This review may contain spoilers
Time travel not easy to conceptualize
Not sure if these are spoilers......................................After watching this drama, I have some misgivings about the whole plot. Something is amiss, and the timeline is vague and obscure. It got so ridiculous that they both have 2 past abduction scenes(her wearing school uniform and another scene of her wearing yellow.) and 2 present situations( both of her being able to walk,not a paraplegic anymore. Present MALE LEAD, Ryu, rekindles the relationship and another he who has no memory of imsol at all). Now, imo, both multiverse of the characters being presented in one universe is a bad idea. Characters in this story SHOULD BE in one universe. they can exist in another universe but they should not exist at the same time,imo. This drama does this, and it gets a fatal flaw following that kind of storyline. It gets so messy to the point that many plotholes are bound to happen.Inconsistencies are here and there.
1) in the earlier episodes, everytime she mentions about the future, " time freezes" and ryu seonjae can't hear what she has just told him nor can see the texts that she has written. Then in the middle episodes, she has successfully told him about his dying," time freeze" was not doing its magic. Lol. overriding what has happened in the prior episodes.
she Is a paraplegic in the past[(2009), maybe caused by her being abducted? The series didn't specifically give the reason why she became paralyzed down].she should remain in that condition in all "present scenes(2022)". I got surprised why she could walk all of a sudden without forewarning in the present ( looks like in episode 7 when she thought she was in ancient goryeo)from the middle and to forward episodes. She was wheelchair bound in 2022 (present)when she watched ryu's concert. She got to see the announcement of his death on the big screen outside the concert venue. So from her hospital stay in 2009 till present 2022 , she can't move from the waist down. It was that long since that way, 13 years to be exact! So how come she can walk again? That beats me!
The plot deals on how she could save her idol, Ryuseonjae, who has inspired her to live her life and not be despondent about her condition,but instead, what the storyline gave us as the past is more on her abduction( why 2 abductions? It should only be 1!) and did not delve on the cause of the suicide of Ryu or murder of Ryu( storyline did not touch this topic at all) so she might have prevented it!
But anyway, the death of Ryu has come to pass and it could never have been prevented because one can't undo a past action. The latter episodes became more ridiculous because Ryu has come alive and totally becomes amnesiac on his relationship with imsol. This is one BIG plothole of the story( done so they can have many romantic thrilling moments together?,lol)
The events that have unfolded is not because of the novel imsol has been drafting. Imsol wrote the novel based on what she has experienced in the last 15 years. It is not the novel dictating the events in imsol's life,imo. And to me, granny has beginning alzheimer's, nothing more to it. She is not a time traveller,imo.
I would like to mention that I don't like Kim hyeyoon's getting her eyes look BIGGER , in surprise, or in anything she does. She is over-acting quite a bit here. Funny how many times I have counted when she is doing THIS facial expression!
So I STILL I cant get it. Were the 2 years( it was mentioned 15 years gap. 2009 is the year of her accident and 2022 is when Ryu committed suicide, so 13 years apart and 2 years as neighbors,2007-2009)of living as neighbors mean they know each other and are a couple?( romantic moments together) or they don't know each other?( imsol blatantly said she doesn't know Ryu and the band Eclipse during a phone in call in her hospital room and when she avoided meeting Ryu during her last time travel so they didn't get to know each other). I'm still at a loss here. The more logical thought would be that they don't know each other and then proceed to get to know each other till they become a couple. But this will NEGATE somehow the" time travel" concept of the storyline. It will make all those earlier episodes wasted! That's why I said that time travel is hard to form as a drama series because it is very abstract and somehow hard to conceptualize. It really needs a good directing and screenplay to pull it off nicely. One title I have in mind is the Chinese drama " shining for you( shown in 2022)" which is done so well!
Some things( surely not the messy plot)rescued this drama. It gave us many comedic relief moments in between, like the competition of the men for imsol's attention, the lottery scene wherein it showed the reason why their win is so low, the condom issue, the brother's "role-as-an-actor scene in the hospital to name a few. I have enjoyed these scenes so much to give a passing 5 score on this drama. ( If it were not for these funny scenes, this drama is a fail in story presentation).
