Short but doesn't seem cheap - Enough to tell a decent revenge story with good leads chemistry
Director Zhi Zhu, male lead Jin Chao and female lead Qi Xia Xia came together again after their first project, “Zhang Gong Zhu Zai Shang/长公主在上” for a new short drama called “Dong Lan Xue/东栏雪”. I rated ZGZZ pretty low due to its cheap budget production which affected my viewing pleasure. However, “Dong Lan Xue” does not suffer from the same criticism. This 2-min per episode short drama has a pretty decent production value, on par with other longer web dramas such as “The Killer is Also Romantic”. This drama does not scream ‘cheap’.The pacing of the drama is great and tells a decent story of revenge from start to finish in about an hour. The leads have pretty good chemistry. The acting is not bad, especially for the female lead Qi Xia Xia. She looks gorgeous, just like when she was in ZGZZ. I like her styling, especially her gorgeous costumes.
The action scenes also look surprisingly good. I wasn’t expecting the quality of an excellent wuxia drama, but at least there’s no slow-motion fighting or twirling. The drama doesn’t shy away from bloodshed and torture. I was actually quite surprised they came up with a way to torture FL without letting her run away. They did kind of blur the wounds, as I can understand it could be quite disturbing.
If you don’t have a lot of time and want a quick drama, this is pretty good. Short dramas like these are created for those who commute to work on public transportation and have time to kill or, need a quick drama fix.
Completed: 5/14/2023 - Review #306
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This review may contain spoilers
Love Wins
I really wish this could have been a full-length drama and not a short-episode series.I would have loved to see the back stories of our ML & FL - two flawed, broken people who come to know and accept love despite their past. I loved the chemistry between them. I loved that he was the weaker of the two, but he loved her enough to let her go. I loved how no matter how much she denied it at first, she finally let him love her till she was able to love him too.
Their love scenes were tender and sweet, even with the chaste kisses. The cinematography added to the unspoken romantic interactions of the lead couple and was quite appealing and effective.
Loved the interjection of the time traveler and her sweet (well-deserved) ending. Hilarious!
I will definitely watch this one over and over again.
*Update - I had to amend the rating I originally gave this drama because I have come back to rewatch so many times! I hope there will be a Season 2.
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Revenge is a dish best served with blood
Dong Lan Xue began with a scattershot approach to the story, not entirely sure of what it wanted to be. I honestly dropped it after the first episode as it felt like the cast and crew had knocked back one too many double espressos laced with an illicit drug. The characters and story moved fast and erratically and one "time traveling" character was particularly annoying. Fortunately, I went back and gave it a second chance. When the writers took a deep breath and detoxed and decided to focus on the Seventh Prince and Shen Yan, the story began to gel.For people well versed in historical Cdramas, the story was a familiar one. An evil Crown Prince caused misery for Shen Yan and other innocents due to his greed and desire for power. Seventh Prince had suffered a childhood trauma due to the Crown Prince's mother, the Evil Empress abetted by his father the Emperor, whose evilness has yet to be determined. Seventh Prince and Shen Yan teamed up to extract revenge on those who had caused them pain. They were not afraid to shed blood…a lot of blood to get there. Many of the more deadly scenes didn't make much historical sense but they were fun in a vengeful way so I just rolled with them and it was exciting to watch Shen Yan have her way with the Crown Prince's armored henchmen. There were also some very sensual scenes for a historical Cdrama, but well done. In around 90 minutes they told a story that often takes 50 episodes for other dramas while leaving enough story for part two of the revenge pact.
Dong Lan Xue was a short web series with high production values at least where sets and costumes were concerned. Once they settled the cameraman down and the pacing from the first few episodes, even those production values improved. The fight scenes were as good as any in a longer drama. I particularly liked Shen Yan being allowed to be a badass. They didn't shy away from her past as a prostitute or try to glamour or gloss over it. Too often they weaken actually strong female leads. They chose her background and stuck with it, not feeling the need to dumb her down or take away her power or voice. They also didn't remove her sensuality as she had chemistry with the Seventh Prince and with the Prime Minister's daughter.
