Tortured Unrequited Love

I think if you are going through a breakup and keep thinking you might get back together, watch this drama. Otherwise don't torture yourself unless that's what you are after.

In terms of romance this show tells us to not bother falling in love. If you get into a relationship make sure your exes and old crushes have been cut off. Otherwise they will be toxic clinger who will never let you go. Also the show seems to be telling us that one sided love is wrong, most people cannot stop their feelings. But the way it is shown makes it seem like you've committed some crime.

The main couple - are supposedly smart people. But despite their good grades they are the worse couple. I stopped shipping them by episode 24.

Luo Zhi has been madly in love with Sheng Huai Nan (SHN) since they were children, but he's never noticed her. Almost everyone else seems to know that she likes him, and the antagonists, namely his ex-girlfriend Ye Zhan Yan and her friend decide they want to scheme and manipulate it so that SHN can never really trust her.

There is also the other women who have crushes on SHN who also go out of their way to bad mouth Luo Zhi. But they eventually give up.

Sheng Huai Nan spends half of the series either unsure about his feelings or testing them on the poor girl. Honestly he's an idiot. He was treating Luo Zhi like she was his yoyo, pulling her close when he wanted her, and then pushing her away when he lost trust her in some way.

The last third of the the series spends most of the time focusing on SHN trying to persuade LZ to date him, only so that he can do something stupid in the next episode. Making her want to give up on her feelings.

I read a lot of comments of people blaming LZ for not forgiving him and I disagree. He was a jerk towards her. She was always helping him. At best he got her some cold medications and pancakes. Which he did in an underhanded way. Girls don't just fall for looks and money, underneath the shell is a vapid, insecure young man who can’t recognise sincerity or love if it smacked him on the face and kicked him in the balls.

Now let's talk about the pig Ge Bi and the very sad Bai Li. I hate Ge Bi. He is the worst boyfriend to all the girls. And even when confronted he doesn't care. He is selfish, stupid and frankly deserved worse than he got.

Bai Li is a great friend, and she really loved Ge Bi to a very toxic level. It was frustrating to watch and my heart hurt for her. She was really a foolish person, with so little self respect. It was tiresome to the very end.

There are many kinds of bad relationships, but the show made no effort to show us the positive sides of love. This team of producers and writers must have felt really bitter and angry when creating this production.

Really the only good relationships worth watching on this show were the friendships. Ming Rui was exceptional on this show. His character was the most likeable and sane.

The closeness of Bai Li and Luo Zhi was very sweet. Even Ye Zhan Yan and Ding Shui Jing loved and cared for one another.

If you have watched the 2019 version, you will not be able to stop yourself from comparing the two shows.

The 2019 is shorter and frankly less stressful to watch. The 2021 is very frustrating. There are so many examples of unrequited love on this show. So many ways in which characters seemly torture one another, mislead each other, and fail to trust each other. Once started I couldn't seem to stop, like many unrequited loves, I had such hope for it, and it was just an illusion that left me unfulfilled.

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Love within marriage

I think if you are wondering whether or not to watch this drama you need to know the following:

- This is an historical drama, with the laws and values of the bygone era
- It takes place in a harem. The ML has a lot of wives and children from different women.
- Although it is a historical drama, there is a fictional license used to tell the story.
- It's a slow romance. To some too slow and not enough.
- It's not an action drama, don't expect a lot of kung fu fighting scenes
- There is a big age difference between the leads

I say this because if you already know you don't enjoy these kinds of things, then you probably won't like the drama even if you do like the actors.

Overall I enjoyed the series. The Sword and Brocade was a beautiful production. The costumes and sets were well done. And I loved the music.

Seven and Wallace had a nice chemistry. Were they on fire? No, instead this is a love filled with patience, trust, respect and good humour. This is a story about finding love within an arranged marriage.

I think the story was nice, but there were a few repetitive tropes that I think they should have done differently. It's easy to get very frustrated with the antagonist, and some of the ML family members. I wished writer was better at scheming. I think it was one of the weak points of the story.

Shiyi was a lovely leading lady. She isn't Seven's usual character. She was mature, calm and more restrained. I was glad to see Seven play a more adult character.

Houye was a very dashing leading man. His character on the surface seems like a saint but by the end you can see that there was flawed husband whose pride and neglect often times hurt the women who served him. Wallace is good at playing sensitive romantics. I very much feel he was staying in type here.

