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Every time I watch this show, it makes me feel pity for both of the main leads. Like I pity Xiaofeng because, her family was killed by the person she loved, but yet she couldn't hate him. I pity Li Chengyin, because he chose to betray Xiaofeng, and couldn't really get her love. Both of the main leads just make me feel like the other is a terrible person, like when I look from Li Chenyin's point of view, it makes me feel like that Xiaofeng is a bad person, but when I look at Xiaofeng's point of view, it made me feel like Li Chengyin was a bad person. I feel like Li Chengyin should have told Xiaofeng what he was thinking because it made Xiaofeng think that Li Chengyin hates her. I honestly don't know what was wrong with the queen's eyebrows, like it just looked funny. Not to mention but, I actually kind of liked the queen. I don't know why but the fact that she favors Xiaofeng more the Zhao Sese makes me happy. I feel that Xiaofeng shouldn't have killed herself in the end, I know she was doing it for the states but I think that after her death, it could have brought war again between the states. This show actually needs a season, of them reincarnating and just living a life without worries. Was this review helpful to you?
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Starting of the drama is good ,so fast they made up meet the leads without much entangled in the love triangle ,story was going so smooth till they fall into the oblivion river after that this drama getting so bored .. I didn't understand why not the writer bring their memories so soon though make them realised that they had connection between them but they took the story in different direction and then second lead who also betrayed her but she had soft corner for him as well as they had more scene together . Then when leads recalled each other the drama get over with the bad as well as sad ending .The Writer as well as the director didn't shown their love story much ,all the time they fight with each other and separated again and again .Few cutes scene were there among them but it didn't balance the drama .
A ver big disappointment with story.
I like lead actress acting ,she was good in all the way .
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Did I enjoy it? Yes. Why? Because I'm a sucker for these type of dumb plots, which I admittedly seen quite a few times. By this, I'm talking about memory loss, falling in love again, emperors that must be cruel to secure their throne, kind of helpless female lead that can only cry and forgive, etc). There were beautiful moments that triggered my tear ducts, but there are also moments that made me just fast forward. Maybe I'm dumb or disinterested but the politics didn't stick with me too much so I had a 75% grasp of what was happening politically and was here more for the romantic scenes.
In terms of the emotional roller coaster for viewers, I felt frustrated during the majority of the drama rather than nodding along and saying "Yeah, predictable plot but totally believable and they sold it to me, I can keep watching this bs." For example, there were a few times I was frustrated that Xiaofeng was so oblivious to what was going on, even if that's what her character is supposed to be like, which is unfortunate because I think the actress did phenomenally in every scene.
Another point of personal frustration (aka not a flaw in the production but rather as a heads up for viewers), as I was watching, the sweet moments that did exist between Li Chingye and Xiaofeng were enough to give me hope that maybe this is all leading to the ending that we all, if not most of us, want. The ending was unsatisfying to say the least.
I can't put it into words and maybe it's because I wanted a happy ending very badly, but the whole exposition leading up to the ending just didn't explain why it ended the way it did. It's not that I don't want to accept the ending, but it didn't make enough sense.
Despite me going on and on about how I didn't like the way things ended, I enjoyed the drama and finished it until the end. It is going to be a rough 52 episodes with a rough ending that matches how it's made you felt the whole series.
Li Chingye and Xiaofeng's characters were acted out well, and they're honestly what I kept coming back for.
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what i like about the show:
1. The lead has awesome chemistry
2. There acting is flawless and it will touch ur feeling and u wanna cry with them, will laugh with etc.
3. The story is definitely worth it, ending might be unexpected but its the most reasonable one. Even though its quite predictable yet it has the potential to keep u hooked up that's the specialty of this show.
4. There is no flaw in the story except i wish, i could see the uncut version.
Characters
Peng xiaoran: She is cheerful, carefree, lively, innocent, emotional and mischievous at the same time. They way she portrayed every emotion is so touching, u can literally feel her. U wont feel that she is a new comer....
Cheng Xing Xu: He nailed as the male lead, ruthless and cunning but loved the female lead immensely. I think in the whole show he is the biggest plotter.
Wei Qian Xiang : His character is very sweet, loved him to ...
