ABSOLUTELY MIND-BLOWING & MUST-WATCH!
so i’ve never written a review on here before, in-fact i just got into kdramas within the last month and have only watched a handful so forgive me if this isn’t the most “together” or intellectual review but all i have to say is WOW.STORY — i can’t speak highly enough about the story. the fact that this was written and directed by women!! heck yes!! i typically get bored with things extremely quickly and tend to go on my phone and this didn’t happen once with this drama. every single scene meant something. there was nothing added just to fill up time. everything was important. everyone was important. every single character was vital to what went down throughout the sixteen episodes each in their own unique and intriguing way. the way the writing, directing, and acting showcased everything perfectly is absolutely mesmerizing. there wasn’t a single weak point in the show. i also liked how even though there were subplots with side/supporting characters, as i said, they weren’t there to just fill up time, but ending up playing a huge part into the overall story in the end. the parallels that ended up coming together in the episodes (especially the first few episodes versus the ending) were MIND-BLOWING.
ACTING — i could go on and on and on about the acting in this show everyone did phenomenal but there were four people who specifically stood out to to me:
shin ha kyun: as i said im new to kdramas but did this man blow my mind??? oh my goodness. the emotions he portrayed as such a tortured man dealing with so much. he delivered every line perfectly. AND THE SMILE. you know the smile. insane. i heard he got nominated for a big award. so deserved.
yeo jin goo: another mesmerizing performance by the other lead character. absolutely phenomenal i loved to see how much his character evolved as the story went on and how different circumstances changed the way he ultimately ended up. his acting in the last 3/4ish episodes some of my favorite in the entire drama. he killed it.
choi dae hoon: i’ve watched this actor in CLOY and FOE and if i’m being honest he didn’t stand out in those to me - i barely noticed him if im being honest. however, in BE he blew my mind. genuinely one of the best performances of the show. he had so much he had to do and the role was such a heavy one and the way he portrayed a character dealing with all of the emotions he was and making you sympathize with him was so crazy and he deserves all the praise!!
choi sung eun: she was phenomenal. another actress i’ve never seen before but her whole demeanor was amazing. i loved her character a ton and i want to say its all thanks to the actress. each emotion came across perfectly and i felt like i could somehow relate and understand every single one of her actions. i hope to see her in more projects!
special mention to lee do hyun he was great in his few scenes and as a fan of his, it was nice seeing a familiar face!
OST — im quite new to this but i loved the soundtrack. i loved the whole vibe and it fit extremely well. left me unsettled and intrigued as if i was one of the characters.
REWATCH VALUE — i can guarantee once this has sat for a little bit i will be rewatching. the plot-twists were great and i can’t imagine how cool it will be knowing everything ahead of time. i might have to make someone watch this with me and then i watch their reactions for the first time because i was a mess on multiple occasions.
OVERALL: i’ll put it simply. if you are on the fence about watching this - WATCH IT YOU WONT REGRET IT!
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Beautiful yet Pretentious; Great character development but poor plot writing
“Fangs of Fortune” is no doubt the product of director Edward Guo. I enjoyed his other drama “My Journey to Love” so much that I wish I could feel the same about “Fangs of Fortune”. Unfortunately, just having a good-looking cast and beautiful cinematography are not enough for me.What I Like:
1. Characters
The main reason I am not rating this drama lower than 8.0 is because of the characters. I like each of them, main cast, supporting cast and guest roles. Each character’s story is unique and I had a good time getting to know them and following their journey of growth. They are interesting individually and together as a group. “Fangs of Fortune” is able to make me care about each of them and their stories touched me.
2. Acting
I am happy to see a much-improved Neo Hou. He is able to convey more than just a blank pretty face. I am most impressed by Tian Jia Rui. This is only his second drama after “My Journey to You” and he has so much potential. Chen Du Ling is fine. Cheng Xiao improved from her blank look in “Falling into Your Smile”. The rest of the cast also did an admirable job and I don’t really dislike anyone’s acting.
