darkn3ss
Gryffindor Tower
This review may contain spoilers
An Ode to self-righteness
I would like to arrogantly state that this is my opinion and that it's not intended to hurt anyone's sensibility and that in regards is anyone intended to treat my opinion as the holy grail or anything. I also like to say that I pride myself as being fair to the drama that I invest my time in, and am quite picky. I'm a pretty committed person and rarely do I drop a drama. And knowing that taste and colors are an individual choice and adhering to the rule that "one individual trash, is another treasure, " I tend to keep my opinion to myself and don't usually post reviews. But this drama upset me enough that I felt the need to write one, so my rant would be on record somewhere.
I avoided watching the original this drama was based on for the longest time, then when Viki and youtube kept putting this drama in my recommendation I decided to give the original a go first before diving into this to have a frame of reference. As someone who likes to read, I am well aware that it's ludicrous to expect an adaptation to stay true to the original. And this drama is quite the best example of that because the pet peeves that stop me from giving the original version a 10 were amplified in this drama so much so that he sucked all the fun out of the watching experience. If I listened to my anger and just rated this drama based on that anger this would get a 1. But I still gave it a 5 because although it was not out of the ballpark I was quite satisfied with the acting and some aspects of the side stories.
Story 3.5/10
The story somewhat tried to follow the original material since one could easily recognize some of the stories that were told but somewhat tweaked to I imagine fit Chinese aesthetic more. And that to me was where this adaptation dropped the ball. Granted I was quite glad we got to see more of character development for each of the characters. But it was also that development which in the end killed the drama. Why do I say that? Well, I will only talk about the 4 main leads.
Where Etsuko overconfidence and her ability to just sprout everything that came to her mind was slightly annoying because she mostly reminded you of that one friend that you have that is extremely bad at reading social cues. Li Xiao simply comes off as an extremely brash sheltered kid that has no regard for anyone but her own self-interest and extremely narrow view of the world. She is opinionated and immature, to the point that she does not even realize that she forces her opinion on people. To me, this was evident so many times throughout the handling of her work, where she foolishly ignored the recommendations of seniors who have been at it longer than her. But it was even more flagrant in her interpersonal relationship and the way she approached things, there could only be one view to things and it was hers. She came out sounding self-righteous and unaware of her own biases. She literally threw a fit at the guy she liked because he first said he wanted to quit modeling, but then he got into it, and it started to encroach on her view of the world she threw a hIssy fit.
Where Yukito just came off as a weird character, who seemed to have no real spine and mostly went along with things. Li Mo came off as a man-boy with serious mental scars. From the start of the drama to the end the most we saw of Li Mo characters was him going through the motions of what others were planning, getting depressed, and throwing Hissy fit. And I was so taken aback with the turn that his character took with his obsession about becoming famous, something that so did not fit the framework of the character he had during the first half of the drama.
Where Morio came off of emotionally close off and a mooch. Xia Fan simply came off as mentally unstable and manipulative. The all drama the only person she was truly looking for was herself. Not that putting yourself first is a bad thing and I did have my moment of sympathizing with her by recognizing the amount of stress she was under. And I truly felt for her because I would be morose too if I had a friend like LI Xia who is constantly under the impression that she walks on water and everyone else is beneath her sanctity.
Where Kaizuka mostly comes off as a selfish comic relief. Wu Yu was downright as wretched as Li Xiao felt to me, the high horses these two characters were riding on were just on another level. Every single time he opened his mouth to talk to Zimo I actually wanted to punch him. Yes, he actually did give a few good advice to Li Xiao but the way he treated the people that were supposedly his authors was just disgusting.
I don't even want to start ranting about the lack of chemistry among "romantics" pairing of this drama from the one shoved in our face to the cameos. None of the characters had a healthy relationship that may make you go oh I'm rooting for you.
This story was supposed to be an Ode to the forgotten heroes that make it possible for us readers to enjoy the book we read, and may I even simply say all the forbidden and overwork heroes that are quietly working behind the scene so that we can enjoy all the comfort we take for granted. Got turned into a self-righteous, piece of propaganda for filial piety and a world where everything is black and white. To the point that you forget to root for the heroes. The all-time I was watching these I felt like elders were shaking their finger at me going this is what is wrong with your life. And sadly I make the mistake of watching this drama on Viki with the Timed comments on and the numbers of self-righteous ignorant invalidating some of Zimo I believe deserved tantrums were even more infuriating. When the only sound of reason in a drama is a child actor you already know how wrong things are. And oh lord do not get me started on the level of unprofessionalism going on in this thing.
Although I said I was only going to vent about the mains, I must say what on earth were the writers thinking when they replaced Yoneoka character with Liang Hu or whatever is name was, okay I can swallow my bitterness at the fact that his character got axed 100% because he was gay. They could have kept the character and changed his sexual orientation, instead of the trash that they added. Liang Hu did nothing but sleep, eat, and be immature.
The original drama had a positive vibe around it, that made you appreciate what you have. But this one had so much negativity floating around.
Acting/Cast 8.0/10
The Acting was stellar on the part of the supporting veteran's actors, who were the actual reason why I stuck with this drama. Because no amount of my love for Xing Zhao Lin could have saved his character, although I did feel bad for him at time. And although I enjoyed watching all the outfits An Yue Xi was thrown in, her acting left me old and unimpressed.
