The King's Woman (2017)

Watch It for the Aesthetics

The King’s Woman (Chinese title: 秦时丽人明月心) was one of my favorite dramas to rewatch back when it first aired in 2017, if only for the actors and the costumes.

Set in the Warring States period of China, the drama follows Gongsun Li, a fictional concubine of the King of Qin State, and her contributions to eventual historical events. After identifying her as the girl who saved him from certain death when they were children, Ying Zheng falls in love with Gongsun Li and poisons her childhood sweetheart, Jing Ke, in order to entrap and secure her for his harem. Gongsun Li slowly develops feelings for Ying Zheng even as she defies and tries to stave off the worst of his tyrannical nature. The King’s Woman is a story about Stockholm syndrome, manipulation, abuse, and, eventually, heartbreak. I think it’s one worth watching, but it’s not without some major flaws…

A+ Cinnamon Tography and Aesthetics
Let’s start with some positives. This drama looks amazing. The production designer, art director, the costume department, etc. went all out. I’d not seen a Chinese period drama with better costumes and set designs since The Empress of China. I love everything every character in this series wore. The clothes are mind-blowing and well worth watching forty-eight episodes for.

What’s more, this is one of the best directed Chinese dramas I’ve seen so far. There are no weird camera angles, no amateur special effects, and very little awkward choreography to take you out of the story. Every action and effect was framed perfectly. The remarkable cinematography was a breath of fresh air back in 2017.

Stockholm Syndrome Passing as Romance
Dilraba Dilmurat and Vin Zhang’s insane chemistry aside…You really have to go into The King’s Woman ready to buy into the romanticism of the whole situation between Gongsun Li and Ying Zheng because the moment you pull back and look at it from a more sobering perspective, the magic ceases to work.

This drama goes out of its way to depict pre-Qin Shi Huang Ying Zheng as a tragic figure who’s simultaneously the cause of his own misfortunes and a victim of his personal faults. You can see at the beginning that even in his cruelty, he has good intentions. But on some level, he doesn’t understand what that means or why people are so resistant to his good will. He was a child of abuse who, consciously and not, revisits his own pain on others a thousandfold.

What’s interesting is the way the narrative sides with him. As he thinks of himself as a victim, so does the drama cast him as such. It feels like we’re supposed to be in Gongsun Li’s shoes, seeing him through her eyes. This, of course, makes their relationship easier to swallow, even though we all know better. (The fact that Vin Zhang is handsome AF helps a lot too.)
Nevertheless, I felt very uneasy about the moments of tenderness, playfulness, and affection between Gongsun Li and Ying Zheng, especially given how resistant she is to him from the start. I mean, did she really forget how he threatened to abort her child, separated her baby from her right after childbirth, and tried to kill her martial brothers?

One moment later in the drama got to me particularly. In episodes 40/41, Ying Zheng goes on a killing spree of all his childhood tormentors, and instead of being horrified by this senseless mass murdering, Gongsun Li coddles and comforts him because he is… sad? After he killed a whole neighborhood of people? Like, boohoo, honey, he’s sad? The people he killed are dead! How the hell is that remotely acceptable to her?

She clearly knows what kind of a person he was, but the mental gymnastics she does to make excuses for him is frustrating.
Lastly, I think this whole trope of a male love interest falling in love with the female lead because she was nice to him for like five minutes when they were children is so trite. However, given that Ying Zheng’s a mega-creep whose relationship with Gongsun Li predicates on her developing Stockholm syndrome, it kind of works here.

One-Note Characters
Honestly, I wasn’t as resistant to Gongsun Li and Ying Zheng’s relationship as I could’ve been. The drama did a lot of work brushing aside all the troubling bits. Compounded with this following flaw, rooting for the main couple was a no-brainer: Jing Ke sucks. No, not as a person. As a character. For all that he has to work with—the martial arts talent, a handsome actor, a tragic love lost, a destiny unfulfilled—he comes off incredibly one-noted. He’s straight up uninteresting, which is just about the worst thing a main character can be.

This isn’t unique to him, unfortunately. Most of the characters in The King’s Woman have very little personalities to speak of. Instead, they’re relegated to playing cookie cutter roles that each serves one or two functions in the plot. I feel like the only developed character, aside from Ying Zheng and Gongsun Li, is Lu Buwei, who’s the only one with a personal agenda complicated and interesting enough. Sadly, he’s criminally unexplored and underutilized as a villain.

