Not as bad as you think....
As a fan of both Yang Mi and Wallace Huo, I was so hyped about this drama when I saw that it was going to be aired, later I saw that the ratings are not very high but anyway I gave it a try. Yeah,it was not a perfect drama but it is not as bad as people rated. Overall I still enjoyed it thoroughly,Here are some things that I like and dislike;
1.100% solid acting
A lot of people said Yang Mi’s actings is not that great, but in my opinion, she was doing fine.She perfectly delivered what she had to deliver, weak when she was young, then became stronger and her eyes show how determined she was to protect her loved ones. You can say whatever you like but I still think Yang Mi is one the greatest actresses in mainland china. I cried when she cried, laughed when she laughed, this is how a good actress drew me into the plot.
Wallace Huo, one of my top 3 chinese actors, is superb.From Chinese paladins to Battle of changsha, he has acted in almost all kinds of dramas. Of course, needless to say,his acting is solid.
2.Draggy, Painful but acceptable plot
Well I agree with most of you that the plot is very draggy. 60 episodes for contemporary dramas is just too much, there are many scenes that can be cut.Yes, it is very painful too. I was never a fan of painful plot but maybe I like this one because of Yang Mi and Wallace Huo.I endured painful scenes, skipped some scenes, and enjoyed the happy ending.
3.Beautiful costumes and good cinematography
Yang Mi, throughout the drama, wore several beautiful republican era costumes. I feel satisfied only by watching this.
Cinematography is nice as well.
4.Songs
Songs are great.Jane Zhang and Yisa Yu, two most famous mainland chinese singers sang the osts. It was indeed very good.
5.Rewatch value
I won’t watch the whole drama again for sure, but I will watch the sweet moments between Fu Han Jun and Shen Qi Nan.
6.Overall
Overall, it is a good drama, though it can be made much better. If you are a fan of either of the two leads, you should watch it, it won’t waste your time.
Anyway, I enjoyed it and Fu Han Jun will remain in my heart forever.
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The Great Craftsman is a Republican Era Gem !!!
The series is a great watch for those aficionados of the 1920’s and 1930’s Republican Era of Sina -Asia and the European Colonial influences in the rest of Asia-Pacific. The scenes are wonderfully set in a great backdrop of the Warlord Shanghainese Era with great glorious historical memorabilia of pre-WWII rebuilding in Asia-Pacific. The portrayal of Yang Mi as Fu Han Jun as a gifted architect is of superb Hollywood Caliber (Young Asian Audrey Hepburn), in period costumes, wonderfully worn in historical accuracy. The male lead Wallace Huo as Shen Qi Nan is on top leading man status (akin to a Young Asian Warren Beatty/James Dean) in the series exuding great chemistry with Yang Mi. The genre of the tele-drama is highly and distinctly Asian Sophistication, evoking an era almost comparable to the modern day 1993 film Age of Innocence as lensed by Martin Scorsese. The Series is World Class.Was this review helpful to you?
The first 20 episodes plays a bit slowly, the story begins dynamic in the middle when Qinan starts to compete with Hanjun.
Yang Mi played so well as I expected. Yang Mi as Hanjun is described as a smart and firm architect woman with bright ideas, a good leader, and a loyal lover to Qinan.
For Walace Huo, thanks to his handsome face this drama is enjoyable to watch. As for his acting, it is not as amazing as in the Love Me If You Dare.
The Qinan character is portrayed as a man of tough personality to take a revenge but cannot choose between his revenge or his love for Hanjun.
The romance between Qinan and Hanjun are a bit dry and bland. In my view through all episodes, Qinan’s character is as wishy washy man between love and hates, he takes tooo long to express his love and affections for Hanjun.
I am so in love with Yang Mi's costumes , she looks elegant and pretty at the same time. And Wallace Huo, as always, looks dashing in his suits.
There are not many intimate scenes between Qinan and Hanjun, but it’s quite nice to see how they build their dreams and love through architecture, building’s constructions, the obstacles in the dirty world of business and politics, and by cutting the rope of revenge as barrier of their love.
A long journey for Qinan and Hanjun’s love story, glad to see how their love conquers all.
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Title Represents the Whole Concept of the Drama!
From the beginning of the story, I was thinking about how the four siblings will meet again and how would be the aspects of the architect? What about the 4th child of the family? The fourth child didn't reunite with his family.When it comes to the story, it was too slow to enter into the main story. Besides, when it comes to the architects' part, it would have been better if their work and architecture would be shown in detail for what the drama is holding this kind of name.
Overall, the drama was entertaining. Although can't be completely considered as worth watching. It depends on person to person and their personal aspects. Moreover, it seemed to me, political aspects and the greed for positions and power have moved the main subject away.
