Part for Ever (2024)

Circle of Dumb.

Okay. How do I even start with this one?
After seeing the trainwreck of the trailer, I checked out the author and stumbled across another book of hers which is even more evil than this, so I guess it's entirely not the screenwriter's fault.

I have my University Exams going on right now, which might be partly why this drama pissed me off so much, cause out of the 10 minutes we get per episode (which is perfect for a short break), 80% of it is spent on twirling, BGM and 'look-at-my-aesthetics' camera work.
It's a waste not because of the actors, who are the ones carrying this drama and who actually have the skills.
The story itself is so... something that it made me double up.

A dude, Ling Xiao, finds an opportunity and overthrows a City Lord to avenge his mother; he later forcibly marries the deceased Lord's young daughter, Su Wan'er, who for once, is a female lead whom I absolutely adored.
If there is one reason for you to watch this drama, then do it for her cause she is definitely up there with Princess Xiao Feng when it comes to giving apt response to their husbands.
Throw in a female villain and voila! - we have all the elements for a plot that we will either enjoy as pulp fiction or want to burn to ashes.

Sadly, the ML is the most dumbest character I've watched on screen in a Chinese Drama. [It does not help that the last two dramas I've watched were In Blossom and Different Princess, both of which had smart characters.]
His biggest contribution to the drama was it's pivotal misunderstanding. [@phroggies70 from Reddit described him as a handsome brick.]
It's a shame because the actor has the ability to boot.
I've seen the Second ML in another evil drama, but he is truly a sunshine in this one. So, kudos to his character!
Even the leading and supporting actors were highly talented, considering that this was the script given to them.
Costumes were nice, albeit a bit cliché styled and the chemistry between the leading characters was also nice. Aesthetics were good. Sigh...

Atleast, it ended how I expected it to. I'd suggest this drama to anyone in search of a chokeworthy ML and a female lead who deserved better.
[6.5/10. Cause it was nice to look at and the actors and crew really worked hard.]

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Sometimes cute mostly cringe and made me roll my eyes ?

My expectations weren’t high and it didn’t disappoint. Let’s start with what I think was good, the FL and especially ML’s acting exceeded my expectations. I think they did well. The second ML was okay and Niyue was just awkward. Now the story, let me start by saying that I like my share of yanderes, so I got curious about this drama, I haven’t read the novel that this was based on, so this is just for this show. I think it started well with the family conflict between FL & ML and their mysterious shared background but it went downhill from there. As the story progressed the FL who seemed smart at the beginning became dumber and so did the ML resorting to the cliché of “ I will not explain properly or let you think I am bad to save you”

Anyway I’m glad this was a short drama

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Sad ending

The story line is good, it keeps you hooked throughout the drama. Acting is applaudable.
The drama fits the title "Part For Ever" foreshadowing the partition of ling xiao & wan'er which really got me crying ?....'cause literally the ML put everything into it to be with the FL forever, but sadly the couldn't reunite (although they deserved every bit of it). Meanwhile the villain doesn't appears to be quite strong but is a silent killer. I guess the villian's character could be done better, 'coz she appears so domicile & fragile to stand against the ML's character & suddenly appears quite powerful in the last episode.

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Recipe For Disappointment: 1x Good OST, 1x Attractive People, 1x Bad Editing, 1x Bad Acting

I. The Ugly
You know it's bad when I start with the ugly. The ending is ugly because (a) no happy ending and (b) did they run out of memory card space? At least let the FL bawl over the ML's body for a bit. Maybe this was the production team's way of baiting for another season, since previous series with good potential failed to get signed for one. There were lavish uses of dog-blood tropes but for what purpose, I do not know because I do not know what were they cooking.

II. The Bad
Where do I start? This series had all the ingredients for a hit, but it's like a 5-year-old was given top-quality ingredients to cook in their little battery-operated play kitchen--the dish served was barely warm, over-flavouring in some parts, and under-flavouring in others.

Again, I'm no stranger to angsty dog-blood melodrama and in fact, I will eat bowls of it. This series dropped steaming piles of it in random places (episode 1 opens with the FL witnessing her father dying/ dead at the ML's feet before the ML carries her off, episode 2 shows how the ML protects the side chick because she supposedly save him and how the FL is betrayed by her father's trusted friend, episode 3 ends with a 'cliffhanger' of the ML potentially sexually assaulting the FL under the influence of drugged incense, etc., etc.). The problem was the lack of commitment to it: Unlike Circle of Love (my go-to platinum-standard angsty dog-blood melodrama), the scenes lacked the hate and passion. I'm not sure if it is due to the editing or acting. Instead of letting the angst build, there were interspersed placid scenes. Even the build up to the ending, where the ML is supposedly not as irredeemable as he appears or how the villainess is more iniquitous than a cockroach that refuses to die, was lacklustre and lacked conviction.