But the chemistry between the lead is of different level.
i would have given this show more than 10 if there was an option to do so...hehehehehe...
will be my all time favorite.
Re-watch value: Definitely yes, this show is totally worth it.
I personally find is far better than AOL which was very illogical ...
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This review may contain spoilers
Story/Plot: From the very beginning, the production marketed the drama as a tragedy. Most of the time--as many CDrama watchers would be familiar with--we are conned by the drama production by robbing our happy ending and resenting the writers for leaving us with heart break after 50-70 episodes. But GMP's strength always lied with it's tragic ending. You can even say that the story, narration and even the development are woven to give that exact ending, tragedy.I'd like to point out that Li Chengyin will always have a very complicated relationship with the viewers. It was easy to hate him because of all the things he did, not just to Xiao Feng but to everyone else around him. As Gu Xiao Wu, he was young and innocent but his choices has always been selfish. There were moments where his love for XF was borderline obsessive and toxic, one would think he didn't love her at all. But there are light indications that he did loved her, more so as Li Chengyin than he did when he was Gu Xiao Wu (he protected her in the Eastern Palace, he would always go out of his way to assist her, help her, guide her but most of all, he would always jump after her without hesitations whenever she jumps to her death).
In knowing of their sad ending, the audience relished on every interaction they had, whether it be shouting at each other, sneaking out of the palace together, slapping one another to downright XF stabbing LCY because we know that is all we'll ever get. No matter how the story pan, they can never be together in this life and that may have been the reason why I invested so much emotion to this drama to begin with. And it's not just the ending that is sad, watching XF trying to survive in the palace to LCY slow descend to evil had been heartbreaking since we saw them as innocent and naive in Danchi. We were all holding our breath to the moment they remember eveything. We anticipated it, but it didn't make it any less sad. But man, those editing between eps 45-52 were atrocious not to mention those cut scenes we were robbed off.
Acting/Cast: Chen Xing Xu and Peng Xiao Ran deserve all the praises for portraying LCY and XF. Especially since it was their first lead-role drama. They were amazing and I can't imagine another couple playing the leads as well as they did. Other cast were outstanding too.
Music: The music was great. It's the type of soundtract you keep on repeat long after the last episode had aired. Fave songs [First Encounter by Chen Xing Xu and Peng Xiao Ran] [Love Hurts - Female Version]
Rewatch Value: I'd say you rewatch it for the angst. Not much drama can give you as much heartache as GMP gave me. I you're looking for triggering some sad feels or just wanna have a good cry or two, then a must rewatch. I rewatched it solely to see CXX and PXR tbh. hahaha
Final words: I would have given it a 9 or even 10 if not for that lousy editing around the end episodes and the cut scenes we so deserved. But because we were robbed, I gave it 8.5 which is still higher than normal.
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⭐⭐⭐⭐This will end up being about 8 stars for me. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Not far into this and I've been shattered into a million pieces & I like it. ;-) This show is so beautifully done. You KNOW where they are going in this show (tragedy x100) and yet you can't seem to look away. The acting is fantastic and the chemistry between characters is awesome. I do have some nit-picky issues with the show on a whole, but nothing worth mentioning at this point. I'm just going to sit back and continue to watch and let my heart hurt.
03/22/19 So, I've seen up to ep 48 at this point and I believe there are 4 episodes left. This (as expected) is most definitely a tragedy of epic proportions. Everything about this show is beautiful and heart breaking.
My problems with this show are as follows.
✘ The first 10 episodes are truly amazing. You see a build up, an epic crescendo, and then a crash back down to earth. The next 35+ episodes? Not so much. We see a LOT of blah blah blah our main girl getting stepped on and left out of the loop, therefore doing stupid stuff in her ignorance of what LCY is thinking.
✘ We're supposed to feel a sense of the two main characters (even with their loss of memories) building up to falling back into a deep love again so that when they regain their memories the heartache will coming crashing in all over again. However, you only feel to an extent that LCY has fallen in love with XF even though he treats her like dirt in order to protect her and further his revenge agenda.
