Too late to leave a long review for an underrated drama

I finished it after having it on hold for almost a year. The reason is that i didn't really like palace and political dramas much back then, plus it had too much angst for my liking. Once i started watching it, i was intrigued and really liked it a lot. But the angst being too much for me, i kept it on hold and only now finished it.

Story: This drama is very heavy on the politics, and light on the romance, yet it has a heart touching love story between ill fated couples. The story is very well written, intricately with not many plotholes. So sometimes it may even feel boring or repetitive because of the heavy politics. The main couple remain true to each other throughout. For the main fl, although she was taken as a consort, she never once faltered in her feelings for the ml. She helped him with her strength as an imperial consort just like he did for her. The ml was just as true to his beloved. The empress was in love with lang kun, as i grasped from the subtle indications. There were disgusting people causing trouble everywhere, but with their own wits, they found their way out, which was rather satisfying to see. Nothing was rainbows and unicorns about this story although it has a happy ending for the main couple. It was a rather realistic story in which an obsessive amorous emperor tears two lovers apart, but fails to get her love, while the low born subject of his interest stays true to her own love and strives to be together with him, all while maintaining conduct of decency. Being honest, the things that fl was able to do couldn't have been possible without power, and the ml would've long been killed by the king. The king desires her, what could a mere general with an incriminated father do to keep her? So the power and status of the fl came in handy. There were villains, but more than them, the non villains were horrible. The king's death was just as satisfying as the villain's. The fl's sacrifices for the ml and her country were touching. But this wasn't a tearjerker, maybe because it was so low on the romance.

Characters: All the characters were highly complex. Let's begin with the most ungrateful, greedy, foolish, horny, wicked and undeserving scumbag of a king- NOTHING was good about his character. He kept using the ml, then trying to get rid of him like a grade a asshole. He stole the fl from the ml, then dared to treat her as his property. I hated him more than anyone. Now onto his beloved b*tch, Ban ling er. Just like her dear husband, she was a pretentious backstabber, greedy, ungrateful, cunning, demon with a nice innocent face. The two of them really suited each other actually, a hypocritical couple. The two villainous siblings of the king were meh and kinda pitiful (one suffering in love, the other got disowned by his own mother as a tool to stop the war) and rather easy to manipulate and fool. Yan Kuan and yan zheng were actually impressive with their wits. The villains were more interesting than the king. Now onto the protagonists who grew nicely throughout the story. The empress was seemingly petty and obnoxious, but she was an ill tempered girl from a big clan, with a good heart. Her death was rather sad just like her love story with Lang Kun, the one who came off as a loathsome villain, only to be later revealed as the good guy. He suffered a lot, and loved the empress truly, but they never got to voice their feelings for each other, poor couple. Now the fl. An innocent, poor lovesick girl from a circus troupe who tries to get close to the ml and in the process becomes the king's object of desire and thereby the consort. She wins hearts with her kindness and wits, makes enemies with her intelligence, yet remains true to her only beloved ml, and doesn't get swayed by the temptations of luxurious life of a royal consort. From an innocent girl, she grows to be a mature lady, protecting her loved ones with her power and wits, and caring for the people. Now the ml. He was such a loyal guy, level headed, very intelligent, decent and dedicated to the fl and devoted to his country. Never swayed by his emotions, he helps everyone, tackling the numerous threats to his own life and the FL's. The tolerance he had to the king that spoiled every effort of his to help him, was really impressive.

Production: This one went all out on the costumes, they were absolutely beautiful. The makeup was flawless just like the sets. The music was nice, but didn't really leave any impression. Overall, it was very well done.

Although i wouldn't watch it again, doesn't change the fact this was a very good drama. And i will never understand why it is so underrated. Hope it gets the recognition it deserves. I really recommend watching it to people who love superior level of palace politics and don't mind a heavy story, with less romance.

Read More

Just another toxic ml and dumb fl, who mature a bit over 32 eps.

I found this one when i was looking for contract relationship tags. It truly is a DRAMA, like a melodrama.

