Alegria da Vida (2019)

Incredibly Fast Paced Court Politic Drama

This must have been one of the most interesting series out there, beautifully written and done!

I dont really like court politics/conspiracy stories, because they tend to be boring and draggy. I am more of action-wuxia fan, but this one drama is somewhat different that managed to keep me glued to the screen. The plots are engaging and move fast with no boring, pointless dialogues. each of the characters are interestingly captivating, I mean in the novel Wang Qinian and Gao Da were actually serious characters and yet on screen they changed it to be humourous, which is really great! I love they made this series to be comedic! I didnt really like Haitang in the novel, but on screen, gosh, both of them Haitang and Fan Xian really hit it off like a true couple! I thought onscreen Haitang suits him more than Wan'er! Xin ZhiLei's Haitang was superbly done, I've loved her from Candle in the Tomb, and here she really didnt disappoint. Uncle Wuzhu is so damn cute and interesting and I think he's the most handsome actor in the cast, I love him!

in Ep 1, I was particularly disappointed at the male lead because his looks doesnt really match the novel's fan xian (he's supposed to be exceptionally handsome, and the prettiest even when compared to the rest of the female characters, Wan-er and Haitang actually felt insecure because he is prettier than them haha. in my head I was thinking of Wang Yi Bo or Deng Lun or the sorts, so was disappointed to see Zhang Ruoyun's 'normal nice' looks). However ZhangRuoYun makes up to it by his superb acting which truly matches the novel's Fan Xian character. His looks kind of grows into you, and his smile is particularly adorable. I think he's a perfect Fan Xian even if his looks isnt the prettiest/most handsome compared to other casts. Oh-oh I love the young Fan Xian actor too! That kid is truly amazing, I was cracking up at his antics!

I love how the screenwriters’ adjustment of the novel plots that didnt really jeopardize the flow of the story. I'm happy that some characters in the novel didnt show up like Fan Xian's maidservant/childhood bosom friend which he later slept with (and later married her as concubine) although he's already married to Wan-er, gosh i really hate him for that, thank god the on-screen Fan Xian already sworn to love Wan-er only in his lifetime. Honestly the novel Fan Xian's soft spot for the ladies is truly getting on my nerves, it's really great that the onscreen Fan Xian didnt adopt this bad habit. I just finished the drama a few hours ago and realized that the only one Fan Xian killed in the series is Cheng Jushu. Onscreen Fan Xian is definitely more humane with strong self righteousness, compared to the novel Fan Xian who is ruthless and shameless - The novel Fan Xian killed for the first time at 12, he was the one who tortured Si Lili in the dungeon, and he was also the one who broke Xiao En's legs to prevent him from escaping. The cdrama changed all these and made him look so pure and innocent, which I have no problem with, of course!

I’m currently reading the novel and has came up to the 598th chapter, and the adjustment of the ending of this season 1 is something that didnt really happen in the novel, which kept me on the edge and made me reaaaaaally curious of where it would lead to. I hope the diversion from original novel wouldnt be too huge, because Yan Bingyun is one of the most important confidants of Fan Xian’s. I just cant bear if the adaption decided to make them as enemies instead 😞 Am planning to rewatch JoL after I finish reading the novel.

Can't wait for the Season 2 in 2022! and I hope it has more episodes than this one, 46 is just too dang short, I cant get enough of FanXian-Haitang duo hah!

Leia Mais

Are you tired of an incompetent king? Are you tired of dumb antagonists? Are you into martial arts? Are you tired of predictable plots? Are you into characters that are well developed? Are you into romance? Are you interested into historical-ish dramas? Well, welcome to Joy of Life! All of the characters have a deep history and it is interesting connecting the dots. The king is very unpredictable, yet he makes very good decisions. He is ruthless. He is the mastermind. As for the main character, he is pretty smart. If you liked how the main character in Nirvana in Fire was smart, then you will definitely like Fan Xian. As for the story, there are many plots twists to keep the audience busy. Hope this was helpful.

