Reviews

Unexpected pot twists

I have seen a lot of negative comments on this series but to me this series is truly amazing. It's well written with actual good plot twists that kept me on my toes. The actors did such a fantastic job. They truly delivered the emotions well. I laughed so hard at the funny scenes, I don't remember laughing this much for any series. I feel like because it was a lot relatable as a shipper lol. But tbh they portrayed the shipper mentality so well and even though the scenes are super cringy it never made me cringe. I had cried my heart out at the emotional scenes. I cried so much. Every single one of them did a great job. First is such a great actor. The way he portrayed both Kim and Pan in a single story, it's very hard to do. Ohm really knows how to express himself through his eyes. His airplane fixing scene made me cry so hard. Phriking as well. I also wan to mention View and Piploy doing extremely amazing job. I have seen View in different roles and she is a versatile actress. First time saw her as a villain and holy she did so great. I had no idea Piploy is such a great actress. She carried the episodes for me in her own way. I loved the cinematography as well. It's cute. Every episode was unexpected. I loved how they also highlighted how extreme shipping can ruin a lot of things including the shippers. It was such a rollercoster ride with great plot, good acting, amazing scenes,

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A Lavish Production With Great World Building

Shooting Stars is a lavish and well made production that promises much. The acting is first rate and the world building regarding the Republican Era, second to none.

At its heart is a very strong theme that people and relationships matter. Camaraderie is important and working together to achieve the greater good is a worthy goal to aspire to. Family in its different forms is shown too. The conflict between brothers a vital cog in how the plot unfolds.

The first 16 episodes were superb. There were a range of scenarios regarding who might be good and who might be bad. It was also intersecting re the portrayal of the police force at this time, the rise of the different political factions and the evilness of the Japanese menace. Show used actual footage from events that occurred at that time, deftly weaving our characters into what happened.

However, in the second half of the story, the patriotic fervour was a bit overdone. On some occasions it was over sentimentalised. Chen Hao as the face of such idealism was overdone. I was wasn’t convinced of his relationship with Miss Shi, but she was a fabulous character. His friendship with Yuan Sheng was a key part of the story, but I found its execution so so at times.

Our lead couple were very good. I liked their relationship. So much was against them, but their genuineness shone through. Min Min was a delight: delicate but strong and very loyal. Yuan Sheng needed to lighten up a bit ?

Overall, Shooting Stars is worth a look. The set design, wardrobe and old vehicles are worth watching for these aspects alone.

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PERFECTTTTT

STRAY KIDS MENTIONED?!?️?️?️?️?️??????‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️?????WTF IS HEIGHT?! ‼️‼️‼️?️?️??????️???RAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH???????????4TH GEN LEADERS!!!!??????????????????️?️?️?️?️BANGCHAN BEST LEADER?️?️?️?️?️?️?️????????LEE KNOW BEST DANCER?️?️?️?️?️?️?????‼️‼️‼️‼️CHANGBIN AND HAN BEST RAPPERS?️?️?️?️?️?️?️?️?️?️??????????HYUNJIN FAVORITE DRAMA QUEEN ?️?️??????????FELIX OUR DEEP VOICED SUNSHINEEEEEE RAAAAH?????️?️?️????‼️‼️‼️SEUNGMIN IN THE BUILDING?! ???NAH, SEUNGMIN IN MY HEARTTTT!!!????️?️?️‼️‼️‼️??????️?️YANG JEONGIN RAAAAH??‼️‼️????MAKNAE ON TOPPPP??????????????️?️?️?????GRRRAH WOLFGANG AH!‼️‼️??????❤️??❤️??❤️????❤️?❤️?STAN STRAY KIDS???????UN DEUX TROIS RUN ALONG WITH THE GODS☄️☄️☄️☄️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️????????LALALALA LA LALALALA JUST FEEL THE ROCK?????⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️?????SWERVING IM SPEEDING ON SERPENT ROAD?????????❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️?????‼️‼️‼️?️?️?️?️?️THIS IS THE SOUND?!!!?!??????????????????MANIACCCC MANIACC HAHAH???????????????️?️?️?️????????☄️☄️☄️?????DU DU DU DU DU DU??????️?️?️?️?️??????‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️☄️☄️????STRAY KIDS HOO?️?️?️?️?️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️???????????‼️‼️????????WTF IS BAD MUSIC⁉️⁉️⁉️‼️‼️‼️‼️?????⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️?????????????????☄️☄️☄️☄️☄️☄️☄️?????

