The Best Choice Of The Year
My first bromance drama ! never thought i need this kind of genre in life . one of the best decisions that i have made in life is watching this drama . will go and find the same genre with this drama !Three actors got a great chemistry together ,
Such a great trio made me jealous of their friendship.
Fang Doubing and Di Feisheng are being portrayed by a great actor !
The bickering of Fang Doubing and Li Lianhua literally lighting up the story. Really glad that Di Feisheng are not a real antagonist because i really love their scenes during Di Feisheng lose his memory .
At first i kinda disappointed with the ending and really hoping there is a twist in the end to saves Li Lianhua so he can be Li Xiangyi again , get to travel together with Fang Doubing.
but when i rewatching it again , im understand why that was the best ending .
its tiring for Li Xiangyi to live and Li Lianhua never want to be Li Xiangyi again , even i feel empty after it end.
I feel really sad everytime Li Lianhua disease acting up.
last but not least ; its a well written drama with a great cast! It even made my imaginary turn wild like a kids , thinking if i can be part of the sect and being a legendary swordsman like Li Xiangyi .
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mysterious lotus casebook
ceritanya bagus banget, plot twistnya bener bikin kaget,jasad senior yang dia cari selama 10 tahun ternyata hanya tipuan, orang dia cari masih hidup dan penuh dendam terhadapnya,sangat terharu liat peran joseph sebagai fang doubing yang sangat sayang terhadap li linhua meskipun sering di tinggal dia tetap setia, di bohongi soal identitas sebagai gurunya li xianyi,meskipun dia marah tapi setelah mengetahui soal racun yang di tubuh gurunya dia membantu menacti obat penawarnya, di feisheng sebagai teman petaruhnya bagus banget ngelakuin hal yang bisa membantu li linhua agar tidak menyerahWas this review helpful to you?
Captivating and intriguing
I truly enjoyed this drama becos , I love this genre so much, the various mysterious cases, the case solving all reminded me of Agatha Christie's and the likewise detective stories I grew up reading n so i enjoyed this drama so much. All the actors did good job but i personally liked fang doubing ckt the most. Although I didn't watch last episode becos I didn't want to watch the sad ending n so by watching epi 39, i gave myself closure with the thought that it had happy ending and evryone lived happily like they wanted i.e LX roaming with FDB solving cases in martial world, n DFX helping them sometimes n always wanting to have a spar with LXš, that's the ending I m going to live with in my mind, so I avoided watching epi 40.Although this drama seems underrated n not hyped much maybe due to no romance n love story part in it I would highly recommend this drama for mystery and thrill lovers.
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XiangYi's Legacy Will Live On: The Intricate Layers of Mysterious Lotus Casebook
Mysterious Lotus Casebook is such a masterpiece and a must watch drama for 2023. The entire storyline is very engaging and each of the cases kept me hooked, I honestly don't think I was ever bored watching this. All the cases had a lot of depth and they all somehow related to Xiangyi in the end. All the characters, especially the main trio of LLH, FDB and DFS, I feel like when they were together the episodes were really fun to watch, they have good chemistry! I also have so much respect for LXY/LLH as a character, and I feel like Cheng Yi pulled off his role perfectly. His calm demeanour, smarts, and the general change of his attitudes makes LLH/LXY such a great character, which really demonstrated his growth as a person. LLH/LXY also felt very human, although he was originally an arrogant grandmaster, he has many scenes were you can see him as a vulnerable person just like everyone else. Also, the fight scenes were really good, like they did not lack the budget at all and it was always so exciting watching any of the characters fight. I feel like this drama has so much depth that can be missed if you're not paying attention, but if you do pick up on them everything just makes so much sense. The ending I think its okay just the way it is, although I would of loved for a 'they lived happily ever after' that's not always realistic, and XiangYi will always be a legend that lives on. Anyways, MLC is a solid 10/10!Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
i love difeisheng ?
