bobandmochi
This is a drama that should have been everything - except it wasn't. Heavily promoted, it featured a great cast, a killer OST, featured an awesome female lead character, and was based off of a popular online novel which in recent years has pretty much meant guaranteed success. And commercially wise, I suppose it was quite successful as it broke a number of records streaming wise, but the production team pretty much failed all other aspects of storytelling.
Story
Even if you haven't watched the drama, you've probably heard some of the controversy - they essentially only took about 3/4 (maybe not even...more like a little more than a half) of the original story for the drama. Which just screams, "What in the world were they thinking?" How can anyone have greenlighted this project and said, "Hey, you know what, we're just going to end the drama on a total cliffhanger without a guarantee at all there will be a second season. Better yet, let's include a bunch of useless filler storylines to drag out the middle part of the story even more since we're not telling the whole story anyways." ??? Rule number one for drama production teams - never do multiple seasons for dramas if you have a popular cast that you haven't already bound by contract to bring back (props to the team behind Ode to Joy for realizing this, btw) . Rule number two - if you can tell the whole story in one season, don't drag it out because it just hurts the quality.
The first half of the drama was pretty good - it features an awesome female lead who is multi-dimensional and is willing to claw her way to survive. She's not a Mary Sue - she can have moments where she seems heartless and cold, but she's also had a terrible life and thus has a different world view than most girls her age. The tone of the drama is darker than most because of the heavy material in the story, and I did enjoy that aspect. I have no idea why they added so much nonsense in the second half - for a drama that should have been moving along super fast considering how much plot it needed to cover, the pacing was ridiculously slow.
I was fascinated by the premise of the story and hated how the drama handled it, so I actually went back and read the novel, which I never do, because reading full length novels in Chinese is a bit of a chore for me. I'm glad I did though, because it filled the gaps nicely and at least I can picture in my head how this should have ended. But it also lended a different perspective to the love triangle - I'm not a fan of how the drama skewed it. If you read the novel, this should have been a tale of two loves for our lead, Chu Qiao - the first would be Yan Xun, and the second would be Yuwen Yue. However, the drama pretty much portrayed it so you would be rooting for Yuwen Yue all the way through, which I think does Chu Qiao a disservice. Part of the whole point of the story is her understanding of what love is and how it evolves over time - so that was disappointing. I'm particularly sad we didn't get to see all the cute, truly squee-worthy moments between her and Yuwen Yue becasue I think I pretty much grinned my way through the end of the novel.
But nitpicking over the depiction of the love triangle would be a moot point since the story was incomplete to begin with. Again, I have no idea who thought that would be a great idea. I don't even know if they would have enough material to cover a season 2, to be honest, without dragging things out significantly. If you enjoyed the premise of the story and can read Chinese (or find a translation), go read the novel and get yourself some closure.
Cast
What a waste of a great (young) cast - obviously this isn't one of those dramas with a stellar veteran crew, but the young(ish) leads all have some decent acting chops.
It's amazing how far Zhao Li Ying has come in just a short number of years - she's one of a handful of actresses who stars in exclusively heroine-centric dramas (Princess Agents, Rookie Agent Rouge, Journey of Flower, the upcoming Glamorous Times and The Story of Minglan - all are stories that are centered around the female lead character and her journey). One of the biggest reasons for her success has been her versatility (despite her pixie stature and face) and the fact that she is one of the better actresses for her age group. Chu Qiao was a great role for her as it let her channel her inner female general - but again we go back to the writing - it would have been so much better if she was given the whole story to work with.
Lin Geng Xin was decent as Yuwen Yue - the stoic characters are pretty much a staple of dramaland and I don't think anyone ever does badly in this type of role - but I would like to see him take a meatier role at some point (and I do think he's capable - there's a reason why his career took off after his stint as the 14th prince in Bu Bu Jing Xin). I also think he didn't have the greatest chemistry with Zhao Li Ying, but that could have been the writing more than anything else - a lot of their interactions were way too forced, and not built in an organic manner at all.
But the standout, for sure, was Shawn Dou, who gave an incredibly memorable performance as the complicated Yan Xun. He was able to express every aspect of his character beautifully, and even in the end, after everything he's done, it's almost impossible to hate him because you still feel like he's a product of circumstance. In a world where C-dramaland is dominated by tall, attractive actors in their mid to late twenties who are, for the most part, rather acting-challenged or limited in range, it baffles me how Shawn has not taken off yet. I know he's got a couple of dramas lined up as the main lead, but they're all the typical romance/makjang fare, and I would love to see him in something of substance because he is so talented (I would love to see him work with the Daylight Entertainment team one day a la Zhang Bo).
Shoutout to Li Qin as well who was great in her role - as hard as it was to watch sometimes, she portrayed all the trials and tribulations of her spoiled princess character perfectly. Deng Lun is still really, really green to me - I don't know what it is but he always just comes off a bit awkward in his roles.
Overall
If they had just stuck to the novel material, this would have probably been one of my favorite dramas - but the decision to not film a complete drama is just absolutely baffling. If they do end up making a season 2 (and there isn't any indication that is the case yet - all three of the main leads have projects lined up for the next couple of years - not to mention the fact that some of the rising stars, like Deng Lun, have a heavily packed schedule now too), maybe some of the fury will subside from fans, but for the time being, this is an incomplete production.
