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This review may contain spoilers
To Think I Started This Coz of Pursuit of Jade...
Tbh, when I heard the premise of this, I wasn't sure I'd tune in. From how the people on Twitter described it, it sounded really dark. I'd just gone through the roller coaster that was 'To My Shore'. I needed to put myself in timeout before I picked up another dark show.
Then I watched 'Pursuit of Jade,' heard the drama that happened to He Chang Xi (he plays He Chu San in this), and decided to tune in out of pure spite. That was a brilliant decision on my part. Despite what the Twitter folks said, this drama isn't dark. In fact, I think it deserves a comedy tag on. The 1st couple is hilarious.
🔪Watching Chu San grow from a nervous (but very horny) kidnapped student/scriptwriter to a devoted, slightly manipulative, yet still very horny grown-up was a delight. I love how Liu Yi doesn't fit in the typical 'BL bottom' mold. He's neither dainty nor pale, naive, nor scared of everything.
While we don't see much of his mafia life, we know from the bits that the story shows us that he is indeed a very capable mob boss. He might be a little dumb in his relationship with Chu San, which honestly makes for some hilarious interactions, but outside of that, he stands well on his own.
The actors also have fantastic chemistry. And I don't just mean this because of that beautifully shot, legendary kiss scene in ep 5. Idk how best to explain it, but they play off each other really well on screen. Watching these two slowly fall in love was an amazing experience
Truly, I think the best-selling point for this show is their love story. Everything else takes secondary position
👮🏻♂️The 2nd couple with their morally upright cop and conniving investigator (honestly, idk what position Lu Guang Ming held) is an interesting dynamic. However, their story didn't grab me with the same intensity as the 1st couple. They are simply dropped in, in the middle of the story, with little to no background info given about them. The pieces of their story kept moving, but I remained confused till the last episode when the reveal happens...and then the drama ended😭
💬The story being dubbed in Cantonese was a nuisance - like a pesky mosquito-, but not enough to keep me from watching. I grew up watching Spanish shows dubbed in English. I simply needed to dust off the ability to ignore the fact that the mouth movements didn't match what I was hearing, and I was good to go. I will say, though, that
1. Training my ear to work with Cantonese was a bit of a challenge. But in the same way that it was a challenge to train my ear to hear and work with Thai and Mandarin. I quickly learned to hear Korean and Japanese. But Thai, Mandarin, and now Cantonese required a bit of work
2. Cantonese sounds very 'sing-songy' to me. It is so interesting to me. None of the languages I speak nor the ones I've encountered (but cannot speak or understand) come close to this.
3. I don't think the people who dubbed this did the best job. They didn't portray the emotions well, which unfortunately made some scenes, especially the emotional ones, fall flat
🎭The acting was not the best tbh, especially with many of the side characters. But since they aren't the main event. it can be ignored
Like many here, I would love a 2nd season. The streets say that the director and two main actors may have alluded to a new season. While I would love to trust the streets, they are not to be trusted. I do, however, hope that the universe gives us that 2nd season.
There were so many things left unexplained, unsaid, and unexplored.
. I wanna see Chu SanxLiu Yi's couple era so bad.
. I wanna see how Xie Jia Hua and Lu Guang Ming's relationship will progress
. I am curious about the big bad boss behind all the murders and the mafia stuff
. I think the wto couples may eventually become friends. I kinda wanna see how that will happen
. Will Chu San manage to get Liu Yi out of the walled city and into legitimate business? If so, how?
Sigh... so many questions, so little hope of answers. I am tempted to read the novel, but lowkey I feel like holding off.
All this yapping to say, while, yes, the story does end in a cliffhanger, I still think it's a worthy watch. Especially to witness the hilarity and growth of the relationship between HCS and XLY
Then I watched 'Pursuit of Jade,' heard the drama that happened to He Chang Xi (he plays He Chu San in this), and decided to tune in out of pure spite. That was a brilliant decision on my part. Despite what the Twitter folks said, this drama isn't dark. In fact, I think it deserves a comedy tag on. The 1st couple is hilarious.
🔪Watching Chu San grow from a nervous (but very horny) kidnapped student/scriptwriter to a devoted, slightly manipulative, yet still very horny grown-up was a delight. I love how Liu Yi doesn't fit in the typical 'BL bottom' mold. He's neither dainty nor pale, naive, nor scared of everything.
While we don't see much of his mafia life, we know from the bits that the story shows us that he is indeed a very capable mob boss. He might be a little dumb in his relationship with Chu San, which honestly makes for some hilarious interactions, but outside of that, he stands well on his own.
The actors also have fantastic chemistry. And I don't just mean this because of that beautifully shot, legendary kiss scene in ep 5. Idk how best to explain it, but they play off each other really well on screen. Watching these two slowly fall in love was an amazing experience
Truly, I think the best-selling point for this show is their love story. Everything else takes secondary position
👮🏻♂️The 2nd couple with their morally upright cop and conniving investigator (honestly, idk what position Lu Guang Ming held) is an interesting dynamic. However, their story didn't grab me with the same intensity as the 1st couple. They are simply dropped in, in the middle of the story, with little to no background info given about them. The pieces of their story kept moving, but I remained confused till the last episode when the reveal happens...and then the drama ended😭
💬The story being dubbed in Cantonese was a nuisance - like a pesky mosquito-, but not enough to keep me from watching. I grew up watching Spanish shows dubbed in English. I simply needed to dust off the ability to ignore the fact that the mouth movements didn't match what I was hearing, and I was good to go. I will say, though, that
1. Training my ear to work with Cantonese was a bit of a challenge. But in the same way that it was a challenge to train my ear to hear and work with Thai and Mandarin. I quickly learned to hear Korean and Japanese. But Thai, Mandarin, and now Cantonese required a bit of work
2. Cantonese sounds very 'sing-songy' to me. It is so interesting to me. None of the languages I speak nor the ones I've encountered (but cannot speak or understand) come close to this.
3. I don't think the people who dubbed this did the best job. They didn't portray the emotions well, which unfortunately made some scenes, especially the emotional ones, fall flat
🎭The acting was not the best tbh, especially with many of the side characters. But since they aren't the main event. it can be ignored
Like many here, I would love a 2nd season. The streets say that the director and two main actors may have alluded to a new season. While I would love to trust the streets, they are not to be trusted. I do, however, hope that the universe gives us that 2nd season.
There were so many things left unexplained, unsaid, and unexplored.
. I wanna see Chu SanxLiu Yi's couple era so bad.
. I wanna see how Xie Jia Hua and Lu Guang Ming's relationship will progress
. I am curious about the big bad boss behind all the murders and the mafia stuff
. I think the wto couples may eventually become friends. I kinda wanna see how that will happen
. Will Chu San manage to get Liu Yi out of the walled city and into legitimate business? If so, how?
Sigh... so many questions, so little hope of answers. I am tempted to read the novel, but lowkey I feel like holding off.
All this yapping to say, while, yes, the story does end in a cliffhanger, I still think it's a worthy watch. Especially to witness the hilarity and growth of the relationship between HCS and XLY
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