GrnGrnTmt
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Don’t miss out on this HILARIOUS show! It’s definitely worth it!
This show is SO funny. I watch it RAW without Eng Subs (???? only Ep 1 on YT is subbed) but it’s still hilarious. They did a great job with the casting bc the chemistry is amazing. The natural flow of their reactions and interactions are just so fun to watch.I have to say, the most unexpectedly, outrageously funny break out star of this show is Deng Lun. I bet the producers themselves never guessed what a funny gem of a character Deng Lun is. Everything from his OCD germaphobia to his fear of EVERYTHING (especially snakes), to his tendency to blurt our random English phrases (“I have a question!” “Oh my god!”) to his versatility in each situation is just simply entertainment at its best. I am not saying this based on any bias, really - Deng Lun is just incrediblly fun(ny) to watch. What makes him great on the show is that he is definitely the brains on the show. The others, like Justin, all do their part to solve the puzzles but Deng Lun is very smart, just very thoughtful, analytical, observant and sharp so he helps solve most of their hardest tasks. And he has a tendency to be rather quiet and more mature in solving his tasks (unless he is scared) which gives him gravitas as a leader. AND based on the most recent episode - he also has muscles when needed. I mean, the guy clearly works out. (Should definitely watch the 5/11/19 episode).
So what makes all of this so hilarious? The fact that he startles on a dime, falls to a near faint at every turn, screams when a bird flies around, openly admits to being scared and cries for his “mama” when he’s scared. ???? I mean, the contradiction really makes for fun tv. All of the cast members tease him endlessly calling him “Lun Ge” or Brother Lun and poking fun at his scaredy-cat ness. But what’s great about all this is he never shrinks from it and embraces the fact that yes, he scares easy but he helps the team make their “great escape” each episode. It’s actually great to see a man not trying to pretend to be tough but acknowledging his fears and stepping up for the team in all other aspects. He really makes this show. I think the producers really got lucky, and if you get a chance to watch it you’ll be in luck too. “Jia you Lun Ge!” ????????????????????
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The camerawork is outstanding. You may not notice or care but most dramas are not shot like this. This is theater-quality filming with all on-location and natural weather settings. You can see the snow falling and melting into the actor's hairs. The wide angle aerial shots make those vast desert landscapes and green mountains seem to burst out of the screen. Just for the visuals alone this drama is worth multiple rewatches.
The story is this grand world that's on par with something like Game of Thrones. Deeply detailed with multiple kingdoms and all coherent and well-established. You can tell this drama is based on a well-written novel. The key driving force are the characters of course. Arthur Chen does an amazing job as Ning Que. He is charismatic and fun to watch on-screen. His chemistry with Song Yi Ren (Sang Sang) is fantastic. You can tell he is a rather young actor in some of the scenes that require deeper emotions and subtlety but he really holds his own against super veteran actors and a grand-scale epic story like this. Can't believe he is only 19 with lots of room to grow.
They really didn't skimp on anything for this drama. At a budget of $70 million USD (quite unheard of for tv dramas), everything is high quality. The costumes are realistic and so are the sets (again, money well-spent on those on-location shoots). Also, no poor wire tricks here. The action sequences are again movie quality. Very well choreographed and executed. Each movement is so tightly done and well-executed. For an action buff like me I just couldn't get enough. The thing I noticed the most? The soundtrack. From the opening scene to the various character themes the music is amazing. Just listening to it transports you back to the scenes and characters.
Obviously I can't say enough about this drama. I think I was just taken really aback by how well made this drama is. I haven't seen work like this since HK's Golden Age. It makes me hopeful of many of the C-Dramas that will come out of China in the coming years. Although Arthur Chen is not coming back for Season 2, which is extremely disappointing, I will watch Season 2 if it has the same high production value as Season 1.
