Douluo Continent (2021)

Introductory drama

I totally understand why people gang up to hate this drama, the flaws are pretty visible, but none bothered me, I enjoyed almost everything here and I will wait for the second season.

While I was watching this in hiding I felt what I used to feel when I read a Young Adult Novel , the dynamics is very alike, how the characters meet and interact with each other.

The drama has many Japanese animation aspects, such as the sausage guy whom has a gadget who spells cold wind just like Nami from One Piece anime. You can see fight competitions like Yu Yu Hakusho, when you need strategies to win, not only power.

The plot is very simple, the drama is very introductory to their fantastic world, the characters going from newbies to powerful ones, the family relations affairs, sects enmity etc. They are always showering us with information about their powers, once again, just like One Piece anime.

Let's see if the next season will be more plot and less couples, families and powers data/info.

Note: The most visible flaw here was the sudden editing scenes, they sometimes would just jump one scene to other in abrupt way. The OST sucks too, but the main title is okey.

Leggi di Più

Fun, cute characters, above-average cultivation drama. Terrible adaptation.

I came to this drama as a fan both the screenwriter Wang Juan (his previous work Joy of Life is in my top 2-3 favorite dramas) and the Douluo Dalu novel. However, I recognize that novels and dramas are two fundamentally different mediums and that it would like be impossible to faithfully adapt the novel into a visual medium, especially given China's copyright laws. I will try to give my thoughts on the drama on its own merits and leave the comparisons to last.

The good:
- The core cast (Shrek seven devils and teachers) play quite well together and they're really fun to watch. The scenes of teambuilding and the students just hanging out were probably my favorites from the whole drama and I'd honestly watch a slice of life drama with them just hanging out and bickering

- On a related note, the acting in general is good. Nobody was terrible although performances all around were a bit flat. Some people have objections to the FL's acting, I didn't mind it and found her cute.

- The CGI is good, especially for a c-drama. The show is very effects-heavy and fortunately most of the time the effects aren't bad enough to be distracting and occasionally the effects look really good (spirit rings being an example)

The mediocre:
- Fights were kind of boring in general. There were 2 good group fights but a lot of the minor fights featured most of the fighters standing there looking dumb while the fight happened around them. Also, there wasn't much strategizing, fights tended to be decided based on power.

- Plot was ok but really didn't give me much suspense or pathos. I mostly kept watching because hanging out with the Shrek seven devils is fun, not because I was dying to find out what was going to happen next. The overall plot felt very messy as well, the core question that the writer posed turned out to not matter at all and new questions were raised in the last episode.

The bad:
- The music was very random and didn't help build suspense or emotion generally. I think this was a big reason why the plot didn't click with me, the soundtrack really doesn't give much feels.

- Skips and does poorly soooo many characters/moments/plot points from the novel (more on this later)

Overall thoughts:
- As far as cultivation dramas go there are definitely worse. I'd give the drama an 8/10 as a standalone drama
- However, as a fan of the source material, I can't help but conclude that the screenwriter had no interest or appreciation for the novel, because very few of the interesting characters and plot points in the source material are preserved. 4/10 adaptation

Average 6/10

Comparison to the source material:

- Most obvious point is obviously that the character of the protagonist is very different. Novel Tang San is a strategist and inflappable due to his prior life. Drama Tang San is a normal young man as the drama couldn't show transmigration.

- The thing is that this may have actually been an opportunity, not a problem. Having Tang San start out innocent and wide-eyed allowed the chance for him to have a full character arc in a hero's journey type plot where he develops from his baseline into a character more similar to novel Tang San, smart and steady. This does not happen. Tang San is written very inconsistently and his character is poorly defined, even by the end.

- Related to this, one of Tang San's core skills, making hidden weapons is largely excised from the script. It's still present in some capacity but it is no longer focused on and barely even relevant to the plot, showing up in only 1 fight.

- So many funny and/or interesting characters were glossed over or cut entirely. Obviously can't show everything but seems like they went a bit far in culling characters. For instance, in the novel Shrek Academy has multiple teachers and Fei Lan De is just the principal. In the drama he appears to be the only paid employee of the school. Budgetary constraints? Maybe.

