Strong Chemistry between Male and Female Leads

Viewers either love this drama or hate it. Those who love it is mainly because of the chemistry between the two main leads. Those who hate it because of the seemingly un-realistic plot in contract marriage and the beginning of the story. Most viewers drop the drama within the first few episodes, before it gets into the good stuff - loving relationship between the leads.

For me, the beginning was also a bit hard to watch. However, after 10 episodes in, I began to enjoy the story and the plot. The chemistry between the male and female leads is enormous; they don't seem to have enough of each other. Ling Yi Zhou desires his wife constantly; he is passionate for her; there are umpteen kiss scenes - serious kisses, not just taps on the lips; bed scene is a constant play, sensual and sexual; it's really very sweet and beautiful, and sexy.

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Life Lessons, Humorous

From strangers to contract marriage to lovers. Sounds cheesy? Yeah, that’s how I felt initially. Yang Mi partners with Xu Kai? I couldn’t visualize them together. As I intended to skip this drama, the philosophy of the male lead – The Pareto Principle – caught my attention. And then I saw a clip of Yang Mi looking homely with her wide frame glasses and no make-up, my interest was piqued. It turned out better than I had expected.

The Pareto principle states that 80% of the results we get in life are determined by 20% of our decisions. This principle can greatly guide our life so that we are not so bogged down by unnecessary demands that may make life miserable. It has become the alternative title The 80/20 Rule of Love. Unfortunately, the principle has not been explored further apart from some brief mentions by the male lead at the beginning.

This drama is about a 28-year-old ex-financier, Yang Hua (Xu Kai), who lives like a hermit with his parents. His mother constantly nags him to get married. One day he crosses path with Qin Shi (Yang Mi), a 34-year-old single and ambitious lawyer working in a law firm where she claims to be a married woman for a promotion. With that white lie, now she needs a man to act as her husband. Yang Hua comes in handy. At the same time, Yang Hua is fed-up with his mother’s relentless nagging, so he needs a girlfriend to keep his mother off his back. Meeting Qin Shi helps him resolve this need, at least for now. To ensure no one takes advantage of the other, they sign a contract, and get married. It turns out they are made for each other, supplementing, and complementing each other. Yang Hua helps Qin Shi in avoiding disasters with his savvy financial knowledge, and in getting the promotion she desires.

Qin Shi is a good lawyer, talented in her sharp rebuttals when faces challenges. In the office and the legal circle, she is shrewd, eloquent, and intelligent. But in private, she is vulnerable, disorganized, and insecure. Yang Hua comes to see this side of Qin Shi and realizes she is a girl who needs love and care. He falls in love with her. For Qin Shi, she falls for Yang Hua too because he respects her and treats her gently and kindly. What initially a contract marriage is now a romance in brew. In front of Qin Shi, Yang Hua feels like a little boy, each wanting to protect the other.

As always, Yang Mi is beautiful and elegant. She makes a very believable Qin Shi with her gutsy style and at the same time, very sophisticated and sensual. However, Yang Mi’s acting is confusing at times. For example, she acts so cozy with her boss, purring at her (her boss) to get her way, and yet she can become so scared of the same boss in an instant and totally loses herself. When she’s with her ex-boyfriend, she seems to be still in love with him with her body language, though later the relationship becomes clearer. I don’t know if this is meant to be because of the writing, or because of Yang Mi’s own interpretation of the character. I feel she may have overacted, at the same time, underacted with her lack of facial expressions.

Xu Kai’s acting here is acceptable. As the hermit Yang Hua, Xu Kai’s styling is rather down to earth, dull and stiff. Though I found it hard to visualize the two as love birds initially, their chemistry is not that bad, and becomes somewhat interesting later.

Both actors use their own voices in dubbing. Standalone, Yang Mi’s voice is quite nice. But here, I find her voice too high pitched and child-like. It takes many episodes to feel more comfortable with her voice. Xu Kai’s voice is low, soothing and a bit uncertain, quite well fit for the subdue Yang Hua character. The OSTs are beautiful, fitting appropriately with the ups and downs of our characters and the mood of the story.

