Escada para o Estrelato (2017)

The first thing you need to know before going into the series is that it is actually more of a melodrama than it is a romantic comedy. The second thing you need to know is that if you are watching for Push, he is not present for the entirety of the drama despite being the male lead. He sort of comes and goes throughout the drama and instead the romance focuses more on female lead and her relationship with the second and third male leads. The male lead's voice is also dubbed terribly.

That being said, this drama does a pretty good job of representing the entertainment industry including the good and the bad. You have the female lead who just happens to get lucky over and over again making her way to the top while her friend has to claw her way up to the top doing a lot of shady things. Some actresses have to fight their way through and continue to fight to maintain their position, while others just genuinely get lucky and their talent is recognized. I also loved how they depicted the complicated relationship of frenemies and business rivals. Another cool thing is that it has some pretty epic celebrity cameos of actors appearing as themselves, including Orlando Bloom. At times, especially in the beginning, it felt like this drama was being used as an outlet for Tencent to advertise/promote its other projects / movies...especially with its star studded celebrity cameos. However, it was still fun to watch because you never knew who would show up.

Another thing I liked is that the male lead is "allergic" to females due to some traumatic past. While I have seen this plot multiple times in other dramas, I liked how the female lead is no exception to the rule. He is allergic to her as well and that is one of the complications of their romance that he has to overcome. The chemistry between the two leads is pretty good and it's fun seeing them go from enemies to lovers. Scenes between these two characters are more romantic comedy, whereas the rest of the drama is more of a melodrama with the female lead pursuing her dreams of becoming a recognized actress.

One of things that hurt the drama is that it is pretty lengthy and the last 10 episodes or so dragged. At the end of the day, I did enjoy this drama and felt like it was worth watching once (especially for Push). I don't plan to rewatch it though.

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I'm impressed with the storyline of this movie. I like the fact that not everything is rosy and fluffy. I also like the fact that they portrayed how taxing it can be to be in the entertainment industry, how difficult it is for artists and mostly, how far people will go to get what they want. I'm particularly impressed with the character, Mengtian. Although she's a 'villain', the author made us understand that she did what she did for a reason and gave us the opportunity to understand and sympathize with this character. Truly, although some people may not go as far as this character did, the character made me understand that jealousy really does turn friendships sour.

The actors also did a brilliant job. Really, I couldn't find a big fault in the cast. Although I felt some scenes may have been a bit tricky like the ones where the actresses have to act as actresses while maintaining the behaviour of the original character. In some scenes the character Su Cheng played, I still felt some original, cutesy Su Cheng vibe from them. Of course this isn't a big deal I was only wondering if it was meant to be so.

Ah! the music. Memorable. Honestly, the songs picked out for this movie were really good at changing the mood of the audience. But I noticed some audio issues which... weren't very pleasant. This has nothing to do with the music of course but it really bothered me sometimes. The recording... or was it the microphone? it wasn't so good.

I would definitely like to rewatch this again. I love the playful scenes at the beginning and I would also watch this for a deeper understanding.

Overall, this drama is very nice. Not too dragged, not too rushed. Nice cast, nice acting. Other than the audio and my occasional sensitivity working, I loved it! Well done to the crew. Great job, guys!

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