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This review may contain spoilers
Worthy Premise, Good Execution, but Slightly Lacking Somehow (MIld Spoilers)
I eagerly awaited to see this film because THE GREAT CRAFTSMAN makes anybody a fan of Huang Yang Tian Tian. She is one of the young leads here and I was willing to forgive the TV movie budget just to see more of her.In CRAFTSMAN Tian Tian was a dynamic character that demanded your attention and fellowship. Here she's kinda wasted as one of two girls with physical ailments. Anyone could have played either of the female leads. I actually found the Dad and Mom giving the most nuanced performances.
Don't get me wrong. If the trailer entices you to try this movie, your instinct is correct. But I felt they got lost in some unnecessary subplots. The violent man in the hospital, the 'Carrie' apartment, and the helicopter sequence were all 'alarms' to keep the audience awake. The Mom's Dad was so unnecessary the story itself removed him midway.
I think the better story would have been to have the Dad pursue the Mom romantically, only to learn he had an additional motive. And everyone involved, including the audience, would wonder did he actually love her... and suspect 'yes'. In this way the four leads could have become this lovely accidental family and therefore make an important family 'decision' together rgarding the daughters.
I'm not saying the film doesn't drift towards that idea. I'm saying it would have been a much stronger movie if it had committed to that idea.
One last thing: this is the DEFINITION of a weepy cry cry flick. Oddly it didn't pull as many tears as the premise warranted. Maybe if the Doctors didn't seem so aloof.
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A short student film stretched out to 90 aimless minutes
I found this film because I'm a fan of THE GREAT CRAFTSMAN. In that show an actress looks like Betty Boop and I wanted to see more of Jiang Hong Bo. Despite her being one of the three leads -- she spent very little time on screen.This is because this director has no idea how to create dramatic scenes with actors. So many opportunities were missed. It was as if a cinematographer made this film instead of a dramatist.
It's not a student film. It's the 4th of 6 features by this director. But it sure feels like a student.
I know some will defend this director and say, "Not all films are action packed super hero films!" I know it. Get it. The problem is this film was the complete opposite. The premise is promising but almost nothing happened inside the film.
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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.
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This review may contain spoilers
Action Movies are TEDIOUS but this one isn't bad at all
MILD SPOILERS, nothing terribleI see a lot of people harshing on this film. I don't know why. I find this genre tedious and so I expected to abandon the film before the first hour. Turns out I made it all the way thru and was happy for the two hour diversion.
This movie isn't entirely cohesive and so I'll just drop you some notes and hope it gels into something useful.
1. Eddie Peng stars? I'm in.
2. Xin Zhi Lei as the female lead? I'm not only in but watching this mostly because of her. (If you have no idea why someone would flip their shinola for her -- you haven't seen RUYI'S ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE, have you?)
3. I'm not sure rescue forces exist to this degree. If they do, wow. If they don't -- I love Gerry Anderson's THUNDERBIRDS.
4. The visuals/FX are rather stunning. However, I'm not used to Chinese films spending THIS much $$$ on them, and so -- sure enough -- the film can get talky sometimes to save money. Mainly revolving around --
5. -- a cute young kid. I've watched enough C-Drama media to know cute kids are a thing to kinda force 'endearing' onto the movie. In America we don't stick cute kids into all sorts of movies for fear of damaging the premise. What was wrong here is that --
6. -- with him came scenes with dopey cartoon music. With little bells ringing 'comically' in a movie they don't belong in. Are we in an action drama or not? Later on that kid was used for another classic trope --
7. -- which I can't spoil but is the stuff of soap operas. Not action movies. However, the way they ultimately resolved this trope (inside the closing credits) made it almost worth it and definitely tolerable.
8. Xin Zhi Lei was great when she was given something to do. Unfortunately the story didn't give her enough to do. There was a natural coupling she needed to be a part of but the story got either scared or distracted.
9. The original 'Stand By Me' song appears in this film and, sorry, the film by the same name owns the song and no one else should be using it. Like I don't want to hear Garland singing 'Rainbow' in this film anywhere for the same reason.
10. If a sequel is being planned -- I'd see it. Because it might give Xin Zhi Lei more time.
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A nice little film and diversion
Many of these lower budget films start okay but get kinda lost. This one hangs together well.The tale debates how communities should work together when possible riches await. You'll enjoy this film for that, the lush soundtrack, lovely visuals, and most of the verite acting of the kids and villagers.
