Wholesome Story, Excellent Acting, Great Pacing

Where do I even start? I came across this show serendipitously after watching Roy Chiu in Man in Love and boy do I not regret it.

The story follows the life of Qiu Dong Na who despite having grown up poor is aiming to become a certified accountant. We follow her ups and downs as she joins the corporate world as an intern after college, and hopes to make a name for herself.

First, let’s talk about the characters as a whole and then we’ll take a look at the two main characters, Qiu Dong Na and Gu Fei.

Before this one, I’d never seen such a humanistic take on characters in C-dramas. Every single character has very honest and realistic flaws. No character is shown as being perfect or as having it all together. No one is cancelled for making a mistake or for coming short. On the contrary, we are shown what it looks like to grow and to learn alongside people who are willing to support and love us despite our fallibilities.

This show doesn’t present this frail and incapable female character who relies on her boss in order to obtain what she wants. Instead, we are introduced to Qiu Dong Na who is nothing less of a brilliant, capable, creative, and hard-working genius. She is young, and yet she knows exactly what she wants, how she wants it to look like, and the lengths through which she will go through in order to achieve it. Qiu Dong Na is like a sponge, willing to absorb all the knowledge she can get from those who are more knowledgeable than her. She is strong and has a deep set of values that she is unwilling to trade for all the gold in the world. She is kind, introspective, curious, funny, helpful and immensely reliable. She’s deeply involved in all of her interpersonal relationships and doesn’t favour one relationship over the other. Qiu Dong Na is most definitely not the type of friend who will ditch you for a guy! She is a great friend, a great girlfriend, a great colleague, and even a great daughter.

This very well-written character could not have been brought to life without a great actress. Vicky Chen who I believe was only 17 when she filmed this drama is most definitely an actress to look out for. If this is what she’s able to do at 17, I cannot wait to see how her skills will evolve in 10 years!

As for our male lead, Gu Fei… Ah, what a good, and posh-looking man. I was swooning for this man during the entirety of this show. Gu Fei is obviously a genius, he’s kind, helpful, and witty with just the right amount of sassiness. Fei is a great mentor who knows when to get involved and when to let Dong Na learn for herself. He constantly pushes Dong Na to give her all and always knows how to encourage her. I love how assertive Fei is. He always says what he wants to say and there’s not a single word that he’s ever spoken to Dong Na that he hasn’t meant. He always shows up for Dong Na and truly is her biggest cheerleader. As much as he leads and teaches, he’s also open and willing to learn from Dong Na. I love that he doesn’t dim her light and that instead, he helps her shine brighter. He has never been inappropriate towards Dong Na as her mentor, and he has never used his position to take advantage of her. He respects her boundaries and also respects her pace.

I truly and honestly do not think that anyone could have done a better job at portraying Mr. Gu than Roy Chiu himself. He brings so much life to this character who could have been one-dimensional despite the great writing for his character. The emotions that constantly play behind his eyes… Man does it draw you in!

The last thing I’ll address is the reason I’m deducting 1 star, which is the age gap between the leads. I’ll speak solely about how it affected the show because the transition from friends/ mentor/mentee to lovers ended up being a bit lacklustre for me. The whole appeal behind Dong Na and Fei’s relationship before it evolved into a romantic one was the intimacy behind their banter, their serious talks, and even at the office. It was so clear that Fei had a soft spot for Dong Na. I was disappointed to see that that same level of intimacy and affection during their somewhat platonic days was unable to be carried into their romantic relationship. Obviously, Roy Chiu is an adult and Vicky Chen is not so that’s understandable. Yet, I felt like the casting folks compromised the romance aspect which is honestly not a huge deal since it’s such a small component of the drama itself.

Overall, this is the best C-drama I’ve watched. My Treasure will keep you engaged throughout all of the 35 episodes and will probably make you laugh, cry, swoon, and smile, but most definitely, it will remind you that the best thing in life is the people who love and support you during your best and worst hour.

