Side Story: Super Girl Contest

Ever wonder what happened to Chen Xiao Xi in the Super Girl Contest?

Don't remember when they mentioned this? This was the song that Jiang Chen was playing on the piano for Chen Xiao Xi when he was trying to win back her affection. This is the background story to the song - how the competition came about, Chen Xiao Xi's crazy antics, and the aftermath of Jiang Chen saving her again. This short story is about half the length of an episode (25 mins). I probably wouldn't watch this again unless I am bored. It's not essential to the main story line, but I do remember seeing some clips from this short story in the drama.

Story (Spoilers):
Chen Xiao Xi heard Jiang Chen listening about the Super Girl Contest, so she decides to take part in it (obviously, making a song about Jiang Chen and dedicating it to him). Problems arise in her family, them blaming her for taking a coupon and her grades. Chen Xiao Xi goes to the contest, and her parents think she ran away because of the fight. They couldn't find her and her phone was off because it ran out of battery. They ask Jiang Chen for help, and he finds her at the contest crying because she failed. They spend some time together until her parents pick them up, then she reconciles with her parents.

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This historical fiction drama centers on the life story of Huang Fei Hong (AKA Wong Fei-hung). Based off what I read about him, some of the events were true, some were obviously made up, and some things were changed to fit the drama. I'm trying really hard not to reveal any spoilers.

I really liked the fighting scenes, they were well done. Some of the actors over exaggerated their expressions and actions, but that just fits in with the comedic aspect of the drama to give it some lightheartedness and make the audience laugh (which I did at some parts). The music was good, it really fit in with the scenes well.

Huang Fei Hong is pretty much skilled in everything. He is a good martial artist, a patriot, a doctor, a detective (he helps Mo Gui Lan/Shi San Yi on her cases), and a lover. He has many love entanglements, some of which he doesn't care for, but it affects his future with Shi San Yi. The way he treats her is so mean at times, but she always forgives because she loves him. I hate it, but it is a pretty common thing for these dramas where the female lead gets misunderstood and treated poorly, but in the end, they forgive and follow the male lead anyways, so it's kind of expected.

Mo Gui Lan/Shi San Yi is a righteous and courageous woman that becomes a bailiff because she is smart and also skilled in Kung Fu. Regardless of how Huang Fei Hong treats her, she perseveres and still continues on with her life. The things she says to Huang Fei Hong aren't without reason, and he just doesn't get it. Typical man, right? Anyways, enough about the love story between these two.

The main background story follows the Japanese invasion of China towards the end of the Qing dynasty. There's wars, spies, disguises, collusion between countries, poison, opium, assassination attempts, and Chinese patriotism. The Qing dynasty tries hard to overcome the Japanese, but knowing history, we know how this ends up, especially during this time.

Overall, I think its a good drama. It is serious at times, but it's not really like that throughout the entire drama. It focuses mainly on the love story with a bunch of other stories thrown in. It's a good drama to watch if you have nothing else, and 40 episodes isn't too bad either, but it is kind of dragged out. I watched this on YouTube.

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Round 2 of how long can Wei Wei live

This is much like the first season where Wei Wei tries to make it to the finale without getting killed. The roles are reversed and while Jing Qing tries to kill her, Wei Wei tries her best to make him give that up. She tries to make him recall the past while protecting and helping him with his plans in the current season. This ends up with funny moments and disappointments from both Wei Wei and Jing Qing. While there are schemes all around, Wei Wei and Jing Qing try their best to navigate around them. Overall, its a fun, short drama that was a lot like the first one even though the roles were different. It's slightly longer than the first season as each episode is slightly longer, but still not bad to watch if you liked the first one.

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Can you cook modern food during historic times?

This is a relatively short series: 4.5 hours total. So if you are looking for something quick and light-hearted, this is the one. This drama centers on a modern chubby girl (Xiao Xiao) trapped in a historic thin girl (Yuan Wan Er). Unfortunately for her, during the Tang dynasty, big women were considered beautiful. It's a good thing she loves food (she was a food blogger in modern times).