Story
Even if you haven't watched the drama, you've probably heard some of the controversy - they essentially only took about 3/4 (maybe not even...more like a little more than a half) of the original story for the drama. Which just screams, "What in the world were they thinking?" How can anyone have greenlighted this project and said, "Hey, you know what, we're just going to end the drama on a total cliffhanger without a guarantee at all there will be a second season. Better yet, let's include a bunch of useless filler storylines to drag out the middle part of the story even more since we're not telling the whole story anyways." ??? Rule number one for drama production teams - never do multiple seasons for dramas if you have a popular cast that you haven't already bound by contract to bring back (props to the team behind Ode to Joy for realizing this, btw) . Rule number two - if you can tell the whole story in one season, don't drag it out because it just hurts the quality.
The first half of the drama was pretty good - it features an awesome female lead who is multi-dimensional and is willing to claw her way to survive. She's not a Mary Sue - she can have moments where she seems heartless and cold, but she's also had a terrible life and thus has a different world view than most girls her age. The tone of the drama is darker than most because of the heavy material in the story, and I did enjoy that aspect. I have no idea why they added so much nonsense in the second half - for a drama that should have been moving along super fast considering how much plot it needed to cover, the pacing was ridiculously slow.
I was fascinated by the premise of the story and hated how the drama handled it, so I actually went back and read the novel, which I never do, because reading full length novels in Chinese is a bit of a chore for me. I'm glad I did though, because it filled the gaps nicely and at least I can picture in my head how this should have ended. But it also lended a different perspective to the love triangle - I'm not a fan of how the drama skewed it. If you read the novel, this should have been a tale of two loves for our lead, Chu Qiao - the first would be Yan Xun, and the second would be Yuwen Yue. However, the drama pretty much portrayed it so you would be rooting for Yuwen Yue all the way through, which I think does Chu Qiao a disservice. Part of the whole point of the story is her understanding of what love is and how it evolves over time - so that was disappointing. I'm particularly sad we didn't get to see all the cute, truly squee-worthy moments between her and Yuwen Yue becasue I think I pretty much grinned my way through the end of the novel.
But nitpicking over the depiction of the love triangle would be a moot point since the story was incomplete to begin with. Again, I have no idea who thought that would be a great idea. I don't even know if they would have enough material to cover a season 2, to be honest, without dragging things out significantly. If you enjoyed the premise of the story and can read Chinese (or find a translation), go read the novel and get yourself some closure.
Cast
What a waste of a great (young) cast - obviously this isn't one of those dramas with a stellar veteran crew, but the young(ish) leads all have some decent acting chops.
It's amazing how far Zhao Li Ying has come in just a short number of years - she's one of a handful of actresses who stars in exclusively heroine-centric dramas (Princess Agents, Rookie Agent Rouge, Journey of Flower, the upcoming Glamorous Times and The Story of Minglan - all are stories that are centered around the female lead character and her journey). One of the biggest reasons for her success has been her versatility (despite her pixie stature and face) and the fact that she is one of the better actresses for her age group. Chu Qiao was a great role for her as it let her channel her inner female general - but again we go back to the writing - it would have been so much better if she was given the whole story to work with.
Lin Geng Xin was decent as Yuwen Yue - the stoic characters are pretty much a staple of dramaland and I don't think anyone ever does badly in this type of role - but I would like to see him take a meatier role at some point (and I do think he's capable - there's a reason why his career took off after his stint as the 14th prince in Bu Bu Jing Xin). I also think he didn't have the greatest chemistry with Zhao Li Ying, but that could have been the writing more than anything else - a lot of their interactions were way too forced, and not built in an organic manner at all.
But the standout, for sure, was Shawn Dou, who gave an incredibly memorable performance as the complicated Yan Xun. He was able to express every aspect of his character beautifully, and even in the end, after everything he's done, it's almost impossible to hate him because you still feel like he's a product of circumstance. In a world where C-dramaland is dominated by tall, attractive actors in their mid to late twenties who are, for the most part, rather acting-challenged or limited in range, it baffles me how Shawn has not taken off yet. I know he's got a couple of dramas lined up as the main lead, but they're all the typical romance/makjang fare, and I would love to see him in something of substance because he is so talented (I would love to see him work with the Daylight Entertainment team one day a la Zhang Bo).
Shoutout to Li Qin as well who was great in her role - as hard as it was to watch sometimes, she portrayed all the trials and tribulations of her spoiled princess character perfectly. Deng Lun is still really, really green to me - I don't know what it is but he always just comes off a bit awkward in his roles.
Overall
If they had just stuck to the novel material, this would have probably been one of my favorite dramas - but the decision to not film a complete drama is just absolutely baffling. If they do end up making a season 2 (and there isn't any indication that is the case yet - all three of the main leads have projects lined up for the next couple of years - not to mention the fact that some of the rising stars, like Deng Lun, have a heavily packed schedule now too), maybe some of the fury will subside from fans, but for the time being, this is an incomplete production.
Was this review helpful to you?
