Cambear
It starts off full of energy as Ruyi marries into the palace. Then it sort of slow down to a more majestic pace. With 87 episodes, they don’t need to rush anything. They can take their time and set up some really complicated plots with payoffs.
While this is a romance at the heart of the story, it’s very subtle sometimes. Simmering, battered, suffering and dormant sometimes. It’s hard to cheer on a romance where the guy is constantly picking up new women and believing their evil schemes. Sigh.
So this is enjoyable, but way too indulgent for me. I started skipping around a bit since it could have been edited a bit.
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You know what’s going to happen to the characters since everything is telegraphed in the first half hour. It follows just about every cliche so you know that each early scene was a set-up to a predictable outcome.
This hits you on the head with the emotional scenes and, yes, the patriotic scenes. If this were an American Muppet movie, Sam the Eagle would pop up and say “at times like this, I’m proud to be an American” about a dozen times. Also, I haven’t seen so many grown men burst into tears this often, This is not a subtle movie.
The cast do what they can to ground this movie and there are some great (and not great) special effects. That’s as much upside as I can come up with.
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The story moves swiftly with only a few slow points. The overarching mystery plot helps to keep things moving.
The lead actress is quite capable, but her character is a total Mary Sue and sometimes I really wanted her to get angry or refuse to be such a doormat. The main lead male is another stone-faced character, but his range is so limited it feels like there’s a mannequin in lots of the scenes. Ugh! He really needed to add some subtle touches to make this character come alive. He/this character is my biggest disappointment about this series and it’s a big one.
The supporting cast and characters are all fine. The ending is a bit unsatisfactory since they leave it open for a sequel and something a bit ambiguous so the overall impact of this drama is less enjoyable. So some definite drawbacks to watch out for something that had the potential for more.
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Boyfriend calls you stupid? Fine.
You think the other is cheating on you? Fine.
The other person is in love with someone else. Fine. I’ll go after them anyway.
We’re supposed to root for the female lead when she tries to get into an established relationship the later we’re supposed to cheer for her again when someone is trying to break up her established relationship.
Yeah, this makes no sense,
The actors are capable, but the characters make no sense, There are a couple of cute moments, but really there are better shows out there.
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This is sort of like Buffy the Vampire Slayer without Buffy — it has the same premise of demons and gods living like humans and a similar humorous/scary tone. It sets up a lot of fun and stylish characters with clear motivations which sets up a great series.
Then...then we get to the love story which is short-changed. Things are assumed and not developed and then the writers didn’t know what to do in the second half of the series. The series starts to chase it’s tail and I lost interest.
Too bad since there was a lot to like, but it just didn’t follow through all the way.
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The other characters are fine, but this is a sober story and it’s not enough to compensate for a snoozy female lead.
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But as a movie, this doesn’t have time to develop any of the relationships or their conflicts so some of the changes seem right out of the blue.
Add to that a very exaggerated style from the director and this is not a great movie. It’s like the director said “Can I get someone to scream in this scene?” every 10 minute or so. Yep, this goest to huge extremes.
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Good stuff: Great chemistry between the leads. Interesting and fun secondary characters. Some good twists on those characters. Lovely cinematography and good OST.
Some stuff that wasn’t quite as strong:
The male lead character is a little too idealized — he’s super noble and naive and somehow that doesn’t hinder him at court. It’s a little odd and sometimes I had to roll my eyes.
Weiyoung is the subject of so many plot conspiracies, she has to free herself by playing detective. That’s fine the first couple of times (despite some laughable solutions), but it gets old by the last third of the series.
Despite those flaws, I was emotionally involved with their story so this series definitely does a lot of things right, but the large number of episodes always magnifies anything that’s not working.
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There isn’t a lot of joy so I’m not sure why it’s titled that way in English.
The idea that this is a modern man’s story adds a fresh perspective which is refreshing. Points to the music also being modern.
The first 2/3 are interesting and great, Then he goes on a mission and then a dozen new characters get dumped in without any real character development. The last 16 episodes then feel like any other palace intrigue drama with lots and lots of talk and then more and more talk. I wish they found a better way to keep this as fresh as the first part.
