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weak story, poor writing, skip the first 15 eps
Early on I got very bad vibes of Love Me, Love My Voice, a show I rated at 5/10. There are parallels in the relationship development but I'll try not to repeat the same review.The 1st thing I notice is the Canada Goose branded outerwear in the opening scenes in another Chinese-in-a-foreign-land scenario. There's a lot of nice designer winter wear in the first 6 eps, yet how is it possible to have packed 5 different puff down jackets into the single suitcase each character carries. But I digress.
Yin Guo is a 21 y/o pedigreed pool player who arrives in Helsinki, Finland with her cousin to check out a univeristy he's interested in while she herself is signed up for a local 9-ball tournament. They meet 27 y/o Lin Yi Yang, a graduate student & retired champion snooker player. It took 4 episodes just to get this much information. I didn't know when the story was starting, what the characters' backgrounds were, or even what their university majors were (& never will find out by the end). In fact, the first 15 eps could easily have been condensed into 3 eps. A lot (& I mean a LOT) of time was spent with the ML staring silently at the FL while she shifted around awkwardly. They don't talk much, but somehow the ML decides he's madly in love. He admits he doesn't know how to date so all he does is take her out to eat, resulting in 8 eps of food touring all over Helsinki. Everyone else just talks about their relationship status. By Ep13 the 9-ball tourny was only a distraction, there's still no story in sight & I've just watched one of the emptiest 15 eps of a drama ever.
This is the 1st time I've seen Leo Wu so stiff & expressionless, like he doesn't know what to do with his character, trying to portray someone deeply pained but not quite getting it. At least with his last sports drama, Nothing But You, we got a much better glimpse of the tennis world. In Snowstorm there's very little explanation of world of cue sports. Billiards, snooker, pool, 8/9-ball... it's obviously a varied & highly nuanced game but no insights are offered by the time the show is already half over.
Not until Ep15 does the story finally get off the ground after characters from YiYang's past gradually get introduced as they all start converging into Helsinki for the tournament. Things move along as YiYang makes a career decision, the professional competition circuit begins, and he comes to terms with the events of his past, clearing the way forward to a future he strives for. In the beginning it seemed that Yin Guo would be the central character. However, by the 2nd half, all the story conflicts & developments involved YiYang, making him the central character. The show was more interesting whenever there was less focus on Yin Guo, which leads to the question of how important a character is she really, considering all the screen time she gets. She's left unchallenged, unchanged, & actually does very little for YiYang except sleep with him (& almost carelessly at that). After the conclusion of an exciting pan-Asian cue sport competition, the drama reverts to the conventional wrap-up ending, i.e. waste of time final episode, and without really concluding any of the supporting characters' arcs (who weren't that developed to begin with).
So, a disappointing show given that Leo Wu has been in so many other far more entertaining dramas.
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If Spite of the Strong Wind
6 mensen vonden deze beoordeling nuttig
smartly written with excellent performances
The trailer looked smart & interesting so I gave this drama a try, and wow, what a surprisingly good show it turned out to be. It's funny, poignant, and carefully examines human relationships with a sensitivity rarely reached by any show these days.Shuo Bing & Tang Chen are both workaholics in competing high profile public relations firms in Hangzhou. They're also a couple engaged to each other, until they ask the impossible of each other when it comes time to consider marriage. Then comes a stunning betrayal.
Tang Chen is a 40 year old CEO of a PR firm he built from scratch, and one who desperately wants his world to be perfectly tuned to his own drum beat. His workaholism drives him to neglect his fiancee's needs to his detriment, forcing her to choose between marriage and career. Shuo Bing, in her 30's, is a mid level manager who makes the difficult choice between being ruthless enough to ruin a competing business (ie Tang Chen's) for a massive promotion, or settling for a domestic life she can't support. Later it's revealed that Shuo Bing's calm & cold demeanor hides a crushing & turbulent storm underneath, to which Tang Chen is completely oblivious.
The ensuing aftermath of that decision only serves to showcase Tang Chen's mastery of psychological manipulation in PR as he rebuilds his career. It's a fascinating look at his method: taking the time to find out about a person, where they have been in their lives and thus guiding their trajectory toward the success they seek. And not only does he bring out the best in his clients, he applies the same sensitivity & skills in bringing out the best in each member of his new team. References to Journey to the West are frequent and such that even the founding members of this team are named Tang, Sha, & Zhu, supporting each other and persevering "in spite of the strong wind" bringing more & more powerful demons against them.
