Dance of the Phoenix (2020)

Ne renaîtra de ses cendres...

Malgré les avertissements sur la fin, je tenais à vraiment le terminer. L'ai-je regretté ? Oui, mais pas uniquement à cause de la fin.

J'aime croire que les scénaristes avaient dans l'idée de faire une suite étant donné qu'il s'agit d'une adaptation. Cependant, n'ayant pas lu l'œuvre originale, ce n'est qu'une supposition.

Niveau personnage, on reste sur des portraits qui fonctionnent plus ou moins bien. Le problème au niveau des personnages c'est le manque total d'unité du couple principal, Feng Wu (incarnée par Yang Chae Yun) et Jun Lin Yuan (interprété par Xu Kai Cheng).
Yang Chae Yue ne m'avait pas laissé une bonne impression dans l'unique drama que j'avais vu la trouvant beaucoup trop théâtrale Ironiquement, c'est tout le contraire pour Dance of the Phoenix. Elle manque d'expression au point de rester stoïque la majeure partie du temps et donne l'impression de ne pas aimer son amant, Jun Lin Yuan.
En parlant de ce dernier, Xu Kai Cheng n'est pas exempt de défauts. Sa performance n'est pas mémorable et il semble faire acte de présence pour la forme.
Ils sont aussi raides l'un que l'autre et ne dégagent aucune source de sympathie.
Quant aux personnages secondaires, certains sont bons d'autres sont les clichés des méchants, mais cela reste agréable.

Côté histoire, le drama est agréable et possède de bonnes idées avec des effets spéciaux au-dessus de la moyenne pour la plupart (je rappelle qu'il date de mi-2020, certains effets d'aujourd'hui sont moins bons). L'intrigue prend son temps au point de trop le prendre...
Dès la seconde moitié, tout devient si lent ! Tout au long du drama, on sait que Feng Wu doit réveiller son maître - ce maître ultra-puissant qui peut sauver tout le monde. La libération arrive tellement tard. Et le maître... bah il ne sert pas à grand chose en fin de compte...
Et c'est ainsi jusqu'au dernier épisode qui est clairement le pire de tous. On reste avec des tas de questions et ça se termine avec une telle coupure que c'est à se demander si les scénaristes ont vraiment une fin ou si c'est une blague de mauvais goût. Pourquoi en arriver là ? Aucune idée...

À l'occasion, si j'ai la possibilité de lire le roman, je le ferai. En attendant, je reste avec mes frustrations.

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All is good up to the last few episode / ending

Story :
I think the main story was good and it was really engaging, really like the part however when it comes to the ending, it became really shitty. I couldn't understand what was going on. It makes sense but doesn't make sense in the way that it just doesn't come together. It felt like they didn't had enough time or money to put in the effort. After ep 20, things start to go haywire imo.

CGI:
Despite it being a show where most of it is CGI, I think it is pretty good. The CGI don't seem too fake like other Chinese movies/dramas. It doesn't look like a 50cent CGI. Feels like a good $2 CGI.

Music :
No Much comment, think it is pretty good. I skipped the intro song and ending songs because it wasn't really that catchy but suits the mood. I binged watch every week once it is fresh out of the oven so I only listen to it once or twice per few ep.

Acting:
I don't know how others view their acting. The ML does has a pretty solid filmography so his acting is ok. The FL, many people complaint about her acting. I think there are quite a few moments where her expression do not tell me anything, particularly towards the ending but overall, I still can stand her and I think she is pretty good looking. The chemistry between them offset feels more real than the chemistry in the show. I felt that at the starting that there was no chemistry and I wanted to drop but I continued.

Ending:
I really cannot stress how this ending is like BOOM in your face. There is no real meaning I felt. It felt like I dropped into a pit and had no way of coming out. Will there be a second season?? Open ending?? I felt like the last 10 eps are kinda waste. of time.
There is no proper ending to the second male lead and the main male lead. The female lead also. Who the fk this master comes over "Hey , I am here to fetch you" Go where????? There is no proper explanation.


There are a lot of questions that I have in mind and I want to know:
1. Where is the FL's real home/ real past?
2. What happens to the ML and second ML now that this FL is going to leave?
3. How the hell did the two side characters (Xwien Ei, Jaoke) came back when they were gone during the fight?
4. What is the master's story? How did he went into that ring and the coming back out didn't really make big sense.

