A Nice Refresher

This is one of my favorites of this year. Honestly, I started watching after reading the synopsis and didn't bother even to check who the actors were. (ended up checking 5 times before realizing that wei daxun was the male lead LOL)I've been trying to look for a drama that could keep me hooked at all times, and this was one of them. I remember seeing the poster on iqiyi a couple of months ago and when it finally aired, I was somewhat skeptical since I didn't want to start another drama and then quit halfway through. I can proudly say I finished this drama within 4 days. I originally expected a lot more romance in this drama based on the tags but was somewhat slightly disappointed. The leads went through quite an adventure but don't worry we have two lovely side couples. However, the screenwriters did a fantastic job at portraying how Tang Jiayu would be since she is a mature woman who has faced a lot of challenges in her life so she won't be so easy to move.

Some pros:
1. the characters all had really nice characters, even if you're supposed to hate someone you don't really really hate them because their story gets told later and why they act the way they are
2. happy ending - not the type everyone expects but this story does end happily
3. almost no shots or close up shots of the surgical process - I know some people can't stand all the blood and everything so this is a bonus (I personally don't mind)
4. the music usage is really beautiful - blessed to have zhou shen's voice as the opening song
5. semi-realistic portrayal of relationships - enemies to friends and respect earned and given

some cons:
1. ending - I'm sure everyone would agree after watching that we were robbed of tang jiayu and ye yiming's screentime
2. the most important/sad characters dying - after like a couple deaths, I'm always on the edge of my seat in fear that someone important will die next

the middle:
1. 36 episodes - i don't find this too lengthy but i don't find it too short either seems about right for the typical cdrama

so that's all i gotta say for this drama, overall everything comes down to personal taste but i would recommend this drama if you're really interested in medical dramas, would not recommend if you're looking for a romance tho. anyways i hope you enjoy this drama like i did and have an amazing day ~

Read More

A 2021 Must Watch

I was attracted to this drama at first glance. I saw that this was going to be aired soon and the cast had comprised of Ma Si Chun and Bai Jing Ting and I was already swooning. MSC is such a great actress and I've seen her in a few dramas and I loved her performance in LMIYD so I knew this had to be a must-watch for me.

If you guys have seen AvenueX's video on her first impressions of this drama, I second what she says in her video. Certain parts don't make logical sense but that is counteracted by the leads acting and chemistry. I have to agree that as the drama progressed, I was a bit puzzled at certain parts because they weren't too logical. As long as you guys get past the part about the "training camp" you'll fall in love with it.

I'm going to be honest, I think that the synopsis is a bit off. The part about the earthquake is fine however the last paragraph of the synopsis, I didn't see anything that was mentioned in the drama. I could be wrong as I was pretty focused on MSC and BJT's chemistry but nothing "big" aside from the earthquake had happened (?)

Anyways, time for the breakdown:

Story: Eh, pretty interesting at times but also kinda dragged out, especially the first few episodes. I didn't really mind this but I know others might mind so I will put this out there that they are a bit slow. After that, it picks up pretty well (not too fast though.) Unfortunately, there will be four episodes towards the latter half of the story that mostly everyone will hate. I would say either skip it if it's too much to handle or if you're curious and don't want to mentally struggle, watch it at 2x speed. I really like how this drama showed some of the real aspects of being a doctor and such. Some setbacks and the growing process of being a doctor and how it's sometimes hard to see your s/o especially when both people have busy jobs: a doctor and a swat officer.

Acting: I already said this but I'll say it again, the chemistry between BJT and MSC are perfect. It makes me almost think that they are a real couple. The second couple was also really cute as well along with Xing Kelei's sister, Xing Keyao and Shao Yuhan. Glad that everyone had a happy ending. Lu Feng needs to find a person too.

Music: Honestly no comment. I was too drawn to the story to actually pay attention to the music and soundtracks,

Rewatch: In other reviews, I say that I rarely ever rewatch a drama EVER. This is the same for this drama. However, I might honestly consider watching it again if I'm waiting for other dramas to air.

