Tag: Mystery

Webnovel Review: Perfect Fiance (完美未婚夫)

Webnovel Review: Perfect Fiance (完美未婚夫)

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Since this is the first Saturday of the year, I did not want to miss the review. I had stopped reading this short novel when the translator had to take a break halfway through. For the review purposes, I ended up binge reading it today itself.

Personally, I am a bit conflicted about this novel. Should it be a review or a recommendation, I still can’t decide. Let me try penning my thoughts here once and I might change my mind.

This is a very cheesy, very corny, full of fluff, short romance story about two people, Su Jin and Lu Xi. Su Jin transmigrates into a novel she was reading while on an airplane when the airplane gets into an accident. Originally an orphan, Su Jin finds herself in the body of a girl who was switched at birth and was supposed to be a rich young lady. Her original parents in the novel had just acknowledged her as their daughter and thus, for original Su Jin, her wealthy life had just started.

She also finds that she had been betrothed to a young mysterious young master of another influential family by her grandfather some time in the past and now she might have to honor that arrangement. The young master turns out to be Lu Xi, an award winning director of movies. Since Su Jin knew the plot of the novel, she knew that she would become a villain and the girl who was switched at birth had feelings for Lu Xi as well. She had, thus decided to remain far away from the guy.

By twist of fate, Lu Xi actually falls for Su Jin and rejects the other girl much to the surprise of Su Jin. From there on, starts Lu Xi’s chase of Su Jin, trying to break the hard shell she had over her heart.

It is initially revealed that Lu Xi might have connections with Su Jin from her original life which adds a really great mystery element to the plot.

Within 59 chapters, I would not really bother about character development as such. Su Jin starts as an aloof girl who doesn’t want to ruin the plot of the novel she was reading and hence, has the door to her heart closed off. But along the way, she starts depending on Lu Xi. Lu Xi, on the other hand, has been shown your typical handsome, breathtaking cold person who only dotes his lover. Other characters are all really likable and there are no villains in the plot. May be one person in the beginning but I don’t even understand what that one incident’s purpose was.

But this novel does pack a bunch of surprises plotwise. You might find some sci-fi stuff later on. Moreover, it is very good at tying all the loose ends at the end.

The thing I like the most about the novel is how it explores different kinds of love; love at first sight, gradually developed love over lifetimes, childhood love and love that is just not there anymore. I would say, the author has used some profound language to describe some of the most mundane things in life. Plus, translator has done really well in conveying those words.

My only complaint was that I had really gone out of touch with it once it stopped updating. As I read some 30 chapters today, there was not as much thrill as there was when I had just started following it. Not that I’m blaming the translator, life happens to everyone and I understand that. Anyway, I am slowly beginning to get bored of webnovels since they all just keep repeating similar plot lines. This one is definitely a bit different and half a day read, so that’s good.

In the end, I still can’t decide if I like it or not. It has its plus and minuses. I will keep it as a review only.

Conclusion: I’ll probably give it a 8/10 and recommend it to those who don’t really get cringed with cheesy dialogues. I liked the mystery part and how it was unraveled, although it was a bit predictable as well but the sci-fi part was something I could not even imagine in my dreams would be woven into it.

Final feelings: ⊙.☉

Read Here: Perfect Fiance on Meraki Translations

Personal Section: Happy New Year Readers. I am still stuck with weekend work in the new year but hopefully that will be over soon. I will definitely lose my overtime but who cares. I will have normal weekends and I would be able to work on my personal projects.

It had been long since I had some time to myself, without the need of going anywhere. And suddenly finding free time today was both surprising and hilarious in the sense, I had not planned on what to do with it. Nonetheless, I will go to bed early.

Did I tell you guys I became an ordained minister two weeks back and now can sign marriage licenses of couples? If you are in NJ (USA) and are looking for a person to officiate your marriage, contact me, lol. I did it on the request of a very dear friend of mine. I was really honored and elated when he asked me to officiate his marriage. This is for you my dear friend, very many congratulations!

