Didi
USA
This review may contain spoilers
A Fantastic Adaptation
I fell in love with this novel after seeing Etenal Love and then reading the Hamster translation of Eternal Love. In my opinion, this novel is better because it is more rich and developed. That said, this is a different story from eternal love with some similar themes. But the biggest difference is what keeps these two people apart. In eternal love it was outside forces. In this show, it is literally fate influencing everything around them. The directors did a good job emphasizing the coincidences that conspire to keep these people apart. And the consequences of fighting it....Now the show...
I was always curious about how they would adapt this given the simple fact that the author 1)tells her stories via flashbacks and 2) a chunk of time is spent as a fox. But the advancements in visual effects and creativity led to a good decision: a lot of FJ’s fox form was her visually but like a spirit form. It is what they did in Eternal Love when Ye Hua was the flower on Kunlan.
I did not expect them to spend so much time in the mortal world because a lot of it well most of it did not happen in the book. However it helps provide depth and character development because so much of the novel is based in character development they had to engineer a lot of conflict (like the prime antagonists) to keep an audience engaged because a lot of the novel is FJ struggling in her own mind how to deal with her feelings.. Good job directors.
For those of you who haven’t read the book and are reading my review, I recommend it, the drama is Very Very good. Anyone who has ever felt or struggled in one sided love will find that this drama resonates very well with the barriers and uncertainties you might face in pursuing that love, doubting your decisions, and facing the interference of your loved ones who don’t understand why you just can’t stop. If you’ve ever liked someone and asked yourself ‘why can’t I stop it would be so much easier if I did’ then you will feel a strong connection I suspect with this story. I also liked how the script incorporates very well different types of love, obsessive love, and even addresses how unhealthy it can be, but in the end, it’s your choice, whether the outcome is good or bad. Because this is a fairy tail it has a happy ending.
Acting was great. The Chemistry between these two actors is so good everyone wanted them to star in it. I hope they do more dramas together. I think liking this show boils down to what you like. It executes story and plot well, but if you don’t like one sided love don’t watch. If you don’t like the ditzy kind of female lead don’t watch. If you are eaten up inside with anger watching a female lead suffer for love because it disagrees with your values don’t watch! You don’t have to like it but be fair. They did a good job. Not an easy book to adapt.
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1)The plot of the story sounds great on paper--but in the first 1/3 of the show, it is held prisoner by the main plot--the fact that the female lead ate a pill--hence it is frustrating because of her foolish choices--she can appear dumb and utterly unaware of how her actions impact others. To make it more frustrating, once she seems to be ready to break free of the pills hold, some jerk decides to repair it.
2)The show really pulled me in following the falling out--an understatement--of Phoenix and Jinmi. After that the show takes a noticably dark turn. Leading up to it are a number of events that are dark in themselves but did not change the tone of the show. Even the mortal arc, which pulled at my heart a little, failed to really capture my interest the way the latter arc did. After that it is very fast paced, and Jinmi grows a great deal--and I will call it survives--sucker punch after sucker punch. She isn't a victim herself and tries so very hard to escape her circumstances and address issues, but she lacks the power to do as she wishes. At one point in the show she wonders what she can do because she is neither smart like a strategist nor is she a warrior.
3)A key plot point that makes the show stand out from other show is a shift in how they treat revenge and punishment regarding villains and something that REALLY stood out to me was the scene in which the male and female lead actually have on screen relations--normally the lights go out but they actually show enough that in the West it would be like a pg-13 movie i.e. naked parts hidden only by a thin screen. It really is a great example of the inconsistent ratings in China.
4)I cried a lot. I don't want to spoil anything because I think it would ruin the impact the show had, but I trudged through about 40 episodes and don't regret it. If you have the patience for that, then I think it will pay off.
5)A lot of people were rooting for one guy over the other and taking sides like Twilight. I think that the two leads, phoenix and Jinmi, had such great on screen chemistry, and the person who played Night God did such a good job as a person who cared for her but it was clear why he could not be with her--and it really boils down to the difference in personalities between the two men and what they each prioritize. I never found the love triangle annoying because it really wasn't a triangle. It was always apparent. There were no annoying moments where she seems to like someone more. If anything tose moments are related to who she likes less. Which doesn't make a lot of sense.
