This review may contain spoilers
How to NOT tell a story
you can do a lot in 40 eps...there are many reasons why i didn't like this drama, first of all the writing was sooooo lazy i was actually so sick and tired towards the end.
The reason why is because the dialogue was not written with care at all. It felt so unnatural in my head no body speaks like that. first of all every piece of dialogue is so painfully predictable i knew exactly what they were going to say and to add on to that, the characters never really TALKED to each other all they did was speak in a series of monologues and the same ones at that.
For example the same motivational speech that the FL did every single time like "i don't believe in fate" she said that so many times i couldn't count.
The reason why dialogue is so important is that it builds the foundation of every relationship, and with bad dialogue these relationships felt so shallow, every time they spoke i thought of a way in which they could've done it better.
something this so really lacked was the character depth and development, mainly with the female lead. There were so many missed opportunities. first the relationship between her and her sister was so underdeveloped to the point were i even forgot they were siblings, they could've really tapped into the angst that had been created from betrayal and jealousy. instead we only say mu ranwu's perspective on all of it she was always the center of that relationship's conflict, because she was creating most of it.
alternatively xue ran ran could've gotten mad at her and actually confronted her sister for once so that the relation between then had some resolve.
another missed opportunity that would've given xue ran ran some depth is the identity crisis that she faced from having two life times, they came close when she said "who am I" but it ended there. if they delved in to how lost she would feel doubting herself and her final resolve would've been so impactful considering how repetitive her character was these editions that i just mentioned would've really increased the quality of her character and made her less one dimensional.
moving on
the story writing made me actually angry. the thing is i could tell that they did not spend any time building the world at all . i got whiplash every time the characters would randomly mention some talisman or some spell that did this and that. there was SO MUCH exposition dumping, they violated the main storytelling rule "show, not tell", and all the writers were doing was telling, because tell me why xue ran ran knew EVERYTHING abt everything and was always explaining everything. the reason this makes me mad is the lack of respect for the audience to think about literally anything. I felt like a toddler being told every little unnecessary detail about everything. there are so may different more creative ways to convey information important to the plot without compromising the quality of your writing for example instead of telling me what the talisman does it could've been shown in a flash back of someone using it incorrectly for the comedic effect or for a more serious approach it could've been shown in one of the characters memories while they were copying scriptures or something . anyhow I'm just trying to say is that it was a case of poor execution.
the thing were xue ran ran was constantly talking to herself was also killing it for me.
another thing i didn't like was the run time, this drama was TOO long as in it should've ended after they sealed the spirit spring , because tell me why there was a amnesia arc right after, that just made me so upset its like moving backwards within the story.
anyways if i wrote everything that bothered me i would be here all day so let me stop being a hater and say the things i liked.
i liked the visuals , all the costuming and the landscapes really kept me going they were all pleasing to the eyes.
i also enjoyed some of the action scenes they were done creatively at times like when they fought with swords i enjoyed that the most. when they overuse spiritual energy it kind of takes me out of it a bit because why is there a sword if your not gonna use it?
anyways even though i thought it was bad it was still captivating and addicting to watch if it wasn't i wouldn't have lasted the whole show this meant that the director knew what they were doing when it came to that aspect.
another positive is the ML's character development and depth, in alternative to the FL i feel like they spent more time fleshing out his character and really invested in him. you as the audience could feel his distraught and hurt throughout the drama and his guilt and desperation too which shows the great capabilities of the actor too.
anyways that's all i can tell allot of people liked this drama and honestly if that's you I'm glad you liked it this is just my rant into the MDL void.
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most well written drama I've seen this year
this the first time I've watched the wuxia genre and this show did not disappoint,things i liked:
1. world building
because this is the first time watching this genre i was afraid i wouldn't understand anything but even though this show didn't have an opening explaining all the lore the characters explained the world to other characters that didn't know ,which informed us the viewer which i really appreciated which really showed the effort the writers put into the world building of this show and also how much they respected the viewer to let us figure it out and by the end of the show i was really emersed into the world they build over the period the show aired.
2. cohesiveness
everything in this show fit together really well, the costuming fit every character really well and showed their personality without seeming out of place. something that i also liked is that the outfits repeated, in some dramas they would be changing the characters clothes every scene but the repeating of outfits further shows that there is a bit of realism in this unrealistic world. another thing that made the show a masterpiece is the Ost and score these were so well done the show wouldn't feel whole without them, in some dramas the music doesn't fit the emotion or scene but in this show they put so much effort into the score making it the Ost's instrumental and also it fit every important and even the insignificant beats of the story. the ost also brought out all the emotional parts of the story and amplified them making me go back and rewatch some scenes.
3. direction/cinematography
this show is so beautiful to look at i was speechless the scenes in the wilderness where breath taking and the way the show was directed is so well-done the crew did such a good job and it shows through out the entire body of work.( I'm trying to keep this review spoiler free so i wont go into too much details on this).
4. the characters/ the story
every character was well thought out and all the motives of every character were clear and most important thing for me when watching a drama is the character development because i hate it when a character remains stagnant throughout the whole show and then suddenly they change in the last ep, to do it well the growth has to be slow but apparent. i saw this in the second leads the way pei si jing developed throughout the show was so well written. and imo the best written character is zhou yi chen if you watch the show you see how much he changes and develops and a person, moreover the motives of the villains where clear and you as the viewer understand them its not like they were doing evil because the show needed and antagonist we knew the reason why they were doing these evil acts and we could anticipate them too which i liked, also on the topic of villains i liked that not everything was black and white and there where some grey characters like li lun who i understood why he did what he did and his character development throughout the show was so well-done you can see the confliction in him every time he did anything to zhao yuan zhuo. the supporting/background characters were also well written every time they showed a story the writers wrote them so well that you could even cry over them and also under stand their motives too and it the show all connected in the end in a way where every thing showed contributed to the ending so nothing was unimportant to the story.
5. the pacing
even though i saw many people say that the pacing of this story was slow paced, i think that was the right decision because i think that the pacing fit the story, because if it was any faster i think that i would have trouble following it and the pacing made the important beats of the story more impactful.
6. consistency
the biggest problem when watching comedy genres in dramas is that they always are super funny at first but when the climax of the story comes they become super melancholy and lose the shows initial charm but in this show they didn't the comedy remained throughout the show even after the sad parts and i very much liked that. and the found family and the dynamics between the characters were also consistent nothing happed that was out of character for them which i also really liked.
things i didn't like:
1. the female lead's character was a little neglected i could tell in the beginning of the show and i thought i should give the show more time and they did try to flesh her out a little more but i think they could have done a better job with her because in felt that the supporting characters were written better than her which is sad because she is the main lead.
2. the romance was lacking
i know some people would disagree with me but the main leads didn't have enough screen time together i felt the love between them but we didn't have enough time with them. and something else is that every body has so much chemistry with everybody i was getting confused at times like if you watched the show you could see it.
overall this may be the best drama I've seen this year the way it was created felt so well thought out and some people may not have liked the ending but I'm pretty content with it.
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