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The characters are written very subtle. No giant dramatic moments here (as the main character says in one of the episodes, "people don't go around slapping people. that only happens in dramas. in real life, it's the kind of thing that happens maybe once in a life time") but just every day life written in a quiet but profound way. There are also great laugh-out-loud moments here too. How the director just changes an otherwise heavy scene by adding a bit of comedy or wit to dissipate the heaviness. It's so superbly executed that I don't know what else to say about it except everyone should go see it. Just when my faith in K-dramas have started to dissipate, here comes this drama to charge me up. Like green tea.
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Of course, the best part of this drama is the undeniable chemistry between Bai Lu and Xu Kai. Don't know what makes them so amazing onscreen but this couple is DYNAMITE. They are independently solid actors - I mean, watching Xu Kai play Gu Yanzhen after watching him as Mo Qing/Li Chenlan in Legends I was thrown by how different the characters were. Xu Kai did such a great job as Gu Yanzhen that I couldn't have ever imagined him playing a character like Mo Qing. Just some great natural talent. As for Bai Lu - let me just say she is just mesmerizing to look at. She is naturally just so beautiful that I couldn't take my eyes off of her. AND her short hair looks stunning on her. She was fantastic as Xie Liangchen/Xie Xiang - her acting scenes were so good I'd love to see her in more action dramas. I personally thought Xu Kai's onscreen charisma as Gu Yanzhen outshined her just a tiny bit but she definitely held her own spotlight. When these two were on screen together, it was captivating to watch.
I'm not sure how I'd feel watching them with other actors - for example, I watched Xu Kai in Yanxi Palace and his acting was good but I just didn't get the same level of chemistry and flow and acting in that one as I did when I watched him acting with Bai Lu. Some actors just sync really well with a particular actor I guess. They just draw out each other's talent to its best. Just for Xu Kai and Bai Lu, this drama is DEFINITELY worth watching.
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Crap Writing from Beginning to End - Save Yourself and Skip It
This was the worst show. I really tried to like it for the main actors but the writer was SO SHITTY. They kept building up these horrific scenarios and as a viewer you’d think the prosecutors will resolve them to provide some sort of justice. But no, each case was resolved in mediocrity bc the writer focused too much on the ML and FL’s revenge story which itself was resolved without much satisfaction. The writing was just all over the place like the writer was in school and watched a bunch of tv shows and took pieces of it and patched it together for this BS. It was so infuriating watching one case after another get handled like shit. The ML and the FL were the worst prosecutors I’ve ever seen in a show. They were so incompetent and emotional and just blind. How do you go into a case and get surprised because the defense objects to the authenticity of evidence? Like that’s trial 101, to authenticate your evidence. And it was supposed to be a shocking move by the defense??? Who wrote this? Definitely someone who read a Wikipedia summary of trial proceedings and not anyone who is actually a good writer.Also, the episode on military abuse and the mass shooting. They built up so much about how much abuse the poor soldier who went crazy from it and they didn’t even allege temporary insanity or self-defense. Sure they’re prosecutors and not defense but they just let it all go and the abusers got away with everything and even monetary compensation. Like, where is the satisfaction in that as a viewer? I feel so angry watching this bull shit writing. I swear I’m never going to watch another thing by this writer.
Oh yeah, and they cast Ahn Bo Hyun and Jo Bo Ah who have pretty great acting chops and they relegated them to some stupid cliche lines about revenge. Talk about wasted talent. I came here after watching My Name because I wanted a similar genre and man it wasn’t even close. I mean, I know they’re totally different stories but the writer shouldn’t be this mediocre. I mean. Who wrote this mess??
If you’re looking for a good story with riveting courtroom scenes and smart twist, this drama is NOT it. Skip it and save your time. I’m so annoyed I watched till the end.
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Super cute, we all need a P’Suea minus the obsessiveness
This is a super cute, short, funny happy drama with eye candy in the form of Mr Perfect, Push Puttichai. Super easy on the eyes and when he smiles... WTH. It is the brightest, sunniest and happiest smile you’ll ever see. Add to that those dimples.... ok, enough fan-girling and back to the review.I love that it’s short and that it has something of a message, I mean it is the Ugly Duckling séries after all. The FL is super cute and she captures a genuine sweetness through her acting that makes you just love her, her skin problems and all. But my fave character was Bee. I mean, talk about Queen. One of my favorite gay characters ever, and Thai l’aliéna have great gay characters - not just those stereotypes but really great characters who just happen to be gay. He was so supportive and so on-point. I want a friend like Bee!
