monstersnroses

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.

Read More

Worth at least a one-time watch, well put-together.

Green flag lovers and fluff lovers will rejoyce on this one.

I am only green-flag tolerant at best, and too much cotton candy makes me sick. There has to be something more to a drama than just oxytocin fluff or I don't vibe with it.

Well this drama has more to it. Yes, there is copious amounts of fluff, but beneath that there is some substance. The acting was really above-average, and these two actors are both capable of delivering really great scenes with a wide range of emotions. And that was fun to watch.

The OST/BGM were sort of all over the place, and yet it had it's genius moments and vibed pretty well with the drama most of the time. The styling was not the best but not the worst. The interiors/exteriors used for the scenes are really cozy and style-forward.

The script is the downfall, and sure it's extremely trope-y, but I don't mind that. I don't down-rate for just that alone. What I thought was really the downfall of the script, is that it hits moments where it's so subtle and so elevated, the psychology is on-point, and then it just loses its momentum. There are many almost-breakout moments in this story.... with more care given to this script, these actors could have pulled out A performances, and the bones of the script would have had real meat on them.

Also, the actors had good friends-chemistry, a very comfortable vibe about them... but not a lot of sizzle. The kiss scenes were well done though, so that kind of compensated.

As it is, it's a mixed bag of goods and bads. But just on the meta-level, this is a step up from most short length dramas. Definitely check this out just for the acting alone. Both the ML and the FL just need the barest of polishing and someone to give them a good breakout role, and they'd be able to pull of high-caliber roles in A-list dramas.

Read More

All this is, is eye candy.

You'll get no spice here between the leads, I'll just start with that.

If you're *still* interested, even though there's no spice here... then here is what you will get:

*Average directing.
*Decent styling on everyone except ML and Villain. Whoever did Aaron Deng's hair should be fired.
*A plot that starts off interesting and then completely absolutely faceplants in the last several episodes and turns into one huge string of cliche cop-out c-drama tropes.
*Fairly decent acting on the part of the cast members.

This was an okay watch, I would recc to someone who is an Aaron Deng fan or a Tu Zhi Ying fan.... or someone who wants something light and topical as kind of like a between-shows watch.

Read More

Better than most run-of-the mill c-dramas, but not re-watch caliber.

ML and FL were both very good in this. Excellent acting, great styling and costumes, both of them are great actors turning in solid performances.

However, just that alone can't save a show. Nearly everything else about this drama was "good but not great". Supporting cast, music, dialogue, camerawork, fight scenes, costumes... all were good but not great.

What sucks is that the worst part about it was the story itself. So this script fundamentally could not be saved. The way the plot was designed, was that you get the initial romance between the ML and FL, their courtship, falling in love... planning their wedding... having their before-the-wedding night, and it's all super sweet. That lasts through roughly the first half of the drama. And then.... calamity strikes and they are suddenly separated. This separation is brutal, cruel, and total, and it lasts for the entire second half of the drama. The writer first establishes in you an emotional connection to the ML/FL couple, and then uses that emotional connection to keep you watching through episode after episode of the pain of separation, and gross injustices carried out against the ML and the FL. Well, that gets tired real fast. I am not an emotional masochist, so I did not appreciate the storyline at ALL.

There are also problems with the scriptwriting. Transitions between one scene to the next sometimes leave you disoriented like "did I miss something between these two scenes?" And certain aspects of the story were acted out and filmed when they should have just been implied.... and other aspects of the story were implied, when they should have been acted out and a scene written for what happened. In this sense, the flow was blocky and disjointed.

Finally the chemistry between the main couple left something to be desired. It was "not bad". There was SOME level of chemistry there. But it wasn't electric. The two main actors are both very beautiful and very good actors, but they don't make the best couple. They just make a "pretty good" couple.

So this was a 7.5 for me, because it is definitely definitely worth a watch.... but not really worth a rewatch. Y'know... unless you just want to stare at beautiful sexy Luo Zheng in a hot costume and gorgeous long hair.

Read More

A masterpiece of the twisted and scandalous...

This drama is a very strange blend of deep psychological exploration and taboo romance. Because of this reason alone, it will only attract a certain kind of viewer. Not everyone finds psychological analysis interesting. And not everyone can hang with a story that includes incestuous feelings and actions.

