Excellent Acting and Production
This is the true story of the mother of China's First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang. How close this story to the real events happened more than 2,000 years ago is anybody's guess. However, many of the main characters in the story were actual people during that time. Since this is a true story, the "real romance" parts are limited. So if you are a romance buff, you may likely be disappointed.This drama depicted the arduous journey Hao Lan had gone to survive the various palace politics, scheming, back stabbing, both in the Zhao palace (where she was from) and Qin palace (where she was married to). She helped her son become the King of Qin, who ultimately became the First Emperor of China, unifying the various kingdoms.
The cinematography of this drama is epic, the acting is excellent, and the story is exciting. One can tell that the director and his crew put in a lot of effort into making this drama. Every detail was taken care of. Everything was done close to perfection.
I love the color palette of the scenes, especially the costumes, the interior designs and decors, and the gardens. I find myself binge watching a lot. However, having said that, I find the palace politics overwhelming, and at times, I could get pretty exhausted.
This is a serious, no nonsense drama. It can get quite dry for some people who are not into history. For me, I love history and I am especially intrigued by Chinese history.
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Excellent Production
[Note to fans of Yanxi Palace: Please treat this drama as a separate story from Yanxi. If you have seen production spoilers on the internet, please ignore them. It's best to view this drama FRESH.]The story takes place around the end of the Warring States Period in China (475-221BC) and it highlights the conflicts between the Qin and Zhao States. The three main characters enter the story as Li Hao Lan (born to the imperial censor in Zhao) is banished from home and sold to the merchant Lǚ Bu Wei. Later, they meet the prince from Qin who is kept as a hostage in Zhao, Ying Yi Ren. With their help, Ying Yi Ren escapes Zhao, becomes the King of Qin, and later passes the throne to his son and heir, Ying Zheng (later known as Qin Shi Huang -- the first Emperor to unify China). Li Hao Lan is Ying Zheng's mother and she later becomes the Empress Dowager.
This drama is high-quality and unique: story, cast, costume, setting, music, etc. The characters are complex and have layers/depth. The story is for members in the audience who enjoy thinking about the story and characters , long after the episodes reach their conclusion. This drama has several complex hidden messages for the viewers. Each main and supporting character has their own lessons to share. The main story and its deeper meanings are clear for everyone in the audience to interpret in their own way...
There are many memorable characters in this drama -- main and supporting roles. Their story lines and subplots are highly enjoyable!
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Thrilling & Addictive
THE LEGEND OF HAO LAN (Hao Lan Zhuan) was a rollercoaster ride from start to finish, a powerful story of one woman's rise from the ashes to the Empress seat and beyond. First of all, even though the ending felt somewhat uncertain and unsatisfying, I truly loved this show, though it certainly had its shortcomings. It is a historical reimagining full of unpredictable twists and turns, fatalistic characters and a high tension plot. Be in mind, however, this drama is more political than it is romantic and at times this series builds false hopes in that department.Many people compare this series to Story of Yanxi Palace, mainly because of the similar casting lineup and high quality. These stories should not be compared otherwise, as they are drastically different entities featuring completely different eras, storylines and motives.
Taking place in the Warring States era not long before the gradual unification of war-torn China, this series opens up to a grand political stage in which the rising conflicts between the Qin and Zhou states become increasingly heated. The political storyline is brimming with tension and packs a hard punch, though the pacing is occasionally hindered by some pointless strife and redundancy, as well as some far fetched scenarios.
The character of Hao Lan, as played by Wu Jinyan, was such a relatable, powerful, yet deeply flawed heroine. There is so much complexity there. Li Hao Lan is a deeply tortured character who overcomes many horrible obstacles in her path, growing in strength and cunning as she climbs the political ladder. It's hard not to immediately empathize with her from the beginning as she pledges never to be used and disrespected again. Her character is full of vulnerability and boldness.
