Reviews

Não é qualquer roteiro que desenvolve 4 casais de forma decente

De imediato, vi apenas uma história clichê universitária, onde o malvadão se apaixona pelo mocinho super inteligente, mas essa série me deu uma boa lição sobre não julgar o livro pela capa.

Inicialmente, o casal principal são como água e vinho. Numa reviravolta sem lógica alguma eles são escalados para promoverem a universidade como um casal imaginário BL, e até conseguem fazer isso, mas em meio a admiradores de Kimhan, a personalidade difícil e sem noção de Mek, a falta de diálogo entre eles, a história de amor desanda e só volta a acontecer no fim da série, que se passa depois de um salto temporal, quando os dois já estão formados e trabalhando.

Mek é totalmente sem noção e tem um canal no Youtube de pegadinhas super constrangedoras junto com seus dois amigos. Kimhan é o nerd que também tem seus dois amigos íntimos. Um belo plow twist se dá quando é revelado que um dos amigos de Mek já namora há 6 anos em segredo com um dos amigos de Kim, inclusive eles tem um relacionamento super saudável e eu não entendi inicialmente o motivo de ser escondido. O segundo amigo de Kim também se apaixona pelo segundo amigo de Mek e passam a viver uma linda história, enquanto os próprios Mek e Kim não conseguem se entender e colocam barreiras imaginárias entre si. Na verdade, eles só confessam seus sentimentos na primeira vez graças às suas irmãs que armam pra eles ficarem sozinhos, mas nem isso é suficiente para manter os dois juntos, pois quando Kim descobre que o sonho de Mek é estudar em outro país, toma sozinho a decisão de se separar para evitar que ele desista do seu sonho (Tailândia e seus dramas complicados que facilmente se resolveriam com 5 minutos de conversa).

Enquanto isso, o admirador de Kim, Tim, corre atrás dele, sem perceber que seu verdadeiro amor é seu melhor amigo Mai, e só se dá conta disso quando Mai decide viver a vida e sair com outros.

Percebam que existem 4 casais. A grandiosidade dessa série está nesse detalhe: ela conseguiu desenvolver todos os casais de forma coerente e produtiva, bem desenvolvida e dando um final lindo a cada um deles.

Fora isso, não existem muitos furos. A atuação é boa (que maravilha ver Earth de volta, e como protagonista), fotografia, ost, roteiro, tudo muito bom. Recomendo muito essa série.

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Happiness: Rollercoaster of emotions

I personally enjoy apocalyptic dramas, so I was naturally drawn to Happiness as I read the synopsis. I love the new view that was put on an apocalyptic world. It draws many parallels to the covid-19 pandemic, which was really refreshing to see. The stories make you realize the evils of the human heart and all the things that people struggle through. It also gives you the experience of the lengths people will go through for themselves. The main characters amazed me, I love Park Hyun-sik, and he is one of the main reasons why I started watching in general, but I stayed for Han Hyo-joo. Her character gave such a refreshing image to the main female lead. I always hated female leads that were weak or damsel's in distress, needing a man to save her. Han Hyo-joo's character is the opposite, not only can she hold her own, she does what she wants and can to protect those that she loves, even if she does not show it. It was also nice to see a strong couple, their promises to stay safe, but their strength as individuals to hold their own was impressive. They did not need to save each other because they only had to be there for each other.

Even though the drama was mostly held inside an apartment building, the building's people definitely represented the evils of the world. There were murderers, frauds, scammers, rich, poor, and a whole variety of people just packed into a building struggling to maintain its structure. It was pretty infuriating, seeing that the main leads could not do anything because they had to follow the law and rules given to them. But overall, I really enjoyed this drama.

I do think that the ending was rushed. I think it was initially supposed to be 16 episodes, but it was somehow shortened to 12. That was disappointing, as I would have loved to see the main leads live out their lives in happiness after the last scene in the show.

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Well Done !

I'm assuming this series is from the same production company as Pit Babe, seeing as though there were familiar faces, and of course, the brilliant BTS at the end of each episode. But this company (Change, I'm presuming the name is?) once again, hit the nail on the head.

