DramaAjumma

Kim Kang-hoon. Jang Seung-jo. My favourites. Had no idea.

It's a real shame because Tan Jianci to my mind is one of the most talented C drama actors working today but these kinds of low/no conflict romances just don't cut it. Certainly not for 33 episodes. There are elements of this premise that I actually really like. The music. The voice acting. That bit where Qingcheng is judging a voice acting comp in Episode 8 and gives his interpretations of a character delivering key lines is one of my favourite moments but such moments are exceptions not the rule. As an amateur singer and occasional actor myself, I appreciate that side of things. But the romance peaks too early and is rather overdone in comparison to everything else and a lot of the character interactions revolve around them. What's the throughline? What's the desire line? Conflict is key to character development.

For me this show lacks weight and feels more like expensive fanfiction. For me Qingcheng is more of a fantasy male lead and Gu Sheng is a self-insert by the writer. It feels like someone is using A Star is Born template without the melodrama and it feels entirely forgettable.

Final thoughts of the show -- took me forever to write it.
https://40somethingahjumma.substack.com/p/a-journey-to-love-2023-final-thoughts

I was surprised to see kids at the screening.
But it is school holidays here.

My first impressions of the show can be found here...
https://40somethingahjumma.substack.com/p/welcome-to-samdal-ri-2023-24-first

It wasn't about sending "a message". It was about sending him away from the battlefield. At least that was Yu Shishan's intention. One way or the other he would have died. I doubt he would have survived the battle at He County.
I also think he had to die to free A'Ying to marry Li Tongguang.

It's true I think that there hasn't been any good adaptations since the 1980s but I don't think there needs to be a shared universe a la MCU to make this work. I grew up watching Adam Cheng in the role and while he had some strong co-stars, I can think of half a dozen decent mainland actresses right now that could be a part of this. With the right script and the right director, it could work.

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.

My thoughts about this series found here...
https://40somethingahjumma.substack.com/p/my-week-in-dramas-27-december-2023

My thoughts about S2 found here...
https://40somethingahjumma.substack.com/p/my-week-in-dramas-27-december-2023

The show really doesn't go anywhere so if you dropped it now, you wouldn't be missing much.

I too find the writing very amateurish. The dialogue is especially clunky. That was obvious from the first episode.

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.

I appreciate the compliment. Thanks for swinging by.

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.

I thought that might be the case just from the first episode.