very lightly entertaining

I've followed Zhao LuSi for some time and she is on a lightning streak in her career. I never considered her particularly strong as a dramatic actress, but what she is good at are light comic roles, and the early part of this show suits her very well. Wang An Yu stands up well alongside ZLS's star power.

Like other epics, this story spans vast stages of time but this show deals with much narrower issues. It begins with the imminent awakening a Fire Phoenix god, whose birth event is disrupted by GuJin, a true god who has yet to arise to his own destiny in the divine realm. He comes across a lowly spirit beast & together they start a journey to revitalize the Fire Phoenix.

I've read that The Last Immortal is a sequel to Ancient Love Poetry, a show I enjoyed very much, but there's not a lot of reference to it. TLI takes a long time to even start approaching the intensity of ALP. The tone changes from light comedy to serious half way through & here's where the leads' lack of depth in their performances become apparent. The story & action also drags noticeably before picking up once more as we enter the second act. However, rather than develop the characters' relationships more deeply, the show deals with all the villians rather early or too quickly, as with the long suppressed demon god. Too much time is spent with everyone firing their energy beams at each other while crying in angst in between. The ending felt somewhat unsatisfactory.

I don't have a lot to say about this show. It's lightly entertaining but the storyline doesn't hold any surprises, the CGI is bad, the costuming so-so, and no deep philosophical questions. It's good that ZLS could have a career in singing (she sings the opening theme song) if her acting doesn't carry her much farther, but this show won't stop her current streak.

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flat-lined performances & writing ruin a potentially good story

Another medical/research drama, with the leads meeting in a fictional French speaking, developing country run by warlords. Su Wei'An is a young woman from China, ekking out a living by buying & selling goods, with the country's military leader as one of her primary customers. When she runs into a visiting Chinese neurosurgeon, Gu YunZheng, at the largest local hospital, their shared past, & her dark secret, is revealed. On return to China, the setting changes from humanitarian work to the cut-throat world of medical research & a race for the cure of a rare disease.

There's a lot of French dialogue in the beginning & the dubbing is absolutely terrible. I can't tell if the actors are mouthing the actual French words or not as many scenes are so obviously out of sync. And as with so many C-dramas involving medical people & hospitals, I learn to ignore bascially all of the details. Just pretend that the single looped surgery scene represents all of the surgeries performed.

Given Luo YunXi's impressive string of hit shows, both modern & costume, this drama is far below the standard he's set for himself (and did he actually lose weight during the filming? he's skeletal thin). Zhang RuoNan is no newcomer but this is my first time seeing her & her performance can't match the strength of Su Wei'An. ZRN's portrayal of a young person facing a life threatening illness is stiff & expressionless, not at all reflective of a character who is passionate about protecting others while personally in despair.

The romance arcs are formulaic, trope heavy, & the story takes a long time to get off the ground. It does pick up by the halfway mark when the leads return to China, but quickly descends into a toxic hell-bucket of backstabbing, cheating, & relentless bullying. Are seasoned medical researchers all stuck at the maturity level of middle schoolers? Maybe some are but who wants to watch that? ZRN's wooden expressions get very annoying & the chemistry of the leads is weak. The 2nd couple's arc is actually more lively but unfortunately gets neglected as the show progresses. I watched to the end only because I was actually curious about the outcome of the character's race to cure her own fatal disease. Thus the story itself was interesting & could have been a deeper exploration of what it means to live in the face of death. But it never got beyond the playground politics to properly prepare for the conclusion. The acting, production, & writing couldn't raise this story to the level it deserved.

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fantastic ensemble cast

Best show I saw in 2022, & not just because the main character has the same last name as me. "A crime doesn't turn into a local custom just because everyone does it" (Ep13). In 2004 a wealthy village chief's son sexually assaults a bridesmaid at a villager's wedding, setting off a chain of events over the next 13 years, unravelling layers of misogyny, corruption, & oppression within not only the judicial system but among family members. The struggles between the individual & the collective is exacerbated in the migration from the village to the city & the march toward modernization. The story follows the bride in her relentless fight for justice for her family & their very own livelihoods. The ensemble cast is fantastic, portraying very complex & intersectional characters with sensitivity & grace.