I think this isn't a great review but I don't want to give away spoilers. I think the music was very good, sets were not so great, nor were the costumes but the CGI looked very good and they use a lot of it for magic. The fight scenes in the mortal world with Phoenix were great. Ultimately though you won't know until you watch it. I understand its a commitment but I was quite surprised by the turnaround. And I tend to really only like what I like and I still don't know how to really place this one. For the record, I did not like the King's Woman too much (love the actors) and I disliked Princess Agents, I did not like Fu Yao but finished it. I liked Journey of Flower and Eternal Love, the Flame's Daughter was descent. I liked Prince of Lan Ling. I keep trying to get into Ice Fantasy but never can finish it.
I took a point off in my rating because the 1/3 wasn't that great and 2/3 was getting better but not mind blowing, but the final 1/3 WOW.
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It is rare to find a drama that is so funny it will make you roll on the floor in laughter, and at the same time have such tragedy that you are bawling (Perfect Couple is an excellent example if you want a comparison of how this formula fails). The ending blew my mind. I was stunned, and did not expect it. Mind.Blown. I frantically recounted to my bf what happened and the conversation ended with him asking 'Are you going to be okay?' I think it caught me off guard because in spite of the drama it could be so light so I just didn't see it coming.
So much tragedy that could have been avoided were it not for obsession...and so many unpredictable moments that had me staring at the television and yelling 'what?' and 'don't do that girl!'
This show has some of the most memorable on screen kisses, and the opening song and ending song mark the first time I added a foreign song to my ipod list. And the love triangle was not annoying because the third guy loves the girl enough to respect her wishes. He was very interesting as well.
I am extremely excited about the sequel, and cannot wait for it to come out.
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What I Liked:
1. As my first 'wuxia' this series opened up a whole new world for me. I loved the costumes, the fantasy, and I enjoyed learning about things like cultivation. It wasn't until later, watching other series, that I learned these are common themes and essentially define a wuxia. Prior to this, I almost exclusively watched Kdramas. Not so much anymore.
2.The subplots were all entertaining; I enjoyed that the Holy Ruler was not the actual villain of the show. I also enjoyed his shameless narcissism. In many ways he is a foil to Bai Zhu Hua. I liked the sets, the costumes.
3.This drama is able to achieve a nice balance between comedy and melodrama, I think because they left most of the comedy for early on in the show and then steadily built in plots that increasingly made the show more serious. Once things became serious we saw hardly any comedy.
What I Loved
4. The transformation of Bones from a sweet, adorable, at times extremely dense girl into an extremely resilient woman, overcoming some of the most awful trials, all because of her ill-fated love. I mean people really have it in for her. This transformation continues as she also turns into a very direct, at times ruthless woman, something that she didn't necessarily wish to be but was forced to become in order to survive. She finally reaches a point where she eschews the rules and values of everyone else in order to protect herself.
5.The steady deterioration of Bai Zhu Hua's image. He is the leader of a sect dedicated to protecting the world. Words like pure, perfect, god-like, and selfless are constantly used to describe his person. But as the series progresses we see that there is an extremely dark side to his personality (very subtly presented): his selfishness and greed can be compared to no one. He does everything in his power to keep Bones at his side, even if it means placing her in painful situations, insisting he is doing it for her, but truthfully he is doing it for himself. He can't let her go, he can't allow anyone else to have her, and so he traps her in this hell all the while presenting himself as her respected Shifu. Very devious. Even more so because he believes his own lies. I mean it isn't like he is two-faced, pretending to be nice and then behind the scenes the mask comes off. He really believes his own b.s.
6.The final confrontation produced feelings that I have not felt from any other dram. It was extremely satisfying because I think it showcased who Bones was, and where she was coming from, and it also completely showed Bai Zhu Hua's true colors.
