Vico SDL
Before watching this, I hadwatched the 2019 version and I just LOVED IT ! I thought it was a mix of realism and simplicity and of melancholic, mysterious beauty ! Luo Zhi was an amazing female lead, realistic but intriguing ! And I loved all of the other characters and their building and also their acting (especially the male lead !)
Then I watched the movie, which was actually very good but in a similar yet different style.
And finally, I watched 2021 version, without expecting much because I felt that after liking the first so much, I wouldn’t be able to like it the same way than the other (moreover, I really dislike the two main actors, especially the male lead : I don’t see what’s so good about him)
And I felt even more disappointed when I watched it. How should I say… it’s good but not that much because it’s like they deliberately exaggerate everything. Luo Zhi’s silent love for Huainan becomes some sort of weird obsession here, like a teenager’s crush on a celebrity (on the first episodes, it was pretty ackward to see how all of those scenarios she would imagine between her and the male lead). Her quiet, insightful, mature personality becomes somewhat a mix passive and weird here and I feel like the actress is partly to blame.
Sheng Huainan kind and smart yet flawed becomes boring with self-righteous narcissistic complex whose greatest trouble in life is to be so perfect that he can’t get himself to the level of the common people that he pities and wants to help so much and it’s just so annoying how his self-righteous personality ends up hurting others just because he can’t get himself in their shoes. And we’re supposed to feel sorry because « oh poor he, he’s so perfect that they all idolize him instead of seeing him as a human being ». Moreover, he’s incredibly stupid and influençable compared to the original who would actually quickly realize his mistakes. Once again, I feel like the actor is to blame : I say this whole feeling very sorry for all his fans but I don’t see any charisma or talent in Hu Yi Tian and he’s definitely one of the reasons why his character becomes so annoying here, being clearly inferior here to Zhao Shun Ran in 2019 who is less famous than him.
Also, all of the other characters are exaggerated and lose the realism they had in the 2019 version, becoming stereotypes, especially the girls who become some crazy psychopaths (nice representation of my gender here, I don’t feel insulted at all ?). I feel like the only female character here who was attaching here was Jiang Bai Li who was such a crybaby in 2019 but is someone much stronger and joyful here.
And the multiple subplots they add just makes the plot heavier. Also, there’s way too many episodes for what could easily be reduced and then go to the essential instead of going around in circles.
So to make it short : too long, too many useless subplots, most of the characters are annoying, stereotypical and nonsensical, a writing that tend to overdo it and the lead actors just make me want to slap their bad acting in their faces.
So I don’t get why they made this second version after the 2019 which was just PERFECT and perfectly conveyed the feelings of the novel, while this one totally fails. If you separate it from the novel and the 2019 version, it’s just another romantic idol drama like any other, with nothing extraordinary. It’s cute but no more and if you compare it to the 2019 version, or even to the movie version, it s clearly lacking and seems to have missed the point of the story.
Then I watched the movie, which was actually very good but in a similar yet different style.
And finally, I watched 2021 version, without expecting much because I felt that after liking the first so much, I wouldn’t be able to like it the same way than the other (moreover, I really dislike the two main actors, especially the male lead : I don’t see what’s so good about him)
And I felt even more disappointed when I watched it. How should I say… it’s good but not that much because it’s like they deliberately exaggerate everything. Luo Zhi’s silent love for Huainan becomes some sort of weird obsession here, like a teenager’s crush on a celebrity (on the first episodes, it was pretty ackward to see how all of those scenarios she would imagine between her and the male lead). Her quiet, insightful, mature personality becomes somewhat a mix passive and weird here and I feel like the actress is partly to blame.
Sheng Huainan kind and smart yet flawed becomes boring with self-righteous narcissistic complex whose greatest trouble in life is to be so perfect that he can’t get himself to the level of the common people that he pities and wants to help so much and it’s just so annoying how his self-righteous personality ends up hurting others just because he can’t get himself in their shoes. And we’re supposed to feel sorry because « oh poor he, he’s so perfect that they all idolize him instead of seeing him as a human being ». Moreover, he’s incredibly stupid and influençable compared to the original who would actually quickly realize his mistakes. Once again, I feel like the actor is to blame : I say this whole feeling very sorry for all his fans but I don’t see any charisma or talent in Hu Yi Tian and he’s definitely one of the reasons why his character becomes so annoying here, being clearly inferior here to Zhao Shun Ran in 2019 who is less famous than him.
Also, all of the other characters are exaggerated and lose the realism they had in the 2019 version, becoming stereotypes, especially the girls who become some crazy psychopaths (nice representation of my gender here, I don’t feel insulted at all ?). I feel like the only female character here who was attaching here was Jiang Bai Li who was such a crybaby in 2019 but is someone much stronger and joyful here.
And the multiple subplots they add just makes the plot heavier. Also, there’s way too many episodes for what could easily be reduced and then go to the essential instead of going around in circles.
So to make it short : too long, too many useless subplots, most of the characters are annoying, stereotypical and nonsensical, a writing that tend to overdo it and the lead actors just make me want to slap their bad acting in their faces.
So I don’t get why they made this second version after the 2019 which was just PERFECT and perfectly conveyed the feelings of the novel, while this one totally fails. If you separate it from the novel and the 2019 version, it’s just another romantic idol drama like any other, with nothing extraordinary. It’s cute but no more and if you compare it to the 2019 version, or even to the movie version, it s clearly lacking and seems to have missed the point of the story.
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