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Moonshine and Valentine chinese drama review
Completed
Moonshine and Valentine
0 people found this review helpful
by gaja123
Mar 22, 2023
25 of 25 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 6.5
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 6.5
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 5.5
This review may contain spoilers

A good start with a bad ending idea, the screenwriter had no idea for a good ending

I got interested in this drama while looking for a contemporary drama with historical or fantasy threads and found this movie. Generally, I don't watch dramas with contemporary plots much, because I like these historical, costume dramas more, but I wanted a distraction, because I already had too many of these palace intrigues, jealous stepsisters or brothers or vengeful emperors and empresses ... but unfortunately, there are also threads here revenge in the clan dominated the relationships and pursuit of power of some characters. Apparently, the authors of the script follow the simplest scheme, because it does not cost much work on the script ....
The idea was good, although a bit of a fantasy genre. A clan of foxes from a distant planet comes to earth and evolves over the centuries and resembles a human while retaining its abilities and longevity. They watch over the purity of the blood so that there is no mixing with people, as this causes defects in the children being born. And just such a hybrid of a man and a fox is the main character of ML - Helan Jing Ting. The mother was a princess from the Clan of Letters, and the father was an ordinary man. The child is born with a defect and is blind from birth. The only thing that can restore his sight is to drink soup from the liver of someone who loves him. And here begins their whole history in the present with reference to the distant past. Where main ML's girlfriend is married and ML eventually falls in love with each other, but they don't know that main ML's father wanted to sacrifice FL from the beginning so that his son could regain his sight. As a result, FL loses his life, and ML finds out after the fact that his wife was sacrificed to save his sight. He breaks off contact with his own father and for 900 years tries to find a way so that FL, reincarnated in the following centuries, could finally live her whole life.

Anyway, the first episodes seemed interesting and I hoped that it would stay that way when it comes to the plot, pace, etc. Unfortunately, about halfway through, the plot starts to fall apart and holes are made, as if the scriptwriter suddenly lost his inspiration. And finally, the last 2 episodes are a failure in my opinion, I join the opinion of other reviewers that the 24th episode was not needed at all, in the meantime, the threads with ex-boyfriend and friend Guan Pi Pi only took time for the main leads. And the last episode completely lost its energy and had many understatements and gaps.
As for the main leads of Guan Pi Pi and Helan Jing Ting, I don't know them from other dramas. It was my first time watching them, so it will be pure opinion only from the role they played in this movie. Both played very statically, they had little chemistry... at the beginning FL was just getting to know ML and that's understandable, but as she developed a feeling for him, emotions and facial expressions did not change unfortunately. ML also played the same body language and facial expressions all the time, looked at FM like "body" with these eyes and generally the only scene that brought emotions was the one where they first consummated their relationship. I don't know if they played better in other dramas, but here it was as if they were novice actors. You could really build a nice relationship and show it on the screen, but unfortunately either that was the script or the actors had such limited skills, which is a shame. I was disappointed by the ending, when they had a chance to live their lives together, then again the author of the script invented a tragedy for them and separated them senselessly. I had questions why when ML turned into a fox, FL couldn't go along with Xiu Xian and Zhao Kuan Yong to take care of him during his transition to human form. Why had she stayed at home and waited there for six months? I don't understand why in the last scene, seeing him again from the window of the train at the railway station, she didn't run to him, she just went over to the agenda, as if she hadn't been looking for him and waiting for him?! This scene makes absolutely no sense. If she loved him so much and was waiting for his return, she didn't react with joy when she saw him, didn't she run to him? She went to the bar on the train to get something to drink... and that last scene when he comes over and he doesn't remember her at all, however he knows his name and he knows the origin and meaning of his last name... at the end ML states that he will wait with her for her friend ....what does it mean??/ Did he recognize her and was just teasing her, or did he just catch his eye at first sight, not recognizing her? I didn't understand this scene at all. They should have had a good ending after all these experiences that they asked for.

Now the supporting characters. Very cool two characters friends of the main ML Zhao Kuan Yong and Xiu Xian who were funny and fell in love with the same girl Xin Xiao Ju [Pi Pi's best friend]. They had a nice relationship, but it was known that it would not be possible to end it positively, because the triangle was out of the question, and Xin Xiao couldn't decide which one to choose, so the script writer came up with a solution that finally both men returned to their original fox form after devoting his energy to saving ML. I really miss those three...
Another character is Tushan Qian Hua, arranged for marriage with ML 900 years earlier, who was unhappily in love with ML and followed him for centuries hoping that one day he would love her. Ultimately, however, she finally gave up and fell in love with Zhao Song [Left High Priest] the adoptive brother of the main ML who was the villain in this movie and ended up badly in the movie's finale through his choices. I felt sorry for Tushan because she sacrificed her life for Zhao Song as well. The other characters like FL's ex-fiancé and her friend Tian Xin had too many scenes at the expense of the main couple in my opinion, but that's my personal opinion about their characters. Generally, this was the closest group of major leads. The rest were side plots in the drama.
To sum up, I could give this drama a lot more points, but because of these holes and understatements and dragging out unnecessary plot threads and not very warm main scenes, once they realized their feelings for each other and the last scenes of the ending written "on the knee" by the scriptwriter, I gave lower marks unfortunately ...
You can have a small budget for a movie, but if you have a good writer and director, you can make a nice drama.
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