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New Life Begins
Feb. 1st, 2023 07:29 pmSo, I finished another drama, which makes three for 2023
(Lighter & Princess, She and Her Perfect Husband and now New Life Begins.)
Sadly, this one was a bit of a fizzer as far as I was concerned. I mean, it wasn't *terrible*, but I really had to force myself to get the last few episodes down. It was just kind of boring, really. Everyone was pretty (maybe especially Bai Jingting, the cute as punch bus boy from last year's 《Reset》) but the story line was eminently predictable, and pretty much every story beat I had seen done elsewhere, and better. In particular, with its constant (shallow) harping on women's status it brought to mind a watered down version of 《A Dream of Splendour》which, sadly for the sake of 《New Life Begins》was a much more gripping drama, though not without its own problems.
But I'm not here to tell you about the problems with that drama, I'm here to tell you about the one I just finished. And it won't be an exhaustive list, but: the script was extremely unrealistic, to the point that it sometimes felt like a children's tv show (character's travelling from the capital to a far flung border region to give emergency relief and only needing to travel for a couple of days in a cart going at walking pace; the emergency needing relief resulted in literally zero casualties; the softly spoken, neglected sixth prince is actually a secret martial arts master, and also a living saint who literally gives the clothes off his own back to a random old granny; major political changes are implemented without hiccup in a couple of months and everyone is basically happy about it; I could go on) and outside a few moments of raised tension the stakes for the whole thing (despite it literally being a heirs-jockeying-for-position-with-an-ailing-emperor type story) feel virtually non-existent.
But as I said, it wasn't *bad*. It was fluffy and sweet, mostly well executed and obviously a crowd favourite (it did amazing ratings). It was not really my cup of tea, though, and there's nothing more to say really than that.
(Lighter & Princess, She and Her Perfect Husband and now New Life Begins.)
Sadly, this one was a bit of a fizzer as far as I was concerned. I mean, it wasn't *terrible*, but I really had to force myself to get the last few episodes down. It was just kind of boring, really. Everyone was pretty (maybe especially Bai Jingting, the cute as punch bus boy from last year's 《Reset》) but the story line was eminently predictable, and pretty much every story beat I had seen done elsewhere, and better. In particular, with its constant (shallow) harping on women's status it brought to mind a watered down version of 《A Dream of Splendour》which, sadly for the sake of 《New Life Begins》was a much more gripping drama, though not without its own problems.
But I'm not here to tell you about the problems with that drama, I'm here to tell you about the one I just finished. And it won't be an exhaustive list, but: the script was extremely unrealistic, to the point that it sometimes felt like a children's tv show (character's travelling from the capital to a far flung border region to give emergency relief and only needing to travel for a couple of days in a cart going at walking pace; the emergency needing relief resulted in literally zero casualties; the softly spoken, neglected sixth prince is actually a secret martial arts master, and also a living saint who literally gives the clothes off his own back to a random old granny; major political changes are implemented without hiccup in a couple of months and everyone is basically happy about it; I could go on) and outside a few moments of raised tension the stakes for the whole thing (despite it literally being a heirs-jockeying-for-position-with-an-ailing-emperor type story) feel virtually non-existent.
But as I said, it wasn't *bad*. It was fluffy and sweet, mostly well executed and obviously a crowd favourite (it did amazing ratings). It was not really my cup of tea, though, and there's nothing more to say really than that.
