beeftie

Super Strong First Half but Disappointing Second half

I don't know how to write a very serious review analyzing plot and pacing and I'm probably just gonna say a lot of what everyone else has been saying but I still wanted to write one. I didn't quite finish this drama because Netflix is a bit slow but I'm already disappointed and I feel like the last half of the drama has really fallen off compared to the first.
Initially, I thought this was gonna be the greatest drama I have ever watched. I went in with high expectations and I wasn't disappointed. The beginning half in the village was the most magical experience I've ever had with a C-drama. Just by watching short clips of the wedding scene and the scene where Changyu thought Xie Zheng had left, I knew this drama was worth getting a Netflix subscription for.

The visuals were stunning. In historical dramas, we mostly get the palace life because that life is supposedly more interesting and more pleasing to the eye. However, this drama did a great job at making the village life super interesting and visually appealing. The production crew? truly demonstrates that you don't need fancy clothes and jewelry in order to live a happy, meaningful life. The camera work in the village was excellent and truly gorgeous. I wouldn't say the excellent visuals disappeared after the war began, but the visuals in the later episodes aren't as appealing as they were in the village.
The chemistry between the main leads was so incredibly strong in the village arc I was literally screaming whenever they had cute moments. I've never done this ever for any couple and when I see other people discuss how they do this for other couples, I just never understood how anyone could have such a strong reaction to good chemistry until this drama. The tangerine candy kiss is one of the most romantic first kiss scenes I have ever seen in a drama and was the scene that got me to start watching the drama. However after the whole thing where they separated, their chemistry was no longer the same. For me, they took a bit too long to truly get back together with Xie Zheng revealing his identity to Changyu and Changyu finally getting used to the fact that she's dating the Marquis of Wu'an. After they got back together, there just wasn't that spark anymore. They were still cute though.
But one of the things that this drama did well in was that I was never bored watching it. Usually when watching dramas, I feel a strong urge to skip certain scenes or have to force myself to sit through them. But it wasn't the case for this one, I was thoroughly entertained even in the village life where not that much was happening. In fact, the village life was more interesting than when they went to war. They also had a lot of interesting characters that I actually grew to care about such as Yu Qianqian and her son Bao'er, Sui Yuanqing, the gossiping grandma, and her gang of men. But at around episode 27, this drama took a bit of a toll on my mental health because I was realizing how badly this drama was going to mess everything up. It was so bad that I became angry every time I thought about it, but eventually I got over it. I think I became too attached to the drama. First they had Changyu kill that one general with 2 blows and received an internal injury. I was questioning how because she has no battle experience but I just reasoned that she had trained with her father in martial arts her whole life and she has been doing missions in freeing kids for months which probably allowed her to improve her skills. However, it would've been more believable if Changyu came out of it with a lot more serious injuries. But this drama affected my mental health when she killed Prince Changxin and only received some deep scratches. That's when I realized that the quality of this drama has truly decreased because they set up Prince Changxin to be this main villain in the show but he ended up looking like a minor problem. It also would've made more sense for Marquis Wu'an kill him instead because he was literally there and is canonically a better fighter than Changyu with more battle experience. Instead the drama had him going after Sui Yuanqing once again which is lame because we have already seen them fight before and Xie Zheng easily beat him. Sui Yuanqing should've been dead or at least a hostage there if Marquis Wu'an wasn't just sitting there and mocking him, giving an enemy troop enough time to come and grab him. Last time they were super quick to put spears around him but I wonder what happened this time. I also wish we got to see more of the full fighting potential of Marquis Wu'an instead of a ton of screentime for an abusive relationship. The only real fight scenes we got of him were when he was injured and when he won super easily against Sui Yuanqing. But after this, there's something wrong that I can't quite put my finger on. I genuinely don't know why I care less about the story now. It's probably because they tried to fit too much into such a small number of episodes but I can't find a way to directly link it to my growing apathy for the show.
As for the politics? I don't know. Honestly I never pay attention the political aspect of dramas but I did this time and I still don't understand the whole picture. I saw a lot of people saying that the politics of this drama are confusing so it might not just be a me problem.
The acting? I genuinely can't tell good acting from bad acting but I believe that Tian XiWei is a good actress. As for Zhang Linghe, his acting did the job. In the last few episodes I watched, I wasn't as moved by the acting as I was before.
I loved the music paired with the village scenes because it brought the village to life and it made the scenes between Changyu and Xie Zheng incredibly romantic and moving. The music is so good that sometimes it started playing in my head whenever I was outside experiencing life. My favorite music that played is probably the time where Changyu though Xie Zheng left her but came back and when they were talking beside the fireplace with fish.
I haven't finished this drama and I don't think I'm going to drop it entirely yet but I may just end up skipping through parts in order to get to the ones I care about because unfortunately I don't care anymore.
If I were to ever rewatch this drama, I would only rewatch the village arc.

