hypersniper

Expectations (Trailer) vs Reality (Entire drama)

I was excited for The Map of Truth (I had no idea this was the drama's English name because I watched its trailer with its Chinese name). I thought it would be supernatural stuff as depicted in the trailer, but I guess it really does fit its name, Map of Truth, where Bat Ping (Katy Kung) and crew often discover the truth behind supposed superstitions or 'funny' events happening. LMAOOO the music at the intro is so creepy

I almost teared up when I saw Man Ban (Karl Ting) seeing his mother's birthday wish to him after Master Chong (Wayne Lai) did his rituals. I'll admit that I did find Sau Yi (Carmen Ngai) annoying at the start because she was like being delulu or lovesick (or you know 恋爱脑), but she's grown on me after the subsequent episodes or rewatch. I think it was also partially because I was getting annoyed by Bat Ping's skepticism of Master Chong, and wanted to expose him each time.
I've rewatched this drama several times out of boredom, and I didn't want to start a new drama.

Firstly, The Map of Truth reminds me of Our Unwinding Ethos due to the same myths/stories of certain locations in Hong Kong (like the Bride's Pool or Seven Sisters Road). In Our Unwinding Ethos, Rosina Lam uncovers the mystery in the cases linked tog these places. I'd say I learnt some feng shui and science stuff from The Map of Truth HAHAHA and psychology (since Master Chong often used the latter in observing individuals).

This drama has several 'cases' throughout and the SHOW (aka the sequel to the drama that Man Ban likes a lot; I watched the drama in Chinese subtitles, so I have no idea what his fav show's called). I'd say I was confused at the beginning because I thought Hoi-Wing [Sherman Poon) -- who acted as both Hoi-Wing (one dead already, the other is just a lookalike with the same name)] was actually the late Sister Wing's daughter/child. Turns out she tricked everyone into thinking she's the child; it's actually her boyfriend (the guy with curly hair who introduced Man Ban to this show as an assistant director). I mean, it's just a drama, but I couldn't really fathom how the Curly Hair liked Hoi-Wing, who bore a resemblance to his late mother (if yknow what I mean). Good to see that Sister Tong (Chloe Nguyen) got put in jail. The story between Kam Jun-hei and Ms Tsui (aka Pitchaya -- sorry for the spelling error if there's any) was really sad omggg but I was so glad that Madam Kam actually decided not to proceed with the lawsuit. I thought she was gonna be one of the villians or something, thankfully she isn't. It was nice to see the relationship between Jun-hei and Madam Kam get better and I just realized Jun-hei's actor was in A House of Spirits which was why I found him sooooo familiar. Speaking of that, Han Kok-ho (the university ghost 'victim') was actually in Our Unwinding Ethos as a part-timer with Edwin Siu. Man Ban's family case was really so sad, and Master Long Gui (Andrew Yuen) was so evil omg, he literally went around scamming people, especially women -- including Man Ban's mother and slept with her. I rolled my eyes several times when Madam Kam was gonna break up with him but he managed to convince her otherwise (ohwells). It was nice to see Master Long get his karma when he lost everything, and the scene where he hit his head against Man Ban's late father's stone plaque + his head bleeding, which was a parallel to the state Man Ban's late father was in when he jumped. The fox demon/spirit case was kinda interesting. The saleslady (Irina Tang) from the suit shop that Long Gui endorses has 3 boyfriends simultaneously (like OMG bruh), I was so afraid she was gonna stick to Bat Ping's senior, Ms Fang (Lisa Ch'ng)'s husband , thankfully he still has feelings for his wife -- he had an affair because Ms Fang was tooo busy. I felt so bad for Ms Fang when she accidentally tore the only picture she had with her husband and was panicking because of it.
I'd say that I found Sister Sa very cool actually because she's protecting Sau Yi plus her fighting skills. Also, Sau Yi and Bat Ming are kinda cute together! He was willing to spend time with her -- i.e. accompany her to see the Rice lady to 'talk' to her mother or walking the dog together.
(At this point, I think I'll leave my review as it is as I can't really remember much about the drama since I havent rewatched it for the 7th time since june and I am currently fixating on Blossoms of Power heh)

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"Marry My Husband" HK Version

(I'd like to say that it's my first time writing a review heh, and most of the stuff I wanna say are mentioned in other reviews too)
Edits: Included my thoughts about the outro song visual

I was excited for this show actually since it's like a HK drama version of Marry My Husband, but then the producers (or someone else) said it wasn't? But then, ummm, to be fair, I did compare this drama's details with the K-drama in the first few episodes. I guess to distinguish both dramas, the producers/writers got Senna to dream about her future instead of 'going back in time'. Also omgg, the amount of filter to smooth the skin texture applied in the show was extremely obvious, which I thought was unnecessary.
Sherman really irritated me, and based on my own experiences, she's the kind of toxic friend some people will meet in real life. I felt bad for Canny (Kyden's wife), she was always drunk, and both brothers have used her in some ways. Actually, I'd have liked it if they briefly showed what happened to Canny after Kyden went to jail.
Felt bad for Quinn too since her father and brother often disregarded her and her abilities just because she's female. Not gonna lie, I was invested in the parts where the all-girls team were presenting their advertising pitch, purely because I'm doing an advertising module at the moment. It was really interesting to see their creative ideas. Also, Hayley's so hyper and cute!! she's such a foodie!

The amount of misogyny from the bad guys is horrendous, but I'm glad to see the women put them in place.
My rewatch value is 6 purely because I get bored easily and will probably rewatch it at some point in time + there are actually some parts that were extremely funny AHAHAHA
(like the part where Mark had to peel Sherman's eyelids open to unlock her phone)
The visuals in the 'outro' song is AI-generated, it's so obvious that most of the characters in their 'Iron Man' suit (as mentioned in the reviews above mine) don't even look like themselves. Sze Wing looks like Zhao Jinmai or something in that AI visual.
Is it just me but I feel that Maggie looks a bit like Kelly Fu?

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