As much as I loved P’Suea his character started to get overly obsessive and mean to the FL. I felt that they overdid it and it just made me dislike him for a second. Guess we can call is something of a character semi-arc (but not a full one).
So if you need a quick fun happy Thai lakorn to watch this is definitely the perfect choice. And best of all, you can watch it on YouTube with full Eng Subtitles which is a real treat bc Thai lakorns with Eng Subs are really hard to come by unless it was a super mega hit in Thailand. Which means, this one obviously was. :)
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A light, funny drama with a good life points, and pretty ML and FL
This is a pretty funny drama that hits home a lot of real life issues regarding marriage and people’s (justifiable) reason to remain single. In many scenes you can just hear the ML and the FL watching all the craziness happening around them and internally screaming “AND THIS IS WHY I WANT TO STAY SINGLE!” It’s pretty well done :)This is arguably Push’s sweetest role. His character is a pretty even tempered rational guy who is totally happy in his single-hood and enjoying life with his fuzzy (and adorable) dog Cookie. The FL Gypso is ok but I thought she was a bit over the top in grumpiness. It made me wonder if she is so happy being single why wasn’t she less grumpy? I also didn’t like that they caricaturized her as being messy and somewhat crass. She didn’t need to be that way to be a single woman. It also bothered me that when her Senior was having marriage problems and she got caught up in it why she couldn’t take a stronger position. Both ML and the FL’s downside is that they are surrounded by family, friends and work who insist that they MUST get married in order to be happy and be fulfilled in life. Obviously, our leads politely disagree. And that actually makes the story worth watching.
I thought the drama was pretty slow when it came to the romance. The ML and FL barely have much interesting screen time until about Ep 10 and even then it’s just ok. The romantic chemistry was missing and they really seemed better off as just friends bc they did such a great job of acting in character - as people who just didn’t want to date anyone, least of all each other. It was like, wow mission accomplished because I felt like they really didn’t want to date at all. Lol. This drama doesn’t have quite the sexy scenes that you’d expect in a romcom and it definitely focuses more on the lives of the support cast which throw the two leads into situations.
Having watched Push with Baifern in The Leaves (if you haven’t watched that drama yet - stop reading this and go watch it!!) I feel like I was destined to be somewhat disappointed with the chemistry. I mean, they have a great friend chemistry much like they do in I Wanna Be a Superstar, but not the kind of sizzling, someone get a hose, type of chemistry you saw on The Leaves (aka Fallen Leaves). I miss that.
Side note, the entire time I wanted to just push all of Push’s front hair up and back. It annoyed me so much. His hairstyle, ugh. He is so hot with his hair up... I mean c’mon! But I understand the character isn’t meant to be a U-Prince hottie so ok, got it.
All in all, this is definitely a fun drama to watch. I mean, if anything you can just admire the hotness that is Push Puttichai and you won’t even notice the time pass~
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Movies like this make me think positively about the future of Korean cinema because outside the smoke and mirrors of domestic and international awards, what Korean cinema lacks is tight execution and good old storytelling of otherwise creative concepts. Sometimes I feel Korean movies focus too much on sensationalism (be it gruesomeness or eroticism bordering on pornography), technical camera work and production value rather than storytelling, character development and execution. It's nice to see a movie that is well-made and reminds us of the fun of going to the movies. Nicely done.
