Li Chengyin is the character I’ve always wanted to see. He is a complex character living in a treacherous world. He has to use his cunning every single moment of every single day just to stay alive. Every mistake that made him appear soft brought danger to his doorstep, so can you blame him for the person he’s become? He’s so clever in the face of his enemies, but that becomes his downfall in the face of love. You love him and then you hate him and then you love him all over again.
Qu Xiaofeng is such a charming girl. She defies norms in costume/historical dramas wherein she IS the politically-favored wife, she doesn’t have to fight her way to the top of the harem, she has almost no trouble getting along with anyone in the palace, yet she’s put in this lonely predicament because of the narrative Li Chengyin fabricates in his best attempt to protect her. He tries so hard to protect her from everyone that he forgets to protect her from himself. The thing is— she doesn’t need to be sheltered; she’s brave, upstanding and receptive. His attempts to preserve her innocent spirit pushes them further away from each other.
While Chengyin lives in a world of darkness dealing with the demons surrounding them, Xiaofeng is the brightest light, his polar opposite. And that’s why they seem to never agree on anything. In another lifetime, their love could have been a romantic comedy; if he were just a regular tea merchant, they would have lived every single day together, trifling and loving. Their chemistry is undeniable. On top of that, the performance by Chen Xingxu and Peng Xiaoran breathes life into the characters from the novel. They convincingly portrayed every sweet moment and every heartbreak. I still feel strong sorrow for these characters as if they’re actual people I know.
The costumes and cinematography in the drama are so lovely, the characters are charming, the dubbing is really well done, the OST is unforgettable, and above all, the story is beautiful. This drama exceeded all of my expectations. If you’re interested in a tale that dares to straddle the line between love and hate and still manages to make it work, I implore you to give this drama a chance.
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Best Historical Romantic Drama of 2019
This is one of the very few dramas that has more depth and lets the viewers experience all kinds of emotions – love, hatred, happiness, sadness, kindness, cruelty, trust, betrayal, amongst others. Being a tragedy, this drama has captured my heart and emotions, and takes me through the journey of joy and pain.The female lead grows from an innocent and naive girl living on the steppes/desert, into a thoughtful and self-sacrificing woman living in the palace. Her role makes her the most loved character in the drama, and Peng Xiao Ran has effortlessly achieved the high standard in her acting. She is an amazing actress – natural, beautiful and authentic.
The first male lead, Chen Xing Xu, is very young in his early 20s. He has also achieved successfully his role as the 5th Prince with a boyish personality. He gives viewers the impression of a silly thoughtless youth, and yet, he is a smart scheming lethal strategist deep down. This is a very complex character to portray and Chen has done it with flying colors.
This is a high-quality production, from acting to costumes to props. The whole cast plays their roles convincingly and effectively. All details are taken care of. There are no or few holes/loose ends.
The story itself is heart-wrenching and sad, but it also calls up many questions we may have within ourselves about life and about decisions we make daily – things may not always be what they seem to be.
Since it is a tragedy, the ending is what it is expected, a tragedy. I love the ending because there is proper closure for every character; no unnecessary killings just to write-off a character. Everyone gets what he/she deserves.
The sound tracks are the most unforgettable tunes for this drama. Each song is meaningful with sorrow and longing that are sung in beautiful melodies. I don’t know how many times I have listened to the “Little Fox” which gives me the deepest impression. The song conjures up images of a girl riding a horse running freely on the steppes, long gone is the pain one has to endure in life.
Despite it is heart-wrenching to watch some episodes that involve betrayal and killings, this is a must-watch drama. I give it a two-thumbs up.
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If you like revenge dramas where the leads (the two male leads in this case) are willing to do everything, including hurting people who love them, to get what they want, then you might like this drama. If you like plots where memory loss plays an important part to create conflicts and misunderstandings, then this is also for you. If you like love triangles where both male leads are determined to love the girl no matter what (including some noble idiocy), then this drama has it.
