Karma is a Court Lady.
Billed as a love story between a reformed rake Sheng Chumu and a court lady Fu Rou, this is really an opulent tragicomedy about the succession turmoil that plagued the latter years of Li Shimin/Tang Taizong's reign. It is a surprisingly empathetic and riveting portrayal of the greatest Tang emperor's disappointing and much reviled crown prince Li Chengqian. It strikes me that his story is what the writer really set out to tell; all the other parallel sub-plots are much more indifferently written.The way the drama is promoted as Fu Rou and Sheng Chumu's love story is misleading and misinforms audience expectations. Yes, I know how adorable they look together but their story is rather pedestrian and is not the main meal so they end up spending an incredible amount of time apart. Neither character has free will and their romance does not drive the narrative; it is in fact subordinated to and frustrated by the main succession plot. That is necessary as these two main parallel, interlocking plots are related primarily from Fu Rou's perspective as a court lady or official 女官 with close access to the workings of the inner palace and the imperial family's private moments.
Although Fu Rou is the eponymous character with the most screen time, this is a cardboard character that is made worse by Li Yitong's anodyne, colourless portrayal. Fu Rou is pretty much superwoman - an incredibly talented, resourceful and daring fixer who finds herself in the middle of every palace conflict large and small. She comes to the aid of anyone that appeals to her bleeding heart, taking on matters well above her pay grade. She has the temerity to lecture and chastise anyone and everyone from lowly palace servants to the emperor himself! I would have loved this character to death if she had a bit of a dark side, an odd hobby or even some tiny flaw like picking her nose in public or something, anything. But no, Fu Rou is a suffocating paragon of virtue, moral rectitude and forgiveness; who genuinely believes that good deeds begets positive karma that pays off in the long run. But if karma is a bitch, then her title is court lady because there are heinous, irreversible and tragic unintended consequences to Fu Rou's meddling and her indiscriminate assistance to wicked people. Due to editing/censorship issues, we never get see Fu Rou reflect upon the folly and irony of her interventions or experience any sense of remorse or regret. Thus there is no character development and by the end Fu Rou to me is just a vapid, righteous prig of a character that I most resent - poor Chumu is so much better off remaining Changán's most notorious playboy.
In sharp contrast, Xu Kai's Chumu is a much more engaging, funny, relatable and outside of a lapse in the middle; a smart character that undergoes tremendous growth. It is a pity he gets so little screen time because he has a wonderful ability to just casually infuse a moment with comic relief. The comical antics of the gruffly hilarious Sheng Xianjing, Chumu, Chuling (shout out to the very funny Kris Fan), the gamine Princess Xinnan and Prince Han go a long way toward diffusing the dark undertones to the drama. Nothing made me laugh harder than Princess Xinnan balancing those dastardly bowls. Unfortunately the denizens of the inner palace and especially Fu Rou and Prince Zhou are humorlessly written and portrayed, resulting in some stifling and overly angsty inner palace arcs and a notable darkening of the overall mood in the second half.
With five or six couples, there is at surface a lot of romance in this drama but they are mostly flawed, complex and maddening relationships. This is due to the surfeit of unsavory, corrupt and chauvinistic male characters, from stalkers to lechers and murderers who simply cannot take no for an answer and lame brained female characters willing to indulge their flaws. As a result, most of the ships are leaky and not seaworthy enough to survive stormy seas. These messy, disturbing love-hate relationships are not consistently well written and there are arguably too many of them. That said, these characterizations are compatible with the times and the illogical pairings seem to curiously "work". They are certainly far more interesting than the usual lighthearted and fluffy standard fare of secondary romances.
The main appeal of this drama for me is Li Shimin, Tang Taizong's succession story, which I feel is what this drama is really about and it is compellingly portrayed. For a fictionalized account that takes a fair amount of literary license, it captures the essence of the main historical figures and remains astonishingly true to the important events of the day. The one dark stain in Li Shimin's history was the Xuanwu Gate Incident, where he personally killed both his brothers from the same mother and forced his father to abdicate in his favor. He went on to be a benevolent and revered emperor, one of the greatest in history. This drama is set in his twilight years as history appears to be on the brink of repeating itself. It is an intimate, at times a scathing expose on the insufferable privilege of imperialism and at times a compassionate account of how impotent, conflicted and utterly terrified this emperor and his beloved empress must have felt as they watch their sons at each others throats. In all the moments that count within this main arc, the writing holds up although towards the end when everything comes together, it is quite obvious that some scenes were lost to censorship.