It's often tragic what Hao Lan has to face and how it inevitably changes her, for both better and for worse. I love how this series showcases her strengths and weaknesses, and never tries to convince the viewer that she is a saint, as some dramas tend to do with their leads. Wu Jin Yan is really an amazing actress, whose versatility causes her to be so compelling in her roles. She is so believably witty, bold and has such an emotional range as an actress. Brilliant to watch.
Another exceptionally brilliant aspect was the highly (overly) ambitious character of the cunning merchant-businessman Lü Buwei, acted by Yuan Nie. Lü Buwei is a very amazing character with such an overbearing ruthless personality and intense political ambition, while at the same time very charming and pitiful. Yuan Nie is awing in this role where his character is so believably complicated and conflicted. He has an amazing stage presence as well, and that is easily seen in every physical gesture, confident declaration, temperamental outburst, passionate confession, and down to his subtle calculating expressions and mannerisms. He plays an unforgettable character here.
Lü Buwei is an unwavering force of nature in this series and his character story provides a strange mixture of tragic satisfaction to see him strive, achieve and suffer loss- a character whose strengths are also his weakness. Almost self defeating. I found myself constantly rooting for him despite his almost deplorable villainous tendencies. He is an excellent depiction of an antihero in my opinion and I found him insanely compelling and charismatic, and his lifelong entanglement with Hao Lan was endlessly mesmerizing.
The relationships (partners, friendships, romances) aspect of this series is often very tragic, toxic and twisted, with many one-sided loves, vengeful partners, back stabbing, misunderstandings, betrayals, losses etc. Hao Lan and her love choices are no different, sadly. Add to that there were quite a few characters (villains) that were driven by unrealistic motives and over the top emotions, far too many to name honestly, but thankfully some had last minute epiphanies or redemptive motives revealed. At times this show felt very bleak and stressful feeling. One thing I truly loved was the unshakable friendship between Li Hao Lan and Physician Yin Xiaochun. Beautiful. I also really liked the "three musketeers vibes" between Hao Lan, Lü Buwei and Yi Ren.
Although this is a pretty dark series, there was so much to love. With an amazing memorable cast, cracking character chemistry, tense storyline, political intrigue, beautiful music scores (opening credits included), great sets, locations, costumes, and artistic design. Overall, this was a very great series and had me hooked. There are many great underlying themes as well, such as women's equality, ambition, freedom etc. In some ways this is an ode of feminism as well. And even though I still feel ambiguous about the ending, it's given me so much to think about. Loved it.
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WARNING- Spoilers ahead! I think this drama should have a higher rating. I love historical dramas of this kind. Although 62 episodes is long for my taste, the pacing was really good. Sure it had a few draggy parts but the episodes still held my attention due to the fact that I was anxiously anticipating when the three leads would finally be able to leave Zhao state. The romance part is subtle but still good you can see chemistry between Hao Lan and Yi Ren. Even the Hao Lan and Lu Bu Wei chemistry was good. I was having second male lead syndrome in the beginning as I thought Hao Lan would end up with Lu Bu Wei since the synopsis wasn’t clear (good thing as it kept me in anticipation). Even after Hao Lan and Yi Ren got together it’s brilliant how the writers keep the viewers guessing if Hao Lan truly loves Yi Ren and not Lu Bu Wei anymore and that Yi Ren still truly loves Hao Lan after being king. My take was, in the end Hao Lan and Yi Ren truly had a deep love for each other without explicitly saying so and that was a happy ending for me. The only part that I did not like was the few episodes towards the end with Hao Lan and young Duke in love with her, but I guess plot was needed to spark the ambition of the young Ying Zheng ( good acting by the way and pleasantly surprised he plays Uncle Wu Zhu in Joy of Life). I was not liking how Ying Zheng was temperamental as I wanted him to be like Yi Ren but then that temperament fits the personality of how a fearless and great king Qin Shi Huang should be. All the other actors played their characters well. As for the technicals, cinematography, costumes and OST are excellent. Overall, this drama should have a higher rating. I have seen only 2 episodes of Yanxi Palace and dropped it so I don’t know what the deal is with comparison due to having the same actors, maybe I should continue to watch it to find out. But this drama I highly recommended, give this drama a chance and watch until the end. Was this review helpful to you?
