Reviews

Good production trying to re-spin a tired trope of glamourising toxic relationships

I give this an 8 out of 10 which is highly generous considering the subject matter - being made into some unique love story. This is mainly for the overall production quality. But overall, a very problematic drama which in essence glamourizes toxic behaviour and puts narcissistic behaviour firmly on the map. For watchers like myself, it's not an issue, as it's just a drama, but for younger impressionable audiences, quite damaging to see and think normal and even made acceptable.

Yet again, we are treated to "band-aid" relationships, where usually the woman is lowering herself to accommodate the man under the guise of being gallant and changing him for the good. Reality is, these types of relationships usually end in disaster and this story tries to paint over that fact. Even to the very end, the ML "buys" a property (a big life decision) without even consulting her. These are classic controlling narcissistic behaviours, with very little in way of seeing him change in in the final episode. The only change is the fact, he finally accepts the FL and end up in a relationship, again...scary stuff.

The acting is good, although I feel CFY is more or less acting like his real life character and not a far stretch to play a part like this, so it suits him down to the ground. JJY is the work-horse of the drama. Even how annoying she is to still hang in such a toxic relationship, she told the story well through countless scenes of humiliation and curiosity.

There were parts that dragged on. To get to the point, some episodes really did not need to be. The so-called baddie character played by ZZW was a bit weak, especially towards the latter stages when he was going off the rails were some of the most awful gurning and over-the-top nodding going on. You know something is wrong when you're giggling instead of concentrating on the actor's emotions.

Nonetheless, it's a decent drama, but the subject is not new and re-hashes that same old "only I can change this man's behaviour" trope to make female audiences feel more personal and special. I think that's more imaginary rather than reality.

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MASTERPIECE

genuinely, it conveyed to me what it is to fall in love, to truly and accidentally fall in love for the first time in adolescence, with all the pressure, exaggerated and uncontrollable emotions. it's all so well articulated and developed in the most human and beautiful way possible.

i deeply sympathize with each character, especially teh. i totally understand any criticism towards him for the behavior he had towards oh-aew, but at the same time, i truly believe that no one can blame him for the reaction he had.

when oh-aew confesses his feelings to teh and he realizes that he is in love and that everything he thought he was, is now a huge question mark, then he enters into emotional resistance, repression, and rejection of his feelings.

the great conflict is that they can't separate from each other, they can't stop thinking about each other, even when suddenly all communication is cut off and they completely ignore each other. and honestly, i love how this part is so realistic and raw.

when bas confesses his feelings to oh-aew, which, in my opinion, is one of the most painful scenes to watch, the overwhelming feeling of having lost the person you love and how lost you are without them.

throughout, we can see how teh lives to meet his mother's expectations. when he talks to hoon, teh tells him how scared he was about what his mother would think of him. oh-aew is always open about how he feels, showing that this undoubtedly comes from how he was raised.

the final scene is one of the most beautiful and touching things i have ever seen, and i love how every detail was placed. the fear of judgment is still a sensitive subject for teh, but it no longer stops him from loving who he wants to love and living how he wants to live, now both of them have the maturity and emotional stability to support each other in a relationship.

i can say that "i told sunset about you" has had a profound impact on me. i don't think i'll ever get tired of talking about any aspect of this show, and it will never be enough <3

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The worst dating show ever existed?

Man the pain i went through watching this absolute do sh of a show?
Like were did you find these people?
The women (excl one girl) are either shallow beyond belief or came here for the wrong reasons and not to find love. Like all of them were gooning for the guy who's a personality of garlic paste with prolly the worst resume carreer wise? There isn't one quality about him that's interesting, kind or even hot. Doesn't even know how to treat a woman, treated almost all of em like pawns incl his friends but for some reason these 3 ladies are all over him?
One old lady knows he doesn't give 2 squats about her but keeps hovering over him like i haven't conveyed him how i feel like every episode like "Mam, you've told your feelings like 1000 times already give it a rest" and the 2 other girlies didn't even look at the 2 real and successful and stand up guys with genuine feelings.
All these things make it very suspicious about the motives behind their participation in the show.

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TWILIGHT TOOK A QUEER TURN

This show sure has a lot, neither too good nor too bad but if you have watched shows like Guardian : The Lonely and the Great God, My Demon, the Twilight Saga and Originals and Vampire Diaries, when they talk about 1000 year old creatures and vampires you'd definitely have an image of what your ideal vampire in the 2020's would look like.

First thing's first, Mr. Vampire looks like he popped out of the 90's literally and he is still psychologically stuck in them, like seriously, have you seen his long hair tied back in an awful way, no offense, it looks like a cropped up wig.

