There are better dramas about e-sports in China out there...

One of the better chinese dramas I've seen... But having never read the book, I don't know if it's the book that's the problem or the script/screenplay.

I love that it's set in the world of professional esports but, unlike most other reviewers, the bit I didn't like was the romance arc.... And I think it has something to do with the casting of Tong Nian and/or the screenplay/book/script as alluded to above especially when it comes to how they met and started dating.

There is already a 10 year age gap between our OTP but it really doesn't help that rather than looking 19, Yang Zi looks about 15 (and the way she dresses doesn't help) and then there's the fact that she essentially stalks our leading man into submission. I basically cringed throughout the majority of their romance because it became a little bit ickey (age gap, stalking and her made to look younger than she was). But, this may just be me being British as I've seen quite a few Asian dramas and stalking (especially when it's women fawning over men) seems to be a common theme that doesn't seemingly bother people. Not so when it's men stalking women as there will be police being called and the like.

Other issues with the drama included:
1. Too many flashbacks, especially of Team Solo when they were in their heyday. Could of kept it to Solo finding out about his daughter and break up with Appledog and then Han Shangyan leaving Team Solo. Series could of been reduced by 2/3 episodes because of this. Also we get the Han Shangyan held a grudge but I felt like that could and should have easily been resolved when he and Solo got drunk and hugged it out towards the end of the series.
2. The synopsis for this said is that Tong Nian is a brilliant 19 year old programmer... But there was no evidence of this. Personally, I think this could have been how they met and rather than the stalking, there were seemingly lots of computer-based reasons that they could have been associated. Including - by all accounts, she competed against Wu Bai at a tournament, where he came 1st and she came 2nd; Tong Nian could have been working on something at the internet cafe and he could have been interested in it; she was working on projects relating to cyber security using AI and facial recognition and I'm pretty sure she could have coded training programmes for the team... And finally, we found out later in the series that Han Shangyan had an association with her professor at the university. Again, why not use that to enable them to come together and highlight how good she at programming? A wasted opportunity.
3. Whilst the blossoming romance between Yaya and Mi Shaofei was sweet, Wu Bai should of been in it more. As the captain of an esports team, he should of been with the team more anyway but really should of had more than 2 instances whereby the series touched on his crush on Appledog.

It wasn't all bad as the production was good, albeit the story - mainly because of the use of flashbacks, was at some points difficult to follow. Could have been the product of poor editing but we'll never know.

My main problem with this show was the acting and/or characterisation but as mentioned above, I'm not sure who or what to blame for this.

Also, it's a chinese drama so it's longer than it needs to be and because to that, I wouldn't necessarily encourage a re-watch.

Leggi di Più

The other reviews on here had me looking for an english subbed version of this film and in doing so, I found many other reviews extolling it's virtues. A movie critic was quoted as saying "One of those films that you have no idea how it got made, but are so glad it did." and I wholeheartedly agree.

The story is one of Ryo - a young, intelligent student who would rather work as a bartender than attend university. He's handsome so can easily attract female, sexual partners but he finds women boring and sex with them ritualistic. When his friend, who is an escort at a hosts bar introduces him to the female boss of a high-class host bar, she encourages him to profit from getting a deeper understanding of women and their desires. The exposure catapults Ryo to the top of the escort game and the story has a slightly episodic tone to it, with the various women he meets and ultimately has sex with each wanting or needing something slightly different from Ryo and as he learns to fulfil those needs, his earning potential as well as his own enjoyment in his new-found profession significantly increases.

This movie has multiple sex scenes that leave nothing to the imagination so take heed of the 18+ rating associated to it but they are all necessary to the story as what is really being demonstrated here is the deep-rooted psychological complexity of our leading man and how his clients, in their situations and with their individual needs change his thinking.

Which leads us nicely onto how well the various actors and actresses fared. Very well is the answer and although it's not a particularly difficult story to tell, there are at least 2 or 3 character studies within this movie that wouldn't be anywhere near as good without the actors doing their parts so well.

