I actually like the Bai Youning character. She adds colors to the two 'boys'. Xiao Yan is such a talented actress.
QC is not supposed to be genius detective so I don't expect him to focus on cases. The same way I don't expect BY to solve them. That doesn't make them dumb.
What makes QC dumb is leveraging LY to pressure BY and then bribing LY. It's like he forgot all his morales and we were supposed to find it funny.
BY got LY in that dumb plan of stealing in the broad daylight and then she got surprised he had failed. It was so stupid.
The writers clearly lost their grip on the story in those episodes.
you mean Lemon by Yonezu Kenshi? I love his songs, "Haiiro to Ao" especially ! I didn't know Lemon was from a…
Yes, that Lemon) It's a main theme of the J-drama Unnatural. The drama is outstanding. What's more the same team behind the drama hired Yonezu Kenishi to write main theme for their new project MIU404 so I have high expectations)))
Everyone is saying the FL is dumb but have you seen ep 13?! No one had brains in that episode, even poor Qiao. It's hard to pick the dumbiest out of the three there. I'm crossing my finger ep 14 will treat ep 13 like a bad dream.
14 epis in and the female lead is the most off putting to be honest, it a pain to watch her scenes. She is the…
Yeah, romantic angle is really obvious. Lu Yao cursed Bai to stay single for the rest of her life in the first episode so he kind of sealed his fate. Oh well.
Thank you for bringing attention to this Japanese TV super hit. TV ratings toppers, for some reason, are rarely popular in international fandom and their pages in MDL are often a sad sight. So I'm always grateful for articles like this one.
Medical Examiner Dr. Qin didn't work for me at all, I found the cases to be nonsensical and humour too whimsical. It put me off Chinese mysteries for a long time. Then Detective L put a final nail in that coffin by being deeply unoriginal and 'meh'.
That's why I'd never expected to enjoy a Chinese procedural and a Republican Era one at that! On paper it should have been exactly like Dr. Qin: there is focus on humour and funny banter, the cases stretch the boundaries of credulity, the culprits are worse than one-dimensional, and there are lots of problematic stuff. Due to the censure the victims are usually guilty of severe crimes which makes punishment of the culprits look unjust and main characters (who deal this punishment) seem hypocritical.
Nevertheless, the show works. The detective part is done very decently. All of the rules of how mystery is supposed to be told are observed (with a caveat that the culprits too easily admit to their crimes). The cases are done in Agatha Christie style which suits the time period well.
There are lots of interesting details you won't see in other dramas. For example, the head police officer is actually a former gangster who supports a mafia boss with his work in police. The main characters constantly haggle over the price of consulting work. The foreigners with bad dub are supposed to be sinister villains. This is certainly a fluffy costume drama but it still shines a light on this very interesting time period.
The most winsome part of the show, though, is its main characters and their non-stop banter. Lu Yao is made a laughing stock every 15 minutes. The show never lets you think he's cool. Qiao with his never ending patience and good will is a calm amidst the storm and a perfect straight man for the constant jokes. Bai is very annoying at first but she grows on you.
I've watched 12 episode so far and my only fear is that the cases will become too repetitive while the jokes will become too stale. It will also be sad if they add melodrama. But those 12 episodes, at least, are very watchable.
is it me or does the FL lack scenes and character compared to the MLs. i really hope they don't do love triangle…
I think FL really improved after the third episode. I don't mind her mostly, though her behavior in 10-12 episodes irked me more than usual. I don't think the male leads will quarrel over her love, but I'm almost sure she'll marry Lu Yao by the end.
My 5 cents about J-dramas: there are lots of dramas with relatable and/or inspiring female characters. I can't give a nuanced analysis of their evolution but let me share my faves:
- Unnatural (mydramalist . com / 25422-unnatural) is a mystery procedural drama with the female main character who is badass in a way one would want a female character to be. The script was written by a woman and you can feel it. The main character is never used for cheap fanservice, she's not 'cutely clever' or 'sexily strong' or all the other bullshit associated with the 'hollywood strong female character'. She's sympathetic, relatable, intelligent, and compassionate. She jokes with her female friend and colleague about science. Ah, thank you, Nogi Akiko, for consistently giving us great female characters!
- Miracles (30798-we-are-made-of-miracles) is a great slice-of-life drama and it features female lead who is over-achieving woman struggling with perfectionism and anxiety. Her conflict would be familiar to many and it has none of the usual annoying overtones of 'ah, I'm so drop-dead gorgeous, talented, and rich, when will a cute man comes to make me happy?'.
