Starts strong but falls apart midway

I had high hopes for this one but despite an engaging start it kind of petered out and I started to get bored in the final stretch. Others have already mentioned the use of cliche tropes, which was clearly intentional and not necessarily a bad thing when deployed well. But in this show I don’t think they pulled it off.

The drama started strong, with the past timeline with the teen versions of the characters a particular bright spot. I found their story utterly charming and the actors were great.

Unfortunately the adult story line was a mess, despite strong performances. The pacing was off, with plot points dragged out unreasonably long and side stories that added little to the main narrative. There were multiple points in the story when I didn’t understand why the leads were behaving a certain way - and it was clear that the only real answer was the plot demanded it. Worst of all, despite being about 3 hours longer than it should have been, the show didn’t even provide satisfying resolutions to many of the conflicts and questions it introduced (I felt this most keenly wrt the FL’s mother, who was never taken to account for her interference that resulted in years of misery for everyone involved). And the choice to drag out the reunion until the last 15 minutes of the final episode meant we saw precious little of our couple actually together.

Lastly, I’ll just say that I thought the overall tone of the drama was a mismatch for the story. The main narrative was about a couple who were deeply in love losing 25 years together mostly because of outside interference, but the characters never seemed to get angry or feel any resentment about it. They were actually pretty chill most of the time despite the absolute tragedy of the story, and the tone of the whole drama was curiously light. A second pass on the script to tighten up the writing all around would have served this drama well.

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La Pluie is a show for the mature bl audience

Let me just say this upfront because there seems to be some confusion in the reviews here: the most important thing to understand about this show is that it is not, in fact, a soulmate romance, but rather a direct subversion and dismantling of the soulmates trope. La Pluie is a brilliant little show with tight writing and clearly laid out themes, and most viewers who are disappointed with it seem to be reacting more to what they wanted the show to be rather than what is actually is.

This is a show about the importance of choice and putting in the work in your relationships. It’s a rebuke of romantic fantasies that fate and destiny will take care of your love life. It is directly in conversation with the romance genre and the way it can warp our perspectives on love. There are no villains in this story - just good people trying their best and sometimes making mistakes anyway. It emphasizes that we need to communicate and treat our partners with respect. And it says that while some kind of fate may be at work to give us opportunities in life, what we choose to do with those opportunities is what actually matters.

The show is excellent - writing, story, pacing, directing, editing are all confident with no real wobbles. There are some less experienced players in the cast but the acting is all around up to the demands of the script. Pee and Suar in particular are very impressive and really rise to the occasion when the time comes for their characters to light up the screen. The romantic pairs also have fantastic chemistry and the show makes the intimacy scenes an important part of the relationship development - there is no fan service or fluff in this show.

This show is really meant for a mature audience that wants to think more deeply about its themes, and that can handle emotionally mature characters who tend to resolve things via quiet conversation rather than high drama. It’s not the typical fluffy bl that a lot of the audience prefers, so I’m not surprised that it didn’t resonate for everyone. But if these themes are of interest to you, and if you are someone who likes to see couples actually be in relationship with each other and work through their issues, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

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They forgot to write the love story for this love story

Saw this on Gaga and thought I’d give it a try. It really didn’t work for me for a number of reasons:
- The production values are practically nonexistent
- The acting is quite stilted and awkward
- There are way too many characters despite a short run time and little room for story
- The story, such as it was, felt disjointed and haphazard. It relies on the “insta love” trope where two people meet and are suddenly, inexplicably in love despite any real chemistry, meaningful interaction, or character development. The characters are adults but act like kids and there’s no depth to the relationship whatsoever.

It’s only two hours long but I started watching it at 1.5 speed just to get it over with.

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This show tried to do too much

I was liking this one most of the way through, but things really fell apart in the final stretch. It was initially a romcom with melancholy undertones and hints of a dark mystery. The story was well developed and the characters were all great - up until right around the time the leads finally got together. Then it’s like a flip switched and everything got chaotic.

The characters started acting like different people, the mystery came to the forefront in really absurd ways, and the relationships between characters just stopped developing. Large chunks of the plot didn’t make sense, and I found a lot of the resolutions really frustrating and unsatisfying.

In terms of the romances, I liked the mains, but I didn’t come away feeling like I really understood how their relationship would work or that they had a strong and authentic foundation. This is mostly because the show just stopped developing their relationship in order to divert screen time to a serial killer plot. The teen love triangle was uninspiring and some of the choices those kids made were utterly baffling. I didn’t feel either potential pairing was a good fit and was not moved by the resolution.

For me this show was largely a missed opportunity to do something interesting with all the great set up it had going for it. It’s a shame the writing wasn’t better, because the cast was great and there was a lot of potential here.

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Light and fun feminist alternate reality

This drama exists in a fantasy version of history where everyone’s a feminist, the men are curiously timid and disinclined to exert their power, and women overcome patriarchal structures with laughable ease. You just have to accept that from the jump, and then you will have a great time with this show.

It’s light all the way through with a lot of humor, and even when it touches on serious issues (such as intimate partner violence) they get resolved quickly and happily. Despite the marketing of this as a romance, the focal point of the narrative is the female empowerment arc and the sisterhood that develops between the women. The romance arcs are secondary (the main romance gets fully put on ice for about 20 episodes straight), but when the show does get to it, it’s done well. The couples are very rootable and there are some happy and thriving single women, as well. The cast is fantastic all around.

Recommended if you can just go along for the ride and not take it too seriously.