- Most of the fight strategizing is cut out. This is a minor point as I think it would be very difficult to translate fight strategizing into a drama.

- Worst for me is just an overall loss of hype. There are a lot of climactic moments in the novel that illicit a sense of awe or fear. The drama does an exceptionally bad job at translating these. Nobody in this drama has the sense of power or danger that they should have. Nothing feels like it has stakes. The villains don't feel dangerous.

Leggi di Più

Good production with excellent cast

The story revolve around Tang San, the male lead. Tang San lost his mother since young, and he and his father depend on each other dearly. Tang San possesses extraordinary wits and talent since young, and aspires to be a great soul master.

The actors did really well, especially Xiao Zhan. Visual effect looks good also. Though it does not exactly follow the story in novel but the story is still interesting. Overall, I am very satisfied with this drama! I have not finished watching yet but the story gets more and more fascinating. Cant wait to see the next episodes! If you are a fan of Chinese fantasy drama, I strongly recommend that you should watch this one, it definitely worth your time!

Leggi di Più

Bad idea to have seen the anime first.

As a fan of XZ, I was so excited for this drama adaptation of the anime that I decided to watch the anime first while waiting. Soul Land really became one of my favorite ever, I still wait for new episodes every week! But, it also definitely is the reason why I am disappointed with how the drama turn out. I can forgive all episodes except the ending. I mean, I cannot say anything else with the acting - XZ is of course amazing as always, so are the other characters. I blame the script/screenwriter for some of the unclear scenarios - like how all the grand soul masters (who has been built up throughout the series as all-powerful) couldnt do a single thing against BBD in the end and how Tang Hao's one flick of hammer practically ended the whole series dryly. I mean they could've at least added a bit of action, like 3-5 punches or kicks?! I'm not sure if there's a season 2, I do hope there will be and that they improve areas! (also hope it's still XZ as TangSan)

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A letdown

I started the serial with high hopes after reading the reviews. Also it starred the ML - Sean Xiao. There wasn't much action even after the first 25 episodes. I kept telling myself that if I watch on it will eventually get more interesting. However the story only started picking up after the 30th episode. The acting was the saving grace but even that could not overcome the bad directing and screenplay. Also the costumes, CGI and makeup effects were mediocre at best. The production comes across low budget and there were many plot holes where the story does not make sense. The ending was hurried and abrupt. I hope they change the director

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The female lead "Xuanyi Wu - Xiao Wu" is not good enough

The story in this drama is good, but there is a flaw that lies in the female lead "Xuanyi Wu" who does not fit the role in this drama and is not very suitable for a good match with Zhan Xiao "
The male lead "Zhan Xiao - Tang San" is very good, only the female lead "Xuanyi Wu - Xiao Wu" is not good enough.
From my point of view, the male lead and the female lead are not suitable for a good match in the drama.

All of the acting in this drama all look good, but only one female lead "Xuanyi Wu - Xiao Wu" is either very poor or very unsuitable for the role.
I think for the second look, I definitely don't want to because the female lead "Xuanyi Wu - Xiao Wu" is not good enough to be a good match with "Zhan Xiao - Tang San".

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Xiao Zhan

Overall ok drama to watch. The story line is pretty good. I really enjoyed Tang Sans personality and how he was so brave and didn’t give up on trying to succeed in getting stronger. What I did not really enjoy was Xiao Wu I personally found her to be a little annoying, a little too clingy for my taste would have wanted her to not only think about Tang San 24/7 but also have some goals. She did mention wanting to cease the war between Spiritual Masters and Spiritual Beasts she only stated it but did nothing to really fix it. But other than that I really enjoyed how all other character developed and didn’t give up on their goals.

Leggi di Più

XZ Amazing

Okay I have literally lost trace on the times I have re-watched this series, it was super amazing and of course the ML lead well there are no words to distinguish how well he acted.

The first watch was of course just to see this amazing actor, and literally that is all I need, was watch him, didn't get the whole story or anything else for that matter. XZ was really amazing, what i particular liked was that there was no over dubbing so his voice was his and that was all i needed to watch this man, his character was well played and the way portrayed himself and the tasks that he handled in order to overcome his situation, was really good.

