You've got a friend in me!

So I have just spent over half an hour trying to find out the name of the actor playing Tat/Radar and all I could find are two names: Ajun and Charles without a photo to accompany those....It is often so frustration when there are webdramas like this one, hidden gems which could use more exposure because they are original and fun, and I cannot find any information about it save for what's mentioned on youtube which is not much. I don't speak cantonese but even their wikipedia page (which I translated using google!) does not offer more! Why?

This webdrama is first and foremost a sitcom about two best friends living together. They'd been friends for twenty years, they even tried dating once but without success so they remained friends, closer than lovers, which eventually put strain on their respective romantic relationships. Zik is gay and after his 10 year relationship comes to a close, he seeks solace and a place to stay with Tat (or Radar in final episodes. I don't get different names!). While Zik is messy, Tat is a clean freak and their cohabitation is marked by many bickering scenes because of their differences.

The drama has actually 25 episodes: there is an episode 0. Except for a few last ones, all episodes are about 5min long including a behind the scene part. The originality of this drama is that it is presented as a mockumentary: with characters being interviewed and the single camera filming style seemingly simple and cheap. Well, they obviously did have a very low budget (sound recording is atrocious!), the sets are hideous (but probably realistic, HK way of living in cramped high-rises!) but the writing and the acting are stellar!

The sitcom mostly explores the cohabitation of two men of completely different disposition. But underneath the funny bit, we can also see their relationship changing even though they try to pretend that everything is the same. They themselves seem not to realize the real depth of their connection. Which is is very obvious to the set of support characters gravitating around the main pair: Tat's mother convinced they are dating, the neighbourhood fujoshi and a young man who has grabbed the life with both hands and is exploring his own sexuality in depth (asking Zik for advice), Zik's ex Steven and even the building guard.

Since this is mostly a sitcom, there are no bad characters, some can be overbearing and a bit annoying but that is life. I liked how they included HIV testing into the plot making it important but without panicking.

The plot developed smoothly: from the initial comedy sketches, the slow inclusion of additional characters makes the plot move forward slowly but naturally. Nothing is forced. Kudos to the writers, whoever they may be!

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Alcohol + love = cure for mental health problems?

How do you rate a drama which you just binge watched while perfectly aware of many of its flaws? It was well acted and filmed, smoothly written though the story is often wrong and senseless. My title says it all! I wish depression can be solved by being drunk on a daily basis with a friend/boyfriend you love!

The story follows two doctors struggling with mental health: the first one is depressed due to a burn out while the other one suffers from PTSD after an operation room death. Suddenly they find themselves living in the same building. They used to be high achievers in high school, top grades and popular. They lost touch after school and only now, 15years later they renew their acquaintance.

What I liked:
- the actors all had good chemistry and were surprisingly very convincing as teenagers in spite of advanced age. Were there any special filming procedures/SFX used for those scenes, I wonder?
- funny but supportive side characters
- the FL's ideas for a fun date (I thought she was pulling his leg!)
- the second couple who saved the second half of this drama

