"I. Visuals and Production: Fake, Overly Smooth, and Awkward - Excessive Filtering and Skin Smoothing: Skin smoothing extends to AI-modeled faces, completely erasing skin texture; close-ups are oily and distorted, obscuring the atmosphere of a chaotic world. - Fake Set Design and Props: Snow scenes resemble sand and scraps of paper; the butcher shop looks like a showroom; pigs look like pet pigs; the female lead, a butcher, has exquisite makeup and brand-new, unused clothing, lacking any sense of everyday life. - Deliberate Camera Work: Numerous freeze-frames and slow-motion shots pile up, like shooting a music video and cosplay, prioritizing visuals over narrative. - Face Swap Failure: The face swap for the character Song Yan is too obvious, creating a disjointed and immersive viewing experience. - Incongruous OST: JJ Lin's theme song is too technically advanced and modern, completely clashing with the character's down-to-earth personality. II. Acting and Character Design: Wooden, Superficial, and Unrealistic - Zhang Linghe (Xie Zheng): Criticized for his dull eyes, monotonous dialogue, stiff acting, and contrived sickly demeanor, resembling a "wooden beauty" throughout. - Tian Xiwei (Fan Changyu): Her sweet girl charm is hard to suppress, her modern feel is too strong, and she lacks the roughness and wildness of a butcher, making the contrast unconvincing. - Distracting voice acting: The male lead's voice doesn't match his face, creating a disconnect in emotion. - Forced CP chemistry: The romance is stiff, lacks development, and feels artificially sweet, making it difficult to empathize. III. Plot and Pace: Flat, Watery, Shallow - Slow pacing: The first 5 episodes are filled with mundane family dramas and daily routines, the main plot progresses slowly, and slow-motion shots are so numerous they resemble a PowerPoint presentation; even at 2x speed, it's too slow. - Playful political intrigue: The revenge plot involving the massacre of a family is clichรฉd, and the political intrigue becomes a backdrop for the romance, with simple logic and a small scope. - Obvious padding: The supporting characters' scenes are stiff, the subplots are redundant, and there's little effective plot. - Severely formulaic: Fake marriage, revenge, tragic love, happy endingโthe ancient romance template is copied verbatim, lacking originality. "Zhu Yu" boasts a strong dual-character setting and good looks, but its production is perfunctory, the acting is weak, the plot is formulaic, and the pacing is poor, making it a typical mass-produced ancient romance drama."
Sorry but I think then you are not a cut for political drama and you don't understand that complex plot.. hence…
It is not being "cut out for political drama" it's the show itself. It can barely explain the court dramas without trying to add other stuff in it. There is a bunch of C-dramas where the whole plot revolves around political themes, for example: Legend of the Female General, Legend of Zang Hai, and my personal favorite Story of Kunning Palace (which LITERALLY explains the political plot SO good).
It all comes down to the show itself, and like OP said "First half is great, second half not as great." All because the plot went downhill when they started explaining the court drama.
I think rating should increase till 9.5 ... cause it deserves that truly... don't forget to rate after watching…
I really think so too, but the way this plot is going is soooo confusing. I am betting it might go down a little bit.
I say this because of how the plot is going. Way too fast, you can barely understand QM's past clearly and we only have like less than 8 eps left and viewers aren't sure of certain things yet. So overall...idk
Even after s2 (prequel of only friends) started airing, I am still hating on Top and Mew's relationship. I NEVER got why they actually got back together. And while I am still on this topic, I found it so hypocritical Mew forgave Top but not Boston. Not saying he should have forgiven Boston (even though I love Boston down to earth, he was dead wrong for what he did.) But why forgive your cheating boyfriend and not forgive your messy friend when they were BOTH in the wrong? It was sooo weird to me.
But in all honesty, I love how Boston kinda got in the middle, bcz TRUST I never liked Top from the start. I hate guys who always eye the "innocent" kind.
