I never thought I would be able to complete a 40-episode drama but here I am, thoroughly enjoying and loving all the episodes.
it is such a beautiful show and Hua Zhi is one of the best female characters I have ever seen. the story of a group of women abandoned in a conservative and misogynistic society but they trample it all and rise.
Hua Zhi was one of the least-liked members of the family but she proved reliable and led everyone to success. all the women in the family unlearning all the internalized misogyny and classism. zhi also remained kind to every person she met throughout the series. even certain male characters who are not 'heroes' are empowered. this a feminist show if u ask me.
the romance was nice between all the couples even though it was not a focal point of the show. some plotlines and couples were rushed at the last few episodes.
the only complaint i would have is that the main lead was a bit too expressionless. the show would have been way better and the romance could have hit harder if he was expressive at certain parts.
I'm very happy that in the end the women continued what they were doing before and didn't go back to their old ways. it's also quite sweet and smart how 'hua' means flower and its connection with the title

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a drama filled with grief to the brim

each and every episode was filled with sadness, there was no escaping it.
to begin with the positives, the acting was great. each cast member did their part perfectly. ohm and tu were great in their characters. even the children were amazing. the set and production were good, every home was unique and felt like someone was actually living there. the costumes were also specific for each character like kongkwan's bows, zo's tomboy-ish dressing, plu with his beanie etc
the plot was interesting on paper but it was not executed very well. i did not get what they were trying to do.
from the past scenes itself it seemed like no one noticed mai or luk that much. after the death, everyone was quick to fight and move away. if they were this good family as they said they would have solved it as soon as it happened. luk's reasoning for going to jail was also weak and selfish, u are willing to go to jail so that his 'reputation' will not be tarnished but u are willing for your whole family to be harassed.
all the adults in this show needed therapy, especially santi, mai and phukao's dad. the dad was horrible. how are u going to ignore your child and abuse him while he is alive and then when he is dead u drink yourself to oblivion and ruin your family. phukao was an absolute asshole. his family falling apart wasn't kongkwan nor her family's fault. his home was already broken. him playing the victim, acting as if people hate him meanwhile he was full-on harassing kongkwan physically and emotionally. the sudden 180 in his behavior after that one jail conversation was so off too.
also how did no one bat an eye at mai and luk's relationship except mai's step-mom???? luk was a teacher and he was a student. even if he failed many years in school, luk would still be much older than him. this is literally pedophilia. also why is she, the adult, making the teenager find a place to live and money????????????
the romance between the 4 felt very forced. the family/brother-sister dynamics were too strong. there was also a lack of chemistry between ohm and tu
the show would have been better if they focused on the 4 of them and their healing and grieving together. there were barely any scenes with them together, especially zo and kongkwan. they said they are sisters but we saw them hang out about 3 times only. it would have been more fruitful to see them learn to forgive and unlearn the hate they learned from their parents.
zo and her dad were the best family in the whole show, they are the happy family which everyone overlooked

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i went in expecting it to be very bad but this is actually decent?
the only reason i watched this was for dew and i watched majority of this in 2x speed so i can't make a fair review on this
the first half is meh but the second half really picked it up.
they could have shown his condition more seriously. they made him a complete man child for quite a while instead of showing how he really struggles with his condition. the romance also felt a bit rushed. they could have taken some time to show them growing closer to each other. once they started dating it was fun to watch them.
a whole negative point for that makeover, she was so damn cute with her glasses and curly hair but they made her look like every other office extra. and the ad placements omg, so many of them every 5 mins, so many unnecessary scenes just to promote the same brand. if i eye rolled every time they did an ad placement my eyes would have fallen out the socket
the other plots were done well, the brother bond and the mother's finding were all done well. they even gave me a quick sip of a love triangle too. they also used an evil female character well here.
the last episode was so good, they wrapped up everything perfectly.
compared to many recent gmmtv series that i have seen, this seems well made, like a decent effort has been made (might be all the sponsorship money from the ads)

