sweet fun romance
I initially started this one on a whim since I was looking for fluffy romance dramas to indulge in and decided to give this one a try, and thank goodness I did. Dear Herbal Lord is a fun little drama (24 half hour episodes split into 2 seasons, 12 eps per season) following herb fairy Song Lan as she tries to woo the king of medicine Chu Zhimo into marrying her, fulfilling the wish of Jiang Qingyun, the host of the body that she now resides in.Like I said before, this drama is fairly short compared to other normal dramas (25+ eps with each episode averaging an hour) so the story is very fast paced, which is a good thing since there's no room for filler and unnecessary drama. There will be scenes that are a little confusing at first but they're quickly explained afterwards. Again, it's a short drama focused on romance so I'm not too critical of the story's logic.
The crux of the drama, the romance, is tooth rottingly sweet. Song Lan has an innocent air to her (mostly because as an herb fairy, she's never interacted with humans before inhabiting Jiang Qingyun's body), so she is very blunt and bold about showing Chu Zhimo her affections. Pair the unintentionally flirty Song Lan with cold-faced Chu Zhimo who is terrible with women, this is a hilarious pair and I have squealed at (and replayed) their scenes too many times to count. Special mention to Yan Xi for showing us that a cold and standoffish male lead doesn't mean being expressionless and being angry all the time!
To move the story forward, there will be angst, just to warn anybody who only wanted the fluff. To be precise, it's more of a dash of angst, a splash of noble stupidity but a truckload of dramatic irony (the audience knows everything but the characters do not). You will want to grab your screen and scream at characters that they're making a mistake, but you can't even hate them because from their perspective... they actually have a point. It does end happily, I can guarantee you that, so just trust the process ;)
Leaving a small blurb about my favourite character, Xiao Ziming. Add him to the ever-growing list of Second Leads That Deserve Better because he is so sweet and devoted to our female lead. Even though Song Lan/Jiang Qingyun is infatuated with Chu Zhimo, he still stays by her side and cheers her up when she's sad. Where can I find my Xiao Ziming in real life??
To end this off, I definitely recommend Dear Herbal Lord if you're looking for a light and sweet romance drama. Nothing convoluted, just Fluff (also the kiss scenes called me single in 520 different languages ;_; ).
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This review may contain spoilers
Herbal root to the rescue
I personally really like this type of genre, where a living thing/creature suddenly turns into a human. The female lead is an herbal root called ban lan geng. She practices for a 1000 year to be a plant deity. She basically has powers. The male lead is the herbal lord and he has been poisoned. The female lead as a plant gets eaten by a doctor's daughter, and now she shares the body with the daughter. The doctor's daughter really wants to marry the herbal lord, so she ask ban lan geng to help court the herbal lord. At the same time ban lan geng is attracted to the herbal lord for his herbal air If she gets hurt and takes a whiff of that she becomes better. lol of course for her to best take in the herbal air is to kiss. there is quite a few times the female lead and male lead kiss. Initially the male lead is turned off by her because she keeps asking for him to marry her. He slowly falls for her.Female lead is a super cute , and silly character. The actress who played her is vey suited for ancient fairy/deity drama Wouldn't say the male lead is super handsome but he's not that bad looking. I would give their chemistry and romantic part of the story a 9/10. They are super cute and have a lot chemistry when they kiss. Some are pretty passionate, they make it believable. It's also just really cute when they are together.
However story wise, i felt it wasn't a smooth development. They basic storyline involves an evil witch/priest who is against the herbal lord/trying to take him down. The evil witch uses the doctor family's enemy and try to scheme them. The female lead often times protects the herbal lord. The beginning was more light i guess... getting to know the female lead, then falling in love with her, finding her true identity. The witch however tricks the female lead into believing she will cause him to die if she takes too much of the herbal air from the herbal lord. Then later she finds out about how she isnt just a ordinary herbal plant and that her past life had relations to the herbal lord.... and some other things happen which pushes the story in a weird way, in which the female lead deja vu / said the same lines before in her past life. ( hopefully that makes sense without spoiling too much) i would rate the story 7/10
Overall not a bad watch, it was interesting, except i skipped some of the annoying storyline >_< . definitely love the romance part of it:)
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Totally recommend it for a quick binge when you are craving more fluff than usual
I enjoyed this drama a lot more than I expected. It is a web drama, much shorter than the normal ones, and it is definitely not a drama that you watch for quality. However, it is one that you can binge-watch for the fluffy romance, good kisses, and hilarity.I quite like the plot where a non-human or, in this case, an herbal root immortal, Song Lan, was somehow transplanted into the body of Jiang Qingyun. There is the usual cliche of a past connection to the male lead, Chu Zhimo, but it fitted well into the story. The pace was good, and even though it was mostly light-hearted, there was some angst and noble idiocy. Overall, the story was not the best with an odd villain, and I did not quite get her motivation. Still, I am glad that I watched it.
