The First Jasmine

mo li makes me yearn for marriage

(personal review - all thoughts, opinions, and biases are mine.)

the story is really great. for a revenge plot, it's solidly unpredictable and kept me at the edge of my seat while watching. ye li is so smart from episode 1 and i always love an intelligent FL. both her and mo xiuyao's stories captivated me, and how they actually yearned for each other and kept the other in their hearts for 8 years...

i do think there are some missing components in the story that could've made it even better especially concerning the characters. i think mo jingli's motivations are not really all that? he's insistent on his "love" for ye li and he also wants the throne but he also holds a grudge like dude get real just get it together. i couldn't really figure him out tbh, and the way moli played out gave me no room to sympathize with him despite his sorrowful death (which was really anticlimactic, actually). ye li's ptsd was handled well in my opinion, but her whole dissociative identity disorder was not really touched on at all and that bothered me. because she's clearly great at martial arts but she doesn't think so and she thinks that it's master zhu that saved her everytime she's in danger when it's herself...i guess this does tie into her whole hallucination-delusion problems that she believes master zhu is alive to save her but she clearly also has dissociative amnesia. oh well.

i really do love the entire lishan arc though. the conflict that led up to it was maybe unnecessary because like honestly mo xiuyao DIDN'T need to divorce her, like what the hell guys you dont NEED to divorce, but ik it's a necessary bridge to get ye li back on lishan and oh boyy. cheng lei and bai lu really nailed playing their characters at that time, i cried SO much because i felt so much for both mo xiuyao who was so regretful and sad for his wife, and ye li who lived in the delusion that lishan always remained as lively before the tragedy... (and i had this thought in my mind that the empress dowager must've planted the illness in the academy then sealed it off on purpose so that everyone would die without help and without people knowing but i guess not? how come ye li alone wasn't sick anyway? idk it's weird i'll accept it as just main character things.)

i really loved the side characters here when i usually don't care about them that much. ye li's family are all horrible people except ye ying who was just more pitiful than anything because she held onto her desire to be with mo jingli until the very end. the part where ye li confronts ye ying about her "love" for mo jingli did leave an impression on me because ye ying is pretty much in love with the idea of mo jingli rather than the man himself, but she fell in love with his works, his music, his writing... that struck a chord in me. she's actually a good character (speaking of, where was she in the ending?)
and then there's others a-jin, feng zhiyao, li feibai, han mingxi, even ms wen... just to name a few, i enjoyed them all very much. contrary to others opinions i actually did like the sub romance between feng zhiyao and lingyun i think they were sweet and tragic and i always loved a secret identity romance.

i'm not a hard critic, yeah the last few episodes were a drag but so are most cdramas honestly. and i really do love this story and this couple more than it lets me down, so i don't have a reason to give it less than a 9 in the end. it has good rewatch value for the fact that i'm sure you'll learn and catch on to more stuff on the second watch.

mo xiuyao and ye li make me yearn for marriage and i'm not even joking. they are so so sweet with each other, even when mo xiuyao is angry with her and scolds her, the care he has for her is just oozing out of the man. i loved watching them fall in love as they scheme together and go through life and death together it's just amazing. peak romance honestly.

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Court Intrigue, Healing but Lukewarm Romance, Good Portrayal of Disability & Trauma

The First Jasmine is a gripping blend of court intrigue and deep healing romance that stands out for its raw, meaningful portrayal of disability. The story centers on an unlikely power couple: Mo Xiu Yao, a bitter prince physically confined to a wheelchair, and Ye Li, a brilliantly calculating woman whose sharp mind masks her own deeply hidden mental health struggles while she meets out revenge.

