A Female Student Arrives at the Imperial College (2021)

Light, fun, and amusing romance drama!

I'll start off by saying that this is only the third drama I've managed to complete this year, the other two being Word of Honor and The Long Ballad (CGX). I've started several dramas after CGX, but I haven't been able to finish a show due to lackluster plots, intense political stories, disappointing endings, etc.

This drama had a unique new plot that was very different from past shows I've watched. At the same time, the show was really funny at some points too. It does get more serious in the second half of the show, but it wasn't too intense and didn't take away from the romance too much.

However, I did think the ending was a bit rushed. It was like one miracle after another and a lot of good luck that the FL and ML had. (And **SPOILER**, how honestly was the FL able to recover just like that when she seemed like she was on her deathbed a few scenes ago lol)

The SML also got immensely annoying in the second half of the show. Who knew he would be that important of a character in the show lol? And because of how annoying he was, I wouldn't rewatch the show again, at least the whole show. The romance between the leads is cute and worth watching again IMO.

Also, I want to throw in I'm a fan of both XKC and ZLS from previous shows they were in. As usual, I thoroughly enjoyed their acting!! I can't wait to see them in future dramas again!!

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lol

I’m currently on episode 5 but my oh my I’ve laughed countless times already, not really a Lu Si fan although I’ve watched a few of her series, and this is by far the most enjoyable I’ve watched, side characters are hilarious, and very interesting.

I’ll update more once I get to watch and finish more episodes, so far this has been really enjoyable to watch very entertaining, and very light to watch so far.

The ML looks good when he doesn’t smile, but when he does I’m reminded of a chipmunk I don’t know why, and he looks so different from his straight face and his smiling face.., I’m quite in awe with his height difference with lu si, it’s sometimes awkward hahaha but their banting is quite funny and amusing, I was laughing out loud especially on episode 2 haha.

UPDATE: currently on episode 9, slowly losing interest… might drop it soon. I don’t know why but it’s getting hella boring, and cringey for my liking…. :-/had to skip a few minutes too in some episodes

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Light, Funny & good Stress Relief

I really like this! It’s cute and funny.

Whilst the plot is nothing new, it’s a good mix between light humour and a small sinister scheme. The show is not 100% romance as the characters are also entangled in some Palace Court schemes. It’s well paced, neither slow nor rushed and a good mix of fun with serious. There are some illogical plots, but then again this isn’t a crime drama so I’m happy to let these slip.

Chemistry is very good between the FL and ML. It’s not sizzling or over the top, but they’re decently nice together. Special mention goes to the 2nd ML for executing his overly jealous role well.

This is my first show with Zhao Lusi as the FL and she’s good! I’m keen to chase her other shows now. The cute and funny role has been her typecast but she’s good at it so why not? For Xu Kaicheng, it’s my first time watching him and he’s alright. Not extremely talented or amazing but he played the tall, serious, protective yet cute ML pretty well.

At just 30 episodes, I recommend this for a good ‘ol destress after work or studies. I had a good laugh every day.

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Good humor and mystery-ish slash uncovering corruption type beat

I enjoyed this,
- good comedic elements (especially in the beginning)
- they know shes a girl. Theres no hidden identity which i thought was interesting
- wasnt that deep, esp in the beginning + easy lead up to the main thing to uncover
- easy to like the leads, (actions made sense)
- i like lusi and the guy, but mainly was interested bcs of lusi
- interesting side characters
(but i didnt really pay that muhc attention to the second couple i just knew it was happening) the side characters im refering too are mostly like the love rivals, most were bearable even fun if not fun at least interesting-ish and you understand her. The other one well, thats the main villain so like thats where the story come from so... but ill have spoilers of how i wished his character went at the very bottom. Also there was like these two guys that always fought but were more like frenemmies. i didnt really pay attention to them esp not in the beginning, but i really did like their dynamic later, kinda cute. I started paying attention after one of them had their wedding and the other came and everyone thought they were gonna fight each other.

