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This review may contain spoilers
A feast for your eyes! Not perfect though..
Love in Pavillion has to be the highest budget xianxia drama of the year, because the CGI! THE. CGI!! IS OVER THE ROOF! It's so good to the point that each episode felt like a movie! Not to mention the amazing CAST, filled with recently popular actors and actresses. What's not to love about this drama?
Liu Shishi (Dongfang Huai Zhu) is an actress that I've been watching since Chinese Paladin 3, granted there's a huge gap of her dramas that I haven't watched that I won't go into detail. I digress, I cannot picture much of her facial expressions in acting other than being stoic. Whether or not it's her character, the way she portrayed her character was quite boring for a lack of a better word. Her evil arc was good, but then it went back to be stoic expressions. I rarely see some microexpressions coming from her and I really expected that from a veteran in the industry. Unfortunately, her acting disappointed me. However, her martial choreography was beautifully done and I applause her for it! I even had to repeat a couple scenes, because it felt looked very crisp and invigorating.
Same goes for Leon Zhang's character. I mean his character was more expressive than Liu Shishi's, but there wasn't any acting that truly hit me as if, "WOW, this is amazing acting!" There was one scene that is suppose to be heartbreaking to watch, but I guess it didn't seem convincing enough for me? Granted, I did know he was heartbroken, and depressed, etc. But something was missing in that scene. I don't know if he improved in acting or not, as the one and only drama I've seen of his was from 2017. He is quite handsome though ngl. lol
With these two together as leads, I don't know if it's the acting or the script or even the directing, but the romance between them just fell flat for me. I did not see much chemistry between them, it just felt ilke two wooden planks talking to each other. I don't know, just a boring couple.
Aside from the main leads, I like to think the supporting cast filled with current popular actors and actress, carried this drama pretty hard.
There has to be something wrong if I prefer the secondary, tertiary, and even the VILLAIN'S love story over the main leads'.
My favorite couple from the beginning was Yang Yi Tan(Zhai Xiao Wan) and Wangquan Zui (Wu Xuan Yi These two fill the friends to lovers trope. I love how they met, grew up together, and one is always protecting the other, etc. It just uuggh I loved these two so much. LOL They had such good chemistry and bond. I demand another drama with these two together! The acting was very natural especially coming from idols to actors!
Another favorite couple is, I think it's everyone's fav at this point, Zhang Zheng (Ding Yu Xi) and Qi Muyuan (Meng Zi Yi). Their love story is more of a chasing after the one you love kind of story with some angst. It was cute when they do end up together and such. I don't want to spoil too much, but Meng Ziyi's is the more bubbly, outspoken character while Yu Xi's character is more stoic (except he displays microexpressions! ) and somewhat dark character.
Noteable mention is Charles Lin. Dude is handsome, his eyes can slice you within a second! Anyways, his acting was satisfactory imo. What stood out for me is his character's love story. It just felt like "US AGAINST THE WORLD" but make it dark and evil. I just loved it and wanted to mention that. lol
Shen Yue's character, Dongfang Qinlan, the younger sister of Dongfang HuaiZhu is pretty much a very bubble, incessantly annoying little sister - possibly overprotective -but-can't-protect-kind of sister. I suppose she's written to be a comedic relief? Regardless, there was something about Shen Yue's acting that threw me off every time she's on screen. It just felt like she's acting a screen play - that feeling when you know someone is just acting instead of embracing their character and acting naturally. I think this is the same acting style she portrayed in MG and ALSB. I just never enjoyed the way she acted, some may love it, but I did not.
Aside from the CGI and great ensemble of a cast, I think the music was really good, I'm definitely adding it to the list. The compositing of the scenery was nice to see, the directing of scenes was good as well. Post production did a great job here! :]
I think what kept me watching is how this felt like I was watching old xianxia dramas, just like a recently finished drama, "A Demon Hunter's Romance" both dramas felt like the early years of xianxia and it;s definitely my cup of tea instead of the usual predictable gods, goddess, endless reincarnation stuff.
Was it a happy ending? *spoilerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr* n *spoilerrrrrrrr* o *spoiler * p *spoiler e but I kind of expected this as not all xianxia are going to have happy endings.