First Impression

As someone who has been waiting a very long time to see Bai Lu and Ryan Cheng on screen together, my anticipation for this drama was high. For the most part, The First Jasmine absolutely delivered, living up to about 80% of my high expectations. While there were frustrating moments where precious screen time felt wasted on unnecessary subplots or underwhelming character development and utilization, the overall production quality is undeniable. You can genuinely feel the immense effort and care that went into creating this world; nothing feels cheap or artificial. The costumes were great, the fight scenes, however rare, were well choreographed. Unlike a great deal of traditional C-dramas that rely heavily on embellished, over-the-top tropes and their delivery, everything on screen feels toned down, remarkably natural and subtly realistic. The chemistry between the main leads is absolutely electric, and they are backed by an extremely talented supporting cast that grounds the entire story. Additionally, the music plays an extremely important part in this drama. It adds another layer to the story. The background score is not the typical depressing historical C-drama type that start giving you headache by the end of episode 25. It’s different and it really elevate the scenes and the actor’s performance.

Things I Enjoyed

One of my absolute favorite things about The First Jasmine is that it doesn’t just gloss over physical and mental disability for the sake of convenience to your characters into their healthiest selves. In many C-dramas, if a main character starts out disabled, they are miraculously cured by the end of the second episode just so they can jump into the action.

This drama takes a refreshingly different route: Prince Ding stays in his wheelchair for a good half of the series, which I truly appreciated. While he does eventually heal—which does feel a bit unrealistic after eight years of confinement—I understood the writers' choice of getting him up to his feet, because the narrative demanded it. Even then, he doesn't just bounce back to 100%; he only participates in two or three fight scenes and seemingly remains deeply aware of his physical limits and the need to take care of his body. I appreciated writers not overdoing it with his character after the recovery.

As for our female lead, Ye Li comes off as ruthless, charming, and calculating at first with mild psychotic tendencies, but if you pay close attention from the very first episode, it’s clear that something is wrong with her. The mystery surrounding her mental state builds beautifully over the course of 30 episodes and isn't fully unraveled until the final stretch of the drama. While improvement in her mental state, felt a little rushed toward the end—which pissed me off a bit—the last two episodes clearly show that she hasn't magically conquered her personal demons. She is still not 100%.

There’s a raw, honest portrayal of depression, and I deeply appreciated watching her grow and continue her healing journey throughout the entire show. The creators deserve massive credit for handling both physical and mental struggles with this level of care. I think this is a big achievement for C-drama in general. Usually disabled characters are always side characters. Was it perfect? Of course not. Was the portrayal very accurate? Probably not. But compared to everything that I have seen in the past, it’s still a bold step forward.

I also liked many of the supporting characters and their standalone stories. The subplot featuring Feng Zhi Yao—who was secretly in love with a foreign woman without realizing she was Princess Ling Yun—was deeply meaningful and sad. My only critique is that I wish the writers had expanded on their relationship a bit more. Instead of dumping their entire story in a span of two episodes, they should have sprinkled it across multiple episodes, which would have made her tragic death hit the audience much harder. Additionally, Han Ming Xi was a standout character for me. I previously saw Lin Mu Ran in The Pursuit of Jade, where he played one of the antagonists, and his charming, cute performance here proves he has a very bright future if he keeps landing the right projects. While I have some critiques regarding where his character arc ultimately went, his talent is undeniable.

Qin Cang’s character and his character arc started and developed great, but there were definitely things to improve about his story in the later, half of the drama, but I will talk about this in a bit.

Things that Definitely Needed Improvement

While there’s a lot to love about The First Jasmine, the drama is not without its flaws. The biggest issue was the pacing and the highly uneven distribution of various story arcs, especially the antagonists.

First and foremost, Mo Jing Li was severely underutilized. As the main antagonist, he was an incredibly important character at the start, and the writers could have deeply explored his personality and his trauma better than they did. Instead, he completely disappeared for a third of the show, only to resurface later. We are given reasons to pity him early on, but his character becomes largely unredeemable and flat by the end, save for one quality: letting his wife go so she wouldn't be dragged into his rebellion.