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*TAKES DEEP BREATH*
Final Verdict:7.5 Stars out of 10.
-1 Star for insane pacing.
-1 Star for the 1000 over-the-top villains & their ridiculously over-the-top personalities.
-1/2 Star for the time skips(not one but TWO of them), which are a personal hate factor for me.
I wanted to love this show, my complaint would be the pacing. If they put a little moderation in everything this show would be beyond brilliant. Instead everything is a wee bit over the top.
Bad Guys:
Princess is a psycho.
Queen is a psycho.
Almost-married-to-Prince is a definite psycho.
New concubine/princess/whatever? Yup. Fo Shizzle a Psycho.
The characters are too "much" to be believable. On top of that the sheer number of almost-got-murderized-but-didn't traps is dizzying.
Got caught in a trap. Prison. Almost died but didn't. Got caught in a new trap next episode. Got beat THEN sent to prison and almost died a traitor but didn't. Next episode got caught in a trap in order to trap someone else in a trap and got beat and sent to prison and released again in the nick of time.
*TAKES DEEP BREATH*
Anywho... my personal opinion is that if there was some build up & story-telling in between these 100+ traps, some more in depth character building rather than Characters 1-10 = Psychos, Character 11 & 12 = Good Guys, & Characters 13 & 14 random wishy-washy peeps, then this show would be at my top 5 of all time in C-Drama land. For now, it's enjoyable to pass the time, but too fast paced & too over the top with its characters to quite become something super special. But I'm still going to watch and enjoy this show for sure.
ETA 02/19/19:
Soooo I've been cheating and watching the raw videos in advance. I'm pretty far in and pretty sad about how things are going since I'm not a fan of "time skips" because I don't feel they're ever done well. Hao Lan has two time skips. 8 years and the next one soon after another (at least) 8+ years. I'm not a fan and from what I'm watching it's a LOT of heart ache in the show constantly without much to "look forward to" as a viewer. I'm going to watch it in its entirety, but I can tell already this will not (unfortunately) be leaving a good taste in my mouth. I hate that because it has everything that SHOULD make it amazing... but the most important thing and that is believable pacing and viewers connection/investment to & in the characters.
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Very Disappointed!
This Drama Series was going fine and I thought I was going to love the storyline until I got to episode 29. I don't know what happened to the storyline but it definitely went to the left! Very disappointed and thought this was going to have a great romance storyline to this. I did watch it to the end and maybe skipped a few episodes to see the ending. I burst out laughing when I saw a naked man run across the screen looking like he was wearing a diaper. I was in so much pain doing so. I couldn't digest even the ending part. I'm sorry, wishing that the writers would have kept with the storyline with the 3 main leads in the first 29 episodes.I really felt sorry for the actors and actresses especially for Wu Jin Yan, Mao Zi Jun, and Nie Yuan. *sigh*
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I actually binge watch this series for two days because I can't wait to find out the next episode. I was captivated by the characters. Though I don't really find the lead actress to be beautiful but I'll definitely give her performance a two thumbs up or even for everyone.
The unfolding of the plot was done well and the twist and turns was delightfully anticipating. Also, there's not much fillers in this series which normally dominates any Chinese dramas. I would say Bravo!
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Beautifully done, cast is awesome!
I haven't watched Story of Yanxi, so I didn't have any preconceived ideas of before watching this show.I enjoyed this series alot. Most of the plotlines have already been covered by other reviews... so i'll just share the bits I loved about the show. The plot isn't exactly fresh - in fact - since it's based on history you can pretty much guess where all of it is going.
Predictable... but...
I loved the clothes, the sets, and the interactions among the main characters.
