2ndLeadsBest

Best Cutest FL ever!

This is one of those cliches done right for me. Yes you can't avoid the catch and fall, piggy back moments but doesn't mean a standard plot can't be amazing!

What I love:
1. Great dialogue. One of the wittiest dramas ever (and I watched plenty). I hope English translations later on can capture 1/2 of the cleverness of the conversations.
2. FL - She's not a big name yet but she can act. Her cute expressions are not "forced". I love her character so much. She's smart and witty but far from perfect. She's a genius in her designs but can't cook and doesn't know much about Chinese poetry. Love that she's confident and doesn't let her short comings get to her.
3. ML - Visually he's a bit old for her but his character is classic cold on the outside but kind on the inside. This part is pretty standard for most of these dramas however they didn't over do on the standard cold CEO because he actually has a personality! 1. He doesn't have a scar that spark up any illness (just pure hatred and plan to destroy the world but still!) and 2. He doesn't do those over the top male dominating scenes.
He's witty with lots of comebacks, straight forward without cheesy lines. I love the way he turned down the other girl. Maybe some people will see him as cold and mean but way to nip that in the butt.
4. It's not a cheesy love at first sight but through time working together and understanding each other that they fell for each other.
5. Divorced parents - no overbearing mom here but she adopted 2 more children. Heartwarming family dynamic.
6. Very few disgusting characters - they limited them here and w/ minimal lines. Well done! lets not waste drama time on this
7. 2ML Lu Yi Ming - The adopted brother who's perfect! I loved his character in Mr. Fighting as Zhao Xiao Bei and his character here is completely different and yet still perfect.

Downfall
1. Ke Ke character - self pity to the fullest peaked at disgusting level at ep 29.

Hope more people will discover this drama.

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Engaging cases. Solid Choice for crime solving addicts!

So, if you like Ancient Detective or Imperial Coroner types of dramas, you'll probably enjoy this too.

Well done areas:
-Storytelling and pacing of the drama: ~2-3 ep per case. It gives time to develop the characters, and it gives proper time to solve the cases.
-Production: It's at least a mid-budget drama. Sets/Costumes/make up are all pretty good. No over skin smoothing till you can't see the neck vs face line.
-Casting (majority): Not familiar with He Peng but he's doing an excellent job
-Zhai Zi Lu - Always been a fan of his acting but his character is Man Child. Of course, he can act the part, and his line delivery is always on point. The character is hard to like until midway through.

What could've been better:
FL. Not familiar with her prior works, but she has a frozen face, fairly empty stare and can hardly portray an 18 year old. The story character is great just could've executed better. If they casted someone like a Chu Chu (Imperial Coroner) then the character portrayal would've been more convincing.
Ending.... Final case was kind of draggy with semi satisfying ending.

Still the drama is a solid watch! Very Enjoyable

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Only worth watching if you love the Cast

For me I love actress Zhu Zhu. And even though the story frustrates me every episode of nasty characters with too much screen time, I continue to watch for her. This is the typical C-Drama where the negatives outweighs the positives so I'll start with the short list of positives:

Worth watching Parts:
1. Zhu Zhu .... I mean isn't she just one of the most beautiful, refined actress in decades?
2. 2nd ML. You know he played a nasty ex husband in Filter? Now he plays a charming 2nd ML who hardly gets ANY screen time. He nails both characters! Only in ep 24 do you see some sweetness.
3. Few good supporting characters: (again NOT enough screen time) The cook bestie, the ML's finance guy.

Now for the Rants.... skip this if you are easily offended

1. Too many nasty characters with overboard screen time. That really needed to be cut down by 50%. I would rather watch more interaction w/ the 2nd ML but nope. It's always drama central w/ repetitive gossips and backstabbing.
2. Even by ep 24, she's a manager now, still with no real power.
3. ML - still not likeable. Script issue. Clearly Ep 25 2ML is that much more mature.
4. ML/FL chemistry, none IMO. All the way through the end.
5. Very repetitive theme over and over again. She gets into a new department, there's always someone trying to backstab her and she succeeds in the end.

