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不如放下- it's better to let go
Infuriating and captivating! Shaolin Wendao is a character-driven story exploring complex relationships between four childhood friends as their lives change in extreme ways. An angsty tale of grand passions, forsaken desires and philosophical dilemmas, posing questions about revenge, mercy, atonement and fate as well as the endless cycle of retribution spanning generations.This is an old-school drama in the best sense of the word. It’s highly quotable. It has great atmospheric music and martial arts choreography (not many fighting scenes though). It doesn't shy away from tackling hard truths and bringing up uncomfortable emotions, especially when it comes to the limited choices women had at that time and how men judged their worth. There’s a lot of unrestrained acting that helped bring to life the deeply flawed characters. With this type of drama you get transported to the past because as a 21st century person it's hard to understand the choices they make, which can be very frustrating but also fascinating and unpredictable. I feel like this type of immersive storytelling has become increasingly rare in the last decade.
To be fair, there’s a flip side to it as well. I feel like the director let things get a bit out of hand with overacting at times, particularly with Zhou Yiwei in his unhinged stage. Also, watching these characters persistently make their lives a thousand times more complicated than needed was tiring. The main character is a walking disaster who can be very selfish and manipulative. The villain (who's awesome btw) broke him at the beginning, so for two thirds of the drama he’s completely off-his-rocker, becoming obsessed with vengeance to the point of insanity. He chose the most difficult path and dragged everyone who loved him down with him. Honestly, he was so infuriating at times I wanted to kickdrop him myself, fortunately everyone seemed to do it for me so my blood lust was alleviated.
I have a lot of smaller gripes about camera work, silly humour or the weird (lack of) make-up.
The (non)ending was also quite disappointing, which makes me a bit hesitant to recommend the drama. I guess try it if you’re in the right mood. It may not be your cup of tea but you may surprise yourself.
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Suspicious minds: nail-biting suspense and doomed romance
🎶we can't go on together with suspicious mindsand we can't build our dreams on suspicious minds🎶
This was much darker and more serious than I expected, even taking into account the heavy subject matter. BL shows usually have more comic levity and heart-warming moments, not suspense dialled up to the max.
But if I'm honest, it was that suspense that kept me watching when the mystery and romance fizzled out.
The first half had a nice dangerous vibe with a whodunit mystery and the two protagonists caught in a loop between suspicion and attraction. I loved dr Kan in the first couple episodes. He came off as seductive and dangerous - a mysterious homme fatale playing with the vulnerable policeman's feelings. Tew, on the other hand, seemed to be fighting a losing battle between his suspicious mind and other parts of his anatomy;) I thought it was a rather delicious dynamics, even if the two actors didn't have that much chemistry with each other. I wish they stayed like that till the end. Instead, in the blink of an eye, they became all loving and domestic (at least on the surface), which was hard to buy with no proper build-up.
I wouldn't call this series a serious exploration of the topic of euthanasia. For that, a bigger focus on idividual cases and better balance of differing voices was needed in the story. Tew was not the person who took daily care of his sick and dying mother, his sister was, yet she wasn't given a voice. But overall, the series did a good job showing the complexity of the subject and had some thought-provoking scenes. I'm not going to discuss the plot to avoid spoilers, but imo they made a wrong judgment call with how they resolved Boss's arc. It pushed the story in a direction I didn't care for and killed any goodwill I had towards dr Kan. Of course, this might've been by design, to make us question where the uncrossable line lies, but it just further soured me towards the romance.
The production values and acting were pretty good. Also, no blatant stupidity about police and hospital procedures in the script which was refreshing. Overall, it's definitely worth watching, just not for romance.
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The main character, Li Shande, is the innocent archetype - seeing no evil, hearing no lies and oozing naivete. This makes him a perfect hero for the comedy of errors that opens the drama, resulting in saddling him with the impossible task of transporting fresh litchis over the distance of 2,500km. The sincere earnestness with which he approaches the task is both deeply touching and hilarious. It becomes his armour and ultimate weapon against the sea of schemers surrounding him. He shares a close bond with his daughter, Xiuer. Their warm and playful moments were the highlight of the story for me.