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the romcom was romcom-ing, until it didn't

the show began so well, with great characters and storylines but they lost everything in the middle.
this premise of the drama is fascinating, a rich boy trying to hide his sexuality seeks help from his best friend, they get into a fake marriage, his brother opposes and in his effort to stop the marriage he falls in love with his fake sis in-law.
first of all do-han didn't even feel like a main character, he was barely there on the screen and when he was there the same situations happened. they didn't dive into his issues and insecurities even though he is a major character. he also didn't feel like a-jung's best friend. for such great friends they barely hung out.
jihan and a-jung's chemistry in the first episodes were great, amazing i would say. they had great banter and good chemistry, a good combo for enemies to lovers and a forbidden love trope. even the angst was there. but once they got together, everything was lost. they became so lovey-dovey and didn't disagree on anything. the spark was lost. i still don't understand why they broke up after giving everything up.
there was a lot of lost funny moments. jihan finding out that dohan was gay could have been a really funny moment but they made it so dramatic. jihan could have been worrying so much abt the heartbreak a-jung will have if she found out- musters the courage to say it- and ajung being like 'yeah ik'. it would have been so fun given ajung idgaf attitude.
all the side plots were so boring and unnecessary, so much build-up for the mom's death for the big reveal to be the fact that the father is involved.
so this can be added to the list of dramas that could have been great

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A good ensemble show

HR violations left and right yet so enjoyable
i really REALLY enjoyed this show from the beginning till episode 9 or something
a really well developed show with almost all of its characters having a proper character arc and growth
many people were disappointed with the show not being focused on the pair but i liked the way this show was. its more of an ensemble cast show rather than a bl
the team has taken a lot of care to show this story. the sets felt real, the characters had depth and continuity
one of the flaws in the writing was the whole judy-bamhee plot, it felt like someone who hated judy got into the writers room. the tae-bamhee ending was also a bit meh, they would have been better off as friends.
they should have also tried to add the jane & ryan stories consistently in all the episodes cause during the whole judy-bamhee-tae episodes there was barely anything about them and in the last few episodes we had a lot of new things pushed in
otherwise this was a good show with many well executed themes of finding yourself, working, being an adult, making mistakes in the workplace, finding your worth, women in the workplace, self-esteem, communication etc etc
i wish gmmtv makes more series like this with this effort instead of cheap remakes

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For people who loved my precious the movie and want to relive the memories of tonglin’s first love. Also for people who want a heart-warming series about first love
I loved the movie and was so emotionally attached to it even though it’s a simple plot and it's safe to say I loved the series too.
The series is an expansion of the movie. It’s basically the movie with many of the extra scenes, which did not make it into the final cut. U get to see the characters more and explore their friendship and characteristics. They even show us more about their families and the dynamics in their homes which makes the kids who they are. I’m happy that they explore ja-oh more, it felt like she was a very small character in the movie. They also made it fun by making the girls and the guys interact together more, making them one big friend group. They felt very real, like a group of high schoolers, focusing on studies and college entrance, having silly contests, and hanging out at each other’s restaurants.
The series also subtly highlighted lin, who I think is a very different type of a female lead. She is a typical goody-two-shoes but not the annoying type. She is strict but not in the sense that she never has fun, she knows the time and place and the amount of fun they should have. She has a distaste for tong, but she never looks down him for getting less marks. She helps him and his whole group, though all of them don’t put equal effort. She is the popular girl but not in a mean girl type of way. She knows all the boys like her, but she never takes advantage of their feelings or uses them. Lin and ja-oh’s friendship also shines here, like how ja-oh isn’t jealous about all the guys liking lin or how Lin never uses the guy’s feelings to look more superior. She is a very good friend to all; we can even say a selfless friend but she never loses sight of her goals and ambition. She does not let anyone distract her from her dreams. Lin might be one of my favorite female leads.
They showed how Lin and tong slowly started to like each other and fell in love. I live for tonglin so I was very happy. My only complaint would be we didn’t get to see much of their dating era, which only lasted one episode. I came in expecting more of their dating before the breakup
The last episode was completely different from the movie and it was one of the best . I love how they gave each character their own career paths and love lives. I love how they waited for each other. I really love how they ended Tong & Lin’s story, how they waited for each other, and how tong describes his first love. His whole monologue was very beautiful. Truly a great ending. I had tears in my eyes
I’m sad that this might be one of the last times we see film-nanon in a project together, both of them have big projects lined up but I will be still waiting for more. Also, its high time View gets the role of a main lead, she has proven herself as a strong actress multiple times.
I will be definitely rewatching this, probably binge-watching this to fill my heart