3. Cinematography
Edward Guo’s signature beautiful cinematography and camera angles make every actor and actress look good. Screenshots of this drama flooded the Feeds with many posts throughout the airing and after the completion of the drama. But…..(to be continued below)
4. OST
This drama boasts a huge soundtrack of beautiful songs. I enjoy them all, especially ‘Spring Breeze Does Not Ask’ 春风不问 and ‘Broken-Tailed Bird’《斷尾鳥》. However…. (to be continued below)
5. Production Value
I love everyone’s creative, unique and beautiful hairstyles, costumes and accessories. I also like the use of natural lighting and the realistic sets in the indoor scenes. The fight choreography is unique and the actors did a great job with their wire work and moves. It does a great job in using Chen Xiao’s dance background in giving her excellent moves and she did not disappoint.
What I have Mixed Feelings and Don’t Like:
1. Slowness
This drama is SLLOOOWW. The characters talk slowly, they move slowly and the pace is slow. This could have been a 30-episode drama (instead of 34) if people would just walk and talk at normal speed. The last episode is a waste of time. Everything could be told in 15 minutes. What pisses me off the most (my personal pet peeve) is characters standing around during important battle scenes. The good guys would be talking amongst themselves or crying or staring at each other, and the villains just stood there waiting. I just want to shout at my screen for them to move or do something! So much time is wasted and it doesn’t make sense!
2. Plot Holes
There are so many plot holes in this drama. Actions that don’t always make sense. Why parade a suspected murderer in front of a crowd to be easily recognized and then humiliated? If you knew you were the cause of a pandemic, why not kill yourself sooner? You already knew the solution! There are powerful demons and genius human beings yet you can’t detect someone is hiding around the corner eavesdropping? I thought you could smell their scent from a mile away! Plot logic becomes secondary (or sacrificed) when the drama focuses so much on the characters and making them look good. A good drama must be able to balance both plot and character development. Even if you can’t balance it well, it can’t be so lopsided.
3. Close-up/Camera angles
I complimented on how beautiful this drama is. But if you repeatedly show me a close-up look of a pair of attractive eyes every 5 minutes, it becomes really pretentious and fake. The fight scenes are beautifully choreographed but if you give me the slow-mo version of it, it interrupts the flow and the excitement. I don’t need to see them posing when fighting. This drama also loves the fog and wind machines.
4. Non-stop Music
I also complimented the OST, but gosh, the music is overplayed. Song after song, music after music. It doesn’t allow the viewer to decide how to feel in silence, but manipulates my feelings with the non-stop music. I counted one scene (one conversation between the leads) when 2 songs + 2 more instrumental music were played non-stop! At times, the music is so loud that I could barely hear what the actors are saying. I really don’t need the fight song being played at every single battle, no matter how cool it is.
5. Romance
Disappointing main romance. I enjoy the initial bickering between Zhao Yuan Zhou and Wen Xiao. A battle of wits and sarcasm! But then, not much happened and not enough chemistry or longing looks. It was boring. I had more fun watching the guest roles suffer in their forbidden love than or sad romance than the main leads.
OK, if you are a fan, don’t hate me. Go back and read what I like before throwing stones at me. LOL🤣 I will still recommend "Fangs of Fortune" because it’s a well-acted darker story with a good-looking cast, beautiful cinematography and likable characters. If you are a big fan of character development, you will enjoy this. But if you are like me and can’t stop your brain from noticing plot holes and things you don’t like, you might have a harder time enjoying this.
Completed: 11/27/2024 - Review #521
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IGNORE THE RATINGS AND GIVE THIS AMAZING DRAMA A CHANCE!
I'll start by saying these are one of those times where I doubt peoples tastes in rating dramas because this deserves higher ratings....This drama was the kind of thriller that kept you on the edge of your seat no matter how simple the plot seemed to be...in short the plot was something refreshing and executed in a way that kept me engaged for eight episodes straight.
There plenty of reasons I'd give as to why this drama deserves a chance to be seen by many but I'll cut them down to three...
1. THE PLOT
This drama tells a story of a criminal who gets released from jail and a masked man who puts a bounty of 20 billion won on him for whoever kills him....just the sound of this sinopsis arrouses curiousity..you going to have lots of questions and trust me all will be slowly answered as the plot or story flows....
