The Rise of Phoenixes (2018)

A drama that tears us apart

This drama is one of the few that touched me so much. The acting is incredible, Chen Kun often gave me chills in some scenes. Ni Ni is touching, and her character is strong, intelligent and resourceful. This drama is not soft on the audience, it surprises us, it is violent. The evolution of the characters is gradual until the hatred, and I find that it changes the usual dramas.

It was not predictable nor justified to put a happy ending. I am very satisfied (although very sad) with the turn of events.
No, I didn't find the ending as crap as other may say. I totally saw this coming, the whole story evolve in this direction. It is a tragic drama which stages a series of events one after the other that the heroes (and the spectators) undergo.

There were few love scenes between the MLs, but their rarity makes their beauty. The OST is magnificent, is raises well the heavy atmosphere of certain scenes, the tension in others.

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The Rise of Phoenixes has an intriguing plot and an excellent cast. After watching a few epic dramas produced recently in China, I am beginning to feel that the endings often take on a Japanese style - always sad or tragic. I am starting to associate Chinese dramas with depressive endings. This story could have ended with the hero marrying his love, but the script writer/director chose not to. The overall setting is a little towards the old school of Chinese dramas.

I always suspect that dramas reflect the prevailing sentiments of a country. There is always this pessimistic view that nothing ends in perfection and there is no fairy tale with the ending 'they live happily ever after'. Japanese lived through the tragedy of the atomic bomb and WWII, while the Chinese lived through a century of political upheaval and hardship. Perhaps unhappy endings in romance are common in real life but most people move on after a setback, and we watch dramas for entertainment. A sad ending leaves a bad taste, otherwise I would have given it a overall 10 rating.

The theme songs did not impress initially but I grew to like them. There were little background music in most part of the drama, unlike Ashes of Love which was heavily dramatized by background music. I got to like Chen Kun as the story develops - initially I thought his acting was too pretentious to convince his opponents.

The were some small details which made it laughable. When asked for a token of verification, Zhiwei gave Ningyi a bracelet which she said was given to her when she moved into the Qiu's residence - she was a little girl then, but the bracelet was huge - should have used a pendant.

If I ever edit this story, I would opt for the heroine leaving with Helian and her former dynasty followers, and Ningyi eventually marrying someone deserving to be his empress and without the emotional baggage, for example, Yao's daughter who seems to be a bright and morally upright girl from one of the episodes. Especially since his father is still alive, he could have chosen someone for him. They could then both lead happy separate lives but every now and then, they would retrieve a gift from the other and think of each other, and their spouses would watch on tolerantly but a little unhappily. They could send gifts and congratulatory notes when they each produce an heir to the throne. To have Zhiwei committing suicide was ridiculous as she had so much fighting spirit in her - completely inconsistent with her character.

Chinese dramas like to propagate the belief that people at the top (emperor) lead lonely lives, which is not always true. The emperor made his life into a lonely one.

Chinese dramas really need to work on stronger endings (the Chinese saying: a tiger's head but a snake's tail). Of course, they are still better than many American TV series which do not seem to have proper endings - they just end when the viewership decline. On this note, Chinese dramas are doing much better.

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If you want a straight forward romance with easy to understand uncomplicated leads, this is not the show for you. As happens in real life the leads were flawed humans who have motivations that sometimes conflicts with one another and who don't always understand their own feelings as soon as the audience does. This is not a smooth tale. People are not perfect.

I adored this show. It was gorgeous... sets, costumes, hair... all better than any other Chinese or Korean "historical" I've seen. Just absolutely stunning to watch. Chen Kun was brilliant, he was often "hammy" because his character is acting throughout big sections of the drama. He's not a man who shares his true self easily. NiNi was a perfect foil for him.

There was minimal dubbing in the drama which makes a massive difference to me. Voices had volume levels, whispers were actually whispers and not absurd stage "whispers". Children sounded like children. Women didn't sound like five year olds on a helium binge. I cannot for the life of me understand why dubbing is a thing anywhere outside of necessary production 'fixes' and if you're going to insist on dubbing so much why can't you do it in a reasonable natural manner? Ugh, anyway... minimal dubbing thank goodness.

I seriously wish there were more dramas of this caliber.

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Watched on Netflix by chance. Visually compelling LONG story of power, justice, and love that can never fulfill.
Story: timeless and ever told saga of power for the BIG chair - no man, woman or child or LOVE will hinder that drive. Costuming & scenes were amazing and vivid.
Actors: the main leads had sizzling chemistry (wishing for a fulfillment) with all the actors cast perfectly for their roles - each and everyone. The emperor was one of my most favorite characters. Love mature actors!
Music: fit the mood and time and not overbearing.
Summary: was this perfect drama? No, it sagged in some spots, technically jumpy, storytelling seemed overly convoluted - confusing at times. YET, the main actor -KC introduction into the drama portrayed a deeply complex and tormented man in search. Thus I was hooked. This is a long drama, and well worth the time . "With smart people, you must be strategic." This drama was one heck of a go - chess game.

