Minalapinou

Love, money and danger in Macau

Eh, this one didn't do much for me. The drama is gorgeous : gorgeous actors, sets, costumes (her wardrobe is to die for, so elegant), even the music is good, direction is pro-level, I was taking screens all the time. They nailed the atmosphere. I like the story, it's about a rich heiress whose throne is threatened by the search for her dad's secret son in Macau (not named but it's clearly the reference), and by an arranged marriage with a lame family friend (she's in love with his older brother). She escapes to Macau, finds herself in dangerous situations in the gambling world, and gets involved with the shady mobster her dad hired to find her brother. They make a pact : he will give her some intel so she can get to her rival before her dad, while she will pose as his new girlfriend to escape the control of a powerful family who wants him as an in-law.

I don't know why I was so lukewarm about it, the pacing was perfect, the hero's story was about redemption and escaping the mafia's claws, themes I adore, the drama didn't overrely on cliffhangers every two minutes to hold our attention...maybe I'm just not a big Zhang Jin Yi fan ? She's perfectly fine, even good, it's just that I didn't find she had much chemistry with Zhao Zhen Dong, she looked distracted in their scenes, not fully there, and too often I saw the actress, not the character. I'm also not sure about the way Wen Ning was written, the drama wanted her to be this powerful princess of Beijing circles out of her element in gambling dens, but truth to be told, she feels more like a brat most of the time, not really grasping the danger she's in, making impulsive decisions. Her motives and the way she wants to accomplish her goals felt very selfish, down to the way she flirts with the hero, oblivious to consequences. I guess it's supposed to be part of her charm, but I didn't find it very endearing. The fact that she's in love with her fiance's older brother does give her a bit of dimension, but it's revealed way too late to have an impact. As a result I wasn't that invested in the main romance, even if it had all the usual delicious trappings of forbidden lust (and ZZD crazy charisma). I wonder if the other versions of this plot have a better written Wen Ning, and romance. It's a shame because I love the drama's direction, subtle sensuality, and luscious visuals. A beautiful drama, but somewhat hollow.

Read More

He's a red flag, but he's MY red flag

Author FL gets into her own trashy edgy melo webnovel as a doomed villain, wants to change the genre to a cliche romance so she can live, but woops, too late, she wrote her ML to be an unhinged hoodlum barely surviving in seedy neighborhoods, and he misreads her protection for sexual advances, because why else this rich girl would hover around him, pick up his hearing aids, find him a place to stay ? ML is totally a red flag, but I like that author FL takes responsibility : she created him, he's her little toxic monster, so she's not going to run from him but instead is going to take care of her own mess. This was a pleasant surprise, I expected a very gimmicky, light meta comedy and instead got serious thinking about the consequences of the FL playing God, and her slowly accepting that she can't control everything, including her own heart. This was overall well produced and written, right until the lovely ending.

Read More

Me, my husband, and...?

Short and fun, but it mainly works thanks to the charisma and talent of its main duo. The plot tries to juggle way too many ideas. She's the best andrologist, he can't get it up, and only her can have his babies ! Cue arranged sexless marriage to the CEO because of course her sick mom is taken hostage by the token evil step-family who wants the bridal gifts ! But suddenly, his twin brother replaces him during their wedding night and it's a success ! But wait, it's actually him, he has dissociative disorder and is having an affair with his own wife ! Or does he ? Anyway, whoever she's sleeping with, they better continue because evil uncle is scheming against them and doesn't want another heir in the family ! It's fun at first since they keep us guessing what is actually going on, but I wish they had picked a theme and stick with it, because once the novelty fades it ends up being very scattered and superficial. As I said this is very much a power couple kind of romp, Wang Yi Lei and Zhai Yi Ying are having fun and are a delight to watch, but the secondary cast is very tepid and underwritten, and the story is all over the place. I only recommend it if you're a fan of the main actors or if the story really appeals to you.

