Most Intelligent and Satisfying Drama

I’ll break this into non-spoiler and spoiler.

Non-spoiler:
I’m very amazed how such a lengthy and slow-paced show turned out to be not boring at all.

I went in expecting to fast forward through every non-Ming Lan scene but to my surprised I wanted to actually sit through all the scenes with the other characters!

For me, apart from the star-studded acting from Zhao Li Ying, Zhu Yi Long, Feng Shaofeng and the old folks, the story itself is beautiful. You don’t have the repeated lame schemes amongst the sisters, concubines, brothers that other shows do. The script and plot were very well written, well paced and pleasant to watch. There’s also a lot of subtle humour in this especially with the mothers and grandmothers.

I may be a little biased because I’m a Zhao Li Ying fan but every scene with her were great. She pulled off this innocent yet highly intelligent character very well. I particularly enjoyed watching all her conversations with her grandmother.

I personally learn a lot from the script. Very applicable to real life. :)


-Spoilers ahead-

Minglan is so very intelligent. She has a lot of devils trying to take her down, but she also has a lot of supporters. Grandma, cousins from Youyang, Shen family, Yanran. You could see how supportive they were when she was at her lowest. 90% of the time she is very calm, composed and smart but touch her grandmother and husband, and she will claw you without caring about the consequences.

Every 20 episodes or so, you’re introduced to a new villain. Each, more cunning than the last. Gu stepmother was the one character I never thought I could hate so much (what a good actress!)

I fully understand why everyone was raving about the main couple. They are so sweet. I’m amazed how a playboy like Gu Tingye could be so caring, sweet and somewhat attention-seeking childish when it comes to Minglan.

Yet at the same time I felt his childishness were a bit prolonged. Just arguing with Minglan for getting him a concubine lasted 5 episodes. I understand the premise, but again was abit too much of a filler. His childishness was very hot and cold. This part was the only part I didn’t like in the whole series.

The ending was satisfying. Very, very satisfying. Whilst I expected Gu Tingye to rise again for winning the war, I didn’t expect that the Emperor was behind it all along. Very well played. I was wondering why this Emperor would turn so ungrateful to his saviours.

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A very good psychological thriller

This is a psychological thriller, that’s what it is.

The first episode was a little patchy and all over the place. I had a hard time keeping track of what I thought was forgettable characters (including Seo Ye Ji, who is the reason I watched this show in the first place.

Came episode 2 onwards and bam, I got hooked! It’s a show you can easily binge-watch because almost every episode ends on a cliffhanger.

Be prepared to be slightly disturbed by the cult doings in this show because they are evil. But the acting were all executed so flawlessly.

Don’t worry about the ending. No cliffhanger and is all good.

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IU saves the show

I tried to like this unfortunately I fast-forwarded most of the episodes, especially after 11 or so.

I watched this because of IU and she did not disappoint. Her visuals plus the visuals of the drama itself is 200%. Her outfit changes were GREAT. Her acting is superb too with a lot of cold yet funny lines and moments. Part of the bg music makes it even funnier. However her chemistry with the ML was lacking.

The side characters were likeable, but not great. I did like their backstories. Mago is probably my favourite.

The ghosts had meh stories and endings. I sometimes expected more but each episode fell rather flat with how the ghosts were handled.

the FL's main story was good, but took too long to be explained. There was a huge gap in the middle where they were focusing on the side characters.

Overall, a 7/10 for me simply because of the stunning visuals.

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The worst of the Light-On Series ... yet

Only watch this is you want to watch Fan Cheng Cheng. Otherwise, this Light-On Series (LOS) is a complete waste of time.

Think .. a bunch of school kids trying to save the world... from an evil organisation.. when the LOS really shouldn't be this kind of show considering their success in 2020. The producers were probably trying to experiment but .. oh gosh this is so bad.

There is no smarts in this. No grand scheme. What you see is what you get. And cheesy lame. Feng Shaofeng basically plays a middle-aged man who got thrown into this hero role when he shouldn't. He and his character both, they can't pull it off.

The female lead cannot act. Period. She is stiff, with expressions that don't match. You basically won't feel any empathy for her.

Fan Cheng Cheng was the only good actor in this entire series. Unfortunately his character is so so flawed, and cheesy too.

Sorry for the rant. (Give me back the past 10 hours of my life!)

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High quality production

Get past the first 5 episodes and you’ll be in for a ride. It starts off slow at first (like all C-dramas) but turns into an action-packed, suspenseful show.

It’s hard to categorise this into a single genre. Military strategy? Check. Gang fights? Check. Mystery? Check. Romance? Half check.

