A forgettable little story with too much out of nowhere
Wanru’s Journey is not the worst show I’ve started, but ranks low on the ones I’ve finished. I probably wouldn’t have finished it if it hadn’t been so short. But by the time I was ready to give up, there were only so many episodes left… might as well see it through and learn the mystery behind her past.
First, characters. This show was recommended for having a smart female lead, but actually I found her kind of annoying. There are a lot of eating scenes where her slurping and chomping noises are really loud, and she’s extremely, exaggeratedly, rude and uncouth. Maybe it’s supposed to be funny, but I just found her unlikeable, which makes it hard to root for her. She’s also a bit dopey-looking- I think it’s the way she acts, not the actress herself.
All of this later gets better when she starts to show signs of competence, but this transition is done so poorly. If she were really smart and capable (and can fight that well), it should have come through earlier, even if she hid it from everyone else.
Her romantic endeavors are likewise sudden- no explanation, out of nowhere. One leg of her love triangle is worse about this than the other, hate to love in the blink of an eye. It was so ridiculous, I didn’t feel anything about this pairing. We do, however, get the longest kiss I’ve seen to date in a Cdrama.
The two male leads were more likeable, but I still didn’t care too much for either, and I couldn’t decide how I wanted their love triangle to resolve. I did think the bromance was well-done. People kept wondering if this is BL… come on, can’t they be really good friends without it being BL? *rolls eyes*
As for the plot, I guess at the core it’s about everyone killing each other for some secret manual. Not the greatest premise, but they could have pulled it off better. There is too much random stuff pulled out of nowhere. Lots of vicious mass massacre scenes that make little sense. And as we get closer to the end, a giant mass of scheming and plot twists. It’s honestly a bit of a hot mess.
I normally care less about production, but scene transitions were bad enough that I noticed them. That and the too-loud sound effects makes me think it was just a lower budget production.
What did it do well? It does have some legit good humor that had me laughing. In general, the humor is more slapstick which is less my style, but at least it has a nice lighthearted feel- for half of the show or so. Also, I still finished the show, so it at least had enough intrigue to keep me going.
By the way, normally I would hide this in the “ENDINGS” section, but I feel it is important to state early on in case anyone is strung along like I was, slogging through to the end out of curiosity about her past: you never find out. It’s such a tease, SHE finds out, you don’t. I think it’s scriptwriter laziness, they hyped it up so much that they couldn’t figure out a good enough truth and left it open instead.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
Happy ending. Somehow, despite all the twists and turns, it all works out.
Somebody on reddit said “if you’re a woman who likes to have your cake and eat it to, you’ll like this ending!” which made me really curious and excited. Ok, turns out it’s about the love triangle, she chooses neither and they go traveling. I happen to like this because I couldn’t pick, either. However, I was so irritated that they didn’t reveal the secret of her background, that drowned out whatever appreciation I had for their unconventional resolution of love triangle.
First, characters. This show was recommended for having a smart female lead, but actually I found her kind of annoying. There are a lot of eating scenes where her slurping and chomping noises are really loud, and she’s extremely, exaggeratedly, rude and uncouth. Maybe it’s supposed to be funny, but I just found her unlikeable, which makes it hard to root for her. She’s also a bit dopey-looking- I think it’s the way she acts, not the actress herself.
All of this later gets better when she starts to show signs of competence, but this transition is done so poorly. If she were really smart and capable (and can fight that well), it should have come through earlier, even if she hid it from everyone else.
Her romantic endeavors are likewise sudden- no explanation, out of nowhere. One leg of her love triangle is worse about this than the other, hate to love in the blink of an eye. It was so ridiculous, I didn’t feel anything about this pairing. We do, however, get the longest kiss I’ve seen to date in a Cdrama.
The two male leads were more likeable, but I still didn’t care too much for either, and I couldn’t decide how I wanted their love triangle to resolve. I did think the bromance was well-done. People kept wondering if this is BL… come on, can’t they be really good friends without it being BL? *rolls eyes*
As for the plot, I guess at the core it’s about everyone killing each other for some secret manual. Not the greatest premise, but they could have pulled it off better. There is too much random stuff pulled out of nowhere. Lots of vicious mass massacre scenes that make little sense. And as we get closer to the end, a giant mass of scheming and plot twists. It’s honestly a bit of a hot mess.
I normally care less about production, but scene transitions were bad enough that I noticed them. That and the too-loud sound effects makes me think it was just a lower budget production.
What did it do well? It does have some legit good humor that had me laughing. In general, the humor is more slapstick which is less my style, but at least it has a nice lighthearted feel- for half of the show or so. Also, I still finished the show, so it at least had enough intrigue to keep me going.
By the way, normally I would hide this in the “ENDINGS” section, but I feel it is important to state early on in case anyone is strung along like I was, slogging through to the end out of curiosity about her past: you never find out. It’s such a tease, SHE finds out, you don’t. I think it’s scriptwriter laziness, they hyped it up so much that they couldn’t figure out a good enough truth and left it open instead.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
Happy ending. Somehow, despite all the twists and turns, it all works out.
Somebody on reddit said “if you’re a woman who likes to have your cake and eat it to, you’ll like this ending!” which made me really curious and excited. Ok, turns out it’s about the love triangle, she chooses neither and they go traveling. I happen to like this because I couldn’t pick, either. However, I was so irritated that they didn’t reveal the secret of her background, that drowned out whatever appreciation I had for their unconventional resolution of love triangle.
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