Abby Ong
A must watch!
Some may call this a feminist drama, however the storyline and the acting makes this a MUST watch drama.The flow and the narrative touches our lives in every way. The storyline also relates to many of us.
The 3 main leads are characters we can somehow identify with people we know. Their challenges in life may be common and they are portrayed very well. A few rightly placed comical moments provide a relief in a serious situation. Standby your box of tissues though.
In conclusion, we live on decisions we made and are responsible for our own action.
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This review may contain spoilers
Excellent performances by Li Yi Tong and Gina Jin
I admit that I started watching this series because of "Hikaru no Go". Wanted to see the characters cross-over in this drama. However, it got me hooked from episode 3 onwards.Both female leads were excellent in their roles and the chemistry on screen was amazing. It brought back very fond memories of my own best friend adventures and stories.
The character script for the 2 main leads were well thought:
The character of Lu Ke seems faultless and was shown her weakness in losing her own identity with her 1st boyfriend.
In contrast, the character of Si Yi, aggressive and domineering, yet we saw her vulnerability when it comes to falling in love.
However, the characters for some of the supporting roles were sort of "obsolete" or were given too much air time. Like the role of Guan Yue (too much air time) and Chris (obsolete). Instead, I was hoping that they would develop and give more air time for the interaction between Shi Guang and Yao Yuan. After all, this encounter gave Shi Guang the closure he was seeking.
Thank you for the happy ending for each of these characters.
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Started well, ending a flop.
Ending was a flop. What started out well, towards the end from episode 20 onwards the storyline gets disconnected and had a silly ending.It started with an interesting script and storyboard. The FL provided the humour with her antics. BL is heavy in this drama. They tried to lighten it with a romance between ML and FL but failed terribly.
Midway, it got tense and the intricacies of the plot somehow made it less watchable.
Quite disappointed that the ending couldn't be more tight and better explained. Possibly due to different scriptwriters or they just didn't know how to end the story which seems heavy on BL.
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A disappointment
This is just my personal opinion. I was truly disappointed by this movie which had such prominent cast.The storyline was weak and boring. The fight scenes were absurd and noisy. I literally fell asleep mid-way before Diao Chan made her entrance.
With such a star-studded cast, perhaps my expectations were high. Tony Yang (as Liu Bei) performance was weak. The actor(forgotten) for Guan Yu couldn't depict and portray his character. A little saving grace was Wang Kai(as Cao Cao) who brought the human side of his character.
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Ridicule the medical profession
This is my personal view of this drama.The only characters that I found worth watching were the child, 2nd ML and 2nd FL.
Unfortunately, the scriptwriter ridicule the FL's medical profession. If the character is a doctor by profession and a child psychologist on top of that, will she be clumsy (tripping over herself many times); messy (leaving her worn socks at every corner in the house); has a cluster bedroom filled with soft toys (worse than a kid's room)?? And being a psychologist, would you so easily break up your relationship with your love over what an auntie said? Doesn't that reflects how shallow your love is with that kind of behavior?
The interaction between the ML and FL was also awkward despite after professing their love to each other. Guess there wasn't any onscreen chemistry between these 2 actors.
The storyline development of the 2nd leads were more interesting and convincing.
Overall, bad scriptwriting, ridiculous character creation and weak storyline.
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The better "Mulan"
After being disappointed by Disney's live action"Mulan", I started searching for other Mulan movies and came across this one. And I wasn't disappointed.For starters, the costumes and scenes were more historically accurate. The script was well written and gave depth to the characters. This also gave the actors the ability to let their acting skills shine. The starting massacre scene gave the story its backdrop of situation the city faced.
The choice of using relatively unknown actor and actress to play Li Liang and Hua Mulan was good casting.
Overall, this movie is worth a 2nd watch.
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Beautifully done!
From the production, to the storyline and actors performance, I personally would classify this a classic and definitely worth rewatching.The costumes and backdrop are well researched and beautiful. The chemistry between the ML and FL is amazing. Peng XiaoRan gave a stellar performance as the FL. Chen XingXu may be a newbie at that time but his performance was just as good. The 2 veteran actors (FL grandfather & father-in-law) as supporting actors gave great performance as well.