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a show so badly made

A big rant. You have been warned

I have not seen any other versions of this show but this version makes the story look bad from all sides. People say that straight shows don't get viewers but how can het show gain viewers if they are made so badly?
From the beginning, we can see that there was a low budget for this show. The writers have done a very bad job. The story seems like something u get after a storywriting competition in high school.
The characters were so under-developed. It seems as if they heard a one line summary of the other versions and made a story based off that one line within 15 mins. Som and Chadjen are very one-dimensional characters. Chadjen was not even a big presence in the first half of the show. I never felt that Som was romantically interested in Chad, it felt like a younger sister annoying her brother. Chad was just a quiet guy with daddy/mommy issues. Since he is so absent in the first half, everything related to him in the latter just felt fake. Why do Som and Chad like each other? We never know.
The team was also weak in keeping the story consistent. Som was never shown to be an artist or even draw for fun but suddenly after failing her medical interest she suddenly finds out that she is passionate about art?? They don't even show her doing much art or even being passionate about it. Chadjen being a swimmer too is a weird plot point. Like wdym he is a good swimmer, so good he beats Tao but we never hear of it again???? New's dream being a video game developer too, like he never mentioned it any time during the highschool or college days but suddenly after he gets a job his life long passion is developing a game? They didn't even imply he had a passion for any subject let alone this. Also, we hear nothing about this after the proposal
The romantic aspect was weak. Chadjen was shown as uninterested in everything. His only goal is to be a doctor and its made very clear. But then Som and Chad start dating after one conversation? That too one where they don't really say anything about their feeling? Their dating era too felt weak. They dated for a year but what did they do during that time? How do they hand out? The show just made them move in together-wrote after one year- suddenly they are having issues????????does the team not know how to portray a story? Som being so surprised that Chad is so busy also seems weak to me cause he studying to be a doctor, everyone knows how time consuming it is. Plus Chadjen wasn't that active in her life before, what difference does it make now?
The parents especially the dad was annoying. Many people were touched by the dad's anger in that one episode but i didn't like him at all. They didn't show the parents much and every time they showed the dad he was so overprotective and so obsessed with som's dating life and sex life. If they had shown times when they spend time doing something other than eating it would have worked.
New and Khao's story wasn't anything to be praised. Their proposal was cute though.
Tao seems be the only developed character here. He has a genuine interest in som and tries to be a part of her life and has passions and pains of his own.
The set, THAT WIG, story, outfit........everything was so low effort.

now about the acting..........
i first saw dew and prim in f4 and they both have a good performance there. Since then i have seen many of their other shows and i think dew is getting progressively worse. It does not help that most of his works has one dimensional characters. If i were to rank his performance it would be f4>homeschool>faceless love>this. He was so good in f4, but then there Ren was such a deep character with multiple sides and was surrounded by other deep characters. Here he is alone with a plain character. I hope he tires to get better shows and work better. Prim was good in enigma, her som is a plain character who is annoying so there isn't much to redeem the character.
Anyway this was a torture to watch, glad its over

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another marriage revenge drama done well!!

at first i thought its going to be exactly like perfect marriage revenge since it had almost all the same conflicts but marry my husband has done well to differentiate it from pmr. pmr was more focused on them healing from the trauma (mostly the fl) and they didn't have to change themselves much. here both our ml and fl had to learn things on their own, heal by themselves and decide how to change their destines. the characters were well developed from the 1st ep to last. the change jiwon has from the helpless naive girl to a happy and smart woman, jihyuk from a shy guy to a man who is not afraid to take chances. even the villains are well developed. sumin and minhwan are such complex villains, i could talk abt how great of a character sumin was. there is a question to ask, would u rather be a girl like jiwon(past one) or a girl like sumin when you face someone like minhwan. all the other side characters were good too. my only problem with the show is how anti-glasses they are. like be real, their glasses DID NOT make them unattractive. anyways so satisfying to see the revenge, here is to more revenge dramas

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