What was wrong:
- mental health issues were treated poorly: neither of them, as they were written, seemed really ill but tired, overworked, disappointed. Most of the time, which they spent together, they looked happy and content, because they finally got to rest!
- causes of the mental distress were not treated well: the peer pressure, the cut-throat competition and the horrible gossiping judgemental society were just mentioned without criticism since the things are as they are and apparently cannot be changed!
- the cure for mental health issues, according to the writer of this drama is: rare consultations with a shrink, a lot of pills, enormous quantities of alcohol and love which turned out to be the main ingredient (she solved his PTSD problem just by being there.... Really?!?
- immature adult main characters: 30yr old virgins, being shy, using baby voice etc. The ML , as a teen, was presented as someone who enjoys life, has a lot of friends, goes out and still has the best grades. The FL on the other hand is the opposite: a loner, without friends or life for that matter, constantly studying in order to have the best grades. Basically, they are saying that he is smarter and more competent than she is since she has to study all the time. Even during her unemployment period, she is seen studying while he is only seen studying with his tutor a little bit in high school but never as an adult professional. At one point, after dating for about a year, they sleep together(I think!Or maybe just a lot of kissing...) and a couple of days later when mentioning that night, they become shy and self-conscious. They are over thirty: behave like adults!They are adults at work. But they are actually rarely that in private: they become the 15yr old versions of themselves, which is cute for about 10 seconds!
- the ML's horrible parents: he is definitely someone extremely intelligent, if he managed to make abstraction of his parents and be successful. But even that is only mentioned and not dealt with as it should have been. Or maybe they decided that nothing is to be done, "leopard never changes his spots" so the parents were a lost cause. They should not have left this hanging because those parents caused a lot of misery which they were never called out on.
- drinking practically non stop: the characters spent the most of their time drowning their sorrows. The question arises here: why? They are in treatment, taking medication and yet still drinking heavily. Nobody thinks, the doctors included, that antidepressants and alcohol maybe should not be mixed?
- pacing: the causes of their mental health issues were resolved rapidly and by ep 12, everything was sorted out and they were in love. The last three episodes are just the fluff and dealing with the minor issues of scheduling! I have to give it to them though, they managed to make these empty of the plot episodes, run smoothly. I was never bored and I fail to comprehend why?
- the voiceover: every character gets to do their part of narration which is a kind of cop out instead of showing us their sufferings. Sometimes it was difficult to understand which character does the narration and I stopped worrying about it after a few episodes and just went with the flow not really paying attention to the narration!

I did not drop this drama, I was hooked from the beginning, and I think it is because of the actors only. And even though there is so much wrong with this drama, I somehow enjoyed it and finished it quickly. Maybe it was that I needed some brainless, unrealistic but convincing fun.

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Discovering yourself

Bedmate or Bad Mate is a fun little taiwanese bl web drama. I watched the 90min edit on youtube (easier than going through 10 episodes full of BTS footage!). It is obviously a low budget production but what they lack in funds is more than enough compensated by their enthusiasm.

The story is cute though it uses many familiar tropes: best friends to lovers, gay man in love with a straight one, but also "only gay for you but otherwise straight", seme/uke height difference etc. etc. which I thought were things of the past. Their cohabitation was fun to watch, their bickering cute. The straight guy's confusion about his feelings towards his best friend and how he tries to sort it out by talking to customers in a gay bar was hilarious. There were also scenes filmed during Gay Pride parade in Taipei and I was struck by the fact that these two actors looked the most "cliché gay" wearing costumes in the part of the crowd where they filmed.

I could not find out anything about the actors but I did not watch BTS so maybe it is mentioned there though not necessarily translated: I don't know, I am not interested in BTS....I would like to know also if this was based on a webtoon because it seems to be the case judging from the images on their youtube channel.

In conclusion, a short, cute & fun watch.

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Fluff and candy

Earlier today, I came upon two reviews for this drama, two reviews with completely opposite take on it i.e. one loved it while the other one found it boring. I did not need more in order to watch it and form my own opinion. Which is between the two: it was not boring but rather superficial, not great but mercifully short, easy to watch and they did not waste time on silly subplots and even sillier misunderstandings between the leads.

But firstly, I would like to thank @Nicksden for the subs and for the explanatory notes!

The story follows childhood acquaintances: japanese inn owner's son and the inn's chef's daughter. They fall for each other as kids but their respective social status forbids them from any closer contact. Until, one evening, he accompanies her home and is seen leaving so a scandal breaks out and he takes the opportunity to offer to marry her and at the same time escaping an arranged marriage. And all of this is only the first episode. Out of six: the next five episodes are a bit slower as they deal with them getting to know each other and dating while newly-weds.

