A welcome change in plot and great direction
To my shore is a welcome change in many aspects… story, direction and acting!When the story is of a love that is borderline or beyond redemption it needs great story telling to be convincing. The direction is commendable considering that. Both the director and the main leads convinced me that there is all shades to love when the star crossed lovers are as extreme as, yu shulang and fan xiao. One, kind and sunshine like and the other devious and dark. Their journey of self realization, acceptance and redemption was towards not just to each other but most of all to themselves.
The story had a raw edge of grey that was life like…
Both the leads had great chemistry and you don’t need a lot of skinship or NC scenes to translate their passion convincingly. I really enjoyed the episodes when they were falling for each other.
Ofcourse there are gaps and areas that can be improved upon, I chose to stay with the positives of this drama for it was an overall great attempt by the cast and crew! Kudos!!!
Was this review helpful to you?
Binge watch worthy!
Pond for me is an actor who carries the character he plays like a second skin. He is very versatile and I absolutely support him for the fact that he is not paired with one partner and typecast into similar roles … he seems to be selecting roles that are multi faceted. I enjoyed watching him as wang in 180 degree longitude passes through us, someone with the innocence of youth and struggling with his age of awakening. Hill in fourever you, an emotionally complex role is again another one that was completely different from the others he had played prior, which led me to reset. And I was waiting for it to finish airing to binge watch it… and I am glad I did. Surprisingly, I watched the series for Peterpan/Tada as he was the one anchoring Ponds character Armin throughout the series. He gave context to Armin in the story… like he conveys from the beginning, he will be there to support Armin by his side to fulfill all that he desires… and in that he gave Armin… who had been betrayed by everyone, the one thing he had sought the most unbeknownst to himself, “unwavering love”.The director and all the key actors conveyed the story well… I keep in mind that though it’s not a short series, a lot of story was told in 10 episodes of over an hour each… so no unnecessary time was spent in plot development or typical tropes as fillers… editing was crisp… I didn’t have the urge to fast forward sections of the series considering I was binge watching. But some effort could have been put on the final climax involving thiwthit. All in all an excellent work from the cast and crew. So many scenes are framed so beautifully I kept wanting to know more about the cinematographer. NC scenes are tastefully done, just enough to give context to their passion and longing for each other. Pond and Peterpan’s chemistry is beautiful… BL or otherwise this kind of effortless chemistry makes stories so relatable, especially when it transcends lifetimes.
Was this review helpful to you?