And there is our student, I don't think he is as naive that is if naive is what they hoped he would be, based on the scripting, his emotions and somehat bland expressions, he seems pretty dense. I try but I just don't see the sincerity in his expressions yet which makes it look either overdone, irrelevant or merely forced.

But if I do not have to blame him since after all its a habit to get close to strangers even the least or most interesting ones at least to build a storyline from curiosity but I don't seem to hint at the intended first sight chemistry which in my opinion it seems the show is trying to promote as always.

And some Vampire stereotypes just don't hit it right, I bet many of you have watched Kissable lips, Sugar Crush Kim Ji woong is what you would expect from a vampire in the 2020s, Gong Yu is what you would expect from a Goblin in 2016, Song Kang is what you would expect from a Demon in 2023. Insecure about his nature, careful not to get the people they love and care about entangled in their unfortunate lives, dudes, these guys have it rough at the first time and it takes time for you to sit and dine with a total stranger however handsome they are unless they are were an idol.

No one has a perfect start for this rather Vampiric year since There's literally like about four Thai Bls with a Vampire Story Lined up and I guess I didn't dose through the initial episodes, at least the show is intriguing to watch and sure enough I can be hopeful that it will improve with time. The cast seems to be well chosen and the story somewhat interesting, all in all if the acting is heavily improved, it has a good potential

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It is Time to Wake Up from this Beautiful Dream

What a drama! Such a pleasant and refreshing surprise.

The story revolves around Zhang Yi Meng (Wang Ya Jia) who was Princess Yuan Zhi that lived in the state of Xi. The General came to take the princess whom he was in love with away from her upcoming marriage. Princess Yuan Zhi and the general escape the army pursuing them by both jumping off the bridge to the river below. Waking up, Princess Yuan Zhi finds herself in modern times.

Zhang Yi Meng, who lives in the present day, is convinced that she is a princess who has traveled from the ancient state of Xi. Her parents feed into their daughter’s actions of being a princess by allowing her to decorate her room the same as she had back there. Seeing that she is in this unknown world, Princess Yuan Zhi tried, but failed to make several attempts to go back to her time. Finally, her father takes her to see psychiatrist Dr. Han.

As she is by the lake, she faints, waking up back in the state of Xi. Everything seems familiar but oddly strange and why is that, because this is actually a treatment process planned for her by her father and her psychiatrist Song Jing Cheng.

Eventually Zhang Yi Meng figures out that there are cameras everywhere. She continues to play along but she is not the person who has the problem. It is her father. How about that?

Yes, her parents were actors. While filming one day, his wife, Zhang Yi Meng’s mother dies when she hit her head. Her father could not deal with the loss. He began taking medication which just exasperated how he was feeling. But with the help of his loving daughter who worked with everyone on set, Song Jing Cheng and Doctor Han they were able to help her father get the treatment that he needed.

You also will find the connection between Zhang Yi Meng and Song Jing Cheng. They both knew each other about 10 years ago as Zhang Yi Meng saved Song Jing Cheng from a fire. Both of them had been looking for each other for a long time. They were fated to meet each other.

I can only say that I enjoyed watching this drama and highly recommend it. You will find yourself amazed that this quick 11 minutes and 18-episode drama could have so much to offer. Which is quite a lot. It was nice to see how Zhang Yi Meng along with so many others help her father with handling the loss of his wife. We all have suffered losses from family to friends and we all assimilate differently and that is what happened here.

As the father, walks through the set and ends up at the bridge where his wife died, he 'sees' her once again. They smile at each other. He finally knows that the illusion and dream that he has created must be over and it is time to wake up.

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Not as good as BTTH Season 1

Now you understand why Wu Lei and Jelly Lin, plus the rest of supporting cast from Season 1 did not return for Season 2 of Battle Through The Heaven (BTTH). This is a low to medium budget drama, which relies heavily on special effects (FX), computer generated imagery (CGI), wireworks and fighting choreography to make the drama a roaring success. Unfortunately this C-drama does not tick all the boxes – the fighting scene particularly was horrible. The fight scene in the first 20mins of Ep 1 when the Female Lead was chasing after the Male Lead, and they got into a scuffle, gave the signals of what to expect from this sequel. My heart sank – this is not the series I was expecting after a brilliant BTTH Season 1.

I like the leading lady (FL) – Ding Xiao Ying - ever since I saw her in Doulou Continent Season 1. She is a relative newcomer with a lot of potential. The male lead (ML) is unknown to me – a pretty face with questionable acting skill. At least Wu Lei could act. All the other characters in Season 1 were better than those cast in Season 2. Baron Chan as Medicine Sage was better; Medusa too. The interaction and adventure among students at Jianan Academy during Season 1 was engrossing and highly entertaining. The same could not be said about Xiao Yan and his adventures at Jianan Academy in Season 2. The story line was bland. They even include a sickly Xiao Yan’s brother story line, which does not contribute anything to the overall plot. In short the acting, choice of actors, FX, CGI and the story-line makes this series unbearable to watch.

