Go Go Squid! (2019)

Favoloso!

Go go squid! È davvero un drama eccezionale, di quelli ben riusciti sotto tutti gli aspetti.
Le musiche sono fantastiche e spesso mi accompagnano in macchina mentre vado a lavoro.
La storia è originale con la presentazione di questo mondo a me finora sconosciuto, di gare di hackeraggio.
Il cast è sublime con Li Xian che tiene in piedi tutta la storia. Il carattere esuberante di Tong Nian infatti viene esaltato proprio dalla presenza di Han Shangyan e della sua estrema serietà. Il team della K&K presenta cinque ragazzi unici e speciali i cui personaggi vengono ben presentati e sviluppati, tanto che nemmeno li considero secondari all'interno della storia. Xiao Bai spicca insieme a Grunt.
Infine i contenuti. Credo siano davvero importanti e caratteristici di una cultura così diversa dalla nostra. Innanzi tutto questa usanza di sposarsi entro i 30 anni che pare essere molto sentita in Cina e che in questo drama viene così fortemente ricordata. Ma soprattutto l'idea che nonostante una sconfitta si possa ricominciare. Questo drama è un incitamento a non arrendersi e riprovarci, a credere nei propri sogni e al cercare in tutti i modi di realizzarli. Insomma a 30 si è vecchi per sposarsi ma non abbastanza per arrendersi alla vita ?

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Un nuovo Start-Up?

Titolo non a caso perchè le emozioni che ho provato durante la visione e il fatto che non riuscissi a staccarmi dalla visione di questo drama mi hanno riportato alla memoria la prima volta che ho visto il kdrama Start Up, che ricordo di essermi tatuata XD
La storia seppur molto diversa perchè più incentrata sulle relazioni che non nel mondo in cui si svolge, me lo ricordano molto. Qui ci troviamo nel mondo del CTF, un mondo completamente a me sconosciuto ma di cui mi sono informata e acculturata durante tutta la visione. Un mondo in cui si troverà capovolta anche la protagonista poichè si innamora di una figura molto importante del campo.
Ho riso per buona parte della visione. I suoi modi di approccio al protagonista maschile sono un vero spasso!! Ma quello che ho amato di più sono gli argomenti riportati e i personaggi. Il passato che rincorre i più grandi, che hanno paura di non riuscire, e il futuro che attende i più giovani, che devono combattere con tutte le loro forze anche solo per essere capiti. Sto parlando di tutti, compresi i ragazzi della K&K. Mi è piaciuto che non siano stati messi in secondo piano ma che facciano tutti parte della storia.
Ho amato Han Shangyan. Mi sono immersa completamente nel suo personaggio. L'ho capito e ancora di più ho apprezzato la sua crescita all'interno del drama. Non mi sbilancio nel dire che è uno dei personaggi più belli che abbia mai visto in un drama. La sua storia d'amore con NIan Nian è molto dolce, ma anche "sofferta". Ho amato tutti gli svolgimenti. I ragazzi della K&K sono dei cuccioli tenerissimi, mi sono entrati nel cuore.
Ho amato anche la storia passata che si impone sul presente e come è andata. Li ho sentiti tutti compagni. 41 episodi bellissimi.
E mentre scrivo questa recensione col cuore spezzato perchè purtroppo è già finito, sto ascoltando una delle due canzoni più belle del drama. Perchè sì, anche qui ho trovato della musica stupenda che è finita direttamente sul mio spotify.

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Il flashback all'ennesima potenza