Coming to conviction, I'm more convinced of the chemistry between the ML and the side chick than I was of the ML and FL's. Their acting with each other was atrocious. It was as if they both recognised that the other was an objectively attractive person and... that's it. No sparks. No magnetic force. Not even during the skin-ship scenes. Not even a fart of a fizz.

All 4 of them (CZJ as the ML, JYYR as the FL, YZM as the 2ML, CHY as the 2FL) delivered their lines with as minimal emotion as they could get away with. It was like I had four slices of wild Alaskan salmon flopping around on my lukewarm countertop. The production team tried to use many tropes that only work with full-length dramas because the actors had built chemistry with each other (even between rivals) and background stories. Throwing these cliches out to an underdeveloped story is like burying your tuna poke bowl under sesame seeds when the ahi tuna is missing.

III. The Good
Well, they're good-looking. CZJ reminds me of Aarif Rahman, and he was paid more to bare his chest than he was to act. I'm glad to see that YZM finally has a non-villainous role (he's been so stereotyped, I kept expecting him to do something evil).

The theme songs, costumes, and set were top notch, worthy of a full-length drama. I'm quite amazed at the quality of the theme songs actually. Maybe if they'd taken half the fees for the songs and paid the actors or editing team more, we'd have a much better drama to watch.

IV. Conclusion
Watch if you like sexy skin and chopped up slices of angsty dog-blood melodrama scenes that are so incongruous, fan edits can take those out and nobody would realise the dish is missing anything.

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Great chemistry and skinship but frustrating plot

I was extremely excited to start this show after watching the trailer and I just finished the last two episodes today. Let me start by saying that I was fully expecting a tragic ending. We all know how ill-fated lovers tend to turn out (I’m looking at you Tale of Love and Loyalty). So I almost didn’t watch it because i’m not a fan of sad endings.

This show had soooo many tropes that I hate but I just couldn’t stop watching it. Mostly because of the chemsitry between the leads. This show had a surprising amount of skinship, especially in episodes 25 and 26 and it was believable. The kisses were great. Acting wise, I thought the ML was really good for not having a lot of acting experience and this being his first lead role. The FL acting was great, she was very natural to me. Especially the more complicated emotional scenes. The 2FL, a.k.a. the villain is your typical scorned woman turned murderous villain. Her character wasn’t explored much since this is a mini drama and a lot of things get overlooked or left out of mini’s. So her reasons for doing all the horrible things she did is really immature and shallow. I thought the actress did a decent job playing such a despicable character.
Now, as far as the story goes, what frustrated me was the amount of misunderstandings. I’m not exaggerating when I say that the leads would get half an episode, maybe a whole one, of happiness and then another misunderstanding would pop up. And the biggest one that caused the most damage was completely unnecessary. If Ling Xiao had communicated with Wan’er about why he was doing what he was doing, a lot of misery would have been avoided but he chose the noble idiocy path and broke her heart beyond belief and that was the beginning of the end.
For the ending, since we got an open ending and Ling Xiao was still barely alive when Wan’er found him, I’m going to choose to believe that he lived and he found the cure to his poison and they lived happily ever after.
All in all, it was a good show but just be warned that you might be frustrated for a good portion of the show. I wouldn’t rewatch the whole show but I would watch the happy scenes between the leads again.

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A LOT OF THINGS WAS BEAUTIFUL BUT A LOT OF BULLSH*TS TOO

The beginning was laborious and toxic but the acting, chemistry, the visuals and music caught up with a lot of things... YOUKU had to fall back into his old demons, their secret pleasure I named: THE SAD ENDINGS. They really have to stop being so melodramatic... especially when it doesn't make sense , die for free!

I loved the characters who are beginner actors and who were really convincing in their roles but unfortunately too many unnecessary misunderstandings.... Unexplained things without really meaning... a disastrous end that they want to promote "beautiful" but in fact it's shit...

I am generally disappointed because I was very addicted to this drama for a few weeks!

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