Noped Out of Legend of Anle Halfway Through its Poorly Directed and Chemistry Lacking Run
So I found the cheesy aspect of Legend of Anle strangely watchable and entertaining at the very beginning, the first few episodes, but alas that charm is so wafer thin that this drama starts sinking under the weight of all its legitimately pointed out problems. I’m nope-ing out of this one at this point after finding myself FF-ing every episode with only few moments of pauses. If it really did have an S-level budget then someone embezzled a shit town of money or else everyone on the production team are nepo-hires because this drama is just woefully assembled together. Dilraba Dilmurat carries the drama on the shoulders of her top level popularity but even she seems to deflating as the drama goes on and running on low energy fumes.
There is no romantic chemistry whatsoever between her and Gong Jun and even the early awkward chemistry is gone. The worst part is the arrival of fake Di Zhi Yuan, the chick that took over Ren An Le’s real identity to live in confinement in the mountain. My apologies to the actress but fake Di Zhi Yuan is a complete charisma suck and looks like a cut rate younger in age Chinese period drama Yzma (reference to The Emperor’s New Groove). Liu Yu Ning is sleepwalking through the entire drama and the entire story is just one girl having all the smarts and planning to orchestrate revenge against the Emperor and his cronies and doing so in by-the-book ways that hinge on her being one step ahead all the time. I also found The Blue Whisper mostly stupid in plot but so addicting thanks to OTP chemistry and a central romance that I actually cared about. LoA is just wet wallpaper.
Idk, I heard a lot of negative feedback, but I didn’t think it was bad at all. Yes, the romance took a little time to develop and it’s not outright in your face, but that’s because the ML is trying his best at keeping women at arm’s length. His one-true love was supposed to be Di Zi Yuan and he understood the assignment. If not for Ren Anle’s shameless and persistent attempts at pulling him in, he wouldn’t even fall for her to begin with, which if it happened immediately, I would be very upset at the direction.
So far he knows he is attracted to Ren Anle, but not enough to remove his guilt-ridden love for Di Zi Yuan.
The plot has been consistent so far, with just a few situations where I’m thinking if such loyal people exist, but I enjoy the female-led plotting.
Agree with @Coralie – there is chemistry as the plot evolves, but ML needs to suppress his emotions because of his promise to marry the impersonated FL knowing that she is a FAKE – very ironic! Comparing with WoH (same director), this LoA definitely looks much lower budget – I was so amazed at GJ’s colorful costumes in WoH and LoA is just so blah especially for a Crown Prince (I can count how few outfits he owns as a prince), the fighting scenes are poorly executed as compared to WoH, CGI’s poorly done, dubbing does not match with mouth motions – everything looks so watered down as compared to WoH. I am quite disappointed. Seriously is this really an S-class production? WoH is much much better considering GJ was still a struggling actor at that time… Sigh…
Agreed with both @Coralie and @Kelly. The chemistry between the leads soar after they fell off the cliff where HanYe finally sure that AnLe is DZY. This drama spent their budget on the stars and left everything on a string.
I could tell from the trailers that I wouldnt enjoy it. It jus seems very forgettable.
@ockoala Did you know Zhang Miao Yi has a new school drama coming out called Exclusive Fairytale, its gonna air tomorrow. Im looking forward to check it out. Her styling looks very similar to When I Fly towards you. So i hope I can see her as Xiao Tu and not Su Zai Zai.
On the contrary Dilireba and Gong Jun chemistry and Anle and Han Ye story is what keep me going for now. The drama has sooo many problems, from production, CGI, pushing new actors etc, still i was quickly attracted to the leads’ chemistry. It’s nothing out of ordinary but their dynamic really got me. without any kissing scene, just shots of their hands, nose touch, arm pulling etc here’s that tension and ambiguity in their interactions that pulled me in. Imo both actors portrayed very well An Le/Di Ziyuan and Han Ye, there’s complexity and
turmoil feeling. Idk their chemistry just works for me lol I blame the writers as they weakened An Le/Di Ziyuan alot, and those side characters that got more screentime than necessary are just annoying af. Still at this point i’m so invested in An Ju Le Ye to give up. gonna watch til the end, ff certain side characters scenes, get hit by all the angst to finally have them have their much deserved HE.
This drama is a wonderful adventure. The leads are wonderful actors and beautiful. Every review I see on Youtube so far is positive. I think once a well done Asian drama is available to the West, it gets the attention it deserves. Some people get paid to troll some celebrities and other people’s dramas. There’s no good reason to do a nasty review. In other words, if you don’t like something, Sit down and SU.