Asp
chilling under the foliage
It feels like you get beaten over the head with this line all the way through the first part of the show. I don't like the sentiment that we shouldn't seek justice for our families or our people just because we should live and let go. I especially don't like the narrative that because we are women we shouldn't go for that and instead should shove our morals and integrity aside and just consider having a fun and chill life with someone. Because if we do try to follow our own path, moral code, values, love and respect for our family and fellow countrymen, the show scriptwriter will make sure to beat us with the idea that revenge is bad and women can't do anything and need to be saved all the time. I wish I was joking with this statement, but then again I have seen this whole thing in its entirety. The amount of times the female lead goes about her plans completely recklessly and then needs to be rescued exceeds the amount of patience I had to watch it happen.
If I squint, it might be forgivable that she doesn't use her brain if that is just a part of her personality but the problem is, she lacks having any in the first place. In fact, the first actress that appears as the female lead has portrayed a completely different person from the second actress which made the transition between the two so jarring and questionable over the course of the rest of the show. I tend to like Zhao Lusi's acting but I have felt the very lack of it in numerous serious scenes that could have been done better. It often left me with a weird feeling of what the show wants us, as the viewers, to consider it to be. The comedy sure is there but with such a grim starting point, I have found it quite weird to swallow after the first episode.
Now here comes the biggest problem in the whole show, which is the plotline and its arrangement which most of the time doesn't make any sense. We start off with a big event, then there is a whole load of nothing but creepy behavior from the male lead upon his very disinterested female lead. Then there is this idea that the female lead should feel sorry for something she has done to the second male lead as if we didn't see the shitfest that happened in episode one. Why? Just for the sake of tying in the romantic aspect of the story while the female lead herself has absolutely zero interest in any of that. It comes off as so ingenuine and cheap that I wasn't sure what I was even watching.
All of that gets somewhat rectified in the second part of the drama where the plot starts unwinding at a rapid pace. There the romance and love scenes between the leads truly flourish and were enjoyable to watch. That is if I understood where such big romance came from in the first place. From the male lead, we understand that there is a big obsession due to plot exposition but when it comes to the female lead and her abrupt flip in feelings towards him, the transition makes zero sense.
The secondary couple suffers even more, as their scenes are boring and we are not given an explanation why the second male lead likes the second female lead; it just sort of happens as if it was there the whole time, even though she had nothing likable to him in the first place. I think there is a pattern here when it comes to shoddy romance writing.
The villain couldn't have been more cartoonishly evil so they made sure to give them the super evil-themed villain laugh as well. I guess if you gotta go the whole way, you just gotta.
The supporting cast besides the second couple I have found more enjoyable to watch, but sadly just like everyone else in this story, they never get any character growth. I understand the show writers; if you can't even make your own main character bearable to watch in terms of basic intelligence and logical reasoning or your main selling point (romance) believable, then fleshing out other characters would be a really difficult task to do.
The only thing I liked and never skipped in this drama was definitely the OST, as the song is bittersweet and tells of a story better than the one we got in the end.
When it comes to the ending, as you would expect after this essay of a review, of course, it's been stamped with the Chinese drama endings seal of approval. I honestly don't find it to be bad, albeit extremely confusing unless you have read the book or you have your fun at theorizing what did the writer want to say. Speaking of the book, I think the majority of the issues with the drama version could have been avoided if they revamped the order of the plot and added more backstory to the main characters. It would have helped to build upon that connection that they have shown later on in the show, as well as this great love of the male lead who has silently watched the woman he adores from afar for many years. Hey, Guardian has done it well, they could have too. Even if it meant extending the show length to another ten to twenty episodes.
All in all, I expected more and so should you.
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The Legend of Gu and Jue
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Between a great love and even greater responsibility
Ancient love poetry has been a slow drama to get into right from the very start. The first episodes were a bit tiring to go through and the setup they hold for later execution felt weak and underdeveloped. Supposedly the lives of the great Gods should have a bit more backstory than what we were given in the beginning, considering everything that comes after is reminiscent of their relationships and origin. From about episode nine or so there is more development where the story is finally getting somewhere interesting, but then eventually we have a huge time skip, and oh my, does it help to keep the show alive. Although at that point the story becomes a rehash of cliches a lot of Xianxia novels and shows made after them have, I still think this was the strongest point of the whole show.This brings me to the last part of the story where all of the beforementioned development goes nowhere in particular, as the same old problem from the past is brought back again. Unlike Ten miles of peach blossoms, for example, a story where love is a secondary objective at best, Ancient love poetry is a story primarily about love and sacrifice for the greater good. The whole time during watching this the viewer struggles alongside the characters with the same dilemma they have, in the process hating many decisions the characters make for the sake of attempting to keep both love and responsibility satisfied. Is all of that worth it? The ending itself makes it unclear, but I suppose the whole point is that we get to see just a glimpse of that story, and we get to decide how much trouble a love that great is worth.
