This is a rather unusual video.
I'm combining my final review of two dramas.
I've talked about previously into this one video.
hello, you're watching AvenueX where a junkie on
good storytelling shares her thoughts,
knowledge and occasional weird ideas on stories
and how they're told
Wo De Ba Bi Lun Lian Ren
Dear Diary.
andI Zhi Shi Jie Hun de Guan Xi, Once We Get Married
have both finished airing.
If you've watched my first impression videos of both dramas,
you know I have really good impression of both of them.
And it kind of maintained my first impression all the way through till the end.
I think it makes more sense,
time wise and energy wise everything to put.
Both dramas' final review in one video.
So today first i'll talk about Dear Diary and then
Once We Get Married
for Dear Diarym Wo de Ba Bu Lun Lian Ren
i'll still put it at the two gold mine.
I don't think it has performed exceeding my expectation
to the point that it deserves a three gold mine,
but it will be high.
Two gold mines, it's like 2.5 or something
really really good.
I'll put two links in the description box of the video
on Bilibili done by content creators in china that are
interviews from those content creators to the
main creatives of Wo de Ba Bu Lun Lian Ren
If you're interested in finding out more details, about
what they went through,
how the whole thing came to be,
and what is their idea behind making it,
although they are in fully chinese with chinese subtitles.
So if you can't watch it now maybe not so far down,
the line in the future when translating
Ai got so clever that we can solve it like easily.
Now getting back to the drama itself.
I'll first talk about things that prevented me from ratng it even higher.
And then the good things.
If you watchec through the entirety of the drama,
you probably noticed towards the end of it.
It does start to slip a little bit,
particularly in the last 2 episodes when our main leads
group as a group is confronting the ultimate bad guy,
it started to get a little bit funny.
I couldn't quite 100% believe in the story because
parts of it got literally just too dramatic,
partially due to the set design of the Wu mountain
that definitely looks like a set for sure.
Zhou You's character Duan Shuiliu falling off the cliff
that entire sequence of how it got to that point and why things
happen the way it is feels a little bit too forced,
broke the pace of the story and made me
just not quite wanting to believe in it.
I can accept pretty much everything else of the last two episodes,
although I do have to say Ouyang Wenshan in ancient babylonian time,
walked his way
cause back then there was no flight
all the way from ancient iraq to china and then dug
a hole and buried something in there.
And how can you make sure that later thousands of years later,
a chinese person is gonna find it and it's gonna be the person that you want.
how does that make sense?
And why does the uncle of Bu Guanjin's character knows about that?
Ouyang Wenshan
His most incredible superpower apparently is not having
the most amount of money that come out of nowhere.
his superpower is biological gps that can guide
him walking all the way from ancient iraq to china.
I don't know, and then walk back,
go back to
His job of supporting his king
oh my god
So these little things here and there are not perfect
if it could be polished to the point where
all of those problems got erased.
And evened out
this probably would be a three goldmine drama for me.
So to talk about the great things about this drama, first,
on the very superficial level.
I love the title sequence and the ending song (s)
There are a couple of songs and they use it for different mood.
At the end of each episode,
I mean the drama gets edited to the final length we have.
But honestly it is probably a much shorter drama,
because each episode is rather short.
And then they reply a quite significant chunk of previous episode.
And then they cut into the music and then go
back to the official of the new episodes.
So first 5 minutes,
pretty much of each episode doesn't provide you any new information.
Usually i'll get really really pissed by this kind of design.
But I have to say because of how beautiful
the title music and its graphics and its design is done.
I was okay with the fact that I have to waste
5 minutes at the beginning of each episode.
The second thing I really appreciate about it is i'm happy about the ending,
not forcing a super cliche,
happy ending
in a way.
It is a happy ending,
but it's like halfway happy ending,
because it is no longer who we want you know the 3 pairs.
The original people together being together,
the two main male characters did travel back
to time and couldn't come back anymore.
So our contemporary female lead and
her friend basically lost who they really loved
and never gonna meet them again.
But they both ended up with a token that is
designed and specifically given to them
that only they know that it really did happen.
And then at the last bit,
when both female characters did end up meeting
almost a version of doppelganger of their
fantastical love story in real contemporary time.
It's also rather well done because it doesn't emphasize on that these
two guys now having a contemporary life as a really a new person,
maybe they're reincarnation really like,
I think that's what they aimed at.
But neither of them really have any idea about what happened before
And they definitely do not understand why these
two girls react in that kind of way to them.
and then it's very masterfully ending it at
the Bu Guanjin seeing on the television of
the bad guy also has a version in contemporary time
and just almost a harmless old guy who is attending a
variety show,
singing a chinese song as a foreigner,
and then she starts to laugh.