The most phenomenal, multi-faceted and evocative performance that stands out among an absolutely fabulous cast is Li Zefeng's portrayal of the crown prince. I find it unfathomable that I have not noticed this actor before. He starts out as the highly regarded crown prince, showing so much promise and closely allied with his brother Prince Han. But he is slowly cracking under the immense pressure of being crown prince under the exacting eye of his father and the court and constantly measured up against his other talented brothers. The acting was so good I could understand why he sought refuge in frivolous pursuits and why he needed Chenji. I was surprised by how openly and sympathetically their taboo relationship is explored. It is the relationship that moved me the most, I grieved with him when it ended and I could see how he unraveled and gave in to his worst instincts. Prince Han is the other well written and well acted role. It is tragically comical how their sibling rivalry blew them up and I love how their bond is depicted with a multitude of emotions and a good dose of irony and humor.
I enjoyed this gorgeous and expensive production quite a bit although the story is quite dark and there are too many distracting sub plots and frustrating characters. Although the writing is at times lazy, fantastic acting by the veteran cast more than makes up for it. But it is definitely not the kind of story most viewers thought they would be watching when they picked this up and it definitely will not appeal to everyone. I enjoyed it enough to give it an 8.0 and would probably rate it quite a bit higher if they had diminished Fu Rou's role.
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Lots of Actions, Frustrating Relationships
Recently, there have been multiple historical dramas set during the reign of Emperor Tang Taizong (626 – 649): “The Long Ballad” is set when Li Shimin (Emperor Tang Taizong) came to power whereas “Weaving a Tale of Love” is set at the end of Li Shimin’s reign and the beginning reign of his son, Li Zhi (Emperor Tang Gaozong). This drama is set in between those two periods with events that lead to the abdication of the first crown prince and the coronation of Li Zhi as the crown prince.Fu Rou (Li Yi Tong) is the daughter of a wealthy businessman. She is intelligent, well-bred and strategic with a mind that can instantly come up with win-win solutions. When Sheng Chu Mu (Xu Kai) meets her, he falls head over toes in love with her. Sheng Chu Mu’s father is a general serving the Emperor, and Sheng Chu Mu is pampered and spoilt by his mother and older sister who is married to Prince Han, making him a good-for-nothing flamboyant playboy. To get Fu Rou’s love, he vows to better himself, both academically and martially (military). What takes normally years to accomplish, Sheng Chu Mu turbocharges his accomplishments in weeks, if not days, for Sheng Chu Mu is not a normal person - he’s a genius. How he accomplishes his academic and martial prowess is similar to Gump in “Forest Gump”; it is really hilarious, cute and cartoonish. By the middle of the drama, he loses his youthful tomfoorlery and the drama turns rather serious and dark with outrageous actions and events.
Both Fu Rou and Sheng Chu Mu love their families and siblings, especially the latter. He has adorable relationships with his parents and his siblings. Their dynamics are really funny and enjoyable to watch. As Sheng Chu Mu, Xu Kai brings out his adorable charisma. He is egoistic and at the same time, self-deprecates. He is playful, shameless and babyish, but when the situation is dire, he instantly becomes the fearsome and formidable general; he’s the hero who saves the day. Though unrealistic, his scenes are hilarious and I really enjoy watching them.
Li Yi Tong is a natural beauty. Her Fu Rou character is stoic and calm, and she always sticks to the book. I can’t say I like the Fu Rou character very much because I find her too inflexible though this is necessary to maintain law and order in the palace, and to safeguard herself and those she cares. At times, I find it stressful watching Fu Rou for her saintly endurance of mistreatment. Multiple times Sheng Chu Mu and Fu Rou break up and then make up, only to break up again. It is really frustrating for the viewers.
Overall acting by the whole cast is fabulous. Each actor has totally immersed himself/herself into his/her character and it shows in their acting. Every minute emotion and expression is captured. Most characters are black and white except perhaps one or two who are greyish and the actors have brought all the personalities out on the screen.
Everyone seems to be in love. Apart from our main couple, we have Han Wang or Prince of Han (Liu En Shang) and his wife (Sheng Chu Mu’s sister), Princess Xin Nan and Sheng Chu Ling (Kris Fan), the Crown Prince and his wife, the Emperor and the Empress, and so on (you get what I mean). And quite a few lose their virginity before marriage. My favorite female character is perhaps Lu Ying Ying (He Rui Xian). She comes from a powerful and corrupt family with murderous father and brother, and yet she is kind, strong and truthful. Her only fault is for being born to a power-crazy father who has no mercy for others. Multiple times she is thrown into disarray yet she takes it in stride with dignity. Her ending, including the endings for some very well loved characters, is sad and undeserving. Most other characters end either with rewards for their good deeds or retribution for their misdeeds. Having said that, despite all the misdeeds by our antagonists, their punishments are not shown explicitly to satisfy the viewers, and are just skimmed over with.
