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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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 l, 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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