Personal enjoyment with 2X speed

Is it possible ? yeah it is possible.
It is a drama some parts are really addicting,whereas others are frustrating to the degree you wanna pull your hair out.

Xanxia genre itself is the melodramatic one in the setting of Chinese Olympian Gods. (Pain , Betrayal and Reincarnation are essential ingredients)
I have already seen a lot of famous Xiaxias ( Eternal Love , Ashes of Love , Untamed , Love and Redemption )
Out of all the Xanxias I have seen, 'Ancient Love Poetry' has the most tortuous melodramatic Plot .

( Please note that I am emotional while writing this review
For your information , I watched it on Tencent Youtube)

***First ,on a positive note, the series is visually pleasing when you watch it in 1080 P and there is no eye rolling directing or editing moment when you are reminded of the fact, you are in a drama and not in a story.
Another positive point is the Actors can Act .
I won't say their performances here as Award Worthy , but they are decent enough to create the mood.

***For the Plot

As per my viewing experience , and as everyone is saying , the story can be divided into two arcs :
The Arc Four of them are in the God Realm
The Arc after that .

? For me, the first arc was really boring .
I watched almost all of it with 2X speed.

I don't think Zhou Dong Yu fits the image of an adolescent Goddess who is giddy with everything .
XuKai plays well as the cold & handsome Male God character (as acting wise) , but whether it is the writing or interpretation of actor , the character comes out as 'Bland & Boring' .
So I was not really interested in their love story of First Arc.
The Only thing that pushed me to go through the first Arc was ( well ) the Devil Overlord , Xuan Yi & his grand plan.
Especially, the last 3 or 4 episodes of first Arc have series of dumb events that lead to My Favorite Character's Death.

? The infamous Second Arc

This is the part that is frustrating while I am writing this review.
For the first part , it was really boring, so I didn't care about any of it & causally fast forwarded almost everything.

But this part, it really has the potential to be great. However,unnecessary long arcs of melodramatic plots ruined my enjoyment for the story.

ZDY is lovely as the adventurous Princess with an attitude .
XuKai's Qian Mu is colorful as the awkward lord who meets his first love.
This time, he is the pursuer and she is the one being pursued.
And the dynamics of these two characters come out as 'Lovable Couple'.

But in the middle, they have to kill this lovable mood with unnecessarily long Palace Politics created by Evil Phoenix (I wanna pull out her Feathers)
and her Obsessive daughter.
[Every makjang worthy moments of
Forced Marriage ,
Forcing yourself upon the one who refuses you ( in modern drama, it may be virginity ,but it is Xanxia,so Dragon core)
Unbelievable tortuous punishments ]
All you can think about melodramatic 101 happen in those episodes.

For this second Arc, the chemistry of the two main characters is really palpable and it is the strength of the drama.
But , these two rarely have peaceful moments together.

After a moment of their union , these two return to their Original beings in the first Arc where the unnecessarily Long Angst comes again.
( ML pretends to have Amnesia .
Misunderstanding
Noble idiocy ( ML floating in that bubble with the home wrecking third wheeler))

( I said in one of my posted feed was that one of the positive things in early part of the drama was 'There are no hypocrite elders in God Realm. The Four characters are ' True Gods' themselves and they make decisions on their own')

But later in the Second Arc, that positive thing in first arc became irritating to me.

They have the strength of True Gods ,but the story is written in the way they become weaker that Male lead has to do every angst things possible to hurt the female lead , not to draw the suspicion of The Evil Phoenix.
( I know, similar thing happened in the first part of 'Eternal Love' but
here it happens in Second part,which makes me more annoyed )

Overall, I loved the couple in second Arc , but I did have to go through all those tortuous episodes to see them and I seriously hated that.

At the end, I felt like I had to take lots of bitter medicine just to have a moment of happiness.


*****
So you may love this if you are either fans of both leads or fans of highly tortuous melodramatic plot.

This drama may not be bad if you watch it slowly and have a happy drama to watch in between.

