This review may contain spoilers
A must watch crime drama about corruption within Jinghai Police Department
Originally I was going to drop "The Knockout" after watching about 4 episodes. I found it boring, but I am glad I stuck with it as the story unfolded.It showed that An Xi was a good and high-standard moral policeman, who had to walk away from being an investigation cop because of corruption, and too many of his friends were killed and hurt. Eventually, he was transferred to the right team from Linjiang province to help and work with him to eliminate the corruption of Jinghai and its high-ranking major and police officers.
Li Yi Tong did not have much screen time in this drama, but I think it was the best acting job that I have seen from her.
Zhang Song Wen, in my opinion, should win the golden eagle award for his role as Gao Qi Qiang. His acting is superb and carries this drama beautifully, and the entire ensemble is excellent. Everyone from minor to major supporting roles.
As it was revealed, the flow of the story was just right, and the production quality was also good. I can see why Douban gave it such a high rating. It is a 9.0 rating for me as well.
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If you like Seven Tan then this drama is watchable, but nothing special and predictable.
As Beautiful as You is a business rom-com about Ji Xing and her college mate, Han Ting, who lost touch for 10 years. Han Ting had a crush on Ji Xing and confessed his love for her while he invested in her startup company.Synopsis: Ji Xing has worked diligently for a top IT firm for three years but needs help to stand out in a fiercely competitive corporate world. Frustrated, she decides to quit and launch her own company. She soon attracts the support of a powerful mentor and investor, CEO Han Ting. With his backing, her entrepreneurial journey begins to gain momentum. As they collaborate closely, their professional relationship deepens, and unexpected romantic sparks fly.
My Reviews:
1. Nothing special about this drama; it is predictable but watchable.
Seven Tan acted well, and Xu Kai did his best acting in this drama, where he showed a little emotion when they broke up.
2. As I mentioned, Xu Kai is a handsome actor who is pleasing to the eye. Still, I cannot complete any of his historical costume dramas, only the modern ones, where his acting skills are more bearable.
3. The ending is predictable, and their brief breakup is understandable but also expected.
4. The supporting cast added too many unnecessary fillers (2nd CP, 3rd CP, 4th CP, etc.). The drama would have been better if it had been cut to 30 episodes instead of 40 because of fillers.
I am giving this drama a 6.5 rating because the script was nothing special and predictable but watchable because of Seven Tan.
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Don't waste your time with this dram - So Wrong on many levels and it cringed me.
Twilight is a drama that has gone wrong in so many ways, the plot is stupid, too many unnecessary fillers, and the acting was horrible by the main CP.So Wrong on many levels:
- Allen Ren and Angelababy are pretty to look at on screen but cannot act. They are one-dimensional actors who can't show or express emotions during the most dramatic scenes. At least, I think Angelababy did a better job than Allen Ren.
- Their onscreen chemistry sucks, and no romantic or even kissing scenes between the two, and they are a couple.
I understand that Qi Lian Shan is a scriptwriter. Still, every episode has to fill in with what story he was writing when he got the inspiration to write the scripts.
- Some supporting roles were unnecessary to be added, like Yang You Li, Lian Jing Yun, and many others, like Professor Wan, were useless and not helping Liu Xia improve her PTSD problem.
- I fast-forwarded so many episodes, and I should have dropped it. Still, I stuck around because the character of Jia Zhen (played by Jia Jing Hui) made the story more interesting. He was a nostalgic selfish person who was incompetent on many levels but never saw it as he was at fault, like asshole Donald Trump.
- Qi Lian Shan is so stupid and clueless. He never questioned Jia Zhen, did not confront him about his conniving, and took advantage of Qi Lian Shan in many ways.
- Yuan Yuan (played by Li Yi Ru) is another stupid person who saw the evil in Jai Zhen but did not have the gut to stand up for herself and Qi Lian Shan until the last episode. Her character was another unnecessary one.
- This drama may be better in 20-24 episodes instead of 40. I give it a 2.5 rating, don't waste your time with it, like I did with mine.
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It is a good melodrama about growing youths. It is nice to see Bai Lu doing something different
Northward is a melodrama about the lives of these young Jiangnan youths who grow up seeing the hardships their parents went through, the changes in their lives, and the economy booming in their town after they experience hardships working and living in the cosmopolitan city of Beijing. Eventually, they all return home after they find it difficult to make it in the big city.The entire cast's acting is phenomenal, and it is nice to see Bai Lu acting in something different from her usual idol dramas. It stretches her acting talents, and Vanda Margraf has the potential to be a great actress. It is too bad that she misses most of the drama after her character decides to leave Jiangnan, only to reappear in the last two episodes at the end.