My Verdict
This is a historical fantasy with a superman who saves the kingdom and the world. A lot of the actions by the leads are over exaggerated. It is intriguing and funny, and the pace is fast. Apart from the Emperor and his princes, most of the characters are fictional and the events are not based on historical records. The writing for the endings of many supporting cast is quite lazy, with many being dropped off like flies – they are dead, and some don’t even have endings, leaving viewers wondering what has happened to these characters. The editing of some episodes are also choppy and incoherent.
Despite these short-comings, this drama is still very entertaining, and I have really enjoyed the Sheng Chu Mu character as he reminds me of "Forrest Gump" which is one of my favorite movies. As long as viewers do not take this drama seriously, it is rather a fun watch.
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It’s beautifully made and performed drama with unpredictable plots and comedy twist. Exciting!
It’s refreshing, it’s different in a good way but yet an epic historical drama! Love it!Court lady is a perfect combination of a classic historical drama with amazing and vivid details setting of inspired the Tang Dynasty; with a good balance of comedy vibe and impressive natural acting from the lead cast (Xu Kai and Li Yi Tong are adorable together!) as expected; and surprisingly the main supporting cast as well (e.g. Tan Jianci; and another adorably cute couple, Kris Fan and Wu Jiayi) which are the plus plus of this drama. They are a picture perfect of young people life with their love and life trials. The comedy is hilariously fun and the love is cleverly romantic but not cheesy and not over the top. So far, it makes me smile a lots and makes make happy watching it :-). However, I also was super excited to watch the built-up conflicts which I believe that would be happening sooner or later as the story progressing in historical drama to test the in depth acting of each of the characters. Oh well, Li Yi Tong and Xu Kai are the guarantee of great acting and never disappointment. Thus, I suspected that it’s going to be a fantastic journey to watch despite of whatever the ending would be. It’s historical drama, so of course there would always be painful scenes which I couldn't wait to watch. Then, my wishes came through. Since the ending theme was started to change from ep 28, the painful scenes have started pilling up. That’s actually got much more interesting to watch and I was hooked to the sweet ending.
My final verdict, Court Lady surely is one of the most interesting historical/political drama to date. The unpredictable story line with cleverly comedy twist and amazing cast and acting have made this drama refreshingly exciting, lighter but yet epic historical drama. Many complaining about the surprising plots and deaths. Well, how many good characters in a master piece tv drama like Game of Throne were killed unexpectedly?! Court lady is beautifully made and performed drama with brilliant story line and characters development. I just hope they make more than 55 eps to make the plots flowing in perfect pace (which I’ve heard it’s not possible now based on new rule in china, hence, it’s made shorter). But, the crew and cast has done amazing job already! So yes, Court Lady is definitely a must-watch one now! The production, story, cinematography, music, cast and acting are worth your time! It is one of the most exciting drama to watch by far; not as heavy as other historical dramas but it’s still epic. Highly recommended!
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This review may contain spoilers
Mixed feelings. Could have been good if it was shorter.
OK:- The first part with the set up of the characters. Fast paced, fun and intriguing. Many couples and potential couples look cute (main couple, Sheng brothers and their love interest, Han couple, Pirate man and the girl hitting on him). Good for nothing ML becomes a reliable son and a general. FL enters the palace as maid. Some actions and they find each other and loose each other again.
- The third and final part. The evil guys have to come into the light as they need to finalize their schemes. The plotline is clearer but it is full of plot holes as the finale is rushed. The end is not satisfactory but there are some enjoyable plot twists. The main villain's demise is too easy. The schemers who caused so many deaths get away with it because they suddenly turn good and they are royalty. But it is ok because the ML and FL mend their relationship while fighting the bad guys and they have their happy ending.
NOT OK:
- The second part full of atrocious or illogical moves and schemes from most Royals and people seeking revenge, influence or Love or a way to own someone... People start to be beaten for free,. They drop dead like flies for a word, a paper, an accusation, bad luck... Or they are saved by a scroll or by Deus ex machina .The main couple's relationship is nowhere as ML is relagated to an extra role. More schemes from people completely immature, perverted, evil with no other goal than to have your blood boil.
OVERALL:
The drama could have been a lot more enjoyable. It had numerous and interesting characters but passed their introduction, the plot becomes messy piling schemes on schemes by unsufferable characters for rotten purposes just to enrage the audience. It was annoying and destroying the entertaining quality of the drama. I had the feeling the writer piled outrageous situations just to add episodes and make money without trying to tell a comprehensive and consistent story using the characters. Some important parts of the story are obviously missing and make the drama even more erratic in his storyline.
RECOMMENDATION:
This drama seem to have been quite successful in China. I don't know how people can like this kind of drama. All these inhumane palace plots are just physically hard to tolerate. Maybe they are people to like these "palace plots" dramas.