If you have watched BTTH Season 1, BTTH Season 2 will be an utter disappointment. If you watch it as a standalone series, it could be bearable if you don’t have other things to do.

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Don't bother

At first I was intrigued by the premise. A woman gets trapped inside of her own game, that sounded like a fun premise. But the more I watched, the more I grew disappointed.

First things first, the pacing. Pacing in all of these short web dramas are always a problem, but here it was hard to ignore. The female lead falls for the video game main lead so quickly that it felt incredibly unbelievable. I understand the male lead falling for her - she was doing and saying all the right things - but she knew it was a game, she knew it was code she developed, and she still fell even faster than he did? Where's the internal battle of "he's not real but he is to me"? Also, the male lead didn't really do anything to truly make them emotionally and romantically closer. It felt like they fell in love within a week and were ready to risk anything and everything for their love. Bizarre.

Second, the real world. What I had originally liked about this is that Fang Xi Mu wasn't fully disconnected from the real world as is the norm in many of these types of dramas. Her shi-xiong, Yi An, was constantly in touch trying to figure a way out for her, as well as helping her succeed in the game. But once she made it back to the real world, things got even more bizarre. It makes not one lick of sense why the company didn't sue the team for breach of contract and stealing corporate secrets. I get they decided to let it go so that they could still create a game and benefit them, but they could do that with any game designer? I don't know about you, but I wouldn't keep working with people who tried to steal from my company.

And what a huge case of second-lead syndrome! But our female lead did not care one bit about Yi An. Even when she turned up ready to take the risk, it wasn't because of Yi An, it was because of Hao Tian. He deserved so much better.

Just when I was about to praise them for having the semi-believable ending of parting ways because they're from two different worlds, the last few minutes of the drama twisted that on its head (though it is a bit of an open ending). It's not that I didn't want a happy ending, don't get me wrong. It's that this show tried to convince me that there were severe and intense consequences to certain parts of the game, but in the end there weren't. And I think therein lies my biggest issue with this show: it's one thing when a show doesn't take itself seriously and is just shallow enjoyment. I can appreciate and enjoy that. But this show tried to take itself too seriously and then delivered on nothing but air.

I wonder if a longer runtime could have saved this, or if the writers and/or directors don't know how to write a well-balanced story. But honestly, if you're thinking of giving this a try, don't bother.

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Definitely a good watch!!

Usually don’t write reviews but I had to for this one. Loved this show overall, the chemistry between the characters, the seemingly never ending subplots. The one thing that did throw me off was that it felt like the writers had too many ideas for this show and not enough time to fully flesh them out. Somehow they fitted a sci-if plot with a dying grandmother, an alcoholic father, and mother who abandoned her son and made a new family w/o him, a social media influencer plot, and way more into just 8 eps. Not to mention woongis character’s abroad boyfriend that was never spoken of again. Love for loves sake would’ve really benefited from something like 12 hour long episodes rather than 8 thirty minute ones. Other than the pacing, I would really recommend watching this. I was invested in the characters from start to finish and the guy who played yeowoon had my full heart. Loved his acting and portrayal of sadness, especially in the break up scene.

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This drama is perfect to feed your heart and make you smile ?

The secret in hidden love popularity is the warmth and the positive vibes that you can feel between the FL and ML , the lovely family and the chaotic brother ?
Duan jia xu found his home and comfort in Sang Zhi is so heartwarming ?
Sang Zhi drunk scene is the cutest and the funniest thing ever ?
Despite being a low budget drama the cast is brilliant and everyone gave great performances . The plotline , The writing are well done which led to get a huge amount of views and recognition .
Zhao Lusi as always never disappoint and she's the queen of chemistry ? and Chen Zheyuan smile is so healing ??

This drama is perfect to feed your heart and make you smile ?

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What a Ride!

I must admit that this series is an astonishingly sophisticated and complex story to navigate. This story may also be the beginning for the creation of fictionalized BL worlds blending video gaming with reality, an interesting new format to say the least. Since I do not play ‘video games’ and had no idea of the lingo or the rules for computer gaming, this was a challenge for me to traverse. I had to stop and find definitions to terms I am unfamiliar with, admittedly. Additionally, this series uses a combination of allegory, fantasy, and twists to realities in an almost Avante-Garde fashion. And the story itself is oblique and sometimes enigmatic. This is not your standard BL series by any means.

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