A suspenseful romance that is short but intense.
The drama, in a nutshell: a love story between a businesswoman and an illegitimate son, inter-family power struggles and an arson case.An excellent script, a crazy plot that's quite original in the way it unfolds, quality cinematography (so high quality that I felt like I was watching a movie), stunning actors and breathtaking chemistry: a most intense and beautiful romance. The plot is exceptional, as it swings between truth, lies, doubt and uncertainty. I haven't seen many chinese dramas, but this one is surely the shortest in the genre without being a mini drama (if you know the length of cdramas, you know what I mean), a perfect length that didn't leave me hungry after seeing the conclusion. Some of the scenes are absolutely magnificent, and you won't be disappointed until the very end (I hope...). For those of you who like to get chills while watching dramas, I've only got one thing to say: Go for it.
There's one thing I must mention: the dialogue. Some of the dialogue is so beautiful that sensitive people like me won't be able to hold back the tears.
Notes aside:
- I recommend reading the lyrics of the ending at least once as they are incredible.
- After the end of each episode, you'll be treated to just one line of dialogue as a preview, under a mysterious air with the coolest music and title screen. I think this kind of detail is important, it makes the whole thing even cooler. It lasts like 10 seconds, and that's enough to get you hyped.
- The presence of a voice-over narrator who intervenes from time to time in the course of the story, I can't say any more but that's another detail I found very cool and well done. It felt like watching a novel.
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The Murder in the writers' room
A murder has been committed. Victim? The show's script. The prime suspect? The writers. Accomplices? The director and editors of the show.You come here, thinking it's a story about an arson/murder case only to find out it's another petty spat about rich people tearing each other's throats out for money. I went on and watched the Japanese adaptation of this story as well, just to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating the mystery aspect that I expected this show to have and while that movie wasn't good by any stretch of the imagination, it most definitely had the Agatha Christie style suspension that I had expected. So this show has no excuse for being such a bland and boring mess with an incohesive plot.
Summary: Rich dude is about to die when he finds out he has an illegitimate son. He asks this super successful assistant in his vaguely important and powerful company to find him (because it's not like she has an actual job to do). She succeeds so fast, you wonder why the dude didn't just make the call that she made himself to find the boy in two seconds...
Plot: I'm not even sure how I should properly nag about this. Do I complain about the setup? Because the setup is awful. I don't know about others but I'm personally over this trend in modern Cdramas where there's this super important and successful company (and you are never even told what the company does) and the protagonist is a 30-year-old who is extremely successful (without even once seeing them do their actual job) and then there are all these political dramas surrounding the company as if it's the parliament or something. This self-grandiosity in shows just makes me roll my eyes and I can't take anything that happens seriously. It's simply beyond stupid. Anyway, this show had that.
Do I complain about the characters? I know China has an allergy towards having antagonists as main characters and productions would rather have everyone walk on their hands and speak through drawn faces on their stomachs rather than having a grey character as MC but it was honestly ridiculous how far this show twisted itself around in order to not show any fault in their main character. She's a genius, gorgeous woman with a heart of gold who has never done anything wrong, she probably farts rainbows...I hated it. In addition, the show is made up of an entirely exhausting, incompetent, spoiled rich cast of villains that are all so bad at being bad that half the show is just watching them be petulant over not succeeding at anything. The romance is slightly better but it's not really that touching so I'm at best indifferent towards it.
What do I even say about the case? Because the real crime of this show is that it's supposed to be a freaking murder mystery and you literally get 10 minutes of detective work and everything else is explained in voiceover and monologued in the last episode! Just why?!
The suspense is maintained like a feather on a needlepoint (as in, it's not.) At every turn, instead of building suspense, the show just blows everything up like a balloon and spills everything then wastes more time on silly family drama. They don't even do a good job with that. The characters are as boring as can be and their personal drama is just as terrible.
The more I write, the angrier I get so I'll just settle by saying it was terribly written. The worst script I've seen so far this year. Possibly in the last 5 years! What even was this...
Acting: I kind of feel bad for Steven Zhang for being in this show. He's usually a good actor but acting is just not enough when the plot is this bad. The actress who plays the lead wasn't good in my opinion. She seemed more concerned with looking beautiful and barely had proper expressions throughout the show. She had moments but overall bad. The rest of the cast was just sufficient, not very impressive though.
Music and production: The music was alright, better than the rest of the show. The production looked cheap. It wasn't done with much thought, it looked like every other average show out there. The editing was terrible. Censorship or not, they really butchered the show. The voiceover (I'll never stop mentioning it) was just a slap to the face. Awful.
One good thing I can say is that the opening sequence was nice...that's it!
Rewatch value: NO!
Overall: This is not a good show. It's not absolutely terrible, so I gave it a 7 and not the 5 I personally felt it deserved. The name of the show, the trailer, and the synopsis all created this false expectation that this was a show in a similar tier as other short-form mystery dramas that China has been making lately but one episode was enough to realize this is merely a watery romance wrapped in petty, rich-people, family drama masquerading as a murder mystery. It was a failure. I don't recommend this to anyone. If you're really desperate to watch something about Kairoutei, just watch the Japanese one. At least it makes sense...
