‘Mr. Choi’ who have been searching for her since her disappearance. Ja Yoon’s life falls into turmoil as they turn her seemingly ordinary life upside down in a blink of an eye", it basically explains the whole plot. It's just stretched over 2 hours with a lot of tense scenes and carnage but still, the whole movie is just that.
Despite the not very unique concept or the kind of boring plot, the movie holds it's own because of the great cast.
Kim Da Mi's transformation from a sick and confused high-schooler to a calculative killing machine was amazing to watch.
Choi Woo Shik's portrayal of a Genetically engineered killer with a goofy side (The Nobleman) was spot on and one of his best performances of all time.
Dr. Baek and Mr. Choi were characters with great potentials but limited screen time. Ja Yoon's bff Myung Hee did have quite a bit of screen time but wasn't really relevant to the story.
The Nobleman's posse of other Genetically engineered killers were entertaining by adding to the thrilling action sequences.
The ending was pretty open ended and left the audiences with a lot of questions as well as expectations from it's coming sequel. If you are fan of thrillers with fast paced action sequences or K-movies in general, this movie is a must watch.

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Hard to grasp and overhyped

I haven't properly watched any asian dramas since the start of the year and finally after getting some free time I thought might as well because the reviews were good. I do like romance dramas and e-sports dramas, so technically I should have loved this but honestly I did not.
While I do understand why people liked it i.e. because of the great soundtrack, the hot male lead, the cute female lead and their adorable height difference, that is it. That's where the pros end.
From the start the main issue for me was I did not understand the game. I get games like counterstrike or halo or the concept of capture the flag. So I knew the gaming parts were not going to be that interesting especially when the episode jumped from people playing games to inside the game in full animation but I appreciated the effort.
Secondly any and all conflicts were too hyped up. Are people in China that fickle that one post on the internet can change their opinions that fast or are they that hateful that they immediately start criticizing and cyberbullying the subject of any controversy. I don't believe that's true, so to show something like that just so that it looks like your MCs are struggling and having a hard time is not cool.
To add to this they dragged the series too long. 31 episodes of Tong Yao getting criticized for being a girl in the e-sports industry, losing a game, dating someone, being rude, hitting someone, going shopping, shaking hands with a guy, BEING SARCASTIC. Like oh my god the longer the series went the stupider the reasons became, half of which were either untrue or blown out of proportion by the media. Not to mention that they started dating after the 21st episode. I was snoozing by episode 20.
All the side characters were wasted as none of their storylines were deeply explored, most of them having conflicts for half or at max one episode. And the nail to the coffin was all those damn monologue. The creators should understand that us foreign audiences actually have to read the subtitles which takes all the impact out of any and all long drawn speeches making it super cringe and boring.
The FL literally said this in her MVP speech "it's ok even if he has thistles and thorns draped around his shoulders or treads on the burning hot sands. As the Captain of ZGDX everyone expects too much from him" Like WHAT. No one in the whole wide world expects sh*t like that from an E-Sports player or from any player and who talks like that. I get that e-sports like any other job in the world has its own struggles but don't make it sound like it's a selfless and thankless job (most jobs aren't). Not to mention it's very offensive and ignorant towards fans of any sports. I love tennis and yes I've idolized a player for the past decade or so, who is not doing so great now because he's older and has sustained injuries lately. But I'd rather he take a break than expect him to push himself even when he's not well just to win a trophy. No one has such unrealistic expectations from their idols.
Anyway the bottom line is this drama is not worth wasting 20+ hours on it and I definitely will not re-watch it.

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A pacifying ending for 2gether fans....

