It has no meaning.
It has no purpose of existing.
And she's working wood with that dangling bits on and
and I'm like....
Jia Nan Zhuan, previously named Mu Nan Zhi, is a
40 episodes period drama that has aired in china, recently.
It is led by Zeng Shunxi, and Ju Jingyi
this is a period time setting
romantic story based on an existing novel.
Apart from the names of the characters,
the drama adaptation bears no resemblance literally 0% with.
It's original text.
It is yet another period drama in which the female lead actress
Ju Jingyi is styled to look exactly like what she looked like in her
previous couple of dramas.
Ever since she found the secret of how to make herself
look the best
with a particular type of makeup.
The drama has aired into its teen number episode and I have
the unfortunate experience of watching 8 episodes of it.
If the drama did turn out to be a masterpiece
of storytelling after episode eight,
well
it's my misfortune
I'll rate it in between
one land mine and land mine/gold mine.
So it's actually not the worst romantic period setting drama.
I've seen this year
in comparison.
This one actually has a couple of things that it did pretty well.
So let's just start from praising it in those
aspects and then we can get on the real business.
First,
neither the male nor the female lead's appearance is offensive for audiences
with reasonable expectations of a professionally produced period drama.
Second, its production quality in comparison to other dramas.
In the same category
is actually
not bad,
the costume,
the props, the sets, the lighting,
although it's by no means inventive or creative or worth praising.
At least it sits within the reasonable range of standards that we
expect from a 21st century period drama production from china.
It doesn't have super unreasonable,
low contrast,
weird lighting,
absolutely offensive filter in color
all in all.
It appears to be a production that did cause a bit money.
That's it.
Everything I can think of that is on the positive end of this production.
Now let's get into the not so comfortable to talk
about part of the negative side of this production.
And I would warn people who are a fan of any of
the specific people that shows up in this drama,
in case you're gonna get offended.
Leave now
I don't actually have that much to rant about
particular actors and actresses.
Although I do have a few points,
I think the biggest problem of this production is
it just should not exist
Because the story has no value,
it has no meaning,
it has no purpose of existing.
If you're a comedy, you're trying to make people laugh.
If you're a horror movie,
you're trying to scare a couple of people,
whatever your purpose is.
There has to be a tiny little bit reason for anything to exist.
Because it costs money and hundreds of people's work for months to get it made.
I don't understand why this story needs to be made
and maybe making yet another drama like this
that we've had in count of hundreds
in chinese dramaland
is just another thing that they do to
Yeah
whatever I can think of for the purpose of making this drama,
there's one thing that they're not trying to do.
They're not trying to tell you a story.
It gives you the illusion that it has a setup of a country,
of particular characters,
of particular social status,
of particular motives and what they want.
But once the story starts and you watch why they do things,
they do and what they say and it does not make sense.
For example,
you have a setup of a country where our female lead character is a princess.
And she's said to be a person who grew up within the
court because the grandmother really liked her.
then you have many many scenes that happens within the court,
where whatever time it is,
whether it's daytime or night time,
an unmarried princess is in her own room and a guard,
which is our male lead,
can just pop in
knocking on her window,
knocking on her door,
pay her a visit.
You are not a eunuch
and you are not serving the inner court
you are literally a guard.
You have your male parts and in any type of chinese
traditional court that's just unthinkable
but does not matter.
I guess it's fictional.
So this guy can just walk up to a princess's bedroom
at night and have a conversation with her.
Okay, cool,
this type of story.
It just doesn't care.
It tells you we are set in this type of environment
and then everything and every character does
does not fit.
I can only blame on the script writer of not caring about the
story and probably not good enough to write any logical story.
And even funnier thing is this story is trying to do
romantic love story at the same time attempting
court politics and conspiracies
that classic Nirvana in Fire thing
But oh my god
the level of like how it gets done is so laughable
It makes Zhou Sheng Ru Gu (One and Only)'s court politics look like
great stuff
that how you can gauge,
how well it's written.
I looked at who is script writer and
Ju Fangfang
very interesting,
same surname as the female actress
and it's not a common surname in china
There has been rumors on china's internet about who this
person is in terms of being a relative of the female lead actress,
but it's not confirmed.
So I don't know
it's so targeted to the fandom of
particular actor/actresses
from a storytelling point of view,
neither the characters nor the plot nor any elements of a
written and then performed story in this drama is qualified
to be a story
that's the best way I can put it.
So therefore everything else does not matter.
I mean yeah okay
certain looks of a character may look pretty,
but why don't you just do a couple of makeup video of how you make up
this actress to look that pretty and take a few shots and done?
You don't need a story because you don't have one
and you're pretending you have a story,
but you don't.
Then the second thing that most of the reviewers would rant about
i've seen on china's internet is about yeah again
Ju Jingyi just looks
exactly the same like her previous characters
in other dramas and her future dramas.
that would also style her in the same way
in her defense.
