Purunn
This review may contain spoilers
City of cliché
I watched this show to the end and personally I enjoyed it. Although there are bits which I couldn't help getting on my nerves. First though the positives.
1. The chemistry between the two leads was great, you could really feel that connection of Feng Shi Zhen and Rong Jia Shang, especially in the episodes when it seemed JiaShang's love was not reciprocated and the pain the two characters went through both together and because of each other.
2, Acting. The acting was fantastic from all concerned, the villains and 'heroes' (if I can call them that) where beautifully played and you could really see the struggles each character had to go through to decide if were going to fall on the side of right and wrong.
3. Costumes and locations. The Rong family mansion was such an amazing location but so where the other locations they used, you could tell someone had put some real effort into looking for them. The costumes as well were perfect for each character and allowed for some individualism while still being similar as most outfits of this period seem to be.
Before I move on to what bugged me about the drama I will mention the OST. There was only one song that stuck in my mind from this drama, about using all you luck to find someone and all your power to keep them. The rest of the songs were a bit nondescript to me and that is surprising as Chinese dramas usually have great OST's . However this was not a good or bad thing.
The big disappointment and annoyance for me however was the story. It started out great and even something as cliché a revenge plot based on 'your (insert family member) (insert crime) my (insert family member) ' seemed to work ok. It also was ok that it took 30 episodes to get the 2 leads together properly as there was so much going on with the other characters that you didn't miss it that much. Then the great writing seemed to go on strike for a while and cringeworthy stuff began. in the space of a few episodes we had two side plots that went nowhere, one based on 'we love each other but we are brother and sister' and the other one was a repeat of the 'your (insert family member) (insert crime) my (insert family member) ' the first of which had just been cleared up.
To me these cliché side plots simply were not needed and only served to waste time for a few episodes when the story could have been moving forwards into something more interesting. I understand they were used to allow the plot to move forwards but this could have been done in another way without the added clichés. It let down a very good show and I can see why some people are giving this lower scores.
1. The chemistry between the two leads was great, you could really feel that connection of Feng Shi Zhen and Rong Jia Shang, especially in the episodes when it seemed JiaShang's love was not reciprocated and the pain the two characters went through both together and because of each other.
2, Acting. The acting was fantastic from all concerned, the villains and 'heroes' (if I can call them that) where beautifully played and you could really see the struggles each character had to go through to decide if were going to fall on the side of right and wrong.
3. Costumes and locations. The Rong family mansion was such an amazing location but so where the other locations they used, you could tell someone had put some real effort into looking for them. The costumes as well were perfect for each character and allowed for some individualism while still being similar as most outfits of this period seem to be.
Before I move on to what bugged me about the drama I will mention the OST. There was only one song that stuck in my mind from this drama, about using all you luck to find someone and all your power to keep them. The rest of the songs were a bit nondescript to me and that is surprising as Chinese dramas usually have great OST's . However this was not a good or bad thing.
The big disappointment and annoyance for me however was the story. It started out great and even something as cliché a revenge plot based on 'your (insert family member) (insert crime) my (insert family member) ' seemed to work ok. It also was ok that it took 30 episodes to get the 2 leads together properly as there was so much going on with the other characters that you didn't miss it that much. Then the great writing seemed to go on strike for a while and cringeworthy stuff began. in the space of a few episodes we had two side plots that went nowhere, one based on 'we love each other but we are brother and sister' and the other one was a repeat of the 'your (insert family member) (insert crime) my (insert family member) ' the first of which had just been cleared up.
To me these cliché side plots simply were not needed and only served to waste time for a few episodes when the story could have been moving forwards into something more interesting. I understand they were used to allow the plot to move forwards but this could have been done in another way without the added clichés. It let down a very good show and I can see why some people are giving this lower scores.
Was this review helpful to you?
