The most calming and most wholesome rendition

First and foremost, I would like to state, that as of writing this, I have seen the original American production (seasons one and two [season two has yet to finish]) as well as the Brazilian one, so I definitely had more than an idea of what I was getting into. However, I did not expect it to be, like my title states, the most calming and most wholesome rendition, as the other two are, for lack of a better description, dumpster fire that you can't stay away from.

Of the three countries, the Japanese Love is Blind had the least drama and the least amount of overdramatic edits, and what I mean by edits is that scenes aren't unnecessarily dragged out to keep you on your toes. For example, in both the US and Brazilian versions, the couples reveal is dragged into the next episode, whereas with Japan's, every couple that was set to be revealed was revealed one by one near the end of the time in the pods, and pretty quickly as well despite it still leading into the next episode. Even when there was drama (let's face it, part of this is real life so there is definitely going to be real life issues between the couples) to be had, it wasn't edited to make one side nor the other look bad, and we got as close to both sides of the story as possible and it was resolved for the most part.

However, the one thing I will say, is that this season does give a lot of false hope. More than five couples walk out engaged in the pods, and yet only two end up actually saying their nuptials (their "I dos"). Two couples in particular ended up all the way at the end to walk out on each other.

Other than that, I did enjoy the little life update from most, if not all of the contestants, including, of course, the two couples who made it more than past the alter. Of the couples who ended up together, I loved seeing Midori and Wataru's story develop, but, I personally loved Ryotaro and Motomi's story and I absolutely loved her metamorphosis, as her sense of style (her way of dressing) has changed to match Ryotaro's (and in a good and cute way). Though both couples shined extremely radiant and I do hope they continue their journey in this crazy thing we call life.

Alhough I'm dissapointed that the couples I were rooting for didn't work out, you can never predict what will happen in life, and you can't force happiness.

I am definitely hoping forward to another season, or multiple rather, of Love is Blind Japan.

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Don't judge a book by it's cover

When I first came across this show on an Asian drama Facebook group, I thought it must have been some sort of joke or meme, especially when reading the synopsis. However, my mind changed the moment I watched the first episode. At first glance, this should have been some sort of crazy Thai lakorn, but it isn't. The story and the characters have a lot of solid development, the acting was great, the visual effects of the magic were great.

I thoroughly enjoyed this series, and wished that it was a bit longer. I loved that this show was so unique in it's story, despite laughable at first glance. As a bubble tea/boba lover, I simply got onto this thinking it might be a fun and hilarious story, but what I found instead was the magic (pun intended) in the story. The story has so much heart, and I loved that there was actually some life lessons built into the episodes.

What was also so different about the story is that there isn't really a first or second male lead, although there technically is one. I guess what I mean to say is that there is no stereotype plot of either male lead being a complete a-hole, though I think some may disagree that Light, who, by the way is the first male lead, was an a-hole to Modem in several moments throughout the show. But, all in all, I found myself in love with the first male lead even more than the second male lead, which is hard to find in a Kdrama, and even less in Asian dramas in general. And this applied to all the characters. I felt such an attachment to all the characters, from Auntie Shell and Uncle Hoy, to Wifi (Modem's little brother), and Modem's sidekick friends Up, Oor and Yogurt - they were all lovable.

The villain in this story also gained a lot character development, though overall, I still dislike her because of what she did to the main lead (Modem). However, she gained my respect with her overall development and this is something that is also pretty hard to find in any Asian drama as the villains almost rarely get a chance at redemption or even just a solid character development.

One thing, however, that did disappoint me a little, was the little use and mention of magic. The synopsis makes it seem as if magic takes full center in the entire series, but, after a couple of episodes and Modem finds all the magic pearls that she accidentally lets loose into the world, it's put onto a back burner, until we find out that Boss (played by 2PM's Nickhun), who we find out plays the role of Cupid and is a literal angel, who Modem has technically known since she was a kid. And later, we find out the magic counsel wants to punish Modem for releasing the magic pearls and letting magic be known to the world. All of this happens in the last couple of episodes and feels quite a bit rushed in my opinion. I wholeheartedly felt that they could have done more with the magic, since it was emphasized (in my opinion) in the synopsis of the story. The development of this could have been better, such as answering questions about how Auntie Shell became a witch - was she born with it, did she gain the powers, etc. - but such questions are pretty much unanswered. As such, maybe a spinoff show about Auntie Shell, her magic and the world she might have came from would be nice.

