Rachel

amazing romance, must watch

Honestly kind of crazy that this was released given how strict censorship can be for CDramas and this is just so unmistakably gay. I give the story 7/10 because I honestly thought the whole armory plot was kind of boring and I think the final 2 episodes turn unnecessarily tragic so I felt like the ending was fumbled, but WenZhou is EVERYTHING and I love their little family unit with Chengling, like those are his dads 🥹🥹🥹🥹. Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu have been through The Horrors™️and still remain kind and just... the way they are devoted to each other. I am so unwell if I think about them for too long. The character arcs are incredibly satisfying and moving, watching WKX and ZZS discover love and find things worth fighting for and rediscover their passion for being alive. Also Gong Jun is just so so so so so good as Wen Kexing like I am so obsessed with him, easily near the top of my favorite characters list.

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okay if you want to turn your brain off I guess

Xu Kai is really great in this and I adored Wang Lu (most of the time). Wang Wu, his shifu, is by far the most insufferable FL I've seen in a CDrama and the show likes to play her abusive behavior for laughs 🙄 Some of the humor was so good (I loved all the meta jokes and references to other popular media) and some of it was unbelievably horrendous (abuse played for laughs, contempt for fat people, contempt for people the writers deem "stupid"). And there is just sooooo much abuse apologia and attempts to retroactively defend abuse - ranging from Wang Wu's incessant mistreatment of Wang Lu and her beating him up to the point of breaking his bones being "for his own good" and to "help" him with his cultivation, a sex pest who has sexually assaulted multiple women being referred to as a good guy and befriending our heroes, and a man who murdered his children revealed to having done so to protect his citizens from a demonic entity... yeah, it's maddening.

My favorite character was Ling'er and I absolutely adored her plotline (for the most part) when she left Lingjian Mountain. Her and Boren 🫶. Also my favorite dynamic was Wang Lu and Hai Yunfan, but there is also A LOT of queerbaiting wrt their relationship and they're both shoved into awful romances with women. 😕

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absolutely must watch if you like wuxia or xianxia

I'm actually reading Legendary Siblings right now (a little over halfway through) and it's incredible how closely Handsome Siblings follows the novel and manages to expand upon it a lot as well (so far Hua Wuque honestly feels like a non-charater given the novel exclusively follows Xiaoyu'er). The first ~25% of the show is pretty slow and the first two episodes are borderline insufferable to get through as most of that time is devoted to the Ten Great Villains and the sisters of Yihua Palace, but I was immediately charmed by Xiaoyu'er when we meet him at the end of the second episode and I was even more intrigued when we meet Hua Wuque in episode three. It's a delightful journey watching the two of them change as they wander the jianghu and most of the characters they meet through their travels are very fun as well. Xiaoyu'er and Hua Wuque's dynamic is obviously the highlight of the show and there are no words to describe how psyched I was when they agreed to work together. I also loved Tie Xinlan soooooo much and her dynamics with both Xiaoyu'er and Hua Wuque were top tier. I also just think this is a really valuable watch if you like wuxia or xianxia because you will notice how Gu Long has influenced the genres.

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the only worthwhile adaptation of Beauty and the Beast

I decided to watch this because I really enjoyed Chen Zheyuan in Handsome Siblings and the idea of a werewolf romance was intriguing. I am so glad I did because it's so silly and cute and it's an interesting twist on Beauty and the Beast by throwing in the hidden identity trope (something I don't typically love, but it worked really well here). Now I'm not really a fan of the story of Beauty and the Beast now that I am an adult with critical thinking skills, given it's about a woman basically being imprisoned and teaching her captor how to be kind and gentle and then falling for him in the process, but there are a few things that make this adaptation work imo:
1) Kui Mulang kidnaps her because he needs something called the Holy Pearl to save the entirety of his clan, which Qi Pa (unknowingly) has. The point is repeatedly made that if the Holy Pearl only affected Kui Mulang and it wasn't needed for the health and safety of everyone else, he would not have kidnapped her. He understands and sympathizes with her desire to escape back home and is clearly racked with guilt about keeping her in the Beast Clan.
2) Kui Mulang acquiesces without hesitation to basically every request Qi Pa has other than him sending her home. He genuinely wants her to be comfortable and safe and enjoy her time in the Beast Clan and does so many things that are against the rules of the clan to try to make her happy.
3) Instead of Qi Pa having to teach Kui Mulang, he consults romance novels and books that give information on Daxia customs to try to win her affections.
4) Kui Mulang spends a solid half of the show endangering himself and nearly dying to protect Qi Pa.

