Megumi-H

Love at first sight, reconcile 10 years later between two Individuals of Noble Profession.

It’s love at first sight for ML in their teenage years, both 19. FL reciprocate the love but wasn’t brave and strong enough to defy her family. She left him but her heart never love again. ML tried but FL’s family is powerful, influential and did some unscrupulous act to harm ML, leaving him broken. But he also never gave up on his love for her and he choose to never love again. Till they reconciled by accident 10 years later, she is a medical doctor and he is a firefighter. Fate and time and time they were brought together and their love for each other continues to grow. FL wants to pursue ML but she still struggles with lack of bravery and courage to break her family ties thinking she is indebted to them. She is an adoptive child and was grateful of her adoptive parents providing for her, hence she struggles with intense guilt, till she discovered what her adoptive mom has done to harm ML and their love for her is conditioned and not genuine. ML is also an adopted child by his uncle’s family. His own father was an alcoholic who died in accident and his mom abandoned him, however his adoptive family provides secure and healthy love allowing ML to grow up with a lot more courage and resilience, hence he understands FL struggles and wanted to be her strengths. The catalyst of their relationship happened from ep 25 onwards, due to a major earthquake, both learnt they can’t live without each other and reconciled finally. After that, the rest of the series, there will be a few more incidents involving change in FL’s adoptive brother and parents. I love that at least this drama didn’t make an ultimate villain out of FL’s adoptive family. It gave the audience a chance to learn how they can also change and reconciliation is possible. Both leads’ love strengthen over time and their passion in their profession continue to flourish.
Although the romance is the core, it’s not the only emphasis here, be prepared for the slow burn, but worth the wait as their romance from ep., 25 onwards is steaming hot!

Verdict:
A well written story of growth, finding your own voice and believing in love. Of all the other drama with firefighter as profession, I would say this is the best! With brotherly love, family values and love, relationship and character growth, as well as believable rescue mission. Of course strong message on the pride represented in the profession too.

Some thoughts:
Faithful love is hard to come by. It does feel that the story stemmed from showing the FL’s perspectives as victim and flaws in her character resulting in her needing ML more. ML is just purely one track mind and obsessed with her. That’s the only part I find unrealistic, ML’s obsession for FL, he can easily find another woman, but he didn’t as script requires. He just have eyes for her, and it does feel that his existence is a blessing for FL as he truly rescue her from her dysfunctional family and help her grow. As a viewer I can see that FL has strengths but was uncovered because of ML. As mentioned in the drama, at an earlier ep. 11, FL feels and said she doesn’t deserve him, and she will harm him as she is not brave enough, which is very insightful and true in some perspectives.
However as the story progresses, it shows her growth in character and strength, learning to attune to her own needs and learning to love, as well as learning to be an independent adult through various events and experiences of her profession. ML to me, written here was flawless, I may be bias as because he is Yang Yang. Lol! Although ML was slightly rebellious in young age, he grew to take responsibility for self, family and the profession he hold prideful of.
Both Yang Yang and Wang Chu Ran are a beautiful pair. Chemistry is great.

The drama does have a lot more emphasis on the firefighter profession and medical doctor. Seeing so many of these theme in drama recently, I can’t help to wonder China really needs people to be inspired to take up this profession. the rescue mission were quite well filmed and realistic. The cameo of many familiar faces from cast of Glory of Special Forces were fantastic, can see their good teamwork with Yang Yang. And then the surprised good few episodes portraying strong brotherly relationship between Zhang Bin Bin and Yang Yang were very heart warming.

Read More

Romancing the last Ancient God

This is likely my shortest review with no spoiler. JUST GO WATCH IT, this is really worth it!! It has good humour, great chemistry, al the casts’ acting are top notch, fight scenes and CGI are nicely choreographed, great BGM and beautiful scenery.
I started this because of Lin Geng Xin and Zhao LiYing, after their cliff hanging ending (of this CP in Princess Agent), I am curious about their second time partnership in a XianXia drama. And I am not disappointed, very satisfied except can’t help still feeling mild awkwardness in this CP’s kiss scenes. But their scenes together are really natural.

After I started this drama, especially the first few ep., the great comedic moments and storyline got me so interested that I finished the novel in two days.

This is a very BEAUTIFULLY adapted story from its novel, it stayed true to the characters and storytelling with very minimal changes. The best XianXia for me so far in 2024!
The actors were all well casts including the supporting casts, all are fantastic in their roles. Especially for ZLY and LGX, they ace their roles! The fights scenes, cinematography were exhilarating and some of scenery were so beautiful. Both the humor and romance were well paced. Great BGM during fights and emotional scenes. My only complaints is there are too many flashbacks scenes, a little repetitive. But I am overall so very satisfied and very much enjoyed this drama. Kudos to the team!