Imbedded within this cut-throat competition of the PR world are case studies of 3 couples deeply in conflict. Tang Chen uses his empathic skill to guide his core team members through their personal issues, while taking lessons from his own parents in realizing what success & relationships truly mean to him, & that all of his skills are for naught if he didn't apply them to his own fiancee. The road of examination leaves almost no stone unturned as everyone eventually finds an endpoint they can be satified with.
What a difference mature, experienced, & talented actors make. Jin Dong and Song Jia play their characters with such a deep understanding of two people walking a razor thin line, navigating horrendous forces that turned them into professional rivals, while trying to find a way to hold each other in their hearts. The ensemble cast is excellent. Wang Yu Wen has been in modern lead roles, but here I feel she is in a more suitable role which actually shows her talent better. Oddly, Zhou MaiJie is not credited on MDL for his role, Hou Zhi, a major character. He's credited on IMDB, but there's no info on ZMJ at all.
At any rate, this is a gem of a show: well acted, smartly written, funny, poignant, and which I'm glad to have come across.
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strong start, boring conventional finish
I think Hu YiTian should stick to costume dramas. I've not seen him put in a decent performance in any modern drama since A Love So Beautiful (& his role in that was not very challenging). However, he seems quite at home in a period piece with an engaging story (Handsome Siblings). Blossoms in Adversity, however, does not expand his limited range.Zhang JingYi plays Hua Zhi, the eldest daughter in an artistocratic family very reminiscent of the classic Red Chamber Jia's. But rather than studing Lessons for Women, she is a devoted STEM student, spending her time inventing & planning her own business, inspired by her grandfather who took her traveling on sea adventures as a child.
The Hua family's downfall comes when all of their property is seized by the govt in an act of vengence against the outspoken court minister & family patriarch. All male family members over the age of 10 are arrested & exiled to the North, horrifically tearing the family apart. When your whole existance previously revolved on the support of men, Hua Zhi's independent character blasts through her mother's lament that she can't live without her disgraced husband: "Which woman isn't living by herself?" refering to how women have had near total control of managing a household full of staff while neglected by their husbands working outside the home.
And manage the household is what Hua Zhi does, taking over from an aunt who was too entrenched in old-school management & selling off the maids for quick cash. Likewise, Gu YanXi (Hu YiTian) takes a new position as chief of the Imperial Security Bureau, & whose uncle, the Emperor, equates job success with body count, encouraging YanXi to kill people merely as a show of authority. Even though YanXi was ordered to physically depose the Hua Family, he tries to mitigate the effects & ensure the safety of the clan.
The story develops with the relationship of Zhi & YanXi as she continues to fight for the livelihood of the Hua family, not only for the women & children remaining in the capital, but also for the banished men. Palace intrigue deepens as YanXi fights to protect the emperor.
Although the drama started well it lost momentum after the half way mark. Zhi & YanXi aren't able to spend much time together but their two storylines frequently intersected each other. They manage to solve a mystery from YanXi's past & battle corruption that threatened the Hua women's newfound success. However, the character developments came to a standstill. We don't get to understand the emperor's motivations much better & the political conflicts remain very superficial. Plus, I didn't think it was possible, but Hua Zhi's character started to annoy me; her self-righteousness was becoming unbelievable & there was no depth to her struggle. And what's with all the hysterical wailing? The crying anguish scenes of secondary characters are nothing but cringey. I'd have to say I was actually becoming disinterested as the story got more & more conventional & predictable, right to the end.
Overall, the drama started off strong & impressive, but unfortunately quickly fizzled to a mediocre end. It had all the elements of a complex storyline but was very superficial with no grit or edge to the storytelling. Performances were average to over-the-top; none were standouts.
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story takes center stage
I don't quite have time or mindset for a detailed review, but I'll just say this drama was a pleasant surprise. In Blossom is a show that lets the story take center stage. It's a complex murder mystery intertwined with an almost equally complex romantic tale of two friends from noble families, betrothed by royal assent since childhood, working together to uncover a deep political conspiracy involving the imperial court. The writing was very good & the show kept me guessing right until the very last episode with a cliffhanger ending highly suggestive of a sequel. There's comedy as well as tragedy. Highly enjoyable.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
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just enjoy the scenery, if only for a short while
I had to drop this show after Ep26. There are so many good shows to watch right now. This is not one of them. Watch it only if you want to see Cheng Yi and Zhang YuXi pose in designer clothes. I usually have hope that a show based on a novel should have a higher quality story but this drama likely didn't do it justice. It's my first time seeing Cheng Yi in a modern drama, but I'm afraid his talent couldn't fix this mess of a script. I started to believe his tears were real: not because of his character experiencing a life-altering event, but because he was stuck doing this show. Zhang YuXi has had better roles, but her talent is where it is.Tropes fly off the shelf within the first 4 eps: bad 1st meeting, stuck together on assignment, suddenly falling in love while having a bandaid applied, staying up all night to nurse a fever. I wondered how will this show make it to 39 eps when the tropes run out. Our heroes do dangerous humanitarian work, braving guerilla militia without scuffing their shoes, while the poor villagers they serve act as props to line up smiling and waving gratefully as they leave. The scenery shots of the Southeast Asian water villages they visit are gorgeous. Wait, is this a travelog or a serious medical/war drama or a fashion show? I tried to just enjoy the scenery.