Leia Mais

This is my first review for an Asain drama and if it weren't for the quarantine I probably wouldn't watch so many and bumped into this amazing drama. Its probably one of few dramas that I've watched not because of the lead actors but because the story keeps you watching. It's tight and mysterious, funny and sensible, keep you guessing until the very end.
Fan Xian is one of my favorite fictional characters in a drama. He is smart and funny. compassionate and calculating and so so interesting in that you never feel embarrassed in the embarrassing things that he does. This is like a crime drama and he is the detective of his own life.
the Emperor is great, the actor is even better. Chen Pingping is a sneaky old man, I have a feeling he holds all the cards.
I love the Fan family they fit together in that they are a diverse gang of personalities and brilliant in their own ways. And I think Fan Ruoruo is the best female character in this series. she has amazing chemistry with Fan Xian.
I like all the characters in the drama, they all serve a purpose.
the only part they didn't do so well is the chemistry between Fan Xian and Lin Wan'er, and I think many of you would agree with me.
and damn that second prince is really something.
and lately, this series has 2 more seasons which is all 2 years apart which is accessive and I think it'll a lot of fans because of it.

Leia Mais

I read lot of good review so gave it a try
I loved the FX character and acting by the actor is good but I felt he couldn’t handle the v emotional scene. Like hurt anger or tears
Chemistry between the main lead is horrible there is no chemistry but FX had good chemistry with other two female characters
I feel the scene in North Qunan are big Dragging and made me bore
I didn’t understood when they just went there to exchange POW why they never did and why FX have to literally kidnap him?
If FX was ambassador from different country and he gets close with the emperor how come still common men challenged them to fight with them and why was he not given protection
Acting of every one is good specially all seniors
FX all adoptive father and his real father the emperor
M fav character is uncle WU
I will ofcourse watch second season
Yes one more some scenes had bad lighting hope they take care of that in the second season

Leia Mais

Okay I really really love this show. 2019 for me was less exciting in the beginning. I keep starting dramas then dropping it. Came across the untamed and I was so obsessed that I couldn't even get myself to like anything else. I'm thankful to joy of life for breaking that spell. These two are my top dramas for 2019.

My review for joy of life

One of the best dramas ever. It got me hooked from the very first episode.
The young fan xian was hilarious.
As the story progress and it keeps introducing new characters and every character were interesting. I keep wanting to know more and more about them. There's so many things yet to unfold. You think you know them but you will be proven wrong the next episode. I'm really really looking forward to the next season. I don't know if I can pick a favourite character because I have so many.

And at every turn at you will find something unexpected. The story got 10x more interesting after he reach Beiqi. I really didn't want it to end. I don't know if I can call this drama a comedic suspense but I absolutely love the humour, conversations, and surprise in it.
Acting was top tier. The actors were all very natural. I didn't find anything cringy or force.

It is not romance heavy and it was in the background and I'm thankful for that because the only thing I didn't like about JOL was interaction between lin waner and fan xian. I have always liked Li qin but her character was the most boring one for me. I didn't hate the character it wasn't annoying or anything but it was forgetful. Fan xian had amazing chemistry with Haitang dou dou and Si lilli.
The osts weren't memorable either. I didn't find myself running back to listen to it 24*7 the moment I finished the series. It wasn't bad but just didn't like it much.

As for rewatching it, I don't know if I will ever rewatch it because it is the suspense and surprise factor that kept me hooked and now its over I don't think I will watch it again. But I really can't wait for the next season.

I would recommend this drama to everyone. Historical, futuristic, suspense , Sci fic, comedy, romance, action, plot and planning. It has a little of everything and I absolutely love it.
Now I am back to finding everything else bland and uninteresting because this was so so good.

Leia Mais

Fantastic Periodic Drama

Love this drama. So funny, witty and the rhythm is really good. It is not draggy. The part that I find most amazing is the number of casts they included in this drama. It must be really expensive to portray so many characters of the book. The production team didn't save money on this and I was so impressed. THey did the casting really well as well, none of the actors and actresses looked cheapskate (you wld find this in some low budget drama where they would cast really badly on the badguys)

The story is so amazing as well, so much of intricacy moments all intertwined together, like a big jigsaw puzzle. I had to go to Youtube to search a few synopsis to understand the relationship between all the events. So glad that the scriptwriters managed to write the scenes well, or else, it would have been so difficult to understand.