Let's Dive In.

Like I spoke about in Pit Babe, this production has money, and they know how to use it well. Some very beautiful locations and settings, great wardrobe options for all the characters, and really well-thought-out cinematography. They go all the way for their series, and it definitely does not go unnoticed.

Moving onto the actual plot, they executed the story so well, and it's seriously why I love this production company so much. They don't do the unnecessary long stares or dragged-out conversations or irrelevant side plots. They stick to the story, going from point A to point B, and everything that we see in the series happens for a reason. The conversations are all what they need to be, and the story flows with little to no unnecessary bumps.

Moving onto the relationships, Sailub and Pon once again, hit it out of the park. They played complete 180s to their characters in Pit Babe, and they still were able to execute perfect chemistry. They take their NC scenes to a completely different level, one that I don't feel like I see often. it's obviously well acted out, and the actors are comfortable enough with one another to execute such amazing scenes. But even with the jaw-dropping sex scenes, my utmost favorite part of the series is Oab holding Wan accountable for his actions and them having an open and honest conversation before getting back together. Lots of time the plot can be lost for a quick resolution between two characters, but the writers ensure to the audience that it's going to take much more than that, and that makes me happy. They had great comedic timing, the kisses were next level, and I'm waiting patiently for their next series together.

Metas and JJ's relationship was another one that surprised me. I didn't think that I would hate it, but I also didn't think I'd end up loving it as much as I do. At first, Metas' ways of trying to attract JJ are all sorts of wrong, and it starts to feel completely dis-genuine until you see how much he changes because of JJ. I also like the fact that JJ actually did physical therapy and wasn't just sitting around doing nothing (like a certain other series called physical therapy *cough* *cough*). Some of his work seemed a bit much (like stretching Metas the way he did or helping him pee by holding his you-know-what), but overall, this was great. Again, really great chemistry, they also had a very nicely done NC scene, although not nearly as explicit, but still very romantic.

The dynamic between the friends was all great and well, especially between Wan and JJ. Personally, I think Kluea should've been more reprimanded for trying to kiss Wan while he was "unconscious", especially even when Oab saw him trying to kiss Wan. But that's my only gripe about the series. Other than that, there was great comedic timing, really nice, heartfelt conversations, and so much incredibly looking food that will make you immediately hungry (also loved the play to Oab's character being kind of like Gordon Ramsay and his competition being similar to the real competition "Hell's Kitchen").

Ratings:

Story: 8.5/10 - it's very nicely done, and completely flows naturally without any complications. Even the part of the story with Oab dealing with his ex-girlfriend is played out incredibly.

Acting: 9.5/10 - Great, GREAT acting. All the characters were actually crying when they needed to, and they delivered great lines honestly, everyone in this did a superb job.

Music: 7.5/10 - I actually really liked the theme song!

Recommendation Value: 8/10 - There's a story to be told here, and they did that excellently. It's really hard not to like this series considering the amazing acting, the great writing, and the perfect production value. Also, if that's not enough, the men in this are beautiful and they're shirtless for a perfect amount of time.

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Dream but do not forget to live.

Dreams do come true for as long as you work hard for it despite of the challenges, situation and imperfections one has. some things will go wrong along the way, but it will all depend on how you pick up yourself and continue the path.

Park Si On will show us how a mentally ill/ autistic man can become a doctor, win the heart of the lady she loves and be accepted by the society. It will give us a glimpse of their world - the hardship, struggles and fears they try to battle with. The life they are trying to live in order to survive.

This series moves me in so many ways. I didn't expect that I will shed tears for this but yes it caught me off guard and I can say it's worth the time and attention. The first two episodes stunned me and made me curious how the story will continue. Maybe Korea's counterpart of House or Grey's Anatomy? nah, I felt that it will serve us a different plate.

Mostly of the episodes were intense and story were well written - the series did not only revolved in surgeries, operations and saving children's life. But it give good stories of the casts. All contributed stories which harmonize this drama. It didn't give me the 'overwhelming' or 'i had enough of his/her character' experience (which I normally feel in most series). It also has good script, really very heartwarming.

