Sequels usually end up in disaster and are terribly bad, but this sequel was much better than I had ever hoped for!!

Story:
The story is much more different than the story of NIF1. In this drama, the theme focuses more around familial ties as well as loyalty and righteousness towards the emperor, the country, and the people in general. Overall I loved the story, although I must admit that the final few episodes were just a tiny-bit underwhelming.

I personally feel that the characters in NIF2 were much more "human" and relatable than the characters in NIF1. But the plot in NIF1 is a bit more complex since it focused more on the political aspect rather than the familial aspect. I sincerely ADORED so many of the characters. I loved Pingzhang's cautiousness and wisdom, Pingjing's playful and carefree manners, Lin Xi's calm and collected poise, Qianxue's love and understanding, Tingsheng's awesome fathering skills and loyalty to his brother and his country, oh I could go on with Xun Fei Zhan and Lin Jiu, and etc.

Plus every time they hinted at or mentioned someone from NIF1, the feels would really start to hit :')

Acting:
I'm sure everyone was in doubt towards the actors when the casting was first announced. Much to my surprise, HXM did wayyyyyy better than I expected. LHR is very young (only 20 yrs old) and I think for his age, he did amazing and portrayed his character of Xiao Pingjing very well, from playful/carefree young lad to a changed/more solemn young man. I loved the female actresses too; TLY and ZHW both portrayed their characters very well. And of course, all of the supporting casts that Daylight Entertainment likes to reuse in all of their productions also acted very well.

Music:
Opening theme is a variation of the opening theme of NIF1, with a slightly more hopeful melody (as with the more happy ending than in NIF1).  I love the ending theme song as well (both the female and male versions). Instrumental was good too.

Rewatch:
There are A LOT of specific scenes that I think are very worth rewatching, such as a lot of the early wuxia-fighting scenes were wonderfully filmed. And of course, all of the deep and emotional family scenes (Tingsheng and Pingjing!) as well as the daily Xiao family shenanigans. I wouldn't rewatch the whole drama though, but there are a lot of scenes I will definitely rewatch.

Overall:
Absolutely loved this show. Compared to all the sequels of movies/dramas I've ever seen in my life, this is a sequel that can almost be equal to its prequel. Both NIF1 and NIF2 are equal in my heart, and both have their pros and cons. Definitely worth giving it a shot if you've seen NIF1 and are debating or not whether to watch this!! If you haven't seen NIF1, then by all means, watch this, because this is still a very good quality drama on its own.

Leggi di Più

This drama was okay, it's a bit overrated and shouldn't be rated THIS high on MDL. Would be more reasonable if it was in the 7.5-8.0 range to be honest.

This review will probably never be noticed by the rest of the MDL community since there are a lot of reviews with high ratings for this drama, but I thought I'd write one anyways. I watched this drama because 1) it's pretty popular in China for a webdrama and I pretty much check out whatever is popular in China regardless whether it is popular here on MDL and 2) my best friend likes cute romances and I really wanted to make her watch something Chinese this winter break before we parted ways again.


Story:
What I liked:
1) The entire group of friends together was very fun to watch. Loved the chemistry of their friendship together. I didn't skip any friendship scenes.
2) Their high school lives were more interesting than their adult lives.
3) Need a friend like Lin Jingxiao in life. Supportive, smart, and caring.

What I disliked:
1) the main girl was literally SOOOOOO dumb like I don't think I know of a dumber female lead than her character. very few get into a good university like Zhejiang on their second gaokao
2) when Jiang Chen was jealous, he would act mean to her. I get this is supposed to be out of jealousy, but his actions seriously irked me.
3) Jiang Chen giving up the chance to go to Qinghua. And then almost giving up the internship opportunity. And also selling his car to pay for her manhua thing. Like yeah, I guess those actions are supposed to be romantic, but I thought they were straight up stupid moves.
4) liked the second lead initially. towards the end, I'd really wish he could just move on to someone else
5) lack of communication in their relationship was sooooo idek what to say lol
6) their break up was sooooooo.....anticlimatic didn't feel a thing
7) the drama felt like it was slowing down at the end
8) the second couple scenes were pretty boring, skipped a lot of their scenes as the drama progressed
9) I didn't like how even though Chen Xiaoxi knew her grades sucked, she hardly put any work into bringing them up. Like yeah, if she didn't want to ask Jiang Chen, then I get it, but her BEST FRIEND is literally one of the top students in the class and she still didn't use her resources LOL

Acting/Cast:
Acting-wise, they were okay. They're all new actors, so I have nothing to compare to. They weren't spectacular, but they weren't terrible either. I think one of my biggest issues was with Hu Yitian's line-reading skills. He speaks pretty unclearly and has poor enunciation (I am fluent in Chinese so this bothered me while I was listening, but if you don't speak it, then you should be okay with it). Also his voice is really monotonous LOL. But he's tall and pretty cute.

