Simple story. Great Chemistry.

Simple story. Great Chemistry.

Acting by Park Seo Ham was awesome. Damn the man was epic. He oozed charisma on screen. I loved his exaggerated entry scenes that were pure service to his epic looks, yes there was more than 1. Park Jae Chan pulled off his monotone character well and in a very cute endearing way. Though there were times you want to take Sungwoo and shake him. He makes me wonder on if there was anything in his past that made him that way or if was he just like that from birth. But either was both actors were good in their roles with Park Seo Ham hitting it out of the park with his performance.


I liked the simplicity of the drama, and the fact that there were no over-the-top issues that cause the character problems was nice. But the ending felt a little rushed. I love the electric current pass-through wires sound at the end of the episodes that highlighted the sparks flying between the leads. It emphasised the tension between them. I really like their push-and-pull. I want more of their relationship. Sadly Park Seo Ham is in the military so there won't be a season 2 anytime soon.
**** SPOILER ****
I wonder if they still have the same push-and-pull once they are in a relationship. I wish there were more than those 2 scenes of them once they get together. Even the 2 scenes felt rushed like they only had 2 mins to tell us how Jaeyong is trying to get Dex to take Sungwoo as well or with Sungwoo's tendencies to keep pictures of Jaeyoung in secret.
**** END SPOILER ****
It could have been more fleshed out with a proper full episode.

But overall it was a nice feel-good drama. I think it's a great binge-watch, which weirdly I did not do. I waited until the drama was finished and then watched it in the span of 10-15 days. I liked it a lot and will probably rewatch it at some time in the future.

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Nice but boring if you just watched the drama.

Once I watched the drama, this was kinda boring. I think it would be fine if it's been a while since you watched the movie. I was just finished with the drama and wanted more from the couple, and someone mentioned there were extra scenes in the movie. So I watched it within mins of ending the drama.

If I had not seen the drama or if I had watched the drama a month or so ago, I think it would have been fine. The movie is said to be a condensed version. But it didn't feel like there was anything cut off except maybe the sound effects before the drama episode ends that sounded like electricity. I really like that part because it was almost always on a scene where there are looking at each out and sparks are flying, so it felt perfect. The movie did not have that. Also, people online had mentioned that there would be extra scenes in the movie, but from what I found there was only 1 extra scene. So for someone who has watched the drama, it would be repetitive, but it won't be bad as a movie for someone who has not seen the drama.

It is pretty much the drama condensed into an over 2 hr movie. But I think it may be too long. As a movie in today's world people may find it long. But as someone who has grown up with Indian movies, it is just the right length.

So far mostly this review was about how it compares to the drama, But as a movie itself, it is a simple story with great chemistry from the leads. Park Seo Ham was great in this drama. He was oozing charisma and charm. They may have overdone his entry scenes (yes there was more than 1 and it was definitely fan-service) but it was drool-worthy. I can't wait for more of his stuff when he is done with military service. Park Jae chan was cute in his role as Sungwoo. I loved the push-and-pull relationship. I wish someone makes a sequel for this couple. I want more of them, while still maintaining their core personalities.

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BL that seems real!!

In BL world of cheesy romances and dramas fraught with sexual tension, this is a pure and real love story! I loved everything about it. Let's break it down...I'll try not to give spoilers but no guarantees...so read at your own risk!

The MAIN Romance:
I am someone who doesn't mind the whole 'domineering male with a slightly smaller weaker guy' thing that BLs have going for them. So when I saw clips from this I was not sure what to think, because it came off more as kdrama bromance style than romance. But I loved it. For once the leads don't have a guy who is the girl in the relationship. The story is about 2 boys who go from enemies who are not really sure they should be enemies to friends and then fall into love. It feels very real. Yes, they have the cliched falling on top of each other, getting into each other's personal spaces while hiding cliches but it doesn't appear like they are pushing for intense sexual tension in those scenes. The two characters give those scenes their own unique spin.

XXXXX SPOILERS XXXXXX will mention scenes...

