Love a Lifetime (2020)

Revenge is Mine

In this series Allen Ren, who plays, Na Lan Yue / Lin Jing shows his diversity. The cast is pretty good; however, I am not fond of Zhang Hui Wen, who plays Rong Hua. She come across plastic and expressionless. Additionally, there is little to no chemistry between Allen Ren and Zhang Hui Wen.

The story itself starts off good with Nan Lan Yue investigating his father’s death in Dragon Howl City as Lin Jing. He manages to win the trust of Rong Hua’s father, Rong Jing Feng, played by Lu Xing Yu. He is a ruthless murderer. He wiped out Ling Shu Pavilion, Na Lan Yue’s home and stole the Wachau flower. As the story unfold, we get to know that Rong Jing Feng’s older daughter, Rong Su, played by Li Yi Tong, was once captured by Mo Huan / Ming Zun, played by Lin Yuan. She is the teacher of both Rong Jing Feng and Lin Ruo Han, played by Zhang Yan Yan, Nan Lan Yue’s mother. Rong Su was tortured and trained by Mo Huan, who herself has the Wachau in her. After Rong Su was reunited with her family, she found that she had to prove herself to her father, and nothing was good enough for him. This also spurred up animosity between the two sisters because Rong Hua was born sickly, and their mother died during childbirth. Rong Jing Feng was more caring to Rong Hua over Rong Su. As the story progress, we see that his daughters and everyone else are just his pawns. Rong Hua and Nan Lan Yue come to find out that the monster that killed his father and slayed the people of Ling Shu Pavilion was none other than Rong Jing Feng himself. And he does it a second time, and this time Nan Lan Yue not only lost his mother, but his mother saved him by giving him her Wachau. Mo Huan makes use of this to turn Nan Lan Yue into one of her soldiers and heir to her throne since she is his grandmaster. We see the motion and tribulations between Nan Lan Yue and Mo Huan. Nan Lan Yue manages and fights back and eventually conquers. The defeat of Mo Huan by Nan Lan Yue was quite unexpected.

And here comes the disappointment aside from Rong Hua being plastic and emotionless. The death of Lu Yi Zhou, played by Terry Guo. It was so unnecessary and would have added more to the show if he was not killed off. The so-called pregnancy and miscarriage. First all, I am not one that needs the consummation to elaborate and to be shown in detailed. However, if there is a pregnancy scene in a show, please show the woman pregnant and when there is a miscarriage, show the appropriate emotions. Nan Lan Yue and Rong Hua did not have the appropriate emotions for this scene.

And the incomprehensible, is how can Rong Hua expect her husband to forgive her father when he slaughtered her husband’s entire family and clan not once, but twice. And she only cares of Dragon Howl.

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The drama fell of big cliff starting from the middle...

I was really looking forward to this drama after falling in love with Ren Jia Lun in Under the Power, but unfortunately, this is not going to be a good review. For those who loved this drama, you might want to skip this review.

I will quickly run through my 7 criteria and leave comments to the end

1. "Sleepness Night": 2/5 ★★☆☆☆
2. Emotional Rollercoaster: 2/5 ★★☆☆☆
3. Natural and Intelligent Story Telling: 3/5 ★★★☆☆
4. "Loveable supporting Role": 5/5 ★★★★★
5. "Proper Pacing": 4/5 ★★★★☆
6. Technicalities: 5/5 ★★★★★
7. Solid Finale: N/A

After being disappointed with Audmn Cicada (I made it not past episode 3)
This drama started out well. I liked the world setting, the cheerful and dorky character of Nalan Yue, and all the 3-dimensional supporting characters who have refreshing personalities and background stories. I also enjoyed the careful-crafted fighting scenes and the good songs.

However, this drama takes a really rough turn towards the middle and the story went nowhere.

First, the main villain, Rong Jing Feng's behavior is really comprehensive. He turned from a rather normal head of a clan to a complete killer machine who massacred everyone at his own daughter's wedding. One cannot see through the motive of his behavior. The reason might be fear for revenge or losing his power, but his behavior's inconsistency is irritating.

Besides, the chemistry between both of the main couples is missing. The initial falling in love between Nalan Yue and Rong Hua was almost completely cut out by the makers' crazy editing. One should not forget that it is the strong trust of Rong Hua in Nalan Yue that supports most of the second part of the drama. If this foundation was not built properly in the first place, the whole plot becomes unconvincing.
Then, the romance between our second couple, Rong Su and Lu Yi Zhou, even arose more strangely. How did Lu Yi Zhou fell in love with Rong Su in the first place? The maker wanted to show a conflict between their personal desire vs. their duty, but I am not sure whether this is due to bad acting or bad character design, it did not come out well. Instead, it was a blurry back and forth between the two that was puzzling for the viewers.

Moreover, it is the below-average acting of Alen Ren that disappointed me the most. Despite understanding the reason behind Nalan Yue's "black-washing", I wished that the personality change and acting could have been more granular. Logically, whatever tragic happened to Nalan Yue, he is still himself. His cheerful character's 180-degree turn to a person with almost only one expression left just left me unsatisfied. A great example of depicting these internal conflicts can be observed in other dramas such as Goodbye, my Princess.
In Under the Power, Alen Ren successfully demonstrated a very natural transition from an overbearing boss to a loving boyfriend using micro-expressions, wonderful gazes, and gradual changes in demeanors. I was not able to observe his in Love in Lifetime.