All in all, this is definitely a series I would definitely recommend watching. Even if this was just one big advertisement for bubble tea, I wouldn't have minded at all, since I'm an avid bubble tea lover. The story being as good as it was, was just a huge advantage, and I think it will probably make anyone who has never heard of bubble tea or had it before want to try it. Bubble tea is magical, and the show literally went with this idea, turning something so cliche into a literal magical work of art. Please don't judge this show based on the plot, or else you will miss out on a gem, or should I say a pearl?

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Firstly, this live-action series filled with shorts is loosely based on the anime and manga, which is also about the daily lives of Jesus and Buddha on Earth in Japan. However, this is more situated in the one-room apartment that they share and they don't go out at all. The casting choices for both Jesus and Buddha were spot on and I loved the details that they added from each religion. However, I do believe you do need an understanding of how Buddhism and Christianity/Catholicism (as well as Japanese culture) work in order to understand the religious aspects that they use for comedy - i.e. the use of "Amen" in katakana written on Jesus' T-shirt in one of the shorts. The show is extremely light-hearted and should be seen by all, despite its religious contexts. That being said, it is definitely not a show for hardcore atheists nor hardcore religious people. The show definitely brings the comedy into the religion, and, as a Catholic myself, it's definitely not an offensive show by any means. In fact, I had a good laugh at all the Catholic/Christian things that were mentioned. It is definitely something you can only watch once though.

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A gift for ONE OK ROCK fans

First and foremost, I want to say that I am a MASSIVE fan of ONE OK ROCK and have been since discovering them with the song "Clock Strikes" in 2015, while watching the South Korean variety show "We Got Married Global".

Since 2015, I have seen them live a total of three times, where most fans, especially international fans like me are lucky to have been able to see them perform live at a concert once.

That being said, when the pandemic hit and artists were forced off tours indefinitely, all of a sudden, OOR announced on their social media pages that they would be holding a live stream concert. I had wanted to see them, but tickets were roughly $50USD. Being so expensive, I opted out, but seeing the announcement of the documentary, I got super excited.

While watching, we got behind the scenes content of not only just how they prepared for the concert, but never before heard background stories of the band, the members, and how each ended up joining. I loved seeing Tomoya and his lovely baby boys, and my belated congratulations on a third child, as well as Taka seeing his father, making a surprise visit to his family home.

We saw the band struggle as they rehearsed and goofed off. We also saw a new side of Taka. My impression of him is that he is a big jokester, but here, he was serious and professional, and his commentaries and critique to staff seemed somewhat brutal - especially after hiring an AR team for the concert, only to forgo the entire idea due to none of the graphics not matching what he wanted in the end - which makes him seem hard to work with. Essentially, we saw a perfectionist Taka, which I still think was great to see.

The documentary also mentioned how Toru ended up testing positive for COVID-19, months prior to the concert, but it was briefly even mentioned, as Toru only retells how he felt sick one night, called up Tomoya and went to the hospital. His only other comments about the event was that he would like to never go back there. I personally wohld have liked to hear a little bit more, since it was dramatized for the trailer, but, I get it since being that sick must have been traumatizing.

I personally also would have loved to see more about Ryota and his life behind the scenes, but his screen time seemed to be limited to interview shots and B-footage.

As for the concert parts itself, they were really great to see, as again, for someone like me who didn't pay $50USD for tickets to see the event, even snippets of the end results of the concert. The edited comparisons versus actual concert night and rehearsal was a nice touch. Seeing the performances reminded me how great OOR is live in person and makes me hope that they will perform on tour again.

My heart absolutely broke at the end when Taka started crying, which resulted in everyone, from the other band members, to crew breaking out in tears. It showed the stress of how hard they worked and the time and effort they gave up for this once in a lifetime livestreaming concert was absolutely worth it in the end.

This documentary really is such a nice gift for OOR fans, especially for those who could not afford to buy tickets for it. If you are not a fan of the band, I highly recommend watching the documentary and checking out all of their stuff. The band members are passionate about what they do, and you can see that not just while they are performing on stage, but while rehearsing in the studio and the way they talk about their jobs. They are a band that has been around since 2005 and still together to this day because of how passionate they are about music and what they do and who choose to continue to be ONE OK ROCK.

