monstersnroses

Mind-numbingly predictable CEO romance with hideous aggressive OST and no chemistry.

First let me say that the best part of this drama BY FAR, was He Rui Xian's incredible performance as the 2FL. She's so amazing and deserves high caliber 1FL roles.

The rest of this was, to put it bluntly, total crap.

While it would take a dissertation to fully enumerate the ways in which this was crap, I will do my best to keep it brief.

*No ML/FL chemistry. I dont know where the problem lies. Maybe Kai keeps getting handed FLs that dont mesh well with him. Maybe he has a really hard time letting go in front of the camera. Maybe hes RL gay. But whatever it is, this is another flat Kai Soso performance, lacking sexual chemistry, passion, and depth.

*Flat ML performance. Kai is good in some situations and dramas, but this isnt one of those dramas. Its impossible to distinguish the difference between his "straight man" character, or just his limited acting ability.

*FL is not sexy and has a bad haircut and boring clothes. Shes cute. And she is a good actress. But shes not sexy. She should be playing roles other than romance FLs

*Kiss scenes are tame

*Moderately high cringe-factor

*Slow slowwwww pacing. This should have 10 episodes shaved off

*Tired, cliche storyline. The actual business story is good. But every other aspect of it is insultingly cliche.

*Mediocre dialogue all the way from beginning to end.

*Background music is stupid and out of touch

*OST is so aggressive it should be arrested and tried for assault.

*Characters are simplistic and too perfect, like a teens dream of what life is like and what people are like, and a teen's dream fantasy.

*They take an indoor cat, in a cat carrier, to the park for its birthday. They lay out a blanket, and put a TINY HAT ON THE CAT. The kind with an elastic chin strap. Then they let the cat out of the carrier. And the cat stays on the blanket. It stays on the blanket, and just... sits there. Mkay. This is the kind of show we are dealing with here. If any one scene could sum up how I feel about the show, its that one.

I would recc this to mushy romantic sentimental people whose favorite color is fuscia/magenta/hot pink, and who still have at least one stuffed animal on their bed.

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ML/FL chemistry fell flat, and story loses focus about halfway through.

This held my attention well and had me interested until about halfway through, and ML and FL have their first kiss. I had been hoping this was a sweet slow-burn, where the attraction ramps up as the story moves along, but it was clear from that first kiss scene, that there is no chemistry between the actors. This appears - to me - to be the fault of the FL, but honestly there's nothing coming from either side that feels like attraction or passion. ML looks like maybe he could act more passionate if it were a different FL. But FL looks like she can't convey attraction, no matter what ML would have been cast. She has a limited range of emotion that she can act. There are some emotions that she does act out well. Sadness, kindness, humor, she is very good at that. But to me, she shouldn't really be doing anything involving kiss scenes.

Because the chemistry fell flat, the drama lost my attention, and I had to really slog through the back half of it to finish it.

Which is a shame, because I was really liking the way they interpreted the story of splash splash love, I liked the problem-solving stuff involving the irrigation and that kind of thing.

At the core of any romance story, should be two people who can convince the viewer that they are actually attracted to eachother. Without that, the romance falls apart, and the story loses its soul. All I got from these two was a comfy plantonic "buddies" vibe, that worked well for the humorous scenes, but not for the actual "romance" part of the romance story.

6.5 because of the way this drama fell off for me at the halfway point. In retrospect, I'd say it was not worth my time. For me, 7's and above are for things that at least I thought were worth watching ONCE. This wasn't.

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A mixed bag of pros and cons with a few pretty good kiss scenes.

I know Cheng Yu Feng (the ML) is capable of some pretty brilliant performances, but this isn't one of them. However, his portrayal of this character was solid, and I think he did the best he could with what he had to work with, considering the mediocre script and rushed feel of the production. For the FL, this was sort of a breakout role for her and I think she also did pretty well. It wasn't anything super spectacular, but you could tell she was putting effort into taking this lead role seriously and I think with experience she will grow into a really amazing actress.

