The scenes of sister Ye Ying trying to learn to play the flute could have been left out. Her whole approach to that was so absurdly stupid and not remotely believable that it wasn't really funny. Humor needs to be grounded in what's plausible to really be funny. So that whole flute / peacock thing just didn't work for me.That said, the rest of this episode was so strong and interesting with lots of growth in the main characters and the bonds of the the entire Prince Ding family and, of course, dealing with the FL's trauma over the monkeys.
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Love Game in Eastern Fantasy Episode 20
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Very emotional moments for Ling Miao Miao when she finally regains her freedom, and stumbles into her room to find Zi Qi's confession waiting for her. And the episode ends by also wiping out the 'noble idiocy' arc of Mu Yao. The gang is finally back together and hopefully we can see them facing their challenges together again.
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Love Game in Eastern Fantasy Episode 19
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Continuing with the Curse of the Wooden Bracelet, the show is as boring as watching a bunch of NPC act out a cut-scene in a fantasy role playing game where the player character can only watch and do only limited things. No freedom to deviate. Ling Miao Miao has become just another NPC, stuck going through (unwanted) motions. The Bracelet's power is just way too strong so until someone else or or something else happens in the story to free her of it, she's no longer the FL. She's just an NPC. Meanwhile, the others of the Four Bamboo Masters are split apart purposely by Mu Yao, who is stuck under a different curse: The Curse of the Noble Idiocy drama trope. This is one of the most hated drama tropes. She has 'pushed away' all her loved ones, determined to take on her mission of vengeance all alone. So the show at this point is just about waiting around until one or the other of our two female leads finally breaks free of the respective curse making them behave these ways.
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Love Game in Eastern Fantasy Episode 18
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In fantasy gaming, one of the biggest mistakes a DM can make is often the introduction of an artifact - magic weapon, magic ring, whatever - that is just too powerful. It breaks the game balance, skewing everything one way or another for the players. Either it's something that helps them, but because it is so powerful, it makes the game too easy. Or it is something that hurts them and just makes the game impossibly difficult. The Wooden Bracelet that just got inserted into the story is like the latter. It's basically a curse. And because it is made from the Hair of Goddess Mei, it is incredibly powerful. There is no way for the Player Character (Ling Miao Miao) to break free of it. This artifact has taken away her free will and turned her into a Non-Player Character. So we as the viewers are stuck watching what amounts to a cut-scene in a mmorpg now. Until the _game_ events - completely outside the player's control - happen to finally free her of the curse, she will just be an NPC. Miao Miao has no agency anymore. Imagine playing a RPG and the DM keeps telling you, "You can't do this." and "You have to do that" all because of some cursed item you picked up that takes away your ability to choose what you do. That's not fun. And this show just became that for now. Just have to grit teeth and wait for an event that frees her.
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Love Game in Eastern Fantasy Episode 11
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because he's a demon and the Formation prevents demons from leaving the Valley (which is about be destroyed). But, um .... what about Zi Qi? Is he going to be stuck int he Valley due to the formation too? After all, he's at least half-demon! So either the Formation spell has to be broken or the mountain spell has to be stopped or both because the show isn't going to kill off Zi Qi.
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Love Game in Eastern Fantasy Episode 6
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The way this mostly comedic and edge-of-danger show has woven a very emotional side plot around Miao Miao's relationship with her father was so sweet, sad and touching. You can tell that while on an intellectual level she knows that Lin Lu Shan is not her real-world father she just can't help but emotionally connect with him because she still hurts so badly for the loss of her 'real' father in the 'real' world. And Lu Shan's fatherly connection back is just as strong, doting on her just the way her 'real' dad did. The last moments of the episode when their parting is so sad, it was also so sweet that she remembers a way from her knowledge of the book, how to restore the wealth that was stolen from her father by the Empress Dowager. A very thoughtful daughter! I still hope that the Dowager somehow ends up paying a price for her greed.
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Love Game in Eastern Fantasy Episode 1
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This show kicks off by having three of my favorite C-Drama leading ladies all involved, as FL Esther Yu, SFL Zhu Xu Dan and guest Chen Duling all are involved in the opening episodes conflicts. Sadly Chen Duling (appearing as a villain here, is just making a guest appearance and I don't expect her to be back, but it was great having her on screen for this. This episode hopefully sets the tone for the show which is to be excellently rendered by good actors and production values, with a story that keeps a tongue firmly in cheek.
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This episode continues the trend of the last 3 episodes of making Gu Shengnan act dumber and dumber and dumber. She just keeps stepping deeper and deeper into the blatant manipulations of Lu Zheng and it's just not believable. She has become a naive idiot who is now nothing more than collateral damage in the pissing contest between the brothers. The notion that she would drag Lu Zheng around expecting him to 'set things straight' with Lu Jin is ludicrous. And then the episode closes with her not only agreeing to LZ's suggestion that she go away on a retreat to relax ... but for some insane reason she gives her apartment key to Lu Zheng so he can watch her turtle? Are the show writers serious? They must have been on drugs when they wrote this. This show was so good up until episode 19 and then it has gone right into the toilet, getting worse with each episode. The mistake the writes have made is to stop focusing on growing the lead's romance and instead focus on the stupid corporate revenge-on-Lu-Jin's-father which morphed into this stupid pissing contest between the brothers. I'm sure that the writes will magically fix the romance in the last minute of the remaining episode to make it look like everything's fine. Even worse, I have a bad feeling they are going to do a last minute reconciliation between the brothers once Lu Jin has soundly defeated him because, hey, we can ignore all the pain that this pissing contest has caused Shengnan, right?
