Chu Hou (2026)

Dalle ceneri alla noia: la storia di una fenice che resta a terra.

Drama che non si presentava come niente di particolarmente eccezionale, ma che avevo messo in conto di guardare per via della presenza di Zhou Yi Ran. I primi episodi apprezzabili, qualche inquadratura ad effetto, un barlume di curiosità, una buona impressione generale. Tra tutte le tematiche messe sul piatto, il rapporto padre-figlia è stato sicuramente quello che ha avuto maggiore presa: il senso di colpa di Chu Zhao è stato trasposto davvero bene, rispecchiando il difficile conflitto che spesso si genera tra genitori e figli.
Il primo episodio ricorda molto il meccanismo già visto in "Blossom": mostra un futuro infausto che viene però riavvolto, regalando alla protagonista una seconda chance per compiere scelte diverse. Niente di nuovo, insomma.
La noia - ahimè - si palesa già verso il quinto o sesto episodio, troppo presto per riuscire a stringere i denti fino alla fine della serie. La protagonista non è un concentrato di simpatia e il suo sviluppo è decisamente forzato: siccome è figlia di un valoroso generale, deve essere automaticamente un'abile stratega? Non solo, è vissuta per volere del padre lontano dalla capitale e quando, sfidandolo, la raggiunge diventa subito esperta di intrighi di corte e macchinazioni politiche, tanto da divenire principessa e avere niente meno che il giovanissimo erede al trono che praticamente pende dalle sue labbra. Davvero poco credibile. Rispetto al romance, l'ho trovato tremendamente tiepido, probabilmente anche per via della caratterizzazione del personaggio interpretato da Zhou Yi Ran, attore che ho apprezzato in alcuni lavori in passato ma che, col passare degli anni, trovo sempre più confinato in un ruolo che sembra sempre lo stesso: il suo protagonista è sempre quell'anima triste e infelice, silenziosa e schiva, un giovane con un triste e difficile passato, la solita raffinata malinconia che sa ben trasmettere con lo sguardo, quell'aria stoica che sembra voler celare un'eterna sofferenza. E' un attore a suo modo molto elegante, ma inizio a temere anche poco versatile. In questo drama, in particolare, non riesce proprio ad emergere e molti sono gli episodi in cui sembra più che altro relegato a un ruolo di contorno. La vicenda si sviluppa in modo prevedibile, quelli che dovrebbero essere degli incredibili colpi di scena non lo sono affatto (vedasi l'identità della madre) e la schiera dei cattivi è fin troppo affollata per poterne apprezzare meritatamente uno.
A livello tecnico l'investimento economico c'è anche stato, ed è quasi un peccato perchè dato il risultato è stato un po' uno spreco. Ed è così che "Ashes to crown", invece di una rinascita epica, mostra sostanzialmente una fenice che resta a terra e non decolla mai. L'unica cosa che si solleva dalle ceneri di questo drama è tanta - evitabilissima - noia.

Leggi di Più

I am my own Pawn..

Oh how I wish I could love this drama more.. I really wanted to, like absolutely wanted to love it.. And I genuinely wanted to rate it higher.. The first half made me feel like it had so much to offer.. It was good, the cast, the story, the way everything flowed and then somewhere around the halfway point, the drama looked me in the eye and started gasping for air.. It felt like it just gave up.. The expectations were real.. Sure it's another historical CDrama about a woman who dies, gets reborn and wakes up ready for revenge even if she has to burn everything down.. We have seen that.. Except we haven't really seen it like this.. At least that's what the first half made me believe..

The script, the revenge plot and the political intrigue were all pretty good to an extent but the production quality was an absolute letdown.. Quite a few times it felt like I was watching a low tier drama.. The VFX was pathetic and some scenes had almost no energy.. While some of the ML's action scenes were a blast to watch especially when he stepped in to save the FL, then again, there were also scenes that were really poor.. There's one battle scene where the FL fights alongside the ML and her soldiers and she is slicing through the enemy soldiers, but the whole scene lacked any sort of energy.. It looked like her slices wouldn't even cut a paper let alone a human wearing armor.. There was no energy or intensity at all.. I would blame the director for this..

The heavy use of AI really hurt this drama and took away a lot of the sense of realism.. Seriously, it was bad.. The war cries, the large scale battle scenes.. When you are looking at an army of 3000 men, you should feel something.. Here it all felt lifeless, almost like looking at a watercolor painting.. Some better editing, camera work and a bigger budget would have made this drama a spectacular watch considering the cast..

The cast, well they were top notch.. Gave some solid performances.. Chen Duling as Chu Zhao was seriously good and honestly this role felt like it was tailor made for her.. Except for the action scenes, I guess.. Anyway, she carried the whole drama.. Then again the entire story revolved around her, so she kind of had to.. Zhou Yiran sort of surprised me.. He was really good as Fu Jiu, but his character was underutilized.. He sort of disappears after 16 episodes and barely gets any screen time after that.. On top of that, he had no real impact scenes in the second half.. No fights, nothing that really made him feel like the male lead.. This just added another dent to his identity in the drama.. I wish they had done more with his character.. There was a war going on after all.. They could have shown more of his battles, how he killed the enemy state's prince and so much more.. I don't know why they chose to leave out that part of his arc.. I get that this is Chu Zhao's story but they had a great opportunity to use his character to bring some excitement to the last leg of the drama..

" Zhao, You were meant to soar up there..
And my role is to uphold you "

The chemistry between the main leads is so good that it makes you keep watching even when the story starts to bore you.. Layered and not overly sweet.. Good stuff..

We have to talk about the supporting cast too.. Tang Xiao Tian and Gao Mao Tong were impressive.. The Deng Yi and Xie Yan Fang rivalry was intriguing, but it just becomes too much.. There's so much back and forth between them, but nothing really happens for a long period of time..

This is the kind of drama that would have been okay with lesser episodes.. There were quite a lot that happens that we could have done without.. The pacing feels aggressive yet somehow it just drags on and on.. But at the same time it feels like the drama could have had more episodes as well.. Because it feels like they cut out a lot of the good parts just to make room for the court drama and the political tension.. Characters who were carefully built up suddenly start making decisions that feel like they exist only to push the story to its conclusion.. Deng Yi backstabbing Xiao Xun was one of them..

Overall, I am disappointed that I couldn't rate it higher.. It's not bad, it genuinely isn't.. It just feels like they spent the first half trying to make something special but settled for something average after that.. It's so obvious that quite a lot was cut and in that process we lost a lot of good moments, character arcs and visuals.. This is definitely going to be a 14 episode drama on a rewatch..

P.S. I loved that deep red palace aesthetic and the costumes..

Leggi di Più