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I can’t do it.

This a second attempt at watching this series and I’m tapping out at episode 30 because I couldn’t for one more second stomach the asinine character that was Zhi Wei. She is one of the most idiotic characters I’ve ever seen in a C drama. So many people died because she just wouldn’t stop snooping around places that were better left to more intelligent people. Is the plot compelling? Absolutely. However, it moved at the most glacial pace with scenes that should have been left on the editing room floor.

Political intrigue and revenge tropes are my favorite genres, but the pacing in Rise of the Phoenixes was a letdown. Separately, I dreaded seeing the actor playing our anti-hero, Ning Yi. Whether it’s because of his pock-marked face or his smoker’s lips or the atrocious foundation used by the makeup artist. Whichever one, I simply couldn’t take his acting seriously.

Obviously, there are many who absolutely loved it so I’m definitely an outlier.

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Palace-drama done right, beautiful and well acted

First of all, this drama looks amazing. The sets, the costumes and the acting are awesome. There is no evil psycho-jealous-type character in 70 episodes and that is really rare for a palace-drama which has quite a focus on romance. This drama will have a special place in my heart because it jump-started my interest in Chinese dramas.

Story
It starts phenomenal as the storyline gets unravelled and you get sucked into the story. The characters are very interesting, especially the 6th prince Ning Yi. The scheming and the intrigues in the palace are very entertaining because of Ning Yi who adjusts to the situation at hand and controls how people see him and the emperor who is not an idiot (which is very rare in my opinion lol).
The ending was not bad, but I guess after all the episodes I just started to expect way too much.

Acting/Cast
The cast did an amazing job, especially Chen Kun as Ning Yi (6th prince) and Ni Da Hong as Ning Shi Zhen (emperor). I loved their interactions with each other the most. The rest of the cast also did an amazing job, but these 2 just stood out for me.

Music
I personally don’t pay much attention to music/OST so I can’t really judge but I certainly can’t complain about it.

Rewatch Value
I don’t really rewatch dramas. But looking at 70 episodes à 45 min, the drama being an eye candy and the amazing acting, I guess it’s worth a rewatch because you will probably miss a few things and you get to enjoy a fantastic show.

Overall
This drama has sweet and mature romance, cross-dressing, hidden identity, revenge plot, power struggle and palace/political intrigue. For me its basically a palace drama done right without the annoying psycho-jealous-evil-mastermind-character and the female-lead character being thrown into the cold-palace/hard-labour-department because of a misunderstanding.
I would suggest to at least watch the first few episodes to get a feeling for the drama and of course to be amazed by the costumes and the acting.

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Firstly the cons. I was at first put off by the fact that it was 70 episodes, I wouldn't have tried to watch it if I wasn't trying to get over a drama I just finished watching. Secondly I didn't like some of ning yi's expressions especially when he is trying to fake sadness it feels so fake,too fake, probably it's the plot but I didn't feel it at all. Now for the prosssss????. I WAS HOOKED FROM THE START!!!. The story flowed smoothly, The romance was gradually built, The timing for each event was right, it brought out various moods, anger, sadness, tears of joy and sadness, heartache. It was beautiful. The scenes were also beautifully timed. I wasn't sad that I watched it. Even tho I wished it ended differently but I understood why it had to happen that way so I had some sort-of peace with it tho I still wish. I really recommend it especially if you have the time because it's not a drama you can really fast forward or skip some episodes.

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Great Acting, Great Politics!

Highly recommended series for those looking for great acting and politics scheme. Not as dry as Three kingdom series, there's still "love" story in this series. There's some flaws, especially on the last 10 episode, like rushing to end the series.
When Ning Qi want to take the throne, there's a lot of chance for him to just kill everyone, why everyone just stand there and wait for the opponent to talk and walk? it just doesn't make sense.

I love how all of them having those poker face, especially Ning Yi who can act pitiful while actually he's pretending, it's just hilarious seeing he act dumb and crying while actually he is scheming behind. Their poker face always amaze me

I don't really like Feng Zhi Wei character. This Zhi Wei character, she's just busy body "smart" but not that "smart" lady who just can't make up her mind. If she can just decide to stay with Ning Yi, not giving hope here and there so other guy swaying plus not busy body want to save princess shao ning, want to know why people in the academy so skillfull, etc, all the troubles will not be there. Too emotional for that so call "smart" title. But only blinded by emotion for the mother and people that she barely know, like her brother who just show up. She just can forget all the things Ning Yi has done for her, while actually all the troubles are she bring into herself.
And I wonder why there's so many men want to protect her haha...

Overall the series is good, supported with very good acting from all the actor and actress.