So I watched 2gether season 1 while it was being released and obviously it was pretty good. But the last 2 episodes of that season was pretty badly screwed up by an unwelcome misunderstanding and a hasty and less than satisfying resolution. The fans of the show (including me) basically bashed the finale episode pretty bad which is (what I believe to be) the root cause of these 5 special episodes.
The 1st episode is basically a detailed explanation of the events of the finale and give a better resolution of the issue. The other 4 episodes show the relationship development between the various couples.
Sarawat and Tine go through a not so long distance relationship phase (basically living apart in 2 different parts of the same city for 2 weeks). They get to know each others feelings and fear. It also shows them having minor disagreement in their college life which affects their personal lives and how they resolve it. Their chemistry was as usual off the charts.
Man and Type had the 2nd best on-screen chemistry and it's only because they had less scenes together. I feel like if they had more screen time they would have surpassed Sarawatine. They went through the real long distance relationship but they handled it beautifully and their last scene together was heart-warming.
Mil and Phukong had a pretty speedy relationship development (from friends to dating in under 4 episodes) but it didn't feel rushed. I wasn't particularly keen on their relationship but still their ending was pretty satisfactory.
Boss finally got a crush (on Pear from season 1 who I believe Tine was trying to hit on) and confessed to her. His character development was funny and endearing at the same time.
Green and Dim also added a lot of excitement and fun to the story. I've been Green's fan for sometime now and as always I wasn't disappointed. Green's sass, charisma and attitude cannot be surpassed and as he himself said he's the "Iron Lady" and nobody should dare challenge him.
Earn, Frong and Ohm were also a great addition.
The songs in the episodes were also pretty great. The acting was on point and the last episode literally left me swooning.
These special episodes were definitely worth it.

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2020s most addictiveThai Lakorn so far....

First of all So Wayree regardless of the acting, character development, twists or chemistry, happens to have many questionable themes in it which might not be suitable for some people. So Wayree is a drama, which I felt, was written in a way to mostly cater to the Thai Lakorn fans. It has got so many scenes that look thrilling but in real life is actually criminal or very unethical. The first scene between the main leads itself was pretty outrageous. The characters did things ranging from drugging someone to rape to kidnapping to murder (and don't think all this was just the villains in the drama, the protagonists did some sh*t too).
That said the overall drama was pretty good. The push and pull romance (although pretty annoying at times) was good. The chemistry between the the 2 leads was superb (I've always been a fan of Mookda and even though this is the 1st drama of Kem's that I have watched I really liked him). I also kinda liked her with Amp (who had previously worked with Mookda on the drama "Massaya") because I felt like his character got over his prejudice and accepted her for who she was and later supported the 2 leads even after getting rejected.
The 2nd lead couple (the FLs bff and the MLs brother) were amazing together with as good a chemistry as the leads (they should have their own spin-off in my opinion), they also added a lot of fun scenes in the drama which I really appreciated (Na is hands down the best Thai lakorn side-character I have seen, from her fashion style to personality, I loved everything).
The antagonists were great as well. I loved the actress playing Pam. I really liked the characters of Traitot and Krit because it proved to me that how playing a gay character does not mean that an actor will only get BL drama offers (The main reason why many thai actors are now refusing to participate in BLs is because of the fear of getting typecast) and the fact that they treated their relationship like any other (instead of problems with acceptance they had other common issues too).
So Wayree also touched on several serious topics. The fact that the FL felt the need to hide the fact that she was raped instead of reporting it simply because of fear of ridicule by her family and society was upsetting (and it does happen in a lot of asian countries). There were other instances like people manipulating the media to help themselves, parental pressure and conducting corporate espionage just to make profit etc. This was the main reason why I liked the drama (It also reminded me of "Kluen Cheewit" which had a similar mix of serious topics and thai lakorn cliches).
In conclusion if you are a thai lakorn fan this drama is a must watch.

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If South Korea made Fast & Furious, this would be it......

Seriously I'm not kidding. It's like the producers and the writers made a list of all the key points from fast & the furious and simply added their own filler to it. I can just imagine them going like-
Police- ✓
Criminals- ✓
Expensive cars- ✓
High speed car chases/races- ✓
Family- ✓
Despite it being so similar to fast & furious, Hit & Run squad was alot of fun.
The story definitely could have been better but what this movie lacked in plot it made up in a solid star studded cast and engaging performance.
Gong Hyo Jin & Jo Jung Suk are both top tier hallyu stars and very versatile. I've personally never seen any of their performances that I disliked.
Gong Hyo Jin was great portraying her I'm-a-badass attitude.
I was pretty surprised that Jo Jung Suk was playing the main Villain and then awed by his acting. It felt like he was born to play the eccentric and kind of mentally deranged pro-racer.
The most shocking was definitely Ryu Joon Yeol's performance. I had only seen him once before in the drama Lucky Romance and while his acting was okay, the drama itself wasn't all that great. His character here was supposed to be a weird and clumsy detective with a dark past. At first his character is funny to watch but as the plot unfolds and tragedy strikes you can see him transform into the maniac he used to be. His acting was amazing and really interesting (I have since re-watched that particular scene multiple times).
The rest of the side characters aren't particularly memorable but they did a good job as well.
While this movie is not as great as some of the other korean movies that I have watched, it's definitely fun and interesting and worth watching.

