cocoa2blossom

If I had known beforehand that almost every episode would have it, I likely wouldn't have watched it, but I had no way of knowing that. The one episode that wasn't like that also gave me hope. All I can really do is warn others so that they don't accidentally watch it without knowing what to expect. Besides, I stick by what I and Its Liane said, that the sheer amount of rape was unnecessary and honestly lazy. There were four episodes and they should have each been unique stories and crimes, but I don't feel like that's what I got. But meh, to each their own, I mainly only posted my original comment, once again, as a warning to others.

Same, it was really disappointing, especially since the premise was fairly interesting.

This made me...incredibly uncomfortable. Why is it that when there's violence towards women it always has to involve r*pe? (Seriously, three of the four episodes involved it) Not to mention it was overly explicit. I'm fragile and it was kind of traumatizing to watch. I will say the acting was overall good though and watching a favorite actor play a psychopath is always fun. Oddly though Tori didn't play a very big role in this, maybe because this acts as more of a prologue to the movie and only introduces his character? The episodes mainly showed what terrible things happened that made the star of that episode choose to request another's death, and of course, as these things usually go, there tend to be misunderstandings.

Agreed

I don't know how or what to rate it >-<'

What happens when you put Kamen Rider and Super Sentai actors together? Something very strange....JK, that's unrelated. However, Takahashi Fumiya super reminds me of Kamiki Ryunosuke, looks and acting style.

You know it's going to be a good dystopian movie/show when they throw Imagine Dragons into the mix

I really like Japanese ones. The two I mentioned are both kind of dramatic in Japanese style, but have really good messages they want to get across. In Gakkou no Kaidan the main girl has really nice character development. 3 Nen A Gumi is really good, but if you're not used to the style I would suggest watching the first couple of episodes first, it gets better (imo) promise! I liked it straight from the crazy beginning though XD

Happy Holidays and stay safe!!

Overall I liked this drama, but it had some flaws. I really liked WWX as a character, but there were some things I didn't like that mainly pertained to his powers I guess? Like that thing he did in the first episode where he froze people, he only did it there and never again so it seemed kind of odd. I also wasn't a big fan of the black smoke, though I can't really explain why, hmm. I read the book after and know he controls corpses and I'm assuming censors wouldn't allow that here, and I guess they did the best they could as I can't think of something else they could have done instead; I just personally wasn't a big fan of it. Maybe they could have just had him control people with his flute? Or maybe that wouldn't be allowed either, hmm, not sure. They also made him fairly weak when he was in bad mode sometimes, even though he was supposed to be over-powered. He was only supposed to become weak/frail once he was revived in the weaker body of MXY. It just seemed to me what he could do and how strong he was wasn't very consistent. LZ on the other hand seemed to be fairly consistent. (I'd like to note despite the flaws in his writing, WWX is still my favorite, he's just so happy)

I also didn't like the beginning CGI with the battle, with the tiger seal flying around, and particularly the cut off hand. It just felt very clunky.

Also found the ghost arm thing turning into a sword to be kind of weird, instead of just making it a possessed sword to begin with and going the route of whoever touches it loses control and gets their life force sucked out or something. I feel like a lot of the spots I felt were disjointed and didn't make sense were areas where they originally tried to stay true to the book, but weren't able to. Not entirely their fault, but it would have been nice if it was polished up a little bit more.

The acting of both Yi Bo and Xiao Zhan wasn't all that great in the beginning(still good, they were just awkward in some scenes), mainly in the Cloud Recesses part when WWX is visiting as a student. However, one of my favorite things in this drama was actually being able to see the actors grow throughout, I felt like they got so much better as time went on and they filmed more and it felt really special to see them grow on-screen.

Something else I liked is that, upon reading the book, I realized just how hard the writers worked to get the essence of the book across, even though they were bogged down by censors. Not only that, they also improved upon the book to the point I'm glad I watched the drama first, because the drama really fleshed out the side characters and made them feel important whereas the book barely talks about anyone but the mains. If I had read the book first, I doubt I would have felt much by way of what happens to the Wen siblings and other things, because the book simply didn't talk about them enough to know them.

Honestly I probably would have rated this an 8 or 8.5 from the first 1/3 or maybe even the first 1/2, but after seeing the acting get better and other things become more interesting in the later half, I bumped it up to a 9. In the end, this is just my opinion, if others don't agree, no worries, after all, we all have one, I just decided to bite the bullet and share mine.