Upon awakening in history, she doesn't know who her new identity is (now she is Yuan Wan Er), but decides to go with it, see where life takes her, and hopefully accomplish her dream. The body she's now possessing had a terrible reputation, and owes her ex-fiancé Bai Yi Ming the bride price. Wan Er had spent it and now she has to return it since they are no longer getting married. Adjusting to her new life, she is super optimistic and loves food, so she decides to open a restaurant to make money. However, she has a terrible relationship with her sister (Yuan Luo Nu) and their restaurants compete for most of the drama. Wan Er navigates the ups and downs of running a business while cooking modern food during a historic period. Bai Yi Ming and Yuan Wan Er end up falling in love once he realizes that she's no longer the same girl she used to be, and he consistently helps her out with her problems. Wan Er befriends many people with her food and optimism, and they help her along on her journey.

If I go on, I'll pretty much summarize the entire drama since it's so short. It was a fun drama to watch and it was interesting to see what Wan Er does next, especially since she's a modern girl. I hope there's a second season because I like dramas with a definite end. Towards the end, it just started getting mysterious and I had more questions that needed to be answered. I'm okay with it ending the way it did, but it's obvious that there has to be more to it. Overall, its a fast-paced, short, romantic drama that's about food. I love food so I won't say no to this one.

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One's life story can be told on the body

I like strong female leads and although this one isn't a master at martial arts, she is an amazing coroner. Chu Chu has lead a normal, yet unlucky life. Coroners have a bad reputation as being unlucky and dirty for spending time with corpses. Her and her family live rather secluded because of this, and work for the local government as coroners. She is also bullied for her unknown birth. Chu Chu knows her status and place in life and doesn't dare go beyond it. Through it all she becomes one of the best and helps a critically thinking and deductive Prince with his cases. Normally, I dislike naïve females, but in this case it works. She's not naïve to the point where she is just stupid, but rather due to lack of experiences. Her naivety and simple way of thinking is hilarious at times because it renders the Prince useless. She is courageous, forgiving, nice, respectful, observant, and talented. Su Xiao Tong does a great job of portraying Chu Chu.

Prince An/Xiao Jin Yu is strict, law abiding, and truth seeking. Like Chu Chu, he isn't a martial arts master, rather he is meticulous and thorough. He leaves no stone unturned and will always look for the truth even if he offends people. He has never been in love until he met Chu Chu and watching their interactions is cute, cringeworthy, and sad. Although he wants to protect her, he can't help but say things in such a harsh way so she would understand how serious it is. It makes you want to hate him, but you can't help but forgive him because he is really at a loss on how to deal with his feelings and does try hard to protect her in every way possible. He doesn't think of her as dirty because she is a coroner, but rather falls in love with her.

Separately, I like the two lead characters, but together, I feel as if there is no chemistry and only come together for the story's sake.

Leng Yu is a skilled martial artist who comes from a military family. She grew up with Jin Yu and Jing Yi and longs for freedom from her family (mostly due to some misunderstandings), so she spent most of her life roaming the country. I like her character a lot. She is smart and playful, and takes a liking to Chu Chu right after meeting her. Jing Yi at first seems like he just loafs around, but he is actually very skilled at gathering information and martial arts. Leng Yu and Jing Yi appear more realistic as a couple than the main leads.

The overall story is pretty good, setting it up with seemingly random cases, and slowly unraveling the connections to the major plot and backstory. I don't want to give away the underlying plot, so I will end at that. It's a pretty good drama, and I would recommend it. Many twists, turns, traps, add in some laughter, romance, and mystery and that's this drama. Enjoy!

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There is such an extraordinary girl in the world

I think the thing that kept me captivated the most was watching the characters grow. Li Chang Ge and Ashile Sun were already strong characters, but watching them grow to express their feelings and care, not just for each other and friends, but for all the people, not just their countries was just a pleasure to watch. Not just the main characters, but the support characters were brilliantly executed (especially Li L Yan and Hao Du), and they were all multifaceted and complex. Each person has their own story and own hardships, but they all work through it to become stronger, more understanding, so that they do not hate the person that they become. So in many ways, you can see a little redemption in all of the characters.

The music was also really good, and not just the soundtrack songs, but I loved the little sound clip of when a bad guy enters the scene. It really sets the mood and pace of what's to happen. Although I would like for more action/battle scenes, I'm a bit torn on this subject. Sometimes I would fast forward action scenes because it's just too much, and I would like to get back to the main story. However, I liked how they used animation to depict certain action scenes and used juxtaposition to combine these elements; I thought it was expertly done. While I can nitpick on small things that I think they could've done better at, I think that all in all, it was a really good drama and I can't really find much fault with it.