What I hated
7.This series has the annoying trope of 'every man loves the female lead'. Those who don't fall in love with her (with the exception of maybe two people) are either in love with someone else or despise her for reasons that are never really explained.
8.The women in the show (with the exception of one or two) all detest the female lead. If they don't in the beginning they wind up hating her. And with the exception of 1, it is never really explained. It seems to be a case of stereotypical female jealousy. I would be exhausted hating someone for that long.
Final Notes
This may be the only drama that I have seen where I would have been okay with the leads never getting together because Bai Zu Hua was such a great villain. He was meticulously created and I think designed to make the viewer at first like him but by the end you hover between feelings of revulsion and outright hate. He is just unforgivable and the best part is he is so subtly evil! This isn't a guy who is violent or disrespectful to our leading lady. He has hardly any lines. But he is just...awful. If you watch 3 Lives 3 worlds 10 mile peach blossom you might see parallels between Fengjiu and Bones and Mo Yuan/Shifu (in terms of personality; these characters have no romantic links).
This show is based off of a popular novel. I am still looking for a full translation, but here is a link to what I have found so far: https://dorayakiz.wordpress.com/2014/10/24/the-journey-of-flower-author-fresh-guo-guo/
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I think that the show was unique in its delivery of a plot around video games. This resonated with me, the viewer, because I play video games and I play them a lot. I enjoyed the in-world experience because it resonated with my love of historical dramas and fantasy. I liked that the story was about two people who loved one another unconditionally, and I liked how the male lead was so supportive.
The story is very sweet, with little conflict. It is more about how two people meet and fall in love. Because there were no conflicts or character growth, because both characters were so great, I lost interest in it. As a result, I would not re watch it and I would recommend it to people who prefer light love stories with a lot of fluff. There were no family problems in this show, nothing. It was just the natural growth of a healthy relationship. I would not compare it to Boss and Me because there is a ton more character growth and conflicts that they go through. But it has the same tone of two people who love one another unconditionally. And both leads respect one another. No one is encountering a mean or cruel partner, no one is trying to hurt the other in petty ways because of petty misunderstandings. I gave it an 8 because Love 020 was a great drama and delivers on what it promises. It just isn't my type. I try not to be biased. An example of another show that wasn't my type but I gave a low rating, for context, was Perfect Couple because I think that the drama was confused about what story it was trying to tell and it failed in what it delivered.
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There was no excessive blood or gore. The acting was very good. There is a difference in the second half in terms of the direction it takes. I am very good at guessing the end, and while I had an idea of two ways that it might end, because of some of the events that occur in the final 10 minutes I thought I had it figured it out...but I didn't. And that I liked. I liked the end too. It was very satisfying.
I also liked the portrayal of the villain in addition to his interactions with the neighbors. I enjoyed the way the story slowly opened up, and I thought it was interesting how the film in many ways was about the male lead coming into his own again.
What I disliked:
I thought there were a few strange inconsistencies in the story. One of the points the drama makes is the fact that the detective is very smart and is very educated in police matters, including the FBI in the states and their profiling techniques. That said, I thought it was strange that the police department never made a note of him as a consultant, which you can do. He was working with another detective on the side, but because of safety, typically you want to document everything, including where you visit if you are on the job, or following a lead, for safety issues. Some people don't do this in the show, and that made no sense to me.
What was odd:
I found it difficult to understand the detectives wife. I truly could not understand how her opinion of the neighbor seemed to change given how clearly bizarre and weird his behavior was. He did a lot of little things that makes you want to stay away from him, like invading your personal space and making weird requests.
Overall:
I would re-watch it and thought it was interesting, especially because of the acting ands script and the fact that there was hardly any blood or violence (although be warned, people die)(and there is no showing of torture or anything like that, which I like). it was a very psychological film.
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This review may contain spoilers
Not often do my dramas get such a perfect score. This was my first historical, so it may be biased. So. that said.My Likes:
1.Character Development. No character was perfect. No one. Even the villianess was painted in such an empathetic way, down to her tragic end, that you couldn't hate her, and I even admired her for all that she had achieved (albeit using awful tactics) but she was still human, and a mother.