Every character has a back story (which is how a 24-hour show can turn into 48 episodes). Sometimes the flashbacks can get a bit tiresome but they provide important details for the mysteries to unravel later on. Each character is unique and humanely human. You have the loyal soldier, the neglected prince, the ambitious prince, the ambitious scholar, the coward... etc.

I really appreciate the quality of this production. You can see almost nothing is done using green screen. All the stunts are proper. The main lead, Lei Jia Yin - watching him is like watching a Chinese James Bond. Very macho and heroic.

Definitely deserved all its award nominations.

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Phew, only watched this in 2020 and regretting that I didn’t discover this earlier!

I laughed and cried with this one. The pace of this drama is nice. Things are not rushed or dragged out too long. 59 episodes might sound a little lengthy and dreadful but I assure you that it is worth it.

I watched this because of Zhao Liying and she continues to live up to her ratings. I wanted to see how she fared in her first breakthrough drama and I am not disappointed at all.

She played every expression well. You watch her scared, love, trust and cry over the course of 50+ episodes and you grow with her character. She is believable because she doesn’t always win against the bad guys each round.

Chen Xiao also played her love interest nicely. He is loyal and they face conflicts like real couples do. They don’t have a cliche fairy tale perfect relationship. I like how he’s so protective and yet he respects her. He’s also such a hero and he sacrifice a lot for her.

All the other supporting characters are great too. The villains and the other maids.

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Light, Funny & good Stress Relief

I really like this! It’s cute and funny.

Whilst the plot is nothing new, it’s a good mix between light humour and a small sinister scheme. The show is not 100% romance as the characters are also entangled in some Palace Court schemes. It’s well paced, neither slow nor rushed and a good mix of fun with serious. There are some illogical plots, but then again this isn’t a crime drama so I’m happy to let these slip.

Chemistry is very good between the FL and ML. It’s not sizzling or over the top, but they’re decently nice together. Special mention goes to the 2nd ML for executing his overly jealous role well.

This is my first show with Zhao Lusi as the FL and she’s good! I’m keen to chase her other shows now. The cute and funny role has been her typecast but she’s good at it so why not? For Xu Kaicheng, it’s my first time watching him and he’s alright. Not extremely talented or amazing but he played the tall, serious, protective yet cute ML pretty well.

At just 30 episodes, I recommend this for a good ‘ol destress after work or studies. I had a good laugh every day.

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Slow. Just slow.

Ah this is a tough one to review because I really want to like this show.

[Just to disclaim, I watched Forever & Ever (FE) after One & Only (OO). I did not read the novel before watching the shows]

Pros:
- the show started off quickly. 5 minutes into the first episode and off we go with the main couple.
- Bai Lu's acting is a 10/10 here. She carried OO together with Ren Jialun but over here, she topped it off a notch further. Her glances, side eyes, smirks, smiles and styling were all 10/10 here. I enjoyed just watching her expressions and looks.
- it does justice to the pain we had to endure in OO.
- the side characters are pretty cute and funny.
- there are sweet awww moments between Shi Yi and ZSC.
- Ren Jialun had some good emotional scenes towards the end.

Cons:
- the pacing.is.so.so.so.slow!!! I had to skip and fast forward half the show.
- it probably should be a 20-episode drama instead of 30 episodes.
- Zhousheng Chen is too stiff here. He's abnormally stiff even for an awkward chemistry professor. He's so reserved about his physical touches yet, he has no qualms about getting in bed with Shi Yi (???).
- Ren Jialun's glances in FE unfortunately didn't carry any weight nor invoked any feelings in me this time.
- too many kiss-block moments it got a little lame and tiring after a while.

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imho the best modern C-drama to date in 2021

**Non-spoiler section**

Tight, gripping, fast-paced. Never a dull moment.

The star of this show really is Qin Lan. I didn’t have much impression of her (weak and easily bullied) character in Yanxi Palace but her performance in this show threw me off my seat. It really did her justice and I loved every minute of her in it. She’s this smart, witty, aggressive yet empathetic character that I learn so much from.

What’s better is that this show is a fresh idea. The focus is on the ruthless celebrity world which I believe many of us would like to know more. This opened my eyes about how their world works, the stakes and story behind each production, each weibo post. A much fun watch, actually.

Talk about couples. I love the chemistry between the FL and ML. They are funny at times. Both are successful in their careers so you don’t have the perennial issue of one earning more than the other. And Mo Bei provides such a loving support to our iron lady after a long, hard day at work. <3

Really a thumbs up from me. One of the best modern shows I’ve watched. Love the FL’s outfits and make up in this show too. It makes her look 10 years younger than in Yanxi Palace and The Eight.

OST - 10/10 the 3 main songs are sooo good.

Rewatchability - 10/10 all of Mo Xiang Wan’s yelling at people and giving love to her artists are worth rewatching over and over.

Closure - 10/10. ‘Nuff said. You gotta watch this yourself.

