Story – 9/10
Acting/Cast - 9.5/10
Music – 8/10
Rewatch Value – 7.5/10
We have seen 18 episodes of this drama with 18 more episodes to go. Thought would give nice little half-time score to give bit of insights of how I feel this drama has developed using ‘Mydramlist’ scorecard….
‘Music’ 8/10 – I enjoy the opening OST plus some of the other tracks, that’s about it, wont go to deep into this rating.
‘Rewatch Value’ 7.5/10 – I don’t really re-watch too many dramas but I think so far nice story, I have re-watched few episodes! I wont go too deep into this rating
‘Story’ I give 9/10 – Well the Plot has been entertaining, the writers & producers & cast we can see are truly in sync in the way this story needs to be executed. We can see each episode how the story continues to evolve from the comedic initial stages to now the more serious emotional stages of the story! From my observations the plot is clearly centred around telling the story of the Main Leads & little revolving around the support casts side stories, is this necessarily a bad thing? I say NO!
Without reviling too much about the plot, we can see how much the Wang Hedi character ‘Moon Leader’ develops to more emotional character, his layers of coldness continue to decrease as each episode goes on, the plot is showing us more about his deep troubled roots & how it connects with Esther Yu character the ‘Orchard Fairy’ for is sweet fun character. The drama is paced very well, we can continue to see more character progression, story progression and also more support characters attaching themselves to the plot. One last key point I will make regarding why this gets a 9/10 is because the story is very simple and easy for the audience to understand, the producers/writers have not tried to overcomplicate this story. Too many great Wuxia dramas I have watched this year have been ruined by over-complicated plots!
‘Acting’ I give 9.5/10 – Seriously what can we say? Wang Hedi & Esther Yu have shown us to be a power pairing in C-Drama land! These 2 are perfect together from what I have seen and not just talking this drama, I have seen interviews & live performances and can see just how unique these 2 are. I encourage you to watch ‘Hello Saturday’ live performance from these 2.
The acting we can see just goes from strength to strength from the leads, just as sync these 2 are when they are dancing, they are just in sync when acting. They are both funny when the moment requires & truly brilliant in the emotional scenes. I have seen many Wang Hedi & Esther Yu dramas but I just feel both are at their best and simply because they are paired together. The Support Cast look, little revolves around them in the plot however as the plot/story has progressed, they have engaged themselves more. They are not trying to steal the spotlight, they are being the supports they are required. Charles Lin & Jieli characters doing very well….
Extension on the ‘Acting’…. Wang Hedi & Esther really need to have their agencies work towards another project, seriously with the reception & performances I can see many producers presenting many fantastic scripts to them. I want to be honest & I hope I don’t push the wrong buttons however:
- Esther Yu has upcoming projects paired with Lin Yi & Xu Kai, neither of those guys excite me! This is my opinion only. Esther is full of energy but I feel just watching some Xu Kai & Lin Yi performances is they suck the energy out of many dramas! I just want Esther to get more roles with guys with bit more charismatic nature similar to Wang Hedi. We can see how brilliant Esther can be however needs to be with someone that can mirror that brilliance!
- Wang Hedi, I keep saying it that he carried ‘Meteor Garden’…. Without him that drama would have been a trainwreck. I keep seeing ‘Dyshen’ requests for a new drama however I think Shen Yue is too ‘up & down’ in her performances. Just like I feel similar for Esther Yu and some guys she is pairing with in future dramas I feel the same with the idea of Wang Hedi & Shen Yue doing another drama together. Shen Yue & Wang Hedi did a live duo on ‘Hello Saturday’ the same week Wang Hedi & Esther Yu did their performance & the difference between Esther & Shen Yue is not even close. Shen Yue i just feel her skill sets are much more limited to that of Esther when comes to acting & live performances.
- I think Shen Yue, Lin Yi, Xu Kai all very entertaining in their own way and have delivered good performances however I feel the level that they are at is below that of Esther & Wang Hedi. I am confident if both Wang Hedi & Esther get given another project, they will deliver more brilliance again!