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Watch it for the Royal Swag and Woo Do-Hwan....

Ok first of all this is one of those dramas that most people would love totally or hate completely and I'll tell you why.
The reason most of the people disliked this drama is because of the production team or writers mistakes. I'm pretty sure it was not intended so but they screwed up starting from the trailer itself. The final trailers for this series mentioned the writers name with the literal caption "writer of the Guardian: the lonely and great god". Add to it the fact that both of these dramas are of the fantasy romance genre and have Kim Go-Eun as the female lead, there was no way of stopping the comparisons between the two. Now to those of you who don't know about it, Guardian/Goblin is one of the most acclaimed K-dramas globally. It is near perfect with it's amazing cast, great storyline, explosive chemistry between the characters and addicting soundtrack. It also has a well balanced mix of action, suspense, sci-fi, romance and comedy. Being pitted against a drama like Goblin, the King was bound to lose the battle. The expectations were very high which this drama failed to achieve hence some of the bad reviews.
If watched without any prejudice, The King is a good drama. Although it's base story of parallel worlds is not a brand new concept, it's not a cliched genre either. There is also the element of Korea being one country with a modern day constitutional monarchy type system which has also previously been adopted in dramas (like King 2 Hearts, The last empress, etc.) but better since instead of simply putting a monarchy in the present day Korea like others, the writers here literally constructed a whole new "Kingdom of Corea". (Hence the extra amount of Royal Swag)
The back story of Lee Gon was quite good and it felt like a mini action thriller film inside the drama. The main characters were interesting (Lee Min-ho looks like he was destined to play royalty) but they unfortunately had no chemistry. Lee Gon's feelings were less like love and more like how fans adore their idols (because he connected Jung Tae-eul with the person who saved his life hence the idol worship). Jung Tae-eul's feelings seemed like fascination and grudging acceptance (because of Lee Gon's clingy and cheesy behavior). Kang Shin-jae's character was almost as irrelevant to the story as his therapist. Since only the ML's backstory was partly tragic (I know his father was murdered but he still had a happy upbringing) I believe that Shin-jae's character was there to add tragedy to the plot (he was poor and his mother tried to kill them both, then he got sent to another world, his new family soon went bankrupt, he became poor again, got bullied in school, etc. etc.)
Prime Minister Koo was one of the characters I had initially looked forward to since she was mentioned as the 1st female and youngest PM of Kingdom of Corea but she was not exactly the strong and stable head that I had expected. Her character was a mature version of the typical leader of the b*tch squad shown in most dramas, you know the pretty, popular, powerful, arrogant, mercenary and ruthless type. While the character was portrayed quite well by Jung Eun-chae, she didn't really seem that relevant to the story (since she neither did something overtly good nor really bad). Even though the writers tried making a love triangle situation with the main CP and her, it just wasn't convincing (same with Kang Shin-jae).
Lee Lim was definitely a good Villain. His plan was good but flawed and failed due to his own arrogance and stupidity. I didn't really understand why he tried to steal the flute and make people believe that parallel worlds exist. He should have either stolen the flute while the King was absent (that way there was less chance of failure since the security would be lax and he wouldn't be hunted for regicide) or usurped the throne if he had already staged a Coup (then he would be King and free to explore the powers of the flute like Lee Gon did).
But the best character across all of the parallel worlds in the drama was that of Jo Yeong/Jo Eun-sup. Woo Do-hwan was sensational in his portrayal of the two very different roles. He stole the show every time he was onscreen. The characters added to the drama what the main CP couldn't- chemistry, action and loads of comedy (You know an actor is great when he gets shipped with himself).
In conclusion, The King is a nice but forgettable drama. It was fun to watch and I will definitely re-watch all Woo Do-hwan cuts on youtube but I probably won't re-watch the whole drama again.

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You'll be appealing for a Season 3 or just a BL with Chimon and Nanon...

