John Hart

Take a breath and then find the movie DAYS OF HEAVEN.

Can I ask you two things?

1. In the beginning my wife and I were very confused. The FL acted in two different ways. Sometimes it was like she had never lived in tents and in the wild, but at other times she seemed familiar with it. For instance, she should have been the one complaining about mosquitos, but she didn't. Little details like this were driving us crazy. Is she familiar living this way or not?

2. At the end, the FL writes that she never saw Baito again. But then she does. Because she saw him AFTER she wrote she never saw him again. In English we say, "I haven't seen him since that day." Did this part of the story confuse you momentarily, like when he showed up at the end did you feel cheated or confused?

I'm 5 episodes in and convinced the visual and musical notes of WONDER were partly inspired by this --

https://youtu.be/EzZ8phk8yYc

If you LOVE this series: stop reading this and rent DAYS OF HEAVEN from 1978. In fact, instead of renting it: BUY it. Trust me.

Xin Zhi Lei has had the worst luck finding that big breakaway international role. She was terrific in RUYI'S ROYAL LOVE in the palace but that's a hard sell to people new to C-Dramas. I sense SHANGHAI would not only be good for her but C-dramas in general -- but these fools won't offer subtitles!!! ARRRRRGGHH!

I'm confused. I'm subscribing to VIKI now and the episodes aren't posted. However, I can go to YouTube and watch the first two. Huh?

I've got a Viki Subscription, finished THE YOUTH MEMORIES, have an entire month left -- needed a show I wanted to watch -- and BOOM this 'dream of splendor' happens. INSANELY EXCITED but not streaming off Viki yet in America... ?

Dang. I want to see more of Song Yi outside of period dramas and HERE SHE IS but I now learn this is sort of modern take on A DREAM OF SPLENDOR, which I just saw two months ago. Three women trying to run a restaurant AGAIN?!? A regrettable pass. (For now.)

" They often seek constant reassurance, attention, and proximity to someone" Hmm. If you reword it as this --

"They seek attention and proximity to someone" then yes, and this is true. But this is also true in almost all romances.

The FL is a reason to watch this series. She had so much more to do here than stand in JOY OF LIFE holding a chicken leg looking pretty. The main reason to watch this is the cast.

I'm 5 episodes away from a review here but if you want a general idea --

-- this will not be your favorite series ever. Unless this is the first or second you've ever seen. I've watched 15 Chinese Series at this point and it's only better than 4 of them. (I found JOY OF LIFE more tedious than this, which is not what most people would say but at least I cared about the YOUTH characters.)

As a letter grade I'd give it a B to a B-. It's endearing enough to complete but nothing to rave about. My wife and I are older than a lot of the viewers here and we find a very calming show to watch at night.

So this is the type of show you watch after you've watched a show full of action or magical effects. A 'break' between mayhem. In this way we've enjoyed it a lot.

Did that make sense?

The Male Lead's closest friend reminds of American actor Richard Gere in OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, which becomes eerie when the military part of the story happens.

Either I don't understand what 'clingy' means OR there isn't a clingy FL. I read clingy as manipulative and awful to get her man, and that's not here.

HI AO. I'm 10 eps away from completing and so don't spoil the end. I just wanted to say --

1. I'm Western (American) and have come to learn that some (but not all) Chinese perceive 'kissing' as too similar to sex. So I can forgive them if they want to keep kisses rare, but when what's his name proposed to what's her name... and then they just hugged -- UGH. I wonder if there is a way to label series as 'unnaturally kiss free' as to help people like you and I reconsider watching the series at all. It's like a war movie without bullets.

2. Episode 27 appears to be a series conclusion. The Main Leads return to where they met, the Violinist burns a piece of paper -- but then there's 10 more episodes?!? It feels like someone added 10 more episodes after seeing the first 27. Are the last ten good?

3. We got WAY TOO MUCH depth involving the specifics of profiteering. I wish I had fast forwarded in those parts.

But otherwise I agree that it's an otherwise interesting show.

I'm not directly comparing FX to Harry Potter. I'm saying there's a storytelling style in both JOY and HARRY where rather ordinary things are all 'heightened' as if amazing. "Oh look, that staircase moves!" Yeah, Ok. But so what too?

There's a notion in story telling that less is more. This year's Oscar nominated PAST LIVES I feel was better than OPPENHEIMER because it did more with less.

Similarly, JOY has all sorts of talent and story -- but they all water each other down. I remember being shocked when JOY S1 wrote out Li Qin because... basically... they didn't know what to do with her. I felt half the series was this way, introducing things and then kinda moving on when they got bored.

I may not be the audience for this show, but if it were less actors, tighter story, and more serious -- I likely would enjoy it.

"Great for you if you can Form your opinion after one ep"

Please understand I watched 46 episodes of Season 1, which I felt was terribly over-rated until the last third of that Season. So I started watching this first episode to see if they had adjusted to smarter writing or were still stuck in their cheesy style of writing. Cheesy it still was, congradulating itself for being 'clever' where really it's just more comic book-ish.

I'm currently finishing up a show called THE YOUTH MEMORIES. In it are Li Qin and Xiao Zhan as the leads. The young might consider this show 'slow' or 'nothing special' or 'predictable', and they wouldn't be wrong. But --

-- it's so amazing to see Li Qin actually acting instead of just carrying a chicken leg around. And Xiao Zhan in YOUTH is so much more engaging than 'Fan Xian'. (And better looking.)

Dying for the subtitles to drop on SHANGHAI BLOSSOMS because my fave from JOY1 is Xin Zhi Li and I can't get enough of her.

Also awaiting a strong lead for Song Yi, because her support in LOUYANG was the best thing about that show.

So I tried Episode 1 of this new Season and couldn't get thru it. I'm happy this show makes so many people happy, but to me it's Harry Potter. It thinks it's every move and turn are so clever and 'brilliant' but nothing to me comes off as remotely real. And I'm a big fan of half this cast. SIGH.

Me Three

There's a wild thing in this series, because I fear it's coincidental. There's a couple that are the Chinese answers to Ralph and Alice Kramden.

-- unfortunately this is one of those dramas where nobody seems to kiss. I'm 11 episodes from finishing and it's really unnatural not to see a kiss here and there. It's still worth seeing the series but I'd prefer a kiss once in a while.

I would offer their are five couples focused in on, six technically. So the notion of romance is almost always in the air, one way or another. Mild Spoiler in my reply to this --

I believe we're entering an age where movies are simply too short. That a movie will not be 4-8 hours long, a micro-series.