The pacing of this drama was neither fast nor slow but rather enough to keep you entertained and the hoping for more....the story it's self was intense..there was some amazing and captivating action that will keep you on your toes as you watch.
2. THE CHARACTERS
The drama it's self had multiple main characters and I love how they introduced each one of them per episode..each character had their own different story, personality and more and I love how each one of them connected to the main plot....the characters were written in a way that was interesting and despite the short episodes they felt complex and each contributed to the charm of the series.
3. THE ACTING
This drama has lots of familiar faces and most were veteran actors and actresses so the acting was strong and impactful from the entire cast.
BONUS: The show had some intense and catchy back ground music...
DO I RECOMMEND IT?
Absolutely, if you want a riveting, entertaining and exciting thriller then this is it
I REALLT HOPE FOR A SEASON TWO SEEING HOW THEY HINTED ON IT AT THE END👏🔥
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It was painful to watch the main actress, she made a mess of her role, and I must say Jin Ho was really shallow with his portraying of this particular character, and I must say I have enjoyed his talent and adaptability with his other roles as well. Moreover, I found the script messy, quite lacking and very artificial.
The funny moments were seldom, but the were indeed nice to watch, but honestly, feeling a pain in my stomach because I had just watched a 40 something minute long drama for only 10 enjoyable minutes was not my cup of tea.
I guess personal taste does play a major role in watching this drama. 3/10 from me, and that's putting it mild.
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It's frustrating
Before anything I'll avoid talking about the age gap bc it's overdone at this point.However, that doesn't mean I won't talk about the fl.
-1st of all her fashion choices? In my life I've never seen a heroine dress that way. And this says a lot bc I don't even care about fashion or what the actors wear ever! Literally ever! But what was happening in this drama punched me in that face so I couldn't ignore it how much I tried (I did try, a lot)
The outfits she wore were all grandma like outfits. Literally. I mean everyone has their taste but it doesn't even look good on her or flattering. On the contrary she's a beautiful and youthful looking woman (in her irl everyday life) but the outfits made her look older than she actually is.
-Second of all Never in my life have I seen a fl with literally ONE hairstyle throughout the 16 episodes? (a part from a bathroom scene and the end scene) her hair is in a tight bun 99.9% of the time. She looks gorgeous with literally any other hairstyle except that!
Okay enough about the fl, she's a great actress and
a beautiful woman but she didn't make the best choices this time around.
Now the drama itself.
-There's ZERO chemistry between the leads ZERO! And it's not about the age it's just a compatability thing.
-the plot is predictable and flat and every time they face a problem, the problem solves itself in the dumbest way possible or they straight up IGNORE IT AND NEVER TALK ABOUT IT AGAIN!
-so many useless subplots that didn't turn out to anything in the end.
-bad characters that didn't get what they deserve and good characters that didn't get what they deserve either.
It started out okayish, had potential. It was even funny but all went downhill after the first third of the drama.
The only good thing about this drama is the acting bc they all are really good actors.
Overall it was a frustrating experience for me and I'm sorry yo say I wouldn't recommend it.
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Endless Intrigue and Cunningness
I am writing this review during the dramas half point and I must say it started low, but it has certainly increased in value to a drama I will endlessly recommend! If you’re struggling with the first few episodes just pull through it will likely go down depending on the end as one of my favorites of the year! This drama really has a perfectly fitting name so if you want a drama where both Zhang Linghe and Bai Lu play characters slightly different than the usual roles they play, both showcasing how talented they are. Also the entire casting did a spendid job in my opinion playing their respective roles. As of episode 20 this drama is definitely meeting all my expectations that I have been patiently waiting for since April when I longingly awaited its release only for it to be held back at the last minute. I will update this at the end when I have completed it to let you all know if it held up until the end!Was this review helpful to you?
The STORY here, of course, isn't anything original but it just screams fun! Comedy, romance and a cliche moral about beauty is really all we need to relax after a hard day and it really kind of had all that, but...
