Goes from mediocre, cringe, to brilliant...

I pretty much decided to drop this after the 2nd, or maybe 3rd ep, I forget—because the mediocre and cringe part of this review's subject headline is what I felt about the series especially with the cringy parts of the FL and ML encounters, but after coming here and reading the positive reviews, decided to give it another go, and boy, am I glad I did, because in no time, the series headed into brilliant territory—that is, when the swicheroo took place. There were some plot holes, but not important enough to what plot there was in this series that ended up being so lol hilarious, which made it easy to care for the characters, well, the ML, SML, and the FL. I even liked the SFL princess, and honestly it's too bad they didn't develop her part a little more, like parallel to what was happening for the crown prince, and give some screen time with all the respective not-meant-to-be couples in their switched back parts (gender ambiguity hijinks would be nice to see a bit of). I also loved what seemed to be another facet to the SML at the end that seemed to hint at intriguing story arc possibilities for a season 2—well, that and some other things that didn't seem to get resolved by the end of this series. Fingers crossed...

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To the best of my knowledge, so good...

Even though when I saw The Winter Solstice a long time ago and when it had no eng subs (meaning I didn't 100% get all of what was going on), I'm writing a review because I'm surprised there is none seeing as it was this series that pretty much turned me back onto c-drama after straying into k-drama for many years. I was drawn into the TWS story, its acting, its mystery. I list story and mystery separately, because although you could say that a mystery can be the story, to me, the story encompasses the many individual stories of the ensemble of actors — it was their stories, which you could say all together were the puzzle pieces of the overall mystery that made TWS so compelling.

It was the first time I saw Liu Min Tao, and even though her character seemed not on the up and up (villainous even), she shined in her acting (her acting prowess was further confirmed in her role in Nirvana in Fire) as a woman of power but who was conflicted by certain circumstances in her life. Chen Dao Ming was the starring wreck as the protagonist in a smarmy role, kind of in the way you can't keep your eyes off an impending train wreck, cuz he was the one facing many moral dilemmas, when he himself, was very morally ambiguous. In fact, what made TWS good was that it showed humanity in all its hopes and ugliness in all of its characters.

Not wanting to give away anything, TWS was suspenseful right from the beginning and it's from this beginning that you could see that there were many levels and layers of what was actually happening in those beginning scenes. I don't think it's because there weren't eng subs that maybe I didn't understand completely what was happening; it was because you could see from the acting that people were doing things that obviously had back stories so you know you can't take things at face value. All good mysteries come from a complex network of players and motives, which is all of what TWS is about.

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Humbling epic

I "completed" this series in the way I currently watch any series—skipping around. I watched a few episodes in the beginning, middle and end. Even though the beginning is a bit confusing because there's so much information, it's still interesting befuddlement; that is, it didn't bother me that I didn't totally get everything story-wise and was unsure of who's who (so many characters, many looking alike because of similar clothing and one bearded man looks too similar to the next bearded man).

In the middle I got that there's too much intrigue going on, and I say "too much," not in a bad way, but in a way that confirms my thoughts that being undercover/spying is not a healthy way to go about your life; it takes too big of a toll on your life (I used to watch a lot of police drama (HK and American) and always saw it as a devastating role to play because you can't help but get enmeshed in relationships with the other side and you end up having to betray them and that can't be good mentally).

The ending had me in tears even after finishing it and as I'm writing this review. I get that maybe the way I watch series does not qualify me to be an accurate reviewer but just the bit that I saw moved me to the point I felt more people should be enticed to give it a try. I love seeing eye candy and lots of action, but The Wind Blows From Longxi blows everything out of the water with its solid acting, story and production. This series puts things in perspective—that we're all specks of dust in the universe and there's just so many things that are much more bigger than our short lived time on this earth. This is good to remember when we're feeling down or anxious about whatever's going on in our lives.

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A villain to hate and love

NOTE: there's no real spoiler in the sense that I'm not commenting on any specific scenes that give away plot surprises/twists, but the character of the FL is so different and surprising, that that in itself, feels like a spoiler to me.

As of this writing, I've seen as many episodes as have been aired on viki, and eagerly await for more.

The thing is, I started and stopped in the middle of episode 2 because the FL's looks are jarring as is her character.

Then, for the lack of anything else that interested me, I picked it up again and started to "get" it.

So far, the FL, is really gonna be the one to hate, or love, or both, or neither. I know that sounds so contradictory, but I totally went through it all: not really caring for her in the beginning cuz I couldn't be bothered to invest any interest in her; then I really disliked her because her morals are so much in the gutter; and now, I totally love her extreme villainy, the kind you see all the time from ugly, mean, manipulative, sadistic men, and I mean ugly in the sense that they — and she — are so ugly to their core that hell is not punishment enough for the crimes of humanity they perpetrate. It's actually hard to explain but better to experience yourself.

This is the first time I've seen such a portrayal from a woman. Sure, there's lots of villainous women, but it's the usual backstabbing, scheming types of cliches. The FL here is so in your face, unapologetically bad, you start respecting her choices; well at least I do. Plus, she sorts of "humanizes" her villainy in her version of a playful, devil-may-care "playboy" type of character (just sooo like what guys do in dramas).

Now I don't know if I'm just hoping that deep down, she knows what she's doing is despicably bad, and that there's a grand plan behind her shenanigans, or that at some point she's going to be as glorious in her own special way to right the wrongs she's currently so ingloriously perpetrating.

The ML is not bad. He's the eye candy, but I like it that he doesn't lose his identity and his diametrically opposed views to the FL. In the first 3 eps that have aired so far, we get a hint of them battling it out and it's not in the senseless cliched way you might see in drama; it feels more authentic so looking forward to see what happens next.

In any case, so far, so good.

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A fun, fun, fun, hot mess!

I've only started watching (the first 10-15 minutes)—I love the detective/mystery genres, but it's not from that perspective that I felt inspired to say something about this hot mess.

The production definitely does not scream BIG BUDGET; in fact, it's quite the opposite—dare I say it doesn't even seem to merit a B-grade production (no big-name actors, sub-par costumes, bare minimum sets, etc.). However, almost from the get go, it's stupidly hilarious. It's so awkwardly funny that I couldn't stop laughing pretty much through all the scenes.

Don't get me wrong. It's not one of those, it's so stupid that it's unintentionally funny.

It's incredibly funny precisely because it's meant to make fun of the all around stupid. The fact that the low production quality is so obvious, seems to tie in to the wtf-just-happened humor that the script writers must've had a rollicking hay day writing the stuff (I'm not even talking about the story writing, cuz it's not so much plot driven as it's jokes and pun driven). That there's some detective work in the mix is just icing on this unexpected comedic series.

From the start, I had the thought—what.the.heck am I watching, while at the same time having a big grin on my face and totally enjoying the whole experience. As I'm writing this, I find that it's actually hard to explain why I'm liking this so much; you just have to experience it yourself.

Update: past the initial scenes, the series has calmed down a bit to concentrate on the dectecting/mystery, and I have to say, while it's not the laugh-a-minute it was at the beginning, it's still an engaging, entertaining series.

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