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Fun enough to keep me watching

The plot is very light and comedic, mainly revolves around the building of relationship between the Crown Prince and Hua Liuli, amidst the lingering espionage from neighbouring warring country. Hua Liuli is a daughter of prominent general of the nation and had been crowned as princess for her parents’ military contributions, and invited to live in the capital, where in reality she was actually held as political hostage because the emperor was wary of how big an influence both her parents wield as mighty generals and worry that they might steal the throne with their huge army. Upon her arrival at the capital, she acted like a weak, sickly maiden to avoid people (especially the emperor) from getting wary of her, where in reality she was quick witted and very good in martial art.

The palace drama in the harem and the political conspiracy is minimal with ridiculously comedic kind of vibe so they tend to look stupid.

I didnt like how the ML (crown prince) look. He looked like a gaunt porcelain statue whose face been dabbed with too much fair coloured foundations and he had very weird face expressions. He tried too hard to look like a calculative, evil, indifferent crown prince. I think FL did okay although the part she acted as a sickly maiden is rather exaggerated (not sure if they intend to do it this way as it is a comedy). The acting is mediocre and they include so many awkward moments of proximity between the ML and FL which I failed to find the spark. I find them pretty lame.

The costume is sooooo over the top with ridiculous-looking dangling hair accessories and ugly flowy dress. Colour combination of the female dresses are botched too. The female’s makeup looks weird too as they put the blusher around the eyes instead of cheeks, and they drew the eyebrow wayyy across the temple.

I just realized everytime they want to portray a character of being sick, it’s always with the slight fake coughing. It’s like even when the character says,”i have a headache/stomach ache,” they would always cough. It’s so annoying.

The first kiss being on the forehead is pretty sweet though. I’m getting sick of lip-kissing between two yet-to-profess-their-love persons. It’s unrealistic in the ancient society that doesn’t even let females and males to mingle freely.

Towards the end the FL became rather stupid though, the plot also became rather ridiculous. So there’s a revolt going to happen and they know when the rebels will take action, one wouldve thought they had prepared backup properly. But nooooo, they had to make it dramatic by going about on how Liuli was going to mobilize the whole Hua army from outside the capital to storm into the palace as backup. Even funnier thing is that the emperor also knows about the plot and feigned sickness, and only came out when the mastermind revealed herself. Interestingly, the emperor conveniently forgets that a band of murderous assassins are pursuing his Crown Prince outside the palace while he was having a chat with the mastermind. I wouldve thought it’d be a brilliant plan by the scheming Crown Prince or even the quickwitted Liuli. It was big disappointment instead.

The show ended with a wedding of course.

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Lets be fair and break this down

So its 2024 in May and I, just moments ago, finished this show.

- The Actors-
Let me start off by saying it was new for me to see Khao with someone other than First and I had previously seen Pod in Kiss me again and Dark Blue Kiss staring TayNew. I also of course have seen Neo in just about everything, also Mike and Top in 2gether. Jan who played mirim in great shows like cupids last wish and more recently cherry magic!

This cast was phenomenal, you cant say any of them are bad at acting and anyone who says that is just being a hater for no reason. I especially loved Pods performance when delivering sincere lines and Jan when she was being a comedic genius!

-The Plot- I realize this was adapted for the screen from a novel so please forgive me, i didnt read that novel yet.


The plot wasn’t the best i will admit but it got a solid C grade from me because there was humor, romance, butterfly inducing moments, and real experiences that LGBTQIA+ go through. I don’t know about any of you but I had a hell of a time coming out to my family. I was disowned even. I experienced homophobia at school. I wanted my first partner to not tell anyone. These aren’t just tropes used in movies or shows. These are real lived experiences.

To all of the people angry about the homophobia, thats valid, but its real. It happens that way. Peoples reasoning is the same that I heard flung my direction.

To the scenes that didnt make sense, how did the personal photo of Ton from chons phone make it on the internet? That was never addressed or explained.

I felt bad for Neos character, Na. He deserved more of a character arch than being selfless and helping Ton realize his feelings for Chon. It would have made sense to have pang develop a relationship with him after seeing how kind and generous he was with chon.

