This review may contain spoilers
A Disappointing Descent into Sadism; Wish I could put rewatch value to zero
This series unfortunately falls short of delivering a compelling viewing experience. With so many Major plotholes, this show offers nothing new in terms of plot or character development, instead relying heavily on graphic depictions of torture and the sadistic tendencies of its characters. Some plot twist is there but overall it is based on cruelty and unjustice, based on recycling tropes that we have seen countless times before.One of the most troubling aspects of "The 8 Show" is its relentless focus on human suffering, much like the "Saw" series. I never actually completed the 'Saw' series as it was wholly based on torture from the very beginning, but this series was a trap. It started with a curious plot but ended up being total nonsense. Only sadistic people can find it enjoyable. When those problematic scenes started, I had to fast-forward to find the end result. That's how I finished the whole series in one day.
A Familiar Game, Played Without Originality
The core plot offers no surprises. We've seen desperate characters pitted against each other in deadly challenges before. The show relies heavily on these well-trodden tropes, neglecting to develop a unique identity.
Major Plot holes
Why didn't they buy food from the main door during the time when the eighth girl stopped giving them food. At the very least, they could have bought drinks. They could have snatched her card in the first place and overruled her throne? i think they were not even aware of all the rules at that time! That was the dumbest plot.
The show could explore a wider range of strategies characters use to survive; For example, the 1st guy's situation highlights a problem. While a life-or-death situation can make people desperate and ruthless, it seems a bit absurd. Why wouldn't he try to buy some precious jewels from the 8th girl's account and sell them later after getting out? He could have at least tried switching floors with himself using the 8th girl's money ??. By then, it was clear there weren't any rules stopping anyone from doing whatever they wanted. I also think they could have shit in that common room one by one rather than doing it in their own room ? . They could have also make 1st floor as common toilet and share other room together at the first place when there was no such clear conflict. They could have just find out solutions one by one sitting together and I am sure such discussion could also earn them time?. As people also equally find it amuzing when a group of people try to find solutions to a problem. They used their brain for making soju but not making basic level of comfortness! Totally illogical smh?♀️?♂️. Furthermore, without proper hygiene maintenance, people could have gotten seriously sick or smelly. Even sitting next to each other would have been a nightmare???️. Anyone could have bought water and a bathtub with her money, then transferred them to the next three larger floors for everyone to take proper showers (again, lol). At the very least, they should have used her money to make everyone more comfortable. Later time, for self-defense, buying weapons for everyone wouldn't have been a bad idea either?. Why they didnt even buy a pair of fresh cloths, I wonder. This much brutality was not necessary when running through stairs can give you extra time, lol?. You only had to bring some creativity to extend the stay. And its illogical when normal people finds brutality as creativity ??. Does this drama simply portray a collection of dumb poor people? ?????The hypocritical fifth lady was weird. She was too soft until episode 6 and then suddenly became ruthless in later episodes. The blind baseball bat beating scene was completely illogical, as anyone could have died even though no deaths were allowed to complete the game. Also, people seemed to heal too quickly without any proper treatment after so much beating. How did the cruel sixth guy even stand up and overcome all the others after being tied up for days with wounded feet??
Character Development Takes a Backseat to Brutality
This overwhelming emphasis on brutality overshadows any potential for meaningful character development or emotional depth. Instead of fleshing out the contestants and their motivations, the show throws them into a gauntlet of violence. The focus on graphic torture and sadistic behavior becomes tiresome quickly. While some may find shock value in the bloodshed, it ultimately feels gratuitous and detracts from any potential character depth. Moreover, the characters themselves are largely one-dimensional, defined primarily by their capacity for cruelty or their roles as victims. This lack of complexity makes it difficult for viewers to form any genuine connection with them. Instead of being invested in their fates, audiences are left feeling alienated and disinterested.
A Disappointing Experience
Unless you're solely interested in graphic violence, "The 8 Show" offers little to recommend itself. The derivative plot and underdeveloped characters fail to captivate, leaving viewers with a hollow and unpleasant experience. I also hated the fact that the totally insane eighth girl got too lucky, while almost everyone else had their fair share of torture, that makes this series more disappointing.
