Meh...

This is supposed to be a campy, light-hearted sort of drama and it hits those targets ocassionally, but that's where the entertainment ends. Granted, this is not my type of humour, I prefer a battle of wits, satire and dark humour. The only thing I found marginally amusing were the references made with regards to the 21st century. While I thought the jokes were too lowbrow, my boyfriend enjoyed the humour because he wholeheartedly likes lame jokes.

Storyline: Since the plot is based off a 漫画, it is hard to really comment on the plot. I find animation and web novels to be too derivative. Because of that, I suppose it is average at best. It's been a long time since we watched this. I consider the plot to be unmemorable.

Cast: Right off the bat, I did not like Sandrine and it wasn't just because I thought she looked very odd and unattractive. Even if she had meant to recapitulate the animated/cartoonish portrayal of the character, I found her gesticulation and expression so overly exaggerated that it got on my nerves. This show could have used a better looking FL who could pull off being cute, because Sandrine couldn't. Another thing that bothered me is the inconsistent Chinese accent. This needs to be said! When we have a film whereby a French is portraying a British, the French has to learn to put on a British accent. Similarly, if you are Taiwanese and you are cast for a Mainland Chinese show, YOU MUST HAVE A PROPER CHINESE ACCENT! 东南西北, might as well have a fucking Indian accent! *angry* I've dropped so many titles because of this problem. Ok, frustration vented. My boyfriend and I agreed that of the two main leads, Xu Kai stood out in terms of acting. Although at times he had to behave comically, he transitioned from stupid to serious quite seamlessly. We also liked Xiao Ting, she made us hungry.

Music: Not really a fan of such songs but they're tolerable, possibly even good for the right audience.

Conclusion: I would have preferred a different FL and I may have rated it slightly higher if it was someone else. Otherwise, it's ok.

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I WANT 60 HOURS OF MY LIFE BACK!

One of the worst series ever! I wish I could blame my boyfriend for making me sit through this, but it was my mistake for letting him choose. Yu Hewei was the only redemption I got from this terrible series. No wonder the last 10 episodes did not get airtime in China, it is really a terrible TV series and absolutely nothing like the original. Investiture of the Gods is not my favourite, but this version is exceptionally horrible. I implore you to spend your time elsewhere.

Daji's portrayal is terrible and a miscast. Firstly, how are we to believe she is the most beautiful enchantress when the concubine is prettier than her? The actress does not come close to what you would imagine the most beautiful person to look like. It would have been more believable had she actually been possessed by a fox spirit and used magic, but no, they decided the fox spirit would function as a permanent fixture in Daji's residence. To make things worse they bring him back to life when he died, which lessens any emotional impact of the death. She also gets portrayed as a "smart" character but there are so many flaws in everything she does, you can think of numerous arguments to counter her statements. The dialogue was also not exceptional. If anything, it made her seem dumber.

Also, how did the King get bewitched? She has no powers! Yes, he is just a complete idiot, a total retard. Even so, at many points throughout the show, my boyfriend and I cheered the King on. We were sincerely hoping he would just behead Daji and Yang Jian so that the series would end.

Let's move on to discuss how useless Yang Jian was. Ironically, that's my boyfriend's name, so throughout the drama, I just cursed at how worthless he was. His obsession with Daji is completely unfounded since they grew up as siblings. Furthermore, how are we supposed to believe a strong love connection between the two when there are literally no instances of them doing anything together. Trying to tie them together with a stupid butterfly or handkerchief is simply lazy. The storyline is also so slow, it felt like forever between the back and forth obsessive "love". He never really grows out of this either, the character is stupid, boring and unlikable.

The first few episodes looked promising when Yang Jian was prophesied as the saviour. That quickly disappears very soon and never gets realised at all. Yang Jian does not come across as a hero, but a selfish cunt who just happens to have superpowers. Imagine him as a dick version of Superman, none of the personality just brute force. One would equate him to a high school jock, definitely not hero material.

To make things worse, he was given a single task to complete, to recruit 5 generals, none of which he actually completed on his own. The timeline is also all over the place, the recruitment was supposed to have lasted years, yet we just quickly get through it all in a few episodes. A majority of which, we see Yang Jian flying off to be a peeping tom at Daji's residence.

