Cambear
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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Gorgeous art direction (surprising and fitting use of ONLY black, white and grey), beautiful camera work, excellent action sequences, terrific performances and morale ambiguity....all trademarks of his films. He’s an expert film maker and an expert movie maker. It’s exciting, suspenseful, surprising, heartbreaking and all the emotions.
It’s a smart and sophisticated popcorn movie for cinema buffs and for those looking for a fun movie, too.
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The story is a bit surreal and non-linear and the characters are pretty flat. You don’t even see the lead characters face very often. (Mostly it’s the back of his head or in profile.) The characters and relating to the characters just aren’t that vital to the movie.
However, the writer/director loves doing long takes to really set a mood with lots of details and textures. The nearly hour long 3D sequence is (practically?) one long take which is beautiful and astounding. Some really interesting filmcraft here.
So if you are a film buff, there’s lots to admire and analyze here. If you want an involving story, this probably isn’t your best bet.
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At first it’s interesting as we meet all the characters and see the female lead settle into her new job. Then things get cute and romantic as different possibilities open up. Then we run out of conflict since there really aren’t evil schemers and there aren’t enough plot twists to build any obstacles or interest. This is an odd drama that takes place at a work place, but doesn’t seem to know a lot about the work they do.
So the story sort of floats around with lots of characters that I care less and less about. There was a lot of promise at the start of the series, but it didn’t hit any really strong emotional points. Sure the two leads are adorable, but not enough for 16 episodes with little plot.
For a better Noona romance with better developed characters and chemistry, watch Something in the Rain.
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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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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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It feels like a really adult romance since there aren’t scheming backstabbers and ridiculous pranks. The drama takes its time setting up the budding feelings and the dizzying joy of that initial honeymoon phase.
Of course there are obstacles in their way. Yes, a few characters are petty and one-dimsnional, but it’s more realistic than many dramas.
The two leads are terrific with lots of range and interest. She’s strong and flawed and weak. He’s an adorable puppy when he’s in love.
I didn’t expect a whole #MeToo subplot which was fascinating and tough to watch. Kudos for shinning a light on sexism and harassment in the workplace.
Overall, it’s a lovely serious and romantic drama.
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It’s super cute due to th adorable lead female (who was also so cute in The Eternal Love). She’s funny and cute without all the cutesy cliches that other actresses use so this is refreshing. The entire series rests on her and she carries it off.
In fact, her character is more of an alpha than the leading man which leads to some fun situations and school musical. It’s great that he’s totally fine with it and let’s her be her. The actor may not be a believable idol, but he’s adequate against her winsome character.
So if you’re looking for a big romance, this isn’t it. If you want a fluffy comedy, then this is cute.
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It’s watchable and the comedy isn’t so broad that women are shrieking constantly (always a plus), Overall I wasn’t engaged enough with with story to get emotionally invested so it’s not one that I will probably watch again..
(Netflix has this at 34 episodes)
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This starts off strong with a mystery and dynamic game play and strong conflict between the leading characters. Then the motives and story for the humans gets muddled and isn’t as interesting as the game. And then it gets worse when the editing jumbles up time periods in an attempt to make more plot and give depth to the story.
It’s a missed opportunity if only someone could make the second half as strong as the first. And let’s not even start on that ending....
Sigh.
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This is epic with lots of drama and interesting characters. Thankfully this isn’t about scheming mistresses so it’s a welcome break from those plots. The focus is the fight for the throne and it’s prince vs prince for the vast majority of the conflict.
The problem is the writing which introduces a lot of small plots that go to a climax and then disappear as if they never happened. Lots of unresolved issues which is unsatisfactory. There’s also the big ill-fated which is so freaking tortured, it’s hard to keep track of the current reason why they are pushing each other away. 70 episodes is a LOT to fill and there were just too many low points.
Overall, it’s lovely to watch and some great plot bits, but there are definitely some weak points.
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Then about half way through, there were a few misses. Some big emotional moments got short-changed which is a shame when you build towards something for several episodes and then viewers don’t get the satisfaction of enjoying the moment. This happened a couple of times. Sigh.
Then we got to the annoy part where the bad guys get petty and the good guys are too noble to stop them. They keep falling for the tricks over and over again to the point where the good guys start to look really dumb. Sigh. Thankfully this is 46 episodes which keeps some of this to a minimum, but I started to really wish the heroes were more flawed and could just get angry enough to do something.
But mostly I really enjoyed this one with just a couple of very common grievances.
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Fortunately there is a good cast and interesting characters, otherwise this wouldn’t work at all. But the cast of characters is so large that sometimes it takes half a scene before I figure out who they are. The romance is very slow-burn, but fun. The court intrigue is long and complex. The harem drama is among prominent families not the Emperor, but it’s no less bloody and scheming. A few bad guys are so over the top, you do wonder why ANYONE helps them.
If you’re in the mood for a luxuriously paced saga about a few families (with somecourt intrigue and fighting thrown in towards the second half), this is a good option.
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This movie reminds me of Armageddon (Earth in danger, group of unlikely people need to save the planet, lots of special effects, family), but this actually succeeds in making the story about the humans and family. There’s a greater focus on the characters even if many don’t get much story and the female characters are just as secondary.
There are some impressive visual effects and sets which helps offset some of the HIGHLY questionable science. Seriously questionable. But this is a popcorn flick and not a documentary so just enjoy the action and the ride.
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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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