Let's also give credit to their acting skills, Joo Sang Wook and Joo Won's performance were exceptional. Their roles got into them and they acted like real doctors. How they throw their lines, perform their surgeries, talk about their cases.. they sounded like genius!

Overall, I recommend this series. It will give us a universal lesson in life that everyone can make a difference. Regardless of our situation in life or medical condition we can lead and be a guide to everyone else. All we have to do is to believe and act.

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THIS SHO WAS AMAZING!!!

THIS SHOW WAS AMAZING!!! THE LEADS HAD GREAT CHEMISTRY WHICH TRANSLATED AND SHOWED TRUE FEELINGS IN THE SHOW.... THE STORY LINE WAS GREAT AND THE CHARACTER PORTRAL WAS TRUE TO ONES FEELINGS.... I WOULD LOVE TOO SEE THEM IN ANOTHER SHOW AGAIN..... I WOULD OFF LIKE AN LONGER ENDING BUT I GUESS THAT IS TO BE EXPECTED.... THE MUSIC SELECTION WAS OKAY AND THE OVERALL SHOW WAS 100.
I WOULD RECCOMEND YOU WATCH THIS IF U HAVENT BECAUSE I WILL CERTAINLY BE WATCHING IT AGAIN.. I LOVED IT ...... THE BACK DROP AND SETTING WAS APPEALING TO THE VIEWERS EYES WHICH ADDED TO THE SHOW.. ONLU COMPLAIN I WOULD LOVE OF SEEN A LITTLE MORE TROUBLE FROM THE SECOND FEMALE LEAD TOWARDS CHESSMAN AND SMILING...

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Observations and notes rather than the standard form

Lots of reviews already thoroughly giving “Happiness” the attention it duly deserves. So rather than rehash the same, simply going to offer a few observations in note form:

-Lee Kyu Hyung has guest or support roles in “Hospital Playlist 2”, “Happiness” and “Racket Boys” which is a phenomenal trio of shows to be part of in a single year.

-”Happiness” begins with Yi Hyun inconsolable over the end of his baseball future because of a serious leg injury that meant he couldn’t run. In later episodes, however, we see him sprinting across the complex yard followed by a leap on top of Tae Seok’s SUV. In another episode, he and Sae Bom are running through the parking garage. It’s a decent-sized plot hole. Hypothetically, however, Yi Hyun recovered enough to play again but had already decided to follow Sae Bom into police work.

-Ahn Gil Ho was quietly very clever in his direction. In episode one, the world is totally wide open. The show bounces from one setting to another across what appears to be significant distances. As things start to go wrong, first the setting gets constricted down to the apartment complex. Then our main characters can only barely leave their building. Then quietly, as the episodes tick off, the show features fewer shots outside the building. In almost every episode, there is a scene where the two leads are on the patio or the roof, but with each episode until the conclusion, it gets shorter and shorter. Along with the deaths among the residents and the multiple episode absence of characters like Ji Seong Sil and Kim Hak Je, this ratchets up the claustrophobic vibe slowly but steadily.

-Chemistry is oft-discussed but is really such a difficult and subjective element to evaluate. In theory, two competent actors should simply be able to do their job well without the need for some special personal harmony between them to convince the audience that they have strong feelings for each other. Despite the likelihood that chemistry as commonly used is an illusion convincingly created by very skilled professionals, Park Hyung Sik is inconceivably natural in his on-screen pairings.

-The most challenging role and the best performance, however, was Bae Hae Seon’s building representative. Was she a likable character? That’s a big NO. But that doesn’t mean the actor wasn’t crushing it.

-Tremendous OST work by Joe Layne.

-The last minute fakeout reveal that has been featured way too often this fall (big culprits - they didn’t break up in “Dali and the Cocky Prince”, Hyun Jo didn’t die in “Jirisan” and same with Yi Hyun here) can stop. Immediately. Please give viewers a proper closure by expositing how these things came to be rather than just a cheap “FOOLED YOU! HAHA” gimmick.

