PeachBlossomGoddess

Spy candy

Let me cut to the chase - Autumn Cicada is a complete train wreck. But aspiring screenwriters should be inspired by this - if this script managed to be produced with a cast of decent actors and even aired, there is hope for anything!

I watched this because I like spy thrillers and it is set in my city, Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation. Ren Jialun as the male lead Ye Chong is admittedly an added bonus. It does start with a bang as Ye Chong, a major in the Japanese military is almost exposed as a Chinese spy code-name Autumn Cicada the day he is posted to Hong Kong. I suspended disbelief at the wildly improbable backstory as to how a Chinese patriot managed to advance to the highest ranks of the Japanese military but as the plot unfolds I quickly realize that that is on a relative basis, not that ridiculous. Isolated and cut off from all known contacts, he gropes around trying to figure out who is friend and foe and who betrayed his codename. We see him pondering a lot with suspenseful music in the background- every grumpy angle of Ren Jialun's thinking face is vigorously and closely explored so if you are a fan, this is spy candy galore!

Evidently the original female lead dropped out due to a convenient pregnancy that saved her from playing He Ying (Li Man), the most useless character in the show. This boring whiny wallflower was so incompetent she couldn't even successfully get herself killed. Her greatest accomplishment is saving one person at the cost of eleven others. I told myself that if this inept and reckless character survives, it would qualify the drama for a fantasy tag. Needless to say there is zero chemistry between her and Ren Jialun. The drama's only saving grace is the sparkling chemistry between Liu Huan's Chi Cheng and his infuriating and flamboyant wife Jin Xiang (He Dujuan). I really love this couple, they are the only reason I continued to watch the show. Indeed Liu Huan stole the show - his ability to convey crippling fear of discovery behind a facade of a suave businessman sharply contrasted with Ren Jialun's (too) cool as a cucumber Ye Chong. As much as I like him, this is not one of Ren Jialun's better works.

The main antagonist in this show Miyamoto, Ye Chong's arch enemy, is the smartest and only quasi intelligent character in the show. He figured out right away that Ye Chong is Autumn Cicada and was also onto Chi Cheng and the other spies very early in the game but everyone else was too dumb to believe hm. And yeah, even though this should have been obvious to both of them, our two heroes spend most of the drama circling each other warily but the lightbulb just doesn't go on. I was really unimpressed and frustrated with their spycraft and general lack of common sense and intuition. And despite the repeated attempted brainwashing from the suspenseful background music, there is nothing thrilling or suspenseful about watching such bungling spies. Even the ending was predictible and not remotely moving. If anyone is concerned that this may be a propaganda drama, don't be. It is actually a scathing almost insulting depiction of the Chinese spies during this period.

I actually suspect this must be a spoof. It is such a bad drama it is actually quite funny. And yes, there are many, many good looking eye candy actors in this show in dashing costumes. This is one that can be played in the background on mute during those interminable conference calls we endure while working from home.

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Fifty shades of grey.

I expected this to be just another undercover narcotics cop drama. Which it is -  but still it hooked me from the very first episode. A sudden explosion sends Gan Tianlei (Ou Hao) into an 8 year coma in the middle of a decade long deep undercover mission to infiltrate the Ceasar drug organization. When he wakes up, he has no memory of his teenage daughter and her mother and only retains shadowy images of the events leading up to his accident. As his memory returns in snatches, he grapples with where his true loyalties lie and whether he had crossed over to the dark side. Ou Hao really shines in this role - he is heartbroken, moved, bewildered,  cunning, disingenuous, inscrutable, conflicted and enraged at all the right moments. His fight scenes were also really gripping and jam packed with raw, powerful fist-slugging and high impact kick action.

The main characters in this drama are extremely well written - they are multi-faceted, imperfect and complex such that the lines between protagonist and antagonist are frequently blurry. In particular the reluctant chemistry between Gan Tianlei and Che Lizi  as they encircle each other warily at times as allies and at times in combat is the best, most fascinating portrayal of the conflict between black and white and the fifty shades of grey in between. The drama throws them into moments where they are stressed into revealing themselves and their true priorities in the split second choices that they make. Both actors Ou Hao and Xu Hongjie are nuanced and compelling in the way they articulate themselves; theirs is the best frenemy bromance I watched in 2020. The entire ensemble cast delivers a very strong performance in terms of the rapport of the anti-narcotics force and the depth, length and endurance of their relationships and loyalties to one another. The collegial humour and comradeship pulls you in with sketches that are equal parts funny, cynical, nostalgic, light and dark and makes vivid what anchors Gan Tianlei as he walks the line between dark and light.

