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MatildediShabran
The Lady in Butcher's House
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Realistic Tempo Drama
This drama started off strong. The cinematography was above average for a chinese drama, and it avoided many, if not most of the clichès one can expect when watching a historical Chinese drama.The first episode was very, very good, and promising. The reason why I chose to drop this drama, was simply because I felt extremely bored by the realistic tempo. What I mean by that is that the story was very simple and unfolded very, very slowly. Now, normally, I would call this draggy, but because it fits the realistic atmosphere of the drama, I will just say it was a realistic speed. This is just like Story of Ming Lang, which was also just too slow to keep my attention (but fit the realistic story).
It was really nice to see the character dynamics between the ML and FL. They are both characters that you could automatically enjoy watching together, and the realistically slow way in which they earned each other's trust after their arranged marriage was both sweet and refreshing to see.
I dropped this, so I can't give an overall review, but I would say that what I did see was original and well done.
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What A Load of C***
Firstly, I didn't start watching this just because of Xiao Zhan. He's nice to look at, and not a bad actor, but he's not one of my favourite actors either. I don't think he's really had enough challenging acting roles for me to judge his acting skills yet. He was good at playing a sociopath in "The Untamed", but I'd like to see what else he can do in a good production, not like his roles in, "Oh, My Emperor" or "The Wolf", which any actor could have played.Anyway, I wanted to watch this after seeing the trailer. Wow, did the editor ever do a good job of putting together that trailer, because it is so much better than the actual drama.
The first episode or two were purely setup for the story, but even once the character reaches his destination of the academy, the story somehow still doesn't start!!
And then, the worst crime of this drama is revealed, in the form of a bubbly Chinese bunny-toddler girl named "Wu", who has to be the most annoying character ever in all of Chinese drama history! Seriously, could any character of either gender possibly be more annoying than this one?!! I think not!! And that is really saying something for a Chinese drama, when so many of the female characters have the maturity of an 4 year old, but are way too dumb to even stay alive for one whole day on this planet if they were real people.
Wu proceeded to forcefully insert herself into every scene as soon as we were introduced to her. She never shut up, and she never f***** off. She made a drama that was borderline watchable, though without a plot or any interesting characters, completely and utterly unbearable. OMG, how can anyone watch this drama with the world's most annoying bunny-toddler character constantly and aggressiveness forcing herself literally into the other charcters' faces.
To summerize:
Plot: nonexistent, and what there is, is incredibly predictable.
Characters: The worst character ever created, and a bunch of other boring characters with no personalities.
CGI wasn't the worst I've seen, so.... yay....
Watch this if you are feeling nauseous and need to enduce yourself to vomit.
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Stuck In A Comic Vortex of Boredom
What would you do, if you found out you were a boring character stuck in a High School comic forever?Well, I'd break out of high school for one thing, as I don't even really exist, so why the heck would I even stay there?
But, the FL decides to play by the rules (I'm not sure why). Is there nothing outside of this high school in this comic book world? I watched this a while ago, so can't remember if she decided to try to break out or not.
Anyway, the ML is so incedibly hot, that it might be worth staying just for him. If the FL wasn't so darn ordinary and had no personality (I want to clarify that you can be innocent and a good person and still have personality), then this interesting story premise might have gone somewhere, but as it is, the High School setting and the blandness of all the characters (sorry, Rowoon, but good looks don't replace personality for me), just ruined any interest I might have had in this drama.
Of all the settings, and of all the characters you could have built this story idea on, these were what the comic creator chose? Wasted opportunity. I do remember the cinematography being very artsy and intriguing, and the washed-out colours went with the colourless setting and characters.
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Two Odd Fish Acting As Chairs
It took all my patience to get through the first 3 episodes. I can't comment on plot, because I didn't watch enough to warrant a critique on that, and plot, as I've said many times, is king.What I witnessed were two wooden chairs, in period costumes, interacting with each other.
I like the actress playing the FL, but here, she talked in a weird, unnatural way which was super odd. A cold, calculating fish that needed a better director. The ML looked ridiculously older than her (I see now there are only 10 years between them, but it looked like more than that to me). The ML was also a cold, calculating fish, and since his visuals (pulchritude) wasn't in-keeping with hers, they made a very unlikely fishy couple (or an odd chair coupling). I had to drop this because I was cringing at how unnatural everything from the dialogue to the love pairing was. It all seemed very forced to me, which made it unenjoyable to watch.