The lead girl was kinda a two trick pony: big sweet smile OR tears down her face. But that's okay because the rest of the cast had lots of wonderful moments. Don't miss the Mouse Guy or the Leek Man. Or the two tiny boys who didn't seem to be aware that they were in this charming little movie.
I'm not sure I'd recommended a paid rental for this, unless inexpensive. I found it on America's YouTube for free and in 1080p.
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Relentless video game
I'm a RUYI'S ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE fan and so Zhou Xun brought me here. I predicted she's be a bait and switch -- and she was -- but it was nice to see another RUYI actor in the lead.To me this film felt like a video game staged for the big screen. The quest was a video game quest, the actions the stuff of video game players. It didn't feel like real people at all -- which great diminishes a work like this. The story was so busy with plot the characters were nearly irrelevant.
I fear this film is for younger generations who cannot stay awake if two characters speak quietly in a room. That said it is an impressive spectacle. But I had to pause it several times and go take a mental break. If you have a mild headache this piece will turn it into a migraine with 20 minutes.
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This review may contain spoilers
SUPERTRASH. (I'll try not to spoil too much)
I only watched this because of Xin Zhi Lei. My wife and I adore her. The producers of SUPERSTAR, unfortunately, seemed blissfully unaware that her best roles are where she plays strong women.Here, in this train wreck, she plays a lonely hotel owner. A hotel where we never see her do any work. A hotel with no staff. And here's the best part: you'll never see ONE guest. And the writers didn't even bother to have her say, "Business is slow these days." Nope, nothing. You're just supposed to overlook this because LAZY.
The show is rated 13 and over, but a pathetic relentless flaw like this makes it really 10 and under. And that's an insult to many 10 year olds. And it's not just this mistake.
Our lead male -- Zhang Yi -- is treated like garbage by her. Yet this doesn't make her strong in the viewers eyes but instead a complete jerk. So she sits in her 'hotel' hoping this okay guy will fall in love with her, which is ridiculous because Xin Zhi Lei is one of the prettiest actresses on the planet. Her character should be fighting off constant advances from men (and women) but instead sits in her home cooking and sighing... waiting for her white knight.
Meanwhile our lead is presented with a real romantic prospect, a charming young lady who is head over heals for him. The audience loves her but she might as well be invisible to Yi who really remains only interested in Xin Zhi Lei because it says so in the script. And this fine young actor's worst scenes are with Xin Zhi Lei because neither can figure out why their characters would be interested in the other. It's THAT bad, trust me.
In Episode 1 we learn funny aliens from space have decided to rescue our hero and make him live a virtual life re-do. We don't really know why, though. Like if the aliens wanted to study mankind -- why a simulation? Why not just look down and observe with the tech they already have? And why not use alien 'tech' to manipulate the real players in real situations instead of nuking the dramatic tension with a simulation?!?
These aliens insist our hero achieve great fame to escape the simulation, but why do two aliens from across the galaxy care if this suicidal kid becomes famous in a simulation? And these aliens don't quite give us a way to know how close he's getting to his goal AND WORSE disappear from the story almost altogether.
So really, at the end of the day, this giant piece of trash is just an excuse to have some of the cast singing songs. Which could have been achieved with a simpler and far better premise. This isn't just the worst C-dramas I've ever seen -- this is one of the worst TV shows I've ever seen period. And I started seriously watching TV in 1974.
Sure, I could say the lead was doing a great job. Or that most of the cast is pretty good. But what's the point in a story that makes absolutely no sense. I wasn't feeling bad for our hero. I was instead numbed by the idiocy of the story.
Don't get me wrong. I can enjoy and was actually looking forward to light-hearted bubblegum. For that I recommend MAKE A WISH, also on iQiYi.
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MASTERPIECE
The only shortcoming of this piece is the subject matter, a daughter taking care of her Dad ailing from dementia. That's why I can't give the story a 10, because some viewers won't be able to handle. But the way they handle this difficult subject matter is masterful, hence a 9.5.Everything else is perfect. Production values, acting, camera work -- a masterclass.
There's nothing more to say but WATCH IT.