i knew about it months before it was aired but kind of forgot about it until i saw it in my to watch list. i searched it up and to my surprise, it finished airing. i was actually very excited for this show because ive been looking for a chinese costume drama where romance wasnt the main genre. i originally thought that it would be just bromance but lianhua and xiaobao both have their love interests; it was an acceptable amount of romance for me. i actually didnt know what the plot would be like at all. when i noticed the main plot revolved around crime solving, i was even more intrigued. these kind of plots are one of my favorites. im usually good at predicting twists but never predicted any of the ones in this drama. (i never purposely predict it) i would say this is one of my favorite costume dramas now. had 0 suspicions on shangudao and thought difeisheng was the main villain. (hes not the best person but like). also surprised to see yebaiyi actor play this role (word of honor) i forgot the characters name already, but i hate him; glad wanmian or something left him!! difeisheng soon became my favorite character after he accompanied the other leads. (hidden identity part) i gave it a 7.0 in rewatch value because shows like these, crime solving and plot twists, arent that fun to rewatch since you already know everything thats gonna happen. funny story, my mandarin class played the ost as the song of the day while i was watching the drama. i started this on a sunday afternoon and finished it on thursday at night. i was kind of binge watching even though i had school. whenever i had nothing left to do, i would watch it. it was kind of difficult to watch it on my phone since i use one of those websites.Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
What can I say? After watching all 40 episodes, this show does a good job of not letting the heroes always win. The story moves pretty fast, and if you're someone who loves mysteries and being a detective, this show is for you. The plot is something that caught me so off guard and you can never really guess what the real truth to any of these case is.Something I really apprentice in this show is its ability to portray what actually happens during the cases that they solve. Every case they solve, it shows us an actual play of the scene. However, one issue that comes with this show, is Li Lianhua is a bit too smart to the point where you don't even get a chance to guess what happens. Because everything that happens in the show is almost unpredictable, and Li Liana can guess what happens every single time.
Li Lianhua's character is very interesting. He is very observant and conniving. He is very slick and knows how to calculate, which is very impressive. It was such a pity to not see much of his fighting scenes, but there was other fighting scenes which caught my attention especially with Fang Duobing and Di Feisheng. Those 2 characters make the show give a bit more comedy.
Now the ending, not exactly a cliff hanger. He could have saved himself, but he didn't. I want to believe that he isn't dead but considering the fact that he was poisoned and he gave away the only thing that could save him, it was such a pity.
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Dull. (still)
EDIT:I originally dropped this after 3 episodes. Now I've finished the whole show.
(I'm leaving my original review below the line)
What do I say about this? It's still not great.
It's definitely been overhyped and at best it's sort of slightly above average.
The story is functional - you see where it's going from the beginning and it does indeed get there pretty much as you expect. Which is not a bad thing necessarily, it's just a bit predictable.
The bits I enjoyed the most were the case investigations. Sadly, there are two issues with that:
1) The cases are of fluctuating quality, and many of them are solved in a way you cannot do yourself. Because as in other badly done mystery shows - the show witholds crucial information from you and it is only presented at the very end, when the detective is explaining how he figured it out. That's just lazy and uninteresting.
2) The show insists on being a wuxia story about Big Things, and it constantly gets in the way of the fun.
My main problem with this show and why I still rate it fairly low is the premise and the main protagonist.
I am sick, so sick and tired of these Very Special Boys With A Mysterious Past. Li Xiangyi is VERY similar to the characters in "Love in Between", "Blood of Youth" and even "Nirvana in Fire" and "Word of Honor" to some extent - a soft sickly boy with lovely long hair and flowy robe and a fur lined cloak. And he used to be a powerful martial hero, the most specialest of them all, a real genius. But now he's sickly and disabled and look at the poor bunny, so cute.
And I get that this is a trope that people (especially lady fans of these idols/actors) like. I do not. It's tired now. I've seen it.
I think the story would've worked much, much better with older characters and actors.
So yes - I still put a lot of fault with Cheng Yi. He is older than Joseph Zeng, but it doesn't feel like it. They're too close in age and vibe. And he doesn't have the acting ability to pull this kind of character off, especially in the really dramatic moments. His serious delivery feels fake and flat.
In short - the only way we know he's this super special boy is because everyone keeps talking about it. He doesn't have that kind of charisma to make me believe it.
Joseph Zeng is mostly fine, he does the same thing in most of the dramas I've seen him in. He's like an ok piece of toast. Nothing you'd sing the praises of, but fine to eat.
The villains are kinda terrible. I get that the mustache-twirling evil-laughing villain is a genre thing, but they feel a bit out of place in a modern style drama. That said, I think Rain Wang is just bad, and she wasn't helped by the weird dubbing they did for her character.
The only person whose acting I enjoyed fully was Xiao Shun Yao - his Di Feisheng doesn't change a lot, but he pulls that subtle transition off pretty well. And at all times he FEELS like someone who could seriously hurt people, I believe when he fights.
Speaking of fights - they left them all for the ending, which was odd. They're...fine I guess. The bigger mass battles were a surprise, because the show had been so stingy with fights up to that point. They're all very modern wuxia cdrama in style - lots of flowy stuff, CG energy blasts and not a lot of blood. Compared to something like Sakra, or oldschool 90s wuxia it feels super sanitized. I wasn't impressed, but it wasn't offensively bad either.
In summary - this is a very run of the mill modern wuxia with all the typical flaws, or a mostly decent detective show ruined by also being a modern wuxia drama.
Don't believe the hype, but you might still enjoy some of it.
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Original rating: 3.5*
This is dull, incredibly dull. Just boring as hell.
I have to remind myself that cdrama hype is largely caused by fangirls looking forward to watching shows with their beloved idol/s.
Some episodes in this is just incredibly forgettable, entirely derivative and uninteresting.
