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Where a junkie on good storytelling, shares her thoughts,
knowledge and occasional weird ideas
on stories and how they're told.
Yao Guan Kuang Hua, Rock It Mom
is a 12 episode drama that has just finished airing
on the platform iqiyi,
as it is so short,
it also was a continuously airing drama.
It went live on the 11th of October and then finish airingon the 15th.
It is an original script drama written by the scriptwriter Zhang Jianqi
directed by two directors Li Jun, Jing Lipeng
and It's led by Yao Chen, Zhuang Dafei
The story is quite straightforward.
You have a pair of mother and daughter
who are the main focus of the story.
At the beginning of this story,
the mother comes back from the United States to China,
as she has been away for 12 years,
she had a really successful rock and roll band career
many years ago when she was very young.
But then at the peak of her fame,
she got married to a not so responsible guy and got pregnant too early,
gave birth to her daughter.
After she had the kid.
A few years later, she broke up with her husband and
then decided to try her luck in the States and left.
As it turned out, it was a wrong decision.
She didn't really make it happen
when her daughter is already 19 years old and just got into college.
Her ex husband dies
to attend the funeral and deal with what happens afterwards.
Particularly, they had an apartment,
they bought many years ago that now worth a lot of money,
and she needs to come back and deal with all that.
She comes back to China and meeting the daughter
that she hasn't seen for 12 years.
And then story starts from there and we're gonna see all the drama and
all the rather funny and unthinkable scenarios that's gonna happen.
I'll give this drama a at least 2 goldmine drama.
I don't think it's a three yet,
but I probably will put it at like 2.5 almost there.
It's a really good drama,
something I totally didn't see coming.
I really cannot think of very significant problems of this drama to be honest.
so most of what i'm gonna talk about are the good things
and reasons why you should check out this drama.
Number one production quality, very good.
and It's better than the average good contemporary dramas.
I like its cinematography.
It's not idealizing anybody's looks.
The color is rich, the contrast is right.
It really is more veered towards the cinematic look
than the videoish look, the music, editing, sound effects.
All those also work very well,
and you probably wouldn't say it has created its own distinctive look,
but it's overall very textured and good.
Second thing.
Yao Chen, she is a little bit contested in china on internet
because of a couple of things she said previously
that she she kind of gets tagged as a
particular type of very un-welcomed person these days
overall in the chinese internet atmosphere.
But the thing is with her nobody ever criticizes
her on her professional side of things.
So that just says she's a really good actress
and she can do the work like a professional.
And before I watch this drama,
I have no idea that there is this side of Yao Chen
Previously with the things i've seen her in whether it's All is Well
which is probably in recent years one of her better known works or in
cinema or even older days when she made her name known
in the comedy sitcom show.
Wu Lin Wai Zhuan
I never know she had this side
because I also didn't hear about this project.
So I went in it blind, just seeing the poster,
knowing she plays a rock and roll singer and i'm like, oh~let's see.
And immediately she makes it believable.
The way she carries herself,
the way she talks,
the way she puts on her makeup.
And then when she goes on stage and start singing immediately,
own the place and that Queen vibe
just comes out of her, I'm like ~
proper actress who can do the proper job,
she does sing quite a lot in this drama.
And then definitely there's a post production
help for that type of things, but good enough,
very very unique voice.
Honestly, this drama,
the thing that immediately captures me is her acting,
you hate her, you love her, you hate her, you love her.
And she makes the script version of that character
just immediately comes to live and so believable.
You have to go and watch this drama to see her
performance of all the essential moments,
whether is of this character as a failure,
really of her career as a musician,
whether it's a middle aged woman who's been treated not very kindly by life.
And at this crisis age of her life,
all the psychological problems,
health problems she has,
and then the difficulties she has with the daughter
trying to sort out that very messed up relationship where
she feels very guilty and not really having done enough for the daughter,
but then she is so strong minded and
character that she just never makes it easy.
The conflict between the two person who both have extremely
strong and sometimes over the top character and temper.
And the crashes, the energy that happens in this drama
Every facade of this middle aged woman who is just not doing well
in any aspect of her life comes to life with her performance.
If it's just for watching that,
I think that drama is worth going into for you.
Third thing is about the story itself.
I can sincerely feel as I watch this drama,
the script has been worked on a lot.
