Disrespect of the novel

Summary: After watching dramas between 16 and 70 episodes long, this is a very sore disappointment at a mere 6 episodes. I get that it was supposed to be a miniseries but I think it's a complete disrespect to the novel itself. I've read The Ghost Bride novel (2013) so I know the storyline and was so looking forward to watching the show. I finally even got a Netflix subscription just to watch this drama. That said, I think it's a well-made show with beautiful cinematography, wonderful costumes, fun interactions between characters, good plot twist transitions, and catchy music accompaniment. It just needs to be a few episodes longer for everything to make better sense. My lower rating reflects not the quality of the show but the authenticity to the novel.

Details: Even though it's a miniseries, I didn't like that the filmmakers mishmashed 40 chapters of the original novel into an incomplete 6 episodes. The filmmakers took situations out of sequence, changed/removed characters, and squished everything into a quick resolution of matters. I also didn't like that they spent very little time on the romance between the two leads, gave more screen time to the second male lead, and painted Er Long as a mischievous and lowly creature. There were so many important things in the novel that weren't conveyed in the show, like the what Er Lang's true identity was (read the book to find out), how much time Pan Li Lan REALLY spent in the underworld (supposed to have been possessed by an evil ghost), and all that she had to go through to grow as a person. The one refreshing thing was that Lim Tian Ching was more handsome than I imagined in the book, and it was hard to take him seriously as a scary ghost. ^_^

Had I never read the book before, I would think the show was pretty good; although, they did leave a loose end about Er Lang untied in the last episode, which I personally think could have been nixed altogether. They should have took a page from K-dramas and made this series at least 16 episodes long. Hoping the REAL SHOW/MOVIE (respecting the novel) comes out someday...

Side Note: I couldn't seem to find the English translation for "ba ko si ka li" which was subtitled as "couldn't be better" in Episode 6. Is this Malay slang? Does anyone know?

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