Read More

The Journey of the Pocket Watch

The Story
This drama is set during the Republican era—a turbulent time in China when ordinary people were faced with limited choices, uncertainty, and difficult decisions. The director has done an excellent job in creating a realistic portrayal of that period, supported by a well-written script that thoughtfully explores the political climate of the time. The inclusion of romance helps to soften the heaviness of the historical and societal themes.

The life stories of three generations are anchored around the old Lin family home, which evolves over time from a residential house to a hospital and later to a fabric factory that doubles as a residence. The romance of three generations of women in the Lin family, spanning from the 1930s to the 1990s, begins with Lin ShiYun, the granddaughter of the Lin family. After studying abroad and becoming a gynecologist, she returns to China with modern thinking and a bold spirit. She challenges her family’s traditional views and navigates the troubles caused by her irresponsible, gambling brother. Lin ShiYun is a strong-willed, clear-headed, and courageous woman—her personality is very likable. Once she sets her mind on something, she is determined to see it through.

I haven’t watched many dramas featuring Jelly Lin, and her performances usually didn’t captivate me. However, in this role as ShiYun, she truly fits the character and made me believe in her.

She meets Cheng Ao, a gangster lawyer played by Ryan Cheng. Though raised in a family with gangster roots, Cheng Ao was educated abroad and upholds patriotic values passed down by his adoptive father. He is the male lead in the first arc—a righteous, intelligent, and principled man who complements ShiYun’s strong personality perfectly. Ryan Cheng shines in this role, and I believe it’s his best performance to date, especially compared to his other recent leading roles in two major “S” Wuxia/Xuanhuan productions.

The first arc tells the story of Cheng Ao and Lin ShiYun finding love amid political turmoil, staying true to their beliefs, and making difficult life choices. They are among the lucky ones who survive the war and migrate overseas. I thoroughly enjoyed their romance—it felt inspiring and meaningful.

The second arc begins from episode 12 and centers on YiYi, ShiYun’s niece, who is deeply influenced by her aunt’s worldview. YiYi is widowed at a young age and faces discrimination from a conservative society. Her quiet, non-confrontational nature makes her a target of prejudice, but with determination and resilience, she finds her voice and love again. YiYi pursues her passion for clothing design and eventually thrives in the fashion industry. Her romance with a Communist Party minister, Wen Pu (played by Liu YiJun), is touching and layered with social tension. As always, Liu YiJun delivers a solid performance.

YiYi is portrayed by Tong Yao, an up-and-coming actress who feels very natural in this role. Although the second arc takes time to pick up—partly due to YiYi’s withdrawn personality—her quiet strength and artistic soul grow on you. As you begin to understand her grief and emotional depth, you can’t help but empathize with her and even wish that others would leave her alone. The side characters are frustrating at times, but they serve as realistic representations of the extreme ideological views present during early Communist China. The second arc concludes in episode 21, highlighting the hardships faced by YiYi and Wen Pu.

The final romantic arc follows YiYi’s granddaughter, Ye XiNing, whose love story begins with a chance encounter with schoolteacher Xiang BeiChuan. After being falsely accused and losing her job, XiNing’s journey is about rebuilding her career and discovering love. Among the Lin women, she is probably the most unlikable at first—impulsive, dramatic, and outspoken. However, she is also hardworking, resilient, and maintains a positive outlook. From working in a small jean factory to running an international clothing business, her growth is admirable.

XiNing and BeiChuan are complete opposites: she is loud, emotional, and blunt, while he is quiet, cautious, and principled. At times, it’s easy to feel sympathy for BeiChuan as XiNing’s dominating personality overwhelms him. But their romance grows as they work through misunderstandings and eventually commit to each other. Spoiler: this couple is the only one we see getting married on-screen.

A beautiful touch in the story is the symbolic passing of a pocket watch—from Cheng Ao to Lin ShiYun, then to YiYi, and finally to XiNing—representing the passage of time and the enduring values passed down through generations.


My Thoughts on the Couples (CPs):

Many viewers came to this drama for Ryan Cheng, who only appears in the first arc (up to episode 11). I particularly liked his role here, so I wanted to share my thoughts on the romantic arcs:

CP1 – Cheng Ao & Lin ShiYun

Their story is about spontaneity, contrasts yet shared values, courage, and remaining true to one’s roots. It’s a tale of ordinary people becoming heroes in extraordinary times.

CP2 – YiYi & Wen Pu

This is a story of forbidden love and defying social norms. It highlights the limitations imposed by society, and the endurance needed to triumph over adversity.