Music:
I don't really think there was much music played for this drama, but I quite like the opening theme song!! Ending theme song is meh but the opening one is nice.

Rewatch Value:
Never rewatching this again LOL I mean the drama wasn't terrible but I was pretty bored and not captivated

Overall:
It's a good drama to watch if you have nothing to do, or if you're like me, have a friend who likes cute romances. I heard they deviated quite a bit from the book. "Prime example of an adaption gone wrong by removing all the likeable traits from the main characters. Chen Xiaoxi was never this brainless, and Jiang Chen never leads his potential love interests on. I would’ve preferred a story that spent more time on their adulthood (as in the original), especially when it’s clear the only purpose of the schoolyard love triangles was to drag out the episode coount." (Source: Cfensi). But yeah I really couldn't stand how brainless Chen Xiaoxi was.

Leggi di Più

A decently entertaining drama despite its undeniable plot holes. The drama is the epitome of a drama where objectively, is probably not the greatest drama out there, but subjectively, could become your guilty pleasure. You should only check out/watch this drama if you:
1) Are a fan of one or both of the lead actors (Yang Mi and Huang Zitao)
2)Like noona-dongsaeng romances
3) Are interested in a brainless drama to watch to pass your time (I used it as a brainless stress-reliever in between studying for midterms, which was fun)

Story:
It tells the story of Xie Xiaofei, a seemingly bratty, annoying and childish young man. However, he turns out to be someone with a good heart and certain opinions/ideas that you may agree with. However, he is quite bratty, although also likable, but also annoying. He's quite bipolar, and a very conflicting character. I had an intense like/hate relationship with his character. However, after the big thing with his family, he kind of starts to mature, so there is change. May not be the amount of change you’d wish he had, but decent enough.

Tong Wei, is a closed-off, serious, strict, career woman, whose life is turned upside down when Xiaofei enters and causes a series of funny and not funny mishaps in her life. However, the pair is very likable, and probably the only likable parts of the drama. I know that most people were kind of put off by the age gap, but they do mention it in the drama that the woman is older.

What I liked:
1. The main couple is very cute (until the last like 3 stressful episodes)! Especially if you like noona-dongsaeng romances.
2. The drama is pretty well-paced. Despite the plot holes, I still found myself wanting to watch the next episodes.
3. Yang Mi’s fashion/clothes in this drama is A+++!! Literally loved most of her outfits
4. That it kept itself together (for the most part) longer than Les Interpretes. It got extremely frustrating for the last 4-5 episodes, but hey, at least not the entire latter half of the drama like Les Interpretes
5. Tong Tiantian was annoying as hell in the begining but redeemed herself about halfway through
6. There were some decently funny parts!!
7. I really like the OST songs

What I disliked:
1. The supporting characters my goodness. Most of them were annoying for a large portion of the drama (although Tong Tiantian and Shang Bichen were more bearable as the drama progressed and Tong Wei's aunt had a reedamable moment LOL)
2. Tong Wei selling her house to make money to help pay Xie Xiaofei's mom's medical bills??? Like girl......I wouldn't do that if this wasn't dramaland
3. Lawyer dude Qin Tianyu was annoying as hell sometimes. Like Tong Wei told him quite a few times that she didn't like him, yet he was still so persistent LOL
4. Zhao Chenxi............my goodness where do I start with this annoying supporting character!!
5. The story did have its plotholes throughout, and were quite bearable most of the time. UNTIL the last like 5 episodes I was basically riding on the wildest rollercoaster ever I was so confused and frustrated lmao.
6. Tong Wei's best friend was such a hassle and obstruction sometimes LOL. Plus she is the kind of women I would NOT want to be.
7. The whole Tong Wei and Shan Shan's tragedy thing in the last few episodes.......I won't say more because that would be too spoiler-y
8. The drama is called "Negotiator" but there really wasn't THAT much negotiating LOL.......maybe they should change the name.