My Verdict

When famous stars like Yang Mi and Xu Kai are chosen for a drama like this, the actors are being scrutinized more thoroughly, and the demand on them is higher than on other less famous actors - something fans have to accept. Both Yang Mi and Xu Kai are not too bad for their roles. Though initially I couldn’t envision them to be the one true pair, I do enjoy the story especially after episodes 24 or so when the couple grows stronger together. The character development is at times inconsistent. This has to do with the writing, but Yang Mi’s acting doesn’t help. Xu Kai is acceptable, acting as a rather boring character. The overall cast is quite well chosen and believable.

There are many life lessons in the story – The Pareto Principle, how to enjoy defeat, forgive others to forgive oneself, win or lose is just temporary, losing is not scary but helps one see one’s deficiency so that the next time, one can become stronger, etc. It is a mature drama, funny, humorous, ironic and paradoxical.

It is refreshing to watch a drama with a strong female lead and a subdue male lead. In fact, most of the women in the story are strong one way or another, and realistic. For romance buffs, there are plenty of real kissing scenes between Yang Mi and Xu Kai. The couple do separate for a brief period of time for growth that makes their eventual reunion stronger.

A fun watch. Recommended!

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This is a detective story with a feel of Clive Cussler's Isaac Bell set in the Republican period when the relationship of the government and the underground society intertwined, and corruption was rampant.

I was initially intrigued by this drama because of some good reviews and its cast. But after 20 or so episodes in, I became weary of the repetitive cases, each more or less of the same format. Instead, I thoroughly enjoyed the relationship of the trio, Bai You Ning (Xiao Yan), Lu Yao (Hu Yitian) and Qiao Chu Sheng (Zhang Yunlong). After The Untamed, many viewers crave for BL or bromance themed stories. The Bai You Ning character in this drama becomes a spoiler and has been criticized by many viewers. This is rather unfair and unfortunate because Xiao Yan is a wonderful actor and her character a brilliant one. To me, she is the adult in the room, balancing out the 2 ingenious boys who can be crazy at times. 

Bai You Ning is independent, determined and clear minded, whereas Lu Yao cocky, silly and playful like a small child with a genius mind, and Qiao Chu Sheng is mature, patient and calm. Together, the scenes are funny, cute with constant bickering, teasing, hitting below the belt dialogues; they have fantastic chemistry together and the whole drama would not be complete without any one of them.  If we say men can be smart in every sense but naive when it comes to human relationship particularly with women, these two men embody everything in the statement; they are like elementary school boys. The amount of patience Qiao Chu shows towards Lu Yao is unlimited. Countless times Qiao Chu Sheng's blatant show of bromance, intentionally or unintentionally, sends viewers squealing. Like a walking encyclopedia, You Ning supplements the men with valuable information to help crack their cases rapidly. Most of the murder cases, seemingly cold blooded, are in fact for justifiable motives; the victims seem to deserve their deaths and justice is served.

Hu Yitian's acting has improved somewhat but occasionally I still find his facial expression either overact or unnatural. This is the first time I see him acting as a playful and flamboyant character, and he is doing a great job. Zhang Yunlong's acting is on the spot. Good looking and has the air of a commanding authority, Zhang makes a great Inspector Director. My favorite is Xiao Yan's acting. She has that sharp and yet mischievous demeanor, and she brings these qualities to her character.

If you don't mind too much about the similar repetitive murder cases, this is rather a fun watch especially with the relationship of the trio - they can really make you laugh out loud with constant bantering and bickering. 

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Fatal Journey is one of the spin-offs from the well-loved The Untamed (Cheng Qing Ling) drama. Unlike the other spin-off The Living Dead, Fatal Journey has a more emotional touch, not only on the visual aspect, but also on the music played, reminiscing The Untamed. It focuses on the Nie brothers who were not covered in depth in the previous drama (The Untamed), especially on the brotherly relationship. In The Untamed, it gives the impression that Nie Huaisang is fearful of his older brother Nie Mingjue, hence making his motivation in avenging for his brother's death less compelling. But in Fatal Journey the movie, we now learn that the brothers have a very strong and deep loving relationship for each other, and how Nie Huaisang comes to realize the actual cause of his brother's death that leads to his masterminding for the eventual avenge.

