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fairytale
one31 fantasy lakorns like this have a charm of their own. They may throw in plenty of nonsense along the way, but they're good fun. In those I've seen, the more nonsense, the more they can commit to it, and the more they commit to it, the better it all works. Personally, I would have liked them to embrace that more fully here.
(And I sincerely hope there's a katoey comedy movie with a sassy fan-waving martial artist, the fun they could have =D =D =D Pingpong camping it up with a fan and AtTiTude, Pompam as a swordmaster afraid of sharp, dangerous, pointy things. Jennie Panhan as magnificent sorceress and head of the guild. With lots of sword jokes.)
And of course the key for a successful lakorn is how well it handles the emotions of its plots. Again, I would have liked more there for most of the lakorn, especially in the primary romantic arc. Add in a very villainous modern-world villain with a plot line full of cliches and for a lot of this, I rated it a middling one31 fantasy lakorn with some good moments. I like the sub-genre though, and it was easy enough to set aside critiques and just go along for the ride.
There were winks along the way, like the amusing integration of a product placement inhaler and one character reminding another that the imagined novel within the story is just entertainment and not to be taken seriously. They have to, but if you insist on taking this lakorn seriously, you'll just upset yourself. If you get something from that though, go for it.
But if you're happy to give some time to the nonsense of this fairytale, it's fun. It's an easy watch with short episodes and a lot of energy as it merrily speeds over every plot hole.
The male leads are green flags. The gently stern gravitas with a wink Bright brings to Wang Yitian works well, though the female lead roles are mostly written and acted with the flighty manner of rom coms. It wouldn't have taken much for the director to add some depth earlier through changes there.
In the last two episodes though, it commits more fully to its premise and finds more depth in its emotions. So maybe it's better than middling after all. I enjoyed it.
(And I sincerely hope there's a katoey comedy movie with a sassy fan-waving martial artist, the fun they could have =D =D =D Pingpong camping it up with a fan and AtTiTude, Pompam as a swordmaster afraid of sharp, dangerous, pointy things. Jennie Panhan as magnificent sorceress and head of the guild. With lots of sword jokes.)
And of course the key for a successful lakorn is how well it handles the emotions of its plots. Again, I would have liked more there for most of the lakorn, especially in the primary romantic arc. Add in a very villainous modern-world villain with a plot line full of cliches and for a lot of this, I rated it a middling one31 fantasy lakorn with some good moments. I like the sub-genre though, and it was easy enough to set aside critiques and just go along for the ride.
There were winks along the way, like the amusing integration of a product placement inhaler and one character reminding another that the imagined novel within the story is just entertainment and not to be taken seriously. They have to, but if you insist on taking this lakorn seriously, you'll just upset yourself. If you get something from that though, go for it.
But if you're happy to give some time to the nonsense of this fairytale, it's fun. It's an easy watch with short episodes and a lot of energy as it merrily speeds over every plot hole.
The male leads are green flags. The gently stern gravitas with a wink Bright brings to Wang Yitian works well, though the female lead roles are mostly written and acted with the flighty manner of rom coms. It wouldn't have taken much for the director to add some depth earlier through changes there.
In the last two episodes though, it commits more fully to its premise and finds more depth in its emotions. So maybe it's better than middling after all. I enjoyed it.
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