I probably would re-watch this because of the behaviourial, psychological aspects that whilst not easily missed, could potentially be mis-construed so watching it at least once more would help and given I watched a subbed version, I think some things can literally become lost in translation so I might try and watch another version to see if meaning or interpretation changes.

Whether it does or not, I cannot recommend this film highly enough.

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So whilst on lockdown in merry old England due to COVID-19, I've managed to watch quite a few asian dramas. I've watched around 100 in the last 18 months and about 15 in the last 3 weeks when I've barely left the house (although that includes re-watching some of my favourites). I came across this one and quite frankly, I wish I hadn't.

I have never encountered a chinese drama that is 70 episodes long before and unfortunately, if I come across another, I won't be bothering to watch it because there can't be a story or plot that requires that many episodes and it definitely was not warranted for this series. They could have easily dropped 30 episodes and quite frankly, it still would have been boring but it would have been a lot more succinct.

As with a lot of chinese dramas in particular (I tend to favour korean), they follow very similar tropes regardless of which one you end up watching. There's mis-understandings, mis-communication and at least one really unrealistic event which in this case, is a boy being taken into a family and brought up alongside a little girl (girl is around 4 and the boy is about 7 when this happens). The children grow up together and consider themselves brother and sister and they become uncommonly close. As they grow up, you could say that their romantic lives in particular become complicated because of this close relationship which, at least one sibling doesn't find out they're not actually blood relations until very late on. And then there are other newly discovered familial relations that just get themselves in on the act of making everything unnecessarily complicated... And that's pretty much the story.

Except, on this occasion you can also add in the fact that virtually every episode includes someone being in a hospital or receiving medical care and a sociopath - who is not in any way scary or believable so his inclusion can probably be overlooked.

The majority of the cast did an ok job with what they had to work with, e.g the very boring script and story. But, the Liangshen character or actor (I don't know which one to blame), was either played as or written as perpetually bored. He could not evoke an emotion to save his life. I persevered with watching him for about 40 episodes but then, I fast forwarded through any scene's he was in and it made no difference to what I watched at all. I didn't care what he said or did so the character and the actor that played it was absolutely pointless in the grand scheme of things... And that has brought the acting/cast score down quite a lot.

I wouldn't rewatch this mainly because it would take so long to do so and you get no benefit.

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This series genuinely has everything and every time I watch it, I find something else to laugh or cry at.

One of the great things about this show is the characterisation... And that is brought to life by the awesome actors. I could talk about the entire cast but stand outs for me was Jung Eun-Ji who played the female lead and Sung Dong-Il who played her dad. They were great when interacting when any of the other characters but more especially when they were in a scene together. Even if you had not enjoyed a relationship with a parent in the same way, watching the two of them together mostly had me crying in hysterics. But, the same could be said for pretty much every other character and actor as the whole thing just worked. They came across as a tight friendship group, even going as far as becoming each others' family and I could see that extending to off camera relationships too.

But then there was the story. It was so original. Although I'm not korean, being able to reminisce about my late teens (I was 18 in 1997) in how I acted, what my friends were like all came flooding back. And the fact that over the 16 episodes, you had a 'mystery' to solve just made it a show that you couldn't drop even if you wanted to. Every episode taught you something more and gave you clues as to the outcome, but more than that, you got to know the characters more and more and probably had your own idea of what you wanted the outcome to be. In my opinion, everything worked out as it should have and there was no disappointment.

I loved this as well because it was rare for there to be any angst even though a significant amount of episodes covered teenage and school years. It was just about friendship and relationships in general but nothing seemed far-fetched or unrealistic.

I've watched this several times because it's that good.

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If I'd read reviews before watching this, I probably wouldn't have bothered... But I'm really glad I did. And having watched it once, I've now seen it 4 or 5 times and I like it more on every watch.

