Well I'm just glad to be watching a show in which REDACTED doesn't die by the end!

I really loved watching this show. In fact, I couldn't stop watching it! It's possibly (probably) one of the best shows of the year. With a raw storyline, amazingly complex characters, and competent production, this show is a good option for a mature and gut-wrenching experience.
Throughout the watching experience of this show, I noticed a lot of viewers were upset by characters not being easily categorized as good or bad, or judging characters too harshly, or just being upset that the romances were not cute. So just upfront, let me tell you. This is not your next Love is Sweet or Begin Again, or even Go Ahead (though that show is pretty close, content-wise). This show is raw. It's like an open wound. It goes for realism and it exposes the characters' faults on purpose. Actions have consequences in this show and everyone is a bit more complicated than meets the eye. I could write pages on character studies alone but this is a show review, so I'll stop!

You should watch this show if you like:
1. Mature stories. No black and white morality to be found here or cutesy characters whose bad decisions only lead to quirky shenanigans. Nope. You make a bad mistake here, you go DOWN!
2. Good acting
3. Later 20th-century history
4. Family dramas
5. Generational stories

Summary: The show follows the Qiao children as they struggle to survive in their father's home after their mother dies in childbirth. Yi Cheng, the eldest, makes a silent vow to never lose his dignity no matter what he faces in life. He struggles to raise his neglected siblings, keep them fed and in school while also following his own ambitions of raising himself out of his bad situation through education, all while maintaining his pride. As the story progresses and their lives get complicated by mistakes and tragedies, the siblings stay close together like the threads of a knitted sweater!

Plot: The plot is simple. It's life. It starts in 1977 and ends in 2005 and the show is committed to historical accuracy but other than that it shows the characters, their love life, their triumphs and failures with little judgment. You will hate some decisions and you'll love others. It's chaotic and illogical, the way that real life is. In real life, sometimes people make bad decisions and they commit to them longer than it makes sense to do so. It's the same in this show. I personally found everything in the story tolerable and nothing made me so angry as to make me want to stop watching. Everything flowed naturally. Nothing was dragged out and nothing was wrapped too fast. The pace was great and it helped to keep the viewer interested. Each episode is packed with one event after another to the point that missing one episode might lead to missing entire arcs!

Acting: Perfect. All across the board, everyone was amazing. Special shout out to Liu Jun who played their father. His character was a jerk but he played him so well that I was just so impressed by this veteran actor. Also, the young actors playing the Qiao kids in their childhood, especially the young actor for YiCheng, were amazing. Guo Zi Ming made me tear up more than any other character in the show. Kudos!

Music: I actually loved the music for this show. Especially the song called Wild Bird which I have been listening to on repeat since I watched the first episode. I can sing along now!

Production: It was near perfect. Gorgeous cinematography, meticulous location setting, attention to details, historically accurate objects but also experiences, symbolic lighting (happy homes colored with warm colors and unhappy ones with cold ones), (almost) perfect continuity. Most importantly, I think the production wasn't as expensive as it seemed and that it was just very well-budgeted.

Rewatch: I wouldn't say no. It was a very endearing watch and I particularly enjoyed certain parts that I would love to watch again.

Negatives: Characters make bad decisions a lot but I thought they made sense in context. While bad decisions, they still made sense for the characters. It's a bit hard to keep track of the passage of time. It's probably easier for Chinese people to figure them out because the show touches on important historical events but even so, there were certain points where time moved in loops (as it so often does in cdramas!) and it was a bit confusing but it didn't harm the show. It was just surprising to learn how much time had passed, once we did get a date. Some scenes were censored and there is some propaganda in the show. The censored parts do not redact from the quality but they do raise questions of "what if"s. The propaganda is light and harmless for the most part. One or two subplots lead nowhere in particular but given how packed the show is, it's fine. Qiqi gets WAY less screen time than everyone else. Not sure if it was a good thing or not because what we got from him was so sad and upsetting that I wish we hadn't had that either!

Overall: Highly recommended. I don't usually enjoy modern cdramas. This show stands out with its near-perfect everything.

Leggi di Più

The inherent feminism of being a shrewd woman!

Agatha Christie meets Jane Austen in this riveting historical romance-mystery. This show was a surprise favorite for me. A diamond in the rough, a show with seriously feminist aspirations and an unapologetic stance on its radical and rebellious views. And the pièce de resistance? It’s an originally written story that avoids 99% of cdrama cliché pitfalls!

If you’re still not convinced that this show is worth a watch here are some more reasons:
1. Pride and Prejudice meets Mrs. Marple!
2. A headstrong, intelligent, and flawed female lead who had a steady personality and an unbreakable spirit
3. An intelligent, nuanced, and flawed male lead who grows and develops through the story with not a single jealous cell in his body…like WOW!
4. An actual good second male lead? With freaking personality and flaws?! Who isn’t a sticky gum and doesn’t scheme against the leads and doesn’t think he knows best for the FL, thus undermining her personhood whilst acting like he’s soooo nice?!?!?! Like...what?! He’s mine now! I have adopted him! He’s my child now, no one hurt this baby! He’s too pure for Cdramaland.
5. A villain who is not an idiot or a caricature who keeps the mains on their toes and is in return kept on his toes by the leads!
6. A truly enjoyable ensemble with interesting stories, arcs, and journeys.
7. A meta-commentary on women’s lives in the olden days
8. Actually good mystery cases
9. One of the best romances I have seen in historical dramas in a while
10. Enemies-to-lovers, slow burn, with “there was only one bed”!
11. Nice parents?!?!?!?! (Is this even a cdrama at this point? Where am I right now?)
12. And more!

Summary: Qiu Yan is the concubine-born daughter of the second master of Qiu family. Everyone in her family dislikes her except for her legal mother who loves her beyond anything. When Qiu Yan was young, she and her biological mother and brother are caught by bandits but a young man saves Qiu Yan and gives her a fan that becomes the symbol of Qiu Yan’s yearning to become educated and step above her station in her deeply misogynistic and biased society. The story follows Qiu Yan as she uses her wits, knowledge, street-savviness, and intelligence to survive and make her way in life. And the ML is Liang Yi. He's pretty cool, too!

Plot: I loved this show and mainly because it was so well-written. The characters make sense, the plot makes sense. The themes are clear and the writer knew exactly how they meant to explore them. No scene is unnecessary. Each character and event had a purpose. The tone is a good mix of romantic, comedic, emotional, and thought-provoking. It hardly has the usual stereotype pitfalls of historical dramas. I have to mention that the show has a very modern tone and the female lead’s opinions are beyond her era and time but the show somehow makes it work. On top of it all, the stories that are explored were stuff I had never seen in any other show which made this very refreshing for me. What was interesting was that I could recognize the plot as mentioned backstories in other shows but I had never seen a show that actually explored the plot, head-on. As for the romance, I loved it! The growth of their feelings felt natural and the progression of their relationship was super satisfying. No unnecessary misunderstandings or overly complicated melodrama.

Acting: I was very impressed by the leads. They had such amazing chemistry. Jeremy Tsui has an amazing voice and since everyone is using their own voice, the performances feel that much more real and authentic. I liked the supporting cast too. Minus one or two cannon fodders, I think everyone did a good job conveying their character and working together.

Music and Production: Music was okay; nothing too impressive. The production didn’t look expensive and it did leave some things to be desired. The cinematography was simple, the clothes and makeup were passable. Overall, this is the section the show might fall short but many of my favorite historical dramas have average or below average productions so I didn’t mind.

Rewatch: Right! Forgot about this! I never rewatch shows but this is a fun show so I would say it's worth it? Idk, watch new shows, why rewatch?!

Negative: There is a slight hiccup in storytelling in the very last episode. I have deduced that the reason is that the show did too good a job at closing all loose ends and just ended up with 20 extra minutes with nothing else happening there so they had to pull a last-minute twist to fill up the time. I didn’t care much for the twist but it didn’t affect the plot at all so I don’t care. What matters is that we got a happy ending and after watching such a good mystery show for 23 episodes, it was easy to see how the ending worked in the context of the whole show. (like I don't want to spoil but you could tell that the twist was super temporary)

Overall: I was expecting something like Jun Jiu Ling or Sword and the Brocade when I started this show but was pleasantly surprised when it turned out the way that it did. I almost dropped this! But I couldn't stop thinking about the characters so I went back and I am very happy with my decision. It was a joy for me to watch this. I laughed in every episode, I cheered for the main cast of characters to triumph and I was heartbroken for them when they suffered. This was one of the best watches I’ve had and though the show may not be perfect, the happiness it brought me made me decide to give it a 10. Because at the end of the day, we watch shows for enjoyment and that is what they should provide. The Autumn Ballad did just that. Highly recommended.

