All_In
Siege in Fog is from an author well known for her novels involving politics, military intrigue and intense romance with a solid serving of tragedy, which are not everyone's cup of tea. So if you are here for romance, you are going to have to wade through a whole lot of family and Republican China/warlord politics to get to the romance. Is it worth it? Not in my opinion. Not even the stellar acting of literally everyone in the production nor the sizzling chemistry of the two leads can save it.
Cons:
The story starts two years into the marriage and the pacing is off so that the flashbacks explaining the set up are too late in the drama.
The dysfunction between the couple is very repetitive and eventually annoying. When I see the same scenario 10 plus times, it gets old.
Once the relationship is more settled, it loses a lot of its sizzle in a common way seen in many Asian dramas.
This author writes complex books, and I think they try to do too much in the adaptation. They should narrow the focus more as it sounds like both the screenwriter and an actor or two weren't happy with how this turned out. I understand wanting to do the novel justice, but this was a very talky drama talk talk talk talk and at 50 episodes, if you can't get it done, the writer has to be brutal in the story being told and how to do that often means leaving things out.
Pros:
Actors are solid.
Initial story being told and laying the foundation of the characters was done well though took too long.
Production value as good as expected for this genre.
I just think they tried to do too much and I feel like it lost its emotional oooomph at a certain point with characters doing things for no rhyme or reason (again maybe an issue with the editing). So unless you love an actor or this genre, I'd give it a pass. I do want to say that I appreciate the production toning down some of the overbearing going into abusive behavior that this author has in her books regarding the lead romance. They come up to the line and try not to cross it compared to some of the other things I've seen from this writer.
Cons:
The story starts two years into the marriage and the pacing is off so that the flashbacks explaining the set up are too late in the drama.
The dysfunction between the couple is very repetitive and eventually annoying. When I see the same scenario 10 plus times, it gets old.
Once the relationship is more settled, it loses a lot of its sizzle in a common way seen in many Asian dramas.
This author writes complex books, and I think they try to do too much in the adaptation. They should narrow the focus more as it sounds like both the screenwriter and an actor or two weren't happy with how this turned out. I understand wanting to do the novel justice, but this was a very talky drama talk talk talk talk and at 50 episodes, if you can't get it done, the writer has to be brutal in the story being told and how to do that often means leaving things out.
Pros:
Actors are solid.
Initial story being told and laying the foundation of the characters was done well though took too long.
Production value as good as expected for this genre.
I just think they tried to do too much and I feel like it lost its emotional oooomph at a certain point with characters doing things for no rhyme or reason (again maybe an issue with the editing). So unless you love an actor or this genre, I'd give it a pass. I do want to say that I appreciate the production toning down some of the overbearing going into abusive behavior that this author has in her books regarding the lead romance. They come up to the line and try not to cross it compared to some of the other things I've seen from this writer.
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