Despite Flaws, How Many Minis Actually SHOW The ML Slowly Falling In Love?

This is NOT a perfect show. There absolutely are some editing issues and "mostly" minor plot holes but on the whole this show left me thinking "who cares".

Why?

❤️ Because there was an almost entire episode SHOWING the ML falling in love with the FL.

❤️ Because there are scenes where they do NOTHING and yet you're holding your breath, not blinking your eyes and left feeling like you just watching the most intimate thing in the world.

❤️ Because she doesn't back down from his dark side and embraces his "visciousness and cruelty".

❤️ Because instead of hiding behind him like a weak-willed nobody she rises up as an equal, giving better than she gets.

❤️ Because they take no prisoners and leave no quarters when it comes to the other's life. Not even the MLs guard is exempt from punishment for messing up.

❤️ Because she tells him a story about a prince discovering his rose was an "ordinary" rose so he later turnsn it into telling her a story about a prince and his one and only Iris.

❤️ Because after an "attempted" scene against her he helps her process the trauma together.

❤️ Because even the antagonists, who had their own despicable and unforgivable actions, had their own love stories and were able to serve as a contrast to our leads choices.

❤️ Because even though this is a "simple mini" the Palace politics felt like some of the most real out there with EVERYONE double speaking and double plotting... BUT they actually EXPLAIN it all and break it down with inner thoughts and other character discussion cut-aways.

❤️ Because chemistry 🔥🔥🔥🔥🤣

SO...

This show is HONESTLY not perfect but it is going to stay with me for a while and I will absolutely be revisiting it in clips.

I already talked myself down from a 10...

Rating breakdown:
Full unobjective rating based SOLELY on plot and execution: 7

Dialog: 9.5

Chemistry: 9.5

Set and Clothing Design: 9
(I will defend the leads eye makeup as being that way for a REASON 🤣 "Evil eyes vs innocent/protagonist clothes")

Final Rating (still biased but lowered): 9/10

Leia Mais

One of the best short dramas

What's Wrong With My Princess is first a revenge drama then a romance. There is very little traditional "romance" trappings within the short story but it still manages to demonstrate two people learning to trust eachother and growing closer as a married couple.

Because we are given a front row seat to exactly what happens in her previous life to have her reincarnated back 5 years in the past, it's very easy to be invested in the revenge that is plotted out slowly over the course of the series. Each time the 7th Princess tricks one of the the antagonists we get reminded that they have it coming and more. Meanwhile watching the 7th Prince is no hard task. Seeing him as he supports his wife in her quest for revenge without ever even being told what they "did" to deserve this treatment was refreshing. He came to know her and her values and as such completely trusted that they must have done something truly awful to be treated in such a manner.

The music used was repetitive but soothing and fit the show. The acting was rather good for a short drama with the 7th Princess keeping mostly a poker face but sometimes slipping to show her utter disgust of the people before her when they weren't watching.

As for the last second ending, anyone who knows anything about these types of stories knew the "it was a dream" was coming. After all, it was between that or "it was a story she was writing/reading". That said they slipped the line in so quickly and then moved on that it's truly skippable and doesn't even really change the story we watched since the only dream part was the original life if understanding the line correctly.

Overall the show is absolutely worth a watch. I could even see myself watching a longer version that gave more detail about the backstop and showed them with perhaps a bit more conflict before 100% trusting each other.

Leia Mais

Hilarious In First Half, Lost In Second Half

Final verdict 7/10.

This show compiled is 5 hours and 20 minutes long and yet it feels RUSHED, especially at the end where they kept throwing stuff at you in a blink and you miss something major happening way. A bunch of things happen off screen (I assume, maybe I blinked 🤣 ) near the end as well as they jump from one plot change to another.

The overall story they are TRYING to tell isn't bad, it's actually pretty good, the issue comes that there is no sense of world building or what the rules of the world are so you feel lost.

The villians.... existed. They were part of that whole "this could have been better more fleshed out" feeling as we get 3 of them in the show. The 1st and "main" one I feel like they "tried" to give us a story but I have no idea what it was other than wanting to live forever and not forget anything, I "think"? His disciple... Idk what his story was or why he didn't die when he was supposed to, maybe he did and I blinked? The last and 3rd one, the masked person, made the "most" sense but also was severely glossed over on how they were able to get away with the things they got away with 🤣.

