mildly disappointed, but did enjoy

I went into this movie knowing absolutely nothing about it and to be honest, it was very lovely and simple- if only the writing had been as good as the overall set up was.

The first half of the movie was brilliant- childhood friends, a dubious friendship-toeing the line of romance and a less conventional ending when the female lead marries someone else- all established to the audience within the first fifty minutes or so. The humour slapped, I loved the characters and their dynamic, but after the first hour everything goes very quickly downhill.

I feel that although that at the end of the movie the overall message was "we experienced good times and that all that matters" it wasn't really developed upon and carried through the movie. I felt a huge disconnect with the characters on screen, especially Xu Yi and Gao Xiaonan, the movie very rarely disclosed any of their thoughts and I honestly felt that there was very little growth in the characters. Xu Yi mainly just narrated what had happened during the years as opposed to really reflecting on what he felt or understood from those moments. Like him settling for Xiao Yuan, or his move from entertainment news to documentary- which clearly had a huge impact on his identity and his self worth.

This problem of lacking a main central message also carried through to the way Xu Yi and Xiaonan's relationship developed. I feel like the movie could have been better if you could see a clear progression their friendship develop and grow until it tipped onto the edge of romance followed by a big blow up where everything ends. Instead, a romantic relationship between the male and female lead was consistently implied from the outset to the end, which to me, further muddied the arc.

However my biggest ick of the movie was the scene where Xu Yi and Xiaonan have their second big disagreement when Xu Yi walks in on Xiaonan and her ex boyfriend. The scene to me felt like should have been the climax of the movie, but because this cycle of almost being together as friends or more or anything and then splitting apart and being too scared to say anything about their emotions had happened literally so many times it just didn't feel significant at all. It just felt like another tangle in the knot of plot-points. Furthermore, the fact that this blow-up (like many of the other unfortunate events in this movie) was caused by a misunderstanding is just utterly bewildering to me. Xu Yi's behaviour here was also so out of character, up until now he seemed to be very open with his emotions and his avoidant behaviour made no sense to me- it honestly just felt like a piece of lazy writing- the only reason why this argument even occurred was simply because the people writing it decided it would.

In short, the movie was a lovely and fun watch but ultimately I was left wanting more substance. The ending to me was very abrupt and underdeveloped- Xu Yi's acceptance of Xiaonan marrying someone else was hardly explored. I also wish the overall plot was a little more streamlined and we were given in depth insight into the development of the character's thoughts and feelings- such as more reflective voice-overs from Xu Yi, who despite being presented as the main character from the start felt as alien as the more major side characters. Maybe more time spent on exploring the characters and less on repetitive plot points would have done the movie some good.

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Is the scriptwriter being serious or not?

Pretty Man... is a disaster. I don't even know what even motivated me to watch it through to the end.

I originally found this drama after finishing My Mr Mermaid, one of Dylan Xiong's earlier projects. It was my first C-drama I had ever finished watching, so I got pretty emotionally attached to it and was depressed when it ended. I was still sifting through my feelings when the YouTube algorithm worked up and recommended this... monstrosity.

It wasn't until 3 years later that I started watching it. It is a complete waste of time.

What completely slaughtered this drama was the terrible, terrible scriptwriting. Not only are the relationships between the characters in this drama low-key toxic, but the whole plot is driven by misunderstandings after misunderstandings. It's like the characters don't even know what the word 'communication' is. So many of the problems in this drama could be easily avoided if people just talked to each other- but then misunderstandings are the laziest ways to create problems! So I'm afraid the characters will have to forfeit their brains for now.
It was blatantly obvious that the scriptwriter didn't put much thought into the characters either. They are very 2D and flat, with baseless motivations and a black-and-white overview. The good characters are good. The evil characters are villainous just because. No explanation for their behaviour, they're just evil- that's it, and that made the drama even more painful to watch.

I'm not sure what the financial situation of the drama was, but at first glance, one can guess it's budget was probably very low- which would have impacted the script as well as the overall quality of the drama. The sets were not well-made at all; the wedding between Qiao Anhao and Lu Jinnian literally took place in a car park of sorts.

It's just such a pity that the script turned out the way it did as the actors in the drama did have some sort of potential. I feel like it was a bit of a miscast to cast Dylan Xiong as someone as cold as Lu Jinnian. He is a natural when it comes to soft, fluffy moments but he simply doesn't give off the 'high-up and cold' aura that Lu Jinnian was supposed to have.
Another actress I thought did well was the actress for Song Xiangsi, Zhao Yaoke. In all of her dramatic scenes with Xu Jiamu were executed very nicely, especially her crying scenes. In general, she can portray more intense emotions beautifully- hopefully, she'd get casted as a better-written character in the future.

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Pretty, but boring

The Legend of the White Snake first caught my eye because of the beautiful opening ost and the incredible set. Everything is just so pretty! The sets are so lush a pretty, though albeit unrealistic but either way- very pretty- which is kinda expected when produced by a large company like iQiyi.
And given that iQiyi has produced quite a few hit dramas like Legend of Yunxi which also starred Ju Jingyi, I thought I might give it a try.

I was pretty disappointed. I've always prided myself in being able to push through dramas all the way to the end, but this one- sorry just no. It's not worth my time, thank you.

First and foremost, let's start with the acting. The acting is obviously the most important part of any TV drama, that's something anyone should know. Even though Ju Jingyi's acting is not horrendous, it's rather empty, you really don't feel the emotions she is trying to portray. But Bai Suzhen's character was already rather bland to begin with. To make matters worse, it's the same with Yu Menglong. And to make matters even worse, the two lead actors have zero chemistry. It's just problem upon problem.

Whoever was in charge of casting- I have no words.

On the bright side, however, I feel the character of Xiaoqing ( Bai Suzhen's sister-figure and best friend) was pretty well casted. the actress did manage to successfully give Xiaoqing that edge of spunkiness and fun. I also understand that she also gets her own romance arc later on... from the snippets I saw in the opening OST, it looks okay. It's my loss I guess.

The script, when compared to the casting, is slightly better. I rather enjoyed it when it came to mystery parts. But when it came to characters, it fell flat. The villains seem rather typical, their motivations were pretty typical and the two main leads' characters are probably the most typical of the typical. But I suppose that kind of has to be blamed on the original storyline.

In short, it's boring really. And dare I say it, the production company seemed far more interested in earning money through aesthetics and looks rather than the raw quality of the story. So I'm dropping it. I'm bored.



NOTE - Ju Jingyi's acting has improved since Legend of the White Snake, I saw her in the Blooms at Ruyi Pavillion and thought she did an okay job, the character of Fu Rong really amplified what she was strong at. Plus, she was collaborating with Zhang Zhehan again (who's acting is *chefs kiss*) and they share some decent chemistry.

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