The CHARACTERS, especially the main male lead, were unlikable and that's an understatement in some cases. Se Gun is a shallow douche that only cares about looks. He's fine with everything about a girl as long as she's pretty. Sure, by the end he falls in love with the "ugly" (NOT!) girl and magically becomes a better person and a better character with some sappy development driven by, of course, a sad past. Now to begin with Se Gun's character isn't exactly the worst, they just handeled this type of male lead very badly, exagerating his flaws to the maximum and making him seem like the vainest person ever. Were this a full lenght drama I would have dropped it solely because of him. The female lead wasn't exactly a treat either. Her motivation for liking the main lead was the same - she claims to like beautiful things. The difference is that she just wasn't really a bitch about it...I don't know if that makes it okay though. Not to mention the fact that she had little to no self respect which I can kind of overlook as just a character trait but be warned.
90% of the cute moments in this drama were torture, because they were fake! While Nan Hee had her ring on, everytime something nice happened it was extremely bitter sweet because the writers just had to make sure that you know that Se Gun is only dating her because of her looks! I just could not overlook it, especially when the second love interest for our female lead was 10 times better than this jerk.
Sure the ending was cute as hell and I'm very into this "inner beauty matters the most" moral that I could almost overlook everything that's bad about this drama but I just can't, I won't even let myself! As a woman I respect myself too much to see such chararter as Se Gun be romanticised and justified. He even blamed everything on Nan Hee...*sigh* I just can't
Didn't notice anything horrible about the acting. Not a fan of So Hee's acting though. Happy that Seul Gi finally got a main role, sad that it had to be this drama. Don't remember anything about the music. The cinematography was as unintresting as ever.
There is absolutely nothing about this drama that's worth your time, you can look at a screenshot of the beauty that is Hyo Seop and you would have seen everyting good about this drama. Maybe...maybe if you're easily pleased then you will enjoy it but I really don't recommend it.
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A beautiful story about love and friendship
I want to start off by saying I havent watched the original yet but I may update this review after I do.Update: ive now watched the original and to me i do think this remake did it justice. Tbh I enjoyed this more than the original because I think the writing and pacing was better. They added more elements that fleshed out the characters where i could understand their decisions more.
Now if youre worried about a love triangle, dont be. The male lead is just a secondary character with a secondary storyline. The main event is the friendship between mi so and ha eun. You see their journey as friends from childhood to adulthood. Its by no means an easy journey as they drift apart often but in the end they always find their way back to each other. This isnt exactly a sapphic movie either but its a beautiful love story about a female friendship.
I really wanted to watch this movie cause of kim dami and jeon so nee and they did not disappoint. They portrayed their roles perfectly and they had great chemistry. I also liked the directing as it felt really raw and brought out the actresses strengths. It had an independent film feel to it.
I will also say to bring tissues as this film may make you cry.
I really enjoyed this movie as a coming of age story about a female friendship and would recommend for the story and acting.
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A Perfect Blend of Adventure, Friendship and Romance
The Long Ballad, adapted from a popular ongoing manga, Chang Ge Xing, by Xia Da (夏达), won over me with its inspirational characters and life lessons, strong friendships and bonds, and unique storyline. Not only did it provide me with an amazing drama watching experience, but also made me sympathize and feel for many of the characters. In case you didn’t know, the Long Ballad’s title comes from Li Changge’s name. Li is her surname, while Changge means ‘Long Ballad’. (or long song)I have to admit that I set my expectations quite high for this drama, as it has a star-studded cast, a cast filled with actors and actresses that I have watched in other dramas before, and impressed me with their acting skills. Adding on to my excitement was the director, Chu Yui Bun, who had directed 3 dramas that I exceptionally loved. But even with my bar set high, this historical Chinese drama won me over.
Something especially unique with the Long Ballad is that it provides some connections and reminders to the manhua. Quite a few war scenes and other scenes are in a cartoon-ish form. The actors may be in the scenes, but the backdrops are green screens. The transitions were a little abrupt, but I really enjoyed these scenes and they were very beautiful. I also really loved the costumes. They were absolutely gorgeous, and fit the different settings and period very well.