È un drama che, come spesso accade, promette più di quello che poi riesca a mantenere. La partenza è abbastanza scoppiettante, è piacevole cominciare a conoscere i personaggi, e il fatto che i personaggi principali maschili siano così attraenti aiuta sicuramente. Purtroppo un uso svergognatamente smodato del flashback provoca moti di irritazione praticamente in ogni episodio. Il flashback può servire per chiarificare un evento del passato, ma quando ce ne sono diversi di durata anche di 10 minuti e oltre, che tengono ferma l'azione, risultano pesantemente molesti.
Assistiamo poi a una sequela di situazioni chiaramente inventate per allungare il brodo, cosa che si aggiunge ai numerosi flashback di eventi anche accaduti poco tempo prima. 41 episodi sono troppi per questo tipo di racconto, che a mio parere si sarebbe sviluppato benissimo anche solo in 30 o 32 episodi.
Tutto il drama, a parte la sezione romantica, si incentra su questi campionati di giocatori su PC che in teoria dovrebbero operare una specie di finti attacchi ai sistemi di sicurezza dei computer degli altri. Sicuramente come funziona questo tipo di gioco non viene spiegato bene e, a un certo punto, smettono completamente di farci vedere le sfide per passare direttamente dal nervosismo pre partita alla delusione o alla gioia della Vittoria.
Ho avuto l'impressione che tutta la serie fosse in realtà una grande opera di propaganda politica e sociale. Intendiamoci, dopo aver visto certe opere americane abbiamo ben poco di cui lamentarci.
Ad ogni modo, si arriva agevolmente alla fine pur con diversi moti di fastidio e un po' di irritazione, facendo ampio uso del fast forward.
Le musiche e le canzoni sono abbastanza gradevoli ma, essendo la serie così lunga, alla fine diventano ovviamente ripetitive.
Io sono donna per cui, purché non sia troppo irritante, in certi tipi di drama do meno rilevanza alla protagonista femminile, della quale continuo ancora a chiedermi perché l'abbiano vestita così male e costretta a corricchiare qua e là con andatura da papera impazzita.
Ovviamente, tutta la mia ammirazione va per il protagonista, ottimo attore e splendido esemplare di bellezza maschile. L'imbronciato che si scioglie è decisamente il mio tipo preferito. Anche il suo cuginetto che poi diventerà protagonista della seconda serie non manca di attrattiva. Anche gli altri attori di contorno fanno un ottimo lavoro, molto ben riuscito il nonno. Purtroppo buona parte delle ragazze sono caratterizzate in maniera molto infantile e poco attraente: dovrebbero essere sulla ventina ma si comportano come se andassero alle medie. Comprendo che è un vezzo del luogo.
Diciamo che se il protagonista maschile fosse stato un pelino meno attraente probabilmente ai miei occhi questa serie avrebbe perso un altro mezzo punto.
Non so se guarderò la seconda serie, considerato che il protagonista maschile non sarà più lo stesso, pur avendo anche egli notevoli attrattive. Soprattutto quello che mi frena è l'eccessiva verbosità e lungaggine. Ci penserò.

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Adorable Couple, Wonderful Chemistry, Best Contemporary Romance of Summer 2019

I’ve come to watch this drama, partly because Yang Zi is my favorite actress. Initially, I was holding some reservation because I was not familiar with the major male lead, Li Xian, portraying Han Shang Yan. At my first viewing, I was not very impressed by him; he wasn't that good looking, I thought; as Han Shang Yan, he was rude, mean, nasty - a total jerk. But then, something pulled me in - the contrast of the two main characters and the theme about reaching for your dream. After just the first episode, my doubts about Li Xian dissipated. I got more than what I bargained for.

Upon further research into what the term “CTF” stands for, repeatedly referred to in the drama, I find it is something even more intriguing and more complicated than I would have imagined. CTF means Capture the Flag. It is an information security competition between security professionals about cyber security. It challenges its participants to solve computer security problems and/or capture and defend computer systems. The competition is used as a learning tool to help sharpen the tools they have learned during their training. In another words, what seemingly “a waste of time playing computer” is actually teaching and training the next generation in the most advanced field of artificial intelligence in cyber security which is the next BIG thing.

Li Xian, playing the male lead, is absolutely incredible. The actor has a calm, cool, no-nonsense demeanor. He fits into the Han Shang Yan's character perfectly as if the role is written for him. What seemingly cold and tough on the outside, is actually tender and caring inside. He may talk mean and scold his people, but cares deeply for them. He is strict and uncompromising. He commands a breath of full authority that everyone looks up to, loves and fears. He doesn't care to defend himself. He doesn't care what others think of him. To him, everything is just noise. All he has wanted is the championship, until the love of his life comes along.