I've read mention that this show combines 2 novels. If so, it sure wastes a lot of time. An entire episode is spent on the leads trapped in a rock crevasse doing nothing more than just sitting there. The FL's traumatic past is revealed but it's treated like a side note. Sloppy editing abounds. The story gets a bit more interesting by Ep8 with post-trauma recovery, family succession struggles, love triangles and evil mothers in law. Many long shots of ML's angst without really telling us what's actually going on in his head. 39 eps should've been plenty to develop all the characters and their arcs but we just get long silent shots instead. So the only thing you can do is just enjoy the scenery.
Another thing that bothers me is how few actors are able to accurately portray medical/academic people. Not to mention the set details: a high end hospital's rehabilitation unit has no grab bars in the bathroom, zero wheelchair accessibility, and staff that let you fall down on your face repeatedly while taking you for a walk. But who needs details.
I'm at HSK-1/2 level Chinese and I could understand most of the dialogue, which tells you something about the level of writing. This meant seeing adults talk (and act) like 12 year olds, or older parents talking to their adult children as if they were 12. This is too much. Ep26 is as far as I'm going to make it on this drama, and it's already further than I wanted.
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Flowers that Bloom at Night
2 mensen vonden deze beoordeling nuttig
predictable story with average delivery
The premise seemed very intriguing so I had higher expectations coming into this show. It's a shorter run at 12 episodes. Yeo Hwa is a Joseon woman in the Qing era, grieving widow by day & vigilante masked crusader by night. Her crime-fighting stints soon clash with the newly hired captain of the local garrison, Park Su Ho. They then discover they both seek answers to dark pasts, with clues leading them all the way to the imperial court.On comes a dizzying line up of characters, a total of 5 different families, all connected to the same trajedy of 15 years prior & shrouded in mystery until Yeo Hwa & Su Ho team up to uncover the truth. The storyline is just as dizzying with many characters harbouring secrets & layers of suspects are peeled away until the mastermind is revealed at the core. It's a lot to pack into only 12 eps & the story doesn't actually offer much new. Murderous backstabbings, cover ups, shadow ops & attempts to depose the sitting royalty are all familiar backdrops, but the show doesn't go very far below the surface. There are attempts at portraying hard hitting violent events but they don't draw any sympathy. The political drama outweighed the romance, likely because the sheer number of characters & complex interactions didn't allow for enough development of the relationships. The action scenes were well done but they just got lost in the mash up of everything else happening.
The details in the half life-time of deceptions & sufferings of the widow are a bit overplayed by the end. Her suffering is balanced by her plucky nature, yet somehow Yeo Hwa's character came off more as slapstick & with no edge. Lee Ha Nee was unable to portray the depth of strength such a character would've had to have cultivated by that time in her life. I found very few truly LOL moments; in fact, the writing was quite bland. There's also an 11 year age gap between the lead actors, & as Yeo Hwa has lived as a widow for 15 yrs prior to meeting the young & unmarried Su Ho, it's plausible the characters also have a similar age gap, although it's never acknowledged. I was left wondering if LHN was trying to play someone 10 yrs younger as it would've made more sense that Yeo Hwa was 30 yrs old. Thus there's an awkwardness in the leads' chemistry & it wasn't convincing. So awkward, actually, that they couldn't even muster up the courage for a kiss scene which only serves to downplay an already weakened relationship arc. None of the other characters seemed especially compelling.
Overall, this was a rather soft & mediocre drama, but watchable because of it's shorter length.
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![](https://i.mydramalist.com/Bd01yl_4t.jpg)
flat-lined performances & writing ruin a potentially good story
Another medical/research drama, with the leads meeting in a fictional French speaking, developing country run by warlords. Su Wei'An is a young woman from China, ekking out a living by buying & selling goods, with the country's military leader as one of her primary customers. When she runs into a visiting Chinese neurosurgeon, Gu YunZheng, at the largest local hospital, their shared past, & her dark secret, is revealed. On return to China, the setting changes from humanitarian work to the cut-throat world of medical research & a race for the cure of a rare disease.There's a lot of French dialogue in the beginning & the dubbing is absolutely terrible. I can't tell if the actors are mouthing the actual French words or not as many scenes are so obviously out of sync. And as with so many C-dramas involving medical people & hospitals, I learn to ignore bascially all of the details. Just pretend that the single looped surgery scene represents all of the surgeries performed.
