I am writing from Bucharest, Romania, a country which had its share of communist experience, hence my take on this movie is heavily influenced by it.
So, I believe this is another PCC request to which the movie industry had to abide, this time illustrating the PCC policy regarding the integration of the rural population into the cities, Shanghari to be exact.
As in other movies set in the present times that I watched with great pleasure, the writer and the director do a stellar job with getting past cernsorship ideas I could not believe were possible to air.
Yes, the main protagonists are two female characters: one is the Shanghai born, financially succesful bitch, while the other is her sister in law, the good girl from outside the city, who married into this Shanghai family which exploits her work with no sign of thanks or recognition.
However, as the story progresses, not so are the two female protagonists who, in spite of their trials and tribulations, prove in the end to stay as they were in the beginning.
The real gem is that this movie adds layers and layers of parallel stories, illustrating the same idea: that marriage, be it fake or for real, works as a main vehicle for assending to the coveted status of Shanghainite, with one of the parallel stories taking a more dramatic turn, very much like in John Braine's "Room at the Top".
The real bummer are the last 30 minutes or so in the last episode, when the writer and the director team rush towards an ending which is counter to the whole previous development. But I take it, if that is the price to pay to go past censorship the previous hundreds of minutes of sheer brutal realism.
The acting of the Chinese actors is so good, at no matter what size of the role, that it aches. One feels like wanting to die and be reincarnated into one of them.
Very good are the male actors Feng Shao Feng and Zhang Song Wen, who, in their supporting roles could have fallen off the horse, but managed not to. The first had a very challanging linear and somewhat clinically depressed character, while the other was in charge with providing the comic relief.
To both of them, cudos, for walking on such a narrow path and yet providing rounded and powerful characters.

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Most underwhelming series, after The Story of Minglan

This one and The Story of Minglan, of 2018, have the same original author. However, what a huge difference screenwriters and directors make ... The Story of Minglan was a rich tapestry of characters and story lines that put that production in a class of its own. Superb! 'while this Love like the Galaxy, of 2022, was one is a pain to watch. Other than superb acting, everything was underwhelming. Soooo, so lacking. Sooo, so schematic that it was painful to watch the poor actors delivering so well on skinny characters which had nothing to deliver other than cheesy monologues; horibile sound track, with tunes which sounded like free downloads from the Internet, and the list can go on. I give a ten for perfect make up. And a 20, again, to the wonderful Chinese actos. But other than that: a pain to watch and see what botched job poor screenwriters and directors can do from work originally created by a very good writer.

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An absolute delight

This is such a beautifully crafted piece of cinema. It leaves you with the fuzzy warm feeling of touching your heart, after having done a lot of laughing and a bit of crying. It is a well balanced story, that leaves room for proper development to all characters. Like in all good Chinese films, there is no clear line between what a "main role" and a "support role" are. The whole cast moves the story forward like the fingers move forward into a whole hand to deliver the strike.
The only problem I could see was a technical one, and it had to do with the sound, which started to collapse in some parts, in the latter episodes. I hope that problem is easily fixable.
I came here, to see this title, lured by the names of actors Lui Lin, Yang Hao Yu and Chang Long.
They all held so called support roles in productions I have seen before, but delivered such outstanding performances, in similar outstanding surroundings of professionalism, that I could do nothing but stop by and see what they are at right now.
They did not dissapoint one bit.
Lui Lin was a stunner in "The Story of Minglan", of 2018, and "The Long Season", of 2023. Yang Hao Yu equally delivered to the hilt as in the "I will find you a better home", of 2020, while Chang Long balanced wisely comedy and drama in his character, as he did in the "New Life Begins", of 2022.
I highly recommend all of the above titles for you to see.
Cudos to all the people working for this beautiful production.

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Very underwhelming

I got here, at this series, because I followed the work of both leads in the 2018 production of the "Story of Yanxi Palace". That was a gem and a reference point to me, when it comes to Chinese dramas at their best.
This is why I was shocked to see the lack of chemistry between two actors who played being in love before, albeit a doomed love, in the "Story of Yanxi Palace".
Also, the lead actress did not really look like her former self not only in terms of acting, but also in terms of physical appearence. She did not look older, but different. And that was strange.
The story line sometimes feeled like in a stop and go movement, and overall I kept on going till the last episode just hoping that I will be proven wrong in all my negative assessments.
I was not.

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Lovely movie, of the fantasy genre, where the beast is she, the female/vixen/actual fox, and the beauty is he, that is well, just a man.
Lovely performance of Feng Shao Feng (who played the epic male role in “The Story of Minglan”, as well as the dramtic role in “Life is a long quiet river”). This actor is unafraid to show his skinny naked self if it is to go for comedic effect.
A joy to watch indeed.
Still, while laughing my head off I kept feeling a bit uneasy about the switcheroo of the sex of the main characters. I mean, really? A female who is a vixen, a fox? How lame is that? To fall on an ages old preconception, across all cultures, that is. However, I could not stay long concerning myself with women portraied in a stereotype manner. I was too busy laughing.
Cudos!

