I Am the Years You Are the Stars (2021)

Came for Leo Yang (who isn't even on the poster), stayed for intriguing story and an interesting supporting characters.

I caught snippets in feeds/ytube so gave it a go and it exceeded my low expectations. Regarding the production, editing, laughable action scenes, I treated it as part of the comedy.

I see no writing credit, which supports my suspicions that there was a team at odds with each other because the writing was such a mixed bag. There was a reference in ep21 to the "writers of this story [being] too unprofessional" was that a dig at themselves?

POSITIVES

1. Decent plot and amount of intrigue.
2. Supporting characters each had something to offer. Strong family-like friendships.
3. Main couple was mostly cute
4. I liked the music
5. Light and humorous moments.
6. Spotlight on organ donation.
7. Pretty dresses!! (unlike Once we get married)


SPOILERS


POSITIVES continued
8. No unnecessary second couple.
9. Chill female character too busy to date.
10. Antagonist that isn't nice simply because they're not, although could've gone deeper.

COULD DO BETTER

1. The flow of the drama, well, it doesn't. Everything is a bit jarring and not in a stylistic way. Why does this scene follow the last, did they just film lots of stuff and mash them together? It starts off well, then a lull then it's like they remembered they had to hand in their homework and crammed everything in the last few episodes. I'm glad I didn't wait for this weekly.

2. There was an instant attraction between main couple but they just got together, like what, they were making a cake for unknown reasons. But they weren't official. But they were. But not. But broke up anyway. Blaaah.

3. All the action scenes. Comedic. The whole snowy mountain expedition was pointless. Let's blow stuff up.

4. The complete lack of attention to detail. Highly radioactive meteorite, let's wear thin PPE. Oh but it's ok, it stopped being radioactive now, you can run back in without PPE or any decontamination procedure. It's aaall good.

5. We love humans and organ donation is a great and noble thing to do. Yo. Let's kill animals and stigmatise mental health issues!!! >.<

Read More

definitely worth the watch but has some flaws

i will start off by saying that this was a good drama, not fantastic but definitely not bad, like most dramas it has some flaws, some things i definitely think could have been better but also some things that could have been worse and were actually done quite well.

the parts that i liked.

when i first started it all i could picture was twilight, thats all the ML reminded me off haha, the story started off interesting, i liked the idea of immortality and her dying, i think her working in a morgue was also super interesting, i liked the parts with the special drug and then trying to study it and find out who is doing it, i also enjoyed seeing what the drug did to the patients and their stories it actually made it sad when they died, i also liked but was also sad about the officer that died and wanted to donate his eyes to the blind child, while sad i think it was a nice little story line. i liked the cute moments the FL and ML had, i think their wedding was absolutely beautiful.

the parts i disliked.

i really disliked the 2nd and 3rd male leads, they just caused alot of trouble for no reason, one hating the FL purely because he doesnt like change, doing everything he can to break up the ML and FL, yes he regrets and ends up liking her in the end but it was still really annoying and not needed. thankfully there was no annoying SFL, i feel like there was alot of filler episodes which in the end just made them rush an ending, i feel that there wasnt enough about her dying,she is supposed to have this serious rare illness that will kill her and she could die any minute, but besides a few nose bleeds shes practically fine, she constantly talks about dying and at first it was fine but then it got repetitive when thats all she talked about, how little time she has, again she spoke so much about dying but she barely showed any signs of actually dying, towards the end she ends up in hospital for like 2 seconds and is completely fine again, well enough to go hiking in the snowy mountains, it just really didnt make sense, i feel like they forgot half the time that she was actually dying and tried to make up for it by her constantly telling everyone that shes dying. while the ML and FL had some cute moments i really didnt feel the chemistry, i honestly felt that they just got together because they only had each other and didnt want to be alone so why not, i just couldnt feel the love they supposedly had for each other. the whole bad guy storyline was just a mess in the last 4 episodes, i felt like they just completely forgot where they were going with the story and threw it all together hoping it would make sense. the part about the village was interesting though, the ending was in my opinion was open ended, while there was a wedding and it seems like everyone got a happy ending ( besides the bad guys ) it also leaves questions, did the FL end up cured, or is she still gonna die, what happened to all the bad guys, the main one ended up in jail but what about the rest of them, specifically the crazy female. there were some parts that just left me wondering if i had missed an episode.