Would I recommend this drama? No. Because:
- The leads have a too little part. It's a sham. It is not a drama about them. It is a drama about Royals and their court and palace schemes.
- There is a huge part of this drama which is only made of useless schemes, useless violence and deaths, outrageous rotten or completely dumb illogical people you can't sympathize with. At some point you just don't care about them anymore.
- Many people get away easily with their wrongdoings. The end is like : Everyone is suddenly nice nice people.
- 55 episodes but not many opportunities to laugh and cry with the leads. Surely I won't say : I spent a good time watching this.
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A drama for the 桐铃（Li Yi Tong's fans)!
Court lady is a drama that revolves around the female lead!The drama starts off as a light-hearted one with lots of comedic skits as the sweet romance of the main leads blossoms <3
In the middle portion of the drama, it starts to get more serious as tension arose due to all the palace struggle play. Fans of Xu Kai (Male lead) could be disappointed at this phase as certain episodes, his screen time is only 5 minutes per episode :(
Towards the end, the ending was pretty abrupt with much foreseeable plot twist, but no complains, I have watched worse ending than this.
The only complain I have is that towards the last few episodes ( eg. ep 46 - 47) the start scene of the following episode, ep 47, does not match the end of the previous episode, in this case ep 46. This occurs a few more times towards the end of the drama where the conversation of the actors refers to scenes that wasn't broadcasted?
This hasn't happened from the beginning all the way to episode 46. :(
TLDR;
Worth a watch if you are a fan of historical drama with a righteous female lead and a funny male lead; or, if you love reverse harem dramas. However, if you a fan of Xu Kai, you might be slightly disappointed by how little showtime he has at the middle of the drama.
MUST WATCH FOR ALL THE TONG LING OUT THERE ( Li Yi Tong fans)!!! :)))
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This review may contain spoilers
Be warned: does contain spoilers.
This drama will take you on one heck of a roller-coaster ride. It follows the typical court/political plot with countless schemes and unnecessary deaths. Lots of eye rolls and hair pulling coming your way.
Originally would give it a 7 but changed to 8 for the ending. And the cast was very well fitted for their roles which is a plus.
Thoughts and opinions:
The first half of the drama I would highly recommend. You have Chumu who is a spoiled playboy with a personality anyone would fall for. He's flirty, funny and just a very happy character in general. And then we have Fu Rou who is actually quite the witty one. When we first see her, she deliberately planned and humiliated herself to get out of her own wedding. I can appreciate that. And when Chumu first sets eyes on Fu Rou, it was love. This is where all the fun and happy moments take place.
The last half is where it falls short. After both Chumu and Fu Rou go into the palace, there's so many misunderstandings that cause them to "break up". And so many greedy and power hungry characters appear. And we meet the 2nd lead who I quite liked in the beginning. He's very calm, a bit flirty and has his heart set on Fu Rou. But after a while, he just became a stalker who literally follows Fu Rou everywhere. The schemes are heavy and we really see all these unnecessary deaths occur.
Likes:
1. The highlight of the drama for me is the Sheng family. Chumu's family will make you smile and feel warm inside. The brothers stick together and always cause trouble for their father but at the end of the day, they can all still sit to have a meal and laugh and joke around.
2. Chumu's bravery when he becomes General. I don't like fighting scenes but everytime he goes into battle, it's such a joy to watch. He never lets his soldiers down. And when he goes back for King Han, that battle scene was flawless. Definitely recommend that scene.
3. The side couples. Princess Xinnan and Chuling. No matter what happens, they always stayed playful and true to eachother.
Lu Ying Ying and Yan Zifang, a couple who met due to revenge. I'm biased, Lu Ying Ying's story is my favorite in this drama. I liked her with King Liang too.
And finally King Han and Queen Han. Let me just say, they are a couple we aspire to be.
4. The music. Anytime something good or bad happens, the music makes it 100xs better.
Dislikes:
1. The bad always last longer than the good. So many good people died like Queen Han, Chujun and Du Ning. And then the crown princess lasts until almost the end and her death wasn't even satisfying. I would have liked to see her death more cruel considering how evil she was.
When the empress killed Queen Han without proper investigation, I was done with this drama. It made no sense. She could pardon so many others but couldn't even give her son's wife a fair trial. Smh. That's when she died, I wasn't even sad for her. I was just sad for the emperor because I really liked his character.
2. The crown prince is so gullible. He believes all the evil people and sow discord between him and his brother King Han. A character who had too much screentime.
