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drama drivebys
Jan. 28th, 2022 08:22 am Since I'm almost done with UTP and Five to Nine, and i have a few dramas burning holes in my head or something like that lol, I decided to test drive a few new ones. I still intend to start the next Lost Tomb, Never Say Goodbye, and Last Cinderella in order to get the most out of my Asian Crush free trial hahah. Did i ever come back here and mention how i got it to work? The interface is still stupid, but after a reinstall and restart, i was at least able to get my login to work and it's just a matter of navigating off the front page at that point.
Ahem, anyway, I'm kinda pissed at UTP for using false narratives for increased and unnecessary drama. There was really no need at ALL for Lu Yi to distance himself from Jinxia, bc once he told his dad who she was, he wanted to save her, not abandon her, so that entire plot point was useless and all it did was give the writers a chance to torture Jinxia and make Lu Yi come after her. Really soured the ending of this for me. They better make it up in the last few eps istg.
Otoh, I like the way FTN has gone. It continually upped the stakes from ep to ep and now we're at the big choices for both the ML and FL lol. Jdramas are just so good at being concise. Kdrams and Cdrams should learn from them.
Ok, onto the drivebys.
Tale of Twin Cities starring... LI Yifeng, that is, he's the only actor i know in here. I've always kinda liked him idk why. Still need to finish Sparrow hahah. So this is a xianxia and I'm feeling some Ice Fantasy vibes in some of the visuals. Yifeng looks really good as the Emperor of the Sea or whatever he is. It starts out with him trekking through the mountains for some reason, then goes back 100 years for whatever the start of this story is. It uses the same mythos as Ice Fantasy where the sea people have tears that turn to pearls, so naturally evil greedy land lubbers start treating them as sub human in order to get these pearls. Where there ever any mermen or male sea people in IF? I don't recall any. They seemed to all be girls. Anyway lol, not much honestly happened in this episode, but i liked the looks of everything if that made sense. This is the drama I want to watch more of.
Reset starring.... Bai Jingting and a young actress whose face kinda reminds me of Kristen Stewart lol. It's yer basic time loop + bus bomb plot lmao. I realized when I started it too that it's actually really short, only like 15 episodes. It starts with the girl waking up on the bus. She's desperate to get off and she's sitting next to Jingting's character. She accuses him of being a pervert and manages to have the bus stopped so she can get off. She drags him off too. They part somewhere down the street, and he takes a taxi. Shortly after, she hears an explosion and a motorcycle runs into her. The rest of the drama is her in the hospital explaining to the police what she thinks has happened. At first, they totally don't believe her, but as she describes things she couldn't possibly have known without being on the bus or witnessing the explosion, they start to think differently. Meanwhile, Jingting's character's taxi caught up to the bus and he ends up dying of burns anyway. The episode ends as HE wakes up in the time loop.
Gold Panning....starring no one i know actually. Except I've seen Chen Feiyu's name around so i at least recognize it. This is another short one at like 12 eps. It's also very dark and grimy making you think it's a super artistic drama or something idk lol. Of the three, this is the one that least interests me, but bc it's so short i might keep on for a few more eps to see what's happening. I'm also intrigued by this gold rush thing that apparently took place in the 80s in China. I had no idea they had something like that. Makes my research side curious.
To sum up...the one I most want to continue with is Twin Cities. It looks good and it will probably scratch that fantasy itch. None of these had such a gripping first episode that you immediately wanted to fire up the second, but TTC and Reset met expectations.
Ahem, anyway, I'm kinda pissed at UTP for using false narratives for increased and unnecessary drama. There was really no need at ALL for Lu Yi to distance himself from Jinxia, bc once he told his dad who she was, he wanted to save her, not abandon her, so that entire plot point was useless and all it did was give the writers a chance to torture Jinxia and make Lu Yi come after her. Really soured the ending of this for me. They better make it up in the last few eps istg.
Otoh, I like the way FTN has gone. It continually upped the stakes from ep to ep and now we're at the big choices for both the ML and FL lol. Jdramas are just so good at being concise. Kdrams and Cdrams should learn from them.
Ok, onto the drivebys.
Tale of Twin Cities starring... LI Yifeng, that is, he's the only actor i know in here. I've always kinda liked him idk why. Still need to finish Sparrow hahah. So this is a xianxia and I'm feeling some Ice Fantasy vibes in some of the visuals. Yifeng looks really good as the Emperor of the Sea or whatever he is. It starts out with him trekking through the mountains for some reason, then goes back 100 years for whatever the start of this story is. It uses the same mythos as Ice Fantasy where the sea people have tears that turn to pearls, so naturally evil greedy land lubbers start treating them as sub human in order to get these pearls. Where there ever any mermen or male sea people in IF? I don't recall any. They seemed to all be girls. Anyway lol, not much honestly happened in this episode, but i liked the looks of everything if that made sense. This is the drama I want to watch more of.
Reset starring.... Bai Jingting and a young actress whose face kinda reminds me of Kristen Stewart lol. It's yer basic time loop + bus bomb plot lmao. I realized when I started it too that it's actually really short, only like 15 episodes. It starts with the girl waking up on the bus. She's desperate to get off and she's sitting next to Jingting's character. She accuses him of being a pervert and manages to have the bus stopped so she can get off. She drags him off too. They part somewhere down the street, and he takes a taxi. Shortly after, she hears an explosion and a motorcycle runs into her. The rest of the drama is her in the hospital explaining to the police what she thinks has happened. At first, they totally don't believe her, but as she describes things she couldn't possibly have known without being on the bus or witnessing the explosion, they start to think differently. Meanwhile, Jingting's character's taxi caught up to the bus and he ends up dying of burns anyway. The episode ends as HE wakes up in the time loop.
Gold Panning....starring no one i know actually. Except I've seen Chen Feiyu's name around so i at least recognize it. This is another short one at like 12 eps. It's also very dark and grimy making you think it's a super artistic drama or something idk lol. Of the three, this is the one that least interests me, but bc it's so short i might keep on for a few more eps to see what's happening. I'm also intrigued by this gold rush thing that apparently took place in the 80s in China. I had no idea they had something like that. Makes my research side curious.
To sum up...the one I most want to continue with is Twin Cities. It looks good and it will probably scratch that fantasy itch. None of these had such a gripping first episode that you immediately wanted to fire up the second, but TTC and Reset met expectations.