I have only 1 complaint. They left us hanging on the last episode. It's really crappy to be watching a drama that paces so quickly and suddenly to be hit by a last episode that hang half way. I should have waited for S2 to come out before watching this.

I hope in the next season, they will feature Yuan Quan more prominently (the professor) I love her acting. She is that kind of actress that carries so much complexity on her. Definitely more than meet the eyes.

Leia Mais

Rewatch preparing for S2 EPIC Script!

One of my all-time favorite dramas. This is the best script ever!
Everything is absolutely perfect except the lighting. There's a lot of olive tunes to the drama making the actors look not as pretty which is incredible because there are a ton of beautiful actors in here.

For those people that may not like this drama for whatever reason, may missed all the essence of Chinese language word play. There's so much comedy but all lost in translation. Even the names are clever. Sadly, I can only understand 80% of it. I so wish I can read the actual book but since I can't, the drama itself is perfect.

Some Fun Word plays:
Fan Jian - Fan Xian's Dad's name actually sounds like "being bitchy"
Chen Ping Ping - A very girly name for the master schemer
Nei Ku - Treasury sounds exactly like underwear
There are countless of these.

Unique on every level.
1. Political scheming isn't all that interesting to me but it's part of every costume drama you can't avoid. However, it is interesting here because all the characters are all multi-dimensional.
2. Characters. You can't find any weakness here. Well written characters along with perfect casting.
Mini Fan Xian - I could've used extra episode of him. He's so cute and expressive.
Fan Xian - Everybody loves Fan Xian. I am 100% biased here because the actor has been one of all-time favorites.
Wang Qi Nian - The side kick endless funny punch line delivery guy
Teng Zi Jing - The assassin in the beginning that formed such strong bromance
Fan Si Zhe - Did not know the actor is actually a standup comedian but I can see why
I literally loved almost every character big or small. Shows how brilliant the script writer is.
3. Level of literacy
There's a scene of Fan Xian reciting all the famous poems. (no I never got to that level in my Chinese) but it's amazing the actor reciting all those poems in one breath. People with high Chinese literacy will surely appreciate this.

Leia Mais

This drama should have been called "Fan Xian Collecting Geges/Guniangs" because all older guys considered themselves his father and all pretty ladies fall for his charms XD

I started this drama because of Xiao Zhan, but he is in the last 8 episodes or so, and since the very first episode I didn't mind because I was immediately hooked. The little boy that played Fan Xian was so good and charming I was sad to see "older" Fan Xian... I wouldn't have minded to have at least 10 episodes with little Fan Xian.

But I didn't know this was just Season 1 and Season 2 has not even started filming yet till I was on Ep15 or so :( so I think people who starts this should keep that in mind.. the cliffhanger is O_O

While I liked the characterization of all characters, and I specially like Fan Xian, I didn't trust half of them. Or more than half of them. Is this one a bad guy or a good guy? It was like this for most of the drama, but even with that, I was enjoying it. The passive-aggressiveness is hilarious, from Fan Xian and the Princess Royal, to the Crown Prince and the 2nd Prince, to the stepmother and Fan Xian at the beginning of the drama.

I am not one that particularly enjoys too much romance, so this one has just the perfect amount of it. Not too much and besides, Wan'Er makes Fan Xian happy. And she isn't dumb nor a damsel in distress, except for the fact that she is sick. So I don't understand why people do not like her :( If this was a harem, I wouldn't have minded to see Fan Xian married to Wan'Er, Si Lili and Duo Duo... all these girls were good in a way or the other and very different from each other, and best of all, they all had chemistry with Fan Xian.

The acting was good, wigs and costumes were excellent; the plot is WOW, so there isn't a single dull moment in the entire 46 episodes. In fact, I even think it was a bit short because I wanted to see more of Uncle Wu Zhu, of Fan Xian's siblings (Ruo Ruo and Fan Si Zhe... so smart and caring one, while so funny and charming the other), of the Ninth Masters (I wanted more fight scenes tbh). The songs were so fitting, specially the OP song, while the ED song became easily one of my favorites... I listen to it regularly <3 with XZ beautiful voice.

If I had to complain, it would be that I didn't understand a few things... or it was extremely witty and too advanced for my poor brain, or some things got lost in translation...