Ou Hao and Zhai Zi Lu did a great job as well. The pace of the drama is good, and the story is good. Overall, it is enjoyable to watch.
Synopsis: The story revolves around several boys and girls who grew up along the canal. After parting ways to forge their paths, they reunite years later, navigating the struggles of competition and life's pressures while rediscovering hope for a new beginning. Through the perspective of these Jiangnan youths, the audience witnesses their growth and experiences the historical transformations of the Grand Canal, which has evolved over a century from dry spells to rejuvenation.
My Reviews:
1. Acting: 8
2, Script: 8
3, Music/OST: 8
4, Production Quality: 8
5. Cinematography: 8
6. Rewatchable: 8
7. Onscreen Chemistry: 8
Overall Rating: 8
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A decent and watchable drama and the dishes and presentation of the food makes my mouth water.
Fry Me to the Moon is another women-centric drama about three female friends who rely on each other in the cruel business world of restaurants and their competition to stay afloat through investors and acquisitions.Synopsis: Three women who wouldn't have known each other without a fight go against the routine and stand side by side in facing life's challenges. They never give up their persistence towards love and pursuit of ideals. Lu Zhen Zhen, who takes her career very seriously, returns to Chengdu while disregarding everything for the sake of love. Gu Man Ting, who married her childhood sweetheart very early on, wants to escape her marriage. She invites Zhen Zhen to join her business, "Chuanbailou." The sudden appearance of catering entrepreneur Liang Qing Ran disrupts their trajectory, and the crisis at "Chuanbailou" allows the three very different women to truly get to know each other. As their love, career, and ideals are tested at every level in the city of Chengdu, what choices will they make?
My Reviews:
1. The story progresses nicely in terms of the lives of three women and how they cross paths.
2. They worked together to avenge the takeover of Gu Man Ting's dad's restaurant.
3. They not only worked on their own problems but also became good friends and supported each other in business and personal lives.
4. The dishes and presentation of the food in this drama make my mouth water, and I want to try some of the dishes.
5. I enjoy it. It is not a fantastic drama, but it is watchable.
I give it a 7.0 rating for decent script and decent acting from the cast.
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Awesome Time-Travel crime drama. The best acting job from William Chan.
See Her Again is a time-travel crime drama that follows detective Yang Guang Yao as he travels through time between 1993 and 2018 to solve a crime and change the course of history about his family and the lives of those involved.William Chan did a great job in this drama, and the plot was good. It kept me off my feet, with an element of surprise about who the criminals in this drama were as he traveled through times to solve it. The pace was perfect, and so was the ending.
Synopsis: A gripping tale of a time-bending manhunt and the fierce clash of humanity's light, darkness, and moral ambiguity, drawing you into the ethical dilemmas. Set in motion by a devastating building fire in 1990, a series of brutal murders unravels. Hong Kong detective Yang Guang Yao embarks on a relentless 25-year pursuit of the truth, traversing fractured timelines to unmask the killer, protect his loved ones, and uphold justice.
My Reviews:
1. Good acting from the entire cast.
2. It was suspenseful and kept me off my feet as I was guessing who the bad guys were.
3. By episode 16, I was surprised to guess who was behind the killing of innocent people.
4. Episode 17 surprised me because it was not who I suspected in episode 16. Good pace and story.
5. I would love to rewatch it again in Cantonese version instead of Mandarin.
6. Overall, I really enjoyed it and gave it an 8.0 rating.
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It is good legal melodrama with not too much legal jargons. Deal with human stories.
Fearless is a legal melodrama about a housewife who passed the judicial examination through self-study, starting Rayzha Alimjan, Wang Yang, and Chuai Ni.The Synopsis: Luo Ying Wei was initially an office worker who passed the judicial examination through self-study; however, she suffered multiple blows: her marriage fell apart, and what's worse, her husband Liu Ming took on huge loans, leaving her deeply in debt. Luo Ying Wei is not one to give up, as she chooses to fight back using legal means.
I like Wang Yang a lot because he is a very talented actor who can act in a variety of roles. In this drama, he plays a sleazy lawyer who seems to care about making money and does not appear to have compassion for his clients. He met his match with Luo Ying Zi (played by Rayzha Alimjan), who is opposite him. She is a strong and confident young lawyer who puts him in his place.