As you watch this show, please remove all your doubts from your head if not you will be like ????

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Confusing and Disappointing

I was initially attracted to this drama because of its director who had also directed The Untamed. It has quite similar cinematography for some scenes, and the styling of some actors is also similar. I was very excited and thought it’s going to be another great drama just like The Untamed. I was pretty disappointed with how it turns out to be.

This is a rather confusing drama with lots of plot holes and flaws. There are many tropes. The editing is choppy and disjointed. I cannot even tell if the acting of the female lead is fine or bad because I’m not even sure if her acting is intended or simply just bad acting. Frequently the situations and the emotions of the actors are totally out of synchronization. The logic is inconsistent and befuddling at times, so are the inconsistency of the characters. The dialogues are simple and shallow. There’s hardly a plot, or rather the plot is so simplistic that the writing has made it confusing to try to give it some layers. It fails miserably. It begins to drag a lot half-way through the drama. I’ve almost given it up had I not wanted to know who Feng Wu (Yang Chao Yue) actually is.

I have to admit there are some really good scenes here with beautiful actors, in particular, Wang Hao Xuan. I love his styling and portrayal of the mischievous Yu Ming Ye, and his relationship with Jun Lin Yuan (Xu Kai Cheng). In fact, I find him to have more chemistry with Feng Wu than Jun Lin Yuan has with her. I also enjoy watching the second couple. And I really love the visual of Mu Jiu Chuan (Li Chuan) who is Feng Wu’s shifu, but unfortunately he doesn’t have many scenes. I also love the dynamics of the 3 childhood friends, and the funs they have together overthinking trivial matters, giving simplistic reasoning that leads to jumping into wrong conclusions. These are rather fun watch. The ending is not sad nor happy. It’s just it, and I've never found out who Feng Wu is and where she has come from.

Overall, I’m not at all impressed by this drama.

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One of the best Chinese movies of the year but....(Spoiler Alert!!!)

I watch all 30 episodes today from Wetv App. (By buy extra. Fast tract ep.21-30)
From the first ep. 1-20 everything almost reasonable, the chemistry of fengwu and Jin linyuan are perfect, the character of friends are great, funny,love, happy soap opera
So i am really like this fantastic series so much, the main role couple was cute and romantic and the bad friend that turn out to be best friends Limingyue i like this guys on the good thing he chose opposite to his dad. I love place of Jwin wu study place, there are huge and very beautiful and powerful place and they want us to see.

but there are some part that i don't understand and want to know the answer,
Some part that no reasonable in my opinions are list here
1. Why the movies dont show how real fengwu identity from past era (medical studant) transfer to chinese ancient high goddress? This is too fast to people to understand without imaging more. ( i heard that Chinese band jump to the past movies scene)

2. How her shifu(teacher)Mujiujow turn to sleep, powerless after they show us Mujiujow met New Feng wu, and then the stories cut.

3. Her another teacher (Wuxiaotao) ,he is good man for whole ep, but why in the last he killed another teacher with out mercy about one women, so sudden that they dont emphasizes reason properly and then died easily.

4.Second lead couple (Xwien Ei, Jaoke) died or not, why they just burst out and not died in the end, why Jaoke have sacrificed herself seem usedless, amd i still dont believe in this couple at all, how could Xwien Ei ok to died with her.?] dont like Fengwu and Jinlinyuan that they seemed love so much to can died for another.

5. Last 5 mins(last ep.ep.30) is disappointment for me, no reasonable, if Fengwu’s teacher ,Mujiujow. If he dont let her to marry Jinlinyuan, why dont told her before the marry was set, and how hurtful dont let Fengwu and Jinlinyuan marry and happy together in this era, because the Real fengwu can’t comeback anyway, why dont let fengwu happily together with jinlinyuan, they destroy the whole reasons that make fns want to watch thus movies in the last 5 min of the last episode 30.

About the music is not touch my ears,un like the other series like, the dreaming back to qing dynasty (Meng ta and another women song is so great), bubujingxing, eternal love musics are better than this series

I’ve just finished watch today and still pissed off.
But almost i love this movies so much , give 7/10 points
So you must must need to watch it. And come discuss ing with me.