Story-9.0
As I started the drama, I was introduced to a bustling Chang An, the capital of the highly successful Tang Dynasty, which lasted from 618 to 907 AD. Many historians consider the Tang Dynasty a 'Golden Age', specifically of arts and culture. During this period, people from all around the world came to China for education, traveling, business, and many other reasons. During the reign of Li Shimin, also known as Tang Taizong, civilians lived in peace and happiness, and without poverty. It truly was a beautiful time. The drama also motivated me, who already had some knowledge of the Tang Dynasty and Tang Taizong's achievements, to research more about this era. My research also resulted in the knowledge that quite a few people in the Long Ballad are real people that lived during the Tang Dynasty, including Ashina Sun's cousin, Ashina She'er, Wei Shuyu and his father, Wei Zheng, a well-known Tang Chinese politician and historian, and the crown prince of the drama, Li Chengqian.
The beginning of the Long Ballad is not set during the most famous prosperous period, though. It is actually set right before Li Shimin's successful reign. Li Changge is a Tang Dynasty princess, the daughter of the crown prince, having everything and even more that a girl during that time or even now could have. But her entire family is killed by her Second Uncle, Li Shimin, and her life is turned upside down. At first, I was worried that the drama would be centered around a normal revenge plot, but thankfully, I was very wrong. Revenge might have been something that Li Changge focused on, but this is not the main topic/theme of the drama. The Long Ballad also explores strong friendship, cute romance, loyalty, family, and so much more.
The drama is by no means centered around politics or war. Politics is almost nonexistent in this drama, which is a relief for many, although power played an important role in the Long Ballad. We are shown that power was very important for one's success in ancient times, and this can also apply to us during modern times.
The main goal of the drama is not for the characters to gain some mystical object, but rather to show their immense character growth, and the growths are shown very realistically. I was not only entertained, but was also given different perspectives of life and the many relationships in our lives. The plot was not very predictable, and the plot twists made the drama experience even more memorable.
Fortunately, the actors and actresses also did very well with the fighting scenes. We are provided with well thought-out and practiced fighting scenes that look very polished and natural. Bravo!
There were a few loopholes, though. I won’t elaborate too much on this, but there were a few spots in the drama where I felt that the characters could have done something differently for a better result. Otherwise, I wouldn’t change anything else about the drama. The plot is very propelling, and unlike some other historical Cdramas, is not very slow-paced.
Cast-9.5
The cast is one of the reasons I decided to watch the Long Ballad. What better to watch my two favorite Chinese actresses in one drama, along with the handsome and mature Wu Lei? And Liu Yuning is a plus!
I had absolutely no problems with the 7-year age gap between Dilraba and Wu Lei. In fact, they looked so compatible together that my smiles and fawning were almost always uncontrollable. It is more than evident how much Ashina Sun and Li Changge care for each other, from their actions to even just their facial expressions. The Long Ballad is not centered around romance, but it does have a good amount of it. We are given a few couples, each with their own cute scenes.
Leo Wu, at age 21, just awed me again. For those who have watched Nirvana in Fire, he is nothing like that cute and innocent Fei Liu. I mean, Ashina Sun is also handsome (amazingly handsome) and cute, but in a much more mature way. His aura spreads everywhere. Ashina Sun is a man of righteousness and kindness. Although he seems cold and perhaps a little emotionless, viewers start to see his real personality as he interacts more with the ones he cares about, including Changge. Not only does he have a great personality, but his fighting skills are also one of the best, with him being able to hit a certain point with his bow and arrow long distances away.
Li Changge is not an easy character to play. Her determined personality becomes even more prominent after the deaths of her family, as she becomes even more determined to avenge for their deaths. No, she is not that naive and bubbly little princess. She is a strong-willed, talented, and intelligent young woman who, as she leaves the place she had called home for her entire life, discovers the real world and the things that lay ahead for her. Again, Dilraba impresses me with her portrayal of this awesome Tang Dynasty princess.
