Reviews

My Review of The Glory (雁回时) ?

This might honestly be one of the best historical dramas I’ve ever watched. Chen Du Ling’s acting was absolutely top tier—her portrayal of Zhuang Han Yan was both heartbreaking and inspiring.

One of the things that stood out to me the most was the mother-daughter relationship. It was so beautifully written and so painfully real. I loved how they showed the deep bond between them, but also the distance the daughter desperately wanting to be close, while the mother kept pushing her away. It felt like a constant tug-of-war between love and pain.

The scene where it was revealed that the mother hadn’t put Zhuang Han Yan’s name in the family register completely broke me. 😭 I cried so much because it felt like she was about to lose her mother all over again, just when she had finally found her. That moment captured so much raw emotion and was one of the most unforgettable parts of the drama for me.

What really impressed me was how Zhuang Han Yan endured so many hardships, yet still stood tall. She’s strong, resilient, and refuses to let her painful past define her future. Watching her journey gave me so much admiration for her character.

And I can’t forget to mention the OST The music was stunning and carried so much emotion that it elevated the drama even more. Every time I hear 剪 (Cut) by Li Mofei and Jila Shilin, I start tearing up all over again. The way that song feels like a dialogue between mother and daughter is such a unique and beautiful concept—it perfectly expresses how a mother’s love can remain silent, but everlasting.

Overall, The Glory left a deep impression on me. It wasn’t just entertaining, it was moving and unforgettable. I truly believe it’s a masterpiece worth watching.

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I'm sorry but I didn't like it

Started this with high expectations considering how people were raving about it and some even rewatched it 7x. First 10 episodes were good but went downhill from there. The reason I would continue to watch this is solely because of Arthur Chen. He was the only one carrying the whole drama. Female lead was such a weak character and I disliked her. While watching in Youku, I could read comments about her and some people liked her and some people didn't. The whole story was too long and just felt dragging. Found myself fastforwarding and cringing from some too-sweet scenes where ML just goes out of his original character and becomes the loveydovey loser dude. Sorry but I dropped it.

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A beauty that can't hold you strongly....

Well... I must say this show is filmed beautifully. I was almost at awe at every frame, everything looked so good,set designs,costume,visual effects,action scenes,camera angle.... None of these has disappointed me.Also that little happy dance at the end of each episode was really refreshing,after whatever the mess they created in every episode.

All the actors looked amazing...The costumes, styling of everyone especially the male actors were so good!!I couldnt take my eyes off of ZYC,he looks majestic in every frame.Whoever styled him as Bingyi deserved an applause,he was looking ethereal!!!Even the villains or "Evil" demons looked terrific, especially Li Lun. The main trio, ZYZ,ZYC and Li Lun were just gorgeous whenever they appeared on screen.Probably one of the saving graces of the show.

The show did a good job in portraying the backstory of all of them.ZYZ, as a demon with morality,humanized emotions and lots of guilt and trauma who loves to make jokes and have fun was done brilliantly by Neo Hou.Second male lead was good too,his character development was very evident,his persona as a man who is cold outside cause of traumatic loss of his family,him growing up with hatred in his mind towards ZYZ but later letting himself grow as a better person who understood ZYZ and becoming his protector and friend/soulmate was portrayed rightfully.
There is amazing bromance,understanding and connection between him and ZYZ.From nemesis to besties,their relationship was the best one.They even had better chemistry than the main couple.

Now,about the other casts of the demon hunter group...Was the female lead casted only to cry and stand helplessly shouting for either ZYZ or ZYC to save her??? Isn’t she supposed to be a goddess... Yeah as per story she is weak cause the Baize token is lost/broken or whatever... But that doesn’t mean you would waste every potential of one of the most important characters of the show.When you are a part of a "Demon Hunter" team, the least you should know is how to fight and protect yourself. She does almost nothing every episode,her team mates are dying left and right and she's just there staring blankly...does it even make sense?????Two male leads keep saving her every time,her team mates are fighting for their lives...and she still somehow manages time to sit on the floor drowning in her tears!!! There's not even much chemistry going on between her and male lead,their relationship looks forced cause she doesn’t show any emotion except crying.... Even if she wasn’t in the show,I don't think there would be much of a problem.