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On one hand, I give the writers credit for allowing Shengnan and Lu Jin to have an adult conversation and make up for the misunderstandings. But how they got to that point - and worse yet to come - is just utter trash story telling. They have twisted Lu Zheng's character into a manipulative, scheming stalker creep, intent on slimy tricks to get back at his brother. And they have smacked Shengnan hard with the plot-induced-stupidity plot trope so she is just walking blindly right into one trap situation after another. So disappointed at the final plot arc of this show.
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So, in order to create some sort of 'drama' to close the last episodes out, the writers have decided to transform Lu Jin's brother, Lu Zheng, into a manipulative slime ball who, since he's not really an experienced businessman, will stoop to messing with his brother's fiance' in order to achieve his goals. Shengnan is just too naturally inclined to want to help people so she falls too easily into the trap. The whole plot arc already feels manipulative and contrived and frankly, I will probably start skipping through segments just to get to the inevitable end since we already know this is pointless.
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Finally, the show put the dagger in both of the 'unrequited love interest plot lines. Both the unhealthy one by Li Man -- who was constantly manipulating and interfering in Lu Jin's life -- and the mostly benign but distracting one in Cheng Ziqian who seems like a nice guy but is, well, too boring and totally 'friend zone' material only. Both have been sidelined and removed from the table. Now the story and the couple can move forward with the hard work of actually building a strong relationship that can overcome the obstacles still in front of them. That's always the best part of a romance drama. Time wasted on 'love triangles' is time wasted on people who aren't part of the romance.
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On one hand, Lu Jin deserved to have to pay some penance for the way he left Yan Yan hanging, getting insulted and bullied by Li Man. And it was important for him to actually say the words to confess. Yan Yan kept giving him wide-open opportunities to simply say the words and he kept pausing and deflecting until finally she asked him point blank and he had nowhere to hide and said "yes". This was like a weight off both their shoulders and things finally started to move forward again. But the ending scene was annoying. At this point, both have pretty much confessed and are moving forward but Yan Yan still allows Ziqian to insert himself into their dinner and allows him to think he still has a chance. First off, she should remember how she felt jealous of Li Man and realize that Lu Jin probably is upset to see any closeness between her and Ziqian. Further, it simply isn't fair to Ziqian, either. She needs to draw a very clear line with him and be open and honest about where her feelings lie.
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Things were progressing too much in a positive direction for too long for a 24 episode series so inevitably a glitch had to show up. This comes in the form of Lu's manipulative secretary / business partner, Li Man, who shows up, quickly realizes that Lu is getting involved with someone and manipulates him into leaving for business with her and breaking things off with Nan Nan before they get any further. This woman clearly is a schemer and clearly has unrequited feelings for Lu Jin. Both leads performance in this episode its really amazing. Very emotional for both of them. Watching LuSi be sad and crying is, of course, always hard to watch as a viewer because she makes you want to cry with her. But at least as a viewer we sorta know this isn't the end and that somehow, someway, he will be back. So that makes it a little easier to watch. Aside: One aspect of the show that's a bit maddening is just how awful all of the various friends and family are on both FL & ML's sides. Yan Yan's friends and family are just awful to her, only interacting with her for their own selfish purposes and dropping her like a hot potato the moment they can't be bothered And on Lu Jin's side, his supposed assistant, Meng, is just awful. Not only is he a smart Alec who mouths snark to his boss, he undercuts him behind his back - in this episode in particular by not telling him about Li Man's arrival and worse, literally letting her in to roam around freely in Lu Jin's room and stuff! Almost none of the supporting characters has truly been 'supportive' of either Yan Yan or Lu Jin so far in this drama. Six episodes done - 25% of the series - is this how the show is going to go all the way?
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The first episode is a bit of a mixed bag. On the negative side, the 'humor' used to setup the initial conflict is very forced and cringe to the point of just not really being funny. Kinda stupid even. BUT ... the episode is still overall fun and enjoyable as it smoothly establishes some beautiful cooking scenes as a staple of the show, two lovely protagonists and the small cast of characters around them.
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I'm sorry. But the whole Prince-Xin-was-really-playing-the-fall-guy-to-help twist was just stupid. It really felt like the writer fell in love with the character and used this single conversation -- which made NO sense to have been granted -- between Xin and the Crown Princess to transform him from a pathetic obsessed psycho creep into .... a heroic martyr? Gimme a break. Did the writer just watch the final Harry Potter film before penning this chapter and decide to borrow the Severus Snape plot line? This whole conversation that revealed this was just a giant waste of screen time because it made ZERO difference to the plot. Yes, he it's true that his rebel actions cemented her legitimacy because she stopped him. But that would be true even if truly WAS rebellious. So this whole sudden 'reveal' about Prince Xin ultimately has ZERO impact on the entire rest of the story other than to salvage his character a bit in the minds of the viewers. It feels cheap and manipulative. Other than that, the rest of the episode was awesome, with some great gamesmanship and a much more important 'reveal' at the end that really adds a lot to the picture of the Emperor and what happened 20 years ago.
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