Now we come to Li Leyan, played by our lovely Zhao Lusi, and she is the daughter of Li Shimin and the cousin of Li Changge. I admit, I was hoping for a "stronger" Li Leyan in the beginning, as her personality was quite naive and perhaps a little too generous and kind, but she, like Changge, entered the real world, where there were no servants to wait on her and no jewels and crowns for her to wear. Li Leyan's growth is phenomenal and inspirational. In the end, I absolutely adored her character. She, unlike a few other characters in the Long Ballad, is not completely useless. Li Leyan's kindness spread throughout the nation, from donating food to saving civilians from natural disasters. She is almost the perfect princess, with a little more intelligence and thoughtfulness sprinkled in.
Hao Du is another favorite character in Long Ballad. Liu Yuning acts him out very well, being quite disliked by Leyan at first, he shows her that he does not have a heart made of stone. In fact, he cares for his friends and family very much. Unlike Wei Shuyu, he was not born into a very wealthy family, although he was adopted by his godfather. He was taught at a very young age to work hard for the Tang Dynasty, to even sacrifice his life for it. Along with many other characters, Hao Du’s personality slowly grew on me.
Some other characters, although minor, were also essential in this story. A few good examples include Mu Jin, Ashina She’er and Mimi Guli. There were many other characters that I both loved and hated. At first, the main antagonist was not very clear, but as the story progressed, everything was revealed, providing me the very person to despise and wish for the worst. The antagonist, which I will not say, does have a considerably good reason to do what they did, and they were a major obstacle for the protagonists of the Long Ballad to pass. Sacrifices were made, along with alliances and friends and enemies. There were many characters in the Long Ballad, and it was a little hard to remember everyone's names at first, which is the norm for Chinese historical dramas. But most characters had their own special purposes, and everyone acted very realistically and well.
Music-9.5
Amazing osts. Period. When I watched the first episode, and first heard the opening and ending songs, I already fell in love with two Long Ballad osts. If you are an avid Cdrama watcher, you probably recognize the voices, or even the names, of these singers: Zhang Bichen, Zhou Shen, Sa Dingding, Liu Yuning. They have sung osts for countless dramas, and are very well-known in China. The soundtrack for the Long Ballad is very enjoyable and unique, with wonderful melodies, voices, and lyrics. It’s very hard for a drama to have one or two good songs, let alone five or six.
Rewatch Value-8.5
The Long Ballad is a very good drama to rewatch, for both the plot and character development. I’m not high on rewatching, so my rewatch values are often pretty low for most dramas that I have watched. But this drama certainly has many scenes to rewatch and to re-enjoy. I'm also happy to say that I was more than satisfied with the ending, as it gave me an amazing closure for many characters.
Overall-9.5
The Long Ballad has creeped up to my top 10 Chinese dramas, and probably my top 5 Chinese historical dramas. As a big fan of historicals, I thoroughly enjoyed the story. It provided me with an amazing sense of what Tang Dynasty life is, and the goals and perspectives of people living different lives. It would seem impossible that a Tang Dynasty Princess would meet and fall in love with a Turkish prince, but it happened, and made many of us fall in love with the couple. I highly recommend the Long Ballad for Chinese drama watchers, especially ones that like to watch historical adventure and romance dramas.
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So let me brake down the good and bad. If you are ok with classical tropy characters and can look past some of the issues with the story elements, this will probably satisfy you if you are looking for a sweet young romance.
The story concentrates mostly on the romance that is strong from the start. Problems are thrown onto the path of the leads, but their constant trust in each other is adorable. Nothing seems to rock their faith in each other.
The setting partly in game and mostly IRL is fun and engaging. However as I am myself a game developer of triple A games, some elements of the business broke my immersion. I don't think most people will notice, and isn't it a problem in any movie and drama that features certain occupations and businesses.
As the story is a classical Harlequin like set up, with the strong, silent, mysterious, genius guy and the intelligent, good hearted and sweet girl there were moments of the really annoying "damsel in distress" trope.
Even more annoying is the "being the most beautiful is an instant win". Looks are the only thing that matters and any social issues are solved by showing up and being pretty.
Then again. I didn't know how much I would enjoy even these aspects. It was a very long time ago I consumed this kind of romance between a perfect pair who are the envy of all. Once in a while (once a decade) the feeling of squeeing like a 14 year old over a hot guy who is the perfect image of a gentleman actually was very satisfying.
