Coffeebreak at 2pm
This review may contain spoilers
"A fish in the water, the tail is also the head"
"You fell in love with someone, but we're destined to be apart".An Ancient Song of Love is a beautifully told love story that will stay with you long after you finish watching it
The drama is a beautifully shot and well-acted historical romance. Despite the limitations in production, the director Zhi Zhu has managed to turn a small budget, a cast of lesser-known actors/actresses and an idea based on a fan-made video into what I would call a masterpiece.
The director managed to keep the viewers wanting for more, but also somewhat satisfied with the story and its ending. Despite the entire show only consisting of 14 barely 30-min episodes, the story, characters and their relations is well written. On top of that, the cinematography and set design remained beautiful, and not lacking. The lead actor and actresses chemistry and their respective performances were both moving and heartbreaking.
One of the things that makes An Ancient Song of Love so special is its unique approach to the time travel genre. Instead of simply sending the protagonist back in time, the drama explores the concept of fate and how it can be both a blessing and a curse. Director Zhi Zhu also managed something that is beyond rare in modern day television, she managed to create a show that can be watched from both ends, this way, we as viewers can gain the feeling of knowing the past and the future while watching everything unfold, just like our main characters.
This drama will stay with me for a long time, one might wish for a happy ending, but given the context and the story that is being told, I believe, unfortunately, this is the perfect ending to this drama.
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This review may contain spoilers
Tried too much and ended up flat
When I saw the casting for this drama, I was excited, especially after having watched "When I fly towards you". But after having finished this show, the only word I can describe it is "bait and switch".It starts off well, we are being introduced to our main characters during their high school years and we are given a short backstory. We learn a little bit about the complicated backgrounds of the main characters, and the director goes a good job of building your typical "School youth romance" story line. And just as you are about to believe this is road the show will take, it takes a hard left.
We learn about the complicated family relations of the FL and the complicated past about the ML, and the director seem to insert the pasts of the main character whenever they feel like, and this creates weird dynamics and flow in the storyline. For example, we learn that ML's is a talented pistol shooter ALMOST HALF WAY THROUGH THE SHOW, and from there on we spent roughly 10 episodes on ML's path to heal himself from the childhood trauma, and here the director constantly toys with the viewer, every time we are baited to think the show will head towards romance again, the director switches, the sick control-freak mother, the random appearances of the uncles apprentice. The director dragged out the show too much in the middle and wrapped up everything too quick in the end, and the constant bait and switch does the original novel no favour either.
Other than the storyline, the soundtrack, makeup, and voice dubbing is under all criticism. They decided to have the FL actress dub over her character while every other character (except FL's lawyer brother) was using the original voice makes this whole show unbearable. The scene where FL singing at the beach concert was also dubbed... And the makeup artist should have been fired, on multiple occasions we could see double eyelid sticker on the FL.
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In our constantly moving world, sometimes we need to slow down
I didn't have high expectations when I began watching, but after finishing, I think i cried almost every episode.Every episode is a life lesson, not just for the main character, but also for us viewers. The world we live in is so fast paced that we often take a lot of small, but ever so important, things for granted. Despite the drama only being 13 episodes, the director does a excellent job of taking us through the journey of gaining perspective of life through out the show without sacrificing too much pacing or character development.
Take a moment to appreciate life, it sure is a beautiful thing.
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