The bgm/ost were actually not terrible, which to me is a nice surprise for a short-length c-drama. The wardrobes were very nice, and some of the settings were beautiful and interesting -- although some of the interior shots were tres tragique. The script had some points that could have made it really great. But it also was packed with a lot of npc-level dialogue, cliche moments, and storyline fails. The side characters and backstories are not fleshed out properly, the whole thing feels like a half-baked budget production that just wasn't planned out carefully.

I found it particularly annoying that the ML and FL don't share a lot of onscreen chemistry moments. Their kiss scenes are really good, and there are some scenes where you can feel a little angst and passion rise from the actor's performances. So I know the chemistry COULD have been there. But actors just can't give their best performances when they're being rushed and poked and prodded at by a director and production team that won't devote the effort and time it takes to create the right atmosphere for their actors to actually ACT.

I wish ML and FL all the best on their future projects, they are both far better than this mediocrity. Is it worth a watch? Yes, if you're truly bored and without anything else to watch. It's not the worst thing I've ever seen. It just isn't very memorable.

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This is not so much a romance as it is a serious work of art

This is not a linear romance story. This is the story of an event (a teacher and a student getting together and falling in love), and how that event came to be, and how it impacts the future and the world around them. If you are looking for a strict romance story, then drop this drama. I can see from the comments that some girls with hearts in their eyes for the ML, watched this and took it as a romance. But it's clear that was not the intention of the creators. This is for people who are looking to appreciate a deliberately crafted piece of cinematic art.

Taken as a romance story, this was total crap. Taken as a piece of serious cinema, this was absolutely stunning.

(SPOILERS FROM HERE ON)

Art does not shy away from controversial subject matter, and neither does this drama. Some people have rated this based on the level of disgust it evoked in them. That is completely unjust. The drama depicts their relationship through the lens of realism. It doesn't ask you to condone it, or to judge it. It simply tells it's story.

We have an ML whose mother has transferred her romantic feelings for her late husband onto her own son (an only child), and buries herself in work and part-time romance with another man, to try to escape this truth and hide it from herself. The ML needs to get away from her claustrophobic feelings for him but is barely conscious of the unhealthiness of their dynamic, and doesn't really have enough self-awareness of the situation to rise above unconscious reactions. So he is an isolated, indifferent "bad boy".

We have an FL who is a walking identity crisis time-bomb waiting to happen. Her father is overbearing and strict, emotionally cold and distant, and withholds approval to get what he wants from his family. Her mother seems content with this, but she is not.... not at all. Her fiancee "needs her", but what he really needs is not her, it's the IDEA of her, he needs what she symbolizes to him: sex, stability, a sense of pride in being a man. He seems so unconcerned with her true feelings about the relationship, that he doesn't even realize that it's a bad sign that after 7 years of dating, she still can't cook for shit. Or that you shouldn't give your GF a halfassed proposal in your boxer shorts at 2am and toss a ring at her and call it all good. She didn't like that, and it was visible that she didn't like it. He paid no attention. At work, the FL is the bottom rung of the teacher totem pole, being only a 26 year old teacher. She's too young to be a respected teacher, and too old to be respectable as a single woman. There is seemingly nowhere where she fits in for who she is.... only her making herself fit in to be appreciated for what she is.

When these two people meet, they cannot resist what the other offers. ML is the opposite of every man she knows. He is sweet, considerate, listens to her, and sees he for who she really is. He encourages her to open herself up more, and discover what she really wants. FL bears an eerie resemblance to ML's mother, is everything his mother is, only FL is warm and emotionally available and gives him the kindness and balance he needs in his life. Needless to say, they fall HARD for eachother. Not only because of the love they share, and the attraction.... but also because each one is a manifestation of something the other yearns for deep in their wounded psyche.

And then..... the aftermath.

Because the relationship they have shakes every other relationship and interpersonal dynamic around them to it's core, the relationship itself becomes their vehicle to freedom (a theme that runs through the drama), and without it, they are trapped and utterly lost in their own lives, over which neither one has any degree of personal agency. But when they follow their hearts, the ways in which others have them trapped in codependency begin to crumble, and their unhealthy relationships with others start to topple. So they find that increasingly they cannot live without eachother. They don't want to live without eachother.