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After the severe disappointment that was Princess Agents (everyone will agree that Princess Agents could have been amazing save for the say... last 20 episodes), I wasn't sure if I was ready to dive back in. Then I saw the poster with Zhang Binbin and Ariel Lin (her comeback to historical dramas in like forever) and I knew I had to at least give it a shot. After binging through all 17 episodes (it's still airing) over the weekend, I'm hooked. Dare I say... it's better than Princess Agents, and any other recent Chinese dramas I have seen in a while. Here's why:
First, I am loving the writers. The dialogue is witty and genuine and refreshing. None of those old boring predictable dialogues. And I don't want to offend anyone but it's like they took notes on how to write amazing dialogue from the Kdramas. There are so many moments where you think, why doesn't s/he question this or say this and sure enough... the actors say what you were thinking. Meaning, the characters seem real and react to the scenes like a normal real person would. This is refreshing to see. The comic timing and delivery of the dialogue are also so key and they just nail it each time. Of course, this brings me to the second point.
The acting is fantastic. You can't have great dialogue that works if you don't have actors who can deliver them properly. Ariel Lin is a veteran so I am not surprised by her keen acting sense. Zhang Binbin though... wow. I loved him in his other dramas and he continues to really grow but he goes toe to toe with his acting senior (by nearly 10 years although you'd think Ariel Lin was only 21 watching this drama she looks so amazing) and can capture both the comic and sentimental moments perfectly. Just for the acting, this drama is worth watching.
Third, finally a smart and capable female lead! Don't get me wrong, we've had smart female leads in other dramas but I think Ariel Lin really means it! The character Hua Buqi is definitely a force! She is smart, resourceful, not prone to familiar female lead territory where they suddenly become weak and fragile for no reason. No, she's the real deal. The fact that the character doesn't know martial arts and has to use her wits to get out of certain (non-physical) situations is great to see. I also like that she doesn't take things for face value and questions situations, motives and people in a very rational way. As a viewer, this takes the whole "omg, this is so frustrating, if only they communicated and used their brains" thing out of the equation. In fact, not just the main leads but all of the characters use their brains and are not easily duped. Therefore, the only real mystery is the story and that is meant to be solved by the viewer as well as the characters.
Finally, the overall editing and pacing is great. The plot can be a bit convoluted but the director does a great job executing. Although there are a couple of side stories they all manage to tie in to the main underlying plot and this drives the story forward. You are not left wondering, well what the heck was that other story about. Every line, every action taken by the actors (not just the mains, all of them) add to the plot development and character arc. That makes you wonder how the story itself - and not just the loveline - will resolve itself. That's a great part of making a drama great.
So, I know this is a long review but the bottom line is YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS DRAMA. It's pretty awesome. I can't wait for the next episodes. I am officially hooked. Although, for now. I hope this drama doesn't pull a Princess Agents on me towards the last few episodes (total 51 I think - but 2 episodes air each Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) but so far, I'm loving it.
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Terrible Drama. Low production and cringe-worthy dialogue
This is such a terrible drama. I am shocked at the high rating. I started it based on this rating and I think it must be a biased rating from the fans of the ML and the FL. There is a reason why this drama was held up for so long after production - it’s just terrible. The underlying story is thin, the “cases” they solve are not interesting and poorly written, the characters are uninspiring and the story drags on and on pointlessly. I have not seen a more terrible drama in recent years. Even the low budget web dramas are far superior than this.Let’s start with the main characters. Can they be any more cliched? The ML is an arrogant, cold, rich lord who is also a high positioned investigator. Now. I’m tired of dramas that romanticize assholes. He is just a mean asshole and he is mean, rude, degrading and controlling of the FL. I don’t find that romantic in any way. Yet, here we are. I don’t care if he has a trauma related to his mom it still doesn’t excuse his poor behavior.
