Simple yet drags
Tbh I dont even know how to start describing this drama. Its in between light yet traditional in some aspects. The one positive thing I notice about this drama is the fact that despite the difficulties the leads are able to stick together (through hearts and emotionally not physically) and theres barely any betrayal in this drama unlike the traditional dramas where there is always betrayal between friends and one of the main lead. HOWEVER, it literally DRAGS for too long, if they cut out a few useless scenes then this whole drama could be done in less than 30 or even 20 eps. Now dont get me wrong I love a good drama that has lots of eps but this one is not the type I would like to see because although it has a lot of eps it doesnt mean that it has more sweetness than the shorter dramas. Oppositely, this one has barely any sweetness despite the fact that they have so many eps and so much time spent between the main leads. If you add all the cute and sweet scenes together, theres no more than about 30 mins which is really saying something because it has 55 eps with each about 46 mins. I hate to admit it but I think the main reason it has so many good reviews is because of the main leads popularity, lets face if it was a different set of main leads no one would even get past ep 32. The effects are horrible not to mention the fact that main leads didnt even confirm they were together until ¾ into the drama. I think the whole cast has amazing acting skills but its a shame because this storyline is TOO SLOW.Was this review helpful to you?
When watching a drama or a movie, the one thing I enjoy the most is the characters. Even when the plot is mediocre, as long as the characters are done with justice and have good chemistry with one another, I will tend to enjoy it more. The plot of this drama is mediocre, but man those characters really make it really enjoyable to watch.
Plot:
The plot is mediocre and sometimes tends to drag for an unnecessarily long period of time. To be fair, for the most part, it was difficult to completely grasp every single detail in terms of the plot because the subs were difficult to understand due to bad translations. However, I was still able to grasp the gist of what was happening throughout the drama.
Characters:
Yuan Jin Xia - I would consider her as a relatively strong female character. She is intelligent, good at fighting and is not afraid to speak her mind. At the same time, she is very much human and relatable (I find that sometimes, "strong female" characters are devoid of all emotions which is just unrealistic). She loves food, money and the people around her. She is a selfless character who is always blaming herself for the pain of others. Although on the surface, one may think she is just a typical "quirky" female lead; over time, you will realize that she is much more complex than that. It also helped that she was played by one of my favourite actresses.
Lu Yi - He's great. He is initially really cold and rigid but as the story progresses he begins to open his heart to Jin Xia and everyone around him. I have never watched anything with Allen Ren in it, but I have to say that this role suits him very well. When he is in his uniform, he looks so cold and professional (yet really handsome). And then when he is with the female lead or other close characters, you can definitely see his walls come down. I also believe that his character is really understanding, selfless and respectful (especially towards our female lead).
Xie Xiao - I thought overall he was okay. At times, he seemed way too clingy to the main female lead. And he seemed pretty selfish in the beginning, especially towards Shangguan. He is quite naive and believes whatever is told to him and is never able to read the room. However, despite not enjoying his character for most of the drama, I do appreciate that he is a supportive friend towards our female lead. I do think that he has changed over the course of the drama and strongly believe that he has definitely matured by the end of it.
Shangguan - She is an absolute badass. Although I question her initial taste in men, I do enjoy that her character is very selfless and will do anything for the people she loves. Although she technically is love rivals with Jin Xia, I do appreciate the fact that there were no women-women petty, jealousy fights. She is very understanding and caring towards the people around her.
Yang Yue - I am glad that there is a drama out there that has an "opposite-sex best friend" that is not in love with the female lead. He is very caring toward his best friend as well as the other characters in the crew. He shows his love through food, and I think everyone can appreciate a chef.
Yan Shi Fan - Our main antagonist. He is the scum of the scum. I think that he is your typical "pure-evil" villain that you don't feel any compassion towards. There is not much to say about him. You just gotta watch to see what his deal is.