There are so many reviews on this drama, and I really didn't want to write another one that no one will read, but I just had to write about what I loved so much about this drama. My headline, "There is such an extraordinary girl in the world." is my favorite line in the whole drama (assuming the translation is right). I love strong female leads, and finally someone gives a woman the recognition she deserves. This is a MUST WATCH drama, so what are you waiting for?

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A good laugh

The story itself is nothing special, it's typical and cliche. The acting is mediocre at best, and sometimes they go over the top and overact, but that is what makes this drama great. The overacting isn't too overdone, and it goes well with the overall feel of the drama. This drama gives a good mix of comedy, romance, crime and mystery.

I actually really like this drama, and I've re-watched it a couple times now for a good laugh at the goofiness of it all. It's not all laughter, there's some seriousness to it as there are crimes that need to be solved, blossoming romances, and an overall mystery that needs to be uncovered. I also like that the drama is only 24 episodes long, so re-watching it doesn't take that long.

Tian San Qi is sweet and naive, but she courageously follows clues to find her childhood love. She is smart and solves crimes, while remaining compassionate and loyal to her friends. Zhao Cuo is the typical arrogant, rich boy that gambles and frequents brothels who ends up changing his ways. Bai Yi Fei is my favorite character, especially in the beginning when he first meets Tian San Qi, and he does what he can to protect her. When He Ruo Yao joins the gang, she becomes fast friends with Tian San Qi because they are a lot a like. I love all of their interactions, and sometimes I just can't help but laugh at how stupid it is, but that's what makes this drama great! Adding in Duan Xue Wei and He Zhen, the romances and drama between all 6 is just fun to watch it all unfold.

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I quickly read the novel then decided to watch this drama. There were a lot of changes to the story, both good and bad. I felt that most of the changes were necessary for the story to progress as it did. For the most part, I think they did a good job of changing the original novel into a more exciting drama to watch. The novel didn't really have politics/court intrigue; it was mostly the love story between Jun Fu and Mu Yan with the addition of four other stories ( the drama didn't include one story, but I would've liked to see how they would've incorporated that one). Because of these changes, I wanted to see what would happen, how the plot would progress, and why the characters were the way they were, which by the end made sense.

I didn't like how Ye Zhen/Jun Fu and Su Yu/Mu Yan's story was changed, but it had to be done for the sake of the plot of the drama. Their relationship went through so many life and death situations. Honestly, I liked the character Jun Fu better than Ye Zhen. Ye Zhen was an annoying naive girl, while I felt like Jun Fu was a strong and cold woman because she had a mission with no recollection of her past. Once she began remembering, I saw her transform back into the personality of Ye Zhen, which again made her useless. But I guess that showed her acting skills. As for Su Yu/Mu Yan, everything he did was for his love of Ye Zhen/Jun Fu, which can be annoying, but in the end, this is what changed Jun Fu back to Ye Zhen. So I guess what he did was worth it. It was great seeing him interact with Jun Fu when he lost his memories because now the roles were reversed, but he still showed a softness to her in the end.

I liked the changes made to Song Ning and Shen An's story. It made it that more heartbreaking to watch, and their ending ended up pretty much the same as in the novel. Song Ning transformed from a strong independent woman to a woman who was just in love and wanted to do anything for it until she finally was hurt enough to just let go of it all because she had no more hope. In spite of all the bad things Liu Qi Qi does, Shen An still remains loyal to her to fulfill his promise to her until the day when he finally decides to let go of Liu Qi Qi. However, it was a little too late, which made it so heartbreaking to watch, especially when he learned the truth about his whole situation with Song Ning and Liu Qi Qi. He misunderstood Song Ning many times and never knew Liu Qi Qi's true nature. The only person who ever really understood Shen An was Song Ning.