Leggi di Più

I met a friend, at the edge of the universe

This show is perfection! There! It has been achieved. Arguably one of the best shows I have ever watched, Lost is a profound, philosophical, and incredibly romantic masterpiece that examines its characters in a moment of personal crisis. Depending on how you look at this show it’s about a couple falling out of love, about people falling in love, about finding your self-worth, about letting go of the residue of your trauma, and about healing your soul and stepping back from the edge to find a new meaning in life, in yourself, in your relationships. This show deals with death and death ideation with such patience and natural care that despite the heavy subject, the show never felt claustrophobic or bleak. The story follows its main characters through a crisis of humanity, yet it doesn’t make you feel miserable and nihilistic. Instead, it inspires warm feelings of being understood and seen and appreciated on a journey to find a new facet of oneself.
Granted, this is not your typical drama or even melodrama watch. It requires a bit of a commitment from the viewer to pause and absorb the emotions quietly. The show does not have loud emotional moments that will have pay-offs of cheap reactions. There is no melodramatic event in this show. There is no grand gesture, no epic confrontation, no shameful and over-the-top confession. The biggest and most impactful events happen and pass by as you would expect them to in real life; with little noise and then life keeps going. That’s perhaps the most profound narrative climax that the show has achieved: that life goes on. It keeps going even if it feels like it should be over. All will pass and you will feel better soon. The calm and serene way that the camera follows stress-inducing events manages to truly reveal a new side to the story of its characters. It doesn’t communicate the distress and anxiety but the empathy to cheer the characters on as they survive the mundane hardships of everyday life. This might just be the best show I have seen all year long.

This show has everything:
1. A beautiful, profound friendship formed with delicate care and harmony
2. Kindred spirits healing together
3. The most beautiful father-daughter dynamic in any show I have seen
4. The hardships of everyday life
5. Dealing with loss and grief
6. The best romantic development I have seen in a long time
7. But very little physical romance (so don’t expect Eros love. It’s more of a platonic love, in the PLATOnic sense…I’ll elaborate later)
8. Suicide and depression and how to come back from the edge of life
9. Complex human relationships in which no one is a clear villain/victim
10. A very subtle and well-expressed reference to privilege and abuse in the entertainment industry
11. Profound symbolism and metaphors

Summary: Lee Boo Jung has hit rock bottom. She is working as a cleaning lady getting treated like crap, refuses to deal with her clueless husband, and now she even has a possible criminal record hanging over her head. At forty years old, Boo Jung feels like she has reached the end of her potential and has amounted to absolutely nothing. Her elderly father is the very last thing she cares about. Lee Kang Jae is only twenty-seven and has his own successful stand-in escort business but he is so ashamed of the person he has become and is so far beyond caring about himself or life that he wears apathy as a second skin. The two of them live at the threshold of each other’s lives. Then one fateful night, after the suicide of a friend and one lawsuit later, the two of them see each other for the first time. Really see each other. In a way that no one else in either of their lives has seen them. Fate, destiny, enemies, or money conspire to further entangle these two’s lives together. It might sound like a recipe for disaster but it ends up being a blessing in disguise.

Plot: There are multiple amazing facets to this story and I think the show has managed to execute each of them to perfection. First of all, this show does suspense and mystery better than all mystery shows I’ve seen out there. The story begins in medias res so when we find the characters, it feels like they are already in the middle of a bigger crisis. There’s a lot of information that is kept hidden from the viewer and they unravel as we learn them along with some of the characters and with each revelation the picture becomes more and more clear. This creates an excitement and anticipation that is usually not there for slow-paced and quiet shows like this. On the other hand, there are the journeys of the characters themselves. While Boo Jung and Kang Jae are the unrivaled protagonists, the show also has a plotline for all the side characters. Everyone seems simple and typical at first, like the evil mother-in-law or the bumbling husband. Yet, the show manages to follow their stories and reveal inner depths for them to the point that with the exception of two or three characters, all are extremely sympathetic. Even in the case of the unlikeable characters, there is still depth so that I couldn’t bring myself to be enraged by them. It’s just an incredibly human story. I came to care deeply for all characters and the writing is so amazing that by the end of it, all the characters get satisfying albeit realistic ends. There’s just something irresistible about a narrative that is so harmonious from the beginning to end. In a lot of ways, the experience of watching this show was more akin to reading a good novel, rather than watching a show.

The romance: Oh yeah, it gets its own category because I want to rant. This is not a romance-centered show. There’s romance in every cell of it. Love oozes out of the characters like tears. Everyone in the story is desperate to have it, to find it, to hold on to it. One of the less-likable characters in the show says: “Love? Is there still such a thing?” and I think that was the ultimate way to show how pathetic that one character was because everyone else was vying for love and struggling for it but this person was blind to that sensation and isn’t that the worst punishment of them all? Side-romances aside, the profound love between the two main characters truly surpassed what I have witnessed in a TV show so far. When we talk about platonic love, we usually think of a friendship of sorts, not romance. Yet, interestingly enough, platonic love as defined by Plato himself is not one that excludes sexuality and physical love but one that goes beyond it. In fact, there is a distinction to be made between amour platonique and amour platonicien. Here, the love was platonicien in the sense that it did have a physical aspect but it grew beyond that. Instead, it depicted two people coming together as kindred spirits.
Usually, in older woman/younger man dynamics or affair plotlines, the focus is on the sex. It’s on the physical chemistry between the characters and it’s usually not surprising when things fall apart. This show bypasses all that messy sh!t. Instead, it has the characters connect because their souls call out to each other. Their interest in each other helps them open up and express themselves even if ultimately words are left unsaid between them, they are forever changed for their connection together. That’s why it’s better than all the other stories. It’s a love that does not judge but elevates the soul and it was gorgeous. Even when typical melodrama hurdles get in the way, they float above those pesky things and focus on that authentic dynamic between them. I can’t praise the show enough for this.

Acting: A bunch of giants acted in this show. The acting was just…beyond amazing. So subtle and natural. From the male lead's heart suddenly beating faster in overwhelmed emotions to the slowly growing smiles of the female lead, to the tears that formed in Kim Hyo Jin’s eyes but just wouldn’t fall to the tired disappointment in Jo Eun Ji’s drooping shoulders, the cast out-acted the pants off each other! Just wonderful. Ryu Joon Yeol looks ethereal. He’s handsome, yeah but also not conventionally handsome? Like he’s beautiful in this beyond reproach way and that’s exactly the energy his character has. Then with a mature and seasoned performance, he slowly unravels that icy veneer of his character, and he becomes so human and vulnerable in the show and I just loved that. Jeon Do Yeon was beyond outstanding. She just brought Boo Jung to life in such a heartbreaking and natural way. Her character doesn’t have to say anything to express the most complex and difficult emotions. Her gaze is enough. I am truly in awe of her and this cast.

Music: I finally figured out my issue with music in East Asian productions. Unlike western shows that have soundtracks for each episode, East Asians have an original soundtrack with a few songs that are created specifically for the show and used for different scenes. Now, this will be fine when you watch one episode a week but if you binge it, then it’s like listening to the same songs straight for 4 days and everyone knows that’s the fasted way to hate a song! Here, they had more music than you usually expect from a Kdrama and they masterfully use them in tandem in such a way that nothing gets repeated so much that it’ll be irritating. I mean just as I thought they were going to play Hallelujah to death, the show stopped playing it altogether and it only came back once, many episodes later. An impactful return if there ever was one. In addition, the show uses silence as well as it uses sounds and so the calm and measured playlist melds perfectly into the pattern of storytelling and truly elevates the watching experience instead of interrupting it with loud bursts of noise or dramatic screaming by a singer.

Production: The aesthetic, the camerawork, the creation of spaces, lighting, attention to detail were all amazing. Time passes in this show!!!!!! I know, a shocker! There’s continuity. There is a timeline and the show stays true to it. It’s just a very well-thought-out production with great attention to detail. You can tell it was made with care and not just to make profits.

Rewatch value: YES! I already want to watch it all over again. This is a story I will definitely come back to when I need some feel-good but not boisterous watch.

Overall: What’s left to say? This is a story about not being able to go on living and then finding a way to do so anyway. It was just a joy and a privilege to watch it. I am so glad that I made the choice to watch it and I hope others will give it a chance and actually like it. It might not be for everyone though, I acknowledge that but it was definitely the perfect watch for me.

Leggi di Più

The sound of flowers *ugly crying*

This show was so good! It was different but I think it still belongs to the Saeguk Hall of Fame. There were some hiccups along the way, the uncanny similarities to Gone With the Wind, the unfortunate shoehorning of that one actress with her bad acting skills...but the main plot, the romance, the historical events, the main actor and actress (and the supporting cast that mattered), the music, and the production were all perfect!
In fact, I loved this show so much, that I didn't want to finish it because I was afraid the ending would ruin it. That didn't happen. A certain character who shall not be named really downgraded my enjoyment of this from a 10 to a 7 and I would have let that affect my rating except I decided she wasn't worth it. I decided she was not significant enough for me to let her ruin my favorite show's rating. So I was gonna just redact half a point, which would be what she deserved but by the end, I loved the main cast so much that I decided she wasn't even worth that. So this is now a 10/10 show!
Now, there were some hiccups in production but I only noticed this nitpicky stuff because the overall work was way above average which allowed me to then pay attention to details. So for example, some scene blocking, editing, and camera angles were a bit bothersome but come on!!!! Do you even notice this stuff for an average show?! No, you don't! You're distracted by the cringe dialogue, the stiff acting, and the ridiculous melodrama! So I'm not gonna hold it against the show if they forgot to change a character's clothes from one scene to the next to show the passage of time...it's fine! It's totally fine. Is it a rookie mistake?....kinda! But whatever. It's fine.
Now the indisputable strength of this show: the main cast. Except for miss-death-of-emotions-by-botox-I-am-a-nepo-addition-to-the-show-to-ruin-your-enjoyment-evil-cackling. She sucks as$. But everyone else was so good! No one more so than Namkoong Min and Ahn Eun Jin. They were soooo good. Their acting is just heartbreaking and inspiring. I also loved Kim Yoon Woo, my lil baby. He did such a good job. He is one of my newcomer favorites. I can't wait to see more of him.
Now, I never mention music but this show had great music. Why? Well, you might not know this about me, I may hate Korean pop but I love traditional Korean music and the main song and the general vibe of the whole show's ost were heavily inspired by traditional Korean songs, like the songs I used to love before I even got into kdramas. So not only did the song make me emotional every time I heard it, it was also just so beautiful. I love it. I had to mention that.
Overall: Great show. Go watch it and join our cult!!!!

