my self-confidence's model

take episode 1, go strait to 3minutes 15 seconds, just watch the next 40 seconds.
I watched this sequence like 100 times! when facing difficult times in 2020, I decided to act like a confident person, and intuitively, this scene became my model. and I felt soooo good acting like yoo baek! like, the world is crumbling down but you don't care, you do you! after watching the drama, I watched this scene again, knowing why he went crazy that night made me appreciate it even more.

why would you watch this?
1- the 1st episode is catching like hell. if you watched the scene I talked about earlier, you already know!
2- the story line is unique. a manager getting rid of his own star on a lost island, this is fun!
3- every aspect of the story is very well exploited. of course this is a comedy, but some personal issues are very well explained and processed.
4- despite the theme of the drama, the story is soothing. after all you are on a lost island, enjoy the place.
5- this drama has a high rewatch value! for me it's the best quality sign.

when watch this? there is no violence, no sex, the story is very adaptable to all audiences. it's a light story, watch this if you need to uplift your mood.

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a love romance with passion and strengh

the story is about a woman, dance entertainer, who has fallen into pariah class for her father's fault and HOW she will stand up high again after that. my feelings after watching the drama are joy and relieve.
there are a lot of good things to view in this drama: costumes, poetry, songs, dialogues, fights, political plots, views of ancient life in China, view of women condition in ancient China. I loved the subtle way the main characters seduced each others and behaved with one another. I also loved how smart the main female character is.
violence: in my opinion there are 2 major violent scenes, (ep24, 39th min until beginning ep 25 4th min) and (ep37, 18th minute). I would keep children under 12 away, and definitely explain to all under age children why that's not ok.
sex: that's a very family friendly show.
when to watch: with your family or your lover. there are definitely too much love scenes for friends' entertainment. the show is relaxing enough to be watched on after work's basis. it is catching and you'll have sometimes hard time stopping. but keep some good stuffs for tomorrow my friend!
have fun!

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you will remember this drama

a young and naive woman begins her career as a math teacher in a high school. she is entrusted with the most difficult class. It might be worrisome, but this young woman has a card in her sleeve: she is the granddaughter of a yakuza leader. Throughout the series, she will go through several tests and gain the respect and affection of her students.
The show looks a bit like "great teacher onizuka" but at the same time it has its own stamp. If I have to give an appreciation, I would say that it makes the other school series difficult to enjoy because it sets the bar high!

this drama is the first I watched. it was in the late 2000's, I didn't know anything about this wonderful world of Asian's dramas, and I was just searching for a new series to watch. I came across this drama by accident and decided to give it a try... and now I have more than 100 days of dramas watched thanks to this one! know this: it will let an unforgettable taste in your memory!

you can enjoy this drama any time, and with any one. it's really entertaining, joyful and gives hope in humanity. if you are searching for your next drama to watch, stop right here, you have found it!

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too short

a high school girl who faces the world alone because her father ran away from creditors. she is bullied at school and has to work to take care of her little sister. everything in her life is sad and hopeless until she meets the magician. I really loved the story because you just can't figure out if things really happened or if that was an/her illusion, or a trick. the story takes unexpected turns a couple of times. through this experience she will learn a lot about life, society, faith and friendship. 6 episodes are definitely too short for this story! I had this feeling that everything was shortened in order to hold in time.

on the other hand, this show can be watched in one (long) evening or at least one week-end. it's fun and very deep at the same time. that's perfect for new friends or lovers who need to get to know each other. you can really have very deep conversations about life, money, family and friendship while watching this. have fun!

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soothing family slice of life

that's a good show, if you are tempted give it a try!
the story is about parents who are tired for not having grand-children. they agree to give a huge reward to their first son getting married. they have 3 sons and even the oldest (40 yo) is still single. so you get to discover how this 3 sons are finding love in their own way. it's almost like Korean's lessons about how to date at 40, at 35 and at 25.

I like it because there is not much dramas, it stages deep thoughts about ageing, adoption, children, parents, marriage, divorce and friendship. most of the characters are sympathetic, and the romantic relations are just touching. I finally appreciated not be able to watch 3/4 episodes in a row because let's be honest, it's exhausting. and even if the series is still going, I like the journey.
my favorite couple is the middle son's one.