Finally, the latter half of the story just went all over the place, with the two main leads not really sure which sides they are on, what they are really trying to do, what their relationship towards each other is, and who even the villain of the story is! So that's where I dropped off without turning back, despite having spent my time on 36 episodes.

All in all, I am still a firm believer in Alen Ren's skills and am still waiting for another great piece after Under the Power. Unfortunately, Love in Lifetime is not that.

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Kotori's drama review seven criteria definition:

After having watched many dramas and also written several reviews. I have detected that I rate dramas based on specific patterns. I formulated those into seven criteria.
1. "Sleepless Nights.": how much I have the urge to binge-watch this drama.
2. "Emotional Rollercoaster": the degree of how much my heart was moving from the acting, scenes, and story development (e.g., in pain, pounding, fluster, etc.). The degree on how much I care about the fate of the main leads.
3. "Natural and intelligent Storytelling.": how logically the story was able to proceed and the roles are acting within their characters. I don't have a thousand question marks when watching the drama. The feeling that the makers take us viewers seriously and that we do not always think that this looks fake.
4. "Loveable supporting Roles.": how much I love and care about supporting characters. They are not merely tools to help the main characters but are 3-dimensional and have the proper motivation behind their actions.
5. "Proper Pacing.": how well the drama is pacing and not watered down to fill the number of episodes.
6. "Technicalities": professional camera works and shots, fight scenes, color grading, lighting, editing, music, sets, costumes, use of CGI, etc. I try to grade this in relation to the drama budget, so a low-budget drama can equally get a high score when used at the right place
7. "Solid Finale": how properly the drama builds dramatic and finishes with a satisfactory ending. I have just watched too many dramas that start to lose their grip around half or 2/3rd of its way.

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It grows on you...

I had trouble with the story at the beginning. It seemed a bit far-fetched and even a little silly. But once I just gave in and accepted for what it was, it became really fun to watch!

The characters, as introduced, started out a little two-dimensional, but if you think about it, everyone you meet for the first time always appear that way. But the series expands on them at the right moments, you get deeper into each character, layers are peeled back, and you begin to understand what motivates them. Every character, whether main or support, gets this treatment. EVERY ONE. And the main characters all grow and become more and more complex. Relationships change, sometimes for the better, oftentimes for the worst. Some relationships were allowed to grow, some were nipped in the bud by forces beyond their control. This really scratched the hopeless romantic itch in me; several times I got something in my eye that made me tear up. The series relied on foreshadowing when it could, reserving the after-the-event data dump explanation only for times when it needed to be absolutely hidden from the audience.

While I enjoyed the fight scenes, they suffered from overuse of a few tropes. (If you're a fan of "staring at the tip of the blade, in slo-mo, as they sidestep the sword thrust", you'll enjoy it immensely, as it seems to happen at least once with every fight.) Nevertheless, they were all executed very well, and some of the entrances of the major players into the battle were grand, indeed.

Acting was solid all around, but I felt that maybe Ren Jia Lun seemed unaccustomed to comedy and it seemed a little bit forced at times. Na Lan Yue needs to work on his sense of comedic timing. Still, overall, a solid performance. On the other hand, Lin Yuan was simply enthralling as the main villainess, Mo Huan, and oh, the sneer! If she couldn't kill you with her magic and martial arts, then for sure the sneer would. That crooked smile made me hit the ten-second rewind more than a few times. Li Yi Tong turned in a solid performance as Rong Su and made the growth of the character totally believable. Her scene at the end of the series was a heartbreaker for sure. Interestingly enough, you could see her potential for acting in the music videos she made as part of the idol group, SNH48, so many years ago... The series struck unexpected gold with Eve Lu. She was absolutely adorable as Liu Li; a shining light in an otherwise fairly dark drama.

The music was mostly good, but... the death metal guitar riffs at the final big battle... really? That's why it only got 9.5/10 from me.

Rewatch value? Yeah, I feel that it is worth rewatching at least once more in whole, and quite a few scenes are worth watching again. (and I did. And do.)

Overall? Solid.

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Überraschend anders

Ich kann dieses Drama nur empfehlen, denn es ist vom Schauspiel, der Musik, dem Design und der technischen Ausstattung eine anspruchsvolle Unterhaltung.
Aber ganz besonders hat mir gefallen, dass die Geschichte aus sich selbst heraus entwickelt wurde. In den ersten 20 Episoden lernen wir die verschiedenen Akteure und die Grundhandlung tiefgreifend kennen. Die Personen habe alle etliche Facetten und sind komplex dargestellt. In der Handlung passiert noch nicht wirklich viel.
Nach der 19 Episode nimmt das Drama Fahrt auf und das bleibt auch bis zum Ende so. Mich hat es fasziniert den Hauptpersonen dabei zuzusehen, wie Sie damit gekämpft haben, sich selbst treu zu bleiben, während sie immer wieder Entscheidungen für ihr Handeln in einem meist lebensbedrohlichen Umfeld treffen mussten.

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