9
29
1
Enigma05
USA
This review may contain spoilers
Art Brought Back to Life
A painting from the Song dynasty has art imitating life. A time where justice was served more vigilante style than through the court system as that seemed broken. "Only evil can counter evil" but is that really true? Is there no light at the end of this dark, gritty treacherous tunnel? That's what drew me to this show. I liked the mystery solving, regular people predicaments with a slice of life comedy. Just about every show I watch of the historical costume variety has rich people or royalty dealing with betrayal. This one was of I guess you could call them the lower middle class with clothing everyone else wore. Didn't make them any less smarter or capable than their peers with large homes and a multitude of servants. The paintings brought art back to life.
Pros: The storytelling was wonderful. The five main ones created a patchwork family that took care of each other and loved each other. Each case tied back to their own histories and families as only two were related to each other. Ultimately there was one main villain that took an episode and a half to bring down but who caused oppression and tyranny with everyone he killed. And he wasn't brought down by any epic war or battlefield fight, but through the concentrated effort and meticulous evidence gathering of ZBY or ML. He connected the dots for himself and others better than most. Though not without flaws, his biggest was burning that diary and not letting the kids know who their real father was (letting someone take advantage and nearly cause a catastrophe). Which was then brought before the public and governor in a trial for all to see.
All five in this family held their own; WY, whose family save brother (he comes in at the end as a psychopath who was from the extreme opposite of the main antagonist so also no redeeming qualities as he used others as much as the villain for his revenge, while keeping himself safe; a total coward) were massacred and she became a pirate/assassin who quit instead of murdering innocents and found her life with ZBY and his father. Her intelligence and fighting skills came in handy. Then there were the two kids; ZB and ZM. ZB wanted to be a physician but was too strong and became an excellent coroner instead helping on many of the cases. ZM was as rigid as a ruler when it came to his belief in rules and regulations but was impulsive and naive in many situations. Lastly, the supposedly senile patriarch was really the 11th brother of the emperor and apparently the exact replica of him but he helped in putting a lot of small pieces together through the secrets he kept/knowledge he had.
On top of the actual family, their friends like GZ and WF at K-court were on hand with both the case solving and comedy. Silly YH the actual coroner who couldn't perform an autopsy without hurling to save his life. Lady Wang towards the end to help GZ. The painter came in just the right moments to help with his Eagle eye view as he's the reason these stories are known now. The neighbors and other East Capital residents who helped in a big way at the end and throughout. This was very realistic where great characters lost their lives due to injustice and you felt the pain of the main characters; like just as ZM made a friend, he lost him. I do think that ZM given today's parameters fits on the autism spectrum with his personality.
A lot of things we see in today's society we saw in this series, the lack of justice being one but also how good people are framed and whole families decimated because of that. We saw a regular family just trying to buy a house, fail over and over due to corruption. From the way the cases were done and murders happen (especially the human paint brush) made you think you were in Dante's Inferno.
Costumes, sets, and the makeup which made two actors as father and son even though in real life they were only 7 years apart in age was remarkable. Opening credits were very creative. That last scene made it seem like they were possibly thinking of a season 2; we knew SZ was alive after that jump off the bridge but who's that dude he was bowing to? So I guess we'll see though I think just this season was enough as justice was finally done though it took 20 years. Better late than never.
Cons: I don't remember any of the OSTs honestly. The bgm was also forgettable. I had some issues with WY as an assassin; her facial expression lacked the gravitas when she fought. You can be cold and collected but it wasn't even there. Only when she felt pain did her face move. Assassins are colder, less human, more fierce and that just didn't happen with her. The short storyline of ZM breaking from his rigidity to just get swayed by one conversation with SM to do something as extreme as blowing up a bridge when he's never done a single bad thing. Yes, one can argue he had his mind blown with what his biological father did though under duress and SM probably drugged him when he planted those ideas in his head, we had seen him be so controlled that it was completely out of character and than after the cry fest with WY where only pro was their acting their hearts out, how quickly he snapped back to his former self. It was a bit of a whiplash.
Why were there only 4 guys from K-court fighting that large group of big bad's guards in the last episode? On the boat all the other K-court were all "we're not afraid to die, let's go get him!" But when it really mattered, they were nowhere to be seen. Were they babysitting the bridge after the threat was neutralized? Like what? They all rushed in after the fight was over. It made zilch sense. And we never knew how ZBY pulled off the master plan that included the story teller, his neighbors, the butcher, and everyone else who helped. We were used to seeing little flashbacks but other than the one with his father we had no idea how that was organized. Little things here and there could have been more fleshed out.
