This review may contain spoilers
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.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
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 !Was this review helpful to you?
Cute actors goofing around in cute cosplay
Fun and fluffy retelling of Beauty and the Beast . It's too long, 20 episodes would have been more than enough to tell the story, the bad guys are terribly written and the transition between light comedy and violence is not always well done, but it works thanks to the lead actors' talent, chemistry and charisma. They also did a really good job with the fantasy aspect with a very limited budget (and it's so adorable !!). Watching Go Princess Go is not necessary to understand the story, it's just a spin-off about the heroes' daughter in another world.Was this review helpful to you?
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.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
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.Was this review helpful to you?
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.
Was this review helpful to you?
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.Was this review helpful to you?
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 ?)
Was this review helpful to you?
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.
Was this review helpful to you?