This issue of dropped potential extends to several other supporting characters. Qin Cang had a fascinating setup, transforming from a loyal henchman-servant desperate for his father’s approval into someone who finally saw his father’s true nature and decided to do the right thing. There was a compelling romantic story brewing between him and one of the supporting female characters. The writers set up their potential future reunion once he is on the way to exile, but we never even got a scene of them meeting up to start over. It’s a very open ending for them, like use your imagination. I truly didn’t appreciate it. It felt incomplete almost like these characters weren’t even necessary.

Basically, the writers spent so much time setting up Qin Cang’s arc but failed to deliver a proper conclusion, leaving us hanging.

Similarly, Han Ming Xi started strong with a great transformation arc, but the writers essentially erased his ending. They want us to use our imagination too to pretend that we know he gets his wish for a quiet life somewhere out there. The lack of a final scene between him and Ye Li is baffling. She was the primary influence behind his choices throughout the series and quite obviously his crush, and omitting their closure felt like the writers just forgot about him. Giving them at least one brief scene would be very satisfactory.

Conversely, the Empress Dowager was given far too much screen time. She should have stayed in the background. While her character serves a purpose—the final episode makes it clear that despite her noble intentions, she chose a bloody route—the narrative wasted massive amounts of time on her and general palace personnel only to drag the drama down. Yes, yes, I understand why we needed her character, but I think the amount of scenes she received was just going overboard. It’s not necessary to spend that much time on one uninteresting character to get the point across. That precious screen time should have been reduced and redirected to the far more interesting character arcs that were left incomplete.

Pacing

Let me expand a bit on the pacing of the drama and the issue with it. The pacing itself was a strange mix; the show would give us beautifully paced action scenes, then would slow down, then we would get more action only to grind to a halt with lengthy dialogues at the end where absolutely nothing actually happened. Those stagnant stretches were very boring to watch, and I think a lot of viewers share this sentiment. The general feeling about the pacing is that the drama keeps building up to something grand that actually never comes to fruition.

The pacing in the final five episodes, in particular, desperately needed adjustment. I think the pacing went downhill in general after the revelation of what happened at the Mountain. Since Prince Li was the main antagonist, giving more screen time to his troops invading the capital should have set up an epic, high-stakes ending with more action and more involvement from various characters. Instead, it literally took the characters a mere 15 minutes to subdue him. After that rushed climax, the show dragged out a lot, just slow-paced scenes toward the end for another episode and 3/4 of an episode with the Empress and her son once again receiving way too much unnecessary screen time.

Let’s Ralk about Romance

When it comes to the romance, the relationship between the main characters is incredibly well-done, healthy, but you need to manage your expectations. Both Bai Lu and Ryan Cheng are well-known for their insane on-screen chemistry and great skinship scenes with other partners, but expecting that same level of passion here is not a wise decision.

While there are a couple of on-screen kisses, it is a much more calm, down-to-earth romance between two people who don't go physically crazy over each other. The chemistry between them is absolutely there—there is no doubt about that—but the execution triggered one of my pet peeves when it comes to romantic storylines in general.

The romance builds up beautifully and slowly throughout the first half with a lot of great teasing scenes, and the marriage finally becomes real in the second half. Yet, once they are officially together, there is barely any kissing or physical intimacy—just a couple of hugs and that's it. After watching the entire thing, I am still wondering if they ever consumed their marriage, haha. All the cute parts are put in the first half of romantic storyline development. Later on, even when they’re sleeping together in one bed, there are very strange choices from the production team and the director where it’s clear that there’s yearning and the scene is seemingly leading up to a kiss, but it just goes nowhere, leaving viewers hanging.

But again, this is just my personal take. Obviously, the reason why the romance ended up being so toned-down toward the end is that the writers chose to strictly concentrate on the female lead healing from her trauma. But to me this seems like some kind of a backward writing. I’d much preferred the producers to move the kiss scenes from the first half of the show to the second to make the romance more well-rounded and fulfilling. My opinion remains the same for all the dramas that do that: if you include a romantic storyline that runs throughout the entire drama, romance needs to be done according to the rules of romance writing. Especially if this is the romance between main lead. So definitely keep your expectations low if you are looking for anything steamy or hot.

