This review may contain spoilers
Finally after 3 years of long wait Snowfall it's here <3
Finally have the time to leave a review, i finished the drama last week and i can't stop thinking about it.I love the cinematography, the sets full of details and clothes were really on point for the characters, i really enjoyed the plot it was good but i was a bit disappointed by the final battle against MLH in the last ep it should have been longer and the cgi didn't impress me, LYL character was interesting at the begin but felt cringe in the last eps seem like they didn't know what to do with him at some point, overall this was a great series and i will probabily give a rewatch by the end of the year.
Loved Mi Lan and her character development, Nana did so well, i wished her relationship with SZH was more platonic like a father-daughter relationship since one of the messages of the drama is found family.
The character who stood out for me was Situ Weilian, we learned more about him, his past and the complexity of his character by each eps, i wish the voice actor's voice was more similar to Dong Sicheng's one, he has a very distinct voice timbre and also his great acting made Situ the beloved character that he is, this was DSC first role as an actor he was only 24 when it started filming and now he is promoting it at 27, this was a very long wait but it was worth it.
I would have liked a more concrete conclusion for Situ and Milan after Shen's death.
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This review may contain spoilers
Worth the Watch
This was worth the watch for just the three main actors alone. They were just so amazing to watch they should be able to keep your focus if nothing else does. If your also a fan of Ryan Ren his character is all the way through this to I thought he did his character very well but I did start finding him rather annoying toward the end the start to focus on him quite a bit. Mi Lan and Wei Lian have become to of my favorite characters after watching this I just really loved them. Ouyang Nana did an incredible job playing a blind girl and I didn't mind that they kept her little girlish since they didn't focus on the romance but instead just a family relationship between her and the ML. Love Wei Lian and also wish they would of done a little more with his character cause when he did show his vampire side he was amazing.The one place where this drama lacks is the backstory for the stones they didn't go into explaining hardly anything about them so when you get to the end it does leave you wondering well how does that work. The last episode you can tell was definitely rushed and they should of done more with it so it doesn't leave so many people confused but with that I still thought this drama was a really great watch. The actors deserve love for this even if the story is a little lacking.
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A must watch
This is an excellent drama i have watched every episode. From start to finish it keeps you coming back for more. Definitely needs a second season i will be waiting for it. I am hooked now. The location, story, clothes, actors are top notch. You can't beat this drama. There are twists and turns throughout the season.Was this review helpful to you?
A kind and righteous vampire, is there such a thing?
I typically won't watch a drama with rating less than 8 on mydramalist. Additionally, I don't like to watch dramas set in the Republic era - there were usually too much political propaganda in these. I watched this drama because of a YouTube review which criticised the lead actress' acting. This review also criticised a couple of other dramas that I thought were very good, making me felt that they were very bias or had opposite preferences from me. So I decided to check out the trailer, found it interesting and started to watch the actual drama.The drama was centred around Shen ZhiHeng and his nemeses who were out to get him. Shen was a newspaper mogul who offended the Superintendent Chi Shan Ying by exposing his bad deeds. His lackey, Li YingLiang, looking for someone to blame for his misfortune, held a grudge against Shen.
In an assassination attempt, Shen was fatally wounded but was saved by a blind girl, Mi Lan and his best friend, Dr Situ WeiLian. His speedy recovery from the massive injuries he sustained and show of exceptional strength and speed aroused the suspicion of Chi and Li. They teamed up with Mu LiHua from an ancient cult, to capture and subdued Shen to uncover his secret.
This drama is quite entertaining although I won't place it among the best I had watched. It started off very well, painting a mystical history of what happened over a thousand years ago. However, towards the end, it got a bit draggy especially the second episode before the last, when you would be watching them savouring their new year dumplings. On a whole, the momentum was quite slow, trying to build suspense but not well executed.
Additionally, it was quite choppy. The scene suddenly changed to another in the next episode, almost like some important parts had been trimmed.
There were also comments about Gao Wei Guang's acting by a reviewer on mydramalist that he looked like a model who walked into an acting scene and couldn't act. I won't be quite so mean. Honestly, I thought both Gao and Ouyang did quite well. However, I must say that Gao was a far cry from his performance in the two dramas of Eternal Love (Ten Mile of Peach Blossom). I feel sorry for Gao - since his shot to fame in these dramas, he had not had any other outstanding dramas.
This drama had a lot of borrowed ideas from the west: vampire, the mask from Silence of the Lamb, and even the names: WeiLian as in William, MiLan as in Milan.
