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New Generation: Kraken's New Life
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A short series packed full of flavour.
First off, my review may be a bit bias, since Seven is my favourite actress and Bai is one of male actors I like, but within reason. They always deliver great performance, I'm never disappointed with their acting, if I don't like one of their dramas it's usually bc of the crappy plot. Although, Seven is my most loved actress, I'm not blinded to only watch her dramas, if it's bad script or plot I won't watch it. But, I will specifically check out her dramas and if it's not great I will still drop it. Among the many actresses, only Seven's dramas, I was able to finish 4 of her dramas all the way through, which really says a lot since I drop dramas like raining cats and dogs. Anyways, on to the review of New Home.Although I've only watched 6/8 eps, I'm still waiting on Youtube for the rest to upload, I've watched enough spoilers and clips of this drama on weibo to get the whole picture.
1) Acting and Casting. The drama did well in casting the younger actors to play the leads. I was very pleasantly surprised the little girl actress was chosen again to play as Seven's younger self. I loved her in Go Ahead, she did amazing, and she did equally well in New Home. The little boy resembled Bai since even the ears were similar (great detailing in casting the younger actors to resemble the adults actors).The younger actors did well in portraying the personalities of their adult selves and the dynamics of their relationship.
If people didn't know, Bai and Seven have been friends for about 5-6 years now since their collab as minor characters in Whirlwind Girl. They have achieved amazing strives in their careers. So, when fans, including me, heard of their collab in New Home, they were ecstatic. Perhaps, it's bc they've known each other for years, instead of two strangers collaborating on the first day, their chemistry was amazing and very comfortable. Their acting was very natural, not overly done or dramatized. I loved Bai's comedy side, he does it so well and smooth. The little details in his expressions were very well executed and natural. I'm never bored watching him act. Seven's acting was very natural as well, I particularly love her smiles. But, I think Bai was the winner in this drama.
The other actors, as villagers, did very well too. Each character had their own personality trait. The granny was cute and funny. Overall, acting and casting was superb. 10/10!
2) Plot. I'm amazed an 8 ep drama can tell a full story with gradual character development. As we all know, cdramas are pretty long and have a lot of filler scenes. This one was to the point, great balance of romance and comedy. This drama was actually pretty heartwarming. Bai's character (XiaoDong-XD) and Seven's character (SiQi-SQ) had similar upbringings, as they were both raised in the village with no parents, but their dreams and goals were different, thus in adulthood their success in life were different. XD is quite materialistic and he want fast paced income. Instead of going to uni he worked most of his life and become a live streamer bc it provided fast income. SQ went to uni, majored in Agriculture, and went back to her home village to be a village official to help the villagers find a sustainable method for livelihood. The two are very much opposites of each other. SQ is all about hard work, no short cuts in life, selfless and optimistic person. While XD thinks earning money or obtaining goals is about being smart and finding shortcuts. When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. But that's not the case for XD, he runs away from his problems or gives up. When they happen to meet again, in the village, things happen and under SQ's influence and encouragement XD finds meaning in life again. He also becomes more mature and sees life in a different light. SQ learns to put down her prejudice in the profession of live streamers and sees social media as a great resource to help rural areas better their lives. This drama shows the difficulties rural areas have to make ends meet. Most younger people have left their village for the city, to make a better living, leaving behind elders and children. There are troubles in making a living in a rural area, but the use of social media allow villagers to promote and communicate with a mass audience, of all ages, to see the beauty of rural life and to sell their local products. This drama also depicts the hardships of live streamers and how fake their lives really are. They may seem glamourous to the audience, but it's all just illusions social media influencers like to portray. 9.5/10
3) Special Effects. Although this is a modern drama, but the little details used makes it extra humorous and entertaining. The smoke from the house, the blushing, the sound wave etc made it so much better. I also really love the inner dialogues of the 2 leads. We get to hear their real POV and it's always cute and hilarious. I find this the most entertaining unit among the rest. This one gives a good laugh. 10/10
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I never bother reviewing any dramas here, so you know this is worth it if I do.
In all my years (approx 15years) of dramaing, I never bother to create an account or write a review here. But, I thought this drama deserves a go. I really fell in love with this drama, to the point I dropped ALL of my other dramas to focus on this drama alone, which I've never done. Not even with Eternal Love Peach Blossom or any other great dramas. I have a tendency to skip episodes or skim through episodes, I even skipped an ep of Eternal LovePB, but I never did with Go Ahead, so that should say a lot.The first two eps already brought me to tears, the child actors played phenomenal in their roles. You can already distinguish what their personalities would be like as adults so I think the child actors played an important role in this drama to bring the feels in such a short beginning of this drama. I was first attracted to this drama because of the trio, Tang Songyun, Steven Zhang, SWL, as the three all have their respective successful works this year. So to have all three in one drama is unheard of and just such a treat- it will also never happen again.
