Highly Recommended
Wow, this is my first review in MDL, don't be too hard on me or my (average) english, hahaha. Since I started watching cdramas, about 2 years ago, this is the plot with the more powerful female characters i have seen. I have a lot of good vibrations while watching this drama, but there are also some little flaws that I want to mention, too.Pros;
The acting. I find some of the actresses wonderful, but specially I want to praise 2FL Zhang Nan performance as the blind and somewhat ruthless fifth sister. The contrast between her cute appareance and her ruthless behavior is wonderfully performed by her, and her relationship with Cheng Ruoxuan. I praise another characters, like the spoiled-mean Fourth sister, Zhao Jiamin, who also did a very good performance. Cheng Xiao is wonderful in whatever she does, and the other sisters and the cousin were good. Gulnezar? Well, I don't like her acting very much, but in this case I can bear it. Neo Hou is wonderful, but it's the only ML who had some importance in the story, the other male characters actually are not that important but someone who challenge the FL and, of course, succumb. It is a women's history, with women's struggle of power among them, and of course this is wonderful, this is a story where there are no damsel in distress, hahaha.
The setting and scenery are wonderful, exquisite, some of the better i have seen in a chinese drama. Every detail is carefully attended, the attires, the furniture, etc. It is a high budget drama, of course, but I specially like all the scenes in the tea plantations. Are really beautiful to watch and get an idea of what they were in the past, how workers doing, etc.
Whatever thing about tea. I am not an expert in tea, but i like it a lot, and to learn things about it while enjoying the drama is somewhat adds an extra plus to the simple fact of watching this drama. The post credits in every episode are really enjoyable, with many characters giving explanations about history, tea pastries, etc.
Cons:
The FL Gulnezar slaps hard on everybody, and his power is ofted demonstrated by humiliation of another characters. This is something not necessary to demonstrate power, of course. I don't like, for example, the case of the fourth miss. Its not logic to banish someone like that, while other characters are doing far worse things and remains in the house...
The final plot, no need to make spoilers; the last 5 o 6 episodes in the capital were good, but I think this has set aside the main theme of the drama, the tea plantations and their management. It would have been better to include a little epilogue at the end, explaining a bit about the other Rong sisters. What they are going to do, and something like that.
Anyway, despite the minor flaws, this is a very worth watching drama, amusing, and I like it very much and I recommend everyone to give it a chance.
Thumbs up!
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Good start, better ending!!
Well, I came to this mini drama because of the presence of that actress, Zhang Nan, that I have watched in previous dramas like The Wanted Detective, Glory or Gone With the Rain. In all this series, her performance was superb, wonderful and near perfection, what a great performer she is. I like too the wuxia dramas, more like no other kind, more like xianxia or some magical issues that I’m not entirely on them. And when I realised this was mainly featuring female characters in fighting duties, i’ll think It could be a good attempt.At first, the drama starts with an average tone, introducing the main characters, the Jinyiwei stuff and the struggles in the past and some uncover things. Sheng Bingfan (Zhang Nan) is a cold and stubborn girl who wants to uncover the death of her father in the hands of the famous assassin Leng Xin. Hua Mange is her partner, a wonderful and straighforward character, and the cute Cheng Xintian closes the trio of female agents. They are supported by the MLs of the show, the frivolous Chang Beiming (Jiang Chao), a noble with a double life and many secrets to hide, and Xu Duoyu (Ge Qiugu), an scholar with innovative ideas about war and fighting. The plot begins a little sloppy, maybe, not very exciting, while making Chang and Bingfan to enter a kind of love and hate relationship, but this is not a romance, so this story is not really developed. The presence of another villain, Feng Fuliu, as a masked warrior with no clear intentions, entangle the plot some more. Slowly, the pacing is improving, the plots are more interesting and everything starts to work better. About half the drama, I was completely hooked with the history, the mega cute female team and some of the fighting scenes. This is not the good point of the drama, of course. Some of the actors, starting with Zhang Nan, does not seem to have worked so much in the coreography. However, Zhang repay it with her good acting skills in the fights, and the other characters really do it very well. Hua Mange is charming in her fighting skills with her whip, and the ML did a good job, too, with cool weapons like his fan.
But the highlight of the show, for me, is the main villain, the character of Leng Xin (who is not a lead but a support role in the cast). Spoiler alert, this character is portayed by the actress named Wang Junbi, a little girl who doesn’t seem to fit for a supposed “terrific” role like that. However, in the show, Leng Xin is presented as the public enemy number 1, with incredible fighting and qigong skills, even superior to any other character in the story. This is not some common in this kind of dramas, male centered forever, and I’ve never seen a final boss fight between two women (Bingfan and Lengxin). For that reason alone It’s worth watching, my god. The final battle, with the assassin Leng Xin fighting alone all the other characters together and nearly winning, has been very exciting, and I almost changed my mind wanting her to win, hahaha. Some of the choreographies are really good, albeit brief, and everybody made an excelent performance with the wirework, yeah.