Leggi di Più

Unique story, not the best execution but still watchable

Edit: I decided to lower the rating in retrospect because it would be unfair to better shows that I want to give the 7.5 rating to since they have overall better quality and execution.
ATTENTION: This show has triggering content in episode 7. I will put the trigger warning in a spoiler comment under my review for those who have triggers they have to avoid so they can check that out.
I think I will be the black sheep among the reviewers here but I don't think this show was good. Not by any fair standards anyway. But I will admit that despite being not-so-great, it was interesting enough and engaging enough for me to watch the whole thing so I still think it is worth one watch. It's very short anyway. It'll be over in a blink and it’s entertaining enough.
You should definitely give this a watch if you:
1. love BL stories
2.Looking for more BL shows to watch
3.Like watching boys look pretty and pretty much just that
4.Don't mind low-quality productions as long as it's gay
5.Love soulmate-au fanfictions
6.Have a thing for colors? BOI DO I HAVE THE SHOW FOR YOU!!!!!
7.Kind of about characters with disabilities? But not really?
8.Happy-ending

Summary: The show is set in an alternate universe where some people are colorblind and can only see color if they meet this one specific-to-them person. Then they will experience color rush and see colors. The colorblind people are called Monos and their color-filter halves are probes. The thing is, Monos are notorious for being dangerous because once they see colors, they get obsessive and might kidnap their probes or commit even bigger crimes. The main character Yeon Woo is a mono. He lives with his aunt after his mother who was also a mono, goes missing a few years before. He moves to a new school, meets his probe, drama ensues…

I get the feeling that a lot of this shows’ viewers are audiences who watch a lot of bl-web series? I'm not one. I've only seen one or two bl shows so I don't know if this show is somehow better than other available BL shows so I'm comparing it with all shows that I watch generally.
The premise for this show is so interesting and unique which is why I decided to watch it in the first place. I was a little disappointed to find out that the writing and production of this show is so weak. It's understandable, it's a low-budget show and you can really tell and they put most of the budget into creating these really beautiful and romantic color effects which pays off to an extent, because it makes the show unique and gives it a little something to set it apart.
But overall, it looks and feels like a student project. Like a typical “recently graduated film students got together and made something together” kind of short film you see on YouTube all the time. It's not the worst quality, it could definitely be worse, but the story was so interesting that with a better budget and better production it could have been much better.
The cinematography is very simple, they just...have the characters in the frame. They do some interesting things with color which I liked. The set design and the general worldbuilding is very sloppy, however. If they were being really smart about it, they could have used the costumes and set designs to reveal even more of the story and aesthetic but the look of the show is very careless so they clearly didn’t spend too long on it. Like they could have had the main character only dress in blacks and whites to show his lack of color sensitivity or have the set have really harmonious color palettes that would highlight the color rush experience. They could have even color graded the show to really capitalize on the sense of losing and gaining color but they only do that a little bit. Missed opportunity.
There’s a sense that everyone in the background besides the main characters, are just standing there like avatars in a video game from 15 years ago. They don’t act like humans and it makes the show look like a theatrical production rather than a TV show. I could nag about the production failures but a weak production can be overlooked if the writing is good. Unfortunately, this show actually suffers from weak writing:
Now that I have watched the whole thing, I know that a lot of subplots are left dangling. This is possibly for a second-season tease which they probably will get because everyone loved this show but to be honest, they made no effort to developed these subplots throughout this season. They are presented in the first episode and then remain in whatever state they were presented, all the way to the very end. It was sad. I wanted to know more about other monos. There’s a whole background situation about everyone hating monos and I think making that more visible in the show would have raised the stakes even more and made it more interesting.
The main issue was the voiceover. You can tell a writer has failed, if there is more voiceover in a show than dialogue. Each scene has the main character explain what we just watched, what everyone is feeling, and what it all means. You can tell this is a failed adaptation technique because that's one of the first things they teach writers about adapting stories: Avoid voiceovers as much as you can. It's a cheap trick. It's an obvious tell that the scene has failed to fulfill its reason to exist. The characters should not explain the emotions. The actors should act out the emotions and the script should provide them with good scene setups that help those emotions flow naturally. I honestly hated the voiceover for the most part. There were some funny, cute scenes where it made sense to hear the main character voice emotions that ever different from what he said or his actions but for the most part he just explained what we had just seen. And it was so unnecessary. To make it all worse, he poor actors actually did get the emotions through. The scenes were enough. Those voiceovers were just ruining the vibe!
Also, an issue: too many flashbacks to scenes we just saw. For such a short runtime, they could use that precious time for story-development.
Another minor complaint I have is the lack of levity in this show. I know it’s an angsty, serious show but all shows should have a little funny in them. It’s like the spice in a food. Even Greek tragedies have funny moments. There is an absurdity in tragedy and having that in your story humanizes the characters and situation. The show had a few of those scenes but I would vote for more! It could have more comedic moments.
Acting: Yoo Jun does a fine job but this is Heo Hyun Jun’s first acting gig I think and you can really tell. His annunciation, his facial expressions, his stance etc. they all expose him as a newbie and that’s okay, he can grow into a better actor but for this show it was kind of a bummer. Unfortunately, the supporting cast weren’t given much to do and they tried (well some of them did).
The music was very generic and worked with the creepy vibe of the show. Like almost every other show, they played the two romantic songs way too often and for way too long, it naturally became annoying. It’s like that “hmm watcha say” joke.
Overall, I would say this show is watchable. The story is so unique that it kind of pushes the viewer to want more. It’s a combination of high school drama, romance, mystery and suspense. All nice genres if you are into them. I didn’t love the show, mainly because I was so frustrated by the missed opportunities of it all but I did care enough to want to know what happens next. There is a lot of suspense and mystery and the dynamics of the characters are so inexplicable wacky and weird that you can’t help but be intrigued by it all.
It’s interesting because the show presents one dynamic for monos and probes then subverts this itself. There is a chase to the romance too. You don’t know if it’s going to end in a murder or a kiss and that’s usually a fun dynamic to watch! The main character is pretty likable despite being a very sad boi. I learned a lot about colors in this show too. I think that was a cute detail to put in. It felt like besides the destined nature of the romance, these characters were also really getting to know each other. They were also innovative with the situations that they put the characters in together as well. When watching too many romances, you start to see repeating patterns, this show avoided that for the most part. It was refreshing.
I hope if this gets a second season, they’ll be able to get a bigger budget and write it a little better. It has so much potential to be better.
I do think if you are looking for a super short, surrealistic bl romance that you should check this out. It’s not a very complex story. It’s just a simple thing to watch and pass the time

Leggi di Più

This show! It has taken over me!

Love and Redemption snuck up on me and now I can't function.
I don't want to make this a post about comparing and sh*tting on another show but I'm gonna say this for people who like me tried to watch/watched Ashes of Love and didn't like it and now they are not sure if they should check this out because the two shows seem similar: This is like Ashes of Love if Ashes of Love was actually good! I’ll say give it a chance!
Okay, trash-talk over, moving on to positive review!

I'm going to give a tiny summary because the description here is bad.
A thousand years ago, there was a war between the heavenly realm and the demon realm. The demons were winning thanks to a very powerful general called Star of Mosha. Then this God of war showed up, annihilated Star of Mosha, and the heavenly realm won the war. But because Mosha was very powerful, they couldn't fully kill him and a part of his soul was put in a jar and was hidden in one of the sects on earth. A thousand years have passed and it seems that stars are (literally) aligning for Mosha’s return.
Now, the story really starts when during a cultivation tournament, the younger daughter of the Shaoyang sect leader, Xuan Ji, meets the star disciple of Lize palace, Si Feng, and they become friends. Xuan Ji doesn’t have the six senses (She is color-blind, can’t differentiate sounds, smells, and tastes, has no sense of pain or touch, and doesn’t process emotions.) Si Feng, Xuan Ji, her sister Ling Long and senior disciple Min Yan form the most adorable quartet of friends and decide to help Xuan Ji regain her sense by finding this magical mirror. They end up uncovering some serious demonic activities regarding Star of Mosha and what happened a thousand years ago…

This show has every trope and concept that my romantic heart could possibly crave:
1)star-crossed lovers
2)Falsified history
3)Hot men with wings
4)Ride or die group of misfit friends
5)The rejects are the good people and they get together and are cute and adorable and heroic
6)Some serious subversion of romantic dynamics and gender-norms
7)Happyily-ever-after
8)Complex female characters
9)Did I mention FRIENDHSIPS TO DIE FOR?
10)No instalove. It’s a S L O W B U R N!
11)Mythology, fantastical creatures and figures
12)Love that lasts lifetimes…10 of ‘em!
13)No love-triangles, ridiculous cheatings, or other boring shenanigans that make hetero-romances garbage…
14) Subplots that are actually interesting and engaging
15)Perfect foreshadowing work…PERFECT
16) HOT MEN SUFFERING WHILE LOOKING PRETTY

