Reviews

Wow, I'm actually not sure which way to go on this one. On the one hand, I secretly loved it and thought it had some really fabulous parts. MOST of the acting was actually really, really good. About the only characters I didn't like were Eun Sang and Hyun Joo. Otherwise, they all did their parts very well, so mostly I blame the script. The two moms together were adorable; and so were Chan Young, Bo Na, Hyo-Shin, and Myung Soo. They add wonderful humor into the story, and I kind of want to be best friends with Chan Young and Bo Na myself. I did adore Kim Tan and his brother was pretty sweet too as the show went on. Even Young-Do wasn't too bad once his character got some development. It had some unique elements, especially the approach it took to the "rich kids and their parents" element (sort of).

But there were a lot of not-so-awesome parts in it too. The storyline is the worst part. Have you seen Boys Over Flowers? Good, then you've seen about 2/5 of this show, except this time the cast is way too old to pull of the high school scene. Seriously, I just made it college in my mind to get through it since there was NO WAY those people were 17-18. The bullying, the fights, the petty bickering, even much of Lee Min Ho's relationship with the girl - it all comes right out of BoF. Although, Eun Sang has nothing on Jan Di; I didn't feel like she felt anything for Kim Tan until at least 3/4 of the way through the show.

Worst, the ending completely and totally sucks. Seriously, Korean dramas are infamous for leaving webs unwoven, but what was up with this drama? There were so many unfinished plot threads, it drove me nuts! What happened to the mistress and dad? Is Young-Do's father going to be okay-and does this mean their relationship is going to survive or at least improve? Is Hyo-Shin really, really okay? What about Myung-Soo? They introduced the idea that he's suffering there at the end but never explained why or how it might be resolved. What about Young-Do? Is he not alone anymore, because Gosh-Darn-it, I want him to have someone to hug! What about Kim Tan's mom? How is she going to survive? And will the dad finally realize what he's about to lose? What about the company? Was Won's loss all for nothing, or will his enemies now back off? Perhaps the worst of it all, I still wish Kim Tan had a better girlfriend than Cha Eun Song.

Kim Tan is one of the very few characters who truly deserves the best that life can provide him. He's good-hearted, determined, caring, and generous to those around him. Other than his lack of drive or ambition/inability to do a decent day's work, he's pretty awesome. And I don't feel like it's resolved at the end. After all the times she's run off and ditched him without warning, I don't feel like you can trust Eun Song (or anyone else in his life) not to do it again. I suppose I feel like Won is going to be there for him now, but that brings me back to Won and the way the show completely ruined him. I hated where they left him and I'll never forgive this show for that. Or the way it left the other characters. Yeah, the ending just sucked.

Anyway, the message expressed was actually pretty good and kind of interesting. It seemed to be based on the theme "be careful what you wish for." If you put Fame and Fortune at the top of your list, you may not be happy when you get it. Conversely, sometimes love and passion just isn't enough. You have got to think about the people around you, not just your love for one individual. It's a story about bad parents and children left to raise themselves. A story about becoming a man, but not rushing to grow up too soon. About loving family, because they may be all you have left.

The actual acting and technical elements were AWFUL in the beginning, while it was set in America. It makes the Americans look like either drug-addicted, violent, wife-abusing criminals or fat, stupid, drug-addicted criminals. To be honest, I wasn't real impressed with the first few episodes. Between the bad acting, the plot holes, the completely unbelievable coincidences, and other random annoyances, I didn't really get into it until after he was back in Korea (which took a few episodes). Then it smoothed out and got a more well made (until the awful ending).

Would I recommend it? Maybe. . . If you liked Boys over Flowers, it reminds me a lot of that show. But I would almost recommend you stop it about two episodes early. It picked up a ton of unnecessary angst just to drag the show out and it completely ruined the story. If you do pick this up, don't stop until after he's back in Korea. You don't get a feel for the drama until after that; everything before is just cheap intro.

