Great History-Based Drama

I really like this drama although I wasn't impressed on first episode. This drama give choices to viewers to choose different point of view about what is the most important in life: family or country. Ideally, this should be happy ending. But it was written in history that the reality is not always as good as we wish to.

The story tell about 3 sisters which had very good relationship, who had to accept their destiny to marry ruler's descendants.
Unfortunately, each of their husbands hold a grudge against each other, involved in power struggle, and consequently faced death penalty. Their husband's death made these 3 sisters hate each other, ignoring their promise to their father before his death to have sisterhood trust forever. The ending of their relationship is quite a tragedy. Again, this is a historical based, so you couldn't expect different story.

I like all of the actors/actresses, their are excellent portraying their role. But there are few details that bother me.
1. Han Derang know Xiao Siwen's daughters since childhood. But when he met Yan Yan at the first time, why they don't know each other?
2. Han Derang's mother has already arranged her son to Li Si. And Li Si is her favorite prospective daughter-in-law. Why did she suddenly turn around to support Han Derang's marriage with Yan Yan?
At this point, I feel sorry to Li Si.

The following plot is most about politics, intrigue, and how Mingyi, Yan Yan, and Han Derang solved the problems.

What I like from this drama is there is a loyal person like Han Derang. Even though his love (Yan Yan) was stolen, but he remain faithful for life, both to Mingyi and Yan Yan. For me, this drama succeed to play audience's emotion. Hate, love, passion, anxious. Everything is mixed with a musical composition that is just right to arouse emotions.

All lead males and females get my two thumbs up. Also for supporting roles. As Meng Zi Yi fans, I little disappointed she only had small portion in this serial. But it is ok because her acting is good as expected. Perhaps someday I re-watch this serial but not in near future.

Read More

Good but not great

I like the Wen Ning's character in the serial. In this movie, it seems Wen Ning become more determined. It's not bad, but I miss previous Wen Ning's shy character. I was excited when Wen Ning become the main role of the movie. His skills also grew with "Nebula Chain" as his weapon, reminds me to Shun of Saint Seiya.

The story itself doesn't show complication like in the series. But for Wen Ning's fans (and Ah Yuan's), it is still worth to watch. The best part was the fighting scene at the end of the movie. The background music makes the scene look like a "Dynasty Warriors" game.

However, there's no noticeable character beside Wen Ning, Ah Yuan, and Xiao Yi. For me, the scenario is too hasty. If they can make some development, perhaps this movie would have better re-watch value.

Read More

Best version of the story of Huo Yuan Jia

Compared to the previous versions (which surely have a different storylines), Vincent Zhao's version of Heroes 2020 invites the audience to dive into Huo's family and his students.

This series presents a complete emotion-arousing scenario. There are stories of sadness, tragedy, anger, despair, but they are also balanced with stories of love, touching and happiness.

What's interesting about this series is that every single actor / actress manages to give a strong character to their respective roles.
Vincent Zhao made the character Huo Yuan Jia a true hero who was wise and humble, different from the character in the previous version who was too ambitious.
Two thumbs up for Nikita Mao Lin Lin's impressive acting. She managed to portray the ideal wife, who is not only beautiful but smart and devoted. Also with all the actors involved, both the main role, supporting roles, protagonists and antagonists.

I also like the soundtrack, helping to build up the emotions of the audience.

Read More

Decent story, not bad

I immediately liked the storyline from episode 1. But I didn't feel rollercoaster enough, because the story is tend to be a love story than a kingdom's tale.

I like the casts. Especially for the main roles, they are very excellent. But in this drama, there is no real villain, only some bad guys made some conspiracies.. But their tricks still can be anticipated by the main roles.

Another positive thing from this drama is I love the OST both opening and ending. No need additional score in movie. Just play these 2 songs, you will be touched.

Not bad for the story, but not perfect either. I would give 8,5 rating overall.

Read More

Not bad for first time watcher.

