Ruelux Prince
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Luo Yunxi carried, again
The costuming, set design, cinematography, fight choreography, and the leads’ acting gave an appearance of depth to this show that was not belied by the actuality of the script. The first 27 episodes of the show was a blend of detective mystery, slice of life comedy, and slow-burn romance. And it was all done pretty well. Like a cup of lychee iced tea in summer. Slow burn was properly yearnful and slow, comedy was pretty funny, mystery elements are pretty serviceable for the genre.
However, the script writer is not great at seamlessly blending all those elements together, sometimes the writers forget the overarching Zornia plot in favour of romance sit-com bits of the supporting cast, the show has Luo Yunxi as Jiang Xinbai to wrangle all of them into a tight braid through sheer skill and spite alone. The switch between cute rom-com and mystery is never jarring when he’s there. Luo has fifty never-before-seen microexpressions and an ocean of emotions in his eyes ready to go at any given moment. He made what could’ve been a sugary cordial of a show, no real substance just artificial flavour, into something with depth, something with stakes. He made this world feel real because Jiang Xinbai felt real. And because Jiang Xinbai was the lead, the reactions he gave to other actors’ cookie cutter performances made their characters felt real as well. When he isn’t there to stake down the tarp, the artificiality and the juvenility of the script is revealed in full (Episode 28-36). ((No seriously he appears for an average of 7 minutes in those episodes and the audience gets smacked in the face with a 2010s era Domineering Drug Dealer Bandit and his forceful romance with a white lotus female lead and it’s so old it makes me tired by proxy. The four episodes left Jiang Xinbai gets more screen time and the depth of back again.))
All in all, it’s fine. Perfectly fine. This is a show for people who want to get into c-dramas, people who like more of Luo Yunxi, people who need something mindless to wind down after a ten hour shift, and people who want some pretty screenshots for their Asian inspired moodboards. Could’ve been worse.
However, the script writer is not great at seamlessly blending all those elements together, sometimes the writers forget the overarching Zornia plot in favour of romance sit-com bits of the supporting cast, the show has Luo Yunxi as Jiang Xinbai to wrangle all of them into a tight braid through sheer skill and spite alone. The switch between cute rom-com and mystery is never jarring when he’s there. Luo has fifty never-before-seen microexpressions and an ocean of emotions in his eyes ready to go at any given moment. He made what could’ve been a sugary cordial of a show, no real substance just artificial flavour, into something with depth, something with stakes. He made this world feel real because Jiang Xinbai felt real. And because Jiang Xinbai was the lead, the reactions he gave to other actors’ cookie cutter performances made their characters felt real as well. When he isn’t there to stake down the tarp, the artificiality and the juvenility of the script is revealed in full (Episode 28-36). ((No seriously he appears for an average of 7 minutes in those episodes and the audience gets smacked in the face with a 2010s era Domineering Drug Dealer Bandit and his forceful romance with a white lotus female lead and it’s so old it makes me tired by proxy. The four episodes left Jiang Xinbai gets more screen time and the depth of back again.))
All in all, it’s fine. Perfectly fine. This is a show for people who want to get into c-dramas, people who like more of Luo Yunxi, people who need something mindless to wind down after a ten hour shift, and people who want some pretty screenshots for their Asian inspired moodboards. Could’ve been worse.
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