Jin Xin Si Yu (2021)

Failed attempt to recreate the magic of Ming Lan

This is a sleep fest. The story if existent is boring . Lady protagonist , although does things behind family’s back , most of the time lying and has hidden agenda, is a very strong ethical character( or so we must assume). It looked like they tried very hard to make it look like Ming Lan . Lost patience after 30 episodes. It has no story . Female lead was a disappointment both in terms of acting and the character. The lead characters have no chemistry. They tried to build up suspense of the female protagonist’s mother’s murder and it was a long stretch. She could put Sherlock Holmes to shame.
Well that was my take. See if you like it.

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Back stabbing women...

Ok...this drama isn't my cup of tea..I watched this because of Seven Tan...she's a great actress. But oh boy....I can't stand it when women back stabbing, bad mouthing each other just to gain favor from the husband they share. 4 wives, mother in law, an over bearing mother, jealous sister Er Niang (not to mention a brother and sister in law at the same premises), inserted their influences with their charm or devious act or authority to this poor guy the good general Xu Ling Yi - he's overwhelmed. I guess he made the bed and he need to laid on it....no wonder he look so tired in every episode with the full house of women bickering. I guess Seven Tan was the recipient of all the bad vibes, defensive fort to stand guard against all strong willed and crazy craved women...so I gave up. In my opinion, we don't need to watch all these bad s**t characters and be the judged who's better than the other. Sorry....

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World of drama difficult to live in and even more difficult to watch due to poor writing

I finished watching it thanks to the fast forward button and the actress playing the female lead, who gave good performance and was quite captivating.

The plot drags on unbearably, full of inconsistencies, absurdities, and worn-out clichés. On one hand, we see a society where women cannot appear in public, yet it is a woman who runs the embroidery workshop, and all the concubines and wives move around the city quite freely to carry out their schemes, without any supervision or veils to hide their identities. They even visit prisons themselves. Not to mention that the FL meets her male friend (2ML) on several occasions. In the house with such strict rules maids can interrupt and give their opinions without any consequences which is another example of non-consistent world created by writer. Xu family after their downfall has no backing in government which we can clearly see, but their second son is married with a princess. Given the logic of the Xu family's world, it's unbelievable that no one in this family has attempted to poison the FL or the matriarch (mother in law of FL), who is more scheming and cruel then those supposed as drama villains. Watching her behavior for more than 40 episodes makes her final transformation is unbelievable.

Most of the characters are either caricatures or barely sketched out, despite having 45 episodes. Some characters disappear without a trace after a particular storyline begins, only to return after several episodes. These subplots add nothing except to reinforce the positive traits of the FL. The main antagonists are completely one-dimensional, and the intelligence with which they plot their schemes makes it hard to believe that this family could effectively hide their actions for so many years. I immediately guessed who their spy in the Xu family was.

As the FL is smart, energetic and likeable, the ML is passive and simply boring – that is unfortunately mostly due to poor writing of his character. Because of that, it is really difficult to see any trace of chemistry between main couple.
Visuals are not something worth mentioning with pale coloring and visibly artificial materials of costumes. The positive aspect is music with beautiful songs.

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Disaappointing scriptwriting or romantic....

What could be a great drama to watch, even with not the prettiest of actress but her acting skill saved her. The biggest disappointment, like in all I mean ALL Chinese Dramas, is the play of the leading lady as the VIRGIN til the last episode. Even if they are married!! This is tiring. That is not suppose to the highlight os the script or should be climax of the story, but they always ended up making it the focal point for the story. You know what? It's not romantic. For stupid silly giggly girls maybe. I just want the story to build up and get on with the main plot! If you don't want the lead to consummate, then let them be two unmarried individuals. I hate once again skipping all these silly romantic scenes again! If that is how Chinese girl behave, I am wondering how China has the largest population in the world, because it would have resulted in a very high percentage of Chinese men who are gay!

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Seven Tan acting summary: I love you so much that I will die for you but I will not hug / kiss you.

Watched till episode 15, and dropped it when I realised:

* I can predict the story progression with 99.93% accuracy including the episode number where they will actually kiss for the first time / sleep with each other / get pregnant

* My major gripe is with Seven Tan's acting here. She is cast so often in rom-com dramas. I have also seen "Under the Power". She is a good actress. So I fully believe her character when she is willing to die for the ML. However, she falls so flat in skinship scenes whether it be kisses or just simple hugs. And honestly that should be a deal breaker for casting an actress in romance dramas. Stop giving Seven Tan romance series because she cannot deliver.

P.S: I was looking forward to a good Wallace Chung drama. Now he is what a ML in a romance drama should be, he always delivers. His face can feature on the Mills & Boon novels I read. I will wait, for another drama of his which captures my heart like "My Sunshine" did. And oh yeah, Wallace Chung does not seem to age.

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a (soap opera) period dramas

i have to drop this on episode 5. it's just not my cup of coffee. the pace is just unbearable, and i thought this is an action period drama because of the English word "Sword" in the title. but it feels a lot like a soap opera. by the 2nd episode, it triggered me to recall Taiwanese soap opera. this series might be suitable for certain audience and market segment, but not others.

on the objective aspect, from the 5 episodes i watched, this film has a generous blend of indoor and outdoor scenes. there are often natural sceneries used as the background. the building architectural designs look authentic and real.

the costumes are presentable and believable. they look clean and neat (looks new), and you can actually observe the sewing quality. there are beautiful wearable trinkets/jewelries that are not over the top. the makeups are also not exaggerated or over-exaggerated. i noticed that a few of the female's inner or outer collar has a flip-twist at the top end corner and i don't know if it is supposed to signify something or nothing.

it seems that the director and the cinematographer painstakingly want to ensure this series is filmed with as much realism as possible. you can observe this from the lighting effects, the set decorations, the cinematography, etc. this is further enhanced by the actors' performances and dialogues. i also felt the pacing, the performances, the lighting, the cinematography, and the dialogue are of a reasonably consistent quality/rhythm/flow.

one of the drawback of this series is that the dubbing (voice over) is not synchronized well., but this seems to be a pervasive issue affecting a whole lot of CDramas and Chinese films.

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