AleksandraSucur

I am well aware of this institution and punishments on "unchaste" women. It wasn't the contradiction I was talking about at all. The props, dresses and uniforms allude to a Ming dynasty setting, when officials-bureaucrats (such as local magistrates) were banned from engaging in private commerce or seeking profit by Confucian laws and a strict social hierarchy that separated scholar-officials (placed on the top) from merchants.
If such a family was engaged in salt trade (violating the law), it would have done that only covertly ("per interposta persona", per proxy), showing off as less as possible and certainly wouldn't seek visibility with chastity arches...

I expect the smuggler will become a private salt seller later on tnx to FL's skills in that business, as it is hinted her family is both in that trade and in the officialdom. Yeah, and they heavily rely on chastity arches. While the author of these contraddictions heavily relies on our capacity to suspend our disbelief...

it's impossible to discern if he is a "private salt dealer" as in the synopsis or just a smuggler-bandit. I've browsed the first 4 eps: what we can say about him with certainty is only that he is an imposter.
So, the logical expectation is that the FL will teach him all about salt business in the future, bc her family is both in that business and in officialdom (local magistrates), although essentially nobility relying on their female chastity tradition display.
From what I can see, the story in this familiar-traditional setting is so contraddictory and unconvincing that the rest of the drama will depend totally on Deng Ke's direction skills and mastery to make art out of trash. But as a person who watched all his major dramas, I think his great skills (in creating suspense, comic effects, sudden twists etc) are mismatched with the themes and motives of this story and the audience will notice it as the story progresses.

Not just hairpins, the overall aesthetics is too flashy and defies logic, the wigs are bad, dresses and uniforms mixing styles... 🤦‍♀️, but these are just typical flaws of a low budget dramas, so people just do their best to ignore the bad taste. But you're right the hairpins that should naturally drop after one move particularly prick the eyes. And I'd say even the "repaired" wooden hairpin with cheap plastic passed for "red jade" and gold was as good as two fingers piercing the eyes.

If you're craving for some light entertainment, this is a safe watch, no irritating nonsense in the plot. Despite abudant use of tropes and elements of short lenght dramas - meant to build arousal and target a specific audience - there's no abuse of these elements as they appear functional to the story and are coherent with the characters. Eg., before falling from the cliff, cornered by the enemies and with a wounded ML in her arms, the smart FL analyse the situation: "we are dead here, but if we jump down, maybe we still have some chances for survival" - which adds to the entertainment, bc. the audience is aware of the 100% chances of survival from falling off the cliff in this kind of dramas and still feels gratified when their survival is confirmed bc it went exactly as we've expected.
The entire story is a cliché but done right: the power fight among princes is developed on realistic-like problems (embezzlement on great construction works, relief offering after calamities like floods, moral and economical decay of non-meritocratic system...) of the fictional dynasty, social injustice and conflict between powerful, corrupted and selfish noble class versus commoners who suffer this injustice, a conflict which is smartly reproduced even among the members of the royal family and manoeuvred by the emperor in his own balance of power game. In such a frame, our FL (low born princess) must hide her true intentions and play all sides in order to survive, must be cunning, brave, smart and unscrupulous. The lead actress well embodied the character as well as LHY did with his role (a commoner rising up the ranks of officialdom). Side characters were also highly believeable.
I'd probably never seen it if I haven't seen a positive review of a MDL friend on my feed, but I am glad I did. Despite certain flaws typical for a low budget drama and despite its unoriginality, it was entertaining, and well measured in combining the comic, realistic, sensual, cliché etc elements and just for these reasons, it deserves a slightly better rating.

If I haven't read your "don't knock it till you try it", I wouldn't even give it a glance. Entertaining, light, sufficiently believeable story, many tropes but - all in measured dosage... I've completed it in one go

A great classic I'd recommend anybody to watch

An excellent espionage drama, among the best of the genre, espc. in terms of delivery of such a huge cast. The story is also really great, although my rating 8,5/10 (if possible, my rating would be 8,7) marked down a certain redundance of cases/scenes in which the villains tested ML's blindness in the first and the second arc. In the second arc (with Liang Jing Yuan as main villain), the involvement of the Tanoji family felt a bit unconvincing, too. Certain subplots in the third arc could have also be a bit better elaborated to be better elaborated, imho. But all these are just little flaws in a drama which was so spectacularly performed (side characters included) and directed down to the smallest details! Well done, bravo!

I perfectly agree with your reasoning on production logic, my friend, but neither I nor Acrobit12 were talking about the choices behind "tailoring" their products and "resonating" with the needs of the domestic fanbase, to use your words. If we were unable to catch those aspects, we wouldn't watch Asian dramas for so many years, right?

We were talking about the story and how the story is told, we didn't question the sense of gratification certain shares of audience still may get from it. People (any people, the three of us included) watch dramas bc they expect that precise feeling. What gives us that gratification differs from person to person (we generally refer to it as "individual taste") but there's a bottom line to it as well bc we also give smth to a drama: beside our time, we are (unconsciously) willing to suspend our disbelief in order to obtain that gratification. What guarantees the fairness of this tradeoff is only the quality of the story (is it worth watching?), indipendently of the targeted audience: general, international, domestic or just to the fanbase. I don't doubt there are persons who will tradeoff the quality of the story for the scenes like "three men in a bath" and who will still feel gratified and think it's worth watching, but if this is the case, there are better contents for them...