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The potential to be great

Night in Paradise… Where do I start? The movie actually started out quite nicely. I absolutely loved the very cold colors. It incited a feeling of nostalgia and longing. I loved how we saw the main character, Tae Goo, interact with people he loves and cares for. The banter between himself and his sister, the interactions with his (unfairly adorable) niece, the way you see him pick up his sister’s medications and get information on how she’s doing.

These are aspects of Tae Goo that build on his humanity despite his line of work. We see him be devastated when his sister and his niece are brutally murdered during the car accident. We see him kill (or so we thought) Director Do and a few of his men in cold blood when he receives a tip from his boss that they were involved in the death of his family. Then, we see him escape to Jeju. Up until that point, things were going really good. Yes there was lots of blood until that point, but it felt justified.

And then we enter the second part where he meets Jae Yun. Let me start off by saying that there isn’t much at all to Jae Yun’s character. She’s absolutely dull and boring. The only interesting thing about her is that she’s going to die soon due to an illness (that isn’t even specified). We barely know anything about her except for the fact that she lost her family due to her uncle’s affiliation with a gang, that she resents him for it, and that she loves mulhoe (she’s also greatly talented with guns).

These aspects about Jae Yun could have set her up to be a solid character, but instead it creates this lack of empathy from the viewer’s point of view because we still don’t know her despite what we know about her. Instead of being shown how she feels, we are told how she feels. For example, when she explains to Tae Goo that she actually resented her uncle and that she wished it had been him who died instead of her parents and little sister. Based on her interactions with him, I would have never guessed. There was absolutely no tension with her uncle when they were together, no hint to allude to the fact that she might not like him much. In reality we barely even saw them interact.

Then, you pair up Jae Yun (a character I couldn’t care less about) with Tae Goo (a character I was starting to warm up to), give them useless dialogues, and try to make me believe that he would actually go back to save her. Without giving me the whys. Even the immensely talented cast of actors couldn’t save the nonsensical storyline for me. When Tae Goo died, I felt absolutely nothing. To be honest, I didn’t care at all. And I cared even less when Jae Yun went to the restaurant and shot everyone before going to the beach and shooting herself in the head.

Overall, my issue with this movie is that we didn’t get to know the characters in depth. There seemed to be so many layers to the characters, yet we were only shown the surface of what they were like. And that’s such a shame! I wanted to get attached to the characters. I wanted to feel devastated when Tae Goo died. I wanted to be marked by this movie. I wasn’t. All I could think of after watching the movie was “What a waste.”

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Good, but easily could have been better.

Oh boy, there's a lot to unpack here, so bear with me.

I'll preface this review by mentioning that I don't typically watch wuxias and don't normally reach for them. I have always wanted to love them because of the commotion they usually cause on the feeds lol. Anyhow, this is the first time that I felt "called" to watch this show and surprisingly stuck around because it was thoroughly enjoyable. At first.

If I were to rate the first half of the series, I would give it an 8.5 at least. The intro is fast-paced, we meet Fang Fei who's framed for seemingly having an affair, thinking she'll find solace from her husband, she's instead taken to be buried alive. Somehow, she survives and meets Jiang Li on the mountain as she's about to drown herself. Jiang Li on the one hand is certainly not in a better position than Fang Fei as she was sent to live in a convent from a young age having been accused of causing her pregnant stepmother to lose the child she was carrying. She suffers at the hands of the mistresses who for one reason or another seem to have it out for her. Still, she stops Fang Fei from *unaliving* herself and begins taking care of her although it ends up costing her her life.

This is when we enter the juicy part where Fang Fei takes on Jiang Li's identity. Up until that point, the writing is quite intricate. There's a motive behind every single one of the FL's actions, she's about one trillion steps ahead of everyone and through her wits, she is able to get the exact outcome she wishes for. With revenge now fueling her will to live, she rebirths into this strong, clever, and capable Jiang Li. She's not afraid to take on a challenge and is set on seeing her revenge through until the very end (even if she needs to sacrifice herself). Seeing such a driven character was so refreshing.

