This review is for Advisor's Alliance, and Growling Tiger, Roaring Dragon

I just wrote a long arse review that I mistakenly deleted and now I'm crushed.

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I will start avoiding dramas with Allen Ren

In all, I've watched four dramas with Allen Ren as the male lead, and with each one, I come away with the same impression.
1. He's too old to be playing teenage bopper roles with female leads who are sometimes 10 years younger.
2. He's not a versatile actor and has very limited ways of emoting. Also, how many times can he do the stoic, cold hero before we start to subconsciously label him as a one-trick pony?
3. The industry rumors are that he refuses to do intimate scenes like hugging or any type of skinship. It seems the only part of his body that can be touched freely are his lower legs, I mean, why else did Seven Tan keep holding him by the leg? So stupid


The funny thing is he's not even that good-looking with his big head and round face. Someone like Xu Kai (who is another overrated actor) at least has his height, youth, and dreamy looks going for him whereas Allen is going over the hill and unless he starts taking his craft seriously, no one will cast a 35+ yr old actor when there are many idol actors coming over the horizon.

As for this particular series, it packed a lot of irrelevant scenes into an already convoluted premise with zero redeeming factors (like sizzling chemistry) to bear the brunt.

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Overhyped

Here we have Yang Zi playing another dim-witted character even though we’re told she’s a genius . I’m at the point now where I’m petrified to watch any of her dramas since all she plays are such characters except now she’s 30 years old in real life and I wonder just how much longer she’ll stick with these stereotype. It’s neither cute nor endearing, and the script went way overboard by adding a layer of her being a stalker.

Similarly, the ML was written in a way that makes it difficult to root for him. He’s needlessly antagonistic with a face I can only call punchable and I couldn’t care less if they got together.

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Obnoxious female lead perfectly matches the Gary Sue male lead

Hometown Cha Cha Cha is overhyped and boring with leads who have zero chemistry. Watching them made my heart sink particularly the 34 yo female lead who was arrogant and devoid of a lick of common sense. Whoever wrote and cast this series must have gotten their break via nepotism because nothing about this story resonates at an emotional level. It's a shame the high ratings misled me into watching this slower-than-molasses series. Can honestly not recommend it to anyone.

(Synopsis: At a crossroads, a dentist moves to a seaside village where she meets a handyman intent on helping his neighbors.)

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I did not enjoy this one bit

Look, it was a fail from the very first episode and to top it off we got some atrocious styling for both leads coupled with cluttered sets (like the FL's office and home) all added to a not-so-nice viewing experience. Considering that I renewed Netflix solely to watch this 'highly' loved drama, I feel kinda bombed.


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Tiring

The ML is the most pathetic, selfish assh*l*ish character I've had the displeasure of watching and the FL was so nondescript and completely overshadowed by the rest of the ensemble cast. As in, her presence was unneeded cos the ML basically took over her life and decided only he knew what was in her best interest. And why did he do this you ask? Because he fell into a one-sided love and was determined to keep the FL by his side regardless of her thoughts or feelings to the contrary.

This "love" story is interwoven with pugilistic and palace affairs. Yet despite having these two surefire elements for an enjoyable wuxia, the script veered off point too many times that the essence of the plot became warped and inconsistent.

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Meh

Yes, Her Majesty also known as Si Shi Hao is as basic as they come bearing in mind it was a total of 20 episodes of 10 mins each. Short and forgetable.

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Tedious

Chang Chen was too old for this role and it had nothing to do with his looks but with the story that they were trying to sell us, particularly when the FL's acting looks so amateurish when juxtaposed with Chen's many years of experience. That more than anything pulled me out of the drama and despite attempting to watch it several times, I couldn't bring myself to care about any of them.

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Abysmal

It's inconceivable that Qin Lan who was my favorite actress from Story of Yanxi Palace is playing a falling-down-drunk corporate executive who doesn't seem to have a clue on how the business world works. Her voice grates, the pacing is off, and the OST is headache-inducing. I'm embarrassed at how bad this is.

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Dated with poor storytelling

The third time's the charm they say, however, no matter how hard I tried I still couldn't get beyond ep 12 of 51. For one, the story is beyond farcical. Secondly, the titular character, who should have been at most in her early 20s, was played by 34-year-old Ha Ji Won whose face looked even older than her real age. I'm sorry but IMO she was absolutely the worst-looking Korean actress I've seen in a historical drama. Not only did I keep getting distracted by her thinning hair but also by her boxy body shape.

The main male actors, Ji Chang Wook and Joo Jin Mo, were 25 and 38 yrs old IRL respectively but they looked much older because the styling department gave them the worst possible hair and wardrobe styling.

Then the scriptwriters decided that one-dimensional characters and plot were good enough; depth and nuance be damned.

I kept wondering why I would care about any of our three main leads. One was a cowardly puppet Emperor, the other was a deposed King who I couldn't sympathize with and of course, there's Empress Ki who they both "loved". All very unlikeable characters. I didn't care and once the first cardinal rule of character building is lost, what else is there?

Lastly, this came out in 2013 which means it was filmed between 2011 and 2012 and perhaps the novelty of having such a palace drama made it popular then because recent historical dramas have better storytelling, tighter plots, better casting, and clearer more dynamic cinematography.

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