Dated "hetero love " that shoul have been a BL love
Disclaimer: I am a huge BL story lover and 90% of the vitriols that came out of the tips of my Twitter fingers are straight out of frustration 😆.
Let me start by saying that I didn't press play on this drama with high hopes. But I'm a fiend and a drama addict, and was looking for my next hit, so I said why not? Well...that will learn ME!!!!! Chiiiiile, besides mayyyybe Neo, the cast are pretty known for their stoneface acting right? So what did I expect from this mess, I don't know. But the acting was so bad that even I, a known Asian drama addict and CDrama apologist and simp, can't vouch for this one. And the fact that some of y'all are on here giving this mess a 10 means that they are worst CDrama simps than me. Because, why? How?!
How bad was it, you've asked? Let me count the ways:
1. BAD ACTING: The biggest culprit being Cheng Xiao, of course. God gave that girl a very pretty face and hyperflexibility in every muscles in her body EXCEPT on the face. Her face muscles STAY in one position, meanmugging...dassit. She can serve a good cunty look and nothing else 😆. So, she always looks mad even when she's smiling, or crying, fighting, sad, flirting, kissing, you name it! I don't get why she hasn't improved all these years after her debut. Mah Gawd!! Even Suzy from the K-Drama side improved. Why isn't this girl getting acting lessons? And then you add Chen Du Ling and Tian Jia Rui to the mix?! And that's how the legendary trifecta of no emotions yet always angry looking adults acting like teenagers was created, children.
The point is, none of these actors should have been main. Neo is not the most skilled or versatile actor, but he shines when he is surrounded by other really good actors or a veteran supporting cast. So it made no sense that they expected him to carry that whole show on his back, while the other people were just standing there looking bored or just blank. Like shit was happening, high stake plot points were happening and Chen Du Ling was just blankly standing there... 😑just existing lol. It's almost as if once the camera changed focus from one actor to another, we're supposed to forget that the other actors exist lol. Everybody is fighting around you and you're just standing ther bored?!...gurl, wha?! Also, these are characters who have suffered insurmountable trauma that requires a lot of work from the actors to portray, but the majority of the time they just look bored, slightly annoyed, or ready to pop a vein trying to look "sad" lol. Ugh, it was soooo bad. Anyways, next!
2. Scriptwriting, Romance, and Female Characters Treatment: like I said I'm an apologist. I love me a cheezy Asian Drama, bad CGI and wonky ass writing included. Not despite, but because 🤭. IFYK! So what they have plot holes? Tchuippssss! If you get the gist of it, who cares...right?! Wellllll ☝🏾yes, but with limits. Although, I'm expecting Tyler Perry's level of writing, also don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining. This drama was obviously written by a gay man who thinks that's how straight people act when in love. But I'm like "heeeeeh...that's not what this means in heterosexual, sorry girl!". Oooooor, written by a gay man who wanted to write a "love story" about two dudes lusting after each other (my favorite kinds 🤪) and remembered that China doesn't allow BL anymore. So they split the love interest character into two different characters, one as a girl and the other one as a man. And it could have worked, but again...unfortunately for this man, he doesn't understand the essence of a good romance. And that's been his stumbling block even during his Ice Fantasy era. He does the opposite of what straight male directors do, which is equally as bad. Good romance is not having a male character fawn over a woman for no good imaginable reason while she stays stoic and cold. That's stalking and annoying. Like walk us through them falling in love and bonding and what makes them special to each other. They may not know but we the viewers need to know. Are we suppose to crack the screenwriters brain open to understand why the main leads love each other? And also, all of the male characters have better romance and romantic moments with each other than the leads. The fan vidoes and art tells you all you need to know. The girls looked like beards, while the boys were doing the nasty behind their gf back on the dl lol. It was so weird.
Also, the scriptwriting makes everything feels forced. Whatever happens to "show don't tell." The whole time I was told you how to feel about these characters. So, everything felt forced because the majority of the time they looked like they either about to pop a vein or bored. So how am I supposed to feel anything? I'm blaming both the script and the acting on that one. Like I said, there were no range between all 4 fours actors. Between the 4 of them I only saw 5 emotions top. And that's because Neo brought all of the 3 emotions he knew how to act on screen 😆.
3. Hijinks, Music, and the big bad: everything about this drama felt like you were being manipulated into feelings certain emotions. None of it felt genuine. They use the music like american sitcoms use laugh tracks, copiously and unironically to let you know that now is where "we laugh" , "here come the fighting. and how would you know that some cool martial arts move is about to happen? well we have to let you know with our cool heavy metal rock fusion song", "laugh now dumb audience that's why we have the quirky music. Laugh puppets laugh"...so freaking weird!! And then that little boy and his weird homoerotic fetish with his "gege"...he is a child!!! What's with Edward Guo and his penchant with having younger sibling (really realy young sibling) express some type of very weird possessive almost sexual in nature feelings for their brother figure or "gege". Like I get it, they are not related...but ewwww! Also...why was he always screaming?!! My nerves were grated!
Anyways, let me wrap this up lol. I think I have said enough...although I would love to expound more on how eyerollingly mediocre or dated the story itself was...I think I have said what I needed to say and even what I didn't need to say lol. This is not a good drama, regardless of the veneer. It's not unwatchable 🤷🏾♀️. Some may even enjoy it, but it was not for my pallate.
