Manner of Death Episode 1
2 people found this review helpful
Honestly an incredibly solid first episode but this really needs some heavy trigger warnings? Especially as a first episode and especially because it seems to end up on a lot of rec lists, but within the first episode you've got like allusions to miscarriage, nonconsensual drug use, death of a pregnant woman, suicide, medical forensics, dubious consent kissing, blackout drinking, etc. Like again, it's good! I like the format of the show, and the chemistry between the leads is undeniable, but it's a bit weird to see it just rec'd without any sort of warning.
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Faith Makes Great Episode 28
0 people found this review helpful
Without diving too deep into the heavy waters here, there's something very odd about watching another countries propaganda. I sought this out - probably like a bunch of Western viewers, because of the actors in it rather than the content. Like I love watching Wang Yibo, and this is basically the only reason I stuck this one out. This is not a good performance from frankly anyone in the cast - which feels like it might be because of the weight of suffering under the history of the moment, or just the very wooden script. There's a lot of declarative acting here - announcing how you feel and why instead of just...performing the moment? I'm not sure anyone should be judged by how they do in these episodes. It's competently shot, and I wouldn't feel comfortable rating this any lower for that reason, but I would not recommend seeking this one out.
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Faith Makes Great Episode 10
0 people found this review helpful
I really think Deng Lun is a good actor and it's great to see him in something that isn't a traditional costume drama. I don't have a lot of familiarity with Chinese history and had to look up the Red Flag Canal and Wu Zutai, both of whom are interesting figures to me as someone unfamiliar with the case. Wu Zutai is presented as a martyr - for the purposes of this drama he's shown as a man ready to get his hands dirty, who places the good of the worker over the good of himself and those are admirable qualities but (and spoiler here for a historical event 60+ years ago) he did die in the course of a fairly bloody infrastructure project that ultimately cost 80 or so additional lives. He seems an odd choice for a depiction of Chinese greatness. Production wise this carries some of the same standard issues as the rest of the series that I've seen so far -- that sort of sepia overtone, very declarative acting and a lacking of context that cannot be solved in under 30 minutes of runtime. If you're interested in Deng Lun specifically, I think this is a solid representation of his work.
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Faith Makes Great Episode 1
0 people found this review helpful
I don't have a lot of foundational knowledge about the Chinese Communist party, which is one of the reasons I thought I would sit down and watch this series. This is very obvious and unsubtle as far as video material goes. There's not a lot of nuance here - there is literally a scene of a man crying as he sets a stack of books on fire. It's also not a great introductory resource for someone just trying to learn more about the Chinese Communist party in the sense that it's clear that the intended audience is someone who already knows that history. Our main character takes a second about halfway through the episode to announce, seemingly out of nowhere at a kitchen table that he is changing his name to "Wangdao" and then the camera pauses and holds, poignantly. I didn't know who Chen Wangdao was (looking him up, he seems fascinating in that he was a well-traveled polyglot who is the first man to translate the Communist Manifesto to Chinese) so this line delivery is very, very odd. Again though, I am not the intended audience. This has the gloss of "near historical" drama all over it, from the odd saturation to the vignetting. It's dry as a bone. I will still likely check out more from this anthology since each episode is only 30 minute episodes and it seems that they got some exceptionally talented actors to be involved.
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Street Dance of China Season 3 Episode 8
0 people found this review helpful
Honestly, I was really impressed by the teams dances. They're only getting better as the season progresses (of course, obviously) and there are some all time greats in this episode (Wallace Chung's teams' phoenix dance being a clear standout). The eliminations, like eliminations in any reality show, are relatively excruciating but mostly because it seems like they legitimately feel pretty bummed to be sending folks home. I might be biased towards liking Yibo, but it seems like his routines (both the ones he's involved with directly and the ones from the dancers on his team) are the best? I'm just very impressed with them overall. Lay's team this episode turned in two very confusing routine, Wallace's team probably turned in two of the cleanest routines overall, and Jackson's routines are frankly all over the place in terms of creativity and delivery.
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I'm on a rewatch (the last time I watched this show was back on DramaFever RIP and I needed to remember where I left off) and so I already know that I'm going to stick with it. It's interesting to dig through this again in 2021. It's a decent starting point for a very lighthearted comedy of errors -- a character who cannot live as a girl due to a terrible fortune teller, a child who saves the life of a triad boss, etc. It's a little corny, but not in a way that I found terrible to watch and it sets the scene pretty well to the point that I want to watch more.
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Street Dance of China Season 3 Episode 2
0 people found this review helpful
This is a great episode both in the sense of good individual routines from the dancers and also some great freestyle routines from the Main Judges, including a great 4 way dance off and a 3v3 with Jackson Wang and Wang Yibo featuring prominently.
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Tale of the Nine-Tailed Episode 10
0 people found this review helpful
I took a break from this show for a few months because the episodes were just so dense; this episode is no exception and perhaps is more true to that rule in that we get a lot of backstory here. They keep the pace up throughout, it's just a lot happening a lot of the time.
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Street Dance of China Season 3 Episode 7
0 people found this review helpful
I loved the water stage, it gave a really interesting level of dynamic play to the movement of the routines. And just, in general gave a good extra level of challenge. The biggest issue was just the potential for injury which seemed to be fully realized throughout the episode. Honestly, when I remembered that Yibo was up against Wallace I was like "oh no." Technically I think, Wallace might be the weakest individual dancer in the group and Yibo the strongest, and in a challenge where the captains have to be involved it didn't portend well. I think the choreographers for Wally's team did a good job working around his ability, but it was hard to compete with the showboat-y things that Yibo's team was able to bring to the table. I would've thought before this episode that Jackson and Lay (and their teams) were more evenly matched, but honestly I don't think the judging on those rounds was wrong. Overall a deeply enjoyable episode.
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