You get a long monologue, he get one, she get one…everyone get a Monologue!

It was good, almost great show. It could have been better. The beginning built an interesting premise and the flow was great in the first couples episodes. There no slow moments. But then around episode 10ish (it could be before) the flow became “stop and go”, the plot kept on pausing for “personal drama” and unnecessary backstory. I found myself passing forward all the forced “sweet” moments between the two main couple because I just want to continue with the main plot. I admitted I pass forward all the scene with Liu Ran, her family and her with Baili Hong’s love story. It was somewhat fun in the beginning but got trophies and didn’t being anything to overall plot line. At the end, I especially didn’t like her brother and his obsessive love story, so I passed forward when he came into the scene.

What I think was great the overall was the storyline and the production value, you can see they put a lot money into this with just the first episode alone. However, I feel the story could have being told in 24-30 episodes. I haven’t read the book, but my gut feeling said that scriptwriter add more to expend the story, like the love stories or Lui Ran’s family story ( hey, I could be wrong).

The acting was great that no one stand out, they put their characters first and the audience can focus on the plot. However, also I admitted I did pass for some of Gao Bing Zhu’s “self-pity” moments scene after the first or two scene with the graveyard… I got… he is “tragic”, “lone wolf” character. Again, thing could been edit out for a shorter drama. All characters had their annoying moments and there were no CP that I would chased. However, I did liked all the cool female characters that were well written, there no weak female characters (even Lui Ran).

The thing i didn’t like or was annoying is the BMG. At some points, I couldn’t really hear the actors dialogue over the BMG. Also the fade out to black at “life and death” moments and closeup to actor reaction expressions, but I have to give it to the director….he trained you to expect that those “fade out to black” moment will always end well and the characters are going to be save till he change it, which lead to ending…it could have end better. The last thing, which is basically the last episode…a long ass grand speech. There were so many grand monologue thought out the drama, it seem all the characters got have a grand defining speech-Here let me tell you my plan…why I did the that….my life story…There were so many “the bad guy explaining his plan while Jame Bond is tired under the laser beam” monologue. The bad guys did, the good guys did…the whole of the episode 39 was just that one speech after another. It like the director and screenwriter decide like do the reverse of all show and drama…started the show with an episode with all action without any breathing room and the last episode, where they just talk. Expecting a epic battle…nope I give a monologue.

Overall, it was a good to great show to end 2021 with, on personal note. I started the year with a Yibo show – legend of fei, which was a bad show that I forced myself to finish to end with the year with another Yibo show that was good in production and script that legend of Fei failed in.

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Half History channel -half comdey/action

Where to begin? Watching this movie feels like watching two one-hour movies smushed together to create this two and half hours “movie.”

In the first half, it feels like Jack’s modern group is just wandering around, lecturing the viewer about Chinese history, while the scenes set in ancient times are just reenactments you’d see in a history documentary. Then, in the second half of the movie, it shifts into a comedic action film with a hint of nationalism.

Sometimes, it feels like a vanity project for Jackie Chan, yet at the same time, he’s hardly in the movie and often feels like a background character in his own story. It was supposed to be a great love story between Jackie’s Zhao Zhan and Meng Yun, but they don’t share enough screen time to make their relationship engaging. It ends up feeling more like a one-sided love story between Meng Yun and Hua Jun. I suspect the limited screen time is partly because they spent a lot of money de-aging Jackie, which adds to the “vanity project” vibe. Meng Yun’s love for Zhao doesn’t feel essential to the plot but seems forced because it’s a Jackie Chan movie. The ancient storyline could easily be about war and revenge, and it wouldn’t change much of the overall plot.

The one bright spot is Peng Xiao Ran’s Xin Ran and her romantic pursuit of Lay Zhang’s Wang Jung. This subplot kept me entertained throughout. Her character is genuinely funny and engaging. Honestly, they should have made her the reincarnated horse, Lei Zhen, instead of giving that role to the gamer, since the horse Lei Zhen has a more substantial character arc than Zhao Zhan. “It sacrificed its life in the past for its master and returned in modern times as a woman to pursue its man again.”

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If a YouTube editor was allow to edited a full show to three video...but very surprising good show

I saw this as a three episodes show and found out it was 9 minutes 18 episodes. Original, I landed on this show when it didn’t have English subtitles and was confused but it looked funny. I thought the production was cheap and the acting was ok, but I only show the first 5 mins and just put it aside. Recently, it pop up again on my feed and it had subtitles, so I decided to watch the first episode. I am glad I did. I finished in one sitting. It was addictive. The beginning was still confusing even with subtitles, and setting seem cheap at place. However, I found main actresses costume to pretty good. I have seen really bad costumes in similar web show that borderline to awful.
The main actresses was what made this show, her characters design is similar to all same that find these transmigration stories, but the actress give her characters lovable feeling and make you rooted for her. The main male acting was ok. The only bad actor I thinks is the second male lead.
The only thing I think is a draw back is the choppiness of editing those 18 episode into 3 episodes. The flow was not good and jumpily from one scene to the next. However, this can be the script or shooting for 9 min shoot or original editing for the show. There is a lot of potholes, but I can easily over look it for overall plot.

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