Now lets discuss the 3 year time skip and random input of surrogacy. I was actually happy about this because again its very real experiences for Queer couples. They hire a surrogate or ask a friend to assist. Its a meaningful way to still have children of your own and not go through discriminating processes like adoption or fostering. I wish they wouldnt have rushed the ending and gave us more information about that process and didnt just imply that TonChon were married now. Chon would be just graduating college i cant forsee that being a realistic timeframe to raise a child.

The elephant in the room… that near rape scene in the bathroom had absolutely no follow up or consequences for that person. It made little sense to me how Chon would have let him be disrespectful a few scenes later when he refused to give chon those study guides he was passing out. He deserved to be kicked out of school or at least arrested.

Now to everyone who was comparing the lack of consequences for the near rape to the treatment of amp for what she did, please dont. Those are 2 separate issues. We should call out homophobia, we shouldnt be polite to bigots. They should be ostracized and lose status. I didnt feel bad for amp once. Does that mean the near rape should have been excused or skipped over? No. That was careless of the writers and I hope the book didnt intend it that way.

- OverAll-

This show was funny, interesting, an unexpected treat to watch. I would definitely watch it over again because I think the acting was so well done, but i would skip a couple scenes that I had mentioned.

If you got this far, thanks for reading my rant. ??

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Every villain got what they deserved.

The show started off real fast paced (but slow burn towards the middle) as FL was carrying out an assassination on ML, Peng Cheng Wang (Prince of Peng City), the regent of the historical Liu Song Dynasty. The assassination turned out a disaster (of course, duh). She hid in an orphanage and was later found by Madam Shen who recognized the jade bracelet she was wearing, immediately identifies her as the Shen’s long lost daughter abducted as an infant during a battle in the north. The bracelet was actually given by her best friend (another assassin of course) with a promise to help find her birth parents, before the bff died as a distraction so FL could flee the botched assassination venue. FL grabs this chance and takes refuge in the Shen Mansion, a family of top general of the empire, as she plans for her next move to finish her failed assasination on ML and Minister of War Lu Yuan. It seemed like the team of assassins were driven by the belief planted by their master that Lu Yuan was a corrupt official and Peng Cheng Wang was an incompetent ruler who covers up for the corrupt officials in his court. They both needed to be killed because of their crimes to Liu Song Empire and its people.

Ironically, as she keeps on failing to kill Lu Yuan, she met a merchant who was also investigating Lu Yuan and this dude manages to convince her that killing won’t stop Lu Yuan’s corruption as another would just fill up his spot. The merchant, whom FL calls as Old Man (she was 18 and the dude was supposed to be 30+), convinced her to team up with him and topple Lu Yuan using rule of law. Things happened and they later developed feelings for each other. Then the decree came that the daughter of Shen family is bethrothed to Peng Cheng Wang as reward for their contribution in winning the war in the North, and FL decided to take this chance to kill ML on their wedding night. Meanwhile, Lu Yuan’s smuggling of weapons for private army was foiled, but the Shens were implicated as Lu Yuan slips out of their grasp with a mere slap on the hand by ML. This only angered FL even more and her hatred for ML grows. She got her biggest shock on the wedding night, as she only saw the face of the Peng Cheng Wang she hated to the core as she stabs her poisoned dagger into his belly, and he turned out to be the Old Man she fell in love with. She tried to kill herself after stabbing ML as to not implicate the Shens for her assassination crime, and because she regretted her actions, but ML instructed his personal bodyguard to take her away so the imperial guards wont catch her. Later things happened, plot after plot, surprise after surprise, villains after villains, misunderstandings and slanders came one after another, and they stick together through thick and thin.

I love the FL character, she’s one badass assassin who doesnt let injustice to happen. She thrives in jianghu, and is smart and witty enough to stand up against the palace harem bullying (yeah come on how can anyone bully an assassin, right?). And having an elder sister (the first wife) as back up does wonders to her too. She doesnt really need any saving, she can take care of herself although of course ML will need to be the saviour every now and then, even though he’s inferior to her in terms of fighting skills and brawn, so he depended on his power as regent and his scheming and manipulating skills. She is also very intelligent and isnt one of those characters who love to panic and jump to conclusions with baseless suspicions . I guess she learnt a lesson after being fooled by her master into wrongfully thinking that ML is a bad person when he was not.

