Ni Chang (2021)

Easy going series...

This series starts off great and sets the context story quite well and sadly written. It was quite a decent level of disappointment to see how Ni Chang emerges from adversity. Moving along the story though at the expense of good subplots which dont last for very long but could have added dimensions to the whole story a really drawn out boring middle takes up a lot of episodes. The qaulity of the essence of the story could have taken 27 episodes and not 40.

The evil one of the show remains evil all the way (I hate that when they dont get dealt with at least some of the way) and so it gets really boring the evil lead staying evil all the time. The development of a love story subplot is nice but sloooowwww.....cos he's a prince and the female lead well theyve made her look bright when she's actually quite stubborn and dumb at times. So,me repetitive characteristics of support cast e.g. xian yuang and cheng tian.....can see why this series scores like it does, its not a Fuyao but has tinges of it in it.

Read More

Romance in the middle of good vs. bad

This is a good drama to watch when you want to binge-watch something. I don't suggest watching this and coming back to it a few weeks later because to me, if most of the episodes were not available when I binge-watched this, my curiosity for what would happen next and wanting to watch more would have dropped and I might have just stopped watching. The reason is that the story gets somewhat draggy and boring in the middle making me skip some scenes. But besides that problem I had which was not that big of a deal, I loved the drama. This story focuses on Xie Xiao Nie also known as Ni Chang. She suffered from a rival family's plot. She gets back on her feet after completing school in Yun School taught by a pretty famous teacher. She moves back to her hometown and starts a clothing business. All while this happens, the idea of revenge for her family is still in the back of her head. On her journey to get justice for her family, she falls in love with Luo Prince who she once met, but he doesn't remember. This is a super sweet drama entangled with emotional and serious scenes.


Story-This is a 7 because I loved the beginning and the end but the middle was a bit draggy and there were some uninteresting scenes that I skipped being the bad characters' dialogues. The story is pretty interesting and unique to me. The story starts as a survival story and Ni Chang trying to get justice for her family members' murders but turns into a romantic one soon. The drama makes Ni Chang seem fragile and kinda dumb on the outside, but she is very talented at her craft and extremely smart and brave. I liked her being super talented but rarely bragging about her craft. She also always found unique ways to one-up her opponents. Zi Yu (Luo Prince) seemed like a very righteous chill dude. He seemed not too nice but not too mean either until he meets Ni Chang. Zi Yu is almost always there to help Ni Chang with her troubles. Their love story off slow and the type I don't care about your feelings, but as they interact more, they fall into love. I feel that Zi Yu knew he liked Ni Chang before Ni Chang realized she liked him. After they realize they like each other, their love story, only talking about a love story is just super sweet. They are just so sweet together and there are plenty of kiss scenes. Of course in every drama, you must have love rivals. Su Wen Yu liked Ni Chang since he met her and he is a super complicated character. He likes Ni Chang but gets rejected every time. In more than half the story, it seems like Wen Yu is trying to win over Ni Chang. He finally stops after getting himself back together. Princes Lan Zhou has liked Zi Yu also since she first met him. She appears later in the episodes and tries to chase Zi Yu but after he says he already likes someone, she stops. I like her character better since she is not as delusional as Wen Yu. There are several couples in the story, which I think are expected especially after you have watched half the show. The evil characters made me hate them so much. Yuan Dao Cheng, I hated him throughout the entire show from start to finish and I just him to lose his power and suffer the consequences of his evil-doings. Another evil character, Yan Wen Xiu, again a complex character like Su Wen Yu. She seemed just one of those normal bullies or something, but no she takes being bad, disgusting, evil to another level. She does atrocious things out in the daylight and it could almost compare to the evil things Yuan Dao Cheng does secretly. I somewhat disliked Wen Xiu from the first time I saw her appear but my hatred for her grew more as she did more bad things. The story overall is somewhat basic with the evil people, good people, heroines, etc. There were not that many shockers or plot twists.

Acting/Cast-Let me just say, the leads and most of the characters' actors and actresses fit into the roles very well. But some of the supporting roles, fit well but not as well as I wanted. Nevertheless, all the actors and actresses did a great job with their characters. If they were a bad character, they made me hate them. If they were a good character, I liked them. If they were a complex character, then I got mixed feelings. For the specific actors:

Bi Wen Jun (Ou Yang Zi Yu)-I watched a couple episodes of In My Class which he starred in and he didn't really catch my attention but he did in this drama. He was sooo good acting like a 5-year old. He made it seem like he was a 5-year-old in an adult's body. It was also super cute. He also did great when was like a normal adult. He seemed very natural with Li Jia Qi (Ni Chang) and their sweet scenes were so cute! He had great chemistry with Jia Qi. Jia Qi also did spectacular. She was great when she was super warm and nice and she acted great when she was serious.

