2021 C-drama season is long over and the only one that I felt the urge to go back and watch now was One and Only and its immediate sequel Forever and Ever. If there is anything else good lemme know and I’ll add to my backlog. But in looking around I happened upon the dumpster fire online reviews and chatter during airing of 2021 period drama Jun Jiu Ling (君九齡) which doesn’t have an English title. Apparently it was highly anticipated as female lead Peng Xiao Ran‘s first drama since the mega hit Goodbye My Princess which catapulted her to stardom plus based on a beloved drama that is female lead centric and she’s super capable, smart, and not a damsel in distress. Sadly the drama was panned on arrival and sits at a 3.9 on Douban today.
But what makes the tea so cringe to read was that all the criticism at the outset was on male lead Jin Han, who rose through the ranks playing baddies until his male lead elevation and probably was woefully miscast here but he was eviscerated by the entirety of C-netizens for his looks, i.e. every comment was on how ugly he was and hoping that the production could AI switch his face with another actor. That’s just unfortunate and the writer had to step in and say she thought Jin Han was perfectly cast as the manly general. At least the English viewer reviews are more substantive but hits different reasons leading the same low ratings – the drama is very bad in script, directing, and low productions values. So even if Jin Han swapped faces with Yang Yang it would still not save this drama. Going back and reading all this brouhaha felt like coming to a block party gone wild too late.
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English viewers hilarious critiques of Jun Jiu Ling:
“I was hate watching because of how ridiculous the plot and acting was but gave up recently. The drama was so bad on every level of production not due to $$$ but effort that I think it might be a money laundering scheme. It is like the crew of every department just checked out mentally when making the drama.”
“Abandoned it after a couple of episodes. I’m typically not one to nitpick plot holes or demand historical accuracy, but the logical inconsistencies in this drama are so persistent and aggressive they’d drive to your house and kick your dog.”
“Couldn’t get into it. Dropped the drama And I’m dying of laughter bc of the ridiculous hairstyles for the mL Wow.it ruined the good face…”
“Powered through to the end. It started of well enough but as it continued the flaws just kept getting magnified. By the last dozen or so eps, the plot holes and questionable editing (as in scenes did not flow into each other and story lines didn’t necessary follow from one scene to the next in a logical way) really made watching it a chore. Out of the 4 MLs only one seemed like he understood the assignment (sadly it was not the completely miscast 1st ML).”
A picture of Jin Han in modern look and clearly he’s not ugly in the least albeit his looks definitely skew more strong features and may not be everyone’s cup of tea.
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I think what the netizens meant is that he is “ugly” compared to the other male actors in the same show….I don’t agree or disagree as I only watched a few episodes.
But I don’t think the show was that bad but who knows, lengthy shows do have problems retaining the audience if the script, direction and production values are not consistent throughout the whole series …
He is not ugly in person but he does look “ugly” compared to their other three actors in the show. Blame it partly on the styling and make up team too… ugly hairstyle indeed. Even a pretty girl will look “ugly” in a terrible hairstyle.
Liked him in No Secrets. Im interested at the story but I think I will just read the novel. I watched and finished more C-Dramas than K-dramas the past 2 years. I recommend these for binge watching: Ancient Detective, Rattan, Reset, Shining for one thing, Love Scenery, Begin Again, Crush and Miss Crow with Mr. Lizard. Also watched some wacky J-dramas on the side like Hajikoi, Hitman in Love, This Guy is the biggest mistake of my life (super funny),and My Cuteness is about to expire (Yamada Ryo will always be cute).
Some people’s facial features just don’t fit ancient chinese beauty standards, hence they don’t look good in hanfu. Jin Han is one of such cases and looks better in modern wear.
Another chinese celebrity with such issues is Dilraba Dilmurat. Although she is widely regarded as extremely pretty by c-netz, they have a hard time accepting her when she’s dressed in hanfu because her facial features are too exotic. So she ends up fitting xianxia and fantasy dramas more or non-han chinese characters.
One of my favorite novels and this was a very poor adaptation. Very disappointing as the story itself is well written and skin to author’s other works, all very satisfying to read.
Chinese netizen will never be happy. When production companies give them pretty faces with no acting skills they complain. When they get great acting skills with normal faces they say they lack visuals and complain. I hope one day the c-netizens will learn to appreciate actors for their acting and not their looks, so more actors with skills get a chance to show what they can do. As for this drama they should have focused their dislike on the bad production and not the actors face.
I have unhealthy obsession with forever and ever. I watch it periodically whenever I just want to see them being happy.
JH is good looking but the style really didn’t compliment him.
@Popcorn I do too! And One and Only. They’re like gems that have yet to fully shine, or have not been fully found. Love both RJL and BL.
If you were going to watch Allen Ren’s drama, I recommend Under The Power. He was dashing as ancient police officer.