On the other hand, if you are like me and dislike those things, then you probably shouldn't watch this drama. And I just don't understand revenge. The main character, princess Xiao Feng, is carefree and happy, but love hits her hard and breaks her heart because the men in her life want something "greater" than her and she becomes a tool in their hands. Yes, they try to win her over, more or less, but the whole memory loss thing makes it more complicated. If the Crown Prince had actually trusted her a little bit... To put it simply, I really didn't like the plot - even though I enjoyed the drama in the beginning, my enjoyment and my rating dropped as I watched. After the first episodes (before she gets married) I very rarely felt that this was "romantic" at all. Also, it got draggy and repetitive in the middle (who knew it was so easy to sneak out of a palace!).
So, it's the story and the writing that I didn't like. Sometimes I do enjoy power struggles but in this drama that part wasn't interesting enough for me. If there is an Emperor - Empress - Empress uncle power triangle, there has to be something in their personalities and not just the fact that these are their roles and we know that the Empress is always cold-hearted and her uncle is always power-hungry… but that is not reason enough to care.
There were, however, a few things that I liked. For one thing, everything is pretty and the drama is a real feast for the eyes. Nothing looks fake or plastic and the costumes are gorgeous. The makers of this drama paid a lot of attention to such details! I didn't like the main characters, but I did like some of the minor characters a lot. I also liked that while there were women who were rivals and hated each other (as in every palace drama!), this drama had a lot of genuine female friendship - I appreciated that. Also, I think the acting was good, even when I didn't like the characters or didn't agree with their choices. The pain in their hearts appeared to be "real"… and yet I couldn't feel anything for most of them. (That might sound contradictory but it was how I felt it, and for me, my "feeling" is important when I rate a drama!)
The music wasn't memorable in my opinion, and the re-watch value is very low. That's because I didn't like the drama of course, but I also never re-watch dramas so I guess this part doesn't matter a lot.
Okay, so now I've shared my unpopular opinion, because as watchers we are all different and not everyone likes the same drama as everyone else. It could be helpful for those who are thinking about watching this to know that there are different opinions.
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Warning: It's not for softhearted person.
If I have to explain how I felt after watching this drama then it would be 'It was an emotional roller coaster ride which was torturing plus great also...' I know it's weird that how can you enjoy and get hurt simultaneously but it's so true about this drama. I am hurt, devastate, heartbroken, crying my eyes out as I just finished watching it but I can't say I didn't like the drama.This is a tragedy between two star-crossed lovers, this is beautiful yet painful. We don't get all things as we want in life even we became the most powerful and successful people, we get what we deserve, if we choose the wrong path again and again to reach our goal then there is no turning back...this is what the story tells us.
I never hated any ML before.... but this time I couldn't stop myself, the hatred I felt towards ML was more than I ever felt for villains he was cruel, so cruel. So hats off to the actor for his amazing job. There were only two characters I adored in the whole drama were princess Xiao Feng and Ah Du. Despite hate towards ML I liked the chemistry between leads but the sad thing is they got so little screen time together, the cinematography was beautiful. It was a great drama... for the first time I was satisfied with this kinda ending.I cried, cried a lot but it was an amazing journey for me, at the end I was heartbroken but the ending was perfect even I felt bad but Li Chengyin never deserved her and happy ending
So it's definitely worth watching ... It was a memorable experience for me but I'm never gonna rewatch it and gonna hurt myself again, but if you like torture and heartbreaking things this is something you shouldn't miss..
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I loved the chemistry between the leads. Even though the backdrop of this drama is political, it is the chemistry between the leads that makes it flow smoothly. The character played by Cheng XingXu isn't your typical ML. He has his own dark secrets and is ruthless at times, but his unyielding and almost selfish love for the FL makes him so realistic and attractive that even though you come to hate him for some of his actions, you still can't move over him and continue loving him. As per the depth of his character, I think this is one of the few dramas where the development of the ML's character astounds the viewers. From a guileless pawn like position, he slowly climbs his way to become the most powerful person in his kingdom. Every ruthless action of his has a reasoning behind it and in the end you kind of feel pity for him.
