Nina
Brasil
I guess I just couldn't drop it. This is the most beautifully shot drama at Netflix this year (and I watched "The end of the fucking World"). The color palette is lovely, and there are some truly inspiring scenes. All of them related to the sea, some of them part of a mini film inputted in the drama. Besides, a 12 episodes drama with ~25min each seems like a pretty tight story - and it was!
The story flows in unexpected ways, and it carries you seamlessly. There are many things going on with this drama, and not superficially. You will wonder how it was able to show so much, to affect so much, and be so short.
It's less than 6hours in total, but I couldn't binge watch it because I kept stopping to ~think~ about what was happening. It's not tragic, it's not violent (in the strict sense of the word), but it is a very ~heavy~ drama that makes you question your morals, society, pressure in women in particular, infidelity, and also how naive teenagers really are. Not light themes, eh?
Although the drama doesn't shy of showing the main character sexual relationship, never for once the drama will try to normalize it. Sometimes it can even be uncomfortable. And not only between her and the teenager but between her and the man as well.
In the end, I felt like I was following the life of a lost woman, a naive woman, maybe a good woman (?), who is passing through the single most important months of her life. Independent of agreeing or not with her, everything will be affected by the choices that she makes here - and she has just started to realize that. You don't find much stuff as interesting as it is going on here.
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A sensitive, fond portrayal of dealing with being stuck in time
I found this drama completely on accident at Viki and watched it all in one sitting!With short 8 episodes, this drama will grab your attention at the first and make you cry at least once. It has that magical jdrama ability of hitting you right in the feels without needing any showy imaginaries. The plot is tight and to the point: a cherry tree miracle happened -- a high school young man is revived 7 years later the date of his death to make his best friend/love interest wish of being confessed under a cherry tree come true, only his previous tight group of friends are distant now they are all adults, and the tree is going to be cut down soon. The main theme, for me, is getting back on track after something really impactful happened to you.
The cast is amazing, full of young actor who are really great. The main lead, especially, is so good. He is portraying a character forever 17 years old, in the middle of friends who grew to be 24 when he couldn't, and it's amazing how he looks the part. You can feel on his behavior, the way he moves, the way he talks, the way he sleeps (!!!) that he's only 17, not an adult yet, and it's heartbreaking. Not only the characters but also the viewers start to wonder what life would be like if the accident had never happened.
The pace, the editing, the sensibility of the director, the subtle ost that binds everything together, all of that leaves a harmonious impression. It's a human story, full of life, sweet story that explores human emotions in a way that Japanese dramas excel at. And it doesn't get sloppy.
You definitely should give it a chance!
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The drama has gorgeous posters and interesting description, with overall wonderful themes to work with (family, the burden of royal duties, betrayal, brotherhood, forbidden love) but I guess the team of directors, writers and producers just weren't ready do right with something of this scale.
In hindsight, it would never become the chinese Game Of Thrones as everyone was expecting. Not that I like Game of Thrones that much (I dropped at the fourth season), but I really think that the hype was the worst thing that could have happened to this drama, because:
1) this is more similar to tolkien than george martin.
2) this is a drama for children/early teens
3) the huge budget spent was most for the CGI (and itsn't good)
4) it has too many episodes for the poor paced plot
Firstly, about the FANTASY aspect: it was difficult to believe in the world they were trying to portray when everything was so fake - from their pointed ears that at some camera angles you could see weren't even glued right (they were slipping!!), the scenery with bad paper-maché, the world that didn't follow its own rules except when it was convenient and the powers that didn't make sense. All in all, they could have worked on the worldbuilding more than the CGI (that failed horribly).
PLOTWISE, the story could have been great but it was just dull and childish. There were many moments when the silence was awkward, or the conversation was dumb, or the character's action almost made me cry (and not for good reasons). The events were poor paced and I had to reread the description over and over again to remember myself why I chose this drama. Their worst mistake was going for so many chapters and bad writers - I dropped at the 20th episode because the writers were still "lost" at that point!
The ACTING, well, as in every fantasy the characters are sterotyped but the director took it a little bit too far. Honestly tho, I can't fault them much because they were clearly following the director's orders, and the script they were given wasn't the best to work with. I think it's worth mentioning that the impression might have been bad because the editing was a whole new level of incompetent (I honestly thought that c-dramas had overcame this).
