The Ghost Bride (2020)

i've never seen a Taiwanese drama like this before. it was fun and funny without taking anything away from the dark creepy bits. it's visually stunning while at the same time keeping you very grounded in reality. some of the effects were a little cheap looking which was disappointing compared to all of the things they pulled off wonderfully.

i love the female lead. She's smart and determined without resorting to over the top "strong female lead" tropes.

the acting is pretty good but there are moments where Lin Liu Di shows he's not as good as his co-stars. it throws off the vibe but not much and not for long.

i love Chris Wu but here he feels a touch miscast, or maybe it's just the direction or his performance. the character seems to have wanted to be animated and lively, but Wu's portrayal is muted and occasionally joyless.

still a great drama though.

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This drama would have worked better as a movie

I chose this drama based solely on the poster, thinking I would get some suspense/horror/mystery drama…but I didn’t

The first three episodes were so slow, I almost drop it.

Nearly every character is so one-dimensional, it’s painful to watch: the plucky FL is plucky to the end, the suffering but righteous SML is righteous to the end.

The only character that I liked was the antagonist, but his only saving grace was the charisma of the actor who played him .

Chris Wu is another bright spot, but sadly after being used as a comic relief for the first few episodes, I wrote him off as a viable love interest, so when hints of a romance with the FL appeared, it felt forced and unnatural.

Practically the only characters that have a hint of complexity are the mother of the antagonist and her daughter, their confrontation in ep 5 was a breath of fresh air, unfortunately the emotional layers of these characters appeared too late for me to really care.

Finally, the "big revelation" comes and goes so quick that it leaves no impact whatsoever, and neither does the defeat of the antagonist. After all the built up of the mystery, the real killer basically outs themselfs in such a head-desk moment... and the last trace of goodwill I had for this drama went up in flames.

This is the classic case of a drama that doesn't know what it wants to be, it doesn't have enough horror elements for the genre, the mystery was mediocre at best, the comedy fell flat, and the romance just wasn't there.

The soundtrack made me want to fight whoever was in charge.

In short, a good drama to binge if you're reeeeeeally bored.

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