This is a very short movie, about 1 hour 20 minutes long, with a lot of computer graphics and special effects. The whole movie revolves inside the Nie sect ancestral burial mausoleum. It's basically about how powerful the sword knife spirits are and how treacherous it is to suppress them. Inside the mausoleum, it has the vibe of a Christian crusader knights' chamber, with a stone knight statue and ossuaries. Some of the flying stunts with fighting in midair by the actors are rather commendable.

It's nice to re-listen to some of the very familiar tunes from The Untamed and I enjoy the orchestrated Nie brothers theme music. I wish the English subtitles have been better. Though it has a slightly more pleasing backdrop than The Untamed, it's not a movie I would go all the way out to watch.

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Crazy, Crazy, Crazy

OMG! This is really a cartoonish, funny, silly and absolutely CRAZY drama. Normally I don't watch dramas like this. But it's so outrageously hilarious that I can't stop watching. The demeanor of the characters is a mixture of traditional and modern. Some of the dialogues and story are so stupid that they become hilarious, and that's the hook.

As much as I roll my eyes, I can't stop watching it. I can't resist Xu Kai's good look and the narcissistic character he plays. The way he bad mouths his Shifu (master) is hilarious and relatable, as if any teenagers treating their own parents. As much as we're accustomed to the submissive demeanor of ladies of ancient times, Wang Wu's character is refreshing and absolutely CRAZY to the point becoming lovely (I don't know, I'm going crazy too).

Overall, unless you're a hardcore Xu Kai's fan, or you're out looking for crazy entertainment, you may not like what you're seeing. Having said that, if you don't mind cartoonish stuff and crazy dialogues, this may be your cup of tea. Either way, I'm continuing watching this unless I have no time to pursue it further because there are better dramas out there waiting (there is currently a deluge of Chinese costume dramas).

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Xianxia in the Repulican Era

My first impression of this drama was: what the heck is this with a fusion of everything (不伦不类)? Among others, there's a mixture of costumes - Republican era cheongsams and qipao, xianxia’s ethereal robes, historical military uniform and costumes for the commoners, wild wild west cowboy attire with hand guns on the sides (Gu Beixi), Indiana Jones explorer leather jacket and boots (Yu Dengdeng), English noble man tuxedo and long boots (Lu Yan). Then I found the storyline to be quite unique and refreshing. If not for the self-dubbed voices of both leads, this is a rather watchable drama.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mean their voices are not good. In fact, they have great voices individually, but when the voices are put together with the others in dialogs, they sound out of place - the female voice (Li Qin’s) is cringy with too high pitch and sounds forced, whereas the male voice (Ren Jialun’s) is too soft, uncertain and lack energy. Some viewers can’t bear listening to their voices and drop the drama.

This is a love story about a prince of the human race and a goddess of the spirit clan three thousand years ago. When Lu Yan (Ren Jialun) the prince was killed in battle, the goddess Yun Xi (Li Qin) was devastated. She took out her own “yuan dan”, injected it into the prince and revived him. Without her “yuan dan”, the goddess perished. For the prince, with “yuan dan”, he becomes a half-human and half-spirit with supernatural power. He guarded the goddess hoping one day she would return.

Three thousand years later, Yu Dengdeng (Li Qin) went into a cave and accidentally bumped into Lu Yan and woke him. To Lu Yan, Yu Dengdeng looks exactly like the goddess Yun Xi he has been waiting for. The story of their second life begins.

Lu Yan is very good looking but a cold person with few words. With Yun Xi’s “yuan dan” still within him, he has tremendous healing power and he can ward off all his adversaries by a wave of his hand. I started to like Ren Jialun’s acting in Under the Power. But here, I can’t say he is doing well. He has very few facial expressions and little body language except a constant frowned face. There are many instances of hesitant as if he doesn’t know what to do. I’m not sure if this is due to poor acting, or poor directing, or poor editing, or all of the above.

Yu Dengdeng is the head of a camp. She is carefree, crass and domineering. She falls in love with Lu Yan at first sight and takes him as her husband by force. I have to say, though Li Qin is beautiful with great acting skills, she doesn’t fit the Yu Dengdeng character very well; her demeanor as a crass woman feels forced and unnatural. With her screechy voice, some scenes are unbearable to watch.