I think it's a really well designed last scene of this fantastical story.
It does cut back that impact and kind of
suggesting to the audiences, don't take this too seriously
The entire story and fantasy is in a way rather ridiculous,
but then through the actresse's acting like she's really good at
laughing and crying at the same moment
watching that variety show with the two doppelganger
Guys in the same room who are totally unaware of why she acts like that that,
that also shows half of that is real, at least,
or her experience is real.
And us as audiences who have gone through the entire journey with her knows
it's real for her,
but to the rest of the world outside of this immediate sort of group.
That is the characters and audiences.
It is ridiculous.
And I think it's so interesting that they pick
that shot and that kind of moment as the ending.
I would hate to actually have a super happy ending of like
they re-incarnated and they remember what happened
and they came back to their love
no no no no
that would actually be so cheap.
The current version,
although I don't think they're gonna make a second season of this thing,
a new story.
starts now
there's a new chapter behind it.
It may work out between these characters.
It may not
it has that laid back attitude towards the, let's say,
the ridiculous nature of existence.
The third thing.
Definitely the actors,
I so appreciate the entire casting of everybody.
Ideally I would have all of them using their original,
real voice,
it's a minor thing compared to just how much
dedication I can see every actor has put into,
making their roles come to life.
This is such a hard script to perform.
There are extremely emotional touching,
kind of digging at the deepest wound and your
sort of paying as a human being moments.
There are also just high ridiculous comedy parts
if you cannot 100% give up yourself as an actor or actress,
you just can't do it
among all the chinese dramas I'ved watched up to this poinr 2021
This is the drama that really test to the
ultimate limit of the professionalism of actors.
How can you be so serious
and so trusting in your role when actually
everything else is showing you it's totally,
utterly ridiculous.
Then the 4th thing at the core of the story,
the most important thing is
this is not just cheesy romantic comedy.
This is a rather ambitious work.
andIt's just been buried under the pretenses of the shells of all
those ridiculous scenarios and fantasy
that really important message.
and I think it applies to pretty much everybody living.
a contemporary life is how do you make peace with your past?
Everybody has their past.
and a lot of people have things in their past that they don't wanna face,
or that has significantly changed them or impacted them or hurt them,
made them who they are.
A person who can fully 100% without any problem accepting who they are.
and their history live in the way that is totally different,
even though appearance wise,
other people may not see it,
but you know deeply in your heart.
If you can completely accept yourself,
the kind of life you're living as compared to
you are always at odds with your own history.
And there's things you don't want to face about yourself.
These are two totally different ways of
existing.
And the story talks about that at the core of it.
For the main female role,
she represents mass population
each and every one of us.
And dear diary is her story to make peace with that,
to discover herself to arrive at the point that she
can live with herself and her own history and fully
accept herself as who she is.
And it is not easy for a visual production to
deliver that message in such an effective,
interesting, engaging,
keep you on your seat and laughing through,
but then also getting so touched at the moment that you need to be touched.
Way
like this entire project did that so successfully.
And that's why I say this is a super ambitious project.
And it's much more than meet the eye
and i'm so happy that most of the audiences
who have gone and watched through this drama,
got it.
We probably all got it.
We appreciate that very, very much.
Then let's move on to talk about Once We Get Married
Why am I laughing already?
This drama
I've watched the entire 24 episodes and i'll give it 2 gold mine as well.
This is definitely inflated because the quality
of the drama does not really deserve a 2 goldmine
but because I just have almost completely positive
response to this drama while logically rationally,
I know it is not the greatest drama ever at all.
Still, I am so entertained by it.
This is my channel I'll just
do whatever I like.
It pretty much stayed all the way through.
As I expected.
It would be, which is it's a typical,
cheaply produced contemporary romantic drama.
That is about the very old setup of contractual marriage
between a ceo and a lesser well doing girl filled with
moments that you can expect will happen,
did happen type of thing.
If I have to pick at a couple of things, right?
I hope it could do a little bit better.
First is I still hoped they use their own voice.
I don't understand why it has to be like contemporary drama getting dubbed,
particularly for the female lead actress Wang Yuwen
Due to Qiao Shiyu just did too much dubbing for Dilraba before
it was much harder for me to get into her role
Second thing is I hoped the female anti hero person,
I don't even think she's the female second
like who is the female second of this drama,
you can't really quite tell.
I just hoped her character can got written more.
Three dimensional.
She's so two dimensional and so typical the bad person
right before the last sort of thing,
she's still trying to trying to sabotage
the main relationship got to the point where
it was a little bit too tired and stupid.
so these are a couple of things that I hope they could did better,
but overall doesn't really affect my enjoyment of this drama.
