A Delightful Yet Annoying MESS...

When something is this all over the place, I find I have to use bullets instead of having a way to tie it all together.

1. All the cutesy cartoon sounds? Makes the series almost unwatchable for someone over 12.

2. This is a series about a 60 year old Mom finding her 'groove thing' before her weird daughters do. What 12 year old would watch such a series? I know a 15 year old that was charmed by this (she recommended to me) but she didn't get deep enough into the series to realize it has adult themes that don't gel with video game notions.

3. Although each episode was about an hour -- they were tedious. Some episodes you'd watch a big bunch of twists and then wonder, this episode is almost over, right -- ONLY TO FIND OUT -- you weren't even at the halfway point yet. The pacing was painful.

4. The cast is fantastic. You soon love the leads and boyfriends in almost no time. If it wasn't for this I'd have ditched on Episode 3. Kudos to Mom with all her crazy energy, the youngest daughter who was forever stuck in 'whatever', and the eldest daughter dancing between boring fact and fabulous fiction. Also -- Mr. Perfect with a picture of himself on his wall was the best surprise comic relief ever.

5. The show was exploding with some great ideas but failed to deliver half of them. It was like a writer/director who wanted to do 80 episodes but was forced to do 11. Both in a good and bad way. As entertaining as it is exhausting.

6. I technically haven't finished it and soon will watch the final episode -- but if it's the best thing on Planet Earth it won't fix the previous 10 Episodes, no way. The best way to consider this series is 11 episodes in between some brutally long Imperial Dramas. An odd unique pit stop. Or skip it. It depends how much you like the first two episodes.

This final note is kind of a spoiler. But since it's the oldest and dumbest trick in the book, it lacks any real surprise quality.

7. As a screenwriter myself, there's a terrible horrible relentless cliche in some stories I call WRITERS WRITING ABOUT WRITING. Once you catch onto it -- you're going to see it everywhere.

If the lead story is a writer -- think of who came up with this idea: a writer. Now, what does that tell you about this person's creativity level? Nothing, right? The best they could manage is sticking themselves into the story? It's as sad as it is common.

But what's the harm in that, you ask? Writers, especially young writers, are unsuccessful and insecure. But the writer in their story? SPOILER: confident and successful. Never fails. It's annoying to watch a writer tribute their story to themselves. The point of a story is engage all of us, not to force people to like your character (which is you) as a writer. Painful.

When writing about writing gets really bad -- the story you are watching becomes the lead character's novel or screenplay at the end of it. Did you catch what that trick does? Again: it's the writer saying the story you just watched is SO good that some talented writer in a movie would write a novel about it.

I originally gave this thing a 6. But when these cliches sunk in I changed it to a 5.

Read More

RUYI is the Gold Standard

During the pandemic I was trying to find something new and different to lose myself in. I adored THE LAST EMPEROR when it was released in the 80's and wondered what Joan Chen had been doing with herself. I saw she was a 'star' in RUYI and checked it out. Let's just say --

-- she didn't last long in the series and that was a bait and switch move that introduced me to Zhou Xun. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am they did that bait and switch. Zhou Xun was a revelation of Chinese women and culture. Something I had no idea I desperately needed. There was a literal plague spreading on the planet and thanks to Zhou Xun my wife and I were cool with staying in our condo and absorbing this eye candy emotional buffet.

One AMAZING actress after another. Too many to list. I'm serious. RUYI is how I found MyDramaList, because here I can see what actors like Zhou and Chang and frankly most of the cast have done since. At least two RUYI actors are in MISSING PERSONS which alone made that must see TV. Because of this one emotional rollercoaster imperial epic WOW --

-- I watch 3 episodes of some sort of Chinese show a week. I am completely obsessed. I've now seen most of Zhou Xun's work and can name all sorts of Chinese actors like I frickin' lived in China. I actually stopped a Chinese couple in America, started talking about these shows, and they couldn't believe this white Anglo dude knew more about them than they did.

If you haven't noticed I'm not going to tell you what the story is about. If by Episode 4 you couldn't care less than walk. I promise you this show will hook you hard and stay with you months after you finish it. Some sick people rewatch and rewatch but I found it so emotionally draining I'm going to wait a LONG time before I re-watch it.

What I do want you to know with all of the sincerity of Western society is that Zhou Xun is Eastern Society's Bette Davis. If you know Bette that's one amazing compliment. It means I can watch said actor in anything. When they're young, old, in a great film or a piece of garbage. Their presence is so influential they rescue and perfect almost any production.

Stop reading this and start watching RUYI'S ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE. It's in my TOP TEN SERIES EVER which includes the original STAR TREK series, THE PRISONER, TWIN PEAKS, COLUMBO, STRANGER THINGS, DOWNTON ABBEY and TALES FROM THE LOOP.

It's THAT good.

Read More

Story and Pacing mangle an otherwise interesting project

I found this series to be so inconsistent I'm simply going to list observations.

1. The first episodes bait and switch the viewer. They imply this series will have lots of fight scenes. They basically fade away by Episode 10ish and are GONE at the finale, where you'd presume they'd come back for a big finale.

2. Our three lead actors (as shown on the poster) spend too much of the series with stoic faces, making it hard for us to care about them. This creates a problem where supporting characters accidentally SHINE --

3. -- like Song Yi. The scene she pouts in is gold. I really want to see more of her after this. The same goes for --

4. -- the underused Empress, Yong Mei, who is even more stoic than our heroes but she's such a gifted actress it doesn't come off as cold but intensely compelling. I'm now desperate to see her film SO LONG, MY SON but can't find it with English subtitles anywhere. (!!!)