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An Elusive yet Potential Masterpiece
The show boasts a fantastic cast, terribly engaging soapy story, in a Republican Era setting that is needed break from Imperial Chinese dramas. It is way better than a "7.8" thanks to Wallace Huo and Yang Mi knocking it out of the park.I knew Wallace from RUYI'S ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE and thankfully he's given more breathing room here. I can't imagine he's had a better role than Qi Nan. He is just terrific here. But as good is my first introduction to Yang Mi -- who has as difficult a role to pull off. My wife and I watch an hour of this 3 times a week, but after the halfway point it was around 5 times.
All the supporting actors were great, many of these faces new to me. For American viewers like myself having trouble keeping all the names straight, I recommend these nicknames: Daddy Fu, his wife Nasty Fu, Dandy Fu, Minister Du, Momma Du, Dandy Du, Minister Wu -- and for that woman in the club that looks like an older Betty Boop -- simply 'Boop'. It made it much easier for us to speak about them without getting confused.
Okay, the single worst thing about this series is the availability in America. It is ELUSIVE. So much so I can't recommend the series until Mango fixes these issues.
The main issue is that there is no way to see the series unedited with proper English subtitles. The series on YouTube 'forgot' to include subtitles for about 10 episodes in the middle and I think Ep 58 the subtitles were broken. And the subtitles themselves were poor quality. And anytime a song happened instead of muting the song they simply cut the entire sequence out, often eliminating important story moments. ARRRGGGHHHH! There's a 'cool' 'Drama' site that has the series in low quality resolution. The subtitles are better but, get this, the audio is out of sync the entire time.
With all these headaches I can't recommend the series to anyone until Mango offers a proper version of CRAFTSMAN with quality English subtitles, which I'd gladly pay $20 for the series.
What's maddening is the series is nearly flawless otherwise. You can count the mistakes on one hand.
1. The series starts with terrific child actors. When they are replaced with adult actors, you can't believe you must let them go. Thankfully they re-appear in flashbacks a lot. My complaint is the older actor playing eldest brother (Li Dong) looks nothing like the boy he replaced. Not even close. It took me like 25 episodes to accept him where Qi Nan, Han Jun, and Lucy took seconds to accept. Don't get me wrong: the actors playing Li Dong were solid, but I guess they needed a different skinny intense kid to play him young.
2. The series spent a little too much time discussing architecture. As well as too much time speaking about business deals. Yes, it was interesting, but often I suspected it was 'filler' to extend the length of the series. I'd say about 20% of all of it could have been cut. That could have shaved about 3 episodes off the series.
3. The last 10 episodes were getting a little sloppy or lazy. Maybe they were all exhausted and the show's amazing quality was slipping to merely 'good' sometimes. I felt the entire elevator incident was rushed. And there was a scene going on between Momma Du and Dandy Du that seemed... odd. It was like the series didn't know what to do with her character and that scene showed it. I also felt the explosion in the flour factory should have shown who that was the flew out a door. But I felt
4. -- the final episode let us down. It seemed more interested in resolving Minister Du than providing the romantic climax we were all waiting for. What was delivered wasn't as majestic or poetic as I hoped. And Li Dong's departure and discovery off camera in the last moments seemed rushed. Certainly there could have been a way to tie in the 'discovery' into the court scene somehow. That person could have read the court case and made the connection to show up?
That's really all I can complain about. The final episode failing to be what this series deserved took an entire half point away, dropping from 9.5 to 9. But still -- despite all the agony of finding a way to watch this show -- a solid 9 is a WOW.
FUN TRIVIA
I can't be certain but I'm nearly certain that a music composer from the show was inspired by Ennio Morricone's work on DAYS OF HEAVEN. There are scenes where Qi Nan is out in fields and that entire movie is about people working in fields. Go to YouTube and seek out Track 9 (The Return) from the DAYS OF HEAVEN soundtrack. It's not a theft, but I'm pretty sure the similar theme from this show HAD to be inspired by that track.
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you only get 23 episodes in english. very disappointed.
you only get 23 episodes in english. the rest in mandarin. if you dont speak mandarin, you are out of luck...I signed on to an executive membership thru Mango TV only to find no english subtitles for the rest of the series. Extremely disappointed and very unhappy. I am a huge fan and was really looking forward to watching this series.you only get 23 episodes in english. the rest in mandarin. if you dont speak mandarin, you are out of luck...I signed on to an executive membership thru Mango TV only to find no english subtitles for the rest of the series. Extremely disappointed and very unhappy. I am a huge fan and was really looking forward to watching this series.
you only get 23 episodes in english. the rest in mandarin. if you dont speak mandarin, you are out of luck...I signed on to an executive membership thru Mango TV only to find no english subtitles for the rest of the series. Extremely disappointed and very unhappy. I am a huge fan and was really looking forward to watching this series.
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