Thanks for your comment, interesting point. Hm, I don't think anyone would last long watching historicals if they…
In general, women in Chinese dramas are born to struggle. Even in modern dramas, the female lead somehow never owns a car. Why drive when you can stand dramatically at a bus stop waiting for the male lead to rescue you? 😂
And don't get me started on the constant humiliation. No matter how capable she is, she'll inevitably end up in some embarrassing situation where a man has to step in and save the day.
Ancient dramas are even worse. The female lead can be the smartest strategist in the kingdom, have ten backup plans, fake identitie, and an IQ of 300 but there will always be one man who instantly sees through everything ( nobody asks why he knows everything??!! ). He knows her real identity, her secrets, her weaknesses, and somehow ends up holding her fate in his hands. Her life only gets easier when he falls in love with her and decides to stop making her miserable.
It's a pattern I've noticed in almost every drama I've watched. Take Kunning Palace for example. The heroine is literally a reincarnated person with knowledge of the future, yet she's still constantly at a disadvantage. She was practically trembling whenever the male lead appeared. And once again, things only started improving because he fell for her.
So yes, it's honestly refreshing to see a female character who isn't constantly being outsmarted, cornered, rescued( well he rescued her many times.so ...) , or emotionally terrorized by the male lead. I'm not even saying this heroine is overpowered, she just wasn't forced to spend the entire drama losing every battle until a man decided to be nice to her.
I've been reading some reviews criticizing the female lead for being "too overpowered," having a smooth journey, and being surrounded by supportive allies and a devoted love interest.
Honestly, none of that bothered me.
What I find interesting is that many viewers have no problem accepting absurdly overpowered male leads in famous C-dramas. We've all seen them: a genius who enters the battlefield at seven years old, wins wars and becomes a general by fourteen, has spies and informants in every corner of the kingdom, and can uncover any secret after sending a random servant to investigate for two hours. They're impossibly handsome, incredibly young, admired by countless women willing to scheme for their attention, and often possess mysterious power and influence that the story barely explains.
Most people accept all of that without question.
But the moment a female character is powerful, suddenly everyone becomes obsessed with realism.
"Why didn't she struggle more?" "How did she become so capable?" "Why isn't she hiding her identity?" "Why is the male lead so devoted to her?" "Why do so many powerful people support her?"
The standards suddenly change.
And it's not even true that her life was easy. She lost her family, endured mistreatment in her fake family's household, and had to survive using one of the few skills that screenwriters could "realistically" allow a woman to have: medicine.
Did that skill eventually open doors for her and help her succeed? Yes. But that's how fiction works.
This is a fantasy drama, not a historical documentary. If we were applying strict realism, she would have died alongside her parents in that river, and there wouldn't be a story to watch in the first place.
If viewers can suspend disbelief for impossibly talented male leads, they should be able to extend the same courtesy to a capable female lead.
I agree with you about the FL, but it bugs me that people only criticize unrealistic characters in dramas when they're women. Nobody finds it unrealistic when a male lead general in another drama has been on the battlefield since age 7, does all this stuff, never dies, and wins a 1 vs 100 battle. Nobody finds it unrealistic when male leads are always a step ahead, give moral lessons, have smooth sailing, and control everything. But when it's a woman, it suddenly becomes unrealistic. I know it was hard for women in ancient China to do almost anything, but men didn't win 1 vs 100 battles either. It's all fantasy.
Hey, can someone explain why there's an "irresponsible male lead" tag here? I was avoiding this drama because of it, but I'm on episode 25 and I don't think he's irresponsible at all!
I think the rating should be higher, it's a really good drama! I'd give it a 9 because I wasn't a huge fan of the female lead – not her character, but the actress herself. It could've been a 10 with someone else.
She's 42, and while I have nothing against her age, she was playing someone in their 30s, and it just felt off to me. The male lead is actually 23, so the kissing scenes with that age gap felt really weird. I don't like it the other way around either (like in "Love in the Kitchen" where Zhao Lusi was way younger than the male lead, that made me uncomfortable).
