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Dropped: Die Now (端腦) (2017)
Oof, this drama was pretty cringe. I was expecting a low budget drama with some interesting writing and science fiction, but the writing was pretty harem-y and the science fiction part wasn't anything that intriguing either.
I dropped this drama part way through episode 7.
Spoilers.
Story
The drama began with a curious case of a man receiving a message from someone he had supposedly killed. But that was supposed to be an introduction to our real main story line, following our main character Xia Chi.
Xia Chi had a girlfriend called Qing Zhi. She had suddenly disappeared from the world, and nobody remembered her. Xia Chi was then introduced to a game called Duannao/Die Now, which was a series of puzzle and mind games. Xia Chi determined that he could save Qing Zhi by winning the Duannao game.
In the mind games part of the drama we had people turning on each other, people putting on false appearances to fool others, etc. It wasn't anything new. I could tolerate it, if not for the cringe character acting.
Xia Chi only ever struck up with female characters who fell in love with him and I was soooo peeved on behalf of Qing Zhi, because she seemed to be the only character who was INTERESTING and yet was absent for much of the drama on account of having disappeared. Xia Chi doesn't deserve her T_T I only got up to episode 7 and he already had three female partners.
There was also that foe yay story line between Bo Bian and Xia Chi but it was pretty forced. Bo Bian was nowhere near as charismatic as he wanted us to think he was, and Xia Chi did nothing to deserve Bo Bian's adoration because Xia Chi was not cute at all.
Production
The acting was not that good. They were working with pretty bad direction and writing as well so I don't blame them completely. Could definitely have been better though.
The action was not done well at all. There was a part when Xia Chi was hanging off a ledge and the way his hand just came away to show how he struggled to hang on was so bad.
Characters
Xia Chi
Male fantasy self-insert character. He was cute when we saw him fall in love with Qing Zhi. But after he started interacting with the other female characters, I started to hate him DX
He is supposed to be kind of a white knight character. After all, Qing Zhi fell in love with him because he saved her. But the way there was 10000% a romantic angle to him protecting the other female characters in the game was unsettling...The way ALL of the female characters were deeply devoted and trusting of him...ugh.
Qing Zhi
As I mentioned, I actually wanted to know more about Qing Zhi. Maybe I only liked her because she wasn't on screen to be messed up by the writers.
She was from a rich and powerful family and was supposed to marry the son of another rich and powerful family. However, that guy was inconsiderate and uncaring. There was an accident at the movie theatre they were having a date at and the guy ran off. It was Xia Chi who saved Qing Zhi. Later, Qing Zhi met Xia Chi at university and that's when they got to know each other and started dating.
Afterwards, we didn't find out much about Qing Zhi's disappearance, only that everyone around her seemed to have forgotten her and that all traces of her (including in pictures and photos) had disappeared.
I found her less aggravating than the other characters. Maybe it's because we know she's supposed to be the canon love interest so the things she does make sense. Whereas all of the other girls cosying up to Xia Chi is just fanservice, Xia Chi having fun while he doesn't have his girlfriend with him >.> Ugh.
Bo Bian
We only briefly met Bo Bian, but it's clear that he's meant to be an important character later on. He was clearly supposed to be dashing and handsome judging by how he wore a long coat and had that tiny man bun >.>
His first thing when we met him was that he fawned over how cute Xia Chi was (as mentioned, totally unearned adoration!). During the Duannow game, Bo Bian was clearly comfortable with his bearings. He told Xia Chi that he didn't care about winning the game and just liked killing people.
Overall
The premise has potential, but the actual execution was cringefail, the biggest offender being the characterization. Xia Chi was supposed to be this devoted boyfriend and him attracting literally every woman was so offputting. The game part of the drama would have been more tolerable if I wasn't so bothered by the cliched characterization.
I dropped this drama part way through episode 7.
Spoilers.
Story
The drama began with a curious case of a man receiving a message from someone he had supposedly killed. But that was supposed to be an introduction to our real main story line, following our main character Xia Chi.
Xia Chi had a girlfriend called Qing Zhi. She had suddenly disappeared from the world, and nobody remembered her. Xia Chi was then introduced to a game called Duannao/Die Now, which was a series of puzzle and mind games. Xia Chi determined that he could save Qing Zhi by winning the Duannao game.
In the mind games part of the drama we had people turning on each other, people putting on false appearances to fool others, etc. It wasn't anything new. I could tolerate it, if not for the cringe character acting.
Xia Chi only ever struck up with female characters who fell in love with him and I was soooo peeved on behalf of Qing Zhi, because she seemed to be the only character who was INTERESTING and yet was absent for much of the drama on account of having disappeared. Xia Chi doesn't deserve her T_T I only got up to episode 7 and he already had three female partners.
There was also that foe yay story line between Bo Bian and Xia Chi but it was pretty forced. Bo Bian was nowhere near as charismatic as he wanted us to think he was, and Xia Chi did nothing to deserve Bo Bian's adoration because Xia Chi was not cute at all.
Production
The acting was not that good. They were working with pretty bad direction and writing as well so I don't blame them completely. Could definitely have been better though.
The action was not done well at all. There was a part when Xia Chi was hanging off a ledge and the way his hand just came away to show how he struggled to hang on was so bad.
Characters
Xia Chi
Male fantasy self-insert character. He was cute when we saw him fall in love with Qing Zhi. But after he started interacting with the other female characters, I started to hate him DX
He is supposed to be kind of a white knight character. After all, Qing Zhi fell in love with him because he saved her. But the way there was 10000% a romantic angle to him protecting the other female characters in the game was unsettling...The way ALL of the female characters were deeply devoted and trusting of him...ugh.
Qing Zhi
As I mentioned, I actually wanted to know more about Qing Zhi. Maybe I only liked her because she wasn't on screen to be messed up by the writers.
She was from a rich and powerful family and was supposed to marry the son of another rich and powerful family. However, that guy was inconsiderate and uncaring. There was an accident at the movie theatre they were having a date at and the guy ran off. It was Xia Chi who saved Qing Zhi. Later, Qing Zhi met Xia Chi at university and that's when they got to know each other and started dating.
Afterwards, we didn't find out much about Qing Zhi's disappearance, only that everyone around her seemed to have forgotten her and that all traces of her (including in pictures and photos) had disappeared.
I found her less aggravating than the other characters. Maybe it's because we know she's supposed to be the canon love interest so the things she does make sense. Whereas all of the other girls cosying up to Xia Chi is just fanservice, Xia Chi having fun while he doesn't have his girlfriend with him >.> Ugh.
Bo Bian
We only briefly met Bo Bian, but it's clear that he's meant to be an important character later on. He was clearly supposed to be dashing and handsome judging by how he wore a long coat and had that tiny man bun >.>
His first thing when we met him was that he fawned over how cute Xia Chi was (as mentioned, totally unearned adoration!). During the Duannow game, Bo Bian was clearly comfortable with his bearings. He told Xia Chi that he didn't care about winning the game and just liked killing people.
Overall
The premise has potential, but the actual execution was cringefail, the biggest offender being the characterization. Xia Chi was supposed to be this devoted boyfriend and him attracting literally every woman was so offputting. The game part of the drama would have been more tolerable if I wasn't so bothered by the cliched characterization.