Many viewers find there’s a lack of chemistry between Li Qin and Ren Jialun. Until the end of the story, I’m not even sure if Lu Yan loves Yu Dengdeng despite he sacrifices himself for her. When they embrace, Lu Yan is stiff and seems to keep a distance from Yu Dengdeng. He has no desire for her. They have never kissed.

In fact I find Gu Beixi (Chen Xijun) to have excellent chemistry with Yu Dengdeng. Gu Beixi is the head of another camp that has quarrels with Yu Dengdeng’s people from time to time, therefore Yu Dengdeng is always suspicious of him and doesn’t treat him very friendly. Gu Beixi has an upfront personality and has been in love with Yu Dengdeng since childhood. After he meets Bai Shiqi (Wu Mingjing) who is the daughter of a police chief, Gu Beixi begins to have feelings for her and let go of Yu Dengdeng whom he knows he’ll never get, for Yu Dengdeng is deeply in love with Lu Yan.

Bai Shiqi is a sweet character. Wealthy but without the bratty demeanor. She is gentle, well-read and kind, but very strong when it comes down to the crunch. Betrothed to Gu Beixi from young, she gracefully let go of him when she realizes he is in love with Yu Dengdeng instead.

My Verdict

It’s a disaster for any production that, all the other actors perform very well for their respective roles except the main leads. First of all, I feel the issue is with the selection of the main actors; Li Qin doesn’t fit the role as the crass Yu Dengdeng, Ren Jialun barely makes it as Lu Yan, but his performance is not up to standard. Secondly, the self-voice dubbing is a disaster though many viewers prefer the actors’ own voices. For me, I would say, it depends. Thirdly, I feel Lu Yan doesn’t really love Yu Dengdeng except he just wants to fulfill his obligation for her. Therefore, this is hardly a heart-wrenching love story when it’s only one-sided. Whether this is what the writer has intended, this is the feeling it conveys for me and many viewers.

Nonetheless, the storyline is refreshing, not your usual xianxia. Watchable if you are waiting in between dramas or have nothing to watch, or you’re a Li Qin’s or Ren Jialun’s fan.

My score here is mainly awarded to the acting of the other actors and the story.

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Dark and Depressing

This drama is a dark and intense story taking place in Ningzhou, a southern region of China. The weather in the summer is mucky, everyone is covered in sweat and dirt. Unlike the usual glamorous sights of high rises and high fashion in cities like Shanghai and Beijing where most modern dramas are set, Ningzhou is dilapidated, people work hard to eke out a living. Being in this part of China, apart from speaking mainly Mandarin, Cantonese and other dialects are also used.

Accordingly, this drama is adapted from a novel. When I first read the English title, The Bad Kids, I was expecting street urchins. Surprisingly, the kids I saw were nothing but honest, courteous, upstanding, compassionate and intelligent children who try to help each other out. Apparently, the characters of the children have been greatly rewritten to make them more humane as compared to the actual novel. The motives of the characters have also been changed to garner more sympathy from the viewers. Though I have not read the novel, from the reviews of viewers who have, I can see the original novel is even darker than what is depicted in the drama.

The sound effect is amazingly good and the dubbing is first rated. The child actors are simply fabulous to say the least. The lighting is natural and there's hardly any noticeable whitewash of the actors' faces unlike most other Chinese dramas; blemishes and pimples remain on the teenagers' faces. Their skin tone is also natural. The overall acting is really 10/10. The children song, Xiao Bai Chuan (Little White Boat) brings back childhood memories - it's one of the most well-loved children songs. Other music played at the strategic moments brings enormous intensity to the drama, preparing the viewers for imminent happenings.

I stopped at episode 6 and couldn't continue anymore because it's getting very dark and convoluted. I'm a rom-com kind of viewer and the story here depresses me with deaths and situations out of one's control. For that matter, I couldn't even stomach the award-winning movie Parasite. However, don't let my personal taste deter you from watching this drama, especially if you're a thriller buff. This is a great drama, just not my taste.

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Quality Production

What an amazing drama this is. When it was first released, I wasn’t very sure if I wanted to watch it; it has all the big names like Adam Cheng and Leon Lai. I was thinking, maybe it was going to be like one of those crappy dramas trying to use big stars to prop it up. How wrong I was.

