anopinion
Pittsburgh, PA
This review may contain spoilers
Inconsistent drama, amazing Jang Nara
I loved all the episodes up till episode 10, and I loved episode 12, but everything fell off a cliff after that.Sell You Haunted House is basically an episodic series with an underlying arc being the exorcism of Hong Mi-jin. The show was consistently good in the beginning. It is actually a relatively well-written supernatural drama with good world-building. We know from the very beginning how exorcism works: exorcist + name + hairpin + medium + stab + memory. The biggest puzzle was also written down plainly right at the start. Why is Hong Mi-jin still dwelling in the human world? What is needed to exorcise her? We know what's happening and we have a direction for the story, and that's a good thing.
Every few episodes depicted the story of a lingering spirit. The pace was good, the execution was slick. I was especially impressed with episode 10, because I genuinely had a heart in the mouth moment. The action sequence was exciting, the improvisation was smart, and everything was just perfect. That one scene pushed the drama to a high. What was even better was Jang Nara's performance in episode 12. Simply legendary.
However, I wonder if this "high" proved to be detrimental to the series, because in comparison the remaining parts of the story lacked punch. After episode 12, the preview for the next episode was like telling the viewers "don't watch". Episode 12 was not a build-up, it was the climax. And so it was difficult for me to continue with the series, because I didn't think it was possible to Jang Nara to top her performance (not because of her, because of the flow of the story) and I didn't think it was possible for the series to give more excitement. I was right. I had to force myself to finish the show.
I do appreciate how the clues were given and how the solution to our puzzle was logical. However, I already guessed how the egg ghost could be exorcised, and I guessed how Hong Mi-jin could be exorcised. A better approach will be to push it further and make it smarter. The show needed a surprise, a eureka moment, but the writers failed to do that. I would prefer it if another episodic plot was added in to make the unravelling of the main story much quicker, and the quicker pace would've also allowed the writers to cover the flaws of their plot.
Overall, this is still one of the better K-dramas of 2021 though. Even if you don't like how it ended, I would say that the first half was a good watch anyway.
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To be frank, I don't think the plot is anything to shout about. If I were to poke holes in the story, I can probably write a lot as well. For one, there's the typical noble idiocy trope. Second, the drama is a little wishy-washy in the handling of the reconciliation. That said, the good thing is that the male lead isn't your typical rich asshole. He's someone who's genuinely kind and gentlemanly. In fact, he's perfect and the kind of guy you'll crush on in real life. The romance is also slow burn - the kind I like. Plus, the two leads had wonderful chemistry.
Godfrey Gao was perfectly cast since his background aligns well with the character. He's more than fluent in English and he looks the part too. On the other hand, it takes a while longer to get used to Jiao Jun Yan. She doesn't actually sound like someone who majored in English, but I don't know how fluent English major students are in China so I can't say. She also looks a little plain on first glance. However, I feel that Jiao Jun Yan carried the entire show with her acting. If you manage to get through the first few episodes, you'll definitely grow to love her.
Kudos to Godfrey for giving his best acting performance ever, but I would argue that it wasn't "difficult" for him because he is Li Chuan. It was great casting and they found a compatible actor for the role. Jiao Jun Yan was bloody impressive though as Xiao Qiu. I would say that she is probably the best female actor of her generation (85+ers) in China. At least, I can't think of anyone else off the top of my head. Surprisingly, this is actually quite a popular opinion on forums (hey, at least I know a good actor when I see one). She's not breathtakingly beautiful when she's expressionless, but she has a gorgeous smile and she's brilliant with her crying scenes. I was blown away in the scene where Li Chuan tore up their photo and threw the fingerprint ring away (in the trailer so not a spoiler). The way she cried, her gestures and how she gave a little stomp of feet when she demanded Li Chuan to retrieve the ring. I feel that it was a genuine reaction from a girl of her character's age. There are some raw moments here and there but I have never seen any other actress of her generation top her performance in this drama, and this was when she just graduated from acting school. The four fadans are really just serviceable at best. My hunch is that having her as an acting partner helped Godfrey quite a bit too, because he was never this good. On a side note, if anyone else is interested in seeing more of Jiao Jun Yan, I recommend Medical Examiner Dr. Qin.
