Showing posts with label chinese period drama review. Show all posts

Watch the #cdrama The Double - Did Win Jin Yan give us another hit ?

Sunday, 20 October 2024

The Double cdrama review on Happily Flawed Blog

If you are not fan of The Story of Yanxi Palace and Wu Jin Yan then you should leave this blog post and move on to the rest of your many open tabs. It has a special place in my heart because it was the first #cdrama I watched and never looked back. Now I will honestly admit, except for the Royal Feast, I have been unable to finish any #cdrama that she's stared in since then, so I was getting worried. Thankfully this year The Double was released, a #cdrama based on the novel Marriage of Di Daughter by Qian Shan Cha Ke

A period revenge Chinese drama about Xue Fang Fei, a young woman whose life takes a dramatic turn when her father, a wealthy county magistrate, loses everything during major upheaval and betrayal. Xue is saved by Jiang Li, the daughter of the Director of the Secretariat. She adopts Jiang Li's identity and heads back to the capital to seek justice. With the support of Duke Xiao Heng and a few good friends, she bravely faces various challenges, and works tirelessly to rescue her father and brother.

Apart from beautiful costume details and the usual majestic scenery, lets discuss what I liked about this drama...

The chemistry between the leads.

What brings them together? They are both seeking justice for their wronged family members. Wang Xing Yue held his own. Our expectations were high. When I learnt about the age gap between them, I admired him more for being able to come across as wiser and more authoritative on the screen. He is 22 and she is 34. They looked good together and I enjoyed all their witty flirtations.

The saying in the King's office

Our evil characters have some depth and back stories

I thought this was great! They took some time to tell us what made our colouful antagonists who they are . Both ladies ( Joe Chen and Li Meng) had a good story arc.... many dramas fail to do this. It was done extremely well because I felt empathy and sadness for them. Bravo to the talented actresses!

Men manipulated into submissive roles

Now I am not saying I liked this, but it made the drama interesting. It was discomforting, a husband (Liang Yong Qi) burying his innocent wife alive .... to a man forced to marry a princess to cover for her pregnancy when the baby did not belong to him... to a father (Su Ke) unable to recognize a stranger masquerading as his daughter. The men are manipulated not to believe that they are powerful but instead to know they are powerless. It all made for an a very intriguing story angle.

When Su ke's character realizes how he failed his daughter by being unable able to recognize her or honor her in death, I cried with him. Fantastic acting.

I never knew a fan could be such a masculine weapon!

There were some questionable moments in the plot line, for example I am still confused about the unnecessary deaths at the very end which I have decided to ignore.... still, an enjoyable watch...I highly recommend !!!

Is it on the same level as Yanxi palace? I don't think so but it is worth your time.

I watched it on Netflix but you can also find it on Viki as well. Comment below. Did you enjoy watching it too?

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Watch the #cdrama The Double - Did Win Jin Yan give us another hit ?

Watch Love like the galaxy - Our Epic 2022 Summer Period Idol Drama

Thursday, 29 September 2022

Love like the Galaxy cdrama review on Happily Flawed Blog

JUST IN! My cynical cold heart has lost the battle.

It's over . The white surrender flag has been raised.

I can't watch Chinese dramas without believing in a mushy lovey-dovey love that conquers all.

And this drama was the bestest.

Not the best but the bestest!

At first the title discouraged me. I thought it was a fantasy drama,

which is not my comfortable go-to, I am still discovering that arena.

A colleague at work said that I needed to watch it,

I am so glad I did.

Leo Wu's and Zhao Lusi' s chemistry is oooooffffff the charts!

The #cdrama has it's serious emotional intertwined storylines but what I enjoyed so much is how the comedy creeps up on you. Humor is skillfully crafted and used so wonderfully; your small grins turn into big laughs, not too often but in all the right places. The actors know how to play off the awkward moments. It's also so effortless how they flow from comedy to drama and back again throughout.

My New Absolute Favourite 2022 #Cdrama Couple

I already said above, that they were meant for each other. They are the best thing to happen to my cdrama laptop and tv screens in 2022. I also believe that this was made more incredible by how well they played their leading roles I saw and disagreed with some of the reviews that mentioned our Mr Leo was too stiff.

I feel Mr Leo Wu understood his character, and what a skill to be able to make us laugh while remaining in his role as a dedicated strategic warrior and leader tortured by deep internal torment.

Zhao Lusi played her immature, stubborn, playful character perfectly. The depth and the growth in the arc by the end was evident. Is she also considered a Mary Sue? Tell me in the comments.

The Father Figures

Honestly for what Bao Jianfeng (Emperor Wen) and Guo Tao (Cheng Shi) were meant to do... they were great in their supporting fatherly roles. They didn't over shine but there were so many memorable moments. Through laughter they provided wisdom. Sometimes we forget the Emperor was the leader of a nation; maybe that would be one of my minor criticisms.

The Empress and Imperial Consort Dynamic

It was other people that wanted them to hate each other, NOT them. From the few c-dramas that I have watched the empress is always feuding with an imperial consort or many consorts; they have to display loyalty to their family clicks . In this #cdrama, the love of Emperor Wen's life happens to be the consort and he made both palaces of equal status to deter negativity and competition. The Empress(Tong Lei) is a neglected wife but not in a physically cruel way just in the sense that she is a gentle timid soul who is alone in this arranged-marriage-to-secure-power-alliances dynamic.

The episode with the betrothal banquet was epic! We catch glimpses of the sharp bark and bite of Consort Yue(cao xiwen) in earlier episodes but this I felt was where her royal- rebel-for-good-in-the-palace nature really came out in all its full glory.

One Type of Mean Girl

To me the mean girls were ALL the same person. I often got confused.

This could have been decided on and done better; maybe by giving different coloured costumes, and maybe not having more than two targeting the female lead at the same time.

Avenue X is right, evil cannot just be one sided, there has to be a back story there to make it interesting and human. We need good character development on the evil side too please.

Special Mention - Two Interesting Love Interests

The soft one and the bully...

I was not a fan of the empathic Mr Lou Yao. (Yu Cheng'en) but he grew on me and their break up scene had me in tears.

Yuan Shen(Li Yunri) brought an interesting dynamic; his jealousy always festering in the background and fighting for attention with slick cutting comments.

Old Madam Cheng stole every scene

Overly-dramatic and unapologetic about it. I loved the commitment of Xu Di .

This Chinese drama is worth ALL your binge watching hours. I have tried very hard to not leave spoilers in this blog post that will take away from your enjoyment so please go watch.

You can view it on You Tube or WeTV . While watching or when you have concluded, do comment below and tell me your thoughts.

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Watch Love like the galaxy - Our Epic 2022 Summer Period Idol Drama

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