Review: "Ghost Bride"

 - I chose to watch “Ghost Bride” because it was all of 6 episodes and seemed like a reasonably-sized investment. 

- Apparently, per Yinharn, the Malaysian blogosphere had issues with this show due to the period-inappropriate Mandarin and general disinterest in its setting as such. Yinharn directed me to this piece on these limitations: https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3047751/dont-be-fooled-netflix-theres-more-chinese-diaspora . I do see the point that “Ghost Bride” is not interested in its setting’s fullness/diversity; this is functionally indistinguishable from a mainland-set show.

- It's 1890 and this lead girl’s friend has a bob haircut? Okay, I guess! I mean, I don't know what's happening in not-yet-officially-Malaysia. 

- Gosh, a dress with a thigh-high slit? Seems unusual, but okay.

- It's interesting that the family's housekeeper is coming to this party with her employers.

- I thought it was odd that everyone at a big party was doing embroidery in a circle and wondered if etiquette was quite different, if it was a game pertaining to the occasion (Qixi), or if it was just an odd filmic choice. Helena thinks it’s probably a game. 

- The characters are really keen on this peach dress for the female lead, but I don’t find it very flattering. 

- Everyone pronounces the name “Isabel” in the most English fashion possible. It feels a little like the cast switches languages just to say this name? Rather odd. 

- They do the paper-doll beating thing I’ve edited Yinharn’s translation of in “Purely By Accident”! I was happy to see it. ‘I understood that reference!’

- It’s not really successful as a murder mystery. The culprit felt rather random and plucked out of a hat. 

- And why did the despised half-sister tolerate her half-brother on one of the nights leading up to his death during their joint trip to the casino? I don’t think we ever heard more about that. 

- And will someone make provision for the surviving illegitimate son? If anyone is a good Ghost Bride candidate, surely it’s the servant the dead man already seduced and spurned, whose prospects may have been materially damaged and who must now provide for the rich family’s only surviving next-generation heir.  

- The Ghost Husband is a bit hot, and eats the scenery in a satisfying way. A key reason I watched this was the thirsty premise! The set-up was more compelling than the delivery, here: this is not quite one for the Monsterfuckers, in that classic “Phantom of the Opera”, “Labyrinth” vein. 

- The romance triangle (quadrangle?) is decent, and I did enjoy the fuckboi love interest even as I found the bevvy of sustained, narratively plausible choices a little odd, with two of the potential male leads making it through to the last 10 minutes of the series. It did feel slightly like the successful candidate was plucked out of a hat. The resultant ending was well-executed, but felt somewhat arbitrary. 

-  I was confused as to where the last half hour of this series was going in a way that I don't know I would have been with a medium I knew better. I think I might not have found the romance red herring successfully misleading if I were more familiar with the patterns of this type of drama. 

- Mari says this is based on a book, and suggested that the climax is better handled therein.