MarkWasHere

I'm enjoying this drama quite a lot. It's more light hearted than most other Chinese historical/fantasy dramas I've seen. I just want to make one observation. In other "cross-dressing" dramas I've watched, they made at least some effort to have the female character appear male. In this drama, they haven't even tried. I don't think it is even possible to make He Yan look more feminine.

I loved "Prisioner of Beauty", but have not yet watched "When Destiny Brings the Demon". I've added it to my to-watch-list.

Because ... China.
Also, this drama leaned more into light hearted comedy that a serious political drama.

This comment should be marked as "spoiler".

I haven't yet watched this drama, but reading the comments below, it seems to be a drama about a "doormat" character being continually hurt by a "toxic narcissist" character. Is this characterisation accurate?

I understand that you're just giving your opinion, which you are entitled to do of course, as am I. In my opinion, the topic of medically assisted suicide is an important one that can and should be discussed. It is easy to be opposed to it, perhaps until you sit beside a dying person and watch them slowly and painfully die over the last week or two of their natural life. I definitely want the ability to choose to end my life rather than to simply continuing to exist in pain and with zero quality of life.

Her most recent movie is "Forbidden Fairytale", a 18+ movie in which she has a sex scene, but she remains fully clothed during the sex. Like I said earlier, I doubt she will ever do nudity again now she's achieved the success she has.

Whoever did the way too loud, almost continuous "mood" sound effects/music needs to lay off the drugs.

"The Hidden Face" was released in late 2024 - so about 10 months ago - but it was filmed about 2½ years before it was released. Park Ji Hyun wasn't an unknown actress when she filmed it, but she certrainly wasn't an A-list actress at that time.

It definitely is NOT a GL drama. The reason some people were wondering was because of some of the slightly suggestive publicity photos.

No nudity in this drama. Also, Korean A-list actresses don't do nudity after achieving A-list status. It is a stepping stone that SOME choose to advance their career, but not something they are willing to do once they've achieved that success. You could probably bet your house that neither of these actresses will ever do nudity again.

I'm certainly going to keep watching. I'm just hoping that along with that change, they have an adult conversation and apologise as necessary, rather than just pretending the earlier conflict and mistreatment never happened. One thing that Asian dramas rarely do well (or at all) is have characters adequately address earlier conflicts, mistreatment or abuse. Unearned redemption in dramas is one of my pet hates because it robs the viewer of a potentially powerful and emotionally satisfying character arc.

... and I'm supposed to believe that Mewika would agreeto go out with Aiwarin who only a day or two earlier drugged her? Really? Because I don't find that very believable. Nor do I find it particularly believable that Mewika would continue to accept drinks from her, as that would be really, REALLY stupid, and Mewika is supposed to be smart.

I'm struggling to accept that no one noticed that He Ru Fei suddenly grew 15 cm taller, gained 30 kg weight and "his" voice dropped an octave. It just seems to me that someone should have noticed these sudden changes.

I've only watched two episodes and I really don't like Aiwarin at all. She's smug, manipulative, disrespectful and arrogant, and her non-consensual kiss and continued sexual harrassment of Mewika are not OK. It's quite ironic that Aiwarin criticises Gavin for harrassing Mewika when she's doing EXACTLY THE SAME THING.

Overall I'd rate this as a slightly above average drama. It was watchable, but not amazing. I thought the writing was decidedly average, with very few genuinely exciting subplots or scenes. I was disappointed that at no stage did the two leads sit down and have an adult conversation ... about anything really. Their interactions seemed to be very superficial and shallow. After Gu Xun publicly humiliated Yue Qian Ling, surely that would have deserved a conversation to sort out. Perhaps the writers were going with a super-fluffy vibe, but personally I would have liked a bit more depth to pretty much every subplot in the story.
On a different note, one day I hope to watch an Asian drama that mentions share holders and investors and actually understands what they are, and what they can and cannot do - because EVERY drama I've watched with those elements gets things very wrong.
My score: 8/10

Gu Xun and Qian Ling eventually get together, although they never really address the incident when he humiliated her when he publicly rejected her confession. Jiang Jun Nan eventually gets together with Chen Xin Yi. Also, other side plots happen, some of which were a bit silly.
There is a 1 year time skip about 15 minutes from the end of the last episode in which we find out that not only did they get their game finished, it has become very successful.

I'll concede the word "forced" was wrong, and I've edited my initial comment accordingly, but Ling Bu Yi's kiss on Cheng Shao Shang in episode 34 wasn't consensual. He didn't first ask for, or obtain consent, and although CSS didn't physically resist him, she also didn't participate in the kiss, but rather just froze with a look of surprise on her face, as she passively waited for him to finish. But perhaps far worse was his motivation for the kiss. It appeared to be motivated not by love, but by a patriarchal desire to control her, at least if we take his own words seriously.

CSS: "Why did you suddenly kiss me again?"
LBY: "From now on, if you say anything that I don't like to hear, I'll use this method again to shut your mouth."

Not that I can remember, but it was a while ago since I watched this, and it wasn't a particularly memorable drama anyway.

I'd go as far to say he is the best male Korean actor I've seen. He is genuinely gifted. His performance in episode 5 of "The Judge From Hell" was mesmorising.