Today’s song: Well, since I posted SKZ song last week, I ended up revisiting the whole playlist again and now they are the only artists in my playlist once again. I guess I’ll post another song from them, hopefully I haven’t posted this one before:

Love the lightness of this song ❤

C-Drama Review: The Tomb of the Sea (沙海)

C-Drama Review: The Tomb of the Sea (沙海)

by eastasianlover ♥ 2 Comments
Tomb of the sea 1

So, I just finished this disaster yet the answer to the whole Mystic Nine/ The Lost Tomb series, that I had to review it right now, no matter what. The two reviews of prior series are very popular on my website and I’m pretty sure my readers have been looking for a closure to the whole thing. I won’t delay anyone and just dive right into it.

For sure, this review is not for anyone who has not watched Mystic Nine and The Lost Tomb. If you’re yet to watch those series, please refrain from reading this post. I am assuming here that people who want to start The Tomb of the Sea have already watched at least one of those two.

As you know from the previous series, the whole Daomu Biji series is about nine clans famously known as “The Mystic Nine”. Mystic Nine was an introduction to the nine clans and how the whole tomb raiding saga started. The Lost Tomb dealt with heir of one of the clans and how he came to know about the existence of this old thing. The Tomb of the Sea is about an outsider, who is a chosen entity to help the Nine Clans deal with a fake tenth clan that has been wrecking havoc in their lives.

Initial expedition where both Li Cu and Wu Xie go together. But how do they get to charge all the devices they have?

To be honest, I don’t have any good views on this drama. Visual effects and such have definitely been improved. There were not many to begin with, unlike the Mystic Nine where there were all kinds of bugs and creatures. There were some here too, but nothing ‘mysterious’ about them.

The plot is a hodge podge of 5 different things happening at the same time. I just can’t imagine how the author wrote the whole story. It follows Wu Xie from The Lost Tomb who is now somewhere in his late 30s early 40s? He has been chasing after a few people who claim to be the tenth clan. Not only the tenth clan has been creating feuds among the nine clans, they also have some beef with the Zhang clan of Mystic Nine.

Wu Xie recruits a high school student called Li Cu who is similar to younger him but otherwise, has nothing to do with the Mystic Nine or even their business. Why he was chosen, we have no idea. He sends Li Cu to the desert to uncover the secrets of an ancient city called GuTongJing.

Side by side, Li Cu’s friends back home keep getting weird ancient stuff from the caves and the delivery people claim it to be coming from Li Cu. His two best friends, Wang Hao and Su Wan also get embroiled into the whole thing.

The couple that never happened

On the other hand, we are introduced to still alive Zhang Rishan, Zhang Qishan’s (Fo Ye’s) lieutenant (played by Zhang Ming En in both Mystic Nine and this series) who is now heading the nine clans. He is helping Wu Xie take care of the tenth clan while trying to maintain order in the organization. But since he is not directly related to the Zhang clan, people don’t really like to listen to him. What’s more puzzling is that Zhang Rishan has developed some real good powers and he has got the Zhang clan’s tattoo too. Truly bewildering.

Now, to the already initiated, all this is still understandable. But, as usual, the plot is full of holes. Actually, I would go as far to say that the plot is a big hole in itself. After watching it, I’m just left with so many questions, I don’t think I am getting any sleep tonight. Also, the disconnect between The Lost Tomb and this series is so infuriating.

Their interactions are just such sugar moments

The only thing this series is good for is answering some questions left by the other two series and the movie. I don’t think I have reviewed the Lost Tomb movie yet. But anyway, this series brings them all together. Which is why, I say, you won’t be able to make any sense out of it unless you watch first two series and the movie too. There are enough references of past characters that you just can’t watch it as a stand alone series. And just for that, I thank the writers to take it up till the end.