I did not expect to love this show as much as I did. However, I loved the story. I loved the execution and everything in between.
One of the strong points of this show was its plot and story. Unlike a lot of other shows which just drag out the plot with melodrama, love-triangles and etc. this show is actually dragged out by action-packed plot and complex narratives. There is a lot happening in every episode and even if sometimes it becomes overwhelming, it’s definitely still moving the plot somewhere. Even episodes that slow down to develop romances and such are very well-paced and seem justified. I could maybe shorten it for 3 episodes but eh, it’s fine. A problem that I have with some cdramas is their boring B plots that I just want to fast-forward through but L&R manages to have such an endearing supporting cast of characters that I was genuinely invested in all of the side-romances and their plots. There are some mind-blowing plot twists in the show that you realize were all foreshadowed. They leave a mix of spot-on clues in addition to fake clues to both give you information and confuse you and then they deliver for every.single.one. fake or real clues. *mind: blown* Overall, I would say the plot develops and moves in an incredibly satisfying way. Something I really love is that despite an obscene number of misunderstandings in the show, at crucial moments there is always one character screaming at everyone else for being idiots and misunderstanding the situation. The show ends up also being very feminist with some very positive messages about women and identity, trauma, agency, and autonomy over one’s body which I consider an inherently feminine issue but also one with [SPOILER] [SPOILER] tones and the story has BOTH…you’ll get it when you watch the whole thing!

The casting in this show was just perfect. The main leads did an amazing job. Crystal Yuan was wonderful as Xuan Ji. She actually made me endeared towards a character who if done badly would have been very frustrating. She actually has nuance in her performance because slowly as Xuan Ji gains her senses and catches feelings, you can see the little changes in her behavior and it’s the most satisfying thing ever. Cheng Yi also knocked it out of the park! That man carried this show on his shoulders. Definitely the emotional anchor of the show was Cheng Yi’s portrayal of Si Feng and the many, many, MANY tribulations he goes through! Lol, I can’t recall the last time I watched a male character suffer so terribly on screen. But the perfect acting doesn’t end there. Liu Xue Yi plays his character so well… a little too well at times. I am obsessed with every acting choice that Bai Shu made for his portrayal of Teng she. Hou Meng Yao made me tear-up TWICE. Fu Fang Jun might just be the most charismatic man on earth and Li Xin Ze had no right breaking my heart like that.

The music, I didn’t love. It wasn’t bad. I just…I think I’m just not the right person to give an opinion on music. Sorry

The production of this show was also better than most you’ll see in Xianxia shows. The CGI was very good. The sets were quite lovely. We have three realms, five sects, and at least four random towns the characters visit and each had distinct styles and aesthetics. There were some grey wash “bare meadows of misery” where action sequences occurred but I guess that’s just how life is; sometimes the background is grey! I especially loved the design for Lize Palace for SPOILER reasons. It was a very nice little clue left for the viewers who were paying attention to details.

The costumes: I wasn’t crazy for the girl’s costumes and hairstyles but I guess most of the budget went into providing Si Feng with his majestic wardrobe and I respect that decision.

The negative: There are a lot of misunderstandings. I know at some point a lot of viewers hated Xuan Ji and were blaming her. I personally didn’t and there were certain things going my way even during the darkest episodes of the show which made me really excited to keep watching so I was satisfied. However, the misunderstandings can absolutely be a turn-off for some viewers. The show is also tropey as hell while subverting some other tropes. I love my xianxia tropes and I haven’t watched so many that I’ll be annoyed by the repetitions yet. I actually enjoyed recognizing certain tropes and calling them out. There are also some “convenient” McGuffins in the story if you are going to be nitpicky about it.
But I believe, once you start enjoying a show, and you are so invested in the characters, and the story keeps delivering in a satisfying way, the occasional plot hole, bad lighting or framing, and whatever else won’t really matter anymore. It’s only when you are not enjoying yourself that you will get hung up on the technical aspects of the production.
Somewhere between episode 2 and 3, I started to love this show and I just loved it all the way, and those minor issues didn’t matter at all.

Love and Redemption is also one of those shows that require a rewatch because there are so many things that will be revealed that actually affect the way you perceive the whole story. These will come through in a second watch once you already know all the plot twists and outcomes and will look out for those foreshadows.

I will recommend this to anyone who likes the things I listed above. It’s definitely the best Xianxia show I have watched so far and I will probably not be over it for a while.

Leggi di Più

Being loved by a prince has never been so bittersweet

Goodbye, my princess is a gorgeous deconstruction of the “three lives, one love” trope that we see in a lot of Chinese dramas (but specifically xianxia). But unlike those epic magical romances that end with eternal bliss, this show brings that fantastical set up to a historical, realist setting and studies the dark side of it by exploring the sentiment in a very cutthroat world with irreversible consequences. This sad story unfolds through three romances: first, the young love of two innocent teenagers, then a prince and a princess united through a political arrangement to bring their countries closer, and lastly, the horrifying entanglements of a ruthless and power-hungry crown prince and his unwilling crown princess who is more of a political prisoner than a bride.
I really loved this show! In fact, it’s my new favorite Chinese drama. The worst part of watching this show was seeing stupid comments under the videos. Otherwise, the show itself was nearly perfect. Not perfect maybe, there were things in it that I didn’t love but they were no glaring issues.
Also fair warning: I also read the book while watching this show so 1)I will not shut up about the book and 2) I will compare the show to the book. So minor spoilers in the “negative” section. Really minor. Tiny.

You should watch this if you like:
1. Tragedies
2. But also, sad middles and semi-sad beginnings. It’s not all sunshine then tragedy. It’s just: sad-oh cute!-oh sad again-haha funny-oh that’s too sad-OH NO-NOOOO!
3. Extremely well-done morally ambiguous characters (everyone is good and bad. Except for Xiao Feng. She's a sweetie)
4. Innocent female leads (but not dumb. She's just 15yo, ok? Cut her some slack!)
5. Historical fiction focusing on political schemes
6. Wedding night like: me, my new spouse, and our murder weapons of choice
7. Magical realism genre
8. Romeo and Juliet-esque dynamics
9. Mature stories about life and love. It’s not idealistic at all.
10. The threat of maybe…being attracted...to the villain…I don’t know…it’s more likely than you’d think!
11. Did I mention it’s sad?

It starts so cute and sweet, like children just playing at romance but the stakes get so high so fast and it’s so overwhelming. It is a tragedy in slow motion. From the first moment the story starts, all these small machinations come together to set up a situation that could only end in blood and tears.
The main plot is not really the romance. The main plot is “How to survive as an eastern palace resident in the grander palace environment, as depicted through Xiao Feng and Li Chengyin’s dysfunctional survival tactics.” So, the romance is a part of that, but so is the political intrigue and the revenge plots and the haram catfights, etc. And that’s why I like the plot because there’s a bigger picture and a lot of the smaller details are all connected to each other but they also branch out into B plots that do not take over the main plot’s time but develop slowly and surely in the outskirts of the main plot. I just think it’s important to have fair warning. This is a tragedy and it’s set up that way from the start. If you are looking for a cute romance between two people trying to work out their arranged marriage and find happiness, this show is not it. It’s simply not one of those soft historical fiction dramas. This is more like those hardcore political intrigue shows with big productions and seasoned actors, except it just happens to view that kind of story from the perspective of a young princess so the cast are young and new!
I would say this show will probably operate well as a gateway show to watch more critically acclaimed Chinese dramas with heavier plots and higher quality, if you are used to watching more lighthearted shows. It’s very in-between.

Plot: It’s important that you know, this show is a very good adaptation. I think this is important because knowing the book helps understand why the show is the way that it is. You see, the book is very short and very concise and it’s only from Xiao Feng’s perspective who is a foreign princess with limited knowledge of language and culture in her new country and very few people she interacts with. So for most of the story, she just has no idea what is going on around her. Then by the end, it turns out Li Chengyin was doing all this political cold war stuff behind the scenes. The show had to bring all the “implied” events of the book into life and that’s why the book is romance but the show isn’t. Because it just wouldn’t be possible to make a show that only adapts the novel's content. It’d be 4 episodes long and nothing would make sense! That’s why there are so many political subplots in the story and that meant Xiao Feng wasn’t really a big part of a lot of the stories going on.
I personally enjoyed all that they did with the plot. Overall. There were details I wasn’t crazy about. I’ll get to that later. I liked most of the story. Some things get lost in the transition from text to screen, like just how much Xiao Feng is out of her depth in Central Plains and how most of the things she does and how she does them are due to cultural difference but I still think the show managed to present her as a well-meaning if a bit confused girl.