Given Luo YunXi's impressive string of hit shows, both modern & costume, this drama is far below the standard he's set for himself (and did he actually lose weight during the filming? he's skeletal thin). Zhang RuoNan is no newcomer but this is my first time seeing her & her performance can't match the strength of Su Wei'An. ZRN's portrayal of a young person facing a life threatening illness is stiff & expressionless, not at all reflective of a character who is passionate about protecting others while personally in despair.
The romance arcs are formulaic, trope heavy, & the story takes a long time to get off the ground. It does pick up by the halfway mark when the leads return to China, but quickly descends into a toxic hell-bucket of backstabbing, cheating, & relentless bullying. Are seasoned medical researchers all stuck at the maturity level of middle schoolers? Maybe some are but who wants to watch that? ZRN's wooden expressions get very annoying & the chemistry of the leads is weak. The 2nd couple's arc is actually more lively but unfortunately gets neglected as the show progresses. I watched to the end only because I was actually curious about the outcome of the character's race to cure her own fatal disease. Thus the story itself was interesting & could have been a deeper exploration of what it means to live in the face of death. But it never got beyond the playground politics to properly prepare for the conclusion. The acting, production, & writing couldn't raise this story to the level it deserved.
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Engaging story, solid but boxed performance from Xu Kai
From the director of The Untamed and The Legends, no less! My expectations suddenly skyrocket, especially after last seeing Xu Kai in the rather disappointing She and Her Perfect Husband.The Chinese title, LeYouYuan, is also the title of a Tang dynasty poem envisioning a beautiful but fleeting world (my rough interpretation). Translated as Wonderland Plains in the show, it represents both a physical and mental refuge and happy place. WoL is a tale of erupting power struggles in the wake of a coup. Li Ni (XK) is one of the last surviving members of a royal lineage in a kingdom usurped by a rebel traitor. Three major parties then vie for control of the land and resources: Li Ni's ShenXi army (loyal to his murdered grandfather, the former emperor), the independent and very powerful Cui Family army, and the self-declared new Commander-in-Chief Sun Jing. However, Sun's brutal reign forces an uneasy alliance between the ShenXi and Cui armies. Li Ni meets the sharp and cunning Cui Captain He (Jing Tian), and begins negotiating not only joint trade and conquest, but also love.
I've been following XK's work since Ancient Love Poetry. I saw hints in ALP (as well as The Legends) that he could be a very good dramatic actor but, so far that I've seen, he seemed to be playing the same type of character in most of his shows: ie. the boyish, cocky but likeable hero type, always cool, understated, and at the top of his game. I keep watching him to see if he can break out of this box, and unfortunately WoL doesn't stretch his range.
WoL starts off as a light formula romance, against a big backdrop of war and politics. By Ep20 the drama turns more serious as Li Ni learns Capt He's true identity and factors it into his political strategy. In fact, they both don't hesitate to use each other. Things then get far more interesting as he tries to balance his goals for the country against those for himself, which triggers direct conflict with Capt He's own vision for country, self, and themselves as a couple. The course of their relationship through treacherous terrain makes their characters more sympathetic as their belief systems start to clash. Circumstances push them to the brink in an horrific (and excruciatingly long) battle scene. Will either of them sacrifice their core tenets for the other? At this point the strengths of XK's and JT's performances come further through a crushingly sad wedding scene. Toward what seems will be a tragic ending, XK pushes to his best performance (but doesn't break the box), before the story winds down with a conventional ending.
The story is strictly wuxia and what makes it dense are the fluid shifts of alliances between the 3 groups as they manage not only dealings with each other but also challenges from within their own ranks. The most dangerous foes come from your own family. This results in a fairly large cast of characters, and the ensemble cast is competent, with many familiar faces.
All in all, this was a very enjoyable drama with decent performances and an engaging storyline. XK fans will be pleased with this work.