The actors are bland as chalk bread, except for the main guy who's straight up bad. He's a bad actor, stop giving him roles where he's supposed to speak.
The premise, the story, it's all cliches piled on cliches, nothing cool or intriguing happens, the fights are not entertaining.
Just another super mediocre/bad wuxia drama.
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They'll never let you go, hard as you might want it.
Li Lianhua, Li Lianhua, what a beautiful story. The trailer didn't do justice to this drama as it was vague and didn't reveal much, I could have missed out on this one.This drama was worth all my 40 hours spent on it. Very suprisenly for me, there was no character I hated in here, even the bad ones.
Although LL adopted FDB as his own (not what happened in the drama, you'll understand if you watch it), I wish he had actual kids of his own for FDB to raise.
Everyone had their role to play and everyone did it beautiful, no cheesy, no overcompensating, just professionalism.
I would watch a sequel if one ever gets into the works.
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Ik it might be boring for some ppl to watch and know every detail of the the case but for me it's really interesting even though there's no romance it's still good. that's what it makes it an amazing drama it doesn't necessary rely and focus on romance and love just Martial arts World which really took my attention the cinematography of the fight scenes are just fire š„ and the plot is flowing nicely. I like the plot twist too i didn't really expect it š
ā¤ļø looking forward for the next eps ā¤ļøā¤ļøā¤ļø
I completed this drama and I'll definitely watch again it's absolutely the hest drama for 2023 š„
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This review may contain spoilers
The Best Thriller This Year
Adapted from the novel āAuspicious Pattern Lotus Houseā (åē„„ēŗ¹č²č±ę„¼) by Teng Ping (č¤č), Mysterious Lotus Casebook was one of the most anticipated releases this year, from the IQIYI flagship. Starring Cheng Yi, Joseph Zeng, Xiao Shun Yao in lead roles, this male centric wuxia drew attention because of its unique storyline and stellar casting. Directed by Guo Hu and Ren Hai Tao, the story focuses on the adventurous life of our main protagonist, Li Xiangyi (Cheng Yi). Once the revered leader of a powerful sect, Xiangyi falls from grace after an eventful battle with his arch nemesis, Di Feisheng (Xiao Shun Yao). Ten years later, he reemerges as a humble physician, Li Lianhua, while cutting all ties with the martial arts world. But as fate wouldnāt have it, his peaceful existence is disturbed when he accidentally gets entangled with Fan Duobing (Joseph Zeng), a rich young master who intends to work as a detective at the Baichuan Court.Mysterious Lotus Casebook raked in 4 million reservations on the date of its premiere. Audiences were ecstatic with the prominent casting, that includes some big names like Cheng Yi and Joseph Zeng. If you are an avid fan of the āLost Tombā franchise, then you will probably understand the charm. Both Cheng Yi and Joseph Zeng have been a part of this popular franchise; with Cheng Yi playing the lead role Zhang Qi Ling in āThe Lost Tomb 2ā and Joseph Zeng starred as Wu Xie in āUltimate Noteā. Those who are familiar with this storyline might know that Wu Xie and Zhang Qi Ling are an insanely popular fictional couple (known by their ship name, PingXie). As such, the excitement surrounding this show was high pitched. Cheng Yi was recently in news for his xianxia romance āImmortal Samsaraā, while Joseph Zeng was cast in the recent wuxia romance āHeroesā; both being major Youku productions. Joining them on this crusade is Xiao Shun Yao, who is slowly gaining popularity after playing negative roles in āThe Blue Whisperā and āTill the End of the Moonā.
Read the complete article here-
https://kcdramamusings.wordpress.com/2023/08/19/mysterious-lotus-casebook-series-review-ep-1-to-40/
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A well-told story about the irreplaceable legacy of a sect leader after a selfless self-destruction
This was my very first watching a Chinese drama that was a non-romantic genre that hooked me all the way. A drama that has a substance in which the underlying conflicts, twists, and turns in the development of the story hardly made me stop watching it continuously. There were some predictable scenes at some point in the episodes however; it did not weaken the flow of the story.The selection of casts was great. Joseph Zeng was particularly outstanding here. His performance in this drama went beyond Cheng Yiās acting as the main lead. His characterization stood out among the rest and was noticeable in the entire drama. I recently watched him in āRomance on the Farmā and he already captured my attention there with his baby face looks, not so much of the acting yet. But in this drama, he properly delivered the role and saw in him a promising actor to watch for.
The component of humor I think also brought this drama receptive to viewers. The shift of tone to make a certain dialogue or scene funny by adding background sound effects was amazingly done by the technical and editing team which indeed made me laugh. Well, the fighting scenes were given for the wuxia enthusiasts and I also enjoyed watching those sharp moves.
I was absolutely satisfied after relying on my choice to watch it from one of the many approving reviews I have read.
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