Media Round Up: Back Again
Jun. 26th, 2024 09:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forestofgloryAfter the last media roundup I resolved to be better at keeping notes, and try not to have such big gaps between roundups. So I've been watching various things and even reading a little and I have enough to make post. So here you go:
The Scarlet Alchemist by Kylie Lee Baker— So I ended up deciding not to finish this book, after reading about ⅔ but I want to talk about it anyway. This YA novel is a mix of cool worldbuilding and things that make me go “argh, it doesn’t work like that!” It’s set in an alternative Tang China where someone invented a way to live forever a 100 years ago. Fortunately/unfortunately I now know a lot more than the average anglophone SFF reader about Tang China and have lots of opinions about it. So the gold coins and one piece garments for women were rather grating. For a while the cool bits outweighed the annoying bits, but as the book went on it started to feel more and more “standard YA” and I eventually got frustrated and quit
The Truth Season 2— I can’t explain why I’m finding this Chinese reality show so compelling, but I’m lowkey obsessed with it! The premise is that a bunch of actors are playing a series of very elaborate murder mystery dinner party type games. I already was a fan of about half of the cast before I started watching this and the rest have all grown on me. They have many fun costumes – especially in the episodes set in 1924, and the cyberpunk episodes. I confess that I don’t always follow the mysteries completely, but I enjoy watching them trying to figure things out and how twisty the mysteries generally are.
Rival Magic by Deva Fagan— I read this cute MG fantasy with the kid at bedtime. It’s rivals-to-friends! (I enjoy friendship focused MG but I sure wish I could also get some adult friendship focused books)
Fighting for Love ep 1-7— I watched the first several episodes of this cdrama without knowing much about it because it features a woman in armor. The FL is doing the classical crossdressing for revenge thing and I love her streetwise fast talking persona! However I mentioned watching it during the![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
c_ent weekly chat and several people said that the show doesn’t live up to its potential, so I’m probably not going to watch the rest of it
My Journey to You ep 1-6— This drama has been on my list for a bit but the final straw was noticing that it has the same costume designer as the thing Liu Yuning is filming now. I keep seeing images of him in that and swooning over the textiles! My Journey to You also has some of the actors from The Truth and it's fun to see them in a different context.
It’s an extremely pretty show! The costumes are indeed very pretty, with some excellent dramatic textiles! I am enjoying the relationship between the FL and the 2FL a lot – it's twisty and chewy. So far I’m not invested in any of the romances. There’s lots of plotting and scheming and I’m having fun watching.
Imperial Coroner to ep 22— Still enjoying watching this with my group watch for the most part, thought I found the bit were the ML invented water torture and everyone was like “Isn’t he so clever, we see nothing wrong with torture, in fact we think its great!” very upsetting! I am suspending my moral disbelief for now, because I like watching things with people, and otherwise the show is pretty charming.
The Scarlet Alchemist by Kylie Lee Baker— So I ended up deciding not to finish this book, after reading about ⅔ but I want to talk about it anyway. This YA novel is a mix of cool worldbuilding and things that make me go “argh, it doesn’t work like that!” It’s set in an alternative Tang China where someone invented a way to live forever a 100 years ago. Fortunately/unfortunately I now know a lot more than the average anglophone SFF reader about Tang China and have lots of opinions about it. So the gold coins and one piece garments for women were rather grating. For a while the cool bits outweighed the annoying bits, but as the book went on it started to feel more and more “standard YA” and I eventually got frustrated and quit
The Truth Season 2— I can’t explain why I’m finding this Chinese reality show so compelling, but I’m lowkey obsessed with it! The premise is that a bunch of actors are playing a series of very elaborate murder mystery dinner party type games. I already was a fan of about half of the cast before I started watching this and the rest have all grown on me. They have many fun costumes – especially in the episodes set in 1924, and the cyberpunk episodes. I confess that I don’t always follow the mysteries completely, but I enjoy watching them trying to figure things out and how twisty the mysteries generally are.
Rival Magic by Deva Fagan— I read this cute MG fantasy with the kid at bedtime. It’s rivals-to-friends! (I enjoy friendship focused MG but I sure wish I could also get some adult friendship focused books)
Fighting for Love ep 1-7— I watched the first several episodes of this cdrama without knowing much about it because it features a woman in armor. The FL is doing the classical crossdressing for revenge thing and I love her streetwise fast talking persona! However I mentioned watching it during the
c_ent weekly chat and several people said that the show doesn’t live up to its potential, so I’m probably not going to watch the rest of itMy Journey to You ep 1-6— This drama has been on my list for a bit but the final straw was noticing that it has the same costume designer as the thing Liu Yuning is filming now. I keep seeing images of him in that and swooning over the textiles! My Journey to You also has some of the actors from The Truth and it's fun to see them in a different context.
It’s an extremely pretty show! The costumes are indeed very pretty, with some excellent dramatic textiles! I am enjoying the relationship between the FL and the 2FL a lot – it's twisty and chewy. So far I’m not invested in any of the romances. There’s lots of plotting and scheming and I’m having fun watching.
Imperial Coroner to ep 22— Still enjoying watching this with my group watch for the most part, thought I found the bit were the ML invented water torture and everyone was like “Isn’t he so clever, we see nothing wrong with torture, in fact we think its great!” very upsetting! I am suspending my moral disbelief for now, because I like watching things with people, and otherwise the show is pretty charming.
no subject
Date: 2024-06-26 07:10 pm (UTC)If I recall correctly, my criticism of Fighting for Love was not very specific on c_ent. More specifically, I was disappointed that it took such a long time to get her into an actual general role, and then they gave that part of the story rather short shrift; the focus shifted to the ML and he also became very dislikeable in my opinion. I liked 2ML and 3ML much better and they didn't get nearly enough screentime in comparison. But if you don't really mind the ML and are open to watching it for what we do get of a-Mai, then imo a-Mai's story is good. I never disliked her or her ending. I just feel a little whiny that she didn't get to stay the focus of her own drama.
By the way, the ML also has a decently large part in Joy of Life which I only remembered recently when picking up season 2. I liked his acting a lot in Joy of Life 2. It might have helped if I'd watched that first and felt more inclined to like the actor before trying Fighting for Love!
That's um, interesting about Imperial Coroner. Thanks for the heads up.
no subject
Date: 2024-06-26 08:59 pm (UTC)Thanks for going into more detail about your issues with Fighting for Love! I'm a little bit tempted to pick it up again because I did love A-Mai
That bit in Imperial Coroner really upset me!
no subject
Date: 2024-06-26 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-06-26 09:04 pm (UTC)Jin Jing and Zhang Linghe's sibling relationship in My Journey to You is so much fun!
no subject
Date: 2024-06-28 03:16 am (UTC)I loved Imperial Coroner overall, but yeah, the water torture was upsetting. I think every historical-setting Cdrama I've watched has included torture... :(
no subject
Date: 2024-06-28 11:52 pm (UTC)It's true that most historical cdrama have torture, but the way it was treated like clever solution in Imperial Coroner really bothered me!
no subject
Date: 2024-06-28 11:28 pm (UTC)Saaaame!
the bit were the ML invented water torture and everyone was like “Isn’t he so clever, we see nothing wrong with torture, in fact we think its great!”
Oh my fucking god!! Screamworthy! No!