AleksandraSucur

"everything is possible, the question is how much it's probable" is one of my favorite quotes, lol.
But even if such a remote possibily takes place, it doesn't change the fact we've seen the development of a romance (building it from feelings that confused them towards a sincere care) until that point. If she wants to travel, it's more likely for the ML to join her. Besides, she evaded from that shrine every night, no walls can keep her if she doesn't want. The real prison for women of Joseon depicted in this drama are societal norms, oppressive bigotry & corruption, it's a place nobody of us would chose to live in. But rather than escaping, she is a hero(ine) of the story not only because she is a fighter (although she is a hero for that reason, too) but because she - mostly unintentionally but sometimes deliberately - breaks the rules. She is now after and - once she discovers the death of her brother - she is going to destroy persons who are incarnation of that society: her father in law (the most powerful person in the country, when he goes down, all his servile ministers will go down, too) and Pil Jik. If the king puts in charge senior bro Park, those imprisoning rules will naturally undergo significant changes, at least the norm prohibiting widows to remarry will be supressed.

I suppose you've posted this comment under the wrong drama. In THIS one - and here I disagree with the opinions expressed above - we see how a "romance" takes its full swing, it isn't "subtle". Although they don't know how to interpret what's going on with them - they are unexperienced and subjects to extremely conservative rules of conduct (and in spite of those rules) - they get physically attracted to each other so much as they've been crushed under an avalanche of hormones, so much that our own serotonin (and other dopamines') levels respond to the credibility of the emotions conveyed by the leads: someone rightly spoke of this drama as of a "serotonine booster". Later, when they start to share their "secrets" and vulnerabilities, their "true selves/true identities", they care and protect each other, they discover sweetness of "little things" like the hidden place where to put messages, cakes and flowers. Their personal life tragedies make their destinies to entangle (as stated by the ML himself: they don't bump in each other for no reason), as well as the same goals they share. They start to discuss, cooperate and make plans in order to achieve those goals. Well, their methods to achieve those goals sometimes need some honing (thing which regularly occurs in every couple in the world, real or fictional), they are different persons but they also change: a rushed badass FL starts to think before acting, and a serious composed official starts doing all kind of rushed and stupid things out of jealousy or frustration, like screaming in the middle of the road etc.
Although the plot isn't only a romance, if the things listed above don't indicate a romance, I don't know what does.

If my memory still works, Xiao Guan, the role ZRY plays, should appear while Di is a magistrate in Penglai. First as a swindler and later to join Di. Although the scriptwriter changed stories-cases as well as their sequence, the plot is still more or less "recognizable" for those who read the original novels and short stories.

Indeed, and in van Gulik's novel he met them on his trip to Penglai. Dee here gives me a different vibe (too much drinking for an upright official in search of truth)

I've got impression she wanted him to gain more experience before returning to Chang'an and becoming useful in politics and "capital justice" (capital sentences are pronounced by high judges in the capital). There's a significant flashback of Master Wei's speech that he is "still young & reckless" while Dee enters the palace examination, so I think it was a hint why he will not enter high politics immediately after.

Anyways, we can only guess, bc. this starting plot is different from the original van Gulik's novel which starts with Dee freshly appointed to Penglai, meeting Ma Rong and Qiao Tai for the first time on his trip there.

they are pretty unknown, espec. the screenwriter, can't find anything anywhere

tnx

Now, I've noticed, there's no trace who is the director.
And the scriptwriters?

Ok, the first four eps exceeded my (high) expectations. Looking forward

Oooh, that's really too much to digest... what a horrible person

Actually, you should be glad if they do, it means your opinion is highly considered and appreciated. Reviews on social platforms are of "public domain", so anybody can use them for their own purposes & interest although rare (intellectually honest) would mention the source.
When I've read your reviews here, I was also thinking it would be nice if you put them on YT, so more people won't miss your clever recommendations/critics which are regularly enriched with cultural and artistic references not many people, especially outside China, know.
Beside, your channel reminded me to watch Fearless Blood I've already wanted to watch after reading your review but somehow forgot.
Now, we have also Judge Dee Renjie... we'll have chances to talk more... :))))

I've put on hold this messy drama, but in turn I've subscribed your channel on YT. Good luck!

if that was the case, one sincere hug would suffice.