I want to post my opinion of this drama here in case future watchers are interested in what I think, please don't attack me :)

I was originally going to post this as is, but realized some things might be considered spoilers even though I mainly only mention scenes in the first episode, so I'm going to post it below instead so I can mark it as a spoiler.

Thank you for the recommendations, I'll look into them! I think it'd be nice to see Darren Wang in something else, something happier, the poor guy had grump face in this one practically the whole time. Xiao Zhan on the other hand got to be fun and serious, but they're both good actors so I'd like to see more of them.

I suddenly thought of a few more myself if you haven't seen them yet, WuXin The Monster Killer (fairly funny, and rather odd XD the ending might not please you though) and Your Highness (from 2017, this one is also fairly funny, but I've yet to finish it myself so...be warned, I have no idea how it goes). I do believe the characters in Arsenal Military Academy were also good? But it's been a bit since I watched it so not sure, but I did really like the story. I think Love Me if You Dare is also good...As you can see, I tend to like things that aren't in modern day, though honestly I like pretty much everything. Though I think my favorites tend to be more serious ones like Nirvana or Longest Day in Chang'an. I'm not sure what you're interested in genre-wise, but if you want to explore a bit I also really like the Korean dramas [The Guest], [MAD DOG], and [Rebel: Thief Who Stole the People]; Japanese dramas [3 Nen A Gumi: Ima kara Mina-san wa, Hitojichi Desu] and [Gakkou no Kaidan]. Mars is pretty good too (the Taiwanese one, not the Japanese one). Ah, editing this in, but I should probably mention Mars is about two people with PTSD that meet and heal together, it has suicide and rape, and the rape flashes were particularly hard for me to watch so people should keep that in mind before starting it.

I'm going to stop there, I think I'm getting a little over-excited haha. I've had so many I've watched over the years, that when I find a chance to recommend some I tend to go overboard. Anyway, I wish you luck on your drama journey once you get back to it, and if you decide to watch anything I've mentioned I hope you like it. I'll look into the ones you mentioned to me and with Lilly1008. :D

I've heard a lot of people mention Princess Agents, but since you say the FL is strong that makes me want to watch it as they're hard to find. Thanks for the recommendation! I wish I could reciprocate, but as you know already, strong FLs are hard to find... You might want to try Ancient Detective if you ever get back in the mood for cdramas, it's by no means a perfect show but the women were pretty cool as far as things go. You probably didn't mean for me to respond, sorry about that. Hope you have a nice rest of your day, bye :)

I actually agree with you, while also liking this drama. In my opinion, the whole point of the drama is to show a toxic, unhealthy relationship and that it doesn't do anyone any good to get stuck in obsession for someone. Considering how things get consistently worse for the characters as the show progresses, and even the ending, I feel like the writer wanted that to be seen. And of course I wouldn't enjoy watching shows if they all had characters like this, I can only handle so much dysfunctionality lol, but I was fine watching this one, must have been in the mood for it. I don't think many people will classify this as "the best romance" or how perfect they are for each other and can objectively see they're harming each other more than making one another happy.(probably helps I'm not interested in romance so don't get invested in their relationship) They also don't grow much, if at all, they both continue their bad behaviors. I found it much more interesting from ep 30 on. I don't really like the characters, but I found them interesting to watch.

So I liked it because of the acting(ignoring the "children" episodes in the beginning), the music, the general tone, the fighting scenes, and how it very nicely showcases a toxic relationship and the consequences of it. Unpopular opinion, I actually found the ending prefect for what kind of show this is and the precedent it set.

On a side note, I much prefer the female characters in Nirvana in Fire and Ancient Detective. I find that a lot of times shows will make females be "strong" by being rude, arrogant, and violent and I hate that. That just makes them immature, and hitting the men doesn't make them strong. Sorry, unrelated rant... Anyway, I'd really like to see more strong, well-written FLs take over the majority of dramas.

Thank you for sharing your views on this show, I think you made important points, and I hope you find something you'll enjoy more!

The opening song very much so appeals to me (I'm also enjoying this season just fine, but I'm only on episode 7 so we shall see I guess)

Hm, it's hard for me to get my thoughts across, but let me try.

So this is a detective story where instead of a bunch of unrelated cases to solve with an overarching plot/case that comes into play at the end, it has just the one main case that needs to be solved. It has multiple deaths that need to be investigated, but it's still all for the same case, and as you've said, it's completely resolved. So for me, season two, if it follows how they did the first one, would have a new case to solve with a new cast of characters and bad guys while keeping that tag-along that says he's the eldest Song to give the main cast more conflict.

