Tian Ci Xiao Hong Niang (2024)

Good Premise But Cheap Comedy

I. Introduction
This short-length drama held promise with its interesting premise: In the heavenly realm, the FL and ML work together to defeat the villainous nine-tailed fox demon. The FL suffers spiritual damage and the ML expends all his immortal cultivation to preserve her life, resulting in the FL being reincarnated as a spirit matchmaker and the ML, a human. The FL is tasked with matchmaking the ML, who as an adult human, developed a severe allergy to females in general (except the FL, of course). Inevitably, the FL and ML fall in love with each other while the villain fox demon tries to keep them separated because together, they're strong like Bandai's Power Rangers.

The production then completely failed to deliver the promise, and instead delivered slapstick comedy with cheap tricks and cheaper CGI. The entire drama appeared as if the production team just wanted to take potshots at these kind of themes and costume dramas, but never fully committing to the satire, which earns it a lukewarm 5 out of 10 stars.

II. Storyline/ Plot
The premise is simple and straightforward. Yue Lao is tasked by The Big Boss (presumably the Jade Emperor, who is never seen onscreen, only heard) to reunite the FL and the ML. Yue Lao (the FL's boss) then tasks the FL to head to the mortal realm and matchmake the ML who has been unmatchable so far, with the promise of a guaranteed job promotion and pay raise if the FL succeeds. The ML inadvertently discovers the FL's touch does not trigger an allergic reaction, leading the ML to only ever view the FL as a potential love interest. At some point, they even figured out that a sachet containing her DNA is sufficient to act as a prophylactic agent. While on earth, the FL is unable to use her spirit powers, but she is sufficiently witty to outsmart the villainess in her own games.

What fails this drama is the complete lack of commitment to any one theme. The opening scenes take a shot at satire with the heavenly realm's cheap CGI and gold-coloured Bluetooth headset. The following scenes try comedy, tragedy, and melancholy in turns. It then ends with suspense bordering on absurdity because the open ending leaves us wondering if they both die at the end of the final battle or if the entire thing was merely a production skit. Any one of the themes could have been successful, if they would only commit to it.

III. Characters
LYY is an adorable, witty FL, who does the best she can at her job. JCQ is a socially-inept but intellectually outstanding ML who is learning the ins and outs of romantic relationships. SXJ is a comedic failure of a villainess. Given the mess of a plot and the mess of scenes, I'd say that the actors did the best they could with what they were given.

IV. Production Aspects
I nearly dropped the drama 30 seconds into Episode 1, as the CGI was really, really cheap. There is no excuse for how cheap it looked, given that this is a 2024 production. I persisted, and then nearly dropped it again 2 minutes later because the hair and costumes were awful. Again, why the cheap production quality when this is a 2024 production and we have been given so much better? The production aspects improve when the story focusses on the mortal realm, and the costumes and set do not appear as cheap-- but this is relative to the initial 4 minutes and not in comparison to other short-length or web drama quality. The only reason I could see why they'd have used such quality is to portray satire (like in a crosstalk skit) but again, the storyline failed to commit to the satire so we are left with a cheap, poor quality drama.

V. Conclusion
I've watched a series of budget productions recently, and I am not even sure whether this can be a 'Watch Just to Get It Off Your Watch List' drama. It might be worth watching if you go into it as an analytical review to see how many cheap production aspects you can identify or how many cheap trope tricks they're pulling out of the hat. But if you're watching it because you'd like a story, I don't think this drama is for you.

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