AMAZING

This review might be a bit lengthy because I have a lot to say about this show so here we go.

I was super excited for Moonlight Chicken, mostly because of First but also because everything I've seen by Aof has been amazing. The hype around this one was just crazy, especially for an 8 episode series, so I was a little worried that it wouldn't live up to my expectations. It surpassed them.

It tells the story of Jim (Earth), who runs a chicken rice shop with his nephew Li Ming (Fourth). One night after close, Jim sees Wen (Mix) still at the diner, passed out from a night of drinking. The two hook up and as much as Jim wants for it to not be complicated and to stay as a simple one night stand, of course it gets complicated. While Jim and Wen work things out, there's still Gaipa (Khaotung) who has been in love with Jim for some time now, and Alan (First) who Wen broke up with after a five-year long relationship. In short, things are messy, complicated, and wonderful to watch.

In terms of the unmessy events, we've got Jim's nephew Li Ming (Fourth) and Heart (Gemini) who end up becoming friends when Li Ming has to work for Heart's parents to pay off a debt. Heart became deaf three years ago, and while his parents still refuse to learn sign, Li Ming is quick to learn it to communicate with him better. The clearly intentional lack of subtitles on the signing was a brilliant move; the viewer is put in the shoes of the parents (and other characters) who do not know sign and must rely on Li Ming's translations (when he gives them) or use context to figure it out. Coming to the realization that I didn't know what Heart was saying, and watching the same realization cross his mother's face when they get into an argument, was a wonderful touch on this already amazing series.

The storyline between Jim and Wen begins as plenty of BLs do: with a hookup. While I'm not typically a fan of this trope, I've never seen it done as well as it was here. Jim telling Wen he only wants a one night stand that is uncomplicated leads him into an entire mess that he seems to just want out of.

I might be biased because he's played by First, but I thought that the introduction of Alan added an entire layer to the story that was missing from the first few episodes. Seeing a five-year long relationship that crumbled and ended with a simple "I don't love you anymore" was devastating, especially because only Wen felt that way. Alan, trying desperately to hold onto the relationship, couldn't stop Wen from seeing other people. Wen, who still hadn't moved out of their shared apartment months after the break up, got mad at Alan for still treating him like his boyfriend--even though it seemed that Wen was still hesitant to let go too.

This show was an extremely emotional one, and it was done extremely well. There are four separate but important dynamics between characters. There's young love (HeartLiMing), stale love (AlanWen), unrequited love (JimGaipa), and new love (JimWen), all of which allow the viewer to sympathize with different characters at different points in the show. The way this show is shot was beautiful, and the intertwining of the characters' lives wasn't rushed at all even though it was a shorter series. In fact, this being a shorter series cut out any unnecessary scenes or conflicts, which meant every scene was important.

The parallels between characters help to enhance their interactions and showcase the different sides of them. Wen yells at Alan for not taking his break up words seriously--then Jim says the same thing to Wen. Alan yells at Jim for taking his pen because it doesn't belong to him--and then laughs and tells Gaipa it's fine that he took it. These little hints at past actions help to round out the story and keep the viewer looking for easter eggs in every scene. Beautifully done, wonderfully written, and worth a watch (and rewatch).

My only complaint: I want more AlanGaipa screen time. And honestly more content from this show in general.

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Enemies to Lovers DONE RIGHT

This show was incredible. A true enemies to lovers, complete with a beautiful slowburn and tension all the way through. Yin and War did an INCREDIBLE job as the leads, and knowing that this was made by the company they started themselves only makes it better. I almost started rewatching this show before it even finished it was so good. Even with the longer episodes, it was able to hold my attention for every single minute, and had me excited to watch every week.