- Nobuta (2988-nobuta-wo-produce) is an iconic school drama with the main female character who needs none of toxic masculinity or conformism to have that enormous strength one needs to be oneself.
- Library Wars (5519-library-wars) is an iconic book series about tomboyish officer of 'Library SWAT'. The portrayal of the main character is wonderfully nuanced and her physical strength and martial arts prowess do not deny her a chance to be vulnerable just like the rest of us.
- Confessions (721-confessions) is a great thriller with the main female character who is your ordinary mild-mannered schoolteacher aka the person you shouldn't mess with.
- Gokusen (25-gokusen) is another iconic school drama and it features a main female character who while being physically strong and having lots of power doesn't mind being dorky, getting laughed at, or looking unglamorous. Classic stuff.
- Jin (145-jin) and Hero (157-hero) are two classic dramas that feature female leads (and female support characters) who are simply wonderful.
- Juhan Shuttai (16585-juhan-shuttai) and Soratobu (6290-soratobu-kouhoushitsu) are two great dramas about women learning their craft and fighting for what they believe in.
- Sympathetic hard-boiled female characters can be found in the detective procedural Interrogation Room (8406-kinkyu-torishirabeshitsu) and the crime mystery Prophesy (11031-prophecy).
- Fluffy school dramas Gakkou-no-Kaidan (12190-gakkou-no-kaidan) and 35-years old Schoolgirl (6273-35-sai-no-koukousei) feature great female main characters who save the day.
J-dramas take a bit of getting used to just like K-dramas or Thai-dramas etc. Give them a chance and you'd be surprised by how many gems are there.
Woah, thanks a lot about explaining the concept of s/k Thai drama. I noticed the toxic relationship tropes in several Thai dramas but I didn't realise those tropes are so pervasive.
Also, thank you for not defining dramaland as 'K-dramaland'. As a J-drama lover I feel so bad when I see articles written with an assumption that K-dramas are all there is (and when people recommend Korean remakes of Japanese movies and dramas without realising that it's remakes).
Nah I totally agree. I was thinking of Longest Day in Chang'an too when watching this!! LDIC pacing is so much…
The was an explanation for the wuxia sequence (they use a neighbouring 'barbaric' state as a sourt-of-wuxia people). But yeah, I wish they treated some of the three genres seriously so that detective or wuxia or politics had enough tension.
I dunno about others but I'm watching this show mainly for how funny Tang Fan's interactions are with the other…
Your last paragraph is spot on! I thought the sleuth (and detective genre ambassador) was TF but it seems he's here for comedy while detective element is what brings him, wuxia!SZ, and politics!WZ together.
There is nothing wuxia about this. No emphasis nor mention on combat techniques, internal power, acupuncture points,…
Hmmm, if you define it like this than I have to agree. But I personally found several key scenes in the first 3 episodes not to make sense unless the viewer employs wuxia logic.
Take, for example, that long plot line with the great martial artist. It's whole premise is quite whimsical - the talk about soldiers being not enough to subdue 'the great martial artist', the ready trust of government official in the word of that martial artist etc - this stuff is very out of place in realistic period drama. But if the viewer accepts the wuxia rules then it's all fine.
Iron Market especially seemed like something out of a wuxia - a lawless land with rough and tough people where faithful encounters with fierce women occur. The characters even went undercover literally leaving their formal clothes behind.
So while nobody talks about combat techniques I have a feeling that they really want to but can't cause there is no screen time after the detective/court intrigue parts are added.
What makes QC dumb is leveraging LY to pressure BY and then bribing LY. It's like he forgot all his morales and we were supposed to find it funny.
BY got LY in that dumb plan of stealing in the broad daylight and then she got surprised he had failed. It was so stupid.
The writers clearly lost their grip on the story in those episodes.
Medical Examiner Dr. Qin didn't work for me at all, I found the cases to be nonsensical and humour too whimsical. It put me off Chinese mysteries for a long time. Then Detective L put a final nail in that coffin by being deeply unoriginal and 'meh'.
That's why I'd never expected to enjoy a Chinese procedural and a Republican Era one at that! On paper it should have been exactly like Dr. Qin: there is focus on humour and funny banter, the cases stretch the boundaries of credulity, the culprits are worse than one-dimensional, and there are lots of problematic stuff. Due to the censure the victims are usually guilty of severe crimes which makes punishment of the culprits look unjust and main characters (who deal this punishment) seem hypocritical.