Story and characters: Surprisingly this had a lot of women empowerment vibes and that's pretty rare for a historical cdrama. I liked that.
Millions of meaningless misunderstandings. A childish, immature, inexpressive, awfully hot tempered and dumb ML with no control over his own emotions who mistreats, abuses, insults, embarrasses and hurts the FL in all possible ways. Granted that he likes her, and even sometimes does things for her out of good will but he is that obsessive kind of lover who wants to own the FL and never regards her happiness. They had a very toxic relationship. He was nowhere to be seen when his friends needed help. Altogether he was a horrible character. So from this initial situation to the ml growing mature and treating others well, it was a good change. Also his acting was on point.
The FL was quite a pitiful young girl. But she was strong willed and hardworking. She is not the typical damsel in distress FL in cdramaland. But she was dumb and had overly high limits of tolerance. Also i loved her sisterhood with Minggu. The only thing about her i didn't like is how could she fall for a guy like him? Like i know that the story is about them soooo but pretty sure that she liked Congwen earlier. And I'm probably the only person with such opinion but i really think that he suited her more in terms of everything. But oh well. She also grew mature. And they sure did a lot of PDA.
Minggu was my favourite, good that she and Boyang got together. I liked xingzhou and congwen too. There were many annoying evil entitled females that i lost count of. At one point there were so much bad things happening altogether that i honestly almost dropped it. But i also wanted to end it so i sat through.

Music and production: didn't really notice the music much, but the dramatic bg music that suddenly started playing in some scenes hurt my ears, so annoying! The silence was better. Production looked decent.

Overall it was okay, though I'd never rewatch it. It often felt quite draggy, there was nothing funny amd frustrating at times with lots of evil people getting their way. The happy ending was the only thing i looked forward to. I don't really recommend watching it though.

Read More

Simple story, wonderful execution

The story is pretty damn basic and simple, like it has nothing. An adolescent girl has a crush on her older brother's friend and never really moves on from it, rather it grows as she grows older and finally she falls head over heels in love with him and accepts her fate, only to get him to love her back in the end.

So why such a high rating and so much love from everyone? A lot of reasons actually.
1.  Simple story, no melodramatic plot, unnecessary angst, bloodshed, death or anything annoying.
2.  This is one of those very realistic stories where people can relate to the main leads. Also which girl didn't have a massive childhood crush, but never really got him and still would love to see what if it worked out? i personally could relate to the character of sang zhi all too well, that is until she got him to love her. So for me, their relationship is like the part that i could never experience with my crush. It made me happy, i swooned and it brought me so much peace and satisfaction.
3. The characters (except jiang ying) were all loveable. Their relationship dynamics was natural. Main characters had development. They were well written and mature.
4. The acting and visuals. Needless to say zhao lusi is a high traffic actress. And in my opinion she outdid herself in this with all her micro expressions. I was truly impressed  by her performance this time particularly. I felt everything she was feeling, her acting was so perfect this time. Her character wasn't a stupid airheaded crybaby who does dumb shit and behaves like a 3 year old. She is a beauty and chen zheyuan looked like he is straight out of a manhua with his visuals. How can someone look that attractive and sweet and charming all at the same time? His character was the perfect high school crush.
5. No unnecessary misunderstandings, plot fillers with too much spotlight on unimportant secondary characters. The story focused on the main characters.
6. The story was fast paced but editing was not choppy. The screenwriter and production team did a marvelous job at the whole process. With a minimalistic visual theme, it screamed elegance. This proves its high budget.

So despite being a simple drama in one of the most common genres of coming of age, it was soothing, relaxing, relatable and light romantic comedy with a happy ending. It definitely is worth rewatching because of these exact qualities. It is perfect in its own beautiful way. It was a very pleasant and easy to watch show and i would recommend this to any romance lover.

Read More

You two seem to have exchanged your gender because of the relationship?

At first when i knew of this airing, i came to check comments and then saw that the ml is actually an idol so i immediately gave up the thought of watching this. Then, after coming across some clips on yt, I was hesitant about watching this after i read some comments. Third try and i finally decided to give it a try and i don't regret. Thanks to youtube clips, i got interested and then binged all the available eps in 2 days. And finally for the first time i finished a drama simultaneously with its airing.
I enjoyed it a lot more than i thought. Maybe that's because I could relate a lot with the fl, to the extent where i could see my older self in her, just maybe not that successful, but yeah in terms of personality, hidden crush, and no romantic life, no nonsense attitude, I'm totally like her. Other reasons for me to like is the ml. When he first came on screen i felt like here we go, a rich spoilt brat again. But not gonna lie, he is handsome and hot and i have no issues regarding his acting. He very much looked the part and portrayed his character well, a flirtatious rebel young guy first time actually in love with a woman who likes someone else. He had different sides to him.. he was reckless and childish at times, but he was considerate, caring, gentle and responsible and a softie within. Welll i really don't watch idol dramas and i don't like them at all, so maybe this kind of character is not what i am used to, considering that i only watch historical and fantasy cdramas. But somehow i really liked almost everything of this one.
I liked the characters of both the leads. They had amazing chemistry. Logically, they were polar opposites and opposites attract. As appealing as ml was, the sml, the former boss and crush of the fl was a safer choice for her. They were on the same wavelength and at a similar place in life, mature and successful and VERY BORING , and courteous to each other. The  ml was a risky choice being young and all, but he brought out her suppressed youthful and carefree side. He was impulsive, little immature and maybe not that appropriate for her, but oh well, when has love ever known logic. But he was so warm and caring, and definitely not a cold prick. He could be said to be an adventurous choice for her. Yet they had a beautiful and healthy relationship. They both were so supportive of each other. Similarly, the sfl, childhood friend who likes the ml, is an equally childish, over energetic, annoying spoilt rich young girl in the same place in life as him with similar status. Ah and only if all mothers were like ml's mom!
The difference in the way fl interacted with the 2 of them was so clear. You would understand if u watch it. Though i couldn't help but swoon over how sweet and charming he was in his efforts to woo her. There was a lot of character growth for the fl and ml, they started developing what they lacked in themselves to become better.

