Review: The Longest Promise
The Longest Promise, ep.40 - Year 2023: I had big expectations for this drama and unfortunately it didn't deliver.
This had everything going for it with a decent budget, costumes, veteran actors and good CG. The biggest problem is the pacing: very slow especially toward the end where episodes were one and a half hour long. I think 7 eps or more could have been easily cut from the total.
Problems: Slow pacing, script aka the scriptwriter didn't seem to know when to do plot reveals/character moments/big dramatic moments. Many important scenes that would have added dramatic tension were simply skipped and mentioned in passing. Some characters just got discarded by the way they ended.
Soundtrack and vocal songs were forgettable and didn't leave an impression. Action scenes were few and far between and there was not enough use of wires or the actors doing their own stunts. The supporting characters just weren't interesting either.
Good point: Fang Yilun's role was memorable, a great performance.
The ending: this is a spoiler but I think most should know about this.
I wouldn't have watched if I knew the drama was a bad ending for the two leads. The ML dies despite being so powerful and the FL is left with not a single family member. There was no reason for a BE in my opinion. It just seems like they wanted to make Shi Ying look more noble/tragic. By this point having watched the equivalent of 50 eps to see this ending, I was pretty annoyed.
Ironically every character who lied, ran away, cheated, back-stabbed, etc got a happy ending. No "villain" got what they deserved. I'm surprised a character like Bai Xuelu got a perfect happy ending. Don't know if the scriptwriter favoured this character or they wanted to give the actress more screen-time.
I'd rate this a 6 or 7 out of 10 due to the actors' efforts. Overall, it was a disappointment.
This had everything going for it with a decent budget, costumes, veteran actors and good CG. The biggest problem is the pacing: very slow especially toward the end where episodes were one and a half hour long. I think 7 eps or more could have been easily cut from the total.
Problems: Slow pacing, script aka the scriptwriter didn't seem to know when to do plot reveals/character moments/big dramatic moments. Many important scenes that would have added dramatic tension were simply skipped and mentioned in passing. Some characters just got discarded by the way they ended.
Soundtrack and vocal songs were forgettable and didn't leave an impression. Action scenes were few and far between and there was not enough use of wires or the actors doing their own stunts. The supporting characters just weren't interesting either.
Good point: Fang Yilun's role was memorable, a great performance.
The ending: this is a spoiler but I think most should know about this.
I wouldn't have watched if I knew the drama was a bad ending for the two leads. The ML dies despite being so powerful and the FL is left with not a single family member. There was no reason for a BE in my opinion. It just seems like they wanted to make Shi Ying look more noble/tragic. By this point having watched the equivalent of 50 eps to see this ending, I was pretty annoyed.
Ironically every character who lied, ran away, cheated, back-stabbed, etc got a happy ending. No "villain" got what they deserved. I'm surprised a character like Bai Xuelu got a perfect happy ending. Don't know if the scriptwriter favoured this character or they wanted to give the actress more screen-time.
I'd rate this a 6 or 7 out of 10 due to the actors' efforts. Overall, it was a disappointment.