Reviews

Yibo's acting is sooooo good and the production quality is insane!!

I have watched 3 episodes and so far I am LOVING this drama! The production quality is amazing! and you can tell the director is soooo talented at his craft. The theme might look boring, because this is a republican era spy drama but the drama is absolutely not, there's not a single scene where you get bored. The plot is very interesting!!

This drama scenes is so artfully shot, you'd think you're watching an art film. The music is impeccable, the camera quality and cinematography is fire! Me as an art film lover, I am so mesmerized by director's work in this drama.

But my most favourite thing about this drama is Wang Yibo's acting. I have been his fan since the untamed and I have watched all his works. Up until now, his best performance was in Hidden Blade and One and Only and he has gotten many prestigious nominations for Hidden Blade.

But I think THIS performance is his best till date. His progress in acting is visible and he is sooo good here, you'd think he's a trained actor, not an idol turned actor. He is one of the very rare Chinese actors who has natural acting talent. He deserves many many awards for this!

Highly recommend!! Please give a watch!

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CULTURAL APPROPRIATION PRESENT

so no one's gonna talk about the dude wearing the dreadlocks? that's cultural appropriation and I'm a hundred percent sure that they have no understanding of what it signifies. If you wanna education yourself on this topic... search up the origins of dreadlocks and rastafarianism. It's crazy how when koreans or white people wear dreads they are considered beautiful and bold however, when us black people wear them they are considered "unprofessional" and "dirty". We looking past these simple yet huge things in dramas can lead to a greater damage. Please re-evaluate yourself if this dosen't affect you slightly.

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yumi's character is a bit problematic as of the latest episode (3). IMO!

first of all after reading the webtoon I was really looking forward to this series. I don't know if I'm the only one thinking that way, but right now I just feel like yumi's somewhat relatable & similar to how human’s are irl but also lowkey rude & unlikable (which is also understandable cuz they're testing her so much lmao), I kinda like her the least atm tbh (I mean her role as yumi & not the actress herself ofc) apart from ruby that little annoying shit hahaha, but everyone else is fine, I guess we’ll see how everything is gonna turn out cuz it’s still only the 3rd episode, everything can change in a matter of seconds in the future episodes~ ^^

everything written above is just my opinion, so u have to watch it yourself to form an opinion :)

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IT IS ACTUALLY REALLY GOOD

I started watching for Max and Tul and i'm honestly loving it because it's not school based. An actual BL show where the men are not in high school. They actually have jobs. Yes! The bar is this low lol. There's mystery around the show but i'm just in episode 3 so i'm still figuring it out!

Can we also talk about the theme song in the beginning?? i love it so much! Gives me goosebumps!

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I started watching for Max and Tul and i'm honestly loving it because it's not school based. An actual BL show where the men are not in high school. They actually have jobs. Yes! The bar is this low lol. There's mystery around the show but i'm just in episode 3 so i'm still figuring it out!

Can we also talk about the theme song in the beginning?? i love it so much! Gives me goosebumps!

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Historical drama is not my cup of tea because I know how twisted the story of a historical drama. I tried to watched this because I miss Ji chang wook but oh my gosh I am so dissapointed in this drama..I have no complain about the acting of the artists. I knew this drama was very popular and loved by so many but not for me I guess.I didn't liked the development of the three main lead.

Empress ki started with a good storyline but after episode 8 I started to get bored and lost my interest. Empress ki getting on my nerves honestly. Haha... I just hate the idea that because the empress ki was the main lead what she done were right and what the others done were wrong because you're the main lead. For me all of them are selfish even the empress ki.

Empress ki-started with a strong character and ended with a twisted character and her unclear feeling was really annoying.

