Zhe Ge Sha Shou Bu Gai Xu Qiu (2022)

Bald Heroine Seeks Assasin's Assistance

As of right now, this drama does not have tollerable English subtitles. It has the worst subtitles you could possibly hope to find, which are auto-translated from Mandarin.

From what I was able to understand, it's about a manuscript illustrator who, along with her coworkers, has lost her hair because of the stress of having a client that could and would not be satisfied.

Our protagonist, having lost her hair from stress, seeks the help of an assasin, wrongly outlawed for a crime he didn't commit. The assasin vows to help the protagonist seek revenge on the unreasonable client, and thus they begin an adventure that ultimately seeks to clear the assasin's name.

It's a Chinese web drama comedy, of the best kind. Light-hearted, well-paced, and yes, quite a few very good-looking actors in it. The comedy is quite funny, actually. Especially the dance duels. I highly recommend if you are looking for something light and fun, but ONLY if you speak Mandarin, or if someone finally adds some decent English subtitles!!!

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Spoof historical

"No Contract Change Allowed" should not in ANY case be considered seriously. You were warned!

I needed a drama for my alphabet challenge and I decided to watch this short c drama. It took me almost 10 episodes to actually comprehend which genre this drama is: a comedy spoof of historical dramas. Everything is nonsense in this drama but eventually everything makes hilariously sense.

The story follows a stressed out painter brought to baldness and exasperation to hire an embroidery loving assassin to kill a customer. But the customer turns out not to be the person she thinks so they both embark upon a quest to discover the real customer. Along the way they meet a cast of characters each more outrageous than the previous one.

If you think you are getting another short chinese historical drama you are in for a surprise. It looks like it, it sounds like it but it is not it. They take the usual drama tropes and put them upside down. And it starts with the first episode when the assassin explains some forms of killing cannot be broadcast.

I was a bit disconcerted with the genre and I kept waiting for this to turn into a serious historical drama but it never did and it was eventually great.

What I liked:
- assassin killing with fruit being afterwards whitewashed (costume going from black to white) with a fan
- bromance was bromancing over the top (smouldering looks?)
- taking mickey out of a variety reality shows: confession interviews, dancing competition, survival shows
- anachronistic lines of dialogue
- using tropes the unusual way (a man used as a woman)
- one actor playing a myriad of different incidental roles throughout the drama
- Lord Pei's disguise in layers
- silly visual effects cheap looking on purpose
- awful dubbing
- Harry Potter inspired duels (Adava Kedavra etc....)
and a lot more!

The production is excellent: writing and acting on top! I am not a big c drama watcher but the piques at the historical genre abound and I am certain that the more seasoned watchers can come up with a long list of dramas and tropes referenced in this one.

If you need something light and a good laugh, you cannot go wrong with this one.

Last but not least, thank you Subbing Paws for the subs! I enjoyed the bickering and the nonsense some of the characters were uttering.

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