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THE FRIENDS OF FEI KE is a FLAWLESS MASTERPIECE
Read my other reviews. Watch me tear apart bad writing, editing, pacing -- you name it -- I take no prisoners. MEET YOURSELF? Boring cotton candy. JOY OF LIFE? The only funny thing about it is that it thinks its so funny.REGENERATION is a flawless masterpiece. It ties with TO THE WONDER as the best C-Drama I've ever seen, even though both are very short series -- which is likely why they're so good.
RUYI'S ROYAL LOVE IN THE PALACE and IMPERFECT VICTIM are both excellent, as is SHE AND HER GIRLS -- but REGENERATION is another notch above these critically acclaimed legends.
I'm not going to spoil any plot details at all -- but only share it's a great drama in the storytelling mode of America's LOST TV series. Except better. Way better.
The ML Jing Bo Ran was new to me. I believe I've finally found a ML in Wallace Huo's level, which means I'll likely watch anything he is in going forward. This is a star's star. I knew Zhou Yi Ran from the other best series I've ever seen -- TO THE WONDER -- and although her role was small it was tricky to play and she nailed it. I'll now watch anything she's in.
The rest of the cast was terrific. Everything else about the production was flawless. I'll eyeball the director from now on.
I have a few nitpicky things to say, but before I do -- ignore all other reviews not giving this a straight 10. I've read two reviews here, they say everything was great -- but then mysteriously give it an 8.5. WTF?!? Seriously: ignore them.
Nitpicky --
1. Disliked the title. AI informs that Regeneration has a different meaning in China, regarding being 'reborn' and being a Freshman in college. (Something like that.) But AI said my title for this series more matched the title of the original book, and so I'll call it THE FRIENDS OF FEI KE.
2. In Episode 7 we learn that... how to say this without spoiling... that we haven't been given the complete truth? This moment is jarring, because it makes you want to rewatch the series up to that point to learn if this revelation... worked. I had a mild anxiety that they 'cheated' somehow.
3. It did find one flaw, but it's so tiny as to be forgettable. Still, I'd pull the posted episode and correct it, so that it could truly be flawless. At the end of Episode 8, eyes meet between two of our characters in a very moving way. At the top of Episode 9, they recreate that same moment to pull us back into the story, but they edited it differently and it's no longer the same. And the difference is jarring. An editing mistake.
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ALMOST A MASTERPIECE
Outside of the story, absolutely everything about this production was top shelf stuff. Acting/casting, pacing, cinematography, score, editing, costumes, production design -- all perfect. I'm not going to wax poetic, just see for yourself.The story was quite interesting. I give it an 8.5 because it only had two shortcomings --
1. In the second half, it started resorting to melodrama as a device. Shock and awe, as like to call it. It could have gone down a notch or so for this otherwise gentle toned film.
2. I'm not sure the ending quite nailed the landing. For a movie this subtle, the ending has to be perfect. It seemed like a happy ending was tacked on, or that they never had a satisfactory ending. The ending isn't bad. It's just not as perfect as the film.
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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.
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A Pile of China Can Do Stories INSTEAD OF One Compelling Feature
I was tricked by the description of this film. On this site it says, "It tells about the Chinese people's blood connection and spiritual inheritance." I knew it was four short films and presumed it was a generational story, meaning a character that was, say, a boy in the first film would be a man in the second one... and... perhaps that man's daughter would be a woman in the next film. A 'blood connection' that would have made these four films a coherent whole.Instead what we get is a 'pile' of 4 stories, moving forward in time but really with no relation to each other. No, there's no 'spiritual inheritance' to speak of. It's simply 4 stories about what China CAN DO when they set their minds to things, and in this way is like a cultural victory walk.
I'd say the first two segments (war, space research) were excellent dramatic pieces. But the second two segments change to comedy and sort of silly sci-fi, which is a little jarring. It leaves the viewer with the feeling these four films were part of some contest and were never intended to be shown together.
I gave the overall story rating a 6 out of 10 for this reason. Please understand each individual story was better than that, say about an 8 on average. But the feeling these were all originally different projects just stapled together really hurts this otherwise well made, well acted and well intended film.
