Here for my two leads
I won't go through the plot because it's obviously the most classic reincarnation plot. We are not inventing the wheel here. On the other hand, right from the start I regretted that this isn't longer drama but a mini because this had potential. If they had budget bigger than a peanut and longer episodes, I really believe this could've been a very good drama. The FL/Ml could've easily carry it. Instead we are flying through plot with breakneck speed. No time to waste, certainly not on the plot and character development.Yes, personally, I watched it for Deng Kai and Zhu Lilan, let's be honest, if they weren't there, I'd pass this immediately. But they are here and once again, they are (I don't know how else to say it) wasting their good looks and acting skills on minis.
Deng Kai is playing the greenest flag, Xiao Yunting is a sweetheart. Zhu Lilan's Qi Yuan is clever and she can easily switch from cute to cunning and back. I have to praise their chemistry too, when they look at each other the feelings are believable.
So, is this good? If you are comparing this to big budget 40-50 minute 40 episodes long dramas then no, of course not. If you are comparing this other minis, I think it's fine. Not brilliant but fine. Perfectly passable for a long train ride or rainy evening. And you will have a much better time if you enjoy the lead actors.
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Mortal enemy aka the Editing
I was so excited about this drama. The promo materials were exceptional. Even now if you look at the poster you get stunning visuals, they are unique, no other drama materials look like this.Visually, Ashes to Crown, is the same. Some might hate it because it's very different. Very red, yes. But colors have their meanings, they tell the story of to which faction the character belongs, where story is set, and how the characters feel. Flashbacks are not just black/white but very originally main characters are in muted colors. But sometimes, the color storytelling is pushed to the point of ridiculous, like when secret assassin army appears dressed - so discreetly - in yellow, with bright yellow headbands. Part of visual storytelling? Yes. Stupid? Very much so.
Story wise, I like this drama very much. I am not one for romance and this is a political drama with side romance. Zhou Yiran and Chen Duling have chemistry but... let me get back to that in a second. Ashes to Crown is a game of chess more than a simple revenge story. The moment FL is reborn and makes her first move, everything goes. She has her memories from the first life but this is a whole new game. A game full of scheming, plots, court drama and backstabbing.
Strong points are the characters and actors themselves. Chen Duling's Chu Zhao is clever, but not too much, she has her lapses of judgement and I find that refreshing. She isn't perfect. Absolute shout out to the court trio of Xiao Xun (Wang Ruichang), Deng Yi (Gao Maotong) and especially Xie Yanfang (Tang Xiaotian) who were joy to look at. These three were scene stealers, perhaps to the detriment of the main duo, or worse, to our main female lead. It's true, often, what they had going on was more interesting than anything else. Unfortunately, Zhou Yiran's Xie Yenlai comes out the weakest from the five "main" players, mostly because his only ambition is to protect Chu Zhao, that is the whole point his existence and that's not enough to make the character interesting.
Writing is, well, good and bad. The characters make sense, their actions too, however the over exposition is less then desired. Especially in the beginning, it's more tell and tell and not show/don't tell. But it's true the drama is only 24 episodes and to pack in the story, shortcuts and fasten introductions are needed.
Music is wonderful. Chen Duling and Zhou Yiran sang their song and the main theme is one of my favorite this year. The sound editing belongs to the category of editing and... yeah.
The editing.
The thing that killed this drama and why it currently sits on 7.8 and not higher. In one word: abysmal. Characters stare at each other five business days. It's the "when I look you, and you look at him, and when I look at you, you look at him..." it gets old very VERY quickly. Yeah, long glances are part of the cdrama game, but there is a long glance and there is 5 hours long stare. The other thing is that this is cut like Indian day time soap opera. Quick zoom-ins to get reaction, loud sound effects following it, fade in black over and over in one scene like it's a tiktok video, character running suddenly speeds up like the Flash... It's so stupid. It's really really REALLY stupid. Unforgivably so. (Other drama this year already proved that you can have amazing cast and budget, but if the editing is bad, you tank like Titanic.)
If this drama was edited well it could've been easy 8.5-9.0. But it wasn't. Originally, I gave it 7.0 but now that I finally finished it I'm going with 7.5. For the entertainment value. I had fun watching. It flew by. I think this is a great drama to get you out of the slump.
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Oh, I'm dropping this!
Yeah, I'm fairly new to cdramas, I admit it but this is awful. Like horrible. Disaster. Titanic sinking.I'm not the target audience, I'm neither hater or lover of ML/FL and I'm not into yandere ML's. With that being said, I have eyes and ears and I can objectively say that the editing of this is a joke, the camera work I can't even describe, over the shoulder blurry shots, fast close ups that's giving hindi soap opera. Overall cinematography is meh. Sound editing? Never heard of her. The writing and dialogues are cringe and not like in the "I kinda like it" way but it's "I have second hand embarrassment". VFX? 90's and beyond. (Of course, the opening credits are made with AI, that itself is a disappointment.)
The biggest let down is the acting, the leads have no chemistry whatsover, and the performances themselves are below their usual standard. Most of the time they just smirk and scoff, but like.... make it sexy smirk or disappointed scoff or confident smirk and tired-to-pretend scoff. ZLH is unbelievable as Alpha male and Wang Churan tries and fails to act, and just seems blank (unless she scoffs or smirks, of course.) You can blame it on poor writing, I think it's combination of everything going wrong here.
I'm happy I never waited for this drama, genuinely watched it because I had time today and there was a lot of buzz around it.I'm feeling for everyone who went into this with high expectations. I don't understand that this is high profile S+ tier drama and I'd like to ask where the money went because it surely wasn't production.
TLDR: This is a vertical mini drama with very famous actors. And that's not a diss to vertical minis because at least they don't waste your time. They are on budget and they entertain you for couple of minutes. This eats your time, 4+ hours of my life I'm never getting back, and entertainment value is well.... you can hate watch it, probably, if that's your thing. Or if you are massive fan of the leads, I guess.... good luck. I don't know what to tell you.
I'm giving it 2* because I guess everyone showed up to work and Wang Churan and Zhang Linghe are both very pretty.
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