Totally unexpectedly, this drama will remain for a long in my heart. I've never been a fan of Bai Lu (actually, this is an understatement, I deeply disliked her interpretations), but her interpretation of Ye Li totally conquered me, she literally embodied the character which will stay in my heart forever to the fullest! I've also liked Cheng Lei's interpretation of MXY, less complex but requiring as well... Despite having a few flaws, the plot was overall interesting and well narrated, exchanging different narrative tools to create suspence, mystery, estrangement, time lapse etc. or to convey different kind of feelings and sensations. Even more importantly, the story had truly original and EXTREMELY BOLD objectives: to realistically depict a person affected by a severe PTSD through a (basically) idol-fiction genre and make us fall in love with that character. If it wasn't superbly performed and directed, it could have failed thousand times on thousand issues. Just for this courage and success in achieving our complete empathy with Ye Li, this drama would deserve 10/10, also bc. the music and bgm were always on spot. But the story contained those (very) few logical issues, so, for me, it's 9/10
The first question is kind of obvious as there’s only one possible option. The only way she could keep it was…
forging an edict has always been a big deal, special fabrics, woven words, not to mention the imperial seal certainly well guarded by the ED at the time. So, the answer is not that obvious and what she had done exactly should have been shown
Actually, no, the Ye dad was made to take the edict from his wife, forcefully, by Marquis Muyang (presumably at…
I can agree with everything you wrote, but everything you wrote only adds to what I've written, it doesn't contraddict the fact the edict plot is stranded, flawed, and requires an effort in suspension of disbelief.
Ehm, I must say again an unpopular thing about the edict plot. We saw it burnt, but again, consort Qin saved it somehow and we are left to guess how is it possible.
But at least, my reconstruction of the events happened 8 y ago was correct. ML's bro, summoned by the edict - arrived with his cavalry in the capital or somewhere near when the old emperor died. Fearing someone could have take and destroy that edict, he hid it somewhere and was imprisoned, revealing the location to the FL's mom. But the fire swallowed the Eastern palace and consort Qin's astronomer friend was imprisoned as well and she visited him immediately, learning from him about the edict (and how the hell did he know about it?). Meanwhile, Ye bros, assessing the ED is the last (wo)man standing, took the edict giving it to consort Qin, who was returning from the prison. So, it is proven she could have saved at least one man with that edict, by presenting it at the court. But, she have chosen to follow her friend's advice, per inertia so to say, as his "follower", and somehow (we still don't know precisely how) kept the edict for her "own safeguard" against the ED, unaware how to use. And committing a crime of culpable omission bc. that edict could have saved at least one person (ML's bro), beside betraying her friend (FL's mom), who died bc of that edict. Now, aware her beloved idol was a charlatan who tricked her into a blind loyalty towards a person who treats everybody as her pawns, she burnt his collected works. Thank you, Mars in Antares and all the stars above! I may have been wrong in judging her smart at the beginning and smart persons don't believe in crap, but now she acts smart and burns the crap she believed in so much, so, bye, bye, rotten capital, I am heading to my vacation in Lignan, not feeling guilty at all. Hm. And the FL somehow figured out everything in advance. The author asks me for a big suspension of disbelief here. Bc. I've felt right even before: the edict plotline is STRANDED, now we know a great part of it, it presents significant flaws, while it will still be exploited to create a misunderstanding between the leads. Btw, FL just stashed that edict under a blanket in a room where foreign princess was killed? And nobody thoroughly searched that room? I hope the script won't put us in other suspensions of disbelief in last 10 eps. bc I really like this drama.