The drama combines the structure of a morality tale with sharp satire and magical realism that may not be to everyone's taste. It relies heavily on exaggeration. In keeping with satire, a lot of the characters in this drama are larger than life, purposefully written to highlight certain traits. Similarly with places. The vibrancy of southern coastal Lingnan with its lush nature, a crowd of wacky personas and cockfights performed by live actors;) is juxtaposed with the lifelessness of Changan and its uniform, petty officials. The visual layer highlights this beautifully with the rich, hyper-saturated colors (going beyond realism) in the South vs. muted hues in the North. What I didn't like as much was bringing in modern elements that broke my immersion, e.g. actors giving each other thumbs up or visibly trying to suppress laughter. Also, the music at times was as subtle as a gong to the head, forcing emotional reactions. On the other hand, I adored the gallows humour in the early episodes (*knock, knock* I’m dead!). I also loved how every episode started with a short story from the life of Li Shande or another character, showing us how life events shaped them into becoming who they were in the present.
My main problem with this drama is that the satire went on for way too long preventing character growth and stagnating the plot. Watching Li Shande get into the same kind of trouble again and again (and getting the same result) with no development made me feel like the story was spinning in circles and wore my patience thin. It’s hard to keep rooting for someone who doesn't learn and repeatedly makes the same mistakes over the course of so many episodes. IMO the entire reenactment of Asterix vs. Ancient Rome bureaucracy battle in Changan was unnecessary. It brought nothing new to the story and didn’t have a single memorable character. In other words, there can be too much of a good thing. As much as I loved the political satire, petty scheming and wacky humour, it made the plot feel directionless for long episodes and tired me out to the point I needed a four month break before finishing the drama.
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Addictive!
This is like a sugar binge in a drama form. You just can't help but eat it all at once for the rush of excitement it gives you, then wonder how come there are no more episodes ...and what do you mean it's already Wednesday;)? It is a rare drama that's so unapologetically in-your-face about being pure emotion-driven entertainment without sacrificing the storytelling. If you strip all the melodramatic elements, the story at its core is still powerful enough to engage and resonate with you.📜The storyline can be divided into three parts:
The first focuses on the heroine's downfall, subsequent return to the capital under a new identity (coincidentaly on purpose both characters share the same nickname: A-Li) and her attempts at restoring the real Jiang Li’s reputation. Fortunately, most of the pain and suffering was reserved for the villains in this drama, so we're not hit with a prolonged account of all the wrongs done to both girls at the start. There's nothing groundbreaking here in terms of plot which involves the typical household scheming, but it's very fast-paced and entertaining.
Second part deals with A-Li trying to uncover the truth of what happened to her real family. She goes on a trip and gets herself thrown in jail (twice). We also see a lot more of the male lead, Duke Su aka Xiao Heng, as their intimacy grows, so we're treated to some epic flirting. Oh, the amount of double entendres flying around! They both loved to tease each other about everything from being a straight-faced liar to having a pretty sulking face ...and it was the FL that did the lying while the ML did the sulking.
The third part is all about the villains reaping what they sowed and the culmination of a drama-long scheme involving the emperor. We also finally explore Duke Su's past, but it gets overshadowed by the villains drama. Be prepared for the dramatic intensity to go up a few notches. Best practice: take your thinking cap off entirely for the finale.
🔥What I liked about this drama:
The revenge story is emotionally engaging without crossing into ridiculous or depressing. It doesn't sacrifice logic (too much;)) for the sake of delivering a more spectacular face-slapping. The villains have some depth to them. Their backstories show how they were compelled to turn to the dark side, making their motivations more complex and understandable.
