Outlandish family antics makes a cringeworthy watch
I felt that by watching this show I would give Xu Kai & Yang Zi one more chance before I give up on using them as the primary reason to watch any of their shows. And how lucky that I can watch them both in one show before making my decision. I have enjoyed past shows starring each of them, but the enjoyment was due more to the power of the story & production, rather than their performances.Best Choice Ever is another rich/poor CEO/employee set up in Shanghai. Yang Zi plays 29 year old Mai Chenghuan, a senior employee in the sales department of a luxury hotel. Xu Kai plays Yao Zhiming, the newly arrived, foreign educated, CEO of said hotel, of course. MCH is already in a tenuous 3 yr relationship with the son of a large design company, & of course gets off to a bad start with her new boss.
MCH's engagement to the future successor to a large business partner of the hotel she works at poses the ultimate conflict of interest as both businesses seek to use the upcoming marriage as leverage for their financial deals. The conflicts of interest don't just stop there. The drama presents a lawyer representing his girlfriend, & using work resources for personal issues while proclaiming not to be doing that, as being ok when it involves the main characters.
There's an interesting contrast between modern & traditional Shanghai. Rich families embody the modern, spacious lifestyle, while MCH lives with her 4-member family in a tiny, old apartment so cramped her younger brother has to sleep on a cot in the living/dining room. This living condition is what they can afford & allows them proximity to the business district, where the children can pursue career opportunities & still come home to a cooked meal. This is the commitment of MCH's working class parents.
Trope after trope follows, but the emerging themes are what role should marriage play in a woman's life, & how do you maintain professional integrity when personal conflicts of interest are constantly thrust upon you. It's a dismal world of pure transaction, where someone's interest in you is only as far as what they can get from you. That transaction can often apply to your own family, which drives children to spend their lives slavishly trying to appease their parents' regrets. And, as usual, success only comes with luck & circumstance, rather than how hard you actually work.
Unfortunately, as the drama progresses, the events that unfold become more & more bizarre. It also becomes apparent the story isn't really about MCH & YZM, but rather MCH & her mother. The dialogue is contrived & stiff. Lines are delivered in long, preachy sentences which is very unnatural. Plus, the lengths that the mother goes to in order to force what she wants from MCH was so outlandishly immoral & embarrassing it was painful to watch. Like throwing a surprise lavish engagement party just to publicly force MCH into marriage, or loudly barging in on MCH while she's literally heading a staff meeting just to order her to go eat lunch, would make you cover your eyes faster than the scariest horror movie. Such fodder would've been much better presented as comedy; instead, MCH's mother has to be the most irritating character I've seen in any drama. Does the screenwriter (or author) have an unresolved issue with their own mother to create such a distorted character? Towards the end of the show, the mother is firmly planted in the viewers' faces (as if you didn't have enough yet) by becoming the focus of the final 4 episodes, spiraling downward & taking everyone with her. Was she supposed to be the main character after all? And what is the "choice" referred to in the show's title? Is MCH choosing her mother? She has no choice but to deal with her.
Yao Zhiming turns out to be MCH's step-cousin by marriage, & they connect through their (step)grandmother, but their relationship is hugely overshadowed by the theatrical hysteria of all the other arcs in the show. YZM's character basically stands on the sidelines & clearly takes a back seat to MCH who puts in a gargantuan focus on her mother. He supports her just so she can support her mother, with the consequence being that they still remain unmarried at the end.
YZ seems to be caught in a loop of goody two shoes roles while XK has not changed from the muted, boyish & cocky rascal. This show has simply mixed the two together but nothing new has come out. All in all, Best Choice Ever is over the top & confuses who the viewer is supposed to sympathize with. Mother/daughter relationships are always hard but this show is next level cringe when you see how a mother can ruin a daughter's life.
