honeytreetot

Epic. I watched all 36 episodes three times in a row. I loved it that much. It has its flaws - just flinging plot points into the void - but it keeps its main thread and develops its characters. People dislike the main character, Orchid, for her early cutesy demeanour, but it lends itself to the comedy and she grows without losing the heart of who the character is supposed to be. Esther Yu is so sympathetic as Orchid she reaches beauty, not mere prettiness. And Dylan Wang achieves an acting masterpiece - I have not seen such range in a long time. After watching him in Yu Long and half an episode of Meteor Garden (I couldn't go on, too high school when they're supposed to be in college), I wonder what launched him to the next level like this.

I watched this after watching Love Between Fairy and Devil, which was epic. These are the only two c-dramas I've ever seen. They were strangely similar, the exact same tropes expressed in the exact same way, but Yu Long was like a very very rough draft of Fairy/Devil. The first couple of episodes were laughably bad - the acting wooden, the chemistry between the romantic pair nonexistent, and the makeup lines on their faces visible. But they started to warm up; and half way through, it was like they changed director and writer. The show becomes engaging. I would like to know what happened during the making of this series, how they turned the ship around and if someone said 'we could make this good' and then went on to do Love Between Fairy and Devil.