Sismance

Two dramas brought me to this drama, first Chinese Paladin 5,cause the same actor Joe Cheng (I like his acting style of cold and distant male lead), second it is on the recommendations list of The Untamed . Tip 1: A Bromance drama that has much more Sismance content. The relationships here are very chaotic and all over the place. We have sworn bothers, sisterhood, sismance, bromance, father-daughter relationship, villains who kill together stays together and goes on, but the main focus here are none of them but Lord and Disciple relationship and how such system started and the plot behind it (Tip 2:Minority Report Tom Cruise's movie). The Lord and his disciples need to help the Silver Priests in fighting the monsters created by the Gold fog and both have their own monster helper.

Yin Chen Lord VII, (is) sent by the Silver Priests to Blessings Town to adopt Kynil as his first disciple (I will keep the names used on iQIYI), Kynil is a young and Lively tavern worker, he enjoys his life living freely(Scamming people tho, cause he loves money) and dreaming of become a magician. As soon as his town starts welcoming more and more real magicians, Kynil dream of making money go fast south, that's when he meet Shen Yin(a corrupter magician disciple) and Yin Chen find him. The first episodes are mainly to create a bond between Yin Chen and Kynil and almost all comic relief are in the fist episodes. As I already said the drama has much more sismance than bromance, so enjoy the (Very)silly bromance first episodes.

Neon and Shen Yin, Specter and Reya, The Silver Priests, Rosemary and Lotus, Gemy and his three disciples, Lotus brother, Qi La and his disciple and many other will sometimes got more screen time than Yin Chen and Kynil, specially Rosemary and Lotus. The drama definitely is not a BL and the "couples" here has some slight melodrama feel to them, the plot never gets much angst. The figth scenes were cool but felt like slow motion in some moments(not on purpose). The villains are a disgusting messy (Chinese Paladin "episode couple" comes to mind) the mastermind and his plot was not original (very shallow must add). The revenge tag shows no result too. The end lets a hope of a second season.

About the other topics: the OST is a bit random and lacking, the CGI is not great only doable, the openings, from time to time they change the opening, was artsy and pretty. The acting was nothing much. Overall is a good drama, they stick to a genre would make the drama way better tho.

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Rebelling is a family Business

[Review written originally in December 2020]
That was an interesting Spy drama, the whole family "Business" and each of the family member being unfolded to us piece by piece or scene by scene, was the main tag here. The older brother is already pretty far in the game, so they introduce to us Ming Tai the youngest brother as a start point. We see him as a newbie till he became a skillful man in the hands of the Revolution, rebels against Japan. Ming Tai is loved by too many characters in the history and spoiled by some, so that bothered some watchers, but not me, make mistakes as a newbie is normal, him being recklessly is part of whom He is, and makes the story more realistic, BUT yeah, He acts like a 5 years old brat form time to time, let's deal...(He is about 25 years old tho)

Ming Lou was in another level of Calm Male Lead. The older sister could have had more scenes. Ah Cheng is always there, but we see few action scenes with him in the beginning, it gets a little better by the end. The interaction inside the family and how the power goes between hands are cute, funny and strong many times. Ming Tai girlfriend received too much hate online toward her looks, that was unfair, she is okay, for a communist (I'm joking)!

There is no Bromance in here, is really a family regular brothers interaction and the little romance that has here are just some kind of convenient plot inserted. Must add: Too many gunfire scenes , the death and murder tag is all over the place. There is just too many things to comment here....Ming Tai mission friends and the communist part for example!

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A Jackie Chan mainland drama

I have watched The Myth, Jackie Chan movie years ago, I can't remember the movie, so I won't compare them, but I think is a good advice tell you, the drama has many Jackie Chan old movies characteristics, if you don't like his 90's movies you will hardly like this drama, especially the present parts of the drama.

Starting from the present 2010: A family with divorced parents, two opposite brothers, the younger and carefree(but he graduated from Art or something like that) and the older who follows the father archaeologist path. The Mother cares a family secret. The carefree and womanizer younger brother, Yi Xiao Chuan has a girlfriend, Gao Lan.

Now the historical Qin Dynasty: when Yi Xiao Chuan enter this new reality he find new friends and allies really fast and is inserted in the plot of Qin Dynasty last years. Trough his journey he meets historical figures and gets involved in more than one court affair, but most part of the time he is only a watcher, seeing the tragic historical scenes happening or a backstage figure who did what he could but could not defy fate, even though he is always the narrative focus.

The Romance here did not captivated me, the drama has little romance anyway. I can't name the couple, cause the ML meets many women. The drama has many side couples too, sometimes their story is romantic, sometimes is not attracting at all.

The Present story has less content than the historical and it was pouring in the 50 episodes in a homeopathic way, if you don't like the modern scenes with the family and the gangsters you won't suffer much, beware both realities are connected you might lose plot context.

The expected conclusion was not well done here, I felt nothing that I was supposed to feel, cause the way the couple felt like a random and small piece of the dense plot did not help. Aside from actor Hu Ge(great acting as always), the majority of the actors here are lacking in their acting.