King-goody-goody character.no more no less

Emperor-he is my favorite among the main lead he is selfish and childish but he know what he wants. I just hoping that he became a strong and terror character in the end but I am still satisfied to his actions to the people betrayed him but I am against that he killed the king. In my opinion if he killed the king he should killed the empress ki. Hehe... But I liked the punishment he gave to the empress ki when bayan killed, the emperor exiled the  empress ki, that's the best decision of the emperor that ever done because he stand to his belief. He proof that even he was just a puppet of regent, to his mother and also to the empress ki he still the emperor and no one's can opposed him..
Honestly I didn't liked the empress ki character because of her twisted feeling of the two male lead. In my opinion she both loved them in different way but less in romantic. She loved the king more on admiration and she loved the emperor more on sympathy thats why her feeling with the king and the emperor always unclear because the truth they were not her true love. Haha..

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Chinese immigrants in Thailand during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China era

Disclaimer:
First of all, this review is clearly articulated. It was orignially a journal as I recorded my feelings after watching each episode.
And on the morning of the 26th of October (GMT + 8), I woke up. Though I was extremely tired, I had to wake up to attend the jurisprudence class on VooV meeting on 8 o'clock. In order to gather consciousness, I picked up the phone and wrote a few sentences on the 7th episode.
Later on as the class lasted for about an hour, I got a notice from Douban (the simplified Chinese platform where I initially posted this review) that this article contained information that violates the law or might harm the public interest. So it was removed from the public sight. Now it's only available to me.
Thank you, Douban, for not deleting it completely.
I just paste the text here because currently I'm too busy with the academic assignments that I can barely spare any time for translation. If I'm going to continue this journal, I will use English instead.

Main body:
10/26 EP7
这一集里大夫人的形象丰满了很多：指在她看到宋先生祭奠张先生时，问张先生能力好，办事可靠，这么多的优点，都抵不过他是断袖的事吗。
这一段我相信她是在试图说服着什么的，直到听到宋先生斩钉截铁的回答后，她目光坚毅，似乎能让人看到一串文字描写：阿Lee坚定了要隐瞒Tian是断袖的事实。
Jiu去刺杀那段笑死我了，怎么杀手大变采花贼。

Another point that really gets me to LMAO is the board that reads “五龙商会创始人。”
The Song Family goes to Chunburi to worship the ancestors of the family and some old acquaintances of the 5-Dragon Association. In the scene where Mr. Song expresses regret in front of the memorial tablet of Mr. Zhang, a board hangs at the wall which writes the pioneers of the Five-Dragon Commercial Association.
But how come the characters are arranged from left to right? And it even has a full stop!

10/20 EP5-6
看到马爷派Jiu去刺杀少爷那里我激动了：快让狗血来得更猛烈些吧！
一度以为本片的走向是丧尸片，尤其是吃蘑菇那段…
主线还是商战，马爷挪用商会的钱倒卖咖啡一事败露，宋先生把咖啡业务与新开的棺材业务暂交晓彤姑姑管理。这一幕与第一集开头那幕高度对称，从拖证人上台到对咖啡业务的讨论，只是三十年河东三十年河西了。隐隐中传达出来的是宋先生对十二年处理事务态度强硬逼死了义弟的后悔。

10/14
听到Tilly birds去年十一月出的歌until then，评论区有很多悼念Tangmo姐姐的。
才发现mo姐的身世其实和二太太很像，不知道是不是这个原因才选她来演。二太太是被父亲为了抵债嫁到宋家去的，没想到戏外演员也几乎被交易给富商，因为宁死不从而惨遭杀害。