It is a cute, short drama. The leads are nice and as usual there are not mean or evil characters. Well I guess a shoujo manga is for romantic young girls. Everyone is nice: when he overhears rumours about his marriage being fake, he acts upon it immediately and takes her out on a date. There are a couple of "suspenseful" moments: a test meal for her and the visit from the estranged brother for him but even those are sorted out in the same episode they appear.

The plot is not very complicated but I would not go as far and say, as they did in the comments on the drama's page, that it was "an excuse to have hot people kiss a lot and be cute together. they wrote the plot around that 🤣". I wish they did that because if you are looking for hot people kissing, you should look elsewhere! There is a grand total of 4 chaste (=fish) kisses and a bit of skin (ankle, leg, shoulder: him in the shower and one make out scene!) shown throughout the drama with the consummation of marriage left for the last minute of the last episode and under the final credits. I usually do not care about these scenes but I read the comment before I watched this so I paid attention and looked actively for hot people kissing.

There was one thing I absolutely hated in this drama but which is something frequently seen in asian dramas so I guess it must be cultural: women falling over and screaming when they see a handsome man go by. It is the ultimate cringe moment for me! I know that asian cultures put a huge stress on appearance and that the beauty is the most important asset one can have but I am finding it difficult to understand this kind superficiality within such rich cultures.

I did not like the cinematography very much: I watched the first episode in high quality and it was too sharp, to clear and eventually too cold! Other episodes looked better, a bit softer but maybe the video quality was lower too. I don't know but it made me realize that I prefer when the images are fuzzy, not too sharp because it gives the drama (or a film) a dreamy feel and it becomes a vector for our escape from reality. And that's what the entertainment is supposed to be in my book!

One more important thing: I want those star shaped candies. They look so pretty and yummy!

In the recommendation section on this drama's page, you will find two dramas with the similar plot but a lot heavier if you do not enjoy light and fluffy! This one is a perfect Sunday watch: short, sweet, cute and short!

The main actor was a support actor in Utsukushii Kare (and he gave me a severe SLS) and I couldn't help being reminded of that drama every time I watched the intro here because there were yellow bath ducks in it. Did they do it on purpose, or were there yellow ducks in the original manga for this drama too, I wonder?

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Lost powers & con artist

Well, this was interesting to begin with, then annoying only to end exasperating stupid.

This year, I have been dropping k dramas as if they were hot potatoes. Moreover, about a month ago, I went into a serious drama slump, going from watching at least three episodes a day in the week and triple that on the weekends to barely half an episode a day. Actually, nothing grabs my fancy any more and I am finally rediscovering the joys of reading.

What do you get when you mix Marvel superhero films with a con artist series like Leverage? You get this minus fun which equals a waste of time!

The premise is interesting: superpowers lost due to modern time diseases like depression, greed, food. In comes a con artist who wants to con them out of their fortune but she falls for the depressed son. The plot unfortunately takes itself too serious and starts veering into serious territory, which is a wrong way to go. They should have kept it light instead of going for healing and turning the new leaf. Most of the characters are annoying, starting with the main couple. He is depressed and therefore unkempt with a very bad haircut. But even when he is happy again, the very bad haircut remains a very bad haircut. He has absolutely no chemistry with the FL. The actress manages to pull of a rather credible teen in spite of being over 30! Kudos for that! The rest of her character is steeped in contradictions: is she sincere or is she lying? She's been working off the debt her dead father contracted with a loan shark for the past 13 years. The loan shark is a horrible cruel person who deserves a serious punishment but all she gets is a redemptive sob story arc and now she is the kindest soul alive. As usual, korean parents are not painted in favourable light.

What made this drama watchable are the support characters: the kid (amazing actress!), the sister (deliciously bitchy) and the taciturn uncle (kinder than he looks).

The story managed to draw a few laughs especially the main couple's date under the surveillance of the uncle: "Do you feel happy now?"

