redzoro92

An as objective review as possible.

So this is one of those series where the comment section has essentially become a warzone & I personally just recommend against reading the comment section. So as objective as I can as someone who didn't read the novel & isn't simply trying to shut up anyone who has a criticism I will just point out some positives & negatives & why you should or shouldn't watch this drama.

Positives:
- The 2 Leads have a pretty cute chemistry / love story. I know a lot of people don't like Zhou Ye's acting & I understand, but I took it for what it was. Cheng Lei was just cooking with what he had. The intense stares to the subtle smile. Yeah, I'm not gay, but he was great. But in the end it is pretty simple, with nothing overly deep that may get you thinking about it too much. Still a fun watch mainly bcuz of the actors IMO.
- The action scenes are probably the best thing this drama has going for it. The final fight actually looks pretty damn cinematic for a TV series.
- The cinematography ranges from standard to pretty damn good. And the pretty damn good was mainly in the actions scenes.
- I liked the music & OST too, but not too jaw dropping good.

Negatives:
- Lack of depth & characterization makes the Leads & even side characters quite boring. If they Leads didn't have their fun chemistry working I think it'd be quite apparent. E.G. ML wants to restore his family's honor, but we barely see his family or relationship with his father in the beginning. Only later in the final third part of the series do we meet his family, but they barely add depth to him.
- The story is really simple so don’t expect any amazing tension, twists, resolution or anything of the like.
- If you read the novel the chances of you liking it is pretty damn small.
- Villains are a bit underwhelming.
- Last 3-4 ep you really, really need to tolerate the ridiculousness.

Overall, I enjoyed. With themes of identity, femininity, strength & love the show falls short. Not a lot is put into discovering the Female General. Instead it was lightly spread throughout that it didn't make as much of an impact as it should. So if you liked the novel or are expecting an interesting story about a woman discovering her femininity, balancing that with her masculinity, her wits, her strength & how she uses this to inspire other woman, then best to skip this. If you are looking for a simple, light & fluffy romance with some cool action scenes thrown in once in a while. Watch it.

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Unfortunately lost potential. : (

Themes of love, camaraderie, partnership & family.

While initially starting out strong as a rom-com w/ some dark humor the show eventually drops the ball & just spirals into a redundant mess.

First of all the positives:
- Yoshikawa Ai heavily carried this drama & if it wasn’t for her character & the show being short I would’ve dropped it. And her character Izzy is such a fun fish out of water character.
- The main antagonist Tenkai was also a good nemesis for Izzy too. Which made for a fun dynamic.
- The action scenes were actually good & although you could tell when there was a stunt double Ai comes off believable as a fighter.
- The show is quite funny a lot of the times & the actors all have pretty good timing.
- Music is just okay as I mainly remembered the dub-step & nothing else.
- Camera work is also pretty good w/ some fun techniques every once in a while.

Now for the negatives:
- Sano does a pretty good job for the character, Hachi he’s given, but he was clearly directed to overreact & worst of all his character was heavily mis-written. The major problem w/ his character is he never truly understood Izzy & her situation, bcuz he was rarely in danger unlike her. The writers never challenge Hachi’s suggestion of pacifism before violence. Instead they just decided to keep him ignorant of the Antagonists & their evil nature. Resulting in him not allying w/Izzy for the last half of the show.
- The side characters are frankly boring & forgettable w/ a few exceptions. 1 of them being Sorimichi’s Detective Dad as he plays a father who isn’t close w/ his son well. But he’s wasted. Then there’s the friends & associates of Tadashi who were either annoying or contributed little this creating no real attachment between everyone. So when they started getting so much screen time it was just wasting this already short show.
- Speaking of which, the show is 8 ep & they utterly wasted their time w/ creating a fun & loving couple. Instead so much time is give to the supporting cast who also weren’t allies of Izzy.
- Which leads to the story & that is it’s confused as to what it should do. Instead of creating a story about 2 loners/losers who eventually find that they aren’t so alone, they completely ostracize the FL. The theme is love, camaraderie & partnership, but the only one who showed that was Izzy. So the writer’s intention, whatever it was, is completely lost as I didn’t feel any of that.

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Chinese Pride & Prejudice with possibly weird production.