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entertaining, but confusing ending
Park Yeon Woo is a Joseon woman who finds herself suddenly in modern day Seoul after a botched murder attempt sends her through a time portal. The first person she meets is Kang Tae Ha, a young executive of a large retail corporation. Tae Ha not only looks exactly like the husband she had just married in Joseon & who passed away on their wedding night, he also carries the same name but doesn't recognize Yeon Woo. Gradually, she meets others in Tae Ha's circle who also look exactly like those who were around her in Joseon, including the vengeful mother-in-law.The story then falls, as the title suggests, into the contract marriage trope in a tale of repeating fates as Yeon Woo's "new Joseon" adventure parallels her previous Joseon life, including finding a profitable high end market for her embroidery & dressmaking skills. Past secrets gradually get revealed in a sordid tale of family betrayal all in the name of social status & greed.
In spite of the dark undertones the show was light & funny with a few LOL moments, but as the ending approached it got rather confusing . Yeon Woo is given a chance to change the course of her family history but her behavior didn't seem consistent with what I thought her character might do with a 2nd chance with her past love. The last episode also felt very glossed over, after a dragging previous episode which was basically an hour long good-bye scene, & a longer epilogue would've been nice. One important character, the mysterious spirit who catalyses Yeon Woo's time travel, is never really fully explained.
Finally, Lee Se Young as Yeon Woo showed more spunk & comic flare than she did in the early eps of Red Sleeve & remained strong throughout. Bae In Hyuk as Kang Tae Ha, is obviously more inexperienced with his performance. Veteran Jin Kyung as the mother-in-law deserves special mention with her portrayal of one of the more complex characters in the show.
Overall, an entertaining watch but too bad the ending fizzled out.
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Comic relationship adventure with odd editing, conflicting themes
Shim Jung Woo was the highest & youngest scorer civil service exam, highly reluctant prince consort, and naive straight shooter. "Those who marry matchmakers are destined to live short lives" is a saying taken to extremes as SJW's princess bride to be drops dead during the wedding ceremony, foretelling his own unrealized true destiny. Rowoon is very good at comic roles & hilariously portrays SJW as haplessly innocent in spite of his high intelligence & strong sense of justice.Cho Yi Hyun plays Jung Soon Deok, a widowed noblewoman who moonlights as matchmaker under the pseudonym of Yeo Joo Daek, unafraid of any challenge, & is as free spirited as Jung Woo is rigid. Her talents are so natural it leads SJW to believe she is the incarnation of a matchmaking god.
No period drama is complete without palace intrigue as the Joseon king fights resistance from his own court to appointing the sickly 14 yr old crown prince's marriage and thus, by inference, his ascension. To lift a rumoured curse on the prince's future marriage (and political) prospects, the king orders SJW to marry off 3 "old maidens" whose unmarried status threatens the prosperity of the kingdom. SJW teams up with JSD in a funny and raucous ride to find the perfect bachelors for the maiden sisters. However, the journey gets rather dizzying with sudden flashbacks for mutliple characters, new characters introduced at different times, and complicated backstories with hidden identities. And there's one significant character, the king's second grandson & chief political threat to the crown prince, who's mentioned frequently but never shown during the entire show which is very odd.
Therefore it took me almost a 1/3 of the show to get into the story because of the mish-mash of flashbacks & jumping storyline, but eventually as the matchmaking for the maidens gets going I could just enjoy the comic moments & follow the development of the relationship between the leads. Then their matchmaking efforts fall apart as the politics heat up and past crimes come to light, turning the leads into detectives. There is also the prospect of a child marriage with a 10 yr age gap, presented as a fated true love match, which cannot be portrayed positively or realistically even if it was acceptable centuries ago. It's uncomfortable, actually, to see this in the storyline as no big deal & it conflicted with my enjoyment of the show. Finally comes the age old question of do you follow your heart or your fate? In the end, the good people are happy & the bad people get their due. The romance is light & funny, the politics heavy & perhaps unnecessarily tragic, but an entertaining watch overall.
