zhraiya

a great premise, a good pairing, a slightly disappointing execution.

my review contains four sections —
[1] singing the series’ praises.
[2] episodes seven and eight.
[3] the couples and the love triangle.
[4] my conclusion.
(please be aware the whole review contains minor spoilers about the story and ending.)


[1] singing the series’ praises.

i liked the overall story; it was simple but engaging. having Siyeol start off with his own ulterior motives was interesting, and i think the premise of getting revenge on behalf of a friend (and unrequited love) is great because it jump-starts the main romance in a way that feels character-motivated instead of coincidental or artificial. this has the opportunity to give the characters more agency, more life, and more depth.

the dialogue and acting felt natural most of the time. despite Aejun (Aejoon) being a massive fanboy and having a huge crush on Siyeol, his lines/reactions never felt too cheesy, dramatized, or unrealistic, which i think is a feat. he could’ve easily been a frustratingly exaggerated stereotype, but he remained fairly level-headed and rational during a lot of his interactions with Siyeol, which i think helped balance out the fanboy moments. Aejun’s timid/shy looks and behaviors also felt normal/natural, and often sold a scene for me. overall, the dialogue and acting for both Aejun and Siyeol in particular were major positives, but the whole casts’ acting was good.

i also really loved the way we got to see/hear some of the internal monologue of both the main leads in the first several episodes. not only does this obviously help us get the full story, and not only does it help build up the romance between the two characters, but it’s great to see/hear how Siyeol feels as he gets to know Aejun more and more.


[2] episodes seven and eight.

all of the above being said, though, the seventh and eighth episodes felt anti-climatic to me.

firstly, though i thought the premise and reveal of Siyeol’s ulterior motives was presented well, the resulting consequences once he was found out were lackluster and Aejun’s reaction seemed very mild. his idol crush appeared out of nowhere, started a relationship with him based on lies, and he found out about those lies while also finding out that his crush liked someone else the whole time. i felt like he should’ve been angry and insulted and heartbroken, and i’m assuming he was, but we barely got to see any of that.

secondly, Siyeol’s feelings started off so interesting, with depth and motive, but by this point i found myself displeased with the way his feelings were written. Siyeol’s reaction to being found out didn’t seem strong enough, plus his feelings for Aejun at that point hadn’t been developed enough. i realize that Siyeol thought Aejun had a boyfriend, but even so: having Siyeol earnestly say, in episode seven of a ten-episode series, that he still felt feelings for someone else was… disappointing, to say the least. this made the main pair’s romance fall rather flat for me. i had to agree with what Gyuseong (Kyusung) said to him: “you’re the one who needs to commit to one person.” and i also had to agree with what Juha (Jooha) later said to him: “think about what you did. you deserve to suffer a little.”

thirdly, the (mostly off-screen and mostly unexplained) revelation of Gyuseong’s reason for breaking up with Juha was lacking. while i understand that Gyuseong was trying to protect Juha’s career and public reputation, it seems like they were together for YEARS before the break-up. so, it made little sense that Gyuseong would cut Juha off so suddenly, without telling Juha about what happened at all. maybe if there had been a bigger threat/scandal, then it would’ve made more sense for him to hide it, but the actual threat didn’t seem like an end-of-career time-to-break-up issue to me — especially since the two of them just end up (openly?) together anyway.

all in all, i can’t say the ending was outright bad, because the last two episodes were much better than these two, but the direction this second half went in still left me feeling less than satisfied.


[3] the couples and the love triangle.

main couple: Choi Siyeol and Na Aejun were super fun to watch on screen. despite Siyeol’s ulterior motives and his feelings for Juha existing alongside his feelings for Aejun for most of the series, the main pair still managed to have a lovely chemistry with each other throughout the story. their scenes were also so cute and well-acted that it was often easy to forget Siyeol had any ulterior motives at all. this is partially why it was disappointing that Siyeol spent so much of the series thinking that he loved Juha more than Aejun, but at least the last two episodes helped make up for part of that. unfortunately, though, i found it kind of hard to believe Siyeol’s declarations about Aejun being the only person he’s actually loved — not because i think he was being insincere in that moment, but because this wasn’t really what we were shown in the series. (i’ll talk about this more in the love triangle paragraph.) still, it was nice to see the main pair get their happy ending.

side couple: Ji Gyuseong and Yeon Juha worked well as a side couple, despite the poor break-up reasoning. considering the limited time we had with them, and considering their exes-to-lovers storyline, i think their reconciliation developed at a decent pace. i also really enjoyed that you could easily tell what their dynamic as a couple used to be (especially in the last episode, when Juha confronts Gyuseong), and it was nice to see them get their happy ending too. when they’re actually happy together, their chemistry is good.