The story in itself, is not that strange albeit it's uncommon. I suspect you'd be hard pushed to find another drama that deals with impotence and has sexual overtones quite as brazen as this one. However, the subject isn't what makes this strange. It's actually the characters - their behaviour and interaction with each other is bizarre most of the time.

Now, I've not seen many Japanese shows but I like their brevity and their quirkiness. I've seen about 10 now (versus 50+ korean and more than 20 chinese) and I'm loving the 10 episodes or less set-ups... And I'm loving just how odd and in some cases, controversial you could say they are in comparison to their chinese and korean counterparts. Given this is reasonably short and doesn't rely on significant use of flashbacks to help viewers understand why someone is the way they are, don't expect to be able to put any meaning to the characters behaviour or expect them to change or grow in their psychology or make up. Our female lead does become a little bit more assertive but to some extent, this assertiveness just extends to her recognising what she wants or even who she wants. And if what or who she wants is weird or strange, she'll go after it anyway if she wants to whereas in the past as an adult, she was a people pleaser who apparently couldn't say no to anything which meant that she did things for others because they asked her to, rather than having dreams or goals for herself. The other characters saw no such self-awareness and seemingly continued their lives doing what they had always done.

The story was interesting. I've never seen anything like this nor do I think I'll ever see the likes of it again and I liked the acting and characterisation. Our male and female leads pretty much downplayed and dead-panned everything despite both their historic and present relationship being so unconventional... And their need for each other both then and now was at best, interrupted by their housemates and at worst, it was positively interfered with (I'm looking at you Hase!). The male lead has a knack for just coming out and saying whatever he wants to with no shame or embarrassment which actually makes some of these episodes or scenes hilarious.

Music was inconsequential. I actually really liked the opening theme but there was barely any music throughout the episodes so if it was there, it neither added or took anything away and as for re-watch value, as mentioned above I've seen it several times both because I think it was a good drama and because it's a fairly quick watch.

I'd definitely give it a go as I genuinely don't think anyone could 'lose' anything by watching it... But be prepared probably for something you've not experienced before. Its rated 18+ for a reason and whilst nothing is shocking, it's definitely not traditional.

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I'm quite new to asian drama but in the last 18 months, I've probably watched about 100 with the vast majority being korean.

For that reason, this drama falls into the common 'chinese drama' issue of being too long. To be honest, this was one of the drama's I watched when I first started 18 months ago and I hated it, but having recently watched a drama that had 70 episodes (COVID-19 lockdown has me binge-watching asian dramas), I thought I'd give this one another try as I thought I had mis-judged this one... And on a re-watch, it's actually much better than I first thought. However, the story still could been told in 30 episodes or less, because it re-hashed the same old mis-understandings/mis-communication trope and employed a significant amount of flashbacks that were unnecessary and irrelevant but if you've seen at least one other chinese drama then this will not be news to you and you'll know exactly when to fast forward (every flashback for example as I can guarantee it won't add much to your understanding of the plot or story at any given point in time).

Given the characters are supposed to be adults in their late 20's, holding high-level positions in their respective companies, you'd think there'd be less angst - something more common when your drama is set in a school, college or university. But no, one of the reasons I disliked this when I first watched it was because I thought that the female lead in particular cried far too much but on a second watch, that's not true. There is too much mis-understanding and plotting to frame the leads but given they've managed to get so many of those in to 48 episodes, I think they've done reasonably well in fact - and the female lead probably was entitled to cry when she did.

The above being said, I loved the casting and the characterisation as I thought they were all believable and played their characters well... It's just that the story they had to work with wasn't that good and I actually thought they all became a bit bored with it as well as the audience.

Given that I would score most chinese dramas as no more than a 5 (except for Le Coup de foudre is a 9 at least), this is a reasonably good watch.

My advice would be stick with it (although I'm sure you can guess what happens at the end); and fast forward anything that is in a hazy, sepia tone as they're flashbacks that are either irrelevant or get explained by a character at some point anyway so you don't miss anything.