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Excellent show if you can handle the tragedy in your romances

Well, this show destroyed me like I knew it would, but in a good way. It was deeply sad but honest about that the whole way through, and also managed to deliver a lot of moments of joy even as it never let you forget the mounting dread. It also featured one of the most authentic feeling young romances I’ve seen in awhile.

It felt like the creators had a really strong grasp on the story they wanted to tell, and all the elements came together perfectly. The themes around grief and love and loss were clear, the plotting and pacing were precise, the chemistry from the main pair worked wonderfully, and the acting was top notch (especially the actor playing Mitsuru, his eyes are gonna haunt me).

This is definitely not for everyone - if you can’t handle tragedy in your BL or romances that don’t end HEA, you should give this a skip. But if you don’t mind that on occasion, this is one of the most poignant shows I’ve seen in a long while and very much worth the watch.

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The familial love is the highlight

I really enjoyed this show. There was so much to dig into and it was a real pleasure to see a BL with such mature themes, nuanced characters, and complex morality. By far my favorite part of this show was the care and attention shown to familial love, especially the complicated relationship between Jim and Li Ming. Heart’s storyline was also a highlight, and he and Li Ming had a very charming teen romance.

That said, it was not a perfect show for me. I think for a show with only 8 episodes aired over 4 weeks, Moonlight Chicken tried to do a little too much. In particular, I thought they resolved the major conflicts too early on, releasing a lot of the dramatic tension in the story and leaving us with a slower pace and fragmented focus. I enjoyed all the characters and themes, but I’m not sure it all came together as one cohesive narrative engine.

The biggest flaw in the show was in the casting. The actor playing Jim was simply too young for the part, and it became a distraction. The romance between Jim and Wen was also missing something as a result. I think a better casting choice for Jim would have strengthened the show a lot.

Even still, I do recommend watching. It’s a beautiful show with a lot of warmth.

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Surprisingly great noona romance

This was so much better than I expected it to be! It’s a classic noona romance - not a particularly original story, but very well-executed and avoids the most annoying tropes associated with the genre. There are no prolonged miscommunications, no noble idiocy, no silly breakups. Once the couple is together, they are in it for real, and conflict is navigated with maturity and healthy communication. There is also great female friendship plot, the workplaces are full of kind and well-intentioned people, there is a lovely side romance, and even the second leads are better than usual. The second ML was mildly annoying, but the second FL was very sympathetic and actually had a great redemption arc.

One note on first few episodes - if you are struggling with the FL or worrying about an imbalanced relationship dynamic when the show starts, know that is by design. We begin our story while the FL is in the midst of a self-destructive depressive episode, and the way she treats the ML at first is directly related to that. As soon as she begins to feel better, it becomes clear their affection for each other is quite mutual, and the path opens for her to begin seeing him in a new (adult) light.

Overall I just really enjoyed this more than I expected to, and I wasn’t tempted to fast forward through anything, which is rare for me! Even the original music was good, which is sometimes not the case for plots that involve idols. My only beef is that the best song is for someone reason not included on the OST and it’s pretty inaccessible.

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Solid show that dragged on a little too long

I enjoyed this show a lot overall, and found it to be a fun watch. I liked the characterization of the leads - Shin being the more confident and self-assured while Akira was lacking in same flipped the power dynamic to make the age difference feel more palatable. All the characters were likable, production values were high, and the romance was sweet.

That said, I found Akira to be a frustrating character in the end. He was far too passive, too cowardly, and too uninterested in (or incapable of?) figuring out his own feelings, and none of that really changed over the course of the narrative. The plot with his former teacher dragged on way too long and Akira’s characterization suffered for it. While I enjoyed the love story, I didn’t find the leads equally matched on emotional maturity and was left feeling like Shin could (and eventually probably would) do better.

I dinged it a bit on rewatchability because if I ever did I would definitely fast forward through a lot. Plot was very repetitive and the story probably would have been better served if they’d cut a couple episodes. Still, I think this is a solid show worth watching.

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Almost perfect…

I really loved this drama, it shot right to the top of my cdrama list. Some things it did so well:
- The chemistry between the leads. It’s palpable.
- The plot is actually interesting, I’m not using the fast forward button at all.
- The FL is smart and principled and makes her own choices even though everyone around her is trying to tell her what to do.
- The ML is both flawed and deeply sympathetic - even when I think he’s making bad choices I completely get why.
- The villains are also believable and the show manages to pull off a betrayal that I both completely buy and also found kind of shocking.
- The music is good enough to have me using my detective skills to find these mando tracks.
- It somehow managed to use the noble idiocy trope in a way that did not infuriate me.
- The pacing is also excellent - this drama knows exactly when it’s time to move into the next phase of the story.
- The couple dynamic is a perfect blend of sincere affection, respectful partnership, and absolutely roasting each other.
- And most importantly: it gives us a slow burn enemies to lovers romance with the same couple *twice* and both times are excellent.

And one thing it really botched:
- The end of the main plot between the leads and their frenemy. You can’t build up a revenge plot for that long only to wimp out and give the villain a brain tumor and wholly unearned redemption at the end. It was hugely disappointing and the only major weak spot in the otherwise great writing.

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Sweet but lacking substance

I liked this well enough most of the way through. The main romance is very sweet and enjoyable to watch, if lacking any real tension. The first 20 or so episodes, where we got to watch the couple meet, fall in love, and begin a relationship cruises along nicely.

The side couples were not as well executed, and in the last 8 episodes the drama stops developing the relationships to instead pivot to a plot about the characters establishing their careers, which I honestly found pretty boring. The villains get the typical unearned redemption, and the final episodes resorted to tired tropes like family disapproval, forced separation, and a time skip.

It’s a fine watch if you keep your expectations low.

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