Looking back at the C-dramas I watched in 2024 I realise that White Cat Legend really stood out. It may not have been a Good Drama, but it understood its assignment. It were supposed to be a fun thing with characters as deep as Beetle Bailey; four of the characters shared one braincell, the male lead was Handsome And Smart, and verything was highly stylised and tongue in cheek. Maybe not groundbreaking comedy, but it dared go the extra mile.
I looked up the costume designer for White Cat Legends, because they did a great job on an obvious low budget. It's Ru Mei Qi who also worked on The Story of Ming Lang and Nirvana in Fire (1 and 2) among other things.
Props to them for coming up with costumes like these in a situation where the dialogue must have boiled down to
Costume department: We can haz embroideries?
Production: Are you crazy? We're glad to afford _fabric_!
Verdict on White Cat Legend.
Ending: clunky, yet satisfying enough to _not_ make you regret watching the entire drama*.
Overall: it's based on a comic, and it was wise to bake that into the presentation. The cartoony characters and slapstick only work against that background.
Story: A human detective/cat cooperates with five loveable bumblers to solve cases tied to a Demon Cat.
Not too deep but good fun.
#WhiteCatLegend #CDramaReview #CDrama #wuxia
(*I'm looking at _you_ Douluo Nation!)
Called it! In less than two minutes after they lit the torch! That's efficiency!
Yes! _Thanks!_ This is the first time I've seen a plausible explanation for a lit torch in a cave! Have you noticed that they just show up otherwise? Here we've seen enough to know there's random items on the floor. Sun Bao has brought his wuxia lighter* and it's logical that he finds a torch to light with it
Now I expect skeletons!
(*Ubiquitous in wuxia - originally a small bamboo pipe carrying embers cleverly embedded in stuff to stay glowing.)
It's not a _true_ detective story unless the characters can put on masks and play dress up a bit.
For the sport of it I never look up the background facts of a C-drama (or any fiction, really) until I've finished it, but if there's anything that hints at White Cat Legend is based on a comic it's Sun's vest; big, bold details that are easy and ~fast to draw. Incidentally this also makes easy cosplay, which is A Very Good Thing.
Three main colors: red, cold brown, and green.
Two supporting ones: grey/black, and créme white (beige-ish white if you like).
The red attracts the eyes to Li Bing who's lit up by lanterns, the lanterns guides the eyes away from Li and up to the branch, the branch then points to the standing official.
Excellent composition! A+
And now I want to build a cardboard puppet theater for some reason...
Apparently I was wrong - here's the phoenix. Or at least the bottom part. Still good storytelling through props.
Martha Crimson