Slow watching
I recently finished watching a Chinese costume drama - The double (in Vietnamese Mac vu van gian). It is a a long watch, 40 episodes. I was pleasantly surprised at myself for the patience I have and also what a pleasure it is to watch a good drama. It reminds me of the simple joy of watching a story unfolding slowly.
The story is about revenge and romance, kinda what I always like watching. The drama is an easy and pleasant watch, good story telling, overall strong performance of actors and actresses, good costumes and music. It has its fair share of cringy moments which make me roll my eyes. But I still had a great time with it.
I like the main actor and actress. They delivered a convincing performance, show depth in their characters and have great chemistry on screen. And I especially love the performance of the main female villain. She is very dramatic yet very real and convincing. She is cruel, arrogant but you cannot stop yourself from having empathy and admiring her beauty. She flips between a naive, innocent girl into a psychopath in a blink of an eye. How a great actress can bring a flat character from a book to life with such depth and vibrancy!
The experience reminds me of the quiet pleasure of having the time to watch a show slowly, to savor it without rushing, and without the noise of other people's opinions. To only have myself and the experience of watching a good story unfolding.