Goodbye Mr. Shao (2023)

Get a grip please!

I have seen Circle of Love and that's how I came across this. While I absolutely loved "Circle of Love", this one was a weird chaotic mess! And that's not because its vertically filmed or is short length, there's just too many other issues with this series.

Let's start...

First, the editing.....omg! It was a hell to watch this incoherent havoc. To call the scene change "abrupt" would be an understatement. There's no chronology to scene change at all! Sometimes the scenes that should happen before will come later and sometimes the vice versa. It's like someone made a badly arranged collage out of recorded scenes from a full length drama. I have seen short length series before but we can't even call the episodes equivalent to trailers here because even trailers have some consistency. That's how bad the editing and by extension direction is.

Now, let's talk about story and plot. Story had potential, I would say, but sadly it never got realized. While the core storyline could have been engaging but the characterization was an utter mess. The character motivations and character actions make no sense at all. A person driven by hatred (ML in this instance) loses his hatred in an instant without any outer or inner impetus. Similarly, a person tortured (FL in this instance) falls in love in an instant without any lingering anger, hate or hostility even. RIDICULOUS! Rest of the characters? Nothing worth mentioning. The redemption arc is missing too. A 3/10 for story, it gets that 3 for atleast following the unconventional route.

Acting/Cast was good. Actors did good job with the script they were given. ML and FL had good chemistry, so cheers to both main leads actors for that. 7/10 for acting.

Production....umm...tbh there is nothing that could be mentioned. Show takes place in interiors mostly, even with a low budget they could have performed well. Not much cinematography, costumes or sets were needed, so let's not rate that because its not relevant.

Music/OST again its not something you will remember but its just slightly there to make the atmosphere. I found it a bit lacking tbh, so 3/10 for music.

Overall, this was a pain to understand due to horrendous editing. I do have habit of skipping a lot in full length drama, so imagine if it was incomprehensible for me, how hard it would be for a regular viewer. Final rating 4/10 which I feel sad giving since I really felt that core storyline had promise if properly executed.

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