Limadunia
This review may contain spoilers
This series is a lot of things, and in the end I can say it's right on top with my other favourites. Story: At the beginning the story seemed to be surreal, for the first 3 episodes I didn't know where I stood with it, it had a slow story introduction with bits of odd elements with how characters acts. After that the story suddenly started to make more sense, the detective elements and the true storyline got introduced slowly, but somehow in the long run it served good to the series, it added to the mystery element. It really got me hooked up and by the 5th episode I couldn't stop watching the series. I loved how the different customs and everyday life of Tientsin city unfolds in front of me, from the way a temple works and how it treats their dead to more comical shamanistic rituals, the police who might or might not be powerhungry and neglecting, but still somewhat caring about their profession even if in a cowardly way, the mysterious "udnerworld system" whith illegal activities from opium smoking to grave digging.
There are two negatives in the story that I feel weird about. First time they introduce the zombies, the way they suddenly started reanimating and hunting down our main characters in the hospital, it definitely reminded me to a B rated horror movie. Not sure if it was intentional to add a bit of parodic value or not. The second and main reason most of my downvotes are coming from is the ending. Dear director, this is not how you end a series!!! Seriously, no closure at all, we find out the motive behing the Evil gang boss and what caused the illness, but that is all. Suddenly the old master of little river god reappers without explanation of where he was all along and what the heck happened, a heroic battle that ended with some relevations and a scene cut right when our main here ...
and yes that is how I felt about the end, just cut out, like when in the middle of the episode you got advertisements pop up and and you wait patiently for the 2 minutes to be over to continue to watch your series, expect it never happens. And now we will have season 2 sometimes with a complitely different main actor ... that is a story for another time but certainly made me pissed off.
Where this series really shines is the cinematography which is amazing, the quality is really unique and outstanding regarding other Chinese dramas, the costumes are made very well and perfectly reflect the time period, the mysterious elements and uniqeness of each character. The way they used different camera recording methods is amazing, each time it reflected well the scene and the story. The colours too, mostly it is kind of dark, but certain clothes and scenes are so bright and colourful, it's amazing how they played with these elements. It's very obcious this is not your usual cheap budget Chinese drama.
Music: I gave this a high rating even though most people don't think much about it. Well I guess most westerner people are used to big hits action drama Two steps from hell kinda epic battle songs or such, here you get little background music, some during fight scenes, and to be honest this is the case where less is more. It reflects perfectly the state of the story and the way it doesn't take the spot from the scene unfolding is actually very refreshing. So yeah there is not much typical soundtracks here, but the ones we have actually suits imo this type of show. Pity people don't even realize it.
Acting and characters: it's very good, in fact I'm amazed by most of the acting, from the old lady to the main characters they executed it really well. The 4 main characters have a very unique bond and a chemistry, it's lovely to see them together, and it seems very natural, the friendship, little bit of rivalry and doubt in the beginning, the ever loyal and brave, kind hearted girl who in her simply ways is just amazing, the super inteligent female journalist, what a refreshing thing to see strong and not stupid females! The mysterious and scientific approaches of the detective element is also very intersting. Each are well conveyed through perfectly by the actors.
All in all this is a great series, but the way they ended it is kind of unforgivable., even if you want cliffhangers this is not the way to do it.
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The good:
It makes you addicted! After watching the first episode I got immediately hooked and literally couldn't stop watching, I stayed up all night just to finish it. The story is exciting, there are separate cases in the beginning while in the end we have one big case with an ultimate villain.
The acting of the main actors are also very good Wallace Huo never fails to deliver a complex personality and multi-layered character. Jabber Xie Han crazy character is also very interesting to watch, and Fu Zi Yu is the perfect side kick best friend character, super smart and funny. Andy the car is one of the best characters as well!
The music is superb, really helps to create the atmosphere of the show.
I loved the references to the Sherlock and Knight Rider and I even got a hint of Poirot in the show.
The bad:
The American actors were awful, except for dr Barnes. I don't exactly get why a native English speaker talks like a robot, I found their slow placed way of speaking to the Chinese characters offensive, it sounded like they were force-explain things to 5 years old and expect they won't understand a thing. It sounded very UNNATURAL! Susan was semi-bearable but the actress seemed to not be able to decide whether she wants to play a flirty hot blonde or a professional FBI agent. Also can't really get the scenes where they talk in English and the Chinese actors reply in Chinese? Like wtf, how does that make sense?
I loved Jian Yao character first, she is smart and brave, and a challenging character for Wallace Huo. However after mid-season, Sandra Ma started speaking in a very hollow voice, (as in the voice someone uses when they are on their death bed, high and overly soft), this annoyed me sooo much, she also had soo much crying scenes, her character was literally useless in the second half of the series. The only shining point was that she did act again smart and brave when she was abducted but that is all.