Well, I'm not too passionate about the romance in this drama. But I can't say this drama is bad either. I expected more fighting scenes and colossal wars than romance intrigue, which could still be improved on. Even though the cast tried their best, I felt that many scenarios didn't make sense so I couldn't enjoy their roles. The good news is, I was able to follow this drama to the end, so there are still many other good things that can be found in this drama.
My favorite cast, ironically, are the supporting cast, like Ah Li, Si Ming, and even Mi Gu. My favorite female character that I like is Yan Zhi.
The music soundtracks: I don't have any comments. Like so, so.. Not bad, but not special.
I've considered watching the spin off version. but maybe not anytime soon.

Read More

Worth Watching Series

At first, I don't really expect much from this series. I thought it will be a typical teen romance drama. I came to this serial because I just finished watching Heroes (Fearless/ 2020). Considering some actors and actresses from Heroes also involved in this series (especially Nikita Mao Lin Lin and Ping Hui Tay) , I continued to watch. I'm glad the plot is not bad at all. I enjoyed where the story goes. Too bad there is no happy ending for all. Unfortunately some good guys had to die. The casts portrayed their role excellently. But I still rank Heroes (Fearless/ 2020) on the top.

Read More

Like this series from beginning to the end!

I think this is the best Meng Ziyi's drama I have ever watched. Yes, I am Meng Ziyi'z fans. I like every character she has played before, but I love Gao Yang more than the characters she has played in other titles.

This series provides a story that is easy to enjoy and also very inspiring, especially myself as a business enthusiast. What inspired this series is about the evolution of the characters involved. All of the characters are very well played.

Notable Cast:
Meng Ziyi is the best performer of the series. She is very natural. The sincere, cheerful, creative, and eager to learn character of Gao Yang is just like herself in real life. I love the process how Gao Yang is growing up. She always overcome every challenge she had with optimistic mind and right attitude.
Li Bing Hui is my second favorite. I like character of Wang Xiao Zai. He is a sincere person behind his haphazard words. He previously rude to Gao Yang, but later he become her best friend. And I enjoy their friendship relation, even more along with Ye Ming Lang.
Tiffany Lu Chen is really awesome. She can turn Ye Ming Lang from the antagonist to be Gao Yang's inner circle with Wang Xiao Zai. Ye Ming Lang was a masculine, cold, strict, and killer boss who didn't like Gao Yang at first. She often put Gao Yang and Xiao Zai's department in almost impossible tasks, but she is fair when they achieved the target. What amazed me is Ye Ming Lang could turn herself become more girly and cheerful, melted with the sincerity of Gao Yang, and later she is melted to Wang Xiao Zai as well, to become his lover.
Even though Yan Li is not my top-list favorite character, but Sunny Wang Yang Ming portrayed him excellently. He was cool, perfectionist, very detailed person, and kind of rigid, but later he can turn himself to be more caring and lively person.
On the contrary, Li Ming Che was a warm, nice, and gentle guy, especially to woman. But in the end he cares more about his personal interests. Li Sen portrayed him well.
Annie Chen Ting Ni is my favorite support cast. Huang Yan Nan is clearly like Yan Li, but she is always treated Gao Yang properly. Such a professional manner!

Music:
I like soundtrack both opening and ending. I give two thumbs up for background music score. They are really helpful to build mood. I get deep feeling about all optimistic, comedy, romance, and touching moments from listening to the music score. Great job.

Read More

Weird Ending

For non-novel readers, it is hard to not to compare between season 1 and season 2 casts. Especially for main roles. Even though Dylan Wan (season 2) performed well, I bet people will hard to move on from Arthur Chen (season 1) before accepting Dylan Wang. I myself need 20 episodes to familiarize Dylan as Ning Que.

I didn't feel any chemical romance between Ning Que and Sang Sang in season 2. Including romance involving Mo Shan Shan and Ye Hong Yu. Don't get me wrong, Dylan is a great actor. But he is in the shadow of Arthur. Life after Sang Sang, Dylan just get away from comparison with Arthur. I like Dylan's Ning Que as the protector of Tang. He is so Ning Que. But for romance matter, I still cannot move on from Arthur.

This is my opinion for the other new casts:

Ye Hong Yu: I like Meng Ziyi in season 1. She is beautiful. I like moment between her and Ning Que at the cave and lake. But in other hand, is too soft for a warrior. In season 2, Liu Yi Jun also fine actress.. She has a sharp gaze. Perfect for Ye Hong Yu as female warrior, but I didn't find any feeling between her and Ning Que.

