2ndLeadsBest
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Watched it for Dai Xu
Honestly I didn't think the story was all that compelling. The acting by the FL was mediocre at best or maybe it could've been ruined by the dubbed voice. Her love interest was boring as well although nothing was really solidified as it is not a romance drama. I strictly watched this for Dai Xu. He's acting is always on par with all his supporting roles I've seen him in. Again his character was the best and most interesting in this drama.The stories were ok, nothing too moving. You aren't really moved either way. The ending felt super rushed.
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Perfectly executed
I hardly watch any serious movies as I prefer rainbows & cupcakes kind of dramas to destress from the real world. However this movie is incredible I end up watching 3x and teared up all 3x!!!The acting left me speechless. You can feel their inner emotions with so little words.
It's a dark peace that shed light on the ever growing school bullying issue. Despite the gloomy reality for the leads from different worlds together they had hope still for better days.
The only character that annoyed the crap out of me was the female cop. Wow I just wanted to slap her character that is.
You'll have to to wait for after the credits to see more of the ending.
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It tried ....
This drama felt like it tried to be like "Go Ahead" feel with unconventional family raised by a dad. 4 kids (instead of 3) not from the same mom and the stories surrounds each one of them. As much as I love Dai Xu (#3) it was hard for me to watch this. The siblings didn't feel close starting off as they didn't bring the background right away. The dad was over bearing so hard to believe he raised the 4 kids to be all successful in different ways. He is literally in everyone's business small or big, completely suffocating.The older sister (I love this actress) held the fort down and most mature of all the kids. She's a great character but she started off hiding her divorce from the dad but the ex is such a great person makes viewers wonder oh why couldn't they work it out? And then the great reason reveal and it's like "you must be kidding me" doesn't even seem plausible with that kind of character building. Very puzzling....
The 3rd kids (love this actor!) lacked chemistry with his love interest as well so it was hard to be interested. I've been dying to see Dai Xu in better roles sadly it's not this.
Multiple level emotional disconnect with this drama especially mostly the dad's character. Hard to relate, hard to emphasize, hard to like anything relating to the script. Just watch Go Ahead for the world's greatest dad instead.
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Typical revenge drama but very enjoyable!
The recycled revenge drama script continues to be the trend. It's one of the better ones though at as the production quality is very nice. It gives off a darker vibe with vibrant colors. Make up / costume design especially unique. Lots more dark reds right down to the makeup & wardrobe of the ML. Compared to a similar drama like Story of Kunning Palace I think this drama did a better job in terms of storytelling, casting, & production. So even if the script is nothing new, and lots of unbelievable scenes, it's still a great watch!FL/ML pairing works nicely IMO. Both are equally mysterious and calculating. The acting's convincing especially the FL's crying scenes.
FL : I am not familiar with her prior works, but dancer background brings that special grace that non dancer background actors can't fake.
ML: I watched some of his prior works and he can act but in terms of characters, this character is the most interesting thus far
Slow romance:
Their encounters were not overly forced, and the development of the relationship is slowly brewing which I am enjoying. Ep 9 on the leads finally starts to have more interactions. The chemistry becomes more evident in ep 11!
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Leo Young is rocking this role!
Typically, I drop about 80% of short dramas, but I watched this one for the ML! I first saw Leo Young as a supporting role in Love Script in which he provided the comedic scenes. Haven't watched him since and it's a shame because he's got a unique face and a great physique to play any military/ general/badass gangster roles.For a short drama the script flows and the action sequences are quite good. The bad FL character is better than the good FL character in terms of acting. Both females are beautiful!
Then there's the Chubby security guard side kick who was a surprise fun watch.
Enjoyable watch!
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Perfect Detective Drama
I purposely watch this one slowly because I didn't want it to end. There aren't many ancient detective dramas so I consider this a niche drama. Great Bromance brewing slowly over series of events. Even minor characters are written so well that I didn't skip one minute.3 ML it was hard to determine who's the favorite. Wang Zhi by far was the most complex calculating. I could not believe he's just starting in his career as his facial expressions were so on point. Make it seemed like he acted all his life.
Tang Fan at times seems childish and annoying but also provided so many comical moments
Sui Zhou the manly loyal guard with his sexy accent (I rather hear this than some random dubbed voice) was the protector of all.
The 3 unlikely characters worked together to solve so many crimes. All the characters are interconnected in the end.
Supporting cast were all interesting - the doctor that loves Tang Fan's sister, Dong Er with her photographic memory, the funny noodle shop lady, Wu Yun the archer who end up staying. Too many to name.
The icing on top is all the food displays from cooking methods to explaining the symbolism dishes expressing the importance of love and family.
Lastly the fight scenes with Jacky Chan style displayed. This was just a perfect executed drama all around. I am going to miss this drama that's for sure!