I won't breakdown all the characters, but I will say I was very disappointed with Madame Xu's character. She was very bias, and stubborn in her character. For 40ish episodes I didn't see much character growth in her character. She made me feel grateful for my own Mother-in-law. I really hated her character.

The Sword and Brocade was a sweet slow romance and that provide some insight into the life of married women of those times.

In fact, I think it's the harem dynamics that is the best part of the story. They did do a good job at showing us challenges, heartbreak, and general unfairness of women of that time.

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I didn't really want to watch this at first based on the synopsis. I decided to anyways because I liked all the main actors.

The main leads, are both great in the drama, although I agree with some reviewers the FL doesn't have the biggest character development. But that's probably because she's a fairly happy person in the story despite, being an orphan. She would need more tragedy and frankly this story has enough, to add more to the FL would be excessive. The relationship with the ML is complicated, but very sweet.

The stereotype Executive in drama is all there at first: cold, ruthless, weird, but naturally (because this is a drama) it's all a facade. The ML storyline is very tragic, it's the first time I've watch such a pathetic ML in asian drama. It reminded me of Reek in Game of thrones, except character wise they are not a like. There are times in this drama when I wished the ML stood up for himself more, pushed back more, but in the end he was a very kind person, and a victim of his family..

His family SUCKS! Full stop, he might as well have been an orphan frankly. The violent and psychological abuse they do on this young man is horrifying. Even the nicest parent (his stepmom) can't help but morn her lost child making the ML feel like he will never be important, or loved by a parent.

The second couple, or the I can't take no for answer couple: their acting is great, their characters are frustrating.

Wen Na is very selfish, and a bit one dimensional. She keeps saying she's in love, but her lack of listening, or sympathy clearly shows she obsessed. Still role makes sense as the spurned fiancé. I will say I really liked her dad. He was the best parent on the show: Fair, loving and supportive.

Tao Lun spends 80% of the drama with a healthy mature attitude, and then suddenly turns into an irrational, and vengeful. I guess he only had compassion so long as he wasn't a victim. You know if he had never gone missing, my guess is he still will have grown up in a loving and warm environment. He was always the lucky one, whereas his brother, was always at a disadvantage.

It is a good melodrama. The main couple, are the best couple, their trials are logical, and their commitment to one another sweet. Yes there is some misunderstandings. Are they necessary, probably not, but I've seen worse. An episode and a half for a misunderstanding that quickly gets explained is really not that bad.

The reason to watch this drama is the ML. His acting and character, is complex, well acted and well developed. I rooted for him the whole time.

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This took a long time for me to complete.

Not because it was a bad show but because it covered a lot of difficult topics against a backdrop of relaxing mountains and forests.

It's deceptive as there is this relaxing classical music and picturesque landscapes. You can get lulled into thinking that this is a sweet romance. However these are characters who are carrying a lot of burdens. Their actions and feelings are understandable but sometimes difficult to watch. There is a lot of awkward silences, and long slow looks. It can be a very sweet story but I would also say it is very bitter.

If I could critique anything I would say because they retell the story from each character's perspective, there are sometimes too many redundant scenes. I think there could have been more trimming of the scenes or flashbacks.

Overall I thought the drama was good. The leads really matured in their acting. The other characters were also really interesting and sometimes gave us a nice humorous break from all of the trauma.

I couldn't binge this show, because the story ran a little too deep for me, but it was worth watching.

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I'm glad I stuck with it.

Forest is an interesting cinematic story. The backdrop of the forest was a feast for the eyes. The story started a bit awkward for me but I think that is because the characters were a bit polarising.

I think everyone did a good job in acting. But I think I have an unfair bias against Jo Bo Ah. I don't know why, but I find her unlikable at the start of her dramas. And because of this I have trouble watching her. It's not logical so this is no fault of the actress who is skilled, beautiful and redeeming by the end of the drama. What I will say is she does a good job of embodying a character so that I almost don't recognise her.

I love Park Hae Jin. Have since Man x Man, the Cheese and the Trap and many other dramas. I guess my bias for him is the opposite of how I feel about Jo Bo Ah. But he fits this role nicely as the morally ambiguous lead. He's had more practice.

I started this drama months ago and could only watch one or two episodes at a time. But I didn't hate it. I liked what I was watching but I could only watch so much before I would quit. It was like this up until episode 12, when I found myself addicted and falling for the leads and being drawn deeper and deeper into the story.