The last ten minutes of the drama are rage inducing: he can finally be seen by everyone (why?) when he goes to the past so what does he do? Does he save the person eh couldn't before? Of course not: he just stares at him with teary eyes while saying nothing for a very long time! Does he save the girl? Yes but before saving her, he spends a long time talking to he in the fire instead of jumping to safety and then talking. How stupid can you be?!?!? I guess they needed that to introduce their son. But again, is she an idiot to send her 5 year old son look for his father in the fire? They came out unscathed but still....

There was another thing I liked about this drama: the unusual end credits song, it was really original! And last but not least, I was blow away by the way they filmed the obese version of the sister: it was the most believable foam suit I have ever seen and the actress managed to portray an overweight person credibly. Well done!

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Cheers!!!

Well, nothing earth-shattering here! Just an ordinary, run-of-the-mill, based on a manga romcom. And it is fine! If that's what you're looking for!

I thought I was! And I loved the first couple of episodes! And then I did not any more! It is not that it gets bad but it gets too long and eventually it becomes boring! I think that says something when the drama has only 8 episodes 30min long!

But first I would like to than donsubbers for the subs! Keep up the good work! We do appreciate it!

It is an office romance between an icy straight forward office lady and a people pleaser, handsome but spineless office worker. He is forced to accept a bet involving her, she overhears him accepting said bet. So they start dating, hesitantly enjoying each other's company but still holding back because of the bet. Their respective best friends try to help them out.

I loved the FL: strong, principled, honest and taking no nonsense which made her an outcast though she was appreciated for her professional attitude and her competence. She always managed to keep a straight face while the storm was brewing behind it: the j dramas' favourite trope i.e. the inner monologue came useful here though they used it a bit too much when she was all alone and acting out the very monologue! Those were also the moments when the manga origins of this drama came to evidence: grimaces, gesturing, jumping around, turning eyes...the actress did all of this to perfection but managed not to go overboard so I was not put out by it much (since I usually drop a drama when they go OTT with manga codes, this is a good sign!).
I hated the ML: spineless, wanting to please everyone, boring, flavorless and annoyingly cowardly but, to his defence, he grows a pair by the end of the drama and stands up against the office harassment.

The office harassment was actually the main topic behind the romcom: it is used as an initial motivation for the plot but it is left superficial even though the main harasser is punished, learns his lesson and becomes a better person. It is very unrealistic but I should not expect more from the treatment of this topic here since this is first and foremost a romantic comedy and it is not to be taken seriously.

There are some interesting support characters, like the FL's coworker who hero worships her and then observes from afar her love life cheering her on, the FL's parents: the talkative mother and the newspaper reading absent father(they were funny), and last but not least the chemistry overflowing best friends and hopefully a future couple. They were a spicy couple in contrast with the vanilla main one! Much more interesting but not present enough!

I liked the music: it was the right kind and right amount and it accompanied the story well without drowning it as is often the case in j dramas (at least among those I've seen so far!).

The production was solid but there was one scene in which I found the extras' attitudes bizarre! In the scene the second couple is walking down the almost empty street discussing their friends, they are not speaking particularly loudly so it was surprising to see extras, far away from them stop and watch them: there was no reason for them to do that! I was wondering if they filmed it with real passer bys who stopped to watch the filming of the scene out of curiosity because that is what the scene looked like !

This is an easily bingeable, light and fun drama and you might spend a relaxing moment watching it if you do not expect much!

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Ah that hairline....

Well, this does not stand a rewatch!

I watched this for the first time when it was first released and I loved it. So a week ago, when I was feeling a bit down and not wanting to start anything new, I decided that rewatching this was a good idea.

No, it wasn't!

It took me three days to finish the first episode and than another two to watch half of the second one before finally abandoning it: it was unwatchable.

The story is not bad, the hook up was all PC, asking for consent and all that jazz.

