Another one bites the dust
After 12 episodes, I decided to drop 3310: The Pillow Book (official English title is Eternal Love of Dream - which is an inferior title, if you ask me).
3310:The Pillow Book is the side story to 3310 and expands on the love story between Bai Fengjiu and Donghua Dijun. I enjoyed 3310 and I also enjoyed the unhappy ending to their love story in that drama. One of my favorite part of their story is Bai Fengjiu trying to carve his name next to hers on the Rock of Reincarnations and just can't.
No matter how much they might actually love one another, if it's not fated to be, they just can't be together.
That scene might be one of my favorite of theirs in the original 3310 drama.
But I guess I just don't enjoy their story when they're the main characters and when they get a happy ending (I read spoilers).
Cast and Characters
Bai Fengjiu is once again played by Dilraba Dilmurat (3310, Swords of Legends, The King's Woman, The Flame's Daughter, She Was Pretty).
In this version of the story, she upgraded to being a halfway okay fighter and weaponsmith. If the rest of the story wasn't such a drag, that might be a pretty good characterization.
Donghua Dijun is once again played by Vengo Gao (3310, Swords of Legends).
Also reprising their roles are the guys that played Si Ming (Star Lord) and Third Prince (can't bother to look up character name).
The old Zhe Yan didn't reprise his role and therefore allowed Baron Chen (Fated to Love You, Bromance, Because of You, Fights Break Sphere) to insert himself into the role.
To be quite honest, Baron Chen was a major driving factor for me to watch this drama. But since he's not the main character, his presence alone is not enough to keep me watching.
So 12 episodes in, here are the goods and the bads:
The Good
This same-sex couple:
On the right is the demon princess and on the left is her trusty guard that's guarded her since childhood. And since childhood, she's dressed as a man so the princess doesn't find out until this scene that she's a man. But when she does find out, it's still:
I want them to end up together as a romantic couple. But knowing China, that won't happen. So no need to watch further for them.
General Scar:
For awhile, I though he was going to end up being the reincarnation of Bai Fengjiu's magic butterfly from heaven. But then the actual butterfly reincarnation showed up in the form of an uninteresting maid.
From a love triangle standpoint, I want him to end up together with Bai Fengjiu more than her with mortal Donghua Dijun. Since that's never going to happen, I won't need to watch further for him.
Bro Demon Guy:
He's such a bro that he's willing to do yard work for Donghua Dijun so the latter will have time to dual him. But then he's gone for a large part of the drama and everything became uninteresting.
Si Ming and Third Prince:
I like their relationship and their banter. By extension, I also like Spunky Girl (can't remember name) who is in some sort of feisty love-hate relationship with Third Prince.
But when the three of them aren't around making snarky comments, things get far less interesting.
One Good Insert Song:
It's the one good insert song in this drama.
The Bad
Vengo Gao emoting:
It's honestly a little painful to look at him. He's probably the rare actor where I just want him to stop emoting and just be a one-dimensional, ice-faced character.
Ji Heng's Face:
For real life drama reasons, I feel a little bad saying anything negative about this actress. She bought the rights to this story before 3310 became popular with the intention of playing Bai Fengjiu herself. But after 3310 took off in popularity, people associated Dilraba Dilmurat with Bai Fengjiu's character so much so that she was forced to sell the rights to the story and was relegated to playing the villain second female lead of the story. Depression hit and she tried to kill herself.
12 episodes in, I find nothing hugely wrong with Ji Heng as a character. She's one half of the lesbian couple that I'm rooting for. But just...her face, man!
Now I feel shallow and horrible for saying that about someone that attempted suicide.
Palace intrigue/infighting/romance/everything:
Which covers pretty much all 12 of the episodes I watched. When Bai Fengjiu pretended to be a maid in Donghua Dijun's palace, there's palace intrigue, jealousy, and infighting.
Then Bai Fengjiu follows Donghua Dijun to the mortal realm and there's more palace intrigue, jealousy, and infighting.
Spoilers online claims that the drama picks up the pace by episode 35 (out of 56 episodes). So that would require me to watch another 13 episodes of draggy palace intrigue featuring Vengo Gao's "acting". And since they're in the mortal realm now, it wouldn't have the trio of Si Ming, Third Prince, and Spunky Girl to make things more bearable with their witty remarks. And since the main leads get a happy ending, I feel that it's a lot less interesting. There are better dramas out there about couples overcoming hardships to end up together (the main couple in 3310, as one example) that I don't need to force myself to watch this.
