Serene Peh

This is a sci-fi drama with a historical feudal era as backdrop. The scriptwriter/author, Mao Ni, makes the viewer feel like they are on a convoluted mind trip, with unexpected twists and turns and excellent decoys that build up to a false conclusion while slamming a mud pie in your face when the truth is revealed. Filming wise, there are the usual comic relief segments that one has grown to anticipate in C dramas but they are kept to a minimum; the 2 OST soundtracks are beautiful and haunting, while those snippets of tracks used in the drama gain poetic license owing to the sci-fi background plot to incorporate types that sound very much like Diner Dash! It is surprise after surprise that keeps you glued to your seat and stuck to your screen. I have not read the original webnovel in full, but the snippets that I have glanced through makes me rejoice that there is minimal nagging and maximum rhetoric. There is a philosophical premise to the entire drama that plays on the technological apocalypse slightly akin to those from I, Robot. Basically, Mao Ni (the author) is toying with the notion that technology is a double-edged sword that both builds and destroys with equal intensity owing to man's never-ending greed for absolute power, authority and wealth. As such, the lead protagonist, Fan Xian, is portrayed as a good-for-nothing who is obsessed predominantly with preserving his own life and leading it as simply and as unambitious as possible. Reading the novel, one gathers that Fan Xian in his previous life was a myasthenia gravis sufferer who eventually passed away in his prime without being able to do much with his life. Hence his desire to celebrate his extra years (庆余年) of life gained through this second life by enjoying the very simplicity of being alive and kicking. Fan's consciousness is unwittingly locked away in the body of a baby in this newly arisen post-apocalyptic feudal era. As such, he continues to journey through his second life very much remembering everyone and everything that he comes across. Fan possesses an amazing memory and is able to spew out copious amounts of Tang poetry and even regurgitate the famous novel "Romance of the Red Chamber". As he happily (albeit a little guiltily) plagarises his way through the feudal era, he is hailed as a poetry demigod. I was particularly tickled by his woodwork humidifier scene as he complains about the aridity of the capital climate. Fan uses a lot of modern day lingo that leaves his listeners baffled and us amused, which I thought was very smart of the author, as it leaves the viewers smug in the comfort of laughing along to an inside joke with Fan at the rest of the characters. This definitely scores brownie points in the fan department. The characters that revolve around him are thankfully mostly half-fleshed characters with their own personalities and agendas. I particularly liked what one reviewer said, that there is no entirely evil persona in the story. Some feedback from family members: Most of the younger male leads are non-eye candy like (think Fan Xian and Fan Si Zhe) Female leads all so pretty Mature male leads mostly shockingly handsome (except Wang Qi Nian?) Plot moves so fast you can't even blink Miss one detail and you are immediately lost in a labyrinth of a plot Cannot really find poor acting in the drama, which sometimes happens when you cast a pretty thing who has no acting cells I look forward to the next season of Joy Of Life!