Sun Jia Lu (Yan Wen Xiu)- She fit this character near perfectly. One look and you knew her character was going to be involved in some problems for Ni Chang. Since Yan Wen Xiu was a complex character, one where you feel bad for, but deep down still somewhat pity, I think Jia Lu did a great job. She made me hate her character so much.

Will Song (Su Wen Yu)-He also fits this character greatly. He looks very pitiful and always having some sort of pain or problem he needs to solve. The actor character made me so annoyed with Wen Yu and mad at him yet again somewhat pity for him at the same time. Also, based on Su Wen Yu's character, I think he might have had some mental problems since he was so delusional when chasing Ni Chang.

Music- It was ok and fit the drama well.

Overall-Decent drama to pass the time or when you are just chilling

Read More

Grace and Kindness Beat All Evil

“Ni Chang” is my 4th drama in a row with a weaving and/or embroidery theme. For the main leads, I only know Bi Wen Jun from “In A Class of Her Own”, and I have never watched any of Li Jia Qi (aka Nicky Li)’s work. The first episode with an amnesiac Luo Wang (Prince of Luo), a cute energetic little girl with an amazing business acumen, and a big sister disguises as a big brother shouldering the burden of a family business and household, have pulled me into the story and I have come to enjoy it very much.

What seemingly a light fluffy romance drama turns into a dark, murderous watch with multiple villains that are corrupt and continue to break the law with impunity. The plot propels the story, giving viewers a fast growing up Ni Chang (performed by Li Jia Qi) after she loses everything and becomes a fugitive, and a free-spirited leisurely prince (king), Quyang Ziyu (performed by Bi Wen Jun) who develops into an important official that brings fairness into the palace supply system.

I love the determined, indefatigable and quick-witted Ni Chang. Despite her devastating loss, she remains kind and unselfish that wins her many friends. Many kind hearted female characters portrayed in dramas tend to be gullible, but not Ni Chang. She is smart and not easily cheated. Li Jia Qi may not have the face of a beauty pageant queen, but she grows on viewers. Her character becomes stronger and stronger throughout the story - she is cute and playful as the juvenile Xie Xiao Ni, and later develops into a stoic Ni Chang who is not afraid to face her greatest challenges. Her acting is convincing and she has great chemistry with Bi Wen Jun.

As Ouyang Ziyu, Bi Wen Jun brings his free spirit charisma from “In A Class of Her Own” to this drama. Tall and good looking, Ouyang Ziyu’s love for Ni Chang is unselfish and inclusive, contrasting to Su Wen Yu (acted by Will Song)’s imposable and selfish love which Ni Chang detests. A good businessman himself, Ouyang Ziyu is prepared to give up everything, including his princely title, to be with Ni Chang. He helps her grow, placing her needs in front of everything else. Bi Wen Jun gives viewers a very relaxed feeling, unrestrictive and yet confident in everything he does; he is very believable.

Come the villains. Yan Wen Xiu (acted by Sun Jia Lu), Yuan Dao Cheng (acted by Li Yu Xuan) and that official Gao guy with a giant mole, are vile, blatant, hideous and despicable. The actors’ performances are so good that these characters really turn the viewers’ stomachs and we all wish them dead with no regrets. Every step Ni Chang takes, Yan Wen Xiu is there to harm her, but each time Ni Chang comes up winning, though not without the sacrifice of others who have come to her protection.

My Verdict

This is an easy to watch and to follow drama with clear logic and flow, and yet packed with heinous antagonists with hideous motives in the open. Everything is pretty straight forward in black and white. The ending concludes very well with all ends tied – the good is rewarded and the bad punished. In fact, the climax ends in episode 39, and episode 40 devotes to new life for all our protagonist characters, with a hiatus of two years for our main leads in order to completing their personal missions – Ni Chang to rebuild her family business and Ouyang Ziyu to revamp the government system making it transparent and fair.

This is a drama transient with grace and kindness, and that enables our characters to find their common grounds. A sweet drama for all in the family. Don’t miss it!

