crayrules

What A Waste of Yang Yang!

Uggghhhhh!!! I was so disappointed! 8 episodes in and I still couldn't like the FL especially when she acted like a high schooler chasing after her crush. Also, I'm really not a fan of how the camera did all this slow zoom-in and out panning on the actors' faces or when panning in on a room. It seemed a bit amateurish. What was with the shower ending scene after the first episode? So out of place and unnecessary. Both of them staring off into nothing in their own shower was so, I dunno, useless? It's like they threw that in randomly to draw in the audience. I almost laughed.

All the slow-mo gazes were getting so tiresome. While I'm a big fan of Yang Yang and his acting, as he can pull off any role, I hope that in the future he chooses better scripts that portray a stronger female lead. This drama seems so off balance because of the weak FL's character. I'm not sure if it's the actress and her acting or her portrayal of the FL, but whatever it is, her chemistry with Yang Yang was flat, and the dialogue so bland and tonal. I struggled through this and I honestly wish I hadn't. I gave up after I found myself fast-forwarding.

They had all these so-called dramatic scenes but really, it was a bit over-the-top and ridiculous:
-FL freaking out when her car was getting filled with water but then here comes the ML wading in it, waist high, to come and save her. OMG. It looked so bad.
-The ML running out of a cloud of black and grey smoke with a child in his arms in sloooo-moooo, as the FL stares after him even though she had just finished performing CPR on a patient... seriously? What doctor would shoot lovey-dovey eyes in a situation like that?
-Every time the ML went to the hospital, the FL just happens to be the doctor and even when she had to administer a needle in his butt, apparently there was no privacy because people just walked in through the door.
-The running with the medical antidote like it was some kind of donor transport.
-So many bad hospital scenes and how many times was the FL the doctor who was sent to the site where the firefighters were?

Also, I really didn't like where the storyline was heading. After you find out why ML's mother left and how his father died, why on earth would ML want back his ex who left him similarly? It made ZERO sense. He was obviously traumatized by his past and yet he still pined after someone who really didn't deserve him. And let's not talk about how the FL wanted to work to find her "independence" and not rely on her rich parents, meanwhile living in the fancy apartment her parents got for her. Yeah, right. As a doctor, y'all telling me she couldn't find a place of her own to rent? Sheesh.

Anyways, all this just got me rolling my eyes and I dropped it. While I am a fan of Yang Yang, that doesn't mean I can't dislike dramas that he's in. I don't blame him but in this case, the writing, the actress who played the FL, and the production overall. If it wasn't for Yang Yang, I probably would've rated this lower.

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I Can't Believe I'm Giving This a 10!!! Loved It!!

I started watching this because I really like Lu Yu Xiao in Perfect Match but didn't watch it until much later after it aired. I watched and dropped Hou Ming Hao's "Back From The Brink" because I couldn't stand watching the FL. I'll be honest when I say that it's very hard for me to finish watching some cdramas through to the end because I feel that a lot of times, it gets either too draggy or rushed through the final last few chapters. Not expecting much from this drama, I started watching with no expectations but was so surprised by how much I enjoyed it! I was so happy and satisfied with it!

I felt that Lu Yun Xiao and Hou Ming Hao had the perfect chemistry together! Their angsty and tearful moments were always so well acted and timed in sync! I really liked the pacing of the story. Despite that the FL constantly lies and hides the truth, her actions always betray her. She sacrifices herself so many times to save him despite even the dangers and torture she faces. She constantly risks her own health to save him. Even though she says she just doing it to get the antidote, as a viewer, you know that deep down, she's fallen for him. While her goal was always to save herself first by trying to get the Golden Millet Dream, she keeps lying because she didn't want him to have to go against his master's dying wish in order to save her. So she would rather steal and continue to lie to him so he doesn't have to make that painful decision. She's been hiding herself all her life so it becomes second nature for her to hide the truth from others, even at the cost of her love for the ML. She never confesses back to him because she's still at death's door the entire time.While the ML exposes his feelings earlier, he knows that she loves him. Even when true purpose of her being with him is exposed, he can't let her go and still watches after her. But when the truth is finally revealed, the relief of the ML is evident.

I did have a few gripes with some things in the drama. I wished that they showed the FL's Warrior Goddess side more often. It would've of been interesting if she had shown her fighting prowess by 'accident' and then the ML would question it. But you never really get to see that side of her at all. When she's finally suited up, she doesn't really have any real fighting scenes. lt seems like she got rescued a lot but at the same time, she also rescued the ML so that balanced out. I wished also that when the ML finally confronts her, it would've been nice for them to have a whole uninterrrupted scene of them being truthful to each other. Instead, we have a young girl playing the demon Zhulong interrupting their truth revealing moment. Kind of ruined it IMO. Also, the main 'second' villain was so-so at the end. He was good for being that obsessive guy but turning into a main villain, he really wasn't suited for the part.

