First off, I didn't watch the original Japanese version so I'm not going to compare the two. Here's my review =)

STORY
At first, this drama was full of mysteries and you just couldn't wait for the story to unfold, but once they were fully revealed, the excitement dies down quickly. After the mysteries were unfolded, the writers should've then started to develop the romance more but that didn't happen, unfortunately. I guess I was expecting for this drama to be made up of at least 50% romance because, well, the genre IS romance & comedy. But it was more like 15% romance lol. The romance between the leads was very subtle and slow - as in, it doesn't develop until much, MUCH later on, so that was quite disappointing. It disappoints me even more that the main lead and supporting character had more intimate (but dull & unromantic) scenes together than the lead couple. Suho and Ha Yeon Soo actually look very cute together. They have chemistry and there was so much potential for this on-screen couple but the story was just really lacking romance. I guess it focused more on Lee Yoo Chan's past and his journey being a CEO at his own company. I also wished Bora had more character development or stories behind her character because she's one of the leads, but it seemed as if the writers began to neglect her character a little bit later on. She sometimes felt more like a side character.

Some episodes were completely dull. There were sooooo much fillers. The amount of time they spent on Min Tae Ra and the artist she admired was ridiculous. Although, I did find the NEXT IN employees and Bora's friend, Miso, and Cha Do Jin more entertaining than the main story sometimes, just because the episodes would get really dull and those small characters made it a little more interesting and bearable to watch.

ACTING/CAST
I wasn't too pleased with Suho's acting here. I love Suho as a singer, but as an actor... not so much. I don't know what happened to him here. His facial expressions seem really unnatural and awkward sometimes. Is he really lacking acting skills or is it just because he didn't really fit the role of Lee Yoo Chan? Or maybe his character was just poorly written?... I was kind of able to empathize with Yoo Chan because of what he had been through but he was still pretty unlikable most of the time. They should've made him a little bit more likable, at least. Not gonna lie but... if it wasn't for Suho's charming face, his character would've been way more unlikable for me lol I just couldn't seem to hate his character because he looks so angelic haha.

MUSIC
On a positive note... I really liked the OST. The songs are very calming and catchy. A lot of times, I found myself listening to Hard for Me by Cheeze and also Do Young's ver. of that song. Also, Kei's Let's Pray was a really cute song too.

OVERALL
This drama had a lot of potential but it just didn't work out for me, unfortunately. I'd say it was poorly written. I kept hoping it would get better later on because the whole concept of the show is actually interesting, but it didn't get any better. I honestly just continued to watch it just for the sake of finishing it. At least the ending was somewhat satisfying, though.

Would I recommend it? No. Save 16+ hours of your time and watch something better. But if Suho's your bias and you feel that you just really gotta watch it, then go for it lol.

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Not Perfect But It'll Have A Special Place in Your Heart!

I genuinely enjoyed this show. It's not perfect and it may not be the best drama you'll ever watch but it'll have a special place in your heart. Cinematography was well done. Filming locations were beautiful. There are some things that are different from the other versions of Meteor Garden and that makes it really exciting because it keeps you guessing what was changed in this version. The story is still the good old Meteor Garden tale that we all loved. As someone who grew up watching Asian dramas, this particular story (Meteor Garden, Boys Over Flowers, Hana Yori Dango) is a classic and timeless tale. It's always fun to watch the modern remakes of this story and I'm glad this one didn't disappoint me. Everything cliche in an Asian drama is in this drama lol but I mean, it IS Meteor Garden, so it's expected. This story is basically the foundation of all Asian drama cliches lmao. But it's always so refreshing to go back to this story again in a different setting & with a different cast. If you truly want to enjoy this show, I highly recommend NOT to compare it with the other versions and nitpick on the inexplainable and ridiculous things that happen in this show. Just take it lightheartedly and you'll be able to truly enjoy it. It has 50 episodes (49 on Netflix idk why lol) but it never felt like it was a task for me to finish it because it was so much fun to watch (besides the side story that dragged on for too long *cough cough*). Just don't have extremely high expectations or else... that'll ruin it for you. Other than that, it's really enjoyable to watch. There is a lot of comedy, romance, and it shows the value of friendship and family.