Peng Xioaran's character is more predictable. She plays a bubbly character initially but she amazes the viewers in emotional scenes. She is on point with her emotional acts and I can only say that this girl is a gem of an actor and I would want to see her act more. Her chemistry with Cheng XingXu is so sweet, even in the scenes where they are fighting each other, you can still feel a warmth between them.
This story has a few flaws but they can be simply overlooked because, in itself, this drama is brilliant. By the time, you reach 40ish episodes, you wish this drama was longer. It has a sad ending though, but I feel that the sad ending justifies this story than a forcefully done happy ending. The sad ending seems to give closure to all characters. Everyone gets what they deserve in the end and even though you are internally broken because of the ending, you can convince yourself that no other ending can justify the story than the one it already has.
I would recommend everyone to see "GoodBye My Princess". It's a once in a lifetime experience. It will make you laugh, cry, make you feel sad, betrayed, loved all at the same time. One of the C-Dramas I have ever seen in my whole lifetime. This will always have a special spot in my heart.
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The misunderstood prince
Just finished watching this drama today. I must say I'm quite surprised to see all the hate directed towards the prince by the viewers. I expected a wicked man after reading all the reviews but all I saw was a young man of twenty whose mother had been killed when he was born, who was brought up by the empress to be used as a pawn in her power games, who was used by his brother in the war against the empire's arch enemy so that he became the villain/hero of the piece depending on which way one viewed the episode, who had the misfortune to fall in love with the beloved granddaughter of the said enemy, who was hated by the girl he loved because he had killed her grandfather, who fell into the river of oblivion trying to save her, who lost his memory and had people he trusted lie to him and keep him in the dark, and above all, who fell in love with the same girl all over again having no memory of having loved her before.Though the general tendency of the viewer is to love and sympathise with the princess, it is the prince's life that is truly tragic. She slowly recovers her memory - that is her tragedy. But he doesn't recover his - that is his tragedy. He succeeds so well in concealing his love for the princess and covertly protecting her from the machinations of the court and the threats from the inner court, that viewers are tempted to think of him as an arrogant and vile man.
I would have loved this story to have ended with some well-deserved happiness for the two of them, but it was not to be. But it was heartwarming that he kept his love for her alive in his heart, never married again, lived to be a good emperor and abdicated his throne to his nephew when the time came. The writer of this drama had never meant to show the prince in a poor light ; I wonder why the viewers did.
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Somehow after the first arc ends, it gets very lame. After the 25th episode it get's a bit boring. I hate Gu Xiao Wu or Li Cheng Yin. He was such a terrible person. It was always quest for power for him. Even when he was trying to protect Xiaofeng from other people, he was so mean to her. I don't even understand how she could love him again or when he actually fell in love with her again. Li Cheng Yin was really a terrible character. His acting was good but I somehow feel that this drama lost it's budget halfway. The story just kept on being prolonged for no reason. The development of chemistry in the eastern palace was so boring. Literally did Xiaofeng have nothing better to do in the palace?
Even though I saw this drama, I really won't recommend it to someone. I also have seen a few other tragedy dramas but this one was not a good one. Acting wise, the cast did a good job but plot wise I think it failed.
The costumes were beautiful. The acting was also great. No character had just one side to him or her. The OST's were really good. I will appreciate the good elements of the dramas but the middle portion of the drama was a bit weak.
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I am enraged at everyone in this thing. Enraged.__________________________
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I knew going in that this was a massive depress fest but I kept getting suggested it on viki, youtube, and tiktok. So I thought I'd give it a chance. Usually when I hate a drama it's from maybe halfway through and I rage watch to the end. But I was hate watching this about a quarter way through. I am compelled to finish things I start, so yes I did suffer through the whole thing.
The acting was actually fine, the cast did the best with this awful story. That's what the two stars are for.