Would I recommend it? If you want to watch it for main leads, I wouldn't think it's the best drama. But for the overall cast, yes definitely. And the martial arts choreography? Heck yes, watch it, The CGI?! FEAST FOR YOUR EYES!
Liu Shishi (Dongfang Huai Zhu) is an actress that I've been watching since Chinese Paladin 3, granted there's a huge gap of her dramas that I haven't watched that I won't go into detail. I digress, I cannot picture much of her facial expressions in acting other than being stoic. Whether or not it's her character, the way she portrayed her character was quite boring for a lack of a better word. Her evil arc was good, but then it went back to be stoic expressions. I rarely see some microexpressions coming from her and I really expected that from a veteran in the industry. Unfortunately, her acting disappointed me. However, her martial choreography was beautifully done and I applause her for it! I even had to repeat a couple scenes, because it felt looked very crisp and invigorating.
Same goes for Leon Zhang's character. I mean his character was more expressive than Liu Shishi's, but there wasn't any acting that truly hit me as if, "WOW, this is amazing acting!" There was one scene that is suppose to be heartbreaking to watch, but I guess it didn't seem convincing enough for me? Granted, I did know he was heartbroken, and depressed, etc. But something was missing in that scene. I don't know if he improved in acting or not, as the one and only drama I've seen of his was from 2017. He is quite handsome though ngl. lol
With these two together as leads, I don't know if it's the acting or the script or even the directing, but the romance between them just fell flat for me. I did not see much chemistry between them, it just felt ilke two wooden planks talking to each other. I don't know, just a boring couple.
Aside from the main leads, I like to think the supporting cast filled with current popular actors and actress, carried this drama pretty hard.
There has to be something wrong if I prefer the secondary, tertiary, and even the VILLAIN'S love story over the main leads'.
My favorite couple from the beginning was Yang Yi Tan(Zhai Xiao Wan) and Wangquan Zui (Wu Xuan Yi These two fill the friends to lovers trope. I love how they met, grew up together, and one is always protecting the other, etc. It just uuggh I loved these two so much. LOL They had such good chemistry and bond. I demand another drama with these two together! The acting was very natural especially coming from idols to actors!
Another favorite couple is, I think it's everyone's fav at this point, Zhang Zheng (Ding Yu Xi) and Qi Muyuan (Meng Zi Yi). Their love story is more of a chasing after the one you love kind of story with some angst. It was cute when they do end up together and such. I don't want to spoil too much, but Meng Ziyi's is the more bubbly, outspoken character while Yu Xi's character is more stoic (except he displays microexpressions! ) and somewhat dark character.
Noteable mention is Charles Lin. Dude is handsome, his eyes can slice you within a second! Anyways, his acting was satisfactory imo. What stood out for me is his character's love story. It just felt like "US AGAINST THE WORLD" but make it dark and evil. I just loved it and wanted to mention that. lol
Shen Yue's character, Dongfang Qinlan, the younger sister of Dongfang HuaiZhu is pretty much a very bubble, incessantly annoying little sister - possibly overprotective -but-can't-protect-kind of sister. I suppose she's written to be a comedic relief? Regardless, there was something about Shen Yue's acting that threw me off every time she's on screen. It just felt like she's acting a screen play - that feeling when you know someone is just acting instead of embracing their character and acting naturally. I think this is the same acting style she portrayed in MG and ALSB. I just never enjoyed the way she acted, some may love it, but I did not.
Aside from the CGI and great ensemble of a cast, I think the music was really good, I'm definitely adding it to the list. The compositing of the scenery was nice to see, the directing of scenes was good as well. Post production did a great job here! :]
I think what kept me watching is how this felt like I was watching old xianxia dramas, just like a recently finished drama, "A Demon Hunter's Romance" both dramas felt like the early years of xianxia and it;s definitely my cup of tea instead of the usual predictable gods, goddess, endless reincarnation stuff.
Was it a happy ending? *spoilerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr* n *spoilerrrrrrrr* o *spoiler * p *spoiler e but I kind of expected this as not all xianxia are going to have happy endings.
Would I recommend it? If you want to watch it for main leads, I wouldn't think it's the best drama. But for the overall cast, yes definitely. And the martial arts choreography? Heck yes, watch it, The CGI?! FEAST FOR YOUR EYES!
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