Aya

The scene where Fei Chi is trying to figure out the difference between the outfits that You Qin is trying on is hilarious. I was sad to see the soul shards go, but I really missed Fei Chi and his interactions with You Qin.

After 26 episodes, it looks like I have built up quite a strong resentment towards the Heavenly Emperor. Whenever he comes on screen and starts talking and justifying himself and his cruelty, I just can't take it. Then again, there are probably only a couple of dramas where I actually liked the Heavenly Emperor character.

I must admit that most of the fathers in this drama are disappointing. The Heavenly Emperor is selfish, the Void King is cruel, the Emperor of the Mortal world is stupid and the Beast King is controlling. I wonder if that was deliberate. Especially compared to the mothers. The Heavenly Empress is a very caring and warm mother. The Void Queen, although cruel to everyone else, obviously loves her son and supports him. The Beast Queen defends and supports her son unconditionally as well.

I hope to see the fathers realise their mistakes by the end of the drama.

Seeing La Mu somehow made You Qin even sadder to me. La Mu seems to represent You Qin's passion, but at the same time also his desire to belong and be part of a family/community and have friends. The fact the You Qin had to extract these emotions seems beyond lonely. Especially since we have already seen the way he acts around his family: distant and polite. And based on his reactions it's obvious that it's deliberate. He wants connections, but at the same time can't allow himself any deep bonds, because he's been aware since his childhood that he would have to give up his life.

The comedy tag is so well-deserved. Every episode so far (I just finished episode 10) hasn't failed to make me laugh. I'm loving it

Di Lan Jue is such a sweetheart. Unfortunately, Ye Tan was lacking affection and attention so much that she seems to have decided early on to become strong and rely only on herself. I think that's the only reason why she never really opened up her heart to him. To her he was a friend and a brother, but she could never let him become more than that. I could almost hear his heart break when she rejected him in episode 9.

It looks like he'll get a romance with the adorable Princess though, so hopefully they'll get a happy ending.

I'm on episode 8 now and I don't know what else is going to happen, but I actually like Wu Dai. He's straightforward and brave and seems like a good leader. Even though he's a bit mean to Chao Feng, he's not downright evil like the Void Empress and her son. Yes, he doesn't think that Chao Feng deserves to be the Crown Prince, but that's probably got more to do with the image that Chao Feng has chosen to present. If he showed his true self, it seems like Wu Dai would show him the appropriate respect as he himself said that the Void respects the strong.

I actually hope to see the two bond in the future episodes.

You Qin's siblings are absolutely adorable and their affection for their older brother is heartwarming. I'm also glad they didn't add the 'little brother falls for the same girl and starts hating his brother' trope. But given the dynamic between the siblings in this drama that would not have worked anyway.

I'm glad you mentioned the family bonds, because I forgot to add that I also really love the bond between Ye Tan and Qing Kui. A lot of dramas add unnecessary jealousy and rivalry between siblings where it's mostly the fault of the parents and the favouritism, but I was so happy to see how much the two sisters love each other. It's heartbreaking to see all the adults around Ye Tan blaming her for something out of her control, when she never really did anything to deserve it and it's a kind and warm little Qing Kui that loves and protects her.

I patiently waited for all episodes to air and now I'm already watching episode 6. It's a lot of fun so far. The pairing of the couples works out perfectly. You Qin who is forced to suppress his emotions needs someone mischievous and passionate like Ye Tan. She in turn needs someone who will love and protect het unconditionally, which he will definitely do. Chao Feng who has been an outcast all his life needs someone kind and selfless like Qing Kui to restore his hope and give his life warmth and light. Qing Kui who has been taught to follow rules and to restrain herself all her life needs someone who will let her be herself. I really enjoy seeing the characters and their relationships develop in this drama.

Another fun aspect are the Princes and their aids. Chao Feng and Gu Hai Chao and You Qin and Fei Chi are hilarious together. It's so obvious just how well Gu Hai Chao and Fei Chi know their princes.

This trilogy of movies is definitely one that people will either like or hate. Personally, I think all three movies were entertaining, which is the reason why I decided to watch them in the first place.

There are themes that are highlighted in all three movies: brotherhood, sacrifice and morality. Ed and Al encompass the three really well and are undoubtedly the centre of the story.

There are some really dark and heavy themes as well wrapped up in the more flashy aspects of the movies, but sometimes these don't get the room to shine, because there's a lot of story to tell in a limited time.

As I already mentioned in my comments for the two previous parts, this movie is definitely a product of a number of choices that the production team made as to what they want to show and how they want to show it and those choices led to an entertaining movie.

All in all, I had fun watching this movie.

It's an entertaining, visually beautiful and interesting movie. The plot itself, with the addition of Scar is heavily focused on what happened in Ishval and highlights the reason behind Mustang's relentless ambition. Obviously not everything is revealed yet, as you need to watch the third movie to get the full story.

