Zhao Lu Si and Liu Yu Ning’s Tang Dynasty Drama The Story of Pearl Girl Delivers Solid Production But Focus on the Trade Element Undermines the Audience Friendly Romantic Rizz

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• If anyone's watched both dramas, I'd be curious to know how "The Story of Pearl Girl" compares with Zhang Jingyi's "Blossoms in Adversity". They seem to share the girl empowerment theme, and the FL's journey as primary, romance as secondary approach, but many watchers praised BiA as an addictive watch. So was it a different kind of story after all, or just better put together than SoPG?

  • I prefer Blossoms in Adversity. I feel like they did a better job at the women empowerment approach but Pearl Girl isn't over so my opinion may change.

  • Blossoms in Adversity is way better. One of the top selling points for me were her family, the women and how it all evolved from initial helplessness and desperation to fully empowered women.

    There was something organic about the whole drama that is missing here idk

    Another problem is the ML's writing in Pearl. It really isn't working for me. I suppose that something extra LLTG or BIA had just isn't here.

  • I also think BiA is a better drama focused on woman empowerment. BiA's plot has more logic and coherent heart-warming relationship among the key characters. The side stories of those supporting roles were also better written.

  • I wanted to start Pearl Girl when it's close to the end but all these people saying BiA is better is discouraging... boo!

    • Now I'm wondering if I need to watch Blossoms of Adversity lol!

    • I wasn't saying BiA a better drama, but a better drama to address woman-empowering subject. PG and BiA have very different narratives and plots where FLs' backgrounds are very different in the two dramas. You should give PG a shot if you like darker dramas.

• I like TSOPG but I can't say that I love it. For me, it comes down to the pacing. The story is moving too fast for me. We only got a couple of episodes of her as a pearl slave (the part that really drew me in) then she became a pearl host, and now she's swiftly moving up the ranks on the ML's ship. I don't know if it's the restrictions of only being able to have 40 episodes or the writer really thought that this was the best way to go. I just feel a slower pace would have done wonders for this drama.

  I also really am not a fan of the 2ML. In any other drama, I wouldn't have been as annoyed by his character (the actor plays the same character in The Sword and Brocade)but when everyone else is a grey character and he's there in all his self-righteousness and privilege it's quite annoying to watch.

  • It’s true, it’s really fast-paced. You can tell a lot of scenes were cut and sometimes there’s no cohesiveness from one scene to the next. It must be because they have to fit it all in 40 episodes. So far though, you get the drift right away from the get go and that initial scene was really good and drew you in. I also think it is lacking some elements such as a good OST. This is what happens when you rush production. Otherwise solid performance from ZLS as usual.

• Production value-wise I don't consider it good either due to the subpar CGI, but yeah I agree the drama lacks excitement and oomph. The weak acting from both leads also added insult to the injury.

  • Both leads? Zhao Lusi has shown great acting and depth thus far, I know a hater when I see one

    • @Kris

      And we know a mindless stan when we see one as soon as the word "hater" gets thrown around.

      If you don't agree with her opinion then offer your own and back it up with your reasoning but calling someone a hater because you don't agree is just a sign of typical fan who is in the state of mindless adoration.

      For example, I think Lusi isn't as good here as she was in LLTG but overall, probably her second best role. LYN is way beyond her level for me and combined with weak writing really dragging it down. If she had a better partner, maybe she too would have acted better, it is not uncommon.

      You can call me a hater too if you like lol but on the other hand, you might actually get a grip and realise different people view things differently.

    • Yes, both leads. ZLS's acting is pretty superficial.

    • @Oi Vey — I stand by what I said. Call me mindless if you want, but Lilith has made many remarks demeaning of ZLS on various posts here in Koala. No need for elaboration

    • Saying she is weak in acting is considered demeaning? 🤷🏼‍♀️ Then I'm sure most commenters on this site have demeaned various actors and actresses too.

    • I’m soooo sick of seeing the “you’re just a hater’ type of comment when someone else’s opinion is not to your likening! Isn’t it childish? sounds like something a bitter immature child would say when not getting their way and want to throw tantrums. The internet needs to grow up.

      Just because someone else’s opinion doesn’t matched yours or they expressed something you don’t agreed with, how does that make them a hater? What are you then? A lover? I supposed that’s what you would call yourself opposed to any party on the other side of the fence. What makes you think only your words matter and nobody else shall? If you are allowed to present your opinions freely without a supposed ‘hater’ coming at you then please allow the same for everybody else who indeed has as much right as you do expressing their own genuine thoughts and/or personal opinions. Perhaps, it’s always the ones that are quick to demeaned someone a hater is the most hater around!

    • Me too Kris. Envy births that angry feeling which is manifested by cruel words. Its eating them up and consequently makes them unwell.

  • Their acting is anything but weak, it good enough imo , I guess both actors are not to your preferences.

    • @Mercy ZLS's acting is pretty superficial, whereas LYN I can see emotions in his eyes but he needs to improve his emoting for the lower half of his face.

  • ZLS' acting will never be as childish and bubbly shallow as Esther Yu. I went ahead watch 3 eps of Love Game per some good words I read on other forums. But that's the most I could put up with. The acting and the voice were so cringe worthy that I had to quit by the end of ep3.

