Fairy From Wonderland

Rating: ****

Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Comedy
Episodes: 39
Cast: Ariel Lin, Hu Ge, TAE, Dou Zhi Kong, Lv Yi

"This drama is a retelling of the well-known love story between a goddess and a mortal.
Goddess Xiao Qi commits a major crime. She is punished by having her powers stripped away and is banished to the mortal realm. She can only regain her goddess status by accomplishing 100 charitable acts. Dong Yong rescues her and teaches her what it's like to be a mortal. However, she also learns how to love even though love is forbidden between goddesses and mortals. When their love affair is discovered, heavenly guards descend onto the mortal realm to separate the two lovers. However, they are willing to do anything to stay together."

As someone who has never heard or watched the story before, this drama is entirely new to me.  That being said, I cannot say whether or not the drama stuck with the story or not.  The main problem with this series, though, is there are two versions.  The one I watched wasn't the 39 episode series, but the shorter one.  That being said, I think you should be careful when finding the episodes.  Although the scenes that were cut were virtually meaningless, they forgot to remove flashbacks that contained deleted scenes.  That really irked me.

Although Ariel Lin and Hu Ge seem to match their characters pretty well, I have to wonder if they ever think of acting as other types of characters.  Ariel always plays a spunky girl and Hu Ge always plays a nice (but a little naive) guy.  Does anyone know of a drama or movie that they have done that wasn't the same type of character that they always play?  It really kind of bothers me when I see an actor stuck in the same role time and time again.  For me it says that they have no desire to improve upon their acting.  Although I like the main actors, I feel that they could grow as actors if they just stepped out of their comfort zone.

 As far as the actual drama was concerned, I liked it.  There's this one point about love that I really liked from this drama.  The drama basically says that you can still love someone even if you say you don't.  You see, no matter what we say, it won't change our feelings for other people.  We can deny love a million times, but that love will not change.  True love stays the same whether you want to love that someone or not.  Even if loving someone is tough and gives you great pain, feelings don't easily change.  Just because you decide not to be with someone doesn't mean you stopped loving them.  I think the only thing I can't really decide on is the ending.  I'm not sure how I feel about the ending, or if I like it at all.  On one hand it's sad, but on the other hand it's kind of happy.  It kind of made me want to know what happened next in the story.

Question: Didn't they say he could be reincarnated into a god?  What happened with that?  Is that just a translation error?

Funny Note: Something is missing on Episode 11 at 7:01

Legend of the Condor Heroes 2008

Rating: ****

Genre: Wuxia
Episodes: 50
Cast: Anthony Wong, Ariel Lin, Hu Ge, Liu Shi Shi, Yuan Hong

"When their husbands were killed by the Song army, two pregnant women found safe haven in foreign lands. Li Ping gave birth to Guo Jing, a sturdy but blockheaded young man who roamed the Mongolian prairie with the family of Temujin. Bao Xi Ruo gave birth to Yang Kang, a smart and crafty young man who became the son of Wanyan Hong Lie, a successor of the Jin empire. When a pact between their martial arts masters brought them together and the truth behind their fathers' deaths was revealed, one found martial arts enlightenment and a cause greater than his own while the other descended into darkness and destroyed everything and everyone around him."

 Although this drama was an interesting watch, they did not keep the integrity of the original story.  For viewers like me that has never read the trilogy or watched any of the previous versions, we can enjoy the story without the pain of having to see all the changes in the series.  However, for those viewers who have read the series, you will probably find this series bothersome.  Also, if you plan on watching all three stories in the series (The Legend of the Condor Heroes, The Return of the Condor Heroes, The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber), it's probably best if you pick a different version.  This tv series was made to be one complete drama.  It wasn't written with the thought that they would be creating the sequels.

Although enjoyable, there were still some visual effects that weren't very wonderful.  For instance, did you see the stuffed condors in the nest that they used as props?

As far as the characters were concerned, I found Guo Jing hilarious.  I really don't know if his character was originally supposed to be like that, but the way Hu Ge portrayed him made him look like he was a complete idiot.  I mean, I know that Jing'er is supposed to be dumb, but this one was beyond dumb.  I don't know how anyone would be able to fall for him.  I really enjoyed Ariel Lin as Huang Rong, though.  She really fits well with the character.  Spunky, smart, and mischievous is just the style that works for her.  I like it better when she plays a smart character.