5. I've heard Wang Yi Bo is legend. His character is the Chinese answer to Mr. Spock and (brace yourself) I saw no story reason for him to be in the series.

I believe our lead cast should have been Gao Bing Zhu, Wu Si Yue, and the Empress. Gao should have already been in charge of the CIA, Wu already in charge of the guard, and both at each other's throats because of this mysterious Clan wreaking havoc in the Kingdom. So two characters with opposing careers -- suspicious of the other -- falling for each other in the process. I'd have made Song Yi someone who had a crush on Gao, and I'd have her married to the Crown Prince who would have eventually been revealed as the leader of the clan.

Do you see how 'clean' that cast is? LUOYANG doesn't understand that, in this story: less is so much more.

6. Oh, I took a one night break from this series and saw Huang Xuan in the movie MY COUNTRY, MY PARENTS. It's an anthology pic and he only appeared briefly in the 2nd Story called THE POEM. It was funny to have my break 'ruined' by his presence but I knew I'd keep an eye on his future projects too.

7. The visuals are stunning, but the merciless wide angled cameras and relentless candle lit rooms are way over done. STAR WARS fans believe awesome production values are more important than solid story. As I've been saying since 1977 -- you're SO wrong about that. That said -- there are two GINORMOUS sets in this series you have to see to believe.

8. You have to give it up to the people doing the background music in this show. They were completely over the top and utterly out of control. If someone said, "Pass the soy sauce please" you'd hear all these background noises and music cues suggesting they had said, "Kill them... kill them all." It was an artificial way to raise tension where drama was clearly lacking at times, but (amazingly) the music wasn't so obnoxious to make one abandon the series.

Read More

A ROM COM for people who don't like ROM COMS

Hiya,

This page has a description of this film that is appallingly bad. It's actually rather simple and should go something like this --

"Heartbroken Girl enlists her babe friends to convert her to a hottie to win her best male friend's love."

This story has all the ROM COM tropes -- but the magic here is the twist that Zhou Xun adds by simply being... Zhou Xun. I genuinely believe she is the century's answer to Bette Davis. Which is the highest compliment I can pay an actress. It means she is an icon. That can play any role well or better. And anything she touches usually shines.

Feminists may initially resent the tone this film takes with 'being a hottie to land the man'. I get it. The movie appears to suggest that if you're not a whiny little 14 year old slut -- men can't even see you. But don't abandon it. The message evolves.

This will never be thought of as one of Zhou Xun's best films. But it's a really well written, shot, directed acted film -- and therefore should be.

Read More

IMPERFECT Approaching Perfect (Spoilers will be few and mild)

I was lucky enough to enter the world of Chinese dramas via RUYI'S ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE, a show that has compelled me to watch 12 more series. I was so impressed with Zhou Xun I'll watch anything with her in it, and she's here in IMPERFECT. (I even saw her IMPERFECT LOVE show as well.)

This IMPERFECT also features another Ruyi alumni, Dong Jie -- who I'm beginning to respect as a truly great actress. In Ruyi she had to play a very cold and distant character, which she pulled off brilliantly, but was utterly unlikable. Here viewers might say she plays the same, but I found her far more sympathetic in this series. Her sad yet beautiful face constantly spoke to me of a woman that could have had lifelong love but instead made a very bad choice.

Frankly the entire cast is terrific, even amongst the smallest of roles. My only disappointment was with Police Captain Yan Ming, who wasn't convincing as a cop. She is very pretty and her that was kind of distracting. I've seen THE DISAPPEARING CHILD and that lady cop seemed so real that I was disappointed not to see her type cast here. Understand Elaine Zhong is otherwise fine here, and again she is in an otherwise perfect ensemble.

Our villain Cheng is portrayed beyond perfect by Liu Yi Jun. I'm new to this actor and his ability to make such a despicable person sympathetic goes football fields past Dong Jie. He is terrific in his completely lack of awareness of how horrible he is, which is why you can't help but feel for him a little now and again and kinda a little bit always.

Also new to me is lead actress Jelly Lin, who portrays the title of this series. Her character is as compelling as perplexing. Often you want to hug her but sometimes you want to slap her, which is painfully ironic considering the series them of appropriate actions upon a young lady like this. But despite the irony these feelings run real because her character Zhoa Xun makes you want to pull your hair out during the first two thirds of the series.

This paragraph will run mildly spoiler-ish in giving away the victim's main flaw. I'll talk around it by saying she behaves like almost all 'kids' her age. When you get them on a topic that makes them uncomfortable, they won't say it makes them uncomfortable. Instead they go silent, off topic, or just behave oddly. Because they're really still half children, aren't they? That is how a child reacts when you accuse them of having their fingers in the cookie jar.

The point of this series is to indicate that victims of rape and sexual harassment can't be expected to be perfect victims. The series plainly states that when you have an older man with power over a young person it is very difficult for the 'girl' to react and respond proactively enough to impress the Court system she wasn't complicit.

What drove me a little crazy is this discussion of the victim kind was always with respect to her adulthood. What I just did two paragraphs up I wish the series had said over and over again: the victim was so young she was basically still a child, and you can't expect adult behavior from a child. It's THAT simple. It is this innocence and lack of adult experience the likes of Cheng count on and prey upon.

