AnthideAgiusMuscat

It is clear that no expense or time has been spared when it came to the costume design aspect of this drama. The Grand Prince is a handsome eyeful at every moment, public or private (silk pyjamas, any one?). Hui Ju adroitly manages to stand out regardless of the colour she wears & is the focus of attention whether she is all in white or in a flaming red tailleur!

You are confusing a KDrama with a CDrama. The timeline you described would be typical of the latter where episode count has been "forcibly" limited to less than 40 to curtail unhealthy audience engagement to their fiction "fix".

This drama is chock block full of the usual tropes but they are used with a feather light touch & supreme expertise. Those new to historical tinted KDrama will be intrigued; the old "hands" can gleefully savour the "satire"!
Every classic element is being included, right down to a convincing "noble" courtier who has been inching his way to the ultimate prize, one premature "royal" death, at a time. The malicious intent is only lightly veiled: what could be more natural than a maternal grandfather "promising" to always be there to an 8 year whose father died "tragically" in what some still believe are suspicious circumstances. The boy's paternal family has been decimated & only one lone stumbling block remains, a Prince who has been sidelined & muzzled by the call of duty & protocol since early childhood.
All the story elements are well worn favourites but here presented delightfully updated. As always the truly worthy will win in the end ... only they have access to a priceless resource: the loyalty of those who see below the surface, the oblivious, to the inner core which commands respect & justifies efforts beyond the call of mere "duty" or monetary reward.

I am watching on the YouKu app but the subtitles are mostly unintelligible which is very disappointing ... it should not be so hard to follow such interesting content or are only Chinese speakers meant to get a proper "glimpse" of the workings of China Customs?

The Grand Prince was moulded by his harsh father & the (perhaps) unnaturally 'quick' succession of deaths that obliterated his immediate family "unit". This particular piece of background info is, I think, an important clue. The manner of the Grand Prince's mother's death is the first inkling that what seems to be a random unfortunate event is probably anything but random. Anyone who expects the Grand Prince to be "easy to read" knows nothing about the process that follows traumatic life events. Sometimes even the passage of "years" does not soften the impact of the event(s).
Whatever the expert critics say BWS is doing a credible job. An arresting physical aura has IMO more than 50% weighting in the case of the Grand Prince so most of the criticism directed at him is motivated by the short sighted idea an "good" actor is always "babbling" & has easy to read facial expressions. Wonder who decided that these are the "top" bench benchmark criteria?

The only bit of realism I missed in the no brakes incident are the missing 'airbags'. Surely in cars of that calibre this 'safety' feature would be there as a matter of course. I doubt having airbags installed will detract from neither looks or performance of either vehicle! Otherwise, this is one of the most "imaginative" yet plausible piece of defensive driving I have seen on film. Kudos to our HuiJu & bows to her dashing Prince who arrived just in the nick of time not on the traditional white horse but his even more powerful Mercedes! Definitely a case on of being in the right place, at the right time ☺️

BWS's forte are subtle facial expressions. It should not be much of a surprise as this what spells success for an model promoting a "brand" .... it all in the nano expression captured by the camera (& the sublingual message of his posture)! IMO much of his charm is in his stillness rather than when in motion ... it is actually difficult for the above average tall to seem elegant, both when in motion & stillness, in the company of average height people ... they are always the focal point. Always the centre of attention even when they do not want to be!
Kudos to BWS to have turned what is so easily an awkward physical characteristic into a positive attribute.

