This review may contain spoilers
Great actors and scenography, but messy and weak story
The actors, the cast, the acting are all good.The costumes, the location, the setting are visually stunning too.
The story is started so strong: the battlefield, the betrayals, the suspicious, the political game, the amnesia of the female protagonist gave a thrilling touch to the narrative . I loved very much the characters characterization too, it was really well done. Every one has a different background, different purpose and the first choices of every one were thorough thought.
But from the second half of the story everything became messy till the final episode that i find very very disappointing.
Too many characters, too many subplot, too strong start, lead the reasoning became from weak to noexistent.
From the second half of the drama, characters stop remain true to themself, they starting doing nosense to their characterization.
They add some scenes only to render the male protagonist more likeable and the villain more bad and less likeable, but the more they add, the more i thought they are the same and less i like the good aura of the male lead.
The male lead obviously has his reasons, but it doesn't mean he is right or that he is good and doesn't give him the right to judge the others.
The same i thought of the female lead. The final result for me is that she has not really loved the sml and while i liked the chemistry between the leads, it lacks reasoning. It's true that love has not reason and no eyes, but one is a prince and the other is a great/strong general of the enimies. Love in this case need a bit of reasoning but every subjected of the prince accepted too easily the female lead... she surely has killed lots of thier comrades... why could she be easily forgiven and given of a second chance, but others absolutely couldn't have any possibility of redeem?
In the end i think my favourite character is Xiao WeiRan, not because i really like him, but because i think sticks on his beliefs till the very end, even is he is a black characterization.
Despite everything i enjoyed the watching
Was this review helpful to you?
Well done and deserves a chance, but it’s definitely not for everyone. Quite the opposite!
Don't start this drama if:- You are unfamiliar with the Republican era genre.
- You lack basic knowledge of this historical period. The setting isn’t explained, making it hard to follow—especially for Western viewers—without some background context.
- You want a sweet story with classic, wholesome C-drama characters. Here, they are deeply flawed, obsessive, and border on abusive.
- You expect a traditional Western-style happy ending.
- You are looking for something strictly historical or realistic.
- You have read the novel and expect a faithful adaptation. While some key elements remain, the show takes major liberties and will likely disappoint purists.
SO, WHY DID I START IT?
I was curious. I’ve followed Zhang Linghe since his debut, and the massive marketing campaign started over a year ago caught my attention. I usually avoid Republican-era dramas because they tend to be overly idealistic, gritty, and almost always end on a bittersweet note.
WHY DIDN'T I STOP?
Despite its flaws, I found it novel and unique.
The story is sharply split into two parts:
- The beginning: It mirrors the recent wave of successful short-form dramas in this genre (like Maid's Revenge), offering a refreshing change of pace.
- The second half: It shifts into a more traditional narrative structure.
I appreciated this approach. In traditional dramas, sometimes i found the idealism and grand heroism a little forced. Here, those elements exist, but the story feels much more human. War is present, but it creeps in gradually and silently, changing everyones life before you even realize it... until you are forced to make a choice.
Also the drama cover many themes:
- revenge
- AI Integration: The series attempts to integrate artificial intelligence elements.
- Dark & Complex Themes: It tackles obsession, human trafficking, abuse, and fake charity.
- Female Empowerment: It features women helping women. It is one of the few dramas to include a foreign female character and explores unique types of family trauma.
- Psychological Depth: It portrays philophobia (the irrational fear of falling in love and feeling undeserving of affection), as well as persecutory delusions, extreme projection, pathological denial, and gaslighting aimed at manipulating reality.
- Strong family bond: good ones and bad ones
Despite these heavy themes, all the characters progress and grow for the better. I really like this underlying positivity.
Was this review helpful to you?
Awsome, healing story - Bai Jing Ting and Zhang Ruo Nan did a fantastic job
I've read the novel and i liked it.It's a difficult story and I have had mixed emotion about the adaptation and some reservation on the leads too.
I was very excited and i had reserved the show, but later with some fearcaused by other novel with bad adaptation i started watching it only the second day, but i really really loved it.
I think it's wonderful, a work of poetry, a true masterpiece.
I loved the story, the adaptation, the soundtrack, the actors... everythings are absolutely perfect.
The actors gave such depth to the characters...
I really don't understand the haters, the novel reader's haters.
It's true that there are little differences, but which adaptation doesn't have it and here the overall story remain the same.
My characters image of the protagonists were slightly different from the adaptation but i admit that i really loved this interpretation.
The leads actor did a very good job, from the expression to the clothes style.
The pace was very slow, because the story is so, therefore i hope who doesn't know the story to give a little more time before giving up because it's worth. The episodes became better and better and i think it's difficult to watch such a satisfactory last episode.
I loved the attention the production gave to every single detail in the story.
I loved how they showed what wasn't written in the original story, but It makes sense as of an other pov, on the personality and actions described in both the novels.
It really gave you new insight of the story.
The soundtrack really fit the story.
It's a very healing story.
The script and the dialog are very well written and contain many quotes from the novel.
Rewatch the story is very recommanded because the story, the dialog and also because every time you can spot new details.
Was this review helpful to you?
