Not your typical Cinderella story and an unforgettable romance!

One of the bestest and loveliest love stories imaginable. A drama which not only deserves that rare 10/10 rating but makes you wish you could give it 1,000,000/10 because of how inspired, satisfying and rewarding it’s been.

Promise Cinderella reminds me of the 2000s classic jdrama rom-coms (which is a good thing) aka the way they used to be until they contracted some sort of a narrative plague and basically died out, with few exceptions. Tightly plotted, well-written, brilliantly acted and with an OTP that oozes chemistry, it’s a very thoughtfully and sensitively made adaptation of the original manga (even though, I only read the first 18 chapter on Comikey so far). The drama took the Cinderella tropes and spun them on their head, breathing a new life into them.

All that is perfectly accompanied by a sublime soundtrack composed by Yamada Yutaka who delivers perhaps a first full-fledged bona fide jdrama OST with several distinct songs, not merely the insert and closing themes. Each song is written in such a way that the lyrics perfectly describe each character’s feelings and storylines.

Fumi Nikaido and her Hayame have been all sorts of awesome – mature, strong and plucky but still vulnerable and so real and relatable - and not the infantilized caricature of an adult female you often see in Asian dramas nowadays.

Maeda Gordon has been such a revelation - he does an amazing job portraying all the various facets of Issei, this boy-man on his journey to become an adult. I love how gradually Issei turns softer and more vulnerable because Hayame and his feelings for her make him shed his bravado to reveal all the insecurity, vulnerability, and tenderness he has been trying to hide. There is this amazing dichotomy of showing a teenager with what is basically a body of a grown-up man but personality that no longer belongs to a boy but neither to a man yet. It’s a great choice and casting. He has such a wide range of facial expressions and has the natural ability to act with his whole body, giving Issei so many adorable quirks, that very few actors possess, especially ones so young.

Seigo has turned out to be truly great second male lead. You can root for him and he poses genuine competition for Issei. If this were a kdrama there would be no way in hell he wouldn’t get the girl if only for the sole reason they share a past and are each other’s first love. I love how Hayame and Seigo’s relationship is actually properly developed, not some childhood sweethearts trope or them meeting a couple of times without getting to know each other. Iwata Takanori does such an incredible job portraying Seigo and conveying his conflict. I remember him from Dear Sister and stealing the whole show with Ishihara Satomi so it’s great to see him in a well-made jdrama once again that gives him a good script to work with.

Even the supporting characters are unforgettable and an absolute joy to watch, each one having a distinct personality – Issei’s cool matchmaking grandma and adoring Yoshitora, who are always there to support him, or Koya, Issei’s new BBF with who he shares epic bromance,… - without stealing the thunder from the main characters with multiple irrelevant side stories, which is something so many Asian dramas utterly fail at these days.

Even the ending is a perfect farewell to a perfect love story, completely reversing the Cinderella tale…

The fairy tale ends just like the love story for the age it is, with Issei’s proposal and promise to his Cinderella (hence the drama’s name) to live with her happily ever after - after she saved him from the evil witch - and the shoes to make up for the ones he threw away in episode 1, but, hilariously, they don't fit (turning another Cinderella trope on its head) and, just like his body and love for her, pretty much swallow her whole.

Their future lies ahead of them with one part of their journey ending where they have learned that reality and real love are much better than any games and dreams.

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ONE OF THE BEST ASIAN DRAMAS EVER MADE AND A MASTERPIECE

TharnType The Series is not only THE BEST BL DRAMA I've ever seen but also one of the best and unforgettable stories ever, be it a TV series, a movie or a book.

I've been watching Asian dramas for 14 years now and lately, each year, it has become increasingly difficult for me to find something which would make me addicted and engage me emotionally. And then TharnType came out of nowhere and it has become my favourite TV series/movie of all time.

The writing, acting, chemistry, directing, editing and music are out of this world. But most importanly, the story and the characters are complex, relatable, realistic and authentic. Something you rarely encounter in Asian dramas. There is so much nuance to be found.

What sets TharnType The Series apart from other Thai BL dramas is it’s willingness to address uncomfortable and negative aspects of relationships, be it Tharn kissing Type without his permission or Type’s hateful harrassment of him. Portraying them doesn’t diminish the quality of the drama, on the contrary, it elevates it above the rest of the genre.