After a brief encounter, it seems that Jack (Yin) and Joke (War) hit it off. When Jack goes to the bank for a much needed loan to pay off some debt collectors, he's surprised to see that Joke is the branch manager. What he doesn't know is that Joke is lying - and actively trying to expose the bank for its corruption. Joke gives him money he stole out of the safe, but the cops are quick to catch on. Joke, feeling bad, confesses to being Joker, an infamous thief that exposes corrupt businesses, and goes to prison. However, this leaves Jack with no way to pay off the debt collectors. Flash forward 5 years and Jack has been forced to become a debt collector himself, and has sworn to get revenge on Joke if he ever sees him again. Joke spent his last 5 years in prison coming up with every way he could make Jack forgive him. Upon his release, Joke immediately searches for Jack to apologize, only to be confronted not with the sweet young Jack he once knew, but a Jack dubbed the "Grim Reaper" by the locals. Regardless, Joke attempts to get close with Jack and help him out of the debt collector hell he's been forced into, while Jack swears that if he tries to get close to him again, he'll kill him.

Jack and Joke were absolutely wonderful to watch. I love a good slowburn and this one delivered in every aspect. Starting off with a full episode on the backstory of them was brilliant, and watching them go from beating each other up to slowly realizing they shouldn't be enemies, to a clear romantic tension between them was FANTASTIC. The action scenes were some of the best I've seen in a Thai show, and you could tell how hard they worked to make the fights good. That, combined with the tension of the heists Joker pulls off makes for one of the most entertaining watches ever. It'll have you on the edge of your seat the whole time and hit you with unexpected twists at the best times. The relationship development is perfect too, with issues that aren't too drawn out and a beautiful ending for the characters. ABSOLUTELY worth watching!!!

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An unfulfilling short series

I was really excited to start The Bequeathed because it seemed like it had everything I liked wrapped up into a short 6-episode series. It wasn't until I started the final episode that I realized there was no way they could wrap everything up as cleanly as I would have liked. The twists in the story weren't all that surprising, and I felt that I wasn't too invested in ay of the characters.

Yoon Seoha finds out she has inherited a family burial ground from a recently deceased uncle whom she had never met. Meanwhile, she finds out her husband is cheating on her and she likely didn't get the job promotion she thought she would. When a man claiming to be her half-brother starts fighting her for this burial ground, it seems like Seoha's life is spiraling out of control. No matter which way she turns, it seems that only hardships follow, and though she's suspecting everyone around her, she can't help but feel like it may be her family's own bad karma.

When it comes to crime K-dramas, there's a high bar. I love a good mystery, a good investigation, and a good, well-thought out killer. Unfortunately, this one just didn't quite deliver. While it was a very enjoyable and quick watch, I felt that something was lacking the whole time. I found Seoha difficult to sympathize with, as she always threw the blame on the closest person and never seemed to think things through. If they wanted to focus on the police investigation, they could have done that too, but that also felt like it was only peripheral even though they attempted to flesh out the cops working the case as much as they could. I think this story would have been a lot more compelling if told from the perspective of the lead detective instead of Seoha, or if Seoha was a bit more likeable as a character. Still, it was a fun show and an easy watch because of its length.

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A Business Gay Performance

This show is not good. I'll start there. However, it is hilarious. If you watch it like you're watching a badly scripted SNL skit, it's AWESOME.

The plot is Nine and Mill are debuting together in a group with the concept of "business gay performance," which is essentially fanservice. Naturally, the two of them realize that they have feelings for each other as well. The pacing of the show is totally off, the script is bad, and the acting is worse. It's basically them acting out poorly-written fanfiction. It's never as queer as you want it to be, and instead you're left laughing at the absurdity of the show. I enjoyed watching every episode of this and laughed real hard at it. Don't go in with high expectations. It's probably only worth watching if you're a fan of onlyoneof, in which case the plot seems very fitting considering the group's concept.

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Only good if you're a big fan of EarthMix

Out of all of EarthMix's projects, this one is by far the worst. While the two have great chemistry, who thought that this plot was a good idea?

Win (Mix) is in a car accident with his sister, Lin, and when he wakes up he's in his sister's body. He then embarks on a journey with his former friend Korn (Earth) in order to retrieve holy water to return to his body. Along this journey, past issues between Win and Korn resurface and as the two learn to get along again, feelings between them emerge - but does Korn have feelings for Win, or does he only care about the body his soul is transported in?

