Another overrated drama with Xiao Zhan

The plot is generally good, but too many storylines remained unexplored. I hope they are spared for the further development in the second season (the drama ends on a cliffhanger).
The cast is amazing, each on their own and all together as a team. The bunny girl is not even irritating since she fits her character and there's a fair dose of mistery and maturity in her if you take a closer look. BTW, this has been my second drama where Xiao Zhan interacts with bunnies :-)
The production is horrible and negligent. Cringy set-ups and dialogs with nothing but turns of approving head shakings and tons of a very specific sound that means "yes" in Chinese :-). They get so bad at times that the scenes start before the actors start moving.
I'm surprised the MDL rating is so high. Not worth it.

Leia Mais

Too much of product placement

One of the reasons I picked this show was a fair amount of positive reviews here. So, I feel obliged to post mine for the new viewers to be better informed before they even start. I didn't like the writing in the first place: it's like when you're expecting some character cooking and brewing based on the material that has already been dropped into the plot, but, instead, the authors add some "out of nowhere" storyline details that give you the feeling of a broken rollercoaster. Too much screen time for insignificant and silly comedy scenes, while something really meaningful is being jumped over and blurred. With all my love to Bai Yu and his immaculate acting, the character looks like having a multiple personality disorder and it is not about his other Self that was chained in his inner jail for centuries (that part is nothing but adorable, especially the scene in the amusement park). It's about his rapid back and forth switch from the cold and arrogant "boss" to the socially skilled and sweet "best boy-friend ever". I know Bai Yu can do both, but the authors had been trying to convince us Bai Qi cannot and then... make him do the things he cannot. Feels very strange. Speaking of Bai Yu, my previous drama with him was the Guardian (safely dropped after the 5th episode) and it is kind of dissapointing to see him in a basically similar story. What IS better than in Gardian though are the charming vertical storylines, that ARE given a proper time and the characters keep reappearing as the main story unfolds. There are two reasons I completed the show: (1) an amazing cast, all of them. Some familiar faces from other dramas as totally different haracters from what I've seen before and it even took me time to recognize the actor or actress, so different they are (and it's about the character, NOT the way they look). (2) the language in the drama seemed easy and I used it as my Mandarin Chinese study material. I also watched it as a detox from tremendously good but harsh The Three Kingdoms and it now looks like a need a detox from this syropy love story. I join the club of those who didn't see much of a chemistry between the main leads, but they were still great, each on their own.

Leia Mais

The longest and the most elaborated tomb raiding show I've seen so far

I didn't particularly like the Lost Tomb, but was intrigued by the background story which eventually brought me to this beautiful prequel. Those of you who are interested in an intense tomb raiding action - this is not the case. The show's got a slow pace and gives a lot of time to all sorts of flashbacks and reflections. I've never required a densely packed action from any of Chinese dramas whatsoever, so the slowness was totally fine for me. It's got nothing spectacular in the plot either. However, I enjoyed all the hotel scenes (same interiors as those of the Lost Tomb, which provides this historical connection between the two shows) and I absolutely loved the work of costume designers. Properly lit, beautiful textures of clothes, all of them, leather and felt in particular! I loved the world of the drama: you don't often see such an elaborated universe in tomb raiding shows. If you don't rush for robbing ancient graves and getting your way through tons of undeground screamers - the 48 episodes are worth a watch. I still didn't get all the explanations of what eventuallyhappened to the nine families. Will have to watch the Reunion: The Sound of the Providence some day :-)
It was fun to be watching this show in the middle of the pandemic (which started you know where) and see the local health care administrator's attitude to the outbreak of a misterious desease :-) Nothing seems to be changing through times.