Emperor of Tang, Li Zhongyi: I like both actors from season 1 (Lai Leon) and 2 (Bao Jian Feng). They are great in their ways. They are very lively. They surely give different characters as the Emperor, but I like those versions.

Empress of Tang, Xia Tian: I thought Kira Shi (season 1) is the perfect cast for this role. But after watch some episodes, I think Lian Lian (season 2) is also great cast.

Princess of Tang, Li Yu: Tong Yao (season 1) did well for portraying Princess as a devoted daughter and as a caring sister to her brother. Ni Yan (season 2) also did well portraying Princess as a leader of the empire when the Emperor is not available.

Archduke of Tang, Lei Peiyan: in the season 1, I feel Su Ke as very shifty and dangerous person. But at season 2, Zong Feng Yan didn't have much opportunity to develop the character because of the script. Actually, I wonder why Lei Peiyan still appears on season 2 because his royal status has been revoked in season 1.

Mou You (7th sister): I guess in season 2, the 7th sister didn't has significant role as the season 1 did. So I can't make further comment about Jade Lin's performance. I like 7th Rong Zi Xi in season 1.

Lu Chen Jia (Flower Maniac): Yi Lin Huang (season 1) is too soft as being a female warrior. But it understandable because the story mainly tell abut her relationship with Long Qing. Meanwhile in season 2, I think Wang Hui Zhen is fit enough to play as stronger Lu Chen Jia.

My favorite characters in season 2 are the Academy students (especially, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 12th), and Mo Shan Shan. Sorry Sang Sang, because of the story, you are out of the list.

Read More

Drama dengan Alur Cerita Terbaik

Imperial Coroner tidak seperti serial drama lainnya yang melulu tentang percintaan. Saya langsung suka dengan jalan ceritanya sejak episode 1. Serial ini sarat dengan pengetahuan. Mengenai forensik, konspirasi, strategi politik, relasi keluarga. Kisah percintaan di serial ini disajikan melalui porsi yang proporsional. Salut dengan pembuat yang membuat jalan ceritanya sukar ditebak hingga berhasil membuat penonton penasaran hingga episode terakhir.
Meskipun tidak menyuguhkan adegan kungfu yang berlebihan, cerita tetap menarik dengan memberikan keunggulan analisa dari para tokoh utama.
Luar Biasa.

Read More

The story is too good too be true

A careless, arrogant, and lazy young man heir to the throne of his father's company was initially conditioned to fight from below. On his way, his father was thrown from his position as chairman of the company which resulted in the young man not having the support of the company in building his business project.
Luckily he has friends who are loyal and sincere to help him face all the difficulties and problems so that he can transform into a more mature and responsible person.
This series has a moral message that sincerity can break malice.

Broadly speaking, this story is somewhat similar to The Negotiator, or Rebirth of Shopping Addict which tells the story of a young person who is born rich who can only enjoy life but then his/her father has problems with his wealth, which forces him /her to strive to be someone who is useful.

The story is light and easy to follow. It's just that sometimes it's too predictable. I told you, when there are problems, they will solved smoothly. There are always happy endings after the messes.

The romance between Zhen Zhen and Jing Ran is very pleasant, it's just that the mismatch of vision causes their relationship to end. It is unfortunate. On the other hand, I am among those who support Zhen Zhen and Peng Cheng's friendship, but not for their love story. I think it is very predictable. Zhen Zhen, however, was better suited to be an older sister than to be Peng Cheng's girlfriend.

Anyway, I like the acting of the casts, both main characters and supporting characters. They are very natural.
Regarding OST, the songs were suitable, but there were too few songs to be featured. Looks like it only prepared a few songs for this series. The opening song itself is even instrumental music. But the music score is satisfying.

Read More

Very worthy drama to watch

At first episode, I really have no clue at all. It seemed I cannot enjoy the story because it was confusing. Still, I re-watch episode 1, considering this drama gain high scores from most review platforms. Still didn't have strong feeling. I continued to episode 2, and starting get the idea. Episode 3 and so on, I really get myself into this series.