Definitely and not limitedly hitchcockian, depends what sensation the scene wants to convey, what is in the camera…
It's hard to recommend a specific drama, bc she evidently haven't got enough time to meticulously break and prepare every single scene as she did here. Also, how good shots will finally appear to the audience, depends greatly on the technicians, editors and money available for the effects. But above all, it depends on our personal taste and immersion into a specific story, and on the convincing performance. She directed some of the most iconic xianxia dramas ever: Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, The Journey of Flower and Love And Destiny. I gave up watching her more recent xianxias, the plot in those dramas didn't catch me. She also directed one of the most beloved "Legend of Condor Heroes" with Hu Ge (I personally do not see as the best adaptation and I'm a great fan of Jin Yong and his trilogy), as well as several seasons of Chinese Paladin, that's why she is so well versed in scenes involving martial arts. I loved her Scarlet Heart and Sound of the Desert, although the leading actress in both (Liu Shishi) was too young to fully express characters she played. But I liked the stories and this director's ability to create the mood in them: poetic, melancholic... constantly playing between tension and... well, not precisely distension, but erosion, decadence, sifting of the sand... as if the yin and yang contrasting forces were always present and interacting with each other. For many years we are awaiting for The Golden Hairpin, she directed with Guo Hu (another great director) with Yang Zi in the main role. Just by watching the trailer, you'll notice the scenes are organised, crafted and shot as if it was a movie, paying homage to a few iconic scenes of the greatest Chinese movie directors: Zhang Yimou, John Woo and Wong Kar Wai, all "grandmasters" of visuals and of guiding the mood of the audience in the direction they want. So, just start to watch anything and see if you like the story. If you do, you'll certainly enjoy it
The "hibiscus connection", ie., the connection between Qin's revered friend and ED was unexpected, true.But…
yeah, I've attentively read your opinion on this issue and how you initially perceived her as not that smart as I did. My initial impression of her may be wrong and she could indeed just be overly confident while overly trusting crap FL exposed in the latest ep.
The "hibiscus connection", ie., the connection between Qin's revered friend and ED was unexpected, true.But…
No, she probaly couldn't save her master. Before, without knowing she met with her astronomer in prison and what exactly he told her, I've thought she could blackmail Muyang and ED: the life of my friend in exchange of the edict (which would attenuate her culpable omission: by not presenting the edict, she tried to save another innocent man's life). But, after hearing what the friend told her, it wasn't viable or at least the friend tought it wasn't viable and we can take that at the face value, not a big deal. I was referring to the ML's bro: if she couldn't protect her friend's life, she could still present the edict to the court to save the ML's bro from the execution. With the edict in her hands, she had the possibility to save at least one person's life. Culpable omission is a crime, but if one commits that crime in order to prevent other crime to be committed, the guilt isn't the same
I can't say it enough, the whole reveal between consort Qin, her master, empress dowager and the whole hibiscus…
The "hibiscus connection", ie., the connection between Qin's revered friend and ED was unexpected, true. But as a person who questioned why Qin kept the edict for herself... I still feel "a problem", although after the latest revelations, it's "reformulated". 1. From that astronomer's words, the thing you've mentioned is clear: keep the edict for yourself, don't give it to the ED, it can be your insurance. Just those words were sufficient to make her stay on guard from the ED. Instead, she continued to believe she was good, she only started recently to inquire about what really happened. She was presented as a smart and calculative in inital eps, but later she appears naive, gullible and even a bit frightened, does she not? Her initial characterial depiction doesn't correspond to the latter, as if the initial depiction was an intentional red herring, but red herrings are not used in character depictions, only in depiction of events, which may be perceived in different ways, depending on pov and perspective the witness of the event actually had. Applying the red herring logic to the characters is called inconsistency. 2. I also agree with you that the astronomer wished to protect her with both those words and the recommendation to continue to stick to the ED "because their fates were connected". But was she an idiot, he could not tell that ED and him actually had a connection and that he was... well, let down, by ED? 3. Finally, I agree with you consort Qin's image of her master and empress dowager is completely destroyed. This thing is important for the development of the plotline we can all envisage at this point: she'll give the edict to the FL. But other points are to be clarified: how did consort Qin kept a secret she had the edict? If her friend astronomer knew the edict was held by the Yes, it means Muyang and ED knew that as well. Just simply asking, they would respond: we gave it to consort Qin, right? Then, they would just turn to her and her eventual answer would be: yes and I've destroyed it. But how could these two be sure she didn't read the content of that edict, which was incriminating for Muyang? If this was the case, the safest thing to do (for these two) was to eliminate her impeding any testimony or account on the content of the edict. Muyang is evil enough to kill his own son, while ED appears to be a ruler came out from the Sun Tzu's famous phrase: "An evil man will burn his own nation to the ground to rule over the ashes."
