Derailment (2023)

Novel adaptation that is so great idk what to say

Usually I am not attracted to this kind of genre (time travel, scifi) because I do not want to be sucked into overcomplicated plot, but derailment managed to make it not only enjoyable, but also one heck of a ride.

Decisions of every characters were all humane and logical. Plot is progressing perfectly the first 20 episodes pocketed, not even a single thing being dragged. But the rest... I find them boring so I skipped most of it. As expected with this kind of genre, there are parts where the narrator was unreliable and there are a lot of red herring, but that's the beauty of scifi genre. We dont know who to trust.

The acting of the main leads are all very commendable as well. Lin Yi really embodies the perfect dark-outside-but-sweet-inside gentleman with his microexpressions and subtle gesture. I would say the screenwriter has certain moodboard and idea dedicated to his character here! Liu Haocun also steals the spotlight, it seems like she could turn on and off of her tearduct in a blink of an eye. She is a pretty crier, i want to comfort her when she cry.

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Time travel again, but wait, the intrigues and mysteries here would fix you seated at your screen

I thought it was an exaggeration when I read someone reviewed this drama saying, “Who cares about sleep when Derailment exists” and I agree. It was a solid of everything to my standards of a strong drama that I possibly could enjoy. The writer was cunning in a good way to manipulate the complexities without ruining the structure of the story. Each episode would keep you wondering and no trail of clues was present to even answer your question in mind. As a result, it was killing your curiosity, and wanted to watch more to the extent of sacrificing your sleep. Yup, I know that’s living a poor health lifestyle but come on, we do all come to terms with that sometimes. Anyway, that was how effective this drama was in affecting its viewers.

From the time I saw Lin Yi in “Put Your Head On My Shoulder” and here, I could see his acting has matured and it was recognized obviously with proofs of a couple of projects lined up for him. Liu Hao Cun, playing the FL, in the same way, emerged and matched up strong acting with him. I could tell their chemistry was not picture perfect but it did do magic to the persuasion of the story and to the characters they were playing who were always on the opposing ends.

This was an adaptation and I don’t have any knowledge about the original since I didn’t search further. Whether this drama was a complete version of that or revisions has been made, I really can’t make a validated comparison. One thing I’m sure about was I enjoyed the results of their efforts to take this drama to its limit of etching a lasting value, something that would linger in your memory when a similar subject about time travel comes into discussion which in this case it was a staged time travel as part of a brain science experiment.

I deducted a point from my initial rating of 10 because the last two episodes failed to sustain the power chain of this drama. Despite that, I still highly recommend it for you not to miss it.

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Good plot and acting

This drama has good plots and unique concept.

If you are looking for a good romance, its not your cup of tea but its nice to switch to new genre from time to time. The leads have good chemistry but fl's role was quite stubborn. The acting was on point and composed of good plot.

This series is good if you are invested in mystry. They have hate to love relationship.

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A few small issues, but overall a fun drama

Overall I really enjoyed this drama. I pretty much immediately got hooked on it and finished it in a few days because I was so invested, although not without a few slight issues.

One of my biggest issues with this drama was I felt like the ML was incredibly underdeveloped. I like Lin Yi as an actor and enjoyed his performance in this, but I spent the entire drama feeling like I knew nothing about his character. The FL was incredibly vibrant and I feel like we got to see a lot of her personality shine, as well as find out a lot of her backstory, but this was lacking a lot for me with the ML. I still became invested in his character and their relationship in general, but I wish he had been fleshed out a bit more.

I also think this drama spent far too much time, especially at the beginning, fleshing out the whole make-up/hairdressing story. While I appreciated getting to see the FL figure out what she was passionate about and make friends, the vast majority of this plot was just simply unnecessary to the drama as a whole. They could have lost a good 5 episodes if they had cut this down, and it would have been a much more concise and clear story.

My only other slight issue with this drama is that I wish they had gone in a bit harder with the romance aspect. The leads genuinely had good chemistry and I feel like they could have done a lot more with that, but it was kind of wasted potential. I was super invested in their relationship regardless, but I would have liked that element to be a lot more intense and I think it would have made the drama better overall - especially considering it's allegedly a romance drama.

All that said, I still really enjoyed this drama a lot. I enjoyed the performances of both of the lead actors - Liu Haocun especially blew me away as I had never seen her in anything before and she really really sold her character and all her emotions to me. I personally do not understand the criticisms of Lin Yi being a bad actor or having no expression - while I do agree that his face is on the more stoic side, he still sold to me everything that his character was thinking and feeling and across all of the dramas I've seen him in so far, I've never been left feeling like he did a poor job.

I also really enjoyed the OST for this drama and have had a couple of the songs stuck in my head non-stop since watching it.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this drama - especially if you enjoy Sci-Fi or mystery type shows. I'm personally not a massive Sci-Fi fan, but it wasn't too overwhelming for me and I enjoyed the mystery element to it and the fact that it kept me on my toes the entire time. While the romance was somewhat lacking, I would still recommend if that is the reason you're interested in watching this as the chemistry between the lead actors was good and I was very invested in their relationship the whole time.