I don't want to spoil it for viewers, but things are not what you would expect and yet there are a lot of common tropes in kdramas. It's kind of a nice blend. The romance of this story is of the love / hate / love variety. So you need to brace yourself to their sweet and sour relationship. But they are couple who know they are cheesy so I didn't mind it.

If you have some patience and love scenic greenery I think you will enjoy this drama, it really does get better over time.

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Du Xian Yin character stole the show for me.

This was my first Novoland drama, I had ever watched. I didn't really have any expectations, mostly I wanted something fun to watch that wouldn't be too demanding on my emotions.

Overall I really enjoyed the series. The leads have a nice chemistry and the story while not quite logical flowed really nicely. It's a fantasy series so I chose to not to be too logical in watching this. The story of the wizard and the empress was sweet and much of the drama covers the growth and maturity of the FL. She was very likeable and kind leader.

But having said all of the above the character I really loved was Du Xian Yin. As the second FL she was complex, conflicted and lovable and detestable at the same time. As an avid watcher of dramas it was really nice to have a villainess be so rich.

I can't really say the same about her love interest. He was a loyal dolt. He didn't seem to be able know right from wrong, and sometimes I felt he was undeserving of all the love and loyalty he got from the women in his life. Yun Mu Yang was blind as a general and faithless as a lover.

Xue Jing Kong, the lead of this drama is what I would call the typical, self sacrificing ML, ready to die for his love at any given time. He was dashing as the sage old merlin-esque character. For an old guy he was very cute in his romancing of the FL.

Dislikes: the political manoeuvrings, an ever growing list of villains was sometimes tiresome. At some point I lost interest on who, was on which side. There is a lot of back stabbing in this plot. You can't trust any character really.

In the end I would say "Novoland : Castle in the Sky 2" was a fun watch. Don't expect too much and enjoy.

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Loved the Reunion of the Cast but the story was lacking.

I am a fan of most of the cast for their other work and I enjoyed watching the main couple when they got to be together but I had a very hard time completing this drama. The start of it was really nice. Fu Rong's family were the best of the clans, with Prince Su's mom being a close second. The second couple was okay, their relationship was sweet and much less angsty or challenged which gave us the audience a chance to enjoy their relationship. But I didn't come to the series to watch them.

Like many I wanted a redemption for ML where they could enjoy being married, going through challenges together. Which some level of trust and love. Instead the plot was perpetually pitting them against each other. Divorce seemed to always be on the table, and Fu Rong was often getting arrested. It felt like no one seemed to want this couple together. There are a few exceptions, like the second couple and Prince's mom, but it was a tenuous at best. It was very discouraging and tiresome to watch.

I grew to hate the king/emperor and his forever dissing of Fu Rong. She was setup so many times but he only cared about calling her a trouble maker and not good enough for his son.

Court intrigue is expected, but plots were very repetitive. Here was the formula:
- Setup Fu Rong for a crime
- Arrest her
- Prince Su tries to save her
- Prince An creates or adds a misunderstanding about Prince Su
- Princess Xihe hits on Prince Su
- Fu Rong and Prince Su separate
- Divorce/separating is on the table
- Prince Su/Fu Rong solve the case
- They are happy for about an episode or two
- Repeat

This happens three or four times, maybe not in the same order, but pretty close.

Perhaps it was wrong to expect so much of this drama because I loved "The Legend of Yun Xi" so much but I was disappointed all of the same. I almost didn't bother finishing this drama but stuck with it only so I could watch the modern era episodes.

I know my review is pretty scathing, but maybe if you watching this without expectations, you might like it more. There are definitely parts of this drama that are very enjoyable, just not enough.

Things I did like:
Prince Su - he was a lot more sweet and devoted than I expected.
Fight scenes - when there were ones were pretty cool
Fu family - nice people
Hair accessory business - was kinda cool to see
Fu Rong and Prince Su - when they worked together
Modern era - was fun to watch

Note I didn't give a failing grade to this drama out of blind loyalty and the fact that in the end I did complete it.

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Funny, sweet, and full of awesome action.

Having a bad day? Need something to uplift your mood? Watch this drama.

Actors are great
Cinematography is beautiful
Fight scenes are really exciting
And the story has a little something for everyone.

Plus: the chemistry between the leads is out of this world. Simon is a grade A flirt.

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I was already a fan of both leads, before I started this drama. But I must say they are both outstanding in this drama. The side characters are also really fantastic.

I don't normally seek out BL dramas but this one is pretty outstanding. The scriptwriters gave the actors a lot of good material to play with, and the ease and dynamics between the leads makes this a very enjoyable watch.

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