S2 fizzles after a fantastic S1
The saga continues with CangXuan consolidating the kingdom after his coronation, which of course means war. However, that serves only as a backdrop to the renewed focus is on XiaoYao's marriage prospects & her four suitors.For such an epic story, it's a bit disappointing to see so much attention paid to XiaoYao's angst, & a bit frustrating to see her character so oblivious to what everyone does around & for her. She can never be proactive when she's always the last to know.
I never liked TuShan Jing in S1 & was hoping he would have a stronger presence in S2. Unfortunately, he remained either sick or in a coma for most of S2 & I absolutely failed to see why XiaoYao valued him so much. His only demonstrated strength was in throwing money around & getting other people to do things for him. He turns out, however, to be quite a pivotal character in the story, but why wait until the last episodes to tell his achievements in a few words from another character?
Which brings us to Xiang Liu. Xiang Liu & Xiao Yao are connected so deeply, they're already everything to each other except married. After generating so much electricy between the two of them in S1, much of their momentum was lost in S2 as XiaoYao turned all her attention to the very boring TSJ, to the point where I was ready to give up on them by Ep17.
The story does get more interesting with XiaoYao discovering her true identity & the story of her parents. But somehow, YangZi's performance didn't quite hit the sensitivity she gave in S1. I'm a bit confused with S2 as XiaoYao doesn't seem to have luck with anyone & is admittedly lost with herself. She strives to make a place for herself in society, but never seems to get full control of anything. In the end, it all comes down to what others have sacrificed & made possible for her, which makes her rather helpless. Hmm, this seems to be a common theme of Yang Zi's recent roles. There's so much more going on with all the other characters in the story that I felt they should've been given much more screentime instead of all of Yang Zi's crying scenes.
Anyway, S1 was a fantastic start to an epic story, but S2 definitely fizzled. Still, entertaining overall, but as this review is only on S2, I'll have to give it a 7/10.
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Eye-opening but shot too dark to see
Is a teacher's purpose only for helping students pass exams? Not knowing what a hagwon is when I started this drama, I had homework to do. Why are school kids learning in an office building? isn't that setting usually for adult night classes? It took a few episodes just to get a sense of the role of hagwons, or private prep schools, within the public educational system. Teachers compete against each other for students while pandering to the parents, measuring success by how many get accepted to prestigious universities. It's a complex world of ultra-privilege & free market dynamics, intertwined with regular schooling like a cancer, choking out academic freedom & feuling incredible pressures for all involved.Speaking of night classes, this drama made me claustrophobic. Most of the scenes are visually dark: offices & rooms appear windowless, what windows were visible had their blinds drawn during the day, many outdoor scenes were nighttime, & classrooms & offices are so small all the occupants looked like they were virtually shoulder to shoulder. It made for a very oppressive setting. In fact, the overall look was so dark I actually had to adjust the brightness of my tv just to see what was going on (it's a cheap tv).
In spite of the show being uncomfortable to look at, the story itself was fascinating as it introduced an aspect of S Korean society I hadn't seen before, nor have I experienced anything close to that where I live. The story follows Seo Hye Jin (played by Jung Ryeo Won) a top performing teacher at a Daechi-dong academy. Her life is turned upside down when her former star student, Lee Jun Ho (played by Wi Ha Joon) quits a comfortable, nepotically achieved corporate job & is hired as a new teacher into her own team.
When you've been teaching for while, you discover it takes a student to challenge you to your roots. HyeJin unknowingly instilled in JunHo genuine wonder & curiosity in literature which was the spark to the improvement in his grades. But having been in the business for so long, HyeJin seems to have forgotten that focus, locked into her memorization techniques & dependency on her ability to predict exam questions that brought her to the top of her game. In stark contrast is JunHo's approach in encouraging exploration & appreciation. Catalyzing their explosive clash is a brilliant 10th grade student Lee Si Wu, who is in the top tier of smart: i.e. he actually knows what he doesn't know. Si Wu fully understands his perfect scores are like walking blindfolded on a tightrope, totally dependent on knowing which questions to study for, rather than being able to handle any question that could come his way. He knows how to memorize, but doesn't know how to read. JunHo wants to teach students to read, a skill for a lifetime, which would bring a seismic shift to the role of the academy as an economic machine, catering only to parents' wishes.
