John Hart

My favorite Chinese Drama is also the hardest to recommend -- because it's really depressing MEAN GIRLS stuff. Still -- try giving the first 8 or so episodes of RUYI'S ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE. It's a WHO'S WHO of A-M-A-Z-I-N-G Chinese actresses.

This is where I was introduced to Xin Zhi Lei and all the rest. I've tried other dramas with these women but only Zhou Xun has offered as good product elsewhere.

Please please PLEASE try it and you'll see GREATNESS.

I don't recommend shows I haven't watched.

Whoa! My wife and I both missed that, and she wasn't dozing off. (When I doze off I rewind to where I remember, which was usually about a minute earlier.)

MLaL -- did Wang's 'clock' get turned off halfway thru this season or did they decide we no longer needed to see it. I presume we'd have something to see towards the last episodes but I didn't see the 'clock' again.

For those who've viewed this, there's a character with a very special 'clock' he always has access to. Towards the second half of the series we no longer see his 'clock'. Did it stop or did the story neglect to show us 'what time it was' towards the end?

He's third in line at the Box Office window

Thanks. I tell you everything else about the show is so perfect that it is very watchable. And the episodes since 20 have sped up in revelations. I guess it was classic middle sag. Still, your point about Asimov is noted.

Oh, by the way, something very funny you said about cut-outs. There is VR game in this story that our hero must visit to find clues. But in his real world, there's a police officer, and he has a young skinny cop assistant who (is absolutely beautiful) often shown in shadow.

The cop is played by an older actor. So old they may be hiding his age by keeping him typically in shadow. (No, seriously.) The effect is that his beautiful assistant is almost always in shadow as well, and my wife and I spent at least 6 episodes wondering if she wasn't actually real but a VR of a person that slipped out of the VR world.

So she wasn't made out of 'cardboard' but often we weren't sure if she was even there.

Extremely well made series but I have to say it's kinda dragging. The main focus of the show is 'reveals' instead of emotional bonds between characters. So it's "Now we'll reveal this" and "Now we'll reveal that" and -- at the 20th episode -- I just feel this thing is too long. It is just me?

It's that most painful of C-Drama traditions. I loved MAKE A WISH but concede the final series twist was botched and unnecessary. Still worth seeing if you haven't tried it. It's so much fun.

THE DISAPPEARING CHILD was a masterwork... until the final episode where it was trying to imply something. It turns out the book had a very dark ending which the series refused to do... but in the last episode they almost imply it... rending said finale non-committal, pointless, and therefore mildly annoying.

THE GREAT CRAFTSMAN was nearly perfect until the final episode when a major payoff scene was minimized out of... shyness?

So I felt the final scene in the final episode was a little cramped. That scenes had to be omitted.

For instance, remember the boy in the office that was in love with our victim? Well, he's waiting outside the courtroom but that's all we saw of him. Not even a look between him and the victim. I felt something more was needed there.

I would have liked if their eyes met, and she was touched he attended. He'd approach and say, "I'm sorry I lost faith in you." And she'd say something like, "It's okay. I didn't have faith in me either. Until now." They would hug, and you'd feel they might remain friends but never be a couple.

After the Police Captain arrives and the three main women are seen, maybe one more 'A Few Months Later" and we're in Lin Kan's home. She is cooking and the victim is there, seated at the table, going thru the lawyer's paperwork -- proving how hard she is working as Lin Kan's assistant.

Lin Kan comes over and takes the folders away, saying "You've got to stop working. Please, have some of my wontons." We now hear someone else at the table, and it's the former assistant, Kang Hui. With wontons in his mouth, "You have to watch her. She'll work you to death!" Victim smiles. "And she needs to work on her wontons." Lin Kan feigns offense and all three laugh. You can tell by eyes that maybe... just maybe... Kang and the victim might become an item someday. "Maybe I'll hire you as my assistant one day, " Kang says, taking away one of those maybes.

I would have added two scenes at the end. It's in my reply below and don't read until you've seen this series.

No, but I will say that (in general) Chinese Dramas run talky. There's a rule in screenwriting which says DON'T TELL THE AUDIENCE SOMETHING THEY ALREADY KNOW.

In this show there's a moment where Zhou Xun suspects the girl read a text off of her phone. She has a flashback that lets us read her mind. Then the lawyer turns to her assistant and says, "I think she read a text on my phone."

In America writers reliably trim that. If we already know what she suspects it doesn't need to be said (again). In fact you don't even need the flashback. The lawyer can simply look at the message on her phone and say, "I think she read this text."

It's on iQiyi

My wife and I are up to Episode 18 and this is (so far) the best Chinese drama we've ever seen. Our go to favorite is RUYI'S ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE but this may blow that out of water.

The only things I don't like about this series are very minor. The opening and closing songs... MEH somehow. At first I liked them but now I don't listen to them at all. This is weird because some shows I've seen that are only okay have better opening and closing material.

My favorite song is the closing song from IMPERFECT LOVE. Check it out on Ep 1 on YouTube. It may sell you on seeing that series.

In America I actually found the Chinese police approach rather refreshing. If this were China, Trump would have led his Insurrection on Jan 6th and been detained on the 7th. All you'd need is a Grand Jury to indicate it's likely Trump did something illegal, so that a trial could ensue. Instead that giant pile of garbage has been walking free for how long?!? This isn't my politics talking: America has a comatose Justice system.

.. because it's trash?

Thanks for your thoughtful reply, MLL.

I am not a Chinese speaker. All I know about China is really thru about 12 series I've seen (had to abandon one) and about 20 movies. So if there were some amazing puns the translation hid or hilarious cultural references, yup, I missed them.

The way I look at the puns/references goes like this.

Once upon a time there was a STAR TREK movie called THE VOYAGE HOME. It did HUGE business because you didn't need to know STAR TREK to enjoy it. But if you did know TREK it was even better.

JOL isn't like that. For the uninformed (?) it simply drags, in my opinion.

The tone and directional shift was compelling. So I'm going to await reviews from folks and hopefully they'll be more critical this time.

Have you ever tried MAKE A WISH? The pilot is on YouTube and iQiyi. It's a well made /disguised variant of I DREAM OF JEANNIE. It doesn't stick the landing at series finale but it's close enough to re-watch at some point. The lead actress is a FIND and presuming it is her actual voice (not another actress dubbing) she will have a fun bright future.

Lately I've been disappointed by the low quality of some C-Dramas I had watched. It seemed my first 5 series were all great choices but the second 5 were not so much. I recently abandoned a show for the first time, one of the worst TV shows I've ever seen over the last 50 years.

And then IMPERFECT VICTIM arrives with my fave rave Zhou Xun. But I was scared. Was this going to be mediocre too? Based on Episode 1 -- let me tell you I'm VERY impressed.