Themes of family, love, marriage & growth.
This drama had potential as an interesting family drama about marriage, but it just sort of exists w/ no real focus. At a certain point I knew this drama wouldn’t have a main character & it would focus on all 5 daughters + 1, but what I didn’t expect is how often certain characters would be gone so long only to reappear again.

So I had an epiphany/theory whoever made this show made it based on the actor/ actress availability & that’s why some characters have so little screen time & some so much. How I see it, the 3rd couple were the most famous so they filmed their scenes first. As soon as their story was done it was the 1st couple, then the 2nd. Finally, the 4th & 5th couple had actors & actresses who didn’t have many dramas lined up for them so they were the most available & thus took up the later parts of the story. That’s the only way I can rationalize as to why the other older sisters barely did anything later on.

Anyways, with that out of the way I usually do a pros & con, but I won’t. A simple summary will suffice. The show lacks in 1 major area: a lack of focus. It doesn’t really have an idea as to what the story is about so certain things happen randomly quite often & other times the characters just do things that don’t make much sense. The one major positive about this show is that it dives into all the sister’s stories so you can pick & choose a favorite couple. But in the end it’s just serviceable & not all too memorable.

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Starry Love is one of my absolute favs that I rewatch

With themes of compassion, love, overcoming trauma & family (both blood & newfound) this drama is definitely one of my absolute favorites. Now while I do think objectively this drama is more of an 8 objectively, personally I would give it a 9. For me this drama was the right amount of fun, comedic, adventuristic, emotional, romantic & overall a good experience. To me it was a breath of fresh air from the overly cliche xianxia that exist out there.

Pros:
- Probably the best thing about this series are the 4 main cast members. The chemistry of these 4 whether it be between their love interests or their other ones there is something great to find. This drama gives us one of the healthiest (probably the only one) relationship between 2 sisters. These 2 sisters never once hate each other or are against each other & it works. Then there are the romantic relationships & when I say these 2 are some of the best I really mean it. Unlike so many that I've seen before these 2 romances I understand perfectly why each fell for the other, which is something I am always on the lookout for when I watch a romance happen.
- In terms of story, I'm also really impressed bcuz it managed to subvert a lot of tropes that are constant with xianxia series. For example I didn't expect Youqian to die & therefore needed to be revived by finding 3 Fragments of his soul. Other things like the Heavenly Emperor finally getting his karma is also another good thing.
- The OST is also very good & is always played at the most appropriate times. Especially the opening OST which works so well for the epic moments.
- Comedy gold & it is heavily due to some very good directing along with very good actors like Landy Li.
- The VFX is quite good & I do like a lot of minute details for some scenes.
- The cinematography is serviceable & nothing too bad.

Cons:
- I do feel the last few ep could really turn off viewers. An open ending like that could leave one wanting more. Then there is the unnecessary "end of the world" plot that just needed to happen. While it makes some sense it also could have been done a bit better.
- I do feel that the whole revive Youqian story line might've gone off for too long.
- Some characters were probably a bit too cliche or even comedic that they sort of lacked greater depth.
- Some props looked very fake & did break immersion a few times.

Overall, one of my favorites & something I think most people can enjoy.

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I was honestly more interested in the previous generation.

With themes of classic wuxia series like heroism, chivalry, justice, camaraderie, responsibility of power & of course love this series could've been good if not for the many problems it had. As someone who really likes wuxia series I was happy to get something like this over the many more famous genres of recent years. Unfortunately, this series was just lacking in too many aspects that some of the good stuff never really stuck with me. I felt they never polished what they had & it eventually led a somewhat lackluster series overall.

Pros:
- OST is really good, especially "Intoxicate by Gentle Breeze" by Li Yuchun. It gave not only a very wuxia vibe, but just a very nonchalant free vibe making it a very good song. The OST heavily elevated the drama at times.
- Zhou Yi Ran kind of carried the younger actors of this drama. I don't think the drama would've been very good if he didn't give such a strong performance. Granted he did get better material to work with so...
- The older cast are good & a lot of them do really good with the material they are given.
- The world building is actually quite interesting & ambitious. This world has a lot of interesting ideas & stories going. One of the shows greatest strength was the 2 generations it focused on. It was always interesting to get into the history of the generation that came before & see what they had to go through.
- The show is cinematically very pretty, especially when they are in real landscapes. Then there are the slow-mo moments where we see they costumes flow ever so beautifully. I really like those moments.
- The fights are okay & fun, but definitely not bad. I do want to praise the actors, especially Bao Shang En for doing some of their own stunts. And it isn't just simple stunts, it's actually some pretty complex ones too.

