Lost Track of Time (2022)

Best low budget chinese historical drama

The story revolve around Lu A Ran and Mu Ze. The actor played Mu Ze character gave a depth of Mu Ze personality engima off black grey and white . In his first life he had to do things because the life in the royal family house hold wasn’t easy ! It was like jungle warfare , where everyone is plotting against each other’s . In the first life time Lu A Ran help Mu Ze achieved his goals thus he became the emperor. In order to achieve his ambition he had to sacrifice few things. Lu An Ran sister and step mother was Evil ? in the first life they won over her. Both her step sister & concubine won over her! She had to step up and play the game against them since she was the empress but she became a weak depressed woman. The character Mu Chan was very simple he had no power don’t know why he was a main lead .

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Dreamer's Dream Of The Butterfly

...or the butterfly's dream of the dreamer?

This is Lu Anran's overall situation when facing her "second chance", taken from Chinese famous classic poem.

She loved wholeheartedly her husband that apparently to be bloody heartless killer including his own brother Mu Chuan, and slaughter her whole family. Later she suicide. Cannot stand the hell in the palace.

Waken up, she returned at the first place she met her husband. Tried to save all her relatives from demises, but some deaths cannot be changed. Eventually she married this cruel husband again but with cautious mind and calculative plots.

It worked in the end, thou things not turned out perfectly like she wished for, but at least her father still alive and Mu Chuan also still alive and five years later after her husband's death, she returned to capital to be reunited with Mu Chuan.

Lesson: (in my opinion)
- To Lu Anran, the heroine: Woman should not too loving a man. Not saying to play hard to get, it's just having a naive love is no good.
- To Mu Chuan: He believed "all wells end wells". A stable character, from beginning til end, loyal heart, innocent, simple mind and no overthinking or overeacting.
- To Mu Ze the antagonist lead: Not too clever.

The only OST I love in this drama: Chen Junyu's Jin Xi He Xi.
Just want to say thanks to the production team to create bonus episode which is happy ending thou it is a paid version. Haha.

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Poorly executed to the point where it becomes frustrating, but fun to roast

1. The theme of the story does not match how it plays out

There are a lot of tales about fate and the futility of rebelling against it. Oedipus Rex. Ragnarok. In China, the Tui Bei Tu was a real prophecy book which inspired a real Emperor to go on a massive massacre in order to prevent one of its prophecies, which still came to pass (ie, a female Emperor Wu Zetian interrupted his dynasty, but then she gave it back so I don't know what his problem was). Generally, though, if you're going to write a story about the fruitlessness of do-overs, there should be something about the character that had enough hubris to challenge fate. For example: if someone WANTED to go back in time and change everything, and then actively created a time machine/cast a spell/sacrificed first-borns, etc. If you're going to drag our FL INVOLUNTARILY back in time, however, then Fate itself was responsible for the repeat, in which case, why? If everything that happened should have happened, why did the universe itself propel Lu Anran back in time just to do everything over again? I normally forgive the mechanics of supernatural phenomena when it comes to writing, but literally no one asked for this. When I realized everything was just going to be the same as before, I was so bored. This isn't Lost Track of Time, this is Wasting Everyone's Time.

2. Pacing, Where Art Thou?

It's clear to me that Xing Fei chose this role to flex her drama skills. She normally portrays young women who are relatively collected and put together. At best, they get mildly distressed/aggravated, but rarely are they truly angsty. But 10 minutes of watching Xing Fei cry isn't the way to do this. If she's going to mope for a day and a night, you don't have to film her moping ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT. It's possible to cut forward. No one looks good enough to sustain such a long segment. These episodes are only 45 minutes long, we're not interested in lingering over a sobfest for almost a quarter of it. Further, the script has a tendency to make characters introspect when they really should be in action; ie, if someone is found dead, even if that someone is a loved one, the natural reaction is not feeling sorry for yourself, it's calling the police. If you found your best friend expired from blunt force trauma, wouldn't you want to figure out what led to that? No? You want to lay out a red curtain neatly on the ground and lie down next to it in a stupor to simulate your dead friend's corpse instead? Who does this? It's absurd. And then, because this show drags these ridiculous scenes out past the limits of anyone's attention-span, to move forward it employs the strangest time-skips I've ever seen. It's a low budget show, so they can't even be bothered to change outfits and hairstyles, all of the sudden we're five months out when it looks like the same day. They don't even change the lighting. It's so confusing that any limited immersion you might have had gets rudely interrupted because you're trying to reorient yourself. Ultimately, the director and editor have a poor understanding of what the audience needs to see at any given moment. They are constantly choosing the wrong thing to show; when we are ready to move on to see what happens next, they wax philosophical over the same scene for another 7 minutes. However, when we actually want to see what is going on right now, they jump forward 2 months and retroactively tell us all the things we missed. Whoever directed this thing should go back to school.