Also, R.I.P Godfrey. Taken away too soon from us.


** Spoiler section **
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My fav work relationships and friendships in this drama:

Xiang Wan + Guan Xian: if these two don’t have their own spouses I can imagine them growing old together and annoying each other.

Xiang Wan + Ruan Li Hua: how she handles a veteran diva who’s out of touch with showbiz.

Xiang Wan + Song Qian: how she fights for a neglected yet stubborn stage actor.

Xiang Wan’s ‘gift’ to Zai Zai was the best arc ever. It was so emotional and perfect on many levels.

Lin Xiang has a very true and realistic character. Episode 35 was a terribly heavy episode for me. I’ve never cried an entire episode in my life. You get to see the consequence, regret and redemption in all those around her. R.I.P. and I hope no artist will ever have to go through this.

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Dilraba + Johnny Huang = fireworks!

The chemistry between the FL and ML is sizzling hot! I would watch show purely for that and the fashion eye candy.

I would recommend this show if you want something with humour and lots of eye candy in a modern day setting.

Story-wise, it's nothing new. Rich CEO falls in love (rather quickly) with someone he stumbled across in his industry. They have really hot and sweet moments ... then they have their arguments and misunderstandings.

The side relationships are really good too. The friendship between Zhou Fang and Qin Qing, and the sibling tag team between Song Lin and Song Luo. I rate this rather highly because the casting is quite perfect.

Downside? This show could have been compressed to 30 episodes but it went on until 45 episodes. To be frank, the last 1/3 of the show bored me quite a bit because the misunderstandings and conflicts just start repeating themselves over and over. There's also a little too much emphasis on the side characters (QQ & WS) in the last arc.

But really, Dilraba and Johnny has one of the best on-screen chemistry I've seen. Dilraba has improved so much since she's started acting and I would say this is one of her best works. As for Johnny, this is my first time watching his show and I'm 100% impressed. It just sucks that his personal life scandal ruined the ratings for this show when it aired.

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Great female-centric spy series with a charming male lead

One of the best spy dramas I’ve watched and would highly recommend (The Disguiser still takes the top spot for me). The rivalry between the 2 female leads were very intense and gripping.

I was drawn to this drama because of Zhao Li Ying but it turns out that the main male lead impressed me more! He’s really charming and fits the spy role perfectly.

In terms of war, it’s a standard spy plot. What makes it different from other shows is that this time it’s female-centric and the main plot is more micro and driven by personal grudge. You see how the antagonist grow from an innocent woman into the villain that she is.

My only few negative points are:

**SPOILER ALERT**

- the plot is a bit too .. coincidental ie. how Rouge gets easily saved by the bell each time.
- the ending was a little lame.

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Non-spoiler portion of the review:
Overall a well-rounded c-drama that I’d recommend. Watch this if you’re looking for very sweet, cute and hot romance with some military strategy and battles. Excellent leads, villain and supporting characters. The reason why I can’t give this a perfect 10 is because it has standard c-drama flaws - fillers were about 10 episodes long, over exaggerated fights and long stares.

I like Angelababy’s acting too. I think her negative reputation about being bad at acting isn’t justified here.


SPOILER AHEAD:
Pros:
- the romance! So hot. Beijie is just so so macho and Pingting is so demure and intelligent.
- Beijie and Pingting’s individual characters (chivalry, strategies, charm)
- well developed villain from start to end.
- good supporting characters.

Cons:
- Bai Pingting’s role as the other half. Biggest frustration is the way Pingting’s character was written with the typical cliche of trying to save her lover by leaving him 10x. If you do it once or twice, it’s fine. But repeat this formula every 3 episodes and it gets really unnecessary and frustrating. The worst filler was the 3 years separation and how they missed each other at every turn.

- CGI - not gonna elaborate on this. I think it’s clearly weird.

- Final battle - whilst it was filmed in an exciting and emotional way, it is also abit predictable and overdramatic.

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My Personal Best K-Cop Drama

I’m probably biased because I love cop dramas but this has been the best I’ve watched so far. I’m saying this after having watched Signal and a few others.

I don’t know how this show just gets me hooked and gripped each episode which makes it so binge-worthy. I like how each crime has a deeper story which unravels by the middle of the episode. Mid-season, you see this all start to connect to the wider and main plot/villain of the drama.

I love the FL. I like her calm and serious demeanour, and I am an instant fan.

Now, shall we talk about the villain? He’s probably the actual star of the show. He plays the psychotic role so, so well it gives off Christian Bale American Psycho vibes. He’s so scary that his gaze gives me chills each time. Really talented.

The only waste is probably the villain’s end. It was too easy and not explained properly.
But everything else were really good. Gruesome good.