Acting: The acting in this show is on another level for me. It’s so good. There’s a huge cast. A lot of them are older actors playing complicated people and they were all a joy to watch. For example, Zheng Xiao Ning plays Xiao Feng’s grandfather and his role is there for a short time but he’s just amazing. The way he carries himself, his voice, his gaze, all of it was just chilling and amazing. Or Nagima who plays the mute A’Du. Oh, she was unreal! She doesn’t talk for most of the show but her expressions are enough to cut into your heart like a knife. The things this woman communicated through her eyes. I cried, every time she cried. These are just two out of many actors who blew me away. Most of all though, Peng Xiao Ran and Chen Xing Xu just redefined my expectations of young actors.
A moment of silence to appreciate the fact that Chen Xing Xu was only 22yo when he brought the complicated and extremely enigmatic Li Chengyin to life. How?! What was I doing when I was 22?! I was mostly just crying (tbh he did a lot of crying in bts videos too, lol. Same dude, same!) I can’t compliment these young actors enough. They did such a wonderful job. Their performance was just outstanding. Peng Xiao Ran was also wonderful. She plays what would have been a typical playful cute girl in the hands of another actress but she brings such weight and groundedness to the character, without overacting or looking stupidly childish. She's so in control and I just love that in her performance.
And their chemistry! The chemistry between these two was so good that you can tell the censorship had them cut out kisses because it was just too much, apparently! They were that good.
Also as an ensemble, everyone did such an amazing job. There wasn’t really a performance among them that I can point out and say it was so bad it ruined the scene. Everyone hit their marks perfectly.

Music: The music in this show was great too?! And I don’t mean I got used to it so it was fine. No. It was actually good. It’s gorgeous. They use this heartbreaking leitmotif over and over again that must be some famous chord progression because it steadily made me sad from episode one even though nothing sad had even happened yet. Also fun fact: the most playful track in the music is called “Fear” and I think that’s all you need to know about the mood in this show!

Production: The production gets a special mention because it was that good. The aesthetics of this show are gorgeous. The color grading, the sets, and costumes, the number of sets, and the attention to details in each of them, was just so satisfying. Everything looked pretty expensive too. I don’t know if there really were expensive or not but the clothes looked really regal and the sets were so grand with colors that were so beautifully matched in thematically different settings. No conversation about this show is complete without mentioning the beautiful cinematography. A lot of the natural settings were filmed on location and that has meant the existence of golden dunes and majestic mountains that look breathtaking on screen. It’s a true feast for the eyes. The CGI was very good too. There wasn’t too much of it but you can really tell the director made sure that everything looked as good as it could. It was in little acts of continuity that you can see the dedication of the director to the project.

Rewatch value: Oh sure!

Negatives: As I said, there were some changes made due to the complication of perspectives in the novel. One of these changes was that they kind of do a character cleanse of Gu Jian and also add to his plotline. In the book, Gu Jian visits Xiao Feng three years after her arrival in central plains but in the show, he shows up three months later. That’s at least 21 months’ worth of nothing for him to do! So he just has all these scenes where is sitting around, getting drunk, and…it’s kind of pointless?! I think someone on the production team was probably a Gu Jian fan and they decided they wanted to give him a romantic redemption arc, or they figured since the male lead will become so cruel later, it’ll probably be in their best interest to have a blandly romantic second male lead to soften the blow. I guess?
For the most part, I like what they did with humanizing both men. Li Chengyin and Gu Jian are so much worse in the novel and a whole lot less likable generally but the show does a lot to empathize with both and I love that. I just feel like they sacrificed a bit of Gu Jian’s nuance towards the end of his journey. He managed to redeem himself in pretty much the same way in the novel as the show but for me, the book’s version was more powerful because you knew he was doing bad things before but the one time it mattered, he made the right choice and it was so powerful and I freaking sobbed reading that part. Unfortunately, the show’s version didn’t touch me as much. I was still emotional and very touched by everyone’s great acting but then…two sad-music montages? Come on! That was the only thing I fast-forwarded in the show!
This was a part of a bigger issue with the plot. There are three arcs in this story and the show did a great job with the first two but they kind of lowered their quality in the third and last one which happened to be my favorite part of the novel and the most emotionally touching part. So maybe part of my disappointment is that they derived so far from the novel in the only part that the book actually starts to give details and plots move forward really fast. I still understand why the show ended the way it did and they still kept a lot of my favorite and iconic scenes from the novel but towards the end, there were some choices that I squinted at a bit. It wasn't so bad though that I would redact points for it.

Overall: Best Chinese show I have watched so far. I loved it. I didn’t even expect to like it and I had heard it was so painful but I loved it anyway. I hadn’t cried this much over a show since The Untamed (and Yanxi Palace…it got me with their friendships, okay?!) so it’s somehow very precious that I watched this show a whole year since I discovered The Untamed. Very fitting.

Pro-tip: If you want to cry less while watching, read the book first. You’ll cry while reading the book and the show hurts less!

Leggi di Più

Not all love stories are about romance.

Some stories are told to such perfection that the small details of good and bad fade away and all that exists is the story that you have lost yourself into. You will become a part of it, holding your breath with the characters in moments of tension, screaming in joy when they are happy, and bawling your eyes out when they are heartbroken. You feel their hidden emotions when their love for a beloved soars but instead of telling them "I love you", they only say "It's alright". But you understand. The story doesn’t need to be complicated or extremely clever or universally monumental for it to be sublime. In these cases, the story surpasses the confines of its format and becomes a moment of pure catharsis.
Upcoming Summer is one of those beautiful moments when everything in the story just clicks perfectly together to tell a simple story about love, heartbreak, denial, friendship, and the power to brave the hard curves in life and come to terms with what you will rather not deal with.

You might like this movie if you like:
1. Coming-of-age stories
2. Stories about music
3. Stories about friendship
4. Unrequited love
5. Family disfunction
6. Subtle but definitely there, queer representation**
7. If you liked the movie, The Half of it, there is a high chance you will like this too.

Summary: Chen Chen bombs her college entrance exam after a spontaneous night-swim the day before the exam. When pushed to reveal the reason, she claims it was because her boyfriend broke up with her. She names Zheng Yuxing, a classmate who all but skipped the exam, as her beau. This puts both of them under extreme scrutiny at school, much to Zheng Yu Xing’s amusement and Chen Chen's mortification. Slowly, however, the two become friends, and ultimately help each other face the hardships they have been avoiding in their respective personal lives.

Plot: The plot was amazing. I don’t even care if the details were not great or anything. The movie has perfect structure. It sets out to answer some questions: about the truth of what happened the night before the exam, about Chen Chen’s mother, Zheng Yu Xing’s past relationship, and how Chen Chen is going to come to terms with all that before entering the next phase of her life. Every single moment in the story has a purpose. There’s perfect harmony in how each scene leads to the next, how the decisions of each character work in tandem with the other, and they all culminate in a perfect climax where everything is revealed. They manage to create such an enjoyable and emotionally charged experience. I loved it!

Acting: It was also great! Naturally, the actors were all perfect in their roles. I knew some from previous works but not Zhang Zi Feng who knocked it out of the park with her raw depiction of Chen Chen in her moment of crisis. Wu Lei was great but I’ve come to expect that from him. I don’t think he’ll ever grow up in my eyes, though! To me, Wu Lei is going to be “the forever teenage boy”! That said, despite this being his third project I’m watching this year, he was completely lost in the character to the point that I only saw Zheng Yu Xing and not the actor. They both have great chemistry and they really sell the emotional moments. Hao Lei who plays Chen Chen’s mother was also amazing in her role. Everyone else was good.

Music and Production: This movie is about music. So naturally, the music was great. Leitmotif was used beautifully and it just stabs at your heart. I’m not a huge fan of electric music but I still think the choices were appropriate for the movie and enhanced the watching experience. The production was also wonderful. The cinematography was gorgeous. The framings were lovely. The play with light! Oh, the play with light! I wanted to eat the lights!!!! The sets perfectly established the mood and introduced important facts about the characters…perfect!

Rewatch value: Hells yeah! Watch me cry over this movie, over and over and over again!

Overall: To be fair, I didn’t wait too long to watch this but the anticipation was there and I am so happy that it was worth it. Although I’m not a huge Wu Lei fan per se, I’ve come to anticipate his projects and almost always end up watching the works he’s in because they’re always really interesting with good productions and storytelling. This movie is no exception. I just really loved this movie. It’s a little sad, it’s a little cute, and it definitely taps into a raw, authentic emotional source that will stay with you long after you finish watching it. Highly recommended.
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**SLIGHTLY SPOILERY REVIEW BELOW! Do not read the rest if you haven't watched the movie!
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Plot but make it spoiler: Yes, there definitely is a small (read HUGE) subplot that heavily signals a lgbtqa narrative. There’s even a little shot that shows couples of different genders being all cute together. So they knew what they were doing. What I want to credit the movie for is how they manage to show and hint at DJ XYZ’s orientation and Ming’s gender without really saying anything. It’s a bit regressive to gush over queer subtext, I know that. But coming from cultures/countries that are nowhere near as open about this stuff as, for example, The United States, it’s a big deal to see any movie that manages to tell profound stories about these matters and characters despite the stigma and the rules and whatnot. I always appreciate the ways a good writer gets creative so they can stay true to their vision and not give into conventional and sterile storytelling. Double Kudos!