For about three quarters of the drama, the pacing is excellent and transitions seamlessly between suspense, action, comedy, tragedy with a few good twists and reveals mixed in at all the right moments. Then the drama peaks in an epic showdown between the remnants of the Ceasar group and the Tan family that had succeeded them as drug kingpins. And that is where the drama could have and should have ended on a high note. Up until then, my rating was an 8.0 with an eye towards 8.5. But in the final arc, it seems another writer took over. The mad scientist Lu Mingxiong is another decently written grey character but falls far short in comparison to Gan Tianlei and Che Lizi and the dynamic becomes more like two's company, three's a crowd. His relationship with Gan Xiaoyuan was so oily even the drama admits as much. It is clearly intended to set the stage for another season that sees Gan Tianlei, the ultimate undercover cop go after an international drug ring. I really didn't enjoy the final short arc that felt long, which is why this ends up an 7.5 for me. That said, Ou Hao has really impresses with his acting in this and in The Eight. I believe he is the best up and coming actor I came across in 2020.

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There really is no need to go to the end of the world.

Despite the two big name stars, this movie about a survival romance in the Antartica is just not bad - it is not especially enjoyable or memorable. It was definitely visually stunning but that is not in and of itself enough - after all, it is a movie not a documentary on Antartica. I tried to like this but while there were some good moments, my overwhelming reaction was that it was boring and forgettable. The love story around an unlikely couple stranded together unexpectedly is not unique but it is a simple formula that often works. The basic problem is that aside from the extremely challenging environment, it must also be super boring to be stranded in Antartica. That is why I have great sympathy for what the two leads were up against. I truly don't think there are that many actors out there that could have been able to pull off this kind of role without ultimately boring the audience. I mean watching someone talk to penguins and seals is only entertaining (to kids) in cartoons. Mark Chao and Yang Zishan did have good chemistry and some of the scenes between them were quite moving. But overall their chemistry was not breathtaking the way it would need to be for this kind of performance that really revolves solely around two characters. Mark Chao's excessive face fur also may have hurt his performance. He is an actor with fantastic facial expressions but in some of the moments that truly mattered the fur really got in the way and his expressions were largely obscured. I suspect this is why he wasn't always convincing in conveying Fuchon's (Chao) love for and dedication to Ruyi (Yang). Indeed, while we can debate over whether he looks better with some face fur, this actor's most successful roles to date have been ones in which he has exposed more face.

It was a also likely a critical mistake to have Ruyi (Yang) break her leg from the very beginning , rendering her pretty much immobile throughout. That left Fuchun a one man show for large chunks of the movie and also limits the scope of the interactions between the couple. While that may well be true to the book, in the movie they could have exercised some artistic license and had her break it later on. After all, Antartica is a very dangerous place with all that slippery ice... it could have ideally occured in the latter half of the movie without much changing the storyline or ending. There was a bit of a Chinese twist to the story at the end that helped at the margin but by then I was falling asleep. While I did like and empathize with the couple, this firmly sticks into the only if you are really bored (for example: stuck in Antartica) and need to pass some time category.

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Mission Impossible

I picked this one up because I quite like Vin Zhang as an actor - he has a certain intensity that in the right role could be quite powerful. I was quite excited to see he him cast as the male lead and as the first emperor of China Qin Shi Huang no less! I also (rightly) suspected that Dilraba Dilmurat would pair up quite nicely with him as the female lead Gong Sun Li.

After getting about halfway through this, I realized that the good chemistry between the leads just really wasn't good enough to hold up the challenging story-line that doomed this drama from the start. The lovely Dilraba/Sun Li had the misfortune to catch the eye of the tyrannical Qin emperor. Being all powerful, he tears her from the arms of her childhood love Jing Ke and makes her his concubine. He keeps her by his side by adopting their child and holding him hostage. Despite all of this, we are supposed to be moved by his persistent and not always tender efforts to win her heart. As the Qin emperor, Zhang was mercurial, suspicious, petty and jealous - often coming across like a petulant rejected teenage suitor. Despite his personal intensity, Zhang was not able to round out these lesser qualities with the requisite gravitas of such a powerful emperor. Don't get me wrong, I still think Zhang is a promising actor but the character that he plays is not an innately likable one.

Switching to Dilraba, she also had her work cut out for her - how to betray her love and eventually succumb to such a petty tyrant and not alienate the audience? To make it more palatable, they cast some completely vapid, limp noodle of an actor to play Jing Ke, supposedly the love of Sun Li's life and the father of her child. Needless to say, there was even less chemistry between Jing Ke and Sun Li so we didn't even get a good and convincing triangle. A jealous misunderstanding set him down the path of falling for someone else with the heartbroken encouragement of Sun Li. All I could think was wow, this girl has bad taste in men and they (Sun Li and Jing Ke) were really not that into each other. The rest of the cast was rather insipid and didn't really resonate. There was some silly assassination sub plot that Jing Ke is likely in on (yes kill the tyrant that stole your wife and child) but I didn't get far enough to see it play out. Don't think I am missing anything.

