John Hart
An Elusive yet Potential Masterpiece
The show boasts a fantastic cast, terribly engaging soapy story, in a Republican Era setting that is needed break from Imperial Chinese dramas. It is way better than a "7.8" thanks to Wallace Huo and Yang Mi knocking it out of the park.
I knew Wallace from RUYI'S ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE and thankfully he's given more breathing room here. I can't imagine he's had a better role than Qi Nan. He is just terrific here. But as good is my first introduction to Yang Mi -- who has as difficult a role to pull off. My wife and I watch an hour of this 3 times a week, but after the halfway point it was around 5 times.
All the supporting actors were great, many of these faces new to me. For American viewers like myself having trouble keeping all the names straight, I recommend these nicknames: Daddy Fu, his wife Nasty Fu, Dandy Fu, Minister Du, Momma Du, Dandy Du, Minister Wu -- and for that woman in the club that looks like an older Betty Boop -- simply 'Boop'. It made it much easier for us to speak about them without getting confused.
Okay, the single worst thing about this series is the availability in America. It is ELUSIVE. So much so I can't recommend the series until Mango fixes these issues.
The main issue is that there is no way to see the series unedited with proper English subtitles. The series on YouTube 'forgot' to include subtitles for about 10 episodes in the middle and I think Ep 58 the subtitles were broken. And the subtitles themselves were poor quality. And anytime a song happened instead of muting the song they simply cut the entire sequence out, often eliminating important story moments. ARRRGGGHHHH! There's a 'cool' 'Drama' site that has the series in low quality resolution. The subtitles are better but, get this, the audio is out of sync the entire time.
With all these headaches I can't recommend the series to anyone until Mango offers a proper version of CRAFTSMAN with quality English subtitles, which I'd gladly pay $20 for the series.
What's maddening is the series is nearly flawless otherwise. You can count the mistakes on one hand.
1. The series starts with terrific child actors. When they are replaced with adult actors, you can't believe you must let them go. Thankfully they re-appear in flashbacks a lot. My complaint is the older actor playing eldest brother (Li Dong) looks nothing like the boy he replaced. Not even close. It took me like 25 episodes to accept him where Qi Nan, Han Jun, and Lucy took seconds to accept. Don't get me wrong: the actors playing Li Dong were solid, but I guess they needed a different skinny intense kid to play him young.
2. The series spent a little too much time discussing architecture. As well as too much time speaking about business deals. Yes, it was interesting, but often I suspected it was 'filler' to extend the length of the series. I'd say about 20% of all of it could have been cut. That could have shaved about 3 episodes off the series.
3. The last 10 episodes were getting a little sloppy or lazy. Maybe they were all exhausted and the show's amazing quality was slipping to merely 'good' sometimes. I felt the entire elevator incident was rushed. And there was a scene going on between Momma Du and Dandy Du that seemed... odd. It was like the series didn't know what to do with her character and that scene showed it. I also felt the explosion in the flour factory should have shown who that was the flew out a door. But I felt
4. -- the final episode let us down. It seemed more interested in resolving Minister Du than providing the romantic climax we were all waiting for. What was delivered wasn't as majestic or poetic as I hoped. And Li Dong's departure and discovery off camera in the last moments seemed rushed. Certainly there could have been a way to tie in the 'discovery' into the court scene somehow. That person could have read the court case and made the connection to show up?
That's really all I can complain about. The final episode failing to be what this series deserved took an entire half point away, dropping from 9.5 to 9. But still -- despite all the agony of finding a way to watch this show -- a solid 9 is a WOW.
FUN TRIVIA
I can't be certain but I'm nearly certain that a music composer from the show was inspired by Ennio Morricone's work on DAYS OF HEAVEN. There are scenes where Qi Nan is out in fields and that entire movie is about people working in fields. Go to YouTube and seek out Track 9 (The Return) from the DAYS OF HEAVEN soundtrack. It's not a theft, but I'm pretty sure the similar theme from this show HAD to be inspired by that track.
I knew Wallace from RUYI'S ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE and thankfully he's given more breathing room here. I can't imagine he's had a better role than Qi Nan. He is just terrific here. But as good is my first introduction to Yang Mi -- who has as difficult a role to pull off. My wife and I watch an hour of this 3 times a week, but after the halfway point it was around 5 times.
All the supporting actors were great, many of these faces new to me. For American viewers like myself having trouble keeping all the names straight, I recommend these nicknames: Daddy Fu, his wife Nasty Fu, Dandy Fu, Minister Du, Momma Du, Dandy Du, Minister Wu -- and for that woman in the club that looks like an older Betty Boop -- simply 'Boop'. It made it much easier for us to speak about them without getting confused.
Okay, the single worst thing about this series is the availability in America. It is ELUSIVE. So much so I can't recommend the series until Mango fixes these issues.
The main issue is that there is no way to see the series unedited with proper English subtitles. The series on YouTube 'forgot' to include subtitles for about 10 episodes in the middle and I think Ep 58 the subtitles were broken. And the subtitles themselves were poor quality. And anytime a song happened instead of muting the song they simply cut the entire sequence out, often eliminating important story moments. ARRRGGGHHHH! There's a 'cool' 'Drama' site that has the series in low quality resolution. The subtitles are better but, get this, the audio is out of sync the entire time.
With all these headaches I can't recommend the series to anyone until Mango offers a proper version of CRAFTSMAN with quality English subtitles, which I'd gladly pay $20 for the series.
What's maddening is the series is nearly flawless otherwise. You can count the mistakes on one hand.
1. The series starts with terrific child actors. When they are replaced with adult actors, you can't believe you must let them go. Thankfully they re-appear in flashbacks a lot. My complaint is the older actor playing eldest brother (Li Dong) looks nothing like the boy he replaced. Not even close. It took me like 25 episodes to accept him where Qi Nan, Han Jun, and Lucy took seconds to accept. Don't get me wrong: the actors playing Li Dong were solid, but I guess they needed a different skinny intense kid to play him young.
2. The series spent a little too much time discussing architecture. As well as too much time speaking about business deals. Yes, it was interesting, but often I suspected it was 'filler' to extend the length of the series. I'd say about 20% of all of it could have been cut. That could have shaved about 3 episodes off the series.
3. The last 10 episodes were getting a little sloppy or lazy. Maybe they were all exhausted and the show's amazing quality was slipping to merely 'good' sometimes. I felt the entire elevator incident was rushed. And there was a scene going on between Momma Du and Dandy Du that seemed... odd. It was like the series didn't know what to do with her character and that scene showed it. I also felt the explosion in the flour factory should have shown who that was the flew out a door. But I felt
4. -- the final episode let us down. It seemed more interested in resolving Minister Du than providing the romantic climax we were all waiting for. What was delivered wasn't as majestic or poetic as I hoped. And Li Dong's departure and discovery off camera in the last moments seemed rushed. Certainly there could have been a way to tie in the 'discovery' into the court scene somehow. That person could have read the court case and made the connection to show up?
That's really all I can complain about. The final episode failing to be what this series deserved took an entire half point away, dropping from 9.5 to 9. But still -- despite all the agony of finding a way to watch this show -- a solid 9 is a WOW.
FUN TRIVIA
I can't be certain but I'm nearly certain that a music composer from the show was inspired by Ennio Morricone's work on DAYS OF HEAVEN. There are scenes where Qi Nan is out in fields and that entire movie is about people working in fields. Go to YouTube and seek out Track 9 (The Return) from the DAYS OF HEAVEN soundtrack. It's not a theft, but I'm pretty sure the similar theme from this show HAD to be inspired by that track.
Was this review helpful to you?