Read More

Arrogant CEO can't fathom being snobbed by fake heiress

This drama has one of those arresting opening scenes verticals are known for, that makes you want to drop everything you are doing to binge the rest at once (sleep ? Overrated). Jin Zi is a fake socialite desperate to escape from her horrible family who is sabotaging her art career for money, and she targets rich and famous (but not too rich or too famous) heir Xu Shao Qian who could be her golden ticket to freedom. When she appears glamorous at an elite party in a rented gown, her target's friend the Prince of Beijing Circle (or something) who is the richest and most famous, sees through her game, prepares himself to snob her, only to see her giving him zero attention, which he simply Cannot Have. His ego is bruised as he can't understand why HE isn't the prime target of her scheme. Curiosity turns to attraction, attraction to love, but he's not part of her plan and he didn't make the best first impression on her. The angst, the longing, the sexual frustration (here come the cold showers and alcohol as coping strategies), so delicious, I can't resist.

Zhao Zhen Dong is once again perfect in this (the way he looks at her !) and I vastly prefer Jin Zi in this collab than the Marshall's Runaway Wife one, her character is way more interesting. She's obviously attracted to him, but the drama explains well why it doesn't make sense for her to accept his advances. The visuals are lovely.

On the writing side, it's quite solid, but I have to give credit to the green tea : thank God for her because it's only her intervention in the last arc of the drama that pushes the leads together, as they were until then running in circles around each other. Here comes our resident scheming meimei who basically finds the SML's white moonlight and sents her his way so the FL can have a perfect excuse to break their vows. When it's not enough, she schemes a wedding crash by throwing the deadbeat parents in the ceremony, so our ML can fly to the rescue and princess carry the cute imposter away. Honestly the leads should pay hommage to her when they marry because without her, he would be crying alone in London and she would be wallowing in a tepid marriage.

Read More

High class vertical

It commits a Cardinal Sin in romance : you never end your drama with a handshake ending. It's against the law. Otherwise this is a tight, classy and gripping depiction of a captivating toxic relationship between a brilliant lawyer fallen from grace and a ruthless CEO caught in a succession feud. He pays her to be his mistress, his spy, and to seduce his brother and rival. The scandal ! I don't like the chosen MDL title of "Debauchery", I've seen it called "Three Brothers" which is more apt, as the ML's relationship with his two siblings is key to the plot. Zhen Zi Qi and Zhao Zi Zi have vastly different energies and visuals (she's thin, icy, composed, he's bulky, chaotic and intense), and yet the chemistry is there, you can feel the desire in the air, they are both screwed by their situations but fierce and ready to bite, there is great power play, both are using each other, all good ingredients for a very strong dark romance. The surprise baby is 100% a plot device weaponized by the FL, and temper things in the second part (boo, this is why I hate them) but it didn't bother me that much here as the plot was still very tight. The drama had high production values and a quality casting (SML was a good snake, SFL was kind of a bombshell ?). As I said the handshake ending is a crime, but I did like the way they wrapped everything up, even if I think an bit of an exploration of how the ML adjusted his sociopathic tendencies to win her back would have been great.

Read More

Drive baby drive

I tend to like shorter verticals, as some can meander a lot and become yap fests. This 1 hour and a half one is on the opposite end : it ran at breakneck pace. While it could have slow down a bit after we reach the end of the "how did we get there" phase, I really appreciate the effort to respect the viewer's time and trust our ability to understand even if they don't show/tell us everything. One of my favorite Kdramas is Lee Jun Ki's Time Between Dog and Wolves, and this one reminded me a lot of it : both starts with a very intense flash-forward, star a vengeful hero who becomes his enemy's dog/right-hand man to serve his plans, and both have him fall in love with his enemy's precious girl (in the Kdrama she's his daughter, in Dark Light she's his fiance), messing with his plans. Both are pure crack. I like that this one choose to focus on the FL, as the FL in this type of scenario can become a bit of a sidelined trophy or be too out of her depth (like in Undercover Affair). Here she looked like the pampered princess she was supposed to be (I think those plots need that to enhance the forbidden/impossible aspect of the romance) but she was allowed to take the lead and have her own plans. It made the romance more intense (also her dilemma is a bit more complex than the hero's, who is planning to steal everything from his enemy including her anyway). It does feel like the final part of her arc is missing, as it happens offscreen, maybe the drama had production troubles and had to rush the ending (it does feel very abrupt). We didn't need to see the opening scenes again without cuts, and wasn't the scene where she runs in her wedding dress supposed to go somewhere ?