And finally of course there was the requisite palace harem cliche of beautiful women doing their absolute worst to each other - oh yes of course they picked on Sun Li. I can usually tolerate some of it but in this case it was just the last straw. In hindsight, I should have known better than to spend time on this and I have much sympathy for the leads. To begin with, the plot is a super challenging one in which none of the lead characters can possibly come off in a good way. It didn't help that the script writing and character development was shallow and completely not up to the formidable task of making wife snatching romantic. In this regard however, my irritation is squarely aimed at the scriptwriters and not the actors. Their job was literally mission impossible. Instead of self destructing, hopefully they both (and I) make better script choices going forward.

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Nincompoop warning: may cause indigestion.

I am posting this as a warning not to unwittingly get sucked into watching this show. I picked it up after the almost overwhelming number of (misleading) rave reviews about it. This is not another Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, it is in no way comparable on every possible level and it is not enjoyable to watch at all. The plot may well be somewhat interesting and my overall impression of the story line is that it is decent. I am willing to give all Chinese drama 10-12 episodes to engage me. With this one, sadly I could barely even bring myself to watch no 10. The main problem is the lead actress alienated me from the get go with her portrayal of Jinmi as a silly, naive, mischievous, noisy and thoroughly obnoxious young girl. It was not at all adorable or charming, just dumb and annoying. I could have ignored it if it was just one or two episodes but it went on endlessly and there was so, so much of it and none of it added to the storyline. It was quite obvious from the beginning that there is a love triangle in the plot. But she made the character so not lovable that it was just not credible that the two rather superb male leads would fall for such a complete and utter nincompoop. It made the unfolding story-line of two half-brothers who were very close but starting to fall out over their rivalry for this silly, shallow and irritating girl just seem not at all believable. I would however, have readily bought into the two of them fighting each other not to have to marry her she was so obnoxious!

It is my pet peeve that Chinese drama likes to portray female characters in this most unflattering light. But one has to believe that the actress has some artistic input and this one really completely got it wrong by over-acting. Maybe it would have been ok if she "grew up" after one or two episodes and became actually likable. Very quickly,, I lost patience and had to fast forward or mute her every time she opened her mouth. In fact I put this actress whom I have never watched before on my NO list- I will not watch this super low talent actress again. I decided to abandon it after I started to hope she would quickly come to a tragic end and both princes would find happiness with someone (anyone) else.

Dramas nowadays avoid portraying these terrible female stereotypes. I guess if you don't understand the language and are just reading subtitles it could be less obnoxious. Thankfully MANY other hit C-dramas have started to significantly dial down these outdated female stereotypes or have eliminated them altogether. It is why shows like Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, Nirvana in Fire and Princess Weiyoung are in a different class altogether from Ashes of Love. However, the reviews I have seen are not pointing out how difficult this one is to get into and is unfairly putting this show in the same league of many much superior dramas. The story line itself sounds promising but exectution was terrible. Probably best to just read the book and pass on the show.

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How to make sows ears out of silk purses.

This drama has been adapted beyond recognition from a well loved hit novel to the rage and dismay of its many fans. Nothing makes my drama bestie more livid than how this favorite novel of hers has been ruined. This drama's only dubious glory is achieving the hitherto impossible - making sows ears out of silk purses! It is shocking how something so exceptionally good could have been so completely and utterly desecrated.

This production is lead actor Zhang Zhixi's vanity project. Frustrated at being relegated to secondary roles, she secured the lead role by acquiring the script and proceeded to show the world why she does not deserve lead roles. Her portrayal of Yun Qianyue was so bizarrely schizophrenic annoying beyond words and just simply exhausting that I wished I would get amnesia to wipe her appalling performance from memory. If she were portraying a murder victim, I am quite sure the jury would return a verdict of justifiable homocide. The big missing scene was one where Rong Jing and the 4th Prince were fighting to see who could be the first to shove her off a cliff. Because unless their mothers dropped them on their heads when they were babies, no way are these two men falling for this bat-shit crazy imbecile.

This is actually a rather expensive production with a good director, nice sets and beautifully shot scenes. If only the silly harebrained actress had submitted to some direction and not insisted on her unfathomable interpretation of the story, this drama could have been as big of a hit as the novel was.

This drama must be the absolute worst of 2021 - it is so bad it is offensive. Don't waste your time on it. 1.0/10.

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