This is just my opinion, not meant to be against older people – I'm not young myself! But I find more than a 15-year age gap pretty strange in dramas or real life.
I didn't like it when I watched it back then, and I didn't like the ml. I hate how in Chinese dramas, no matter how smart, strong, intelligent, or brilliant the female lead is, she always has to be humbled by the male lead. She has to struggle through the whole show just to succeed, somehow thanks to his help. She was having a bad time for 80% of the show, and the male lead was "cold"? I'd rather call him uninteresting and unlikable, the kind of guy you wouldn't love. I can't remember much more about it, but I just didn't like it.
team of people who were afraid their big brother wouldn't approve of their marriage, and then he was like, "No matter what you do, sister, just bring him home."
Just wanted to say Lin Yi Yang is still my all-time favorite male lead in Chinese dramas. And Yin Guo? She's my favorite character in any drama I've ever seen.
I watched this drama years ago, but I'm sure it deserves a better rating. It was better than some other dramas rated 8.6 here on MDL. I'm gonna rewatch it because I had good feelings about it.
And don't get me started on the constant humiliation. No matter how capable she is, she'll inevitably end up in some embarrassing situation where a man has to step in and save the day.
Ancient dramas are even worse. The female lead can be the smartest strategist in the kingdom, have ten backup plans, fake identitie, and an IQ of 300 but there will always be one man who instantly sees through everything ( nobody asks why he knows everything??!! ). He knows her real identity, her secrets, her weaknesses, and somehow ends up holding her fate in his hands. Her life only gets easier when he falls in love with her and decides to stop making her miserable.
It's a pattern I've noticed in almost every drama I've watched. Take Kunning Palace for example. The heroine is literally a reincarnated person with knowledge of the future, yet she's still constantly at a disadvantage. She was practically trembling whenever the male lead appeared. And once again, things only started improving because he fell for her.
So yes, it's honestly refreshing to see a female character who isn't constantly being outsmarted, cornered, rescued( well he rescued her many times.so ...) , or emotionally terrorized by the male lead. I'm not even saying this heroine is overpowered, she just wasn't forced to spend the entire drama losing every battle until a man decided to be nice to her.
For english subtitles see kissasian.cam it works pretty well for me
Honestly, none of that bothered me.
What I find interesting is that many viewers have no problem accepting absurdly overpowered male leads in famous C-dramas. We've all seen them: a genius who enters the battlefield at seven years old, wins wars and becomes a general by fourteen, has spies and informants in every corner of the kingdom, and can uncover any secret after sending a random servant to investigate for two hours. They're impossibly handsome, incredibly young, admired by countless women willing to scheme for their attention, and often possess mysterious power and influence that the story barely explains.
Most people accept all of that without question.
But the moment a female character is powerful, suddenly everyone becomes obsessed with realism.
"Why didn't she struggle more?"
"How did she become so capable?"
"Why isn't she hiding her identity?"
"Why is the male lead so devoted to her?"
"Why do so many powerful people support her?"
The standards suddenly change.
And it's not even true that her life was easy. She lost her family, endured mistreatment in her fake family's household, and had to survive using one of the few skills that screenwriters could "realistically" allow a woman to have: medicine.
Did that skill eventually open doors for her and help her succeed? Yes. But that's how fiction works.
This is a fantasy drama, not a historical documentary. If we were applying strict realism, she would have died alongside her parents in that river, and there wouldn't be a story to watch in the first place.
If viewers can suspend disbelief for impossibly talented male leads, they should be able to extend the same courtesy to a capable female lead.
Can anyone tell me why everyone started calling shen wan "princess" at episode 19 ? I think i missed something ?!
She's 42, and while I have nothing against her age, she was playing someone in their 30s, and it just felt off to me. The male lead is actually 23, so the kissing scenes with that age gap felt really weird. I don't like it the other way around either (like in "Love in the Kitchen" where Zhao Lusi was way younger than the male lead, that made me uncomfortable).
This is just my opinion, not meant to be against older people – I'm not young myself! But I find more than a 15-year age gap pretty strange in dramas or real life.