But: the actors may be cute and handsome, they cannot act to save their lives. The line delivery is monotone, the facial expressions non-existent or rather they each sport one single expression throughout the drama: Boun is trying to be cocky and seductive (just cringy and unconvincing!) and Prem has eternally trembling lips and panicky attitude. And they have absolutely no chemistry between them: Boun falling for Prem when he sees him in the first episode comes from nowhere. I guess that's what they call love at first sight and that is something reason, logic and appearance cannot explain.

Then there is the only actress with lines Samantha, fidgeting and grimacing and trying to show shyness and seductiveness but failing miserably. She was painful to watch. Dean with his expressionless face and zero acting talent is a known and expected quantity, while Fluke cries easily and very often.

The production value is standard though they forgot about continuity when it concerned Boun's blond hair: that was the most amusing aspect of this drama i.e. keeping track of Boun's roots!

I have either seen too many BLs now and my rose-tinted glasses are off, or I am a bitter and blind person who needs to have her eyesight checked.

A good watch once but not to be repeated !

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A boxer and a nun...

Finally! I finally managed to finish it! And it only took me three weeks! Truth be told, if it had not been for the Back To The Past Challenge, I would have dropped it ages ago! Not even Kazu's charm could save this for me! Actually, his over the top acting and the zero character development were the main problems I had with this drama. But not only....

The story follows a promising boxer who loves eating and falls in love with a nun. Put like this, it sounds promising and fun. And that it was, for about 3 episodes and then it became boring and repetitive!

Boxer is a young man of uncertain origin: we don't get to know his (or anyone else's ,for that matter!) backstory. He lives in a boxing gym with other boxers and is training to become champion. But he has to keep his weight down so he eats in secret and puts on 10kg overnight which he looses in 3 days. I was really bothered by this weight gain/loss issue: it seemed extreme. But since I know absolutely nothing about boxing, who am I to criticize. It just sound illogical and unrealistic. A very big part of the first half is spent on the boxer eating and then training to lose the surplus kilos. Those kilos were never obvious: the actor himself is very thin!
One day while jogging he bumps into a nun and falls hook, line and sinker for her. She's an orphan, brought up in the convent, kind and pretty. He follows her around, declaring his love, asking her out...ignorant of convent life. He keeps barging in, jumping around, screeching, in short he behaves like a 5 yr old child. From the beginning to the end of the drama. With a 5min break in the last episode when he grows up. But only for 5min!

The side characters are a mixed lot: the gym owner who is oblivious of everything else but her gym so she never notices her own son being bullied in school or the huge crush her chief trainer has on her. The other boxers in the gym are there only to be a bouncing board for the main boxer's musings and problems. We don't know much about them, except for one when he receives a visit from his father and the whole gym starts lying to cover his failure.
The adversaries in the main boxer's matches are all basically the same: scary on the surface but deep down poor boys just trying to survive (family abroad, make son proud or pay debt!). And of course our dieting boxer beats them easily!

They should have made this into a film because here we just have about 6 filler episodes, case of the week type while the main plot remains still, unmoving. Boring and annoying!

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Quirky and illogical....

....if you trust the human vampire movies. But, as they say, "Don't trust the human vampire movies!"

There are 4 vampires: three men and a woman who is fed up with living and wants to die but does not know how. So the men come up with different ideas. So this introduction part was interesting but after that I found everything they did illogical to say the least.

So she wants to die but has never tried to go out in the sun? That is THE big vampire trope: sensitivity to sunlight. But she never thought of that? Has she been living in a bubble for over 70 years and learned nothing about herself and the vampire species?
Then one of the guys says that vampires die if they have sex with each other. I find it hard to fathom vampires living for centuries (700yrs!) together and never once trying to have sex especially since they seem to have feelings for each other. So the woman has sex with the guy and apparently it is mindblowingly good but they are both still alive.
So she tries garlic, crosses and eventually sunlight. Nothing kills them.
In the end, they just have to keep on living like "ordinary" immortals.

If you do not try to nitpick like I just did, it is a funny little film I would not mind watching a much longer version since it shakes up all known vampire tropes.