Overall though it was a fun watch. Granted i did “drop” this a few times but thats just because it was still airing so i wasnt in a rush to get to a state where i really wanted to know whatll happen next, and also was not in the mood for uncovering corruption n schemes etc. but then it really did pick up, so much so that im writting this right after the last eps came out. with that said i think this show did those schemeing/ unraveling okay. Like smaller things were resolved along the way in a satisfying way, leaving certain bits not solved to let it continue. They way the characters solved it at first was like a twist but then after just felt lowkey repetitive to the extent that you know how they will solve it (but i dont really mean that in a bad way, but bcs of that i rate the story only 8.5) its to the extent that if they were in present times i would think that these characters rather than being teachers would be actors lmao😂

The acting was good. You really hate the people ur supposed to. (Well maybe dislike, the show wasnt that deep to hate anyone imo, but theyre acting still 👌👌) you get annoyed at the people ur supposed to and you enjoy watching the rest. Again there were funny moments, esp in the beginning, maybe they were more than just momenta but i kinda forgot.

The music was ok, i also didnt pay attention to it idk just didnt grab my attention, but it was not distracting which means it was good choice. Also its just preference.


SPOILERS ON HOW I WISH IT ENDED WITH ZHOU WEN YUAN (wait is that this name, the zhou guy, the friend)
i wish the writers gave him more pain. Like more regret for the things he did... kinda like when he found out he was partly responsible for sang yu (unintentionally so) and was heart broken. Maybe if they had even just one clip of sang yu being nice to him, something small but very memorable to him. But even with what they showed i thought that was intresting cause it showed that he wasnt like bad by nature. I think the writers made him that way bcs they wanted the charcter that way which is fine, but like i thought it would be intresting if it showed him more being pushed into it by his aunt, and lowkey reluctant and following only bcs his aunt was the only like backing he had and he was a little lost, but then slowly got too into it bcs he was in too deep n like no going back. (I think they kinda showed her pushyness on him the whole time and him holding sang qi as his last moral line kinda thing). Then his like ending wouldve been more like hard hitting bcs we lowkey felt bad for him too. maybe even that lusi liked him a little when they were small but then stopped as they grew up, so then her telling him he changed had more impact bcs she did like the older version of him at some point, then maybe he could find out only after sang qi was dying n felt mad regret. But thats just my opinion.

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Watchable. Just passing grade.

Storywise, a bit mediocre and typical. A distinguised ML, loved by all eligible female in town. A playfull young FL, who turns out to be ML's bestfriends younger sister. A guy best buddy of FL turned out to be in love with her, and no surprise who is also the bad guy. A likeable sidekicks and their cute love story. Sounds familiar right?

Plotholes, I dont know if its right to call it that. Maybe its weak spots, some scenes are just like filler, not essential to the story. I can summarize the story easily: FL entered the academy exclusively for male as there's none for females at that era. Met accidentally and got closer due to a dare. FL thought ML was bullying her and making her life hard. But discovered that he was protecting her all along. They fell in love and caused some hearts to be broken.

Then a bunch of conflicts happend just for the sake of it. Betrayals, cover ups, frame up, killings, suicides and a lot of schemings on all sides. ML and FL even resorted to preteding to have broken up and FL pretending to be dead. In the end they were succesful and had their happy ending.

I might forget this after a few months, rewatch value is also not that good.

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A breezy series

A light story for those who loves romcom. If you are looking for dark and full of twists and turns, this is not for you. But if you are for a smooth and breezy romcom that is not annoying. This is definitely a try.

Extremely sweet scenes just enough to enjoy the story.
I love Zhao Lusi very much and her acting is very naturally cute.
At first I was in doubt about the ML, but later on I see that Lusi really jive with variety of male leads. She can grasp her role and make it natural.
I am having a dream that she and Z.Tao will soon have one project.
Ofcourse a romcom kind too.

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Zhuo wen yuan and Song Qi

I really like how the story begin, since Wen Yuan and Qi were both childhood friend as well, but he has fallen for her long ago. I liked the way he make her happy, and always protect her in a quiet way, during the time i really hope that he would confess to her before someone else does. But unfortuanately he does it after she together with Yun Zhi, I was like "how selfish he is!"also he never let this go even if she rejected him many times. As the time goes by he was even more cruel to her just for his own greed and selfishness. And at the end I really don't understand him that he tries to poison Qi, but when he knows that she was alive and start fighting with her he's suddenly let her win on purpose and then kill himself.