ACTING
Acting was just okay, nothing too spectacular. Most of the cast members are new to acting so I wasn't surprised that they were somewhat lacking. It didn't bother or annoy me, though, because the characters were still very likable and cute. It's so fascinating how much Dylan Wang suits playing as Dao Ming Si. I'm so glad he was chosen to play as DMS because I honestly can't imagine anyone else playing it. Dao Ming Si is such a difficult character to pull off, so I give props to Dylan for doing a great job, despite this being his first drama ever. Out of the 5 main characters (F4 & Shan Cai), only Shen Yue and Darren Chen had some experience acting in dramas prior to Meteor Garden. Shen Yue is an excellent actress (became a fan of her during her previous drama!) but for some reason, her acting here felt a bit unnatural sometimes? But she is amazing in dramatic scenes. Her tears fall down so quickly and she makes me wanna cry too ;___; I liked all the F4 members but my fav was Darren Chen/Kuan Hong. I fell in love with him while watching this show. His smile and dimple is to die for!

MUSIC
I LOOOOOOVEEEE THE OST OF THIS DRAMA. I love how they included old songs from the original Meteor Garden. It brought back a lot of memories of my childhood so I was really pleased to hear them again. They included old songs like Qing Fei De Yi by Harlem Yu, Liu Xing Yu by the original F4, and the new version of Ni Yao De Ai, which was still sung by Penny Tai. The songs that the 2018 F4 sang were lowkey cheesy lol but they're really catchy and I found myself listening to them a lot! Honestly, most of F4 can't really sing besides Caesar Wu (Ximen) lol but they're super cute so it's okay hahahaha. There are two English songs that was played throughout the show: Say Something by A Great Big World, which really set the mood, and Anyone of Us (Stupid Mistake), which really ruined MY mood bc it's such a terrible song lol.

OVERALL, this wasn't such a bad show at all. I would wait for the new episodes every week and had so much fun watching it. It kind of became my stress reliever since I enjoyed it so much. A lot of my friends enjoyed it as much as I did too.

So now... the final verdict: SHOULD YOU WATCH IT? YES. Absolutely. Go for it. It's funny. It's cute. It's romantic. It's dramatic. F4 members are eye candies. What else could you ask for in a drama? I highly recommend it. Like I said before, it may not be the best drama you'll ever watch, but it'll have a special place in your heart. PLUS, it's on Netflix so it should be easy to watch for a lot of people!


(don't read past this if you don't wanna get spoiled lol but I just wanted to share my personal thoughts)


SPOILERS/MY THOUGHTS
- Shancai and Dao Ming Si's relationship is bipolar and cyclic af lol the same shit kept happening over and over again, just with some minor changes lol BUT THAT DIDN'T KEEP ME FROM LOVING THEM. THEY ARE WAY TOO CUTE.
- JING AND LEI'S STORY OMG idk why but it had so much impact on me in this version. Darren and Sun Yi Han are so shippable! Til the end of the show, I still kept waiting for Jing to come back to Lei so that he wouldn't be alone... at least in this version... ;____;
- Xiao You and Ximen deserved so much more screen time ;___; I'm literally craving for more of them ;___; they're so adorable
- Cai Na and Terrence, a.k.a, the most irrelevant characters and have contributed NOTHING to the show, had so much screen time, I almost went insane. SAVE YOUR SOUL AND SKIP THEIR SCENES.
- the last ep was a big wtf lol but it's weirdly NOT disappointing?? lmao

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Enjoyable and Lighthearted web drama!