At the end,you can't really expect high scores from me when I said I watched almost 2/3 of show with 2X speed for various reasons.
I only give this high because I did love the main couple in Second Arc

Read More

Will enjoy it if you are a groundhog day fan

First things first , the drama won't be added to my rewatch list . So 8.5 is the highest score I give to the dramas of one time watch.

The reason this drama doesn't become one of my favorite rewatch is I am tired of the repetitive scenes over the 15 episodes (even for the first time )& watching it another time while knowing the possible end result, sounds a bit boring to me .

*****
Let's move to the plot.

1.If you come for this certain type of genre ,you will find it does well & the plot is consistent.

While watching the movies, there are certain types of thrills for various genres.
1.Jump scare type of thrill.
2.Don't know what will happen next ( life threatening )type of thrill
3. Mysterious curious type of thrill

And what 'Reset' gives us the Curious type of who does it & how they will resolve 'The Bomb ' situation

It does not give ' Who will die next ' kind of story,so I am not worried for the protagonists' lives because I know when they die, the next loop will come immediately.

So apart from the mystery of how they will resolve the situation, nothing comes super interesting to me.

It may depend on my mood, but the story arc about each passenger doesn't connect well with me either.
May be part of the reason is I can guess all of them will be alive at the end of the drama.
Another reason is there are many people in worse condition than these bus passengers & they are around me in real life.


2. For the acting , the acting seems natural.

Because this is the thriller type genre and there are no dramatic scenes that characters need to show intense emotions in the story. So,this is the highest praise I can give to the acting , by the given scenes and the story.

Read More

The Fate of a Court Lady tied to A King

The drama includes the Romance tag, but I think The Romance Tag alone isn't enough to describe this drama.

I say it because where the first half of the drama is indeed filled with cuteness , fluffiness and swoony romance , the latter half is all about the bitter realism of women's lives in a 18th century Palace Building.
And the viewers who come to see the fluffy romance in usual fusion sageuks may be disappointed by this.

It's more like a tragic union of two people from different social classes, who need to fullfill their respective roles,and chained to their respective roles in a patriarchal based society, so that their destined romance becomes a tragedy in spite of their love.



-----*------Spoilers Ahead

YiSan's life was tragic from the start.
He was born into the Royal Family in the Royal successor line as a Royal Grandson.
His life might be the one everyone wanted to live in, but actually not an easy one for himself.

His father( Crown Prince Sado ) accused him of robbing fatherly love from Yeongjo before his death.
His Grandfather ( King Yeongjo ) saw his unobedient son ,Sado in his grandson ( San ).
Noron Faction was afraid of him and against his rise to power, so they attacked him every chance they got.

He needed to look out for enemies and be mindful of his grandfather 24/7 for his whole life.

But San was still the dutiful and loyal Grandson of the Royal Family , strict on himself and groomed to become a capable ruler of his nation.

On his road to become a King, he unexpectedly met a court lady who was intelligent enough to help him .
She was loyal to him and cared him as a human being .
San 's hard shell around court ladies and determination to create a perfect family with a wife from a noble family : all of his beliefs were shaken by this woman.San had fallen in love with the woman who was devoted to him and used her life to protect him.

.......

As for Deok Im , I will describe her as a woman who was too intelligent for an 18th Century one.

As she read a lot of books since her childhood, she was knowledgeable even as a young court maid.

While other court's maids were dreaming of receiving the King's Grace(slept with the King & living the luxurious life as one of the king's wives ), she was the one who understood the burden of being a King's concubine since her young age.
( Fragile life depending on the King's favor, constant power struggles , her title and status wouldn't belong to her anymore, but to the Royal family ,etc )

She was a free spirited woman who wanted to enjoy her life despite her limited freedom as a court maid.

But the Fate didn't allow her even to be a simple court maid and tied hers to that of Tiger Prince, Yi San.

When she met him for the first time, I think she had a crush on him as the Crown Prince 's lecturer ,as most girls of her age would, though she knew she couldn't marry him because of her status as a court maid.

