Misrepresentation

I know not many will see this review, but I believe it's important to point something out.
When writing a story with supernatural elements, you have to represent those elements in an accurate and realistic way so that they don't become inaccuracies in terms of real instances that would exist in this reality.

For example, Angels are supernatural beings that are supposed to obey and follow God's will no matter what. Biblically speaking, that's the correct view of how angels behave. Demons on the other hand rebelled against God and do everything that is against His will.
I could go on lecturing about the reality of God, His will, angels and demons, but you get the point.
The drama itself has many flaws, not just the misrepresentation I already mentioned.
The characters are filled with hypocrisy and don't make logical sense at times. For example, the main lead always has a grudge against the "deity" because she believes he was unfair to her. However, before that, she did not even believe in his existence even though she has witnessed supernatural events first-hand!
Kim Dan, Hu and Gil opposed God's views and always seemed to question Him and even trying to rebel against him at times, and despite the clear warnings they have received, they kept rebelling.....which is completely INNACURATE to how actual angels behave! No angels can become human or vice-versa, thus the reason why the drama falls short in story-telling. Also if the above characters were truly angels, they would have a direct communication with God Himself, but God was portrayed as a silent sadist that had no connection with his angels.

Evil characters were too obvious. The acting was passively boring. Romance was artificial.
And most importantly...the camera work. Why the heck do Korean dramas nowadays incorporate the SHAKY CAMERA cliche in every single instance of the series. To make it look dramatic? It wasn't! To make it look intense? You may have fooled some. I believe that all the positive 10/10 reviews are coming from those that only watched the drama for the visuals of the main lead Kim Dan and Yeo Seo and their poor romance.
It was a drama that could go in great directions but it took one of the worst ones. To me this drama felt more like an experiment for the visual effects artists than for the actual story elements and their reality.

Leia Mais

Hidden Potential?

I honestly think this series has a hidden potential not explored fully yet.

While the story and acting are definitely on good quality, some things about the side characters doesn't really convince me that they are written well enough. On the other hand, the main character who has autism spectrum was greatly potrayed by
Park Eun Bin, like little gestural details and body language made the character feel and look very convincing.

However, did they tell her to tone it down a bit since she was playing a lawyer after all? Yes she has autism disorder but it was not clearly explained why her social awkwardness didn't continue to be present by the 6th episode. By that time she seemed to interact quite normally with others, and her perfect memory was just one talent also not fully utilised. Each 1-2 episodes there was a different case too, which to me broke the flow of the story quite a bit.

I say this everytime, I don't care how "unique" and "challenging" a storyline is. As lons as it is entertaining and flows into a specific resolution then it's a series worth watching. This feels like another wasted potential. Could've been a true masterpiece.
But by the 8th episode, I felt like there was no purpose to the story anymore. The romance? I don't even wanna talk about it. Was it even necessery for a romantic interest to be there from the begginning? Or did they add it there as the "icing on the cake"? it is quite boring and awkward on top of that.

The people who rated this 10/10 are just your typical overhypers, nothing else to explain there. I guess modern kdramas have reached a new standard, a lower one at that. If this series deserves a 10/10 then I deserve to get paid for these honestly critical reviews I am writing for each shit show :D.

Leia Mais

Intensity lacking, Artificial Romance, No chemistry & Wasted characters

Good Morning Call is certainly that kind of a romantic-comedy drama focusing between two opposing characters, Nao and Uehara, that have hardly any good chemistry together.
The story was promising but the side characters could be used more wisely. Rather than using the side characters to lead the story in favor of the cold, anti-social Uehara and the dense Nao, they could use Daichi or Issei as the main second lead-rivals of Uehara's & Nao's relationship. Instead of posing a threat, these 2nd lead characters were just taking shots from Uehara who was simply doing nothing, and Nao who kept falling for him out of nowhere, calling him kind(?) and nice(?).
This leads to the creation of the most dull + artificial romance between two characters that I've ever seen. At the end of the day, despite the constant obstacles that their relationship was attracting, they were able to survive them unscratched, as if nothing actually happened.
No matter how many characters were being introduced, they all existed for one main reason; To make Uehara and Nao get closer together, failing each time. This in reality would have actually resulted in many break ups already.