3310:The Pillow Book is the side story to 3310 and expands on the love story between Bai Fengjiu and Donghua Dijun. I enjoyed 3310 and I also enjoyed the unhappy ending to their love story in that drama. One of my favorite part of their story is Bai Fengjiu trying to carve his name next to hers on the Rock of Reincarnations and just can't.
No matter how much they might actually love one another, if it's not fated to be, they just can't be together.
That scene might be one of my favorite of theirs in the original 3310 drama.
But I guess I just don't enjoy their story when they're the main characters and when they get a happy ending (I read spoilers).
Cast and Characters
Bai Fengjiu is once again played by Dilraba Dilmurat (3310, Swords of Legends, The King's Woman, The Flame's Daughter, She Was Pretty).
In this version of the story, she upgraded to being a halfway okay fighter and weaponsmith. If the rest of the story wasn't such a drag, that might be a pretty good characterization.
Donghua Dijun is once again played by Vengo Gao (3310, Swords of Legends).
Also reprising their roles are the guys that played Si Ming (Star Lord) and Third Prince (can't bother to look up character name).
The old Zhe Yan didn't reprise his role and therefore allowed Baron Chen (Fated to Love You, Bromance, Because of You, Fights Break Sphere) to insert himself into the role.
To be quite honest, Baron Chen was a major driving factor for me to watch this drama. But since he's not the main character, his presence alone is not enough to keep me watching.
So 12 episodes in, here are the goods and the bads:
The Good
This same-sex couple:
On the right is the demon princess and on the left is her trusty guard that's guarded her since childhood. And since childhood, she's dressed as a man so the princess doesn't find out until this scene that she's a man. But when she does find out, it's still:
I want them to end up together as a romantic couple. But knowing China, that won't happen. So no need to watch further for them.
General Scar:
For awhile, I though he was going to end up being the reincarnation of Bai Fengjiu's magic butterfly from heaven. But then the actual butterfly reincarnation showed up in the form of an uninteresting maid.
From a love triangle standpoint, I want him to end up together with Bai Fengjiu more than her with mortal Donghua Dijun. Since that's never going to happen, I won't need to watch further for him.
Bro Demon Guy:
He's such a bro that he's willing to do yard work for Donghua Dijun so the latter will have time to dual him. But then he's gone for a large part of the drama and everything became uninteresting.
Si Ming and Third Prince:
I like their relationship and their banter. By extension, I also like Spunky Girl (can't remember name) who is in some sort of feisty love-hate relationship with Third Prince.
But when the three of them aren't around making snarky comments, things get far less interesting.
One Good Insert Song:
Click to viewIt's the one good insert song in this drama.
The Bad
Vengo Gao emoting:
It's honestly a little painful to look at him. He's probably the rare actor where I just want him to stop emoting and just be a one-dimensional, ice-faced character.
Ji Heng's Face:
For real life drama reasons, I feel a little bad saying anything negative about this actress. She bought the rights to this story before 3310 became popular with the intention of playing Bai Fengjiu herself. But after 3310 took off in popularity, people associated Dilraba Dilmurat with Bai Fengjiu's character so much so that she was forced to sell the rights to the story and was relegated to playing the villain second female lead of the story. Depression hit and she tried to kill herself.
12 episodes in, I find nothing hugely wrong with Ji Heng as a character. She's one half of the lesbian couple that I'm rooting for. But just...her face, man!
Now I feel shallow and horrible for saying that about someone that attempted suicide.
Palace intrigue/infighting/romance/everything:
Which covers pretty much all 12 of the episodes I watched. When Bai Fengjiu pretended to be a maid in Donghua Dijun's palace, there's palace intrigue, jealousy, and infighting.
Then Bai Fengjiu follows Donghua Dijun to the mortal realm and there's more palace intrigue, jealousy, and infighting.
Spoilers online claims that the drama picks up the pace by episode 35 (out of 56 episodes). So that would require me to watch another 13 episodes of draggy palace intrigue featuring Vengo Gao's "acting". And since they're in the mortal realm now, it wouldn't have the trio of Si Ming, Third Prince, and Spunky Girl to make things more bearable with their witty remarks. And since the main leads get a happy ending, I feel that it's a lot less interesting. There are better dramas out there about couples overcoming hardships to end up together (the main couple in 3310, as one example) that I don't need to force myself to watch this.