Among the other teammates, I liked the Mountain God the most....and unfortunately he was the most ignored one. He cared about everyone,always made everyone smile, even gave his life to save them... And what did he get??? Nothing. They didn't even acknowledge him as one of them when two leads were talking with the ancestors.I really didn't understand this bit.The archer girl was extremely good in action scenes,but I just couldn’t look at her too much of a stone faced acting. She was even crying in stone face. The kid doctor and his screaming was just pure annoyance.But he did a great job as a possessed demon.

Li Lun...as a villain,his pov was quite understandable! He got betrayed by his best friend,abandoned by him,got caged for eternity,he witnessed his bestie giving more attention and showing more compassion to his new found human family than him..... He had every reason to be a villain.Yes he was wrong for killing those human but from his pov,it was his first time out of wilderness and he witnessed how vile human were while using low spirited demons only for their own benefit.He didn’t even get the chance to know about human. ZYZ was known to human nature,he knew they were not all bad,Li Lun didn’t. And ZYZ didn’t even try to sympathize with him...he just abandoned his best friend.ZYZ got new friends,new family...Li Lun was left all alone,he had none. He was one unfortunate misunderstood anti-hero.He could be used as one of the most powerful entity who was also at the same level of ZYZ,but that potential got wasted.At the later end,his character had the most beautiful redemption arc in the show.You would even feel sympathy for him and his action. And then...he died.They just killed him and ZYZ couldn’t even do anything cause the storyline made him powerless like that... WHY????

Now storywise... If it wasn’t for Li Lun's scheme, there wasn’t much things to do for our demon hunter team,the story wasn’t going anywhere. When Li Lun stopped being active,the whole team suddenly became jobless,just sitting,talking or crying. There's no romance,lots of backstories,flashbacks,slow mo actions.....and everything is going on on a real slow pace. Sometimes its so slow... Had to skip to the next scene.There's talking...they talk..A LOT. You can skip a few minutes of a scene...and they are still there,talking.Storytelling went completely downhill at the middle of the show,every thing was happening so randomly. It turned into a soapy draggy drama where everyone was crying in every two minutes and collecting random objects like dragon scale or something else from here and there or repairing Baize token or cloud light sword .... when it was supposed to be a thrilling demon hunting group.And then almost all of them died... The amount of tears they used in each episode was really something!!!That perfectly placed teardrops on everyone's glossy eyes couldn’t be more fake. Don't make so much tragedy if you can't make it bearable.... It became annoying at some point.

The backstory of BingYi and YingLong was really good. The visuals of the two leads as the ancestors,the action scenes and the way of showing the reasoning behind everything that happened between them,I enjoyed it a lot.

The OST's were good though..... But sometimes overused.Every character had their particular ost and lyrics were written according to their character and storyline, when the ost's were playing,they were taking the scenes another level up.

The action scenes,the connection and chemistry of the male leads,the visual effects and the cinematography, ost's...these are the things that were saving the show. Could be much much better if they put some efforts into the storytelling and avoided to make it into an emotional tearjerker which makes no sense.

Also...how much blood spitting is too much blood spitting?????

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Insecurely, crushes, gender conventions and sweet smiles

Nothing (okay maybe somethings) bet the smiles on these leads faces, as we are invited in to 20 shades of handling ones insecurities and finding ones own path and love on the way. The drama also offers a whole lot of great self aware lines, and a whole lot of "Ha??".

Here we get to see long time crushes meet new love, as well as questions about kindness, gender conventions, and what is love? what is attraction?

Our female lead is so insecure yet blunt at the sam time I can't help but love her smile, honesty and all round awesomeness being true to herself and others.

Our gender fluid/crossdressing lead is such a sweetheart juggling armour, jealousy, expectations and shock over and over again. Can I be loved for who I am or do I have to throw away my wig and make up? For the person I love, for society or for myself?

The male lead is such a cutie too, while he may not war make up he has more or less 0 macho tendencies (honestly the gender fluid one has more macho/manly than this guy) and is such a clueless little sweetheart I just wanted to give him a hug.

Actually all the character in this play around with gender conventions, beauty, crushes, and insecurities in various ways offering us the viewers a whole palette with an added bonus of amazing dimples, smiles and people who truly smile with their whole face especially their eyes.

