EPISODE 1 RECAP
In the beginning, there is a rather confusing narrative about some magical stones and a group of families who are at odds with one another because of the fight for control over these stones. Well, glowing rocks causing chaos in people’s life, wouldn’t be the first time.
Anyway, we don’t need to pay attention to that just yet. For now, let’s focus on one of the main characters of the story. A man picks up the narrative and introduces himself to us. He calls himself a monster and gives us some hints about his family. He has been a blood-craving “monster” for a long time due to a curse put on him by some woman (it could be that she bit him and turned him into a vampire, we’re not sure yet). Because of this, his grandma taught him to suppress his craving for human blood and turn to animals’ blood instead. He grew up like that and ever only had two goals: to find the woman who made him this way and to find his long-lost brother.
This means this man is quite old when the story begins and when he first meets the female protagonist. But he has Vengo Gao’s face so I guess that’s fine?
BTW, this is the first Vengo Gao’s drama we’ve seen in a long time. Is it me or has he just not been in many projects after Pillow Book?
Now, present time. Republican Era of China. A young girl — Mi Lan — is sitting dejectedly in her room while her parents fight. She is blind. That’s not a figure of speech, btw, she really cannot see. They look like a rich family. But the parents fight loudly about their daughter being… a daughter. And with a disability too. Poor girl.
That day, the family holds a banquet. Enters a Mr. Shen, who is the “monster” man. He wears gloves and has one of those canes that old-time men used to carry around. Vengo Gao can definitely wear this 19th-century’s gentleman attire without looking like he needs to gain weight. Cuz other actors have tried it before and lemme tell you, it rarely worked out.
In a car, another group of rich men led by a Mr. Li are plotting something. Probably has to do with Mr. Shen, we don’t know yet.
Mr. Li enters the party. Nobody likes him because of his family’s shady business, it seems. The custodian even asks him to move when he sits on the wrong seat. And Li is not exactly helping his case by swaggering around and sneering at everyone.
Upstairs, when nobody can hear them from below, the mother starts taking out her anger on Mi Lan, beating her up brutally.
But guess who hears all that and decides to take a stroll near Mi Lan’s room: Mr. Shen. He stalks outside Mi Lan’s window and throws a kitchen match into the room — like you would throw a dagger — which goes right through the mother’s hand and sends her into hysteria when blood pours out. It’s a terrible wound but the mother kind of dumbs down the moment with her theatrical screaming.
Li goes outside and tries to talk to Shen about some business deal, but Shen ignores him. This pisses him off so he follows Shen’s car, probably with the intention of hurting Shen.
Shen’s car breaks down in the middle of the road so he continues to travel on foot. But a car flies out of nowhere and crashes into him. It would’ve killed a regular person but our man is not regular. He gets back up like it’s nothing and fights back, making all those guys in the car panic.
They shot at him with their guns but the bullets do nothing to hurt him. Then one of them pulls out two big guns and starts blasting at Shen. When he is down, they assume he is dead.
Just to be sure he is dead, they run the car over his body twice. It’s a pretty graphic scene and when you think about it without the supernatural elements, it’s almost borderline a horror movie, shoo kids out of the room before you watch this.
The guys report back to Li that Shen is dead. But the body is missing now so they’re all freaking out again.
Back at her house, Mi Lan decides to run away. Hmm, she has a cane and it seems to point her in the right direction. I don’t know why but Mi Lan looks more like a supernatural being than Shen does. What with her eye movements and wild looks and all.
She keeps walking and is led straight into an abandoned storage house where Shen is hiding. She trips and lands on top of him. On one hand, it’s terrible that he’s covered in blood and she just puts her entire body’s weight on his injuries. On the other, it’s funny because you can tell it’s the fall-and-catch trope.
Shen tells Mi Lan he’s about to die. And she’s like: that’s cool, I wanna die too.
Shen asks her to get a doctor here to save his life first then she can die if she likes. And since Mi Lan genuinely does not care whether she lives or dies right now, she agrees to help.
On the way to find this doctor, Mi Lan runs into Li, he asks her if she needs him to take her home. Mi Lan tells him a little more than necessary about herself but makes no mention of Shen. Li takes her home and asks her not to call him Shushu — a term that you use to address someone as old as your dad’s younger brother.
And she’s like: ok, Shushu. This girl is so brutally and unintentionally hilarious.
COMMENTS
I probably won’t be following this drama, not because it’s bad but because Gothic/Vampire romance is just not my thing. If it is a really well-done story, however, I may come back to it.
So far, Snowfall looks intriguing, if you can ignore some really camp moments from the mom and the bad guys, etc. The sets and costumes don’t necessarily look authentic, but they fit the mood. And hey Vengo Gao’s eyebrows seem to have plenty of personality and this type of role suits his outlook. Acting-wise, I don’t see any problems yet. The rule of thumb is to keep your expectations low, a drama that tackles a supernatural love story and crimes that are set in this tumultuous era needs a tight plot and excellent writing or it will find itself messing up at one point or another.
As mentioned above, the violent scenes have more blood than the average fantasy show.
Join my Patreon for this drama’s Extra Notes and more.