Meandering show that goes nowhere
I started off really like this show, the first 2 eps hit hard and made me cry alot, when something happens to a specific character.
The FL then takes a long trip to Yunnan and stays thre for awhile, the entire drama is just basically about her life in yunnan and the various characters' lives in Yunnan.
Yup. That's about it.
I went into this knowing this was a slice of life drama, but even in typical SOL dramas, something happens. Something usuallyhappens to th emain character to make them rethink life. Here? When that character passes on, I expect the FL to actually grief properly and that changes the whole outlook of her life etc. However, whatever happened in those first 2 chapters were never quite addressed again, and the rest of the drama goes on a completely different tangent. There was no huge conflict arcs - nada. Just nothing to look forward to. Ended up dropping this after taking 6 months to finish 13 episodes. I ff-ed to some of the later episodes - and it was the same-ish kinda tone - with small things happening to different characters, but I come off feeling like I didn't miss anything.
Some pros:
- Nice-ish scenery
- Good acting from most of the cast. I really like Damai's character and her story arc
- Every character has a "problem" in their life they needa solve
- Nice food scenes
- Promoted the yunnan food/culture sufficiently
Cons:
- This drama was wayyyy too long for something that had almost nothing happening. 25 episodes would have been enough
- Boring sets. Yunnan has amazing scenery but you barely see it here, the characters are just confined to the same old sets
- Boring music/OST - the same song plays over and over again for emotive scenes
- Too many characters. It's like an ensemble cast honestly. There are some characters i wasn't interested in, so the focus on their storylines bored me
- The romance was too slow burn and I felt that they should have stayed friends. Absolutely no chemistry between Li Xian and Liu Yifei that when they did get together, I couldn't buy it and didn't find it romantic
- LYF's acting is just meh. She goes around yunnan in perfectly-coiffed hair and thick makeup and red lipstick - seriously, woman. you are in yunnan on a supposed break, you can chill abit on the dressing up. She looked so out of place alongside other characters who were more naturally made-up. When I see things like that in the drama, where the lead is clearly dressed better than the other characters, it just shows me that the actor/production/both want to make the particular lead stand out. I get it, but do it via the storyline or the acting, and not the aesthetics please, it just looks so out of place. And yes back to her acting - she half-whispers most of her lines I have no idea why when everyone else is speaking at a normal tone, and has no emotions at all. I couldn't get into her character at all and Hongdou came off haughty/dismissive many times to different people. There were several scenes where she was thinking about her friend and it was obviously a sad scene, but there were no emotions on her face, nothing. It just takes me out.
- Li Xian is fine but I felt his acting here was abit forced. I've seen him in many other dramas and really enjoy his versatility
The FL then takes a long trip to Yunnan and stays thre for awhile, the entire drama is just basically about her life in yunnan and the various characters' lives in Yunnan.
Yup. That's about it.
I went into this knowing this was a slice of life drama, but even in typical SOL dramas, something happens. Something usuallyhappens to th emain character to make them rethink life. Here? When that character passes on, I expect the FL to actually grief properly and that changes the whole outlook of her life etc. However, whatever happened in those first 2 chapters were never quite addressed again, and the rest of the drama goes on a completely different tangent. There was no huge conflict arcs - nada. Just nothing to look forward to. Ended up dropping this after taking 6 months to finish 13 episodes. I ff-ed to some of the later episodes - and it was the same-ish kinda tone - with small things happening to different characters, but I come off feeling like I didn't miss anything.
Some pros:
- Nice-ish scenery
- Good acting from most of the cast. I really like Damai's character and her story arc
- Every character has a "problem" in their life they needa solve
- Nice food scenes
- Promoted the yunnan food/culture sufficiently
Cons:
- This drama was wayyyy too long for something that had almost nothing happening. 25 episodes would have been enough
- Boring sets. Yunnan has amazing scenery but you barely see it here, the characters are just confined to the same old sets
- Boring music/OST - the same song plays over and over again for emotive scenes
- Too many characters. It's like an ensemble cast honestly. There are some characters i wasn't interested in, so the focus on their storylines bored me
- The romance was too slow burn and I felt that they should have stayed friends. Absolutely no chemistry between Li Xian and Liu Yifei that when they did get together, I couldn't buy it and didn't find it romantic
- LYF's acting is just meh. She goes around yunnan in perfectly-coiffed hair and thick makeup and red lipstick - seriously, woman. you are in yunnan on a supposed break, you can chill abit on the dressing up. She looked so out of place alongside other characters who were more naturally made-up. When I see things like that in the drama, where the lead is clearly dressed better than the other characters, it just shows me that the actor/production/both want to make the particular lead stand out. I get it, but do it via the storyline or the acting, and not the aesthetics please, it just looks so out of place. And yes back to her acting - she half-whispers most of her lines I have no idea why when everyone else is speaking at a normal tone, and has no emotions at all. I couldn't get into her character at all and Hongdou came off haughty/dismissive many times to different people. There were several scenes where she was thinking about her friend and it was obviously a sad scene, but there were no emotions on her face, nothing. It just takes me out.
- Li Xian is fine but I felt his acting here was abit forced. I've seen him in many other dramas and really enjoy his versatility
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