One of the most pitiful but righteous characters must have been Princess Consort Xie, ML’s first wife. He had to marry her in accordance to the emperor’s decree, but never loved her. Never consummated the marriage and Empress Dowager had to make it a rule for him to have dinner at specific dates at the Princess Consort’s place or he wouldnt have even visited her at all. For someone who loved her husband in totality, her heart was so pure that she never envied the love FL gets from their shared husband when she entered the household as concubine. Instead she saw FL as a companion, BFF, whom she was willing to protect and support. I almost thought the Empress Dowager would be able to corrupt her mind against FL due to envy (like the plot of most drama), but it never happened. She stayed true to her character to the end.

Although I like this show, i find that the repetetive plot of getting poisoned, memory loss, faintings, fake deaths to be pretty annoying. I love the part where they dismantle the villains plans, but the journey to get there is quite annoying with things that I mention above. I find the scenes after ML got stabbed by FL was pretty dramatic and admirable, him braving his way through the pain for several days before succumbing to his injury and went into coma, as to cover up for his newly wedded wife’s actions.

Also I cannot wrap it around my head how come these assassins dont know how their target looks like? That is so messed up. The production couldve made the merchant’s disguise better and not reveal his face throughout their time together, maybe FL recognizing ML as the merchant on their wedding night using the tokens they exchanged if anything at all, but they didnt. It was quite early through the show that FL saw through his fake moustache and took it off (revealing his true face), I really thought she would identify him as Peng Cheng Wang but she didnt! So the whole team of badass assassins didnt even know how their target looks like before killing them?! These righteous assassins killing corrupt officials to keep them from ruining the prosperity of the nation didnt think that knowing how their target look like so they dont kill the wrong person was important. Really? ?? So messed up.

I *love* (-_-) how every good characters can get sliced and stabbed with swords, stuck with arrows and still can jump around the next day (or in an instant in FL’s case) as if nothing happened. With exception of Shen dad and elder brother, their deaths are pretty gruesome and tragic. But the rest of the characters are a-okay with all those injuries, so no worries!

There were so maaaaaaany fillers and side love stories which I fast forward most of them, but I just need to give a special mention of FL’s handmaid XiaoXin as super duper annoying with her loud and unruly character. Looks much too exaggerated. I was fascinated by ML’s personal bodyguard Xu Zhan too, he looked so feminine that when he wore full body armour and helmet during the North war, I didnt recognize him and thought he was a female character i hadnt noticed before! I also cannot wrap it around my head how they could let Zijin tag along to the north border for the war too. I could understand when FL wanted to go cuz she definitely has the qualities to fight a war, but Zijin? I almost thought she had hidden talent or skills to contribute, with those dramatic horse riding, serious look on her face and wearing full body armour including helmet, but when they were ambushed by the enemy, she became a burden to Shen Zhi (her love interest who is also FL’s eldest brother of the Shen family) as he needs to fight while holding her hand to protect her. What a disappointment. So they made her go to the north so ML, as regent and commander of the north army, could grant them a marriage ? just for that. Bleerghh that is just too cheesy, man. Another annoying characters are Shen Leqing and Lu Wan. One a conniving scheming vengeful ungrateful person who didnt know when to stop, while another was super naiive and stupid who wasnt even sure of her bro’s crimes and yet think that he was wronged and decided to get revenge. Such easily-manipulated expendable pawns.

The ending is one of those with question marks. At first I thought FL killed herself so Peng Cheng Wang would not be stuck between his love for her and the emperor’s decree of not sparing her as she was an assassin. It went pretty dramatic with ML’s joyfully running to meet with her only to see the place empty, dropping the decree he was holding. Then there were flashbacks of the FL drinking (poisoned?) wine and later looked dead, but the next thing they show was events three years later with ML doing great in court, and later went to the secret place FL brought him once upon a time, and there he dined with the joyous FL. So another fake death? Sheesh.

I thought they’d have kids by then though. I was a little disappointed that there was no 3yo dining with them at the end. Though I can say it’s a happy ending. At least to me. But because I am one of those who hates sad and open endings, I’m taking off 1 star due to this horrible Ep53. Wished they had ended the show at Ep 52.

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Youthful and romantic xianxia with a fox male lead

This drama is about the female lead that accidentally absorbs the soul fruit of a male fox. In order to get this soul back, the male lead needs to make her fall in love with him. Amidst their love story, the plot revolves around the humans seeing the foxes as evil and the female lead’s secret origin.