Yet their undertaking is enormous: He was an unsuspecting child, who suddenly becomes completely responsible for a grown woman who is emotionally stunted and avoidant. He is totally unprepared both logistically and emotionally. She was used to relying on everyone in her life, because most people treat her like a perpetual dependent, and now she has a 17 year old boy she has to protect and raise up into a man by herself... so she also is totally unprepared to be a provider and an anchor for someone. Since she is avoidant, she has to summon up a lot of willpower to keep her heart open to the ML no matter how afraid or upset she is. Both of them fail many times as they learn to bring out more of themselves for eachother They attempt to break up multiple times, until they finally come face to face with the fact that they NEED eachother or they'll die of sheer despair.

When they fall in love and run away together, everyone who was dependent on them to hold up their own psychological illusions begins to deteriorate and flail around. Should they stay apart to hold up their families? Or should they begin a new family, and let everyone who was misusing them falter and crash? On it's surface levels, it appears as though their love for eachother is killing eachother and those around them. But on deeper levels, their romance is the only thing keeping them - and therefore everyone who depends on them - alive.

The acting was on fire. The script was a thing of beauty.... there were many silences built into the script to give the directors and actors room to create genuine emotions and evocative scenes, and the grasp on human psychology was totally brilliant. (For example, when ML runs away with FL, he realizes out of the blue that he wants to visit his long-lost paternal uncle... because now he needs to grow into a man, and is desperately looking to any other man in his life or connection to his deceased father to give him some direction, or even just a hint of a direction... it's so poignant) The cinematography and use of visual symbolism were on point, and gave added meaning to the story. I do think the music and soundtrack was where everything kind of fell down. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't as good as the other elements that went into this, it wasn't as thoughtful and elevated as it could have been.

It was painful, thrilling, moving, sentimental, passionate, and all in all a really great watch.

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Great beginning slowly marches toward a predictable and unsatisfying ending.

Starts off with great chemistry and plenty of swashbuckling and sexy scenes peppered here and there. All leads are very good in their roles.

However this director/ screenplay has a hard time balancing the plot with the sense of romance and excitement. As the plot progresses and becomes more involved, the leads gradually lose their spark, and you kind of start to wonder why theyre going through all the trouble.

FL, while pretty and charming, is -imo- not quite right for the part. She is supposed to be a proud, dignified, and vengeful person. But the way this actress portrays it comes off too harsh and awkward and I found several of her "strong proud woman" scenes to be nauseating and tedious. However, she's not THAT bad. She was decent.

Now, the SML / SFL couple is where you will really emotionally invest. Right away you'd notice that they violate the c-drama rules for a happy ending, so logic would tell you from the start that theyre doomed and won't live. And indeed they don't. But it wont stop you from emotionally investing. Therefore by the time they died, I no longer cared about what happened to the main couple. The second couple is funnier, sweeter, more exciting, and WAYYYY sexier.

The plot was involved, but not very gripping. The villain is unpleasant and gets too much screentime. Main couple gets very little screentime together through the middle/end of the story.

It doesn't feel like a happy ending, although technically you could get away with calling it one.

The whole thing lacks a firm artistic vision, and often seems like just a hodgepodge of scenes tromping blindly ahead through the prescribed plotlines, to the point that finishing some episodes felt like a chore. The director on some level knows this, and attempts to use the ost to pump up the emotional amperage of what is basically a somewhat flat story. Which just makes the ost sound aggressive and intrusive.

In this case, it was the 4 lead actors who had to hold this crappy story up, and they do a very good job of it, but they cant rescue the drama from its phoned-in direction, muddled script, and letdown ending.

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It will occupy your attention... but it probably won't leave much of an impression.

I liked this one for the easy, mildly interesting plot, and the way the pacing flows so nicely through the beginning and middle.. I also liked the actors. The leads had some chemistry, the kiss scenes were decent. FL was wisely cast -- she was the only thing elevating the show into something that could almost be taken seriously. ML did his best and it wasn't bad at all, he just needs some more acting experience under his belt and he will improve.