If you stayed to the end of this review, thank you. Hopefully this was helpful and if you decide to watch it, have fun!

Read More

I think like most other people, I watched this drama for Xiao Zhan after seeing him in The Untamed. I'll be as transparent as possible and not just say how great it was of a show because I'm a XZ fan. If you're someone who has seen hundreds of dramas and shows, one right after another, then I'm sure you know it's hard to commit to a drama since after a while nothing seems to be intriguing anymore. I must have to say that this is me for the past year. I've constantly started dramas and put them on hold one after the other however this was different for DC. Originally I never wanted to watch this because I knew that I would speed through this drama I would feel empty inside afterward.

Here's my breakdown:

Story: Strong yet weak. I think that the story was fine how it was but some parts were weak. The Seven Devils fought their way from the bottom to the top. Throughout the course of the story, they only had a few setbacks. And as for battles I loved their scenes and such however after a while it seems a bit impossible to just you know advance. One of the big lessons is to "never give up even if it's hard" and "to always preserve even though there is such little hope" which is a really good theme. As the story focuses on Tang San and Xiao Wu, there are a few side stories that aren't explained clearly. (SPOLIER ALERT!! SKIP IF YOU WANT TO WATCH) Even the ending was a bit vague. Like screen goes back and sudden we're here in the forest and no explanation of what on Earth happened. Which leaves room for the second season. (I've heard rumors that the second season focuses on the later generation. I don't know how on earth that's gonna work when this story hasn't even been wrapped up yet but we'll see.) (END OF SPOILER!!)

Acting/Cast: I honestly love the look of the entire cast. I love their similar yet different colored outfits. But seriously, someone needs to get Ma Hong Jun a partner. Poor guy just being a lightbulb (iykyk) literally every inch of the way ever since his appearance. Now I know that there are some arguments about Xiao Wu but I honestly think she did a pretty good job. Her Martial Soul is a bunny/rabbit. Therefore the way she acts resembles a rabbit. Cute. That's all I can pretty much say for her. And yes, Tang San is protective of her because he treats her like his sister and lover. (SPOILER AHEAD!!!) The last part wasn't necessary and it wasn't mentioned until the very end. I know a lot of people were disturbed about this but I just want to make it sure that he treated Xiao Wu as his sister when his father left him. He felt lonely and so they decided to become "siblings". They are in no way related to each other. Therefore it's not really disturbing.

Music: This is probably the most problematic. There's a problem with audio depending on what platform you're watching from. For those who are planning to watch on youtube, I recommend that you don't and just either download the Tencent Video (WeTv) app instead. On youtube, there's this weird thing in nearly every episode where 2-3 minutes of the audio goes out and is completely replaced with music. On the app or website, there's no audio cut.

Rewatch Value: If you've seen some of my other reviews, you know that I usually put a rewatch value that is very low. The reason being is I never rewatch something I've already seen unless it's necessary.

Overall: If you find yourself wanting to give up after the first couple eps, I'd stay just carry on, you'll end up liking the story.

Read More

Prepare your tissues

This drama is honestly a really good drama. I've heard many people say that the acting and the storyline of the drama sucks but in my opinion, if any drama can make me stay up late at night and ignore the fact that I still have school the next morning, it's good.

Story: The storyline for this revolves around opium....i guess it's a classic for republican dramas now since I've seen this in most of the republican dramas I've watched. If you liked/enjoyed, Forever Forward starring Huang Zi Tao and Jackson Yee, I'd recommend this drama to you. If you do end up watching this drama, you'll see why I recommended it if you seen FF.

For those of you who are going to watch, please have a box of tissues next to you. THIS IS A SAD DRAMA! You have been warned!

Acting: Call this bromance or BL however you like but there's no annoying female getting the way. Are there some who try to get attention? Yes. Is it bearable? Yes. In my opinion, the females in the drama aren't too unbearable like others. The two leads have really good chemistry together. You can see it in their expressions.