CP3 – Ye XiNing & Xiang BeiChuan

Their romance shows how love can blossom under unlikely circumstances. It’s about opposites attracting, seizing opportunities, holding onto beliefs, and striving for success while staying grounded.

All three love stories are intricately woven into the fabric of time, each representing a different response to the challenges of their era.

There are many powerful and thought-provoking lines in the drama about relationships, choices, and the consequences of decisions made. I truly enjoyed this drama and hope that more people will come to appreciate its depth, storytelling, and emotional richness.

Read More

Reality is What It is

I started watching this because of FL, Zhou Ye. However after I started, I was totally drawn into the story of a FL being a villain desperately seeking redemption.

It’s my first time seeing the ML, Wang Xin Yue. I am impressed by the CP’s chemistry and ML’s mature acting skills despite his young age. And Zhou Ye is fantastic in this role.

The story…warning on spoiler.
Begins with dark setting, where the FL, Hua Qian(HQ) who was on a run but was caught by official. Her family, Hua family, had done lots of misdeed, hence her father was executed by the emperor and both her mother and elder brother were also put to death. HQ, FL was on the run but soon was caught and badly beaten up, injured and fainted.
The next scene HQ woke up on her wedding day, which was 2 years ago. So here we get a background set up on FL’s time travelling back to her past. But as we understand C regulation of censorship, this story has a twist.
FL, HQ with all her knowledge of her past, is determine to change her and her family’s fate. So she went on to plan to undo her marriage with Zhong YanLan (ZYL) which she obtained through unscrupulous ways. She tried to gather her father’s misdeed and attempt to make him change his mind and retire early to country side.
In her previous arc, she was a villain who manipulates and plot to marry ZYL. She is one track mind deeply obsessed with her love to ZYL. She lies and broke up ZYL and his childhood love with Mu Yao (MY). MY and her family were victim of Hua family(father)’s scheme to gain power. MY’s family is on exiled. MY was rescued by ZYL, so with his help in the previous arc, she found evidences, she exposes HQ and brought down Hua’s family, which we saw at the beginning of ep So HQ knowing all the likely events, she attempted to reverse her fate.
To redeem herself, in this second arc, she decided to tell ZYL the truth and her misdeed, she plots to divorce him and brought ZYL and MY together. She rescued a beggar, Hua Rong Zhou(HRZ) who became her loyal admirer and protector. Her revealing her true self caught ZYL’s attention and interest. As she lost interest and divorce ZYL, Zhong Xi Wu (ZXW) ZYL’s junior became bolder and decided to confess his long hidden love for her, which put HQ in a dilemma. As HQ would never imagine herself in Zhong’s residence and fighting with women politics. So she accepted ZXW’s mother offer to fake death.
With HQ’s changes, she made peace with ZYL and MY, knew about ZXW’s love for her. But her brother still died protecting her. And her father’s misdeed was still revealed but they weren’t executed, instead retired to a small town by ZXW’s order. ZXW realised at the end that he can’t keep HQ and make peace by letting her go.

Which we were brought to the end (last ep., major spoiler ahead): the plot twist - it’s all HQ’s dream. So after ep. 1, she has been in coma, for 2years, ZXW rescued her and have been nursing her, he manages to convince his Mom to let him manage the business and also take care of the comatose HQ. Finally she woke up but fainted back into the dream as grief stricken of the reality. Then hearing ZXW talking to her in her sleep, she decided to wake up and say goodbye to HRZ who is actually a symbol of herself in the dream state. She makes peace and woke up, calling ZXW’s name, and the story ends.

After thought:
The novel is slightly different and gave HQ a time travel arc, where she gets her redemption and gain her freedom, save her parents and she lives quietly with HRZ in that village. But in this drama, we knew in order to pass C regulation, the screenplay has to be changed to show that reality cannot be changed, and there is no possibility for time travel to reverse your wrongdoing. Hence this story has to add the dream concept and she has to wake up to face her consequences. I understand and felt overall this drama is quite well done, just felt such cruelty on HQ’s story. But with the end is a new beginning, and we knew ZXW will be there for her.

Read More

Lens of Obession or Rationality

This will be a short review, as revealing too many details would take away the thrill and suspense. If you enjoy a well-crafted psychological drama, this one is definitely worth watching.

I recommend it not only for its intriguing storytelling and the unexpected twists in every episode, but also for the fantastic acting and undeniable chemistry among the cast. If you’re familiar with Qin Jun Jie, you might recognize him from the underrated yet excellent drama Hero. Here, you’ll see several familiar faces from that series, and their natural chemistry truly elevates the show.