This was visually on the higher end of vertical productions, some scenes were striking and had excellent framing, like the staircase scene, and it's obvious that the director is a cinema buff (look out for the 3-Iron ref in the beginning). Acting wise the drama had an excellent villain played without the usual ham by a devilish Zeng Xi Tang, Wu Chun Yi's classy looks combined with her youthful and soft vibe were perfect for the role, and I have to talk about Wang Yi Lei : this was my first drama with him and he's going straight to my list of actors to keep an eye on, he's the whole deal : he has very distinctive, deadly attractive features (he looks like a cat) and is very talented, he's not here as Wang Yi Lei he's the character. Overall, very solid stuff, if you like undercovers romances (or the trope where FL falls in love with a shady, handsome and devoted driver like in Drive/Baby Driver) you might want to add this one to your list.

Read More

Don't drink, kids

Started this purely on recommendation and was completely sucked in. The events of the story are a bit too crazy and coïncidental to be believed, but it's telling such a compelling case study about guilt, shame, and envy that I couldn't look away. I even guessed the main culprits and plot a few episodes in and still was not a minute bored. It's also not relying on psychopathy for once, showing that you can tell a very dark murder mystery without it (well, you can make a case about one of them but this character is not the murderer, interestingly). If I had to make on criticism it's that they don't let us doubt one second that our hero is 100% innocent, it's obvious from the start he was framed, and I wish that we did have a little more uncertainity about it, it would have make some characters' arcs much more compelling. Byun Yo Han and Go Jun were great, I liked that the show didn't try to make them super cops or soulmates or something, and let their partnership grow naturally. Extended cast was amazing, so good that I forgot they were acting.

Read More

Cdrama equivalent of the horse drawing meme that starts beautiful and ends ugly

Perfect exemple of a drama that starts strong with good writing but fizzles out in its final act, diminished by unfulfilled promises and a bad last stretch full of copouts and bloodshed. On the casting front, Qiao Xin is a delight as clever and resourceful Qui Yan, but I'm not going to pretend that the show is not carried by Jeremy Tsui, his charisma, and his dashing looks. He is smoking hot in a classic type of prideful male lead who is burning for his lady in secret. Sadly the romance that was at first riveting was done dirty, Yuan Lang is a lame rival, the heroïne's sister Min was treated like garbage by the script, and no, after a slow-burn in costume you don't put your heroïne on the road to roam the world in search of inspiration (she had so many dangerous adventures, was it not enough ??) like we're in some modern RomCom with a last minute flight to study whatever abroad, that left me speechless. Truly sad because I was otherwise a big fan of the first act. Also, not enough kisses !

Read More

Basic revenge and rebirth story that transforms into a lovely romance

Can you have too much flirting in a romance ? I don't think so, and even if it was a bit cheesy at times, I found myself grinning stupidly from ear to ear in front of those two adorable fools in love. There is nothing new about the plot, it's the same old revenge story about a woman scorned by her husband and some green tea, being given a second chance to basically make them suffer her wrath, and finding love with Mr Perfect (who is alos her fake uncle) on the way, but there was something about it that was mesmerizing. The opening scene is arresting, we find our firecracker expert heroïne in red being branded and burned alive screaming bloody revenge on everybody, and then she wakes up in soft white sand, in a pavillion, in a meadow, far from the crowd in her young uncle's estate, meeting with a handsome and mysterious man in black who will become her ally and so much more. How to resist ? I adored the visual of the show, it feels very natural, with great use of warm colors and lighting. If I had to pick a word to describe the drama, it would be lovely. The actors were lovely, their story was lovely, the visuals were lovely. It can be a bit surprising to get a sweet romance after such a violent opening but it was fitting, because the drama is not purely about revenge, it's also (and mainly) about learning to trust and love again. A wonderful little find that deserves praise.

Read More

The longest promise was not fullfilled.