After his hints of confession in the market, she was swayed .
But her feelings were immediately contained after Hong Deok Ro's speech about how unimportant a court's maid feelings were ,apart from herself and after hearing San's determination not to fall for a mere court maid and to take a woman of noble status as his wife during her Coming of Age ceremony.

****Here we need to note is
unlike San, Deok Im was constantly reminded of their Social Status here and there.******

But San was still her master , she needed to help him when he was in trouble cause San's demise would mean her expulsion from the Palace,her Home at least( if unfortunate, death ).

While helping him, their feelings were interwined and she had fallen in love with her master as a man.

------*------

After San got on the throne, everything became complicated.
Their power differences became more apparent cause he was not a powerless heir who needed her help anymore.
The only thing he wanted from her was the comfort and family given by her as his woman.

He was the man with the highest authority in Joseon , everything was entitled to him.

As the word ' lonely at the top ' ,San became more lonely as the King because he couldn't believe his own mother anymore. ( His mom 'Hong' clan is from Noron faction ).

As he felt lonelier, San's desire to take Deok Im as his partner became stronger.
So when she refused his confessions and his marriage proposal, he became disappointed and angry.

****While everyone's having problems with San's behaviors in later episodes, I have no problems with these.

San was groomed to behave like a king since he was young and taught that the court maids were the King's Women and entitled to him.
This was part of his nature and this was the realistic portrayal of what an 18th Century King would be.
( As much as Real life Jeongjo was a benevolent patriarch, he did punish Uibin's maid after her 2nd rejection )

I don't consider his behaviors as romantic either . Only as his nature and not disturbing enough to ruin my viewing of this drama.

*****

On Deok Im's side, as the woman who got the King's affections, she was not only pressured to become his woman but also in danger of being used as a leverage in court politics.

The harder thing for her was her own dilemma.
She was not the young court maid in the library who didn't have much desires anymore.
She loved San and wanted to have him as a man.

Her own dilemma of what to choose ;
Her own precious freedom or the man she dearly held in her heart .

At last, she accepted San's will because she loved him more than her freedom and partly because her freedom was not like it was before and limited by those in the court.
She became a concubine mainly because of her love for San ,but partly it was also because of court politics.

....

Despite becoming partners in marriage ,San was not the ideal partner or hers alone like she always wanted him to be, while she gave up everything just to be with him.

As the one with higher authority in relationship, San failed to see Deok Im 's sacrificial love as a whole picture.
(She might not say 'I love You ' out loud, but she showed it with her choices and behaviours ,but San failed to recognize it because his attention was not on Deok Im alone, but the whole nation .)

On the other hand, he prioritized his role as a King over the role as a husband and
made some choices as a King though he clearly knew these would hurt Deok Im.

Deok Im's Sadness and Resentment slowly built up in this unbalanced relationship ,but moment of happiness with San comforted her.
Her life as a concubine was a mixed bag of disappointment and happiness.

But after the death of her son and her best friend , her husband was busy playing the King for his nation . Her already fragile body was burdened with much emotional baggage and she needed to face that alone.
And well , the tragedy striked at the last moment.


.....
San and Deok Im were clearly in love with each other.

But in the era they lived in, they could never fully embrace each other .

Deok Im wanted San as hers , but he was a king so it would never be a thing.

San was the King ,yet he couldn't give his woman the thing she wanted most , namely 'Her freedom' because the system didn't allow that for the women of the Harem and he needed to live as an example since he was a ruler of the nation .

Unlike Romeo and Juliet, San and DI might not have two families who were enemies with each other.
But the system itself and the Palace became huge obstacles in their love story.

Read More

Pulling a supporting character through the mud to make the main character shine

Autumn ballad is one of lately popular genres of palace detective historical series.

The Heroine is a smart girl , able to solve the crime like Sherlock Holmes in ancient China.
She then meets our Smart Hero on her journey, sparks fly due to her sharp intellect and the rest is history.

I love that kind of story since Maiden Holmes , so I came to watch Autumn Ballad.