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light & entertaining but lacklustre finish
Song Kang, the "Netflix King" for having so many shows exclusively on this network, shows his comic talents in this story of a demon, Jeoung GuWon, who takes advantage of despair & suffering to make deals with humans willing to trade their souls for relief. A master in the human world who is used to having absolute power, he meets by chance Do Do Hee, a workaholic CEO who proves to be his nemesis. DDH is played by Kim Yoo Jung (a veteran at age 24) who gives her character a refreshing hard nosed edge, with enough depth to reveal a lost & vulnerable soul within without turning her into a caricature.This show is infused with funny moments in spite of its very dark undertones. And although all the usual romance tropes are in play, somehow they're not annoying when you have SK to look at, & whose dramatic acting is actually decent. The storyline follows a largely predictable path but with smaller twists that aren't so obvious & keep things interesting. There's also the past lifetimes theme which is very popular in fantasy genres, showing how demons are born from pain & resentment, & tying the lead characters together over centuries. And, of course, no demon is complete without a demon hunter, but the character who I thought would be that, didn't become that. Questions of who or what constitutes evilness, whether the devil is in humanity or exists separately, are ever present. And, God is a woman, also of course, & one whom this demon serves.
In spite of the questions, Demon is not a deeply philosophical journey, but is entertaining and very binge-able until the rather lacklustre final episodes where innocents are redeemed & bad guys get their due.
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very lightly entertaining
I've followed Zhao LuSi for some time and she is on a lightning streak in her career. I never considered her particularly strong as a dramatic actress, but what she is good at are light comic roles, and the early part of this show suits her very well. Wang An Yu stands up well alongside ZLS's star power.Like other epics, this story spans vast stages of time but this show deals with much narrower issues. It begins with the imminent awakening a Fire Phoenix god, whose birth event is disrupted by GuJin, a true god who has yet to arise to his own destiny in the divine realm. He comes across a lowly spirit beast & together they start a journey to revitalize the Fire Phoenix.
I've read that The Last Immortal is a sequel to Ancient Love Poetry, a show I enjoyed very much, but there's not a lot of reference to it. TLI takes a long time to even start approaching the intensity of ALP. The tone changes from light comedy to serious half way through & here's where the leads' lack of depth in their performances become apparent. The story & action also drags noticeably before picking up once more as we enter the second act. However, rather than develop the characters' relationships more deeply, the show deals with all the villians rather early or too quickly, as with the long suppressed demon god. Too much time is spent with everyone firing their energy beams at each other while crying in angst in between. The ending felt somewhat unsatisfactory.
I don't have a lot to say about this show. It's lightly entertaining but the storyline doesn't hold any surprises, the CGI is bad, the costuming so-so, and no deep philosophical questions. It's good that ZLS could have a career in singing (she sings the opening theme song) if her acting doesn't carry her much farther, but this show won't stop her current streak.
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So many holes; this story doesn't fly
A timid and insecure young employee of Incheon Airport who was transferred from dept to dept because of her mishaps, finally lands in Passenger Services where she meets a coworker with a mysterious prosthetic arm, and with whom she shares a previously unknown past connection.I discovered this show from following Rowoon (Destined With You) and Lee Je Hoon (Taxi Driver). This is an earlier work from 2018 and is the 2nd show I've seen with LJH. The real star of the show appears to be the Skytrax 5-star rated Incheon Airport and its complex inner workings. The story is otherwise a standard office drama with many staff members having dark, connected past histories that slowly come to light. While I enjoyed LJH in Taxi Driver, he doesn't have much range in Where Stars Land, and thus his character seems less interesting. "My human rights are not at your service" Ep6. The FL character grows from a hapless and apologetic screw up, into someone who finds her voice and the confidence to stand up for herself against abusive customers. However, the long, helpless deer-in-the-headlights shots as she struggles with decision making get tiresome.
