Too soon to tell, but 1) it's a Cdrama, so probably and 2) the FL is Yang Mi, so there will be very few kissing scenes--maybe zero, but if there's one or two, they will be very bad.
If it gets subbed, I will probably watch a few episodes at least.
Just kill me now. For 99 episodes of this 46 episode drama, it's the same thing every episode, except their wardrobe changes. (Hella awesome clothes and shoes, though.)
They were in love. They are still in love. But there was a bitter break up 7 years ago. Why? I've watched half of the drama and I still don't know and the longer I watch, the less I care why.
The FL lead spends most of the drama with tears in her eyes. She initiated the break up. Why? Didn't I just tell you that we don't know ? She used to be a spunky college kid, but sometime in the last 7 years, the writers performed a personality extraction, leaving her with a part that so one dimensional, you could slide her under a door. Just our luck.
This is yet another repetitious, frustrating Cdrama with a spineless, weepy FL. It's terrible.
As someone who has dropped Cdramas a lot, I could understand your feelings. The usual length of Cdramas over 50…
Xing'er is probably my all time favorite character of any drama. If Princess Agents had ended properly (or at least conformed more to the novel's ending), it would be my favorite drama.
If you're going to watch any dramas, you know you have to overlook flaws, plotholes, etc. I think the issue is how many of these you have to overlook and what your patience with it is. In a lengthy drama (and this is unique to Cdramas) a drama defect you can tolerate for 16 episodes is excruciating after 30 or 40.
Thanks so much for joining the conversation and adding your thoughts.
Without knowing which dramas you've watched and dropped, I would like to provide my take on some of your points.…
I think it's extremely relevant that "China has the most self made women billionaires in the world"--which is why I think that Chinese women are some of the toughest, strongest and sexy women on the planet. It's on their behalf that I'm infuriated by Cdrama characters that make them out to be petty, spiteful, whiny, childish or self-sacrificing to the extent of lunacy. Whether or not the character grows in the story is often a point that's too distant, when you're looking at a drama that's 60 episodes long, because more than half of the drama, you want to throttle the character, and that's too much.
Perhaps the most frequent complaint I read about Cdramas is that the length of the series forces it into draggy repetition, where the middle third (or worse, two-thirds) of the drama is a bog where nothing advances the plot or character growth. Sometimes, the effects, costuming or glamour are a terrific sleight of hand so you don't notice that what happens in this episode already happened 10 episodes ago, but there are way too few Cdramas that wouldn't be 100% improved by reducing the episode count by at least 20.
As for endings, you're quite right that a "good" ending is in the eye of the beholder, but after repetition and dragging, the 2nd most frequent complaint I read is that Cdramas have above average bad endings (Kdramas aren't exempt from this complaint either.) Nothing spoils a good drama like an unnecessarily bad ending. I think, with no real data at my fingertips to point to, that the Chinese simply have a taste for unromantic endings (here meaning "romantic" in the literature sense, not the Harlequin novel sense), and Cdramas are, after all, created for a Chinese audience in the first place.
I want Cdramas to suit my taste better so I can love them as much as I love Kdramas, which is probably absurd. In any case, I very much appreciate the thoughtfulness of your reply to me. Thanks for a great conversation.
Wow. This drama lives up to its hype. I cried every. single. episode. Ugly crying. But I've never, ever seen a drama with as much hope as this one. Every thing about it is good--the writing. The acting. The cinematography.
Absolutely remarkable, and everyone who contributed to the production deserves a bonus.
Oh, Cdramas. I've started and dropped more Cdramas than any others, and that includes some really terrible lakorns I should have known better than to finish.
It isn't that Cdramas are bad. On the contrary, several of them miss greatness by "this" much.
Except for dramas that come from Taiwan (technically Chinese, but not really), Cdrama series are much.too.long, and the length of the series leads to inevitable dragginess and repetition. It's a rare Cdrama of 56 episodes that's good every episode, all the way to the end, and anything over 56 episodes, you can cut out the 30 middle episodes and not miss a thing.
If you can endure the length of the series, you've got a 50% or higher chance that the series will end badly, either because one or more of the MC dies or is killed, or the ML's don't end up together, there are too many loose ends, or worst of all, a cliff hanger ending (with no firm plans for a second season--I'm looking at YOU "Princess Agents".)