This is my first drama of Li Xian's. I find him super super cool and awfully good looking. Some viewers may not find him attractive at first glance, but he has the type of look that captures hearts. At the end of the drama, like many viewers, I fall head-over-toes for him like a little crazy school girl.

I have always liked Yang Zi’s acting. I find her genuine, beautiful, cute and sweet. In this drama, she plays the character of a prodigy girl. Tong Nian is so adorable that even the coldest stone heart can be melted. She melts mine. I'm just a little disappointed that the story hasn't developed on Tong Nian's intelligence and skills in helping Han in improving his teams.

Contrasting greatly to Han Shang Yan who almost always dresses in all black outfits, Tong Nian always dresses in cute and girly style (some viewers find the outfits outrageous). With her large round eyes and puffy outfits, she looks kind of like, a squid. No wonder she calls herself Squid the Fish. This contrasts greatly with Han Shang Yan who looks damn serious and yet stylish at the same time.

Having said that, the relationship between Han Shang Yan and Tong Nian is just amazing. Despite their differences in taste, age and almost everything, their chemistry is so wonderful and undeniable. Han Shang Yan, always being misunderstood by others, only Tong Nian sees through that iron facet of him. She thinks highly of him and treasures every bit of him. It is so satisfying to see they find each other from the very beginning and nothing can separate them.

Another young actor that captures my heart is Hu Yi Tian. He portrays Han's cousin, Wu Bai, who speaks few words but always watching and listening. He covers Han Shang Yan's back always, no matter what. It is so good to watch such a trusted brotherly relationship which needs few words. One look, Wu Bai would immediately know what his cousin wants. Both completely understand and communicate love and care for each other without many words. I wish we have more scenes of Wu Bai in the drama. Hu Yi Tian definitely has a lot of potential in future with his height at 188 cm (6'2") and awesome cool look.

This drama uses also quite a lot of incredible settings. One such setting is the Atlantis Sanya Resort Hotel that features aquariums in some underwater guess rooms. It is the most beautiful hotel I've ever seen. I am also impressed by the Disney Castle model that Han Shang Yan has in his room. It has taken him years to built from the lego bricks. The iconic Disney Castle, a symbol for dreamers, depicts the dreams he has. Multiple times it worries me that Tong Nian may crush it when she's topsy-turvy.

The official theme songs sung by Li Xian and Yang Zi are pretty good. But my favorite song would be the song called "Beyond's A Brighter Future" sung by the Solo and K&K teams under various occasions. The lyrics of the song are so touching that I tear up each time hearing them. The song is very inspiring, expressing the struggle of the dreamers. It calls for all dreamers to not give up when they stumble and face obstacles. It yearns for freedom and encourages determination. Composed by Wong Ka Kui, a Hong Kong musician, in 1993, the song expresses his own pain and struggle. Sadly Wong died within months of the release of his song. Another beautiful song that strikes me is "Couldn't Leave" sung by Dimash Kudaibergen, a very talented musician from Kazakhstan. The lyrics of the song is so beautiful and appropriately depicting the difficulties and struggle each dreamer is going and has to go through.

It is heart-warming to see a group of youngsters living and playing together, and enjoying each other's company and discovering themselves in the process. Han Shang Yan is not only their leader (they call him Lao Da - meaning big brother), he is also their guardian, parent, teacher and mentor. His relationship with them is simply lovely and moving.

This is truly an amazing drama for the summer. Don't miss it. Two thumbs up!

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This drama truly deserves its hype - everything is perfect, from the storyline to the acting to the chemistry to the lessons that it's trying to convey.

I started watching this with only one episode out and have been waiting patiently since then until it finished. I was busy catching up w/ its updates on weibo and twitter that watching GGS alone is already taking too much of my time lol. I mean that totally says a lot on how much i love this drama right???

