Guilty pleasure.

Eventhough I didn't give this drama a very good rating, I have to admit that I quite enjoyed it. The story was interesting to watch as it took a lot of unexpected turns (maybe even too many). The leads' acting was very good; they both have comedic talent. Overall, there were a lot of cute and funny moments.

Still, the drama has a lot of significant flaws in my opinion. The story started out very light-heartedly but got rather twisted in the last 6 episodes. From that point on, I also noticed quite some minor and major plot-holes (especially concerning the ending which was still satisfying to watch, though).

From episode 18 on, the leads got in a lot of quarrels for no reason. In general, they didn't seem to be in a healthy relationship for the most part of the drama which was quite frustrating to watch and at one point even made me question whether or not it was appropriate to ship them.
Also, I quite liked Chu Chu in the beginning because she seemed like a strong character but she sank into self-pity and became more and more shallow as the story progressed. On the contrary, I was positively suprised by Pei Heng's and Lin Qi's character development. I would even go as far as to say that those to ended up being my favorites in the whole drama.
Another thing I noticed was that there were three supporting characters in the drama whose only purpose was to provide comic relief. Generally, I'm not a opposed to some dorking around in a fantasy rom-com which doesn't try to be historically accurate whatsoever but three characters is just... a lot. For me it felt like the overuse of comic relief didn't leave enough room for the more serious scenes to really have an impact.

In summary, the drama is ideal if you're searching for a cute, entertaining and slightly over-the-top fantasy rom-com but not the right thing if you expect a well thought-out story with three-dimensional characters.

Read More

Great leading actors, lame writing.

It's weird because I really enjoyed Wei Young which is, if I'm not mistaken, from the same writer as The Song of Glory but this one's a huge disappointment for me.

The leads' acting and chemistry were very good but right from the start, I felt like the plot was kind of slow and repetitive. After 33 episodes, none of that really changed. They used the same clichés over and over again. There was no main conflict constantly building up. Instead, I found myself in an endless cycle of two-dimensional bad people being bad, the leads being poisoned or fake-poisoned in every other episode, *spoiler alert* rising from the dead and back to beating bad people's asses. Oh, there's also bad people rising from the dead, at least once. No suspense whatsoever. I was so sick of all the faked deaths that I just wanted everyone to die in the end. Except Jing Ling, maybe. Poor boy was mistreated as a side-kick all this time. The amount of times he saved everyone's asses was ridiculous.

I rarely watch 50+ episodes C-dramas, but when I invest so much time, I need to be captivated by the story throughout the whole thing and that was just not the case here. I'd not completely advise you against watching this, just know that it's gonna be a long ride with a lot of tropes.

Read More

Loved it!

Wei Young was my first historical C-drama and the longest drama I watched at the time. I took a break from it at about episode 30 because my studies kept me busy but besides that, I binge-watched through it. I especially enjoyed the first half of the drama because I was immediately captivated by the 'hidden identity/revenge' kind of plot.

Despite the number of episodes, the drama didn't feel slow because Wei Young was a clever female lead who quickly saw through the antagonists' intrigues and took interesting actions. I think, what kept her from being an overpowered character was the one dilemma she couldn't resolve (I'm not going to go more into detail in order to avoid spoilers). As she already started out as a smart, competent character, there wasn't much room for "character development" but I didn't have a problem with that. I personally prefer a female lead who's badass from the beginning over a FL who's forced to act like an idiot for the first 20 episodes, just for the sake of character development. You could say that instead from within, Wei Young's character development could rather be found in the different social ranks she took throughout the drama, so it was still interesting to watch her growth and she definitely becomes even more of a badass in the end.

I really liked the male antagonists because they weren't purely evil; their actions were (at least to some extent) understandable. On the other hand, the female antagonists were quite bland and clichéd, their only motive being jealousy. But this is more or less the only thing I didn't like about this drama.

Overall, I dearly recommend this drama to anyone who wants to get into historical C-dramas or who's already familiar with them.

Read More