As a female-centric drama, it stayed true to the theme. I don't remember the last time I liked a female lead in a c-drama as much. She had such a calming presence and looked enviably zen while exacting her revenge. A well-rounded character that was genuinely strong, brave, cunning but also compassionate and protective of others around her.
The drama makes a clever use of music, visuals, atmosphere, pathos and comedic exaggeration to evoke strong emotions and create an immersive theatre experience. Some of those stylistic choices were jarring at first, especially the frequent use of extreme close-ups with actors looking directly at the camera (stopping a hairsbreadth from breaking the fourth wall). But overall it worked great to create a feeling of being invited to join the conversation, not just being a passive observer, successfully drawing me into the scene. I found it endlessly entertaining that Duke Su would always enter or exit the 'stage' in some kind of dramatic fashion.
Although romance is clearly not the focus of the drama, it was the highlight for me. From the start, there's this feeling of intuitive understanding or soul-to-soul connection between A-Li and Duke Su. I was convinced that they understood each other without words:) For most of the drama, they're busy with their own agendas while keeping an eye on each other and offering support when needed. No matter what sorts of storms raged around them, they stood strong together with unshakeable trust in each other, never missing an opportunity to flirt. My favourite type of couple:)
The leads chemistry went a long way to compensate for the sparseness of their scenes together. Both Wu Jinyan and Wang Xingyue seemed to have a lot of fun playing these characters and looked very comfortable with each other. They had little difficutly switching between the playful, more theatrical acting and the serious, emotive kind as needed. I liked them both immensely.
The harmonious relationship between the main leads contrasted strongly with the angsty, violent, misguided tragimance that was Shen Yurong and Wanning story. I can't say I liked them, but they were definitely memorable. No effort was spared to make us feel for what amounted to an emotional warfare between the fallen, once honorable, scholar and the disturbed, possessive princess. It's quite hard to stay indifferent to them as a result. Even if the only thing you feel like doing is actively cheer for them to kill each other. I have to admit they succeeded in softening my feelings towards Wanning somewhat by the end. Mostly because, I believed she genuinely fell in love, even if her method of securing that love was completely demented. Not with Shen Yurong though, I wholeheartedly detested that murderous coward right to the bittersweet end.
I have to give it to the actors, they were both chillingly good in their roles. Liang Yongqi left such a deep impression on me as Shen Yurong, I probably won't be able to enjoy him in another role for a while. Li Meng perfected the haughty princess I-can-trample-you-like-an-ant look, but there was a bit too much theatricality in her portrayal for me to really connect with the character.
🙄What I'm not so thrilled about:
Let's be honest, the drama has derailed in the finale. I don't even know what to call that last battle scene, other than some weird visual fetish. It's like they run out of episodes to tell the rest of the story but still had a lot of expensive scenes left, so decided to include them all with little care to the storyline. Better project management next time please!
I wish they gave us more happy moments with the lead couple and their families in the last few episodes. That would've been a much needed (and well-earned) breather from the angsty villain arc.
Some scenes were obviously just added for shock value, including an unnecessarily high death toll. Needlessly killing off well-liked characters is a sure way for a drama to get on my shitlist. On that note, going into battle with no armour or helmet had me facepalming so hard I hurt myself.
Why on earth did they bring ML’s grandfather so late in the story? We could've had 40 episodes of their banter!! I feel robbed. Duke Su deserved to be a better developed, more complex character. It looked like they planned for it in the last arc but run out of episodes... I'm not sure what happened, but it was disappointing.
I'm not a fan of the way they resolved Shuran's story arc. It was way too convenient and incomplete, especially with how long the drama lingered on her story.
This one is more of my own making. I unfortunately went to Douban to read some comments when I started watching this drama. One of them said that the FL looked like a blind person and I couldn't unsee it for the rest of the drama;( I liked Wu Jinyan's acting on the whole but sometimes her gaze really looked empty.
✨But all that's minor stuff, go and let yourself be seduced by this epic melodrama with no regrets!
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