I mean Zeng Shuxi
The male lead's styling is also looking pretty
much exactly like what he had in Ya Gui Xi Chuang Yue
with Liang Jie, so
I guess they just do it because they find a
version that looks good on the actor and actresses.
And they're like, okay, from now on,
when we have a period drama
we're just gonna make you look like that,
because it's easy and we've already known the process of
getting you to look like that and safe because we've tested it
with all kinds of lighting and angles
you look good, so let's just keep using it.
Does not matter if it fits the character or
whatever particular setting of your drama.
When Ju Jingyi shows up on screen in this drama,
she looks like a different person from every other female characters
who has the similar status and whatever setting as she is in the court.
so when the shots cut between her and another female role,
when they're having a conversation or whatever in the court,
you just feel like they're in two different dramas.
This is produced by the Si Ba
And if you don't know what that company is,
it's the 48 studio chinese version of the we have like a
class of idols and then every year we get a couple of them.
Come to the top the japanese thing that just
have a chinese version and
Ju Jingyi is the most successful person that has ever come out of this
entire system of idols elections.
So I guess it's all for her.
She looks good, but then it has nothing to do with her characters.
And she looks good for every role she does in
the recent couple of period dramas she does.
And it definitely is the the actress herself bigger than the roles situation.
And one particular thing about her styling in this drama that
I just I just want to laugh at is all the dangling bits,
the beads.
And these things that's that's coming down from her head,
I can't imagine anyone to wear that all the time.
It's gonna tangle in your hair all the time
it's gonna hit your face when
you're turning your head or running or walking.
Even just
it's gonna get into your food.
When you're eating.
She is a person who actually likes woodwork.
She wants to be a carpenter
right rom the first episode,
and she's kind of a genius of that.
And she's working wood with that dangling bit on.
And I'm like....
and I just suddenly had this nightmare scene in my head,
which is had she been a contemporary role
who lives today and also love wood work.
But wears that kind of thing on her head
goes into a contemporary electricity filled workshop with
giant saws and stuff.
And then she turns on the machine,
and that will be the end of her
her body tissue would be evenly
spread on the six surfaces of the interior
of that workshop.
It is one of those things I can just imagine to a t in detail due to that.
I used to be a landscape architecture student and we did have a big
lesson at workshop safety where we had to wear goggles and steel toe shoes
and go in and get educated by those guys who've worked
with woods for their entire life and telling us horror
stories about what has happened in a couple of united states
design and architecture school about student not using
giant saws
correctly
had to be picked up piece by piece.
So the moment like she's wearing those
things and doing with wood work shot comes out,
i'm like,
oh no no no no, stop stop.
My imagination started to play on me and I just I just like cringed.
It's definitely a personal thing that probably wouldn't work on other people.
But now i've told you, so probably you can imagine it too,
sorry about.
also one thing about her acting is she has so
many expressions and little gestures
doing that all the time,
i'm like come on you are a princess,
you grew up in an imperial court,
okay you have been educated about etiquette and how to hold yourself.
You're not a randomly adopted from the commoners' world.
daughter like Huan Zhu Ge Ge (Pearl Pricness)
gege and her postures and how she holds herself, how she walks,
how she sits like that.
in this drama, oh my god
How am I supposed to believe in the character you're playing?
Cause your makeup, your styling,
your actions, your expressions,
and the logic of the things you do,
nothing makes sense for your character set up.
I've had a good time ranting,
and also i've had a fun time dressing up
today with this hair and with my
costume.
this is kind of a Tang dynasty look,
but not 100% accurate because I do have a couple of things.
on me that is not really specific to Tang dynasty.
and also I have spectacles which is something that
doesn't really exist for people to choose at that time,
but I guess i'm just trying to prove it's not that hard to
look reasonable in a period drama that is functional,
that is fitting for your character setup that puts
the characters first rather than the actress,
her own image.
And I think for making a drama,
you're serving the story,
you are serving the characters and your idea about how
to make yourself look best should come second to the
work of portraying that character.
I don't think there's any reasonable excuses.
You can have to argue with that statement.
Every profession has its rules.
Anyway,
that should be the end of this first impression and ranting video on
Jia Nan Zhuan, Rebirth for You.
oh It's called rebirth for you.
Have you questioned about why?
Because the original story,
Mu Nan Zhi is a rebirth story
it's about a character who died and come back to relive.
And therefore they have a second god like perspective of their life of their
of their life
beacause of...I don't know, censorship? whatever
When they write this script for the drama
they totally took out the rebirth part
but then they still kept it in the english title.
It just shows you know the makers of this drama
They DO NOT CARE about this story.
So if they do not care
as an audience member,
I suggest you not care about it.
TOO
That should be the end.
Thank you for watching AvenueX
I'll see you in my next video.
Meanwhile live long and happy drama watching.