The influence of hagwons is so deep they affect real estate, & this is reflected in Jun Ho's pursuit of becoming successful enough to buy his own home. In spite of growing up privileged in Gangnam, he's determined to achieve his own living & stay in Gangnam. Stronger than his own economic ambition, however, is his pursuit of the true purpose of education & his own role as a teacher.
At the center of it all is JunHo & HyeJin's noona relationship, one in which HyeJin has a very hard time overcoming the teacher/student mindset. And, given her own hesitancy & inexperience, she's paradoxically mature & immature at the same time. JunHo challenges her on different levels &, in this respect, I felt this was one of the more realistically presented age gap romances I've seen. Things get ugly when ambitious executives at the school seek to use this relationship to destroy HyeJin's career. This somehow made me lose interest in the show in it's final episodes as it plunged downward into viscious office politicking.
The subject of hagwons has been eye-opening & for that reason I enjoyed the story which is the show's greatest strength, along with good performances from the cast. Unfortunately, the show was also visually suffocating with all the poorly lit interior & night time settings, & with a lower res tv I sometimes couldn't even see the actors' faces clearly. If you can get beyond that, this drama was well worth the watch for an honest examination of the purpose of education itself.
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worth the rewatch; ready for S2
I first saw this show 2 years ago, when I first started watching Chinese dramas. At that time, I felt that it was one of the better shows I've seen in any language. Today, over 150 shows later, & about half of them costume dramas, I'm realizing Joy of Life S1 is probably one of the best shows I've seen in the last 3 years.This production has a very different feel to it from the regular diet of C-dramas. The dialogue is fast, smart, & funny, & the acting is superb. Few shows are able to create & sustain so much tension, with enough comic moments expertly executed to move the story along. Each character evolves with each scene as new information changes the way we see them, but rather than make everything dizzying or confusing, the story itself gradually comes to light. It's a complex puzzle but each move is closely examined. Deftly intertwined within the policital arc is the romantic development between the main character & his royally approved betrothed.
The story gets deeper as each character tries to outsmart the other, & it becomes a challenge to remember who knows what, like trying to keep several moves ahead of all players in a huge game of chess. Alliances form & change on the fly. But this is what kept me engaged in the story, moving along with Fan Xian as he discovers the secrets of his own identity, & as he grows from a sequestered village boy into the possible heir to the 2 (& possibly 3) most powerful organizations in the capital.
It's a story that's not about good vs evil, but about motivations. It's about the struggle for power while staying true to your principles & loyalites, or not. No character is one sided. Uncle Wu Zhu, the blind swordsman, has to be one of the coolest, badass characters of any martial arts show around. Invisible as a shadow, unmatched & unrecognized in his skill. He, too, has a secret forgotten past.
The story is so complex that I'm glad I decided to rewatch S1 in preparation for S2. I've picked up more details & gained a better understanding of all the characters, & even developed a new theory about Uncle Wu from all the clues I totally missed on 1st viewing, like when FanXian asks him in one scene, "Are you human?" I'm now ready for S2.
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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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Entertaining & intelligent story
The opening scenes don't do this show justice. The cast of 20-something idols clearly struggle with playing 40 year old characters, & the mismatch was so jarring I was actually ready to drop the show before even finishing the 1st episode. Honestly, why couldn't the producers cast age appropriate actors to play the 40 y/o main characters? If an audience is sharp enough to keep up with the story, surely they can differentiate between actors. But luckily those scenes didn't last long & I stuck it out.What follows is a complex & weaving tale of 2 people given 20 years of their lives back to start over from an horrifically destructive end. They retain their memories & manage to redefine their relationship with each other & reshape their destinies. While this is a simplistic overview, the journey the story takes is exciting & fascinating with enough plot twists to keep your attention. Even though you expect a triumphant outcome at least for the leads, you don't quite know what to expect for all characters involved until the very end, and a satisfying ending it is.
This is only the 2nd time I have seen Zhao Jin Mai, who has already been quite active in the business. My first time seeing her was in the very disappointing Admist a Snowstorm of Love in which she was cast in a very limited & poorly defined role that was a complete waste of her talent. In Princess Royal she takes the role of Li Rong with commanding ease. I noticed a few alumni cast from Joy of Life, all accomplished & skilled actors who enhanced this production.
All in all, Princess Royal was a very entertaining & intelligent story.