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masterful performances & strong start but couldn't fill up all 39 eps

I didn't know what to expect from this show but it quickly became a delight after the first couple of episodes.

Shen Li is the demon Azure Sky King, who flees from a forced marriage down to the mortal realm. There, while injured & helpless in her original bird form, she meets XingYun, a ginseng farmer living alone in near poverty, and who happens to also be the mortal manifestation of a sleeping ancient god XingZhi.

"I'm not stupid!" proclaims ShenLi at one point & indeed, she is not. She is a demon military commander who is revered not only by her army but also the citizenry she protects. She's also no-nonsense to a fault, empathetic only to those closest to her. However, the irreverent XingYun unbalances her as the first man she has ever had to depend upon with her life, & as a sickly weak mortal at that. She's drawn to him in spite of him always teasing her & never actually inviting her closer. The back & forth between the two is subtle & handled so skillfully by the veteran leads that you don't recognize the trope until it's already done. And it's very funny.

I've only seen Zhao Li Ying in The Story of Xing Fu which was a fantastic show. Her maturity lends to her strength & consistency in her performance & she's become someone I look forward to watching. Lin GengXin as XingYun/XingZhi was remarkable in maintaining a core personality between 2 different manifestations of the same character. He Yu as Lord FuRong, ShenLi's original betrothed, took a few episodes to find his footing in the role, but as the show progressed he turned into one of the funnier characters, even becoming likeable, alongside the ever entertaining Jackie Li.

All of this made for such a strong first half of the show that I was ready to give it one of my highest ratings. However, past Ep20, the pacing suddenly lagged & the story meandered for 6 or7 eps. Then came the backstory of ShenLi's origins & the late introduction of a new character, ShenLi's father. However, their reunion was puzzlingly brief & they didn't even hold a satisfactory conversation together. After such smart dialogue in the first half of the show, it made no sense that ShenLi couldn't say one word to her father when this was such a huge development. It seemed illogical with her character to not even make herself known to him when he was right in front of her, & he had to find out who she was from someone else.

The climactic battle to suppress a superdemonic foe & stabilize the universe was a cliched, long CGI light show. In fact, a lot of detail & effort was put into visually creating the fantastical realms but the heart of the characters, dialogue & story were significantly diminished. By that time I had no interest in the good vs evil routine. I just wanted to see what outcome ShenLi & XingZhi's relationship would face. Their fate ultimately held no surprises, secondary character arcs were left dangling (would've liked to see more FuRong/YouLan), & the story really ends with Ep38. Ep39 ran like someone forgot there was 1 ep left to go & had to slap together whatever story was left at the top of their head, which wasn't much. Why didn't the show just save some money & skip it? It could've been a 30 ep show with what story was presented.

After such a strong start it seemed this would be a very different kind of drama but the 2nd half unfortunately face-planted into a puddle of mediocre. So wildly inconsistent I truly can't decide whether I liked this show or not. I loved the first half; second half not so much.

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surprisingly engaging story in a timeworn genre

I was half expecting a silly high school teen idol story & was half prepared to drop this show. I was only curious to see Byeon Woo Seok again after seeing him in Strong Girl Namsoon & thought I would just check out the 1st episode or two. My goodness what a pleasant surprise this turned out to be. It's along the same level of pleasant surprise as Legally Romance, another story about a woman returning to the past to change her fate. It's actually not a teen story because it's told from an adult perspective.