Now on to the drama, the drama is more family centered, hence the Chinese name "in the name of family"...I honestly don't know why they went with "Go Ahead". The drama depicts serious topics that not many would delve into, that is mental health and childhood trauma. How childhood experiences can traumatically influence adulthood. This drama also touches a lot of other spectrum of different family dynamics: tiger moms, moms that exploit monetary values of their children, left behind children (villages), divorced families, single dads. How all these types of family dynamics influenced the individual's adolescences and the person they become in adulthood.
No character is perfect, everyone seemed to have a scar of their own, especially the main two male leads. LingXiao (LX) seemed like the most perfect guy: tall, handsome, highly educated, smart, great career, high paying job, gentle and caring. Yet, I find him to be the most scarred and most pitiful character. His scars and sadness can't be seen bc it's all mental. What he went through as a child and later on in younger adulthood was truly unfair to him. He never got the proper mental help he desperately needed as a kid, thankfully JianJian(JJ) was there to save him. ZiQiu (ZQ), is another male lead, his abandonment issues was pretty evident. He was a tear jerker yet also the comedic part of the drama. I think Steven did amazingly as ZQ! JJ seemed like the saint in this drama, she has no jealousy and no resentment on anyone. She always forgave and was the one that supported everyone. Perhaps, it's bc of her artistic side that gave her a more empathetic and perceptive insight in life. So when she is sad and upset or cry I instantly cry along with her. Imagine the happy sunshine crying, that's outrageous and abnormal and everyone should do something to stop the sadness being emitted from her. I liked the cp, ok I'm obsessed with the cp, especially knowing how much JJ means to LX. How JJ was basically the light and hope that helped LX carry on that 9 years of hell and torment. I seriously think he would've given up and suicide if it wasn't for the fact that he wanted to see her again. When JJ asked him what he did all theose years in Singapore, LX replied with "missing you, missing home, day dreaming. Dreaming about being with you, dreaming about marrying you and having a kid....I even thought of our baby's name." I think anyone can tell how desperately he wanted to leave Singapore and go to JJ, how thinking about JJ was his only salvation to endure all those pain and hardship. Sadly, I think some people don't understand LX enough so they dislike his actor and SWL that acted as LX. I think it's bc he doesn't express his feelings and pain as openly as ZQ, he doesn't cry openly and he's not a happy sunshine like ZQ. It's bc he learned to be understanding as young as 7 years old. He keeps his true feelings and emotions inside all bottled up which is really really aversive to his mental wellbeing. He's a more closed off and solemn character that doesn't like to be close to anyone except his family (excluding his mom for good reasons). He has no will or energy to interact with anyone, and I find it heartbreaking but also understandable. Some people can't accept the fact that he suddenly liked the female lead or that he forced her to like him. Well if any viewer was perceptive enough for just a tiny bit can see that he viewed JJ as more of a female of the opposite sex than a sibling. I believe it was in ep 3 where his behaviours already portrayed his feelings towards JJ was different from how ZQ sees JJ as a kid sister. As you can see I've analyzed LX's character to a T, so I love LX's character very much.
The OST are all soo good, to the point I dl all the songs on Spotify. Each song does so well to bring the emotions in the drama out. The only pet peeve I have with this drama is the side characters have way too many scenes and unnecessarily bigger roles than they should have. There were 3 episodes where the main male lead wasn't even in it!! What kinda blasphemy is this, I've never in my entire life watched a drama with no main lead in it for so many eps. I get that the drama is trying to draw a closure to other characters' problems but I don't need 3 freaken eps of it. I had to grind through that. I also didn't like how the director or writer simply wiped clean of all the antagonist's wrongdoings by simply suiciding. I thought it was a selfish act upon the antagonist as it would've brought much more pain to the main lead and antagonist's family. Sometimes, not everything or everyone deserves forgiveness. I also didn't like how there wasn't enough air time for the cp, I was thirsting for their sweet scenes and I didn't get enough of it. I had to keep reminding myself this was a family centered drama not an idol romcom.
Overall, I really enjoyed this drama! This drama has a deep meaning, it portrays different family dynamics, mental wellness, child abuse/trauma, abandonment issues, departure and re-connection, forgiveness and reconciliation, friendship and love. A drama that's definitely worth watching.
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