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an investigative, martial arts, love series filled with serious loopholes/flaws
i think parts of the challenges when producing this series as a whole are limited budget, deadline/s, story board design, the quality of creative story writing, directing, and editing. the series as a whole gives a bit of the impression like watching 80s era CDrama, but this can be misleading. one thing for sure is, this series has the actual potential to really standout and be bigger than the way it is now.i am unimpressed with the way the major murder cases and the unveiling of the truths and investigations unravel. there are many loopholes or cracks in the story and plots. lots of the so called analytical reasonings and the conclusions derived to solve the murder cases do not make much good sense to me. but it may just be a personal preference thing.
the story, plots, characterization, and dialogues tend to be more interesting separate from the episodes and segments dealing directly with the murder cases. episodes and segments dealing with the murder cases tend to be flawed from logical standpoint. these could have been written, performed and directed better to make the series truly standout. this series also suffer from certain segments that are not original. it is a possibility that good detective storytelling and good analytical reasoning processes are not the director and screenwriter/s strong points or forte. either that, or it's either the director screwed up big time, or the screenwriters screwed up big time, or both.
the string-fu (wire props) and martial arts choreographies are pleasantly enjoyable and can sometimes feel artsy. the quality of the camera/s used are pretty good, the ways majority of the shots/frames are good, too. but these alone would not suffice to redeem the overall quality of the series. i like the way the director and whoever are involved in the stage setup selected many of the natural environments, and also the buildings and city backdrops. on a minor note, there might be a few of the backdrop sceneries, especially involving buildings that appear to have been used before in other CDrama series, but i might be wrong.
one of the major letdown in this series is the arrangement and selection of background music/sound. often, they do not fit the segments and poorly arranged/selected, and sometimes can feel more like an annoyance. i feel the quality of the series as a whole would also be slightly enhanced were the arrangement and selection of background music/sound executed better.
several of the supporting actors' acting are affective and enjoyable. throughout the entire episodes there are several actors that perform as best as they could to portray and bring to life their respective characters. i actually think some of the supporting actors act their respective roles better and more consistently than the leading actor acted his. there are, of course, other supporting actors whose acting are inconsistent and disappointing. i feel that the acting and character portrayal of the main male protagonist become better in the latter episodes, especially starting from episode 17-18-19 onward. but you could probably observe some inconsistencies here and there. i am not too sure i am not particularly impressed with the main actor's acting in many of the episodes; perhaps, it is something from his eyes/gaze.
in retrospect, it is easier to sympathize and empathize with the main female character portrayed by the leading actress early in the series. the only drawback, perhaps, is that the leading actress's potential is limited by the director's skill/vision/experience/ability, the dialogues written by the screenwriter, and the extra guidance/mentoring for her to bring out her full potential in the series. part of me actually wished the main female protagonist should get more focus on character development and screen time.
ep 1-2, 1st murder case
Dialogue/Story/Plot/Acting/Set/Logic = C+/C/C-/B-/B-/D
ep 3-10, 2nd murder case
Dialogue/Story/Plot/Acting/Set/Logic = C+/C/C/B-/C/D
ep 12-15, 3rd murder case
Dialogue/Story/Plot/Acting/Set/Logic = B-/C/C+/B/B-/D
the last big murder case is less than an episode long involving the public style murder of Old Master Wang during the flash of thunderbolt explosion. i am not dwelling on the dialogue, story, plot, acting and set. but i'll give a C for the logic.
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As I began watching it, I was 110% drawn to the 2nd male lead instead, Zhao Wo Huan (played by Wang Yan Yang). As some people have mentioned, he gave me STRONG Xiao Zhan in The Untamed vibes. He's a skilled fighter, charismatic, playful but cunning, wears a lot of flattering dark clothes, and even physically looks a bit like him (albeit a bit more masculine). The 1st lead in this, Jian, is not as attractive in both physicality and charisma. He plays a very straight-laced do-gooder Detective and doesn't have very many layers to unpack. He is as he comes (so far). I like the more dynamic, more fun scenes when Wo Huan is involved.
As far as the plot- I'm only 5 episodes in so I can't say much. I will say I have a personal bias against closed-door whodunits and that's what it's felt like up until this episode when they finally ventured outside of the villa so we'll see how it goes.
Ep. 18 Update
I like the character development of both of our leads.
Seeing Jian lose his calm demeanor and get so shaken by Shi Qi leaving was a nice change from his normal stoic and rigid personality. Zhao has also grown immensely.
Ep. 24 Update
Overall, I enjoyed this drama for several reasons.
- The bromance and the 2nd lead overall, were fascinating and fun scenes to watch. I loved watching their bond grow and persevere through the different trials they went through. I also really loved that they both grew as people through their friendship.
-The OST is really nice. I love that it's mixed between the traditional Chinese flute you'd typically hear and more modern music, like Beethoven. The main song that came on whenever a scene played between our 2 romances is really pretty.
-The twist at the end. Very cool. Even though I didn't like the whodunit format this show followed more often than not, the twist at the end made me intrigued toward the next season.
-Have I mentioned how much I love the 2nd ML? Guhh.
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