Kim Hye Yoon plays Im Sol, a 30 y/o woman who travels back 15 yrs in time to try to prevent a trajedy from happening to her first love Ryu Seon Jae, played by BWS. As things don't quite turn out the way she hopes the first time, she figures out a way to travel back & forth for further attemtps to affect different outcomes. In the course of storytelling, I find the more times this happens, the more muddled things get & too many questions arise about just what the heck is going on. Some characters seem to retain memories you wouldn't expect them to if the time travel didn't involve them. Did Sol return to the past at a point before or after she told certain people certain things? I couldn't keep track. Sol also gains new memories from her new timelines, but the editing made it a bit confusing to follow. Finally comes the question of whether fate is strong enough that if things don't happen one day, will it happen on another day, in another way? And wouldn't that apply to all events, including trajedy?

You'd think the theme of going back in time is so worn out; how can it possibly be retold & still be entertaining? The strength of this drama, I realize, is in the skill of weaving in the developing relationship between Sol & Seon Jae. Sol drives the teen relationship with her 30 y/o maturity, & what she doesn't realize is SJ's own maturity which was far beyond her clueless younger self. Equally impressive was the steady & consistent performance of KHY, who could convey so much of Sol's conflict & hesitation without saying a word. I've read that KHY is not receiving as much attention for this drama as her co-star, which is itself very sad to see as she is the true star of the show.

I'll just add a short comment on the depiction of disability, which I've yet to see portrayed as anything but worse than death in an Asian drama. Seeing Sol's independence while in a wheelchair, but being denied job opportunities because of inaccessibility which is no fault of her own, it might've been an opportunity to make some sort of statement by having Sol advocate for accessibility, especially since she ends up working at the place that initially rejected her. I was actually excited at the thought of a show featuring a disabled lead character, but alas the show was not up to that level & I decided to let this one go for now.

One of the co-writers of this show also wrote for True Beauty, a show I was far less impressed with. This show was quite entertaining overall, and with good performances. I've rated it higher than I might normally with this type of fluff piece, but only because it was nicely shot, had more than a few truly funny moments, and raised interesting questions about fate. If I had to compare, though, I'd say Legally Romance is a better show.

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Tone & pace maintained from S1, engaging story & well acted

It's nice to see the tone & pace are largely the same as from S1, same superb performances from the veteran actors. Love the patient, close examination of finer details in both scene & conversation. I've read that there are many jokes which don't translate well. Although my Chinese is limited, I can tell that the dialogue is sharp & fast and, even from what is translated, some scenes can still be very funny to a Western trained eye simply because the acting is that good. The CGI is not up to Western standard, but the natural sets were stunning.

Once again, Fan Xian schemes & this time makes a choice of who to align with, and characters continue to surprise, making the viewer guess what their next move might be. The crown prince became more cunning & surprisingly likeable. In fact, many characters now show a lighter, more casual side to themselves than in S1. Even Shadow is given not only a personality, but also aspirations, & presents more as a human being. Wu Zhu experiences self-doubt since he's been freed & on his own, & my suspicions of his identity from S1 were confirmed. Many characters returned from S1, although some were given very little screen time in S2.

S2, however, is less broad in scope as the story mainly centers on Fan Xian consolidating his influence within the capital, under his declared goal of weeding out government corruption. The romance takes a back seat to the political intrigue. Lin Wan'Er, who should be the most important person to Fan Xian, isn't even mentioned until Ep5. However, the development of their relationship was gripping as they reach new levels of understanding with each other. Wu Zhu doesn't show up until past the half-way mark at Ep26, but is involved in a drastic new development as he continues to be an important key to the mystery of FanXian'smother. FanXian's mission takes the story through the conventional settings of the imperial examinations, and the highly anticipated wedding with Wan'Er.

The season ends with Fan Xian one step further into taking control of his mother's assets, & without an agonizing cliff hanger as in S1. However, hopefully the wait won't be long for S3. The story remains highly engaging & I'm ready for S3.

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Outlandish family antics makes a cringeworthy watch

I felt that by watching this show I would give Xu Kai & Yang Zi one more chance before I give up on using them as the primary reason to watch any of their shows. And how lucky that I can watch them both in one show before making my decision. I have enjoyed past shows starring each of them, but the enjoyment was due more to the power of the story & production, rather than their performances.