✘ Point #2 above is a major problem because as a viewer you then have to watch episode upon episode of LCY subtly loving XF yet XF getting mistreated by LCY and therefore cannot truly open her heart to him because she doesn't see what WE as viewers see. It makes for an impossible build up of emotions that we're expected to feel because we know that no way in hell would XF fall for LCY based on her own perspective. As we know, she can't see what we see.
✘ Finally, the last issue is pacing. It seems a lot of time is spent on LCY convincing the world he loves SeSe and despises XF (again, to keep XF safe and to further his agenda) and not so much on the tragic love story we were expecting because of the AH-Mazing first opening episodes before the jump into Oblivion Falls. (no idea of the real name, but I like Oblivion Falls. LOL)
✘ On another note, an issue I also have is that I am on 48 out of 52 episodes and there is a LOT of plot points out there and I'm unsure if 4 short episodes is enough to tie off all those plots without rushing and being done unsatisfyingly (totally a word!) to us as fans/viewers. Pacing would have affected this imho.
?I LOVED LOVED the first 15-ish episodes. I've enjoyed the rest for sure. A few changes by the writers and this show would have hit my list of top 6 favorites, but it's still worth the watch for sure.?
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Excellent for most part except the end
This drama was excellent for the first 42 episodes. In my mind then, I was going to rate it a full 10. On the positive aspects, the lead actress was stunningly pretty and the lead actor very handsome, and they had amazing on-screen chemistry which made their flirting scenes very romantic and sometimes amusing. The story was interesting, romantic and full of suspense, characters were complex and the cinematography was great. If there had been a tightening of the plot, this drama could have rivaled some of the other top drama productions.But after the 42nd episode, it started going downhill, the plot weakened and it ended with a ridiculous ending. It was melodramatic. Xiao Feng spent a lot of time with Gu Jian but the two did not have much on-screen chemistry. There was a lot of screaming and shouting at each other. The three lead characters were going absolutely crazy, each insisting on getting ahead with their own ways and refusing any compromise. The ending was meant to be dramatic but it ended up as an anti-climax. After all that ChengYin did for her, I was expecting Xiao Feng would eventually be won over. It reminded me of the ending in 'The Rise of Phoenixes' - a let-down.
The christian teaching of forgive and forget could give the characters a life. The princess was so driven by hatred, she did not know how to love properly. The crown prince was so possessive and vindictive. Had he cut some slack, the princess might have been won over.
If you absorbed by the tearjerking you may overlook some of the flaws in the plot.
Chinese dramas always mixes in some ridiculous wuxia medical methods which always mysteriously cure someone of severe injuries. And this drama is no exception. I can accept this in a fantasy (xianxia) story. For a supposedly historical romance epic, it spoils the realism of it. And the 'forget thy love' ravine was a further strain on this.
Additionally, there was some major illogical views - the crown prince pretended to be nasty to the crown princess in order to keep her from harm. I do not understand this logic as no one was planning to harm her. In fact, it made the empress more angry with his concubine and made enemies out of the princess and the concubine.
There were a lot of stupidity in the story. The crown prince was plotting for the empress to fall into his trap of trying to assassinate him. Yet there were no hidden bodyguards near enough to protect him and he ended up severely injured.
A weak script spoiled it for the production team. However, it is still worth watching if you are not too critical.
I thought I was going to re-watch it but after the ridiculous ending, I decided not to because it had spoiled my mood and impression of the drama.
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This review may contain spoilers
Watch the first 12 episodes then stop.
I don't really write reviews, but I felt compelled to after finishing this. I got so many recommendations for it, and it was so well reviewed I thought I'd give it a watch.WHAT I LIKED:
Honestly, the first twelve (?) episodes of this I enjoyed so much that if I were to recommend it, I would say watch those then stop. You'll get the romance and the tragedy without the draggy middle episodes. The desert setting was refreshing and interesting.
The main female character was so much fun - naive, sure, but also brave and wanting to be in control of her fate. The chemistry between her and the male lead was great. There was such dramatic irony because you knew that he would eventually betray her but you wanted to root for their relationship.
The music was good, and so was the acting.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
Nearly everything after they got to the Eastern Palace. If it wasn't for the charm of the FL and the goodwill that the first twelve episodes built up I would have stopped watching.
