WM

The synopsis looks meh, but the actors? Dammm.
Will this ever be completed?

I didn't watch the one you mentioned, so I can't compare.
But the majority of people were quite upset with the ending; an alternative title, "Journey to Death", was quite fitting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeefPHraaZI (Hard subs)

She seems to be playing as the FL in 铁弓传奇/The Arrow of Girls (2025)
Looks like a low-budget, but decent, Mulan-ish costume action movie.

Thanks for mentioning this one. I will probably never start it, but at least Yang Zi's presence there (I loved her in "Flourished Peony") made me check some information about it :).

Naaah, I think they were just too limited in their writing on how to progress the storyline without making the FL look progressively weaker/dumber.

Even top-level FLs like MingLan or Yingluo (Yanxi) had their difficult-to-explain blunders to push the storyline forward.
It is what it is.

Maybe one day Lu Songli will get drama-screened, and the writers will shit their pants about the female lead running the whole show from the start to the end :).

No, zero Martial Arts.
She is super smart and excels in strategy/planning, but mostly in episodes 1-11. Later, it only happens sporadically (and you scream in your lungs, why doesn't she do more, damm, writers), and she becomes a useless side character in the last few episodes.

And one more link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYqyIkwl2AQ (dubbing)

Thanks for this post.
I'm yet to start watching it, but I was wondering how capable/in control the female lead is, and your opinion sounds like a reality check.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMsxaeQ_7_s (hard subs)

One more movie with her playing the FL (as a Policewoman in a rather cheap-looking action comedy), which isn't listed here:
计中计之密钥奇缘 (The Secret Key)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd90MzEnA0M (hard subs)

https://www.haixingduanju.com/duanju/info-7650078591861935128.html (Queen of the Assassins)
New drama featuring her playing as 3 FL, with the main female lead (Yi Yi) also high in badassery.

Whoa - thanks for this one.
It also features her playing as the 3FL - https://mydramalist.com/people/93975-sun-wen-xue

If the writers had any consistency regarding the female lead character/abilities, she should have made her uncle overthrown or at least his advisor die a gruesome death when she went to visit his country alongside the ML.

One of the many examples when writers shot themselves in the foot is by creating a very strong character (FL in this case, and it's usually them) and then having to inexcusably downgrade her to move the storyline forward.

I don't complain about evil characters doing evil things; I complain more about the otherwise smart female lead who is clearly a good person to end up with him, especially after what he did in episodes 27-28 (?).

"You kidnap my friends, and you keep manipulating me, putting me in awful situations, hoping that I will still help you. Oooooh, I'm so in love".
It's difficult to buy that with someone like Cai Zhao. Either she should not be as smart/perceptiwe, or more evil herself or give away a stronger masochist vibe.

At least Mu Nian Ci in LOTH had an excuse to be quite dumb.

And this one still works:
https://www.bilibili.tv/en/video/4796885301990912 (hard subs)

Yes, it's the one.
Also, this one still works - https://www.bilibili.tv/en/video/4797275231753728 (hard subs)

Yes, it is, but it should be 3:17 long.

Appreciate such a detailed reply, even if it differs a bit from previous comments I've read on this topic.
Either way, it does sound like something I probably won't enjoy much.
I just wish authors wouldn't give false hope about FL-centric novels with female lead-centric titles.