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well written + well acted = highly entertaining
If you're tired of the giant, mediocre celebrity machine, Ripe Town (or Under the Prosperous City) is a breath of fresh air. Qu Sangeng is a bailiff in the very early 1600's whose revered master is murdered as the start of a chain, leading him to re-investigate a 20 year old buried case of a mass murder of an entire wealthy family. With only a handful of trusted friends close to him, he battles not only gang leaders and hostile witnesses, but also hostile superiors and his own fellow bailiffs, in his discovery of shocking truths. The concept of justice gets blurred in a world of revenge, where very few have come by their successes honestly. Sangeng is smart and bold, but too naive to recognize what he's not able to control.Comparisons to A League of Noblemen came to mind as I started watching, but Ripe Town is more down to earth. It's only 12 eps long so there's no wasted time. However, many characters were introduced quickly, and flashbacks often were presented without warning, so it was hard to connect people and events until much later in the show. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; it made me pay closer attention to keep pace, and by the end it all comes together. I'm not familiar with the classical reference, Analects of Confucius, which is a major focus of the hunt for the serial killer, so I won't comment on its role in the story. But, I am one for whom a music score greatly affects my engagement with a show, and this show had interesting drum rhythms similar to that of A League of Nobleman (which featured an intriguing drum solo for its entire opening theme). It perfectly complemented an exciting chase scene as the Hunter Squad takes down a monkey demon thief on the run.
The acting was very good and I was especially impressed with the performance of 16 year old Yu Yao. Yu's role is listed as a support role, but so much time is spent on his character's backstory that he should be considered the 2nd lead. He was able to portray someone of high intelligence, and cunning, with surprising maturity. All of the young teenage characters are subdued, which adds to the ominous atmosphere of the story. Yu is definitely one to watch for in the future.
The story is not a bromance, which seems to be the going popular theme, but is still very male-centric. There was even a poke at the trope of females disguising themselves as males by simply wearing male attire. While this inexplicably works in too many shows, it's flat out rejected in Ripe Town in an amusing scene.
I wish more shows would have this level of writing, that challenge your assumptions of who is good or bad, your expectations of a main character as hero, as well as your ability to predict what will happen next. The scenes were beautifully shot, no sloppy editing, and the 12 ep length made for a nice, tight story. Overall, it was one of the more entertaining shows I've seen this year.
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way too long & this relationship gives me indigestion
Sheng Sheng Man is a senior college student who composes Chinoiserie music & participates in a chat group with celebrity voice actor Qiang Qing Ci. They connect through chatting about food & cooking, but don't formally meet face to face. QQC also happens to be a doctor working in a hospital across the street from SSM's family convenience store where she works part time. QQC & SSM are attracted to each other's voices, & QQC begins obvious pursuit online. When they finally meet, they discover that they'd actually run across each other many times.It was great to see Zhou Ye get a grown up lead role in the highly enjoyable Back From the Brink, so it's disheartening to see her take on this rather brainless role. In too many scenes she is either hyperventilating or looking stunned, or both. Likewise Tan Jian Ci, who was absolutely electric in Lost You Forever, has now wasted his time in this vacuum of a show. The writing ("What do you want to do? I don't know, what do you want to do? How is this dish? Mmm, it's tasty!") is excruciatingly mundane throughout the entire show, & ZY's & TJC's talents can't make it any better.
The show feels like an infomercial, where all everyone talks about is voice acting & Chinoiserie music, with a sprinkling of recipes & food shots. SSM & her college friends seem to talk only about QQC & nothing else. Where the heck is the story? As the episodes drag along, it becomes apparent that the only thing anyone talks about is shipping SSM + QQC. The dialogue is juvenile & only serves as a bridge between music or food scenes. The leads don't know what to do when they're together, and other characters exist only to enthusiastically cheer them on. When SSM's mother meets QQC for the first time, within minutes she's giggling while highlighting SSM's talents to him like she's trying to sell a cow. Their relationship status is discussed almost every single scene. This one dimension barely lasts 2 eps, nevermind a mind-numbing 33.
There's a certain creepiness in a man who's almost 30 years old, never been in a relationship, suddenly developing an obession with a young college student just by hearing her baby voice online. What's even creepier is how everyone around them encourages it, inspite of QQC's own warnings about falling in love with a random voice on the internet. SSM repeatedly points out the fact they don't know one another that well, but is thrilled when he unexpectedly shows up at her classroom because he "knows her schedule". Is this not stalker vibes? QQC ends up driving the relationship every step of the way, including buying a house for them & planning a wedding without her knowledge or consent. She only follows along brainless & submissive. Even when the 2nd couple arc starts, it involves QQC's colleague, who's even older, pursuing SSM's schoolmate. What is wrong with this show?
Not until around Ep24-26 does the focus finally change, with QQC making a big career decision. He asks SSM if she loves him only for his voice. She denies it, but acts like his voice actually is the only thing that matters, "as a fan". She isn't mature enough to separate being a fan vs being a girlfriend. Tell me again how this relationship is supposed to work?
