Aliens + Costume Drama + No Time Loopholes

I feel like this is the most refreshing type of "time travel" drama of the past few years. The story line doesnt have any weird plot holes/effects (including things like time paradox or really much caution in it). I really like the overall acting cause it feels natural (the micro-expressions are all there where appropriate) and the seriousness and comedy acts are placed fairly well.

I wont give this a whole 10 stars because a lot of the jokes placements are not great/badly delivered and missing all that "haha" factors (for ex. the giant bowl of medicine, I know it was supposed to be funny, but it was kinda dryly delivered). also lost a bit of points because the last few episodes were really well put together, no rushed feelings, but i think it couldve gone on for about a couple more episodes to get that completed drama kinda feel, at the moment it's leaving a bit to be desired.

There is a season 2 to this piece (I am not sure if Season 2 is fully subbed yet)

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I watched this on the iQiYi app (with english subtitles) I get the overall summery/plot is really interesting and it caught me, but the execution was lacking. Li Wen Han has skills, but the script tried to murder him. The pacing of the series overall was questionable - way too fast on the key parts so it created some confusion, but was also too slow and added to my frustrations cause it wasn't done well. The love story is extremely lacking, I really tried to understand it but I was seriously saying "what the actual f***?!" in all of the episodes. The lead actress wasn't great at displaying sadness and hurt, the hair style really killed her because in a lot of her scenes the hair was in the way so much that I had no clue what she was trying to do.
I would rewatch this IF 1) it was redone completely with better scenes, hair, makeup, outfits, clear plot 2) it has at least 20 episodes (12 episodes was absolutely not helping anybody) 3) the characters have more complexity to them, because right now they are all questionably dumb (like they seriously had no idea what they were doing and was constantly messing up)

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This movie was quite enjoyable and definitely is a must watch for all The Untamed fans. Paul Yu (Wen Ning / Ghost General) acting is really surprising. I have never seen anyone that is still considered a new comer in the acting industry be able to pull off such fierce expressions and overall be able to throw out emotions that seamlessly. Zheng Fan Xing (Lan Si Zhui / Lan Yuan) got the chance to have a big role in this movie and he was also able to act quite well in it. I wish their company would do more promotion for these new actors, they have proven themselves very well already, I'm waiting on their new pieces.

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Usually, this type of drama isn't something I would really enjoy, BUT THIS WAS THE ONE TO WATCH IF YALL DONT LIKE WAR DRAMA! The story line is excellent, it keeps you invested (even though there are some down time/extended scenes that weren't too needed) and it throws you into your feels (the acting is really good). In my opinion this drama should've gone on for another 5 episodes or so (like, at least break 50 episodes). The chemistry between Gu Yanzhan (Xu Kai) and Xie Liangchen (Bai Lu) is amazing and pulls on our heartstrings. Plenty of laughter, tears, heartbreak, love, and action.

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This was awesome! The progression of the plot was well written (it moved a long fast enough without feeling rushed, but also had enough slow burners to mix it up). The acting was actually really believable (a lot of the main cast here are new actors of the time, so they had the right impact there). I am really excited for a second but honestly I dont get why people got so angry at the acting and overall story. I get that it may not have had followed the original novel correctly, but this was a solid drama. It really didn't lack much (it needs a dash of fanservice, but that's all) and it was entertaining. It's now 2020, I really hope Leo Wu would reconsider and return for the second season (if it will ever return for production)

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well-made remake

I think this drama was really well put together and honestly getting it onto netflix definitely helped with views in the intl market (loved to see more netflix partnerships/licensing, cause access is everything).
MAIN ACTING: the acting is a way is very believable. Chen Zhe Yuan was able to show the maturity that Xiao Yu has. Xiao Yu in my honest opinion is a very complex character, Xiao Yu is essentially a mastermind hiding behind the face of a child. Chen Zhe Yuan brought that out, his version of Xiao Yu was 7/10 mischievous child and 3/10 brilliant mastermind. It was easier to see and understand the character. Hu Yi Tian, on the other hand I feel like he has played this character a few times (I'm not really sure, not too caught up on his stuff pre-this/2020). He brought out the stick-in-mud aspect of Huq WuQue really well, but his version had the slightest hint of childishness. I think this made the character really well because as the story normally goes, Hua WuQue didn't exactly have any thing that resembled a normal childhood, so that hint of childishness made the character feel a bit more complex. I just wished they allowed more time to develop this aspect of Hua WuQue.
SIDE CASTS: I really enjoyed the side casts. They added seriousness where it was needed, comedy where appropriate, and cringey-ness where it was passable. They definitely spiced up the story and made it feel a lot more complete (since there was quite a bit of character development for the side characters). I really love the TomBoy character, I dunno why, they were just very entertaining bringing the "wtf" factors in.
FIGHT SCENES: i think the fight scenes couldve been better acted out or the way it was dragged out/editing couldve felt better. There wasnt much haste or excitement or fear/suspense coming from these scenes. It was appropriate, it was fine, but it couldve been better