The entire conflict of this show being "is he into me or is he into me because I'm in my sister's body" is crazy. What even. Regardless, watching the relationship between Win and Korn change was very enjoyable, and the fairly slow burn friends-to-lovers was fun to watch. But thank god it was only 10 episodes because I don't think I could have watched much more.

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One of the only dramas I would consider perfect

Some of these reviews calling Vincenzo overhyped baffle me. This was hands down one of the best dramas I've ever seen. Song Joongki as Vincenzo was absolutely amazing, and the rest of the cast perfectly complemented him.

Vincenzo is a mafia lawyer who has left his mafia family in Italy to return to Korea and retrieve the money he has stashed there. in the form of gold. This gold is conveniently buried under a building in order to keep it safe, but he must tear down the building to retrieve it. One small issue: the building is full of tenants. In the midst of attempting to figure out how to get these tenants to leave, Vincenzo encounters a much larger problem: the conglomerate Babel is attempting to buy the building from him in order to demolish it and build their own. Vincenzo decides to take the side of the tenants in order to secure his building, without revealing his true plans. This gets him wrapped up in Babel's business, which leads to bigger problems than he ever anticipated.

This is a drama that starts off seemingly light and fun, with funny building tenants and even funnier interactions between them and Vincenzo. However, as the show progresses, it becomes darker and darker. The morally gray protagonist Vincenzo makes you question whether or not you should be rooting for him time and time again, and while he always seems to come out on top, you're never quite sure if that was for the best, or if the ends could ever justify his means. Throughout the show, this unsettling feeling grows in the viewer, until you're not really sure if you should have ever rooted for him in the first place...

This show kept me on the edge of my seat every episode. With elements of crime, law, and mafia, I knew I was bound to like it but it truly blew me away. I wish I could watch it for the first time again.

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Predictable, but still fun

Kidnap was a solid show that, while fairly predictable, was a fun watch. I did hope for a little bit more on the whole...yknow kidnapping aspect? But overall I enjoyed it and am very glad that GMM has announced Ohm and Leng as an official pairing after watching this.

Min (Ohm) works as an action stunt double, and with his sick brother, he's in need of some quick money. His agent sets him up on a job to earn a lot of money fast, but it involves kidnapping a rich kid named Q (Leng) for ransom. Min thinks this will be a quick job that he can forget about easily, but when he's told to kill Q instead, Min takes him and hides him. Naturally, Min is going to get in serious trouble if the client finds out Q is still alive, but keeping him quiet at Min's house isn't easy either. The two start to get to know each other and become wrapped up in the drama of Q's father's police investigation with mafia-like criminals.

Min and Q's relationship was very fun to watch develop, and I didn't think any issue was overly drawn out. I did think that pretty much every conflict in the show was predictable - it felt like we were going around in circles where Min and Q would take turns with the whole "we need to break up so you can be safe" thing. I also felt like this was one of the least convincing "poor protagonists" ever. You're saying you need money but you have TWO large houses?? I get he was trying to sell one but still, it felt a little off. Overall this show was a fun watch and the main couple had great chemistry. Even though I felt like it didn't do anything too new, I enjoyed it and am excited to see what Ohm and Leng do next.

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TayNew DELIVERED

Peaceful Property was not a show I expected to like all that much if I'm being honest. Based on the trailer, it looked to be a monster of the week-style horror/comedy ghost hunting show, and I wasn't sure that the jokes would land all that well given the language barrier. However, this show was so much better than I expected!

Peach (Tay) and his sister Pangpang (Jan) are struggling to make ends meet after Peach lost his job as a chef due to a car accident that left him unable to work in the kitchen. Pangpang has been trying to make it as an influencer, which ends up working in their favor when Home (New) discovers their ghost hunting show. Ever since the accident, Peach has been able to see ghosts - which is exactly what Home needs after inheriting multiple haunted properties from his recently deceased grandfather. Home is trying to sell the properties asap, and needs Peach's help to exorcise the ghosts; Pangpang plans to film everything and start up their ghost hunting business. Peach and Home don't get off to a great start, but through working together on the exorcisms, they start to understand each other and bond more. However, it seems that there's a lot more hiding in the secrets of Home's rich family, and he has unknowingly dragged his new friends into a bigger mess than any of them could have expected.