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Update: I have completed this cdrama and still do not recommend it. Lazy writing, terrible female characters, boring love story and stupid ending with no sense at all. Wang Haoxuan deserved better. Hopefully he will get a main role in a better cdrama, fingers crossed.

--
Original review:

Spoilers upon ep24.

This is getting more and more frustrating as I am watching. The chemistry between the main couple is non-existent and unbearable. Seriously, why would you force two characters with absolutely NOTHING in common to be together whilst Yu Mingye has by far more chemistry with the female lead instead? Not to mention that Wang Haoxuan is doing an incredible portrayal of the soft-hearted villain we all love. I strongly hope that he will get a main role in a near future. He truly deserves it.

Regarding the drama itself, it was promising at the beginning, but the plot is becoming little by little a terrible example of lazy writing. All women are evil and stupid (except the ones that are friends with the female lead, of course), the plain male lead that falls in love with the female lead with absolutely no reason, the boring love triangle, etc. The actors are amazing, though. I am just sad that the drama is flopping due to terrible writing. Nothing to do with their acting skills.

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Good drama but ending could have been better

It would be a lie if I said I didn't enjoy this drama. Till the end the drama was enjoyable, but if you are looking for a happy ending then this is really not the drama you are looking for.


What I liked:
- The drama was set in a good pace. The story or any scene was not dragged.
- The acting was good
- I like the visuals and the sets.
- Most importantly I was hooked up to till 20 episodes and I enjoyed the story pace till the end. Like the last four episode was better.

What I didn't like:
- The main reason why I watched this drama was how in the plot its mentioned that a modern girl came to this world. However till the end Feng Wu never knew who she was or her master never told who she really was.
- In the plot it was also mentioned she is doctor but we never saw her treating anyone.
- I most disliked how the Yu Mingyue character was treated. He deserved better, I mean I am mad how they made him lose his arm.
- The ending well could have been better.

This week I also read the novel, personally I feel if they went same story line of the novel with drama's pace then this could have been one of the best 2020 Chinese drama.

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Second Lead deserved better; Poor Chemistry; Mediocre Storyline

My post isn’t gonna contain major spoilers from the drama, but I am going to mention the novel so I felt that I had to tag it as such. Please read only when you’ve watched up until episode 12.

A few months ago I got to know about this drama because of Wang Haoxuan and my faves from Produce 101. I was quite hyped about this drama so I decided to read the novel and look for updates everyday. Surprisingly the novel wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. The ML (Jun Linyuan) is a huge asshole to the FL (Feng Wu) so naturally I started to pay more attention to the second lead (Yu Mingye)

After episode one of the drama came out I was very surprised that it managed to be a lot better than the novel while being quite loyal to the source material at the same time. I watched more vip episodes and I started to notice that the drama cut out a lot of Yu Mingye’s parts to make Jun Linyuan more appealing, and honestly at first I was quite okay with it since he was supposed to be the ML after all. However as I watched more episodes I started to root for the second lead again since the chemistry between the main couple didn’t change at all. Sure in the novel Jun Linyuan didn’t have a “Loveless Pill” to justify his terrible actions towards Feng Wu, but they had the same forced interactions as they did in the drama.

I’m disappointed as to how they cut out so much of Yu Mingye’s scenes all because he’s supposed to be the second lead. In the drama he simply felt like a character that comes every 5 minutes in each episode. Meanwhile in the novel he expressed many times that he would always be there for Feng Wu. There’s a line from the novel that I liked and I really hoped that they had added it to the drama:

“‘Don’t you think that I’m a bad person?’ Feng Wu kept her gaze on Yu Mingye.

Yu Mingye darted an unconcerned look at Feng Wu. ‘Since when were you a good person?’