The writing is not very strong and the story is pieced together roughly. A lot of flashbacks are short on detail. Past relationships between different characters are hinted at but take a long time getting explained, if they get explained at all, so you see that there's a lot of trauma going around but you're left with so many questions. The most exciting parts of the show are the Security Team taking down customs violators. It's rather easy to lose interest, but the story picks up a lot by Ep19 as the ML's secret starts getting (literally) out of hand. Darker elements such as organized crime ensnaring executive management within the airport authority also come bubbling to the surface.
As the lead couple's relationship develops, questions arise as to how to address a permanent disability from a devastating motor vehicle collision. "The gift you were given is not yours." Is having a super strength worth it if you can hurt a stranger, or if it means you can't live very long? On the other hand, is being in a wheelchair so hopeless that after 11 years you still can't accept yourself? I don't know what accessibility is actually like in modern cities in South Korea, but this show sends a poor message to the disabled.
So many questions, so few answers in all the characters arcs. And one of the most bizarre final scenes I've seen in any show: LJH is shown only from behind with his face hidden from camera. Why? The show is so aired with mystery that it's too full of holes and makes an unsatisfactory watch.
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fantastic ensemble cast
Best show I saw in 2022, & not just because the main character has the same last name as me. "A crime doesn't turn into a local custom just because everyone does it" (Ep13). In 2004 a wealthy village chief's son sexually assaults a bridesmaid at a villager's wedding, setting off a chain of events over the next 13 years, unravelling layers of misogyny, corruption, & oppression within not only the judicial system but among family members. The struggles between the individual & the collective is exacerbated in the migration from the village to the city & the march toward modernization. The story follows the bride in her relentless fight for justice for her family & their very own livelihoods. The ensemble cast is fantastic, portraying very complex & intersectional characters with sensitivity & grace.Was this review helpful to you?
A gorgeous & wild ride in the beginning but falls flat at the end
My first thoughts were that this drama is highly entertaining, with gorgeous production & heart-stopping action scenes. It was therefore easy to be swept up in the hype as this show started to air, to the point where it was difficult to view it with a critical eye.The story begins with a carefully constructed introduction to the life & character of 19 y/o Fan ChangYu, the orphaned daughter of a pig butcher, carrying on her father's profession to support her young sister & adoptive aunt & uncle. She possesses extraordinary physical strength & is highly intelligent in spite of being poorly literate. She rescues the injured & severely weakened fugitive, Yan Zheng, & their developing relationship anchors up to 2/3 of the show. Past identities are slowly revealed as political instability & war drive them from an idyllic village life into the battlefield. ChangYu's fierce independence & heart, always staying true to herself while having her world turned upside down, is what made this drama so mesmerizing to watch. Her identity changes only in the way others view her, but she never loses sight of her own self.
However, like too many high end productions before it, the last 10 eps of the drama slammed to a crawl with no further growth in the personal relationship between the main characters. The writing & acting seem to have fallen off the cliff & we don't gain anything in any character's story as so much time is spent featuring the ineptness of the emperor. In fact, ChangYu almost fades into the background which is so puzzling after dominating the story for 30 eps. What began with so much heart just simply ran out of steam toward the end. All the time spent building up the secondary characters also came to a grinding halt, with the main villian(s) falling (literally) too quickly & easily. I was ready to give this drama a high rating but unfortunately the show dropped the ball far too soon.
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unexpectedly fresh & funny
Boyfriend on Demand follows Seo Mi-rae, a single 30'ish woman with a routine but somewhat tumultuous (& dateless) lifestyle, working long hours as a webtoon producer at a highly competetive online publishing company. She manages the company's most popular writer, leading to a collaboration with a tech company in basing a new virtual dating app on one of the writer's characters. Mi-rae is given a free VR set to trial the app & give a review, thus becoming addicted. On comes an exploration of how emotionally & financially exploitative an AI created "perfect date" can be.After going wild with role playing through several of the 900 risk free programmed virtual dates - involving hilarious cameos with a couple of celebrity idols - Mi-rae then settles into a comfortable ease with one perfect VR boyfriend, with whom she just just lets herself be herself. Through conversation with him, she examines her own real past relationship with her college sweetheart, its failure, & learns how to let it go. After achieving such a significant personal closure, however, a rude awakening occurs when Mi-Rae discovers her VR boyfriend is not personalized to her & that others are dating this character in the same way in the app, much like experiencing everyone else wearing the same outfit at a party.