Okay so wait I am confused with something. I saw some novel spoiler that was like oh Qi Min is the future emperor. Is that wrong? From the novel, and if it right, is it stated it will also be added to the show? From the way things are looking, I don't think Qi Min is getting that throne...?? I am not sure
Also why does he want to kill his child so much? The pacing of this show is so random, I can barely keep up. Why doesn't he want to have an heir??
sooo based on these comments...i shouldn't worry about too much angst? bcz the moment that woman WALKED INTO THE WEDDING i dropped like my heart is too weak for these two ๐ญ๐ญ
WHEN I TELL YOU THE MOMENT I SAW BOSTON PULL UP AT TUA'S HOUSE. I PAUSED MY SCREEN AND JUST GOT OFF THE APP AND TOOK LIKE A 20 MINUTES OF SILENCE. As a boston lover (bcz i love messy) he needs to stop playing rn ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ
Also I loved Boston in s1 MAINLY bcz i hated Top and i wanted his relationship w Mew to fail MISERABLY (don't jump me) and boston was so messy BUT I AM SACRED FOR ARNOLD AND TUA. I ACTUALLY LOVE THEM ๐ญ๐ญ BOSTON CAN'T RUIN THIS BROO
็ๆๅฝไฝ่ ๆๆ๏ผไปปไฝๅฝขๅผ่ฝฌ่ฝฝ่ฏท่็ณปไฝ่ ใ
ไฝ่ ๏ผๆ่ดข็้ฒๅฑๅฎ๏ผๆฅ่ช่ฑ็ฃ๏ผ
ๆฅๆบ๏ผhttps://movie.douban.com/review/17492138/
"I. Visuals and Production: Fake, Overly Smooth, and Awkward - Excessive Filtering and Skin Smoothing: Skin smoothing extends to AI-modeled faces, completely erasing skin texture; close-ups are oily and distorted, obscuring the atmosphere of a chaotic world. - Fake Set Design and Props: Snow scenes resemble sand and scraps of paper; the butcher shop looks like a showroom; pigs look like pet pigs; the female lead, a butcher, has exquisite makeup and brand-new, unused clothing, lacking any sense of everyday life. - Deliberate Camera Work: Numerous freeze-frames and slow-motion shots pile up, like shooting a music video and cosplay, prioritizing visuals over narrative. - Face Swap Failure: The face swap for the character Song Yan is too obvious, creating a disjointed and immersive viewing experience. - Incongruous OST: JJ Lin's theme song is too technically advanced and modern, completely clashing with the character's down-to-earth personality. II. Acting and Character Design: Wooden, Superficial, and Unrealistic - Zhang Linghe (Xie Zheng): Criticized for his dull eyes, monotonous dialogue, stiff acting, and contrived sickly demeanor, resembling a "wooden beauty" throughout. - Tian Xiwei (Fan Changyu): Her sweet girl charm is hard to suppress, her modern feel is too strong, and she lacks the roughness and wildness of a butcher, making the contrast unconvincing. - Distracting voice acting: The male lead's voice doesn't match his face, creating a disconnect in emotion. - Forced CP chemistry: The romance is stiff, lacks development, and feels artificially sweet, making it difficult to empathize. III. Plot and Pace: Flat, Watery, Shallow - Slow pacing: The first 5 episodes are filled with mundane family dramas and daily routines, the main plot progresses slowly, and slow-motion shots are so numerous they resemble a PowerPoint presentation; even at 2x speed, it's too slow. - Playful political intrigue: The revenge plot involving the massacre of a family is clichรฉd, and the political intrigue becomes a backdrop for the romance, with simple logic and a small scope. - Obvious padding: The supporting characters' scenes are stiff, the subplots are redundant, and there's little effective plot. - Severely formulaic: Fake marriage, revenge, tragic love, happy endingโthe ancient romance template is copied verbatim, lacking originality. "Zhu Yu" boasts a strong dual-character setting and good looks, but its production is perfunctory, the acting is weak, the plot is formulaic, and the pacing is poor, making it a typical mass-produced ancient romance drama."
OH MY GOD??? ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ
It all comes down to the show itself, and like OP said "First half is great, second half not as great." All because the plot went downhill when they started explaining the court drama.
I say this because of how the plot is going. Way too fast, you can barely understand QM's past clearly and we only have like less than 8 eps left and viewers aren't sure of certain things yet. So overall...idk
But in all honesty, I love how Boston kinda got in the middle, bcz TRUST I never liked Top from the start. I hate guys who always eye the "innocent" kind.
Also why does he want to kill his child so much? The pacing of this show is so random, I can barely keep up. Why doesn't he want to have an heir??
https://www.tumblr.com/littlevillagefish/810572111233138688/pursuit-of-jade-text-posts?source=share
I LOVEE TUMBLRR
Also I loved Boston in s1 MAINLY bcz i hated Top and i wanted his relationship w Mew to fail MISERABLY (don't jump me) and boston was so messy BUT I AM SACRED FOR ARNOLD AND TUA. I ACTUALLY LOVE THEM ๐ญ๐ญ BOSTON CAN'T RUIN THIS BROO