Tharn and Type are hurting each other and there is a huge conflict between them, with a misunderstanding and emotional baggage at the center of it. They are not perfect, they both make mistakes and that's what makes them human because real people and their relationships are flawed, imperfect, messy and problematic with many misunderstandings. However, they can also admit to their mistakes, learn from them, apologize and forgive each other. You can imagine a person reacting in real life like Type did and you can also see another person react like Tharn if treated the same way because even the most patient and tolerant people have their limits. Yet, neither of them did something truly unforgivable, moreover forgiveness is not an equal exchange or something you receive only when you deserve it.

Some people are judging the characters by some impossible standards of human perfection that don’t even exist in the real world. The characters and relationships in TharnType The Series are not picture-perfect, just like they are not picture-perfect in the real world.

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A drama with a potential but ending up as an utter narrative disaster and problematic in many ways

In my 15 years of watching kdramas I’ve seen some terrible endings but Mr. Queen has perhaps the worst and most unsatisfynig ending in the history of kdramaland. The series has been well-written and stellar throughout most of its run, developing its love story and characters well, but the final episode has ruined all of that which is even a bigger pity because the acting was sublime.

So Yong hasn’t been present aka being in charge of her body’s actions and reactions for 99% of the story. It’s been all Bong Hwan. Cheoljong didn’t fall in love with So Yong but Bong Hwan in her body. He literally admitted this to BH. That it was his temper, his character traits, including the bad ones, that made him fall in love with Bong Hwan in an epic love confession. Not once did he mention about her body, her beauty or her zither playing skills. So Yong “fell in love” with Cheoljong because of one meeting in their childhood and her father’s wishes that she should become a queen.

What I really appreciated about Mr. Queen was how they basically said “fuck the whole childhood love/love at first sight/first love trope” even with Hwa Jin and Cheoljong when he admitted that he liked her not because of the childhood meeting but because she became his friend later so it wasn’t a case of mistaken identities that developed his feelings for her. Thus, the only reason why Cheoljong could have had feelings for the real So Yong disappears (the spinoff actually suggests that they actually met again and that it was a love at first sight which makes it even worse). The fact that So Yong and Cheoljong have their happy ending in the very same place where he confessed his love for Bong Hwan is adding an insult to the injury.

And now, the final episode has ruined all of that development. BH accused Byeong In that he didn’t recognize that the Queen was no longer the So Yong he knew despite the fact that he claimed he loved her that much. So what about Cheoljong now? Wouldn’t it be illogical and hypocratical not to expect the same from him - that he should recognize that the Queen is no longer the same person? Even if for some reason (read: lazy writing and trying to having the cake and eating it too) So Yong adopted BH’s mannerism, there should still be major differences.

What about Bong Hwan and the trauma he is going to get after this? Previously, he used to be a person who couldn’t commit, who didn’t love anyone nor cared about anyone but himself. He fell in love with Cheoljong so much that he was willing to risk his life and sacrifice everything even though he knew that history had CH as the losing side. So losing that sort of connection after accepting his feelings, himself in female body and building a new life in the Joseon Era with a new family consisting of his friends and Cheoljong will most likely be devastating. Furthermore, he was expecting a child, a child he grew to love and that was also ripped away from him.

So Yong has commited suicide from her own will, she tried to escape her life and given up on herself, even though her circumstances were tragic,now she suddenly gains everything she ever wanted while Bong Hwan is left with nothing except for his job.What's the point of such plot?

In the end, such an ending is an utter narrative disaster and problematic in all sort of ways and that’s coming from me who rarely calls something problematic because nowadays the word “problematic” has become a synonym for what are basically normal and natural human flaws and imperfections. Overall, Mr. Queen was poised to become amazing but ended up an epic failure for the ages because of the final episode.

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A spinoff that serves as an offensive justification to the messed up ending of Mr. Queen

I’ve watched The Bamboo Forest, Mr. Queen’s spinoff, and, damn, the writer has actually managed to make the story even a bigger mess than previously, if that’s even possible.