As the synopsis suggests, the story begins with an investigation into a missing ex-girlfriend, which slowly spirals into obsession as more suspicious clues emerge. The main lead, Yang Zheng Hui (aka Da Hui Hui), a full-time detective blogger, becomes entangled with Zeng Jie (played brilliantly by Wang Duo), his wife Bai Xiao Ling (Maggie Huang, who gives an equally compelling performance), the police officer Li De, and the lawyer Zhang Ye. I especially loved the friendship that developed between Da Hui Hui and Li De—it added warmth and depth amidst all the tension.

Kudos to Qin Jun Jie, Wang Duo, and Maggie Huang for their exceptional performances—especially Wang Duo, who shines as a complex, morally grey character.

The storytelling perspective is particularly well done: we begin through Da Hui Hui’s eyes, then shift to the perpetrator’s point of view, and finally reach a neutral perspective through Li De as the evidence unfolds. I noted that episode 15 felt like the author’s intended ending, but episode 16 adds a meaningful layer—showing how every crime leaves behind loopholes, and prompting us to question whether we analyze things rationally or through our own biases.

One of the strongest messages here is that revenge should never be taken into one’s own hands.

Another reason this drama stands out is its excellent direction and cinematography. The framing and camera angles heighten the intensity and tension of each scene, making the viewing experience even more captivating.

In short, this is a gripping psychological drama—intelligent, emotional, and beautifully executed. Highly recommended, just don’t fast forward and avoid skip watch as you will miss the details.

Read More

Its About Rose…

I watched this because I always like Crystal Liu YiFei’s acting, very natural and down to earth. Every role she takes, she is always able to represent her character well, furthermore this show has a few good MLs.

The story…of Huang Yi Mei (a.k.a yellow rose).
This is based on a novel and although some small parts of the story is modified to better fit in drama expression but the storyline, characterization and ending is true to the original novel.
Thought also shared this:
Yellow roses symbolize friendship and joy. Often represent feelings that are associated with relatiinships such as warmth, delight, gladness, caring, and affection. These blooms were once used to communicate jealousy, during the Victorian era.
We followed the life of Huang YiMei Rose, our FL, a young vibrant, talented, but still naive, and yet knew very well how to use her valuable beauty assets to trap bees (men).
First infatuation on poor Rose, was by her internship boss (her brother’s friend) who is already engaged and planned to marry a long term girlfriend. He fell head over heels, one-sided love, thinking that Rose will reciprocate his love. He became a scumbag to loser, who broke off his marriage, lost his job and yet he pursued Rose. She openly rejected him, humiliated him and also gave a strong advice to his fiancé. Although many viewers felt he is dislikable because of his betrayal to his fiancé, but I felt he couldn’t help himself, as he is like a fly attracted to lights and willing to die for it. In the story his life destroyed and has to go back to his hometown to start over but he claims he could never forget Rose, a rather self delusional love.

Rose actual love line began with these three other guys that cross paths in Rose’s Journey of life.
Rose first love, Eric, self-centred, narcissistic, self-confident and successful. Their relationship was fiery, intense, passionate and impulsive but ended quickly as he will never prioritize love over his own goals. Through him, Rose was truly hurt but she learnt the important of self-respect and who she wants to be.
Then came along the convenient second guy, Fang Xie Wen. Most hated by viewers because of his character flaws and terrible mother, played by Lin Geng Xin, he did such a great job that many hate him. When he chased Rose, he was self sacrificing and persuasive, not even sure Rose love him but she was at this phase of her life looking for stability. So he proposed and she marries. But not realizing her husband
is the most narrow-minded man, holds a male chauvinistic view with strong insecurity and tends to put a fake front. When Rose marries, she was in a phase of looking for stability, I always doubted that she loves him wholeheartedly but she marries him, thinking it was the right thing to do. Subsequently, Rose became like ‘a frozen rose’, preserved or kept alive in a glass’ without natural sun and breath of live. Rose tried to be a good housewife and mother, that’s where she started to discover her husband’s flaws, his selfishness, insecurity kept her trapped. A struggle that many women fear to do, she made a courageous decision to divorce and fight for her daughter’s custody.
Finally, she met the third guy, played by the actor Wallace, in the show, he is her soulmate, most similar and aligned to Rose’s personality.
But it’s also the saddest part of the story and the peak as well as a turning point of her change and growth. I shall not provide too much spoiler but we all knew it ended because the guy has a terminal illness but their love is the most profound, intimate, an strong emotional connection which every women would long to have.
Although the story ended with possibility of a last younger guy that came into her life, we don’t know as Rose wouldn’t need love to live her life to the fullest.
Our Rose has learnt acceptance of life and letting go.
She develops her true potential in her career and becomes a successful person, living a carefree life and embracing the present moment.
There is also a side touching story of Rose’s brother and his love line which there were also quite a lot of exploration of theme of trauma, abusive parents etc but achieved their happy ending.
In Rose’s life, she has good friends, supportive business partners, parents, brothers who are always there for her despite her struggles.
Personally I feel that not every woman would envy what Rose has gone through but the different phases of Rose’s experience may resonate with some of us, hence this is partly a very realistic healing story. Every sadness there is hope, growth and self-discovery, we can only focus on what we can control and learnt to find the courage to let go of those we can’t. Many chicken soup type of themes, slice of life.
A good watch if you are in the mood for a melancholic journey to a positive message.