The casts are well-chosen for their characters and gave justice to their roles. No offence but I don't see any c-actor who could pull off HSY like how Li Xian did it! He slays that frown facial expression without trying hard too much. I have always been a fan of Yang Zi since Battle of Changsha and Ashes of Love, and so I love how she nailed her character here again. A lot of people are complaining about her clothes but I wasn't bothered at all. I guess her bright and baggy clothes are there to constantly remind us of the characters' age difference.

The chemistry between the leads is so natural and cute that you can't help but ship them in real life too. I love the transition of their relationship from being awkward to being able to communicate well with each other - that just gives us a realistic feel of what really happens in the real world. Their seemingly natural interactions and chemistry are what made this drama one of my all-time top faves.

There were no draggy scenes (well, for me atleast) and I have watched 41 episodes with ease. I initially hated the flashbacks but later on realized how helpful they were with getting to know more of HSY and his strong determination to reach his dreams. I found the K&K boys adorable and funny, that it gave perfect balance to the romance. I loooveeee the second couple and craved for their scenes. Moreover, the more episodes I watch, the more I get attached to the old Team Solo. I love how even though they are already in two separate teams, they are still there to support each other (huhu true friendship indeed!)

Watching the last scene made me so emotional because I was just not ready for this series to end yet T___T. It has been such a good ride and I grew attached to all the characters.

I liked a bunch of dramas but there were only a few that I truly loved - the ones that i got really attached to and wouldn't get tired to rewatch despite the passing of time... And I could definitely say that GGS is the new addition to that list. I can see myself rewatching this from time to time whenever I need a mood booster.

Overall, I love this drama so much and would totally recommend this to anyone. Although it focused on the romance, it also centred around the characters' pursuit to their dreams that will surely motivate and inspire everyone.

PS. THE OSTs FOR THIS DRAMA ARE THE BEST !!!

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Speechless

I am very disappointed in this Cdrama. I felt like I wasted my time watching it all the way to the end.

Let me start with the positives. To me the only real standout for this series was 'Gun God' and his whole team. The were very relatable, funny, dramatic and their acting skills were up to the task. I also enjoyed how their characters where well developed, especially Gun God with his very detailed character background.

Apart from this the rest was a complete flop. The main character Squid was useless and they probably only had this character in the series to create a romance storyline, There was no depth to her character and she did not offer any value to the series. Also what annoyed me so much about her was that she is supposedly a genius that started university at 15 double majoring in AI and Cyber Security and yet she couldn't understand what the game was all about (it was literally about cyber security hacking servers and blocking intrusions).

I would have expected her to actually contribute in some way to the teams success since she was supposed to be an expert in the field (all she did was create a stupid game with pepa pig).

Don't even get me started on her insane stalker vibes (you can actually get a criminal record for doing the stuff she did). The whole series she was stalking the living daylight out of our male lead and when he finally proposes she said no? that made no sense at all. There was a part somewhere in the last few episodes where someone tells her that she has no personality and that was the most accurate description.

Now for the fillers - It gave me flashbacks of trying to watch Naruto where there was just so many senseless episodes and an insane amount of flashbacks. If they had to cut all the BS from this series we would have probably ended up with about 31 episodes of a series that was better paced and edited.

Overall I wouldn't watch this series again (only watch it if you have nothing else to watch)and in terms of comparing it to other Cdramas i've recently watched in E-Sports genre it is lacking it every aspect.

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unrealistic and frustrating

I tried giving this drama a chance to like it but finding it so disappointing and very frustrated with the story. It is very unrealistic for the female lead who had a crush on the male lead and following him around. Very unrealistic for a the male lead to allow a fan (stranger) to get into his circle. How can a stranger (female lead) who had a crush on a celebrity and be able to get through the security, mistaken as girl friend, allow to ride in the bus with the team and so forth. The way the female lead chasing and following the male lead (who doesn't really know her) around and able to get into his circle of friend and team is nauseating. The female lead is supposed to be intelligent and gifted but too stupid to follow her crush without thinking about her own safety makes me angry about the whole story.

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Why do people like this drama so much?

This drama is highly talked about and recommended so I thought checked it out and wow...

Beware of Rant.

