This review may contain spoilers
A beautiful, emotive, happy little drama
A surprising little enjoyable watch!
It’s a good murder mystery show, each of the cases were emotive in their own way, and I’m really liking the train that a lot of c-dramas are on which is the “women are just as capable if not more capable than a man”.
Story starts straight in (a little bit like The Double) where our female lead Shen Wan & her parents are hunted for reasons unknown. Parents die, and Shen Wan takes the identity of Qin Wan to survive and seek revenge.
I really liked Li Landy & her character. She played the smart and kind Wan’er really well. Li Landy is new to me, but I felt that she did have the perfect intelligent & mature (but still clearly young) look. Wan’er is a bit of a perfect character, but there were moments where her taste for revenge would make her think darker thoughts, but they never lasted long. I do wished that I saw more moment of her more emotional and almost more angry side (like that scene in ep 9 with all the skeletons), but overall, still very good, very believable.
Our main man ARP shines in this role as Yan Chi, the king’s nephew. He comes into the show looking like one of those that might never smile, badass young commander of the most formidable border armies. But then HE SMILED, and again, and again. And he is endlessly overprotective of Wan’er, which was very tasty (it’s exactly the kind of thing I’m a sucker for). The romance was faster in this show than most others, but I kinda loved that? If you enjoy proper slow-burn, lots of angst, then this might not be the show for you. The romance is more simple, he sees her, basically falls in love at first sight, becomes impressed by her very quickly (I mean who wouldn’t), and he’s knee deep before he knows it. It sounds rushed, but the show actually did it very well and it didn’t feel like insta-love at all. It felt believable, and real, and I really enjoyed seeing all the different expressions of love, concern, protectiveness, fear, joy and more from ARP. I first saw him in Moonlight Mystique and whilst I didn’t enjoy that show, I enjoyed him. He’s been added to my pretty list.
The cases in this show were interesting, and not at all easy to guess who the perpetrators were. I really enjoyed the plot twists, especially that last case!! Damn! And I didn’t find the show grotesque or anything (but I am also someone who has done real autopsies before so I’m not a fair judge). It did make me laugh how unrealistic some of it was, but it’s a c-drama, and again, most people wouldn’t know what the actual inside of a human body looks like, so that was okay. A LOT of work was put into the camera angles and the way some of those medical/autopsy scenes were shot, and I do want to praise that creativity. I think it really allows the audience to be fully immersed at what was happening rather than just hearing about something happening.
Extra spotlight to all the side characters that felt sick or threw up, those were always funny - especially the evil prince! Hahahaha
Music, as per Chinese dramas, are a 10. My absolute favourite is “Don’t Sigh” by Wang Shaoyun.
SPOILER: this show has an extremely happy ending, no one dies, everyone ends up together, all is happy. Which, depending on what you like, could either feel unrealistic, or actually a welcome relief if you’ve come from a bout of angsty sad shows.
I did quite enjoy this. It’s an easy chill watch and you don’t really need to think too much as the audience. But it was not boring in anyway, they kept it exciting, and the emotions from the show were enough to make me shed a few tears. 9.5!!
It’s a good murder mystery show, each of the cases were emotive in their own way, and I’m really liking the train that a lot of c-dramas are on which is the “women are just as capable if not more capable than a man”.
Story starts straight in (a little bit like The Double) where our female lead Shen Wan & her parents are hunted for reasons unknown. Parents die, and Shen Wan takes the identity of Qin Wan to survive and seek revenge.
I really liked Li Landy & her character. She played the smart and kind Wan’er really well. Li Landy is new to me, but I felt that she did have the perfect intelligent & mature (but still clearly young) look. Wan’er is a bit of a perfect character, but there were moments where her taste for revenge would make her think darker thoughts, but they never lasted long. I do wished that I saw more moment of her more emotional and almost more angry side (like that scene in ep 9 with all the skeletons), but overall, still very good, very believable.
Our main man ARP shines in this role as Yan Chi, the king’s nephew. He comes into the show looking like one of those that might never smile, badass young commander of the most formidable border armies. But then HE SMILED, and again, and again. And he is endlessly overprotective of Wan’er, which was very tasty (it’s exactly the kind of thing I’m a sucker for). The romance was faster in this show than most others, but I kinda loved that? If you enjoy proper slow-burn, lots of angst, then this might not be the show for you. The romance is more simple, he sees her, basically falls in love at first sight, becomes impressed by her very quickly (I mean who wouldn’t), and he’s knee deep before he knows it. It sounds rushed, but the show actually did it very well and it didn’t feel like insta-love at all. It felt believable, and real, and I really enjoyed seeing all the different expressions of love, concern, protectiveness, fear, joy and more from ARP. I first saw him in Moonlight Mystique and whilst I didn’t enjoy that show, I enjoyed him. He’s been added to my pretty list.
The cases in this show were interesting, and not at all easy to guess who the perpetrators were. I really enjoyed the plot twists, especially that last case!! Damn! And I didn’t find the show grotesque or anything (but I am also someone who has done real autopsies before so I’m not a fair judge). It did make me laugh how unrealistic some of it was, but it’s a c-drama, and again, most people wouldn’t know what the actual inside of a human body looks like, so that was okay. A LOT of work was put into the camera angles and the way some of those medical/autopsy scenes were shot, and I do want to praise that creativity. I think it really allows the audience to be fully immersed at what was happening rather than just hearing about something happening.
Extra spotlight to all the side characters that felt sick or threw up, those were always funny - especially the evil prince! Hahahaha
Music, as per Chinese dramas, are a 10. My absolute favourite is “Don’t Sigh” by Wang Shaoyun.
SPOILER: this show has an extremely happy ending, no one dies, everyone ends up together, all is happy. Which, depending on what you like, could either feel unrealistic, or actually a welcome relief if you’ve come from a bout of angsty sad shows.
I did quite enjoy this. It’s an easy chill watch and you don’t really need to think too much as the audience. But it was not boring in anyway, they kept it exciting, and the emotions from the show were enough to make me shed a few tears. 9.5!!
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