Read More

Hilarious gangster comedy, but not for the faint of heart nor 'prudes'

A "bro" (gangster) escapes from his potential murderers into a hair salon. where a hair washer is practicing hair cuts.
After the local boss dies, the bro is quickly assigned as the new boss of the gang, and his task is to seek revenge for the killing of his former boss by an unknown group of Thai men.
The boss is head over heels with the hair washer, and decides she should now cut his hair, and everyone he knows, should too. As he tries to figure out who was behind the attack, he also tries to woo the hair washer turned stylist.

Negative points: the music doesn't stand out much unless for comedic effect, and the movie is a tad long.

Positive points:
Chemistry: You may not have thought it from the start, but man these two have great chemistry.

The sense of humor:
e.g. The hair washer does an awful job throughout most of the movie, which makes for a fun watch: everyone who cares about her, or who is related to the boss, will show up in the show with a god awful haircut, potentially in a hideous color Its a brilliant way to show who's on whose team.

Keeps it light: The gruesome parts are usually exaggerated for comedic effect, but I'd still not advise this movie to the faint of heart.
There were a lot of crude sexual references I thought were pretty hilarious in how unnecessary they were (intentionally written for sure). Although others mentioned this as a negative, I thought it was funny.

The dialogues between the gang members are hilarious at times. One of my favorite scenes is when (another) hair stylist tries to walk into the salon, but gangsters are in the way. They decide to make her learn everyone's names, and there's a definite reference to Monty Python in that scene, with a mandarin (?) twist.

The scene with the boss bro and the hair stylist at her place was hilarious, especially when he comes back later.

I did not notice a single actor who was awful; all of them did a great job keeping in character. I had literal tears streaming down my face.

All in all, I highly suggest watching this if you love adult humor and a decent plot.

PLEASE watch until the very last part of the credits, as it stays funny until the literal last second. They did the actress dirty haha.

Loved this movie so much!

Read More

This is a very hopeful film about making the difficult but appropriate decision to come out, being intimate and pledging yourself to a man, and carrying on courageously when things turn out very different than you expect them to. Watch the young man Boss soar at the end, having decided to love a man and experienced heart break in his personal and romantic lives--and still he soars, twisting and turning with the current, but still afloat in the air, determined to make a life for himself as a gay man. Approach the film with an open mind; ride with the currents of the excellent acting and emotional ups and downs; believe in Boss and his resilience; and your viewing experience will be genuinely uplifting.

Read More

One word: Beautiful

I think this show aired at the right time for me. I could put myself in the shoes of the granddaughter (and other characters at times), especially because my grandfather also has Alzheimer's (maybe that's also why I caught the hints so early on, too?) and I am having the same thoughts about my future. I think I cried almost every episode after that was initially 'revealed.' I related so much to this show. It was made even better by the wonderful production, the amazing cast, and the enthralling story line. Everyone felt so *real*, so human. It was just wonderful to see how people are so faceted. (This show was character-based, and I loved seeing the character arcs for everyone.) I just really love this drama. It's become my all-time favorite drama now. Up until the last second (literally), I loved everything that they did. The ending was so beautiful. I just (as you can tell) have no words to properly explain how good this show is. I highly recommend it to everyone. It was done so well.

Read More

**MAY CONTAIN VAGUE PLOT SPOILERS**

Everyone thought this movie was a waste of time and I can understand those feelings however I think they kinda missed the true meaning. If youre looking for a movie full of love-dovey scenes and heart clenching exciting and complicated love triangles, this ain't it. **The film actually shows the crude, raw reality of being chased by time, chased by the expectations of society, the reality of being betrayed, losing yourself and feeling the high of a blissful moment that ultimately brings you back to a low point, all that to find your true self and true desires.** It's not the greatest movie of all time but it's real and raw, which is why actually found myself enjoying it.

Read More

I was really impressed with the performance of this drama. Yes even though the story was set in a university setting (which appears quite often in bl dramas) it was really well written focusing more on the character and their feelings. I'm glad it avoided most of the toxic tropes that are also quite often repeated in BL dramas and focused more on the characters their relationship and how that affected their friends and family and the development of those relationships. The cast was well chosen. I liked the chemistry between the main couple was well done and the relationships between the other characters (friends and family) was portrayed in a more healthy perspective (if I may say so). The music was carefully chosen and I really appreciate this. I feel like the OSTs were chosen to really match up well with the moods and emotions presented in the story so this really helped me to remain engaged with the storyline. I would definitely come back and rewatch this series and I would recommend it to other people because its not the typical story or plot that has been overused. This drama has really overcome all the negative tropes that have been used repeatedly in the BL film industry which I really appreciate.