The crown prince ML1 was a psychopath from beginning to end. Part of me wondered if he might change or grow or show any remorse whatsoever. But no. He had no empathy for anyone. Sure he cried and screamed a lot but he was dead behind the eyes (hopefully that was acting). He had the concubine before he even went to Xi, and she was convinced even then he cared for her. He didn't need a beard at that point so why the hell did he gaslight her so early on? He ruined her long before he ever needed a shield to protect the princess. Then he goes to Xi, targets the princess and manipulates and lies to her in order the murder almost everyone she cares about and destroy her entire world. And he's just like damn I wish you hadn't seen me behead your grandad, but I'll make you marry me anyway, lol.
I've seen people say no matter how awful he was he did love her. Have to disagree there. As far as I can see he didn't love anyone, he was just fixated on her. Maybe he had a bit of a crush before he murdered her family. But I find it hard to believe that someone would actually do that to a person they loved, without being completely destroyed by it. Start to finish he didn't care if she died even, he only cared that she not forget him. He didn't want her love, he said it himself he only wanted her to not be indifferent. Her losing her memory of him was what really hurt him. He was a narcissist, and I hate that he lived. Even with the memory loss he still knew he destroyed her entire home, and most of her family. And he still had the audacity to ask her what he really did wrong. SIR. He forgot the double agent status, but he knew he destroyed Xi. That's enough my dude. But to him that wasn't reason enough, because he had no concept of actually loving and caring about someone other than himself.
The other Gu ML2 was also a truly awful person, who manipulated the princess from even earlier on, and in some ways he was even worse at the beginning, because he had even himself convinced that he was a good guy. When she got her memory back, and then ML2 was killed, how the hell could she even look at him, never mind cradle his corpse. She knew what he'd done at that point, and still somehow felt bad for him. He targeted her not once but twice, and completely betrayed her twice. He knew her family for years before the red wedding. When he came back and knew she'd forgotten, he should've walked away, not lied AGAIN and made a conscious decision to betray her even more. He even pretended to be ML1 just to live out his sad little fantasy.
A'Du was such a disappointment as well. Her betrayal came later, but it was also terrible. She knowingly let FL go get forcefully married to the psychopath, when she had all the facts, and also let her leave with ML2. Wow.
One reason I decided to give this a chance was because people were saying FL was a strong female character, but I think we watched different shows because she was the worst. Rather than obliviate herself she should've killed him right then. Fine okay she thought the fall would also kill her, okay. But when he abused her every day, emotionally, psychologically traumatised her, kill him. Or if she's afraid that would harm Xi, she could've killed herself. Definitely when she finally remembered everything she should've stabbed him properly, and failing that killed herself. I get that she's dealing with some serious trauma, but she never displayed any of the strength I've seen other reviews mention. She leaned on her family (nice, good), leaned on a variety of psychopaths (bad times), trusted literally anyone she made eye contact with. Not matter how often she was f*cked over she was like "I'm sure they had a reason". I don't understand her at all. She fluctuated from an imbecile who's never seen a boat (there was literally a river in the first episode in Xi, how has she never seen a boat), and believing everything anyone says to her, to solving crimes with her fiance, deducing all the sneaky palace happenings etc., and then suddenly back to having no idea who her enemies are. She wasn't strong, she was just a f*cking moron. She just accepted everything that was happening to her. Except for a few moments of resistance and flailing around, she never really made much fuss. She was just noisy about doing basically nothing. Then at the end she offs herself in front of two armies, like that's the solution. HOW IS THAT THE SOLUTION?! THAT WOULD NEVER WORK
Side note: How long does it take for someone to fall off a building? I know slow motion is a thing but honestly that was too much. Dude regained his entire lost memory thing, and A'Du had time to saddle a whole horse while she was still slowly falling.
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SUICIDE IS NOT BEAUTIFUL!