They pass off scenes where they are in each other's spaces with little jokes, like in the bathroom scene where Pat has not washed his hands, or the scene in the music store where Pat sniffs Pran. They play off the scenes that could have gone the 'stare deeply into each other's eyes or be weirdly aroused' as comic and appear true to their personalities and their weird antagonist push-and-pull friendship. Even the scene in the elevator usually is a moment of awkwardness even for straight couples, but this comes as playful and the way Pran looks at Pat like he can't believe he is 'in like with this shithead'.

I also love that they don't change all that much once they are in a relationship or even if they do, it doesn't seem to change their dynamic. Usually, when a relationship goes from enemies to lovers, they become weirdly nice to each other, whether they be straight or gay couples. It usually kills the story because what was awesome to watch was their antagonism and when that dies, it sometimes ruins a drama. Some dramas do pull it off well enough or have other important plots that keep the intensity of the relationship. In Bad Buddy, there is no change, they challenge each other every step of the way. Maybe it was because their challenges all along were some weird courtship ritual that only they knew of. But either way, the scenes with them challenging each other to make the other say I like you first or where they are playful fighting while eating dinner with Ink and Pa, those scenes just keep the essence of who they are. They don't become weirdly awkward in front of their friends now that their relationship is out. They are not overly lovey-dovey, no that they are not sweet to each other. They are sweet in the playful way they goad each other into doing anything. They are just the same weird dorks they always were. I love all aspects of this dynamic.

XXX END SPOILER XXXX

The one thing is there is very little sexual chemistry between the leads. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Even when they have made out or pre-/post-sex, the scenes are loving but it doesn't feel like there is a lot of heat between Pat and Pran. Instead, it does it in a very sweet way. I usually have issues when couples have chemistry but no heat - I always feel like something is missing. But that was not the case here. Here their dynamic is not about sexual attraction, I mean I am sure it is there but what the story is bout is how their relationship is built on challenging each other and protecting each other. I didn't feel that the lack of heat screwed the plot in any way. If anything it made the whole relationship real. A lot of times Asian dramas make it seem that there is intense heat between people in relationships, but that is not always true. With these two, it seemed like a warm relationship, like they have been together for years and didn't need the heat to keep it going. They had passion, just in a different way. I love the way Pat and Pran are with each other.

Also, no one is a clear top or bottom. They are true equals in the relationship and it is shown in all of their scenes.

Acting
The actors were so on point with the characters. They had great chemistry together. There was such a wonderful energy in each scene they were on screen. I especially loved Nanon's Pran. He portrayed his emotions so beautifully.

XXXX SPOILER XXXXX

The scenes where Pran recalls him moving away, his quiet moments with Pat in high school where he doesn't have to pretend to hate Pat, and his jealousy over Ink. Nanon was so emotive that you would feel those emotions with him. I especially loved the scene where Pat stays over after getting locked out and he asks Pran about his feelings for Ink. The quite tears on being reminded that his love was unrequited. I was weeping for him.

XXX END SPOILER XXXX

Ohm is awesome as well. I also liked the acting of other actors and how well they all played off of each other.

Other Characters and relationships XXXX SPOILER XXXXX

I loved the second couple Ink and Pa. I really didn't expect it when Ink first came on screen. I had expected her as causing more angst for the main couple. But the moment Pa and Pat go on the test date with Ink, I started getting vibes of who Ink was really into. The build-up to the relationship was slow but sweet. I also like that they teased us with Wai and Pa (one-sided as it ended up). I did think they would have been cute (but Wai didn't exist in Pa's world) but I love the chemistry between Ink and Pa more.

I also like they didn't make every semi-main character pair up with another in the show. I like that Wai and Korn didn't end up together as another enemies to lovers couple, they just had their weird friendship dynamic, running a bar together. They had their own off-screen lovers.

XXX END SPOILER XXX

Overall, I really enjoyed this drama. I loved everything about it. Especially the way they ended it.

This is definitely a great fun drama to watch and rewatch!!!