Leggi di Più

Bittersweet story

So I went into this, not expecting anything and I just couldn't stop watching! It's very fast-paced, very witty and smart, and very emotional.
This is essentially a harem drama with some political stuff peppered in but interestingly, the harem drama was a lot smarter and engaging than the political stuff which I think can be fast-forwarded, you won't miss much. I would also say the show is not focused on the romance at all, instead, it's actually more about the female relationships and friendships in the palace and that was my favorite thing about the show.
There's a couple of things I really liked about it.
One, the female characters and their relationships. Despite being a harem drama and the main conflict just being catty fights over the favor of the emperor, the show made it nuanced and interesting. When we meet the key players in the harem, Empress Fuca, Consort Chun, Xian, and Gao, they all have very distinct personalities and very tragic stories for why they are in the Forbidden City. Each of them is clearly a victim of the political system and marriage traditions of the era. None of the harem women are happy to be there and that they have to fight to survive. The story explicitly shows how even when they fight, it's to survive. None of them is just dumb, evil, caricature characters. Gao does try her best to prove otherwise but even she reveals hidden depths later on. As a whole, the plot is traditional but it had a flair of hidden feminism and a critique of how women had to live in the Qing dynasty which I enjoyed.
Secondly, the main character is a joy. She is cunning, crafty, smart, and vengeful. I hate it when the main characters are stupid and naive and are easily taken advantage of. Wei Ying Luo does not give you a chance to blink! She obliterates her enemies in the most vicious and righteous way she can and she will never be cornered for long. She makes watching the show satisfying because she leaves no punch unanswered, she'll kick right back!
Thirdly, there is a very realistic view of love, marriage, and romance in the show. There is love and then there is marriage and the social contracts one has to abide by. I don't really buy the cinderella romance side of it all... Wei Ying Luo did what she needed to do to survive and it wasn't about love at all. I do appreciate the show acknowledging that and showing that sometimes love doesn't win and you just have to get used to another partner and that's ok, it's not the end of the world. It can work too. It was bittersweet and I enjoyed that. I would have hated it if they just pretended that the emperor has a magic d*** and every woman is just enamored by him immediately. Most of the women in the harem? they don't really care for the emperor much, they're just doing married stuff because that's all they can do!
the fourth reason I liked the show was the attempt at preserving historical facts. Now it's obviously not historically accurate. It's a very fictional story but they did try to incorporate historical information and it worked. I compare it to the Ruyi show's plot which I've heard is a good show but the fact that the creators had the main character be the childhood friend of a guy 7 years older than her just unnerves me! Yanxi palace tries to keep the ages correct. It does fail at times when actors are very far from the age they are supposed to portray, (like Wei Ying Luo is 16 when the show starts and ...ok) but they did try to keep things close and just fill up gaps where they had no historical information.
The production is also gorgeous. The clothes, the sets, the lighting, the hairstyles and makeup, and the music. Oh, I LOVED the music!
Now what I didn't like: The last 10-15 episodes after the revenge plot ends for good really did slow down the show and the characters weren't totally up to their game. I disliked the consort Shun arc. although the character was interesting, the plot was weaker than the earlier arcs in the show. I really dragged my feet through those last 10 episodes but it was ok...I mean it's 70 episodes! Some were bound to suck.
Another thing which by now I have accepted as a fact about cdramas, is really messed up timelines. There is no unified pacing to the show. It's very vague how many years or months pass from scene to scene. One cut may be minutes, but the next could be months or years but the show doesn't stay consistent with seasons or clothes so it's like one event happens in winter, then it's fall again and then spring and then fall again... it was a bit weird but it was the same with The Untamed and Ten miles of peach blossom (oh boy, that one was one messed up timeline!) so I'm just not going to think too hard about it...
Fun fact: The show has an allergy towards pregnancies so we barely see any at all in the story (especially with the mains) and I find that hilarious! (There were pregnancies but they try to show as little of them as possible. It's really funny if you pay attention to it.)

Leggi di Più

Dissapointing

What a disappointment!
Summary: It's a shame because this show had such a cool premise. A 300 years old soul chasing his soulmate through three lifetimes, is finally in a position to finally be with his beloved but then is shocked to find out that the woman he loves has reincarnated in the body of a man. Drama ensues. (How cool is this idea?!)

Plot: The show takes this really interesting concept and does NOTHING with it! It wastes the entire potential. There's no development of the romance, the conflict is never developed or solved, it's just...gone. There's a freaking meaningless love triangle that does nothing. It's just so sloppy. There's not much more to say.

Acting: It was almost okay but Jeon Chang Ha is just bad at acting. Jin Gun almost survives but not really? They're both really rookie and wooden and their chemistry is not there at all and it all looks cartoonish and exaggerated when they try too hard. Especially since the script just gives them absolutely nothing to work with either. Song Han Hee is the only saving grace, acting-wise.

Music and rewatch value: No.

Production: Bad. It looks like they filmed the whole show, every set of it, in a hotel apartment?! Like a really cheap one that students on their gap years with a budget would only go to. No set design worth a dime, no proper lighting. It's like a young filming student's class project that he filmed with his friends.

Overall: Don't waste your time watching this. You'll only get depressed at the wasted potential of what could've been. This could have been so good and it just wasn't. It barely functioned.
Better luck in your next life, soul!

Leggi di Più

The curse of the 16 episode Kdrama strikes again

For me, this show was a solid 8.5 when I first started it. I have to say, I had no interest in this show. Then I heard about the plot and how it's about a girl going back in time to save her favorite idol...I thought the plot was so pitiful and sad! I started this out of pity! I just feel like it's sad when you have regrets about people you can't save. And the show didn't disappoint. The start of this show was exhilarating. It was relatable and emotional and so sincere. Then after the sad start, there was the humor, and the love interest developed into one of the more endearing male leads of Dramaland as he wore his heart on his sleeve and was just dorky and handsome at the same time. Not many can pull that off so kudos to Byeon Woo Seok for that. In addition, our leading lady is a tried and guaranteed good actress. The chemistry was sizzling, the plot was engaging, the humor was delightful, and the second male lead was not too annoying...it was all too good to be true. And it was, in fact, too good to be true.
It is a truth, universally understood but everyone is too chicken to acknowledge it, that all kdramas have the potential to end on episode 12 but get dragged on for four more episodes until the show loses all its unique charm and rots away in the cesspool of cliched stereotypes. My only wish while watching a kdrama is either for it to end with 12 episodes or if it has to go on, at least go with grace. Very few shows do that.
I was really rooting for this show. I really was. But sadly, the show started to stutter around episode 10/11 and by episode 12, the plot was lost, dead, and buried.
Here's the thing, you need to let your MacGuffin macguffin! You need to let your plot device be a device to drive the plot ahead. Not for the plot to run after the plot device on a bicycle! What I'm trying to say is that a lot of Korean rom-coms add murder mysteries or thriller subplots to their shows both to make them longer and to spice up the plot. And I'm gonna assume at some point this worked but lately, these subplots are becoming so intense, convoluted, and clunky that they totally derail the show and ruin its final arc. Here it was no exception as the plot began to fall into a repetitive cycle, the female lead lost all her brain cells, misunderstandings and miscommunications ensued, and characters actively made choices to sabotage the progress of the story.
Girl, you're traveling back in time. Putting aside the ludicrous shock of such an event, after figuring out the rules (which the show took as guidelines, instead of rules as they frequently and shamelessly broke them for plot convenience) why do you keep repeating the same pattern of behavior, hoping to get different results?!
The plot really fell in a loop. It became exhausting. Then the murderer plot became too big and it was like the villain had extra superpowers because why was he absolutely undefeatable for 16 bloody episodes?!
It was just too much and then episode 15 rushed to close the plotlines while most of episode 16 was fan service. The pace of the show was a mess. They should've established better rules for their universe and stuck to them at least in important plot moments. Unfortunately, logic and narrative were sacrificed for melodramatic effect, ultimately ruining the second half of the show beyond repair.
Now the actors were okay. I would especially say just the mains stood out as good. The side actors were so-so. The subplot of the brother and best friend was really bad. It was boring and wasted time more than anything else. Every other character was written only as background decoration or comic relief, making them too caricaturish to be taken seriously.
Production was minimal but it worked. Music was tolerable I guess. But I was still tired of the ballad by the end.
I won't rewatch this. The second half ruined it for me but the first half will always remain an exceptional "One that got away" for me.
I wish they had done better by the show. It deserved better. It could've been so much better. I still think if you really wanna watch it, it's a good rom-com and the leads' dynamic is worth enjoying. Just maybe prepare to clench your teeth in the second half.

Leggi di Più

The Murder in the writers' room

A murder has been committed. Victim? The show's script. The prime suspect? The writers. Accomplices? The director and editors of the show.
You come here, thinking it's a story about an arson/murder case only to find out it's another petty spat about rich people tearing each other's throats out for money. I went on and watched the Japanese adaptation of this story as well, just to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating the mystery aspect that I expected this show to have and while that movie wasn't good by any stretch of the imagination, it most definitely had the Agatha Christie style suspension that I had expected. So this show has no excuse for being such a bland and boring mess with an incohesive plot.

Summary: Rich dude is about to die when he finds out he has an illegitimate son. He asks this super successful assistant in his vaguely important and powerful company to find him (because it's not like she has an actual job to do). She succeeds so fast, you wonder why the dude didn't just make the call that she made himself to find the boy in two seconds...

