Joy (?) of Life
After 4.1 episodes, I decided to drop Joy of Life.
The internet seemed to like this drama a lot but it just didn't seem interesting to me. But I figure I'd give it a shot. Well...I tried.
I think this is the plot? Who knows, man.
According to spoilers....
the story is set in "ancient China", but it's actually an "ancient China" after the modern world ended and the world returned to an ice age. When it re-emerges out of that ice age, world history sort of repeats itself and the world once again looks like ancient China.
....End spoilers
That sounds very interesting, but 4.1 episodes in, the story seems to be about the ML's role in some sort of royal conflict involving a crown prince, possibly three other princes, and a princess that's not actually related by blood to any of the princes.
ML is also set to marry the FL but it's the standard cliche where he doesn't want to be in an arranged marriage yet meets the FL without knowing who she is and falls in love with her, etc, etc.
In general, I just don't really care for palace intrigue stories. Lack of interest in the plot aside, I also didn't care for the following:
Four episodes in, the drama still feels the need to tell us who the main character is. Like, does it think the audience is stupid? Four episodes in and the ML is in every single episode. At this point, it still think it needs the character's name and title on screen every time he shows up.
Serious over-acting by the older actors. I'm not a fan of mainland China's older style of acting. Part of the praise I read about this drama is the "good acting" by the older actors. Since I hate this style of acting, there's no point in watching more of it.
ML's wonky eye. It's actually sort of amazing. He has a single eyelid on his left eye and a double eyelid on his right eye. Either crazy genetics or plastic surgery gone wrong. Whatever the case, pretty interesting in a weird, distracting way. But I like my ML good-looking, not interesting-looking.
Chunkiness/bad costuming. I have no idea if the ML is just a chubby dude or what.
Watching Chinese dramas, I notice they either film in the very cold or the very hot. It's also likely this was filmed in the cold and therefore ML is in a lot of layers. Whichever the case, he just looks like a chunky guy and, shallowly, I'm not into that.
With all the bad, there's just not enough of the good - like what's going on with the whacky world the ML's is in, his robot bodyguard, etc. I want more of the weird, sci-fi stuff. Not the boring, traditional palace intrigue.
The other very good thing about this drama is that it's either not dubbed or dubbed so well that I can't tell it's not dubbed. But still, that bit of good is not enough for me to want to invest 40-ish hours into watching it.
The internet seemed to like this drama a lot but it just didn't seem interesting to me. But I figure I'd give it a shot. Well...I tried.
I think this is the plot? Who knows, man.
According to spoilers....
the story is set in "ancient China", but it's actually an "ancient China" after the modern world ended and the world returned to an ice age. When it re-emerges out of that ice age, world history sort of repeats itself and the world once again looks like ancient China.
....End spoilers
That sounds very interesting, but 4.1 episodes in, the story seems to be about the ML's role in some sort of royal conflict involving a crown prince, possibly three other princes, and a princess that's not actually related by blood to any of the princes.
ML is also set to marry the FL but it's the standard cliche where he doesn't want to be in an arranged marriage yet meets the FL without knowing who she is and falls in love with her, etc, etc.
In general, I just don't really care for palace intrigue stories. Lack of interest in the plot aside, I also didn't care for the following:
Four episodes in, the drama still feels the need to tell us who the main character is. Like, does it think the audience is stupid? Four episodes in and the ML is in every single episode. At this point, it still think it needs the character's name and title on screen every time he shows up.
Serious over-acting by the older actors. I'm not a fan of mainland China's older style of acting. Part of the praise I read about this drama is the "good acting" by the older actors. Since I hate this style of acting, there's no point in watching more of it.
ML's wonky eye. It's actually sort of amazing. He has a single eyelid on his left eye and a double eyelid on his right eye. Either crazy genetics or plastic surgery gone wrong. Whatever the case, pretty interesting in a weird, distracting way. But I like my ML good-looking, not interesting-looking.
Chunkiness/bad costuming. I have no idea if the ML is just a chubby dude or what.
Watching Chinese dramas, I notice they either film in the very cold or the very hot. It's also likely this was filmed in the cold and therefore ML is in a lot of layers. Whichever the case, he just looks like a chunky guy and, shallowly, I'm not into that.
With all the bad, there's just not enough of the good - like what's going on with the whacky world the ML's is in, his robot bodyguard, etc. I want more of the weird, sci-fi stuff. Not the boring, traditional palace intrigue.
The other very good thing about this drama is that it's either not dubbed or dubbed so well that I can't tell it's not dubbed. But still, that bit of good is not enough for me to want to invest 40-ish hours into watching it.