Read More

An exciting storyline

It was a really good Drama. The FL xie Xiao ni(xi'er) at first really annoyed me with her character, but I decided to continue and glad I did. It turned out to be a refreshing drama about the Xie family who were merchants selling silks and very happy. Then you have
the Su family who wanted to be superior with fame/money & didn't want any competition in their way. Now it's time for the "The tribute merchant" for the Emperor and Prince Luo is sent to over see the bureaus lord yuan and lord gao(both bad) and they are not happy. It seems that su gong quan has always won as he and the bureau are stealing money and faking products sent to the emporer. So they try and get rid of the prince and his wagon goes off the cliff and can't be found why? Because xi'er and her brother /sister went hunting and she put an arrow in his leg and upon waking up with amnesia acting like a 5 year old and they have fun. Then one day he sneaks out and the bad guys hit him in the head and upon being found he's back to normal, but doesn't remember the Xie family. Now the tribute happens and the Xie family wins but bad things are done by su gong quan as he has sabbatoged them then framed the Xie family and had them exiled out of the capital, then had them murderer after leaving. Su gong quan continues to worked with the bureau doing alsorts of bad things. While on the otherside xi'er managed to live and was taken in by the Jiangnan yunjin manor who teaches embroidery under the name ni chang. Who then spends the next 2 years learning and teaches them how to dye fabric and meets Prince Luo there who doesn't remember her, but has headaches and flash. Backs. Here she makes close bestfriends with the owner/masters son Cheng tian and yuan xiang and then we have her nemesis yan wen xiu who hates & competes with her ni chang(who doesn't care) on everything. Then one night while everyone was drunk ni chang went to make hangover soup in the kitchen and wen xiu followed her and locked her in the room, but doesn't realizing she knocked over the candle and the hay catches fire. She panics and runs away while master and Cheng tian run to save ni chang and find the door lock and finally rescue her, but the smoke is heavy and the ceiling is falling and master get caught under and tells them to run as the building get engulfed. Master dies and wen xiu thru guilt blames nichang on killing her, but Cheng tian sticks up for her explaining she was locked in and then they blame wen xiu since she didn't have an alibie. Then the next day she disappeared and so the 3 of them decide to go to the capital as xias quin has aunt/uncle there who run a small shop at first they didn't want, but the kids worked hard and had good and bad days as again the sabbatoging started again once ni chang started interfereing withe the Su family stores. When she meets su wen yu again and hides her identity he figures it out due to her signatured hanki. He has always had a crush on her and would go against his family to help her then we find out yan wen xiu she suppose to marry him, but he refused to.. Now the storyline goes on to all the evil stuff by the bureau, su gong quan and yan wenxie which includes murder, blackmail, threats, sabbatog, stealing and more. You will definitely yell at the TV, cry and laugh with them and finally see them get what they Deserve. A must see

Read More

I Loved When You Were My Vegetable

If you want to watch yet another kitchen sink clichè Chinese costume drama that goes on forever, then you'll like this one.

If you have actual standards for the dramas you will watch, then do yourself a favour and skip this one.

I thought Lovely Swords Girl was sick in the head (no pun intended), here we have the same "I Love My Human Vegetable" trope, where the guy hits his head, turns into a vegetable, and the FL has this deplorable mothering instincts towards him that turns into love. This has to be my least favourite trope of all time. It's beyond ridiculous into the obscene.

The FL is unbearable here. An annoying perpetual victim that we are all supposed to like because we feel bad for her. She pouts EVERY 5 minutes!!! Just to look cute, I guess, but it just makes her look like a petulant child. It's absolutely ridiculous! My god, she is even pouting on the ad poster!

Seriously, don't waste your time on this one. Complete crap. Even the colouration of the footage is doctored to show everything in white pastels, and it's annoying as hell. Who wants to see an entire series in pastels??! Terrible drama.

Read More

Manage your expectations, come for the OTP, and you may be pleasantly surprised

Ni Chang is a sister drama to "I Will Never Let You Go" with Ariel Lin and Zhang Binbin -- it's by the same production company, and has many of the same great supporting cast (unrelated story and characters, despite the similarly structured Chinese title). Because of this connection, however, I was fully prepared to 1/ fall in love with the entire cast of supporting characters only to have every single one of them killed off in the final episodes, 2/ see beloved characters completely change, 3/ see villains get away with justice at the end, and 4/ have a rushed and unsatisfying conclusion filled with loose ends, questions, and plot holes. (Clearly, I Will Never Let Go of how they butchered the ending of that drama!) And while I usually don't like spoilers, I freely spoiled myself for this one to further help manage my own expectations.