3. Intrusive OST

Pet peeve of mine: Songs with lyrics overlapping on-screen dialogue. You have words being spoken and words being sung in the background; which one am I supposed to listen to? It just becomes a cacophony of gibberish. Granted, a lot of shows do this for some reason. I suspect it has to do with limited soundtracks that they must disperse throughout multiple episodes, but it is never not ridiculous.

This show also has a tendency to use soundtracks the way 80s films used to. Sometimes the music would switch from one angsty piece to another mid-phrase. It often begins loudly too, to the point where it might startle you, and clearly indicates when you should start feeling sad in an incredibly melodramatic way. It's to the point where my friend and I exclaim "Cue music!" every time something sad was supposed to happen, and it always plays! It always plays.

4. FL's character is poorly written

It's hard to write a strong character. It's harder to write a strong FEMALE character in a period drama. I get it. But one key thing about strong characters is that, while they're allowed to cry and feel scared/helpless, they should be doers when something needs doing, not just mope on the side. Lu Anran supposedly accomplished all these things; she expanded her father's business empire despite facing down bandits and natural disasters, but these are things you are told. The Lu Anran on screen usually doesn't fit this description. On occasion, she gets her act together, but most of the time she's just in a self-pitying daze. It's clear to me that whoever wrote her character WANTED to write someone strong, but didn't know how strong people are defined. Everyone's allowed to feel sorry for themselves, but if you're trying to convince us that Lu Anran was competent in any way, you should probably double-check to see what competence requires on a fundamental level (hint: it means getting stuff done!)

5. Acting is decent for the script

Some people complained about the actors, but I don't think that was the problem. I wouldn't say the actors were Oscar-worthy, but considering what they were working with, I thought they did a decent job. FL and ML had pretty good chemistry. I agree with many that ML doesn't seem to have the chops to lead an ensemble, but his character wasn't written in a ML way. He was kind of useless and passive, playing into the "I'm a prince but I want to be a commoner because that's more honest" trope, which, considering the events of the story when this was happening, feels very immature. He was like a little boy who didn't want to become a man because being a man is too hard, with responsibilities and duties and having to do things you don't enjoy in order to support yourself. This was how he was written, though, so I don't fault the actor for that. FL can cry,, and glare stonily at people, which. Glad you flexed that, Xing Fei. I would never have guessed. I suppose from now on you can audition for roles that exercise your lacrimal glands. On a more serious note, though, Xing Fei added a certain maturity and grace to the character, which I don't think most actresses can. She certainly looked smart enough, even if she didn't act smart, but the latter's due to the script, not anything Xing Fei did.

SML definitely steals every scene he's in. People say he's not black or white. I disagree; he's definitely an evil character. I don't see any controversy about that. Sympathizing with someone doesn't make them less evil. Hitler grew up poor. He grew up without a father. He had to sleep on park benches and even spent time in jail. When he became a dictator, he fell in love with Eva Braun. Yes, Adolf Hitler did love someone. He even loved his mother enough that he allowed her Jewish doctor to escape Germany before systematically killing Jews. What, does this confuse people now, are we no longer sure if Hitler was a bad guy? Ultimately, everyone is good to some people at certain times. Even evil people. What matters is their bottom line. The difference between a good person and a bad one is there are certain things a good person will never do. Bad people can do good things, but they'll reverse course when it suits them, whereas a good person will continue to do good deeds even if it's hard. SML had the hots for FL and that made everyone melt, which, what? However, I do give SML props for giving the character so much charisma. His interpretation of the role is refreshing and delightful. A lot of villains are annoying, or you hate them too much to enjoy them, but SML here is someone who is interesting enough to capture your attention. He's a disgusting son-of-a-gun, but he's so much fun, partially because it's clear that the actor's having so much fun playing this character.