Ding Yi Yi was cute as Song Lan/Qingyun, but I did not find her particularly attractive. Acting-wise, she was ok, limited to what she was supposed to bring to the character. However, I often wished that she would stop shouting so much, and that they used a better dubbing voice for her. I found her character quite annoying at times, and I have to remind myself that she was supposed to be ignorant, being a plant deity with no awareness of the human world and behavior. I made it to the end mainly because it was really quite funny, and Yan Xi was a huge draw for me. That man can kiss, and he looked good, like a character out of a manhwa or manga. I don't know if Ding Yi Yi is just so petite, but the height difference between them added to the charm of their romance. I have to admit that I am totally biased towards Yan Xi, but if I judged his acting objectively, I think he did better in 'About is love".
Another character that caught my eye was the SML - Xiao Zi Ming. In a way, he was a more complex character who could be considered as the bad guy but, at the same time, also the good guy with his devotion to the FL and his family. To me, Leo Yang gave a slightly better performance compared to the others, but at the same time, I think all the main actors showed their inexperience. I also love the FL's father - he was just so protective and quick to over-react! Liu Yu as the City Lord really reminded me of another actor - Huang Xing Yuan from Oh! My Sweet Liar.
All in all, it was an interesting and fun watch. Totally recommend it for a quick binge when you are craving more fluff than the usual c-drama.
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Enjoyable for what it is, just know that going in
I kept my expectations low and was happy that way.This is fluff nonsense. The same that keeps being pumped out on the regular every season. Which leaves you with a story that's instantly recognizable and unpredictable.
As you watch it, you'll know what comes next like one of those books read by kids that let you choose "if "A" happens then "D" will happen or if "B" happens then "C".
What it does well is set-up a been done storyline in a way that takes itself seriously enough without taking itself to seriously wit a tighter script than some other much-hyped pieces of the same genre.
Complaints:
The supporting cast acts circles around the main leads. Especially, the ML in the initial episodes as his plastic surgery may be the culprit and his face need bigger emotional expressions to translate....anything. This doesn't happy until the boy starts getting happy and that takes a while.
Annoying plant deities that aren't worth anything, when we already have another annoying tagalong in the "spirit" realm.
2nd leads father and all the opportunities he's given to cause havoc, even after escaping an automatic death sentence.
First time I've seen the Off to Lead a Battle march needing their horse to be guided by someone else.
A "kingdom" that's almost as low budget as the show. "Herbal Lord" seems to have too many job duties.
Pros:
Tight enough writing, that allows you to forgive its many shortcomings.
No long, overly drawn-out scenes of bad guys performing bad things, to then discuss the foiled plans of bad things.
ML smile
Plenty of kisses
How they work in the humor at the innocence of the FL without being icky. Though they forget she's not supposed to know about how such things are conducted towards the last episodes. This is one thing that stuck out for me.
Final:
This was the okayest waste of time I've had in a while. Could I watch it again? Maybe if between dramas or episode days for something else. Would I recommend to someone new to Cdramas? No.
The rating is for what it is, a good crappy drama, and that's okay.
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Same Old , Mediocre Actor
This plot reminds me of Eternal Love 1 & 2 with the main actress having dual identity and same old aloof guy. The difference: Eternal Love has great ratings despite such a low budget looking drama is because it was a delight to watch the actors, while Herbal Doctor it’s just a pain to watch the silly same old girl talking to her inner self and guy with mediocre acting.Pro:
- predictable and same recycled plot
Cons:
-guy seems to replicate the face of Eternal Love and the girl with same bubbliness of that drama. The feel is almost the same, minus that the main guys nose job is annoyingly too big. The girl is ok, but chemistry. Is just awful.
- so many effeminate Guys. Even the main guy doesn’t seem to be a real guy. It just feels odd. I’m dropping this drama.
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