That idea was never said in such words but hammered upon with Lin Kan's lawyer story. (By the way, who was the genius that cast Zhou Xun but named our victim Zhoa Xun? That would be like naming Harrison Ford's STAR WARS character 'Mark Hemill".) Anyway, as usual, Zhou Xun was TERRIFIC as our lawyer character. I love Zhou Xun only like one other legendary actress, Bette Davis. This means that no matter the age of either actress or the project -- it's must see.

I was, at first, a little surprised when this production didn't use Zhou Xun to play her younger self. They did so in RUYI and really pulled it off. Her size and figure can easily pass for a college kid. But I said at first because, at second glance, the face of Zhou Xun is evolving. Filmed in her late 40's there is nuisance of age. I'm not talking about wrinkles and such that special effects could hide in flashbacks. I'm talking about her lovely eyes that speak of this woman's journey.

It was for this reason I understood her central role in this series. Zhou Xun is what lives in between a Jelly Lin and and Dong Jie. (I just learned this statement doesn't make real sense since Dong Jie is 6 years younger than Zhou Xun, but it's Xun's youthful features the suggest the opposite.) Still -- our lawyer Lin Kan is attempting to rescue herself before it's too late and she turns into a Dong Jie, if you will.

Great credit needs to be given both to the female writers (Gao Xuan and Ren Bao Ru) for creating this vivid world where all these actors get to shine. Where the depressing subject matter dissuades viewership the writing and direction and cast DEMAND a viewing. This is probably the best series I've seen yet, tying with RUYI'S ROYAL LOVE in quality.

The series was not perfect, though. (Dare I say it was 'imperfect'?) Luckily the problems can be counted on one hand --

1. I found almost all the songs to be 'fake' somehow. As if someone insisted they be inserted and so they came off as an awkward after thought. Plus I've heard better songs. The closing credits song in Zhou Xun's IMPERFECT LOVE is incredible, if you need a point of comparison. (Go catch that on YouTube or wherever now.) I almost always listen to the opening and closing songs of these shows with a big smile, but for the first time every I found them skippable. This is extra weird since some even had my native language (English)in them.

2. I don't mind lighthearted funny scenes, but towards the end of the story they were no longer needed but inserted anyway. The inclusion of these overlong 'smirky' scenes took away desperately needed time to --

3. -- resolve a few more storylines. The boy that loved Jelly Lin? He was seen in the last episode but only as a prop. To have him there at the court but not let him speak to the victim or her parents was a missed opportunity. The same for the security guard, who not only should have said something after the trial but have his victim friend by his side. It honestly felt like the series was padding a little to get to the last two episodes, and once there, they realized they needed more time... but didn't have it.

4. Call me an Old Softie but I wanted Lin Kan's assistant (Zhou Cheng Ao) to be somehow back with Lin Kan at story's end. But not as her love interest or employee. Instead I wanted a scene where he was doting on the victim at Lin Kan's home, implying that at some point these two might be a couple. But no hurry.

I've come to learn no Chinese series is perfect. I had a string of series that were disappointing and one was so terrible it had to be abandoned. IMPERFECT VICTIM won me back over... because it is near perfect.

Read More

GOOD FUN but it could have been great

Hi,

I won't spoil at first but then draw a line when the spoilers begin, okay?

In general this was a good idea and a lot of fun to watch. Watching two strangers get stuck with each other -- and all that entails -- was super fun, especially since this is a Chinese drama. If you've watched the trailer and are interested, I'd say it's good enough to watch and that you'll be happy (enough) that you did.

You'll like the leads. Especially 'the boy' who does some serious heavy lifting here. He essentially plays two characters with two character arcs, which means he plays four 'individuals' and does so really well. In fact this aspect may be the best part of the series.

I was a little disappointed with 'the girl' because. well... she came off as a little too girlish. Young bright eyes but she's a big reporter. I think I needed more of a Lois Lane, you know? And she didn't seem to be a strong enough actress until the last quarter of the series where her red sad eyes finally made her truly compelling. Apparently I wasn't the only one who found this actress weak because I gather the producers dubbed her voice with a different actress, which in America is verbotten but maybe people in China don't care. Still why bother having two actresses playing one character when you could simply find a better actress in the first place. Hmm. But she's okay and enjoyable in the role just the same.

***************************** SPOILERS BELOW *****************************

There were actually a lot of things that bothered me in this series. Nothing big as much as little pesky issues.

The first was they simply never explained this time overlap thing in the first place. Going to the internet and studying up on time travel was simply an embarrassment of story telling. Every last word regarding entropy and overlap was painfully juvenile writing. These two kids are not experts and so they neither know where to look for information or what to make of what they've found.

Science fiction has a well worn tradition of an 'expert', which is an old male scientist with white hair whom they consult. They could have modernized this cliche by having a blind genius of a scientist woman in wheelchair, a former client of the lawyer who is sort of in on what's happening to them and trying to help them. Sometimes I get this strange feeling that the Chinese are so new to producing any movies or TV that they're literally still in their early days of all this.

The next thing is related an absolutely critical to explain: where did the origami 'bird' come from and why it is magical and why did it pick on these two crazy kids? Just because it exists doesn't mean it 'is' yet. Like the monolith in 2001 you must explain what it is, where it came from, what it can do, and why it is doing it. Or what you're watching feels like a silly Saturday Morning cartoon.