Dark side
Even more troubling is the show's reinforcement of a real-world dynamic: the power of wealth. By constantly placing the characters in situations where ruthlessness is rewarded, 'The 8 Show' implies that those with money and power can bully their way to the top. This reinforces existing societal imbalances where the wealthy and powerful can exploit the less fortunate. The show offers no challenge to this status quo, instead reveling in the humiliation and suffering of those without power. This glorification of bullying tactics can have a negative impact on viewers, potentially desensitizing them to real-world power struggles and the plight of those who are bullied.
Summary
The series seems obsessed with exploring the darkest sides of human nature, often in a gratuitous and sensationalized manner. Scenes of torture and sadistic behavior are not only frequent but are depicted with a level of detail that borders on the voyeuristic.
In a landscape abundant with innovative and heartfelt Korean dramas, "The 8 Show" stands out for all the wrong reasons. Its reliance on shock value and a stale, uninspired plot makes it a tedious and unpleasant watch. For viewers seeking a series with depth, originality, and a compelling storyline, this is not the show to invest your time in. "The 8 Show" serves as a grim reminder that sensationalism without substance rarely results in good entertainment.
Recommendation:
If you're looking for a suspenseful survival drama, look elsewhere. This show might appeal to those who enjoy extreme violence, but for most viewers, it's a skippable entry in the genre.
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This review may contain spoilers
Rom-com for teens maybe
Nothing can impress you about this production if you have gained little maturity!!! Full with brand promotion !!1. The ML has no work to do, no ambition, no motivation ( total spoiled brat!) until he met the FL and falls for her without any reason. This absurdness just got carried and repeated illogically for Arab prince in another episode. This raised a confusion if the FL is presented to be most beautiful?? if she is then why not every other male falls for her except selectively rich young males? WTH.
2. The ML had mommy-issues and the suspense around the mommy just was hype. However, the first maturity or sensible behavior was presented by ML only when he interacted with his mom . That was really great scene with a lot of sensible conversations and expressions. Most powerful part of the whole series, I would say.
3. The ML always wears very respectful mask around all the people rgardless how poor or rich the person is, but is unexpectedly rude towards his best friend till the end. I understand they are sketched to be very close, but that one-way insulting behavior is very contradictory to his whole personality.
4. No work, full of romantic talks are so damn boring. The ML just have tooooooo much free time. He even disrespectful towards FL's professional work time. I also dont understand how the FL falls for ML ? Maybe because he saved her life? Maybe
5. The side stories also have very weak plot but I enjoyed them more than the main story. The feminism brushed plot of Da Eul's married life had simply no logic. How she just was getting exploit by her husband and in-laws very very badly when she suddenly change the plot totally upside down in fraction of seconds??? It was most weird and unrealistic plot-twist. Same kinda goes for P Hwa's storyline too.
6. There was no logic when the FL was transferred to another hotel by ML's father when almost everyone knows where she went. What was the need for that drama? Maybe the dad had an ulterior motive and wanted to revive the broken business with help of the "best talent" and his super-talented son . Dang, he had really big brain, LOL
7. I think its just very very common story with full of unrealistic plots that only teens and starter drama-lovers can enjoy. If you have enjoyed really good K-dramas before, you will feel like waste of time.
8. Why I started to watch and finish it? Started it because it popped up in my suggestion list in NETflix with a good rating and finished it because I dont know, maybe wanted to change my taste and reset it to enjoy or find the next drama?
Summary: Nothing special, nonsense story, over-hyped and overrated.
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Highly overrated! Unrealistic ML who is just over qualified to win Nobel and Olympic at once!
Another overrated drama providing a nonsense storyline with cheesy romance! The title should be instead "What's Wrong with this drama"Ugh, even in fictional plot, I cant understand " how such a person exists!"
Too much dramatic, too much narcissistic ML again with nothing admirable but with a ton of money and good looking, just pathetic!!!!
I wonder what such drama aims for? I think these are dramas for "gold-digger"-type girl, utterly nonsense! Such girl can put up with a pathetic ML for his money, looking and idiotic personality.
This drama only have a good touch: the cute childhood story behind the plot, thats it. For that only I fast forwarded this drama till the end.
ML with money, good looking, traumatic childhood, with a "grownup baby" like attitude which can be single-handedly controlled by one and only FL, kind of sexist, up front rude to all other girls except FL, too much perfectionist, allrounder, dictatorship, abnormally smart (they just over qualified to win Nobel and Olympic at a time): DAMN it! Now-a-days all these abnormally shitty characteristics are forcefully portrayed as standardized example of "prince charming" for teen generations!!! Its just a both way dagger to distort the "EXPECTION" for teens. No normal guy can fulfil this qualification while no normal girl can feel satisfied with such expectation.