The actors are very stiff. The main male lead has a stick driven through his body making it almost impossible for him to move his neck and he is constantly looking at something far away instead of seeking eye contact with the female lead. I understand he is supposed to be elusive, stoic and mysterious, however it's too much. He is very good at kissing, so it makes up for his stone face statue like aura.
The female lead is directed to talk with a squeaky baby voice and act all super cutesy. She is also directed to not respond to the kisses besides wide eyed look like she is almost being assaulted and is prepared to flee. I must say, for some reason I actually got into the whole innocent act and it does pay of in the final episode. The build up of a certain scene was kind of hot...
My favourite character is the support actress who played the room mate Er Xi. She is supposed to be an average looking nerdy type, but is the most beautiful one out of the large cast of females. This annoyed the hell out of me, when they constantly referred to her as ugly and stupid. Her role was to play over cutesy, a bit stupid and clowny. But her story line really engaged me and I loved her development (what little there was). I thought she was the one that had the hardest problems and felt much more sympathy for her than the main female lead. I really hurt for her once the situation blew up.
As someone who always does queer reading the relationship between two of the guys was very sweet. There is really no room to misunderstand their relationship... ^^ Also a checkbox checked in the satisfaction column. I could wish for more, but was surprised over how clear they dared to show the gay couples relationship.
The special effects suited an ingame environment. And the music was partly game inspired or nice romantic. Pretty ok production value and the directing clearly worked for this type of genre.
Over all I am giving it a much higher value than I "personally" usually assign by my standards and requirements. I would probably then land on a 7. But I'm going to look past the issues and just go with my gut feeling. By my gut feeling, emotions and satisfaction that this drama gave me I should actually give it a perfect 9... I'll compromise and we land on an 7.5.
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An Excellent drama with strong writing direction, and acting hopefully season 2 will follow. 9/10.
Where to start? Fine, let's begin from the beginning.By seeing the cast, you might feel that the drama will be the usual idol period drama with tons of martial arts. But no, this is a unique, dark, and emotional story of two assassins from Wufeng who secretly go to another sect, Gong, to accomplish a secret mission. But not everything is Calm in Gong's residence. Brothers hate each other; the father does not even like his own son. Son wants to know the reason behind his mother's death, among many other things. But this is where you go wrong. Everything is done for a reason. By the end of this drama, you will understand why this happened in the first place. The characters are beautifully presented, and the relationships between them are shown so well that you can understand the characters very well.
An Excellent drama with strong writing, direction, and acting... Production-wise, all is well, and hopefully season 2 will follow. According to the last episode, it was clearly shown that the creators wanted to produce a sequel or franchise. 9/10... ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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Simply Enjoyable
How do I start describing this story to give it justice…The story. Writers did a great job weaving this tale of greed. Sometimes you lose something to realize you had it good but it’s too late. Sometimes it takes one event to change your destiny that you didn’t look for. This is a well woven drama of a well orchestrated revenge by a strong female. It’s unlike other revenge dramas so it kept viewers very interested.
Twist. There’s a formidable sisterhood that develops that may shock you. Two women with different struggles met on the premise of betrayal. What’s endearing is that behind the layers of the initial conflict, is the discovery that even enemies can be the greatest of foes. You will see it when you watch. This friendship is undeniably cool.
Cast. ML (Huang Xiao/Gu Xu) doesn’t really come into play until later episodes. In fact, the female lead’s husband (Li Feng/Wei Ming)is just as well the main lead as he’s the focus pretty much. About that husband. The actor does a good job. His character is so shady though he’ll have you seething. FL ( Zhang Xiao/Lin Shuang) is new to me so I can’t say much about her acting. Her character is the kind that if you’re impatient, you wanna say, “let’s go, move it”. It’s about the best way I can describe her. It can frustrate you (as me) but I think she’s playing well to her character (meek, quiet, low key). The close friend to female lead (Jenny Zhang/Jiang Xi) could very well be 2nd female lead as her story becomes unexpectedly entangled with the other yet, her involvement without doubt adds to the strength of the story.
The romance is slow slow burn and in this drama, it fits in very nicely to the story. It’s very matured, and I like that a lot. There’s no obvious chasing, or silly tropes. These are very grown adults who are patient and allow their feelings to come naturally.
