Fannish 50 S3 Post 41: CDramas I've DNF'd part 1
Sep. 28th, 2025 12:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Under the Moonlight (YouTube)
A 2025, 36-episode historical drama.
The premise
It's the story of Luo Shu (played by Hu Bingqing) who was abt to debut as a courtesan. Due to ~plotty reasons, she got a job with Han Munzi (He Peng), the new local magistrate, as a kind of consultant detective of sorts. (I know, I know. Just go along with this.) Then, Qi Menglin (played by Zhai Zilu), the governor's son, showed up and SOMEHOW ended up tagging along in the investigations.
I'd heard some rumblings abt this drama and was confused as to why it wasn't more popular.
Hu Bingqing as Luo Shu gave a solid performance: her pragmatic view of things and cleverness w/r/t the way ppl behave. As for the rest of the cast, the majority of them were good. Especially the actors for the secondary characters.
The mysteries (well, I only watched the first two out of the 10) were actually cool. They were complicated enough to warrant a few episodes per case. The solutions were logical too. NGL, the mysteries are a big part of the reason why I stuck with the show (even as I had soured on other things.)
Do I have any criticisms?
Well...😬
My ability to suspend my disbelief was nearly broken. I understood that the premise was pretty ridic to begin with. But then, for reasons, Luo Shu (once she stared consulting) did a crummy job in disguising herself as a man. Which included her fake persona being given the rank of captain which EVERYONE IN THE MAGISTRATE OFFICE (down the lowest ranked officer) was A-OK with... 🙃
What makes this so OTT was that the crimes were V. SRS BIZNESS (including sexual assault and grusome murders). At times, I had to ignore the fact that Luo Shu (despite her good powers of observation) had received ZERO training for this kind of job, but OK, drama. XD
THEN, there's the casting of Hu Bingqing as Luo Shu. OTOH, she could convey a character who's ultimately optimistic, focused, smart, and dedicated. OTOH, however, the show made it v. clear that her character was EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD. This was brought up many times during the first 2-3 eps.
Unfortunately, though, Hu Bingqing looked (at best) to be around 10 yrs older. FTR, she was around 31-32 when they'd filmed this drama. In an ideal world, the character would've been aged up OR the production team could've cast someone closer to the character's age.
After all, Zhai Zilu as Qi Menglin was 21 when the drama was filmed (the character's supposed to be 24, IIRC.) This meant that, when the characters are together, Hu Bingqing looked like an older relative of his or someone who is deffo older than him.
Again, Hu Bingqing acted the fuck out of that character, BUT she carrieed herself as someone who is way more mature than the character was supposed to be (given the whole 'SHE'S 18!" thing.)
And then, there's my SECOND issue: Qi Menglin. He's handsome and had some charisma. That said, his personality in this drama was so childish that it put me off. I think this character would've fit better in another type of drama (a romcom one) vs. plotlines that go IN abt how someone killed someone else. So, seeing him bumble his way and act all jokey rubbed me the wrongest of ways. .
AND FINALLY, I didn't believe the CP at all. At first, Qi Menglin was v. rude and bratty toward Luo Shu cuz he thought she's a guy. Once he discovered the truth, he decided to court her cuz why not? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I didn't like how hard the show tried to make the CP happen. ALSO BASED ON
Which NO, THANK YOU. I'M NOT HERE FOR THAT. As I understand it, the romance was supposed to be a slow burn. Unfortch, there's ZERO chemistry cuz there's NO attraction between them, LOLsob. Instead, they had sibling energy. IJS
What's the FMC's plot armor level?
Fairly strong. Bad things have happened to her (such as being sold to a brothel when she was young, almost getting sexually assaulted onscreen, etc), but all of the terrible things happened to other characters and not her in the end.
How does the show handle the inevitable "Oh noes, the emperor's in danger of losing his throne!" storyline?
NO IDEA! I bounced before any of this was brought into the story. BUT, I'm sure there's some dramarama afoot in the latter half?
Do I recommend it?
No. It's not a terrible drama, but all of the things I complained abt added up to a big "let me stop here and move on." I only watched 6 out of the 36 eps. The series is available on YouTube.
Queerness level
There's a ~vibe between the Magistrate and his second in command that's sort of explained as the two of them being lifelong friends? Though they deffo have MARRIEDS vibe, IMO.. FTR, the show makes it v. clear that neither character is queer (but when has that stopped anyone, LOL?)