I think this drama got to me so much is because it
really casted the right people to play these 2 roles,
even if this entirety of the drama took place in their bedroom.
If the drama only has one set and it's their daily
bantering and daily sprinkle of sugar and those ridiculous
tropy camera style.
Showing you the tropy moment,
i'd be happy to watch it.
Wang Yuwen and Wang Ziqi
They both liao (撩） tickle each other.
in a such perfect way that
you feel like you're the grandmother.
In the drama,
her just sitting there and just like watching it with this interest,
watching 2 perfectly made for each other people, all the dog food
and sugar flying in the air and all the pink bubbles.
And you're like,
that is so sweet
kiss kiss Kiss
towards the very end of the drama.
If you look at all the life comments, it's so funny.
Every comment literally,
entire screen of it is like,
where is your kid?
Why isn't she pregnant yet?
Come on, go and give birth to your children.
Everyone is just like grandmother and mother.
For these 2 roles
We have completely taken the position of that angle and just like,
come on you 2.
We expect a string of kids running after you at this point now
if you have watched the very end of the drama,
you know there's this one plot of their contractual marriage got exposed.
And then that causes the guy's company stock to plummet.
And then the investors got really angry.
And one of those guys who lost their money at the stock market
and got a knife and trying to hurt the female lead,
and then our male lead and his assitant
which is also a very good looking guy, by the way,
Just showed up out of nowhere like two guys walking, slow mo,
like so Goblin moment,
but it's so poorly filmed with the lighting camera.
It's just nowhere close to the original version.
And it's so funny is they don't even show how the bad guy got tackled.
First shot, the two guys are walking, next shot.
The girl gets saved a rather tight shot of our
male lead comes in and help her and talk to her.
And it still doesn't show what happened to the bad guy.
And you don't hear here any commotion noise,
you don't see anything
the next shot cut to the assistant.
The bad guy is already out.
and he's over the shoulder like a garbage bag
and the assistant was like goodbye,
okay I'm going to take care of this guy,
I'm gonna go away and
it's all done.
It's like we don't have time to choreograph this.
We don't have time to film the proper shot and we haven't designed it at all.
We just want to show you you know
she's in danger,
he comes to rescue
done.
It's worse than school play in terms of the presentation of that sequence.
Yet, even at that point,
I only laughed at like I know this is what you are trying to do and
you just don't have the budget and whatever reason to do it properly.
I forgive you
move on,
okay move on.
It's actually really ridiculous to watch that
see that you react that way.
And then you read live comments pretty much all the
audiences who are typing out those live comments,
have the exact same reaction which is
this is so
bad
So "土“
so copying Goblin and so just like not doing it even properly at all,
but we do not care.
okay We see it.
Now we forgive you
move on.
It is a rare thing for a drama to have so many
shortcomings and so clearly not well produced
like every time they're traveling to Italy,
you can tell is film in China because they don't have the budget to do that.
It's all interior,
it's just some kind of like general western style rooms and architecture and.
It's so not in Italy,
but because of these two actors really,
they're so perfect for their role and they're
the sugars when they first got together,
which is rather late in the drama,
I think around episode 17 or 18,
that's when they first officially become husband and wife.
I was so like their grandmother and every other drama reviewers who
are watching happen to be watching this drama
that I noticed how they react to that part.
Exactly like me,
they were like,
finally you two are
it got me physically emotionally hormonally to react to it,
exactly to probably their design,
and their expectation.
Therefore, it is really a successful drama.
In my opinion, I have seen quite a few drama reviewers,
just pretty much treating it as a crappy drama like
every other crappy drama that we have seen this year.
I have the feeling they probably haven't really watched too many episodes.
They just opened it and watch the first one or two and was like
this is another crappy drama.
It's sad, you know
missed opportunities,
but I'm just happy that I managed to stick through the first couple of episodes
to discover.
This is 2021 AvenueX's
Accidental stumbled upon sugar mine.
I had such a good time.
I had so many laughing out loud moments.
I had so many stumping on the floor,
hitting my desk and shrieking like goose movements.
you know when you laugh to the point where you can't breathe and you're like,....
I have no complain about this.
Okay, I don't get what other people say.
This is a good drama for me and I'm so happy.
I discovered it.
And I have to say Wang Ziqi so good at tickling,
撩
I have no idea he's that good due to the
rather stern period character,
he has in The Imperial Coroner
if he is in any way,
like his character in this drama,
in real life when he is dealing with girls.
There's no hope for the female sex.
When they encounter him,
that will be the end of this combined final review of the drama,
dear diary.
And once we get married,
2 dramas that made me happy in very different ways,
but highly appreciative of their existence.
Thank you for watching AvenueX
I'll see you my next video.
Meanwhile, live long and have been drama watching.