Worst Romantic-Gaming drama I have ever seen:
1st - The FL is a stalker. Let's just put it out there. She is. She follows the ML around & sends him weird spam-like messages from a fake internet cafe account & follows him places. How he doesn't block, ghost her and file a restraining order I really don't know.

2nd - The FL is famous on her own but for some reason, she's still incredibly stalker-like & timid. She has her own fan base but has 0 confidence. I can't tell you how many times I was cringing at her behavior towards the ML.

3rd - The ML's reason for leaving his old team... I was waiting for this big reason why he left his old team. The captain must have done something pretty terrible for the ML to cry & whine so much about his old captain choosing to leave the team right? Wrong! Turns out the ML is crying & whining over the captain leaving FOR HIS CHILD!! The captain chose to take care of his child over the team. In what world does a grown man guilt someone else over taking care of their child??

4th - If you love dramas with gaming this is not the drama for you. The "gaming" is poorly portrayed. "Here's a black screen with boxes and code, & OH we won!" It's just poorly poorly done.

5th - The Chinese nationalism. Nationalism is fine but this was way overboard.

Honestly, I had such a hard time getting through it. The only saving grace is how absolutely handsome the ML & his cousin are. It does get better after episode 30 or so but I do not understand the hype of this drama. At times its absolutely painful to get through.

Would not recommend.
Would never re-watch.

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Is the cultural difference really so huge?

I started to watch the show with high expectations, so the disappointment was all the bigger. First of all, the ML is absolutely intolerable. Because he used to be a good hacker 10 years earlier, he is arrogant, extremely rude, and keeps bullying other people. The FL, who is supposed to be an IT prodigy and a popular online singer, has no sense of pride or self-respect and chases the ML to the verge of ridiculousness, even though he openly told her that he wasn't interested and treated her like garbage most of the time. So painful to watch! But the worst is still to come. At the beginning, we learn that ML's former team leader did some horrible thing, which resulted in the team being disbanded. You know what that horrible thing was? It was his commitment to fatherhood and responsibility for his unplanned child. His new GF, a team member, was too much of an immature !@$%^ to support him - she preferred to dump him and that's how the whole team broke up. Is the Chinese culture really so different from European that decent behaviour and responsibility are seen as vile and wrong? While rudeness, immaturity and hatefulness are seen as virtues? I don't get it.
What I really liked were the charming supporting characters. I continued the show for them.

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In the first part of the series I was delighted wth the characters, but soon it started to drag.

The main couple is cute, but that's it. The initial progression between the couple was nice and I enjoyed the (slow) pace the story set. But this show has one major flaw: There is no depth to this pair. They are just cute. So the story beats got repetitive very quickly and my frustration level rose, because even the actors didn't have chemestry which is a big problem for a romance drama. Besides the characters didn't really change beyond the ML in the beginning of the story opening up to the FL. After that it was just... the same. I don't really have more to say on this part of the show.

Initially I watched this because the story promised to show some E-Sports-Drama.
And the players are all great but ultimately not fleshed out characters. They are there just too squee when the main couple is together.
My favourite charcter is the team captain Wu Bai. He has few scenes and is overall silent which gives him an air of mystery. I wouldn't have minded more scenes with him, but this mysteriousness is probalby why he is so interesting so showing more of him would probably destroy that.
Boyond him all the other team members are all the same charcter. I mean that. Which annoyed me more than almost anything else on this show, because when these actors are given more to do I could tell that they can deliver, but there simply wasn't anything destinguishable in their characters.

For some reason I had the feeling they cut out all of the competition scenes in the later episodes and in hindsight probably in the beginning aswell although it is not as noticable there. I mean the players go on stage, start playing and then a winner is announced. All in less than a minute.

Leaving this aspect of the show severly lacking. Because the ML interest lies with his team and we never really get to 'see' the pay-off. This lead to me skipping most of this plotline (almost half is dedicated to this) even though it was what initially drew me to this drama. It left me rather unsatisfied with the whole drama.

Also too many flashbacks... seriously way too many. And to boot with little to no payoff. The ML backstory is 'explored' in these flashbacks but we never see anything beyond what we have been told or could tell from the character interacions in the present themselves. Thus making these very skippable aswell.

