This turned out to be one of the better C dramas I've watched in the last two or three years. A pleasant surprise actually. Usually when I'm done with a C drama, I seldom have the urge to revisit. But this one is very charming and honestly Chen Yanyun is one of the best male leads I've seen in far too long a time. It's almost as if a lot of recent C dramas are terrified to have a good male lead lest he overshadow the female lead. But it doesn't happen here. Most things feels plausible within the set-up. These days just about every ML has a trauma or chip on his shoulder so it's refreshing to have one who is an adult, who is a thoughtful idealist and maneuvers politically without losing his principles. I wasn't acquainted with Ci Sha or Ren Min before but I've become a fan of their pairing. Honestly, I didn't think the last five episodes were that bad. Yes, the show did end abruptly but truth be told, C dramas in general are just woeful with endings. In all my years of watching C dramas, I can say confidently that this show certainly doesn't have the best ending but it's not the worst. Frankly I thought far less of the final arc of Pursuit of Jade and Veil of Shadows.
Ugh... Just when you think Ye Xian has grown up a little, he does something over-the-top stupid. She's right. He's exhausting to live with. At his core, he's a drama queen.
The leads are truly a splendid match. Such a likeable adaptable pair. The young emperor is pretty impressive too. I suppose he has a good teacher. Chen Yanyun is absolutely my favourite kind of ML. Clever, patient, able to work the big picture and play the long game. He gets Jinzhao from the word "go" and is thinking way ahead. It's a better show than I thought it might be. It's far more political (yay!) than I had expected. Politics is everywhere even at home. Nice to see Jinzhao learning to accommodate and navigate the Gu family nest of vipers with flair.
A large dollop of Taxi Driver, a dash of Mary Poppins and a sprinkle of To Sir with Love.
Three episodes in... What's really interesting and I think what's at the heart of this generally satirical show is the incentive structures which enable the school violence. It's not possible to eradicate bullying altogether but it might be easier to target the underlying problems. Certainly there are bad actors behind each case that muddy the waters but there are features of modern life and culture eg. social media that exacerbate certain tendencies.
I'm watching this because of the talented Zhou Yiran but honestly the opening episode of this drama is pretty much the set-up of the vast majority of period micro dramas featuring rebirth. 😆 In the FL's first life she married a scumbag who ends up killing her and her family. Then the rest of it is the execution of her revenge.
The pacing of Season 3 is really over all the place. It's probably the biggest problem followed by the fact that the cases aren't as intriguing or complex. Still the team work is good and I intend to keep going to the end.
Thematically, this is a much deeper and richer script than I had initially given it credit for being. Certainly more sophisticated than your average so-called idol drama. I find the gaslighting around in/justice rather fascinating. The mental gymnastics indulged by the perps and their accomplices certainly has one reeling. There's obviously a hierarchy of virtues at play and justice ranks pretty low in the scheme of things. Things like family honour/interests take precedence over everything. In the case of the Jin family, they pay lip service to talent with the Suwen Assembly but really there's a fair bit of gatekeeping going on. I felt a Mozart-Salieri moment there a la Amadeus. Poor Jin Xuewen. He certainly wasn't a paragon of virtue but the Jin family could have done a lot more to support him and Bai Yutang after the death of their parents. Their "guy", the one they handpicked for the top job was the monster they help create. He'd peaked early and lived most of his adult life knowing that he was a lesser toxicologist to his dead cousin.
Poor Bai Yutang. Being constantly gaslighted by so-called relatives. He should burn the entire place down. An institution that was created to save lives is now complicit in cover-up and murder.
Fang Yilun!!!! Yessss... Trust him to bring the fun factor to the table. He really excels at playing this type of cavalier trickster. The show is better for having him.
Honestly the ratings on this site are just getting from bad to worse. It's getting very extreme. It's not perfect but compared to some recent shows it's a thoughtful, well-plotted show with clearly delineated motivations.
I'm surprised at the high rating considering all the negative comments here. It's not terrible but it seems to have an identity crisis and the pacing is all over the place.
If it give you any solace, Chu Qiao did achieve what she wanted in life at the end of the novel.Funny enough,…
I noticed it. And I don't agree that there was zero setup for it. It was there the whole time. If anything, I thought they telegraphed it during the entire show. It certainly was what they were aiming for at Ximeng.
It occurred to me several episodes in that Rebirth is best seen as fanfiction or an alternate universe. I was an avid fan of Princess Agents (watched it while airing on the edge of my seat) and was sceptical about the belated sequel but Li Yunrui drew me in. And the geopolitics of that world. I liked how every country was different geographically with different customs, issues etc .... and yet they at their core had the same problems of corrupt decadent leadership. Never read the novel and perhaps that's for the best. It is a flawed project but it managed to sustain my interest because on some level it's much closer to the kind of historical drama I like -- tragic, angsty and politically rich. Clearly it was trying to do too much for an 40 episode series (hence the not great editing) but I was never bored and the major characters were bound together by a complex web of motivations. Plus the shifting alliances based on expediency is too much like real life for comfort. I would probably rate it a 7.5 or 8 but apart from Vendetta of An, I haven't been too impressed with that many period shows of late.
Chu Qiao wanted utopia but utopia came at a high price. And the reason why utopia is "no place" is because in truth human beings have too much baggage to ever make it work.
This is really not as bad as I was led to believe. Huangyang Tiantian is not Zhao Liying to be sure but the plot is actually decent and the pacing too. I'm enjoying the competing agendas, layered motivations and the political landscape of Yanbei. The corruption of Yan Xun continues and even he can't have everything he wants. It's a zero sum game for him just as it was for Yuwen Yue aka Zhuge Yue.
4 
She, on the other hand, has wisdom beyond her years and grows even more when we get to the end of the show.
I wasn't acquainted with Ci Sha or Ren Min before but I've become a fan of their pairing.
Honestly, I didn't think the last five episodes were that bad. Yes, the show did end abruptly but truth be told, C dramas in general are just woeful with endings. In all my years of watching C dramas, I can say confidently that this show certainly doesn't have the best ending but it's not the worst. Frankly I thought far less of the final arc of Pursuit of Jade and Veil of Shadows.
It's a better show than I thought it might be. It's far more political (yay!) than I had expected. Politics is everywhere even at home. Nice to see Jinzhao learning to accommodate and navigate the Gu family nest of vipers with flair.
Three episodes in... What's really interesting and I think what's at the heart of this generally satirical show is the incentive structures which enable the school violence. It's not possible to eradicate bullying altogether but it might be easier to target the underlying problems. Certainly there are bad actors behind each case that muddy the waters but there are features of modern life and culture eg. social media that exacerbate certain tendencies.
I would say it's roughly the same percentage of period micro dramas. 😀
He's a very versatile actor with a musical theatre background.
Poor Bai Yutang. Being constantly gaslighted by so-called relatives. He should burn the entire place down. An institution that was created to save lives is now complicit in cover-up and murder.
Chu Qiao wanted utopia but utopia came at a high price. And the reason why utopia is "no place" is because in truth human beings have too much baggage to ever make it work.