Actually I think that this show overall was very realistic in depicting the life of 3 women- a regular young girl having her fairytale romance with her middle school one who got away sweetheart; a successful internet celebrity who seems to have a perfect life, who in fact is a mess and has a lot of baggage of marriage crisis, days of school life bullying, insecurity etc.; and one very successful white collar who seemingly has everything, but also lives a lonely life. I liked the friendship aspect too.
The sml and sfl complemented and balanced each other just like ml and fl so even if it looked impossible for them i shipped them.
There weren't any characters that i hated as such but I really didn't like that bitch Song Xue. i liked the interactions between the sml and sfl, they were hilarious. The 2nd couple was sooo sweet and cute. Jingjing and her husband were one complex couple.

The story was light with many comedic moments and it was a good watch. It lacked depth, yet was kinda about regular lives of people. It had so many funny scenes. The ml showed his emotions so easily which is rare in cdramas, so his reactions in 2 scenes were particularly priceless - when he got back his bike, when he thought jiangyue was pregnant. XD  Also the proposal plans were soooo beautiful. I loved the ending soooo much T_T

The osts were catchy and cute. I loved the jewellery jingjing and sfl used so much.

Alright i guess I am a little too emotionally invested in this series so im gonna stop here.

I recommend watching it, if nothing else it is pretty entertaining, sweet, fluffy, light, cute and very heart warming.

Read More

Sweet, fluffy romantic comedy

This is going to be a short review. It was super fun to watch it, no despicable villains, nothing utterly evil trying to destroy everything, storyline isn't very serious, rather pretty lightweight. There is a huge comedic relief to it that makes me laugh my lungs out twice almost every episode. The chemistry between the leads is cute, the story wasn't too fast or too slow, the romance development was well paced. And there is no super annoying character although not everyone was very good. The acting was good and enjoyable. There is only one thing that I don't understand, how did Liangye get released for his wedding. Otherwise I had a really good time watching it and i recommend watching it. And PEI XIUZHE WAS GAY, HE JUST DIDN'T KNOW IT.

Read More

You pay for every single laugh you had with your tears

A beautiful drama in every way. It is different from most other historical cdramas that i have watched in many aspects. Firstly, the story's main characters are people who despite being in high positions, have to constantly fight in the frontline, which is something rarely shown. So we see the entire drama from the point of view of a group of spies/soldiers and an extraordinary assassin, who are all mere servants to the higher powers, whose lives don't belong to themselves. It was a fresh take to watch a drama in which the topmost people aren't everything. The kings, princes and other sheltered people aren't the main characters, rather it is a story of how these lower level people have to sacrifice themselves to protect the bigger fishes and citizens in general.