I wrote this review on episode 26 while the drama was still airing: this is my feelings after the end of the show:

everything is really nice until episode 37. our assumption on MDL's discussions is that the writer wanted to please the public and give more screen time to soojung (park ji young). she is an amazing actress, she deserved more time from the beginning, and above all, her story is the very foundation of the drama's story. so, it's understandable, but it ruined the drama. things will then become hectic and messy and the end of the drama feels shortened. this is still a good show I would recommend to anyone into family's slice of life.

the experience of watching it and commenting on MDL was also very fun because each one had his favorites characters and we were just arguing as if they were true people. this too I would recommend. next time, let's watch an airing drama together!

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so satisfying!

from the beginning to the end, I enjoyed every minute. there is nothing more to say.
everything was right, everything was fair. I really loved it! I read some people had trouble diving in, I definitely didn't. if the first episode don't catch you, this is not for you.

the story is very hard and violent. but the characters just make jokes about this. this was an adaptation mechanism to survive the violence that happened to them. so the tone might feel odd. some people called this a comedy, because of that. but that's not a comedy. that's a difficult story.

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not worth your time

the beginning was very promising but as the time went on it was more and more difficult to dive in the story. some characters were very well handled but sadly some were not. this lead few part of the story to seem odd. the story line is too long and the political plot unnecessarily complicated. they didn't manage to end smoothly, packing the uncovering of the plot with the happy ending in the last episode. so everything seems just too long sometimes and simply rough at other time.

I chose to rate this drama after each episode: I rated 7 for the first episodes and ended down to 5 at the end. I usually watch a 16 episodes' drama in a few days, one week at most. I needed 13 days for this one because it was so boring that I just watched something else. if your drama list "to watch" is still long, pass this one.

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non consistent story

I watch a lot of reincarnation in a other world's story so I am very used to it. there are also a lot of stories about people being trapped in an on line game. there always are some connection, something logical between real life and game story that makes the story captivating and entertaining. this one wasn't.
although it kept me hooked because I really wanted to know how she would get herself out of it, I really didn't like the script. I asked myself continuously who would play that game on purpose. certainly not me.

what are the odds that someone lands in a so messed up family? even if you are willing to discover how people lived in the old dynasty's era, things are already difficult as is, you really don't need a family who wants to kill you, exploit you, and leave you to die. I mean, come on! you are playing a game, there is so much interesting things she could have discovered, while having a crush on a character, there was really no need of so much dramas, in a remote countryside place, with a so poor family.

The story also ends in fishtail, we do not know if it is a happy ending or not.
I feel like I wasted my time, and more importantly, I wouldn’t have watched if I knew it was so violent.

when to watch: it's entertaining, so do as you wish.
audience: I'd say not under 18 because there is so much (violent) crazy things in the script it'd be difficult for youngsters to understand. I mean I don't understand how people can be so cruel and selfish and I am more than 18.

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divers' slice of life

what I loved about this drama was how they depicted the life of these men and mostly women who dive into the sea all day long to catch fresh fish and shells. this is definitely a thing in korea. I like the story about this little girl who quit her little town to become a famous photographer, but actually, all these was (for me) not necessary for the story to be charming. she could have a been an anonymous worker in a big corporate facing hard time in her job.

I think that the main focus of this drama is about how you handle the social pressure. how you handle anonymous pressure on the internet, how you handle it at work when someone is badmouthing you, how you handle the expectations of your family and friends, and from your lover. they looked very deeply in this matter and did a really good job. I appreciated the light they put on real friendship and family bound that can help you go through the hardship in life. the conversations and little advice they give every now and then are very accurate and heartwarming.

the love story between the two ML was touching, but I felt it a little too much idealized. it's very nice to love forever, but for me, long lasting love has a reason: it is in the way the two lovers handle themselves and their partner. and this part is a little bit lacking here. but, we can agree to just accept that they love each other for no reason.

when to watch: it's a very light and uplifting story, watch it after work.
audience: family friendly

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2nd chance time travel

what I loved about this drama is the step by step explanation on why a narcissist behaves the way he(she) behaves.
this drama touched me in a very personal way. I had a toxic relationship that took the wrong slide in 2013, and ended in 2020. I dreamed so much about a time traveling offering me a second chance to handle my ex. after the break up, I realized that my ex is a narcissist. I started learning what this is and how it impacts your relationship with them, and most importantly, what you can do to help (heal) them, or to save yourself.

there are a lot of dramas out there staging narcissistic relationships, but this one was the more informational in my eyes. probably because I finally am able to recognize narcissism when I come across it, and I learned enough about this to know what kind of manipulations they usually use, and how it works.

so for me this drama was like "you know kung-fu? show me!"
and it came to my mind that I probably watched a lot of dramas, and series, and movies about narcissists, without appreciating all the variations of their personalities. with this drama, I did. and I really enjoyed the role play of soomin, the SFL, the big villain of the drama. she was awesome! and I think that it must be very enjoyable to rewatch the show, knowing how this will end, and really appreciate her slow transformation.

there are a lot more things that could have been done, which is why I gave a 8.5/10. but, that's a very nice essay on narcissism, almost a school case.

when to watch? the story is a little complex, keep it for a relaxed week-end.
audience: not under 15, there is a lot of violence (words, physical, psychological)
enjoy !

