This review may contain spoilers
Forget me or not?—Memory fades but feelings lingers | Bittersweet heartbreaking ending ㅠㅠ
Xingxian wasn't a bad person. It's just that, in her sufferings, she lost her kindness bit by bit. - Jiu Xuan Ye
I honestly don't know how to start my review...so shall I elaborate on how this drama completely wrecked me?
Let me start this by letting out a sigh of frustration and anguish...wow! Just, WOW! I picked this drama after watching #ThePrisonerOfBeauty and god was I so wrong for doing that—worst decision of my life this year.
The story started smoothly with a touch of intrigue and excitement that can encourage anyone to binge-watch It. However, as the story goes on the more it felt draggy. They tend to spend significant amount of time on specific plot events (namely Reunion Inn and Inside the Painting scenes) instead of producing more...which made the slow-paced development of the story feel even much dragged out rather than help it become more progressive (in terms of pacing). The main issue is that the plots and schemes were so unnecessarily detailed which makes the story too dragged out. They most probably wanna make sure that the narrative will be flawless but for the price of what? the story being seen as pedantic? I am sorry but that's just being overly perfectionist to me.
Plots, Twists and Pacing as described above are way too detailed—flawless—which I highly appreciate at the same time dislike, as it made the show feels short of action and events. Which if were altered could have given us more interaction and moments from the characters. Whenever I recollect about this drama, I only have 5 events in mind (Owl Demon, Mirror Demon, the slow and extremely detailed Reunion Inn, overly repetitive wedding loop scene and lastly, the Snake demon) which could have been more, given that they have 36 episodes.
Climax and falling action was handled nicely as it was action packed but it also felt hastily done in a way. It felt rushed as they literally unfolded it 4-5 episodes before the resolution of the conflict which is considerably too little for me as they still needed a couple of episodes to present the actual finale to conclude the story.
Ending is where it all started falling apart for me. The most heartbreaking part of this drama is when the director and writer decided to fvcking serve us with that sacrificial yet benevolent finale which is very much unnecessary and unwarrented. I detest such pretentious endings at it is a mask they often utilize to torture the viewers in all aspects. No matter what other people says, I can never tolerate anyone who romanticizes sad endings.
To top it all up, I even got to watch the Behind-the-scenes of the finale. The scene where the main leads are both crying their eyes out because of extreme agony. Ohmyghad! I was so mentally, emotionally and spiritually damaged that I began hating the director and writers of this show so much!
P.S. I got some personal beef on how many times they repeated the wedding scene inside the painting. That was truly irritating to the point where I even considered fastforwarding. I also got quite bored on how excruciatingly slow and dragged out the Reunion Inn event was. Almost lost my patience watching those parts.
Lastly, a comical line that turned grim.
"I'll marry you. You've tried to snatch me as a bride so many times, who else could I marry if not you?" - Duan Ban Xia
Story - 9.0 - Despite how sluggish and draggy it feels like, I still cannot disregard the writer and director for their flawless work of the plots and events. I still abhor them for the ending but it doesn't feel right to give this story a lower score then 9.0 just because of that.
Acting/Cast - 10, Song Zu Er & Ren Jia Lun are perfect for the role and they both delivered really well. The supporting roles were also remarkably good in portraying their given roles. Kudos to every single one of them.
Music - 10, When it comes to C-dramas, music is that one thing I am not very particular with (in comparison to K-dramas) as long as the music used are good and never bothered me, then it will be a 10 for me.
Rewatch Value - 6.0, I honestly don't think I will ever watch it again. I am giving it this score out of consideration entirely for the compact and detailed story.
Overall - 9.0 - This score feels right to me. Not too low and to high either. I still feel disappointed about the ending but all in all it was good. Although some parts of it became tiring at one point, they all still make sense at the end. Again, I can never discredit the work just because I hate some parts of it.
IF you find my review helpful please let me know.
I honestly don't know how to start my review...so shall I elaborate on how this drama completely wrecked me?
Let me start this by letting out a sigh of frustration and anguish...wow! Just, WOW! I picked this drama after watching #ThePrisonerOfBeauty and god was I so wrong for doing that—worst decision of my life this year.
The story started smoothly with a touch of intrigue and excitement that can encourage anyone to binge-watch It. However, as the story goes on the more it felt draggy. They tend to spend significant amount of time on specific plot events (namely Reunion Inn and Inside the Painting scenes) instead of producing more...which made the slow-paced development of the story feel even much dragged out rather than help it become more progressive (in terms of pacing). The main issue is that the plots and schemes were so unnecessarily detailed which makes the story too dragged out. They most probably wanna make sure that the narrative will be flawless but for the price of what? the story being seen as pedantic? I am sorry but that's just being overly perfectionist to me.
Plots, Twists and Pacing as described above are way too detailed—flawless—which I highly appreciate at the same time dislike, as it made the show feels short of action and events. Which if were altered could have given us more interaction and moments from the characters. Whenever I recollect about this drama, I only have 5 events in mind (Owl Demon, Mirror Demon, the slow and extremely detailed Reunion Inn, overly repetitive wedding loop scene and lastly, the Snake demon) which could have been more, given that they have 36 episodes.
Climax and falling action was handled nicely as it was action packed but it also felt hastily done in a way. It felt rushed as they literally unfolded it 4-5 episodes before the resolution of the conflict which is considerably too little for me as they still needed a couple of episodes to present the actual finale to conclude the story.
Ending is where it all started falling apart for me. The most heartbreaking part of this drama is when the director and writer decided to fvcking serve us with that sacrificial yet benevolent finale which is very much unnecessary and unwarrented. I detest such pretentious endings at it is a mask they often utilize to torture the viewers in all aspects. No matter what other people says, I can never tolerate anyone who romanticizes sad endings.
To top it all up, I even got to watch the Behind-the-scenes of the finale. The scene where the main leads are both crying their eyes out because of extreme agony. Ohmyghad! I was so mentally, emotionally and spiritually damaged that I began hating the director and writers of this show so much!
P.S. I got some personal beef on how many times they repeated the wedding scene inside the painting. That was truly irritating to the point where I even considered fastforwarding. I also got quite bored on how excruciatingly slow and dragged out the Reunion Inn event was. Almost lost my patience watching those parts.
Lastly, a comical line that turned grim.
"I'll marry you. You've tried to snatch me as a bride so many times, who else could I marry if not you?" - Duan Ban Xia
Story - 9.0 - Despite how sluggish and draggy it feels like, I still cannot disregard the writer and director for their flawless work of the plots and events. I still abhor them for the ending but it doesn't feel right to give this story a lower score then 9.0 just because of that.
Acting/Cast - 10, Song Zu Er & Ren Jia Lun are perfect for the role and they both delivered really well. The supporting roles were also remarkably good in portraying their given roles. Kudos to every single one of them.
Music - 10, When it comes to C-dramas, music is that one thing I am not very particular with (in comparison to K-dramas) as long as the music used are good and never bothered me, then it will be a 10 for me.
Rewatch Value - 6.0, I honestly don't think I will ever watch it again. I am giving it this score out of consideration entirely for the compact and detailed story.
Overall - 9.0 - This score feels right to me. Not too low and to high either. I still feel disappointed about the ending but all in all it was good. Although some parts of it became tiring at one point, they all still make sense at the end. Again, I can never discredit the work just because I hate some parts of it.
IF you find my review helpful please let me know.
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