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This is the best historical drama I've ever watched. why did I say this is the best? one word, this drama is different from other dramas, it has a very high quality scene. Unlike other dramas that seem low quality, this drama is presented as if you watch a movie in every episode. because they pay extra attention to every detail. I like all aspects of this drama, everything is so beautiful, especially the shooting of this drama. the interior of the palace is very beautiful, until the corner of the palace is very detailed as well. building interior materials look very sturdy. the way they take pictures is also not boring. and another thing that I really like, the actors/actresses are very professional in playing every role. each cast explores their character clearly. so that the audience can enter into their respective characters, their acting is so natural in many scenes. Neither their conversations nor their body language are inserted in every episode that I did not expect to appear, so it's not just big scenes that are included in the drama, but also small and light scenes that are refreshing. and the last thing I like is, a realistic and unpredictable story plot (not excessive and not too flat), Royal and political intrigue exists, but there is also a romance. all packaged into one package that is very fitting and perfect (in my eyes) and I have never seen in other historical drama. Pls make this kind of high quality historical drama again >.<

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The Best Drama Ever!

This is my #1 favorite Drama! Yes it is lengthy but it is so very good! Ni Ni and Aloys Chen (Chen Kun) instantly became my favorite actress and actor. Believe it or not I have watched this more than once. Tiny spoiler alert.........I'm telling you now if you are a must have a happy ending kinda person, this is not for you. If you like omg what the heck just happened kind of endings this one is definitely the one! This entire series had me on my toes. I literally lost hours and hours of sleep. I even went to work a couple of times with no sleep at all. I have never done that before or since. The entire cast were phenomenal! The writers, producers, designers, make up artists, camera and set crew, the entire team did an amazing job with this one. I'm sure I will watch it several more times. There are only two other Dramas that I have watched more than once and now this is the 3rd. <3

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If you want to watch a fight for power with tints of romance mixed within, this is the shit. The summary isn't suited btw. This is mainly about Ning Yi's battle against his royal family.

Lots of people have a problem with the pacing, but I don't find anything wrong with it at all. Every character is introduced properly and every plan/ruse is explained thoroughly, and the main story directly starts at ep 1.
I see ppl say that you need a bit of brain with this story. Common sense you mean.
Yes, the wording the characters use is difficult, but guys we have English subtitles come on.

The plot is entertaining and not draggy at all. A power fight between princes with lots of conspiracies. I don't mind slow/too little romance. This is indeed about the relationship between Ning Yi and WeiZhi, but there is much more between them than only romance. I also can't stand too much sugar so thank god.
I guess too many people are used to dog blood shit 24/7, aka that either someone dies or some love affair happens every chapter. Well excuse you because this is some mature and realistic shit. Not saying that those dog blood stuff are bad, but don't rate this bad because you don't like these types of serious stories. It's like talking bad about a romance story while not liking romance.

The plot starts great, gets better in the middle but towards the end it declines. At the beginning you mainly see Ning Yi succeeding, and just as I was so done with the MC-only-wins stuff, he finally encountered trouble which made everything more exciting. But as the ending neared, I could feel that characters without proper backgrounds were added just to fulfil certain events of the story, and that events happened for literally no reason at all (aka the ending) just because the scriptwriter wanted it to end that way. But thank god all this rush only happened at the end.


There are many good written characters, with proper background and development. Especially Ning Yi, who's a multilayered anti-hero, who accepts and respects the FL's decisions instead of planning out her life for her.
But some characters annoyed tf out of me. Do guys like girls (aka Shaoning and Si Yanle or smthn) who are stupid and ask for trouble all the time, and thinks that everybody should listen to them? Cuz if that's the case I can at least understand.
Another down point was ZhiWei's character. She's like book-smart but not practise-smart, which rly annoyed me bc like choose a side, u stupid or not? Her storyline had 0 contribution to the powerplay in the beginning, which is why it bored me. But that's just my personal preference. She did develop a bit in the practise-smart area, but that still couldn't save my annoyance.


The acting is so on point. I can't talk enough about Chen Kun's acting. Apparently people find his acting overdone in the beginning. IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE OVERDONE BC NING YI IS ACTING LIKE THAT IN FRONT OF HIS BROTHERS ON PURPOSE FOR FUCKS SAKE.
As said before, Ning Yi is ultra multi-layered, and Chen Kun is able to act out all those layers while making sure that he is still playing ONE character (with that I mean that he doesn't act every layer individually as if he's acting lots of characters). Ning Yi's fake crying is funny af, while his true crying looks so real it makes your heart ache.
Chen Kun's acting in this drama is phenomenal, especially towards the end when Ning Yi let out all his emotions.

Other major character's actors are on point too. Ni Ni's WeiZhi looks real. You know someone is good when they can repeatedly cry and make it look real (cuz crying seems rly difficult in the industry cough cough).
Also I never knew Bai Jingting could act so well.
HOWEVER some actors weren't good at al. I hate it when producers (aka all producers) don't make an effort to regulate the acting of small side characters.

I have nothing to say about the music. It wasn't bad, wasn't ear-catching either. It suited and supported the story normally when it could.

9.5/10.
Would've been a 10 if WeiZhi's character didn't bore/annoy me in the beginning and if the ending wasn't rushed.

To conclude I love the tenth prince.

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