Finally, her silence on the edict matter makes her impossible to exonerate from the sc. "culpable omission": her inaction to present the edict made an innocent man (ML's brother) to be convicted and executed. We can believe we are "fated" to a certain person's fate as much as we want, especially if we are living in times in which people generally believed in fate, divinations etc., but the person she relied the most in such beliefs was the person who put her in guard against the person her fate was supposedly linked to. And she chose to protect ED (who also didn't save the astronomer) and not the innocent man she could have saved.
I don't care what anyone says. This drama is giving hitchcockian vibes.
Definitely and not limitedly hitchcockian, depends what sensation the scene wants to convey, what is in the camera focus, there's a constant connection between the kind of a story narrated in a particular moment and the style-technique used by the director. This director is a top master of her art, very versatile in using different tools of different classical master, good both in close shots (eg. Bai Lu's face behind the candle is almost a painting, a portrait), evoking scenes of beauty or arts (Bai Lu's dress when she was painting a murales), large shots (the landscape in which young Ye Li searched for ML, carefully chosen to correspond her narration reminded me of Pollock's My Africa or David Lean's classics), martial arts capturing, tension and distension creation... It's a feast for the eyes
4 
1 
Despite having a few flaws, the plot was overall interesting and well narrated, exchanging different narrative tools to create suspence, mystery, estrangement, time lapse etc. or to convey different kind of feelings and sensations. Even more importantly, the story had truly original and EXTREMELY BOLD objectives: to realistically depict a person affected by a severe PTSD through a (basically) idol-fiction genre and make us fall in love with that character. If it wasn't superbly performed and directed, it could have failed thousand times on thousand issues. Just for this courage and success in achieving our complete empathy with Ye Li, this drama would deserve 10/10, also bc. the music and bgm were always on spot. But the story contained those (very) few logical issues, so, for me, it's 9/10
But at least, my reconstruction of the events happened 8 y ago was correct. ML's bro, summoned by the edict - arrived with his cavalry in the capital or somewhere near when the old emperor died. Fearing someone could have take and destroy that edict, he hid it somewhere and was imprisoned, revealing the location to the FL's mom. But the fire swallowed the Eastern palace and consort Qin's astronomer friend was imprisoned as well and she visited him immediately, learning from him about the edict (and how the hell did he know about it?). Meanwhile, Ye bros, assessing the ED is the last (wo)man standing, took the edict giving it to consort Qin, who was returning from the prison.
So, it is proven she could have saved at least one man with that edict, by presenting it at the court. But, she have chosen to follow her friend's advice, per inertia so to say, as his "follower", and somehow (we still don't know precisely how) kept the edict for her "own safeguard" against the ED, unaware how to use. And committing a crime of culpable omission bc. that edict could have saved at least one person (ML's bro), beside betraying her friend (FL's mom), who died bc of that edict.
Now, aware her beloved idol was a charlatan who tricked her into a blind loyalty towards a person who treats everybody as her pawns, she burnt his collected works. Thank you, Mars in Antares and all the stars above! I may have been wrong in judging her smart at the beginning and smart persons don't believe in crap, but now she acts smart and burns the crap she believed in so much, so, bye, bye, rotten capital, I am heading to my vacation in Lignan, not feeling guilty at all. Hm.
And the FL somehow figured out everything in advance. The author asks me for a big suspension of disbelief here.
Bc. I've felt right even before: the edict plotline is STRANDED, now we know a great part of it, it presents significant flaws, while it will still be exploited to create a misunderstanding between the leads.