Storyline has just had a quantum leap! Pity so much screen time was wasted away on waffle but for the C film industry more episodes = more advert income, longer audience engagement, etc ......🙄

Long post ahead but I feel some things should be said:
This drama is proving a disappointment! If coupling up is for women to acquire a flesh & blood version of a cuddling doll who will also pamper to their innermost desires, cook, clean & boost their ego & career ambitions regardless than all that has happened in the last decades is to to flip the dominant male/weak female dynamic to female dominant/male subservient mode. The imbalance between the sexes was never right in human terms but flipping it over to the other side was never the solution. Harmony & happiness results from a balance of give & take. The effort to try to achieve this end proves lifelong.
This drama might hint at what could be achieved & how but the female characters are all intent on their inner fantasies, how to explain them away, how to find the perfect "male" as the finishing touch to their vision of a "perfect" life which they want to steer forward, at their pace. In the mind of female characters the function of the male (in this drama) is to enhance the life quality of the females but not to be their very much human partners as equally prone to "cunning" manipulations as they themselves are. This sounds all too familiar to millions of women but they are on the "losing side".
Now I understand why Miles W has announced his plan to move away from the RomCom genre as exemplified by this particular drama. Having to embody a well-meaning sane man who is supposedly "sweet" on a member of the opposite sex who despite the passage of time has however remained "childlike" in response to several life events despite having reached physical & supposedly phycological adulthood must be soul sapping! Enough is truly enough even for the most biddable person.
This is 2026, the era of AI and warfare using drones .... I can understand how such toxic dribble finds it way on screen in my liberal "West" where money is indeed god but how it gets past the watchful Chinese censors is mind blogging. It seems only the hint or sight of "lust" is the only real no no in their book. Everything else is allowed an airing with even toxic traits sometimes pushed as being positive!! My guess is in China chauvinism & its female counterpart are still much practiced as very useful social mechanisms, both from top down and also laterally.

Whoever wrote the original IP does not have a high opinion of women at all. All the female characters are at best well intentioned but misstep out of sheer presumption: they are all incapable of really putting themselves in anyone else's shoes. All of the them including the mother(s) consider their own personal objectives to be paramount regardless of who gets trampled or tripped up en route. As long as their ego remains "intact" all is well .... they do not even factor in the emotional pain their decisions & actions might inflict on their male counterparts. This a reversed form of chauvinism! So unpleasant & toxic.

I really cannot warm to the FL character. Too self centered both in the past & the present. Incredibly believes that even when the ML character when abroad (to study) somehow the decision was linked to her .... seeing neither expressed their feelings at the time .... this was rather presumptuous. It did not occur to her then & not even 10 years later that the life circumstances of others are not linear to her own or up to her to imagine or presume. Only when she is spoon fed the "facts" do her eyes open! Imagine that!!! What the ML character finds so lovable or to admire in this immature 28 yr old is hard to understand.

This FL character is too wide-eyed & girlish for a 28 year old. Really too clueless, too obviously a pampered well heeled "princess" of a
doting, overprotective mom & dad who are keen to find her a husband to whom they will pass on the "caring" baton.
Ruan Yu comes across as someone who has lived in a happy bubble immune to all life's troubles or missteps. Very much someone who till now has been rescued in ever adverse situation she has ever found herself in by someone else. Why the ML character is so devoted to her is really obscure! Does the woman even understand the concept of mutual support & understanding than defines the adult concept of "love"? There has been precious little sign of this sentiment in Ruan Yu till now; she has only dusted off her adolescent crush & is intent on closure for a missed milestone of her youth!
What is so romantic in all still is truly baffling

The emphasis throughout the episodes of POJ is on the phycological evolution of the various characters & not a strict depiction of the physical realities. This explains why the physical consequences of so many actions are "minimised" or even glossed over. It is a directional choice you either agree with or think of as "cowardly" & the sugaring of very bitter pills. Hence all the hype about "too handsome" generals being less than credible, etc.
IMO, POJ is a more than valid production as the moral & phycological lessons strike their target & linger in the mind ... no small achievement in this day of information overload.

Not at all surprised by Miles Wei's announcement. The man is talented & grounded and also well aware that he has now definitely outgrown the mould of the ex-hapless teenager who did not get together with his first love due a combination of shyness & contrary familial events but was given a second chance some ten years down the line to become one with his love.