This is my first time watching anything with the FL, and I like her acting ability. She did a great job playing Luo Ying Zi, and Chuai Ni did a good job playing her legal partner as well.
I enjoyed this drama, and its flow was good as well. I gave it a 7.5 rating.
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This review may contain spoilers
Mediocre drama with mediocre plot and acting skills from the entire cast.
"You From the Future" is a RomCom drama with a total of 24 episodes and 30 minutes in length per episode.The Synopsis: Xia Mo is a recent college graduate who dreams of becoming a popular blogger and gets into a girlfriend living together contract with a cold and arrogant tech company CEO Shen Jun Yao. Their romance blossom while living together in the same house with the help of an AI robot named "Starlight."
Lou Zheng is definitely being typed cast in playing the same cold, arrogant, and into contract-romance with FL in so many. Modern dramas that it is repetitive. His acting ability is one-dimension with no range. Ji Mei Han seems like a newcomer to the entertainment business since 2020; let's hope she has better potential than Lou Zheng.
Overall, it is a mediocre drama with decent but predictable flows. I give it a 6.0 rating because the plot is okay, the acting is mediocre, and the production quality is not great. Too white. The ending was no good and the lost brother story was an unnecessary filler.
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It was funny and charming for from ep 1-15, but was boring and stupid afterward.
Royal Rumours is a historical RomCom about an ice-cold Crown Prince, Ji Yuan Shu, and his love interest Hua Liu Li, a general's daughter.The drama was interesting and funny for the first 15 episodes and got boring afterward. I fell asleep watching it. I believe Jeremy Tsui is being typed cast on the same cold, ice-cold, arrogant, yet soft in most historical dramas.
His onscreen chemistry with Meng Zi Yi is much better than Yang Chao Yue in "The Journey of ChongZi," which I dropped because of the horrible acting of YCY, and the dubbing was unbearable.
Meng Zi Yi is a better actress than YCY, and the plot for this drama is better than TJOCZ. I didn't like episodes 16 to 24 and didn't bother to rewatch them because I fell asleep.
Overall, I am giving it a 6.0, and if you have not started, I would not bother with it.
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Another great acting chop from Zhao Lusi - great script and good acting from Chen Zhe Yuan as well.
Hidden Love is another good act from Zhao Lusi. Sang Zhi falls in Love with Duan Jia Xu, the boy who often comes to her house to play games in her older brother's room. He is five years older than her. Sang Zhi had a crush on Duan Jia Xu when she was young, but they lost contact for some reason. After she graduates, she joins the university in the city he is in. During their day-to-day intimate and close interaction, they slowly fall in Love.The story is cute, and ZLS did an exceptional job playing a teenage girl with a crush and Love, Duan Jia Xu, and into adulthood. The onscreen chemistry between ZLS and Chen Zhe Yuan is undeniably fantastic. Victor Ma did a good job at playing her annoying older brother as well. I love this drama and found myself rewatching it just like WRTW.
Awesome job, ZLS, and Chen Zhe Yuan. I give it a 9.0 rating.
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It is not a fictional movie. It is a propaganda movie with many well-known actors/actresses.
"My Youth and I" is a film divided into three units: "Banner," "Seeing," and "Searching," focusing on the Great Northern Wilderness, the Great Western Development, and the youthful blood stories of the new era.It has a bunch of well-known actors and actresses in each unit, and the gist of the story is focused on the sacrifices of pioneers in different areas and how they make a difference in ordinary people's lives. It is another propaganda of typical Chinese movies or dramas to elevate China's power and changes over the past 30-40 years.
It is an okay movie but not that entertaining. I am giving it a 5.0 rating.
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Typical story about older woman younger man love, nothing special.
Sunshine by My Side is a melodramatic Cdrama about an older woman and younger man's relationship. The story wraps around Jian Bing, a well-known divorced advertising director, and her relationship with Sheng Yang, a newcomer in the industry.Sheng Yang met Jian Bing 10 years ago when he was in high school. He admired her and has secretly had a crush on her since. However, challenges in life are inevitable. Faced with their differences in identities and experiences, objections towards their relationship within their families, and rumors in the workplace escalating, Jian Bing and Sheng Yang finally decided to let their future play out over time. Three years passed, allowing them to grow and change for the better. Many of their firsts were spent with each other, and this trust they held and the experiences they shared back then went around and finally found them, making them gravitate towards each other again.