By the way -- Zhang Zi Yi stars in another film just like this, RUN FOR LOVE, except the theme tying it all together is love. It feels even more disjointed than this and I'm convinced it's simply some short films by graduate school students. Zhang's "So Long My Love" is rather excellent. Better than her segment 'Poem' in this film that is also rather amazing. I must confess I'd love Zhang to create another short or two and tie them all together as a Zhang Zi Yi collection of stories.
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I knew DREAM was garbage but had to be fair and give it a try...
So I noticed here and on Reddit this series was so RAVED about I could smell the social media campaign from a mile away. I knew it was yet another one of those shows that's mostly hype and little else.I've only watched the pilot. Episode One. But before you roll your eyes and tell me "it starts slow" or "that's not a fair way to judge a show" you have to remember what a pilot of a TV show is supposed to do: make you watch the next episode at least, and consider watching the entire series at best. The pilot failed on both fronts.
By the way, I recognize no one in this cast, and so I'm not bringing 'Idol' worship to this series. Seeing it objectively. The lead lady is definitely cute, the male lead is little pointy looking.
1. I'm getting up in years and I find these days that when something is childish and suspect, the trick to make it 'okay' is to simply give it a name.
Halloween is supposed to end around puberty. But now it's okay for adults to show up as Pokemon at Comic-Con because it's 'cosplay'. See? Just giving it a name erases the childishness of it all. "I'm giving my inner child a night out!"
Maybe. Or maybe you need to grow up a little more.
I know, I know, I sound like some grumpy old man telling kids to get off my lawn. I hear you. I don't mind childish fun. I fully enjoyed MAKE A WISH which was basically a feline rewrite of I DREAM OF JEANNIE. It wasn't perfect, but so much fun.
Anyway --
A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM is about an actress who falls into her TV show screenplay and becomes her character in a sense. That is she's aware she doesn't belong in the story she's in. And this one fact ruins all dramatic tension. Not an opinion, but fact.
WIZARD OF OZ wouldn't have worked if Dorothy was aware she was dreaming. GROUNDHOG'S DAY wouldn't have worked if we knew his character was in a screenplay.
So how can DREAM WITHIN A DREAM exist and be so popular? Because this kind of series has a name, don't you know? TRANSMIGRATION. See, that makes everything better, doesn't it?
No. It doesn't. Sorry. The real name for this genre is BAD WRITING.
2. Thanks to suffering thru JOY OF LIFE and MEET YOURSELF, I now give every series a litmus test now before I proceed past episode one. This series left a sourer taste in every way.
a. Are the opening titles and songs engaging or generic? Both the animation and the song were nothing special, leaving me disinterested. That's fair, right? If I see care and love put into such a sequence, it tells me the show has been carefully crafted.
b. Does the show deploy CRASH ZOOMS with 'wooshing' sounds or feel like a video game? Yup.
c. Do we have cutey cartoon sound effects to indicate humor, like a laugh track? Yup.
OZ had a great opening, followed by a song soon after the opening that is one of the best songs on the planet. OZ had no CRASH ZOOMS, no cartoon sound effects.
3. I appreciate that this series wants to be funny. I'm not opposed to the idea. But better writing suggests the following. Keep our lead in her world, make the world real, and have her fight for what she wants.
Suppose she had a Mom or a Grandmother giving her advice on how to deal with the male lead. 'Modern' advice, right? Kinda like a hyper feminist in ancient times. And the girl struggles to do what she says because it sounds like sage advice. But the girl ends up worse for following the advice, but then the world resets itself each day and only the girl remembers this, a la GROUNDHOGS DAY.
No screenplay. No present. No stupid TRANSMIGRATION excuse. Make it real, and that of course means a lovely opening song instead of pop drivel, no Crash Zooms, and no cartoon sound effects.
To overlook all this is YOUR choice.
But why this harsh review is here is that I don't think the young even understand what TV is any longer. I think they've spent so much time gaming or watching sped up TikTok super short vids that the very idea of actually watching a show with proper pacing is completely foreign. That attention spans aren't just shorter but outright GONE.
Don't believe me? There's a review one or two above mine about how someone felt the show started great but then got bland and they dropped it. That's my definition of 'crap' -- so bad you can't keep watching it. But then they skipped a bunch of episodes, came back -- and really liked it. If you can skip ten episodes of a show, it should have never been offered that way.
Real criticism is recognizing crap when you see it and telling others -- it's crap!
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