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Stronger FL than most dramas
The story is strong, acting was decent by the cast. Fight choreography is above average with some really good stunts.Positive:
Interesting story with a STRONG start a solid 8 (but then it dropped)
FL is a strong FL that didn't turn stupid and weak mid way through like other dramas
Decent acting
Good supporting cast - I really liked the FL's guard, the tea house female & FL's double
Less than average # of overbearing characters with repetitive lines that you need to skip.
One on one fight scenes. These are rare when the actors can't pretend to fight at all but there were many enjoyable ones.
Not so Great:
NO chemistry between all 3 men with the FL. Chemistry with the FL = 0
FL wants to find the truth but always refuse to listen to other people for their side of the story, not very consistent w/ her smart character
She saves random people out of kindness yet she's not very nice to injured 2nd lead even after he took a knife for her. Again doesn't fit her character
Lagging after first 30 ep. lost direct after ep 40. Character twist didn't make a lot of sense
No humor relief, they tried w/ the little brother of the king's character but not much humor in this drama, not even subtle ones
This drama won't be like a Joy of life classic but the story had potential with enough mystery built in it initially. It wasn't just executed to the full potential.
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Watch with no volume is better
The 2024 worst drama character award goes to the FL's Mom. I never seen that bad of a character having THAT much screen time. So much screen time that it KILLED the drama.I wanted to watch Xu Kai with his real voice & lovely actress Yang Zi pairing. Instead, the drama focuses too much on the FL's mom's constant bickering, nagging, & F ups on pretty much everything in every episode. Clearly the director interpreted 80/20 as 80% crap / 20% good. The "best choice ever" is to drop this drama. I can enjoy the leads (maybe not together) but elsewhere.
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Good enough crime drama
I can't remember S1 anymore since it was so not memorable. S2 is an independent drama with all different characters.Nothing about this drama is amazing but if you enjoy crime dramas, this is a decent watch. The cases are standard, but I like the pacing, about 4 episodes per mini case while there is one big case. You won't grow emotionally attached to the characters or cases, but the characters are likeable enough. ML cop & ML's sister are both interesting characters as well as the mysterious informant Bai Zhe. The best scenes are the interaction between the ML's sister and the mysterious Bai Zhe. I wished they had more screen time.
Mini cases:
1. Not very strong, I would've dropped it if there weren't a bigger mystery with Bai Zhe.
2. Standard but better than the first one.
3. Case of the upcoming actress. I liked the twists in this one, so far the strongest mini case.
4. School case, straight forward
What's not so great:
Young female cop acts too naive to be a cop.
Unplausible super cop speed on saving people...
Not the greatest sets/stunts, prob low budget
Shaky hand camara shots, really doesn't work
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This review may contain spoilers
Perfect 10 then crash & fall into the typical dreaded C-Drama ending!
Will this drama be remembered as one of the best of 23 or Worst ending of 23?Up to Ep 18:
Legendary actress paired up with OST fan fav = Chemistry Explosion! Unlikely pairing magical to watch!
Granted going into this drama I was already a fan of both leads so my tolerance for possible drama plot holes may be higher.
Already what's working:
1. ML/FL Paring: You have ML Liu Yu Ning who may not be the best actor (but lots potential) has been a fan favorite for his personality and music talent. He is paired up with a veteran actress Liu Shi Shi, who pulls off the badass female assassin way better than idol actresses. She's beautiful & fierce and even though it's been ages since she's done a period costume drama, she still can do those fight scenes well. Together the chemistry is intense with the slow burn romance brewing. By ep 11 it will definitely hit those emotions.
2. Script/Storyline/Execution: The script flows very well with just the right amount of humor. Characters (including the important supporting characters) are multidimensional.
3. Strong supporting cast. The rescue princess group is very entertaining.
-Love seeing Alen Fang playing a flirtatious character rather than the typical serious prince. The character allowed him to showcase his range of acting skills. When he cried, it hit.
-Wang Yi Zhe, the doctor that delivers the one liner at the opportunist time is interesting as well.
-He Lan Dou: The naive princess with the MOST character growth in the drama. She's probably my favorite character.
-Chen You Wei: Such a cute character.
Kudos to the casting & acting!
4. Fight choreography. Superb for actors that are not professionally trained. Superb for Liu Shi Shi who's no longer in her prime. But yes, there's a lot of freeze shots ....
5. Lighting, make up is not crazy pasty makeup in overly dark lit settings.
6. OST - Amazing!
Cinematography is not amazing but good enough. I could use a little less comedic sound effects but all that is minor consider the quality of this drama.
30s episodes in, the drama went into a direction I was NOT hoping for. In too many C-dramas they just kill off all the characters and call it a day (probably they got tired of writing) I get it, much of the drama is about sacrificing for the greater good. When will script writers learn that there's a 1000 other ways to end the drama....
Even though ending sucked to me I still think it's an exceptional drama and worth rewatching until the leads got together.
