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1fooDog
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A series of unfortunate events
There was a lot of hype about this drama which may have raised my expectations too high. Unfortunately though the start of this drama was quite strong, it declined in quality a bit in the second half. The shining highlight of this drama is the performance of the three kid protagonists, which is probably a combination of good casting and scriptwriting. However the rating is held back by the story becoming quite loose near the end.
In the first half the plot is quite crisp, and we can understand how Zhu Chaoyang's encounter with his childhood friend starts to lead him into a web of lies. We also understand the reasoning for the decisions that the kid trio makes, though some of them seed big problems later.
This is not the case in the second half, when Zhu Chaoyang starts to take more ownership of his lies, and to manipulate the people around him. I have an impression that they were trying to strongly suggest similarities between Chaoyang and his teacher, Zhang Dongsheng, but this didn't work out for me. As well, near the end, events take on an almost artistic feel -- as if they are not grounded in reality. The revelations we have about events such as how Dongsheng's parents divorced seem to come and pass in a haze. Things happen and then there are many shots of the children looking blankly at the camera. Though the naturalness of their acting worked well in the first half, it seems to suggest a lack of direction in the second half.
One more weakness is the lack of connection and backstory for the villain Zhang Dongsheng. His motivations are a bit underdeveloped for us to be able to sympathize with him. For someone who is supposedly rational, he murders very easily in the very beginning of the show. We are meant to interpret this to be because he really is in love. However, after that first initial double murder, the ending of the show brings a whole series of crazy events where he alternates being a competent adult and a brutal killer.
Overall the drama is really well done in terms of production, acting and plot. I hope more cdrama like this can be supported!
In the first half the plot is quite crisp, and we can understand how Zhu Chaoyang's encounter with his childhood friend starts to lead him into a web of lies. We also understand the reasoning for the decisions that the kid trio makes, though some of them seed big problems later.
This is not the case in the second half, when Zhu Chaoyang starts to take more ownership of his lies, and to manipulate the people around him. I have an impression that they were trying to strongly suggest similarities between Chaoyang and his teacher, Zhang Dongsheng, but this didn't work out for me. As well, near the end, events take on an almost artistic feel -- as if they are not grounded in reality. The revelations we have about events such as how Dongsheng's parents divorced seem to come and pass in a haze. Things happen and then there are many shots of the children looking blankly at the camera. Though the naturalness of their acting worked well in the first half, it seems to suggest a lack of direction in the second half.
One more weakness is the lack of connection and backstory for the villain Zhang Dongsheng. His motivations are a bit underdeveloped for us to be able to sympathize with him. For someone who is supposedly rational, he murders very easily in the very beginning of the show. We are meant to interpret this to be because he really is in love. However, after that first initial double murder, the ending of the show brings a whole series of crazy events where he alternates being a competent adult and a brutal killer.
Overall the drama is really well done in terms of production, acting and plot. I hope more cdrama like this can be supported!
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