The music was great as well. I love the opening theme and the two songs sung by Reno Wang. "Start Over" was a fantastic composition, while the two other songs tied in well with the plot. My only complaint will be that Reno Wang's lyrics sometimes made little sense, but I guess he's more of a songwriter anyway. I would say that this is one of the best Chinese drama OSTs.
Overall, I feel this was one of China's best attempts at melodrama. Well, in general they stink at making modern dramas. Chinese modern dramas are either too niche (political, family) and thus not palatable for international audience or too try-hard (e.g. Les Interpretes). This sort of brings you back to the 2000s where Korean melodramas were all the craze. To summarise the reasons why you need to watch the drama: 1. the romantic chemistry, 2. Jiao Jun Yan's wonderful performance, 3. Godfrey Gao (just look at him) and 4. the music.
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Most disappointing drama of the year
The Worm Valley was one of my most anticipated dramas of 2021 having watched both its predecessors. Tomb raiding plus a good production crew is a sure-win formula in general, so I was shocked that it failed so spectacularly. I actually extended my WeTV subscription specially for this but still I did not finish the series, and that tells you how bad it is.I have seen many domestic reviews of this series saying how it is a departure from the original novel and due to censorship there are scenes which cannot be filmed and the excitement level took a huge drop because of all these restrictions. I am not concerned about these things. I will admit that I have read the novel before, but I cannot remember anything from it so I am looking at things without bias.
The biggest issue about this show is pace. The show spent about 8 episodes getting into the tomb. Mind you, the length is just 16 episodes. Literally half the time was spent dilly-dallying on things which are not supposed to be the focus. What was more outrageous was that the tomb exploration itself was lame. One episode fighting an invincible worm and another episode fighting a cluster of monsters, with very basic background digging and puzzle solving. There is no excitement at all. It drained my interest in the lore, and the fights were just run and gun.
The next thing which bothered me was how deliberate the jokes were. They were so not funny that it became awkward watching all these scenes. The romance subplot was another thing that turned me away. Hu Bayi and Shirley Yang should not making long eye contact inside a crashed plane. The romance subplot should be subtle and natural. This is NOT a romance drama! There is no need and no place for inconvenient, cringeworthy tropes. These are recurring scenes in the drama and I had to fast forward through all of them.
I am not sure what happened, because the show is wrong on so many levels. It is perplexing because I had so much faith in the cast and crew. Unfortunately, the drama was a huge let down. I still have my fingers crossed for the sequel though.
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Solid production and story
The crew behind Strange Tales of the Tang Dynasty is renowned for their control of pace despite lackluster material. With SToTD, the theme itself is interesting, so it makes the drama a pretty good watch. However, there is something left to be desired when it comes to maintaining the pace of the drama, and the characterisations are also very dated.The drama is more Detective Dee than Justice Bao, which is a minus from my point of view, because the deduction and mystery solving isn't that inspiring. There's no real eureka moment, and you really don't get the feeling that the characters are all that smart. The explanations are there, but there is no real logic or connection, and thus no sense of realisation when the truth is revealed. Most of the time the focus is on the backstory of the villains rather than anything else. The pace and tempo really makes this drama, because it's comparatively fast (though not that packed), and you don't really think, you just whizz past everything and listen to what the show is trying to say. Unfortunately, towards the end when the drama is trying to tie up loose ends, the lack of a true compelling overarching theme really hurts and everything starts to unravel.
On the acting, I watched Yang Xuwen in Condor Heroes and he was exactly the same in this drama. I don't really think it throws people off since technically he's not the focal point, but I do sometimes wonder if the show could have been that bit better if they cast a more solid actor who didn't seem like a knucklehead all the time. Yang Zhigang I thought was fine. What really bothered me was how they felt that love lines were necessary. The female lead was so poorly written, obsessed with love, and only got a bit better towards the middle when they could find value in her artistic ability. They figured that they need to add a love interest for Su Wu Ming as well, which was so uncalled for. The girl could have just been the martial arts expert. This is very typical of early to mid 00s Chinese dramas though, so I guess some may like it. I didn't like the characterisations of the Crown Prince and the Princess too, but I think there are some restrictions on how they can portray historical characters so that cannot be helped. I must commend the actor who played the triplets because he was very good, so that's that.
All in all, it's a solid drama and it's a surprisingly solid production. From the costume to the colours, they are all well designed and thought out. I'm always curious why the top actors seem to get shit production whereas no-namers like Yang get cast in something like this, but I guess that's life.
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