I had told myself that I wouldn't watch it after episode 45 but I failed. There are several things I wished were done. I wish the writers let both the main characters "Crown Prince" and the "Crown Princess Consort" remember what they went through during the Danchi massacre after the Crown Princess Consort escaped. That they remove the Suicide at the end. The reasons are plentiful but in this Drama Series, in the end, they had Peng Xiao Ran performed suicide to twist with the blood circling her as if suicide is beautiful and felt that the writers deemed it okay. I am here to tell you that Suicide is not beautiful. I'm so emotionally broken, crying my eyes out uncontrollably as if this was a real story, The writers and producers of these dynamic Chinese Drama Series put their heart and soul into their work, and then there are the actors and actresses that put all of their passion on the screen... just wow! I am against suicide wholeheartedly! The world is gripped with suicide in mass numbers, in order for us to change the past when suicides were extremely high, we need to change the future in the prevention of suicide even if it is changing that type of reality for good on the big screen.Above I rated my Rewatch Value to a 7.0 if the writers changed the ending to a happy ending or find a way for love to mend mistakes of the past... YES, I would definitely rewatch it. I feel that Chen Xing Xu and Peng Xiao Ran deserve awards, and love to see them both again in a Love, Romance, and Drama series with each other again, their chemistry was spot on. Kingone Wang did a phenomenal job as well.
Note: I did rewatch it and I still can't go to that last scene. It's because my family has gone through two family members who committed suicide. Suicide is not the answer to solving a problem and surely doesn't make peace between two factions. I will upgrade my rating because I have also watched Cheng Xing Xu and Peng Xiao Ran on the four or five segments of them being happy. Thank you for that!
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Such a thrilling ride!!
Based off the novel "Eastern Palace," Goodbye My Princess tells the story of Xiao Feng, the ninth princess of Western Liang. She is naive and spoiled but loving and kind (like the majority of female leads). She lives a very carefree life until she finds out she must marry the crown prince of the more powerful Li Dynasty to ensure peace between the two countries. However, she doesn't want to so her mother helps her sneak away to her maternal grandfather, the ruler of Dan Chi kingdom. On the way, while traveling with her master/first love (Gu Jian) she meets Gu Xiao Wu, her master's maternal cousin, who accompanies them to Dan Chi. Through a series of events, Gu Xiao Wu and Xiao Feng end up falling in love and marrying.Unfortunately fate is cruel and in the face of an unfathomable betrayal, Xiao Feng finds herself losing her family, friends, and lover. At her wits end and unable to fix anything, she jumps into the Forgetfulness river and we find her three years later. Now living in Li Kingdom with no recollection of her pain and loss, Xiao Feng has accepted her political marriage to the crown prince of Li Kingdom. She meets the 5th prince: Li Cheng Yin and though at first at odds with each other, they strike up a friendship after sharing hardships which eventually starts to bloom into romance. Sadly, this friendship is short-lived after Xiao Feng discovers Li Cheng Yin was one of the crusaders in the fall of Dan Chi. Despite this new animosity, Li Cheng Yin is eventually given the title of crown prince, married to Xiao Feng, and thus begins their tumultuous marriage life. As political machinations, figures from her past, and her memories return, Xiao Feng finds herself battling with her own love, guilt, and sense of shame for repeating the same mistakes she made in the past.
Even if you're unfamiliar with the original work, by episode 10, there's no denying that this drama (SPOILER!) cannot possibly end happily. The crimes committed, whether it be the action or the method, are completely unforgivable and it would surprise me if anyone rooted for them to get a happy romantic ending. However, despite knowing it will end in tragedy, the journey is so entertaining to watch.
This is perhaps one of the very few dramas where, although the drama itself is very enjoyable, no character is likable. Xiao Feng is the cookie-cutter female lead who's young, innocent, beloved yet completely naive about the world around her. Characters like her are a personal pet-peeve of mine. I detest the idea that a woman in historical genres who is born into a prestigious family doesn't understand that she must marry for the sake of her family rather than love. It angers me more when she tries to escape it because her actions ultimately cause more problems (like it did here). I think at a certain point, going against a political marriage isn't the act of naïveté, it's plain selfishness and ignorance.
Li Cheng Yin is the perfect male lead to easily hate. He has a very convincing poker face (I blame Chen Xing Xu's handsome face for this) so he goes undetected by everyone around him. Regrettably for his adversaries, this negligence to survey him is what ultimately leads to everyone's doom. He is conniving, selfish, and aggressive in his approaches to get what he wants, whether that be revenge, love, or power. He is certainly the smartest person in this drama. These qualities probably also make him the best character in this drama. He is very clear-cut on what he wants and the lengths he will go to to get it. He will do all the dirty work even if it means becoming evil incarnate to accomplish his goals. He takes the blame if it is truly his fault and I give him credit for that.