Okay, now, early in the story our leads were aware that there was a 'girl' in 2022 as well. This girl would be perfectly aware of their situation since she's already lived through it. She'd be a CRITICAL source of information on what to do about their dilemma. For reasons that make no sense our couple avoided her like the plague. Because the writers did not wish to reveal her predicament yet. The problem is --

-- you can't do that. The couple would seek her out. And so by episode 3 or 4 you MUST deal with this issue. I would have simply had her GONE. Without a trace. POOF! What happened to her? Where is she? Nobody who knew her knows. This creates a GREAT mystery and allows the story to move forward without pretending the characters wouldn't look her up for help.

So basically LOVE IN TIME is an interesting premise that isn't properly set up to be utterly engaging. The origami bird and ignoring the girl in 2022 for too long kept me out of the story because the viewer needs to know what's what with these critical details.

The story was laced with many subplots to... frankly... make the story last 24 episodes. They were okay themselves but rather cumbersome and clutter. A lot of names and faces and events to keep straight, especially when they'd try and try to change outcomes. In general all the characters were interesting and well played, but I felt it all distracted from --

-- a more interesting drama that could have happened with our girl and her two boys. What if this story had been about how the girl first falls in love with the boy she can only see for 40 minutes a day... but over time... she finds he's more about fun than being serious... and that... she begins to fall in love with the boy in 2021 more?

That would have been a fascinating portrait of a girl who fools around with a better version of the boy she thought she first loved. A real live LOVE TRIANGLE but with this unique twist. Imagine her cheating on the man she loves with himself? I think this would have been more interesting and worked even better.

So LOVE IN TIME is really okay and worth trying. But I think there's a better series hiding inside this concept.

Read More

High quality filmmaking, Solid Acting, Mediocre casting, Storyless Story

Hello,

For us Westerners China has this very frustrating style of romantic story telling. I had to go into spoiler mode to explain myself.

In the West screenwriters are aware that a romance cannot be the only plot of the story. In fact it can't be the main plot. You need something bigger and more compelling than their love. In this case it's boy and girl meet, boy falls for girl, boy invests a lot of time and effort to get girl to like him, she finally does, boy mysteriously disappears, boy and girl reunite.

That's not a lot. Consider CASABLANCA. Man tries to run a business during a war and not take a political side. A fugitive shows up and begs for help. He doesn't want to but with the fugitive is an old flame that broke his heart into a thousand pieces. Man tries desperately not to fall in love with her again and discovers that the right thing to do is to set her and her fugitive free, taking a political position because... he loves her enough to let her go.

See the difference? The love story is buried inside a plot full of risks, twists, and turns. BEST SUMMER almost doesn't have a plot. Yes it's a different style of story but young lovers exist within far more compelling plots than simply eyeing each other.

So what makes matters worse for Western eyes is that if you're going to have a movie just be about a couple -- for the love of God -- at least have them kiss at the end. I've since learned that real Chinese people can see 'kissing' as 'sex', which in the West is laughable and ridiculous. Yes, if the two are kissing in a hotel or a lovely bedroom, I get it. But if they're standing in a public park by a tree -- grow up and let them have a kiss.

Regarding kissing, a funny side note here about something that happened in this movie also happened in THE GREAT CRAFTSMAN. In this film there's a kissless love happening and the girl can no longer stand it and LUNGES at her boy and plants one on him anyway. An extremely mild form of assault. CRAFTSMAN did the same thing and had Wallace Huo LUNGE at Yang Mi to offer her an unwanted kiss. Yet that series ends like this film -- without a final kiss.

Sorry but WTF? How does Chinese culture consistently omit a consensual loving kiss but seem A-OK with a kind of rapey kiss? If anything this should be reversed. Am I crazy? Is the rapey kiss allowed because sex won't come of it? Seriously?!?

So, now with all that out of the way, I'd say the actors were pretty good but the production was great. On a limited budget they made this thing look like a major motion picture. The photography was GORGEOUS. And some people don't get photography. They think if they see pretty mountains and sunsets THAT is great photography. It can be, sure, but the real test is filming the mundane in a cinematic way -- which this movie never stops doing.

The score of this film is lovely too. It's just such a shame that all of this skill was wasted on a one ply toilet paper script. The script was so thin you could see through it and watch another film at the same time.

Please don't think I'm mean person. I did love the characters and wanted to see so much more with them. But the idea this story was once much longer as a drama boggles the mind.

Read More

Don't be fooled. This is God Awful!

I'm an American who loved THE LAST EMPEROR. During Covid I needed shows I've never seen before. I gave RUYI'S ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE a shot and became not only enamored with Chinese dramas but OBSESSED. My desire to see this film was because 'Consort Jia' (Xin Zhi Lei of RUYI) is the lead, and because I think she is a global actress in the making -- I was willing to see ANYTHING with her in it.

I started this at night and was terribly excited. An hour into it (halfway point) my wife and I gave up. Here's why --

1. The genre here is INDIANA JONES. The problem is, and nobody seems to ever notice this, there has never been a sequel to that film worth seeing again. And those stupid MUMMY movies? Painfully bad. What made RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK great were the characters as much as the chase. This film is all chase --

2. -- zero characterization. The lead man? His Daddy abandoned him. Sounds good on paper but it wasn't SOLD to us. He needs to redeem his clan? Why do I care about that? The clans in this story were as voluminous as they were two dimensional cardboard cut outs. The good guys weren't really so good, the bad guys weren't really so bad. Yawn. The handsome guy from the other clan so failed as an adversary the story eventually turns him closer to a 'brother' as the Chinese put it. And if you don't believe me of how flat all these people were --

3. -- Xin Zhi Lei was put in this movie so that there was something pretty to look at. NOTHING ELSE. And despite the fact she is simply one of the most beautiful women in the world didn't make her the least bit compelling. Puddles after a drizzle have more depth. On top of this I sensed she may have been pregnant because for the most of the film she was wearing tents.

