A gorgeous soundtrack and Shen Zhiheng's beautiful home are the best things about Snowfall, a Republican era vampire drama disappointingly encumbered by mediocre acting and butchered edits -- likely thanks to nonsensical censorship cuts. Filmed in 2021, it took more than two years to get this series to air.

While the premise was intriguing, the mythology was poorly explained, leaving viewers with too many unanswered questions. (I suspect many of the answers can be found on the censor board's editing room floor.) What exactly is the Mo family's power, how does it work, and why are some family members unable to wield it? What exactly happened to Mr. Mo? Why did one particular character not seem to need the Blood Amber Stone? Why did they not super speed their way out of the mine to outrun the explosions?

Meanwhile, this series tried to make it into a love story, but the romantic chemistry was simply not there. Ouyang Nana's child-like portrayal of Mi Lan started off well, but became increasingly annoying and off-putting. Mi Lan may have had romantic feelings for Shen Zhiheng, played by Gao Weiguang, who distractingly reminded me of Carlisle, Edward Cullen's "dad" in Twilight, but he seemed much more paternalistic -- a stern, yet indulgent father figure or older brother. Ultimately, I found it far more credible as a story about family, and Shen Zhiheng finding his, than one about a grand romance.

Ultimately, Snowfall, for all its decent special effects and effort to look more sophisticated, was also overwrought with excessive, stylised freeze-frames and whooshing camera zooms. At the end of the day, it felt more like an extended short-length series -- and other dramas have told tighter, more complete and satisfying tales in far less time.