2022/10/13EP3-4
一顿午饭一顿晚饭追平了更新，怅然若失倒没有，反而是心满意足。

一、弟弟的人设是完美的！
我一边看一边和舍友感慨：
阳少爷拿了探春剧本吧！（在亲妈和大夫人争斗的过程中，阳指责母亲，维护哥哥）
阳少爷拿了汉密尔顿剧本吧！（阳劝郡主，如果是被强迫成亲，那就应该反抗，“还是说你愿意为了金钱、为了优渥的生活出卖往后余生的幸福？”）
演员Tongtong本身眼睛圆溜溜的，有点像猹的演员，尤其是和贝贝演对手戏时，衬托得更像猹了（大笑）。
总而言之阳少爷就是一个大狗狗的形象，有点皮有点贱，但心地善良。
尤其那段阳回忆过往种种，猜到哥哥性向一事，演员红了眼眶，很有表现力又不过分。他一把抱住哥哥的时候，我觉得这个地方编剧已经把“收着写”这一招用到极限了，他这一抱，再一问“哥你累吗”，要比大夫人种种“我都是为了你好”的解释更能让人感受到爱意，难怪说兄弟情浓于水。
而且这一段真的刻画出了阳这一角色的机敏过人，与善良体贴——这么大的秘密在手里，他第一反应是心疼哥哥憋得累，这一点和阿东就是花开两朵各表一枝。

二、泰国可能没有冬天
但宋宅里有维瓦尔第的冬天。(10/26 comment: Sorry, I just discovered that the background music was inspired by Vivaldi's El Verano
古早泰剧BGM一直给人一种各家都共用同一个BGM的感觉：“你难道没有自己的BGM吗？”
但是新剧讲究的都挺讲究，动用管弦乐队的也不在少数。
第四集偏向于恐怖犯罪片的风格——果然泰国导演都有拍恐怖片的梦吗（笑）
情节围绕下人阿东展开，他偷听到大少爷是断袖的秘密，于是向大夫人勒索，大夫人起了杀机。
从作案后的第二天早上开始，进入了剧本杀的推凶环节（推指推锅）。二夫人直觉很准，跳预言家猜到了真相，但苦于没有证据。大夫人不说话，贴身侍女Jian与二夫人斡旋——这是一种身份地位的强调，被大夫人侍女顶嘴，二夫人一句话也说不得，二夫人的陪嫁丫鬟此时更要闭嘴。
大夫人侍女的手脚很麻利，几乎可以说是实现了一场完美犯罪。阿东完好无损的尸体被找到，身上又揣着工钱，人赃并获，这时大夫人才开口，用死者死了对谁最有益这个理论把嫌疑推到二夫人身上，意思是杀死阿东嫁祸给大夫人与天，才能推儿子阳上位——大夫人把自己摘得很干净，明明自己才是最受益的那个。但还是把笨蛋老爷骗到了。
这场推凶中有人没说全，三夫人说看到了二夫人，却未说关窗时看到了大夫人——她目前不知道真相，但为了保护大少爷考虑，可能二少爷后期悄悄调查时她会说出此事。
再一点是中了虫毒的尸体会尸变，这也是下一集里剧情的点。

三、白蛇传爱情故事
天少爷和Jiu的故事是放在白蛇传的框架下来讲的，天少爷像白素贞一样下山来到不属于他的市井生活中，他屡次示好，Jiu却以两人不是同一世界的人为由拒绝，有点人妖殊途的感觉。
但是我希望结尾Jiu不要像许仙那么渣😭法海只是外部因素，这部剧里的困难可能内外交加，不需要再来个法海了。
最后盲猜宋先生不会是Jiu的仇人吧🚬