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I watched this series bcoz of Steven. He acted only in few series. I watched all of his series. Its good to see his acting. I loved the FL character she also done lot of hardwork.
This series is suspense thriller romance its perfectly my genre. So i loved it i would recommed this for who doesnt like love triangle not with lots of cliché nd thriller drama. You would actually gonna luv this series.
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This review may contain spoilers
Binge watch on a rainy day
I had utterly low expectations for this drama as it was slaughtered by so many in reviews on Youtube. I don't watch murder stories generally because I don't like seeing blood or watch too much suspence. But this was a cosy almost detective feel story with a decent workplace family drama and an absolutely amazing romance.I loooooved the female lead character! It's the second time I watch Deng Jia Jia and she's really really good! Stephen Zhang was brilliant in his role as well. Their chemistry was top notch.
It's the perfect romance drama for a binge watch on a rainy day.
Overall:
Story was so so, but descent. Kind of cosy mystery with beleivable motives!
+
Top notch lead couple
Amazing chemistry
Female lead was strong and believable
Non toxic male lead
-
A bit over-acted by the killer in the ending episodes.
The storyteller voice was a bit ridicilous (but it helped still lol)
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Easy and quick binge, great OTP chemistry
At just a dozen episodes, this drama was the perfect length for the story it was telling; no time was wasted on overwrought flashback scenes. If you've read the book, however, you'll want to know that there are some major changes. I've only read a summary of the original novel and without giving too much away, I'm glad they went a different route here.The drama's greatest strength was the chemistry between the OTP. I knew Steven Zhang (Xincheng) was a good actor based on his performance in The Day of Becoming You, but I did not expect his character to be so swoony here. Cheng Cheng's intense love for Jiang Yuanxing really came through and his fear of losing her was palpable.
The mystery part of the story was weaker and fairly predictable for viewers in terms of guessing the culprit. The police, on the other hand, had super powers of deduction based on the way they cracked the case and figured everything out!
Perhaps I was fully expecting the series to be over-the-top melodramatic and soapy, but I actually found it wasn't as "dog blood" as I had anticipated.
Overall, an entertaining watch that deserves a slightly higher score than a 7.7 (at the time of writing).
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Not what i expected but still good.
Based on the title and thumbnail i thought it was going to be full on thrilling cause of the vibes it gave off. But when i watched the thumbnail i was like "oh maybe a bit of business too", tip for the ones actually interested in what the title is about, all the thrill starts from episode 10 but you do need to watch the rest of the episodes in order for it all to puzzle up and make sense. (you'll understand it once you finish it) the rest of the episodes are about the gao familyfighting for the company's chair position,will and the love story of cheng cheng and Jiang Yuanxing,lies & forgiving and all the identity stuff. Honestly the plot twist kind of shocked me i didn't quite expect that but i was absolutely amazed and loved it. Not everyone got their happy endings (the main couple did dw) i also pity some of them, especially that diary made me bawl my eyes out. Anyhow so many people dropped this at episode 1-2 their loss, and honestly this series is getting so much unnecessary hate, everyone their own opinions but i LOVED it, worth the watch the actors did a really good job it was only 12 episodes and they managed it so well need more series like this some of them are way too long just for the unnecessary long drama thing that keeps on dragging. But overall 10/10 definitely worth it. (forgot to add this and can't be bothered to go back but the main leads chemistry were AMAZING those intense scenes made me get butterflies damn)Was this review helpful to you?
Excellent suspenseful drama
This was a superbly done show. The roles were really well and convincingly cast, with great chemistry between the two leads. Even the tension in relationships between more minor characters was palpable.The actors and the director did a great job making each of the characters sympathetic and despicable at the same time, and also revealing story elements at interesting times that made the story unfold in a not entirely linear manner. This was more interesting than just using plain flashbacks or linear time progression.
I probably will watch this again. Really fantastic.
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Another thing. Besides the mystery aspect of the drama, which I must say was all over the place but not too bad, I wanted to watch the drama because of the skinship scenes I'd seen in the trailer. The scenes weren't as thrilling as I'd been promised. They didn't live up to the trailer. Once it was out of the way, though, I still continued with the drama.
Murder in Karoutei opens with a chaotic scene. Karoutei is a hotel that belongs to the Gao family business enterprise. While gathering there to spend the night, a room had caught on fire and someone happened to be in the room. From episodes one to ten, we're taken along months before the fire outbreak and given clues to figure out who the victim and culprit is.
If you're used to watching mystery themed shows or movies, it'd be easy for you to tell right away who the victim and culprit of the incident is. If you're not though, it's going to be a fun cat and mouse game for you to play. There's Gao Guanyi who founded the Honye group and isn't related by blood to the Gao family but through of one of their daughters, who happens to have an illegitmate son.