What’s more annoying is that the series has majorly been shot in dark. Half the times, you don’t know what is happening. Half of the series is lost in translation because no one has officially taken it up for subbing as far as I know. The official channel had left it open for fans to translate and someone did try. I personally think they are more of a machine translation and it’s hard to be making any head or tail of it, especially on the YT channel. The place where I actually watched had decent subs in later episodes. I will post the official link in subsequent sections.

Okay, I am being really biased here with posting the pics of Zhang Ming En and Yang Rong lol

The best thing to happen in this series is Zhang Rishan getting a love interest. And it’s so similar to how forward Zanilia Zhao’s character was towards Fo Ye in Mystic Nine. OMG, I just love the couple. In the name of romance, it’s the only one there. And perhaps the only segment I really looked forward to.

In summary, the only pro to the series is getting to the bottom of unanswered questions from previous series. And of course, watching three cuties namely, Zhang Ming En, Li Cu and Yang Rong. And also, perhaps reliving the memories of Mystic Nine because I still find it the best among all four.

❤

Conclusion: The only reason I would recommend it to anyone is for the closure it finally provides to the fans of Daomu Biji. We, the people who cannot read Chinese, would never really know how true it is to the novels. But at least it’s something.

Final Feelings: ಠ╭╮ಠ

Watch here: Official YouTube Channel
You can also watch it at dramacool.movie (search in the search box).

Personal Section: It’s another year end time eh. I missed a few weeks again but I genuinely have been so busy with work, that I don’t even get enough rest these days unfortunately. Even on Thanksgiving, I did not really get to sleep. Finally took two days off to make an important trip but ended up sleeping the whole time and missing the trip lol.

Anyway, I feel a bit recharged finally but unfortunately I still can’t promise writing regularly. And, so, I won’t promote my ko-fi page because I am not producing any special content for people who are buying me coffees, not as of yet at least. But I will definitely update everything once the project the I work on weekends for ends and my routine returns to normal.

In other news, I finally got to taste the consulting overnight travel. Got to travel to upstate New York for a project. It was a great experience, a small quaint town, slow life and tons of snow. Been a while since I have loved snow so much. I will stop here and hopefully meet you guys next week.

Today’s song: I finally got to listen to Double Knot from SKZ and really liked it. Too bad, I had already posted it in one of the previous posts. Gotta find a new one then. Let’s see. I like this one, a bubbly cheerful song:

Drama Reco: Watcher (왓쳐)

Drama Reco: Watcher (왓쳐)

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

“Why should I be righteous? That’s what makes us kill each other. I’m just trying to do the right thing for myself.” – Do Chi Hwang

Damn. My plan was to review another drama that I finished recently but once I started this gem of a series, I just could not wait to share this with my readers. Change of plans, the drama of the month is “Watcher”.

I have, previously in numerous posts, praised cable TV networks for their high quality dramas. Too bad they don’t get enough traction. This one is pretty recent, so some might have heard of it.

Watcher 1
Yes, listen to this pretty lady pliss and watch this drama!!

Watcher is a crime thriller where three different people come together to solve a case and catch a murderer they are all related to. This also involves corruption within police and prosecution department. And now you will say, but all the crime thrillers from Korea have this exact same story line. You are definitely correct.

What stands out here is how the plot has been executed and the mystery of who that murderer is, you just cannot put one name to it. By even ep 12th, you would know people who are involved in the corruption, you would know who has been doing what all this while but you would just not know who that mystery man is. This, is what I call, a successful plot. Makes the viewers keep guessing.

I am on 12th episode while I have started preparing this post (remember I told you guys last week that I will need to prepare buffers for my posts since I might start working on weekends starting next week?) and I just feel like directly going to last ep to know who the person is. The suspense is killing me!!!