While the show did start off very episodic, it perfectly transitioned into drama that spanned for longer. It managed to use the first few ghost hunting adventures to help flesh out the characters themselves, making the twists in their relationships and backstories more interesting and engaging. I love a found family, and that's exactly what this show delivered. If GMM wanted to, they easily could have made this a BL - Tay and New were absolutely wonderful in their arcs and the tension between them was excellent. Even though some of the twists were expected, the way they were done still left me surprised, and there were plenty of instances where I had no idea what was coming next. A really fun watch overall!

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A good direction

Anyone that watches danmei adaptations is aware of the censorship this typically comes with; however, Meet You at the Blossom manages to get around this and delivers on the romance aspect of this wuxia. Unfortunately, I still found this show a bit lacking in the non-romance department, which was in part due to the characters themselves, and in part due to the 12 episode limit.

Jin Xiao Bao is nearing marrying age, and is determined to find the most beautiful woman to make his wife. During an unexpected encounter, he watches Huai En face many men single handedly, and instantly falls in love with her. However "she" is actually a man. Huai En is perfectly fine with Xiao Bao being in love with him - but it seems he may be motivated to keep Xiao Bao close for other reasons than his own feelings. The two enter into a relationship claiming they will always forgive the other no matter what, but how far can this promise extend?

The relationship was fun to watch develop, with cold Huai En slowly warming up to Xiao Bao. In this style of drama, I was very used to a relationship being built purely on tension due to censorship issues, so to get an actual relationship in this show was very refreshing. One of my biggest complaints though is that Xiao Bao is utterly useless. Huai En is a great cultivator and very intelligent. Xiao Bao is.....neither of those things. I just wish that Xiao Bao could have stood up for himself once in awhile, instead of always relying on others. I actually really enjoyed the political issues in the show, and thought they were the perfect level of complex for the length of the show. I do think that we could have benefited from a bit more time with the characters to watch them grow, but there's only so much you can do.

In all, I just hope that this opens the door for more danmei adaptations produced by companies willing to keep the romance. This was a short watch with the perfect amounts of romance, heartache, and betrayal, but would have benefitted from a stronger lead character and slightly less toxic relationship.

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A Heartfelt Revenge Drama

This drama really surprised me with how much it was able to do in the short amount of time it had. Reading the description, I was a little worried with how much background and world building we might have to go through, but honestly there was the perfect amount of information given to the viewer to make things make sense, but not too much exposition where it felt like they were overexplaining things.

Song Yi Heon is a high schooler who has been horribly bullied for years, and decides to take his own life. As he is jumping off an overpass, 47-year-old gangster Kim Deuk Pal sees him and saves him - except, as he catches Yi Heon a truck drives by and kills Deuk Pal. In a strange occurrence, Deuk Pal's soul is transported into Yi Heon's body. Deuk Pal wakes up in the body of this high schooler, and decides to get back at the bullies and sort out Yi Heon's school and family life (while also attempting to pass high school classes).

I was honestly worried that we would get too much with the whole soul-switching thing, but they discussed it the perfect amount for this show. I loved how Deuk Pal's gang ended up getting involved in Yi Heon's life, and how Yi Heon's family businesses all tied together with it. The twists and messiness of this show was perfect, because they still managed to have everything tied up nicely even with just 8 episodes. I do wish we could have gotten a little more time with high school Yi Heon before his suicide attempt, and that we got more drama with some of the characters involved in Yi Heon's personal life, but overall this was a fantastic watch. The goofiness of an adult not understanding high school kids' lingo and style paired with the intense fight and drama scenes worked perfectly. I would highly recommend this one to anyone who enjoys gang/revenge/high school drama shows. It checks all the boxes and does it well.

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Cute and Sweet

I originally wasn't planning on watching Only Boo, but I kept seeing people talking about it and they finally convinced me. While it may have not been the most innovative or exciting show, it was a very fun watch and a really cute romance. Don't expect too much from the plot or characters, but just enjoy the little romance between the main characters and you'll have a good time.

