4
Giuca
Lost in the Cloud....
This review may contain spoilers
Fan guy and his soulmate: a bromance!
DISCLAIMER: I have never seen a wuxia(I think it's what it is called) before so this is a review by someone who has ZERO knowledge of the genre and its rules! Since this is going to be drowned in the sea of reviews, I shall be painfully frank!
I did not hate it! I did not like it either. I was mostly bored. But I finished it nevertheless. And without fast forwarding!
The story is messy: there are a few sects and a prince trying to get their hands on a mythical weapon called Glazed Armor. There are a lot of underhand alliances, betrayals, deals, lying, duels and endless talking!
This is based on a widely popular danmei novel which had to be toned down because of chinese censorship. Well this is where the first surprise came from: the bromance was more romance than I expected: there was so much double entendres in their conversation that I was really surprised with things the producers managed to get away with.
The fighting scenes were rather spectacular. At first I did not like the constant changing of action scenes filming speed: FFW/slo mo/FFW. I ended up getting used to it because the choreography was spectacular!
What else was good? Let me think....costumes and certain sets (palaces, plum trees, mountains etc.). And the cute young couple, too cute to survive this ordeal, unfortunately! And that is about it!
On with the rest!
The pacing was a major problem with this series.( I was told it was because of filming during COVID! I don't know!). Stop-and-go! It was never constant: mostly slow. So slow! Lots of time was wasted on endless static conversations. So endless that I usually started playing games because I lost attention and the conversations were not interesting. They would drone on for ages like that, change settings and have an extremely important conversation all of a sudden ; I had to rewind a few times because I missed some important facts. The passage of time was not clear: slow than jump forward than a bit of reminiscing etc... The plot was complex but they never resolved the main problem (the prince!) instead of which they introduced a bunch of new useless characters and killed a cute young couple! That did tug on my heartstrings and I did not like though I should have expected it! The useless characters were the most ridiculous in a scene towards the ending when the serious guy goes for a quest and they just stand there solemnly and seriously watching him disappear into distance! I was bent over laughing at that scene!The villain was obvious from the get go: the creepy, slimy fake kindness was a dead giveaway! And the "best" was a heart transplant! In the past, a wife wanted to save her husband like that?!?!? Wuxia magic!
Next big problem was the main couple. Basically, they meet and fall in love within 3 seconds and start immediately addressing each other as soulmates?!?!? That was quick! But they seemed to live in different time zones: there was something terribly off about their relationship. One problem was the characters! The first one sports expressionless face practically throughout the whole series. He manages to crack a smile three times and that changes the character completely, giving him warmth and humanity. In any case he is very superficial. The fan guy, on the other hand, talks and behaves as a clown, forever smiling quixotically, evidently hiding something behind his laconic answers and jokes! We find out about it eventually so he gains a certain depth more than his soulmate, in any case! Their relationship lacked chemistry! At least for me: I could not believe them to be soulmates. And even though the fan guy was very expressive, doe eyed and all touchy feely, the other guy was nowhere near so open or welcoming of a prospect of staying together forever. Eventually he accepted. Towards the end, there was a subplot in which the fan guy enlisted help of everyone except for his soulmate who then barges in the middle of the plot execution and almost ruins it. Afterwards he is visibly hurt by being left out but the fan guy never apologizes or explains and the other guy just moves on without questioning anything! I felt enraged for the poor neglected soulmate!
The acting was average, at the best! Because of dubbing; the voices were hushed mostly: this breathless speaking is really annoying. The writing is boring and lacks humour: the banters are not funny and those long conversations are not interesting. When the actors speak, they often have long monologues which sound as if they are being read out in a monotonous voice. Sleep inducing! Actually, I managed to fall asleep regularly during 7 first episodes. It is then that the fan guy became interesting!
Music was boring. And editing is a chinese drama's way: episode is 42min long so we cut it at that mark! So what if it is mid sentence! They have no knowledge how to make a cliffhanger!
