Completed
Clara014
19 people found this review helpful
Oct 8, 2017
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 7.0
This review may contain spoilers
What’s that drama?
This Chinese drama about soul-swapping was a hit romantic-comedy, but it also featured the worst plot twist of  2017.
da da da, da da da da da, da da da da DA, dadadadada…
What is “King Is Not Easy.” CORRECT!

Jeopardy question aside, I’ll break down this review into cast and plot, with a few comments on production, music, and re-watch value at the end.

Cast: Being a soul-swapping drama means that Bai Lu and Zhang Yi Jie had to be good at playing each other’s characters and their opposite genders, and in my opinion they were. They were hilarious, and the majority of their acting seemed very genuine *applause*.  All the characters, including our leads, did well. The plot is very silly, and the cast did a good job not taking their characters too seriously.

Plot: As the plot is bipolar, so must my review be. To avoid spoilers I will simply refer to the two plot arcs as “Arc A” and “Arc B.” Arc A was everything you expected it to be; the story was funny, sweet, and entertaining. It’s 20 minutes of guaranteed lighthearted fun—Arc B not so much. Arc B was highly confusing and disappointing. Presumably the arc was meant to add depth to the show, but is was not needed and very poorly done.

Production-The dubbing (the ADR) was very irritating at first, but I got used to it.
Music-Theme song was annoying, but the ending theme was pretty. The rest of the music was unmemorable.
Re-watch value-It is such a short show that I would re-watch it, but I would stop before I got to Arc B.

Overall, I enjoyed this show, it fulfilled its purpose by making me smile and laugh a lot. 7.5 stars.
P.S. At the end of each episode are short skits. Don't miss out—watch them!

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Completed
Mika
13 people found this review helpful
Nov 3, 2017
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 6.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 6.0
I started watching this drama because I was intrigued by the idea of body swap, and it turned out to be a nice funny story.  
That was until the last couple of episodes happened. It felt like the writer of this show just had a sudden idea at the end of making this story and they wanted to insert it no matter what, or just had the idea all along and couldn't mix it well with the rest of the plot. Either way, it is didn't work out and they were a lot of plot holes and unanswered questions. Also, the relationship between the princess and the other man bothered me.
But I'm going to look over all that since I'd enjoyed almost everything about this drama and don't want to ruin the experience. Besides, episode 20 went back to original funny vibes of the show and it was really entertaining. I'd love to see more about Ji Man and Da Xi.

Recommended if you want to watch a (mostly) lighthearted drama with a lot of funny moments.

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Completed
yeon
7 people found this review helpful
Jun 13, 2022
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 6.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 8.5
Rewatch Value 4.0
This review may contain spoilers

It was good until it wasn't

From episode 1 to 15 it was good.
I really like the Emperor×Maid body swap part. Both Bai Lu and Zhang Yi Jie portray their roles perfectly. I really like Zhang Yi Jie's expression when he portray Da Xi's character.
The whole 15 episode were fun with some little twist and silly logic, which didn't really bother me.

But from the moment Da Xi and Ji Man got back to their body. Then the whole Western Goddess Tribe appear from nowhere. It's just a mess. Looks like they tried to make a plot twist, but it's doesn't goes really well.
The ending? It doesn't feel like an ending actually, it looks like the start of a whole another drama.
I'll just pretend everything ended happily after Da Xi and Ji Man goes back to their bodies.

The Couple skit at the end of every episode is really cute. It's like portraying Da Xi and Ji Man in modern life.

Overall it's a decent drama
I really like the intro & outro song. The cinematography was pretty good.
But because of the messy ending, i wouldn't recommend this to anyone.

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Completed
Orchid Blossom
4 people found this review helpful
Oct 17, 2017
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 8.0
This review may contain spoilers
*SPOILERS (just a warning)*

I thought this series was pretty cute. The beginning started of REALLY funny, you can tell it's a comedy (probably an indication from the themesong).

Da Xi is the main character starting off the series. My first impression of her was that she was a horn-dog, since the opening scene was here judging the appearance of other men and deciding what makes a good "husband." Her character is refreshing to see in "costume" dramas because she's not the typical damsel in the distress, she's blunt, funny and knows what she wants.