Ooh boy this drama. I thought I was in for a delicious slow-burn romance between a fiery princess and a wounded prince who longs for love, but instead I got endless, boring conspiracies between kingdoms I did not care about and a tedious love rival who refused to go away. I did love it at first (hence the not so terrible 7/10 rating). I love the aesthetic of this drama, very poetic and fairy-tale like (the dancing !), and the combats are pretty cool. I fell for Ren Min's energy and I get the fuss about Xiao Zhan. As I love contrasts, I loved their couple visually (I'm in the minority apparently). A shame the show doesn't exploit their playful chemistry, they barely kiss and get together too late. This drama is weirdly paced, dragged by this overly complicated storyline about the war between merfolks and the kongsang clan. Most of it is a set-up for Mirror : A Tale of Twin Cities, and it doesn't fit. Usually in xianxia the big identity secret is about the leads. Here it was about the hero of another show, and it was difficult to care about the underlying plot as a result. The show is also marred by a slough of mediocre secondary characters, like the tepid second prince, his tepid lover, her scheming sister who can't decide if she wants to be good or bad, the lamest evil clan and an exhausting tragic rival, Yuan, who takes way too much place in the plot at the expense of our main couple's story. As Zhu Yan's caretaker and her ancestor's husband it's very hard to take him seriously as a candidate for her affections, and in the end he becomes a walking plot device. What a waste of Wang Chu Ran, Lu Yu Xiao and Alen Fang's talent. The show started very strong, but slowly became a borderline unwatchable mess. It feels like a prequel to a show I don't even want to watch.

Read More

Reborn sisters swap story with strong acting and visuals, but weak, uncreative writing

Somebody surely saw the sucess of the prolific "reborn sisters switch fates" plot device in verticals and wanted to do it in mini format. The result is mostly made of inner court antics, complete with scheming concubines, sad orphans, bitch slaps, the whole shebang. The main draw of the first part is that we don't know whatever happened to the first daughter in her seemingly perfect first life to make her jump into the prince's bride sedan with no hesitation. Once it's revealed and that Jueying is in charge of the household after thwarting various schemes, the drama becomes less interesting. Still, the main romance made up for it (for a while).

Casting is great, Zhu Li Lan and Mu Le En are strong picks for the feuding sisters, Qin Tian Yu is adorable (you might have seen him as the cute dog prince in Starry Love or the psycho emperor in Fated Hearts), and I loved his version of the deceptively aloof husband who discovers what a treasure his own wife is. Unfortunately, the main plot itself is not that great, and looses momentum after a while.

I tried some period verticals with the same plot, and I like that they get creative with it since it has been done to death (there's one where FL marries an eunuch, one where she becomes a peace-making bride, one where she marries a snake demon, etc.). Threads of Destiny was a tad too classic for my taste, and the heroes lacked dimension. After a while I didn't enjoy watching the jealous sister getting owned over and over by the too-perfect heroïne anymore, the kinky/chaotic secondary couple was starting to become more interesting than the leads (never a good sign) and I didn't care enough about the prince's schemes to keep watching.

Read More

What should have been a simple, cute tropey RomCom turned into a mess

I went in without much expectations, and liked it a lot at first. Unlike Jung So Min's middling Love Next Door, it wasn't trying to be clever or deep, it was using pretty much all the Kdrama romance tricks we know and love (drunk meetcute, rich heir whose family got killed in a crash, childhood crush, fake relationship that turns real, a truckload of coïncidences, etc. etc.), and as a result since they had the cutest cast ever, it worked. It was basically the So Min and Woo Shik show. I found myself looking forward to the next episodes, but at some point the writing started to bother me beyond reasonable measure. First, the (many) villains were just a bunch of lazy carricatures, led by a two-faced psychopath, because apparently we can't have a Kdrama RomCom without one these days. Second, when I watch a fake marriage drama, I expect it to milk it a bit more by having our MC forced to pretend in public, but here, with the usurpation of her husband's identity, they wrote themselves into a corner by having their character forced to hide instead, which meant that the result was a very weird mix between the fake wedding trope and the secret affair one. I hoped the secondary couple would give me something else to look forward to, but I lost it at the abysmal boob-CPR scene (maybe I'm alone in this but I just hated how that scene was shot and written) and rage-quit soon after when the asshole ex resurfaced. I guess I'll just rewatch Because This is My First Life for the third time. It's a shame because at first it made me think of ye olde light romances like Full House (adorable down on her luck heroïne who is scammed and homeless, fake marriage with a grumpy rich man to keep the house) and I was so in.

Read More

All talk, no bite

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 ?)

Read More