Acting:
So I would say that the overall acting was okay by the entire cast. Many of you may have seen Yang Mi in Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, where she showcased brilliant acting. Her acting in this one was okay. The character itself is very serious and work-oriented, but her character livens a bit more as the drama progresses. I liked a lot of her crying scenes, but even those, she didn't cry like crazy because of how reserved her character was. I especially liked her crying scene when she was arguing with Xiaofei in front of Chen Xiaoxi's house, as well as that scene where she found out about Shan Shan's fate. 

As for Tao, he posted on Weibo when the drama just started airing that this was the first drama he's ever filmed (even though his other drama aired earlier) and I feel that as a debut drama, he did pretty well. I do think his emotional/crying scenes were better than his angry scenes. He makes me laugh when he's angry LOL but his crying scenes were actually pretty good.

Setting aside how annoying their characters were, the supporting actors in this were actually okay too. I must say, Dylan Kuo being the only Taiwanese-accented person in the entire cast threw me off a lot at the very beginning because his pronunciation was SUPER obviously different LOL but I guess I eventually kind of grew used to it. The guy who plays Sun Hao......does not sound like he was dubbed.......his voice sounds really raspy(??) and kind of annoying LOL or maybe that's just me but he's not in the drama that much so it's okay.

Also you may be annoyed by dubbing at times (I thought it was fine since I love dubbing lol). They had issues passing SARFT the first time, so their characters were all dubbed after stuff was changed. The English dubbing might feel kind of whack too since the actors were saying Chinese and then they were dubbed over with English. But I mean......at least there wasn't TOO much of those parts, and it's not like the actors can speak English very well LOL.

Music:
The instrumental music was sometimes quite bothersome….they were kind of too loud at times (which is why I docked off some points)?? But the OST songs I really liked!!! I listen to a lot of Chinese music, so I really liked the opening and ending theme songs, as well as the other OST song sung by Yisa Yu. I have all 3 of these songs on my phone and have been listening to them quite often these days.

Rewatch:
I would rewatch the parts with the main leads!! I really thought they were cute, and I’ve already rewatched quite a few of their scenes. But nothing else aside from the main leads LOL I watched this drama because I’m a big fan of Yang Mi and I often times enjoy noona-dongsaeng romances (thus fulfilling the two bullet points I had listed at the beginning of this review).

Lastly:
I used to think Huang Zitao was kind of annoying (me being a semi-kpop fan and all) but throughout the past month of watching this drama and scrolling through Weibo, my view of him as turned from annoyance to neutrality and a bare liking. His Weibo stories of him watching the drama were quite funny.
I'm hoping Jaywalk Studio can pick better modern cdramas for Yang Mi and her talents in the future.......I feel like they always pick up awful modern cdramas LOL it really wastes the potentials of their talents!! ://

In essence, a guilty pleasure drama XD

Leggi di Più

Having been a huge fan of season 1 of this show, I was extremely excited that there was going to be a season 2. I will try to avoid spoilers as much as possible.

Story:
I read the books the show was based on a long time ago and reread book one after I watched season one. I decided to reread book two while I was watching season two whenever I had the time as well, so this review will most likely be compared to season one and book two. The story is a continuation of season one, and continues telling the story of all five women. It followed the book as closely as possible imo, however they made some significant changes in regards to Xie Tong's character and Andy's storyline. Xie Tong was a police officer in the books and not a singer, and Andy actually got pregnant before marriage in the books as well. But I think because XT's police officer character in the books did some bad things, the production team was probably afraid to paint police officers in a negative light so they changed it. Same thing with Andy, having a kid out of wedlock isn't commonly accepted in China so that's probably why they changed it as well. However, some people might think that the storyline's logic got kind of confusing because they didn't reallly clean out these changes that well. Personally, the first half was really really good, but the latter half dragged a bit (however the second book also dragged a bit so I guess it followed the book pretty well). Not all the characters had happy endings, which I think is really nice because that's how real life is. I love how this show portrays life in quite a realistic way, especially coming from a Chinese background, so many things were painfully realistic and relatable. I think all the characters had character development, although some had more than others and some developed but then went back to point one and developed again. But I think that's the beauty of this show, not everyone can develop immediately and even real life people end up going back to their nature sometimes. The last episode is really nice, it feels that everyone made pretty smart decisions in regards to their future. Also I absolutely adored the friendship and support of these ladies!!!

