理想之城 - The Ideal City

理想之城 (The Ideal City) is an 2021 drama out of Zhong Guo. The series leads are Betty Sun and Mark Chao. The supporting cast include Chen Ming Hao, Yu He Wei, Gao Ye, and Yang Chao Yue. The series is 40 episodes long and I am currently watching it through my IQIYI subscription. At the moment, I am up to episode 39.



Betty Sun plays Su Xiao and Mark Chao plays Xia Ming. Su Xiao is a cost engineer with a construction company, ZJ. Xia Ming is 2nd in charge at Tian Ke (TK), a construction company subcontracted by ZJ. When things go wrong, Su Xiao is the scapegoat and fired just as she is getting her license. With the license, she is able to get job interview. Without it, she's starting back at square one. With that struggle in place, Su Xiao takes on the corporate world that is not just and not very friendly to females. Will Su Xiao make in Shanghai or go back home to her village.



I am up to episode 39 at the moment and started a little late when it was released. I eventually caught up at episode 19 and have been waiting patiently everyday for new episodes to come out. Even though I am not a huge Betty Sun fan, I think she does a very good job in this drama. The story is so good that I am not stuck on who is playing a character, but how the characters will develop. I will say that Mark Chao is magically cast for this role. Mark was also very good in The Ordinary Glory, but the story there was not as strong as The Ideal City. Together, they do a really good job of moving the story from one arc to the next. I wake up itching to watch but have to wait until after I eat dinner.

Given that I have not seen the last episode, I expect all plot points to be resolved and to be a little let down. It is hard to end a series strong sometimes. And as good as the previous 39 episodes have been, can the 40th episode wrap it up to satisfy everyone?

UPDATE after watching Episode 40: INCLUDES SPOILERS. As I mentioned above, it is hard to end series well. The set up, the character development, the industry were excellent in presentation. How can you just end it in one episode? Well, they did, but it was really abrupt. In the end, I was left unsatisfied, but I expected that. Su Xiao and Xia Ming win at the end, was there any doubt? But the way it got there and the "message" was quite disappointing. Hongmei's story was also left unfinished or you can make a bunch of assumptions. However, as a whole, the disappointing ending does not make this drama disappointing. This is one of the better made dramas and you should watch The Ideal City.

Black Widow - 黑寡婦

Black Widow (黑寡婦) is an 2021 film. The movie stars Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, and Rachel Weisz. The supporting cast include Olga Kurylenko, William Hurt, and Ray Winstone. This movie was set for release in May of 2020, but was push back more than a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The movie is based on the events after Captain America: Civil War (美國隊長3:英雄內戰/美国队长3:英雄内战).



Scarlett Johansson plays Natasha Romanoff, a Black Widow, Florence Pugh plays Yelena Belova, a Black Widow, David Harbour plays Alexei Shostakov, the Red Guardian of the USSR, and Rachel Weisz plays Melina Vostokoff, a Black Widow. After the events of Captain America: Civil War (美國隊長3:英雄內戰/美国队长3:英雄内战), Natasha is now on the run and makes her way to Europe. Things get interesting when Natasha bumps into her "sister" Yelena. They get attacked there and talk about the old times. Eventually, they decide to go on a mission to free the other gals in the Black Widow program. However, they need some help to pull something this big off, so they go searching for the Mom and Dad, Alexie and Melina. Together, they must find the Black Widow's home base and free them. So much fun!

There was much hype for Black Widow in 2020 and than it was not released. After over a year on the shelf, when it made its debut, I think there was too much hype for this movie to live up to. Generally, after the release, this movie quickly lost steam and wasn't talk about much. There are also more Marvel items out at the same time now that they could be taking hype from each other. As Loki's TV series was on at the same time. I did enjoy it for the action and to get the back story on the Black Widows that had been reference many times before. I think this movie would have been better served in the 2018 or 2019 era. Go watch it, it is still a Marvel film and was well made.

I think there were some Asian actors as part of the Black Widows, but I did not notice any prominent Asian faces in this movie.

My Expectations for Shang-Chi

In a few weeks, Marvel will be debuting their first Asian lead movie with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. I am excited and cautious at the same time. Currently, my opinion of Asian lead activities in the "west" are that they play too much into the stereotypes. Mind you that I do not watch all of the Asian lead stuff, but watch some of the more mainstream ones.

I will admit that since the pandemic started, 75% or more of what I watch are directly out of Asia from Zhong Guo, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan.

My opinion is based on a couple of trailers and some recent Facebook clips. And I have high hopes! Seems that Simi Liu is going to bring a regular guy role who turns out to be awesome. Kinda like Ant-man.



Tony Leung, Tony Leung. My favorite actor from the 1980s through 1990s. I first saw him in Duke of Mount Deer, then in Heaven Sword, to the first TVB of Handsome Siblings. I grew up on his TVB series. Then his transition to movies with John Woo's Bullet In the Head and Hard Boiled. I have been a life long fan of his. I am hoping Kevin Feige lives up to his word that they will not play to Asian stereotypes, especially with Tony's role.

I have purchased tickets to watch the movie during its first weekend out. Although I am no longer brave enough to make the open nights, I still want to watch them in the theatre.

As much as I love seeing Asian representation in the West. I am sad that some of my favorite Asia based actors cannot join the fun. My favorites right now are a pair of Darrens in Darren Wang and Darren Chen. I also think Xiao Zhan and Yang Yang can play both gritty and slick roles. But Hollywood is not likely to tap the Asia market for their leads. We'll continue to see the same faces over and over again, because the pool is so small. It's a numbers thing in my opinion. Not likely to change in my lifetime.