Read More

..?

I felt like I was a Charlie Brown character and the entire time I was watching this, they only spoke in, "Wah wah woh wah wah," language. This was weird to me because the premise is pretty interesting, except its execution was unsatisfactory; actually, the entire series was just a big tumbleweed going across the road. Where is it going? And where did it come from?

Let's Dive In.

I'm surprised I'm only just now hearing about this series that ended earlier this year, but I had only heard of it because of my Korean BL endeavor on Viki, and I came across this series (it was also advertised IMMENSELY in the Oh Boarding House series, along with TWY). The story is about an ambitious fashion designer whose incidental run-in with a delivery worker causes them to interact and eventually, said fashion designer hires the young stud to be his leading model. But of course, it wouldn't be a Korean drama without adding a random ass third wheel into the equation (I don't call it a love triangle unless the lead also romantically likes the third option). for once I didn't get second lead syndrome, mostly because I was trying to keep up with what was going on.

What I did like: Love the father-son dynamic. It was the highlight of the entire series, just seeing a healthy familial relationship that wasn't full of toxic masculinity or an overbearing parent. Just a dude and his dad who had deep and important conversations with one another, while they both had an inside joke about the missing mom. I loved it. I want to see more of this in BLs. Let's get rid of the sorrowful dads and bring in more Yeong Woo's dads.

The production was pretty nice. Nothing outstanding, but definitely a lot better than the story it was trying to tell. The music was also something I could come around to appreciate.

It didn't hurt that the main leads were beautiful. Especially Se Ung who legit, and no pun intended, looked like he walked out of a Calvin Klein catalog. I wouldn't be surprised if they asked a model agency for their prettiest male with decent acting skills.

What I didn't like: I didn't necessarily hate the storyline, except, it didn't make any sense. There were parts where I swear the editor forgot to add in an entire plot. I couldn't feel for Yi Bin mostly because I didn't understand his sob story, or why in particular it had anything to do with the plot. The conflict is just super messy too, and not all that comprehensible. One minute they're crying, and the next, everything is fine? And it's happily ever after? Different, very different.

Some parts were kind of boring. You would think in a series that only had a 15-minute run time for 8 episodes, it would follow along with a plot cause it wouldn't have much time to sway, but there were times I had to FF to get through some very tedious talking scenes. Not good for a series that ran for less than about 2 hours.

The connection between the leads is just not there. Sure, Yeong Woo has very soft eyes and a bright smile, and Ki Jin has this attitude that is pretty radiant, but nothing about this pair screams, "Omg, what a beautiful romance". If anything, they got boring towards the end. They had one decent kiss (the first one kind of chaste) and yes, seeing two beautiful men pretending to be in love never hurts, but god, can it be mind-numbing.

Ratings:

Story: 5 - What story? If you can read the synopsis and guess what happens next, then 9 out of 10, you're correct. On top of being not a good story, it's annoyingly predictable. I'm giving 3 stars to the father-son dynamic and 2 towards Se Ung's abs.

Acting: 8.5. - The only part that didn't pretty much suck. Everyone could use improvement, but nothing too severely bad. The dad was by far my favorite.

Music: 8.5 - I really enjoyed the music. Another great aspect of the series.

Rewatch value: 1 - No. No further explanation is needed.

Give this series a shot if you want to, but don't worry, you're not missing out on much. I can only recommend this cause Se Ung's body is really something else, and I think others should be able to enjoy it as well.

Read More

If a brain aneurysm was a drama

One of the first things a writer should consider before writing a story is whether they want it to be character- or plot-driven. If they are a particularly good writer, they might even be able to conjoin both narrative styles to create a well-rounded, thoroughly enjoyable product. If they are a particularly bad writer, however, they will end up with "Blacklist".