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10 episodes that should've been cut in 5

Let's just start with Season 1 was a 10 for me. It had ALL The exciting elements that YES finally S2 is here! And then it felt ..... draggy & flat, completely anti climatic. NO fault to the actors and I know people are complaining about the change of the FL. No chemistry etc. Personally I think the script is the problem. Naksu's character shouldn't have deteriorated to a sick love puppy that only in ep 8 did her original personality started to show. Progression was terrible!! If the story isn't there don't drag it out like what C dramas tend to do & just ended. Instead they filled it with flashbacks, blank stares, forced comic lines at the wrong times, and hot red birds ep 1-7.

S2 managed to recover the initial glory in ep 8-10 and ended with a semi satisfying ending but it should've been so much better. The cast did an amazing job regardless!

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Should've been 24 ep.

There's nothing special about this series so the fact that they stretched out to 42 is pretty tiring. I do like easy watch cliche dramas but it has to be executed well with cute dialogue and a fun cast.

1. FL - insanely gorgeous but her personality wasn't consistently likeable . The start was rough with her randomly accusing the ML of stealing. They should've wrote some believable encounter.
2. ML - Over controlling passed the likeable stage. He's bi - polar through out most of the series: sometimes nice, most times unbearable.
3. 2nd ML - Very cute, this character was executed well. This is your standard non existent human like supportive male character who just want the FL's happiness

Side characters:
Too many nasty characters all targeting the FL
It was a struggle to finish the series with all the crappy side characters

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Easy to love the cast but hard to love story

I love thrillers/murder mysteries and it's been a while since new psycho killer dramas. Kim Young Kwang with his jokerish smile was a great choice for this role and there's no question the whole cast can act but the weakness is in the script.  
The dialogue felt slow.

By Ep 6 I am just like what is this sloppy nonsense?  Literally poor decisions all around.

Why did disabled cop go meet him alone?
Why did she go party first before calling her colleague about discovering ...?
LGBT Shaman storyline felt random
ML and ML only shared a few lines and deeply connected?  There really should've been some development with that.
Overly dark lighting
Radom fingers on the phone screen...............

Lost potential with this great cast because there could've been so many interesting storylines:
ML back scar story?
FL first gambling hall employer?
FL and Cop friend, how were they able to grow close then fell apart at some point?
How did she become that way?
Shaman and cop, what's the story there?
FL & ML 's emotional connection at a deeper level?

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HARD left field PLOT turn @ ep 16

This is a low budget Xian Xia drama started with a promising story line 8/10

I didn't mind the mediocre acting as I've seen the actors in their other works. I even enjoyed "A girl like me" with Neo Hou in it. But you are not going to feel the sadness when there's death or crying scenes because it's just not that moving. Not to mention there isn't an OST to help with that kinds of scenes.
I also didn't mind the cheesy CGI as some of the "Yao" are super kiddish cute and silly

Positives so far:
1. Good story line until ep 16
2. Beautiful cast not ruined by Xian Xia OTP makeup (i.e. Till the end of the moon)
3. Good multi dimensional interesting characters
-FL not overly annoying or weak. I love that she's honest and forthcoming with her feelings
- ML dragon emotional scars warranted for the initial reactions
- Bai Xiao Sheng (with his bad hair) provided so many comical relief
- Su Ying , crazy dragon stabber. I love that she's NOT a single dimensional antagonist. There is actual a reason to her hatred towards all Yao. Sure she took it to the crazy psycho B level but hey all xian xia dramas need one.

Then ...... ep 16 happens and then you are like uhhhh that came out of left field!
Literally the plot turn could've been avoided by 1 line "BRB" but "Bruh..."
Bai Xiao Sheng becomes the 2nd lead flip switch
Enters a flood of characters.... but I am happy to see (Liu Yao Yuan who was in The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty)

Last 10 ep plot is a hot mess IMO and feels like they are trying to stretch out the episodes with prolonged slow motions. 1.25x speed and they are still walking in slow motion.... Super draggy until the end.

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Clever Spoof on C-dramas. Ep 22-23 is the best!

