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Never Forget Your Enemy (Korean Series)

Let's just cut right to it, this show was painfully boring. There, I said it. A story built around partial amnesia has real potential, but between the choppy scene structure and random flashbacks thrown in constantly, the whole plot ends up feeling more tangled than it needed to be. The romance doesn't fare much better either, it's written so poorly that I never really found myself invested in this couple. Both leads come across stiff on screen and deliver their lines in a really awkward way. The show runs 8 episodes, each somewhere around 30 to 35 minutes. Hanuel, a 29 year old language teacher, wakes up after an accident only to realize his memory stops at age 19. It turns out he'd been in another accident back then too, which is why his memories cut off at that point. He has zero recollection of the fact that he's currently living with his childhood friend Saebyeok, who's now a huge celebrity. That makes the whole situation even harder for Hanuel to wrap his ...

Match Play (Korean Mini-Series)

This series is a really charming and cheerful love story that actually started out in a weird way—it was originally made as a "vertical drama" for phone screens. Luckily, it was later re-released in a normal format (Re-Edited version), which is what I saw (6 episodes of about 16-20 minutes each) makes it much easier to enjoy. It’s a classic setup that feels very fresh and sweet, mostly because the two main characters have such great chemistry and yes they are very good looking. Even though it's a short series, the creators did a great job making the romance feel real without rushing things too much.

The story is about Doha, a huge k-pop idol who has a bit of a bad reputation for being difficult and getting into fights with his bandmates. Because he has to film some action scenes for a new project, his agency signs him up for martial arts training. When the main coach gets hurt, a stunt actor named Jaeyeon has to step in and take over. Jaeyeon is a very serious, no-nonsense guy who doesn't care at all that Doha is a famous star; he treats him just like anyone else and makes the training really tough. At first, they totally clash because Doha is used to being coddled and Jaeyeon refuses to go easy on him. However, after their training clips go viral and Jaeyeon becomes a bit of a mini-celebrity himself, the two start to see different sides of each other. Doha turns out to be way more hardworking than the media says, and Jaeyeon shows a softer, more caring side as they start hanging out outside of the gym. Doha starts to fall for him hard and asks him to date. The usually serious and shy Jaeyeon doesn't know what do and he takes his time to give an answer but the younger Doha is persistent and eventually they do decide to go on a date together.

I was honestly surprised by how simple and nice this story was. The story flows really well and avoids a lot of the annoying drama you usually see in BLs. The actors were the best part for me—Doha’s actor is great at being bratty but still lovable, and Jaeyeon’s actor has this cool, relaxed confidence that makes their "yin and yang" dynamic work perfectly. I loved that the show focused on them just being together and having meaningful conversations rather than throwing in a bunch of random subplots. One thing that was a bit of a letdown was the editing, which could feel a little choppy because of how it was originally filmed. Also, the background music was sometimes so loud that it was hard to hear what they were saying! A few parts of the story, like Doha’s issues with his group, felt a bit rushed and didn't get a great explanation, but the ending was so happy and sweet that I didn't mind too much. While the romance is sweet, I felt like the script left a lot of holes. For instance, they kept talking about Doha’s massive fights with his idol group members, but they never really showed us what happened or gave us a good reason for why they were fighting. In the end, they just sort of made up off-camera, which felt lazy. Plus, while Doha’s feelings for Jaeyeon were very clear, Jaeyeon felt a little too "friend-coded" for most of the show. I struggled to believe he was actually falling for Doha until the very end. It needed more of that romantic tension and longing to really make the payoff land.

It's a cute and easy watch overall if you wanna watch something no frills, just do not expect too deep of character development. (6/10)

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