Our modern main character, Zhang Xiao is no match for the crushing weight of the institution of the imperial palace. At first spirited and challenging, she comes to dread the inevitable and it taints her ability to connect in her relationships. Unfortunately, she comes to this realization in the first 1/3 of the show, which makes the remaining 2/3s a bit plodding and onenote.
[Comparison to the K Drama adaptation at the end]
The acting here is very good and despite numerous 'brothers' you are able to distinctly identify with them all. There's enough episodes to develop the main 5 or so brothers into complex characters. The music and production values are very high for the time period, and still stand up to the present day.
In comparing to Scarlet Heart Ryeo, Scarlet Heart Ryeo has a few cinematic scenes that really stand out and a more emotionally complex last few episodes. Our main modern character in the K Drama is much less spirited and more sweet and charming. The K drama, overall, however is very choppy and inconsistent with the plot, characters appear and disappear, act very inconsistently. I also found the side story with the mask, and the mask itself a bit ridiculous. Also, the K drama feels less grounded in politics and history.
Despite this mess, if I had to choose to watch one, I would watch the K Drama. Those 5 or so incredibly strong scenes have really stuck with me.
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Beautiful
the best word to describe this would be beautiful, theres nothing to not love about this except for the fact that chinese dramas are always so sad :( also i love that they didn't use filters and makeup to cover up liu shi shi's skin when she had a bit of acne, it looks way more natural like that. i love the music too!!! still listen to it 10 years later hahaha, im obsessed with angsty stories like this but most of the plot and people's motives seemed very reasonable and logical to me compared to a lot of the other dumb time travel dramas i've seen recently. i like how they placed lots of emphasis on the ancient societal views and maertai ruoxi's unique beliefs and values in that setting.Was this review helpful to you?
Two words i have uttered after watching the last scene of the last episode!
I do not know how to start writing my review for this absolutely, incredible historical drama! As everyone is saying, this is my first Chinese historical drama that i have watched and my first Cdrama to give my review. It was only barely 10mins that i have done watching and i am still in awed! Sure it was a slow paced drama and there is that midstream drags that we call but towards the last quarter the story is getting better, scenes becomes more dramatic and each characters begins to shine. It is like reading a book, each scene is a page turner!
STORY for me is what makes this an incredible drama to watch. It is a story of love, loyalty, trust, friendship, filial love, power and fame. What i like about this is the filial love between the imperial father to his prince sons and the respect the sons is giving to their father. Although it is a travel time story back to the Qing Dynasty, it did not dwell on the travel time genre, 99% of the story is historical in nature! I like that it only uses a minimal amount of backflashes! It has a solid and amazing plot. I was amazed by the history of Qing dynasty. Their respect for authority is admirable! I have learned the kowtow culture, it is praiseworthy!
CHARACTERS of this drama is what makes this a powerful one! Each character are brilliantly acted! Each character has its own shining moments! From the imperial majesty to the Prince Brothers to the mistresses, eunuchs, servants and of course to our heroine Rouxi! The heroine is smart, knows what she wants, she loves unconditionally not just with her heart but also with her mind! The love she has given to 8th, 4th, 14th and 13th prince are all sincere and at a different level! The friendship she had with all the servants, mistresses and concubines, eunuch and her love for her sister is simply admirable! She is now on the top 5 list of those drama characters that i loved!
MUSIC for me is what i loved the most in this drama. The opening and ending OSTs for each episodes are moving, melodious and classic! The music are perfectly edited in each scenes that make each scene more pleasurable to watch! I actually DL these OSTs and its been in my playlist since then!
I gave this a perfect 10 rating simply because i was moved, stunned, entertained, awed by watching this amazing, not easy to forget drama! Surely this will easily become one of my top best drama ever!
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The cast selected, amazing! Big Nicky Wu, Kevin Cheng, and Cecilia Liu fans!!! All the princes were great and acted great. The storyline was good too and kept me glued to the screen. Some episodes left me speechless! The whole time travel thing was fine too, they didn't dwell on it too much. The only thing I did not like about the drama was how they made Liu's character so helpless as the drama continued, nothing like in the beginning.
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This review may contain spoilers
As exciting as watching the paint dry
The drama has a very good start. FL gets transported into the past and undergoes through a dramatic character development transforming from a hoodlum to a more mature, empathetic, and thoughtful young lady. But, the drama does not do a very good job keeping track of all of the characters. FL's interactions with most princes are superficial making them very forgettable. For the most part, they seemed more like place holders to make Ruoxi look good, rather than serving an actual purpose.The romance is very long winded and takes forever to develop. After it finally ended at around episode 15, the writers decided to bore us with episodes upon episodes of Ruoxi and the 4th prince pining after each other without any movement on that story line. The last 15 episodes were unbelievably boring. There wasn't much political intrigue or romance either. People were just talking, reminiscing, and pining after each other. Even though the drama only has 35 episodes, it could've been wrapped up with a much better pacing a lot sooner.
I skipped through most of the second half and watched the last 3 episodes. I stand by my opinion that the drama is unnecessarily long and boring. Lots of scene could've been edited out to improve the pacing. The acting was very stiff making character interactions look forced and unnatural. The camera work was goofy and made dramatic scenes look comical. After the last episode, I did not feel the same sense of tragedy and loss I felt after watching the Korean "Moonlovers". In 2011, "Scarlet Heart" was probably ok. But considering how much Chinese dramas improved in the last several years, it did not age well.
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Talk, sob, kneel
This drama was produced 13 years ago. I guess based on the standard of Chinese dramas at that time, this was outstanding and was a blockbuster then. However, with the advent of newer and better dramas releases, this drama had become somewhat jaded. In comparison to some of the outstanding production like Till the End of the Moon, Kunning Palace, The Untamed, Ten Mile of Peach Blossom, Scarlett Heart had dropped from the top league in today's drama scene.Additionally, I watched the Korean version of Moon Lovers, Scarlett Heart Ryeo which was a remake of this drama but was based on the Goryeo dynasty, before watching this drama. The storyline was similar but I found the Moon Lovers a lot more action oriented with its fighting scenes, a lot more dramatic and faster paced. It was very clear why their 'Ruo Xi' shifted her affections from the 8th Prince to the 4th Prince. as the latter was hot in pursuit and was very proactive in winning her heart. In contrast, this Scarlett Heart drama featured a lot more talking, sobbing and kneeling. The 4th Prince was a lot more subdued in his approach and courting. Other than some gifts and a couple of scenes when he stood up for her and saved her, there was nothing very dramatic.
I was impressed with the cast of Princes - many of the sires subsequently became big names in the Chinese drama scenes - this drama had brought them to fame.
Overall, the acting was very good, story was interesting and Liu Shi Shi had excellent chemistry with her four suitors. It is worth the time to watch this especially for someone new to the Chinese drama scenes and had not been spoilt by the newer productions.
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You might like the Korean version better-I did
I only recently was able to see this drama on Viki, and since it was considered so pivotal to Cdrama's global emergence, , I figured I'd watch it to anchor my fan repertoire...plus I figured it would be cool to see Li Shishi's early work since she was terrific in Journey to Love---but I found myself constantly comparing this original to the Korean remake Moonlovers Scarlet Heart Ryeo--which changes up how she get's there and get's back, and the characterizations of the princes, but otherwise follows the storyline to the end. I found the K version to be more melodramatic and more heartbreaking and engaging--I found myself fast forwarding through this C version. So you may want to consider finding the K version (I found it on Bilibili) to experience this story.Was this review helpful to you?
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