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Cute and superficial

I am a bit torn: this drama is very short and therefore they do not go for in depth character development so I wish they had made it a bit longer. On the other hand, the topic is not interesting and the plot is just a string of predictable moves.

It is a story of two make up influencer who used to be friends but are now mortal enemies. They are forced to work together, so they never stop bickering and throwing snide remarks around. There are two men interested in the younger influencer. Who is she going to choose?

I am not spending my time on different social media, so the very main topic was extremely boring to me. I stayed for the romance but because of the short duration, it was rushed and it sorely lacked chemistry.

This is a web drama so I should not expect much but it definitely looks like an average quality endeavour. Everything is average here: the actors seem to be clones of big stars, the screenplay is undercooked and superficial (even though they put the stress on social media speed and influence but they do not elaborate on it: it is just there, it exists and that's it!), the cinematography is correct though they made an effort to put the FL in spotlight with slight special effects: she sparkles a little bit! The song is annoying!

It is a romcom and nothing more.

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Bromance aiming at us....

Short, sweet, cute with loads of chemistry and perfect pacing. Added to it is Xia Zhi Yuan's irresistible smile and some nice piano background music and songs and you have the perfect, light entertainment for a Sunday evening.

A concerned father asks a young man to pretend to be his illegitimate son in order to shake his real son out of the slump. His happy go lucky attitude first encounters refusal but slowly and steadily he breaks through his fake brother's walls and manages to find the cause of his slump.

The two young men are perfect examples of opposites attract, enemies to friends (to lovers!) challenging each other out of their comfort zone and making them aim for different goals, making them more ambitious. While the first one is an orphan, who learned early to think on his feet and not to be bothered what other think about him and worry only about his own survival, the other man is a son of a rich father, pampered but also put under pressure to realize his and/or his father's dreams so much that he could not deal with it anymore and started stalling during competition.

The drama depicts well though not enough, the pressure the high achieving athletes are put under: by their families, their coaches, their competition. Having the iron clad will to win and not buckle up under provocation and bullying is paramount in this cut-throat world.

Even though the drama is short, the development of the relationship between two men is excellently paced: no stages are skipped, from the initial animosity to tentative resignation to hidden admiration and deep friendship. And of course more. Aaahhh, love that dares not speak its name in Chinese dramas....was pretty much obvious and they stopped a few times just a second before their lips touched but the feelings were overflowing. The chemistry was top notch. Even the presence of the girl visiting from France and not minding her business and therefore putting the spanner in the works of the father, though it gave additional drama it did not stop them in their bromance. We had everything here a good (b)romance requires: initial hatred, slowly getting to know each other, sleeping in the same bed (I loved those scenes: in the same bed but texting each other!), brushing teeth and eating together (nice home life), misunderstandings and jealousies, last minute break up and then reconciliation in the last episode. It was perfect!

These short dramas have become my favourites these days: not enough time for unnecessary side characters and time-wasting subplots , just a story of two people getting to know each other. And promote dental hygiene products!

This whole drama is actually an add wrapped around a BL.

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Friends or more?

A very badly produced and acted short film I saw a very bad copy of on gcinee (don't go to youtube: the sound is off and completely covered by piano music).

The story started like a cliché friends to lovers until the final twist which makes you wonder what really happened. The film is about two best friends: one has had a crush on the other one forever. The other guy is not aware but is very touchy-feely with his friend. Neither dares say anything. One day the second guy's friend, a girl, asks him to help her date the first guy. He introduces them and the first guy, hopelessly, accepts to date her. The second guy just looks at them with yearning and regret. At the end of the year, while they part, the first guy gives the second one a hug which is all but an innocent, friendly hug. And then he leaves. One year later the first guy wakes up in hospital. Was everything just a dream? Wishful thinking? open to interpretation! (Due to poor quality video!)