Besides, spoiler alert too, I liked a lot the performance of Leng Xin as a cute and undercover maid. Her relationship with Xintian, presented as truly love, is something not often seen in this kind of shows, here we have one sided sismance, hahaha, truly heartwarming. That actress, Wang Junbi made a really cool performance as an histrionic character, evil to the bones, without redemption, at the final episodes. It’s very very very coooool, I can only praise her.
On the whole, I can say that there are minor flaws in the show; if you’re not searching some deep story, or a heartwarming romance, or some like that, if you want entertainment, here it is. I want to praise all the performers in the show, everybody is doing a very good job here.
For all of that, I can only rate this mini drama very high; since I really enjoyed watching it. I’m not in the “rewatch” mode, hardly ever, but in this case I could do it, for sure. Thumbs up!
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An absolute marvel until… last episodes
The first thing to say about GWTR is I’ve enjoyed it a lot, more than almost any other cdrama, of course, there are a lot of things to praise here. The initial approach of the plot is incredible and original, with an adorable FL (Tang Moxi) who is wonderful and her character is no the classic FL, so full of virtues that is boring. She is a little liar, troublemaker, jealous, and stubborn, but also funny, fearless and kind. It’s really cool that she is only an orphan raised in a brothel, and is not a princess or a noble lady undercover, or someone who ends up being the lost daughter of the Emperor, or some like that: she’s just a poor girl. I love the daydream scenes, really, they are very very funny to watch. The actresss, Zhang Nan, is radiant making endless expressions, gestures and funny faces, almost shamelessly, something that isn’t very common in doramaland. In fact, I can say that she is probably the most versatile FL y have seen in a cdrama, no doubt.Very quickly, it’s clear her relation with her sister (Wang Yuwen) is something weird, but very kind and even heartwarming. They support each other, fight togheter, and with the vanish of the ML2 (Zhao Yingbo) the story turns into a full drama. Again, Zhang Nan made a display of sheer profesionalism, with heartwarming crying scenes, very credible, and everything works. The love between the sisters is incredible, very well depicted, and the two girls were fantastic in this episodes. The eerie school arc is superb, and here it is worth noting miss Liu Meitong, with her gender-bender character, it has surprised me for good, and the presence of the legend Kara Wai is a good surprise, too.
Everything was flowing smoothly until the ML Sean Sun starts to take the center stage. His participation in this dorama is an absolute disaster in all levels, really. His skills in acting are really very poor, always with the same buttface, trying to appear hard and with a fixing gaze that is disgusting and ridiculous, not credible. The man tried to perform, and fails in every scene. At least, I know I should avoid another dramas with this (old) guy. The characterization is not good, too. That kind of beard looks very fake, trying to perform “a very hard guy” that more seems the chinese brother of Freddy Mercury…
But then comes the worst of the worst; the demeanor of the character. The “male courtship festival” displayed by General Chen Wende is disgusting and more, nauseating. Stalking, making forced kisses, near rape scene when the wedding, invading personal space… And the man is a f**** octopus, my god, gropping the girl in every moment with stupid excuses, is really nasty. I know his character is a hard man, a General with a hard life, unscrupulous and with another kind of problems, the annoyance of the character it would be good if the girl would hate him. What I cannot understand and cannot swallow is the girl ending to fall in love with him. If we also think that guy is really older (about 40 years) and the character of Moxi is supposed to be only 17… The situation is inaceptable and it has become unbearable for me to watch. So, with a heavy heart (because I thought the drama was excelent), I have given up near episode 30. I made all the spoilers to myself (for not have the temptation to resume the drama), reading some rapid summarys of the last episodes, and watching some random scenes to see how it ends. But I can’t buy that someone like Moxi, so brave and decisive, ended up falling to the “charms” of a sexual harasser.
In summary; very very very funny and amusing plot until episode 26, when the forced wedding, and then everything goes downhill, with no brakes, hahaha. At the moment I detected that Moxi was receptive to the courtship of the gorilla, I have stopped. The change of Moxi, besides, is all of sudden. No previous inputs, not even a shadow of doubt in her thoughts… And about episode 30 the total disaster. The writers smoked something hard, or had been replaced, maybe, hahaha. In other words, how to deface a little work of art.
Anyway, despite the nonsense ending, I preferred to praise the drama after all and give excelent scores, rather than tear it apart, because for the most part, is really wonderful. Along 25 episodes, I have had a lot of fun, and all of this was, mostly, merit of that superb actress, miss Zhang Nan.
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