The ending was so abrupt, almost like they wasted time for 40 episodes and had to put together a semi-coherent ending in the last 10 episodes so that it wouldn't last forever.

The reviews here were so unreliable as that was where my boyfriend went to get information before deciding to watch this piece of crap they call a TV series. I'd rather spend my time on something useful like polishing pebbles. ?

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We finished it mainly for the gay scenes because we are a homo-loving couple. Rofl.

Storyline: It was neither visually stimulating, nor cleverly written. Predictable, uninspired and not memorable. I would say the plot is non-existent. Pretty much knew what was going to happen from the beginning. I have to add that we did not read the book, so I cannot compare between the TV show and the book. Unimportant or insignificant characters show up momentarily and are made to appear important, then, they are thrown into a labyrinth, never to be seen again. The way they introduced a ton of characters that made no impact to the plot annoyed me to no end.

Cast: The main leads were alright and had chemistry which was possibly the only reason we stuck with the show. Zhou Ye was terrible, I felt like I died with her during her death scene because her acting was so bad. Candice Zhao also drove me up the wall during the very few scenes she had. I am now convinced that I can only watch BL dramas because the women need to go back to acting school before they should be cast for any roles.

Music: I have not gone through the full list of songs, but the few songs that played in the drama were tolerable. Nothing outstanding.

Conclusion: Could have done a lot better given the storyline which was revealed within 3 episodes out of a 36-episode drama. Only watch it if you are bored to death with ML-FL shows and need a pair of ML-ML actors who can stare at each other with googly eyes for hours and hours. Since I take into account the type of audience most of the Asian TV shows are written for, I am already very generous with the scoring.

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A deeply disappointing piece of work.

Preamble: Rarely do I say this, but this was one of the titles whereby the acting and music surpassed all else. This is what made this a heartbreaking piece and the main reason I had to put off writing the review for about 6 months. I wanted to personally fire the screenwriter. Since I knew this was a highly-rated show, I wanted to give it a chance. The first 10 or so episodes were captivating enough to make me believe this would end up a good show. I mainly use C-dramas as background noise. There are only a handful of TV dramas I actually sit down and watch, I simply cannot believe I thought this would be one of them. What a waste of my time! After episode 35+ or 40+ (I don't remember precisely when the director decided to take a permanent holiday), I skipped past everything to save time. My time is more valuable to me than anything else.

Storyline: The story starts off good and with decent pacing, however, midway through the show, there is a major turn of events. The characters' intelligent dispositions get thrown out the window. Towards the end of the story, the audience wonders, what is the difference between having an IQ of 80 versus 150, if they are going to end up doing the same type of stupid shit? Why build smart characters and spend several hours telling me that if they are going to (collectively, might I add) make dumb choices at the end?

Cast: A lot of recent dramas have the worst D-grade acting one could only hope never makes it onto the screen. It's a miracle this was not one of those. I am both glad and dismayed that they picked such an amazing cast for this show. Since the show went downhill so quickly, had it been a terrible cast, I might have thrown my laptop against the wall. The only way I could have even stomached the last 10 episodes (even with the skipping), is because the actors did a great job. At the same time, the actors worked too hard and did too well, they did not deserve to be thrown into a ditch. The director and screenwriter did them a great injustice.

Music: The scores for this show is the other reason I put off reviewing this title for so long. I do quite like the OST, though not all of them. I knew I would bash this show given the chance; for the sake of the music and for the sake of the actors, I had to wait.

Conclusion: Kill the screenwriter, then the director, hang their bodies somewhere public to scare the other screenwriters and directors into making better shows. Fire all the other terrible actors, use this cast for all the other shows.

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A heartwarming tear-jerker that makes for a good watch when you have some extra time on your hands.

Storyline: Let's face it, it is a story about siblings based on a manhua, the setting revolves around high school teenagers, it will not be Shakespeare. Having said that, it did not bore me as much as many others do. Everyone who has ever had a sibling or have siblings will find this series very relatable. It has its comedic moments (although I would say a lot of that is overused), but the sad moments in this drama is what makes it memorable.