Ning Que (played by Arthur Chen) and Sang Sang (played by Ireine Song) are adorable. They have the purest love for each other. The care and concern for each other are so heart-warming. The fighting scenes are so well executed that they look very authentic, with elegant postures showing the gracefulness and beauty of Chinese sword fighting and martial arts.

Arthur Chen is definitely a heartthrob that it’s hard to believe he is only 18, still a teenager. But he has a physique of a man in his 20s. In contrast, Ireine Song looks like a little 12 year old girl despite her actual age of 25 (or so). My only qualm is, since Arthur Chen is a relatively new actor, his inexperience does show on his facial expression. In the drama, he is arrogant when faced with people he dislikes, but mischievous when he was with people he cares about. So far, he looks almost the same on his face when he faces both types of people. The arrogant part is fine, but he lacks the mischievous expression; had he used a bit of his eyes or edges of his lips to achieve his mischievous look, that would have been perfect. I love everything about Arthur, but he hasn’t given us a convincing Ning Que. Until the end of the drama, I still couldn’t make out Ning Que’s true personality. On one hand, he seems very devoted to Sang Sang, but on the other, he flirts around with other girls. He wants to take Sang Sang as his wife, but at the same time, he wishes he could marry the others. I could never tell when he was trying to be playful, serious, or angry. In the final scene when Ning Que was supposed to be heartbroken with Sang Sang's death, he didn't come across as in pain and despair (I wasn't even crying myself - which I normally do when it comes to scenes like this). I was not moved at all! Despite this deficiency, overall, he melts my heart. I love seeing the duo together, one tall and handsome, the other little and humble but with an unyielding charisma.

This drama also touches on Chinese calligraphy and learning, making it somewhat, cultured with a lot of finesse. Like most Chinese epic dramas, the costumes are immensely beautiful. The attention to details deserves our kudos.

I was disappointed with the later episodes, the whole thing felt like a let-down, with a disastrous final episode. Sang Sang ‘died’ in the last episode. Though I know she will come back in Season 2, that’s not why I felt the last episode was disastrous. I’m talking about the building up of the whole story to the supposedly ‘climax’ in the final episode, which then played out like a deflated balloon with a ‘whiff’. There was no catharsis. The so-called climax felt more like an anti-climax instead. The drama finished leaving everyone feeling like, “What???????? That’s it??????” There were still so many loose ends. It feels like the director(s) simply wanted to pack everything up and go home. It’s a shame that they had such a good start but finished so shoddily. It is not surprising that the rating went down to the current 8.9 from 9.5 earlier.

Pretty good drama with no ending.

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Great Strong Main Male Character

First of all, I came to watch this drama after watching “Destiny’s Love”. I fell in love with the young actor, Zhang Ming En. I love his sunny smile and bugs’ teeth. He gave me the much-needed comfort I desperately seek after watching “Goodbye My Princess”. I needed a good romance story with a good, strong male character.

I had a slow start with this drama. It took me awhile to get into the story. The first 10 episodes were built-up of the main characters that described what made them feel and do things the way they did. I had no problem in relating to Yu Zhi, the main male character. But until the end of the drama, I still could not fall in love with the female character, Gao Jie. I don’t know if it’s the problem with the actress or the persona of this Gao Jie character. Gao Jie was supposed to be strong, determined but yet reserved due to the burden she had been carrying. The character played by Janice Man did not appear to express this persona. Although Gao Jie was being described as a very kind person, I don’t find that was the correct description of her. Therefore, it was either the poor acting of Janice Man, or that’s how the character was supposed to be – an unconvincing person.

After reading some of the comments made by viewers, however, I’m convinced that my assessment of Janice Man was correct – she didn’t portray the Gao Jie character correctly. Most viewers, like me, couldn’t connect with her.

Apart from the, perhaps, poor acting of the main female lead, the rest of the cast was pretty good, especially Zhang Ming En, Shawn Wei, Melody Tang, and even Ma Ya Shu.

This is a drama of office politics, plagiarism in the creative industry and love relationship between couples.

