theWatchingDuck
One Legendary C-drama
What a great funny and emotional drama. I am not really the type of person who watch palace dramas but this one broke the wall. Unlike many other palace dramas, there will be throne fighting, concubine fighting concubines, and etc BUT this drama...just dont have these things (which is great).What I Like: Some things I like in this drama is the family bond between the royal family. And the king (Zhu Di's father) and its comrades/old friends. Everyone can jokes but still knowing their limitation, elder brother being the role model and leader taking care of its brothers, and empress personally making dishes in the kitchen are some things I quite like about it.
Storyline: The flow is great as its not draggy and its pretty straight to the point. Only minor problem I had is the age transition. Its like a few episodes in, suddenly everyone changes ( their age and appearance). Less on romance, more on history..so if you are here to see two birds kissing on tree...then well..thats not gonna happen.
Acting wise, everyone nails their role perfectly. Even the most minor character did great as who they are. FSF and CY as Zhudi did superb as the matured and young Zhudi.
Music? Man I Love it. There are 3 songs played throughout the whole series I believe but its the opening theme one I love the most.
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Very Funny and Entertaining yet Knowledgable
To sum up, I had watch all episodes from the first 5 seasons and I really enjoy it.Story- Every episodes are unique on its own. Some includes exploring the countrys culture and traditions whereas others are more like roleplayish things. Thats one of the features that made this show so successful.
Acting- I really like the 7 regular cast members. The addition of Dilraba is amazing as she adds some interesting chemistry and flares with the other 6 regulars especially with Luhan. The rest of the casts like Deng Chao, Chen He, Luhan, Zheng Kai, Li Chen and Wong Cho Lam are as great as ever. Its just that their chemistry and silliness together made it sooooooo funny.
Music- Great choice of background musics.
Rewatch Value- Stays at 10/10
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Its a 'meh' story from a legendary action star
While I may be writing this review now, Ive actually watch like months ago. I'll try to keep it a decent length reviews as found that there are loads of negatives and positives comment from here.1. I love and admire the relationship between Jacky and his horse. Its like a man's best friend but in a form of a horse, I mean wow, I am really suprise a horse can have that level of emotions, loyalty and closeness to Jacky. And in fact, 40% of the comedy comes from him. Cool...though towards the end...you know..some find it emotional but personally, I kinda lean towards the annoying side of it...its like they placed a bread to heat in the oven..but they tune it to like 300°C, 20 minutes...yea its that over. I see some people kinda am ok with it. Great for them, but for me...nahh thanks.
2. Generic father- daughter troubled relationship. Swear this isnt Jacky's first movie with this concept, its a rinse and repeat format which I was like..yea...some parts did well, but others...I felt that the daughters role may have overshadowed Jackie...not my cup of tea.
3. You see stunts...little bit more stunts here but...seems like he is rinsing his last bits of stunt ideas, some parts were exceptionally great, like my mind was like ' WOW, A HORSE CAN DO THAT?'. Admiration...that is something cool there..
4. Tribute? I am gonna lie, I feel that is a wrong way to show a tribute and a totally drain water whose idea is to use his old stunt videos as a tribute. To me, if you want to do a tribute, keep it glorious, respected, motivational, emotional. However, I only see emotional in this one. There are so many scenes he could have be like...Ok this is my last try (the castle scene), where je did it in a glorious way and give it that ending people crave for..but you know what they did? Give Up!. Kids, teens, adults, everyone who are watching this...dont do that. Dont give up! You wont know how close you are into achieving it. Just because of a few phobia, he decided that he is done for it.
I am gonna stop here, do have loads more comment on the choppy storyline..like it felt they had multiple teams writing their part of story and just connect it. So, parts will be uneven and even confusing. But, still...I see the beauty of this drama from the man-horse, father-daughter relationship and selected stunts. And one more thing...Jacky is better of as a slapstick comedy man then an emotional one. But yea, here it is, my review.
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This review may contain spoilers
Huge Potential But Sadly...
Ive just finished watching this drama. Pretty much what some reviews say are true. The storyline runs based on the antagonists (demon). Seriously, there are far too many plot convenience in this drama just to keep the story going. Like A is a mole, but for next 20-30 episodes, people can suspect him/her but will never take action on there. And and and...that one demon character took literally 40 episodes to die OMG. As a result? All of them run mess killing people infront or behind the characters eye. And this happens to not 1 but multiple of them. There was sooo Much potential for them to make it Right. One thing that kinda keep the plot going also btw, is killing of side characters...some of them could have been avoided...but oh well...sucks to themPositive
But, there are some positive notes I can drop down. Everyones acting is great. Only a few can be improved. Next, I love their fight scenes and presentation. Yes, theres a lot of blasting plasmas but at least when it comes to physical fight, they still stick true to it (not like that slow as snail fight scenes in Heaven Sword 2019 remake). Having those fight names displayed is great, I love it. It gives it that energy.
