Best of all time (seriously)
I must confess, I did this show a great injustice. I have watched and rewatched this series, but I never left a single review for what i consider to be the best costume drama show of all time.
LLTG is the story of growing pains, family, romance, and political intrigue, all embroiled into one from the POV of a teenager, Chen Saoshang. Technically, this is nothing new in costume drama land, there are hundreds of costume drama story like this. But LLTG stood out with its stellar story telling, casting, acting, and directing. I applaud the director, Fei Zhenxiang, the story writing, and the actors of this show, for breathing life into the characters.
First, the acting. I have to highlight the main character of this story: Chen Saoshang. CSS as a character was as different as it gets from me as the audience, in terms of age, time period she lived in, family situation, and personality. But throughout the series, I can't help but myself in her shoes, sympathize with her, and root for her. CSS was flawed, immature at parts, innocent, and sometimes too smart for her own good. We will see her make mistake and mature up as an adult, and I felt the loss as she matured due to what she went through. And not just CSS, but also the rest of the actors breathed life into the characters. Each character were unique, they were not just mob character just to support the leads, but each acting was believable and true to character, and the cast has great chemistry.
Second, the storytelling. In theory, this story was as common as it gets, a girl gets together with a dreamy guy, there will be other suitors as well, and she gets embroiled into politics due to said guy. Seemingly nothing special. But what I like about this story, is how things flow realistically and how it takes time to develop. The dialog was smart but natural, even laugh out funny at times. Forget cringy expository dialog. And not just dialog, everyone had a driving reason behind what they do, and given their situation, what they do make sense. For example, the story does not shy away from the fact that LBY is too good for CSS, and the characters admitted it, even CSS herself. But later in S2, as we get to understand LBY's perspective, we understood why he fell so hard, against his better judgement, and how deeply flawed he is because of his past.
Another example would be the realistic character growth. Often times in dramas, once the characters fall in love, they become cookie cutter characters, head over heels in love, and everything is seen from rose-colored glasses. But CSS and LBY are 2 different people with different personalities. She fell for someone else, because someone like her would not right out-of-the-box fall for someone like LBY, they clashed often, as any couple do, and this conflict and growth was depicted realistically. I even learned some things from their relationship.
Third, the casting. I love, love the casting of this series. Everyone are looking appropriate for their role, who's supposed to be old are old, who are supposed to be plain looking are plain looking, those who are supposed to be ripped are ripped (LBY, im looking at you). The make up and lighting was natural and not overdone, cinematic, even. Usually with idol dramas, I always have a hard time telling apart one person from another (I'm bad telling faces apart) because they all looks bling, as if they're trying to cram as many idols in as possible. For example, Cheng Shaogang (Shaosang's twin brother) commented, he could never expect Yangyang to get the same fate as Shaosang, because Saoshang is prettier. The audience can easily pick this up, because Yang yang looks plainer, though memorable in its own way. But not so in other dramas where often time i can't tell apart who's supposed to be considered plain and who's pretty because everyone was equally bling.
Fourth and lastly, the directing is simply chef's kiss. I like how it's subtle and cinematic the camerawork is. You wont find silly mistakes like shaky or halted frames (often found even high budget cdrama) or other accidental misses. Their work was perfect given the limited time and budget. I was very surprised to find out later that the series was at first only a filler series (so it didn't have SS+ budget) and was suddenly forced to air earlier, and they were in such a hurry that they didn't have any reserve eps, and often times, they finished editing just the night before the day they need to air. There were even some air and edit later. I love how subtle and quiet the music is, but apparently it is not intentional, as they did not have time for the OST until around eps 20 or so. But accidentally it makes the tone of the drama more endearing and special.
All in all, I highly recommend anyone to watch Love Like the Galaxy, even if you don't like cdramas.
LLTG is the story of growing pains, family, romance, and political intrigue, all embroiled into one from the POV of a teenager, Chen Saoshang. Technically, this is nothing new in costume drama land, there are hundreds of costume drama story like this. But LLTG stood out with its stellar story telling, casting, acting, and directing. I applaud the director, Fei Zhenxiang, the story writing, and the actors of this show, for breathing life into the characters.
First, the acting. I have to highlight the main character of this story: Chen Saoshang. CSS as a character was as different as it gets from me as the audience, in terms of age, time period she lived in, family situation, and personality. But throughout the series, I can't help but myself in her shoes, sympathize with her, and root for her. CSS was flawed, immature at parts, innocent, and sometimes too smart for her own good. We will see her make mistake and mature up as an adult, and I felt the loss as she matured due to what she went through. And not just CSS, but also the rest of the actors breathed life into the characters. Each character were unique, they were not just mob character just to support the leads, but each acting was believable and true to character, and the cast has great chemistry.
Second, the storytelling. In theory, this story was as common as it gets, a girl gets together with a dreamy guy, there will be other suitors as well, and she gets embroiled into politics due to said guy. Seemingly nothing special. But what I like about this story, is how things flow realistically and how it takes time to develop. The dialog was smart but natural, even laugh out funny at times. Forget cringy expository dialog. And not just dialog, everyone had a driving reason behind what they do, and given their situation, what they do make sense. For example, the story does not shy away from the fact that LBY is too good for CSS, and the characters admitted it, even CSS herself. But later in S2, as we get to understand LBY's perspective, we understood why he fell so hard, against his better judgement, and how deeply flawed he is because of his past.
Another example would be the realistic character growth. Often times in dramas, once the characters fall in love, they become cookie cutter characters, head over heels in love, and everything is seen from rose-colored glasses. But CSS and LBY are 2 different people with different personalities. She fell for someone else, because someone like her would not right out-of-the-box fall for someone like LBY, they clashed often, as any couple do, and this conflict and growth was depicted realistically. I even learned some things from their relationship.
Third, the casting. I love, love the casting of this series. Everyone are looking appropriate for their role, who's supposed to be old are old, who are supposed to be plain looking are plain looking, those who are supposed to be ripped are ripped (LBY, im looking at you). The make up and lighting was natural and not overdone, cinematic, even. Usually with idol dramas, I always have a hard time telling apart one person from another (I'm bad telling faces apart) because they all looks bling, as if they're trying to cram as many idols in as possible. For example, Cheng Shaogang (Shaosang's twin brother) commented, he could never expect Yangyang to get the same fate as Shaosang, because Saoshang is prettier. The audience can easily pick this up, because Yang yang looks plainer, though memorable in its own way. But not so in other dramas where often time i can't tell apart who's supposed to be considered plain and who's pretty because everyone was equally bling.
Fourth and lastly, the directing is simply chef's kiss. I like how it's subtle and cinematic the camerawork is. You wont find silly mistakes like shaky or halted frames (often found even high budget cdrama) or other accidental misses. Their work was perfect given the limited time and budget. I was very surprised to find out later that the series was at first only a filler series (so it didn't have SS+ budget) and was suddenly forced to air earlier, and they were in such a hurry that they didn't have any reserve eps, and often times, they finished editing just the night before the day they need to air. There were even some air and edit later. I love how subtle and quiet the music is, but apparently it is not intentional, as they did not have time for the OST until around eps 20 or so. But accidentally it makes the tone of the drama more endearing and special.
All in all, I highly recommend anyone to watch Love Like the Galaxy, even if you don't like cdramas.
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