Most of the political machinations were so dull I was watching on 1.5x speed until I got to the next scene with Xiaofeng. I didn't mind the scheming, mean character of Li Chengyin, especially as this is a tragedy. But while I understood he was ultimately trying to protect Xiaofeng with all his actions in the palace, after they got married most of their scenes were just him being horrible to her. It was hard to understand why she would still love him without remembering their past love. It felt to me that the show was just relying on their romance in the desert for all of the romance for the rest of the show.
I didn't like the character of Gu Jian after the desert. It seemed like all he did was drink and lurk in the shadows for like 20 episodes.
CONCLUSION:
The ending of the show was tragic, and did tie everything together well, but by that point I was more watching to finish it then anything. I wouldn't watch this show again, and would hesitate to recommend it, though I'm sure others will enjoy it a lot more than I did overall.
Also, You could see the lace front of the Grandpa's beard. I'm used to noticing the wig lace front, but the beard lace front really surprised me and was all I could see when he was on screen lol .
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I would say one of the show’s strengths is that it is pretty well balanced. It’s got romance, tragedy, conspiracies, schemes to claim the throne, revenge, jealousy between concubines, etc and all of these are interwoven fairly well. That way if you get tired of scheming by the empress you’ll soon switch over to another conspiracy going on, or the development of some characters’ relationships. The palace drama builds gradually so part of what may make it more interesting than usual is that you have a greater understanding of all the players involved and what their goals are. Despite the fact that this drama isn’t fast-paced I still felt it didn’t linger too long on certain plot points. While some plot threads do wrap up at different points it always still felt like things were moving forward, so I was compelled to keep watching to see how the rest of it went. This was also one of the few cdramas I’ve found that actually consistently had episodes end on a cliffhanger, so I definitely wanted to keep watching!
I really liked Xiaofeng! I find that dramas often take a naive silly female protagonist and over the course of the show make them more cunning and more ruthless. Even as Xiaofeng does mature and become smarter she still remains foolish because of her tendency to blindly trust people and her incapability to lie or be mean to others. She wants to see the best in other people, and although that means she makes foolish decisions it’s almost heartwarming to see that she still believes that people would treat her with the same sincerity and kindness that she is showing to them. I really liked how her upbeat personality and kindness persisted despite the terrible things that happened.
All the male leads can piss off. Okay fiiiine I may not like the main male leads but they are interesting characters so that’s good. I unambiguously like all the female characters, empress included. Can someone please inform some of these characters that murdering someone’s family *is* a good reason for them to hate you? Thanks.
The costumes were legit 50% of the reason why I started this show and they did not disappoint. Not only did they differ from other shows I’ve watched, they were so incredibly detailed and there were so many! They also made a masterful use of colors. For example, red is Xiaofeng’s color, but as she comes into the palace she wears primarily pink, which helps show how her personality is muted or has to be toned down to be there. The sets were amazing too with lots of unique architecture (the throne room for example) and beautiful details. Even side character’s rooms will have beautiful paintings in the background.
Tl;dr this show is a tragedy, but well balanced enough that it doesn’t feel constantly depressing and terrible, and the plot and characters have quite a bit of variety so it remains interesting throughout. Despite the fact that I think other cdramas have some better parts (the romance in this show was good enough, but definitely other shows have better couples) this show was consistently good at every level. I think it does rank among my top cdramas because I watched all of it and enjoyed almost every part of it!
A slightly more comical version of this review can be found here: https://kdramakitty.tumblr.com/post/616487078421757952
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Beautiful but heartwrenching story
This drama is super good!! I came to this drama knowingly how this is going to end but the ending didn’t disappoint me at all. GMP is also very good in all aspects - production, plot, OST, actingWhat I like:
-The story: The plot is so fine. I love the political intrigue, it’s not confusing and easy to understand. I also love how this show can bring happy, funny, tenseful, yet heartbreaking and sad situation.