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Outstanding on all levels

Outstanding acting, and story and character development. There are no small roles in this series. The actors make them big. Really! Shocked to see that communist China is a place of cut throat competitiveness and survival of the fittest game. How did it get past censorship? The sweet tones, the humorous lines or characters cannot erase the brutal reality exposed: having a home in Shanghai is a big deal, sometimes unattainable, or attainable at the cost of trampling over other people's lives. Also intertwined with the personal history of the two protagonists is the question of being filial to the point of being bullied by one's own family. Again: outstanding work and an eye opener for someone like me, living outside of the Chinese culture.

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Liu Wei is an actor out of this world

I am writing from Bucharest, Romania, a country which was communist until 1989. To my thus trained eyes, this movie is obviously answering to a PCC request to portray the policies aiming at the transformation of the countryside to the point of "errasing the differences from citylife".
However, in spite of that, the Chinese director and scriptwriter really knew how to deliver ...
It was sheer joy to watch such an intellectually rewarding script, with ample character development and plot turns, which provides a stark view into a vry brutal Chinese contemporary society.
The title role is played by Zhao Li Ying, who also had the female lead in “The Story of Minglan”.
She is good, outstanding are the supporting cast, but out of this world is Liu Wei, the 65 year old actor playing the local PCC leader.
I put Liu Wei in a chategory of his own, as stays Anthony Quinn, for instance.

The series starts with a bang, when at a wedding party in a village, the bride saves her sister from being raped with bashing the asailants head. The would be rapist was the son of the local PCC leader.
From there on, to the very end, it unfolds the uphill battle of the female protagonist with the family she married into, with the villagers, with the PCC local leaders. For a long time she is the underdog, and stays the underdog.
The last 30 minutes in the last episode rushes in the positive and politically acceptable outcome, but this fact cannot erase the rest of the episodes of sheer brutal realism.
Cudos for getting past the censorship such a movie!

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So well done, that it pains to watch

This drama it is so well done on all levels, the performance of all professionals it is so outstanding, that the end result for me was that I could take it in only in small doses. No binge watching for me. This is something to be savoured. But also something to be weary of: the subject matter is dark and its rendering touches one deeply. It reminded me my first watching of Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of "The Shining", with Jack Nicholson in the leading role. I was literally hiding behind the door frame and looked at the TV with one eye only, ready to take refuge behind the wall. I am a grown up now, no hiding behind walls for me. Just pretending to have chores to do, so that I can take in, in small doses, this beautifully crafted Chinese series. Also, among the great cast all around, it was great for me to recognize actress Liu Lin whom I first spotted in a support role in "The Story of Minglan" series, of 2018. There, she and many other so called support role actors, delivered to the hilt, to the point that there were more "main role" performances than the casting presumed to be.

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The strangest tale was that the love interest was dropped out down the line

I am at episode 13 and seriously considering to stop watching it. The first thing which draw my attention for being quite off was the fact that the love interest presented in the first five or six episodes was completely forgotten by writers, actors and directors in the next five episodes. Two young people, who were presumably in love with each other while events and people kept them appart, are as stiff as wood when events bring them together, sharing meals, rooms, adventures. No emotion, no furtive glanses, no pauses full of yearning. Nothing. It did not have to be lines, or hugs or kisses. But it had to be something there, that the actors and director could have put into it, if the writers completely forgot what they wrote in the beginning. Well, it was not. The only thing going for the series was the detective stories. And the fun the actor playing the older detective put into his character. Otherwise, no character development, overall, and the series walks the thin line which lies between skematic and bare naked and lacking.

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Too painful to watch

As always, I commend the great acting of all Chinese actors. No matter what I watch they never fail to deliver.
But this is the end of my praise.
I picked this title because of the director. I had watched his 2018 direction of "The Story of Minglan", and I was in awe: what a story, what great development of story line and characters, what drama upon drama and next to another drama. It was rich, rounded, shocking, enchanting and most of all entertaining, with actors that delivered to the tilt, turning even support roles in rich characters to remember. I re watched that series two times more, and it never failed to enchant me, though I knew or even more so since I knew the story.
And here I am at episode 9 of this "Serenade to Joy" and ready to quit it.
I have no words for how underwhelming this work is.
It took eight episodes to solve a so called conflict, which was not even fully developed or exploited as a conflict, between son, birth mother and foster mother. The dialogue was lame, the action was lame. No drive whatsoever.
And while I cherish the fact that people bother to provide us, outsiders, with English subtitles, I have to stand by one Chinese reviewer who protested for having the English subtitles covering the Chinese characters. It was a first for me too. All other Chinese dramas I watched had the two languages clearly visible separately.
I believe that our convenience, of being able to read in English, should not be won at the expense of the Chinese not being able to read in Chinese.
Regarding translation, I also have to point out that it was cumbersome, too pedanting in willing to transfer to English all of the subtleties of the Chinese dialogues. Translating for movies is different than translating for a book: one has to drop complexity of language and meaning to facilitate understanding. Soooo many times I had to stop the video and go back a few frames in order to read the many lines, in a not so fluent English. Sometimes even that action did not further my understanding of the translation.
Too bad. A lot of good people put a lot of good work into all of this, and yet the result is heartbreaking.

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