With the help of his employee, Jaun Janxing, he tracks down his son and tries to bond with him. The bonding never happened but finding his son made his family (the Gaos) more scheming and conniving. Gao Guanyi is about to meet God and now he has an illegitmate son who he plans to give his inheritance to? No way was that going to happen. What ensues is a series of plots to get the dying man to change his mind, without knowing he's changed his mind. Everyone is a suspect, if you're not used to working your brain in this kind of thing.
While the family tries to bring down Gao Guanyi, Cheng Cheng and, Juan Jangxing, Cheng Cheng and Jaun Jangxing form a likely bond. They get along well and while they seem to have some chemistry, it isn't electrifying. There seemed to be a disconnect and I'd say it was on the FL's part as she has some unresolved issues from her past.
Given how slightly messy and wanna be suspenseful and mysterious the plot tried to be, the drama was entertaining, minimally. I for one enjoy the family feud trope so it's was enough to compel me to finish the drama.
The actors did their best to give this drama substance. If the plot or romance of the main leads doesn't appeal you, the portrayal of their characters will.
The sound production of the drama was pleasant. I like the BGM and random organic noises in the background. Cinematography was wonderfully eye worthy as well. If nothing about the drama appeals to you, the cinematography and sound effects should.
Pacing is slow and it wasn't until the 9th episode did everything start to come together. Murder in Kairoutei isn't thrilling but it isn't entirely flat either. It's a 12 episode drama I think anyone who's just trying to fill time on a rainy/cloudy day should watch. While the ending was rushed, it wasn't disappointing.
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Unlikely Romance + A Bitter Fight For The Throne
This drama is amazing and I am so glad I stumbled across it, however - I think this is the type of drama you can only truly enjoy if you forget everything you read/saw about it. Neither the trailer, the Synopsis nor the original novel are an accurate portrayal of what the drama actually is like. I think a lot of people got mislead and then were disappointed.SO, if you want to to watch it forget whatever you know about it.
I would say it's a story about an unlikely romance. Surprisingly flirty, touching and hopeful. What did Rihanna say? - We found love were it wasn't supposed to be. That's exactly it.
We have a strong, mature and hard-working FL in her 30s that has a high ranking job and doesn't loose her cool. On the other side we have a flirty, but beat-down-by-life car technician in his 20s.
The romance in this drama is very mature and raw - in the best way possible. Somehow it feels like censorship forgot to check this drama? - lol, not that I am complaining tho :D
Now about the mystery, murder, etc. - I have to give a disclaimer I don't watch a lot of dramas in that genre, which is why I appreciate the short length. I couldn't watch 20-30 episodes of a family fighting for inheritance.
Most of the mystery and murder happens in the final 3 episodes and during that time it's exactly like in the trailer, before that it's a slow but steady fight for inheritance among the Gao Family and seemingly undisturbed the ML and FL are getting to know each other, far away from the company. Which is the part I loved the most.
All in all this drama is different from what I watched before and I am glad I did.
+ the orchestral BGM also added A LOT to it feeling unique and intriguing
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decent drama, good that it's not too long though
story:honestly did not fit the description that it was given, "悬疑剧“ (idk this in english... maybe "detective"?)... it was more like 狗血with some 偶像剧mixed in... but idk i still enjoyed watching it. also because it was only 12 episodes, i could finish it in one sitting and be done with it.
cast:
not a fan of 邓家佳's acting... idk the way she just stares or smiles kinda creeps me out. also the voice.. idk if it's original (doesn't sound like it) or if she got a voice actor or something, but it doesn't sound right. 张新成surprised me though, he's really natural and i can understand every word he says without having to read the caption. i've watched dramas with him before, but i didn't really notice his acting back then.
music:
ngl didn't really pay attention, so i'm not commenting on this one
rewatch:
i probably won't rewatch, just because i usually don't with most dramas, unless they're like heavenly
overall:
good, short, drama if you're bored
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The Voice-Over Narrator Badly Killed the Drama
This drama is supposed to be based on a Japanese crime mystery novel that was made into a mini-series in Japan. I haven't the seen the original series but am a big fan of the crime/mystery genre. I'm also a fan of the two leads and went into this drama with anticipation. While the two leads had chemistry and you could tell the actors made an effort, they couldn't save the show from the terrible writing and 2D characterizations of the characters. The story-telling was a complete let down. The most annoying part of the drama was the voice over narration that over explained everything and didn't respect the viewer's intelligence. This was supposed to be a suspense mystery but instead there was too much corporate intrigue and domestic drama that felt tacked on to fill out the series to 12 episodes. The corporate intrigue was not engaging and a waste of the acting talent from the large cast. If you're a fan of crime dramas, give this a pass because there is no meat in the mystery. If you're a fan of the leads and want to see them in a romance, feel free to fast forward the other parts of this drama.Was this review helpful to you?
Murder mystery
There is not an investigative or romantic drama. The drama centers around the succession of wealth of a rich family and how family members tr to get the biggest piece of pie..This would have been very good if it was shortened to a movie as there are so many unnecessary scenes that simply lags the story.
The investigation portion of the murder involved is just speculative with questioning at the police station.
Overall if you have nearly 12 hours to spare on a lengthy average drama, this is the one for you.
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