Acting/Cast: Same cast as last season so I'd say the acting was all pretty good! :D Props to Jiang Xin though, her acting for her character was great, even though her character was annoying at certain points haha

Music: This isn't some chinese historical drama so I'm like quite sure they didn't put too much effort on the OSTs lol but it was like okay not too disracting or anything

Rewatch: I think it's rewatchable, however, it might be easier to fast forward through certain parts when rewatching.

Overall: Loved it! I followed this drama the day it aired and watched all the episodes the day they came out. It's a very precious drama in my life XD

Disclaimer: I gave it a 9.5 on my personal ratings, but for the review, I decided to give it a more objective 8.5 as a whole.

Leggi di Più

This was a wonderful drama. I love it with all my heart. I don't even know how to express my love for this drama!! I'll try to avoid spoilers for this review as much as possible.

Story:
This drama has essentially two main arcs. The first is the story of Luo Zi Jun, and how she goes from ignorant, annoying, jobless house-wife to a smarter, employed, and self-improving divorced single-mother. There is a lot of character development for her. What's interesting is that Ma Yi Li in real life also suffered from her husband (actor Wen Zhang) cheating on her with another woman, except she did not divorce her husband as Luo Zi Jun did in the drama. Zi Jun deals with a lot of issues in the drama. I truly grew to love her.

The second main focus is on the portrayal of the cruel realities of the Chinese workplace (especially towards the end of the drama) told in story form. I think both of these story arcs are very important to people as a whole, and you can definitely learn a lot from the plot. The subplots were entertaining as well and there are lots of real-life references and problems that are showed in the drama.

I think the only thing that mainland China fans were slightly annoyed with was with the very blurry and funky/confusing relationship between Luo Zi Jun, He Han and Tang Jing. Some people thought it wasn't great that the the writer made it so that He Han ended up falling in love with his ex-girlfriend's best friend (because I read online that the original novel was not this way???). However, there were clear implications as to why Tang Jing and He Han's relationship wasn't working. But overall, I certainly loved the story and there wasn't a single part in the story that was draggy (maybe...Luo Luo and Manager Zhuo's parts were strange but they had very little parts so it was totally okay and most of their scenes were actually very funny).

Acting/Cast:
ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL. The actors for this drama are all veteran actors with amazing acting skills. EVERY SCENE WAS ACTED WELL. There were so many scenes where the acting was so detailed....I am just in awe and this drama has really made me fall in love with the actors (especially the main two actresses). Even the two kids (especially the actor for Ping'er) were good at their acting!!!!

Music:
Cdramas usually have better OSTs for their historicals but all the instrumental and songs played in this drama fit the scene they were played in. I really love the ending theme song though, super good!!

Rewatch Value:
I have this drama downloaded onto my computer so I will definitely be rewatching this in the future.

Overall:
Awesome, awesome drama!! Highly recommend. Way better than those idol dramas or dramas that have those cheesy, dumb storylines in them. This is now my favorite modern drama of all time.

Leggi di Più

This drama started out strong, but fell apart towards the latter half.

Story: I've skimmed through a large majority of the book, so I know where the general plot is heading. I absolutely adore the novel so far; it's very well written and I personally feel that the drama has adapted mildly okay. I watch the episodes the day they air and as soon as they are uploaded because I'm super addicted to the story and can't wait to see what happens next. However, they started to focus a lot on the side characters especially towards the end, and then.........that ending LOL

Acting/Cast: Everyone's acting is on point!! I honestly watched this just for Zhao Liying but throughout these episodes I have started to grown fond for the other actors/actresses and their acting skills. Everyone's on point, even the minor characters!

Music: I personally feel that Chinese historical dramas have some of the best OST and music there is, however, this drama's OST pales a bit in comparison to other historical drama OSTs I have liked in the past. I personally love the opening and ending theme songs, as well as Yan Xun's theme song and some other instrumentals. Not too bad, and quite fitting.

Rewatch Value:
There are a lot of scenes that were quite memorable, such as Chu Qiao's long speech with Zhong Yu, Yan Xun's family's massacre, and a couple others. I would definitely rewatch my favorite scenes, but not the entire drama.

Overall:
A decent watch with a story that fell short. I really love Zhao Liying though, so I think it was still enjoyable.

Leggi di Più

I really enjoyed this drama. It was super addicting for me!! And now I'm absolutely in love with Bai Baihe!! 