3. Chumu's lack of screentime in the last half. He barely shows up. I started to doubt he was male lead.
4. The misunderstanding between Fu Rou and Chumu. I swear they were on bad terms longer than they were with each other.
5. The bad editing and unsatisfying last few eps transitions. We waited for Fu Rou and Chumu to make up in ep 51-52 but it never really came. One day they were together and the next they act like nothing happened. Like hello....how did they make up.
Overall I give this drama an 8. I can appreciate that some characters got happy endings.
End spoiler:
Chumu and Chujun both got their girl.
Yan Zifang kidnaps his lover and sets out for redemption. (My favorite couple)
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This review may contain spoilers
Court Lady -- a historical fiction drama that showed so much promise, but became a messy wrack
I watched Court Lady while it was airing, and initially had such high hopes. Saw the production documentary videos and they have spent 9 MONTHS to construct the palace setting. Probably another 3, 4 months to draw the design. Estimated of 1 year (and several millions cost) spent on architecture design, workmanship and construction, and costume design and tailor work went into the production for this drama..... It has 2 gorgeous and good actors in the leading roles, supported by a strong cast.... so why, why did it shoot itself in the feet with the poor scriptwriting and editing work?The story showed a lot of promise too, scriptwriting was quite genius at some parts..... but it then 'set fire' to the good stuffs with poorly written character developments, overly-contrived schemes and sub-plots, and one of the WORST editing seen in cdrama history. There is a rumor that the drama was originally 69 episodes but due to China's recent guideline on too lengthy dramas, it was re-edited to 55 episodes. But this is still no excuse for the eventual product -_-" there are surely better ways to edit and compress a long drama into an acceptable length-- they could have taken out the scenes of some unnecessary supporting characters, or cut down on the regretful Emperor monologues, etc. but no, lo and behold, the editing team thinks it is alright to keep these fluff and EDIT OUT key transition scenes that affect the main plot! The ending scene in ep 46 and opening in ep 47 made a lot of viewers thought they are watching the wrong ep.... that edit was like: you were watching someone preparing to do a bungee jump, and the next scene cuts to the person undressing the safety gear. Jump was over and you didn't get to see it.
Should you watch Court Lady? Only if you are a fan of Li Yitong and/or Xu Kai, and/or Tan Jianci, else it is highly likely that you would drop the drama midway through.
There are some really good parts in the first half though. The crown prince friendship with Chen Ji, and that phoenix embroidery mystery..... the script was very well-written in these parts and quite clever, director did a good job maintaining the tempo and tension too (I was literally sitting at the edge of my chair when I was watching the phoenix embroidery part). Unfortunately the clever scriptwriting did not sustain in the 2nd half and the editing got more haphazard...
The only consistent elements in this drama are:- good cinematography, good acting (Xu Kai had some high tension and emo scenes), and the beautiful palace grounds and high quality costumes. If you can close an eye to the poor scriptwriting and editing.
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Frustrating but for some reason I still continued watching
After spending much time watching the Court Lady, it would be a waste if I did not review it ahaha. I originally started watching the drama because of Li Yi Tong. Overall, there were parts I hated and parts I liked. I cannot count the number of times I wanted to drop this drama, but I still ended up coming back to it. Let's just put it at a love-hate relationship.---------------------------------
THE STORY: OVERALL
The story could pretty much be classified into two parts: 1) Comedy 2) Tragedy
Overall, I gave it a 2.5 star, which is low but adding up the characters and plot development, a 2.5 is about the right amount. There's too less character development. Either too much comedy or too fast of a tragedy. Most importantly, the overall structure of the storyline was not very well written. I was tempted to give a higher score because of the ending, but after much thought, and with all the times I was frustrated with the narrative, a 2.5 worked better. I will admit that the best parts of the story was family dynamics, where the loyalty to one's family (outside of the royal family) is clear, but it was not really enough to make up for the rest of the story. I personally think the story would have been better if the comedic and tragic parts of the stories were intertwined instead of having it two basically separate sections.
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THE STORY: PARTS
1) Comedy: Based on the synopsis, I could guess that it was a bit more on the comedy side, but not this much. Here, we see the good family dynamics within the Sheng Family (male lead's family), and the character change of the male lead from a playboy to a general. While I like how characters change, I was looking for a more realistic character development for the characters. The whole idea of the male lead changing for the female lead was just okay at best. All in all, comedy is quite a huge part until the point that it's a bit too much, and the rivalry between two families was too repetitive.
1.5) Transition: As I was getting a bit tired of the comedy and the male characters (I'll explain below what 'male characters' mean), there is a transition to more of a serious side. I absolutely love court politics, harem politics, and schemes in many dramas, so I was really looking forward to the next part.