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Whole story is just silly
An all girl clan vs an all boy clan where they can never get married due to some ancient hatred and I know you are thinking oh wait how do they get new members?By ep 9 villain female comes out trying to kill 2 clan heads (who are in love and decided to leave the clan to get married). Both clan present and just watched!
And then you are thinking oh can't they all just tell her the truth before fight started? I mean there was a lot of dialogue already.
Can't both clan just gang up on ONE single female villain and call it?
This kind of story writing is painful to watch.....
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FL is TERRIBLE
I've seen the FL as a supporting actress, one just stand there w/o words looking beautiful which she passed with flying colors. Now as the FL her overacting face is unbearable even for a fluffy romance drama. Despite enjoying this genre I couldn't continue watching because of her. Her character is equally unbearable. She's like a 5 year old that constantly makes dumb decisions.It's a shame because the ML is decent. Seen him in Hello Mr. Gu. the supporting cast had some good actors. Literally only the FL killed the whole drama.
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Rewatch preparing for S2 EPIC Script!
One of my all-time favorite dramas. This is the best script ever!Everything is absolutely perfect except the lighting. There's a lot of olive tunes to the drama making the actors look not as pretty which is incredible because there are a ton of beautiful actors in here.
For those people that may not like this drama for whatever reason, may missed all the essence of Chinese language word play. There's so much comedy but all lost in translation. Even the names are clever. Sadly, I can only understand 80% of it. I so wish I can read the actual book but since I can't, the drama itself is perfect.
Some Fun Word plays:
Fan Jian - Fan Xian's Dad's name actually sounds like "being bitchy"
Chen Ping Ping - A very girly name for the master schemer
Nei Ku - Treasury sounds exactly like underwear
There are countless of these.
Unique on every level.
1. Political scheming isn't all that interesting to me but it's part of every costume drama you can't avoid. However, it is interesting here because all the characters are all multi-dimensional.
2. Characters. You can't find any weakness here. Well written characters along with perfect casting.
Mini Fan Xian - I could've used extra episode of him. He's so cute and expressive.
Fan Xian - Everybody loves Fan Xian. I am 100% biased here because the actor has been one of all-time favorites.
Wang Qi Nian - The side kick endless funny punch line delivery guy
Teng Zi Jing - The assassin in the beginning that formed such strong bromance
Fan Si Zhe - Did not know the actor is actually a standup comedian but I can see why
I literally loved almost every character big or small. Shows how brilliant the script writer is.
3. Level of literacy
There's a scene of Fan Xian reciting all the famous poems. (no I never got to that level in my Chinese) but it's amazing the actor reciting all those poems in one breath. People with high Chinese literacy will surely appreciate this.
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Against all odds! GOAT of esports dramas!
Years later this is STILL The best esports drama & I am not even into esports!But to fully enjoy the drama, you'll need to:
1. Don't think too much into the plot holes with the time travel.
2. Don't think too much with the "sensationalism" of against all commonsense healing process. It's "insta recovery" to make the drama continue.
3. Rushed dramatic development of Xiao Bei's team. Too quick to conflict & too quick to resolve.
GOAT:
1. Casting. The actors all did a great job. You'll definitely feel the rollercoaster of emotions.
2. Greatest characters. Very few dramas have this number of enjoyable characters. Even supporting characters are given plenty of personality. There are NO filler moments with uninteresting conversations or extra characters.
3. Plenty of Humor and it's mixed with subtle, sarcastic & OTP kind. There are multiple characters that provide so much humor. I can't count the # of times I laughed so hard. I can't list them all, but I find myself rewatching:
When An Lan first went into Video game world and Seven was trying to teach her
The crazy hospital when they went into rescue A Ming and found 24K
Seven went into the game to apologize to DW
S+1 's a million cosplay outfits and they were the best!
Hair guy waking up in the hospital's dialogue.
4. Story/script. Great story telling with magic editing. I love how the gamers becomes the actual characters in the game.
5. Friendships/Bromance/Love interest. All the relationships are quite beautiful.
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Unexpectly cute HS drama
Pretty cute HS drama w/o excessive cringe scenes & bad characters. Easily binge through 24 ep.Positives:
1. Super cute cast especially the ML , FL and FL's bestie.
2. 5 friends ALL have very different and good personalities.
3. Positive teachers? What? in a C-Drama?
4. Minimal negative characters & lines although the ML's mom's scenes I still needed to skip that.
5. Chemistry: ML & FL personalities compliment each other very well.
6. Dialogue: Plenty of funny lines
7. Enough substance: coming of age experiences for character growth.
8. Natural sounding voices & natural makeup. Simplicity is key
Not so Great:
FL's character is still semi cringe. This does fall into the drama trope of academically challenged Female (at least she excels in English) that talks 10 years younger & always need to be saved.
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