Her real life co-worker & rival producer, Park Gyeong-nam, is calm & muted with a strong nerd vibe . He's a tranquil sea in contrast to Mi-rae's near constant turmoil. They work in rival teams as they manage fiercely competing writers, keeping at arms length from each other. Mi-rae meanwhile trials a new VR boyfriend, customized after a lengthy personal questionnaire. Of course, what pops up is in the exact image of Gyeong-nam, but with an idealized personality based on what Mi-rae thinks she wants.
Reality & VR start to meld as Gyeong-nam eventually confesses to Mi-rae when she is already in the throes of virtual dating. Mi-rae is forced to confront her true feelings & the feelings of the flesh & blood person standing in front of her.
Seo In Guk does very well in portraying Gyeong-nam with a quiet consistency. Ji Soo (my 1st time seeing her) pulls off the role of Mi-rae well enough & I enjoyed both performances.
And near the end, the assumptions the app's creators made in what women want from an ideal boyfriend are all hilariously turned upside down. Ha Young is very funny as Mi-rae's best friend who burns through the app's characters like a professional arsonist. Gong Min Jung is perfect as an eccentric talent who never accepts the handouts she's given. Neither character apologizes for being themselves.
I was surprised at how fresh & funny this drama feels. Full of romantic tropes while making fun of them at the same time. The writing is intelligent, with the precautionary warning of never losing sight of what role AI should actually play in our lives. I enjoyed this show very much.
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A Fantastic Tale of Love & Forgiveness
I'm not a huge fan of Bai Lu but I started watching this show in between waiting for epidoses of Pursuit of Jade to drop. Moonlight Mystique presented a far superior contrast in storytelling & character development, & is a reminder of how there are very good shows out there that don't get a lot of hype.Bai Lu plays Bai Shuo, a human noble woman destined for great power. She holds the key to the survival of the fatally cursed Demon King, Fan Yue, played by Ao RuPeng. Together they go through the steps of tribulation & ascendency of Bai Shuo in a series of challenges that further develop the back stories of all of the characters. I liked the balance of each character's storyline, such that there was no wasted time or stalling of the pacing in the show in general.
This drama is as bloody & gruesome as xianxia's can get, but all of the characters demonstrate that a balance of good & evil is present in every individual. Too many believe that beings can be divided neatly into distinct groups that don't mix, ie humans, demons, & eternals, but the main characters all exhibit mixed properties & attributes that don't fit "standard norms". Somehow there's strong message in this for our modern society, that people in our big wide world can't be categorized separately.
No action is what it seems & everyone does things to each other for a reason. Revenge killings are ever present but what transcends is the power of forgiveness. This seems to be the core of the story. It does get heavy on the melodrama, however, with a seemingly endless body count & characters dying repeatedly. It turns out the main characters are reincarnations of 60,000 year old supreme dieties, destined for yet another final showdown. The ending might not be satisfactory for some as it falls deeper into trajedy than most other stories, but neither is it a wrong ending as the whole drama starts & finishes with Bai Shuo. It wasn't until the end that I realized how much ground this drama covered, with Bai Shuo remaining true to herself in spite of all she that she goes through.
Overall, Moonlight Mystique was captivating to the end & is one of Bai Lu's better dramas.