Best Choice Ever is another rich/poor CEO/employee set up in Shanghai. Yang Zi plays 29 year old Mai Chenghuan, a senior employee in the sales department of a luxury hotel. Xu Kai plays Yao Zhiming, the newly arrived, foreign educated, CEO of said hotel, of course. MCH is already in a tenuous 3 yr relationship with the son of a large design company, & of course gets off to a bad start with her new boss.

MCH's engagement to the future successor to a large business partner of the hotel she works at poses the ultimate conflict of interest as both businesses seek to use the upcoming marriage as leverage for their financial deals. The conflicts of interest don't just stop there. The drama presents a lawyer representing his girlfriend, & using work resources for personal issues while proclaiming not to be doing that, as being ok when it involves the main characters.

There's an interesting contrast between modern & traditional Shanghai. Rich families embody the modern, spacious lifestyle, while MCH lives with her 4-member family in a tiny, old apartment so cramped her younger brother has to sleep on a cot in the living/dining room. This living condition is what they can afford & allows them proximity to the business district, where the children can pursue career opportunities & still come home to a cooked meal. This is the commitment of MCH's working class parents.

Trope after trope follows, but the emerging themes are what role should marriage play in a woman's life, & how do you maintain professional integrity when personal conflicts of interest are constantly thrust upon you. It's a dismal world of pure transaction, where someone's interest in you is only as far as what they can get from you. That transaction can often apply to your own family, which drives children to spend their lives slavishly trying to appease their parents' regrets. And, as usual, success only comes with luck & circumstance, rather than how hard you actually work.

Unfortunately, as the drama progresses, the events that unfold become more & more bizarre. It also becomes apparent the story isn't really about MCH & YZM, but rather MCH & her mother. The dialogue is contrived & stiff. Lines are delivered in long, preachy sentences which is very unnatural. Plus, the lengths that the mother goes to in order to force what she wants from MCH was so outlandishly immoral & embarrassing it was painful to watch. Like throwing a surprise lavish engagement party just to publicly force MCH into marriage, or loudly barging in on MCH while she's literally heading a staff meeting just to order her to go eat lunch, would make you cover your eyes faster than the scariest horror movie. Such fodder would've been much better presented as comedy; instead, MCH's mother has to be the most irritating character I've seen in any drama. Does the screenwriter (or author) have an unresolved issue with their own mother to create such a distorted character? Towards the end of the show, the mother is firmly planted in the viewers' faces (as if you didn't have enough yet) by becoming the focus of the final 4 episodes, spiraling downward & taking everyone with her. Was she supposed to be the main character after all? And what is the "choice" referred to in the show's title? Is MCH choosing her mother? She has no choice but to deal with her.

Yao Zhiming turns out to be MCH's step-cousin by marriage, & they connect through their (step)grandmother, but their relationship is hugely overshadowed by the theatrical hysteria of all the other arcs in the show. YZM's character basically stands on the sidelines & clearly takes a back seat to MCH who puts in a gargantuan focus on her mother. He supports her just so she can support her mother, with the consequence being that they still remain unmarried at the end.

YZ seems to be caught in a loop of goody two shoes roles while XK has not changed from the muted, boyish & cocky rascal. This show has simply mixed the two together but nothing new has come out. All in all, Best Choice Ever is over the top & confuses who the viewer is supposed to sympathize with. Mother/daughter relationships are always hard but this show is next level cringe when you see how a mother can ruin a daughter's life.

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How to live in the face of death

It's been a while since I last saw Lin Yi (Put Your Head On My Shoulder) but he seems to have been quietly building an interesting portfolio of dramas with real stories. Angels Fall Sometimes looked like another interesting show. Lin Yi plays Lin Tuo, a talented young person with a promising career as a designer, suddenly facing an early death sentence with a diagnosis of ALS.

