Zíza

For being only eight episodes long, it manages to have so many clichés that I couldn't even keep count. It reminded me a bit of 90's soap operas, and my husband, who was sitting on the sidelines and constantly wanting to comment on what was going on, was also reminded of those soap operas. It's just loaded with melodrama. Love, hate, kisses, punches, misunderstandings, understandings, beautiful kimonos, ornate wagashi, all in the familiar Kanazawa style. Perhaps all the clichés of the genre really came into play in some form here, to the point where some may find it annoying, but I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. I found the main heroine to be fine, oddly enough (she simply knew how to pick herself up off the ground; she had some smarts, she didn't need to be handheld all the time), the main character wasn't the kind of prince dandy who kept all his feelings bottled up inside, but was quite honestly able to get them out. The setting is beautiful, you're constantly looking at ornate kimonos and tasting various Japanese traditional sweets, and for me it starts with my favorite "arranged marriage". I mean, it starts with the arranged marriage, but to agree what will come after is another thing. Anyway, the series both delighted and slightly disappointed me with the classic genre crutches used. Basically, what you watch for sixteen, twenty, thirty episodes in Korean series manages to happen here in eight. I found it a little too rushed at times (otherwise it had a fine pace), but I suppose that's partly due to the COVID situation. In the end, a relaxing matter that can keep you distracted. An improved 3 stars.

I actually didn't find it that bad, then I saw the rating here and the reviews. Sure, it can't aspire to be movie of the year, but it's not even close to being the worst. It's actually sort of an attempt at an American romantic comedy, which we just don't get much of here in Central Europe. It’s a completely mediocre attempt, but perfectly watchable. Sure, it's all abbreviated, shallow (too many characters, too many stories played out, the relationships fail to have any depth afterwards), and everything has to have a happy ending (or a film with no message), but it's a romantic comedy anyway and it's good to watch while doing the ironing. The 52% it's got right now is perfectly adequate.

I'll start with the negatives. Scene editing – some scenes didn't build on the previous ones, maybe they started where a character in the previous scene had already gone. Even the actors had different makeup at times (for example, wounds, at one point the blood was flowing, the next it was wiped, then it was flowing again). Add to that some unsuccessful tricks in the portrayal of the monsters (the dog, and even the turtle not great). Some of the sets looked really cheap, polystyrene instead of stone. Some fights looked almost ridiculous; their choreography wasn't particularly well thought out. In addition, the storyline in the past was too long. The pretending to be a village family, too. I can see why it was there, but I found it too long to the point of being annoying at times because I wanted to get immediately into the present and solve these mysteries. Luckily, I made it to the 33rd episode... But other than that, I enjoyed it. Character development, no one was black or white. They all had their motivations, their characters, and they stuck to them. It never happened that a character suddenly acted illogically, out of character. And with so many characters, that's really incredible. The story was well thought out, the author knew what she wanted, she set the characters in it and played it out very well. It jumped onto the screen without the BL elements, but who cares when the strong bond between Wei and Lan can be seen so clearly. Why? It's not just a good script, but very well acted characters. As for the acting, I actually have nothing to complain about. They all played their complex characters with verve and quality. The characters went through various developments, and the viewer could watch them and either sympathize with them or hate them. But you couldn't say that this or that came out of the blue. Everything had its place and meaning. That logic and great acting were all wrapped in this beautiful setting, caressed by gorgeous music, and adorned by lovely costumes (that is, as far as the clans were concerned; ordinary people = ordinary clothes). For someone who is not a wuxia fan (I don't really care for the genre), I enjoyed it and was very pleasantly surprised. I probably wouldn't be afraid to recommend it to anyone.