The OST was good!
All in all, I'm afraid I sound too disappointed but I suppose I wasn't really the audience they were aiming for (I'm 20yo). If you are younger than that, _NEW TO FANTASY_ in general or just don't care too much about... uh, pace... I hope it can be a good drama for you. The main actors, at least, are wonderful eye-candy! And it wasn't all bad, there were moments that really grab your attention.
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... THE PROPHECIES
The first thing you need to know about this drama is that it's all about prophecies, and they are a big part of every episode and every plot decision. You won't ever have time to forget it, and "the storm of prophecies" is not in vain. This drama is a tapestry woven around three prophetic heroes: Muyun Sheng, the cursed prince who is going to destroy the Muyun Empire; Muru Han Jian, the abandoned son of the military heads of the Muru family, who is going to vie with Muyun for the throne of the empire and become its next emperor; and Shuefeng He Ye, the Iron Wielder who is going to unify the eight oppressed warrior clans of the northern prairie and take down the empire.
Basically, everybody knows that this generation will bring forth a great war to the world and everybody is making terrible decisions trying to stop or accelerate this fate.
... THE CHARACTERS
At the first one fourth of this drama everything is interesting, after all we are being introduced to the world: the Shuefeng clan of the northerns prairies at first. Then, we are introduced to the next big players: the harem and its bitter and calculative empress, the arrogant emperor and his regrets, the annoying court and its machinations, the inflexible Muru family and their tradition in military law and order, the jealous brother of the emperor who just can't let go of his ambitions. This is a drama full of side characters who have a lot of screen time for themselves, and they are often the ones running the show.
I must say that for me the only likable characters are the three heroes and their loved ones, but I loved to watch the first half of this drama even at the moments they weren't so present because the side characters were moving the plot along in interesting ways.
... THE CINEMATOGRAPHY AND MUSIC
The cinematography is awe inspiring on these first episodes - for real! And the plot is well paced too! There are specially wonderful scenes which are filmed really beautifully. So beautiful, in fact, that you might realize on the middle episodes the budget was blown at some point for some scenarios are badly done - specially the underground kingdoms.
And then the gorgeous cinematography makes a glorious comeback and your eyes are delighted again. :')
Now the music is a deception. They are good enough at the first third of the series, but then they become repetitive - many are used for more than one character so they become less distinctive, and at the 56th episode they are placed weirdly.
Not only that! I think that sometimes they had audio problem or something, so they rerecorded the dialogue. The problem is that the background noise is never the same, so these moments really stand out in a bad way and make the production seems cheap. I really don't know how they could let such an obvious mistake happen.
... THE PLOT
Being honest here: I love a slow paced drama. I do. And the first half of this drama is amazing, it' really really good! The scenes were wonderful in portraying the world building, the characters and the plot in a really good pace. I watched 50 episodes in three days and wasn't the least bit bored - so I strongly recommend the first 50 episodes. <( *v*)>
Now being completely honest:
We have 75 episodes. It isn't little. It's 70h of your life, and yet the series seems to be going nowhere after the 50th. There are a lot of people who complain about the pace, I agree and disagree with them.
- I disagree because I love to see the world building, I love to see my favorite hero (in my case it's Han Jian and his beloved Su Yu Ning) take things fully even if slowly. It's a big world they are building so I want to know the people and the culture - I love these fantasy elements of a novel.
- But! I agree with them that the pace is bad! AFTER THE 50TH!
If I were to elect the biggest flaw of this series is that the PLOT RETRACTS THE GROWTH OF THE CHARACTERS. The series drags a lot because one day the character realizes his stupid attitude and grows +10 points, and one week later he forgets everything because the plot demands so. -50 points!
How would it make you feel? It just makes me emotionally tired. We are 25 episodes to the end and stuff keeps going backwards???
Is the director experimenting with something? The drama is not well edited since the 10th episode but at this stage the pace can't suffer the amount that is suffering from the 50th-60th episodes. We should be walking to the climax of the story...
The drawback of the drama is that the biggest players are like this constantly, so the plot is always going back 5 steps back for every 2 going forward. You know what this means? This means that they have to spend episodes in the emotional wreck of the unlikeable character's lives because this is what the plot forces us. The director doesn't like going forward.
