Michael_0718
The country which consists of 7,640 islands.
This review may contain spoilers
The aftermath of going against the Emperor's will | The favored river God's illogical death & legacy
"Without a body after death, the soul gains true freedom." - Kang Xi
I want to start this review by stating how dissatisfied and disappointed I am on the path they took to conclude Chen Huang's role and character in this story. I understand that they want him to be viewed as someone who died valiantly and unyielding, however, I want to retort back and say that he was played dirty by the writer instead. His legacy was later set up as monumental worthy of nobel prize but in reality it was their way to make up for their incompetence to develop and expand his characters purpose and abilities. Like, they know he's extremely capable but the problem is that they are not talented enough to cultivate and utilize it properly. Hence his unjustifiable and illogical death.
Also, after scrutinizing this story, I wanted to say that they should have not given this drama the title 'The Long River' and instead come up with something related to the Emperor's ambition and regrets. I feel like the title doesn't live up to the screen time the 'Long River' has gotten. Not to mention how neglected the characters (Cheng Huang & Jin Fu) working on the actual river are.
On the good side, I wanna say that the writer of this story is exceptionally gifted in giving in depth purpose and development to the side characters. Heck! I feel like all of them combined has gotten more focus and screen time compared to the actual protagonists of this show. Which is really annoying because it seems like all his attention was diverted to them to the point where he had forgotten who the real leads are!!
In addition, the writer also seemed to be well-versed to topics related to politics—its structures, components and system. Reason why he's totally engrossed and invested to the political infighting of the story. I can even proclaim that this is heavily centered to that; which is understandable since river construction has to go through such thorough planning, discussions and approvals. The problem is... it's extremely focused on the dramas happening between the 2 different political faction that it has strayed away from the main issue of the story.
One thing I want to sincerely praise and applaud this drama for is its attempt to depict the struggles of the righteous and upstanding officials under the well established and deeply rooted corruption in the government; as it proves that attaining good governance was and will never be easy even to those incorruptible officials; and that it automatically puts anyone on the spotlight that risks their life to an apparent tragic ending.
Just to add up, I had this idea written while I was watching this drama "A nation will thrive and flourish under a good governance" and I must say that it proves me wrong as this story demostrates how even the Emperor was tolerant and susceptible to corruption.
Timeline and phasing - The transition between timelines are smoothly executed to the point where I almost got out of track on how much time/days/months/years have passed since the previous events. lol
Graphics, site set up and design were impressively realistic! You can clearly see that this production was greatly supported through their budget. I mean, even the placards are grandly designed.
Lastly, I just want to mention how everything went south when Emperor Kang Xi's patience and tolerance towards Chen Huang & Jin Fu finally snapped!
Story - 9.0, You will only notice that something is wrong while watching the last 3-5 episodes. Even with my grave rants above, I still wanna say that this drama was well produced and directed. It's just that they focused too much on 1 aspect of the story and was never able to get out of it till the end. The story strayed away from how I expected it to be, which is about the 'Long River'.
Acting/Cast - 10, Perfect set of artists! I'm out of words of how good all the actors are and honestly, this is one of the drama where I don't really have to worry about the acting and perfomance. It's highly visible that they're mostly skilled veteran and even those who are not, acted and blended really well.
Music - 10, At first, I thought it is too 'opera' based but then I realized that the overall music was selected to correspond to the era this story was set on. The music delivers this melancholy vibe and feeling that made me feel the sorrow and pain shown on screen. It depicted and helps hightens the emotions of the scenes.
Rewatch Value - 8.0, I never really thought that something was wrong with this drama until I reached the denouement. I hate how it was ended in a rather loosely manner and that's also the reason why I don't think I can watch it again. This rating is actually more on how good the drama is during my initial watch. It was good but I probably will not re-watch it.
Overall - 9.0, This drama could have been one of my favorite, only if they didn't spend so much time focusing on the political propaganda and agenda of the story. This show was promising but was tainted by how lazy and unreasonable they delivered its ending.