This film seemed so terribly familiar to Western eyes. When the first 'puzzle' turned out to be Morse code, I'm sorry, it just had to be the 100th time in my life I've seen Morse code appear as a big secret in a movie. Are you kidding? Couldn't come up with something better? Or frickin' NEW?!?!?

So I abandoned the film. But the next morning I had a spare hour with coffee and tried to finish. To the film's credit it never got any worse. What started with cliches ended with cliches. The worst of which is a big audience applauding our hero, to cue the audience to think something wonderful has happened. Except nothing did.

There was a story hiding in this film. It was the backstory with the Dad playing games with the boy. That element should have appeared a lot more as a B-story. The way SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE does so. Had they had actual characters they could have cut two thirds of the budget away.

It's kind of impossible to pick apart this story any further because of how painfully convoluted it was. I felt next to nothing after the first few minutes and before the last few minutes. The remaining film was a video game and nowhere near as clever as it thought it was.

If you disagree -- you're falling into the Western film 'blockbuster' trap. You're letting the production values trick you into thinking you saw something great. You didn't.

Look, like I said, I'm obsessed with Chinese media now. I've seen lots of HYPER LOW BUDGET mainland China films that were shot for $20 and clearly lack career actors. YouTube offers tons of them for free.

I just saw one about a crippled girl who cuts red paper out and accidentally creates a potential industry for her poor village. She wasn't much of an actress but -- for 90 minutes -- they managed to keep the viewer watching. It's pathetic that movie was better than this, but that's not my fault.

Any episode of RUYI'S ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE blows either film out the water.

Read More

As Interesting and Beautiful as it is Overlong and Sleep-Inducing

This is a weird duck. And so bullets --

1. The production quality is really movie like, especially in the flashback sequences set around the Red Coast. The only time it strangely looks like Cheesy TV is during the International Board Room meetings

2. This is post modern Arthur C. Clarke/Issac Asimov stuff, where the science is science fiction is meant to be your only entertainment. As a kid in the mid-70s, I read this type of SCIENCE fiction a lot but in no time backed off of it because they were slow lifeless reads. All good stories are about the human condition. THREE BODY had the perfect opportunity to explore this very topic because a character within makes a major decision about humanity -- yet -- it barely touched upon it.

(There's a funny irony here. Okay, when I was a kid I was reading a monthly Sci-Fi magazine called ANALOG. There was a story once about a really cool concept but the story itself was dull beyond imagination. It was simply an excuse to share a hard science idea and make anyone go WOW.

The idea was that if man could manufacture a strong enough material that was also very lightweight -- we could build an elevator shaft from Earth and attach it to a satellite in space, hence eliminating rockets. Imagine -- you could have a giant bar in space that people would travel up to for the wildest cocktails ever. And imagine the damn view of Earth and Space!

I forget most of what I read in that magazine over the decades -- except for this. And the same exact concept is mentioned inside of THREE BODY in one episode. And so... I was either reading this Chinese author all those years ago... OR... he was reading Analog magazine, lol.)

3. So many characters just... stood there. It was like COVID all over again where no one was allowed to touch anybody, social distancing, you know? Yes, of course, it's trite to create a love story just to make it like any other Chinese drama -- but this one really needed it. BADLY. If it doesn't matter later in the series, I would have made the ML a FL scientist -- so that -- there would have been some sexual tension between the lead and our favorite cop ever, Shi Qiang (Yu He Wei). That said --

4. -- if it wasn't for this cast I would have walked after six episodes. I knew two of them from other dramas (Yu He Wei, REBEL PRINCESS and he was even better here) and (Johnny Zhang who was better in THE GREAT CRAFTSMAN). I loved being introduced to Chen Jin and Wang Zi Wen, two ladies who masterfully played Ye Wen Jie in two different eras.

5. In general this show literally induces sleep. I'm not kidding but there were about 12 nights I had to fight from sleeping to finish it. Perfect for early day viewing but it's Ambien after 9PM. I'm not being mean, this is the truth. The characters rarely clash with each other, they're often shown in shadows in dim rooms, and there's this droning song at the end of most episodes which could best be described as a Trisolorian Lullably.

6. Okay so our lead dude with the glasses has a special clock that ticks and ticks downward. Was I asleep when it got 'turned off' or did they simply forget to show us where the clock was by the end of his part of the series. I thought our Trisolorians were going to arrive just as his clock reached zero.

I'm happy I saw this and somehow I want to see the 2nd Season of this but I can't recommend it with any enthusiasm. Oh, and I don't give a damn about how good the books are -- because I'm not reading the book. I'm watching a series. If the series puts me to sleep, they either picked the wrong series of books or they've made the series way too long.

A third of THREE BODY should have been clicked and erased to make the rest of this stronger.

Read More

Decent but PROFOUNDLY OVER-RATED @ MDL

I used to teach Screenwriting. There were many 'best practices' that appeared in many books but one that was an affront to my experience of cinema. The practice said "START REAL BIG", then tone things down for most of the story, and then finish EVEN BIGGER than the opening. I completely disagreed with the first part of that advice based upon many quality classic movies.

The BETTER advice is to start 'interesting as hell' and make each page a little more interesting than the last. So that you become 'surprised' at how engaging the story is and start watching the series faster. Novels like this are called 'page turners'.

JOY OF LIFE does just this. It gets better as watch. The problem is that the build is so RIDICULOUSLY SLOW that a viewer can and will lose interest before they get hooked.