The last show with a similar theme that I watched was Love is Panacea (2023). Angels achieves what Panacea does not: it addresses the question of how to live in the face of death. In these types of dramas involving terminal illness, I tend to look for messages of hope or possibilities on an individual level. Panacea failed on several levels & for a while I thought Angels would fall short as well. Angels explored so many negative reactions, the what-not-to-do, surrounding the main characters for most of its duration. Its tone didn't change until the final episodes when all the questions that built up were finally addressed.

It's a cultural thing to cover up serious illnesses, but trying to maintain an alternate reality by lying is toxic & unsustainable. The level of denial & inability to cope is far worse than trying to face the truth in the first place. It was rather rediculous to watch, but sure enough, the friends who try to support Tuo break under the strain & his secret isn't kept for very long.

Toxic parents add to the mess, because why not? They suddenly become concerned & compassionate at the flip of a switch. If the workaholic father was essentially estranged from his sons for most of their lives, to the point of being oblivious to the younger son's near suicidal depression, why would he rush to Tuo's side at the drop of a hat & apologise for being a shit parent at first word of Tuo's illness? That didn't make much sense but at any rate they become an important part of Tuo's support network.

Keeping the illness secret from his grandfather by lying about why he's in a wheelchair is another level of incredible. Will the grandfather find out only when it's too late? The cruelest thing to the people around Tuo is to not allow for a proper good-bye.

Tuo retains intellectual capacity & the desire to work throughout his disease progression. His workplace supports his being there and eventually installs a wheelchair ramp at the front entrance. But instead of assigning an assistant to help him draw, his employment is initially maintained by making him use his wheelchair as a delivery cart to bring coffee & supplies to his office mates. From being a highly marketable designer, he becomes someone simply to be taken care of & every ounce of autonomy is taken away from the get go. Does he really accept this patronizing loss of dignity?

The acting overall was not bad. From the beginning the leads were so relaxed & easy with each other, it seemed natural & was nice to watch. But the 2nd FL character was annoyingly antagonistic & shouted most of her lines at the top of her lungs. Honestly, what is the purpose of such a character? Lin Yi did fairly well in portraying the very difficult role of Tuo, but Landy Li showed the strongest performance of all the cast as An ZhiQue, the steadfast girlfriend who takes matters into her own hands to pull Tuo through his ordeal. The actor playing Tuo's neurologist was so natural in fact, I wondered if he was an actual doctor. The show thankfully doesn't delve into romance tropes as the story is not a fairytale romance but a tale of endurance, purpose, & meaning.

I knew this drama was described as a "tear-jerker" going in, but what I was looking for was a message of hope and a show of possibilities. I'm a doer, not a cryer. Up to 20 episodes are spent highlighting the emotional impact on the people around Tuo, who behave quite badly. There's a lot of hysterical crying, shouting, & getting smashed drunk without realistic solutions to enhancing Tuo's quality of life. The despair & helplessness is somewhat unsympathetically portrayed. Then come moments of clarity, like ZhiQue's father telling Tuo to put as much effort into himself as his friends were putting into helping him (although an actual psychologist might've been more beneficial). However, by the final 5 episodes we then get Tuo finally not only facing his reality but also finding a new purpose to his remaining life. He revives his role as a designer and continues to work as I felt the character should've been supported to do so from the start of his illness. The show further explores the stories of other ALS sufferers & the various effects on them & their families, & ends with the decisions Tuo is able to make for his life as a result of the full support of all those around him. So the hope, possibilities, freedom of choice, & having a meaningul life are there & I'm glad this show was able to reach this conclusion.

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Perfect kitsch, well worth a re-watch

I very rarely rewatch shows as I'd much rather spend my time exploring new ones, but this show happens to hold a special place in my heart. I grew up in North America & first got into watching Asian dramas only in 2021, thanks to Netflix. The first shows I started on were Taiwanese ones from 2011-2013. There's something unique about this time period & I was so fascinated by the level of the storytelling in the dramas & the pure fun of the comedies. And the music - the soundtrack songs became my introduction to the modern Asian music scene which I now listen to almost exclusively after listening to 1990's British/American alternative in my formative years.