Indeed... 😓

I usually endure at least to 1/3 of a drama I've started before making any judgement about it. But after seeing 9 eps of this story, there's nothing to keep my patience on. The plotline - woven around the FL's path to empowerment (basically to aide ML's empowerment and shape their romantic entanglement through mutual help and cooperation) and developed on (completely unoriginal) cases of injustice - is unconvincing, with shallow, naive and inconsistent dialogues. The characters are all heavily built on stereotypes, and this is particularly evident in side characters and villains: corrupted local governor, spoiled arrogant envious viscious and unintelligent female antagonist, conservative chancellor as ML's main antagonist, shouty irascible overprotective FL's best friend, apparently frivolous ML's best friend... connected in a patchwork of messy subplots and improbable mutual relations requiring constant suspense of disbelief from the audience. The major internal threat - Tiger Roar Gang - is just a group of dumb violent bandits busy with money extortion but we are supposed to believe they are backed and directed by the chancellor and his power group. They are also connected to the major mysterious external threat supplying them with iron to melt their weapons...
The story telling is fragmented, often displayed in short scenes which are abruptly interrupted, even with scenes with absolutely no meaning to the plot inserted only to please an eye (like the men bathing together in the last ep)...
And there's also a horrible translation to add insult to all this injury...

I've liked it.
I'd be grateful if some kind soul could translate the last caption of the ending ep...

I've seen it on your watchlist... yeah, well organised scenes to tell a story. It almost feel like a well done documentary, at least in initial eps

Rewatching all 5 movies after many years, I think this chapter was the best

First half of the drama may be hard to watch, at least, I've found the first two cases not particularly original and situational framings too stereotyped with typical misunderstandings of a demon-human couple and opponents to lovers relationship.
But I was still curious about the location and the atmosphere of Yin-Yang Crossing, a place in which humans and demons peacefully coexist due to the protection of a willow tree demoness, beside the metaphor of heart-giving (as a voluntarily act)...
I am glad I've continued to watch bc the cases in the second half were certainly better and a viewer started to better understand the FL, what really threatens the peace of Yin Yang Crossing and how this threat is connected with both ML and FL as well as with the heart in them. So, as from ep 10-11, the viewer will really start to enter into this interesting place (also bc the ML will start to understand it and will start to be accepted by its inhabitants) and the drama will offer more than a few original twists and turns.
Overall, it's a nice and well-paced short drama

you're right about so many things 👍
I've just tried to point out that someone brute like the Eagle King would be "mellowed" in real life as well. Your opinion is not only "subjective" ❤️and he is indeed still a human

I agree with you on many points and with a polite, honest type of discussion we all hope for. 👍

Addressing your "narrower point": placing a minor in romantic scenes opposite an adult man specifically, I have to observe that you are starting with a presumption all adults will take advantage of a minor. If we are talking about criminal offences statistics, I'd agree with you. But that's not the case in our discussion and I will immediately oppose a solid argument to your assumption: minors have a capabilty to manipulate adults, even a newborn baby manipulates his/her own mom: if I cry, she'll appear, will cuddle me, make the pain in abdomen go, give me milk..
Actually, as the time goes on and the knowledge accumulates in that minor, the manipulation impulse softens along with his/her achievements.
We can't exactly say when the maturity begins, the adult age is just a number, but in the individual person... it's hard to say. Certain persons reach maturity underaged (and in ancient times, it was certainly before our legal age of 18), some achieve it around 24, and some... die at the age 80+ and you will not define them "mature" or "adult".
At the same time, an older (or a younger) person can represent smth a person can love and care for, imo

We've talked about this relationship yesterday, lol. Like you, I was also surprised the drama SHOWED Eagle King's feelings towards Lejun in such an extensive way (usually, this type of drama would leave the audience guessing what kind of relationship they exactly had), but again, I came to a different conclusion.
I think we can all agree the scriptwriter of this drama (and it took many years to perfection it) put an extreme effort in closing all loose ends of several subplots. With primary goal to narrate an interesting story & to tell it well, observing human beings as "processes" (ie. in constant development due to the factors that influence them) & exploring different approaches to power and human relationships (friends, siblings, lovers...) in a way which will resonate with our sense for realism.
We don't know what exactly made the Eagle King the brute villain who treated enslaved people in that horrible way, killing them for pleasure, but we know exactly what attracted him in Lejun: an extraordinary courage she showed during their first meeting, when she stole the poisoned arrow. In that occasion, such a weak and traumatised girl, said to him with extreme calm and determination smth like: "now, you either kill me or release me". And given his envoy position in that moment, he had no option but to let her go. SHE WON OVER HIM in that moment and for a personality which is all about dominance, terror and fight like him, losing or feeling subdued is A RARE FEELING, it hit him hard. Besides, the courage she showed was bc of her love for her brother, she was capable of great emotions and he started to covet those emotions for himself. If she was less traumatised, smarter and married him at the Ye court cerimony, she could have manipulated him like a puppet. But we know her background story... her childhood trauma, combined with the ED harrassement, her exclusive trust in her brother and her (objective) horrible perception of Qin invasors made impossible for her to develop feelings for him. The Eagle King was stupid to expect she would ever ask him for help or mercy and in his eyes she remained that determined and brave woman till the end, that's why he cried so bitterly. Imo, this outcome looks completely logical and realistic.

Oh, I see. Thank you 👍

Indeed, the script provided practically all background explanations, although maybe not at the moment we wanted, creating diversions and keeping the suspence high