I loved both Kui Mulang and Qi Pa pretty much immediately and by the end of the show they had both reached near the top of my list for favorite characters in CDramas. I love that the show allows Qi Pa to be angry and hurt and doesn't try to handwaive away her feelings because it wants us to prioritize Kui Mulang's feelings (something that a lot of shows do all over the world bc we live under patriarchy). I loved most of the side characters and the pairing of Liu Jun/Hongxiu was really cute too. Also I honestly liked the "beast" look, it's just unfortunately really underwhelming when you attach the word werewolf to it.

Anyway, I can't bring myself to give higher than an 8.5 bc at the start the romance is just sooooo messy and most of the background romances were super annoying and some of the plot developments are just ????????? But overall I loved this soooooo much and I can't stop thinking about Kui Mulang and Qi Pa, they really are everything once she uncovers the truth.

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hands down the best time travel romance

I am sooooo obsessed with this show you don't understand. Ye Zhen Zhen is so adorable and relatable - she's stubborn, determined, curious, kind-hearted, clumsy. Chen Che is the epitome of a softie with a hardened facade, and Ye Zhen Zhen easily tears his walls down. It's so heartwarming to watch Chen Che experience what a loving family is like and watch him soften more and more as he spends more time in 1989. The show also goes to some dark places I wasn't expecting and I think most of it is handled really well. Easily my biggest gripe with this show is that the male characters, excluding Chen Che and Li Jin Qin, are all very possessive and controlling of the women they like, which in some cases is played for laughs (yikes!) and in other cases is treated neutrally instead of them being entitled and threatening. But as frustrating as that aspect is, I still completely adored this show and definitely recommend it.

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abuse but frame it as an epic romance ✨

what if I were a genocidal tyrant who wanted to wipe out your clan and you were a naive and innocent girl who accidentally freed me from my prison and you endured my violence and rage bc you're a Good Woman™️and you dedicated yourself to rehabilitating me and loved and defended me and were willing to die for me and chose me over your people even though I was still planning to commit genocide on them👉🥺👈

EXCRUCIATING endurance test that I forced myself to undergo due to how popular this show is and my attempt to find the appeal. There are some kernels of interesting ideas here but the show is entirely too devoted to this abusive romance story and Dongfang Qingcang being rehabilitated through "the power of love" to actually explore any of them. Orchid is also infantilized to an insanely uncomfortable degree - she has baby voice and behaves like a literal toddler - which is another layer of discomfort to their romance, but honestly it's very easy for that objection to fade into the background after the first ~third of the show because DFQC is just so aggressive and cruel literally all the time. And then the fact that every time I see someone complaining about the romance it's because "Orchid is annoying"?????? Like we didn't sit through 20-something episodes of DFQC choking her, repeatedly threatening her (and people she cares about), sexually assaulting her (most of those kisses were literally not consensual!), just being generally angry and mean and yelling at her and calling her stupid.... Like, sure there are some moments they have in isolation that are nice, but then as soon as you think of the context of the previous episodes any "soft" moments they have become incredibly nauseating. This is literally one of the most blatantly misogynistic pieces of media I have ever seen and the audience reaction to it boggles my mind.

other notes:
- gorgeous costumes. I loathe DFQC but I can't lie, I am obsessed with literally every outfit he wore. his whole aesthetic was just *chefs kiss*
- not enough sword fights for a xianxia :(
- acting: at the start I was pretty impressed by Dylan Wang's performance but DFQC is just angry and screaming so much that it got really old. Like what is impressive about a dude raging out for 36 episodes? I don't think anyone in the cast was bad, but no one really stood out the way Dylan did and. again. his role got old. Those scenes in the first ~10 episodes or so where he was confused and/or irritated by experiencing Orchid's emotions after centuries of repressing his emotions were pretty funny (and basically the only humorous scenes that got a laugh from me) and tbh I think those were the scenes that showed off his talent the best too.
- music: probably a solid third of the soundtrack irritated me to no end. That horrid discordant music that kept playing during villain scenes literally activated my fight or flight response every time I heard it. There's another third of the soundtrack that I actually really liked, but the music felt like it rarely matched the tone of the scenes and that romantic ballad from the opening credits kept being used at the worst moments
- Changheng I love you I'll never stop loving you 💗💗

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the show's message: change yourself to be your rapist's ideal woman ^_^