I really enjoyed the leads' chemistry and their kissing scenes were perfectly steamy without being too cringey! Just perfect enough! I felt that both Hou Ming Hao and Lu Yu Xiao did a perfect job in this drama and were so very well matched! I'd love to see them in another drama again together! While the ending could've been a bit better, I was left happy and satisfied with the drama as a whole.

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The Art of Walking In Slow Motion and Staring Into The Camera

I'm keeping my review short as I haven't finished watching this yet and I feel like it's getting a bit repetitive at the 30 episode mark. But I will say that I'm getting tired of the constant slow motion walking scenes. Almost every single character gets a slow motion cat walk, even the servants, and especially the ML, Duke Su gets one almost every time. Then there's the repetitive looks into the camera as if the characters are staring at each other. And then the slow mo walk and then the look at each other and then into the camera, and then the slow mo walk...

The storyline started off great but like I mentioned before, it's now feeling repetitive. By 30 episodes in, I was hoping to see more development on the relationship between the two leads but now there are less than 8 episodes for me to watch and nothing solid between these two yet. Just a lot of flirting with word play. The villains get skinship but the main leads... on ep 34 they censor the kiss? Wtf?

I'll update my review if I manage to finish this.

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REPETITIVE... WASH,.RINSE, AND REPEAT

This show started off strong but I started to find the storyline a bit repetitive by episode 6.

So reading about the details of what this show is supposed to be about the Uncle, Joon Hyuk taking care of his sister and nephew in "hiding" but right up to episode 7, we deal with Uncle and family vs. the villains the "Momvelies". Basically a bunch of rich moms who own their own apartment units vs the renters like the Uncle's sister. So there's a war that goes back and forth between the rich mom group and the Uncle and family and of course, their young kids also hate each other and the young, rich kids are the typical bullies.

Now there's only so much I can watch with the dumb mom group being manipulative and a bunch of liars and the typical bullying and even when the Uncle gets the upper hand, somehow his side is either begging for forgiveness or his solution is to get the mom group to give back what they took away without really suffering any consequences for their lies and deceit. It's all too repetitive.

Now about the Uncle, of course, as he trying to make a comeback, something happens to derail his plans, EACH. AND. EVERY. TIME. On repeat...

After the Momvelies, finally comes the abusive, rich grandmother who plays the "new" villain. Of course, it's the same typical storyline of evil, rich in-laws thwarting and threatening everyone's happiness. Same ol', same ol'.

I'm a huge fan of Oh Jung Se, but I have yet to see how this show will tackle and focus on the Uncle finally perhaps making a serious comeback and to see whether or not this show will seriously address domestic violence and physical abuse.

(watched ep 10 as of writing)

A few months later... still haven't gone back to finish watching this after all.

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Too Confusing and Out of Place

I couldn't keep watching this as the pacing, the dialogue/writing, the music, and the acting felt misplaced.

While I lasted only 7 episodes out of 30, there were just too many things that confused me enough not to be able to watch any further.

I'm not sure how much they were trying to "immerse" the viewers in this period piece but I felt like some of the bass music in the background was so out of place for its timeline setting. A lot of the time, the music just didn't fit. There was so much bass pumping out in the background, I was practically expecting some kind of dance to break out all of a sudden.

Other things that minutely bothered me were things like the storyline and plot. They would add these stupid clichés at the most inappropriate times. For example, the FL gets poisoned and of course, she acts all funny due to the "hallucinogens" in the poison which leads her to kiss the ML. But then she's later so sick that she's near death. One minute we're supposed to find it funny and "cute" and then they expect the audience to feel the gravity of her almost dying? I was just scratching my head. There was another scene where she fights off 4 assassins, gets a cut on her leg, and just when you think she's done for, some mysterious old man comes with a stick to beat them off and then disappears. Then she goes home limping and her father is barely enraged or concerned, so it downplays the seriousness of what almost happened. She also brags about it in class. Every time they have a serious scene, there's something that just makes a joke of it almost.

Another thing is Zhao Lusi... don't get me wrong, I like her and all but I think she's falling into the small kind of roles over and over again. I'm getting tired of her doing the same kind of cliché acting... her slo-mo looking at the male lead, falling into his lap, overly smiling, and let's not talk about her fake laughs. It was so bad here. Then every time they showed a close-up of her, I was just so distracted by her brown-highlighted hair that I felt like I was watching a very modern actress acting in a period timepiece. I was like, "Wow, they had brown highlights back then..."

No matter what period it was in, they can't fool some of us who know it's really about a teacher and a student falling in love. The long title really had nothing to do with her being the first female to enter an Imperial College. 7 episodes were enough for me.

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