the love triangle: Siyeol’s feelings for Juha are present for most of this ten-episode romance drama, which is frustrating. the show tries to dismiss this by making it seem like Siyeol’s emotions were rooted in some sort of obsessive guilt rather than real love, but i just don’t buy that. there were a few times when Siyeol genuinely showed care and affection for Juha, and the fact that they have a long history and close relationship is brought up too. plus, the whole premise of the story is that Siyeol cared so much about Juha’s happiness that he wanted to get revenge on Juha’s behalf. AND it’s even revealed that Siyeol bought and now lives in Juha’s old apartment! so yeah, Siyeol’s feelings seemed like love to me, not guilt. you could also say it was infatuation mixed with guilt, maybe, but the point is that i don’t believe it was just guilt alone.


[4] my conclusion.

this was a cute, funny, and well-made series with a really interesting premise. the couples had good chemistry, and even the friendships had good chemistry. if the love triangle issue had been resolved a bit better and/or a bit sooner, i think it would’ve made the happy ending feel like it was truly earned and it would’ve made this series even more enjoyable. even so, the last two episodes really made up for a lot of the disappointment i felt, and i was especially happy to see that Aejun and Juha became friends.

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it wasn’t perfect, and sometimes it wasn’t even good, but it was fun.

my review contains five sections —
[1] the bad.
[2] the good.
[3] the ending.
[4] the couples.
[5] my conclusion.
(please be aware the whole review contains minor spoilers about the story and ending.)


[1] the bad.

the story was decent, but contrived. trying to keep track of the family trees was often difficult, which was frustrating. to make matters even more frustrating, there were characters that were eliminated or forgotten about on a whim. the side couples do not get any development whatsoever, but most (if not all) of the characters are underdeveloped so that’s unsurprising. it felt kind of like watching fanfiction, in the sense that sometimes it seemed like we were already supposed to know who the characters were because they were from some other work/story and were just being written into this historical drama. i suppose that has something to do with the series being adapted from a novel, though i don’t really like using that as an excuse for shoddy writing.

in that same vein, the dialogue was hard to sit through a lot of the time. sometimes it was awkward, sometimes it felt repetitive, sometimes it made very little sense. this didn’t help at all when trying to follow the familial connections. i usually give the benefit of the doubt in these cases, because i’m aware translations/subtitles are not always the most accurate, but even if i’m being generous i have to say that the dialogue was overall pretty clumsy.

also, i’ve seen some discussion about the acting and dubbing. personally, i found the acting to be okay at worst and fun to watch at best. the first half of the series is very light-hearted in tone (there are even sound effects for when something is supposed to be humorous/comedic), so i thought the over-the-top or weirder acting choices sort of matched that tone most of the time. the second half of the series does get more angsty and serious, and in those scenes the acting is definitely hit-or-miss. plus, the dubbing is noticeably bad, especially with Shaoyu’s character. but overall — idk, i think i’ve just seen worse acting than this.

the production and editing were also not great. though the effort and spirit were certainly there, the fight scenes and effects made me laugh and cringe at the same time. there was a scene where i could tell that the actors stopped acting just before a cut. i could even see the edges/clips of the actors’ wigs a lot of the time. this doesn’t necessarily take away from the story, but it does make many moments worse if you’re already on the fence about how to feel about a scene.

something of note is that the noncon scenes were presented in an uncomfortable/odd way. i think noncon in fiction can be compelling if done right, and i’m actually often partial to these kinds of toxic romances, but i don’t think this series does noncon well. not only does the noncon go nowhere and have no effect on the story whatsoever, but it also presents noncon in a way that’s “romantic” (sort of?) and in a way that makes it feel like a bandage for poor chemistry and writing.


[2] the good.

perplexingly, despite all of the above, i actually like this series. in fact, i often found myself enjoying it almost against my will. there was a weird charm to how off everything was; it reminded me of a few low-budget romance and comedy series i’ve seen, and even the naruto cosplay skits i used to watch when i was younger. a lot of the series feels like it’s held together with duct tape and string, and i (fondly) yelled “this is so dumb!” more times than i could count, and yet i still came away from the series with a positive feeling.

in this case, i think what made it easier to keep watching was: one, the lack of miscommunication; two, the sheer comedy of it all; and three, the characters (even as underdeveloped as they were).

personally, i find miscommunication to be the absolute bane of most romance stories, and i’ve only seen it done well maybe a handful of times. so, the fact that THESE characters, in this often SUPER contrived storyline, somehow managed to avoid the pitfalls of the worst miscommunication tropes is a MIRACLE. don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of scheming, lying, bluffing, betrayal, and jealousy surrounding the main pair from the very start, but none of it really lasts and some of it barely goes anywhere at all. this could certainly be considered a bad thing, but i’m personally putting it in the ‘good’ category.