Apparently, So Yong and Cheoljong had met once before prior to her being selected as his queen in a fairtytale-like first encounter.
That creates another additional problem of the drama - if you don't include such an extremely important crucial moment in your series and leave it out for some special spin-off episode your series is irrelevant and basically pointless. The series has some 20+ hours and they couldn't include that one scene? Why doesn't CJ remember that moment in the drama and in all of his flashbacks he only remembers the time BH was in charge of SY's body? Also, the meeting never appears in So Bong's flashbacks of So Yong's life either. Plus the spin-off got greenlit in the middle of the drama airing because of its success so it had never been originally planned to happen. So that one scene is an aritifical glued-in nonsense to justify the ending which the writer would have written just by the time the spin-off was announced because kdramas don't have completed script at the time when they began to film.

Moreover, when CJ was confessing his love to So Bong he was describing Bong Hwan's personality, not So Yong's, and not even once did he mention how he already loved her before but had to deny his feelings and supress them because she was from the Kim clan. That's an information you would expect to be included in such a confession. So Bong literally asks him why he loves the Queen and he never mentions their first meeting or her kindness.

Let me tell you something, if you Cheoljong had no problems killing "So Yong" after their fairytale-like meeting, he didn't really love her. The only reason he didn't kill her was because he ended up being distracted by Bong Hwan's strange reaction and Byeong In. These are not the eyes of a man who is torn because of his lingering feelings of love for the woman in front of him. There is no hesitation or regret, only cold determination to eliminate her if she proves to be a threat:

On the other hand, when Bong Hwan was in danger, he was willing to sacrifice his own life without a second thought.

Also, as I mentioned in my previous post, the whole drama was against the idea of love at first sight. Cheoljong fell in love with Hwa Jin gradually when they become reunited after he came back from exile and he fell in love with Bong Hwan gradually so in that regard it completely undermines another important message and theme the story had for the first 19 episodes, but, I guess, after the final episode there hasn’t been anything left to undermine.

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An Epic Fantasy Romance for the Ages

Alchemy of Souls has been well-written, amazingly acted, wonderfully directed, gorgeously scored. The cinematography was beyond beautiful and the CGIs could be envied by Hollywood blockbusters with 200 million budgets.

The Hong sisters have shown the world how to write an epic tragic romance for the ages with a satisfying ending of season 1 - there is sadness and love and hope for the future that Wook and Naksu will find each other again with a second chance at love and life.

The story perfectly captures the meaning and message of trans-migratory stories - that true love sees past the trappings of one’s body and that the person who loves you will love you regardless of your appearance. The Hong Sisters understood the assignment. This is the opposite of the awful Mr. Queen final which ruined the whole drama and made no sense whatsoever.

It's been a complex, poignant story with multi-layered characters, a story about a love that overcomes death; the eternal struggle between good and evil; people overcoming their flaws and obstacles in life; about never giving up and trying even when everything seems lost; about friendship, hate, envy, happiness, loss; about finding one's purpose in life and place in the world; about losing it and finding it again,... and it's to be continued...
Episode 20 is, in fact, just an incredible mid-season finale, the story hasn't ended in any way. One stage of the characters' journey is over, another begins. The story continues.

Jung So Min has been sublime as Mu-deok/Naksu/Yeong/Bu-yeon, hers has been a legendary performance. It's so sad to see her go but Go Yoon-Jung has been incredible as Naksu in episode 1 so it will be exciting to watch her resume her role.

See you in December...

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Superficial to its core and relying on throwing uninformed seemingly cool shade on BL industry

This series is such a mess. It's superficial to its core and relying on throwing uninformed seemingly cool shade on BL industry under the guise of being woke, catering to a particular audience that is suffering under the illusion that they have some sort of moral high ground and love to bash BL writers while having absolutely no problem consuming their stories and toxicly shipping actors in real life, not giving a damn how negatively it affects their private lives.

The writing of the series fails at the most important thing - giving screentime to the development of its characters. It's normal that the first episodes sometimes drawn themselves in way too much exposition but they usually establish certain emotional depth and motivation to one of its leading characters at the very least, but episode 1 LW didn't show any of that. Its main characters are flat and one-dimensional caricatures of real people.

The editing is a mess, the acting is mediocre at best, the music and sound effects are awful. The only decent thing about the show is the camera and I would say the directing but considering that in these independent productions its the writer and director who are in charge of editing as well I have to say even the director is a failure.

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