Now, please dont give me "LAME" excuse to justify such idiotic drama in name of "Comedy+romance" or "just entertaining" ! If u do, then I can assure you that your taste is already got distorted. And I am very sorry for that!
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Mind-blowing! Deserves to stay at top in MDL list
I always love the anthology genre and this one is just a master piece. Great drama with essence of life. Very unique story. I am highly impressed with the creativity! It is little slow sometimes but that is really required to enjoy the flow of the story. Kind of : " sit back and relax and merge in the deep thinking and realize yourself" - type feelings.Altogether this drama touches the heart. I will recommend: keep your tissue box ready while watching it. So wonderfully it directs the viewers to appreciate the life in a completely pure teary way! The whole story very carefully shows a nice development of human-relation and understandings. This drama leaves behind a life-changing feeling while opening up a very unique view-point to enjoy life with simplicity. It also delivers a very deep message with high moral values which is basically about " how one need to preserve kindness in heart even everything goes wrong in the life". If one fully observe the life story of "Han Jung Woo", there is a lot to learn from it. With traumatic childhood, almost destroyed broken family at teenage, without parents, separation/death of close ones and all other typical odds are there in his throughout unfortunate short life; in spite of that he is an epitome of success. His short life is a "worth of living". He had dealt every odd situation in his life with a very kind and open heart. A traumatic childhood can destroy soft core of any human heart and equally capable of turning them into a monster. We have seen this in many dramas where often negative characters are being justified on the basis of this factor. But Han Jung Woo have shown how to live a life as a fragrant beautiful lotus flower while being born in mud: Untouched by the impurity ( lotus symbolizes the purity of heart and mind). He not only healed himself but also with his fragrance of kindness he enlightened people around him, even after his death. A very respectful, strong and obviously a very rare personality. We have a lot to learn from this character and I believe we can at least try if we open our minds and observe him carefully.
I am very thankful to the writer who created this character! Now-a-days when a "distorted personality" gets to be glorified in dramas/ movies as a "lead character", feed by sympathy of traumatic past or difficult unfortunate circumstances, the character like "Han Jung Woo" is highly desirable and should be introduced in dramas more frequently to keep our thinking straight and strengthen our mind. This selfless character is very practical, without any "false modesty" or "unrealistic traits". I would love to enjoy such characters as main leads in more dramas in future.
In a gist, this drama have just touched my heart, blown my mind. Absolutely loved it. Very emotional concept with very powerful message. It deserve to be #1 in MDL list. I am very happy that this drama justified its position in MDL list.
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Noticeable spontaneous acting but with relatively slow and boring pace
This drama is based on a very complicated long journey of a person with a clear conscience! It is involved with many on front moral-test of that person. That person, i.e., prince Xu Feng Nian (XFN) spend his whole life for only one basic moto: "survival" since he was not even born! Throughout his life journey he had to face uncountable sworn-enemies while maintaining a very high moral values for himself. Very powerful personality. A very good story to enjoy. So story is 10/10I loved the spontaneous acting of every casts; its so natural that it was looking as if they are some real-life character and they are not at all acting but just living their life as we do. I am highly impressed with the acting of Qiu Xin Zhi, Yang Hao Yu,Tao Hai, Hu Jun. So mature acting skill! Obviously they are aged skilled actors, but I never found such a grip on spontaneous expression of any actors in other dramas. Its not a first drama in which so many veteran actors are present, but I wonder, how their acting
are so much strikingly different compare to other dramas!! The most weak acting I have felt here is : Jiang Ni. She did good in some scenes but was mostly a "dull" representative compare to other surrounding actor or actress of her age. Still I have enjoyed the acting so much that it deserves 10/10
Now, I would like to highlight the boring pace of this long complicated story. Countless time I was so bored of this drama flow that I was on verge of dropping it on that instance! Some cases, it was just unbearable. Still, there were some suspense to hold myself back here. I wonder if its the problem of "director" that he made it so boring time to time. The last ~ 10 episodes and first ~ 6 episodes were just awesome and very satisfying to me. In middle, it was very slow! So, I didnt much enjoy it as overall presentation.
