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Easy to watch show with some serious story telling issues
While this drama was easy to watch, it has some serious story telling issues. Yes, the OTP has chemistry and are good looking but it is not raw passion. The romance is a slooow burn with every bit of push-pull and misunderstanding style tropes thrown in just to prolong the journey. The final confession didn't happen until ep20 and the FL was still trying to wiggle out of admitting her feelings for the ML. Seriously, if they drag this out any longer, I would have dropped the show right there and then. Thankfully, they did acknowledge their love for each other and we get a few episodes where they were a happy couple. Of course, the well worn path of Chinese drama haunt us and we get the nasty plots to break them up and the forced separation. The annoying thing is that the writer seemed to start off writing one show and ended with another. The original setting of the school was fairly fresh and generated a lot of funny moments in the first 10 episodes or so. The interactions were easy and a role switch with all the female characters being strong and determined, welcoming. But by mid show, the story line is firmly back in well established romance/melo drama territory. Early set ups and back stories faded into the generic plot pool. The middle part of the show was so focused on the OTP's messy relationship that key events (like the tournament that was SO important) ended up going nowhere and had little impact. By the last third of the show, the writers seemed to have run out of steam on the OTP and a lot of screen time went to the support casts. It is not a bad thing as those relationships (we ended up with 3 more pairs!) is actually more interesting than the OTP by then. Their plot lines felt more real and organic in comparison. The down side to that is that it served to highlight how contrived and forced the main story line has become. Seriously, the last quarter of the show was a mess. Weak writing and awkward editing resulted in very odd tonal shifts. When they wheeled out the "Death Strike" as a deus ex machina plot device in ep33, I knew the writer(s) are in trouble. The lazy plotting also extended to how amazingly easy for the OTP to be manipulated to engineer their breakup. We did get an eleventh hour happy ending, no surprise there! I would have been a lot happier if they cut out a lot of the "will they, won't they" shenanigans in the last episode, get the OTP back together quickly and let the ensemble cast have some happy scenes together. That would have been a nice fan service. In the end, the show had a promising start but lost momentum mid way and it ended as a meh show. I was only going to rate it 6 but the support casts (love the cute kids) deserved a point for their efforts.Was this review helpful to you?
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Good Story - had promise - have the fast forward button at the ready
Good story but, as is usual - they drag it out for far too long. This could have been finished in 16 episodes.Character wise - good mix of nice cast but, the annoying characters are in far too many scenes. Have your finger on the fast forward button at all times. Xiao Mi is just awful and I can't stand anything she says or, does. Very immature. Self centered. And how on god's green earth did she ever make it into college? I would worry for her if she put her head in a paper bag.
I agree with many of the other reviews. As you learn more and more about the main characters - you will wish they WON'T get together. Really? Drag it out to the last episode?
I stuck with it. I agree with others - not enough time is spent when it comes to the actual fights/tournaments - it becomes a bad edit music video. Prepare for them to spend an eternity in prep for competition and then, the actual thing being over in just a few minutes because they want to spend 80 percent of the time on junk that means nothing. They REALLY take advantage of the stock footage they created of the school grounds. They are always exercising - always doing the same thing - always sunny and blue skies - always flipping the same tires in the same spots. Grinds my gears...
There are some WONDERFUL characters and the writers gave them some great material. That is why I stuck with every episode. Pick and choose - fast forward - and, you will get through this in half the time and still enjoy the overall story.
Want to be ready?
Lazy writing. Character gets abused and used by people with money but, there is NEVER any compensation.
There is a near death and AGAIN - no money - no compensation. Everything is handled under the table and the poor people get to stay happily poor. God forbid rich bad people get in trouble in a Chinese drama. That might give the common folk some dangerous ideas to society itself.
Grandfather stays pure evil until the very end. I kept yelling at the screen for him to have a heart attack or, something.
Xiao Mi - terrible. You can safely fast forward through everything she is in and not miss a single thing to the overall story. Her stubborn immaturity is a drag on the entire series.
Child actors - why couldn't they have been traumatized by something and not speak for 34 of the 37 episodes?
The on again off again of all the relationships REALLY shows the emotional immaturity of most of the cast (as written). College? Really?
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i love this drama
I don't know why but I like it when they make the FML strong (I am irritated with too weak FML)and I love how they portrayed 3 different types of women while everyone of them are strongthe 1st and 3rd couple was good but you know what 2nd couple stole the show (I love there chemistry and how the 2nd ML tok care of the 2nd FML )
in the end, if like comedy you and cuteness this drama is GO GO FOR YOU
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This review may contain spoilers
A decent martial arts drama marred by unlikeable characters and bad fight choreography.
"Sweet Combat" is loosely based on the South Korean Manwha "Girls of the Wild's". I would suggest reading it before the show to get the best experience. While I loved "Girls of the Wild's" for the most part, this show was somewhat of a step down due to a few unnecessary changes.The biggest downiside to the show is the main female lead. Fang Yu or "Queen" is one of the worst female romance leads I've ever seen in a drama. If I were Ming Tian, the first time she wanted to break up I would have left and never went back to her. He had so many other choices, Zhengze University was all girls except for he and Sun Hao for God sakes. Fang Yu had a terrible personality, she always believed anyone, even her Aunt and Grandpa who were obviously scheming pieces of garbage. Would it never occur to her that all of this terrible news could be made up or a lie? Ming Tian couldn't control any of the reasons she broke up with him, yet she blamed him anyway. Xiaomi was clearly the more loving and attentive girl for Ming Tian but because "reasons" he ended up with Fang Yu time and time again.