the comedy is sometimes intentional (when the writing is clearly aiming to be fun/funny) and sometimes it’s accidental (when something unbelievably absurd is happening on the screen). either way, both the intentional and accidental humor of this series actually landed for me, for the most part. it made many scenes far easier to get through and overall made the episodes more enjoyable.

lastly, the characters were the highlight of the drama for me. they were underdeveloped, yes, and ridiculous sometimes, sure, but they were entertaining. the main leads, though they didn’t have the best chemistry of all time, still had some interesting scenes and the characters were fun to watch individually. there were also a lot of side characters that i genuinely liked: Su Yin, Que Siming, Jinbao and Zhaocai, Right Shadow and Left Shadow, even Li Gongxiang — they became like trusty companions to me; every time i saw them, i knew a scene would be easy (or at least easier) to watch. i didn’t like all of the characters, no, but i liked most of them; and because i liked them, i wanted to see how their stories ended.


[3] the ending.

the ending was all right. the villain was defeated, of course, and the couples lived happily ever after (2/3 of them at least?), but one thing that stood out to me was how bad i felt for Huaien’s mother at the end. i kind of wish her storyline/background had been woven into the plot a little bit better, but i could say that about almost all of the different storylines.

i feel like there were lots of unanswered questions (like how did Su Yin manage to tell Xiaoyu about the dahlia being important?) and lots of things that came up out of nowhere toward the end of the series (like Li Gongxiang’s connection to Huaien’s mother). also, some plot twists were better than others: for example, the issue of Li Gongxiang’s loyalty being unknown until Episode 11 was good! the weird red herrings regarding who Huaien’s father actually was were less good.

still, i was happy to see the light-hearted tone return in the last episode. the series bookending with the kites was really lovely and by far my favorite bit. a very sweet end, considering the serious tone of the second half.


[4] the couples.

the main couple: Zongzheng Huaien and Jin Xiaobao were… something. their relationship progressed rapidly, which isn’t always a bad thing (Semantic Error handles rapid progression with characters who start off as strangers very well), but in this case the characters were too one-dimensional and their initial interactions were too stiff for the rapid progression to feel natural. so, i didn’t love them, but i also didn’t hate them. my favorite thing about them was how their dynamic changed over time, from Xiaobao flirting with a cold and dismissive Huaien to Huaien being crazy about Xiaobao. i thought that was an interesting change, plus it fit their respective characters/storylines. it still could’ve been handled/written better, but i’ll take the wins where i can get them.

side couple #1: Que Siming and Jinbao could’ve been cute, if they had been developed in any way, shape, or form. individually, they were fun comic relief characters; together, there was the implication of something more; but their past was discussed like twice, their characters had precious little screentime, and their relationship progressed largely off-screen. there was an episode where Jinbao ran away from home (or maybe ran away from Siming?) for maybe one minute, and a big deal was made of it for about two scenes, but then we never found out why that happened or if it had anything to do with his relationship with Siming. truly a waste of a potentially sweet side story.

side couple #2: Su Yin and Zongzheng Shaoyu were barely anything at all. Shaoyu’s character was obnoxious and obviously in love with Yin, but Yin seemed to have no feelings for him whatsoever, and the few scenes they had together often ended with Yin dismissing or being angry at Shaoyu. i’m not really sure what the plan was there, or why they’re featured together in the intro sequence, because there was genuinely nothing between them in the series besides the one-sided feelings on Shaoyu’s part — and these feelings aren’t even addressed.

other notes: Huaien and Shaoyu were both jealous over Su Yin’s relationship with Jin Xiaobao, but that was kind of a red herring too. in my opinion, there wasn’t actually a love triangle there, at least not in the way that love triangles are usually presented. i can only think of like two or three times when i thought Su Yin might actually cross that romantic line; otherwise, he was a character that typically acted within the realm of chivalry and propriety, and he was always careful to treat Jin Xiaobao with respect and the appropriate amount of (familial) affection. that was part of the reason i liked him!


[5] my conclusion.

honestly, i doubt i’d rewatch this series, but i was able to stick with it despite my habit of dropping shows i get annoyed with, and that’s noteworthy. it was a lot of confusing family drama, a lot of cheesy moments, a lot of odd camera shots/angles, a lot of undercooked characters and plot points, a lot of questionable scenes and content… but it was also a lot of laughs, a lot of fond eye-rolls, and ultimately a lot of fun.

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