Not fully fleshed out.
When Si Jin was first announced, I was really excited and I am not going to deny it was because Jing Tian and Zhang Wanyi are two of my favourite chinese actors working today. They were, for the most part, the best of this drama but that's to be expected considering they are the leads and need to carry a heavy storyline of family and court politics, and outsmarting not only our main villain but every pawn she puts in their way. On this, Si Jin was satisfying. The rest of the supporting cast was also really good with what they were given to work with.
But from the beginning Si Jin had some storytelling issues. It could be ignore at first but as the story progressed and revelations started, it started to look messy. I struggled to put my finger on it for a while, why wasn't Si Jin working as it should when it had all the right elements? I have narrowed it down to the combination of small and big things.
For starters, Si Jin's script is not exactly tight and coherent the whole time. As a consequence, for example, the main villain comes of as one-dimensional; so when she argues her talents were always were overlooked because of her gender or that she was in marriage without love, it simply leaves the viewer wondering "Am I supposed to feel bad for her?". Because I spent 39 episodes watching her murder indiscriminately, with the first point never being developed and the latter where it's clear as day she actually forced the man to marry her. Another key point, is that the mystery surrounding one of the leads' connection to another nation was put in the back burner for way too long, in favour of repetitive family conflicts.
All of this gets more obvious when you realize one of the drama's weakest points, its editing. There are harsh cuts and inconsistencies in the sequence of the story, so much so, that makes me think a studio suit (or censor?) put their hands on the show, cutting in order to achieve a certain amount of episodes, avoid some of the points the show was trying to make or the story it was trying to tell.
I googled the people responsible for this drama, behind the scenes, and while they are experienced, looking at their filmography makes me think perhaps this story was too big of a project to develop for them. Which it can be a reality that affected the drama's final cut.
Overall, Si Jin feels like the skeleton of what could have been a really great drama have they had the opportunity to be fully fleshed out. I still enjoyed it, tho, and it didn't drag at any minute. It's a solid 7 out of 10 stars.
But from the beginning Si Jin had some storytelling issues. It could be ignore at first but as the story progressed and revelations started, it started to look messy. I struggled to put my finger on it for a while, why wasn't Si Jin working as it should when it had all the right elements? I have narrowed it down to the combination of small and big things.
For starters, Si Jin's script is not exactly tight and coherent the whole time. As a consequence, for example, the main villain comes of as one-dimensional; so when she argues her talents were always were overlooked because of her gender or that she was in marriage without love, it simply leaves the viewer wondering "Am I supposed to feel bad for her?". Because I spent 39 episodes watching her murder indiscriminately, with the first point never being developed and the latter where it's clear as day she actually forced the man to marry her. Another key point, is that the mystery surrounding one of the leads' connection to another nation was put in the back burner for way too long, in favour of repetitive family conflicts.
All of this gets more obvious when you realize one of the drama's weakest points, its editing. There are harsh cuts and inconsistencies in the sequence of the story, so much so, that makes me think a studio suit (or censor?) put their hands on the show, cutting in order to achieve a certain amount of episodes, avoid some of the points the show was trying to make or the story it was trying to tell.
I googled the people responsible for this drama, behind the scenes, and while they are experienced, looking at their filmography makes me think perhaps this story was too big of a project to develop for them. Which it can be a reality that affected the drama's final cut.
Overall, Si Jin feels like the skeleton of what could have been a really great drama have they had the opportunity to be fully fleshed out. I still enjoyed it, tho, and it didn't drag at any minute. It's a solid 7 out of 10 stars.
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