antimonyschnuck

On idol or non-idol drama

Due to a recent post elsewhere, and some cdrama conversations with friends, we've been trying to define idol vs. non-idol (or prestige vs. not prestige) dramas, and also trying to define what we think of as good acting.

One of my friend's definition of idol vs. non-idol considers things like, the production (set, makeup, lighting, filters, etc.), the focus of the highlight scenes (is it on the actor/actress [to make the actor/actress look good], or is it on the overall plot/emotions?), cast (now, this is a thorny one to bring up and can change over time), acting style (subtle? overact?).

Mine was just: "Pores or no pores?" But everyone I've spoken to seems to agree that it cuts to the core of the issue XDD

(Anyway, Joy of Life is not non-idol, in case you are one of the ones who thought so! But it is a very good show.)

Some dramas I've been watching

Because of covid, I've been binging dramas. So, here are some thoughts on the dramas I've watched!

Blossom: I can't say I watched it properly because I watched it on 1.5x speed and skipped scenes... I don't know why I was watching a time travel redo/revenge romance drama for the revenge and not the romance (so yeah, I skipped all the lingering looks, all the romance coded things). The ML's acting was quite stiff and left me mostly emotionally cold. I did enjoy the FL's story a lot more though and my favourite parts are actually all the FL's side, especially when she's with her grandmother/cousin/friends. I wish it had gone harder on the court politics, but hey, that's on me for expecting something different from a drama that honestly did very well for what it set out to do, which was a fun tropey time travel redo drama. It's fine. Bingeable.

An Ancient Love Song: I'm at 11/14. There were some parts that didn't quite work for me, but on average, I'm really enjoying this show a lot! I'm still watching it at normal pace (no speeding up, no skipping scenes), and they are delivering the core gimmick of this show extremely well, imo.

Spoilers for the gimmick [you know about it in ep. 1, really].

ML and FL meet each other in reverse because of time travel shenanigans. Kinda like River Song and The Doctor, if you're familiar with Doctor Who.

The emotional beats are done well, the heartache, realizing that this is very likely going to be doomed for them, is great. It's short, it knows what it wants to do, so yeah. I'd recommend this if you're looking for a shortish drama (14 eps is a rarity). Don't expect complex court politics, go in and just feel the vibes!

Legend of Zang Hai: I've only watched two episodes, and that's only out of curiosity because I've read such polarized views on this drama. Seems like it's either praised as the next Nirvana in Fire and Xiao Zhan's acting is amazeballs, or that it's trash, DNF, not worth watching. But I suppose anything that has Xiao Zhan in it is going to inspire passionate love or passionate hate (or passionate indifference I guess). The story starts in a very chronological way, with the ML (as a kid) witnessing his entire family being killed by this guy who wants something from his father, and so he swore revenge. The rest of the story is likely a revenge story. Halfway through episode 2, the boy grows up. The adult version of the ML is acted by Xiao Zhan.

So, thoughts, from two episodes: 1) imo, eps 1 and 2 were fine but it didn't really pull me in (I will give it till ep 4, for a fair chance, since it's still setting up the story and all), 2) XZ afaik wasn't trained in acting from acting/performance schools, so knowing that, I think he did well, 3) that said, it still feels like XZ is an actor playing a role, rather than embodying the role, if that makes sense.

CDrama related links

Somehow, from Zang Hai, I went to watch random other clips and okay, this FMV with Zhang Ruoyun in Novoland, with blue eyes (and terrible taobao sets and worse wing prop) intrigued me XD (though I do enjoy ZRY's acting, I must say, he, like most actors now, can't do fight scenes well ahaha).

And this bilibili link has my fav trash character acted by Kwong Wa, Ha Suet Yi, that bastard (and also the only part of the story I remember from this Jin Yong story because the MC is so bland). It's a 3 min 3 seconds video, no dialogue, just scenes of Kwong Wa as Ha Suet Yi.

And then I dug out a 4 mins 44 secs Kwong Wa role compilation FMV, here. The range XD (My grandma like this actor! She said he is great at acting as emperors/those type of characters).

And then, I thought, "what about Esther Kwan, one of my fav TVB actress?", so here's a 3 min 33 secs music video of her roles!

(Still testing positive for Covid, but hey, symptoms are mostly gone! Just some lingering cough)