I've since moved onto Mainland China & Korean dramas, but I was brought back to this one for a re-watch. It's very representative of the kitsch of this era: cringeworthy over-the-top-acting, annoyingly immature characters, & eye-rollingly implausible situations. But what caught my attention was the scenery, the bright colour palette, the house the characters lived in & how they lived in it, all to the tune of a very catchy theme song which still brings a warm feeling when I hear it. And prior to the spectacular downfall of his own making, Aaron Yan was king in 2013. The light hearted, playful tone & pure irreverence of this show, & some others of that time/place, is largely unmatched in anything I've seen since (over 150 shows in the last 3 years). And 2nd time around, I'm realizing how hilarious Dean Fujioka was as the love rival. This show can be reviewed critically as lousy, but what it achieved sentimentally is something that can't be rated, so I give it my mid-range 7.5.

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entertaining story, appreciate the art

Ma Wang, a god of death, trades his murderous power to would be kings who end up in bloodthirsty reigns, until one dying king decides to seal Ma Wang forever into his official portrait to end the blood shed. However, a shaman's errant rain ritual ends up releasing Ma Wang, only to have him sealed up once more in the body of the gifted rain diviner & astronomy advisor to the subsequent king, Ha Ran (Ahn Hyo Seop). Who then can save Ha Ran but Hong Cheong Ki, a divine painter who holds the key to containing the evil threatening his life.

In spite of it's simple premise, so complicated is the story that this drama starts with a preview filled 1st episode, solely dedicated to explaning all the characters & their relationships in this show. And even then it was dizzying, especially when you have to read subtitles & can't keep an eye on every face flashing on the screen.

I was impressed by Kim You Jung's no-nonsense portrayal of her character in My Demon & I can see the same spunk in her personality here in Red Sky. That energy is good in playing forward thinking characters. I also previously saw AHS in A Business Proposal, & here he delivers much the same muted performance. While the acting overall isn't stellar, at least it doesn't detract from the story which is imaginative & actually sparked my interest in Han Dynasty painting & portraiture. The show delves into the art of painting to the point of exploring the concepts of line & form, & the inference of a subject without actually showing it. Surprisingly, this held my attention as much as waiting to see how the lead characters will achieve their ends. Oddly though, the drama purports to tie up "loose ends" & yet it leaves the arc of the royal princes battling each other hanging, with a 3rd prince frequently mentioned but never shown.

As a fan of the gods & demons genre, however, I found this drama overall very entertaining.

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Comic relationship adventure with odd editing, conflicting themes

Shim Jung Woo was the highest & youngest scorer civil service exam, highly reluctant prince consort, and naive straight shooter. "Those who marry matchmakers are destined to live short lives" is a saying taken to extremes as SJW's princess bride to be drops dead during the wedding ceremony, foretelling his own unrealized true destiny. Rowoon is very good at comic roles & hilariously portrays SJW as haplessly innocent in spite of his high intelligence & strong sense of justice.

Cho Yi Hyun plays Jung Soon Deok, a widowed noblewoman who moonlights as matchmaker under the pseudonym of Yeo Joo Daek, unafraid of any challenge, & is as free spirited as Jung Woo is rigid. Her talents are so natural it leads SJW to believe she is the incarnation of a matchmaking god.

No period drama is complete without palace intrigue as the Joseon king fights resistance from his own court to appointing the sickly 14 yr old crown prince's marriage and thus, by inference, his ascension. To lift a rumoured curse on the prince's future marriage (and political) prospects, the king orders SJW to marry off 3 "old maidens" whose unmarried status threatens the prosperity of the kingdom. SJW teams up with JSD in a funny and raucous ride to find the perfect bachelors for the maiden sisters. However, the journey gets rather dizzying with sudden flashbacks for mutliple characters, new characters introduced at different times, and complicated backstories with hidden identities. And there's one significant character, the king's second grandson & chief political threat to the crown prince, who's mentioned frequently but never shown during the entire show which is very odd.

