metrikfire

A sad backstory does not absolve you of sexual assault or being a horrible human being

Noh Hwa Jang being such a weak character despite the hype she’s supposed to be receiving in the show was odd for me. I thought she was miscast. Her expressions aren’t stern or ambitious, they’re just placid and expressionless. Also, she does NOT have the physical prowess to be beating up fully grown soldiers in the Korean army. The scene where she’s bullying some low level NPC in the urinal was a joke. Even her stabbing motions had no power. The guy with his head in the toilet was doing all the work in the scene.

But that wasn’t even the deal breaker. It’s Tae Man’s character and the messaging that the show seems to be moving towards is “if you have a shitty parent you can be a trash human being without repercussions” — and it’s not like he was a general douche or asshole, this guy had a history of aggravated assault on people, blinding people, r*ping girls, sexual assault, drug abuse and probably more but oh!— you have a shitty mother? Say no more, your sins are forgiven. What kind of shit story is that? What are they trying to say? Bae Man being such a sunshine patriot character was also incredibly off putting considering he got so much screen time. Man, I’m just annoyed thinking about how late I stayed up watching this only to realize what a waste of time and resources this hot flaming chumbuxket was.

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How far can good acting and hot actors justify how much enjoyment you get out of a subpar show?

I went into this with fairly high expectations, slogged through the first four episodes and then finally hit a point where I actually started to enjoy the makjang level logic that was fueling this fast and furious plotline.

Some of the strong points,
♣︎ Xu Kai and Zhou Ye have excellent chemistry. They are definitely not the problem here. In fact, even the antaongists, including the limp bizkit Qingru did an A++ job of their character portrayals. Even Xie Shi was such a good actor. That unhinged laugh of his was just *chefs kiss*. Such good insanity.
♣︎ Beautiful costumes, wow I can't believe they were working on a shoestring budget because none of the characters dressed like they were hurting for funding.
♣︎ Absolutely beautiful cinematography, all things considered. I mean some shots kind of go slack, but over all, framing and composition of scenes were very thoughtful and artistic.

Now the dumpster fire,
♣︎ Plot. I mean, I guess it had the outlines of a plot. That is all that can be really said about it.

♣︎ Editing/Pacing/Continuity was SO janky. At some parts I could see how they were trying to withhold information for the sake of suspense, but it was really just a chaotic mishmash of beautiful shots and intensely dramatic music. A lot of critical things happened off screen. Shoddy plot writing and haphazard editing joined hands to create the perfect maelstrom of HoG maneuvers in which a lot of imperial edicts were passed around and then immediately discarded or like... blown away to the wayside. They literally Deus Ex Machina'ed their way out of EVERY major conflict. I thought Shen Run's fake out was justified by a coroner they bought off, but turns out that no he ACTUALLY asked Feng En to stab him in the chest... close to the heart but not quite! Like bruh, that's still a f**king major wound. How long would that take him out for? Six months? How did he go back to being so perky in like the next scene?

♣︎ Qingru's happy end. Why was she even a consideration at the end. She was mean, manipulative, petty and stupid. There was literally no character arc for her, but she got logistically, a better end than QY and SR because she still lives in that nice house, wearing those fancy ass clothes with the title of a Marchioness and now with a husband whom she literally cheated into marrying her. Did she even apologize to him? No, because that would mean making her work for her redemption arc. So stupid.

That extra three-four minutes could have gone into building out a post-intrigues life for Qingyuan and Shen Run who would have literally had to rebuild a life as like.. random plebes. How did that go for them?

Anyway, this show is good for... testin endurance. How far can good acting and hot actors justify how much enjoyment you get out of a subpar show? Well, now you can watch this drama and find out.

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