Read More

Beauty beyond Looks / Animals / Objects?

Watched for the beautiful Alpaca. lol!
I watched this because I always knew that Tan JianCi and Li Landi are great actors, so having them paired up in a modern Sci-fi drama, with an original story by Tong Hua (another great author for a very popular XianXia, Lost You Forever) already excites me.

The ML, TangQi played by TJC is the star of the show. His versatile acting is another level, he can be serious, intelligent and yet comedic and hilarious.
There are just so many great moments here such as the over the top dance move, him kissing a broom, screaming through fights, and going crazy and thinking that he had fallen in love with an alpaca and many partners at the same time. TJC is a true gifted performer.

The romance is not complicated, a pride and prejudice theme with FL who lacks confident of her looks. A fantasy element of a fairy god mother giving FL a magical bracelet that can change FL’s appearance by light filter and change her life.
And of course everything work out well. FL let go of her chain with the bracelet and discovered her loving family, found her love and gain confident of her inner beauty Actually LLD is such a beautiful actress, so that’s the only unbelievable part. She just acts careless and rough with minimal make-up but she is still gorgeous with a wide smile. I would have prefer they find a plain looking actress for this role, however other actress may not be able to carry this role well as her.
The second couple is also cute, fantastic chemistry and such lovely friendship they hold with main leads.

There are a lot of lovely phrases and/ inspirational quotes…this one is my favourite: ”Make up and beauty apps enhance our appearance but not meant to replace who we are.”

Read More

Optimism falls in love with Pessimism

Story
In comes FL, Xiao Xi, who despite her difficulties and struggles in life and work, she always holds a positive view in living her life. She works in a company that purchased IP from web novelist and send them in film production. FL has been a fan to a web novel series written by Ji Shu. She is in love with Ji Shu’s novel CP and wanted to get company to purchased his IP. Hence FL meet ML. Ji Shu is the opposite, due to misfortunes of his family and blames himself for the death of unborn sister, he became aloof and pessimistic about life, relationship and love. And after encountering a betrayal from love and friend in University. He became more withdrawn and devoted to his novel writing and used it for his own therapeutic healing, hoping that he wrote his story out, he can heal and move on.
While I mentioned because of their work FL and ML met, fell in love and ultimately through various trials and situations involving life threatening events, they have an happy ending. The story involves FL trying to use love initially to make ML sell his IP. H the fantasy element is that while she was upset with how ML changes her sweet CP characters to a sad ending, she started to make comments on his site, but miraculously suck into the web novel as a character and was able to change ML’s novel CP through her involvement in his web novel world. Subsequently ML also got suck in too and fell in love with FL through their encounters. Simply put it that her positivity changed him and he learnt to love someone whole heartedly.

Pros and Cons
The story’s premises were refreshing and realistic about fanatic fans chasing novel CP and wants writer to gave them a happy ending. Characters entering web novel is not new storyline, this drama didn’t spend much time explaining how and why it happened. It just follow on the story of the characters and their development.
It’s definitely a low budget production as the unfitting clothes, poor styling to bad lighting and outdated fashion is quite obvious from main lead to supporting casts. I wish they have done more justice to ML’s charming appearance. FL is also pretty but here, they may have purposely increase her ugliness for the character. In later part, one can see her dress sense change slightly after the CP got together. The dress sense for all the cast just seems cheap and poorly done.

