Hot Shot (2008)

This is one of my favourite Taiwanese dramas. Perhaps it would be fair to add that I usually love dramas and movies dealing with sports, and this one in particular is about basketball, my favourite.



But it isn't so much the plot which makes this into a great watch: it's the direction style. Everything about it is over the top: from the athlets who fly around the court as wuxia warrior on a battlefield, to the characters who have the flavour of manga drawings, from the camera angle which plays with frozen scenes and facial expressions, to the plot itself, with its never completely serious twists. References to the battlefield, the Romans, the Greek and Sun Tzu's the art of war are scattered all over the show for the most attentive viewer to catch.



The scenes displaying street basket are awesome and the beautiful music is chosen with sense and aim.



I'm ready to recommend this to every basketball lover. Should you happen to hate this sport, then it may be a harder watch, unless you are appeased by the good-looking actors, in heaps here, and the beautiful, strong and far from whining leading ladies.

Leia Mais

If you suspend realism and logic and just go along it, 'Hot shot' is a very interesting drama with many interesting characters,situations and catchy music.

The negatives- the obviously illogical theatrics, like:
The players are mostly in flying mode with gravity defying leaps.(But since we start seeing this from the first episode of the drama, it feels normal after sometime);
Our heroes, be it Jerry Yan, Wu Chun or Show Lou, can fight off fifty plus men without exertion.
Besides these, there isn't much about the show to dislike.

The theme is basketball, and the drama stays true to it to the end. I liked how the team formed and came together while fighting each game as a different challenge.

The characters are very well written. Each had their distinct style and behaviors and each felt true at some level. Even Da Ying, who was annoying in the beginning, became more clear as the story moved on.
The actors were all very good. Wu Chun has a solid role, though his story is not of main focus. Probably the only character that didn't seem to fit in as much was the girl,Jie Er.

The romance is fine..not very typical, but not very moving either.

The review wouldn't be complete without mentioning the music, of course. The OST is very catching and makes you want to watch, even if you aren't that keen on the story itself. Not to mention that the dance those guys do is very eye catching.

Leia Mais

I'm not really into sports nor basketball but because of the actors I decided to give this drama a try and I'm glad I did. I find it entertaining and it's not that serious which is my taste. Yeah, acting is exaggerated but worked well enough as a whole. I appreciated Show Luo and Jerry Yan's acting here. I'm not really into the love pairings because I don't find any chemistry between the love pairs in the series but anyway this drama is certainly worth a shot if you like a sporty and funny entertaining theme. I was able to appreciate basketball while watching this series.

Leia Mais