Let me start by saying that I didn't press play on this drama with high hopes. But I'm a fiend and a drama addict, and was looking for my next hit, so I said why not? Well...that will learn ME!!!!! Chiiiiile, besides mayyyybe Neo, the cast are pretty known for their stoneface acting right? So what did I expect from this mess, I don't know. But the acting was so bad that even I, a known Asian drama addict and CDrama apologist and simp, can't vouch for this one. And the fact that some of y'all are on here giving this mess a 10 means that they are worst CDrama simps than me. Because, why? How?!
How bad was it, you've asked? Let me count the ways:
1. BAD ACTING: The biggest culprit being Cheng Xiao, of course. God gave that girl a very pretty face and hyperflexibility in every muscles in her body EXCEPT on the face. Her face muscles STAY in one position, meanmugging...dassit. She can serve a good cunty look and nothing else 😆. So, she always looks mad even when she's smiling, or crying, fighting, sad, flirting, kissing, you name it! I don't get why she hasn't improved all these years after her debut. Mah Gawd!! Even Suzy from the K-Drama side improved. Why isn't this girl getting acting lessons? And then you add Chen Du Ling and Tian Jia Rui to the mix?! And that's how the legendary trifecta of no emotions yet always angry looking adults acting like teenagers was created, children.
The point is, none of these actors should have been main. Neo is not the most skilled or versatile actor, but he shines when he is surrounded by other really good actors or a veteran supporting cast. So it made no sense that they expected him to carry that whole show on his back, while the other people were just standing there looking bored or just blank. Like shit was happening, high stake plot points were happening and Chen Du Ling was just blankly standing there... 😑just existing lol. It's almost as if once the camera changed focus from one actor to another, we're supposed to forget that the other actors exist lol. Everybody is fighting around you and you're just standing ther bored?!...gurl, wha?! Also, these are characters who have suffered insurmountable trauma that requires a lot of work from the actors to portray, but the majority of the time they just look bored, slightly annoyed, or ready to pop a vein trying to look "sad" lol. Ugh, it was soooo bad. Anyways, next!
2. Scriptwriting, Romance, and Female Characters Treatment: like I said I'm an apologist. I love me a cheezy Asian Drama, bad CGI and wonky ass writing included. Not despite, but because 🤭. IFYK! So what they have plot holes? Tchuippssss! If you get the gist of it, who cares...right?! Wellllll ☝🏾yes, but with limits. Although, I'm expecting Tyler Perry's level of writing, also don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining. This drama was obviously written by a gay man who thinks that's how straight people act when in love. But I'm like "heeeeeh...that's not what this means in heterosexual, sorry girl!". Oooooor, written by a gay man who wanted to write a "love story" about two dudes lusting after each other (my favorite kinds 🤪) and remembered that China doesn't allow BL anymore. So they split the love interest character into two different characters, one as a girl and the other one as a man. And it could have worked, but again...unfortunately for this man, he doesn't understand the essence of a good romance. And that's been his stumbling block even during his Ice Fantasy era. He does the opposite of what straight male directors do, which is equally as bad. Good romance is not having a male character fawn over a woman for no good imaginable reason while she stays stoic and cold. That's stalking and annoying. Like walk us through them falling in love and bonding and what makes them special to each other. They may not know but we the viewers need to know. Are we suppose to crack the screenwriters brain open to understand why the main leads love each other? And also, all of the male characters have better romance and romantic moments with each other than the leads. The fan vidoes and art tells you all you need to know. The girls looked like beards, while the boys were doing the nasty behind their gf back on the dl lol. It was so weird.
Also, the scriptwriting makes everything feels forced. Whatever happens to "show don't tell." The whole time I was told you how to feel about these characters. So, everything felt forced because the majority of the time they looked like they either about to pop a vein or bored. So how am I supposed to feel anything? I'm blaming both the script and the acting on that one. Like I said, there were no range between all 4 fours actors. Between the 4 of them I only saw 5 emotions top. And that's because Neo brought all of the 3 emotions he knew how to act on screen 😆.
3. Hijinks, Music, and the big bad: everything about this drama felt like you were being manipulated into feelings certain emotions. None of it felt genuine. They use the music like american sitcoms use laugh tracks, copiously and unironically to let you know that now is where "we laugh" , "here come the fighting. and how would you know that some cool martial arts move is about to happen? well we have to let you know with our cool heavy metal rock fusion song", "laugh now dumb audience that's why we have the quirky music. Laugh puppets laugh"...so freaking weird!! And then that little boy and his weird homoerotic fetish with his "gege"...he is a child!!! What's with Edward Guo and his penchant with having younger sibling (really realy young sibling) express some type of very weird possessive almost sexual in nature feelings for their brother figure or "gege". Like I get it, they are not related...but ewwww! Also...why was he always screaming?!! My nerves were grated!
Anyways, let me wrap this up lol. I think I have said enough...although I would love to expound more on how eyerollingly mediocre or dated the story itself was...I think I have said what I needed to say and even what I didn't need to say lol. This is not a good drama, regardless of the veneer. It's not unwatchable 🤷🏾♀️. Some may even enjoy it, but it was not for my pallate.
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