Music/Audio: I'm combining these together because they're essentially the same thing or can be classified in the same category. The music is really good, especially at the heartbreaking scenes and it literally put me on the verge of tears. You can watch this series on Youtuber under "MGTV". The episodes are subbed but the only drawback to that is some parts of the audio are cut meaning that there is sometimes no sound. During the cut parts, there are subtitles however. If you prefer sub and audio to sync with each other, it's better to watch on the MGTV app.

Watch/Rewatch Value: The reason why I decided to "drop" this show after episode 25 is because I already know the ending. In many cases where I'm halfway through and someone spoils the ending for me, I tend to drop the drama. But the good thing is that you can choose your ending. I would have given this a higher score but since this drama drained me and played with my emotions, I don't think I want to go on a rollercoaster a second time. It's really good tho!! (I got hooked by just the title and poster)

Read More

A Hidden Gem

I've been looking forward to this drama for a while now and when it finally aired, I knew I needed to watch it. There's been a lot of releases this year which are either complete hits or misses and after watching a lot of good dramas already, I was scared that this one would have become a miss but thank goodness, it was really captivating. After about 15 episodes in the background story for Zhou Xiaoshan (LYX) really seemed familiar to Zhuo Ran in My Dear Guardian. I won't talk about it too much here because I don't want to spoil it, but if you've seen My Dear Guardian (starring Li Qin and Johnny Huang Jinyu) then you'll know what I'm talking about. There's less action here compared to MDG, but overall I really like it. LYX and SQ both did a fantastic job. I really like the side stories between Qiu Jiaxin and Qin Bin, and Mo Li's story with the client. The character development here is actually carried out pretty well (imo) and we don't have any annoying female leads trying to steal the male lead or some annoying breakups yet. Their age in the drama and them being mature really helped with this. The one thing I don't like about this drama is that in every episode, QJN is wearing super tall heels and I get that she's supposed to come from a rich family and dresses nicely but the heels...it looked super awkward for her to walk when they had full body shots. I don't know why the directors made her wear heels because irl, the height difference between SQ and LYX isn't that large. But here they make SQ nearly the same height as LYX.

Read More

WATCH ONLY IF YOU REALLY HAVE LOST ALL FAITH IN HUMANITY AND ARE BORED TO DEATH!!

As of now, I'm currently only 12 of 32, so not too far in yet. My first impression of this drama when I read the synopsis, I sorta felt it was similar to General's Lady but at the same time not so much. I'm going to admit, I'm lowkey obsessed with storylines like these ones however a couple of episodes in, I had to take a pause. Then after restarting, I felt so annoyed every second. Don't get me wrong, the direction of this story is terrible but the synopsis was so promising. (SPOILERS AHEAD!!)

Basically what happens within the first 15 - ish episodes are misunderstandings after misunderstandings after even more misunderstanding which is fxxking annoying to watch. I felt my head overheating and a tremendous amount of frustration and I'm not really picky with certain dramas either. On top of the numerous misunderstandings that have happened as of episode 12, we have some of the most frustrating side characters EVER! They're worse than those females who try to get the male lead's attention and then fail and get snobby bc the female lead ended with the male lead.

TBH, I would have probably stopped watching this drama a long time ago if it weren't for My Dear Guardian which is currently airing 3 out of 7 days of the week. I'm gonna just try to push through and then update my review on this. Screenwriter, please up your game. Like seriously please.

UPDATE: I have dropped this drama completely. Will I ever finish it? Probably one day if I ever walked into a wall and lost my memory. I've seen quite a few of Liang Jie and Zheng Shunxi's dramas and so I really wanted to see them in one frame but this is too unbearable to watch. I'm not sure if the LJ's voice is dubbed or not but regardless, the voice of the FL is probably the most annoying here. (sorry to LJ if this was her real voice). I couldn't stand the storylines. Like I said above, the synopsis was very promising but director and scriptwriter did not do any justice. Watch if you really don't know what to watch or if it's meant to kill time. Would not put this on a commitment list.

Read More