For me, no other drama will ever top Yanxi Palace

I could watch this every 3 months because it is the epitome of a great drama that encompasses perfect writing, beautiful cinematography, and characters with more layers than a mille-feuille. It's also one that gives the most believable depiction of the Qianlong Emperor unlike Ruyi's Love in the Palace which became all about Ruyi's martyrdom.
Also, I wonder why there aren't more strong female characters like Wei Ying Luo because if the viewing numbers are anything to go by, it at least tells us that audiences want a heroine who can triumph over adversity by the sheer power of her intellect and yet C dramaland is littered with the ghosts of limp-noodle, baby voice heroines who can't find their way out of a paper bag.

Anyway, watch this if you like a fast-paced and unpredictable plot with multiple strong female characters.

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Sigh

I believe in the theory of six degrees of separation as much as the next person; however, the sheer number of coincidental meetings between ALL the main characters just left me gobsmacked.

The ex-wife had an identical twin sister whom she'd never met but suddenly they run into each other at a car park and end up switching cars. The ex-wife is on the verge of a breakdown and the twin is heavily pregnant and was being pursued by dangerous people who wanted her dead, instead, it's the ex-wife who gets pushed down a ravine. Even though she survived she had no memory of her past and when she runs into a guy who turns out to be an ex-boyfriend, he took her into his home and gave her employment at his law firm.

It turns out this ex-bf is the brother of the woman who had an affair with ex-wife's ex-husband. Ex-husband is the CEO of the company that employed the pregnant twin and it was ex-husband's brother-in-law who had attempted to murder the pregnant twin.

Still with me?

Ex-husband's BIL had a brother who was a doctor who rented a room from the ex-wife's mother. The pregnant twin had by now given birth to a daughter who needed serious medical care for a rare disease and it just so happened that only the BIL's brother offered this treatment.

Even writing this review is making me chuckle because what in the af were the writers inhaling?

Anyway, now the ex-husband sees his ex-wife, only she's lost her memories and no longer remembers him. Meanwhile, he's still dating the woman (the aforementioned sister of the ex-BF who took ex-wife in) with whom he'd had the affair, and this woman was hell-bent on ensuring only she got the ex-husband.

And so the wheels went round and around for fifty episodes. Rinse and repeat. I was cursing the me who decided it was a good idea to watch this. Oh, well.

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Wow, wow, wow

The first ever modern C drama that I'm rating 10 stars and it is all thanks to the juggernaut that is Lin Yu Shen who must be one of the top 2 charismatic actors I've ever watched.

I'd initially dropped Dating in the Kitchen a few months back but immediately came back to it after watching LYS's mesmerizing performance in Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber and somehow everything just clicked this second time around. The depth of emotions from LYS and Zhao Lusi was palpable and it has to be the first time a male lead has ever cried of heartbreak convincingly. My heart ached and rejoiced with our ML as he navigated dating a much younger woman who was from a completely different level in every way. Their joy, love, laughter, and tears pulled us along as they grew to trust each other even when others repeatedly tried to break them up. I'm so happy that I watched this.

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Too long

I’ve long admired Korean scriptwriters for their ability to weave intelligent and compelling stories and for a drama of this magnitude to have such minimal fillers is truly a feat. However, as much as I liked the story, it was let down by wooden acting from both lead actors, especially the female lead who, to me, had a limited range of expressions. She pursed her lips in all situations and I could never tell whether she was happy, sad or angry because her expressions were the same.

Another issue that dropped the ratings is the obvious low budget set and costume, in addition, the cinematography shows its age.

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It should have been titled 'Secrets'

Just a few notes:

1. That suspenseful opening scene with the two sisters doesn't actually happen until episode 100.
2. This was a beautiful story of different types of love
3. There were too many damn secrets
4. Yoon Tae Young's performance as Goo Chun nearly brought me to my knees. No character has ever made me cry so hard, especially one that barely says a word.
5. I'm pissed the people who needed to die didn't.
6. With 108 30+ min episodes, the series is long so even though I liked almost everything about it, I still fast-forwarded and even skipped a bunch of episodes and you know what? I didn't miss a thing. The only part you must not FF is the first five episodes as this really sets up the whole series.
6. I'm at episode 100 now and I'm apathetic to this soap opera, even if it is a good one. It's just so damn long and I'm tired of their faces

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What love? What King?

This was such a downer. Watching it felt like I was drowning in a syrupy pool of despair and dissatisfaction. Apparently, this was meant to be the Chinese version of Love in the Moonlight but I can categorically say that this was a rather poor facsimile. Ultimately, the Korean version is far superior in both plot and casting. The story didn't know if it wanted to be a comedy, melodrama, or serious political suspense; so it ended up being a superficial mishmash of the most common palace tropes.

A girl who grew up as a boy went into the palace to collect a debt and ended up being appointed as the King's chief eunuch except the king is a mere puppet who's controlled by both his stepmother-the Empress Dowager- and the top general. The King desires to be a good ruler but in order to do that he must unseat the Dowager's camp. Both teams thrust and parry without actually landing any major blows. In the midst of the power struggle, the King falls in love with the FL and they work together to achieve said goal.