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The fact I didn't like it shouldn't detract from the great story and acting...

... As per my headline, the ratings suggest that I should have given this an 8, but I didn't like this drama so I couldn't bring myself to do it. I would however draw your attention to why I might be biased or why my review might not be as objective as others.

I live in the UK and although I've watched a fair, few asian dramas, there are lots of societal and cultural norms synonymous with countries such as South Korea and China that I've just never been exposed to. The main subject of this drama is just one of those things I couldn't quite grasp as a big issue and I think, besides the story and the acting - it just meant that I was just at odds with the main subject matter.

The story is about a guy and a girl who fall in love, albeit they know they probably shouldn't because of their current situations. The girl is unhappy because she is unsuccessfully trying to break her 4 year relationship with a selfish and aggressive man (he is antagonist 1) after she realises that she's bored, doesn't love him and doesn't want to marry him. Admittedly, she realises this before she meets our male lead but ending the relationship becomes more urgent when she starts to interact with him.

Our male lead is a father of a young boy (probably 4 or 5). He is not with the boys mother anymore and he has custody of the child. He works hard to provide and care for his son and whilst he works, his parents are the primary care givers but he sees the boy on an almost daily basis. People, namely his male friends, gossip about the fact that he'll likely be single forever because no one would want to date a single father, unless she has something wrong with her - and it appears that this is common opinion, especially amongst the older generation.

This is the primary reason why, even if our female lead was single - it would not be deemed acceptable for her to date our male lead. Why this is discussed excessively is a big part of why I don't like the drama... Because I think it's a non-issue, but I recognise that korean cultural and societal measures are different, especially when you factor in what the older generation expects of the younger.

What further bothered me though is that to some extent, the actions and behaviour of our 3 main antagonists (and you could argue there were more than 3) were deemed to be acceptable and expected.

And this is where, I have to hand it to the actors because they played their parts beautifully and never have I felt such ire against our villains as I have here. I'm not sure if I would have hated them more or less if they were not all male but I guess we'll never know. Regardless, I couldn't fault the story line nor the acting in this regard as I think the script was well paced, the dialogue and especially the conveying of emotions in what was a very 'heavy' production, was on point. But back to the issues I had...

Antagonist 1 was the ex-boyfriend. The girl was honest and clear with him as to why she didn't want to pursue their relationship (even before she met someone else), but he wouldn't accept it and he plotted to simultaneously maintain a relationship with her as well as disgracing her for trying to enter a relationship with a single father. He was selfish and became aggressive... But was a loathsome individual.

Antagonist 2 was our female leads' brother-in-law. He was a devious, gold-digger who was hanging on to the coat tails of his beautiful and famous wife; spending her money and beating her black and blue when she attempted to stand up to him. When she tried to divorce him, he refused and continued to manipulate deeds to their properties and their finances to ensure he could continue to profit from their relationship even though she was doing everything possible to distance herself from him and his abuse. This got worse when she found she was pregnant with his child.

Antagonist 3 was our female leads' father and I think he was the worst of the 3. This man had 3 daughters. His eldest, a successful broadcaster, married to antagonist 2. His middle child was our female lead and his youngest was a headstrong student who loved her sisters dearly, but didn't like being told what to do. She had spent time abroad to essentially get away from her parents. His wife was loyal and loving, with her own hobbies and he was a high school administrator, nearing the latter years of his career and looking forward to a prominent position within the school system that would see him working less up until his retirement. The problem was that he wouldn't accept that his eldest daughter wanted to end her marriage even though he knew she was being beaten by her husband because he couldn't stand the disgrace of having a divorced daughter. (Genuinely, if my father even thought my husband was laying a hand on me, my other half would be dead by now). He tried to arrange the marriage of his second daughter to a man (the ex-boyfriend) he knew she didn't love and wanted to leave because, the ex-boyfriend was the son of his employer whom he didn't want to annoy, fearing his new job would be compromised. He tried to dictate what the youngest would do with her life (even though she was an adult) and she often went month's without speaking to him and finally, he berated and spoke down to his wife regarding her life choices, her relationship with their daughters and her hobbies. I'm glad to say that towards the end of the series, his wife had moved out of the family home and was considering her next steps but this man was the epitome of despicable.