Anyhow, for how much longer can this 35 year adult plausibly act as an inarticulate 18 or 20 year old and for multiple scenes, to boot?
Miles W is an actor not a magician and wisely will close an important phase of his career to move on to roles which have much more bite.
It's a win-win scenario: teenager fans will discover the rookie Miles W in his past works; their older siblings get to enjoy watching him putting his now honed acting chops to good use 😊

The script of POJ is an adaption so the remarks about character development not "evoluting" in certain directions are simply "uninformed" remarks.
IMO one either takes the drama at face value & clearly states a dislike for the various tropes used to craft the work or one gets access to the original IP & establishes whether the film version is a faithful transposition to screen or a bloated mess which destroyed an existing work which had already found a readership strong enough to warrant a film version.
No one is stupid in film industry & even less their financial backers .. neither time nor money is spent on obviously lame horses so some remarks only expose the narrow mind of the commenter & not the incompetence of the script writer(s), actors or anyone else remotely connected to POJ. And I believe this holds true for every drama not just POJ .....

Miles Wei was one of first Chinese actors that caught my interest when I started watching C dramas. MW's aura strongly reminded me of some of the film greats that I had watched when still barely a teenager (I'm now in my mid 60s!). The actors were mostly American or British. The characters they brought to the screen were elegant but at the same time self disparaging; sometimes silly or stubborn but at the core honest, genuine & a blessing to have on your side during a crisis. Just the way, any self respecting woman hopes her male "connections" will be & prove to be over time.
I have seen criticism online that Miles Wei repeats himself from rom com to rom com. My take is that he has "created" a recognisable icon ... no one expects James Bond to be anything other than James Bond now do they? Miles Wei's rom com onscreen avatar is likewise reassuring familiar ...... One thing however is sure, MW is now on top of his game & the visibility he enjoys today has been hard won.
Nothing is left but for us to sit back & enjoy watching this talented man go thru the motions. None are "novel" but they are nonetheless worth the time we spend in his "company".

This series was riddled with exaggerations which took all the bit & credibility out of the narrative.
The ML discovering that he had a undetected cardiopathy which unless he seriously changed his life style would shorten his life would have been plausible but that the ML within such a short time lapse goes from having no significant health problems to needing a heart transplant is definitely not!
Also the various ethical & psychological issues inherent to organ donation, both for the doner or the recipient were heavily "glossed over" in the case of the second "life" donation: of dying father to "dying" son. The concepts of a "living" will were imaginatively stretched to include a very particular "last" wish (legacy) which other family members were expected to respect regardless of any other considerations. I very much doubt that such an act is permissible for a myriad of reasons. What a messy end to a 50 episode series; the script writer could have done much much better.

I wrote in the Hallmark style not under the Hallmark banner!

I would say those who anticipated indulging in a soulful Kdrama are now really pissed off because this series is an off the shelf American "romcom" in the Hallmark style. International audiences will probably not be all that "turned off" & the American viewers likely much intrigued by the several handsome but unfamiliar male protagonists .... there are at least three ... a South Korean; a Japanese; at least one native Italian.

The Italian locations leave a strong positive impression even on those already familiar with the very well preserved & truly beautiful late medieval & renaissance Italian cities ... the series is indeed a good PR exercise for these places & various other touristic ventures: olive oil making, wine yard touring, weddings held in historical locations.

IMO the soundtrack is chaotic & unremarkable but it is not the insult to South Korean musicianship others have declared it to be. The jury is also out whether AI was utilised in this instance .... old fashioned editing certainly was but other production techniques ........

And on a final note: where is it written that each Kdrama has to also deliver an original OST that lingers in the mind, perhaps longer than the drama itself?

Context is key if the narrative is to be understood as intended. Police & legal systems differ from country to country. What is procedure or process in the USA is not so in South Korea. This is the least one should keep in mind. Regardless of all considerations, right or wrong prevailing, viewers of a drama are perforce audience to the creation penned by the script writer(s)!