Therefore it took me almost a 1/3 of the show to get into the story because of the mish-mash of flashbacks & jumping storyline, but eventually as the matchmaking for the maidens gets going I could just enjoy the comic moments & follow the development of the relationship between the leads. Then their matchmaking efforts fall apart as the politics heat up and past crimes come to light, turning the leads into detectives. There is also the prospect of a child marriage with a 10 yr age gap, presented as a fated true love match, which cannot be portrayed positively or realistically even if it was acceptable centuries ago. It's uncomfortable, actually, to see this in the storyline as no big deal & it conflicted with my enjoyment of the show. Finally comes the age old question of do you follow your heart or your fate? In the end, the good people are happy & the bad people get their due. The romance is light & funny, the politics heavy & perhaps unnecessarily tragic, but an entertaining watch overall.

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formula romance with good performance from Elaine Zhong

I get very skeptical watching C-dramas involving hospitals. It's rather jarring to see rich patients pay for what amounts to hotel service, in a hospital. Or getting an IV drip for a cold. Or getting an invasive diagnostic procedure just because. Or blatant violations of informed consent. Anyway, I now try to put all these things aside and try to enjoy the show.

Qin YunSheng, a young but soon to be widowed cardiothoracic surgeon, commisions a glass house on the beach from up-and-coming designer, Su Ying. The house is an oceanside refuge for YunSheng and his terminally ill fiancee to spend her last days. However, the controversial glass design proves unstable in build and, 6 years after his fiancee's passing, YunSheng and Ying are re-united in a bid to fix the deteriorating structure.

The show then follows the developing relationship between the grieving doctor and the designer who helps him fulfill his deceased fiancee's final bucket list wish, and move onto a new start for himself. The story progresses rather smoothly (and blandly) without any serious challenge until Ep16 when personal and professional issues come to a nasty mix. Then we get trope stew with sabatoging ex's (including an ex you didn't know you had), backstabbing colleagues, and misunderstandings piled on so thick you're actually glad to see the formulaic break up scene. Never was a ML given a more satisfying lambasting.

By the usual separation scene, however, I found myself more sympathetic to the characters and I realized this was due to the subtle and consistent performance of Elaine Zhong as Su Ying. Writing-wise, it was nice to have female characters that don't speak with high pitched baby voices, are assertive at work, and who get food delivered to their office desk by the boyfriend instead of the other way around. Ying is also surrounded by her competent staff working perfectly in sync. Even though the show barely passes the Bechdel test with some of the office scenes, Ying pulls through that final crushing mess with a quiet strength that doesn't waver.

A major attraction of the show for me was the tropical paradise backdrop of Haikou City on Hainan Island. Bright sandy beaches, winding seaside highways, beautiful modern view apartments and all the ammenities of a modern city, all to the tune of a catchy cha-cha-cha theme song. I kept watching just for the scenery and lifestyle. Although the actual location of the story was kept fictional, there were frequent shots of the landmark Haikou Century Bridge. I just Google image searched; please correct me in the comments if I'm wrong.

This show is otherwise a mildly dramatic romance with gorgeous scenic views, ending with the signature house that started it all. A nice fluff piece if you don't get too annoyed with the tropes.

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light and entertaining

Past and present collide in this rom-com about a city lawyer with a mysterious ancient curse and a civil servant with whom he shares an "unseverable destiny". If you are undecided on whether to watch a modern or costume drama, this show will deliver both.