Also one plot twist was so freaking obvious that I felt the character was stupid for not seeing it.
Anyway, obviously there’s is a lot more story left since this ends on a cliffhanger.
Despite my drawbacks, I will be tuning in for the next season.
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it’s starts off okay and despite all the common tropes (rich boy/poor girl, cold boy/lively girl, chance encounter, evil ex’s, love triangle, etc...) it’s still effective.
And then the story continues and we get into ridiculous plots with evil characters who manage to still get away with things. The actors aren’t that interesting, but the script doesn’t do them any favors either so I don’t know who to flault.
But when a guy is apologizing for being too controlling, he could not give her earrings....with a GPS tracker. Come on!!! How is this an acceptable way to NOT control your girlfriend? UGH!
A stupid quibble — whoever is doing the hair on the men needs to find a new job. it’s not flattering and I feel the desperate need to send them all some conditioner since their hair looks painfully dry and brittle.
Anyway, skip it since there are better ways to spend your time.
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Interesting characters, great cast, terrific pacing and enough plot twists to keep the tension in this intense thriller. Although there are plenty of gory zombies, this is more a thriller than a horror movie. Think Speed crossed with The Walking Dead.
For all it’s plot, it never loses sight of the human factor which gives this thriller an added boost. They’ve announced an American re-make of this film and I can’t quite see where they want to “improve” on anything so enjoy the original.
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The story is similar to Moon Embracing the Sun -- they meet as kids, but life gets in the way. This story is more linear, but I wish it felt fresher.
As a man with no memory, Won Deuk is out of place, much like the main character in Secretary Kim. This time, instead of being hilariously vain and out of touch, he's rude and superficial so it's not as fun and a bit of a turnoff.
I am glad that the scheming, shrill ladies of the court was kept to a minimum. That's one trope that I am glad they skipped.
Overall, it's enjoyable, but doesn't quite reach top tier for me since it feels a bit familiar.
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Then the last episode and a half happens and it goes really weird. The cap the season with an explanation, but it made this super short season a little draggy since it was off topic and weird.
So aside from that strange tangent, it is a tight and focused extension of the original series with a bigger budget if the costumes are any indication. You do need to know the original series to enjoy this one since most of the plot is based on storylines from that. If you don’t remember every detail, they give enough detail to jog your memory.
Overall, enjoyable as just a little taste of a series, but that weird turn was just too weird.
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Kudos also for avoiding annoying secondary romantic couple that detract from the story. There are additional characters and plots added, but it’s mostly dealing with the political games so it makes more sense.
Yeah, a few plot points kind of go nowhere or get dropped for a bunch of episodes and then resurface later. Also, the network was clearly stretching for time with extended flashbacks which didn’t add to the plot. One other quibble, a few relationships needed more development. Given some of the hurdles, I didn’t quite buy that she would be so attached to a guy that’s verbally and physically abusive. UGH! I needed him to grovel a bit before they could move on.
But if you’re looking for a tragic romance, this has plenty of tragic and plenty of romance, It feels fresh since they aren’t going for obvious villains and the plot twists are so major it’s hard to understand how the leads can come back from that.
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What works:
Ariel Lin is adorable, charming, expressive and holds this show together without being cloy or annoying. Her character is smart and cunning and it’s refreshing that she’s not an ace martial artist. She has her strengths and her flaws.
Zhang Bin Bin is handsome and charismatic. It’s about time he finally got a starring role, but his character doesn’t have a ton of range. Still, there’s a ton of fun and humor between the FL and ML characters which makes this a lighter romantic drama.
The second arc gets boring, but at least it’s not fixed on a secondary romantic couple you couldn’t care less about. The secondary couple is funny and the love triangle gets more focus. But there’s a bit of family and political intrigue which just makes things messy. Our two leads don’t get a lot off time together really.
The end feels a bit rushed and the very ending just needed a bit more context so not the greatest ending either.
Overall, it’s a fun, lighter romantic drama for the first 20 episodes or so. Then it lags a bit, but I still enjoyed it.
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