The story is nothing special, but I like the comedy aspect of this drama, especially the supporting cast, particularly Sheng Yang's parents, played by Yang Hao Yu and Wang Lin. This dynamic duo did a great job as supported parents who frequently bickered at each other but had a deep love for one another.
Xiao Zhan and Bai Bai He did a decent job playing the main CP; however, the plot is nothing special, and I think Xiao Zhan's acting ability was underutilized. I didn't like the ending of this drama, so I gave it a 7.5 rating.
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This review may contain spoilers
It is decent drama about marriage, and teaches ones to set boundaries with in-laws.
Simple Days is a melodrama about a couple who did not set boundaries with their in-laws, were spoiled by their parents, and allowed their parents to interfere in their lives. Even though they love each other, they end up having a fake divorce to realize that they must grow up and set boundaries.Synopsis: Gu Mo Li and Zhu Jin Cao struggled in their hometown to take root in Shanghai and start a family. However, marriage brought another problem that should not have been a problem - how to get along with their parents. The young couple's life was riddled with crises, from losing personal space to disagreements with each other's parents to differences between them. When things got out of hand, the couple discovered that the problems were of their own doing and decided to divorce and sort out their family relationships.
With the arrival of the divorce certificate, the challenges for the young couple and their families have just begun. Setbacks always accompany growth. After the divorce, the two encountered various problems, such as trust and financial crises, which helped them better understand their family responsibilities. As each issue was resolved, both parents understood they had to learn to let their children grow up.
My Reviews:
- The acting from the entire cast was good, and the storyline is okay.
- The drama's flow and progression were good, but there were too many crises and mistrust between the families and the young couple.
It is a bit old-school for parents to interject their viewpoints into their children's marriages. This creates conflict and adds stress for their children.
- If I were in that situation, I would divorce, too. The husband is so weak he can't stand up to tell his dad to back off and confront him about his abuse of his mom.
I enjoy the drama and give it a 7.5 rating for good acting and decent script.
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Binge Worthy for this short web drama about time travel. It is suspenseful and engaging.
"Nine Times Time Travel" is a short web drama about time travel that is suspenseful and binge-worthy.The Synopsis: Brain scientist Shan Yu accidentally learns of the death of his first love, Min Ying, who was holding a birthday candle before she died. Shan Yu lit the candle, and a miracle happened with the light of the fire - the candle could take him back ten years ago! Shan Yu crossed many times to save love but accidentally caused a butterfly effect. A fond past that has been hidden for ten years has also surfaced...
This drama is great, with many twists and suspense as Shan Yu travels back in time, hoping to change the past and save his lover. You have to really pay attention because things move so quickly between the past and present that you may get lost in the translation if you don't pay attention to it.
I had to rewind a few episodes toward the end to catch the switch between the times. Daisy Li is good in short-web drama. I like her in Provoke and Revenge. I also like her in "The Oath of Love" as a supporting role.
I gave it a 7.0 rating, and Lin Feng Song also did a good job playing the ML.
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A watchable funny Romcom with many flaws and stupid ending, but I enjoyed it.
ADWTF is a Romcom starring William Chan and Zhang Ruo Nan. A decade ago, a deadly earthquake almost claimed the life of a high school girl named Xu Lai. Only the quick thinking and bravery of a young firefighter Jin Shi Chuan saved her. As he rescued her from the falling rubble, she became smitten with him as they made a comforting “promise” – and when they parted, she resolved to seek him out at all costs. Now, 10 years later, Jin Shi Chuan has risen to the rank of captain. Xu Lai has become a news reporter. When a major highway accident happens, Jin Shi Chuan saves her again. While she recognizes him immediately, he does not do likewise – and thinks she is just a trouble-making reporter.To make matters worse, her report is taken out of context, leading many social media posters to criticize the fire department! But Xu Lai’s love for him has not diminished – and she resolves to fix this and win his heart at all costs. She becomes a dog trainer – helping train special fire-fighting canines who can help rescuers in their efforts. This brings her closer to Jin Shi Chuan.
I like the drama and the camaraderie among firefighters. The supporting cast of firemen was fun, and each of their characters was fun to watch. The onscreen chemistry between the ML and FL was not bad. It seems she was the take-charge type who did the chasing and courting in their relationship. The 2nd and 3rd CPs took too long to warm up; actually, the 3rd CP was not needed in this drama, imo.
The last two episodes were stupid, and the ending was lame. Overall, it was an okay drama; I give it a 7.0 rating.
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