amusedbush
This review may contain spoilers
Wasted Potential: All the Promise, None of the Delivery
I. Introduction
I am no stranger to angsty dog-blood melodrama, and in fact I have been known to secretly indulge (hello, Circle of Love!). This short-length drama promised all of that and more, but delivered none of it. It's better described as a collection of scenes rather than a short-length drama, as viewers are tasked with Olympic-level mental gymnastics to fill in the blanks between scenes. It requires viewers to have a long history of watching/ reading angsty dog-blood melodrama to even consider this a 5 out of 10 stars, because our extensive experience and imagination would bridge the gaps where the scenes failed to deliver. It is as if someone wrote a collection of one-shot fics for a full-length drama and had them acted out, including the forced happy ending.
II. Storyline/ Plot
What storyline? To call it a line is a stretch; it'd be better defined as a series of story dashes or basic running stitches. The first few episodes contain some backstitches, with the objective of making the angsty Romeo-and-Juliet theme believable because otherwise, even if you are a Cirque-du-Soleil acrobat, it is tough for you to believe the FL could ever fall in love with the ML. Episode 1 opens with the ML insisting the FL watch him bed the villainess on the ML and FL's wedding night and closes with the ML setting the FL's dead brother on fire. In Episode 2, the ML shoots the FL's entourage dead around her, to satisfy the villains that he remains in their camp. A random backstitch comes, explaining how the FL had previously saved the ML's life and they had fallen in love then, and the ML promises to return to marry the FL, only for them to next meet on their wedding day in a politically-arranged marriage. The ML purports to have done his cruel acts to save the FL's life (and not her mental state) as the villains were watching his every move, but if that is the case, he should have let her remain as Qin Ruo Yao for her safety since no one else would have recognised her anyway. The last episode suggests that the FL could not forgive and forget just because the ML finally kills off the villains, but does a complete U-turn two minutes later.
Halfway through the drama, a randomly gapped running stitch reveals a secondary plot. The 2ML had subconsciously changed the FL's face to that of his dead wife's. This plot thread had a lot of potential, but was never developed further as to whether the 2ML had fallen for the FL or he remains enamoured of his dead wife's face.
III. Characters
The characters were as confused as the storyline. LMC is a beautiful FL, DK is a beautiful ML, JW is a beautiful 2ML, and that is all I can say about the characters. Again, it was as if someone wrote one-shot fan fiction and threw it at a bunch of actors to enact the scenes. It's difficult to comment on the characters when they are more underdeveloped than the average 15-year-old's brains and the actors haven't had a chance to showcase strengths (or weaknesses).
IV. Production Aspects
Other than the writing and editing, the production team did a good job creating a show that I wanted to watch. It had beautiful, detailed costumes, melodramatic cinematography, haunting theme songs, and extravagant sets and scenes. Unfortunately, because the storyline was so poor, none of these aspects could elevate the score for the drama.
V. Conclusion
If you have nothing else to watch or if you just want to tick this off your 'To Watch List', sure, go ahead. But I have never felt so strongly about not wanting to rewatch something before. There weren't even any scenes that I wanted to go back to to rewatch over and over again (you know, like THAT scene in episode 13 of Love Between Fairy and Devil).
I am no stranger to angsty dog-blood melodrama, and in fact I have been known to secretly indulge (hello, Circle of Love!). This short-length drama promised all of that and more, but delivered none of it. It's better described as a collection of scenes rather than a short-length drama, as viewers are tasked with Olympic-level mental gymnastics to fill in the blanks between scenes. It requires viewers to have a long history of watching/ reading angsty dog-blood melodrama to even consider this a 5 out of 10 stars, because our extensive experience and imagination would bridge the gaps where the scenes failed to deliver. It is as if someone wrote a collection of one-shot fics for a full-length drama and had them acted out, including the forced happy ending.
II. Storyline/ Plot
What storyline? To call it a line is a stretch; it'd be better defined as a series of story dashes or basic running stitches. The first few episodes contain some backstitches, with the objective of making the angsty Romeo-and-Juliet theme believable because otherwise, even if you are a Cirque-du-Soleil acrobat, it is tough for you to believe the FL could ever fall in love with the ML. Episode 1 opens with the ML insisting the FL watch him bed the villainess on the ML and FL's wedding night and closes with the ML setting the FL's dead brother on fire. In Episode 2, the ML shoots the FL's entourage dead around her, to satisfy the villains that he remains in their camp. A random backstitch comes, explaining how the FL had previously saved the ML's life and they had fallen in love then, and the ML promises to return to marry the FL, only for them to next meet on their wedding day in a politically-arranged marriage. The ML purports to have done his cruel acts to save the FL's life (and not her mental state) as the villains were watching his every move, but if that is the case, he should have let her remain as Qin Ruo Yao for her safety since no one else would have recognised her anyway. The last episode suggests that the FL could not forgive and forget just because the ML finally kills off the villains, but does a complete U-turn two minutes later.
Halfway through the drama, a randomly gapped running stitch reveals a secondary plot. The 2ML had subconsciously changed the FL's face to that of his dead wife's. This plot thread had a lot of potential, but was never developed further as to whether the 2ML had fallen for the FL or he remains enamoured of his dead wife's face.
III. Characters
The characters were as confused as the storyline. LMC is a beautiful FL, DK is a beautiful ML, JW is a beautiful 2ML, and that is all I can say about the characters. Again, it was as if someone wrote one-shot fan fiction and threw it at a bunch of actors to enact the scenes. It's difficult to comment on the characters when they are more underdeveloped than the average 15-year-old's brains and the actors haven't had a chance to showcase strengths (or weaknesses).
IV. Production Aspects
Other than the writing and editing, the production team did a good job creating a show that I wanted to watch. It had beautiful, detailed costumes, melodramatic cinematography, haunting theme songs, and extravagant sets and scenes. Unfortunately, because the storyline was so poor, none of these aspects could elevate the score for the drama.
V. Conclusion
If you have nothing else to watch or if you just want to tick this off your 'To Watch List', sure, go ahead. But I have never felt so strongly about not wanting to rewatch something before. There weren't even any scenes that I wanted to go back to to rewatch over and over again (you know, like THAT scene in episode 13 of Love Between Fairy and Devil).
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