When the age gap is with an older female, there are scenes of the female being ridiculed for her age by the younger male's group of friends (Nothing But You, Find Yourself). However in LMLMV, the older males are idolized by the younger group as heros. This double standard is frustrating.
Is it really a college girl's fantasy to be pursued by an older man with her family's blind support? This drama is so unrealistic that not even the gourmet food shots can make it digestible. This show might have worked if it actually left out the romance arc & just focused on the performing arts scene, which did start to get interesting, & the show should've ended with the big music festival. The final 6 eps are a complete waste of time. So unless you just enjoy watching music videos sprinkled with too much mindless PDA this show will not offer anything else.
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masterful performances & strong start but couldn't fill up all 39 eps
I didn't know what to expect from this show but it quickly became a delight after the first couple of episodes.Shen Li is the demon Azure Sky King, who flees from a forced marriage down to the mortal realm. There, while injured & helpless in her original bird form, she meets XingYun, a ginseng farmer living alone in near poverty, and who happens to also be the mortal manifestation of a sleeping ancient god XingZhi.
"I'm not stupid!" proclaims ShenLi at one point & indeed, she is not. She is a demon military commander who is revered not only by her army but also the citizenry she protects. She's also no-nonsense to a fault, empathetic only to those closest to her. However, the irreverent XingYun unbalances her as the first man she has ever had to depend upon with her life, & as a sickly weak mortal at that. She's drawn to him in spite of him always teasing her & never actually inviting her closer. The back & forth between the two is subtle & handled so skillfully by the veteran leads that you don't recognize the trope until it's already done. And it's very funny.
I've only seen Zhao Li Ying in The Story of Xing Fu which was a fantastic show. Her maturity lends to her strength & consistency in her performance & she's become someone I look forward to watching. Lin GengXin as XingYun/XingZhi was remarkable in maintaining a core personality between 2 different manifestations of the same character. He Yu as Lord FuRong, ShenLi's original betrothed, took a few episodes to find his footing in the role, but as the show progressed he turned into one of the funnier characters, even becoming likeable, alongside the ever entertaining Jackie Li.
All of this made for such a strong first half of the show that I was ready to give it one of my highest ratings. However, past Ep20, the pacing suddenly lagged & the story meandered for 6 or7 eps. Then came the backstory of ShenLi's origins & the late introduction of a new character, ShenLi's father. However, their reunion was puzzlingly brief & they didn't even hold a satisfactory conversation together. After such smart dialogue in the first half of the show, it made no sense that ShenLi couldn't say one word to her father when this was such a huge development. It seemed illogical with her character to not even make herself known to him when he was right in front of her, & he had to find out who she was from someone else.
The climactic battle to suppress a superdemonic foe & stabilize the universe was a cliched, long CGI light show. In fact, a lot of detail & effort was put into visually creating the fantastical realms but the heart of the characters, dialogue & story were significantly diminished. By that time I had no interest in the good vs evil routine. I just wanted to see what outcome ShenLi & XingZhi's relationship would face. Their fate ultimately held no surprises, secondary character arcs were left dangling (would've liked to see more FuRong/YouLan), & the story really ends with Ep38. Ep39 ran like someone forgot there was 1 ep left to go & had to slap together whatever story was left at the top of their head, which wasn't much. Why didn't the show just save some money & skip it? It could've been a 30 ep show with what story was presented.
After such a strong start it seemed this would be a very different kind of drama but the 2nd half unfortunately face-planted into a puddle of mediocre. So wildly inconsistent I truly can't decide whether I liked this show or not. I loved the first half; second half not so much.
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a gem of a show, if you have the patience
I almost dropped this show after 6 eps, not because it was bad, but because the pacing was so slow I didn't think I was in the mood. There's a strong 1930's feel in the whole production. The mostly static camera work makes it feel like watching a stage play or an old black & white movie. The music score and the slightly over-the-top Classical Hollywood style acting all combine to produce a complete 1930's vibe. This old-movie style isn't to my taste, but eventually I appreciated the strong performances from all the cast. I recognized many cast that were also in Arsenal Military Academy & Court Lady, & I feel some of the musical score was reused in all 3 shows; it all sounded so similar. In fact, these 3 shows share the same directors.Shang Xi Rui is an opera singer specializing in dan (femaie) roles. He's a naive & eccentric prima dona. But when the troupe hits hard times, he pulls through to lead with compassion, humility, & sincerity (in between the prima dona tantrums). He remains true to his art & his genius as he inspires & motivates his troupe to become the leading opera troupe in Beiping. I'm sure the singing is dubbed but Yin Zheng's mannerisms while in full opera costume are very impressive & he very deftly portrays SXR's growth & setbacks as he encouters new hardships without losing his core values.