Watcher 2
Always to the point Do Chi Hwan

Phew! After a few hours, finally finished it. I would hate to give out spoilers though. Here is the plot. The story follows a cop named Do Chi Hwang (Han Suk Kyu), a traffic policeman named Kim Young Goon (Seo Kang Joon) and a prosecutor turned lawyer called Han Tae Joo (Kim Hyun Joo). They are embroiled in one case 15 years ago when Young Goon’s father is arrested by Chi Hwang for murdering his own wife, Young Goon being only witness and Tae Joo acting as the prosecutor for the case. 8 years later, Tae Joo manages to procure some evidence deeming Young Goon’s father innocent but is attacked by someone in the police breaking her family apart too. The story is set in the present where these three form a team to find the corrupt police officials and prosecutors and reveal the mystery behind all these incidents around these guys.

As I mentioned before, not only the plot has been executed flawlessly without many frustrating points because you are just so busy guessing who the actual perpetrator is but the acting and OSTs are top notch too. But I am sure I haven’t praised anything this much for the plot. Plot itself can carry this particular drama, other things are just icing on the cake.

Watcher 3
The minion doing all the dirty work ❤

The only thing that might be lacking is character development for Do Chi Gwang. You get to know his story, you come to know his POV but he still remains stubborn old man and that actually is his charm. Other characters really see great development, especially Young Goon. Seo Kang Joon also provide some comic relief to otherwise very serious drama. The struggle between what’s right for you, your emotions and what’s the greater good is real in this one though.

The one question they keep asking throughout the series is “Where does our humanity come from? What’s different between a human and an animal?” OMG, I have become such a big fan of this writer’s writing. I will go and look for more dramas from this writer or source material for this drama. In the meantime, you should go check the series out. It’s usual 16 episodes with 1 hour runs. You won’t be disappointed.

Conclusion: Good series need more watchers (Do you see what I did there? :P). I give this series a solid 10/10. 16 episodes, no romantic melo drama. Perfect for people interested in only crime thrillers. I personally also loved the wardrobe of our female lawyer. Those dresses are goals in life.

Final Feelings: ( ＾◡＾)っ ♡

Watch here: Watch Watcher for free on Viki

Personal Front: Nothing much to tell this time. I did get my first ko-fi last week. Thanks to the anonymous person and subsequent people who bought me some, I could prepare this post. I worked more than 40 hours this week and am going to work tomorrow as well. Gotta earn that extra monies lol.

Anyway, I am looking for animal shelters to volunteer for around my area. I could try the library too but I wanna work with animals. Not been very successful so far but let’s see.

Today was also the last day of my boss and a senior whom I had come to be great friends with at my current company. I’ll miss them both. Those last hugs TT_TT.

Today’s song: This new song this time coz haven’t been listening to any lately. Still dunno my feelings about this song from Stray Kids

Disclaimer: All images and videos belong to their respective owners and none of them are mine.

K-drama Review: Terius Behind Me (내 뒤에 테리우스)

K-drama Review: Terius Behind Me (내 뒤에 테리우스)

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment
Terius behind me.

Hello everyone, how are you guys doing? Apparently, this was going to be my last post for 2018 but as usual, it didn’t happen. Do remember that this is a review and not a recommendation. I personally feel like I wasted too much time watching this drama. And I don’t want my readers to go through the same, even after the star studded cast.

This drama is a prime example of over-hyped actors in the drama and a haphazardly put bland plot. If you read the synopsis on the drama websites, you come across the words NIS agent, conspiracy, murder and a widowed female lead whose husband is the part of this whole conspiracy. Fans of criminal dramas like me are hooked.

But then you get 2 annoying kids who if they were my kids I would slap the shit out of them to make them understand how troublesome they are are the cause of each and every trouble in the whole drama. Basically, the whole plot rests on the fact that the two brats cannot control themselves.

The troublemakers and plot drivers

I envy them for having such a lovely mother though, they still cannot understand her plight. Some people would bash me over expecting too much from 5 and 7 year olds but trust me, you would get annoyed just watching them, imagine dealing with them in real life, ugh.

Anyway, this is a story about an NIS agent called Kim Bon (So Ji Sub) who was falsely accused of murdering a spy from North Korea, despite them being lovers. He is still being chased by some of the NIS agents so he’s gone undercover, trying to find real murderer behind his past lover. Go Ae Rin (Jung In Sun) is a normal housewife whose husband works for some big conglomerate and is killed when he witnesses a murder of some congressman happening.