I still like it though, it doesn't make me feel bad for the second lead anymore after what he;s done

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Couldnt Stay On~Unfortunately

Why I started it and Why Peeps May Like this:
- if you're a fan of ZLS and wanted to see more of her works
- if you like school in historical setting
- if you enjoy a FL who has a strong character
- if you like comedic dramas

> My take is ZLS is very suited as Sang Qi. Infact I personally thk theres many resemblance to her real life character - chill, can hang with the boys, focus, frank character.

Here's why I dropped it like a hot potato
- ML's characterization is bad in my books. I cant understand how he is defined in the script. He's supposed to be worldly, refined and maybe dignified based on his knowledge, rank and position in school. Yet he comes off as immature and lacking? Is it a script thing? I felt disappointed in the ML and cant help whining about the scriptwriter- if she could take a page or just a para out of Zhou Shen Chen (of One and only), Hou Chi (from Dear Brother) or even Pei Zhao (of Maiden Holmes);
- Styling below par. If you think of Xu Kai Cheng, his good looks from Well Intended Love pops up in your mind. But he just looks odd and ill fitted in the historical setting. Given his appearance and built you would think he would give a commanding presence right? But there isnt any.
- Acting. Because the direction of the drama and comedic tones you cant exactly compare it to a lot of other dramas. But the overall feel is it seems superficial in many areas. Particularly ML, i couldnt buy into whatever he's trying to sell
- SML. Ren Hao's character started well. But if only they din screw it up as early as Ep2. It would be awesome if the tight friendship stays as friendship between FL and SML.
- The plot isnt the best. There's a problem with the execution and flow. The mystery part is poorly meshed too. I have stayed for worst honestly but I stayed for ML-FL. In this case I dont feel anything for this pairing. The feels for ML-FL here is not good. IMO the pairing here is the worst out of all ZLS dramas and you do know she has a long record of great chemistry with her costars. So i thk the script, character and plot hindered it. There dont seem to be much reason to stay on.

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Glad I didn't miss it

It is in fashion lately, that Chinese dramas cause polarization. I almost didn’t watch this drama, because I’m not a fan of School dramas and also not a particular fan of Zao Lusi and I don’t know other actors. And I’ve heard that viewers are not satisfied.

I was very pleasantly surprised.

First half is very light and hilarious, our ML and FL who have great chemistry, dance happily from ‘I really don’t like you, you are annoying’ to ‘ I love you so much, I can’t live without you’. Both actors did a great job in portraying their characters, I appreciate them very much. Romance is lovely, side character are great, almost everything is fun and optimistic, as youth is. But, we could see dark clouds gathering.

Second part I see as a strike of reality. Our heroes leave school and enter life. Suddenly your mate is a different person now, life is not what you’ve imagined. This is the part many viewers don’t like. Here we can see the rise of a main villain. The character of main villain is, at least in my opinion, written very good and performed brilliantly. He is full of unreasonable hate, because his family was caught and punished for being greedy and dishonorable. So he becomes even more greedy and dishonorable, but also much more careful (except for his weakness), he is hiding behind his charm and wittiness. It is quite a shock how he handles with his weakness.

The story was a little illogical form time to time, but this is practically a standard, so it didn’t bother me.

If you expect only light fun and romance and comedy, this drama probably won’t be for you. Otherwise I highly recommend it. I give it 10, because I really enjoy the contrast between first and second part and the villain plot.

I also really liked opening song, it reminded me of Chinese opera in a very good way, other song didn't catch my ear.

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LOVELY SCHOOLING

From the EPS I've watched so far do good. One of the reasons I love watching Zhao lusi's dramas is because she's always lively. This drama is for those who are child at heart . The title other drama says it all. One can just imagine what it was like back then to see a female among men or vis versa. From the very start cast deliver their skills perfectly. There's no episode that goes by without laughing and not to be watched at work or school otherwise laughing will betray you. The FL arrives at college after Several attempts. Things don't usually start smoothly for her but because she's determined she eventually blends in ,she makes some friends and enemies. Also with the ML they don't get along at first but eventually becomes friends and more than that. Mystery mystery. Some people have died and there's still no evidence only assumptions . Seems like not everyone is to be trusted.From the elders to the young ones. Some are witty,some are naive some have a poker face while some have an AK 47 face . All in all their acting is good it matches the theme of the drama. The subtitles are good. One of the dramas not to be missed.

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