Read the comment sections here. I'd say a third of the people that tried this series walked. And that is understandable since the show is so amorous of itself it has no idea how dull the pacing is for the first two thirds. Knowing where the story is going works for the writers but not the viewers if you take WAY too long to set up the story.

The only reason I kept watching JOY OF LIFE was that I love half of this cast. There are several people from RUYI'S ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE, one from REBEL PRINCESS, and one from LUOYANG. If it wasn't for the amazingly talented lovely (and bitchy) Xin Zhi Lei I'd have ditched the series after 15 episodes. But since character was saved for much later I pushed on.

Why would I have ditched? There are two critical mistakes this story makes that NO STORY SHOULD MAKE --

1. This is mildly spoiler-ish but since it shows up in the first minutes of the first episode I don't see the harm: the lead character isn't really IN the story. He comes from our reality but ends up in this story's reality like it's a lucid dream. Because of this his character knows he is never in any actual peril. That would be like Dorothy AWARE that she is dreaming and smirking at the Wicked Witch the entire time. It completely DESTROYS normal dramatic tension. But don't take my word. As the series progresses they kind of back away from this STUPID idea and pretend it was never there. (This explains part of my low rating.)

2. The show shifts genres as it progresses. It's starts as a sort of funny leaning DRAMEDY but then evolves into a proper DRAMA. But the path to this transition is littered with way WAY too many comic relief sidekicks. And fight sequences featuring SALSA or ROCK AND ROLL music which took me right out of the story.. It leaves an adult with the impression that the production crew was entirely teenage.

What makes the 2nd half of the series more bearable is that it becomes a more serious story where our hero Fan Xian finds himself in genuine danger. Get this and I'm not kidding: in episode 42 (of 46) Fan Xian actually says, "For the first time I feel like I'm in real danger." I don't know how to break this to the morons who wrote this script but that feeling was supposed to happen no later than Episode 5. Imagine Dorothy of Kansas feeling in absolutely no peril at all until the Wizard took off in his balloon near the story's end. It's LUDICROUS.

So I'm left BAFFLED and BEWILDERED at how so many people on this site have rated this series so high. Was it based on a novel that everyone in this genre has already read? (Harry Potter syndrome?) Personally I resent when people like a series based upon some other source. I base my review on what I'm reviewing and nothing else.

The cast is easily the best part of this series. My problem is that I've seen half this cast elsewhere and the same actors got much better roles. If you enjoyed Song Yi in this you're going to ADORE her in LUOYANG where she basically chews every scene she's in. That show has a cast that's a little too emotionally distant -- except for her. There's a pout she does in one episode that's almost worth watching the entire series for. (No, really!)

Part 2 of JOY is being filmed now and no matter how compelling the 2nd half of this installment has been I absolutely positively will not watch the 2nd series if there's SALSA music in fight scenes. Or if Fan Xian is smirking too often in the first episodes.

It's been fun, I suppose, but I can recommend 4 other shows before this one: REBEL PRINCESS, RUYI'S ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE, MAKE A WISH, and THE GREAT CRAFTSMAN. These shows DESTROY this one.

Read More

Actors ages do not ruin this otherwise MUST SEE series

Hiya,

My first C-Drama ever was RUYI'S ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE. I knew watching it that it was a masterpiece, because only a masterpiece would keep my attention that long on such a depressing series of events.

The problem became what in the world to watch afterwards? Since I was new to this world I tried MISSING PERSONS (Two Ruyi Co-stars featured) and that was fun but nowhere near as slick. I also watched a ton of Chinese films during Ruyi and some after. That's when I caught some Zhang Ziyi and felt, yeah, let's give REBEL PRINCESS a try.

Firstly, the jerks that call these 'costume dramas' need to be thrown into the Cold Palace and forced to watch Wonder Woman 1984. It's like calling Westerns 'saddle dramas'. Give me a break. This genre is Epic Imperial Romance, okay?

Secondly the title simply doesn't work. Or translate. I have a sublime title to offer but it would spoil to explain why I chose this.
Call it FOR THE LOVE OF AWU and you'll see why about halfway thru.

Unfortunately the series isn't as good as RUYI. That doesn't mean it isn't watchable and entertaining. And, in fact, for reasons I cannot divulge, it has a higher 'rewatch me' factor than RUYI. So it's better in a sense as well.

My personal big problem with this series is the initial ages of the actors. Where Zhou Xun completely tricked me into thinking a woman in her 40s is really a teenager, that didn't happen here. Many major players tried their best but simply looked old.

Deeper into the story we're introduced to a young woman that (we're told) is so like Zhang when she was young. SPOILER: she looks NOTHING like her. I was so confused I went to an eye doctor. (JK. NK.) And in THIS character SOMEONE should have realized lied a solution.

Rewind. You look for a young actress that looks a lot like a young Zhang. Then you shoot the first episodes using her. Then, and get this, when you need to introduce to the young woman who allegedly looks like Awu? Use the same actress, perhaps with a little rubber on her face to make her look a little different. Two problems solved.

The other unfortunate casting issue is Zhang Zi Yi herself. After having experienced the WOW that is Zhou Xun in RUYI, Zhang seemed a little... flat. It was like she was playing not only a noble Princess but a Goddess, who -- somehow -- is detached from reality. Often when Zhang is hearing something she doesn't like -- she starts staring off into an emotionless abyss. She looks catatonic even. This emotive distancing pushes the characters annoying her back a bit, but so too have we the viewers lost critical access into her thoughts and feelings. It took me halfway thru the series to get used to this.

