The Brightest Star in the Sky
Sorry I can't resist. The rant has to come first. Why is there a buddy Jesus in Mexico? That belongs on the set of Dogma right? Why do your Mexican officers have French accents? You have a daughter and you choose to leave her in a mansion in Mexico? Do the cartels give you a discount every tenth kidnapping? Why is Elmo the female lead? Though I can forgive this one I quite liked Elmo.
The Brightest Star in the Sky takes us on a journey with Zheng Boxu and his assistant Elmo as they attempt to bring Rap or C-Pop to the world and of course fall in love along the way. I would rate it as a 3/5. It's a fairly standard romcom, while the antics of Yang ZhenZhen increase the replayability there are just so many things that I couldn't get over. Every work of fiction whether it be books, movies, dramas, etc require the audience to have something called "Suspension of Disbelief". It means that a certain point you are just going to have to accept the premise without questioning how it happened. Of course highly fantastical works like Harry Potter generate more of this than slice of life works like The Brightest Star in the Sky. Aside from all the things I mentioned about Mexico I could not even accept that someone like Ma Lina would throw herself at Chen Tianhao. Everytime the two had a scene together I kept thinking she could do better.
Second Male Lead
For the longest time I was convinced that China could not do second male leads properly and the prior three reviews I did, did not improve my opinion on the matter. In fact every time it was shown I have always been on team Makino/Hanazawa Rui instead of Team Domyouji. The only time I couldn't root for Hanazawa Rui was during the Chinese iteration of Meteor Garden. Instead of representing wind to the leads fire I felt like I was looking at an Alpha next to a Beta everytime the two competed.
Yu Zurui changed all that. For the first time I felt like China produced a second lead that you could really root for. It could be that I just have not been watching the right shows but still this is a new development for me. You could understand his logic and the sacrifice he was making for ZhenZhen and their future. In fact his sacrifice for ZhenZhen maybe greater than Boxu's sacrifice. Seeing this you can't help but root for their ship even though you know its destined for failure. I loved his transition from carefree to ruthless knowing that if he was ruthless he could reach the ultimate prize of ZhenZhen all that much faster. The fact that he was so poor that he was selling trinkets in the market as opposed to Boxu's chaebol status only increases his charm.
Elmo
If anything saved this series for me it is Elmo. I watched a previous work of hers where she had a vampire boyfriend and gave up on it halfway through. For some reason her antics in this show endeared her to me while it made no impact on the other one. I love how the writers gave her an alternate solution for each problem. I have watched quite a few dramas in my life and I cannot remember a single instance where one of the leads reported the other one as a druggie to prevent them from leaving. Of course that also meant I was laughing during what was supposed to be an emotional scene but that seems to be the M.O. of Elmo anyway. I kept thinking that if Boxu's thing was rap he should just let her do it. Episode two showed she has WPM to spare.
Most memorable line "You don't know what a rabbit will do when its cornered, so you better show up before I do something crazy"
Music
To be honest I'm not a fan of C-Pop. At least the way Boxu wants to do it. That's not to say I don't like the music. I loved the song "Like You so Much" from this series and it has made it into my regular rotation. There's just something about Rap and China that doesnt jel together with me. Unfortunately this meant that a major driver of the story was lost on me.
If your in the mood for a romantic series with a heavy emphasis on comedy and maybe like Chinese Rap? then maybe this series could be for you.