Le trailer
I could only find this version of the trailer. It has Portuguese subtitles. Trigger/Content Warning: The first 25 seconds show people getting murdered by different methods. It's graphic enough (there's blood (no gore, tho) and violence) for me to give a heads up.
A 2025, 36-episode historical drama.
The premise
It's the story of Luo Shu (played by Hu Bingqing) who was abt to debut as a courtesan. Due to ~plotty reasons, she got a job with Han Munzi (He Peng), the new local magistrate, as a kind of consultant detective of sorts. (I know, I know. Just go along with this.) Then, Qi Menglin (played by Zhai Zilu), the governor's son, showed up and SOMEHOW ended up tagging along in the investigations.
I'd heard some rumblings abt this drama and was confused as to why it wasn't more popular.
Hu Bingqing as Luo Shu gave a solid performance: her pragmatic view of things and cleverness w/r/t the way ppl behave. As for the rest of the cast, the majority of them were good. Especially the actors for the secondary characters.
The mysteries (well, I only watched the first two out of the 10) were actually cool. They were complicated enough to warrant a few episodes per case. The solutions were logical too. NGL, the mysteries are a big part of the reason why I stuck with the show (even as I had soured on other things.)
Do I have any criticisms?
Well...😬
My ability to suspend my disbelief was nearly broken. I understood that the premise was pretty ridic to begin with. But then, for reasons, Luo Shu (once she stared consulting) did a crummy job in disguising herself as a man. Which included her fake persona being given the rank of captain which EVERYONE IN THE MAGISTRATE OFFICE (down the lowest ranked officer) was A-OK with... 🙃
What makes this so OTT was that the crimes were V. SRS BIZNESS (including sexual assault and grusome murders). At times, I had to ignore the fact that Luo Shu (despite her good powers of observation) had received ZERO training for this kind of job, but OK, drama. XD
THEN, there's the casting of Hu Bingqing as Luo Shu. OTOH, she could convey a character who's ultimately optimistic, focused, smart, and dedicated. OTOH, however, the show made it v. clear that her character was EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD. This was brought up many times during the first 2-3 eps.
Unfortunately, though, Hu Bingqing looked (at best) to be around 10 yrs older. FTR, she was around 31-32 when they'd filmed this drama. In an ideal world, the character would've been aged up OR the production team could've cast someone closer to the character's age.
After all, Zhai Zilu as Qi Menglin was 21 when the drama was filmed (the character's supposed to be 24, IIRC.) This meant that, when the characters are together, Hu Bingqing looked like an older relative of his or someone who is deffo older than him.
Again, Hu Bingqing acted the fuck out of that character, BUT she carrieed herself as someone who is way more mature than the character was supposed to be (given the whole 'SHE'S 18!" thing.)
And then, there's my SECOND issue: Qi Menglin. He's handsome and had some charisma. That said, his personality in this drama was so childish that it put me off. I think this character would've fit better in another type of drama (a romcom one) vs. plotlines that go IN abt how someone killed someone else. So, seeing him bumble his way and act all jokey rubbed me the wrongest of ways. .
AND FINALLY, I didn't believe the CP at all. At first, Qi Menglin was v. rude and bratty toward Luo Shu cuz he thought she's a guy. Once he discovered the truth, he decided to court her cuz why not? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I didn't like how hard the show tried to make the CP happen. ALSO BASED ON
SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING
he never really grew out of that jokey/prankster mode? And eventually they get married, but not cuz she fell in love with him. Instead, it's more like he wore down her resolveWhat's the FMC's plot armor level?
Fairly strong. Bad things have happened to her (such as being sold to a brothel when she was young, almost getting sexually assaulted onscreen, etc), but all of the terrible things happened to other characters and not her in the end.
How does the show handle the inevitable "Oh noes, the emperor's in danger of losing his throne!" storyline?
NO IDEA! I bounced before any of this was brought into the story. BUT, I'm sure there's some dramarama afoot in the latter half?
Do I recommend it?
No. It's not a terrible drama, but all of the things I complained abt added up to a big "let me stop here and move on." I only watched 6 out of the 36 eps. The series is available on YouTube.
Queerness level
There's a ~vibe between the Magistrate and his second in command that's sort of explained as the two of them being lifelong friends? Though they deffo have MARRIEDS vibe, IMO.. FTR, the show makes it v. clear that neither character is queer (but when has that stopped anyone, LOL?)
Le trailer
I could only find this version of the trailer. It has Portuguese subtitles. Trigger/Content Warning: The first 25 seconds show people getting murdered by different methods. It's graphic enough (there's blood (no gore, tho) and violence) for me to give a heads up.