Ok so I am a huge gifted series fan and it is hands down my most favorite non-bl thai series. Everyone who thinks season 1 was bad or unsatisfactory needs to get over themselves (There was going to be S2 so obviously S1 ended in a sort of cliffhanger). Therefore obviously I watched the series as it was streaming and I watched the finale weeks ago when the season ended. So why am I only now posting a review? It's because I was and still am pretty upset about my Pang X Wave ship getting wrecked. Let me hash it out first.
The Gifted Graduation was a very much awaited series for me. When I watched S1 it was in 2019 and it had already been released for almost a year and I binge watched that sh*t during a single weekend. And then I had to wait a whole year for S2. As you can guess the expectations were high from everybody. Then the trailer dropped which showed the series going from treasure hunt mystery to murder thriller level dark which was pretty exciting. The Season started perfect. The 1st gifted to be shown on the screen were the twins who were not given their own episode in S1 making them a fan favorite in an underdog kind of way. So obviously their entry was perfect and well deserved. The whole intro with Punn's piano playing in the background was thrilling. The planning and the new kids was fun too. And obviously since it's The gifted series, the twists were surprising and very well written. So where was the problem? I'll tell you.
- Despite the twins making the 1st entry and having screen time initially, they were once again neglected by the end of the series. And the worst part was so were some of the others. In the later episodes many of the gifted became simply a footnote in the whole story. Many characters like Mon, Korn, Ohm, Joe and Jack were visibly absent in the episodes after the Gifted Class 8's sort of disbandment.
- Miss Darin's background should have been explored or there should not have been a mystery in the first place. It was shown as if she had powers but nothing was clarified and then her character simply disappeared.
- I didn't like the Claire Punn breakup as Punn's episode is my fav in S1 but I did like his character development as he went from needing just Claire's love to maintain his mental stability to believing in himself and his friend's love and affection for him and being fine.
- I didn't think there was much exploration of Third's abilities. There were many other gifted in his batch other than him, Time and Grace but the 3 of them were the main characters so obviously Third's powers should have been explored a bit more.
- I liked the suspense behind Grace's powers but was kinda disappointed that after the whole mystery and sh*t, she simply got rid of her potential (I don't hate that part but I don't love it either).
- Wave's potential did not seem to advance that much. As for Pang I liked that at the end he was able to control the Director which was impossible before but his potential did not have much exposure either.
- I feel like at the end the Director should have lost his powers like Korn and Grace because all his arrogance was from the fact that he was a gifted but I'll accept the current ending too.
- Lastly I'm pretty upset about the ending. Like not that they should have taken out some parts but rather they should have added some parts. I love Namtarn but her coming in the end in this Season did not seem as impactful. The whole season there were very heavily implied that Pang and Wave had feelings for each other and Wave even decided to go to a lower level college for Pang (Classic boyfriend move). The end should have been them going to college together or something. Even if it wasn't that they should have atleast put in a graduation scene with all the Gifted given that the Season was named freaking Gifted : Graduation.
Apart from these details everything else from story to reveals to acting were all pretty perfect for me. I would totally love a season 3 but I feel like there isn't much that can be done storywise. Maybe some special episodes would be better and definitely very well appreciated. I would also like it if there was a separate BL series with Chimon and Nanon. I know Chimon has already played a BL character (incidentally Nanon was in it too albeit they weren't coupled together). I hope they get their own BL series, I know all the thai BL fans are gonna freak the f*ck out.
Anyway as far as the gifted series goes there is no question that regardless of how it turned out, it's one of the best thai shows to watch.

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An emotional rollercoaster.....

