The Bionic Life (2023)

Interesting but oversimplistic

The Bionic Life started out very well. I was very impressed with the plot and characters seemed to have a lot of potential. I was especially impressed by SWL's new look and acting.

Very quickly you realize that there is a different story each episode. This helps us understand the impact of human's decisions. Some stories were very touching and got me teary eyed. However, at some point, it started to feel a bit redundant. Once new characters were introduced, you can predict what will happen. The explanation on the origin of humanoids was also very vague. It's a shame for the wasted potential as the writers opted for a very simplistic route, like they couldn't be bothered.

Many times, the cut from scene to scene was very abrupt, making for a noncohesive flow. For example, the leads would be in a suspect's house asking questions then it cuts to An Qui asleep at home and dreaming. It reminds me of very old movies where scenes are cut and pasted together without regard for transitions.

Despite all of the above, it was still an enjoyable watch until the last few episodes where one of the leads started acting out of character and made some very questionable decisions. It frankly ruined my enjoyment and I couldn't stop rolling my eyes, hoping for it to be over. In the last ep. some issues were swept under the rug and the show was tied in a pretty bow to wrap things up.

If you are someone who takes things at face value, you may really enjoy show. I'm rating a 7.5 because it started out very well but the last few episodes were rather disappointing. Also some things needed more fleshing out. It definitely needed more than 12 episodes or at least each ep. should have been longer than 30 mins.

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REFRESHING to see in cdramas!

I support cdramas going into new genres vs. the often over hyped costume dramas or over produced rom-com. I also love shorter dramas like these because they don't drag and waste your time. Yes the story is not perfect, mostly because they had to edit and cut a lot in order to get pass censorship but this director Leste Chen at least tried. I also love his filming style. All the actors are well cast and gave solid performances. Song Weilong is able to prove his versatility and show depth in his acting with this new look and character. Vicky Chen is young and talented creating great chemistry with the male lead. I think it's about time cdramas do something different and I give them a lot of credit for it.

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