Some cool fighting and bickering scenes of Qiu Xin Zhi were very entertaining, love them. He was perfect for the "sword god immortal". Beside him "Zhang Ruo Yun" was looking really a "kid" but I like his effort to blend himself as XFN in this drama. He did very good job as well.
The short analysis presented by a person at the end of each episode ( I am not sure but I think he is the director himself) was without any subtitle, so I could not able to understand anything of it. Thats the regret part of this drama.
Basically, this drama is based on a true survival as well as revenge story, very very carefully conducted so that other side-characters or innocents do not get involved. Very smartly XFN avoided himself from being tainted of "blood of innocents". In such "power struggle", it is indeed very hard to "not getting involved". There is very very rare story plot of drama is available in which the main character stays almost completely clean of "blood of innocents". Most revenge plot just drags many side innocent characters in the bloody revenge and lead them to "unfair death". And we just keep our eye closed to their "unfair" ending while just blindly supporting the main leading character. Thus, this drama is unique on its own.
This drama just reminds me of a phrase " knowledge: tomato is a fruit; wisdom: not keeping tomato in a fruit basket". There many such essence of wisdom are present in the story and I absolutely loved them. Just one notable example of such is when the fight between "sword god vs Wang Xian Zhi" was stopped with mutual unspoken agreement of both for greater good! Also Peach Blossom god came there to protect human-kind! Very deep and powerful plot, indeed.
But, I dont think I will re-watch it again for its super slow pace!!!!
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Light mood; as usual thai lakron
After many serious series of drama when I want to just kill time with light mood lifting, I usually go to watch random thai lakron. Some of them comes up really good, some are just nonsense! In that context, this drama was overall enjoyableOne thing people should keep in mind that thai social norm is very very different than other asian culture. And if you can accept that as "normal" then only you can enjoy the thai lakron. Some plots are very nonsense which you can never even imagine in any other C or K drama. So, no need to be too judgemental and just accepting it as it is.
As usual ML has to deal with more than 1 woman with diplomatic attitude, nothing new here. what I felt here that this drama has very rush and illogical ending which is the big failure of this drama. It may have put an ending at episode 23 and that could have been the best presentation. There was absolutely no need to enter a completely new character without a proper introduction. and that actually made FL's character pretty much disgusting and two-timing with very cheap moral value. Actually it just ruined the FL's image. So, yes very disappointment at the ending.
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With new spices : Not a fairy tale
This drama got me here because of the actor choi min so from the drama lawless lawyer (LL)! what a great performance again!! You will feel the long lasting impression from him. This drama has a very new unique story, very creative, i would say! I enjoyed every episode with thrilling and suspense. The whole drama was a roller-coaster ride. Director did very well justice to the whole plot. I have watched " live (2018)"before, so I also know how police service cant act rashly on sudden demand in south korea. So its very logical if someone finds the police-involvement is not proactive! The teen are getting corrupted at early age which is inevitable because of the whole social changes around us which is also truly sad. This drama tried to bring up such dark side of the society too. I feel so sad watching kids getting their innocent carefree life totally destroyed, totally robbed off due to social circumstances. Even it is a fictional drama but still it is very applicable in real life, i think. Almost 70% casts are from lawless layer and every casts are totally in different roles with respect to the role they played in LL except Choi. He was bad ass thug as before but made us like him till the end, lol. Love his fighting scenes, damn suits his figure and gesture! Would be lovely if a sequel drama can be produced highlighting the life story of that role.Overall, very impressive production with very very creativeness! After a long time I found a story which is so creative and cleverly written. No copy-paste-edit feeling. An entirely unique story line! Its directed by the same director of LL but LL was kind of " old wine in new but crooked bottle" while this one is brand new in every essence! Just enjoyed every bit of it. Of course, its not a fairy tale with pinkish romance aura, absolutely loved it! Not for weak heart either! Ending is little disappointing but it deserves 10 from me. However, suspense-thriller plots often relatively tend to lose "rewatch-values", cant really help it. Especially when in drama land with so many available dramas, its rare that a drama can earn a place to have a rewatch value 10! May be after 10 years, I can rewatch it again, till then bye! It was really nice to come across to this master piece ;)
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A complete messed up production!