Anyhow, this was an experience I do not wish to repeat! Moreover, the last episode (37!) is a joke! It is 11min long compilation of scenes from the series with one single new scene: them living happily ever after on top of the mountain, forever and ever. How romantic! Bah, humbug!
I did not hate it! I did not like it either. I was mostly bored. But I finished it nevertheless. And without fast forwarding!
The story is messy: there are a few sects and a prince trying to get their hands on a mythical weapon called Glazed Armor. There are a lot of underhand alliances, betrayals, deals, lying, duels and endless talking!
This is based on a widely popular danmei novel which had to be toned down because of chinese censorship. Well this is where the first surprise came from: the bromance was more romance than I expected: there was so much double entendres in their conversation that I was really surprised with things the producers managed to get away with.
The fighting scenes were rather spectacular. At first I did not like the constant changing of action scenes filming speed: FFW/slo mo/FFW. I ended up getting used to it because the choreography was spectacular!
What else was good? Let me think....costumes and certain sets (palaces, plum trees, mountains etc.). And the cute young couple, too cute to survive this ordeal, unfortunately! And that is about it!
On with the rest!
The pacing was a major problem with this series.( I was told it was because of filming during COVID! I don't know!). Stop-and-go! It was never constant: mostly slow. So slow! Lots of time was wasted on endless static conversations. So endless that I usually started playing games because I lost attention and the conversations were not interesting. They would drone on for ages like that, change settings and have an extremely important conversation all of a sudden ; I had to rewind a few times because I missed some important facts. The passage of time was not clear: slow than jump forward than a bit of reminiscing etc... The plot was complex but they never resolved the main problem (the prince!) instead of which they introduced a bunch of new useless characters and killed a cute young couple! That did tug on my heartstrings and I did not like though I should have expected it! The useless characters were the most ridiculous in a scene towards the ending when the serious guy goes for a quest and they just stand there solemnly and seriously watching him disappear into distance! I was bent over laughing at that scene!The villain was obvious from the get go: the creepy, slimy fake kindness was a dead giveaway! And the "best" was a heart transplant! In the past, a wife wanted to save her husband like that?!?!? Wuxia magic!
Next big problem was the main couple. Basically, they meet and fall in love within 3 seconds and start immediately addressing each other as soulmates?!?!? That was quick! But they seemed to live in different time zones: there was something terribly off about their relationship. One problem was the characters! The first one sports expressionless face practically throughout the whole series. He manages to crack a smile three times and that changes the character completely, giving him warmth and humanity. In any case he is very superficial. The fan guy, on the other hand, talks and behaves as a clown, forever smiling quixotically, evidently hiding something behind his laconic answers and jokes! We find out about it eventually so he gains a certain depth more than his soulmate, in any case! Their relationship lacked chemistry! At least for me: I could not believe them to be soulmates. And even though the fan guy was very expressive, doe eyed and all touchy feely, the other guy was nowhere near so open or welcoming of a prospect of staying together forever. Eventually he accepted. Towards the end, there was a subplot in which the fan guy enlisted help of everyone except for his soulmate who then barges in the middle of the plot execution and almost ruins it. Afterwards he is visibly hurt by being left out but the fan guy never apologizes or explains and the other guy just moves on without questioning anything! I felt enraged for the poor neglected soulmate!
The acting was average, at the best! Because of dubbing; the voices were hushed mostly: this breathless speaking is really annoying. The writing is boring and lacks humour: the banters are not funny and those long conversations are not interesting. When the actors speak, they often have long monologues which sound as if they are being read out in a monotonous voice. Sleep inducing! Actually, I managed to fall asleep regularly during 7 first episodes. It is then that the fan guy became interesting!
Music was boring. And editing is a chinese drama's way: episode is 42min long so we cut it at that mark! So what if it is mid sentence! They have no knowledge how to make a cliffhanger!
Anyhow, this was an experience I do not wish to repeat! Moreover, the last episode (37!) is a joke! It is 11min long compilation of scenes from the series with one single new scene: them living happily ever after on top of the mountain, forever and ever. How romantic! Bah, humbug!
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