Rong Yuan and Ying Ge's story was pretty much the same as in the novel, except Ying Ge's ending, which made me a little irritated because I liked her ending. It was a slight change, but I guess it wasn't too bad of a change. Ying Ge and Jin Que were really a good pair of sisters until Jin Que betrayed Ying Ge (in the novel, it wasn't like this, Jin Que was always loyal to Ying Ge). Rong Xun and Jin Que's betrayal was probably needed so that Ying Ge could give up her love and dedication to Rong Xun because she was nothing to him,but a tool. But when Rong Yuan came into the picture, he gave Ying Ge the love and happiness she thought she never would have, which was touching to watch because they truly loved each other regardless of their identities.

Murong An and Su Heng's story was almost the same as in the novel; their ending in the novel was more tragic. But Su Heng still found a way to redeem himself, so I guess that was okay. I felt that they spent way too much time in this story than necessary, and Jun Fu and Mu Yan forgot their original intention of why this story was important. In spite of that, their story was touching. Su Heng's tactics to keep Murong An were actually quite mean and evil. At first, I even wondered if he loved her. She was always hurt by him because she doesn't know much about politics and his world, but it was all because he wanted to protect her. I could understand why she was heartbroken and felt betrayed time and time again. But even when she understood him and his intentions, she still couldn't help but be hurt.

If I were to rewatch this drama, I would probably only rewatch certain stories/scenes, not the entire drama.

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Incomparable to the first Nirvana in Fire

Don't compare this to the first Nirvana in Fire. I made that mistake the first episode I watched, then dropped the series. It's not as faced paced and scheming as the first one starts off as, and because of that I stopped watching it. That was my mistake. This is a completely different story with almost no relation to the first one. This story starts off where Jing Yan's son is King and his adopted son Ting Sheng is the General of the powerful Chang Lin Army (army created by Jing Yan at the end of the first season). The imperial court is different, the characters are different, and thus the plot is different. The only remnants from the previous story are a few characters that are now old, and some name drops here and there. So throughout the story, I was trying to connect some of the names mentioned to the first one for my own personal enjoyment, but that's pretty much where the similarities end. You can watch this series on its own without having to watch the first one, and they do have some flashbacks to the first one when it's applicable to the story, so you won't get lost. It's just nice to have seen the first one, and then see the slight connections to it.

The relationships in this drama is what gets me. The father (Ting Sheng) who is a powerful general that loyally serves the King, his brother. The King who does not doubt his brother's power. The eldest son (Ping Zhang) who takes on his responsibilities head on to ease the burden of his father and allow his younger brother to live the life he wants. His wife (Meng Qian Xue) who loves him and his family. The younger son (Ping Jing) who is carefree and a little mischievous, and the crown prince (Yuan Shi) who loves his uncle's family just as the King does. Just watching this family brings tears to my eyes.

Family, nature vs. nurture, choices, loyalty, brotherhood, camaraderie, right vs. wrong, revenge, power, love, life and death, happiness and sadness, schemes, betrayal; this drama has it all whether it be obvious or subtle. I want to say this drama is slow, but it is a buildup of all the characters. What they go through, the choices they make, and how they get to where they are. I dislike slow dramas, but this was put together really well. I really enjoyed this drama, and I've watched it a few times now.

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An Uncommon Romance

Hua Rong is a heroine in training. She comes from a prominent family and is smart, but not very skilled. She tries hard to fight for justice, even when everything is against her. She can be pretty annoying at times with her temperament, but that's all due to her beliefs and determination. Qin Shang Cheng is a highly intelligent pirate and skilled martial artist who is seeking revenge against his adoptive father's killer. He captures Hua Rong mistakenly thinking that she is related. He tries to torture her (lightly), but starts to fall in love with her ferocity, stubbornness, cleverness, and righteousness. I like how Hua Rong works hard for her goals and wants to rely on her own efforts instead of things being given to her. She's also straight-forward and I like how she will tell it like it is. Qin Shang Cheng can be dumb at times when it comes to understanding what Hua Rong wants, but he'll eventually get there. I love the two leads chemistry, and I give major props to the actors. All the actors did a really good job in making this drama, it's funny and light-hearted, but also serious when it needs to be.

The storyline follows these two on their journey towards their goals. They often butt heads, but eventually come to an understanding. This was a really fun drama to watch, and its relatively short and straightforward. I have definitely watch it a few times already. I really hope that season 2 will happen as I can't wait for more!