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Stupidly Entertaining; Not Good, but Not Terrible Either

The story takes Chinese fairy tale and spins it with yet another cliche romantic comedy trope. A being not of this world, comes to Earth looking for love. And in this version, it is Wan Die, the oblivious, naive fairy, whose specialty is the kitchen, or more specifically cooking. Though a lot of what goes in this story is questionable, such as the sexist tropes that a naive, beautiful woman follows - or rather stalks - a young, handsome man she literally just met, among other things. Our male lead also is a young, handsome man who is a popular internet streaming chef, but in real life is a player who flirts with women and laughs at Wan Die's beliefs in true love, as he makes an offhanded comment about women becoming ugly once you take them home and see their bare face (i.e. without makeup).

But, for this review, let's foresake all of the sexist and cliche tropes. The movie in of itself is quite decent and, like my title says, "stupidly entertaining". As the story progresses, Wan Die stops becoming naive, while at the same time, Jiang Cong starts to believe in love as he starts falling for the kitchen fairy. However, all goes downhill once he discovers that the longer Wan Die stays on earth, the more human she gets, losing her powers and abilities. On a side note, the visual effects for the fairies' powers are quite excellent here - beautiful, exquisite and well done - for both Wan Die and her sister, the goddess/fairy of the moon Chang He. In the meantime, Jiang Cong prepares for the chef's competition, which he then loses. Distraught, he goes home, maddened that he lost, and further angered that despite all he did to push Wan Die away for her to go home, not wanting her to give up everything for him, is still on earth, he becomes a drunk loser. Wan Die stays and continues to help Jiang Cong, and in this montage, she redeems a bit of her character, at least in my opinion.

However, what through me for a loop was the twist ending. I was totally not expecting a villain type character in this romantic comedy. Once the chef's competition was over, I had thought that was that with the "villain". It was quite random, but at the same time, made for a good story.

My other main gripes with the movie was that Wan Die cries worse than a social media influencer apology video. All there is to her crying is whines and not a single tear. Thank god the crying scenes aren't many and they don't last that long either. Another thing is with the sound editing. It is EVERYWHERE. One character will speak softly, then another moment is loud sounds from the speech of another character, and this will happen with the background music as well. If it had not been for this, it could have been a decently watchable movie.

That being said, would I watch it again? No. But then again, I rarely re-watch anything, even some really great movies and dramas. The story is very cliche and predictable, and is essentially decent enough for a one-time watch. It's not great, but it's not that bad either.

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From the first trailer, it seemed like this movie would just be all about the sex, however, after watching, it tells an unconventional, yet conventional story about love and relationships.

A story about how two sex workers - a veteran and a newbie - who meet by chance in a cheap hotel and eventually develop feelings for one another. Adela Johnson (the veteran who goes by many names), from the beginning of the movie, portrays herself as a strong woman, especially in front of others, but, is quite vulnerable and broken on the inside. The story about self-prostitution, it's pros and cons and the reality that comes with it is all portrayed just between two characters and two characters alone - Adela and Ram.

Ram (the newbie), on the other hand, is a seemingly clueless anime nerd from the countryside, who continuously, but cringely continues to call and refer to Adela as his senpai (and is even wearing a Dragon Ball Z T-shirt when he first meets Adela).

The character development of both as they learn to go through life with one another as previously lonely people, portrays itself realistically despite alluded time jumps. I found the acting and the chemistry between the lead characters quite convincing, which lead to the story itself being convincing even though the script itself is powerful. The ending (of how both want to give up the life of a sex worker and the money that comes with it to love each other and change) itself comes full circle as both wind up in the cheap hotel where they met, though unrealistic, is a nice wrap-up to the story.

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I am not sure if I'm the only one of the reviews that have seen the anime, but, when I saw this, I jumped at the opportunity to watch it and was somewhat disappointed, and let me tell you why.

Although the main base of the story remains in line with the anime, the change of some things in the plotline, as well as the rushed/fast-paced storyline, ruins the story. Although the actors were extremely talented, this movie was a waste of said talent. There is a complete lack of character development, overuse of overly exaggerated expressions and reactions, and unnecessary scenes (I'm looking at you nonsense Halloween scene). Aside from that, there is no structure to the story. Something will happen and then it will jump cut into the next scene without any sort of explanation.

Some of the changes that they did make, however, I did like, such as Tsutsun's dad's involvement in his life and I did enjoy that so-called "fight scene", as well as the effects that they made to really incorporate anime into Tsutsun's life (in the anime, this was assumed to be his inner conscious) by having the character Ezomichi literally show up in front of him and having him talk to her, etc. This movie more or less can be described as "loosely based" as opposed to "solely based".