Recommended by few friends and high rating just flushed my all expectations in the gutter!Nothing new in this drama. The story is just nonsense. Recent drama trends are kind of worrisome for me being a drama-lover. Why either of ML and FL have to be orphan with a tons of inherited money! I just dont get this so-common theme now-a-days! Either ML and FL must have to have a childhood trauma, child prodigy, workaholic to the psychic limit, etc etc why they cant be normal people? Being an anime lover the episode 1 just raised my hope high but not soon enough the next few episodes just ended all future possibilities to enjoy this drama. The episode 1 starts with an introduction of perfect ML with too PERFECT image which just started to sway off in next few episodes. And at the end it is just a good looking guy with tons of money, thats it! No character development, no moral values: presenting a completely nonsense character! [ if there was a aftermath of the story; I wont be surprised if that will start with the ML's whole company went to bankrupt in next few years]
This drama is just a collection of good looking actor-actress and nonsense plot. It is imperative to say that "over-acting" became synonym of "comedy" now a days. The mother of FL just won the trophy in such context. I probably enjoyed till the episode 4. After that this show was just unbearable! They try to produce a romantic-comedy and failed horribly. The acting was so cheap! You can see that the male lead is having just "one kind" of expression throughout the whole drama, that is: "making eyes bigger" whether surprised/ annoyed/ impressed... for all emotions its literally same expression. The FL is also so poor in acting! I remember her work in "School 2017" and she improved nothing since then.
The 2nd couple were more impressive to me and collecting all of their scenes together sums up a LOGICAL short story. In episode 11 the FL's dad vs ML conversation was the first ever sincere scene with a good script, I would say. Other than that this is a very bad production!
Now, this is another drama which just proves that the drama with good rating in MDL are not supposed to be really "a good" production. In other words it just supports "Dont judge a book from its cover": "dont judge a drama from its MDL rating"
ONLY THANKFUL FOR IT BEING A SHORT 12-EPISODE NIGHTMARE! HIGHLY DISSAPPOINTING!!
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This review was made 4 years back and my first review, I know its a funny review
Wow!! After a long time so sweet love story. Nice plot and new flavor. This is one of the Thai dramas which goes with unnecessary interfering characters. Almost no character you will found bothering who unnecessary uses high pitch and craziness. Its worth watching if you go for sweet and romantic love stories. Wow!! After a long time so sweet love story. Nice plot and new flavor. This is one of the Thai dramas which goes with unnecessary interfering characters. Almost no character you will found bothering who unnecessary uses high pitch and craziness. Its worth watching if you go for sweet and romantic love stories. Wow!! After a long time so sweet love story. Nice plot and new flavor. This is one of the Thai dramas which goes with unnecessary interfering characters. Almost no character you will found bothering who unnecessary uses high pitch and craziness. Its worth watching if you go for sweet and romantic love stories. Wow!! After a long time so sweet love story. Nice plot and new flavor. This is one of the Thai dramas which goes with unnecessary interfering characters. Almost no character you will found bothering who unnecessary uses high pitch and craziness. Its worth watching if you go for sweet and romantic love stories. Wow!! After a long time so sweet love story. Nice plot and new flavor. This is one of the Thai dramas which goes with unnecessary interfering characters. Almost no character you will found bothering who unnecessary uses high pitch and craziness. Its worth watching if you go for sweet and romantic love stories. Wow!! After a long time so sweet love story. Nice plot and new flavor. This is one of the Thai dramas which goes with unnecessary interfering characters. Almost no character you will found bothering who unnecessary uses high pitch and craziness. Its worth watching if you go for sweet and romantic love stories. Wow!! After a long time so sweet love story. Nice plot and new flavor. This is one of the Thai dramas which goes with unnecessary interfering characters. Almost no character you will found bothering who unnecessary uses high pitch and craziness. Its worth watching if you go for sweet and romantic love stories. Wow!! After a long time so sweet love story. Nice plot and new flavor. This is one of the Thai dramas which goes with unnecessary interfering characters. Almost no character you will found bothering who unnecessary uses high pitch and craziness. Its worth watching if you go for sweet and romantic love stories. Wow!! After a long time so sweet love story. Nice plot and new flavor. This is one of the Thai dramas which goes with unnecessary interfering characters. Almost no character you will found bothering who unnecessary uses high pitch and craziness. Its worth watching if you go for sweet and romantic love stories. Wow!! After a long time so sweet love story. Nice plot and new flavor. This is one of the Thai dramas which goes with unnecessary interfering characters. Almost no character