This review may contain spoilers
Manhua puppets
The first thing that came to my mind upon completing this drama was: great production values! And these short c dramas are really surprising! I always considered them as cheep, short, side projects but they are all but that! The costumes, the sets, the music: everything looks rich and luscious! It is a feast for eyes and ears first and foremost!Another good surprise was the storyline: the usual "fall into book author" is a guy and there is no palace conspiracy in sight. It is about traditional chinese puppet theater. And even though the plot is rather basic: the author facing writing block falls into his own manhua and has to discover the mystery behind a fire. While doing that he falls for the sole survivor of that fire. Once he catches the bad guy, he goes back to reality where he meets the girl again! Happy ending ensues!
What I love about these short c dramas is that they do not bother with unnecessary side characters but are solely focused on the main couple and their trials. That makes the drama smooth flowing and the the pace is steady. Still, the best way to watch these dramas is if you manage to find a full film edit (or automatic playback): clicking to change episodes when they are 7min long is annoying and I was at the brink of dropping this. Changing episodes breaks the flow and my attention is lost!
The acting skills of the main couple as well as their chemistry, leave a lot to be desired: a few more acting lessons should be advised! But considering the length of this drama, it is not as important since the plot moves onwards quickly and you do not have the time to dwell on bad acting in certain scenes:by the time you realize it, the episode is over!
The chinese puppet theater is something I knew absolutely nothing about and this put it in my visor so I got interested and read a little about it: the skills of those puppet masters are amazing and they managed to show a bit of it in this drama! And then they included some dark magic and flesh puppets to make it more fantasy like. Special effects were rather good in those scenes!
The music was also very nice, the songs (except the closing credits' one) were nice and sweet.
All in all, this was an average short c drama, worth a single watch.
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Surprisingly good mini-show with an refreshing storyline
This is a surprisingly good mini-show. The storyline is kind of refreshing and rather entertaining. Even if it is a mini-show it doesn’t feel rushed and there are no inconsistencies or jumps in the story - only a few things left unexplained.Character wise we have this FL who is stuck in a time-loop trying to avoid a fire that wipes out her puppet-troupe. Then we have ML who is actually the author who has created the book that both of them are in. The two of them have to work together in order to revive the puppet-troupe, investigate who caused the fire and in doing that, make it possible for ML to return to real life.
Acting wise these are some really good and experienced actors even if they are challenged a bit because of the short format. That causes the character to feel somewhat shallow. And in terms of chemistry between the leads, there is room for improvement as one could say. Not that it ruins the show but it affects the overall rating.
Anyway, if you like something fast with a mystery theme, this is actually well worth watching.
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