Overall, I think it is worth watching and taking a break from period dramas on fighting for the throne or modern soap dramas on some extramarital affairs.
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Revised Vampires
This vampire story was innovative. It was a refreshing perspective of how vampires came into existence. The cast was excellent. The ML was a beautiful man. His character had more humane qualities than the actual humans.I got more father/daughter vibes than lovers vibe from the 2 main leads though. I actually think revising the whole plot where Milan eventually falls in love with Situ would have been more effective. They both had a youthful vibrancy and a sense of purety.
There was emotional connections but the only real romantic and passionate love was on Jin Jing's part. Liang came across as mentally twisted by his past and even when Jin and he connected there wasn't any sense of real warmth on his part. Liang was more emotionally invested in his male friend he grew up with.
Frankly the main ML came across as a little dense since he kept getting trapped repeatedly in obvious situations . On the one hand he provides a sense of decency and integrity to his character but the angst he feels in using his supernatural powers is a little sporadic and ill timed for his own self preservation.
There's a lot going on in this drama and I enjoyed watching it. I just think the plot development and character interaction could have been developed differently. The ending sucked....big time. While every drama may not end happily, the ending seemed abrupt with Milan left adrift and hopeless. I actually had a hard time breathing when the sun arose.
The ost and the cinematography were superb.
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Watched all 24 episodes in 3 days!
It isn't often that a show gets me so heavily invested in the very first episode but this did. I love this not being the typical vampire story and the actors were amazing. I do wish there was more to the back story of the shards but beyond that I think it was great. I could have easily watched 24 more episodes and hope there will be a second season. I just don't want the last episode to be how this story ends.Was this review helpful to you?
Loved it
Absolutely loved it. The last 10 episodes were weak but it's overall a good drama. The visuals are stunning. Both ML and FL did a fantastic job. The raw emotion that the ML expressed was really what drew me in and kept me watching. I'll probably watch it again, but skip the last few episodes after the mine incident.Was this review helpful to you?
Beautifully cut to ribbons
My score, I have to confess, is heavily influenced by what could have been. It had all the bones of a story I really like, with an original take on vampires , but…. the re editing that was required to make it through the approval process really cut the story to ribbons. Many times the drama was on the verge of exploring an emotion and/ or character and/or plot detail only to have them cut away or shift scenes awkwardly. However, it was beautiful to look at (NO not just VG in republican era clothing!) the main characters were great, and so was the twists on vampirism. All of which should have had WAY more screen time to explore these aspects, but sadly must have been left on the cutting room floor.Was this review helpful to you?
Not happy with the ending
I didn't fully understand the ending of the drama. While I enjoyed it overall, there were too many unnecessary plot points. I kept waiting for the love story between the leads to begin, but it never truly materialized. They both cared deeply for each other, to the point where anyone could see they were in love. Despite this, neither of them ever confessed their feelings. Even at the end, he said many emotional and touching things to her, but he never once told her that he loved her. Both of them were clearly aware of their mutual feelings, yet they never expressed them openly. This left me wondering why there was no romantic or tender scene between them. Instead, much of the drama focused on him trying to find a cure for her illness. In the end, I'm not sure if I would consider it a good drama or not.Was this review helpful to you?
Start strong but not give the whole potential
I finally finished this drama after a decade.-LYL's character is not interesting, actor acted so childish I didn't take his character seriously, I mostly find cringe Ryan Ren's scenes because of his acting. I love his previous work but a big no for him in this drama.
- Mr. SHen becomes a very boring character because of the cut scenes. He has an ideology to not killing people but he is the reason people next to him suffer, I hate his these dilemmas. GWG was so charismatic so we couldn't notice his character burrs.
-Situ was so interesting because being thrown into a world full of humans and trying to understand them with no emotions. He always ended up offending people, which sometimes caused a lot of bad things help Mr. Shen. In short, the character was so interesting and Winwin did a great job with the change fromand dark sides dark side.
- Milan's character development was my favorite, she transformed from an innocent girl. Nana did so well.
Cinematography was the strongest part of this drama. If the cşinemaograpgy wasn't so good I think we wouldn't like the drama this much. The music is also amazing. Nana's voice amazing.