Cdramas have a real dearth of kick ass female characters, too. Many or most Cdramas feature women who are childish, indecisive, weak, cowardly or whatever (basically, if you can imagine a negative character trait, at least one of the women in the drama will showcase it.) I'm always shocked that Cdramas can script such terrible female characters, which seem to perpetuate patriarchal bullshit, even allowing for the built in misogyny and sexism of Confucian culture. You'd think that Chinese socialism would encourage a more level playing field, but you'd be wrong. All things considered, I think Chinese women must be among some of the toughest, strongest and sexy women in the world, and why they put up with these awful stereotypes is beyond me.
This article is very well written, but I do have to chime in about the part where it is implied that Itazura na…
"She was simply a girl with a huge crush." You are so right. This story is fundamentally about a very young woman who basically loses her mind because she falls hard for a guy. Lots and lots of us have done things that are cringe-worthy because of a crush. I had a crush on a guy I worked with--I once spent two hours boring my girlfriend to death just describing how our hands reached for a door knob at the same time. (Remembering this is unbearable :-)
I couldn't stand how ethically compromised every character in the drama was. I like a little anti-hero, villainy, antagonism (English major, can you tell?), but there was nothing interesting about these characters at all.
This drama was just bad, and not even her pantsuits could save it.
The original is a favorite on my re-watch list--I watch it at least once a year. I've really been looking forward to the remake, which I hope gets picked up by a subber. A lot of remakes leave out the things I most like about the original. I sure hope that doesn't happen with this one.
Of the many Cdramas on my plan to watch list, this one has always been the first on the list, and it's been that way for since I first learned about this drama.
But now there's a catch: I've watched many Cdramas in the waiting time, and I've developed an aversion to how they seem to end, which is bad (mostly).
So now I'm really worried that this drama that I've been looking forward to for so long ends badly.
I started watching this yesterday--thanks for the article that tipped me off about it.
Also, I just want to say that the Thai subbing community is incredible. Thanks to Neko Meow Meow, who is subbing this and making it possible for me to watch it.
This lakorn has been made three times--in 1998, in 2008 (which is this one), and 2016. I haven't researched this, but I think all three are based on a novel. In that regard, you can't consider the lakorns without also recognizing that they're based on original source material (which I haven't read.)
I've seen all 3 versions, and they all make me want to tear my hair out, but this one makes me want to tear my hair out because I set it on fire first.
The FL, Beeyachat, spends some 16 hours total in this lakorn being abused in ways that are genuinely stomach turning, and not in anything like a sexy way. She is basically a doormat whose only purpose seems to be providing every other character with an outlet to express their rage by slapping her, beating her, or attempting to rape her. Beeyachat's response to this disgusting abuse is to cry, and that she does, for 25 or more episodes. It's intolerable.
You'll hate every character in this lakorn except Mon's mother and aunt. You'll especially hate Beeyachat, a character drawn as so innocent, she's essentially a half-wit, and whose "virtues" are so exaggerated, that whatever good she's supposed to represent, you'll want to be the opposite.
If it gets subbed, I will probably watch a few episodes at least.
They were in love. They are still in love. But there was a bitter break up 7 years ago. Why? I've watched half of the drama and I still don't know and the longer I watch, the less I care why.
The FL lead spends most of the drama with tears in her eyes. She initiated the break up. Why? Didn't I just tell you that we don't know ? She used to be a spunky college kid, but sometime in the last 7 years, the writers performed a personality extraction, leaving her with a part that so one dimensional, you could slide her under a door. Just our luck.
This is yet another repetitious, frustrating Cdrama with a spineless, weepy FL. It's terrible.
If you're going to watch any dramas, you know you have to overlook flaws, plotholes, etc. I think the issue is how many of these you have to overlook and what your patience with it is. In a lengthy drama (and this is unique to Cdramas) a drama defect you can tolerate for 16 episodes is excruciating after 30 or 40.
Thanks so much for joining the conversation and adding your thoughts.