    • We can all have our opinions though I think you forgot about Hidden Love. I maintain my opinion that Yu Shuxin is better than Zhao Lusi in terms of acting.

    • What about Hidden Love? It's not something as frivolous as virtual travel stories relying heavily on cheesy CGI gimmicks and the acting there was convincing. LOL. Esther has never been a versatile actor. She can only take bubbly silly roles with mousy voice. If there is a procedure to modify ppl's voice, I suggest Esther get one done. LOL.

    • Well, ZLS's acting in HL is childish and shallow, anything but convincing. It's okay to not like a particular genre, but to say that virtual travel dramas are frivolous goes to show your narrow-mindedness. Virtual travel is considered fantasy genre, so are all fantasy dramas including The Untamed and The Longest Promise frivolous too? I haven't watch many of Yu Shuxin's dramas, but I recall the first time I saw her was in The Advisors Alliance and her voice there was normal, so her current bubbly voice is actually intentional.

    • It's ignorant to compare The Untamed and the Longest Promise which are Xianxia with VR travel dramas. Fantasy is a collective designation for anything beyond reality with extensive imagination. There are many different subcategories within Fantasy as a root category, not to mention how a story is delivered depends on a wild range of execution quality that would give viewers totally different satisfaction. Per my experience checking out numerous Cdramas in virtual travel genre, I'm almost sure to say it has all been a huge waste of time. So far, C writers have not been able to get rid of those silly repetitions of tiring concepts out of VR games LOL.

      I love TU and appreciate some artistry with sincere acting from a few cast including Xiao Zhan and Alen Fan in TLP. These two dramas are very serious dramas exploring humanity from the beginning to the end of the stories even there are a lot of fantasy elements in the storylines. Silly Love Game is not comparable and to talk about these three dramas in parallel is so comical. LOL

    • Why would virtual travel dramas be more frivolous than any other fantasy dramas? I'm curious, what do you think of time travel dramas like Scarlet Heart? It also involves "traveling" except it is time instead of place. Or do you think VR travel dramas are frivolous just because they involves games and you equate games to being childish? Which other C-dramas did you watch that involves VR games?

      Hmmm...you're saying The Untamed and The Longest Promise are serious dramas because they explore humanity. Then all the more I don't get why would you claim Love Game is frivolous when it also explores plenty of humanity?

• How many episodes have you watched so far? Maybe the show will shift focus later on.

• Objectively speaking, the acting is okay. But the story’s focus on the pearl trade at the expense of the character growth of its main leads is frankly, quite boring. I find myself forwarding the scenes that do not have any of the leads as it’s a waste of time watching them. I’m only interested in ZLS and the two main leads and their support staff. The machinations of the villains are boring.

  The romance, if there is even one, is slow burn and requires plenty of patience. And as Koala has indicated, the story lacks cohesiveness, so it would probably be better as a drama with more than 40 episodes. I like the drama, but as this stage, I don’t love it.

• I really like this so far , and I agree the business aspect of it is not fun. I try to find any chinese history or a figure personality who is a pearl diver and I didn't get anything apart from the fact that they were pearl divers and at some point cultivated the pearls. I think that why there was no story enough on the pearl farm and diving for pearls for it to stretch more than two episodes.

• I wish they had spent the money on CGI instead of promotion. The green screen of the sea is so obvious and jarring.
  I like both Zhao Lusi and Liu Yuning and was really looking forward to this drama but so far I am just not feeling it. Also ZLS looks like a child next to mature looking LYN. They had great chemistry in TLB but I don’t see it in this drama so far. When she did the sensual dance to sell the pearl it made me a bit uncomfortable. It looked like a child was being trafficked. So far I prefer her with the second lead. Maybe ZLS should act with younger mls until her face matures a bit and she loses the childlike puppy fat of her face. Older mature male leads make her look even younger than her age which ruins the romance.

  • I don’t even think they spent a lot on promotion to be honest. They just really rushed this drama and the CGI suffered because of that as well as the story. They pushed to air it too soon. This drama just finished filming a few months ago.

    • I wonder if they rushed it because ZLS would not have a drama air this year if they didn't

• Agree with koala. I was so excited about this drama from when they were filming itvas LYN fan, but it's boring. I did find Galaxy boring too though and never understood the hype about that one.

  I liked two leads in their first drama together, their story was interesting there, but this reunion is sadly disappointing.

  Luckily Fangs of fortune is really fun to watch and it looks like Ding Yuxi new drama is fun too, so November still rocks!

  • I'm so happy that some9ne finally agrees that love of galaxy is kinda boring, I tried to watch but I just couldn't take it any longer and stopped it

• Eh, I think the acting is decent at best from the leads. But it’s not the determining factor when the whole thing is so snooze inducing. I zoned out several times. The whole thing is just not interesting and I don’t care enough about the FL to root for her.

• I thought the pace was quite good. cut to the chase and all. I usually find C-drama too draggy and I lose interest pretty fast. but this one so far has been good. the scene where they grab the jewelled bead was really well choreographed too. fight scenes are so realistic. the part where second male lead use an stone to hit the villains was too funny and real!!!

  • I didn't think the pacing was slow either. It's moving quite fast but too much like KMLM. And the funny bits in the middle now were amusing, laughter before the storm, romance before the breakup. It's coming next!