IF you find my review helpful please let me know.
I want to start this review by stating how dissatisfied and disappointed I am on the path they took to conclude Chen Huang's role and character in this story. I understand that they want him to be viewed as someone who died valiantly and unyielding, however, I want to retort back and say that he was played dirty by the writer instead. His legacy was later set up as monumental worthy of nobel prize but in reality it was their way to make up for their incompetence to develop and expand his characters purpose and abilities. Like, they know he's extremely capable but the problem is that they are not talented enough to cultivate and utilize it properly. Hence his unjustifiable and illogical death.
Also, after scrutinizing this story, I wanted to say that they should have not given this drama the title 'The Long River' and instead come up with something related to the Emperor's ambition and regrets. I feel like the title doesn't live up to the screen time the 'Long River' has gotten. Not to mention how neglected the characters (Cheng Huang & Jin Fu) working on the actual river are.
On the good side, I wanna say that the writer of this story is exceptionally gifted in giving in depth purpose and development to the side characters. Heck! I feel like all of them combined has gotten more focus and screen time compared to the actual protagonists of this show. Which is really annoying because it seems like all his attention was diverted to them to the point where he had forgotten who the real leads are!!
In addition, the writer also seemed to be well-versed to topics related to politics—its structures, components and system. Reason why he's totally engrossed and invested to the political infighting of the story. I can even proclaim that this is heavily centered to that; which is understandable since river construction has to go through such thorough planning, discussions and approvals. The problem is... it's extremely focused on the dramas happening between the 2 different political faction that it has strayed away from the main issue of the story.
One thing I want to sincerely praise and applaud this drama for is its attempt to depict the struggles of the righteous and upstanding officials under the well established and deeply rooted corruption in the government; as it proves that attaining good governance was and will never be easy even to those incorruptible officials; and that it automatically puts anyone on the spotlight that risks their life to an apparent tragic ending.
Just to add up, I had this idea written while I was watching this drama "A nation will thrive and flourish under a good governance" and I must say that it proves me wrong as this story demostrates how even the Emperor was tolerant and susceptible to corruption.
Timeline and phasing - The transition between timelines are smoothly executed to the point where I almost got out of track on how much time/days/months/years have passed since the previous events. lol
Graphics, site set up and design were impressively realistic! You can clearly see that this production was greatly supported through their budget. I mean, even the placards are grandly designed.
Lastly, I just want to mention how everything went south when Emperor Kang Xi's patience and tolerance towards Chen Huang & Jin Fu finally snapped!
Story - 9.0, You will only notice that something is wrong while watching the last 3-5 episodes. Even with my grave rants above, I still wanna say that this drama was well produced and directed. It's just that they focused too much on 1 aspect of the story and was never able to get out of it till the end. The story strayed away from how I expected it to be, which is about the 'Long River'.
Acting/Cast - 10, Perfect set of artists! I'm out of words of how good all the actors are and honestly, this is one of the drama where I don't really have to worry about the acting and perfomance. It's highly visible that they're mostly skilled veteran and even those who are not, acted and blended really well.
Music - 10, At first, I thought it is too 'opera' based but then I realized that the overall music was selected to correspond to the era this story was set on. The music delivers this melancholy vibe and feeling that made me feel the sorrow and pain shown on screen. It depicted and helps hightens the emotions of the scenes.
Rewatch Value - 8.0, I never really thought that something was wrong with this drama until I reached the denouement. I hate how it was ended in a rather loosely manner and that's also the reason why I don't think I can watch it again. This rating is actually more on how good the drama is during my initial watch. It was good but I probably will not re-watch it.
Overall - 9.0, This drama could have been one of my favorite, only if they didn't spend so much time focusing on the political propaganda and agenda of the story. This show was promising but was tainted by how lazy and unreasonable they delivered its ending.
IF you find my review helpful please let me know.
Was this review helpful to you?