*This is a review by someone who has been reading the Love Revolution webtoon for quite a while =)

STORY
This web drama was very enjoyable to watch: it's cute, hilarious, and so much fun! It's pretty similar to the webtoon, IMO. The webtoon's storyline gets kinda dark and heavy in the later chapters but I much prefer the lighter mood of this drama's storyline. This show is simple and easy to watch as there isn't really an overly dramatic story arc. Most of the dilemmas presented in each episode get solved quickly since each episode is only 20 min long. As for the romance, I actually really loved the main couple. They're a unique duo and I absolutely loved their cute moments together. The romance between Gong Ju Young and Wang Ja Rim might be hard to watch for some people at first but I promise that it gets better pretty quickly. It doesn't drag on for way too long and you get to see the development of their relationship and the character development of Wang Ja Rim. This drama didn't just focus on the romance though; Gong Ju and Wang Ja's friends were heavily involved in the show as well. Many episodes featured their whole friend group hanging out together and it was just really fun to watch. I loved the friendship aspect in this drama.

This might be irrelevant but I'd like to point out that they were actually able to swear in this drama because it is not being shown on national TV in Korea (it is a Kakao TV webdrama). I like that the characters were able to swear in the show because there's originally a lot of swearing in the webtoon and it demonstrates realistic dialogue between teenagers.

(!Maybe a spoiler?): Based on the ending of this drama (after the end credits), I feel like there's a strong possibility that there will be a season 2. The webtoon is still ongoing and the producers of this drama still have a lot of content that they can work with.

ACTING/CAST
I was really excited when I heard Park Jihoon was going to play Gong Ju Young. I cannot imagine anyone else playing Gong Ju other than PJH. He was perfect for the role. Most of the main cast in this drama are rookie actors/actresses and I thought they did really well in their first drama. Everyone's acting was natural. It really felt like I was watching a bunch of teenagers in high school. What really impressed me is that the main cast looked EXACTLY like the characters in the webtoon. Hair/makeup/costume crew did an excellent job. Also, I'd really like to see Lee Ruby in other dramas in the future. Wang Ja Rim is originally a very emotionless character and Lee Ruby did well portraying her but due to the character's demeanor, Lee Ruby wasn't able to show her acting skills that much here. I'm looking forward to her new projects~

MUSIC
This drama has 4 OSTs and they're pretty good. I liked PJH's Midnight and the song Pit-a-Pat the most. They're super catchy!

REWATCH VALUE
Personally, I think the rewatch value of this show is high. If I stumble upon it again, I'll probably watch a random episode. It's easy to re-watch because the episodes are short and fun.

OVERALL
Overall, I genuinely enjoyed this drama! I watched it from Sept to Dec, twice a week while it was still on going so I'm really gonna miss this show as it had become a part of my weekly routine. I loved the story and the cast. I may be a little biased though because I've been a reader of the webtoon for a long time. It's just super fun to watch and it may be reminiscent of your high school days. It has its cheesy moments but it should be expected from a teen rom-com based on a webtoon. If you are looking for something lighthearted, heart fluttering, easy, and fun to watch, I highly recommend Love Revolution!


*I've been an English reader of the webtoon for a few years now but Eng translations currently only go up to chapter 76 so I haven't really gotten that far in the webtoon bc there are A LOT of chapters =(

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Ever since I heard about this movie, I've always wanted to watch this. When I saw the trailer, everything looked awesome. Some trailers make movies look good and after you watch the movie, you get disappointed, but THIS movie didn't disappoint me at all! It is so awesome! It's youthful, funny, crazy, sweet, innocent, cute, happy, a little sad, unique, full of love, and just plain awesome. The story is super nice, sweet, and funny.