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Good performances and chemistry between the leads
I hesitated to watch this show for a long time. The more recent efforts of both Xu Kai and Tan Song Yun in modern dramas were disappointing and made me very skeptical that this show would be any different.But... I was pleasantly suprised to be proven wrong, which is why I'm glad I didn't give up on them just yet and decided to watch it. XK & TSY are remarkably well matched in this production. Not only are they both youthful looking in spite of their ages, they matched in their reactions to each other in an easy chemistry. XK's performance was the most subtle I've seen from him & there were many moments where he broke out of the boyish box I've described previously, that he seemed trapped in before. I was able to see his character this time, rather than just be watching an idol. Likewise, TSY brought a confident maturity to her own performance, portraying a very strong character who fights for her worth and who never betrays herself.
I won't analyse the story much as it had the usual corporate power struggles & toxic love triangles. What made it interesting was the "frog and scorpion" (or hunter and fox, in a very whimsical presentation in the show) relationship between the leads, and how they would overcome such a polarizing difference, requiring fundamental changes in each of them. The writing was decent and there were a few laugh out loud moments. But while the story only served as a backdrop, the real treat was in watching XK & TSY so comfortable in their roles, bringing to life a couple you could cheer for. And I was mesmerized by TSY's hair & office fashion, because she isn't a classic beauty but she looked fantastic.
All in all, an entertaining and light watch, with a nice, sentimental special epilogue ending.
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Visually flashy, but obsessed with death
I don't remember much from the first American TV production of Shogun (1980), so I'm only able to re-watch scenes on YouTube for comparison. Interestingly one scene, Blackthorne explaining his understanding of the world map to Toranaga, is recreated almost word for word in the latest production by Disney+.The remake gives a very different feel as there is unexpected weight given to the Japanese characters, especially that of struggling feudal Lord Toranaga. Much of the dialogue is in Japanese and even the episode titles are bilingual. This is perhaps an attempt to give the show an authentic Asian drama presentation, but there's something that's still very American in its tone. So much attention was paid to authentic visual detail, but I think the forest ended up getting lost in the trees.
I grew up watching North American TV, but spending the last 3 years watching Asian (C/K/J) productions has given me a new view of cinematic storytelling. There are stark differences but it took me a while to figure out exactly how to describe it in one word, but I thought of it: gratuitous. North American audiences are so obsessed with gore that they need to see the heads flying for the sake of seeing heads flying. Not to mention sex without love; there's no meaning attached. How does that flying head affect the person making or watching it happen? (Compare the execution of Ned Stark in Game of Thrones for an emotional beheading). The show thus became an endless parade of suicide & killing in the most gruesome manner, every single episode. Death is something each character is resigned to on daily basis & sex is just something you do like going to the gym; it's no wonder everyone is miserably hopeless. Was is truly the zeitgeist of Japanese feudal society?
The setting is stunning considering how every structure is a replica. Unfortunately I felt a lot of the beauty was lost in the very dark lighting of so many scenes, all in shades of grey & blue. This is made worse with a lower res tv. Why film in the dark, other than to emphasize the very dreary atmosphere with the constant threat of death under every stone. Mud, mist, & rain are prominent. Every scene is cold, wet, muddy & bloody.
Equally monotone are the personalities of all the characters. A very narrow range of emotion makes the show seem to present a stereotypical portrait of Japanese people as serious, stoic, humourless, and inscrutable. Any expression of joy is muted against the background of rain & darkness. I realized I couldn't sympathize with any of the characters. Where's the base human emotion that connects us all? One episode is titled "Eight Fold Fence", describing the wall behind which a person hides their inner selves for protection from a chaotic outer world. This just means everyone is so withdrawn that even viewers can't connect. How can one sypmathize & be drawn into any character's story in this way? The only thing left to be interested in was the political intrigue, which is simply a history lesson.
With the politics being a final note, this series ends on a cliff hanger, ready for a season 2, as this first season was basically a huge build up for a war that has yet to happen. Making the characters more human would be a big improvement for the next season. Otherwise I'd have to say this show was a not an elevation from a typical flashy American show. Rated 7.5 for the production.
