Jogo Mortal (2024)

Exceeds expectations

CAST
Both MLs are, in my opinion, insanely good looking, so I might not be objective, when I also praise their acting. They had a difficult task to show to us, viewers, that they are lovers, and at the same time to show the communist censors that they are just friends. They don't get to have much physical contact, so they are limited to the way they look at each other or the tone of voice, but with those limited means, they did a great job. Another great actor was the one cast as twins - he managed to create two characters of not only separate, but actually opposite personalities, one - lovable, the other - not so much. This must have been difficult too, and again, executed just perfectly.
MUSIC mostly matched the mood, but, as is often a problem in Asian dramas, sometimes was too invasive.
STORY
Here start spoilers!
***
At first, I thought that there would not be much of a plot outside of the game itself, but I didn't really mind. Each of the "doors", or levels of the game, had its own story, interestingly told, visually pleasing and emotionally moving. The actual premise seemed absurd: there is a game that kills people, some gamers can magically play it as a team and earn money, and when the MLs complete this game, it will be purged of evil, brought about, obviously, by the US (censors bless us!). Therefore, I just resigned to the idea that this show would be guilty pleasure - stupid but fun. The ending changed my perception completely!
This drama tells a story of a person, who was so lonely that he hallucinated a whole universum where he has love and friendship. People, who he saw around him and knew their names but never dared to talk to, in his hallucinations became teammates for life or foes to death. As for love - apparently, he never even fantasised about loving someone real, so he completely invented his lover without basing him on an existing person. His real-life friend, with whom he reportedly planned to create a game, turned out to be just one of his school colleagues, who he wasn't close to at all - he didn't even know what studies that guy had taken up and couldn't recall his face - the character in the hallucinations always wore a hood.
When he woke up after this imaginary experience of closeness and affection, he didn't even try to change and to be more outgoing, so that he could find closeness in real world. No, instead he dedicated his life to recreating his hallucinations in the form of a VR game. Gives you food for thought, gives you a picture of how secluded modern people are. Breaks your heart.
***
Here end spoilers.
To sum up, this show goes way beyond a gaming drama or a censored BL. It tackles real problems faced by all too many people in the modern world. I strongly recommend it.

Leia Mais

I'll take Episode 77 as my ending. PS: WOW I LOVED IT [9.9/10]

I'll take Episode 77 as my ending (or ignore the last 8 min of episode 38 in the new format)
It was really thoroughly enjoyable, I loved it. Everything from the acting to the complex plot of the game levels to the music. Def rewatchable for me, I'm already rewatching it with someone.
As for the GOOD, it was actually GREAT, and there wasn't anything BAD in this.

I've rounded it up to a 10 rating because I've come to terms with the ending.
But my non-MDL rating remains 9.8 because, while I love ambiguous endings, I think endings to stories where you end up having to wonder if EVERYTHING you saw in the series was meant to be real or just the MC's dream/imagination, is just lazy writing. These kinds of endings would honestly generally raze any and all feelings I had for the show under normal circumstances.

That said, even after finding out that Lanzhu was an NPC, I found myself still entirely invested in discovering the outcome, I wasn't actually irritated at all, and quite outstandingly, I enjoyed the subsequent episodes as much as all the previous ones. I was surprised by this, because generally out of sheer irritation, I'd drop a show that springs the nonsense on me of a very VERY important MC not even being real three quarter way through a series (this long too). But I didn't want to drop this because I was really interested and invested in the plot and characters and after finishing it, I can honestly say don't regret anything I felt or thought while watching this, and it's very, very rare that I shed tears watching a show, but I did for this, so I'll give it a 10 to round up, but if MDL allowed, it'd be a 9.9.
Overall, I'm walking away satisfied.

Also, I choose to consider the mini episode of 78 optional because I think it was unnecessary, especially since 77 was far more solid as an ending for this series. 77 ended on a much, much more engaging, strong and ambiguously positive note.
So for me, Ep 77 was the close of this series.

HIGHLIGHTS:
- Too many to mention all of them, but I enjoyed the Sanatorium Door and the Box Master Door SO MUCH and I love the ost song The Door by Xia ZhiGuang.

As for the BL aspect. The censorship is hella obvious, we're all too familiar with it now in Chinese BL's, it's always so clear, what with how the ML's don't even so much as hug each other even when they're emotionally staggering specifically because of something going on between them, but they're touchy feely with everyone else ? This is as common and unrealistic as ever. BUT the emotionally charged conversations between Lanzhu and JiuShi are SOMETHING ELSE. Really. As well as some of the scenes in which the way LanZhu looks at JiuShi is very intense. There is a quality to those moments that carries beyond the censorship. This show definitely goes beyond bromance, their feelings for each other, especially Lanshu's from very early on, is pretty obvious and only become more obvious as the show goes on.

I always briefly think it'd be great to see these shows redone without censorship, perhaps not by China, I thought the same thing about The Untamed a long time ago. But then I realize I don't ever want to see characters like Lan WangJi, Ruan NanZhu, Wei WuXian and Lin QuiShi played by any other person other than the actors in the Chinese version, and I quickly forget about that idea. When casting is perfect, it's perfect, it is what it is.

Edit: After finishing the novel and I gotta say, the ending of the book is 11/10.
That said, where I usually think the original is best, honestly, I'd say I prefer the series in more ways than the book.
Comparing the two;

Book preferences-
The Ending
Some of the door events and conclusions
The relationship (BL) duh

Series preferences-
Basically everything else
I even prefer the characterization changes and choices in the series when compared to the book, which almost never happens for me. What they did with the series actually added gravity and a lot of emotion to the plot that I didn't feel reading the novel.

