pash
Italy
This review may contain spoilers
Plasticky...watch it only for the cast (they did a good job!)
Were I to use only one word to describe this "Please Classmate", that word would be "plasticky".
Fake and shallow as a tv commercial. But at least, those last 30", tops. This, instead, 24 looong episodes.
But, first things first - what I DID like, i.e.:
The Cast
True, a coupla actors were below par imho, but overall, the whole cast did a good job (heck, in some cases even a very good job, given the material they had to work with!). I have watched this for Dai Lu Wa and she didn't let me down. Honorable mentions also for Siwaige and Gao Xuan Ming.
The Music
Not really my cup of tea, but I'll admit it's mostly catchy, and it goes well with the genre, so all in all it gets the passing grade.
And now on to what I did NOT like:
The Story
Sorry to sound so harsh, but to me the writer didn't do a decent job, like, *at all*. It felt like an Asian-drama version of the meta-soap from the movie "Pleasantville". Take all the clichés of the genre, mix them together, and what you get is a cheesy, obnoxiously unoriginal, indeed plasticky yawnfest.
The "Packaging"
Photography, editing etc. contributed highly to that "tv commercial" feeling. The always tremendously fake lighting most of all!
In all fairness, though, even without the packaging, it would have given the same fake vibes, due to the script's faults. Again, if you've watched "Pleasantville", this is really like that "meta-soap": everything feels fake, whatever problems the characters face, they're not realistic at all. A coupla examples? (spoilers ahead, consider yourselves warned and jump to the conclusion if you want to avoid those)
In this drama the characters have to face the Gaokao, but it's all done in a few minutes with a few scenes edited together, and boom! they all got good grades apparently, like that, magically.
The FL thinks she might be suffering from leukemia, like her late father? Don't worry, it's just anemia.
The ML bombs the race upon which lies his future? Don't worry, someone retires last minute and he'll get another chance.
The SML misses his programming contest, gets found out, and is set to change schools? Don't worry, everything sorts out, his father does a U-turn and becomes suddenly reasonable, and a "flash-mob" by his school-mates will convince his icy mom too.
The love triangle isn't enough to run for 24 episodes? Don't worry, the lousy scriptwriter will add a third male lead who's a long-lost childhood friend of the FL and a teen idol on top of that.
Seriously, 24 episodes of this. It took me *ages* to finish it. I should've dropped it and forget all about it (matter of fact, that's precisely what I've done with many dramas; my "Dropped" list containing but a tiny minority of the dramas I actually dropped - normally, those that I felt were so bad that they deserved a mention for future reference) but I kept hoping it would get better at some point. It didn't.
Conclusion
I noticed that my opinion differs from that of basically everyone else here, so take it for what it is: my humble opinion an nothing more. Perhaps I'm too old for this kind of things (if the world doesn't end in the the next coupla years, I might even turn 50, LOL). Or maybe it's just that I really dislike dramas giving these überfake, plasticky vibes (hence my lack of interest for K-dramas, for example: I tried watching a few, they all gave me that feeling, I dropped them all and didn't even include them in my list - sorry K-fans, that's my personal experience and opinion - although I might not be absolutely alone there, as I've read several comments of people who've abandoned K-dramas and moved on to C- and J-dramas, apparently for precisely that reason - but anyway, as I said, only my humble .02, which might not mean much - if anything at all! - to most of the rest, so take no offense, peace! ^___-)
Fake and shallow as a tv commercial. But at least, those last 30", tops. This, instead, 24 looong episodes.
But, first things first - what I DID like, i.e.:
The Cast
True, a coupla actors were below par imho, but overall, the whole cast did a good job (heck, in some cases even a very good job, given the material they had to work with!). I have watched this for Dai Lu Wa and she didn't let me down. Honorable mentions also for Siwaige and Gao Xuan Ming.
The Music
Not really my cup of tea, but I'll admit it's mostly catchy, and it goes well with the genre, so all in all it gets the passing grade.
And now on to what I did NOT like:
The Story
Sorry to sound so harsh, but to me the writer didn't do a decent job, like, *at all*. It felt like an Asian-drama version of the meta-soap from the movie "Pleasantville". Take all the clichés of the genre, mix them together, and what you get is a cheesy, obnoxiously unoriginal, indeed plasticky yawnfest.
The "Packaging"
Photography, editing etc. contributed highly to that "tv commercial" feeling. The always tremendously fake lighting most of all!
In all fairness, though, even without the packaging, it would have given the same fake vibes, due to the script's faults. Again, if you've watched "Pleasantville", this is really like that "meta-soap": everything feels fake, whatever problems the characters face, they're not realistic at all. A coupla examples? (spoilers ahead, consider yourselves warned and jump to the conclusion if you want to avoid those)
In this drama the characters have to face the Gaokao, but it's all done in a few minutes with a few scenes edited together, and boom! they all got good grades apparently, like that, magically.
The FL thinks she might be suffering from leukemia, like her late father? Don't worry, it's just anemia.
The ML bombs the race upon which lies his future? Don't worry, someone retires last minute and he'll get another chance.
The SML misses his programming contest, gets found out, and is set to change schools? Don't worry, everything sorts out, his father does a U-turn and becomes suddenly reasonable, and a "flash-mob" by his school-mates will convince his icy mom too.
The love triangle isn't enough to run for 24 episodes? Don't worry, the lousy scriptwriter will add a third male lead who's a long-lost childhood friend of the FL and a teen idol on top of that.
Seriously, 24 episodes of this. It took me *ages* to finish it. I should've dropped it and forget all about it (matter of fact, that's precisely what I've done with many dramas; my "Dropped" list containing but a tiny minority of the dramas I actually dropped - normally, those that I felt were so bad that they deserved a mention for future reference) but I kept hoping it would get better at some point. It didn't.
Conclusion
I noticed that my opinion differs from that of basically everyone else here, so take it for what it is: my humble opinion an nothing more. Perhaps I'm too old for this kind of things (if the world doesn't end in the the next coupla years, I might even turn 50, LOL). Or maybe it's just that I really dislike dramas giving these überfake, plasticky vibes (hence my lack of interest for K-dramas, for example: I tried watching a few, they all gave me that feeling, I dropped them all and didn't even include them in my list - sorry K-fans, that's my personal experience and opinion - although I might not be absolutely alone there, as I've read several comments of people who've abandoned K-dramas and moved on to C- and J-dramas, apparently for precisely that reason - but anyway, as I said, only my humble .02, which might not mean much - if anything at all! - to most of the rest, so take no offense, peace! ^___-)
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