Ji Man is the other main character, he plays the Emperor of Zhou. There's no real impression of him at first, because right when he emerges they do the switcharoo.

Acting is quite hilarious. Especially is Da Xi is in the emperor's body, the actor Zhang Yi Jie had AWESOME expressions of when he's suppose to be Da Xi, especially squealing "like a girl" when she sees her crush Shao Yong. Our main actress, Bai Lu, also does great acting as a man in a woman's body. When the two switch back to their normal bodies, I was so confused seeing Da Xi being goofy in her girl's body!

Like many comments on here, the drama took a weird twist and ended weird. I thought it was interesting. The plot twist where they reveal the "dream sequence" was confusing and left many questions unanswered. For example, if it were a dream why did members of the palace remember Da Xi, if she was only in his dream? O_o There are also plot holes in regards to the Western Goddess Tribe and who they are, and why they didn't just use their magic in the beginning to whisk away the King's men that were ravaging their lands. Oh whale.

The ending was a definitely interesting, I've watched enough time travel dramas to enjoy it. I thought it was funny at the end how they end up in the future, and even switched bodies in the future (perhaps a part two?). My take on it was that, they (Guardian and Mountain Spirit) sent Da Xi to the future w/ an indentity and erase her memories. In the future she's an artist of a manga and pretty much draws out her love story of Da Xi and Ji Man. Ji Man gets sent there with his memories, and finds Da Xi (who has no recollection of who he is). And theyn their love story starts all over, and their soul switches again at the end of the drama.

To me, I feel like its more of Bai Lu gets reincarnated and maybe she subconciously remembers her previous life and thus came up with the idea for her manga. I didn't think it was as terrible as people were saying. The drama is really short, and cute. I'd watch again if I were bored.

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Completed
iyauhc
3 people found this review helpful
Sep 6, 2018
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 8.0
I just couldn't help falling in love with this rom com. I love the way the characters interacted with each other and the way everything was so animated it was so cute.

I feel like the story could have stopped at around episode 16-17 and the things at the back seemed to be unnecessarily complicating the storyline, but it's the author's story so it's up to them.

Although there were lots of loopholes and plot twists with seemingly many different drama stories being mashed together, I'm giving it a 9 for the cute acting and enjoyment.

I recommend this for anyone who wants to just have a good laugh and not think too much about deep storylines and back stories (although eventually the plot gets a bit confusing but I guess you can ignore it)

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Completed
Bali
2 people found this review helpful
Dec 5, 2019
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 6.0
Story 4.5
Acting/Cast 5.5
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 4.0
This review may contain spoilers
This is a difficult drama to rate since the plot is all over. The drama is a cute romantic comedy with, at least, 2 different plot lines and the sometimes cute short skit at the end of every episode. The soul-swapping storyline was well done and acted, but two not so much for the swapping arcs since the line of development became convoluted and confusing. Bai Lu as Da Xi and Zhang Yi Jie as Emperor Ji Man did a good job with the swapping plot on the historical setting but there was little to no chemistry for the rest. The drama had great potential but, although some parts are really entertaining, is difficult to recommend viewers to watch it.

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Completed
silva888
2 people found this review helpful
Dec 16, 2019
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 9.5
Rewatch Value 8.0
This review may contain spoilers
This is an easy drama to watch if you like light hearted cute fantasy romcom. The story not unique but still interesting. Sets, costumes and cinematography is good for a low budget type drama. OST is lacking but the background music throughout the drama was well done. Zhang Yi Jie’s acting was excellent and Bai Lu did well. Overall. This drama was entertaining. I think the plot twists towards the few ending episodes made the rating drop below 8. If you are used to Chinese drama endings then you would fully appreciate this drama regardless of the plot twists and ending which by the way is (Spoiler!) a happy one even without a second season. So, go ahead and watch this drama.

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Completed
IWantThatDramama
2 people found this review helpful
Aug 18, 2020
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 4.0
Rewatch Value 8.0

Fluffy Fun

Fairly light, feel-good drama. I love the extra scenes at the end of the episode too! They aren't related to the story line, but it is cute to watch more interactions between the leads! Bai Lu is soooooo pretty and such a good actress :). I highly recommend this drama if you are looking for a light-hearted laugh.

