Minalapinou

After a banger of an opening, and a really strong first couple of episodes, the show deflates and becomes a slideshow of empty scenes. Behind its flashy style the writing has zero depth and expect us to feel stuff because oooh, look at the pretty butterflies ! It's a shame because He Lan Dou is killing it as fierce lady sworn on saving her loved ones, and Jerome Deng is perfect as her enraged beast of a male lead, serving deadly looks and burning stares. They are speedrunning Marry the Villain, a classic toxic/obsessive romance that should be pure catnip, but the episodes are too short (we did not need a 2:15 minutes opening that spoils the entire drama...) and the transition between hate and love was so abrupt, it felt like we had skipped a missing middle arc. She forgives him waaaaay too fast and falls into his arms, which...excuse me ? It's like if Li Susu just stopped hating Tantai Jin at some point because...huh...he's cute ? So nope sadly this doesn't get a rec, it didn't have the balls to assume its earlier darker tone and actually do something with it beyond using it to catch our attention.

(Also does anybody knows what the drama had to do with whispering towers ? Is it a metaphor ? I am missing something ?)