In my opinion Sword Dynasty is a very good series. Unfortunately it falls a little short of excellence. The casting, acting, production, and music were all very good to excellent. The choreography and cgi were decent but nothing spectacular. The story was good enough that I binged the series in a handful of days. I was always interested to continue to the next episode until it ended. However, some of the story really needed more detail and more episodes to be great. I think the ending was good for the most part even without an epic fight.

Overall this is an entertaining series. I think the story and main characters are actually better than a higher rated series I also liked named The Untamed. I will definitely rewatch Sword Dynasty someday and recommend it.

Read More

Excellent Remake

I think the biggest reason this season has a low review rating is because they referred to it as season 3. Many wanted to watch the continuation of the lives of the original characters and cast in a new season, myself included. However, this is not really a season 3. It seems like a re-imagining of the original story from season 1. I am usually against remakes, reboots, etc but this is an exception.

When i first started watching i kept wanting to compare to the originals which got old and tiresome within a few episodes. Yes there are parallels but should be viewed as previously stated a re-imagined series. Go into it without the comparison.

After watching this season i immediately rewatched season 1 which was my favorite in the slice of life related genres. I think the season 3 story surpasses season 1 in somes ways but not all. I really like both of them in their own way and consider them favorites.

The editing, sets, story, and music are all high quality. The cast gave excellent performances. At times one character (He Min Hong) was annoying to people in the story as well as many of us watching but it was not poorly written. Also, to be perfectly clear from my point of view the actress (Zhang Hui Wen) gave an excellent performance alongside the others of the main cast. The character was written that way and it's reallistic. Ever have an annoying person in your life? Yes? Ok.

I highly recommend season 3 to everyone except those that will give a bad rating just because they wanted a continuation with previous characters. It's one of my new favorites. I will definitely rewatch this more than once and can't wait to see season 4.

Read More

I binge watched Legend of Fu Yao faster than any series that I have seen in at least a decade. I really enjoyed almost all aspects of this series. A very entertaining story. All of the actors and actresses give outstanding performances & successfully bring their characters to life. I really liked several of the characters. Fuyao, WuJi, Yalan Zhu, & Zhan Beiye are now included in my all-time favorite characters list. The production quality is very good. I definitely recommend this series.

There were a couple minor flaws within the series but nothing that will lower my overall rating of the series.

I really enjoyed the story and the characters. Overall I think Legend of Fu Yao is a very good to excellent series and has good rewatch value.

Read More

Binge worthy

This series is excellent. What else should i say?

The story is weird, humorous, and feel good for the most part even with late sad events.

The actors and actresses give excellent performances. The editing, camerawok, casting, set, and props are all at a current high television quality. The cgi/special effects could have been better most of the time. It really was this series biggest flaw. At least you know that the content is worthwhile unlike so many movies and television where cgi is the only thing worth commending.

Overall i really enjoyed the series and highly recommend it.

Read More

Excellent series

This series is amazing. All of the actors/actresses give outstanding performances. The editing, casting, set, camerawork, and clothing are all very high television quality. If it was not high budget it seemed to be.

The story for the most part is excellent. It is based on real historical events but has fictional aspects which has brought some criticism in korea. I think this issue is the only real flaw worth mentioning among most viewers. There are a few things i would have preferred to see within this story. This is mostly personal preferance on a few of the character's choices and the ending. That doesn't change the fact i binged this whole series and really enjoyed it. Honestly, i wish it had taken many more episodes to get to the ending :)

I highly recommend this series to anyone that likes period pieces. It is easily among the best of them.

Read More

Not a love story

This contains some of my thoughts as I was watching and not a full review. I apologize if anyone thinks or feels I am being hard on this story. Imo it deserves it. If I rate this series only based on the story it would be a zero but I have given it a better rating than zero.

The casting, acting, production, sets, cinematography, music, etc are all excellent and very high television quality. Yang Mi is an amazing actress and among my favorites. The entire cast gave great performances.

***** SPOILERS *****

beginning now


SPOILERS STARTING

After the first 16 episode I only really care about Si Yin/Bai Qian(1 character) The story is not very interesting but not terrible either.

By the time I reached episode 21 I find it very difficult to accept many things in this story. There is still only 1 character that I care anything at all about which is Si Yin/Su Su/Bai Qian and she is being treated like trash. Ye Hua should have found a way to communicate important information to her especially about people she will encounter like Su Jin. This story is on my last nerve. Yes, it has some interesting or good moments but that is being heavily negated by flaws and irritations.

Events in episode 22 especially with Su Jin are close to making me drop this series.

