theematchabun
somewhere out of nowhere
Breakout Hit but Sometimes a Miss!
Theres many things to like about this show. Evernight is a high production/ambitious adaptation of a webnovel by the name of Nightfall. The cinematography is breathetaking, showcasing natural landscape of snowy mountains, dessert plains, and grasslands. The music score is great, which heightens the scenes in every aspect. The cgi/effects are well done. The fight choreography is brilliantly executed, with alot of intensity and energy. Its a beautiful drama for viewing on a large screen format. The worldbuilding is neat/unique.
My overall nitpick & setbacks about the show is the writing and its direction over the course/run. The onslaught of exposition makes the dialogue pretty heavy-handed. Too much telling, not enough showing. Example, Ningque gains abilities/powersets too quickly without any steady progression. The physical/learning process of Ningque's growth is shown onscreen inorganically. There are some faults in characterization, specifically the male lead character.
Ningque's personality isnt distinctive enough, other than he's a bit haughty. His characterization is inconstistent so he comes off a bit dull and overbearing at certain times. His growth is stagnant throughout the drama. Ningque exceeds well in combat and literature, but his finer quality is his relationship with SangSang. He's more interesting when he's interacting with SangSang or his peers. Chen Feiyu embodies Ningque in terms of appearance, voice, and physicality, although he can definitely improve in terms of acting. He underperforms in the emotional department, although he executes the action sequence with ease. He doesnt quite emote well with his eyes, and he twitches/furrow his brows quite often to my slight annoyance.
Sang Sang is my favorite character in the show. She's loyal, sweet, and endearing. She's also emotional and expressive, as she is seen moving around alot and drench in tears in the more emotional scenes of the show. She adores money and has a thing for cooking. Unfortunately, her character isnt written with much agency which results in less screentime & minimal dialogue compared to her onscreen counterpart. Its quite abysmal. Song Yiren portrays Sang Sang very well. She cries effortlessly and definitely makes Sang Sang appear as the heart of the story. She's very animated in her gestures and face expressions when she's emoting.
Ningque and Sang Sang's relationship is one of my favorite aspect. The chemistry between the two plays out naturally onscreen. Chen Feiyu and Song Yiren both portray their characters in terms of their relationship to each other well. The relationship becomes a bit muddled around episode 30 & up. Sang Sang gets the short end of the stick as Ningque becomes the the product of several girls' affection later on, which downplays Ningque and Sang Sang's importance to each other. The power imbalance between the two characters is offputting, which can be fix with proper development, but it lacks in the writing. This lessens both of the character's development and growth as individuals and a pair.
The antagonists in the show are somewhat decent. Longqing is rather stale and doesnt serve as any challenge for Ningque at all. Ningque's path to vengeance gets bogged down through various arcs, as he doesnt officially meet his eventual foe a little over halfway into the show without any builtup tension.
The way the romance played out in the show is rather odd. Too much underdeveloped characters that appears and are forgettable. Things happen to abruptly and things happen way too late which can be resolve much early on in the show. The show needs more emphasis on the cultivation aspect for Ningque's character. The writing juggles between several themes but the execution is a bit convoluted due to its focus on prolong arcs & extended list of various characters.
I'd say one of my favorite thing about the show is definitely the music score, not necessarily the original soundtrack. The mixture of traditional sounds & orchestral pieces really elevates the show in the more emotional/dramatic parts. Easily one of the best music score I've heard in any drama. It's almost quite majestic, fortunately, in comparison to the lackluster of the writing.
The action sequences is really great! Well choreographed and lots of energy.
Overall, there's many things to enjoy about Ever Night. The writing is questionable and falters a bit later in the show, although I commend the director for pulling off such a large scale of a show with it's setting, set designs, costumes, and fight sequence.
My overall nitpick & setbacks about the show is the writing and its direction over the course/run. The onslaught of exposition makes the dialogue pretty heavy-handed. Too much telling, not enough showing. Example, Ningque gains abilities/powersets too quickly without any steady progression. The physical/learning process of Ningque's growth is shown onscreen inorganically. There are some faults in characterization, specifically the male lead character.
Ningque's personality isnt distinctive enough, other than he's a bit haughty. His characterization is inconstistent so he comes off a bit dull and overbearing at certain times. His growth is stagnant throughout the drama. Ningque exceeds well in combat and literature, but his finer quality is his relationship with SangSang. He's more interesting when he's interacting with SangSang or his peers. Chen Feiyu embodies Ningque in terms of appearance, voice, and physicality, although he can definitely improve in terms of acting. He underperforms in the emotional department, although he executes the action sequence with ease. He doesnt quite emote well with his eyes, and he twitches/furrow his brows quite often to my slight annoyance.
Sang Sang is my favorite character in the show. She's loyal, sweet, and endearing. She's also emotional and expressive, as she is seen moving around alot and drench in tears in the more emotional scenes of the show. She adores money and has a thing for cooking. Unfortunately, her character isnt written with much agency which results in less screentime & minimal dialogue compared to her onscreen counterpart. Its quite abysmal. Song Yiren portrays Sang Sang very well. She cries effortlessly and definitely makes Sang Sang appear as the heart of the story. She's very animated in her gestures and face expressions when she's emoting.
Ningque and Sang Sang's relationship is one of my favorite aspect. The chemistry between the two plays out naturally onscreen. Chen Feiyu and Song Yiren both portray their characters in terms of their relationship to each other well. The relationship becomes a bit muddled around episode 30 & up. Sang Sang gets the short end of the stick as Ningque becomes the the product of several girls' affection later on, which downplays Ningque and Sang Sang's importance to each other. The power imbalance between the two characters is offputting, which can be fix with proper development, but it lacks in the writing. This lessens both of the character's development and growth as individuals and a pair.
The antagonists in the show are somewhat decent. Longqing is rather stale and doesnt serve as any challenge for Ningque at all. Ningque's path to vengeance gets bogged down through various arcs, as he doesnt officially meet his eventual foe a little over halfway into the show without any builtup tension.
The way the romance played out in the show is rather odd. Too much underdeveloped characters that appears and are forgettable. Things happen to abruptly and things happen way too late which can be resolve much early on in the show. The show needs more emphasis on the cultivation aspect for Ningque's character. The writing juggles between several themes but the execution is a bit convoluted due to its focus on prolong arcs & extended list of various characters.
I'd say one of my favorite thing about the show is definitely the music score, not necessarily the original soundtrack. The mixture of traditional sounds & orchestral pieces really elevates the show in the more emotional/dramatic parts. Easily one of the best music score I've heard in any drama. It's almost quite majestic, fortunately, in comparison to the lackluster of the writing.
The action sequences is really great! Well choreographed and lots of energy.
Overall, there's many things to enjoy about Ever Night. The writing is questionable and falters a bit later in the show, although I commend the director for pulling off such a large scale of a show with it's setting, set designs, costumes, and fight sequence.
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