It's such a shame that characters that had potential to turn this romance upside down, and create a lot of conflict were simply used as puppets for the main leads' romance, which again, is artificial at best.

Other than that, the acting was not impressive at all. At times, the characters were either over-exaggerating or just simply had a poker face 24/7 (I'm looking at you Uehara).
The music was decent for the show, and some OSTs were actually really good and fit the atmosphere in certain moments.
Cinematography-wise, nothing impressive either, but the camera quality for many Japanese shows is kind of old and not very clear. The sunlight it too much on certain scenes too.

All in all, if you are the type of person who has time to spare, then this romantic-comedy drama will be a good start for you to get into the Japanese romance scene, despite how dull & artificial the romance is in this show.
If you are more like a veteran like me, who has seen good romance-drama series from South Korea too, then this show ain't for you.

Leia Mais

Very Heartwarming Scenarios & Slow Build-Up in Romance

Where to begin? This drama had a very satisfying scenario, whereas 3 youthful people have been facing unemployment due to their special circumstances, then met together again as a "suicide squad" in the same hospital and finally into the same company.
There, they met people, both good and bad. They stayed together and overcame their boundaries, one by one.
Obviously, the story doesn't focus on the 3 together, but rather, it focuses on each of them individually, showing each character's flaws and strengths.
I could go on giving a summary of the plot events in this drama, which it deserves, since the story of it should be the main focus.
From the story to the acting, music, and general production in itself, everything was almost perfect. The drama almost depicted the reality of being unemployed in South Korea and the hurdles of knowing you may have death knocking on your door any minute as well as the power to over-come it and continue moving on in life.
The Romance was slowly built up, though I will admit, it was quite too slow and may have not resulted into the most satisfying romance, but since the drama focused on the business aspect it is respectable.
While the story was amazing, there is an unknown plot character that was never truly shown to us, like the doctor's older brother. Also, Ho Won's and Seo's families were only introduced to us for an episode, which was not enough honestly.
I believe this drama was almost a masterpiece, but I also think the Romance could be emphasized more than the Business plot.
Either way, I'm only being subjective. I think this drama is really amazing and you should definitely give it watch.
Honestly, one more thing, this drama is truly underrated in this website and it appears like the reviews are fluctuating, and many have also dropped this which kind of makes no sense to me.
Maybe this drama isn't for the patients one.

Leia Mais

Overhyped for the right reasons - Could have been better for the "wrong" ones.

This is a drama I personally couldn't bring myself to finish.

I understand why it gets good reviews...but what's really special about it? This drama had a concept that could go to many places, story-wise and character-wise, but the writers chose the "safest" route...for both?
It works for those who haven't seen many family k-dramas, but for me who has already seen this kind of scenario thousand of times, it's nothing new. It became boring eventually.
As you can already tell from the synopsis this drama is going to focus a lot...A LOT....on the main married couple's lives and how they eventually got divorced...but something is quite strange. What in the world was turning 18 again supposed to prove here?
Honestly, if turning 18 meant for the character to chase after his ex-wife, then this whole concept was wasted. Yes, it is still well written as a story, but it's just boring, not entertaining.
That's because the writers wanted to give a message or follow the original which is, again, acceptable, but not satisfying enough.
Call me weird, but I think the romance was also wasted and at moments the relationship between the former 37 year old husband who is now on the 18 year old body and the almost 40 year old wife is just plain AWKWARD.
Obviously, they attempted to show that but quite failed at it since they were still pushing it for the sake of the "safe" route they wanted the plot to take.
If I was the writer, and I had full control over the scenario, I would have completely abandoned the family story and went straight ahead into the school life, having the 18 year old Woo Young achieve his dreams he couldn't achieve, find an awkward yet intriguing love interest, and develop a different kind of drama that wouldn't depend on the concept of marriage and it's many subplots which ended up being overused. A complete reset, a completely new life.
I just abhor the fact that so many kdramas with supernatural elements just waste EVERY potential the story could've taken. But the writers must be all a bunch of cowards who can't bring themselves to write something more...spicy.