Perhaps because of all this, I ended up quite enjoying Ni Chang.

The story itself is nothing "special" -- it's your classic survivor/family revenge story -- but I enjoyed the silk, textile, embroidery, skin care and fragrance industry backdrop, even though I also take a lot of it with a giant bucket of salt in terms of historical accuracy.

For a slow-burn love story with very little sweeping/epic romance between the main OTP, Bi Wenjun and Nicki Li still made a really great couple, supported by a lovable cast of secondary characters. While a couple of beloved characters do die, there was no slaughterfest and all of them all get satisfying, happy endings.

Given how notoriously bad C-dramas can be with derailing a storyline in the final half/third/quarter, I was pleasantly surprised how all the loose ends were tied, secrets were properly exposed, traps were logically laid, and villains paid the price. They also gave viewers almost an entire episode to enjoy everyone being happy -- in other words, there was proper closure for everything and everyone (even beloved servants who appeared in only a few early episodes and were forced to say goodbye during difficult times returned and were given happy endings).

Did a couple of the melodramatic action shots make me cringe-snort-laugh out loud? Yeah, but I wasn't taking the show too seriously. Could it have been tighter? Sure. Is it sophisticated and high brow? Definitely not. Could the story have been executed better? Of course. Is Bi Wenjun in it enough? No. (He absolutely needs to star in his own wuxia drama, the brief martial arts he displayed in Ni Chang looked that good.)

Ni Chang is not a drama that will leave you in a show-hole or significantly emotionally engaged or invested. But if you're like me and manage your expectations, you may find it overall, an easy and entertaining watch anyway.

Read More

I expected much more from the development of the story (This review contains major spoilers!)

I guess this is more like an outlet for my feelings after finishing this drama, more than a review itself haha
Read at your own risk!
.
.
.
The beginning of the story was the best, it took me like 2-3 episodes maximum to get stuck with the drama.
But for me, the story weakened lots in the middle of the story, perhaps they forced the length of the story up to 40 episodes.
There were a lot of ups and downs that weren't really necessary or key for the story to go on, some facts seemed like filler.
Regarding the characters, I feel like they added new characters to the plot, and left other characters like they've never been important. Like Chengtian and Yuanxiang. One as a viewer had already fallen in love with them and then they simply disappeared from the plot, they weren't important anymore for the plot. Also, they put their ship on the table, and I think we all expected to see their relationship progress, but we only had certain scenes where a lot of stages of their cute relationship were skipped. I would've liked to see much more of that couple (In fact, I must admit that most of the time, I was more excited to watch their scenes, than the scenes of Nichang with the prince). I missed Chengtian and Yuanxiang very much in the second half of the drama. Besides, I loved the trio of best friends / family that they had formed.
Regarding the new characters that they added, maybe they were necessary in certain parts of the plot, but they could have looked for other ways that the plot made sense, I felt that those characters were a little extra.
Regarding the performance of the actors, I think it was very good! I liked the chemistry of the protagonists, their story was very sweet even if it was not the main plot. (Although I still much prefer Li Jiaqi's chemistry with Zhao Yiqin. Despite this, I fell in love with Bi Wenjun and will follow him on his next dramas!)
I loved the OST, the vibe was perfect the whole time!

Major spoiler ahead...

Regarding THE SISTER! I suffered too much !! I was hoping for a happy ending for them. I really couldn't believe they made us wait so long to know that she was alive, and to see her reunion with Nichang ... so that in the end she would die anyway. Although I think that fact still made sense in the plot.
Another thing that left me owed was the moment the prince remembered Nichang; it was very cute, but I felt something was missing. I think I hoped that Nichang would have a little change in her personality, that she would be a bit happier (since at that point Nichang, apart from having grown up, seemed to have lost her smile).

Of the things that I must highlight positively, since I liked them a lot: The main characters in general stole your heart; The prince's feelings for Nichang were very pure and beautiful; Honestly, the beginning of the story was perfect and the plot was very interesting (from the beginning, until the trio went to the capital. From there, the course of things fell apart for me). One of the best things about the drama was Nichang's resilience and his thought that woman is strong and can get ahead, that she can do all the things that a man does. Nichang's ambition was great, and her trying with all her might to prove the innocence of her family until she finally succeeds .. but maybe it was too much in the end. (poor prince, having to wait for 2 years even tho I have no doubt that Nichang would be able to still be doing what she loved (being a bussiness woman) while being married to the prince.