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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 famiy 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 & affected others. Even the evil mother-in-law comes around. As all relationships involve push & pull, gains & loss; how you view something as a sacrifice vs a benefit depends on how you see. 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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could've been great
I really don't have much to say about this show. I was interested from the opening scenes to see real badass action from the FL & was prepared for what should've been a great story. Unfortunately, after an injury which leaves her with amnesia, she turns into just another silly & helpless FL in a conventional costume romance for 90% of the show. Not until she regains her memory in the final 2 episodes does she do anything of consequence & showcase those action skills once more. It could've been a great show, all the elements were there, but too bad so much of it was dumbed down.Was this review helpful to you?
Strong performance from Crystal Liu in a richly nuanced study of love & relationships
The Tale of Rose is a show that grabs you visually, immediately. Crystal Liu is Huang YiMei, & her story starts when she's a 22 year old art graduate in Beijing, catapulting in the art industry to the position of exhibition curator through sheer spunk. A walking work of art herself, she's stunningly beautiful & she knows it. She also knows her beauty makes her a target for others to blame for their own misfortunes, but she refuses to accept that responsibiity. Liu bursts through every scene like a tornado, sweeping up everything around her, and I don't know why but I can't stop staring at the clothes, the hair & makeup, the bouncy non-chalance. But it's an immature soul inside that huge cloud of powder, and tornados are destructive.The story follows YiMei and her older brother ZhenHua as they both pursue love in whatever form it may present to them. ZhenHua's gentle nature is in stark contrast to YiMei's firey liveliness. In fact, YiMei's initial relationship with a work colleague was such a rollercoaster I wasn't sure I could stomach it for an entire show as I realize I'm only on Ep12 at this point. But those clothes, that hair. I think this is the 1st show where it's not just an actor simply wearing a designer outfit; Liu lives & breathes that fashion, completely embodying a character who wears a ball gown as easily as pyjamas.
Live & learn, as they say, & as time goes on, YiMei decides to go back to school in a much subdued state, leaving her family in Beijing to go to Shanghai where she meets her 2nd love. At this stage she has changed so drastically that the question is can she find true happiness if she is not her true self? And are men really different from one another? Whether they are lone wolves or mama's boys, they all seek to control when they are unable to grow. Empowering oneself without disempowering the other takes a lot of maturing.
And fact check needed: can a husband resign his wife from her workplace without her consent, or her employer even confirming with her since the spouse is basically an unvetted stranger? This can't be legal, even in China, so this is quite a stretch in the story. If YiMei has the guts to sue for a divorce, why wouldn't she also sue for her job? This question is more or less answered at the end when she realizes she'd rather let go than fight to keep things, including love.
Legalities aside, this show becomes a fascinating look at the push & pull, the hanging on & letting go, overcoming & being overwhelmed at any & all stages of relationships, spanning almost 20 years of the lives of YiMei & those around her. Not to mention differing attitudes toward success & family, particularly from money grubbing mothers-in-law. The story even includes a character who becomes a single parent by choice, further commentary on the role of men as partners in modern women's lives. YiMei never loses herself no matter what she goes through and her fearlessness in pursuing the paths she chooses never wanes, especially when she finally meets her true soulmate, another free-spirited artist. She's like an immortal who's banished to the human realm to endure all aspects of human suffering. The 3rd relationship felt underdeveloped & overdrawn within the story as it passes very quickly, & was harder to sympathize with. However, the show draws to an end with YiMei coming to a reconciliation with all the people in her past, while recognizing that she can never be settled with anyone other than herself. This might make her selfish, but at least she's honest & unapologetic about it.
Another detail that was too distracting: if you're caught in a rain storm on a mountain hike & you are wearing an appropriate outdoor jacket that comes standard with a rain hood, why wouldn't you put that hood on? Yes, it's more visually dramatic to to be soaking wet with water running down your face, but if you don't want to die of hypothermia you need to Put. That. Freaking. Hood. On.
Anyway, aside from a few annoying details, I think this is the strongest performance from Crystal Liu I have seen. She doesn't overact the character at 22 years of age, unlike other celebrities (I'm thinking Yang Zi). Tong Da Wei as ZhenHua gives a steady performance & makes his character an anchor against YiMei's tumultuous life. Overall, I found this show very richly nuanced & quite enjoyable.