you will found bothering who unnecessary uses high pitch and craziness. Its worth watching if you go for sweet and romantic love stories. Wow!! After a long time so sweet love story. Nice plot and new flavor. This is one of the Thai dramas which goes with unnecessary interfering characters. Almost no character you will found bothering who unnecessary uses high pitch and craziness. Its worth watching if you go for sweet and romantic love stories. Wow!! After a long time so sweet love story. Nice plot and new flavor. This is one of the Thai dramas which goes with unnecessary interfering characters. Almost no character you will found bothering who unnecessary uses high pitch and craziness. Its worth watching if you go for sweet and romantic love stories. Wow!! After a long time so sweet love story. Nice plot and new flavor. This is one of the Thai dramas which goes with unnecessary interfering characters. Almost no character you will found bothering who unnecessary uses high pitch and craziness. Its worth watching if you go for sweet and romantic love stories. Wow!! After a long time so sweet love story. Nice plot and new flavor. This is one of the Thai dramas which goes with unnecessary interfering characters. Almost no character you will found bothering who unnecessary uses high pitch and craziness. Its worth watching if you go for sweet and romantic love stories. Wow!! After a long time so sweet love story. Nice plot and new flavor. This is one of the Thai dramas which goes with unnecessary interfering characters. Almost no character you will found bothering who unnecessary uses high pitch and craziness. Its worth watching if you go for sweet and romantic love stories. Wow!! After a long time so sweet love story. Nice plot and new flavor. This is one of the Thai dramas which goes with unnecessary interfering characters. Almost no character you will found bothering who unnecessary uses high pitch and craziness. Its worth watching if you go for sweet and romantic love stories. Wow!! After a long time so sweet love story. Nice plot and new flavor. This is one of the Thai dramas which goes with unnecessary interfering characters. Almost no character you will found bothering who unnecessary uses high pitch and craziness. Its worth watching if you go for sweet and romantic love stories. Wow!! After a long time so sweet love story. Nice plot and new flavor. This is one of the Thai dramas which goes with unnecessary interfering characters. Almost no character you will found bothering who unnecessary uses high pitch and craziness. Its worth watching if you go for sweet and romantic love stories. Wow!! After a long time so sweet love story. Nice plot and new flavor. This is one of the Thai dramas which goes with unnecessary interfering characters. Almost no character you will found bothering who unnecessary uses high pitch and craziness. Its worth watching if you go for sweet and romantic love stories. Wow!! After a long time so sweet love story. Nice plot and new flavor. This is one of the Thai dramas which goes with unnecessary interfering characters. Almost no character you will found bothering who unnecessary uses high pitch and craziness. Its worth watching if you go for sweet and romantic love stories.Was this review helpful to you?
Great drama to rewatch
It is an awesome production. I rarely rewatch a drama, but this one just cant leave me alone after one time watch. I kept watching and watching... No end. This story line is unique and I have enjoyed every bit of it. The eposide 1, I have found relatively weak start but it just gets its speed up at the end and kept me enchanted to finish the whole series at once. Awesome character development as story progress. I am not very fan about the acting skill of actors. Cant really judge if other actors would have suited this drama better or worse. But at the end, these main actors just seem to be perfect for the whole plot. All credit goes to storyline, if I be honest.Was this review helpful to you?
Not as good as hype
This review is done being 100% impartial, without any personal fan-favor spirit. Everyone has different perspectives, we should not judge each other. I am still very respectful to someone who gave this show 10/10.My review is like this maybe because that I watched this show after watching "word of honor". The BL theme got me here afterwards. But honestly, the two main leads hardly have any chemistry developed almost till the end. Its only looked like friendly banter and wei ying was almost clueless that Lanzhan may have BL type feelings for him. Maybe its because of censor board. From wei ying's point of view : he probably felt through the whole series that Lanzhan is a trustworthy reliable honest friend, but as soul mate? nah. Except that hunting episode a very short vague conversation between them was about "soul mate" thing. At least before death, wei ying was not at all in love with Lanzhan, he was same way playful and loyal friend as he was with other close person, as example to JC or Wen qing. In that case, if u think Lanzhan and wei ying as BL partner, I would say that about 85% volume of this drama Weiying had more emotions for his brother jiang C. And in that context, one can think of them to be BL partner, lol. Or may be straight relation ship between weiying and wen qing? Last few episodes, you can sense that Lanzhan has little one sided feelings for weiying and weiying is still clueless about it. Probably wei ying is not a gay at all.