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This is not a polished series. There are heavy flaws and the audio/editing teams are a big reason for this. We have sentences where there random volume changes that breaks the flow (think: "heLLO my name IS JACKson"). The fight scenes are reduced to trash because of there's slashing when there is no slashing in scene; mellow background music when it should be intense). I get that this is a webseries, but there really should be no way for them to mess up this badly. They did not do any of our XNINE boys justice. The editing/audio completely ruined this series and I had to watch it without audio in order to really see that the actors/actresses did well. The main cast is made up of actors/actresses who have little experience in the industry and honestly the editing team really made them look terribly the first couple of episodes (before I noticed).

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This drama is amazing! Xu Kai and Bai Lu have such great chemistry together. There were so many complex subplots in this drama, the actors/actresses did really well. I'm really glad to see that this drama brought together some old school gems like Liu Guanxiang (Luo Mingxian) and the younger idols like Xu Kai (Li Chenlan/Mo Qing). I think this overall was a great production. The leads are fairly new to the world of acting but they made it believable to the point that they've got a massive fanbase shipping them. The second cast was also really great, especially Xiao Yan/Shane. I watched this because I wanted to see a dark and moody Xu Kai on screen, but then I saw Shane and I was hooked more on her than Xu Kai/Bai Lu dynamic. This should definitely be a topic recommendation for anyone who are into xuanhuan/xianxia (or the general superpower vibes). Ending scene was questionable but it isn't the worst thing possible. Yes, confusing, but it didnt really affect the story so this got a whole 10

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The plot is extremely interesting. I literally could not even guess when or where the twists would happen and it kept my attention throughout the whole series. I'm really offended by the ending but I am so excited for Season 2. I have really high expectations of Zhang Ruo Yun (Fan Xian) and Xiao Zhan (Yan Bingyun) because these two characters are so complex and the actor did really well in portraying it. The casting was overall pretty good (some actor choices were a bit off/stiff), the music is great (I see you Xiao Zhan with that ending theme), lots of laughter and some tears.

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Stiff + Dry

The story line overall was really good, there wasnt any random plot holes arent an issue here and honestly overall it was well produced. the story has some really good twists and some easily guessed twists here and there (like i knew who the big bad was almost within a couple of episodes since introduction, but i didnt expect the ending)
the acting is extremely stiff. i love lu han's music but i really think theres a long way to go in his acting career. the ML and FL both have really stiff emotions. i dont feel like lu han did this role well because his face expressions werent well expressed. it was really stiff and dry most of the time and very rarely were the emotions expressed well. pretty exhausting to watch. gulnezer was also really stiff, i couldnt really tell her emotions apart because she just used a resting face expression for everything else besides the couple of smiles towards the ML. the romance was reallly forced in this piece imho.
supporting-main casts had more range and control on their face expressions so those scenes were nice to watch and felt competed than the leading roles' scenes. wu qian, zeng shunxi, and kido gao essentially had to carry the scenes that they were in. stuck it through because the story was nice and i wanted to see wu qians acting range (she didnt disappoint).

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Dont do this to yourself

Okay, so it is 2020, I watched this because I wanted to check out more stuff from Zheng Ye Cheng. I think this was a green era type of webdrama where the cast essentially just started their acting career/getting more early parts (I dont know much about the casts, but it feels this way). This is really what that notion about idol dramas really means. The stereotypical idol drama isnt really a piece that has all of these beautiful idols in it doing whatever in a weak way (essentially the mainstream idea about it nowadays when negatively critiquing pieces), it is actually a piece that fails in almost every category and is only surviving/existing post production because of the beautiful idols in it (definitely a more true idea for pre-2018 ish works, but should adhere to today's stuff too imho).
I'll start off with something good for now. The OST. That is a pretty solid OST, their voices worked really well together, it was easy on the ears and wow the boyish charm that Zheng YeCheng possess? 100/100! It's a nice song, I probably wont get tired of it for a while. The very basics of the story line: traveling throughout time to collect allies as part of a worldly game that can include life and death, victories and losses, love, hate, and regrets. Sounds really solid and entertaining, has a touch of possibly causing heartache, I'm all for it. It sounds like a manga/anime based thing (I'm not really sure if this webdrama is based off of anything though, cant see to find much credible information on it elsewhere). There is definitely some good comedic parts.
Onto the negatives.
Acting is a complete mess. Zheng Ye Cheng really carried a lot of the scenes because his acting wasn't as stiff as everyone else, and was written a lot more reasonably (like the actions, lines, behaviors, and mannerisms are all shown in a much more believable way; yknow as a main character and all). Some of the acting overall was executed in an okay way (pretty close to good, but a good couple of blocks from it). There was also a lot of hype and fawning over JUN (on youtube), but that character was just.... for why imho, I couldn't see what they wanted to with that character at all, considering it is listed as a main character instead of support/guest. All of the supporting casts' characters gave me more questions than I expected because the scenes weren't executed well and that won't be placed on them because they showed up for like 2 minutes. The dry acting and execution of the jokes were also done pretty badly by these supporting characters (about 10secs of comedic relief stuff was great in most episodes).
Onto production value. I don't recall reading much about this at all but I'm guessing they had money management problems and didnt know how much of their budget they shouldve invested into any aspect. They tried to fit all of the content of an average drama's 45mins into a 10-12mins slot (not counting the credits). This resulted in sonic escalation with editing and acting scenes in general. They cut so much and pasted everything together that each episode stays consistently confusing or causes whiplash because there was no introduction to the big event, it went straight to the big events. The lighting was also really bad? I think they used sunlight, because you could see the actors were actually pushing through not closing their eyes/squinting because the sun was shining directly at them. This is definitely not a polished piece, if they were able to extend the episode time slots to maybe 20-25mins/episode (without credits), I think this piece would be completely different and much better than it is now.