The second watch was of course was for the story, I'm coming to this drama without prior knowledge of the donhua or novel. So I am coming to this drama with a fresh pair of eyes and no preconceived ideas what the story should be like. but as i got into it sort of made sense again being a die hard of XZ did help in continuing with the story, I particular enjoyed the FL she was kind of cute especially with her bunny ears, she played that role well, in the sense that bunnies are cute and often playful. The story itself is pretty straightforward, not hard to follow along but somehow I felt like it lacked substance. Even with there being mysteries and secrets, the way the story was executed never left me with anticipation. A lot of scenes felt unnecessary to the overall story; they made it seem like it was important at one time but then brushed it aside later on never touching upon it much again, let alone giving it much closure.

The third/forth watch etc ... was just to try and make sense of everything, Douluo Continent has a wonderful mix of good-natured, determined, and funny characters. The “7 Devils” (main group) all experienced personal growth and development. It was a rough start for them at first because each one of them had different personalities and backgrounds, but their team chemistry gradually solidified throughout the drama. For me, character growth and friendships are just so sweet to watch.

I recommend to watch this drama if you're into fantasy and adventure. Other than that this drama doesn't offer much, but at least I don't regret watching it.

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Brilliant show and a fantastic first season

(NB. I have never read the novel or seen any of the anime adaptation so my review is based solely on this live-action adaptation.)

I have *just* finished watching the entire season and I am just blown away. I mean, where to begin? The story is just beautiful and even more beautifully realized visually. (The SFX are really spectacular without falling into the Hollywood trap of being overwhelming and chaotic.) But most importantly, the character building, the growth of our seven heroes and, of course, the arc of 唐三 and 小舞 is just really fantastic and satisfying.

肖战 is, of course, more than capable of shouldering the responsibilities of being the lead but his portrayal as really top-notch here. (And I say this as a die-hard fan of 《陈情令》where his portrayal of 魏无羡 is just peerless.) His nuances and range has grown tremendously and I can’t wait to see what his future work brings. 吴宣仪’s portrayal of 小舞 is equally nuanced and sensitive. Her innocence and fierce loyalty are endearing and the reason for why she is the way she is becomes clear as the series progresses with hints being dropped all the way from the first episode before she even appears. And a special shout out to all the supporting cast for being a fantastic ensemble, whether it’s the 史兰客 team (both students and teachers) or the various Soul Masters or, really, even the most minor of characters. It really is such a richly fleshed-out world on all fronts.

Kudos, also, to the show’s writer who, in consultation with the author, brilliantly charts the course of the various character developments so that they always stay in the forefront of things even amidst the visual feasts, the unfolding of the in-universe mythology, and all the dramatic turns and twists.

I honestly don’t know if a second season is going to be in the works but it is so clear that this season was written *as* an expository season with its unanswered questions and unresolved threads. So please bear this in mind while you’re watching it.

Two things I want to address:

- The score/music is wonderful! I am a professional musician and I am ACUTELY attuned to the soundtrack of anything I am watching, whether I like it or not. And it is absolutely fantastic! There are specific motifs and pieces that are written for specific moods or characters or situations and they capture them very well. Every scene’s emotional impact is immediately enhanced by its particular score at any particular juncture. Kudos to the composer(s).

I honestly don’t know what ANY of the complaints are with the score but I can honestly say that this is one of the best TV series soundtracks I have heard. (And I have heard/seen plenty.) Do not let *any* of the negative reviews affect you.

- The ending is BRILLIANT. I won’t spoil it for anyone but I will say that it is not what you might be expecting in terms of fireworks on the surface but it is very deep, very personal, and very much in keeping with the writer’s vision for this series. As I have said before, there are definitely lots of open-ended plot points and questions, all of which point to another season. And if there isn’t a second season, well... you can still fully enjoy the great journey which this series takes you right up to the very end.

I am re-watching the whole season now to catch anything that I might have missed the first time around.

GO WATCH THIS SHOW NOW. It is THAT good.

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