A bumpy ride for me

Copied from my Viki account:

This series was overall just okay. The acting was excellent in many areas. I thought Esther Yu shined the brightest when she got to play the comedy up for her character. Vin Zhang seemed to be genuinely holding back laughter in some parts. However, the storyline and themes were a bit disorganized. The set up was kind of messy and unclear, which I'm sure is in part because some things seemed to be lost in translation. It hit a bit more of a stride toward the middle, though. It was stronger when it focused more on topical issues of beauty, intelligence, and the unfair standards and assumptions people can make about others—especially women. I felt like the narrative romance between the two main characters would have been stronger if the series focused in more on those issues as they related to Yu Meiran. They should have let Vin Zhang's character be more fallible in this respect to make the overall message stronger. Basically a missed opportunity.

But I think C-Dramas tend to suffer from these binary gender assumptions/roles a lot; there's an effort to challenge it, but so many times the writing falls back on this idea that 'men are smart and strong. women are dumb and weak'. Seriously, if I had a dollar for every time I heard a character say 'women are this way and men are this way'.... And even if you do have a 'smart and strong' female character, they become 'maiden-ized' to give the male lead opportunity to play his role as the chivalrous romantic partner. That's when I think they take an interesting premise and interesting characters and make it boring and lose the plot.

Lire davantage

A lot going on but interesting and worthwhile

Overall this series is pretty good, but does have a lot going on plot-wise that made it a little muddled in the middle. It did bring it home at the end and I was like, "okay, cool!"

I was interested in this series because of the two main leads; I think their chemistry as actors is really good from doing Cutie Pie and Naughty Babe. This series is very different in genre and style from those two works so that's a refreshing change, I think. However, I would say that there was a LOT going on for ten episodes—to the point where I was kind of hesitant with where it went. Once they delved into the gangster storyline with Tai and said that Tai's Original Universe Counterpart killed Kram's mother, I was like 'okay, you had me but now you're losing me.'

I really think that the story would have been stronger if they stuck with, and dug deeper into, the conspiracy plot and Phupha's murder instead of detouring into the Big Slum gang stuff. They do kind of set up the gangster stuff in the beginning, BUT over the course of the episodes it becomes a lot to go through when the main plot of Phupha's murder is already interesting enough to get us into the story. That being said, it could have gone either way. Mostly, my critique here is about the focus of the narrative. There was a lot of plot-points that are run through quite quickly and any one of them could have been developed more and stretched out to fill the story for 10 compelling episodes.

Now the supernatural/sci-fi element of going to an alternate universe was super interesting to me. But it didn't go where I thought, and I was a little disappointed. Not that everything has to meet my expectations, but based on everything that I watched, I really do think this aspect of the narrative would have been stronger if they used it to more thoroughly explore the conspiracy plot and reveal more about the characters than what we're led to believe from the beginning. Putting a character in a situation where everyone they know is now de-familiarized can be a great narrative tool to explore how the perceptions of what we think we know about various characters and events can be flawed.

Which leads to me to the Tai thing. I really found it hard to believe that Kram was so quick to think that 1) Tai was different and 2) not be scared of him anymore. Yes, in this universe Tai does not have a scar on his face, so that's a big difference. But, I felt like there should have been resistance and confusion on Kram's part to believing that this was a totally different person. Moreover, Kram believes that Original Universe Tai killed his mother, and I had to think this would definitely color Kram's perception of Tai in that respect. It gets revealed at the end that Original Universe Tai didn't actually pull the trigger, and Kram tells him that he started to think he didn't once he got to know the other Tai, which sort of comes unexpectedly. I wish that was a more prominent point that developed sooner so we weren't thinking the entire time that Tai killed Kram's mother in the original universe.

Then it gets into another arc where Kram gets sick. I kind of thought this mysterious illness had something to do with the fact that he's from another world, but no? That also felt like an odd detour plot-wise. And by this point, the series actually resolved the main plot of Phupha's would-be murder. So this kind of gets thrown in there to bring more tension to Tai and Kram's relationship and the fact that Kram has, up until the last episode, basically abandoned his original universe. What pleasantly brought it back for me was the final two episodes where Kram returns to his world and then Original Universe Tai ends up having to sacrifice himself to save him from this illness. It makes an interesting arc and parallel here seeing both Tais save Kram. So while this Tai is still a Bad Guy, he does end up getting a kind of redemption here, which leads Kram back to his better counterpart. In that way, I think the series did hit on what I was really looking for in an exploration of different sides of the same character.