Now, when we meet the members of the Jiang family, the energy becomes increasingly interesting. I loved the diplomatic dynamic between Ji Shuran and JL/FF. The tension was palpable, the stakes were high, and the plot was plotting. The introduction to JL’s family members through Tong (JL’s maid) was a clever touch since we got to learn about who they were at the same time as FF.

Early on, it became very obvious to me that the *real* Jiang Li could never survive the cut-throat atmosphere that is the Jiang family's house. This is because it takes someone with experience, who is shrewd and quick on their toes to deal with the thoughtfully crafted crap that JS comes up with.

I know some people didn’t like the side plots much but I enjoyed them mainly because I love FF and everything that does. She stands for everything I love in female leads. She’s dependable, smart, trustworthy and most importantly she is kind but not soft. She always has her priorities in check and doesn’t need no man… Which is what ends up making her relationship with Xiao Heng/Duke Su so authentic. It is because she chooses to be with him, not because she needs his help or because she’s lonely, but because she loves him. It’s cute. However, XH’s character is all talk and no game (not necessarily as it relates to his relationship with FF but rather as an individual).

The intro to XH’s character makes it seem as though he is this mysterious man who’s always talking about situations as though they were chess matches. It’s cool at first. He’s always composed, level-headed, and seems to always have the upper hand however after a while it becomes difficult to hide the fact that his character lacks depth. The effort that was dedicated to writing the elaborate character of FF was clearly not the same for XH. Heck! His subordinates have more personality than he does. In crucial times, he’s absent which is understandable when they’re showcasing that FF is capable of handling herself. However, when she survives to tell the tale, this man is not all over her, he doesn’t even acknowledge the trauma or the hurt that she’s been through. He’s just out here talking about some “You’re my pawn.” After hearing that phrase a hundred times, it becomes obnoxious. My annoyance reached its peak when Tong died. Mans offered no comfort. He didn’t even talk about it!

Where The Double messed up was in the details. Because the reality is this: you cannot have a thoughtfully crafted character who interacts with characters in a world that is not as carefully crafted. Why? Because it is inconsistent. And there’s nothing worse than inconsistencies in a drama where you have a character as remarkable as FF.

Still, the slow burn between XH and FF was wonderfully done in the first half. Their interactions were few yet very significant because every one of them seemed to further their relationship. When it came down to their chemistry, sparks were FLYING. I mean just take the rain scene in ep. 17 for example. This is the best romantic scene of the year for me, hands down. In the second half, however, those rooting for XH and FF are treated like beggars. Here’s the thing, making a successful slowburn is tricky but a general rule of thumb is that intimacy needs to grow within every scene. The moment there becomes stagnation, the momentum in chemistry is lost and your die-hard shippers end up losing a certain level of interest because they’re not being fed properly. This is exactly what happened for The Double. The remedy to this would have been to have an impactful confession or a steamy kiss because you have to show your audience that their waiting has its perks. We ended up having neither. The confession fell flat to me and their wedding kiss was forgettable. Especially since the camera was all over the place with a veil covering most angles LOL.

OK, now for the second/later half, we hone into the plot a bit deeper where FF is now focused on bringing down the “real” villains in her story, Princess Wanning and Shen Yu Rong as well as the plot around the rebel guy (don’t remember his name) that has more to do with XH and his father’s death. Listen, the issue here entirely has to do with the execution and pacing. The Ji Shuran plot ends in ep 29. So all loose ends must be tied in 11 eps at this point and must cover the relationship between XH and FF + their marriage, the rebellion, Princess Wanning, SYR, as well as the final retribution.