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Almost Made It Past Episode Two
Right away, I wanted to see this drama because I've seen both the ML actor and the FL actress in other dramas in which I thought they did a great job.What is going on with Li Hong Yi doing super low-budget dramas? I thought he had more clout than that.
Right away, the cinematography informed me of how low budget this production is. It looks very cheap and visually bland. Unfortunately, I couldn't get over the lackluster aesthetics because there wasn't an interesting story behind it all. This drama.... I struggle to find anything positive to say about it that might redeem it. Even the costumes seemed to do nothing but take away from the performances of the actors. Let's just say.... I wanted to make it past the second episode, but everything about this production conspired to make it unwatchable.
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When The Child Actors Outshine the Rest
This drama started strong. I was into it, that child actress and the child actor were awesome!! Unfortunately, they had to grow up and get replaced, which ruined the drama. 🤣I can't stand Crystal Yuan, which is too bad because there are a lot of Chinese actresses which are much worse. She is, and please, please pardon me for saying this, she is the most ordinary looking leading role actress ever, so when she is cast to play a woman of notable beauty, I tend to have a hard time believing in her character. It's so mean to say, but it is my personal opinion on the matter. She may have a wonderful personality in real life, which is maybe why she keeps getting cast in leading roles? I don't know, but nothing about her on screen presence makes her notable to me. I've dropped every drama she is in because I can't really bring myself to like any of her characters.
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Love and Common Sense
I know many people love this drama. I honestly wanted to love it. I didn't intend to drop it the way I did, but I just couldn't take anymore.The FL has no senses, but we are supposed to care about her. Let me make it clear that it's purely because she is missing a brain that I dislike her. The other senses didn't diminish her worth as a person, but I can't deal with a no-brain no-personality FL. On top of that, I can't stand the actress who plays the FL. I find myself dropping every drama she is cast in, and I feel bad about it because she isn't a "bad" actress, but I personally can't stand her.
The ML was icy, as he was meant to be, but you can't have two icy protagonists, as it offsets the emotional balance, as there has to be some warmth somewhere. I did find myself caring about the ML, but was also annoyed at his cold, stern interactions with the FL.
Anyway, the plot was so boring that I just couldn't make my way through another episode. I could already tell what was going to happen anyway. The first few episodes was just the FL annoying the heck out of all the other characters, and then putting herself and by default, others in danger because of the issue she has with not having any "common sense", as in a brain. A brainless FL in a drama is not something I can get over.
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A Flute, A Zombie, An Apple, and An Ass
I don't want to stir the pot on this drama, since it's considered by many to be the best drama ever made. However, I do want to talk about a few things that I liked, and a few things that bothered me.Firstly, I only needed to watch the first two episodes to know exactly what this drama was going to be about, that's why I had to drop it. The very first scene has the most outrageously bad CGI, and I could have told you the entire plot of the drama from the first scene alone, which is something that really bothers me, but I'll go further into that shortly.
So, now that the characters have revealed their roles in the story, and we know the main protagonist was wronged and this whole scene was him seeking revenge through the crappiest CGI ever, then the story begins from the end, and suddenly, we are shown some of the best and most artistic "big-budget" cinematography I've seen in a Chinese drama. The unevenness of these two factors kind of threw me off.
In the span of the first two episodes, we learn exactly what happened to the main character 16 years ago. Firstly, the main character is presented to us as an eccentric genius with sociopathic tendencies. Right away, we can tell that he has been wrongly accused of harming a female character that he knew 16 years ago. The other characters literally feed us every bit of information we might need in order to piece together what has already transpired. My issue is, why the heck do I want to invest my time in watching so many episodes to get the details of what happened, and how he was obviously framed for a crime he didn't commit 16 years earlier? I don't care how things really happened, since I already know how they will end.
I had the same issue with Ancient Detective, as right in the middle of the drama, they go back in time to reveal how it all began. I don't really care how things began if I already know so much about the end result. Maybe that's my own personal failing. I don't mind a subtle hint (not like the very first scene) at the very beginning, but not a full expose within the first two episodes, followed by an entire series of episodes on how everything started. I also dislike prequels for this same reason.
Anyway, this is my issue with watching this drama. The main character is interesting and all, but I don't find watching a cackling, effeminate man who has clearly lost his mind a huge draw, personally.
I think that a lot of the hype behind this drama has to do with the gay and effeminate aspect of it. BL is kind of gay exploitation, and I'm not really into making homosexuality into an entertainment gimmick.
5.5 zombie flutes out of 10.
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