That’s probably the most romantic moment in the drama?

Through fateful meetings and help of her extra nosy neighbors, Go Ae Rin realizes that her husband was actually part of a conspiracy. She also happens to start working for the same set of people who murdered her husband, coincidentally of course. Then she gets involved with actual NIS and helps Kim Bon clear his name and catch the murderers who are just a small part of a bigger chain involving all the bigshots from the government. They solve the mystery and fall in love too.

The synopsis looks pretty normal. But as I stated in the beginning, this story is just a bunch of loopholes and you end up pulling at your hair in frustration. (Another frustration filled update will be coming soon with The Golden Eyes).

Okay…

The only good thing about the drama is the acting of main leads. So Ji Sub is a veteran. This was my first drama with Jung In Sun and I really liked her acting. The villain was good too and the most comedic part of the drama. But other characters were so frustrating, especially Kim Bon’s friend in NIS.

I hate it when scriptwriters take us normal people as fools when it comes to criminal dramas. But they should understand that we viewers have so much material at our dispense, that although we obviously can’t be experts, it’s easy for us to point out flaws. I would give them though, it was hard to figure real villain out. The focus kept shifting from one person to other. But by mid of the series, that also became really obvious, so, yeah.

Me as the story progressed

Comedy was okayish too. The awkward Kim Bon with the kids was hilarious. I remember the OSTs to be good. Revisited and I actually like almost all of them.

I can’t really think of anything. Quite disappointed I was. The plot was so bad that it trumps everything. I don’t know why it’s rated so high mydramalist and other websites.

Conclusion: Watch it at your own risk. If you want something which you could watch without putting too much brain into it, and just pass time, you might give it a try. I personally would give it a 4/10. 16 eps and I was just wondering when it was going to end.

Final Feelings: (；⌣̀_⌣́)

Watch here: Couldn’t find any official release. So, here, unofficial one on dramacools

Personal Front: I went to look at an apartment today and it was really disappointing. I think I shouldn’t look at houses at all. I gotta find a new place for me as soon as I can.

In other news, the golden eyes is coming to an end and I absolutely hate the fact that Zhang Yixing would choose such a poorly written script. Or, perhaps, given that how close his character in the drama is to his life philosophy, he just chose the drama for that? That would be such a sad thing.

Also, as I mentioned in my last post that I won a few merch from this company’s prediction game. One of them was a manga portrait done by a professional artist. So, here I present my manga portrait. It would also be the first time revealing myself here lol, at least in part.

Yours truly

Today’s song: I really liked this one OST from this drama:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzEtUUKkFJs

Disclaimer: The pics and videos belong to their respective owners. I do not own anything.

C-Drama Review: The Golden Eyes (黄金瞳)

C-Drama Review: The Golden Eyes (黄金瞳)

by eastasianlover ♥ 7 Comments

Edit: Updated the review to rant about it. The earlier review was till ep 12 and I really liked the concept till then, although there were flaws. 50 eps later, I am so disappointed that I can’t even bring myself to watch the finale. But I have read enough spoilers to know what happens and hence can complete this review. Also, note that I have changed it from reco to review unfortunately.

Updated Review

Okay people, results are in and the verdict is that this drama sucks. From plot being all over the place to less to no character development, I am just honestly so sad for this drama. It had great potential. At this point of time, I can’t even say if it had an excess of episodes and they stretched the story quite a bit or if there were too few episodes that they could’ve done better if they gave time to each character. I am just speechless at the bad quality of plot.

For plot, please read the original review below.

As I have said in some later post, I hate it when the scriptwriters think of the audience as fools. In this story, anything and everything happens. One moment the MC is acting so foolish that the truth is laying before him but he refuses to believe it, the other moment, he becomes so intelligent that most villainous person cannot escape his schemes.