Story:
You can refer to the synopsis for the overall story so I won't repeat it here. But I loved how the plot was captivating and that there were a lot of patient stories that were incredibly touching and realistic, as well as a lot of problems dealing with morality and right vs wrong. Story was tight knit, and none of the characters were just simply black or white; all of the characters were gray. There was no one who was always right or always wrong and they show you multiple views of one problem and one character. Very well-written!! I would say the ending felt like it was just a teeny tiny bit rushed (I think they could have extended it for a few more episodes) but that's literally the only thing that I would be picky on if I had to be.

Acting/Cast:
Great acting by everyone!!! I had seen Jin Dong in Nirvana in Fire and The First Half of My Life prior to watching this drama so I knew he was a good actor. But I did not expect to completely fall in love with Bai Baihe!! She is a very natural actress, not stiff, not overdone but just right. Second leads and supporting actors were all great as well and portrayed their roles very nicely.

Music:
All the instrumentals were perfectly well fit for the mood. There's literally only one song with words (the ending song) so this drama relied a lot on instrumentals instead so I don't think there's really too much to say for the music but it definitely didn't distract you from the scene or anything.

Rewatch Value:
Definitely going to rewatch my favorite scenes, but probably not every single second. This drama is definitely kind of heavy at certain parts.

Overall:
Awesome, awesome drama!!! Would highly recommend. It's now one of my favorite dramas of all time.

Leggi di Più

I'd just like to state beforehand, that I'm a fan of TFBOYS, so that's why I watched this!!

Story:
Story is set in the year 2050, where AIs with red eyes have been developed and work in certain areas of life. A new and super-improved brand of AI with blue eyes has also been developed without permission and has escaped the laboratory, and has supposedly harmed humans, so everyone is trying to go after it. The three boys find out that the new brand of AI is in their high school, so most of the story is centered on them trying to figure out who is the blue-eyed AI.

As someone who greatly dislikes the sci-fi genre and things with robots and AIs, I was honestly very interested by the story because I couldn't really tell who the person they were looking for really was. Like you don't realize that there's more than one blue-eyed AI until like midway into the story, and then you realize after they find one blue-eyed AI, they have to find another, and then there are some really interesting plot twists.

There are a lot of parts where they also focus on friendship (cries) and family issues of the three main characters, and I think those were really nice moments in the story. It's cool that the characters get mad and angry (like any teenager) but they also learn to forgive and forget. Plus the story got really emotional towards end, and I was really surprised by it, but a good kind of surprise. 

And the ending......oh my that was so sad and touching!! I think one of the cool parts about this webdrama is that it brought up and explored a lot of aspects and questions and ideas regarding Humans+AIs that humans should consider as technology continues to advance so quickly,  especially if more AIs and robots start to appear in the future.

Acting:
This is TFBOYS first acting gig for an actual drama, so they are all quiet inexperienced since they debuted and are still singers. But they were pretty decent for first-time drama actors. I'd say out of the three boys, Junkai had the best performance. His two emotional/crying scenes (especially his very last scene!) were really good for his level of skill and age. Actually cried real tears at the very last scene of them three together.

I do think the adult actors, were quite lacking. Some of the adult ones were okay, but some were actually pretty bad/awkward actors. Also, most of the actors in this drama have pretty poor Mandarin pronunciation and enunciation; I would've preferred it if they had been dubbed to be honest.

Music:
I'm pretty sure all of the OST songs were TFBOYS songs, so I really liked the music (since I'm a fan of them)!! Especially the main theme song ???????is actually one of my favorite TFBOYS songs.

Rewatch Value:
I might rewatch some of the friendship scenes and the scenes where only the TFBOYS were in and having fun as a group of three. But I probably won't really be rewatching this drama. But it IS only 15 minutes each episode, so it's very easy to rewatch if one wanted to.

Overall:
Came in with low expectations since the actors were all so young and inexperienced, and I didn't like the genre. But surprisingly, it was pretty good and enjoyable!! Personally think that if this story was remade, with an even more extensive plot (I like the plot already of them trying to figure out who were the AIs) and older actors, and they kept the topics and ideas about Humans+AIs that were explored in this webdrama, this could actually be a pretty good scifi drama.

Final Disclaimer: I do like TFBOYS though, so the rating could be a bit biased. I might change overall rating to like a 7.5 later on, but currently I'm still in the moment, and I thought it was a really enjoyable webdrama.

Leggi di Più