To be honest, the show might as well be renamed as "The Legend of Lu Bu Wei and the Prince of Qin" because much of the show is really about how these two men make it all the way to the peak of power -and Hao Lan is just the side act! And I'm not a fan of Hao Lan's character; I think she is too hot tempered for her own good and makes bad decisions repeatedly... although she does wise up and impresses me a bit more when she finally becomes the Queen of Qin.
But the best part of the show is the interactions between her and all those around her that makes the show very watchable.
This series is about friendship and a very mature, ambitious kind of love - don't expect any saccharin scenes - it's not that kind of romance.
Lu Bu Wei and Haolan
The chemistry between the these two was what kept me going. Lu Bu Wei's love for her was deep, fiercely loyal, slow-burn and downright exasperating...but his character is one of my most favorite male leads of all the C Dramas I've watched. My only disappointment is that the series did not show them getting back together in the end (despite historians saying that they resumed their affair after the King died). In most C Dramas, the male lead almost never says anything romantic to the women they love. But in this series, what I LOVE most is when Lu Bu Wei says the most ROMANTIC things to Hao Lan (in the most manly way ever) whenever he wants to atone for behaving badly, and it completely melts her heart (and mine too)! She's completely mush when he launches into his confessions of love! "Losing you is like losing my eyes or one hand - losing the fun of living life. How can one do this to himself? So please forgive me!"! LBW's only weakness is his father (who keeps ruining his love-life). He wants to put business before pleasure, and his ambition above love. But no matter how hard he tries, he can't stay away from Hao Lan, and whenever it suits him, he barges into her room and passionately grabs her while confessing all these sweet nothings! And we know he means every word of it; it's just that his timing is SO BAD !! He's the ultimate rogue! My favorite scene is still the one where he hides in her bed (this is towards the end of the series) and after all this time, he can STILL make her throw a hessy-fit like a school girl in love. He says "If I really wanted to take advantage of you, would you be able to resist?" She says "Given your status and power now, you can have any beauty in the land or even the world!" and he looks at her slyly and replies with his shameless grin "But I've looked at only one woman. And I MUST have her!" Lordy, I love these two together!
YiRen/Zichu and Haolan
At first we think that Lu Bu Wei is the only handsome and smart guy in the show.. but Yi Ren/Zichu turns out to be EVEN more brilliant, cunning and dashing! I loved his character too... and if I were Hao Lan, it would be very hard to choose btween the two men in her life. He is the classic handsome gentleman who comes across as the underdog in the first half of the show and then rises into this amazing monarch who deserves every moment of success! The respect and effort to woo Hao Lan is enough to make any woman swoon - coming to her rescue whenever she is in trouble, and lending her a shoulder to cry on whenever Lu Bu Wei hurts her. While calm, soft-spoken and cultured, he is not afraid to pursue what he wants (he shares this trait with Lu Bu Wei, which is why they get along superbly). He strategizes with great precision - both in his bid to claim his throne AND to win over the woman he loves. He moves in swiftly to claims his prize when his plan comes to fruition! I'm totally blown away by his brilliance too.
Lu Bu Wei and YiRen/Zichu
It's not often when 2 male leads who like the same woman also become best friends and collaborators, and here's where Legend of Haolan is different from the others. These two men want the same things and moreover, they NEED each other so badly. One cannot get their objects of desire without each other. LBW is his ticket to seizing throne, and Yi Ren is his ticket to rising above merchant class and become the powerful man in China (besides the King)! Despite loving the same woman they close one eye for each other for the sake of power, wealth and nation. Theirs is one of the greatest King-Chancellor alliances in history - they are both brilliant men with great minds and enormous courage - they literally shared the throne AND the love of same woman. The scene they had together in the King's bedroom before he passes away was an emotional one for me. It pretty much sums up their friendship. the King loved and trusted him so much, that he left behind his empire, his crown prince and to Lu Bu Wei.
It's a VERY GOOD WATCH !!