Nevertheless, the show works. The detective part is done very decently. All of the rules of how mystery is supposed to be told are observed (with a caveat that the culprits too easily admit to their crimes). The cases are done in Agatha Christie style which suits the time period well.
There are lots of interesting details you won't see in other dramas. For example, the head police officer is actually a former gangster who supports a mafia boss with his work in police. The main characters constantly haggle over the price of consulting work. The foreigners with bad dub are supposed to be sinister villains. This is certainly a fluffy costume drama but it still shines a light on this very interesting time period.
The most winsome part of the show, though, is its main characters and their non-stop banter. Lu Yao is made a laughing stock every 15 minutes. The show never lets you think he's cool. Qiao with his never ending patience and good will is a calm amidst the storm and a perfect straight man for the constant jokes. Bai is very annoying at first but she grows on you.
I've watched 12 episode so far and my only fear is that the cases will become too repetitive while the jokes will become too stale. It will also be sad if they add melodrama. But those 12 episodes, at least, are very watchable.
- Unnatural (mydramalist . com / 25422-unnatural) is a mystery procedural drama with the female main character who is badass in a way one would want a female character to be. The script was written by a woman and you can feel it. The main character is never used for cheap fanservice, she's not 'cutely clever' or 'sexily strong' or all the other bullshit associated with the 'hollywood strong female character'. She's sympathetic, relatable, intelligent, and compassionate. She jokes with her female friend and colleague about science. Ah, thank you, Nogi Akiko, for consistently giving us great female characters!
- Miracles (30798-we-are-made-of-miracles) is a great slice-of-life drama and it features female lead who is over-achieving woman struggling with perfectionism and anxiety. Her conflict would be familiar to many and it has none of the usual annoying overtones of 'ah, I'm so drop-dead gorgeous, talented, and rich, when will a cute man comes to make me happy?'.
- Nobuta (2988-nobuta-wo-produce) is an iconic school drama with the main female character who needs none of toxic masculinity or conformism to have that enormous strength one needs to be oneself.
- Library Wars (5519-library-wars) is an iconic book series about tomboyish officer of 'Library SWAT'. The portrayal of the main character is wonderfully nuanced and her physical strength and martial arts prowess do not deny her a chance to be vulnerable just like the rest of us.
- Confessions (721-confessions) is a great thriller with the main female character who is your ordinary mild-mannered schoolteacher aka the person you shouldn't mess with.
- Gokusen (25-gokusen) is another iconic school drama and it features a main female character who while being physically strong and having lots of power doesn't mind being dorky, getting laughed at, or looking unglamorous. Classic stuff.
- Jin (145-jin) and Hero (157-hero) are two classic dramas that feature female leads (and female support characters) who are simply wonderful.
- Juhan Shuttai (16585-juhan-shuttai) and Soratobu (6290-soratobu-kouhoushitsu) are two great dramas about women learning their craft and fighting for what they believe in.
- Sympathetic hard-boiled female characters can be found in the detective procedural Interrogation Room (8406-kinkyu-torishirabeshitsu) and the crime mystery Prophesy (11031-prophecy).
- Fluffy school dramas Gakkou-no-Kaidan (12190-gakkou-no-kaidan) and 35-years old Schoolgirl (6273-35-sai-no-koukousei) feature great female main characters who save the day.
J-dramas take a bit of getting used to just like K-dramas or Thai-dramas etc. Give them a chance and you'd be surprised by how many gems are there.
Also, thank you for not defining dramaland as 'K-dramaland'. As a J-drama lover I feel so bad when I see articles written with an assumption that K-dramas are all there is (and when people recommend Korean remakes of Japanese movies and dramas without realising that it's remakes).
Take, for example, that long plot line with the great martial artist. It's whole premise is quite whimsical - the talk about soldiers being not enough to subdue 'the great martial artist', the ready trust of government official in the word of that martial artist etc - this stuff is very out of place in realistic period drama. But if the viewer accepts the wuxia rules then it's all fine.
Iron Market especially seemed like something out of a wuxia - a lawless land with rough and tough people where faithful encounters with fierce women occur. The characters even went undercover literally leaving their formal clothes behind.
So while nobody talks about combat techniques I have a feeling that they really want to but can't cause there is no screen time after the detective/court intrigue parts are added.