Story and characters: As beautifully it is written is it executed, unlike most cdramas where either the story is trash or is its execution. The story builds up while holding all our feelings in a grip for the first few episodes. The pacing is perfect. It portrayed romantic love, familial affection, brotherhood and friendship in a wonderful way. Also, no character is pure black or white, they all have good and bad in them together, well except maybe the An king. Almost all of them show growth in some way too. The FL is a true badass strong female character worth everything, i didn't expect that Ruyi would steal my heart. She deserved every bit of the respect and love she got from all the characters, including the ml. Nobody was shallow enough to love her solely for her beauty, unlike in most cdramas. The ML is just as strong and endearing. Their feelings develop rather quick, and they stick through thick and thin together and both show growth in areas they lack, they come to trust, understand and rely on each other, make sacrifices and compromises for one another, empower and balance each other, aid and grow together. They are equal, and show mutual respect for each other and their choices and have clear communication the entire time. Both are in tune with each other in every way. They are a mature couple and it helped that they weren't playing teenage characters, rather people almost in their 30s. They were people who had gone through a lot already in their own lives and knew their possible fates. The other main characters Yuan Lu, Yu Shisan were particularly very adorable, Sun Lang had lesser scenes but just as likeable, Qian Zhao was a 2d character who had much growth and different sides to him. Yang Ying was a complicated character who perhaps had the greatest character growth, i grew to like her quite a bit. Li Tongguang was another complicated obsessed to borderline crazy one, he was the typical crazy 2ml, but he wasn't the smartest. He was actually awful and incompetent and i hate him for his decisions which grew more stupid one by one, which led to disasters. I felt so bad for Chu Yue as well, she was so likeable, yet her romance ended before it could even blossom. The wu emperor grew on me as well when he redeemed himself. As befitting as the ending was, it was simply tragic to the point of extremely depressing and those characters didn't deserve that especially when so many deaths could've been easily avoided if the writers wanted to. The series of tragedy began in ep 35 and spanned for 6 whole episodes till 40, there were a few sweet moments in ep 38 though. The pain hit like a truck for real. Those subtle scenes, those reminiscent moments by the characters, them knowingly jumping to their deaths, the realizations of what is going to happen was just so painful. Also, so many deaths could've been prevented, but well that wouldn't cause as much heartbreak then.
This drama made me grow to fall in love with the entire group, with countless hilarious moments, them being like a real family to each other to losing them one by one in a torturous series of 6 eps. And although they showed an open ending, i took it as the logical and rational sad ending as stipulated outwardly by the iqiyi page. So i cried more. But it depends on the viewer about how they want to interpret the ending. At least they are together somewhere.

Production- Cinematography, choreography, editing, soundtrack, costumes and styling and makeup, you name it. Everything was freaking top notch, perfection. I really have nothing to say about the acting of the main cast, they all did phenomenal job. It was LYN's first time being the main male lead and he aced his role. LSS was simply perfect. FYL did a great job with his micro expressions.

They wanted us to cry and they did exactly what was needed. Made us love all the characters then killed them off slowly, prolonging the torture. The heading of my review is what i felt the most watching this. I laughed in 30+ episodes and then spent the last 6 episodes crying, bawling my eyes out. Honestly i don't remember the last time i cried this much over a drama. Do i recommend watching it? Hell yes i do. But maybe stop at ep 34 midway. Else get ready with tissues, chances are your pillows can't soak up all the tears. -0.5 for all the heartbreak it caused me and to the characters who deserved better and an ending that could've been better than this.
This wasn't a drama about all the characters finding love on their way by the end of the show, rather one where no matter what the future held, everyone loved the journey to the end. A journey to be loved, rather than a journey towards finding love. That's how i interpret the title 'A Journey to Love'.

Read More

Unique theme with overused tropes

Story: This drama was very amusing and entertaining with a very rare theme for a historical cdrama, a single mother looking for her child's dad. However unique this plot is, the story used up all other available cdrama tropes- amnesia overuse, predictable evil masked man, love triangle, suitor turns evil, evil ex, predictable hidden characters,  etc. Nevertheless it was very entertaining. It made me laugh quite a lot and especially those animal sounds. The romance was cute for both the couples. The story was otherwise average. There was no laughable scene in the last 4 eps because that's where all the serious plot was concentrated in. Else all other eps gave a good laugh. And their wedding night was...... I'll leave that for you to judge.

Characters: The 2nd couple was just as funny as the main couple. Jin Liuli was my favourite, she was so funny. The FL was a strong, smart, loyal but funny character which is rare for a cdrama, and i liked that, but she looked hideous with the bangs, thank goodness that they removed them and after that she looked so pretty. The child was ultra annoying in the first 5 eps, but later on he became very funny and cute. All the main characters were comical. None of them were complex or deep. The main villain was predictable but the reason for him being so was so bland. But i must say that lover turned villain was deeper and more evil. And liu xueyi finally in a main role instead of a villain was the main reason i started watching it. I must say that i like him more in serious roles than in comical characters. Here i liked him more before he had amnesia. Well i like him either way.

Music and production: nothing special to mention about these, average but okay.

This was a good romcom with a little serious side plot. It was a feel good watch and never bored me, so I'd recommend watching it.

