You rarely see that happening in in chinese dramas.
One of those serendipity moments that happens with a
production that you can't plan
how the male second character is presented.
I'm just not very happy about it.
hello, you're watching avenuex where a junkie
on good storytelling shares her thoughts,
knowledge and occasion weird ideas on stories
and how they're told
Nv Xin Li Shi, Psychologist
Is a 40 episodes drama that's been aired on the platform
Youku
The drama is led by Yang Zi, Jing Boran
Wang Jia, Jian Renzi
It is based on a novel written by the author, Bi Shumin
She's a very prominent,
very well known author.
And the interesting thing about her is not
only is she a well known fictional writer.
She also has a master's degree in psychology.
The the book was first published back in 2007
the script writer of the drama is made up with her and,
another professional script writer.
So it's their collaboration adapting her own work.
I have not read the original novel,
but I looked at its synopsis and there's significant changes in character setup.
This drama is produced,
by youku and it was shot in Hainan
the very south of China.
It has that interesting light quality in exterior
and obviously vegetation.
If you're very sensitive to these type of things,
you probably we can spot
at this point,
i've watched the first 12 episodes,
i'll give it a high one goldmine rating
as usual.
Let me first introduce you to the story and then to the good and bad.
In my opinion, the title Nv Xin Li Shi
literally means female.
Xin li is psychology,
shi is person who is expert in something.
So female expert in psychology,
direct translation.
The english title officially is psychologist,
which I think might be slightly miss translating because
Yang Zi plays the main role who is the psychologist,
but she has a practice.
She sees clients so more accurately,
she should be psychiatrist.
Instead of psychologist.
And as the title suggests,
it's gonna be focused mostly on this female lead role played by Yang Zi
She has a really classic setup where she's brought up by the single mother.
She has a very traumatic childhood experience with
something to do with a brother that at this point,
we're still not a 100% sure about what exactly happened.
And then she grows up to become a person majored in
psychology and a talented psychiatrist as the story sets it up
from a very well known professor in psychology played by Huang Jue
And this person is gonna be very important in the later part of the story.
This drama focuses on her experience of working
as a psychiatrist with different clients.
So it has a little bit of that nature, of a,
unit drama.
Every time a new client comes in,
it goes into a new story about their problems
and then how she helps them to solve it.
At the same time, she develops.
Obviously her own main character's story line.
One is about her past that gradually gets revealed.
One is about her romantic relationship,
and cause we cannot not have it in chinese dramaland.
And then there's a mystery and thriller plot that is to do with a
male second character who would come into this drama very early on.
And it's so intentionally set up as
possible villain with a lot of background stories and hidden motives.
Later we'll find out exactly what it is.
At this point, we kind of already know part of it,
but not the full picture.
And then you haven't heard about the male lead, yeah?
well, played by Jing Boran
he is a radio station host who does a program about
helping the audiences who can call in and talk about their own problems
and then having the psychologist played by Yang Zi
as the guests of that program
helping that person on the radio.
So that's his function and obviously loving interest.
Now let's get into the
cut it into 2
what is good and what is not so good
about this drama
on the positive end.
First thing, I can tell it has ambition,
it has designs,
it understands it is a visual story.
Therefore it uses everything they can have and trying
to make it very effective in communication,
because our female lead character gets a lot of different clients
and solves a lot of crisis or problems
with people having psychological breakdowns and stuff.
Every time certain events happens.
It gives you the full on, let's say,
on screen experience of that,
they use all kinds of interesting designs of shots,
transitions, pacing, editing, sound effects.
I would suggest you wear a (set of) headphone to watch this drama
because it has that stereo 3d sound design.
So different sounds come from different directions.
You rarely see that happening in chinese dramas.
So certain of those sequences are made very cinematic.
It wants to do a little bit more than the
normal contemporary metropolis setting dramas.
I would always encourage that type of things,
whatever your particular type of drama is.
If you wanna put the effort in doing that.
And the second good thing,
I think it's pacing is okay.
Although I don't know if it's gonna be like this
throughout the entirety of the rather long drama,
at least in the first quarter of the drama,
no unnecessary draggy long talking filler scenes
hope that stays till the end.
The third thing, as i've said,
this drama has that unit drama element.
Every time a new client comes into,
talk to our female lead
they have their different personal stories.
And each story obviously is led by one particular actor or actress
and they're all very good
starting with Zhang Ruonan
I think she's pretty familiar if you watch a lot of younger actors, actresses,
acting and type of drama that's oriented towards the younger market,
you probably know her very well.
She did the first high school student story
that I think is one of her better,
even best actings in her previous dramas or films.
Then you have veteran old actors who used to play
acturally Yang Zi's father,
I think, in Zhan Chang Sha (Battle of Changsha)
that vetran actor who came in
and played this rather comical but interesting role as well
you have Li Meng
who is a very interesting actress,
sometimes controversial,
but she's very well known in the artistic, indie the movie world.
One of the actresses that's very sought after by a lot of directors,
she is really good and unique.
and she also plays this person with eating disorder,
all those supporting roles who would show up for a couple
of episodes and their story ends
they are all very good.
The 4th thing I have to say is about the main leading core characters
Yang Zi and Jing Boran
I don't think anyone needs to worry about their acting.
They really just meet all my expectations of how they would act.
I also really appreciate female lead and female second
our female lead character and her bestie friend
and her roommate
and this really sassy young lady played by Jian Renzi
the girlfriends relationship in this drama is so sweet and so well
Depicted
It really gets the audience react in a way
is like we actually don't need a female lead and male lead relationship in this drama.
I mean it totally can work if it's just female leading female second
and it does read like sometimes the girl and girl relationship
has more chemistry than the girl and boy relationship in this drama,
the only person I would say is very obviously the weaker
link in the main characters pack would be the male second.