Plot and Pacing Issues
This drama is very slow. I found myself wishing I could watch it on 2x speed without ruining everything else about the experience. Instead I resorted to “skimming” i.e. skipping seconds at a time and only watching in full what felt like crucial scenes in an effort to make the story move along faster. To tell the truth, I did not missed much. This is definitely a drama you can stream in the background as you do other things.

There are also a number of minor Dumb Plot moments I picked up. For instance, there’s a scene in episode 5 where Gongsun Li stabs a soldier through the hand for five full seconds before his subordinates even react. Like, they did not move or flinch until she begins to flee. It’s stupidly convenient. Another example: In episode 27, the Crown Prince of Yan sends Gongsun Li a secret message asking her to smuggle him out of Qin State. But while he does the smart thing and communicates it via a code, he also “helpfully” circled his entire hidden message for her in red ink. What do I even say?

Other Nitpicks and Questions
- Why does Chengjiao wear his hair in the Chu style? Was he a political hostage of Chu State?
- That Godfather reference in episode 1 is hilarious and so out of place
- Ying Zheng’s eyebrows are impeccable (Not nitpicking, I just appreciate his eyebrows)
- Couldn’t Gongsun Li have avoided the whole ordeal had she just done her hair a different way after her wanted poster came out?
- Why does she keep getting stabbed in the armpits?

Final Rating and Recommendations
The King’s Woman as a story isn’t executed to its fullest potentials. While I wouldn’t be as harsh as to describe the dialogue, plot, and characters as bland, they felt muted and secondary to the non-story elements of the production: the costumes, the set designs, the general aesthetic. There are Wuxia, harem, politics, and war plot threads in this drama, none of which are done well. The “romance” is riddled with problems.

On the other hand, the cinematography and camera work are incredible. The crew went all out for the set designs and costumes, which are easily some of the best work I’ve seen for Asian period dramas, and kept me coming back to this series over and over again. Not to mention, I can stare at Dilraba Dilmurat and Vin Zhang all day, and I’m sure I’m not alone; there are worse ways to pass time than watching two of the most beautiful people in the world together on screen, mediocre storytelling or not.

My Rating: 6/10

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Despite some issues I had with this drama, it has so thoroughly captivated me that I can't give it any less than 10. The biggest issue I had is with packaging manipulation, obsession and the desire to completely possess someone as love. I did see pure love in this drama, especially during the initial episodes of the drama, but not from the character that we are supposed to see it. At times, it was very difficult to me to root for the "main couple" and sometimes it was even difficult for me to say who the main couple should be.

The King's Woman has a beautiful cinematography. I enjoyed looking at every scene in this show. The costumes, fight scenes and the shots in between are magnificent and often very powerful. The atmosphere is sometimes conveyed by the amount of light and the color of clothes that the people are wearing. The more carefree the characters can be, the less make up and bright colors we see. I really liked it. I also liked the music that went with it.

I thought that the story was swift and quite engrossing. I typically lose interest in shows that are longer than 20 episodes, but this one is different. Not a single episode dragged for me. In a nutshell, it is a historical drama with a love triangle (square?) type of situation, except that all of the characters involved seemed well developed and multidimensional. People change their feelings in this show because their situation changes and their motivation is governed by internal logic. Both men and women can be righteous or manipulating. This show has a high level of betrayal, revenge, possession, love, devotion, assassinations and intrigue, but people are not vile without a reason. Their motivations might be convoluted, but not impossible to understand. The show did a good job showing that in politics and in the palace you really can't trust anyone. One thing that I really liked at the beginning of the show was the balance of sad and lighter moments. Unfortunately, the show got progressively darker in the course of time. After episode 30, it becomes really dark and the viewers get the ominous feeling that things can't go right for everyone.

I can't say whether I am a fan of the ending or not. All in all, I was not surprised by it given everything we knew about the world of the King's Woman and the people involved.

I gave it a very high re-watch value because of the beauty of the shots. I already re-watched some of the episodes because I simply enjoyed seeing them again.

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Charming Couple with Chemistry

Personally, I really enjoyed this drama and I even re-watched it a couple of times.