I read the review from original novel, which is originally contains boy loving story. But in the series, adjusted to friendship. I really can say this is a brilliant idea, so most audience can enjoy the story without controversial issues, and passed from censorship as well.

I love the actors/actresses portrayed their roles. Especially Wei Wuxian, reminds me Jiang Xiao Yu of Handsome Siblings (I watched Handsome Siblings first, before The Untamed) who has resourceful, cheerful, and talented character.

Again, I'm falling in love with Meng ZiYi. She really got into the role. One of the reason I watch The Untamed is because of her. She really did it in Legend of Two Sisters in Chaos.

Love the music, either opening, ending, and music score. This series treated music skill specially. The music score made the scenes even more emotional.

Now I plan to watch The Untamed Special Edition.

Read More

Unpleasant ending

I put high expectation from the first episode. I guessed the story will have a roller coaster emotion, but I only found a few moments.
The story line is quite ordinary, but I still can continue watching. I starting got excited at the episode 29!! But dropped down at the last 2 episodes.

Pros:
- The idea when Ding Ning is Liang Jing Meng's heir
- My favorite protagonist side: Ye Ce Leng, and Xie Changsheng
- My favorite antagonist side: Liang Lian and Yuan Zihan

Cons:
- In fact, Ding Ning is Liang Jing Meng himself
- Even the main roles are not portrayed as strong characters
- OST and music scores are not helpful to build the audience's emotions

I don't think I'm gonna re-watch this series in the near future.

Read More

Decent version of LoCH

I like the Guo Jing's character. Straightforward, innocent, and sincere. William Yang Xu Wen portrayed him so well. I like Li Yi Tong's acting too. She is so lovely as Huang Rong. The reason I stopped by to watch this series actually because of Ping Hui Tay. I like every his characters he played. Sha Lang in Heroes (Fearless), Yan Nan Tian (Handsome Siblings) and finally I watched him as Temujin recently.

Some minor issues are: 1) visual effects is still not clean enough in few episodes. 2) the Old Beggar's (Hong Qi Gong) make up is not old enough (he still have flawless skin, compare to Ke Zhen E (Guo Jing's grand shifu). 3). Somehow I didn't get the feeling in touching moments. Maybe because the story is often jumping from one scene to another.

Overall, it's nice to watch Legend of Condor Heroes in different version (although the main story is the same, but I find new angles of view in many details).

Read More

Good but not exceptional

To be honest, I came to this drama is only for Nikita Mao. I didn't get any spectacular thing of this series on early episodes. I just continued watching with boring mood, until episode 19 till the end. If I can rate, episode 1-18 is 6. And maybe from 19 and the rest I can give either 7 to 8,5. What is meaningful I found from this series is about family and friendship. As firstly thought, the last episode shows happy ending for most audience.

At the beginning, I don't like Xiao Fei's act, But later, he proved me wrong. I can say all of the casts portrayed their role well, though not very special. The notable characters beside Xiao Fei are Tong Wei (of course, she is main role), Shan Shan (played my favorite actress :D), Tian Tian, and Bi Chen.

I like both opening and ending music, but I didn't get emotion with the score music. Not bad, but just not touchy.

Read More

Very good story, very good OST

I came up to Ever Night because of Meng Ziyi. I had to wait for many episodes until her first scene.
She played very well, as always. But in my opinion, she's also more suitable played as Empress of Tang, or the 3rd sister.

The characters I likes are:
I like Arthur Chen's acting, he is fit enough to play as Ning Que. Young, good looking, has a sharp look.
I love Song Yiren playing as Sang Sang. She is soo cute portraying Ning Que's servant. She is very lively, agile, cheerful, but also can be a shy person at some moments. I guess she is the most notable star in this series.
The one I also like most is Chen PiPi. He's very funny at silly enough at the same time. I enjoyed moments he is teasing each other with Ning Que.

For the story, I expect nothing, just follow the scenario. There is an unpleasant plot why Ning Que choose Sang Sang as woman to marry, not Mo Shan Shan. But somehow it is tolerable considering the reasons.

I have to give credit for soundtrack and music score. Jazzy song from The Old Chang' An is the best choice for this series to give another level of mood to enjoy. The other songs and music score is also very excellent to make the scenes more emotional.

Read More