The problems: The way the story unwinds towards the end starts to get laggy and a little bit boring. The storyline, plot devices, dialogue.... all of it is really tired and cliche. The main couple kind of loses a little fizz in the final few episodes. Some of the soundtrack was slightly overdone to try to boost the dramatic or emotional content of the scenes.

I thought it was a little bit refreshing and ambitious for them to try to miniaturize an epic wuxia into something compact like this, and they didn't do too bad of a job. They just didn't do too good of a job either. This is a good between-shows watch with some decent kiss scenes, but definitely not of rewatch caliber.

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A decent story with a good amount of spice, but missing that je ne sais quoi...

In many senses this drama was "very good".... there is good chemistry between the leads, acting was good, styling and aesthetics were good, story was good, and it's spicy enough to give you some good cheap thrills. And the soundtrack was very very good, and served to elevate many scenes, while never at any point becoming too intrusive.

But for all that it had going for it, I wouldn't call this exemplary. The story was told in a kind of blocky, disjointed way that leaves viewers with a few questions afterward. The plot unfolded in a way that could have been made less confusing, although it was good enough that you could basically follow along. The actors are great and their chemistry is good, but neither of them is displaying a lot of charisma. (At least their kiss scenes are somewhat satisfying, so that was nice.) The settings and wardrobe were supposed to reflect money and sumptuousness, but they just felt a little bit cheap sometimes (not too bad though).

The plot itself was a little bit ho-hum... it was too makjang to feel realistic, and too realistic to feel makjang. The subject matter was predictable and tired, and didn't throw a lot of twists at the viewer.

For me, 8 is the threshhold score of shows I think are really satisfying and worth a re-watch. I gave this a 7.5 because there's nothing that *wrong* with it, and yet it just didn't quiiiiiite come together in a way I felt was truly satisfying -- but sooo close though.

Basically the highlight of this drama is that it has a spice level that's higher than most shows. So it's good for if you want a few hours of viewing that will give your heartrate a goose. But I wouldn't go into this drama very serious-minded or expecting something epic. I would recc it for a one-time watch to someone who wanted an "Inbetween-shows-show".

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It should have been good...

It started off cheesy and hilarious and sexy. So idk what went wrong. But it's like a snoozefest sandwiched between a hot beginning and a hot ending. The middle is SUCH a slog. I mean the kisses were great. But the kilig is really really missing, and it didn't have that My Lethal Man over the top makjang crack-addictive plot. You think when it starts out that its giving MLM, but really it's totally not.

We know these two actors are hot enough to burn a hole in my CPU. Not only that, but they are also really good at the actual act of 'acting', which is more than can be said for many (coughcoughcoughkaisosocoughcough). So what went wrong. How did this happen. Answers to these kinds of questions are above my paygrade, and outside the realm of my psychic intuition. Needless to say, it was just a disappointment.

It's times like these I find myself alone on a hilltop, the stormy night howling through the billowing sleeves of my black sequined dragon robes, my full length ice white hair alight in the wind, my hands outstretched shooting mad bolts of lightning into the sky, crying in confusion, "JUSTWHY!"

So anyways. I regretfully have to give it a 6.5... and what that means is it's actually a 6 (that's right, I said SIX, I know what I said) but with a spicy kiss as the thoughtful after dinner mint that comes on a little tray when they bring you the check.

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Excellent palace intrigue story with endearing but spiceless romance.

Acting was excellent, especially the emperor and main leads. Story was intricate, deliberate, and well made. Costumes and makeup were fairly good. Soundtrack and ost were absolutely awesome. Characters had some depth, and the complex relationship between the ML and FL was fun to watch and well acted.

My biggest beef with this one is the fact that the romance lacked spice and passion, it was very sanitized and theres no sexual chemistry lighting up between the main leads, the kiss scenes are soulless.