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Emotionally charged historical journey
The first few episodes were a bit of hit and miss for me as the sets did not look realistic enough and the acting was a bit stiff. Stick with it and you’ll soon be rewarded with nicer looking sets, mesmerising costumes and an engaging storyline as the romance starts building up.It was interesting to see that most of the villains were not totally evil and had their own reasons for their actions and that they too had their own suffering. Because the drama is set over many decades, you could also see some characters going through many different changes, some for the better and some for the worst. While I hated Princess Ya, her heart-to-heart talk with Hao Lan and her love realisation in the end touched me.
I also enjoyed the many reveals throughout showed which gave an insight into how clever some of the characters were especially Lv Buwei, Hao Lan and Prince Yiren. They not only worked together towards a common goal but also did their fair share of baiting each other for different purposes (eg putting a hole in the Queen’s bedroom so she would have to stay at the King’s palace and she leaving the palace knowing he would come after her to bring her back). Even villains like the evil Zhao Queen was captivating as she understood so much more than the Zhao King and executed so many smart moves.
It’s a man’s world… such a sad underlying theme that many of female characters lamented. Although noble by birth or living as a princess, consort or queen, it was heart breaking to see how they were not happy primarily because of the many restrictions they faced and how their destiny was controlled by men in power.
The more I got pulled into this drama, the more emotional I got whenever I heard the opening theme song. Despite not understanding the lyrics, I teared up every time I heard the sad melody and haunting vocals.
One of the best writing in this drama was when Lv Buwei had his final conversation with the King of Qin. One of the most memorable (and frustrating) moment for me is how the King of Qin settled things on his own leading to Hao Lan misunderstanding him. I felt so sad for her as she was not able to get proper closure.
When the drama continued on with Hao Lan’s son ascending the throne, it became less engaging for me but still ok as I was curious to see how closely the story would follow the historical records.
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Great Potential, Boring Product
The core of this story was about the rise of Qin Shi Huang, and the rise and fall of Di Taihou (posthumous title) and powerful merchant turned politician Liu Buwei. Right from the opening and the first episode of this show, the audience were presented with a dark and gloomy but faced paced, information filled storyline. Any moment with my eyes away from the screen meant I had missed an important or key event in the story. Warning: Possible Spoilers and Lengthy Review AheadNot all stories are meant to have a happy ending, and I believe this was the perfect ending to this story. I heard about the final scene being deleted, and it was said that it may be because it was historically inaccurate. However, I think it wouldn't have suited the story at all, and would have rather brought down the quality. Right from the beginning, Li Hao Lan and Liu Buwei were too alike to have ever worked out. They were both extremely ambitious and self serving to really play out a sweet romance, which would been quite out of place in an era like the Warring States Period.
Speaking of ambition, Li Hao Lan was a really ambitious woman. I couldn't really see it at first. Li Hao Lan was a young girl who had been betrayed by her supposed lover (a man) and her father (also a man) and treated horribly as an asset/tool by Liu Buwei (another man). Once Li Hao Lan entered the palace, and became the Queen's attendant, a majority of her time was spent watching and learning from a Queen who loved herself more than anyone else. Growing up and learning from someone like this left quite a mark on Li Hao Lan's character. Li Hao Lan also came to love herself more than anyone else when she learnt that the men in her life prioritised their ambitions over their loved ones. Wu Jinyan did an amazing job, just that she could have had more facial expressions.
There was quite a few details that directed my attention to her possibly having been more ambitious than shown. First off, she remained married to Yiren even though she had feelings towards Liu Buwei. Secondly, she barely threw a temper tantrum before recovering from the fact that Yiren had left her and her son behind for 8 years and married another woman before she took on the task of becoming empress. She kept saying that Lu Buwei and Zichu never discussed with her or respected her, but somehow kept falling for their tricks, without harming herself, till Zichu died. Eventually she eradicated all possible threats around her son, Ying Zheng, and pushing him onto the path for success taking down her long time ally Liu Buwei with her. Just a side note, her son's goals to stop war by unifying the states was very in line with Hao Lan and Xiao Chun's disgust for violence and war. While she never held power as a ruling figure she did live out her life in solitary comfort as the King's mother till her death. Out of all the men in her life, the only man she probably ever loved was her own son.