The 2nd couple was adorable. Again, I didn't 100% understand everything with them at the end but they were still a really good side couple that was surprising fleshed out for how few scenes they had being 2nd and all.

Our main couple though.... 🤣 They were 100% where it was at during the 1st half of the show. Rolling on the floor laughing antics during one of the storylines. And a couple scenes to make you blush during that time too 🤣

Later though their story kinda goes off the rails and you start talking to the screen about things like "just write a diary!" and "where's that journal?" and "seriously???? You're just going to stand there and not at least try and run?"

For a full and complete breakdown of rating the show...

7/10 - eps 1-3
10/10 - eps 4-12
8/10 - eps 13-18(eps 14 6/10 for editing confusion)
5/10 - eps 19-25

Leia Mais

A Story of Emotions and Life Lessons

This drama has done something for me. It has proven (to me) a bit of a formula for what a show needs to have to be a 10/10 FOR ME.

-Multiple storylines
-People that are written like REAL people - (not perfect people, not idealized people, but nitty gritty, do the wrong thing, say yes when they mean no, REAL people)
-Romance that is present throughout but is not the major focus
-Love "tri"angles that are dirty and messy and emotional are a plus

-This show is long.
-This show takes a LOT of detours NOT focusing on the "Main" plot, most of it consists of side plots
-This show's ML is VERY VERY VERY rigid in his beliefs and this is often at the expense of his relationship with the FL.
-FL does NOT explain herself to ANYONE until after the fact (and then only sometimes)

Ultimately, because the show focuses so much on the side stories, the main story does fall to the background with the thread popping up again every few episodes to move something forward an inch. What this means though is that if you DON'T like the side stories the show will fall flat.

Personally, I think the first was the weakest but with each subsequent one I slowly got more invested. I had tears in my eyes by the end.

----
Do you like/ not mind:
angst?
misunderstandings and doubts?
slowest of snail romance?
Low/no physical intimacy
older cgi, costumes, hairstyles/ wigs

---
Fully biased 10/10
Unbiased... 7.5 or 8 probaby

Leia Mais

Excellent Start then Depressing and Left Question What and Why?

While not being EXACTLY the same in any way, it has a very similar trope and 3 act structure to Hard To Find which is makes it very difficult not to compare it itself to. No spoilers similarities have the story broken up into three acts: amnesia present, past, remembered present.

The strongest arc is "amnesia present" and could absolutely be watched as a stand-alone of people who don't remember each other falling in love. Their time together was glorious to watch, even with the knowledge that "something" more in the story happens in past and with (at that time) no knowledge of what happens after this "end scene". As a stand alone it would be unfinished but still solid enough you could fill in the blanks with what you think happened in the past /will happen in the future.

The next arc, The Past, takes you back to have more understanding. It was good but not "quite" to the degree of the first arc. It seemed as though the original romance in the past was "missing" something, mostly just time to show their feelings more slowly developing as well as lingering questions about the mythology surrounding what happens on the screen. That said, it was still GOOD overall. Part of the emotional investment comes from knowing what happens, having seen parts of it in first episode, and then watching every interaction with hidden knowledge of what's to come. It leaves you on the edge of your seat wanting to watch the screen through your fingers. The final end of this arc was rather abrupt and there was essentially NO transition between it and the final arc which was jarring. However, again, you could theoretically stop watching at this ending and fill in final blanks yourself and have a semi-satisfying ending.

Where everything falls apart is the last arc. Beginning with the no adequate transistion between arc 2 and arc 3 the entire editing process becomes a mess of trying to figure out what's happening on the screen and WHY. Conversations attempt to explain but feel like they refer to things you haven't watched, scenes are cut off and then the next scene begins causing you to rewind to make sure you didn't miss something, and characters start to have their "final thought transformations" so to speak (where they make up their mind to do one thing or another) but your left scratching your head on WHY they changed. As for the main leads, there are decisions that can only be said to be NOBLE IDIOCY on steroids. These decisions lead to an ending that makes you ask yourself AGAIN what just happened and fail when you try and see a bright side. It is very easy to say the last arc NEEDED at least 3-5 more episodes of scenes spread out to give every character the needed story wrap-up and follow-through to make the journey more satisfying and logical.

Aside from the editing issues with the story, I need to make note of the use of CGI and music.