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Not worth the hype

I was actually looking forward to this. It had such a huge star cast. I am writing this review several years after I watched it and a lot of the actors went to give some awesome performances elsewhere, but not here. It was so hyped up because it was Lee Minho as well as all the other cast. I think the rating shown here for this drama was made from just purely Lee Minho fans. Let me just say that I don't hate Lee Minho, I have enjoyed most of his other dramas like City Hunter, Personal Taste, etc. But not even having his beautiful face along with Park Hyung Sik and Kim Woo Bin could save it. I was also not a huge fan of Park Shin Hye's acting at this point in time...she has definitely improved since. I had hoped Lee Minho would be able to app up the chemistry with her and make it a good watch.

BUT OMG how a drama can get this bad I do not know. Plot sucked. It was like for all the progress kdramas made at the time just regressed to an overused plot of several different drams stuffed into one...like someone cut up the plots of different dramas and tried to make a drama out of it, just so they could have all these stars in it.

The acting by the leads and some of the secondary wasn't great. I have seen dramas where older actors play teenagers and a lot of times it looks a little odd but doesn't affect the tone of the drama. But sadly that was not the case, they all looked too old for school which made it weird. They could set it at uni and it may have been easier to believe.

There was some chemistry between the leads but the kissing scene was so bad that I wanted to throw something at the screen. There were no side characters that could have saved this...not even Park Hyung-sik with his comic scenes. Though I must say the frenemies scenes of Kim Tan and Choi Young Do (played by Lee Minho and Kim Woo Bin) were probably the only thing I enjoyed about this drama.

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Controversial negative opinion

I was super disappointed with this drama. I know for a lot of people who started kdramas and aren't korean, this was their first drama sometimes even their first asian drama. I started with watching jdramas first and then moved on to kdrams and watched Coffee Prince for my first drama. So, I came into this with a lot of expectations. I liked Lee Minho in City Hunter and I loved Hana Yori Dango (the original Jap version) with Matsumoto Jun and Inoue Mao. Some might say I feel in love with the japanese version and won't accept an alternate but that's not true. I recently tried this again (some 11-12 yrs later) to make sure it wasn't because it was right after I watched the jap ver. I still don't like it. I also recently saw F4 the Thai remake. It was sooo good. I loved Bright and Tu and Win and Prim and Dew. So this is not me being obsessed with the Japa ver. and rejecting the other remakes. I even liked the Cdrama ver with Dylan Wang and Shen Yue (Meteore Garden 2018) But this was just so super weird. WTF did they do?

After watching Hana Yori Dango and I expected intense chemistry between the leads since the characters (Tsukasa and Tsukushi) have this intense explosive dynamic between them. I have also read the manga this is based on and was expecting more. To me Lee Minho and Gu hye seon were weirdly awkward in the romantic scenes. Gu Hye seon appeared too old to pay Geun Jan Di a high school student. Kim Hyun Joon looked baby-faced next to her. Her signature kick in the face wasn't as BAMF in this and her priming looked weird, like she was trying to make it look cute.

Lee Minho with Domyoji's signature curls looked super weird. But Dylan Wangs curls looked weird too. But they seem more in sync with the characters than Lee Minho's where they were too put together and not really like curls. And part of it was straight.

For things that might redeem this drama, I have to say the plot since it is based on one of my fav Japanese mangas.

The one thing that was awesome in this dramas was the side characters. I loved Kim Bum and Kim So Eun. Their interactions were really cute. This is what made me like Kim Bum, though it took almost a decade after this for him to really shine. I also enjoyed the boys' interactions with each other.

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What the F*** did I watch?

***WORD OF WARNING: ALL THE SPOILERS, BEWARE!!***

As a Sci-fi Lover, I was excited for an awesome time-travel/dimension-travel drama. Initially, it looked like it had all the makings of an exciting drama. The added element of a main character was someone with Alexithymia and how he developed that and his powers due to his mother's time-travel while he was in the womb was also an interesting concept. I was expecting a Fringe-like vibe, which was there in the beginning.