The person who is responsible for it is one writer credited to him,
and I think he probably spent a long time working on this script,
tweaking and trimming and making the characters as flamboyant,
as dramatic,
but as believable and as impactful and as strong as possible.
You don't really see that type of characters in chinese dramaland
Very often, you often see more "normal" people,
whatever career gender age group,
they belong to, they tend to be more of a normal person
with a tint of special personality and stuff
and this drama, NO
this drama is unapologetic at absurdity of the extreme
version of the architypical characters that it writes.
Everybody is a little bit insane in this drama
and therefore a lot of almost unimaginable plot and
ways of dealing with conflicts shows up in this drama
that I cannot think of equivalent in other chinese dramas.
In recent years i've watched.
It really is over the top,
but with its rhythm, with its music,
with the way the atmosphere of the story is set up,
it actually works out really well.
It's almost like it is ridiculous and absurd,
but then so reasonable.
dai jiner
It has that energy,
it has that ~~~~
it's not lukewarm, it's not meek,
it's not just like you know scratch,
it's like slap across your face and then hit
you with a hammer, following by a baseball bat.
and a kick in crouch that type of situation
all the time in this drama,
I can literally count out like ten events that happened in this drama
none stop from now on that will shock you
because you don't see that in chinese drama.
But I don't wanna do that,
don't wanna spoil it for you.
One thing I wanna add on to the story and script is
I really really like the daughter and mother relationship
and pretty much all the other female rolesin this drama
when the female character when she was younger
and made the band very successful.
She has two teammates,
one is a drummer is a lady
the other is the bass,
who is also a lady.
So there are three girls in this band plus a guy.
Now they're all middle aged
and they are all at different stages of their life, family life,
and also career.
And they're not really getting along all very well with each other.
Then you have the daughter
who is just as strong character as the female lead is
and all the conflict and all the things related to women.
I really like how they deal with all the essential plot and
characters and their choices and words and really the attitude
towards all kinds of very significant things in a woman's life.
And it's very rare to see a drama that's written by a guy.
focuses so much on women
that makes them the full, rounded, flawed, fallible,
but lovely humans.
And there's one more thing I wanna add on
for the unusualness of this drama
compared to every other chinese drama is
you'll see the female as an alcoholic
and she is from moment one to moment last of the drama
pretty much not changing at all
an alcoholic.
I haven't seen any female male characters on
chinese drama screen who is with a bottle.
95% of the time when she's on screen
she's always drunk or about to get drunk.
Just when you think you know this type of things probably
wouldn't go through censorship, right in china.
No, this drama went through
and it's absolutely aggravating.
Sometimes when you see her just mess things up
because she gets drunk and she can't control herself.
But then also again you're like
There are so many people actually like that.
You just never see them being represented on screen in drama in china.
So Yao Chen's role in this drama would definitely open your eyes
for like what Chinese drama can do if they really want to do.
If I have to say if there's anything that I wish this drama could do better.
I would say I wish Zhuang Dafei's performance
can crank it up a little bit more.
She I think naturally comes across as too nice a young lady.
She doesn't have the very strong character,
almost face to start with as Yao Chen has naturally
So whenever the mother and the daughter is in competition,
although she is written as a very strong minded,
and the mother slaps across her face,
and she will kick her back the type of energy,
the outward appearance, I think with styling,
and everything doesn't help her.
She looks way too timid and normal okay as the a little bit extreme
version of a young girl who doesn't care about what the parents think.
So there's a disconnect almost of her look,
and then her character
and also her energy is still a little bit too nice
as compared to things she does and words she say.
And then the type of character who can actually
come in competition with her extreme mother.
It's just one tiny thing that I pick at at the story.
It really didn't bother me much while I was watching,
but I know if they do it in a little bit different way,
maybe it will be even better.
At the end of this video.
I would again say this is probably the least expected drama
for me this year and it's so short and so easy to watch.
And you probably won't get disappointed by anything
really, that I can think of as you watch this drama
And it really is a very unique and unusual drama.
It's actually a very traditional story structure,
but the the actual ways of the whole story gets
picked piece by piece and put together is
a wild ride of the most ridiculous scenarios imaginable,
so get ready and get rock and rolled
by the drama Rock it Mom, Yao Guan Kuang Hua
Thank you for watching AvenueX
i'll see you in my next video.
Meanwhile, live long and happy drama watching.