uchiha

like most chinese BL, this was a miss for me and i will obviously explain why. after i got through the cringe of the first episode, i realized this was going to be a work of just anticipating the lead's romance, for my watch experience. this show had the most production errors i have seen in any BL so far. the thing with apocalyptic shows is that the budget has to be reflective of the scope that becomes showcasing a zombie world. i am a bit confused on what the budget was because despite the AI usage, there was clearly enough budget to hire stuntmen unless they are also grossly underpaid in china as well?

so china and other asian countries have seemingly fully embraced generative AI and enough to use it to completely supplement creativity. unlike in nour [a thai BL], this one uses AI that is disturbingly obvious and disrupting. the opening theme visually and musically is generated. almost the entire soundtrack is generated. random overview scenes were generated. i came into watching this knowing that the soundtrack had AI music but i had no idea nearly every song is not human made. i also had no idea that there was AI usage tracked all throughout either. it is uber unfortunate because this show had the best placed and produced OST i have heard, at this point in time. these songs could have simply been recording by the leads or any other professionals. it eats at me to know that i thoroughly enjoyed the songs "made" for this show and i am not able to listen to any of them due to my ethics.

to be honest, i was generous with my rating. the suggested rating given to me is less than a five. that, however, it feels wrong. i can tell there was intention in making this but the execution was less than mediocre. i am not compelled to believe the first zombie BL was real, unfortunately. i continued with consuming this entirely for linzai + aleh & aleh's display of anti-personnel tactics - that is it. the reasons i have for considering this to be less than mediocre are long and include: the obvious low budget, the fraudulent rendering of first aid, unrealistic zombie bites, linzai "changing a lightbulb" with a flathead screwdriver in hand by holding a lid, camera shakes, fake kissing sounds, slow and convenient zombies, a mattress landing pad forgotten in final production, obvious fake edits and green screens, AI scenes, the zombies being oddly sapient, inconsistent microphone qualities, a fiasco of a blip with aleh pulling out the transfusion feed + a bandage to appear, disappear, and then reappear again. this is not even all of the observations i noted. clearly, it is an industry standard not to care about the intricacies of filming.

to backtrack to the music, the relationship break invoked the most emotion and feeling in me because of the soundtrack used. it was perfectly timed and played in symmetry with the dialogue. i rewinded this part about six times. i think this scene is the best in the entire body of work, so much that i will seek it out externally. the song used is apparently the lead's theme song and i have found it but the apprehension is strong to even listen to a source that will not support its creation; that is how good this song is.

to mention another aspect of the breakup, linzai absolutely pissed me off. his reasoning for being cruel to aleh was completely illogical. linzai was meaner to aleh then compared to after his kidnapping which is ? his apology to aleh was less than adequate which broke immersion, for me. then, he physically harmed aleh after what happened to his brother which was a choice; maybe understandable to some but questionable to me. linzai pushing aleh away in the way he did seemed like bad writing.

the acting on chen minghao's and lu lu's part really sold me. i think they both were the breakouts in this. everyone else was fine or corny but worked out given the budget. the intimacy between linzai and aleh could have been better but it was good. their feelings for the other were not exactly believable though. even though i could not stand he yao's relationship with changhuan, they had the better intimacy as their kissing was more believable and slower paced. speaking of he yao, the way his end came to be was undeserved. he deserved fields worse and to reap the consequences of his manipulation. chen minghao's action scenes really kept me engaged and i wanted to see more of his swift, cold, and calculated movements. he did quite well, if most was him and not doubles. as my title says though, he is faster than bullets and that is utter nonsense. who were they trying to sell that foolery?

in all, be it the vow or the last oath, i do not believe the story told. there was no oath unless it was that aleh's promise to protect linzai. obligatory, fck AI, fck AI usage, fck its creators, and fck its enablers especially. the ending was a welcomed surprise, though.