6. Good for roasting

The wallpaper backgrounds depicting 2D mountains. The polyester robes that these characters wear for weeks at a time. The lack of seasonal change. The rain when characters cry (lolz). The random narrator that pops in out of nowhere to recite things you already know, in this deep voice full of gravitas. The flashbacks to 2 minutes prior in the same episode, because the director's scared that our memory spans are as long as a goldfish's. This is one of those shows where you can do a Mystery Science Theater 3000 and it would be a good time. But, frankly, there are so many Cdramas where you can do this as well, so it's up to you, whether you want to waste your time.

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Not your typical sweet romance

Story/Plot:
Lu Anran was given a second life after encountering an annihilation of her entire clan and those who are close to her done by her husband... or was it really him? There are plot twists, revenge, calculation and just when you think she has the upper hand, she’s back to square one.
I love the concept but few of the executions are quite questionable that makes
me wonder the real purpose of their tug-of-war.

Acting: Xing Fei has showed more range and versatility in this drama. She only needs to polish the intensity of her expressions in some scenes but overall, she did amazingly well especially in her emotional scenes. As for Zhai Zilu, this is my first drama of him, as a newcomer, he’s quite natural in most of his scenes(whether he’s being gentle, suspicious or mad)and just need to smoothen his emotional scenes. Jing Chao, very much convinced by his performance, was also great as Mu Ze. I cannot imagine anyone other than them to act their given roles. They gave birth to each character with their own uniqueness that only them can deliver. While others think that Xing Fei should have used her original voice, I quite disagree. Her diction, pronunciation and line delivery are not suitable for historical dramas, this is also another thing that she needs to work on in the future. The other female villains also did excellent in making their characters alive and hateful. The only weakest acting is of ‘Lu Yun’ or Lu Anran’s brother. It was quite evident that he couldn’t keep up with the rest of the actors and looked like a rookie among all the rookies.

Music: Every sound effect, background music and opening/closing song is just perfect for every scene. The sound director deserves high remarks for his or her choices.

Rewatch Value: Lu Anran and Mu Chuan’s scenes are rewatchable. Their sincere love for each other is just so sweet to watch and it reminds me of a classic historical romance of Shakespeare.

Overall: 8.5-9 stars because it was a different drama from all I’ve watched(especially of Xing Fei’s) and their dialogues/lines are so good and profound. Each of them, even the side characters, has a quotable phrase or words of wisdom that will give you an awakening or reminder in life. It kinda made up for the bad CGI and not so good editing. Different angles show different emotions, and if the editing was lousy, it will take away the initial raw emotion they gave on the first scene and it will look unnatural on the next. Even so, thumbs up for the maze yet compact plot, amazing dialogues and effective acting of everyone.

Season 2 is unlikely to happen but I hope all of them can work again. Whether it’s costume or modern, i wish they will be given a higher budget next time. It’s such a waste that this kind of drama didn’t have enough money for post-production, it truly deserves more.

PS: Quite sad that there’s no EngSub for the epilogue, although someone explained the summary, I still wish I could watch it with subtitle.

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A great drama for the angst and hurt/comfort genre

This drama should come with a tiny warning: this drama is not for those seeking light-hearted romance and comedy. This drama is very angsty and occasionally we get the sweet romance between the FL and ML, but this drama overall has a heavy tone. After all, the main serious plot is about revenge and scheming. So, I warn you now: if you're not ready for angst and you don't like a lot of sadness, this is NOT for you.

This drama is for those who enjoyed dramas like "Goodbye My Princess" where there is a lot of tragedy and tragic moments. If you like tragedy, tragic characters, doomed fates, fighting against the inevitability, and plotting, I'd recommend this drama. If you enjoy irony, this drama delivers.

Summary: In the first life, Lu Anran falls in love with Mu Ze and have a sweet beginning--but a tragic end. When she gets the miraculous chance to start over, she is no longer the naive woman she was before. Knowing the true face of Mu Ze and how everything will turn out, Lu Anran begins her second life planning her revenge and protection of her family--while also learning who really loved her wholeheartedly this whole time.