Idk what to say about this one other than it's just 35 episodes of abuse apologia. There were a lot of ingredients that could have made something good (or at least fun) but the ideology of the show is just so regressive and misogynistic. So when Zhang Peng finds himself in Zhang Peng Peng's body, Qi Sheng responds coldly to him - we're clearly doing an enemies to lovers situation, it's fine that he doesn't like Zhang Peng Peng at the very start. (Also going to be referring to Zhang Peng Peng w she/her pronouns through the rest of this given that's how everyone else refers to her.) Qi Sheng is also currently having an affair with his brother's wife, Lady Jiang. I guess Qi Sheng is enchanted by Zhang Peng Peng's change in behavior because Lady Jiang starts to notice a difference in how he treats her and the show confirms this in dialogue as he agrees that he's started to develop feelings for Zhang Peng Peng, but honestly I didn't see anything to indicate that. But whatever, the narrative tells us over showing us and is a little heavy handed about it, fine. Lady Jiang is then worried that she's going to lose favor with Qi Sheng and there's a scene where they're playing soccer and Lady Jiang rips off her outer robes but she frames Zhang Peng Peng for the action and Qi Sheng believes Lady Jiang and PUBLICLY slaps Zhang Peng Peng in front of everyone. So.... bad turn of events but I thought the romance could maybe - MAYBE - still win me over. BUT THEN!!!!!! Qi Sheng sends assassins to kill Zhang Peng Peng. He seemingly has second thoughts when she escapes with his younger brother (who's in love with her) bc Qi Sheng chases after them and is like "she can't die," but... that doesn't change the fact that he sent assassins after her, what the f*ck? He also then berates her upon finding her with her dress all torn up bc she had been trying to save his younger brother since he was injured and sickly and then Qi Sheng kisses Zhang Peng Peng against her consent to like "mark his territory" and tell his brother to back off or whatever 🙄.

So I was already tired of Qi Sheng at this point but oh god it gets worse!!!! Qi Sheng and Zhang Peng Peng reach this cordial agreement where they clear the air about the assassination attempt, and there are like little moments to insinuate that she's falling for him and he has brief moments where he's like vaguely sweet. But then he finds out she's still friendly with his younger brother and Qi Sheng has an explosive meltdown where he THROWS A TABLE. Qi Sheng then starts being cold and aggressive to Zhang Peng Peng and invites Lady Jiang (who has been pushed out of the family at this point) to be a servant in his residence bc it's a stupid power play where Qi Sheng is hoping to make Zhang Peng Peng jealous. Zhang Peng Peng doesn't respond in the way he wants bc she's concerned he's going to kick her out of the position of Empress and she's trying to be a proper demure lady now. After a few episodes of this, Qi Sheng gets confirmation that Zhang Peng Peng and his younger brother are conspiring against him and Qi Sheng then gets super drunk and in that drunken rage he goes to Zhang Peng Peng's residence with his sword and screams about how he's about to kill her because "I've been nothing but nice to you" and "how dare you treat me like this" and when Zhang Peng Peng and Qi Sheng's servants both try to plead for Zhang Peng Peng's life, he raises his sword to kill them for daring to stop him!!!!!!! SO AGAIN. WHAT THE F*CK???????? Zhang Peng Peng tells the servants to leave bc she can't bear the idea of them facing harm to protect her and then she asks Qi Sheng to drop his sword, which he does, and he rapes her. The show tries to gaslight the audience into finding it steamy and we even see Zhang Peng Peng wake up the next morning with a huge smile on her face as she reminisces about it. But then the show admits it was rape bc Qi Sheng comes by and he's like "sorry I forced you last night" so...... the show is just straight up romanticizing rape.

After this, Qi Sheng acts detached when around Zhang Peng Peng and she basically becomes obsessed with trying to get him to show her affection and at one point she even tries to drug him with viagra to get him to have sex with her again... Like, I am appalled and astounded that this was written by two women. She completely alters her behavior - pretending to be stupid and helpless so Qi Sheng will be closer to her to either teach her how to do something or to do it for her. This nonsense continues for a few episodes before Qi Sheng has to leave to fight in a war. Qi Sheng's younger brother plans to strike at this point and kill him, with Zhang Peng Peng STILL plotting with him. As Qi Sheng is ahead of their schemes, he sends a letter back to the palace claiming that he has been poisoned and is near death as it's a test to see if Zhang Peng Peng will really choose him. Zhang Peng Peng is distraught by the news - EVEN THOUGH SHE WAS PART OF PLANNING THIS, LIKE MA'AM WHAT DID YOU THINK WAS GOING TO HAPPEN??????????????????? - and insists on making the trip to deliver the antidote herself. And then she's only mad for like 2 minutes after learning that this was him manipulating her. And then the remaining few episodes are all about how deeply in love they are and how they're willing to die for each other and I don't care I don't care I want them both dead at this point.