while i definitely enjoyed it i feel it could have been done better, i would love it to have a korean remake and be done a little more like goblin with the immortality side of things, and a bit more darker rather then light and fluffy, i think it would be a really good korean remake. i would definitely recommend watching it at least once, it was definitely enjoyable it just had some flaws to it, if you can get past that you will definitely like it.

8/10 would watch again.

Read More

It is an interesting series

I find this series cute in a way and in a way missing something - which sadly I can´t really pinpoint out. However, on the overall scale, I really enjoyed watching this series. So far, I have watched it more than once - although not that many times that it becomes uncountable. I find the storyline slightly fascinating and the actors and actresses are quite awesome, although chemistry is indeed lacking between the male and female lead. But the female lead is quite refreshing and slightly stiff also in a way. There are many funny moments and heart tugging moments in the series. It is worth a watch, although I would point out that "one man´s meat is another man´s poison".... therefore, what I may find nice and awesome about this series may not necessarily be your cup of tea.

Read More

Senseless

Why? I am thinking while writing why ,what is the reason I chose to watch the drama . Yes the story is senseless . I mean she was going to die suddenly a man cam in her life who was not a alien either he was not a human too then what was he ? In full drama this made confusion . Then many years ago he hit with something he got radiations and he became a immortal so before this he was a human but now can be an alien or an immortal . Then he was looking for the meteorite so that he became normal .hence the story start both meet in some unexpected circumstances and she helped him to get the thing which he wanted . So finally he got but still not understand that she was going to die or she had surgery and surgery was successful and she survived . So this part not clear and show over with happy ending. Other co starts story also not clear . I think the drama was made in hurry . So many flaws in it.

Read More

Intriguing Story that tries to break out of tropes

This drama stars Liu Haikuan (The Long Ballad,The Untamed, Mirror Twin Cities) and Estelle Chen (Love Like The Galaxy) and is a supernatural comedy romance drama on WeTv in 24 episodes.

Liu Haikuan carries the weight of the drama effortlessly, particularly in comedic moments as an immortal who is seeking a cure for his affliction, and his remedy might be a young mortuary assistant who witnesses his resurrection.

While there are certainly tropes abounding (long looks between the leads while music plays in the background) - noteably Haikuan’s theme song ‘Confession’) what breaks the mold is the premise and some very effective moments which pull on themes of life and death, mourning and moving on. It’s quite an addictive watch and you keep going to see what happens.

Jaing Bai Ju’s character is interesting and consistent, he can pull from a well of suffering and loneliness amid plenty (I would like to know more about his design work, gardening and painting - both characters share a love of gardening that is not developed) and his dynamic of the Dao grandsons interest me, the devotion marred by a sense of debt) the female lead morphs from competent professional and wise beyond her years to being childish and mercurial and venal to suit the plot, which is a bit frustrating, I can see the hints of what could have been here) The budget didn't extend to special effects, however some scenes in the mortuary are scary enough, there could have been more! Give Liu Haikuan and Deng Wei more meaty roles, they'll be worthy!

Read More

Boring drama

I had high expectations regarding this drama cause I generally like this type of genres but I'm highly disappointed with how this drama turned out. So I dropped it after the first 11 ep.

The things I disliked the most in this drama are:

1. Lack of chemistry between the leads. Their chemistry didn't felt natural at all and sometimes I even forgot that they were supposed to be the leads due to the lack of scenes between them. Tbh the FM had better chemistry with the villain.