Plot: I'm not even sure how I should properly nag about this. Do I complain about the setup? Because the setup is awful. I don't know about others but I'm personally over this trend in modern Cdramas where there's this super important and successful company (and you are never even told what the company does) and the protagonist is a 30-year-old who is extremely successful (without even once seeing them do their actual job) and then there are all these political dramas surrounding the company as if it's the parliament or something. This self-grandiosity in shows just makes me roll my eyes and I can't take anything that happens seriously. It's simply beyond stupid. Anyway, this show had that.
Do I complain about the characters? I know China has an allergy towards having antagonists as main characters and productions would rather have everyone walk on their hands and speak through drawn faces on their stomachs rather than having a grey character as MC but it was honestly ridiculous how far this show twisted itself around in order to not show any fault in their main character. She's a genius, gorgeous woman with a heart of gold who has never done anything wrong, she probably farts rainbows...I hated it. In addition, the show is made up of an entirely exhausting, incompetent, spoiled rich cast of villains that are all so bad at being bad that half the show is just watching them be petulant over not succeeding at anything. The romance is slightly better but it's not really that touching so I'm at best indifferent towards it.
What do I even say about the case? Because the real crime of this show is that it's supposed to be a freaking murder mystery and you literally get 10 minutes of detective work and everything else is explained in voiceover and monologued in the last episode! Just why?!
The suspense is maintained like a feather on a needlepoint (as in, it's not.) At every turn, instead of building suspense, the show just blows everything up like a balloon and spills everything then wastes more time on silly family drama. They don't even do a good job with that. The characters are as boring as can be and their personal drama is just as terrible.
The more I write, the angrier I get so I'll just settle by saying it was terribly written. The worst script I've seen so far this year. Possibly in the last 5 years! What even was this...

Acting: I kind of feel bad for Steven Zhang for being in this show. He's usually a good actor but acting is just not enough when the plot is this bad. The actress who plays the lead wasn't good in my opinion. She seemed more concerned with looking beautiful and barely had proper expressions throughout the show. She had moments but overall bad. The rest of the cast was just sufficient, not very impressive though.

Music and production: The music was alright, better than the rest of the show. The production looked cheap. It wasn't done with much thought, it looked like every other average show out there. The editing was terrible. Censorship or not, they really butchered the show. The voiceover (I'll never stop mentioning it) was just a slap to the face. Awful.
One good thing I can say is that the opening sequence was nice...that's it!

Rewatch value: NO!

Overall: This is not a good show. It's not absolutely terrible, so I gave it a 7 and not the 5 I personally felt it deserved. The name of the show, the trailer, and the synopsis all created this false expectation that this was a show in a similar tier as other short-form mystery dramas that China has been making lately but one episode was enough to realize this is merely a watery romance wrapped in petty, rich-people, family drama masquerading as a murder mystery. It was a failure. I don't recommend this to anyone. If you're really desperate to watch something about Kairoutei, just watch the Japanese one. At least it makes sense...

Leggi di Più

Allow me to convince you to watch this!

The more I like a show, the harder I find it to talk about it. I just have so much to say! I'm gonna push through though. So my initial rating mark for this was 8. Then it was raised to 8.5 and I was worried that I would later lower it because so many shows lately start well but digress in abysmal ways until you end up hating them and reading everyone else's reactions, I was so scared that I would be bored by the last ten episodes and end up hating the show by its unsatisfying end. Thankfully that was not the case at all and I ended up finishing this show on a pleasant though super stressful (those last 10 minutes omg) note. I decided to give this a 9, instead.
This show is just really good in many ways. The plot is emotionally stimulating, the aesthetics are unique, dark, and mysterious. The acting is great by the principal cast and good enough by the supporting ones. The music is lovely and the show avoids a lot of tropes that are typical pet peeves. And when it plays into tropes, they do it in a way that isn't too offensive and manages to be dignified. There were some hiccups in the quality but nothing I couldn't look past.
So the plot follows Xue Fangfei, the talented wife of a simple official who is framed by her husband's family for adultery and buried alive by her husband. Confused and heartbroken, she comes back to seek revenge by pretending to be the daughter of some grand minister and whatnot. On her quest for justice, she meets the formidable Duke Su who is equal parts suspicious and fascinated by her.
I'll just list some of my favorite things about this show:
1. Unlike most shows, this is not about a virginal young girl, inexperienced and cute. The story follows a woman who has had a married life and that is already so fresh and liberating that I can't praise it enough. Moreover, the show doesn't shy away from expressing how happily in love she was in that relationship. This helps deepen the grief from the betrayal and fuels the motivation for revenge. It's also just refreshing to see a second-chance plot that is REALLY a second-chance plot.
2. The show has many instrument-playing scenes, in almost all of which sans one, the movement of the actors matches the music being "played". It's just deeply satisfying to see actors actually act as if they're playing an instrument instead of just moving their hands around wildly.
3. The plots don't get dragged out and although there's plenty of drama and petty acts of villainy, arcs wrap up nicely and the story moves at a good pace. I was never bored or utterly frustrated by the characters being obtuse just for the sake of dragging out misunderstandings and elongating the runtime of the show.
4. Though the villains are black-hearted and do many extremely evil things in the story, none are overpowered. It's common for dramas to have villains who achieve levels of villainy that should be out of their logical capacity and it's so frustrating as it almost seems like the villains are superhumans. Here, we had the grand princess who operated from a position of extreme power and yet, she was constantly held back by technicalities and thwarted at every turn. Similarly, the evil stepmother does evil things...but within the boundaries of a stepmother. She tries to ruin her stepdaughter's life in ways that a lady from a powerful family would think of and not as some freaky sadist god.
5. There's no unnecessary misunderstanding between the leads or unnecessary love triangles. With potential love rivals being treated as what they are: momentary obstacles. Where there was potential for unnecessary male rivalry, the trope is cleanly avoided in favor of giving us a supportive and lovely side character.
6. The story takes detours but ultimately stays on course and the revenge plot is delivered very satisfactorily.
7. This show also had an amazing darkening arc for its main villain. It was subtle and precise. So delicious! This show might just have one of my favorite villains of all time.
There's probably more stuff I liked but I'll cut it short.
The acting is of course amazing. Wu Jin Yan might not be the most ethereal Chinese beauty but her acting in my opinion outweighs almost all of the rest of the Chinese acting scene. She's always so natural and there's just something about her acting that makes you feel like she doesn't just do what she's told. She actually thinks about how she wants to deliver her characters. She manages to play an older, wiser woman pretending to be a young girl really well. You can tell she's not as young and inexperienced as she pretends to be but she's good enough at pretending that in-universe people fall for it just enough for her to get away with it. Her occasional emotional outbursts perfectly capture the trauma her character has experienced and that makes her performance that much more moving. I think this was Wang Xing Yue's best performance yet. He did a really good job in Kunning Palace too but I think this is the first time I believed he had what it takes to be a leading man. He just had such charisma and gravitas, he looked hot and it wasn't just because he's pretty. He managed to carry his character in a way that was dark and captivating and I loved that....he also looks hot but that's like a bonus. I would like to say that most actors did a great job here. Chen Chain En and Li Meng being standouts; with Li Meng starting sort of weak with overacting but then in the last 10 episodes she stepped up and her character was just so well-rounded by the end. But the award for best supporting role goes to Liang Yong Qi who was freaking brilliant! This man needs more roles. He was so subtle, so obsessive, so humiliated and yet you could practically feel the rage pulsing under his skin...man...he just knocked it out of the park! He really matched Wu Jin Yan step by step and I have to admit I liked watching them interact just because of how good he squirmed in an invisible way when his character was around hers. Just brilliant. Su Ke also had a standout moment by the end...had me sobbing.
Production, music, and set design all was so good. That's the thing about the evil who shall not be named. He may be a jerk but he knows how to make a good show, that's for sure.
Negatives: So, the show is not perfect. There's a very distinct aesthetic at the beginning of this show, very dark and moody. And it sort of holds onto it for the whole series but a lot of that also fades as the story changes locations to the capital city. Humor gets its pound of flesh and a lot of color interrupts the dark blues and browns of the beginning and it's not bad, I still like it but I also think they could've maintained the aesthetic a bit better with a bit more effort. There also seems to have been a budget issue...some of the fight scenes looked sparse? Like there weren't enough extras to fill up the scene. I also think the show (like many Cdramas) was written for a longer runtime but they had to cut it down to 40 episodes (for the better) but it does leave me wondering if some scenes...were shown at double speed?!
Overall: I recommend this. It was such a fun show and the first full-length Cdrama I could finish in a long long time. I appreciate this a lot and I think it's definitely one of the "worth watching" ones out there.

Leggi di Più

Well, I did not enjoy that.

I'm not sure how I finished watching this show. Around episode 11, I realized that I wasn't enjoying this very much but I thought I'll finish it anyway. Around episode 18, the show became unwatchable and I had to fast-watch my way to the end.
After watching "A River Runs Through It" I became interested in youth dramas and I decided you watch a few more. "Our Secret" cured me of that. I think I am done with youth dramas for the foreseeable future and need a total palette cleanse with some seriously good shows to get over this nightmare. I don't recommend this. I just can't. I hated it.

Things that exist in this show that infuriated me beyond belief:
1. Sadistic younger brother
2. Unhinged, abusive, moody, and immature mother whose behavior is excused as caring
3. A second male lead who must possess a Time-turner because there is no way he achieved that character assassination in just three years
4. Dumbest university arc ever.
5. The female lead's voice. It was like having honey poured into my ears if honey was made of acid. -_-
6. Villain of the weeks who make you gain respect for scooby-doo villains
7. Regressive sexist rhetorics

Plot: This was like a slice of life, high school drama with an appendage arc in a fantasy university in which meeting drawing club deadlines is somehow more important than spending arduous hours crying over your engineering homework that you will definitely not finish anyway. The plot starts fine. It's a bit sad and I was really feeling for the FL. The characters were so balanced and nice, even though nothing important happened, I was enjoying it but before the show even reached its halfway mark, I was done with it. It was too long and things moved very slowly at first so eventually, everything became tiresome. The romance plot was sweet but they had to wait until they were out of high school to consummate it and that hurt the story because it took too long to reach that moment, made more complicated by unnecessary melodrama plots that were pointless and it just wasn't engaging anymore. So the story became lazy and exaggerated and boring.