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good writing, smart & funny telling of the usual age gap/wage gap office romance
Ha Yoonseo is a well respected department manager at a credit card company who left an abusive home at a young age with her younger brother. She fought to put herself through school and rise up in her career while taking care of her little brother. Seo Joowon is the youngest scion of the chaebol family that owns the company, but begins his destiny by entering anonymously into a lower level position, under the direct supervision of Yoonseo. Not until a year and a half of them dating does she discover his true identity & this is where the story begins.At 10 episodes, Cinderella at 2 AM is a shorter series but it's just right. C2AM is an age gap/wage gap romance that turns out to be a more refreshingly honest look at the relationship & the forces, both internal & external, working against it. In the process, however, the age gap never becomes an issue, either in the story or the acting. After seeing a lot of disastrous chemistry between jie/di casting in other shows, the 2 leads of C2AM, separated by 14 yrs, do the best job I've seen of making their interactions seem more natural, not only in supervisor/subordinate roles which they alternate, but also as lovers.
The cast delivers with good comic timing and the 2nd leads provide a good contrasting relationship of an arranged business marriage between 2 people who agree to live their separate lives as soon as they leave the altar. In spite of the usual tropes of love triangles & jealously set ups, there were no cringe moments. Instead there were a lot of very funny moments, as well as heart felt drama, which is a strength of the writing for this show. Infused is the Cinderella fairy tale, as Yoonseo struggles with the effort to build up what she believes is her fantasy of being strong, capable, & deserving of happiness, while fearing that it will all disappear after midnight if Joowon & his family discover her difficult past.
So while I was expecting another silly w/age gap romance with awkward leads, I was suprised to find myself really enjoying this show. The dialogue was mature, with each character reflecting on their behaviors, on how their desires/beliefs conflicted with & affected others. Even the evil mother-in-law comes around. As all relationships involve push & pull, gains & loss; whether something is a sacrifice or a benefit depends on how you see it. Straight up emotions transcend socio-economic status.
All in all, C2AM was a great little show, and easily bingeable.
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Action & story mostly deliver on this entertaining but unevenly paced show
Bambi Zhu seems to have been very quiet in the last couple of years since her last lead role in Cute Programmer. From the start of Fateful Love, it's nice to see her back at something she's quite good at: being a badass martial artist. Also showcased is a previously underutilized talent - she's funny!Zhu plays an elite military trained member of a scientific expedition, looking for new medical resources in some un-named jungle. An accidental fall into a cave leads her to discover a mysterious magical blade which transports her into a fictional historical China & into the body of a high ranking minister's daughter. Believing the dagger holds the key to returning to her world, she starts the hunt for it, only to find it in the possession of a royal prince.
While some body switch shows have the main character losing her memory & all of her skills, Han ZiQing remains fully aware of her previous existence, while gradually gaining the memories of her new life. She tries to hide her skills while secretly using them to find a way back to her world in the present. This creates comic encounters which might not seem very original but are deftly delivered by the cast. More importantly, one can develop sympathy for the FL & be interested in how she will get through her predicament as she gets more & more involved in the affairs of this strange new world.
I wonder why Zhu hasn't been cast with higher profile co-stars lately & this production looks rather low budget. But that doesn't mean the show isn't good. Although the ML is a veteran & I recognize very few other cast members, each delivers a decent performance & the story moves along smoothly.
At 40 eps, however, it's a long show as the FL just goes from one mishap to the other when almost everyone she meets tries to kill her. You forget what happened where without gaining any significant developments in the character, a sign the show is too long. The show only moves because of all the action scenes. The tone changes from lighter to darker & final 10 eps seem to suffer from choppy editing as battles come & go with the same footage & I sometimes didn't know who was fighting whom. Characters' motivations & moods change suddenly with very little build up so here the drama became rushed. Han Ziqing's story also seems to be pushed aside when you'd think she should be getting closer to solving the riddle to getting back to her world. And as bad ass as she started, she seemed to need getting rescued by her prince an awful lot, until she unlocked the door to back to her present at the very end.
