Wanku Shizi Fei (2021)

An enjoyable watch despite many irritating factors

I have a love/hate relationship with this drama but decided to review it for a few reasons.

1. The actors did a fantastic job in portraying their roles.
2. The production was high quality with noticeable wardrobes quality and set design.
3. Most of the main characters weren't two-dimensional but more realistic and relatable despite significant limitations.

This drama's storyline is quite a departure from the original online novel that it was adapted from, so much so that some parts were unrecognizable. Some were good changes; others were questionable. I always wondered why scriptwriters chose to change so much of the original story that the value of the original work is lost? I would hesitate to re-write Louis Cha's novels because people love his wuxia story so much. That's how he became famous as a story writer. A scriptwriter is in no way a novel writer. Scripts are meant to bridge and adapt the storytelling effects between conventional novels/storytelling to movie production without losing the original, entertaining value of the story. Unfortunately, this is lost in this drama. I felt the scriptwriters lost their place and thought of themselves as authors of the story itself. Despite this significant drawback, the acting is still entertaining. The actors portray the characters in the drama well despite its limitations of character development and major story plot holes. The actors did a good job bringing it to life with realistic portrayals as best as they could.

I enjoyed the story despite some noticeable flaws in character development that felt illogical and rushed. I enjoyed the OST (but wasn't too happy that it was censored and copyright claimed all over youtube that most of it are not released). I'm impressed with Tong MengShi's acting and portrayal of the ML. I saw him before in Joy of Life and noticed him, but he had a minimal role in that drama. His role in this drama gave him more grounds to expand his acting chops. He brought the main character to life, expressing emotions in a restrained and controlled manner. The character itself wasn't complex, but his portrayal made it complex and interesting to watch. I couldn't say the same for the FL. In the first ten episodes, I found her portrayal annoying, and I was ready to drop the drama. Still, I persisted, and she eventually developed to become a more realistic and relatable character. I attributed this major dramatic annoyance to one part by the overacting of the actress and the other the significant departure of the script from the original novel. The character in the story was more deliberate, calm and careful than it was portrayed in the script adaptation.

Despite the significant flaws in the main characters, I found the supporting cast/characters immensely talented and rich with depth, which rescued many of the script's shortcomings. It made me root for the scenarios around the characters and invest in the drama. Overall, I still enjoyed the drama, and it was worth watching, but don't have high expectations of it in character development and storytelling values. If you're not that picky in this regard, you'll enjoy the drama.

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I can't believe I watched this entire drama. I found the main actress annoying in the beginning but decided to give it a second chance. It was briefly entertaining, but then things just stopped making sense. Everyone is in love with (or more accurately, obsessed with) either Yun Qian Yue or Rong Jing. Everyone wants to keep them apart. There's the most bizarre poison I've ever seen in a drama. I lost interest before they even returned to modern time, which felt like a different story altogether. Anyhow, sorry for this jumble of sentences that probably makes no sense. That's what the drama felt like as well.

Also, Ye Qian deserved better and the violence of what happens to Qin Yu Ning was too much.

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Great plot

I watched this drama with pleasure. The plot kept me interested all the way. I really liked the leading actors, specially Tong Mengshi. His performances are consistently good and I am looking forward to watch another drama with him in the leading role.

Unfortunately, the English translation was quite poor; one of the episodes had the entire subtitles from the next episodes. I am always grateful when I can see the subtitles, knowing that someone put an effort to prepare them. However, please, please, please make an effort especially where three is a drama worth watching.

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How to make sows ears out of silk purses.

This drama has been adapted beyond recognition from a well loved hit novel to the rage and dismay of its many fans. Nothing makes my drama bestie more livid than how this favorite novel of hers has been ruined. This drama's only dubious glory is achieving the hitherto impossible - making sows ears out of silk purses! It is shocking how something so exceptionally good could have been so completely and utterly desecrated.

This production is lead actor Zhang Zhixi's vanity project. Frustrated at being relegated to secondary roles, she secured the lead role by acquiring the script and proceeded to show the world why she does not deserve lead roles. Her portrayal of Yun Qianyue was so bizarrely schizophrenic annoying beyond words and just simply exhausting that I wished I would get amnesia to wipe her appalling performance from memory. If she were portraying a murder victim, I am quite sure the jury would return a verdict of justifiable homocide. The big missing scene was one where Rong Jing and the 4th Prince were fighting to see who could be the first to shove her off a cliff. Because unless their mothers dropped them on their heads when they were babies, no way are these two men falling for this bat-shit crazy imbecile.

This is actually a rather expensive production with a good director, nice sets and beautifully shot scenes. If only the silly harebrained actress had submitted to some direction and not insisted on her unfathomable interpretation of the story, this drama could have been as big of a hit as the novel was.

This drama must be the absolute worst of 2021 - it is so bad it is offensive. Don't waste your time on it. 1.0/10.

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Drama worth watching

I watched this drama three times over the last couple of years and it is one of my favorites. I thought the director did a good job of connecting the multiple scenarios. Parts of the story were humorous, parts were sad, and parts were unexpected which gave the story a nice touch to keep you interested. Thought the director could have done a better job in the last episode ending.

The actors and actresses did a good job of portraying their characters. Yun Qian Yue overdid the ranting and whining which was annoying. Rong Jing was able to show a more human side of himself that wasn't shown in the beginning. ML and FL had good chemistry, good match in age, and nice looking. In my opinion, this is Tong Meng Shi's best role and character he's done.

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