10/12
先生这个剧虽然才看了一天，但真的让我好上脑…不，我的意思是上头。
虽然确实也很想出门吃火锅涮牛上脑😅
很久没有这种上脑的感觉了…

EP1-2

初见的镜头分析与老中沉重父母情

昨晚循着喜翻的解说去看了预告片，激动得半夜睡不着觉。
今天午饭时开始看，前情对于背景的介绍非常自然，比如大夫人给天少爷介绍五龙会成员——这一幕既是给未来要继承家产的小朋友做orientation，也是给观众介绍。
可以看出编剧是接受过专业训练的，剧本工整，出彩仍需1％的灵感，但是那99％的努力都做到了。
发现还很适合做dirty work的时候看，宅斗的节奏提高了我的搬砖速度。
吃完晚饭收拾东西的时候正好看到Tian和Jiu初遇，这是我唯一一段没有三心二意、好好看的片段。
首先镜头通过大少爷的视角，从两位顾客间的缝隙里窥见了捏糖花人的口、鼻，又越过她们头顶看到了他的眉眼，又多看了一眼才看到全貌——分开打量了他的五官后，少爷就已经动心了，五官拼凑在一起，1+1当然大于2。
接着少爷去拿现成的糖花，（一个激动）摔碎了，他局促不安蹲下去想捡，但是摊主淡淡地告诉他没关系，又给他现做了一朵糖花。
第一次见面，就送花了。
最后的回眸一笑，少爷也忘了身份贪婪地多看了几眼。转过头来，还是笑得一脸不值钱。而另一边的摊主，也望着先前顾客的背影出神。
看着少爷拿着两根棒棒糖走开时，我内心：这不得甜死🥰
还有个很触动我的点是大夫人因天少爷的性向担忧不已，这是中国人特有的“父母之爱子则为之计深远”。Tian反驳称母亲根本不是为了他着想，她只是不想被二夫人比下去，不想失去内政大权。
一下子让我想到《血浓于水》里Pete的妈妈，来自香港的王小姐，给妯娌下堕胎药，原因是为了争取自己的孩子能成为家族长子。成年后的Pete发现这个事实后大崩溃——父母再怎么为孩子考虑，孩子也不会想背负这么沉重的罪孽——妯娌因流产抑郁，上吊自杀，鳏夫也染上酒瘾，终生郁郁寡欢，退出家族酒店业管理层。
你很难说天少爷和大夫人谁对谁错，只能说在资源嫉妒匮乏的情况下，天少爷确实得如大夫人所言隐藏性向，可能才能过上外人眼里的好日子，即继承家产。
what if天少爷可以run away，毕竟宋先生本身就是下南洋的侨民，流浪与润对于天少爷而言想必也不是一个陌生的话题。
如果我是天少爷妈，我可能会想，怎么才能把他送去一个不以他的性向为禁忌的环境，当然这意味着我可能永远都不会再看见他。但父母之爱子，则不得不为之计深远。

关于译名的一些碎碎念：
好像官方海报里稚嫩的“先生”二字是一台给的官方中译，原谅我现在一看到这俩字就get haunted by 《东八区的西八们》…
不过确实คุณชาย就是先生、绅士的意思（坤คุณ好像是对无爵位人士的敬称，柴ชาย做后置定语强调性别为男）。“深宅绅士”是一个补充了细节的译法，比“短袖先生”这个版本更含蓄一点，有中式恐怖的元素在，还押上头韵了。
但是单单“绅士”“先生”信息量也很丰富，让我想到Great Men Academy《亲爱的绅士》那部里最后Tangmo退出比赛，被媒体追问是否因为同性恋身份暴露自认称不上绅士，Tangmo反问评价一个人绅不绅士和性取向有关吗——这一点和第一集张先生自杀前怒斥宋大哥仅凭张喜欢男人一点就否认他的全部价值打破下南洋兄弟结义也是吻合的。
在My Dramalist上看到英译版本是To Sir, With Love，不知道是官方的还是民间的——MDL上很少有民间译名，出于便于检索的目的古早泰剧的英译标题基本上编辑者都用的音译。这个英译让我想到布里奇顿家族里Éloïse那一部：To Sir Philip, With Love——主要讲的是小E通过乱写信认识了一个叫菲利普的鳏夫。先生第一集里张先生被竞争对手抓住的马脚也是给爱人写的一封情诗，不知道大少爷之后会不会给抗日杀手写情书。
这个to sir还让我当年看到莫里斯结尾和苏格兰场一枝花（青年版）时的那一丝亦可赛艇的精神又被勾起来了，不知道大家能否get到……
我真的好喜欢比较剧名的翻译，是一种guilty pleasure了。

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Why!!?!