All in all, the show was entertaining but an obviously long & complex story was unevenly paced especially at the end.
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very bingeable leads
Watching Tears in Heaven right after Princess Agents is like seeing YanXun & Chun'Er meet again in a later life & start their relationship anew. I have to admit this pair is the only thing that kept me watching.Tears in Heaven follows Du XiaoSu (Li Qin), a spunky interior design graduate who could only find work as a gossip writer until she meets Shao ShenRong, a doctor treating an elusive celebrity she's chasing for an interview. They fall in love, to the consternation of ShenRong's mother, and an untimely tragedy leads XiaoSu into a direct clash with ShenRong's best friend, Lei YuZheng (Shawn Dou).
It's a captivating story, but one filled with stereotypical characters who lie to, & misunderstand, each other from one situation to the next. Deep dark secrets abound both at home & in the office, which never seem separate in Chinese dramas. So, against the conventional backdrop of corporate power struggle lies the stories of 6 people trying to find love & a stable connection amid workplace chaos, personal trauma, & an unsupportive economy.
XiaoSu is seemingly gutsy & determined, but irrationally timid & mute at the same time. When threatened with losing her job she can literally risk her life stepping out on a building ledge, but when threatened with losing a relationship she just accepts it without a word. Luckily, she learns to fight the 2nd time around, but really, the show could've ended by the 7th episode if she had just made a phone call to clear up an issue involving her father. And why doesn't she regularly contact her parents who live far away? They don't show up until more than half way through the drama, and unexpectedly at that.
I also had an issue with the portrayal of XiaoSu's career as an independent designer. Another show, The Furthest Distance, also features an independent architectural designer with a small staff but it did a much better job using that scenario to showcase a large part of that character's personality & strength. In Tears, XiaoSu doesn't interact with much of her staff, nor do we see how she even hired anyone. She & her staff don't act as a team. She isn't shown holding meetings, assigning work, or resolving workplace issues. It's as if her career was just another outfit she wears, & we're left to judge her character based only on her pursuit of a man. I ended up agreeing with her questioning what exactly does YuZheng see in her.
Although XiaoSu is seemingly the central characer, the show is very much male centric. YuZheng heads an all male board of shareholders. Even the executive assistants are male. All of XiaoSu's clients are male. The only powerful females are entertainment celebrities. XiaoSu regards herself as a nobody & is only someone for YuZheng to take care of. Apart from just sticking by his side, she didn't actually do much for him other than take care of his father while letting her own business falter.
The 2nd & 3rd couples I won't go into but they featured females who make irrational decisions & have unrealistic expectations of their relationships. It was hard to find sympathy for either of them.
The final quarter of the show centers on YuZheng as the story focuses on his corporate power struggles while the romance, along with XiaoSu, gets put on the backburner. Seeing the relationship stall really made me hope the show wouldn't end with them suddenly getting back together only in the very last scene. I was pleasantly surprised that the last 2 eps were actually quite enjoyable, with a lovely double wedding scene featuring brides in modern gowns but in traditional red. In the end, all the relationship conflicts resolve simply & cleanly in a pool of forgiveness & redemption.
Numerous writing/editing gaps in the story left so many loose ends. For example, the introduction & subsequent disappearance of YuZheng's lawyer happens just when you'd think a lawyer would be front & centre. Or how did YuZheng pretend to be ShenRong, and then suddenly everyone knew he wasn't & was ok with it? XiaoSu & YuZheng apparently met in an earlier incident years prior but the circumstances are never explained. And how does one maintain perfect hair after 8 months in jail?
Annoying & sloppy details aside, the real attraction to this show would be the leads, Li & Dou, who put in decent performances & worked well with each other. Who knew YanXun & Chun'Er were made for each other after all. With these two to look at, one can almost ignore the irregularities in the writing. It's still a very bingeable show.
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