The romance is a bit cliche at some parts but acceptable with comedy, the story is straightforward. The FL’s character is a little over the top to sometimes being irritable, annoying and draggy. However FL is silly but yet adorable at moments. ML acts well here being melancholic and aloof, and taking a process of change. The antagonist is also conveniently planted with not much depth, and I couldn’t understand the hatred he has for ML, if it’s spin off from jealousy, it’s too convenient plot. At some point one may wonder how come the antagonist has so much power to control internet and their fate in the internet world.
The supporting casts are good. The side story involving the novel CP is interesting and their changes reflected the writer’s perspective, but I wasn’t that invested in them. It’s acceptable to me that this story wants to show how lack of love or trauma can shape and change one’s perspectives. I would wish there are more depth to the characters. The comedy is fun to watch. As a ROM-Com, with good amount of tension and good effort of set up of a cohere story and low budget, I thought this is relatively a good drama and definitely worth a re-watch for the CP’s sweetness.
I enjoyed the journey watching the development of main CP, although the ending was conveniently wrapped up with happy ending and then again, one need not think too much on watching this drama.

Read More

Cinderella Who Saves Herself

I have put this drama on my plan to watchlist since it was released around Dec 2024. However didn’t get to it as was so busy that period. But recently a friend recommended this again and I binged watched it in 3 days.
This is really good, love how this was done, overall gave a high ratings of 8.5/10 on plot, acting, editing and costume. It’s marketed as a Rom Com but the story definitely has lots of seriousness as it explored some societal taboos at that period. Some themes include:
unequal treatment to slaves, class system in those times of Korea, society expectation on women, gender diversity and challenging the norms of a traditional society, etc.
2024 was a year of emergence of strong female leads being seen on screen, saw it in both k drama and c drama.

The story in brief without much spoiler, but don’t read this if you intend to watch it:

The female lead (FL) begins life as a slave but, through a twist of fate, took a noble lady’s identity and rises like Cinderella—rescued, married, and given a chance to pursue her dreams. She ends up marrying a man who can never truly be her husband(because of his biological differences), while her heart belongs to another idealistic man who sacrifices everything for his dreams, then gives them up for her.

Ultimately, it’s her kindness and good deeds that earn her a pardon from her hidden identity, allowing her to live happily with the man she loves, fulfill her dreams as a woman legal advisor for the poor, reunite with her long-lost father, and finally have a complete family.

Read More

A Showcase of Jackson Yee’s acting Ability

This is another film about the discrimination, hardship, dreams, and resilience of a young man with cerebral palsy. The theme of this movie is not new and I have so far watched two films and this being the third movie with this theme.

As my title described, this movie is a showcase of Jackson Yee’ s awesome acting skills, he has done a great job here. I am truly impressed by his devotion to the character and he sure has done his homework and put tremendous amount of effort to achieved the realism of his character. The grandma is another interesting character, strong and protective in her own ways. Without her constant care and support, I would not imagine the main lead will be able to develop his path.

There is nothing really spectacular I want to say about the story, accept it does gave the viewers a heartwarming feel. I do recommend that you watch it and derived your own conclusion if you like such theme, this is a good watch. As like many of such movies with disability theme, it narrated a growth, discovery and success with acceptance of one’s vulnerabilities and life.

I personally knew of a friend with this condition, it is truly a lifetime of struggle and if without a strong inner resilience and good family support, it is indeed a very difficult task for someone with this condition to work through his/her physical disability and gain success.

The other well narrated movies based on true story with this condition include the famous movie which I loved a lot, was done by Hollywood in 2014, “The Theory of Everything”, about life of Steven Hawking, a fantastic portrayal by Eddie Redmayne.
Then the Japanese film done in 2009, “Door to Door” by Ninomiya Kazunari, is also another fair adaptation.

Is this a good watch? The story is fairly progressive and well told, the characters are realistic and its ending is heartwarming to me. The main lead find his growth and success.

Read More

Full of Surprises!

Watch this because of Zhao LuSi, and was hook after part 1. Not conventional FL, instead her flaws were fully presented in the series. Similarly the ML’s character is also not perfect. However their growth became significant as the revenge plot unveil. The
Second part shown how FL’s perseverance in finding her love for ML again and reconciling what they had left off or never broken bond for each other. Surprised by some of the twists in the plot, the great acting and the whole filming sequences, plus the high production value.

The whole team deserved a good rating.

