I hope that if they ever make another version of Chu Liuxiang, Alen Fang will have first dibs at the role. After his stint as Yu Shishan, I think he's a perfect fit.
I don't remember the last time I sobbed this much for fictional characters. I think my eyes shrank a little. I put the inevitable off as long as I could but oh my goodness, the drama. Anyway there's more to come I imagine.
Went to a late showing at the end of its run in my local cinema and was surprised to see as many as I did at that session. I'm glad that I was able to catch it at the cinema still. Good old-fashioned storytelling at its best. Even without Godzilla in the movie, this would still have been a great anti-war, redemption story.
When the useless Wu emperor threatened to expose A'Ying, I think they should have just strung him up and left him to his own devices. Let him sweat for a few days. What an ingrate.
The doomed lovers reincarnated concept undoubtedly had potential (although nothing groundbreaking) but the execution of it was subpar practically from the start. I persevered for the Three Kingdoms' storyline which was unfortunately also thin on the ground. At 14 episodes the show as we know it had long overstayed its welcome. At 8 episodes or under, it might have been salvageable. Hard to say though because the direction of romantic scenes is a mixed bag. In the end it was a simple plot with no amazing reveals to warrant any kind of demands on viewers' sense of loyalty.
This feels like a script for a movie that wasn't properly developed for a drama. Much less a 14 episode one. What happened to the firefighter side of things? That was completely disposable as I had suspected it would be because let's face it, Pyo Ye-jin was not cast for her physique as an action hero. The same goes for the celebrity angle which had so little bearing on the rest of the story.
It's a lacklustre underdeveloped script that's barely even a first draft.
The concept is interesting brimming with potential but from what I've seen of the first episode, the script is lacklustre. Okay we get it -- Jang Tae-sang isn't exactly the paragon of virtue but we don't need to have it spoonfed over and over as if we're deaf and dumb. The bad first impression intro is eye-rolling clunky.
The extremes in Li Tongguang's personality is hard to take seriously. On the one hand he's set up as some kind of master strategist and then on the other, he's got serious attachment/Mummy issues. He's a joke almost. It's as if the writer is mocking him.
Ouch. Yang Ying's learning curve is steep and brutal. It harkens back to Empress Zhaojie's final words of wisdom to Ruyi -- "Don't give your heart too easily to a man." Words to live by indeed. The thing that shocked me the most was how easily Qingyun turned against A'Ying -- in the end he was a complete coward. Yikes. His desperation turned nasty when things didn't go his way. He should have kept his mouth shut at the end. In an instant, he transformed their relationship into a honey trap. But maybe it's for the best. I imagine he would be an utter nuisance if he allowed to live after the incident.
It was a perfect storm of different things all happening at the same time that create this tragic situation. At least she gets to live to tell the tale with a few battle scars to show for it. Security was lax. But when Mr Du protested quite harshly (rightly so) she then pulled rank. She was too starry eyed about romance and first love -- too many novels -- and too trusting although he took advantage of that. Her newfound confidence was misused and misplaced. Then of course Dad and Mum weren't home so the kids were scrambling around wondering how much they should do to put a kibosh to this troublesome teenage romance that they were privy to. Sun Lang was not the right person to keep an eye on things between them. Shishan would have been better because he knew exactly what they would get up to. Fortunately Yuan Lu survived the attack otherwise she would have a hard time living with herself. This Qingyun was really manipulative. He knew exactly what buttons to push.
Episodes 13 and 14 are definitely setting up for later happenings in the state of An. It also appears to telegraph possible ominous outcomes when things really heat up.
It doesn't look like the Emperor of An has much respect for his own offspring and is using an outsider to do his actual bidding.. He aims to embark on an expansionist agenda and yet I wonder what for and who for if his own sons are not likely to hold on to new territories for long given their short-sighted perspective. In fact, I imagine that they will be making competing claims. This of course plays into the hands of Li Tongguang who has a very different agenda. Or so he says. He claims to have a peacemaking agenda which is why he is eager to have some Wu presence in An.
The other thing that strikes me again is how both nations treat their operatives. The defeat of Wu is unfairly blamed on the foot soldiers and An also has a habit of disposing of their recruits and field operatives with no thought to their value as human beings. In her conversations with both Ruyi and Yuanzhou, Meiniang highlights yet again how disposable the Zhu Yi Wei are once they've outlived their usefulness. They are quite literally cannon fodder for the powers that be.
4 
Anyway there's more to come I imagine.
https://40somethingahjumma.substack.com/p/my-week-in-dramas-27-december-2023
https://40somethingahjumma.substack.com/p/my-week-in-dramas-27-december-2023
Good old-fashioned storytelling at its best. Even without Godzilla in the movie, this would still have been a great anti-war, redemption story.
This feels like a script for a movie that wasn't properly developed for a drama. Much less a 14 episode one. What happened to the firefighter side of things? That was completely disposable as I had suspected it would be because let's face it, Pyo Ye-jin was not cast for her physique as an action hero. The same goes for the celebrity angle which had so little bearing on the rest of the story.
It's a lacklustre underdeveloped script that's barely even a first draft.
It was a perfect storm of different things all happening at the same time that create this tragic situation. At least she gets to live to tell the tale with a few battle scars to show for it. Security was lax. But when Mr Du protested quite harshly (rightly so) she then pulled rank. She was too starry eyed about romance and first love -- too many novels -- and too trusting although he took advantage of that. Her newfound confidence was misused and misplaced. Then of course Dad and Mum weren't home so the kids were scrambling around wondering how much they should do to put a kibosh to this troublesome teenage romance that they were privy to. Sun Lang was not the right person to keep an eye on things between them. Shishan would have been better because he knew exactly what they would get up to. Fortunately Yuan Lu survived the attack otherwise she would have a hard time living with herself. This Qingyun was really manipulative. He knew exactly what buttons to push.
It doesn't look like the Emperor of An has much respect for his own offspring and is using an outsider to do his actual bidding.. He aims to embark on an expansionist agenda and yet I wonder what for and who for if his own sons are not likely to hold on to new territories for long given their short-sighted perspective. In fact, I imagine that they will be making competing claims. This of course plays into the hands of Li Tongguang who has a very different agenda. Or so he says. He claims to have a peacemaking agenda which is why he is eager to have some Wu presence in An.
The other thing that strikes me again is how both nations treat their operatives. The defeat of Wu is unfairly blamed on the foot soldiers and An also has a habit of disposing of their recruits and field operatives with no thought to their value as human beings. In her conversations with both Ruyi and Yuanzhou, Meiniang highlights yet again how disposable the Zhu Yi Wei are once they've outlived their usefulness. They are quite literally cannon fodder for the powers that be.