Another reason for this choice to keep romance lukewarm is because this is not a heavy romance drama. This is a political drama with the romance as one of the subplots. They just needed to make some adjustments to certain scenes. On the other hand, others may like this type of clean romance. To each their own.

No matter the drawbacks in the way, the romance is executed here, The First Jasmine is still absolutely worth watching because it’s a very healing story about two broken people, who get there well deserved happy ending, even if they don’t kiss at the end.

Final Thoughts

While The First Jasmine definitely has its flaws, particularly with uneven pacing and the underutilization of several key supporting characters, it is still a drama that I would recommend. It’s one of the better historicals out there, especially if you don’t like anything fast pasted and want to take it slow. The stellar acting, the mature and steady healing romance, the realistic, portrayal of physical and mental disabilities, and the meaningful overall story that teaches you a thing or two about life make it a standout project that stays with you despite its shortcomings.

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Not like the novel

Okay, so they have changed Mo Jing Li character a lot compared to the novel. They made him out ot be a victim when in the novel he is not . In the novel his character is just vile and self serving. Ye Li in the novel is a lady of hidden tallents and a lot stronger not as strong as amna but she could hold her own. A huge plus is her memories from her pervious life as a special agent solider. She retains this knowledge in this world from the morder world. so she knows different fighting techniques from the mordern world. It would have been nice if they had stuck to the novel. Anyway dropping this series. It does not help when the change things so much from the novel to the drama. Really dont see the chemistry between the two main leads it is there a little but I think Ye Li is trying a lot more in the drama. Pring Ding was a lot colder in the novel as he could stand fron the start and hid the fact so he could work for the emperor behind the scene.

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interseting

Bailu is such a versatile actress .I'm in love with acting . one of best drama of 2026 and acting carrier. Cheng lei is doing fantastic job. waiting for upcoming episodes.
The character development is nothing short of brilliant. The leads share undeniable, magnetic chemistry, and their emotional journeys feel both profound and earned. Even the supporting characters are given rich, layered motivations, making the audience genuinely care about every single player on the screen. The protagonist's transformation is empowering, while the antagonists are terrifyingly sympathetic. Visually, the drama is a feast for the eyes. The production value is top-notch, featuring stunning cinematography, incredibly detailed traditional costumes, and awe-inspiring fight or magical choreography. Combined with an emotionally haunting soundtrack, every climactic scene hits with maximum impact. Furthermore, the themes of loyalty, resilience, and sacrifice are explored with such raw, heartfelt nuance that the narrative leaves a lasting emotional hangover. Whether you are a longtime C-drama fan or a newcomer to the genre, this series hooks you instantly and refuses to let go. It is a cinematic triumph that honors its source material while elevating Chinese television to new heights. If you are looking for an epic, binge-worthy experience, this is an absolute must-watch.

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So Far So Good

So many dramas this year are trying too hard to make a good drama. I haven't been too lost in this one, but the story line could be a bit better. I'm not a fan of skipping backwards and forwards on a timeline. Thankfully my newest bias, Lin Mu Ran, has finally shown up in this drama. Those dimples speak to me and those eyes are definitely wonderful to see. He appears as an assassin, but not a very serious one so far. Of course I love the FL and ML and the action in it has kept me watching. It's not dragging out scenes. I'm writing this review sooner than most. Nothing can beat Pursuit Of Jade, but this drama beats most of the ones presented this year. Happy watch!

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A Promising Start – Loving The First Jasmine So Far!

After watching the first episodes of The First Jasmine, I'm really enjoying it so far.

The story is engaging and the leads have great chemistry.

Each episode keeps me interested and wanting to see what happens next.

Looking forward to the upcoming episodes!


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