I liked the initial episodes of this story and watched it all faithfully, but the drama rushes through some of the relationship between Li and her senior so that the audience can't totally buy into her strong romantic emotions toward him...at least I couldn't. I get what they were doing because drama does have King in the title after all. Unfortunately, because time wasn't spent on this early relationship, I never really bought that she passionately loved senior.
I could nitpick a lot of the drama, but my main issues were that I was totally uninterested in the secondary story and quickly started to fast forward through these parts. The three characters I cared most about were the king, Li and Han . Also, a lot of the drama is spent on the political shenanigans, and I was totally uninterested. To compare, I found The General and I flawed, but the political maneuvering was actually done quite well.
My other main complaint is that several times Li does things in what I would say was "for his own good" i.e. the king/a prince/senior. Sitting down and having an honest conversation might have actually worked better. They make her a bit of a too perfect martyr and in one case have her do something that makes no sense and puts people in danger. We are let to believe that's something she would care about but she doesn't give it a second thought.
The end is pretty much how I thought it would go and, though overly convoluted, I appreciated some late twists and turns. I also appreciate that the relationship between the leads was quite complex, and the drama writers did not sugarcoat the reality of the king being a tyrant. The mixture of the writing and the actor's talent really makes for a nuanced performance which I liked.
The first half of this drama, I would rate a solid 7.5 to 8 so it is the second half which brings me down to 6 or 6.5 range. I can't honestly say full steam ahead when I felt the need to fast forward through a lot of the drama; however, for the story about the king and Li and with some judicious fast forwarding I found it a compelling watch.
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The general storyline was good, but I can see where they failed to bring this story to life. There were some parts that I felt were incredibly boring and irrelevant, but thankfully your girl pulled through. The costumes were stunning, which is to be expected in a historical drama; but the cinematography will blow you away, especially where there is action. If I had to point out one thing I disliked, it would have to be all of the unresolved misunderstandings found way too common in a drama. God, I hate those.
The main reason why I decided to watch this drama in the first place is because of the main leads. They've both really impressed me in their past roles, and definitely didn't disappoint in this one either. The antagonists also did a really good job of riling up my emotions. One thing I wanted to point out—and I know this isn't the actor/actresses fault but I felt like some of the supporting characters were poorly portrayed. Again, this isn't always their fault, as a character is only as good as its script.
If you couldn't already tell by my ratings, original soundtracks are my biggest weakness. But I definitely have a preference when it comes to these. I'm kind of obsessed with soundtracks in historical dramas. I don't know what it is, but I just find them way better. I feel like they're filled with more raw emotion and I somewhat enjoy the feeling of getting my heart wrenched out of my chest (kidding, but not really).
Overall, I think I would recommend this drama BUT with fair warning, as it may not live up to everyone's expectations. So watch at your own discretion. As for whether or not I would rewatch this, the only reason why I could bring myself to do so would be to relive the romance between the two main leads.
With that said,
Llama out.
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This review may contain spoilers
A bit conflicted storyline.
First I d like to say as a non Chinese speaking person I was really sad at the subtitles being small, white, and barely readable. Plus no music lyrics were translated in this series nor signs, etc which I feel gives a viewer a better effect and understanding for the series effort made by all involved. I love knowing the signs on the buildings. Call me crazy but it all goes into the entire effort of the production. That being said I would like to next say I love Bin Bin in everything he does, even as a bad guy role, but honestly in this series I feel like he carried the entire series and was the good guy. I didn't like the little crybaby role of Jing as he just couldn't get through life, drinking, whining, even Han did better in moving forward in finding a path of action to feel alive . I felt Jing didn't deserve any woman he was so conflicted. I was very interested in the historical aspect of this drama but will have to look it up separately to see what was real. I am aware of the concubine issues however and how the politics of them became extremely out of control at times and eventually subdued and changed. (I think..,? ) Anyway I did not like Dal in this role, but I did not even like the female lead created for this role at all. It was extremely unbelievable. The king has this sweet memory of who she was and how she protected him but in the action she seems unaware of who he is and treats him pitifully even though choosing to go live w him to save her lover? I just didnt even find this believable. Also the sleeping together stuff. She slept w both guys but do we know if she really could be carrying the Kings child in reality and not Jings? She is so naive in general just unbelievable and then running away w/o her child. ,??? No way. Bad mom. Again not believable plus getting a soldier killed and her maidservant beaten etc. How could she not know this in these times if the king was so awful. Then comes back and tries to kill the king w a hairpin. Again I'm rolling my eyes thinking really unbelievable. How much hate and vengeance when she could have just stayed w Jing. And her reasons were like blah blah blah I have no brain. So between this crazy stuff and Jing acting even less interesting in character I really focused even more on the Kings good attributes and the harem soap operish drama scenes of the mean girls club like effect which were really funny and enjoyable to a point. I wanted to see the Dowager cut off FL s hair in prison Lol. I felt she deserved it based on her brainless behavior. Plus in real life I'm pretty sure she would have gotten worse. Also her maid comes back w no scares. C'mon people slashes across the face make scars even w the greatest of medicines. I think it would have added even better drama for the maid and Han to keep their slash scars to seal the effects of FLs selfish behavior. Plus scars on the face show great character in drama roles ...Ok anyway ..... lol . I will continue to watch this to the end only as I would like to see who lives and dies and if lil Tian really becomes a good man due to the King who seems to be the only sensible person in the lead roles. It sure wouldn't be Dil who is always full of hate and seemingly not kind or gentle with any nice redeeming qualities shown thus far. She also is a liar. Hypocrite. Calls everyone else a liar while she lies. This is why I can't buy into her character in general. (I do like her as an actress in general though, just not this character role) ...Just nothing there to like plus far too many blank face looks which shows lack of depth. In closing I absolutely loved, loved the costumery, clothing, hair, settings, and the visuals, the fight scenes and the elders cast in those drama. Fine acting there. It was all very beautiful, enticing and great work there. I loved the dress Dil wore in her sword dance. Beautiful!! The look backs get boring and tedious, had to scroll past the umpteenth time of seeing the same ones over and over again. I do like the storyline in general despite the FL s just not making any sense overall .Ok so the ending was a joke. I mean really?? FL just made no sense, had no loyalty and ruined everything she touched. She was the bad person. Not the king.
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Connected to the Legend of Haolan
If you watched “Legend of Haolan” that’s the story of yin zheng’s mother. In the legend of haolan it said that the father is the hostage prince of Qin, but here his father is Li Bu Wei. In the Legend of Haolan, there’s a rumor that her mother has relationship with Lao Ai and it proves here. Li Bu Wei and Haolan are from Zhao state, Li Bu Wei wants Haolan to be the queen of Qin and it really happened. I think this is the story of their son. It means Ying Zheng is really not the late King’s son. In the legend of haolan, Yin Zheng has a lover named Li Ge, i think it is Gongsun Li in this drama.Was this review helpful to you?
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