I think it was a bad idea to go into this movie soon after watching the anime. This is definitely one of those "adaptations" that should be watched without any prior knowledge of the storyline of the anime (or the manga). I think if I had seen it without any prior knowledge, it would have been more enjoyable than it should have been. Definitely a comedy instead of the touching romance with tons of character development that it should have been. Laughable at best with absolute zero rewatch value.

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Comedy Filled, Heartwarming Adventure

Travel shows and variety shows are one in a million. There are easily a million of them. However, Twogether creates a unique experience combining South Korean variety and your typical travel program to invent something new. The addition of the time limiting missions, with an incentive to meet fans in countries celebrities like Lee Seung Gi and Jasper Liu would usually never go to for fan meets and concerts is a great way for not only them to get to see and visit new countries and experience new cultures, but is also great for the fans.

Seung Gi and Jasper also make a great duo. Their chemistry is just too great. They are hilarious and get along well, that I wonder if they keep in touch outside of the program. I'm a fan of both of them, so it was also great to see them both in one show together and I was surprised that they were able to get along as well as they did as opposed to just seeing it as another co-worker.

As COVID-19 rages on while I was watching this, it's a reminder to enjoy the beauty and nature of the outside world and to appreciate cultures that are not your own, not to mention a way to see the world as most of us are still in some state of lockdown. This show is so great and it ended so bittersweet. I hope that they continue this program - eight episodes just was not enough, and that's it's only downside - either with these two or they try the format with different celebrities. I would highly recommend anyone to watch this whether you're a fan of Seung Gi, Jasper, both, or neither. It's a great program and you'll definitely be laughing throughout.

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So, I started watching this drama a couple years after its release and got up to episode 3 before life got busy. Recently decided to pick it back up and enjoyed it a little less than when I first had in the beginning and here's why.

First off, the female lead was super invasive and annoying. She was supposed to be portrayed as a happy go lucky type of girl who didn't have a care in the world despite all that she's been through. With dreams of becoming an actress and a singer, she drops it in order to pursue a revenge on the people who killed her older sister ; her older sister, who was seemingly perfect in every way - obedient, soft-spoken, bright and friendly and easily got along well with others. This aspect of the story reminded me too much of 13 Reasons Why in that there is someone who killed herself and someone who loved her seeking for answers and some type of revenge. This part of the story was the only thing that really bugged me though.

The male lead, on the other hand, was, like the title says, introverted and shy, and came off as rude and scary. This, of course, was different from every drama or movie male lead I've ever seen and was a promising conversation starter for social anxiety and other mental health aspects in Korea (much like that of The Good Doctor). The interactions with him from other characters, really shows us how (Korean) society treats these kinds of people and how we can easily start assuming things about people without really getting to know them, thus spreading all sorts of unwanted rumors - which, for a person with social anxiety, is already unwanted.

I also really enjoyed how they showed with Yi Soo (Eun Ki's little sister), that someone who is bright and cheery and comes from a wealthy family, might have a dark story to tell that they're hiding. In sum, it shows that you really don't know what somebody else is going through no matter how close you are to the person. The drama painted a very dark picture revealing her suicide attempts and for her reasons why.

The story is supposed to be how Ro Woon changes Eun Ki for the better and does exactly that, but of course, a lot of effort from Eun Ki was needed. Of course, as other typical Korean dramas, Ro Woon just so happens to be the younger sister of Eun Ki's former and deceased secretary AND happens to be the girl he runs into on the first day Ro Woon is to show up for work at his company (Brain).

The love story and story in general, itself was quite slow, but, I actually really did enjoy the character development. Characters that you hated, in the beginning, become characters you easily start to understand or fall in love with and it is definitely a roller coaster of emotions. The drama shows that sometimes, things aren't exactly what they seem and that there are multiple sides to the same story, as we learn that Ro Woon's sister fell in love with Eun Ki, who was the love interest of Woo Il, who was the love interest of Yi Soo (Eun Ki's little sister). Fate can be dark and twisted and this drama was definitely a twist of events by the end.

From this, we learn that we should learn how to listen to others, to do something for others as it might bring a shining light into their life or into their day and be kind to others.

All in all, I definitely would suggest it to anyone who is into psychological drama and mental health.

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