Nam Gonzales
PLOT:
The chemistry and lines in the first 4 or 6 episodes where ok and you could feel the typical push pull romance between the leads. But by the middle episodes (9-16) the story got too carried away with the demon lore, time traveling, possessions, etc that it failed to further establish the love story of Bai Xiao and Xie Kuai.
What also left a bad taste in my mouth was that most of the romantic scenes that could have allowed the viewers to feel the growing relationship between the leads was delivered through flashbacks AFTER their “accidental” kiss which happens in ep 18+ in a 24 episode series. Because of this you can’t really feel the genuine happiness you get when the leads finally get together in the end because the sweetness just came too late.
I probably might be biased after seeing The Eternal Love and Love Better than Immortality, but the romance here is clearly your teen high school bopper romance type. You would’ve thought it would have been slight more mature since you have a 1000 year old fox demon. At the most I was expecting the same intensity as in Novoland 2 (18 y.o. empress and 1000 y.o. magician), but we only got 1 kiss and barely a hug and no direct confession.
ACTING:
I like the Lu Zhao Hua (Xia Kui) here better than her other drama (All I want for love is you) because her character here is more proactive and have more use other than being in love with the main lead. Fiction Guo (Bai Xiao) is also better here than in his other drama (Accidentally in Love) because he was able to show the complexity of the fox demon’s character (cold one minute, mischievous imp in another, jealous beast on the next).
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Best Script/Story among Zhao Lusi's Rom-com period ramas but not the best chemistry
I just finished TROTAR after 3 sitting. After watching almost all of Zhao Lusi's period rom-coms (Cinderella Chef, Oh My Emperor, Prodigy Healer, Love Better than Immortality, and TROTAR), I must say that what makes this drama so special is the great script. We must give credit where it is due - writer 南镇 / Nan Zhen (who also wrote the script for another nice time-traveling rom-com Unexpected 2018) really has a knack for writing stories that don't have repetitive plot devices and competent FL & ML. If I were to rate Zhao Lusi's drama based on Female Lead likability, Male Lead likability, Chemistry, and Script:Zhao Lusi's Female Lead competence and overall likability:
Oh My Emperor (Fei fei) > TROTAR (QianQian) > Love Better than Immortality (Chun Hua) > Prodigy Healer (Yun Shang) > Cinderella Chef (Yiyi)
** Fei fei is the most purpose driven heroine (saving a whole world not only a city) while Yiyi is the most useless, sad courtesan/entertainer
Male Lead competence and overall charisma:
Love Better than Immortality (Qiu Yue Gege) > TROTAR (Han Shuo) > Oh My Emperor (Tang yi) > Prodigy Healer (Xing Chen) > Cinderella Chef (Chun Yu)
***Qiu Yue is the most enigmatic male lead of any of Zhao Lusi's period character. They tried to create a connection with Chun Yu but it was so bland
Chemistry on and off screen:
Love Better than Immortality (Li Hongyi) > TROTAR (Ryan Ding)/ Prodigy Healer (Li Hongyi) > Oh My Emperor(Jason Koo) > Cinderella Chef (Bie Thassapak Hsu)
Script - how the story evolved, how the characters were written:
1. TROTAR (Nan Zhen)
2. Oh My Emperor (Yu Hai Xia/Yin Hang)
3. Love Better than Immortality (Shu Ke)
4.5. Prodigy Healer (Fang Mo Qi/ Yu Ying Nan/Zhang Jie /Xue Hui)
4.5. Cinderella Chef (Lin Wei Rui/Yang Zhi Li/Yu Ge/Liu Yuan Yu/Qiu Jun Jie) - ***Zhao Lusi was a supporting character here
***TROTAR story was the least draggy while Prodigy healer has the fewest romantic scenes between FL and ML and the most irritating 2nd FL.
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Lovely Swords Girl is a drama made of new actors/actresses that delivered fresh, and ok acting. It also helped that the OTP is highly unusual and that a lot of the male casts are good looking. Through the 28eps I can say that the writer and director had the right pacing and made interesting storylines to flesh out our main and side characters.
Pros:
- character backstories for main and side characters is solid A. You can really understand the characters well from the main leads, to the parental characters, villain, etc. Even the 1/2 character of the male lead is so well developed that when he was “lost” I cried buckets for him.
- good chemistry between the young casts as friends and lovers. Even the bromance is well developed
- lighthearted/wacky mood at the start that might turn you off at first but as the story goes you’ll see that the Series becomes more dramatic
Cons
- very basic conflict - since the drama invested more on the characters, the conflict with the villain is very simple and straight forward. But then again you also have that other overarching conflict about what love is so I guess it balanced it out.
- Setting - maybe Also due to the limited budget, the characters and story just move from almost just 5 general locations throughout the drama
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