China's "Miracle on the Hudson" - you gotta watch this!

Here's what I learned from miraculous plane landings, such as the one made by Captain Sully of US Airways Flight 1649 (Miracle on the Hudson) and Captain Liu of Sichuan Air Flight 8633: You need extraordinary airmanship to land your passengers and crew safely during these unexpected emergencies, and most essentially, you must remain very, very calm when everyone is panicking around you. (And they have a very, very good reason to.)

This movie was so excellently made, and it is on par with my other favourite air-flight disaster movie, Sully. But rather than center it around an overly dramatic hearing about Sully's actions (which was far from what really happened in reality), The Captain kept it simple - it focused on the events leading to the cockpit accident how the crew kept everyone calm, and how the pilots finally landed the plane despite crazy weather, the mountains and a busted gears.

However, we don't really get to know our passengers very well; the film gave some of them a backstory or two, but it's never deep enough for us to truly care for them. (I even wondered why we were given introductions to some of them.) The focus is sharply on the pilots and the air attendants.

Time moved so fast that I was stunned that I was at the end of the movie. Not a single minute was boring. (I mean, honestly, how could it be boring?? LOL.)

At times, I thought the soundtrack was overly dramatic, but I forgave that because there were really touching moments such as the flight control manager's teary eyes when he thought the plane was lost, or Captain Liu thinking about his daughter as he flew the plane through a treacherous storm.

On a side note, I also enjoyed the movie's little touches of culture here and there - what I assumed was Tibetan language, the Sichuan-accented Mandarin and more.

As a Malaysian, I couldn't help but think about our ill-fated missing plane, MH370 and the tragic fate of MH17, shot down over Ukiraine, when watching this movie. The year 2014 was Malaysian Airlines' annus horribilis - we had two major air disasters months apart.

Perhaps this is why I enjoyed Sully and The Captain so much. It gave me the happy ending and closure I and many Malaysians craved for MH370 and MH17.

An excerpt taken from my original review on my blog: https://dramatea88.wordpress.com/2024/02/18/the-captain-movie-review/

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You want kisses?? We've got kisses!

Okay, I admit it. I watched The Love by Hypnotic only because I enjoyed Fang Yilun’s performance so much in A Journey to Love. The show was also a much-needed lighter fare for me after the dark depths we had to go to in AJTL. And there were so many funny moments in the show.
The Love By Hypnotic is light, sweet, and fluffy. It’s an enemies-to-lovers story done well. Alas, that’s probably the only thing I can praise it for. Its many storytelling and production flaws prevent me from giving it a higher score.
- The plot is often illogical and things happen to create angst or lovey-dovey things happen for our couple.
- The way Ming Yue uses hypnosis makes me uncomfortable.
- This kingdom is run on a shoestring budget. There's no maids, soldiers or eunuchs around and royal protocol is non-existent.

But, but ... its good points are really good.

- Fang Yilun's acting is on point, and he shows what a versatile actor he is; he handles the funny and serious scenes expertly.
- The kissing scenes are ... omg, the best I've seen and there are. so. many.
- The characters talk about sex. Yes, SEX. In a Chinese drama.

For one, it does romance REALLY well.

We journey with our reluctant couple as they first meet, fall in “hate” at first sight, develop affection for each other and eventually love. But they don’t stop there – they also talk about practicalities like initiating sex (imagine that), and living together as a married couple when you have different habits and personalities.

So yes, I highly recommend this drama despite its flaws. It can get frustrating at times, but it's still a good drama to relax to and to giggle over ;)

This is a summarised version of my lengthier review here: https://dramatea88.wordpress.com/2024/01/26/love-by-hypnotic-review/

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Wonderful love story, but the plot has lots of problems

What I discovered after watching The Sword and the Brocade
- Women are bloody scary when they're having tea with you
- Forehead kisses are better than bedroom scenes
- Ming dynasty mother-in-laws are scarier than the T-1000.

I had long avoided *The Sword of the Brocade* for the following reasons:
- I was super not impressed with Tan Song Yun's performance and was majorly annoyed with her aegyo character in *Under the Power*.
- In general, I dislike harem dramas intensely. I just don't like watching women bully each other.

But for some reason I am suddenly in a romantic mood for mature, adult, slow burn, arranged marriage romance and the *The Sword and the Brocade* delivers.

I really loved Shi Yi and Ling Yi's gradual attraction to each other and I love Wallace Chung and Tan Song Yun's performance. I believe that Tan dubbed herself, and it really brought a lot of nuance and colour to her character.

I didn't find Wallace Chung attractive at first, but he is so manly, honourable and considerate as Ling Yi that these qualities end up making him very attractive indeed.

And yes, yes, this is one of those dramas with misunderstandings between our couple, but it's not at epic proportions like Love and Redemption.

I don't seem to mind misunderstandings and lack of communication in romance dramas as I find them morbidly enjoyable. But if you hate this be warned as the Show has one major arc with that.

(Also, I'd like to report that Wallace Chung is such a good kisser. Like, no fish-eyed kisses, people! But one filled with intense passion and desperate hunger. *Fans self*.)

However, I confess that I skipped or fast forwarded a lot of scheming concubine parts because I can't stand a lot of that. At times I found the mother-in-laws (both Madam Xu and Luo) intolerable.

Yet, despite their horrid scheming, I have a lot of sympathy for the concubines. I felt their pain and sorrow when Ling Yi rebuff their efforts to gain his attention. As for Qiao Lian Fang, the primary evil concubine? Nah, she deserves everything she got lol.

But while it tries to convey the painful lives of concubines and women in ancient Ming dynasty times, but it was clumsily done.

And as with so many Chinese dramas, for some reason, the last 10 episodes was a rush of betrayals and schemes, a lot of them lacking logic.

If I were to rate the way they had written romance between our main couple, it would be an 8.5.

But for the plot involving the evil Ou family, concubines and more? Oof, it'll be a 6 or less.

So, I can only give it an slightly above average rating rather than excellent.

But I still highly recommend this drama if you like watching slow burn romance and arranged marriages. Our leads are really good and you will really enjoy their performances.

Rating: 7.5

I wrote a longer, more detailed review here: https://dramatea88.wordpress.com/2024/01/09/the-sword-and-the-brocade-review/

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