-The acting & chemistry: Chen Xingxu is such a gem!!! After finishing this drama, I’m totally in love with this man! He is SUPER GOOD LOOKING as Li Chengyin/Gu Xiao Wu, and his acting is out of this world. His range of acting is unbelievable - he can go to playful and innocent to ruthless and calculating. Peng Xiao Ran is a goddess, her acting is also phenomenal. Their chemistry is also soooo good, even when they’re quarreling. You still can feel they’re entangled to each other.
-The OST: I love all the OSTs. The OSTs can bring the vibe needed in some specific scenes, and till now every time I hear Love Catastrophe, I feel a lil bit piece of my heart is breaking.
-The character: I LOVE LI CHENG YIN. Supported by tremendously good acting, I firmly believe Chen Xingxu can reach his potential in this drama because he got this interesting character, and vice versa. Li Chengyin is such a complex character that you can’t judge only by what he did to Xiaofeng. What I love about this character is there are many layered of his personality - when he is loving, he is also ruthless. He is also very brilliant in scheming, quick-witted, aware of everything happened in palace. He is NOT that ordinary crown prince which only hungry for power, but if you guys watched this show and only considered LCY as that, you clearly lose the chance to see the beauty of this character.
What I DON’T like:
Actually not too much. I think this is a very well-written story. But I really hate the arc in several last episodes (around episode 42/43 I think). I know it is needed but I just can’t stand it, I kept skipping scenes. Fortunately it only lasted for two-three episodes. I really can write down the scenes I hate the most but I don’t want to spoil.
Overall, this drama is super good but prepare your heart because it is so heartwrenching!
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This is definitely one of my favorite drama of 2019, full of emotions and angst. People need to understand that this is a TRADGY drama not a romcom thus the ending is fitting for the events that have taken place in the drama. I really don't know why people wanted a happy ending just for the sake of a happy ending (if you are a happy ending junkie, I'm sorry but this is not for you). Yes, I do ship them both but the ending is the most appropriate. Xiao Feng sacrificed herself to bring peace to both countries. People may think that this is petty on XF's behalf but you have to understand that she wanted LCY to live well to carry on his promise. Because if he had killed himself after she died, her death would've meant nothing. There would've been a new Li emperor and there would be no guaranteed that Xi state would be safe. As for the drama as a whole, it was great. People who have read the novel know that this drama adaptation is telling the story in a different lens. The novel starts off with XF already the crown princess married to LCY, whereas the drama tells the story from the beginning. I have read some reviews and complaints about how this drama is draggy and that the main leads don't remember anything until the end of the drama. THAT WAS THE POINT! The first 25 episodes of the drama was a background story of how XF met LCY as GXW and LCY power struggle to become the crown prince. The actual novel storyline didn't start off until the late 20s episodes. It may not have been as suspenseful as the novel but it was definitely heartbreaking!
If XF had regained her memories early in the drama, she still would've attempted to run away from LCY or killed herself. It wasn't the act of him killing her grandpa that made her hate him, it was that he used her to infiltrate the danchi tribe. She felt guilty for everything that happened that's why she had such a hard time letting it go. I personally believe that she jumped into the river of forgetfulness to kill herself. She told GXW before she jumped that no one had ever come out of the river alive, meaning that she was willing to kill herself to get away from him.
XF and LCY fell in love again, this time with a clean slate but LCY had to deal with the power struggle and his enemies causing him to purposely neglect XF. He was so worried about his future with XF that he neglected the present her. He never communicated his with XF thus she was clueless on whether or not he actually loves her. What hurts the most is that XF believed that she was a third party in LCY and SS relationship. She hated that she liked him because it felt wrong for her to since the one he "loved" was SS.
I absolutely love XF. Some viewers were complaining on her being naive and immature without considering the context of her character. She is the 9th princess of Xi State and as she proclaimed her father's "favorite princess." She was loved by everyone around her, so of course, she would be naive and immature. After she jumped into the river of forgetfulness, she becomes the same XF that we saw at the beginning of the drama, free of all the pain. People don't grow if they are unaware of what happened. XF doesn't care about any statuses; she saw people as who they were. She may not be the strongest or smartest female lead but she always stood up for herself and her country. Politics, revenge, plot scheming are not things that XF does. If she does those things, she would be no different from the people that she hated.
This review is all over the place, so if you were about to get through it THANKS
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