The reason I see potential for it being more interesting is because if they make it, it looks like the other personality would be the one in control and I personally found his character very fun to watch. They can also talk about his past a little more as they were fairly vague with it. And considering he doesn't seem to have assimilated the other personality yet, there's still some things he hasn't resolved with himself so it would be nice to have the show end with him assimilating.

Also, for the first season, I didn't like how outlandish the cases were, which gives it potential to grow and have better, more rounded cases in a second season.

All in all, I personally would like to see another season. I won't be super upset if they don't make one, but I'd be happy if they did as long as they develop the story better.

As a side note, it would be appreciated if in future (and maybe you can edit it out?) you didn't spoil other shows on pages that aren't theirs because I wasn't expecting to find out the endings of those shows as I've yet to watch them, and I'm sure others wouldn't be too happy either, so please try and be more careful in the future :)

No, I agree with you, I was interested in his inconsistency throughout. What I particularly liked with that scene was MZX though and even with her hate she started to notice things and you can see the wheels turning. I feel like deep down she knows he's not how he acts, but all the hurt is (understandably) trapping her and not letting her see it for what it is, unlike Ji Chong that realizes pretty quickly. As for the sexual assault, that was indeed what it was as you take it from the victim's view, not his. BUT, I don't dislike him for it because I know that wasn't his intent and he never would have gone further than he did because the goal was to make her hate him but not to harm her to that degree. End goal is to make her stronger, not break her. And he definitely gets close to going over the line, but for me he doesn't actually cross it. If she had decided to go along with it he would have stopped as sex was not the goal and he never even thought about it. Hating him worked on many of the viewers, but not her seeing as after he stops and tells her to leave, she behaves in the exact same way that made him angry in the first place and tries to please him(really the poor girl is just confused). I don't like what he does, but it does align with his character and MZX really is being rather weak though that aligns with her character. I feel like she has a lot of personality fluctuations, so I do like seeing her get stronger later on while staying kind. They both, actually all the characters, have really interesting personalities/mental characteristics, I think the writer did a good job.

Regardless of her age and her intent, objectively I feel like it directly affected his actions later, which is why I said I only partially blame her(not hate her or anything, I just see it as related to how he deals with things now). People's actions affect others in ways that they don't realize and while she didn't want to hurt him and didn't realize what long term affects it might cause, it still affected him anyway. Maybe if she was older she wouldn't have done it that way, but I doubt it as it's a common theme with dramas across the board. Anyway, this is just my observation on his psychological development, if you don't agree no worries :)

And can I just mention, I think it's episode 37, that episode hurt so good...when he's decided to die, and all those arrows come for him but he just lovingly smiles. Then she comes down to kill him personally but gets hurt in the process and he goes into super protective wolf mode, but she just had to stab him anyway. I also really enjoy when they're stuck together trying to safely escape after leaving the monk and all his actions conflict with his words. He's being super caring while also being a complete jerk verbally and MZX starts to notice that inconsistency. Also, I found him especially cute after the battle and his hair got knocked down? All the way walking down the mountain with her I felt he was particularly cute,(as opposed to hot I guess is the word to be used) he looked softer and more vulnerable. I'm assuming it was the hair being different, but I liked it. I liked seeing a contrast to his more violent and cold animal side. It's really interesting how such a small change can change so much, in my opinion of course.

Okay, after having finished it I can see where the wolf bits are, and wow is he strong. I actually think there are multiple spots where originally he looked partially transformed using cgi, such as when he's in jail after being whipped and he suddenly snaps, but they ended up getting rid of any embellishments in order to let the scene pass censors. There are also other spots such as when he snaps in the cabin after rescuing MZX from the battlefield. I say this because I know at least the jail scene originally had it based on the trailer and opening song. So in other words I'm not happy, but I'm satisfied because I can still feel it being there.

Wolfie, why do you have to make things so difficult for yourself? I partially blame MZX for him thinking it's okay to hurt people to protect them, because that's what she taught him in the very beginning. Of course being raised and brainwashed by the king didn't help, but I feel like if from the beginning she had been honest with him and told him about the danger and that he needed to hide while she figured out who really killed the guy, rather than saying all those cruel things to him to get him to leave(which didn't work anyway) not only would he have most likely not misunderstood her later, but he would have had that positive communication as a base for future conflict. The takeaway? Be honest with people you care about and come up with a solution together instead of self-sacrifice and hurting one another.