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Sigh

By defiantly dropping the series at episode 39 (of 40), I reclaimed some of the brain cells that were lost while watching the preceding episodes. With each episode, it became alarming to watch a script written about really terrible people not being held accountable for their misdeeds. The messaging is wrong and unjustifiable even in a fictional setting. A society with moral fiber woven with amoral, greedy, selfish, and dangerous people will someday implode on itself; however, time and time again I see this messaging being sent subliminally by most modern C dramas and it scares me.

Elise, Victor, Mrs. Quentin, Xiao Yu, Boris, Dr. Xie, and many more were horrible people yet not one of them got their comeuppance and for this I blame, Meng Yao, the screenwriter who, at 25, doesn't seem to have the requisite life lessons needed to fully flesh out such a morally gray story. As a matter of fact, I wonder if the screenwriter herself isn't a terrible person who wrote this as a wish-fulfilling prophecy.

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How does this have such high ratings?

I’ve made sighing into an Olympic sport because I must have done so a thousand times while watching this drama. Not only was it tedious but it also had an underlying message that didn't sit right with me. Firstly, I detest ditzy heroines who talk like babies; it's unappealing and cliche. Secondly, and despite it being the central theme, the hypnosis aspect was done poorly. No one should ever put another person under hypnosis without their consent. I could have overlooked it had it been done once or twice, however, the FL selfishly did it multiple times to the point I ended up hating her. Once I stopped caring about her then nothing else mattered. Not the romance or palace politics or the love triangle. I needed them gone.

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The story itself was good, everything else fell flat

With many laugh-out-loud and crazy moments, this series can only be viewed as a parody cos anything else will freeze your brain cells. So although I laughed at the beginning, it slowly got boring and the love story bordered on saccharine.

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An alternative depiction of a maligned Empress

The word epic is often used casually but in this case it’s probably an understatement because this series was absolutely phenomenal.

I don’t think there’s been a series that, IMO, is as riveting as Empress of China not even Story of Yanxi Palace which continues to have a chokehold on me.

There’re a few reviews with great recaps so I won’t bore you, what I will say however is that I did not for one second regret watching it.

If there’s one issue I have is the dumbing down of her intellect in order to make the audience more sympathetic towards her; nevertheless, I understood the intent seeing as how she’s depicted historically it makes sense to present a more benevolent monarch whose life story had mainly been presented through a patriarchal gaze in order to paint her as this monster who would kill her children to hold on to power. Therefore, this depiction makes more logical sense and I applaud the writers and cast for a job well done.

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This ought to have a higher average rating because it’s just so good

More recent Korean dramas rarely exceed 20 episodes and so when I realized Dong Yi was 60 episodes long, I nearly skipped it. Well, thank God I didn’t because this series was a little bit of heaven that ticked every box of tropes I want in a historical drama. The icing was having Ji Jin Hee as the gorgeous Emperor. My oh my, I practically swooned whenever he came on screen not only because of his excellent acting but also for that chiseled face. He and Han Hyo Joo had an insane amount of chemistry that practically sizzled. Yes, I like me some unequally yoked lovers. An Emperor falling in love and marrying a servant? Sign me up please.

More than this, there was enough palace intrigue and harem shenanigans to keep the pace moving swimmingly; also, and for once, a Korean drama actually had an ending that didn’t rip my heart out. What more could I ask for?

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Engaging

Beautiful Yang Mi and handsome Ethan Yuan had such amazing chemistry in this series, although Yang pretty much dominates this genre notwithstanding whoever plays opposite her. I thought the series was well-plotted and each episode, engaging. However, parts of the story that involved the character played by Gao Weiguang were so badly acted that I had second-hand embarrassment for Gao. I couldn't believe this was the same guy who gave us some of the best scenes in Eternal Love because he was just so bland on screen. Thankfully, the other subplots and characters made it worthwhile. Hate the ending but what can one do: you win some and lose some.

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Cute

This series has thrown my rating system into disarray. Objectively, this is the hallmark movie of C-dramaland in that we get a story that's fast-paced, romantic, and watchable yet it has the depth of a puddle and a very linear story arc. Nothing special, still, it's exactly what is needed to cleanse the palate after watching a dense drama like Legend of Mi Yue (which I disliked).

Is it fair to rate it so high? Yes, because I'd like to send a message of support to the writers and production team so that they're encouraged to keep honing their skills and hopefully improve their outputs regarding quality, storytelling, and production values

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Hopes dashed

Seven stars for the first half and 2 for the latter. The early episodes were funny and lighthearted, and our leads Ning Yi and Tan’er had good synergy. The dialogue matched the atmosphere and whatever issues they faced were dealt with intelligently, however, once the story transitioned to the bandit arc, it lost its vitality and essence. Clearly, the plot is meant to be darker and in many ways the writers attempted to achieve that by introducing more violence and gore but the dialogue and acting never quite matched what should have been deadly situations. Guo Qilin was out of his depth. He lacks the skills needed to fully convey the direness of their situation. It was also at this point that Guo’s acting veered towards Zhang Ruoyun’s mannerisms. The pursed lips, the head tilt and a few more which, if you’ve ever watched Joy of Life or Sword Snow Stride, are easily discernible.

Another factor that dragged down the rating is the set design, both for the first half and the palace scenes. It looked low budget and lacked the aesthetics required to fully immerse the viewer. Everything looked staged, as in it’s obvious this was a film set. Even the vista looked fake as if generated by CGI.

Lastly, it ends on a cliffhanger, and for those of us who are still pinning for Joy of Life season two, you’re better off shelving this until season two is released.

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