The villains in this story are so torn between their feelings for MC (our typical kindest guy you’ll ever see) and their greed that they cannot really choose a side till the end. One can argue that it’s the actual human nature but in the end you have to choose a side. And till the end, you just cannot make out what’s gonna happen with whom.

My Google search terms tell me that there is a novel for this series and I would really like to read it to know if the drama did justice to the novel or not. If they did, then I am sorry to say, but please choose better plots to convert to drama.

Anyway, as I said, I am quite disappointed by the fact that Zhang Yixing would choose such a lacking script. If he did it just because the MC follows the same life philosophy as him, then I am sorry, gonna stay away from his other dramas from now. I personally think the producers of this drama were trying to ride the wave of popularity of media related to tomb raiding. And they probably succeeded because a lot of reviews I read on Viki really appreciate the drama.

Heck it doesn’t even look like tomb raiding because you cannot find a single cobweb in the tombs shown in this drama. HOW IS IT POSSIBLE? Those tombs are supposed to be laying there for thousands of years. If you can show blood sucking creatures there, how come the paths to the tombs are without any spiders even? Common sense?

I really appreciate adaptations of Daomu Biji series (The Mystic Nine, The Lost Tomb and The Tomb at the Sea) for this. They at least took care of such details, even if their graphics were lacking. The Tomb at the Sea is doing great in that aspect as well. Although that is another series I need to rant about.

But seriously, my rating fell from 7/10 to -100/10. Please do not watch if you cannot bear plot holes. Oh wait, this plot in itself is a hole, a black hole of frustration.

Actually, you know what, the whole premise itself is something that I don’t understand. The rich heiress sent thieves in a pawnshop to steal a worthless piece of jade. This is the first episode. The jade breaks and injures our MC giving him the golden eyes. If the girl was so rich, she could’ve just bought it. Why send thieves. OMG, what a realization!!

So, in the end, only good thing about the series remains the identity of actual villain. You just won’t ever imagine that they were the people behind whole drama in MC’s life. Anyway, I’ll directly skip to last episode maybe and watch it at 4x speed just for myself, that I actually finished the series lol. Read for the plot and everything else below. I’ve edited my conclusion and final feelings section as well. And I would really like to apologize to people who read my earlier review and started the series already.

Original Review

I was trying to refrain from posting the review before the drama was fully released. B-but I just could not stop myself. As I said in my last post, my two tomb raiding posts are popular as ever. And I have been on lookout for similar kind of dramas and novels. And I am sure my readers are dying to find similar stuff as well.

Unfortunately, there is so much dearth of entertainment media like this. So, although this drama is still being subbed, putting my trust in Zhang Yixing’s fans, I decided to review this drama. Let’s begin.

I watched the trailer for the golden eyes in another C-drama I was watching last year. Well, it’s the combination of Zhang Yixing and oriental mystery, so why not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIiLB4c6i_A

Except that I completely forgot about it till now and stumbled across it again 4 days back. As expected, I finished 7 eps released in 2 days and have been following the releases since then. And of course, thoroughly enjoyed the marathon. However, the drama comes with its usual annoyances.

The drama follows Zhuang Rui (Zhang Yixing), a simple and naive worker at a pawnshop, who has a degree in history and archaeology from Peking University. One day, some people broke into his employer’s shop and tried to steal an antique piece in shape of the eye made out of jade stone. By accident, the piece shatters and injures Zhuang Rui’s eyes, only to gift him with the golden eyes, eyes that can see through everything.

He ends up using his newly found power to do antique and jade business, archaeologically exploring tombs and learning about stuff along the way and meeting all sorts of people; people, who seem friends but might not really be and vice versa as well.

Those pretty ❤

He also gets to know about his long lost family it seems. Apparently, there should exist a dragon clan where two people also possess the same pair of eyes, but they haven’t been introduced till 11th episode, so I cannot say. (Edit: no dragon clan till 50th episode, sorry.)