I mean, all of this is just to say that I really felt like there were some missed opportunities to dig into what the story had already set up. By the end, I do feel like there was a strong point about these alternate connections between Tai and Kram, which did wrap up in a thoughtful and interesting way, but I still feel like that could have been made stronger with more development between them from the beginning instead of as much emphasis on Kram and Phupha. There was just a lot of other plot stuff going on, so I do end up thinking about all the ways the narrative could have been strengthened to make that arc more poignant and satisfying.

Overall entertaining and pretty good. Just fell a bit short, but that's okay and not a dealbreaker honestly.

ALSO. I'll just mention Pai (is that right?) goes through a whole dumpster fire of injuries in this series. I mean, he was shot, stabbed (multiple times???), tortured, had his leg impaled on an animal trap???? and then somehow managed to have sex with that other guy??? like, with a leg injury????? My dude needs stitches and a tetanus shot. That's all I was thinking.

Lire davantage

An adorable and hilarious series!

This series was so fun and genuinely had me laughing out loud. I absolutely loved the practical effects used, especially in those old-timey movie-esque dream sequences and the lore of the alien pig curse. I sometimes get wary of some fantasy in contemporary setting because they often end up being quite angsty but this was not that. It was appropriately absurd and sincerely heartwarming.

I also loved how they immediately went in like 'we know this appears to be another CEO/employee drama but' and then proceeded to subvert that trope in a number of ways. First, I was pleasantly surprised that Yang Xiaoyang and her friend were both appreciated for their ideas and skills. I also appreciated that the boss character wasn't just idol-ified. He was appropriately chastised for his terrible behavior towards his employees. This is one of those things that I loathe from other CEO dramas. If my boss was as much of an asshole as some of these C-drama CEOs are, I would quit and genuinely think that person was a sociopath. Being good-looking and rich is, like, not even a factor.

Another moment of subversion that I appreciated was when we learn that the Yang Xiaoyang is actually really rich; she just didn't know it! She apparently has this huge inheritance that her parents didn't tell her about. It was such a funny moment because I know that it was specifically supposed to subvert the whole rich man/poor woman dynamic and just immediately put him back down on planet earth next to her. It's not really about artificially raising her up, but instead being like 'yeah he's rich, but so what?'.

I also really appreciated that they decided to show how awkward it would be if you thought you HAD try falling in love with a person you don't actually know at all. It was only until they started trying to be normal about their relationship and working on getting to know each other as real people that things became less awkward. It was also refreshing to, at least subtextually, have this idea that it wasn't 'fate' or 'destiny' but rather a choice on both their parts to try and be together romantically.

My absolutely favorite piece of this was the curse lore as explained by his mother. It was so funny and absurd. I really think all curses should be like this. I will die on this hill.

My ONE critique would be that I actually wished we saw more of their just hanging out. I mean, there's a bit of a flashback in the last couple eps where she recalls the fun times between them, and I was like, 'wait, can we see more of that?'. Because we got the awkward forced dating but then I really wanted to see that they eased into being friends and stuff. Do they have fun together? What do they laugh at? Do they have a similar taste in movies or tv shows? What I do appreciate is that they showed that the two of them really worked well together. They found out that they have similar goals and then really played to each other's strengths. And in fact, the male lead was like, 'I can't wait to get to that sweet moment of making new products together'. That was such a great character moment I thought.

All in all, I really do think this was such a solid series totally worth watching.

Lire davantage

Here for this series.

Copying from my Viki account:

I give this series 10 though I have Thoughts. First off, let me just say that the chemistry between the actors playing Rain and Phayu was off the charts; they really brought 1000% to their roles and the romance. My main beef with this series, though, is that there are two separate narratives in the first and second half as a result, it feels more like two, 6-episode mini series that got squished into one. I really think they should have made two distinct series and then expanded each storyline to 10 or 12 episodes. Because I definitely would have watched more Rain and Phayu if there was more—especially if they gave us more build up to their relationship. It's very good as-is, (they really crafted a tight narrative and told it well) so I only say this because I really wanted more!! I liked it that much!!

The second half, I'm more lukewarm on. I appreciate how this series wanted to tackle issues of abuse and trauma, but that's really not the kind of story for me. Some people might have mixed opinions on whether the show did it well or not; I'll just say that I don't think there's one Right Way to portray these types of stories, because I know personally that people's lived experiences and feelings with similar traumas can vary widely. That all being said, while this part of the series wasn't for me, it definitely could also have benefited from being its own series with an expanded storyline to more fully realize its potential and have more space to explore those issues.

Overall, super fun and amazing series. Wish there was more!

Lire davantage