The problem with "Blacklist" is that it feels like watching someone go through an identity crisis: it simply doesn't seem to know what tone it wants to set, what world and what stakes it wants to establish, or what themes and topics it wants to incorporate into the story for what reason. It constantly flip-flops between a variety of common mystery drama tropes and plot devices without particularly focusing on anything, which essentially means that it accomplishes nothing. I saw a lot of people compare this drama to "The Gifted" but I truly fail to see the resemblance; aside from the largely similar cast and the fact that they briefly mention that the classes at Akeanan High School are being assigned based on the students' grades in Episode 1, a plot point which they end up never addressing again anyway, there's nothing even remotely similar. As someone who still fundamentally enjoyed and appreciated the work that went into the first season of "The Gifted," I cannot in good faith recommend "Blacklist" to fans of the series.

I truly found it baffling how they managed to get every single aspect of the production wrong. Not only are there enough plot flaws to go for miles but the camera work, direction, color grading, acting, styling, and sound editing are all painful to watch as well. If I tried to list everything wrong with "Blacklist" in detail, I could sit here until my age quadrupled and my body started decaying, so I will try to keep it as brief as possible while still mentioning the most important points of critique I have to offer.

Let's take a look at the technical aspects of the production first. The lighting and color grading throughout the entire drama change at the whims of the set crew and editors. Some shots are well-lit and true to color, while others are dimly lit and have a horrendous brown tint to them like there's a sepia filter overlaying it all. There are also times when the shots suddenly turn grey for no reason. Those scenes are not flashbacks or plot intersections that require to be highlighted in grey to aid with the visual storytelling but just regular scenes that they made grey for fun. The editors also seem to not have cared about scene consistency at all because the real mystery in this drama is how in some shots, characters will empty their bottles and in the next, they're completely full and sealed again.

The sound editing is also terrible. You can hear voices echo, loud surrounding noises that drown out the actual lines, or clearly hear when audio has been added in post because no effort was put into making the recordings match up with the lip flaps of the characters or adjust it to fit the background noises that would normally naturally occur if the scene had been shot anywhere but in a soundproof recording studio.

The subtitles are just as bad as the audio sometimes with many grammatical and spelling errors and in the last episode, there are even whole sections where characters are speaking but there are just no subtitles to translate what is being said. I suppose the subtitlers also felt too miserable to continue translating this.

I am usually very lenient when it comes to styling in school dramas because the characters obviously need to all wear the same thing. But the problem in this drama is that the few ways that they chose to individualize the characters' wardrobes just don't work. Lila is supposed to be the mean, fashionable girl but sometimes she will literally wear the same whimsical, juvenile hairstyle as Teacher Jinmanee, a grown woman who is presumably at least in her 30s. Title also used to wear a jacket at the beginning of the show, which worked pretty well to make him appear more laid-back and relaxed, but they ended up scrapping it a few episodes in and it never came back, even after he returned to Blacklist. They also basically gave Andrew the same styling as Wave in "The Gifted" in the last few episodes with the earrings and chain necklaces, which in my eyes served no other purpose but to be eye candy for the many people who just tuned in to see Chimon look handsome. The outfits that they gave the characters to wear outside of school are also incredibly basic and did absolutely nothing in terms of visual storytelling and to be honest, most of them weren't even very flattering for the actors. The fact that the best outfit one of the Blacklist members wears in the entire series is when Andrew just puts on some random shirt that belongs to Pakkard's father is laughable.

The acting is also subpar, which is really sad because there are so many good actors and actresses in this but the combination of the bad direction and the actors just having nothing to work with with those characters because they essentially have no personality to go off of probably lead to whatever this flat, boring acting was. The only actor that had some notably good scenes acting-wise was Ohm and even then his acting was still much worse than in any of his other projects because even if he gave his most, there's nothing to salvage this trainwreck in my eyes.

As for the plot, it's unnecessarily convoluted and everything is treated like an afterthought. There are so many serious topics in this, ranging from drug addiction and distribution to school shootings to illegal gambling to sexual abuse and rape to physical violence, and every single one of them is treated like it's just some cool and fun plot device to spice up the plot and not a serious problem that affects our society on the daily and needs to be properly addressed and unpacked. The morals of this drama are actually pretty messed up if you ask me: they pick and choose whether someone is evil or something is morally reprehensible or not based on their feeling in the moment.