Leia Mais

Killing one's inner witch is a bad idea :-)

Having another wusia drama with Yang Mi and Someone Damn Handsome the first thing that comes to mind is to try to compare it with the Etenal Love. With the Legend of Fu Yao that would be a great mistake to do since this is not a love story even though it unfolds as the one and we are teased with some gorgeous scenes of half-naked Ethan. This is rather a "road adventure" with a bunch of great characters who are on a quest through the 5 worlds to bring back their powers, which is a totally different genre, beautiful in its own way. But, once you get that, you are not dissapointed with something that IS NOT happening here. If we disregard the major failure in the plot around Fu Yao's battle on "killing her inner witch" somewhere at the end of show (which is pointless and inconsistent and, the worst is that I start smelling this early on and this is the only thing that prevented me from giving this show the highest rate), the whole other process of her empowerment is smooth and beautiful. The 5 kingdoms are aaaamaazing, each having its own style. My compliments to the crew. The costumes of main couple's royal wedding are jaw dropping. But my biggest gratitude is to the composer. There aren't many tracks here, but those few are superb. I finished this drama almost a year ago and still keep them on my playlist marked as favs. With a few shortfalls that I have just mentioned, this is still a good show with its own vibe and I may even rewatch it some day (which I don't do often). Too bad it is not a love story, though. The chemistry between the main leads is fantastic.

Leia Mais

This may hopefully help the psychology geeks like myself to digest the show

This is not going to be a typical review and I might get boring by focusing on the psychological processes of the characters since this is the only thing that keeps me busy in the love dramas like this one (and I am not by far a love story person, tbh, but rather a xianxia lover and you can hardly split those two categories apart).

Ok, so what I understood the legend is:
A young mother to be, as a result of all the mess she went through and her being completely lonely and no one to share with (which is strange since she’s got her great teacher, a Lord Dou Mu), and needing to protect her loved ones makes a totally wrong decision about her daughter by blocking some of her essential abilities. And that is how she creates the future events she wanted to prevent from. Hadn’t she given her the pill, nothing of the crazy mess would have happened, her daughter would be raised with her perfect gender awareness. She would probably fall in love with our brilliant Xu Feng like all the rest of the girls of the 6 realms and by this sole fact she would be “just another girl” for him.

Xu Feng is a guy who had been loved and spoiled by giving him everything he wanted and much more than that. As a son of a pushy and controlling mother (in her own ways), he had been obviously overwhelmed by female attention and perceived all the love signals of women as another way to control him (hello, mother). Jin Mi seems to be the first and the only one (Liu Ying doesn’t count since she is busy with her own romance) who shows no interest in him as a man and this is exactly what allowed him to include her into his close circle, as his servant in the first place. She was the only woman he felt safe with, the only one who doesn’t need anything from him, doesn’t push him, doesn’t make him feel suffocated. Since she is not aware of her gender and wasn’t trained the eternal love routine of flirting and getting a guy’s attention, she admits touches and words that don’t look really appropriate but still excite our heavily counterdependant Xu Feng and he later interprets it as “her innocence” (not the case). And guess what! Of course he falls in love with her. And now he’s inverted roles with his “inner mother” (always the case) and starts been pushy and controlling towards Jin Mi up until the 40ish episodes where the story culminates in its heaviest twists (you can see (and be freaked out by) some of that in the intro and it looks so messy when you just start the show and believe this is an innocent comedy). This whole process is poorly portrayed and Xu Feng is predictably interpreted by scrupulous viewers as an obsessed underdeveloped character. This contrasts to his beautifully elaborated older brother, The Night Immortal, who’s been given a lot of screen time to unfold his life story and his processes, who is just as much obsessed with Jin Mi but it looks OK because we know the nature of his obsession. No wonder I (and a good half if not the majority of viewers) stayed emotionally connected to and supportive of this guy even in his worst shadow times. The role of Night Immortal is a blessing for every actor to get and Leo Luo used it to the max capacity and showed his great acting skills.

I didn’t see any particular chemistry between the main couple. Even Xu Feng and Sui He looked much better together in those few episodes when they had a nice romantic interaction.

I don’t like the Pill thing as a major plot device since it looks artificial, thus reducing the value of the show for me. The creators catch up with almost everything else though, making the show still exciting to watch and throwing in some precious gems like amazing pieces of dialogues with beautiful (if not sacred) formulae and good comic vignettes.

The music is poor. I’ll leave the three tracks to the matter of individual tastes but having just three of them for such a bright and epic show is a pity. Mu Ci and Liu Ying deserved their own love theme, to say the least. I don’t want to name other similar shows with superb collection of OST but the obvious comparison comes to mind.

I did rewatch a number of scenes to unfold the taste and get a better sense of the details. The show is quite complex and you might need that.

Leia Mais

A great show!

