JIABLO
This review may contain spoilers
Story/Plot: From the very beginning, the production marketed the drama as a tragedy. Most of the time--as many CDrama watchers would be familiar with--we are conned by the drama production by robbing our happy ending and resenting the writers for leaving us with heart break after 50-70 episodes. But GMP's strength always lied with it's tragic ending. You can even say that the story, narration and even the development are woven to give that exact ending, tragedy.
I'd like to point out that Li Chengyin will always have a very complicated relationship with the viewers. It was easy to hate him because of all the things he did, not just to Xiao Feng but to everyone else around him. As Gu Xiao Wu, he was young and innocent but his choices has always been selfish. There were moments where his love for XF was borderline obsessive and toxic, one would think he didn't love her at all. But there are light indications that he did loved her, more so as Li Chengyin than he did when he was Gu Xiao Wu (he protected her in the Eastern Palace, he would always go out of his way to assist her, help her, guide her but most of all, he would always jump after her without hesitations whenever she jumps to her death).
In knowing of their sad ending, the audience relished on every interaction they had, whether it be shouting at each other, sneaking out of the palace together, slapping one another to downright XF stabbing LCY because we know that is all we'll ever get. No matter how the story pan, they can never be together in this life and that may have been the reason why I invested so much emotion to this drama to begin with. And it's not just the ending that is sad, watching XF trying to survive in the palace to LCY slow descend to evil had been heartbreaking since we saw them as innocent and naive in Danchi. We were all holding our breath to the moment they remember eveything. We anticipated it, but it didn't make it any less sad. But man, those editing between eps 45-52 were atrocious not to mention those cut scenes we were robbed off.
Acting/Cast: Chen Xing Xu and Peng Xiao Ran deserve all the praises for portraying LCY and XF. Especially since it was their first lead-role drama. They were amazing and I can't imagine another couple playing the leads as well as they did. Other cast were outstanding too.
Music: The music was great. It's the type of soundtract you keep on repeat long after the last episode had aired. Fave songs [First Encounter by Chen Xing Xu and Peng Xiao Ran] [Love Hurts - Female Version]
Rewatch Value: I'd say you rewatch it for the angst. Not much drama can give you as much heartache as GMP gave me. I you're looking for triggering some sad feels or just wanna have a good cry or two, then a must rewatch. I rewatched it solely to see CXX and PXR tbh. hahaha
Final words: I would have given it a 9 or even 10 if not for that lousy editing around the end episodes and the cut scenes we so deserved. But because we were robbed, I gave it 8.5 which is still higher than normal.
I'd like to point out that Li Chengyin will always have a very complicated relationship with the viewers. It was easy to hate him because of all the things he did, not just to Xiao Feng but to everyone else around him. As Gu Xiao Wu, he was young and innocent but his choices has always been selfish. There were moments where his love for XF was borderline obsessive and toxic, one would think he didn't love her at all. But there are light indications that he did loved her, more so as Li Chengyin than he did when he was Gu Xiao Wu (he protected her in the Eastern Palace, he would always go out of his way to assist her, help her, guide her but most of all, he would always jump after her without hesitations whenever she jumps to her death).
In knowing of their sad ending, the audience relished on every interaction they had, whether it be shouting at each other, sneaking out of the palace together, slapping one another to downright XF stabbing LCY because we know that is all we'll ever get. No matter how the story pan, they can never be together in this life and that may have been the reason why I invested so much emotion to this drama to begin with. And it's not just the ending that is sad, watching XF trying to survive in the palace to LCY slow descend to evil had been heartbreaking since we saw them as innocent and naive in Danchi. We were all holding our breath to the moment they remember eveything. We anticipated it, but it didn't make it any less sad. But man, those editing between eps 45-52 were atrocious not to mention those cut scenes we were robbed off.
Acting/Cast: Chen Xing Xu and Peng Xiao Ran deserve all the praises for portraying LCY and XF. Especially since it was their first lead-role drama. They were amazing and I can't imagine another couple playing the leads as well as they did. Other cast were outstanding too.
Music: The music was great. It's the type of soundtract you keep on repeat long after the last episode had aired. Fave songs [First Encounter by Chen Xing Xu and Peng Xiao Ran] [Love Hurts - Female Version]
Rewatch Value: I'd say you rewatch it for the angst. Not much drama can give you as much heartache as GMP gave me. I you're looking for triggering some sad feels or just wanna have a good cry or two, then a must rewatch. I rewatched it solely to see CXX and PXR tbh. hahaha
Final words: I would have given it a 9 or even 10 if not for that lousy editing around the end episodes and the cut scenes we so deserved. But because we were robbed, I gave it 8.5 which is still higher than normal.
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