I enjoyed this movie more than I expected. There are always pitfalls when adapting a manga/anime into a movie, but this is by far not among the bad adaptations.

It's visually beautiful.

With regards to styling, they seemed to want to stick to the visual of the characters in the anime as much as possible, which resulted in some unfortunate wig choices for some of the characters. Other than that, I think it was a good idea to stick as close to the anime as they could, because it was in line with a lot of the other choices they made.

One of the other choices I'm talking about is the acting. They clearly went with the theatrical/exaggerated type of acting you often see in anime especially the shounen/shoujo anime, but that doesn't always translate as well in live action. On top of that, some actors can handle it well without going overboard and other can't. An example of someone going too far and too exaggerated was Honda Tsubasa who played Winry. There were more scenes with her over the top expressions and movements being out of place even within this anime universe than of her actually fitting in. Yamada Ryosuke on the other hand was better at this. Despite there being some cringey moments, for the most part he fit the style they were going for pretty well. The older cast did a good job with the limited time they were given on screen. The limited time did mean that most of the side characters ended up being caricatures, but that's a given when you try to squeeze the story into a movie.

I really liked the relationship between Ed and Al and how different their personalities are. They balance each other out. Ed is the passionate, impulsive, dramatic older brother while Al is the grounded and calm younger brother. It's incredibly obvious how much they care about each other in every interaction they have.

The story itself is a bit rushed. They tried to add too much and I'm wondering if that's because they initially weren't sure there would be any sequels? It seems like they might have done it differently if they knew they would get to make 2 more movies. There's a clear pacing disparity between the first half of the movie and the second half. In the first half, they took their time to explain the world that we were getting to see, but in the second half things just started happening one after the other and it felt like they were running out of time and trying to cram as much of the story as they could into that last hour. Despite the pacing issue, I must admit that I never really got lost in the story. It was still easy to follow. However, there were some moments that needed time to breathe. Emotional scenes that needed time. Time for the characters to feel what they needed to feel. Time for the audience to feel what they needed to feel.

All in all, this movie wasn't bad, but based on the choices that were made by the production team, it will not be to everyone's liking. Personally, I found it entertaining and that's what these types of movies should be.

That would indeed be a less controversial take. A look at the beauty of the region and the culture. It might not be the case though, as the government is implementing a "one country, one culture" policy so anything promoting diversity would not be acceptable. Obviously, if they do end up showcasing the culture of the region, I would prefer Dilraba as a representative of our culture rather than it being told from the Chinese POV alone.

If that's really the theme, I doubt it's going to be truthful. The Chinese government would never allow that to air. So most likely it's going to be even more propaganda than usual. A flowery take to make themselves look like the good guys. I hope Dilraba doesn't get involved in this as they're just going to try to use her to give it credibility.

It would be really nice to see Li Yi Tong portray the role again, so hopefully this is real and final casting. Seeing as LBFAD was nothing like the novel, I'm wondering which direction this drama will take.

I really hope it will be as good as LBFAD.

This drama was on my list since it was announced, because the story sounded interesting. I was going to wait until it aired and binge watch the whole thing, but I gave in and watched the first two episodes. I'm loving it so far. I like the leads and their characterisation. The drama is very beautiful and it's funny and entertaining. Now I'm torn between waiting and just watching whatever is available.

Whatever else this drama may be, I can't deny it's entertaining and I only watched one episode so far. The beginning seems to be deliberately cringey and very much like a computer game. Once he crosses over though, it was very funny. Obviously the type of humour the drama is going for requires some overacting and I did appreciate that the actors all went for it. With a lot of restraint, I will wait for all episodes to air and binge watch. I'm in the mood for a cute, fluffy and silly comedy.

I enjoyed this one more than the first one, even though I didn't expect to. It's a sweet and cute movie, but that's about it. It's a very typical story, which a younger audience (teens) might appreciate more. There were a few things that I didn't't like and the most prevalent of them is the fact that the attachment between Shusei and Aoi is pretty unhealthy. Since their relationship is the centre of the story, it's very noticeable. Hopefully, their relationship will become healthier when they mature, but based on what they showed in the movie, it doesn't seem likely without professional help.

I'm definitely watching this. This is one of my all time favourite animes

I first watched this movie about 15 years or so ago without really knowing the premise. It was very interesting to see the story develop as you're first led to believe one thing, but in the end everything is revealed and you're left in tears. It made such an impact on me and lingered in my mind for a while after I watched it and that was most likely one of the goals of this movie. I rewatched 5 years ago and even though I saw it coming, the end still made me cry, because the message was still so relevant. It's honestly depressing how far humanity can fall and still not learn a single lesson. I watched it once again recently and came to the same depressing conclusion. It's sad, but fortunately there's still beauty in this world and kindness in humanity and hope that acceptance and mercy will win over hate.