The characters who suffer the most for this are the women - from interesting characters on the first half they become passive and love fools on the second. (I didn't sign up for this, dammit (# o _ o)
This results in another week of a feast of suffering for the characters because events are being milked for all they are worth. I'm sorry, we have the 75-quota, guys ¯\_( 'u' )_/¯
I mean, I like to cry watching drama: I'm a big baby like that, but even I can't summon tears when even 60 episodes aren't enough to make the characters seem eye o eye in simple matters when they could just talk honestly with each other. Like han jiang and su yu nin. Or the muru father and first son. Etc.
Have you realized how weird is that? 75 episodes is enough to do the initiation of the characters, the big conflict and the resolution, showing us the characters and their daily lives, emotions, worlds and ambitions just fine. Instead, they are giving us reheated stuff over and over again.
Pardon my french but they completely lost the direction of the show in its second half. It's a trainwreck right now, wow.
That must be why if you glued side by side all the flashbacks that we are obliged to see again and again you would see that they alone are responsible for whole 20 episodes! I just... really want to punch somebody (p ° . °)_p
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TL;DR.
This is a too long series for the poor plot. The majority of characters are frankly unlikable but we are forced to watch them 60% of the time. The heroes suffer because this is a suffering feast. The women somehow degrade themselves into love fools who just do things for the men. The writers are slower than a beached whale because they drag the story so much that somehow 75 episodes are just enough to get to the middle of the story.
The worst thing is that the first half of the show was so great that even though I'm tired and I'm going to see how this ends because somehow I still like it more that I dislike it :')
Just saying that... If Han Jian and Su Yu Ning don't end up together, healthy and happy heads will roll.
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More? Ok.
Fuyao is a girl who you'll really like - she is amusing and she is strong, you feel like great things will happen to her and you will want to know what these things are going to be.
The series follows her journey as she discover more of herself and more of the world she lives in. The worldbuilding is not strong, but the character's life sure are. Since Legend of Fuyao begins with its strongest arc, the rest might seem a bit too slow - and that's because it really is.
What made me watch it till the end, I'm not going to lie on this one, was the actor Ethan Juan. I'm embaressed to say this, but it's being a LONG time that I had a crush on actor. I think its impossible to not like him. He is gorgeous, he is a great actor and his character - Wuji - is actually the most interesting on this whole show because he seems to be the one who always has a plan.
The drama started presenting Fuyao as our great heroine - and at the beginning she was - but for some reason she stops being one. She is still a great character, but Wuji literally stole the show.
What I don't like about chinese dramas is when things go south for a character they REALLY go south, there is not good moment between. But Legend of Fuyao does a great thing - Fuyao and Wuji are always together to plan how to go foward. Their open comunication made things really refreshing for the genre, and made the drama easier to watch. (There is also the great plus that is Ethan Juan smile)
A strong characteristic of this drama is its great soundtrack. I think I never skipped the opening, for example. The plot should be better paced, and there is an arc that is specially boring ( the Venga Gao one - poor actor is always chosen as the main character of the worst arcs possible ). Actually, you can skip it! Things thankfully get better after that.
When I first watched Legend of Fuyao I was completely hooked on its first half - I couldnt stop talking about it, and I dont even like this genre very much. So my rec is that you should watch its first half if you like fantasy, journey of life, emotional storytale, and pinning. Also Ethan Juan!
In sum: the first half is completely worth, it lags a lot at the middle and you can skip it, but the last 10 chapters were great. Ethan Juan is a god.
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It's not horrible, tho, since I watched until the end. Why is that? Probably procrastination - I had a lot of things to do. And I liked Psycho a little bit too much to make sense. Probably was Park Hae-Jin, and his natural charisma.
But let's go to the point. It might interest you that in this drama there are good fight scenes and no romantic stuff whatsoever. You could even put a "dude flick" label on it since it appears to be made for the "big guys" who are mainly men and cry just one-sided tear when the man-pain gets a little too much.
The main character, the source of most of my snickers, is so mainly in fact that he only drinks whiskey, doesn't trim his hair for five years, lives like a dog and/or beast (his words) and speaks only in frankly weird-ass metaphors that are just as deep as a puddle.