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Tone & pace maintained from S1, engaging story & well acted
It's nice to see the tone & pace are largely the same as from S1, same superb performances from the veteran actors. Love the patient, close examination of finer details in both scene & conversation. I've read that there are many jokes which don't translate well. Although my Chinese is limited, I can tell that the dialogue is sharp & fast and, even from what is translated, some scenes can still be very funny to a Western trained eye simply because the acting is that good. The CGI is not up to Western standard, but the natural sets were stunning.Once again, Fan Xian schemes & this time makes a choice of who to align with, and characters continue to surprise, making the viewer guess what their next move might be. The crown prince became more cunning & surprisingly likeable. In fact, many characters now show a lighter, more casual side to themselves than in S1. Even Shadow is given not only a personality, but also aspirations, & presents more as a human being. Wu Zhu experiences self-doubt since he's been freed & on his own, & my suspicions of his identity from S1 were confirmed. Many characters returned from S1, although some were given very little screen time in S2.
S2, however, is less broad in scope as the story mainly centers on Fan Xian consolidating his influence within the capital, under his declared goal of weeding out government corruption. The romance takes a back seat to the political intrigue. Lin Wan'Er, who should be the most important person to Fan Xian, isn't even mentioned until Ep5. However, the development of their relationship was gripping as they reach new levels of understanding with each other. Wu Zhu doesn't show up until past the half-way mark at Ep26, but is involved in a drastic new development as he continues to be an important key to the mystery of FanXian'smother. FanXian's mission takes the story through the conventional settings of the imperial examinations, and the highly anticipated wedding with Wan'Er.
The season ends with Fan Xian one step further into taking control of his mother's assets, & without an agonizing cliff hanger as in S1. However, hopefully the wait won't be long for S3. The story remains highly engaging & I'm ready for S3.
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This review may contain spoilers
How to live in the face of death
It's been a while since I last saw Lin Yi (Put Your Head On My Shoulder) but he seems to have been quietly building an interesting portfolio of dramas with real stories. Angels Fall Sometimes looked like another interesting show. Lin Yi plays Lin Tuo, a talented young person with a promising career as a designer, suddenly facing an early death sentence with a diagnosis of ALS.The last show with a similar theme that I watched was Love is Panacea (2023). Angels achieves what Panacea does not: it addresses the question of how to live in the face of death. In these types of dramas involving terminal illness, I tend to look for messages of hope or possibilities on an individual level. Panacea failed on several levels & for a while I thought Angels would fall short as well. Angels explored so many negative reactions, the what-not-to-do, surrounding the main characters for most of its duration. Its tone didn't change until the final episodes when all the questions that built up were finally addressed.
It's a cultural thing to cover up serious illnesses, but trying to maintain an alternate reality by lying is toxic & unsustainable. The level of denial & inability to cope is far worse than trying to face the truth in the first place. It was rather rediculous to watch, but sure enough, the friends who try to support Tuo break under the strain & his secret isn't kept for very long.
Toxic parents add to the mess, because why not? They suddenly become concerned & compassionate at the flip of a switch. If the workaholic father was essentially estranged from his sons for most of their lives, to the point of being oblivious to the younger son's near suicidal depression, why would he rush to Tuo's side at the drop of a hat & apologise for being a shit parent at first word of Tuo's illness? That didn't make much sense but at any rate they become an important part of Tuo's support network.
Keeping the illness secret from his grandfather by lying about why he's in a wheelchair is another level of incredible. Will the grandfather find out only when it's too late? The cruelest thing to the people around Tuo is to not allow for a proper good-bye.
Tuo retains intellectual capacity & the desire to work throughout his disease progression. His workplace supports his being there and eventually installs a wheelchair ramp at the front entrance. But instead of assigning an assistant to help him draw, his employment is initially maintained by making him use his wheelchair as a delivery cart to bring coffee & supplies to his office mates. From being a highly marketable designer, he becomes someone simply to be taken care of & every ounce of autonomy is taken away from the get go. Does he really accept this patronizing loss of dignity?
The acting overall was not bad. From the beginning the leads were so relaxed & easy with each other, it seemed natural & was nice to watch. But the 2nd FL character was annoyingly antagonistic & shouted most of her lines at the top of her lungs. Honestly, what is the purpose of such a character? Lin Yi did fairly well in portraying the very difficult role of Tuo, but Landy Li showed the strongest performance of all the cast as An ZhiQue, the steadfast girlfriend who takes matters into her own hands to pull Tuo through his ordeal. The actor playing Tuo's neurologist was so natural in fact, I wondered if he was an actual doctor. The show thankfully doesn't delve into romance tropes as the story is not a fairytale romance but a tale of endurance, purpose, & meaning.