Btw, FL just stashed that edict under a blanket in a room where foreign princess was killed? And nobody thoroughly searched that room? I hope the script won't put us in other suspensions of disbelief in last 10 eps. bc I really like this drama.
She directed some of the most iconic xianxia dramas ever: Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, The Journey of Flower and Love And Destiny. I gave up watching her more recent xianxias, the plot in those dramas didn't catch me. She also directed one of the most beloved "Legend of Condor Heroes" with Hu Ge (I personally do not see as the best adaptation and I'm a great fan of Jin Yong and his trilogy), as well as several seasons of Chinese Paladin, that's why she is so well versed in scenes involving martial arts. I loved her Scarlet Heart and Sound of the Desert, although the leading actress in both (Liu Shishi) was too young to fully express characters she played. But I liked the stories and this director's ability to create the mood in them: poetic, melancholic... constantly playing between tension and... well, not precisely distension, but erosion, decadence, sifting of the sand... as if the yin and yang contrasting forces were always present and interacting with each other.
For many years we are awaiting for The Golden Hairpin, she directed with Guo Hu (another great director) with Yang Zi in the main role. Just by watching the trailer, you'll notice the scenes are organised, crafted and shot as if it was a movie, paying homage to a few iconic scenes of the greatest Chinese movie directors: Zhang Yimou, John Woo and Wong Kar Wai, all "grandmasters" of visuals and of guiding the mood of the audience in the direction they want.
So, just start to watch anything and see if you like the story. If you do, you'll certainly enjoy it
Culpable omission is a crime, but if one commits that crime in order to prevent other crime to be committed, the guilt isn't the same
But as a person who questioned why Qin kept the edict for herself... I still feel "a problem", although after the latest revelations, it's "reformulated".
1. From that astronomer's words, the thing you've mentioned is clear: keep the edict for yourself, don't give it to the ED, it can be your insurance. Just those words were sufficient to make her stay on guard from the ED. Instead, she continued to believe she was good, she only started recently to inquire about what really happened. She was presented as a smart and calculative in inital eps, but later she appears naive, gullible and even a bit frightened, does she not? Her initial characterial depiction doesn't correspond to the latter, as if the initial depiction was an intentional red herring, but red herrings are not used in character depictions, only in depiction of events, which may be perceived in different ways, depending on pov and perspective the witness of the event actually had. Applying the red herring logic to the characters is called inconsistency.
2. I also agree with you that the astronomer wished to protect her with both those words and the recommendation to continue to stick to the ED "because their fates were connected". But was she an idiot, he could not tell that ED and him actually had a connection and that he was... well, let down, by ED?
3. Finally, I agree with you consort Qin's image of her master and empress dowager is completely destroyed. This thing is important for the development of the plotline we can all envisage at this point: she'll give the edict to the FL. But other points are to be clarified: how did consort Qin kept a secret she had the edict? If her friend astronomer knew the edict was held by the Yes, it means Muyang and ED knew that as well. Just simply asking, they would respond: we gave it to consort Qin, right? Then, they would just turn to her and her eventual answer would be: yes and I've destroyed it. But how could these two be sure she didn't read the content of that edict, which was incriminating for Muyang? If this was the case, the safest thing to do (for these two) was to eliminate her impeding any testimony or account on the content of the edict. Muyang is evil enough to kill his own son, while ED appears to be a ruler came out from the Sun Tzu's famous phrase: "An evil man will burn his own nation to the ground to rule over the ashes."
Finally, her silence on the edict matter makes her impossible to exonerate from the sc. "culpable omission": her inaction to present the edict made an innocent man (ML's brother) to be convicted and executed. We can believe we are "fated" to a certain person's fate as much as we want, especially if we are living in times in which people generally believed in fate, divinations etc., but the person she relied the most in such beliefs was the person who put her in guard against the person her fate was supposedly linked to. And she chose to protect ED (who also didn't save the astronomer) and not the innocent man she could have saved.
Lv astronomer with fake identity wasn't among the dolls, she killed him because he was mistreating ML