Acting: The ML is fine. He isn't doing anything much. The plot doesn't require complex acting chops so moderate skills would suffice for all the performances. Unfortunately, the FL lacked for me, still. Her talking style was grating on my nerves. At first, it was fine but slowly...it just felt like my ears were bleeding. She sounded like a spoiled child who is constantly pouting. The ensemble was pretty subpar too as most fell into really cliche archetypes so again: bare-minimum skills required.

Music: Idk, most of it was copyrighted so the YouTube video's sound got muted...I wasn't gonna like it anyway. Generic, whatever sounds.

Production: I wanna say bad? This was supposed to be 2009. It looked very little like it was from that time. I was in school back then and save for their phones, the fashion, the decoration, and hairstyles all looked out of place. Just watch some shows produced in 2009 and you'll understand. Moreover, the concept of seasons was not one the creators had heard of. Characters wore freaking shorts in winter...how? This was probably filmed in summer. No matter what season it was, everyone was constantly in summer clothes. That is just lazy.

Rewatch value: Oh sure, I'll torture myself again.... -_-

Negative: The whole university stuff. This show should have ended after they took the entrance exam and ended my misery. I might have rated it higher.

Overall: If this is the best youth drama out there, then I was right to avoid them from the start. I'll have to write down my love for ARRTI as an anomaly. This show had no real direction. It must've been targeted at younger viewers. Perhaps actual high school students but even in that case, some plot choices become even more dubious. How can you encourage your young viewers to just take the abuse of bad parents? Or become a new person to appease a boy you like? wtf! Don't teach girls to put someone else's likes and dislikes above their own. Only in a fantasy world would anyone give a job to a person who is studying a completely different field. Trust me, I learned that the hard way...
At the last leg of the show, there is a sudden realization about the weird messages they have sent their young and impressionable female audiences and they try to fix that but it's just such a frustratingly silly fix that it made me angrier.
Anyway, I don't know how clear it is in my tone but I am so mad right now; mostly at myself for watching this but also at the creators for starting the show normal and just ending it so ridiculously. Dear creators, please make steadily good or bad shows so a b**ch can know her deal from the start and not waste so much time investing in a show that will crash and burn later.

Leggi di Più

Revenge is best served with ketchup, Changge!

This is a really good show and it stays relatively good throughout its run too. It has an interesting premise that develops into exciting plots. The acting is great and the sets are beautiful. I really hope the show will go on to become a trendsetter in Cdrama land. The way it treats its female main characters, its romances, and how it developed logical growth arcs was very impressive but people do get a bit overexcited about how genre-defying it is...it still has plenty of your usual candy cliches.
I can’t stress enough how good the main female characters were though. (but just the main ones! The supporting ones were cr*p!) So, we are used to seeing strong and innocent women in historical dramas. But they usually end up three ways: Mary Sues, cute childish babies, or Femme Fatales. Here that was so beautifully avoided. In the two main female characters. Not anyone else. Just those two female leads.
When a character is feminine and demure, she isn’t a grown woman acting like a five-year-old and when the character is a smart and powerful strategist, she isn’t a perfect robot who makes no mistakes.
The characters were flawed and those flaws were a part of their journey. They had relatively realistic growth arcs and they changed in meaningful ways.
Also, Dilireba’s character Changge started the show by dressing up as a boy and I know people like to joke about how impossible it is for anyone to see someone who has Dilireba’s looks and not realize it’s a woman but I don’t really agree. I’m going to credit Dilireba Dilmurat for being more than a beautiful face and say that she successfully sold the idea of being a woman in a believable male disguise through the way she embodies herself as a boy, her expressions, and her physicality. The voice actress also helped (shout out!). What I have seen so far of cross-dressing characters has only ever really been exaggeratedly ridiculous or just plain improbable but the way Dilireba played her character as a man, was so committed to the illusion with no worries to appear cute or lovely, that it becomes believable. And the best thing? Well, let’s say people don’t end up getting fooled as easily as those in other shows either! Super well-done!

Now I think you should check this show out if you like:

1. Honest depictions of feminine power
2. Tang dynasty aesthetics
3. Female friendships
4. Only side plot romance. It's not really central to the story (for good reason)
5. Moderate amount of battles and fights
6. Enemies to allies to friends to lovers (it’s a mouthful but they did it)
7. Character arcs so fine you could bounce a coin off
8. Cross-dressing characters
9. Scheming and plotting and strategy bs
10. Hot evil dude being sexy while trying to murder the main character
11. Nuanced anti-hero/antagonist who honestly deserved more presence in the show (Not to be confused with: )
12. Also, a weak and bad villain who almost ruined the show (I’ll get to this… oh I will get to this)
13. “War is the folly man’s game” -quote by me
14. Weirdly, there are so many, like really too many, handsome men in this show. Just candy everywhere.
15. Shows that pass the Bechdel test.

Summary: Li Changge is the daughter of the crown prince who one day finds her favorite uncle has staged a coup, killed her parents, and taken the place of the crown prince. Stricken with grief and righteous anger, she sets out on a journey of survival and revenge. Only to realize that the fights over the crown are all bullsh*t because the whole point of government is to help people and taking revenge and vying for power is just about ego and greediness. So she decides to put that cr*p aside and instead help better the country. There's also this hunky hot guy who follows her around, being impressed by her amazingness and helping her.

Story: I love the premise. It’s such a mature way of looking at things. The show really doesn’t play around. From the beginning, it tries to deal with this situation in a serious and focused way. We get a gorgeous B-plot with the second female lead that correlates with the hero’s journey that Changge goes through and the characters mirror each other in such a delicious way that I haven’t seen in cdramas so far. Both of these arcs make sense for the characters we are introduced to. In addition, the love interests get their own character arcs that make sense for them. They are more subdued but it’s good because this is a mostly female-centric story. Then there’s Wei Shuyu who is the human equivalent of an adjustable wrench. A very handsome wrench!
The supporting cast are mostly pretty two-dimensional. I HATED some, I tolerated others but there was a handful I found really interesting. I especially loved the character of Li Shimin who was so deliciously grey and ambiguous. Other than him, most characters had narrative utility but he also has a pivotal role in Changge’s connection to her humanity and that makes him very precious for the story’s integrity.
Mention-worthy details:
1)The jump to comics for big action scenes: It was a choice. A very smart one. It was a bit frustrating but they certainly saved money. I didn't like the choice but I think it was such a cunning way to save money that I am a little charmed by it.

Acting: The acting is very good. I had seen Dilireba, Zhao Lusi, and Wu Lei in other projects and I was so surprised by how improved everyone was. I still can’t really see Wu Lei as a romantic heartthrob, to be honest, but I think everyone else was just fine thirsting after him! The supporting cast's acting is not steadily good. Some actors overact, some are just not good actors, maybe? Others were fine and some did great work.

Music and production: The music is good. I really liked the grassland-inspired themes. I wonder if I’m getting used to the music in cdramas. I used to dislike them all…oh well. The editing was exciting. There were some scenes that were almost worked too much. The shots changed too many times in the beginning but it got better later in the show. The costumes are very pretty and the sets are various and detailed.

The negative: The main issue I have with this show was that the main characters’ character arcs end before the show ends? Like 20 episodes earlier than the end of the show. Then the main character goes on to take actions that are totally in-character but don’t really add anything to her personal growth. She just does things that you would expect her to do in the situations she is put in but she's no longer an active participant. She just reacts.
So, it’s sort of like when you read a novel and then the novel ends and you go and read the extras which are not completely related to the main novel but still hold up. Except here, where the novel actually ended there were still a lot of plot holes and important conclusions were withheld. So, you have to read the extras in order to scavenge those important pieces of information and conclusions amongst more or less irrelevant plot points that mostly focus on side characters.
So yeah. I didn’t like that part. It felt like pandering for the most part. But because the production as a whole is pretty good and they have built up good rep so far in the show, it’s not a complete meltdown. The show kind of goes down with dignity. Everyone is still in-character, the acting is steadily good…for the most part, the sets are beautiful, the editing is melodramatic as always, the plot is exciting, and very-dramatic-moments keep the excitement steadily high so it’s no chore to get through. But I personally think it could be better. For me.
It was like when you see something is stuck between the teeth of the person talking to you and you don’t want to interrupt them or be rude so you don’t say anything but you can’t help noticing it the whole time. I noticed how irritating and pointless yet overused this one character was and it made me see the flaws in the plot and I just couldn’t stop thinking about it.
So it’s a good show but the logic is a house of cards; if you poke it, it’ll fall apart. Just don't poke it as I did!

rewatch value: Not a rewatchable show for me, personally. It didn't inspire such unforgettable emotions in me that I would need a repeat.

Overall: Now I still highly recommend this show. I think it’s a few heads above the idol romance drama. I hope its popularity will lead to a new trend among the average cdramas, with logical behavior, better written female characters, sensible and well-developed romance, more grounded acting, and almost no miscommunication.

Leggi di Più