If a picky person like me can watch it raw (without any notion of Korean), it's even a bit better than Mr.Queen. Excellent comedy

It's, illogical, I agree. Once "friend-zoned", a person can't breach out that easy, without removing the reasons of friend-zoning... Lovers can develop complicity and become camarades, too, but not vice versa. Her continous saving him from troubles made them camarades, the problem is he (and only he) got attracted to her after the scene in a bathtub. She is not attracted to him, why would she kiss him? To give him some comfort after he revealed his feelings? Too passionate to be a "bye-take-care" kiss. Out of blue.

@ Agree, those face shields look horrible. But we can't judge other people's choices because we don't know the underlying reasons of those choices. The sun, especially UVB rays are dangerous for the skin, it's a renown fact and they are more dangerous if your skin is naturally pale. I have that type of skin (I even have freckles, although not on face), Scandinavian pale and sensitive which can easily get burnt by the sun. This skin can tan only to a certain degree, and I can use foundation and shades only to that degree, otherwise my make up will look totally unnatural. Growing up on a Mediterranean island with 290 days of sun per year and with the sea temperature never below 17°C allowing swimming even during the winter, I've noticed that if I overprotect my skin with high factor sunprotecting creams or avoiding completely the exposition, I'll make the thing worse, because overprotection will increase the paleness and therefore the risk of burns after just 15 minutes of walk in wintertime sunny day. So, although I never "grill" myself on the beach during summers and after swimming I immediately escape to the shadow, I don't avoid the sun during the rest of the year (I use aftersun lotions and aloe vera creams throughout the year). In this way, my skin gets some tanning which serves as a natural protection when dangerous rays hit hard in summer. I'm 50+, I don't have one wrinkle. But I can understand that in some other parts of the world people try to avoid sun completely. In Australia (and other parts of Southern hemisphere), they had problems with ozone holes for decades, so it's normal they were scared and tried to avoid the sun in every possible way.

@FunnyBunny1026, yup, He Landou played that character really well (but NB, tanning make-up wasn't used on her either). You may be right, maybe it isn't so bad, it's just me disliking that kind of makeup I can't dissociate from my personal memories I've mentioned above. But if you also remember a case of female-playing-male with no heavy-tanning make-up, the make-up artists didn't do their job in this case, right?

Yes, partly it is cultural, but partly this thing is "industrial". Actresses in general often refuse to get exposed to the sun because of its effects on the skin (decrease of collagen, wrinkles, spots...). A notorius case is of Nicole Kidman who is obsessed with her pale skin (in order to avoid her natural freckles) and was tanned with make-up even for the outdoor movie "Australia". Women tend to imitate famous actresses but in doing so they deprive themselves of vitamin D which must be supplemented otherwise they'll develop serious bone problems. Between wrinkles and health problems, I'll always chose wrinkles. There's a famous quote of Italian actress Anna Magnani (recently re-quoted by the Pope): "Please, don't retouch my wrinkles, it took me my entire lifetime to earn them"

@FunnyBunny1026, hi, glad to read you again.
But I disagree with you, make-up artists didn't do well their job. Ostentatious Orchid mentioned one, but we've seen even better examples of how this job should have been done, the most perfect is probably the make up used without any artificial tanning. on
Zhang Ya Qin in "Love in Between" and, more recently, on Yang Zi in Lost You Forever.

On the contrary, the make up used on this actress (talented, no doubt, bc. we've all seen her in Snow Sword Stride, where she also appears androginously enough but has a pale skin) is the example of how the make-up SHOULD NOT be done. You are wrong if you think they lamped her to appear more exposed to the sun (& hardships). It's the worst kind of foundation which reminds me of cheap tanning shades used in early '90-ies & highly fashioned among middle-aged female employees, a foundation which left disgusting traces (uneasy to clean) on their table phones handset. Whoever saw the traces of that wrong foundation, will forever recognize it and feel the same disgust and dirtiness. The make-up "artist" who have done such a poor job should be banned from working in entertainment industry, fullstop.

this is true for the first episodes, but later on, eg. last two eps (7 &8) you can feel some presages of flows: not only bad makeup work or wrong cuts-directing (these critics are founded, not nitpicking)... Initial fast pacing which stirred up excitement in a viewer slowed down after the leads' separation and this sensation increses after their re-unification. There's an excess of probably unncessary details of their entaglements-disintanglements (read: waste of time) in the plotline which make the story going around itself and you get the feeling of some sort of stalling. I sincerely hope this feeling will not turn to a bore. I personally would not like to drop this one, too, bc. I dropped too many lately and bc. I somehow cheer on this not-first tier-idol cast.