From beginning to end it kept me piqued to know the next and next. I am very happy with ending.
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Average
The drama was not so extraordinary or somewhat different but ya it was good for one time watch i was expecting it to be like police University but it was quite good than PU the first episodes were quite good but later it become somewhat like other dramas and tbh daeil death was not so necessary the starting was good later become foggy the end was average..The best thing about this drama is the cast the cast chemistry was on point it was Daniel's first drama but he didn't disappoint leads chemistry was also good but i like personally the second leads their story was more natural to me and kim tak and Ari should definitely have their separate drama...
The music was not so memorable
You can watch this if you don't have some extraordinary dramas to watch
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I really liked this one, and I'm glad that I summoned up the courage to watch it. Since it has the theme of Shounen Ai.
But it was so delicately put in it's story and the actors were superb. I had watched the first one and that was good but since then I think I have matured more to appreciate this kind of stories.
As I said, the actors did a great job. Actually all kinds of first-love experience's makes me happy to watch. And I was happy to see that they brought back one of the mains from the first movie.
I can highly recommend this movie to someone with an open mind cause this made me so calm and moved by the sweet story. Good job scriptwriters and I salute to the ountstanding actors.
Thank you for taking time to read my review, do watch it!
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Sakristan (2020): All Bark But Not Much Bite
I can understand why a number of my My Drama List (MDL) and Twitter contacts wanted me to stop watching “Sakristan.” Their opinions about the controversial director Darryl Yap [accused of sexual exploitation of children, perpetuating misconceptions about rape, and shading other Filipino (Pinoy) boys’ love (BL) series, among others] are valid and I respect their principled position to boycott this series. But I really felt bad for the efforts given by the actors, so I wanted to judge this series based on its artistic merits. It wouldn’t be fair if I dismiss the series outright without even watching it.Unfortunately, in terms of artistry, “Sakristan” was found wanting. While I admired Sakristan's efforts to confront the Philippine Catholic Church’s bigotry and hypocrisy on the issue of gays within its community, such plot/storyline did not really move forward on this series. Indeed, it was all bark but not much bite. The entire series was also replete with gender and sexual stereotypes that don’t advance lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-queer+ (LGBTQ+) representation. Not even the introduction of Christian's gay father and the tokenistic opening reminder (LGBT) can hide the series’ superficial understanding of the day-to-day issues confronted by the LGBTQ+ community in the Philippines.
A lot of times, screenplay was corny and cringy. It was also soapy (akin to soap operas) for most of the series. There were awkward dialogues intended as jokes that weren't really funny. There were also lines that were a bit long and preachy. I would argue that the best scenes from this series were those without dialogues and with only the soundtracks and the sceneries. By and large, cinematography blended pretty well with the soundtracks.
While the acting performance of both lead actors and the chemistry between them improved throughout the series, Clifford and Henry, fell victims to the lack of proper acting direction. The VinCentiments style of acting failed to grasp the difference between stage and screen acting. Because of the perspective and proximity of the audience, acting on stage on the whole is bigger and exaggerated to be able to reach the people at the very back of the theatre. This means making vocal, physical, and emotional choices in acting that are oftentimes unnatural and unrealistic. The problem with the VinCentiments style of acting, it's as if the actors were still on stage! The lead actors and especially the support actors were overacting most of the time. It’s not as though the actors don’t have potential, they do, but since they weren’t given suitable acting direction, their style of acting always looked bad on screen. It's a pity because I really liked Clifford and Henry on this series. They may not be as good-looking compared to the lead actors of other Pinoy BL series but they have Pinoy features and vibes that I genuinely appreciate. Clifford was sexy and a sight for sore eyes and his intimate scenes with Henry, mostly without dialogues, were generally done tastefully.
Production design and editing were up and down throughout the series while the music (especially the soundtracks) was consistently good.
All in all, I would only recommend “Sakristan” for posterity, for those who are interested in watching one of the pioneers of Pinoy BL series, mindful of course of the fact that there are much better representations of the genre, namely, “Gameboys” and “Hello Stranger.”
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