There is also a forced kiss scene thats pretty stupid. I find some forced kisses hot and fiery but not this one. FL acts like a prude nearly all the time through the story, but at least shes a likeable prude. In the forced kiss scene she doesnt act like shes denying her desires... she acts like ML is actually assaulting her, as if she finds him repulsive or as if shes afraid of sexuality. Which for this drama and these characters, doesnt make sense.

I'd rewatch this for the entertaining well-made story, but not for the romance.

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As a red-flag lover, this drama was a bad time.

The secondary couple should have been the main couple, and the story should have been about them.

They had stolen my heart and my attention to the point that when their storyline concluded, I gave up on the whole drama. It is a MAJOR design flaw in this production.

As usual, the production team who created this drama did a great job. The supporting casting is off the hook, the costumes are great, the styling is so amazing. The bgm/ost sounds recycled from SOKP and is a bit repetitive, but that's overlookable. What is not overlookable is the MOST interesting and captivating relationship dynamic in the story coming from two side characters who are then thoughtlessly discarded when they no longer serve the larger (and more boring) storyline.

Just aigoo...

7/10, because it's worth a one-time watch, but BARELY.

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This is absolute apex cliche.

How can I describe this drama..... it's like somebody saying "I will make you authentic italian spaghetti," and then serving you plain boiled spaghetti noodles with a can of extremely cheap marinara uncerimoniously dumped on top of it.

Things you will see:
>Distracting and fake-as-shit-looking milk moustaches. Yes, more than one.
>FL is aspiring artist, CEO ML gives her a job next to his office.
>Got dayum that 3ML lookin genetically recessive.
>Trying on outfits with the CEO ML sitting on a couch pooh-poohing all the outfits until..... he sees the STUNNER DRESS..... you know the one. The one that looks like a 20-dollar little mermaid knockoff princess dress. "Oh, I couldn't get my zipper zipped all the way up by myself...."
>The shoddy wire gazebo strung with christmas lights, which the FL was tricked into wandering into, when suddenly OUT OF NOWHERE the ML appears in a suit with a giant bouquet of flowers, gives her his confession and a piece of jewelry. Bet you didn't see that coming.
>Backlit errythang!
>The kind of kissing you'd see from two people if, say for instance, they were complete strangers thrown together by a shitty script and standing under a glaring light, surrounded by camera crews.

It goes on and on like this, you get the idea. It's dull, flat, insulting to your intelligence, unoriginal to such an extent that you could call it noteworthy. I would not watch this unless I was having a PTSD attack or someone had just died, and I just needed something "on".

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Visually beautiful production and charismatic ML but terrible editing, pacing, and sound editing.

This drama is very aesthetically appealing. Settings, lighting, camera direction and acting all came together to create a gorgeousness that feels immersive, dark-sexy and intriguing. The production values are somewhat higher end for a short length. I love this ML, ive seen him in other things and hes great.

Romance was more tame than I expected, and it was sort of presented as a side-dish to an overly complicated plot about drugs, power, secrets, and scheming.

The real problem was completely bad editing and pacing. It slows down way too slow, then speeds up way too fast with flashback scenes presented in disjointed ways and lots of skipping around from one thing to another.

The writing and directing werent the best either, there was an awul lot of cringe moments flying around here and there.

The bgm/ost were so "off" to me... nothing struck a note that matched the tone of the scene. It was all this accoustic femmy music with a dynamic range imbalance problem, that just killed any sexy and drove me to hit mute. Very loud in comparison to the drama, and distracting/detracting. Some people really like the songs. I dont.. this is not my kind of music. But aside from that, the music didnt match the tone of the show at all. You have a very dark aesthetic, lots of use of black and dimly lit interiors, and rainy nights, the ML has a very dark, smoldering quality to his looks, hes supposed to be a badass, protecting his ballerina girl from blood, bullets, drugs, and crime bosses. That just doesnt call for sentimental accoustic female ballad songs. It calls for something that sounds dark and smoky. The juxtaposition of music to show was imo jarring and detracted from the overall tone they were trying to create.

Supporting casts acting was neither great nor terrible. But since this romance was very short on actual romance, and my focus was challenged by the drama and not gripped by it, i give it a 6. Imo a wast of time, not totally worth the watch.