Relationships:
The chemistry between the lead characters is so on point. In the beginning, they started off on the wrong foot, but eventually grow to respect one another. What I really love about their relationship, is that for the most part, they have really good communication. They speak and treat each other as equals. Whenever discussing cases with one another, they tend to bounce off each other's ideas. When their romantic relationship was blossoming, they were able to remain professional at work but super cute outside of it.
(I also the fact that everyone around them knew about their feelings for one another and secretly have been shipping them from the beginning)
Within the main crew, everyone had their unique relationships with one another. It was not just between the leads or the supporting casts. Jin Xia and Shangguan have a unique relationship and respect for one another. Jin Xia and Yang Yue are still best friends even with their romantic counterparts. Lu Yi, along with Jin Xia, develops an interesting relationship with Lan throughout the drama. Just overall, the relationships and dynamics are really fun to follow.
Concluding thoughts:
As you may have noticed, most of this review is on the characters. I just really enjoyed most of the characters in this drama (despite some flaws). If you are going into this drama and expecting an inviting plot that keeps you on your feet, this is not the drama for you. If you love characters, relationships, chemistry and some historical aspects, I think you should give this a try.
Does this drama have a happy ending?
SEOD TI SEY
Was this review helpful to you?
The male lead, Lu Yi, is your typical stoic and handsome male lead. You'll grow to love him, unlike other stoic characters, he has a resting bitch face. Sometimes it makes me laugh, sometimes it can be intimidating. Other times times he drops it and became a lovable cute guy. His little smirks gets me ..ugh..I watch the actor Allen once before but didn't have much of an impression until now. He seemed to have improved since then, he has a charismatic aura around him which I quite like.
Jin Xia is a strong woman who stands up for herself when she can. She chases after bad guys and is bonkers for money til the last episode as well. haha But in reality, she's a sensitive young woman who just wants to find her family and save her friends. She doesn't like losing people and it hurts to see her cry. Her crazy antics are fun to watch as well. haha She can be a bit dramatic with her antics which can be a teeeny tiny bit irritated. Other than that, I love the actress, Tan Songyun is an amazing actress - her crying scenes are always so heartbreaking. :(
The downside to this drama is the way they edited it and filmed it. Its not amazing and I'm assuming its because of their budget. There were a couple scenes where i notice they filmed behind a green screen and made the scene very unconvincing. Another is when they did the jump to high places cut scenes. I think the editors forget to cut a small hop before the jump onto a higher spot.
Also the villain is a freaken psychopath. *shivers*
I fully recommend this drama if you like crimes, historical cdramas, romance, conspiracy plots, and a psychopath.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
I decided to watch this because it looks like a crime solving drama. It started as such but on the way , it became unbearable romance . It is such as waste because the actors seems good and the costumes are really nice. However the biggest flaw of is the story itself. What I really hated is there are the following 1. ) there are 2 romance or 3 romance at the same time thus the main story itself is really unfocused and the story can be quite slow. eg sulking with wine etch 2. almost all character got sick. You got it right! cliche with most chinese dramas i found in this genre is they like to get sick or got hurt or spit blood 3. Too much cute moments and it fails to add any substance to the story. This make story drag drag drag .overall : I regret watching this as it not only wasted my time , I began to doubt if there are any good original cdrama anymore that wont fall to cliche!
Was this review helpful to you?
LOVE IT because of the Main Leads!!!!
I was having quite a low expectation as I wasn't really keen of watching investigating kind of drama as it burns up my brain cells hahahaBUT! This is really an exception of an investigating kind of drama that I LOVE!!
Wasn't giving it a full 10/10 just mainly because I think some parts of the production could have been better, such as:
1. Their water scenes filming
2. Some parts of the investigation got logical problem which doesn't make sense
3. Second main lead storyline was quite awkward and draggy
However, the 9.5 for this show GOES TO THE BOTH MAIN LEADS + THE BIG VILLAIN of the show!!!
Their acting just made the whole show up to the point, which makes the rest of the show SHINES :)
The main leads are pretty cute together and their interaction are very natural with very detailed expression! The big villain, I had never ever once felt so fuming when I saw the villain because I know they are acting, but WOW this actor just made me feel like smashing my phone when I was watching hahaha! Such an impressive acting and also a great character development!
For this drama, don't be too serious on the investigation parts, it definitely not flawless but in my opinion, it was not too bad too. But of course, if you also enjoy romance story, you will definitely enjoy this!
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
A romance to fall in love with and Lu Yi!
The cast in this show is superb! I am a Ren Jialun fan. He has super good expressions and he nails his scenes every time and is good at romantic scenes as well, his eyes, oh my. It is the first time that I am seeing the other actors in this show. Tan Songyun played her character so naturally and she grows on you as you are watching her performance. Dong Han, the villain you love to hate because he is good at being a a villain, he evil personified.The child actor that plays young Lu Ling Yi is absolutely adorable.
The clothing was beautiful, especially Lu Yi's. Very elegant!
Every woman wants a Lu Yi!!!!! Lu Yi is played by Ren Jialun. Lu Yi is an introvert, a hardcore Imperial Guard with an attitude, no nonsense kinda guy. However, he is also righteous, caring, thoughtful, and passionate. He only allows people to see the introvert hardcore no nonsense Imperial Guard with an attitude.
Tan Songyun plays Xia, a playful carefree Bailiff at the Imperial Police Station, who does things her way with a fire cracker temper. She works with her Teacher and brother. She is spoiled by her mother, teacher, brother, and Xie Xiao. She is loved by all including Lu Yi and he too eventually spoils her and risk all for her.
In the beginning episodes, Lu Yi and Xia has a hate on the way to love relation. Lu Yi does not fail to show Xia his Macho Imperial Guard attitude with style. And Xia gives it right back to him. Lu Yi does realize that Xia is quite smart, but does not let her know any of this in the beginning. We see how the two secretly start to admire each other. Xia of course, displays it a bit more openly unlike Lu Yi, who is a more reserved about his growing feelings for Xia. With competition on the heat of who will solve it first, Lu Yi or Xia, she nickname him Lu Demon. As they spend more time together on numerous investigations. Their feelings continue to grow for each other. Xia risks her life to save Lu Yi and he gives her what is most precious to her. Gradually Lu Yi can no longer contain his feelings for Xia especially with child like Xie Xiao and Yan Shi Fan in the mix. Lu Yi's jealous is oh my, oh my worthy. Ren Julian's facial expression kills it every time and also in their intiamate scenes. They both have risked their lives numerous times for each other and have fell hard for each other. You can clearly see that Xia is Lu Yi's world, happiness, his all and everything.
The disapointment comes around the ending of episode 48 where when Lu Yi finds our Xia true family identity and decides to treat Xia badly to protect her. Yan Shi Fan played fy Don Han is beyond cruel and plays the driver of the wedge between Lu Yi and Xia. He discloses the Xia that it was Lu Yi's father, who is actually responsible for her family's massacre. Hence, Yan Shi Fan uses Xia against Lu Yi by threatening her life. And of course, Lu Yi to the rescue. You just cannot help but to fall in love with Lu Yi over and over here and throughout the episode. From the ending of episode 48 to the mid way of episode is just criminal because of the separation of Lu Yi and Xia, Totally uncalled for. Because even Yan Shi Fan knew how much Lu Yi loved Xia and told her so, but Xia did not know how much Lu Yi loved her. Because she never thought about why Lu Yi truly changed his behavior; she just assumed it was fake. She did not investigate to see if his change in behavior went beyond her identity which it did, it was about protecting her. I mean this was truly disappointing because she is a smart bailiff and good at solving these types of scenario and she was not able to decode this until mid-way of the last episode, 55.
Throughout the series see some loyal friends, Cen Fu, Immortal Lan, Xie Xiao, Yang Yue, and Shangguan. We get to see a mature Xie Xiao at the end of the series.
Xia's Aunt Lin acted too hastily when she found out that Lu Ting, Lu Yi's father was the underlying cause for her family's death. I mean, Lu Yi has risked it all for Xia on numerous occasions even after he knew her real identity. Xia's Aunt should have reasoned, especially since Lu Yi is the reason for Xia to be alive. In this scene, I would have like the see a well put together Lu Yi come undone for Xia, a broken Lu Yi. Because this is really what he became after knowing Xia's true identity and trying to protect her and having to carry a heavy burden. And the entire truth should have come to light here, but it did not.
When Xia meets Lu Yi in jail and tells him that she did not hate him, it is just that she could not get out of it, was just lame , lame and more lame. The conversation that was had between Lu Yi and Xia in this scene, should have been the conversation that they had on the night that Lu Yi was in her room when he took his father's statement to go report it to the majesty. Xia should have know from his words because Lu Yi does not speak lightly.
While there was a happy ending, I wished that they would have added a few more episodes to show Lu Yi and Xia's wedding and them with their friends and family. But Lu Yi should have never went to jail. But he looked as handsome semi rugged and he does well neatly dressed. Ren Jialun just makes you want to engulf Lu Yi.
Things I did not like:
1. The uncalled lengthy separation of Lu Yi and Xia.
2. I completely disliked that Xia did not go to Lu Yi directly when his father passed away. His father is the reason why Lu Yi was able to find her when Yan Shi Fan captured and tortured her. Lu Yi's Father, Lu Ting gave Xia's a letter to exonerate her family, but she would have to wait until a new emperor takes over. So, I would have definitely liked to see her comforting Lu Yi in this scene.
3. I absolutely did not like that Xia did not figure out sooner that Lu Yi was protecting her all this time and that he would literally sacrifice himself for her, which he did.
4. Lu Yi going to jail was just unnecessary.
Call me by my name please o please:
1. I really wanted Xia to call Lu Yi his name when he rescued her from the clutches of Yan Shi Fan on the supposed wedding night.
2. Xia should have call Lu Yi by his name when his father died
3. Xia should have call Lu Yi by his name at the end of the series when they finally reunite.
I have rewatched this series :), could not help it.
I hope that there is a Season 2 because I want to see Lu Yi and Xia's wedding. And Lu Yi and Xia can only love each other and no one else. The same cast as Season 1 needs to be in Season 2.
I have re-watched this show a few times and still would have like the creatives to keep Xia's intelligence all the way to the end.
Was this review helpful to you?
“Under the Power” is under the radar no more
"Under the Power" had been under the radar for me until recently, when I saw a FB recommendation, which brought it to my attention again (have known about this drama before). It helps that the story's male lead is an Imperial Brocaded Guard (锦衣卫), the female lead is a detective from the Police's 6th Division (六扇門), and it's set during the Ming dynasty, which would make it an interesting watch for me. I admit, the 55 episodes were a bit daunting, but as I continued watching, it didn't seem that long since there are many things happening in the story.What I Like:
1) It's my first time to watch the main leads, Allen Ren and Seven Tan, in a drama, and they are amazing! It's so much fun to watch them here. In my opinion, they carried the drama in large part, and they have great chemistry. Seven Tan is such a revelation to me. She's good in both the funny and serious/emotional scenes, and I find her acting to be natural. Now I understand why she is so well liked and has many projects. She is a very good actress.
2) I like how the romance between Lu Yi (Allen Ren) and Yuan Jin Xia (Seven Tan) developed. They rubbed each other the wrong way at the start, but as they solved cases and experienced ups and downs together, they learned to care, respect and eventually love each other.
3) Ding Yong Dai as Emperor Jia Jing - This is the nth time that I've seen this man play the role of emperor, and he never disappoints! He has this aura that makes him convincing as emperor.
4) For the first half or so, I didn’t care much about the second couple, Yang Yue (Lu Hong) and Shangguan Xi (Ye Qing), and I was not looking forward to their scenes. But somewhere along the way, they grew on me, and I came to appreciate their relationship.
5) Han Dong’s portrayal of Yan Shi Fan is subtle yet convincing. He seems easy-going and nonchalant, yet behind this façade, you can feel there is something more sinister.
6) As I mentioned, there were many happenings in the drama – different cases, realistic and unrealistic events, infiltrating pirates, seemingly supernatural stuff, court intrigue and whatnot, such that you might forget some of the details if you skip a few days of watching (as opposed to binge-watching it) – but they were able to connect these together and tie things up in the story.
Other Comments:
1) We know more or less who the main villains are early on, so there is little surprise factor here. It's a matter of unraveling the connecting pieces.
2) The character of Xie Xiao (Ethan Yao) – He is chivalrous, can be charming at times (especially in his unkempt look – beard and all), and full of good intentions, but he is also one of the most emotionally dense characters I've seen in a drama, to the point of being insensitive and clueless. More than once, I wanted to knock some sense out of him.
3) This drama has a lot of flashbacks. While these enhance the watch experience, too much of them can sometimes feel redundant. However, it's not a big deal for me, but I just want to point it out here.
4) Despite it being 55 episodes long, the last few episodes felt rushed and anti-climactic. Some important events were not even shown, just mentioned, like they’re not significant.
Final Verdict: Despite some cons, I like and enjoyed watching "Under the Power". If you like costume romance drama combined with action, humor, mystery, and some court intrigue, and don't mind the 55-episode length, then go watch this!
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
A 3-in-1 C-drama that included investigating, romance, and historical action. We have a cunning and fast-witted male lead, a witty and independent female lead. No cringe, no boring romance story. What ELSE would you ask for? This is the best drama to start out for this year.
Despite the main characters aren't your wavelength typical of beauties, they're more accurate and sincere to the characters than a "pretty" main character.
I usually focus on the story plot and how "good-looking" the main characters would be but trust me, I'm in love with this one regardless of how they look. The male lead isn't just a good looking cover, but he is a smart, prideful, and skillful in his job field. I must especially point out that he looks so cool and sexy when he tortures criminals. xD
Mad-crazy acting skills. Full respect. I really have no words to describe how much I love this drama.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Watched because it was under the recommendation for I've fallen for you drama. Allen Ren visual is so handsome and he is able to portray the killer expression so dem well while seven tan is very cute, with those extremely big & puppy eyes. Do not like how towards the end, Lin Ling & even Jin Xia blamed and misunderstand Lu Yi for the mistake not made by him, so hurtful to see him being threaten by Lin Ling and ignored by Jin Xia...Lan Qing Xuan character is one of the best, love his character the moment I saw. Certain parts of the show was not explain well such as how did Yan Shi Fan fall in love with Lin Ling and the relationship between Lu Yi & Gai Shu. Gai Shu & Lin Ling relation could be further developed too, it is clear that Gai Shu loves and wants to marry Lin Ling but not sure if Lin Ling has the same interest or loves him a friend. Ending of the show could be better, would love to see more explanation on the future of the main & supporting characters, however, I understand that it was to due budget constraint that viewers could not see Lu Yi & Jin Xia getting married and forming a family. This may be good news to those who have enjoyed this show, one comment I saw from a website mentioned that the director's ending in mind is that Lu Yi & Jin Xia has gotten married and gave birth to a pair of twins (one boy and one girl). Was this review helpful to you?
I LOVED THIS AND THIS DRAMA HAS CHANGED MY LIFE
Okay, let me just start by saying this is such an amazing drama! The actors tansonyun and renjialun were PERFECT! My mom has grown to be a huge fan of renjialun! This drama is a really great romcom but the storyline is actually really good! The costumes and looks are really great! This drama is also really great cause you never get bored of it! I've watched it at least 3 times and sometimes I just click on random epis to watch when I'm cooking or something! And like i said, this changed my life! i had seen many great drama's before this but this one was one i was actually in love and obsessed with! The chemistry was great too! After watching this I just literally only watched chinese dramas and it's brought me so much joy on days where I'm tired and done with school! I've also gotten so much better at chinese too! Okay anyway, definetely recommend and it's also really funny and great to watch with family and friends!Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Under the Power of Love and Comedy
I actually did not want to watch this drama in the beginning because of the poster of the young-looking lead actors vs. the rather serious synopsis. But someone persuaded me to try to watch first few episodes and eventually I was hooked. This drama has excellent cast, and everyone acted very well, even the extras. I find every episodes to be entertaining, although I admit that I fast-forwarded uninteresting and cringey parts.The chemistry between Allen Ren (as LuYi) and Seven Tan (as JinXia) was great, and their cute sweet interactions made this drama worth watching. Their character development throughout the series, and their natural well-paced romance made this show really endearing. It did not take long for both of them to fall in love with each other (I am glad the Writers didn't take too long to execute).
Because he is a high ranking bad-ass Embroidered Imperial Guard, he is cold-blooded and heartless while doing his job. But in his private time, he is gentle and warm towards his family and friends, especially to JinXia, who has melt and won his frozen heart by her constant care and attention, her perseverance and charm, and best of all, her personal sacrifice she made for him (see Episodes 22-23). I loved their private moments together where LuYi gets to let his guard down and allow himself to secretly gaze intensely-lovingly at JinXia.
One of my fav episode is Episode 28 where he was poisoned and mentally regressed to an 8 years old kid. He was very cute as a child (mentally) and he called Jin Xia as his "big sister". When it rained heavily that night, he got scared of the loud thunder, ran to and beg his "big sister" to let him sleep with her; when she reluctantly agreed, he immediately jumped into her bed and grabbed her hand for comfort and sleeping. She cannot helped herself but adorably let him do so. Next morning, we see the adorable couple cuddling - only to be discovered by Xie Xiao (her big love admirer) who burst into her bedroom with breakfast. When he saw Lu Yi emerged from the bed cover, he was so shocked that he wanted to punch Lu Yi out, and then several hilarious arguments and scenes followed. The hilarious scenes were so funny that I laughed so much until my stomach ached. In fact, I kept re-watching Episode 28-29.
As for the second lead couple, Yan Yue (by Lu Hong) and Shang GuanXi (by Julia Ye), honestly, I was not really interested in their story; after few episodes of Shang GuanXi still pining for Xie Xiao's lost affection and Yan Yue constantly stalking her like a lovesick puppy, their story got boring really quickly for the viewer. I even fast-forwarded the scenes of them together, and rather just focus on other interesting characters such as the cunning and ruthless villain, Yan Shi Fan (played brilliantly by Han Dong), XieXiao (played hilariously by Ethan Yao), Lan DaoHeng (played by Han ChengYu) and Uncle Gai (played by Li Tin Zhe). The palace politics and power play by various parties were not heavy-handed and used nicely as good entertainment for the drama.
One of my complaints are the poor quality CGI and special effects in the show. For example: the under-water scenes where LuYi and JinXia fell from the ghost ship was poorly made (I laughed so much at this), and the river where they went raft-riding on, and the poisonous snakes on the island of Dr Lin Ling's (the poison-curer expert) were sooo fake, that I just shook my head... Luckily all these bad CGI was made up by the good story-telling and many comedy moments.
My second complaint is the imprisonment of Lu-Yi in the final episode 55, where he offended the Emperor when trying to re-instate Jin-Xia's family in order to atone his father's bad deeds. Come on Writers! Why waste the final episode this way? Even though Lu-Yi was finally set free in the end and he was greeted happily by Jin-Xia outside the prison doors, I felt the Writers should have spent the final episodes showing the Viewers some happy events like the wedding of Lu-Yi and Jin-Xia, how they awesomely spend their married life as a power couple solving crimes, fighting and catching criminals, and finally, seeing cute adorable babies of Lu-Yi and Jin-Xia.
This drama is highly recommended for its big entertainment value, and great acting and writing (except for some dumb silly plots - which were so obvious they're forgettable). To be honest, I enjoyed this drama so much that I wished there is a few more episodes to watch. I wonder if there will be a Season 2.
Was this review helpful to you?