I probably only have 1 % interest in short dramas as I enjoy slow burn development but this one is hilarious! Its explores on all the standard custom c-drama tropes so if you watched enough of them you'll identify the scenes.

The starting scene: A crew shooting a costume drama but due to the female lead missing they used a stand in with a green face. Producer/ML actor yells cut !! and that's how the story begins. He keeps telling the screen writer to change the story and 9 FL later....... you pretty much will see a hot mess of all drama tropes. The best episodes are where the screen writer gets more lines and tells him what to do. (ep 22-23).

For such a short drama, I was surprised that the acting was pretty good. All 9 FL are beautiful and can act better than some well known actresses. The ML was definitely funny and his makeup going from a white idol skin face to a brown assassin face made me laugh so hard.

The only down side is that I heard there are 2 more stories (~6 ep) that didn't pass censorship. Such a shame because I would love to watch more!

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Wish ZLS would stop picking these roles

Being a ZLS fan I wish she'd be more selective with her roles.

Troubled drama:
1. Single line story line. It's fine if its paper thin story line with some witty dialogue but .... you can sum this up in 1 line so why so many episodes?
2. Wrong age casting: Little zls played by a great young actress but she's 10 playing a 14 yr old. In love like galaxy ZLS played a 15 year old just fine. Total avoidable pedophile feel.
3. ML keep on referring himself as "Ge ge" in 3rd person. Like no one talks like that EVER. In English, it's like saying something like : "Big bro will take you home... " "Tell big bro blahblahblah" "Big bro refer to self as big bro...."
4. ZLS downplay her age way too much. Her voice is always baby sounding even when she reached college age.
5. She keeps saying "I am adult now." "I am mature now." while sounding 14.....
5. Making big deal on 5 year difference even in college. That's just silly....

Few positives:
1. Her parents are both characters I loved in Love like Galaxy. Both positive parenting in this drama.
2. Her real brother scenes are funny, like a real brother "Big Dumb Dog"
3. ZLS's hair. She has great hair, beautiful highlights.

I can see 12 year olds would probably like this drama....

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Never ending staring contest

As much I love the actress (she's in Bloody Romance) and as much as I enjoyed the first Go Go Squid this was a struggle for me to continue. I'll probably play on the side and eventually finish it.

Boring start and really not romantic if you think through:

1. Love at first sight feeling <-- ML liked her for 7 years prior to meeting her. Meets her instantly reaffirming he only wants to be with her (w/o any deeper understanding) but I guess that's "romantic" to some? He goes away boom ! another 3 years pass by and that's a total of 10 years already!!! They meet again the story continues.
4 ep in and already lots of staring ............... w/o words ............ just staring with some drama blinks.
14 ep in still not together but lots lots lots eye meets eye w/o words .... frozen in ep.

2. Supporting couple: the sister & Grunt <--- again immediate like w/o no interaction? He hijacks her drink, hoovers over her while she just stares at his hotness and that's how they met. Ep later in the bar she asks him while drunk "Do you like me?" and makes you wonder did you miss all the interaction in between?
First kiss ------------- kissing a drunk girl 1/2 conscious ? yeah NOT romantic

Story so boring compared to Go Go Squid 1 but there are quite a few fine looking faces if that can hold your interest.

**Update** Amazing I finished it at 2x speed because I am not a quitter. But nothing happened. Plot stayed boring as ever.

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Niche comedy drama

If you only enjoy idol costume drama you'll just need to avoid this one. This is a niche comedy drama probably only Chinese speakers can understand.
The whole cast has a local accent, not like an imitated one but natural sounding heavy accent.

Story starts out with Chang Zai, a timid cook (ML) just want a wife. He end up standing in for his Twin brother Chang Hai as the legendary sect leader navigating his way through the world of martial arts. I don't think there's really a directional plot because most of the episodes are just silly every day happenings.

Most of the comedy pokes fun of the martial arts world and not everyone will find it funny. I personally enjoyed it on the side and thought it was pretty entertaining.

