Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #419

Anne: Another Tuesday has arrived! Yes, I missed last week's post. I had to write a protocol in under 2 days, which I accomplished. And yes, I am very proud of that. Especially since I had to make "forms" to go with it. Who knew that next to grant writing, making "forms" would be my second most hated thing to do?!

Now, I did spend a lot of time watching shows. Unfortunately, for 2 of those days, I was re-watching Love O2O. (I tried not to cringe at the kissing scenes.) And then I got side tracked by the music. As of this point, I have played it endlessly in my car for the last 5 days. At around day 3, the now-six year old in the back seat said, "I like this one," to the song "One Alluring Smile". And I can tell you why, because the beginning instrumental sounds like a video game. 

All righty, let's get on with the shows that I did manage to watch and even actually finish a couple!

About Youth

There were several short BL dramas that aired on Viki, and I watched most of them. But this one, I really, really like. It's another Taiwanese production that have a really cute looking group. Unlike the History stories, About Youth, lives up to it's name of being incredibly innocent and sweet. Just look at this smile...

Every time Xu Qi Zhang smiles, I am smiling. He makes me want to pat his head, just so cute, like a puppy. Qi Zhang is, or course, secretly in love with Ye Guang, who has some very determined and pushy parents, and is a bit lost in his own life. Even though Ye Guang is the golden child, he isn't really happy. On the other hand, Qi Zhang is a quiet boy who is the lead singer in his own band. 

Of course this short drama also has a music production behind it. I like the songs, and the English actually makes sense and goes with the Mandarin, so a round of applause! And as expected with such a short story, there are major jumps in plot that I have to scroll back to make sure that I didn't suddenly black out and missed some scene of importance. There are a total of 8 episodes, and with on only two more to go, do I really expect a pleasant ending? Sigh...my only hope is that the there is a second season somewhere so if I do experience a heartbreak I can mend it in the future.

Lost Track of Time

This one came as a surprise to me because of how I started. So, I watched the first 30 minutes and my shallow brain cannot get over how Jing Chao looks a little...

chubby... Yes, I know exactly how this sounds (especially since I am over weight), but compared to how GREAT he looked in Princess Silver...

Anyway...so because I got hung up on his appearance, I stopped watching for like 3 days. However, because he is one of my favorite actors, I started the show again, and also because I never even saw the lead in the first 30 minutes, and the next thing I knew, I'm on episode 14. 

The story starts with Lu An Ran walking through a burning room, talking about how wrong she was for the last ten years, helping the man she loved destroy so many lives in his effort to take the throne. (I knew it was a rebirth story, but I did not expect that they would start from the first life.)  The first 3 episodes span her life and 10 year marriage to the 2nd Prince, Mu Ze. To avoid spoiling the plot if no one has seen it, all I will say is that she realized that Mu Ze, who claimed to loved her all this time, was the main reason and cause of her losing everything and everyone she ever cared for, all for the sake of getting to throne. She died in despair, hate, and regret. (By the way, I also liked the narrator -- who isn't the lead -- it helped connect the great leap of years in the first ten years.)

When she "woke" up again, she finds herself BACK right at the moment when she first met Mu Ze. This time, she vows that she will avoid that man like the plaque. However, fate follows the same path, and she encounters the same situation situations from her first life. She realizes that she can't avoid her path, but that she would confront her fate and change it. 

As her second life unfolds, her actions start to push certain events out of sequence. However, each event was still something that occurred in the first life. With her knowledge of Mu Ze and seeing the events unfold from the outside and no longer blinded by her love of this man, she begin to see the truth in several things. 

The other thing is that we also see the complicate character of Mu Ze. This is a similar set up as Princess Silver, where the villain of the drama isn't clearly black and white. He originally wasn't looking to contend for the throne. Mostly, he wanted his father to be proud of him, and that he was more competent than his 4th brother. And in the second life, we see what actually set him on the path. And while it is clear that Mu Ze really didn't love Au Ran at all, and she was just an important part of his overall plan, he did love and care for his 9th brother, Mu Chuan, a lot. This younger brother of his is the ONLY person that Mu Ze ever cared about and cared for. And knowing this in the second life, makes what happened at the end of episode 3 all that more heartbreaking. 

As An Ran starts to see her former husband from a different point of view, she started to realize how Mu Chuan felt about her all those years ago, and continued through her 10 year marriage (and we know this NOT because Mu Chuan never married, but because of a gift...this was AWESOME...). 

I am really enjoying this. I don't like Au Ran sometimes, and she's really an idiot, because despite knowing what will happen, Mu Ze still manages to out smart/maneuver her. I'm crossing my fingers that we can continue on a high road towards the end, and somehow I will have an ending where I won't feel like cursing at the TV.

And that's all the new shows that I've started. I want to talk a little about the two shows that I finished watching recently, Love Like the Galaxy and Love Between a Fairy and Devil. 

I know a LOT of people have talked about this, but I want to stress that this show brought out some of the BEST side characters of any drama I've seen. 

 

An emperor who, for nearly the ENTIRE drama, did nothing but trying to get Bu Yi and Shao Shang together. I cannot even remember much of the royal court and political events. (I do remember that this was advertised as a drama about family relationships, so I guess it makes sense, but Bu Yi isn't even his son...though....). And his outrage at the fact that the couple dared to get married so far away from HIM and that he can't even attend the wedding was hilarious! 

And HOW many times we have seen his wives just ditch him as he's having one his complaining and lamenting sessions?! It speaks a lot to the emperor's character that this is completely acceptable and normal.

I LOVED that there was no harem drama. Apparently ALL of that was saved for his idiot kids. I LOVED how everyone in the family got married, even perfect cousin Cheng Yang, and that she wasn't left to pine away for Yuan Shen, who barely knew she existed. And how can we EVER forget Bu Yi's left and right hand men, Qiu Fei and Qiu Qi -- poor Qiu Fie was always called the dumb one... This is a show that I was more invested in the side characters than the main leads, both of whom were just not as interesting...

For Love Between Fairy and Devil...which is now on NetFlix...

Wang He Di completely reversed the criticisms on his acting with this one. It also helped a LOT that the costume designer has made him look absolutely FABULOUS! This shades of dark really suits his coloring. My only complaint is the ending... It's the same question for almost every single fantasy show...there is no rhyme or reason why some can come back as a fully functioning adult, why some die and some get reborn from a child. I don't have too much to say about this, except it was a great show and DiDi should stick with more of a romantic comedy than the serious/face paralysis type characters. 

Have a great week everyone! I'm now onto writing the next set of protocols.... ugh....