The Fangirl Verdict

Completely biased reviews and fangirling


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Flash Review: We Married As A Job [Japan]

I was told that this drama is cute, but honestly, I really didn’t get why my Jdrama-watching friends were eagerly recommending this show to me. I mean, yeah, I could tell from the title that this show was going to be about some kind of contract marriage, and I figured there’d be associated hijinks.. blah blah blah. I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be anything too different from all the other contract relationship shows I’d seen before. (Heh. Can you tell that this happened in the thick of my drama rut?)

But y’know, it wasn’t until I finally got around to watching episode 1 that I finally saw the light. Somehow, this show manages to be cute & quirky, and down-to-earth yet whimsical – and even thoughtful, all at the same time. Just, how remarkable is that? I was instantly smitten. So THIS was why my friends were so enthusiastic about recommending this show!

The very minute I was done watching episode 1, I was all, “Ahh! Cute~! And, sobs. Why are there only 11 episodes of this cuteness?? WHYYY??”

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Dropped: Love Me If You Dare [China]

Let me apologize in advance to this show’s fans: I did not like Love Me If You Dare enough to finish it.

I’d heard good things about this show going in, so this turn of events does surprise me. I’m also surprised because for a nice stretch in the beginning, I’d actually found myself enjoying this show quite well. But, 20 episodes later (well, 19.3 episodes, if we’re being exact), I find myself without the inclination nor interest to press on to the finish line.

I guess you could say that ultimately, Wallace Huo just wasn’t enough to pull me through, despite The Handsome.

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Flash Review: Father Is Strange

You know a show’s gotta be Quite Something, if it’s luring me out of the writing-hiatus-cum-drama-rut I’ve found myself ensconced in for the last couple of months.

I literally just finished watching the last episode of Father Is Strange today, and liked it enough to start poking around to craft a review right away. Considering that 1, Father Is Strange is a 52-episode family drama, and 2, I’ve been feeling pretty uninspired on both the writing and drama fronts, this is a Big Testament to how likable I’ve found this show and its characters.

Even if you’re not usually into family dramas, I really do think you might like this one.

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Flash Review: Under The Hawthorn Tree [Chinese Movie]

The interesting thing about my adventures in-flight entertainment, is that I never quite know what I’ll stumble onto. Not all of my in-flight picks are good ones, to be sure. But sometimes, I find a gem that I probably would’ve never watched if I hadn’t been a captive audience on a flight.

Today, I randomly decided that I was in the mood for a bit of Chinese nostalgia, and picked Under The Hawthorn Tree without knowing much about it at all. Essentially, all I knew about this movie, was that it was set in the past, that it involved a girl who went to the countryside and fell in love with a boy, and that it was directed by famed director Zhang Yimou.

Little did I know that by movie’s end, I would be willingly serving up my heart on a plate all over again – just mere days after serving it up to Japanese movie “My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday.” 

Well done, In-flight Me. Well done.

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Flash Review: My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday [Japanese Movie]

It looks like my in-flight entertainment adventures are becoming a bit of a series. (Does 2 posts in a row – written on 2 flights in a row – count as a series?)

Today, once again, I picked a movie on a whim (the food was a teensy bit better this flight than the last – emphasis on teensy), and liked it enough to write it a review right away while still in the air.

Ok, maybe that’s a bit of an understatement.

It’s more like I innocently signed up for what I thought would be a sweet, slice-of-life romance with a possible time-traveling twist, and ended up feeling like I was sucker-punched into serving up my heart to these characters on a plate. In a good way.

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Flash Review: Suddenly Seventeen [Chinese Movie]

My adventures in in-flight entertainment can be pretty random. After all, I’m a captive audience with a limited array of shows to choose from, and honestly, I just want something to watch while I eat my (usually unexciting) in-flight meal. This means that In-flight Me sometimes has a pretty different show selection process than Non In-flight Me.

Today, In-flight Me had a Single, Completely Frivolous reason for checking out this show. Simply, Wallace Huo is in it, and I’ve been told by people in the know, that I would absolutely fall in love with Wallace Huo once I saw him on my screen.

So did In-flight Me’s selection process pay off this time?

Well.. sorta. The in-flight meal was even more unappetizing than usual, but the movie was actually quite a bit more enjoyable than I’d expected.

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Flash Review: Midnight Diner

When Real Life eats up my available drama hours, one of my go-to alternatives is the web drama. Most often, that translates into a fluffy, simplified version of some kind of rom-com. And that can work quite nicely, too. Noble, My Love and Go Ho’s Starry Night are two little web dramas that I found very enjoyable indeed.

Sometimes, though, I want something that isn’t a fluffy, simplified rom-com. Sometimes – especially if I’m feeling physically or mentally worn out – I want the warmth of a family drama, but without the commitment. This little show turned out to be quite the perfect fit for that.

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Flash Review: Something about 1% [1% of Anything]

For the most part, I have trouble understanding dramaland’s penchant for remakes. I mean, if something’s that good, why mess with it? Conversely, if something’s not good, why remake it? Uh, right?

In this case, though, I’m very pleasantly surprised by how much more I enjoy the remake, versus the original.

I’d tried watching the original some years ago, because I’d seen enough affection for it as a classic kdrama, to be curious. BUT. I couldn’t make it through even episode 1, no exaggeration. Mainly, I remember being bored by the slow pace, feeling somewhat thrown off by retro-everything (from styling, to production values, to storyline), and being shallowly unimpressed by Kang Dong Won’s rather gigantic eye bags.

Now fast-forward to the remake, which I inhaled in what can only be described as a giddy marathon. Woah. What a turnaround, right?

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Dropped: Hwarang

Ordinarily, I’d be the first to agree with the age-old saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover” – or, as the case may be, “Don’t judge a drama by its promos.”

After all, sometimes, the watch experience of a show really doesn’t jive with its promo material. Some shows have uninteresting promo material but turn out to be excellent watches (I mean, just think about the old-fashioned, ugly poster that belongs to the fantastic Healer), while other shows have amazing promos but turn out to be duds in the watching (Joseon Gunman comes to mind, among many others).

In this instance, though, I really should’ve paid (much more) heed to this show’s low-rent bad wigs and cheesy posters. On hindsight, I think they were trying to warn me that this show wouldn’t be worth spending hours of my life on, and – silly, foolish me – I didn’t listen. Which is how I ended up wasting 13 hours of my life trying to make the best of this show, before I realized that Show’s best really, really wasn’t doing it for me.

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Flash Review: Love O2O [China]

Thanks to the cracktastic Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, I realize that I no longer have CGI-aversion issues when it comes to dramas, woot! The unexpected result – unexpected to me, at least – is that I suddenly found that I have a whole new world of dramas to explore. As a drama fan who’s been feeling a little on the jaded side of late, this is good, good news indeed.

Lots of my drama friends loved this show when it first aired last year, but I’d missed that train because of this show’s CGI-heavy gaming scenes. I’d poked at this tentatively, but fled hastily at the CGI. Not this time, my friends. This time, I found myself actually rather enjoying the fantasy gaming scenes.

I know. What have you done to me, Peach Blossoms?

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