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Idk if you're gonna like it honestly....

I think if you go into this seeing it as less of a drama, and more of an extended music video or the movie cut from a video game, you might like it better.

It's the direction that's the most at fault for this... many scenes that in a normal drama would be filmed with a still camera shot, are instead filmed with a thatrically lit moving camera shot. Not just key parts of scenes, but little things like "the chauffer picks up the FL and takes her to the mansion" etc, are filmed dynamically and stylistically, and this creates the "music video" effect.

Everyone's makeup is just a liiiiitle too thick, everyone's clothing styles are just a liiiiiiitle too tryhard.

The acting is amateurish, especially on the part of the FL, who has weak acting and weak kiss game. She's holding her mouth closed like a nun sometimes during kiss scenes, and it looks like she's not into him at ALL. She just wants to act out the scenes, pick up her paycheck, and gtfoutta there. The ML is the only one who could keep up his end of the story. His acting was a little flat, but he got some riz and with more experience and a different director, he could probably improve quite a bit.

The story is ok, but it's hard to keep your attention on it because the director's sense of pacing is ALL OFF, and so it puts you to sleep when it shouldn't. The ending was interesting, although it's like 50% cool and 50% facepalm. With better acting and directing, maybe it could have been more like 90% cool. If this was how Sima Jao's story ended it would be sort of cute I suppose.

It does have a few redeeming qualities, but I was not a fan.

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A confused story with unconvincing emotional content.

The concept of an abused woman finding a man who loves her and wants to get her out of her situation seems very emotionally heavy, and yet within the first few episodes, it's clear that this drama doesn't know how to convey strong emotions. The FL is shown as defiant and unafraid in the face of her abuser's beatings. This is just unrealistic ino.

Then she starts interacting with the ML, and not far into the story, he discovers her abuse as he helps fasten up her backless dress and sees some quite dramatic scarring on her back. That scene should convey some strong or complex emotions, but it doesn't.

The beginning episodes seek to establish just how bad FL has it with her abuser. Needless to say, that doesn't set up a very romantic mood for the audience. Yet interspersed between these scenes of abuse and violence against women, there are scenes where the ML and FL are flirting and becoming attracted to eachother. And the way these two elements of the plot combine is very unsettling, in the sense that the show has no awareness of itself, and no understanding of how abuse impacts people. I have seen several dramas that center around an abused woman finding love again with another man, and most of those shows treat the topic with sensitivity and at least *some* realism, but not this one. There is so little emotion surrounding the abuse and the new romance that it feels like it was written by someone with antisocial personality disorder -----> (To highlight that point.... there is a scene in the first part of the story where the ML takes FL for a ride in a sportscar. She starts having a panic attack, and tells ML that she has previous trauma from a car accident, and she needs him to slow down the car. His response is to tell her she should face her fears head on, and then he continues to drive hella fast, presumably to desensitize her to her past trauma. And surprise surprise, his "therapy" works! And after only ONE car ride, she is now totally over her fear of high speed car travel!!! Maybe it's just me, but I feel like only a sociopath could write a scene like that and not see anything wrong with it.)

Add to this the fact that there is a very choppy and disorganized flow to the storyline, with some very abrupt scene changes, and you start to wonder "uhhh... am I missing something?" No. You're not missing anything, the story itself is just very confused.

This is supposed to be a business / romance story. But what you come to find is it's really a business-intrigue, and the romance is a complete afterthought that only exists to serve the business plot. Somehow, there is ZERO spice here, incredible since both the ML and FL are capable of bringing spice to their roles in other productions.

Styling is OK, but not exactly what I would consider "on point". Music is totally atrocious... it overpowers scenes and creates even more confusion than there already is just with the crappy script alone. All in all this was a confused and terrible mess, and not in a good way like My Lethal Man.... but in an extremely boring and insensitive way.

I cannot think of any situation where I would recc this to someone for any reason. The actors who participated in this all deserve so much better than to have to try to work miracles out of a stupendously bad script like this, and I wish them all the best on their next projects.

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