While there are all the usual ingredients of a rom-com, this show is more entertaining than average. There wasn't the usual shy, denial of feelings, but rather a full on "Sorry - Not Sorry!" head first dive into love. Shin Yu believes he is under a love spell cast by Hong Jo and struggles to fight it. "You're not pretty, but you are to me!" It's a funny internal battle between a newly awakened heart and a seasoned analytical brain. A few scenes were too slow but, before you get too bored, the story manages to move along with hints into previous lives, dark magic, murder and suspense. However, the draggy scenes were during the modern portion of the show and I felt more time could've been spent on the historical back story. Rowoon and Jo Bo Ah change pace smoothly and maintain their chemistry between the two settings.

The overall cast is very funny and work well with each other. However, it was almost uncomfortable seeing Park Kyung Hye being very over the top; she has had better roles. The comic timing between the 2 ML's as they compete against each other in 1 of 2 intersected triangles is spot on. It's also nice to see two decidedly unglamorous people in their own romantic story arc; it counters the expectation that only young and beautiful people can fall in love. Rowoon, noticeably freakishly tall (his height is mentioned several times), is good at comic scenes and his fans won't be disappointed. He is maturing into a decent dramatic actor as well.

If you're not looking for anything too profound, this show is light and entertaining to watch.

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a perfect marriage of history & drama

This review is only for Part 1 (Ep 1-10)

Having grown up in North America, I know next to nothing of Chinese & Asian history. This K-period drama has sparked my curiosity about ancient China's profound economic, political, & cultural influence on Korean history. The show balances interwoven love triangles, set against the tumultuous backdrop of the 1637 Qing invasion by a transitioning China. Korea is caught in the crossfire between two Chinese dynasties, the declining Ming & rising Qing.

The central character is a young noblewoman, Yu Gil Chae, who lives in a college town filled with scholarly noble families. She, along with her peers, is concerned only with finding the right husband. Problem is, she loves her best friend's betrothed who doesn't return the affection. As the spectre of a devastating war looms, a mysterious nobleman, Lee Jang Hyun, comes into town to do business, who seems completely noncommital & almost contemptuous in both personal relationships as well as politics. He justifiably criticizes a weak and paranoid king. However, willingly or not, he becomes a key player in the fate of the townspeople, the country, & Gil Chae's destiny.

The romance portion starts off light in tone, whereas the war is given a very stark & brutal picture. The barbarian coalition of Manchus, Mongols, & Chinese forces are literally blood thirsty. Interestingly, the Manchu language, which is now in danger of extinction, is preserved in this drama with the actors actually having had to learn & speak lines of it. For the first half, it seemed like this show would be a more serious war drama with a light romance on the side which didn't really seem to fit. There's the usual trope of the bad start relationship, & Gil Chae's devotion to her unrequited love interest got rather annoying.

However, in the 2nd half of Season 1, the war ends with the subjugation of the Joseon king, & the relationship between Gil Chae & Jang Hyun, as well as the rest of the characters, gets really interesting. The war divides Joseon into 2 types of people: those who place counry & duty above all else & those who don't. This is oversimplification but it's the basis of all the interpersonal conflicts. I liked Ahn Eun Jin's amazing portrayal of Gil Chae's growth from a naive girl into a self determined woman. I was completely sucked in watching the push & pull of Gil Chae & Jang Hyun's relationship as they try to figure out what they want from each other & for themselves. The emotional level is on par with The Red Sleeve. Gil Chae makes a gut wrenching but true-to-self decision at the end & this is the lead in to Season 2. Definitely must watch to the finish!

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wild ride

Merchant's daughter & general's son climb the social ranks into the Imperial Palace. Crazy amazing Tang dynasty costuming with the most impressive wedding dress I've ever seen (ep 34). Starts light & silly but then turns into a dark & sordid speeding train with a full buffet of back stabbing politics, debauchery & revenge, peppered with moments of pure LOL camp, only to run over the cliff with half the characters being killed off. Main reason to slog through the last 10 eps is finding the answer to the question: will the ML/FL end up together? I like Xu Kai but he doesn't get much screen time in the 2nd half.

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