I watched Sand Princess a few months ago (and re-watched it again a few more times) after I had just discovered thai BLs. Before this the only thai dramas I had watched were the overly cliched Lakorns. So when I first found this, that was what I was expecting. After watching the 1st episode I realized that while this drama did have some cliched situations, it's storyline was new and interesting.
The basic plot revolves around Kot who's an orphan (which is frequently mentioned in the drama btw) and does all kinds of odd jobs to raise herself. She befriends Ji during their school days who have a business type relationship. Ji orders around Kot to do everything from doing his homework to cleaning his house. Ji is a playboy and one of his flings (who is also Kot's friend) becomes pregnant. She leaves the baby (Mochi) with Kot and Ji. Since Ji is engaged to Aff and theirs is a family arranged marriage (Aff's father is the investor in Ji's family business), Ji is unable to take Mochi as his own child. So as with all of his problems he hires Kot to be like an adoptive mother to Mochi. He tries to lure her with money and when that doesn't work, he threatens to send the kid to an orphanage. Jump to a couple of years later and Kot is still raising Ji's kid as a single mother when she happens to meet Ki. They somehow meet a couple more times and encounter some situations together. Later it is revealed that Ji and Ki are brothers and Ki also finds out about Ji being mochi's father. To somehow diffuse the situation, Ki and Kot agree to get married (and get divorced later) so as to make Mochi as his legitimate child and give Kot an exit from her situation.
From here on out the story is mostly romance. What starts as a love triangle evolves to a Love square (with Ki, Kot, Ji and Aff).
I really liked Kot's character and the actress played her perfectly. Obviously there were some very cliched situations she was put in but I didn't really mind it.
Ki's character was also great. He was the kind of character we all hope the male lead in every drama was like, a perfect gentleman who is considerate and loyal and treats the female lead right.
Ji's character was also good but exactly opposite of Ki. He was the kind of character most male leads in dramas turn out to be you know the spoiled rich playboy that leaves his playboy lifestyle for the female lead. Both MLs were good but with Ji it was basically missed timing and opportunity.
Aff's character was the typical second female lead who is a total b*tch type. She treated the brothers like her personal dolls just because her father was the main investor in their business. When she got bored with one she went for the other. I was glad she didn't get either at the end.
The story overall was pretty great and hit all the right emotional spots for me. I would suggest for all asian dramas fans to just go for this one, it's definitely worth a watch.

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Now I'll accept that an 8.0 rating is a bit high for a drama like Panthakan Rak but there is good reason for it.
When compared to other Asian dramas that have revenge x romance genre, this series would probably rank very low and would have gotten at most a 5.0 rating for being bearable enough to watch. But when you compare this series to other Thai lakorns, which btw have a tendency to be full of cliches and extremely melodramatic, this one is actually good.
Panthakan Rak still has a very generic storyline (with the ML hell bent on revenge against his Father and his new family and the FL stuck in the crossfires), a lot of asian drama cliches (jealous women mistreating the FL, love triangles, tragic backstories, damsel in distress situations, the uber a-hole ML and the always nice, kind & forgiving FL), unnecessary violence (if someone pisses you off you curse them out or just put some salt in their drink or something, not hire goons to beat the sh*t out of them) and a lot of manhandling of the FL by the ML (seriously I hit a guy during high school just for talking sh*t about me and this FL got legit kidnapped by the ML multiple times and nobody did sh*t, like report him to the police, or send him to therapy or a correctional facility or make him take a sexual harassment seminar or something ughh).
This drama's one saving grace is it's cast. Even though I have watched alot of lakorns, the cast of this drama was mostly unfamiliar to me and I was surprised to find that they all played their roles very well. The lead actress was great.
The characters were also good. With the main leads there wasn't much character development per se but their chemistry definitely improved (this type of slow burn romance is much more realistic than the love at first sight cliche although I like that genre as well).
There were definitely some plot holes that really irritated me. Revenge dramas or movies are usually of 2 types- First is where the main leads infiltrate to take revenge covertly and ruin the wrongdoers lives (mostly happens in stories centered around wealthy & corrupt official/corporation) like Birth of a Beauty or Only side by side with you. Second is dramas with a lot more violence where revenge equals killing the villains like Vagabond or Hua jai sila.
Panthakan Rak was somewhat like the first type but not completely. Like the ML Pan mostly just ruined events and nobody really did anything. In modern day people get fired just for posting something inappropriate on social media and this guy just went around losing the company money and damaging reputations openly and they still let him work there. Also the character of Bunny seemed a bit overdone. Like she refused to work and acted outrageously which btw would in reality be a breach of contract. Her character was super annoying and should have been featured less in the plot (although props to the actress who played her).
Chon's character was quite good. She was a good person that got all twisted up because of her poor mental condition, lack of understanding and excessive pressure from her father. (It's a sad reality that most people with mental issues are either blamed for it or ignored completely)
Anyways, for newcomers to thai lakorn or hardcore lakorn fans this is a must watch.

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