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Great for escapism

I WILL MARK WHERE SPOILERS START

This really is one of the finer escapism pieces I’ve watched this year. There’s no SLS frustrations. Main plot conflicts roughly last about 1-2 episodes. There’s plenty of crack. There’s plenty of swoon-worthy, butterfly feeling moments. It’s funny and fun. There’s Darren with his fringe up. Sebrina’s on her cross-dressing streak. It’s an entertaining piece to watch and just escape reality. It made me so happy while watching. I really suggest giving this a try and watching the first 3 episodes before thinking about dropping. The first episode is really rocky which episodes 2 and 3 fixes, chances are once you get past the rocky bits, you won’t be able to stop.

The OST has quite a few English tracks in the list. It's slow, mellow, and cutesy. Sometimes the English tracks can be distracting from the show, because it's not always fitting for the scene and the track's beat is much slower than the speed of the scenes.
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SPOILERS BELOW
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Darren plays a mischievous rich boy (Wen Bing) who loves playing hockey. He meets our female lead Sebrina (Sang Tian) while she’s dressed as a guy. Eventually she ends up at the same school as him, but she has to stay dressed as a guy to join the men’s hockey course/team because she got her enrollment for the women’s figure skating team revoked. He literally figures out that she’s a girl by the 3rd episode and all the shenanigans begin. He’s got plenty of annoying but loveable rascal-type scenes, where you will find yourself screaming about how annoying he was.

He has a weird form of face amnesia where faces are hard to recognize and the surroundings are also hard to see (but apparently his perception is top notch -- again no logic). If you need some explanation or something more tangible, just pretend he is extremely nearsighted and refuses to wear correcting glasses or contact lenses in order to keep his cool guy looks.

I have a lot of love for the side couple Cheng Min Jun and Coach Ma. Their relationship was really cute and entertaining. Coach Ma is one of those stronger female characters, she was in the hockey team when she was younger, so she was very much a tomboy and her love life was so sad that all the students knew. Cheng Min Jun is very cheap and mostly broke, he originally went after Coach Xue, but that fell out (I enjoyed their friendship and bonding over getting dumped as well). Coach Ma and Cheng Min Jun end up together and it’s announced that they got engaged at the very end.

Meng Na and Sang Zhan was a hit or miss for me. I mostly 2x-d Meng Na’s solo+ scenes because it was very much filter information you don’t need. I enjoyed this couple because every time they are together Meng Na is under some type of magical gravity, where she falls and lands in his arms or some other cutie’s arms (I want magical gravity).

There is no SLS, our second male lead was not potent at all. Wei Lian is very cute and I adore him but his SML script was not there to make us ship him and Sang Tian.

This is high in my rewatch pile, I will most likely rewatch this before or after my exams to relax and break the stress.

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This is not a polished series. There are heavy flaws and the audio/editing teams are a big reason for this. We have sentences where there random volume changes that breaks the flow (think: "heLLO my name IS JACKson"). The fight scenes are reduced to trash because of there's slashing when there is no slashing in scene; mellow background music when it should be intense). I get that this is a webseries, but there really should be no way for them to mess up this badly. They did not do any of our XNINE boys justice. The editing/audio completely ruined this series and I had to watch it without audio in order to really see that the actors/actresses did well. The main cast is made up of actors/actresses who have little experience in the industry and honestly the editing team really made them look terribly the first couple of episodes (before I noticed).

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