I was sad that the things these 3 men did could even be brought up in a drama produced within the last 5 years, let alone the fact that our female lead had to tolerate being associated and affected by any of them.. And that's the reason, I didn't like this drama.

But as mentioned above, it was a fine story, script and production in general and the fact it affected me as much as to incite me to write a review, says it was certainly good enough to leave an impression on me... But I wouldn't watch it again just because of the uneasy feeling it left with me. I would still recommend that it should be watched, if nothing else to see what the director and the actors are capable of as that element cannot be praised enough.

Leggi di Più

A nice little introduction to Ji Chang Wook and Park Min Young

This is one of the best dramas I've seen and as of now, I've watched a few. Has everything - good action; strong plot that doesn't dip in terms of excitement and likeable characters that you really root for (if they're good guys) and want to see their end if they're villians.

It was also well casted and chemistry between the main cast was good and the pacing of the story was just perfect. I didn't watch this when it first came out so unlike those that did, I didn't have to wait for a week between episodes (might have gone mad as virtually every episode ends with a cliffhanger!).

I've watched several other Korean dramas starring Ji Chang Wook and Park Min Young now and I would say that this showcases their talents well. Ji Chang Wook fits the bill as an all action man who sticks to shadows and is a bit of a loner, playing against a feisty, underdog in Park Min Young who gets under his skin.

It's surprisingly non-tropey in that you can't always predict the outcome - the good and bad guys are not always what or who they seem to be. There can be no mistaking that what you think will happen at the end does, but everything in between does keep you hooked into the story and you're genuinely interested in what happens next.

I say give it go. It was one of the first kdramas I ever watched and it holds a little place in my heart because of the fact that I've been watching them almost non-stop for nearly 2 years, almost to the extent that I can't remember the last time I watched something without subtitles!

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It's just so cute!

My headline says it all. This is a very cute series with the ideal actors in place and a very simple premise by which to bring together our OTP.

Not to spoil it too much but our main character has his 30th birthday and can suddenly hear what people are thinking if he touches them. He obtains this 'magic' because he turned 30... and was still a virgin.

He notices a colleague of his who is always kind to him and when he touches him by accident, he 'hears' that this colleague actually has a little crush on him. When the colleague starts encouraging him and he becomes more confident in many aspects of his life, he realises that he is also attracted to his colleague and so their romance begins.

It's also sweet that his friend ends up in the same boat as him (hearing the internal monologue of others when he touches them because he celebrates his 30th birthday whilst still a virgin) and he embarks on his own romance with a street-dancing delivery man.

It's such an easy, non-controversial watch that will have you grinning from ear to ear.

Leggi di Più

I tend to favour korean dramas as they're typically done in 16 - 20 episodes and even if I don't like it, I can finish watching it quickly and not feel too hard done by. I was actually interested to watch this drama because of 2 of the main cast - namely Janice Wu and Zhang Yu Jian and if you like these actors, this drama is probably the best thing you'll see with the 2 of them in.

I'm a real sucker for dramas which follow a 'gang' of friends from high school to adulthood that doesn't necessarily rely on flashbacks to tell a story, but actually spends significant time during those informative times. In this case, 60% of the episodes focussed on their high school years and not just on what they as kids was going through, but their school interactions and more importantly, their family interactions. Whether they're dealing with parental divorce, separation, step-parents, sibling relationships, illness or even death of immediate family - it was all covered and although there was a lot of comedy, there was also lots of heartache, sentimentality and just plain loveliness to observe as well.

