I_LAND_EGG
A Tale of Thousand Stars
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Last few episodes frustrating, but a brilliant success as a whole
Best things:- Mix is one of the best new actors of this generation. I am absolutely blown away by his acting. Honestly, he was the main reason why I watched the show because he was so captivating. In the times when I wanted to drop the drama, his acting kept me watching.
- Lovely allegory, won't spoil what it is actually clearly intended to say but watch it for yourself!
- The production quality is top-notch, one of the best in BL
- Interesting and intriguing characters
- Amazing child actors
- Music is spot-on!
Worst things:
- Hypocritical behavior of some characters that were not fully resolved even at the end, dampening my enthusiasm for the drama in the last few episodes
- If you prefer apologies to be spoken and not be done through 'actions' this won't be for you. One of the leads avoids apologizing in words.
- Falls off slightly in the last few episodes but picks itself back up in the second half of 9 and 10.
Overall:
- Would still highly recommend, but frustrations with the storyline prevent it from being perfect.
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So much more than a rom-com
May contain some spoilers.To be honest, I am not too sure why this drama is often simply categorized as a rom-com and nothing more. This drama dwells into relatable real-world issues in a realistic way without overdoing it and going off tangent from the main story line. These include:
- The struggle of separating work and love life and compromising with each others interests (mainly on the secondary couple, which I felt was very well done),
- The instability of public opinion, how it can easily be manipulated, twisted, and flipped with just one post,
- The struggle of being a public figure, apologizing for something one's fans committed and not oneself,
- Prejudice against women,
- E-sports being downgraded to 'not being a real sport' with people not seeing the struggles and hard work pro gamers put into their career,
- The importance of good leadership and communication within a team,
- and so on.
Many rom-com dramas also deal with real-life issues to some extent, but only mainly deals with issues regarding the main couple and obstacles of them being together. Falling Into Your Smile goes beyond this. Yes, there are some issues that act as barriers for the main couple getting together. But it does not ignore issues that side characters have had to face and the bigger issues that surround it. The story gives them appropriate development and portrays these issues well.
In fact, every event that happened in this drama is important to moving the story forward and I really appreciate the lack of filler scenes (except for the purpose of comedy, which I personally think is important for the development of the main couple). The story had a relatively even flow throughout. While some e-sports portrayals were not completely accurate, hence the backlash from the Chinese gaming community, I would say that the portrayals of surrounding issues were done so well that it really makes up for it. In addition, I have played similar games to the game being featured in this show so about 80% of the time, I understood what was happening in the game. If you want to know more of the in and outs of 5v5 MOBA gaming and the gaming industry, maybe this show won't help you much. It will give you a taste. I would say King's Avatar did a better job in talking about the pro gaming industry and such. However, the gaming scenes were short enough so that the general audience can avoid getting bored if they don't understand what is happening, so I appreciate the editing of the gaming scenes and only focused on more of the important events. About the romance, it was great. While I do feel that there is too many kissing scenes in some episodes, I feel that it was justified for the following episodes all had a really serious tone so it kept the balance.
The acting needs to be good in order for a drama with a well-written storyline to reach its full potential. While not all of the acting performances are great, the majority of them were outstanding. I was shocked at how well many of the side actors acted. Special mention to the ex-boyfriend of the Female Lead whose emotional performance touched my heart deeply. I also really appreciated Fatty's facial expressions. He had me dead on the floor in every scene where he had the unfortunate fate of witnessing the main couple in an awkward situation. But almost every supporting actor and actress did their role justice. I actually formed a connection with most of the supporting cast in the process and I really feel sad to part ways with them in the final episode. This is a testament to their acting skills. In terms of the main roles, Xu Kai does not disappoint. I have only heard of good things from him and I can definitely see where his fans are coming from. He perfectly plays his character with impressive subtlety. Xu Kai IS Brother Cheng. He lives and breaths his role. I will definitely follow his other dramas because of how impressed I am with his performance here. Meanwhile, Cheng Xiao was not terrible but in comparison to almost every actor and actress in this drama, she is not on the same level. Her eyes are often lifeless and her stiffness is apparent in many of their earlier scenes. However, I can definitely see her potential because she had some great moments and her visuals are very suitable for the main role. Admittedly, she improved as the drama went on. Additionally, since she was an idol before she was an actress, I can understand why she does not keep up with the rest of the cast. But to be fair, the acting rating went down to 9.5 mainly because of her mediocre performance, despite her improvement. Overall, the acting of this drama is top-notch and the set of casts they got was amazing. Xu Kai especially. The chemistry between Xu Kai and Cheng Xiao was obvious and it helped save her middling performance.
The music was really nice overall. Not too memorable but it was pleasant to listen in the moment.