*****
The Beginning episodes are not bad , which start with the case of our Heroine,Qiu Yan's bethroned death on their wedding day.
The resistance of the heroine who refused to die for a husband ,whom she didn't know and hadn't properly wed yet , is admirable.

But my problem with the drama actually starts after that case had been solved and she came back home .

We are indroduced to many members of Qiu family as supporting characters ,but none of them particularly stands out as an individual , they are described as either selfish or
self-orientated to make the Heroine shine in comparison in drama fashion.

Among them, one particular supporting character is Qiu Min, Heroine step sister.
Qiu Min seems to be jealous of Qiu Yan for her talent and also her biological mom's love for Qiu Yan.

To make the Heroine unique, the story made her fallen in love with other man ,Qin Xuan rather than ML ,Liang Yi at the beginning of story. Coincidentally, Qiu Min also fell in love with that Qin Xuan.

When misfortunes fell upon Qiu family, Qiu Yan broke up with Qin Xuan. ( Not real break up at that time )
The story should be like Qiu Yan broke up with him under difficult circumstances and fell in love with Liang Yi due to their closeness in solving Qiu family case. Simple and Modernized , right ?

But they make Qiu Min dirty again.
They made her rob Qin Xuan ( after she got raped ) from Qiu Yan , so QY had no choice , but to cut QX ( for real this time) and got close to LY , to present QY as a loyal woman ,not as a woman who had change of heart.
(Another problem of mine with chinese dramas .
Why does rape victim suddenly go bad and turn into villain mood ? Also in Prince of Liang Lin )

I mean there are individuals among society, some are strong like Qiu Yan while others can be weak like Qiu Min.
Qiu Min may be unpleasant cause she is a hypocrite, but there is no way to make her dirty to the end ,to make the Heroine shine.


Also I heard the main villain who made all of these happened, wasn't punished either at the end of the story.

Where can I find my satisfaction ?


:::::::::::
I mean I understand it needs a villain to make a hero.
But as a drama which wants to be orientated around a smart female lead and writes about feminism, they make QM totally terrible.

If they are business models who need to be compared for god's sake , I understand.

But it is the two females.
I feel bad for the actress who plays as QM actually.

Read More

A Girl's Journey

I completed this drama one week ago.

I wanna write the review after the watch , but I think I don't love it enough it to write one immediately.
With my personal rating , it should be rated 8.5/10.
But because it is so good , I wanna rate it higher than this.

If I have to talk about 25-21 , I wanna divide Heroine's story into two parts
1. HeeDo's Coming of Age Journey ( Her personal life)
2. Her love story.

1. The Coming of Age Part is so well done.
I am Not the one who cry easily while watching media. ( except for the ones with animals)

But , Here there is one particular story arc ( Her first Gold medal) that really made me feel her sadness & frustration. I cried with her.

HeeDo's passion about Fencing , all of that was realistic as I had been transported back to the past & saw this passionate gold medalist .

Also, her friendship with Go Yurim is one of the best I have seen among millions of Asian Dramas.

2. Before I watched the drama, I had known the ending already.
May be that's the reason why I might subconsciously try not to care about the love story too much.

(I don't know how should I say this but I will try.)

✨If you consider & watch this as a drama, you will feel like they could do this much better.

There are a million ways to make the happy ending.
If you couldn't ,either wrote the Story of Adult HeeDo better or gave a stronger reason for their breakup.
In this way, we feel less bitter about that ending.

✨But if you are immersed in this story as the real life, the ending is not that bad.

It is understandable that they couldn't be together anymore because they had different life goals.
HeeDo tried but neither of them could make a big sacrifice to meet in the middle .
( HeeDo wanted to continue her life as an international fencer , Baek YJ with his life as a report er in potential war zone )

Some will say 'They loved each other too much.Couldn't they wait?'
May be. But at that time, they didn't know how long the wait would be .
If you were them, would you take the risk with 'The Wait'.

Apart from the Heroine's story, all of the side stories of secondary characters are interesting too.