I knew this drama was described as a "tear-jerker" going in, but what I was looking for was a message of hope and a show of possibilities. I'm a doer, not a cryer. Up to 20 episodes are spent highlighting the emotional impact on the people around Tuo, who behave quite badly. There's a lot of hysterical crying, shouting, & getting smashed drunk without realistic solutions to enhancing Tuo's quality of life. The despair & helplessness is somewhat unsympathetically portrayed. Then come moments of clarity, like ZhiQue's father telling Tuo to put as much effort into himself as his friends were putting into helping him (although an actual psychologist might've been more beneficial). However, by the final 5 episodes we then get Tuo finally not only facing his reality but also finding a new purpose to his remaining life. He revives his role as a designer and continues to work as I felt the character should've been supported to do so from the start of his illness. The show further explores the stories of other ALS sufferers & the various effects on them & their families, & ends with the decisions Tuo is able to make for his life as a result of the full support of all those around him. So the hope, possibilities, freedom of choice, & having a meaningul life are there & I'm glad this show was able to reach this conclusion.
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Perfect kitsch, well worth a re-watch
I very rarely rewatch shows as I'd much rather spend my time exploring new ones, but this show happens to hold a special place in my heart. I grew up in North America & first got into watching Asian dramas only in 2021, thanks to Netflix. The first shows I started on were Taiwanese ones from 2011-2013. There's something unique about this time period & I was so fascinated by the level of the storytelling in the dramas & the pure fun of the comedies. And the music - the soundtrack songs became my introduction to the modern Asian music scene which I now listen to almost exclusively after listening to 1990's British/American alternative in my formative years.I've since moved onto Mainland China & Korean dramas, but I was brought back to this one for a re-watch. It's very representative of the kitsch of this era: cringeworthy over-the-top-acting, annoyingly immature characters, & eye-rollingly implausible situations. But what caught my attention was the scenery, the bright colour palette, the house the characters lived in & how they lived in it, all to the tune of a very catchy theme song which still brings a warm feeling when I hear it. And prior to the spectacular downfall of his own making, Aaron Yan was king in 2013. The light hearted, playful tone & pure irreverence of this show, & some others of that time/place, is largely unmatched in anything I've seen since (over 150 shows in the last 3 years). And 2nd time around, I'm realizing how hilarious Dean Fujioka was as the love rival. This show can be reviewed critically as lousy, but what it achieved sentimentally is something that can't be rated, so I give it my mid-range 7.5.
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entertaining story, appreciate the art
Ma Wang, a god of death, trades his murderous power to would be kings who end up in bloodthirsty reigns, until one dying king decides to seal Ma Wang forever into his official portrait to end the blood shed. However, a shaman's errant rain ritual ends up releasing Ma Wang, only to have him sealed up once more in the body of the gifted rain diviner & astronomy advisor to the subsequent king, Ha Ran (Ahn Hyo Seop). Who then can save Ha Ran but Hong Cheong Ki, a divine painter who holds the key to containing the evil threatening his life.In spite of it's simple premise, so complicated is the story that this drama starts with a preview filled 1st episode, solely dedicated to explaning all the characters & their relationships in this show. And even then it was dizzying, especially when you have to read subtitles & can't keep an eye on every face flashing on the screen.
I was impressed by Kim You Jung's no-nonsense portrayal of her character in My Demon & I can see the same spunk in her personality here in Red Sky. That energy is good in playing forward thinking characters. I also previously saw AHS in A Business Proposal, & here he delivers much the same muted performance. While the acting overall isn't stellar, at least it doesn't detract from the story which is imaginative & actually sparked my interest in Han Dynasty painting & portraiture. The show delves into the art of painting to the point of exploring the concepts of line & form, & the inference of a subject without actually showing it. Surprisingly, this held my attention as much as waiting to see how the lead characters will achieve their ends. Oddly though, the drama purports to tie up "loose ends" & yet it leaves the arc of the royal princes battling each other hanging, with a 3rd prince frequently mentioned but never shown.
As a fan of the gods & demons genre, however, I found this drama overall very entertaining.
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