Unlike many dramas, the main strength of this one is it's screenplay. It is original, the dialogue is thoughtful and intelligent and at times wickedly hot. The characters are full of dimension, and the writer makes them come alive. The dynamics between characters are complex. The psychological insights are simple, profound, and treated with great sensitivity.

This is a story about a bunch of batshit crazy people. They're rich, for starters. The drama is very good at imparting to the viewer the kind of claustrophobia that rich/famous people live inside of. They rarely leave their house. Most scenes are in someone's bedroom, in the living room, in the kitchen, in the backyard. When they go on vacation, they just go to another house (their villla). The only animal that makes an appearance in the drama are horses. Which is a good parallel of the characters. They spend most of their time either in a little stable, or running trying to be free. When they leave their cocoon to go out to eat or to experience a new situation, they inevitably have unpleasant experiences with "outsiders"... this teaches them further that they are better off staying at home. Even within their home, there is a feeling of people continually trying to invade their privacy for one reason or another.

The characters all handle this strain by retreating into themselves.... and then the FL comes along and draws them each out of themselves, making them into healthier people with stronger loving bonds.

Because they are all perpetually rich, isolated, and withdrawn, they don't perceive themselves as abnormal. They don't have people in their lives to compare themselves to. Normal people are just "outsiders", and their opinions are not only immaterial, but unknowable. So the crazy is treated as normal.

SPOILERS NOW.....

What kind of crazy, well a crazy absent-parent actress mother. One brother whose girlfriend died and he went completely off the deep end and is living in the wake of his own deep grief, and becomes attracted to his newly arrived sister.... but only when he's drunk. Another brother who is likewise attracted to his newly discovered sister, and also attracted to his brother and dresses like the dead girlfriend to get his attention. An older sister who thinks all of this is perfectly normal and amusing, and enables their behavior.

Each of these characters is thoughtful, sensitive, intelligent in their own way. They have a lot of depth. Yet the perversion is always there running through everything. Sprinkled sparingly through somewhat normal scenes, theres scenes like.... the brothers arguing over which of them is going to take their sister's virginity.

It's shocking to the viewer, and yet the show plays it off as normal. Which makes it somehow even more shocking. And yet if you are into the twisted romances.... it's just so damn hot. Like 3rd degree brain-burns level hot. You will NEVER see this in another asian drama. And the best part is they treat the subject with so much maturity and delicacy, not like a joke or an embarrassment or a tool to be used for shock value alone. This drama is NOT for a psychologically squeamish viewer, and NOT for someone uncomfortable with the topic of sex, because so much of this drama revolves around the subject of sex.

The acting is somewhat amateur, but the actors all have a natural talent that shows through. So you could call it good "bad acting". But yeah, the acting is bad. Especially the ML. The screenplay is such a powerhouse that even saddled by the ML's novice acting performance, it still delivers. Soundtrack and OST doesn't intrude much on the show. A little bit at times, but for the mostpart it was fine. It has more silence than most dramas, and that in itself is such a great relief for the viewer who might be tired of overproduced garbage.

Some people are going to find this boring, because it's mainly dialogue-driven. The interpersonal relationships are the focus, and there is lots and lots of dialogue, most of it involving one degree or another of psychoanalytic conversation. They are also going to find it boring, because the characters themselves are bored. They're all so wounded that nothing from the outside world reaches them anymore.

I give this drama a 9+ because you will NOT find anything else like it in the world of drama, and I'm not kidding here. It is so different from anything else I've ever seen. And some of the scenes achieve a level of hotness you can rarely find in romance dramas, yet without being cheesy or explicit. It has massive imperfections, yes. But it also has a vision and a depth and a sick hotness that leave a lasting impression to say the least.

Read More

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.

Read More

Pretty much the ONLY thing wrong with this is the ending. Everything else was awesome...

This was a time-travel plotline that satisfies, because the pacing is just right, and it doesn't get overly confusing at any point. The story was interesting, but not too interesting. After all, in a romance drama, the plot is supposed to serve as the vehicle and backdrop to a core story about two people falling in love. Some romance dramas become so plot-heavy and entangled that the writers forget there's supposed to be a ROMANCE story in there, and the romance drops by the wayside in sacrifice to a plot thats just too much. Not with this one. The romance is always at front and center of the story, in every episode.

Lovesickness has a very interesting and peculiar brand of "angst" running through it that I greatly enjoyed. The characters are smiling and the sky is sunny, the clothes are white and pink, and yet you can feel this terrible sadness and yearning beneath it, coming from the plot, and it's such an odd contrast, I loved it.