Read More

This was a really cute romance. Li Jia Qi who played Ni Chang played her character with excellence. She did very well changing from one name to another for family's sake. At first, I felt that another actress should have played the part because they need someone who had a strong personality. I was fooled because she did play the part like she was supposed to.
Bi Wen Jun who played Ou Yang Ziyu did a great job with three types of personality not at the same time nor did have a personality disorder... He was mental when he had to be, serious, and loving. I would love to see more of him but it looks like he is new to the acting scene. He is only 24 but he is very handsome and tall. The storyline like I said was cute but then again it was very serious. The investigative scenes had me going. Thanking all those who played support roles. Thanking the crew of Ni Chang.

Read More

Frustrating unbalance between good and evil.

Starts promising - FL is going to grow through adversity and become a businesswoman - but then writers said, "Let's just keep throwing in a lot of evilness and crappy difficulties to extend this thing for 40 episodes without any regard for the audience's sense of justice and fairness". Not even the FL character development, creative work, and sweet romance were enough to keep me going. Need to get back to the Story of Yan Xi Palance to get some sense of redemption from my favorite ever kickass FL that has the most intelligent and creative ways of dealing with unfairness and evil in a very rewarding way without relying on constant external help.

PS I scored rewatch value 1 because the input doesn't allow 0

Read More

This is a nice drama that started strong and lost momentum to give way to endless business interactions. The drama is about Xie Xiao Ni who is the only survivor of the Xie clan that was great embroidering and cloth merchants. They were betrayed and framed by their competitor, the Wu clan, and shortly afterward were killed. Xiao Ni becomes Changand, with the help of Prince Yang, brings back her family honor and glory. Ni Chang goes through a lot of unfair treatment and jealousy from antagonists but her character was too simple minded toward her enemies and to stubborn and even dismissive of her great love Ou Yang Ziyu which manages to survive by some tricks on the part of the writers since Ni Chang carelessness put his life at risk over and over again. Also, the chemistry between the leads was off in part because of the female lead's weird expressions, especially toward the male lead. Overall, the acting is not the best but the drama delivers entertainment.

Read More

This could have been 36 episodes or less.

Major spoilers. No structure to this.

There are 4-10 episodes worth of runtime that weren't necessary, because:

• We already know that Yan Wenxiu is a scheming hoe with a hard-on for Ni Chang/Xie Xiaoni.
• Su Wenyu is obsessively 'in-love' with NC/XXN, but he isn't the one for her. (I started to dislike his character after that whole, "You're a weak woman, I'm a strong man" speech.
• Yuan Daocheng is corrupt. Su Gongming is corrupt. They look like they're winning and the wheel of karma is turning slowly.

All of this was dragged out for too long.

I didn't mind all of the hardships NC/XXN faced; the assassination attempts, the sabotaging of her business ventures and generally the constant dead ends she would run into over her family's scandal. All that she has faced, I'm reminded of Fu Yao and how she is ALWAYS going through some kind of crisis because of externals.

Either than that, the drama was good.

I've seen Nicky Li in two other dramas and I love her. I haven't watched any of the other characters, ever, but they quickly became my favourites. The drama really has an entertaining and unique story (imo). I liked how they didn't centre the whole story around her getting revenge.

Some of my favourite moments:
- when she was accepted into the embroidery and design school,
- starting up Yuanxiang's family's business (again and again),
- learning new tricks-of-the-trade, continuously improving herself and her skills.

NC/XXN is certainly one of my favourite characters.

The OST is also beautiful.

Don't be turned off by my rewatch value. It's a good drama, but I don't rewatch costume dramas....

Read More

To repetitive.

Honestly I really liked the story in the beginning but the constant machinations and traps that her enemies were always trying to set up for her became aggravating after a while, it was so repetitive. It always felt like everybody was after her all the time and rather than learning and trying to be smarter than everybody else she was constantly falling into other people's traps and even though she came off as being independent I felt like the male lead or someone always had to be rescuing her after a while it just drove me to crazy. So while I was waiting for new episodes to come out and be subbed I just stopped watching.

Read More