Now, the plus points. I really enjoy Zhang Yixing’s acting (not a new thing, I guess my readers must have become accustomed to it by now). The story has been okay so far, slow to develop but the mystery is still there and the characters are developing slowly but at a good pace.

Graphics have been great despite it being an iQiyi drama. And music is absolutely fantastic, background music goes so well with the situations and some of the trot songs used are such honey to the ears.

And I also like the subtle comedy the drama puts in between which doesn’t look too forced given how serious some situations can become when the main villain and the protagonist interact. Oh yeah, this drama also has a lot of face slapping. Since our Zhuang Rui sees it all, he doesn’t give any face to the cheaters in the business.

But, as I said, the drama is not devoid of its flaws as C-dramas usually all have. First is some of the poorly written characters, especially females. There is this policewoman who is always on Zhuang Rui’s case for some reason. I see this character becoming the main love interest of Zhuang Rui in future.

But for now, the character is absolutely trash. The lady, despite being a policewoman has absolutely no skills of a detective. It seems to be a character there just for the sake of it. I hope they give her some more substance otherwise she’ll just remain as an annoying b**** despite having such a great potential.

The other female character, Bing Bing, she’s supposed to be heir to some very rich person, but she doesn’t exude that charm or elegance of a rich heiress at all. All she does is give orders to this one underling and just overall, trying to avoid the villain guy who’s set to make her his girlfriend. Like please give her something else to do, eh?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9pGC05aRHk

Same with all the professor characters. They’re not annoying but might use some more development. Since I am writing the review based on 12 episodes out of 56, I do hope my wish comes true. And that they properly finish the story this time rather than hanging us audience with the hopes of a second season that would never happen. I will make sure to update this review once the drama finishes.

Conclusion: Changing from original highly recommended to don’t watch it for your sanity. It might satiate people still struggling with withdrawal symptoms from The Mystic Nine and The Lost Tomb (I do hope they sub the sequel in Lao Jiu Men series, The Tomb of The Sea soon). But this drama pales in comparison to other two (and I really did not like The Lost Tomb that much either, trust me).

You would only like it if you can ignore the plot and just wanna look at Zhang Yixing’s acting in the main role, supposedly action. I personally felt like it was a waste of time to invest myself in this drama. Do comment how you would rate it.

Final feelings: (◣_◢)

Watch here: The Golden Eyes on Viki

Personal Front: I am running late with the schedule again! Actually, I went for getting my driving learner’s permit today, and it being a weekend, there was just too much crowd at the center. And I didn’t even get it because I still don’t have my new authorization card. Ugh, life is tough in another country. And I really wanted my learner’s permit today so I could practice driving and get my license by the end of the month TT_TT

Anyway, since I and my friend went too early in the morning, I came back and slept for like 4 hours. I could have prepared my post in advance, but last few days have been really hectic somehow. It’s the tax season in US and so it’s been more busy. Gathering all the documents, ensuring everything is in correct order and then sending them away is not easy after all. I hope all my US readers get huge tax refunds.

I don’t think I have anything really exciting to tell other than I almost got my learner’s driving license but just at the last stage, I could not. See you guys next week then!

Today’s song: I got one from the drama and really really love it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Tkel9QgZcU
Webnovel Review: Lost Treasure (失落的宝藏)

Webnovel Review: Lost Treasure (失落的宝藏)

by eastasianlover ♥ 1 Comment
Lost Treasure Cover

Sorry for the delay readers! I have been sick since Monday and working is really hard right now. More on it in the personal section later. Wait, did you think I finally missed on writing this week? Damn, I believed so too but ended up finishing the post yay!

Also, happy March everyone! A new month and a new cycle starts here for reviews (I have kept it up for four weeks! Phew!! It’s a record for me!!!)

Anyway, given the huge popularity of tomb raiding reviews I have done previously on my blog (The Mystic Nine and The Lost Tomb), I decided to review this novel which I started reading to satiate my thirst for thriller mysteries in C-novels. Gotta share good stuff with the readers no?