Ye hua loves Su Su? Totally unbelievable. Ye Hua let and caused terrible things to happen to Su Su. He needed to be honest and tutoring her from the moment he decided to be with her. If not at that time still found a way to teach her in the palace personally or through another. OR just taken the thrown. OR in a way I have not considered. He is highly educated AND grew up in the palace. He loves her? Than why has he not done everything possible? Bullshit. How does this series hold the rating it does?

Bai Qian encountered Ye Hua but has no memory. If she had her memory he would have no chance. She didnt jump to her death and remove her own memory purposely because they had a good time. The child may be hers but that is all. Ye Hua failed Su Su horribly and caused her severe harm. No amount of remorse or anything he does will ever make up for that. He should have stopped pursuing her especially with her having no memory. He is placing her in harms way again. Is what he had or has now love? Definitely no. It had some of the appearance of love early on but nothing real. He is actually the villain of Bai Qian's life. This should not be a series with a happy ending for their relationship regardless of his feelings or how the child makes her react. Also... Su Jin is still in an influential position at this point in the series.

Ep 33 How is Su Jin still not sealed somewhere or dead? How can the emperor not see through her deception? At least Ye Hua shows intelligence briefly when he sees she is lying. Still he does nothing about it except talk.

Ep34 Bai Qian is in position to be seriously harmed again although doesnt happen this episode. Both Su Jin and Xuan Nu are taking action against her.

I completed ep 34. I am suspending my watch & seriously considering dropping. Imo, the story is revolting and has little to do with love. Bai Qian with her reputation of extreme kindness, her protection of Mo Yuan's body, and actions of her family are among the only things that show any signs of love. Eternal love? Yeah sure... It barely includes love. Ye Hua may have "feelings" but not love. Also, Bai Qian seems to have become a somewhat weak character after she returned. She went through a life trial and came back ascended but a little naive and weak? Not accepting it.

The thing I feel most about the story in this series through episode 34 is disgust and irritation. So, it has been presented coherently enough to successfully provoke an emotional response but in a very negative way. The plot has holes, the story is annoying, & the main male lead character is actually one of the main villains up to this point. What else is there to say? The world itself was interesting but not the story and characters.

I didnt write this to antagonize anyone that thinks this is a good series. I apologize again. I just needed to give my perspective on this somewhere.

Read More

The Moon Brightens For You is a decent series and I liked it.

The production of this series was ok to very good. There were at least one or two instances that the pacing wasn't good. One example is, i think, episode 24. In my opinion the music fit the tone of the series most of the time.

The acting ranged from good to excellent. However, I think either the director or female lead should have toned down Zhan Qinghong's smiling just a little. Xing Fei does have a beautiful smile and it was great to see it. The character was naive and happy which can be realistic but there were times i was asking why is she smiling right now? lol Do I feel like it was a negative? No. It was not really a negative thing but it seemed unusual to have the character smile in so many scenes.

I think the story was good for the most part. Somewhere in the mid teens and again around ep 29 I almost temporarily put this series on hold just to watch something different. I was concerned i wouldn't finish it if i did so i decided to continue on. I'm satisfied I stuck with it and found the story good enough through much of the series.

Overall this was an entertaining series. I would rate as good to very good and I think it's worth rewatching someday.

Read More

The makeup artists, editing, and cgi could have been better but the producers probably just needed more resources to work with in this series. So the production of The Taoism Grandmaster seemed low to moderate budget.

Acting ranged from poor to good for most of the cast. There were some exceptions that gave very good to excellent performances. Xu Hao (Liuli) gave an outstanding performance. I think she is very talented and underrated as an actress.

The story was entertaining and i binged watched it fairly quickly. I think it was good but there were aspects that could have had been improved on. I didnt like the male lead character some of the time especially his attitude and treatment of Liuli during their interactions throughout much of the series.

I don't really remember the soundtrack other than the opening song.

Although there were many imperfections in this series i was more entertained by it than some other series i have recently watched. So i think it had good entertainment value. However, the last several episodes were not a good way to finish a series or story imo. The final episode alone would need to be completely reworked to not be awful.

Overall this is an okay series and worth watching. Unfortunately some of the issues i've mentioned held down the overall rating.

I doubt i will ever fully rewatch it but i think there may be others happy to do so.

Read More

Quick review

Descendants of the Sun was a good series. I liked it but not excessively.

The production was good to very good. The editing was ok to good. The action scenes were very good to excellent. In my opinion the song didnt fit the scene on more than one occasion particularly with the main leads' scenes. The music was ok otherwise. The acting was very good to excellent.

The story was interesting enough and I wasn't bored. I didn't really like the lead characters' relationship throughout most of the series. Was their relationship an anti-romance? Like an anti-hero. That goes for the second leads as well.

Overall it's not a bad series to watch. It definitely has some entertaining scenes and good moments. I doubt I will personally rewatch this series but could understand if other people would want to rewatch it.

Read More