2) Tragedy: The moment we came into this section, everything started going down, or it was more like the comedy already wore the wall down, but this part was that last shock that tore the wall down. My dislike level for several characters just got me so mad and frustrated. As someone who barely stops watching an episode midway, this drama has broken that record. I've paused the drama so often because I was frustrated about how the story is going. The beginning of the 'tragedy' portion was a bit slow, where the Crown Princess just needs someone to shake her awake, and some people just need to have common sense. The rest of the 'tragedy' portion was too fast, where people died as if nothing major happened, and they died for the pretty meaningless things. Adding on to this portion, the romance of the main characters is just a 20-episode misunderstanding that is never resolved until the last few 6 episodes.
3) The Ending: I love the ending actually. This is perhaps the only part I really liked throughout the whole drama. After the odd people-dying portion of the tragedy part, this part was more reasonable. The main reason I liked this ending was because of the 'trust' portrayed. I'm someone who loves healthy, trustful relationships (not necessarily romantic ones mind you). Without spoiling much, there's definitely trust involved in this section. No one major really died near the last 5 episodes, which was a relief, and everyone had a good, satisfactory ending. On the other hand, the only concern I have is how one certain people died way too easily, and as mentioned before, the lack of character development.
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ACTING/CAST & MUSIC
Acting: One of the best parts of the drama! I watched this drama because of Li Yi Tong and Xu Kai, and as always, I was not disappointed by Li Yi Tong though I did not really like the character she played. Other than the main cast, the supporting actors were 100% amazing. The way they were able to convey the personality of the character and just give off the right aura was great. I'm definitely looking to watch more dramas by these actors.
Music: I did not really pay attention much to the music, so I would keep it as a 5.
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THEMES
SIDE CHARACTER ROMANCE: Other than the ending (which might have been good because it was a closure after keeping up with this drama for some time), the side character's romance, or side couples, was the best part of the drama. Be warned, however, that about half of the main side couples are broken apart, which is just a big sigh. There were some couples that I absolutely willed for a better ending, but the plot line had to do them like that; either one died, both died, or one imprisoning another. Putting the ending aside though, the romance between the characters are quite apparent although, now that I think about it, the relationships could have had a more balanced amount of power between each person that could have made their relationship better. I have to admit though that the romance was what kept me going.
THE 'MALE CHARACTERS': To put it all in a simple phrase is that it would absolutely uncomfortable watching the scenes with Prince Liang, Prince Zhou, and even Sheng Chu Mu (the male lead). I understand that historically men may have been disrespectful to women, and women are always 'gentle' and submissive. However, it was still very uncomfortable to watch how some of the main characters treated the women. It is not just the treatment of women either; it's about the way the script has it that the men made quite idiotic decisions and believed in unreasonable things. These were the scenes that I stopped for a dozen times because I just could not continue the drama.
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HUGE LETDOWN :(
This drama had SO MUCH POTENTIAL. I don’t know where it went wrong bc when I look back at the earlier episodes and compare them to the later episodes, it baffles me that it belongs to the same DRAMA. The earlier episodes were so fun and had so much spark. There was witty banter, comical situations, & hilarious tropes! Our leads were so cute and lovable. Our villains were....well, villainizing as they do. & then it all went downhill from episode 24+. Characters got weird and their actions became inconsistent.Things I love about the drama:
1. Xu Kai. Funny ass hell. Serious when needed. Finally a male lead with a personality. But halfway through, he lost his charm. Sad to see such a fun character get ruined by terrible writing.
2. The Sheng Family. Their playful banter and family dynamics gives such a refreshing taste to the screen. Especially with a father who enables his children’s crazy, silly antics ?. And a mother who realizes that her children’s lives are much more important than building a “name” for their family image.
3. Lu Ying Ying. Although she is the daughter of the villains of the story, she’s got more balls than all the men included. She stands up for her family. And has gotten them out of sticky situations at the risk of her own comfort. And she’s super perceptive & smart. Just sad that she always ends up getting the worst end of the stick due to her idiot father and brother. I really like her though. She’s a little naive at times but she means well. It’s also great seeing a villain’s daughter not follow their family’s footsteps. She was kind towards everyone she knew even her father’s enemies. She didn’t “plot” against anyone or she didn’t get “even” with others as you’d expect of a villain’s daughter.
Things I didn’t like about this drama:
1. The utilization of characters is terrible. Which is crazy bc they have such an amazing and talented cast! I’ve never seen a drama just throw characters to the side so blatantly as if they cease to exist. Lots of characters just pop in and pop out episodes with no rhyme or reason. They’ll go missing for tons of episodes. Pop up. And then go missing for the next 5 episodes. If you ask me, that just screams lazy poor writing.
2. The terrible case of the missing male lead. Oh my god, I see Prince Zhao (a second lead) more than I see our main male lead. How does that even work??? There’s literally episodes where we don’t see Xu Kai at all. And he hardly has scenes with the main female lead!!!