They sympathize with a school shooter who tried to kill Lila and Bantad, her love interest, even tells her later that she should've just gotten shot. Blacklist also just casually beats up people left and right without even knowing if they are truly involved in any kind of illicit activity but we're still supposed to root for them because "they are the good guys" and it spontaneously always works out for them. They literally waterboard Joe in one episode to get information out of him when he's not even a member of The God's Hands, which if you don't know is a literal torture method and illegal because it's a human rights violation. But the most infuriating part to me is how Traffic doesn't even believe his sister after she tells him she was sexually abused by Teacher Jinmanee when she is clearly traumatized and has physical signs of abuse on her body, then shames her for being a drug addict instead of helping her, lets her abuser get back to her, and then lets the rapist go and teach at another school elsewhere. There were no repercussions whatsoever for Jinmanee besides her having to switch schools when she tried to kill Viking and Fah and possibly other students and sexually abused multiple female students. Instead, the characters even tell her that they love her and that she's a good teacher and praise her to no end and when I saw that, I truly hoped that the writers of this show would never get a job ever again. Every other criticism of the show that I had collected in my mind up until this point suddenly paled in comparison because while things like calling a group of girls "The Veggie Gang" are cringey, they are at least not as absolutely disgusting and vile as excusing literal crime simply because the people committing it are beautiful or handsome.

Meanwhile, Principal Karin is never shown to be evil until he is just said to be the mastermind behind The God's Hands and a rapist. He even appears to be a reasonable and caring principal in the first eight or so episodes, actively providing mental health sessions and counseling to students traumatized by the school shooting and rehabilitation programs to students affected by the Miracle drug that circulated around school. Andrew is also never shown to sabotage Blacklist until he is suddenly revealed to be Principal Karin's little puppet in one of the last episodes and is just ostracized from his group for no reason because of it. He literally did nothing wrong and is treated as some evil traitor when Title literally betrayed them more often than Andrew did and even put their lives in danger on various occasions. Andrew's father even explicitly states in one scene that Principal Karin would never have been caught if it hadn't been for Andrew, so I really don't understand what the writers were going for here.

The narrative choice to include a character episode for each member of Blacklist also doesn't work because the members barely appear in each other's episodes and therefore no group unity is built whatsoever and the characters' personalities are also not being developed although an entire episode is being dedicated to them for supposedly that very purpose. Each member seems expendable and it's never shown why they would need to be in the group because often characters just conveniently have the same skill sets all of a sudden if the story calls for it. Their motivations for joining are also unclear as they keep changing or simply make no sense. In one of the first episodes, for example, it is stated that Bantad joined Blacklist because he wants to get a scholarship but that's not available to students in the rearmost class at the moment and Teacher Wanpadej promised to give him one if he joined. In a later episode, however, it is said that Bantad voluntarily got into Class 4/6 and Blacklist at Teacher Wanpadej's request to get a "free scholarship," which implies he already has a scholarship but it's just not free, which also makes no sense because scholarships are by definition supposed to be free. I am not sure if it's a translation error and they meant a full-ride scholarship but regardless, the story is inconsistent.

All of the characters are also boring and I can't tell you more than one or two traits that they have. Traffic is always angry and in real life, he would probably be an abusive boyfriend. He will literally growl at Melon and risk her getting sexually abused by Jinmanee just because he doesn't want to believe his sister. He also insulted Fah and even completely forgot about her until the last three or so episodes when she was supposed to be his driving force in the story. I hate how he will scoff at Melon and just drag her around like she has no free will and we're supposed to think he's hot while he acts worse than a dog with rabies.

I was excited to see Highlight's relationship with Orange at first because I thought unlike the other relationships it might work out well since they've already been together since before the story starts and the actors, Ohm and Prigkhing, have great chemistry. And it looked promising at first because the way Highlight described his relationship with Orange seemed very cute and I could really understand why they would work well as a couple and then they just break up immediately. Are the writers really trying to convince me that Highlight and Orange broke up after two years because Highlight lied to Orange once? And they didn't even try to make it a steady decline in trust that leads up to them breaking up, it was just over all of a sudden and both of the characters became pretty unimportant to the plot after.

