O Retorno do Abismo (2023)

Your typical bubbly girl and cold male lead but couldn't execute it the right way

After reading all the positive reviews I decided to give this one a try before deciding anything and I know it's not the popular opinion but I'm highly disappointed.


I wanted to drop it after ep 1 only but still pushed and completed till ep 3 before deciding to give this one up.

Now why I'm dropping this one? So my reasons are :


1. Acting - it's my first time with both the M & FL and I must say that they both have a long way to go in terms of acting. While the FL is still comparatively better the ML is all stiff, wooden while maintaining that scowl or stoic face. His acting was real bad.


2. Vfx and CGI - even though this drama is of a cheap production some scenes are really done nicely not gonna lie, but those cartoonish spirits and animals just threw me off. I felt like I was watching some cartoon which was cringe. While the CGI made sceneries looked fake.


2. Chemistry - I don't mind a slowburn romance if it's executed well but the problem with this one is I can't feel the chemistry between the leads at all. The ML looked like the flower boy next door while the FL looked like his sister or bestie. I can't just vision them together and think they'll work out romantically.


4. Adaptation done wrong - at the beginning they clearly state that this drama was adapted from a novel and even though I haven't read it, I heard that the story was almost completely changed. This was supposed to be a female centric story but they just made her weak who doesn't have any spiritual power, is homeless and got kicked out of the taoist clan, so much so that she could rely on the ML. Sigh. I hate when in Chinese dramaland writers and directors just always make the ML the invincible great hero.


5. Emotionally disconnected - as the leads are already bad at acting, I didn't feel anything when they acted the emotional scenes. I just couldn't empathize with them because they are not at all convincing. I could just only stare blankly at my screen. (The grandma character at the beginning was unnecessary tbh and why introduce her only to kill her after an episode?)


6. Story - the story and the explanation was pretty confusing for me sometimes. Idk whether it was because of the subs but it was hard to follow. The most unconvincing thing for me was to believe that the ML was a powerful dragon. From the get go of the story it was time an again mentioned that a dragon is a mysterious yet a very powerful creature but still you'll see in the very beginning that Su Ying (our evil woman) just swung her sword and the mighty dragon king (they addressed him that at the beginning) was already spitting out blood while pitifully lying on the ground. It nearly took her a few seconds to actually finish him. He was that gravely injured because of a stab, what kind of powerful dragon king was he that he was defeated so easily? Also I don't know where the story will lead to in the future but initial story is not convincing or interesting for me.


7. Comedy - the comedy aspect for me was pretty forced. There was nothing that actually made me laugh even a little.


8. Editing - it was choppy and abrupt and doesn't really give you the time to feel the scene and jump onto the next. There is no stability with the scenes.

While the starting animation and ost was good and led me to have high expectations, I was eventually pretty disappointed.


It's what I truly felt while watching this drama and those who've found this good then that might be because we have different perspective and taste.

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