3. Too many petty situations that doesn’t further the bigger picture. For example, Princess Xinnan’s “marriage” dilemma. That was dragged out for far too long for no damn reason??? That entire arc could’ve been edited out and it wouldn’t have affected the main story one bit. That’s just one example, there’s multiple more that I don’t want to spoil for ya.
4. And on top of that, the Empress is literally her own worst enemy. All the crap that happens to her (& others) is literally caused by her. She is the root cause of everyone’s pain. Separating lovers, separating friends, commanding the killing and beating of innocent people without a fair trial. And then end up regretting her actions. I was so over her!!! She was the true villain of the story of you ask me!!!
5. The pacing was sometimes too quick for me. Some scenes needed to be soaked in to feel connected to these character but often times, they were rushed and quickly moved on to the next. Didn’t give us any time to soak in the emotions the actors were giving us. One second a character could be alive, and then the next second is their death? Like at least give us some build-up. Jeez.
6. Relationships. I wish they gave more screen time with all of the romantic relationships. That way we could see why two characters have become attached. Sometimes I’m just like why does she/he like you again?? Y’all only seen each other twice??? You fell in love just like that???? There wasn’t really a buildup. We’re often just given “hey they’re in love, accept it. Don’t question it.” So it makes some of the romantic relationships fall flat. But I will say that Yan Zi Feng’s love storyline intrigued me the most. Until it got weird & lowkey kidnapp-y rapey-ish. Idk.
****** SPOILER******
7) Yan Zi Feng is the dumbest character next to the Empress. He’s soooo darn yummy to look at. But his actions are stupid & makes no sense. One minute he’s not in love with Lu Ying Ying, & then the next he’s in love with her. Don’t get me wrong. People’s feelings can change. But we didn’t really get to see where & how he came to that realization. His declaration of love for her came outta nowhere after tons of episodes of him pushing her away and telling her he didn’t like her. Then all of a sudden he wants to rescue her from a situation HE PUT HER IN. So yeah, a little emotionally abusive to say the least. Thank god Lu Ying Ying didn’t give into his love so easily after he confessed his feelings. I’m happy she gave him lots of shit for it! Oh & he also kidnapped a lot which isn’t cute. So please scriptwriters: STOP MAKING KIDNAPPING A CUTE THING, IT’S NOT.
******END OF SPOILER******
OVERALL:
Anyways, this drama was the most disappointing drama I’ve ever watched. SO MUCH POTENTIAL. But it all got lost in the terrible writing. It was like the writer got tired and didn’t want to finish the story so they just jumbled a bunch of scene together that didn’t even make sense anymore. I’m just sad at the waste of all the good talented cast members!
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I started watching it because I'm a fan of xu Kai and yi tong and was awaiting some weird palace stuff..
What I didn't like.
1. I wish it was shorter. It started out well, the banter, the comedy, the chemistry of some actors. It was all beautiful but somewhere along the line I kept on rewinding back to the beginning of the episode because I wasn't as immersed as before. This shows that something went wrong with the script writing along the way
2. It's 2021 and we still have the dragging of misunderstandings that well as the viewer I'm like SERIOUSLY! again but I guess that's part of the whole drama I wish it didn't drag out as much! Like the xinnans marriage dilemma like what even???
Misunderstanding between the mL and FL by the time I was dropping it they were still at odds.
The whole palace drama shenanigans and schemings, I enjoy a good scheme but honestly this was too much one after another after another. People were dropping like flies, honestly I don't even want to add on the fact that it seemed the villains were fighting to see who would have the worst best schemes to annoy the audience.
3. The leads become supporting characters like how??? For example xu Kai gets like 5 min per episode!!( Exaggeration but that's how it felt like). Just like they gave too much attention to wen you and FL in the moon brightens for but that's another story.
LIKED
1. XU Kai and his family.loved it enjoyed their chemistry especially with his brothers it was nice to watch.
2. chumu growing up and becoming a general. His fighting scenes were interesting to watch.
3.my favourite girl who saw the good in everyone even the evil uncle!! Ying Ying, I actually enjoyed watching her.
4. Music wasn't that bad.
5.some plot twists were unexpected at least that gave it it's 'moments'
Characters
Apart from the leads who ended up being support roles at some point did their part but I wish Fu rou was flexible with her character she kind of flatlined at some point halfway.
The crown Prince even though his character was annoying as a fly , his acting actually surprised me..
The empress aargh have no words her own worst enemy.
All villains did their villainy and for me to actually dislike them they must have done something wrong or right can't really say.
Overall
Well, it shouldn't have been called court lady rather palace schemes, or villains almost win.. cause the romance between the leads was like ten episodes or so.. I didnt even finish it and I'll just assume that it was rushed in the end or something wasn't satisfactory.
