This review may contain spoilers
This is for adult viewers or people who want more than just fantasy
This is a romance between races, but also tragic story of self-sacrifice. Most folks will hate the ending, but for me it was a world better than The Love Between Fairy and Devil!From the first episode I was spell-bound. Considering I am not a big fan of fantasy this was one of the best I had seen in general and the best of 2024. Why? Consistent production. Great editing. Fun costumes, awesome color palette. Solid acting. Good story and interesting characters. Music and the lyrics! But what beats Burning Flames and Love Game for me was complex subtext of this story. The whole idea of animosity between two groups is nothing new but I have not seen anything like this before. I admit I only saw 350+ dramas, but this script was smart inside out. I was raised during the era of post-communist regime in the country where we could not openly speak of the tragedies and terror around us, so we developed an artistic, metaphoric way of communicating our observations, dissent and longings. I loved this drama because of how it spoke to that. If you are looking for an easy, HE romance, nah. Skip it. If you want a good story that is visually beautiful and filled with wisdom - give it a try.
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Ignore the Ratings – This Drama Is a Gem
A Visual and Emotional Masterpiece"A Love Story of Oiled Paper Umbrella" is a visually stunning and emotionally rich Chinese drama that masterfully combines fantasy, historical romance, and deep emotional themes. From the very first episode, it captivates viewers, drawing them into a world of mystery, love, and self-sacrifice.
Impeccable Production Quality
The drama’s production value is truly exceptional. With mesmerizing costumes and detailed set designs, it seamlessly blends historical authenticity with a fantastical charm. The color palette and cinematography amplify the mood, turning each scene into a visual feast.
A Story with Depth and Meaning
While exploring themes of love across divides and the power of trust, the narrative brings a fresh perspective that feels innovative. The layered storytelling is thought-provoking, offering viewers a meaningful journey filled with rich subtext and profound emotional moments.
Strong Performances Bring the Story to Life
The cast delivers standout performances, with Yu Meng Long and Li Zi Xuan leading the way. Their chemistry and emotional depth make the characters’ journey heartfelt and engaging, leaving a lasting impression.
Music That Complements the Magic
The soundtrack, featuring haunting melodies and meaningful lyrics, elevates the drama further. Each piece of music enhances the emotional weight of the story, lingering in the audience's memory long after the final episode.
A Must-Watch for Thoughtful Storytelling
If you’re seeking a lighthearted romance, this may not be the right choice. However, for those who appreciate visually stunning, deeply moving stories with meaningful narratives, "A Love Story of Oiled Paper Umbrella" is a must-watch. It’s a tale that resonates long after it ends, making it one of the standout dramas of 2024.
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Another Hidden Gem
This show definitely wasn’t what I expected. It’s definitely a hidden gem and I binged it within a couple of days. It’s not your typical cute fluffy fantasy idol drama and will be for an older mature audience.The Good
The story was well written and I appreciated the lovers to enemies storyline. It reminded me of Romeo and Juliet. Star crossed lovers who were doomed because of their families/identities. In this story, the main theme was about the demon race vs the human race. It had a deeper story than just love. I enjoyed the fact that the FL didn’t blindly love the ML but also hated him as well. The portrayal of love and hate was done well. I liked how it didn’t suffer from most of the major tropes we see in Fantasy dramas like amnesia, childhood friends, I’m doing this for your own good, etc. The two main leads also had really good on screen chemistry that made their love feel natural. I also loved that they were smart of enough to tell this story within 24 episodes and not drag it out to a 40 episode drama. It would have suffered from a lot of filler episodes which wasn’t the case in this drama. The pacing was steady throughout. The acting here was good from everyone. Everyone played their role well for the character type they were assigned. I liked how it did not have constant loud soundtracks or odd sound effects constantly playing in the background as most fantasy dramas do. The music was more subtle and tolerable, even had lots of scenes without music. The OST was also pretty decent.
The Bad
Of course it wasn’t without its issues. For one, this is a lower production. The CGI wasn’t that great but wasn’t the worst either. The makeup was cakey at times. They didn’t do a lot of skin smoothing and over harsh lighting which was a positive but also a negative because we could see the bad makeup jobs. This drama still wasn’t without some tropes but that’s just inevitable with dramas, whether they are CDramas, Kdramas, JDramas, Hollywood Dramas, etc. The tropes play on the predictability factor unfortunately. Next, because this was a shorter drama, there was less character development for some of our villains. This made them fall a little flat and one dimensional.
This type of drama definitely suffers from lower ratings because there are no big name traffic stars or extremely pretty people. I’d say judge the drama for yourself. I found it to be better than most of the Fantasy dramas that aired this year with high ratings.
