What is love?

Cheeky, mischievous and lovable Zhao Lusi pulls it off again and is in her element when these traits are required of her character. She plays a very believable 15 year old who is figuring out what love is - be it family love or romantic love.

The cinematography was superb and had those panning scenes which I enjoyed in A Dream of Splendor. Scenery was gorgeous and sets were very realistic. Casting for the extras was very well done and it was so good to see the black guards looking especially tough and rugged unlike some dramas where the guards looked like school boys.

The character growth for the FL was good and it was refreshing to see her figure out what love and marriage is. Her interactions with the 3 different love interests was nicely done. #1 annoyed her every time they met, #2 spoiled her with food and catered to her every whim and #3 sparked the embers of love every time he saved her.

Unfortunately, while I loved the FL, I would have preferred a different ML. Just personal preference on what I would consider handsome. His posture didn’t sit well with me either but other than that he was a good actor who rode the horse very well and had great fighting scenes.

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Part cute part dramatic

This was a typical all-in-one romcom that unfortunately didn’t just give us cute and fluffy but also added in heavy drama and the usual amnesia and linked childhood tropes as well.

The cute parts were what I enjoyed most and seeing the FL as a fangirl made me smile. Her romance with the ML was more mature than most romcoms although there was some misunderstandings in the beginning to build a little bit of tension. Kissing was passionate and even led to the bedroom with sweet morning after scenes.

I would have been happier without all the darker elements in this story as I was in the mood for something light and fluffy. After having watched my fair share of modern Korean dramas, it is getting hard to find one that surprises me in a nice way. This drama used common elements to spice it up and I could predict what was coming next quite easily. A better watch if you’re new to Korean drama.

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Sad Slice of Life

If you’ve lost someone to cancer…
If someone dear to you is living with cancer…
This drama will be that much more painful to watch.

The friendship dynamics of the 3 friends were reminiscent of Sex in the City especially the way they had each other’s back and their honesty with each other. All 3 FLs excelled in displaying a myriad of emotions and expressions and while this drama focused on one of the FLs more than the other two, it didn’t detract from me being immersed in the way they lived their lives. The MLs had a tough act to follow and some of the couple moments lacked chemistry.

The drama was on the way to being great but unfortunately decided to overuse some typical drama tricks. A few coincidences that makes sense is ok but one that stuck out like a sore thumb was the doctor ML being friends with the other 2 MLs even though he grew up overseas. And these 3 MLs pair up nicely with the 3 FLs…

I was also annoyed at one scene which juxtapositioned one character suffering in pain while another character was enjoying a romantic moment.

Less is clearly more in this case. As it stands, this drama stopped short of being great and just settled at being good.

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“And further longing offered no respite…”

With these words uttered during the opening scene of the first episode, the wuxia seemed set to weave a heart wrenching tale. After the various twists and turns, the last episode ended with the same melancholic tone pulling me towards Part 2 in hopes of finding a happily every after ending.

After having been blown away by Ten Miles of Peach Blossom, I can’t help but compare and wonder if I was overly generous with that drama’s rating because I was a newbie to wuxia back then.

Although this story had the usual jealousy and misunderstandings, it also had some unique elements and this drama was pretty decent overall. I loved the imagination of how the different realms looked along with the gorgeous costumes and headpieces. What it fell short of was logic (when someone is falling down, the clothes should flow upwards) and some messy wire work with landings and lift offs of the respective characters.

Kudos to the actress who played one of the villains. It is to her credit that I despised her and constantly wished she would get killed off. While the FL’s chirpy character reminded me of her other work in Ashes of Love, I am glad she showed better depth of love and sadness here. The ML as a deity was very similar to his other cool and serious self in Love and Redemption so it was good to see him be more expressive when he was a human in the Mortal Realm.

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What is going on??

I thought these type of totally senseless dramas only happened in the past and on less prominent platforms.

Episode 1 started off very shaky but I persevered thinking the story might improve but it becomes more and more absurd as I reached Episode 3. The ministers are behaving like children demanding for the execution of the FL just because their daughters’ faces were injured using water from the the FL’s basin. (The basins of water was by the palace servants and each maiden had their own basin of water but a funny wind blew leaves into the other basins and only the FL’s water basin was unaffected and she kindly offered the other maidens the use of her water) Even common sense dictates an investigation but nope, this drama paints the ministers as imbeciles who need immediate action without any concrete proof.

This requirement for the maidens to wash their faces in the courtyard just before meeting the Prince in itself is very odd as I have never seen this in any other drama. Not to mention that the Prince is old around 50 and looking for a concubine just because he cannot forget his wife who died 30 years ago after giving birth to his heir. He didn’t look for a concubine earlier? Then where did his younger sons come from? Another possible plot loophole as it looks like he has remained single after the death of his wife… if this doesn’t get explained, it will be totally ridiculous.

Can it get better? I’ll try it out for a bit longer… one good thing about this drama is I am not sleeping late as I have no desire to binge watch!

Update: For the next episodes, the story moved on to the harem and becomes the typical so-so drama with lots of back stabbing and plotting. Thankfully not as senseless as Episode 2 & 3, but the story is choppy and I am not feeling it with the ML, FL or SML even after 5 more episodes so it’s time to drop it.

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