Hello, you're watching AveneuX
where a junkie on good storytelling
shares her thought knowledge and occasional
werid ideas on stories and how they're told.
This video is a little bit unusual.
Usually I just talk about one drama, one video.
Yet, I find if I break them down into individual videos,
they're just gonna be too short,
and they happen to be 2 dramas
that are both airing on Mango television.
So I thought let's just cram those two in one.
So first half of this video is gonna be wrapping up
the drama that i've already made a first impression video on
time seems to have forgotten,
Bei Yi Wang de Shi Guang, then the second half is gonna
Talk about the first impression
and a kind of recommendation really of a drama
that has just started airing at the very end of August on mango television.
Also a part of the mango monsoon dramas.
I have really put the time code in the description and also on the bar.
So you can go to the part that you want to.
First let's wrap up.
Time seems to have forgotten led by Lan Yingying and Fan Chengcheng
I will still landed it on one gold mine,
although it's higher than that.
But I don't think it's yet at the two gold mine.
If you have already finished watching all 34 episodes,
i'm guessing maybe you have similar feelings as I do,
cause i've asked a couple of people who've watched this drama.
They have similar reactions,
which is the beginning the earlier parts,
let's say before episode ten and then the
last couple of, 6 episodes are pretty nice.
It's the middle section that kind of wobbles
and doesn't quite know what it's doing
and due to how this drama gets aired on Mango.
It's just not a very ideal way of airing this drama.
Once you've watched the first outlet of the episode, I think,
right Into like the teen episode,
you kind of already seen the best part of the drama
it goes back to the slower airing schedule
during the middle section where the story itself is
also quite lacking energy.
Therefore people drop out like I dropped out.
I decided to come back when they finished
airing and just swallow everything in one go.
If you are not a reviewer like me,
you may just well drop it and never come back.
If they cut this drama down to 20,
not even 24 episodes,
I sincerely think this drama can just be done in 20 episodes,
and it will be much much much better
if we wanna dig deeper into what's wrong with the middle section.
I think first is there are too many filler characters,
too many subplot lines, supporting roles
that are really not necessarily all needed to be there.
It ended up in the end becoming something like everybody in the story,
whether it's the parents' generation,
the main characters generation,
their friends and friends' friends,
or even just acquaintances in their life.
everybody has some thing to do with that pawn shop,
which is like the whole city,
everybody has pawned off something.
It's just like nobody tells the other person.
using that plot device too many times is just killing its magic.
Then you have way too many supporting roles.
They can have their own drama,
but they don't have to have that much screen time
talking about their story.
That's not really that interesting to watch
you have the female lead.
She has one girlfriend
that one girlfriend with her father
with her previous boyfriend,
and then her own plot line, her like career,
her development,
then you have female lead's second girlfriend,
their previous friendship,
and how it got pawned off
how it come back.
And her child and her ex husband,
you have our female lead with
that boss of that restaurant and it just entangles
entangles for the entirty of from mid teens to the end of the story.
And then the He Jing Li, Manager He, Xiao Guo from Guardian.
His role in this drama is so unclear.
are you these love interest in challenge?
Are you the friend to somebody like,
what's your relationship with everybody else?
He's so hard to be placed in the whole structure.
He floats everywhere and he has something to do with everybody,
but then he's not the main character,
but he's on screen for so much time.
So you have so many people in the story
where these people stories all got
mixed up and create a drama where you
you don't even know where to look at.
it's like where are our main lead?
is that becuse they want to make this story bigger,
so longer episodes count
better ROI
it's just like such an old excuse for all failures in chinese dramas.
It's like we have to make it that long,
otherwise we can't get the money back,
but maybe just like make a small script and just make it really tight budget,
I mean think about The Killer is Also Romantic.
It's tiny
tiny!
it's like a film length thing
doesn't mean it cannot make money and do good.
I don't think anybody would have the patience to sit
through this 34 episodes drama without fast forwarding.
And in terms of the ending of the story,
I just feel they did it that way because they can't explain
what that shop is and where it comes from.
And if it just ends there as a magical existence,
censorship, maybe that's the reason.
So they ended in this particular way.
I don't have a huge problem with it,
because given the restrictions chinese dramas have,
probably that's the only way they can end it.
But in a way, I wish they could just end ended with the guy disappears.
and yeah well you know
You don't always get HE happy ending, and it's fine.
They have to wrap it up in this happy version,
kind of cancels out all the emotional explosion and suffering you've had.
In an ideal world.
If I were the editor
I would just cut at least 1/3 of this drama off
probably even more than that and I think it will be so much better.
Now let's move on to talk about
The second part, another Mango television drama,
that aired at the end of last month
and it's a 12 episode drama,
so it's gonna air another 4 weeks.
It's gonna end in the first week of october
and that drama is called Xiao Shi de Hai Zi,
The Disappearing Child
This drama is based on a novel written by a author named Bei Ke Bang
that's definitely a pen name.
And the original title of that novel is Hai Kui
And when the drama was be made,
it's also called Hai Kui
It's just like they changed the title before it airs again
to The Disappearing Child
the drama is directed by a pair of brothers,
Zhao Xiao'ou and Zhao Xiaoxi
Then it gets adapted from the original novel
by three different scriptwriters.
After i've watched half an episode pretty much,
I decided i'm gonna chase this drama
unexpectedly.
It's the most Mi Wu Ju Chang vibe, the light on drama from iqiyi
category of dramas that are about mysteries, crime,
suspense all that.
It feels more like a drama that belongs to that.