Would I recommend it? Absolutely! This was great storytelling and it felt more real than a lot of the costumes dramas with wealthy people. I only knew BBH, Gala Zhang and a few of the supporting from the cast prior to this; but boy did they do a great job. Definitely give this a go if you're looking for a high quality drama.
Pros: The storytelling was wonderful. The five main ones created a patchwork family that took care of each other and loved each other. Each case tied back to their own histories and families as only two were related to each other. Ultimately there was one main villain that took an episode and a half to bring down but who caused oppression and tyranny with everyone he killed. And he wasn't brought down by any epic war or battlefield fight, but through the concentrated effort and meticulous evidence gathering of ZBY or ML. He connected the dots for himself and others better than most. Though not without flaws, his biggest was burning that diary and not letting the kids know who their real father was (letting someone take advantage and nearly cause a catastrophe). Which was then brought before the public and governor in a trial for all to see.
All five in this family held their own; WY, whose family save brother (he comes in at the end as a psychopath who was from the extreme opposite of the main antagonist so also no redeeming qualities as he used others as much as the villain for his revenge, while keeping himself safe; a total coward) were massacred and she became a pirate/assassin who quit instead of murdering innocents and found her life with ZBY and his father. Her intelligence and fighting skills came in handy. Then there were the two kids; ZB and ZM. ZB wanted to be a physician but was too strong and became an excellent coroner instead helping on many of the cases. ZM was as rigid as a ruler when it came to his belief in rules and regulations but was impulsive and naive in many situations. Lastly, the supposedly senile patriarch was really the 11th brother of the emperor and apparently the exact replica of him but he helped in putting a lot of small pieces together through the secrets he kept/knowledge he had.
On top of the actual family, their friends like GZ and WF at K-court were on hand with both the case solving and comedy. Silly YH the actual coroner who couldn't perform an autopsy without hurling to save his life. Lady Wang towards the end to help GZ. The painter came in just the right moments to help with his Eagle eye view as he's the reason these stories are known now. The neighbors and other East Capital residents who helped in a big way at the end and throughout. This was very realistic where great characters lost their lives due to injustice and you felt the pain of the main characters; like just as ZM made a friend, he lost him. I do think that ZM given today's parameters fits on the autism spectrum with his personality.
A lot of things we see in today's society we saw in this series, the lack of justice being one but also how good people are framed and whole families decimated because of that. We saw a regular family just trying to buy a house, fail over and over due to corruption. From the way the cases were done and murders happen (especially the human paint brush) made you think you were in Dante's Inferno.
Costumes, sets, and the makeup which made two actors as father and son even though in real life they were only 7 years apart in age was remarkable. Opening credits were very creative. That last scene made it seem like they were possibly thinking of a season 2; we knew SZ was alive after that jump off the bridge but who's that dude he was bowing to? So I guess we'll see though I think just this season was enough as justice was finally done though it took 20 years. Better late than never.
Cons: I don't remember any of the OSTs honestly. The bgm was also forgettable. I had some issues with WY as an assassin; her facial expression lacked the gravitas when she fought. You can be cold and collected but it wasn't even there. Only when she felt pain did her face move. Assassins are colder, less human, more fierce and that just didn't happen with her. The short storyline of ZM breaking from his rigidity to just get swayed by one conversation with SM to do something as extreme as blowing up a bridge when he's never done a single bad thing. Yes, one can argue he had his mind blown with what his biological father did though under duress and SM probably drugged him when he planted those ideas in his head, we had seen him be so controlled that it was completely out of character and than after the cry fest with WY where only pro was their acting their hearts out, how quickly he snapped back to his former self. It was a bit of a whiplash.
Why were there only 4 guys from K-court fighting that large group of big bad's guards in the last episode? On the boat all the other K-court were all "we're not afraid to die, let's go get him!" But when it really mattered, they were nowhere to be seen. Were they babysitting the bridge after the threat was neutralized? Like what? They all rushed in after the fight was over. It made zilch sense. And we never knew how ZBY pulled off the master plan that included the story teller, his neighbors, the butcher, and everyone else who helped. We were used to seeing little flashbacks but other than the one with his father we had no idea how that was organized. Little things here and there could have been more fleshed out.
Would I recommend it? Absolutely! This was great storytelling and it felt more real than a lot of the costumes dramas with wealthy people. I only knew BBH, Gala Zhang and a few of the supporting from the cast prior to this; but boy did they do a great job. Definitely give this a go if you're looking for a high quality drama.
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