So I finally started watching The Story of Pearl Girl after much expectation and hype and my takeaway is fairly mixed. Solid production values (aside from some dubbing not matching lip movement well), a methodical story about merchants and trade and jewelry and female empowerment, and a nice cast that are all doing well so far. But it lacks excitement and oomph for me, like a missing special sauce that takes all the elements and sprinkles it with addictive must-watch powder. The TL:DR of it is that the core story about Zhao Lu Si‘s female lead Duan Wu’s climb from slave to top jeweler and all those machinations, business twists and turns, and out-hustling and out-smarting people in her way sounds great and all but frankly bores me. The only good element is her chemistry and the potential romance with Liu Yu Ning‘s male lead Yan Zi Jing but there isn’t enough of that to make the rest of the story interesting. And the second male lead Tang Xiao Tian (who I am watching for the first time as an actor) has an annoying character and ferret-y punchable face for me lol and is actively a turn off when he shows up onscreen. I plan to keep watching but am sad this isn’t another Love Like the Galaxy for me where all the stories and side characters were interesting on top of having a great OTP.
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 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.
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.
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!
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.