22
24
2
This review may contain spoilers
Turn off your brain and feast your eyes!
(I rate vertical dramas on their own sliding scale. General spoilers only.) A sumptuous visual feast! A gorgeous gothic fantasy (but brought into modern times). The costumes, lighting, coloring, and sets creat a cohesive, entrancing mood. I kept pausing scenes just to take in the ambiance and the lovely hues created with lights and post-production coloring. And I like both lead actors, a lot. And did I mention the costumes?! Though, I felt like the ML's weren't quite as successful as the FL's. I have to say, that one outfit of the ML's with the red neck tie and hat gave me Van Helsing feels in a trying-too-hard cringy way that had me laughing out loud, lol. The biggest design miss, in my opinion.
But the story? Ooophf. What a disappointing disaster. Beyond stupid illogic for how the ML treats the FL and lets misunderstandings stay in place for so long. I'm trying not to give away specifics, so I'll just say, if he really wanted to pursue her, all he needed to do was to correct what the SFL said the first time he's introduced to the FL. One sentence, right then, and he wouldn't have had an insurmountable barrier that made the FL despise him for his actions.
But, I guess that had to be in place so that the screenplay could make full use of the forced-seduction trope. Over and over. This seems to be the focus of the thin plot for most of the show.
Now, I love this trope, but it's a little lacking here because there isn't enough "seduction" to balance things well. And definitely not enough of the FL melting into her desires despite her misgivings. When it really feels like the FL doesn't want advances, at least on some deep level, then I start getting uncomfortable with it, even in a fantasy. The FL does have a couple of lines in voice-over about being inexplicably drawn to the ML, but not nearly enough of it comes through in the acting. Part of the burden of that fault lies with the director and screenplay, not just the actress, who in every other way was a good fit for the role.
Zhao Zhen Dong can do obsessive leads so well, but the screenplay let him down in this one, making the character consistently unlikable despite all of ZZD's charm and all of the palpable desire in his gaze.
The SFL is obviously only there to make things more difficult. The ML has plenty of other people he can work with, absolutely no reason for him to keep her around. He never does much about her. It's the FL who takes care of her 10 minutes before the end. [Eye-roll]
I know I mentioned a lot of cons, but is the show still worth watching despite its shortcomings? Yes, for the visuals! Especially if a fan of one of the actors. But only if you can completely turn off your brain! I just recommend watching it at a faster speed or fast-forwarding some parts altogether :)
Story-wise I would rate this a 4/10, but the production effort in everything but the screenplay is so good, and so unique, for a vertical show that I'm giving it a 6/10.
But the story? Ooophf. What a disappointing disaster. Beyond stupid illogic for how the ML treats the FL and lets misunderstandings stay in place for so long. I'm trying not to give away specifics, so I'll just say, if he really wanted to pursue her, all he needed to do was to correct what the SFL said the first time he's introduced to the FL. One sentence, right then, and he wouldn't have had an insurmountable barrier that made the FL despise him for his actions.
But, I guess that had to be in place so that the screenplay could make full use of the forced-seduction trope. Over and over. This seems to be the focus of the thin plot for most of the show.
Now, I love this trope, but it's a little lacking here because there isn't enough "seduction" to balance things well. And definitely not enough of the FL melting into her desires despite her misgivings. When it really feels like the FL doesn't want advances, at least on some deep level, then I start getting uncomfortable with it, even in a fantasy. The FL does have a couple of lines in voice-over about being inexplicably drawn to the ML, but not nearly enough of it comes through in the acting. Part of the burden of that fault lies with the director and screenplay, not just the actress, who in every other way was a good fit for the role.
Zhao Zhen Dong can do obsessive leads so well, but the screenplay let him down in this one, making the character consistently unlikable despite all of ZZD's charm and all of the palpable desire in his gaze.
The SFL is obviously only there to make things more difficult. The ML has plenty of other people he can work with, absolutely no reason for him to keep her around. He never does much about her. It's the FL who takes care of her 10 minutes before the end. [Eye-roll]
I know I mentioned a lot of cons, but is the show still worth watching despite its shortcomings? Yes, for the visuals! Especially if a fan of one of the actors. But only if you can completely turn off your brain! I just recommend watching it at a faster speed or fast-forwarding some parts altogether :)
Story-wise I would rate this a 4/10, but the production effort in everything but the screenplay is so good, and so unique, for a vertical show that I'm giving it a 6/10.
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