I'm not typically a fan of any drama that is more than about 20 episodes in length, but this is an exception and it's mainly because the plot and story doesn't drag and nothing fantastical or unrealistic happens. Just people living their lives, growing up, growing apart or coming together but just generally doing normal things.

Nothing that happens is irrelevant so you're engrossed in every episode because it's likely that something said or done will have an impact in a future event and it truly keeps you hooked.

Acting and casting is awesome. You know it's good when after watching something, you genuinely can't imagine anyone else playing those roles.

I loved this and in my 'lockdown' state at the moment, I've re-watched this at least twice in the last 3 weeks as well as several times in the past because it's just so good and there's very little else out there that hits the spot in the same way!

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One of the reasons I love this drama is because of the story. But given it's a novel and an anime series, you have to give credit to the writers of those mediums first but also recognise that whomever wrote these screenplays did extremely well. Then add the visual effects employed to be able to represent in-game play and character/actor representation in the game and it turns into a drama that's a feast for the eyes.

The effects were amazing, and the main characters/actors were awesome. You hated the villains and rooted for the good guys. There was also some character development thrown in there for good measure but it wasn't every bad guy that turned their back on the dark side nor every good person that got better. Everything had a reason.

In terms of the 'My Drama List' ratings, I should have scored this a 9.5 because I put the rewatch value at 8 and the only reason for doing that is it's 40 episodes long. They're all good as collectively, they make a great show but for me, some episodes are better than others. Personally, episodes with Jiang Long as Huang Shaotian were my favourites as his character is hilarious, and for evidence of this, I direct you to episode 10.

Episode 10 is a favourite for lots of reasons but that is one whereby more than 50% of it, the viewer is following players in the game and it showcases everything that is good about this show as per the above (great VFX, my favourite characters) as well as the beginnings of lots of the relationships that are needed to build out the story.

The whole show actually introduced me to online role playing games as well as e-sports as a medium and this show did a great job of representing the industry although, if I'm honest, the anime did better but this is only important, if like me, you liked the premise and plot of the story as much as I did.

I could say more, but if you haven't seen it... Don't delay and do it now. You won't be disappointed.

Leggi di Più

After watching what can only be described as very tame korean, chinese and taiwanese dramas predominantly, I've only recently started watching japanese and I wasn't sure, purely based on the title - whether I was going to like this one. Worth noting that the english subbed version I watched actually called this 'The Novelist' which I think is a more appropriate name given it's about an erotic novelist and his temporary assistant.

The given title however does suggest that there are some sexual content and scenes that some people might not be comfortable with, but none, I would venture are gratuitous or unnecessary to the story.

The story is simple in that a university student literally bumps into an erotic novelist and breaks his arm. As he can't afford the medical expenses associated with the accident he caused, he offers to help the novelist write his stories over the 2 months that his arm is in plaster. The story told over the remaining 2 and a half hours and 5 episodes is just a telling of how their relationship blossoms and how the somewhat naive student has a sexual awakening driven by the content of the novels he's helping to write. The ending is somewhat underwhelming but not unexpected or unsurprising. It just kind of ends which is ok because there isn't much to resolve.

The actors play their roles well with those of the main characters being able to exhibit all the behaviours and emotions probably relevant to a young, naive, eager to please student and a slightly jaded, isolated but experienced middle-aged novelist who appear to come together out of necessity rather than desire.

The music was probably exactly as it should be; in that it just seemed to blend into the narrative. I must admit that some chinese dramas habitually repeat their incidental music and/or play it too loudly so that you can't actually hear the dialogue. This wasn't the case here and moreover, when there were scenes pertaining to music, I liked the use of jazz and the analogue medium of records to demonstrate the differences between the main characters - both in an age and expectation sense.

I would re-watch this in a heartbeat and the length of this drama lends itself to doing so. I would question whether you actually need to re-watch it though as there's not much to miss or understand with either the story or the characters' motivations so watching it once is probably enough... But it's definitely good enough and short enough to warrant revisiting it once in a while.

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