WangYibosLily
Finland
This review may contain spoilers
Cute but nothing special.
Warm on a cold night is a cute and fun historical fantasy drama, that unfortunately leaves me feeling lukewarm. It has a happy ending and is perfect for someone who wants to watch something that doesn't have angst or misunderstandings and is light. It's also perfect for those who want to watch a drama that fully revolves around the main leads, without the drama having millions of side characters.
The drama is an investigation drama that has romance mainly in the 5 last episodes.
STORY:
The story is about two neighbouring kingdoms, Qian and Qi. Qi is a northern kingdom, where people are very different from Qian people. Qi people are shapeshifters that have powers and can live up to 200 years or so. Qi people have "super" hearing, are extremely strong, have a really good sense of smell and can be super fast. Qian is a kingdom where no one has these kind of "magical" powers. Qi and Qian have a peace treaty between them but they need to officially sign it. Qi kingdom needs it, because after getting their "Holy Fire/Ember" stolen, the snow and the cold has started to make their lives hard.
The story revolves around Su Jiuer, a Qian investigator of the investigation bureau. She is righteous and smart, following her father's footsteps. When investigating a murder case in the Qian capital, she interrogates an arrogant Qi man, Han Zheng. She soon realizes that Han Zheng is not a suspect, he is after the murderer too. The murderer is suspected to be a man with three scars on his cheek, Mu Yan, Han Zheng's childhood friend who stole the Ember. When touching Han Zheng's hand, Su Jiuer finds his touch strangely revitalising, almost as curing her strange disease that makes her dizzy and pass out. She wants to stay close to him due to this and quickly suggests that they investigate together. They become partners and they go from case to case, solving murders, meeting new friends and looking for Mu Yan. They slowly fall in love.
SPOILER PART OF THE STORY, MY OPINION:
The plot started of great. This had the ingredients to be a really good fantasy investigation drama, but i think it kinda fell through. In my opinion Su Jiuer wasn't an interesting character and to me it was no surprise that in the investigation bureau she was the ONLY one with intelligence and the only female in the whole bureau. The fact that her only competition in intelligence was our male lead, Han Zheng, didn't come to me as a surprise. Han Zheng is a prince of the Qi kingdom and is expected to become their next king.
While investigating a murder case, they meet the 2nd prince of Qian kingdom, Wen Jun. He was very lacking as a 2nd male lead to me. He had been looking for Su Jiuer for a while, because they met when they were kids and she was the only one kind to him when his mother was dying. He wasn't really all that smart but wanted to tag along to every investigation. He was a great help but mainly because of his influence in the capital. He was an okay character but he was nothing special to me, just a 2nd prince whose only hobbies were writing plays, paintings and running after Jiuer and Han Zheng.
Han Zheng was also a very typical male lead, cold and arrogant at first who warms up to the people around him and falls in love with Su Jiuer. Now, im not saying there's anything bad about being the typical male lead, but i think he was just missing a little bit of spice. The Qi people are shapeshifters, yet we only see a little bit of the shapeshifting. In Warm on a cold night's poster, behind Han Zheng is a wolf. Qi people also howl to each other. Yet we didnt see any wolves or shapeshifting into one. I get it, it must be because this is a low budget drama..
Warm on a cold night started off strong, introducing these characters and the mystery of Mu Yan and the ember. The plot flattened very fast. It was a case after case and i didn't see much development in the plot or in any of the characters. After watching the drama i was really confused how they managed to spent 36 episodes on this plot. From the very start the villain is suspected to be Mu Yan. It was indeed a plot twist to find out that the Crown Prince was Mu Yan. It left me baffled. He had a skin like mask on his face and i never would have guessed he was Mu Yan. It felt like they just decided towards the end that Mu Yan is the crown prince because they didnt have time to properly tie the knots. His reasoning for doing all of this didn't make sense to me at all and he didn't seem like a real villain. Also his fate was left unresolved. Han Zheng and Chi Lan ( their childhood friend, (who clearly has feelings towards Mu Yan as he does towards her) a Qi general, who in the end becomes the new King of the Qi) fight with Mu Yan, when he is trying to kill Su Jiuer because she has the Ember inside of her. Han Zheng nor Chi Lan have the guts or the will to kill Mu Yan, Chi Lan gives him a dangerously fatal blow but he leaves the scene alive. No one knows his fate. So he was left unpunished.
Su Jiuer has the ember inside of her and in the last episode suddenly without telling Han Zheng, she takes the Ember out of her body (with the help of her mother), so they can cure the Qi people affected by a poison that Mu Yan spread. Now.. This felt rushed too. How did she know how to get it out and stuff? There wasn't much time to search about the matter either..
She dies and Han Zheng gives her a lot of his Qi vital energy core. A blue jem on every Qi persons chest that helps them control their powers and keep them alive. When a Qian person ingests it, they see the Qi person in their dreams and can have some Qi powers too. Suddenly we get a time skip to their wedding and in the middle of the ceremony Su Jiuer hears someone calling for help, so they rush to help. Su Jiuer now has the super speed and hearing but Han Zheng doesn't. And that's how the drama ends.
It wasn't a bad drama, but not the best ones i've seen. I'm giving it a solid 7-7,5. It would've been a 8, if the ending was not so rushed and left me with so many questions and plot holes.
ACTING:
Li Yi Tong as Su Jiuer,
I love her. She is so beautiful, has a pleasant voice and is a really nice actress. Her acting never annoys me. She bring out this childish yet mature vibe in all her characters and think she was a really pleasant female lead!
Bi Wen Jun as Han Zheng,
A great choice for the male lead. He brings out a cute and mature vibe as well. A solid male lead.