Then the whole thing went off the rails. At first, I thought it was time travel with paradoxes having to be prevented, which then became time travel with no paradox as a new reality was created. At least that was what I thought happened. At one point it fell like parallel dimensions where ppl came to experience what they lost in their universe, with time travel. It was like the writer could not keep track of the rules for how time travel worked and kept changing it as more characters and elements were added to the story. Sometimes, it felt like they retconned something, that that was stated as fact in the previous episode, in the very next one. The whole thing made me want to throw my laptop at a wall!!

Don't even get me started on the Old Jin Gyeom being the villain and killing him before he killed the mother was the solution to all their problems and erasure of time-travel agency. I am so turned around by what the hell happened, especially from episode 12 onwards. Did they travel back in time to different dimensions or their own? Did they change their own past? Also if the time travel agency disappeared which world did it disappear in? Did it just exist in one world? Also if it was erased, then how do Yoon Tae Yi and Park Jin Gyum exist, are both they were both born when they did because their mom's time travelled? Also even if we ignore Tae Yi's situation and assume she was made with a different mom in place of her time-traveling mom, if there is no time travel she wouldn't go back in time to have Jin Gyum in the past. So how is he there?? It would make more sense for her to meet Min Hyuk and maybe have a Jin Gyum in the future.

Also, how did Old Jun Gyeom go evil/crazy? His mother's death made him become a cop, was it the realization that he was the killer that made him lose his mind? Did he encourage the start of the agency to save his mom? Should he have unalived himself to prevent her death? Also wtf she killed herself?? Is that what happened originally or was it just what happened in whatever universe they are currently in?

Also confused about how both of them are the same, if she was the result of a time traveller becoming her mom, was it the same for the original? Also if Tae Yi invented time travel and her partner went on to become the pseudo-head of it, why was the mom version of her just an agent? Why was she not in charge? Or was it yet another Tae Yi who invented it?

Also, how was the tattoo appearing on her?? what is the explanation behind that? This is supposed to be Sci-fi, not fantasy and she is not the chosen one. And how in the world is she having memories of the mom?? Or did I just understand that wrong? This is not like Olivia from Fringe having Alt-Olivia's memories, there she is drugged w/ Cortexiphan as a child and then again as an adult causing the bleed-through of memories. Where is Alice's version of Cortexiphan for Tae Yi or some other phenomenon to explain the bleed-through? Especially because they are not near each other or anything when the memories come to Tae Yi.

Too many plot holes and no proper answers. This is not even like the open endings where you can just picture your version of how it ended or where it makes you consider different possibilities. This is more of the brain aneurysm-inducing confusion trying to figure out what the f*** just happened.

Also, what's with the serious incest that was happening? I mean his fascination with a woman who looked like his mother is one thing, but the weird sexual/ motherly vibes their relationship gave at different points was just plain creepy. I don't care that she was an alternate-universe version of his mom. It's still a person, who has the same freaking DNA as her. It would be just as creepy if he was into his mother's identical twin sister who was raised separately. I'm not sure why they needed romance, they could have learned about the mother-son thing, and it would have been emotional and beautiful. This came off weird and creepy and trying too hard. Also, what was the point of Kim Do Yeon?? Was she just there to highlight that the only person Jin Gyum would fall in love with would be his mother look alike, who at times treated him like her son? Too much Oedipus complex for my taste, while trying to justify that it is not Oedipus cause she is not actually, his mother.

Despite all my hate for the plot, the acting was great, so was the OST. Kim Hee Sun and Joo Won both showed such emotional range and they portrayed them well. Overall, despite this the confusion I had to endure almost made me drop this, but I stayed true hoping I could understand something, anything.

When I first started Alice, I thought it would be unique, a trip to Wonderland. In a way it delivers. Alice drops you down the rabbit hole to Confuseland making you wish you could erase the part of your brain where it will now forever take up space as the most convoluted, nonsensical plot you had the misfortune of seeing. I don't think I have even read fanfiction that was the level of hell this plot was made on.

But despite this, if you still want a drama that is a Brain F*** that leaves you so turned around you don't know up from down and down and Wonderland from Outland, then this is the drama for you.

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