Perhaps the most frequent complaint I read about Cdramas is that the length of the series forces it into draggy repetition, where the middle third (or worse, two-thirds) of the drama is a bog where nothing advances the plot or character growth. Sometimes, the effects, costuming or glamour are a terrific sleight of hand so you don't notice that what happens in this episode already happened 10 episodes ago, but there are way too few Cdramas that wouldn't be 100% improved by reducing the episode count by at least 20.
As for endings, you're quite right that a "good" ending is in the eye of the beholder, but after repetition and dragging, the 2nd most frequent complaint I read is that Cdramas have above average bad endings (Kdramas aren't exempt from this complaint either.) Nothing spoils a good drama like an unnecessarily bad ending. I think, with no real data at my fingertips to point to, that the Chinese simply have a taste for unromantic endings (here meaning "romantic" in the literature sense, not the Harlequin novel sense), and Cdramas are, after all, created for a Chinese audience in the first place.
I want Cdramas to suit my taste better so I can love them as much as I love Kdramas, which is probably absurd. In any case, I very much appreciate the thoughtfulness of your reply to me. Thanks for a great conversation.
I cried every. single. episode. Ugly crying. But I've never, ever seen a drama with as much hope as this one. Every thing about it is good--the writing. The acting. The cinematography.
Absolutely remarkable, and everyone who contributed to the production deserves a bonus.
It isn't that Cdramas are bad. On the contrary, several of them miss greatness by "this" much.
Except for dramas that come from Taiwan (technically Chinese, but not really), Cdrama series are much.too.long, and the length of the series leads to inevitable dragginess and repetition. It's a rare Cdrama of 56 episodes that's good every episode, all the way to the end, and anything over 56 episodes, you can cut out the 30 middle episodes and not miss a thing.
If you can endure the length of the series, you've got a 50% or higher chance that the series will end badly, either because one or more of the MC dies or is killed, or the ML's don't end up together, there are too many loose ends, or worst of all, a cliff hanger ending (with no firm plans for a second season--I'm looking at YOU "Princess Agents".)
Cdramas have a real dearth of kick ass female characters, too. Many or most Cdramas feature women who are childish, indecisive, weak, cowardly or whatever (basically, if you can imagine a negative character trait, at least one of the women in the drama will showcase it.) I'm always shocked that Cdramas can script such terrible female characters, which seem to perpetuate patriarchal bullshit, even allowing for the built in misogyny and sexism of Confucian culture. You'd think that Chinese socialism would encourage a more level playing field, but you'd be wrong. All things considered, I think Chinese women must be among some of the toughest, strongest and sexy women in the world, and why they put up with these awful stereotypes is beyond me.
You are so right. This story is fundamentally about a very young woman who basically loses her mind because she falls hard for a guy. Lots and lots of us have done things that are cringe-worthy because of a crush. I had a crush on a guy I worked with--I once spent two hours boring my girlfriend to death just describing how our hands reached for a door knob at the same time. (Remembering this is unbearable :-)
I couldn't stand how ethically compromised every character in the drama was. I like a little anti-hero, villainy, antagonism (English major, can you tell?), but there was nothing interesting about these characters at all.
This drama was just bad, and not even her pantsuits could save it.
But now there's a catch: I've watched many Cdramas in the waiting time, and I've developed an aversion to how they seem to end, which is bad (mostly).
So now I'm really worried that this drama that I've been looking forward to for so long ends badly.
Also, I just want to say that the Thai subbing community is incredible. Thanks to Neko Meow Meow, who is subbing this and making it possible for me to watch it.
I've seen all 3 versions, and they all make me want to tear my hair out, but this one makes me want to tear my hair out because I set it on fire first.
The FL, Beeyachat, spends some 16 hours total in this lakorn being abused in ways that are genuinely stomach turning, and not in anything like a sexy way. She is basically a doormat whose only purpose seems to be providing every other character with an outlet to express their rage by slapping her, beating her, or attempting to rape her. Beeyachat's response to this disgusting abuse is to cry, and that she does, for 25 or more episodes. It's intolerable.
You'll hate every character in this lakorn except Mon's mother and aunt. You'll especially hate Beeyachat, a character drawn as so innocent, she's essentially a half-wit, and whose "virtues" are so exaggerated, that whatever good she's supposed to represent, you'll want to be the opposite.