There are some useless overdramatizing in the show, what I mean is without giving spoilers is the continuous question of who is behind the crimes. The very last scene just simply pissed me off, it was unnecessary, the typical "we are shooting a horror so let's put a cliffhanger scene in the end so people can get confused what really happened. WHY??? There is no need for useless hints and such.
All in all I very much enjoyed the show, especially the first half. I preferred the individual cases ad the series had a bit of downfall after they started focusing on the main villain arch. The acting was mixed, the main chinese actors were good, the secondary characters especially the English speakers were horrible. Still the story was exciting enough to keep me watching, so all in all this is a very well delivered show with some annoying details.
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This review may contain spoilers
My first thought about this show was that wow, this is long, after mostly watching Korean dramas with 16 episodes I was a bit afraid I will get bored of this. However nothing was further from the truth, this show is very much worth watching, it never gets boring and there is always something new it shows us.Story: Basically it is about Tan Yun's journey from early adulthood till her mid-ages when he gets married to the then-current emperor and we can see her struggles to become a female doctress in a time period when only men were allowed to practise medicine. She nevertheless never gave up, we see a lot of fails and successses of hers, she always collects herself and stands up stronger than ever. She become proficient in medicine, her life long passion and gets recognition and respect from fellow male doctors. Her character is based on a real Ming dynasty female physician Tan Yunxian and the Empress Hang who lived a generation before Tan. Now the story also kind of mixes the story of these two time periods, so we see Oirat invasion, the capture of the emperor etc etc, but all in all it does contain quite a lot of historic accuracy, not to mention the show creators also did research on ancient medicinal methods, so this part was very well done. The show can be divided into 3 main parts story-wise, first Tan Yun's time with her family and learning medicine, second the Oirat invasion and her and the emperor being captured by the khan. Here we see a lot of scenes of daily lives of the steppe people who has their own costumes, and during this time she really grows up and becomes a survivor. Third part is the return to the capital and her becoming noble consort than empress, this is mostly about the new emperor who was in the beginning a naiv gentle man but we see how power and some influential political people ruined him and made him greedy.
This is what the best part of the show is, character growth and development is huge, not just for the main actress but for everyone! We never get bored of them because we see how their struggles and circumstances made them change (sometimes for the worse), develop etc. The love story is not really the most crucial part, yes she did marry the younger brother, however it is obvious her real soul mate was the original emperor, with whom she only gets a chance after both his wife and her husband dies several years later. There is a minor love-line with the Oirat khan Esen, I really shipped them, would have loved to see them together, but oh well.
Music, visuals: For the other part of the show, the music is not really special, it's nice but not something I would remember to mention, however it is obvious the show is low budget. I have never seen such bad costumes in a show before, you can clearly see the gluey attachment of the wigs!!! The fight scenes, especially the one with the wolves, oh dear lord, like watching WOW in its earlier stages, just worse. So visually it's really bad, especially for a show that aired in 2016 and not like in the 1980's. One warning though, don't watch while eating, some of the medical scenes are downright disgusting, so if you are sensitive, watch it after eating. A lot of people complained about the last 10 episodes, as it is indeed more slow-paced, but still it has value as it shows how humans change due to power. The last episode was a bit dissatisfying, and a bit weird, I didn't really got why she had a miscarriage, she was slightly pushed by her motherinlaw, but I never got why in chinese dramas they are so overprotecting pregnant women, just because a bit of a push you don't die and don't loose a baby, and you can certainly do more than just lie in the bed! It was weird for me and didn't make sense, and the same goes for why she really married Zhu Qi Yu, when at the time it was clear he was not the sweet loving man anymore. Anyway apart from this it is a great show and I think it really teaches us about life and how to overcome difficulties and never stop pursuing our dreams.
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But immediately after that we only have one main enemy, a girl who looks like 13 has a voice of a 4 year old, and the most annoying character I've ever seen in television. Everything from her looks to her voice to her intensely annoying laugh irked me, I could barely watch her scenes. They built up a good background story for her, something that made me like her a bit and feel for her, but no, after few episodes it turned out it's a lie and she ended up being a simple monster who is way to overpowered without reason (like wtf are those stupid paper dolls?). Boring as hell.
From mid show I could only watch it by skipping huge chunks of scenes, it was that hellish, boring. I am so angry I wasted my time for such a piece of shit! Not to mention Wu Xin, like wtf was that when he turned into a worm and a hairy child? I love Asian humour in TV shows, but this had nothing, you can clearly see that they try, all their humourous scenes are sooo forced and not funny at all.
I don't get why this is rated so high, the only thing I can give credit to this show is because the cinematography is great, the fight scene, CGI and animations looks pretty decent, but overall this is an unwatchable ,not funny, horrible boring nonsense of a creation that made me not care about any of their characters or the story.
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