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the aggravated ayi

Vancouver, Canada

the aggravated ayi

Vancouver, Canada
South Wind Knows chinese drama review
Dropped 26/39
South Wind Knows
5 people found this review helpful
by the aggravated ayi
Nov 6, 2023
26 of 39 episodes seen
Dropped
Overall 4.5
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 5.0
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 1.0

just enjoy the scenery, if only for a short while

I had to drop this show after Ep26. There are so many good shows to watch right now. This is not one of them. Watch it only if you want to see Cheng Yi and Zhang YuXi pose in designer clothes. I usually have hope that a show based on a novel should have a higher quality story but this drama likely didn't do it justice. It's my first time seeing Cheng Yi in a modern drama, but I'm afraid his talent couldn't fix this mess of a script. I started to believe his tears were real: not because of his character experiencing a life-altering event, but because he was stuck doing this show. Zhang YuXi has had better roles, but her talent is where it is.

Tropes fly off the shelf within the first 4 eps: bad 1st meeting, stuck together on assignment, suddenly falling in love while having a bandaid applied, staying up all night to nurse a fever. I wondered how will this show make it to 39 eps when the tropes run out. Our heroes do dangerous humanitarian work, braving guerilla militia without scuffing their shoes, while the poor villagers they serve act as props to line up smiling and waving gratefully as they leave. The scenery shots of the Southeast Asian water villages they visit are gorgeous. Wait, is this a travelog or a serious medical/war drama or a fashion show? I tried to just enjoy the scenery.

I've read mention that this show combines 2 novels. If so, it sure wastes a lot of time. An entire episode is spent on the leads trapped in a rock crevasse doing nothing more than just sitting there. The FL's traumatic past is revealed but it's treated like a side note. Sloppy editing abounds. The story gets a bit more interesting by Ep8 with post-trauma recovery, family succession struggles, love triangles and evil mothers in law. Many long shots of ML's angst without really telling us what's actually going on in his head. 39 eps should've been plenty to develop all the characters and their arcs but we just get long silent shots instead. So the only thing you can do is just enjoy the scenery.

Another thing that bothers me is how few actors are able to accurately portray medical/academic people. Not to mention the set details: a high end hospital's rehabilitation unit has no grab bars in the bathroom, zero wheelchair accessibility, and staff that let you fall down on your face repeatedly while taking you for a walk. But who needs details.

I'm at HSK-1/2 level Chinese and I could understand most of the dialogue, which tells you something about the level of writing. This meant seeing adults talk (and act) like 12 year olds, or older parents talking to their adult children as if they were 12. This is too much. Ep26 is as far as I'm going to make it on this drama, and it's already further than I wanted.
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