Happy Saturday, Beanies!
WHAT: IS: THIS: TITLE? UNVEIL: JADEWIND: Finally Bai Lu is back to her badass no-nonsense FL roots, always looked great on her. Unfortunately, that and production value (visually pleasing drama – costumes, sets, camerawork etc) are the only truly good points about the show. Mystery is meh, characterization and plot rushed, dubbing (made by actors themselves, you’d think it helps) is very poor and uneven volume-wise, plus forgive me for saying this out loud – girl hasn’t had a ML even remotely clicking with her for ages now (at least when it comes to idol dramas), and WXY is no exception. Granted, that’s a FL-centric show designed to make her and only her shine, but still, he’s blander than distilled water here. And their chemistry has all the rage of water and oil mixed lmao. Give her a seasoned adult man to act with, ffs, enough with rizzless boy starlets! And send this particular boy to youth/romance-free dramas to mature there in peace, stop trying to make him a grownup heartthrob he won’t be in at least a decade. Or two.
HOW ARE/DARE YOU: Another victim of cheap dubbing, but here it’s all VAs, for better or worse. Much better pacing, characterization and chemistry though. Good visuals as well – far from any historical accuracy, but that’s probably deliberate to fit “trashy faux historical romance novel” setup. Humor mostly lands. Not exactly “wow” yet, but this might be the first Cheng Lei drama I’d actually enjoy. I largely prefer him truly acting like here rather than just stoically posing and menacingly glaring he’s popular for. FL, whom I’ve never seen before, is doing a solid job as well, esp with crying scenes. I know some spoilers, so if you really want a silly romcom and little else, that’s probably not the right show. So far I’m invested enough to see whether vibe/genre shift will let the drama soar or fall. Could’ve toned the title drops down tho, it’s getting ridiculous. Oh, and soundtrack is really nice! If spoilery as hell – always trust songs lyrics over trailers to show drama’s true essence.
https://youtu.be/42r2YO0g1Q4?si=dYM5sLaa5oyW_u4W
“Drama news” segment:
– dramas aired already: Tencent’s THE TRUTH (Gong Jun, Jiang Wu, Sun Yi, crime thriller) and iQiyi’s BETTER TOMORROW (Liu Xiaoxu, Zhen Ziqi, modern action thriller) both on February 3rd, Youku’s UNVEIL: JADEWIND (Bai Lu, Wang Xingyue, Tang dynasty mystery) on February 5th, iQiyi’s HOW ARE YOU/HOW DARE YOU (Wang Churan,Cheng Lei, historical isekai romcom) and Tencent’s THE HIDDEN TRUTH (Ding Guangsen, Yin Xiaotian, Huang Tingting, Dylan Kuo, action thriller) both on February 6th.