Read More

The Ingenious One Or more like the Ingenious Group

Overall this is a good Wu Xia with fantastic fight scenes that were choreograph. You actually see the realism of kungfu fighting and martial arts performed here by various cast.
Acting:
You have a group of seasonal actors acting as protagonists and antagonists, so no complaint. Everyone is spot on with their performances. The ML is Chen Xiao, initially portrayed himself as helpless and not much of kungfu skills but all brain and stratgegy. Then Rachel Momo is the FL, first time I am seeing her as a martial artist and I am impressed by her skills. Her emotions were also spot on in every scene. The supporting casts were all great in their characters and believable in their role. For villains, I especially like Qi Tian Feng and Tang Xiao. For supporting leads, I like Liu Gong Chan, Su Huai Rou, Mo Bu Fan and Jin Biao. The villains and SL are grey in their character but yet so like-able.
Story/Plot:
A revenge plot complicated by its back story of rebellion movement plotted by Prince Fu and conflicts between two sect., YunTai and LingYuan. The ML’s Luo family was massacre and he was rescued and kept at YunTai and was selected to learn strategies. As he has great potential, he became the close and direct disciple under YunTai Master. YunTai has years of conflict with another sect which is LingYuan where our FL, Shu YaNan is from, because of their differences in value. The ML and FL crossed paths for their own agenda but fell in love. Initially it felt like a Romeo and Juliet storyline. FL has very good Kungfu skills and uses poison well, she is also smart and trusted ML despite knowing his hidden agenda. ML became a love brain for a while. Actually at some point, I felt their love is a little draggy and unnecessary but I guessed the story is trying to show that love change a person (ML). I am not fully invested in their love story or even any side plot love line, it just feels redundant.
ML was initially all scheming, heartless and detached to others, as that is his way of YunTai and he was single-pointedly focused on uncovering his family’s massacres mystery and revenge. Along the journey, he learnt to care, value relationships and trust others and made quite a lot of good friends who also trusted him wholeheartedly and help him drives his ultimate plan.
Hence I wouldn’t say ML is the ingenious one, instead it’s a group of them.
The plot has good tension and suspense that keeps the audience interested, although the ending plot was predictable and not hard to guess. It’s still interesting to see how things unfold and come together.
There is a happy ending and nice closure but I won’t re-watch as once you know the ending, really no point to re-watch.
If you want to scrutinize, there were also a lot of loopholes and untied loose ends, but i can’t expect much with all the C-entertainment restrictions. So I am satisfied and happy that it at least gave us a complete story with good closure.

Read More

For What’s It’s Worth

The story begins with a navy trainee with planned prospective future, back to his hometown for summer break. His life trajectory went off course for a while after he got entangled with a teacher he admired, who asked him a favour. The favour brought him to Shanghai, he rescued a little girl whose family was murdered in front of her. She offered him her precious chain and 23/- (where she gathered from her school friends) and hired him to investigate her parents’ murder. Probably ML is so bored, he agreed to take on a fake ID and joined the 4th station police team as rookie through back door recommendation by his brother, so he can investigate the case.
The 4th station is make up of the Station leader who holds a retirement mindset but caring; the team lead who is smart and sharp (but also a hidden communist) and three other rookie policeman which one of them is our courageous FL. Through the investigation he discovered his teacher is a communist, ML was sent to deliver train tickets to the family who got murdered, were also part of the communist movement. He became good buddy with the team-lead, Captain Chen Hao and FL, Lou MinMin.
In span of one month, the case was resolved, they found the murderer and ML thought he can be back on track till his fake identity was being investigated again and he was framed to be a communist.
With ML’s brother help, he cleared his name and was sent back to Navy school, and forced to cut away from Shanghai contacts. By chance Hua Zhen went back to Shanghai and because of his curiosity, he is once again entangled with Luo MinMin and Chen Hao. Hua Zhen discovered that his brother is involved in illegal smuggling of arm fire materials to Japanese military. So our final arc will be on how Hua Zhen with Chen Hao and Luo Min Min work together to uncover the clues and unveil the smuggling crime. Both Hua Zhen and Luo MinMin also decided to join the communist movement.

The first arc of investigation involving our little girl was my favourite. their chemistry were fantastic. I enjoyed watching LiXian’s portrayal of ML, Hua Zhen, the main hero, sharp, calm, observant, smart and decisive with righteous principle, when strong determination, once decided on his goal, he will achieved it. Then our inspirational, second ML, Chen Hao portrayed by Zhuo Yu, a great actor also another smart character, an undercover communist, hidden in police station to investigate the corruption. Our FL, Lou MinMin portrayed by REN Ming, adorable, cheerful and courageous, have a great family, especially protective father. All casts were well fitted in their roles, even the villains by Wang Miao Lei, Jiang Yi and Song Ning were spot on in their roles.
Pros
Warmth of family relationship, friendship and brotherhood.
The fights and gun fights are quite well filmed.
For a Republican Era, this drama gave the unusual positive and happy ending, which is rarely seen in most drama for this time period but I am not complaining as it’s a positive message of strength and young people’s determination to fight for a greater cause, for the country. It’s emphasis on honoring the unsung hero’s sacrifice in those difficult times.
Cons
Not totally realistic, for a Republican Era, a communist movement at that time, death count very little.
An 8 year old girl has a soul and intelligent of an old adult
FL and Chen Hao being severely beaten up yet survived and recovered fast
How did so many things happen in one month. Time is relative in this drama.
Some emotional scenes and flashback scenes were repetitive and draggy.
The ending kiss scene between the leads is not necessary. They have chosen to be on mission and sacrifice for greater course, so romance can be just a subtle thing. I preferred the treatment between Shi JunYu and Chen Hao, love but yet not need to express.