I come back to this drama periodically to get my fix of Vin Zhang. He is truly handsome and manly. I like this height and built. <3

I think that the ML and FL act well and have very good chemistry in the show. I find the FL pretty and the ML very handsome. ML is such a fine actor. He showcases his acting prowess through how he can be power-hungry and cut-throat and yet, he can be obsessively loving and protective when it comes to his darling lady love. When he loves, he loves hard. e.g. My heart fluttered whenever he became crazy and searched for her desperately whenever she was not in his palace / by his side.

The plot is intriguing and engaging enough for me to ‘chase show’ (and to come back to it when I need my fix of Vin). Everything comes together in that the plot lines are well-linked and everything is wrapped up well.

What I liked a lot:
- explosive chemistry between female lead and male lead is definitely present
- strong and manly male lead who fits the role of king well; seriously, he can act so well
- feisty female lead who is smart, pretty, capable and endearing
- plot that is intriguing and engaging

What I didn’t like:
{spoilers}
- so many deaths
- a lot of bloodshed
- so many people do not get their ‘happily ever after’ and I’m a sucker for happy endings so I’m not pleased
- a lot of scheming

Anyway, this is a very watchable drama!!

Excellent acting!! Interesting plot that makes you want to find out what comes next. Highly Recommend!! <3

Most significantly, ML is a total charmer in this drama (despite his 'toxic love', obsession with FL and whatnot). Enjoy this drama to delight in seeing ML on your TV screen!! <3 What a man! Team King all the way!

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Vin Zhang so cool....

One word for this drama. Wow... I've never been more enchanted by Vin Zhang. Vin Zhang here is so cool... At that age played this kind of role & be this good is really something.

One thing this drama plot is not conventional, where the male lead (ML) is a good man. Here is the opposite the ML is the bad guy in the drama. Seeing how the ML never change until the end is really something, usually they became better or good man in the end. How the ending of this drama also really perfect. The ending gives me chill...

I also like dilireba here. She's not acting cute like her usual drama. In my opinion she and Vin Zhang give their best performance here.

I also like the romance between Gongsun Li / Lady Li and the king / Ying Zheng. How the hate became tolerance and eventually became love. The acting between dilireba and Vin Zhang also very supple, because they already in a lot of drama together so no awkwardness here.

But sometimes the more i think the darker this drama became. When we really want to take time to ponder the plot its actually the psychological condition where the victim became depend with the kidnapper, sometimes they became 'fall in love' with the kindapper ^_^.

So if you looked for drama that different from usual drama plot watch this. This is a very good drama to escape from boring plot. If you also looked for romance, this drama also offer that to you, enough romance but not too overwhelm. If you fans of dilireba and Vin Zhang of course you have to watch this drama, give you new perspective to them. ^_^

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Story/ Entertainment:
It’s pretty good. I mean end credits/ opening credits songs, really tell you all the story and plots. And it is kind of that love story we are pretty much seen a lot. But they way story carries out is not bad. It’s still entertaining.

Cast/Acting:
Acting is good. So if you have good looking actors and actresses who knows how to act, that helps a lot with this type of story. I like most of the cast in this series, they are pretty good in most TV series I have seem them.

Production Values:
I actually like the productions.... set/ costume.... they are pretty good as well as actions/ camera movement...


Expectation:
Just dont think too much about it. It’s not a bad series.

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Recommended solely if you are a fan of the actors or like historicals.

This has been on my ptw list since I joined mdl 2 almost 3 years ago. It wasn't like I was putting it off but I just honestly kept forgetting to watch- it's not bad but not all that great.
My 2 issues is the story got laggy. This could have totally been cut to 30 POSSIBLY 40 episodes which could have made the story more impactful. The other issue is character development wasn't really there which to me means crappy writing.
One good thing about these historicals are the sets and costumes which this obviously had- A1.
The acting was... idk how to describe it. Like not the best but not the worst either. I've seen several of Dil and Bin Bin's dramas and at this point it's the same thing just different characters- there's no range and even though they aren't terrible, I would like to see a different side to them.
Overall I enjoyed it even though it got repetitive and I would stop paying attention during some scenes but it's to be expected with these long dramas.

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Childhood sweethearts cum fellow disciples Sun li and Jing ke gets separated when the Qin emperor hunts down the beautiful Sun li and makes her his concubine. The power struggle of the harem and the palace politics are also the main themes apart from the Qin emperor 's ambition and effort in unifying all states into one.