Actors were EXCELLENT!!! Oh my GOD, the FL and ML are total powerhouse actors with amazing range, and they have real chemistry between them. As many of us already know, Yan Zi Xian knows how to kiss. But this time he's really outdone himself, because THERE IS A FRENCH KISS IN EPISODE 11. Yu Yi Lei, the actress who plays the FL is AWESOME for letting him kiss her like that, and she just rolled with it. She's not a bad onscreen kisser herself, and her ACTING is so GOOD. I normally am really picky about FL actresses, but I am an instant fan of YYL because of her performance in this. I cannot stress enough that these roles required a LOT of range of emotion and personality, and YYL and YZX completely slayed.

Makeup was totally on point. There are times where ML or FL has to look sickly, wounded, pale, drunk, happy, whatever.... and every time, the makeup set off the scene to make it that much more believable.

Writing also on point. The dialogue was touching but not sappy, easy to follow, with great sense of timing and pacing. The flow of the story was natural.

Many aspects of this show were frivolous, cliche, predictable. In that sense, this show is meant to be a casual, light watch. That's usually how it is with short-lengths. But within the confines of their format... they really fuckin nailed it. My only gripe is the way it ended, and I very much hope a part 2 is slated to happen at some point. Please god, let there be a sequel to this someday.

Read More

It's the CLOY of c-dramas, and it's excellent.

This is top shelf goods, 100% Grade A Premium.

You can't please em all. But you can come pretty damn close.

So there are little criticisms to be had everywhere. But to focus on those is nitpicky, because when taken as a whole, this was a mightily satisfying and widely accessible drama, that highlighted all the good things c-dramas have to offer. Much like CLOY does with k-dramas. You can watch it with your friends, with your family, you can rewatch it over and over and it has staying power. Beautiful and funny and powerful iconic scenes created by a visionary director.

Cast was well-chosen, and delivered sincere and elevated performances that played to their strengths. And as usual, Deng Kai nearly stole the show, but this time his acting was on a whole other level of sincerity and depth, and I hope he reaches a new level in his career from this performance because it was EPIC DENG KAI. Pardon my french, but he took this massive A-lister production, and made it his bitch. And I mean that in the best possible way. I'm just so enthusiastic about his performance here that it moves me to expletives. Like if Deng Kai were your favorite hockey team and they just won the stanley cup. He was so great.

Usually I get into pros and cons of a drama when I review it. And then I say who I would recommend it for.

But with this one, it's honestly useless to list pros and cons, because I would recc this to literally just about anybody. And you can find out the pros and cons for yourself while you watch and form your own opinions, but however you walk away from this drama after watching it, it is NOT a waste of time. Its really effin good.

9/10 Because crowd-pleasers have to please everybody, they take less risks and so I give it one point off for "playing it safe" on a few key things. But other than that, this is about as close to "perfect" as a drama designed for a general audience can get.

Read More

I just don't know who this is for

Jesse Ren, right.

But no. I'm here to tell you, this is not the drama you're looking for.

The first kiss scene is at about the 3/5ths mark, and it comes with no lead-up at all. Like none. I wondered if the part of the scene where they got to that point just got left on the cutting room floor. I actually re-watched the episode thinking I must've missed something. I didn't. The kiss itself is mundane. There's like one or two other kiss scenes besides that one, and they're really flat-feeling. Like the kissing scenes only serve the plot and that's it. It's weird. They feel lackluster and badly timed.

They do this thing where they leave off an episode on a tense, climactic moment. And the beginning of the next episode is a totally different scene. So you don't ever know what HAPPENED between the two episodes. This makes it feel really REEALLY chopped up and confusing. There is NO flow here. It's horribly horribly disjointed.

The love between the characters feels unearned. Relationships are not fleshed out. There's not a lot of emotional investment for the viewer to get behind, so you watch the whole show not totally caring what happens.

The plot is the intriguing part. But the way the story is told has no natural feel to it at all, and the eps are 10 mins long.... with many eps where there's no forward progress, just more stringing you along. So the price you pay to watch this plot idea is kind of higher than the show is actually worth.

Who was this show written for? A romance watcher? But there's no romance written into it. A kilig lover? There is ZERO kilig. A suspense or mystery lover? Why would they watch this when there's tons of GOOD mystery productions to watch? No one is going to actually have a good time here.