Cast: I have seen Zheng ShunXi in other roles (Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Sabre) where he really sucked. He had zero chemistry with the leading ladies of other dramas he has been in. In this drama, I was extremely surprised to see how well he performed. He is an amazing fit for this role. Although I agree with previous reviewers that the two leads portrayed a very classic sibling relationship, I found Sun Qian's character to be extremely irritating and immature. This obviously may not be the fault of the actress, but I could not help wondering if it would come across as less annoying if the part was played by someone else. The real highlight is that the supporting roles were played very well and the majority of the cast were likeable, which made it a very feel-good sort of drama.

Music: Not a big fan of the songs but they were not extremely awful either.

Conclusion: It is not a 'must' watch, I would only recommend watching it if you have some extra time on your hands. There are better shows out there.

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One of the better versions for The Legend of the Condor Heroes

Storyline: The storyline is as expected. I have never read the book so I cannot compare but I have been told the story when I was young and watched other versions. I think I much prefer this one to several others that I have watched.

Cast: Although I am not a big fan of how Li YiTong looks, she played the role of Huang Rong extremely well. Can't comment on her acting skills since I have never watched her in other roles. As for Yang XuWen, I could not tell if it was just his face or he actually played dumb, but he was probably the stupidest looking Guo Jing ever. Initially, I thought that he did exceptionally well playing dumb (almost like a Forrest Gump feel), halfway into the series, I got pretty annoyed by him. Meng ZiYi is pleasant to look at (and I like her in other dramas), but I found her acting as Mu Nianci to be extremely boring. The rest of the cast actually did pretty well, everyone was rather likeable and did a wonderful job portraying their characters. There were some portions that were rather slow and fillers that I wished were excluded, I probably skipped past some.

One of the issues I had with this show is the CGI and the choreography. This is a general description for all the modern wuxia/xianxia TV series', but is blatantly obvious in this one. The fighting choreography can come across as overly exaggerated and it almost seems like the cast members try too hard. I cannot tell if it is an issue with camera, special effects, skills or something entirely different. It just seems a bit unnatural. Otherwise, it was a decent series.

Music: I do not like any of the songs from this series. They are quite terrible. I am also not a big fan of Cantonese which made some of the songs unbearable. I skipped past every song in this show and I watched it in Mandarin.

Conclusion: If you're going to do the series/trilogy, I would recommend this version over the others.

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As close as one can get from a novel adaptation.

Preamble:
The best thing to come out of this series is the soundtrack, 意难平, 恨别 and I absolutely adore Bibi Zhou's version of 无羁 which makes me wonder why the demonic flute in the entire series sounded so terrible. Could they have not made a little more effort with that?

Review:
I have to admit, from the novel to the anime, manhua and TV series, the best would obviously have to be the book (even so, I only gave that a 4/5), the worst being the anime. The anime was lacking in emotions, some characters in the anime are completely unlikable, i.e.: Jiang Cheng. In the novel itself, Jiang Cheng was not irritating, he was always envious and had an inferiority complex, but he remained loyal and loved his siblings. He only turned on Wei Ying after the loss of his sister. The TV series makes up for this somewhat because Marius Wang is pleasant to look at, and he does not come across as too much of a prick (not to mention, I love his song). On the flipside, Wang Yibo comes across as too much of a one-dimensional type of actor. It would be nicer to see instances of a glimpse of a smile or something (like in the book), whereas, all we see is a semi-constipated face. He gets credit for one tiny smile towards the very end of the series. Meng Ziyi also plays a larger role in the TV series than Wen Qing actually does in the book. This is good for several reasons, there's too much cock and balls in this series, and I am so extremely glad they picked a decent looking female for the role, I would not have survived 50 hours of visual torture.

Now to delve into this series, on the surface, the acting quality, music and even the cast is rather strong. I have some issues with it but I would still advise people to watch it because it is easy to overlook some of the minor flaws. The reason for the high score is not because they were all exceptionally talented actors, it is because I saw a marked improvement for quite a few of the actors if we compared the beginning and end of the series. That's some unprecedented progress.

