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Moon River taiwanese drama review
Completed
Moon River
0 people found this review helpful
by AbztractIsight
Mar 26, 2023
30 of 30 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 5.0
Story 5.0
Acting/Cast 5.5
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 4.0

Cute Rom-Com with pacing issues

LIKE:
The martial arts used in the drama and the fight scenes were good too, (even when the special effects were added).
Locations, scenery, sets for indoor scenes, all good.
Music was okay and didn’t over power actor/actress voices.
Beginning 15 episodes were good and caught my interest. Nice to see focus be on FL, but then it became all about ML, as per the usual formula.
Wardrobe of ML was good and for other characters too, except the FL they tried too hard to make her quirky.
Acting: for what they were given, all actors/actresses did well. I liked the range of emotion the ML (Sam Lin as Mu Liu Bing) was able to express.

DISLIKE:
Writing:
Typical cliches and tropes, very similar concept to Heirs and Boys Over Flowers. As usual we have 3 rich girl bullies with one dominant one that is possessive of ML, scheming/greedy adults that interfere with the ML & FL, social class discrimination (aka classism) dominant theme throughout the show. Show started with a strong FL, then she was made into a crying mess, but at least ended relatively okay.
Directing:
Pacing issues; lagged in middle and rushed ending. Too much time spent on unimportant scenes or extra delayed reactions. Not much “romance” established to secure the chemistry between FL & ML, very few kisses, lots of hugging.
Production:
Some shaky camera moments and zooming in too close. Noticeable editing where scene abruptly cuts to another.
FX: bruises and fist fight scrapes were not well done in the makeup department.

OVERALL:
It was a little long and could definitely have used the extra episodes better. For someone starting out in the Young Rom-Com martial arts drama genre, it’s a good introductory show. No super memorable moments that make me want to rewatch it or search for video clips online. I won’t rewatch it.
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