If you must watch "literally everything Jesse Ren has ever been in", then go ahead, it's not THAT bad. And thankfully not that long. But no one else is missing anything by skipping this one. It was lowkey terrible.

Read More

Excellent screenwriting, strong direction, solid casting.... a super satisfying watch.

It's odd because the plot isn't exactly original, the chemistry between ML and FL isn't much more than passable, the romance is really a side-dish to the story, the direction and costumes and backdrops were very good but not top-tier.... and yet it's on my short-short list of best things I've seen all year.

It's the screenwriting. It's just excellent. And then all the other parts come together to support that script in a weird undefinable synergy that creates the most amazing final product. It's so addictive.

And then the ending is exactly what the viewer would have wanted. IMO, it needed more romance and fire, so I knocked one full point off for non-stellar ML/FL chemistry. But honestly, I'd rather watch 7/10 chemistry relationships that have a really good HE, than watch a 10/10 chemistry pair that has a horrible SE.

Standing ovation to everyone involved in this, it was absolutely amazing.

Read More

If Power Rangers made a romance story.

There are no bug masks or spandex leotards, sure. But there is the same brisk pacing, gloating overacting villains, bad cgi and even worse dubbing, a story totally unfettered by pesky things like 'logic', and actors doing a halfassed job of playing characters that make no sense and have no backstory.

Much like Power Rangers, i am not emotionally moved in the slightest by this story, and only mildly amused by the copious abundance of cheese.

I give it a 6 because despite its failings, it was fresh... and even though I felt it was a waste of time, I was at least somewhat entertained.

I do have to say, though..... that it attempted to be an action/romance story, and the result was that it ended up being neither action nor romance.

Read More

An overall strong production, with a few weaker points

The superior production and direction made this traditional story of palace intrigue very gripping and watchable. Pacing, styling, settings, direction, aesthetic were compelling and interesting.

The weak points:

1. The romance aspect was SORELY lacking. There is no passion at all, no romantic chemistry between leads, and a "made for all audiences" sensibility about it. This is not a romance story. Its a palace drama, with a light romantic element to it.

2. Missed the mark on the "strong finish", went overboard and turned it predictable and cheesy.

3. Villains are hard to understand psychologically, have too much screentime, are too cruel and sick, and do not get the endings they deserve in most cases.

Other than that, it was a fun watch.

Read More

How is this not considered plagarism?

This story is basically 'My Fated Boy'. I've never seen anything ripped off so blatantly without any credit going to the original work. It's hard for me to even rate this because of that, but I gave it a 6, mainly because there was nothing wrong with the acting or the styling, and I'm sure those people worked hard to make a nice short-length drama.

But if this is going to be a copycat of MFB, only a short length, then what I would expect is the same story but with more spice and less bullshit. And yet somehow this story is LESS spice and MORE bullshit than the original. Justwow.

ML has a handsome quality to him, but it's clear that both the leads were chosen for their resemblances to the ML and FL from MFB. And as good as this ML is, he's not in the same league as He Yu. In MFB, the kisses and spice were electrifying. Here everything is meh. Not bad, but not good either.

I'm kind of surprised this production didn't get sued into oblivion.

Read More

Slow start, picks up in the middle, then drags toward a shit ending.

I feel like I went through all that for nothing.

I just want to make it clear from the outset that I am exclusively a romance watcher, the actual ROMANCE aspect of a story is what i'm interested in and focused on. I rate things based on the quality of the romance part of the story, and how it fits into the plot.

Viewed strictly as a romance, imo this was awful. The romance was a side-dish to the main story, which was basically palace intrigue and political power struggles. There is a love triangle and the dynamics of it are weird and uncomfortable. The ML/FL chemistry was quashed over and over again, leading up to a SINGLE kiss scene you wait 38 episodes for that is maybe the most sanitized kiss scene Ive ever seen, it was basically only visually alluded to.

If you watch for spicy chemistry and romance, then you just get strung along and strung along all the way to the end, for nothing. ML dies.

Production value, acting, ost were all mediocre, except the FL who did a really good job.

First quarter of drama is hard to get into, and you wonder where its going with this large and cumbersome story. Middle 50% was a solid watch. Last 25% just totally dragged and turned into a cringefest of sappy filler monologues and over the top moments.

It was just a cop out of a romance story, and I really find it a shame I wasted so much time on it.

Read More