In short, the drama started great for me and I was enjoying it a lot. I found the many romantic scenes between the leads super adorable. The tone felt light-hearted and totally relaxing to watch. However the second half started to feel draggy and towards the end I found myself ff/skipping scenes. The ending is unfortunately the most stupid and illogical I’ve EVER seen and my rating significantly reduced because of it.

POSITIVE:
- Youthful romance as the main focus of the drama.
- Many cute and sweet moments between the leads. Their chemistry is great.
- Fairy good CGI for a drama like this (clearly not a high budget).
- Adorable and funny second couple.

NEGATIVE:
- Not a groundbreaking plot. It’s enjoyable for the most part but it didn’t wow me.
- Second half of the drama felt quite boring compared to the first.
- The ending! I’m very accepting of different endings and can always find a reason behind it even if I don’t like it. But this ending is the most stupid and illogical I’ve ever seen. There is a special alternative episode that makes it a little better but it’s still somewhat illogical. The writers really ruined the drama at the end for me.
- Bad subtitles (typical Mangotv style) but if you’ve seen a lot of xianxia, you will understand what’s happening.

OVERALL:
If you want a sweet and youthful xianxia with romance as the main focus, and don’t mind a stupid ending as long as there is a special alternative episode that sort of makes up for it, watch this drama.

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The meta deserves first billing

Stick with me here I've just come off a Lovely Writer bender. I'm so high off of:
- the acknowledgement of tropes I hate because they're just bad for humanity,
- that weird watermelon button down Gene wears in like episode 5? I want that,
- the cheeky smile Sib seems to reserve only for Gene,
- the unexpected MVPs: Jab & Nueng, who just saw their brothers needed to be seen and loved and did that,
- the acknowledgement of fandom behaviours that hurt actual persons,
- my favourite recurring charafter: the overalls with only one strap done,
- peeled shrimp, and
- whatever combination of scripting, production design and acting that meant scenes of Gene without Sib by his side or Sib without Gene by his side started to feel incomplete. Like, Sib's light dimmed without Gene. Or Gene's entire body leaned toward the empty spaces when Sib wasn't there to fill them.

Was it a flawless series? No of course not. But budgets aren't endless and it is not the responsibility of one crew to turn the industry around though storytelling. But they tried, and I admire them for it.

But, like, please everyone cry faster (walk faster, argue faster, put on sunscreen faster). A judicious edit could have sharpened up some pacing wonderfully.

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So Many Tropes So Little Time

I tend to write notes as reminders so I can come back to write a review. I wrote so much for this one I decided it was long enough for a review.
Story: "Oh, My Trope" should be the title of this series.
1. Co-habitation
2. Love contract
3. Change yourself to catch a love interest
4. Perfect romantic love interest list
All that & it was the lead couple.
The 2nd pairing:
1. Family bankruptcy
2. Income gap - inferiority complex
3. Excessive delivery jobs as fodder [1-2: Ok. This kid had 5.]

The tropes are on overkill.
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Acting/Cast: Overall, the actors were pretty good. They conveyed the story well. I felt that the one playing Jung Ki Sub (2nd MC) needed a touch up, but then I found out this was his 1st job; kudos to him for holding his own.

Jung Yoo Hyeon, was a star. She played Kang Hye Jin, only significant female presence. If only there were more episodes b/c her story is great. She's the first bisexual/would be lesbian storytelling in a Korean series & there was nothing. I would like to have seen the girl's face.

I feel Choi Balg Eum & Ji In Ho could have made a great story & far more interesting story than the MCs. I was left upset, wanting & dissatisfied. These two were matched so well & I felt their chemistry but their story had no cohesion & felt so sloppy. I know what they might have wanted to do but the beginning, middle, or end didn't match. You really sat there thinking it was the ex who was the problem, then you find out it was MC2's friend all along who was the jerk.

I really wished the story was 16 eps so the writer could have given justice to Kang Hye Jin, Choi Balg Eum, & Ji In Ho. The second pairing in particular.
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Production: Horrible shaky cams - I'm not sure if they were trying to be artistic w/ the coloring but they would do beauty effects from soft to sharp - be inconsistent w/ focus, lighting; in appropriate usage of these elements.
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Music: Not much in their arsenal. They had about two REAL songs & I only liked one of them. So....yeah. I believe that song is called Silent & was only played for the Lead Couples having an intense moment.
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Rewatch Value: None whatsoever.

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