I am also very disappointed about the fact that how others ( not wei ying, of course) not at all give any credits to the Wen siblings, specially JC. When those Wen siblings helped WY and JC and tried to collect their parents dead body, it was a huge sacrifice made from their side. And they initiated this kindness. WY only tried to return that kindness. They went against their clan and risking their own life, thats a huge matter of respect. They are proper hero of this story. Their loyalty, conscious, honesty no way lesser than WY. They save WY more than once. Like in prison also they helped WY to survive against that wild creature. Honestly, WY owe them his life, his family glory. In the same way, when WY blindfolded aim the arrows to the target without hitting any wen people, was a bit cruel side of him. He knows that he wont hit any but think about those people who were kept as targets and they might have never witnessed anyone to throw a bunch of arrows at a time without mistake? Although, WY tried to show sympathy and righteousness toward any normal people, but I really doubt, if he was not in debt of those wen siblings, will he still try to defend them going against his own clan? In that case, its not hard to say that whoever goes first to show kindness and righteousness is the actual one, and that is those wen siblings.
The story plot is very attractive thats why I watched the Anime version too after the drama, and in anime the BL theme is more clearer than this drama version. Chibi anime version was cuter and little more expressive about BL theme. I didnt have chance to read the actual novel yet, probably that is why I didnt feel much chemistry between main leads in the drama. Obviously, if people start this drama with pre-mind set then they can feel chemistry even in friendly banter. The way drama portrayed the emotions between main leads, if u consider that as BL then I think every guy is gay out there in this whole world. And any strong friendship means gay/ lesbian-ship.
I am not at all convinced with the "BL" tag with this drama, rather I would recon is as a drama of good friendship.
About the acting: come on! be honest: many actors could have done Lan zhan's role with almost no dialogue. Other actors are also so-so. What was the challenging role here to play that no other actor cant perform? On the contrary, Chasing by dog: the screaming acting by xiao zhan was looking soooo "fake", unless you are totally blinded by fandom you can't claim it as " funny" either. That was more or less over acting, i would say. The best acting done by is Zhu Zan jin and Meng Zi yi. Others are replaceable. Its sad that Xue yang's story part was presented so little and vague way that it almost lost the major contribution it had.
In several episodes, I felt that story was going very slow and it was at some point boring me out. Some scenes were not very necessary and draggy.
I loved the music, so 10/10. This is personal taste. So I wont judge if someone rate music 1/10.
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Its way too much complicated
I was super excited to watch this series and first few episodes didn't let me down. But as the story progress, I started to hate this series the way it is presented to viewer. Why so much complexity? The story had so much potential and interesting plots that if it was presented very simply, it would have been more than enough to be a masterpiece. But I think the director just messed it up. Making unnecessary confusing plots over and over and over, Mixing purposely all the incidents was really not needed. Each episode makes disappointed with a new question without answer and with more confusion. I am very much fan of thriller plots, unexpected turn, but this is not that. It is purposely made annoying to make me give up this series in the middle. It has little Sherlock Holmes type touch but again the way this series is presented to the viewers, it is just disappointing. Finally I just read the story from some review online because I was tired and at some point started to hate the way this series treats the viewers. We love to find answer of question and wreck our brain if thriller and suspense are alongside together. But this is not such thing. I mean what is the point if you show someone's thinking or imagination as a clue? That's not a proper way to impress viewers on serious plots. Honestly, if you are bored to death without any other options, then only maybe this series can make you wake up and stop procrastinating. Otherwise, come on : do like me and move to other series.Was this review helpful to you?
Its just a pathetic editing of a good plot
I started it with high expectation but as the story progresses it was not at all bearable!I tried to drop it even after 5th episode but still carried myself forcibly with a hope that it will get better.
The editing is nonsense, abrupt and confusing. Some places the support actor did the job really very bad. Their acting looks so fake and annoying. It became sooooo slow that I have to give up finally. I dont understand why this production killed such a good plot with weak acting and editing.
A TOTAL TIME WASTE!
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