Although they succeeded in fitting most things into the remaining eps, some things obviously felt rushed and the sequence felt off. Putting that final battle where XH has to go to fight off the Dai country peeps in the very last ep is delinquent work. Why the sudden need for this battle?? Had they put it near the middle, they would have had more time to develop this very sudden need for battle. Mind you, we also never see that dumb emperor at work. This was the perfect opportunity to bring him into the picture to settle political matters as he ought to but nope. Battle time it is! Also, bringing this storyline earlier on would have made some things so much more impactful because we would see the aftermath. The death of XH’s subordinates for example. That would have hit so much harder if we had seen him come back from battle having to deal with his losses. This would have opened the door to creating more depth to his character and to see how FF comforts him.

Overall, The Double was a very enjoyable watch. The FL is strong, the ML is dreamy, the supporting cast is great, the villains are decent and the plot is interesting and pretty fast-paced for the most part.

The last things I’ll address:

- Why is XH heading into a serious rebellion with no armour? Especially one that he foresaw?
- Why did XH not have other military corps when he gave the fish to Princess Wanning? Why was he unable to foresee that reinforcement could come late?
- The whole fish object to control the military is juvenile and dumb
- The revenge was unsatisfying
- The reveal of FF’s real identity was unsatisfying
- The extra “ep” was bad
- Needed more of the villains because they were great within themselves. They just didn’t have the chance to shine because of the writing.

Ok, now quick shoutout:
- The star of the show Jiang Jing Rui. Love him through and through and I wished we would have seen an ep when FF showed up for him.
- Ye Shi Jie, certified loverboooyy! Don’t usually love love triangles but would have wanted to see more of him. Overall, I feel like his facial expressions were much better than XH’s. The look of longing and affection for FF was so clear (JJR even pointed this out).
- Wen Ji + Lu Ji
- The cinematography, the costumes (NOT the cakey makeup, however)
- Acting chops: Li Meng, Wu Jin Yan, Liang Yong Qi and Wang Xin Yue. In that order.

Last shoutout to the watchers because y’all made this so much fun!! Especially when there was the infamous candle scene lol!

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A Huge Skip For Me.

Okay so this movie was a waste of time, so I'll keep this review short and sweet (haha, get it?).

It started off okay. You see the FL's who's a nurse eventually start a relationship with one of her patient Lee Jang Hyuk, and to be honest that part was entertaining. I had my suspicions that she was cheating on him but once Jang Ki Young appeared on screen, I was simply convinced that the character Lee Jang Hyuk simply ended up losing weight to please Da-Eun as he insisted he would.

Then you enter what I would call the second half of the movie when Jang Hyuk interns at this new company. He and the other intern Bo-Young get at each other's throats and eventually end up pining for one another. First off can we talk about how terrible of a girlfriend Da-Eun is? Obviously, it's inevitable for long-distance relationships to struggle, especially during its early stages, but it's crazy to me how little Da-Eun was willing to sacrifice for Jang Hyuk. Despite the fact that Jang Hyuk would commute back to Incheon from Seoul for her, all Da-Eun could do was to complain. Never once did she offer to alleviate some of Jang Hyuk's burdens by commuting to Seoul in order to see him.

Then, we enter Bo-Young and Jang Hyuk. Sigh. Where do I start? No chemistry whatsoever. Don't understand why they became a thing. I didn't even realize Jang Hyuk was attracted to her until he mistakenly called Da-Eun Bo-Young and also lied that he was having dinner with his team when in reality he was having dinner with Bo-Young.

Overall, I just don't understand the need for this movie? Like what's its purpose? What were the writers trying to do? Seriously. I'd like an answer. Especially with such a great cast, I was expecting so much more. Even the ending plot twist could not save this wreck.

Okay, so quick question for anyone who knows, was it implied that Da-Eun ended up getting an abortion or did she just lose the baby? I was kind of puzzled as to what happened to the baby.

Also, huge shoutout to Lee Woo Je who kind of carried this movie on his back LMAO.

Anyhow, I guess my review ended up being a little sour AMIRITE?? Ok. I'll stop now.

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