Read More

Binge worthy, bittersweet ending

Let's start with how funny this drama was for about the first 22 episodes until the serious plot came in. I kept laughing until my belly hurt at most of the scenes. The story was pretty good. Unlike most other dramas with evil elderly character supremacy, this one had very kind and loving elders, pitiful ones at that. About chemistry, the kiss scenes between the main leads lacked chemistry. THE FL COULD NOT KISS AT ALL. It didn't really evoke melancholy feelings in me maybe because it was meant to be a comedy, but i did feel pity in some scenes.

About the music, the opening song was so ridiculously catchy but hey i liked it after i got used to it because i don't understand chinese, so no hate please, i judge on the basis of music. The ending theme was so soothing and pleasant.

Now, spoiler alert: The younger brother was the sweetest character but somehow ended with the most pathetic fate that he didn't deserve at all. The villain was pretty damn pitiful and wasn't a complete evil character.

Overall: It is good for a one time watch, it's plot isn't crazy absurd or random, gives plenty of laughs, has a bittersweet ending. So I'd suggest watching it once.

Read More

Good drama, confusing ending with no closure.

For one, I sincerely hope that there's a season 2 for this drama else this really feels like an incomplete story.

Story: The story was good overall, the sub plots were nicely resolved. But I can't say the same about the main plot. (Read the ending of the review). Some questions that I still have is what happened to the real Feng Wu, did she actually die? if she really died, then after Feng Wu left, the person just disappears from that world? And also what happened to Mu Jiuzhou after he gave all his spirit energy to Jun Linyuan, did he become a normal human when he picked FL up in the end and what was his actual story, I'd really like to know more about him? Would've been better if we knew the actual origin of the fake Feng Wu.

Characters and acting: I'll start with the one that I loved most, Yu Mingye. He was an all round really tragic character, he saved the day more times than he was given credit for just because he wasn't the hero. He deserved a lot better than what he got and no character probably loved Feng Wu more than him. Then onto my next favorite, Mu Jiuzhou. Though he slept mostly, the times when he appeared were especially appealing to me, although I felt that his feelings were kinda ambiguous in everything..probably because even though he was an important character not much emphasis was given on him and his life or background. Feng Xun was a fun character. Zuo Qingluan was kinda dumb and she was evil only to Feng Wu out of her jealousy and greed. I hated that Holy Queen b more than anyone else. Jun Linyuan felt like an ordinary guy to me. And I really shipped Feng Wu with Yu Mingye more than him. I just couldn't see any chemistry between them, i don't know why.. probably I'm the only one with such opinion. Throughout I kept feeling that it was his one sided love for her and she doesn't care much about him. FL's acting was good for the most part but her expressions in her portrayal of love for ML was really bad, like there was no emotion. ML's acting was good as always and his expressions were never void. The characters were also mostly well written and well acted out.

Others: The music was really soothing and good. The sets and clothes were beautiful. Action scenes were good. The production was great overall.

Ending: Bad guys got what they had coming, secondary couple stayed together. I guess this was supposed to be an open ended drama from the final words of the FL so the 2nd season has slim chances although I do hope for one. A lot of questions were left unresolved for me but I had a good time watching it. A little more hint to the ending could've helped. I imagined what happened to the other characters by myself. Overall I liked it.
I'd recommend watching this if you have good creative imagination because you have to imagine the ending by yourself because there was zero closure.

Read More

Just another typical Cinderella story

I want to start off saying that this was a VERY pleasant and satisfying watch. I finished it in just 2 days, binged all the episodes at once. It was fast paced and easy to watch.

Warning: if you are looking for something that has much depth to it, deeper themes, relatable characters and makes you emotionally invested in it, sorry it's not for you, better move on. It is purely revenge, with lots of things constantly happening solely to harm the fl and ml, like a battlefield, with a side dish of romance. Also it is highly predictable so it won't keep you on your toes. It is entirely a simple, easy to watch modern day fairytale.
If all you want is a simple and satisfying fairytale story, don't mind cliches, with a lovely ml and strong fl, here you go.

