AleksandraSucur
Nothing special, no memorable quotes and yet... enjoyable and refreshing
If you skip this drama, you won't lose anything in your life. But if you need something to watch to relax, something that won't irritate you, something still sufficiently interesting that won't make you drop it, well, this drama is perfect for you.
The writer of the synopsis didn't make justice to introduce us to the plot, so, I'll repair it. This is a (not particularly defined) period ensemble drama which rotates around a young couple with their own struggles. FL is struggling to keep what remained of her family afloat, after the seizure of assets and exile of male members from the capital. Her struggle is a struggle of female empowerment. ML is a side member of the imperial family who struggles to figure out complicated relations in his own family. Favoured by his uncle, a wicked emperor who can't stand anyone who contradicts him, he is appointed the Commander of the Secret Bureau, a ruthless Agency that responds only to him with the power to take down any other force (including nobles, royals etc) aspiring to the power. The struggles of these two persons entagle in interesting way and they fall for each other.
Although it lacks in memorable quotes and has many elements of unlikeliness, the plot is solidly based on a well-written dialogues, a rarity in C-dramaworld. Tbh, they are not brilliant, but they abound in details, double meanings, premonitions/hints that make the story logical in cause-effect sequence. What enhance to make the story believable is a genuine romance between the main leads, displayed originally for this type of drama: calm discussions to overcome misunderstandings, no screeming or scheming, no knives, poisons or bloodspitting. If you can pass over the fact that the ML is a super-fighter and the FL a business genius, for the rest, the two are totally normal people. The scenes engaging other people, and they are many, are also well developed, at least in the 4/5 of episodes. These are the reason I've highly rated "the story" - I'd like to encourage the two scriptwriters to follow this path in the future (and to forget completely the mess they've combined with TTEOM). But I also couldn't rate more, because they've also comitted huge mistakes (due to the original novel, I suppose), such as... introducing a new villain in last 5 eps. The audience "likes" villains, too: we want to know what made them villains, we like to grow up some (negative) affection to the villains, too.
Generally speaking, all the actors delievered the story, but not on the same level. Who delievered better were support characters: Hai Yi Tian as that sick-in-his-head emperor, Lu Yu Xiao as a traumatised PTSP girl (this actress really knows her job!) in process of healing, Myolie Wu as Madam Xia. The leads were good in delivering their main traits (described above: fighter-businesswoman), but nothing more than that.
Direction: How did Chu Yui Bun restrain himself from all his "weird experiments" with lights, filters, camera spinning... is a mystery. I suppose, his assistants constantly kept an eye on him. Untill the last minute in post-production. They've thought they've wrapped it all and left him alone. Being unwatched, he simply decided to add some CGI dolphins in that sort of homage to the Titanic. Both dolphins and Titanic-homage were wrong ideas, assistants, please,, don't leave him unchecked ever more.
Music was nothing special, the reason of high rating is: it's fine because it wasn't invasive.
The writer of the synopsis didn't make justice to introduce us to the plot, so, I'll repair it. This is a (not particularly defined) period ensemble drama which rotates around a young couple with their own struggles. FL is struggling to keep what remained of her family afloat, after the seizure of assets and exile of male members from the capital. Her struggle is a struggle of female empowerment. ML is a side member of the imperial family who struggles to figure out complicated relations in his own family. Favoured by his uncle, a wicked emperor who can't stand anyone who contradicts him, he is appointed the Commander of the Secret Bureau, a ruthless Agency that responds only to him with the power to take down any other force (including nobles, royals etc) aspiring to the power. The struggles of these two persons entagle in interesting way and they fall for each other.
Although it lacks in memorable quotes and has many elements of unlikeliness, the plot is solidly based on a well-written dialogues, a rarity in C-dramaworld. Tbh, they are not brilliant, but they abound in details, double meanings, premonitions/hints that make the story logical in cause-effect sequence. What enhance to make the story believable is a genuine romance between the main leads, displayed originally for this type of drama: calm discussions to overcome misunderstandings, no screeming or scheming, no knives, poisons or bloodspitting. If you can pass over the fact that the ML is a super-fighter and the FL a business genius, for the rest, the two are totally normal people. The scenes engaging other people, and they are many, are also well developed, at least in the 4/5 of episodes. These are the reason I've highly rated "the story" - I'd like to encourage the two scriptwriters to follow this path in the future (and to forget completely the mess they've combined with TTEOM). But I also couldn't rate more, because they've also comitted huge mistakes (due to the original novel, I suppose), such as... introducing a new villain in last 5 eps. The audience "likes" villains, too: we want to know what made them villains, we like to grow up some (negative) affection to the villains, too.
Generally speaking, all the actors delievered the story, but not on the same level. Who delievered better were support characters: Hai Yi Tian as that sick-in-his-head emperor, Lu Yu Xiao as a traumatised PTSP girl (this actress really knows her job!) in process of healing, Myolie Wu as Madam Xia. The leads were good in delivering their main traits (described above: fighter-businesswoman), but nothing more than that.
Direction: How did Chu Yui Bun restrain himself from all his "weird experiments" with lights, filters, camera spinning... is a mystery. I suppose, his assistants constantly kept an eye on him. Untill the last minute in post-production. They've thought they've wrapped it all and left him alone. Being unwatched, he simply decided to add some CGI dolphins in that sort of homage to the Titanic. Both dolphins and Titanic-homage were wrong ideas, assistants, please,, don't leave him unchecked ever more.
Music was nothing special, the reason of high rating is: it's fine because it wasn't invasive.
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