With this out of the way, almost all of the other characters are terrific. Where Zhang is the blank canvas, everyone else is the paint. The series grows more and more endearing as each episode passes. Where RUYI slowly waterboards you into giving up all hope, REBEL offers hope.

Every great series has a breakaway character that you'll then want to see a LOT more of. In RUYI it was Princess Jia (Xin Zhi Lei) who is the most beautiful b!tch to hit TV or cinema. In REBEL it's Helan Zhun (Yuan Hong) who I called Aquaman the entire time because he looks (kinda) like the Chinese version of Jason Momoa. His character does some pretty awful things but MAGICALLY you hold some compassion for him too. He really made Tong Yang fight for screen time.

(By the way, in America, the CW took the world's largest POO on the classic Kung Fu series. I don't mind the remake as a show but recognize it's plainly not based on the original series at all. It's like renaming THE OFFICE as KUNG FU. But Tony Yang's intensity in the back half of the series tells me China should do an actual remake of KUNG FU, starting and spending a lot of time in China. Starring Tony Yang. He'd make a solid Caine.)

Now, of the romance. This story was a welcome soapy affair after RUYI. I don't want to spoil but I will say Awu attracts men the way an open KFC dumpster attracts flies. If you take this story literally you won't like it. If you accept its instead a feel good romantic fable -- and need that in your life before embarking -- this series will charm you SILLY.

FUN TRIVIAL FACT -- At the end of each episode is an absolutely beautiful duet between a man and a woman trying to find love inside the Kooky Backstabbing Kingdoms of C-Dramas. If you open your heart to it you'll watch the complete ending every time. The song is even featured within maybe 6 episodes.

But there is a BATTLESHIP sized detail about this song. The lovely woman who's singing? As Austin Powers once said, "She's a MAN, baby!" It may be worth watching this show just to experience that.

Oh and the production values are through the roof and puncture a hole right thru the Moon. But that can't carry you further than 3 episodes. This ensemble will. But know the series takes time to really grab you. Under 10 episodes for most.

Now, there was on character I felt was handled poorly. General Song started out great, but in the interests of romantic drama, took a series of turns that... well... I don't believe the audience appreciated. I've saved this last note for people who have seen the series, and so the next paragraph is SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER.

***************************** SPOILING BELOW *******************************

At the end of the story, Song watches his wife beg him to save himself (and his soul) and let Awu and Lord be. When he refuses to abide by her wishes, she does (something) that should have changed his mind. Minutes later, at the end of his sword, he does something that wasn't intended. The audience says YAY but then (the pig) grabs Awu's face and makes a play for her. That was done for drama but wasn't the least bit believable. If memory serves Helan never even pulled that stunt, was more of a gentleman.

Since I've written a handful of stories myself, I'll offer what I consider a cleaner (more appropriate) resolution of Song's arc.

Song witnesses his wife jump to her death. Later (before he confronts Awu) he looks down at his dead wife on the ground. He realizes his folly. He might even say to someone how she only lived for him. And how he didn't appreciate that.

When he's with Awu, her father explains that he will be emperor. And that nothing and no one can stop him. He stands close to his daughter when he says this, meaning even Awu. This threat is critical, and was missing from the story. And the fact it was missing kinda screwed up the ending. Because in the story she later talks to her father as if all the crap he's pulled was okay with her because of blood relation. Except we the audience know it wasn't.

So it's CRITICAL that Away abandon any love of her Dad she has upon being threatened. At this moment Awu should pull out the small knife the Lord handed her a long time ago in the story. I believe they intended to have her use it here but chickened out at the last moment. I wouldn't chicken out. I'd have Awu tell her father it's over. That's when he takes the knife and attempts to turn it on Awu herself. And it is at this point Song ends Wang Lin.

After doing so, Song looks completely broken. The Lord and his soldiers arrive, but it's clear from Awu's face it's already over. Song sees the Lord and Awu stand beside each other and wipes a tear away. He says words to the effect of, "I see what I always should have seen. That you two belong side by side. And that my place was always... elsewhere."

Song would leave the chamber. Moments later a servant would run in and tell the Lord Song will kill himself. They run out to and catch Song just as he jumps off the ledge his wife did. They look down and find him dead... beside his wife.

What I'm trying to suggest is that Song was more noble throughout the story. That he didn't need to become a 'demon' in the last moments of the series. Even Helan had this figured out.

Read More

A Summer Romance Novel -- you will LIKE the story, LOVE the cast

My wife and I really enjoyed this series as a 'happy place' to visit twice a week. The sets and cinematography are gorgeous, the story arcs mostly gentle, and I guess what is the shortcoming of this story is really its strength: SPLENDOR is a place to chill.

The story focuses upon 3 (and eventually 4) (and eventually 5) female leads who light up the screen with their humanity. Although a fantasy depiction of women in historic patriarchy, enough of it rings true today. Female viewers will enjoy how strong ladies can but, but compassionate male viewers will swoon for their beauty as much as their predicaments.

Most of this cast were new to me. Only Jenny Lin & Guan Yun Peng were familiar, because we knew them from the director's next project, the must see and incredible IMPERFECT VICTIM. I had heard that people felt Jenny was weak in this piece, but I thought she was fine... especially since her character was weak anyway.