Read More

What Actually Matters…

A truly must watch if you are a sucker for slice of life theme that triumphs on meaning making plots and characters.

I started this with low expectation and purely because I have seen Katrina’s (FL) past works and thought will just try this out. It’s my first drama with ML, to my surprise, his acting is really good, spot on and made the whole character lively and relate-able. He is not an idol but definitely a good actor and should be given more recognition. After watching, it was beyond my expectation, there were no dull moments in the main or side stories narrated.

It is a slice of life theme but not overly dramatic, stories were realistic and the plot were characters’ driven. The growth of characters are organic and progressive with lots of learning moments and very touching.
The conflicts were resolved quickly and no ridiculous fillers.
Normally I don’t pay much attention to side couples, but this drama, I even enjoyed watching the development of the other 2 secondary CPs storyline.
Overall it’s extremely therapeutic and healing for me, like my daily chicken soup reading.

The gist of story…
I won’t give too much spoiler, the synopsis already mentioned the main storyline. It’s about a talented, self-centered, prideful, small town girl who plays Suo Na (an instrument that I always thought it’s too loud to listen solo and only works in a group with orchestra). She always have a fixated dream, one goal in mind which is to be a Principle Suo Na player with the reknown National orchestra group, however during her audition, deal to stress and pressure, she couldn’t perform and developed an auditory condition.
In despair, she decided to go back to her hometown to recuperate - there she found new friends, love, and rediscover what she truly value and her growth. We will also understand later that her fixation of this goal was also related to a deeper value she longs for, a connection whether with self, family or her instrument.
Apart from FL’s journey of growth, redefining her values, finding love, reconnecting with family, there is also a background theme in this story which is to flourish the rich Chinese culture in this small town and to create more awareness.

The mini stories of the town folks were tear-jerking in both flavor of joy and sadness. The stories narrated the two major life changing events which are marriage and death.
The main ML holds businesses in both wedding and funeral arrangements.
He is a very sensible and sensitive character (well-written), who struggle with limited life options and circumstances yet never gave up his positive and constantly manages his challenges with resilience.
The message in each mini stories were touching and show us how we can be kinder to each other even when life is hard. There are so many good mini stories, one has to watch it to feel it. I will share one touches me, it is the first few stories that was also a turning point for FL. It was her first case of helping out to re-arrange a song and she played it at the funeral of a child who died from a car accident. That story left me so sad but the story resolution was so meaningful and healing, that cannot be explained through words.

The ending was nicely wrapped up on a joyous and warm note, with a progression of the main theme and the characters. I have a feeling that with all the given struggles and challenges that this characters have overcome. I believe the town, the people and the couples will do well.

The only complain for international viewers is the poor sub., so hopefully this drama receive more recognition and gain more publicity, where better streaming platform will take this up and provide good subtitles for more international audience.

This is a 9/10 for me.

Read More

The Abyss based on Chinese interpretation

As the synopsis mentioned. This is a story/journey that follows Chu SiJing to find his brother Chu SiYu who was lost to a weird happening in an island.

It’s a Chinese Sci-Fi story set in the Ming dynasty, and the war was just a forgettable backdrop with no further mentioning.
I started watching because the premise was interesting, the plot of the first few episodes have a good pace and kept me curious. So the story follows Chu SiJing to investigate the mysterious secret of the island link to his missing brothers. Many elements brought up were interestingly and can have good potential for further development if given more thoughts. E.g. monsters among human, cult group, magical powers, traditional ancient Chinese mystical creature, underlying political agenda to uncover or hide the secret, etc. Initially it gave me vibes of Kdrama, Kingdom, or the Game of throne, then came Alien under the sea.
However the final reveal was IMO anti-climatic and with an ending of a heroic sacrifice.
The ML throughout the story was in high tension state, was wondering when his blood pressure will pop. There were some interesting side characters that I felt if given more time, can have great potential to develop deeper, such as the Eunuch Yang’s agenda, the soldier Bo Yan, the sea girl Angelica, Shen Rang, Captain Xu, even the Head of JingYi Wei / special forces.
But I guess for a short drama series, it is a good attempt and straight to the point story telling, there are some good fight scenes, and genuine friendships/ kinships theme.

If you like a quick Sci-Fi drama, this is a good watch., will not recommend a re-watch.

Read More