Read More

Good, but Feel Off About Sang Yan's Devotion

I guess I'll just start off with some problems?
Sang Yan is just way too obsessed with Wen Yifan. I would've understood more if she actually did something incredible for him but she didn't. All they show is that Sang Yan falls in love with her at first sight which is just underwhelming. I mean seriously, you follow a girl around everywhere she goes and care about everything she does and for what? It's just desperate and borderline creepy. Even after she said all those horrible things to him, he was still willing to do everything for her. I just wish the guy had more self respect. His obsession with her ends up ruining him as a character. His entire world and personality is just her and nothing else.
As for the second leads' story, idk i don't really care.
I loved the production and thought it was very high quality. It gives the drama a nice atmosphere. I realized just how good it was when I started watching hidden love and I just didn't like how empty the drama felt. Maybe the production for the drama was cheaper? Anyway, I'd rather watch this drama than hidden love.
Even with the problematic relationship, I still liked their chemistry and I thought the story itself wasn't too bad. There were some boring moments with the second lead and Su Haoan's grandparents. But I did get frustrated with the Hong Kong arc and thought it wasn't necessary when Sang Yan, the best boyfriend in the world, was literally right there and could help her out. Did she seriously think that writing a letter "Don't look for me and don't miss me" will prevent him from becoming super depressed over her being gone? And there was one moment that sort of pissed me off when Che Xingde showed up at her work. I mean, if your sexual abuser is "coincidentally" showing up at the same places your at and ends up getting a job at your work place, do you A. quit your job, B. make sure you always are around people that can keep you safe, C. go to the police to get a restraining order or D. leave for work as late as possible so that no one else could possibly be around to help you, allowing your abuser to easily confront you and threaten your safety. Such a stupid, unrealistic choice that pissed me off so bad and I think that was just a lazy writing moment honestly but it didn't turn out to be that big of a deal.
The acting is good despite a few awkward moments.
The music? I thought it was generally good. My favorite songs were Stubborn and There is You Amidst Raindrops.
I wouldn't rewatch this because of the one-sided relationship dynamic but it's definitely one of the better dramas I've watched.

Edit: I'm also concerned by the amount of girls saying that they need a man like Sang Yan because it encourages this idea that a man exists to serve you when men have their own interests, hobbies, and problems and you shouldn't need to depend on a woman for your own happiness and well being. For me, I want a man who is his own person, not a servant.

Read More

I guess...

I was okay with this relationship at times. I really did enjoy seeing some of the moments they had and I loved the overall atmosphere of this show with all the blue undertones, the fish tank, and the beginning few guitar strings of the "You Should Know" song. That song is a masterpiece and these things made the show much more watchable. But even if I was enjoying their relationship sometimes, I would have to remember every time he messed up.

When Flora started working at Luke's company, Luke was truly a piece of work. He tried to make her feel worthless and told her that she should give up and quit. And honestly, she should have quit. She shouldn't have to tolerate verbal abuse at her work just to prove herself. I also hated the power dynamic. She was just a young rookie and this powerful boss had already taken a liking to her. There was this huge imbalance and I was just thinking that if I was Lumi and found out about their relationship while she was still my student, I would literally throw up. It just feels sort of predatory. But I liked how Flora tried to make a name for herself on her own and didn't want to rely on Luke and that Luke didn't give her special treatment (even though he was harsher than he needed to be at times).

Nevertheless, this relationship became even more problematic when Flora was suspecting Luke of cheating on her with his childhood friend and decided to end it? I forgot if she ended it or was only about to. Anyway, Luke solves this by taking her to the hospital when she's sick and back to his apartment and while she tells her that she is serious about breaking up with him, Luke, a grown-ass man uses puppy eyes on her and says "are you sure you want to break up with me? really? 🥺" She doesn't give in quite yet so he takes her outside in the freezing cold snow while she is too weak to defend herself and tells her that he's going to leave her out there until she agrees to get back with him, all while has pneumonia by the way. And of course she agrees. Oh..but remember, "you don't have to be perfect to deserve love 🥰". I don't care. This is some psychotic behavior that shouldn't be excused that easily. While I wouldn't say he doesn't deserve love at all, he isn't ready for it and needs therapy badly.

In addition, Flora constantly felt like Luke never respected her and it's hard to say that she's wrong and just insecure. Now I don't want it to seem like I'm saying that Flora was some perfect angel. She wasn't. She created a dating app account for her best friend's sake without telling Luke, she reunited with her ex without telling Luke, decided to introduce Luke to her ex as her boss rather than her boyfriend, got upset when Luke "reunited with his ex", and right afterwards decided to talk to him about marriage. Overall, she sucked at communicating. Both of them did. As for her distancing herself from Luke in the relationship. They both seemed somewhat okay with it and it's never good to be openly dating your co-worker, especially your boss at your work place because then, people start making all these weird rumors and start questioning your achievements. And it would be weird to introduce your arrogant, conceited CEO boyfriend to your average friends. I can't imagine what they would even talk about.

Anyway, every time they got back together, it was just a lot of manipulation. When she went to the Northwest for her huge project, she and Luke reunited and Luke exaggerated his sickness so that he could stay where she was at and get her to feel bad for him and it worked. I was so annoyed. And when they finally had the big break up and she went to Harbin for a while, he stalked her and stayed outside her apartment in the freezing cold to get her attention. He also used LuKe (the dog) as an excuse to go to her apartment and get near her. And I hated how weak she was here and how easily she let herself be manipulated by him. She just let him invade her personal space and softly told him to get out. When they got back together, I all I could think was "whatever. I guess bro."

I didn't care much for the museum. All I could think about was how he even got pictures of her at those times. Like maybe he's more of a creep than we thought. I didn't hate the ending entirely, but it would've been so much cooler if she was finally strong enough to say no to him for once. I'm also suspicious on how long this marriage is going to stay healthy for before it turns to garbage because he still displayed toxic behavior even after all that time being away from each other. I'm also concerned for the young girls that see this and think "yeah I should give this guy with a horrible personality a chance because maybe he'll change for the better and finally learn from his mistakes". No one should be okay with a relationship like this ever. But I was impressed by how this drama managed to keep me interested, despite the weird relationship. I wasn't bored at all watching this which is mainly why I scored this drama so high.

Read More