I think this drama did well in making you care about all three leads and care about their relationships to each other. Watching this drama, I was really invested in all three of them: Lu Anran's sweet romance with Mu Chuan, Mu Chuan's brotherhood with Mu Ze, and Mu Ze's fucked up yet compelling relationship with Lu Anran. All three dynamics were interesting to watch, which made all the angst bearable.

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The Intrigue

This drama is good (!) and deserves to be watched & enjoyed! I chanced upon this drama on YouTube and since I like Xing Fei, I decided to go ahead with it. No regrets! Worth the watch :)

What I liked:
- The cast is generally good in that they are fine actors and actresses. I think that FL is more suited for modern day roles but she is a good actress nonetheless.
- The plot is intriguing and fast-paced enough. It didn’t drag on and on about nothing. FL’s first life happened swiftly from episodes 1 to 3. Then, she spent her second chance righting wrongs done to her and others from episodes 4 to 30. There are plenty of revelations as to what actually happened and why! Plot is suspenseful and engaging. I liked finding out the truth. The truth turned out to be heart wrenching at times and wistful at times. I enjoyed watching the drama unfold.
- I have not seen ML Mu Ze before prior to this role but he’s very fine. He’s a great actor and very manly. He stole the show! I watched the show for him. He made the character one that I loved and yet, detested; felt sorry for and yet, felt angry with. He was a complex character who loved FL so dearly in both the first life and the second life. His love for her was real and deep even though he did use her for his own exploits especially in his first life with her.
- ML Mu Chuan is just so endearing. I loved that although he was more interested in farming and feeding the masses, he was also adept at fighting and protecting himself and FL. I like capable characters! He also truly adored FL. Later on, I liked seeing him fight for what he wanted.
- The people inside the drama are smart people and it’s fun to watch smart people collude and connive! I cannot stand noble idiots or silly oafs.
- Music is pleasing!
- Graphics are nice!

What I didn’t like:
- There were a lot of awfully spiteful and evil people in the show. They were exceedingly pretentious. It was horrifying to see FL’s sister, LXR, cursing her own nephew and just wishing death upon her half-sister. It was bloodcurdling! Xiao Jing Que was another vengeful and wicked character. Appalling! It’s appalling how cruel and wicked some people can be.
- FL’s half-brother was quite insufferable! He was annoying silly and didn’t have a good head on his shoulders.
- Bloodshed - lots of it although the show did try to keep things ‘not so gory’.

Overall, this is a very exciting watch. Perfect to 'zhui xi'.

I’d say watch it! It’s a good one. :) it’s not a 'lovey dovey' kind of show that’s light-hearted and happy-ish. It’s on the ‘heavy’ and 'dark' side. But, the plot is very good and Mu Ze is excellent! Watch! :)

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When I first learned about this drama I got really excited as I really dislike stories where the FL forgives the abusive ML (who always seems to has the perfect excuses for mistreating her) and they end up "happily together" at the end. So let me start off by saying that the plot of the drama had me already hooked from the very beginning.
Though I really enjoyed this story, I would have really preferred for some things to be done differently. Like for instance I would have loved for Muze to learn about their previous lives at the end (through a dream or from the fl or someone). Also although I liked the fl's acting I believe it could be improved especially when she was "crazy laugh-crying". I really loved MuChuan's character he was very sweet, kind, caring and loving. I especially enjoyed Jing Chao's acting as Muze, he is a great actor and very charismatic, but I definitely hated his character, Muze. All in all a good drama which could have been much much greater

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Worth Watching

I have just finished ep 27. I don’t usually write reviews but after reading some of the bad ones, I feel compelled to write mine. I started watching this show, regardless of some poor reviews, because of the 3 leads. I’ve watched their other dramas before so I’m familiar with them. The plot so far is intriguing and kept me wanting to see more. The chemistry between both MLs and FL is great and their interactions with one another feel real to me. I can sympathize with Lu AnRan and Mu Chuan. My heart hurt for Mu Chuan more than Lu AnRan’s but it would appear that the tide is turning for Mu Chuan starting around ep 26.

If you have doubts, just keep watching. It’s really a good cdrama. Not the best that I’ve seen in 2022 but it is not as bad as some people thought.