2nd Master Cheng FengTai becomes SXR's friend & benefactor after SXR's performance awakens a hidden passion for opera. No idle aristocrat, he actively runs a distribution business (including weapons) & organizes culteral preservation projects. He tries to maintain his marriage by never arguing with his unacknowledged wife, which only feeds her insecurity. Ultimately, she comes through as the backbone of the family. The Cheng household is a busy one with many extended family members connecting 2nd Master to a huge network of government & military officials. This network provides the infrastructure for the complex interplay of family, politics, art, & war throughout the drama. Also, many characters aren't what they seem.
Since watching Lost You Forever S1 I've become a Tan JianCi fan & he was actually the reason I started this show (I didn't realize he was also in Court Lady!). But if you watch just for him, he won't show until Ep11 & is present in fewer than 10 eps. His role may have been very small, but his acting talent is equal to the rest.
Although this show isn't completely my cup of tea, what kept me watching was the character of SXR: intelligent, self-centred but with a heart of gold at the same time, how he could push through the strict boundaries of his art & be successful. The cast was very good at portraying multi-dimensional characters. I also liked the glimpse into the world of Beijing opera & I'm now curious about the stories & what makes a good performance. However, the pacing was either slow or slower, with loose ends left at the end in spite of all the time it took to get there.
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the life cycle of an affair
Tokyo Tower is based on the novel by Kaori Ekuni. This screen adaptation is not the first but I haven't seen the other productions to compare. And if there was an English translation of this work, I would definitely be interested in giving it a read. This drama is a very short series, 9 eps of 23 mins, which is suitable as it concentrates purely on emotions.The story is an exploration of age gap relationships. It follows 2 college friends, Toru & Koji, who embark on 2 different affairs with older, married women. Turo is a medical student who falls in love with a well known architect after a random encounter. He then discovers the degree of separation is far too small for comfort, & things get worse when she invites him to events that include people close to them both, including her husband.
Koji, who is more experienced, is fascinated by Turo's infatuation, & decides to conduct his own experiment by pursuing the mother of a high school student he's tutoring. Koji's story is an interesting contrast to Turo's. Koji is the one who initiates & thinks he is in control of the whole relationship & can end it anytime. However, he's shocked when he realizes the one on the leash is actually himself.
The story telling is mostly quiet & reflective, which brings into sharp focus the range of emotions that explode when both Toru's & Koji's affairs destroy all the other relationships around them. And in the aftermath, both men decide it's still worth pursuing what they started, after crushing the walls that surrounded and supported the women they came to love.
Ultimately, it comes down to maturity. Toru & Koji end up overestimating their own importance in an older married woman's life, and older married women come to understand that the only thing they can build their future on is themselves. But will the experience leave each of them with regret, or peace? That, too, also depends on maturity.
All in all, this show was an interesting exploration of the life cycle of an age gap extramarital affair, with nice pacing in the story telling & acting from all of the cast. The short episodes made it an easy, but thoughtful, watch.
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Like an exhausting staircase that leads nowhere
The Double is a story of Xue FangFei, a noblewoman whose husband attempts to murder her & leaves her for dead, buried on a remote mountainside. She, however, survives & is rescued by Jiang Li, an inhabitant of a nearby womens refuge. FengFei discovers Li is also a noblewoman of similar age & similarly betrayed by her family, banished for 10 long years. Li suffers horrendous abuse at the refuge & unfortunately dies from a brutal beating ordered by the refuge director. Fangfei takes advantage of a coverup of the death & manages to escape the refuge, returning to society by assuming the identity of Li & infiltrating the Jiang family.Thus begins a very very complex tale of XFF embarking on dual missions of uncovering corruption & wrongdoings to exact justice not only for herself & the Xue family, but also Jiang Li & her family. Watching her actions closely is Duke Su, a close advisor to the Emperor, and one who is charged with rooting out corrupt officials. He sees through her ruse but uses her in his own pursuit of justice in the imperial court, & picks up a revenge mission of his own.
As the show progresses, layer after layer of crimes committed are uncovered, & XFF/JL picks up new people to avenge as the body count rises. In fact, she's so bent on avenging the dead, I started wondering if she really cared about anyone living. Her bitterness wouldn't be a surprise, but there wasn't much hint of a love of life that would've been necessary for her to hold a relationship. Thus I felt her relationship with Duke Su wasn't really believeable. They actually don't spend that much time together. It was a bit of a stretch to see how their relationship manages to develop when they worked in parallel, not together, & cross paths so briefly. They hardly get to know each other at all.
