Modern Sci-Fi Romance C-drama Love on the Turquoise Land with Dilraba Dilmurat and Chen Xing Xu Wrap Uneventful Run and Nets a Relatively Low 6.2 Douban Ratings
The reception and run of Love on the Turquoise Land actually makes me appreciate the mega hot mess that was same period airing Love and Crown. That drama was so bad it was basically perplexed hate watching and also elicited visceral rage to talk about it. But Turquoise Land, which had bigger stars Dilraba Dilmurat and Chen Xing Xu, and a promising sci-fi and romance narrative adapted from a novel, seemed like it couldn’t be that bad. And it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t very good and that mad it almost dull and boring to watch. The drama barely made any waves and lost viewers as it went along, with the beginning episodes considered the strongest. Complaints range from the drama explaining all that sci-fi conspiracy stuff right off the bat by episode 3, then the leads were fighting evildoers while inexplicably dating in relaxing scenes interspersed, and the final arc increasingly became illogical and poorly plotted together. Here’s hoping for better for both leads who at least showed chemistry and tried their darn hardest with the script they got.
Yeah the directing is the biggest issue for this drama. Dilraba and Chen Xingxu are good and their visuals match, but there’s nothing much that actors can do to save a drama with bad directing and script.
The story set up felt more horror/thriller than sci/fi. It was creepy and confusing from ep 1-2. I gave up. Just not my cup of tea. But their acting was okay from what I could tell. I heard some say the chemistry was touch and go with the leads. But most like the villains acting more than the leads because character wise they were the most interesting but man for me I bailed. lol mainly because the genre was not to my taste.
Anyone watched Legend of Magnate? Is that any good?
It’s good, just that the last few episodes were rushed as the plot deviated from the novel. Still worth the watch if you like male-centric dramas.
Thank you Lilith
The book was terrible from the second half. The first half was interesting but the author killed the plot by second half, it felt like it was written by a different author. Compared to the book, the drama was much better as they cut out some unnecessary stuff from the book, but they did not explain many things very well to make it cohesive.
I don’t dare to blame the actors – they only do what they are told. The film industry in China needs to change… as it remains largely male-dominated – a reality reflected both behind the scenes and in on-screen representation, the industry needs more female staff, and the outcome could be different.
The first few eps were just like the worse version of Sweet Home. LOL. Reba again wasn’t convincing as the character she’s supposed to depict. I wanted to see how CXX fared. But he wasn’t helping anyway. LOL. No 2nd thought for me to drop the drama.
C modern dramas can only deliver some cute and sweet but very unrealistic school romance these years. That’s their best. They basically failed in every aspect other than sugar-coated romance.
I feel like a 6.2 isn’t that bad and would probably be the expected rating for something like this. Sci-fi is more often a miss than a hit.
It’s one of a few C-dramas I could sit through, mostly because of Reba. It’s still an enjoyable watch if you could ignore some of the flaws. Personally, I’d much prefer ‘Sword Rose’. That one I’d give it above 9.
The cinematography was pretty, and the fight scenes were cool. My favorite scene of the whole show was the fight between Aunt Lin and NJL in the lab. The actors were also a plus since most of them did a good job.
*spoiler*
The thing that upset me the most was the anticlimactic battle in the finale. The entire series spent so much time on unnecessary romantic scenes that felt forced (the choppy editing and the lack of emotional depth on directing), but wouldn’t give at least a three-minute battle between Aunt Lin and NJL in the finale. That was a huge disappointment for me. Ugh!!!
But a much bigger problem that plagued the whole series was how flat NJL’s side was. All Nanshan hunters were severely underdeveloped. They were either one-dimensional or useless. XS turned out to be a bad friend, a bad leader and a bad boyfriend. I came into this series thinking that the story would focus on FL, but even so, she lacked character growth. (Director was too busy focusing on how sexy she was, which I am not against, but it could have been handled better.) There were some flashbacks of her past, but they came too little and too late in the series to have most impact.
As I watched, the series seemed to focus on YT’s journey to discover the truth, and all Nanshan hunters were just there as props. Even his doctor friend, his sister or even Aunt Lin had more character depth. IMO, the series would progress much better if both sides were equally developed.
For all the efforts put into the work by all parties, I would give it a 7. As a Reba fan, I do understand why she accepted the role. It’s something new and exciting, totally different from other C-dramas, so yeah, it was definitely worth a try 😀
I love it though…I have read the novel before watching the drama so I could totally understand the story and what the director/scriptwriter trying to achieve. And I prefer the drama over novel too. The acting and visual is stunning and wonderfully done. I will definitely rewatch it after I finish with dear.x