One of the main issues I have with this show is the portrayal of Wei Ying as being somewhat of a 'saint' or hero. This is the total opposite of the book (the real reason this was a standout xianxia book!), whereby the characters were less 'black and white'. Wei Ying was never framed by anyone, there are no true villains in the book, they were all unfortunate circumstances and bad timing. To clarify, Wei Ying did kill Jin ZiXuan out of anger and he did lose control. He also lost control at the end whereby he dies from the backlash when he destroyed half of the amulet (not due to Jiang Cheng). It is rather accurate to say that Wei Ying suffers from a hero complex (as pointed out by Jiang Cheng) and delusions of grandeur, believing wholeheartedly that he was capable of controlling demonic powers when no one in the past has ever succeeded, ultimately succumbing to it. To make it worse, seeing as Wei Ying did give up his golden core, he had a reason to use demonic cultivation. Au contraire, later when he took over Mo Xuanyu's body, despite the lack of cultivation, he could have practised, cultivated and used his sword. Instead, he chose to continue using other means which shows his lack of remorse and greed for power. What was the real reason as to why he kept the amulet, was it really for protection or for power? What about his refusal to hand it over to other people as well? Perhaps if he did not want to hand it over to Jin sect, it was understandable, but why not to Lan sect and then request for their protection? He could have handed it over to Lan Zhan since he considered him his 'partner'.

Again, this entire theme of moral ambiguity is a bit off in the TV series. Meng Yao is portrayed as more villainous in the TV series. In the book though, he is just ambitious and opportunistic. Although in the TV series, the general audience feels sorry for Xue Yang and Meng Yao, they still come across as villains. One could argue that although Xue Yang took an unorthodox approach for his revenge, he is no different than all the big sects who wanted to exterminate the Wen clan. He is also not wrong, no matter how many lives he kills, it is not the same as his finger because the finger belongs to him. If we extend this to more than a finger, such as a family member, then, the same could be said that no matter how many Wen clan members are killed, it will never return the Jiang sect's family members, so there was no real need to rid Wen Qing's branch. However, Xue Yang is portrayed as evil while the other sect leaders are saints.

Finally, although they did not blatantly kiss or anything, the protagonists had more chemistry in this show than most straight couples. As a result, this is one of the better Chinese TV series I have watched in the past year.

Conclusion:
Great series to watch with some acceptable flaws. Lovely soundtrack. Definitely worth watching if you liked the book, it is way better than the anime (to be fair I am not a fan of anime, I was dragged into it). Nevertheless, there are a lot of details missing which may be confusing for those who have not read the book/manhua. I would recommend reading the book first (in Chinese) before watching, you'll have a greater understanding and appreciation for the storyline.

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Another titular drama that deeply disappoints

My boyfriend and I discuss shows while we semi-watch them. Recently, none of the dramas has been interesting or good enough for us to sit idly by and stare at the screen. Thus, when a character is introduced on screen, we often predict where his/her alliance is, what will happen to the individual and the entire plot. Based on how highly rated this drama was, we tried our best to complete it. Episodes 1-5 were downright boring, episodes 6-15 were the highlight of this drama because this is when you are introduced to the supporting cast, the rest were predictable and truly not memorable. My least favourite characters were the protagonists. Throughout the entire drama, I felt no connection nor emotions for any of the characters (Lin Chen was my favourite and he barely had any scenes). Therefore, halfway into the show, my boyfriend played it in the background while he gamed and I worked.

Story:
This is probably the biggest reason why this title did not deserve so much hype. It was predictable from the beginning to the end, it did not help that the pace was so slow. The irony in this show was both amusing and annoying. The drama is named after Langya Bang, yet, it played almost no role in this story apart from setting it up. I found it irritating that the entire plot revolved around taking 'revenge', yet the protagonist is painted as a saint. The entire concept of exacting revenge on an Emperor who only did what all Kings do. It is as though this author and/or screenwriter has never had a history lesson. Despite throwing around words like 'ruthless' or 'cruel', the Emperor was none of those, he was a competent and selfish ruler, but many are. Moreover, it was clear from the beginning that the Emperor knew he had made a mistake, but one simply cannot change the past. As an Emperor, it was unlikely for him to admit he made such a huge mistake, this is normal and even common if we looked at history.