Because of how purposeful each event felt in this drama, I can easily watch this from beginning to end, hence the perfect score of re-watch value.
Overall, I would highly recommend this drama. Don't miss it, it is definitely worth a watch.
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Stay for the acting, don't expect much realism
Love Scenery is a great rom-com drama. What it lacks in cohesive flow of the plot and realism is saved by the top notch acting of the Lead actors Lin Yi and Lulu Xu. Lin Yi's performance in particular impressed me. I was already gaping at his acting skills in Put Your Head On My Shoulder, especially considering it was his first drama ever. 2 years later, he returns with vengeance, further honing his acting skills. Every facial expression was believable. He has started to gain some more subtleties that he previously did not have in his earlier drama, paying more attention to small details. His line delivery was spot on too. Additionally, Lin Yi's acting in playing the violin is one of the more convincing ones I've scene in a drama so I must commend him for that. He also managed to play a James Bond-ish kind of role in the actions scenes convincingly, which suggests potential versatility that he can explore in his later roles. It is the first drama I have watched with Lulu Xu as a main role, and I was quite impressed with her overall. While I do think Lin Yi outshined her in this drama, she definitely held her own, especially in the more emotional and comedic scenes. I do think that her eyes sometimes lacked the passion and desired expression for the scene and her lipsyncing, especially in the earlier singing bits was too fake and unconvincing. But she delivered quite well overall. The two leads had good chemistry although I do think that Lin Yi was more passionate in the romantic scenes while Lulu Xi sometimes gave the dead fish eye look. Most of the side actors were good but their characters can be annoying to watch.On the other hand, the story was quite a mess. It tried to be too many things at once. I feel like the writers tried to make Lu Jing too much of an all rounder. We only got to see him play the violin twice yet they put him with a violin in the cover. In reality, for most of the drama he was either coding or playing computer games, which totally gave the wrong idea. How deceitful. In addition, the scene in the beginning where Liang Chen and Lu Jing first met was never revisited and it felt wrong to include the scene without referencing back to it at least in the end when they were already together. I also feel like there was too little scenes which allowed for character development for pretty much all the characters except Liang Chen. Lu Jing only had a couple of scenes where he made mistakes and developed from it. The producers took too much time in the earlier episodes to finally get them together and it felt quite draggish. Some scenes felt unnecessary, too the point I would be screaming in frustration, "When will they get together already?". However, the second half was paced much better and better executed. Besides the random plane incident which was totally unnecessary, it was great. The drama tried to be realistic but at the same time does not remain faithful to its supposed realism at times. There were too many moments where the 2 of them could have been caught yet they didn't which frustrated me to no end. Incidents which are a 1 in a million chance happened to often in this drama. It felt too unreal. The plot simply was not cohesive until the last 10 ish episodes.
The Music was excellent. One of my favorites from any drama I have ever watched (and usually I do not like Chinese drama OSTs so this is high praised).
Because of the number of skippable scenes in this drama especially in the first half, the rewatch value lowered quite a bit from what I would want to put. The second half has a lot more rewatchable scenes and romantic moments, though the first half was more on the funnier side.
Overall, it was a good drama, especially towards the end. Worth watching, but not really for the story. More on the romance. It is a shame though. If handled better, the story could have been amazing. Add a touch more realism(of everything basically), cohesiveness of plot, conciseness (remove unnecessary scenes), develop more underdeveloped traits (violin?) then you would have a rom-com with the perfect balance of romance and a great story line. It was getting there but it never reached the peak.
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Put Your Head on My Shoulder
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Realistic and Well-Executed
Put Your Head On My Shoulder is most definitely the best Chinese romance drama I have ever watched. It was the perfect balance of a GREAT storyline and amazing chemistry between the two leads.Lin Yi is a stand-out actor. He played his part perfectly. Considering this is his debut role, I couldn't have asked more from him. He was expressive and showed a varied range of emotions and gestures that suited his character perfectly. Fairy Xing was great as well, and while it is not as standout of a performance as Lin Yi, she held her own very well. The 2 of them oozed chemistry. I love it. They were perfect for their respective roles.
The story was perfect. The way how they fell in love was portrayed is probably the most realistic I've seen in any drama. It didn't feel like it was something I was watching on TV. It felt very real and I could easily relate to their struggles and accomplishments. Nothing was over done. While there was barely a plot, it didn't really need one. It was basically portraying the everyday life of two people who are falling in love and it was very beautiful to watch. Fantastic.
I loved the realism in this drama. It did its research regarding the physics side of things so it just made it feel more genuine. The writing did the actors' acting skills justice. Very well thought of.
The sound effects just further emphasized the cuteness and fluffiness of this drama.
Overall, Put Your Head On My Shoulder was a joy to watch and I highly recommend this.
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