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A Tale of Love and Loyalty chinese drama review
Completed
A Tale of Love and Loyalty
3 people found this review helpful
by Heracin
May 1, 2024
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 3.5
Story 3.0
Acting/Cast 4.0
Music 4.0
Rewatch Value 3.0

Sinked because of poor editing & writing, despite steamy looks of hot ML

This short Chinese web series was entertaining in its first half but fell halfway through completely apart. There were some hot and exciting scenes and I liked the enemies-to-lovers trope the script was going for at first. It took a turn that I did not dislike in the second half but there was clearly not enough time to make it make sense and to be interesting overall. I especially do not understand why they decided to come back on past elements from the timeline in the two last episodes of the series rather than to incorporate it as flashback in the main story.

In addition to those very strange storytelling choices, the editing was all over the place. It can be expected from that short format series but I still think that it could have been better. The introduction song was alright but overall the soundtrack was overpowering in most of the scenes. There were also some jarring sound issues (especially if you watched the series on YouTube where it was sensibly worse).

Acting-wise, I admit I somewhat enjoyed the performance of Richard Li but mostly because of a strong eye-candy factor. Overall I liked the steamy looks he was throwing at the FL but he was still lacking in the most emotional part. Ming Jia Jia as the FL did not impress me at all. It might be linked to her role and the script but I did not care that much about her character which is problematic as you want to be able to root for the heroine. Last but not least Patrick Quan delivered an over-the-top performance but given the scenario, he had clearly little room for nuances.

I would not recommend this to people as I feel the series fell apart mid-way through. The most exciting part of the drama can be seen in the intro generic, so honestly if you watch it, you have seen the best of what the show has to offer. I did not mind the choice they made regarding the romance, it was interesting but what was really disturbing is the way it was edited with the couple of last episodes coming back on past elements of the story.
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