I grade dramas based on the freq uency of plotholes, as well as inconsistencies to the storyline. There should also be " continuation" and free flow of the storyline and character development. Cheesy romantic moments are not what I come for in a drama
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I had this belief that Mulan looks like neutral-gender to be able to pass off as a man. But Zhou ye is too pretty to successfully look like a "guy".
Ok, I had to suspend my disbelief and doubts and just enjoy this drama series, and I did like it !
All are good( plot, flow of the story, pacing, acting) except that He yan acted deliberately cute like a girl. Didn't she check herself not to do this to avoid arousing suspicion from her commander? Her ability to combat and do martial arts as a general is a given in the story since she was trained for it since she was very young. And this drama is all about her. She had killed 3 barbarian chiefs thus earning her title as the best in her " division".
Xiao jue is there as a supporting and her love interest.
Chu Zhao is an upright official who put the country's interest first rather than loyalty to his mentor, the villain chancellor. This put him in a good light except when he deliberately split the commanding forces of He yan and Xiao jue during the battle with the barbarians and nearly destroyed the kingdom. He did this for selfish reasons and he was banished for it.. He did not lead the chancellor's daughter on. She was deluded thinking Chu Zhao loved her. We could see from his behavior that he treated her with proper decorum because she was the daughter of his mentor, nothing more to it. I felt sorry for his character. If only he could find consolation and love in the story, he wouldn't be miserable!
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I mostly favor costumed dramas for its high production cost. I don't watch too many contemporary dramas ,only a few, including this one so I was not expecting that I would like it, rather love it very much
What I did not expect was the "unforgiving" stance of yifan towards her mother which is quite a novelty since most dramas would have them reconciling. I totally agree with her because mothers should be the children's protector and guardian. Lack of care and love would be giving them insecurities and lack of faith in themselves. Luckily for yifan, she has sanyang doing that which the mother had deliberately withold from her. Saying sorry to her at the end still does not erase her being an irresponsible mother.
So not condoning her mother's action is a warning to other mothers out there to not ignore your child from another marriage just because you have a new family now.
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Unexpected good surprise of the plot
I watched this 2 years ago, 2023 so I have to rewatch this to be able to remember the details.All I can remember is a very warm love story, not the fluffy cheesy type, that was made exceptionally well, as well as the time travel part. Topic of time travel is hard to tackle but this drama was made excellently, imo. I was actually not prepared that the flow of the story differed from others I have watched( not that I watch many but time travel is one of my favorite genre) and it was a good surprise plot( I would not have known that it would be a love story)!
I love the personality of the male lead. Never can I imagine a shy introverted boy can be made romantic too but qu chuXiao who playing the character wansen fits perfectly to his role. Love him here!
The lady lead is also quite good with her role here.
After I had watched it, I listed this drama as my favorite time travel related drama. Highly recommended for its cohesiveness and coherence in its narration.
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What is not to like in a drama
I just watched this moments ago and iwould like to raise up some points. Actually the storyline is quite ok. What i dont like is the absurd slowness of the drama episodes. Sometimes one scene would take up an entire episode. Lessen the dramatics a bit because it gets on my nerves. Mostly the dramatics are repeated over and over again. We know how it is and should never repeat it like we dont have a mind.I dont like the fight scenes overwhelmingly dramatics. It seemed that the villain is giving them timeout and recess for fighting. Cut out the dramatics during fights. Fights should be continous! They can have lengthy and emotional conversations AFTER a fight, not DURING a fight! Isnt it laughable that the villain is giving them such an easy time?
Go easy on the music. I get tired of hearing it even if it's not needed! They cant even have a moment of peace conversing without the music? Cut out all the crying of zhuo yichen. A stoic hero and a crybaby? Not a compatible combination characteristics. I see it that the actor cannot act so needs to have moisturizing eyedrops? I dont like it that the goddess is so helpless. Her powers are not strongly shown in this drama. I dont like it that pei siheng, the puppet, is always showing up. I thought he is already dead. The storytelling is not flowing, because of many unnecessary dramatics all over the place, i have been distracted and sometimes forget a character when he is mentioned again.
This is the only drama that i watched that made me fast forward many scenes. I usually watch dramas if they have high ratings. Thinking that this is worth a watch, i tred it and found not liking it at all. Maybe if they lessen the episodes into half( there is not much story development) and do away with all the negatives that i stated , i might give it a high rating. If this xianxia drama can be compared to an animal, it is a hell of a SLOTH!
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