Anyways, the drama wasn't unwatchable neither too boring. It's just that, it could've taken a different, more spicy route. Not this repetitive safe nonsense you see on almost half of family dramas. Stop recycling stories ffs.

Leia Mais

No

Just No.

What is this? Was it written by amateurs or were the actors that bad? I'm definitely sure the concept of this drama is unique and promising.
What the...hell. It is one of those dramas that you have to immediately drop before any more precious moments of your life are lost watching this boring masterclass of a drama.
Why does it feel like they didn't match the theme with the directing?
For the first 40 minutes of the show that I managed to watch, I felt I was watching a "movie" because of the cinematography. Extremely slow paced and totally no harmony between the "love alarm" and the totality of the shots with the music.
And most importantly...the characters. God please make them actual characters....they totally feel shallow and artificial.

Just what were they trying to do here? Were the screen-writers, directors or producers too ambitious? Was it the "realistic" shallow acting? Was it the slow paced direction?

I don't know, and defining it won't change the fact that this drama exists. I wish rookie directors and writers will look at the first episode of this drama, as a guide on "How to NOT make Good Dramas". At least it will serve a purpose....

Leia Mais

Ridiculous acting & Obnoxious writing

I have only watched 2 episodes of this j-drama and I couldn't keep watching anymore due to a few reasons. I know it may not look very fair to judge this solely on the first two episodes, but if they were that bad, then how worse could the remaining be?
The main reason I dropped 'My little Lover' is because of the artificial acting-dialogue, that to me, it appeared like an introduction to a porn movie. The opening of the series was decent and promising, and while the female lead was still a normal sized human, everything seemed to be nice and cool. The other characters looked interesting and decent as well.
But by the opening of the 2nd episode, things started to look REALLY REALLY BAD for the series.
I said this on another review when it comes to writing sci-fi; It's very important that the characters behave realistically based on the situation, even if the situation itself seems to be impossible in a real setting (thus why it is a sci-fi).
However, when Chiyomi became a small sized human, her behavior and reaction towards it was IRRATIONAL. She never seemed to care that much that something completely out of the ordinary happened to her. She never showed worry, anxiety, fear, thoughtfulness about her situation. When she was immediately brought into Minami's room, she was just drooling over him and having orgasming fantasies about how she lives in the same room with him, completely ignoring that she is fricking 15 cm tall! At times, you could see her jumping to places whereas it would be impossible based on her size. We don't even know if she is actually good at climbing.
From then on, I decided that the series wouldn't really improve anything so I dropped it.
Nevertheless, the opening and ending themes were very good and the SFX work was done pretty well despite some inaccuracies in the physics.
It really is such a shame that people gave this a 10/10 because they are simply hardcore weebs. The story had potential, but it was ruined by the poor character writing and acting.
Don't attempt to watch this if you are a really busy person...

Leia Mais

Incoherently filled with cliches and cringe - Good CGI doesn't make a good drama series.

Techically speaking, this drama seems to nail everything down. From the CGI, actors, environments, music and all in all cinematography.