Honorable mentions for Hei Ru Xian as Chi Lan, who seemed cold but was a warm person deep down. A great pick for this role. and Wang Mao Lei as Godfather of Su Jiuer, Hu Badao. He was the amazing comic relief in this drama and was the scene stealer!
The drama is an investigation drama that has romance mainly in the 5 last episodes.
STORY:
The story is about two neighbouring kingdoms, Qian and Qi. Qi is a northern kingdom, where people are very different from Qian people. Qi people are shapeshifters that have powers and can live up to 200 years or so. Qi people have "super" hearing, are extremely strong, have a really good sense of smell and can be super fast. Qian is a kingdom where no one has these kind of "magical" powers. Qi and Qian have a peace treaty between them but they need to officially sign it. Qi kingdom needs it, because after getting their "Holy Fire/Ember" stolen, the snow and the cold has started to make their lives hard.
The story revolves around Su Jiuer, a Qian investigator of the investigation bureau. She is righteous and smart, following her father's footsteps. When investigating a murder case in the Qian capital, she interrogates an arrogant Qi man, Han Zheng. She soon realizes that Han Zheng is not a suspect, he is after the murderer too. The murderer is suspected to be a man with three scars on his cheek, Mu Yan, Han Zheng's childhood friend who stole the Ember. When touching Han Zheng's hand, Su Jiuer finds his touch strangely revitalising, almost as curing her strange disease that makes her dizzy and pass out. She wants to stay close to him due to this and quickly suggests that they investigate together. They become partners and they go from case to case, solving murders, meeting new friends and looking for Mu Yan. They slowly fall in love.
SPOILER PART OF THE STORY, MY OPINION:
The plot started of great. This had the ingredients to be a really good fantasy investigation drama, but i think it kinda fell through. In my opinion Su Jiuer wasn't an interesting character and to me it was no surprise that in the investigation bureau she was the ONLY one with intelligence and the only female in the whole bureau. The fact that her only competition in intelligence was our male lead, Han Zheng, didn't come to me as a surprise. Han Zheng is a prince of the Qi kingdom and is expected to become their next king.
While investigating a murder case, they meet the 2nd prince of Qian kingdom, Wen Jun. He was very lacking as a 2nd male lead to me. He had been looking for Su Jiuer for a while, because they met when they were kids and she was the only one kind to him when his mother was dying. He wasn't really all that smart but wanted to tag along to every investigation. He was a great help but mainly because of his influence in the capital. He was an okay character but he was nothing special to me, just a 2nd prince whose only hobbies were writing plays, paintings and running after Jiuer and Han Zheng.
Han Zheng was also a very typical male lead, cold and arrogant at first who warms up to the people around him and falls in love with Su Jiuer. Now, im not saying there's anything bad about being the typical male lead, but i think he was just missing a little bit of spice. The Qi people are shapeshifters, yet we only see a little bit of the shapeshifting. In Warm on a cold night's poster, behind Han Zheng is a wolf. Qi people also howl to each other. Yet we didnt see any wolves or shapeshifting into one. I get it, it must be because this is a low budget drama..
Warm on a cold night started off strong, introducing these characters and the mystery of Mu Yan and the ember. The plot flattened very fast. It was a case after case and i didn't see much development in the plot or in any of the characters. After watching the drama i was really confused how they managed to spent 36 episodes on this plot. From the very start the villain is suspected to be Mu Yan. It was indeed a plot twist to find out that the Crown Prince was Mu Yan. It left me baffled. He had a skin like mask on his face and i never would have guessed he was Mu Yan. It felt like they just decided towards the end that Mu Yan is the crown prince because they didnt have time to properly tie the knots. His reasoning for doing all of this didn't make sense to me at all and he didn't seem like a real villain. Also his fate was left unresolved. Han Zheng and Chi Lan ( their childhood friend, (who clearly has feelings towards Mu Yan as he does towards her) a Qi general, who in the end becomes the new King of the Qi) fight with Mu Yan, when he is trying to kill Su Jiuer because she has the Ember inside of her. Han Zheng nor Chi Lan have the guts or the will to kill Mu Yan, Chi Lan gives him a dangerously fatal blow but he leaves the scene alive. No one knows his fate. So he was left unpunished.
Su Jiuer has the ember inside of her and in the last episode suddenly without telling Han Zheng, she takes the Ember out of her body (with the help of her mother), so they can cure the Qi people affected by a poison that Mu Yan spread. Now.. This felt rushed too. How did she know how to get it out and stuff? There wasn't much time to search about the matter either..
She dies and Han Zheng gives her a lot of his Qi vital energy core. A blue jem on every Qi persons chest that helps them control their powers and keep them alive. When a Qian person ingests it, they see the Qi person in their dreams and can have some Qi powers too. Suddenly we get a time skip to their wedding and in the middle of the ceremony Su Jiuer hears someone calling for help, so they rush to help. Su Jiuer now has the super speed and hearing but Han Zheng doesn't. And that's how the drama ends.
It wasn't a bad drama, but not the best ones i've seen. I'm giving it a solid 7-7,5. It would've been a 8, if the ending was not so rushed and left me with so many questions and plot holes.
ACTING:
Li Yi Tong as Su Jiuer,
I love her. She is so beautiful, has a pleasant voice and is a really nice actress. Her acting never annoys me. She bring out this childish yet mature vibe in all her characters and think she was a really pleasant female lead!
Bi Wen Jun as Han Zheng,
A great choice for the male lead. He brings out a cute and mature vibe as well. A solid male lead.
Honorable mentions for Hei Ru Xian as Chi Lan, who seemed cold but was a warm person deep down. A great pick for this role. and Wang Mao Lei as Godfather of Su Jiuer, Hu Badao. He was the amazing comic relief in this drama and was the scene stealer!
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