The Queen of SOP (2012) 胜女的代价

Xiaojie worked in an international supermarket as an unimportant staff. one day, she was assigned a different department and had to handle projects to make the supermarket display more attractive. her hard work paid off when her boss Ziqi helped her out accidentally. one thing led to another, Ziqi became Xiaojie's boyfriend. before she knew it, he proposed under the watchful eyes of the media. in the meanwhile, Jiqing, Ziqi's model girlfriend became jealous, and Tom, Xiaojie's online friend started showing interest in making her life a less miserable one.

the series traversed through different phases, some of it interesting even funny to look at, others boring if not typical. it was quite impressive that the four main actors managed to pull off their awkward relationship rather smoothly. the indecision side of these characters tended to appear more than enough to annoy us to a certain level at a certain time. like most dramas, the characters found it impossible to be honest with each other, especially those they were currently in a relationship with. fortunately the story was expanded to many possible angle, making it somewhat unexpected and interesting to watch how everything would turn out.

Crush (2013)

Scott was a promising soccer player who was injured on the knee. two years since the incident, he continued training to strengthen his knee. both Jules and Bess liked Scott but since Scott was focused on recovering, he considered them friends. Bess worked in a store own by Andie, who also secretly had a crush on Scott. when Jules was stalked and threatened, Scott believed that Bess was responsible and targeted his at her. but before he was corrected, he soon found himself abducted and bashed in the injured knee.

despite the promising suspense, i found myself oddly confused trying to identify Bess and Andie. sometimes i even had the impression that they were the same person. being such a freaky character, i was sort of disappointed that we didn't get to see more of her different side other than the typical love struck teenager. the last part of the film was the most entertaining since the culprit was revealed, harm was repeatedly inflicted on Scott that made him seem more than a pretty boy who was so self centered that he couldn't save himself. Andie on the other hand, surprised me with her crazy looking eyes and how believing it was that she could do all those crazy stuff.

Spring Chorus (2014) 忆起回家

Uncle Tang was a father of five, who was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer disease. his condition had became increasingly deteriorating. ShengLiang was the eldest son who left home 10 years ago after a heated argument with his father. he went overseas to pursue his dream in music therapy. when he received a phone call from home, he decided to return home to take care of his father. Fanny was the second eldest in the family. after ShengLiang left home, she took over the burden of taking care of her family, giving her a tough and serious attitude.

before the movie was aired, another episode of "The Making" was aired. it was introduced that the director wanted to implement plenty of music into the film, making it an emotional film for the Chinese New Year. we were also introduced the characters, from one sibling to another. the two eldest siblings stood out among the rest. ShengLiang, the music loving son, was played by Leslie, an award winning actor in 2012. more than once, his attitude outside the screen was intolerable rude. Fanny, the responsible daughter, was played by Debbie, also an award winning actress in 2012. she on the other hand, had such a bubbly character that it was difficult to imagine her playing such a fierce and contrasting character in the film. in the introduction, the director also emphasized more than once on how much he wanted to create a comedy without having an exaggerated effect to it. we were pleased to find that his targets were mostly achieved. unfortunately, the film was completely ruined the moment it ended, as it appeared all too abruptly, left us gaping at the closing credit.

The Conjuring (2013)

Roger and Carolyn moved their family into an old farm house. strange things started happening around them with escalating terror. one after another they were attacked and threatened their safety. in desperation, Carolyn contacted paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine. the investigators stayed in their house with their team of members and soon discover that the house was haunted by great evil. to put things to an end, they had to used their skills and strengths to call and banish the spirit.

we weren't sure if we were surprised or disappointed with a completely no scare horror film. perhaps a little scare every now and then but it was all sound effect and little visual. however, that didn't make the film any less horrifying. the intensity were always higher in the next scenes that it was eerie to find ourselves in each of their shoes. after the evil spirit possessed Carolyn, it got less interesting since we were able to see Carolyn with her scary facial expression other than the invisible evil that played tricks in our mind. in many ways, the involvements of the paranormal investigators seemed to have tamed the film to a certain level, making it seemed less terrifying than before they got involved.