If we put aside the past, which obviously cannot be changed, Prince of Yu was the best candidate for Emperor. He was the most similar to the Emperor and hardly did anything one could deem to be too 'cruel'. It is a fight for the throne, he hadn't decapitated entire families or pillaged and raped, so what is the problem with throwing a few people under the bus for your dream job? One could argue that Lin Shu having thrown Jing Rui or the Empress under the bus is pretty much the same deal. HOWEVER, as a result of Lin Shu's meddling, we end up with Prince of Jing as the Emperor, who is just, but terrible in politics. I simply cannot imagine how he could rule. In the absence of Lin Shu, and filled with a courtroom of ministers with differing opinions, he is so inept that he would either crumble at the weight of the responsibility OR he would do what he wants (since he is so bloody stubborn), and is what he wants going to be the best for the country? One has to ask if he fits the bill of a ruler.

Prince of Jing is not very smart, he's not very good at planning or strategising, he's easily manipulated, even if by chance he was only manipulated in a positive manner by his trusted aide. If we were to boil it down to the real reason Lin Shu wants him in charge, it's mostly because of a he's-my-gay-bromance-and-a-good-guy sort of situation. Lol! It took his mother a mere couple of seconds to figure out that it was Lin Shu, and it took him well... THE REVEAL, to find out it was Lin Shu. Even as unbelievably stupid as one could be, seriously ROFL? Let's be frank, no one makes the good guy the CEO, you make the competent and smart guy the CEO. Why? Because that works. When you put all the puzzle pieces together, this is such a terrible political period piece because there was very little politics and almost no character development. Why anyone would call this title a great historical piece is laughable.

Acting/Cast:
This is the only redeeming factor. I have never seen many of the actors from this show, and one of the reasons my boyfriend and I had to rewatch episodes 1-3 approximately 5 times, is because of the lack of eye candies. We found none of the actors in this show physically appealing. Coupled with the slow pace and predictable plot, it was so difficult to focus. However, we held on and although I am deeply disappointed by the show, this cast did an excellent job. There were moments where the acting was stale or exaggerated, but otherwise, solid acting from nearly everyone.

Music:
A few decent pieces, but not crazy about the songs.

Conclusion:
A drag I had to sit through and would never rewatch. If you are into heavy plots and character development, skip this one. If you just need some decent acting because you are sick of terrible acting in C-drama, then, it's got potential. I was generous with the scoring mostly because of the acting, actors should not be penalised for bad screenwriting (or horribly misinformed authors who write mediocre novels).

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Classic teenage romance, not appalling, but also nothing exceptional.

Storyline: As expected of teenage romance, there is nothing too surprising. The storyline is predictable, the plot is non-existent, and the entire show is based upon an obsession. Although I really enjoyed the romance between supporting casts, I found the two main leads to be extremely boring. At the start, the female lead was tolerable (possibly even endearing). As the show progressed, she becomes irritating and ultimately revolting. Her character has zero development, which would not have been terrible had she started off with some personality. Unfortunately, she goes from an obsessive stalker into a horrible person who wishes the worst upon anyone that shows interest in her crush. Having 'love' as the theme of the plot, I find that the main characters have absolutely no understanding of what love is. Granted, they are teens and it is 'puppy love', it is still unrealistic and truly terrifying to think that some people consider this type of toxic/unhealthy relationship to be cute. My boyfriend and I started off the series with little expectations, and we were pleasantly surprised that the supporting casts were all adorable. We are currently staying on the series just for Lu Yang and Lin Jing Xiao.

Cast: Nothing much to talk about, they were all average. I do not think any of them particularly stood out in terms of acting. Shen Yue and Hu Yi Tian pretty much typecasted for their respective roles, there is not much acting to do.

Music: Again, the theme song is fine, there are hardly any OSTs for this show.