Dilaraba played the part of concubine Sun li beautifully. The ruthless emperor Ying Zheng played by Zhang bin bin , Jing Ke played by Liu Chang (found him smoking hot) , the sweet gentle eldest senior Han shen who supports Sun li in all her decisions played by Li Tian - all were awesome.

Loved the title and ending songs.

I watched till episode 14, put it on hold for months because I found the story dragging and boring. After a few months, I watched the remaining episodes and thought would put it on hold if I found it dragging. But from episode 15, I watched it non stop and even if the story gets dragging a bit somewhere in 30s episodes and in early 40s episodes, I completed all 48 episodes. What this means is story is predictable in between but it was not boring enough to put it on hold for me, hence I was able to complete all 48 episodes.

Will Sun li be able to survive the power struggle and politics of harem and the Palace? Will she be able to assist the Qin emperor Ying Zheng in his ambition in unifying the states? Will she fall for the emperor or is her heart still with Jing ke? Will Ying Zheng love Sun li's baby as his own or the baby just a means to keep Sun li by his side? Watch the drama to find out.

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My Review:
This story is a palace love and intrigue set in China. It is the fictional account about the History of the first Emperor. Who was an arrogant, bad tempered, insidious, vicious, ruthless, cunning and obsessive tyrant and more negatives. He did everything to get his own way after he had been bullied during his own childhood. He abducted the woman he desired and held her captive cage like in his palace enticing her to fall in love with him. He trusted no one and continuously put the family under stress because of his distrust. His main love interest is intelligent, warm, compassionate, caring and and all round wonderful woman and yet he treats her terribly. She tries so hard to to be the woman he needs but in the ends he betrays her again and again and then finally she tricks him into killing her and hopes as she dies that this would teach him the lesson that he needs to be a great King. Parts of this movie is so totally sad but often you don’t cry but feel furious about the circumstances of what is happening. The lead actors do a wonderful job acting. Zhang Binbin being the main reason I started watching this his portrayal of this unlikable man is epic and keeps you watching despite the cruelty and violence and the contrast of Dilraba Dilmurat is supreme. She is everything he is not. Loved her martial arts skills. The fighting is much like a well coordinates dance routine and keeps you mesmerised. There is an unexpected twist at the end but you feel it coming and think yeah I thought as much. I love the costumes and much of the scenery and settings. I recommend that you watch this and stay to the end it will still your heart and stir your mind and senses and make you feel grateful that you live in this day and age especially if you are a woman. The end just justifies everything according to myself.

I’m watching this again and it even better. I may have sped through some unsavoury parts coz I couldn’t handle it but now I know whats going to happen I can relish the end and accept the middle.

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this kind of genre is my favourite, alpha male lead with possessive persona chasing our badass female lead with a sprinkle of love triangle however this drama was so typical that i got so bored and stopped watching it. all the events in this drama was so predictable but that dosen't mean i didn't enjoy the kissing sceneswhich were alot than what i had imagined by the way.
the acting skills with our actress Dilraba wasn't that impressive there were some scences where i was yelling to the screen "really, that's it!! " i was so dissapointed on the other hand actor Zhang vin he did deliver the typical alpha male but i don't like it when the role is alpha and ruthless but weak when it comes to his woman i find this quiet hard to believe. the plus point in this drama was that i really enjoyed the martial arts fights scenes

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I loved this drama. Anyway, it's not for everyone to see. It contains really depressing and sad. The story is so deep about two lovers who love each other deeply but they have to apart their ways because the King (qin state) wanted to marry her. The acting is completely amazing, I give it a 10/10 because they really made the efford to give us the most beautiful scenes to make us feel the way they're were feeling, the best one here was Zhang Vin, she practiced for months in order to act in Ying Zheng's role. The music is fantastic, beautiful and deep just like the drama, I could hear it a lifetime. The story is good, anyway it could have been better, but I know it has to be realistic, but in my opinion I loved Jinke and Li'er, also Han Shen was an amazing character, Jinke, han shen and li'er will always have a place in my heart. And last but not least, I would watch it again but in a few years so I can feel the same feelings as now.  Give it a try. Story 8/10 acting/cast amazing 10/10, rewatch vaue 8/10 and Overall I would give it a 9/10

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