-On that note, in general, the second half of the last episode felt rushed. The resolution to the discovery of a serial killer in their midst could have had a longer, slower, bigger buildup and bigger confrontation. Sixteen episodes would have been too much, but “Happiness” could have been easily stretched to fourteen. The bitcoin subplot could have been resolved more clearly. What exactly went down with Tae Seok’s plan? Lots of other fertile ground was there with supporting characters for extended content.

-Baek Hyun Jin played a series of bad guys this year: Chairman Park Yang Jin in “Taxi Driver”, President Heo Jung Se in “The Devil Judge” and Oh Joo Young in “Happiness”. He’s a fabulous creep and it’s difficult to choose which of these characters was the most loathsome. All of them are so colorfully horrible. But it’s Chairman Park by a hair over Dr. Oh.

-The summation: ”Happiness” is an incredible show and should be on every short list of candidates for best drama of 2021. It’s not this reviewer’s top choice, but only by the narrowest of margins.

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Nice to try if you're curious but lower your expectations

Honestly it has a great story in general, and a great premise at first but as the episodes going there's some missing flow in between the plot and especially nearing the end that's very unfortunately making it missing some points for me. Plus overused storyline from some of the residents that I just ended up skipping a lot towards the end. Overall good enough for me to keep watching till the end yet I don't think will be exciting enough to re-watch later on. And don't expect any romance I honestly don't feel anything for the couple rather just a sense of loyalty and compassion or at minimum infatuation that even though I was told they're just friends or co-workers or siblings I would believe it. Though this is out of their actual real life interaction which was cute but not seen on the screen as much as I seem to see people saw it.

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A spinoff with two of my favorite characters?! Oh hunny.... you KNEW I would fly to this movie as soon as possible and devour it. Lol

I loved absolutely everything about it.
Usually when it comes to spinoffs, I somewhat panic in thinking they'll somehow ruin the original storyline or ruin the characters for me in some way but props to the writer/directors and everyone else. This is what all spin offs should be like! Like a tree, you have the main story going big and strong, but then you have branches that offer to the main story and I admit there was some information in this movie that I don't remember seeing in the show which kinda left me like O_O
I mean if it was there, I must have blinked and missed it, but that is besides the point.

I loved seeing Wen Ning and Sizhui together! This is what I needed in my life! I loved the storyline and how they stayed with the original story but made it their own, if that makes sense? I love stories that are like this.

All of the characters were amazing and well played, in my eyes, no one else could have done better.

That plot twist threw me though, lol usually I'd like to think I'm pretty good at guessing what was going to happen or who the bad guy is but I don't know if it was because I was just so excited or if the movie just really blew me away that when the plot twist hit, I got whiplash. XD

You know I had to give this a 10/10. If I could give it more, I would!!

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Has some laugh out loud funny moments, intrigue and romance

9/10 is my rating. This is a 2019 Josean era based historical romantic comedy with 32, 30 minute, episodes.

After assassins attempt to murder his family, Jeon Nok-du/Lady Kim Nok-soon/Yeon soo (Jang Dong-toon), sets out to find out who sent the assassins and why. He traces them back to a widows only village and disguises himself as widow Lady Kim, so he can remain undercover and investigate. He is provided a room to share with Dong Dong-joo/Yoo Eun-seo (Kim So-hyun) who is pretending to be in training as a courtesan but has her own mysterious reason to disguise herself in the widow town. Dong-joo’s goal is to secure a place in the palace were she will have access to the king. Nok-du’s investigation leads him to the palace as well. With a king, King Gwanghwamun (Jung Joon-ho) who is insane with the need to guard the throne at all costs, getting close to him is no small endeavor. Can the two succeed in their separate yet intertwined quests and manage their growing feelings for each other? Will what they each discover draw them closer or tear them apart?