Gu Jian. . .sheesh...where do I start? I despise his character. He is the guy who continuously does bad things because he is very wishy-washy therefore he's actually worse than the bad guys. His loyalty is divided which causes him to repeatedly make the wrong decisions. I think he is a good foil to Li Cheng Yin. Li Cheng Yin is the guy who acknowledges he is the bad guy but Gu Jian is the guy who thinks he's the good guy when he isn't; where Li Cheng Yin plots and sees the bigger picture, Gu Jian obeys and only lives in the moment.
Aside from the three leads, the supporting characters (Pei Zhao & Ah Du) were also not likable. Both were good people however, they also both witnessed the tragedy that happened before yet stood by and watched it happen again once the truth was revealed. Willing bystanders are a big no-no for me.
This drama is definitely worth the watch just for the story alone. However, the music and cinematography are also well done. The drama does show the limitations in acting from the cast in the heavier scenes but not enough to deter viewers from watching.
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please give me more like this oneee..
love LCY & XF hope to see them soon in other epic drama
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This review may contain spoilers
no no no no no
GOODBYE MY PRINCESS is such a lot of things! It's like SCARLET HEART RYEO, but without a fraction of the maturity, depth, and power of that story. It's that thing where gross dudes will say "I like a woman with spirit" but what they want to do is punish the woman for having spirit until she's beaten into a hollow shell of herself, except on a systemic cultural level. It's how to both-sides the treacherous war of imperialistic aggression. It's a masterclass on how not to write villain romance.Over and over the heroine is told, "Wars happen somehow, who can say who's to blame lol. Definitely not us, who deceived you and slaughtered everyone you care about. Why can't you set aside these little things (treachery, murder, a little light genocide) for the greater good?" The show agrees that this perspective demands intolerable sacrifices of the individual. Given a choice between living for herself and living for others, between individual peace and healing (I dare not say happiness) at the price of collective suffering, and collective peace and coexistence at the price of individual abuse, the heroine finds herself left with suicide as the only option. The fact that the show expresses sympathy for her predicament, however, feels like adding insult to injury. The show knows full well how intolerable this situation is; it still insists that sacrificing the individual to the collective is the right and good choice. (I'm a both-and person, myself: I believe that it is both possible and optimal to value both individual and collective equally, and to balance their needs and desires).
Part of the reason I watched the show is that it was billed as the ultimate villain romance, and I'm a sucker for those. What I found, in my opinion, was a masterclass on how NOT to write villain romance.
Some big ways that the romance fell down, IMO:
- from the very beginning to the very end, the male lead is incapable of seeing where he went wrong and blames other people, especially the heroine, for making life hard for him. To me, this indicates somebody totally incapable of either repentance or growth. The ending, in which Chengyin becomes a heartbroken and lonely, but decent king, rang utterly false to me because I didn't believe him capable of changing. I believed the same ending in SCARLET HEART RYEO because we saw that Wang So had a conscience and the ability to see the error of his ways, but we never see that from Li Chengyin. It would have worked on someone who's supposed to be a, irredeemable villain, but for someone who's supposed to change at the end, as well as someone who is supposed to be capable of love, it's a deathblow to the characterisation.
- in addition to his inability to feel guilt or experience repentance, Li Chengyin's whole arc is from bad to worse. This is fun in the final ten episodes when he finally goes absolutely unhinged, so that he becomes an obvious villain instead of a two-faced schemer. But, it felt ultimately meaningless to me. It's tricky but possible to do a tragic character arc in a villain romance and sell it to the audience. I loved the tragic arc in WUTHERING HEIGHTS because I could see that Heathcliff could have been a better person and that his story didn't need to end that way: I cared about what happened to him. I didn't care about Li Chengyin past the first ten episodes, because he was so despicable in blaming everyone else for his own problems.
