MoodBoard
Bangkok
Not the best, but not the worst
Honestly, there is just so many bad reviews out there for this drama. "My Strange Friend" did not make it to my list of favourite C-Dramas, that's true, but it's far from the worst.I can understand that the bar is higher for a series with the ML of Yibo's caliber, but one must admit that good plot is not among the strongest points of most C-Dramas. Given the budget, I think the production already did the best they could with what they had, and I was quite surprise that they managed to pull off this much out of the limited resources that they had.
There were lots of plot holes and the series was dubbed over in the original Chinese version to make up for the inconsistency, but some part of the story and dialogue were still very interesting. I especially liked the first few episodes, the following not so much, but still passable. My favourite character in the entire series was Afu. I think he got the best story line, and the actor really nailed it portraying his character.
To summarize, do not expect another "Untamed", but "My Strange Friend" is not so bad as a story.
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I will start by mentioning that this was actually the sequel of another show with the same title. This had little to do with the Wuxia universe of the original show, however. It was set in the modern world where the main cast fought each other through their multimillion business and not martial arts. Leave it to the Chinese showbiz to put the two genres under the same franchise. This was all the more mind-blowing considering the magnitude of the production: the show was shot both locally and abroad (Iceland). Not sure what the sponsors had in mind when they gave the green light to this period-Wuxia-modern day drama.
The original show was... digestible, given that the characters were the reincarnation of their past selves. Incredibly, this season dealt with the reincarnation of that second reincarnation. The plot just ran away with it and never found its way back to consistency. The writing itself was... over the top and redundant (repeated amnesia, seriously?) The story dragged even at the best of scenes. One can very well see the struggle of the story, but that's expected from the outset.
The show used the same cast as the original season, but produced a whole different effect. While the cast fit well in the last season, the same was not true with modern day setting. Lei Hao, who was supposed to be a scientist in his early 30's in the show, was played by Zhang Yi Jie who couldn't be more than 20 at the time. That's asking a lot from the viewer. This is not to say that their acting was not good, however. That said, the only saving grace of the show was probably the acting and the expensive productions.
In short, there's nothing wrong with writing a daring story. But since it was not successful, awkward story was the result.
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Nothing new about the story... the leading man is an almighty Xian who came to earth and met other Xian's he used to know back in heaven and got reincarnated on earth. They journeyed together, fought evil. The usual.
As a Zhang Yi Jie fan I naturally find the storyline of the second couple more interesting. The writing of his story as a secondary character was not overly restricted by the plot and was very enjoyable in itself. I like how the reincarnation (his relationship with the princess) was played out. The casting was very spot on. His acting was quite developed in this show and it was really fun to watch (unfortunately, this is not the case with the sequel). This project was possibly his passport into the world of Chinese showbiz.
I'd watch the show for the second couple alone.
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The characters in "How Are You" (2017) connect through their study of English. This conflict is very relatable for someone with an Asian background where learning English is a challenge in itself, but can also be an accomplishment. Although this is your usual light-hearted high school love story, the script is very well written and consistent, the plot carried evenly from beginning through to the end. There is still a lot of misunderstanding surrounding the ending of the story as the majority of viewers felt that the story was not conclusive, but in my opinion that was for lack of understanding of Asian, or specifically Chinese culture.
I sat down to watch this film to explore projects by Zhang Yi Jie. This was one of his earlier works, and the only movie he starred in to date. His acting in "How Are You" was still not fully developed compared to his other works (the character Li Lei was very stiff at times), but he still did a good job in this. Bonus points for the English conversation.
For non-fans: overall, a good childhood story to pass the time.
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