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The Adventures of Zhou Fei and Friends

Non-spoiler positives:
I think the reason why most of here are because of Zhao Li Ying and Wang Yi Bo so as fans of them, I'd say you'd have to watch. They are cute together.

It is generally a very light and family-friendly show. Characters are likeable/lovable. Show is fun to watch because there are funny banters, action sword-fights and general all feel-good vibes. Would I recommend this? Yes. I would not classify this as a blockbuster series, but if you have the extra time then I'd say watch this. This is essentially Legend of the Condor Heroes female lead version where female lead literally takes on the entire lead role with noob kungfu at the beginning but progresses better as she meets martial arts masters and comes across many kungfu manuals along the way. That's not the main story, though - as there is a big bad organisation out to steal some treasure that she is also after.

The supporting actors are also nice to watch. They really felt like a bunch of friends on an adventure together hence my review title, lol.

Anyway, the negatives so SPOILERS AHEAD:

I felt that the show fell flat starting from Xie Yun's bone-chilling arc. The pacing was rather off from this point on because trying to fit in so many characters and conspiracies in a 51-episode show was too much and all over the place. From this point up to about the late 40's, we had to slot in Yin Pei, Small Medicine Valley, Xie Yun's monk childhood, Yu Wenzhi and the occasional Anping Army which (facepalm) I still don't see what their role was in this show other than to take Lord Gantang away for 9/10th of the show.

Plot hole 1 - Anping Army, Yu Wenzhi, Zichen and the previous dynasty. Seriously, after 51 episodes I'm clueless as to who and what these people are/were trying to do and their relationships with each other. Yu Wenzhi literally appeared out of nowhere during the big 48 Fortress battle and just appears on and off as a big bad with an army. Literally no background here. Zichen - don't get me started with this guy. He had one job which was to bring Poison Woman to 48 Fortress and that's it.

Plot hole 2 - Demons in general. Shen Tianshu's motives were never really clear from the start. Even his dumping of Poison Woman was rather quick? It felt like they just create his motives along the way and there was no real build-up. He's just a bad guy who goes around killing people even when he tells them that he won't.

I mentioned above that this was a light-hearted show and that is personally a problem to me but I suppose I have myself to blame for not checking what the book was all about. I expected heavier and more serious undertones like Princess Agents but this had none of that. The deaths barely impacted me (only Duan Jiuniang's death did) and I felt nothing when the few characters like Fisherman, Old Madam Wang, Master Qi, Yin Pei, General Wen Yu died. Which brings me to my next point;

ZLY's performance - I watched the show because I have been a big fan. I love her acting and I love her previous works but I felt that her talent was diminished in this show. She didn't have many memorable lines and scenes. Only the few scenes where she cried over Xie Yun moved me a little (even so, nowhere near to the effect of her previous works). Most of her focus were on the sword moves which I give credit for as she did the stunts herself. .. though I wished they described her South Blade swordsmanship a little more because it's supposed to be something technical. Instead, all they did was show flashbacks of her grandfather.

WYB's performance - I liked him from The Untamed but I personally think he's not suited to play Xie Yun. Not that he's doomed to play a serious introvert for life, but I could see that he's still a little amateur-ish in the way he played Xie Yun. I can't really put a pin to it but it's probably a mixture of the "exasperated" eyes he makes and generally just .. stiff-ness.

ZLY + WYB chemistry - ok no complaints here. I think they're fine! Not the best on-screen chemistry in history, but they have a lot of sweet and aww moments. Too many to list so I won't. I don't think ZLY is too old for WYB in this show simply because she looks so young.

CG and editing - bad. notice how the same forest gets recycled over and over? But I suppose I won't blame them since their filming schedule got delayed due to the pandemic.

Supporting characters I think we could have done without - Bonehead, Li Yan and Poison Man. I mean they added comic relief to the show but I tend to fast forward every scene with them.

Couples - I must say Li Sheng + Chu Chu were very close to overtaking ZF + XY for me. If they had more screen time, they just might. :D I'm glad to see Li Sheng matured from a bratty, jealous cousin to a reliable and strategic leader. Luckily Chu Chu wasn't a damsel in distress either (though, I pity the fact they just forgot about her lil brother altogether)

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It’s a good action series with likeable characters. There’s humour, drama and action. Story and plot Surrounds the main character and a drug trafficking ring that he got entangled in with a few mini police missions in between.

William Chan did well in this series. Despite his bad boy look, he pulled off this hero character very well. He’s got the suave, the charm and the built. Chemistry with Sandra Ma was just okay for me. Could be better. Sandra Ma had much better chemistry with Wallace Huo in the other show.

Great villain as always from Liu Yijun.

My scoring is because the series is too long for a modern action drama. Would have been better capped at 30-40 episodes.

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