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The 2017 Chinese drama starring Feng Shao-Feng as Wu Ju-Lan/Regulus, Bea Hayden as shen Luo, Huang Ming as Jiang Yi-Sheng, Wang Meng-Li as Wu Liang-Liang, and Sui Yong-Liang as Zhou Bu-Wen.
Brief summary: 150 years ago, Regulus was betrayed by humans and lost something extremely valuable for his survival in the process. Now he's back to get it. But things on land can change drastically in 150 years and Regulus is going to have a rough time adjusting, looking for his spirit pearl, keeping his identity a secret, but also getting around the nosy Shen Luo at the same time!
Even if the production and acting was a little rough in some areas, this drama has a great story that warms the heart! It's not quite your typical fairytale or Little Mermaid. Hands down, the story line was the best part of this drama and I'm really curious about the book it was based on!
If we can be honest, the acting was a bit sub-par, especially from Bea Hayden. Her cry-acting is what I would graciously call "pitiful" (other critics have said way worse) but at least she was consistent in style and character for all 32 episodes. I wasn't that impressed with Feng Shao-Feng either, although it was cool to watch him pull off all the merman special effects. It seemed that for the majority of the show he had a look plastered on his face that said "I am totally miserable." Maybe he's just a really good actor and that's how it was supposed to be portrayed, but I wasn't really fond of it. I wanted to watch a love story about a girl and a merman, not about a terminal merman with depression.
The characters all gave me second-hand embarrassment except one: Wu Liang-Liang. That's right, she had to be the only normal character in the entire show. Although it's true that her job and big family secret was far from ordinary, her behavior was certainly the most realistic!
Ah. And by the way. You'll probably recognize a brief section of background music in episode 24 from Twilight. It exists. Just so you know. I don't know how it got there so don't ask 🤣
For a Chinese drama, this drama was filmed and produced mostly in Taiwan and New York. This could be the number one reason it didn't strike me as a true Chinese drama. It also happens to be on the melodramatic side of the scale like most Taiwanese dramas and the effects may look pretty fake, but the drama was still enjoyable.
Moreover, this one was difficult to find. I had to search the depths of the internet for a while to find a suitable version subbed in English. I was propelled mostly because I noticed that it has a second season. Maybe I'm just younger in my Asian drama experience, but second seasons seem a bit rare. Unfortunately, after watching "The Starry Night, The Starry Sea" and researching more on the second season, it appears that the second season is not a continuation of the story but a retelling in a different setting that shares cast members.
Naturally this is disappointing news to anyone who watches the ending of this drama. From what I've read in other comments and review, a lot of people were upset by the ending. Some may have cried, but I agree that it didn't seem quite complete. Luo's final plot twist tipped the scale in such a weird way that I wonder if the figurative scale fell off the table. It seemed to abrupt and cut off to be believable. Did the spirit pearl not work for some reason and Wu Ju-Lan really die? What exactly was that happening to Luo? What's the afterward? Seeing that ending, a second season would make perfect sense, but I mean a continuation season. We could write a fanfic all about filling in the holes of that ending (in fact, you actually might be able to find one if you look hard enough)!
So, in conclusion, the drama was fun to watch and the story line was its saving grace, even if there were plenty of things I would have changed. The drama was well on track to receive four stars from me until that ending, but I'll have to give it 3/5 stars.
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