If you guys still haven’t discovered this, half of my blog posts are reviews and half are recommendations. The difference is, I recommend something when I am absolutely sure of it and am totally in love with it, enough to overlook all its flaws.

Although I take name of both tomb raiding dramas in this post, this novel has less to do with tomb raiding and more with just the general mystery and the desert and the *foreigners did some experiments and tried to take our treasures long long time ago but we gotta find it now because it is still a national treasure* kind of theme. If it is still keeping your interest, read on!

The novel is a short 58 chapters novel, written by author Shen Taiya. It follows an earnest small time reporter called Shen Yu who, unknowingly gets entangled with an army officer called Tang Can. Tang Can and his team have been working to find a special kind of gold which is said to come from space and is superior in quality but very fragile. As usual, it is also being coveted by greedy villagers and then there is mystery of Shen Yu’s and Tang Can’s past and other shady villagers involved.

Shen Yu is the protagonist here. She has parents who don’t seem to be all that normal. They have their own pasts and involvement with the gold matter. Not to mention, all the comrades of Tang Can involved in the major expedition in the novel have their fates connected with each other.

Plotwise, I think, the author has tried to include too much in too short a novel. This is the first and probably the last time you’ll hear me say this but the novel could have really really benefited from having more chapters. The mystery was great, if only the author had fleshed out a bit more details and not ended it in a rush.

And why would you rush on a novel with such a great potential anyway? Like, initially the story is too slow. Shen Yu’s mood swings are too much. Some of the more *this guy is my childhood sweetheart and only I have the right on his heart, how dare you even look at him* females are too annoying. In that way, it’s good that the drama has been kept short. But what started as very intriguing story went downhill really fast.

Till like 55th chapter, I was wondering how the author’s gonna tie everything and give it a good ending. They didn’t actually. The last reveal was ultimate though. Just that this. novel. needs. more. chapters.

As I said, there was real potential here when it comes to character development as well. Romance is a bit bland too. You would keep scratching your heads as to when Tang Can actually fell for Shen Yu. And whenever there is any scope of them being alone, something or other happens. I guess it was just there for the sake of it or that the author is not very experienced with romance.

The translation for the novel is impeccable. Sanguine from volare novels has done a great job with the terms and everything. Grammar is good and as usual, in the latter half of the novel, I was basically following it daily as the chapters came out.

Conclusion: As I said, I started reading the novel because I was looking for something related to tomb raiding. I ended up reading this because it mentioned all the mystery keywords found in a typical tomb raiding mystery webnovel like army, desert, mystery, gold etc. Ultimately, I was disappointed. But I still won’t dismiss it as such and since it is very short, I would recommend it to the desperate souls out there, just like me. Finally, I would give it 4.5/10.

Final feelings: (눈_눈)

Read here: Lost Treasure on Volare Novels

Personal Front: I woke up on Monday with a high fever, without any reason. I would have understood if I had gone outside any of the previous days, but I was home on Saturday and Sunday. I just couldn’t understand the reason for me suddenly developing a fever. And the whole week is blurry in my mind because all I was doing was sleeping. Work from home policy is just too good for any office. I also feel guilty but I wouldn’t have accomplished anything in the office anyway.

Even after 1 week of meds and sleeping, I am not exactly okay but getting better I guess. My voice is literally gone though. Anyway, during this time, I finished so many cliche rom com dramas (I even finished a J-drama which I seldom watch because of their exaggerated acting). And then I stumbled upon this drama called the Golden Eyes starring my fav Zhang Yixing. I had watched its trailer once but I completely forgot about it till now. It has all the elements of being a famous mystery, so I hope it doesn’t end up being like the previous two dramas I have reviewed.

Anyway, since I successfully finished the post, I will go sleep again. Happy reading everyone.

Today’s song: I ran out of songs to post. Let’s see. I don’t think I have posted any IU song yet. Last year she released one and became my favorite really fast. The lyrics are witty and give you such confidence in life: