It's a 10!!!
I really love the main leads in the movie, amazing chemistry with great acting skills. Some movies have to rely on more affectionate scenes or kissing scenes to hook the audiences but the leads mainly eyef--- each other and that was enough to make the audiences swoon. You really see the transformation of both characters as they go through the hardships together. Over time, you can really feel the tenderness and affection they have for each other. Such tenderness is seen in their interactions and glances, not through words.Seven Tan is so good here as Jin Xia and she's terrifically funny, and I always think it's much harder to make people laugh than cry. She really made me care for her character, so lovable and also very independent, brave, loyal and caring. She's truly the heart of the movie. Allen Ren is also terrific here. He's perfect for this role, with his arrogant manners and intense gazes. He's also so dashing in his uniform; he looks the best when he's sneering at his interrogated prisoner (yum!!!). He looks even sexier in a black assassin outfit (tres sexy!!!). Both actors also refrained from overacting and their subtle glances and expressions really nailed the vital scenes.
I also love the relationships between all the characters (friendship between Jin Xia and Yang Yue, and her Sifu). Really love Madame Qui!!! What a badass!!!! I want to grow up to be like her lol. She's an mazing character and that episode with her in it was one of the best episodes of the entire movie.
The rest of the story was also entertaining, but I did have to FF some parts. It wasn't a perfect movie, like other viewers have said, there are definitely flaws, but I gave it a 10 because it's been such a long time since I felt this way about the main leads. I really fell for them!! Both of them!!
Overall, really recommend this movie!!! I have watched a lot of C-drama over the years and this is one of the few that I would rewatch!!
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Very fun to watch
This was so fun to watch. The plot was great. The acting was great and the chemistry between the two years was amazing. It’s I can honestly say that this is my first time saying that I had fun watching a series that is based on historical periods. Fact or fiction. This series was very upbeat and full of wits, adventure in a bit of mystery. There was a budding romance but it wasn’t overly romantic. It was more of that feelings developed over time and you could sense be love they have for each other and it was expressed openly so that made it even better.What I like most about this was that it was upbeat and the the truth is was absolutely fun to watch. Her personality was very lively and it stayed consistent throughout the series. Her sense of humor was perfect. I really liked it because I have seen some serious like this at force the humor but hers thing genuinely funny and her expressions were perfect as well.
I like the male lead. He stay consistent as well with his great acting as well as his demeanor throughout the series. He was loyal and very skilled. So that made it better.
I love the supporting cast as well. Be writers gave them enough screen time for you to discover who they were and how they got to where they were. You got enough information and Screen Time of them so you were able to develop an interest in them and will root for them. Overall I will be reviewing certain episodes because it was good.
20% romantic vibes
60% action
20% plotting
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A large part of why I adored this drama is Allen Ren's acting. At first, I was put off by how stone-cold and angry he looked all the time but it makes sense because he is an Imperial Guard. I really began to change my mind after watching his amazing micro-expressions that bring the character of Lu Yi to life. The way he begins to fall in love with Jin Xia is really adorable because he goes from stone-faced and furrowed brows to very slight smiles here and there. His expressions were often really on point and I replayed a lot of his scenes because of how nuanced they were. It is also really cute to see how Jin Xia begins to change his heart. I am officially an Allen Ren stan after this and plan on checking out his other dramas.
Seven Tan also did a great job playing a spunky bailiff who is strong-willed and stands her ground. The energy from her acting was great and her anguish was also conveyed well. I really like how youthful she was in the drama. My favorite thing about her is how sparkly her eyes are so when Lu Yi and Jin Xia make eye contact its really captivating. I think the romance was developed well between the leads although some may argue it is "slow" but I think the budding interactions between our leads were still cute and significant to watch and made it even better when they finally confessed to each other.
Overall, the storyline is well-developed and I did not feel like there was any filler episodes. The development of the plot from a cute rivalry between Lu Yi and Jin Xia over a missing map to a greater corruption conspiracy in the palace was well done. All the cases they investigated were relevant and all tied back together. However, I will say that the CGI was very whack and it was pretty obvious when a green screen was being used but that must be a budget thing and did not personally change how much I enjoyed the show. I would highly recommend this drama for people for people interested in strong female leads, historical dramas with a crime-solving aspect, palace corruption, and romance.
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historical, investigation, comedy drama
if you like investigation cdrama, you should watch this. allen run really acting is really legit. Allen Run play Lu Yi's role perfectly and Seven Tan play Jia Xin's role perfectly.really love the relationship between Seven Tan and Allen Run. its like watching sherlock in chinese version. THIS IS MY FIRST DRAMA OF RENJIALUN. since this drama, i started to love ren jia lun more and more.
in here, jia lun is a cold guy and jia xin is smart but playful girl.
Story: the story plot will get a little bit boring in the middle. but the opening episode is so wow. i am a type of person that continue to watch drama if the 1st episode is attracting.
after finished, this drama, the song playlist become my fav playlist for a week. can't stop replaying the OST. you guys should hear it.
this is one of the OST title: 心墙 - 任嘉伦
just google on youtube. you will find the lyrics with pinyin
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Honestly Too Long
I decided to watch this costume drama because of Allen Ren and Seven Tan. The 50 episode is too much if you ask me, and a condensed 30 would have sufficed. I liked all the life-saving and fighting parts between the leads and skipped most of the scenes of the 2nd leads.Like most costume dramas, this drama boasts a huge cast and good production. Some scenes were contrived but saved by the awesome chemistry between the leads that carried through all the episodes.
I hope to see a none period drama of Allen Ren and Seven Tan someday.
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A good romantic and historical series, for viewers who have patience
I had to go back twice to watch this series: they should make it in 2 seasons! Even if the story is coherent, even if I really like Allen Ren and Seven Tan as CL, 55 episodes is too long for a plot like this...The first part mainly deals with investigation added with a touch of romance. The characters are nice, endearing, the story is coherent. Despite the rather slow narration, the beginning of the drama is catchy... but the pace slows down from 34-35 on (as usual when they do long stories).
The 2nd part deals more with war, with a lot of fights, dark intrigues, etc. And there, I admit I did some skipping...
### Very bad CGI, especially the storm scene in episode 4. Not believable, even for a 3 year old!
=> Overall, this remains a good romantic and historical series, for viewers who have patience (because sometimes, the pace is very slow).
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J'ai dû m'y reprendre à 2 fois pour regarder cette série : ils auraient du faire 2 saisons ! Même si la story est cohérente, même si j'aime beaucoup Allen Ren et Seven en CL, 55 épisodes, c'est beaucoup trop long sur un plot pareil...
La 1ere partie traite surtout d'investigation avec une pointe de romance. Les personnages sont sympas, attachants, l'histoire cohérente. Malgré la narration assez lente, le début du drama est accrocheur... mais le rythme se relâche à partir de 34-35 (comme d'habitude quand on fait des histoires à rallonge).
la 2e partie traite plutôt de la guerre, avec beaucoup de fights, d'intrigues litiques, etc. Et là, j'avoue j'ai fait du skipping...
### Très mauvais CGI, en particulier la scène de tempête dans l'épisode 4. Pas crédible, même pour un enfant de 3 ans !
=> Globalement, cela reste une bonne série romantique et historique, pour les viewers qui ont de la patience (car parfois, le rythme est très lent).
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This review may contain spoilers
Tons of Wasted Plots & Lacking Ending + Hard Carried by Actors Spectacular Acting.
First of, I felt like this drama could've been better without the countless plot twist and overly dramatized story progression.To start everything with, I just wanna rant and point out how the large number of useless plot twist ruined the entire story. Honestly, they were kind of bearable and understandable during the first 10-15 episodes of drama cause that's how they usually set things up to make the story more mysterious and exciting but I never expect them to push it to the extent where I started to get so irritated and tired of it. They built up 65% of the drama with those craps but failed big time in making them work or even useful for the story.— What a waste!!
The excessive amount of unnecessary and unused plots and twists that ruined the drama even before it reached half of it + The overly rushed and mostly off screen scenes that are useful to the narrative but was excluded and dumped at the end.— The final 10 episodes left a big impression to me for being exaggeratedly fast pace and rough in terms of character closure and story conclusion. Like, they invested so much drama for the 2nd Main CPs story only to make their whereabouts off screen and even not giving them any proper final exposure? seriously? Their love story made me the most infuriated all throughout and they've all decided to give us almost nothing?! Gosh~ that was a bad writing right there. I'm disappointed.
Going deeply into my most hated story plot of all. Here comes... Yang Yue and his unwavering, foolish and persistent way of going after Shangguan Xi. Like, man! When will you learn to stop? that woman's love sick towards other man and been treating you carelessly all this time!!! Their takes completely infuriated me, imagine having to deal with them for more than 50% of the story. Wow! That was tough and I must say I endured a lot.
Also, The cinematography, color grading and graphics during the first half of the drama was really bad and ghad!! The horendous use of green screen made me rolled my eyes out of frustration countless of times. Like, are the people handling the art, design and editings are some bunch of interns? It look so unpolished and unbearable most of the time.
Hmm, It was a drama that was saved by the set of great actors and their great acting skills and character portrayals.
Story - 8.5, I wanna give it even lower rating but the story wasn't entirely bad at all. It's just that they've misused and misguided a supposedly good story into a dark and hollow space and failed to bring it back into proper light for salvation. They gave us 55 episodes and made 65% of it useless.
Acting/Cast - 10, The saving grace of this entire production~!! The only positive take of this drama is how they casted such great actors and how they performed their characters with deep understanding and accurate execution. The spectacular acting and character portrayal amazed me so much. I love almost all of them.
Music - 10, The music used on this drama was able to make the scenes either more enjoyable or sorrowful. It created an emotional aura that highlighted most of the scenes and made them more heartfelt and alive.
Rewatch Value - 7.0, I probably won't. This is one of those dramas I will keep and hide on my archieve and will only look back to when I'm trying to appreciate how great the actors/cast are.
Overall - 8.5, If it was not for the Actors and their splendid acting I would've probably given this drama a 7.0 or so. The story has a lot of unused plots and how I wish for them to remove all those irrelevant scenes to make it shorter and add a little more to the lacking ending. Definitely a drama I won't rewatch. But will recommend to people who loves to see good acting.
IF you find my review helpful please let me know.
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Just if you are interested in historical accuracy
I have started to watch this drama when it began to air in december 2019 and since then I rewatched it at least 3 times completely and several times just skipping to my favourite scenes.As there are already many reviews about the acting and the story line I am just going to add a few lines about historical accuracy.
As I have seen many historical/costume dramas over the years it can get somewhat annoying how nonsensical they are dealing with history (of course sometimes it's intended or just not important).
This drama, however, is different. I am far from saying that it is 100% accurate, but we have many things, characters and even lines that are true to their historical origin.
The story is after a book with the same name, for those who haven't read the book: the story line is pretty much the same. The biggest difference might be, that the drama story is set 20 years later then the book, but that doesn't change much about the story.
The actual main plot was the fight for power between the Yan family and the Lu family, which really happend. The Jiajing emperor is described as a cunning and manipulativ man who understood it to benefit from the powerstruggle. So the characters Emperor Jiajing, Head of the Embroiderd Guards Lu Ting and the first minister Yan Song all actually existed. Lu Ting really died because of Yan Song and just like in the drama Yan Song was banned to his hometown (in remembrance of the long time he had served the emperor), just to be executed by the emperor's son shortly after his death.
The emperor was very much into taoism, so even though our dear Lan Pianzi or Lan Qingxuan is not based on a real person he might as well have been.
So much for the characters.
Now, the embroiderd guards were a very powerful instance during the Ming Dynasty end especially towards the end of the dynasty they had achieved great power and were dreaded and feared for their ruthless conduct. The Liushanmen where Jin Xia works as an unimportant officer existed as well. So the embroidered guards were for the big cases and safety in the capital and the palace and smaller cases were first given to the Liushanmen or other similare authorities. As for the japanese pirates roaming around the coasts of Hangzhou, they too, existed. The late Ming Dynasty had a hugh problem with piracy and robbers. Even the fight for the city took place, not exactly as portraied in the drama, but it really happend.
Last but not least, the costumes. As propably known costumes in costume dramas are usually just made for the eye and, except for the recently popular Qing Dynasty palace dramas, not the least bit authentic.
This drama is slightly better. The uniform of the embroidered guards looked like that, with differing colours for different ranks, the length and the embroidery. But well, a drama that is named after the embroidered guards should at least get their costumes right. The rest of the costumes are at least not so off, that it would distract from watching the drama.
All in all very well produced!!
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Surprisingly Good
Worth to watch even tho this drama has quite long episode. Love the story and the character of the leading cast. Lu Yi & Jin Xia so adorable together and will be one of my favorite drama couple. Hopefully, Ren Jia Lun and Tan Song Yun can be paired in another drama. They have very good chemistry.The things that quite disturbed me is the CGI effect, so bad 😂 looks like a budget drama, and the soundtrack also sounds gloomy and sad.
Hope they can make the next season, but it seems difficult , coz both of the main lead so busy with the schedule of their upcoming drama.
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Allen Ren and Seven Tan <33333333
Super funny and lighthearted show with plot twists and a bit of mystery. The cast was amazing, and the acting was really good. An excellent historical drama to watch if u like comedy and mystery. Aleen and Steven did an amazing job with their acting and there on-screen chemistry was perfect. There's not a lot of kissing scenes but you can still feel the romance and bond between the two leads. I also like the second lead couple. They were amazing even though there relationship developed pretty slow. I dislike the 2nd male lead, he was really immature and annoying. Jingxia already told him she only sees him like a brother but he still causes problems between the main couple. A couple things to look out for are the special effects. They were not good and you could easily tell there fake, especially the underwater scenes. The budget for this drama wasn't too high, therefore the special effects were really trash. it was so funny to watch the actors "swim". This drama would have been a lot better if they had a better budget. There are also a lot of episodes and each episode is pretty long. Some episodes were unnecessary and made the series a little hard to continue. Overall really good drama to watch and highly recommend.Was this review helpful to you?
Slow build up romance, but never dragging. Simply beautiful
I wasn't sure I wanted to watch this, because i thought it would have a lack of romance and too heavy of politics. But I'm soooo happy that I watch his drama, it was amazing.The costume in this drama was just gorgeous, everyone was dressed well.
The acting 10/10 for everyone, they did a great job, there were never any cringy moments.
ML he was my favourite character, he was dressed very well, his outfits were all amazing and very flattering on him, I loved how unique his uniform was. His acting was phenomenal, he didn't have to say anything for you to catch what he wanted to say with no words, his eyes and his body language had many words. What I loved most was that he was 100% into his character, there was never a moment where I felt like he wasn't. His character was cold/kind inside and even after falling in love etc, he still kept his personality and everything but was soooo sweet, he didn't have to become goofy and changed who he was from the beginning, to be sweet or show affection. He did it in his own way and I loved that a lot.
FL she did a great job, I'm so happy to find a female lead who is smart from beggining to the end, who is also funny but not annoying. She wasn't cringey either. The actress did a great job with her role, I truly admire her, acting was just great and not over the top like some other female leads, it felt so real and natural.
My favourite part of this drama was the chemistry between the lead. There interaction with each other was great, sweet even though they didn't get together until the second half of the drama, but I wasn't sad because it wasn't dragged at all, the pace was great. You can tell the moments where they started falling in love with each other, especially ML you saw how he was in the beginning and then you saw how he gradually started protecting the female lead without being over the top, still his cool aloof self but soooo sweet. They didn't have to do much and being around each other you can just tell the chemistry was there, I enjoyed everyone of their scenes. I loved every moment they were together! Best chemistry I have seen, no joke. I usually never say this, but i hope to see them acting together again, that's how gray the chemistry was.
Don't hesitate to watch this, i enjoyed everything about this drama, the only thing was... I didn't want it to end lool it was soo entertaining, if there is something worse than binging i did it, It was just very good, very entertaining with every episode. Truly a good watch! You really wouldn't be disappointed.
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