About the story, it was a classic typical Cinderella story, with a prince charming, evil criminal stepmother and stepbrother, evil stupid stepsister, superior level trash ex boyfriend and his family. It was filled with the usual Cinderella story tropes, with a rebirth plot. At least here Cinderella wants revenge for being treated poorly, sorry murdered, unlike dear original Cinderella.
It had its fair share of twists to the real identities of the fls family, but most of them were very predictable, if you catch the subtle hints early on in the episodes. It was nothing mind blowing. But i liked the fl for being resolute and strong and not the typical spineless whiny weak pathetic little girl who swallows all that is thrown her way.
Best parts were the satisfying ends to ALL the villains, a beautiful happy ending to the main couple, absolutely no filler scenes, everything was resolved perfectly. And everyone absolutely got what they deserved, be it her ex husband or his brother.
The mls family was very nice, except his brother. And the ml, he was a green flag greener than spinach. There were no useless misunderstandings, jealousy, irritating love triangle, evil ex gf etc coming in the way of the main couple. His love for her ran deep and i liked their clear communication. They had healthy relationship. He wasn't the cold, immature, stoic, domineering, narcissistic, over possessive, jealous CEO, typical of kdramas. He was a mature and normal man, the star of the show.

P.s- in some scenes, the editing felt choppy and scenes felt too rushed. I think a lot of scenes had been cut down.

Overall i liked this one and had a good time binging it. It never felt draggy or annoying. It was my first time watching both the mains, and i liked the ml especially. I definitely recommend watching it.

Read More

We just can't change fate, can we?

I never watch youth dramas because most of them are about poor girl and rich, stupid and arrogant ml who have a toxic relationship. But this is a far cry from that. Time travel sci fi dramas are mostly good, but this had a really very touching plot that keeps tugging at your heartstrings.
Never imagined that this alternate universe drama had a majority part about coming of age and youth, and it was so wonderfully done. Youth never felt so sweet in a cdrama.
The support characters, the side couples, were all so nice. The ml was a gem of a character. He surely is in my top 3 mls in modern cdramas. He was strong but not arrogant, shy but not distant, quiet but not non communicative and had his own charm and attraction without being the most handsome in the room, such amazing was his character. The love ml had for the fl was just so pure and true and selfless, she cared so deeply for him and didn't realise her own love for him until late. They had a healthy and beautiful relationship which didn't deserve to end in a tragedy. Only a first love that pure can last in the long run.
The series of heartbreaks begins after ep 15 until which it was all rainbows and unicorns, though there was no explicit heavy romantic scenes, but subtly sweet enough to bring a big smile on our faces. The monologues of the fl after she returned, her mad search for him, her reminiscence and all her emotions, his innumerable sacrifices, the pain he suffered, their past that she didn't know of, was so touching, heartbreaking. I laughed with them, i cried an ocean for them. It was an actual rollercoaster of emotions and the ride was ultra wild. It was just so painfully beautiful. I wish they had more time, and in the present day he really came back somehow and it was not her imagination. I am thoroughly convinced that they are a pair of star crossed lovers, soulmates that aren't meant to be, yet who can never love someone again with the same intensity that they loved each other.
I want someone to love me like Zhang Wansen loved Beixing. My interpretation of the story is that she time travelled to a different alternate universe every time, and in each of them, he loved her just the same, while the other events happened differently, so here lies the concept of multiverse. "No matter how time changes, i will always like you".
The main leads had beautiful chemistry and their acting was on point, realistic enough to make us feel whatever they felt. In fact i liked all the cast. Maizi was a character that grew on me, just like Gao Ge.
This show touches beautifully on the themes of friendship, family, coming of age, and most importantly unconditional and unending love.
The cinematography, editing, overall production is also great. The osts were very fitting with the story.
I'd definitely recommend watching this if you're looking for something that makes you feel everything and aren't afraid of sad endings. I will wait impatiently for the movie sequel to this because that open ending was far from enough to satisfy my buckets of tears.

Read More

Bride swap- princess and street performer? Hmm sounds interesting.

Started off very well, then started becoming pretty ordinary and maintained that.

Plot and characters: The first few eps were interesting, explained the base of the story, gave good laugh at times but that was soon gone.
Felt boring and draggy at times. Didn't really need 30 eps, could've done in 24.
There was no chemistry. But i understand why they started to like each other. The ML's split identity was the FL's idol, the fl was really kind to the ml. The sfl was pretty, good natured and wise, the sml was honest, good and dedicated to the sfl.
I liked the SFL more than the FL. She was actually calm, smart and not a bitchy princess, rather a good person.
I felt the FL to be annoying. She was supposed to be strong but in fights she is a useless burden to the ml. She is too noisy, super dumb and being a street person she has no complexity in her character. Her character is pretty flat and simple.
And that SFL's maid. Ugh. Like you don't even know where your mistress is but clearly know that she wanted to run away. Why bother trying to separate the ml and fl?
The ML is like really handsome but his acting isn't too good, just average.
The SML is pretty damn cute, he is a good guy in a bad place. I liked his dedication to the sfl.
What's up with the ML's dad? Why so violent and horrible? Ugh.
Nan Batian was a freaking pedophile and a vile and disgusting character. Eww.
What kept me going is the plot. I wanted to know what exactly was up with Situ Lin, the ML's mother mystery and how the 2nd couple will stay together. The plot was itself engaging but had too many unnecessary expansions. The worst part is that there is no character growth in any of them.