Moo (Keen) is sent to the country side by his mom to focus on school instead of focusing on idol auditions like he has been. His mom says he needs to finish high school before he can think about becoming an idol. However, Moo refuses to let go of his dreams. While in this new school, Moo meets Kang (Sea), a curry rice seller near his apartment. Moo very quickly develops feelings for Kang, and has to partition his time between school work, secretly practicing for idol auditions, and flirting with Kang. However, even after he starts winning Kang over, Moo realizes there a lot more problems to come in this relationship if he wants to be an idol.

Truly the best word to describe this drama is "cute". A high school romance between Moo and Kang develops slowly and eventually turns into a relationship between them, but still has its ups and downs. I think the characters could have had a little more depth, and I wish we got even more back story of both of them to really flesh out their characters more. For a lot of the series, they felt a bit one-dimensional. I also think that the conflicts towards the end could have been sped up a bit just to get some more time with Kang and Moo together. Overall, an easy and fun watch!

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What makes a good killer?

A Shop for Killers is a very unique take on the contract killer plotline. It was a show that I was very excited to start, especially as a fan of Lee Dongwook, and it was very entertaining all the way through. However, I felt like there were a few parts of the show that felt off. The first bit will be free of spoilers, so I'll mark where they start.

The opening scene of the show has Jeong Jian, our protagonist, getting shot at in her home. A very striking opening scene that had me excited to see both what happens next and how we got there. However, it's the latter that I have to complain about. This show jumps back and forth a LOT between the present and the past. Jian has an uncle, Jeong Jinman, who seems to be up to some shady business. These jumps to the past allow us to understand what exactly that shady business is, and how it concerns her. However, it is very non-linear in its storytelling. I think the one thing that bothered me the most about this wasn't the fact that we kept jumping between times, but the fact that they replayed scenes we had seen before so many times to orient the viewer in the timeline, but it was just excessive and unnecessary most of the time. The replayed scenes were so much longer than they needed to be, especially because this is an 8 episode series. If you've forgotten THAT much of the show when it's so short, it's probably because you weren't paying attention.

Another fault brought about by this non-linear storytelling was the fact that the viewer didn't get to learn the truth alongside Jian, but rather knew before her. You learn very early on about Jinman's career as a contract killer, but you have to watch a confused and scared Jian learn this WAY later than you do, at which point it doesn't pack the same punch. I will say though, watching Jian go through so many emotions in the span of just a few days is an incredible watch, and the actress did a great job portraying her.

**Spoilers start here**

My last and biggest issue with this show was the ending. What a copout! You get to watch Jian go through all this internal turmoil of should I kill or should I not, how could I ever run this business, etc. just for all that to go out the window because Jinman is ALIVE?? The entire story could have been avoided. You could argue that that's what makes Jian such a tragic character, but I thought that leaving the storyline right before they introduced Jinman at the end would have been a perfectly fine ending - a young girl, left to figure out the world with no one on her side. Could Jian become a killer like Jinman? Does she have what it takes, or is she only fueled by the rage that her parents' and uncle's death caused? I guess these questions don't really matter, because she doesn't need to be on her own anymore!

Overall, it was a good show and an engaging watch. Besides some issue with the storytelling and the ending, it was very interesting to watch the plot unfold both in the past and present. Frankly, I think this could have have spanned two seasons, with one season being all about Jinman and one about Jian, but the back and forth didn't get too messy. Worth checking out if you like short and dark thrillers.

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Wanted it to be better

As a huge fan of crime/legal dramas, I was really looking forward to this one! Especially since one of the main characters is a lawyer, I was thinking we would get some good courtroom/law scenes that we just...didn't get. I understand that the plot of this one was about figuring out how to catch a killer that has way more power than the victim, but a lot of it just felt like it had been done before in so many better renditions. Plus, the relationship didn't seem to develop all that smoothly? It seemed like at one point they hated each other and then all of a sudden they were together? It felt like a show that could have been done really well if given the proper time and budget, but it just fell a little flat in both the romance and the murder storylines.

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