I picked this show to give my eyes some rest from much loved but sometimes getting too much of Chinese costume dramas and explore a little more on Taiwan. I am not the fan of the genre. I don't play games and hadn't been aware of this one before I got to read the reviews. I am highly cautious about anything that is not xianxia or wusia genre. With all these mentioned this is an amazing show, a fantastic cultural experience on that period of Taiwanese history mixed with local lore. The atmosphere and coloristics is so special that it is hard to believe the show was made in 2020. Only 8 episodes short, it introduces into the world so gently and firmly, that I could clearly feel what the characters felt. The love vibe is very strong. My only complaint is the unfolding romance between a school student and her teacher, who is actually her psychologist. In my world this is a severe violation of professional ethics, but it doesn't seem to be an issue with the authors. And yes, I went to google The White Terror while watching the show.

Leia Mais

Ethan is the best Hu Ba Yi ever!

This is actually a great show, not just because of gorgeous and cute and funny Ethan Ruan, but also because of the unexpectedly beautiful production considering the time period and circumstances of the story (a cold snowy winter in rural China of 1950-60s). I remember these cotton padded rural coats worn by my grandparents but only Ethan can make it such a sexy outfit. I don't expect much of a tomb raiding genre. It all mostly gets down to wandering around in underground labyrinths and a fair dose of screamers, which you have plenty of in this show as well. But there are also so many funny moments here that made me puzzled and thinking if they were intentional (because they didn't look like a regular Chinese comedy scenes with appropriate music etc.) or it is just my own cultural background of a Soviet childhood that made them so damn funny. A great set-up and camerawork! I owe most of my laughs to it. Too bad the only song sung was The Internationale, but it added a funny flavor and made me remember the lyrics in my own language and sing it on with the characters. This is a charming small tomb raiding show, after which it is difficult for me to see any other actor as Hu Ba Yi but adorable Ethan Ruan.

Leia Mais

Taiwanese Hansel and Gretel

...with the only difference that they are a couple, not siblings. All the rest is according to the mythos: they both are the abandoned kids who get attracted to each other for a very solid reason (rare in love dramas and adding value to this one) - their trauma patterns perfectly match. They literally smell each other's PTSDs and the whole drama is the process of mutual healing through the relationship. And it's worth a watch for this reason only. This is basically a great story. No silly funny scenes, so peculiar to other romantic shows. No fillers. However, a lot a things were overexplained which is quite annoying. The viewers are not stupid. They can understand the underlying dynamics. A nice description of psychopathological processes. I love the stories that can serve as demonstrations for med students. This is the case. Some of the things didn't overcome my cultural barrier though and this leaves a filthy aftertaste. Like, I can understand that some mothers betray their daughters for the sake of their own survival (or this is how the mothers explain it), but I cannot at all comprehend why the school violence and harrassment wasn't reported. If it was, however, the story would be quite different. And, nevertheless, I don't get it how someone who threatened to break your bones could eventually become your best friend. A misterious local culture with weird interpretations of shame and dignity. This blocked me from smooth rolling through the show.
One of the reasons I picked this show was to give Vic Chou a second chance after his, let's call it, "strange" acting in The Flame's Daughter. As I'd read the reviews I understood this was his best drama ever. So, he could not have possibly failed. BUT he did! Even though he was in his best shape and he fit this drama organically, and a few more descriptions like "gorgeous", "sexy", "terrific", "so damn good", "one of the best looking guys in that part of the world", etc., as soon as he opened his mouth the whole charm was gone. He was good in some of the scenes, but it felt cringey in the most. All the rest of the cast were great.
I recommend it for those, who are picky about love stories and require solid psychological assumptions behind the characters. It's all here.

Leia Mais

Overly pathetic and patriotic

I basically picked this drama because I wanted to see the cast of the Eternal Love in modern outfits and check what sort of deals the Chinese security office investigate. Industrial espionage that is. For a short moment it was even interesting to observe the level of intertwinement between the government and a corporate world, but I am not really into corporate dramas, which this show appears to be by the third episode. What they'd offered by the fifth episode wasn't my fav type of intrigue. All the security service guys looked too flat, pathetic and immaculate. Vin Zhan and Yang Mi look way better in historic costumes, whereat I'm going to continue enjoying them.

Leia Mais