Music and production: production was okay, nothing amazing about it. The music was very good, i liked it a lot.

Okay for a one time watch, with going easy on the 2x button for people who got high standards for a drama.
If you're new to it, sure go ahead, you'll enjoy it.

Read More

Modern day fairy tale

Ok so firstly I'd say that if you're watching it on WeTV, don't go by the drama's information, it's totally misleading. The FL doesn't suffer from a broken love and technically she is not exactly unemployed.
The story is well paced, well written with no visible plotholes. There are no super evil characters and most of them are pretty likeable. There's also the steamy romance between our main leads.
Then there's Zhao Lusi's charming acting and the ML's mature acting. Despite their age gap they were a great couple. None of the characters were unreasonable or toxic. Misunderstandings were cleared up pretty quick. The main couple didn't have any unnecessary issues and none of them was over possessive or controlling. The FL was childish and kind of immature, but understanding and kind. The ML was mature and wise and very considerate. But my favorite character has to be FL's uncle lol he was so fun. Her best friend was also so funny.
One plot twist that I didn't really expect was the ML's brother.
Overall this was one great watch. I really liked it. Would recommend watching it.

Read More

Love a toxic popular male lead? Here you go.

This is my first review but definitely not the first C drama that I watched and I've honestly seen better.

Story and main characters: firstly I'd like to say that this is not a sweet or fluffy drama. Although there are no heavy themes, but the sweetness is overshadowed by the toxic character of the ML. There are some major plotholes like how did she magically get so good in studies despite not studying, her sleepwalking issues, and above all why she chose to believe a mere voice recording and all that. The ML was controlling and over possessive and i don't like that but he was protective so that's a plus i guess. But he is too immature and childish. There's the love polygon cliche and honestly i like the other admirers more. There's obviously the evil chick squad cliche too and they are loathsome. Also the FL is dumb and very easy to manipulate and too emotional.
Also i saw a lot of reviews regarding incest. Well the girl was adopted when both the kids were pretty grown up and and childhood friends. Also, even in childhood the boy liked her (it was shown in a flashback scene for those who didn't notice it). So i wouldn't really say it's incest. Adoption was more like bringing her up after she lost her memory than passing her as their own daughter.

Acting: The ML' acting improved a lot towards the end (or maybe that's how it was supposed to be with his expressions), so i will say it was okay although his character isn't at all attractive. The FL sometimes tries to be too cute and it's annoying. Her acting felt more natural towards the end too. Mr Ouyang played the heartbroken and helpless guilty lover very well. Le Diyin's acting was beautiful. Qin Yao's regretfulness was visible.

Other characters: So Le Diyin is my most favorite. He is super sweet and i felt that he really loved the FL. Ouyang Yu (he deserved a lot better but was a little too emotional) and Qin Yao were also good. I also felt that Ouyang Yu was much better suited to the FL than the real ML (i personally think how could the FL fall for him when there were better people around, unless she was masochistic?). I didn't like the ML at all until towards the end. Liu Zihui was cool. Ouyang Qingxue was disgusting throughout. The parents of ML were so loving (and especially when the mother walked in on them cracked me up).

So i guess that's pretty long review but that sums it all up. I stuck around till the end mainly because i wanted to know what would happen to the side characters, because the story of the main character was pretty unrealistic to begin with. I watched it once but I'd never rewatch it. There's loads of better high school dramas out there.

Read More

Who came first- the hen or the egg?

Let me start off by saying that i had put this drama on hold at ep 8. I was so mad at the screenwriter because the novel is one of my favorites because of how simple and enjoyable it was and they made a mess out of it here. The drama starts off slow and pretty annoying too. But, after finishing the full drama, i have to say it, they did a commendable job at modifying the novel. It gets better slowly as the conspiracy unfolds and everything happening also rounds up in the end. So here i will give some comparisons of the drama and novel and my own views on the drama.