But it is just repulsive. This stupid drama series only had two episodes that I could watch. Everyone can see that a lot of money was spent on its creation, which is why the CGI was so amazing in the first place. However, regardless of how excellent the CGI is, you cannot ignore the reality that the drama as a whole is badly written and handled, making everything dissonant and useless.
All of the characters are vapid. Because the script decides to do so, the story appears to be conveniently moving along.
Despite being portrayed as an independent, strong, quirky, and sentimental female lead who for convenient reasons was also a warrior who could take on many men in her past, the proprietor of the Hotel del Luna is an empty figure. To further increase her "awesome" factor, she also possesses divine abilities, funny. Oh, and she is played by someone going by the name of "IU"; were you expecting me to gloss over that information? It doesn't matter to me who the actor is as long as they can act. Even the "goddess IU" shouldn't be able to play an empty role in this situation, right?
Next, the ghosts...the f***ing ghosts, GOD please make them actual GHOSTS! They weren't "ghosts", more like monstrous looking zombies. So when someone dies, they become a "ghost" with overly exaggerated monstrous make-up and they all act like zombies instead of actual ghosts (which would imply they would still behave like humans but with a few oddities since they are dead anyways). Wow, the horror...
The music. I cannot really remember any moment in those 2 episodes I've watched where the music simply stopped f***ing my ears all the time. What's with the choice of music? They went from overly magical, disney style music, to extreme horror and suspense, down to goofy comedical. What the hell did they want me to feel? Or rather, did they themselves know what this series wanted to be?
This series is too over-whelming to watch, I wonder how anybody manages to watch this for another 14 hours.

Never trust a drama with a high budget. It will be either garbage or very rarely a gem.

Leia Mais

Perhaps I'm burned out

It's the first time I ever write a review after watching only one episode of, actually, quite a promising looking series.

But I dropped immediately after around 40 minutes from the first episode.
Everything, as I have perceived...was a clear mess.

To be completely fair with this series, as I am aware that judging it over only the first episode does not sound like a very credible review at all, please just hear me out.
This series has every good ingredient. Good actors, good music, an averagely good story, good editing and.....nothing seems to fit together. In fact, many modern k-dramas seem to have everything on the surface, but are completely empty inside.

They are UN-HARMONIUS. None of the elemets mentioned above connect together in a harmonius manner. It's a mess.

I don't have the intelligence to use the best words to describe my experience. It is as if I already knew, by intuition, what this series was trying to do. It wanted me to use my brain to try and understand whatever the plot was trying to do, instead of giving me and laying me out the obvious. I was confused for 40 minutes, trying to figure out what was actually going on.

And because of the unharmonious elements (story, music, acting, pacing), something that on the surface looked promising (perhaps that's where the good reviews came from?), personally, I was bored out of my mind, and on top of that, the series didn't convince me to care about any of the characters at all.

It all felt like a tiring, messy and pointless dream.

Leia Mais

Misleading Synopsis + Cringe + Boring as hell + Typical school Kdrama + Failure

I love how the synopsis says she is supposed to be a support character while being totally presented as a main lead. Good job writers.

From the beginning of this 1st episode I could foresee anything this drama held for its own future. A total bundle and collection of all possible cliches you can find in any set-in-school romance stories whereas you have this supposedly support..oops, I mean main female lead who is supposed to be the support lead (then who tf is the main lead?) acting like it's the end of the world for her just because a lot of confusing and magical things happen to her EVEN THOUGH SHE IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE SUPPORT CHARACTER XD.
I mean, I only watched 30 minutes of this and saw through every single line...plus the cringe set up for a youthful school romance love triangle or whatever reverse harem.
Everything is stereotypical. "Badass" and "attractive" male students walk up the hallway?! Check -> Have all side characters act like NPCs and drool over them or make way for them while another irrelevant NPC crashes with one of them.
Want to make female lead seem relevant even though she is supposed to be irrelevant since she is a support lead?! CHECK -> Make her have a heart disease plus a one-sided crush with one of the male leads.
Everything just comes back to that damn synopsis. She is a support character that fights over her fate to become a main one? MAKE HER LOOK AND BEHAVE SO or at least make it interesting you buffalos.
Only dull and over-the-top kdrama fans will give this an above average rating. Truly sad.

My judgement for this drama is.......0! I give this a 0/10.

Leia Mais