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纠结

the extra more like the last eps that the extra, meanless for do this to make a separate episode, but should watch the extra for the totally ending

this drama makes me very tangled,, I think this drama is actually good, the atmosphere and feeling of the story is very good,, when watching it feels like a broken heart, but the story is very rushed, jumping scene, the plan motive is not understood until the plan is complete, they seem so pushy to make FL suffer and unlucky


until the end I dont understand what the meaning of "totem"the shaman said? Do she really time travel or are just an imagination for what will happen? or made she suffering for a second time? but not because instead of suffering she has the opportunity to change? i really don't understand
From what I see, this is not really a second chance or time travel, maybe it be could say only Lu Anran felt it was a second chance given to her to change, actually emotions and characters in this time are not the same as past time, for example qing prince, he is indeed cruel, but he is not selfish as the past time


but strangely, Luanran knows certain things and people from her previous life/her imagination, and what happen in pass time she repeats at the present time,but the scene shown is not complete even though the events and processes in this time are totally different from the past time! they have to show it especially during the last scene where qing prince said in the letter he left that lu anran said something before fainting, WHAT SHE SAID?! I thought there would be a flashbacks AND THERE WAS NOTHING!

I watch behind the scenes of this drama, NG was taken a lot of times, they not lacking a materials for the scene, but the way to edit and cut the scene was outrageous, so hurry, really meaningless to make an extra episode with a duration of 27 minutes, wouldn't it be better to make 1 full episode by adding the cut scene? The limit for cdrama episodes is 40 eps!



note of question:
1. what does the curse,stone totem mean? what is it? is it really reincarnation? or just imagination? not like imagination because some things and events seems Luanran have experienced it,, what causing the second chance happen?

2. the process of qing prince getting to know the shen brother in past time is also unclear how it happened and what happen, at the past time who met the shen brother was muze and luanran not muchuan and luanran, if discussed, shouldn't it be told a little at least in narrative form about dongqing,, muze save her first and make a deal with shenbrother or help dongqing to play shenbrother help?

3. lu anran said in past time, the son of minister yan pass the exam, but scholar xu also pass the exam in past time, so in past time whose exam paper did minister yan's son steal so he can get a champion?
and if scholar xu and son of minister yan both pass the exam it means they take the exam at different times (not in the same year), so Luanran's plan is invalid to save scholar xu by making him to take the exam next year ,he will still die then!

4. ep 19 when playing paper puppets, they don't tell what the story is they telling, but ep 27 it says she tells all the truth through paper puppets but at that time DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY SAY!!

5. If Chuan Prince is the Emperor's favorite child, how can he be bullied with Qing Prince when they were also raised by the Queen?

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Too painful to watch

I really can't bear to watch the sufferings of Lu An Ran (AR). So yeah I watch jump this drama, but enough to grab the big picture.

One conclusion I can get from this drama. Destiny is really exist. Chinese people often said destiny line can't be changed, everything already written for you in destiny book. Several thing AR can change with very painful way, but something also can't be change whatever she did.

Watching this make me question myself what will I do if I were AR. Will I run as far as possible from Mu Ze & Emperor's family? Or I also will fight the destiny and kick his butt like AR did? Probably I'll gonna try ran as far & as fast as possible from all that painful destiny, because I'm not as brave as AR.

In the end, If you look for revenge drama with different tone, this drama you can try to watch.... But overall this actually one good drama. It just me who has no gut to continue watch it....

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This would have been a great watch but there were a few episodes toward the end that only played the audio. For some reason, the video was scrambled. I loved the storyline and I hope they fix those episodes. A lot of treachery among the female cast and one of the main characters. Xing Fei who played Lu An Ran did pretty well with her character. She was the first main lead so that told me the story surrounding her character. No competition among the men or the women's character but the women who went against the main lead played their jealousy very convincingly. Actor Zhai Zi Lu who played Mu Chuan loved how he kept his character in a calm state. If I was that character, I would have declared war. Jing Chao who played the character of Mu Ze, OMG I don't want to ever bump heads with him. He was too convincing. I want to thank all of those who had support roles in this drama. The team who was in charge of the filming didn't do well. It's a wonder China let this one air.

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