While the actual music wasn't bad most of the time (pretty actually), it is VERY jarring to see someone playing a flute and HEAR a piano solo or piano/violin piece.

Secondly, the cgi was AWFUL. To the degree many scenes using it had the look that they could have been edited on one's phone using free editing software. For many scenes it was distracting but it didn't really get in the way and was good for an eye roll. There is one scene however where NO, it absolutely ruins the scene and I'm almost mad that such an emotional scene had such cheap effects slapped on top of it.

Act 1: 9/10
Act 2: 8/10
Act 3: 6/10
Final verdict 7.5/10

In the end I WILL recommend this but with a heavy warning of depressing themes and traumatic events playing out on the screen like watching a train wreck and that you WILL end the show with questions and probably not be satisfied with every characters individual arc ending.

Leia Mais

Mindless Timeloop Fluff With Some Angst

At just under 20 minutes an episode, this short drama packs a lot into each of into its plot. Running at a break-neck speed, especially at the beginning, 5 or 6 episodes go by and suddenly you're wondering what's going to happen next as the tale twists and turns. Most of the story is told through the eyes of the FL so seeing her emotional journey of ups and downs is quite nerve-racking, making you want to hit the NEXT button immediately to see what happens next.

While the show itself isn't "spicy" there are a surprising amount of kisses and general romantic scenes. This makes the required "angst" section of the show even more nail biting as you want to have everything "normal" and sweet again.

The biggest weakness of the show is probably the main villian. This person was telegraphed with bright lights VERY early and yet despite clues mounting up around them the characters appeared to be oblivious to their meaning. Then the final showdown leaves a bit of a "really, that's it" feeling despite not being able to put into words HOW it might have been able to be different or better.

On the large though, this was a VERY satisfying show to watch and should absolutely be seen by more people looking for something "shorter" but long enough to be fully fleshed out with all characters motivations.

Leia Mais

There are better and worse minis out there

Reasons to watch this show:
You are a fan of any of the actors/actresses
You feel a need to watch ALL transported into a comic minis
You want a transmigration HEA show

Reasons to pass on this one:
The logic makes NO sense
They cast a kissing king in a show where they CAN'T kiss 🤣🤡
The 2nd ML storyline will make you roll your eyes
The "main" villian is easily guessed once you realize logic has flown out the window

Overall, if you're bored and looking to watch this on 2x speed it won't take long; but if you're one of those who has to watch on regular speed, good luck.

Leia Mais

Mediocre Beginning That Actually Only Gets Better

The beginning of this show feels a little odd at first. The pacing is odd, the editing is odd, the weird comedic aphrodisiac play is odd, and more. But then something interesting happens... Where for a lot of shows this sets the mood and you drop or suffer, this one actually DOES get better with each episode.

Now this isn't to say there are no plotholes or logic gaps. There are logic gaps large enough to drive a truck through... But all the over the top craziness does start to grow on you, the main leads relationship starts to settle and strengthen, and before you know it you're over halfway through without blinking.

As long as you can check your logic at the door this should be a good ride. Also, this might be the first show where I'm honestly confused if they ACTUALLY kissed at all.

Leia Mais

The Sopping Wet Cat vs Girlbosses

Premise: A modern girl wakes up in the body of a timid, sopping wet cat, bathhouse worker who longs for the princess from afar. Her mission, get the arrogant princess to marry him.

The Twist: Rather than a "simple" body switch or body take-over, this show brings forth The Chair! Whoever sits in the chair controls the body 😅. What could POSSIBLY go wrong when two heterosexual people of opposite genders BOTH control a male body?

Overall this was a very unserious show that had a lot of funny moments. The ending was both glaringly obvious AND semi-unique.

As for the cast, Wang Ze Xuan does a crazy good job imitating Chen Fang Tong's expressions and mannerisms when "she" is in control. He has to play such drastically different personalities that it really shows his skills off. As for Chen Fang Tong... She is the audience personified in many scenes. Taking advantage when she can her delight over causing mischief for him to clean up is just fun and addictive to watch.

8.5/10
(Plot holes and rushed sub plot ending nicks some points)

Leia Mais

Pretty Show w/ Rushed Ending

This show was definitely pretty. Pretty sets, pretty overlay / scene change screens, pretty (and varied) costumes, and of course... pretty actors 😅🤷‍♀️. One of it's positives is that it also had above average cgi for being a mini drama (I have absolutely seen worse cgi in full length shows, let alone what's normally shown in minis).