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Ahn Bo hun didn't impress me that much,But Teamwork Did

Well,I was reluctant to start it at first because of ABH.I am not a fan if his acting. But still i tried it after watching reviews.And it actually didn't disappoint me turned out reviews are actually true.

Plotwise it was a well directed and written Directive drama.The whole detective team are worth being watch.Despite some sloppy fight scene PJH really did well portraying as a female detective. It is my first drama of her she really nailed that character.Other team member did really well,specially The park junyung this is the character and his unspoken love arc with the forens8c doctor really dragged me to them.I really wanted to watch these two more.their chemistry effortlessly working.
ABH character Irritated me a lot in the end,As his father say he is really immature at some times,giving me headache.I didn't like that the story revolve only around Him.other character should also be focused.

The FL family is very nice.Her mom is my favourite character i don't know why.Writter could have used her.She is fun to watch.

Another thing that disappointed was those case.They were difficult but it was hard to digest how ABH solving those easily and only he has the idea to solve when he is not even a detective. That part kinda lousy i was totally agree with park junyoung when he was angry with him.

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Bittersweet with a dash of pain

Normally, when there's already a lot of reviews for a show, I don't write one because normally my reviews are to try to convince people to watch. But rarely, there's times where I just need to get my emotions out on the page, regardless of how many people have watched.

This show... is everything and more than I thought it would be. I started watching it thanks to a Tumblr gifset (as one does) and got roped in immediately. The yearning, the chemistry... this show was kryptonite for me.

Duan Zi Ang was my favorite character. So flawed but so devoted to Shu He. It's the kind of love that makes you cry every time you witness it. Shu He, oh Shu He. He also loved Duan Zi Ang but was more devoted to his kingdom than to Duan Zi Ang, which ultimately led to their mutual disaster. Both actors did spectacularly conveying complex emotions, especially as newbies in the industry.

As for the side characters, they were a bit more 2D, but that was partially due to the time constraints of the drama. The "side couple," if you can call it that, was even more messed up than the main couple. (It also depends on who you think Huo Ying's partner actually is).

The story is convoluted and full of drama and plotting, and I couldn't see it ending any other way. Both characters had so much standing in between them that for them to have a happy ending it would have been a stretch. The ending they got fit them very much (and had me bawling). I normally don't go for BEs, but in this case I'll make an exception.

I will say, this story will not be everyone's cup of tea. Some people might say the plot was too weak, or the acting not great. I personally don't know that I could have handled this if I wasn't in a particular mood. But the timing was right and the story was so good that for me it very much was what I needed in this moment. If you're hesitant, I say give it a chance.

One tiny thing that did pull me out of the story almost every time I saw it though: their manicure! Every time they zoomed in on their hands and I saw their (what looked to be acrylic) nails, I almost laughed. There's no way this martial artist has a perfect manicure, and no way that a prisoner would have wonderful looking nails like those. I don't know whose idea it was to give them fake nails, but I think it would have been fine if they just had their regular nails for this, lol. But that's just a tiny thing that I noticed.

ANYWAY! I'm going to go cry some more now. Bye~

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The production, the focus on the thai culture, the foreshadowing, the sprinkle of humour and damn the chemistry is chemistrying. Forget thai or bl this is one of the best shows I've ever seen. The subtle glances and gestures that speak of longing betwen the leads, the push and pull, the expressions are just a masterclass in acting and direction. Por Kro is an excellent actor and Khem complements him beautifully. Charn and Jet playing the friends trying to help their friend but haplessly trying to figure out their own lives is lovely. I love that there's bit of clues to the origins of the curse as well as their past lives. It's a case of show don't tell that just makes for an incredibly entertaining watch. They've deviated from the novel to add more drama and romance, but it all makes it even better. MUST MUST WATCH

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An Intoxicating Story Brought to Life by Stellar Acting

This was the first Chinese drama I watched after my childhood days. It was during the Covid-19 pandemic (2021), I was on a long course that was held mostly online, and I wanted to improve my Chinese. I clicked idly into Netflix and found this show. The ratings looked good and so I started...

Little did I know that TRoP would open the door into the fascinating world of Cdrama for me, for the next four years (and counting). I have watched over 55 other Cdrama since then, and TRoP still remains among the top tier for me. I didn't know when watching TRoP that:

1) Chen Kun and Ni Ni are truly special. Most actors just aren't in their league.