The training and fight choreography in this show is abysmal as well. As a huge fan of MMA and combat sports in general it is laughable, especially if you're used to seeing professional fighters or even amateurs fight. If you're going to have a show about a martial arts college at least teach the actors proper form and how to throw punches, kicks, and engage in submissions correctly. You can tell during the "fights" they aren't even touching or pretending to touch each other at times.
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Adaptation from Webtoon
As a fan of webtoon "Girl's Of The Wild",I feel quite satisfied with this drama. This drama shows the struggle of a man who has to look after and care for his 2 younger siblings while working to support their living expenses.Sorry for my personal opinion, but the development of the male lead character may be a little slower. I understand that it is not easy to add or subtract scenes from the webtoon into the drama, but I feel that even until the end of the story, the male lead seems less firm in making decisions. This is not in accordance with the plot as it should be, as the head of the family, the older brother is required to be wiser and more firm in making decisions.
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Cool Chick flick
I like this drama. It portrays friendship, relationship, family ties. I admire the siblings relationship.The actors are funny, sweet and they portray their characters well.
Good thing that they highlighted that it is never okay to be bullied and to fight back if it's necessary.
The friendship of Fang Yu and Yanan is definitelys worth the praise. Sister love and bonding is there
I sure hope to see Guan Xiaotong and Luhan in another drama.
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This review may contain spoilers
the story started is good but unfortunately from the middle of the series it gets sloppy... Fang Yu becomes very stupid, badly and loses his intelligence ...
Fortunatly the others couples were interesting and very cuteness, it was really good to see their evolutions :)
Ya nan and Luo Guan Yan <3
Xiao Mi and Sun Hao
it's a series about fights but in fact there were very few it's frustrated
This series was too long with a lot of unnecessary and uninteresting moments...
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This show has a whole set of unique, interesting characters. I appreciated featuring women who enjoy sports, were motivated and competitive. I liked how the male characters developed feelings first while the women were somewhat clueless. The acting is rather amateurish, but the actors were also very endearing and interesting to watch.
The main failure of the show is the lack of pacing and suspense. Everything is established 1/2 way through, and the audience is just waiting for the characters to figure it out.
Also minor points off for lack of budget for the combat scenes. BUT, there is enough screen time of practicing, fighting explaining strategy to 'buy-in' to the plot.
The beginning and end songs were catchy and well-done given the lack of budget/context. No reason to rewatch.
I grade on other criteria:
Complex Themes - 7.5
Karma catches up with you. You have a responsibility when engaging in fighting to do so in an ethical and moral way. The older generation does not always know what's best.
Character Growth - 6
The characters fall in love with each other and learn to trust each other, so in that way there is 'growth.' But you could watch the first episode, and last episode and the characters would feel about the same.
Complex Women/Female Relationships - 7.5
I really did enjoy the focus on a different type of woman from the typical awkward, bubbly cute girl. There's strong female friendships as well. They are more stereotypes/caricatures than fully fleshed out characters but there's a good diversity to them. I wish their character growth was not centred around becoming more open to relationships with men.
Production/Cinematography - 4.5
This is filmed like something from before the 'golden age' of tv dramas. If I hadn't known, I would have thought it was shot in 2012. The 'wealthy' people do not dress wealthy or have the barest trappings of it. The fight scenes are very short and they didn't even invest in much slowing-down/speeding up effects that are in your basic social media video. The cinematography just records what is in front of the camera with some mix of wide and close-up shots.
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I really enjoyed this drama the story was really good and it was perfect for me because it had comedy, romance, university setting and martial arts and that ticked all my boxes i honestly did not think i would enjoy this drama as much as i did.
The acting was really good i liked how the five friends were all linked together they made the drama more interesting to watch and it was fun and the music was quite good and if you are into dramas that have this type of setting with martial arts, romance and comedy then this is one you should watch you never know you might enjoy it.
I will watch this drama again some time later on because that is how much i enjoyed it because at the moment i have a lot of other ones to watch and again this is my personal opinion all i am going to say give it a try you might enjoy it.
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This review may contain spoilers
Main Male Character
The story for his character to be a whimp, it's absolutely dumb. The events related to his past, makes him act like a total loser. He's afraid to fight because of what happened to his father, the reason his mother went away. All runs out on the least believable reasons. In martial arts, it is true that you must never use them to attack, only to defend yourself. But in martial arts competitions, the possibility of a hit killing you opponent are high. It depends on the strength and also you can hit or get hitten on a place that's really harmfull.He's traumatised by the fact that a guy died on a fight competition with his dad. But all the time the make you think that his father killed him on purpose. And that's the part of the story I dislike. His mom is in fact selfish, cause she didn't try at all to help his husband understand that what happened was an accident.
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