Okay, so apparently China is into making dramas with hot guys that has a HUGE red flag to his personality. The ML is rude, possessive, arrogant, selfish and a creep. Alsp. He's a dirtbag for thinking he can have keep the girl AND get married.
Again Luo Zheng decided to continue to play the rich, prideful and emotionless boss. I don't find it cute or romantic when your BF treats u like trash but ur dumb enough to go back to him after some cheesy lines and couple drops of tears.
GUYS, DO NOT IGNORE THE RED FLAGS IN A RELATIONSHIP! DOESN'T MATTER HOW MUCH YOU LOVE THAT PERSON, YOU WILL REGRET IT!

The acting is mediocre, both actors have little to no expression. They are glaring at each other half the time with almost hate in their eyes... where is the love? I'm watching this show to spot the red flags, thats it. It is too slow, with mediocre acting, dubbing and music. So rate it 3/10

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One of the best period dramas. The chemistry between the leads is so compelling.

I have never been addicted to a Chinese drama before and truthfully this is the first time. Part 1 was already amazing even though some would say that it's a slow burn drama. I love how slow it is. As always, acting is on point even on supporting characters. Indeed, this was one highly produced drama. The casts of this drama will never disappoint. The story is also unpredictable. I always wonder what will happen next. The romance between the leads is great. I love how the scenes between the leads are not exaggerated just to justify the theme of romance. I love how even their small talks can bring such a natural chemistry between the two. Moreover, the exchange of dialogues were also well-written and thought through. This one is by far one of the most romantic period dramas I have watched.

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"A Rollercoaster of Romance and Suspense"

"Lovely Runner" is hands down one of the most romantic dramas I've ever watched. The overflowing love between Sunjae and Sol is just too adorable to handle. Sunjae's constant devotion to Sol, never letting her slip from his mind, melts my heart every time.

And let's talk about Sunjae's second-hand embarrassment – it's like watching a cute puppy trying to impress his crush. Every awkward moment he faces just adds to the charm of the show. And the comedy scenes with the whole family? Pure gold. I couldn't stop laughing at their antics.
It was a decent watch, offering a strong chemistry between the lead actors and a fair share of romance. For viewers craving sweet romance, it's a perfect fit. However, it didn't quite hold onto intensity and suspense like some other dramas. What I predicted in the fourth or fifth episode turned out to be the main plot twist.

But what really surprised me was how second lead steps up to save Sunjae – talk about unexpected heroics.

From high school sweethearts to a married couple, "Lovely Runner" takes you on a journey filled with love, laughter, and a hint of danger. It's a must-watch for anyone who enjoys a good romantic drama with too much romance 😜

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on 1st episode it seems going good but after 4 episode i thought story is remake of ten mile of peach blossom where mo yuan sacrifice himself to seal monster then his brother appear and marry to qian here zi xuan sacrifice himself to seal water monster then a person appear lord xu his appearance is like zi xuan and white snake roaming around him the story is full of rubbish thing and exaggerated it can't hook people from initial may be it take time like 15-20 episode but i'm not interested to wait for unnecessarily going story FL is dumb annoyed house of foolishness irritating

people watch entertainment thing to rest/enjoy from stress in daily life that kind of drama are over time task for people

may be it go great after many episodes but its my assumption there is nothing else rubbish

i will not recommend this who don't have patience and lots of time to waste on it

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An Urban Romance Between a Star & An App Developer

Exploring the Twinkling Universe of “City of Stars”: A Fresh Perspective!

So here I am again, ready to dive into another captivating journey within the realm of Thai BL series. “City of Stars” beckons with its promise of intertwining technology and human connection, drawing me in with its intriguing premise even before the opening credits roll. As a seasoned enthusiast of the genre, I’ve learned to appreciate the nuances of storytelling, and this series seems poised to offer something truly unique.

Read the complete article here-

https://the-bl-xpress.com/2024/02/23/city-of-stars-first-impressions-ep-1-2/

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