- the story also tries another thing that's really hard but theoretically possible to do well, which is that Li Chengyin is a wolf in sheep's clothing, aka the Smooth Hypocrite. Most villain romances wisely stick to a lead who's a Sheep in Wolf's Clothing (Tantai Jin from TILL THE END OF THE MOON) or a Wolf in Wolf's Clothing (like Kylo Ren in THE LAST JEDI) - someone who represents himself to be every bit as bad or worse than he actually is. But, Li Chengyin is so much worse than he represents himself, which puts him in the same box as Bluebeard from the fairy tale or Angelo from MEASURE FOR MEASURE or Scarpia from TOSCA, and friends, while I'd like to see it done GMP did NOT manage to make this worst of all villain types work as a romantic lead.
- another things that's difficult but possible in an enemies to lovers story is a match between somebody who's genuinely good and sweet and somebody who's Just Terrible. I think enemies to lovers and villain romance tends to work best when both characters are a little bit dreadful and equally matched in power - this is something that TILL THE END OF THE MOON did brilliantly well, giving Li Susu her own vindictive darkness and her own power. Even LOVE BETWEEN FAIRY AND DEVIL managed to take a ridiculously naive and sweet heroine and give her some genuine power over the far cleverer and more ruthless love interest, which balances things out nicely. But Xiaofeng is not just sweet and naive, she's also powerless. Her natural shrewdness is not negligible, but it's no match for Chengyin's absolute rat-level cunning and ruthlessness. For most of the show he keeps her in the dark with no idea what's going on, or why he's gaslighting her and throwing her under literally every passing bus. It's the worst possible scenario, and nothing in other aspects of the show can save it.
- finally, the romance lacks a key ingredient, which is trust/vulnerability. Chengyin is someone who wants power and will sacrifice everyone around him to get it, foremost the heroine. I don't object to the show doing this: it was very realistic. What I object to is the show trying to convince me that despite all this the leads are nevertheless falling for each other. How can they, when he never once makes himself vulnerable for her, either by letting her see the truth about him or by putting himself at any risk for her? I was frustrated because the story kept demanding I believe that these two had learned to care about one another, but it felt wholly unearned. Again, this works in SCARLET HEART RYEO because we see Wang So's vulnerability to Hae Soo being expressed ("I am yours") and then exploited by others, long before he starts pushing her away to conserve power. There wasn't even much to show that the two leads are attracted to each other (like the shipboard dance scene in TILL THE END OF THE MOON, from which I may never recover). As far as I could tell, Xiafeng and Chengyin had about as much chemistry as two Ming vases inhabiting different ends of the same mantelpiece.
tl;dr: I love a good murder puppy of a love interest but this was IMO resoundingly the wrong way to go about it. GMP is a perfect storm of a) things that are difficult but possible to play well, IF they are handled carefully and not thrown into a blender; and b) a couple of things that are absolutely death to any romance. In this sense I can understand why this was recommended to me as "the ultimate villain romance", in that at every point the writers have picked absolutely the worst possible option from the many available, and then have gone as hard as possible. There are viewers who enjoy this, I acknowledge; some of them recommended the show to me. For me, it's a completely hamfisted and inelegant attempt at something that requires careful handling.
The things I DID like? I enjoyed the melodramatic Mess of the first 10 and last 10 episodes. I loved Xiaofeng who deserved so much better than these writers, these themes, and this love interest - she was genuinely a sweet and lovely person with very relatable desires and an AMAZING bevy of female friends. I loved that the show does let the male lead get called out for how outrageously messed up he is - Xiaofeng in particular gets out some great zingers. But this is ultimately only the more enraging, because the show STILL punishes her for her "sins" (wanting a life she can live for herself) SO MUCH more horribly than it punishes him for his (lies, murder, rape, abuse).
I'm not sorry that I stuck the show out, because it had some moments of awesome, and because it made me think HARD about all the reasons why I thought it failed at nearly everything it tried. But otherwise, I would not recommend the drama at all.
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