Weird
I kinda find it weird that many side characters get their love pair, one of them is very unexpected too haha.
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Well Written Comedy
This movie...is definitely an interesting one. Just like many, it started off pretty confusing but soon gets a bit better as we know why this happened. Since this is a non spoilery sort of review, then I wont go on explaining what the story about but one grand thing I like about this movie is its comedy. Does reminds of Stephen Chow sort of mou lei tow style of comedy. Throughout the whole movie, I can say I had laughed almost 80% of it. Now of course, this movie does still have a story and some serious moments. Well, if you want to know more, feel free to watch it yourself. Like many, it is a fast pace movie, so we will have to try to make sense of out of every move on point to understand the movie, which is ok for me. Oh yes one more thing, the number of special guests in this movie is pretty interesting.As for acting, ML nails it on POINT. He is able to express each expressions perfectly. As for FL, I am suprised that she can do comedy movies so well, cause usually the shows I watch from her are pretty serious. The chemistry and the sense of connection between ML and FL is also Interesting.
Musicwise, I kinda like the ending song but am a bit confused on the end credits scenario, guess its just to show of some bonus comedy bts and etc...hmm i am not clear too haha
Rewatch Value? well, depends on my mood then, if I feel like watching something crazy, or just for fun but definitely I will rewatch somewhere in the future.
All in all, I enjoy the acting, storyline, and the chemistry between ML and FL. And yea...
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Love It!
Just finished watching both parts of the movie and I quite enjoy this 2 part movies. The movie in my opinions feels more complete and less draggy. I really like how the heaven sword and dragon sabre has more story and action in it compare to the 2019 and 2001 version of it. The fight scenes you may ask? I Love It!. You can actually see them fight it out instead of just playing with ' The Force' ( you know...the star wars thingy). There is a good combination and balance of fast and slow motion fights too.I wont be commenting much on the acting ...they are all very ok.I dont see raymond lam age as a problem to me imo. Music? A cantonese song for the cantonese version would be great. But the mandarin one is still really really good!. Will I rewatch again? Well, yes and i will rewatch when i feel that its time too. Ok, thats all from me. This review may not really be too deep, or too in depth....cause i am a lazy man :P.Was this review helpful to you?
A Mediocre Remake That Taste like Plain Water
I am sure many who had watched this should either have watched the hong kong or early china remakes. I personally had watched the 1997 remake where we have Felix Wong, Benny Chan and Stephen Fan as well as The 2013 version from Wallace Chung, Kim Kimkibum, and Han Dong. Both of these are pretty good remakes though I lean more towards 1997 version but hey...2013 is not bad either, but not perfect.So, acting.. The Qiao Feng of this remake seems really lack of leadership energy, and he seems to more like...he was paid to do what he is supposed to do..nothing more, nothing less...thats the actor for Qiao Feng. As for Duan Yu, he is supposed to be comic relieve of the story, due to his playfulness but this version makes him more childish and really weak as well. The one who played Xu Zhu is fine, I would say. Wang Yu Yin of this drama is kind of a hateful character and I felt that this role has always been challenging for any leads before Janice Man. Dont see her excel in this, which is a waste. Special Shoutout to A-Zhi. I never think that I will dislike (99/100) the character in this remake, damn annoying to the brim. Based on previous remake, they should have learn to make more likeable but nahhhhh its a competition.
Now, what I see apart from acting is how storytelling is done because lets be honest, you want to tell a story that satisfy your audience and leave them hanging like a loose branch. I like how they give audience a glimpse of all the characters at the first episode. In fact, its really cool to see Xu Zhu and Duan Yu very early in the series and slowly brings them into the bigger picture. What really triggered me was truly the last episode. OMGawd! they could have taken the last episode to fix a few more of their issue like fixing Duan Yus remaining story arc and give him that sweet ending he has been earning. 2013 failed to do so, and 2021 would happily followed suit. Come onnn, I heard that one of the version where Duan Yu married all three of his love interest...but if not, why not have that episode to have all his other sisters reunite and live happily ever after as a family....oh well, suspense ehh...not a good one.
Also, special complain. Fighting scenes...sucks unless youre a fan of slow motion martial arts, then you will like it.
Overall, its a remake that boasts nothing, just like an ensemble of more pretty faces with no hallow inside...but yeaa.
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A meaningful CNY movie
Gave this movie a try and i really really enjoy it. It is not just a trip to mend the broken pieces of the family but also expose us viewers to some cultures and traditions, places of attrraction (like concubine lane, kellie castle, and etc and beautiful sceneries of Malaysia.The cast did an amazing job. Some parts are very funny, others are pretty emotional as well. One more cool thing about this movie is the song, sang in cantonese, mandarin and hokkien. Some might think mixing this 3 languages in a song is a disaster but it turns out to be very catchy, and a song suit very well for a Chinese New Year Song. Rewatch value? Well, it will take some time for me to come back but i will definitely watch this movie again in the near future.Also, this is my 1st time writing an actual review so yea...
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