I would recommend 25-21 to anyone who wanna watch a feel good coming of age Story .

Read More

A drama with confused own identity

I write reviews only for dramas either I love or I drop despite I want to love them.
I wanna write the reasons & keep a memo of why I dropped them.

The Wuxia Drama I love most is the ' Heavenly Sword & Dragon Sabre (2003) ' . It is a wuxia drama with historical background.

On the other hand, 'Who rules the World' seems like ' A court drama' with Wuxia background.
Most of its episodes focus on Court Politics while it is labelled as Wuxia Drama .


******
I watch dramas blindly, only when I have strong desire to check it out by watching trailers or they are from my most favorite genres.
I usually read the reviews first for most dramas if I am unsure to watch them or not.

I watched the review video of WRTW on 'Avenue X youtube'.
The review is neither too bad nor too good.

So I decided to give it a go because I adored Yang Yang & Zhao Lusi.
( Why not ? They are good looking & I have nothing much to watch at the moment)

*****
Even if the plot is written with Fantasy elements and Wuxia, the centre core of the plot is 'The Lonely Prince is emotionally hurt and Saved by an Innocent Maiden' . (At least by Drama Version)

Yeah, we have seen this plot multiple times before, not only in ancient times but also in modern times .
The plot is a Millennium long Cliche , but if properly executed, most become crack dramas.
( Bu Bu Jing Xin )

After watching this, most of my issue lies with 'ML characterisation'.

At the start of the drama, they introduced ML, FLX as a strong individual who manage Fountain Abode, ' A secret Martial art Organization' .
They said 'Fountain Abode is full of skillful individuals' and Branches of that organization also seem to exist in other States , not only in Yongzhou where ML actually resides as a prince.

But when we actually arrived Yongzhou, the ML who is that cunning & powerful was presented as the powerless prince with less allies in the court .This is less convincing & totally unbelievable.

( Ok if one is Naruto & the other is actual 'Genin' level ninja, you can't have a fight.
So ML has to be weak in his own kingdom .
Logic )

It is as if the plot is written like that just to present 'All that Palace Scheming with his step brother'

Yeah, I know . Family trauma is necessary for the ML to connect with FL who will give him the necessary emotional support .

But it is like the events are happening just for the sake of happening.

I totally gave up my common sense of understanding especially in ' The Examination Arc', the entire 'Photocopying Martial Art' really came out of nowhere to solve the issue easily.

.........
It also doesn't help that I don't feel the romantic chemistry between two main leads.

From the moment we see them, they have already known each other . They are like rivals in the Martial World.
I don't remember seeing a particularly memorable moment that move forward their relationship from this point to romantic point.

So I can only assume may be they have fallen for each other long before the drama starts and it is like I cut in the middle without seeing their initial interaction. So I feel nothing and disconnected from their romance.

*****
They build the world around Dadong empire & vassal 6 states.
It sounds grand, but rather than focusing on the big picture, what we get is 'Neverending Political mess in Yongzhou'
Not even the FL character is fully fleshed out.

Huang Chao and YWY seem interesting, but their screentime is limited.

On the other hand, ML's stepmom Bitchy Queen & his boring brother get a lot of screentime.

*****
Acting wise, Yang Yang & Zhao Lusi look beautiful and dashing.

But their acting doesn't particularly wow me
because I have seen 'Yang Yang' in his other dramas where he played the similar 'Grand Character'.
Since their acting is nothing special, it really cannot convince me to continue watching when the drama is getting boring. ( It is not 16 episodes, it is freaking 40 episodes)

Apart from the main characters, there is ' No eye Catching ' level of acting from side characters either.

Worse, the actor who is playing as ' Feng Ju' really irritates me (I don't know whether it is the character or the actor himself who always plays more or less the same in every projects he is in.)

*****
Cinematography is fine. But clumsiness of editing here and there disturb enjoyment and immersion into the drama.



I feel like many things are out of place. So my interest is slowly waning and after that, I decide to drop the drama.

Read More