Title is also a mess. I hated his character because he was an asshole to everyone and even flirted with Orange right after she broke up with Highlight, which no good friend would do. He already has a love interest that he has some vague deep history with, so why did they even need that storyline with Title and Orange when it lead to nothing? Just to fill some runtime? How about they used that to actually develop the story instead? They also all act like he died after he leaves Blacklist and say that they can't talk to him anymore because they might get exposed as members of Blacklist as well, which is so weird because wouldn't it be more suspicious if they suddenly stopped talking to him completely when they have been friends all this time? But I digress.

As for Andrew, Jimbae, and Bantad, I honestly barely remember them. They exist and they do something when needed but they have no memorable qualities whatsoever. Their love interests are equally unimportant and I really question why any of these characters exist. Maybe if you melted all of the characters together, you might get enough personality to make one decent one.

Either way, this drama gave me a massive headache and I had serious trouble finishing it. Even while writing this, I just got so upset halfway through that I wanted to bang my head against the wall, which probably would've killed less of my brain cells than watching this drama did. I don't understand how this drama still has an 8.0 rating at the time of writing and I honestly wonder what's wrong with the people who enjoyed this. I just hope nobody wastes their time with this drama because there are a lot of other things you can watch to simp for whatever actor you currently have the hots for that appears in this.

Read More

A dark and captivating teen romance that fails to be truly compelling due to poor directing choices

It's hard to know exactly what I think of this, because there were certain moments that I loved, but there were significant issues with the execution, so as a whole it didn't quite work for me.

I think the story was good, despite one plot point that felt a bit conveniently staged. And actually quite beautiful. The relationship at the center feels vibrant and unique, rather than like just another carbon-copy shoujo manga couple, and the conflicts that follow have interesting emotional content. However, sometimes this really failed to come across effectively due to the flawed storytelling. Instead of focusing in on the emotions in important moments, it completely jumped over them with a time skip, which meant I sometimes had to fill in the blanks to understand the actions or feelings of the characters. While I found the portrayal of these youthful, impulsive, and free-spirited teens captivating, the character drama was not nearly as compelling as it could have been. One of the darker scenes really failed to communicate the extent of the emotions properly, while another seemed intent on making the viewer question the reality of what was going on, which was completely counter-intuitive, since this was not a mystery where the goal is to keep the viewer guessing, it's a drama where the goal is to portray the character struggles. I was really not surprised to discover the director, Yamato Yuki, had also directed Hot Gimmick.

The editing was just bizarre. Some scenes were filmed without a single cut, though I really have no idea why. In contrast, at other points the edits were very quick, which could make the story feel disjointed. Sometimes they seemed to be trying to use the frantic edits to create intensity, but it just distracted from the emotions. Only occasionally did it succeed in achieving the "artsy" feel it was going for.

The pacing was definitely a bit strange. At times I wondered why they were spending so much time on a seemingly less important scene, when a seemingly more important exchange had felt too brief. I also think this could have been a little longer, since it was less than two hours despite adapting a longer work. Perhaps they could have left in a few of the important aspects that they cut.

The soundtrack (Sakamoto Hidekazu) was also all over the place. It mixed a number of styles, but was heaviest on the emo rock instrumentation, which wasn't necessarily a bad choice in principle, but the result was music that generally seemed too loud or out of place.

The locations were beautiful. The cinematography (Shibanushi Takahide) itself was just decent. Much of the atmosphere came more from the scenery than the way it was filmed. There were some memorable shots. However, at times they really overdid it with the shaky camera.

The aspect that worked the best for me was the casting. Komatsu Nana and Suda Masaki had great chemistry and they really felt like young teens. Though I did struggle to feel the emotions of the story at points, I blame this on the director, not the actors' portrayal. I felt that Suda Masaki, especially, fit his role incredibly well, as he seemed so striking, and even ethereal, with his blonde hair and almost emaciated body.