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Boring typical script

Watch it on the side if you really REALLY like Xu Kai else this is too similar to
Fight Break Sphere and The Blood of Youth (2022) but less interesting....

Typical script but too boring:
Hard life for the ML growing up parent-less.
Suppressed unspeakable power waiting to break out.
Jealous "friend" waiting to turn into foe.
Love at first sight but no chemistry.
Few forced comedic moments but not funny.
No strong interesting side characters.
Good vs Evil (with the signature black smoke) on the quest for the ultimate power.

Typical story/script works just fine if the dialogue is interesting along with all the other enjoyable elements of ancient drama land (cinematography, costume design, fight choreography, casting, side characters etc)

Sadly it never got better.

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Started out intense, felt more melodramatic as it progressed

So... it's been a while since I loved a short crime drama. Nothing ever compared to "Bad Kids" or "Burning Ice" for me.
I wanted to see how child actor Shi Pen Yuan became (since from Bad Kids) and I have to say he didn't disappoint. In the Bad Kids he did very well for someone so new, but it wasn't comparable to the other two more seasoned child actors. 5 years later with this drama, he actualized his potential.

ML Qin Hao, who's also in "Bad Kids" is an all around amazing actor. He captured again the essence of his character.
Although it's a short 13 ep drama, you'll be drawn to the characters from ep 1. ep 8 on, the story starts to slow down and becomes tragically sad.... uh yeah ..... and then it just fell off for me. I am not sure if the older brother really hit for me but some of the supporting cast definitely did!

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Fantastic Acting by the Trio! Bai Lu is the best character!

Crime thrillers in C-dramas often lacks graphic scenes and it's probably best as one of the case is quite grotesque. Rather than focusing on the detail of the cases, the character Bai Lu is what's most captivating about this drama.

These are rather short episodes, only 20 min long so 32 ep goes by quickly although 2 of the cases were pretty average and predictable. 1st 1/2 way better than 1/2 half (common themes in C-dramas)

Bai Lu played by Li Yuan is the best that I've seen of that manly independent strong female character. She's semi broken & complex. Her comebacks can be witty or fierce.
Actor Yuan Hao is always solid in every role that I've seen him in but his screen time is rather limited.
GuYu is a forensic doctor that teams up after the first case. There's a great scene with her and Bai Lu in ep 14 that showcased both actresses acting skills.

The only thing I wished for and this goes for most crime C dramas is that the pace of solving each case should be way slower. There should be more build up finding evidence leading to suspects.

Last case circles back to GuYu but ..... kinda lacking in plausibility.

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Important lessons from the imperfect victim

I've read a few reviews where the reviewer blames the victims of poor choices. This drama is for the mature audience with an open mind and a open heart. As the title suggests "imperfect victim" is just that. The young victim made all the wrong choices but that doesn't mean she deserved to be assaulted. Victims of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and/or rape often face society prosecution in addition to dealing with legal hurdles. Even in the U.S. the stats of % of women that are sexually harassed, assaulted, raped are staggering. Although this subject is rather heavy, the drama does contain a lot of good information worth knowing.

Cast:
FL lawyer - Amazing! I love her acting & her character.
FL Victim - I think she improved a lot as an actress but could be better.
ML the accused - He's one of my favorite veteran actors.
Strong supporting cast all around, my favorite being FL lawyer's side kick, the female cop & the ex security guard.

The drama introduces the FL lawyer entering a dinner party responding to a guest pressuring her to drink: "I will only have one drink. Anyone that expects more than 1 drink I will leave." She's confident, successful & powerful.

Separately the victim, who's young & beautiful. She's timid and one night got pressured into drinking till she passes out leading to a night of unfortunate events. Later on she's judged as the gold digger and a party girl because she was drinking with powerful old men. She didn't say "No" therefore she was "fine" with it even if all her body language clearly shows she detested all that was going on.

There are going to be lots of frustrating scenes but it's also realistic and maybe it can bring more awareness on social norms that need to be changed & on laws that need to be improved upon.

Well done drama with a very good cast on a topic that's often overlooked. Probably not going to be a popular drama but I think it would be beneficial especially for women to watch this.

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