CANARY REPORT: THE FLAME’S DAUGHTER
Sep. 24th, 2018 10:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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disgracetoscholars
Canary Report: The Flame’s Daughter/烈火如歌
Canary Reports are a public service to help protect everyone who makes better choices than the Disgrace to Scholars Collective. We watch these and report back in so you don’t have to. Have a drama you want us to try out? Leave a comment below and let us know!
Where to Watch It: DramaFever (English subs available), YouTube (English subs available), Viki (English subs available)
Summary: The DramaFever synopsis is terribly unhelpful, the description simply says: “A princess betrayed at birth. A deceived warrior who loves her. If you fall for the daughter of the flame, prepare to get burned.”
Lie Ruge (Dilreba Dilmurat) is the precious beloved and spoiled daughter of a powerful jianghu sect leader, and when we first meet her, she’s cheerfully trickstering her way into being hired on at the most popular and well-known brothel in the city. Turns out she’s driven by that her eldest martial brother (Vin Zhang) had a sudden about face on his promise to marry her. The third character and actor whom I expect everyone to care about is Yin Xue, the mysterious “Number one beauty” and actual owner of the brothel, played by one Vic Zhou.
Review/Comments: Cutting to the chase, I think that this drama is leaning heavily on their casts’ fanbases. Dilreba Dilmurat and Vin Zhang have now been in several dramas together now, always playing as one another’s romantic interest. They are, seriously gorgeous people even if Vin Zhang has only the one expression in this show. (I have tried to watch too many bad dramas for Dilreba’s beautiful face, key word generally seems to be tried). Vic Zhou, everyone should be familiar with from…METEOR GARDEN. The original, accept no substitutes. So the cast seems interesting on a superficial level, but then one gets to the story...
WHY, dear god, does this show have such positive average scores from viewers. Somehow, somehow. This show has an average of a five star rating on DramaFever with ratings from approximately 24,000 viewers. Were we all watching the same show? If we were, I can only assume they all get blinded by the beautiful people. The story isn’t that interesting! Don’t get me wrong, I loooove me some classic wuxia tropes with beautiful ladies wandering the jianghu as they please because their father is some big to-do sect leader. It has to be done well, though, and not telegraphed in giant billboards while the plot drives on at the proverbial 10 below the speed limit.
Even with the pacing issues, I have to admit, I totally watched something like nine episodes in a row before the slow pace (FIFTY-TWO EPISODES), the terrible cgi (less terrible than Guardian, even if this is a low bar), the godawful lighting, the desultory lack of expressions from certain people, and overall stupid convolutions of the plot bored me to death and I quit watching. At some point, even eyecandy isn’t enough. To be brutally honest, I also stopped caring about any of the characters, their petty motivations, the dumbass secret sister side plot, the pointless sect vs. sect machination and power struggles, and then finally, the main character herself.
Dilreba is super beautiful in this show, though. She always is, really, I kind of hate myself for wanting to pick it up again just to watch her be cute at everyone and sail merrily through life. Better projects for Dilreba please, I would actually like to finish watching a drama she acts in for once. Just once.
Canary Ratio: If we go with 9/52, that’s a 17.3% completion and if we were to score that like homework that’s definitely a failing grade. This isn’t even terrible dreck that’s somehow fun.
Canary Flashpoint: Probably episode 2, the pacing is just...so...so...slow, and then the theme opening is boring and the show isn’t even that pretty. (Will anything ever surpass Nirvana in Fire on that point for me? Who knows). The eye candy factor wasn’t enough to keep me from rolling my eyes and hitting fast forward to get through the idiotically predictable plot beats.
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Date: 2018-09-24 07:23 pm (UTC)(On that note, has anyone else watched Pretty Li Hui Zhen? Can we talk about the ridiculousness of the plot point that Dilreba, curly hair or otherwise, is anything other than gorgeous?)
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Date: 2018-09-24 10:03 pm (UTC)Everyone clutched stupid balls real tight and I ragequit that show like....15-20eps in?
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Date: 2018-09-24 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-09-24 10:19 pm (UTC)This entire show just coasted on the pre-established fanbase interest. It’s the only thing that explains any of the stupidity. The story is very rote but like, whatever I like standard tropes.
Except it draaaaaagged so badly. So badly. The series needed a real mean editor.
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Date: 2018-09-25 07:47 am (UTC)“Beauties in the Closet” / [ 柜中美人 ]
He played an emperor, and it's on YouKu.
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Date: 2018-09-25 08:18 pm (UTC)The things I do for the sake of this blog.
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Date: 2018-09-26 12:41 am (UTC)Also Dilreba's other dramas are awful as well, esp the Chinese remake of She Was Pretty, I'm hoping Pillow Book will be good, or at least popcorn worthy.
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Date: 2018-09-26 06:19 pm (UTC)I just. Want Dilreba to have a good show. Sob.
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Date: 2018-09-27 05:33 pm (UTC)I just watched the whole thing (and didn't hate it).
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Date: 2018-10-01 05:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-10-01 06:10 pm (UTC)(I'd volunteer to help, but I'm not sure I can do the required style?)