Wu Jinyan did an amazing job portraying Li Haolan. The only complaint I would have is that her facial expressions are still lacking something, it just feels standard and cold across all the characters I have seen her play. Seeing her constantly play characters that are smart, witty and full of justice, it was quite refreshing to see her take on the role of a mother who spoiled her son and someone who advocated for women.
Nie Yuan didn't make as much of an impact for me but it was quite refreshing to see him get bullied by Hao Lan after watching him be all arrogant and powerful in Yanxi Palace.
The Queen of Zhao was one of my favourite characters, being the hardest one to understand. She herself was a young girl full of love and dreams, who grew up to reality and gained a twisted character that loved her daughter and her husband in a cruel way.
Qionghua's unyielding character was also a remarkable one that played a part in moulding Hao Lan's character. In fact when Qionghua spoke about being herself all I could think of was Peeta's iconic line about 'not letting them change him' and 'being more than just a piece in the games'.
Princess Ya kind of grew on me, and I loved her at the end. In fact I only could appreciate her character as I reached the end of the drama, she was someone who misguided, arrogant but surprisingly naiive. Seeing her bond with Hao Lan before her death really highlighted women's role as pawns in the eyes of men while they battled with a faux reality of a 'woman's life' and struggled to live with dignity throughout the show.
I absolutely loved Yin Xiaochun played by Jiang Zixin. She had a completely different role as a more mature, cruel and ambitious woman and I always got the chills because I could sense what Yin Xiaochun was always up to, whether it is betraying Haolan, protecting Zhao Yi or selling out Bai Zhong. Moral dilemmas, secrets, love interest(s), you could have a whole other seperate drama for her storyline alone. The acting was just perfect.
And finally Yiren/Zichu, our other male protagonist, he didn't have a major role, but right from the initial scene with Princess Ya placing a knife against his neck, he played the character of a 'fox behind a smiling mask' king really well, and I never trusted him at any point in the show. His scenes were always easter eggs, and he always managed to seamlessly drop foreshadowing hints only to the audience when he had something up his sleeves.
Overall, the casting was almost excellent, and I really enjoyed just spotting all the repeating characters from Yanxi Palace.
The music was also good, especially that zither piece that Yiren played to warn Hao Lan, though it could have been better.
Special credits to the people in charge of costumes, props and set design. They did an amazing job. I have to say it played a major role in setting the mood, with gloomy dark undertones, you can see that from costumes to freshly painted walls, they all have greyish hue. The feeling of despair, struggle, hopelessness in an era plagued with war and death, with the lack of colours throughout the story foreshadowing the ending. I loved the details, like the distinct differences in the fashion of the different states, and the cups they used for wine (similar to actual ceremonial wine cups from western Zhou Dynasty). Not sure how accurate it was but it was harmonious.
The story itself was a little disappointing. Based on the MDL Summary and the brief history on the key figures of this drama, I had expected a riveting, fast paced drama on how a pair of ambitious man and woman plotted and fought their way through to the top of the hierarchy with each serving their own desires and greed. The romantic entanglement though put me off. I feel like the story would have been leaps better if the romantic entanglements had been subtle romantic tension without loud proclamations of love. The politics were a little draggy, could have been more concise or straightforward, skipped a lot of court scenes with ministers arguing the same things back and forth. The could have saved money to improve on quality of filming to leave a better impression. All the key pieces like storyline, cast, music, props was done well, but filming quality and production just ruined it.
It is unlikely I would rewatch this. While it is jam-packed with events and information in every episode, it just wasn't riveting enough to keep me engaged throughout. It took me a few days longer than I usually would have to finish watching.
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