By this point,
I still just haven't quite understood why this character is there
and then the acting didn't convince me of any of the potential
things I can guess about what his character's function is in the drama.
and I think it is partly to do is the actor not really
being on par with the other three main actors.
Also I think it is to do with script writing,
so it's not entirely his problem.
But i'm very happy with the two leads and
there are a couple of scenes in this drama.
that are just ridiculously fun.
You don't see it coming.
One scene happens around an elevator.
The other happens around
a house ,the door,
the glass door.
So it's all in front of the doors.
Interesting.
At least one of them has been proven that it was totally improvised.
Yang Zi Jing Boran were acting and then they thought it's done.
But director didn't say cut,
so they kept acting and they kept doing it for like 3 times until
both of them are laughing for real
one of those serendipity moments that happens with a production,
you can't plan.
So what are not ideal for this drama when I was watching it?
First thing,
it has unreasonable skin smoothing on our main characters
and it doesn't happen in every shot.
It mostly happens on very close,
close shot,
so pretty much like this and even closer,
if you're like chest up to the top of the head,
that kind of framing
wow
it's not even across different actors and if
it's a supporting actor they definitely don't get that special treatment.
There are so many shots with Yang Zi and Male second
particularly that got so skin smoothed.
I'm like no need for that.
You are an oriented towards reality drama.
You're not a fantasy drama with gods floating in the clouds.
Why?
It's against the genre of the drama.
If you have those very cheap,
cheesy, romantic drama,
let's say like fall in love.
and It just skins smoothes everybody,
although it looks ugly,
I mean I kind of accept it because that's within my
expectation of the particular type of drama it is.
But this drama,
it actually has very serious topics about psychology and
how many people have psychological problems these days.
So the skin smoothing is so going against the other
Elements of this drama.
I really don't appreciate it.
I totally would accept pores.
And because of wearing foundations,
you're gonna look cakey in low light and it's fine.
The second thing is to do with the chemistry between the main two leads
but I understand it's totally a personal thing.
Both of them are very good actors and they do their roles perfectly.
And I enjoy a lot of their interaction scenes
And I think with the particular character set up
JIng Boran and Yang ZI have
they do a really good job almost within one scene
I can get hundred percent.
What type of character set up they are,
what type of person they are,
the way they hold themselves,
the way they talk the body language.
It's like yeah very professional actors,
but somehow I don't quite get in between
what is the romantic energy between them.
I almost can picture them as colleagues as good friends,
but somehow like picture them as a romantic couple
is just like
.... not really getting that signal
it's just me.
So I wish I could enjoy more about the romantic vibe
but sometimes I feel I really enjoy female lead and female second's chemistry more
Then the most important thing I think up to this point of
watching drama that i'm not very happy about is
male second's set up,
like I said,
the actors acting doesn't quite help,
but the setup of his character has that.
Gu Nong Xuan Xu 故弄玄虚 vibe
intentionally trying to mystify him
you know almost right from the beginning
that he is not gonna be the nice guy.
He has very hidden alternative motivations of getting close to the female lead,
getting close to her life.
And now it has already gotten to the point of the plot that you kind of know.
He's in for a kind of revenge that he probably has some really
bad beef with the teacher of our female lead Huang Jue's role
Therefore, he gets into his life, his students' life,
trying to mess things up,
whatever he wants to achieve in the end of things,
whether it's for a personal revenge or anything.
We're not sure yet, but he's pretty much the villain.
And he's gonna be the lead of the thriller line of the story for sure.
But taking all the steps,
getting there,
whether it's through music,
when he shows up the background music,
the camera language of how he gets filmed and then every other
thing that happens in this drama like he goes into other people's
places and set up cameras.
All that
is so ramming into audience's face
from moment one,
i'd rather you not give me so many clues
He has his own bgm almost like the vibes of him,
like the dark black clothes.
He only wears that color
all that is like.
So in your face,
as if they worry that the audiences would not understand what is his function,
he's already a two dimensional character the moment he comes out.
And after watching the first quarter of the drama,
he still hasn't got plumped up yet.
There's almost no 3d view of this person
he's still that flat character that you know they're gonna put all
those thriller things on him and it's in a way very lazy.
Wouldn't it be more interesting if he comes across right from beginning
as just a standard male second who kind of comes in for
the competing against male first,
for the affection and attension from female lead and
appears to be a classic cliche kind of male second.
And then you gradually discover oh actually
he might have more or a at least later in the plot,
you review a tiny twist somewhere, and you're like,
wow, I didn't see that coming,
but if I look back,
I see a lot of clues that's alreay been laid
I just didn't notice
that would be so much more enjoyable
to set up your villain with quotation mark,
because we don't know how this story is gonna end.
Maybe he's not gonna be the real villain,
cause it will be kind of stupid to set up him right from the begining
clearly as the villain.
And then in the end, he turns out to be the villain,
but regardless of if that character has a twist or not later,
so far within the first quarter of the drama,
in terms of how the male second character is presented,
i'm just not very happy about it.
I understand.
It's rather difficult to find a balance point between intentionally
over mystifying things that is too obvious to the audiences
and not doing it enough.
So that later, when it gets revealed
everybody feels like they're cheated.
you know it's always a game of how do you find the perfect point.
But that's also what's interesting about
this type of thriller element of a story,
right?
In that department.
Psychologist is not doing very well.
That would be my first impression of the drama
Psychologist, Nv Xin Li Shi
I will continue watching this drama.
I hope the later plot wouldn't disappoint me and I pray
they wouldn't make the male second character all the way
through a flat two dimensional character.
If the villain is uninteresting,
the triumph of the heroes also would be meaningless.
Thank you for watching avenue x
i'll see you in my next video.
Meanwhile live long and happy drama watching.