Chess Love (2021)

Storia veramente piacevole da seguire

Una storia completa senza quelle puntate morte in cui nulla sembra muoversi. C'è gioia, pianto, rivalità, amicizia, lealtà e sfida nonché amore, fra persone e verso il proprio lavoro. Non mancano i momenti divertenti. Ma la trama non è poi così banale incentrata su un gioco come il Go, che negli anni '80 era abbastanza conosciuto in Italia e poi, chissà perché, è sparito dalle preferenze e io non sapevo nemmeno che non lo giocassimo in maniera corretta.

Gli attori sono tutti bravi, chi più chi meno, e lo sviluppo della storia e delle trame, principale e secondarie è decisamente armonico. Contemporaneo e tempo passato si mischiano, si ricorrono e si completano permettendo a tutti i personaggi di ogni età di questo cast di essere protagonisti della trama principale e o secondaria che li riguarda.

Bellissima l'ambientazione e tutta la scenografia che rappresenta queste due sfaccettature di una Cina proiettata al futuro ma ancora immersa nel suo passato, fatto di oggetti, relazioni, rapporti e rispetto. Ed è certamente più facile capire come la tradizione può integrarsi completamente in un futuro meglio di come noi, in occidente, non siamo riusciti a fare.
Davvero un bel Drama da vedere e rivedere.

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Pretty decent drama for having that many episodes

I know what you're thinking. 41 episodes, that seems a lot and bound to have a lot of troubles. Even I was concern too but in honest truth, it wasn't all that bad.

Before I continue with my review, I'm just going to pinpoint a couple of things about this drama and hopefully that will determine if you want to watch it or not.
1. If you're not a fan of the drama cliché of the leads meeting each other as kids, then you might as well skip this one. If you're not bother by it, then continue on. I considered this as a good drama cliché.
2. There are no evil parents or in-laws
3. There are a few misunderstandings, in the beginning and then right around Ep 31-32. However, these misunderstandings are cleared up pretty quickly, so if you're concern about long episode wait of solving the misunderstandings, you don't have to worry. The second misunderstanding doesn't lead to a break up but more of FL's concern and need of reassurance about ML's love for her.
4. Very minor love rival for our main couple. I said minor because the FL's rival doesn't show up until much later in the drama and even then, she's only in a few episodes but she is hecka annoying. There is a love triangle but that's within the secondary couple. There are 3 couples in total for this drama.
5. Some people may get annoyed by Yu Da, the guy that forms our 2nd couple and is part of the secondary love triangle. Either because of his actions or they seemly are rooting for the other guy in the love triangle. He doesn't really bother me but I can see the annoyance especially when it's with the SFL.
6. There is a main villain but it's more like the forming of a villain due to the greedy nature of wanting to win and to bring down the ML.

I personally like this drama overall and my rating of a 9 doesn't necessarily mean that you'll have the same opinion or taste as me. I gave this drama a rating of a 9 because for one, it's a 41 episode drama and I got to admit, it's actually pretty okay from start to finish for having that many episodes. There are some moments where it drags but that's what you expect with dramas this long. However, even with that, I still anticipate for the next episode so at least it kept me interested for the most part.

Story is nothing new here but it isn't bad either as the FL will play the key role to the ML's recovery process. This drama does a great balance on showing the GO competition and the building of relationships between our couples. Now there are some scenes where they do explain the movements of GO and how the play of this game works but not enough explanation for a newbie like me to understand. However, in replacement of that, the drama shows cool and awesome fighting scenes between our GO players to show who will win and I for one, really enjoy those cinematic scenes.

The one thing I wish that could've been better is at least having one of the character suspecting our villain throughout the drama. In terms of that aspect, the characters are too trusting which leads to the villain getting away with a lot of stuff until close to the end. Now the stuff he does just impacts the ML for the most part, as he is his main target so while his plans and actions are evil, there not as evil as other villains I've seen in other dramas. Also, I wasn't too fond of the secondary couple love triangle. That wasn't needed at all for this drama.

In summary, I'm very impressed with the quality of this drama being that it's 41 episodes. FL is a little bit annoying in the beginning but she's a strong character overall so that's a big plus for me. The drama OST for the intro and credit are amazing. I never skip it! It may not be everyone's cup of tea but I for one enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

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