All in all I finished this drama because I wanted to know how all the plot points get resolved and the drama manages that, but it wasn't particularly unforseeable. All the actors are easy on the eye so that certailnly helped.

Whoever is short on time should watch roughly the first part of the show and know that this has a happy ending in all plots and then call it quits.

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I found this drama both wonderful and frustrating at the same time. I loved the overall message of 'if you have a dream, you remain young forever'. The fulfilment of broken dreams, even though it didn't happen the way the five SOLO players planned for it to happen, was a very satisfying journey.

HSY is a character that had to grow on me. His frowns and shortness seemed so overkill at the start, it was difficult to get behind. But TN, grandpa, his step-mom, the KK team brought out the warmth in him and one couldn't help but smile and laugh with him by the end of the drama.

TN was confusing to me. I kept being told she was this super intelligent girl, but I rarely got to see her high IQ at work. Most of the time, she was just the typical, dazed, female lead that you get in most Chinese dramas. It was disappointing to me that they didn't flesh out her character more and showed her to be more than this girl that keeps giving heart eyes to HSY. I did love her brightness and how she bought HSY out of his shell and wrapped him in her love. I just felt they could have done so much more with her character.

Yang Zi and Li Xian had such an awkward chemistry. Even though I could tell they gave it their best and in a way, it worked to the character's advantage, it felt like hard work to buy into them as a couple. But I did end up loving them as a couple and giggling like a little schoolgirl every time they were just cheeseballs to one another. They were very cute in an awkward way.

Wu Bai was just such an awkward character. It felt a little like HYT's management placed him in this role to punish him or something. He was too big of a star to be in this role that had no depth and his sole purpose is to be the best player on the team. And it was obvious at the end that they couldn't film him with a lot of the big group shots and so they just put in solo cuts of him. He felt completely out of place and as much as I wanted to like him, it was just frustrating to watch.

Mi Shao Fei has to be MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER of this entire drama. And I wish so bad that they spent more time on him and Yaya's story. Their storyline captivated me so much more than HSY and TN's storyline. I felt the chemistry was better between the two actors. When Mi Shao Fei was starving for encouragement, Yaya naturally poured out endless amounts of it for him. He held onto her like a lifeline when he had absolutely nothing.
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Overall
Negatives: I felt that the drama itself is disjointed and inconsistent. It had these wonderful storylines that were rich and full of life, but then they would not be able to bring out its true potential. I also think the cutting of scenes/directing was a little off which was a bit distracting to watch.

Positives: I did end up loving each of the characters. I wanted more of each character and more of these romances in the story. I think the actors did a great job with the material and overall, I laughed, I cried, I cringed and I cheered. I would recommend this drama despite its shortcoming. Mi Xiao Fei and Yaya had my heart.

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FL has ZERO personality

I began to watch this drama mainly for Yang Zi and because this drama had really high reviews. I loved her in Ashes of Love and in the Psychologist but wow. This was such a disappointment. The summary hypes her up to be an amazing programmer who at the age of 19 is creating all sorts of complex AI programs. She also has a huge following for her musical talents. So coming into this, I was excited to see her portray a talented and interesting FL. WRONG. The first episode starts off with love at first sight, which would be fine if not for the cringe ways she tried to get the ML to notice her. I thought it would improve after the first couple episodes but halfway through the show, she still has no personality outside of the ML. She acts more like a lost puppy than a college student.

Seriously, the lengths she goes to to get the ML's attention and affections are such a huge turn off for me. It's like she has no life outside of the ML and she blindly chases him even though he treats her like shit for the first half of the drama. He doesn't communicate, can't express himself, is arrogant and a whole bunch more, but all she can say is, "He's perfect and has no flaws."

The age gap between them is also problematic, but the biggest headache for me is FL's lack of maturity and stalkerish ways that made me want to drop the series. Ended up watching it all the way through bc of Hu YiTian and the supporting cast. So disappointed they put Yang Zi in a role like this. At least with Ashes of Love, while she was naive, she wasn't brain dead and blindly in love with ML.

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