Dong Lan Xue proved that longer isn't always better although I would have liked to have seen some of the story gaps filled in and it would have been nice to watch the whole thing uninterrupted. The main leads worked well together and the plot was fairly coherent if not historically plausible. All in all, after the first few episodes it became a highly addictive and entertaining watch.
7/7/23
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Love does not magically heal all wounds.
What I liked about this short drama:- Gorgeous looking main leads (yes I'm shallow).
- Did not take long time to finish. Suitable for binge-watching in one sitting. If you're in a drama slump or jaded of watching a full length drama atm like me, it's refreshing to watch a short drama like this one while you wait for your drama soul to heal.
- Great chemistry between leads. You could feel their palpable chemistry whenever they were around each other.
- Good acting from the cast. The expressions shown by both leads were on point. I feel for their characters while watching.
- Spicy & angsty romance that was right up my alley. Kiss scenes in here were also better than in most full length drama I've seen.
- A kickass female lead. I have a thing for a kickass FL especially those who can fight & kill like Shen Yan.
- A formidable and protective male lead. Despite the actor is young but he has this mature vibe around him that made him looked older than he is.
- I liked the fact that both ML & FL was consistent in their revenge through & through. Even after they found love & solace in each other's arms they did'nt suddenly turn weak or forgiveable. Because realistically, love does'nt heal all wounds.
What I think was so-so about this short drama:
-Typical revenge plot. Nothing we have'nt seen before in a revenge based drama. It's unrealistic to expect more from a 3 minutes episodes short drama with 1 hour 30 minutes in total.
Lastly , I was intrigued by this beautiful poem by Su Shi that was shown at the end of the story that I think is worth sharing. Title : Donglan Pear Blossom
"The pear blossoms are pale white and the willows are dark green, and when the catkins fly, the city is full of flowers. I am saddened by the snow in the east column, and life can be seen clearly."
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Very Bland, even for a short series
The drama started off pretty ok for a short drama, yet even in 5 minutes, the story seemed empty, like we already could figure out all those who had to die will die and the revenge will complete.There is nothing compelling about this drama, only the fact that the leads showed burning chemistry for the first few episodes, then the spark was gone. The ML is a puppy and the FL is a very angry person who wants revenge, That's it.
One thing that bothered me was that in one of the episodes, they completely blurred the leads while they were in bed. The kiss scenes were rather abrupt too. Only the ending was OK
they could have focused on the romance more and it would turn out to be more intriguing.
Overall, very very average. Nothing to be missed at all.
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Fast paced messy fun
Fortunately or unfortunately this is a short watch. The jury is still out on that! On one hand, we just wasted 90min or so of our time which is not important, and on the other it is a good story which needed a more streamlined plot and a little more time.This is the usual story of palace conspiracy and fight for the throne between two brothers one of who is in league with his servant. The prince and his servant are both looking for revenge.
The beginning is messy. The story meanders, the writers did not really know which path they wanted to take: so we start with a time travelling girl who disappears after a few episodes. Then, a few episodes later, we are in the middle of a full blown GL and I was looking forward to it (because it was so obvious to all the characters what was going on between the girls) but then I remembered that this was a CHINESE drama, and of course, that was dropped though not forgotten since it became girls' chinese style bromance. Eventually, they decided to stick to a more conventional plot and so the two main characters got half of their revenge and remained together in order to complete it sometimes in near future.
Production value is high, the special effects are seamless, the fighting scenes fast and well choreographed, the costumes silky and the wind machine in working order. The acting was ok. They do like whispering when they talk. The problem here are the writing and the messy editing in the first half: it is too fast and difficult to understand the main plot!
If you are not too demanding, it is an fun short watch.
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