Yu Zhi, the main male character, was intelligent, quick witted, outdoor, optimistic, athletic, daring, decisive, articulate, risk taking, devoted, sweet and romantic. And yet, there was a different side of him - he was also lonely, insecure and hurt as he witnessed the death of his birth mother when she killed herself. Therefore, when he met the love of his life, he invested all his emotions in her. She was like a float in the ocean for him. He depended on her to console his pain. He could be strict and commanding in the office, but once he was with his loved one, he was as timid as a kitty, cringy just like a small boy. For his part, Zhang Ming En was so convincing. I fell in love with this character immediately.

I found the Gao Jie character so confusing. On one hand, she was supposed to be open and outright but on the other, she was deceitful. Time and time again, she covered up even she already had a very deep relationship with Yu Zhi. She was supposed to be intelligent and sensitive and yet she lacked the innate ability to detect something had gone wrong when Yu Zhi gave her multiple hints to confess herself. In fact, she was so oblivious to the point of being irritating, and the character was not consistent with the personality of being a sensitive person who Yu Zhi had fallen in love with.

This drama is actually quite a moving story. The underlying theme is how plagiarism hurts the original creators. It was very heart warming to see how one should take care of ones’ parents despite them being disabled/invalid. Friends and family should trump everything including success and wealth. Winning is not everything. If one wants a long lasting loving relationship, one should build it with trust, love, and without an ulterior motive.

Things were wrapped up quite properly at the conclusion. The Chinese / western cross-over wedding gown was perhaps the most beautiful wedding gown I've ever seen.

I wish the production team had hired better voice actors in speaking English. I don’t mind the accent, but it was really embarrassing listening to bad English; most of the time, I couldn’t understand what they were saying without reading the subtitles.

Overall, this is a rather fun drama to watch without eating your heart out. If you have nothing better to watch right now, this drama maybe a good candidate for you.

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Connoisseur Turns Pervert and Chef Turns Tart

I've watched the movie version of this drama, “This Is Not What I Expected”. When the drama aired, it received a lot of good comments and I started watching and liked it a lot. However, by the end of episode 5, I decided I couldn’t continue anymore even though Zhao Lusi’s performance is hilarious for the first 2 episodes which I liked.

Gu Sheng Nan (Zhao Lusi) is like a humpty dumpty; everywhere she goes, she brings havocs. Zhao Lu Si herself is like a "shǎ bái tián" (silly, fair, sweet). Her portrayal is so adorable with not only a bubbly character but also slightly dumb-witted (occasionally) which makes her very endearing. I like how they have used food to convey messages which only a connoisseur can understand and appreciate. Initially the dialogues are unexpectedly good and funny. Then they become ordinary and predictable.

As the story develops, I begin to be put off by how Lu Jin (Lin Shen) coming on to her, knowing she’s just a young financially insecure girl and himself a wealthy and powerful middle age man. I’m in no way against such relationships, but I’m turned off by how he seduces her, and she does likewise. This makes the relationship very artificial which I totally dislike.

By episode 5, Lu Jin turns into a pervert and she becomes a cheap tart. I find the relationship of the male lead and female lead better in the movie (This is Not What I Expected) where their falling in love more natural without all the seduction parts as depicted in the drama here. I also dislike her girl friend Xu Zhao Di who uses people and is terribly materialistic. And I dislike how the personal assistant willing to be used and becomes a willing victim for Xu Zhao Di because he likes to show off.

As how the story goes from here, I cannot see myself liking it further, so I’m dropping it. It is very rare for me dropping a series, but I’m afraid this is one of them.

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Unbearable!

I’m normally a very tolerant and patient person. I can tolerate and follow through many crappy dramas just because maybe I like the story, or the acting, or the characters. But Immortal Samsara is such a pain to watch – the characters, especially Yan Dan, are so unlikable, and the storyline is stale; there’s nothing compelling about this drama. It is very rare for me to give up a drama, but I cannot even push through the third episode here, not that I have anything else to watch. I had thought I liked Yang Zi, but for some reasons, I have disliked her since The Oath of Love (crappy, dropped), and her portrayal of the Yan Dan character here is a total turn-off. Even so, I cannot bring myself to rate this drama below a 7.0/10 though my suggested rating is a 5.5.

Drop after 2.5 episodes!

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