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Carlisle Cullen finds a family, a vampire tale that falls short
A gorgeous soundtrack and Shen Zhiheng's beautiful home are the best things about Snowfall, a Republican era vampire drama disappointingly encumbered by mediocre acting and butchered edits -- likely thanks to nonsensical censorship cuts. Filmed in 2021, it took more than two years to get this series to air.While the premise was intriguing, the mythology was poorly explained, leaving viewers with too many unanswered questions. (I suspect many of the answers can be found on the censor board's editing room floor.) What exactly is the Mo family's power, how does it work, and why are some family members unable to wield it? What exactly happened to Mr. Mo? Why did one particular character not seem to need the Blood Amber Stone? Why did they not super speed their way out of the mine to outrun the explosions?
Meanwhile, this series tried to make it into a love story, but the romantic chemistry was simply not there. Ouyang Nana's child-like portrayal of Mi Lan started off well, but became increasingly annoying and off-putting. Mi Lan may have had romantic feelings for Shen Zhiheng, played by Gao Weiguang, who distractingly reminded me of Carlisle, Edward Cullen's "dad" in Twilight, but he seemed much more paternalistic -- a stern, yet indulgent father figure or older brother. Ultimately, I found it far more credible as a story about family, and Shen Zhiheng finding his, than one about a grand romance.
Ultimately, Snowfall, for all its decent special effects and effort to look more sophisticated, was also overwrought with excessive, stylised freeze-frames and whooshing camera zooms. At the end of the day, it felt more like an extended short-length series -- and other dramas have told tighter, more complete and satisfying tales in far less time.
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Loving this more and more
NO SPOILER PART: Snowfall is one of my favorite series this year. Please don't drop it because of the CGI because it isn't the most complex and looks like the older movies, but it's one of the few flaws of this series.The male protagonist is a character from whom you can learn so much and has a very mysterious yet noble allure, just as it should be. The actor did a very good job portraying his kind, but also ruthless aura.
I've only just discovered the actress who plays Mi Lan, Nana Ouyang, and I'll definitely be following her further. And she acted so well, actually, the casting was top-notch, but coming back to the character, I really liked how she developed and matured throughout the episodes.
Even the antagonist, Ying Lian, who seemed to be more of an anti-hero, had a well-thought-out backstory that made you understand his actions over time and empathize with him somehow. And Situ Wei Lian was a character who had so many surprises up her sleeve and added to the mysterious atmosphere.
I especially loved the set and costumes, and I'm not lying when I say that I would literally do anything for Milan and Jing Xue's outfits. The choice of the era in which the action takes place was (with a little flaw which I will explain later) perfect. Even the costumes were created to fit the historical period, they were also typical of classic vampire stories.
Unfortunately, I couldn't see the relationship between Zhi Heng and Mi Lan as love, not because of the age difference, but because of the way the characters interacted, guide-learner, protector-protege, I saw more of a platonic relationship with some intimate elements between two people who care a lot about each other, so if you want a series with a lot of romance, you won't find it here. But for me, the relationship was perfect as it is.
Plus, it's not a series that drags on too long to bore you. About the second half of the series, there were episodes that I didn't like at all because I wasn't interested in what was going on, but somehow the action fixed itself and became special again.
*NOW SPOILERS BEGIN*
I loved how Mi Lan went from an innocent and defenseless creature to a much braver one after her transformation. Of course, we could see her intelligence and bravery even before, but then when SHE SAW the world for what it is, both beautiful and cruel when she was able to embrace her personality to the fullest, she became amazing and I liked how she learned a lot even after becoming a vampire. Although the series initially made it seem like visually impaired people are defenseless, which is problematic, this is somehow remedied by the idea that Mi Lan has long endured the suffering provided by her family.
I also especially liked how her mother realized her mistakes and tried to rebuild her relationship with her daughter, which is realistic because often parents or children realize that they are wrong quite late.
I was so surprised when I found out that Wei Lian is also a vampire, I didn't expect this plot at all even though I had read a theory through the comments, but I didn't believe it. Both the character and the actor played it very well to fool us.
As I said, there is a small flaw towards the end of the series when we see that there is a color picture of Zhi Heng, and he remembers that he and his family took a picture. Color cameras didn't appear until 1861, and the Republic of China lasted until 1949. Even if you think the action takes place shortly before WW2, that doesn't make Zhi Heng and Wei Lian 100 years old, but only somewhere close.
I also liked the ending at the same time, how it ends with that dialogue between them and with the flower blooming, a circular ending similar to the beginning of the series, but it's quite ambiguous and I would have liked to see at least a glimpse of Mi Lan's future.
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