spoiler alert**. The first part of this series had some laugh out loud moments where he is struggling with all the pitfalls of trying to be a woman. The mystery around both of their pasts is highly intriguing. I loved so many of the supporting characters. I really liked the character Nok-du and wanted to see good things happen for him. When he discovered the king was his father who attempted to kill him as an infant due to some prophesy, I hoped he would come around and be happy his son was alive and had grown to an exemplary person but he never did. Even after getting to know him as a close confident when he did not know he was his son, he wanted to kill him the moment he found out. There were moments when the king was almost a sympathetic character but then he would do something awful again. The ending was happy in terms of the romance but there were disappointing elements. Nok-du winds up back in exile and I would have liked to see him be Prince after all the struggle. He would have made a fine future king as he was kind, brave and loyal. Instead the evil cousin basically got his way and deposed the mad king. I wanted to see the king and perhaps the cousin come around. But both remained evil at their cores. The opening music did not fit with a historical drama and I would laugh at how silly it is. It was very good and extremely entertaining but those few elements kept it from being exceptional.

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Good, but not the best

In my opinion, it was good. Not the best and there are differently somethings to work on. I would still recommend it, but it can be boring in the end, so just skip watching 12 and 13. Otherwise, the other episodes are watchable. It just gets less and less romantic after they get together.

The story is interesting and I think they did a good job. I liked it until the end (12 and 13).
The music is perfect, there's nothing to change.

The humor though is probably the best thing. Tine's and Wat's friends are hilarious and I was laughing all the time they were on screen. I even laughed at parts where they didn't even mean to make someone laugh. I do also recommend watching some of the funny videos that people make on youtube, which will make you like it even more. It is a series that I think is likable if you laugh at it.

The cast is perfect, I think they just need to work on how they act.
The acting was pretty rough, Tine and Wat didn't act that much as a couple. Yeah, they did have some sweet moments together, but not a lot of them were when they were together. They acted more romantic when they were faking it even though Wat didn't act that in love. It's pretty sad to see how in love he was in some of the flashback scenes but then when he's actually dating Tine, he doesn't do anything like that. At first, I just thought that maybe he was a tsundere but it's like he doesn't even love Tine anymore. I'm fine without them kissing or fucking (not all couples do) but at least Tine showed some affection. Tine did a good job showing how much Wat actually meant to him, but sometimes it felt like they were brothers and not an actual couple.

When talking about acting like a real couple, both Dim and Green did it perfectly. Even though they didn't have that much screen time together, all the little things they did in the background were so precious to watch. It was very clear that they loved each other even if Green was trying to make Tine his boyfriend.

Man and Type are also a very cute and perfect couple. The acting was perfect, not much to say regarding those two.

I have, to be honest, I hated Mil and Phukong. They are the worst characters in the whole series. They were honestly so pointless and it made me frustrated whenever they were on screen. Their story wasn't interesting and there is no reason to watch anything they do. I recommend skipping the part where they are in, that'll help a lot. Their so-called "romance" is so toxic and it really ruins the series.

Honestly, who did even like Pam? She had no reason to be introduced. Re-including plotlines and drama that has already happened are never fun or interesting. It gets boring very quickly. I hated all the drama that came with including her and all the other girls that "stood between Wat/Tine and his love". It was pretty boring and very pointless.

To fix this I would have put more focus on the acting and take away some of the plotlines.

Otherwise, it's a good show, but there are better. I recommend watching this if you want something to laugh with. Hope this review helped you.

Lire davantage

E' stata una piacevole boccata d'aria fresca. Il drama si propone come una versione alternativa alla classica fiaba di Cenerentola, prendendo volutamente in giro tutto lo schema che ci sta dietro. Come ogni drama del genere vuole, abbiamo un ML ricco da schifo, narcisista e con un triste passato che lo perseguita e una FL povera come la merda, con un carattere del cazzo ma talmente brutta/bella da fare da calamita per gli uomini. Ho riso così tanto! Eppure questi due sono riusciti a trasmettermi tanti messaggi positivi. La maniera in cui è girato il drama è stra particolare e purtroppo in alcune scene finisce per essere talmente cringe da accapponare la pelle.
Lo consiglio a chi vuole ridere, tanto, e a chi vuole qualcosa di sicuramente diverso.

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