The Ideal City - cdrama review
Chen Minghao has a new show out, and I've already watched the first 20+ eps (of 40), so I think it's time to post a review!
Su Li and Chen Minghao in The Ideal City
The show is available on iqiyi (link). There's also a subbed Chen Minghao cut, feel free to ask me about that on discord/send me a pm on dreamwidth.
It's a contemporary drama about Su Xiao (Sun Li), a female cost engineer in the construction business in Shangai. She does bidding, planning, and monitoring of highrise construction building projects for a big conglomerate. Wang Yang (Chen Minghao) is the boss of one of the conglomerate's subsidiaries. Other important characters include Xia Ming (Zhao Youting aka Mark Chao) who is working for another subsidiary and teaches Su Xiao a few things, and Wu Hongmei (Gao Ye - who was also on Vacation of Love, apparently, although I didn't recognize her there), her best friend, who struggles with a boss who doesn't respect her, and the fact that Su Xiao seems superior to her in every way.
So the show is a lot of sitting around in offices and talking about money and streamlining business processes. It's all contained to processes within that conglomerate, so it feels kind of oddly less relevant than it could be - although it might just be that this is what makes the censors happy, and it's really supposed to show actual market circumstances in China.
In the beginning, there's an accident involving inferior cement quality, which is why we've come to call the show "the cement show".
The plots are mostly aggravating - people are manipulating each other left and right and trying to ruin our plucky heroine constantly. Of course there's also lots of mysogyny, although I don't even feel like it's a major point of the show (although it is mentioned in the show's blurb). The characterization is relatively clear-cut, either they're villains or they're good people who are the best at everything and can't do anything wrong. Lucky for me, both the female main character and Chen Minghao's character are "good ones", so things usually (eventually) go their way. It's not very interesting, though - you always know who will win.
Points in favor of the show: a) I really like the main character, she's tough but also vulnerable, she's much better at technical things than at networking, and she's a woman in a men's world. I couldn't help empathize with her. b) Chen Minghao's role is much larger than I thought it would be, considering how late in the show's title sequence he shows up. Oh, and I almost forgot: he does his own voice.
There's also a romance plot, but it's secondary to the career plotlines (and it doesn't involve Chen Minghao).
Is it a rec?
Hmmm.... if you want to watch it for Chen Minghao, like I do, there are a lot of good scenes. I haven't regretted it yet. Since I'm not invested in the plot, I doubt anything the show can throw at us will change my mind about that. Even if he never shows up again in the eps I haven't seen yet, I don't regret having watched it thus far.
Does it have a happy ending?
I don't know yet. :D I've only watched half of it so far, and the last ten eps haven't even been released yet. ETA: I have watched the whole thing now. I think it's a happy ending? Most of the second half of the show revolves around her staying true to herself even while being promoted within the company, and I think she does that. The romance breaks over that, although I think the ending there is open as well, because she finds out something about him that she can respect. Chen Minghao's character gets disappointed, though, and he's not in much of the last 10 eps.
Here are a few caps:
gallery link
Su Xiao and Xia Ming
Visiting construction sites
Su Xiao and Wang Yang
A rare cap in which all three are present - Xia Ming, Wang Yang, and Su Xiao
Wang Yang, his VP Chen Siming, and Su Xiao
Naked Xia Ming
Naked Wang Yang
Business dinner
And some more cute Chen Minghao faces:
x-posted from dw (comments:
)
Su Li and Chen Minghao in The Ideal City
The show is available on iqiyi (link). There's also a subbed Chen Minghao cut, feel free to ask me about that on discord/send me a pm on dreamwidth.
It's a contemporary drama about Su Xiao (Sun Li), a female cost engineer in the construction business in Shangai. She does bidding, planning, and monitoring of highrise construction building projects for a big conglomerate. Wang Yang (Chen Minghao) is the boss of one of the conglomerate's subsidiaries. Other important characters include Xia Ming (Zhao Youting aka Mark Chao) who is working for another subsidiary and teaches Su Xiao a few things, and Wu Hongmei (Gao Ye - who was also on Vacation of Love, apparently, although I didn't recognize her there), her best friend, who struggles with a boss who doesn't respect her, and the fact that Su Xiao seems superior to her in every way.
So the show is a lot of sitting around in offices and talking about money and streamlining business processes. It's all contained to processes within that conglomerate, so it feels kind of oddly less relevant than it could be - although it might just be that this is what makes the censors happy, and it's really supposed to show actual market circumstances in China.
In the beginning, there's an accident involving inferior cement quality, which is why we've come to call the show "the cement show".
The plots are mostly aggravating - people are manipulating each other left and right and trying to ruin our plucky heroine constantly. Of course there's also lots of mysogyny, although I don't even feel like it's a major point of the show (although it is mentioned in the show's blurb). The characterization is relatively clear-cut, either they're villains or they're good people who are the best at everything and can't do anything wrong. Lucky for me, both the female main character and Chen Minghao's character are "good ones", so things usually (eventually) go their way. It's not very interesting, though - you always know who will win.
Points in favor of the show: a) I really like the main character, she's tough but also vulnerable, she's much better at technical things than at networking, and she's a woman in a men's world. I couldn't help empathize with her. b) Chen Minghao's role is much larger than I thought it would be, considering how late in the show's title sequence he shows up. Oh, and I almost forgot: he does his own voice.
There's also a romance plot, but it's secondary to the career plotlines (and it doesn't involve Chen Minghao).
Is it a rec?
Hmmm.... if you want to watch it for Chen Minghao, like I do, there are a lot of good scenes. I haven't regretted it yet. Since I'm not invested in the plot, I doubt anything the show can throw at us will change my mind about that. Even if he never shows up again in the eps I haven't seen yet, I don't regret having watched it thus far.
Does it have a happy ending?
I don't know yet. :D I've only watched half of it so far, and the last ten eps haven't even been released yet. ETA: I have watched the whole thing now. I think it's a happy ending? Most of the second half of the show revolves around her staying true to herself even while being promoted within the company, and I think she does that. The romance breaks over that, although I think the ending there is open as well, because she finds out something about him that she can respect. Chen Minghao's character gets disappointed, though, and he's not in much of the last 10 eps.
Here are a few caps:
gallery link
Su Xiao and Xia Ming
Visiting construction sites
Su Xiao and Wang Yang
A rare cap in which all three are present - Xia Ming, Wang Yang, and Su Xiao
Wang Yang, his VP Chen Siming, and Su Xiao
Naked Xia Ming
Naked Wang Yang
Business dinner
And some more cute Chen Minghao faces:
x-posted from dw (comments:
)