Characters and Story: the original novel was rather simple. Xiao Xiangzi was a simple cloud, not an empress of heaven who was wronged and killed in her previous life, Chu Kong was a celestial star, not a god of war or heavenly prince. They crossed each other and as petty people they fought with each other and got punished by the emperor into undergoing 7 lives of love tribulation as punishment. The villain was Jin Lian, a dark practitioner and former master of Chu Kong, not a loyal subordinate of the empress in pursuit of justice for his clan and his queen, who killed his sister Jin Luo, while trying to take away her lover Zihui's stone heart to increase his powers. There weren't anymore significant characters in the novel.
Onto the drama, Prince Xiuming is one character that i grew to love even though initially i disliked him. He is our classic 2ml, in love with our fl, ready to do everything for her, and could've been made into a villain very easily, but he wasn't thankfully. Jin Lian unlike in the novel, wasn't villain here although he seems to be one at the start. Jin Luo and Zihui's story was totally different here, and both of them can be said to be good characters here. Luckily they got an open happy ending too unlike in the novel where Jin Luo slowly faded into the void after Zihui died and forgot her after his rebirth. Now, the cliche plot of evil heavenly emperor also applies here, the brother of Chu Kong, Hao Xuan is the supreme villain, except he didn't fit the every villain has his own sad story category. He was simply evil, jealous and greedy.

So why did i put the drama on hold? In the novel, the first life was about Lu Changkong and Song Xiangyun, a particularly touching arc. However, they messed it up real bad and threw in a love triangle and made it into a cliche political drama story. Not only that, this life was made the 2nd life in the drama. The first life in the drama was them in animal forms which was the 3rd life in the novel during which they started uncovering the conspiracy of Jin Lian. This was enough for me to give up. Later i restarted it again. But in the drama, it felt like these small mortal life arcs weren't given much importance. They were simply tools to make the adaptation. So these mortal arcs lacked depth to me. In the drama, the 3rd life brought out something good which was the brotherhood between Zihui and Jin Lian. The next life was another insignificant one in which they swapped bodies but found a clue to the existence of a darker conspiracy. After finishing it i realized that much more focus was placed on giving each and every character a back story, the past life of the main leads and the great conspiracy and uncovering it. This way, a rather simple novel was made into something deeper and more complicated story. Initially it seems that the story and plot is all over the place but this one has to be one of the most tied up plots. It barely left any loose ends since every piece falls back right into place by the last episode. Yet something it failed to do in the whole process of complicating the storyline is capturing my emotions. Too much happened in too little time, everything made sense, but somehow failed to bring out my feelings.

If so, why such a title to my review? Their love transcends time and space. The screenwriter managed to put in a time travel arc as the 5th life where the main leads go back 30000 years ago to investigate the truth and XXZ is born as Cang Hai, her past life. So my question lies in the fact about who fell in love first and why- was it Chu Kong with Xiao Xiangzi in present time while undergoing the tribulations, or was it Cang Hai and Chu Kong 30000 years ago which was XXZ and CK after time travelling and forgetting their own identities, but the red thread still tying them? So that's a question i can never answer. Well even XXZ failed to find an answer to it.

The tiny details were paid pretty good attention to. The hairpin, the pig and tiger, cloud reference, the same parents in every life who were once matched by XXZ, were subtle details.

The best part is the happy ending for everyone. For the main leads, it was an unsatisfactory last minute ending but clearly it was happy since he didn't forget her.

Friendship, teamwork, partnership and open communication was the best aspect of the relationship between the main leads, something which is never seen in xianxia dramas. That made their devotion and sincere love for each other even more precious. They were really one in mind and heart, not just in terms of love.

Production and Casting: I have seem YCY in many dramas and must say that she has improved greatly. Although the first few episodes was a bit difficult to watch and part of it was because of her acting, as it progressed, it became way better. In the 2nd life arc her acting and makeup was particularly unbearable. But anywhere before and after that, she did it very very well. It was my 2nd time watching Ryan Ding after the romance of tiger and rose, and he did his job well. Their chemistry felt natural. The actor playing Jin lian was too good, he had 3 roles which were totally different from each other and he nailed them. The actors playing Zihui and Xiuming were great in their part. Edward Zhang as usual played the villain well, the calm and collected backstabbing hypocritical evil guy.
Same color pallettes were used for every character, like CH had shades of red, XXZ had whites and purples everytime, XM had whites and greens, CK had blues, HX had goldens, ZH had violets. The cgi looked pretty too, but sometimes not quite convincing but it was okay, nothing to complain about. Now about music, the osts had really beautiful and touching lyrics, not just poetic, but simple and meaningful, as i conceived from their english translations.

I would definitely suggest watching this one. If i ever get time again, i might come back to rewatch it again.

Read More