2) When it comes to period drama, voice-dubbing is actually more common than actors using their own voices.

3) More often than not, CGI (absent here) is used to create special effects or even provide poetic landscape backgrounds.

4) Chinese language, even in period dramas, is usually not *this* difficult to understand (this was the primary grouse of the mainland Chinese audience).

5) Not all shows are so immersive right from the start -- many Chinese dramas take several episodes to warm up.

TRoP had a huge budget and it showed in the beauty and opulence of the sets and costumes. Everything was a feast for the eyes. The actors' natural voices conveyed every emotion with precision, and it helped that almost all of them were great -- besides the ML/FL, Ni Dahong (playing the emperor) and Zhao Lixin (playing Xin Ziyan) were standouts. I loved the music, and even listening to snippets nowadays can transport me back to the pain and melancholy of the story immediately.

The story is not difficult to understand. Ning Yi (played by Chen Kun) is the Sixth Prince who had fallen out of favour with his father the Emperor at the beginning of the show, but who started plotting and manipulating his way back into power over the course of the many episodes that followed. When he crosses paths with the highly intelligent Feng Zhiwei (played by Ni Ni), he is intrigued by her and sees her strategic value. Gradually, Zhiwei becomes embroiled in the power struggle between the princes and subsequently, even the political affairs between states.

There are many light-hearted moments and witty banter that alleviate this densely political atmosphere. Comic relief is also provided by the trusty advisor Xin Ziyan, right-hand man to Ning Yi, and his bodyguard Ning Cheng. Zhiwei has a family history/ tragedy, however, that casts an ominous shadow over much of the narrative, creating layer upon layer that leaves the audience unable to fully relax.

The stars of the show are undoubtedly Chen Kun and Ni Ni, who make sparks fly whenever they appear in the same frame. These two seasoned actors do not need physical touch or even words to convey love or longing. Their total commitment to each other appears in the catch of Zhiwei's voice and the way her eyes fill with tears when she calls Ning Yi Zhong Kui; in the way Ning Yi gazes up at Zhiwei -- caressing, tentative, and taking charge all at once -- when he offers to do the impossible during a particularly difficult stage of the story.

Chen Kun and Ni Ni made Ning Yi and Zhiwei unforgettable. Watching them was just as good as watching two actors on stage in the flesh. Even when the story was a little hard to get behind, the audience's investment and faith in them remained unshakeable.

This show left me with a huge hangover that took me a long, long time to recover from.

PS: This show is no longer on Netflix Singapore but is available on YouTube.

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Surprisingly sweet story of a rebirth. Nice to see both leads in soft roles!

It had been awhile since I last watched Zhang Yun Tao dramas. This drama is available in iQIYI so I decided to make use of my paid subscription. I must say I was surprised by the story. I assumed this would be an aggressive revenge drama but it turned out to be a sweet second chance at life drama.

What I liked:
1. Rebirth trope - Both FL & SFL were given second chance at life after their "incident" in the past life. It was interesting to see how both deal with their fate post-rebirth.
2. FL characterisation - I assumed she wanted to seek revenge towards SFL but she didn't. She focused on her life instead. I liked that she's sweet & kind.
3. Romance - Very sweet with a dash of spice. I liked how warm they were with each other - they held hands right after getting marriage certificate even though they were strangers. Acts of service is their love language.
4. ML characterisation - I didn't like the deception but he was sweet & caring guy. I liked that he put his wife's needs first and is protective of her.
5. Acting - It was great to see both Xue Zi Qi and Zhang Yun Tao in soft roles. The couple in this drama had that sweet & quiet type of partnership, they had good chemistry that translated well on-screen.
6. Styling - ML's clothes were beautiful for a "driver". FL's clothes represent normal, daily wear of a woman in their 20s and I liked that.
7. Supporting characters - I liked ML's assistant & grandpa.

What I disliked:
1. Antagonists - Shen Ting Ting was a bully. I was surprised she could hang out at the office despite not working there. Anyway she was the type of didn't want to be accountable for her choices & actions. It's funny that she assumed making one decision (about marriage) could secure her future. Her husband & mother were horrible too.
2. Traitor - I wish there was more focus / ML's perspective on this arc because it was interesting.

Favourite scene
Morning after

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