The FL is supposed to be a lower ranking investigator and forensic analyst but she doesn’t come off very capable. In fact, her deductions are so elementary it’s always the ML that helps her solve the problems or it’s some “test” by the ML to see if she can solve the problems. Like, the FL can’t seem to do her job right without the ML and is relegated to being is lackey. MOREOVER, she has a gun and this is supposed to be her weapon of choice. If that’s her weapon of choice shouldn’t she know how to shoot people with it? Of course not. She is a terrible aim and I have yet to see her hit anything with it, moving or not. And to add insult to injury it’s the sword-wielding ML who “teaches” her how to aim with it! Like, she didn’t learn how to aim the gun when she chose to first use it as her weapon of choice? And then whenever she runs out of bullets in the middle of a fight. She struggles to reload it and it’s the ML that has to rescue her each and every single time. SO FRUSTRATING! Can we please get FL who are at least COMPETENT at her chosen profession? Why must she be a lackey, dumb, incompetent investigator who needs constant saving by the ML??
Then, there is the story and the production. This is SO low budget. I have to go beyond suspending disbelief to watch some of the scenes and it’s tough. Everything down to even the “fresh” flowers clearly look fake. Everything looks like a set, and the swordplay is fake, the action looks overly dramatic, close-camera fake, just everything. It’s like they just didn’t give a shit or they as really really low budget but decided to go all out on these scenes with the low budget they had. If you don’t have the budget just keep the set and props contained. I have seen low budget web dramas look higher quality than this.
And the story is worse. What IS the story? It’s just a series of unrelated and uninteresting cases that shows the evil villain has an evil plan. Yeah, we get the villain is evil and he has an evil plan simply from the fact that they decided to give the villain a glass eye to basically put a sign on his face that says “he is the villain.” I’m half way through the series and it’s just one drawn out boring uninteresting case after another that adds nothing to the plot of character development.
Finally, the dialogue. I thought no dialogue could be as boring and uninteresting as Siege in Fog and this drama proved me wrong. What is the point? And can the FL get better lines then one that is about her eating too much, is sucking up openly to the ML or just otherwise being a loudmouth crude nosy busybody? Ugh.
I am particularly disappointed (to say the least) about this drama because I like the actors who play the ML and FL. It’s so disappointing that they wrote the characters this way and directed the story this way. What a waste. And what am incredible waste of time on you if you spend a minute watching this terrible drama.
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First, I don't know if they were trying to be creative but setting the start of the drama 2 years in the future and not at the chronology time is not only incredibly confusing but you have 0 connection to the characters because there was no build-up to the characters. You are not given a chance to invest in the characters so you end of just not caring or getting annoyed at the characters because you don't know or understand their motivations or backstory. Just throwing the viewers into the middle of some battle and expecting people to understand the character's personalities and dialogue as if it were in the middle of the drama was a huge mistake. I get that this type of storytelling technique can be unique and add to the drama IF done RIGHT (ex: the drama Signal), BUT they UTTERLY FAIL here.
Second, if Episode 1 is supposed to act as a pilot then they failed because it was the most mundane and boring episode where nothing happened. If I had never seen their trailers then I would not have continued to watch this. Even at Episode 5, the storytelling is all over the place, you are still not involved with the characters - they're all just getting annoying more than anything else - and you don't even know or care what they're fighting about.
Third, why are the dialogues SO boring. I just don't get it. They spend so much of the dialogue on formalities (ex: "mr. x has died. It's a shame he has died. He will be greatly honored that you will remember him. We will all remember him. He has fought by your side so long. Mr. y so have you. Oh no, please I cannot compare to mr. x. Yes, mr. x was a good man. etc. etc. etc. for 5 minutes!). Every Chinese (especially historical) dramas are so filled with these formal speaking that it's just hard to wade through it all to get to the crux. What's the point? Can we have a few witty conversations?? They need to take a page out of the Korean historical dramas. They used to be boring as sin too. Then they realized hey let's just make the dialogue more modern and witty and dispense with the formalities. The result? Shorter episodes, wittier dialogue, faster story progression. China, c'mon. You have great ideas! Let's execute on them better!
I've always been such a fan of Chinese dramas. Always waiting for the comeback of their Golden Years. But now I realize that Chinese dramas have SO far to go still. The best thing about this drama is the trailers and MVs on YouTube. Basically, it works best as a 3 minute musical montage than a full blown 50 episode drama. I'm so disappointed at this drama. Don't bother watching. Not worth the time or energy.
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