Also, imo, I don't think this is bromance at all. I've always taken that label on Chinese BL's with a grain of salt, we know the original is not bromance and they basically HAVE to call it that, it's almost like a bad joke.

So, yeah, whether you like BL or not, I would recc it!

Leia Mais

Find Your Happiness to The End of The World

Kaleidoscope of Death

I know this book but haven't read it because of the horror elements, but super curious to watch it because of the 'accidentaly uploaded the whole 78 episodes' that I read about.

It was really a great series.
Funny, scary, sad, happy moments all through the series and also the bittersweet ending.

Damn... China really has their own way to create such a wonderful series.

Had it not been banned, I believe they would have created such wonderful BL series that would give such a crazy emotional turbulence to us.

The chemistry is great, LJS and RNZ were not the typical lovey-dovey pair but they had a deep emotional bond that reflected through their words and actions.

The deep gazes, the smiles, silly words and remarks.

Even without the sugar-coating romantic sentences or sexual physical contacts, we can see that they love and care about each other.

Everything is wonderful, I'm really grateful for those who managed to download the whole 78 episodes and willing to share it to the world.

The message that I got after watching it is that, never give up on reaching/creating our own happiness and be with our loved ones.

Definitely worth to watch and re-watch as many times as you like.

Leia Mais

Amazing drama...

One of the best dramas I have seen. I loved it really much. The plot, the acting, action scenes, the effects everything is perfect. It deserves to be the best drama. I want it to become a big success. If you really love games, thriller, mystery, bromance, friendship you guys will really love it too...

Don't think about the ending it's bittersweet but really worth watching. Don't avoid the drama because of people saying it would have sad ending, but don't fall for it. The way they portrayed friendship, love, trust, it really made me cry in the last few episodes. I would definitely rewatch it and would recommend my friends to watch it.

The chemistry between the male leads was awesome to the core ?. I would really love to see them working together in many projects. Every character has played their role perfectly.

Leia Mais

WHY DID IT END !!

Masterpiece, i swear...i rarely write a review, the only other show i bothered to write a review on was the untamed. And that speaks a lot.

The story was amazing, maybe the overview doesnt sound that great but this drama is a gem. Its the type of drama that you'd want to rewatch all over again write after u finish the last ep bc it left u with that empty feeling, i finished 2 mins ago, i already miss the characters. I wish i could watch it for the first time again.

Theres horror, fantasy, everything u need in a drama...AND THE ROMANCE, whoever said this was bromance was stupid.

I was hooked since the first ep, there is 78 eps, each ep is around 20 mins. But i would watch even if its 40 mins per ep. I had to download each ep individually and and depend on my okayish mandarin bc the subs were wanky. THATS how much i love this drama.

And just like the untamed, the ending wasnt exactly sad...but it broke me in so many ways. The last 20 eps got me SOBBING...i had just pulled myself together and i was back to sobbing by the next ep, BUT THST DOESNT MEAN U SHOULDNT WATCH IT, ITS WORTH EVERY MINUTE

Leia Mais

this drama is so good!!

Oh my gosh, I've loved mystery genre dramas for a long time. and I found it!! yeaaay!! This is very nice! the story is good and unique, tense, full of puzzles, and made my heart flutter! Actually, I don't really like the action genre mixed with romantic stories, so this drama is perfect for me!! there is no romantic story in it. Even though there is a bromance relationship between the two main characters, they look cute together!! the actors and actresses are also very pleasing to the eye. Their visuals are like coming out of a novel, so handsome and beautiful! their acting is so good, oh my gosh, I'm surprised by the abilities of these actors. they are so great!! I really love this drama

Leia Mais

there are ghosts and mysteries in this drama

I have read the novel version entitled "kaleidoscope of death" and I am also a fan of this novel. This drama was adapted from the novel and I was surprised because the storyline and depiction of each character was exactly the same as what was written in the novel. What's different is that in the novel, this door always appears when someone is about to die. and in the drama, this door is a game world that must be completed. Apart from that, the story is very similar to the novel and I wasn't disappointed, I was very satisfied with the drama! The depiction of Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi (in the drama Ruan Lanzhu and Lin Jiushi) is also very accurate. the actors played them so great. I like it very much

Leia Mais

The world of doors and it’s unveiling mysteries to its players

Game of death. This has one of the best virtual-reality concepts out there, especially in how they featured several doors with their uniqueness and stories behind them. At first, I was intrigued by the BL theme from the original story, so I started to watch and read the novel simultaneously. However, due to the lack of available legal streaming platforms to binge-watch the show, I put a hold on it first because I believed that the drama's quality deserves to be supported legally. And finally, after months of waiting, I completed them today.

Chinese entertainment has always been a top tier for fantasy stories. Even though government censorship is taking huge restrictions and limitations, the chemistry is so overwhelming that it doesn’t seem to occur in a bromance drama. Lingling is so cute and handsome that I can’t stop staring at him. Ruan Zhu’s manliness is devouring my entirety. I somehow felt too sad at the ending, that they only reunited after 50 years with Lingling holding their memories alone from the real world.

As it was a game to determine the strongest among them, death is inevitable and occurs in each door. Li Dong Yuan, Tan Zao Zao, and Qian Li’s dying was too painful. It took me a while to recover from their deaths one after another. If there is one character I found annoying, it is not the antagonist but the MC’s best friend, Wu Qi. This boy was just a burden to the team and added no spice to the story.

There are loopholes but I tend to disregard them since I mostly enjoyed the overall aspects of the drama. Turning Ruan Lan Zhu into an AI character as a plot is not satisfying. I rather see him dying in the embrace of Lingling instead of bidding farewell to a virtual role. Nevertheless, the whole concept of the story is virtual reality so they give us a love story between an AI and a human.

Leia Mais