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Review of seasons 1 & 2 . . . you can't do one without the other

The story is what kept me going in the first season. I was really annoyed by Duan Mu Cui's personality, mostly when she starts falling in love, and I couldn't deal with Darren Chen playing Zhan Yan. I saw him in The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty and that's all I could see him as during the first season; he didn't fit the character of a constable. So when they fell in love, it just didn't work for me; there was no chemistry in my opinion. However, towards the end of season 1 and mostly during season 2, I feel like their chemistry got better and it was more believable.

The story is somewhat unique. Humans and immortals fighting demons/evil, solving crimes, falling in love (nothing new); travelling to Shen Yuan (aka "The Abyss") was something new to me, and probably my favorite part. You get to see a different side to Duan Mu Cui and see what she was like; I really enjoyed it.

I really don't know what to say about Zhan Yan. He's what you expect his character to be like: righteous and loyal. There's not much development in his character, which makes sense since the drama is basically about Duan Mu Cui.

I just feel sorry for Wen Gu and Hong Lan's characters. They are just so tragic in my opinion (oh, unrequited love...the bane of all dramas). I loved Yang Jian as Duan Mu Cui's brother. He's serious and funny. He cares about his sister the most, and does everything he can to protect her and make her happy. And lastly, I can understand Jiang Wen Qing because seriously, why was everything left to Duan Mu Cui to deal with?

Anyways, overall I liked this drama. I'm glad I stuck it through the first season because the characters really annoyed me, but the story was interesting enough for me to keep going. And I'm glad I did because it got better.

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Review for seasons 1 & 2 . . . you can't do one without the other

The story is what kept me going in the first season. I was really annoyed by Duan Mu Cui's personality, mostly when she starts falling in love, and I couldn't deal with Darren Chen playing Zhan Yan. I saw him in The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty and that's all I could see him as during the first season; he didn't fit the character of a constable. So when they fell in love, it just didn't work for me; there was no chemistry in my opinion. However, towards the end of season 1 and mostly during season 2, I feel like their chemistry got better and it was more believable.

The story is somewhat unique. Humans and immortals fighting demons/evil, solving crimes, falling in love (nothing new); travelling to Shen Yuan (aka "The Abyss") was something new to me, and probably my favorite part. You get to see a different side to Duan Mu Cui and see what she was like; I really enjoyed it.

I really don't know what to say about Zhan Yan. He's what you expect his character to be like: righteous and loyal. There's not much development in his character, which makes sense since the drama is basically about Duan Mu Cui.

I just feel sorry for Wen Gu and Hong Lan's characters. They are just so tragic in my opinion (oh, unrequited love...the bane of all dramas). I loved Yang Jian as Duan Mu Cui's brother. He's serious and funny. He cares about his sister the most, and does everything he can to protect her and make her happy. And lastly, I can understand Jiang Wen Qing because seriously, why was everything left to Duan Mu Cui to deal with?

Anyways, overall I liked this drama. I'm glad I stuck it through the first season because the characters really annoyed me, but the story was interesting enough for me to keep going. And I'm glad I did because it got better.

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Pleasantly Surprised

I usually don't like older films mostly because I just can't stand the quality and the inferiority of films that are being shown today. However, I will still watch older films/dramas if they are good. Many works would often mention directors, producers, etc. from this film, showing that it is well-known and good. I finally took the jump and decided to watch it.

The story was good and kept me in suspense. The fighting scenes and the cinematography was really good and at times beautiful despite being released in 2004. But also remember it was made in 2004. Overall, I wish I watched it when it came out so I would be able to appreciate it more. If it were made now, I can imagine how great it would be.

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Probably the best strong female lead I've seen

I make some references to certain parts of the show, but I try to keep it vague so as to keep it from completely spoiling the show.

Ban Hua has a horrible reputation, but she doesn't care one bit. She is a skilled martial artist that has an independent, straightforward, honest personality; she does what she wants, and doesn't allow anyone to look down on her. Her temper can get the best of her, but even then she's smart about it and will take full responsibility for her actions. Even so, she helps people whenever she can. She's righteous and encouraging, even when she's mean about it. Her random acts of kindness causes so many men to fall in love with her. She's the hero that saves the beauty and then the beauty falls in love with the hero. I would say she's not book smart, but she's street smart. Sometimes she knows something's wrong, she's just too lazy to think about it. Ban Hua's dreams can also predict the future, so this helps her out a lot. She's from a ridiculously rich and influential family. Her family spends money like crazy and does what they want, so people think they are bad, but they are actually really nice. I love her family interactions. They are silly and not very smart, but they care for and love each other.