Cons:
- So if you haven't noticed by now, for me the biggest problem is that a majority of the characters feel underdeveloped or have little material to work with. Even Cai Zhao & Cai Ping Shu, 2 of the most important characters felt off as characters. Much of Cai Zhao's character is her relationship with her Aunt Cai Ping Shu, but the problem is that we never get to see enough of their relationship together & thus we never get enough of emotional anchor for both. There are also things like Cai Zhao not wanting to join the jianghu, but they never explore anything deeper than the intro of ep 1. Eventually this causes Cai Zhao to have no real story of her own & she is just following her Aunt's old stories or following Mu Qing Yan's. Sigh~ a pity.
- Then there is the over abundance of characters & why it is best to not have so many characters. I think bucz they had so many characters, they couldn't really focus on any one & that left most of them being not memorable.
- Editing & some shot choices are weird too. At times I had an immersion break bcuz it was that bad.
- Most of the younger cast including Bao Shang En are rather weak. Bao Shang En at times felt like she was just reading the script rather than actually acting. I do think is a case of bad directing though so I won't be too harsh.
- As for the story it is unfortunately hampered down by the fact that the previous generation's story was way more interesting than the current gen. Only the 2 Lead's story were remotely interesting (mainly Mu Qing Yan) & even the twist villain was boring & cliche. And the story itself was too much, go on a quest & not enough of a big cohesive breathing world.

Overall, I wanted to like it, but it didn't feel like it was a complete story. Add on top of that an overly ambitious story spanning generations along with lacking production & it would be expected that this is the end result. I would have preferred if they took more liberties with the adaptation & cut more characters or even fix how certain story points proceeded. Bcuz what we got didn't really work in my opinion. However, as an inspiring writer I did get a lot from this series in how to approach a story like this or even characters like Cai Zhao so I guess that is a plus. LOL! Anyways, it was a decent show, but I just wish it would've been better.

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Tragic retelling of the Twin Black Winds that is quite worth it.

As a new retelling of Mei Chaofeng & her fall into “villainy” & becoming one of the infamous “Twin Black Winds” I think this was a rather well thought out version.

Cons:
- The series takes a lot of liberties with the characters & story so if you like the original & aren’t open for new interpretations then it’s not that good. I for one think they missed an opportunity on just making her a straight villain.
- Mei Chaofeng & Huang Yaoshi are totally rewritten to be safer & more empathetic & that does make them lose their original value.
- Zoey Meng does have a lot of just stilted face acting & she does well in only a few parts.
- Action scenes could be better. Zoey isn't very good in these scenes & I just don't think she works as an action girl.

Pros:
- Mei Chaofeng’s relationship w/ the people of Plum Blossom Island is actually quite good as this version depicts them close knit so when the tragedy happens it’s effective.
- While I did say the played the safe route w/ Chaofeng’s character I also feel this makes her relationship & betrayal w/ Yaoshi works more. The original doesn’t give us a good reason to feel for Chaofeng other than she herself is regretful.
- Zoey Meng & He Yu actually have good chemistry & when the final episode happened I was actually happy when they were together & sad when tragedy struck.
- This is where Zoey Meng shines, when she’s w/ the other actors. Alone she’s pretty weak, but she’s stronger with the others.
-Speaking of the other characters I also like that each character on Peach Blossom Island feel like their own character. They feel like individuals & not just some character that’s tacked on. They could’ve gone the route where the other disciples, despite being 4 characters, function only as a single unit. They feel like 4 characters
- I also like the inclusion of the new original characters who allow the world to feel more expansive & also help reinvent the story.
- Yu He on the other hand wasn't bad in the action scenes, but he still needs some practice.
Overall I really enjoyed this reinvention of the story & how they sort of retconned (IMO fixed at least) a few things.

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