2. Dong Yi while sometimes seemed perfect, she wasn't. She was still flawed. She deceived others. She lied. For a good reason, but she still lied, and damn was she smart and strong! It was nice to see her development from scared little girl to naive but smart woman to a formidable opponent of Consort Jang--reaching a point where she was finally like I Am going to Take You Down
3.Every single supporting character was well written, down to a T. Chun Soo is my man!
4. The romance between the emperor and her developed nicely, but I would have liked more skinship scenes.
5.The comedy scenes were wicked funny
6.The brother of Consort Jang was arguably the most obnoxious detestable person around
7.So many FOILS in this show, pay attention, and every thing has a meaning, down to the end--no plot holes. Nothing is not eventually addressed. And don;t get me started on Babagee (I would randomly yell that at the t.v. because her father's storyline was so friggin tragic and over the top but I loved it)
My Dislikes:
1.The final episodes--i was kind of scratching my head at her decision after the epic climaxes (no spoilers) and then she kind of becomes a mother theresa and I was like whaaat?
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The music was good. The acting was descent. Being a lover of supernatural horror there was no gore or blood. The general premise was interesting: first Aunt Shui goes missing. Returns. Grandma goes missing. Returns. Boyfriend goes missing. Next is the search in the mountains to see what is going on/the source.
What I didn't like:
I thought that the reason behind the disappearances was very weak. It isn't the legend but more like how they incorporated it into the storyline. There is no real reason for why this family would be targeted. It seemed completely random. If there was an explanation worked in, then I would consider it a better plot. But because they did not address that, it felt weak to me.
Would I recommend?
Yes, for people who are looking for a light horror (light because the ending is happy; no one dies).
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What I Liked
The film was an anthology and the quality was fairly good. I liked the idea of the writer who struggles with writing, and the other man who appears to 'help him' write. I don't want to spoil anything so I won't go into it but it was a fun idea. I also liked the homage paid to older horror films (Like The Shining) (or Frankenstein) and the weirdness of some of the stories--they were very surreal/a little strange at times. This I all appreciated.
What I disliked
As interesting of an idea as the story was, I did not like the execution. The first story I thought the acting wasn't so great and some things were a little odd (like the guy who watches the shining in the pitch black basement of a hospital?) and the second story was a little slow.
Overall,
It is an okay horror film but don't expect anything like Noroi The Curse or Ju-On. This isn't really a 'ghost' story China doesn't really allow the portrayal of ghosts in their films, I think, because of superstition and censorship laws. This is essentially a psychological horror featuring stories where circumstance or events kind of drives people to go crazy, a theme of the film. In terms of tone, the only type of film that I can think that relates to it is something like Creepshow (Stephen King) or Thirst (Korea) in terms of oddness but without the dark humor as it is a more serious film intended for an older audience. Just don't expect the same level of story telling.
I don't think I would re-watch it, which is huge for me, as I re-watch horror films constantly. There is blood but really no gore and of course this is nothing like the very dark violent films you might sometimes see coming out of Korea (I saw the Devil).
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I thought the story of the parents was sad...but i just did not like her mom. She was so passive it was annoying and oh my god it seemed like some bad thing was always happening to her.
I enjoyed the themes, the colors, and the symbolism.
I pitied the boy's mom.
I did not like the comedic relief/found it to be a drag.
Sometimes it dragged.
My biggest frustration: the writer's obsession with 'purity' in women. The male lead was a player, the female lead could not have sexual bone in her body which felt totally unrealistic of reality. I mean it was like she didn't even entertain a single sexual thought about this man. You can be chaste but still have desires, yeesh. This is why I give it an 8.5--it was delivering a very mature story but at the same time would not acknowledge adult themes that made it realistic. I'm not saying that their needed to be sex/kissing/hugging, but it felt like the female leads were all on pedastals, and the most realistic female of them all was probably the boy's mom who was also the villian.
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