Rong Xia is a scholar that is unbiased and neutral, but he comes to Ban Hua's aide multiple times, mostly to get close to her for ulterior motives. Although he gets close to her, he doesn't hurt her or her family. What he wants most is to figure out the truth behind his family's death and get revenge. He's calculative, but also looks at the overall picture as to not cause a big disturbance unless needed. He also knows martial arts, but isn't as skilled as Ban Hua. He's a gentleman with many admirers, but he's lonely because he grew up without a family. I like the contrast with Ban Hua. Ban Hua is outgoing and rarely shy, Rong Xia is more reserved and sticks to etiquette. Rong Xia grew up without family, but Ban Hua did. I like their interactions, and their chemistry is good. Even when there's misunderstandings, they either figure it out together, or they are smart enough to understand why the other person did what they did. They make a perfect couple that is unstoppable.

I'd say there's 3 arcs:
eps 1-16: Rong Xia starts to investigate his family's death. Ban Hua and Rong Xia fall in love and break up.
eps 17-30: Ban Hua and Rong Xia clear the air and get back together. Rong Xia finds out the truth.
eps 31-40: Bad guy arc. Rong Xia and Ban Hua break up and make up...two more times? And the ending.
The plot is pretty straightforward, and it did start to drag out towards the second half, but I still couldn't wait to see what would happen next. I absolutely love how humorous this show is, I laughed out loud so many times! It's pretty light-hearted, really funny, romantic, serious and sad at certain times. I loved the acting and the music was perfect. I say this show has the best strong female lead because she often encourages other women, and many women follow her, thus this is definitely a female positive show. I highly recommend this show, and I will definitely be re-watching it over and over, especially all the funny parts.

Random characters/thoughts:
-Eldest Princess Dening (Ban Hua's Grandmother) is the smartest of the family. She protected her family after the death of her husband. The Ban's rely on her status and relationship with the Emperor. I love her, she cares for and loves her family and they love her so much, it shows. I just love how loving this family is.
-Ban Hua's mother is probably tied for second with Ban Hua for the next smartest in the family. I just love how both of them know that they can't trust the men to do important things in the family.
-Ban Hua's maids are also good at martial arts and are strong like her. This is definitely a woman empowering show.
-Xie Wan Yu is probably one of my favorite characters, outside the main people. She accepted her fate, but then realized she could change it upon seeing what the Ban family is really like. All she wants is to have a family like theirs, who just wants each other to be happy and support each other. She stays firm and keeps trying and trying to change her fate. She also loves cooking, and I totally want to eat whatever she makes. I also like her love story.
-Xie Qi Lin is Xie Wan Yu's 2nd brother. Oh man...I just feel bad for him. He's actually a really nice guy and kind of funny despite first impressions. I feel like he's a lot like his sister.
-Shi Jin is the second male lead that is a general and is also skilled in martial arts. He doesn't fight for power, unlike his family. I also feel bad for him; he's such a good guy and helps out when he can, but he gets his hopes up so many times.
-poor Shi Fei Xian. Her jealousy, rejection, and abandonment leads her to becoming someone that never wants to feel that way again. It's a nice contrast to how Ban Hua deals with all these problems compared to her. Ban Hua helps refugees to help them, Shi Fei Xian does it to get attention and compete with Ban Hua. When Shi Fei Xian gets jealous, she tries to stir up conflicts and get even, while Ban Hua just gets mad.
-Ban Huai (Ban Hua's dad) and the Xie family's dad are frenemies, and watching their rivalry and them bicker is comedic relief. I love these two characters.
-Prince A Ke Qi's appearance was one of the funniest misunderstandings. After that, he just so happened to appear (like don't you need to go back to your own country?) But he was a great supportive character that was always there for Ban Hua whenever she needed help.
-I like how the crowds comment/gossip, it's hilarious. They also lean towards the woman's side; unlike in other historical dramas, it's the woman's fault because they must've done something wrong.
-At the end of the day, the morale of the story is that the happiest people aren't those that don't vie for power, but just live to the fullest and love.

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