Plot discussion aside, I was impressed with the male and female leads that were chosen; their acting leaves little to be desired and their chemistry is superb. Whatever faults I can find when it comes to them I attribute to cliched writing at times and lack of romantic scenes for a good portion of the story. We could have had and certainly deserved to see much more than that. The love triangle is practically unobtrusive and non-existent; the second male lead has his faults but treasures his friends above everything else.
One major positive aspect of this story are its supporting characters, as there are more than a few of them that you will come to care about during the progression of the show. Despite some plot holes and unresolved stories, the majority of what is shown gets a resolution in the very end, which is also another plus for me.
The villains are of the saddest and scariest kind, those that start of perfectly normal but end up evil due to blackening over time. Of course, this means you have a lot of tedious scenes of power misuse that people around them tolerate beyond any reason or common sense, which made this old cliche dampen a lot of screentime that could have been used differently. However, it's not as bad as in Ten miles or Ashes of love, but maybe only because this drama has fewer episodes. I'm kind of scared to think what other scheming we could have had with an additional ten to twenty episodes, for I have already seen more than enough of it. The villains get away with a lot and get little to no repercussions for it, and at times it feels like the protagonists just ignore a lot of what they do which will make just about anyone watching this angry. But hey, it's a cliche.
The music that was used in the background of the scenes, as well as the opening, was pretty good, however not as memorable as some other similar shows.
I wouldn't rewatch this show; it's a bit too sad and too frustrating to deal with for a second time. However, for its very likable female lead and sometimes the male lead as well (when he is not hit by the hammer of the scriptwriter/novel writer themselves), side characters that I cared about and that each had a purpose for being there as well as overall world-building and great acting from everyone, this drama was more than a good watch. I'm hoping we get a second season that is based on the sequel of the book so our collective grievances over some characters can be put to rest.
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The story is realistic and naive at times but doesn't forget to leave an impression of hopeful at the end. Even though they're crucially very different, I would say it reminds me of 'Always (2011)' in its development of characters and the way they connect to each other. It rolls out as a comedic romcom at start, building up the bond between the couple naturally while maintaining its realistic integrity, and gets more serious as the plot goes on without forcing the narrative on you, which is always a plus.
Park Joong Hoon carried the movie, his character reminiscent of comic-based gangster guys who are frank but not explosive, as well as being caring and supportive of the main female without any annoying egoism involved. I cared for this good-natured gangster, and in return he made me care for every other character next to him, so it is more of a movie about him with her being a part of his life, rather than it being otherwise. Jung Yoo Mi, for her part, did really well alongside him and their chemistry was felt even in the scenes where I think it wasn't planned out to be.
If you want to sit down for a heartfelt weekend movie that will leave you with good thoughts and positive attitude, give it a try. It's a beautiful movie.
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The Love Knot: His Excellency’s First Love
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When melancholy becomes the selling point
This was a passable drama that suffered from a lack of engagement in the plot. Contrary to what I'm seeing a lot of people's reactions to the ending are, it made a lot of sense for what was the premise of the story. The ending is one of the decent things about this drama.The main problem I had when going through the episodes was not related to the story itself, but rather the chemistry and connection between the lead actors. A big part of that is how the scenes and interactions themselves were written and also the wooden acting from the female lead, as she only shined when it came to acting sad or meek. Now that by itself wouldn't have been a problem if the whole drama didn't, as a result, have that depressing vibe from the start to the end. The scenes with these two left me half-asleep at best and skipping watching an episode for days at a time at worst. The other couples incidentally also have sad stories themselves.
The only instances of comedy that can be found in this whole show are the scenes with the lovable trio of the supporting cast, who very much kept the show going and made it watchable. I cared about their friendship and found it important for them not to have a shabby romance plot forcibly inserted into what was a well-crafted relationship between people who would typically be in a love triangle.
To summarize, has the story accomplished the goals of its setup? It has.
Has it taken the viewers on an interesting, well-paced, meaningful journey to get there? No.
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Should you watch this or not? Yes, by all means you should, but keep in mind that it will be sad. Grab your tissues.
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