Overall, I think this film failed to achieve the emotional poignancy it could have, because it used an (amateurish, teen-feeling) indie-artsy style, when what it really needed was a more mature, raw, and perhaps understated style. Still, I definitely don't regret watching it and would even consider rewatching it, at least in part.

Read More

A BL That Serves Tea

Never thought a fluffy, cutesie BL could actually talk about things that matter. I was genuinely surprised by this. The story was on point imo and the leads were also topnotch (damn, Kao). Another thing I really liked was how similar young and old Nubsib was, especially how they called Gene's name, so adorable.

If I would nitpick, the breakup thing was an unnecessary drama (although I understand that's part of the story ofc). The last episode was also kind of a let down compared to the previous ones. But overall I think it still managed to stand out and is definitely one of the best (for me) or at least one of the good ones. I really hope this would be watched by a lot of BL fans, especially the toxic ones who doesn't know how to separate actors' public & private lives, as it not only entertains but also serves a lesson when it comes to these issues.

Read More

Only for hardcore Yuqi's and Yunxi's fans

This is my most anticipated C-drama of 2020 (together with Love & Redemption) and when it was finally broadcasted on iQIYI, I was extremely thrilled. The excitement was unreal and I was counting down the days till the premiere. But the first few episodes left me dumb-founded and extremely disappointed. Managed to complete the 48-episode series 2.5mths after its premiere, and that was only because I am a die-hard fan of Chen Yuqi.

What is wrong with this series despite having the same producer as the ever popular “Ashes of Love” and even three (3) of their stars ? Everything. The title was cheesy. The film setting and location was average at best – nothing to shout about. The fighting scenes were below average. The story line was crappy with lots of holes. The acting was difficult to watch with the leading actor/actress looking sad most of the time. The music was passable. The rewatch value is zero as there are no scenes left indelible marks on me and worth rewatching. It was so bad that during the time I was watching this series, I managed to start and complete “The Twin Flower Legend”, “Novoland Eagle Flag” and “Oh My General”.

With so many negative aspects of this series, what was the one that stood out like a sore thumb? Definitely this series’ story-line. This is basically a love story between Yuqi and Yunxi, and the story about an evil guy who was trying to rule the martial arts world was just a filler to fill-up 48 episodes. It was love at first sight for both leading actor/actress, and it happened in the very first episode. They got married at the end but between the first and the last episodes, both of them looked like they were competing with one another for the pitiful, miserable and forlorn look. This couple should be happy. There were not any challenges or obstacles to their love story other than the simple misunderstanding caused by Lin Fengzi. Forty-some episodes of having to look at Chen Yuqi’s cheerless and downcast facial expression are too much even for a fan like me. Chong Xuezhi’s reminded me of Yuan Bingyan’s role as Shu Jingrong in “Listening Snow Tower” where she appeared sad for almost the entire 56 episodes. Both of their characters (Yuqi and Bingyan( were supposed to be strong and powerful, yet both had to be rescued by their male co-star almost every time they stepped foot in the Jianghu.

Then you have the 2 male leads in Luo Yunxi and Zou Tingwei – both of them looked depressed too most of the time. I don’t need to comment on Yunxi as he has made the sad looking character his trademark with his performance in “Ashes of Love” and “Princess Silver”. But he should not have carried such role into this series as his Shangguan Tou’s character was a perfect person. Shangguan was handsome, rich, of royal descent, adept in martial arts and got the girl whom he fancied. Anyone would be ecstatic if he/she is in his shoes. So why was he looking like crying most of the time? Zou Tingwei ‘s role as a bodyguard in this C-drama is similar to his MuCi character in “Ashes of Love” with the exception that in AOL he got the girl; while in this drama, he almost got the girl. He should be miserable, and miserable he was.

Not a single memorable scene, and don’t think it is worth a re-watch. That is why it took a Yuqi fan like me 2.5mth to complete the series. Only for hardcore Yuqi and Yunxi’s fans. The rest can give it a miss and the “the Winner will be You” for not wasting your valuable time.

6/10 overall rating.

Read More