Junpei Mizobata was perfect for the Yoh Komiyama role, and Ito Ono did a wonderful job as Haruna Nagashima. The two of them looked super cute together. ^^ The cast was great! Everything was just great, even the songs. I'm already familiar with the manga for a long time, but I've only read 2-3 chapters of it and THIS movie makes me want to read it more. I recommend everyone to watch this awesome movie. It will surely lighten up your day. The movie would probably make you want to have a handsome love coach. Haha~

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I thought that this drama was going to be horrible, but it's actually 100 times better than I expected. If you liked You're Beautiful, then you'll definitely enjoy this Japanese version. The Japanese series included most of the important and memorable scenes from the original series, so the episodes won't bore you. For the cast, I used to think that they're kind of strange, but you'll eventually like them and their acting is very acceptable (and they're actually newbies). This is one of my favorite Japanese dramas and it's really not that bad at all. In fact, it's awesome. The ending is especially awesome. I don't think you're going to be disappointed about the ending. The series is not that long (only 11 episodes), so I don't think it's going to bore you or make you wait really long for things to develop or get better. ^^

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If you weren't satisfied w/ season 1, I think season 2 could change your mind. Don't be afraid to give it a chance! This time you can really see the improvement with the series' character development.  Although there are still many comedic and silly scenes, season 2 is much more serious as the characters mature and realize the changes in their lives as they grow older. It was really refreshing to watch. I was actually impressed because I honestly just watched season 1 to kill some time and it was somewhat enjoyable enough for me to keep watching but I think we can all admit that it got kind of absurd and unrealistic at times. BUT season 2 is much more realistic with so many improvements. Even the cinematography improved. And because season 2 was so much better, it made me change my mind about this whole series. Sure, it's not the best, but I actually really, really liked it and it felt like it was worth my time. I'd love to see a season 3. And it made me happy that almost all their friends from season 1 appeared! The new characters were also really refreshing. And just a WARNING: second lead syndrome is even worse this season. Natsume (Sugino Yosuke) was very charming! So be prepared!

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Coming from a fan of the Reply series, I'd have to admit that I have pretty high expectations when it comes to k-dramas that were set in the past. Although this was not a tvN drama or a part of the Reply series, I couldn't help but set some standards and to compare it. But I must say that this drama DID NOT DISAPPOINT me at all. I actually really liked it. As someone who enjoys k-dramas that were set in the past, Girls' Generation 1979 was a pleasure to watch.

The drama mainly focused on friendship, family, and love. I loved how this show touched on a lot of the issues of Korean culture back then. It wasn't just all fluff and lovey dovey, it definitely portrayed real life problems that people used to deal with and still might be dealing with in the modern times. I loved the friendship and family storyline in this. I especially loved it whenever the main leads, Jung Hee and Hae Joo stood up for themselves. The drama was not afraid to show that men thought of women very lowly back then and the leads would realize how wrongly they are being treated and would stand up against the people who oppress them. I'd have to say that it was quite empowering. I also enjoyed the romance. It was really cute! There was also some comedy in this so it's not all serious all the time. Definitely loved the old setting and the vintage outfits and pretty uniforms. There were a few questions that were not answered in the end and I would've loved to see the characters' lives later on, but overall, I was satisfied with the story and the ending.

ACTING/CAST
From what I've read from netizens, the casting was a bit controversial, particularly with casting Bona (Jung Hee) as main lead since she hadn't had much acting experience besides from having a small role in Hit the Top. I was a bit worried at first about how she would handle being the main lead but I personally think she delivered her character really well, although there is always room for improvement. Looking forward to seeing her in more dramas in the future! I think playing as a teenager really fits her. Also, it was great to see Kim Sun Young and Do Hee act in a drama set in the past once again (both acted in the Reply series). I had no issues with the casting. I thought everyone did pretty well!

MUSIC
I am a 90s kid and growing up, my family listened to songs from the 70s-80s, especially the Carpenters, whose songs were almost in every episode of this drama. I loved the English songs they featured in this drama and I would get excited whenever they played something that I recognized! It is also always interesting and delightful to hear the old Korean songs that were famous back then. The show's OST was great too!

Overall, this drama was great and enjoyable! It may not be the best drama out there but it is definitely worth watching it. It's only 8 episodes but you'll be craving for more! I recommend this drama to everyone, especially to Reply series fans. You won't be disappointed!

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