Another film about friends wanting to be more but not daring to confess to each other. It ultimately boils down to the question: shall I risk losing a friend for a tiny chance of getting a lover? This is always a difficult question, more so in same-sex relationships where the weight of society norms bear down heavily on young people.

The story is interesting but the production is bad. It is an older chinese short film so it must have been difficult to make it. The acting is basic, the editing all over the place, the cinematography non existent.

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The triumph of the underdog

Needing a drama from the year 2016 for my Back To The Past Challenge, I set my eyes on this one found in an editorial article a few months ago (https://mydramalist.com/article/check-out-these-sports-themed-web-series). What a discovery this drama was! It is a short web drama so I did not expect much from it but it is actually gripping, interesting, well written, filmed and acted. And it is just the right side! I think that if it had been a normal length K drama it would not have been just as good!

The plot is basic and familiar: our leads meet and clash, only to find out later that they need to work together to achieve the same goal. A classical enemies to lovers drama. The drama takes place in high school: the volley ball team is the last in the country and the FL, a star volleyball player, has to coach them as penance. From the reluctant star to a full-fledged coach only interested in the well-being of the team, is the journey the FL has to take. But, it would not be interesting if everything was smooth sailing. Her manager/agent gets his say in the affair and he apparently does everything to ruin her nascent coaching career. Does he want to exploit the goose who lays golden eggs or is there sincerity behind his concerns?

The cast of characters is perfect: varied and quirky. There is a love triangle but it is resolved to the satisfaction of everyone. One of the players has issues with his father, just like every teenager in the world: my parents don't really understand me, are not supportive enough, are too strict etc.etc. A girl has a crush on a player so she is willing to do anything but eventually she comes to her senses.

And of course, there is a lot of volleyball: training and matches which are expertly filmed. But the drama touches also upon sports' management agencies and the lengths they are willing to go in order to keep the sportsmen in check. The toxic and manipulative atmosphere is well presented, even though it peters out in the end and the agents are finally turn out to be not as evil as suspected.

The acting is skilful, the chemistry is there and the writing is solid. This is a good short watch, fun and fluffy enough. Sometimes we all need this kind of drama, optimistic and uplifting!

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Photos and memories

Once in a blue moon, a miracle happens and a second season of a series turns out to be better than the first one! This is an example!

The drama starts exactly where the previous one ended: Yeesa has woken up from a coma but is completely lost. People know her, she recognizes them but the things are not as she remembers them to have been, something is slightly off. So she goes to the esoteric club who helped her during time travel and finds out that the man who sacrificed himself to save her life was never in it, they have never heard about him. But when she bumps into him in a bookshop, he does not recognize her. A few days later they meet again: he is a writer and ever since they met, he'd been having dreams about another version of himself. They conclude that he'd been getting images from the parallel universe Yeesa is from. In that universe, he reconnects with his childhood friend and discovers that the photos they took with an instant camera let you travel to the moment those photos had benn taken for 15min (i.e. the time it takes for a instant photo to be developped).

Basically we have two stories developing at the same time. In the one, Yeesa is helping the writer with his novel in order to figure out how to go back to her original universe. The other story is the plot of the novel taking place in that other universe.

Fortunately, in this season, the FL is different and Yeesa is just a guest character having no more than a couple of scenes in every episode so the drama is so much better for it! The story focuses on Ka Chung and his childhood friend Cu Ning. The drama follows them as they slowly figure out how the time travel through photos work and we see them as they regretfully realize they cannot change the past no matter how hard they tried. There is a scene where FL goes through a big number of photos in order to try to save her grandfather and is miserable when she fails! But they eventually realize, just like in the first season, that changing destiny needs the ultimate sacrifice.

The running theme of this season are memories!Memories hidden in photos that both main characters are trying to find and keep the important photos in their life.The grandfather's memories he is slowly losing but not only. The story is much more complicated because it keeps going back and forth between past and present in both universes. The director found a good solution for us not to be lost: the ML looks completely different in different timelines, if I did not know better, I'd think they were two different actors! That was very helpful in order to follow the story!