Looking forward to see them all in Season 2! I love that little smile from Zhang Ruo Yun at the end XD

Leia Mais

To be honest, I initially started watching Joy of Life because of Xiao Zhan and I was slightly disappointed to learn that he would only show up in the final 5 episodes or so. Despite this, I quickly fell in love with all the other characters, especially Fan Xian.

Joy of Life is a fast-paced show with very little boring moments. It is also very witty, filled with puns (that are difficult to wrap your head around sometimes) and scheming characters. There is a nice balance between the light-hearted comedy and the darker politics of the palace. Not all characters are who they seem to be, and the true enemy is hidden in the shadows, only revealed at the very end. While I think the plot is overall cohesive, the genre fluctuates slightly. Is it a historical fantasy drama? Mostly. Are there themes of science-fiction? Yes. It is difficult to summarise Joy of Life into one genre, because it has hints of several genres, including wuxia and science fiction.

Out of all the female characters, I think Fan Xian and Li Waner have the weakest chemistry. The show thrusts us into a sort of "love at first sight" between the main couple, and then slowly builds chemistry. I think they are cute together, but the chemistry between Fan Xian and Haitang Duoduo was much stronger and believable in my opinion. In the book, Fan Xian's relationships with the women is extremely different (from what I've heard, Fan Xian has a harem), but has been changed in the show. Quite a few things have been changed in the show (because of censorship), so the plot is slightly different from the novel.

Overall, a good show that balances palace/country politics as well as comedy.

Leia Mais

Joy of Life is the story of Fan Xian who is born knowing the modern world in feudal times. The story follows him as he movs to the capital and falls in love, and basically walks the tightrope on court politics and the royal family.

What I liked about the drama was the outstanding acting. Everyone was great in their roles. The male lead was outstanding. The story although it could be dragging in parts and slow was complex and interesting most of the time. Everyone has layers and they are neither really good or bad. I am a huge fan of Xiao Zhan so even though he wasn't in many episodes and he played a very unsympathetic character, he was still very nice to look at and appreciate! The music was good, not great but I've listened to the opening and closing dongs multiple times.

What I didn't like.... let me start with since there is a season 2 some of this may be resolved but there were things that I didn't really like. First I am not certain I am supposed to care about the main love story. The two were barely together so I really have no interest in the love story at all. In fact I found the mail lead much more interesting with Si Lili and especially Haitang Duoduo. Ideally Fan Xian should end up with Haitang Duoduo. Also, the story with Qi was a little confusing as the last part of the show was all new characters and you do not see any of the original set of characters. I missed Xian's sister Ruoruo, and his father and step-mother. I was invested in the characters and then they were just gone. I missed Uncle Wuzhu and what happened to him??? Again that may be fixed in season 2. Plus they did it explain the frozen people and the god temple very well. The massive secret that kept Xiao En in jailer years was that he knew where the God Temple was but Chen Pingping was the only one that seemed to care. That whole episode was confusing to me.

One of the best things was the characters are so layered and complex, but it also makes it hard to like most of them. I am still not certain if the cares about Fan Xian. I do know his adopted father certainly does care about him. So basically liked the Fan Xian, Uncle Wuzhu, Fan Jian, Ruoruo, and Fei Jie leader of the third bureau. Everyone else I am not sure what to think about them. Again that is interesting but also left me not really caring.

STOP READING IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW THE ENDING
The show ends on a cliffhanger in the true sense of the word with Xian being stabbed and bleeding on the ground. I'm not sold that Yan Bingyun actually stabbed him and that this wasn't already planned. Yan Bingyun seemed to be listening to him and yes the bureau was his life, but it felt like there was a crack when Shen Zhong's sister was stabbed protecting him and he seemed upset when he heard what the second prince was doing to control Xian. I mean there was a whole not between the threats fo the second prince and the morning when Bingyun stabbed. That is just what I am thinking, but I haven't heard Xiao Zhan will be back for the second season.

Overall I liked it, but not like my favorite show, Would I watch again, maybe if I had nothing else to watch. Would I watch season 2 - yes cause I have to find out what happened to Uncle Wuzhu.

Leia Mais