Fangfei picks up many enemies along the way but so many of the female antagonists end up being annoyingly hysterical. By the final episode, she doesn't wind up much different than when she started, so what, then, was the point of all that she went through?
The revenge theme has such a dark basis & yet the earlier episodes managed to infuse silly comic moments. Along with the Tang dynasty styled costuming, I was suddenly reminded of the show Court Lady. Sure enough, one of the directors of the Double was also the director for Court Lady. I described Court Lady as also starting light & silly, but then turning into "a dark & sordid speeding train with a full buffet of back stabbing politics, debauchery & revenge... only to run over the cliff with half the characters being killed off". My view of the Double isn't far off from this. The cast is huge but the multiple story arcs are more depressing than hopeful.
This show started off with such a great hook but unfortunately the plot got very complicated & heavy. With so much trajedy happening you'd hope for a better outcome, but instead the ending was rather unsatisfactory.
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Outlandish family antics makes a cringeworthy watch
I felt that by watching this show I would give Xu Kai & Yang Zi one more chance before I give up on using them as the primary reason to watch any of their shows. And how lucky that I can watch them both in one show before making my decision. I have enjoyed past shows starring each of them, but the enjoyment was due more to the power of the story & production, rather than their performances.Best Choice Ever is another rich/poor CEO/employee set up in Shanghai. Yang Zi plays 29 year old Mai Chenghuan, a senior employee in the sales department of a luxury hotel. Xu Kai plays Yao Zhiming, the newly arrived, foreign educated, CEO of said hotel, of course. MCH is already in a tenuous 3 yr relationship with the son of a large design company, & of course gets off to a bad start with her new boss.
MCH's engagement to the future successor to a large business partner of the hotel she works at poses the ultimate conflict of interest as both businesses seek to use the upcoming marriage as leverage for their financial deals. The conflicts of interest don't just stop there. The drama presents a lawyer representing his girlfriend, & using work resources for personal issues while proclaiming not to be doing that, as being ok when it involves the main characters.
There's an interesting contrast between modern & traditional Shanghai. Rich families embody the modern, spacious lifestyle, while MCH lives with her 4-member family in a tiny, old apartment so cramped her younger brother has to sleep on a cot in the living/dining room. This living condition is what they can afford & allows them proximity to the business district, where the children can pursue career opportunities & still come home to a cooked meal. This is the commitment of MCH's working class parents.
Trope after trope follows, but the emerging themes are what role should marriage play in a woman's life, & how do you maintain professional integrity when personal conflicts of interest are constantly thrust upon you. It's a dismal world of pure transaction, where someone's interest in you is only as far as what they can get from you. That transaction can often apply to your own family, which drives children to spend their lives slavishly trying to appease their parents' regrets. And, as usual, success only comes with luck & circumstance, rather than how hard you actually work.
Unfortunately, as the drama progresses, the events that unfold become more & more bizarre. It also becomes apparent the story isn't really about MCH & YZM, but rather MCH & her mother. The dialogue is contrived & stiff. Lines are delivered in long, preachy sentences which is very unnatural. Plus, the lengths that the mother goes to in order to force what she wants from MCH was so outlandishly immoral & embarrassing it was painful to watch. Like throwing a surprise lavish engagement party just to publicly force MCH into marriage, or loudly barging in on MCH while she's literally heading a staff meeting just to order her to go eat lunch, would make you cover your eyes faster than the scariest horror movie. Such fodder would've been much better presented as comedy; instead, MCH's mother has to be the most irritating character I've seen in any drama. Does the screenwriter (or author) have an unresolved issue with their own mother to create such a distorted character? Towards the end of the show, the mother is firmly planted in the viewers' faces (as if you didn't have enough yet) by becoming the focus of the final 4 episodes, spiraling downward & taking everyone with her. Was she supposed to be the main character after all? And what is the "choice" referred to in the show's title? Is MCH choosing her mother? She has no choice but to deal with her.
Yao Zhiming turns out to be MCH's step-cousin by marriage, & they connect through their (step)grandmother, but their relationship is hugely overshadowed by the theatrical hysteria of all the other arcs in the show. YZM's character basically stands on the sidelines & clearly takes a back seat to MCH who puts in a gargantuan focus on her mother. He supports her just so she can support her mother, with the consequence being that they still remain unmarried at the end.
YZ seems to be caught in a loop of goody two shoes roles while XK has not changed from the muted, boyish & cocky rascal. This show has simply mixed the two together but nothing new has come out. All in all, Best Choice Ever is over the top & confuses who the viewer is supposed to sympathize with. Mother/daughter relationships are always hard but this show is next level cringe when you see how a mother can ruin a daughter's life.
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