Sunday, January 8, 2017

236. Shuttle Love Millennium 相爱穿梭千年2:月光下的交换 (2016) Chinese

Wei Da Xun, Wen Yong Shan, Guo Xue Fu, Zhang Xiao Chen

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A

As the sequel of the Chinese version of Queen In Hyun's Man, this is really just similar in concept, rather than story.  It's a time travel drama, where two dudes with the same face and the same jade necklace can switch places, if some other conditions are met.  So naturally they are going to fall in love with someone in the other time period while they are there, that is just what you do in time travel dramas.

I really loved watching this show, but it did have some unlikable flaws for me.  Like the distribution of screen time.  I really liked the 2016 boy-1936 girl couple a million times better than the 1936 boy-2016 girl couple.  Their story was much more compelling as their period was much more dangerous, desperate, and emotional.  It made 2016 look frivolous in comparison.  I also thought 2016 girl, Wang Lin, was one of the more annoying characters (partially since her dubbing was the worst) and she caused the most problems because she never told Sun Qilong (2016 boy) anything which could have made a few things way easier or at least solved a few misunderstandings.  Poor clueless boy never knew what was going on and still managed to survive.  My biggest problem was how they wrapped it up in the end.  Time travel plots are always going to have some impossibilities to get everyone together and be happy, but they just didn't fill all the holes they created.  I spent the entire show wondering where the 3rd jade piece was, and then it miraculously shows up in the end.  It had been there the entire time, well what to you know, har har.  Yeah, not having any of that.  Also, they sort of overlooked the part where China was still going to be plunged into a war that destroyed everything, but somehow the Blue Moon was going to survive now that the couple was together...  Yeah, they just glossed it over with a big ribbon.  But at least it was a happy ending, even though the ending for the first couple would have to be changed when the second couple got together... before it even started.  Yeah, that's a can on worms that they opened but ignored the consequences by ending the show.  Not a horrible ending, but one that you have to just close your eyes and accept, because honestly, what else were they going to do?

Besides Wang Lin, everyone did a decent job acting.  I was super impressed with Wei Da Xun playing the two male leads.  I didn't even realize they were the same person in the first couple of episodes.  His mannerisms, voice, and hair were all just too different.  So claps to him.  I also liked how the grandma actually looked like her younger self.  The smile especially was believable.  So, I liked this show, but it was of course not perfect.  I watched it for Puff Guo (1936 girl, Zi Yi) and was not disappointed.  I didn't really have any expectations for it, actually, especially based on the name (Shuttle Love Millennium? Ha ha ha), so in that regard it blasted my expectations out of the water.  It is a super fun show to watch.  It really just faced the typical time travel problems and actually did an okay job with them, all things considering.