If you have already watched enough stuff from this gender you know just the type of character that he is but if you haven't; well, you might enjoy this drama a lot more than I did. In fact, I even recommend it.
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For those worrying about the plot, let me tell you this: you don't need to. This is a very stimulating dorama, quite different from the majority since its focus is not on romance (there's almost none) but on mind games. As the manga already had an incredibly good material to any possible game to be played in the tv show, I can say that you'll rarely get bored. In fact, the only period where the series dragged a bit was in the only original game that the dorama had -- the presidencial game. Other than that, it's nearly perfect.
The music is absolutely amazing, and that's all to say on that matter. The characters are more realistic than their manga counterparts, and are better portrayed as human beings. The lead girl (Da Jung/Nao) is kind and too naive at the beginning but grows wiser as the series go on, and the lead boy (Woo Jin/Akiyama) is very smart and reserved, but also a good person. There are of course many others worth mentioning, and at the end you like a lot at least 5 people in total.
The biggest difference that the korean version provides, and I believe what it sets it apart, is its main antagonist: Kang Do Young. He is the host for the Liar Game, a television show and not an underground event as the original, but he's a big player as well. He has the charisma, he has the looks, he has the intelligence to rivail Woo Jin, and more importantly (for all of the reasons) he has the psycho vibe. This dude is elegant and ruthless but it's his strained laugher that will make you truly uncomfortable (for fangirling reasons or not ;) Still, his true goals and story is like: woah! Did not see this coming, but I loved it! I just can't read the manga and not miss him anymore. Didn't expect this level of competence from the writers, I must say.
Well, I don't know if it'll have a 2nd season. It's said that they brought the rights but it's already one year and no new rumour so who knows? But I honest to God hope so. I mean. The ending makes you really, really hope so. The biggest wtf, I think, is that it had low audience in Korea...
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Great beginnng and end, boring middle
This is a weird drama to rate. The first episode is one of the funniest I've watched in years! The FL is simply put a bad bish, a really interesting mature woman who is a breath of fresh air in assuming her own spinsterhood "witchiness". Her shoes are to die for! The ML shines in his interactions with her, and more importantly: is a cutie bomb. All actors are great, really! The side characters are also extremely likeable.The beginning is amazing and the end is pretty good. But there is a pretty big flaw here: all that good humour goes away into the middle of the story, which became quite boring, and tries to pick up at the end but doesn't quite succeed. I think it failed to show the FL being vulnerable without dragging the story down. If perhaps hers and the second lead's plot evolved alongside some 'sexy' scandal at her job (she's a big reporter) it would be more balanced and less of a downer. At least the SL is good looking too.
Oh well, it's a solid seven.
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garbage
It never fails to amaze me how utterly imbecile xianxias can be, but this one certainly is unbeatable on all categories.Half the episodes are unnecessary fighting scenes that had more FX budget than a DC movie. I am not exaggerating. The other half has every annoying thing under the sun. It doesn't, however, have a coherent storyline.
Watching this is like suffering from an aneurysm and not knowing up from down, only confusion and anger. Be warned that the first ten or so episodes are nothing but a hook to lure you in an enemies to lovers story only... It's not really this. The heroine doesn't really love the ML and the ML is supposedly to be a villain but he is just a loser that got bullied so much he started to accept that his wife could bully him even more and shatter all his expectations (which is only one, no betrayal).
Do not watch this, its plot is ridiculously convoluted and nothing makes sense. Every cliche on the bingo card is included in the most anger indulcing fashion. The writers were truly outstanding -- they did misunderstanding elevated to new heights with this one.
I have never ever watched something so annoying in all my life. I was almost spitting blood like all the characters on all the episodes I had the unfortunate luck to watch. We need a tag for stupid storylines like this one so I could just exclude them from my searches.
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The actors are really good. Nobody acts bad. Sumire is incredibly beautiful and Momo is adorable. The plot could be defined sooner, but I wouldn't say its bad paced - it just makes some choices that I disagree, although they can be irritating at times.
Overall, I'm Happy to have watched. Its rewatch value is pretty high as it is a short and lighthearted drama, with an interesting concept. The OST isn't good, but the opening credits are amazing - never skipped!
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