Would I recommend? If you are a fan of xu Kai and li yi tong sure and enjoy villains fighting for who is bad , palace shenanigans and historical dramas sure try it but for me I was really disappointed.
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Great Drama Recommend
I think this is a really great drama. Both female and lead male are great actors I really love them both and I really enjoyed the chemistry in this drama. FL is a smart and strong character. ML was once a useless person and then becomes someone strong. Not only the FL and ML story was good I also enjoyed all the other characters story lines. I was excited for each episodes. The beginning is super funny and then towards the middle it gets super like intense and sad but I believe it’s going to be in happy ending overall I really enjoyed all the episodes that I have watched and I would totally recommend this to anybody who loves custom dramas.Was this review helpful to you?
Starts Strong, Devolves into Madness
The main story is about one woman's quest for marriage. Then there are two seperate revenge stories interwoven around that, yielding a long list of secondary characters.The FL wasn't a push-over, immature, or an idiot, though truth be told, she needed constant saving from those around her.
Some of the side character story archs were far more interesting than the main plot. The ML, was a philandering jackass in the beginning (Hey, I caught that homage to 1962 Tom Jones!) , but gradually became a loyal friend and then a lover to the FL. That transition was nice to see. The FL had no character developement at all. She simply used her maturity and diplomatic skills to survive court life as best she could.
The FL's story arch was one of pure survival, as she really didn't have the lifestyle to do anything but try to keep her head attached to her body. She was smart, but I couldn't understand why three men were running after her, except for the fact that she was the FL. I mean, are survival instincts that rare and attractive to so many men? She looked rather average, if I may be so bold (besides her beautiful skin, that is). The actress playing the FL either had absolutely no emotional range, or the director decided she must be stoic and emotionless for the whole drama. Are emotionless Hanfu humanoids smarter looking by default? I don't know, but I hated that she couldn't emote through her facial expressions at all, this really bothered me a lot. To me, acting is reacting, and reacting means facial expressions. She also had a really bland personality.
Prince Zhou managed to survive court life, and was a very serious character without being a completely expressionless icicle. Likewise, the crown prince was largely stoic, but still managed to emote through his facial expressions. Only the FL remained annoyingly icy throughout. Also, incredibly stubborn, since at some point she has the ability to escape court life (which she voluntarily committed to, and knew what she was getting into, so I didn't feel any empathy for her at all). She decides to go back to court, without knowing whether this will literally kill her or not, for no damn reason!!!! I mean, come on!!
That just made her unbearable and I didn't watch the last few episodes because of this. Xu Kai was excellent here, but he didn't outshine the Crown Prince and the other prince.... whose name I will look up.... Prince Zhou. Prince Zhou had more chemistry and interests in common with the FL (FL had no personality, so that wasn't even an option), so it made no sense why she would choose the ML instead, since she was such an icicle of a character that I don't believe she knew where her heart was located, and if she followed her head, she would pick the man who is most suited to her, which was Prince Zhou.
Most storylines apart from the two princes and the princess, were so melodramatic that I couldn't stand them. I mean, two of these side stories were about tricking men into gaining sexual power over them, and in both these storylines, the female character, who had shown a certain level of intelligence, at least, devolved into a perpetual victim, making one bad choice after another. This one trope of a female tricking a male character into sex with her by pretending to be someone else is nothing short of rape. Imagine if a male character did that!!! This trope needs to stop immediately!
And lastly, the love stories of the ML's brothers were super cute, and relatively simple, and less is more when you have 7-8 seperate character stories in one drama. Overall, the cinematography was excellent, the storylines were a mixed bag, but there were two cute side ones, and one at least interesting one with the Crown Prince, even though the Crown Princess didn't deserve to be pardoned ever, and I don't even care if she felt slightly guilty after what she did.
Oh, there was the best romance story of all with the ML's sister and her prince husband. But my heart was with the best character in the whole drama, which was Prince Zhou, and he was the saddest victim of circumstance of all, and deserved better than he got. Also, my god he had a low and sexy voice, completely wasted on the FL, who was supposed to be smart, but evidently wasn't smart enough to recognize a diamond when one falls in her lap, so to speak.
There were some intolerable melodramatic side character stories as well, but I don't want to waste my time writing about those. It's a tolerable series, if you skip over large chunks and entire storylines from it. It did start off really well, besides the FL having no personality whatsoever, and only in the mid-later episodes did it devolve into unrealistic melodrama. I would watch it just for Prince Zhou.
Ahhhh... Prince Zhou.... a manly man character with the sexiest baritone voice in Chinese dramaland. It was worth it just to meet you, my friend. I would give you my real phone number. Call me.
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