There is even a bad guy: someone so steeped in grief and guilt after his wife's death that he manages to find a way to time travel and provoke as much pain in the lead's lives holding them responsible for his own unhappiness. This was so frustrating! The guy turns out to be practically a caricature of evil: why do bad guys hum and whistle while doing evil deeds? Always! Just look at any crime thriller out there, every serial killer moves around humming or whistling! This whole subplot brought nothing because the main leads did not manage to save anyone with their actions and the final solution came from literally wishing upon a star. So just like in the first season, time travel depends on the whims of Gods!

The writing is excellent, without obvious plotholes but without time travel explanation either. Why is this particular instant camera creating time travel photos? The reason some people can do it is explained but not the means of transportation! On the other hand, the connection between the two seasons is established perfectly as the story of this season circles back to the beginning of the first one: the events of this season happened before the event of the Leap day and the conclusion to both series is the last episode here! This is headache inducing but time travel always is so....

940920 is a top tier time travel drama. The characters are interesting, the plot is tightly woven and manages to retain some logic but it is not very optimistic even though there is a happy ending for everyone involved. The cinematography is just as beautiful

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Life reboot

I am a sucker for time slip tropes so as soon as this finished airing and after checking that the ending is probably to my liking, I went for it. I won't lie to you, I binged it in three days but eventually I did not like it so much. There are a lot of issues I have with it.

The story is quite straightforward: two people leading boring unhappy lives are given a chance for a redo of the last ten years. How are they going to deal with the knowledge? Are they going to use it to correct past errors? Spoiler alert: they do of course! Otherwise what's the point of this drama?!? And so the doormat FL stands up for herself and comes up victorious!

The drama is fun to watch. There are a few tropes that do not go the usual revenge, makjang mode so that was rather refreshing. The chaebol grandfather and his lawyer are not the usual evil heads out to ruin our FL. They turn out to be kind and reasonable. But they could not do away with this cliché completely with the appearance with the psycho ex girlfriend. Mostly, the support characters were the usual clichés: jealous, greedy, bullying... And the glasses issue: ugly with them, drop dead gorgeous without them. We are still doing that? Of course they are kitted out with the most ugly and the least becoming models of glasses otherwise, the change is not obvious enough!

The change in the main characters' personalities is just as obvious: they both went from doormats to smart people who stand up for themselves and won't be beaten down. And even though the FL becomes cocky and looses her newly acquired smarts towards the ending, making idiotic mistakes, she comes back rather quickly!

The main support characters were more interesting: the joyful sister, the unassuming boss, the regretful cook (with a beautiful smile) and the quiet but powerful lawyer.

The first major issue I have with the plot is the time travel aspect: it was never explained who the mysterious taxi driver was? Are there any other cases like theirs? How are they chosen? Probably, the person needs to hit rock bottom and die in order to be offered a reboot! What is the significance of the heart? Was the time travel offered by her dead father (who was the taxi driver for ML)? I guess, one should not think too much about the logic when talking about time manipulation! I hoped to get an even cursory explanation at the end. Nothing! I was also surprised that the leads never wondered about the hows and the whys of their reboot! The aspect of the reboot I liked was the way their fate was transferred onto others and how they fought to save their friends from that fate!

The second major issue I have is the cast: Park Min Young looks too sleek and smooth to be true. People say she abuses of plastic surgery. I hope not but she has changed a lot over years and here she looks so artificial and even older than her age. Her face is pretty much expressionless: she can smile and cry but nothing else moves. Na In Woo looks like a very tall kid next to her. There is supposed to be an age gap (3-4 years tops!) between them but it looks much more!

Everything considered, this is a fun and a very forgettable watch. Things happened, but I cannot think of much now and I actually wonder what did they fill these 16h with? It went by and it was not too boring, so I guess something must have happened! This was Park Min Young's show from the first to the last minute. Unfortunately! LOL

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