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you will not remember this

actually I didn't remember this drama, I watched it probably in 2017 in my early beginning of watching asian's dramas, and I remember finding it entertaining. but I had no comparison, or very few ones. then I stumbled again on it, watched it, and remembered the drama on episode 5 or 6, then watched it again because I didn't remember much and needed a second view on it, and felt disappointed.

that's entertaining if you have nothing else to watch and have not much time to spend on dramas, because the episodes are short and the story is very shallow. it's funny though, if you don't overthink it, because the guy is an obvious narcissist. on that point, I learned a lot about narcissists last year, and this drama felt to me like a "how do narcissists choose their victims and why do they get interested in normal and loving persons in the first place?". like a class case.

how do they choose their victims? they just keep the one who is unable to protect himself/herself from them. that's all.
why are they interested in normal people? because they lost their ability to feel their emotions, and they are longing from them. that's why they love empathetic and loving people because they can pray on their emotions through them. and if they feel unable to pray on these emotions, they will destroy the victim out of frustration. this drama is very awful if you overthink it. but you can also do both, enjoy and overthink it.

when to watch? when you are bored and don't want to make any effort.
audience: family friendly.

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nothing new under the sky

I didn't expect it to be a movie, thought it was a drama. relieved it was just a movie, would have been so disappointed.

that's just another palace intrigue. the story isn't as unique as I thought while reading the synopsis. I think they tried to tell a story to complex for the movie duration. so it ends up with a lack of depth. I would have loved being told about how these matchmakers learned how to do their work.

I didn't like the actors. there is just something odd about how all the movie was bring together.

this is just bland, and coarse. I don't recommend.

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dreadful come back

the story is about the come back of an orphan who suffered many kind of mistreatment in her adoptive family, and ended up being the scapegoat of all their wrongdoing.

what I loved: the pace of the story is dense. lot of things happened during every episode. I was very surprised too about the multiple layers of this story, it's almost like every time you discover something, there is something else under this story too.

what I didn't like: I could tell almost everything from the first episodes. I guessed the way the story would end. but it didn't spoil my pleasure because the actors were good and having them in my living room was pleasant. if you are used to mystery solving, perhaps you'll have the same issue I had.

not suitable for under 15 because of violent scenes (accident, attempt murder, and so on).
watch it with friends on week-end to relax. have fun!

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an enquiry full of surprises

pros: I just watched this drama by chance and didn't put too much thoughts in it. I really liked the story from the very beginning, this drama is easy to dive in. I loved that so many things were feeling odd and that in the end you get to understand why that is. and everything makes sens. I loved that the story evolves while you are watching it, and things that happened in 1987 aren't the same anymore.
I feel like I could eventually rewatch the show because the story is very tricky, I certainly missed some things. and also, knowing the truth, it can be very interesting to watch the scenes with new eyes.

cons: I didn't feel hooked and managed to watch a couple of episodes a day. it didn't matter as I liked the story anyway. I wasn't convinced by the love story. the two characters had no chemistry for me. they could have been very good friends for example and the story would have felt better. I had a clue about the perpetrator, but it was surprised anyway.
as fun as it was, I didn't score more than 7 because I know I will forget it easily. for me it's a good show, but not a priority.

when to watch: even if it isn't the main event, there is a lot of violence (harsh feelings, harsh words, and physical violence), I wouldn't recommend for under 18.
watch with friends on week-ends, it's also a good show to help relax yourself after work.
it's a solid 7, so have fun!

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an unusual story

Treating autism in Korea is a first for me. I was very curious to know how this subject is apprehended in Asia, even if I expected it to be difficult.
In the West, we have already had several series that deal with the subject, MONK being my favorite. Even though this drama is unique for Korea, I don’t think it will be memorable for a westerner. As far as I’m concerned, it won’t be unforgettable.
But I had fun! This is a very good series that I recommend.
my drama's summary could be:
"my emotional support pet is a whale." yeah, and good luck with that...

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