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Science fiction story about time travel

There was a lot going on in this drama, and I don't even know how to start writing a review about it! This series has many very good point, but there are a few things that bothered me. I don't think this drama deserves a 7.9, I think it should be higher. The plot is really unique and kind of disturbing (in a good way). There is a lot of pain and confusion, but Jian Xiao Yuan always tried to persevere. The suspence in this series was really overwhelming for me, thus I binged watched all the episodes, otherwise I could not concetrate on other things without wondering what would happen next. However, although there is romance I found the suspence and the main plot line to overshadow the romance, therefore, even though I began the series for the romance, in the end it turned more into finding out the truth behind the female lead's time travel mystery.

What I liked:
I thought this would be more of an innocent sci-fi + romance series, but it was not like that at all. It was pretty disturbing and shocking, and one could really sympathise for the female lead's painful confusion about her existence. The actress Liu Hao Cun was impressive, like it overshadowed Lin Yi's acting! He wasn't bad though, she was just very good at showing her feelings.
Jian Xiao Yuan is a strong character, she is confident, optimistic and resilient. But she also suffers a lot, mixed with the acting, I felt so sorry for her. Qi Lian was always supportive of her, and helped her.

What I disliked:
The series was extremely engaging until about ep 20. Afterwards it started to become draggy, and kind of annoying.. I enjoyed the makeup/hairstylist plot line in the beginning, it added a bit of lightness to the intensity of the story, but in the last 10 episodes it just became more of a way to make the series longer, instead of just finishing it. The ending felt very underwhelming, like the drama started off with soo many good and interesting plot twists, but the ending was just okay. Nothing special. To be honest I skipped some scenes in the last four episodes because of that.

Overall I recommend this drama. But I think I have to warn you before watching, that if you're not in the mood for something intense then maybe don't watch it.

!!Light Spoilers!!
The friendship between the male lead and female lead started off fine, but later on, still early in the story (like ep 6 or 7 I think), there will be a very emotional and traumatising situation between the leads. He will become a bit aggressive and it was hard to watch. It was hard to get over that later, as he never really apologised to her, in my opinion. I like that the series doesn't romanticise the situation of the two main characters but that episode really felt too much.

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The FL will be known by everyone soon!

Derailment has a very compelling premise and a pretty good twist so I was entertain and engaged throughout the whole series despite some lows for the show as a whole.
1) The actress playing the FL is INCREDIBLE. She will be well known soon and I will watch everything she is in moving forward. She is incredibly talented and a big part of why I stayed engaged with the story the whole time. I recommend watching just for her performance.
2) Speaking of acting I don't know if the actor playing the ML was the best choice. I've seen him in other romances and never had a problem with his performance but I don't think he pulled off the smooth and collected guy-in-charge part of the role. In the moments of warmth, kindness, and caring with our FL he did great and I think his previous experience translated to that part of the role.
3) The main sci-fi and mystery element got a little overshadowed by the FL's day to day in the later part of the show which I think displeased viewers who were mainly there for that. I however, like seeing these parts of the FL's character because it was the first time we get to see her happy with her life. However, it did feel like they rushed back to the main storyline for the last episode.
4) Romance is a part of the story but it's not a major component and there's not much lovey doveyness to the romance so if you want to watch it for the feels I'd pass.
Overall, I liked the show the whole time I watched it; I was never bored and don't regret watching it. Although, I doubt I'd watch it again. So if it seems interesting to you, I'd recommend trying it. It's definitely not a hard pass but it's not something I want everyone I know to watch.

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First half is great, the second half falls short

The best part about this drama it that it constantly keeps you guessing. Just when you think that you have you figured out, it changed lanes and the transition was very smooth. Things went good till ep 18-19, after that the drama was just kinda of okay. The thrill was lost.

The chemistry between the ML and FL was quite good so in the later episodes i just skipped to their parts till the end. It could be because this was an ongoing drama and I watched some other drams in between, but the second half just wasn't interesting enough in my books.

*Major Spoiler*
The time travel and dimensions was much more interesting than memory loss angle we got. That's where things went wrong for this drama.

But i would definitely rewatch it at least once, maybe then it would be better. I just want to give it one more try to convince me that the second half was not a waste of time.

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Inconsistent Plot Development and Lackluster Romance

The starting episodes are really interesting, but then later on, the plot focuses more on hairdressing and makeup. Then it picks up again for three episodes, but after that, there's not much interesting to stick to. The mystery isn't captivating at all. Compared to this, fan-made theories are really good. They could have explored the romance part more. I can't understand the male lead's feelings at all. The problem lies more on the execution side. Until the 20th episode, we were shown that she is a different person from another world. Suddenly, he found out she is the same person and starts wooing her. Until then, he abused her and treated her badly, but there's no proper apology. Their relationship doesn't make sense at all. Side characters are not explored well.

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full of suspense, gd+int plot

I'm usually a fan of time-travelling/parallel dimension plots. So far, this drama is quite good, the suspense builds up and keeps me entertained and looking forward to the next ep. I have not read the novel so I have no idea what's happening next. This drama seems to have a great cast, good acting esp from the lead actress considering her first time starring in a TV drama. From the perspective of someone that watched all 13 eps, I can guarantee that the next few would be the highlights of how JXY would be closer to her motive of going back to her origin world (2025). I have this feeling that if she meets Huo Boyu in the 2018 world (he time travelled), she might be able to go back to her origin world since huo boyu is on a mission to bring her back, suggesting that he KNOWS how to get back. (keep in mind this is my own theory so im not too sure if this would happen).

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