Overall is a very dynamic drama, with action, adventure with few doses of melodrama, there is always something going on! Is up to you if this is enough to go trough all 50 episodes, for me the main reason to watch was fill a more slot in my Actor Hu Ge watched drama list, it wasn't hard and I quite enjoyed part of the plot and even watched the opening many times! The drama is not that bad as the comments made it look.

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He wants a normal life?

Mr. Long is an experienced and skilled murder, his boss tells and he goes and get the person dead, highly confident he goes, but things won't go his way, running away he get stuck in an abandoned neighborhood in Japan,while he tries to came back to his place he meets a young boy, the boys mother is a drug addicted. The others neighbors starts to meddle with his life since he does not speak Japanese, then we start to know more about the neighbors and the mother history.

The history in itself is not original, there are many like that, a guy with a dark past that gets regular people involved with them, but the way is played here is very soft and the director took his time in delivering his view, but as a regular watcher of mafia movies, I must say the first scene was slight better than the last, may be I expected more violence? or stronger choices? My favorite scenes were the first and the last one.

The nice content here just didn't caught my attention, but the ones who likes loving things, there is some good content here, like the friendship of the neighbors and the fatherly relationship Mr. Long has with the kid.

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Just Say No

The movie was supposed to be about some pink plant called Passion Weed, but the plot is couple focused, and there are many ones here. Chull is a korean who comes to the island to find something related to his girlfriend. Jenne has a mind full of fanfictions and keep daydreaming while working in the Island tourism. Other couple, Fang Li and Chu Yu, a wife who still can't face her handcap situation and tries to find confort in religion while her husband accepts her with an open heart. And the divorcee couple, who disagree about the Island administration and the usage of the pink weed. There is a guy called amigo too.

The pink passion weed seemed to change people behavior, so we have weird drama plot here. While the couples deals with their issues, we see them talking about and quoting classic movies, like The godfather, Ghost and the sort. The movie tries hard to be arty, but is not arty at all, you need more than odd scenes to make a movie being arty. None of the couples were of my liking. The place they choosed to record it, is really beautiful, the city they were walking, it's full of greenery. In resume, the few good scenes loses the taste because of the senseless talks.

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Violence in a Snowy Mountain

Still watching movies, now a Chang Chen movie with Ni Ni, they were a couple in "Love and Destiny" and a couple here too. The Indecisive male lead, Kang Hao is a fierce but shy cop who tries to recover from a sudden lost and tries not to lose what he still has. Still trying to find the golden thieves who almost killed him a year ago, a sudden gossip in the city about golden brings him to the snowed mountain who waits only some hours till a heavy storm comes, but he is not alone with the thieves, his girlfriend Sun Yan, the citys doctor is not planning gave up on him and gets catch in the next gunfire.

The movie has a good pace, but the editing between what happened a year ago and now feels off sometimes. The gunfire and action scenes were good done, the couple shown chemistry. The main lack is to the meaning go through , the relationships before and after are hard to grasp. Far as I can tell, the cop has felt "Guilty survivor" syndrome, he feels guilty for surviving a year ago, and can't go on with his life because of that.

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Ugly and sad story

First I must say, i never ever saw a Korean drama this long.

I really enjoyed every single episode, it was really watchable. Im Ju hwan is really a reliable actor he copes pretty well with long lines and all the emotions of his role. As for Kang So ra, is the first time I saw her acting, so I'm not sure if I can decide if she is a good actress since her role is very cheerful. I disliked the bromance between the brothers, it was cute but awkward. The second lead couple had had way too many senseless conversation. It is a good choice for a first time watching a 100+ episode tv show.

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The plot was okay, the first episodes are a bit odd, there is some good scenes in the last 3 episodes, the adult content wasn't that dirty, the acting was simple. The odd here is that Amemura, the bartender, has an unknown personality, when he was hit and other people came to the bar, he felt so cold and numb. Only by the last episodes he starts to show his real self.

As always jdramas are more mundane and the morals preach here are not fit. The relationships here are very superficial, none of the couples or friends are convincing. Yuka and her husband, Narumi and her mom, the cops, it felt they were all 2d personalities. The money and death issues were entangled with the morals preach here.

The car scene is played too many times, 6 episodes, it shows more than 10 times, but it works well when the whole plot explanation is released. The supernatural here is left without real explanation and was not necessary, the dying eye name title meaning, they just brush off the motives.

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Matoba's family's life's

Since the main leads are all related somehow by theirs names, I will refer to them by their first name. Yosuke is the main main lead, He's an office worker with a predictable life, but once he gets home his wife Hikaru(28yo) asks for divorce, they were lovely together 5 seconds before that, He can't comprehend. They have a son(Shota), she leaves them both. To add to this his job is at risky. In the meantime he finds his ex-wife: Chikako, she's in her 30's and is a successful business woman, she can't handle see him in this bad situation and offer a helping hand. Later we meet the guys Nazu and Kikuta.