Actors/Actresses that stand out:

Zhong LiLi as Shang You will possibly make you want to slap her or strangle her for how dumb and naive she is she is at certain points of the show. Not EVERY one who says they will help you has your best interests at heart girl...

Guan Yue as Si Yuan was amazing to watch for multiple reasons. One, he CAN act and he CAN emote. This show required him to NOT do that and I swear the director told him "no, stop, too much, more stone face...." The fact he has expressions and "acts" well later in the show after he would HAVE emotions makes me convinced this is the fact. His scenes of self-punishment were 🔥 and his white-hair transformation was 🙈.
Yin Rui as Feng Shancha was a VERY complex character that had you feeling bad for her one second and wanting to kill her yourself the next. She obviously has a good ability to elicit emotions with her face. She has a trigger warning scene happen TO her.

The plot... tries. It starts out clear and focused but as it goes on it slowly begins to devolve until we get to the last couple episodes where they cram way too much plot into too little run time. This causes characters to flip suddenly, threads to drop completely, and sudden final reveals to lose their emotional impact because they come from nowhere. Warning, you will NEVER find out WHY the ML was blind and near the FL in the 1st episode 🤷‍♀️.

Honestly, the show needed to be 30 episodes at least to better develop that ending.

Finally, the original title is 3 Lives Without Sorrow and it's "obviously" supposed to be a 3 lives show but don't bother trying to scratch your head trying to count which "life" they're on; it won't make sense. We'll, maybe it will... another user said this show is "basically" a mini-drama version of TTEOTM but I've yet to see that yet so can't say what the parallels are.

Leia Mais

Red Flag FL Seeks Revenge By Pitting Brothers Against Eachother In Love.

This was quite the ride! It absolutely lived up to my expectations for YZX more than Unspeakable Longing did 😅. It kept me glued to my screen each night as midnight rolled around, having me just waiting for the SINGLE episode a day to update. Anyone watching it later now that it's done airing just won't have "quite" the same nail-biting experience.

The Negatives...
This show screams for wanting MORE. Episodes are roughly 10 minutes disregarding opening/closing ost themes and plot points are quickly moved along from one to the next. Often people end up complaining about side character development full length shows so if you are one of those you'd likely appreciate the direct approach of focusing almost strictly on the singular plot line but personally I found myself wanting to know EVERYTHING about everyone... I wanted to know how she grew up, I wanted to know more about the brother's father and the conflicts with his wives, about the grandmother (and slap her), and probably most importantly MORE about the struggle with YZX character Yeting and the Crown Prince.

That said... there aren't really any major dangling plot threads regarding any of these issues, you get told a bare bones story enough to piece together all the backstory you need for the characters and their motivations to make sense. I just KNOW there's more story there that didn't have time to be told though so it was an unfulfilled want.

The biggest reason this becomes a "negative" is because it hinders the romantic triangle to a small degree. Focus is placed on her with one character then switches them back and forth again until I had a harder time believing there were actual feeling between her and Muran than I did her and Yeting. Additional scenes of her alone, conflicted in her room perhaps hashing out her TRUE feelings with her maid might have helped sway the audience one way or another but then, perhaps that's exactly WHY those scenes don't exist?

Which leads me to, The Positives...
First, while vastly different stories, similar to L&BF this show relies on only two songs to convey the depth of varied emotions playing on screen. The majority of the ending OSTs are the female led song with only a few, impactful instances of the male led song. This change-up of the songs is actually one reason to NOT watch the final FULL VERSION whenever it comes out as they will inevitably cut out the end credits and those changes will lose their punch-to-the-gut impact.

Both songs portray a sad, lingering and emotional love full of conflict. Different portions of the songs play different lyrics over various scenes to better convey the emotions on screen at the time, milking those songs for every drop of emotion. Both have been added to my Playlist but I've especially listened to the male sung one on repeat as the despair in his voice is POWERFUL.

The characters here are not "cookie-cutter" and all three display actions going against their conflicting emotional state. Each character has their own self-interests and it becomes addicting trying to unravel WHY they do something when it seemingly won't benefit them and instead will only hurt them.