Conclusion: Great way to relax and chill, especially if your partner is a hardcore romantic. The show has its moments, it is not a complete lost cause. I would never rewatch it though. I would also never want to pick up a book by this author, simply because I would get frustrated by the sheer stupidity of the main characters.

Note: We have not completed the series, but judging by its current state and the pace of the show, there will not be much progress. I hope it gets better, but I would not be shocked if it stays mediocre.

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Literary massacre.

Since this is a remake, I was obviously expecting something fresh that would make this title stand out against previous ones. Sadly, CGI and choreography were worse than previous versions. All the other aspects fell short too, with acting being the worst. I couldn't bring myself to feel any sympathy for the characters because there was no reason to, they looked like puppets with no facial expressions.

Storyline: I cannot understand how a novel adaptation could be so badly written. You already have an outline, how do you fuck that up? Who are they hiring to write these? From the dialogue to character development to the actual sequence of events, everything was terrible. I could not find a single redeeming factor for this show to make me continue. Throughout, I was hoping it would improve, but it got progressively worse. Halfway through, I knew the only way to end the torment was to turn blind or turn off the show, I chose the latter and left my boyfriend to watch it on his own.

Cast: Not a single person on this cast could pull off their characters. XuDan looked like a doe-eyed, constantly frowning figurine, pouting throughout the entire show. Regardless of whether she was supposed to be happy, sad, evil, she looked the same. You could replace her with one of those life-sized sex dolls and no one would know the better. Just put some eye drops on the sex doll for the crying scenes and you're golden! If I had the power to extend my hand into the screen and slap some facial expression into her, I would. The ML was just as bad. I watched him in this role before his other shows, so he did not leave a very good impression. I have to say that he did well in the other show, therefore, I know for a fact that he is not the worst actor out there. It is simply poor directing, poor writing, coupled with poor development for the ML. I actually thought YuQi did quite well, but it isn't because she is a particularly outstanding actress. The rest of the cast did so poorly, she stood out as the best one.

Music: Best if one could just pick up the OST for this show without having to sit through endless, neverending visual and mental torture.

Conclusion: Dropped it, so make of that what you will.

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So bad that even though I only used this as background noise while I worked, I dropped it.

Storyline: I cannot comment much on the plot because I dropped the title.

Acting: Bad, so bad. Firstly, I want you to imagine pornstar level acting sort of bad, then there is Yang Zi which is an entirely new level. Her acting was so bad, I think she crafted her own level and unlocked the Bad Acting Endgame boss. Of course, if it was only her, I could have given it another shot. Deng Lun (having seen him in other roles) was only marginally better at this role. He was at par with his FL counterpart. The only salvation was Yun Xi, but even his charms couldn't save this show. I'm not even going to talk about the supporting cast cause what's the point?

Note: I even gave Yang Zi a second chance; I opened a clip of her as Madame White, in less than 10 seconds, I had to shut it. I was worried my eyes would stay permanently glued to the back of my skull with the intensity of my eyeroll. Holy fuck, she is incredibly annoying.

Music: Fine, I'll give you a 10, because I am feeling generous, only because of 不染, Sa Dingding and Mao Bu Yi.

Conclusion: Can we please hire proper actors? What happened to people who could act?

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Laughable CGI, terrible adaptation, bad cast

I chanced upon this drama and seeing that it is a new release, I decided to give it a shot. It is horrible and I am abandoning it shy of 2 episodes.

I do not understand why they picked a female lead to play Ne Zha. I grew up on such stories, reading and watching multiple versions of these. The newer adaptations tend to be awful and this one is no different. It is rather weird that Ne Zha starts off as a 'child' running around helping people. Normally, it starts with Ne Zha's birth. The lead also overacts and I really could not bring myself to like her. She shouts and screams, but shows little facial expression.

Prior to the show starting, the music blasted on my speakers (FYI, the music is also terrible), so I had to lower the volume. When the show commenced, I could barely hear them speak, so I had to turn the volume up again. From what I gathered, this looks like a low-cost production. There is terrible CGI, terrible editing and overall a plethora of terribleness.

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