2. The story is unreasonable from the beginning and sometimes I don't even understood why they showed certain scenes in the first place. Now why I called it unreasonable?? Because the drama was talking about one of the most important topic that is death and I know the drama was supposed to be a light hearted one but sometimes the FL's attitude regarding that topic felt really unrealistic. If you don't know when you are going to die then that's a different thing but she knew how much time was left with her and it was fine that she accepted it and was trying to live her life in a positive way but her acting felt like death is nothing serious but a regular thing in life. Another thing was when the granny offered her money to give company to the ML, I mean she was going to die but instead of spending time with your friends and family she just agreed to it, why?? She wasn't poor but still agreed to give company to a man whom she hated and had to live with him in the same house.

3. Very fast paced and the writers don't even give you time to process what is happening and the direction isn't focused. That's why one time it's showing something and the next minute another thing so when it again came back to the first topic you'll find your clueless with what was exactly happening.

4. The villain was predictable from the beginning and the story wasn't interesting. I don't remember any memorable scene actually.

5. It was supposed to be a drama with mystery but I found none. It was way too straight forward for my liking.

6. I can't exactly define the ML's character cause I felt like the writers didn't do it enough justice. It felt flat from the beginning. And for the FL it felt annoying. She didn't acted like her age at all.

7. Don't get me started with their "supposed" romantic moments and first kiss. The FL sudden urge to date someone before dying and practically forcing the ML to accept her made me more annoyed with her character. I don't even know from when she even started liking him?? Cause all of their scenes didn't exactly felt romantic but two friends hanging out or idk if I can even describe them as friends. But romantic?? Nah. Playing a romantic track in the background while slowing down their scene doesn't always make it romantic. And their bickering felt like an old man giving lessons to a young woman.

The things which I liked :

1. A more matured and reasonable bestie of the FL.

2. The little childish fights between the supporting characters especially the scenes between Qian Tu and Qian Cheng and Qian Cheng and William which honestly kept me going. Otherwise nothing particular which I can remember.

I kept watching till ep 11 hoping to find something interesting but after watching the leads first kiss I dropped it.

The opening OST is the only one which I liked but nothing too special.

Parts with a green screen looked awful.

Give it a try if you are okay with all the things I've mentioned above.

Read More

Ótima interação entre as personagens

Gosto muito de como as personagens interagem neste drama. Elas fogem um pouco do clichê e algumas delas possuem um carisma excêntrico, especialmente o casal principal (que é o que mais importa). Há uma grande química entre eles, que se apoiam até o fim, sem se afundarem muito em desentendimentos descabidos e forçados. Sempre que houve algum conflito, foi resolvido sem muita demora ou sofrimento infantil, e isso é um excelente ponto.
Outra coisa interessante nesse drama é que ele pode te dar uma nova visão sobre a vida e a morte, especialmente esta última. Talvez ela não seja assim tão densa e macabra como costumamos ver. O fato da protagonista ser uma maquiadora mortuária acaba nos dando essa nova perspectiva inclusive sobre as profissões que englobam esse ambiente de pessoas que morrem e precisam ser veladas. Nunca vi muito sobre essa abordagem, mas o drama mostrou isso de um modo que não ficou pesado, muito pelo contrário, mostrou a naturalidade destes ritos, e como eles são importantes. E talvez se antes eu tinha algum receio/hesitação com relação a cadávers, este drama ajuda a ter um novo olhar sobre isso, a sentir que não se trata de algo tão sombrio assim. Dá pra quebrar alguns tabus após assistir o drama.
Eu diria que os dois últimos episódios foram ruins, o penúltimo especialmente foi um desserviço a quem sofre de alguma desordem mental como transtorno de personalidade antissocial, a cena (nenhum spoiler significativo) que revela uma personagem com esse transtorno em seu auge de participação no drama foi deplorável de assistir, com uma abordagem distorcida sobre o tema além de uma péssima atuação da atriz.
Mas ok, eu só perdoo ps o resto do drama foi legal, os dois últimos espisódios eu prefiro fingir que foi um delírio kkkkk. Dá pra assistir e fazer como eu, afinal são só 2 episódios né, não descompensam o resto do drama.

Read More