Don't miss this drama - it will make you smile, laugh, frown, sad and maybe even shed a tear or two ?
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Binge worthy!
I stumbled upon this drama and binged watch it last week. Surprisingly, I enjoyed the storyline of this drama. The plot may sound familiar about "robin hood of the East" and equality. The actors are quite unknown to me but they were able to carry this drama pretty good.Guess sometimes it may be better to use not so famous actors so that watchers can be more objective in drama storyline and acting. Like successes of "Under the skin", "Reset", "Goodbye my princess", "Longest day in Chang'an", "The Legends", etc.
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Exciting and beautiful action
I binged watch this series as found it good in terms of story and visual effects. The action scenes especially the speed skating is well recorded. Whoever played the double on the action scenes deserves a pat on the back as well.The lead couple has also good chemistry and their romantic scenes are so natural. It is always good to see both ML and FL having strong and individual character strength and their romantic ties complement and motivates each other.
The last 2 episodes will get you to the edge of your seat.
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Storyline not smooth in later part of the series
What started out as a beautiful love story seemed to have fallen into the hands of an unprofessional editor that censored or rather chopped the story in the 2nd half of drama especially near the ending.This fact was confirmed when I checked the history of this show. What started out as a 45 episode drama was reduced and censored to 41. That's a lot of airtime deleted 4x40mins = 160 mins deleted.
No wonder there were many gaps in the storyline and it didn't flow as smoothly as the beginning episodes. What actually happened?
The ending shown in WeTV seems to be different from the short clips that were posted in YouTube. Is there a different version of this drama?
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Addictive series with good storyline and acting
What started out as a "filler" series to watch while waiting for new episodes of "my heroic husband", turned out to be an addictive series that I binged watch the whole 40 episodes over 3 days!Although the storyline may sound familiar but the plots, twists and turns made it worthwhile and will keep you wanting to watch more.
Worthy to also mention the whole team of actors (not only the FL/ML) were able to bring their characters alive and kept the momentum of this series. The talent of this younger generation of actors are definitely to watch out for especially Guan Xiao Tong and Hou Ming Hao.
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Unexpectedly good
The story starts with the wedding of ML and FL which tells us that it has a happy ending.Unexpectedly good. From the storyline, script and the acting of these young actors.
Worth checking this drama if you are looking for a beautiful love story watch.
The storyline is quite down to earth. It touches on youthful dreams, first love, working world ruthlessness, start up struggles, success and defeat.
Throughout ML&FL 6 years journey from high school, they faced lots of challenges- from family, friends and colleagues. But their love rises above these challenges to finally get where they are today...at their wedding.
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Characters seem out of place
Agree with some of the comments made earlier.While I enjoyed the OST and the production aspects, I did find some characters kinda "out if place" especially in the military concept.
Example the character of Gao Liang. His constant criticism and annoying nags thrown on Gu YiYe is not becoming of a soldier that should hv basic common respect for fellow comrade. Did the scriptwriter consider this fact? Furthermore, his insubordination and criticism about another fellow comrade to an outsider(to Ah Xiu), should have seen him expelled from the army but not in this show.
2ndly noticed that those in higher positions do not get warning letters or expelled or removed from making decisions. Instead, they just get transferred to other divisions still holding decision making roles and continue to make mistakes. Weird right?
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This review may contain spoilers
Cliffhanger Ending
Looks like the producer of this drama created this cliffhanger ending to tease the audience of a possible Dance of the Phoenix Part 2.Will Feng Wu(Meng Yuan) go back to her own world or will she live out her life as Feng Wu? Or perhaps finds out that she is the reincarnation of Feng Wu? Or perhaps meet a lookalike Jun LinYuan in her modern world?
Whatever the reason is, I found the ending too abrupt and definitely not good.
Would suggest they come up quickly with a short continuation series to put a better closure.
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Refreshing storyline
Being a fan of CSI TV show, I decided to give this drama a try, and what a gem of a drama this was!The narrative story is refreshing, running similar to CSI but an Asian version in ancient times!
The crime details and reenactment were carefully studied and scripted. The acting of the cast are also pretty good.
I hope the contents and pace keeps up till the end. Hopefully it doesn't suffer like most dramas where airtime fillers (non related to the story) occupy the mid section.
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