The premise of the story is that the king and a palace maid switched bodies and have to keep up the pretenses. They solve a lot of problems together and gain new perspectives. There are some cheesy moments and obvious plot armors, but overall, it is a cute little rom-com.

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Completed
chen358
2 people found this review helpful
Nov 22, 2022
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.5
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 10
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 9.0
I think it’s a really sweet short drama. The story starts off fast and gets straight to the point. There’s not a lot of scheme in and not very long episodes. Good if you are trying to find a short drama to watch.

The cast and acting was great. I have to give a lot of credit to the acting especially. Since the king played a very good role when he swapped bodies with Da Xi, I think both roles did great acting the body switch roles. Costuming was the best. They mostly wore one outfit throughout the entire show, and idk what’s up with the maid hairstyles, I don’t think the show put a lot of time into the costuming.

The ending is also a bit confusing, I don’t understand the entire situation with the controlling dreams and Da Xi being the queen of another tribe, and Ji Man not remembering who Da Xi is, that part didn’t make a lot of sense.

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Completed
Drama Addict
2 people found this review helpful
Nov 24, 2021
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 6.0

Could have been better

This drama has an interesting start to the story - a swap of souls between the emperor and a maid. This leads to a lot of hilarious moments as the maid is infatuated with an imperial guard captain. Demonstrating her affection in the body of the emperor, it causes a lot of misunderstanding that the emperor is gay.

The story goes on to give a twist - there is a double conspiracy going on. The maid is not who she thinks she is, and the emperor has other hidden agenda. This twist is interesting if the transition is properly developed, but unfortunately it is a bit awkward.

But the second twist in last episode was the worst. There seems to be this obsession with time travel, crossing dimension type of science fiction in Chinese drama. When it is not well developed and does not flow naturally with the story, it really spoils the drama as it stands out like a sore thumb.

For 20 episodes of half hour each, this is a very short drama. If you are not too concern about the flaws in the story and are in just for a laugh, this makes a light-hearted comical entertainment.

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Completed
Kean Aw
2 people found this review helpful
Dec 29, 2017
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 6.5
Story 5.5
Acting/Cast 6.5
Music 9.5
Rewatch Value 5.5
Initial 17 episodes were nice. They were entertaining as it is light and easy to watch. Nice comedy with a new twist. However from episode 18 onwards, things turn sothward. Could be the director or producer suddenly gone crazy or have a bad day and make a 180 degrees change of mind. The story suddenly jump to some weird story and then suddenly jumped to modern time. What a load of bullsh#t!!!  What these idiots have done was bastardized a reasonably light comedy into crap. Towards the end there was NO ENDING!!!

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Completed
8rG
1 people found this review helpful
Nov 21, 2021
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 7.5
Rewatch Value 9.0

Light, fun great romantic comedy just don't bother with the extra ending

Actually three stories in one and two out of the three are light, funny and sweet romance.
Each episode is a palace romance and at the end of each is a second, very cute very short story of our leads in modern day.
Both of these were fantastic and have you wanting more.
I get very bored very easily so frankly tend to rate based on how well it can hold my interest and if it can hold my interest all the way through...it's good.
Now if it can hold my interest all the way through AND have enjoying it on a rewatch...it is great. (I never rewatch)
I rated based on how great it was until the terrible ending.
That was a ridiculous add on very poorly written and executed as it was very confusing and disjointed.
So here is my advice on how to watch this. Enjoy the first part and when ittwists into a weird fantasy drama consider it to have ended happily and move on.
Unless of course you like a third show of a completely different genre that goes from comedy to drama abruptly added on.
Or if you are like me and cannot stand not seeing the ending....then go ahead and watch it all.
The added plot/story stuffed in at the end really ruins it though. Wish they had just ended it without that.
I swear to you it is worth watching as I enjoyed it so much.
I plan to rewatch just leaving out the stupid fantasy melodrama tacked onto the end of the comedy drama.

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King Is Not Easy (2017) poster

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