Then Mango Monsoon
So let me quickly tell you about the story itself other information
and then why I think it's probably a worth chasing drama.
At this stage.
The first third has aired.
This drama is led by Tong Dawei, Wei Chen, Yu Wenwen, Li Si Dan Ni,
also featuring Li Sheng, as the title suggests,
it's a story about a kid that went missing,
a boy lives on the 4th floor of this apartment building.
One morning as they always do it,
the father goes down to get the car
and drive it to the apartment building's gate
Waiting for him to come down
where he's still having breakfast.
And the mother is just getting him ready.
The mother sees the kid exit their apartment and sees him walking down
the stairwell to the third
and you can't see the kid anymore and she goes back.
The father is waiting down there.
So it's only 4 floor distance.
Yet the father never got the kid
and the kid just somehow disappeared.
Quite an interesting type of mystery crime story setup
that you probably have seen in many places
it's just a very mundane normal situation
that suddenly turned weird and unimaginable.
And then I went to look at the original novel's structure
and what the story is about.
I haven't read every word,
but I read the synopsis
I don't wanna spoil it for you,
but the original title of this novel kind of
spoils a little bit of its concept
if you're sensitive about storytelling enough.
Sea Anemone
and it has that classic not jump scare,
but psychologically creeping up to you type of scare.
After i've watched the first 4 episodes,
I pretty much don't have any problem with this story.
While I was watching,
I do notice like quite all the people don't like its editing style.
They think they're flaring.
The muscles too much and intentionally cutting things, inter cutting
things to the level where a lot of audiences feeling uncomfortable.
I after watching it, don't have a problem.
It's a very standard way of editing mystery things
in the first run of something.
You show a part of the scene.
Then later you show the scene again.
But then the second version has more information, has more shots,
whether it happens a little bit earlier or later,
it gives you more information.
So it's like a repeat but then not quite repeating it,
and it cuts multiple people's line into the story.
Some audiences don't like the style.
They think they're just like being trying to show off,
whereas I am okay with it.
So if you're watching this drama, very quickly,
you'll realize they're using a lot of that kind of
Playing with the editing thing to tell the story, but it's effective.
It's actually setting up the mystery atmosphere really well,
although it's grounded.
So it doesn't have the high flying style,
cinematography, camera language,
color grading,
it doesn't sell on high style.
Think about certain mystery dramas that have very strong style.
I mean for example The Bad Kids
whereas this drama
The way it's told on screen is so "normal"
It's like a standard contemporary city setting drama that
has no problem in terms of not being professionally done.
It's all professionally done,
but it's not selling on its style
to give you that it looks so normal,
but it's so freaking scary.
When you think about what certain things may imply.
As a story moves on,
it's not to do with the look of things.
It's actually the story itself that makes you feel
cold sweat in the summer day type of thing.
Then the other thing I like about this drama is I didn't expect.
I'd say the acting would come through so comfortably
pretty much from every actor.
I get really surprised by two people that I
totally didn't expect they can act this well.
one is Li Si Dan Ni
if you know her
she is a rapper and singer more that than an actress
and she definitely doesn't have the classic pretty look
of an actress and she is like one of the
most convincing female policeman i've seen in chinese dramaland
how professional,
how cool headed,
how experience and how no joke.
She is.
The actress plays the balance of making you immediately believe
she's a very capable policeman, s
she knows her shit and she's responsible,
she's clever,
but then she's not a machine,
it's definitely thanks to the script but also her performance.
Compared to a lot of other dramas,
that are specific about police,
this character in this drama just like beats.
Most of the other female policemen I've ever seen in chinese dramaland
and it shocks me about how well she did it.
She's not even a professional actress.
The other person I got super surprised is Wei Chen
He first got famous in china many many years ago
as a contestant of a singing competition,
grandfather of chinese idol selection show
He's a very good singer and he's being a singer.
Since then, he did do drama and film previously,
but not extensively,
and most people still know him.
As a singer instead of as an actor
when he showed up,
I didn't recognize him the first moment
i'm like that person
oh that's Wei Chen, Wow
didn't make the connection.
I know he's in the drama.
I read the casting list,
but I didn't connect,
he has totally become his role,
the strongest shock and surprising quality of acting
comes from his character.
And if you're not told and you don't know anything about him,
you wouldn't even think that he's not a professional actor.
Even just to check out his performance,
I would highly recommend you
just to check out the drama couple of episodes.
And i'm pretty sure once you watched it,
you may want to know what happens next
so that I don't need to say anything more
you will voluntarily follow this drama.
Found this year already three guys who I didn't expect
can act have totally shocked me,
Fan Chengcheng, Wang Hedi, now Wei Chen,
things happen in cluster.
Then the last thing I would say is,
I hope this drama would stick to the original novel.
I don't know how far they can push it,
whether they would have to again sacrifice certain
extreme characters and things for the censorship.
The original story is very tight,
very well structured.
It's the creeping up type of horror
when you realize what the heck is going on
and you're like
that type of crime story.
And so I want this drama to towards the end really push that.
And I wanna see the original version gets at least 90%, 80%.
realized onscreen
finally to conclude on the first impression of the drama
the disappearing child.
This is actually really worth going into drama.
If you like mystery.
I actually have no complaint about this drama so far.
Maybe this is gonna be the true "light on" drama of 2022,
although it comes from mango,
that'll be the end of this.
Two parts video on two dramas from Mango television.
Thank you for watching AvenueX
I'll see you in my next video.
Meanwhile, live long and happy drama watching.