Is this the worst show I've seen? No, because I at least enjoyed some of the show when it wasn't about this absolutely godawful romance. But it's pretty atrocious and after having some fun in the first half, it became an excruciating watch in the second half. This show got pretty heavily censored due to current censorship regulations in China and... a broken clock is right twice a day, what can I say.

ALSO THE NINTH PRINCE DID NOTHING WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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nonsensical plot and uncomfortable age gap romances

So before anyone's like 'omg you're just a puritan for having a problem with the age gaps,' as long as the younger person is at least mid 20s, I'll accept pretty much any age gap. I have so many ships where character A is mid/late 20s and character B is immortal and has been alive for like at least a century. I am not inherently against age gaps. But it's about the execution in this case - one, I have no idea how big the age difference is between Shan and Ob-aun and there's a flashback of a 16 year old Shan and a clearly pre-pubescent Ob-aun to draw attention to this age gap; two, it feels like the audience is supposed to be into their dynamic specifically because of the age gap with Ob-aun being presented as naive, innocent, and inexperienced while Shan is clearly not these things and being the pursuer. It's very weird and uncomfortable and the constant thought of 'okay, but how big is their age gap' overshadows any moment that could be cute. Oh and there's also a side pairing of a literal teen with an adult who is somewhat of an authority figure for him so... that's pretty yikes.

As for the story... there are so many conflicts constantly being introduced and not a single one of them is truly resolved. Like the set up of the entire story is that Ob-aun is accused of plagiarizing Shan, but Shan isn't the one who makes that claim so why is legal action being threatened? And the plagiarism accusation doesn't even matter because it's basically ignored after the first episode. Also for a group of writers, these guys do not know how to write a story because they spend so much time being like "I don't know how to write this scene, can you do it for me?" like ??????????

It's really not worth the time, but if you're determined to watch it, it's at least a short show.

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immediate fave, absolutely adorable

Okay, firstly, this was sooooo funny and cute. There was more than one scene that made me laugh so hard I nearly had a coughing fit. It's so chaotic but it still manages to feel moderately realistic of three people who are trying polyamory for the first time. It feels very much like this show was made with the intent to educate people about the potential of polyamory given the first 7 episodes are mostly dedicated to the three of them figuring out how this dynamic works and then the remaining 4 are about them dealing with external concerns. There are some developments that I think could've used some more build-up, but even so I think this has become my favorite piece of media about polyamory (granted, there's not that much competition). It's also the first time I've seen polyam media broach the subject of three person marriage or the procedure for a three person legal partnership, so that was certainly an interesting aspect that I hadn't really considered before (and something that definitely deserves to be talked about).

I also really loved how the trio would communicate. No, they weren't always as forthcoming as they should've been (and that's understandable bc good communication is hard!), but whenever they were confronted by one (or both) of the other two, they'd express what was bothering them, and this would quickly lead to a new understanding and sometimes for new rules to be made. Each duo is cute, but it just never feels complete if someone is missing. Truly such good polyam rep.

Also Shinpei has huge golden retriever vibes. I loved how he was always so enthusiastic about trying new things and it was so cute how he immediately wanted to befriend Takuzo (when Mia only introduced them to try to make Shinpei jealous), and I loved that he's never nervous or hesitant to share affection with Takuzo once they slide into this polyam dynamic. AHHHH this little show made me so happy, I will definitely rewatch soon.

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the premise of the show is rape

Even the reviews that skew more negative don't seem to realize that the whole entire premise hinges on rape and I'm irritated about it. The summary that Netflix gave back when I tried to watch it was basically just a one night stands that leads to an accidental pregnancy between two people of very different social statuses. Which I mean... that's not inaccurate, but it's leaving a lot out. As the MDL summary says, it's two couples on a cruise ship, the woman from couple A is feeling unwell and accidentally finds herself in couple B's room as she tries to sleep. The man from couple B gets really drunk and comes to his room. They both think the other person is their partner bc they're in the dark and he's whispering so she can't really hear his voice. He then starts pushing for sex, which she's not interested in -- which means he should stop! -- but after some pleading she eventually gives in. Gross.

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