Yosuke do have a character development, to the point that his first priority do changes, He's a jerk and think women are there or to work for him or to sleep with him, he has no much respect for women, He's also very stubborn making his problems escalate faster. The ladies: Chikako has a secret relationship we see her deal with the consequences of it. Hikaru has a dream, she no longer can handle the strings of being married. They add another lady later, Serina. Yosuke is popular!

The drama is a soft family melodrama, every time we think it will go down to pure angst they do some slight comedy, so it's not heavy, but still sad. Bittersweet. The never ending complications and feelings they have for each other can make the plot a bit tiring, and more characters are added near the end making it worse for those that can't handle realistic love life and people being humane with flaws, and not robots with perfect behavior as we see in K-Dramas. The best scenes was when the family(or alikes) were together or when they finally can be happy about their endings in each of their quest, talking about ending, the writer was wild, extremely not popular decisions, and I'm in for it. We need more realistic endings like that, even I who's not into many popular tags got annoyed somehow,*
Spoiler out of context:
*but just cause a child should not be a reason to marry
The acting was good enough for most actors, except Kikuta's actor, he is really bad. The OST is cringe, old and tacky American love songs. Since it's an old drama photography and camera work will be the reflection of their year production, good enough too.

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Love is dirty

The only thing that I really liked here is Baby Tangyu and Nu couple the rest I can barely watch. Hu Ge is good here too tho. The female lead is one of the worst I ever saw in dramas, clingy and dumb.

So many obscene side couples(guest roles), the side stories were always something l u s t related.

Everybody is always spelling nonsense theories about life. The villain is ridiculous as the actor acting. The first episodes were almost good, but the plot was scarce with too many monster hunting episodes.

The last episodes finally was plot related and brings the classic wuxia characteristics, so I will rate this 8/10.

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Call on me

Yi Shu works in the office of a Funeral Home Company, She is a bit dense, unlucky and nice, her name has a meaning related to being unlucky. In a wave of celebrities phone numbers turning public, her phone number is by mistake listed as of the singer Tian You, and a wave of calls and phone messages comes to her (Remember: it's 2006 phone technology). Meanwhile young, but sick/ill Xiao Wen calls the number in hope Tian You sings his own made song, but Yi Shu is the one to answer the call.

The plot about the singer is very cliché, She is a Pop singer, but she says I want to make art, yeah, feels cheap for me, pretty sure there is some Pop singers who cares about art, but in the movie its feels fake. She got depression cause her company wants her to do her job, we can't rush "Art" She says. Her company has sickly employees tho.

The only good thing in the drama is the call interactions between YiShu and Xiao Wen, since both are having a hard time in their life, tho his situation is worse. I remember seeing the MV of the movie on Youtube last year (I'm a newbie actor Hu Ge fan)I don't like the song, but they did a good job in the last song scene. Overall is a nice and short movie to watch on a Sunday noon. Youth, soft and dramatic.

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Another Thriller

The child Ah Ying is kidnapped, years later she is found by the police in a very bad environment, the kidnappers are killed by the cops. During the investigation more things related to the family comes to light. And a mysterious friend keeps visiting Ah Ying, while she seems to have changed during this whole 12 years.

The family issues are the main plot here. The old brothers bickering. The sisters bickering, Ning Jing and Ah Ying always having bad blood between them. The plot is not that bad, but the way is directed and the unnecessary CGI made it cringe in some moments. This type of thriller movie is out there ever since movies exist, this is only one more.

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So you think you can sing

J is a singer in the top of her career, suddenly she gets worn out when bad things starts to happen around her, that's when she meets the Massotherapist Ming, meanwhile her manager finds a new talent, and calls this new singer Red. Red even though is a very young lady, lives already with a guy, which troubles her ways as a public person.

Since I don't like TV shows like idol, I am biased with my opinion. There are many parts of the movie when things are showed for us with some background music related to the singers for example and things about back stage of idol life etc, things I don't like.

Overall is a good movie if you like seeing personal issues of singers who are really famous and how they deal with the pression of it. The scenes of the main lead couple are spread around the minutes of the movie, must say, the best ones only shows in some short flashback mix of images.

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Slow burn Romantic Comedy with meddling parents

I was holding myself from picking a new wuxia/xianxia drama to watch and this drama was useful, the male lead totally matches the tag: indecisive male lead. The drama is like those romantic comedy from ends of 90s beginning of 00s, and chick lit books, so i had some laughs till now, there is some weird background song that always get me another laugh cause its a bad choice for the scenes, dunno, over dramatic song. It is somehow interesting see the actor Hu Ge dressing casually, even though the clothes here are awfully outdated(Someone please burn those belts). The acting is okey, the history is simple and there is a bunch of misunderstanding situations as we see in american romantic comedy as well, some funny some not.

Many not popular opinions are showed here, against Korea, woman and men relationship etc. The other couples are cool in the beginning, but you get tired of them fast.

The marriage obsession in this drama is a bit disgusting, I really hate people who press other people into marriage or set you up with creepy guys or awful blind date. There was already a bunch of meddling parents, by the end they add even more and more girlfriends and gifts too. I never watched a drama so capitalist, everybody is always giving gifts or buying expensive things. But in the end, was cute see the couple be happy, although the sad moments.

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