The lead couple were interesting. I've left the series a Crystal Liu fan for lead performance as Pan'er. This is an actress of gentle nuance, and the more you watch her the more you want to watch her. They paired her with new to me Chen Xiao, who was good but perhaps not as riveting as a Wallace Huo or Huang Xuan type which I feel the roll demanded. The roll was nicknamed The Living Devil, so really a more macho offering (like Yuan Hong, the General from REBEL PRINCESS who stole the Princess from her Kingdom). As AvenueX points out on YouTube, though, the leads chemistry was quite real.

On this issue of 'gentle'men, this female written/directed production did a lot of that. We had three men who were constantly swooning over the ladies. Chi the Whiny Child, Du Chang Feng the 'substitute' teacher terrified by bullying boys, and Chen Lian who simply melts at each moment of romance. Normally I'd kinda frown at this Wimp Squadron but it was crazy charming. And Chi was hilarious. So funny I suspect they started giving him extra scenes towards the end.

Our lead ladies? Sigh. They were all terrific. San'Niang definitely grows on you as we roll along, all the imperial supporting actresses were solid, but I must confess our ZhaoDi (Daisy Li) was fantastic and eventually under-used.

Don't overthink this series. Go in and relax and it wraps up like a lovely summer sunset.

Read More

What is it with Zhou Xun starring with... Zhou Xun?

This is maybe the 4th time I've seen the amazing Zhou Xun co-starring with herself. I bet it's killing Meryl Streep it never occurred to her to do the same.

This film is a watch if you enjoy Zhou Xun. It's not her best, it's not her worst. It's pretty good. She's a pleasure to watch and so YAY if she plays two characters even. The shortcoming here is the story.

This Courtroom drama has a rushed feeling to it and we learn why 2/3rds of the way through when it concludes: there's an extra 35 minutes which reveals a handful of secrets. It's a GOTCHA surprise TWIST that, like all such gotchas makes you first say HUH? and the re-examine everything you just saw to understand it a 2nd way.

I've frankly grown weary of these type of stories because it's so tedious to re-examine EVERYTHING and see how the hidden story may have been there all along. Usually these type of stories come off as more contrived than clever and this one is unnecessarily confusing as well.

The twist reveal eats up so much of this tale, wasting time I'd rather see with Zhou Xun fleshing out 3 other characters.

Read More

Almost but not quite A MASTERPIECE

I have NO IDEA why users aren't AMAZED by this production. It's so close to PERFECT it's painful.

The story, acting, filming, music -- are you kidding me? I've seen about 10 Chinese Dramas at this point and it shoved its way up to #2 under RUYI'S ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE.

The reason why this series didn't trounce RUYI is it didn't stick the landing. It appears to do so but once a day or so passes you realize there was something off about the end of the story.

About halfway into EP 11 the plot resolves itself. But for the story not only requires another 30 minutes to resolve itself but all of EP 12 to do so. Normally shows wrap up a little fast after the plot resolution and sometimes you feel ripped off because of how hurried the wrapup is. (I'm looking at you GREAT CRAFTSMAN.)

So why did THIS take so long. According to AvenueX on YouTube, the novel this story is based on ends with a dark tone. One of the characters has had a hidden agenda. This final episode looks like it was going to reveal it, since said character eluded to ALSO having secrets, but then -- no secrets revealed.

AvenueX implied that the real ending wouldn't get past the censors. As a writer myself I believe this production did shoot the dark ending and the censors said, nope -- too dark. And so they had to reshoot the ending to be less dark, which in turn makes the final episode seem a little aimless, long, and pointless.

Even if you're unaware of that angle or the book's ending, my wife said, "Wait. That girl was so perfect despite her parents not being so perfect. Really?!?" And therein lies the problem with the series is that the Tutor character simply isn't believable. Her acting is great but the writing is... undecided.

This knocks DISAPPEARING CHILD out of Masterpiece work into NEAR MISS and ALMOST territory. What a shame. That said, SEE IT ANYWAY you lazy couch dumpling!

Read More

Wang Xiao Shuai had everything but didn't do enough with it

For a three hour film you really REALLY need a GREAT story. I know there are exceptions to this rule but all great stories are told chronologically, from A to Z.

SO LONG, MY SON has an okay story. To artificially make it seem better, the writer/director Wang Xiao Shuai decided to tell it out of sequence. What this does is turn many simple events in this story into fake 'reveals', creating an artificial tension.

An analogy. Everyone knows the alphabet, right? A, B, C, D, E, F... and so forth. Great writer/directors take the very familiar alphabet and make it compelling. Just the way any Christmas tree starts plain and dull but can be decorated into something lovely.

Writer/Director Wang Xiao Shuai decided that simply moving the letters around -- A, E, B, D, C, F is far more interesting.

But not really. All it does is make the story a little difficult to follow. This trick also hides the fact that the sequential story turns are tepid instead of clever. I believe someone should edit this story back into chronology so that you'd see it isn't really a masterpiece but just a long okay story shot beautifully.

You'd also see that despite 3 hours they did very little with the actors. I had just finished LUOYANG and was desperate to see more of Yong Mei. Here she was the female lead and I was waited and waited to see her skills in action. But because the film lacked compelling dialog exchanges Yong Mei was wasted as basically a 'prop' sitting in rooms or disappearing into walls.

The direction, the photography, lighting, OST -- were all the stuff of a possible masterpiece. But the story wasn't as emotional and dynamic and COHERENT enough to justify its length. Wang Xiao Shuai had everything but didn't do enough with it.

I will say this: the 2nd viewing will be less confusing and therefore I may be able to enjoy the story instead of wonder where the hell I am and which boy is which.

Read More