Our FL is known as "Ban Meng" to the MLs. Her goal is straight and simple in theory, but when does anything simple ever actually turn out such? Her background turns her into a conniving "Green Tea B*tch" type character as she sets out to purposefully manipulate the MLs for her revenge.

Rather than ML/2ML I'm going to label the brother's ML 1 and ML 2 and strictly go off age (older brother/younger brother).

ML1 is the older brother Yeting played by Yan Zi Xian. He is initially portrayed on the screen as cold, unfeeling, and utterly ruthless. He represents overly ambitious Red Flag characters but the story does well as it moves along to paint him as more than one dimensional. He is a Lion.

ML2 is the younger brother Muran played by Zhao Huan Ran. His initial appearance has him portrayed as youthful, carefree, and innocent. The opposite of his brother, he is originally made to represent an unambitious and Laissez-faire, Green Flag character. He is "a Golden Retriever raised by Foxes" type mix.

The revenge ending was short but concluded and wrapped up completely. The loveline ending was longer, devoting 1 1/2 episodes to resolving who, if any one, she ends up with and why.

Final verdict: 9/10 personally

Majority should find it good enough it rate an 8+/10 as it keeps you guessing and the chemistry is FIRE! 🔥🔥🔥

Leia Mais

The Definition of "Average"

What do you get when you take a vertical micro-drama plot and stretch it out to make it fit a Mini-drama standard? You get The Silent Wife.

Take all the bingo cards and tropes, tone them down and there you have it. This show was THAT boringly predictable.

Now don't get me wrong, if you HAVEN'T watched a bunch of vertical dramas and/or read a bunch of "bad" fiction then this may still get your blood pumping and you might even like it as novel and exciting. But don't expect the FL to be a smart person or learn anything 🤷‍♀️ It's a VERY specific niche fantasy show and that NEVER happens in these unless it's a Reverse Uno trope.

6.5/10 (Could have written almost the entire plot synopsis without watching it)

Leia Mais

Well... It's an "Uncle" plot...

This is yet another vertical drama flipped horizontal and made longer. It will cater to its specific demographic and it will either work for you or it won't.

Personally, it didn't work for me.

My apathy started when my brain was more intent on staring at his apparently sat on glasses in the beginning episodes, it continued when the "spicy" scenes were barely there and I personally couldn't find the chemistry in her stroking his arm or shoulder all the time to get a rise, and the death toll for me was that there were THREE villians in this show and none of them ACTUALLY seemed dangerous to me... I mean call the police if you had evidence she was being stalked 3 years ago... 🤡

I thought the ending was the MOST funny because all I could think was "if you were going to solve the issue THAT way why wait and not do it the next day or even a week later?"

Leia Mais

Addictive But Don't Look Too Close

This show was addicting to watch but FULL of hand-waving and plot holes. Some were so small you barely noticed and thought "maybe I just missed something" but others were so big you could drive you car through.

That said, I was INVESTED wanting to know what was going to happen next. This show took a soup of tropes and made them actually feel mostly fresh. From gender-bending to face-swapping; palace politics, mindcontrol and betrayal, there was a little bit of everything in this plot.

The music had an intense, epic feeling to it that helped carry that feeling of getting addicted and NEEDING to know what will happen next.

8.5/10 (bumped up for enjoyment)

Leia Mais

Gorgeous Drama Bogged Down By "TorturePron"

If you've ever wanted to watch a show where you question if the sole purpose by the end was to see JUST what they could get away with without being censored.... this is possibly your drama.

Positives... The acting was mostly good, the cinematography was constantly good and the sound design was phenomenal.

Where it begins to fail is that it loses narrative structure as it devolves further and further into shock and awe territory.

By the end you are LITERALLY no longer even going "WTF" because by that point you've honestly seen it all. And I do mean this "LITERALLY" as for example... there is a scene of one guy urinating on another.

There are multiple triggers in this show and many of them are again seemingly only played for shock value with very little narrative need.

So... who is this show FOR?
If you are looking for something different.
If you are curious about just WHAT can be shown in mini dramas now apparently.
If you can suspend almost ALL sense of reality.
If the emotion you want to feel most is rage at the injustice of the world.
If you don't require a lot of skinship or "traditional" romantic trappings.

Final Rating: 7.5/10
The narrative is bogged down TOO much by all the shock value. If there had been less the rating would probably be higher as again, the production qualities were quite good.

Spoiler comment for more wtfery.

Leia Mais