‘Good person or bad, you’re Little Feng Wu and I’m always on your side’”

It really showed how much dedication he has for Feng Wu. The second lead and the FL would have a more interesting love story than if the FL was with the ML. Even if Jun Linyuan’s character changed heavily in the drama his chemistry with Feng Wu stayed the same, forced and boring. Why exactly would Feng Wu fall for Jun Linyuan? And why does Jun Linyuan “love” Feng Wu so much? Wouldn’t it be more interesting if Feng Wu was secretly having special meetings with the enemy? If Meng Yuan defied Feng Wu’s relationship with Jun Linyuan and instead went off to be with someone else instead? Being with Feng Wu was life-changing for someone like Yu Mingye, don’t you think they’d be a better main couple? But of course they had to be loyal to the source material. I appreciate how they changed a huge part of Jun Linyuan’s character to make him a better ML. I’m sure they cut out the second lead’s scenes just so people wouldn’t prefer him over the ML but I wish they just made the main couple’s love story more interesting instead of pushing away a good character. If they can make Jun Linyuan a better person then I’m sure they could’ve made his love story a lot better too (but they didn’t).

As for the storyline it’s really not that good though not bad either. If you’ve watched a lot of cdramas then this one isn’t anything special really which is expected since it was adapted from a weak source material. However it is funny and a good series to watch to pass some time.

EDIT: just finished it; im convinced that zhao ge and zuo qingluan are supposed to be a cp but because of censorship they had xuan yi and zhao ge /hj

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Good but not something you'll watch over and over

A lot of factors are hard to understand and are left unexplained unless you read the novel version which I didn't.

1. How did Feng Wu end up in that timeline/parallel? What was she before?
2. Where did she really came from?
3. She learned from a medical doctor in that era, that doctor even has high regards on her abilities, she also sells medicine for the last couple of years (the people from the border knows about her and her medicine) but they didn't delve too much into it that whenever she pops up with medical abilities from some future episodes, it's kinda hard to accept. LOL!
4. Master and his cognitive/spirit? teaches original Feng Wu but this original was still defeated despite having phoenix blood and all those learning's
5. Master saved the world, loss most of his powers, slept so long and even recovered that spiritual something. In most cases he should have at least gained more powers but no! He becomes a weakling despite those power ups!
6. All the elders in this series are fucked up, especially the emperor, idiot doesn't care about the court thus when wife raised a coup his people doesn't mind that much aside from some side characters
7. Crown prince, no comment. LOL!
8. The set on some episodes kinda reminds me of The Untamed and Concubine Born Minglan
9. Somewhere half way thru the series, forgot which episode, an instrumental music was played as background that sounds the same as Wangxian from The Untamed (different instrument was used but the score is the same)
10. All female characters are great!

I feel sad for Zuo Qing Luan, jealousy can really cloud anyones mind.

Second couple Yin Zhao Ge and Xuan Yi, sacrifice seems petty after getting their lives back. Applause to the actors and actress who played this roles, very fitting

Justice for Yu Ming Ye! A girlfriend for Feng Xun!

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A good but not a good series

If you are looking for a happy ending, don’t expect to be ‘happy’ on this Cdrama. It was a bad ending with unclear execution. Episodes 1 to 20 were quite good, I love the ML since I loved him in Well intended-love . The FL is cute and witty and hoping to have a good and happy romance at the end. But...sigh*** maybe I expected too much because as I read one of the directors came from the Untamed and 3 of the actors here are also from the The Untamed. There’s a lot plot whole in the story, thinking if they are cutting the budget that’s why they didn’t give more time to explain the story.

Hoping for second season.

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This "happy ending" fan is not happy...

The story telling in this drama seemed to fall apart at the end. It seems liked there were so many thoughts but none were conveyed. I find a cliche genre can really only go a few ways for me to like it: 1) stick to the cliche to the very end, 2) poke fun at the cliche 3) have a meaningful twist that leaves you thinking... this one did none of these things.
There are MANY gaps in the story telling that it in the hind it was not coherent - small words - IT DID NOT MAKE SENSE.
I know that drama is make believe, but if you make believe about a a world at least be true to that world and your characters.
The ML and FL did not have the kind of romantic chemistry that I like. The second ML and the FL had had cracky interactions and I loved seeing them together. But even that story arc left me hanging. Then, if we wanted to force the story for the ML and FL ... why the ending?
It is getting a 7 because it is bearable and you can always watch the last 10 (12?) episodes on x2 speed.

If you are looking a drama to skip though , this is the one.

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