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A tragic love story
I'm going to give it to you straight: if you want a fluffy love story, do not watch this because it is quite tragic. I get it, not all love stories are happy, but I would kind of expect happiness if the title has "love story" in it. I'm pretty much giving the 8/10 rating mostly because of the actors. More on that below.I started to watch because of Yu Meng Long, I remember him from Shine! Super brothers. I thought "wow, he's finally in a main role, I'm happy for him" and after checking the other stuff he was in I found out that he had quite many main roles already lol anyways, I'm going to check out other dramas too.
The casting. I'll start with the casting because in my opinion, the best part of this drama was the casting. All actors really pulled it off, everyone was simply fantastic. I think that if they were not so persuasive in their characters, I would have not finished this drama.
The costumes and soundtrack. The costumes are A+ as always. Really beautiful to watch. The setting was also very beautiful. Only few drama soundtracks really stand out to me, all others are on the average to me 😅 it's nice though.
The. Story. For the first two thirds, the story is okayish, although with too many tragic side stories to my liking (as I explained in the beginning). I felt like it is not progressing anywhere and yet quite a lot was happening. I think the writers did not space out the events and the backstory well. The backstory and past of the two main characters is revealed only towards the end. I think that it should have been revealed bit by bit throughout the story and this is why the storyline felt like it was not really progressing. The "life saving" magic tricks (you'll know what I mean when you'll watch) seemed to have been pulled out of nowhere. What I mean is, that the backstory of all the spells was also not well incorporated. It felt like they sprinkling it like fine glitter.
However, the story still managed to keep me tuned in even though I did not like the tragedies. I especially like the 35ish minutes 24 episodes format of this drama, this also helped me to watch it through the end.
Overall, I'm not mad, I just would have appreciated more happiness and fluff. Watch if you love the "there's no light without darkness" kind of stories. And for Yu Meng Long.
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This review may contain spoilers
Demons, and human, and oh my
Plot-Demons Hunters hunt down demons only to learn one of them is one and yeah if you seen Love in an Eastern game or fangs of Fortune it's basically the same type of deal. It doesn't really stand out as better or worse honestly while the other show has cliche characters that don't really matter because they fit the mold so they work, this show character feel hollow and empty
Music -
I can't really recall any of the music and I legit spent episode 16-24 before writing this thing. I think they had a song about an umbrella.
Characters -
Empty for troupes
Female lead(Meng) she spend most of the show in a hypothetical back and forth everytime she finds out something new about herself (yes she is the demon) she starts breaking down this happens every 5 episodes. The romance between her and the male lead I don't exactly like. But seriously she should have ended up with the Prince he was the better choice and honestly was better looking.
Male lead(baize you) is your stereotypical good guy in a sense he is the hero at the female expense. It doesn't help that the way the show is framed that even if he was torturing her to help her both us and the audience don't learn until way after making it harder and harder to accept their love because some of the torture wasn't even necessary but to make him look good in the bad guys eyes, he barely stands up for her unless it's to help progress the plot. It feels like he is forced by plot to be with her. Even for a cold character that secretly has feelings it doesn't work. My favorite part is when they left a take in with Oreos around his mouth for no reason but to show the viewers they didn't care about the show.
Goa ji- boy did they try to give him a redemption arc that didn't work. Honestly the first time you meet him he is trying to drug his Jr into sleeping with him, trying to get her dad to force her into marriage, and then keeping it a secret that her father is possessed just to get with her, then trying to kill the leads (which good for him) by using the emperor, only to be castrated by the empress which honestly most people wanted done from the pill scene. The reveal he was a demon actually trapped in the painting the entire time doesn't really make his redemption worth it.
The twin officers - they are barely characters but I didn't like that they were going to stay in a corrupt organization just for the money and torture the man they called their brother. Their deaths was anticlimactic because you kinda feel like it's karma.
The Empress - being a bad guy was well obvious. I mean how did no one think that if they planted someone as a prime minister they wouldn't have done it to say an Empress because emperors in these are either really good or horny slime balls with 2 braincells.
Dream demon- that character hurted especially since he was the best looking one besides Uncle Wu anytime they appeared on screen I was feeling like I can keep watching but yeah the ending for him was legit lame. I didn't want a secret villain. I wanted to see him actually not be another horrible male love interest. Like every male love interest in this show besides the prince is scum.
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Excellent BUT Music overpowered the dialogue
Being 24episodes, it's just the right length yet it's still a very strong plot and requires great acting and directing,all of which was delivered perfectlyeverything is very good. I strongly recommend this drama
The only MESSAGE I want to pass to the production and translation team is -please can you stop putting the translated lyrics of the OST over the dialogue?or else put the lyrics somewhere else ? In addition,the OST is so loud I couldn't hear the conversation and the lyrics totally covered the subtitles. This is super super annoying even at the crucial moments GET it sorted. I am super annoyed
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