Music 2.0/10
other than the opening and closing number I don't remember hearing anything worth going on there was music being played.
Rewatch Value 1/10
Unless I'm in a situation where the only thing playing no one is ever going to catch me voluntarily watching this mess.
I avoided watching the original this drama was based on for the longest time, then when Viki and youtube kept putting this drama in my recommendation I decided to give the original a go first before diving into this to have a frame of reference. As someone who likes to read, I am well aware that it's ludicrous to expect an adaptation to stay true to the original. And this drama is quite the best example of that because the pet peeves that stop me from giving the original version a 10 were amplified in this drama so much so that he sucked all the fun out of the watching experience. If I listened to my anger and just rated this drama based on that anger this would get a 1. But I still gave it a 5 because although it was not out of the ballpark I was quite satisfied with the acting and some aspects of the side stories.
Story 3.5/10
The story somewhat tried to follow the original material since one could easily recognize some of the stories that were told but somewhat tweaked to I imagine fit Chinese aesthetic more. And that to me was where this adaptation dropped the ball. Granted I was quite glad we got to see more of character development for each of the characters. But it was also that development which in the end killed the drama. Why do I say that? Well, I will only talk about the 4 main leads.
Where Etsuko overconfidence and her ability to just sprout everything that came to her mind was slightly annoying because she mostly reminded you of that one friend that you have that is extremely bad at reading social cues. Li Xiao simply comes off as an extremely brash sheltered kid that has no regard for anyone but her own self-interest and extremely narrow view of the world. She is opinionated and immature, to the point that she does not even realize that she forces her opinion on people. To me, this was evident so many times throughout the handling of her work, where she foolishly ignored the recommendations of seniors who have been at it longer than her. But it was even more flagrant in her interpersonal relationship and the way she approached things, there could only be one view to things and it was hers. She came out sounding self-righteous and unaware of her own biases. She literally threw a fit at the guy she liked because he first said he wanted to quit modeling, but then he got into it, and it started to encroach on her view of the world she threw a hIssy fit.
Where Yukito just came off as a weird character, who seemed to have no real spine and mostly went along with things. Li Mo came off as a man-boy with serious mental scars. From the start of the drama to the end the most we saw of Li Mo characters was him going through the motions of what others were planning, getting depressed, and throwing Hissy fit. And I was so taken aback with the turn that his character took with his obsession about becoming famous, something that so did not fit the framework of the character he had during the first half of the drama.
Where Morio came off of emotionally close off and a mooch. Xia Fan simply came off as mentally unstable and manipulative. The all drama the only person she was truly looking for was herself. Not that putting yourself first is a bad thing and I did have my moment of sympathizing with her by recognizing the amount of stress she was under. And I truly felt for her because I would be morose too if I had a friend like LI Xia who is constantly under the impression that she walks on water and everyone else is beneath her sanctity.
Where Kaizuka mostly comes off as a selfish comic relief. Wu Yu was downright as wretched as Li Xiao felt to me, the high horses these two characters were riding on were just on another level. Every single time he opened his mouth to talk to Zimo I actually wanted to punch him. Yes, he actually did give a few good advice to Li Xiao but the way he treated the people that were supposedly his authors was just disgusting.
I don't even want to start ranting about the lack of chemistry among "romantics" pairing of this drama from the one shoved in our face to the cameos. None of the characters had a healthy relationship that may make you go oh I'm rooting for you.
This story was supposed to be an Ode to the forgotten heroes that make it possible for us readers to enjoy the book we read, and may I even simply say all the forbidden and overwork heroes that are quietly working behind the scene so that we can enjoy all the comfort we take for granted. Got turned into a self-righteous, piece of propaganda for filial piety and a world where everything is black and white. To the point that you forget to root for the heroes. The all-time I was watching these I felt like elders were shaking their finger at me going this is what is wrong with your life. And sadly I make the mistake of watching this drama on Viki with the Timed comments on and the numbers of self-righteous ignorant invalidating some of Zimo I believe deserved tantrums were even more infuriating. When the only sound of reason in a drama is a child actor you already know how wrong things are. And oh lord do not get me started on the level of unprofessionalism going on in this thing.
Although I said I was only going to vent about the mains, I must say what on earth were the writers thinking when they replaced Yoneoka character with Liang Hu or whatever is name was, okay I can swallow my bitterness at the fact that his character got axed 100% because he was gay. They could have kept the character and changed his sexual orientation, instead of the trash that they added. Liang Hu did nothing but sleep, eat, and be immature.
The original drama had a positive vibe around it, that made you appreciate what you have. But this one had so much negativity floating around.
Acting/Cast 8.0/10
The Acting was stellar on the part of the supporting veteran's actors, who were the actual reason why I stuck with this drama. Because no amount of my love for Xing Zhao Lin could have saved his character, although I did feel bad for him at time. And although I enjoyed watching all the outfits An Yue Xi was thrown in, her acting left me old and unimpressed.
Music 2.0/10
other than the opening and closing number I don't remember hearing anything worth going on there was music being played.
Rewatch Value 1/10
Unless I'm in a situation where the only thing playing no one is ever going to catch me voluntarily watching this mess.
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